Taking a few days off from writing, blogging, or any other kind of computer activity. I wrote a review of the "Mad Men" season one DVD that should go live on Tuesday morning, but beyond that, don't look for anything from me until Wednesday morning at the earliest. I'll try to catch up on some of the early-week shows like "In Plain Sight" and "Middleman" when I have a chance.
Play nice while I'm gone, kids.
Enjoy your time off, Alan.
ReplyDeleteA day without blogging is like a day with sunshine (literally).
ReplyDeleteI spent the day watching all 10 shows on the emmy drama finalists list. Alan, I now have a lot more sympathy for you and the sheer volume of TV I'm sure you have to watch to do your job.
ReplyDeleteSince I didn't have to sign any confidentiality agreements, here are a few observations:
- At least a 3rd of the group was old, and I'm pretty no more than one or two panelists were under 35.
- Old people seem actively disinterested in urban drug dealers (The Wire) and spurting blood (Dexter, House).
- After watching 9 other dramas, the last thing anyone wants to do is watch a 75-minute series finale of The Wire, even those of us who love the show. (Today's panels screened in alphabetical order, tomorrow's will reverse it.) Besides the onset of deep vein thrombosis, panelists unfamiliar with the show will just scratch their heads at the final appearances of Michael, Cheese, Carver and many, many others.
- They're still screening on beta SP. Memo to the Academy: it's long past time for HD screeners.
- Lastly, it's been a while since I saw the Mad Men pilot and, as good as it was, I was surprised to realize how much the series improved during the course of the season.
I enjoyed your observations, anon.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a potpurri post so here goes a random note:
ReplyDeleteI just finished up watching Band of Brothers via Netflix and man, was it good. It must have been really really expensive to produce.
My biggest question is this: why so many British actors playing Americans? Anybody know? I imagine it's a simple economical answer.
Yes, it is an economic answer. Most of the series was filmed in England, so it's more practical to use as many local actors as possible. Plus, usually when you film in a foreign country, you have to fill a certain quota of local actors in major roles in order to get desired tax breaks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about anyone else, but I'm terribly curious to see what Tracy Morgan does on Scare Tactics. I've never seen the show, and am not sure I need to see many. But if he brings the "Tracy Morgan", it might be a wonderful trainwreck.
ReplyDeleteI just hope you didn't try to record Middleman with a DVR, as I did! I'm an early-to-bed/early-to-rise type(as you can see), so I recorded Middleman last night. When I got up this morning, looking forward to seeing it, all I had was 17 minutes of commercials! There is about 1 second of program at the beginning, then it cuts straight to a commercial. I've seen the same thing happen when I try to record copy-protected movie broadcasts, but I've never seen anything like that in broadcast television. Looks like I can't completely retire my old VCR yet.
ReplyDeleteThat's weird, Tracey. I recorded Middleman to my DVR and it came out fine. Maybe mine worked because I padded the hour to make sure I got everything?
ReplyDeleteBTW, the Church of the Subgenius shout-out was brilliant.