June 17, 2007 · 10:43 pm

Entourage Season Premiere – “Welcome to the Jungle” Review

Season Four Premiere

“Welcome to the Jungle”

Airdate: June 17th, 2007

In a rare cold open for HBO’s Entourage, a documentary filmmaker covers the filming of Medellin, the biographical film about Pablo Escobar that Vince and Eric are producing in Colombia. Asked what attracted them to the film, Vince says that it was everything, Eric says it was the script, and director Billy Walsh says it was the blood. And the rest of the episode follows much in that pattern: everything is struggling, the script is in trouble, and the blood is pouring. Taking the form of a documentary on the making of the film (Turtle is there as Vince’s assistant, Drama stops by while his show is on hiatus, Ari offers his own opinions from his office), this season premiere picked up on last season’s drama regarding getting financing for the film. The episode was something different for the series, and did exactly what it needed to do. After building for so many episodes to this conclusion, to this film process, we need to be able to see it…but it needs to be done in an accelerated fashion. And, that is what “Welcome to the Jungle” is all about.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Entourage, Television

Tagged as ,

June 17, 2007 · 12:44 pm

Review: Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’

[I said just yesterday that I felt incapable of writing a full review of the film, and would instead focus on various elements of it over the next two weeks. And while these are unlikely to be wordy (Some will be quite short indeed), I’ve decided that I need to try to learn how to write a review. And thus comes this exercise, against my own expectation.]

The Incredibles is one of my favourite films that Pixar has released…but I don’t know if you can classify it as a Pixar film. It is a wildly engaging superhero romp with a unique sense of character and family that doesn’t quite fit in with the comparatively simple tales of fish and toys and monsters within the studio’s other films. The personal style of writer/director Brad Bird is an extension of the Pixar brand: the same genius storytelling, but with a very different sense of style. Ratatouille, then, is an interesting monster: while the film was written and directed by Bird, it was initially conceived and developed under (now former) Pixar short director Jan Pinkava.

The result, like any good dish, is two ingredients coming together in an amazing fashion. The world and characters that Pinkava imagined are closer to what we expect from Pixar, but Bird infuses them with a sense of classic Disney comedy and his own brand of character-based storytelling to create something entirely new. The result is, in my view, the perfect combination of these two elements. Bird takes the usual Pixar formula, dusts it off, and turns in an astounding piece of filmmaking. By taking the most fantastic elements of ‘The Incredibles’ and bringing them to a more traditional story, Bird has created a combination that is hard to beat, and a film that is perhaps the studio’s most conceptually and artistically strong since Toy Story.

SPOILER WARNING: They will be light spoilers only, but there may be some spoilers involved. You’ve been warned.

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Cinema, Pixar, Ratatouille

June 17, 2007 · 11:00 am

For Your Consideration: Lead Actors – Michael C. Hall and Josh Radnor

[In Week Three of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Lead Actor awards in both drama and comedy. Today, we present our third set of candidates. For complete listings for the Supporting candidates from the past two weeks, check out our For Your Consideration index]

Lead Actor in a Drama

Michael C. Hall (Dexter Morgan)

Dexter

Michael C. Hall spent years on Six Feet Under as perhaps the least nominated star of the HBO series. When it ended, he was probably not expected to make a huge splash compared to his high-profile co-stars like Peter Krause. Well, Michael C. Hall proved them all wrong, landing the starring role on Showtime’s Dexter and knocking it out of the park. Dexter is a character that needs to be likable and yet contain the type of rage and emotional distance required to represent his tortured past. Hall manages to walk this fine line in his various relationships on the show, and I believe that he has one of the toughest roles of any of the drama candidates. While so many of these actors need to act a certain way, Hall needs to present a character who is acting nearly all the time, lying to all those around him. And his deft ability to do so makes him worthy of Emmy consideration.

Dexter Morgan is a character that is a forensic blood analyst by day, but moonlights as a vigilante law enforcer, torturing and murdering people who have wronged others and slipped through the cracks of the justice system. Michael C. Hall brings him to life…well, that’s the wrong term, because part of Dexter (The caring, emotional part) is dead. As the season progressed, it became harder and harder to keep up his lie, and he even found himself regaining some of his emotions with his relationship with Rita. Combine this with the fact that an ice truck killer knows Dexter’s secret and is taunting him, and you have a man in a dire situation.

And Michael C. Hall always represented that. His delivery, his mannerisms, his actions, they all fit the incredibly hard to nail down profile of vigilante murdered lying to his friends and family and incapable of controlling his anger or caring about others. Dexter is not evil: he kills only those who deserve it based on rules set forth by his adopted father. And somehow, even as he murders someone almost every episode, Hall manages to make us empathize and care about this murderer, and yet still fear who he is and what he does. And that is a performance worthy of Emmy consideration.

Episode Selection: “Shrink Wrap” (Aired November 19th, 2006)

The season finale (“Born Free”) of Dexter is what has actually been selected, and it is still a fantastic piece of acting from Michael C. Hall. With his sister in danger and the ice truck killer’s identity revealed, Dexter must face his torturous past while making a final decision: does his past define him, or can he decide his own fate with his sister and the people who care about him? Both offer the titular freedom, but in very different ways, and Hall makes that decision just as hard as it should be.

But I think that the best episode for Dexter is “Shrink Wrap”, where he heads to a therapist as part of a case and ends up finding need for his services himself. It’s a powerful performance from Hall, as the following scene shows: Dexter finally tells someone the truth, if only right before he kills them.

YouTube – “Shrink Wrap”

Lead Actor in a Comedy

Josh Radnor (Ted)

How I Met Your Mother

Ted Moseby, architect. It must be a tough job, being straight man to the fantastic Neil Patrick Harris, but Josh Radnor always seems up to the task. He is an incredibly engaging lead, simultaneously believable as a young architect and as a guy who hangs around and swordfights with his best friend. While I don’t believe that he is the cast’s strongest component, like Cobie Smulders I believe he plays an integral role in ensuring the ensemble works. Ted is the glue that holds all of these people together, in a sense, and even without comic showcases I believe that makes him worthy of Emmy consideration.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Award Shows, Dexter, Emmy Awards, How I Met Your Mother, Television

Tagged as , , ,

June 17, 2007 · 8:54 am

The Ten Reasons You Should See Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’: #9 – Wall-E

[Since writing a review has been hard (But I might well end up doing it), I’ve decided to instead feature the 10 reasons why I believe that everyone should see this movie. This is the second part of that series.]

Reason #9 – Wall-E

Before I left to go see Ratatouille in its Saturday Sneak Preview, I knew that the teaser trailer for Wall-E (Releasing from Pixar in 2008) had been released but decided against watching it online. As a result, when I saw it in the theatre it was my first time experiencing it. For the sake of allowing you the same opportunity, I will place all of my specific reasons why this simple minute and a half trailer is enough for me to suggest you see this movie after the break. But this teaser trailer is poignant, exciting, and promises great things for Pixar’s next film.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Cinema, Pixar, Ratatouille, Wall-E

June 16, 2007 · 10:02 pm

The Ten Reasons Why You Should See Pixar’s ‘Ratatouille’: #10 – The Story

I am hereby declaring the following decree that should be followed by all analysts, all critics, all viewers, and all bloggers like myself. In light of the fabulous Pixar creation ‘Ratatouille’, I want to make something incredibly clear:

From this point forward, the success of a Pixar film shall never be measured by its box office results, but rather by its quality. Both Variety (Noting it could be a harder sell) and The Hollywood Reporter (predicting it would struggle to meet box office receipts) prefaced their reviews with a statement proclaiming that this might finally be the Pixar film that doesn’t live up to the rest financially. And, well, I don’t give a rat’s ass (Oooh, I know, bad pun). The fact of the matter is that this is one of Pixar’s finest films, in a league of its own, and its box office results don’t particularly matter. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter agree with my assessment of the film’s quality, but this need to address the pessimists shouldn’t be necessary. Pixar is making great films, and until they stop doing so “The End of Pixar” will be the last thing that enters my mind.

With this said, I invite all of you to peruse the following review to discover why Ratatouille is worth sampling when it opens in two weeks time on June 29th…or, that is what I would say if I didn’t realize that I am quite unprepared to right a review at this stage of the game.

You see, Ratatouille is a film that I’m having a hard time criticizing. Every time I attempt to do so, I find myself writing sentences and sentences on one of its many fantastic elements. And so, over the next two weeks (Yep, I’m milking this one for all its worth), I intend on highlighting The Ten Reasons You Should See ‘Ratatouille’. Now, you might claim this to be some sort of viral marketing attempt, and it really isn’t. I might well be critical within these sections, but only in small quantities: admittedly, this is a film I loved and I am not afraid to say so.

However, in short, I will say this:

I believe that Ratatouille is perhaps the best example of a purely Pixar film since Toy Story. It is a film that engrosses itself in its setting, its characters, its universe more than any of their films in between. It has most of The Incredibles’ fantastic qualities (I want to marry Michael Giacchino right now), but does so within a more traditionally Pixar story…and that combination is hard to beat.

As the studio prepares to release a mostly silent film starring a trash compacting robot (Wall-E, 2008) and one about a park ranger and an old man fighting beasts and villains (Up, 2009), the time has come to appreciate Pixar just like you would any other movie studio: by the quality of their work. And this is a work of sheer quality.

And so, without further adieu, I introduce Reason #10 Why You Should See ‘Ratatouille’.

Reason #10 – The Story

SPOILER WARNING: While I will not ruin any of the best moments of the film, I am likely to allude to them in some shape or form, and this might not be in your interest. However, I will be as spoiler-free as physically possible.

The smallish theatre designated to this evening’s special sneak preview was pretty well to capacity, with nary a single seat left in the auditorium. The audience was varied: I attended with my parents, there was a twenty-something couple to one side of us, there was an older woman by herself to our right, and there were of course kids all around us. This was a diverse audience, which I presume will be a positive sign for the data collectors when they get this information. Because, even with an audience this diverse, they absolutely loved Ratatouille. And a lot of that has to do with its rich story. It is not number 10 because it is the least important, but simply because it is the one thing leaping out at me as I react to viewing the film for the first time.

The story isn’t original on paper, per se: a country rat ending up in the big city and having to come to terms with his two lives is treading on familiar territory. However, what needs to be made clear is that the story does not stop and end with that moment. Like Brad Bird’s other stories, such as The Incredibles, this is a multi-faceted, multi-layered story that spans species, generations, and professions to become something truly memorable.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Cinema, Disney, Pixar, Ratatouille

June 16, 2007 · 12:49 pm

For Your Consideration: Lead Actors – Tony Shalhoub and Enrico Colantoni

[In Week Three of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Lead Actor awards in both drama and comedy. Today, we present our second set of candidates. For complete listings for the Supporting candidates from the past two weeks, check out our For Your Consideration index]

Lead Actor in a Comedy

Tony Shalhoub (Adrian Monk)

Monk

For the past two years, Tony Shalhoub has won the Emmy Award for Leading Actor in a Comedy. And every year, arguably, someone else probably deserved it more. I am not sure if the same will happen this year, but I want to make something clear: despite believing that Shalhoub perhaps isn’t better than some of his other candidates, he is an adept comic actor who infuses Monk with 90% of its charm. As a procedural dramedy, ostensibly, Monk is entirely reliant on Shalhoub’s performance of OCD-riddled, paranoid, uncomfortable and brilliant Adrian. While the show can be uneven, Shalhoub’s performance is always incredibly strong; very rarely do you ever become annoyed by his antics, even as the show sometimes loses sight of its proper goals. Considering his long string of nominations, Shalhoub is clearly a man who gives consistently great performances. And, while I might not select him to win, it’s hard not to consider his portrayal of Adrian Monk for Emmy Awards attention.

In the hands of a lesser actor, I believe that Monk would be an insufferable pain in the ass that we couldn’t imagine anyone actually liking. However, Shalhoub gives him an everyman quality: disconnected from society in so many ways, Monk is much like any other social outsider struggling to find his place in the world. And as he solves crimes in his brilliant fashion, it’s hard not to be charmed by his simple ways and genius mind. What Shalhoub does is make the comedy more pointed, the drama more humorous. Even as the show fails to live up to its potential through stupid stunts such as Monk chasing after a fighter jet (And catching it), Shalhoub always gives a performance that makes you keep watching. And that, although maybe not worthy of beating Steve Carell last year, is worthy of Emmy consideration.

Episode Selection: Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink (Aired August 11th, 2006)

This episode features the best of Adrian’s qualities in one episode. Faced with the thought of his long-time therapist Dr. Kroger (Stanley Kamel) ending, Monk has to face his own personal problems in an accelerated fashion. Desperate for guidance, he goes to his house and attempts to solve the murder in Kroger’s office in order to bring him back to work. It features most of Monk’s best qualities: his feud with fellow patient Harold, his insecurity about his mental health, his reaction to a new therapist with only one arm (Not symmetrical), and his broad comedy. It is a tour de force comic performance, highlighted by his speedy trip through the stages of grief that is basically an Emmy reel in itself.

YouTube – “Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink”

Lead Actor in a Drama

Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Veronica Mars

I was somewhat surprised to see that Veronica Mars’ Enrico Colantoni had submitted in the Lead Actor category, as I really never saw his performance as being on that level. Sure, I love Keith just as much as the next fan of the show, but he’s being classified a lead actor purely due to his acting pedigree. In reality, I’d call Jason Dohring more of a lead actor this season than Keith was, but I have to go with what was submitted. It’s really not that hard, however, to make a case for Colantoni’s Emmy worthiness. Keith is a memorable television father whose love for his daughter faced many challenges over three seasons but never waned. As the show comes to an end, it is unlikely that it will be garnering Emmy attention as it doesn’t seem to write Emmy bait episodes like other series. However, there is something about Colantoni’s performance that simultaneously portrayed Keith as kind, concerned, protective and pretty darn cool: and that’s worthy of Emmy consideration for the Veronica Mars actor.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Award Shows, Emmy Awards, Monk, Television, The CW, Veronica Mars

Tagged as , ,

June 16, 2007 · 10:33 am

How Aaron Sorkin Ruined ‘Studio 60’: Part One – Pilot Potential

[In this three part series, Cultural Learnings will investigate the fall of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the much-buzzed about NBC drama that failed to find ratings traction and lost creative drive throughout the series.]

Part One: Pilot Potential

I LOVED the Studio 60 pilot, just downright loved it. I watched that thing four or five times in August of last year, fascinated by the dialogue and the camera movements. Sure, it was all stuff that Sorkin had done on the West Wing, but back then I was young and didn’t understand most of it. Now, with an understanding of it, the decisions Sorkin made all seemed to contribute to the development of a show that I would want to watch on a weekly basis. Looking back now, however, this pilot was an entirely misleading, unrepresentative portrayal of the universe Sorkin intended to create. And, in the weeks that followed, Aaron Sorkin ruined Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The pilot established various elements that could have made for an incredibly interesting show; unfortunately, Aaron Sorkin found a way to drive every single one of them into the ground.

– Matt and Harriet’s history could provide dramatic and comic tension for the series.

Well, it could have, but instead Sorkin turned it into the only dramatic tension in the entire show. And their “Jesus vs. Not Jesus” arguments were always the same, always not that interesting, and always something we’d heard before. In the pilot, Matt and Harriet working together was something that was to be awkward and difficult; in the rest of the series it just seemed like two people bickering all the time. When the rest of the cast calls Harriet on the bullshit in something like episode 17, it was about 15 episodes too late.

– Danny’s drug problem could be a recurring focus of his character, and a source of conflict between him and Matt.

Except that they completely disappeared after week one, only to reappear at strange times like this week’s episode where he referenced being an alcoholic. A cocaine addiction isn’t something that should go away that easily, and Sorkin is basically admitting that it was only a contrivance to get him away from the movie pictures. Which, really, should have been his desire the entire time while producing the show, but apparently everyone has forgotten about that. And yet it’s MATT who ends up addicted to painkillers late in the season. Go Sorkin.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under NBC, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Television

Tagged as

June 15, 2007 · 8:42 pm

The Return of ‘Jericho’ Gets CBS Ad Attention during ‘The Price is Right’

Bob Barker’s final episode of The Price is Right was a classy affair that, despite being just another episode on the surface, felt representative of everything the show stood for. However, as we say goodbye to Bob Barker, it was hard to ignore the push that CBS is giving one of the shows it said goodbye to in May before reconsidering. That show is ‘Jericho’.

The advertisement is everything that CBS should be doing to promote the show (It is also being placed at the end of some CBS Innertube viewings). Starting with various scenes from the end of the show’s first season, it reminds viewers that only once in a long while is there a show that fans will fight to keep on the air. And that show is…Jericho.

The commercial goes on to inform viewers that the show will begin reruns on July 6th, and on the whole really makes the show out to be something that people should pay attention to. And let me tell you, the commercial is effective: it features the emotion of the show’s characters and doesn’t try to bog viewers down in the conspiracies seen throughout the show’s first season.

Now, while the show wasn’t peppered with the ads or anything, I think it shows that CBS is willing to spread the word about this series in what might well be one of the highest rated specials of the summer season (We’ll get final ratings tomorrow). For now, fans of the series can finally believe that the network will be in their corner, and can hope for more coverage this evening during the Daytime Emmy Awards.

2 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as ,

June 15, 2007 · 12:45 pm

For Your Consideration: Lead Actors – Kiefer Sutherland and Zach Braff

[In Week Three of Cultural Learnings’ 59th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations Preview, we’re looking at possible contenders for the Lead Actor awards in both drama and comedy. Today, we present our first set of candidates. For complete listings for the Supporting candidates from the past two weeks, check out our For Your Consideration index]

Lead Actor in a Drama

Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer)

24

Jack Bauer ended season five of 24 abducted by Chinese authorities for his fourth season antics at the Chinese consulate. It was the kind of cliffhanger the show had never really attempted, not to this degree anyways, and the result was what seemed like an opportunity for Kiefer Sutherland to really play around this season. Released by Chinese authorities after some form of convoluted plea agreement we never got a chance to understand (and that didn’t matter two hours later), Jack returned a damaged man struggling to come to terms with the torture he endured. Over the first four hours, Jack Bauer was a damaged man; while instinct and adrenaline kicked in as they usually would, Jack was slow on the draw in pretty well every instance. Kiefer Sutherland portrayed this character with just the right amount of breakdown: Jack was still Jack, but it was now more of a costume than it was his true feelings. That performance was won that could have won Sutherland his second straight emmy, and it is still worthy of a nomination. However, unfortunately for Sutherland, the rest of the season let Jack down.

I’ve read some points about Jack recently, and one of them is that Jack didn’t have enough action this season, that he never really got to be Jack Bauer. I would actually argue that the problem with Jack this season was that he was exactly like Jack Bauer, and his torture-riddled body was magically perfect from hour five onwards. What could have been a dramatic arc for the character basically became an excuse to gain a strong opening set of episodes, and the result was that Jack didn’t have a purpose during the middle of the season. Combine this with the lack of action, and you had a character without character, never really allowed to have any emotional depth.

Despite this, Kiefer is here is because he is both likely to be nominated and probably deserves it. I hold the writers responsible for all of the problems Kiefer faced, and he always lived up to whatever they asked of him. Also, while it was too little too late, the end of season arc featuring Audrey gave Sutherland a chance to return to the more emotional arc that was stronger at the beginning of the season. The thing about Sutherland is that his performance is always strong: even when the series dipped in season 4, for example, Sutherland was never responsible. From an acting perspective, Kiefer delivered an even performance pretty well all the way through Season Six, which is worthy of Emmy consideration.

Episode Selection: “6:00am – 7:00am” (Aired January 14th, 2007)

However, his chances of winning will all come down to which episode of the show he submits, and he has chosen to submit the first hour of the show’s two-hour season opener. This submission will pretty well ensure that he gains a nomination for the series: it shows the pain he suffered while in China, it shows him resolving to give up his own life for his country, and at the end of the episode he goes all Vampire on one of Fayed’s men and escapes their clutches. That combines the type of emotional storyline I discussed above with the bad-ass Jack that Dave and others were looking for. I think that the episode’s potential for Jack’s character wasn’t lived up to, but Emmy voters don’t know that. And, as a result, this episode will be more than enough to put Kiefer Sutherland up for Emmy consideration.

YouTube – “6:00am – 7:00am”

Lead Actor in a Comedy

Zach Braff (J.D.)

Scrubs

After the cinematic success found with Garden State, Zach Braff has become an award show mainstay for his role as John Dorian on NBC’s Scrubs…and I don’t really know why. Well, that’s not true: I can see how the combination of his popularity and his consistent performance have given him a higher profile than other superior comic actors. However, I figured out another reason while preparing for this series: there just aren’t that many male comedy leads out there right now. Braff, in comparison to what others there are, is actually a seasoned veteran with some strong comic turns and a sense of character able to switch between silly and serious quite easily. While J.D. no longer has the freshness he had during the first seasons, and the silly stuff can often go too far, Braff was as competent as ever this season…and in a shallow pool, that competence is more than enough to be considered for an Emmy award.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under 24, Emmy Awards, FOX, NBC, Scrubs, Television

Tagged as ,

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Award Shows, Cultural Learnings, Emmy Awards, Jericho, Television

Tagged as ,