The Monkees Marathon

Antenna TV is giving a tribute to David Jones with a marathon of the Monkees.

The Monkees was a sketch musical-comedy show. The band of four would go around the country looking for gigs and get into zany adventures. The great part of the show is they constantly broke the third wall. The referenced the script, the cameras, and the fact they were actors. Puns and jokes were non-stop often ending up in laughing fits by the actors. The singing and dancing often had little to do with script.

Even 45 years later this show still holds up well. The comedy is still funny and the music is great. I recommend everyone catch an episode or two.

Awake: Pilot

Awake: Pilot

A guy is in a car crash and the results is a split. Not a split personalty but a split reality, at least from his perspective. In one reality his son survived and in the other his wife survived. Unexplained slight changes exist in each reality. He uses these slight changes to solve crimes in both worlds.

One problem is that if this was a split in reality at the point of the accident then why so many differences in both realities. Does one person living and  not dying really change the world that much?

The show is well acted but future episodes suggest a more conspiracy type show. Hopefully it is not a dream, purgatory, or coma.

Being Human vs. Being Human

Thanks to repeats I got caught up with the U.S.A. and U.K. versions of Being Human. This show is about a reluctant vampire, an accidental werewolf, and a anxious ghost live together and try to be normal.

Image source: SciFi Mafia

Being Human (UK):
Darker, more cursing, and more comedy. Everyone who comes across the path of the trio is much worse for it. There is a lot of history, conspiracies, and prophecies all of which gets resolved. The vampire is a bit naive, dangerous, and funnier than his U.S. counterpart. In the latest episodes everyone is dead and gone except the ghost who is looking for roommates. 



Being Human (USA):
More drama, less blood. The trio is less silly than there UK counterparts which makes them very sympathetic. Since this show is about three seasons behind the UK version you can see where there going. BUT, yes that is a big but, they are not doing as much of the conspiracy/prophecy stuff. Although it is a bit early too accurately compare.


In both cases the show is fine but watching them at the same time is better. There is something about comparing stuff that makes it better.

Real News via TV: March 1, 2012

Sick and tired of so much non-relevant news I hope to write about what is really important.

Top Local Story:

1. President Obama is in NYC fundraising and generally causing traffic issues for some.

Top Nationwide Stories:

1.  Way too much coverage of the Republican race where a bunch of ignorant, superstitious, and prejudice people who are running on unrealistic and vague promises.

2. People living in the path of tornadoes are shocked when one hits. After destroying the natural landscape to build a home then choosing to make there homes out of wood they are shocked by the destruction.

3. Andrew Breitbart the yellow journalist who entrapped and twisted videos on his blog died of unknown causes. As he was 43 any natural causes would be known within hours but drug use would not. 

Chuck: Series Finale

So I'm slightly late, big deal thanks to downloading some people are watching the first season while others are about to see the final episode.

Chuck: Chuck Versus the Goodbye

Sarah has the intersect wiped from her head but in the process lost most of her memories of the last few seasons years. Everyone in Chuck's life gathers to help the Sarah but at the end she is still at a loss. Chuck decides that a true love's kiss will bring it all back and that is where it ends.

Spying done we are left with the notion whether or not the kiss worked these two people will be together forever.

As a whole the series was great. Very clever and well acted. Their not so subtle pop culture references were awesome. The constant struggle to stay on air was highlighted by an in-show Subway promotions but also by the cast staying together.

I hope NBC continues with the tradition of scripted shows despite the struggle with Chuck.

The River

The River : Magus

Magus is the boat lost in the Amazon headed by some doctor of unknown degrees. This Dr Cole is also an adventurer and has a documentary show. Through clips we see the Doc and his family when they were young. There is a lot of foreshadowing leading us to think he was purposefully looking for something.

The something he is looking for seems to be magic, instead we are finding ghosts. The boat has a trapped blood drinking ghost that can be fooled by a baby's coffin. The fact everyone accepts ghosts and ignore warnings is beyond belief.

The River: Marbeley

The boat fixed the new crew of the Magus try to find the old crew. Ignoring all warning Dr. Cole sends a dragonfly to tell the new crew to get out. Even with the amazing use of dragonfly-possession to get a message through no one seems to be shocked and continues the journey. Meanwhile a ghost of a brat tries to steal a mom. Marbeley is the stuffed bear of Dr. Cole's grown son.


This show is filmed in shaking cam style that no documentary crew in real life would ever do. The people who make these shows and movies like Paranormal Activity have never seen a real documentary. Some of the best and clearest videos in the world come from documentaries.

The only people who use substandard cameras and grainy footage are fakers like Ghost Hunter or bigfoot hunters.

Also the pilot was filmed in El Yunque in Purto Rico so all the coquis and palm trees made it feel fake. Then they moved production to Hawaii. At this point you where just shouting hey isn't that where Kate hid in Lost.

2012 Superbowl Champion NY Giants

Nice to see my home team win the Superbowl over their evil arch rivals. The game itself was great and tense even in the final seconds.

The Giants are known for 4th quarter comebacks and they did not disappoint. Let's face it the blew a 9-0 lead yet still fought back.

The Superbowl commercials were blah. I guess since most were shown online and in the news prior to the game it made the whole thing anticlimactic. The best for me was the one with the dog losing weight to get through his doggie door to chase some car.

Halftime show was a greatest hits mash-up that proved dancing should be left to the young. The low point was when M.I.A. try to make herself relevant by flipping the bird, grinding too much and cussing.

Time for a parade.

The parade was crowded and although it is 50 degrees and sunny I did not want to take a sick day so I watched it instead. Also I tried but could not win tickets to the Key to the City Ceremony. 250 tickets were up for grabs to 8 million New Yorkers, chances of winning were slim.

Great day for fans and an honorable team

Despite what the the incredibly loud and extremely morbose governor of NJ says the NY Giants will always be a NYC team despite their playing location. Lombardi Trophy is back in Vince Lombardi's home of NYC.

Now time for the NY Rangers to step it up.

It Isn't What It Is!

Parenthood: It Is What It Is!

File this under "TV" People Problems.

This happens to be the 1,000th time I have seen a show where certain privileged people have their smart child get into a great school and the parents have to break the "bad: news. "Honey we can't afford it."

Ridiculous is an understatement. First if the child is smart and there will be scholarships (69% of all scholarships go to whites like this character). Second financial aid and savings in America will cover everything for everyone who wants to go to college, regardless of race (in the USA 50% of all minority funds go to white women which is what this character happens to be). Third student loans may be a lot but attending a top university will pay for itself. Fourth you have a huge family and friends borrow and beg. Fifth get a job, work-study is real and from the government and which means it will be perfect for people with financial needs.

There are too many people going to college these days. Virtually anyone who wants to go and is smart enough can go, hell a lot of them are as dumb as rocks and still go. Miss Haddie Braverman has a 4.1 GPA and she can't afford a top school! Awful parenting is no excuse, just get into the school, graduate, and payoff the loans in two with your top salary.

Okay tell him to shove it and go to your college of choice.

The one saving grace is at the end the parents decided to do everything it takes to get their kid to a decent school.

Don't Get Robbed!

New shows are arriving and one looks particularly bad.

¡ROB!

From what the commercials shows Rob Schneider marries a extremely hot girl of Mexican descent and as he meets the family the hilarity ensues.

Now I enjoy Rob and Cheech Marin is always great but nothing else is appealing. Look the best way to judge a book is by its cover, that is why books have two covers (dust jacket).

This seems like typical bad sitcom clash of cultures that should have been relevant in the 90s or even the 70s when Mexican life was unknown to most. Plus that chica is way too young.

What would have been great is the exact same show except with a Muslim or Arab or Persian family.

Sure I have been wrong with other California centric shows like The Shield which at first I vowed to never watch but then got hooked. But this is rare and also that was a drama. Sitcom should be elevated to a higher standard and just by the ads it seems like a one joke show.

Feel free to watch a few episodes and get back to me. I am open to change.

Stephen King's Bag of Bones

Another Stephen King TV failure.

I missed most of it because I kept falling asleep but from what I can gather it was a ghost/curse story. It is a shame because the reason for the curse is such a powerful part but it is lost with the slow moving pace.

Pierce Brosnan does the best he can with this but without any scares there is little to work with. I guess the scenes of drowning children is meant to be shocking but if you ever been around annoying kids you have little sympathy.

This is a basically a copy of the much better Ghost Story (1981). The Bag of Bones book may have been better but I've yet to read it.

Also around Christmas come on this is a summertime mini-series.

Disorderly Emergency

There was recently a first run national Emergency Alert on the television and it left a lot of room for improvement. This is a legally mandated warning system enacted by President Bush  in 2006. Of course it was done in case of a national emergency.

While 99% of the test went on normally some stations did not press the play button on time, others did not turn it off on time, and others accidentally hit their iTunes playlist instead. The 30 second time limit also was not strictly adhered.

My problem was that this national test was not standard. Each station did it their way which was awkward and did not inspire confidence.

CBS did  a great job lasting exactly 30 seconds and bold with a simple crawl.

NBC was bland there was nothing bold or hinting at an emergency.

Fox decide advertising was more important then the actual emergency and took up one-third of the screen with their logo. Also they went way over he 30 seconds limit.

CBS set the standard and I suggest all other stations put their egos aside and just copy the CBS template.