-
Posted
Jul 29 2008, 01:01 PM
by
KATV
with 1 comment(s)
THANK you. Good lord, I was so worried I would have to see that annoying butthead win the money. After last night, I am more convinced than ever that Craig is the mole. Not because of anything he did, actually, but because of how certain parts of the show were organized. But more on that later. The first challenge had Paul teamed up with Mark, and Craig with Nicole. Paul and Craig had to wear this special visor that was hooked up to a camera controlled by their partners, so the only thing they could see was what their partners filmed. And, to make it more confusing, since their partners would always be facing them, they had to reverse their actions - you know, since the camera is facing them, whatever is on the left from the camera's point of view is actually on the right of the person wearing the visor. (I really hope that made sense - it's very difficult to describe these challenges without visual aids.) The first couple of challenges were pretty easy: fitting plastic shapes into a box with variously shaped holes and filling cups from a teapot without spilling anything on the tablecloth.
Oh, I forgot - the person wearing the goggles could talk to the person with the camera, but the camera person couldn't talk back. So when Craig was trying to put the shapes in the box, he sneakily said, "Am I at least on the right side?" and Nicole, unable to help herself, said, "Yes! Oh, DAMMIT!" Craig also managed to "accidentally" spill tea on the tablecloth three times, once by knocking the table which he could easily blame on his size. The final part of the challenge involved each of the visored guys having to walk a plank, 50 feet in the air between two buildings. In the middle of the plank was a piece of chalk, and once they picked it up, they had one minute to get to the end of the plank and copy a phrase that was written on the chalkboard. Paul did it; Craig didn't. Again, something Craig could blame on his size. The second challenge of the evening had all four players trapped in individual cells, and they could only escape once they'd solved a puzzle. The first person to escape was the only one eligible to get an exemption from that night's quiz - they got to use a paintball gun to try to hit the other players as they tried to get from one end of an obstacle course to the other. If they got to the end without being hit, $15,000 went into the pot. If they were hit, they were out. One of three remaining players would have been selected as the "exemption player," and if the sniper hit them, the sniper got the exemption, but the exemption player was secretly chosen beforehand and none of them knew who it was until it ended. If the sniper didn't hit the exemption player, nobody got an exemption.
Getting the exemption was obviously a big deal because it guaranteed the person a spot in the finale, giving them a 50/50 shot at all the money. Conversely, for the remaining players, it was really important for the sniper not to get the exemption because it gave them better odds of surviving the elimination that night.
Mark, being insanely high-strung and obviously really good at puzzles, made it out first. Craig and Nicole finished next, and then they waited about 15 minutes for Paul to figure out the puzzle because he's an idiot. The three tried to work together to make it across the course, but only Paul finished unscathed. Sadly for him and Nicole, Craig was the exemption player, and since Mark hit him in the shoulder, Mark didn't have to take the quiz. Now here's where it's a little fishy to me. The way they chose the exemption player was that each player was given a sealed card of something before they went into their cells, and at the end of the challenge, Nicole and Craig opened their cards (since they were the ones hit) and Craig's card said "exemption." But if Craig wasn't the mole, what would have happened if he had gotten out first? Would he have had to shoot himself in a "ha ha, trick question" kind of way? And I know we didn't see what was inside Mark's or Paul's cards, but let's say, for the sake of argument, that the producers chose to have Craig's and Paul's cards said "exemption." What if he had hit both of them? That would also unfairly skew the competition in favour of Mark. As far as I can tell, the only way the producers could have ensured that the exemption player was not the sniper was to tell the mole to make sure not to exit the cell first (since all of them could hear the other cell doors opening and closing) and designating the mole as the exemption player. So: Craig is the mole. I had a feeling that Paul was going home this week because there was a lot of focus put on him and they included several interviews with him where he talked about how Craig is his top suspect, and in past episodes, whenever they focus on a player talking about who they're SURE is the mole, they're going home. In the past, this has been a clue that whoever they were focusing on is not the mole, but I think the producers used that this week as a red herring. This close to the end, almost all the players know who the mole is, so it's not whether they're focusing on the right person but whether they're getting enough questions right and/or finishing the quiz quicker than everyone else. So since Mark had an exemption, there were only three quiz results to show. My opinion is that both Paul and Nicole know that Craig is the mole, which means that the eliminated player would be announced either first or second. Why? Well, they could first reveal Craig is safe (since he's the mole), and since the producers can't resist showing that RED FINGERPRINT OF DEATH, the eliminated player would go second - because, of course, if the second player got the green fingerprint, they wouldn't even need to show the third one. Or the eliminated player would go first because then they'd go straight to the red fingerprint. Clearly, showing the eliminated player first is the better option, because both Paul and Nicole know that Craig is the mole, and the producers probably knew that if they went through the trouble of saying that Craig was safe, either Paul or Nicole (but probably Paul) would say, "Yeah, big surprise."
Paul, though, thought they were going to do Craig first (he actually says, "Craig, you're first" and then expresses surprise and then resignation when he himself is called first). I think Nicole just answered the questions faster than he did or just remembered certain details a little bit better.
Yeah, Mole producers, I am onto your sneaking organizational skills! You can't fool me for longer than two months! So it's down to Craig, Nicole and Mark - and, I have to say, if it turns out that the mole is either Nicole or Mark, I will be very impressed, because at no point did either of them ping my mole radar. But I still think it's Craig. Of Nicole and Mark, I guess I would prefer for Mark to win, but I don't particularly like either of them. I like Mark more than I like Nicole, though. If The Mole comes back for another season (which it probably won't, considering the ratings) I really hope the casting people choose better players. I don't want to watch people argue and hate each other. I want to see people figure out puzzles. Fewer Pauls, casting directors! Fewer Pauls, more Craigs.
|
-
Posted
Jul 28 2008, 02:22 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Oh, I'm sorry, "fight the future" was the tagline from the X-Files movie. The first one. You know, the one people actually saw. (Snap!) But it still pretty much fits the theme of last night's Season 2 premiere of Mad Men. It's now 1962 and even though Don is only 36, his doctor is warning him about blood pressure and keeping down stress, the agency is interviewing younger applicants all the time, and Pete's wife desperately wants a baby. Things are changing, whether they like it or not. The thing I love about Mad Men is that the first time I watch it, it doesn't seem as though very much happened. But when I watch it again (which I always do), I realize that even though it's slow-paced, they actually cram a ridiculous amount of information and character development into each episode. The premiere was set up for the rest of the season, yes, but they did a great job of layering different events on top of each other so you see how they affected Don. First he goes to the doctor, who tells him that his blood pressure is too high and to reduce his stress. Then he has to interview younger applicants to work for the ad agency, two men who are only 24 and 25 but already have an air of confidence and bravado that none of the current Mad Men have. When Don takes his wife out for Valentine's Day and they get a hotel room, he finds himself unable to perform - and no wonder. He's a man who likes to hold onto what he knows was good in the past rather than look to the future, when he doesn't know what will happen. He prefers to long for good times than search for them. What's Alan Watching? points out that this is exactly what happened with the Kodak Carousel last season - Don explicitly says that people know they want "new and improved" but what they really want (whether they know it or not) is to go back to a time that was good.
This is underlined in his meeting with Peggy and (I think) Ken, when they're trying to come up with a campaign for an airline. Everything Don wants has to do with coming back home - hurrying back to the place you belong, to the people you love. He doesn't want new and improved, he wants tried and true. The trouble is that the rest of the world wants to move forward - has to move forward - and Don doesn't know how to evolve while holding onto what he wants. He doesn't want to know how. Peggy, meanwhile, has lost her baby weight, though we still don't know what happened to her baby. The other ad men speculate as to what happened - some think that Don knocked her up and that's why she got her copywriting job, while Pete thinks she went to a fat farm - but we do find out that she disappeared for three months and got the promotion when she got back. Peggy is clearly enjoying her new power, as she talks down to a well-meaning if a bit dim secretary. Peggy was at the bottom of the totem pole when she was a secretary, and even though she's at the bottom of the copywriter totem pole, she's still more powerful than all the other women in the office, and she has no problem making this clear. But while Joan is technically less important in the office than Peggy, Joan still finds a way to get back at her for making the secretary cry: she puts the Xerox machine in Peggy's office. Heh. And Pete. Poor, clueless Pete. He's willing to claw and backstab his way to the top, but he has no idea how to actually do it. He needs to get to the top, no matter what, except that he's already botched the small amount of clout he had when he started. But with his wife pressuring him for a child, and all of his friends apparently having kids without even trying, he has to quietly, desperately find a way to advance himself - if his wife does get pregnant, he needs to feel worthy of raising a child, and if she doesn't, he needs to feel as if there is still progress in his life. The brilliant thing about the writing and the acting on Mad Men is that each of the characters seems to be on the verge of screaming their lungs out, except that none of them realize it. They all feel trapped and helpless and they want to escape. They can't escape, but they're all doing everything within their power to try, even if it's the wrong thing to do. So, like I said, at first glance, it didn't seem like much happened in the first episode, but you have to look closer to see that everything is about to change. Which is exactly the point.
|
-
Posted
Jul 25 2008, 03:05 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
It's Friday, and you know what that means: I get to sleep as late as I want tomorrow. Awesome. Last Monday night I ended up staying up way too late watching Facts of Life reruns, and when I woke up completely exhausted Tuesday morning, I thought, "I am going to sleep at nine tonight! I will get ten hours of sleep and it will be glorious!" But, sure enough, Tootie was back on television that night and I just couldn't stay away. I've resisted her allure the past two nights but I've still puttered around on the Internet doing absolutely nothing. The earliest I got into bed was, like, 11:30, and for normal people, this would be fine, but I love sleep more than I love oxygen, so I still wake up willing to strangle my own mother for an extra half hour of rest. There isn't really a point to this story.
Onto the links!
- Have you checked out the trailer for Season 3 of Dexter? It looks pretty awesome, and not just because they show a (no-nudity) sex scene between Dexter and Rita.
- At the San Diego Comic-Con this week, the Dharma Initiative is actually recruiting. Dammit, I want to be hired by a shady, malevolent corporation.
- Speaking of Comic-Con, the cast and crew of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog talked about the genesis and production of the whole shebang. If you weren't among the 2.25 people who watched it, you can (and should!) buy it on iTunes. Proof that it's worth your money: I had never actually bought anything from iTunes until Dr. Horrible, and then I was like, "I NEED THIS FOREVER."
- I actually almost choked on my water when I read this: Elizabeth Berkley is going to do a reality show for MTV which is based on her "Ask Elizabeth" workshop that helped young girls with self-esteem. What kinds of questions does she get? "Hey, how do I fake the weirdest orgasm ever while having sex with a strip-club owner in his pool?"
- Are you excited for Mad Men's Season 2 premiere this Sunday? You should be. I was lucky enough to get a screener of the premiere today (who wants to touch me?) and it's pretty much as awesome as you'd expect. If you'd expect it to be incredibly awesome, I mean. In honour of the second season, we came up with ten other shows that successfully travelled back in time.
- Simon Cowell was voted the Best TV Villain. You mean he beat out Katherine Heigl?
- Speaking of which (kinda), the Grey's Anatomy writers reportedly consulted GLAAD about their Callie / Hahn relationship. Because every lesbian relationship must conform to strict standards determined by their homosexual overlords.
- Have you guys been watching the fifth season of Project Runway? There's a guy on there called Blayne who insists on adding "licious" to every word. He even used the term "girlicious," which I really hope he came up with before the Robin Antin atrocity. You know that you're too over-the-top when Christian "FIEEEEEERCE" Siriano says you're ridiculous.
- I love Ian McShane but remind me never to cross him.
- Rosie O'Donnell may be coming back to television. I go back and forth between finding her annoying and loving her for making Elizabeth Hasselback miserable.
- What's up with all the sexy vampire shows and movies and books and ridiculosity nowadays? I loved Buffy as much as anyone but it was never the vampires that attracted me to the show.
- More unenthusiasm for Fringe. This time it's from, well, Time. Ouch.
- This is a really, really bad idea, MTV. Even worse than Carmen: A Hip-Hopera.
- A funny idea for Ugly Betty or a vision into the future?
Have a good weekend! I'm probably not going to see The X-Files or Step-Brothers, so with a little luck, I won't be any dumber come Monday.
Technorati Profile
|
-
Posted
Jul 24 2008, 04:56 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Warning! Here there be spoilers! For those who aren't aware, Fringe is J.J. Abrams's latest attempt at TELEVISION GENIUS. Everyone has been salivating at this because, hey, Lost was good before Abrams left and Alias was great for the first two seasons, so obviously Fringe is going to be, like, Jesus giving birth to a tap-dancing dinosaur or something. At least for the first few episodes. And mmm, Joshua Jackson is pretty, so who are we to slam a show that puts his gorgeous visage on television and puts money in his pocket to pay for hookers?
But, sadly, it seems that Fringe is a little... boring. At the San Diego Comic Con last night, they screened the pilot episode (the 81-minute pilot episode) and the response was... well... underwhelming and lukewarm, let's say. Some people simply called it "bizarre," which isn't really a good thing even when you're dealing with a sci-fi thriller show. Even though I'm not at Comic-Con, I did manage to see the pilot a few weeks ago - through completely legal channels, cough, and I have to say that I'm not surprised that the audience didn't really get into the plot. It begins with the skin melting off a plane of people... for some reason... it's never really explained how. But this starts a DRAMATIC CHAIN OF EVENTS that leads to FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) to be brought in to investigate everything. Olivia Dunham a very skinny blonde lady who always looks like she's about to cry and probably never smiles. She just wants to DO HER JOB and DO IT WELL, DAMMIT. She usually has trouble really opening up to people, so when her boyfriend (and fellow agent) is all, "I love you!" she panics at first and then later admits that she feels the same. OK, first of all, we already have a skinny, bitchy blonde police-type person on TV: Poppy Montgomery from Without A Trace, so Anna Torv really needs to be replaced with someone with charisma and a sense of humour. Also, Olivia needs to be written as having a sense of humour. Second of all, come on, J.J., you're seriously doing this again? Remember in the Alias pilot when Jennifer Garner and her boyfriend get engaged and then he gets murdered? Well, J.J. might not remember, but I do, which is why it is not even remotely surprising when Olivia's boyfriend dies, too. And it's supposed to be very sad and is the reason Olivia is so dedicated to researching all the crazy goings-on, but we don't care about the relationship, so we don't care about Olivia's motivations, and so we don't care about Olivia.
So Olivia has to search out this scientist guy who was put in jail... for some reason... And to get to him, she has to go through his son, Joshua Jackson, who has fled the country because of the mob, I think. So there's plenty of supposed sexual tension between him and Olivia, except it's not there because Anna Torv can't remember her lines AND emote at the same time. Joshua Jackson does his darndest, he really does, but it's just not happening. Oh, I forgot: Olivia's dick of a boss is played by Lance Reddick from The Wire and Lost, and even though I love him, I still can't muster up any enthusiasm for his mysterious character because nothing in Fringe is all that interesting. Oh! And then the weirdest part of the pilot is - and this happens before Olivia's boyfriend dies, but he's in a coma - Olivia goes into some weird tank thing so that she can go into the mind of her boyfriend and talk to him to try to get information. If you're thinking that this sounds like an even lamer version of The Cell starring Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn, you are entirely correct. Here's the thing about Fringe: I can suspend my disbelief that people can have magical powers and people's skin can't just melt off because some guy thought too hard with his brain meat, but they take a crazy scientist out of jail and he's like, "Hey, can I get a water tank and some wires? Awesome, thanks, now you can magically go into your boyfriend's mind." That's a little too much for me to believe. If you want me to believe something incredible, then you need to make everything else as credible as possible. Or, at the very least, make everything else completely, completely awesome and rad so I'm too excited to care about the little details. Fringe does neither of these things. By the end of the pilot, I was bored and couldn't imagine sitting through another episode just to get J.J.'s standard teaspoon of plot advancement. Maybe Fringe will get better in later episodes; there are plenty of shows that take a few weeks (or an entire season) to find their groove. But unless someone tells me that the show really improves after the first episode, I'm not going to bother checking in. (Sorry, Josh! Call me!)
|
-
Posted
Jul 22 2008, 02:51 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Noooo! Don't go, Clay! I was SO SURE it was you!
Yes, Clay, my second choice for the Mole was sent home last night even though he totally was the Mole and just refuses to admit it to spite me. I see through your games, Clay. When you're ready to own up to your responsibilities - like GROWNUPS do - call me.
Last night's first challenge was a great one for the Mole. Well, not ultimately, since the team ended up getting all the money, but in the sense that it was easy to try to sabotage the mission without it being too obvious. The final five were split up into two groups: Dumb (Nicole and Craig) and Smart (Clay, Mark and... yeah, whatever, Paul). Each team had to go solve clues around the neighbourhood that would give them numbers, which they weren't allowed to write down, and both teams had to return within the allotted time to enter the numbers into a computer. The Dumb team, of course, had to remember five numbers while the Smart team only had to remember three.
At first I was like, "Oh, that's fine, I could probably remember five numbers," until they showed us the clues, things like, "Take the year this statue was donated and multiply it by the number of swings divided by the number of tiles in the entire park, add your age, subtract your goal weight and then spin around 17 times." I would have gotten so confused without being allowed to write anything down. I probably would have forgotten who my parents were by the end of that mission.
This, of course, meant that whoever the Mole is was surrounded by people who kept getting confused and screwing up all on their own. Clay and Mark argued over how to properly subtract something and got different answers, Craig and Nicole kept miscounting the number of street lamps and Paul is a moron. Amazingly, when they got back, all the numbers were right except that in one of Craig and Nicole's answers, they had two numbers incorrect. Their answer was 228, and the answer was 2 _ _. Jon Kelley said one of them could go back to the clue site and recalculate, but they only had 20 minutes and one choice.
Nicole went - I'm guessing because she could run better than Craig - and came back with 227, which everyone automatically knew was wrong since the computer specifically said that the second number couldn't be a 2. Now, somehow - even today I'm still unclear about how he figured this out - Clay looked at the numbers they did have right and was like, "Oh, if you add this one and this one, it's 233," and that turned out to be the right answer. I don't know. But hurray! Money! Shut up, Paul!
The second challenge was the requisite "Family Members and Loved Ones" challenge. Each player revealed with other player they trusted the most. The trusted player would then have to answer questions about the first player's loved one. Then a train would pull up with the loved one inside, and if they got 3 out of 5 correct, the train doors would open, $10,000 would go int the pot and everyone would cheer. If not, the loved one would go back to the airport and go home. Luckily, everyone's loved ones got to stay and hang out, so I think the Mole decided not to be a dick for this challenge. The one thing that bugged me was that Paul's wife and very cute daughter were on the train, so if Mark (the player Paul said he trusts) got too many questions wrong, that little two-year-old wouldn't be allowed to see her dad and wouldn't understand why. I mean, luckily, it turned out well, but what if it hadn't? That's a pretty crappy thing to do to a two-year-old, ABC.
It was great to see all the players with their loved ones - it made all of them more likeable. Even Paul! His daughter really was very cute. Nicole's mom was also hilarious and kept talking about how she could never play The Mole because she'd end up beating someone up. At one point, though, Nicole talked about how emotionally draining the show is, and her mom encouraged her to quit the show. Way to teach your daughter about sticking things out! How the hell did Nicole get through medical school? Anyway, Nicole said she was going to throw the quiz and leave on her own terms - "If I try my hardest and get eliminated, then they beat me, but if I throw the quiz and leave, then they didn't beat me." What a great attitude: it's always better to give up than to possibly fail.
Still, with all the attention given to Nicole's little plan, it was pretty obvious that she was not getting kicked off - and, sure enough, at elimination, she admitted that she couldn't bring herself to throw the quiz. (Her mom called her "Omarosa," which was pretty funny... and a little bit true.)
So, with Clay gone, I can now say, with ALMOST SORT OF CONFIDENCE, that Craig is the mole.
I'm onto you, mister! And it only took me until the final four, after my other two suspects were eliminated! Call me Columbo. So why do I think it's Craig? Well, one: there's only four people left anyway. But more importantly is what someone pointed out on the Mole forums at Television Without Pity. A couple of episodes ago, they noticed that in confessionals, there were little decorative doohickeys in the background.
However, during one shot of Clay's confessional, the decoration was slightly different:
Which looks like four lowercase "i"s. Or, rather, "four-eyes," meaning glasses, meaning CRAAAAAAIG. Boo-yah! I mean, I can't really take credit for this, since this was all someone else's detective work, but SUCK IT, CRAIG! I am SO ONTO YOU. Or, rather, I'm onto you until you get eliminated next week, which - considering my track record - is probably pretty likely.
|
-
Posted
Jul 21 2008, 02:20 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
I'd fallen a little behind on my Real World viewings, so I watched the last two episodes of Hollywood this weekend and holy crap, do I hate Will. I severely disliked him before, but now I just want to punch him in his ass-face. If you've fallen behind, too, here's a little recap: Will has been dating Janelle, who was on the Real World a few seasons ago in Key West. However, since Greg and Joey left, the house got two more roommates, one of whom was Brittni or or Breetny or Brytknee or or however she spells it. She's a very pretty girl and she and Will begin flirting, but because Will is dating Janelle, he begins to treat Brittni like crap because he doesn't want to cheat on Janelle. And he basically tells Brittni to fuck off and leave him alone, as if it's her responsibility to make sure he doesn't cheat on his girlfriend. It gets worse. So all the roommates go on a trip to Cancun, where there is plenty of drinking and debauchery and Will and Brittni make out a little. When Will wakes up the next day, he immediately tries to come up with a way to somehow make his little indiscretion okay so Janelle won't break up with him. This includes asking all of the other roommates (guys included) to kiss him so he can just say that he kissed everyone. Uh, Will? You know you're on camera, right? Just like you've been for the past three or four months? Eventually, he comes clean to Janelle, who breaks up with him. Good riddance! Forget that douchebag! But no. Because in the next episode, Will and Janelle meet up to discuss their breakup and the possibility of getting back together. (Oh, and by the way, Will and Dave had had a foursome with some Canadian girls the night before.) Janelle is understandably pissed at Will and his little "I'm just a sweet little guy" routine isn't working like it normally is. So what does Will do? He goes into the bathroom (the camera follows him), where he stares into the mirror and MAKES HIMSELF CRY. In a confessional, he says that he's not fake crying, it's just that he can make his eyes water if he wants to, and he wanted to show Janelle just how upset he was. In other words, he was fake crying. DOUCHE. Unbelievably, Janelle falls for Will's bullshit and comes over and hugs him and is all, "Baaaaaby, let's just start ooooooover," and just like that, Will's crappy behaviour is rewarded. I never really cared either way about Janelle when she was on The Real World (or on any of the Real World/Road Rules challenges), but man, she deserves so much better than Will the Manipulative Bastard. I can only hope that when I watch the reunion show on Wednesday, we'll find out that Janelle saw the episode and dumped Will's stupid ass. I also hope that Kimberly got letters from every entertainment show in America to say that they'll never hire a girl who uses the phrase, "I don't care if you're from inner city Blackville." And I hope that Sarah finally realizes what a judgmental, passive-aggressive shrew she is. But even if none of those things happen, I think that, most of all, I'll just be happy that this season is finally over. I say it almost every season, but for serious, this was the worst season yet.
|
-
Posted
Jul 18 2008, 03:18 PM
by
KATV
with 1 comment(s)
The Internet clearly knew that I was feeling a little blah this morning, because it cheered me up with endless TV treats. Let's do this. -- Check out the trailer for 24: Exile, the new TV movie that will serve as a prequel to the show's next season. Robert Carlyle is in it? Aw, 24, have you been reading my diary? -- If you guys missed it, this year's Primetime Emmy nominations were revealed. There were some mistakes, but they did a few things right, too. -- So now that William Petersen is officially leaving CSI, the fans are practically shitting themselves over it. The producers are already talking about what else the show will have to offer, including a new team member who will have "the DNA of a serial killer." Gosh, with cagey language like that, there couldn't possibly be some kind of loophole, could there? -- Speaking of leaving shows, Amy Poehler will be leaving Saturday Night Live after the U.S. elections this fall to look after her baby and to star in the new "un-spinoff" of The Office. The baby will probably be fine.
-- So Sarah Chalke is definitely returning to How I Met Your Mother, even though she kinda lied about it a little while ago. The head of CBS entertainment doesn't think Chalke will be the mother, though, which I'm kind of glad about, because I think it's really stupid Ted proposed on the season finale. It's been, what, three months since they started dating? ...Yes, I am too invested in this show. -- Jeffrey Dean Morgan will return to Grey's Anatomy next season as Denny Duquette. Oh man, does that mean Izzie is going to die? Because that would be awesome. -- Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry says the show will end after Season 7. Um... can it end now? Why not now? -- Yes, Jeff Probst is nominated for an Emmy this year, but he is not engaged or even in a serious relationship. You know, if you cared. Which you don't and shouldn't. Shut up, Jeff Probst. -- Did you guys see the season premiere of Project Runway this week? If you haven't, I won't spoil it for you, but People's TV Watch has a short Q&A with the eliminated designer, and he or she really doesn't get why he or she was eliminated even though it was completely obvious to anyone else with eyes. -- The first Heroes webisode premiered this week. Eh, not bad, I guess. It's certainly better than Season 2 was.
-- Will you guys be watching High School Musical: Get in the Picture on Sunday? I hate myself a little, but I think I'm going to. I had the chance to talk to host Nick Lachey about the show - biggest surprise: the kids don't leave the show once they're eliminated. Awkward.
Have a good weekend, everyone! If you're low on funds, try staying home and mixing your own Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. Sure, there's a good chance you'll get alcohol poisoning, but if you don't, score!
|
-
Posted
Jul 17 2008, 04:26 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
I'm sorry, Mary McDonnell. If it makes you feel any better, I still love you. Yes, the Emmy nominations came out today (as if you couldn't tell) and, well... They're better than usual, I will admit. But The Wire and Battlestar Galactica were pretty much shut out of everything, which just shows that whatever the Emmy people say they did to improve the nomination process is didn't actually do anything. It's even more frustrating because McDonnell made it to the shortlist of nominees, so how did Mariska Friggin' Hargitay beat her? It makes me so angry, people. And I think my heart just about broke that The Wire, too, made it the short list and still, somehow, didn't make it to the list of six (!) official nominees, while BOSTON LEGAL made it AGAIN. Shatner, I love you, and Spader, I think you're sex on legs, but I would rather watch every episode of The Wire in one sitting with no bathroom breaks than watch two minutes of your show. I will say, though, that other than Boston Legal, the nominees for best drama are pretty good. Lost is a little bit iffy, but I can understand it because the show did get a lot better this season - and I'm convinced it's because they were forced to condense their storylines into fewer episodes, so don't worry, next season we'll have our good ol' mediocre Lost back. Hurray? I'm happy Dexter is finally getting some kudos, and Michael C. Hall especially, though he's got some tough competition for best actor in a drama. It's also great that Gabriel Byrne got a nomination for In Treatment, though I'm not sure I can forgive the Emmys for not at least putting Mia Wasikowska on their short list for best supporting actress in a drama. And, for that matter, Blair Underwood. Speaking of Blair Underwood, it kind of sucks that for almost all of the male actor categories, it's almost all white people. Tony Shalhoub has a Lebanese background, but the only category with a black actor is outstanding guest actor, with Glynn Turman for In Treatment. (I have to say, Turman totally deserves that Emmy - and I'm not just saying that because he was on The Wire, I promise.) It's disappointing.
As for the female actor categories, there is slightly better representation of different races. America Ferrera was nominated for best comedic actress for Ugly Betty again, and Vanessa L. Williams got her second best supporting actress nomination for the show, too. Phylicia Reshad got a best actress in a miniseries or TV movie nod for Raisins in the Sun, and Audra McDonald was also nominated for it in the best supporting actress category. Both Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson got their usual best supporting drama actress nominations, and the lovely Alfre Woodward was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in TV movie Pictures of Hollis Woods. So a better track record than the men's, but still nothing special. So while I'm not as disappointed by the Emmy nominations as I usually am, I'm still annoyed enough that I'll be all grumblecakes about it for the next little while. You know, until the actual ceremony, which will make me even more ornery and difficult to be around. I do not envy my friends and coworkers, I can tell you that.
|
-
Posted
Jul 15 2008, 04:45 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
It's been a few weeks since I've been able to write about THE MOOOOOOOLE, but happily, the show was back this week after being preempted by DeAnna Pappas and her stupid, stupid face last week. Since I haven't been able to write about the show for a few weeks (vacation, then Canada Day, then SHUT UP, DEANNA), I didn't blog when my #1 suspect, Victoria, was eliminated a few weeks ago. I was so convinced! Drat. But Clay, my second choice, is still there. As is Craig, who is almost as suspicious. In fact, if Craig turns out to be the mole, I am going to lie and say he was my second choice all along. Paul the Mole Killer still hasn't been eliminated, which is endlessly frustrating because every moment that he is on-screen, he is taking valuable airtime away from the good parts of the show, i.e. anything other than Paul. He's always yelling and screaming and yelling some more - last night he and Nicole got in a tiff because she didn't erase something on a chalkboard correctly. Really. It's enough that I'm actually getting mad at the eliminated contestants for not, at least, being smarter than Paul. How hard can it be, people? Last night's first challenge involved two people going to find wine bottles in a vineyard while two others solved brain teasers that would reveal the locations of the wine bottles. One person was given the responsibility of relaying the location information to the wine searchers, while the last person (which was Mark) had to jog on a treadmill the entire time. The wine searchers had until Mark could no longer run on the treadmill, with the twist being that every time the wine searchers found a bottle, the treadmill sped up. I noticed a little something - nothing that would reveal who the mole is, but I found it a little amusing. On most big network reality shows - Big Brother, for instance - when it was time to speed up the treadmills, the crew would have set up a way to adjust the speed remotely. On The Mole, it was just host Jon Kelley leaning over and pressing the up arrow. Simplicity? Or another sign of ABC not giving the show enough money? (Or other networks giving other shows too much money?)
Clay and Mark had a hilariously devious plan last night to make sure the bright and observant Alex had as much wine as possible at dinner before the Mole quiz, because even if it didn't make him get questions wrong, it would probably slow him down a bit, meaning that if Alex and someone else tied for the fewest questions correct, Alex would go home. Very smart of Clay and Mark. Well done. Alex did end up going home, but we don't know if that was actually because of Clay and Mark's cunning. Of the players left - Clay, Mark, Craig, Nicole, and Paul - here's why Clay and Craig are my top picks for the mole: the process of elimination. Mark seems too high-strung and too invested in winning the game to be the mole. Nicole is trying way too hard to seem like the mole - plus, on last night's episode, Alex kept talking about how he thought she was the mole, and now Alex is gone. And Paul is too much of an obnoxious, moronic douchebag to be the mole. So I'm left with Clay and Craig. I haven't seen any outright clues that point to Craig so far, whereas I think the #11 Journal followed by Clay wearing #11 on his shirt may have been a clue. Since THE MOOOOOOOLE isn't doing very well in the ratings (what the hell do you guys have to do at 10 p.m. on a Monday night?), the producers have actually started a Save The Mole campaign. I urge you all to take part - Jon Kelley isn't as good as Anderson Cooper, but then, who is? And, heck, mysteries are just good fun.
|
-
Posted
Jul 14 2008, 03:22 PM
by
KATV
with 11 comment(s)
People who know me know that I hate the movie Crash. Hate it. It's an overblown after-school special that hits the audience over the head with morality lessons because it doesn't trust the audience to perceive subtlety or to make decisions for themselves. Hey, did you guys know that there's still racism in the world? I KNOW, I was so shocked, too. Thank goodness Crash came along to open my eyes. In fact, according to Crash, EVERYBODY IS RACIST ALL THE TIME. Always. Forever. I think my favourite part was when Matt Dillon - SOMEHOW - overcame his racism to save a woman FROM A BURNING CAR. Gosh, the triumph of the human spirit, huh? How frickin' noble of him. Anyway... Imagine how happy I was when Crash won Best Picture. Now imagine how I felt when I found out that they were making a TV series based on the movie. Now imagine how many things in my apartment I broke. Then I found out that Dennis Hopper is going to star in it, and... I don't know how to feel. I have plenty of love for Hopper - he is Frank Booth, after all - but... This is Crash we're talking about here. Granted, Hopper's record producer character will be introduced in a scene where he talks to his penis, but I think it will take more than one measly scene of penis conversation to win me over.
Today, I read a post at What's Alan Watching? about the upcoming TV show, and I honestly can't decide whether it makes me more or less likely to hate the show. Apparently, Crash showrunner Glen Mazzara and the rest of the writers and directors are going out of their way to make the TV show nothing like the movie. Let me repeat that: They are basing their TV show on a movie, but they are purposely making the TV show nothing like the movie. This is either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart. Considering that this is Crash we're talking about, I'm tempted to go with the latter, but then, I don't want to underestimate my ability to hate something. Bobby Moresco (one of the writers of Crash the movie) and Don Cheadle (who was in the movie) were also at this thing to help provide some continuity between the movie and the TV show. The TV show that will HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH THE MOVIE. Am I the only person having trouble with this? "You can't make the movie again," said Moresco. "You have to make a television show." OK, this is fine, because yes, television is an entirely different medium and you have to change a few things. Fine. "I think if people are expecting to see the movie done over 13 episodes, that's not what they're going to see," added Cheadle. Yeah, if viewers tune into a show that is based on the movie Crash, and even shares the same title, what possible reason could they have to believe the show would be anything like the movie? Viewers are clearly being unreasonable.
Oh, and to make things a little more convoluted, here's a direct quote:
"Our hope is that people tune in to the first episode and at the end go, 'Well, that was nothing like the movie, but it felt exactly like the movie," said Mazzara. I don't even know what that means. Is that possible? How? It's like saying "I'm going to make a shirt that could not be considered a shirt in any possible way, but then you'll put it on and you'll realize how much of a shirt it is." Did what I just wrote make sense? I don't think it did. I think Mazzara's on crack. More evidence of Mazzara not really understanding the concept of adaptation: the TV show is going to be light-hearted. This is a show about racism, remember. "I didn’t want the series to feel somber. Or didactic. Or heavy handed," said Mazzara.
"This is a fun show. The show is not bleak. Or depressing.” One: you know that Mazzara went home after this and said, "'Didactic!' That was brilliant. My word-a-day calendar is already paying for itself." Two: "This is a fun show." That is seriously what he said. About his new TV show Crash. Which is about racism.
Racism! WHEEEEE! "Hey, Dad, what are we gonna do this weekend?"
"Well, son, I thought we could go to the park, play some football, and then marginalize and entire race of people!"
"Aw, Dad, why do we have to play football at all? You know how much I like keeping minorities down!"
"Well... OK. It's the best part of my week, too."
"HURRAY!"
|
-
Posted
Jul 11 2008, 02:38 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Oh, Friday. Friend, mother, secret lover. Why don't you come around more often? You know how good we are together. You give me beers on the patio, I give you endless viewings of my Greek DVDs. What are you so scared of, Friday? Are you afraid that you're not sure of a love there is no cure for? Anyway... -- Family Channel is going to air the Hannah Montana 3D Concert on July 26, and because my job is totally awesome, I got a screener copy of it with MY VERY OWN SET OF 3D GLASSES. Admit it: you want to be me so bad.
-- Also, I cannot express how excited I am that Mad Men returns to AMC on July 27. It's going to be so, so great. Suits! Smoking! Secrets! Seduction! Ssssss! Film.com has a great article about why the women of Mad Men are just as important as their male costars. -- You mean to tell me that you put Gary Busey on Celebrity Rehab and the results weren't as good as you hoped?! Tell me, what's it like living under that rock? -- This seems like the best/worst/best again idea for 24 EVER. You know what would be even more awesome? If they cast Jason Patrick as the villain. -- This actually is a great idea. Omar is rad. -- This, however, really is the WORST. IDEA. EVER. Just because you were smart enough to bring Project Runway to your network does not mean that you should televise every little thought that comes into your brain while you're snorting coke in the bathroom. -- In news that will SHOCK and AMAZE you, Joe Rogan says that money aside, he hated hosting Fear Factor. But there is no way he hated hosting it more than we hated watching it. -- Critics are not enjoying Flashpoint, the CTV- and CBS-produced drama (premiering tonight at 10 p.m. ET) about hostage negotiation. I have to say, I love that Enrico Colatoni is on TV again (and interviewing him was a delight), but I have to agree that Flashpoint is a little too cliched and dull. But then, it's Canadian, so what can you expect? -- Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ed Begley, Jr. are having a little feud over which one of them is greener. Regardless of who actually is greener, I am putting my full support behind Bill Nye. I'm a sucker for a man in a lab coat. -- Sorry, everyone: There will be no Deadwood movie. Cocksuckers. -- Speaking of swearing, I was watching The Usual Suspects on AMC last night, and I forgot that AMC likes to dub over the swearing with less explicit language. In the case of this movie: "Give me the keys you FAIRY GODMOTHER." Which made me laugh, but mostly because Showcase parodied the censoring of this very scene in their own commercials (which were to advertise the fact that Showcase leaves the swearing in) by having everyone say, "Give me the keys, you FUZZY SOCK SUCKER." I really prefer Showcase's version better.
Have a great weekend!
|
-
Posted
Jul 08 2008, 12:53 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Because there is nothing I'd rather do with my Monday night than watch THREE HOURS of people blather on and on about "connections" and "soul mates." I was so excited for THE MOOOOOLE last night, you guys. I got home and yelled, "THE MOOOOOLE is on tonight!" But no. It was far more important for The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose to spend an hour rehashing the two hours that HAD JUST FINISHED AIRING. We had to sit through Jason calling for a waaaahhhmbulance because DeAnna dumped him and got engaged to snowboarder Jesse. We had to sit through DeAnna and Jesse's emotional reunion. And we still had to hear, over and over again, about how Brad Womack broke DeAnna's heart on The Bachelor but how she's sooooo happy now that she and Jesse are engaged after knowing each other a month. A MONTH, PEOPLE. On a REALITY SHOW. What is wrong with them? Imagine how bad the show would have to be in order for me to say, "Man, I'd rather spend an hour watching only Paul from The Mole." Yeah.
And no matter how in luuuurve DeAnna thinks she is with Jesse, nothing will convince me that there wasn't some part of her that was like, "Well, Jason already has a kid, and that's fine, but with Jessie I could start FROM SCRATCH with my OWN BABIES that don't have SOME OTHER WHORE'S DNA IN THEM." I'm paraphrasing, obviously. People is even reporting that DeAnna and Jesse have already set a date for May 2009 - I give them to the end of September. MAX. The execs at ABC were hilariously shrewd in their wedding present to them - they gave them a free honeymoon to Greece. Because they know the odds of those two actually staying together and getting married next year are slim-to-none. Actually, they're smaller than that. The odds are none-to-absolute-zero. So ABC gets to look generous while, probably, not actually having to pay for a honeymoon. Well done, good sirs. The most cringe-worthy part - you know, other than everything - was when Jeremy returned to talk to DeAnna and try to win her back after she already dumped him last week. Dude. That's a pathetic move when there aren't any cameras around. I mean, even if it worked, that's not really a triumph for you. "Sweet! I'm engaged to someone who only said yes when I groveled!" If you ever find yourself in a situation where you've been dumped but you think you can convince them to take you back? Seriously, skip the pain and embarrassment because there is no good outcome of that scenario, even if they do take you back. If they really want to be with you, they'll come back on their own and you won't be the loser who had to beg his or her significant other to stick around. (Which is my awkward, long-winded version of "If you love something, let it go." Sorry about that.)
The bright side to the Bachelorette finale? No more DeAnna! Woo hoo! No more of her annoying twang that she clearly thinks is charming. No more of her insisting that she's totally over Brad while still mentioning him every three seconds. No more "my heart is breaking right now, y'all!" No more insane conversations where she and some guy talk about how much they like each other without really having any proof that they have anything in common. You know, the military really should continue hiring some ABC executives to help them with torture techniques and psychological warfare. When The Bachelorette started, I hated them so much, but now that it's all over, I can't help but feel relief and a little bit of gratitude. Yes, if it weren't for them, I never would have felt the pain to begin with, but they are the ones that took that pain away. I kind of want to bake them a cake.
|
-
Posted
Jul 07 2008, 04:54 PM
by
KATV
with 1 comment(s)
No, Jonathan Coulton isn't TV-related, but he is one of the most delightful people alive and the half hour I spent talking to him was the highlight of my year, if not my life. Not only is he a brilliant song-writer, he's also hilarious and incredibly humble and in the days (...weeks) following the interview, I bugged countless friends with "And THEN Jonathan Coulton said..." anecdotes.
You can read my interview with him here, but, as usual, not everything he said made it into the article. And, since I've even included extra material when I interviewed the waste of space that is Lauren Conrad, I knew that I would be a horrible person if I did not include more of the delightful things Jonathan Coulton said. And if you don't know anything about Jonathan Coulton or this crazy Internet thing we keep talking about, I've included some links so you can stay in the loop. Enjoy!
How are your live shows different from just listening to the recordings? I mean, other than the fact that at your shows, you’re actually there in person.
That is a primary difference; you’re right to point that out. You know, the recordings are mostly fully realized arrangements that I’ve done in my little home studio, so there are lots of instruments other than acoustic guitar and voice. And, of course, when I play live, it’s, for the most part, just acoustic guitar and voice. So it’s harder to really rock out under those circumstances. It’s interesting because the songs do change their character and part of the challenge of moving from Thing A Week, which was an intense recording process, and where I am now, which is a lot more about touring and live performances, was learning how to make the songs work in that context. A lot of times, I prefer the live, acoustic version from the one I recorded.
And when you play live, you get to perform with people like Bill Corbett [of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame].
It was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe – and Mike Nelson [also of MST3K] was in the audience, too! It was crazy. I guess Mike Nelson lives there and Bill Corbett was in town; they were doing a RiffTrax recording or something like that. Somehow, I don’t even remember how, we made the connection and invited them to the show. They came and it was like, geez, if I need a guest robot voice, I think I know a guy who could do it pretty well. He was very game about it. Not the kind of cameo I’d expect any famous person to take, really, so I was delighted that he came up on stage.
Can you tell me a bit about how you went from not being the geek troubadour to actually being the official music guy of Internet geek culture?
[Laughs] Uh… Uh… It’s sort of an accident. I discovered… I’d been writing songs for this thing my friend John Hodgman did, called the Little Gray Book lectures, which was a live reading series that we did once a month in Brooklyn and he was the curator and host. He’d invite people to come and read things and I would write songs to go with whatever them we were working with that evening. So I’d written a number of songs – it got me to write songs about things I’d never have chosen to write about. And then I was asked to play at this conference in Maine called Pop!Tech, one of these get-togethers where a lot of tech industry CEOs and super scientists and big thinkers come to talk about the future and stuff. I wasn’t sure how I would be received. I played a song about the Mandelbrot set and the audience leapt to their feet and applauded. They were just so thrilled to hear the equation for the Mandelbrot set, and a little light bulb went off in my head and I said, ‘Ohhh, I’ve just met my audience.’ From there, that was the moment I realized that there was that ‘geek’ angle to what I was doing. If I hadn’t been asked there, I’m not sure I would have considered myself a geek troubadour, but having that experience made me think, ‘OK, this is my wheelhouse; this is what I do.’
When did you realize
that you could make a career out of it?
When I was making a career out of it.
Heh. OK.
The story is that in 2005, I had been working at this
software company for about nine years and I had always meant to become a
musician, but hadn’t for one reason or another - mostly fear. There were a few
things that pushed me over the edge that year. I’d had enough contact from
strangers who had found my music somehow and were very complimentary. Then my
daughter was just born, so I was like, ‘Oh, well, I really have to get going
now – and, in fact, it’s already too late.’ I don’t know; a number of things, a
number of stars aligned and it was like, OK, let’s give it a shot. That’s when
I started doing Thing A Week and every Friday I would put out a new song for
free. Over the course of that year of weekly song releases, the audience got
bigger and bigger and the website traffic kept going up and I had a few songs
that, for whatever reason, got big. My cover of ‘Baby Got Back’ was a big, sort
of, Internet hit and ‘Code Monkey’ – that tapped into all the right emotions of
the tech community, I think. Somewhere in that year, I noticed that enough
people were buying music that I was actually making enough money to pay the
nanny who was caring for my child while I was sitting around noodling on the
guitar. That was the moment when I was like, ‘Oh, wow, it actually works!’ It
just got better from there.
How’d you end up doing the podcast with Ze Frank where it was just you playing while he stared at the camera?
I had met Ze at Pop!Tech, actually. He was a speaker at the same conference I was playing music at. This was before I had really taken the plunge. His story was kind of similar: he made a video of him dancing in stupid ways for a group of friends and he sent it around and it went viral and exploded and he somehow turned that into a living of being a professional Internet personality. I was like, ‘Wow! That is the most awesome thing in the world.’ We kept in touch over the years and I would check in with what he was doing and he would check in with what I was doing. So when he lost that chess game [with his viewers] and had to put that video together – it was his idea, he said, ‘I think it would be really funny if you actually played the songs.’ So I just went over to his apartment one day and we did it. It was really great fun.
So you mentioned the Little Gray Book lectures with John Hodgman – obviously you guys have been friends for a long time. What made you want to do these things together?
We went to college together – we met in college.
This was Yale.
It was at Yale, yes. I met my wife through him and have been good friends for years and years. When he started doing the Little Gray Book lectures, he had just gone through a transformation of his own. He’d just left his day job as a literary agent to become a professional writer. That was one of the things he was doing, this reading series. I think it was one of those things where John has always been very generous with his spotlight even when it’s a tiny little spotlight that nobody thought was going to work. Little Gray Books was all about him pulling together people whose talents he admired and showing them to the audience. That’s how it started. He just invited me to do a song and it grew from there.
Well, I know, especially, that on the audiobook for The Areas of My Expertise, you guys have a great dynamic of him talking down to you and you pretending not to notice.
Yeah, that just developed on its own. [Laughs]
On the audiobook, there's a segment where John Hodgman has a little to say about each of the 50 states and you do a little five-second song for each one. Did you just do that on the spur of the moment or did you write them beforehand?
This is always a very flattering question when people ask, ‘Did you make those up on the spot or compose them ahead of time?’ Because I composed them on the spot. A lot of them are kind of repetitive and some of them are pretty awful. Honestly, I don’t even remember them. We just sat down and he would say, ‘OK: Alabama.’ And I would make something up, he would read the Alabama bit and then we’d go on to the next state. It was one of the most grueling creating activities I’ve ever done. It was like Thing A Week only it happened in an hour. [Laughs] It was really intense. I think you can probably hear, as you go through, you can probably hear me running out of ideas.
Going back to Thing A Week, did it start off easy and get hard, were there waves of difficulty and easiness or was it easier than you thought it would be?
Occasionally, I would have an easy week. On Monday, I’d have a great idea and Tuesday, I was recording and it was just what I wanted it to be. Most weeks it was more like, ‘Shit, it’s Thursday and I still have nothing.’ Frequently it was, like, Friday at 11 a.m. and I had to leave by 2 p.m. so I had to just go and write something. It was very interesting in that way because it was tortuous in a lot of ways. It was a painful process because I was always, like, way out on the edge of what I thought I could do and always feelings like I wasn’t going to finish – and frequently, that was when the best stuff happened. It was an important lesson that I fear I didn’t actually learn because now it’s still very hard to write songs.
What is your song-writing process like?
I generally start with a little nugget of something. Frequently it’s a character’s voice that’s speaking from somewhere. I know not where, exactly, but I’ll get a little thing. Like, for ‘Re: Your Brains,’ the genesis of that was a zombie saying, ‘All we want to do is eat your brains. We’re not unreasonable.’ So from there, I was like, ‘OK, I know what this song is about.’ That little piece of it just came to me and frequently that’s how it happens. Sometimes the ideas very obviously suggest the rest of the song to me. Other times, I’ll get the musical idea or a line or something – like ‘Mr. Fancy Pants,’ it was very unclear what that song was about but I couldn’t get it out of my head. So that was a case where I had to actually construct something, like, what the hell is this? So it starts as a nugget and then is a question of spinning that out until I can see the bigger picture of what I’m actually writing or what I want the end result to be. From there, it’s just a question of filling in the gaps and, bit-by-bit, writing more music here and lyrics there. Once I can see the larger structure of what I’m doing, then I’ve broken its back and I can steamroll over the rest of it.
How about Skullcrusher Mountain? That one’s my personal favourite.
[Laughs] That one was written for a Little Gray Book lecture, actually. The theme was – and this is typical John Hodgman, because he insisted the themes be confusing and awkwardly-worded – so this one was ‘How to Measure Misunderstood Genius.’ What the hell does that even mean? So, for ‘misunderstood genius,’ I took that to mean ‘mad scientist.’ And because I can’t be content just writing a song about a mad scientist, I had to make it sad or uncomfortable in some way. I decided it should be a love song from a mad scientist who doesn’t know how to express himself; who doesn’t know how to talk to human.
So… ‘Still Alive.’
Yes.
The guys at Valve had come to see you perform, yes?
Yes, some people from Valve saw me perform and came up after the show and said, ‘Would you ever be interested in writing music for a game?’ And I said, ‘Yes, please. Let’s talk about that.’
Were you surprised at how big of a response that song got?
I’m amazed. The reason I agreed to do it is because I have great faith in that company and the creative people who were working on it were really funny and talented. I knew it was going to end up being something good, but I wasn’t sure how well it was going to work. In that sense, I’m really surprised that it ended up coming together so nicely. Certainly, at the outset, when we agreed, like, ‘Yeah, let’s have a musical number at the end of the game!’ – it seemed kind of crazy. It seemed like something that could have easily turned out bad. Now that I’ve seen the way it all came together, I get why people love it so much. Having watched it – and this is not to give myself credit but to give Valve credit – they did such a great job creating the moment at the end of the game. Part of that are the characters they wrote so carefully and delicately. You don’t even know that you’re falling in love with GlaDOS over the course of the game until she sings you a song at the end of this perfect moment.
But it turned out pretty well, I think.
It turned out pretty well.
Was one of your conditions that you got to play the entire game before it was released?
No, I didn’t have any conditions at all. I was like, ‘Please, please like me. Can I come to your office?’ That is the first thing that I did, though. Our first meeting, they had me come into the office and sat me down to do some play testing in the early version of Portal that they had ready.
If they make a sequel, do you think you’ll be writing another song for GLaDOS?
I don’t know! I hope so. Of course, that’s a scary prospect because you never know – the first one is such a hard act to follow, you know. It’s the kind of thing where it’s hard to think of a sequel that was better than the original – oh, wait, no it’s not: The Empire Strikes Back. There you go. But aside from that, it’s always hard to follow up. But certainly, I’d be thrilled to work with them again; they’re a very talented bunch of people.
So how did you get involved doing the PopSci podcasts?
That was… I knew a couple of editors at PopSci because I had written a couple of things for them. I wrote a piece about building a robot, based on a camera/vision system that I found online, bought and built a robot out of. So I knew them and, because of that, they were familiar with my music. At some point, at Pop!Tech again, they were there and I was there and I was invited to come play poker with them late at night. There was whiskey there. At some point, at 1 a.m., someone said, ‘You should write a theme song for Popular Science magazine! That would be awesome!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah. Yeah! That’s hilarious!’ And then when we woke up and were sober, we still thought it was a good idea so that’s when they decided to make me their contributing troubadour. So I made music for them, so when they decided to do a podcast, they asked me and I said yes.
Topic change! I have no segues.
Nice.
So other than your
own music, what’s on your iPod? Well, if you’re the kind of person that puts
his own music on his iPod; I don’t know.
No, I am not, actually. Right now I am working off an 8 GB
iPhone so I have limited resources.
Are you angry that the cost of the iPhone has just dropped, like, a thousand per cent?
[Laughs] No, because I was probably going to buy one anyway. I’m glad that it’s cheaper.
We’re only just about to get the iPhone here in Canada.
Oh, good, so you haven’t been burned yet. At this point, it’s kind of a silly thing to be upset when Apple drops the prices of something you just bought because Apple does that every six months. It’s like complaining about traffic when you live in New York City. But anyway… Yeah, I do not have my own stuff on my iPod. But the 8 GB iPod is an interesting thing because it’s, like, your desert island. Only the cream of the crop. Right now, there’s a lot of Beatles and Billy Joel on there. XTC, They Might Be Giants, Super Furry Animals… Yeah.
What’s a song you’re really embarrassed to admit that you like?
[Laughs] Um… That I’m embarrassed? Uh… [Laughs more]
Any Mandy Moore? Foreigner?
Ha! No… OK, you know who I love? Actually, I can’t even say that I’m embarrassed because I think they’re awesome: the Dixie Chicks. The Dixie Chicks are fantastic. You heard it here first.
There’s my lede, right there.
Coulton Tells World: Dixie Chicks Fantastic!
Jonathan Coulton is performing in Toronto on Wednesday, July 9 at the Lula Lounge.
|
-
Posted
Jul 04 2008, 03:04 PM
by
KATV
with no comments
Happy Friday, everyone! Happy fourth of July to all you Americans, and to all Canadians who only got Tuesday off and still had to come in on Monday: at least the entire week is over now, so it's kind of a moot point. Go home and drink enough beer that you forget your phone number.
So, it being Friday and all, it's time for the weekly link dump of things that are related, sort of related, tangentially-tangentially related or not even remotely related to television.
- Entertainment Weekly has a sort-of decent list of the best pop culture lists. At first, I thought they were doing an Onion-type thing, like, "a salute to montages!" but it turns out to have a little bit of substance.
- The rumoured Friends movie appears to be just that, a rumour. What's more interesting is if you look at the related links on the right side of the page: "Friends climax seen by 51 million." The copy-editor was out sick that day, was he?
- A man in the U.K. was so desperate to see the Prison Break finale that he downloaded it on his phone while in Portugal, expecting it to cost £150 (about $300 Canadian). Nope, it turns out that since he downloaded it while abroad, it cost £31,500 (or almost $64,000 Canadian). The most baffling part of this entire story is that he was actually desperate to watch the Prison Break finale.
- SpikeTV is pissed off at ABC, claiming that the latter ripped off SpikeTV's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge to make their own hit summer series Wipeout. Considering that both shows involve announcers making fun of people who are acting stupid, the entire cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 should sue all of them.
- Kevin McKidd, last seen on the now-defunct NBC drama Journeyman, will probably be joining Grey's Anatomy next season - judging by the forty gabazajillion comments on our "Journeyman's Been Cancelled" story, this will make a lot of people very, very happy.
- Defamer has a great post about the law of diminishing Mike Myers' comedy returns.
- In not-TV-but-still-awesome news, a New Jersey was locked down during what they perceived to be a Ninja threat. It turned out to be a camp counselor dressed in karate garb on the way to a costume party.
- Slate has a piece about how smart the octopus is. The answer: super wicked smart. Hey, anything that can EAT A SHARK is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
- And, finally, I know I didn't do a post on THE MOOOOOLE this week because Canada Day was Tuesday. (I also didn't do one last week because I was on vacation, but I'm not apologizing for that because I had a great time sleeping until 1 p.m.) But this week included a fantastic scene. Remember Paul, the MOOOOOLE contestant who is killing the show? Well, he continued pissing people off this week, to the point that several people who were sharing a van with him opted to leave and get into the second van. And then they made up a song about how great it was not to be sharing a van with Paul:
That's a great MOOOOOOLE moment right there. Sadly, Paul was not eliminated this week, but if his presence continues to spawn delightful moments like this one, I'd almost be OK with him sticking around. Almost.
That's all! Have a great weekend, folks.
|
-
Posted
Jul 03 2008, 02:58 PM
by
KATV
with 1 comment(s)
On July 17, President Roslin could have herself an Emmy nomination. This makes me way too happy. But, sadly, Battlestar Galactica itself will not have a nomination. Because it did not make the short list for best drama, while Boston Legal did. I call shenanigans! (And John, if you're reading this, yes, Battlestar deserves a nomination far more than Boston Legal does. I don't care how great Shatner is.) What does it take, huh? WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
Other than that, though, the best drama short list is actually pretty respectable:
Boston Legal ("The Court Supreme")
Damages (Pilot)
Dexter ("The Dark Defender")
Friday Night Lights ("Leave No One Behind")
Grey’s Anatomy ("Freedom, Parts 1 and 2")
House ("Frozen")
Lost ("The Constant")
Mad Men (Pilot, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes")
The Tudors (#205)
The Wire (Series finale, "30") Boston Legal is meh, obviously. Friday Night Lights, Mad Men and The Wire definitely deserve their spot, and I can agree with Lost ("The Constant" was their best episode in a long time), Dexter, Damages and House. And, actually, I'd support House's inclusion more if it was due to "House's Head" instead of "Frozen," because, really, who cares about Mira Sorvino being sick? Nobody. I haven't seen The Tudors, but from what I hear it's pretty good, so fine, but Grey's Anatomy is bullshit because KATHERINE HEIGL SAVED A DEER. That should be an automatic disqualification.
My choices for the official nominations: The Wire, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Dexter and... House, I guess, with The Wire winning.
As I said above, even though BG didn't make the best drama list, but Mary McDonnell did make the short list for best dramatic actress - and, to be honest, she doesn't have much competition:
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Glenn Close, Damages
Minnie Driver, The Riches
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Jeanne Tripplehorn, Big Love Does Mariska Hargitay really need another nomination? Hasn't she hogged enough already? She even won for that terrible episode with the little girl on the phone. "O-leeee-via! Help mee, O-leee-via!" I'm not sure Patricia Arquette should be on there, either, because Medium is pretty crap and the fact that she won an Emmy a few years ago still baffles me. Glenn Close is terrifying and awesome on Damages, so she's fine, as are Elisabeth Moss and Kyra Sedgwick. But The Riches isn't nearly as good as it thinks it is, so forget about Minnie Driver, and Sally Field doesn't really do anything on Brothers & Sisters other than get angry with her kids. Big fat meh to Jeanne Tripplehorn and Holly Hunter, though. Final five: Mary McDonnell, Glenn Close, Elisabeth Moss, Kyra Sedgwick and... Sally Field, I guess, since I do like Brothers & Sisters even if I don't think she does much. Mary McDonnell should win and then come teach me how the hell she ages so damn well. OK, this post is getting a little long and I do have other work to do today, so I'll just go through one more short list, for best supporting drama actor: Naveen Andrews, Lost
Bruce Dern, Big Love
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men
Blair Underwood, In Treatment
Jake Weber, Medium
Now, I'm going to get some heat for this, and I do feel kind of guilty about it, but Shatner? Again? Hasn't he won, like, twelve hundred Emmys in a row already? He's like James Gandolfini. Give someone else a chance! I'm sorry. I'm a bad Canadian. I'm very happy about Blair Underwood's inclusion on the list because I thought he was incredible on In Treatment. (Side note: even though I'm not going to go into the full list for best supporting drama actress, it is absolute bullshit that Mia Wasikowska isn't on it for In Treatment. Her storyline was the most enthralling one for the whole season, with Underwood's coming in a close second.) Ted Danson, too, is pretty great on Damages and I am very happy John Slattery is finally getting the attention he deserves. (Plus: STONE COLD FOX. Rrowr.) I'm OK with Michael Emerson and Naveen Andrews being nominated, but while a lot of people are up in arms that Terry O'Quinn isn't on the list after winning the award last year, I'm more upset that Henry Ian Cusick isn't on there for Lost's "The Constant" episode. Easily the best episode Lost has had in years, and the phone call between Desmond and Penny warmed my dead, dead heart. I don't think the other Boston Legal guy should be on there, nor should T.R. Knight - I like the actor, but Grey's Anatomy was too much of a mess this year to really warrant any awards, no matter how much the actors did with the material. And Jake Weber for Medium? What is with all the Medium love? I do like Bruce Dern, though, and Zeljko Ivanek has an awesome Matt-Frewer-without-the-annoying-parts quality to him. But where are all the guys from The Wire? Where's Lance Reddick? I'm very upset by this. And where the hell is Robert Sean Leonard for the season finale of House?! I usually don't have much use for Wilson on the show, but Leonard was insanely good in that episode and deserves recognition for it. (And it's kind of a big deal for me to say this, because I always associate Leonard with his stupid character in Dead Poets Society who decided he'd rather kill himself than, say, MOVE OUT OF THE HOUSE.)
Final five: John Slattery, Blair Underwood, Michael Emerson, Ted Danson and Zeljko Ivanek. Either Slattery or Underwood should take the statue. Then they should both come over to my place and make out with me. The official Emmy nominations come out on July 17, so I'll probably have plenty more to bitch about then. (Aren't you excited? Don't all get up at once.) What are your thoughts on the Emmy short lists? Who should have been included/excluded? Whose official nomination will make your head explode in anger?
|
More Posts Next page »
|
|