So much joy in Mudville tonight. FNL returned. Pushing Daisies returned. I’ve only got one more day at my job. All in all, a pretty good day.
And you know what? My first day at my new/old job on Monday won’t be nearly as bad as Tami’s.
For those without DirecTV (and those who are out for the next week because some nimrod screwed up,) don’t read the rest. For those who got to see the episode legally or otherwise, more below the fold.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about The United States of Tara. I’m struck by the show’s potential. The pilot is written by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, and directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl). Did I mention it also has the hand of Stephen Spielberg on it? And with Toni Collette playing the lead, The United States of Tara could be a TV masterpiece.
Tara Gregson, played by Collette, suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), otherwise known as multiple personality disorder. She also has two children, Kate and Marshall, and has been married to Max (John Corbett) for 17 years. While watching the movie, I was reminded of the first line of Anna Karenina.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Oh hell, you give me Dan Lauria ((Interesting – to me and no one else – sidenote: Dan Lauria went to college and played football with my high school coach. Coach was the class advisor for my girlfriend’s class and got Kevin Arnold’s dad as their graduation speaker. He gave a fantastic speech that managed to incorporate Bruce Willis and Ed O’Neill. Afterwards? The girlfriend told me Lauria was a hottie. That was weird.)) and Nicole Sullivan as comedy standins for James Gandolfini and Edie Falco? Point Leverage. Add to that a script from Chris Downey loaded with subtle character humor and a slick turn behind the camera from Jonathan Frakes ((Number 1 calls the shots on *this* enterprise, bub.)) and you’ve got another solid hour from the gang.
Considering this episode was the third one shot, I was pretty pleased with the smoothness that ended up on screen.
I love Ugly Betty. But last night’s show left me a bit – perturbed. Just slightly. In “Dress for Success”, Betty is scrambling to hold on to her position in the YETI program. Being a magazine editor is her dream, her passion. Her family should understand this and know (after three years) that the job requires long hours, sometimes at the last minute. They should know she is called away from family functions to run errands for Daniel. It’s her job. She signed on for this and it’s a typical rung in the ladder she hopes to climb.
But her family is giving her flack for doing her job instead of hanging out with the family or putting together gift bags for her sister’s salon opening. (We never saw Hilda thank Betty for those gift bags – or at least not in the profuse way Betty deserved). They hound Betty and lay guilt trips on her for showing up to work, for networking, for basically having any dream that isn’t tied to the family. (more…)
One of the complaints some critics have laid on Leverage is its reliance on common settings for a con/scam/mission show: bank robbery, horse track, etc. Personally, I not only find those locales comforting, but believe that specifically avoiding those settings would be unrealistic. These are thieves, after all. But tonight breaks the mold in a big way and goes somewhere I don’t believe any heist show has gone before.
My knowledge of the strife and suffering in the countries formerly composing Yugoslavia is sketchy, mostly consisting of what I’ve gleaned from features about the region’s basketball tradition. In fact, if not for tall men with names like Vlade and Drazen and Peja, I might not be able to remember the names of all the republics that split off from Yugoslavia. The fighting during the ’90s was intense and the toll is still being felt to this day. I don’t know how common the practice of using orphanages to front for gunrunners is, but there are certainly enough orphans in Belgrade to make it feasible. (more…)
I have to be honest. I remember watching advertisements of 10 Items or Less back in 2006. I was not interested. The commercials reminded me of Saved By The Bell – a show I was addicted to as a kid but hate as an adult. Now that I’m all grown up, the stupid, lame jokes of Saved By the Bell make me wish I could shoot myself instead of enduring another half hour of Zach and gang. So, to avoid being suicidal, I didn’t tune in for 10 Items. After watching “Turkey Bowling”, the 10 Items or Less season premiere, I realize how misleading marketing can be and regret not giving the show a chance 2 years ago.
Ah 2008, you sorry, piece of shit excuse of a year. So happy to see you skittering across the floor toward the door. You will NOT be missed. What, after all, did you give us? Tina Fey playing the dumbest woman in America and…nothing. Or damn close to it.
But it’s not just what you failed to give us, but how you failed us. Here’s what the bench at DreamLoom think.
Ai-ight. That’s more like it. At this point, I’m wondering whether Rogers, Downey, and Devlin have a mind probing satellite in geosynchronous orbit. A satellite tuned to my brain waves so they can put a show on the air specifically tailored to my tastes. Because this one? This one was exactly up my alley.
Look, man! You’re lucky on this deadline I didn’t give you a baking soda volcano.
Remember in last week’s review, when I expressed my concern that Leverage might wear out its welcome if every episode involved helping out someone from the team’s past? That’s because I’d already seen “The Miracle Job” and knew that two consecutive episodes had done that very thing. It’s a small complaint, but I would really rather see strangers taking advantage of the services of Leverage Consulting & Associates.
However, if they were all going to be as much fun as this one, I wouldn’t make much of a fuss over it.
Oh Jiminy Jehoshaphat! I went out on a limb for you people. A tree limb, jutting from a cliff with my limbs dangling over certain death. So don’t leave me dangling with Dwight’s disappearance.
In a break from format, tonight’s episode of Pushing Daisies eschewed the MoW and was all the stronger for it. Tying up loose threads, before dropping some new ones, tonight was all about Charles’s disappearance and Dwight’s death.
Vivian, as innocent and naive as ever, asks Emerson for help tracking down her missing paramour, Dwight Dixon. But Emerson already knows where Dwight can be found, six feet underground where he left him. But treating Vivian roughly to convince her she’s been abandoned doesn’t work: she hires The Norwegians.