review
TV Roundup
Monday, August 27, 11:55 PM By
Bryan
Awhile ago, Shelly and I did a
TV Blog. It was mostly a bust. Sure, I'll take the
fall. Anyway, I work for a giant media conglomerate in the way a
worker drone serves their queen and I've seen the pilot episodes
for some new fall shows on a network that rhymes with
'Shmay-She-See.' I thought today's Thing would be a short review on
these new shows. To make it hard, I saw the pilots, like, two
months ago and the reviews are hazy. TV is best remembered half-way
anyway. I usually see the Shmay-She-See pilots early. I have a
track record of liking shows that die a quick death. So, the shows
I don't like should be your cue to grab that TIVO pass. Also,
bosses, please look kindly, I consider myself part of that New Geek
Consumer that determines national tastes and is mentioned in every
article about Comicon. In college, they just called us music nazis
and Point dexter.
Comedies today, dramas later. So in no particular order.
Miss/Guided
A mid-season replacement. I'm a fan of Judy Greer and I've liked her in almost everything I've seen her in, even crap. And she's the lynchpin of this show. Like David Duchovny and Californication, this show wouldn't work without her or with another actress. My network has caught onto geekmania but is contractually obligated to skew female, so this is the result. The premise is a female Welcome Back Kotter where Kotter was the unpopular nerd kid. Unstated theme, you can always re-invent yourself, Ugly Betty without the camp and gay. Judy's a guidance counselor who, get this, could use social counseling herself. Wack-ee. She has an unrequited crush, a popular girl arch-enemy and (the new stereotype for the new century, IE 1970's) an exasperated, overworked black principle. Actually, I liked the show. The pacing was Earl-esque, Judy's great, most of the adults are okay, they could use less kids, but, hey, it's a high school. Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has already been on the show and left, so that's not good news. I keep hearing 'retooling' when people talk about the show. I have a feeling the pilot I saw will not look like the show they'll air three times before canceling it. Yea, I liked it. It's canceled. And it's a mid-season show, so look for According to Jim to eventually replace Miss/Guided which will replace...
Carpoolers
Quick, name a four person all male buddy sitcom that was a success. Y'know, the one that is inevitably called "The male Sex In The City." Can't do it. Hasn't been one. Seinfeld had Elaine, she doesn't count. And the gawd-awful Wild Hogs is a movie. But hey, all the cliches are here--- the newly married naive guy, the lothario with no furnishings in his bachelor pad save his plasma TV and exercise chair/barcalounger, the hen-pecked weak husband who uses the carpool as his escape, and the normal guy who feels emasculated. And the hook, they share a car pool. Yep, that's the whole flimsy premise. Male bounding through sitting in traffic. There's lame 'a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do' speeches, the weirdo grown-up son, ironic jobs, and other sitcom-land conventions. At least it's not all done on a sound studio. It's really generic on all fronts. I understand Jerry O' Connell and Faith Ford will work cheap and the rest of the cast just needs a job, but c'mon, step up people. It's hacky on almost all fronts. It's isn't According to Jim eye-searingly bad, but Jim will be doing double-duty soon. There's another show with incredibly lame premise, you've heard of it, hell, you may even have their insurance. But at least...
Cavemen
doesn't suck. Yea, I know, I'm surprised too. Mind you, it isn't a great show. But, Cavemen benefits from living up to low expectations. I'm not TIVO'ing it, but I'll ditch working to watch it. The premise, Cavemen are the new black people. They don't come out and say it and they even conspicuously have one black bit part in the pilot to drive that point away, but who's kidding who? Cavemen living in modern times are subject to all kinds of racists (specieists?) stereotypes. They're the dumb weather guys on TV, their athletic, and so on and so on. And this notion is what makes a dumb premise watch-able, there's some satire in the show. It isn't razor-sharp, but there's room for improvement and growth as the subculture and regular folks reactions are explored. Although, the show could get dumb fast if they stick to the three main characters personalities instead of widening out. There's the dumb one, the sarcastic one and the one who wants to fit in. (See a pattern here with sitcoms?) A few nifty visual gags, clever sarcastic remarks and a drunk Julie White (Work that cliche, baby!) made the tired set-up of rednecks at the country club trying to woo daddy (John Heard, slummin' away) to get the way-too-hot girl actually not seem painful. Caveman will probably only last a season just by name-recogition alone. Could go longer if the right tone is set. Speaking of toney, or Shmay-She-See's attempts at it...
Samantha Who
falls a little short of that new brand comedy that's funny and failing over there at NBC. Okay, it's a female My Name is Earl, no getting around it. There's no list or wacky meth addicts, but the redemption template is pretty well set in stone. Bad girl Christina Applegate gets amnesia (hi-larious!) and uses her forgetfulness to atone for her bad past. What bad thing did she do in the past, I bet a funny flashback will let us know. It's a high-brow show 'cause, c'mon she was a bad girl and she's our hero. But now she wants to be good. Having cake and eating it, mmmmm, mmmm. It's also high-brow 'cause it's set in the big city, people wear fashion and between scenes are handwritten title cards. Frasier what have you done? Now that I think about it, that's one of the things that bugs me about Flight of the Concords. That conceit hasn't really worked since Rushmore. And indie movies probably have more cliches than sitcoms. Anyway, don't remember much about the show (hee!), nor do I remember either liking or hating it. I think the show may be the highest rated of the new sitcoms because it's glossy, men and women like Christina Applegate (and she's fine in the role), there's the appearance of outrageousness without any pesky bite and a large female segment needs more than the Sex and the City reruns on TBS. Two seasons.
I can't think of any more half-hour comedy pilots I saw a few months ago, but I do have a few recommends of the current half-hour comedies I'm watching.
The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman on IFC. I've always said women will never be equal in comedy until they can be the total assholes men have no problem being. (Wow, I think that makes me an asshole for saying it.) This show gives me hope. (Plus any show that has a Merril Markoe cameo is ok by me)
Weeds. Catching up. Love Mary Louise Parker's loopy determination. A weird mix of Xanax and white wine. Thought I was going to say something else, eh?
Californication. Man crush on DD, but not there yet.
Flight of the Concords. My son said it best, just Youtube the songs. Shelly uses it as her night-night show.
The It Crowd. The British version. Watch it on Youtube now. And complain about how the American remake sucks. The second season just started.
Dramas later.
Comedies today, dramas later. So in no particular order.
Miss/Guided
A mid-season replacement. I'm a fan of Judy Greer and I've liked her in almost everything I've seen her in, even crap. And she's the lynchpin of this show. Like David Duchovny and Californication, this show wouldn't work without her or with another actress. My network has caught onto geekmania but is contractually obligated to skew female, so this is the result. The premise is a female Welcome Back Kotter where Kotter was the unpopular nerd kid. Unstated theme, you can always re-invent yourself, Ugly Betty without the camp and gay. Judy's a guidance counselor who, get this, could use social counseling herself. Wack-ee. She has an unrequited crush, a popular girl arch-enemy and (the new stereotype for the new century, IE 1970's) an exasperated, overworked black principle. Actually, I liked the show. The pacing was Earl-esque, Judy's great, most of the adults are okay, they could use less kids, but, hey, it's a high school. Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has already been on the show and left, so that's not good news. I keep hearing 'retooling' when people talk about the show. I have a feeling the pilot I saw will not look like the show they'll air three times before canceling it. Yea, I liked it. It's canceled. And it's a mid-season show, so look for According to Jim to eventually replace Miss/Guided which will replace...
Carpoolers
Quick, name a four person all male buddy sitcom that was a success. Y'know, the one that is inevitably called "The male Sex In The City." Can't do it. Hasn't been one. Seinfeld had Elaine, she doesn't count. And the gawd-awful Wild Hogs is a movie. But hey, all the cliches are here--- the newly married naive guy, the lothario with no furnishings in his bachelor pad save his plasma TV and exercise chair/barcalounger, the hen-pecked weak husband who uses the carpool as his escape, and the normal guy who feels emasculated. And the hook, they share a car pool. Yep, that's the whole flimsy premise. Male bounding through sitting in traffic. There's lame 'a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do' speeches, the weirdo grown-up son, ironic jobs, and other sitcom-land conventions. At least it's not all done on a sound studio. It's really generic on all fronts. I understand Jerry O' Connell and Faith Ford will work cheap and the rest of the cast just needs a job, but c'mon, step up people. It's hacky on almost all fronts. It's isn't According to Jim eye-searingly bad, but Jim will be doing double-duty soon. There's another show with incredibly lame premise, you've heard of it, hell, you may even have their insurance. But at least...
Cavemen
doesn't suck. Yea, I know, I'm surprised too. Mind you, it isn't a great show. But, Cavemen benefits from living up to low expectations. I'm not TIVO'ing it, but I'll ditch working to watch it. The premise, Cavemen are the new black people. They don't come out and say it and they even conspicuously have one black bit part in the pilot to drive that point away, but who's kidding who? Cavemen living in modern times are subject to all kinds of racists (specieists?) stereotypes. They're the dumb weather guys on TV, their athletic, and so on and so on. And this notion is what makes a dumb premise watch-able, there's some satire in the show. It isn't razor-sharp, but there's room for improvement and growth as the subculture and regular folks reactions are explored. Although, the show could get dumb fast if they stick to the three main characters personalities instead of widening out. There's the dumb one, the sarcastic one and the one who wants to fit in. (See a pattern here with sitcoms?) A few nifty visual gags, clever sarcastic remarks and a drunk Julie White (Work that cliche, baby!) made the tired set-up of rednecks at the country club trying to woo daddy (John Heard, slummin' away) to get the way-too-hot girl actually not seem painful. Caveman will probably only last a season just by name-recogition alone. Could go longer if the right tone is set. Speaking of toney, or Shmay-She-See's attempts at it...
Samantha Who
falls a little short of that new brand comedy that's funny and failing over there at NBC. Okay, it's a female My Name is Earl, no getting around it. There's no list or wacky meth addicts, but the redemption template is pretty well set in stone. Bad girl Christina Applegate gets amnesia (hi-larious!) and uses her forgetfulness to atone for her bad past. What bad thing did she do in the past, I bet a funny flashback will let us know. It's a high-brow show 'cause, c'mon she was a bad girl and she's our hero. But now she wants to be good. Having cake and eating it, mmmmm, mmmm. It's also high-brow 'cause it's set in the big city, people wear fashion and between scenes are handwritten title cards. Frasier what have you done? Now that I think about it, that's one of the things that bugs me about Flight of the Concords. That conceit hasn't really worked since Rushmore. And indie movies probably have more cliches than sitcoms. Anyway, don't remember much about the show (hee!), nor do I remember either liking or hating it. I think the show may be the highest rated of the new sitcoms because it's glossy, men and women like Christina Applegate (and she's fine in the role), there's the appearance of outrageousness without any pesky bite and a large female segment needs more than the Sex and the City reruns on TBS. Two seasons.
I can't think of any more half-hour comedy pilots I saw a few months ago, but I do have a few recommends of the current half-hour comedies I'm watching.
The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman on IFC. I've always said women will never be equal in comedy until they can be the total assholes men have no problem being. (Wow, I think that makes me an asshole for saying it.) This show gives me hope. (Plus any show that has a Merril Markoe cameo is ok by me)
Weeds. Catching up. Love Mary Louise Parker's loopy determination. A weird mix of Xanax and white wine. Thought I was going to say something else, eh?
Californication. Man crush on DD, but not there yet.
Flight of the Concords. My son said it best, just Youtube the songs. Shelly uses it as her night-night show.
The It Crowd. The British version. Watch it on Youtube now. And complain about how the American remake sucks. The second season just started.
Dramas later.
|
Drakon Review
Tuesday, June 05, 01:34 PM By
Bryan
Two weeks ago, Shelly and I joined a
gaming league. The league hasn't started yet---this weekend--- but
soon. The idea is you play a different game each week throughout
the summer and earn points for how well you do against other
players. I look over at our wall of games and see about 20-25 games
we've never even played. I've read the rules to all of them and
oogled over the crunchy bit goodness, but time is a monster. This
gaming league, hopefully, will spurn some more game playing. It's
also a chance to meet some new people---people nerdier than
myself.
To celebrate joining the league, we, of course, bought a game. Recently at a game con, we played Tom Jolly's Cave Troll. It was a fun, relatively easy to learn game that mixed luck, strategy, player interaction and game engagement. Lots of fun and although I lost the one game I played, I wanted to play again and the game felt close, even against a much more experienced player.
So, we bought Tom Jolly's other game, Drakon. Cave Troll was sold out. While I like Drakon okay, Cave Troll was the better way to spend 25 bucks for a game that plays in about a half hour. I'm doing a Drakon review because I've only played Cave Troll once. We've played Drakon three times, two two-player games and on four-player game. The two-player games were more satisfying because you could develop some small plans and see them through. In Drakon, players lay dungeon tiles and move around the newly created board gathering gold. The first player to 10 gold wins. As you enter each new tile or room, different room abilities are activated. These abilities are the heart of the game. Each room has different arrows out of the 2.5 square inch tiles, so tile place really determines where players can go. A giant dragon can be released and crush you, but in all three games, the dragon wasn't a threat because the rooms that activate him are too few. I'd like more dragon action. Early on, each player figured out a gold loop, a set of tiles to maximize gold collection. By the third game, stopping these loops became a focus. The best way was to limit the amount of choices the others have in tile laying. Because of the new strategy, the last game was much longer than the other two. Plus, having an out tile to win greatly increased the enjoyability. Drakon's a decent game if you like to play to screw over other players instead of just focusing on winning yourself. It's not a Munchkin level screw-job, but this element seems to be prevalent in most modern games.
This bits and piece are nice and worth the 25 bucks. It'd be nice to have painted figures---no game does, except Marvel Heros. Also, the large tiles are a pain to shuffle and manage, but that's mostly unavoidable. There's no dice-rolling and all the luck comes from the draw of the tiles.
Overall, Drakon is a six out of ten. It's a decent game to play in a half hour, not too much of a brain drain, but a bit easy to fall into predictable patterns of play. 'kay?
To celebrate joining the league, we, of course, bought a game. Recently at a game con, we played Tom Jolly's Cave Troll. It was a fun, relatively easy to learn game that mixed luck, strategy, player interaction and game engagement. Lots of fun and although I lost the one game I played, I wanted to play again and the game felt close, even against a much more experienced player.
So, we bought Tom Jolly's other game, Drakon. Cave Troll was sold out. While I like Drakon okay, Cave Troll was the better way to spend 25 bucks for a game that plays in about a half hour. I'm doing a Drakon review because I've only played Cave Troll once. We've played Drakon three times, two two-player games and on four-player game. The two-player games were more satisfying because you could develop some small plans and see them through. In Drakon, players lay dungeon tiles and move around the newly created board gathering gold. The first player to 10 gold wins. As you enter each new tile or room, different room abilities are activated. These abilities are the heart of the game. Each room has different arrows out of the 2.5 square inch tiles, so tile place really determines where players can go. A giant dragon can be released and crush you, but in all three games, the dragon wasn't a threat because the rooms that activate him are too few. I'd like more dragon action. Early on, each player figured out a gold loop, a set of tiles to maximize gold collection. By the third game, stopping these loops became a focus. The best way was to limit the amount of choices the others have in tile laying. Because of the new strategy, the last game was much longer than the other two. Plus, having an out tile to win greatly increased the enjoyability. Drakon's a decent game if you like to play to screw over other players instead of just focusing on winning yourself. It's not a Munchkin level screw-job, but this element seems to be prevalent in most modern games.
This bits and piece are nice and worth the 25 bucks. It'd be nice to have painted figures---no game does, except Marvel Heros. Also, the large tiles are a pain to shuffle and manage, but that's mostly unavoidable. There's no dice-rolling and all the luck comes from the draw of the tiles.
Overall, Drakon is a six out of ten. It's a decent game to play in a half hour, not too much of a brain drain, but a bit easy to fall into predictable patterns of play. 'kay?
Free Brains
Thursday, May 10, 01:22 PM By
Bryan
Today's small Thing is just links to
some complete zombie-themed products. Yea, Free! Most items you
once had to pay for, but are now free.
The first is Monster Island by David Wellington. It's the first novel of a three-part zombie series. All three books are there, complete. You can order them from Amazon or read them free. The stuff I've read is pretty good and it's not just internet wankery like most free writing. He's also posted some other books there as well.
And now, a bunch of free zombie games. Follow the links on the Game Board Geek site pages to download maps, rules, etc.
Zombie Plague---haven't read the rules to this one, but it looks like an expandable miniatures game.
Dawn of the Dead---Based on the 1978 movie. I actually owned this game back in the early eighties and played the heck out of it. The free version will require a lot of cutting and set-up, but it's all there.
Dead of Night---I downloaded this game a few months ago. The rules sound fun, it's like a more expansive version of Zombies where the tension is ratcheted up as the game goes on. However, just visiting the site, I notice it's no longer free because the game has been picked up by a publisher. That's good news 'cause now I can buy it at the game store eventually with cool bits.
Check out the many Zombie lists on Board Game Geek for head munching fun.
The first is Monster Island by David Wellington. It's the first novel of a three-part zombie series. All three books are there, complete. You can order them from Amazon or read them free. The stuff I've read is pretty good and it's not just internet wankery like most free writing. He's also posted some other books there as well.
And now, a bunch of free zombie games. Follow the links on the Game Board Geek site pages to download maps, rules, etc.
Zombie Plague---haven't read the rules to this one, but it looks like an expandable miniatures game.
Dawn of the Dead---Based on the 1978 movie. I actually owned this game back in the early eighties and played the heck out of it. The free version will require a lot of cutting and set-up, but it's all there.
Dead of Night---I downloaded this game a few months ago. The rules sound fun, it's like a more expansive version of Zombies where the tension is ratcheted up as the game goes on. However, just visiting the site, I notice it's no longer free because the game has been picked up by a publisher. That's good news 'cause now I can buy it at the game store eventually with cool bits.
Check out the many Zombie lists on Board Game Geek for head munching fun.
The Walking Dead Vol. 1 & 2---A Review
Tuesday, May 08, 02:21 AM By
Bryan
As Zombie Week continues, Here's a review of Robert Kirkman's graphic novel The Walking Dead, Vol. 1 & 2 with obligatory commentary about zombie stories. You can read the first issue here for free. Vol. 1 & 2 covers the first twelve issues. There are currently over forty issues.
