The Colour of Books

So I did some real soul searching this week.  It started after I finished community season three.  Then finished season 2 and 3 of Workaholics.  I was like "what am I supposed to watch now!?"  And then it came to me.  Could I do the usual where I would watch a new series and then go back and watch old television shows that I usually just fall asleep too.  Futurama, Home Movies, Arrested Development.  But I've already seen those!  So let me go to the random generated entertainment and go to my trusty Netflix.

Then I saw this.  I obviously new it was a European show by the design and also the setting.  American television would never have a show about books if it's not for kids.  Books, as sad as it is, is pretty much dead.  There are more writers then readers.  But why would anyone want to watch a show about people that talk about books?  Oh it's a group.  If you like shows that float around characters like The Office and Community then you are in luck.

The main character is from America.  Ohio to be exact.  She just moved to Scotland to become a writer.  Real close to home.  I went to school for writing and just recently moved!  Wow this is already hitting too close to home.  Also before I even started watching the show I made sure to check how many episodes and seasons there were.  Being European, they have a limited amount of episodes and only a few seasons.  In this series, each season has six episodes.  Each core book group member hosts a book group where people read the hosts selection.  There is only two seasons and each episode is about half an hour.

What made this new and an enjoyment to watch was because not only did it have characters, story, and setting going for it but it did something a television show doesn't do frequently.  It really delivers.  When they read each book, each episode basically revolves around the given book and showing them the aftermath of the absorption of literature.  Then they talk about it.  Then they get into each others lives.  Then they grow.  Each character makes breakthroughs every few episodes.  You actually see their emotions before and after an encounter.

The directing too was amazing.  I thought it dealt with very powerful subject matter.  From handicapped people, to homosexuals, to infidelity, to liars, and to people that are full of themselves.  The intricitsy of the plot starts to really make you watch and "care" for these characters as you would care for your computer.  Television has never been so simpler (put actors in room, talk about book) and has it never been so grounded and so refreshingly real.  None of the plot points when exposed never even endanger the next episode in run off.  They don't tell you what happened last episode because no one does that in real life.  They meet every month so a lot of things change between episode to episode.

Pros
-European (sexy and sophisticated)
-I like books
-Very varied characters
Cons
-2 seasons.

Children aren't getting the right help.

I just watched all of season one of Children's Hospital in one sitting.  Is that a feat?  Not really.  It probably only took an hour and a half.  CH is only in eight minute episodes and are bundled together in two episodes.  It's really easy to space off too. And it's full of a great cast of comedians.  These guys are pretty much in everything that is known to being alternatively funny.  It is not only created, directed and acted by Rob Corddry but is also produced by my idol David Wain.  I think I've talked about it before but The State, Stella, and anything associated with any of these guys are instant satirical comedy.  Do I necessarily get all the humor?  Probably because I'm that smart.
 
This show pretty much makes fun of everything that has every talked about a hospital.  One of the woman in the show walks around like J.D in Scrubs and is constantly thinking about life and death and it's so clique and pointless that it's drawn out into pretty much every episode.  She doesn't really do any actual work in the hospital unless it has to do with drama in the workplace.  Scrubs is definitely a focus of satire since it started the wave of comedy in the workplace.  Yeah it's been done way before Scrubs but Scrubs is new for our generation. 

Childrens Hospital also doesn't have anything to do with medicine unless it's funny.  Is giving a six year old a vasectomy funny?  Very because he has advancing aging disease that is really rare.  Is killing kids always funny?  Usually and this show doesn't miss a beat.  Rob Corddry plays a character that tries to heal all of his patients with laughter.  He wears clown face paint and a smock with blood all over it because you can't cure anyone with laughter.  A comedian making fun of their own profession and it's objective uselessness.  Gotta love that Satire.  And people who are willing to make fun of their profession in their late 30's.  I thought that was only meant for us post-grads without jobs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5QbUjmtt8

Doesn't alternative comedy rule?  It's funny because you have to decipher the difference between low bro comedy and high brow comedy.  Are they really this smart or are these just poking fun at everything or are they poking fun at me?  Jeez sometimes it can be a mind twist trying to figure out what is going on.  But they make fun of this too esepcially with shows like Dallas and soap operas that make no sense, and come from anywhere even dreams. Rob Corddry makes a joke of this by having an episode where Childrens Hospital stems from a midget Puerto  Rican doctors fart.  IS this too much?  Could be if they didn't have a sit down with the director and producer talking about why this is so artsy and creative.

Pros
-Funny on many spectrums of hilarious 
-Good cast
-Satire
-Makes you realize that television is usually nothing but entertainment.
-Episodes will have intricate plot points that are never brought up again thus providing entertainment without running with an idea for too long
Cons
-includes children in the episodes
-Web series are confusing still.

Olympics

Some people might be like, yo why are you not posting as much?  And I'm like, nothing, because I'm not posting as much.  Yeah it's true I'm not posting as much but I've been busy.  Busy working but that's boring.  You don't need to know about me outside of the internet. It's not as exciting as one might imagine it being.  Busy doing other stuff like writing a story and doing music.  But I am also busy watching the Olympics in London.  Well, I'm not in London but the Olympics are.

Long winded story ahead, I haven't watched the Olympics since Sydney which I think was 04.  I wasn't down with Beijing.  It just wasn't my thing and I didn't like hearing about all that smog affecting our perfected athletes.  Harsh China but I guess since they have to live there that us 1st worlders should see how it is to live in over population.  Not only was I 14 when I watched the Summer Olympics but I couldn't really process a sport till now.  I'm done with college and a born again intellectual.  I didn't realize my uncanny ability to comment on a sport I have never played until I started watching the difficulties of Gymnastics.  Balancing is hard even walking on a sidewalk but then go on top of a saddle horse or whatever it's called in front of a audience, in tight apparel, on television.  When judged on perfection and archaic sports and regulations, you think this would be judged in a closet but since it's so public, it makes me feel bad.

How couldn't you feel bad watching the Olympics.  Not only are people breaking actual records that actually exist instead of shooting to make your own record (eating the most black OLIVES.)  These are people winning in life.  Yeah it took them all their live to win and I couldn't get sufficient numbers on how many people waste their lives and turn to drugs after they spent all their life trying to make it to the Olympics.  Just to feel it's signifigance, the Olympics that is, it's probably one of the only sports that isn't rigged.  You get placed against the best, you don't get to pick, and then their are 6 other athletes shooting for your medal.  You being ranked number one hardly means anything.  This is competition.

And look how much fun they are having too.  R.e.s.p.e.c.t. 4 sure.  They have to swim, or play, or do whatever sport they do and then go directly into an interview.  A lot of them are out of breath, or feel bad for not winning (COME ON USA< CHINA IS WINNIN).  So much humility goes into that and a lot of these athletes are persuaded that us American's care about them and that they are proving some nationalism in some way.  We all know America sucks.  If only I could live on the fresh soil of the Tubes.  But I can only be on here for so long so I can afford it.
losers
There is still another week of the Olympics and right now we are in some of the early events.  The competitive sports are building through qualifications and excitement is building.  Get on the train.  Get some friends together and start ranting and raving about your un-expertise on sports but our cunning ability to criticize.  Look at that girls nose.  Look at that fag spinning on some bars.  Wow you can swim so fast but we aren't fish anymore.  Weird sports that I think need a little newness to it.  Skateboarding?  Why wouldn't I say that, it's international.  But these old world sports still pack a punch and they are easy to grasp.  I want to be a judge because I, since birth, could never play a sport.  But I sure can ridicule people that have tried or keep trying.  Can't we all America?

Pros
-Rare, every 4 years
-Gets me in the spirit to chant and yell
-Winning without any of the work
Cons
-Body Image Issues
-Old World Sports
-Chicago isn't hosting it.  But could have :(

FALLING SKIES: MOLON LABE REVIEW

By Sean Smyth

 Fish Face Returns

There are few shows on TV now that have the ability to build on top of each episode. Most times there is fatty episodes that have nothing to do with anything that is going on or very little happens to further the every expansive story in any way. Molon Labe doesn't disappoint as it manages to steer clear of this ever increasing trend and only further it's well, awesomeness.

Being quite a few days late on this review I will be brief.

Molon Labe is a very intimate and action packed episode filled with loyalty, honor, heroism, lies, betrayal, love, hate, shooting, and loss.

After the events of last weeks episode, Karen and Ben escaped only to find Karen, as was suspected, was working against the Second Mass. and using Ben to uncover the Skitter Rebel alliance for her Fish Face of a boss, The Overlords, who has taken a risk in coming to see Ben in person. The Second Mass. manage to ambush them and take the Overlord captive, while Karen escapes. From there things just spiral well out of hand.

The Alien version of the "Shit" face.

Karen comes back to get her boss and lays siege to the Second Mass. with a series of assaults that grows progressively more hostile, violent and deadly. Meanwhile Ben is feeling guilty for bringing down the alien hand upon his family and friends, and Tom is doing his best to deny the obvious. Ben is dangerous, and it will only get worse.

The episode starts off in a rush of running and gunfire, and the pace never lets up. It continues to grow in tension, action and complexity as a new alien being is introduced that creates an even greater issue for everyone as time ticks on.

Everyone brings their A game per usual and no one seems underused or the damsel in distress. They all have use and manage to hold their own when the chips are down. That is probably the best thing about this show. Everyone pulls their own weight. Their aren't any characters sitting by the wayside just waiting to die. They are all well rounded characters. Which is great considering the epic scale and plot and story being displayed throughout the series. If the characters weren't right the whole show will fall flat on it's face.

Now two things I want to bring up that may be potential spoilers that really stood out to me in this episode. One, we found that The Overlords are not invincible and they are scared, they have several human traits and are here on Earth for something that has not yet been revealed but I expect is something beyond the needs of human slavery.

The second thing I want to point out is a scene, one of the final scenes of the episode, that involves Ben and Tom. A very heartwarming scene that really displays this shows ability to excel dramatically. It hits home as the show is centered around this family, a normal family with bothers who butt heads, constantly except their are aliens involved.

Where he going?

Overall the show is only getting better, and I constantly look forward to the following week in hopes to find out more instead of waiting to see if the show gets better much like how I do with True Blood, another show I review.  It is because of this that I give the show a straight 5 out of 5.

So there you have, short and sweet. What do you think? You looking forward to see what happens next for Ben, Tom and the rest of the Second Mass.? Let's hear what you have to think. Comment below and thanks for reading. 

TRUE BLOOD: IN THE BEGINNING REVIEW

By Sean Smyth

Lies, Deceit, and Drunken Vamps! 

I didn't start watching True Blood till maybe Season 4, but I managed to check out Seasons 1-3 in just two weeks. It was a good time. Sitting in class waiting to take the train home and watch a few more episodes, before I had doing the same thing the next day. Those were the days. 

Now, watching the show is like a chore. Straining to understand what is going on, who hates who, who wants what? It's just getting to be a little out of the control. The past Season's arcs came together and all the stories pretty much interwove for the most part, but this Season people are just bouncing all over the place and their is so little time to get invested in something before another thing comes along. It's like, they've run out of things to do on the show for certain characters so they just give them crappy side stories because True Blood doesn't like to kill of it's main characters.

I swear if you take one individual character's story, lets say... Sookie for right now, her entire arc of scenes and story could be done in maybe two or three episodes. Instead she gets an entire season to wallow around and just cry about being different. 

I mean, each character (especially Sookie) have faced a life threatening moment in the show at least once, but they've all overcome those moments because someone else saves their ass, or instead the baddie trying to kill them has a change of heart or just doesn't feel like doing it at the moment, even if that character's story has run its course Season's ago. 

Well, In the Beginning has plenty of those moments and is made up mostly of those crappy side stories that you just don't care about and it feels a lot like a supernatural melodramatic Soap Opera. But even Soap Operas kill off their characters now and again. 

Some of those moments include; Andy visiting the old Sheriff Dearborne to ask if he sucks at being a cop, Arlene watching her Wedding Video with Holly while at work (they wouldn't be getting a tip from me with that kind of service), and Terry and Patrick gallivanting in a field and being mocked by the Fire Demon.... I don't know about you, but shouldn't these scenes be used more efficiently to produce greater understanding of what is going on in this already confusing show? 

Oh yeah, and this scene was pretty useless too. 

Besides Bill and Eric's excellent adventure with The Authority, or at least what's left of the Authority since the Guardian was betrayed by Salome (like I said, but the way they went about how she did it was anything but smooth. She basically just says, yeah I followed you when you were burying Russell, saved him and now I want to praise Lilith.), the rest of the episode is just there.

That's another thing this show has become known for doing. Over explaining. It feels as though we only learn one or two new plot points each episode because we are forced to sit through things that we learned in episode one because, and this is just my guess, the writers of the show think we are stupid. Hey Alan Ball take a page out of Justified or Breaking Bad and stop telling us what's happening. Just show us. I mean that's screenwriting 101. I learned that my first day in school. Lazy... 

But I digress, as usual...

Bill and Eric discover the plot to overthrow the Authority is centuries in the making,  Nora and Salome are a couple Vampire Bible thumpers and Russell is just being Russell. Ripping off heads and making a mess. 

This thing on? Is anyone listening to me? 

You see this episode is supposed to mark a change. A reversal if you will for the remainder of the season. Though I felt like things were just getting good with the Authority. Like we should have had the rest of the season with them being the big bad. Instead Russell comes in stakes the Guardian and things just fall apart. Russell apparently finds religion and doesn't want to hurt his nemeses he vowed to destroy and everyone in the council gets drunk of old Vamp blood and wanders around what looks to be New Orleans. 

Man does that leave a bad taste in my mouth. It is just boring. Even the climatic scene feels as though it falls short of being interesting, and has one of the worst special effects I've ever scene on True Blood (It literally made me laugh out loud). Hopefully the much talked about Human/Vamp War that keeps being discussed comes about and we can get out of this whole Soap Opera vibe and hit the more Epic tone as the show should be. At least Eric sees things are getting a little weird...

Besides Bill and Eric staggering around with the Authority and what I mentioned as pointless scenes before, we have the following:

Sookie learns she can be Fairy no more, Jason hates Vamps again, Jessica is feeding up on humans, Hoyt joins up with the Supe Murders, Tara makes a good stripper but her mom hates her so Tara looks at Pam as a new mother figure, Sam argues with Luna and smells stuff while looking for the people who shot him, and Lafayette goes to see Jesus' uncle who is not to pleased with him.

Overall the episode kind of falls flat on it's face. After having so much promise from it's previous episodes, and so much build up, things just bounce off the ground instead of landing. I don't know, maybe I'm not the target audience anymore. Maybe that audience has grown to be middle aged housewives or something... But this episode did nothing for me and thus only gets a 2.5 out of 5. 

Do you agree with that? Is True Blood falling apart or is it the best it's ever been? You tell me in the comments below. And as always, Thanks For Reading.  

BREAKING BAD: MADRIGAL REVIEW

By Sean Smyth

What Goes Around, Comes Around.

Fresh out of the gates of a pretty suspense filled season opener we have an episode that continues the rise of the great Walter White. 

Madrigal is something we only get once in a great while on Breaking Bad. An episode dedicated to a peripheral character. A character you didn't think would make it as far as they have or maybe a character who's really grown on you to become someone you care for more than some of the main players. That character is Mike Ehrmantraust, or Mr. Ehrmantraust as he is preferred to be called by people he doesn't like. Our favorite security expert, body guard, Private Investigator, cool as a cucumber assassin for hire who turns out used to be an ex cop. 

If you can't tell I rather like Mike. He is just so cool and efficient at his job that nothing really bothers him except Walter. He is always all business but he will do anything that will ensure his and his grand daughters best interests. That is something your can really get behind. No one wants to be on the opposite side of his gun when it is drawn because more than likely that not, that person will end up dead. 

Now Mike doesn't control the entire episode. Walter and Jesse take up a large chunk as well along with Hank who has a couple lengthy scenes. 

Forget your Hand Cuffs?

This episode as well as the show is still dealing heavily in the fallout of Gus' death. Hank and the DEA are searching for his accomplices, Walter and Jesse are trying to fill the market left by Gus and take over, and Mike and Gus' benefactors are just trying to keep their distance and eliminate potential threats. In some cases that involves one another. Hopefully we can finish with the fall of Gus in the next episode so we can deal more so with Walter's rise to power, which is an interesting change from him usually getting pushed and beat around. 

There is an odd cold open this episode following a German financier involved in the development of food chains, more specifically Los Pollos Hermanos. Things begin break down all around for Mike and the rest of Gus' surviving employees as DEA unravel Gus' accomplices and off shore accounts. 

Waiting for the Nanny to leave.

From there we find Walter and Jesse working together to try and find a way to gather supplies to start cooking again after Walter schemes a rather elaborate plot to make Jesse trust him even more. Though they need Mike's help in order to start cooking. Mike unfortunately for them, doesn't want anything to do with Walter because he's a ticking time bomb. "Tick, Tick, Tick." Mike then takes over the show. Moving from scene to scene dealing with a petrified benefactor and an itchy DEA. Both wanting him to roll on the remaining accomplices. One more... extreme than the other. 

"Tick, Tick Tick."

I think the biggest reason why this episode works so well is that it takes it's time, even more than the show usually does. Perhaps they were using the time and the way the episode plays in relation to the character they based it on. Mike. Mike as we know is very slow. Talks in a single monotone voice and rarely loses his cool. It takes a lot for him to explode. And when he finally does, you don't want to be in his way, 

I don't want to give away to much because this episode is pretty dense, even with the small amount of Walter. Mike treks across Madrigal quite perfectly. Wit, and cleverness that makes this episode feel new and fresh. Madrigal is a perfect example of why exactly Breaking bad works so well and is constantly number one. 

In the end the episode stands out as one of the better episodes in the show, but lets hope they are able to move past Gus' fallout sooner rather than later. But the show is always great with time so, I'm sure they will work it out. I give this episode a 5 out of 5 for originality and ingenuity that most shows won't dare try. 

So what do you think? Does Mike's hold his own as the lead of the episode or do you wish he would have taken a shot to the head? Let's hear what you think. Comment often! And thanks for reading. 

Pretty Little Things

Pretty Little Things

Season Three Episode Six

This is not really going to be a review but my praise for Pretty Little Liars.  If you also watched shows like The O.C. like me (twice) then some familiar faces will arise.  Just because you have crushes on teenaged characters in a show doesn't mean the ACTRESS isn't 25.  These girls are cute.

Then comes to mystery.  This is about secrets....shhhhh.  Keep it down.  TURN DOWN YOUR MUSIC IF YOU ARE READING THIS.  The whole show is on big cat and mouse game.  The cat are the 4 main actresses and they are trying to chase down not only a killer but a stalker.  I am not saying you need to catch UP to the series but start watching it yah know.  You get sucked in and I can hardly remember all the nuances.  I am not fanatic but I will stay caught up. 

The characters are funny at times because they get into stupid situations.  Teenage girls going out at night into the woods and doesn't think she is going to get hit?  BUT IT WAS A!  That's the antagonist.  Well one of them.  They also have the girl that was their mutual friend that got murdered. 

I really don't feel like people watch this show so I might not actually tell you about the episode.  Watch it.  It's great?  If not move on possibly. 

The real problem is I watched two episodes back to back and I don't remember what happened in which one.  That good.
9 blips out of 10
Pros
-Great multi-layered plot (several protagonists and antagonists)
-Thriller constantly and behind the corner
-Sexy characters with reasonable emotions
-Fun to get into the High School Atmosphere.  Whose dating who now?
Cons
-One character keeps getting played up as if she is going to leave the show but never does.  Just do it, we are all waiting.

What other shows do you follow aimlessly?