Zeroes - Episode 3

The guy with the art powers has become my favorite character. His drawings are brilliant and the way it parodies the real Heroes is fantastic.

Zeroes - Episode 2

I wish I could claim credit for these videos. They're everything a good viral video series should be. Short, concise, witty, and very well-made. I love the small touches.

Penguins 4 - Red Wings 3 (Red Wings lead series 3-2)

Wow. If ever there was a game the Penguins didn't deserve to win, that was it. I missed the first two periods (fortunately, there were another four still to come), so I can't vouch for how they played then, but over the third period and almost the entire overtime, they were terrified, tentative, and sloppy. No one seemed to want the puck. Any time the puck was on a Penguins stick, they couldn't wait to get rid of it to let someone else have the dread responsibility of somehow salvaging this game. I lost count of the number of weak passes they made and the number of times they found themselves horribly out of position. It seemed like there were seven Red Wings on the ice at all times.

But... the Hockey gods were with them tonight. They live to fight another day. Perhaps it's their...destiny...to win this thing after all.

Actually, the only reason the Penguins are playing Wednesday night is because Marc-Andre Fleury played the most amazing game of his career. There was at least a dozen times the series should have been over, but Fleury's heroic goaltending kept the Penguins in the game. 55 saves. And most of them during that stretch when the rest of the Pens weren't providing any help at all.

Game six is Wednesday night, and I'll be plopped in front of the TV for that entire game, adorned with my Penguins jersey. If they can pull THAT off, then I'll have a dilemma. Gave seven will be Saturday evening. This year's 48 Hour Film Project will be in full swing on Saturday and if it's anything like it was the last two years, I'll still be deep in the shooting of it when the game starts... grrr... Now, in addition to all the other required elements of the contest, I have an additional required element of getting done in time to see at least some of the game.

Anyway, thanks Pens, for extending this amazing season at least ONE more game.

Venture Bros.- Season 3 - Episode 1 - "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"

Yay! Venture Bros. is/are back! It kind of sneaked up on me. Actually, I knew it was going to be returning near the beginning of June, it's just that the whole month of June kind of sneaked up on me. In any event, its return comes not a moment too soon, what with the season finale of Lost and the series derailment of Battlestar Galactica.

This episode had nary a glimpse of Hank or Dean, and only a couple of moments of Dr. Venture and Brock. But that's okay. The Venture Bros isn't a show about the characters themselves, it's about the whole Venture-Bros-iverse. As long as they bring the funny, and this week, they did.

Basically what we had was a sort of origin story for the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they apply for membership into the League of Calamitous Intent. Lots of fun moments, too many to recount. Nothing gut-busting, but all of it good. What I'm sure will become a fun quest is figuring out who the shadowy members of the Council of Thirteen are. I haven't done any Googling to see if any of them have been identified, but the only one I think I've figured out is that the main one that was speaking is Wile E. Coyote. (okay... now I'm going to go Googling... nope... so far only Wile E. Coyote).

One of my favorite things about this show is the codifying of Supervillainry that they've done. My favorite of these is the term "arching", which is what you do when you have an arch-enemy (which I have!)

Anyway, Venture Bros. is always more about the sum of the whole, rather than the individual parts. This was another solid episode in what looks to be a great season. Can't wait to see more of Manotaur and his Malevolent Murder Maze. And I want to see more of Truckules.

Because it's going to be such a long long time before anything good returns to the airwaves, it might be a good time to revisit The Venture Bros. from the beginning.

Zeroes - Episode 1

Stumbled upon this a few days ago and was highly impressed. Nice production values, decent acting, funny ideas, all extremely well executed.



I laugh every time the black guy uses his power. Great stuff.

Join me here every day this week for a new episode, and an amusing trailer at the end of the week.

Are you a fan of Heroes (or a former fan, like myself)?

Battlestar Galactica - "Sine Qua Non"

There was a time not that long ago where I had the whole Battlestar Galactica storyline down cold. I could name ships and characters and knew what all the mystical stuff meant.

But not anymore.

BSG has completely lost me. It hit me a couple of episodes ago when in the midst of the shows latest string of visions and prophecies and dreams, I suddenly realized I didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. I had no clue how any of it tied together.

And the worst part? I didn't care anymore.

BSG is at the point where I know enough about the behind-the-scenes development of this show that I know they're really making this all up as they go along. I know that any ideas or plot threads that they might have had in season one or two have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and ret-conned into submission. And for me, that totally ruins the experience. Unlike the Cylons, the creative team does NOT have a plan.

And that in itself is a joke. I defy ANYone to tell me in less than a thousand words what the Cylon's plan is. Better yet, tell me what it was at each stage of this show. Wipe out all the humans? Wipe out all of them except for a few? Find Earth? Not find Earth? Have there been prophecies all along? Where do they get their spiritual info from? Where's the Cylon Bible?

It's all so convoluted and contradictory that I doubt the writing staff of this show could explain it to you.

In spite of the ret-con plot integrity betrayal last season with the reveal of four of the Final Five Cylons, I was giving this season a chance to tie it all together and hit a home run. But that hasn't happened.

"Sine Qua Non" was easily one of the weakest episodes of the entire season. Battlestar Galactica works best when it's just telling its story in a straightforward way. The first few episodes of each season, this one included, usually start out that way. Just the presentation of the events in a serialized, connected way. It's only when the show hits the middle parts of the season when we start to get the stand-alone episodes. These eps usually have some sort of stupid 'theme' or style or homage they are paying. This week on BSG, we had the crazy/damaged consultant that sees dead cats. It was as silly as that sentence made it sound.

Which is sad, because there were several momentous events that took place that were completely diluted by the 'main' story. Adama declares his love for Roslin, Lee becomes President, and Tigh & Six conceive the first Cylon-Cylon baby (inconceivable!). While its true the President Lee Adama storyline was actually the main plot, it felt like a side element to the 'search for the candidate' that dominated much of the episode (and gave us the silly, showy, Romo Lampkin mental breakdown plot. My favorite comment on Romo Lampkin comes from Alan Sepinwall's blog,

"The entire story with Lee and Romo Lampkin was particularly annoying. I think the "Galactica" writers like Romo a lot more than the guy deserves, as he's less a character than a collection of colorful tics."

Sepinwall has a great, far more thorough, review on his blog as well, check it out.

And the contradictions continue to mount. It's bad enough that the show contradicts itself from episode to episode, but when it does it within the same episode, it makes me wonder who's in charge of this show. Case in point, in the middle of the episode, it's revealed to Admiral Adama that Tigh has been canoodling with prisoner Six, so much so that she's pregnant. Adama is suitably infuriated by this which leads to a knock-down fight between the two. That was okay. But not five minutes later, Adama decides to leave on a quest to find the missing Laura Roslin, and leaves "the only person he can trust," Tigh, in command of the entire fleet. WHAT? This guy just proved he can't be trusted and that he's consorting with the enemy. And a second example comes at the end of the ep when recently off-her-rocker Starbuck is now apparently the unquestioned CAG. First off, she was crazy just a couple of episodes ago, and she also her miraculous resurrection still hasn't been adequately explained. To me, that's someone that shouldn't be allowed near a command. And finally, there's the continuing trust of Athena. She's a CYLON. Regardless of how much she may want to fight her programming, she's still a Cylon, and ultimately can't and shouldn't be trusted. Adama's giving daughter Hera back to Athena after his justified berating of her simply smacked of "Let's just get this episode over and make sure we have all our pieces in place for the next episode."

In fact, the whole series feels that way. Regardless of how much sense it might or might not make, they make sure everything is set up for the next episode.


But right now... I just don't care. I imagine I'll keep watching just to see what happens, but I'm no longer invested in this show, and that's just sad. After the One Year Later jump, and the first five episodes of the next season, I was ready to declare BSG one of the all-time great shows. And then the wheels totally fell of the wagon. It's been a mess ever since.


And I'm sure I'll make this declaration way too many times in the coming weeks and months and years, but "The Wire" has totally ruined regular TV for me. After seeing what TV can look like when someone REALLY puts their effort into it and reaches for something special...now when I see half-hearted, "good enough" TV, it just infuriates me. I'm so tired of lazy TV. I just pray that "The Wire" isn't the last of its kind that we'll see...

Oh well.

If it's any consolation, at least it looks like next week's BSG actually has stuff that happens in it.

What's you're take? Do you still care? Do you have a clue what's going on?

Breaking Sports News

2-Year-Old Donkey Called Up To Pro Donkey Basketball League

Long Lost Video - Kermit the Frog helps write "Yankee Doodle"

Wow. I thought I'd never see this video again. I remember watching it when I was a wee lad. It was hilarious when I saw it 30-odd years ago, and all these years later, it's still pretty good. It's fun watching old Sesame Street things and seeing the adult touches that Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the rest managed to slip in. Nothing bad, but just stuff that would go over the head of a kid.

What's most interesting is that the majority of this skit isn't at all like I remember. But the ending and final version of the song is almost word for word as it is in my memory. Weird. Anyway, here it is, Kermit the Frog, deconstructing "Yankee Doodle" and helping the songwriter rewrite it to make it make sense.

The Wire - The More Things Change... Season Three Review

Any fears I had about The Wire turning into standard TV vanished within an episode or two of Season Three. Having seen Season Four as of this writing (but not Season Five), I think Season Three is the strongest of the series so far.

At risk of spoiling the show for the five to ten people that might ever read this review, I have to share some specific details.

Like previous seasons, The Wire continued the threads of the previous seasons while adding an assortment of new ones. The main plot of S3 is the continuing investigation of the Barksdale drug organization. Despite kingpin Avon Barksdale's incarceration, he still runs the show, with partner Stringer Bell running things on the outside. The beauty of this show, and the epic, tragic scale of this show comes from these two characters interaction and season-long dance.

Avon is an old-school banger, and despite the massive amounts of money their organization has accumulated, he can't move past that thug mentality. Stringer, on the other hand, wants to take that wealth and move into more legitimate business, having taken business courses at college and buying up real estate. Increasingly, he has to do this without Avon's knowledge or approval.

It all is working okay until Avon works a way to get himself out of prison early. He returns to the neighborhood to get everything back in order, and that's when he and Stringer start to butt heads. Compounding everything is Det. Jimmy McNulty's personal investigation into the prison 'suicide' of Avon's nephew (and Season One main character) D'Angelo Barksdale. D'Angelo's death was ordered by Stringer (without Avon's knowledge) because D'Angelo was planning on flipping and turning all of them in.

So the amazingly tense conflict for this season ramps ever higher episode by episode. Our sympathies as the audience shifts from scene to scene, as we admire Stringer for attempting to move out of the drug trade. But we sympathize with Avon because of Stringer's betrayal and ordering the murder of D'Angelo. But we side against Avon because he can't pull himself out of the lowest-common-denominator lifestyle. But we like Stringer because he's the only person on the street with a plan. But we side against him because of how D'Angelo's mother was lied to about his death. But we side against HER because she is the one that convinced D'Angelo not to flip on the organization. And on and on and on.

I marveled constantly at the airtight plotting that allowed these shifts to occur and to be so powerful. And much of the conflict has its roots all the way back in the first episodes of Season One.

For anyone remotely interested in writing TV (or anything for that matter), this show is a masterclass on plotting and dialogue. It doesn't cut corners or go for the easy story at ANY time.

All the while, the good guys' story is compelling as well, but not nearly to the extent of Avon vs Stringer. These two kingpin's ultimate fates is pure Greek tragedy with a healthy dose of Shakespeare. Brilliant.

I could go on for days exalting this show. It just never makes a wrong step.

The ultimate compliment I can pay it is that I have to steal from it now. The Wire has the exact tone I was seeing and hearing and feeling in my head as I worked on "Going Nova". I want that kind of uncompromising honesty in my story, regardless of how unpleasant it might be or how bleak (for some characters) it might prove. Because if nothing else, The Wire has me thinking about drugs, crime, education, politics (and the News industry, I'm sure, after I watch Season Five) in a completely different light.

It's going to be hard watching regular TV ever again after experiencing this show.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 7 - "Greatest Hits"

Fortunately, someone went and did a compilation of all the great Tate hits.

Enjoy

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 6 - "Streaker"

Short and sweet.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 5 - "Sensitivity Training"

They were starting to run out of steam a bit with this one, but it still brings the funny.

(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 4 - "Office Athelete of the Century"

As always, it's the little details that put these videos over the top for me.

"Like many children, Terry was born."

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 3 - "Vacation"

This has some good moments in it. My favorite is the guy photocopying his butt on the copy machine. He's just enraptured.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 2 - "Draft Day"

The first Terry Tate video was perfect.

"The restroom's a privilege, not a right, PUNK!"

And the re-enactment of the classic NFL "helicopter hit" was a brilliant touch.

Well done, gentlemen....

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 1 - "Terry's World"

Ah... Terry Tate... For me, this was the first true "Viral Video", in that it was easy to find, and easy to send to other people. And it was hilarious. And looking back on it now, I can even see some of the tone that would ultimately turn into "The Office" (disclaimer: I'm not sure which one came first).

The number of brilliant touches to this video can't be counted. But "You kill the joe, you make some mo'" became a fun catchphrase for a while.

Enjoy...

(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)

Penguins 6 - Flyers 0 (Pens win series 4-1)

Again, they made it look easy. Watching the game, it seemed like the Flyers were playing at half-speed. The Penguins always seemed a step ahead, a step faster.

But... based on the talent of this team, a berth in the Stanley Cup finals is the only logical end result for this season. None of their opponents in the east were remotely at their level. The teams most likely to give them problems, Montreal and New Jersey, got knocked out early.

Now we only have to await the winner of Detroit-Dallas. Detroit stormed out to a 3 games to zip lead, but Dallas has won the last two to make it an interesting series. While the better matchup would be Detroit, I'm kind of hoping for a Dallas miracle comeback, just because it would allow the Penguins to retain home ice (Detroit, by virtue of the best record in the league would host the Finals should they make it), but also because it would allow me the outside chance at securing some tickets to a game in Dallas. VERY slim chance I'd be able to get tickets, but I have some connections that MIGHT have a way to get me into the arena for one of the games.

We'll see.

But a Detroit-Pittsburgh Finals would be one of the most compelling since New Jersey-Colorado or New Jersey-Dallas. It seems like just about every year over the past decade or so that at least one of the two Finals participants didn't really deserve to be there in the grand scheme of things. Usually, they way overachieve and end up not even making the playoffs the next year and certainly not making the Finals again anytime soon. I'm talking to YOU, Tampa Bay, Calgary, Anaheim, Carolina, Buffalo, Washington and Edmonton). Detroit-Pittsburgh is the first recent series I really think could become an annual event for the next few years.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 7 - "Behind the Scenes"

I believe this is one of the videos on the official website, but here it is for your easy digestion. Fun stuff...

Jerry Seinfeld & Superman - AmEx Commercials - Behind The Sc
Uploaded by joecool85

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 6 - "Saving Lois"

I'd never seen this commercial before. From the looks of it, they got a different animation house to do Superman. It lacks most of the Curt Swan/Superfriends charm of the other spots. But it still has Seinfeld and Patrick Warburton, so it still works.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 5 - "The Today Show Interview"

I'd never seen this until today when I was searching for all the commercials. Pretty good stuff, even if Matt Lauer plays it up just a bit too much. I'm curious to see if Patrick Warbuton was actually on the couch and they just animated over him, or if Matt and Jerry were acting to empty air.

Anyway, enjoy!