The Insanity of Linsanity

News cycles have always played a role in reporting. Something quasi-important happening?  Report on it from every angle you can find (or make up) until the story has been run into the ground, and popped out on the other side.   Bird Flu, H1N1, West Nile, and Shark Bites are all examples of the wave of sensationalism employed by our members in the media.  The BP oil spill and the economic crisis are examples of things that, while big, pushed all other pieces of news, (important and otherwise,) completely off of our screens, papers, and radios.  Some have even argued, and I tend to widely agree, that the media itself should bear some blame to much of the economic crisis.  After all, if I hadn’t heard every morning and every evening that the US, and the world on the whole, could possibly fall into economic mayhem at any time, I probably wouldn’t have stopped spending any money on the level that I, and many others, did.  Sure – the banks screwed us, they screwed everyone.  As did the corrupt (is there any other kind?) traders on Wall Street.  The thing is, most of us normal people, those of us not making millions a year, really weren’t affected beyond the price of milk and gas going up.  Media sensationalism is not only irresponsible…it’s dangerous.

Now, with that being said, sports media sensationalism is only dangerous because it makes people go postal with annoyed rage.  All in all, the NFL season was a bust.  The baseball season wasn’t much better.  So far, the NBA season has been exciting for just a handful of people.  So – what’s a 24 hour sports news network to do?  Find their Bird Flu, of course.  We witnessed this with the super-hype of the mediocre-at-best quarterback of a mediocre-at-best franchise in a mediocre-at-best TV market in Tim Tebow.  I could fill everything interesting about Tebow in a 2″ column on the third page of the Indiana Daily Student.  Mercifully, the NFL season finally ended, and all we’re left with is the usual spackling of diva players thinking they deserve more money to catch a few balls once a week, and an owner that needs to either hire a better PR firm, or start listening to the one he has.  The downside?  The bloodhounds in the media need another minor story to make into the story of the year so that when it wins an ESPY at the end of the year, they can justify the award with “well, it was talked about ALL the time!!”

The New York Knicks have been irrelevant in the NBA since, well, pretty much forever.  I know, that sounds like there’s no way that’s right, but check it out: The Knicks have won 2 championships.  That’s good enough for 8th on the list – tied with the Houston Rockets.  Compare that to 17 for the Celtics, 16 for the Lakers, and 6 for the Bulls.  So, clearly, the reason why the Knicks are talked about so much is because the majority of the media outlets talking about them are located in New York – it certainly can’t be because of a winning tradition, because, other than the fact that they have been around for forever, they’ve done nothing to deserve the praise and/or expectations.  Now, however, all of that has changed because of Jeremy Lin.  In fact, since the Knicks added Lin, they have been on quite the little winning streak!  So – sure – praise is certainly warranted for such a team.  Here’s the problem, though.  Instead of doing a story each time the Knicks win – our buddies over at the networks have decided that all other news is second, including the Knicks winning games – to one, solitary player on the team.  That’s right – Jeremy Lin.  In fact – in true CNN wartime-coverage style, they have even come up with a nickname: Linsanity.  I’d  rather catch West Nile than hear that word ever again.

So, what’s the big deal?  What’s the hype?  Surely Mr. Lin is putting up Hall of Fame, or at least MVP numbers for these guys to be so droolingly obsessed, right?  Well, let’s look at the numbers from NBA.com:

PPG (Last 10 games)
1. Bryant, Kobe – 28.7
2. James, LeBron – 28.0
3. Durant, Kevin – 25.3
4. Love, Kevin – 25.3
5. Bargnani, Andrea – 23.5

Uh oh, where’s Linsanity?? Surely we must be getting close to Mr. Lin’s points per game here – after all, he’s the savior of the most storied franchise of all time!! Nope.

83. Lin, Jeremy – 12.9

Once Upon a Time: Even More Thoughts

Previous OUaT posts by me here and here.

Consider this entire article a **SPOILER ALERT** if you have not yet watched the episode from Sunday Feb. 12.

Well, after the weakness that was episode 11 (last week’s), Once Upon a Time finally gave us what we so desperately needed – a revelation that will actually impact the show from now on.  That revelation, of course, is that Mr. Gold, aka Rumpelstiltskin, seems to remember his past.  (If you’ve forgotten already how this was revealed, Regina, aka The Evil Queen, asked an incarcerated Gold what his name is, rather, what is real name is.  Gold’s reply?  ”Rumpelstiltskin”.  Gold also calls Regina “Your Majesty”.)  This came after an irate Gold beat an indebted shop-keeper half to death for stealing something from him.  (We later find out, of course, that the man was put up to it by Regina, and that what he stole was the teacup chipped by “Belle” whilst she was in the employ (servitude) of Rumpelstiltskin a la Beauty and the Beast.)  I really liked the Beauty and the Beast element in this episode.  Just thought I’d throw that in here.

This is the kind of thing I’ve really been wanting to see on this show week in and week out: something that actually impacts the series on the whole, not necessarily just a Simpsons-esque episode where everything “resets” at the end of the episode back where it all started.  (This is how last week’s episode was, other than the revelation that the new “writer” in town has a (the?) copy of Henry’s fairy tale book, which wasn’t that shocking.)  Now, we can finally start progressing this story forward again.  The only other thing I’d like to see addressed is this painful romance between Mary Margaret (Snow White,) and David (Prince Charming.)  I mean, really?  He bought two Valentine’s Day cards and handed her the wrong one?  The one written for his wife?  I’ve never been involved in an extra-marital affair, but I’d assume that if I were, I’d have gotten caught a looong time ago if I were dumb enough to A. carry both cards with me when handing one out, and B. REMEMBER which one was which.  Unless something tragic happens to the unimportant Kathryn Nolan (Abigail Midas,) which I think probably will, I think we’re going to have to suffer through this story line for quite some time, especially as, for the time being, it’s the only real love story this show has since the Huntsman died.  (I suspect this will also soon change – as soon as we figure out who the “Stranger” is – as there will definitely be some romance there between he and Emma.)  Oh, and in case you were wondering my thoughts on the Stranger?  (No, not this stranger.)  He has to be the book’s author, right?  I mean, I know that in the real world, these stories are all written by various authors – but I don’t think we’re supposed to be thinking that here.  I think the Stranger has arrived in town to “finish” the book.  I could be way off…but I haven’t heard any better suggestions!

A Regular Guy’s Thoughts on Idolization

This article may offend some people.  If you’re easily offended – A. don’t read this.  B. you probably should block this blog from your browser.

I just don’t understand.  I really, really don’t.  I don’t understand how we, as humans, can let ourselves idolize performers for their performing:  athletes, musicians, politicians, etc.  Admire?  Sure.  Respect?  Sometimes.  But idolize?  Absurdity.  Even though it pains me to write yet one more article with the words “Whitney Houston” in it, I just have to.  As you know, Houston died on Saturday afternoon in a bathtub in a hotel in Beverly  Hills.  I’m not going to openly speculate the cause, but I think everyone pretty much can surmise what went down in that bathroom on Saturday…  Now, all over the “world”, fans are “crying out” in mourning.  People are setting up shrines in her hometown, and fans everywhere are sending in cards, letters, etc.  There’s just one problem here…what has Houston done in her life to deserve such treatment?  She was a good singer and even did a bit of decent acting.  The problem is, again, what has she done to be idolized?  Throughout her entire career, there has been nothing but controversy.  She did drugs, (she was caught in the airport with weed and admitted in an interview with Oprah that she would do “marijuana laced with rock cocaine,”) and she has a history of being a no-show to performances.  Wow…one heck of a role model, let alone hero.

So, why then, do we mark this death with anything but pity?  I pity her now in death, as I pitied her in life.  I feel bad for her family – no matter the cause, a family deserves to grieve, (just as a family doesn’t deserve to be put through what they were put through…)  It’s very much like the death of Elvis.  Why the idolizing?  Why the “worship” lasting to this day?  Even though I never understood it, at all, most people think he was a great performer.  (The emphasis there must be on the word performer – because he certainly wasn’t a great singer…)  Most think he changed the music world forever.  Great.  But what else did he do that warranted such praise and remembrance?  Heck, the most basic of “heroic barometer” – searching the word “charity” on one’s Wikipedia page – comes up with just two results:  TVs donated to a military base, and two shows performed to benefit charities.  On the other hand, a guy like Warren Buffet, when he passes, will be giving roughly $30 billion dollars to charity – along with the billions of dollars and time he has already donated.  Along with Buffet, Bill Gates, Margaret Cargill, Paul G. Allen and several others, when they die, will make up a list of 10 people giving hundreds of millions of dollars to charities.  When they pass, will there be a tribute at a major awards show?  Will there be shrines created along streets in New York City with candlelight vigils?  Probably not.  But, there will be cures found for diseases.  Food on plates.  Textbooks in schools.  I’ll hold candles for that.

The list of “false idols” could go forever:  John Lennon, Joe Paterno, Brittany Murphy, Steve McNair, Michael Jackson…  I’m not saying these were bad people, but many of these deaths get just as much or more attention than when true heroes die.  People like Princess Diana and Mother Theresa, who devoted much of their lives to helping people – deserved the candlelight vigils.  They deserved the world-wide mourning they received, because the world lost someone truly great when they passed.  This week, the world will go on without Whitney Houston.  Are we that much worse off?

Smash is a Smash! (Sorry…that was too cheesy…)

I really don’t like Glee.  I really don’t like American Idol.  I really don’t like America’s Got Talent, The X Factor, or Rock Star.  On the other hand, I think the 2002 film Chicago was great, and 2001′s Moulin Rouge was one of the most enjoyable films ever produced.  So, you see why I’m conflicted about NBC’s latest “super-hit” Smash.  Smash is a weekly hour-long drama/musical starring Debra Messing and Christian Borle as a modern-day Rodgers and Hammerstein duo writing a new musical based on the life/career of Marilyn Monroe.  Anjelica Huston portrays the productions very aggressive producer, and Jack Davenport, Katharine McPhee, and Megan Hilty round out Marilyn’s core group on the show.

NBC has been running so many promos for this show, that I began wondering what the show was actually about.  At first, I suspected it would be a mix of Glee and possibly Chicago.  After another 40 hours of ads, I starting thinking maybe it was a bit more Playboy Club meets the horrible, horrible, horrible Step Up movies.  You couldn’t blame a guy for getting a bid worried here…  I decided, at this point, that if this show was going to have chance of gaining my viewership, I really needed to stop expecting anything.  So, in spite of NBC’s obvious “Playboy Club was such a disaster-we only have one more shot at a big hit this year” advertising strategy, I have done my best to avoid the Smash universe.  Until show-time.

First things first.  This show plays much more like a film than a TV series.  It’s shot like a movie, cut like a movie, and definitely written and performed like a movie.  In a refreshing change from every other pilot episode in the history of television, I have counted not one awkward plot explanation forced into this script.  Like a film, we were just immediately thrown into the story to fend for ourselves.  It just felt good.  The first few minutes of this episode just felt good.  If this show isn’t your thing, even if you hate musicals, don’t deny yourselves the pleasure of seeing how a pilot episode should be set-up.

If you are reading this to try and decide whether or not to invest any time in this episode – let me cut right to it:  it’s a musical.  There’s music.  There’s singing.  There’s some dancing.  It’s a musical.  If you hate musicals, then don’t watch, because you won’t like it.  If you like music, even if you don’t like musicals, give it a chance.  The music is actually quite good – not like the forced drivel that is shoved down our throats on radio and Americal “Idol” these days.  Also, to answer my own questions from earlier: this show is much more Moulin Rouge than anything else.  The characters don’t bust out into song in lieu of dialog, the songs all make sense to the plot – i.e. the songs are during auditions, performances, etc.  (Except for one post-show scene…that was just pure musical, and kind of confusing, plot-wise.)  Now, can this format survive in the world of poorly-written cop dramas, sitcoms, and reality shows?  I hate to be the continual cynic, but probably not.  But dammit, and I’m tired of saying this to no avail, this is yet another risk taken by a major network that just has to be applauded.

Now to the characters themselves: Debra Messing is great.  She is always great – why doesn’t she get more roles?  Messing plays a confident and smart woman better than most other TV actresses ever have – and she doesn’t disappoint in Smash.  I believe she’s a Broadway writer, I believe she’s a wife and mother, and I believe that she’s dedicated to her work more than anyone.  Anjelica Huston is Anjelica Huston…solid.  I’ve never disagreed with one of her roles in the past – I mean, if anyone should be type-cast as the bitch, it’s Anjelica Huston.  (You know how real media outlets cut out one line to be the “summary line” for an article?  If I did the same…that last line would be in 24 font and bold…)  The rest of the cast (Marilyn’s and Smash’s) consists mainly of relative unknowns.  Obviously, the two lead singers, McPhee and and Hilty can flat sing.  Both seem to be capable actresses, as well, but in the first half hour, it’s pretty obvious why they were casted.  Messing’s songwriting partner, played by Borle, was probably called in with the following casting call:  we need a 50/50 mix of Jack and Will from Will & Grace.  That’s it.  That’s the whole casting call.  And, they did it – and it works.

The thing is, this show just feels good.  The music is really enjoyable, and the characters are really likeable.  I don’t know many (read: any) Broadway actresses, but I do have friends (past and present) currently working their way to that stage, and I know just how tough and heart-breaking that journey is.  If Smash can portray even a tenth of that drama, this show can be great.  So, good luck NBC and Smash…I hope you can make history here, and not just follow it to the cutting room floor like so many other innovative shows…

I give the pilot episode of Smash a 4 out of 5.

Super Bowl Halftime Show: Reviewed

When I think of Madonna, I get sucked into a fantasy world where Angelina Jolie, Elton John, the Wicked Step-Mother from Snow White, and the nasty orphanage lady from Annie, are all morphed into one, mostly plasticized, body.  Now, that being said – I don’t necessarily dislike Madonna, I just think that she’s sometimes the lead argument in a case for bringing a selective Logan’s Run-style system to the recording industry…

So, if you’ve been living under a rock for a while, or, more specifically, a rock outside of the LTE coverage area, Madonna was the performer for this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, which took place last night.  Now, if you remember, I really enjoyed the show last year – despite the fact that I think they allowed the local high-school to provide the audio engineers.  So, when they announced Madonna, I had a flashback to when Aerosmith took the stage on those rechargable ride-ons from Wal-Mart.  Like I’ve said over and over in the past, I get it – because Janet Jackson’s quasi-uncovered boob was shown on television, the networks feel that all of the main acts have to be geriatric.  But, as we’re starting to see, the organizers’ favorite acts from their past are getting to the point where they embarrass themselves more times than not.

Now, after 215 negative words, I’m going to start going in the other direction.  I loved this halftime show.  The visuals were beyond stunning.  I pride myself in knowing how they do the technical things on these shows, and I can safely, (and cheerily,) say, that there were some screens in there that I have no idea how they worked.  I loved the visuals last year, but this year’s show made 2011′s look like it was pulled from a cereal box.  The best part?  They again decided to forego the frustratingly painful fake-fans (FPFFs?) that used to be put on the field to look like a concert audience.  How something as simple as cheering can look so forced, I don’t know, but it just does.

Shows I Miss…

If you’ve read my stuff throughout the last year or so – you know that I really enjoy television.  To me, it’s more than just something to kill time between work and sleep.  Watching television is a way to put your mind somewhere else.  As I was sitting here tonight watching a repeat of an early episode of Scrubs on WGN, I realized how much I miss certain shows.  It seems like it’s been a while since I had a show that just really made my day likes Scrubs could…  So, that got me thinking about other shows that I miss.  These shows may not all be classics – but for some reason or another – I just wish they were still on.  Every one of these shows was a can’t miss – and, besides Sons of Anarchy, I’m not so sure I have one of those right now…Modern Family may be the closest, I suppose.  Other shows may be good – but not always watch live good.

Also – these aren’t necessarily my favorite shows of all time here, just shows that I really wish had never gone away.  (Keep in mind, these are all shows that I watched when they first aired…so no comments about why I left off certain shows, particularly MASH!)  So, here we go:

10. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

9.  Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

8.  Cheers

7.  Nero Wolfe (a mini-series on A&E – may be the greatest miniseries I’ve ever seen.)

6.  Firefly

5.  The West Wing

4.  The Screen Savers (The zdTV version or the TechTV version – never the G4 version…stupid Comcast.)

3.  Mystery Science Theater 3000

2.  Seinfeld

1.  Scrubs

 

2012 NHL All-Star Game

Well – the 2011-12 NHL All-Star weekend is officially in the books.  My first NHL All-Star game is officially in the books.  After years of watching baseball’s, basketball’s, and football’s versions – I understand now why people laud this event.  The difference, I’ve decided, is the people.  Sure, the skills competition on Saturday was fun to watch, but not necessarily because of the events – again, it’s the people involved with hockey.  Maybe it’s just an illusion, but NHL players just seem more normal.  They just seem like guys you could see down at the local grocery store buying milk.  They don’t seem so “better than thou” as other professional athletes.  Even the on-ice announcers seem like average guys.  Sure, this may seem like an insult to these broadcasters, but they just don’t seem to be as refined as some of the guys you see on TV during other sports’ events.  They just seem like fans that won some sort of contest!

In the skills competition on Saturday, one of the events has players doing the hockey equivalent to the NBA’s dunk contest.  The player has three tries to do the best “trick” during a breakaway goal chance.  Fans, then, vote on the best after the event is over.  If you’re 6’9″, it’s not difficult to dunk a ball – even if you’ve just jumped over the hood of a car.  Controlling a 3″ piece of a rubber with a stick, as you fling it around your head, off your skate blade, and into a tiny opening to the net, all while trying to stay upright on the ice, is difficult.  So – needless to say – there were some flubs.  There were definitely some players that looked a bit silly doing these tricks.  The thing is – it made them so much more endearing to fans.  Do you know how long an event like this would last in the NBA?  Maybe to the Player’s Association’s desk, but that’s about it…  The NFL?  Shoot – any resemblance of a skills competition went by the wayside many years ago in football.  Not in the NHL, however – every time a player was interviewed, the same words were spoken: This is for the fans.  Patrick Kane, from the Blackhawks, even donned a Superman cape (and Clark Kent glasses – it was a twoferone,) and performed the winning trick of the night – diving to his stomach to “fly” in to the net, flipping the puck up along his stick and around the goaltender for the “goal.”  (Even as a Chicago fan, though, still not sure that was the best of the night – definitely the funniest.)

2011/12 New Show Ratings

I’ve added the 18-49 ratings to the New Show Rankings on the right side of the blog.  As always – these are from TVByTheNumbers.  Interesting numbers in there, albeit not very surprising.  My ordering of the shows on the right is purely opinion…, but in case you want something a little more “official”, here are the new shows, in order of rating:

1. 2 Broke Girls (4.4)

2. The X Factor (3.8)

3. Once Upon a Time (3.7)

4. New Girl (3.4)

5. Person of Interest (3.2)

6. Unforgettable (2.6)

7. Revenge (2.5)

8. Last Man Standing (2.0)

9. Up All Night (1.9)

10. Grimm (1.8)

11. Are You There, Chelsea (1.7)

12. Whitney (1.6)

13. Pan Am (1.3)

14. A Gifted Man (1.0)

15. Terra Nova (0.4)

16. Hart of Dixie (0.3)

Boy, how things change!

I’ve loved television for as long as I can remember.  Not in the “sit in front of the television for 8 hours straight getting fat, stupid, and lazy” sense or anything – just, love all that television is capable of doing to us.  Television gives us the opportunity to choose what we feel.  What else in our lives does that?  Want to laugh?  Take your pick of a whole slew of comedies on at any given time.  Want to cry?  Take your pick.  Maybe learning and thinking is your thing tonight?  History Channel, Science Channel, TLC, TDC, DIY, FOOD, and many others are all running programming to help out.  You can’t always go to work and decide that today will be a funny day – or even a good one, for matter.  But TV, unlike life, does what you want, when you want.

The thing is,  TV doesn’t change a whole lot.  For the foreseeable future, crime dramas, sitcoms, and “reality” TV will thrive.  What’s interesting to me, however, is how real life can change how you see these things on TV.  In my earlier days, kids on television just flat bugged me.  Especially kids in commercials.  Man, how annoying is a bad-acting kid in a commercial trying to tug at your heart-strings to get you to buy some Cheerios?  (That can be read two ways, both annoying:  Bad-Acting = mis-behaving, or bad-acting = not  a very good actor.)  But, things change.  Small changes such as…being a father of a 19 month-old.  Holy game-changer Batman!  All of the sudden that story about kids suffering in Kenyauzbekistan isn’t reason to change the channel…it’s reason to realize that everything you own in your life is a waste of time and money and effort and that you don’t have a single problem worth thinking about more than a second of your perfect life with your perfect family and perfect job and car and house.  (HA!  Now that’s a run-on sentence to be proud of.)

Let me give an example:  On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I usually hang around the house and be boring.  (And we wouldn’t have it any other way.)  Well, this year was no different.  We watched a movie (can’t even remember what it was now…No Strings Attached, maybe?) and we then switched it over to the New Year’s festivities.  Now, I don’t care how much I’ve grown up, the network’s New Year’s specials are horrendous.  I mean…I can’t think of a single other show throughout the rest of the year as terrible as these.  (Maybe I’ll do a blog post on New Year’s specials next year.  There’s too much here to discuss without getting completely off-topic…and I think the parenthesis keys on my keyboard are getting worn out.)  So…back to New Year’s.  We switch over, watch Seacrest fawn all over Bieber and Lady Gaga (or was that Lady Gaga dressed as Beiber?  Does the “i” come before the “e” in Beiber?  I care so little, I’m not even going to look it up.)  Well, we watched the ball drop (so many Bieieber jokes could be in this comment…but I’ll leave it be) and, to rid ourselves of the boredom virus we had just contracted, we switched over to watch the Red Bull stunt thingy that ESPN always puts on.  If you didn’t see it this year, they had two guys attempt world-breaking jumps, one on a motorcycle, the other on a snowmobile.  So, after the successful jumps, they begin interviewing the motorcycle-guy, who happened to be holding a baby, his I assume (remember – this article is about how being a father changed things…did you forget?)  Well, 3 years-ago Daniel would have not cared a tiny-iota about this.  Not now, brutha…my wife and I were losing it over this kid.  The entire interview he kept grabbing the foam wind-screen on the reporter’s microphone.  I’m telling you what…we rewound (rewinded?) this interview and watched it again.  To this day, I still have absolutely no idea what the guy said, or what questions they asked him.

Universally-Panned Movies That I Liked

The title says it all.  Don’t look at this like a list of movies that I’m somehow seeing the magic in…no, some of these are pretty bad movies, I just happen to sometimes like certain bad movies.  So…look at this article more like a “Daniel wanted to do another post today…even if it wasn’t helpful to anyone” kind of a thing.

Next to each title is the score from Rotten Tomatoes.

Arthur (2011) – 26%

Waterworld (1995) – 43%

Little Giants (1994) – 40%

The Boondock Saints (2000) – 17%

Newsies (1992) – 32%

Happy Gilmore (1996) – 59%

Just Go With It (2011) – 19%

Hook (1991) – 29%  (This should NEVER be panned by anyone.  Who doesn’t like Hook?  This is why I don’t like people that review movies.  By the way, on RT, the audience gives it 72%.)

The Mighty Ducks (1992) – 12%

Home Alone (1990) – 54%

Super Troopers (2001) – 35%