Endings, As It Is Known, Are Where We Begin

By on Oct 10, 2009 in Raves |

Rarely do shows get to end on the creators’ own terms, especially those that are cancelled. And even though Bryan Fuller surely would have preferred a more robust ending to his much-beloved fantasy noir Pushing Daisies, the show didn’t exit on a cliffhanger or, worse, with the whimper of a total non-ending, as some do. No, he was able to whip together an epilogue to tack on to the cliffhanger ending of “Kerplunk,” the last episode to air. But, as he says in an interview with TheTorchOnline.com, he couldn’t even shoot new footage. So he instead devised this CGI tour of the town of Coeur d’Coeurs and its environs—and of many of the settings used for the show, including the windmills, the convent, the Aquacade, the cemetery, the lighthouse, and, of course, the Pie Hole itself. This impressive work of digital wizardry would have cost him in the...

Nothing but the Blood

By on Oct 4, 2009 in Raves | 1 comment

Note: The following review first appeared as an article entitled “True Blood: HBO’s newest (and most misunderstood) hit” in The Climax, Hampshire College’s newspaper. Enough vampires, you say. And you’re entitled: pop culture is oversaturated with blood-sucking stories these days. True Blood might have been white noise amongst other fang-bearing works. But Twilight it ain’t. Part pulpy horror flick, part gothic love story, and with pervasive social commentary, HBO’s first post-Sopranos hit series defies categorization. And—forgive me for this—it’s bloody good. Based on the book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, True Blood revolves around the character of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a watering hole in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. In the first episode, she falls in love with Bill Compton, a 150-year-old vampire,...

2009 Emmys: My Recap

By on Sep 22, 2009 in Recaps | 3 comments

Now that I’ve finally watched the last hour of the 61st Annual Emmy Awards, I can confidently say that this year’s broadcast was one of the best in recent history. And here are my favorite aspects of the big show: Neil Patrick Harris. Coming off of last year’s terrible hosting job by otherwise talented reality-TV hosts, Neil Patrick Harris did a hell of a job as emcee. I haven’t seen much of his work, but I enjoyed his jokes, his reverence for television, and especially… The opening number, in which he poked fun at the industry and at viewers, hit on both Christina Hendricks and Jon Hamm, and blazed through a long list of television networks in record time (begging for “Oxygen” by the end!). Props to Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for writing the number. The set. Not only was the band onstage, but the control room was, too. Fitting—and cool....

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan! Al! Alan!

By on Sep 13, 2009 in Raves | 1 comment

Thanks to a link Christina Applegate posted to Twitter, I’ve been exposed to some of the funniest comedic anthropomorphism on TV since the claymation stylings of Creature Comforts. It’s a show called Walk on the Wild Side, in which up-and-coming British comedians (and, on occasion, established talent like Stephen Fry and Sir Tom Jones) give voices to animals captured in nature footage. There’s just one problem. It’s only available on BBC, and it doesn’t seem to be coming Stateside any time soon (unless, of course, we try to import it). But for now, we can relish YouTube clips of the show like the two below. (The monkey dentist in the second clip gets me every time.)

To Be Seen, Not Tasted

By on Sep 7, 2009 in Raves |

Why do we enjoy Top Chef so much? Aside from the fact that it’s one of the few respectable, legitimate competition shows, and aside from the fact that we are all gluttons for culinary-inferiority punishment, why do we watch a show in which we cannot participate? With So You Think You Can Dance, you can see the dances. With Project Runway, you can see the designs. But with Top Chef, you cannot taste the food. You must watch the judges reactions and rely on their appraisals. It reminds me of my chief complaint about food shows: there are only so many responses TV chefs can give when tasting their own concoctions. The head tilts up toward the heavens, the eyes roll back, the eyelids flutter. “Oh, oh. That is so good.” Or “Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.” Or “Yumm-o!” Or the old standby: “Mmmm.” (Really, Rachael Ray, could you vary it up a little?)  I...

High Expectations and Higher Education

By on Sep 2, 2009 in Previews | 1 comment

2009-2010 New Series Preview, Part 4 I was prepared to love Community, NBC’s latest venture into single-camera comedy. The premise is funny: a fake lawyer goes to community college to become legitimate and ends up becoming a fake Spanish tutor in a study group full of misfits. The actors (like Joel McHale and Chevy Chase) are all well-cast for their roles. The humor is, for the most part, fresh and unexpected. (For example, a slighted study-groupie tells the lawyer, “I thought you were like Bill Murray in any of his films, but you’re more like Michael Douglas in any of his films.”) And to top it all off, there’s no laugh track.  But for some reason, I only liked it. Incidentally, I can actually speak with authority about this show, because I have seen the first episode. (Being the minor-league TV critic that I am, I jump at any chance to preview new shows....