When a television show goes off the air after only one season we are left with some pretty big and unanswerable questions: Where do TV shows come from? What is their purpose while they are here on Earth? Where do they go when they get canceled?

While it might be hard to accept the loss of potential entertainment that is inevitable with the passing of a great show so soon after its incarnation, we can take solace in celebrating the life and not the death of these bright stars of the cathode ray tubes, however briefly they burned. Read the rest of this entry »

If there is one thing that gives me sour grapes, it’s to see some nincompoop get something just because of his or her famous dad. A little nepotism here and there is fine, but it should mostly be reserved for getting internships for the summer and leniency in misdemeanor drug charges. It shouldn’t be your ticket to fame.

Granted there are some people who can’t help but be affected by their father’s name. Frank Sinatra Jr., JFK Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Jr. and the likes don’t deserve our judgments. Left to their own druthers they would have probably gone off on their own paths. But having to tote around a famous dad’s name is like literally carrying your dad on your shoulders all the time. It’s as if you were playing chicken in the pool, but just on land and all the time… and with may more disapproving looks when you get drunk. God bless you poor souls.

But there are a few of them out there that really get my goat. Those kids who got to be someone they had no right being, all due to daddy’s fame. Here are a few of the more notable: Read the rest of this entry »

What makes a great dictator: Fiery rhetoric? Paranoid murder sprees? Insisting on being worshipped as a deity? Sure, all these things help, but a dictator’s real power comes from his personal style. That’s why no one is taking Iran seriously at all. Come on Ahmadinejad, are you kidding with that linen suit? Are you trying to rule a volatile Middle-Eastern country with an iron fist or are you getting ready to go clubbing in the Meatpacking District?

Here are 10 dictators who knew how to dress to the nines before performing their war crimes. And for all of my Jewish friends I am promising a Hitler free list. That guy is totes played out. Read the rest of this entry »

So the Cartoon network is launching its first real person show, “Unnatural History”. here’s the plot synopsis:

“History” is an urban adventure series centered around Henry Griffin (Schmidt), a teenager who has acquired exceptional skills by traveling the world with his anthropologist parents. He faces his biggest challenge when he moves back to theU.S. to attend a high school stranger than any place he’s lived.

Not to admit more embarassing information about myself than i need to… but isn’t that the exact same set up Lindsay Lohan had in the movie Mean Girls? That movie is super dope by the way.

Anyway, this show doesn’t sound great and it has a lot of young actors from shows I have only ever vaguely heard of (like “Greek”) and over all it makes me kind of sad. I don’t want to lose my cartoons! It’s like when MTV stopped playing music videos. You just become a worthless stretch of “Road Rules/Real World Challenge” marathons!

Sigh. The end is near.

THR

This dude is famous today for watching the series “Friends” start to finish. Well, woop-dee-shiz.

“10 Seasons, 236 episodes, 84 hours…all in 1 sitting! …

I have therefore broken the world record for ‘Non-Stop Television Watching’. The record previously stood at 72 hours! I have extended the record by just over 11 and a half hours.”

Um, no you didn’t, Dude. You may have watched a stupid TV show for three days but there are people in this world in front of a TV who have been there for going on a month right now. It takes zero effort. The less strength you have, the easier it is to keep it going! The mentally handicapped, the severely depressed, the elderly! All clocking huge amounts of TV time. That’s a lot of competition.

I’ve always been proud of my ability to watch entire seasons in a single sitting. It does give one a sense of accomplishment if not a wicked case of heartburn, but I aint giving this guy any dough.

VideoGum

The boys and girl from It’s Always Sunny and Philidelphia are taking The Nightman Cometh on the road.

From the gang’s blog, Paddy’s Pub:

Nightman is coming to New York City, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and (duh) Philadelphia. Be forewarned that tickets will likely sell out very quickly! So be at your computer tomorrow morning at 9am or try to track down presales online. You don’t want to wind up sucking some guy off in a parking lot for tickets, do you? Do you?

Charlie’s hyper-homoerotic rock opera chronicles the rise and fall of the mysterious Nightman and his battles with his mortal enemy Dayman. I think. I mean what else would it be about? The entire gang including D Devites is gonna be there along with Mary Elizabeth Ellis (The Waitress) and Artemis Pebdani (Artemis).

I am going to post this an hour earlier than I should because the tickets go on sale at 9. Go here for the ticket sales.

I found the above YouTube compilation on the show’s blog, but this one below was one I found just cruising around one day. It kind of makes me want to have sex with a German man… a German Dayman.

USA Today

“Breaking Bad” has proven to be a more serious show at every turn. Despite employing some extremely talented comedic actors, the show is no comedy. Any funny moments that do slip by are so caked in tragedy they mostly serve as a chance for the audience to start breathing again. That alone gives “Breaking Bad” the leg up and I have been a vocal proponent, not only of the show but of its superiority to “Weeds” which I decided had become placid and docile. “Breaking Bad” has dealt with consequences and morality in a much more deep, meaningful and interesting way than Weeds. That is until this last episode of “Weeds”.

I am proud to say that “Weeds” is bringing it again. I don’t know if it was the breast feeding scene between Andy and Nancy or the shocking finale which actually managed to surprise me, but I am actually interested to see where it goes from here. Granted, “Breaking Bad” is off the air and the season 2 DVDs aren’t out yet, so there really isn’t anywhere else to go for my vicarious drug dealing thrills. But until there is, “Weeds”, you got my attention back.

Tomorrow, more normal posts!

Or at least people started saying it had jumped the shark (and no I will not apologize for using that phrase, it’s awesome) Nancy had left the suburbs (she left them on fire, but still) and moved to the beach. The show had been going so well and some how the energy just wasn’t there any more. All the black people were gone and they stopped using the title sequence. Some where between seasons 3 and 5, the show just threw a lot of the pot smoker, mary louise parker masturbating viewing group for a loop. And trust me, we’re the silent majority. It was somewhere around this time that “Breaking Bad” came on the scene and jacked “Weeds”’ premise line straight up from underneath.

“Breaking Bad” took up where “Weeds” left off and just went for it. The systematic deconstruction of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White made Nancy Botwin’s fall from grace seem soft and demure. We weren’t just using gateway drugs now, we were tweaking.

Back in an hour with the exciting to conclusion in Part 4!