We called Louis C.K. a genius in our last post reminding you of his series' second season, and after watching last night's episode "Pregnant" we reaffirm our assessment. Louie is a series utterly without peer -- no, actually, I would put the most profoundly affecting episodes of Ricky Gervais' series The Office (the original British version) and Extras in the same league, and a few other things. Louie makes other half-hour comedy series, even the less-traditional ones from HBO (Hung, Entourage) or Showtime (Nurse Jackie, The Big C), seem like they're missing something. They are -- they're missing Louis C.K., whose skill, openness, truth, and guilelessness as a performer takes his work in Louie to a level that's simply astounding.
It's hard to imagine anyone -- except Gervais, who happens to be a friend of LCK, no surprise there -- able to take the exquisite pain of being a human being and turn it into an entertainment that manages to be simultaneously -- or in sequence sometimes -- hilarious, shocking and brutal, unblinkingly honest, and tremendously affecting. Watching last night's episode of Louie pushes you through a journey that will genuinely bring tears to your eyes -- and not in some bullshit way -- as well as offering up scatalogical glee, comedic zingers, and some of the best acting that you're going to see, anywhere. From his scenes doing stand-up, then to the great kitchen action as LCK handily and fascinatingly prepares a fabulous-looking dinner for his two young daughters (the youngest of whom delivered an earlier stark assessment of their family life to him), and on to those with Rusty Schwimmer playing his very pregnant sister, to the genuinely tense medical emergency moments where he meets his neighbors, and beyond -- last night's episode was incredible. No other word for it.
There's nothing like Louie. It's the most astounding half-hour comedy out there, but we really need to invent another term for this hybrid program type. It's even beyond the brilliant ensemble work of a show like Nurse Jackie, which is hardly ordinary yet actually pales in comparison with Louis C.K.'s vision in Louie. This series is testament to LCK's brilliance as a writer and as a performer, along with his undeniable skills as director and editor, two more positions he fills on Louie. Like Gervais, he's got a perfect ear for life's absurdities as well as its sublime satisfactions, including last night's ruminations on family, friendship, and the need for connections.
Not for everybody, not even close -- don't watch if you don't like profanity perfectly delivered -- but truly unforgettable. How can something this good be on television? Kudos to FX for getting behind this wonderful series and for helping bring Louie into the world. And the most profound thanks and gratitude to Louis C.K. for going that extra step where few performers ever dare tread, primarily because most others wouldn't know what to say once they were truly out there. Louis C.K. does. He knows exactly what to say, and you'll be missing so much if you don't watch and listen.
Visit FX's terrific Louie site (with lots of interesting extras) for more info and the schedule, though I can only find airtimes on Thursday nights, starting at 10:30p with several encores later.
You know we love him here -- the amazing Louis C.K. -- and we also love that the second season of his hilariously morose, absurd, moving and superb half-hour series Louie starts tonight at 10:30pm on FX Network. Like a lot of LCK's comedy, Louie is strange and complex, with an off-center sensibility that is utterly winning and completely mesmerizing.
We highly recommend that you tune into this very unique half hour of TV. We can't completely guarantee that you'll like it, of course -- sense of humor is such a personal value that maybe Louis C.K. won't tickle your particular funnybone -- but we do assure you that you will be seeing a genius in action.
The magnificent Game of Thrones has ended its first season, after 10 one hour episodes that passed at the speed of light. Not since The Sopranos and Six Feet Under left HBO forever have I felt such a gaping void. At least those two series were well established when they started to kill off major characters (Chris-toe-fuh anybody...my beloved Nate Fisher on 6 Feet?). Not so with the riveting, nail biting, insomnia inducing Game of Thrones. They wiped out the level headed (and now be-headed) leader Ned Stark as well as the hunky Khal Drogo, leader of the horse tribe. The latter met his untimely end at the hand of his lovely "Moon and Stars" mate, Daenerys (above) who merci-killed him with a pillow after he became a brain dead Zombie from the evil ministrations of a tribal witch. The smirking wicked witch got her comeuppance (yay) in the last five minutes of the last night's program...tied to the Khal's blazing funeral pyre just before Daenery's walked herself into the flames. I thought that was the end of our fair haired Khallisa, I really did. Although I quite expected the Dragon Eggs to hatch, I never dreamed that the Dragon Queen would rise Phoenix-like from the ashes. And with three of the cutest CGI baby dragons perched all over her naked, soot stained body. I defy any series on television to have a more astonishing ending. A billion times better than the cop-out on AMC's The Killing. I faithfully watched every episode of that rain-drenched, dreary, depressing crime show only to find out that they weren't going to solve the crime until NEXT season. Not cute. And it really pissed off a lot of folks online, I saw some scorching comments about it on Entertainment Weekly.com.
And now, because I'm already feeling sad Game of Thrones withdrawal symptoms and will probably need some sort of support group to make it a whole year until Season Two...I shall list my top five favorite characters. This is not an easy compilation. There are dozens of great characters in this series.
Tyrion Lannister: He's handsome, he's witty, he's quite the ladies man. Nobody cares that he's a dwarf except for his mean old Dad, and even the Lannister patriarch admitted in last night's episode that Tyrion is one smart cookie. He's been appointed the "Hand" of Kings Landing, and he doesn't look too thrilled with the news. It will probably involve reduced wine consumption. I sense an Emmy nomination for Peter Dinklage with this role!
Arya Stark: From the very first episode, Arya was established as one of the bravest warriors. She won't back down, she'll take no prisoners, and she's all of 11 years old and probably 70 pounds soaking wet. She has already killed one fat bratty pervert and she almost killed another in the season finale. When last seen, Arya was headed "north" disguised as a boy, after witnessing her beloved father's brutal demise.
Jon Snow:He's got a chip on his shoulder because he's a "bastard" and doesn't share the Stark family name. Darkly handsome in a sullen sort of way, he seems like the kind of loyal chap who you'd always want on your side in any big brawl. Frankly, if he teamed with his young half-sister Arya, they'd be a formidable force. But he's stuck defending the "wall", in a perpetual frozen purgatory. I think they need cable television at the "wall", man that's a boring job.
Daenerys and her Dragons: She can eat a raw horse heart without throwing up. She is a natural born leader. She looks like a Christmas Tree angel, but does not tremble before the fiercest enemy. And of course now she is a mom to triplet Dragon babies. Please, please let her get to ride them when they grow bigger!
Jaime Lannister: Yeah, he's a bad guy. He's bad to the bone, no doubt about it. But he's not nearly as evil as his sister-wife (not in the Mormon Way) Cersei and he's Mother Theresa compared to his pointy headed psychopath son Joffrey. How long before Sansa Stark takes an ice pick to her creepy betrothed? I'm sorry that I'm fascinated by Jaime. He looks like a young Denis Leary, especially before he gets his face bashed in by a brick wielding Lady Stark. Why on earth wouldn't she send his head home on a pike? Guess we'll have to wait until next season to find out. I think Bran Stark didn't die so that we don't have to completely hate Jaime. There may be redemption in store for this Lannister.
Things to do while waiting a whole year for the next season:
Read the Song of Fire and Ice books on which GOT was based (George R.R. Martin)
Watch all the repeats over and over on HBO On Demand
Build a baby dragon sculpture out of Play-doh on the kitchen table
See if there are any Game of Thrones discussion groups to join in Silicon Valley so I can hang with those folks who are equally bereft now that it's over. Puh-leez, with all the nerds in this area, there must be a meet up group, or possibly even a theme restaurant by now.
Any other Game of Thrones Mega-Fans out there, please let me know. We have to support each other...the long winter is coming!
In case you do not know her name, it's Lisa Mateas.
She's one of the progenitors of THE FLAMING NOSE, but she is SO SO much more than that. I won't go on and on about her achievements. This would embarrass her. Still, I will say she's been a champion of TV for a long time. She's been in there, punching for fandom and for pure love of television so much that, if I told you all how much she's done, you'd be sending her copious e-mails in complete thanks. This is easy to say, but, believe me, you would be sending those e-mails (the Babylon 5 people alone would be turning out full force)!
I met Lisa in 1994, when I was applying for the job of Programming Coordinator at Turner Network Television, where she was the network's longtime Vice-President (and, thus, a progenitor of both Turner Network Television and Turner Classic Movies). I showed up on time, and I got the job, and I knew it immediately because both she and her cohort, Phil Oppenheim, acted like they had just won the lottery after they had met me. How many people can say THAT about people they've interviewed with? To work with Lisa and Phil was like working for the Wright Brothers: they knew it all, and I never questioned it. The astronomical plus was that these two were vastly funnier and more joyous that the Wright Brothers probably ever were. They were, for me, the king bosses of all time. If you can imagine your managers spending time blackening in the shiny white teeth belonging to celebrities on the covers on TV Guide while STILL remaining the smartest people in the building, then you'll know what I mean. Can't imagine it? No? Thank you. It was a one-of-a-kind job.
I was, I thought, strictly a movie guy when I met Lisa. But she saw something else in me. And she made me realize that TV was just as close to my soul as the movies were. It took me a while to understand this, but it happened. Now, I get the difference, and the nuances, that separate the mediums. And I have to say: after meeting Lisa (and Phil), my love of TV and movies are running neck-and-neck. In fact, I don't think one can exist without the other.
My tribute to Lisa was going to be, originally, a series of posts on Facebook. But I thought that was much more ephemeral than I could stand.
Lisa and I are still kindred spirits; we played VIDEO GAMES together, for God's sake. Even though we now live far apart, I will always carry her with me in my heart. And, clearly, this is the case with her, too; she is still always keeping up with my doings on FILMICABILITY, and constantly comments--in complete, loving, and authentic allegiance--on my articles. She has said, and Ibelieve, that she is my #1 fan. And so, as HER #1 fan, I offer a single article in tribute to her wisdom and magnificence.
Even so, I respect her privacy. But I still feel I have to say how much I love her. And so I'll do it through television--her FIRST and TRUEST love. I think she'll groove on this.
So now I offer, for my dearest friend, a tribute through television. The following top ten clips--even though we may not have talked about them ALL straightforwardly--are still each sublime TV moments that will make me, forever, undoubtedly recall Lisa Mateas, and all the great times, and all the great loves, we've shared together. Happy birthday, Lisa! You make every world shine!
(The Andy Griffith Show; "Mr. McBeeVee" Season 3, episode 1, part 3; written by Harvey Bullock, directed by Bob Sweeney; this scene requires Opie's father, Andy, to believe in something that was unbelievable. Lisa and I still share a love of this series; I may be speaking out of turn for her, but I think that we agree this series, and perhaps this very series of scenes, are amongst TV's sweetest moments in time. Lisa is all about sweetness but, as you will later see, darkness plays a role as well).
(The insanely amazing opening credits to The Wild Wild West, with Richard Markowicz's unforgettable theme, and those beautiful animations; TNT played The Wild Wild West daily up until the late 1990s; Lisa named one of her cat Artemus!).
(The opening credits to the greatest one-season TV show of all time: Freaks and Geeks, created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow; I think that if Lisa had had the power at the time, Freaks and Geeks would have gone on to a second season, and beyond; and we were THIS close...).
(From The Twilight Zone: "To Serve Man." Season 3, episode 14. Written by Damon Knight and directed by John Braham).
(From The Outer Limits: "The Zanti Misfits." Season 1, episode 14. Written by Joseph Stefano and directed by Leonard Horn).
(I Love Lucy, "Job Switching," season 2, episode 1, written by Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh and Jess Oppenheimer; directed by William Asher; Lucy is the avatar for this very site, which should tell you something).
(Leave It To Beaver, "Beaver Gets Spelled," season 1, episode 1, part 3; written by Bob Mosher and Joe Connelly; directed by Norman Tokar; I never knew how smart the Beaver was until I met Lisa).
(Joe Flaherty as Count Floyd, tubthumbing for "The Bloodsucking Monkeys of West Miffland, PA," from 1980 on Second City Television; Lisa and I both share a massive crush on Mr. Flaherty, who I think we agree is a genius).
She's a hilarious, wonderful lady. Lisa Mateas is my hero. How I adore her so! And she is the one and only person I know who is totally, completely, all about love. And here's a bonus clip, too!
(Joe Bob Briggs singing the Monstervision song, 1997; they'd be no Joe Bob hosting Monstervision without Lisa!)
It has never been a secret that Flaming Nose founders Jane and Lisa are quite partial to the Sci-Fi genre. So it would be extremely out of character for us to neglect a few mentions for (Falling Skies on TNT) making its debut about a week from now.
I've seen an extended promo for Falling Skies On Demand, so I've had enough of a taste to make a few comments.
The premise is as well worn as an old VHS cassette tape of the original 1953 War of the Worlds. Aliens have landed on earth, and they are not friendly. They've pretty much blown every major city to smithereens, and sent a pulse that has destroyed all electronic communications. Inevitably they are going to get hungry and guess who's gonna be on the menu? Just once I wish somebody would make an alien that wants to eat NY pizza or Sprinkles cupcakes.
Nevertheless, there is nothing more exciting than aliens coming to visit, although I must say I prefer the versions that like us (ET, Close Encounters, Avatar when we are not killing their trees of life) to the ones that want to have us for dinner. These aliens look like big spiders, which is both derivative and icky. They've been given a clever nickname (Skitters) by the surviving earthlings. Steven Spielberg is the Executive Producer, and although he has weirdly not had much success on the small screen his name brings cache to any effort and you can triple that when the story is a sci-fi adventure.
The bad news? Other than Noah Wyle, who plays the resistance militia leader Tom Mason, the cast is not familiar. If they were at least interesting (like Sawyer or Hurley or John on LOST) that wouldn't be a problem. But from what I've seen so far, Falling Skies suffers from forgettable attractive cookie cutter TV cast syndrome. They all look like hot models from an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. Apparently the Skitters already ate all the fat and ugly people. It's so tiresome when everybody in a post apocalyptic world looks like they just fell off the cat walk. For contrast, I offer up the cast from Super 8, which I just had the pleasure of viewing yesterday. J.J. Abram's science fiction love poem to Steven Spielberg (who also executive produced) features kids who look and act exceptionally real. You can practically smell their sneakers, and that makes it all the more poignant when they are in peril.
Bland cast aside, I'll still be there with bells on for the first few episodes of Falling Skies. I'm drawn to sci-fi like a moth to flame, and until I know otherwise, I'll hope that this is a summer series that will grow stronger as the days get hotter.
Starting tomorrow (May 30th--Memorial Day) and continuing all week, the History Channel will be commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with related programming. The first special (Gettysburg) promises to be a "don't-miss-it" event. Airing at 9pm eastern on History, this two hour special will depict the battle of Gettysburg like it has never been seen before, utilizing the gut wrenching visuals of CGI.
I must admit that I am not a Civil War fanatic, although I certainly understand how it can be a magnificent and horrifying backdrop for many cinema masterpieces from old (Gone with the Wind) to new (Glory). What really caught my attention when I first saw the promos for this event was that it was executive produced by British film directors extraordinaire Ridley and Tony Scott. Ridley is best known for two of the best sci-fi movies ever made (Bladerunner and Alien) while his younger brother Tony is the action film auteur, with Top Gun, The Crimson Tide and Unstoppable in his repertoire. The Scott endorsement sealed the deal for me...my DVR is already set to record "Gettysburg" tomorrow. Take a look at the promo below to see if you'll be there too. That haunting music in the background (by the way) is a cover of the old Kate Bush song, "Running up that Hill".
Did your 401K dry up and blow away sometime after 2008? Is your house in foreclosure? Have you recently been down-sized by a large corporation? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you might want to give "Too Big To Fail" on HBO a wide berth.Or, you can take a few swigs of Pepto Bismol, put a clothes pin over your nose, and follow me. "Too Big" is based on the best selling book by Andrew Ross Sorkin and it tells the tale of the big banks and financial institutions that were behind the U.S. financial melt down in 2008.
I'm not going to attempt to re-cap the plot here. It's not an easy story to tell. For one thing, it's pretty difficult to make a gaggle of millionaire middle aged white dudes (mostly bald) who do nothing but sigh and stare at spread sheets in a dark conference room seem compelling. But HBO has a knack for bringing sizzle to made-for-television movies about big bad business decisions. They did it with TV talk shows in The Late Shift and with the machinations of tech giants Apple and Microsoft in Pirates of Silicon Valley. They manage to do it here too, although it's quite humorless and doesn't have a happy ending. If you like revenge and comeuppance, this one's not for you. Nobody ever gets punished for tanking the U.S. economy, and sadly it's doubtful that anyone ever will.
Hunt for "Too Big to Fail" On Demand, if you did not catch the premier on HBO this past week. It has a stellar cast including William Hurt, Ed Asner, Paul Giamatti, Topher Grace, Matt Modine, Tony Shalhoub, James Woods and Cynthia Nixon as the token corporate PR girl.Watching this movie is not a walk in the park, but do it anyway. It's like taking your vitamins, you'll be stronger afterward if you do.
I'm currently composing a longer tribute to Vincent Price, one of my most treasured actors, on filmicability. I'm choosing to focus in on my favorite Vincent Price film performance, in 1973's Theater of Blood. However, in doing my research, I've been reminded of Price's warm, clever, and intelligent personality, often on display in guest shots on a variety of TV productions. So I thought I'd do a shorter twin tribute to the Price centennial by highlighting some of these appearances here on the Flaming Nose.
When I think of Vincent Price's TV appearances, one thing comes to mind: his tremendous sense of fun in spoofing his own fame as a horror movie icon. In many of his guest shots on narrative shows like The Brady Bunch, F Troop, and Love American Style, he traded upon this, but also showed he could play comedy just as well as the established pros. For instance, he has a memorable run-in with Lucille Ball on a 1970 episode of Here's Lucy, where Ball's Lucy Carter is visiting Price to have an art piece appraised, but is instead mistaken by Price as an actress auditioning for a role in a new horror film. Good stuff here!
But in earlier TV appearances, he was known less as a horror personality and more as a erudite character actor famed for largely villainous roles. In a 1953 appearance on The Jack Benny Program, he shares the screen with the master of the slow burn and also with the lovely Irene Dunne. Benny and Price find themselves as acting rivals for the lead in a production with Miss Dunne, and their interplay is extraordinarily hilarious (every time Benny stares into the camera, I can't help but lose it):
There were a lot of dramatic roles for Price on TV as well, on shows as varied as Lights Out, Climax!, Playhouse 90, Daniel Boone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It's particularly fun to see him as a typically evil Russian THRUSH agent in an episode of The Man From UNCLE, called "The Fox and Hounds Affair." Here, Price shares the small screen with another crowning character actor, Leo G. Carroll, who played UNCLE's wisened head officer:
And, though I find the show irritating, it would just simply be wrong to ignore Vincent's bald-pated appearance as the villainous Egghead in the 1960's smash hit show Batman. If I were going to watch an episode of this show again, it'd probably one of Price's episodes, even IF the egg-related puns get eggs-cruciating.
Even games shows and variety shows were far from off-limits for Price. For instance, you can see Price's wit and facility with both music and languages here on his 1956 appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line?
As a stunt to promote his then current 1972 film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (still one of his greatest performances, if you ask me), Price made an unlikely appearance on The Dating Game. It's bizarre, having Price act as proxy to the dating girl in questioning her three prospects. It's clear that none of the guys are equal to Vincent's inestimable sophistication, but he takes it all in stride and barrels through like the pro he was. Dare I say that the girl would have been better off going out to dinner with Vincent himself?
In 1973, Price was invited to fete his friend Bette Davis on an "Celebrity Roast"episode of The Dean Martin Comedy Hour. Here, again, we get to enjoy Vincent's charm as he plays slightly (and appropriately) blue. You don't get to hear Price use the word "knockers" very often!
A totally charming clip here, from Price's 1976 appearance on The Muppet Show. The only thing that can rival my love for Vincent Price is my love for Jim Henson, particularly in the guise of Kermit the Frog. To have these two stars sharing the stage is pure joy to me, especially in the hilarious final moment here!
Here's another 80s spot, this one more lovingly low-rent, for Easter Seals:
And, finally, another for Sun Country Wine Coolers. This one's REALLY unusual!
In 1984, Vincent acted as host to PBS' anthology show Mystery! Here, the actor gets to expound on one of his favorite subjects--the Victorian era--in introducing the first episode of Grenada TV's Sherlock Holmes series. I have to wonder how much Price contributed to the writing of this intro, as he was certainly an expert on the subject matter and could have easily penned the piece. It seems to have been written in his unmistakable voice:
The interesting thing about Price is that, though he was most famous as a horror movie icon, it was always clear that he was so much more than just this. For instance, his art history expertise was unsurpassed. He had an extensive personal collection of works with which he often toured, and was an outspoken advocate of Native-American art in particular. Even though this rare 1962 instructional film wasn't shot for television (it's basically an industrial film used to educate art auctioneers on the value of their pieces, made by Sears and Roebuck), I think it's a fascinating peer into this very personal, revealing side of Vincent Price. The man knows so much; he never ceases to astound me.
Even more revealing is his 1982 interview on British TV with Terry Wogan. Here the actor's charm and smarts are again center stage, and we get to hear more about his love of art, his puzzlement over the American and British ways of life, and a wonderful story about his playing pranks on unsuspecting fans (something that I understand was, for him, a favorite by-product of being famous). By the way: isn't it interesting that Price and Christopher Lee share the same birth date?
I think my very favorite Vincent Price TV moment, though, is his appearance on an obscure 1952 show called What in the World? In this game show/educational show mash-up, a crew of art experts get together and are presented with a series of unfamiliar art objects. Their task is to determine the age and the origin of these ancient pieces. Produced for WCAU-TV (the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia), the fourth episode of this rather strange but delightful series has Vincent on as a very knowledgeable expert, and his accuracy is quite impressive. This is a real interesting bit of TV history here--an artifact in its own right:
Well, I guess that about does it for my TV-based tribute! All that's left to say, once again, is Happy 100th, Vincent! Wish you were here!
This is one bandwagon we're happy to jump on. It was revealed this week that Fox will be effectively cancelling its long-running Saturday night series America's Most Wanted as of September, in favor of various show repeats and eventually four two-hour AMW specials over the 2011-2012 TV season. The news of what is essentially the cancellation of the show has disappointed and outraged loyal viewers and motivated Florida resident Jim Sitton to start a campaign to keep the show alive. Sitton has a personal reason for being an advocate of the show: the killer of his six-year old daughter was caught with the help of AMW. You can read all about Sitton's story in this story from The Palm Beach Post, here.
I'm sure many of us remember the traumatic story behind the creation of America's Most Wanted -- the horrendous murder of host John Walsh's little boy Adam in Florida almost thirty years ago. Bringing criminals to justice has been Walsh's mission since that time, and he's worked tirelessly with government and law enforcement officials to keep victim rights at the forefront, especially through the America's Most Wanted series. AMW has enlisted the help of viewers in tracking down the unfortunately endless supply of dangerous criminals and murderers since first going on the air in 1988, and with much success.
Fox is citing "cost of production" as the reason for cancellation, but we all know that budgets and production values can be adjusted, and that ratings have been more than acceptable for the show. Even though The Flaming Nose realizes that TV is after all just a business, there are more than enough business reasons to keep this popular and important show on the air, and other even more important reasons to keep it going. America's Most Wanted is the right thing to do, and if a huge media corporation like Fox can't find the coin to keep this one going, then Fox doesn't deserve your eyeballs. I am also sure that many of the audience for Fox News probably also watches America's Most Wanted, and if you're one of them, get involved and leverage your loyalty to Fox to advocate for AMW.
The success of Fox's other popular and incredibly lucrative franchises -- American Idol, anyone? -- make it possible for the network to carry America's Most Wanted. It's an important TV show, and you can't say that about basically anything else out there. Like it or not, accept it or not, Fox signed on for the long term when it started America's Most Wanted. This is about more than ratings or the bottom line -- both of which are just doing fine over at Fox. Keeping America's Most Wanted alive takes what amounts to chump change for Fox.
We recommend that you get involved in the campaign to keep AMW on the air as a regularly scheduled series. Jim Sitton has created a Facebook page here -- Save AMW! (America's Most Wanted) -- and you can go there to find addresses and links to online petitions and other suggestions to help in this quest. There's another Facebook group here -- Save "America's Most Wanted" -- and you should join them both and encourage your friends to join, too.
We'll keep you informed on any developments in this situation. Check back here for updates, and please visit the embedded links in this post for more information.
If your heart flutters at names like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, you'll want to get a gander at Investigation Discovery Channel's new documentaryThe Pig Farm premiering tonight at 9pm. It's the story of Canadian -- Vancouver, to be exact -- serial killer Robert Pickton, a rural pig farmer who managed to combine lady-killing -- he's credited with at least 20 murders -- with hog-raising. He's a first class freak, and lest you think our normally sane and sweet neighbors to the North never turn wacko, this will clear that up!
Though nobody seems know exactly why, today is known in some parts as Twilight Zone Day, and who are we to dispute a holiday which honors one of our favorite TV shows? It's a show we've been watching since we were little, and even today more than fifty years later, Twilight Zone retains its class and its ability to entertain with a unique twist. Rather than write something that you probably already know about the show, we thought we'd just offer up a selection of images from some of our favorite episodes. With 159 to choose from that's a lot of great material, and even more tremendous performances to enjoy.
At a time when singing on TV seems to be mostly endless runs of annoying and pretentious melisma, don't you sometimes long for just a simple and charming rendition of a terrific song, done by a master of the art? I was surfing around and found this utterly wonderful clip of the late, great singerBlossom Dearie, introduced by the erudite and witty Jack Paar as host of The Tonight Show (which was often referred to as just The Jack Paar Show.) This is maybe unlike anything you've heard before, but once you get an earful of Blossom Dearie you'll want to seek out her recordings and clips on YouTube. She is delightful, and I guarantee that nobody's ever sung about that surrey from "Oklahoma" in quite the same way.
An extraordinary news event broke late Sunday night (11pm eastern) on May 1st in the U.S. Nearly ten years after the terrible attacks on 9-11, a secret Naval Seals mission took place at a large walled compound in Pakistan. In just a few minutes, the mastermind of the worst terrorist attacks (and most hated man in the world since notable 20th Century despots like Hitler and Stalin) was dead.
By now nearly everyone knows the details, and has seen the pictures of Americans gathering in front of the White House, at Times Square, and at Ground Zero, to mark the historic occasion. Even at 2 in the morning on the streets of NYC, the crowds kept growing. Here's one of my favorite pictures from the NY Times. This one is sure to be a Pulitzer prize winner. The media coverage of this event was absolutely extraordinary. Unlike any other modern news story I can recall, social media played a dominant role in getting the word out. Twitter reported an astounding5,000+ tweets per second as the story broke and users spread the world. Facebook updates were on fire with the story as well. On BlogHer.com, a special poll asking how people first heard that Osama bin Laden was dead is showing that 35% heard from a Facebook update and 22% heard from Twitter. Only 13% said they heard first on television. This is profoundly different from how we received big news stories on September 11th, 2011, when neither of those social media services even existed.
But television also did a magnificent job covering the story late on Sunday night. Most folks might have heard first from social media but soon relied on TV or the Internet to get a deeper view of the breaking news. I immediately turned to CNN (where I watched the bulk of the 9-11 coverage, come to think of it) and stuck with it for most of the night. Their coverage was #1 in the ratings according to Entertainment Weekly. They peaked at 7.8 million viewers in the U.S. at 11pm eastern, when the President made his speech announcing the successful mission (see video above). Fox News was second with 4.8 million and MSNBC was third with 2.3 million viewers. CNN has struggled in the ratings over the past year, but they have proved time and again that they are the place to be during a big breaking news story, particularly when it has global importance.
On May 1st, 2011, the message that so many had longed to hear for too many years spread like wildfire. Through television.... and the Internet, by text message, tweet and mobile phone. Some even heard from a real live person. No matter what pipeline the news traveled through, the result was an enormous, national sigh of relief. Differences in politics, or color, or religion or gender (just like on 9-11)were forgotten. For a few joyous hours on a Sunday night, we were one people, united in our belief that justice had finally been served.
And please, please let HBO make the movie of the amazing Navy Seal mission some day!
It'd be difficult to suppress positive vibes for a video that has Mad Men star Jon Hamm stopping his convertible for a teensy, hitch-hiking blue yeti, and then taking him on a cross-country adventure. And, what's more, the song the video supports--Swedish trio Herman Düne's simple, poppy "Tell Me Something I Don't Know"--is extremely easy on the ears. Hamm never bores me with whatever he does OUTSIDE of the Mad Men universe; it's always nice to be reminded that he's really a light-hearted guy. I smiled pretty broadly throughout watching this piece, maybe because I'm a sucker for puppets (I like the little cooing sound the yeti makes, and love that shot of the yeti's hand being slapped away from the radio buttons). This clip, charmingly directed by Toben Seymour is also one more reason to like the more-reliable-than-not Funny or Die website. Anyway, just thought you guys might love this...
There's nothing like sitting down to a mini marathon of a series to either clinch the deal or make you turn it off forever. I resolved to watch the first two episodes of HBO's fantastical new series Game of Thrones to see if I could swallow this new outing or if it was just too elvish for me. Those of you who love the genre -- and probably those of you who hate it -- know what I'm talking about. There's a point where these imaginary worlds can get just too involved and a mite off-putting -- what Jane here accurately termed "beards and bathrobes" as in video games in the same genre -- and I feared I'd be shaking my head more than nodding approvingly.
I'm pleased to report that so far I think my instincts were off; Game of Thrones is plenty exciting, not too weirdly complicated to make you throw your hands up and toss it back, and has a bit of something for everyone. You might be bored by one storyline and set of characters, but there are so many swirling allegiances that somebody's bound to come along who pushes your particular buttons. I've found a few of my own.
In addition to Sean Bean in the lead -- we've written about him before -- I'd put Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey as an ambitious brother-and-sister romantic team in the forefront. Treacherous and good-looking, both of these two dynamic forces from the House of Lannister (see, this is where it gets a little too much, all these Houses of this and that, so I won't even mention that stuff anymore...boring!) are dynamic and watchable. Definitely dangerous and with a big dose of creepy, too, with that incest thing. And the woman is wife of the King, so how do you like that! Takes balls!
Young Jack Gleeson as the sloe-eyed Prince Joffrey, is a right little shit, son to the incestuous Queen described above, and always captures the attention. He's a snotty royal, a spoiled brat who likes to taunt the peasants and then lie about it. We're already hoping for a comeuppance, and we're only up to Episode 3!
Peter Dinklage, of course, as the dwarf brother of the treacherous incestuous Lannister duo. Sometimes in a generation a beyond-amazing small-stature actor is born -- I offer up the unforgettable and brilliant Michael Dunn as Dinklage's acting equal in that category -- and Dinklage dominates every scene he's in and you can't wait for the next one. Absolutely riveting, amusing, attractive, and he's mesmerizing enough to make intelligence cool again.
How about the near-albino brother and sister Targaryens, children of the previous murdered king? Intriguing, also kind of a whiff of incest-y interest on the part of the brother to the sister, who has been married off to a perfectly divine barbarian warrior leader named Khal Drogo. Jane accurately termed him a "Klingon" and he's wonderful, played by Jason Momoa who is going to be the next Conan in the movies. Ultra-masculine and sexy, he's obviously going to be falling for his pale missus in a big way -- she introduces him to the modified missionary position, a step up from the doggy-style evidently customary in their world -- and much ado will undoubtedly come from that whole alliance. Also, Drogo seems to have at least three as-yet-quiescent dragon eggs incubating in his tent, and I sure hope that they get a little to close to the campfire and start cracking open sometime soon...should I put money on that?
Here's the preview for tonight's episode:
I have to admit I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode. This is the word from somebody who hasn't read the books, doesn't want to read the books, but I'm glad they spawned a so-far terrific new TV series! The book series, btw, is by George R.R. Martin, who in addition to the incredible success of the sequence of novels that spawned Game of Thrones, has been a prominent science fiction and fantasy writer for decades, including penning a bunch of episodes of the memorable series Beauty and the Beast back in the 1980s. Gotta love that!
Check out HBO's Game of Thrones website for more coats-of-arms and background information than you can shake a broadsword at! Game of Thrones new episodes premiere Sundays at 9pm on HBO.
Also, there's a three-episode marathon of all episode so far coming up this Wednesday, May 4th beginning at 8pm. It's a great way to get up to speed in one evening, or of course you can get the latest episodes On Demand. Enjoy!
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It's hard to imagine anyone -- except Gervais, who happens to be a friend of LCK, no surprise there -- able to take the exquisite pain of being a human being and turn it into an entertainment that manages to be simultaneously -- or in sequence sometimes -- hilarious, shocking and brutal, unblinkingly honest, and tremendously affecting. Watching last night's episode of Louie pushes you through a journey that will genuinely bring tears to your eyes -- and not in some bullshit way -- as well as offering up scatalogical glee, comedic zingers, and some of the best acting that you're going to see, anywhere. From his scenes doing stand-up, then to the great kitchen action as LCK handily and fascinatingly prepares a fabulous-looking dinner for his two young daughters (the youngest of whom delivered an earlier stark assessment of their family life to him), and on to those with Rusty Schwimmer playing his very pregnant sister, to the genuinely tense medical emergency moments where he meets his neighbors, and beyond -- last night's episode was incredible. No other word for it. 
