Quad Blogs

Episode 2 of The Event may have delighted many people but the episode, titled “To Keep Us Safe,” did not entertain me at all. “To Keep Us Safe” is a much better effort than the pilot. I wonder why NBC didn’t devote two hours to the premiere because nothing happened in the pilot. At least the show revealed some things about what’s going on; however, nonsense still comes out of Laura Innes’ character’s mouth like ‘I can’t tell you anything, Mr. President” and then she follows THAT up with a threat to the president AND the people of the country. She threatens the President because he wants the truth. WHAT?!? There’s no context for her threat but she sure delivers the words with a menacing look and an ominous tone in her voice.

The plane that disappeared into an electromagnetic field last week did not go to an alternate dimension. The plane landed in Yuma, Arizona. The first fifteen minutes of the show were begging for bloggers and critics to draw the LOST comparisons. A plane crashes in an unknown and mysterious place while a military official talks about a major electromagnetic event. I don’t mean to get into Jacob’s Foot mode and write 2,000 words about LOST but that plot is directly lifted from LOST. Some critics have theorized the show is poking fun at shows like LOST. I doubt the electromagnetic/plane thing was a parody of LOST because the characters were deadly serious about the disappearance and the information. It’s one thing for the network to push the show as the next LOST because their job is to draw an audience. The writers didn’t need to place such a blatant image of LOST in the first act of the second episode. Allright. LOST tangent is now over.

Scott Patterson yelled that Sean shouldn’t trust ANYONE and that he alone can rescue his daughters. Sean takes off and eventually passes out in the desert. He awakes in the hospital and soon finds himself in custody of the FBI because the kidnappers framed Sean for the murder of the guy with the brunette girl who tried to rape Leila seconds before mysterious white guy stabbed in the gut. This show is a mess. I digress. Sean pleads with the FBI people to find the plane but they think he is crazy and psychotic. Essentially, nothing happens in the Sean story of the episode. Whoever kidnapped Leila and her sister are part of a powerful organization that not even the government knows about them. The organization probably doesn’t consist of the aliens we discovered lived amongst the characters though.

Meanwhile, Danko from HEROES tells the president that he would like to rid the country of the aliens. The plot is basically the second half of the third season of HEROES. The president isn’t as eager to commit genocide though. He wants answers. He doesn’t get them so he, in turn, threatens Laura Innes. Also, the top guy working the case is actually ONE of the aliens. In fact, he is the brother of the love of Laura Innes’ life and his brother is responsible for the plane; however, the alien working with the government wants to protect the civilians, I think.

The whole alien plot is a bunch of nonsense though, and I’d rather not take the time to coherently summarize their early plan because I don’t care about it. The number one issue with the show thus far is the lack of investment I have in the characters and the entire story. Why should I care about the aliens, their plan or the government and their reasons for covering up the crash? Why should I care about Sean and his girlfriend? The characters have no personality or definable traits. They exist only as plot devices. This kind of plot-driven-lets-sacrifice-the-characters show is not for me.

I’m cutting The Event from the weekly review rotation and I’m done with the show overall.

Good Day, The Event.

SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY

The Sopranos–”College”–Written By Jim Manos, Jr http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Sopranos/The_Sopranos_1x05_-_College.pdf

If you’ve never seen The Sopranos, this script could very well make you a fan of the show.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmys took place last night in Hollywood. Rich people were paid to wear expensive clothing. Rich people were paid handsomely for work they already are paid handsomely for. Also, expensive gift bags were given to the rich people who attended. I digress.

In other years, the Emmys showcased an alarming lack of originality. Before last night, The Amazing Race won every year since it debuted. Top Chef took home the Best Reality Program award last night, ending The Amazing Race’s streak. New shows were rewarded as well as deserving actors and actresses who were deemed an after-thought by critics who had grown weary of the predictability of the Emmys; however, as the night wore on, the Emmys began irritating me. Perhaps the hour plus time spent celebrating mini-series and movies was the reason. Can there really be a category for Best Miniseries when exactly two miniseries are nominated? Obviously, the category existed. I would have bumped Tom Hanks and his mini-series to the Creative Arts show that occurred a week ago.

Here are my (mostly) complete thoughts about last night’s Emmy Awards:

-Jimmy Fallon hosted the show last night. While I had no problems with how he performed as the host, I wondered how much power Lorne Michaels has in television. For example, if I was a writer’s PA or writer’s assistant on SNL and I happened to trip over his shoe accidentally, would I ever work in the business again? Take a gander at Horatio Sanz’s career compared to Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Lorne Michaels doesn’t like Horatio Sanz. Sanz was abruptly fired from SNL. Since SNL, he’s worked small roles in Will Ferrell movies and landed a role on a Comedy Central series that critics hate; meanwhile, Fallon replaces Conan O’Brien as the host of the Late Show after struggling as a movie actor. I read Lorne made it a mission to find success for Jimmy Fallon. A year and a half after taking over Conan’s chair, Fallon is hosting the Emmy Awards on NBC.

Seth Meyers has been the head writer of Saturday Night Live for a few years now as well as the Weekend Update host. Let us remember that Seth Meyers never made the audience laugh in sketches. If there were laughs, credit goes to Will Ferrell or any other cast member who appeared in the sketch with him. Not only is Meyers the king of the SNL writing staff, he hosted the ESPYs in July. Damon Lindelof, co-creator of LOST, tweeted “Briefly met @sethmeyers21 backstage and got starstruck.” In the infamous words of Meyers, REALLY?!? Seth Meyers has overseen some of the worst SNL years in the show’s history. The ideas are unoriginal and the execution of the ideas is brutal. Like Fallon, the majority of laughs during Weekend Update occur when Seth Meyers can’t help but laugh at the jokes he just delivered.

I don’t get it.

-I almost turned heel on Mad Men last night because of my overwhelming LOST fanaticism but the frustration disappeared rather quickly and I watched the latest episode of Mad Men mere minutes after they won the award for Outstanding Drama Series. They won for the third year in a row. Matthew Weiner didn’t thank his writing staff. Instead, he thanked his wife for reading the scripts. I have no problem with Mad Men winning this award because LOST didn’t have a shot in Emmy Land. It’s a genre show and hadn’t been nominated since the show won in 2005 for the first season.

-I don’t think Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy should’ve won for “Shut The Door. Have A Seat.” Again, I’m biased but I think Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse deserved the win for “The End.” But Mad Men is the Emmy’s favorite child. The one award I wanted LOST to win was the writing award. I will now sigh heavily.

-Jack Bender did not win the directing award for LOST. Steve Schills won for an episode of Dexter he directed. I did want Bender to win the award not only for the greatness that is “The End” but for the entire six years he spent as the creator of the visual look and style of the show.

-I enjoyed the opening segment of The Emmys. I was surprised and overjoyed when Nina Dobrev jumped into frame. She is the star of The Vampire Diaries and an absolutely stunning looking girl. Holy moly.

Will she replace Emilie de Ravin as my fanboy crush? After watching her last night on The Emmys and seeing the TVD trailers for the second season with Dobrev in the Katherine look…I will answer with an emphatic yes.

-Aaron Paul won the supporting actor award for drama series. Paul once acted in a 2000 movie called Whatever It Takes and it’s one of my all-time favorite comedic performances. The majority of people in America won’t agree with me. I’ve read no supporting actor was more deserving than Aaron Paul. Very well.

-Archie Panjabi won the award for supporting actress in drama series. I hear she was outstanding. Good for her.

-Kyra Sedgwick won for Best Actress in a drama series. Many thought Julianna Marquiles was a lock. I wanted Connie Britton to win for her portrayal of Mrs. Taylor on Friday Night Lights.

-Bryan Cranston won the award for best actor in a drama series. This was a stacked category. Every actor deserved to win. I thought Matthew Fox had an outstanding season portraying Jack. Jon Hamm’s performance in “The Gypsy and The Lady,” especially the kitchen scene with Betty, is out of this world. Kyle Chandler’s been great for four years as Coach Taylor on Friday Night Lights as well.

-The only comedy series nominated that I watched was Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show earned zero awards. No surprise. J.B. Smoove wasn’t even nominated and I have no doubt that he’s funnier than every actor nominated for supporting actor in a comedy series.

-The show itself was poorly paced. Again, no one needs an hour plus devoted to mini-series’ and movies. The musical transitions performed by Jimmy Fallon were decent but the twitter stuff was a bad idea.

Overall, I regret watching the entire three hour program. I should’ve stopped when Nina Dobrev left the stage but I had hope LOST would win, at least, one award.

I thought I’d write about the Emmys and Beyond Survival in one post but my write-up on Beyond Survival will be online tomorrow.

THE QUOTE OF THE (YESTER) DAY!

Gio Gonzalez, A’s pitcher, on his relationship with the baseball

“I had a pep talk with the baseball today … It’s the first time. I guess he’s rubbing off too much on me,” Gonzalez said. “After Hamilton’s homer, I got the ball and started yelling at it. ‘C’mon, do your job.’ Then the baseball told me to calm down. I’m losing my mind.”

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

A week after LOST ended, I created a list of possible series I’d review. Obviously, I haven’t written about any of those series on a weekly basis. So, I might as well write about each of those series right now. Before you head for the hills thinking that 6,000 words are waiting for you, fear not, that is not my intention. The 6,000 word posts will return in due time. Just not tonight. JUST NOT TONIGHT.

blog.news-record.com

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: The fourth season concluded months ago on DirecTV but NBC has not yet burned off the episodes in the ultimate death time slot: Fridays, during the summer, at 8PM. The show is ending next season. Peter Berg and Jason Katims were sneaky about the fourth season. For non-FNL people and fans of Scrubs, just think Scrubs: Med School. Friday Night Lights has rebooted. Rebooting is not new in television world. Rebooting is essentially a spin-off. The key word is essentially. Most of the high schoolers from season one are long gone in the fourth season. Saracen has a six episode arc that ends in confusing fashion. His departure is one of the more oddly written plot points in the series. In episode five, he mourns and buries his father after he had been killed in Iraq. At the end of season three, he wants to leave for Art School in Chicago but feels he cannot because of his grandmother; however, in season four, this is retconned to make Matt’s decision all about Julie. Saracen gets a large settlement from the army and decides to leave. There are zero goodbyes shown. The second to last image of Saracen is the man sitting outside of his house, looking at his mother and grandmother. The next image is of Saracen driving on an open road out of Dillion and Texas. The heart of the season has been Coach taking over the East Dillion football program. The transition had some rough patches like how East Dillion seems entirely unfamilair with the success of the West Dillion Panthers and the history of Coach Taylor. The show had the task of introducing and integrating new characters into a familiar world and they handled the task very well. None of the characters are new versions of old characters. Each have their defining characteristics. Some are cliche. Others are not.

For all of the praise the show gets, and it’s deserved, Friday Night Lights uses some very familiar tropes of their genre. This season, there’s been an abortion storyline. The character Vince, with a criminal past, is torn between providing for his drug-addict mother through illegal means and turning his life around with Coach as his no.1 cheerleader. There was an episode about a girl’s distant father who, it turns out, as a different family in Seattle. This same girl was the center of the abortion storyline and she also is in love with Riggins. Riggins, of course, has slept with her mother. I won’t even dive into the crime stuff because the show has always been terrible at telling crime stories.

All of this leads me to a grade of the season thus far. Only two episodes remain on NBC. That grade is…

B

TRUE BLOOD: Nazi-werewolves who are addicted to vampire blood. Need I say more? The third season has been better than the nonsense of season two. True Blood, to its credit, knows what it is and embraces it. The show is even campier, more violent and more twisted than ever. I’m awaiting patiently for the arrival of the cute blond girl that Jason saw in the woods. She appeared in episode three but barely. Sookie continues to be the best character of the show.

It’s unfair to give a grade after just three episodes but I will…

B

ENTOURAGE: Season 7 has, thus far, been the same old Entourage. And it has only been two episodes. Ari remains one of the greatest characters ever created. Drama remains the second best character on the show. E still sucks. There hasn’t been enough Sloane. Turtle is Turtle. I have no idea if the season is going anywhere. Right now, I doubt it because season six went nowhere and the biggest source of drama on the show is that Vince got a haircut which doesn’t raise my hopes about the quality of the season. But I’ve accepted what the show is. With that said, it is fun criticizing it. I also should mention Tucker Gates, LOST Directing Alum, directed the second episode of the season. It did not have the scope of Ab Aeterno and Across The Sea nor was it anything like how The Substitute was shot.

Grade: N/A

MAD MEN: Season 4 begins July 25. I will be caught up by then. Will there be reviews? Not sure. But I’ll give grades for seasons one and two. I am only two episodes into season three.

Season 1 Grade: A+

Season 2 Grade: A

DEXTER: I will provide zero Dexter coverage. You can all blame Showtime for that. Or me for refusing to watch the show on friends’ netflix accounts.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show since watching the pilot episode. Season 2 doesn’t begin until September. Will it be reviewed? No.

THE REAL WORLD/ROAD RULES CHALLENGE: The season wrapped a month ago. It was awesome. Can’t wait for The Gauntlet 4.

Grade: A+

Feel free to comment on one of these shows or all of them.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

TRIVIA QUESTION: Which Tampa Bay Ray was on base for the final out in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series?

Trivia questions are fun. Posing such a question removes the need to write a mind-blowing lead that will cause everyone to drop what they are doing and read what I’ve written. I posed the above question on my online radio show last night. This specific show dealt with the semi-finals of the World Cup. The answer is in there. I think I will wait to provide the answer. Post your answers/guesses in the comments.

It’s going to be 100 degrees around most of the East Coast today. No one wants to read 7,000 words on how I’d re-write the fourth season of Dawson’s Creek if I ran the show. Today is a lazy, hazy summer day where one should grab a cold class of lemonade and read or something.

As far as TV watching goes, it’s rough out there with summer programming. Plenty of reality television exists on networks, if that is your cup of tea. A few scripted shows are on the air like the crop of ABC shows; however, all received terrible reviews. ABC Family has new episodes for their series but I’m far from their demographic and would only watch if I ever was mailed screeners to review. The days of re-runs are not as prominent because of reality television. HBO took the 4th of July weekend off so I’m unable to review the first two episodes of Entourage. I managed to miss the Dexter marathon that occured last week, thus destroying all hopes of catching up before season five begins.

But Mad Men looms. Ah, Mad Men. What a show. I thought that it would take some time for a show to hit with me like LOST did. Nope. Mad Men is outstanding. Mad Men is part of the rare ‘I Should Probably Own This Show on DVD” category. Not many shows reach that level for me. To date, these shows are: LOST (obviously), Buffy, ANGEL, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Arrested Development. I own a season or two of other shows but, for the shows I’ve just listed, I own every season. Mad Men is very close to joining the ranks. Mad Men is the bright star in a dark sky of summer television this summer.

Another bright star is the season six LOST DVD. In a little over a month, the DVD will hit the shelves. Radio silence will end. I think. The ultimate last chapter in the LOST experience, which means I’ll be able to write one last LOST entry about new content. Ahhhh, LOST.

IFC has begun airing the short-lived Freaks and Geek series. Many know that Judd Apatow was a producer and writer on the show. The series is where most of Judd’s favorite actors got their start in the business. Seth Rogen would later write for Judd’s “Undeclared.” I watched the pilot episode twice and it is terrific. Paul Feig did an excellent job introducing his characters and defining their essential personalities. This is another show worth watching in the very bleak summer season of television.

Of course, The Soup airs every friday on E! and is an excellent source of entertainment.

Basically, my point is there are quality alternatives to some bad, bad tv. And as always, the Phillies are basically on every night. MLB Tonight is the best baseball program on television. It’s also fun to keep track of all thing NHL free agency. When in doubt, sports are always there.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE DAY