Parenthood (Tuesday, NBC, 10PM) — I got to watch the pilot episode of Parenthood (thanks to the free episode on iTunes, a plastic cup of wine and a train ride to see my mother) and I gotta say, I loved it. There was nothing to not love. It was funny, heartwarming and downright wonderful.
10. “Is Sandra Bullock nominated for All About Steve?”
9. “I’m glad they made it ten Best Picture nominees; before, the show never seemed to drag enough.”
8. “Who’s up for Best Boy?” [Read more →]
Whereas “Lighthouse” was all about our enlightenment, “Sundown” explored our dark side — temptation. “I can see her lying back in her satin dress in a room where you do what you don’t confess,” sang Gordon Lightfoot in his 1974 hit “Sundown.” The song is all about succumbing to temptation, hence once again revealing the double entendre that the Lost writers are so fond of using in their episode titles. When the sun goes down, man gets tempted by the dark. Why a “satin” dress? Sounds like Satan, don’t it? [Read more →]
Brothers & Sisters (Sunday, ABC, 10PM) — I consistently neglect one of my favorite shows week after week and it’s simply because I’m 32 years old and like to be in bed by 10 on a school night, especially on Sunday. With Brothers & Sisters airing on Sunday at 10PM, I never watch it live… and considering this column posts on Monday at 2:00, I don’t get to write about it. So this week I’ve decided to honor B&S, stay up late, watch it and discuss. [Read more →]
10. It’s a heartwarming story about two senior citizens trying to figure out how to get their cable television to work
9. The actors were told, “Improvise! That way we don’t have to hire any writers”
8. The Motion Picture Association of America rated your film PG for “Particularly Ghastly” [Read more →]
You’ve probably noticed that in every flash-sideways so far on Lost this season, the central character of the episode has been shown looking into a mirror. Kate looks at herself in the auto body restroom after discovering that Claire was pregnant, Locke in his own bathroom just before attempting to call Jack, and Jack looks at himself both in the airplane while noticing the strange mark on his neck, and again in “The Lighthouse” when noticing an appendix scar that he doesn’t seem to remember. The easy metaphor of course, is that we are looking at secondary versions of these characters through the looking glass. But what’s the deeper meaning for us? [Read more →]
Lost episode 6.4, “The Substitute,” has so many parallels with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory , I am convinced that the movie can be used to reveal Lost’s endgame. While I’m sure those parallels also exist within the actual Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book, since I am more familiar with the 1971 Gene Wilder movie (having seen it dozens of times), I will make my comparisons there. Sure, this may turn out to be nothing more than stuff and nonsense, but in the words of Wonka, “a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” So, let’s get to it because we have so much time and so little to do. Strike that…reverse it.
10. “I don’t know which I enjoy more, the Pomp or the Circumstance.”
9. “That’s weird: somebody’s replaced the Canadian National Flag with a picture of a leaf!”
8. “I never realized North America contained a country besides the United States.”
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“My name is Michael Westen. I’m a spy.”
So begins each episode of the TV series Burn Notice.
I read that Saturday Night Live made fun of the TV series and as I’ve lately become a huge fan of the action-comedy program, I went to the Internet to watch the comedy sketch .
The Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver on Friday, and I can hear many of you sighing with boredom. Who cares, right? And then there are the cynics amongst us who may believe that a pursuit of excellence is a worthwhile endeavor, but who are disgusted by how the athletes are exploited – they make the sacrifices, but corporations, governments, and the IOC reap the rewards. [Read more →]
Have you ever met someone for the first time who seemed really familiar to you? Strangely, this person likely wound up being an important player in your life. This exact scenario happens to Jack in LA X when he recognizes Desmond on the plane. In What Kate Does, Kate’s parallel life is once again setting up the scene for her to have a connection with Claire and baby Aaron. What if the reason for this familiarity is because we are recognizing these people from our future, or from the story of our destiny? [Read more →]
Lost (Tuesday, ABC, 9PM) — Who is the man in black? I don’t even remember the man in black (thank goodness for that recap hour). It seems as if the devilish man in black has the ability to take the form of dead bodies… so I guess Locke really is dead… and it wasn’t really Jack’s father following him around on the island that whole time (or was it?). Oh and the man in black is also the smoke monster.
As soon as I learned of the title of Lost’s Season 6 premiere episode last year, I immediately began to wonder about its implications. Sure, the LA X was a reference to LAX, the abbreviation for Los Angeles International Airport where Oceanic Flight 815 was suppose to land, but why was there a space between the “LA” and the “X”? Like everything on Lost, surely this play on letters was for a reason. [Read more →]
Pawn Stars/American Pickers (Monday, History Channel) – While the rest of America was tuning in to the NBC late-night television Conan/Leno debacle, in addition to watching the funniest late night host of them all, Chelsea Handler, I was watching my other late-night guilty pleasures… on the History channel. Uh huh, you heard me correctly. It all started one night with Pawn Stars. How I came across it, I do not know… but thank goodness I did because I love it. [Read more →]
We need to come together to face a plague of addiction more tragic than any in recent memory. It’s even worse than drug addiction; even worse than nicotine addiction; even worse than food addiction; even worse than gambling addiction; even worse than shopping addiction; even worse than sex addiction; even worse than Jane’s Addiction.
I’ve always been a fan of British television programs that have made the jump ‘cross the pond to the United States. Among those currently at the top of my list is Top Gear, an imaginative and finely-crafted celebration of car and driver that is at times pointed and passionate … and sometimes downright hilarious. [Read more →]
I was about to write the words, “Nothing shocks me on television anymore” when I realized that if that was true I wouldn’t be writing this. I get annoyed, mostly, by network television, but it’s been a long time since my breath was taken away. I’ve accepted without protest the most recent public spectacle of NBC’s regard for the reputations of Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, two richly rewarded good guys in a sea of counterfeit crap peddlers, who were forced to cannibalize each other publicly in the aftermath of a panicky decision following a corporate blunder. This doesn’t shock me. But I try to imagine Johnny Carson in a similar position.
This is what network television in the year 2010 does to its mega-mega-million dollar stars. But that’s the business of television. The programming is worse. [Read more →]
Cougar Town (Wednesday, 9:30PM, ABC) — I was a little behind on one of my favorite new shows of the season… hell, one of my favorite shows on TV, Cougar Town, and I am finally all caught up. That show cracks. me. up. Just when I thought there was no way Courteney Cox could be funnier than she was as Monica Geller, she is as funny, if not funnier, as Jules Cobb. I don’t have Showtime so I do not watch United States of Tara (though I have seen it) and Toni Collette is excellent, but I think Courteney got robbed at the Globes. Especially at an awards show where underdogs and comeback kids rule the envelopes. [Read more →]
10. You’re the surviving half of Milli Vanilli
9. Your comedy album is entirely in Kurdish
8. Your CD just went Tin
7. Your musical style is a cross between Zamfir and Boxcar Willie
6. Your reggae album was recorded using only bagpipes
5. Before you copied and released your album, you forgot to make sure the microphone was on
4. You’re up against Lady Gaga in the category Most Gaga
3. Your CD’s main popularity is as a beer coaster
2. Your band is named The Living Kazoos
1. There isn’t a category called Highest Score on Guitar Hero
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
I love Martha Stewart as much as the next gal. Need a cheese plate presentation, a pinecone wreath, or a stamped invitation? Count on Martha to lead us to domestic bliss. Need to see an old lady on a stripper pole? Count on Martha for that too. And it certainly is not a good thing. [Read more →]
24 (Monday, 9PM, FOX) — Tick… tick… tick… tick… “The following takes place between 4pm and 5pm.” Ahh, it was so good to hear those words. Jack Bauer, unwillingly, was back in action rather quickly this season and thank goodness for that. He tried, unsuccessfully, to not be involved with CTU affairs but it didn’t happen and before we knew it, he was toting around a terrorist, shooting locks off doors with his last bullet, and saving the lives of others while putting his own at risk… basically, he was just being Jack. It was so very Jack of him to slice that fire ax into the chest of that bad guy. [Read more →]
10. Outtakes from The Office
9. The Numa Numa Guy
8. A test pattern
7. Law & Order: Mail Fraud Unit
6. Jimmy Fallon
5. Canadian Curling Championships
4. A couple sitting on their couch, watching the cop show Southland on TNT
3. YouTube videos of guys getting hit in the goolies
2. Reruns of whatever was on from 9 to 10
1. Jeff Zucker’s home movies
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
She’s stopped playing Peeping Tom with Russia, she’s sold millions of dollars worth of books, she has electrified a large segment of the population, but the GOP’s official cheerleader has decided it’s time to step her game up.
The holidays are over. We’re 11 days into frigid January. Spring is 68 days away. What do we have to look forward to? TV winter premieres, that’s what (hey, it’s something). Now the real truth is that we’re going to have to wait many months for some of our faves to come back (Glee for instance, returns in April), but some have already returned (Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Modern Family, Cougar Town), there are some new goodies on their way now and some of our go-tos return this week. Here’s what to watch for this winter season: [Read more →]
Due to a tear in the time-space continuum, the following, which appears to be a wish list for a New Hollywood Squares pilot episode for Fall 2030, found its way into my email box. Sender: The Future.
Since the beginning I have claimed to be a Family Guy fan. And I suppose I still am. It’s fun to watch a show push boundaries and earn a fan base purely on cut-a-way gags. But, I was watching Family Guy in syndication and realized the following: I’ve never really liked this show; left to my own devices I’d never watch it; but I love being someone who watches Family Guy when I’m around other people. Yes, I realize this is fucked up. [Read more →]
10. Car Crash on 34th Street
9. So You Think You Can Gift Wrap
8. Bob Dylan’s Hanukkah/Christmas Special
7. Bernie Madoff’s New Year’s Rockin’ Prison Eve
6. Rudolph the Downsized Reindeer
5. I Saw Adam Lambert Kissing Santa Claus
4. When Reindeer Attack
3. Drape Some Tinsel on This, Charlie Brown!
2. The Grinch Who Robbed Parking Meters
1. Don Knotts’s It’s A Wonderful Fife
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
Enjoying my last couple days of leisure before the campus re-opens for the spring, and I am once again required to behave with a degree of activity, responsibility and punctuality that has been noticeably - and deliberately, happily - absent the last couple of weeks. I could be knocking off one more book from my ‘must-read’ list, taking in one more film at the local cineplex, or scratching one or two more items off that ‘honey-do’ list on the fridge … or I could be spending a LOT more time in front of the tee-vee.
[Read more →]
I’ve been busy basking in the tanning bed glow of my latest television obsession, Jersey Shore on MTV. The brain trust on Jersey Shore is all about alcohol fueled sex, one night stands, and boyfriends who are married. And while I’ve been waiting for poor Snooki to get punched in the face by some a-hole on tonight’s episode, MTV has been quietly airing a show that portrays life far away from the drunken antics in New Jersey. Teen Mom is as sobering as it gets. [Read more →]
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