VAGUE SPACE

New Dominos Pizza

Domino's is pretty much universally considered the worst pizza you can buy, but they've made a huge fortune selling that stuff for years (primarily to drunken college students I guess) and it's not like other fast food companies like McDonald's or Friday's give a crap that their food tastes like shit as long as people keep buying it.  But in rather shocking news, the pizza company has decided to change its formula to make it, you know, tastier, and even more shocking, their new ad campaign basically openly admits that their pizza tastes like crap.  Pretty bold stuff.  I don't know whether to laud them for such a risky corporate maneuver or chide them for failing to apologize for decades of serving that crap to stupid consumers.  I guess I can just laugh at the whole thing and continue to eat organic fruits and vegetables while avoiding fast food places like the plagues on America that they are.  But if you are in the laughing mood, here's something from Colbert about Domino's in his "Alpha Dog of the Week" that I couldn't stop laughing through...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Domino's Pizza
www.colbertnation.com
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Friday Night Lights Season 4 Premiere

"East of Dillon" kicked off the fourth season of the venerable program, one that I didn't watch in seasons 1 & 2 but absolutely fell in love with last season.  The fourth season premiered exclusively on DirecTV for the second straight year (Wednesdays at 9 pm on the "101") and will be shown on NBC sometime next year.  I've seen a lot of great shows this season, from returning favorites (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has probably been the best so far, but The Office, 30 Rock, South Park, and Curb Your Enthusiasm have had some absolute classics already) to some decent new shows (Community, Modern Family, and Flash Forward have all been on my DVR list, with only the latter falling off due to time constraints), but oddly, it's Friday Night Lights that is the first show I feel compelled to talk about.  It's pretty much completely like an HBO show, with its gritty subject matter and gritty photography and the fantastic acting and swelling music -- oh, the music! -- that I can't help but sing its praises to the world.  There's been a huge upheaval in cast and characters in the break between seasons 3 and 4, but perhaps because I didn't watch the first two seasons of this show, I don't find myself missing Lyla or Jason or Tyra (Ok, I do miss Tyra) as much as long-time viewers.  And the first episode was as brilliant as every episode I've seen of this show.  Just perfect.  

Summer TV Reviews

As we begin to embark upon the  fall television season, which has me excited for tonight's premiere of the 5th year of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I wanted to write a quick review of what was easily the best summer season of television series in a long time, maybe ever.  There were a half dozen or so shows that I made appointment viewing in the past couple months, and with True Blood's wacky and somewhat disappointing finale Sunday, only Entourage remains as a summer series that is continuing into fall.  But Ari and the gang are nearly over, so without further ado, here are my rankings of the top series in the summer of 2009 (that I watched).

1. Nurse Jackie (Showtime)  This new show that followed Weeds on Monday nights seemed a little shaky to me at first, but I was paying $10 a month just to watch Weeds so I stayed with it, and I couldn't be happier.  Edie Falco of Sopranos fame plays the eponymous star of the show, a night nurse at a New York City hospital who (1) has a massive prescription drug habit, (2) is cheating on her husband with someone from the hospital, (3) has two young children, the oldest of which has anxiety issues similar to her own, and (4) constantly bends the hospital rules to preserve all her secrets and to provide better nursing for her patients.  So yeah, she's really fucked up.  Like really, really.  But as played by Falco -- who is absolutely brilliant in the role -- she's also incredibly likable and vulnerable and even sometimes hard to watch as she digs herself further into self-made traumas that only dramatic actions can get her out of.  When she can't get her wedding ring off in an episode late in the season (no one but her closest friend at the hospital, a hilarious but also well-rounded doctor character played by British actress Eve Best, is aware that she's married, including her lover), she has her doctor friend cut it off and then, in a painful scene to watch, ends up smashing her finger in the bathroom with a hammer for an excuse for her husband about what happened to the ring.  The show is a half-hour long, but in the mode of Weeds, it's not a comedy, nor is it a drama -- it's certainly far from melodramatic -- but there are funny parts, some outright hilarious; there are serious parts; there are amazing parts; and mostly, it's just about these flawed people living their flawed lives, and failing, but holding my interest in a way that no new show has captured my interest since, well, True Blood last September.  By the end of the season, I would watch the taped episode of Nurse Jackie before the taped episode of Weeds.  Which makes it #1 in my book.

True Blood

I haven't written about my 2nd favorite show from last season yet this summer, since the sophomore season of the vampire saga on HBO has been in a creative slump, in my opinion, despite record ratings.  There's been a ton of orgiastic sex in the strange, but mostly unfulfilling storyline of Maryanne.  There's been a lot of Bill/Sookie lovemaking as well, but I was never captivated by the romance between the two.  And then there's been Jason Stackhouse joining the Christian army and fucking the head priest dude's wife, but again, it's left me wanting.  Pretty much this season has been filled with a lot of naked sex and a lot of carnal desire, but not a whole lot of suspense (other than the great early episode where Sookie is attacked in the woods by some strange creature with a bull for its head) and not nearly enough into the minds of the characters.  But it turns out the whole season was just a buildup for this week's episode, which brought almost all the disparate storylines into creative climaxes and finally made sense of everything that's been going on in an explosive, riveting way.  This is the show I fell in love with last year.  And I'm so glad it's finally getting great again.

Long Island

Well, I made fun of Jersey in a video last week on this site, so I couldn't resist posting this video poking a little fun at Long Island.  This is a little more "highbrow" than the Guido Beach video (courtesy of Robyn -- not Matt, I wanted to clarify) but it's still damn funny.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Long Island Wants to Secede
www.thedailyshow.com
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Zack Attack!

Continuing with the late night theme of recent posts, this was on Jimmy Fallon the other night -- Mark-Paul Gosselaar, promoting his show Raising the Bar that I never heard of before, appeared on Fallon (the guy who replaced Conan) in character as the legendary Zack Morris from Bayside High (Saved by the Bell).  He mentions the Maxx, his summer at the beach resort, his "marriage" to Kelly Kapowski, and he receives a call on his big cell phone from Jesse Spano.  Ah, memories.  So sad that I find this so incredibly awesome.  Well done, Mark-Paul... err, Zack.

Dave and Howard

Howard Stern was on David Letterman's show on Monday night, a favor for an old friend and supporter in an important week for Letterman -- his first week of new shows against the new host of The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien.  And it struck me that at one point, Dave was my hero -- my favorite talk show host and/or comedian in any media form ever... and now, well, I hope he beats Conan, but my entire frame of reference for the appearance was Howard's constant fretting over it on his own show over the past week.  And Dave?  Mostly forgotten.

Back in high school, sometime in the mid to late-80s I guess, I became a huge fan of Letterman.  And I started to watch him religiously.  Now, I guess during high school it was difficult to stay up until 1 am to watch (although I'm pretty sure I did sometimes, without my parents' knowledge), so maybe it was mostly summers and holidays and vacations that I got caught up on my Dave fix, but to me, he was a comedic genius -- an irreverent, sarcastic, goofy, funny fuck who basically either informed or conformed to my sense of humor perfectly.  In college, I watched him even more -- since I was up until 1 am every night, although perhaps in the later years (when I wasn't studying nearly as much anymore), I might not have been home to watch him.  But I know if I was anywhere near a television between 12:30 and 1:30 from, say 1987 to 1992, Late Night was on the screen.  There was no bigger fan alive.

An Army of Stephen

Stephen Colbert is spending the week in Iraq, and his first episode Monday featured a guest appearance via satellite by President Obama, who seemed to only get a mildly enthusiastic reception from the troops in the audience.  To be fair, a taped joke message from John McCain was also not overly well received.  Perhaps the troops are just a little pissed about still being fucking over there.   And Colbert's mission for bringing his show to Baghdad is to highlight the fact that we still have 130,000 troops fighting for us (for some reason) in Iraq, a fact that the media (including this site, I'm sad to say) has chosen to ignore since at least around the time of the economic meltdown last fall. The episode was hilarious as usual and included a "Stephen Strong: An Army of Me" featurette showing Colbert in "basic training" that was excellent.  It also highlighted Colbert's commitment to the troops by having a general shave his precious hair into an army cut, something I didn't think Stephen would ever do.  All in all, it was a great show and it should be a great week and you can see some of the episode below.

In very related news, Stephen was the "guest editor" this week for Newsweek, the first time in history they've given over control of an issue to an outsider.  I've been a long-time subscriber to Newsweek, and they recently (2 weeks ago) underwent a major re-design of their magazine in the hopes of remaining relevant in the Internet age.  I really like the changes they've made (although admittedly I always liked their old version) -- they have glossier paper, are focused more on serious issues (as opposed to some of the gossipy type stuff that has graced the pages before), and of course, they turned to Stephen Colbert to help them with an issue focused on Iraq and the fact that we have so many troops there outside the media's lights (and America's consciousness, I'm afraid to say).  I haven't actually read the bulk of the magazine yet, but Stephen's column was as brilliantly funny as expected, as was his "Letters to the Editor", featuring all the letters he's sent to the magazine but never got published.  But yeah, if you do want to see how the troops are doing and how the war is going, and maybe, why -- half a year after Obama's election -- we are still over there, take a look at the magazine's website and read.  We should all (starting with me) realize that Obama's victory changed nothing on the ground in Iraq.  Let's hope our brave men and women come home safe... very, very soon.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Stephen Strong: Army of Me - Basic Training
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

2008-09 Season in Review

1.  LOST (ABC, last season #1)

The 2-hour finale didn't quite deliver -- if anything it was a little boring -- but I am intrigued by the potential game-changing last scene in which Juliet apparently exploded the atomic bomb, which may or may not kill her (and everyone) or send them "back to the future," as Faraday and Christopher Lloyd hypothesized.  I really don't have a prediction, although I suspect that Juliet is dead, if only because the show has invested so much of its mythology in the Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle that no one actually cares about.  Overall, though, this was one hell of a season and the second seasonal victory in a row for the program.  The shorter schedule, all after the first of the year, definitely works well, and the built-in tension at the end of every episode (even the poor ones) make you rush back for more.  There were a number of great episodes, though, and a number of riddles solved (I think), but of course, many more left open.  At this point, I don't know if I care so much about the when or the where or the why of the Island and its castaways.  I just enjoy seeing them every week and I enjoy all the twists and turns that the producers keep throwing our way.  Next season is the final season of the show and I am going to miss it.  Let's hope it goes out on top.

BaBa Booey at the Mets Game

Gary Dell'Abate, producer of The Howard Stern Show attempts to throw out the first pitch for the New York Mets on 05/09/09.