Tag Archives: TV

Eastbound and Down – Offensive, vulgar, yet touching.

Posted on August 12, 2011 by | 1 comment

The second season of HBO comedy series Eastbound and Down came out on DVD a couple weeks ago, and having had a chance to peruse it, I feel obligated to say that it is without a doubt one of the best shows on television. Created by Adam McKay (Talladega Nights, The Other Guys), Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report) and David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), the show boasts an inordinate amount of fresh, young comedic talent, and with the second season they take the show to new heights, allowing the characters and plots to develop far more than you ever thought they could. They elevate the typical raunchy TV comedy by adding pathos, and when it comes to a head in the second season, all you can do is sit back and be amazed. Continue reading →

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Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop being a jerk

Posted on June 27, 2011 by | 9 comments

Backstage during Conan O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour,” Jack McBrayer has just stopped by. Before he’s even through the door, Conan is launching into a cavalcade of country bumpkin jokes.  McBrayer’s Southern accent, familiar to fans of his character Kenneth Parcell on 30 Rock, turns out to be genuine, and O’Brien’s verbal jabs continue to slap his visitor like he just caught him screwing grandma on the kitchen table on Christmas day.  Of all the people we see passive-aggressively maligned by O’Brien’s sarcasm in the documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, McBrayer is the only one not on his paid staff and is therefore the only one who can properly express slack-jawed dismay that Conan O’Brien is a dick.

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Terrorist epic “Carlos” worth the time

Posted on March 9, 2011 by | 2 comments

For almost a decade now, we have been treated to the best and most artistic television that has ever been produced. Earlier this year, I wrote about the great Red Riding Trilogy and, if anything, Carlos is even better. Following the meteoric rise and tragic fall of the most dangerous man in the international community, we see more than just an interesting historical figure. We see a man beset on all sides by self-doubt, self-loathing, anxiety and fear, a man easy to condemn and hard to sympathize with. But we see a man in his entirety, and we come to at least understand him, even if it is hard to forgive him. Continue reading →

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TV Worth Watching: Community’s Battlestar Galactica is Breaking Bad at Sealab 2021

Posted on November 14, 2010 by | 6 comments

I suppose one of the defining features of a film snob is abhorrence for television.  All those commercial breaks, laugh tracks, overwrought dramatics.  But in both film and television there’s a lot of crap – you just have to know where to find the good stuff.  So as a film fan who does not have cable or those digital boxes to even watch basic channels, here are the shows (past and present) that make me wish I did. Continue reading →

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Posted in Filmsmith Faves, Lists

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Green Screen TVs and Blockbuster Math

Posted on February 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

io9.com recently posted a video showcasing just how much of your TV viewing doesn’t exist:

http://io9.com/5476972/watch-how-green-screens-are-ruining-or-saving-television

And over at the New Scientist, they explain how contemporary cinema, including many blockbusters, tend have shot lengths that follow a mathematic pattern that’s pleasing to viewers.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527483.900-solved-the-mathematics-of-the-hollywood-blockbuster.html

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