TV Diary
a) "The Cleveland Show"
I realize that Seth McFarlane is a one trick pony and that he's just striking while the iron is hot, but really, man, if you're gonna have 3 shows on the air at the same time they should at least be different in some way, any way. Cleveland only ever had, like, 3 memorable lines in the history of "Family Guy," so I can only assume he was picked for a spinoff as a way to do more sketchy race jokes.
b) "Modern Family"
Ed O'Neill is one of those guys that I think is better than he really gets credit for, at least among people that only know him from the one thing everyone knows him from, which means that one of these days he might find a great vehicle for his talent and he'll be kind of reevaluated. This isn't that vehicle, but it's kinda good, one of the few halfway promising new fall comedies. I wish the whole mockumentary sitcom format would just die, though, all the long awkward beats and shit are so played out at this point. One thing I like about shows like "30 Rock" and even "Community" is that they prove you can do a one-camera show without a laugh track and still have it be kind of punchy and fast paced.
c) "Tool Academy 2"
So this show is still awesome. The cast might not be quite as uniformly entertaining as on the first season, but I'm so glad this is on TV, even if the more boring parts and more superficial therapy/challenge bits sometimes drag.
d) "Man V. Food"
I've mentioned liking this show before, but it's kinda crazy how much replay value it has, just because the host comes across really normal and likable and the food he gets to eat is completely insane and usually watching this makes me hungry and compels me to go cook something. I'd been waiting for them to eventually come around to my neck of the woods and they finally did, last week was the D.C. episode and this week was the Baltimore episode. The D.C. one actually partly took place in Annapolis, at this amazing place Chick & Ruth's that we'd been to before, and he drank a 6 pound milkshake, which might be the most disgusting eating challenge they've ever done on this show. The Baltimore episode has a crab place I used to live a few blocks from and a pit beef place I always used to drive by, neither of which I've ever actually gone to, and some steak place way out in Harford County.
e) "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..."
I keep meaning to watch this, since EC was and is one of my real lifelong musical heroes and even if it's boring I'd like to watch him shoot the shit with other musicians. So far I've only seen the Lou Reed episode, which was pretty entertaining, in particular because Reed came off a lot more approachable and laid back than I ever really imagined him to be.
f) "The Venture Bros."
I'm so excited about the new season starting, but at the same time, I'm realizing more and more that this is a show that doesn't just hold up on repeat viewings but actually improves, once you've seen an episode already and aren't as confused about the plot you can just focus on catching the jokes. This became especially clear after spending a couple weeks watching the Season 3 DVD and laughing my ass off, and then watching the new episodes and enjoying them and finding them well made, but not really laughing much on first viewing. The premiere especially was almost designed to not make sense the first time around. Hopefully Adult Swim will rerun these enough that I won't have to wait for the DVD to really delve into them.
g) "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"Seinfeld" might be my favorite show of all time and I keep wanting to believe friends when they tell me this show is hilarious, but I don't know, it just doesn't do it for me. Jason Alexander doesn't get nearly enough credit for what he brought to the role of George Costanza, and that just gets underlined for me when I watch the real Costanza stumble around and getting into these prolonged shouting matches where "Seinfeld" would've just thrown in a pithy one-liner and moved on to the next scene. But ultimately, I don't want to watch a show starring Larry David for the same reason I don't want to hear a Rick Ross album: listening to someone who sounds that perpetually hoarse for a sustained amount of time just makes me feel like I need a lozenge.
h) "Behind The Music"
It's really almost surreal watching these new episodes about 50 Cent and T.I. and Lil Wayne, not just because the show is so designed for a certain type of classic rock career arc but because these guys are still in the middle of their respective arcs and the show doesn't really know how to construct the narrative. Plus there's a lot of hilarious stuff with 50 bending the truth to look past his failures and the show running with that, or the chronology of the Wayne episode being completely warped and borderline nonsensical. Also they should really use subtitles for Wayne's interview segments, the same way TV shows do when, like, Liam Gallagher is talking.
I realize that Seth McFarlane is a one trick pony and that he's just striking while the iron is hot, but really, man, if you're gonna have 3 shows on the air at the same time they should at least be different in some way, any way. Cleveland only ever had, like, 3 memorable lines in the history of "Family Guy," so I can only assume he was picked for a spinoff as a way to do more sketchy race jokes.
b) "Modern Family"
Ed O'Neill is one of those guys that I think is better than he really gets credit for, at least among people that only know him from the one thing everyone knows him from, which means that one of these days he might find a great vehicle for his talent and he'll be kind of reevaluated. This isn't that vehicle, but it's kinda good, one of the few halfway promising new fall comedies. I wish the whole mockumentary sitcom format would just die, though, all the long awkward beats and shit are so played out at this point. One thing I like about shows like "30 Rock" and even "Community" is that they prove you can do a one-camera show without a laugh track and still have it be kind of punchy and fast paced.
c) "Tool Academy 2"
So this show is still awesome. The cast might not be quite as uniformly entertaining as on the first season, but I'm so glad this is on TV, even if the more boring parts and more superficial therapy/challenge bits sometimes drag.
d) "Man V. Food"
I've mentioned liking this show before, but it's kinda crazy how much replay value it has, just because the host comes across really normal and likable and the food he gets to eat is completely insane and usually watching this makes me hungry and compels me to go cook something. I'd been waiting for them to eventually come around to my neck of the woods and they finally did, last week was the D.C. episode and this week was the Baltimore episode. The D.C. one actually partly took place in Annapolis, at this amazing place Chick & Ruth's that we'd been to before, and he drank a 6 pound milkshake, which might be the most disgusting eating challenge they've ever done on this show. The Baltimore episode has a crab place I used to live a few blocks from and a pit beef place I always used to drive by, neither of which I've ever actually gone to, and some steak place way out in Harford County.
e) "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..."
I keep meaning to watch this, since EC was and is one of my real lifelong musical heroes and even if it's boring I'd like to watch him shoot the shit with other musicians. So far I've only seen the Lou Reed episode, which was pretty entertaining, in particular because Reed came off a lot more approachable and laid back than I ever really imagined him to be.
f) "The Venture Bros."
I'm so excited about the new season starting, but at the same time, I'm realizing more and more that this is a show that doesn't just hold up on repeat viewings but actually improves, once you've seen an episode already and aren't as confused about the plot you can just focus on catching the jokes. This became especially clear after spending a couple weeks watching the Season 3 DVD and laughing my ass off, and then watching the new episodes and enjoying them and finding them well made, but not really laughing much on first viewing. The premiere especially was almost designed to not make sense the first time around. Hopefully Adult Swim will rerun these enough that I won't have to wait for the DVD to really delve into them.
g) "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"Seinfeld" might be my favorite show of all time and I keep wanting to believe friends when they tell me this show is hilarious, but I don't know, it just doesn't do it for me. Jason Alexander doesn't get nearly enough credit for what he brought to the role of George Costanza, and that just gets underlined for me when I watch the real Costanza stumble around and getting into these prolonged shouting matches where "Seinfeld" would've just thrown in a pithy one-liner and moved on to the next scene. But ultimately, I don't want to watch a show starring Larry David for the same reason I don't want to hear a Rick Ross album: listening to someone who sounds that perpetually hoarse for a sustained amount of time just makes me feel like I need a lozenge.
h) "Behind The Music"
It's really almost surreal watching these new episodes about 50 Cent and T.I. and Lil Wayne, not just because the show is so designed for a certain type of classic rock career arc but because these guys are still in the middle of their respective arcs and the show doesn't really know how to construct the narrative. Plus there's a lot of hilarious stuff with 50 bending the truth to look past his failures and the show running with that, or the chronology of the Wayne episode being completely warped and borderline nonsensical. Also they should really use subtitles for Wayne's interview segments, the same way TV shows do when, like, Liam Gallagher is talking.
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on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 1:38 PM.
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