MagneticMediaFed

My name is William and I make people uneasy in my presence.

There were two priceless moments in this the penultimate Beauty and the Geek. But before I get to them a brief word on William. What’s interesting about this show is the differences amongst the geeks are as vast as themselves and the beauties. You can be a geek and also a moron. You can be socially well-adjusted and yet have no sense of style or coordination. Because of the way the show is presented we’re led to believe that all of the “geeks” are sympathetic figures who just need a little nudge in the right direction. This is not the case for William, who always looks like he’s on the verge of violent rage. More after the jump…

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Better to burn out or to fade away?

This thing is killing me. We all knew the writers’ strike was going to be a major inconvenience, but I never suspected it would have the effect it’s currently having on my psyche. Ever since the writers took to the picket line three weeks ago, television has kind of sucked, and not just because my beloved late-night shows immediately went into reruns. Despite the fact that we’ve still been getting new scripted episodes these past few weeks, the strike has, in a way, highlighted just how solidly mediocre this fall has been. The new series, while marked by very few cancellations (honestly, who would have thought Cavemen would still be airing new episodes three weeks into November?), have generated no significant hits (with the exception of Samantha Who?, but it’s hard to say if it is the show that is successful or its Dancing With the Stars lead-in) while our favorite returning series from years past have either been wildly inconsistent (How I Met Your Mother), shockingly awful (Weeds) or just kind of a mess (Friday Night Lights). To top it all off the two series that have been consistantly good and occasionally great in The Office and 30 Rock are the first to run out of episodes. The whole mess can put your average television viewer into something of an existential conundrum: if interesting stories can vanish as quickly as they appear, what’s the point of it all? 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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It’s been a month since new shows started popping up and my god has it been a rough ride. I was able to keep for the better part of two weeks, but lately I’ve had to throw my hands up and declare that once again, the television has won. Part of the problem, for me at least, is this fall seems to have more decent shows than season’s past. There are always one or two really good new programs, but typically the rest of it is just dreck. This year there have only been a small handful of shows I would consider abdominal, but with an unusually large amount resting somewhere in the middle. But how does one justify sticking with a series that is at its very best just OK. I think now would be as good a time as any to look at where we are and decide how to move forward.

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