Monday, September 14, 2009

Fall TV



Well, its that time of the year again. A beautiful and glorious time when that box in the middle of your living room comes to life. The new seasons of the best shows on television are returning. 30 Rock is on its way to us, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is on its 5th season that premieres on the 17th (the kitten mittens preview on hulu has me laughing hysterically already and its only 30 seconds long), Michael Scott makes his way back to our homes (and our hearts) after giving me a scare that the series was ending when he quit last season. The Office does have a challenge though to keep its viewers because the Jim/Pam (Jam?) relationship is going so great that people are beginning to lose interest in that area of the show which was their biggest draw. Personally i always thought that the Jam(yes, i went for it) relationship was getting in the way of the good comedy. the 30 minute long episodes would be filled with 15 minutes of "will they, won't they" and i just wanted to see Dwight pepper spray someone, or Andy Bernard harmonize with himself. How I Met Your Mother is possibly the only current show that i love that still has a laugh track. I think laugh tracks are silly and outdated. i dont need a crowd of people telling me when to laugh (be sure to thank Ricky Gervais for getting us past those into a new era of sitcoms). But still, Jason Segal as Marshall practically makes the show for me (and i wouldnt mind seeing him in more movies seeing as "I Love You Man" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" were both fantastic) but the other characters are strong and the show is original. The Simpsons come back and hopefully this season they will come out of that 4 year slump they have been in. I do still chuckle and laugh at the episodes, but they are nothing like the golden years (Season 3-Season 8).

Interestingly enough, "Sit Down, Shut Up" is back for a new season i think (they were supposed to be cancelled but a new episode just hit Hulu). Mitch Hurwitz(Creator and writer of Arrested Development) is the writer of this offbeat cartoon which features the voices of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Henry Wrinkler (barry zuckercorn on AD. he's very good), Kenan Thompson, Will Forte, and Cheri Oteri. Its nowhere near the greatness of Arrested Development, but it is still a fresh cartoon that isnt constantly trying to put us over the edge like Family Guy. Also unlike Family Guy, it doesn't rip off half of it's material from the Simpsons. So watch this before it gets cancelled (again. its bound to happen. the american public cant handle mitch's creativeness as they have shown time and time again).

VMAs, MTV and a nice surprise


So last night i decided to momentarily lift a personal boycott that i have had on MTV for as long as i can remember. Before you scoff in judgmental preconceptions, hear me out. MUSE made their american television debut on the Video Music Awards last night. So i decided to catch it. It was a great performance of a new song from their recently released album "The Resistance" with a great but brief guitar solo from Matt Bellamy, and lived up to my expectations. Surprisingly, it wasnt the highlight of the night. More on that later.

But since i was already on that channel, and since i happen to like russell brand a lot, i decided to keep watching. i would flip back and forth from this and other channels so i didnt catch the whole show, but it was a pretty eventful night. All of you have heard of Kanye's outburst and Beyonce's heart of gold (funny thing about kanye is that he swore never to come back to MTV a few years back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-631TgPP2s but yet there he was) I'm not gonna beat that dead horse. Janet Jackson paid tribute to her late, great brother, and the man who practically owned MTV in the 80s. Sadly they didnt give Russell Brand enough of the show, but when you compare the time he did have to his stand-up, this didnt really...stand up (all puns intended). And Mr. Brand also called Jimmy Fallon the "David Letterman of our generation" which i dont know if he meant sarcastically, but i hope he did.

What stole the night away for me wasnt the Kanye and Taylor Swift's "feud", or Beyonce's single ladies, or even the highly anticipated MUSE performance. It was Jay-Z and Alicia Keys(whom i highly underestimated) performance of "Empire State of Mind". Alicia Keys seriously killed onstage as an amazing counterpart to the Mayor of New York who in this song calls himself "The New Sinatra". It was a phenomanal. Chills went down my spine. here is a link to the best part of the night.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/435686/empire-state-of-mind-live.jhtml#id

BTW watch out for the girl's outfit sitting next to Beyonce. i think its lady gaga. also here is a great article addressing the stupidity of the girl who went onstage at the end.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1621469/20090914/keys_alicia.jhtml