Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2010

Five Questions for Mad Men Season 4

The end of Mad Men ’s Season 3 saw Don Draper’s work and home life in a state of flux. He’s entering a world without Betty and into a new business with familiar faces. With this universe upheaval comes some questions for the season premiere airing this Sunday on AMC at 10pm. 1.What’s ahead for Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce? When Roger and Don stood in the gutted Sterling Cooper offices at the beginning/end of their coup Roger asked, "How long do you think it'll take us to be in a place like this again?" to which Don replied, "I never saw myself working in a place like this." We can probably assume the days of hard drinking, endless partying and general debauchery are over in the new company. Who would they party with anyway? There’s so few of them. But it also means an end to doing business the old way. Don has always been a master salesman; it’s his true gift. But after the falling out with Conrad Hilton, I can’t help but think the new agency will g

Huge Reaction - Live Action Role Play (I wish the real world would just stop hassling me)

I’m excited to lose weight, I think. I just can’t imagine what it will be like, if it’ll actually change anything. - Alistair “Live Action Role Play” showed us each character seeking a little power in his or her life, real or fantasy. All of these kids came to Camp Victory to lose weight, but beyond that, they’ve also come seeking something else. Whether it’s love, friendship or confidence they’ve come looking for a way to feel accepted, which isn’t easy for everyone. Because even at Camp Victory, solely populated by a group of kids who’ve surely been picked on their entire lives, some still can’t help reveling in the ability to finally be the one throwing sticks and stones rather than deflecting them, making Alistair’s quote even more prescient. Read the rest of my reaction at CinemaBlend . .

Friday Night Lights Reaction - I Can't (The Kids Aren't Alright)

"I Can't" dealt with two heavy issues without ever getting heavy handed about any debate. Instead, the writers focused on kids making adult choices. Above all, Friday Night Lights is a story about growing up and Becky and Vince were forced into impossible situations. Continue reading my full reaction at CinemaBlend .

Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Drama Screws the Pooch

I'm not asking a great deal from the Emmy's. I generally don't care too much. But when two clearly undeserving shows make the list over two of the best shows of the season? Then my friends, we have a problem. Read the entire rant on CinemaBlend .

Huge Reaction - Letters Home

“Letters Home” began to explore the pain these kids feel concerning the outside world while they continue to find their own place in Camp Victory. If the outside world has chosen to mock and deride these kids for their weight, Camp Victory forces them into the very situations with which they’ve become the most uncomfortable. There is logic in this strategy. After all, once a camper leaves Victory, the same problems still exist. So goal one seems to be “lose weight.” But goal two is “learn to deal, because the world’s a mean place.” You can read the rest of my reaction at CinemaBlend .

Friday Night Lights Reaction - The Lights of Carroll Park (I feel a lot better now)

"The Lights of Carroll Park embodied much of what we've come to know and love about Friday Night Lights. Finally taking to the time to explore the pain behind Vince's struggle to do right made a character out of just a role. You can read the rest of my reaction on CinemaBlend television.

American Idol Review - The Top Two (Is the winner clear? Crystal)

Tonight wrapped up a down year for Idol in terms of talent. I know that's been written about ad nauseum, but it's true. Thankfully, the best two made it to the finals and had decent performances tonight. Read my reaction at CinemaBlend where I break down each song.

24 Finale Reaction - The Final Beeps (Thanks Jack)

Last night was the series finale of 24. Jack spent his last hours as a man on a mission and the show wrapped up a remarkable, and groundbreaking run. Jack was always a symbol of justice (however flawed the means) and stayed true to his character throughout the show's run. Check out my reaction to the last moments of the real-time classic on CinemaBlend .

Lost Reaction - The End (A World Apart)

One of my biggest fears in recent memory centered on whether the Lost series finale would live up to expectation. After all, like you, I’d spent incalculable hours over the last six years watching, reading about, discussing, re-watching, re-discussing, analyzing and writing about a series that defied so many television conventions that it probably entered into a genre all its own (serial, sci-fi comicbook romance we’ll call it). I didn’t know what my expectation was exactly, and I wasn’t the kind of person who sat on the edge of my seat waiting to hear why exactly Walt was so special or why in God’s name the writers ever decided to introduce Dogen and the Temple-ites so late in the game only to kill them off. I’m a classic nitpicker, but for the Lost finale I was willing to just go along for the ride. So I was afraid, not that my questions wouldn’t be answered, but that the finale would instead leave me wanting too much more of something I knew I’d never get. It was an almost imp

Friday Night Lights Reaction - After the Fall (Picking up the pieces)

"After the Fall" is exactly where this week's episode picked up, a day after the characters had reached new lows. Coach Taylor forfeited, Riggins is homeless and Saracen doesn't know which direction he's headed Click here to read the rest at Cinemablend.

Friday Night Lights Reaction - East of Dillon

Although Friday Night Lights has already run its course on DirectTv this year, the show returned to NBC on Friday to begin its fourth season. Simply stated, Friday Night Lights is on the short list of best television shows out there right now. It is a program that clicks on almost every conceivable level from dramatic, to humorous, to touching, to tough, to redeeming. Friday Night Lights sets the bar extremely high for what a network, hour-long drama can accomplish if given the freedom to create something outside the normal realm of crime-solving stand alones. Coach Taylor’s (and half the town’s students) move to newly reopened but overly dilapidated East Dillon High (with its equally rundown supply of quality football players) has the town divided between the haves and have nots. When the town redistricted, at the behest and direction of Joe McCoy: the wealthy thug and father of suddenly very douchebaggy, star quarterback J.D., it set in motion an outline of how far down people a

Lost - Sundown: The Long Journey Right Back to the Middle

Either the Lost writers are total geniuses and are building to something so unbelievably awesome that I can’t conceivably predict what it might be; or more likely, they have totally gone off the rails and spent the last couple of years throwing darts at an “idea board” in the hope that something would stick. After last night’s “Sundown,” I am going with the latter. I have a great deal of patience with Lost; even writing last week that I was content to sit back and watch the cards fall as they may. I wrote about how my patience level remained intact because of the character development-focus this season had employed. And then I watched “Sundown,” and instantly dismissed any positive collateral I’d kept from “The Lighthouse.” “Sundown” was a classic example of marketing a solution to a problem needlessly created. Think: cutting down trees that could fall on powerlines. It makes no sense to punish the tree for our own folly. This is exactly what Lost has done with Esau AKA Dead

This Rotten Week - Alice and Brooklyn's Finest

Do you know what people do when they hit rock bottom? When they're out of options? When they find themselves in their backyard, in a t-shirt, in the middle of winter getting pelted with tomatoes because they're convinced of some movie critic conspiracy out to get them? What do they do? They get help and go back for some more. That's what they do. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Rules of Engagement Season 3 Review

I realized something pretty quickly while watching the first minute of Rules of Engagement's Season Three premiere: I don't watch any shows with laugh tracks. I hadn't really thought about this at all until the first line of the episode. Patrick Warburton and David Spade sat around in a diner, one of them said something supposedly witty and the "studio audience" erupted in laughter. I almost did a double take. Had it really been that long since I watched a show where I was, in essence, being told when to laugh? Click here to continue reading this review on Cinemablend.

American Idol Reaction - Top 12 Guys

Tonight the Top 12 guys performed on Idol. To say it was rough would be a massive understatement. At this point I can safely plug Casey James and Andrew Garcia into the next round. Otherwise almost every other performer tonight could take a hike and I wouldn’t bat an eye (believe me, it’s no secret these two went last tonight). Click here to read the rest of the post on CinemaBlend.

Lost Reaction - The Lighthouse

If we learned something from the "The Lighthouse" it was this: sometimes just sitting back and listening is the best way to find the most important answers. I can imagine Lost fans are reaching their breaking point. With every episode that goes by and some major question isn’t answered the more people are tuning in and thinking, “What the hell is going on here?!?! Get on with it already!” I was definitely right in the same boat. Every time a Lost promo promised to have “Questions answered,” I got my hopes up a little more that I’d learn everything Island-related. Typically I’d leave each episode frustrated. Until last night. I decided to take a new approach. Like a performing a trust fall where I needed to assume someone was there to catch me when I fell back blindly; I’ve decided to do the same with the Lost writers. I decided to just sit back, relax and trust that the writers would take care of the rest. “The Lighthouse” was the perfect episode to start this new

24 Reaction - 12AM-1AM

Tonight 24 went back to its roots. Last second misses and ridiculous storylines abound. Click here to read about Jack and his new girlfriend.

How to Make it in America - Crisp

The second episode of this new HBO dramedy keeps the ball rolling with a strong showing. I am officially on board. Click here to read the rest on CinemaBlend.

This Rotten Week

This week the Rotten Watch takes a look at Cop Out and the Crazies. Its going to be a rotten week. Click here to read the full article at CinemaBlend.

American Idol - The first half of the Top 24

And it only took us two hours to get there. What a freaking bore. Click here to read the rest of the reaction on CinemaBlend.

This Rotten Week - My new CinemaBlend feature

Each week I will be contributing This Rotten Week to CinemaBlend. Read more. Click here to read this week's predictions and click here to read last week's .