This, That and the Oscar Thing

Oscar Notes to You:

Worst show in recent memory and I never admit that. What was missing out of this show was a sense of cinema. They seemed to have forgotten the one key element: the movies. Lauren Bacall who's been in the business since Moses was a Cecil B. DeMille extra and Roger Corman who basically hired everyone in that damn auditorium got the bum's rush in favor of a wretched interpretive dance number and a disposable horror film montage. What a spit in the face for both of them. John Hughes tribute worked though. Steve and Alec? Eh. Some good laughs, but an overall unnecessary teaming. Neil Patrick Harris hitting the wall factor in effect starting...NOW. Speaking of throwaways, how about this year's parade of New Hollywood Dim Bulbs...Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, Sam Worthington and Miley Cyrus...please stay home next year. You obviously didn't want to be there in the first place. And spit out your goddamn gum! And what worked last year...the best actor tributes...slammed the brakes on at full force five this time around. Forest Whitaker's salute to Sandy Bullock regarding another of her forgettable flicks...yawn to the nth degree. I'm not seething because my picks were only about 50%. I'm not that invested in my sparkling predictions, though they have lost their glimmer. Pretty much like this year's Oscarcast. That all said, congratulations to THE HURT LOCKER and Kathryn Bigelow for the big win. You certainly deserved it against AVATAR. I should have taken into account that Hollywood hates James Cameron as much as it does George Lucas so there was no way AVATAR was going to win anything other than technical awards.

And as a side note that I haven't mentioned here before: Best Actor nominee for LOCKER Jeremy Renner is a former Palace Showboat Player, having performed at Pollardville in the last production of THE DRUNKARD as directed by Ray Rustigian.

I am a big fan of Spike Jonzes' adaptation of Maurice Sendak's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, one of the best-and definitely most tolerable-non-animated kid's films in the last decade. Interestingly enough, my wife and I enjoyed it more than our grandson. Could this be more of a kid's movie for adults? And just to go along with the critical consensus, Max Records' lead performance was the finest, most unaffected I've seen, definitely guaranteeing him a spot in The Hollywood Max Museum. The fact that he has no interest to act again makes this a classic case of the one hit wonder.

TV-wise, the red-headed stepchild known as NIP/TUCK ended its sensational run on FX rather quietly, but still managed to eke out some good cheap thrills along the way. May it rest in peace. BIG LOVE has an oddly truncated season, only 9 episodes long, but managed to cram a lot into very few. I don't like the brevity of the episode count so I hope it's not setting some sort of precedent for shorter seasons. Still, the final shot of the finale was well worth the wait and continues to whet the appetite for more to come. Oh, them wacky polygamists!

TV Yin and Yang

Been an interesting and rather satisfying few months of TV viewing the past few months (with a few potholes along the way).

Not to be redundant but I had to agree with just about everyone that MAD MEN ended its third season absolutely brilliantly, elevating it to my Top Ten list of Best Series of All Time. This year had a slow roll, but by its final few episodes, picked up light speed by a most satisfying season finale. One of the highlights had to be the deconstruction and damn near crash and burn of Don Draper. The scenes of Don finally coming to terms with his past to his wife Betty were spot on brilliant. Writer/creator Matthew Weiner is a television giant.

Hooray for the reinvention (or rediscovery) of Ted Danson on DAMAGES and especially HBO's BORED TO DEATH. Time for Alec Baldwin to take a backseat for awhile since he's wearing out his welcome. Danson rules the roost.

FX continues its winning streak with SONS OF ANARCHY (THE SOPRANOS on bikes) and the continually bad craziness of NIP/TUCK. As for SONS, I vote Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal as couple of the year.

Speaking of Baldwin, is 30 ROCK the most overrated sitcom on broadcast TV? Truth to be told, I have never been a regular, but for the most part, the only positive reaction I've had watching this show is the occasional smirk. While I give Tina Fey all the credit in the world for putting this show together, I still find her to be a limited comedic actress. And Tracy Morgan is a one trick pony that needs to go to the glue factory. He was one of the worst members of SNL in his time on the show and now hangs on like a cold that won't go away. As for Alec Baldwin, I say again, take a break.

Speaking of overrated, is CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM the most overrated show on cable?

CURB had 2 out of the 12 episodes that I felt were worthy-DENISE HANDICAP and THE BARE MIDRIFF. The others, including the much-hyped SEINFELD reunion seem to coast along on its reputation, like Larry David himself. Most of the time, I feel like he's saying "Eh. That's good enough." Other times, he tries too hard and the strain is really beginning to show. However, I do give he and Michael Richards a round of applause for having balls o'plenty to confront Richards' racist rant a few years back. Overall, my enthusiasm for this show has been curbed to the point of abandoning the vehicle altogether.

On the reality front, I've finally watched TOP CHEF and even though the food is more interesting here, it's really no different than Food Network's NEXT IRON CHEF. (By the way, someone needs to take a swing at Alton Brown) On the other hand, host Padma Lakshmi is the world's most beautiful dullard. My God, what a boring woman...and she was married to Salman Rushdie. Even he got fed up with her dial-tone voice and endless posturing."Please! Put me back on the fatwa! I beg of you! She's boring me to horrors!" Salman probably pleaded. To which I can only add, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ................................

Again, I have to add that most of my viewing habits lay in cable programming with the miracle of on-demand options thrown in for good measure.. While others have some sort of DVR or choose to catch shows on the Internet or renting DVD of shows, how the hell are the networks or broadcast television going to survive? The answer is: They're not. Free TV is going the way of all flesh. This year's mandatory conversion to digital was pretty much the first nail in the coffin.

Next on the hit list: the Nielsen ratings, a mercy killing in my book.

Mark my words, o' true believers.

Excelsior! (or some other packing material)

Over the River and Through the Woods

                                                                        
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, from one turkey to another.

Seems I tweaked somebody's feathers with my last outing talking about the lack of balls in the political arena. Check out what Anonymous wrote in the comment section:

"Hmmmm. Balls. Well, that leaves out the majority of the population, but that may be your tired point. Please, leave Gore and Kerry alone. They've already endured enough abuse from those who choose to dwell on the trees rather than the forest. "

"Hmmmmm. Balls." Sounds like a gay Homer Simpson. Look, Ms. Onymous or can I call you An, to make another tired point, balls is (are) a state of mind. Sorry to make it so gender specific and I'm just not sympathetic to the plight of the castrated. If I were more PC, I'd have said "guts" instead. As for leaving Gore and Kerry alone, that ain't gonna happen until GW Dunderhead is out of office and we as a nation to begin to heal for the eight miserable years Al and Johnny Boy inflicted upon us by not kicking his sorry ass and allowing him not only to be elected not once but TWICE.

But this is Thanksgiving and thanks for writing.

Speaking of castrations, whack-job Tom Cruise is getting married this weekend and the world yawns. I don’t give a tinker’s dam about the TomKat nuptials this weekend. It’s doubtful that this will do nothing to gain Tommy any goodwill after his rave-outs last year. As to the speculation of the nature of this elaborate publicity stunt, folks have been a’wondering “Where’s the movie to promote?” Aha! Me gots an answer. TC just bought United Artists. He needs to stay in the public eye since he has nothing in the can for the next year. However, Cruisey is set to star in a movie with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Smart move. After all, he built much of his reputation on the coattails of other actors-Paul Newman in THE COLOR OF MONEY, A FEW GOOD MEN with Jack Nicholson, RAIN MAN with Dustin Hoffman-it’s time to rebuild and the best way for him to gain any footing is to latch onto another star. I think he’ll do it. He may not make to the stratosphere like before, but he will survive and for that, he can be thankful.

I am personally thankful that I live in the same world as Martin Scorsese. THE DEPARTED is the best goddamn movie of the year-bar none. Not only is this the finest crime drama of the 21st Century (C’mon! It’s six years into it. I can make that claim) but also an ensemble piece unmatched by any others in recent years. While it’s a tad flabby, perhaps ten minutes too long, I’d stack this baby up against anything and a definite improvement over the source material, the Chinese film INFERNAL AFFAIRS.

I also give thanks to NIP/TUCK for recharging its batteries this season and giving me an hour of pleasure per week, every Tuesday night. It’s a great double bill with HOUSE.

What’s that sound? Why it’s a gong…no, it’s the death knell for network television ringing off the hook. In their wisdom, NBC has announced a cutback on original dramatic programming, opting instead for more game shows and reality shows for the 8:00 hour in the near-future. These are the same geniuses who placed two-count ‘em-two separate shows about a late night comedy show on the same schedule and thinking that nobody would notice. Well, they haven’t. Neither 30 ROCK or STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP can get any ratings. Combined, they barely make as much as DEAL OR NO DEAL. I guess that’s their tired point, right, Annie? Maybe NBC should try a cross-over. Alec Baldwin could visit Studio 60 or Matthew Perry would try to pick up Tina Fey. Speaking of which, don’t Perry and Bradley Whitford seem pretty much interchangeable? Not a great casting decision, Mr. Sorkin. Maybe he’s so high all the time that he thinks they are the same person. By the way, for more smart moves, they scheduled FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS for every night but Friday. Sigh. Network TV will be pretty much over and done with by 2010. It will go the way of the Dodo bird and VHS tapes. They have already given up on Saturday nights and the 8:00 hour. Soon it will be whittled down to nothing. It you haven’t read it here first, you have read it here recently. (Huh?)

Two more things before I go:

After trans fat is banned, when will the second-hand trans fat lawsuits begin?

Is HAPPY FEET just FOOTLOOSE with penguins?

As Connie Chung sang so very horribly, nailing her coffin shut once and for all,

"We ttttttttttthhhhhhhhhaaaaaaannnnnnkkkkk yyyyyyooooooouuuuuuuu
sssssssssoooooooooo mmmmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Blog Spelled Backwards is Golb

Bottles of wine bearing the image of Greta Garbo are set to go on sale Oct. 1 to commemorate the 100th birthday of the Swedish actress. It will be a limited edition sparkling wine called the 2001 Greta Garbo Brut Rose. If she were alive today, I'm sure Greta would have said, "I want to be Merlot."
The Emmys were certainly a train wreck of massive proportions, weren't they? This was possibly even worse than the Tribute to Comedy a couple of years back. Anybody remember Wanda Sykes trying to get the audience to dance and Peter Krause from SIX FEET UNDER was the only taker. Funny...he wasn't nominated again after that incident and nobody saw Wanda Sykes again for a looonnngg time. This year, they made Doris Roberts dance with Earth, Wind and Fire or The Black-Eyed Peas, which ever it was, it was definitely an embarrassment. Poor Ellen DeGeneres. After 9/11, she brought the house down with the postponed Emmy show and gave her career a second life. She should be thankful she has her talk show to fall back on after Sunday night. It was as if her angel fish character from FINDING NEMO fell out of the aquarium and flopped on the floor, gasping for air...or Bruce Vilanch. The show suffered from that insipid Emmy Idol crap that was saved by the "great" Shatner with the STAR TREK theme. However, the show forward promoted it so much that by the time they performed the bit, the surprise was zilch, therefore it scored only a double, not a home run like it could have. The GREEN ACRES piece with Trump, having the luxury of being first, beat it hands down as the highlight of the night, which is saying absolutely nada. As for the awards themselves, as I said, who cares? If any of the DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES had to win, I'm glad it was the one real actress-Felicity Huffman.
By the way, what's the deal with James Spader? Has he been hanging around Shatner too much? Damn he's a weird duck.

In other TV related nonsense...
NIP/TUCK is back and all is well. Any show that features an obese woman whose skin has been grafted to a sofa she's been sitting in for three years is okay with me.
RESCUE ME went out as it came...beautifully. I can't wait until next season. However, I have to agree with Entertainment Weekly's critic Dalton Ross who said that the musical montage that closed every episode, as it does with several other series, is a technique that has been done to death and has become the most commonly used cliche of modern TV. I hope its days are numbered.

I hope my aren't.