Well, I just finished another one of my marathon TV series watching sessions. This time it was for the much hyped It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as I was tired of people asking me why me, their friend who watches more TV than anyone they know who actually makes money, doesn’t watch it. I didn’t really have a reason, I haven’t been so much a fan of other FX shows like The Shield and Rescue Me, so I didn’t really think so much of giving an FX comedy a try.

But after two weeks and four and half seasons (right up until last night’s episode), I’ve busted out the entire series thus far, and I have to say, I am most impressed.
I’m told that the creators of the show (and subsequently the actors) set out to create a Curb Your Enthusiasm type pilot, and though that’s what they did at first. They took Curb, ringed out the awkwardness and amped up the crazy into a show that’s much, much more enjoyable to watch.

Continue Reading »

South Park, perhaps more than any other show on television, is current, topical, and presents social issues in a humorous light just about every week.  Some have complained that the show has been running out of ideas, but with South Park in its 13th season, that’s to be expected.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone are known for pushing the envelope - sometimes maybe too far - and for making their opinions on a topic known.  The show is unapologetic when it comes to opinion, and most of the time, it’s dead on.  I don’t think anyone is going to argue, for example, that Kanye West isn’t a douchebag.  With last night’s episode “The F-Word,” however, I think South Park may have missed the point.

Continue Reading »

I haven’t seen Superman Returns returns in probably over a couple of years, so my reason for writing this article is somewhat tangential.  I know that the consensus with regard to Bryan Singer’s Superman film is that it sucked, but I didn’t think it was half bad.  Singer managed to create a similar atmosphere as seen in the first two Superman movies, and despite the lack of action, I thought the story was pretty decent, too.  The opening credits - an obvious homage to Richard Donner’s original - were a nice bonus.  But after watching this week’s episode of Californication (I told you this was tangential), I realized that there was one aspect to Superman Returns that I found very refreshing.

Continue Reading »

I grew up reading Stephen King, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the guy.  I’ve read tons of his novels - Misery, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Eyes of the Dragon, The Bachman Books, just to name a few - but I never got around to reading The Stand.  Many people have told me that The Stand is one of, if not the, best novels King has written, and at over 800 pages, I knew reading it would be quite an investment of time.  I think King is a damn good writer.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s no F. Scott Fitzgerald or even Bret Easton Ellis, but he’s a helluva lot better than the Dean Koontzes and John Grishams out there, too.  So how did The Stand turn out? I was more than just a little disappointed.  Keep reading to find out why.  Major spoilers, obviously.

Continue Reading »

Ever since my cable company jacked up the price of HBO to an absurd $18 a month, I canceled it and decided it wasn’t worth $240 a year just to watch 20 minutes of Entourage a week. With The Sopranos, Deadwood and The Wire all dead and gone, what good was this channel to me anymore?

But then, I started hearing about True Blood. I thought nothing much of it at first, simply another show trying to capitalize on the Twilight-inspired vampire hysteria of our day, but replacing abstinence with graphic orgies and sparkling chests with decapitation.

I was determined to avoid such a show that I thought was merely a well timed gimmick, but as I heard praise for it build over the last year or so (including on my own site) I decided I had to see for myself, and over the holiday weekend, I devoured the first two seasons of the show (the grand finale airing Sept. 13th excluded). What did I find?

Continue Reading »

Every year it’s the same thing. The Project Runway season premiere airs, I watch it live and then I suffer an endless barrage of insults from my roommates.

“You know how I know you’re gay? Because you watch Project Runway.”

“On a scale of gay to gay, you are Liberace right now.”

“Do you want me to tell your parents for you?”

Or god forbid it’s a season where I have a girlfriend, who of course will be anxiously watching it with me.

Continue Reading »

Who knows if I’ll make this some sort of new feature where I pit two people head to head based on…something, but I’m going to try it out.

I was recently thinking about people like Michael Bay and Wes Anderson (yes, I just put them together) and how they make essentially the same movie over and over and get away with it because well, it works. But I stopped mid –rant and decided to think about the opposite. Who are the directors who are truly diverse in their filmmaking? Who try a bunch of different genres and styles and still come up roses almost every time.

Well maybe you can think of better ones, but I thought of two. Ang Lee and Danny Boyle. Both have produced some true genre classics, and both have been rewarded with Oscars at some point. But which one is more diverse? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

The battle begins below!

Continue Reading »

Olivia Munn and I have sort of a love/hate relationship. On one hand, I feel like she’s a complete attention slut (that’s one step beyond whore), and will do anything to further her public profile. This was best demonstrated by an episode of Attack of the Show where she literally jumped into a giant pie wearing a maid outfit because she lost a bet or it was the Fourth of July or some other inane reason to combine maids with pies.

On the other hand, I have to respect her, as I think she’s an absolute genius.  I can’t believe that she’s one of only a handful of hot women in the world who have figured out the beautiful simplicity of combining a “hot woman” and a “nerd,” and no one has done it better than Olivia. Her propensity to play dress up in sci-fi/video game costumes has landed her smack in the fantasies of millions of male geeks across the world, and when she spouts apparent wisdom about the video game industry, it turns the dial up to eleven.

Continue Reading »