Two column links for the price of one this morning: a more detailed rant about what went wrong with the Emmy nominations, plus a triple-header preview of "Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes," the new season of "Monk" and USA's very annoying new "Psych."
I only watched the "Rock Star" results show live, and probably should have buffered it so I could skip through Brooke Burke's "hosting" efforts (she really makes you appreciate Seacrest). Last year, the bottom three had to sing INXS songs; since Supernova has no back-catalog, I wondered what they would have to do this time. (A choice of Motley Crue, Guns 'n Roses and Metallica songs?) Opening it up to pretty much any rock song that'll clear makes things more interesting, especially when a knucklehead like Matt goes and picks a Duran Duran song. From the minute he said the words "Duran Duran," you could see the band making up its mind to punt him, and the fact that it was a much harder arrangement and arguably a better vocal than Chris' didn't matter.
On Monday, I fly out to LA for the two and a half week long Television Critics Association press tour (aka "Death march with cocktails"). This means several things for this blog:
1)Press tour runs all day and well into the night most of the time, so I won't have much time for actual TV-viewing. Day-after reviews will be minimal at best, except on those occasions when some nice network drops a DVD screener off in my hotel room. I'll definitely review the next "Deadwood" and "Entourage," and after that I'll create an open thread every morning for people to discuss stuff, whether or not I saw it.
2)As in years past, I'm doing an official press tour blog for NJ.com. You can see previous editions here. (And if you go here, the entry at the very bottom gives a pretty thorough summary of press tour for anyone who doesn't know about it.) The interface is more primitive (no comments, no sub-links to specific posts), but rumor has it we're only a month or two away from purchasing better blogging software. In the meantime, every day I'll post a brief summary here of what's on the official blog, and anyone who wants to comment or ask questions about the event can do it here.
One of the events I'm most looking forward to is attending a taping of the "Rock Star" performance show, followed by the party back at the mansion. With a bunch of reporters invited, I'm guessing the party will be a bit less raucous (or, at least, powder-free) than your average bacchanal.
I decided to watch the Rockstar results show for the heck of it and was impressed with Matt's rendition of "Planet Earth," my favorite Duran Duran song (man, that feels weird to admit). I was sorry to see him go, especially as I thought both Phil and Chris were much weaker candidates.
ReplyDeleteI also liked your Emmy column, Alan, and agree with everything you said. At least they nominated South Park's "Trapped in the Closet" episode. Too bad they probably won't award that one on-air because I'd love to see them play a clip of it during the show!
Alan, watching Dilana's encore my wife picked up that while bouncing around the stage she was executing some perfect cheerleader leaps. Makes her a little less scary knowing she's hiding some pom poms in her past
ReplyDeleteAlan, the supporting nominees were NOT picked by the panels. They were picked by the OLD system (of stay-at-home FYC tapes), so Woodard's nomination can't be blamed on the panels.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't find Psych that annoying. I can see where someone would, but it didn't really bother me. Still, the overall quality wasn't that great, and I'm not going to make it appointment viewing. But I'll watch it again.
ReplyDeleteMonk was great, though. (BTW, if they wanted to replace Discher with a hot chick who fools around with Stottlemeyer, I would not complain in the least.)
Interesting, Todd, because while the supporting nominees have some inexplicables (the omission of anyone from "The Office," the ridiculous crowding of the Supporting Actor/Drama category, where there were 10-15 at least equally worthy nominees courtesy of "Sopranos," "West Wing," and "Lost," Alfre Woodard), they also had some of the bigger pleasant surprises--Will Arnett, Jamie Pressly, Elizabeth Perkins, Chandra Wilson.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Matt.
ReplyDeleteI made the argument at my blog (http://southdakotadark.blogspot.com) that the supporting categories are the BEST argument for the old system, which was deeply flawed, but at least didn't make ATAS look COMPLETELY bonkers. The old system tended to hang on to performers or shows it really liked one or two seasons too long, but it eventually shuffled them out. All indications are that the old system would have shuffled quite a few out THIS year, too, except for maybe in lead actor in a drama.
I will say that while I think Hugh Laurie was better this year (I don't watch Sopranos regularly, and I expect Gandolfini was too), I'll have no problem if Martin Sheen wins his Emmy this year for the sustained excellence he's brought to that part. (Don't be shocked to see West Wing do very well across the board for that reason--lifetime achievement coupled with the creative resurgance it had this season.)
ReplyDeletehmm,i know this was posted about a year ago..but these links dont work anymore =[
ReplyDelete