Contrivance #11: Friends with ‘Fros
Today I was watching the 49ers decide that they had no interest in going to the Super Bowl when I noticed a person in two different commercials who seemed familiar. Rather, he was a type of person, not the same exact person. The type of guy I saw in both commercials was a guy with [...]
Who Should Rachel Have Ended Up With: Ross or Joey?
During yesterday’s sanction on avid commentors, I got more comments off the blog about Ross vs. Joey than on the blog! So I’ve decided to make it the topic of today’s post. For the sake of this argument, please suspend reality and assume that Friends is really, really important. I’d also ask that you give [...]
Why I Stopped Watching “The Big Bang Theory”
And Why You Should Too I always like to have a good “filler show” on tap for those days when there’s nothing else on. Ideally it’s a show that I can listen to in the background while I make dinner. Sometimes it’s a show I’ve seen before, like Seinfeld or The Office, and sometimes it’s [...]
Some Commercials Still Work
Some commercials still work. Kinda. When I say they “work,” I mean that I don’t fast forward by them. I mean that I actually watch some commercials. Because they’re entertaining. Because they move me. Because they make me feel something–pride, joy, nostalgia. Something. Do they make me want to buy products? Hardly ever. Although I [...]
7 Burning Questions About the Show “Community” for the Benefit of People Who Don’t Watch “Community”
I asked my friend–and fellow lover of the NBC Thursday-night comedy “Community”–to answer a few completely unbiased questions about the show. Below is the Q&A. On a scale from 9 to 10, how awesome is the NBC show Community? 11, obviously If you could give birth to a baby tomorrow, which character on Community would [...]
Contrivance #9: Walking Away in the Middle of the Conversation
Trev sent this contrivance to me a while ago, and I’m going to reprint it verbatim since he said it so well (with paragraph breaks for added drama): In TV and movies, scenes always end with one person walking out of the room or just not saying somethng important. This NEVER happens in real life. [...]
Entourage Ends
The HBO dramedy Entourage ended tonight with a short but sweet series finale. I won’t go into details about what happened, but I will say that everyone grows up in different ways. I’ve been watching the show on and off for 7 years, many of those years with a few good friends when they used [...]
Contrivance #4: Before the Plane Departs
Warning: I’m going to stomp on sacred ground in a few paragraphs. That’s right. I’m going to badmouth Friends. But before I get there, let’s talk about Garden State and She’s Out of My League and any movie where the protagonist makes a last-second dash to the airport to tell the girl he loves her. [...]
Would You Appear Naked on TV?
I mentioned last week that I’ve been watching this show called True Blood. I also saw a movie called Friends with Benefits this past weekend. The common theme between the two? Both have nudity. The nudity in the movie was brief–a quick glimpse of some buttocks. In True Blood, there’s full nudity–mostly female, but some [...]
Pet Peeve #36: Dream Sequences
I have recently been smitten with an HBO show called True Blood. It’s gritty, sexy, Southern, entertaining, and actually asks some really interesting questions about how supernatural creatures would interact with the real world if they were “outed.” I’ve also discovered (this was a while ago), that like The Notebook, True Blood is an excellent [...]
5 Management Lessons from Michael Scott
With his departure from The Office last Thursday, Michael Scott leaves behind a legacy of bad management and good humor. I think the show will be just fine with him gone, yet his final episode episode moved me to tears. In honor of him, I’d like to ignore the myriad of poor leadership tactics he [...]
The Eagle
By now I’m sure you’ve heard from your grandmother on Facebook or a quirky uncle via forwarded e-mail that there’s a live video feed of a bald eagle nest in Iowa. (I’m hoping the video will go meta someday and feature a bald eagle watching a video of humans watching the live feed.) It’s fascinating [...]
The Best TV Episodes of the Season…So Far
This list only includes show that I watch (and not even all of those shows–I love Modern Family and The Event, but neither have singular episodes that apart from the rest). Feel free to add your favorites to other shows (or these shows) in the comments section. Mad Men: Mad Men has moments of humor, [...]
Survive This
The CBS show Survivor is currently in its 21st season, and I continue to be an avid viewer. I think I’ve only missed one or two seasons, and the producers continue to surprise and delight me every year. One of the things the show does to mix things up is create special parameters by which [...]
A Summer of Sopranos
This past summer, I decided to watch the Sopranos for the first time. All 6 seasons via Netflix. There was no other TV on, and I figured I needed to experience the critically acclaimed show. Plus, I love mob movies, especially Goodfellas. If you haven’t watched The Sopranos, feel free to read without risk of [...]
Singing with the Sopranos
As I’ve written about here in the past, HBO’s The Wire is the best show I’ve ever watched. Impeccably written and plotted, painful and heartbreaking characters, and great mysteries along the way. It’s an amazing show, all 5 seasons of it. For a while now I’ve been wanting to watch HBO’s other epic show–no, not [...]
Thumbs Up for Party Down
The wonder of Netflix is this: You get movies delivered to your door, and when the movies are in the mail and there’s nothing on TV, as is the case in the summer, you can watch TV episodes or movies on your computer. Hulu does the same thing, but to my knowledge it doesn’t offer [...]
5 Things I'm Excited About Today
This screenshot/print screen software. It’s called ZScreen, and the feature I’m most excited about is that I can now click control-print screen and I can choose exactly what I want to copy on my computer screen. This guy’s online cover letter. It’s brilliant and friendly and you walk away simultaneously feeling like you know the [...]
Entourage's Sloan to Be the New Face of Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital
NEW YORK, New York (AP) – Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui, known as her portrayal of “Sloan,” E’s girlfriend, on HBO’s hit show Entourage, will be the new face of the Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, officials announced today. The hospital, referred to as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in medical journals, is starting a 3-year campaign that promotes [...]
A Few Things That Need to Be Said
(Courtesy of Charles of Judicial Peach fame) What’s with people always saying “thanks” when they perform a service for you? I asked my landlord for a copy of a key. She put it under my door with an envelope marked “Thanks!” She performed the service for me—wouldn’t her response be “you’re welcome?” Jamey: This is [...]
Asian Women on TV: Where Are They?
I watch several sitcoms on a semi-regular basis. They are as follows: The Office (1/5) 30 Rock (0/3) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (0/1) How I Met Your Mother (0/2) My Boys (0/2) Better Off Ted (0/2) Scrubs (0/4) SNL (0/4) Entourage (0/0) (Yes, I admit to watching My Boys. It’s funny. I laughed out [...]
A Surprise on the Amazing Race
Back during my junior year abroad in Japan, we were starved for American television. Japanese game shows may seem cute and fun when you’re over here in the States, but when they’re the only thing on TV, a healthy does of Friends is the perfect medicine. So one day, a good friend of mine, Tammy, [...]
Screening Myself
I’ve been getting headaches a lot lately. Growing up, I’d get migraines from time to time, but they went away for the most part. Now I seem to be getting throbbing headaches at least once a month, including several the past week. Usually my headaches are attributable to something specific, like if I didn’t get [...]
Watch Fringe
There are two great paranormal science fiction shows on network television right now. The obvious one is Lost. The other, the one that I’m here to recommend to you today, is Fringe. I’m writing about Fringe today instead of Lost because following yesterday’s episode, Fringe announced that it wouldn’t be returning until April, when it [...]
