MagneticMediaFed

Just when you thought the writer’s strike had sucked out the very last drop of interesting scripted television this year, AMC goes ahead and delivers to us Breaking Bad, a new hour-long drama starring Malcolm in the Middle’s Bryan Cranston as a science teacher who starts cooking meth to supliment his income. The network, which was previously known for categorizing “Cat Woman” as an American Movie Classic, now has a lot to live up to after delivering Mad Men to us last summer — one of the best new shows of the decade.

Frankly I don’t know what to expect from Breaking Bad (foolishly, I missed my opportunity to catch a press-preview of the episode earlier this week), but I have to say I’m optimistic. Cranston was great recently in guest spots on How I Met Your Mother and I look forward to seeing him do drama. I’m also hoping the show proves to be a more down-to-earth, less self-destructive version of Weeds. We’ll find out on Sunday.

Breaking Bad starts this Sunday (January 20th) at 10:00pm EST on AMC.

Image via apple.com

Right now we’re mid-cycle when it comes to new and exciting technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show that wrapped up last week in Las Vegas the “sweeping technological innovation” seemed to be ridiculously thin televisions, a product whose actual benefits can be measured with a six-inch plastic ruler. Even my beloved Apple couldn’t find a way to properly dazzle us Tuesday at this year’s Macworld Expo. What was the big product? A thin laptop. Are we really this short on space? (Those who have seen my bedroom… ladies… probably shouldn’t answer.)

Having a couple days to mull it over, I’ve started to realize that the gem of Macworld was not the MacBook Air, but instead the companies revamped Apple TV — a product that still isn’t quite ready for prime time but does give us a very realistic look at how the television experience could change (soon). More after the jump…

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TBS’s 10 Items or Less premiered on the network for five episodes back in December of 2006. The series, which focuses on the employees and perhaps not-too-competent manager of a family-owned grocery store, was co-created by and stars John Lehr. Lehr first showed up on my radar back in the mid-nineties as characters in those first three Noah Baumbach films (Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy, Highball), and would always be one of those actors who would appear in a series causing me to point at the screen and say, “Oh, hey!” (He played Christina Applegate’s brother on Jesse, hosted ABC’s reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, and has appeared on Friends and Once & Again amongst others). With 10 Items or Less, which returns to TBS for a second season on Tuesday January 15th, Lehr seems to have found the perfect project to play off of his rather extensive background in improvisation. Last week Lehr took some time to talk with MagneticMediaFed about the show’s second season, why he prefers improv to scripted dialogue and the type of audience he hopes his show will reach. Read the full interview after the jump…

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A spherical head

I suppose this is something of a holdover from Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, but I’ve been thinking about it since the AP called the race for Hillary Clinton. Let me set the scene: My roommate and I are watching MSNBC’s coverage because we’re both hopelessly addicted/in love to/with Tim Russert and I find Keith Olberman fine enough. We’re kind of doing that thing where we’re half watching the slowly creeping numbers of their various on-screen graphics and half making fun of everything on screen despite the fact that not-so-deep-down we clearly love all of this and don’t want it to end. Then the AP calls the race for Hillary Clinton and the night is ostensibly over. But instead of flipping off the television I flip back over to CNN to see what Wolf “They’re so black” Blitzer has to say about things. What they had to say was that CNN “was not prepared to call the race for Mrs. Clinton.” GAME ON! More after the jump…

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Pencils down?

Last night I was watching the return of both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Both shows came back without their writers despite desperately trying to make their own deal with the union, and one could tell… kinda. Your typical episode of either of those programs is highly written. Last night it felt like the shows were half-written. The hosts were clearly out there trying to make something out of nothing, but at the same time, there were plenty of well-timed jokes and video pieces and by damn if it didn’t seem like there was at least some sort of script they were going by. Frankly, I found the whole thing very confusing. Was there writing taking place? Is this aloud? Doesn’t even a little writing kind of hurt the writer’s cause? The rules seems so complex. Originally I was thinking these late-night shows were really going to crack this thing wide open and make the AMPTP go back to the table. They would expose the hideousness and hypocrisy of the network stooges, but instead Jay is doing the same show he’s always done, Letterman has the artillery but isn’t turning the screws and now Stewart and Colbert are producing a half-wattage show that appears to neither sting the opposition nor illustrate a world where they simply can’t survive without their writing staff. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Is it wrong to think the shows that were forced back on the air without their writers should be taking a dive — that the hosts should be intentionally tanking to force everyone back to the bargaining table? Oh, I should say here that I am not a professional labor negotiator.

Please enjoy my thoroughly greased biceps!

If you were wondering how many minutes of NBC’s revamped American Gladiators you would have to watch before your overall sense of nostalgia would be dwarfed by your overall sense of shame, well the answer is three. Yes, in three short minutes dreams of Nitro and “The Gauntlet” where murdered at the hands of ridiculous scripted dialogue, cheesy back stories and a James Hatfield circa Ride the Lightening-esque character named Wolf who actually howls when addressed. Most troubling, however, is not the awfulness that is American Gladiators (that was something I’m sure we all could have deduced on our own), but the continued repackaging and marketing of our youth. More after the jump…

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HBO is going to be posting new episodes of The Wire on HBO On-Demand a week before they air. Because of this, and because “seeing them early” doesn’t really mean “seeing them fast” I have watched the season five premiere three (3!) times over the past week. Some would say this may be excessive. Those people are idiots. More after the jump…

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The line for Wednesday’s show, the first in eight weeks.

These are dark times for fans of television. The writers are in the middle of a seemingly endless strike that has effectively wiped original scripted programming from the networks (both broadcast and cable) for the foreseeable future. While there are some new series in the can, only a few have any significant buzz behind them (like, say, half a season of Lost). Two and a half days into 2008 and there are only two television events that I was genuinely excited about. The first is the fifth (and final) season premiere of The Wire this Sunday (an episode which I’ve actually already seen on HBO On-Demand). The second, and dare I say the more culturally significant of the two (at least when it comes to ‘the now’), was Wednesday’s return of the late night talk shows, specifically The Late Show with David Letterman. More after the jump…

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USA Today recently named Britney Spears as “Celebrity of the Year.” If you were unsure up to this point just how awful 2007 was, this should be the last piece of evidence needed. How this decision was reached seems dubious at best and probably should be avoided at all costs. Whatever the methodology, the result is sadly spot-on, and goes to great lengths to not only summarize 2007 but the entire decade.

To really understand why 2007 was the way that it was, and why it is the year that best represents the aughts, we need to revisit the previous decade, some would say the better decade: the nineties. More specifically, we should take the Way-Back Machine to see where our “Celebrity of the Year” was so that we can better understand where she is now and by extension where we are now. If we focus primarily on mass culture, Britney Spear completely embodies what we often think of as being “the nineties” (or at least late-nineties) despite the fact that she didn’t really explode in the music industry until 1999. Because of this we have to acknowledge that cultural eras aren’t particularly concerned with the Gregorian calendar. Need proof, look at that photo of you from 1991. Those tight-rolled jeans and neon bracelets scream 80s far more than grungy 90s. More after the jump…

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I love making end of the year top ten lists. Sometimes I think it’s the only reason I put up with the fifty weeks of mediocre nonsense (but then I take my antidepressants and go back to playing with that shiny piece of foil). The problem with having television as your medium of choice is that the television schedule doesn’t fit nicely into the Gregorian calendar. Typical seasons on the networks run from September to May, while cable tends to stick closer to the actual climatological patterns of the earth. It’s easy to say that first season Friday Night Lights was the best thing of 2007 except for the fact that half of the season landed squarely in 2006. MagneticMediaFed has figured out the solution to all of this: EPISODES. Episodes are what make television TELEVISION. A good episode keeps you glued to the screen for the full hour (or half hour), it tells a complete story while adding significantly to the series as a whole, it shows you something you didn’t think you’d see or makes you laugh in ways you didn’t think were possible.

I’ve spent a good chunk of the past couple weeks culling over the MMF-archives reminding myself of those episodes that I thought really stuck out. I watch a lot of television, though I don’t purport to watch all television (anyone who does should be shunned and bathed — not necessarily in that order). Because of this, my list only includes the shows that I regularly watch and is missing some obvious gems that I simply don’t know/care about (i.e. Battlestar Galactica, A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila). Still, I think most of the bases are covered. If there was a fantastic episode you remember from this past calendar year, please let us know in the comments. The full list, available right after the jump…

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Picture via NYTimes.com

I have to make this super-quick as I have to catch a flight in a few hours and could use a little sleep. Join me after the jump for some parting words for HBO and the BBC’s Extras…

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The daily routine.

And so another mostly successful season comes to a close for America’s favorite (?) serial killer, Dexter Morgan. Good times were had, capture was evaded, blood was spilled, and all with a catchy Latin beat! I’ll slice and dice the details after the jump…

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This post is basically an excuse to use this awesome picture of Letterman that The Post ran on Friday, as well as to say that various sources are reporting that all of the big-four late-night hosts have been talking about coming back on the air at the same time (presumably early January) as to avoid generating Ellen-esque animosity from the union.

Update: The NYTimes just posted this story about talks between Letterman and the WGA that would allow him to come back in January WITH writers.

Pee-Wee’s other playhouse.

So we have Oscar Vibenius played with an odd subtlety by the awesome Paul Reubens as well as that creepy neighbor kid from Mad Men both having hair fetishes. In the series each character gets his dream to come true when the female lead snips off a small lock as a souvenir. All we need is one more character on one more program and I suppose it becomes a trend. C’mon, Hollywood, don’t let us down now. More after the jump…

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Not a particularly riveting Project Runway this week — still solid reality programming, but not a lot in the way ruffled feathers (though that wedding dress did have some ruffles of its own, if I’m not mistaken). The big news would have to be Jack’s premature exit from the series for health reasons (though it appears Dale from Top Chef has helped him land on his feet), and Chris’s resurrection from out-ness to keep the competition (and number of episodes) intact. Everyone seemed pretty excited for Chris to come back, though I have to say, if I was there I’d be kind of pissed that it kind of negates the entire previous week’s competition. Alas. Large jolly men are really in right now.

As for the challenge itself, I really enjoyed this week’s offering. Anytime the models are nontraditional and the clothing more commercial I tend to pay closer attention. That being said, it also eliminates a lot of the risk taking that you want to see from high-end fashion designers. Poor Chris was in the bottom three again because everything he designs looks like it has come right off of an actor in Chorusline, but Steven was deserving of being out as he was the one contestant who regularly couldn’t hit his deadline.