Drama

Channel Surfing 2 – My Week in TV

/ kwoloszyn / 1 Comment

Remote_Control,_Television_-_TV-controllerWhat the heck is happening on Homeland?

I am a fickle and high maintenance beast when it comes to television shows, it seems. When something is exciting and new I am all over it but when it gets a little stale I almost immediately stop caring. I demand my entertainment to be ever entertaining and constantly shifting. I never want a show to become predictable comfort food. But, at the same time, I rarely want a show I have come to love to become something altogether different from what it was when that love-affair began. I want the shiny new boyfriend and the husband that cooks and cleans all at the same time. And so, I am in a really, really weird spot with Homeland. I’m not receiving anything exciting and new from the show and it also isn’t, fundamentally, the show that I used to love anymore. Continue reading →

Email Roundtable #34 – Twin Peaks

/ Katie Man / Leave a comment

Lucy

Jane: This week on the roundtable we continue with our Fall Television Secret Santa. Jane gifted Katie the first Season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is about a lot of things, but basically, it is the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer.

Katie, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your viewing experience.

Katie: Well, let me start off by saying that I respect that Twin Peaks is a favourite of yours and Kerri’s but I just hated it. The pilot took me a week to watch (in 5 minute increments.) Continue reading →

I was wrong, It’s Freaks and Geeks and The Wire.

/ Jane Walker / Leave a comment

freeks and geeks and mcnulty

A few months ago at the height of my love affair with Damages I proclaimed that “the first five minutes of [its] pilot episode are as good as any television pilot I’ve seen.” While Damages is darn good TV and its opening is stylish and well shot, I was completely wrong. After some distance and an obviously much needed cooling off period, I came back to my senses. I now proclaim that the first five minutes of Freaks and Geeks and The Wire are the among very best minutes that TV has to offer. For real this time. Continue reading →

Your Next Show Should Be Masters of Sex

/ kwoloszyn / 1 Comment

So, Breaking Bad has been over for more than a week now and you are still huddled in the fetal position in some corner somewhere, blinds closed, shut out to the rest of the world, quietly sobbing, pondering if you will ever find a show that made you feel so much ever again. I am not going to pretend to have the miracle cure for what ails you but perhaps as a salve I can suggest a show that has some similarities so Breaking Bad, albeit with a lot less violence and a lot more sex: That show is Masters of Sex on Showtime, the true story of the revolutionary sex study by Masters and Johnson in the 1950s.

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Breaking Bad, One Last Time

/ kwoloszyn / 1 Comment

By this point you’ve seen the finale of Breaking Bad. Maybe you’ve watched it twice. By this point you’ve read everything about it too and have had a full week to process it. We’ve already done a piece on the last episode. By this point the people who love the finale have made their love known and people who didn’t like it so much have done the same. Everything has been said that needs to be said and said well. You are probably exhausted from all of this Breaking Bad content. But how ’bout one more kick at the giant barrel full of cash for old times sake?

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Email Roundtable #31 – Fall Television Secret Santa

/ kwoloszyn / 3 Comments

This week, and for a number of the weeks to follow, we will be doing Fall Television Secret Santa. We each “randomly” chose a name and were given the job of gifting a television show to that person. This week we will be discussing the person we drew, the show we chose for them and why. In the coming weeks we will be pairing down our roundtable to two and interviewing our Secret Santa about the show they were gifted (or forced) to watch. The rules state that you may watch as much or as little of the show as you like and that the gift giver must have seen at least a portion of the show as well. 

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Best Cooking Show Ever.

/ GoldenAgeGuest / 1 Comment

The blog rotation has fallen on me this week and, as fate should have it, Breaking Bad wrapped. I was going to pontificate about my latest passion which has become mid-nineties Australian sitcoms – but the timing isn’t proper. The fine folks at AMC decided to thumb its nose at the Netflix enthusiasts and DVD buyers of world. They put one of their franchise shows, Breaking Bad, on in marathon form in a build up to this season. Friday nights were marathon sessions. I missed it during the first run and was very miffed when Bryan Cranston would beat out Don Draper at the Emmys. To me, Cranston will always be Malcolm’s dad. I hated Malcolm in the Middle. He was Tim Whatley, Jerry Seinfeld’s lecherous dentist. I knew him on the pilot episode of the Pam Anderson action series VIP -but his work as meth master Walter White must be celebrated. As he moved from sheepish milquetoast to evil drug lord, he turned into having the traits of a great wrestling champion. He started off as a good guy, with tag team partners like Hank and his wife. He had a protégé to mentor and bail him out in Jesse. Then he got a manager, in lawyer Saul. He battled in feuds with the likes of contenders to his meth title with the likes of Tuco, the grizzled Mike, and Gus. Like the great wrestler he became a villain. The bad guy. He turned on his wife, Hank, and his son. He put on his literal black hat with greed and power taking over for family loyalty. And in ultimate wrestling fashion, left to go to do movies. Continue reading →

Email Roundtable #29 – John From Cincinnati

/ kwoloszyn / Leave a comment

This week on the roundtable we continue with our Summer Television Secret Santa. Jane gifted the short-lived HBO show, John From Cincinnati, to Kerri. Below is their conversation about the show.

john-from-cincinnati

Jane: JFC is an intimidating show to jump into. It might be a good idea to start with a brief summary about what the show is about (this is kind of a mean way to start off, I know).

Kerri: I made Katie do the same thing so it’s only fair.

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