I was pointed to a short lived British tv series a few days ago and really enjoyed it. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace only lasted six episodes but apparently it has became more popular since. It has an odd style to it which makes it look like a cheezy 1980’s sitcom. There is intentionally bad dialogue, jokes, editing and other jokes which make it so over the top yet enjoyable.
While there were only a few episodes I think this might have been a good thing as they might have tried too hard and ruined the series by continuing with the gag.
Here’s a clip of the first episode. If you enjoy it, you will probably be able to find the rest on YouTube.
Every South Park episode is now online and legal for people to watch (here’s the article). I’m a huge fan of the show even though I have only like one episode from this season so far. Who can’t like a reference to the 1981 film “Heavy Metal” or saying you can get high off cat piss?
I was disappointed when I went to the official site that has every episode online as you can not watch them in Canada. However this site also seems to have every episode online and you can watch them regardless of your country.
I have started watching the tv show Carnivale after I found the first season on DVD for cheap. What is with HBO and making great tv shows (such as Oz and Lucky Louie)? I almost feel bad for bitching about them producing the shit bomb “Sex and the City”, but not quite.
The show takes place during the 1930’s depression in the southern United States. A carnivale goes from town to town but some of the characters have special powers such as being able to heal, see the past or future and to see into dreams. It has a gothic feel to it and an intriguing and captivating story line. In this way it reminds me of arguably my favorite tv series of all time “Twin Peaks“.
The only actor on the show I recognized was Michael J. Anderson who is a dwarf actor. This is kind of weird because I recognize him from the show Twin Peaks and Carnivale kind of reminds me of this show.
South Park Season 12 begins on March 12, 2008. It is one of the few shows that has had a long run on television that I still watch. I use to be a huge fan of The Simpsons but for some reason, it doesn’t interest me as much anymore. The writing and plots aren’t bad they just seem too generic in a sense. As for Family Guy, well if you ever saw the episode of South Park where they make fun of Family Guy, that’s what it has become.
I realized during the writing of this blog that I have no way of watching the new South Park other than downloading it. Although I do have cable and access to other television shows I tend to download tv episodes more than I watch them on television. I don’t really know the reason why I do this either. Maybe because there isn’t commercials in tv shows that are downloaded and/or the ability to play/pause them and watch them whenever I want.
This led me to think about if something is eventually going to happen to combat this downloading of television shows. I don’t mean legal action as I believe the stopping of downloading television shows will never completely occur. A large portion of revenue for television networks comes from commercials and with these downloaded shows the commercials are cut out. Instead I was thinking if television networks would end up trying to make revenue through the use of product placements in popular television shows. It has already occured but I am wondering if it will amped up a bit and reach a point of ridiculousness.
I’m in a hurry to do some things today so I will leave you with this interesting article I was sent today. Basically it is about this guy who can do things at extremely low temperatures that would probably kill other people:
Yesterday I was given a link to an online comedy series called Yacht Rock. It is a comedy show that involves the music scene from the 70s and 80s with an emphasis on soft rockers. These soft rockers are referred to as belong to “Yacht Rock” and include such artists as Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan and Toto. Unfortunately only eleven episodes of this show were made though.
If you know a decent amount of music history from this era the show is awesome. Here is the website where you can find ten of the episodes. The eleventh episode is on YouTube. Be warned that there is vulgar language on this show which may offend some people.
I just finished watching the HBO series “Oz” a few days ago. While it aired on HBO for six seasons (1997-2003) I did not watch it until it came out to dvd and I saw it on sale for cheap a few months ago. Once I finished the first season I was hooked and it was all I watched for two months. I would finish a season, go out and buy the next, until I finished it. While it did air for six years the series was fairly short with 56 episodes made. Compare this to a tv show like NYPD Blue which ran for twice as long (12 seasons) but has 261 episodes. Then again it is common for HBO to have seasons of tv shows with fewer episodes.
I had a friend who raved about the show and initially I was skeptical of it. Although the show gained lots of attention from the media for the male nudity in it, I’ll admit that I thought that this was an excuse for the show to gain attention. Sort of like a “shocking” thing to do but didn’t add to the plot. Once again, the media over hyped this aspect of the show. Most of the time the nudity that occurs is when a prisoner is thrown into the “hole” and it is not sexual at all.
Towards the end of its run, the show did seem to have some ideas that were a bit unrealistic. I admit that it is a tv show and not real life but it seemed like the writers may have been running out of ideas (kind of like how The Simpsons have been lately). However the last season of the show, specifically the last 4 episodes, are amazing and make it worth watching the few unrealistic episodes worthwhile.
Also to anyone who has seen Oz then Juno, was it weird for them to see J.K. Simmons (Vern Schillinger on Oz and less noticable as J.J. Jameson on Spiderman) in the movie? I know it’s just a role but I got so accustomed to his using of racial slurs in Oz that it was weird seeing him in Juno and not uttering an ethnic slur in every sentence.
Wonder Showzen only lasted two years and only 16 episodes were ever made. It aired on MTV2 and combined animation and puppetry to create a twisted show. The best way to describe it would be to think of a totally warped Sesame Street that isn’t for kids. An example of the twisted humor of the show is that in one episode, Chauncey (the host), must try and stop Mother Nature from having a sex change.
The show is unique and twisted. Most of the people I know who have watched it don’t know if they like it or hate it, yet they want to watch another episode. It is disturbing to watch many of the segments because they remind you of segments on Sesame Street but you know something twisted is around the corner.
This might be offensive to some people for religious reasons.
The Wonder Years was one of those television shows that I never really watched as a kid even though I was around when it did. It aired from 1988 to 1993 so I was five to ten at the time. I remember hearing some kids talk about it at school and vaguely remember watching parts of it but wasn’t a regular viewer of it.
The first time I remember watching it on a regular basis was during a summer between Grade 7 and 8. It aired two times on CBC in the afternoon and another time at like 2:00 or 3:00 AM. I remember trying to stay awake to watch these late night episodes and most of the time I either fell asleep or got in shit from my parents for being up so late and then “sleeping in until noon the next day”.
The show had real moments which other sitcoms seem to ignore. In one episode, Kevin Arnold is constantly getting yelled at his dad for no reason. Not until he job shadows with his dad and sees his dad getting yelled at by his boss does he come to understand the reason behind his dad’s frustrations.
The show does not appear to becoming to DVD any time soon due to the cost of obtaining the rights to the music that aired on the show. Anyone who has seen the show should remember the classic songs that played on it. They were songs that were from the generation the show was placed in (1968-1973). If you can’t remember, this site has a list of songs played in each episode. The songs played a crucial role in the episode. Another tv show, WKRP in Cincinnati, that featured classic rock songs took them out for the dvd release and many fans were disappointed about this. Hopefully this does not happen with The Wonder Years if it is released but odds are it will.
As there are no official dvd releases and I don’t know of any tv stations which play the show regularly, I had to *ahem* find the episodes online. Many of the episodes are old VHS copies which people have transferred to a computer which normally annoys me but for some odd reason it adds to the nostalgia. It is like when I was younger and bored I would sometimes dig through old VHS tapes of tv shows I recorded that were now 5+ years old. Even though they weren’t the best quality, it had the warm feeling of memories from when you were younger that were associated with it which at times were better than the shows.
Every once in a while a tv show comes along that I end up loving but it only lasts one or two seasons. Wonderfalls and Twin Peaks are two examples of these shows that only lasted a few seasons. Unfortunately I did not watch either of them until they were cancelled and available on dvd.
Lucky Louie on the otherhand, I watched from the very first episode and was really bummed out when it was cancelled. Starring comedian Louis CK, Pamela Adlon, Jim Norton, Rick Shapiro and Jerry Minor, it was an honest and real comedy show. It was not well received by critics which I wouldn’t mind except that many of them had the same complaint about the show: there was too much profanity and it was vulgar. I would understand if critics said it was not funny as humor is a subjective thing. However, this show aired on HBO which is known for pushing the limits on television shows and most of its viewers know that. Critics have praised other HBO shows such as Deadwood, Oz and Sex and the City which between the three contain violence, graphic language, and nudity (both male and female). Personally I find this a somewhat hypocritical excuse by the critics in saying why they didn’t like the show. This played a role in why the show was cancelled after one season.
I enjoy the show because it seems real to me. A married couple who hates each other, have problems with their sex life, have a bratty kid and money problems. It’s too bad it only lasted one season.
Once again this is NSFW due to language and subject matter some may find offensive. If you enjoyed it, check out other clips on YouTube or buy the dvd.
Posted by 82muchf00d 
Posted by 82muchf00d 
Posted by 82muchf00d 
