2015 is coming to a close. We thought we’d get together with some of our favourite guest stars to answer some burning questions about TV this year. Continue reading
Parks and Recreation
We Took a Break
We took a break.
We got busy and we were tired and we all have demanding jobs and excuses, excuses, excuses.
There was a time when this blog didn’t exist at all and a time when we weren’t writing as regularly as we all do now and it would be easy enough to stop and go back to that. But we all decided to not let that happen. Taking a break is one thing but letting something good just fizzle out would be a true disappointment.
“Moving Up”
Parks and Recreation
Season 6, Episodes 21 and 22
“Moving Up”
In the season finale of Parks and Recreation, everyone is “moving up”, just like the title suggests. Leslie leaves the Pawnee Parks Department and takes a job with the National Parks Department, Tom opens up Tom’s Bistro, and Ben is suddenly cool in the least cool way possible. (The super dorky, super complex board game that Ben invented, “Cones of Dunshire”, has become an unexpected hit.) Continue reading
Email Roundtable #30 – Happy Anniversary Edition
This week marks the 1st Anniversary of The Golden Age of Television blog. We thought we would take a look back at the past year of blogging and look into the future as well.
Continue reading
Email Roundtable #25 – The Friends (but not those Friends) Edition
We are all friends here at The Golden Age of Television. We spend a fair amount of time outside of this space together. This week in a “take home” Email Roundtable we decided to discuss our favourite TV friendships.
Kerri: When I was formulating the question for this week I didn’t give an awful lot of thought to my answer. I knew that I wanted to select a friendship between two or more women but that proved really difficult. Sex and the City presents female friendship in a way that has nothing to do with my own. In fact, I think a lot of shows use friendship (and especially female friendship) improperly. Continue reading
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)
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).
Email Roundtable #21 – No One Likes the Monkey
Kerri: In your estimation has there ever been a good use of pets/animals on TV? Most of the TV pets that I can think of are used strictly as comic relief. Who is your favourite TV pet?
Katie: I can’t think of a pet that has been used for plot purposes, other than teaching kids about death (and teaching parents not to try to replace their child’s dead hamster. They always know.) My favourite TV pet is a pretty obvious choice, but it has to be Eddie from Frasier. That was just such an all around good dog.
Email Roundtable #20 – “I Take Thee, Rachel”: Our Favorite TV Weddings
Our wonderful friends (and blog superstars) Jane and Ivan are getting married. In their honour we attempt to discuss our favorite television weddings. Congrats you crazy kids!
Kerri: This question was really tricky for me because I mostly hate weddings on TV shows (please note that I love weddings in real life because dancing and booze!). They usually serve to end whatever was interesting about a romantic relationship on a show, which is almost always the “getting there” part. There is no more will they/won’t they because the answer is “they will”. The two weddings that somewhat recently happened on Parks and Recreation are exceptions to this rule (see Katie’s post below for more on this). I found them charming and sweet and in keeping with the characters on the show without ruining any of the charm of the characters themselves. Because guess what, I love Leslie Knope without Ben. It’s kinda like that horrible saying about loving yourself before other people can love you. A fully realized character is and should be interesting in or out of a relationship. Continue reading
Email Roundtable #11 – Television New Year’s Resolutions
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.
Yearly Leftovers – my favorite bits and bites from 2012
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.
The Golden Age of Television 