As a great man once said, it's been a long time since I rapped at ya'.
It's been a pretty crazy couple of days, that's for sure. At work, it's been nuts for various reasons, not least of which is the big COMCAST takeover of NBC Universal. I've been watching and speculating on the news just like everyone else, so I'm curious to see where things go from here. It seems like the general consensus is that it will be several months before any substantial changes occur and the deal is actually closed, but hey, you never know. I do think the opportunity to work with Comcast cable nets like G4 is exciting though, and, yeah ... never a dull moment here in Hollywood.
Anyways, despite my current state of semi-exhaustion, this weekend is shaping up to be a memorable one. My old BU roomie Chris A is in town from Phoenix, and we are scheduled to hit up today's taping of THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN. Believe it or not, I've never been to a Conan taping before. Sure, I interned at Late Night, but I've never actually been there as just a regular member of the Conan audience. So yeah, I'm psyched.
BTW, if you didn't see Conan's tribute to Comcast, check it out here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/112785/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-comcastic-spectacular
Otherwise, lots of movie and TV items to talk about, so, here we go:
TV STUFF:
- I really liked GLEE this week. To me, this was really an episode that fired on all cylinders, and it may very well have been the best overall episode of the show to date. For once, it felt like all the elements that make Glee pop were present in a single ep. There was the high school drama of Quinn and Fynn and Rachel, the long-running and semi-problematic fake pregnancy storyline finally came to a head, and Sue Sylvester had some great comedic moments to boot. Seriously though, it was so satisfying to see Will finally wake up from his slumber and figure out that his wife was not actually pregnant. The confrontation scene was really well done - some fine acting from Matthew Morrison. This was a great example of how serious and dark Glee can be when it wants to, but at the same time, Jane Lynch was 100% on her game in this one, and had some hilarious scenes with Will and Quinn (the fact that she had her tear ducts removed, because she didn't need 'em anymore? hilarious!) Plus, the whole "Jump" cover was fun - Van Halen on Glee is never a bad thing in my book. So yeah, something about this episode clicked for me - the balance between real drama, humor, darkness, and fun seemed right. If Glee can maintain this tone and really ramp up some of the big storylines going forward (and it looks like they'll be doing just that in next week's fall finale), then I will definitely be on-board as a longterm fan.
My Grade: A-
- Man, I thought last night's episode of THE OFFICE was downright brilliant. I love episodes like this that give the finger to the conventions of network-TV comedy and dare to be out and out dark and $%#%-ed up. I mean, the premise of this episode was incredible - we learn that ten years ago, Michael Scott made a promise to a group of underprivelaged kids knowns as the Scott Tots. His promise? That he would pay for all of their college tuitions. Yeah, seriously. Michael deluded himself into thinking that in ten years' time he'd be a billionaire, and the kids deluded themselves into thinking that this guy was legit. In any case, the fact that Michael is apparently poorer now than he was ten years ago, and now had to own up to his decade-long lie, made for absolutely hilarious and oh-so-wrong comedic moments. Michael's combination of joy and embarassment as the kids sung songs, danced, and gave speeches in his honor was just classic. The fact that Michael tried to appease the kids by buying them laptop computer batteries ("they're lithium!") was the icing on the cake. Meanwhile, the subplot back at The Office was a little hard to swallow, but at the same time made for some very funny moments, as Dwight engineers a plan to get Jim in trouble. Dwight convinces Jim to institute and Employee of the Month program based on merit, which works out so that Jim ... unknowingly makes himself Employee of the Month. The whole debacle turns the office squarely against Jim, and ties nicely into Dwight's diabolical scheme to take Jim down. While the office members did come off as a bit dense for buying into Dwight's plotting, the crew doubting Jim made for maybe the funniest line of the night: Creed popping up and asking "do we even know if Pam is really pregnant?". Creed = awesomeness. I also liked the ending scene, with Ryan joining forces with Dwight to form an unholy alliance of douchebaggery. Really though, this was an episode about Michael Scott plumbing new depths of idiocy and self-delusion. The sheer audacity of the premise has me smiling just thinking about it. Great stuff.
My Grade: A-
- And how about 30 ROCK? Well, I thought it was a pretty decent episode, although the main storylines didn't have quite the comic bang I was hoping for. I mean ... Tracy trying to quickly become an "Egot" (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner in order to convince his wife to have another baby? Sort of hilarious, but only a few awesome lines came out of it where I was expecting several moments of comedic gold. Similarly, I liked Liz Lemon's inner "performer" coming out as she prepared to host her own talk show. The Excorcist-like demonic side of Performer Liz was pretty amusing, as was Frank's unwitting transformation into a psuedo-Liz when he assumed the reigns of head writer for TGS. It was a funny ep, sure, but just didn't quite hold up to The Office episode before it.
My Grade: B
Okay, got to run, but coming up next: FRINGE thoughts, and a review of Fantastic Mr. Fox!
Have a great weekend!
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