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”

7. It has one or more Transformers in it

6. The opening and closing credits actually meet in the middle

5. It’s called The Love Guru II

4. All the actors are gerbils

3. The iPhone product placements detract from the Biblical setting

2. Instead of 3-D glasses, you’re supposed to wear sleep masks

1. It was directed by Marvin Scorsese
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: art & entertainment, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, movies, television by Bob Sullivan
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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 →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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10. Snowplowing

9. Speed Typing

8. Bottomless Ski Jump

7. Icicle Toss

6. Octathlon

5. Nordic Hot Tub

4. Ice Hockey Free-For-All

3. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Doubles Luge

2. Snowman Building

1. Ski Curling
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, sports, television by Bob Sullivan
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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.

[Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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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.”

7. “I’m really looking forward to that new event, Cross-Country Skating!”

6. “Cripes! I’ve seen more snow on the shoulder of a Head & Shoulders user!”

5. “Rumor has it that one of the male figure skaters might be gay.”

4. “It’s so embarrassing when you just can’t get your torch up!”

3. “What’s the venue for the Freestyle Zamboni?”

2. “Rumor has it that k. d. lang might be gay.”

1. “I didn’t know Georgia was a country now! Did it secede from the Union? Again?”
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, sports, television by Bob Sullivan
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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 .

[Read more →]

Tags: television by Paul Davis
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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 →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports, television by Mark A. Rayner
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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 →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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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.

[Read more →]

Tags: Lauren Likes TV, television by Lauren LaBumbard
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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 →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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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 →]

Tags: Lauren Likes TV, television by Lauren LaBumbard
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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.

[Read more →]

Tags: games, his & hers, television by Ricky Sprague
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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 →]

Tags: television by Jeff McDonald
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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 →]

Tags: television by Clark DeLeon
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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 →]

Tags: Lauren Likes TV, television by Lauren LaBumbard
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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.

Tags: art & entertainment, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, music, television by Bob Sullivan
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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 →]

Tags: television by Nancy DeGregorio
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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 →]

Tags: Lauren Likes TV, television by Lauren LaBumbard
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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.

Tags: art & entertainment, Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, television by Bob Sullivan
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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.

[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, television by Mike McGowan
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