The A.V. Club - TV

TV: Newswire:Funeral Friday

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:00 -0600

Congratulations on making it to the end of another week! Unfortunately, these people didn't. Light a candle for Funeral Friday. Nothing against Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek—it's just that their demographics skewed decidedly older—but to children of the ’80s, there were really only two game show hosts that really mattered: Marc Summers of Double Dare and Ken Ober of Remote Control. The latter was a special kind of game show host we’d rarely seen before—flippant, sarcastic bordering on surly, and unafraid to mock everything from the deliberately pointless questions he was asking, to the ...

Books: Newswire:King, Spielberg team up to adapt Under The Dome

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:23:00 -0600

Stephen King's massive new novel Under The Dome is set to become a TV miniseries developed by Steven Spielberg, Variety is reporting. Beyond that, there's not a lot of news. But now's a good a time as any to ponder why these two haven't teamed up before. These are two of the premier storytellers of our time, after all. Is it because King has, of late, resisted directors intent on putting their own stamp on his work? This is, after all, the guy who hated Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and Spielberg is something of a ...

TV: Hatecast:MTV says: OMG, Look At These Guidos.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:03:00 -0600

On this very special, 23rd edition of the Hatecast, Amelie Gillette and Sam West, Staff Writer for the Onion News Network, opened traditional 23rd podcast gifts, namely lamps, sharktooth necklaces, and lamps accented with sharktooth necklaces. It was all very something. But because the sound of opening wrapping paper isn't that compelling, they also discussed MTV's spate of pre-ridiculed tool TV shows; Guy Fieri's plan to charge $25 for a peek at a giant blender; and MC Hammer's disavowal of Hammerpants. Please, put their ramblings in your ears! Subscribe to The Hatecast iTunes feeds.theonion.com ...

TV: Community:"Environmental Science"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:54:00 -0600

As it wraps up its appearances in November sweeps, Community is really on a roll. That's, by my count, four straight really good episodes, with at least three of them being all-time keepers (especially last week's terrific half hour). The series seems to have worked out its kinks, and now, it's a pretty lean show, pared down to just what it needs to get laughs. Tonight's episode felt weirdly like a season finale (especially in its closing moments), so it's possible this was the last episode filmed of the initial 13-episode order (just in case ...

TV: 30 Rock:"Sun Tea"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:03:00 -0600

Hello, 30 Rockers! My name is Steve, and I’ll be covering the show tonight for The T.V. Club. I realize coming here and getting me rather than Nathan Rabin is like tuning in to Pardon The Interruption for the entertaining repartee of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon and instead seeing the fat, red faces of substitute hosts Dan LeBatard and Bob Ryan. (Sadly, this won’t be the only sports-related metaphor I use tonight.) But I’m super duper thrilled to be here. I haven’t been totally on board with The A.V. Club’s criticisms of ...

TV: Project Runway:"Finale: Part 2"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0600

Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides "eh wear"? Can this season get any worse? Let's all find out tonight, together, in the way that our friends at Garnier Fructisse and the thoughtfully used Macy's Accessory Wall intended, via LiveBlog. Starting at 10pm ET Donna Bowman, Kyle Ryan and I will be your grand marshals in this (probably sad) fashion parade. See you there! Project ...

TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"The D.E.N.N.I.S. System"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:42:00 -0600

“The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” was a little lighter on laughs than last week but had an amusingly intricate plot (something that’s rare for Sunny), and a fantastic, disgusting denouement (something that’s very common, but always very welcome). Best of all, though, it took Dennis and it gave him an easel on which to explain his system for attracting women through cute acronyms and silly slogans. It felt like a warped, disturbing take on Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother: rather than the pick-up artist being soulless but still loveable, he was soulless ...

TV: Fringe:“August”

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:30:00 -0600

Because I work at home, by myself, I spend some portion of each day roaming around the house talking and/or singing in a funny voice. I also spend some portion of each day locked inside my head, in pained reflection, recalling something stupid I said or did decades ago (and feeling humiliated all over again). So if there really were Observers in this world, watching what we do and reporting back to their superiors, frankly I’d be mortified. Of course, I’d feel even worse if I was Walter, and I knew that I’d been closely observed ...

TV: Supernatural:"Abandon All Hope"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:13:00 -0600

Hey, remember Ellen and Jo, the only two non-dead recurring non-evil female characters on the show? Remember how they disappeared for a while, but then came back for this season, and it was like, we're gonna be fighting against Lucifer, so we gotta have all the good guys together again? Yeah. That didn't last so long, did it. I've mostly been impressed with the way Supernatural has expanded on its mythology over the years, taking what started as a one note premise and then expanding it and developing it as the series went on. If you'd ...

TV: The Office:"Shareholder Meeting"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:10:00 -0600

Hello, Officeianados! Nathan Rabin, well-selling author and man about town, is off leading the lifestyle of a jet-setting ne'er-do-well, so it again falls to me to recap this week's escapades at the possibly insolvent Dunder-Mifflin. This episode was directed and written by Charles McDougall and Justin Spitzer, respectively, and they've brought us some of my favorite installments of the show, so I went into "Shareholder Meeting" with high hopes. I was a bit nervous about the cold open -- the network-mandated theme bits are often pretty awkward -- but this one was a real winner, featuring a very ...

TV: FlashForward:"Believe"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0600

Maybe we should only be watching FlashForward in the odd-numbered episodes because after last week's complete snore, "Believe" was quite possibly the show's finest hour yet. It probably doesn't quite deserve an A-, but I believe in using these grades as encouraging signs for anyone from the show who reads this (if, indeed, anyone does), so there it is. "Believe" is the first episode of the show that legitimately feels like an episode of the show I thought I'd be watching when I signed up to cover the series, and it's the first to really ...

TV: Parks and Recreation:"Hunting Trip"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:59:00 -0600

A few weeks back, Leonard Pierce was covering this show for TV Club and made note that the Fred Armisen episode lacked the strength of Parks & Rec's supporting cast. Tonight we saw the other end of the spectrum. Even though every single cast member played some part of the action, "Hunting Trip" lacked the character focus that made episodes like "Ron And Tammy" and "Kaboom" such successes—a few guys get their screen time, a few others help, and the rest sit out. If "Sister City" is the example of an episode not playing to the show's solid ...

TV: Newswire:Oprah to end her show

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:42:00 -0600

According to CNN.com, Oprah Winfrey will end her insanely popular talk show in 2011. But where will the nation's ladies go for weird diet advice and softball interviews with celebrities and free cars and shit? Well, speculation has Oprah simply moving her show--or some version of it--over to the network that she's starting, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Seems logical. In a related story, I watched five minutes of Oprah a few days ago, for the first time in 10 years? No, since Cormac McCarthy was on. Anyway, the guest was Jenna Jameson, and her face looks ...

TV: Hater:Tyra Banks Is So Sorry You Didn't Realize She's A Moron

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:00 -0600

It's probably very difficult being Tyra Banks. You walk around with a cranial cavity that's empty except for two tired bees, and those bees are constantly buzz buzz buzzing with, like, the best ideas. But no one seems to "get" your ideas. It has to be frustrating. The bees knock around in your hollow skull, and so you say, "Why don't I dress up like a fat person, in order to, like, see how fat people feel, which is probably terrible. But then I immediately go back to being a model?" And everyone just stares at you ...

TV: Newswire:Lost moves to Tuesdays for final season, starting Feb. 2

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:36:00 -0600

Well, here's a Groundhog Day we wouldn't mind re-living over and over. ABC has announced that the final season of their cult hit Lost will premiere on February 2nd (beginning that night with a clip show, followed by the two-hour opener "LAX"), and that the show will air each week on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. eastern. This is good news for one Lost fan located in central Arkansas, who routinely had his Wednesday airings of Lost preempted by SEC basketball. As for the rest of you, we hope the new time works for y'all.

TV: Hater:Fancy NYC McDonald's Almost Like Being In Europe

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:10:00 -0600

In terms of their McDonald's restaurant design, Europe is way ahead of us. Their McDonald's have fancy chairs, and flat-screen TVs, and only the chicest homeless people setting up residency in the bathrooms. Well now, finally, at least one American McDonald's has caught up. From The AP: A McDonald's in midtown Manhattan became the first in the U.S. this fall to undergo a sleek, European-style makeover similar to what McDonald's has done at thousands of outlets around in France and the United Kingdom. The eatery is outfitted with outlets for plugging in laptops, upholstered ...

TV: Glee:"Ballad"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:22:00 -0600

For all of the Glee commentary running rampant on the Internet, there's been surprisingly little analysis of the show as an actual musical. Sure, there's lots of writing about how exciting the show's musical sequences are or the song choices or how well the songs sell on iTunes, but there's very little placing the show within the context of a stage and cinematic genre that it belongs to. Since Myles McNutt pointed out to me that tonight was a Brad Falchuk episode and Falchuk tends to write episodes with lots of big musical moments ("The Rhodes ...

TV: Top Chef:"Culinary Olympics"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:56:00 -0600

Looks like Robin got out at the right time. With the competition thinned to what I think most would (or should) agree are the best final five chefs in the show’s history, Top Chef morphed into another, more exciting season tonight. To torture a sports metaphor, it was like watching the regular season peter out and suddenly burst into the postseason, where the stakes are higher and only the very best come out to play. Can you even imagine Robin attempting the Elimination Challenge in this week’s episode? To combine that level of technique, execution, and presentation in ...

TV: South Park:Pee

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:35:00 -0600

Ironic racism is a hard line to walk. (Say, isn’t that a Lyle Lovett song?) Doing it right requires a satirical finesse that even our finest comic minds haven’t always pulled off—and when they try, they usually get pissy little blogs written about them. But I’ve always said that I believe South Park is some of the best satire on TV when it’s firing on all cylinders, and to that end I’ve seen it do ironic racism in a way that’s borderline revolutionary: Think of 2007’s “With Apologies To Jesse Jackson,” for ...

TV: Friday Night Lights:"A Sort Of Homecoming"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:12:00 -0600

If Friday Night Lights has an unofficial theme song it’s the Daniel Johnston-penned “Devil Town.” “Devil Town” opened and closed the first season and served, in a version sung by Tony Lucca, as the soundtrack to the third season’s promo clips. But even if nobody had ever picked it for the show, it would still be the perfect theme. Consider these lines: All my friends were vampires I didn't know they were vampires It turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town Maybe the word “vampire” puts the stress in the wrong place. Friday ...