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May 23, 2012

Tag: tv shows

January 16, 2010

The Everygeek Named Chuck

Good TV is sometimes tough to find to begin with these days, especially when it comes to discerning geeks like us who tend to be a little picky about what we want to watch. But every so often comes a series that speaks to us that actually isn’t on a major channel.

One of these is Chuck, the show on NBC that’s about a normal geek who gets pulled into the world of espionage, armed with nothing but geeky social skills and a computer of government secrets trapped in his head. I’m actually a recent convert to the show, with Samit Sarkar of Destructoid deserving the credit for turning my geeky head towards it.

I’d have to say the main reason it seems Chuck is appealing to many people out there is the reason a few series out there get good followings – the main character is an everyman – or in this case an everygeek – who appeals to the people who watch him. Chuck’s stumbling, awkward ways provide a nice little identification with the normal stuff that us geeky folk go through every day. Whether someone who went to college learning advanced tech, a gamer into online shooters, or even a worker at a computer repair service like the fictional “Nerd Herd”, Chuck has something that speaks to us.

Chuck’s had a bit of a colored history – the show was nearly cancelled forever after its second season, but a “Save Chuck” campaign and the voice of the Internet (something I just talked about yesterday regarding Conan) spoke loud and clear. Season 3 is playing now, but for anyone who’s got geeky tendencies and looking for a tv hero to get behind, feel free to stand by Chuck. Just try not to trip him up as much as he might do the same to you.

December 14, 2009

Case of the Mondays Cure – Glee-ful Goodness

The holiday season is upon us, and with it, the requisite holiday stress. Still, there’s nothing like a good song and a feelgood moment to warm the heart, however briefly. And there’s no other show that does that quite as well right now as Glee.

Even if you’ve never seen the show, this ending to the last part of the mid-season is still kinda sweet to see. This is admittedly low quality, but hey, you take what you can get. So unless you have a piece of coal for a heart, check this out to cheer up your Monday:

December 10, 2009

Ending The Year With Glee

58875355Last night was the mid-season finale of Glee, Fox’s neato high school dark comedy hit of the fall. Usually, when it comes to these things, some finales fall a little flat, others leave on too much of a cliffhanger or too little of a suspenseful note, but Glee managed to deliver in spades, ending their year with a feel-good outcome while still setting up some stuff for the future.

Now if you haven’t seen the finale, you may want to avoid this post til you have a chance to watch – fair warning.

A season finale has several goals to accomplish:

Wrap up season-long arcs: Finales need to resolve certain story elements that are introduced at the beginning, whether they are overall themes or side stories that deserve closure. Glee did this by exposing the fake pregnancy of Glee faculty advisor Will Schuster’s wife, as well as the secrecy surrounding the father of ex-cheerleader Quinn’s baby. That, combined with the overall story of the Glee club’s trip to sectionals were wrapped up at their current points with nice little bows. I have to say, in any of the arcs, it was difficult to predict an outcome, as they could have gone in a variety of different directions, but I was ultimately glad with where things ended.

Establish new arcs and suspense: Along with closing out some stories, new ones need to begun as well. A good finale puts their closures hand-in-hand with new openings and new possibilities. The revelation on Finn’s part that his best friend and now ex-girlfriend betrayed him should create some interesting team dynamic, and the possible new relationship between Will and germaphobe Emma could be intriguing to explore. The Glee club will continue onto regionals, the next step up, where they are sure to go up against rivals Vocal Adrenaline in a conflict that’ll be sure to elicit some laughs and gasps.

Take major steps in characterization: There are new developments that change established characters in a finale, and Glee delivered on obvious and no-so-obvious levels. There’s the stuff I’ve already mentioned with Will making a choice with his failing marriage, Puck and Quinn now having to deal with the consequences of their actions, and Rachel making a rare decision to give up the spotlight, but secondary characters like Santana and Mercedes shine on their own with performances and dialog that shows they too contribute to the reason why Glee is so successful.

Preserve and encapsulate the foundation of your series: Many series out there try to do something crazy different just for the finale shock value, failing to keep alive the whole idea why the series is appealing in the first place. Not so with Glee, which preserved the overall theme of triumph over adversity, uncomfortable morality, and dark comedy. The buildup to and culmination of the club’s mission to legitimize themselves was shown in grand detail, not without some obstacles (stolen set lists and crazy judges among some of them) to get over, of course, and the overall feeling to me came off as “this is the reason why I watch the show”. The last number of this season, compiled of a mish-mash of the kids’ performances over the course of the past few months, is a testament  to how far the characters and the show has come.  From High School Musical clone accusations to a whirlwind tour spanning nations and a rabid following of folks, Glee is here to stay – and there’ll be a gap in midweek TV til April, given with what they left us with.

December 8, 2009

Technology Brings Us Talking Babies With Financial Knowhow

Usually I’m sitting around forwarding straight through commercials when I DVR some of my favorite shows. But there are a few, ingeniously interesting commercials I stop for. One of them is from E*Trade, who have put out a series of commercials featuring a baby with the lightning quick Type A personality of a financial investor. I suppose the message is to put forth the simplicity of the system, but the charm the little tyke exudes (with the help of some mouth-moving geeky technology) is unmistakable. Without the special effects this would probably not be as charming- another great way to see how far commercials and tech have come in the past few years.

So without further ado, here’s some of my favorites from the E*Trade commercial line:

December 5, 2009

Mobile Glee

I suppose it’s only appropriate that I post from my BlackBerry when Fox hit Glee is going to be hitting the road next week in their season finale. The motley crew of cool kids and misfits will take to the stage in sectionals to try and prove their worth.

The mark of a good show is their setup, and Glee has certainly done that in spades while still maintaining their thematic charm. Glee handles deafness and the underprivileged with its traditional uncomfortable aura and there are some interesting moments as the Glee kids look at competition that is more outcast than they are.

All of that, however, is only part of the setup for the finale. Without spoiling things too hard, let’s just day that pregnancy both young and faked takes a turn at the stage, and if we’re to believe what happens typically to Glee relationships (I.e. They get screwed up) then it’s going to be some interesting times for sure. As I’ve written before, the true charm of Glee is turning things on an awkward head while still being funny about it, and this will be no different.

There are some people out there that think Glee’s musical chops might not have endurance, but with a healthy mix of familiar pop and traditional musical that isn’t just spontaneous, I’d be wary of jumping to conclusions. Couple this with a finale that’s sure to create some characterization waves and you’ve got something that’ll be singing a song to us (and assaulting our piggybanks through iTunes) for a long time to come.

November 14, 2009

That Uncomfortable Amazing Glee Feeling

Poster-glee-6212431-509-755This week’s episode of Glee on Fox was a great one for Gleeks like me, for a variety of reasons, notwithstanding the dueling vocals of Chris Colfer and Lea Michele’s rendition of Wicked‘s “Defying Gravity”. The main reason, however, was a sense of an uncomfortable feeling that stemmed from seeing characters who were not considered “normal” trying to fit into normal roles. This feeling, and many other bitingly comedic moments like it, is part of the appeal of the show that separates it from being a glorified high school drama.

For those who aren’t watching, the main plot point revolved around wheelchair-bound Artie, and Glee teacher “Mr. Shue” trying to get the other members of the club to see what it was like to not have the use of your legs. There are several scenes in which the characters themselves express apathy, disregard, and sometimes unintended hurtful commentary towards their wheelchair-riding fellow member, and I definitely felt uncomfortable to begin with.

But that wasn’t all. The episode hit many notes of unease, from putting forth the question of whether a male (and a homosexual male at that) could be accepted as singing a prominent song written for a female, how a simple stutter can isolate you from people, and whether those with mental disabilities can be cheerleaders. The power in Glee is not just in the fact that there’s a stereotypical exploration of those who aren’t “normal”, but that it forces you to look through their eyes at what they have to go through. Environmental consequences, collateral damage to loved ones, the uncomfortable moral need to accept those not like us as normal even though we know they are not – these are the things that Glee screwed our eyes open to watch. And while sometimes things end pretty nicely, Glee isn’t afraid to drop the ball and show you what happens when the fairy tale idea of acceptance isn’t widely shared by all.

More than ever, Glee continues to show us that the premise and theme of the show is not just the done-to-death “geeks, freaks, and unpopular kids triumph over adversity”, but also how geeks, freaks, and unpopular kids cope with and adapt to adversity that, in reality, never goes away. This is the serious and uncomfortable undertone that punctuates parts of the comedic moments (a bake sale succeeding through the use of medical marajuana, for example), and it lends power to the series that can and should be its greatest strength. I know it keeps me watching, certainly, and it should have the same effect on you, no matter how uneasy it makes you feel.

November 11, 2009

The Dollhouse Demise Towards Great Potential

293.dushku.dollhouse.lr.111109So, just because this blog is certainly positive, doesn’t mean that my positive crystal ball always comes out right. I could play the pompous blogger and claim my crystal ball was a little broken and that lack of readers’ commentary is to blame, but geez – that sounds like too much effort. I always like to respond to being wrong on the Internet with a shrug, a crooked grin, and a “you can’t get ‘em all correct”.

Well, you can’t get ‘em all correct.

Despite my positive opinion for the stylings of Dollhouse‘s increasingly engaging plotline, Fox has given the Joss Whedon series the official axe today, meaning that the hiatus it is currently on will be the last break before the final hurrah of eps. This makes it two times that Whedon has been burned by Fox, the first being with the “most cancelled” series Firefly, which garnered enough fan support for a brief revival on the big screen (“Serenity“).

While cancelled series are difficult to make into a positive, there’s quite a bit of a glimmer on the horizon. The first is the different environment and cred that Joss Whedon has garnered since the last time he had a series canned.

When Firefly was cancelled, Joss had only Buffy and Angel to fall back on, but since then, he’s gathered a bit of a greater fan following through the modest success of Serenity, a well-received reception for the musical web short Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and now with Dollhouse, which despite being rebuffed by Fox at least made it further than Whedon’s first effort with the network. This makes a rescue by another network a slight bit more likely, though Syfy has already mentioned they probably won’t pick it up. Neither network, however, is the only game in town.

Even if it isn’t picked up, however, Whedon is prepared to move to different endeavors, stating on Whedonesque.com that he’ll keep on trucking with new projects, and one in particular which he says we’ll know about by the time the Dollhouse closes for good.

The knowledge of a series’ end also has a way of creating a buildup and a potential for “going out with a bang” . There’s Whedon-style star power coming to the impending end of Dollhouse, with Firefly alums and other folks making an appearance in the series’ swan song of eps. When a series is uncertain about its future, there tends to be a pulling of the punches, but when the game is going to come to an end, you can bet that it will be no holds barred. Dollhouse‘s dystopian outlook, moral questions, and conspiratorial mysteries will hopefully all be addressed, but the impending finale means that the last few episodes are going to be exciting, action-packed drama fests.

To accept the end means to look forward beyond it to the future, and while the demise of Dollhouse is arguably premature, I’m planning on enjoying every minute up until the finish line – and the potential of new beginnings for Joss, the cast, and all those involved. Take a swig of your glasses folks – it’s going to be a wild ride.

September 26, 2008

Lost in Technology

So while I’ve come down with a case of the geek plague, I’ve done more than just play around with my iPod touch and my laptop in bed. I’ve finally caught up with the bevy of DVR stuff I’ve managed to program into the hard drive of my little cable box. One of the series I’ve finally gotten around to watching is J.J. Abrams mindfuck, Lost.

I have to say the drama does have its charms. There’s a varied cast, they all get their moments in the sun, and the mysteries add to the value. Now I know I’m only a few episodes in, but, clearly there’s a problem here.

If there were some actual geeks on the island, they’d have been off of it by now.

I mean, c’mon, even in this remote part of the world, a geek would have found a way to get onthe net. They would have found a way to get their iPhones and PDAs and laptops online because they’re almost trained to be wired. The Internet is like water to geek folk – sure, we could live up to 2 weeks without food and a few days without water, but the internet? Try one hour or so. 

There would be no need for fire because the reflection of bright, metallic portable devices would provide enough light to signal any rescue party. There would be no need to hunt and kill boars because someone would have looked up a wikipedia article on how to survive on plants, sand, and ocean water. And there would be no need to make a long term plan because geek friends,w eirded out over the lack of facebook and myspace and twitter updates from their marooned friends, would quickly utilize the power of IM, friends lists, and Google Maps to find and pinpoint their tech-savvy companions. The surviviors would have been home for dinner.

Alas, this isn’t the case, so we have to put up with Locke’s hunter-gatherer/mentor advice, Sayid’s makeshift triangulation antennae, and Sawyer’s version of eBay. But I suppose if the rescue happened too quickly, we wouldn’t have such an addicting, interesting, and dramatic series on our hands. They’re just lucky technology is somehow hampered.

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