MagneticMediaFed

Cool, filtered, smooth.

You know what’s funny? Smoking! And yet there is so little of it going on these days — almost like it’s some sort of national health risk or something. Honestly, seeing anyone smoke on television these days is strangely shocking — which is one small part of what made Mad Men work so well. No gives a second thought to sex and violence these days. But smoking will turn heads. Why? Well because it looks so damn cool! (And because it will, y’know, kill you) More after the jump…

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It sounds like you’re carrying gravel in a metal pail.

This one snuck up on me. The first act was very Friends ‘97, with the cast getting into some wacky and crazy situations, certain to be resolved in a cool twenty minutes. Marshall wanted to check if he passed the Bar exam, but lost his password. Ted was excited about a new girlfriend but couldn’t understand why his friends hated her. Typical sitcomy stuff, and not terribly funny. More after the jump…

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For the nine people that care (eight besides myself), Damages has been extended for TWO (2!) more seasons. I haven’t the slightest idea how they’ll keep up the good thing they had going this past summer or if the show can possibly succeed without Danson (assuming he doesn’t come back… hopefully he will) but its welcome news nonetheless. If anything it’s an excuse for everyone to catch up when the DVD comes out in a couple months. It’ll be well worth your time.

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The second the Black child (not to be confused with “the black child”) said, “Where’d my gerbil go?” I think just about everyone watching Curb’s sixth season finale immediately said to themselves, I know where this is going. Luckily, by the time it got there (about halfway through the episode) we realized that it didn’t so much matter, other factors were all ready in play. While the episode (which ran about 40 minutes) couldn’t compete with season three’s sucker-punch of a finale (the restaurant opening) in terms of providing a perfectly themed exclamation point for the entire season, I still found it quite good. More after the jump…

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Booger is DEATHPROOF

Aaaaaaaand I’m back. Okay, this post is about a week late, but figured I should go ahead and get it up as something of a declaration of intent. After having bailed on Reaper a few weeks back a friend told me that last Tuesday’s episode was particularly funny and that I should do myself a favor by checking it out. I did and was glad I made the decision. It was funny. Very funny, and not just because it featured Curtis Armstrong and myriad references to old video technology.

Basically this is the Reaper I was hoping we were going to get after seeing the pilot. The episode still followed their structural formula down to the letter, but the tone was so much more playful and fun it didn’t really matter what was happening. If anything it’s given me an incentive to tune in for another episode.

For those who feel this small blurb in incentive enough to check back in (and god bless you for it), suffice to say you’ll be treated to: a pitch-perfect “bachelorette party at a bar,” an retail hideaway built out of backstock (which I’ve actually done), a magical eight-track, a cute girl named Taylor and some of the best Devil scenes to date. Viva Reaper!

Dexter, look out!

Yeah, I wasn’t really feeling this one, but for reasons I’ve stated time and time again — the supporting cast either 1) isn’t that good or 2) is fine but playing characters that are illogical and unnecessarily flat. This week the big story was the amping up of the Doakes/Dexter battle of wits (or fists), and the whole time I kept thinking, “Man, if only I cared one way or another.” More after the jump…

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What’s in the box?

We are so close. Every week the show has improved on the previous episode, inching ever so slowly to its former greatness, but it just isn’t there yet. There were far more problems with this season besides the god-awful murder plotline and most of them have been course-corrected except for that damn murder. Why, Landry? Why couldn’t you have just gone to the cops? I mean, it only makes sense, right? More after the jump…

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At the beginning of the season, I wrote about my low expectations for season premieres, but now during November Sweeps I want the best a show can offer. I might not have invested millions of dollars in ad buys for the month, but I have cozied-up on this cool, crisp fall evening and want to be entertained.

As always, pretty Seattle aerial shots and great music starts the episode (as does a TV-14, SV rating, perfect for Sweeps), and then—eww! George and Izzie are sweaty and panting and in bed. Mer’s voiceover kicks in rasping about physical chemistry; something George and Izzie do not have. They too realize there is a problem and spend the rest of the episode trying to recreate their first rendezvous of drunken, adulterous sex. I stress drunk and adulterous. At least Izzie figured alcohol might be a needed but some actual on-screen chemistry could have helped, too. They should have taken a lesson from this week’s Gossip Girl. More after the jump…

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“I fashioned my hat back into my pants.”

Steve Carell gets Michael Scott. I mean, really understands the man. Since he also happens to play Michael Scott it is expected that his level of understanding should, in fact, be a tad deeper than most, so perhaps I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am by how well he writes Michael Scott. Carell, who penned Thursday’s episode, captures like few can the duality of Michael Scott’s idiocy and humanity — how the character can be so overcome with jealousy he (pardon the expression) can’t see the forest for the trees, and yet can snap back to reality at a moments notice. More after the jump…

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“You can’t fire the wind.”

NBC, home of quality network programming and the world’s absolute worst promotions department, reached into their bag of not-so-magical tricks once again and this time pulled out “Green Week,” an idiotic excuse to jump on the buzzword bandwagon and pretend the network which airs high-school-magic-show Phenomenon is actually concerned with the ecological fate of the earth and not, y’know, the numbers for 18-34 year old albino, latin females. God bless, 30 Rock for taking the whole network down a peg or two while simulatenously delivering one of the funniest half-hours of television this fall. More after the jump…

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“I have a very popular television name.

If motivation is the basis for all good drama, then Chuck is by far the most interesting character in the Gossip Girl world of wealthy teenage tomfoolery. While everyone else bumps around aimlessly, making mountains of molehills, Chuck knows what he wants and is willing to do whatever he can to get it. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s completely self-destructive. Self-destruction also happens to make great drama. More after the jump…

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Holy moly!

I think it’s safe to say that Dave is the man. First he demonstrates his mad back-handspring skills at a party, then gets two kisses (on the lips!) from the incredibly perky Jasmine, followed by the shocking (and maybe a little stomach-churning) act of him ripping his shirt open during the salsa dance competition. I haven’t seen skin that blinding since the summer I worked at a camp for radioactive children (eh-hem, sorry, I’ve been working on my Family Guy spec). More after the jump…

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This show is crazy. Crazy good. Well, at least crazy good-ish. While this is only the second episode I’ve ever seen, I’m immediately drawn to the relationship at the core of the series, that of the strangely hostile give and take between McNamara and Troy. For two best friends they seem endlessly ready to destroy the life of the other, and yet right there under the surface is the whiff of homoeroticism. They’re first in love with themselves, then in love with each other. Everything else, I suppose, is icing. More after the jump…

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This was finally the episode that most fans have been waiting for. There was little wasted screentime, stories that paid off, season-long ideas that came to a close, the first signs of plots coming together, and a big reveal at the end, that although I saw coming, still completely made sense from a story standpoint, and had been building for the whole season. And there were no terrible effects this week, save for Nikki’s superpunch that sent Mohinder flying into the wall, but only managed to give him a bandaged nose. More after the jump…

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Just a big Ruse

I’m always amazed after taking in an episode of The Hills at how little actually happens in a given 22-minute episode. It’s a show built almost exclusively around reaction shots — almost to the point where all one is seeing is reactions to other people’s reaction. It’s kind of awesome. More after the jump…

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