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….
Category: Mindless Mondays
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…
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……
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…
Pop Culture Battle, Books: Americanah vs. We Need New Names vs. Marker to Measure Drift
At long last, some new book reviews! Welp, recently I was able to read three books about African immigrants trying to adjust to life in either America or (in the case of “A Marker to Measure Drift”) Greece. And although the books are on-the-surface similar, I learned that great books are made in the details……
Pop Culture Battle: “Dirty Wars” Vs. “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks”
Two expose-centered documentaries dealing with our increasingly-secretive government, and both of them currently available (but not for long) on Video-On-Demand after getting limited theaterical releases during the early summer. They don’t cover exactly the same topic, but it’s close enough to make me wonder…”Which should you spend your money on?” Dirty Wars…What It’s About:…
Mom Jokes: Don’t Underestimate Veterinarians
A camper brought a very limp dog into the veterinary clinic. As he lay the dog on the table, the doctor pulled out his stethoscope, placing the receptor on the dog’s chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, “I’m sorry, but your dog has passed away.” “What?”…
TV Reviews: “Breaking Bad” Brings the Heat, “Boardwalk Empire” Brings the…Quiet
There was no better showcase of exactly what makes a quality drama downright riveting, must-watch television than what just transpired a couple of hours ago as Boardwalk Empire shared the same time slot as Breaking Bad. But to call these two shows equals would be putting it mildly. Yes, they are both quality, serialized dramas…