It’s the end of the summer movie season, and we’ve upper-cutted it crazy-style in Hombre Potato’s Precious Little Life! Karen does weird yoga stuff while discussing the subtleties of Mad Men, and Casey has a spine-crushing good time talking about more True Blood (for less than 20 minutes). The main event is our wrap-up of movies in theaters with the boobtacular gorefest (or was it a goretacular boobfest? Oh, semantics!) that’s Piranha 3D, the worn-out old men who comprise The Expendables, and the KO Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World delivered to our brains. Badass flaming swords sold separately.
Casey and Karen are back! We took a long summer hiatus and did so many exciting things that we’ve accumulated over two dozen movies and TV shows to dump on you tonight! And dump we shall. We go through our whole docket of summer movies, including in-depth reviews of The Last Airbender, Inception, Toy Story 3, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. On the TV end, Karen watches Deadwood and Casey watches Being Human. FINALLY. Other discussion points that demand exclamation include (but are not excluded to): Doctor Who post-mortem! Karen’s Andrew Garfield marathon! Casey reads a picture book! Zombies!!!
Doctor Who is back! And it’s FANTASTIC! Karen and Casey (role reversal!) bring you Episode 26: The Eleventh Hombre. This week, we gush like we’ve never gushed before over the new new Who and Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon. In between these book ends of awesome, we discuss men who hate women, men who love men, men who love women loving women, and Casey’s hate for horsefaces.
Wondering what we sound like when we’re not mindlessly drooling over Steven Moffat? You can find our whole library of ramblings on iTunes, most of which also revolve around Doctor Who.
Also, Kick-Ass is out TODAY. Who’s excited?? We are. That’s who.
Welcome one and all to Hombre Potato Episode 25: The Spuds of Time. The regular gang (…of two people) get all sorts of relevant as Casey finally gets off his ass and watches Doctor Who: The End of Time, Karen gets on her ass and delves into the TV catalog of Andrew Buchan, and we both admire Timothy Olyphant’s ass in Justified and Deadwood. Cuz he’s dreamy. Also on the docket are discussions of She’s Out of Your League, The Vicious Kind, Good Hair, and 24′s most recent insanity. With visual aids, seen below!
So class, this is Owen the boy CTU agent. Note his…boyishness and the phantom hands buckling his clip in lower left corner.
But wait. Why aren’t all of our other recent (and awesome) episodes posted up here on the blog? Because they don’t require pictures of 12 year olds? Because we’re lazy? A little from column A, a little from column B, folks. If you’re not caught up, go to our iTunes page and get caught up. Let us know what you think of our show while you’re there!
Hey all!
Episode 24 will be up for you later today, but in the meantime, I have painstakingly compiled a list of all the music used at the beginning and end of our episodes. Because I love you.
1: No music!
2: “Invincible” – OK Go; “White Moon” – White Stripes
3: “Ship Lost at Sea” – Phantom Planet”; “Crazy in Love” – The Puppini Sisters
4: “Later On” – The Spinto Band; “Dayman” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
5: “Shiny” – The Decemberists; “Guitar Hero” – Amanda Palmer
6: “Smoochy smoochy pukey pukey” – Harry and the Potters; “Faster Pussycat to the Library” – Sam Phillips
7: “You Make My Dreams” – Hall & Oates; “Us” – Regina Spektor
8: “A-Punk” – Vampire Weekend; “Belt Loops” – “The Films”
9: “On My Way” – Billy Boy on Poison; “The Show” – Lenka
10: The Middleman Theme; “In the Morning” – The Coral
11: “Drop it Doe Eyes” – Los Campesinos; “Relator” – Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
12: “She’s So Lovely” – Scouting for Girls; “She’s Got You High” – Mumm-Ra
13: “Better Version of Me” – Fiona Apple; “Happy Ending” – Mika
14: “What’s My Age Again” from All the Small Things
15: “Common People” – William Shatner and Pulp; some weird Japanese song Casey gave me
16: “You Only Live Once” – The Strokes; no idea. Casey again!
17: “Lolita” – Throw Me the Statue; “You’re So Damn Hot” – OK Go
18: The Supernatural Sitcom Theme!; “Dirty Rotten Guys” from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, sung by John Lithgow & Norbert Leo Butz
19: “Ne Me Quitte Pas” – Regina Spektor; “Je Ne Sais Qui Fumer” – Paris Combo
21: “You’re Really Super Supergirl” – XTC; “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” – Beck
22: “You Don’t Know Me” – Ben Folds and University acappella; “Fire in My Heart” – Addison
23: “Being Bored” – The Films”; “Merry Happy” – Kate Nash
24: “Good Day” – Tally Hall; “Made-Up Love Song ’43″ – Guillemots
Heavy Rain is, if nothing else, a property that will keep you thinking long after the credits have rolled.The newest title by French studio Quantic Dream, a developer known for making complicated, story-driven games like Indigo Prophecy, it is the evolution of many types of media.You effectively “choose your own adventure,” but that would dismiss the strong cast of characters and world, and “interactive drama” (a term used by the developers to categorize it) may be misunderstood and neglect how the distinct way you play makes you feel the intensity of the onscreen action. The most apt description is that it is what a moviegoer so often wants when in the theater.Watching a film is a passive activity where you observe and cannot control the events leading up to the outcome. A game requires you control the action, but plot less often drives you forward than does the prospect of a badder-ass gun. Heavy Rain creates the truest sense of a self-made cinematic experience yet where everything is up to you. You are the storyteller, and the audience.
The story is, effectively, a murder mystery: you play as four characters – a private eye, a FBI agent, a photographer, and a father desperately trying to save his son – all searching to stop a serial child killer, known as the Origami Killer, before another victim is claimed. It is mature in a way games typically don’t dare touch – there are no space marines exploding dudes, and there are no sex mini-games. The four leads are normal people with human problems existing in a real, lived-in world.It’s a story for adults, not the typical Halo crowd. The search for a killer is where it starts, and where it ends is up to you. You decide how these protagonists proceed with their respective investigations, and your actions determine whether they make it out alive.
Yeah, your characters can die, and I don’t mean a normal video game death.There is no “Game Over” screen or extra lives. Death is permanent. It’s possible to save everyone in the end, and it’s possible for your story to conclude with everyone lost: there are a lot of outcomes within that spectrum. The others characters’ arcs will continue after a character is killed – as Writer/Director David Cage puts it, each of the protagonists is “important, but not vital to the story.” I began wanting to keep my characters alive to feel like I had really “beat” the game, but my motivation matured as the story unfolded.I grew to care about them and their weaknesses. They’re all a little effed up, and I wanted to get them through in the hope that the search for Origami would free them a little from their demons. Film has elicited this sort of drive from me, but I could only hope that everyone would come out for the better; Heavy Rain challenges me to make it happen.
That isn’t to say that getting everyone through it alive is the best conclusion.It’s simply one way to tell the story.Judgments are never made about what is “right” or “wrong.” Many of the decisions you make in the course of the game come down to more of a lesser of two evils.It asks some very difficult choices of you, and there is no “correct” choice.Ambiguity is at the core of the game.
So we have a gripping story, but how is this different from any other well-written game?While it has already been hotly debated, I think that the unconventional control scheme bridges the gap between feeling these emotions, and experiencing them. What they attempt, and achieve, in quick-time button presses and flicks of the analog sticks is to give context with the events on the screen. Think about the motion your arm makes to pull a door knob or open a refrigerator door, and that’s what you do with the right analog stick (instead of just pressing a random button). You’ll move the stick carefully to shave or rock a baby to sleep. You’ll hold an increasing number of buttons down in order to simulate the difficulty it takes to move up a muddy hill or work your way through downed power lines. You’ll use the PS3’s motion control to shake yourself free of restraints or swiftly move the controller in a direction to kick in a door.Additionally, the cues for these executions are unobtrusively placed on the screen where the action is happening—you never have to take your eyes off of what’s happening in order to play.There are plenty of moments where you can meet your end, and they made me connect with the game in a way I’ve rarely experienced in film or games primarily because I felt what my character was trying to do in controlling him.
The freedom of choice, the intense story and the contextual controls come together to bring truly thrilling, and sometimes frightening, sequences. One chapter halfway through the game sees your photographer, Madison Paige, going to a disgraced doctor to get information to further her investigation. Using her actual insomnia as a cover, she arrives asking to buy sleeping pills from the old gentleman. Once you’re inside, do you accept his offer for a drink?Do you actually drink it? How do you get information out of him, or better yet, get him into another room so you can sneak around looking for clues? The section can end many ways: I imagine you could find clues without alerting the good doctor, buy your pills and leave. While I will say I survived that chapter, my experience wasn’t nearly that…uneventful. I had to fight like a dog for my life, and I felt the fear from that struggle because of the presentation and the way I controlled Madison. I could have lost her at several points.My heart was pounding throughout and well after because that life-or-death situation felt real to me, even though it was just a game.
There are minor quips, like with anything, but what Heavy Rain creates is worth your time.I probably got the best possible ending – all of my characters lived and (mostly) had happy endings. I would typically start a second playthrough right away to tell a different story and see what happens, but I think I’ll take Cage’s advice and not play the game again for sometime. The magic lies in how my choices created my story. No two stories will unfold the same way because of all of the decisions, both small and large, so I’d rather reflect on the story I crafted before I return. Its ability to produce so many outcomes in the framework of a compelling, emotionally-charged story is beyond what we come to expect from a game.Hell, it’s even kind of beyond what is within a film’s power.And that’s why I’m still thinking about it.
It’s only the end of February, and I’m already anticipating all of the big-budget eye candy that makes up summer 2010. Iron Man 2! The Last Airbender! Dolph “Go f*** yourself, Spaceman” Lundgren!!! But before I can even start to get all drooly over those upcoming films, spring has a whole slew of media to keep me preoccupied. TV premieres and finales, film and gaming all have their entries that are making me budget how much time I’ll be spending in a darkened room over the next few months. It’s going to (wait for it) kick ass.
Kick-Ass – If you haven’t heard of Kick-Ass, then you’ve been living under a Starlight Cruiser-sized rock for some time. If you have heard of Kick-Ass and are not wetting-your-pants-excited about it, then I don’t think we can be friends. The film adaptation of Mark Millar’s graphic novel about normal people becoming masked crusaders looks like it will be faithful in all the right places. Most importantly, it establishes a real, bloody world where people will get, to be colloquial, messed up crazy style, and all of the trailers released so far deliver on that premise. I’d hate myself for jinxing this, but Kick-Ass looks like it can deliver on its lofty, gritty expectation where efforts like Watchmen failed. PS: Haven’t watched any Kick-Ass trailers? Go now.
God of War III – Where Kick-Ass depicts violence and mayhem within the confines of the real world, the God of War series smacks a healthy helping of head-ripping, eye-gouging and god-killing splattered over the backdrop of Ancient Greece. This epic tale of revenge and betrayal, of a man who fights the God of Olympus, has me totally pumped to finish a story I have been unfolding over the past two games. It may be sacrilege to be indifferent towards Final Fantasy XIII, which is released a week before, but for me this is entertainment at its most visceral.
How the hell will Supernatural “end”? – While I’m eagerly anticipating how God of War will end, I don’t think it is spoiler alert-y to say it will involve lots of dead dudes killed by the hand of our badass protagonist. What WILL be surprising to see is how the showrunners at Supernatural, our favorite show here at Hombre Potato (yes, I’m speaking for Karen, too, when I say that) end their little story arc of the apocalypse and a seemingly-inevitable clash of the titans between Lucifier and the archangel Michael wearing the Winchester brand of meatsuits. I’m certainly worried about how the season will end because it feels like they may be painted into a corner, but Supernatural has also adeptly twisted and turned through several stories that seemed like dead-ends. My blind faith for the TV season is going to Supernatural based on its history of being awesome.
Doctor Who redux – Whatever remaining blind faith I may have left is going straight to Stephen Moffat’s reimagining of Doctor Who. Continuing my sacrilege, I’ve been sick of David Tennant’s interpretation of the Doctor and Russell T. Davies’ direction since season 3 and I’m not ashamed to say it. Now, I certainly like Tennant and appreciate what he has brought to the role, but I’ve been ready for someone new to play that character, and, more importantly, for someone new to helm the direction of the show. Moffat has written most of the best episodes of the new Who, and I think a fresh perspective free of the baggage of Rose, Martha, Donna, and all the Doctor’s sexy friends is the right medicine. Yes, that even includes Jack – he has his own awesome show now where he can snog to his heart’s content. I cannot wait to see this new interpretation of the re-imagined Who.
Honorable mentions: The Losers, another graphic novel adaptation, feels like an underdog in the “Black Ops team framed for shit and needs to clear its name” genre that will be occupied by The A-Team and The Expendables in the summer, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Idris Elba can easily make this a standout; Red Dead Redemption, the newest adventure by Rockstar Studios (those dudes who made Grand Theft Auto), gives gamers an open-world western epic — a genre and world rarely seen, and even more rarely seen done well, in gaming; Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains and The Amazing Race started already, but I can say that they’ll provide the most consistently entertaining television week-to-week until their finales air in May (aside from Supernatural, of course, hopefully).
There’s honestly too much TV for me to try and remember which episodes of Supernatural aired this year, and I would only be repeating Karen in saying that Torchwood is the BEST five hours of television you could find in 2009, so I’m moving onto my top films of 2009. I’m going with 9 films for right now, not out of some douchey tie-in like “9 from ’09!” (even though I totally take advantage of that in my title), but because I know there are movies that I haven’t seen from this past year that would make it on here. I’d rather be able to revisit this list and add an entry or two then potentially bloat it now. With further ado, my Top 9 Film from 2009:
The Hurt Locker
This is the best movie of 2009 because it is not what we would expect from films considered among its ilk; it can’t be called a war film, a high-octane action movie, or a character study because it does all of that. Focusing on a bomb disposal team in the Iraq War, we see how the three members of this squad (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty) each reconcile putting their lives on the line on a daily basis. Renner has a breakthrough performance as the squad leader of the unit who lives off of the thrill of his work. He’s an artist, and his masterpieces are all of the ways in which he has cheated death. For Renner’s William James, the challenge of the next bomb is the only thing that makes him feel alive. What makes Locker transcendent of other war films is that this mindset is not a comment on the necessities or evils of war. It is free of a political agenda or even an inkling of an opinion on the Iraq War. The comment is on how people live with what they experience in war. The series of vignettes that depict a “day in the life” for these men do not concern themselves with politics or ideologies because it isn’t an idea that could end them–it’s the bomb right in front of them.
Inglourious Basterds
Locker may be the best movie of 2009, but I didn’t have more fun at any film this past year then when I saw Basterds for the first, second and third times.This alternate WWII tale is funny, suspenseful, action-packed, and surprising.Tarantino masters the art of conversation in a way that he had yet to achieve since Jackie Brown, if ever, and flaunts his ability to make words far more intense than actions could be in two nail-biting plays of verbal cat-and-mouse.While the Basterds are good, bloody fun and satisfy any possible desire you may ever have for watching Natzis die, the film is really about Cristoph Waltz’s SS Colonel Landa and Melanie Laurent’s Shoshana.Their performances are both stellar, and if you think they may be overhyped at this point, you would be dead wrong.Even though they barely interact, they are inextricably linked and form the emotional core of Basterds.The Basterds bring the blood in buckets, but Waltz and Laurent are the main attraction.
Moon
The indie Sci-Fi movie that could that isn’t District 9, this is Sam Rockwell giving a workshop on how to do a one-man show. Relatively speaking, that is. Where D9 could have a tendency to bang you over the head with its message, Moon excels in subtle storytelling. You’re presented with lots of questions — of ethics, and what is human enough to constitute being deserving of human rights, but it does not weigh you down in histrionics over what is right or wrong. It focuses on the isolation and uncertainty that comes from not knowing who you are.
Avatar
I admit that my interest was almost non-existant leading up to James Cameron’s latest epic. “Why should I care about blue cats fighting Mechwarriors?” is what I asked myself seeing previews leading up to its release. But if there has ever been a case for seeing a film in theaters, this is it. The cast is superb, the action is intense, and the story, albeit derivative and easily compared to many older films/books/general history of the world, does an effective enough job of keeping you in the lush world of Pandora. Most importantly, the movie is genuinely breathtaking. I don’t know why I doubted Cameron’s ability to transport to another time and world with his unmatched visual flair. But he does it again, in spades. I’m more than ready to sign up for the next thrill ride Cameron makes. Until then, I’ll keep getting back in line for this one.
Up
I’ve always thought that the Pixar films were very good, but I never got why people loved them so much.Now I’m totally drinking the kool-aid.Up is a timeless story that can be appreciated on many levels.Aside from completely destroying me emotionally in a beautiful and heartbreaking opening sequence, it creates childlike wonder while approaching themes like family and loss in a very adult manner.I don’t think I cried more at any other movie this year.I don’t remember smiling more during any other film, either.
Star Trek
Yet another entry to add to this decade’s slew of successful reboots, Star Trek stands out in 2009 in the same sort of way Iron Man did in 2008 — it’s a well acted, interesting origin story that is a whole lot of fun. The ensemble running the Enterprise is great, but I was most surprised and pleased with the control Zachary Quinto showed in his rendition of Spock. It was respectful to Leonard Nimoy while never becoming an imitation. Additionally, the alternate universe events that change Spock’s backstory give him a much darker, serious tone, along the lines of Russell T. Davies’ take on Doctor Who. It’s great to see something old and established feel so new and unknown.
(500) Days of Summer
I may be going on a limb here, but I think Summer will be our generation’s When Harry Met Sally. Yeah, I said it. I have never seen a relationship movie that is so brutally honest and realistic as this journey of how one man’s fluttering heart is destroyed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt turns out another great performance as the male lead who falls for Zooey Deschanel’s Summer. The movie warns us that this isn’t a love story, and it isn’t–it’s a story of the person (JGL in this case) who is more invested in a relationship, and then has to get over it. There is no romantic comedy contrivance that drives our lovers apart–it’s just that sometimes, most of the time, people want different things and those desires don’t happen to match up. I don’t know if that can get any more universal.
In the Loop
Two words: Peter Capaldi. His venomous Malcolm Tucker could take down any political insider, fictional or real, any day of the week. The whole cast is hilarious, and sufficient satire is provided by a foreign war effectively being treated as a MacGuffin, but Capaldi is the reason this is in my nine. If profanity were an art form, he would be Da Vinci fucking Picasso. In spite of the bile he verbally spews at allies and enemies alike, Capaldi gives us just enough to recognize that Tucker is a real person who can doubt himself. In a perverse way, we can root for him because in a world of doublespeak and backstabbing, Tucker will treat you like shit to your face. And boy will you know it.
Up in the Air
Jason Reitman’s third feature is, in my assessment, his best thus far. Up in the Air seems, and is, highly topical due to Ryan Bingham’s (George Clooney) career as a “transition specialist.” It hits hard because the times in Air are the times we are living through right now. What makes it one of the best of ‘09 is that we get to see a vulnerable George Clooney. He’s super-cool as he travels across the country with no attachments, but he realizes upon meeting his female foil (Vera Farmiga) that he may not want to always play the super-cool role. I’d argue that it’s the first time we see Clooney really be intimate with a woman sinceOut of Sight, and even then he was in control. The crux of Air is that Bingham has convinced himself for so long that he likes his lifestyle that it has left him with no place to turn when he actually wants people in his life.The people he fires have homes and lives to turn to for solace, and Clooney has no such refuge if he were to try and seek it.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t give a shit? Let us know in the comments! Be on the lookout for a top films of the decade, coming soon.
I just couldn’t narrow my favorite TV shows of the year down to ten. So he we have, in honor of Matt Smith’s upcoming eleventh incarnation of the Doctor, my top eleven TV shows of 2009.
11. Free Agents (Channel 4, UK – 6 Episode Series)
I fell in love with Stephen Mangan back in 2006′s Jane Hall, a sweet ITV show with 6 episodes in its only season and a bitch of a cliffhanger. This year he starred on Broadway with Jessica Hynes and Ben Miles in The Norman Conquests trilogy. Sitting front row in Circle in the Square? Let’s just say I was on a Stephen Mangan kick. So I was lucky that Free Agents came along. Like Jane Hall, it seems to have a been a one hit wonder – six episodes, no chance of a second season – but it deserved so much more. Centered around a will they/won’t they (except they do in the first episode) couple (Stephen Mangan and Sharon Horgan) the show explored issues of celebrity, death, sex, loneliness and parenthood, all while maintaining a tone that allows their foul-mouthed boss (Anthony Michael Head) to use blue phrases like “knob jockey”. Note to Casey: if you loved Malcolm Tucker’s creative insults in In The Loop, you will love this show.
10. Party Down (Starz – 10 Episodes)
Despite spawning from the mind of Rob Thomas (showrunner of Veronica Mars, one of my favorites), Party Down took a while to grow on me. I needed time to get used to Ken Marino’s crazy boss, which takes Ricky Gervais’ and Steve Carell’s characters from the various versions of The Office and manages to take them to a darker, more pathetic and even more deluded place. I needed time to grow to love Adam Scott as the most gormless hero on TV. But love I did, along with supporting characters Ryan Hansen, Jane Lynch (who sadly left the show for an admittedly star-making role on Glee) and an endless parade of guest stars that included George Takei and JK Simmons at his best. Party Down is the true child of the British Office.
9. All the Small Things (BBC One, UK – 6 Episodes)
All ye Glee fans, cower your heads in shame to All the Small Things. Another small British show without the likelihood of a second season, All the Small Things focused on a quaint British town with dualing choral groups. There’s some British TV favorites here, including Sarah Lancashire from Coupling, Bryan Dick (“Adam” from the Torchwood episode of the same name) and Annette Badland (who shall always be the Slitheen/Mayor of Cardiff from s1 of the new Doctor Who), but what’s really engaging is that in a show about church choirs, it constantly defies your expectations. Sharing any of these developments would spoil the journey, but I truly believe that all I need to sell you on this show is the video below:
8. Community (NBC)
Oh how disappointed I was by the new fall TV season. The one shining light was Community on NBC, with a likable ensemble cast of only slightly stereotyped characters in a beautifully simple but endlessly rewarding premise: community college. It just got better and better, culminating in the poignant yet hilarious holiday episode.
7. Dexter (Showtime – 13 Episodes)
Every season I think the same thing: where the heck can Dexter possibly go from here? Each season seems so final, so obvious. And each season comes back and manages to feel as natural as the first. John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer was a viable foe and interesting foil to Dexter, who is still trying to adjust to fatherhood and struggling with the danger his dark passenger presents to family life. Suspenseful and enjoyable, and what a ending! And so I ask again: where the heck can Dexter possibly go from here? You’d think I have faith by now.
6. Being Human (BBC Three, UK – 6 Episodes)
Yes, it sounds like a bad sitcom: a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf all living in a house together! And yet somehow, Being Human lived up to the question implied in its title – how, as a monster, do you reconcile yourself with a life of attempting to be human? Another 6 episode British TV series (you’ll notice a trend – I like to think that with only 6 episodes, the writers spend more time in development creating a tight narrative and a small set of solid episodes), but this one has found success, returning 2010 for a second season on BBC, and being remade for Americans on the SyFy channel. I look forward to the former; dread the latter.
Fans of Being Human be sure to check out the original 2008 pilot, with different actors for both Mitchell and Annie. The 6 episode series both started its own narrative and dropped hints to the occurrences of the original pilot, and I think I full understanding of the characters and mythos would be helped enormously by viewing of this episode.
5. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
I should include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart along with this, but I grow increasingly bitter at that show winning all the awards when Colbert, whose show I find infinitely more entertaining and inventive, gets left to the sidelines. Riffing on the conservative blowhards that litter cable news these days, Stephen Colbert gets an enormous amount of mileage comedically and politically from his sharp satire. And yet he manages to keep the absurdity level high – continuing his endless rivalry with Korean popstar Rain, his quest to get his name in space and his continuing (but sadly waning) war with bears. And when he shaved his head at the behest of Obama? I may have cried. I find it unmissable.
4. Supernatural (CW)
When you first watched this show and saw the legends of the hook man and Bloody Mary play out as hot brothers Sam and Dean Winchester fight demons, did you ever expect it to turn into a war between God and Lucifer, with angels and archangels fighting over the proper way to proceed and arguing whether humanity is worth saving anyway? And did you expect them to still be able to pull off episodes amidst this war that put Sam & Dean in fictional versions of all your favorite TV stereotypes, drooling over “Doctor Sexy” and shamelessly mocking David Caruso’s one-liners from CSI: Miami? And that that particular episode would culminate in the bad guy being THE ARCHANGEL GABRIEL??? I didn’t. Supernatural grew its way from a show you watched for the hot boys (which doesn’t really explain why Casey stuck with it) to a thought-provoking and suspenseful treatise on God, family and loyalty. The first strains of “Carry On My Wayward Son” never fail to excite me. Paris Hilton can’t kill it.
3. The Soup (E!)
So, Joel McHale, you have made it on this list twice. Congratulations. You and your suffering staff have saved me from the hellish void that is reality TV and packaged it into an entertaining weekly 30-minute package. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping me up to date on Miley Cyrus (It’s Miley!) and the saga of Jon and Kate without subjecting me to their mindless shows and the mindless talk and “news” shows that cover them. Plus, you’re hot. Moving on!
2. Misfits (ITV, UK – 6 Episodes)
It’s Heroes with the sensibilities of Skins. 5 teenagers develop powers during a freak electrical storm while they perform their court mandated community service. These are not your high-school cheerleaders: they’re the nymphos and the arsonists and the drug users and the chavs. It would be a crime to tell you what happens in even the first episode of this twisted show but be warned: it’s probably not one to watch home alone at 2am. I hope and pray that a US cable network picks this up and exposes it to American audiences. A second series has been commissioned, and I can’t wait. Special shoutout to Robert Sheehan, giving a standout performance in an admittedly showy role as loudmouth Nathan.
Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODl-kAhVsXY
1. Torchwood: Children of Earth (BBC One, UK – 5 Episodes)
I have a tormented relationship with the work of Russell T Davies. On the one hand he’s written some of the worst and most labored Doctor Who episodes of the last 3 years – on the other: Children of Earth. A 5-part miniseries aired over 5 consecutive days, it was the perfect storm of everything Torchwood strove to be. The 456 were a villain that seemed truly alien in every sense (I’m looking at you, every other sci-fi story ever written), but the real terror lay in the human story – the government trying to work through a trying situation and exposing the darkest side of human nature in the process. This is true television drama. And to those intimidated by the canon of the Doctor Who/Torchwood universe, feel comforted by the knowledge that Children of Earth can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge of the series.
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And with the amount of TV I watch, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give special mention to: Drop Dead Diva, for being better than it had any right to be.
Nathan Fillion, for making Castle better than it had any right to be. 30 Rock. You know it’s funny, I know it’s funny. It’s cliche to say anything more. How I Met Your Mother, for continuing to fuel my burning love for New York City. The Real World: Brooklyn for getting me to watch it.
Lindsey Shaw, from 10 Things I Hate About You, upon whom I have a massive girl crush.
New Moon made $140 million domestic this weekend. Don’t you just want to die??? I mean, I kind of do. Except that I contributed 12.50 to it (at a midnight screening no less) so I give you all permission to judge away. Go ahead. Do it!
In Episode 19: Hombre Potato and the Doomsday Armageddon apocalypse Casey and I discuss New Moon, Dead Set, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his performances on SNL and in Uncertainty and Mark Sheppard and his performances in The Middle Man and Supernatural, and talk about how Casey was so right about Dexter and blah blah blah. Also, I watched this british show called Misfits about chavs and did a shitty job on the audio editing so you can’t really hear us over the french music.
