TV Diary
a) "Veep"
Had been looking forward to this since Julia Louis-Dreyfus can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes and they shot a lot of this in Baltimore (I almost got to be on the set one day in December that fell through). Haven't seen the supposedly similar British show the creator did earlier, "The Thick of It," but I can kind of see how there's a bit of a Brit sensibility, and to be honest this kind of pottymouthed workplace farce is not really my favorite kind of comedy by a long shot. They pull it off well, though, good cast, and man Anna Chlumsky is a beautiful woman now.
b) "NYC 22"
It makes me genuinely sad that people are still tossing decent writing and likable actors down the bottomless well of interchangeable New York-based cop dramas, especially since Adam Goldberg just did a better one a couple seasons earlier called "The Unusuals," and the creator, Richard Price, worked on fucking "The Wire." But hey, this is a decent show, if you can get past major characters going by nicknames like 'Lazarus' and 'White House.'
c) "The Aquabats! Super Show!"
It's so weird that that weird Devo-wannabe ska band that Travis Barker used to play drums for in the '90s now has a kids' show on one of the channels my son watches all the time. It's pretty stupid, I'm glad he hasn't expressed any interest in watching it, it's bad enough that the other day he seemed pretty into "The Wiggles."
d) "Betty White's Off Their Rockers"
I think we can finally back off of the whole Betty White comeback thing and let her take a break, this show is terrible.
e) "MTV's Hip-Hop POV"
It's kind of nice to see MTV keep trying to have these shows about rap music that approximate the experience of heads sitting around shooting the shit and talking about music and current events, but man shows like this are just awkward and boring.
f) "Kathy"
I hate to admit it but I think Kathy Griffin is pretty funny. Having a live talk show is not really the best format for her, but a decent amount of this show is just her doing the same thing as she does in her standup, so it's still watchable, but whatever, who cares, it probably won't last long.
g) "The Pitch"
It's weird that AMC is taking their run of success with scripted programming and going into a generic reality show. I tried to watch this but it was mad boring.
h) "Smash"
I've fallen a few episodes behind on this show but still watching it. Occasionally the musical setpieces, like singing that stupid Rihanna song in Times Square, grate on me, but mostly it's pretty good at mixing the music and drama. There were a couple rough episodes where the plots were all really stupid and boilerplate, but I'm starting to appreciate that the nature of the show tracking the making of a stage musical means that things are constantly moving forward and there's not a real formula to how the episodes are structured or what the characters are going through, which is kind of refreshing and too rare in TV.
i) "New Girl"
God, this is show is hilarious, I feel guilty for liking it so much. That Russian roommate was ridiculous, I hope she becomes a recurring character. And Schmidt is maybe the funniest character on TV right now.
j) "The Killing"
I wasn't quite as pissed about the first season finale of this show as everyone else, so I'm trying to get back into the second season, but finding it hard to get reinvested. Show still has a good cast and a great atmosphere, I just wish the story was more compelling.
k) "Eagleheart"
Loved this show last year, the first episode back kind of veered a little further into the obstinately gross and bizarre side of Adult Swim shows, but I still love the whole not giving a fuck vibe of this show, Chris Elliott is just a comedy hero to me.
l) "Breakout Kings"
Man this show is so good, bums me out that nobody knows it exists because it's on A&E. Love how they've fleshed out the Jimmi Simpson character from where he easily just could've been this motormouth jerk he kind of started out as.
m) "Community"
The "Law & Order" episode was great but some of the episodes since this came back have really shaken my faith in the show, all that dreamatorium/"Inspector Spacetime" fan service shit is kind of tedious and turning Abed into a spazz that does a weird high pitched scream when he's unhappy is some bullshit that never happened in the first two seasons.
n) "Saturday Night Live"
Wiig and Samberg have definitely kind of been tapped of everything they possibly could bring to the show at this point, but Sudekis is such a solid utility player, I'm kind of bummed that he's gonna be off the show soon. Kate McKinnon has been a really strong recent addition, though, "Helga Lately" was great. Also, "Almost Pizza" was maybe the funniest fake commercial in years.
Had been looking forward to this since Julia Louis-Dreyfus can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes and they shot a lot of this in Baltimore (I almost got to be on the set one day in December that fell through). Haven't seen the supposedly similar British show the creator did earlier, "The Thick of It," but I can kind of see how there's a bit of a Brit sensibility, and to be honest this kind of pottymouthed workplace farce is not really my favorite kind of comedy by a long shot. They pull it off well, though, good cast, and man Anna Chlumsky is a beautiful woman now.
b) "NYC 22"
It makes me genuinely sad that people are still tossing decent writing and likable actors down the bottomless well of interchangeable New York-based cop dramas, especially since Adam Goldberg just did a better one a couple seasons earlier called "The Unusuals," and the creator, Richard Price, worked on fucking "The Wire." But hey, this is a decent show, if you can get past major characters going by nicknames like 'Lazarus' and 'White House.'
c) "The Aquabats! Super Show!"
It's so weird that that weird Devo-wannabe ska band that Travis Barker used to play drums for in the '90s now has a kids' show on one of the channels my son watches all the time. It's pretty stupid, I'm glad he hasn't expressed any interest in watching it, it's bad enough that the other day he seemed pretty into "The Wiggles."
d) "Betty White's Off Their Rockers"
I think we can finally back off of the whole Betty White comeback thing and let her take a break, this show is terrible.
e) "MTV's Hip-Hop POV"
It's kind of nice to see MTV keep trying to have these shows about rap music that approximate the experience of heads sitting around shooting the shit and talking about music and current events, but man shows like this are just awkward and boring.
f) "Kathy"
I hate to admit it but I think Kathy Griffin is pretty funny. Having a live talk show is not really the best format for her, but a decent amount of this show is just her doing the same thing as she does in her standup, so it's still watchable, but whatever, who cares, it probably won't last long.
g) "The Pitch"
It's weird that AMC is taking their run of success with scripted programming and going into a generic reality show. I tried to watch this but it was mad boring.
h) "Smash"
I've fallen a few episodes behind on this show but still watching it. Occasionally the musical setpieces, like singing that stupid Rihanna song in Times Square, grate on me, but mostly it's pretty good at mixing the music and drama. There were a couple rough episodes where the plots were all really stupid and boilerplate, but I'm starting to appreciate that the nature of the show tracking the making of a stage musical means that things are constantly moving forward and there's not a real formula to how the episodes are structured or what the characters are going through, which is kind of refreshing and too rare in TV.
i) "New Girl"
God, this is show is hilarious, I feel guilty for liking it so much. That Russian roommate was ridiculous, I hope she becomes a recurring character. And Schmidt is maybe the funniest character on TV right now.
j) "The Killing"
I wasn't quite as pissed about the first season finale of this show as everyone else, so I'm trying to get back into the second season, but finding it hard to get reinvested. Show still has a good cast and a great atmosphere, I just wish the story was more compelling.
k) "Eagleheart"
Loved this show last year, the first episode back kind of veered a little further into the obstinately gross and bizarre side of Adult Swim shows, but I still love the whole not giving a fuck vibe of this show, Chris Elliott is just a comedy hero to me.
l) "Breakout Kings"
Man this show is so good, bums me out that nobody knows it exists because it's on A&E. Love how they've fleshed out the Jimmi Simpson character from where he easily just could've been this motormouth jerk he kind of started out as.
m) "Community"
The "Law & Order" episode was great but some of the episodes since this came back have really shaken my faith in the show, all that dreamatorium/"Inspector Spacetime" fan service shit is kind of tedious and turning Abed into a spazz that does a weird high pitched scream when he's unhappy is some bullshit that never happened in the first two seasons.
n) "Saturday Night Live"
Wiig and Samberg have definitely kind of been tapped of everything they possibly could bring to the show at this point, but Sudekis is such a solid utility player, I'm kind of bummed that he's gonna be off the show soon. Kate McKinnon has been a really strong recent addition, though, "Helga Lately" was great. Also, "Almost Pizza" was maybe the funniest fake commercial in years.
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on Sunday, May 06, 2012 at 11:54 AM.
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