Fall TV - So Far

I know it has been yet another month or so since I have been able to post. I also know that I continue to make excuses - but the time has just not been there to be able to sit down and post. Plus, I can't really remember the last movie I sat down to watch.

Besides watching Monsters vs. Aliens with my son this weekend.

My time is pretty much pulled to the brink with my graduate classes and homework. Not to mention working on top of that - so the little time I do have I try to spend with my family, and I haven't really had time to sit down and write something on here.

But, we have been able to watch some television. So, I thought with the few minutes I have here on my lunch break I would mention a few shows that I have been watching - shows that are brand new this season.

Let's start with comedies. There haven't been a large amount of comedies that I have been able to get behind over the last few years. I enjoy How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. Not to mention my favorite show of all-time, Scrubs. I was pretty late to the party for The Office and 30 Rock.

This season, there are actually a trio of comedies that I have started watching and actually enjoy.

Let's start backwards:

The Middle

I was up-in the air about this show. Patricia Heaton hasn't exactly been lighting the screen on fire since leaving Everybody Loves Raymond, and her character on that show actually became pretty intolerable. But, Neil Flynn from Scrubs was cast as her husband so I thought I would at least give it a try. This actually fits pretty well with Heaton, who stars as Frankie, a horrible car salesman married to Mike (Flynn) with three kids. Mike is a manager at the quarry, and between the two of them they make just enough to squeak past. Their children are a bit odd, Axl the oldest walks around the house in his boxers all day and has no real passion for anything. Their daughter Sue tries out for everything at school, but has no real talent for anything. Brick, their youngest son, is a highly intelligent loner who reads everything in sight and talks in a weird low voice to himself.
So far the show has been pretty good, but I hope they find a little more for Chris Kattan to do. He can be pretty funny when used correctly.

Cougar Town

Cougar Town is a show that I really hope can succeed, as it is helmed by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence. Although, I was less-than pleased with Courtney Cox's appearance on Scrubs she fits in a little better on this show. Cox plays Jules Cobb, a divorced mother of a high schooler, who is getting back in the game, and begins picking up some men a lot younger than she is. She is brought along by her co-worker Laurie Keller (Busy Philipps), but also stays a bit grounded thanks to her friend Ellie Torres (Christa Miller).
The show has started off a little slow for my taste, but has had a few good moments. I do hope that it can find its footing as there is great potential.

Community

I have to admit I was not going to watch this show. The premise seemed very odd and not very funny. But, I was able to view the pilot one afternoon on Facebook, and I thought the show had a pretty good base. Jeff (Joel McHale) is thrust back into school after his law degree is found to be less-than valid. He meets Britta (Gillian Jacobs), who is struggling with Spanish and lies to her that he is a tutor to get close to her. In their first session, Britta has invited a very eclectic bunch of classmates to join the tutoring session. Once it is found out that Jeff has been lying, they all give him another chance and continue their 'study group'.
McHale is pretty good as the lead in this show, but I have to admit the secondary characters are hilarious. Abed (Danny Prudi) and Troy (Donald Glover) have pretty great chemistry together - make sure to stick around for the credits, they always do something very funny. Senor Chang (Ken Jeong) is his usual hysterical self as the Spanish teacher. Finally, Chevy Chase turns in a very solid performance as Pierce Hawthorne. Chase has sort of become a joke in films as of late, but he is a bit more laid back and very funny as a background player in this show.
Possibilities are endless here and I am very excited for them.

Due to my classes and already large amount of television shows that I must watch, I only selected one new hour-long show this season.

FlashForward

With Lost about to check out for the last time at the conclusion of the year I thought it best that I find a new show that makes you think, although Fringe certainly continues to do that as well. FlashForward looked to me as though it may be a replacement on ABC for Lost and it even has a pair of former Losties in Sonya Walger and Dominic Monaghan in the cast. The show's premise is pretty simple - yet very complicated - the entire world blacks out at exactly the same time for two minutes and seventeen seconds. During that time a vision happens of a date in the future, April 29, 2010. As everyone begins to wake up and see what has happened during the time the blacked out, Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) begins sorting things out using his vision of the future. The FBI is looking into what caused this event, and what can be done to stop it from happening again.
Meanwhile, some of the futures are not so appealing to those that had them, including Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho) who didn't have a vision. Possibly meaning that by April 29, 2010 he may be dead.
The layout to the show is amazing and it appears to have a handful of great actors. Much like Lost, however, I do hope that the show has given itself a proper end date or I feel things could be dragged out far too long. But, so far I am hooked.

NOTE: Monsters vs. Aliens was actually quite cute and B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) was downright hilarious. If I have time in the future I may touch on this as well.

Dexter Seasons 1 & 2

This post will most likely contain spoilers, as it is hard to really explain a television series without it. So, if you have not seen Dexter, but plan to (and you should) it might be best to skip this.

That being said, Dexter is a pretty amazing television program. It stars Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, who is a blood spatter expert for the Miami Police Department. He also just happens to be a serial killer.

Dexter was adopted at 3-year's old by Harry Morgan (James Remar), it became apparent very early to Harry - a Miami Police Officer - that Dexter had a bit of a dark side. In order to quench his thirst for death, Harry took Dexter out on hunting trips. He also began teaching him what Dexter would later proclaim as "The Code of Harry". In essence, it taught him how to get away with murder, but also only to kill those who deserve it - basically murderers who have beaten the system.

Unbeknown to the rest of his fellow police officers, including his sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter is leading this double life. In order to hide his identity, Dexter does everything he can to act normal around people - including starting a relationship with Rita Bennett (Julie Benz). Bennett is fresh out of an abusive marriage, so she is unable to be intimate with Dexter, which is perfect for him.

All while living these two lives, Dexter is also a blood splatter expert, but becomes extremely infatuated with a new serial killer known as "The Ice Truck Killer". It is revealed to the audience midway through the season that the killer is, Rudy Cooper (Christian Camargo), who just happens to be dating Dexter's sister.

"The Ice Truck Killer" has been killing hookers, draining them of their entire blood contents, cutting up their bodies and leaving them for the police to find. Despite not having any blood, Dexter takes a serious interest in the serial killer's work. And, as he slowly figures things out - "The Ice Truck Killer" begins to become infatuated with Dexter.

I loved the first season, my only issue is that this season may be even better if it was the third or fourth season. As you know by seeing it, "The Ice Truck Killer" turns out to be Dexter's brother. And I found it pretty odd to have that dynamic in the very first season, plus the whole sister in peril thing.

That being said - even with that happening I got totally hooked on this show. It is so well done and Dexter is sort of an odd superhero with some serious issues.

As we move to the second season, a diving crew uncovers Dexter's secret burial ground for all of his kills.

Dexter is very OCD, however, so there isn't many clues that would ever link him to the crimes. Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) is an FBI agent who is brought in to head up the search for the "Bay Harbor Butcher" which Dexter's name sort of becomes - without anyone knowing it.

Also, Dexter and Rita sort of have some issues as Dexter pretends to have an addiction to drugs to sort of hide his other issues. And during rehab meets Lila Tournay (Jaime Murray), who sort of understands him and becomes his 'sponsor'.

This quickly takes a turn for the worse as Lila accompanies Dexter to track down his mother's killer, and they stay in the same room - which Rita finds out about and breaks up with him. This sends Dexter into Lila's arms. Slowly, he begins to realize that Lila is very crazy and clingy, and even begins to become an issue for Rita and her children - Dexter breaks things off. But, Lila had already dug her meat hooks in and wasn't about to give her man up.

Meanwhile, James Doakes (Erik King) is the lone person in the police department who sees that Dexter has a dark side. It got so bad that Doakes begins stalking Dexter to keep an eye on him, and soon gets himself suspended for a fight. He continues his investigation into Dexter and finds out that he is the "Bay Harbor Butcher". But, Lundy and the FBI mark Doakes as their main suspect.

As Doakes looks to clear his name and also take down Dexter, he confronts him at a cabin where Dexter had killed his mother's killer. Unfortunately for Doakes, Dexter overtakes him and imprisons him inside the cabin.

The ending was sort of very coincidental as Lila steals Dexter's GPS and drives up to the cabin, she finds Doakes and Dexter's dark secret. In order to get Dexter back, she blows up the cabin as well as Doakes and Dexter is free once again.

I got really into this season, but again - it almost seems like we have been tossed into the middle seasons of a 10-season show. I guess it sort of makes sense to have the serial killer almost get caught, but you'd think that it would be in later seasons. Still, again it was a great season and I am hooked on another show.

I really enjoyed the addition of Carradine. I thought he was really good as the FBI agent, and also love interest for Deb (who seems to have some daddy issues). I liked Lila at first, but she sort of became over the top - which I guess was what was supposed to happen.

Anyway, great show - both dark and funny, yet also interesting.

Grade:

2009 NFL Predictions

The NFL Season is here!!!!

Tonight marks the first regular season game of the NFL Season.

Last year my Pittsburgh Steelers captured their second NFL Championship in my lifetime, so I am still riding high. The good news for the Steelers is they return 20 starters from their Super Bowl run this season and are expecting huge things from two wide receivers Limas Sweed and rookie Mike Wallace. They will also get a boost with the return of Rashard Mendenahll and punter Daniel Sepulveda (laugh, but he was missed last year). Finally, they have a huge bump in the return game with former CFLer Stefan Logan, who looked great in the preseason.


Anyway, I have rambled on about how the Steelers should win the title again this season, but will they?

Here are my selections/predictions for the 2009 NFL season. The season begins tonight at 8 p.m. with the Steelers taking on the Tennessee Titans.

AFC
North: Pittsburgh Steelers
South: Tennessee Titans
East: New England Patriots
West: San Diego Chargers
Wildcard: Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts
NFC
North: Green Bay Packers
South: New Orleans Saints
East: NY Giants
West: Arizona Cardinals
Wildcard: Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons
Superbowl: New Orleans Saints vs. New England Patriots
Winner: Patriots (very sad).

Also, we had our fantasy football draft at the end of last month. I was unlucky enough to have the eighth pick in the draft - so I was unable to get anyone I truly wanted. I was hoping for Brees and Rodgers as QBs (every year I seem to miss out on QBs, so I was determined not to have that happen this year - I was wrong). I ended up with Cutler and - gulp - Favre.

Anyway, the rest of the team shaped up OK, but I was disappointed in my QBs. I guess we shall see what comes out.

My starters:
QB- Cutler
QB- Favre
RB- DeAngelo Williams (my first selection)
RB- Marion Barber
WR- Marques Colston
WR- Lee Evans
WR- Antonio Bryant
WR- Wes Welker
TE- Greg Olsen
K- Nick Novak
DEF- Packers
Bench
RB- Ronnie Brown
QB- Chad Pennington
WR- Steve Smith (Giants)
DEF- Colts
WR- Josh Morgan
TE- Visanthe Shiancoe
RB- Knowshon Moreno
WR- Kenny Britt

Every season I always take a flier on rookies at both the RB and WR positions. Last year I picked DeSean Jackson from the Eagles and he ended up being one of my top receivers, the same for Dwayne Bowe from the Chiefs the year before that. So, I went with the Titans' Britt this year and also Moreno for Denver, who may be their starter right away.

Wish me luck. In a league filled with Steeler fans, a Pats fan currently holds our trophy. That must end this year.

Quick Rant: Sox/Yanks

This will be a quick little rant since I have yet again been neglecting this blog. I have been hoping for my friend to finish my new banner so that I may begin my transition to a new name and site, and officially (I keep saying this, but it is going to happen) join the LAMBs. Then, hopefully, be much more diligent in my blog postings.

Anyway, I currently live in upstate New York - I am talking way upstate. I am pretty much in Canada, or as close to Canada as possible while still paying American taxes. There is no technical rooting franchise in sports in this neck of the woods. We are pretty far from anything that would be considered a pro sports team.

So, we have assembled a rather mixed bowl if you will of rooting interests in this area. I, of course, being born in Pittsburgh and also attending college there have most of my rooting interests in the pros sports team from there. I am, however, more of an Atlanta Braves fan than a Pittsburgh Pirates fan - but I do root for them to win (even if they never do).

That being said, the area in which I live is split pretty well down the middle in terms of Boston Red Sox fans and New York Yankee fans. There are also the occasional New York Mets' fans sprinkled into the bunch as well.

I have stated before that baseball to me is pretty painful to watch. It is probably my least favorite sport of the four majors, although it is just behind hockey - I may rank hockey a little higher due to the fact that Pittsburgh just won the Stanly Cup though.

The baseball season is just so painstakingly long. It was once called the Summer Classic - but it ends in November. How is that possible? And, just when it finishes and other sports can take the stage - pitchers and catchers are reporting for Spring Training.

Look, I am a sports fan, and probably talk about my Steelers or the NBA far too much for some people. But, if you have to go from February through November hearing as much as I do about the Yankees or the Red Sox, you would be going crazy as well.

And, unfortanately, it isn't just where I live. It's also on my television. The Boston/New York rivalry in baseball is totally amped up thanks to its play on all of the major sports shows, radio shows, etc.

So, this past weekend drove me absolutely crazy.

The Red Sox had pretty much owned the Yankees this season, wining all eight of their contests up until this point. But, they were slowly falling in the standings, and the Yankees had actually overtaken them to lead the AL East.

So, everyone in my area and on television, was drooling at the fact that the Yankees could bury the Red Sox after this four-game series. How many games did each team have to win to stay in the race?, etc.

Well, New York ended up sweeping Boston and went up to a 6.5 game lead in the division. So, the Red Sox were done. Pack up their bags and wait until spring training (don't worry, it's way closer than it should be).

Then, the Red Sox win the first game after their Yankees series, and New York loses. So, Boston is now only 5.5 games behind.

This is the problem - the season is not over. But, to dig up drama every game has to matter - especially when they play each other. This is not over in the least, however, there are far too many games left to throw dirt on Boston's grave.

This just drives me crazy. Each loss we have to mourn and each win it's a celebration. For 162 games.

My only glimpse of fresh air? Preseason football started on Sunday.

That noise you hear - those are tears of joy.

Random Movie: Get Over It

I probably could be posting reviews of about 10 films I have watched since I have sort of taken a sabbatical from the blog writing. However, I finally finished my summer classes and have a few weeks before my master's work starts (if my B remains in my class).

Anyway, I thought I would start yet another quick blog about random movies that my wife and I watch and somewhat love. These are movies that I have watched a ton of times and are usually somewhat old. So, I am calling it Random Movie.

This past weekend we were in a flux about what to watch as nothing was on television and our almost three-year old son was still up. So, we had to watch something somewhat enjoyable, yet also meets the standards of a show that if my son gets sucked into watching won't be asking 'what is that guy doing to that lady?' or 'how come that guys arm just got caught off?'

This week, I rummaged through our DVD collection and tossed in Get Over It, a film that I don't think we have seen in many years.

The film came out in 2001 and stars Ben Foster as Berke Landers and Kirsten Dunst as Kelly Woods. This was Foster's first main star film role before he became a more successful star. Dunst, however, was a lot more well known, but this film was sort of her in between stage before she became, in my opinion, too important. This film was just after Dick, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Bring It On, but right before Spider-Man.

Anyway, the film starts off by showing Landers and his one-true love, Allison McCallister (Melissa Sagemiller), whom he has known since he was a child. (Sagemiller is currently starring in Raising the Bar on TNT, a very underrated law drama). In one of the first scenes, Allison dumps Landers as she feels the sparks are no longer there in their relationship and she needs something new.

Here we find out this isn't going to be the normal film, as when Landers leaves then popular pop star Vitamin C breaks out in "Love Will Keep Us Together".

Moving on, Landers does everything possible (while loathing) to figure out how to get Allison back. Meanwhile his two best friends Felix Woods (Colin Hanks) and Dennis Wallace (Sisqo) desperately try to get him out of his duldrums. (This was one of Hanks' first roles before Orange County. Also, remember Sisqo?).

A former boy band member, Bentley Scrumfield (Shane West) also known as 'Striker', transfers into the high school and immediately becomes infatuated with Allison. The two decide to tryout for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" being put on by Desmond Forrest-Oates (Martin Short).

To try and win back Allison, Landers also try's out for the musical, only to land a very small role. However, a stage accident knocks out one of the leads and in an attempt to humiliate the not-so great acting performance of Landers, 'Striker' nominates him to take his place.

Still trying to win back the heart of his one-true love Allison, Landers accepts the role and Kelly, who also holds a large part in the play, agrees to help him get better - while also slowly falling in love with him.

Of course, the film is cliche, because you already know what is going to happen even though I will not tell you the ending - but it is still pretty fun to watch every once in a while.

Ed Begley, Jr. and Swoosie Kurtz play Landers' parents, who are a pair of sex experts on a local television program - and who basically encourage Landers in anything he ends up doing. Te Woods' family is dogsitting their aunt's dog, who also happens to have a humping problem. And a major hottie named Dora Lynn also happens to be the most accident-prone person in the world.

This film also has small performances by some pretty large stars now. Zoe Saldana, who this sumemr played Uhura in Star Trek and is in James Cameron's Avatar, played Allison's best friend Maggie. Mila Kunis (That 70's Show, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) was Kelly's best friend Basin - who was also in a small love story of her own with Dennis in the background. Carmen Electra and Coolio (haha Coolio) also had a couple cameos in the film.

I enjoy this film because it was basically the start for a handful of great actors (Hanks, Foster, West, Kunis), had a few vanished from existence stars (Vitamin C, Coolio, Sisqo), some pretty funny scenes and music (Dunst actually sang her song) and a very cute Dunst before she got a little too large for her own good.

A great film? Not in a million years. But, it's an easy, quick watch that sort of leaves you somewhat satisfied at the conclusion.