Let the festivities begin ...
Well, this weekend Halloween 2007 kicked off in earnest with a slew of suitably scary activities. Friday night, I had the distinct pleasure of checking out The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood - an awesome theatrical experience that reminded me just how great of a movie is Tim Burton's stop-motion masterpiece.
Saturday, the usual suspects were rounded up to make our third annual trek to the mecca of Halloween horror that is Knott's Scary Farm. Damn, Knotts was an absolute mob scene this year, but as always we had a great time, and as always, by night's end we were totally wiped out, exhausted, and groaning over our sore feet and backs ... man, I guess that's what happens when you're couped up in an office all day and then spend the hours of 8 pm to 2 am walking through a maze of haunted houses and waiting in long lines. Suffice it to say I was 100% wiped out on Sunday, like, could barely move wiped out. But, Knotts brought it, I have to say. Alongside classic mazes like Lore of the Vampire and 13 Axe Murder Mansion, there was a pretty cool Beowulf (sp?)-themed maze, complete with giant dragons and ogres, the Killer Klown Kollege, marking a return of evil clowns to Knotts, and - The Doll Factory, a downright creepy haunted house featuring all manner of stitched-together spirits. And yes, I jumped back a few feet when suddenly confronted with a Donnie Darko-esque giant evil bunny rabbit lunging towards me ...
So, we came and saw and conquered - Year 3 at Knotts - we braved long lines and everpresent fog machine - clowns with chainsaws and swarms of uber-ghetto teenagers. But all in all I'd call it yet another successful trip to the Scary Farm.
Still, this was only Round 1 of Halloween '07. This coming weekend will see the return of Page-O-Ween (always a good time, and the source of many classic photo ops), and of course the annual Horror Movie-Marathon. I've realized over the years that the Horror-thon is a bit too hardcore for some, so this year I'm not being overly ambitious, just inviting a few fellow film-fanatics, and bringing the goods with a scream-worthy lineup that includes blaxploitation classic "Blacula," 80's kids-vs-monsters cult fav "The Monster Squad," and Zack Snyder's zombie remake gore-fest, "Dawn of the Dead." Niiiiiice.
- Also, got to say congrats to the BOSTON RED SOX, with a great win last night that sees them headed to the World Series. Now, I have a ton of Boston Pride and always root for the Sox to win, but lately I am getting overwhelmed by all the people who follow every game as if the stakes were life and death. My problem is this: when I was at BU, a large part of my enthusiasm for the Sox was due to that aforementioned Beantown pride, the sense of community shared with my fellow New Englanders, and the fact that I was right there across from Fenway and could practically soak in the atmosphere from the stands on a daily basis. Here in LA, my main connection the Sox is a handful of friends who are die-hard fans, and television. Well, as I was getting to, my main problem is that, unless it's a close game in the final innings, baseball to me is boring as $%#$ to watch on TV. The slow build, glacial pacing, and immense length of most games lends itself to exciting finishes when the game is close. But if it isn't ... I just can't bring myself to sit for hours watching a game and waiting forever for each pitch to be thrown. Now, if I'm right there, at the stadium, it's a whole different story. Like I said, half the appeal is soaking in the atmosphere, especially in a stadium that bleeds history like Fenway. But look, I only have time to be interested in so many things, and right now baseball is a passing interest but not at the top of my list.
That being said, with the Sox in the World Series, you can bet that I will start paying a little closer attention ...
BOSTON, baby!!!
TV STUFF:
- Again, I'm going to do some quick lightning-round style reviews this week so I can cover a lot of ground:
SMALLVILLE:
- This was another very entertaining episode, continuing a streak of surprisingly decent episodes following this year's very lackluster season premiere. I thought Dean Cain was a lot of fun as an immortal villain (though it would have been colller had he actually been DC comics mainstay Vandal Savage). Sure, Cain had some lines that were so cheesy they were almost awesome ("Who do you think you are, Jack the Ripper?" "I WAS Jack the Ripper."). Okay, so Cain wasn't exactly doing Emmy-worthy stuff, but it was a lot of fun seeing the old Man of Steel go mano e mano with the new. Also, Kara / Supergirl has, IMO, brought a renewed sense of energy to the show, it's been a lot of fun seeing her interact with Clark, Jimmy, Lana, etc. What's not so good? Well, the Martian Manhunter is still being completely wasted on the show, and has yet to do a single interesting thing. And then ... okay, I thought that the Chloe-Jimmy stuff was MOSTLY handled well, up until the ridiculous closing scene that seemed to go on and on forever, and was about as lamely melodramatic as can be. So, a pretty good ep, but still a bit uneven and cheesy.
My Grade: B
GOSSIP GIRL:
- This was another really good ep. What I loved was how the storylines kind of defied my expectations through some clever writing. On a lesser show, freshman Jenny would have simply been humiliated by Blair and her crew and that would have been that. But I thought it was great how Jenny turned the tables and used her street-smarts to gain the upper hand. I was also sure that yet another obstacle would come between Serena and Dan finally hooking up, but the show's done a great job of making us root for them, so it was cool to see them have their moment. My only concern is that the show is starting to feel kind of, um, incestuous? Anyone else getting that? I mean, how many romances can occur at one time between two families? We've got Dan and Serena as a couple, his sister Jenny and Serena's brother possibly having something going on (I'd say they should avoid that one), and then, hints of a rekindled romance between Dan's dad and Serena's mom ... (they should DEFINITELY avoid going down that route, I think). I'm loving the show, but I hope that they are aware that the romances here are getting a little too insular for comfort. As for this ep though? Great stuff.
My Grade: A -
PUSHING DAISIES:
- Oh man, I was dyin' to write about this one last week, but just didn't have time. I LOVED last Wednesday's episode, which is kind of amazing, as I've been super high on all three eps to date. When a show comes out of the gate like this with three consecutive A-level episodes, that automatically to me puts it in a very special category, a category that instantly elevates it to an exclusive category occupied by the likes of similar fast-starters like Lost and 24 and The X-Files. Is PUSHING DAISIES as good as those shows? Obviously, way too early to say. But so far it's just felt like a classic in the making at every step of the way. This past week, we got another extremely fun story that worked as a standalone, but also tied back into the pilot in terms of reminding us as an audience of the price that Ned exacts whenever he keeps someone like Chuck alive past their alotted 60 seconds. However, the whimsical dialogue was once again the star of the show. This echange, to me, is an instant-classic:
Wilfred Woodruff: You should know that I was thrice named ultimate sword master at the Southern Area Regional Volunteer Infantry Reenactment Regiment!
Ned: I wanted to be a Jedi!
In fact, the whole final act of this episode was pure magic, from Ned accidentally donning a red cape and appearing as Prince Charming to Chuck, to the classical swordfight that broke out in which the aforementioned exchange took place. I loved the blend of action, humor, and mystery. Pushing Daisies so far has been a total trip.
My Grade: A
BIONIC WOMAN:
- I thought last week's ep was likely the best to date, though there were stil lcertainl some kinks to be worked out. I thought that one area where things really improved was the relationship between Jamie and her sister - this week it felt a lot more organic to the story and less cheesy. Still though, you'd think that the Bionic Woman's secret government employers would at least help her to concoct a decent cover story for her missions - I mean, haven't they watched La Femme Nikita? On the other hand, Katie Sackhoff continued to be really really good here and chew up the scenery with pulpy style. She really is stealing the show, so it will be interesting to see how everyone copes once her character is out of the picture. In any case, there was some good action here, some good character moments, but still a feeling of being disjointed.
My Grade: B
THE OFFICE:
- This one once again had some funny moments, but was still weighed down by the hour-long length - again - it all felt a bit too decompressed, with the humor spread too thin. Honestly, this episode had too many long, lingering moments that bordered on being downright depressing. Now, I can alredy hear people saying "wait - wasn't the British Office so acclaimed for that exact reason - because it blended humor with a rather dark, sometimes depressing look at the drudgery of office life?" Yes, that's true, but this is NOT the British Office. That show had a subtle, fly-on-the-wall humor style that allowed it to be hilarious even if the "jokes" were sometimes sparse. The American Office has evolved into an altogether different beast - the humor is more cartoonish and gag-oriented, and the humor not as purely organic to the characters as it was in the original. The point is - when The Office, the American Office, has long stretches without jokes or gags, it really suffers. Part of it is that the characters have not always been 100% consistent (ie the ebbs and flows of Michael Scott). But whatever the case, I liked the ep, but am anticipating a return to the half-hour format.
My Grade: B
30 ROCK:
- This was a hilarious ep of 30 ROCK, likely the best of the season so far. Guest star Steve Buscemi (he's really making the rounds lately) was spot-on as a PI hired to uncover any dirty secrets in Jack's past.The interplay between Jenna and Kenneth was hilarious, as was Tracy's handling of his overly-involved wife. Great stuff - very funny- please watch.
My Grade: A
MY NAME IS EARL:
- Earl had one of its best episodes to date last week, with a great premise in which we got to peer into the imaginations of Earl, Randy, Joy, Crabman, and Catalina. I thought the humor at times didn't quite live up to the promise of the premise, but sometimes, as with Randy's delightfully random dream sequence, what we got was downright hilarious.
My Grade: A -
- Allllright, I'm outta here for now. Back later with more. Go SOX, and Happy pre-Halloween week.
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