Author: Will Harris (Page 196 of 261)

Will is a member of the Television Critics Association and has written for Decider.com, the Onion A.V. Club, The Dissolve, Indiewire, Rhino.com, TV Week Magazine, The Virginian-Pilot, Popdose.com, and EW.com along with writing for Bullz-Eye.com and Premium Hollywood.

My new favorite talk show…

March 8, 2007 /

…is “Can’t Sleep with Dave Foley.”

While it’s not the best talk show currently on the air – that honor might go to “The Craig Ferguson Show,” which has upped its ante by adding Tim Meadows as a recurring guest correspondent – it is, to be sure, the best online talk show. (Sorry, Tom Green.) How can you go wrong with a concept that involves Foley (“Kids in the Hall,” “NewsRadio”), who’s suffering from insomnia, offering a monologue in bed as he lies beside his sleeping wife, talking to a “guest” that he finds online via iChat, and enjoying a number from whatever musical guest happens to be conveniently positioned outside his house.

Right now, I’m watching the third episode, where Dave has a virtual conversation with his former”NewsRadio” co-star, Maura Tierney (who looks just as hot in the middle of the night as you’d always hoped she would), then steps outside for a song from Jon Brion…and after that description, you know you want to watch it, too.

P.S. The other two episodes are available for your viewing pleasure at SuperDeluxe.com.

External Entertainment, External TV, Humor, Interviews, New Media, TV, TV Comedies

Jericho, Episode 14: Jack Frost Nipping At Their Noses

March 8, 2007 /

It’s funny that “Jericho” seems to be taking a coincidentally similar tactic to “Lost” lately, putting a few disparate people into groups and having them react to each other; they did it last week when they went to the flea market, and they did it again this week when they went on a hunting expedition. This time, we get Jake, Stanley, and Mimi…and, yes, it’s pretty obvious which of these people is not like the other. As it happens, though, Mimi’s inability to hunt never really comes into play, what with all the discoveries of dead bodies, the car chase (and subsequent wreck), inclement weather, and whatnot. The real payoff from the sequence, aside from the thieving of the Jericho folks’ vehicle by the masked marauders who ran them off the road in the first place, was that it led to Jake finally opening up to his dad about what had gone on in Iraq…and how he was responsible for killing a little girl.

Hawkins and his lady friend embark on their mission, and although we knew from the last moments of the previous episode that she was preparing to betray him, I think we all suspected that he suspected this would happen. They managed a decent amount of tension as we waited for her to betray him; I was surprised that she didn’t play her hand…and given the finale of the episode, I’m not entirely sure she knew about everything that Hawkins found on the computer.

Emily’s fiancee still seems out of it, but his interest in assisting the others who suffered through the same fate as himself has, if nothing else, made her a bit more sympathetic to what he’s dealing with…and her conversations with them have reminded her just how much he loves her.

The obligatory “Little House”-styled moments – when Ma and Pa Green find Jake’s secret stash of liquor and get a nice buzz going – were nicely done…although when they showed up later to save Mimi’s hide, I kept thinking, “Geez, good thing there’s not much chance of them getting pulled over and given a breathalizer!” I’m not sure if they’re getting better at slipping these moments into the action or if I’m just getting used to them, but they don’t feel as forced as they used to. What does feel forced, however, is the romantic dialogue they saddle Stanley and Mimi with; they’ve got no chemistry whatsoever. At least their last scene of the episode has her responding to one of his comments with, “That’s the worst line I’ve ever heard.”

External Entertainment, External TV, Jericho, TV, TV Dramas

Soundies = the precursor of the music video

March 8, 2007 /

There’s a show airing on PBS stations around the country right about now that every music fan should check out, particularly if you enjoy history as well. It’s called “Soundies,” and its topic is stated outright in its title.

Soundies were, as the title of this post indicates, the precursor of the music video. The Mills Novelty Company created a refrigerator-sized machine called the Panoram, which was essentially a video jukebox, and these soundies – three-minute films of various musical artists performing their hit songs – could be watched on the Panoram in groups of three. (It was early technology, of course, so you couldn’t fast-forward or rewind; if you wanted to see the last soundie on the reel, you were stuck watching the first two as well, whether you wanted to or not.) The soundies began in 1940 and started off as a roaring success, but World War II caused the Panoram business to stumble – the war effort necessitated a slowing in the manufacturing of new machines – and by the time the armistice had been signed, it was too late; the era of the soundies was over by 1946.

But, wow, who knew how many video artifacts from those six years were still out there…?

Fans of jazz, country, pop vocalists of the ’40s, and even early R&B will find their jaws dropping at some of this footage. You’ll see performances from Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Les Paul, Kay Starr, Fats Waller, Spike Jones, the Mills Brothers, Merle Travis, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, and even a young Liberace. The stock line about soundies is that while the most popular white artists tended to be under contract to other studios and were therefore unavailable to make soundies (there’s an interesting story about how Mel Torme’s group, the Meltones, did a soundie with another member lip-synching Mel’s vocals because Torme himself wasn’t contractually permitted to appear on camera), there were plenty of black artists who were more than willing to get in front of the camera in order maximize their exposure…and it’s so awesome that they did. Actually being able to see Fats Waller kick out the jams on the piano is pretty damned sweet.

There are also some interesting choices of talking heads brought onboard to discuss the soundies; in addition to new interviews with some of the folks who actually made them, like Les Paul and Kay Starr, we get commentary from Joe Franklin, Hugh Hefner, jazzmen George Duke and Wynton Marsalis, and…Stan Ridgway? Oh, it’s not so strange; didn’t you know that he recorded an album of standards a few years back? (If not, you will soon…when we discuss The Best Albums You’ve Never, Ever Heard. Check back at Bullz-Eye in early April!)

You can check out the official website for “Soundies,” but I’m led to understand that in addition to future airings, there’s talk of releasing it on DVD. Fingers crossed that that’s true; there’s a lot of stuff here that’s worth watching over and over again.

Documentaries, External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV

Will the reign of “King of Cars” continue…?

March 6, 2007 /

“King of Cars,” A&E’s latest reality-show phenomenon, is now back for its second season, and, wow, this is just further proof that a reality show can make just about any job look interesting. If you’re not familiar with it already, the series centers around the Towbin Dodge car dealership in Las Vegas, Nevada, run by Josh “Chop” Towbin; the dealership earned some fame via its infomercials, where its salesmen dress up as various characters (like Versace Mariachi and the Blue Genie), but that’s nothing compared to how things have been since the premiere of this show last year on A&E.

We scored screeners of two episode from the new season – the first about the dealership’s “Ugly Truckling” contest (where customers are told to bring in their ugly trucks, and the ugliest in the bunch will win $1,000), the second about a competition for a promotion within the dealership (it begins as a simple matter of who sells the most before descending into a one-on-one basketball match where the winner gets the gig) – and, yes, even the world of car sales makes for fascinating viewing when it’s made into a half-hour show with lots of quick cuts and one-liners. The “Ugly Truckling” episode is especially enjoyable, with the laughably rotten vehicles that roll onto the lot in an attempt to win a grand.

Ultimately, however, my biggest problem with the show – and I think it’s one that a lot of others probably share – is that, while they might make for an interesting reality series, I generally avoid car dealers like the frickin’ plague, so as I’m watching the show, I’m often taken out of it when I realize that, geez, what that guy’s doing or what that other guy is saying are two big reasons why I tend to drive my cars until they literally fall apart. I hate dealing with car salesmen…and even though there’s definitely an entertaining reality show premise to be found within “King of Cars,” I’m hard pressed to actually like any of the characters in the series, especially the ones who open their mouth on a regular basis, since they invariably say something boastful and annoying. In particular, Chop reminds me a lot…a whole lot…of a guy I used to work for, and while he’s got the kind of personality that helps when you’re trying to make a buck – meaning that he’s an obnoxious loudmouth who loves his bling, lives for the almighty dollar, and will change his personality in the blink of an eye if he thinks it’ll help score a sale – he’s not the kind of guy you can readily root for…and the same goes for the majority of his staff. In that second episode, two of the salesmen are battling for a top slot at the dealership, and they immediately descend into back-stabbing in order to try and win the new, higher-paying position…and Chop is cackling all the way. He’s also the kind of guy who talks about people being “team players,” which never fails to rub me the wrong way, personally.

But, hey, if you also happen to be an obnoxious loudmouth who loves his bling and lives for the almighty dollar, you’ll probably want to tune in every single week. (Somehow, I’m guessing that’s the demographic where this show scores its biggest ratings.) Otherwise, however, it might be wise to enter the proceedings with trepedation; one trip to the lot might be quite enough for you.

External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV

Heroes, Week 18: No Pot Pie For You!

March 5, 2007 /

I love “Heroes,” and I love NBC…but the reality of the matter is that, sometimes, NBC fucking sucks.

Seriously, do they really just not trust viewers to watch entire episodes anymore? Do they really feel like they have to give away information at the beginning of the episode for things that will be revealed later in that very episode…? Okay, I admit, I thought they’d pulled a completely bullshit move of giving away a major revelation of the episode – that Simone wasn’t actually dead after all – within the promo hyping the upcoming “Spider-Man 3” promo (when it was bad enough that it seemed as though they’d already given it away in the preview at the end of last week’s episode)…but then they went and pulled the carpet out from under me on that one when it turned out that, well, actually, Simone is dead, but that the new girl on HRG’s team has some serious illusion-casting abilities. But the big annoyance I had was that, after spending almost six months leading up to the revelation of Mr. Linderman’s identity, then having it not occur until the last five minutes of the episode, could they not maybe leave Malcolm McDowell’s name out of the fucking opening credits…?

I could go on and on about the dumbing down of society, how Hollywood doesn’t trust Americans to go see films if they don’t know virtually everything that happens beforehand, and how my wife and I got firsthand proof of it this weekened when we went to see “Zodiac” this weekend and got pissed because every single preview we were subjected beforehand revealed almost the entire plot of the movie being previewed. But you came here for a “Heroes” blog, so I’ll save that for another time…

So HRG has indeed had his mind wiped…though not a significant amount. Just, it appears, enough to be able to answer honestly that he doesn’t know what’s happened. Watching him freak out at how much his wife knows – for the first time EVER – was pretty awesome. The new girl in HRG’s life is pretty damned sexy…and it really showed when she showed up in that Catholic-schoolgirl-inspired outfit. Yowza. She’s also got some pretty major powers, too…and she’s clearly not afraid to be a part of the Dark Side; the move of impersonating HRG’s wife was EVIL, “sorry” or no “sorry.” And speaking of the Dark Side, it looks like Matt Parkman’s in with the in crowd now, whether he wants to be or not…and he apparently doesn’t want to be.

Claire’s on Brother Voodoo’s tour of America, and it looked like it’s gonna turn into a worldwide expedition…but, of course, no one really believed that Claire was gonna allow that to happen, did they? Sorry, did I say Claire? I meant Vivian, of course. Either way, I didn’t anticipate the meet-up with Grandma Petrelli.

Mohinder (briefly) gets the upper hand on Sylar…? Holy shit! Who would’ve thought that our man Mo had such a dark side to him…? Of course, it didn’t last, mostly because Mo got cocky and complacent…but, still, kudos for pulling it off even briefly!

God bless Hiro. He’s so wide-eyed and innocent. It was wayyyyyyy too convenient that Ando managed to be assigned to just the right location in Linderman’s building at just the right moment, especially since not only couldn’t he have been employed there for very long, but, also, wasn’t he on the casino’s watch list along with Hiro…? Still, nice use of Ian Gomez…and, plus, it was the excuse we needed for Hiro to finally get the sword. I’m just glad it actually did give him the confidence to use his powers again; with this show, you never know what might happen. So NYC did go up in smoke…but can it still be changed…?!?

Isaac is back on the smack attack. Ho-hum. And Nathan and Nikica cross paths, but that was probably the least interesting part of the episode. In fact, if it hadn’t led up to the reveal of Mr. McDowell as Mr. Linderman…and, no surprise, our man Malcolm remains one of the coolest motherfuckers in the business…I wouldn’t have cared about it at all. (I’m probably the last one to say this, but even I’m finally bored with the Nikica storyline.) So how much does Linderman know? What’s his deal? Is he a “hero” (in the loosest sense of the word)? Can he see the future, or is he just so powerful that he can really get Nathan into the White House…?

So I’m sure that even if Sylar slices Peter’s scalp completely off, he’ll pull through…but, still, damn, we have to wait ’til April 23rd for resolution? Shit, what am I gonna do when the season finale gets here…?!?

External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Dramas

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