24th
July
2007
Ponderings For 2007-07-25
- This is a long-delayed Ponderings post accumulation of stuff I’ve been meaning to get posted for a number of days…
- Watched the first 2 episodes of Monk & Psych, which just returned to USA Network’s schedule for their 6th and 2nd seasons respectively. USA has a real winning team with these two shows, which is one of the best time slot partner combinations any network has stumbled upon in a number of years. I’ll say this - USA has a real talent for seeing potential in series that the big networks pass on and making them absolute winners. And the first episodes of each show’s return were absolutely hilarious. Monk’s featured Sarah Silverman reprising her role as Marci, his biggest fan. She perfects her whacked out performance in it, and the rest of the cast are on their top game as well. Then there’s the season premier of Psych, which was possibly even funnier. It features some spot-on hilarious skewering of American Idol, with Tim Curry doing some great parodying of Simon Cowell. But it’s Gina Gershon doing a fantastically over-the-top performance of a completely whacked out Paula Abdul that is spectacularly hilarious. Psych was great during the first season, but I think they’ve really hit their stride coming out of the gate for this second season, as this opener is completely uncorked. I was rolling on the floor from that opening Psych episode. It’s one of the episodes of the show directed by John Landis. His work on Psych is actually redeeming him onto my talented director list. I dare say they may be averaging a bit funnier than Monk. Monk’s second episode was a bit weak, but Psych was still going strong. If you haven’t watched Psych, the first season was recently released to DVD and totally worth watching. Either way, both of these shows are the kind of sharp, witty, clever fun that some of the classic shows of past decades distinguished themselves as, and they both do so with a refreshingly family friendly approach. USA deserves a lot of credit for getting behind these shows. I’ll end this with a line from the second of the Psych episodes, “Doodles are the window to the soul, Gus. Or maybe that’s the epiglottis. Where’s the Uvula?”
- Speaking of which, I’ve added an archive version of my TV viewing log to the site. Not much there yet, but I’ll be backfilling more in the near future.
- And speaking of those viewing logs, Google Spreadsheets has some very cool features and is handy for some online uses, but it is still lacking in a whole slew of basic functionality. It’s got long, LONG way to go before it can be even a remotely comparative alternative to any respectable spreadsheet out there…
- “Kill me now…” Yeah, no kidding. This is just bad on ever level imaginable. Good grief. This may give me nightmares and keep me up in a state of shock and terror.
- Here’s a link to the high res version of a great AT&T telecom buyout history diagram that’s been circulating. It is an insane history, to be sure. The segment from The Colbert Report on it is a funnier presentation of the information.
- I’d seen a couple of these before, but there are a few very cool one in this list that I hadn’t seen before. I still think that leaning tower thing is too strange.
- *THE SUPER MEGASON IV!* A hilarious write-up. Language warning.
- The Futon Critic has added a neat new approach to the lead-up of the new TV season: a who’s-in and who’s-out quick reference page. Great idea Mr. Sullivan.
- Got some reviews to get posted in the next day or two. Included will be the weak I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (3) and the near-brilliant but mega-frustratingly flawed Sunshine (8), as well as one other surprise review posting.
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