Category Archives: Cable
FX Brings Us Brand X
Last night, Brand X with Russell Brand debuted on FX. Either I misread the press releases or FX did not make clear the concept of Brand X. I thought it was going to be talk show, possibly along the lines of the short lived Talkshow with Spike Feresten. It wasn’t, but that isn’t a bad thing.
The show is basically a half hour comedy special with a lot of interaction with the audience and Brand’s sidekick, Matt Stoller. If you’re a fan of Brand, you’ll love it. If you hate Brand, Brand X won’t change your mind. If you’re like me, you were somewhere in the middle to begin with and this will leave you on the fence.
Anger Management Needs Therapy
Charlie Sheen as Charlie Goodson
Charlie Sheen got his shot to return to television and it’s already not working out. Anger Management opened with two episodes on Thursday night and there wasn’t really much chance it would be a huge success. An FX comedy is probably not enough to fix a disgraced career and the type of actor Sheen is just seems unappealing. After two episodes, it’s certain this is going to be a failure. The fact is the show could not have been any worse. There was not one moment worthy of laughter for the entire hour.
Sheen stars as Charlie Goodson, an anger management therapist who has anger issues himself. This should actually be treated as a serious conflict and the fact that it is portrayed comically just makes it seem wrong. Of course, comedy seeming wrong would be okay if it was funny and innovative. This was neither. This was just boring. The laugh track only made it worse.
Game of Thrones Alters Bush’s Head
The Bush Head Before and After Alterations
After the controversy surrounding the use of a mask depecting former President Bush’s head, the HBO series Game of Thrones has made some changes After HBO pulled the episode and stopped DVD production. The producers then apologized saying it was out of necessity and that they had to use the heads available. Now that the story went viral, the production team has altered the George W. Bush mask. It’s chin, nose, and face are now considerably smaller.
The changes to the mask may not erase the inappropriate mistake that the Game of Thrones staff made, but it is at least a step in the right direction. By altering the mask, the show did the right thing in trying to make amends. It acknowledged its mistake. Of course, the staff should not have made the mistake in the first place but at least it was handled with some grace.
For those who are aware of who the mask originally depicted and were offended, changing the mask may not help because the damage has been done. Using the mask of a former president to depict a beheading will always be inappropriate, but trying to alter the head was the right thing to do. The mistake will still be remembered, but so will the correction.
Did HBO and the Game of Thrones do enough?
The Newsroom Needs a Newsflash
Last night, after much anticipation, Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom finally debuted on HBO. I really wanted to like this show because, even though I know he can be preachy, I like Aaron Sorkin and his previous two shows about the behind-the-scenes of television. Both Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip were their own shows, The Newsroom appears to be a rehash of Studio 60 with the only difference being the former takes place in a newsroom and the latter is about a late night sketch comedy show a la Saturday Night Live.
If I had never seen Studio 60, I would probably love The Newsroom. Instead, I spent all hour and fifteen minutes of the first episode wishing people would stop comparing everyone they find bland to Jay Leno, thinking Sam Waterston needs a hair cut and makes an awkward drunk, and searching for anachronisms and incorrect facts. Seriously, I was trying to determine if the cell phones used in the show were actually available in 2010 because the show lost my interest within the first 15 minutes.
Futurama Returns to Comedy Central
Futurama opened its seventh season with two episodes on Wednesday night. Using futuristic settings to bring a satirical commentary on current popular culture, the show seems as good as ever. In its second season on Comedy Central, it seems more likely than ever that it will enjoy success for years to come.
Spoiler Alert!
The hour opened with a hilariously overblown red alert from Professor Farnsworth summoning the Planet Express crew. As it turns out, he installed a new soda machine. The crew was thrilled. This opening scene was very enjoyable and loyal to the usual dynamic of the group having disproportionate emotional reactions to what is happening around them. This seemed from the start like it was going to be a great episode.
MTV Goes Retro
No, MTV hasn’t had a change of heart and decided to play music videos all day. However, MTV has announced its new “Retro Mania” block. The block, which will air weekdays from 9am to 12pm, will start on June 25 and will run until August 3.
The full schedule is:
June 25 – June 29: Laguna Beach (Seasons 1 and 2)
July 2 – July 27: The Hills (Seasons 1 – 6)
July 30 – August 3: Daria (MTV’s favorite episodes from the series)
After seeing the list, it looks like MTV has no idea what is considered retro. If MTV really wanted to go retro, it would have put Remote Control and old seasons of The Real World.
What shows would you like to see on MTV’s Retro Mania block?
I would like to see 2ge+her, which was about a fictional boy band, and the aforementioned Remote Control.
Weekly TV Update: June 18
Former reality show star and son of Sharon and Ozzy, Jack Osbourne is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
On Wednesday, ABC Family will air an all day marathon of Melissa and Joey. Old episodes will air from noon to 8pm with a new episode debuting immediately after.
CBS has ordered a Ryan Seacrest produced pilot based on the popular Zynga game Draw Something. The show will follow in the tradition of Win, Lose or Draw and Pictionary.
MTV has a rundown of five key moments from last night’s True Blood.
USA Today has a synopsis of the second season finale of The Killing, which reveals Rosie Larsen’s killer.
Charlie Sheen Stars in Anger Management Promos
You’ve probably heard that Charlie Sheen is coming back to television with Anger Management, which is based on the movie of the same name. Yesterday, FX released six commercials, each one featuring a punchline from the show. However, they are not really funny because the promos at 10 to 20 seconds each don’t provide any context for the joke.
The first commercial is the longest and doesn’t actually have anything to do with the show, except for the fact that it stars Charlie Sheen as Charlie Sheen. At least he gets in a good, albeit overused, joke in at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ouFFugNfxU8
Have Time Warner Cable or DirecTV? Showtime May Be Free This Weekend
Sorry to get your hopes up, but this is only available in New York City and Los Angeles. Showtime is free this weekend so that Emmy voters can watch the “Best in SHO” Emmy Free Preview marathon. The good news is that if you live in those two cities you don’t have to be able to be an Emmy voter in order to benefit.
If you are a subscriber to Time Warner Cable or DirecTV and live in New York City or Los Angeles, from now until June 17 you will be able to watch Showtime, Showtime HD, and Showtime on Demand through marathons and full seasons available On Demand.
The list of shows available to watch is after the jump.
Game of Thrones Puts Bush’s Head on a Stake
The Bush Mask as seen on Game of Thrones
HBO’s Game of Thrones has been the subject of a lot of controversy, since it was revealed that the show used a mask of former President George W. Bush to depict a decapitated head. The production crew apologized, saying that they just had to use the heads they had lying around. They can make any excuse they want and say that it isn’t a political statement, but that does not make the putting a former presidents head on a stake any less inappropriate.
The fact is that it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of President Bush. It doesn’t matter how often he may have disappointed some parts of the public. He was still the president of the United States and deserves some basic human decency. Frankly, I do believe the Game of Thrones crew and that it wasn’t trying to express any hate toward Bush, but that’s irrelevant. It was in poor taste. They should have known they would have to defend themselves. You don’t just get away with something that is potentially and probably extremely offensive.
Placing Former President Bush’s head on a stake could easily be interpreted as a symbol of the desire to decapitate him, even if it wasn’t intended as such. Someone needed to think it out more carefully. It’s patently offensive. A member of the crew should have thought that the reaction to this will not be positive.
Thankfully, all content about the decapitation will be removed from Game of Thrones DVDs. The show did the right thing after the fact, but such a blatantly offensive idea should have never been thought of in the first place.
Wait! What's A Dial? 