Tag Archives: Television

Win or Lose, I Win or Tie

Only one more game to be played in the NFL this season.  That means only one more pick left to be made in The Annekenstein Monster’s NFL pick’em pool.  Currently, I am one game ahead of reverseflash for the lead of our pool of four players.  That means that no matter what happens in the final game, I will be either tied for first or will win the pool out-right.
It was a hard-fought battle, with a few lead changes throughout the season.
Thanks to everyone for playing.  By “everyone” I mean the three guys who played.

As for the NFL season itself, I think it was a pretty good one.  The Colts prove once again that the pursuit of the perfect season can be devastating to a team’s motivation, heading into the playoffs.  With nothing of substance to play for in their final three games, the Colts had lost their edge when it came time to getting back to playing a meaningful game again.  I’d rather my team lose a game early in the season, get that “perfect season” stuff out of the way early, then have your final game of the regular season be of some import.  Preferably import such as Win and you get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

As for my beloved Dolphins, I can’t be upset about their season even though they didn’t make the playoffs.  New coach Nick Saban seems to have the team definitely moving in the right direction.  They were substantially improved over the season before.  The future looks good for the Dolphins, and will look especially bright if they can acquire a good young quarterback.  Nothing but care-taker qbs since Marino retired has gotten really tiring.  Time now to get a quarterback who can be a star.
I hope, too, that the Ronnie Brown-Rickie Williams running back tandem stays in place.  With last week’s  announcement that Mike Mularkey (a run-first type of coach) has signed on to be Offensive Co-ordinator,
it’s looking like it might be a good idea to keep the two RBs.  Keep them, and Chris Chambers at receiver, and add a good qb, and the Dolphins could have a pretty sweet offense next year.
In any event, a run for the playoffs should definitely be an attainable goal for the Dolphins next year.

The Following Takes Place Between Implausability and Entertainment

That may be my longest post title yet.
My wife and I decided to 24 another chance this season.  We were huge fans the first season, less so the second, and just couldn’t put up with any other seasons, try as we might.  It’s the implausability of the thing that we just can’t get passed.  That and all the seemingly obvious better ways that things could/should be done in practically every tense situation.
“Why’s he do that?”
“How come she’s not…”
“Wouldn’t the whole thing be solved if just….”

But the show can be damn exciting if you can get passed all that.  So, my wife and I have taken a vow:  No questions are allowed to be asked; no observations of incongruous time-lines, etc. while we watch the show.  That means neither of us can say “How did the former president get shot in a room of only two men, and two minutes later, there are phone calls out to all kinds of people, telling them of the assasination?”  Not to mention “A former president gets assassinated, and within half an hour, the current President is holding a press conference on the assassination? I don’t think so!”

24 is chock full of things that, if you let them bother you, they will drive you away from the show.  Happened to us last season, we could only watch the first half of the first episode.  But we stuck it out for the full two-hour premiere tonight, and I’m gonna try to watch again tomorrow night.  It remains to be seen if my logical brain can be tricked into hibernating for the hour it’s on each week after that, though.

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Sketch22 Road Trip! Yee Haw!

The boys of Sketch22 (except Josh who winters in Toronto) are heading out for a road trip!  We’ve been asked to audition this coming weekend in Halifax for an upcoming CBC-TV comedy special.  We’re pretty excited to have been asked to participate, and we’re eager to see how our comedy compares to that of others in the region.
If we get selected (we’re not counting on it, by the way) by the CBC to be part of the comedy special, it’s on to Toronto to tape a handful of sketches to air on the special.
At the very least, it’ll be a fun weekend with the boys.
Yee Haw!

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The Unidentified Celbrities Paradox

So, there’s this tv commercial for a show coming up called something like “Celebrity Skating”.  That’s not the title, I know, but I don’t care what the title is, because I won’t be watching it.
I’m guessing it’s trying to cash in on last year’s celebrity ballroom dancing craze.  I’m assuming it was a craze, because it said so in magazines.  I didn’t watch any of it, yet I somehow know that Mr. Peterman won.  Or didn’t win, but then was allowed to try and win again?

Anyway, back to the celebrity skaters.  In this show, it says, 6 celebrities will try to learn how to figure skate, being taught by famous skaters.  As this is said, in the ad, they show the faces of six people.  I have no idea who any of the six people are.  I honestly don’t know if they are the 6 celebrities or the famous skaters.  I assume that they are the celebrities.  But I seriously have no idea who they are.  And you know me, I’m pretty pop savvy.

Which begs the question:  Should someone who is unidentifiable be labelled a “celebrity”?  Doesn’t that just invalidate the value of, you know, real celebrities?
How will I sleep tonight?

Arrested Development – Season One, On Sale

A heads up to anyone in Charlottetown (or probably anywhere else there is a WalMart) who loves the TV show Arrested Development like I do:  The first season DVD of Arrested Development is (at least it was last week) on sale at WalMart for only $20.
A great price for an absolutely fantastic show.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

First of all, I feel for this guy.  I really do.  But it’s just so funny.
So funny that I had to transcribe the whole thing.  If I ever have to audition, I want this to be my audition piece.
The guy’s “yeah” at the end of the video has to be the best moment caught on video in 2005.
Here’s a link to the list of IFilm’s Best of 2005 Viral Videos.

IFilm video link to “Boom” is here, I think.

Hello everyone.  Well the Ball State softball team continued to play this weekend, and… they were hoping to continue off of their straight three out of four losses and so we’ll take a look and see how that happened…
[Cut to scoreboard]
They started off good but then eventually the Ball State Women’s Bask – Women’s team shot down and ended up doing poorly.
Oh no… and, okay… we’re gonna continue on now… The Lady’s Cardinals will play an Iowa tournament starting this Friday.  Before the Ball State baseball team kicks off its conference season this werk – this weekend, the Cards will battle in in-state rival Indiana tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s game will be the – erm – meeting between the two, beating both – erm – first – – {heavy sigh}
[20 seconds of video of baseball highlights]
Hoosiers are on the four on… on the year, and they have won six of its last seven games tomorrow, will be the game – three, at three pm.
Which – switching to Ball State Men’s tennis (empahsis on “Men’s”, implying  he was just talking about women’s tennis), it seems last – … week player – it seems every week they have a player – … (at this point he mouths either “I’m so sorry” “I’m so sucky” or “I’m so sick”)… (heavy sigh and moan)…
Matt Lawrence is the latest Cardinals’ tennis player to win the award.  Lamar(?) won all the – all the singles and doubles matches last week.  So far the Cardinals have had a player honored on the week – on the weekly awards. Seven out of the nine – seven out of the nine weeks.  The Cards will play at Boise State Invite this weekend.
The India – Indiana Pacers are looking for a measure of duh- revenge against the New Jersey Nets and to strengthen their playoff hopes.  The Nets won the last Sunday’s matchup, 94 to 85 which left the Pacers one game behind the Chicago – in the seventh series spot.  Let’s check out the highlights.
[cut to video of game highlights, several moments of no commentary, then he begins]
Steven Jacksons to David – [he was too slow to commentate on this play, then several seconds of nothing but Nets]… Reggie Miller’s lookin’ good… he shoots the three, and it’s good… [moments of just video]… later he gets the rebound, passes it to the man (“passes it to the man”??), shoots it and boom goes the dynamite.  The final scores ended up with the Pacers 63 to the Nets 61.
The Associalated Press of the All-American First Team in College Basek-Baseball was announced today at Utah’s 7 foot sophomore Centre Andrew Bugat was the leading vote-getting receiving 60 first place votes.  Bogut who is an Australian native received very little attention in the presentation – in the preseason, but averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds a game for Utah.  The four other players joining Bogut on the AP team are Senior Forward Wayne Summers (although the screen shows “Wayne Simien”) and Kansas – of Kansas, and Hakim Warrick of Syracuse, Junior Guard J.J.Redick of Duke and Sophomore – and Sophomore Guard Chris Paul of Wake Forest rebounded out the list.  (“rebounded out the list”?)
Let’s check out some other scores tonight.  (a screen comes up with a number of game scores, but he remains silent)
[cut to a panel shot of the news-team]
Lead anchor:  Okay, thanks for that look into sports, Brian.
Brian:  Yeah (this is, without question, the best resigned, defeated ‘yeah’ I’ve ever witnessed).

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Tom Green CPAC Ads

I’ll admit I was a Tom Green fan for, literally, about 7 minutes.  Just before he became big in the States.  I saw a segment of his cable show, where he went to a pharmacy and, embarassment be damned, asked all kinds of questions about condoms, to anyone who he could ask.  It was funny.  But in the short segment was contained pretty much the totality of my appreciation of Tom Green’s talents. (does that last sentence even make sense?  Maybe not, but I like it.) Since then I’ve sort of seen him as a desperate guy desperate to live up to the hype that surround(ed)s him.   His comedy is like an autistic’s scream: annoying, loud, and totally self-absorbed.
His latest foray into public awareness leaves me feeling just as empty.  Now, with the Canadian election coming up, he’s hawking, in television ads, the CPAC cable channel.  If you haven’t seen CPAC, basically it’s this:  (seemingly) unedited footage of politicians in the minutae of their day-to-day campaigns.  Pretty dry stuff, for the most part.  Yet, somehow mesmerizing.
Anyway, Tom Green, in television ads, is (I’m guessing) supposed to be enticing us, in his Wacky! way, to watch CPAC.  Only, it’s not Wacky!.  Not in the least.  It’s empty and uninspired.
I’d say “Tom Green, you can do better than that!”  but I’m not so sure he can.

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TV Guide – Unsubscribe

TV Guide is a, ahem, magazine that we’ve always just subscribed to.  Used to be, it was invaluable for tv listings.  I’ve realised recently, that over the past few years, I’ve been relying on TV Guide less and less for listings information.  Partly this is due, I think, to my watching less television, and knowing precisely when the shows I do watch are on.  Occasionally, TV Guide will hip me to an interesting show that I might not otherwise have known about.  More than ever, it’s now simply the magazine I pick up and read when in the bathroom.
The articles in TV Guide have been bugging me for quite some time.  I dislike the, ahem, journalistic approach they seem to favour (very too much fluff and very pro-CTV Global programs) and do not agree with their opinions very often.  And it’s very much a female-oriented magazine, with far too much emphasis on fashion.
I’ve been thinking, for a while, of cancelling my subscription, but never got around to it.
Now, with this week’s edition, I have the reason to do so.  This week, TV Guide presented to the people of Atlantic Canada (and Ontario and Quebec), their new "Eastern Edition".  Now, all listings are presented in Eastern Time zone only.  That means that we in Atlantic Canada now must convert the times listed to our time zone.  Sure, this is fairly simple, by adding an hour to all the listings, but it really bugs me that we have to do that.  It bugs me because they’re implying that this change is somehow an improvement to their customers.  Obviously, to us in Atlantic Canada, it is not an improvement, and obviously, this is a cost-cutting measure.  But it is a pain in the ass.  A slight pain in the ass, but, principly, a pain in the ass, nonetheless.
It bugs me enough to email TV Guide and cancel the remainder of my subscription, and that’s what I did on Monday..  So far, I haven’t heard back from them, but I’m interested to hear how spin this.
I’ll post their reply if a) I ever get one, and b) it’s interesting enough to post.

The People That You Meet

I am worried for a) the internets, and b) the state of journalism in today’s universe.

Why?
Because someone thought me worthy enough to be interviewed for a People magazine piece on the TV show "The Office".  Worthy, based on a couple of posts I made regarding The Office on this here blog here.  Yes, I was interviewed via telephone yesterday by a writer for People magazine (at least, he claimed he was a writer for People magazine).  He wanted my opinions on the NBC version of The Office being nominated for The Emmys.  I answered his questions.
I had mixed emotions about the whole affair.  It was nice, I guess, to be singled out from the pack and asked my opinion.  But, really, why should my opinion matter?
Seriously, if this is the state of journalism (even if it’s "entertainment" journalism), where a hack like me potentially (I honestly doubt I’ll get mentioned in the article) becomes a source in such a piece, and the things I say thereby achieve some level of legitimacy because they’re in this magazine (even if it is just People), then I wonder about the legitimacy of sources in every piece of journalism I see or read in the future.

In the grand scheme of things, I am a Nobody With A Blog (and I am not being self-deprecating, just honest).  Since when have we started caring what Nobodies have to say?   I realise that blogs have become a popular buzz-phenom in the mainstream media, and I know that the media has begun to masturbate itself all over the fad, but when I am the chicken that the media begins to choke, then I think it’s gone quite a bit too far.
I should not be interviewed for a People magazine piece on The Office.  I just shouldn’t.
Should I?

I think somebody, somewhere, made a big mistake.

Extras Extras Read All About It!

I downloaded the first two episodes of Ricky Gervais’ new “sitcom” and watched ’em. It’s really hard to watch Extras and not compare it to The Office, but I’m a man of exquisite talent, and am thus able to.

Extras is a great show. Ricky plays Andy Millman, a guy who considers himself ‘an acTOR’ even though he’s only ever had roles in film and television as non-speaking extras. Each episode, so far and I assume will continue as such, finds him in yet another production. His main goal each time is to acquire a line in the production and the episode casually follows his attempts to cajole someone of import in terms of the production to get him a line.
He has a female friend, Maggie Jacobs (played by Ashley Jensen) who is also an extra, but her main goal each episode seems to be to find a successful person to marry. She is supposed to be a rather dim-bulb and Jensen plays her as wonderfully dense yet likable. Together, they make a great team and take turns tossing off some really funny lines.
Ricky is great at creating characters you simutaneously like and loathe. Andy Millman is not David Brent (there goes my self-declared “exquisite talent” credibility), but they do share some similarities. The world doesn’t revolve around Millman as it did around Brent. Whenever David Brent was on screen, he was the centre of attention. In Extras, Andy Millman in rarely the centre of attention, just like a good extra should never be. In many of the scenes so far, he is on the fringe, trying to bask in the glow of the “talent” that he tries to associate with on the set. Gervais does this brilliantly and it’s really a pleasure to watch him. Only when he is alone with Maggie, or with the whomever he’s trying to get to get him a line, does his more Brent-like insenstivity and selfishness come out.
A difference between this series and The Office seems to be that this series, so far, doesn’t seem to have any episodic arc like The Office did. Each episode of Extras seems to be more of a stand-alone piece. This is neither good nor bad, it just is.
Each episode seems to involve a guest appearance by someone famous. First episode had Ben Stiller playing himself (a wonderfully serious and rather egotistical version of himself) as the director of a “serious” film about a Bosnian tragedy. The second episode had another Somebody (a British somebody I assume, one I wasn’t acquainted with) playing himself as an actor in a Napoleonic period TV series. I was worried at first when I heard there’d be guest appearances each episode, worried that they’d not be able to pull off the subtlety sometime required to play themselves in a comedic way. So far, those fears were ill-founded because the casting and writing and performances have been great.

That’s enough. It’s a great show, and well worth seeking out the weekly bittorrents.