So, the last few weeks have been busy and I’ve managed to catch a number of things, but none (barring one) have been particularly exciting, or have been flat disappointing, and I haven’t bothered to check ’em in on the site. I will now, in a rush:
Ignore The Dying Gaul, despite some very fine performances by Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson, and Campbell Scott. It’s about a sleazy Hollywood producer who cheats on his wife with a gay screenwriter after making the screenwriter turn his gay love tragedy into a straight love tragedy. Its plot relies on such a mechanistic determinism that even the nuances provided by these great actors fail to give the film much dynamism.
Ignore Six Feet Under‘s final season. Okay, I admit: I made it through one episode, found it aggressively uninteresting in exactly the ways I thought Season four failed (and a dim parody of what I had loved so much about Season one), and I refused to waste any more time on it. I gather most of you probably already watched it, if you were going to, and probably liked it, but. Why?
Why the hell did I rent Undertaking Betty? One of those noxious whimsical rural eccentric England comedies about strange professions with Alfred Molina, Brenda Blethyn, and Christopher Walken. The last provides, unsurprisingly, a few good laughs, and the former two provide at least a hint of real emotional energy behind the flat dull tropes of romantic entanglement, but… sucked. And, again, I doubt anyone but me would even look twice at it, let alone rent it, so… For what it’s worth, Kris kind of didn’t mind it.
Why the hell haven’t I been obsessed with Aqua Teen Hunger Force before now? I saw an episode for the first time last week. It involved Frylock moving out to his own apartment, and Shake and Meatwad playing weird games with thawing roast chickens (and infecting their own and Carl’s eyes with progressively more disturbing pus-producing diseases), and — need you ask? — I fell in love. Bought season one and am almost through it, and it’s genius. Genius, genius. I find myself muttering like a Mooninite often, my friends, often. I am thinking so very hard in that fashion right now.
–Why the hell haven’t I been obsessed with Aqua Teen Hunger Force before now?–
Because you just won’t fucking listen. And you no longer live in the same town as me. And for some reason I didn’t make a tape of episodes and send it to you. My bad.
Season One, good as it is, is such a far cry from the sheer horrific violence that overtakes the show by season 3.
Then there is the bizarre “Boost Mobile” episode from a few months ago that was so good, I stopped watching the show entirely after seeing it (three times). In fact, that may have been the last episode made to date.
I know the feeling you have though. When I first realized how amazing ATHF was, I felt as if I’d discovered the Shroud of Turin all wadded up and stuffed into the Holy Grail, with Jesus’ own Magic Blood poured on top.
Other episodes of particular note; T-Shirt of the Dead, Willie Nelson in the Attic, Hypno-Germs, and The Broodwich.
PS – Andrew Durkin’s band is playing on the 23rd at Barnsdall if anyone wants to go see him play.
I keep meaning to write something about Mondovino, but have not. Will soon.
Is it fair to assume that Frylock is not voiced by Delroy Lindo? I keep thinking of ‘Get Shorty’ everytime I hear him speak.
And let me state for the record that I do not think all African American fries sound the same.
Michael is a huge ATHF fan as well. Michael?
I watched ATHF obsessively over and over again for the first two seasons, but then for some reason I burned out and I haven’t seen it at all much (what season are they up to–third now? are the reruns still on adult swim at night?) now that I teach I go to bed at a disgustingly early hour so I miss much good TV (including my beloved reruns of Futurama). But I love those shows, including the inept aliens with German accents who try to steal cable TV through the Far-Gate (Not to be confused with that movie or ze TV show made from the movie). I also love Carl, porn fixation and all–perhaps his best moment was being sucked into the invisible super porto-potty?
Mark wrote: “I know the feeling you have though. When I first realized how amazing ATHF was, I felt as if I’d discovered the Shroud of Turin all wadded up and stuffed into the Holy Grail, with Jesus’ own Magic Blood poured on top.”
After watching a few more episodes, including the wonderful “Universal Remonster,” I have concluded that Mark’s analogy is fair but imprecise. It is like said Shroud, wadded in said Grail, doused with said Jesus blood–but you find out that Jesus blood is maple syrup, and while you eat this tasty sweet Shroud-meal you have an orgasm and receive a tax refund in the four figures. This analogy may improve as I get further into the series.
The entire Boost Mobile episode of ATHF can be viewed here.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gZKtsoiXZkM&search=athf%20boost
It may work better in the context of its original showing: thrown out as the lasst episode before they retreated to make a movie. I still love it loads.
losing time? more like winning time. for the clippers i mean. 2-0 baby!
I say it’s a sweep.
Ah . . . the run and gun aesthetics of the NBA where the concept of defense is little more than a naughty notion. It’s like an entire sport has been mangled by steroids. Let the Clippers win though its hard to get caught up in their inferiority complex. More importantly, please make the games interesting to watch. I’m a purist and can wait till March 2007 for the real game. Go George Mason!
Oh and I’m pleased Arnab is sticking to his guns concerning this blog’s utter devotion to dramatic narrative.
This conversation reminds me…
Mike is such a pansy.
Arnab, I didn’t realize the Clippers were playing the Nuggets. Hell, I hope they win . . . the Nuggets are ass; it would be embarrassing if the Clippers didn’t.
An interesting night for WLTW affectionados. Clint Howard guest starred on “My Name is Earl” AND Wes Anderson’s corporate sell-out commercial for American Express was broadcast at least twice (albeit in a heavily edited version). I betcha David O. Russell wouldn’t stoop to such heights even if Anderson can assuage his guilt with the Tribeca Film Festival imprimatur attached (and the old stand-by: Bobby DeNiro did it, damnit!)
Hey–if advertising lets Anderson, like Spike Lee before him, build up commercial clout, so that he can keep making films the way he wants to make them, *and* if he makes commercials as fine as this one, I ain’t gonna throw stones.
(I have trouble with the flat dismissal of shills, given the general shrill shilling of all entertainment industry productions, from the lowliest commercial to the biggest-budgeted film. Certainly we would have trouble comfortably saying who’s not a shill, and by the same token we could confidently assert some range of ways to distinguish the kinds of shilling?)
[This post is brought to you by the Ad Council.]
I knew you’d jump at that one! I simply needed to be sure of you, to quote Pooh. It’s a funny ad–especially the birds at the end; certainly the wittiest AMEX ad of the lot (even if the edited version is lesser than the one you posted online). Still, I stand by my David O Russell statement (until he makes a “got milk” commercial at which point I’m immediately flying my daughter down to Orlando for a dose of the real world). But a Clint Howard sighting . . . the man is ageless and has absolutely no scruples . . . bless ’em.
Is it possible the commercials kidnapped Spike’s mojo or is it really all about the benjamins? Perhaps I should ask Wayne Wang.
One week Reynolds is singing the praises of ATHF, and the next we are treated to Anthony junior watching an ATHF episode on The Sopranos. What’s up? Is one of the writers for The Sopranos’ reading this blog, or is one of the bloggers writing for The Sopranos?
Sorry Kobe!
Too much time has passed for this reply, but whatever. I won’t defend ‘Six Feet Under’ overall. It often veered into the melodramatic, and it could occasionally be quite unpleasant to watch. But I was just channel surfing and the final episode of the series came on (luckily here they subtitle in Swedish but never dub). I still find the final extended scene, as Claire drives across country, to be something close to a masterpiece. It has tremendous emotional punch, and it ends the series by returning to its roots as Claire envisions the deaths of all the main characters, and her own aging and eventual death. If the characters were never more than annoying to you, it will seem overblown, but if they somehow burrowed under your skin, like ticks, as they did for me, it seems to be an almost perfect way to end the series.