The Hour 2

the hour 2

One of the things I used to do at Cinema Sentries is review television series that were made in countries not named The United States of America. I love movies from around the world, and I’ve learned to love television from across the globe as well.

The Hour was a British series about a news show from the 1960s, and the struggles it undergoes trying to report hard news rather than fluff pieces. That sounds rather boring, but the series is excellent. Reading my review just now reminds me of how much I liked it and makes me want to watch it again.

The Flash (2014): The Complete Eighth Season

the flash season 8

I’ve mentioned before that we are big fans of The Flash in my house, and I believe I also mentioned that the show was starting to wear thin. Season Eight furthered my thoughts in this regard. It is really starting to become a chore to sit through and that’s not good for any show. Season Nine will be its final season and I’m definitely glad. I’m sure I’ll watch it because I’d like to see it through to the end, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, which is such a shame.

Anyway, here’s my review of the entire season eight.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Sixth Season

legends of tomorrow complete sixth season

I’m working my way through all of the Cinema Sentries reviews I’ve done over the years in reverse chronological order. This means you will get to read my Arrowverse reviews backward. I guess that’s fun, especially because I like the earlier seasons much more than the later ones. Click here to read my review of the sixth season of Legends.

The Flash: The Complete Seventh Season

the flash

I’m a big fan of The Flash television series. I’ve been watching long than any other show in the Arrowverse. Which is why I was so bummed out when the Seventh Season turned out to be kind of terrible. Part of this was due to the Covid-19 Pandemic screwing with their ability to make the show like they usually do, part of it was because a whole lot of the cast decided to leave, but mostly it is because the show seems to be running out of ideas. You can read my full review here.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Seventh and Final Season

legends of tomorrow

We’re big fans of the Arrowverse in my house. My favorite show in that universe is Legends of Tomorrow. It started out kind of slow, but eventually realized that it could lean into the inherent ridiculousness that a series about b-level superheroes flying through time is about and in doing so it became kind of awesome. Anyway, I reviewed the final season of the series for Cinema Sentries and you can read it here.

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

the simpsons movie

The local paper’s review of the Simpsons Movie stated that it was just like the show, only longer. After reading it I said to my wife, “I hope it is like the show during the early seasons, and not so much like the last few years.”

It is pretty obvious I am a fan of the show. I talk about it all the time, I quote it regularly, I’ve pretty much based my life philosophy around Homer Simpson, and I practically reviewed the entire 18^th season (sorry that review is no longer available, Mat).

When the Simpsons are good, there is nothing better on television, and even when they are bad they are good for a few laughs. Unfortunately, since about season 8 they have been steadily moving towards the latter end of that statement. The show has moved from a cutting-edge satire with an underlying heart that made it not only incredibly hilarious but a rock-solid piece of storytelling. These days it hangs on by throwing a million gags out at once.

Sometimes those gags are brilliant, but all too often they make me laugh and then immediately forget them. And the show really lacks the heart it used to have. There is still a lot of cheap sentiment thrown in, but the storylines are so off the wall and jagged, that the sentiment falls flat.

Unfortunately, the movie is more like the last few seasons than the first few. Oh, I laughed and laughed heartily many a time, but nothing has really stayed with me. I didn’t walk out of the theatre repeating my favorite jokes, and now two days later, there is hardly anything memorable about it at all.

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. I laughed a lot and it was fun to see my favorite four-fingered cartoon characters on the big screen, it’s just that it could have been so much more. On television, every season I hope that the Simpsons will turn it around and become brilliant again. Every season I am ultimately disappointed. But I keep coming back. I keep watching.

Even though I knew the movie wouldn’t be as brilliant as it could be I kept hoping that they would bring in old writers and they would come up with something remarkable. Like the longer deadlines and the bigger budgets would somehow improve the quality.

I will say it looked beautiful. They say they used traditional animation for most of it but used some CGI for the backgrounds. Whatever they did the Simpsons looked better than they ever have before, without looking too improved or big-budgeted (like in the Halloween special, “Homer³.”)

I was slightly surprised that they didn’t go overboard with the freedom that being away from television censors allows. There were a couple of bigger curse words and a funny if inappropriate moment where Bart shows more than his famous naked tooshie. But they could have done much more yet somehow showed some surprising restraint in that front.

Lots of main characters were left out, and while I can’t blame them for not trying to throw every single character in for a one-liner, I still wish Moe and Principal Skinner had more of a presence. Using Arnold Schwarzenegger as President may be a better gag, but I think it would have been more fitting to have used Rainier Wolfcastle for the part (as he’s the Simpsons parody of Arnold anyway.)

I could go on. There are lots of things to quibble with, but mostly they are beside the point. The Simpsons are finally on the big screen. For fans this is a big deal, and they do deliver lots of laughs. For those who find themselves loving more recent seasons, this will be a real treat. For those wishing they’d stop signing contracts, you can expect some laughs, but mostly disappointment.

Dreamin’ Songs – “Believe It Or Not” By George Costanza

Yeah, that’s right. The song stuck in my head is the Seinfeld spoof where George’s answering machine is him singing the theme song to the Greatest American Hero with lyrics changed to match an I’m-not-home message.

I loved Greatest American Hero growing up. I don’t really remember much about it except for the red suit and how the guy never could really fly. I picked up season 1 from the library but didn’t get past the first episode.

Some things are better left to nostalgia.

The Seinfeld episode is the one where George’s girlfriend takes him to a ball in a beautiful dress and George thinks this is his one chance to make a great entrance. Of course, George now thinks the girl is trying to break up with him, so he is avoiding her. We hear the answering machine’s outgoing message (one too many times) as he is screening his calls.

Not a bad episode, but not a great one either.

I saw that episode not too many days ago and I guess it got recycled in my sleep.

Studio 60 Is Back, Not That They Want Anyone To Know

studio 60 on the sunset strip

So, I am piddling around at my parent’s house, where they actually subscribe to a daily paper, and keep the weekly TV Guide thing (not TV Guide, mind you, but the big local guide that comes every Sunday.) I start checking out the Thursday show listings, for what else is there to do in Oklahoma, but watch TV. Lo and behold I see Studio 60 listed, and it is noted as new.

What the crap! When did this happen? I knew it was on hiatus for a while, but it seems like they might have told someone that it was coming back on. I wound up missing it on the TV but decided to check it out online. As I am watching I realize that there is, in fact, another episode up that must have aired last week.

Seriously, how did this happen? Dude, I’m a fan of the show. One of the last few remaining, and I didn’t even know it was back. I love how they do this – here’s a show with plummeting ratings so they put it on hiatus, hoping to air it again after all the big shows have had their seasonal runs. This way it will be rerun time and maybe more folks will watch the show. Except they don’t actually tell anyone it is on and no one watches it.

Maybe they did run ads and I missed them. I have to admit I haven’t been watching a lot of TV lately as it has become rerun season, and I have been busy. But still…

I have no desire to give either episode a run down but will say the first one was actually sweet and funny, and enjoyable. A good return to form. While the most recent showed a whole lot more than we’ve ever seen of the show within a show, I now have to agree with all the naysayers – it isn’t funny.

Lost – Season 3 Finale – “Through The Looking Glass”

lost through the looking glass Spoilers Ahead.

I know it has been a long time since I wrote about TV and I am a week late in talking about the Lost season finale, but it was so good and there is a funny story involving the lateness, so here we go.

My wife and I have been diligently watching this season of Lost since it started. Every Wednesday we make sure we are home so we can catch it first thing. Well, this past Wednesday we were invited over to some friend’s house for dinner after church.

The debate began shortly after. In my head, I believed that there was in fact another episode after that week, so it wasn’t finale time, but close to it. We thought about declining the offer and going home to watch Lost. Then we thought about going home to record it and then coming to dinner. Lastly, we knew ABC would be showing the episode on their website and we could watch it there.

Of course, it is rude to decline a dinner invitation for a television show, but we did consider it. But seeing as we had just dropped the China bomb, it felt especially rude. I knew that if I ran home to tape it, I would just wind up staying there as I was tired. Quite tired, actually. I’ve watched episodes online before, and they always worked out well, so we decided on that option.

The dinner was good and the conversation was nice.

It was actually a few days later before we got to watch the episode online. Apparently, there was a pre-episode clip show before the actual finale and this is what we watched online. And I use the term watch loosely, as I wound up fast-forwarding through a lot of it since it all seemed kind of pointless. I don’t need them to recap, as I’ve watched every episode adamantly.

Kind of bummed that this episode was a recap episode, I readied myself with anticipation for the finale on what would be the very evening that I am now typing this.

As I wrote before, I am now at the parent’s house in Oklahoma. Grandchildren roamed freely in the afternoon and I pulled out the TV Guide to check the times for the finale. Folks are in a different time zone you see, and I wanted to make sure I got the timing right for my viewing.

But it wasn’t listed. There was some dumb celebrity reality thing on instead. What the…? Where is my Lost? I checked Thursday and Friday in case it was switched to a new night. Then I went to the website. There was nothing anywhere about the time for the season finale.

I couldn’t figure it out. I went to tvguide.com and looked up Lost. They too didn’t have time for tonight but had an episode guide. The last listing was for last week and it noted that it was the finale.

Crap, how did this happen? I went back to ABC and clicked on their watching format. Ah, there were two episodes listed for Lost that night and the second seemed to be the finale. A quick e-mail to the wife to let her know and then I watched.

As per usual on my TV comments, I shall spoil.

Holy crap! That was awesome.

I gotta say this season has kind of disappointed me. The first section before the break had some great moments, but learning all that stuff about the Others kind of zapped their potency. They were great characters when we knew nothing. Learning about them, and even almost caring for them kind of ruined their venom.

After the break there were moments of brilliance, but also a few downers. I loved the way the new guys were buried alive, but the whole they knew more than we realized seemed kind of pointless as, well, they died.

But this was Lost at its finest. I won’t go into the details of the episode (which you can find on Wikipedia) but will give some impressions.

From the previous episode I was pretty sure Charlie was going to die. Still, it was a very emotional scene and I still felt that jolt of shock. This was especially true since moments before we had the fake murder of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. While I’m glad they aren’t dead as I love Sayid and Jin, I felt cheated about the fake. There wasn’t enough reason for the Others to not follow the order.

Hurley had such a wonderful moment though, rescuing them with the bus. He has been so unused lately, and it was an obvious setup since nobody wanted him for help, but still a great ovation moment.

Beautiful, momentous scenes in the underwater vessel. Desmond is still my hero.

Locke is my new Gandalf rising from the grave. I still say he is the key to it all.

Lots of death, man. I say “finally.” Some Others needed dying. It never made sense to me that so many were left to live when it seems in reality our Losties would be pissed and murderous a few more times than reality.

Who is on the boat, dudes?

Can’t wait until next season.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: Season 1, Episode 10 – “B-12”

studio 60 b12

This week’s episode was another jumble of time frames. Unlike the Nevada Day episode, it didn’t start with a large culmination of events and then backtracked to give us an understanding of what happened. Rather it was more like Pulp Fiction in that it moved backwards and forwards within one week.

Honestly, I spent the first 2/3rds of the episode cursing that it was yet again using an odd time sequence, and yet in the last third the payoff was so good that I am now praising the technique.

The episode begins with the opening monologue of the show within the show. Howie Mandell is the guest host and he declares that he’s looking forward to leaving behind Deal or No Deal for the night and getting back to his improvisational comedy roots. Danny Tripp then comes on the stage, critiquing his monologue and bringing with him two ladies carrying numbered briefcases. The gag is Howie has to choose one case like on his game show. Tripp even pretends to get a call from the banker.

It reminded me a lot of most Saturday Night Live opening monologues in that it was really silly and not very funny at all.

During this bit, the camera moves backstage and we see that most of the cast has contracted a nasty little virus. They are all being injected with a B-12 booster shot to allow them to make it through the night.

Once Tripp is off stage he is handed a note from Matt stating “5 dead in Grosse Point.”

The reporter, Martha O’Dell is back, and Tripp tries to have it out with her over the story she wrote. It seems she wrote that Tom’s latest movie was a failure and cites the anonymous Aint It News commenter, Dilbert27 as her source. This infuriates Tripp as it doesn’t seem professional to him. Despite Tripp’s protest, Martha has complete access to the show and remains unphased by his harassment.

Matt gives Lucy and Darius the chance to write a single sketch for the show involving a bumbled robbery/hostage attempt. The two are completely unprepared and nervous so Matt brings in an old show writer, one described by Tripp as “very serious.” He is, in fact, very serious and stoic, but he turns into a great mentor for the two freshman writers.

He abuses them and scolds them and ultimately talks Matt into letting them see if performed during the Friday rehearsal. It bombs, as he knew it would but figures this in the only way to instill the fear of god into them and make them write a good sketch. It does and it is slated to run on Saturday.

Through various flashbacks we see everyone engrossed in an ongoing news story about a man holding his family hostage.

Harriett has been inducted into the Falstaff society and at her ceremony she is required to tell a joke. Turns out she can’t tell a joke worth crap. In several hilarious scenes, we see Matt giving her a joke only to have her butcher it completely with her faulty memory and terrible timing.

Jack and Jordan have it out over her personal life getting in the way and she finally agrees to do a Time interview to try to smooth things out. It goes extremely poorly as she first tries to make jokes for answers and ultimately rails against him for making assumptions about how the industry is working against her.

Matt tries to rile Tripp up over a bad joke concerning the B-12 and how it cannot be taken by someone pregnant.

Dylan collapses just after the completely unfunny Bachelor in Rome skit in which he is dressed as a woman.

Unfortunately, the freshman skit about the bumbling criminal cannot be performed due to the sad news about the 5 dead in Grosse Pointe.

Jordan breaks down in Tripp’s office but refuses to take the B-12 and the night’s bombshell comes out that she is pregnant. This was a little sleight of hand by the marketing department as all the previews made this look like she was indeed fired.

Both instances completed the off-kilter time use and created a very moving couple of moments.

Review: ****

The queer timelines ultimately paid off. In retrospect, I like this episode more and more as it really demonstrated Sorkin’s ability to write a good story and interweave all the various lines. The show moved back into serious drama territory but managed to score some very nice comedy with Harriett bumbling her joke.