Category: TV Comedies (Page 87 of 154)

Old Show, New Season: “Pushing Daisies”

If the pilot for “Pushing Daisies” wasn’t the single best hour of television to emerge in the 2007 – 2008 fall TV season (and it wasn’t, because I still say that honor belongs to the pilot for “Reaper”), then it can at least be said with some confidence that it was the one which made the greatest visual impact, courtesy of its gorgeous colors. It also had a pretty damned unique premise, involving Ned (Lee Pace), a guy with the ability to bring dead people back to life – but only for a minute at a time, lest their return to life result in the death of someone else – who splits his time between making pies, solving crimes, and pining for Chuck (Anna Friel), a girl he can never touch. Oh, right: it also had a script that was sweet, sentimental, unexpectedly dramatic, and very, very funny.

Hmmm. Suddenly, I’m beginning to wonder if I need to go back and re-watch the “Reaper” pilot. Maybe I got this one wrong.

Nah, just kidding…but “Pushing Daisies” is a great show, and after having re-watched the entire first season on DVD, I found myself geared up to see where things were going to go with the series, especially after that bombshell they dropped in the season finale: that Aunt Lily (Swoosie Kurtz) is actually Chuck’s mother.

Season 2 kicks off with a considerable amount of catch-up, which only makes sense, given not only how complicated the series is but also how long it’s been since the show was last on the air. This is a good thing if you’ve heard lots of great stuff about the show but were concerned that you couldn’t possibly get into it at this late date. Believe me, this is about as good a summation as you could hope to receive…and while it’s stuff that the regular viewers will already know, they’ve managed to slide in a few new scenes here and there to keep it interesting for everyone.

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When product placement goes too far…

Movies and television have been using product placement for years. For a kickback from the manufacturer, the product appears onscreen and usually fits within the context of the scene. For example, someone might be working in an office, and there’s a FedEx envelope or a can of Coke sitting on his desk. This type of product placement makes sense and can even add to the realism of the scene. (It’s less distracting to have a can of “Coke” than a can of “Cola” that is made to look like a can of “Coke.”)

Anyway, with DVRs creeping into more and more households, advertisers (and television producers) are getting more and more aggressive with their product placement since they know many of their viewers are simply skipping the commercials. It’s a fine line between having reasonable and distracting product placement. If the CSI unit pulls up in a Toyota truck, that’s okay, but what the folks on “Eureka” are doing is ridiculous.

This season, “Eureka” started a joint campaign with Degree deodorant to shoehorn its logo into (seemingly) every episode. Most recently, there was the episode where Sheriff Carter kept living the same day over and over and, you guessed it, he kept pulling a stick of Degree out of his medicine cabinet. And it’s not like the stick is just sitting there in the background. The first time he pulled it out, we were treated to a two- or three-second closeup… of a stick of deodorant! Then there was the episode where Zane was working in his lab and Fargo came to him with a favor. Mysteriously, there was a stick of Degree sitting on Zane’s desk. Once again, we were treated to an inexplicable closeup. Later in the same episode, there was a scene in a larger room and in the background there were metal crates with the Degree logo on the side.

When does it stop? The shoehorning of the Degree logo into every episode has become a joke between me and my wife, and we’re seriously considering dropping the show from our watchlist because the product placement is so cheesy and distracting. Moreover, I’m actually less likely to buy Degree deodorant because the product is ruining a good show.

And I’m not alone in this. TV Guide’s website posted a jeer from one of its readers.

Jeer to Eureka, one of my favorite shows, for indulging in product placement. This season, the producers apparently came to an agreement with the makers of Degree deodorant to display their logo at every opportunity. Not only is it disappointing, but it is annoying, and distracting to deal with in an otherwise quality show.

In the associated poll, 45% agreed with the jeer, 15% disagreed, while 40% said it was a “Jump the Shark” moment.

In total, 85% of respondents find the product placement distracting. So is it worth those extra advertising dollars if you’re irritating 85% of your audience?

Doubtful.

Entourage 5.4 – Fire Sale

Can anyone say “déjà vu”? Maybe it’s just me, but with the on-again-off-again bidding war that dominated most of tonight’s episode, it sure felt a lot like last year’s Cannes-based season finale. Thankfully, it wasn’t as much of a letdown, and though not a whole lot was actually accomplished, it did bring up some very interesting story developments that will not only play a major role in the rest of this season, but next season as well.

For starters, Eric’s relationship with JB and Nick isn’t going quite as smoothly as you’d expect. The amateur screenwriters may have the hottest script in town, but at the end of the day, they’re still amateurs, and acting like a bunch of egomaniacal assholes isn’t going to help jumpstart their careers one bit. If anyone other than Eric was managing them, they probably would have already dropped them as clients. It isn’t enough that he’s gotten them a great deal ($100,000 with a $200,000 bonus if the movie is made) – Nick thinks they can get more money, and he’s not afraid to make his opinions be heard. As it turns out, he’s right, but nobody in town is willing to make the movie with Vince starring other than Amanda.

Entourage 5.4

When Vince graciously removes himself from the project and gives Eric the chance to sell the movie for more, however, Amanda flips out at the suggestion that Edward Norton get into a bidding war with every other studio in town. Ari is quick to jump at the chance of making the sale, and he comes back with an offer that any other first-time writer would kill for: $500,000 and Vinnie Chase in a supporting role. Unfortunately, Nick is not like every writer, and when he hears about Edward Norton no longer being part of the film, he’s disappointed. How cool was it, then, to have Eric take charge of the call by not only telling Nick that he plans on accepting the deal, but that he needs to say “thank you”? Eric may make mistakes every once and a while, but you gotta hand it to him – he’s doing a pretty good job for someone that still doesn’t know all the ins and outs of Hollywood.

The biggest development of the night, however, was Vince accepting a supporting role in “Nine Brave Souls” (now being called by the ultra-lame title “Smoke Jumpers”). This could be a big turning point for him in the series, as just two weeks ago I suggested that it would be fun to see him have to climb his way back to the top without the luxury of having Ari hold his hand. Now, that’s probably not going to happen any time soon, but the fact that he’s willing to settle for smaller roles certainly shows that he’s ready to begin a new (albeit different) era in his career. Not only does Vince have the chance to prove that he can still sell a movie, but he’ll also get the chance to act. Whether this means he might get that Oscar nomination just yet remains unseen, but you can’t deny that “Entourage” at the awards show would make for one hell of an episode.

First thing’s first. Just when it looked like a deal had finally been struck, Amanda came back with another offer ($2,000,000 plus the chance to work with Norton) that Eric’s writers probably won’t turn down. To make matters worse, the studio behind the deal is none other than Warner Bros., and with Allen Grey (you know, the guy who fired Vince from “Aquaman 2”) still at the helm, it’s going to take one helluva miracle keeping Vince attached to the project. Until then, it looks like he’s seriously considering starring in a new Benji movie set in Alaska, but let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that, because I have zero interest in watching a show about a movie star who isn’t even the star of some shitty kid movie.

The worst goes first

Say adieu to “Do Not Disturb,” Fox’s Jerry-O’Connell-starring sitcom. If The Gospel According to Michael Ausiello can be trusted, then the series has already bitten the dust, thereby making it the first casualty of the 2008 fall season…and the least surprising.

Still, you have to give the show’s producers credit for having tried to amuse the critics, sending out a missive that was, ironically, funnier than the series itself.

According to a piece on Variety.com, certain TV writers received a letter from the producers, saying, “We here at ‘Do Not Disturb’ agree that by airing the ‘Work Sex’ episode — before airing the actual pilot — we created much confusion and we deserve all the criticism, the bad puns (i.e. ‘an early checkout from the fall season,’ ‘Do Not Make in the First Place,’ etc.) and, yes, even the accusation that it very well could be the final nail in the multicamera sitcom’s coffin.” Attached to the letter was a DVD which contained an ostensibly funnier episode of the show.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the critics who received the letter / DVD combo…which is a shame, as I’m skeptical that such a thing as a consistently-funny episode of “Do Not Disturb” exists, and I would’ve liked to have been proven wrong.

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