jussum updatez

curb finished last night, perhaps for good. if it was, it was the perfect series finale (granted, i didn't watch most of the series...yet.). not the funniest episode, but great closure for seinfeld fans (even if the actual seinfeld episode sucked, and the only good part was the rewrite that didn't actually get to air). i'm surprised they didn't address cheryl sucking, though. and larry as george was amazing.
last week's was also a week episode, but also good for cannon, and had the funniest moment of the season with duperstein.

south park is unreal this season.

sunny's pretty damn good, too, but starting to feel the tiniest bit stale.

dexter is a terribly put together show, but lithgow is amazing, and the show is still captivating. it's just sooo overdone, though.

friday night lights doesn't have the nostalgia of season 1, but is still amazing.

the office: is DM going under? my guess is that they get taken over by vance refrigeration, and all are given jobs there, with phyllis as the new boss (that's the only limitation to that plot idea, but it could work to their advantage).

californication also isn't having its best days, but i'm yet to watch this week's. we'll see.

'da zeitgeist

i'd love to make aggro a regular thing again. we'll see.

a few quick updates, before the real post:

-amazing south park season so far.

-sunny has been fantastic (besides the product placement ep, which still had its bright spots). it's a show that's begging to get old quickly, but it's not--it's saying extremely fresh. much respect for that writing staff.

-john lithgow is amazing in dexter. the season as a whole is okay.

-californication is constantly evolving and constantly good. hank's just too good of a character. he's our generation's don draper. and they fulfilled my boyhood fantasy of seeing the girl from saved! naked. ahhhhhh...tv nudity.

-mad men. i don't even need to go there. we all know it's the best.

-friday night lights season is too young for judgment (i only watched the first ep so far, and i was distracted. ep 2 coming immediately after this post.) UPDATE: how did i not see this before...it's district 5 and banks all over again. the miiiighty ducks!

-degrassi might as well be called the next next generation now. i'm digging this set of characters, but i find it hard to believe that some of them are who they play (for instance, the blond nerdy girl whose name i always forget [darcy's sister, i think? claire?] wouldn't get the guy with the temper problem whose name i also always forget).

-i've always had a problem with curb your enthusiasm's improv, and have never been able to get past the first episode or two of season one, but i'm giving this season a try and loving it. the weakest part by far is the seinfeld reunion (the first time they're all seen together again on the set is the most anti-climatic reunion i've ever seen). hysterical show, though, even if it is often annoying.

-the office is no longer a comedy, but it's still a good show.


and now, on to the post.

if you're looking for a tangible way to understand zeitgeist, look no further than your television at 3am. we haven't seen infomercials this popular since amazing discoveries, and we can actually track their progression into the zeitgeist. the magic bullet at 2am in college, snuggy on 30 rock (or so i'm told), billy mayes's death...infomercial hosts were this halloween's joker. they're officially something to be mentioned in "i love 2009."

and if you've never seen shop erotic, tivo it at least once.

ahhhhhhhh

jesus christ, graduate school--stop killing all my blogs!

of course, all it takes is a new south park season (and maybe some spring break) to bring us back into action.
after the controversy surrounding their potential display of the profit mohammad, i'm shocked south park got away with displaying the american profit mickey without us hearing about it beforehand. notorious for their rapidity in suing anyone who displays a trademark in any sort of way (example: preschools), disney is sure to get a bit annoyed over south park's anti-christian, hitler-meets-napoleon version of their iconic anthropomorph. but maybe the higher-ups at mouse will realize any law suit will just fuel matt n' trey's fire; maybe this will go ignored.
either way--brilliant comeback with very littler cartman is a good sign for things to come. let's see where this goes next.

that malcolm thing, described below, will come eventually--i just need to wait for the cycle to reset.

i've moved on to the shield now (almost done with season 3), and am catching up with dexter (half way through 2). both are very strong. mad men as well.

the new season of degrassi has been fantastic. and flight of the conchords s2 is kicking the living crap out of s1, which is an impressive feat.

east bound and down: weak first three episodes, although you could see something good was brewing. amazing fourth episdoe. david gordon mothaffffffudgin green.

24's new season has been almost as good as the first three, and the last episode was one of the best yet. they've finally taken it back to where it needs to be.

tim and eric have outdone themselves 50-fold this season.

best show you're not watching: deeper throat. showtime porn reality show about remaking the 70s classic.

breaking bad season 2. cued up on my tivo....NOW.

what what whaaaaa?!?!!

obviously last week's south park must be discussed. and that odd but amusing it's always sunny should be mentioned (and now has been). but first--

summer heights high. worst advertising campaign of all time, but a rare free half hour on sunday led me to watching, and i was blown away. the best mocumentary style show yet, perfectly capturing these personalities. possibly the best pilot i've ever seen. start watching if you aren't.

and 'park. less than 24 hour turn around? how'd they do that? my guess: they assumed obama was going to win (and figured if he didn't they'd just do the episode anyways and bite the bullet?), made the episode's shell, and fought like hell to get the details in in time. whatever the case, a great episode.

and entourage continues like it's been all season. awesome.

my apologies that this blog has become only about two or three shows. more to come as soon as there's time.

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...

lots to update.

first: WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT COME JANUARY AND IT'S THE RIGHT ONE.

a few years ago, when time/newsweek/otherfakeishnewsmagazine came out with a barak cover and the question: is he our next president, i remember being ecstatic that the question could even be asked. never could i have dreamed that the answer would be yes. thank god, america. faith is restored.

now, on to the show.

the last two episodes of the office have been unreal good. so, so awkward, yet so perfect. they've gotten back to their roots by moving on--if that makes sense.

entourage: another two great ones. ari handled the offer semi-perfectly (i'd have liked to have seen him take the job, but this works, too), and smokejumpers has the makings of a great arc. and all of the characters have for the first time in the show's history REALLY hit their strides. let's see how this all plays out.

south park. two weeks ago: abysmal. confusing as all hell. as a huge pan flute comedy fan (check my track record), i found this to be a terrible use of a potentially brilliant set piece. and stan's dad? but it was all just a setup for one of the most brilliant episodes of the past few years. bravo. all i couldn't understand--why send the kids to peru? why not just send them somewhere else? or kill them? if you know craig's the key, why even put him in the same country as the lock? amazing, though.

it's always sunny. rob thomas and sinbad's episode was just kind of confusing--the least sensible one yet (which is saying a lot), but still hysterical. last week's, however, with the mail room jobs and dee's heart attack, is among the best ever. it was politically poignant ("we don't have government provided health care in this country?! what is this, socialism?") and hysterical (charlie, as per usual, was unreal).

24's on its way back, as is breaking bad. --or breaking bad might already be back, actually. i really should be more on top of all this.

reDOMption, south park e2, it's always sunny kidnapping

the unwelcome return of dom to entourage--even if it was a sendoff--comes in the middle of the most formulaic episode of this otherwise stellar season. back to the e/vince turtle/drama mode, which they thankfully (like with dom) cut the ties with before it got too far. i'll mark this one up to doug ellen doing a friend from home a favor (at the wga he said dom, who basically plays himself, was getting heckled on the street because of his "character." the title says it all...), and we'll move on...

south park's second of the season (breast cancer) is among the best of all time. they returned to the bare bone of their strength and made an episode about the innerworkings of eric cartman. it felt...real. for the first time in a long time.

...which is the exact pattern i've been expressing fear it's always sunny was falling into, but tonight's--the first without devito since he started--dispelled that notion. the indian neighbor's arch was perfect.

a good week for television on the whole.

new seasons: south park, degrassi

while last night's south park season premiere was great--doing right by the cartman butters formula it so recently did wrong by--, i'm afraid it's suffering from the same syndrome as described for it's always sunny below: it doesn't seem novel anymore (and it did for a long, long time). still, it wasn't nearly as terrible feeling as last season, and the episode itself was funny enough for this to be mostly overlooked. it's just ominous--that's all.

degrassi continues to go there, despite an almost entirely unrecognizable cast. it's as though they're slowly transitioning into generation 3 (or 4?) instead of taking a long gap. goodbye everyone we know and love, hello gifted class. i see the potential for great things here, though.

...and it gets even worse

this season of south park just got 100x less clever...



so much for originality

south park season 12 pt 1 subsector 8 form 26b microfieche

with the conclusion of season 12 part 1, aggrocrag readers will soon finally be treated to a post about something other than south park. ...soon. for now, more 'park it is.

last night's journey to days of field trips yore brought with it the first predictable cartman/butters episode of the series. the formerly novel and always brilliant recipe instantly became formulaic, and some may even say it had echoes of shark jumping (...say it ain't so!). besides that, i was irked by one specific, tiny line that hopefully is not a sign of something bigger to come: the police officer commenting on how annoying the people at the 1800s village are for never breaking character. it was a non-sensible diagetic oversight that played down to a dumb audience--something south park is fantastic at rarely doing. add this to a season without a single real bright spot (besides the 30 seconds of butters singing "what what in your butt," which loses replayability quickly and illuminated their struggles to pick up on potentially brilliant plot lines) (and perhaps the kenny/cheesing episode, which was by far and away the best of the first half of the season but still terrible compared to the classics) and it looks like we may be in for a bumpy ride to the finish.
we should note that it's still the best show on tv.

in other news, matt groening (sp?) interviewing david chase at the writer's guild this past week was exactly as fulfilling as most wga events: i left saying "it was worth the 10 bucks and howevermany hours of my life...but just barely." if you're around in late april and may, though, james l. brooks and judd apatow are coming 'round the bend...

internet money!

this week's south park was a bit disappointing (although the inflection with which them darn canada folk said "more internet money" was hi-larious). we knew they would take on the strike, but not this way. they made it seem like a fruitless battle, while in reality it was a much needed winning effort for the WGA. yes--it may have been a bit early; yes--we may not be fully aware yet of exactly how the internet is going to be profitable, but given that the contracts were up, timing the strike differently was not really an option, and provisions to adapt to change are there.

also, they couldn't have done more with butters status as an internet star? this is what the episode should have been about, and frankly i'll be a bit disappointed if next week is not about butters's jaunt around the talk show circuit.

welps, back to richard rodriguez's days of obligation...

another new south park

now it just seems like south park is asking itself "which topical moral/issue should we address/teach (about) this week?"

the first new 'park of the season

the first new south park didn't provide any unbelievable laughs, but it did a great job showcasing what the show is best at: taking on extremely offensive topics and tackling them without being uselessly vulgar. they have this weapon called "cartman" that allows them to say or do anything given that everyone knows he lacks any semblance of morals, and once again they used this weapon effectively--and some might even say responsibly. am i sure? i'm hiv positive.

the countdown...

less than a week until new south parks. life has meaning again...

the last two south parks...

just some quick notes:

imagination land did not end the way i thought/hoped, but it was still a fantabulastic trilogy. first, continuing the manbearpig metaphor for global warming but keeping al gore as he was allowed south park to admit that they were wrong about global warming but save face by reassuring us that al gore is in fact crazy (and proud of his nobel prize, which in itself is a bit self-mocking [even if you pretend that you're bragging about your emmy for comedic sake a few eps ago, you're nonetheless reminding us of it...]). still--the only thing cartman probably liked more than sucking kyle's balls was getting to watch himself suck kyle's balls. both cartman won and kyle did not fully lose, which really was exactly what we wanted. and butters was a hero in his--and everyone's--imagination while still being a tragic figure.

this last episode was fantastic. guitar hero was handled perfectly, as was the idea of a local version of a hollywood party featuring news anchors and local commercial celebrities. the best non-cartman episode in a long, long time.

two more left? damn--this show needs more eps. hopefully they'll tackle the strike...?

imaginationland part deux

the lack of imagination with the bad imagination was a bit disappointing, but jason's voice was hysterical, and like usual, south park continues to be virtually perfect in its execution. they have a fantastic grasp on generic conventions and continue to draw humor perfectly by employing those conventions in a fourth-grade paper world. now, on to part three...

but think of the power!!!!

roommate ian just brought up a good point: who is going to be the bad imagination in next week's pt 2? they're going to use the setup to say or do something to someone; it's not just going to be monsters in the traditional sense (there were even a few monsters on the good side).
that's the power south park holds right now, and they know it. last week, they entered katie couric's name into the vernacular as a measurement of poop size just because they could. south park has the power to take the cheep shot and not be looked down upon for it, because...hey...it's south park.

south park (imaginationland)

after two sub-par episodes to start the season...
OH. MY. GOD.
they love doing this to us. they show a few bad ones and then blow your mind. and this was one of the best, most imaginative half-hours in television i have seen in a long, long time.

south park

cartman gets tourette's and this is the best you could do? COMMON! up through cartman stirring his "scotch" and challenging kyle, this was one of the best potential-episodes i had ever seen. it had everything and more going for it. and then cartman bites HIMSELF in the ass? seriously? that's how you chose to get out of the jam of cartman potentially--for all intents and purposes--winning that crazy little game called life? really? i'll give you a do-over. if next week you recycle the first fifteen minutes and just give me a different ending--one where war with kyle ensues and cartman gets exposed--or doesn't--i'll go for it. i won't complain. i'll wipe the memory of the first one completely off the map. just, please...remedy this problem.

do you like your chili, scott?

last night, as i sunk into my jet blue exit row seat (the most leg room in coach, mind you), i casually flipped on comedy central pre-takeoff, hoping to amuse myself for a moment before i was given my bliss spa sleep kit and employing it to its fullest extent. and you know what i discovered one of the most exciting feelings in the world is? turning on jet blue comedy central and seeing scott tennerman pouring a bag of "hair" into a pot of chili. for that means that i am mere moments away from eric cartman at his finest hour. and then the pilot came on.
for the next five minutes, the captain let me know my cruising altitude, a list of available snacks, the proper way to apply for a jet blue credit card while aboard, the weather in florida, and all of the other details about my flight i could ever and never imagine. he took over the public address and forced me to soundlessly watch as cartman gave the explanation of his greatest caper. have you ever tried to read a cartoon's lips? luckily, i have the entire scene memorized. ...but what if i didn't? what if this was my first time seeing "scott tennerman must die"? what if i was a young, impressionable youth just looking for a reason to laugh? a reason to love? a reason to live? i would like each of our loyal readers to please write a letter to jet blue asking for a manual p.a. override option to be installed on all of their jets. after all, what company could possibly ignore over three (3) strongly worded letters?