Labels: sports niiiight, studio freaking 60 on the freaking sunset strip
*snerk*
ok, maybe i should accept the fact that studio 60 was cursed from the start for various reasons, and my hatred of 30 rock is absolutely groundless and there's literally no excuse for my not watching it.
but then, there are rumors that 30 rock is going to be canceled, as it's moving to a different night this fall, and i dunno what-all. maybe all "behind the scenes" comedy tv shows of comedy tv shows are doomed to fail horribly.
maybe everyone should watch "behind the scenes" comedy-dramas of sports tv shows that aren't actually about sports at all. those are the best. 10th anniversary box set, anyone?
studio 60 works best when it's not working. the comedic aspect of the show was really played up, and as the situation became more and more ludicrous (prop guys on strike, no cue cards, props being sabotaged, bomb threat on the building, f.b.i. being called in), it just got funnier. and that was due in very large part to the characters.
this episode suffered not at all from the lack of bradley whitford and matthew perry--the more minor characters benefited from it, and there were also wonderful performances from d. l. hughley, nate corddry, steven weber, and especially timothy busfield.
cal's trying against all odds to make the "disaster show" work--even though he accidentally destroyed the prop table (he should've learned from the 'coconut incident' at the holiday show!), prompting allison through the earpiece, dealing with a bomb-sniffing german sheperd (they only speak german!) sniffing his crotch--timothy busfield pretty much carried the show. but allison janney made it funnier.
hosting the "disaster show" and getting dumped with all the blame is hard, and allison proved again and again that her funny moments as c.j. were not a fluke. the opening monologue was hysterical. "it's great to be here in new york--i mean l.a.! i live here...my first..third! time hosting saturday night live...i mean studio 60!" and she looked like an absolute madwoman for nearly the whole show. it really does look stupid when you pretend to get shot, but the squibs don't go off. allison ranted and raved, but carried it off with good humor and aplomb, realizing at the end of the show that she wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.
and steven weber also turned in a sterling performance in a slightly smaller role, not being all fire and brimstone about the network and ratings, but standing back and letting it all go by because he's drunk and hey, it doesn't matter. and he also made weird noises that were indescribable but hilarious. and when he told cal that there were ten seconds of dead air? priceless.
hopefully danny managed to come to some kind of arrangement with the props guys' union when he was in the parking lot for the entire show, because studio 60 is back next week at 10!
only five more to go. let's make 'em count.
Labels: intergalactic large furry creatures (and droids) of mystery, it's a bird it's a plane it's heroes, stardust WOT WOT, studio freaking 60 on the freaking sunset strip
that was a complete and utter non-ending. garrgh.
and now i have to wait! until the fall! for you guys to get your shit together!
because i have nothing else to look forward to! battlestar galactica won't be on until sometime next spring because they weren't entirely expecting to get renewed after being moved to sunday nights, and i know that torchwood won't be on until early 2008 at best.
and you know i'm not watching that bionic woman crap.
nbc, you are dead to me for killing off studio 60. sure i'll watch heroes, but i'm not giving you any more ratings than absolutely necessary.
look who returned for narratorial duties! i can't say i'm thrilled, but i guess they figure the episode wouldn't be complete without those beautiful british vowels bookending it.
huge set-up for series 2 when molly went, "there's someone i can't find. i don't want to! because he is EEBIL" dun dun DUUN! apparently sylar is not as bad as it gets.
i'm really not so sure about nathan, but peter petrelli is so not dead. boy's a survivor. he'll float back down to earth in tiny particles and re-form if that's what it takes. that much hope and idealism don't die easy.
unless he killed his brother, which would be bad.
speaking of which, what the SHIT was up with nathan this ep? i know he's been vacillating all season (it's in his frakking character to do so), but i think his moms brainwashed him or something. cos that was TEH CREEPINESS right there with her fire engine red manicure o' doom. at least he came to his senses in the end.
i know i didn't see the thing coming last week with micah and the voting machines (which would be a GREAT name for a band, btw--they'd do acoustic indie rock songs about the fallacy of believing in bureaucratic governmental voting systems), but i really didn't expect that all they really had to do was fly peter up into the atmosphere and have him detonate safely, no doubt raining particles of radioactive material all over manhattan.
loved the superkids! eying one another. molly just gave micah this great admiring look, like, hey, you've got cool powers! it's like teen titans except good. tot!titans, really.
and wosshisname didn't die, after bleeding sluggishly from a gut shot for donkey's years. oh well, happy little super!family and all.
parkman can't die. he's our hero.
so happy to see sylar escape into the sewers. le yay! he's so emo he deserves to live and go slicy-slicy with more peoples' heads.
the format got a little weird there at the end. what is this "volume one" and "volume two" shit? i didn't see that one at all.
and hiro ending up in feudal japan? seriously, that was such a huge WTF?! moment that i was just like, guh? they'd been building to this OMGNEWYORKGOEXPLODY thing all season, then they dispatch it in fairly short order with the deus ex machina of nathan's mad flying skillz, and all of a sudden WE'S IN 16TH-CENTURY JAPAN? stop the world, i wanna get off.
well, i'll have to wait for the rest of "generations" until the fall, so i guess the hiro thing is meant to be considered as a direct lead-in to series two, the preview to hold you off until fall.
the only thing that i really missed about this ep was chris eccleston, who i was desperately hoping would turn up, in a sort of you-idiot-you-didn't-learn-control-properly-but-i'm-gonna-fix-it-since-i'm-your-mentor kind of way. i doubt that he'll be back on the show, so i might as well just wait for his role in the dark is rising, which is slated to come out in october.
in other news, i was so excited when i saw that the stardust website is finally up. they don't have a whole bunch yet, but the graphics are great and the ost sounds incredible. i know this already is my must-see movie of the summer, but this lovely site is severely testing my patience. grr.
at least the trailer they have there manages to do it justice. some of the teasers i saw really bit. my understanding is that, if it's anything like neil gaiman's wonderful book, it'll be a sort of victorian-esque fantasy/adventure/supernatural/romantic comedy with sinister magic, ghosts, sky pirates (gotta love sky pirates) and a happy ending. everyone i talk to looks a little leery when i try to explain it to them, and inside their heads i can see them thinking "oh god it's yet another fantasy movie just like eragon or ella enchanted that tries too hard to ride lotr's coattails and gave me a reason to hate the shittiness inherent in a poorly realized fantasy film."
i may have gotten some of the words wrong there, but that's more or less what they're thinking when i talk to them. although i do point out that the two aforementioned shitty movies were excellent books, which in a way made the poor quality of the screenplay all the more painful to witness.
but i digress.
it turns out that all i need to do to persuade these people that stardust is a movie worth seeing is to mention that robert deniro is in it. why this is so i have no idea, but apparently mentioning his name inspires absolute confidence.
and then, just for exercise, at that point i also mention the other people in it. claire danes! peter o'toole! ricky gervais! sienna miller! rupert everett! david kelly (ok, you might not know him by name, but if you saw him you'd know. he's been playing that little mischevious irish gentleman in films and tv shows for years)! and of course michelle pfeiffer as the wicked witch, and ian mckellen as the narrator.
*is dying from anticipation*
and in other other news, robot chicken is doing a 30-minute star wars special to be premiered on adult swim on june 17th, apparently with george lucas' full approval. lucasfilm even helped with some sound fx. we are intrigued.
Labels: it's a bird it's a plane it's heroes, studio freaking 60 on the freaking sunset strip
you think they would've realized that sylar really needed to be killed before.
...well, they did, but they just didn't know hiro had to be the one to do it.
i like mohinder better now. hurray for mohinder!
but parkman! good lord, parkman! you idiot.
and what's up with this six-year-old coming in, "this is molly. she's the only one who can STOP SYLAR!!!"
so, by showing us this future, are they showing us what won't happen? you'd think so, right? i'm interested to see how they'll 'end' the series. a little bird told me that it's almost certain to be renewed, since nbc needs all the help they can get, ratings-wise.
the upfronts on may 14th will let us know for sure, though. i'll be watching to see what the hell they do with studio 60, although i have a sinking feeling that since they're showing the back six on may 24th, AFTER the upfronts, they're just gonna bury it in summer programming. hopefully it'll come out on dvd, cos i'll buy it, and so will all the other dedicated s60 fans out there. i just wish nbc would realize that nothing could've survived that timeslot, tell the ratings to go shove it, and have some faith in all the intelligent viewers out there who do NOT want to watch "OMG TEH REAL WEDDING CRASHERZ!!!!".
nbc, please renew our show.
and stick it in the er timeslot, since they don't need it anymore. i promise you'll get your ratings. ignore middle america; we really do like to watch intelligent, well-written shows.
