Portlandia

I remember hearing a segment on NPR about Portlandia back when it first started.  It sounded interesting, but it seemed more like something that I would have a hard time appreciating.
     I've started watching the show on Netflix.  I'm about halfway through the second season.

     I really like it.  It's a fascinating sense of humor.

     What stands out to me is how peculiar the format is.  It would be easy to just describe it as a sketch comedy show, but it's a bit bigger than that.  There are a wide number of recurring characters.  But it isn't just about developing characters over a period of episodes.  It's the universe that the show inhabits.
     I find myself compelled to Portlandia.  There's a greater sense of personality to everything in the show.  We get a feel for neighborhoods, coffee shops, skate parks, businesses.  Everything feels like it fits together.

     Partly because of this show, I think I would enjoy living in Portland.  Plus, I really love having overcast weather.

The Simpsons, specifically post 9th season

      I've been watching The Simpsons since the Christmas Special airing.  I was part of the original craze.  While I never bought a t-shirt, my enthusiasm for the show only grew over the run of the show, at least up through sometime around the 7th season.

      I still watch The Simpsons.  I have every released season, and usually put an episode on before falling asleep.

      The show hit a stride of perfection around the 4th season, and this stride continued, with some minor variation, through the 6th season.  Starting with the 7th, we had some weaker episodes.  Many of them are still considered classics, but episodes like Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming and Marge Be Not Proud are good, but don't stand up to repeat viewings as strongly.  There are still a few solid classics in there - Team Homer is still fantastic, and I've had a real affinity for Homer the Smithers.
     The 8th season continued this trend.  Some of the episodes have bits that people remember and really love, especially ones like You Only Move Twice, or A Milhouse Divided.  I've never had great feelings about Burns, Baby Burns, and I find Mountain of Madness to be kind of dull most of the time.
     This season also hit with Homer's Enemy.  This episode severely split fans, and not in the way that some of the others did.  Some really viewed it as being in bad taste.  I remember I didn't like it at all at first, and now I've come to respect it.
     Season 9 is where things tipped a little more toward the 'weak' side of the spectrum.  The Principal and the Pauper really bothered some more people.  I never cared much about it.  But I found episodes like The Cartridge Family and Bart Star to be unusually poor.  Their clip show episode, All Singing, All Dancing was one of the worst I had seen to that point.  There were still some good jokes, but there was also much more filler and weak material.

     It's this point that soured a lot of casual fans.  There are a lot of people who just can't get past how fantastic the show was during the 4th season.

     This show has gone through many, many writers, many show runners, and most importantly, many, many episodes.  They aren't all going to be as spectacular as the best of them.
      Also, the show has changed, and it no longer has the same type of satirical edge that it had.  It's a bit more obvious.

      I've accepted this.  I still find the point, starting in the 9th season, and declining around the 12th or 13th season, to be hard to watch, mostly because the jokes haven't aged as well.  But after that, the show rebounded in quality.  It's still more silly than it was, but it's considerably better.

      What bothers me is that so many people seem to take pride in how little they've watched the show since their youth.  Or how much they assume that a decline in quality is permanent.

Under The Dome

     I love Stephen King's work.  I've seen nearly every movie based on his works.  In fact, I'm going to consult a list right now.  The things I haven't seen-
     The Dead Zone
     Pet Sematary Two
     Sometimes They Come Back... Again
     Hearts In Atlantis
     The Mangler 2
    Firestarter 2
     Riding The Bullet
     The Mangler Reborn
     No Smoking
     Children of the Corn: Genesis
     Carrie (2013)

     Battleground (1986, Soviet?)
     Golden Years
     The Revalations of Becka Paulson
      The Dead Zone (TV series)
     Kingdom Hospital
     Bag of Bones

     Anyway, I cut King a whole lot of slack  He tends to write stories that are remarkably compelling, but work toward an ending that doesn't live up to the promise of the rest of it.  There are exceptions, of course.
      I like the premise of Under The Dome.  There's a lot of promise, and I've heard that the book is great.  But I can't abide this absolutely terrible TV show.

     First, the cast is a real problem.  Most of the actors are trying to channel other, better actors.  Big Jim?  I can't look at his acting without seeing someone trying to play Jack Nicholson.  I would love to see Jason Segel play Junior.
      Second, the scripts are terrible.  I'm not talking about structure yet, or even plotting.  I'm concerned about the terrible writing.  Basic exchanges between characters are packed with lines that don't actually make sense.  They exist only to pad out the scenes, and give a sense of urgency.  There are lots of instances of these, but I can't recall most of them offhand.  In this last one that I watched (the 11th of this season, I think) one of the kids that can touch the mini-dome helps Barbie out with trying to save the girl who was shot.  Somehow, as a result of seeing this happen, the kid reaches this nonsensical conclusion that Barbie is supposed to be crowned the king inside the dome.  This would be fine, if the kid were supposed to be an idiot.  But he's supposed to be fairly logical, and does a lot of his work by the numbers.

     Third, the momentum that this show has is all over the place.  They try to divvy up the action enough to keep things interesting for a whole season.  Instead, the show just comes across as completely unbelievable.  I think that each episode is supposed to take place over a single day.  That's pretty good.  But it's also a difficult problem for people writing episodes.  There's a bit of riot, which I think happens around the 3rd or 4th episode.  People seem to have calmed down since then.  I think the town would have really disintegrated a little more over 11 days.  Instead, they're craving entertainment, so they participate in a fight club as an alternative the barter system.

The Dick Van Dyke Show - 1x17 - Punch Thy Neighbor

    Rob's neighbor, Jerry, has a habit of being a jerk.  Jerry is disappointed with a recent episode of The Alan Brady Show, and spends his time telling anyone and everyone that the show is rotten.  Of course, this bothers Rob.

     I've been watching lots of episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and I'm really loving it.  One thing that has stood out is how terrible Jerry is.  With this episode in particular, it seemed really strange to see a person on a show act like such a complete jerk.
     This made me think about something my dad would tell me.  He would occasionally mention how I (and I suppose all of his children) was so much more socially skilled than he was.  I think his schooling was run in a much more regimented way, and there was less of a focus on learning to work together.  It also could just be his memory playing tricks on him.  But this made me wonder... was the character of Jerry an accurate representation of what some adults were like at that time?  I'm sure it still happens nowadays, but it seems really strange that a professional (a dentist) who has managed to get married and have a son, somehow has made it this far without learning that he can't be this kind of a jerk.
     In a modern show, Jerry would be portrayed as just mean, and that he does these things intentionally.  In this show, he's aware that he's being a jerk, but thinks it's funny.

Fast Times - 1x01 - Pilot

    A short-lived TV series based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the film, which was based on the book.

    Everyone has been re-cast, except for both teachers.  It's awkward to see other people playing these parts, especially since so many people in the movie nailed their parts perfectly.
    What de-rails this show is how much it ignores the movie.  It wants to re-create the humor of the movie, but it also wants to ignore the charm and the realism of it.
    The teachers are fleshed out a bit.  An additional teacher is introduced.  We see Brad ask Linda out (which seems like an awkward thing to do, since I assume that they both graduated.  If they haven't, then I think Brad should still be with Lisa.)  Ratner is… terrible.  I think he's my favorite character in the movie, but here, he comes across as inept, not just awkward.  Spicoli is annoying.  When Sean Penn played the part, I knew exactly what the character was.  I knew a guy exactly like him.  With this guy (Dean Cameron) I don't think he grasped the character.  He tries to imitate Sean Penn, but the script doesn't allow for it.  Either it re-creates moments from the movie, with slight variation, or it completely reinvents the character.
    Ray Walston does a great job.  Especially given a kind of poor script.
    Stacy has been changed, and in a way that really sucks.  She comes across as being too aggressive.  Her relative innocence, and her focus on trying to be grown up was what made the movie work.

    Linda and Brad's story doesn't work, because the premise doesn't work.  Linda doesn't want people to talk about them going out, so she tries to keep their date a secret.  Linda was the character that made it a point of feeling superior to other girls in her grade, by acting more grown up than them.  Why would she suddenly care what they think?  Brad is just… kind of a dick.  I can't explain that very well, but he comes across as a
    Spicoli is drawn into a situation where a teacher wants him to do a good presentation so that teacher can prove herself to Mr. Hand.  The resolution to that storyline is a little forced.  I don't buy it.
    There are a few bright moments, but they're short, and they don't retain well.  Just a decent punchline or so.
    Also, there are two instances of Bryan Adams in this episode.  Kids Wanna Rock and Heaven.
    There's a general portrayal of the students being especially wild and crazy, throwing paper around, stuff like that.

    It just makes me appreciate Freaks & Geeks all the more.

The Dick Van Dyke Show - 2x20 - It May Look Like a Walnut

     Rob and Laura watch a sci-fi/horror movie late at night, which leads into a bizarre dream-like episode where walnuts are all over the place, and Rob worries that he will lose his imagination and thumbs.
     I first heard this episode described as being like a Twilight Zone episode.  So I looked it up.  It was available for free on Hulu.
     I've now watched this episode twice.  The second time, I showed it to my wife.  There's something very charming about the writing for this show.  It moves along a little slower than we're used to nowadays, but it's a nice sensibility.  Episodes usually seem to start off slow, but they build up as jokes are established, and the callbacks always pay off.
     I found the second viewing to be even better than the first.  I don't care for Mary Tyler Moore that much.  She seems a little vacuous for my tastes, but it could be that her character was developed over a longer stretch.
     Seeing the separate beds is one of the most dated aspects of this show.  But it plays well for comedic purposes.
    My favorite aspect of this episode is the fantastic way that Van Dyke is able to do the UFO sound.

     Now, on to some more general points, as I've started to watch this show a little more earnestly.  The writing is great.  There's a lot of heart and soul to the whole thing, even though some characters never get fleshed out.  I've been impressed with the rather progressive message across the episodes I've seen.  There's an interesting approach of tackling some awkward scenarios, situations that would normally make people cringe a little, but they play out with a fun ending.  This makes it easier to keep coming back.

The Walking Dead - 3x16 - Welcome to the Tombs

    The Governor finally runs his raid on the prison.  Andrea is placed in a perilous situation with Milton.
    This season has been really, really good.  But it still hasn't reached the heights of Battlestar Galactica.  It's a little closer to the 3rd or 4th season of Galactica.  Some standout episodes, and some uniform quality, but still a little disappointing.
    This is reflected in a season finale that is a little light on the action.  To be fair, it does include some more character moments, including one of the most hopeful scenes that the show has had to offer.
    The Governor has been a difficult character for me.  There's far too much time spent with the Governor where he's acting completely reasonable, just a bit fishy.  I was used to the comic depiction, where he rapes Michonne, which really helped to cement his status.  Here, a lot of his evilness is either against parties we don't care about, or it's just an issue of poor taste (like using walkers as weapons).
    This handling of the Governor was a bit frustrating.  I'd rather that he was a charismatic, ruthless ruler, one that brought out the worst in people.  Here, he's a bit less charismatic, but he's not exactly ruthless.  He's unpredictable, because he's a habitual liar.
    So, it's actually a little satisfying in this episode.  We have the heroes at the prison remain clean.  They don't kill any of the Governor's men (as far as I could tell).  Instead, we get the Governor killing his own men in a bout of frustration.  We also finally get a witness to his madness, who is able to report to the rest of his community that he's lost his mind.  It's a comforting sequence.  So much of the drama in this, and many other shows, is built on a lack of communication.
    We get a dark sequence for Carl, as he decides to kill an armed teenager.  While Herschel argues that the teen posed no threat, I actually see it from Carl's point of view.  The teen could have easily dropped his gun in surrender.  Instead, he holds onto it, and it's pointing in Carl's general direction.  It's nicely put together, since this leads Rick to consider his approach to things.
    Which leads to the ending.  The remaining people from Woodbury join Rick and the gang at the prison.  They don't play this up the way I would expect, but it's nice to see that such a hopeful ending was the note that the season ended on.