[Note: I am saving the best for last. #9 below was the last one I wrote up when I did these.]
9. Hmm. The last one is a bit tricky. There are a number of shows deserving of the “honor”. The Big Bang Theory is probably the best of the rest on my list. Prison Break had flashes of the brilliance I saw in season one again this year. Big Love had some great acting, even as I grew bored with the storyline. Chocolate News had some great bits; it reminded me very much of The Chappelle Show at times. Everybody Hates Chris went out on a high note; the show never got the credit it deserved throughout its run. Gary Unmarried seemed to get better every episode (much like The Big Bang Theory did last year). Mythbusters is so entertaining; you forget you’re also learning quite a bit. 30 Days and This American Life both gave very “ground level” looks at life. Real Sports continues to be able to make me laugh and cry in the same 60 minutes. Real Time is still able to put many of my beliefs into words. Worst Week had a fantastic actor in Kyle Bornheimer; I hope he shows up elsewhere. Phineas & Ferb didn’t have many new episodes, but the ones they had were very inspired; they really built on the groundwork of their first episodes.
But I’m going to go with the most recent show I really got into: Z Rock. I think it’s hilarious and is very close to the feel that early episodes of Entourage had.
If you haven’t read my other posts mentioning the show, I’ll give you a recap of the premise. Wait-- maybe I’ll just let the lyrics of the opening song the band plays every episode explain:
“We’re a Brooklyn band.
It's rock 'n roll we live.
But to pay our rent,
We have to play for kids.”
That, in a nutshell, is what the show is about. These three guys (two of which are brothers) try to play as the hard rock band Z2O but can’t land a gig that pays well enough. So they start playing at kids’ parties (birthdays, etc) as The Z Brothers. The boys aren’t that bright, so they always end up screwing something up. And their manager, Dina, is no genius, either.
The show is cartoonish at times, but that’s part of the charm. Paulie, lead singer and guitar player is an eternal optimist—even though he has no reason to be considering the state of his band and his life. His brother David, the bass player, is the resident stud, who went from nailing groupies to nailing moms. Joey, the drummer, has a girlfriend who is chomping at the bit to get married and whenever the band gets a break, she’s got out the wedding magazines, driving Joey crazy with ideas. Dina is a new manager and has one client: Z2O/Z Brothers. She’ll do anything for the band— whether it’s begging for money from her aunt or even having sex with the loathsome John Popper.
And, somehow, the show lands some pretty funny guest-stars who play versions of themselves. First is Joan Rivers, who is Dina’s aunt and lends her and the band money—and always expects a repayment. John Popper was in a few episodes being a music mogul who is just out for a few bucks—and will screw anyone to make them. Dee Snyder is Paulie’s Yoda; he shows up when Paulie needs advice. And the best guest star was Dave Navarro, who acted like a total dick (making an indecent proposal to Joey’s fiance and berating a little girl who didn’t act well enough to his liking in a music video).
It’s great fun. Check out the 2nd season, airing now on IFC.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #8
8. Battlestar Galactica— This would have been the best television I watched this year had I not seen The Wire. This was a reimaging of the old show from the 1970s, but it really only kept the names and some visual designs of the original series. This show was made to stand on its own, and it did. It also explored topics rarely found on a television show. Topics like religion, terrorism, morals—and, maybe the most rare of all: what makes humans human.
The show is in the science fiction genre, but it was one of the most grounded and human shows I’ve ever seen. Take away the ships and the Cylons, and you’ve got a show with none of the sci fi elements we’re used to. At its heart, it’s a “journey” show. Machines humans created rebelled and disappeared. Then they returned and nearly wiped out the human race. There are roughly 50,000 humans left, and they are on the run. Running from their Cylon creations—and running toward their destiny, a planet called Earth. Along the way, they come across the Cylons again and again; sometimes they fight, sometimes they try to work together. During all that, we see some of the human characters get more vicious and some of the Cylons get more compassionate.
The acting and directing was superb; the writing was well done as well.
But I’ll admit while I was impressed by the technical aspects and underlying philosophy of the show, I never did fall in love with it. I was very much involved with it—and I usually went as soon as I could right to the next set of DVDs (I watched the first season in July, and then Seasons 2, 2.5, 3, and 4.0 from November and January before I settled in and watched Season 4.5 as it aired), but I never became a rabid fan. I’m not sure why-- other than I didn't watch the majority of the episodes "with" other people (as it aired) because this is excellent television.
As a side note—and because it’s the only season I watched as it aired; during the timeframe I’m supposedly critiquing—I was a bit disappointed in Season 4.5. I felt the revelation of the Fifth Cylon was a letdown, and I was also disappointed by what I felt was left on the table by the time the finale ended. There was a mythology to the show that it seemed to relish (at least the Sci Fi Channel did in its advertising) that didn’t have much answered by the end. Had the season tied off some of the ends and gone into a little more real backstory the last few episodes, I would have enjoyed the finale more. But taking a step back, after my disappointment was shelved; I can say the series finale was fantastic. It was unexpected and also very emotionally satisfying. Without saying much more that could ruin it, I can honestly say the show ended perfectly for the story it was telling.
Even though I had a few negative things to say, this series is excellent and exceptional in almost every way. I was probably a little too close to it (even though I hadn't been watching the entire run, I was reading the dozens of articles and reviews about it), and that's why I was never 100% satisfied.
But 98% satisfied is light-years ahead of most shows...
The show is in the science fiction genre, but it was one of the most grounded and human shows I’ve ever seen. Take away the ships and the Cylons, and you’ve got a show with none of the sci fi elements we’re used to. At its heart, it’s a “journey” show. Machines humans created rebelled and disappeared. Then they returned and nearly wiped out the human race. There are roughly 50,000 humans left, and they are on the run. Running from their Cylon creations—and running toward their destiny, a planet called Earth. Along the way, they come across the Cylons again and again; sometimes they fight, sometimes they try to work together. During all that, we see some of the human characters get more vicious and some of the Cylons get more compassionate.
The acting and directing was superb; the writing was well done as well.
But I’ll admit while I was impressed by the technical aspects and underlying philosophy of the show, I never did fall in love with it. I was very much involved with it—and I usually went as soon as I could right to the next set of DVDs (I watched the first season in July, and then Seasons 2, 2.5, 3, and 4.0 from November and January before I settled in and watched Season 4.5 as it aired), but I never became a rabid fan. I’m not sure why-- other than I didn't watch the majority of the episodes "with" other people (as it aired) because this is excellent television.
As a side note—and because it’s the only season I watched as it aired; during the timeframe I’m supposedly critiquing—I was a bit disappointed in Season 4.5. I felt the revelation of the Fifth Cylon was a letdown, and I was also disappointed by what I felt was left on the table by the time the finale ended. There was a mythology to the show that it seemed to relish (at least the Sci Fi Channel did in its advertising) that didn’t have much answered by the end. Had the season tied off some of the ends and gone into a little more real backstory the last few episodes, I would have enjoyed the finale more. But taking a step back, after my disappointment was shelved; I can say the series finale was fantastic. It was unexpected and also very emotionally satisfying. Without saying much more that could ruin it, I can honestly say the show ended perfectly for the story it was telling.
Even though I had a few negative things to say, this series is excellent and exceptional in almost every way. I was probably a little too close to it (even though I hadn't been watching the entire run, I was reading the dozens of articles and reviews about it), and that's why I was never 100% satisfied.
But 98% satisfied is light-years ahead of most shows...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #7
7. Summer Heights High—a mockumentary set at an Australian high school that follows the lives of three people. The first is Mr. G, the egocentric, flamboyant drama teacher that takes every opportunity he can to further his career by making the musical he wrote and is directing the centerpiece of the curriculum. The second is J’amie, a spoiled junior who is at the school on what she calls an “exchange program”; she’s basically “slumming” at a public school instead of the private schools she has otherwise attended her whole life. The third is Jonas, a Polynesian 8th grader with both apathy for and hostility against school and only one desire: to break-dance in the common area.
Just on the surface, this is a funny show. Mr. G. is completely clueless about the world around him because it means nothing to him unless it relates directly to him. He had the gall to write the year’s musical based on the recent drug-related death of a student, and it didn’t occur to him that the student’s family may be upset about that. He also has no concept that the school cannot afford the massive budget he requires to pull off the performance.
J’amie is at the school to run it herself. She immediately identified the popular girls and became their leader. She’s all about being the center of attention, and she’s not above putting others down to do it.
Jonas is a very hostile young man who resorts to profanity (he frequently says, “Fuck you, Miss/Sir” as a way to show his displeasure) or juvenile behavior (his teacher’s request to “put his balls” on the floor prompted him to sit on the floor instead of just putting away the balls he was juggling). Jonas knows his behavior is wrong and will usually do as directed once a punishment rears its head, but he fights civility as much as possible up to that point.
If you don’t remember what I wrote about the show before, there’s also something very different about it: the three main characters are played by the same actor, series creator Chris Lilley. This isn’t a Saturday Night Live-type deal; he fully gets into the characters, and it is not done at all in a jokey manner. The humor does not come from the fact that a man was playing a teenage girl; the humor was from the writing and the plots. It was amazing to see him act in completely different ways, depending on the character he was portraying—and he was spot-on for all three. They each must have presented different challenges, but a grown man convincingly playing a high school girl is remarkable. He presented a girl’s mannerisms and way of speaking in a very uncanny manner.
This ranks up there with some of the best television I've ever seen. Check it out.
Just on the surface, this is a funny show. Mr. G. is completely clueless about the world around him because it means nothing to him unless it relates directly to him. He had the gall to write the year’s musical based on the recent drug-related death of a student, and it didn’t occur to him that the student’s family may be upset about that. He also has no concept that the school cannot afford the massive budget he requires to pull off the performance.
J’amie is at the school to run it herself. She immediately identified the popular girls and became their leader. She’s all about being the center of attention, and she’s not above putting others down to do it.
Jonas is a very hostile young man who resorts to profanity (he frequently says, “Fuck you, Miss/Sir” as a way to show his displeasure) or juvenile behavior (his teacher’s request to “put his balls” on the floor prompted him to sit on the floor instead of just putting away the balls he was juggling). Jonas knows his behavior is wrong and will usually do as directed once a punishment rears its head, but he fights civility as much as possible up to that point.
If you don’t remember what I wrote about the show before, there’s also something very different about it: the three main characters are played by the same actor, series creator Chris Lilley. This isn’t a Saturday Night Live-type deal; he fully gets into the characters, and it is not done at all in a jokey manner. The humor does not come from the fact that a man was playing a teenage girl; the humor was from the writing and the plots. It was amazing to see him act in completely different ways, depending on the character he was portraying—and he was spot-on for all three. They each must have presented different challenges, but a grown man convincingly playing a high school girl is remarkable. He presented a girl’s mannerisms and way of speaking in a very uncanny manner.
This ranks up there with some of the best television I've ever seen. Check it out.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #5 & 6
5. & 6. Chelsea Lately and The Soup-- I watched Talk Soup with Aisha Tyler but I stopped at some point for some reason. And because E! has become a network for jackass reality shows and insipid entertainment reporting, I‘ve stayed away from it to the point where I don’t pay any attention to anything that may not be moronic. But I stumbled onto The Soup last June and fell in love with it, and I lucked upon Chelsea Lately not long after.
Reality TV has gone from decent early seasons of The Real World, The Osbournes, Survivor and Amazing Race to pure shit like The Cougar and Keeping up With the Kardassians. Shows used to start out well and then go downhill, but now nearly all start out as crap and stay there.
With all that being said, I am the absolute right person to watch The Soup and Chelsea Lately. Even though they’re on an otherwise useless network, they somehow are able to make fun of the crap on the rest of the network—or what the rest of the network reports on.
On The Soup, we get funny clips made all the more funny by host Joel McHale. McHale (and his writing staff) come up with brilliant lines—some getting very pointed—to describe the stupidity we are about to see (or just saw). Sometimes the show moves into the surreal, but McHale holds it all together very well. He’s also pretty fearless; if the joke involves him dressing up in a ridiculous costume or calling out a celebrity for stupid behavior, he’ll do it. The show itself has become a bit of a continuing story; clips or lines said in one episode may rear their heads again later to continue another clip or joke. Regular viewers will see a sort of progression in a few jokes.
Chelsea Lately is a bit less structured around reality shows and more toward the people we’re being told are “hot” now, whether they’re actors, musicians, or any other idiot the entertainment news is focusing on. Being a late night show, it can get a little raw—and that’s perfect for the absolute stupidity the show comments on every night. Chelsea Handler has an honesty about her that is refreshing in the “entertainment news” business. If she thinks someone or something is stupid, she says it. No ass-kissing there. And it helps that she is very funny.
Reality TV has gone from decent early seasons of The Real World, The Osbournes, Survivor and Amazing Race to pure shit like The Cougar and Keeping up With the Kardassians. Shows used to start out well and then go downhill, but now nearly all start out as crap and stay there.
With all that being said, I am the absolute right person to watch The Soup and Chelsea Lately. Even though they’re on an otherwise useless network, they somehow are able to make fun of the crap on the rest of the network—or what the rest of the network reports on.
On The Soup, we get funny clips made all the more funny by host Joel McHale. McHale (and his writing staff) come up with brilliant lines—some getting very pointed—to describe the stupidity we are about to see (or just saw). Sometimes the show moves into the surreal, but McHale holds it all together very well. He’s also pretty fearless; if the joke involves him dressing up in a ridiculous costume or calling out a celebrity for stupid behavior, he’ll do it. The show itself has become a bit of a continuing story; clips or lines said in one episode may rear their heads again later to continue another clip or joke. Regular viewers will see a sort of progression in a few jokes.
Chelsea Lately is a bit less structured around reality shows and more toward the people we’re being told are “hot” now, whether they’re actors, musicians, or any other idiot the entertainment news is focusing on. Being a late night show, it can get a little raw—and that’s perfect for the absolute stupidity the show comments on every night. Chelsea Handler has an honesty about her that is refreshing in the “entertainment news” business. If she thinks someone or something is stupid, she says it. No ass-kissing there. And it helps that she is very funny.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #4
3. How I Met Your Mother— I’ve talked this show up as long as I’ve done this blog, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise this show continues to be a Top Ten show for me. There is no network show I can think of that surprises me as much as this one does on a weekly basis. The cast continues to grow in talent every year, and situations allow them to mix it up a little (such as when they “wrote out” Alyson Hannigan for a few episodes while she had her baby) and not affect the dynamic of the show. And the show still introduces a Seinfeld-ian number of made-up words/definitions, all while telling very poignant tales.
There is also even more of a feeling of “destiny” for the show this year. The premise was and still is: a man in 2030 is telling his children how he met their mother. So the story is often told within the context of what happens next. You may think he could be able to get to the end of the story within the time it took to tell 4 seasons worth of stories, but the show has also always been about the choices one makes, and how they can affect your life. “Future Ted” (who we never see) is telling his children about the events that led to the meeting of their mother; how this relationship or that breakup or the other job got him to the place that had him intersect with his wife’s life. This fourth season was especially working to prove that point because Future Ted made a few mentions about how doing A and then B and avoiding C got him to the end point D.
I don’t believe in destiny or fate or any of that, but I know very well how a single choice can put you on a path you didn’t expect. I could, literally, tell my own kids about how I met their mother, and just the night I did meet her involved about three choices I normally wouldn’t have made that put me in the same place she was that night.
What I find especially interesting or different about the show from others is that Future Ted also includes the wisdom one has from being able to see the big picture that one can’t see while in the moment. Shows that tell the stories in the present don’t have that omniscience to them because we don’t have the comfort of knowing what happened next until it happens to the characters. But in this show, say when Ted has his heart broken, he can say (after years have passed) that it was okay and that things just didn’t work out; in fact, they worked out even better. The creators say Future Ted is an unreliable narrator, but the fact is that the hindsight, even if it’s not exactly 20/20, brings a special element to the show. There’s a maturity that everyone gains over time that really puts a fun spin on things.
So the show continues to grow and get better. And a syndication deal with Lifetime pretty much assured a fifth season (they required 110 episodes, and there have been only 88 so far), so the series could play out this season, secure it would be back in the fall. Of course, next season may be touch-and-go like the first few have been, but I think the show could end very well next year—and they are even closer to the mother, if the year’s season finale is any indication. And because they’ve already filmed the scene with the mother and the kids together, no matter what happens, they should be able to wrap the show up well by giving us the revelation they’ve promised: that we really will know how he met their mother.
There is also even more of a feeling of “destiny” for the show this year. The premise was and still is: a man in 2030 is telling his children how he met their mother. So the story is often told within the context of what happens next. You may think he could be able to get to the end of the story within the time it took to tell 4 seasons worth of stories, but the show has also always been about the choices one makes, and how they can affect your life. “Future Ted” (who we never see) is telling his children about the events that led to the meeting of their mother; how this relationship or that breakup or the other job got him to the place that had him intersect with his wife’s life. This fourth season was especially working to prove that point because Future Ted made a few mentions about how doing A and then B and avoiding C got him to the end point D.
I don’t believe in destiny or fate or any of that, but I know very well how a single choice can put you on a path you didn’t expect. I could, literally, tell my own kids about how I met their mother, and just the night I did meet her involved about three choices I normally wouldn’t have made that put me in the same place she was that night.
What I find especially interesting or different about the show from others is that Future Ted also includes the wisdom one has from being able to see the big picture that one can’t see while in the moment. Shows that tell the stories in the present don’t have that omniscience to them because we don’t have the comfort of knowing what happened next until it happens to the characters. But in this show, say when Ted has his heart broken, he can say (after years have passed) that it was okay and that things just didn’t work out; in fact, they worked out even better. The creators say Future Ted is an unreliable narrator, but the fact is that the hindsight, even if it’s not exactly 20/20, brings a special element to the show. There’s a maturity that everyone gains over time that really puts a fun spin on things.
So the show continues to grow and get better. And a syndication deal with Lifetime pretty much assured a fifth season (they required 110 episodes, and there have been only 88 so far), so the series could play out this season, secure it would be back in the fall. Of course, next season may be touch-and-go like the first few have been, but I think the show could end very well next year—and they are even closer to the mother, if the year’s season finale is any indication. And because they’ve already filmed the scene with the mother and the kids together, no matter what happens, they should be able to wrap the show up well by giving us the revelation they’ve promised: that we really will know how he met their mother.
Monday, June 22, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #3
3. Doctor Who (Season One)-- The Doctor has been around for decades in various incarnations, but I had next to no knowledge of the concept or the character. I guess it goes something like this: The Timelords travel through time and space and work to keep the timeline as it should be when things go awry. When a Timelord dies, he is “regenerated” in a different form (a very inspired way to allow for different actors to play what is essentially the same character). Sometime before this latest incarnation, there was a war between the Timelords and the Daleks, and The Doctor ended up destroying both the Daleks as well as his own people, the Timelords, in his last-ditch attempt to end the hostilities. The regenerated Doctor is the newest incarnation in this series.
The Doctor this series/season was played by Christopher Eccleston, and he was brilliant. Playing The Doctor is a difficult role, I would imagine. He’s seen everything and can do practically anything—and he is thousands of years old, so he should be an unflappable, “one-step-above-human” force. But he’s not. Eccleston plays The Doctor as very confident and extremely competent—but he lives with a tremendous sense of guilt for killing his own kind to destroy the Daleks. So once in a while, we see him doubting himself. That could be a true, internal, reaction to his loss—or it could be a way to get his human companions to come up with a plan. Because along with that sadness he carries, he seems to have a great joy for watching humans develop.
One of my favorite lines ever on television was uttered by the good Doctor when he mentions something fairly typical about human life, and his companion Rose said something like, “That happens all the time.” And The Doctor responds with, “Yeah! Isn’t it cool?” Right there, the whole series came into focus for me. Sometimes that’s all it takes for me: a single line or scene, and I immediately become hooked. And what’s really cool about those moments are that they are usually the small ones that do it. The joy Eccleston brought to that line was wonderful; the thing he commented on was mundane (so mundane, I can't even remember what it was), but taking a step back and putting the event into perspective, I had to agree that is was cool that those things can happen, even if it happens “all the time”.
Speaking of humans, that brings us to Rose Tyler, a teenager The Doctor saved and took a liking to enough that he invites her along for the trip. Rose is the one who brings humanity to the adventures. The Doctor is compassionate enough, but he is still pretty emotionally scarred from the Time War, and she reminds him that all life is worth preserving. Rose is a character you can instantly fall in love with—and it helps that she was played by the beautiful Billie Piper; an actress talented enough to be strong, vulnerable, gutsy, fearful and any other emotion the stories threw at her.
The two lead actors make an incredible team, and this season of the series has become one of my favorite seasons of television ever. There was a very good range of stories, from the (literal) end of the Earth, to a trip to 19th Century England, to an alien invasion in the present time, the World War II bombing of England, the distant future where television rules humanity’s lives, as well as to a very emotional trip where Rose witnesses her father’s death (she was just an infant at the time it first happened). Like all good science fiction, these stories that couldn’t happen now are able to be great metaphors for what we are experiencing in society. And like all great science fiction, we are entertained while the social commentary is buried within the plots. And like all excellent television, the acting, writing, directing, and effects all come together and become a result that is much more than the sum of all its parts.
The Doctor this series/season was played by Christopher Eccleston, and he was brilliant. Playing The Doctor is a difficult role, I would imagine. He’s seen everything and can do practically anything—and he is thousands of years old, so he should be an unflappable, “one-step-above-human” force. But he’s not. Eccleston plays The Doctor as very confident and extremely competent—but he lives with a tremendous sense of guilt for killing his own kind to destroy the Daleks. So once in a while, we see him doubting himself. That could be a true, internal, reaction to his loss—or it could be a way to get his human companions to come up with a plan. Because along with that sadness he carries, he seems to have a great joy for watching humans develop.
One of my favorite lines ever on television was uttered by the good Doctor when he mentions something fairly typical about human life, and his companion Rose said something like, “That happens all the time.” And The Doctor responds with, “Yeah! Isn’t it cool?” Right there, the whole series came into focus for me. Sometimes that’s all it takes for me: a single line or scene, and I immediately become hooked. And what’s really cool about those moments are that they are usually the small ones that do it. The joy Eccleston brought to that line was wonderful; the thing he commented on was mundane (so mundane, I can't even remember what it was), but taking a step back and putting the event into perspective, I had to agree that is was cool that those things can happen, even if it happens “all the time”.
Speaking of humans, that brings us to Rose Tyler, a teenager The Doctor saved and took a liking to enough that he invites her along for the trip. Rose is the one who brings humanity to the adventures. The Doctor is compassionate enough, but he is still pretty emotionally scarred from the Time War, and she reminds him that all life is worth preserving. Rose is a character you can instantly fall in love with—and it helps that she was played by the beautiful Billie Piper; an actress talented enough to be strong, vulnerable, gutsy, fearful and any other emotion the stories threw at her.
The two lead actors make an incredible team, and this season of the series has become one of my favorite seasons of television ever. There was a very good range of stories, from the (literal) end of the Earth, to a trip to 19th Century England, to an alien invasion in the present time, the World War II bombing of England, the distant future where television rules humanity’s lives, as well as to a very emotional trip where Rose witnesses her father’s death (she was just an infant at the time it first happened). Like all good science fiction, these stories that couldn’t happen now are able to be great metaphors for what we are experiencing in society. And like all great science fiction, we are entertained while the social commentary is buried within the plots. And like all excellent television, the acting, writing, directing, and effects all come together and become a result that is much more than the sum of all its parts.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
2008-2009 TV Top Ten #1 & 2
Here we go, in no particular order.
And you may say it's unfair to include shows not "new" from June 2008-May-2009, but they need a shout-out. I saw some fantastic TV these past 12 months. New or not, they deserve recognition.
And I do apologize if I get off-track on these little write-ups. I had a lot to say and not much time. Just know that each of these ten shows are worth searching for.
1 & 2. These two shows kind of slipped into my DVR scheduler on a lark—and I ended up loving them. First is The Middleman, the show ABC Family aired and then decided to go in a different direction (mainly continuing to base shows around teenage girls). The Middleman (that’s his name—no other was given) is a secret agent-type that deals with unexplainable phenomena such as aliens and ghosts and other Men in Black/X-Files stuff. His mission is to stop whatever evil is going down and cover it up, so no one figures out what’s really happening.
But he’s not always successful on hiding his mission. Enter Wendy Watson, who The Middleman saved from a giant monster that threatened her life at her temp job. T.M. liked her abilities enough to make her a member of the Middlemen, and the two formed a partnership and, together, they solved the cases and saved the world he used to do alone.
What was fun about The Middleman was that the budget was pretty low, so they had to be extra-creative with the effects—and what they ultimately showed on camera. Some of the things looked a bit cheap, but they managed to have charm. Also, the humor was great on the show. And it was fun to see Wendy’s roommate Lacey fall for The Middleman—even though he is all about the job. There were a number of very sweet moments as he tried to let her down easy.
Boo to ABC Family for letting this show go.
The second show in this part is Lawrence of America. I don’t even know how I ended up watching it (it aired on the Travel Channel; not one I usually watch), but I’m glad I did. The premise is very simple: Englishman Lawrence Beldon-Smythe travels to various parts of America to discover the culture of the people. He learned about State Fairs, car racing, Civil War re-enactments, country music, winter Olympic athletes, and many other things in his travels—and each episode was funnier than the last.
You might wonder why a travel show would be interesting to someone with very limited time to watch all sorts of other television, and the answer is: because Beldon-Smythe tried a different approach to his storytelling. Instead of doing the much more standard (and overdone) approach of aiming a camera at something and shooting—or getting involved in the situations-- he acted as if everything he was seeing was incredibly foreign to him. Sure, America has its quirks that other countries don’t understand, but Beldon-Smythe pretended he was discovering a lost jungle tribe. It was all complemented by his choice of attire: beige khaki pants, a neutral-colored shirt—and the pocketed tan vest that every television war correspondent has to wear.
Lawrence always had his tongue in his cheek, but he never put down his subjects. Usually, he was the one getting into the silly situations when he attempted something he had been watching. My favorite episode was when he visited Nashville, and he met a country singer he developed a huge crush on. He couldn’t make his move, so he “lost her”. And then he decided to do what many country singers do when they lose a love: write a country song. It was good stuff—and very funny.
In fact, here’s a little part from a blog post about the episode he wrote:
So, this is the blog I’ve been dreading to write because this episode, filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, shows me at my most vulnerable, and possibly unprofessional. The global correspondent’s code of ethics makes it quite clear a reporter of my stature should never get romantically involved with a subject being investigated. No, I’m sorry, I just re-read the sacred cocktail napkin, and it says one should never let the audience know you’re romantically involved with a subject. Even though Rebecca Lynn Howard and I were never actually romantically involved, I still feel I let my truth guard down. I’ll admit, I was caught under her spell of loveliness. Her beautiful hair, her adorably southern accent, her tempting bosom all distracted me. Mostly the tempting bosom … but her hair was nice.
It doesn’t look like the show is coming back, and that’s a real shame. I may have to find some clips and post them. It’s been close to a year since I last watched it, but writing this bit about it has me missing the show all over again.
And you may say it's unfair to include shows not "new" from June 2008-May-2009, but they need a shout-out. I saw some fantastic TV these past 12 months. New or not, they deserve recognition.
And I do apologize if I get off-track on these little write-ups. I had a lot to say and not much time. Just know that each of these ten shows are worth searching for.
1 & 2. These two shows kind of slipped into my DVR scheduler on a lark—and I ended up loving them. First is The Middleman, the show ABC Family aired and then decided to go in a different direction (mainly continuing to base shows around teenage girls). The Middleman (that’s his name—no other was given) is a secret agent-type that deals with unexplainable phenomena such as aliens and ghosts and other Men in Black/X-Files stuff. His mission is to stop whatever evil is going down and cover it up, so no one figures out what’s really happening.
But he’s not always successful on hiding his mission. Enter Wendy Watson, who The Middleman saved from a giant monster that threatened her life at her temp job. T.M. liked her abilities enough to make her a member of the Middlemen, and the two formed a partnership and, together, they solved the cases and saved the world he used to do alone.
What was fun about The Middleman was that the budget was pretty low, so they had to be extra-creative with the effects—and what they ultimately showed on camera. Some of the things looked a bit cheap, but they managed to have charm. Also, the humor was great on the show. And it was fun to see Wendy’s roommate Lacey fall for The Middleman—even though he is all about the job. There were a number of very sweet moments as he tried to let her down easy.
Boo to ABC Family for letting this show go.
The second show in this part is Lawrence of America. I don’t even know how I ended up watching it (it aired on the Travel Channel; not one I usually watch), but I’m glad I did. The premise is very simple: Englishman Lawrence Beldon-Smythe travels to various parts of America to discover the culture of the people. He learned about State Fairs, car racing, Civil War re-enactments, country music, winter Olympic athletes, and many other things in his travels—and each episode was funnier than the last.
You might wonder why a travel show would be interesting to someone with very limited time to watch all sorts of other television, and the answer is: because Beldon-Smythe tried a different approach to his storytelling. Instead of doing the much more standard (and overdone) approach of aiming a camera at something and shooting—or getting involved in the situations-- he acted as if everything he was seeing was incredibly foreign to him. Sure, America has its quirks that other countries don’t understand, but Beldon-Smythe pretended he was discovering a lost jungle tribe. It was all complemented by his choice of attire: beige khaki pants, a neutral-colored shirt—and the pocketed tan vest that every television war correspondent has to wear.
Lawrence always had his tongue in his cheek, but he never put down his subjects. Usually, he was the one getting into the silly situations when he attempted something he had been watching. My favorite episode was when he visited Nashville, and he met a country singer he developed a huge crush on. He couldn’t make his move, so he “lost her”. And then he decided to do what many country singers do when they lose a love: write a country song. It was good stuff—and very funny.
In fact, here’s a little part from a blog post about the episode he wrote:
So, this is the blog I’ve been dreading to write because this episode, filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, shows me at my most vulnerable, and possibly unprofessional. The global correspondent’s code of ethics makes it quite clear a reporter of my stature should never get romantically involved with a subject being investigated. No, I’m sorry, I just re-read the sacred cocktail napkin, and it says one should never let the audience know you’re romantically involved with a subject. Even though Rebecca Lynn Howard and I were never actually romantically involved, I still feel I let my truth guard down. I’ll admit, I was caught under her spell of loveliness. Her beautiful hair, her adorably southern accent, her tempting bosom all distracted me. Mostly the tempting bosom … but her hair was nice.
It doesn’t look like the show is coming back, and that’s a real shame. I may have to find some clips and post them. It’s been close to a year since I last watched it, but writing this bit about it has me missing the show all over again.
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