05 Sep 2004
17) Deadwood
HBO's fact-based western about life in Deadwood before the land became part of the United States was probably one of the 3 best shows on TV last season. The second best show on television, Angel, doesn't show up in my season passes since it's been cancelled by the reprehensible WB network. The best show on TV is next on my list.
Deadwood, quite simply, was a phenomenal story told with great actors and great writing. It's a testament to how amazing the medium of television can be when intelligent people are given resources and let loose by a network willing to support them. Deadwood contained numerous arcs, each character, however minor, growing and changing over the course of the season. Just one example: the man who starts out the season as "the bad guy" -- Al Swearengen -- ends up showing more compassion than nearly all of the heroes, without changing his language or his behavior. The subtle transformation of the character (all through body language and tone) was stunning. The fact that Ian McShane was not nominated for a Best Actor Emmy is an absolute travesty.
And that was just one of the great things about the show.
A bunch of people had a problem with the language in the show, with its gratuitous use of "cocksucker" and other colorful, often era-based language. Those people are dumb. The language in the show was far more innocuous than you'd see in the criminally overrated Sopranos, but people can't be troubled to actually, you know, pay attention.
16) The Wire
The Wire. Wow. What can I say? Without a doubt, the first two seasons of the show made it the best show on TV two years running. While often slowly paced, each episode builds layers upon layers into the story. Each character, regardless of what side of the law they are on, is multi-faceted and allows you the ability to understand why they act as they do and how they end up in the situations they are in.
No other show could make you really feel for a dead drug dealer. Or really enjoy a character like Brother Mouzone, who is a glorified hitman, but you understand him.
No other show would allow two cops to work a crime scene - for nearly four or five minutes of television time, using only variants of the word "fuck." And no other show could make it so utterly compelling.
If you haven't watched The Wire, you need to start from episode 1. Catch it on On Demand. Catch it when HBO replays it. Buy the DVD set when it comes out. You won't regret it. The only reason the show is at #16 on my season passes is that it replays enough that I can catch it in a later timeslot, allowing me to see other shows on Sundays at 9. It's the best show on TV. There's no argument.
15) The Jury
I won't spend much time here. I liked Homicide: Life on the Streets. I liked Oz. This is a show by the folks behind those shows. It was ok, but not great. The dialogue was all incredibly stilted because of its need to be expository. Since the viewer sees the show through the eyes of the jury after they've already heard the case, every relevent detail needs to be spelled out. That just couldn't be done with natual language.
It's already been cancelled. I need to dump it from my list.
14) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Consistently funny.
Consistently biting.
Consistently better reporting than the actual news reporters out there.
That's a pretty bad indictment of the state of the news media today. But a ringing endorsement of the intelligence Jon Stewart (and Stephen Colbert and the rest of the team) bring to their jobs as the fake news leaders.
For instance, check out:
George W. Bush: Words Speak Louder than Actions
Robert Novak: Douchebag of Liberty
Rep. Henry Bonilla: Watch as Jon Stewart Catches Me Following Talking Points And Lying Through My Teeth In One Of The Funniest Moments Ever Recorded On TV
13) American Dreams
From what I've seen, it's a pretty show. Unfortunately, I only see like 4 or 5 episodes a season since it's on opposite The Simpsons. Then again, I dig period dramas (see Deadwood). Plus, any show that would give a job to an adult Joey .. Joseph Lawrence is cool with me.
12) Tru Calling
I heart Eliza Dushku.
I'll wrap it up there. Next time, we'll dig into the bottom of the top 10 including the new version of 90210, the new version of The Commish, and the only Dick Wolf show in my season passes.
03 Sep 2004
23) Carnivale
One of the myriad of interesting HBO dramas, Carnivale had a really cool premise, a ton of cool actors, and an great setting.
Yet the folks involved managed to put together an exceedingly boring show. It wasn't bad; in fact, the show was really interesting. Interesting enough for me to hang in there and catch the entire season.
It's just that Carnivale was so damn slow. Horrible pacing. Pacing can really make or break a show. It killed Carnivale. That being said, I'll probably check out the second season.
22) Da Ali G Show
Very funny, very clever show. Very repetitive show.
The Borat segments were usually comedy gold, but the whole schtick wears a bit thin after a few episodes. One of those shows you TiVo, read a review online, and check out the really funny parts - like the Borat character getting an entire bar to sing along to a song about metaphorically throwing the Jewish people down a well.
I find offensive stuff funny. Sue me.
21) Entourage
The newest HBO show, this half-hour comedy is about a group of buddies in Hollywood who hang out with their friend who made it big as an actor. It's not terribly funny, it's not terribly interesting, but it's so damn engaging. Entourage is an object lesson that creating compelling, realistic, and fun characters can be enough to take a mediocre show over the top.
The show really hit its stride about midway through the season - it's worth catching one of the times when HBO replays it 42 times a week.
20) Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
Penn. Teller. Debunking myths and half-truths in a very similar way to The Daily Show - by letting the people who propogate the lies make fools of themselves.
19) Curb Your Enthusiasm
By now, you either get this show or you don't. CYE is one of the few shows that could make an entire season as a parallel to The Producers where the big hit/flop is actually Larry David starring in The Producers. Meta-comedy at its best.
18) Dead Like Me
One of the few reasons to have Showtime. Lots of people compare it to Six Feet Under, since they both deal with death. To me, it's more like Buffy, which is the highest praise I can give a show. It takes the show's theme - a teenage girl dealing with dying and becoming a grim reaper - and uses it to turn metaphors about death and dying into theories on life. All without being preachy.
And it's insanely funny at the same time, just like Buffy was.
Next time, we'll touch on the best show on TV, what might be the second best show on TV, and a show that shouldn't even be here since it's already been cancelled.
01 Sep 2004
I've been insanely busy over the past few weeks with work, heading down to DC to see VT vs USC, and moving.
My move has been fairly atypical in that I moved next door. Literally. I moved to the house next door. All told, it was about 30 feet.
Yet it took me nearly 2 weeks. When you don't have to pack up your stuff and get it ready to move in a truck or van, you tend to do stuff in little chunks. That adds up. It is utterly frustrating and stressful, yet I'd guess my peak stress was lower than during a normal move.
Anyway, I'm moved now. I'll probably blog a bit more now that my place is nearly setup. Though, just in time for me to be settled in, my other computer has decided to shit the bed. I can't get into my Win2k partition. Thankfully, I think most of the data should be ok. So, I'm probably going to do something I've been meaning to for a few years and put together a brand new machine. I'll wait to get my deposit back from my last apartment, but I'm going to put something together that can run Doom 3 and Half-Life 2.
In the meantime, I'll be using my laptop and the Linux partition of my machine. Life is good.
21 Aug 2004
28) The Brak Show
Here starts the run of Adult Swim shows. Brak is a character from old Space Ghost shows who got reinvented as part of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast and Cartoon Planet. He became insane and wacky and incredibly funny. Seriously. Go find the Space Ghost soundtrack CDs. Listen to "Never Trust a Monkey." Pee your pants.
Anyway, The Brak Show is a 60s style animated sitcom starring Brak. It's often clever, and has a few fantastic episodes (the rap-off, anything with Clarence), but it definitely ran out of steam. They're not producing any new episodes, so as soon as I think I've seen them all, I'll probably dump this season pass.
27) Sealab 2021
Adult Swim show #2. I'm not sure there are words to express how insane this show is. A recycled version of the 70s cartoon Sealab 2020, the show takes old animation, remixes it, adds new animation, and dubs it with positively insane and often offensive dialog. Making it more insane, the show veers into meta-humor numerous times, with episodes dealing with the characters as if they were actors on the show. It's just an unbelievably great 12 minutes of comedy. Especially Baby Alvis.
Season 1 is out on DVD - go buy it.
26) Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Adult Swim show #3. The best Adult Swim show. Probably one of the best animated shows on TV. Continuously funny and inventive. Positively undescribable. You basically have to watch a few episodes before you really "get" it.
If I had to describe it, ATHF is about 3 mutant food item super heroes who live in New Jersey. They don't really do anything but annoy each other and annoy their neighbor Carl. The guest characters are often the best - Jiggle Billy, the Mooninites, Boxy Brown.
If you don't laugh the first time you see the Mooninites (basically Atari-looking characters) shoot their death rays at someone, you're probably dumb.
25) Coupling
The British version, not the American version. One of the greatest sitcoms ever (up there with Newsradio), the show is able to stay fresh as it runs in short seasons (6-9 episodes). Witty dialogue and some of the most inventive methods of telling stories on TV. Episodes often show issues nearly simultaneously from the perspective of both the men and women, juxtaposing how dissimilar - or similar - the two genders look at issues.
I think the best episode of the series might be "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps", the third season finale. It expertly balances a number of stories (some running since the pilot) and combines it with two or three of the funniest moments I've seen on TV.
24) Family Business
Not a very good show. Gratuitous nudity and hot women. I think you understand.
That's it for now. Next time, we'll hit some of the big HBO shows, but we won't get to the best show of the past few years - no, it's not The Sopranos. James Gandolfini doesn't hold a candle to Dominic West.
15 Aug 2004
A couple of my friends have blogs. They're funny . . . yet insightful.
The links should be over there on the right. That's this way --> for the directionally challenged.
Who Is Liz? is a very witty blog by Liz. She's very funny.
Antibloglovesong is a blog by my friend Nick. He's very funny too, but more like when you see a crazy man walking down the street talking to a pumpkin carved to look like Tim Russert.
11 Aug 2004
As mentioned yesterday, I decided to go through my TiVo Season Passes (the TiVo tool that lets you set up recurring recording of shows) and give a little bit of detail as to why I TiVo the show or use it as a vehicle to rip another show.
Basically, I just want to write about TV for a bit, and this is a good opportunity, since it's just before new shows start up and I have to figure out what new shows are worth watching.
Alright, here are the "rules" of my list:
1) There is nothing wrong with TV. People who say that they don't watch TV or that TV is worthless are douchebags (that's the word of the week). There are any number of TV shows that are as well-written, performed, and produced as great movies or books. It's just another storytelling medium. I will punch in the groin or boob anyone who tells me that watching TV is a waste.
2) TiVo Season Passes needed to be ordered in priority order. Thus, shows that repeat a lot or shows that I care less about are down the bottom. However, there are a number of shows in the middle of the list that I like more than shows above them, but they better shows are on more often, so I can catch multiple shows by adjusting their relative priority so that the crappier show is higher in the list.
3) I'm doing the list in reverse order, some quantity at a time. Tonight, it's my bottom 6.
Here we go:
34. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Queer Eye. A male makeover-type show that caught people off guard by being funnier than it had any right to be. It was great.
Then, after about 3 episodes, you realize the same damn thing happens every week. Seriously, there's never any drama. They never makeover a homophobe or a guy who's completely disgusting and impossible to repair.
Yet, I still find myself compelled to watch the show. Mostly for tips from the grooming guy, since I'm completely lost when it comes to male grooming. I know about brushing my teeth and shaving on occasion. That's about it.
Anyway, QEFTSG is a show built for TiVo. My TiVo is setup to do the 30-second skip thing. So I basically skip through the show until I find something interesting, stop for a minute, then blow through another 1o minutes of repetitive crap. I can finish the show in about 6 or 7 minutes, which is about all the show is tolerable for these days. Hence it's location at the very bottom of my Season Pass list.
33. MI-5
A repackaged British spy show originally titled Spooks, MI-5 is what 24 wishes it could be. Compelling spy action, good interpersonal stories, done by the Brits, so it's got a modicum of rationality.
I'm sure I'll rant on 24 later. That show sucks balls. The fact that it's "critically acclaimed" is the biggest travesty since someone decided Will & Grace deserved a Thursday night NBC slot while better shows (like Newsradio) get shuffled off to die on Tuesday.
32. The 4400
A new USA sci-fi show about what would happen if 4400 abductees from the past 75 years or so are brought back to modern day and dropped off in the same place (the Pacific Northwest). The pilot was pretty compelling sci-fi, but it became less X-Files/Close Encounters and more Roswell as the mini-series has gone on. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- I dug Roswell, but more so in the first season and a half, before it became more teen soap opera than sci-fi. The middle 3 episodes were very Roswell at the end of season 2 -- good TV, but more soap than sci-fi. Thankfully, the finale definitely came back and turned the show on its head a little bit, which was great to see.
I'm guessing USA will pick this up and give it a full run. I'll probably tune in to check out where they go with it.
31. World Series of Poker
I like poker. It's fun to watch the WSOP. It's not great TV in most cases, and, lately, if ESPN was a person, they'd be a douchebag, but it's worthwhile just to see some decent poker on TV.
30. Celebrity Poker Showdown
For the most part, a more entertaining poker show than the World Poker Tour purely because the play is less predictable and they usually get on some people that I find entertaining (David Cross, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler). Dave Foley's a better host than Vince Van Patton, but he deserves better than this.
29. World Poker Tour
I like poker. It's fun to watch the WPT. It's not great TV in most cases, and Vince Van Patton is a douchebag, but it's worthwhile just to see some decent poker on TV.
P.S. 24 still sucks.
10 Aug 2004
I have a (crappy) idea for a post, but it involves me actually being able to sit down in front of my TV. That hasn't happened in a few days. Apparently since my roommates and I are moving out, they've decided the need to use my TV as much as possible in the last few weeks.
Which means I've got a few days of TiVo'd stuff piling up, and two Netflix movies that have remained unwatched for a couple of weeks.
Not that I mind not getting to use my TV. Well, I do, but not enough to raise a stink. Tomorrow, however, it shall be mine. And if I'm motivated, I'll blog what I had intended to write about today.
So lucky you, instead of my witty and biting satire, you get my passive aggressive lashing out. Serves you right, douchebag.
No, I'm not really calling you a douchebag. That was humor, you douchebag.
10 Aug 2004
I have a (crappy) idea for a post, but it involves me actually being able to sit down in front of my TV. That hasn't happened in a few days. Apparently since my roommates and I are moving out, they've decided the need to use my TV as much as possible in the last few weeks.
Which means I've got a few days of TiVo'd stuff piling up, and two Netflix movies that have remained unwatched for a couple of weeks.
Not that I mind not getting to use my TV. Well, I do, but not enough to raise a stink. Tomorrow, however, it shall be mine. And if I'm motivated, I'll blog what I had intended to write about today.
So lucky you, instead of my witty and biting satire, you get my passive aggressive lashing out. Serves you right, douchebag.
No, I'm not really calling you a douchebag. That was humor, you douchebag.
05 Aug 2004
I won $120 by coming in first place in a small online poker tournament with a $20 buy-in.
My new landlord offered me rent $50 off of our agreed rate, without even asking me.
I was able to put my towel back on before the people looking at our current apartment opened the door and walked into the bathroom as I was getting out of the shower.
Dead Like Me is back on tv.
I'm buying a washer and dryer for my new apartment for $25. Combined.
Tomorrow is the weekly meeting for our group at work and we always have fun food.
I hear the new issue of Astonishing X-Men (written by uber-auteur Joss Whedon) is really good. It's almost not dorky to buy comics these days.
I watched In America tonight after having it for over a month (thanks Netflix!) and it nearly made me laugh and cry simultaneously.
Life's been pretty good recently. By posting this, I've probably guaranteed that I'll get stung by a mutant bee tomorrow and end up looking like ALF.
23 Jul 2004
Like most offices, we've got a vending machine in our kitchen filled with various types of (mostly) edible stuff. And like most people too lazy to make breakfast and with little regard for my health, I'll often grab something from the vending machine in the morning if I'm hungry.
Today, I decided I wanted some breakfast and headed to the vending machine to grab my usual Frosted Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Pop Tarts. I do have to say, however, I got a little bit excited when I saw that we had some new items in the vending machine. I quickly scanned the rows and found my breakfast - a Nature Valley Frosted Vanilla Yogurt Granola Bar.
I threw in my 60 cents, looked at the item number - E10 - and started to punch in the code. E, then 1 ... well, thankfully I realized that as soon as I pressed 1 I would be getting whatever was in slot E1. Looking more closely, it turns out there's a button for the number 10 on the vending machine.
Why in the world would you do that? How natural is it to look for a button labeled with a '10' when the item number is E10? Isn't your first instinct to hit E-1-0?
Making it more egregious, there's no E0! Now, I understand folks who've never programmed don't always grasp the concept of an index starting with 0, but I really think most people could conceptually understand a vending machine that went from E-1 to E-0 or E-0 to E-9. I have to think either of those would be infinitely preferable to E-1 through E-10.
All of this got me wondering if vending machine interfaces go through some level of UI testing, or if the low cost of making a mistake (usually less than a dollar) and the either very captive or very temporary audience allow the vending machine company to not worry about lost sales?
Personally, I think it's a huge conspiracy, meant to steal an extra 60 cents from people every day. Think about it. Some company has thousands of vending machines (let's say 10000) out in an area and places completely opposite items in the 1 and 10 columns of each row. Like a granola bar on one end and a pixy stick on the other. If one person spent an extra 60 cents a day due to mistakenly buying the item in column 1 instead of column 10, that could add up to $6000 each day (gross). Even if they only make a small profit off of that (let's say 10%), it's still an extra $600/day. We're talking about an extra $150,000/year (using about 240 workdays/year - I have no idea if that's accurate).
Of course, it gets even scarier when you realize that there's a huge vending machine monopoly run by a Saudi-owned corporation. And that corporation is one of the biggest contributors to the Bush family. With millions of vending machines all stealing 60 cents a day, it's no wonder the Bush campaign has seemingly bottomless pockets.
(Ok, I made up the last part about the Saudis/Bush and the vending machine conspiracy. But, is it really that implausible?)
