Oh, Boston. You're a city that most of us have so much pride in. Those of us who have called you home typically speak of our beloved Beantown in reverant tones, nostalgic for your student-filled streets, abundance of Dunkin' Donuts, your scrappy sports teams, and your anachronistic public transportation system (still better than LA's). But oh, Boston, why must you now be the laughing stock of the country, why did you, of all the blue-collar, hipster-friendly, cool cities in America have to be the one that fell into chaos due to some stupid little Aqua Teen Hunger Force stealth marketing campaign? This is not the same Boston I spent four years in. I don't remember people scrambling to call 911 when Kaiju Big Battell spraypainted skull-crossed cubes all over town. I mean, this is the same city that the infamous Crazy Homeless Bicycle Guy calls home ... a city that, at least I THOUGHT, had seen it all and turned a world-weary eye to all manner of street-level oddities, be they psycho homeless people, student activists, punk rock bands playing in some alleyway in Cambridge, or the latest hipster urban marketing ploy.
Okay, on the other hand, the Adult Swim guys were somewhat misguided in putting flashing metal objects right in the middle of bridges and whatnot. Okay, very misguided. Okay, they were flat-out moronic.
But, in the grand scheme of things, I sat that Adult Swim / Turner / "The corporation that owns CNN" (as FOX News has obnoxiously been repeating over and over - F you FOX News) committed a blunder that warrants maybe a 6 out of 10 on the Idiot Scale. Whereas, the much, much bigger Fingerpoint of Doom must go to the MEDIA, esp. the previously mentioned FOX News, for making a mountain out of a molehill and coming off like total friggin' idiots out to provoke people into: a.) being afraid of terrorism, b.) being hateful of Hollywood / the entertainment industry, and c.) fanning the flames of the Bush administrations' Us vs. Them mentality that is largely fueled by perpetuating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.
Still, I also give a huge Finger of Stupidity to the poor guys who were arrested / detained for doing their jobs and putting the flashing metal thingies around the city. At first I felt really bad for them and annoyed that people would spew so much hate at them. Then, courtesy of Defamer, I saw their joke of a press conference where they tried (keyword: TRIED) to be funny / irreverent / rebellious by dodging questions and talking mock-seriously about their hairstyles in palce of anything substantive. Now, I get what they were trying to do, and I respect their Fight The Man attitudes, in theory. But if you're going to try to be all punk rock and make a statement, at least do so in a way that doesn't make you look like a total frakking moron.
Man, this whole thing is just stupid. But the main thing that bothers me is that most people will sit around their dinner tables and say "bah, those hippie cartoon people sure are morons - if ya' see that Hunger Teens movie the terrorists win I tell ya' what!" When, in fact, people SHOULD be saying: "Wow, what is wrong with our country and our media when a marketing campaign for an animated movie causes so much chaos and fear?" Sadly, most people will just feel the urge to go out and lynch some cartoon-lovin' hippies, because people are stupid like that.
(Sidenote: I honestly don't even like / get Aqua Teen Hunger Force, despite being a fan of Adult Swim in general, including some of their more classic weird animation stuff like Space Ghost and Harvey Bridman. And I realize that makes my cool cred with all of this blog's 12 - 22 year old demo go down somewhat. Which is too bad, since this blog is for the kids.)
TV STUFF:
- VERONICA MARS ... as usual, so good. Well, to be honest this wasn't a spectacular episode per say, but nonetheless a very solid installment, with an interesting self-contained mystery and some nice development in the Logan / Veronica relationship (even though I kind of hate that relationship). What this episode was missing was much in the way of compelling clues as to the culprit behind the ongoing murder mystery. The feminist group seems like a very unlikely group of suspects, so hints that they were behind the murder don't add much intrigue. Still, this episode had plenty of VM's trademark snappy dialogue, fanboy shout-outs, and unexpected twists. One more nitpick though - where is the supporting cast? The focus on Veronica is cool, but where's Wallace, for example? Definitely conspicuous by his absence.
My Grade: B+
- Man, GILMORE GIRLS was working overtime this week to get this tough-as-nails man's man misty-eyed. So it's kinda cheesy, yes, but I'll be darned if the judge reading Lorelai's character recommendation for Luke during his custody hearing didn't get to me. And then, they pull out one of the oldest tricks in the book - the grandpa having a heart attack cliffhanger. But man, I love the grandpa on this show, so even though I should have seen it coming, for some reason I didn't, and I was just thinking "Noooooooooooooo!" All that heart-string-pulling, AND Chris storms out on Lorelai? Good stuff. Aside from the still-trying-too-hard Paris and Sukie dialogue, this was another great ep.
My Grade: A -
- Finally caught Monday's HEROES. Overall, another solid installment though still featuring much assorted lameness. The show has done a good job of consolidating all its more sucky plotlines though, as this week's union of the Petrelli brothers with Mohinder means that everyone else got a chance to shine without being bogged down by these three. Claire in particular is getting more and more interesting each week, as is her father "HRG." And yes, ending with a cliffhanger in which Hiro and Ando are confronted with Hiro's shady father, played by George Takei, is probably the single coolest thing the show has done up to this point in time. Sulu = Gravitas. This show is badly in need of some expanded mythology though so that we can stop hearing ridiculous ramblings baout lists and destinies and genetic mutations and actually get some plot with some meat on it.
My Grade: B
- Excited for the OFFICE and 30 ROCK tonight, less so for Smallville and OC. Oh, yeah - the SARAH SILVERMAN show debuts tonight. I like her much better in small doses, but am very curious to see the show.
- Alright, I've got more to say but no time to say it. Until next time ... I still love ya', Boston.
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