Monthly Archives: July 2007

July 31, 2007 · 9:59 pm

Canadian Idol – July 31st – Top 8 Results with Enrique Iglesias

Welcome to the Top 8 Results show…and we jump right into the Group Sing of “These are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs in all of its acoustic glory. We start with Brian (Good), Martha (Overly Theatric), Jaydee (Awful), Matt (I didn’t even see his solo), Tara (As you’d expect), Greg (Huge crowd reaction), Carly Rae (Nice), Dwight (As you’d expect). Ben returns to inform us that seven will remain, and that Enrique will be performing soon.

My prediction, to say it right now: Martha, Carly Rae and Brian in the Bottom Three. Martha or Carly Rae go home. Also possible: Matt or Jaydee taking Brian’s spot, depending on the level of post-Green Day backlash. Want to know how last night’s show went? Check out Cultural Learnings’ full recap.

So, now it’s time for Enrique Iglesias to go unplugged. Sarah mentioned last night that he does this on a regular basis, and I don’t doubt that is the case: his voice is powerful enough that he can bring intensity to a song like this. However, I still don’t think he’s the best representative of the genre in any way, shape or form. I’m also really, really distracted by the echo on his vocals, whether it’s a background vocalist or not. On the whole, a good arrangement of the song, which itself is a bit lyrically simple. Andd then Enrique started twirling, almost, it was strange. And now he wants us to follow doors. And then he kept saying “crazy,” and it was a bit weird. Still, his honesty was kind of nice.

And, as an encore of sorts, he pulls out “Be With You.” Damn, I was really holding out for “Bailamos”. However, he is now decidedly plugged in.  And now, after all of the singing and Enrique pimpage, we’re left with the results.

Results (2.8 Million Votes):

We’re doing only a Bottom Two, ouch. Jaydee must have been Bottom Three, he’s being protected

Tara, Greg, Matt, Carly Rae – Matt Rapley is in the Bottom Two. YES! Oh, I mean, too bad.

Brian, Jaydee, Dwight, Martha –Martha Joy is in the Bottom Two.

Wow, this is like the greatest bottom two ever. I think that they both failed miserably to embrace the theme, and one of them going home is for the best at this stage of the competition. I think they’re both incredibly talented singers, but performance wise they never stepped up.

And we’re back. Will it be the chanteuse or the smooth-voiced teen? The answer is…

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July 31, 2007 · 9:00 am

Pilot Previews: How ‘Cavemen’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Aliens in America’ Confront Stereotypes

[Regardless of what I think about some of the fall pilots, there are three comedies that each deal with prominent cultural stereotypes to very different degrees. Rather than review them individually (I’d be overly mean to some of them if I did), I figure I’d run them down in relation to their ability to deal with these sensitive cultural issues.]

Cavemen (ABC)

Culture in Question: Prehistoric Man (Cavemen)

Yes, Cavemen deals with the stereotyping of a non-existent culture, and there is a distinct problem with this: the writers are not capable of forgetting real cultural stereotypes in the process. The entire series basically boils down to stealing every single African-American sitcom joke and just transferring it to these hairy neanderthals. The Cavemen feel out of place at a country club, they feel that their crime is more reporter than white crime, and they worry about interracial marriage.

Cultural Impact: Setting the clock back decades. By presenting a culture of exclusion to a level not seen since the 70s, it’s basically making North America out to be this cultural dead zone incapable of accepting other cultures. And while racism is still a serious issue, ignoring any of the past three decades of advancement is just insulting to the efforts of the civil rights movement.

The Big Bang Theory (CBS)

Culture in Question: Geek Culture

While certainly not attempting to prescribe a moral to the state of geek culture, The Big Bang Theory does attempt to represent it. In the process, however, the geek turns into a complete sitcom stereotype: they play World of Warcraft, they watch Battlestar Galactica (w/ Commentary) and they don’t know how to talk to girls. This, in the mind of sitcom writers, is a geek in a nutshell.

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July 30, 2007 · 9:03 pm

Canadian Idol – July 30th – The Top 8 Go Acoustic with Enrique

Tonight, the Idols go acoustic. This is going to benefit some of them (Carly Rae), and be a very different experience for some others. The real question is: how the hell is Enrique Iglesias even remotely connected to this theme? Regardless, we’ve got ourselves an intimate circle setting and Ben learned that it DOES cut like a knife, so it appears to be time to go acoustic with Canadian Idol.

[Zack gets a great line in about Mulroney’s finger: “Ben is showing us what happens when a Mulroney hitchhikes.” I must admit, can’t resist a good Mulroney joke.]

We get an introduction to Enrique that makes him out to be some sort of music god. Not so much.

Martha Joy – “True Colours” (Cyndi Lauper) 

Enrique thinks she was nervous, but that she didn’t show it. After a plug for Cyndi Lauper’s album (She did the show recently, after all), Martha starts into a raucously loud acoustic version of the song. On the one hand, she does some really nice vocal stuff in here, but none of it seems natural or emotional at all. This is Martha training how to sing a song emotionally, not actually tapping into the song at all. It sounds great, maybe, but it just doesn’t feel the least bit organic. Even when she goes acoustic, it just doesn’t sound right.

What the judges think: Jake agrees with me entirely, Farley says we need to accept her lack of emotion and focus on her solid interpretation, Sass thinks she did good in her style of that song (While making us aware it was the wrong one), Zack felt there was one really bad note but that she is the littler mermaid. I don’t know what means, but…I don’t think it was a compliment.

Acoustic Assistance: Not really. That song didn’t really need the entire string set, the guitars and the piano, so it was a really overly busy unplugged rendition that didn’t change her style much at all.

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July 30, 2007 · 9:00 am

The Simpsons Movie and The Brevity of Spider Pig

I could write a full review of The Simpsons Movie, which I took in yesterday afternoon, but I’m going to link you over to The Elder’s review over at McNutt Against the Music. Essentially, we both agreed: the film was derivative in almost every way, and yet was really quite funny, entertaining and worth the money. At this point in time the film’s impact is limited by the level to which the series has run potential storylines into the ground; there was nothing fresh to be found, no character stone left unturned. In the end, however, they milked every last drop of humour they could out of America’s favourite family, and the result was an engaging motion picture.

And engage it did: the film garnered a staggering $72 Million opening weekend. The Elder argued that this wasn’t too surprising, but analysts were much more modest with their predictions. The Simpsons are one of those properties where its current fan base is young, its largest fan base is in limbo between childhood and adulthood, and it’s kind of impossible to know how the demographics will turn out. Either way, they turned out, and Fox is laughing all the way to the bank.

One thing I do want to say about the film is how impressed I am by one segment in particular: Spider Pig. This was a big hit in trailers and commercials, and the internet has embraced it fully. I, at worst, wasn’t convinced: it seemed like just a lame gag. However, it is handled effortlessly in the film. When the writers conceived the idea, it was likely just a bit piece, and that is how it stayed.

YouTube – “Spider Pig”

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July 29, 2007 · 10:38 pm

Entourage – “The Day F*ckers” Review

Entourage Review

“The Day F*ckers”

After last week’s episode that was outright distasteful in many ways it would have been nice to return to some strong hollywood satire as we head towards Cannes. And, well, what we got was an oversexed and light-hearted trip into the world of these four friends. However, on the list of directions I wanted Entourage to take, emo relationship drama was not particularly one of them. In fact, it might have been on the bottom of my list.

That’s not to say this was a terrible episode of Entourage; as far as these really light and inconsequential episodes go, this one wasn’t particularly awful. But it just had no purpose: Ari’s storyline has been drawn out and neither funny nor dramatic, Eric’s love life has never been entertaining (Although Sloan remains as hot as ever), and Turtle and Drama’s antics were just as ludicrous as ever. The episode just kind of sat there, not doing anything except advance Eric’s love life that tiny little baby step forward.

But do we really care about what happens next? I mean, did we really need an entire 24 minutes so that Eric could have relationships without being hung up on Sloan? I mean, I’m glad that Vince finally got some for what seems like the first time in ages, but was that really worth an entire episode in the grand scheme of things? I don’t really think so, in any possible way. As much as I think that the show can stop on these story points every now and then, I would at least like to think they’re driving towards something.

Maybe instead of f*cking the day away, they might consider planning for Cannes next week.

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July 29, 2007 · 12:00 pm

Preview: Weeds Season Three

When Showtime’s Weeds returns for its third season on August 13th at 10pm, there will be few surprises for fans of the series. Weeds is a sitcom that works on a very precise cycle: mother and pot dealer Nancy makes advances in her field of choice, is faced with a terrifying reality, and then is forced to deal with the consequences before clawing her way back to the top. At the end of Season One, she realized she had fell into bed (literally) with a DEA agent, which then became the overarching development in the show’s second season.

Therefore, it is unsurprising that after the four episodes sent to critics, Weeds has fallen back into this familiar pattern after a second season finale that had Silas being arrested (by a Celia-led cop) with a trunk full of marijuana that Nancy (newly Emmy-nominated Mary-Louise Parker) was supposed to be selling to U-Turn or to the Armenians who “took care of” her DEA Agent husband, and all of whom were now pointing guns at her. That cliffhanger was a doozy, but by the time the season’s fourth episodes kicks around the consequences are all that remain.

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July 28, 2007 · 5:06 pm

A Lesson in Viral Marketing for CBS

So, CBS, I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but the critics don’t seem too happy about your new fall shows. If we would have to qualify which pilots are gathering “buzz,” I could downright guarantee that none of your shows are on the list. And really, you’re at a disadvantage: Moonlight went under massive retooling, Cane simply lacks any noteworthy attributes, and then you’ve got The Big Bang Theory and Viva Laughlin. These two shows are much-maligned with critics: some have stated their outright dislike with the latter, and I’ll chime in on the prior saying it is basically my most hated pilot of the season.

And yet, it appears that CBS really wants me to like them, because they’ve hired viral internet marketers to spread the word about these two shows. Now, I’d like to point out a few things here, things that perhaps CBS might like to listen to. Because if you’re going to do viral marketing, you need to be either entirely upfront or cunningly subtle about it. And the people you’ve hired? Are neither.

Take for instance Bill’s comment about The Big Bang Theory:

I am hearing some great things about the Fall show called The Big Bang Theory on Mondays on CBS. The critics love it and think it is very,very funny. Everyone who has seen the pilot loves it. It comes from Two and Half Men’s Chuck Lorre. This could be the next hit show.

[Deleted Link to Show’s CBS Website]

or see clips here :

[Deleted Link to YouTube clips]

This is clearly viral marketing and nothing more: no one actually talks like this, as far as I am aware, and there isn’t even an attempt to make things sound natural. It would be one thing if he wasn’t trying to pass himself off as just another guy named Bill, as opposed to a studio hire. Also, he says that critics and “everyone” loves it, without stating his own opinion. Likely because he hasn’t even seen the show, and doesn’t know any better.

Here’s an example of what might have worked in terms of marketing this show:

I watched The Big Bang Theory just last night, actually; the pilot really impressed me. I’m a fan of Two and a Half Men, and it seems like this show would fit right in. I actually think that it might work better in the slot after Two and a Half Men instead of on Mondays at 8:30 like they have it scheduled. Personally, I think Chuck Lorre (Who produces Two and a Half Men) has a hit on his hands.

See, I just wrote that in thirty seconds, and it sounds as if I actually watched and enjoyed the pilot. In reality, I bloody well hated the thing: it was horribly written, horribly acted, and failed to introduce a single fresh element to the sitcom formula (World of Warcraft does not cultural relevance make). But what I wrote there actually makes it seem like I did, and encourages people to give its pilot a shot. This would be smart viral marketing.

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July 27, 2007 · 10:00 pm

‘Jericho’ Rerun Report – “Semper Fidelis”

What fascinates me about this episode of Jericho is that it changes everything, in a way: we are now at a point where hope cannot be taken at face value, and where even a figure of authority can be a pure falsehood. This is what was missing early on in the series: I think that good and evil were too clearly defined, but now the world is as unclear as it really should be in the wake of an attack of this nature.

In this episode, the “Marines” represent the unfortunate future that lies ahead: the politics of this world are not crystal clear good vs. evil. It’s so interesting to see the reaction to word that South Korea and Iran have been bombed, and how quickly that news falls aside in favour of news of hope for the future. I think that’s a natural reaction, not some sort of ignorance to the ramifications of the bombs: on the list of pieces of information my mind would settle on as a member of Jericho’s community, I think “hope” would go above “war”.

And really, the stakes changed with Sarah and Hawkins as well. What seemed like a pointless and meandering story last week suddenly became atomic in nature: literally. Throwing the “package” into the mix certainly throws a further wrench into the loss of innocence, snatched away again by the revelation that the Marines are not the Marines. The Greens are the ones who figure this out, of course, but the townspeople remain unaware.

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July 27, 2007 · 3:09 pm

Pilot Preview: ABC’s ‘Pushing Daisies’

I was trying to explain the premise of ABC’s Pushing Daisies (Premiering on Wednesday, October 3rd at 8pm EDT) to my boss shortly after watching its pilot, and I must admit that the task was quite difficult. Said boss is the epitome of the casual television viewer, so I was trying to word things in such a way as to catch his interest.

I eventually was able to use my knowledge of his own personal world views to frame the show as a morality tale about actions and consequences with a whimsical and ultimately happy twist. At a certain point in this conversation, I resolved myself to the belief that ABC will never be able to properly market this wonderful television program.

I also, however, resolved to help them out as much as possible. Pushing Daisies is a heartwarming and wonderfully told fairy tale that, without doubt, is the best pilot of the 2007-2008 season. And I’m going to tell this to anyone who will listen.

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July 27, 2007 · 8:36 am

Why Sylar Needs to Die for ‘Heroes’ to Succeed

When NBC released promotional images for Heroes’ second season this weekend in preparation for Comic Con, there was something about them that bothered me. Ever since the first season ended, I have been hoping against hope that producers would not be stupid enough to sustain the life of the evil villain who was thwarted at the end of the show’s first season. Alas, it appears that they’ve made the decision: Zachary Quinto and his character, Sylar, will be around for Season Two. And this, my friends, basically kills any of the resolution of the show’s first season. These are the reasons why Sylar must die for this series to continue with any level of quality.

The First Season Won’t Matter

A lot of great things happened in the first season, but paramount amongst them was all of the Heroes coming together in the end to defeat Sylar. If Sylar doesn’t die, then this would have basically all been for nothing: Hiro’s training and resolve wouldn’t have resulted in his murder of Sylar, but rather just a life-threatening injury. This emasculates everything Peter, Claire, Hiro and everyone else went through if he just slinks off into the sewers. They stopped the bomb, sure, but the evil serial killer who threatened their livelihood? He just got hurt a little.

Hindsight is 20/20

In retrospect, Sylar’s death was handled terribly: how could someone with all of those superpowers possibly not be able to stop Hiro from stabbing him with that sword? He went out a pussy, basically, and I think that now producers want to resurrect him to give him a more badass sendoff later. This sets a terrible precedent: just because the producers screwed the pooch shouldn’t mean that they can just manipulate their series in contrived fashions to make up for it.

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