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Oscar talk on CPX

I've been posting up a storm today on the topic of Oscars 2010, over at my movie blog Cineplexus. I've got links to all the movies I've reviewed over the past year that are nominated for Oscars. If you want a list of nominees, check out Oscars.com. If you want a list of my thoughts on the nominated movies that I happen to have seen, there's nowhere to look but Cineplexus. :)

As a side note, I am especially bummed about one movie that missed the Oscar nom cut: 500 Days of Summer. At the very least, I feel it deserved a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Sigh. At least the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (responsible for Golden Globe noms) saw things my way. Sort of.

Full House Genetics

So, here's what I'm thinking, and not for the first time:

If Uncle Jesse is so super-Greek, and Danny Tanner has dark hair and brown eyes, why are all the Tanner girls so fair and blonde? Their mom (also, presumably super-Greek) is supposed to have been blonde with blue eyes?

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one, and it's not that some Greeks are fair and blonde. I know this is true, but the Katsopolis family is not from that part of Greece. (Have you seen Jesse's parents? Not blonde.) And it's not that blue eyes and blonde hair are recessive traits, which of course they are; even if somehow both Danny and his wife passed on the recessive gene for, say, blondeness, the chances that all of their daughters would be fair and blonde with blue eyes is very low.

No, in this case, the answer lies in the great sitcom tradition of "Not Giving a Shit." Some sitcoms are more concerned with this internal continuity than others, and I don't think I'm shocking anyone by observing that Full House and its writers/producers didn't mind making the impossible possible from season to season or episode to episode. For example: Joey Gladstone, comedian, was never funny. A hip, cool rocker like Uncle Jesse should probably not be obsessed with corny oldies music. And the Beach Boys don't come to your house and sing songs with you, no matter how cute a family you are.

My theory is that no one ever planned to explore Jesse's cultural heritage. As you may know, in the first season he was "Jesse Cochran." It was only in the second season that it was changed to Katsopolis, seemingly at actor/star John Stamos' request. This doesn't explain why they hired Stamos, who was always Greek with very dark hair and skin, to be the uncle of three blonde girls…but some things don't need to be explained. Some things can be chalked up to a sparkly eye and a winning smile. Maybe that's the real lesson here.

One Month In, One New Comedy Stands Apart: Modern Famiy

Fall 2009 has been a relatively strong one for new TV shows; such seasons happen every few years, as new shows shine bright while their ratings promise is still infinite. It's only October, so we viewers can also hold on to high hopes for our favorite network shows ("Who cares about ratings? NBC/CBS/ABC/Fox will surely recognize that this series can and should survive on artistic merit alone!", etc).

I'm enjoying shows on several networks. My old favorites on CBS (HIMYM, Big Bang Theory, Old Christine) are as good as ever, though new comedy Accidentally On Purpose is middling at best. Fox has a great new show in Glee, hilarious despite, or often because of, its groan-worthy moments (The Cleveland Show, on the other hand, just feels like Seth MacFarlane is punking America). My pick for best new, high-hopes show, however, is on ABC (surprise!). It's the smartly funny, remarkably well-cast single-camera comedy Modern Family. If you haven't seen it, consider this a call to arms. The show is a family comedy, technically speaking, but with clever twists to the classic family archetype that starts with the characters and carries into the plots and writing of each episode. I'm hoping hard that this one will be around for a while to come. But just in case, I'd love it if everyone would watch the next few episodes really hard for me. You'll like it.

Michael and Michael Have Issues With a Rowdy Audience

 I've been a big fan of Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black for a long time, and was thrilled to find out that they were headed to Chicago to do a live show, based on the success of their Comedy Central show Michael and Michael Have Issues. When I heard it was at the Metro, I was confused. What kind of comedy venue is that?

The answer? A lousy one. The guys came on at about 9:45 and started in with some conversational schtick, playing hilarious (though woefully unedited) real footage of a recent interview they'd done on Detroit's local morning news. They continued in this casual vein, clearly not hot to peform any carefully-planned material. They were just funny guys being funny. It's not a strategy that works for everyone, but for the first half of the show, it was hilarious. 

As the show continued, however, things started to get strange. After Black explained that their series had not yet been picked up for another season (it may still be), an audience member upset at what he thought was its cancellation shouted "Try harder!" This slight was not to be ignored, and the guys riffed on that for a while, talking to the heckler and making a joke out of it. A long joke. They moved on, but some audience members were under impression that it was now a participation act. Girls in the Metro's balcony, which hangs very close to the stage, started shouting out any thought they had, directing the show through their drunken rambling. If they were trying to derail the whole enterprise and make it about them, these ladies succeeded. It was awkward and unpleasant for everyone.

How should the Michaels have handled it? If they'd ignored the shouting, the second half of the show would likely have been much smoother and shown clearer direction. But ignoring something as loud as this in such a small space would also have been truly odd, and out-of-character. It was a lose-lose.

Maybe I'm biased, but I'm tempted to blame the choice of venue. Sure, opener Jessi Klein was able to deftly handle a couple of audience outburts that occurred during her straight-forward standup set, but it was much shorter. If the Michaels return to Chicago, I'll be thrilled to see them again, but only if their booking agent chooses a different venue. Preferably one that doesn't have a balcony that hangs close to the stage. Oh, and seats would be nice. 

It Scares Me Like the Real Thing

There are a lot of holes in our collective memory when we think back on great moments in popular culture. When I told friend about how I met and spoke with Harriet Miers and her family last month, most of them had totally forgotten who she was. I still can't remember the name of that weird cartoon with the alligator named Jolene. In 5 to 10 years, my dad won't be the only person who doesn't know who Kate Gosselin is.

I have a special place in my heart for one particular show that most of the world seems to have forgotten – or never heard about at all: Sifl N Olly. I loved this show when it was really on TV, and I still love it today. We have to rely on YouTube for most record of the show, as MTV/Viacom has never released the astonishingly bizarre and hilarious sock puppet "talk show" on DVD. Creators Matt Crocco and Liam Lynch did release an unaired third season of the show several years ago. It's wonderful.

So much a part of my subconscious is this silly program that today, while walking down the street, a stray thought about fake blood (I was looking at a horrifying cake) managed to get the song "Fake Blood" from Sifl N Olly in my head. And then I nearly laughed out loud. While walking down the street. Alone.

If you don't find strange things funny, you might as well stop reading now. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and click play.

The 2-hour sitcom block

When I was a kid, I spent a LOT of time watching television. It wasn't a stay-inside-all-day, cartoon-binge thing, although I did enjoy a handful of Saturday morning cartoons (Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, and Garfield were my favorites). No, the majority of my TV watching happened between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. And in the late 1980s and '90s, there was basically only one thing on TV between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.: The 2-Hour Sitcom Block.

I could spent the rest of the evening recapping which shows were my favorite and trying to recreate a TV-Guide-style layout of what we were watching between say, 1987 and 1997. In fact, that idea sounds really tempting, as there are few things in life I love more that a good, old-fashioned sitcom. But instead, I'll just allow you to reminisce with me and a few pictures from some classics of the era. Click it to get a closer look.

So what brought on all this Sitcom Block talk? Well, it's Monday night, and on Mondays, even in the year 2009, CBS has a fully-fledged sitcom block from 7:00 to 9:00 Central – no game shows, no CSI (at least until 9:00), no "reality," no hour-long dramedies. And it's pretty decent, if you like sitcoms. Tonight, I was actually able to stay home and watch it in its entirety: Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother (my favorite), Two and a Half Men, and Rules of Engagement. It's likely not everyone's cup of television tea, but this sitcom lover wouldn't mind one bit if the 2-Hour Block had a bit of Renaissance. Who couldn't use some free, relatively mindless entertainment right about now?

30 Rock's Fun Cooker is Real!

The world is full of products that seem more like a joke than reality. Case in point: the Obama Chia Pet. But there's one product on the market right now that's both a joke andreality.

A recent episode of 30 Rock found Jack (Alec Baldwin) – who, as you may know, heads up Television and Microwave Programming at 30 Rock's fictional version of GE – desperately searching for a new name for his ground-breaking mini-microwave after the name "Bite Nuker" failed in European focus groups. In the episode, which originally aired on March 12th, Jack derails all progress on the week's TGS script, looking for new names for the device; strong candidates included "The Small Wonder" and "Port-a-Hottie," but Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) eventually suggested and Jack settled on the winning marketing moniker: "The Funcooker." This name is a go until Tracy (Tracy Morgan) uses the term to refer to his bared posterior on national television. Oops.

Fate of the fake Funcooker aside, I can't help but wonder what the folks at iCubed International think of the joke. While the company seems to have a slew of interesting products in the works, their current inventory involves just one primary item: a portable mini-microwave called the iWaveCube. The unbelievable device (I'm not entirely sure I do believe it!) comes in a host of fun colors and costs only $99; it's to be followed later this year by the iToastCube and the iFridgeCube. What's more, for $149 you can get one with a transformer that allows you to use it "in case of natural or man-made disaster." That model can be powered by your car.

That's right. You can microwave things in your CAR.

So, is this all just a hilarious coincidence, or are the 30 Rock writers paying homage to their favorite gadget? The jury's still out on that one; I'll have to do a bit more research and see what I can dig up. That said, if Season 4 of 30 Rock finds Jack pitching the Funfreezer or the Funburner, we'll know for sure where the inspiration came from.

Reno 911! Returns Tonight

I posted this on Cineplexus earlier today. Enjoy!

The newest episode of Reno 911 starts on Wednesday, April 1 at 10:30 P.M. Is it worth tuning in for another season of police ineptitude?

As episode one of Reno 911!'s sixth season begins, Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon) willfully ignores the most obvious change to the department: a personnel change. While quickly glossing over the fact that two deputies were burnt up in a (season five) taco stand fire, he deftly changes the subject to the arrival of new coffee mugs. But the change is noticeable, at least for the first few minutes of the show. Then the mayhem begins, and it becomes obvious that it's still shady business-as-usual in Reno.

Two new officers join the team with a world of experience. One, Lt. Jack Declan (Ian Roberts, Upright CItizens Brigade) is actually an expert, by-the-book lawman whose rigidness in the face of chaos is bound to make for some chuckle-worthy situations. The other, Deputy Frank Rizzo (Joe Lo Truglio, Pineapple Express, Superbad), comes to Reno with "a very long resume" and "not one letter of recommendation."

Notably missing are the dearly departed Clemmie (Wendy McLendon-Covey) and Kimball (Mary Birdsong), whose absence leaves the Reno Sheriff's Department a little low on estrogen, but thankfully the always outrageous Raineesha (Niecy Nash) and dorky comedy cornerstone Trudy (Kerri Kenney-Silver) are still around to keep the guys in check. They have their work cut out for them, especially since the team has been rounded out with two more gentlemen (I use the term loosely). Also gone is Deputy Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui), whose colorful worldview will be greatly missed. Or so you might think. I actually didn't notice he was gone until a blogcritics reader pointed it out to me. Oops.

I'm thrilled to that the show's producers have brought on another member of the cast of '90s sketch comedy show The State, which served as the proving ground for Lennon, Kenney-Silver, Robert Ben Garant (Junior), and co-creator Michael Patrick Jann. New guy Lo Truglio was a part of that cast, and is a very welcome addition to this cast as Deputy Rizzo.

As usual, a hilariously bad public service announcement falls at about the halfway point of each episode. And the comedy industry clearly hasn't lost any love for the series. Jonah Hill guest stars in episode one, as does Keegan Michael Key; Patton Oswalt and Jordan Peele guest star in episode two. Nick Swardson is back as the mind-boggling but hilarious Terry Bernadino, on roller skates as ever.

Considering the cast changes and long hiatus, the new season of Reno 911! does a remarkable job of keeping things the same as ever: the officers are still clueless, the townspeople are still crazy, and the screw-ups are still swept under the rug. And for this riotous mock-reality show, that means another season of original and very funny television.

Long Live Property of the Queen

I'm not what you'd call a "fan" of the Jonas Brothers or their music. But this Saturday, NBC re-aired the Valentine's Day episode that featured the boys as musical guests. (Alec Baldwin hosted, again. Not that I'm complaining.) The episode as a whole was a little clunky, full of funny sketches that didn't end sharply enough or missed the mark by that much, but it had a high point for me in the Digital Short. If it doesn't make you laugh the first time, try it again in about a week. When I saw it this Saturday, it was for the third time, and it struck me as all the funnier on repeat viewing. I only wish that the songs were longer. And that the Jonas Brothers really made videos like these.

I'm Going There: American Idol

Tonight I finally broke down and gave in to my secret pleasure. I watched American Idol. It's my first episode of the season, my first introduction to the stream of wannabes that starts out as endless, and has finally dwindled town to 12 (or 13). I have made a sort of spring ritual out of waiting until the embarrassing auditions and the awkwardness of "Hollywood Week" are over to tune in to this show. And tonight, this practice was validated, in a way: Paula casually referred to the evening as "the first night." 

I would like to highly recommend this process to anyone thinking about indulging in American Idol, be it for this season or any one of the dozens that will likely follow. Watching for the first few weeks is undeniably an exercise in schadenfreude. It will leave you feeling ugly and guilty. But tuning in to see the Top 12, while it might not be the pinnacle of television entertainment, allows you at least the opportunity of genuinely enjoying yourself while you stay up-to-date with this cultural force-of-nature.

Not interested in keeping up-to-date? Fine. But when I announce that, based on her performance this evening, I am fairly willing to put money on Allison Iraheta to go all the way, will you smile and nod, pretending to know what the hell I'm talking about?Will you understand when I compare Adam Lambert's rendition of "Black or White" to something by The Darkness? Or are you going to admit that you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and thereby reveal that you're not as cool as/way cooler than me, depending on your circle and worldview? 

Think about it. I have. And I decided to watch.