In my Giller award-winning previous post, I went on various tangents and stumbled upon one that drew the consternation of the Twitter-verse and blogosphere. I lamented the unoriginal thought about the lack of basic competence amongst the TV dad. I talked about Carl Winslow of Family Matters fame being the last solid dad. I got some blowback, as others talked about other dads, which came from dramas and dramedies. So I went on a quest, I knew that they must be out there. A good half hour sitcom dad. Ty Burrell does not count. He sucks. I recently went on vacation, and amongst the whirlwind of activity (the ballad of Eddie Gilbert, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish inside a ball of wax) I visited my deadbeat brother. Rather than actually interact, my brother loaded up my computer with some content he thought I would like. This is always a gamble. I also think watching TV on computer is cheating. I don’t think Arrested Development should be nominated for Emmy’s. It’s a webisode. A big budget one, but its not TV, it’s a web show. Respect the box. Continue reading
Louie
A Very Special Episode: TV Tonal Shifts on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Louie
At their best and luckiest, television shows can do something that other most other art forms cannot: allow us to spend hours, days, weeks, months, sometimes years with our favourite characters, watching them grow, learning intricacies and patterns about them and the show itself that we often don’t even know about the people in our real lives. Television has the luxury of time. We learn shows rather quickly, we fall into the unique rhythms and patterns of these shows, we know how they should look and sound and feel and over time this solidifies and crystallizes our viewing experience. We find friends with these characters, we know their worlds, we begin to understand what makes them tick. Continue reading
God and Paper Hearts: Tom Noonan’s Eerily Accessible Small Screen Performances
Tom Noonan does everything. From staring in, producing, writing, directing, scoring and editing award winning plays and screenplays to scene stealing performances in movies, short films and television. As a huge Noonan fan I could go on at length about the many brilliant aspects of his career but this being The Golden Age of Television I will focus on Noonan’s work on TV. My two favorite Tom Noonan roles are his guest starring spots on The X-Files and Louie. Although it is next to impossible to describe what is at work in Noonan’s nuanced and seemingly effortless performances I will give it a shot. Continue reading
Email Roundtable #10 – A Few of Our Favorite Things of 2012 – Part 2
In the interest of it being a particularly busy time of the year and because it is also the time of year for lists we thought we would forego our regularly scheduled Email Roundtable. Instead, we have each asked each other about a few of our favourite things from 2012. We attempt to discuss those things here. **Warning: this article probably contains spoilers**
Jane asks Kerri: What was your favorite challenge on a Reality Show this year?
I really had to think about this one as I really don’t watch all that many reality shows these days. However, I do think that the way that the current season of Top Chef began was pretty brilliant. Continue reading
The Golden Age of Television 