Category Archives: Cultural Learnings

September 24, 2007 · 7:30 am

Hey! Nielsen: Giving Voice to Internet Fandom

Late last week, I was invited to take part in a private beta for a new website called Hey! Nielsen. And yes, it is that Nielsen company, the same one that has been attacked from all sides for its misrepresentation of a show’s true popularity. But, impressively, Nielsen is stepping outside of their boxes and notepads, instead turning to the social networking craze of the internet to find a new way of measuring popularity.

http://www.heynielsen.com

The result is a website that, in my experience with it, has a great deal of potential in terms of monitoring internet chatter. However, the most important thing at this point is that people actually start using this service to their advantage. Starting today (Monday, September 24th), the private beta becomes public, and the world gets a chance to make their opinion heard even without a fancy box sitting on their television.

Users are able to do three things:

  • Post their own opinions about TV Shows, Movies, Celebrities, Music and Internet sites like Jericho Monster or TelevisionWithoutPity.
  • React to other people’s opinions and post comments about their agreement/disagreement.
  • Rate each TV Show/Movie/etc. based on their own preference so people can view their profile and get an idea of their personal taste.

For fans of a series like Jericho, which is actually mentioned in the site’s opening introduction as an example of how this can work, this is a fantastic opportunity for them to have their voices heard. However, I would suggest that anyone who joins from Jericho’s legion of fans, or the fans of any other show, that they use this service as more than just promotion. Hey! Nielsen is about both what people like and don’t like, so while promoting your favourite show be sure to offer opinions on others.

On a personal level, Cultural Learnings was selected to take part in the Best of TV Blogs Contest being held for about the next month or so. As part of that, there has been an area set up where you can post opinions about this site, as well as a whole host of much better TV websites, and then there are some prizes awarded. So if you want to show me some love, or perhaps make a commentary about how awful a human being I am, feel free to do so. Just rate the site, and then leave a comment if you wish.

Hey! Nielsen – Cultural Learnings’ Contest Entry

There are a lot of exciting things planned for the site: widgets, feeds, and a TV viewing calendar feature are all planned for the future, although are not likely to be present in the public beta starting tomorrow. I’ll be posting some opinions throughout the day, especially with some big premieres to come this evening, so stay tuned: I’ll post them here once they’re up so you can get a feel for how the service works.

Cultural Learnings’ Opinions

Jericho – The Best Fans In Television

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September 17, 2007 · 10:05 pm

Cultural Learnings’ Fall 2007 Lineup: Mondays

[Although I’ll be covering some of this week’s early premieres, I thought I’d take a break this week and let readers know what shows I’ll be focusing on this television season. Thanks to writing a thesis and all, admittedly post volume might be lower, but I think it will simply challenge me to say more in less words. And I think we’d all agree that’s in the best interest of everyone. So, each day, I’ll preview the shows I’ll be following in this year’s lineup at Culturall Learnings. This doesn’t exclude other shows, but simply means they won’t be a focus. If you want me to write about anything, always feel free to send me an email at cultural.learnings @ gmail.com!]

Cultural Learnings’ Monday Lineup

Heroes

NBC’s sophomore drama series disappointed with its finale, but I’m more than willing to give this strong ensemble another shot. With Kristen Bell appearing for an extended guest arc, and the Heroes: Origins segments to air at the end of the season, it’s looking like an interesting year for the crew. I’ll start the coverage with a look at the show’s season finale airing September 24th, where at least one of the characters in peril during last year’s finale (Peter, D.L. and Nathan) will perish.

Cultural Learnings’ Heroes Coverage 

Chuck

A comedy of sorts from Josh Schwartz, Chuck follows the exploits of a Nerd Herd employee who finds himself a wealth of government secrets due to an email. The dialogue is sharp, and Schwartz has shown an ability to tap into the humour in more serious situations in the past. The show debuts on September 24th, and you can find my review of the show’s pilot by following this link.

Pilot Preview: “Chuck” – Cultural Learnings 

Weeds

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes…sorry, I got carried away. Weeds’ infectious theme song isn’t the only thing keeping me interested: things heat up tonight with Mary-Kate Olsen’s arrival and further escalation of the U-Turn storyline. I’ll be covering the series until it rides off into the sunset in November. You can find my existing Weeds coverage by following this link.

Cultural Learnings’ Weeds Coverage

How I Met Your Mother

I discovered this show over the summer, and it was well worth my time: it is the best traditional sitcom on television, and is certainly deserving of more attention. The show premieres on September 24th with guest stars Enrique Iglesias and Mandy Moore, as Robin returns from Argentina while Ted has moved on from their breakup. This is one I hope that gains more viewers: if you want some more info, check out our coverage by following this link.

Cultural Learnings’ How I Met Your Mother Coverage

I’ll also be watching Aliens in America, The CW’s freshman sitcom, and may occasionally update on its progress and perhaps pick it up post-Weeds depending on how balancing four shows goes.

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Filed under 2007 Fall Preview, Aliens in America, Chuck, Cultural Learnings, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, NBC, Television, Weeds

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September 7, 2007 · 9:49 am

Cultural Learnings: The House that ‘Jericho’ Built

[As the Emmy Awards and the Fall Premieres start to take over Cultural Learnings, Jericho Fridays might be on a hiatus during the month of September, although I have no intention of abandoning the show. However, before this hiatus takes place, I want to take a chance to take the time to discuss the impact that Jericho has had on this blog over the past four months.]

Recently, someone asked on a message board how bloggers had worked in order to build a consistent audience. In answering this question, it’s easy to go through the usual: using Digg, tagging posts properly, and putting out content in terms of both quality and quantity. However, I had a rather unique response as well: Jericho.

While I had certainly brought a lot of content to Cultural Learnings before May, I had never achieved what I would consider an audience. A blog is one thing, but to be able to create a discourse is the goal of any internet writer. Without people reading, it can often feel like a rather fruitless endeavor.

But all of that changed with a simple post about Jericho, as after the show was canceled I decided to take the devil’s advocate approach and analyze just why CBS canceled the series. And, to be honest, I would still argue that at that point, before the campaign that followed, they probably made the logical, if not proper, call.

May 16th – Why CBS Canceled ‘Jericho’

My perspective was one of a cynical TV writer, fascinated by the anger of a fanbase that, before that point, I wasn’t aware even existed. Jericho had fallen off my own radar months earlier, and this piece was designed to try to jump onto a bandwagon for mostly selfish purposes.

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August 14, 2007 · 10:23 pm

Cultural Interruption: Extended Vacation

As Canadian Idol was about a quarter of the way over earlier this evening, something rather awful happened: Milk waged war on my laptop, and milk won.

The result? Well, I’m somewhat computer-less except for the home PC, and thus updates will cease for a few days while we get everything sorted out. I’ll try to keep things going, but I offer no promises.

Hope everyone’s having a great week!

Myles

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August 6, 2007 · 9:00 am

Cultural Learnings’ Summer TV Wrapup – Introduction

As we head into the month of August, the large majority of Summer Television is either heading into the home stretch or debuting its first episodes as it heads into the Fall. However, since Emmy Awards hype will once again take over Cultural Learnings in the months ahead, I figure now’s the best time to look back at the Summer and the television that is has brought us. And thus Cultural Learnings’ Summer TV Wrapup was born.

This includes the good and the bad, the much loved and much hated, and both reality and scripted television. I’ll be bringing attention to the shows you should be watching, the shows I should have watched sooner, as well as those shows that might not be worth watching at all. I’ll also settle the Karaoke wars once and for all, plus look at which returning summer series I deem the most disappointing of the season.

Starting later today, this 14-part series will begin, and over the next week and a half or so you’ll be able to get the rundown on the summer season thus far. Will your favourite guilty pleasure make the list? Well, only time will tell.

In the meantime, while I’m out enjoying the summer myself, send me an email about your favourite summer series, or maybe the series you’re discovering or rediscovering over the summer through repeats or on DVD. You can send me an email at cultural.learnings @ gmail.com (Without the spaces), and I might include your comments in one of my posts.

Also, to get an idea of what I might be covering, check out the Summer TV Category here at Cultural Learnings for all of our seasonal coverage over the past months.

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June 15, 2007 · 11:01 am

Cultural Learnings’ ‘For Your Consideration’: Week Three Update

Considering that we are now through two of five weeks of Emmy Nominations previews here at Cultural Learnings, I figured I’d give everyone a little update on how things are going heading into Week Three.

FYC: Index

Now that two weeks are gone, the For Your Consideration Index now has enough information for you to spend hours watching YouTube clips and reading up on who’s who in this year’s Emmy race. If you’ve missed any of the daily updates, all of them can be found nicely sorted into categories in the Index: Supporting Actor in a Comedy, Supporting Actor in a Drama, Supporting Actress in a Comedy, Supporting Actress in a Drama.

By the time this process finishes, this section will be chock full of some of the season’s best scenes and performances according to our own selections. After the nominations are announced on July 19th, some of these individuals might make the cut…and others might not.

FYC: Jericho

Fans of the CBS drama have made their voices heard, and a collection of their passion for Jericho and its cast have been collected at the FYC: Jericho page. These are not just fan ramblings: these people are well-spoken and articulate about what makes their show great, and this type of passion should be what every series searches for. To add your own thoughts to the page, send off an email to cultural.learnings @ gmail.com.

Week Three: Lead Actors

It’s time for the leading actors, and these are a much tougher bunch. While supporting roles are varied and provide plenty of room for selectivity, the same cannot be said for leading actors. As a result, there will be times where I question my own decisions…but there just wasn’t any other decision to make, I’m afraid. Either way, there’s plenty of contenders out there, so stay tuned for some thorough analysis as the week progresses. Today, we start with a winner from last year and a perennial nominee from NBC’s Comedy Night Done Right, so stay tuned for that.

As we start counting down the days until the Nominations are announced (35 days remaining!), feel free to send off an email with your own candidate, or your own thoughts on the pending awards. Also stay tuned for details on the rest of Cultural Learnings’ Emmy coverage to continue over the summer.

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