I mentioned Fillmore! already. Here are some other notes on TV shows I'm watching:
The Jury—Very mediocre crime drama, but I find myself loath to miss a show. You see, Adam Busch (who played Warren on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) plays the court bailiff, one of the few recurring characters on the show. It's his job to bring the jury to the deliberation room, to the lunchroom, to the courtroom, or wherever. And he's hilarious, especially because these comic-relief scenes pair him up with the security guard, whose name I cannot find. While Busch is anxious and wired, the guard is slow and relaxed. It's like a beautiful little vaudeville routine that happens every show. So, really, all I'm hoping for is a spin-off.
For Love or Money—This season they tried to put together some twist about how the girls didn't know hoe much money they might be playing for. watched to see how they expected that to be interesting. Apparently, they couldn't figure out a way either. I guess it's still going on.
Megas XLR—I don't mean to bash on The Iron Giant, which was a great film, but if I got a giant robot, I'd hope it'd be more like Megas XLR. No paranoia or pathos, just smashy-smashy and looking cool. The animation nicely captures the era when Transformers were the king of the toys, and it's lots of fun to watch.
Big O—This show makes no sense. The main character is a negotiator (hostage negotiations, business negotiations, etc.), yet no matter what he's doing, by the end of the episode, he has to call forth his huge robot to fight some other huge robot thing. Every time! Oh, and also everyone has amnesia and he's living with an android and a butler with an eyepatch who repairs the robot even though he ahs amnesia of some sort. It's a beautiful train wreck of ideas.
Duelmasters—I only just caught an episode of this last week. It's the new cartoon affiliated with the latest kid's card-collecting game. The CCG is being published by Wizards of the Coast, and I believe one of my ACRONYM teammates is somebody important in the doing of that. I don't remember which position, and honestly, I'm not hip enough to know what the postition would mean anyway. But, the TV show. Yes, it's another Yu-Gi-Oh-ish show where the plot gets strung alongside characters playing the game. But I got the feeling that whoever wrote the English dub didn't really pay attention to the original Japanese. It has the feel of a bunch of guys improvising lip-sync to the screen. It was . . . weird.
Crime and Punishment—The Law and Order reality show. It can be hit or miss, and it often seems unfairly biased to me on the side of the prosecution. (Of course, that's part of it's point. On a related note, Roger Ebert's essay on bias and the nature of a documentary [link changed 8/7/11; originally "http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-ftr-moore18.html"] is a must-read.) But it has some wonderful moments. Last week's episode was the prosecution of two drag racers who, while racing on a public street, crashed into another car, killing two people and critically injuring a third. As time goes on, from the arraignment to the verdict, we get updates on that third person. First, he's been in a coma for a long time, and the mother is agonizing over pulling the plug. Later, we find that he's sustained brain damage and can't move or speak. By the end of the episode, he's able to speak and move a small amount. I doubt that any of the fictional L&O franchises could have handled it.
The Jury—Very mediocre crime drama, but I find myself loath to miss a show. You see, Adam Busch (who played Warren on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) plays the court bailiff, one of the few recurring characters on the show. It's his job to bring the jury to the deliberation room, to the lunchroom, to the courtroom, or wherever. And he's hilarious, especially because these comic-relief scenes pair him up with the security guard, whose name I cannot find. While Busch is anxious and wired, the guard is slow and relaxed. It's like a beautiful little vaudeville routine that happens every show. So, really, all I'm hoping for is a spin-off.
For Love or Money—This season they tried to put together some twist about how the girls didn't know hoe much money they might be playing for. watched to see how they expected that to be interesting. Apparently, they couldn't figure out a way either. I guess it's still going on.
Megas XLR—I don't mean to bash on The Iron Giant, which was a great film, but if I got a giant robot, I'd hope it'd be more like Megas XLR. No paranoia or pathos, just smashy-smashy and looking cool. The animation nicely captures the era when Transformers were the king of the toys, and it's lots of fun to watch.
Big O—This show makes no sense. The main character is a negotiator (hostage negotiations, business negotiations, etc.), yet no matter what he's doing, by the end of the episode, he has to call forth his huge robot to fight some other huge robot thing. Every time! Oh, and also everyone has amnesia and he's living with an android and a butler with an eyepatch who repairs the robot even though he ahs amnesia of some sort. It's a beautiful train wreck of ideas.
Duelmasters—I only just caught an episode of this last week. It's the new cartoon affiliated with the latest kid's card-collecting game. The CCG is being published by Wizards of the Coast, and I believe one of my ACRONYM teammates is somebody important in the doing of that. I don't remember which position, and honestly, I'm not hip enough to know what the postition would mean anyway. But, the TV show. Yes, it's another Yu-Gi-Oh-ish show where the plot gets strung alongside characters playing the game. But I got the feeling that whoever wrote the English dub didn't really pay attention to the original Japanese. It has the feel of a bunch of guys improvising lip-sync to the screen. It was . . . weird.
Crime and Punishment—The Law and Order reality show. It can be hit or miss, and it often seems unfairly biased to me on the side of the prosecution. (Of course, that's part of it's point. On a related note, Roger Ebert's essay on bias and the nature of a documentary [link changed 8/7/11; originally "http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-ftr-moore18.html"] is a must-read.) But it has some wonderful moments. Last week's episode was the prosecution of two drag racers who, while racing on a public street, crashed into another car, killing two people and critically injuring a third. As time goes on, from the arraignment to the verdict, we get updates on that third person. First, he's been in a coma for a long time, and the mother is agonizing over pulling the plug. Later, we find that he's sustained brain damage and can't move or speak. By the end of the episode, he's able to speak and move a small amount. I doubt that any of the fictional L&O franchises could have handled it.