TV Diary
1. "The Loop"
I feel really bad for this show, I liked it what I saw of the first season, which FOX only aired a handful of episodes of, back in 2006. But after it was picked up as a mid-season replacement, they ended up not airing it at all during the actual season, and decided to cancel the show last month before burning off the produced 2nd season episodes between Simpsons reruns on Sundays this Summer. I get the vague feeling that the show's been dramatically retooled since the first season, but I can't remember exactly how much has been changed, considering that I last saw those episodes a year and a half ago. It's still a pretty good show, though, a very fast-talking, absurd workplace comedy. Kind of reminds of Scrubs without the maudlin dramatic moments, or maybe the short-lived Fred Savage vehicle Working. Kudos for the hysterical guy in the elevator and the hot receptionist. And Philip Baker Hall is awesome, mostly because it's like a reprisal of my favorite role he ever did, as the library detective on Seinfeld.
2. "Hoodfab"
This is a weird little game show that they've started running on the MTV Jams channel in the past few weeks, hosted by Buttahman, who used to be program director at 92Q here in Baltimore a few years ago, before he went to work for MTV. The show is real low budget, with five minute segments where Buttahman quizzes rappers (Snoop, Eve) and random dudes on the street about hip hop trivia. It's kind of a cute idea, although it feels really slapdash, like they used cheaper cameras than they have access to on purpose, and for the most part I know the answer to every question. I'm curious if they're gonna try to expand the format into a full-on series at some point, though.
3. "The Riches"
I don't watch The Sopranos, so last week when the whole world was shouting at their TV about that, I was all pissed about this show's finale. I wrote about it favorably here a couple times and mostly stand by what I said, and I don't really mind an open-ended or cliffhanger ending, since they've been renewed for a 2nd season. But it felt like the writers just painted themselves into a corner with too many complications, and when they got to the absolute climax, they just ended it there to give themselves another year to figure out where the hell they're going with this. It just really pissed me off because it felt like there never was any arc to the show to begin with, that they were just making it up as the go along in the same way Eddie Izzard's character often rambles. I call bullshit.
4. "Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It"
Like most of the world, I've always found Kathy Griffin incredibly irritating and associated her with the shitpile that is "Suddenly Susan." But I've kind of come around on her actually being pretty funny because of her standup specials on Bravo. It occurs to me that she's probably always been doing this kind of catty, celebrity-obsessed comedy, but the world has kind of caught up to her now where that's what the whole comedy world is focused on. Anyway this new special was pretty funny, especially the bit about the Emmys, although when I try to give her reality show Live On The D-List a chance, I just get bored and switch it off.
5. "The Comeback"
It's kind of amazing that "Friends" has only been off the air for three years, and already half the cast have launched new series and had them cancelled (while Courtney Cox's horrible "The Dirt" gets picked up for a 2nd season thanks to the low expectations of basic cable). This show with Lisa Kudrow seems like more of a humble failure than "Studio 60" or "Joey," however, partly because the show is a whole meta thing about an aging sitcom star. I gave it a chance since HBO's been rerunning it lately, but it's really just kind of another lame single camera mockumentary that we're probably going to be saddled with for the next 10 years thanks to "The Office," where they're going for cringes and chuckles more than laughs.
I feel really bad for this show, I liked it what I saw of the first season, which FOX only aired a handful of episodes of, back in 2006. But after it was picked up as a mid-season replacement, they ended up not airing it at all during the actual season, and decided to cancel the show last month before burning off the produced 2nd season episodes between Simpsons reruns on Sundays this Summer. I get the vague feeling that the show's been dramatically retooled since the first season, but I can't remember exactly how much has been changed, considering that I last saw those episodes a year and a half ago. It's still a pretty good show, though, a very fast-talking, absurd workplace comedy. Kind of reminds of Scrubs without the maudlin dramatic moments, or maybe the short-lived Fred Savage vehicle Working. Kudos for the hysterical guy in the elevator and the hot receptionist. And Philip Baker Hall is awesome, mostly because it's like a reprisal of my favorite role he ever did, as the library detective on Seinfeld.
2. "Hoodfab"
This is a weird little game show that they've started running on the MTV Jams channel in the past few weeks, hosted by Buttahman, who used to be program director at 92Q here in Baltimore a few years ago, before he went to work for MTV. The show is real low budget, with five minute segments where Buttahman quizzes rappers (Snoop, Eve) and random dudes on the street about hip hop trivia. It's kind of a cute idea, although it feels really slapdash, like they used cheaper cameras than they have access to on purpose, and for the most part I know the answer to every question. I'm curious if they're gonna try to expand the format into a full-on series at some point, though.
3. "The Riches"
I don't watch The Sopranos, so last week when the whole world was shouting at their TV about that, I was all pissed about this show's finale. I wrote about it favorably here a couple times and mostly stand by what I said, and I don't really mind an open-ended or cliffhanger ending, since they've been renewed for a 2nd season. But it felt like the writers just painted themselves into a corner with too many complications, and when they got to the absolute climax, they just ended it there to give themselves another year to figure out where the hell they're going with this. It just really pissed me off because it felt like there never was any arc to the show to begin with, that they were just making it up as the go along in the same way Eddie Izzard's character often rambles. I call bullshit.
4. "Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It"
Like most of the world, I've always found Kathy Griffin incredibly irritating and associated her with the shitpile that is "Suddenly Susan." But I've kind of come around on her actually being pretty funny because of her standup specials on Bravo. It occurs to me that she's probably always been doing this kind of catty, celebrity-obsessed comedy, but the world has kind of caught up to her now where that's what the whole comedy world is focused on. Anyway this new special was pretty funny, especially the bit about the Emmys, although when I try to give her reality show Live On The D-List a chance, I just get bored and switch it off.
5. "The Comeback"
It's kind of amazing that "Friends" has only been off the air for three years, and already half the cast have launched new series and had them cancelled (while Courtney Cox's horrible "The Dirt" gets picked up for a 2nd season thanks to the low expectations of basic cable). This show with Lisa Kudrow seems like more of a humble failure than "Studio 60" or "Joey," however, partly because the show is a whole meta thing about an aging sitcom star. I gave it a chance since HBO's been rerunning it lately, but it's really just kind of another lame single camera mockumentary that we're probably going to be saddled with for the next 10 years thanks to "The Office," where they're going for cringes and chuckles more than laughs.
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on Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 7:00 PM.
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