Drama

Stop Dragon My Heart Around: Why I think you might like Game of Thrones even if you don’t think you’ll like Game of Thrones (based entirely on why I like Game of Thrones)

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Nikolaj_Coster-Waldau_(March_2013)

On a recent episode of the amazing NPR podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour, the crew (specifically Stephen Thompson and Linda Holmes) chatted and proceeded to dump on Game of Thrones as a show that lots of other people love that they can’t get into. They cited the non-stop political talk, the constant discussion of royal lineage, the rapey-ness of the show as well as all of the violence towards kids as reasons that they didn’t continue to watch past a couple of episodes. That got me thinking, “These people are smart and I hate those things too, so why do I like the show so much?”. Here are three reasons:

(A note about spoilers: I tried to write this post without many spoilers because I hate them. Still, any mention of a seemingly minute detail on Game of Thrones is spoiler-esque. I would caution you, if you haven’t seen any of the show, to read at your own peril – especially point #1. Please also note that this post is based solely on the TV version of Game of Thrones, as I haven’t read all of the books. If I’m wrong about something below that is probably why – or I just wasn’t paying close enough attention).

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Growing in Circles: Why Enlightened is a lot like high school

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ID-10092275

The problem with having so much good television on at the same time is that we are all bound to miss something truly special, something that seems made just for us and our personal tastes. True, we all have PVRs and television on Netflix and DVD but there are still plenty of shows that need our help to survive by watching them as they air.

I missed Enlightened while it was airing, and it seems that everyone else did too, because the show is now cancelled. But, if you have the chance to catch up with it, I promise you will not be disappointed unless you don’t like slow-moving character studies with bits of “magic realism” and poetic monologues thrown in sporadically. I suspect many people don’t so that’s why I want to tell you what Enlightened really is (and what I think many more people will care for): a high school drama in disguise. Continue reading →

Mad Men is allowed to do whatever it wants

/ Katie Man / 2 Comments
New York, 1968

New York, 1968

If you aren’t up to date on Mad Men and don’t want anything spoiled, please don’t read on.

While watching this week’s episode of Mad Men, “To Have and To Hold”, I came to the conclusion that Mad Men is the only show on TV that is allowed to do whatever it wants. The storylines can include anything and it can be shot in any style. As for content: Sex? Yup. Lots of it. Nudity? No, but not because it can’t. The show is so sexy that nudity would be redundant. Gore? How about Pete’s girlfriend’s pulpy face? Or that time a foot was run over by a lawnmower?

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Email Roundtable #18 – Location, Location, Location

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abandoned house

The living room on The Simpsons, Cheers the bar, Baltimore on The Wire. Settings are important on any television show. In this edition of the Email Roundtable we attempt to discuss different kinds of television settings. And because I think this is awfully cool and somewhat relevant there’s this. 

What is the television setting you find the most comforting/would like to live in?: 

Kerri: This one was actually the most difficult for me to figure out. I decided to think about the shows that I find most comforting and work from there. My comfort show is always Freaks and Geeks and I thought about talking about the Weir’s house which is sort of cave-like, with earth-tones and looks a lot like the childhood home that I and a lot of my friends grew up in. Continue reading →

Impressed by Derek

/ Katie Man / 6 Comments

Derek is a television show on Channel 4 about Derek Noakes, a man who works at a residential care home. The show was written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Ricky stars as Derek. As of writing this, 3 episodes of series 1 have aired.

Derek is compelling television. Before watching any of the episodes, I had a lot of expectations. For one thing, Ricky Gervais has been tweeting about the program daily, saying that it is his best work yet. For another, it stars Gervais as a man with a mental disability and Karl Pilkington as his best friend and janitor at the care home. Honestly, the premise sounds like someone is taking the piss (to use one of my favourite English phrases.) The promo photos all have Gervais with a greasy haircut and an underbite. Karl, too, looked ridiculous in the photos. Gervais has him dressed up in this long janitor-dress with the “ugliest haircut on the face of the planet” (to quote the character Derek).  To me, the show just looked silly and borderline offensive. It looked like a Ricky Gervais star vehicle and a good excuse to make Karl Pilkington look stupid.

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Leave Dana Brody Alone!

/ Jane Walker / 2 Comments

homeland-finale

Warning: Contains spoilers

According to many sources on the internet, Homeland’s Dana Brody is one of television’s most hated characters.  There are numerous Dana Brody “hate sites” out there exploring topics such as “If I were Dana Brody from Homeland, I would have every reason to decapitate myself” or “I think we can all agree that Dana Brody should be blown up.” There are sites dedicated to hating on everything from the characters “annoying face” to the fact that “she only wears one pair of boots”. Why so much hate for the moral centre of one of television’s most loved shows? I don’t get it. Continue reading →

Roundtable # 14 – Television Do-Overs: The Big Fat Spoiler Edition

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In this edition of the Roundtable we attempt to talk about the things on TV we wish had gone a bit differently.

Kerri: So, I asked you both to think about shows/characters/story-lines, etc. that didn’t work for you on television. In these cases the specific thing was such a problem that you would have wished the creators had never done it in the first place or could go back in time and correct the problem. Would anyone like to begin with one of their picks? Continue reading →

Roundtable #13 – CanCon Edition

/ kwoloszyn / 10 Comments

In this edition of the Roundtable we talk about quintessential Canadian television, what that means and if we watch. 

CanTV

Kerri: I thought we should start this edition of the Roundtable by talking about our picks for the most “Canadian” of Canadian TV shows. Any picks?

Katie: Hockey Night in Canada, Just for Laughs, Mr. Dressup, Degrassi

Kerri: My picks are Hockey Night in Canada, Trailer Park Boys and Degrassi.

Jane: Road to Avonlea, Twitch City, Slings and Arrows

Kerri: And the big question, of course, is why are these shows so Canadian? Continue reading →

Email Roundtable #11 – Television New Year’s Resolutions

/ kwoloszyn / 1 Comment

In this edition of the Roundtable we share some television New Year’s Resolutions with you. Happy 2013, everyone!

Katie’s Resolutions: 

3. I, Walter White, will remove myself from the drug game. Otherwise, I will surely die.

2. We, the writers of Parks and Recreation, will stop using Ann Perkins as whatever plot device we require. We will either take the time to develop her properly, or use her less frequently.

1. I, Katie Man, will never again watch an episode of Mad Men on my iPhone. No matter how much I want to watch the new episode over my lunch break, I will wait until I can watch it on a proper sized screen. Gotta respect good product.

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Yearly Leftovers – my favorite bits and bites from 2012

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Sick of making leftover turkey sandwiches? Read some of my leftover TV favorites from 2012! A smattering of things that I haven’t had a chance to write about that I’ve loved over the past year. No lists, no numbers, just some of my favorite stuff. 

Gravity Falls’ title sequence – It seems that more and more that title sequences for television shows are becoming short, efficient works of art.  I can’t think of a show that has a title sequence that is quite as brilliant as the one for Gravity Falls. Every episode begins with a beautiful sequence, animated to look like a time-lapse film, that takes us through the weird and wonderful town of Gravity Falls. The title sequence smartly recalls the title sequences of Twin Peaks, The X-Files and even Northern Exposure but its frenetic pace, quirky music and in-jokes tell us exactly what we are getting ourselves into.

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