Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Futurama vs. South Park (OR: The EyePhone vs. Kip Drordy)

I posted this over on 20SB, but wanted to share it here, too since I think (OK, hope - but what do I know) that some of you might appreciate it. And be slightly amused (or just reinforce that I'm not entirely crazy and that you know what the eff I'm talking about).

Because of yesterday's post on the frightening similarities between owning an iPhone and crack addiction, and how Apple users are pretty much brainwashed for life once they convert (or, at least I was ...), I got to thinking about a recent episode of the new season of Futurama (which warrants a whole new tangent that I'll spare you) featuring the Mom Corporation and its EyePhone 2.0 and her evil plan to control users via a viral "twit-worm."

And because my poor brain works like one of those Plinko boards on The Price is Right, the thoughts kind of bounce around willy-nilly from here-to-there with no clear logical path.

The first bounce left me giggling over the South Park episode that similarly rips upon another fave social media tool - good ol' FB - and the way in which the characters readily discard reality in favor of living a life on the interwebs. (Stan, poke your Grandma.)

Both episodes are absolutely hysterical to me - probably because I'm the very sort the creators of both shows set out to mock - the heavy internet user, ever reliant on Twitter, the iPhone and Facebook, just to name a few.

So, I continue pondering, and the Plinko-chip-thoughts bounce around in a few other directions, ending up where they may, namely on the following two quandaries that I think I need your help answering:

  1. Which episode do you think is funnier?

  2. If Bender, Frey and their army of Twitcher followers faced off against Stan and his 845,000 Facebook friends in a dark alley, who would win?
I'm listening.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

LOST: A love affair.


If you’re an avid fan of Lost blogs, you probably won’t be blown away by the following commentary. I don’t propose to have all – or any – of the answers, I just feel the need to weigh in on one of my fave shows of all time, given it's the last season and all ... *tear.

You see, Lost and I share a special history. I was one of the late adaptors, not having discovered the show until season 2. Some people argue that this is the best way to watch Lost – catching up on an entire season’s worth of episodes consecutively.

I’ll tell you this much, it sure does ease the suspense. And alleviate the panic-induced stress that stems from missing an episode during its original air time. (Oh my god, DVR, please work … Rooms, don’t accidentally hit cancel or delete … Please lord, don’t stop recording half way through a Sawyer scene …) Or I guess you could just Hulu it, but whatever.

Back to the history of my love affair with Lost – I previously mentioned that my Heterosexual Life Partner (LP) and I met studying abroad in Barcelona. We had a fourth roommate in our apartment that quickly became the anti-life-partner. Let’s call her Kitty. If I never see Kitty again in my life, I won’t be disappointed.

I hate to stereotype, but for the sake of brevity, I’m gonna. Being the little ‘ol Southern girl that I am, I had never been introduced to the term “Jappy” before I met Kitty. This urban dictionary definition eerily captures her completely. Although she and I clearly did NOT get along, I didn’t mind using her for her extensive collection of TV shows on iTunes.

Starved for any English-language media we could get our hands on, LP and I staged Lost screenings on the weekends while recovering from our all-night Barca benders. We were quickly sucked in, and subsequently bonded over the drama, the mystery, and the likes of shirtless Matthew Fox/Josh Holloway.



Four seasons later, we’re still obsessed. And can’t wait for the “answers” to be revealed. I missed Tuesday’s episode, and finally sat down to watch it last night, texting LP through its duration (things like: “Tenerife!!!!” because we travelled there while on study abroad – it was extremely intellectual commentary).

She’d already seen it, and proclaimed it “THE BEST EPISODE OF LOST SINCE THE HATCH!!!!!!!!” (There may have been even more exclamation points than that …) so I was pretty excited and expecting epic.

Which it was … But I’m getting nervous that I’m going to feel extremely let down come the end. I mean, I’d heard “the island as hell/purgatory” type theory before, and decided that it was too neat. There’s been a lot of crazy shit that’s gone down, and storylines so complex they make your head hurt. I want a complex answer, dammit. I want dark and messy, not tidy and easy.

Maybe I’m speaking prematurely, and good ‘ol JJ still has more awesome in store for us. But if everything is easily explained, I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.

Anyway, I digress, and leave you with a few thoughts and musings from the latest episode.
  • Thoughts on the entire, Richard-centric first half of the episode: this shit is depressing.
  • Also, the bible verse he was reading before talking to the priest probably had some significance that's totally beyond me ...
  • I’m assuming that Richard’s ship is the same ship we’ve seen all throughout (and also trying to recall if we already know this to be true …) If so, poignant that this is where he went to finally try and die – I’m a fan of full circles.
  • I was totally tricked by the Man in Black’s song-and-dance, and kind of wanted to believe that he was the good guy and that Jacob is in fact the devil.
  • I also think it’s interesting that Dogan told Sawyer the same thing about the MIB (take this dagger, stab him as soon as you see him, don’t let him talk to you or it’s too late) that the MIB said to Richard about Jacob. (Complicated/confusing sentence, much?)
  • So if Jacob’s not the devil, is the Man in Black the devil? Or just evil-incarnate? What did he originally look like before Jacob “took” his humanity or body or whatever? How and why did that even happen in the first place?
  • The conversation with Jacob and Richard regarding right vs. wrong needs closer examination. Clearly, Jacob chooses to steer people with sordid pasts to the island. To offer them a chance for redemption? And Richard fit that bill, as he so desperately coveted forgiveness for a crime he didn’t mean to commit. I wonder why then, he can’t become Jacob’s replacement. Is he no longer a candidate because he tried to harm Jacob? Or because he’s aware of what’s going on, so can’t unknowingly choose the side of good over the side of evil?
  • What’s the significance of the white rock Jacob gives to the Man in Black?
  • Who out of our survivors do you think would be most aptly suited to replace Jacob? I actually think Locke was probably the best – he certainly wanted it the most. But I guess he was too weak in the end? I would say not Sawyer as he’s in cahoots with the MIB. Maybe Hurley?
  • The MIB smashing the bottle of wine = foreshadowing his escape ...?
Now that I’ve jotted these down, I’m going to go peruse the internets for other ideas/feedback/theories.

P.S. Which Lost blogs do y’all read religiously? Favorite theories for the meaning of it all? (I liked Approaching Lost because it’s organized and easy to follow, but it looks like there haven’t been any new posts in a while... Lame.)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Always love for Always Sunny

Hulu + Always Sunny = Instant cure for boredom.

Dennis: No. Women aren’t allowed to try out for football.

Dee: That’s ridiculous. They should at least be able to try out.

Dennis: Well, there are plenty of other sports that women can try out for. Like, uh, cooking and…

Mac: Complaining to your friends about your boyfriends.

Dennis: Yeah. Playing… Playing at ballet.

Mac: Cleaning. Displaying cars at auto shows in tiny bikinis.

Dennis: Yeah. When you get older, you can play bridge together. I don’t know…


We think we're as funny as Dennis and Sweet Dee... Sometimes.

Me: Drew reminds me exactly of Mac.
Lil' Bro: Charlie (friend from HS) reminds me of Charlie.
Me: Oh, and you remind me of Frank.
Lil' Bro: Oh yeah, well you remind me of Artemis.
Me: I love you, too.


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Gossip Girl: You just got vetoed.

Monday's are semi-bearable, thanks to the promise of post-work Gossip Girl (or XOXO as one of the rooms calls it). While I love our XOXO Monday night ritual (even one of the rooms' BFs regularly gets in on the action) it's sometimes hard to catch everything that goes on underneath the running commentary from the peanut gallery.

It doesn't help that one of the rooms is a law student who loves to point out the improbability of every single tiny little detail of every show. And let's face it - there are a lot of them.

Which brings me to the reason that Tuesday is way better than Monday: Daily Intel's Gossip Girl re-cap, which scores the fake vs. real every episode, indexing the probability that this shit could actually happen.



Favorite excerpts from today's edition:

"The outfits of the Constance mean girls whose names we refuse to remember were puzzling this episode. Each of their school uniforms was accessorized monochromatically: One was wearing all purple, one was in blue, and one was in green. We're too old to understand, but we think this must have something to do with which sex acts they're willing to perform. So Plus 5 for that."

"D: '[Paul Hoffman is] a handsome guy, he's a sophomore, he and Vanessa have a lot in common.'
N: 'He's a douche.' Plus 3."

"Serena walks out of the country house with her baggage and no car in sight, just planning to 'find a cab' in the middle of bumfuck Nassau County. God, she's amazing. Plus 5."


Additional insights from OneC (our apt.):

"Instructing your driver to 'take you to Nassau County' is the equivalent of saying, 'take me to Long Island.' OK, now what??"

"Me and the rooms: 'That girl (Eric's sidekick) totally won her role on GG in a contest.'
Reply from rooms' BF: 'No way, she's totally legit! Didn't you see Spanglish?;" 

"If Willa had been involved in that threesome instead of Hilary Duff, we could have re-named Dan Vanilla."

I can't wait for next week Tuesday...