Category Archives: TV
Not this Perkins!
A local chain of (what used to be called) coffee shops was running a commercial touting their inventive use of fresh strawberries in their various breakfast combos. I say “used to be called” because now a “coffee shop” is one of those specialized places that sells a mind-numbing variety of coffee concoctions. The places I’m talking about now call themselves “family restaurants,” which means they serve families, and you can parse that any way you like (“It’s a cookbook!”).
I have absolutely nothing against the commercial, fresh strawberries (love them, especially in champagne) or pancakes (although I prefer waffles). I’m not sure I buy into the idea there are new ways to use strawberries in breakfast dishes, but such is the commercial’s claim. (Hmmm (and Mmmm), perhaps an evidence-gathering field trip is required!)
What does amuse me about the commercial, though, is the misfired mother.
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8 Comments | tags: commercials, conflict, Harry Nilsson, Mother Earth, Mother of Invention, Perkins, strawberries | posted in Brain Bubble, Rant, TV
It’s been quite a while since the last Brain Bubbles. What can I say, work has been sucking the bubbly out of me these last months. It’s like when all the oxygen is removed from water. No bubbles, and the fish all die. But being, in my own weird fashion, a cynical optimist (or am I a naive pessimist…I can never keep them straight), bubbles still do happen.
It’s also the end of that whole 12 days of Christmas thing. It’s now truly all over, and you can take down the decorations and toss out the tree.
It’s time to move on to the new stuff! Today’s edition of Brain Bubbles looks at some new things…
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6 Comments | tags: 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Clara, Doctor Who, elephants, helicopter, Janus, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Las Vegas, Paris, Picture Paris, sculpture | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies, TV
I stayed up later than I should checking out NBC’s new comedy, Go On. I meant to just watch the first episode to see what it was like, but I enjoyed it so much I had to stay up and watch all five episodes available on OnDemand.
Actually, there were six episodes available, but the sixth was still in the 30-minute “all the commercials” mode. And since NBC has joined with others that disable the fast forward in OnDemand [spit, a pox on your house], I’ll hold off until they put up the shorter version with only the NBC promos and PSAs. Those versions are 22-minutes (or 23 or 24 tops), which means eight minutes of commercials I don’t have to ignore.
So NBC can kiss my big hairy ass when it comes to commercials, but I think they have a real gem in Go On!
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21 Comments | tags: comedy, Go On, John Cho, Julie White, Laura Benanti, Matthew Perry, NBC, The Whole Nine Yards | posted in TV
This is the first of a series of articles that discuss something I believe is unique to humans. In fact, I think it’s one of the few things we can point to that does differentiate us from the animal kingdom. And it is something that goes deep into our past. It is our ability to use language to create and tell complex stories.
It is also one of my favorite topics. If you’ve read many of my posts, particularly those about movies and TV, you’ve seen me write about my love of stories.
There is an interesting continuum of storytelling modes. Books lie at one end, movies at the other. Plays and TV lie between. The continuum describes — in part — the experience of the audience. Here’s the deal…
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1 Comment | tags: graphic novels, plays, poetry, stories, storytelling, television, theatre | posted in Basics, Movies, Philosophy, TV
Between the new position at The Company, the end of another disappointing baseball season for the Twins and the fun I’ve had blogging, I completely missed that the TV Fall Season had begun!
So last night I sat down to catch up on the first new season episodes of my usual programs (CSI, CSI:NY, NCIS: Los Angeles & NCIS). Those are basically listed in reverse order of my regard for them with the exception that I think NCIS: Los Angeles is a silly ass show mainly saved by the graces of Linda Hunt. I mostly started watching it because, hey, it’s an NCIS show, and I loved JAG, and I love NCIS. Now I’m a bit caught up in the characters, so it’s hard to look away.
But I gotta tell ya. If the season premiere of NCIS represents the quality of writing (as in total lack thereof) for the season, the love affair is over. And, as with any jilted, betrayed lover, I’m fucking angry!
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12 Comments | tags: bad script, CSI, CSI:NY, Elizabeth Shue, Linda Hunt, Marg Helgenberger, Mark Harmon, NCIS, NCIS:Los Angeles, Northern Exposure, Richard Schiff, Rob Morrow, Ted Danson | posted in Rant, TV
When I lived in Los Angeles, the usual mode was that Friday nights were for hitting the bar with work friends to shake off the work week. Saturday nights were for parties and/or date nights.
Here in the Midwest, it seems a lot of parties are held on Friday nights (although Saturday nights are still date nights). The thing about that is: (a) I miss those after work outings, and (2) Friday night parties are often kind of low-key because everyone’s tired after a work week. Saturday night you’ve had a chance to charge your batteries, and you’re ready for what comes before Part B.
Part A!
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27 Comments | tags: Captain Picard, Darmok, Doctor Crusher, Star Trek, The Inner Light, The Naked Now, TNG, Yesterday's Enterprise | posted in TV
Star Trek fans, go to Google right now (Go Ogle)!
They’re celebrating the 46th anniversary of Star Trek, and the Google artwork is delightful and provides some fun.
Mouse over the image and click anything that lights up with a line around it!
See if you can find the tribbles!
See if you can beam down to the planet and defeat the monster!
See if you can see the Enterprise fly.
Happy 46th Anniversary Star Trek!!
[Pass it on to your Trekker friends.]
4 Comments | tags: Google+, Star Trek | posted in TV
This isn’t about the astrological sign of Leo, the Lion; it’s about television shows with LEOs in them. That is to say, Law Enforcement Officers. Cops. Heat. The Fuzz. The term covers civilian and military police, the FBI and any member of an organization charged with enforcing the law (Secret Service and Treasury agents or LEOs).
For our purposes, the term also covers lawyers and judges and others who adjudicate the law. As put by a hugely successful TV show, there are “two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.”
So here on the last day of this edition of TV Tuesday, “cop shows” are in the house! And some court room dramas! (You have the right to keep reading. If you choose to keep reading, any thoughts or memories you may have can be written down as comments and won’t be used against you.)
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5 Comments | tags: cop shows, Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, JAG, Jethro Gibbs, LEO, Leverage (TV series), Mission: Impossible, NCIS, Perry Mason, television, The Closer | posted in TV, TV Tuesday
TV Tuesday now turns to the third serious contender for All-Time Favorite television series. I’ve taken the liberty of excluding Star Trek from consideration, because it’s so integrated into my life, so big that it transcends being just a “favorite TV series.” That leaves four in the Fave Five, and in the last two days I’ve celebrated the two top contenders.
Today I celebrate the series that, until it was knocked down by the other two, was easily my favorite show ever. It’s one of the only two series I tried to fully capture to video tape back in the 1990s (before DVDs made all that effort a sad, silly waste). The other series was Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The third-place contender, formerly number one, is M*A*S*H.
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23 Comments | tags: Alan Alda, Frank Burns, Hawkeye, Loretta Swit, Margaret Houlihan, MASH, Radar O'Reilly, television | posted in TV, TV Tuesday
As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, there are two shows that vie for All-Time Favorite television series. Today’s episode of TV Tuesday is about the series that would — by just a nose — place in the race rather than win. (Tomorrow’s episode is about the show that shows. That’s the Friday Trifecta here: my television picks for win, place and show.)
And I have to say, it’s a really tough call, a photo finish. It’s quite possible that if you asked me at the right time, the order would change. In particular, if you asked me while I was in the middle of re-watching the series (which I may do this coming election season), I might be inclined to say that this horse was the winner.
The horse in question is The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin.
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2 Comments | tags: Aaron Sorkin, C.J. Cregg, Charlie Young, Jed Bartlet, Josh Lyman, Leo McGarry, television, The West Wing, Toby Ziegler | posted in TV, TV Tuesday
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