I’m directing a musical. It’s kicking my ass. Forgive me if I watch a little television to unwind or, better yet, to displace the songs from Urinetown: The Musical which haunt me 24 hours a day. Haven’t watched a lot but there are three shows worth recommending. I know I will be the only one to commit to its April 15, 2009 deadline, but ABC’s “Flashforward” is entertaining if you dig post-9/11 anxiety narratives. Check out the cold opening from this past week’s episode (you’ll have to sit through a Disney commercial and about 35 seconds of “previously on” footage which I will ask you to ignore before the show’s clever mash-up of Bjork and cataclysm). Another show that has produced two top notch episodes and two decent eps is ABC’s half-hour sitcom “Modern Family.” The pilot is brilliant and worth your twenty-two minutes. And, finally, there is Fox’s “Glee,” which is fantastic (or maybe I’ve been watching too many teenagers sing and dance for the past three weeks). It’s definitely worth checking out.
Just a reminder for this week: STEVEN SEAGAL: LAWMAN premiers this Wednesday night, December 2nd, on A&E. It is going to be great.
I’m looking forward to the premier of Jean-Claude Van Damme: Notary Public . You’ve been witnessed!
hahahaha michael!
Why not here?
I’ve been detachedly intrigued by the late-night shenanigans. Like probably most everyone under 60, I can barely recall the last time Jay Leno made me laugh, and while I don’t often watch Conan his invested goofiness is right up my alley. I pull for him, but–heck, it’s late night. Who cares? If I’m up, I’m rarely watching tv, maybe breezing by Stewart or Colbert.
And while the public foolishness has caught my eye, the monologues and riffing it has produced is (not just with Leno and O’Brien, but Letterman offering “genius” tv advice and Jimmy Kimmel dressing up and doing a whole show as Jay) is more bluntly mean and heartfelt than these guys usually get.
But this…or, rather, this… pretty interesting television.
Hitler is right. But two questions: is Conan going on hiatus before the Olympics? And is Jay getting “The Tonight Show” or is he, in fact, getting a different show, while “The Tonight Show” is moved back to 12:05? Can someone fact-check Hitler?
I suggest firing them all, and forcing them to live off the obscene cash they make for standing and telling jokes for ten minutes each evening and then boring the shit out of us with celebrity “interviews” whose banality is mind-numbing (except for Letterman’s occasional taunting of various self-important actors and blowhard politicians). I will choose to watch re-runs of Aqua Teen Hunger Force any evening. Give Conan’s show to Triumph, get rid of Jimmy Fallon (can you imagine giving this guy a show? based on what? his shtick of laughing at himself all through his time on SNL? How about a show for Horatio Sanz?) and put on infomercials and put Leno on early AM weather or during that hour of the Today show with Kathie Lee, more proof that the talk-show undead are hard to kill. Scorched Earth!