Sunday, September 23, 2012

SNL - "Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Mumford & Sons"


Season 38, Episode 2

For me, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (or JGL, for brevity’s sake) is an actor who just sort of…exists. It’s not that I actively dislike him, but I’ve never seen the appeal that drives so many people to swoon and whatever else it is they do at the mention of his name. (Note: This could all change if I ever get around to seeing Looper.) Will my ambivalence towards him transfer over to the show? Let’s find out.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

SNL - "Seth McFarlane/Frank Ocean"


Season 38, Episode 1

Ah, there’s nothing like a new season, fresh with potential, to renew one’s faith in Saturday Night Live. Granted, these days it feels like any small change in the show’s line-up has the audience hoping that it will return the show to the quality of the halcyon days of the 70s/mid 80s/ early 90s (take your pick). But considering that the show has now lost Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, and Abby Elliot; has replaced Fred Armisen’s Obama impression with Jay Pharoah’s; and has three new featured players, it feels as if this would be as good of a time as any for the show to mount a mass improvement. And it’s that kind of potential that gives me hope, hope that not even Seth McFarlane’s job as host could possibly crush.

Right?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Fall 2012 Review Schedule


Things are going to be light this semester – or at least for the first half of it – as I am busy working on my thesis and that will take up a lot of my time and energy. Again, this list is tentative, and will change based on my school schedule and interest.

Mondays
How I Met Your Mother – CBS, September 24th

Tuesdays
Happy Endings – ABC, October 23rd

Wednesdays
The Hour – BBC America, November

Thursdays
Parks and Recreation – NBC, September 20th

Fridays
Community – NBC, October 19th
Fringe – FOX, September 29th

Saturdays
Doctor Who – BBC America, Ongoing
Saturday Night Live – NBC, September 15th

*Drop-ins planned for: Glee, The Office, Modern Family, Sons of Anarchy, and The Walking Dead, based on time availability.

NBC's The New Normal


The pilot episode of The New Normal airs tonight at 10/9c, and the show resumes its normal slot Tuesday at 9:30/8:30c.

Over the years, and especially with three hit shows in the past decade (Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story), Ryan Murphy and his shows have developed something of a reputation. While they tend to be crowd pleasers, at least for their first few years of life, they also tend to grow into being sloppy, incoherent narrative messes, something that was made abundantly clear with AHS, which often felt like it was the show’s third or fourth go-around, not its first. Watching The New Normal, it’s clear that it’s a Ryan Murphy show, but – at least here at the beginning – it’s not because of the pilot’s narrative abilities. Rather, it’s because it displays that secondary Murphy trait – offensiveness in the face of a supposed strive for progressiveness.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Doctor Who - "Asylum of the Daleks"


Season 7, Episode 1

“Well, this is new.”

This is, by Steven Moffat’s own admission, supposed to be a “big” season for Doctor Who, one that plays down the serialization that became so frustrating at the end of last season and instead gives us lots of “blockbuster” type hours instead. And how does one go ahead and kick of such a season? By bringing back the Daleks, of course.