BLUE MAG

Strike question: How is “The Soup” on?

Don Z — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:50:59 +0000

I don’t know enough about how the business of show works, so this is more of a question situation… How was “The Soup” able to put on a show on Friday night? I know that it can’t have been written in advance. How does the scab/picket line crossing thing work? If the writers are non-union, don’t they risk “never working in this business again” if they write during the strike? I confused.

I did not watch, but I am hearing from multiple sources that the show was noticeably edgier Friday night. Interesting…

NBC’s “Green Week”: Worst idea ever

Don Z — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:53:50 +0000

If NBC had any sense of dignity or proportion or anything regarding sanity it would be ashamed. This “Green Week” stuff is by far the most disgustingly and absurdly fake idea that has ever been hatched. As a television network, NBC exists entirely to waste. Nothing manufactured by NBC will ever solve an environmental problem, and in fact almost everything NBC ever does (measure its success by how many people pump electricity into their TVs at the same exact moment, advertise wasteful products, buy lakes full of gasoline simply to transport props, pay to keep shows on hold during the WGA strike, pay people to act on “ER” 8 seasons after it should have been canceled) is environmentally damaging either directly or indirectly.

It is so offensive for NBC to devote a second of its programming to preaching about “all this ‘green’ crap.” Al Gore and David Schwimmer made this week’s episode of “30 Rock” almost completely unwatchable, and only the genius intervention of Ken’s very last party saved the episode. Tina Fey, you are skating on very thin ice. I kind of secretly hope that shit gets canceled during the strike.

Ugh. If “Friday Night Lights” follows suit tomorrow with the green crap I can promise you I will never watch that program again.

On a positive note, “Office” opted out of the green trope by putting Michael out in the wilderness. Overall, a pretty decent episode. The final moments between Jim and Michael were fabulous, although bittersweet — that could be the last “Office” moment for a long time.

Fall hits and misses

Don Z — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:15:44 +0000

Carpoolers

I am seriously lacking in the posting dudes and dudettes, and I’m going to try to begin getting my mojo back with…

Fall hits and misses

What shows are making the grade so far? What shows are not? I’ll tell you below in…

Fall hits and misses
Okay that was silly, even for me. Moving on.

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Current.com launched

Don Z — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:04:18 +0000

Just got an email from my good friend Albert Gore… looks like Current.com, formerly of Current.tv, has launched/relaunched. I liked Current.tv better as a URL but in general I really dig what Current is doing.

Yo, Al G… the layout is jacked in Opera 9.23… which is probably a highly used browser by your audience…

New Westerns

Fred Schroeder — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:28:46 +0000

Narrative film began with the Western. It’s a troubling genre sometimes full of explicit racism and visual poetry within the same frame. Perhaps that is why it is so quintessentially American because it is a genre full of the best and worst angels of our nature. Essentially the Western is a morality play telling modern myths of how to be civilized and behave in white and black hats. It seems fitting that the latest released forays into the genre should cut to the binary quick: two men, one good, one bad or are they? (more…)

Abso-zombi-lutely insane

Don Z — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:54:11 +0000

Remember “Babylon Fields,” the zombie pilot that didn’t make CBS’s fall lineup? Some videos from the ill-fated pilot have surfaced today courtesy of TV Week and they are frigging nuts. One of the clips has 2 male zombies discussing having sex with normals!!! It is also a crime procedural where zombies ask the main character to solve their own murders — which sounds like “Pushing Daisies.”

However weird that sounds, the clips are actually kind of boring. A more silly visual approach might have worked better.

An awesome November at Austin City Limits

Don Z — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:19:47 +0000

The new season of the venerable Austin City Limits has begun with last week’s pairing of The Decemberists and Explosions in the Sky — creators of the music behind Friday Night Lights. While my initial (i.e. 2002-2003) love of Decemberists has waned in proportion to my hatred of singer Colin Meloy’s voice. However they showcased some prog-rock stuff in this episode that was kinda interesting. (If not only because during extended Moog solos Meloy cayyyrn’t douuewe his thing on the vowarls.)

Well I just checked in on the schedule and to my amazement I see that ACL has booked Wilco on November 3 and Arcade Fire November 10. Who needs triptophan, you can Tivo those for Thanksgiving and bliss out until Christmas…

Speaking of which the anthology of all performances at ACL is a fun little catalog…

What I’m watching

Don Z — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:35:14 +0000

People are always asking me “hey Don, how comes youse watch so much TV buddy boy?” (I should stop hanging out with no good punks from the 50s.) I decided I should catalog it for easy reference for such folks. No judging.

What I’m watching (by day)

Sunday

Desperate Housewives (9pm ABC): I was looking forward to Nathan Filion but so far he’s been wasted. I have no idea why I watch this show except that it is on TV.
Brothers & Sisters (10pm ABC): Great show.

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“Friday Night Lights”: Last Days of Summer (2×1)

Don Z — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:30:10 +0000

If any show can become a hit after a move to Friday nights, it’s the fantastically written and beautifully put together “Friday Night Lights.” Simply put this is the very best network drama, probably the best in at least a decade.

The one thing that I think will be this show’s saving grace is that I really can’t see it becoming too full of itself. For one thing, it is shot on location in Austin, which must keep things in perspective and I would assume is owed much of the praise for the show’s depth. To hear the hardest working cast in show business tell it, they love this show and believe in it. Networks tend to either ignore shows or ruin them by interfering. All the “McDreamy” crap on “Grey’s Anatomy” absolutely ruined what started out as a unique and well crafted show. (I suppose ABC doesn’t deserve all the blame for that.) NBC will do their best to turn this into a “hot teen drama” or something but here’s hoping they see that they have something special here and leave it alone.

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“30 Rock”: SeinfeldVision (2×1)

Don Z — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:33:47 +0000

I would attempt to express my outrage at last night’s craptacular episode by aping Seinfeld (”What is the deal with these writers?” Eh, it never was my strong suit) but frankly I’m too disappointed to be cute. This was by far the worst episode of “30 Rock” and part of me hopes they get canceled for it. Didn’t Jerry Seinfeld used to be a funny person? He definitely sucked the funny out of the room last night. I think a little bit of me died inside.

Seriously, this was extremely disappointing. Pretty much everybody who has reviewed “30 Rock” has said that the pilot was bad and that the show improved, but at least the pilot episode made me laugh. Last night’s episode was like watching candy fall into a vat of shit. You want to be excited because it’s candy, but you can’t ignore the fact that it is coming into contact with shit. It was so bad it is actually making me angry at 10:30 in the morning the next day. I did not laugh one time. Please Tina Fey, be more funny next week.