What started out as a strong gameshow (I originally gave the show an A- in my initial review) filled with pressure cooker tension and timed bouts, eventually became rather monotonous. It didn’t help that the same people were on Winner’s Row for practically the entire televised run, and that we didn’t have many people to…
Author: Alabama Liberal
Petty Issues: “Wheel” of Misfortune, Fairweather Mayweather, Dropout Jaden, Alaska Bucks
Floyd Mayweather won another fight in a decision against a handpicked opponent most people have never heard of, and now the big question turns to who he’ll fight next. My guess? His toughest opponent yet: a new form of Gonorrhea. Wheel of Fortune recently denied a man a chance at a million dollars because he…
TV Reviews: “Key and Peele” Kick Off Their Third Season
You know I’m running out of things to talk about when I’m reviewing the third season premiere of a Comedy Central sketch show. What’s next…grading cat videos on YouTube? However, it helps that Key and Peele are consistently hilarious, and have competition only from Inside Amy Schumer in the “Best Sketch Show” on TV sweepstakes….
TV Reviews: Dads, Brooklyn 99, New Girl, Mindy Project
Fox debuted their new Tuesday night comedy lineup, and it looks like I’ll be tuning into an hour of it, while actively avoiding the other hour… Dads…One of the worst pilots in recent memory. Not only did I not laugh one time, but the entire enterprise has a generally cruddy, slapshot quality to it…
TV Reviews: “Sleepy Hollow” Begins and “Under the Dome” Ends
Sleepy Hollow…I actually liked the beginning to this (admittedly) preposterous show. It deals with Ichabod Crane falling asleep as a Revolutionary War Hero and being woken up in 2013 Sleepy Hollow while trying to outfox the Headless Horseman (actually one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse) who’s started dropping headless bodies all over…
The Odds on the New Fall Shows
Another Fall season is here, and the broadcast networks are unveiling their best and brightest, but I’m not really thrilled with most of the new shows coming out. The question will be whether or not audiences are, and which ones will make it a full season, and which ones will be renewed for a season…
TV Reviews: Breaking Bad, and The Newsroom
Breaking Bad: A very pivotal episode tonight. I almost don’t even want to spoil it for those that haven’t watched it yet. One really big scene after another, and it’s clear the show is playing all its cards so close to the end. [One spoiler ahead] If I had to quibble though, I would say that…
Bubba Has a Traumatic Experience at a Yankee State Fair
Recently, I had the mixed pleasure of attending a state fair in the wintry hellscape that is Minnesota. It’s a weird state because although their politics are liberal, their people look like they’re at a casting call for a new A&E show called Forest Folks. I’m talking guys with bushy beards. I’m talking “women” with…
TV Review: Welcome to the Family, Trophy Wife, Back in the Game
Three “new” family comedies that are available On Demand a few weeks before their “official” premieres, and not a one of them worth watching. “Unconventional” family comedies (i.e. gay dad, or a step-mom, or a single mom, or adopted Asian kid for a step mom, basically anything other than a nuclear family) are the big…
TV Review: Ironside, Camp, and Million Second Quiz
An early premiere of a wheelchair-bound detective, a season finale of a sunny camp dramedy, and a limited event game show that hopes to be the next Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Three very different vehicles, but all of them on NBC. Is the peacock taking chances in this early Fall deadzone? Not quite……
Fair Foods, Part 2 (Cheese Curds, Red Velvet Funnel Cake, Fried Burritos, and More)
A continuation of Minnesota’s State Fair foods review… A five dollar glass of lemonade…Not so much unhealthy as it is “What the fuck am I paying five dollars for when this cost them a nickel to make?” There’s insane mark-up (theater popcorn), and then there’s wallet rape. Grade for taste: B…Heart Attack O-Meter: 1…
TV Review: “Sons of Anarchy” Has Its Most Crazily Deranged Episode Yet
[Spoilers ahead] On another indulgently long episode of SoA (it was 93 minutes tonight, and each episode this season is going to be significantly longer than an hour, making each week a mini-movie), things were pushed to new heights of depravity. Tonight’s season six opener featured anal prison rape (guy on guy), beatings galore (guy…
The 10 Fall Movies I’m Most Looking Forward To (and 5 I’m Not)
Just as surely as the phases of the moon come the Hollywood seasons: grab-bag Spring, brain-dead Summer, and Oscar-bait Fall/early-Winter. [There’s also the dumping ground that is January/February, but that’s a patch I’d rather forget exists.] So now it’s time to look at the (hopefully) best of Fall, the least promising of Fall, and the…