a reminder

Watch Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Like, today, please.

a little school spirit

Friday Night Lights (2006) SEASON 1

Status: It’s kind of a weird one. Season 3 is coming this fall, but with less episodes than a regular season, and it’ll air on cable/direct tv/something first, and then repeat on NBC some weeks later. So, it’s not totally cancelled—just kind of on a slow death march.

Genre: drama (family/teen/sports)

DVD extras: not great. A making-of documentary that is OK (and for some reason, not placed on the last disc—but watch it last if you don’t want to be spoiled). A few deleted scenes. The best thing about the DVD is that it’s cheap (probably why it’s lacking a lot of extras).

Basics: The first season of Friday Night Lights accomplishes something that few television dramas are able to do: It betters the 2004 film on which the series is based. Set in Dillon, Texas, where football--even on the high school level--is everything, Friday Night Lights is a compelling drama with a football subplot. Poignantly and effectively touching on racism, rape, steroids, jealousy, infidelity, and life-changing injuries, the series presents the inhabitants of Dillon as real people who are flawed, but remarkable in their ordinariness.

The story arc of the season is: Coach Taylor is the new head-coach of the Dillon High Panthers. He has to have a winning team because his job and the spirit of the entire town depends on him. Meanwhile, his wife has to deal with becoming the “head coach’s wife” and his daughter falls in love with the new, young, quarterback. The players on the team are more than just high school kids because of the responsibility to the town their uniforms come with, but they still have to deal with heartaches, alcoholism, absent parents, steroids, etc. It follows a small town on its quest for state championship.

The good: Incredibly real, heartfelt, fascinating, and well-acted. The actors are all really good looking. And I am pretty much in love with Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler). Total love. But since he has the awesome Connie Britton as a wife (uh, in the show), I’ll settle for Matt Saracen. More age appropriate anyway.

The bad: Stupid shaky camera shit. It suppose to give the show a gritty, realistic look, but it just distracts me. Either I got used to it though, or they calmed down a little after the first few episodes. I can see when the shaky feel works in certain instances, but in general I love me a well-done tracking shot.

The ugly: It’s only problem is that it started to fall apart the second season. For some reason they skipped half a school year, FORGOT about FOOTBALL, broke up the best couples, and added a MURDER plotline. Don’t worry, the first season finale ends satisfyingly enough. Like VM, make up what you think will happen after the last episode because it’s better than the reality.

Why it’s awesome: It’s just a really well done show. It actually made me like football. Even if you don’t like football, you can enjoy this show. Actually, if you do like football you’ll probably be a little disappointed because it’s more drama than sports.

Best episodes: The pilot was like a mini-movie. “I Think We Should Have Sex” was a definite highlight. The “Mud Bowl” and the last episode, “State”, were exhilarating.

In conclusion, it fails really because there’s no audience for this show. Either you’re living this show and don’t need to watch it on your TV every week, or you’re not, and subsequently have no interest in the world it portrays. But honestly, it’s a quality show, so if you have 22 hours to spare, give it a chance. It's even better than the movie, and it’s only $20 at Target! Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

a parisian night suit

Freaks and Geeks (1999)

[First I’d like to say that they’re re-releasing the yearbook edition of the series this fall, and I WANT IT. Hint, hint.]

Status: Cancelled after 18 episodes

Genre: comedy/drama/teen

DVD extras: HOURS of extras! It’s a Freaks and Geeks lovefest. Every episode has at least one commentary track. They’re very good in general, too. Lots of deleted scenes, bloopers, screen tests, and even some homemade video type stuff. Also comes with a booklet and playlist from each episode. Yay!

Basics: Created by writer-comedian Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, Freaks and Geeks followed the Weir siblings--former math whiz Lindsay and her younger brother Sam--as they navigated the perils and pleasures of a Michigan high school circa 1980. What separated Freaks and Geeks from most other scholastic series was its brutal honesty--Lindsay and Sam, as well as their friends and parents, were given very human personas that showed failure, malice, indecision, and moments of great clarity. Likewise, the plotlines rarely offered pat solutions to the characters' conflicts--the show unfolded in a naturalistic manner, which was a welcome respite for viewers tired of flashy high school dramas.

Basically it’s an anti-Dawson’s Creek. Lindsey starts hanging out with the burnouts/freaks. Sam has a couple of geeky friends and a crush on a popular cheerleader. Hilarious and heartbreaking—it was doomed from the start.

The good: You’re watching the show, cringing at what topic they decided to cover this episode— vandalism, family violence, crushed dreams, parents dating teachers, divorce, hermaphrodites—and then by the end they just totally make it work. It’s so rare for a show to make you feel anything at all, and Freaks and Geeks manages to make you feel everything.

The bad: There’s a reason why F&G didn’t last one season, and Dawson’s Creek lasted six. Every episode of F&G ended bittersweetly—sometimes even somewhat depressingly. It was a little too much like life, where you don’t win the heart of the girl and go on to do great things. That’s what made it so good, but it’s also why no one watched. Somehow, though, anyone who’s seen the series thinks it’s the most awesome thing ever (and rightly so).

The ugly: Well, nothing really.

Why it’s awesome: Most notably, the music, which is a pretty good mix of classic rock. The casting is tops: Linda Cardellini is the perfect everywoman, I would totally play D&D with the geeks every week (and they are seriously geeky—not Hollywood geeky) or toke up in Nick’s basement with the freaks (you know, if I was into that type of thing), and even the minor characters have depth and personality. Every single character experiences a good amount growth. Amazingly, even though it was canceled before the end of the season, they filmed a last episode in advanced so there’s a pretty good conclusion at the end of the series.

Best Episodes: The pilot was like a mini-movie (every episode was, actually), “I’m With the Band” (episode #6) was when I fell in love with the show, “Carded and Discarded” is one of the funniest, “The Little Things” had amazingly impressive writing/acting, and the last episode “Discos and Dragons” was the perfect finale. Looking over the episodes list, I can’t pick one that isn’t an A+.

In conclusion, the best thing that could happen to the series is that it was canceled after 18 episodes. 18 perfect episodes. No disappointing future seasons to diminish the magic of the first. Julia Roberts said it best in Steel Magnolias (yea, you knew I’d manage to reference a movie sooner or later): “I would rather have 30 minutes of something wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.”

a perky blonde

Veronica Mars (2005) SEASON 1

Status: Cancelled after 3 seasons

Genre: teen/drama/noir

DVD Extras: a few deleted scenes. Pretty lame.

Basics: In the wealthy seaside community of Neptune California the rich and powerful make the rules. Unfortunately for them there's Veronica Mars a smart fearless 17-year-old apprentice private investigator dedicated to solving the town's toughest mysteries. Veronica used to be one of the popular girls but it all came crumbling down around her after her best friend Lilly was murdered and her then-sheriff father Keith was removed from office for naming Lilly's rich father as the lead suspect. During the day Veronica must negotiate high school like any average teenage girl. But at night she helps with her father's struggling new private investigator business--and what she finds may tear the town of Neptune apart at the seams.

The good: Veronica is a total ball-buster (while still managing to be cutesy but not annoying). Everyone at school hates her, her boyfriend just stopped talking to her one day, she got raped at a party, her best friend was murdered and no one is looking for the real killer… and yet she handles it all. With talent, brains, and sarcasm. Every episode has a Mystery of the Week that VM solves. The overall arc of the season is defined by Lily’s murder case. We get tantalizing clues throughout and the payoff definitely delivers.

The bad: The voice-overs are an interesting tool, and help give the show a noir-ish feel. I sometimes wish they did more than just explain what VM was doing, though. In the pilot it helped give us some insight into VM’s thought-process and beliefs, but they didn’t really do that enough throughout every episode. Could have been a great tool in propelling the story lines forward. But you know, that’s a complaint in hind-sight. The viewing experience overall is very nice.

The ugly: Dad, Wallace, and Mac are all great. Logan’s character just keeps getting better throughout the season. But for some reason, they left Veronica’s love interest, Duncan, oddly underdeveloped and LAME.

Why it’s awesome: The feel, the dialogue, Lily’s murder plotline… it’s all amazing. The Mysteries of the Week are sometimes a bit uneven, but they’re never dull. An advantage of watching it on DVD is that the impact of the MotWs are minimized and you can get more involved with the main mystery.

Best Episodes: In episode 4 they do a good job of establishing the characters’ back stories and relationships. It’s essential to see why Lily was so important to Veronica (lots of good flashbacks throughout the season too). The Christmas episode is my favorite. And of course the finale episode is HOT (oh look, I made a pun—you’d get it if you saw the season).

In conclusion, a very good summer distraction. It’s fun and engrossing. Everything’s solved at the end of the season. Ok, it’s a little cliffhangery with a couple of things, but trust me, what follows in season 2 and 3 are disappointing. Use your imagination and make up your own ending; it’s much better that way. Without Lily’s case propelling Veronica forward, she just seems kind of lost in later seasons. But this first season? Nearly perfect.

a summer distraction

[Ah...the face of a defeated man...]

What better way to whittle away those glaring, hot summer days than a marathon of your favorite TV show? And in case you have commitment issues… here are 4 shows that will last you just approximately 24 hours. After you finish and your eyes are bleeding, you can discard the show forevermore (but I don’t think you’ll want to) because either the show didn’t go beyond one season, or the later seasons pretty much sucked. A marathon with a definite end point. Win-win.

What inspired this little project is a recent viewing of the movie “The TV Set” (2006), which I caught on Showtime today. Synopsis from IMDB: “A television network is making a pilot of Mike's quirky comedy based on the aftermath of his brother's suicide. As the network suits ask for change after change, and as Mike struggles with compromise, there are strains on families, execs who show rushes to their children, leads who feel each other out, and assistants who put a smile on everything. Can an honest show get made in the world of reality TV chasing an audience of teen-aged boys?” The answer is no. It was good and funny, but depressing as hell. Pretty much summing it up, Mike says: “If I don't worry about the content in my show, then I'm part of the problem. I'm making the world more mediocre!” It’s amazing any quality shows get made. But then, those that do, are cancelled anyway as these 4 shows prove.

So, anyway, I'll do one show a day, probably. Enjoy!

(first up is Veronica Mars, coming up tomorrow)

a happy home

So this is what my apartment will one day look like. I got so ridiculously excited when I saw it. I think it gives me false hope that I'll manage to somehow make it so that all my things don't just look like clutter. See, my enjoyment of simple aesthetics doesn't quite outweigh my desire for material objects. Thus, I collect... pretty much everything. I started doing this thing where I rotate all my knick knacks on display. Like a museum.

Seriously, I go crazy when I find rooms like this. I like: unique artwork, mismatched furniture (that somehow go together), brightly painted bookshelves and lamps (etc), and white sofas. And books-- this room is an inspiration alone because of the number of books it holds. Simply lovely.

I also love this person's house. Just give me a bunch of random shit and I'm in heaven.

So I know it's a little early, but the Web Wednesday of the week is apartmentthearapy.com because I am absolutely obsessed with that site.

a sure thing

Can many people still say they’re a Will Smith fan? Yea, he’s literally the biggest movie star in the world (and he’s worked hard for that). Yes, we all love him and think he's a good guy. Most importantly, he is as close to a sure thing as possible in terms of movie blockbusters. The Fourth of July: BBQs, fireworks, and a Will Smith movie. We know we will be entertained. Perhaps even enthralled. Cool one-liners, big explosions. Hoo-Rah. Exciting stuff!

Yet… watching his movies has become more of a habit than anything else. We don’t fervently YouTube clips from his movies the weeks leading up to the premiere. We don’t eagerly covet the DVD to add to our collection. The buzz around his films have nowhere to go but down after the opening weekend. We know that the big screen will provide adequate entertainment for a couple of hours, but beyond that, once the lights go up in the theater, Will Smith will reside in the back of our minds until next summer.

He tried, and succeeded to some extent, in changing our perception of him with In the Pursuit of Happiness. But you know, none of us really doubted his talent to begin with, so the whole undertaking seems kind of moot in the end.

And now, with Hancock, well, here was something that could have been interesting. Since I haven’t actually seen the movie, I won’t attempt to review it, uh, obviously. I can’t help but feel, however, that Hancock is already a disappointment.

It’s one of the first movies of his in a while that had the potential to bomb. Will is a superhero—but he’s a sucky person. Alcoholic, grumpy, mean. Possibly adulterous. (You know, if anyone could pull that off and still manage to be likeable at the end of the film, it’d be Will.) The movie is meant to be a dark satire on the superhero genre… but then with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Hellboy, and The Dark Knight coming out this summer, satire and dark comedy doesn’t seem like it’d sell very well. The Fourth of July is for family-fun entertainment, dammit. So I think it could have bombed, in terms of blockbuster standards.

If it had stayed true to the original script, that is.

Will Smith was really taking a risk with this one. How long had the script been floating around, as something that was brilliant, but could never be made into a movie? (A while.) How many re-writes did it have to have? (Many.) How many directors? (A lot) How many scenes needed to be cut to bring it down to a PG-13 rating? (Uh… you get the point.) Somehow, in the end, the studio managed to turn Hancock, the alcoholic antihero, into an acceptable face to put on kids’ lunch boxes.

So what started out as a risky endeavor will never actually make it to the theaters. Even the trailer makes it more about the funny fluff than substance. (Though I will argue, that whale throwing scene and making a little girl cry is really pretty dark stuff if you think about it. It’s amazing what zippy shots and bombastic music in a trailer can do.)

With great risk comes great rewards. While the movie is now a sure hit in terms of dollars, a rated R Will Smith movie could have been really fascinating. With the amount of scenes reportedly cut, it’s amazing if the story still manages to be coherent, which I guess is something in itself, yet it’s frustrating that it could be so much more.

This weekend, Will Smith will be the awesome action hero we all know and love, and millions will go see him (myself included). I’ll enjoy it, I’m sure, but in the back of my mind, I’ll keep thinking about what could have been.