MagneticMediaFed

I’m not usually a South Park watcher, not because I have anything against the show but because it’s one of those programs that is just never really on my radar. Still, every now and then someone says to me, “Hey, try to see last night’s South Park” and I usually will make the effort. This week was one of those times. I’m glad I pulled it up. The title, “Canada On Strike,” kind of sums up the plot: Canada goes on strike in an attempt to get “some of that internet money.” Canada is, of course, a stand-in for the writer’s guild. Over the course of the episode Canada’s initial, simple plan for more cash is thwarted when they realize they don’t really have any leverage — and then their people start starving to death, buddy. The B-Story involves the boys trying to get some money to pay Canada so as to end the reruns of Terrance and Philip. Their plan involves posting a viral video and ultimately squaring off against the Star Wars Kid, Chris Crocker and a sneezing panda.

The episode was seldom LOL-funny, but it was extremely sharp in its satire. South Park has the enviable position of being the one narrative program on television that can actually remain somewhat current because their typical episode production schedule is something like six days. This is in comparison to The Simpsons where an episode takes six months. By the time they get their strike response on the air next October, I’m sure the laughs will be bigger, but the points will be far less piercing.

This would also be a good time to point out that a new website, South Park Zone, offers every single episode of South Park ever produced for free… and legal.

Watch Canada on Strike.

Uh… daddy issues?

Last November when the WGA strike kicked off, word was that the as-of-that-moment eight completed LOST episodes were going to end on a cliffhanger that — if the strike ended up putting a premature end to the season — would drive the audience crazy. Show-runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof suspected that if episode #408 were to air with no follow-up for six to eight months there would be riots, a mass exodus of viewers from the show, the streets would run red with the blood of infidels — you get the idea, people would be pissed.

It turns out they were more or less right. Thursday’s episode, another solid entry into the season 4 canon, ended with not just one possibly-infuriating cliffhangers, but two. Sayid gives up Michael/Kevin Johnson to the Widmore crew, an act that may or may not be the right thing to do depending on whose team on which you think everyone is playing. Then back on the island Ben tells Alex, Rousseau and Carl to head for “the sanctuary” where two of the three ultimately get gunned down. Then the episode ends. Knowing that this will be resolved in a couple week (there are five more episodes slated for this spring) makes this ending OK. If this were it, however, frankly, I’d be rather annoyed. So annoyed, that I probably would have stormed the AMPTP headquarters with a large mallet and wrecked havoc until the strike ended. Luckily for all of us, that will not have to be done.

Otherwise I’m giving the first two acts of season four Lost 4 out of 5 Flaming MagneticMediaFed Television Icons.

LOST returns on April 24th

I wanna go back!

I suppose in about eight weeks I could proven severely wrong. I suppose this could be true. For as a season that was designed to tell a very specific story over a very specific number of episodes (16), it is quite likely that I and all the rest of the beach-based sci-fi nerdalati could riot in the streets for leaving us hanging with the inevitable faux-finale. Yes, we will gather together with torches and SPF 60 and mobile devices that allow us to maintain contact with our favorite gadget blogs and will whine and complain about the writers, the AMTPT, ABC, Cuse and Lindelof and the rest of the cast and why they couldn’t just cross the damn line and maybe squeeze out a nineth episode — something, anything to prolong the misery that is being denied what is rightfully ours.

But right now, today, as American’s quickly find worthy substitutes for televised entertainments in the face of a strike that has rendered much of the entire medium culturally irrelevant, LOST is the big winner. I’ll tell you why after the jump…

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“You weasel!”

Oh television, we barely knew you. Once a bastion of entertainments both important and trivial, this year you were reduced to rubble after the writer’s strike sucked out your very essence — original, scripted programming. And now, you’re dead. But! Could there be a resurrection? Perhaps. It appears the strike could be coming to a close. I fear it is too late. After the jump, please enjoy MagneticMediaFed’s first foray into this whole “web video” sensation everyone has been talking about, as we throw a funeral for television…

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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.

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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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.

In lieu of a The Hills post this week, I figure we’re all better off just watching this Funny Or Die video. I just pray that everyone finds it funny so as to avoid any unnecessary deaths around this, the holiday season.

Thanks to Kim for the tip!

Photo via Flickr

Last Friday the AMPTP released a statement saying:

The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.  The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year.

The WGA then lifted their media blackout and said:

Among the rumors was the assertion that the AMPTP had a groundbreaking proposal that would make this negotiation a “done deal.” In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.
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Talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday. Given the current tone it doesn’t sound like a deal is close. More stuff 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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Pic via Flickr

I’m going to forgo the usual episode recaps today as I 1) haven’t actually watched anything from last night and 2) feel like dedicating some space to the WGA strike as tomorrow night will mark the first significant casualty of the work-stoppage. Thursday’s episode of The Office entitle “The Deposition” will be the last new episode we can expect from the show until the strike ends. The Office was one of the first series to close up shop due in large part to the fact that a good chunk of the cast happens to also write for the show.

The Futon Critic has a really handy guide with the amount of episodes each show has left to air before going dark. Most of the networks biggest series will have trouble making it past the first week in December (which, luckily for them, is traditionally dark). We should expect little (if any) scripted programming come 2008.

In the meantime, treat yourself to the endless supply of strike blogs popping up on the internet, the most informative being the guild’s official blog United Hollywood. Here are some others:

Late Show Writers on Strike
Scribe Vibe (Variety)
Show Tracker (LA Times)

One last note: since the major sticking point for this strike is writer’s compensation for ad-supported material posted on the web, I would encourage everyone to avoid using the networks’ video services until a deal is made.

Before I go and get all speculative, I want to say for the record that the first three sketches and shockingly the entirety of Weekend Update this week was more or less SNL-perfect (meaning it certainly could be better, but not given the way the show is produced and what it tries to accomplish or not accomplidh). Brian Williams was hilarious in those three sketches right after the monologue and then kind of disappeared for thirty minutes before playing himself in the last few sketches of the evening. Still, I loved those first three because he did, in fact, play a character and in at least two of them spoke with an accent(!). Also Feist! Who knew? Certainly not I (on the Rick J. Pecoraro Hotness Meter playing a Gretsch guitar puts you very close to the top). But, what this their season finale? More after the jump…

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Hey-hey, ho-ho!

I don’t puport to being a television insider. I’m much more of a television front-sider. I watch it. I like it. I try to read about it as much as possible. So while I may not have Les Moonves’ e-mail address (perhaps lmoonves@cbs.com?) I do, at the very least, keep myself abreast of those industry things that directly affect what I’m going to be watching. It is because of this that we now begin MagneticMediaFed’s coverage of the as-of-right-now imminent writers strike in Hollywood.

Here’s what we know as of right now: Tuesday the WGA and the studios will meet at the barganing table (which I imagine to have a granite top) and try to make a deal (with or without Howie Mandel). The sticking point is how writers will be compensated for DVDs, downloads, and whatever other crazy technology we have yet to invent (I’m hoping for something that lets me watch a series instantly through my brain).

More importantly, here’s what this means for us… the watchers: Wednesday at midnight if no deal reached the guild will go on strike (the last time this happened was 1988 and it lasted for 5 months). This will not affect us on Thursday (nor will it affect us on Friday or for the foreseeable future). Knowing this date is approached the studios have been stockpiling scripts and have several weeks worth of shows all ready in production or in the can. Once these episodes run out, which will likely be sometime in January as much of December is no-man’s land on broadcast television anyway. At this point we will be slammed with excessive quantities of reality programs, game-shows, Dateline incarnations, reruns and other such noble fare that doesn’t require writers. This is problematic for fans of serialized television. Personally, I fear for my beloved Lost, which isn’t even suppose to come back until February 6th, right in the middle of the strike’s blast-zone.

In short, ‘08 could be a very bleak year for good TV.

Read more here and here