Summer 2011 TV Thoughts

Because it's the slowest week of August.

1) Breaking Bad

Easily the show I'm most interested in, but that's not saying much. I really like Breaking Bad. I don't watch it as if I'm on the edge of my seat and am imagining scenarios like I would with LOST. I probably never will reach that LOST level crazy - that's probably a good thing too.

What I like about BB is that they set an end date for the series after next season, so they know when can appropriately time it out. I don't really know what's going to happen. I do enjoy watching it and agree that it's the best written show on TV right now. The show will be more satisfying in the long run than season to season because of how Walt "breaks bad" and goes from terminally ill boring teacher to a murdering drug lord making $7.5 million a year to cook the best meth in New Mexico. My gut says it will end with Walt being caught or killed. We shall see what happens.

I'm annoyed with how sometimes it feels like it's moving too slow, but if you were to watch the previews for next week it's like the storylines are (finally) going to collide. Eventually they have to. That's the whole point of the show. But if you watch the previews, you'd think Gus and Walt will meet face to face and there will be guns involved - which has been far from the case.

2) True Blood

After a lackluster season 3, this season has been at least more interesting. I'm really not invested at all in any of the storylines outside of the witch/vampire thing. The Eric/Sookie thing felt like a let down after three season of building tension because Eric wasn't the Eric that girls swoon over. I don't care about Jessica and Hoyt/Jason. The whole Lafayette being possessed by a baby was an annoying storyline that would of been more satisfying if it was the ghost of the dude from season 1 or something.

When this season started I was annoyed that they were adding more supernatural creatures, but they've done a nice job of keeping it interesting. That episode where Marnie casts the spell to kill all vampires was one of the best moments of the series - I think. Honestly nobody should listen to my commentary about this show because I usually don't give it my 100% attention. Now I'm rambling.

3) Entourage

Ugh. I could sum it up there, but I feel compelled to write more.

This season is a fraud. It's all predicated on the "need" to have a new season. THEY DEDICATED ONE ENTIRE EPISODE - which was a nauseatingly short 22 minutes - TO A PISS TEST. It's been so dissatisfying. I feel like I'm only watching it out of "need" to see what happens because I've invested so much time into this show/characters.

Thanks to HBO GO, I've seen the second to last episode of the series. I won't ruin the surprise, but it involves Sloan and Eric - which unfortunately is the only quasi-interesting storyline this season. Ari and Mrs. Ari? Just seems like a mess. Drama's drama with Dice Clay? More whatever. The whole "Vince had an epiphany in rehab, wrote a script that sucks and now is trying to get Drama a Movie of the Week" line is miserable. Turtle is just a prop to get cameo celebrity spots.

The last and final episode I'm sure will right the ship. Ari and Mrs. Ari will get back together. Eric and Sloan will be back together. Vince will get a movie opportunity of a lifetime. Drama's show will be green lit for a second season. Turtle's business will pick up. It'll end how it always does - with people feeling good. It's sad to see the show end, but it can't go on forever. The nature of the show gets boring after the same thing happens over 90 some odd episodes. The roller coaster ride of success-fail-success-fail is done.

4) Jersey Shore

Everyone says this season sucks. I don't know if it sucks, it just feels like not much is happening. It sounds like the producers struggled to get enough content to make a season. But what did they expect? Sending them to a country where these morons can't speak to the locals, can't make pizza, suffer from separation anxiety because the furthest they've been from home was season 2 in Miami.

The Ronnie/Situation fight was a letdown, mainly because Situation caused himself the most damage than anyone else with the headbutt against the wall, and then security stepping in the way. I don't understand how security can interrupt that fight but doesn't interrupt the girls. At the same time, I think Ronnie could do one more damage with the infamous "One Shot" than Snooki could do with her lobster arms.

I would think the show would be more interesting if they kept playing the language barrier. I'm sure there is footage that everyday Snooki not understanding what some boy is saying to her. That's another uninteresting aspect of this season - Jenni and Snooki with boyfriends. Seeing Snooki trying to get boys dudes at the club was a stupid fun part of the gig.

I pray Ronnie and Sam is over. I don't think it is. It can't be as long as they are always around each other. It's not their fault. It's clear it won't work out, but it's clear they can't avoid each other, and thats the fault of the show. It's too bad, because Single Ronnie - which is so ridiculous that we have this concept - is one of the more humorous things. Watching him stumble and "dance," speak incoherent English, steal shots, it's hysterical.

Whether the season sucks or not won't make a difference - people will watch. It's the highest rated show every week. We're invested in these idiots. They'll be back in Jersey whenever that premieres, who knows what's after that.

6) Curb Your Enthusiasm

For whatever reason I haven't seen the last few episodes. Just lazy I guess. But what's more interesting is that Larry David is writing his best stuff still at season 8. How many shows can say that? Certainly not Entourage. Most shows don't make it this late while still seeing such success. Larry is honestly at the top of his game. It's hyserical.

7) Mad Men

I miss you.

Reasons Why I Don't Understand Politics #728 - Ames, Iowa

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I find the ridiculousness of it to be hilarious.

Every political post comes with a discliamer: I don't really understand everything there is about politics. It's grown into too big of a system that it can't work itself out right. The best thing I've heard about politics is what Barry said this week: "There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics." Makes the most sense in the world. But how do we fix this? Too damn late.

Anyways, this anti-politics commentary revolves around how candidates are determined to run for the elections (which is only 15 months away). From what I understand, the Republicans have a primary/caucus in Ames, Iowa that helps weed out some of the potentials from the idiots (Viva Ron Paul!).

How, how, HOW, can our potential next president be partially determined by a small town, population 60,000? What does that really show us? How does that determine what the rest of the country thinks? Now believe me, I don't want us to have national primary after national primary after primary to help figure out who's real and who's not.

There's no reasonable way for this to be done. The system has become so large and convoluted that it doesn't make sense. Ames, Iowa determines the future of our country, as far as which Republican will move to the next phase of the election - which leads to more caucuses and primaries and bogus run arounds.

Meanwhile, can we figure out how to fix the economy and unemployment rate? It'd be helpful!

Watch The Throne

Monday marked the release of one of the most anticipated albums of the year - the collaborative effort between Kanye West and Jay-Z titled "Watch the Throne." As something that Kanye had been talking about for almost 10 months, it has been on almost everyone's radar for quite some time.

The end result? I'm not entirely sold. It feels like Kanye just wanted to make some wild beats and was begging Jay to lay it down with him. The tracks all sound like something you've never heard before, which is refreshing, but that doesn't necessarily make them good.

It's been a long year for Kanye, who has been putting out free tracks every Friday for the second half of 2010. Some of the tracks were awful. Some were amazing - some of my favorite songs he's ever made. It feels like Kanye just went overboard a bit and carried those overboard tracks onto WTT.

There isn't that one song where I go "damn that's awesome" and listen to it repeatedly for the next 24-108 hours. There are songs that sound good. Not great. For example though, when I listened to "All of the Lights" I think I told everyone how good it was back in November - before it was released in January. And I couldn't stop listening to it. I still can't. I can't stand that the radio version got rid of the bridge - why do radio stations always do that? Are they afraid of the 15 second lull that might have listeners change stations?

The problem is that the expectations were just too high. Both were coming off great albums - Kanye's best, another great one for Jay - and people expect more the same when the biggest guys come together.

Part of what made their last albums great were the guest spots. Kanye's had someone on almost every song. The album just had a flow and this feeling of epic greatness to it. Like we were listening to an experience. WTT didn't do that. It was just Kanye and Jay talking about how much money/success/fame they have. There are a lot of racial overtones, anti-white/government establishments. Typical, but it feels like the suggestions are getting worse with every album. As if Kanye really doesn't understand. Or maybe I'm just offended as the people he's picking on.

Overall, fun album. Not my favorite. I'd rather listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy than WTT. But that also speaks to how good MBDTF was. This is also coming from a guy who doesn't like much hip hop/rap, just the mainstream stuff that everyone likes. Keep that in mind when taking me seriously (or not). Otherwise, I want music with guitars and rock n roll.

Insider a Blogger's Mind

I read an interesting piece in the New York Times over the weekend titled "An Ex Blogs. Is It Okay to Watch?" I found it to be quite interesting. Not so much for the ex-relationship cyber stalking aspect, but thinking about it from myself as a blogger.

I write a lot. Not as much as I wish I did or as I used to, but I share a lot on here. And the thing that I found interesting was thinking that anyone can read my blog at anytime. Anything I've written since I've started. Most of the things I write about are benign commentary about TV or whatever is popular at the time. But it still is a look into my crazy little head. How I think, operate, rationalize, etc.

Over my 18 some months blogging I've heard from people I hadn't heard from in a while talking about how they love my blog or a certain post or whatever. It's intriguing that literally anyone can read this at any point. Old friends. New people. Random people. Potential employers.

When you have a real conversation with someone, you may not always get all your points in. Or you may not talk about certain topics. When you run into someone you haven't seen there is usually the BS "how are you? good!" conversation that doesn't dig deep at all. Yet you can go online and read about whatever has been on their mind.

I don't really know where I'm going with this post, but it's just something I thought I would share with you (the random people who are stalking my life). Carry on.

What is wrong with AMC?

I know very little about the television business behind the scenes. I don't know what it really takes to make a show/movie/etc. The money, the organization, shooting, I know it's a large effort. A 30 minute episode usually takes at least a week to shoot. That's all I know.

So anyway, AMC has been producing quality programming since 2007 with Mad Men. Between Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead, they've got three of the best shows right now in television on their network. Usually that's something only HBO could ever claim. But this small (lame) cable channel which usually only plays old movies 8 times a day pulled it off. The shows are winning multiple Emmy's for Best Drama, Acting, and so on. This isn't happening by accident.

These shows cost significant money to make. Again, I don't know the financial scheme that goes into making these shows. What I do know is that AMC is trying to cut costs to make these shows. They did it a few months ago to Mad Men, trying to cut characters, lowering costs of production, etc. Then they cut production costs to Walking Dead by about $200k an episode (which speculated why show creator Frank Darabont left the show). Now they're taking on Breaking Bad - opting to cut $250k an episode or making the show's fifth (and presumed last) season to 6-8 episodes.

I know everyone wants to save money to make more money of spending less money. BUT -- when you are making an established, quality product, it will eventually cost more to maintain the level of quality. Cutting the costs of a show can consequently cut the quality, which cuts the fans faithfulness to the show.

AMC doesn't really have any leverage here. They have 3 top of the line shows that cost money. It's not like this is a terrible show on CW that is barely staying alive. The shows have all the power because of their critical acclaim, so AMC just looks selfish instead of honoring the shows that made the channel actually worth watching. It's definitely brought in more business and helped boost revenue for the station, so why can't they respect that? What does that say about AMC when future shows consider having their show made by AMC? Might steer them away towards a HBO or something else.

I don't know, it's annoying that shows that so many people enjoy/adore cannot be seen the way it was intended. Shows cost money. Making shows that are critically acclaimed usually cost more money. To keep making critically acclaimed shows costs more money than that. That is business. And AMC is showing their lack of knowledge over business. All this arguing over a few million dollars? You're going to tell me AMC doesn't have it? Their parent company doesn't have it? Can't they charge more for advertising? Seems to make too much sense.

iPhone Switch

Last month I made the plunge and continued my to brainwash myself with Apple products by buying an iPhone. It had been a long time coming. I was hoping to wait until the next iPhone, but the Blackberry was failing me. They battery couldn't last 8 hours. It kept restarting (which took at least 45 minutes, and draining battery at the same time) for some unknown reason. I never really used it for internet because it drained the battery. Everything about it sucked.

So I switched to the iPhone 4. It didn't change my life. Not yet, but it's so helpful. Apps that are relevant. A battery that lasts 24 hours. Everything is just simpler.

My biggest complaint? The keyboard. I've got big fingers. Fat fingers. Whatever you want to call it. Consequently, I miss some of the keys when I hit it. When trying to type for speed, it's not going to win any battles. Between mistyping and auto-correcting (something that messes me up almost every message). I hate the idea of sites like DamnYouAutoCorrect.com but it's so true. Autocorrect makes sense, but it's just not helpful yet. Supposedly it learns the words you say more often, so I've got some work to do.

I'm really looking forward to iOS 5 to see the new developments, because what Apple demonstrated a few months ago looks great. I'm really happy with the device.

Random tangent - I think it's weird to play games on your phone all the time. I've downloaded some of them and screwed around a little bit but I just don't have fun with it. Maybe I'm too much of a hardcore video gamer, but it doesn't do anything. I'd like to think our ADHD doesn't require us to play crappy games to keep us occupied while we're waiting/traveling/etc. I'd rather check Twitter or read an article. Yet you go on the subway and see everyone playing some kind of game. Pathetic.