If you’re not watching ‘Community’ you should be

 Posted by on 9 March 2010  Modern Life
Mar 092010
 

Amy has been watching a new NBC show called “Community” for the past little while, online, and she finally agreed to start from the start with me, and let me catch up.

It is ridiculously funny. Most of it is silly humour, but there are a staggering amount of pop-culture references. And, fair warning, it’s a modern sitcom, so it’s borderline offensive, but it’s so sweetly done that it’s completely inoffensive in the end. Actually, each character is offensive in a specific way, which all the other characters call him or her out for, while each being offensive in their own ways. It’s like an offensive, hilarious merry-go-round.

Check out this clip, which ecapsulates my argument:

Of course, you can’t get the full flavour of the show in just one clip, so definitely try to catch it, um, on network television? Geez, I can’t believe I just typed that — why don’t you just send a Pony Express telegraph requesting the daguerreotype?

I watch most of my TV on this new station called “Bit Torrent.” Or I buy the DVDs.

How to do television news

 Posted by on 29 January 2010  Modern Life
Jan 292010
 

I find Charlie Booker’s column in the Guardian to be somewhat hit-or-miss, but this send-up of television news reports is full-on hit. (Well, it’s maybe a little long — but so are most television news reports.)

It reminds me of a news story I read in the (I think) New York Times a few years ago, which did the same thing, but in text. Just try Googling it, though. I can’t find it for the life of me.

Cracking the ‘Fringe’ code

 Posted by on 17 January 2010  Everything Else
Jan 172010
 

Amy and I got the first-season DVDs for Fringe for Christmas and we’ve been working our way through all the episodes.

Like Mad Men (which we’re also watching on DVD), Fringe is a show where we can watch the opening credits every episode — they’re short, they’re entertaining, and we like the theme music. They also aren’t made up of clips from other episodes.

In our opinion, that’s one of the marks of a quality show.

One of the other things I’ve appreciated about Fringe on DVD is that is has glyphs that appear when the commercial breaks would have been, when it was broadcast. Frankly, I’m glad to not have to fast-forward or mute the TV during actual commercials, but the breaks do provide an important dramatic structure to many shows, and I’m glad that Fringe had a way to preserve that.

Now I find out that the glyphs are actually a code! Cool!

There’s plenty of work being done online to crack the code (it’s not hard, but it’s not obvious). Here’s a cheat sheet:

Note that each glyph has a mirror image, and there are several possibilities for the location of the glowing yellow dot that accompanies it. Not every letter in the alphabet has been used yet.

Cool!

(Thanks to Mike at Atomic Robot)

Great new television sitcom made me real-life LOL

 Posted by on 10 January 2010  Modern Life
Jan 102010
 

Cross your fingers for this pilot episode to turn into a full new television comedy series.

I made the mistake of starting to watch this at work — but had to bite my knuckles to stop myself from laughing out loud. Shot as a one-off for a Comedy Showcase in the UK, “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” reunites “Arrested Development’ stars Will Arnett and David Cross in a show about an American executive mistakenly sent to England to sell energy drinks.

It’s a fish-out-of-water scenario, but taken to hilarious extremes. And Spike Jonze is in it, too!

Here, in three parts, is the full ep:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Many thanks to lonerboner for posting them to YouTube.

‘Slingers’ — A sci-fi heist show for television, in pre-production

 Posted by on 8 December 2009  Modern Life
Dec 082009
 

If you liked “Firefly” and you liked “Oceans Eleven” then have I got a slick new show for you.

Well, actually I don’t. Because the show I’m about to show you doesn’t yet exist. This is what’s called a “sizzler”. It’s like a trailer for a pilot — a promo video for something that doesn’t yet exist, just to build up enough support and desire so that, someday, it will exist.

Check out “Slingers”:

It kind of reminds me of the scene in Pulp Fiction:

Jules: You know the shows on TV?
Vincent: I don’t watch TV.
Jules: Yeah, but, you are aware that there’s an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right? Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That show’s called a pilot. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they’re going to make more shows. Some pilots get picked and become television programs. Some don’t, become nothing.

‘Slingers’ is a show that’s not even a pilot yet. But it’s still got a trailer. Here’s a blog that’s tracking it’s development.

I like that. I like that because it sounds like there is a dedicated group of people really rooting for this show. And yes,  I like the show, and it looks cool, but even if I didn’t, I like the idea of people pulling together to make a pilot, and relying (partially) on the kindness of Internet strangers to root them on and support them.

(via Warren Ellis)

‘V’ reboot looks extremely promising. Starts Tuesday!

 Posted by on 2 November 2009  Modern Life
Nov 022009
 

Please, please, please, please, please be awesome. I loved the original.

Pros: Killer special effects, plus the pilot reunites Firefly alums Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk. Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell can’t hurt, either. Also, the music in this trailer reminds me of the Dr. Who theme.

Cons: Looks dangerously close to overproduced. Also, the original was based on “It Can’t Happen Here” and the Visitors were templated on Nazi imagery, kind of the ne plus ultra of baddies. In the current reboot, it looks like generic corporate-types are the satiric target.

Hey, TV haters — the ‘idiot box’ will actually save the world

 Posted by on 20 October 2009  Modern Life
Oct 202009
 

A great discussion broke out in the comments under my post about Balloon Boy (credit to Mike Waddell for elevating the level of discourse in such a capable manner). The emerging consensus seemed to be that television was a net negative to civil society.

Well, here’s some grist for the mill: Foreign Policy asserts that TV is a “transformative power for good.”

I’m dramatically oversimplifying, and I urge you to read the article in full, but it boils down to these essential points:

  1. People at home watching the boob tube are not out being criminal, violent, jihadists or otherwise insurrecting.
  2. Television lowers the birth rate (through either education or exhaustion) and lower birth rates tend to increase gender equity, and education/opportunities for girls and women.
  3. Audio/video is an unparalleled way to get important public health and public service messages out to low-literacy populations.
  4. The Western world’s cultural dominance means, along with the crappy reality TV, we also export the values that are embedded in our entertainment as basic assumptions. These would be the truths that our culture holds as self-evident — democratic, tolerant truths.

I’ve read previously that some violent movies and video games may serve to actually reduce the crime rate — because people who would tend to get off on crime are too busy getting off on Grand Theft Auto to bother to go out and steal a car. So negative culture can have a positive effect.

I’m curious what people make of this assertion about TV — that, despite its many failings, it is overall a positive force, especially in the developing world.

40 years of ‘Sesame Street’ — watch the original concept

 Posted by on 26 September 2009  Vintage/Retro
Sep 262009
 

I remember growing up on Sesame Street — as I’m sure many other people did. I mean, it hit hard when Mr. Hooper suddenly wasn’t there, and the show had to explain his death. But even though I grew to know that it was a show designed to be “educational” for kids, I also found it entertaining — even now, I get more than a nostalgic pleasure from it. Many of the bits are clever and fun.

Of course, it jumped the shark a bit when Snufflleupagus suddenly became visible by everyone, and not just Big Bird, but I’ll forgive them that.

This original video — part one of three (here’s two, here’s three) — shows some of the thought that went into the whole concept, which must have been revolutionary at the time. Education television? For kids? Here’s the money quote:

“We want to emphasize that the Children’s Television Workshop is an experiment. Research is woven into the total fabric of the show … by the time our program goes on the air, it will be the most thoroughly researched show in the history of the medium.”

Even in this original bit, you can see the foundation of the show is fully realized. There’s bits with muppets, interspersed with “real-life” urban clips — and a heck of a lot of multiculturalism.

(via Coudal)

10 years ago today: Massive explosion on the Moon rips it out of Earth’s orbit

 Posted by on 13 September 2009  Vintage/Retro
Sep 132009
 

The late-70s British sci-fi television show, “Space:1999” followed the crew of Moonbase Alpha. On Sept. 13, 1999, a massive nuclear explosion on the far side of the Moon knocked it out of Earth’s orbit and sent the moonbase crew hurtling through space, stranded on the barren rock. Ignoring all science, they managed to visit tons of planets, meet loads of aliens, and have many adventures.

And it all started a decade ago. Good times.

Meanwhile, in real life, we’re still arguing about whether or not we can scrape together a few pennies to actually return to the moon. Sigh.

(via Fark)

We need more commercials like this

 Posted by on 4 July 2009  Vintage/Retro
Jul 042009
 

I used to love this ad. I love the non-threatening way they present what could be a scary message. I’d like to see more stuff like this — and not just for kids, but for people of all ages.

Critical thinking should be required curriculum in all schools. In an era where we are presented with too much information and too little context, critical thinking is a more important skill than rote memorization.

Ideas for Jon & Kate

 Posted by on 23 June 2009  Modern Life
Jun 232009
 

Obviously, I’m not a reality show watcher. At least, I hope it’s obvious. But you can’t escape the media madness about “Jon and Kate Plus 8″ — the original octoparents.

Now the news has hit that they’re getting divorced. Big surprise.

Actor Ryan Reynolds, though, has an idea to save the franchise:

“I wanna see ‘Jon & Kate Plus Eight: The Musical,’” he says. “Jon versus Kate. I wanna see four kids on one side and for kids on the other, snapping menacingly to music as they walk toward one another.”

Not bad, Mr. Reynolds. My own idea is to tune in next season when both Jon and Kate have met new significant others. We can call it “Jon and Kate Plus 8 Plus 2.”

AT&T cheated — yet another reason not to watch American Idol

 Posted by on 27 May 2009  Modern Life
May 272009
 

I quickly grew sick of the manufactured talent shows that have taken over TV. They make reality shows look like the good ol’ days. This is yet another reason to tune them out and hope they go away:

NYTimes: “AT&T May Have Swayed ‘Idol’ Results”

Representatives of AT&T helped fans of [eventual winner Kris] Allen at the two Arkansas events by providing instructions on how to send 10 or more text messages at the press of a single button, known as power texts. Power texts have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the show’s toll-free phone lines.

The article also notes that AT&T reps handed out free cell phones to Allen fans and offered no such services to fans of runner-up Adam Lambert.

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