Well, we’ve finally arrived at my last Top 10 list for 2011. I hope you’ve enjoyed the previous lists! (Follow these links to check out my Top 15 Movies of 2011: part one, part two, part three, my Top 15 Comic Book Series of 2011: part one, and part two, and my Top 10 DVDs/Blu-Rays of 2011.)
To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to put together a Top 10 Episodes of TV list this year. For a whole host of reasons, I don’t watch nearly as much TV as I used to. I’m super-busy, and there just aren’t that many shows that interest me enough to want to watch religiously these days. And a whole heck of a lot of the TV I watched this past year was OLDER TV — in the form of DVD box-sets (of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Party Down, etc.). There’s a lot of current TV that interests me that I just haven’t had time to watch: Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Community, Homeland, Louie (season 2 — I have watched season 1 on DVD and LOVED it — I’ll be posting a review soon), Bored to Death (I also just finished season 1 on DVD and loved it — I’ll be posting a review of this soon, as well, and I’m hoping to get to seasons 2 and 3 soon). All of those shows look interesting and I do hope to eventually sink my teeth in them all via the magic of DVD.
So I felt weird putting together a list, seeing that there’s so much probably-great TV out there that I haven’t seen. But when I sat down to start to compile the list, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily the top ten choices manifested themselves. I guess I DID watch some great TV this year! But keep the above list of TV-I-haven’t-yet-seen in mind when perusing my choices. OK, enough intro, let’s dive in:
10. Game of Thrones: “You Win or You Die” (season 1, episode 7, aired on 5/29/11) – I’ve never read any of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin, and I wasn’t immediately taken by the first few hours of the HBO adaptation. But after a few episodes, the complex fantasy story started to get its hooks in me, and by the time I arrived at this stand-out episode I was loving this show like few other things on TV. Pretty much all of the show’s continuing story-lines jumped to the next level in this installment, which left me absolutely desperate for the next episode to arrive IMMEDIATELY. In this episode,… [continued]
All right! So here we are at last at my final 2010 Top 10 list — my list of the Top 10 Episodes of TV of 2010! I hope you’ve all enjoyed my previous lists: The Top 10 Movies of 2010 (click here for part one, and here for part two), The Top 10 DVDs/Blu-Rays of 2010 (click here for part one, and here for part two), and the Top 15 Comic Books of 2010 (click here for part one, and here for part two).
Before we begin, I should note that there are a few 2010 TV shows that I haven’t had a chance to see any of (though I hope to remedy this soon, through the magic of DVD. Just need to find the time!!) These include: Louie, Eastbound and Down, Bored to Death, and Boardwalk Empire. So, if you’re wondering why no episodes from those (apparently great) shows made the list, now you know!
OK, here we go:
10. Mad Men: “The Beautiful Girls” (Season 4, episode, 9, aired on 9/19/10) — This was an interesting episode of Mad Men that spotlighted many of the women in the ensemble. Sally, miserable living with her mother, runs away to find Don at his office, and begs him to let her live with him. Faye is put in the uncomfortable position of having to comfort this distraught child. Peggy has a rough series of interactions with the young fella who Joyce set her up with, who doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what sort of woman Peggy is and how to connect with her. Joan, lonely after the departure of her husband Greg for Vietnam, finally accepts Roger Stirling’s offer of dinner — which proves momentous because of what goes down after the two of them are mugged. And then, of course, there is poor Mrs. Blankenship, whose untimely demise leads to a laugh-out-loud sequence in which the folks at Stirling, Cooper, Draper, Price try to prevent the presence of a dead body from interrupting their regular business. It’s my favorite moment of the entire season of Mad Men.
9. Parks and Recreation: “Woman of the Year” (Season 2, episode 17, aired 3/4/2010) — Leslie Knope expects to be chosen as the Woman of the Year by the Indiana Organization of Women, but she’s horrified to learn that their choice is actually her mustachioed boss, Ron Swanson. There’s a lot of comic fun to be had from Ron’s gleeful torturing of Leslie (“Which of these objects most represents women, for this portrait?”), but what I love about this episode is the surprising amount of sweetness that we learn about Ron, when he… [continued]
Sometimes things really do work out all right in the end, after all! After being dumped by Fox back in 2004, Futurama has returned to life — first as a series of four direct-to-DVD movies (click here for my review of the final DVD, “Into the Wild Blue Yonder”) and now — huzzah! — as a regular series on Comedy Central.
I don’t get to watch too much TV while working at camp each summer, but last week on my day off I was able to enjoy the first two new episodes.
The new premiere, “Rebirth” begins with the apparent deaths of the Futurama gang (nice little unsubtle reference to their cancellation). Luckily, Professor Farnsworth is able to restore everyone to life by bathing their skeletons in a vat of stem cells. Well, everyone except Leela. For some reason the Professor’s miracle stem cell bath doesn’t return her to life, so instead he downloads her memories and personality into a new robot body. This proves somewhat awkward for Fry and Leela’s burgeoning romance!
“Rebirth” is far from the funniest Futurama episode ever, but it’s such a delight to see the characters back on TV that I hardly noticed. There are a lot of great gags and all sorts of references to sci-fi TV shows and movies. There’s a subplot with Bender (now powered by one of the Professor’s doomsday machines that will blow him to kingdom come if he ever stops partying) that got tiresome pretty fast, but the episode makes up for that with a third-act twist that I thought was really clever and surprising.
Things got even better with the second new episode, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela,” in which Leela finds herself marooned with Zapp Branigan. With no hope of rescue (and under the impression that the Earth has been destroyed), will she contemplate repopulating the Human species with Zapp? Brannigan is a terrific Futurama character, and it’s great to see him get so much screen time in this episode. I particularly enjoyed the glimpse we got into his dreams (presented in the style of 1950′s black-and-white serials).
I’ve heard that the production budget of the series was cut in order to get picked up by Comedy Central. Luckily, the show still looks great. There were a few moments of slightly wonky animation (the attack by the Cyclophage in “Rebirth” looked particularly flat, and there were some moments between Zapp and Leela in “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela” where both characters looked a bit off-model), but nothing too troubling.
Most of all, it’s just a great thrill to have the series back, and I hope they’re able to build some momentum as the season continues.
Let the Best of 2009 lists continue! I hope you all enjoyed my list of the Top 10 TV Episodes of 2009.
Now let’s dive into my list of the Top 10 DVDs (or Blu-Rays) released in 2009!
First, I’d like to give Honorable Mentions to the complete series sets of three amazing TV shows that I had just about given up all hope of ever seeing on DVD: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I. So why aren’t these shows on my list? Because I can’t put anything on this list that I haven’t actually watched, and I’ve been way, way too busy to get through any of these sets. Of the three, the only one I own is Andy Richter Controls the Universe. (That one came out first, and I’m not going to purchase the other two sets until I actually have time to watch them.) But I take great delight in knowing that these three DVD sets exist here on planet Earth, and I know that I’ll get to them all in good time.
10. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (Blu-ray) — I’ve seen Watchmen quite a few times since it was released early in 2009, and while the film certainly has some weaknesses, I remain overwhelmed by the enormity of its successes. It’s hard to believe that Zach Snyder brought this seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, which long had been considered unadaptable, to life. It thrills me to see such a faithful take on the material and that the filmmakers had the confidence to craft a super-hero film that was aimed squarely at adults. The Ultimate Cut of the film is Zach Snyder’s longest version, stitching together his Director’s Cut with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter sequences. It’s pretty astounding. This Blu-Ray set would be much higher on this list were it not for the paltry special features. Not only are the special features lame (this is a movie that cries out for a full-fledged making-of documentary), but this set just reproduces the special features that were already released on the Director’s Cut set. (I guess I’ve been spoiled by the amazing extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films, which came not just with phenomenal extended versions of the films but with extraordinarily elaborate making-of documentaries that didn’t duplicate the special features on the theatrical version DVDs.) (Read my review of the theatrical version of Watchmen here, and of the Director’s Cut here.)
9. Contact (Blu-Ray) — A beautiful film that manages to combine a serious, cerebral sci-fi tale with an effecting story of the personal journey of scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway… [continued]
So, wow! After the recent Comic-Con the web has been flooded with all sorts of teases about upcoming movies, TV shows, and other geeky goodness. Here’s some of the best stuff that I’ve found:
After so many years of speculation and false starts, the sequel to Tron is finally, actually happening!! Check out the STUNNING trailer here. It’s going to be in IMAX 3-D?? I’m THERE.
I cannot believe they’re actually making a Jonah Hex movie. (And with Josh Brolin, no less!) Check out the poster.
The ending of Lost revealed? Um, not quite. Check out this video from the Lost panel! Quite a lot of additional footage from that panel can be found here. For some reason, Michael Emmerson’s fake audition for the role of Hurley isn’t included, but you can find that here. Funny stuff.
Here’s a pretty bad-ass trailer for Season 2 of The Clone Wars. I actually found the first season to be fairly watchable, and this glimpse at the next season looks pretty promising.
You know what it takes to sell real estate? The same thing it takes to re-make one of the most brilliant TV shows of all time. Well, AMC’s version of The Prisoner, starring Ian McKellan and Jim Caviezel, is nearly upon us. Check out this lengthy trailer. I must say, that looks pretty damn intriguing!
Amongst all of this glorious fun is the extraordinarily troubling continuing story about the newly-resurrected Futurama‘s uncertain future. This report from the Futurama panel at the con is grim indeed. Can’t everybody just make nice already?!!
That’s all for now — have a great weekend everybody!!
Good news, everybody! Futurama lives!!
So Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) is joining the cast of 24 next season? Time for the Battlestar Galactica actors to learn what the members of the ensemble from The Wire have discovered: they’ll never again be in a TV show as good.
Did you see The Daily Show’s John Hodgman’s uproariously funny speech at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner? Not to be missed.
A nice farewell to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles can be found on Composer Bear McCreary’s excellent blog, as he lists his 15 favorite moments from the show. (They are all excellent choices.) This show had its flaws, to be sure, but I am really disappointed that we won’t be getting a third season. (By the way, Bear was also the composer for the reinvented Battlestar Galactica throughout its run.)
Speaking of The Terminator, the fine folks over at filmschoolrejects.com have posted an interesting list of 20 Things We Didn’t Like and 10 Things We Did about Terminator: Salvation.
I don’t play videogames, but I must admit that this trailer for Lucasarts’ new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer is ridiculously cool. I wish we’d seen half that much bad-assery in the prequels…
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has made his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien! Watch him make fun of some hippies here.
Have a great weekend, everybody! See you back here on Monday!
Two rather high-profile new direct-to-DVD animation projects have been released recently — but are they worth your time and hard-earned dollars? Well read on, true believers!
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder — And so, once again, we bid farewell to Futurama. Matt Groening’s lunatic sci-fi series was brutally cancelled by Fox back in 2003 after only four seasons. Luckily, after several long years of waiting, the series was resurrected for a series of four direct-to-DVD feature-length animated films, of which this is the last. While these new movies haven’t quite reached the high-points of the series’ best episodes (I’m thinking about episodes such as The Farnsworth Parabox, Roswell That Ends Well, Love and Rocket, War is the H-Word, Amazon Women in the Mood, The Bird-bot of Ice-Catraz, The Problem with Popplers, or The Day the Earth Stood Stupid), they have been very, very good. The strongest, in my opinion, was The Beast with a Billion Backs, in which David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) plays the alien Yivo who attempts to mate with every creature in the universe, while the weakest was Bender’s Game (as I found the extended fantasy sequence in the middle of the film to be a bit dull).
Into the Wild Green Yonder contains all the crazy zaniness, wild side-stories, and obscure sci-fi references that I have come to expect from the series. The plot is almost beside the point, but I will attempt a summation. The story begins on Mars, where the construction of a new Mars Vegas is disrupted by a band of eco-feminists. Pretty soon Fry has been declared the savior of the universe by a bunch of telepaths wearing aluminum foil hats, Bender arouses the wrath of the mobster Don-Bot for making out with his wife, Leela goes under-cover with the feminists, and it all builds to a massive space-ship battle in the middle of an intergalactic mini-golf course.
The DVD is very solid — the animation is GORGEOUS, as always. The story, despite some digressions, works well as a movie. There are very few lulls between big laughs. As for the ending — well, the original Futurama series was cancelled without any time to produce a final episode, so with this being the final DVD (for now, at least — hope always springs eternal that these will have proven profitable enough for more to be on the way!), fans wondered if we’d get some sort of “finale” to the over-all story. Well, I think they got things just right. The last scene is just terrific, with some nice closure that doesn’t close the door on further adventures. And the very last shot? Perfection.
If this is the end of Futurama then… [continued]
It’s been a busy month here, but that hasn’t stopped me from checking out a bunch of DVDs recently, new and old:
The Conversation — Released in 1974, this masterpiece was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Gene Hackman stars as twitchy, secretive surveillance specialist Harry Caul, whose life is up-ended by a seemingly-innocuous conversation that he is hired to record. Confidently directed by Coppola at the height of his abilities, the film is a perfect study of a slow burn as we watch Hackman’s character gradually fall to pieces. This is Hackman’s film, without question, but it’s also fun to see the great John Cazale (Fredo in The Godfather) and an incredibly young Harrison Ford in supporting roles. The film is also notable for the contributions of master editor Walter Murch (American Graffiti, Apocalypse Now) who created an incredible sound-scape that plays with sound and dialogue in some incredibly inventive ways. The bravura opening sequence, in which Caul and his team records the titular conversation, is staggering — like Caul, we attempt to follow the couple and their conversation, but keep getting distracted by people talking, music playing, and a myriad of other background noises, with the conversation itself flittering in and out of our perception. It’s really quite astonishing. Everybody loves The Godfather these days, but I feel that The Conversation is a film that has fallen out of the popular consciousness. Do yourself a favor and help remedy that by checking out this brilliant film!
Band of Brothers — Speaking of masterpieces, there is this 2001 HBO miniseries executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Adapted from the book by Stephen Ambrose, the series follows the men of Easy Company (of the US Army 101st Airborne Division) from their training in 1942 through to the end of the second world war. I have watched this series through four times now since it was released, and each time I watch it I am just as over-come by the power of the story of these extraordinary heroes. The production quality of this mini-series is unbelievable — each episode is really its own mini-movie. The vistas are stunningly beautiful, and the action is gut-wrenchingly intense. There are few movies. let alone TV shows, that are able to stage combat sequences with as much ferocity. Over the ten episodes we follow and grow to love an enormous ensemble of characters: Damian Lewis as Richard Winters, Ron Livingston as Lewis Nixon, Donnie Wahlberg as Carwood Lipton, Scott Grimes as Donald Malarkey, Michael Cudlitz as “Bull” Randleman, James Madio as Frank Perconte, Neal McDonough as “Buck” Compton, Frank John Hughes as “Wild Bill”… [continued]
Every now and then a great, cancelled-before-its-time TV show earns a magical second chance. My favorite recent example of this is the staggeringly underrated Futurama. This wonderfully bizarre and hysterical show, created by Matt Groening, was cancelled back in 2005, but it was revived last year for four direct-to-DVD movies. The first, Bender’s Big Score, came out this past November. The second, The Beast With a Billion Backs, is nearly upon us. Check out the trailer:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36905
If you don’t know what the twist of the story is going to be from the DVD’s title, the last line of the trailer spells things out pretty clearly.
In other news, the creator of the Pringles can died last month, and was buried in…oh yes, a Pringles can. Could I make that up?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/983051,pring060208.article
Finally, in sad news, Alexander Courage died last week. He was a tremendously talented film composer and arranger…but his most famous work was probably writing the theme to the original Star Trek series. There aren’t too many pieces of music more iconic. What a giant. More information on his life and work can be found here:
http://trekmovie.com/2008/05/28/star-trek-composer-alexander-courage-dead-at-88/#more-2013
That’s all for me for today!
I’m a bit of a TV nut. So, like so many of you, I had to go through a bit of an adjustment this winter without any new installments of Lost, The Office, and all my other TV pals.
How did I survive? DVDs, my friends. God bless ‘em.
Here’s just a sampling of the Digital Video Devicey goodness that I enjoyed over the past few months:
I. Futurama: Bender’s Big Score – There aren’t a lot of shows (only Firefly and Arrested Development come to mind) whose cancellation burned me more than that of Futurama. My goodness I loved this show. I still remember the moment when I first understood that this Matt Groening creation was a thing of awesome beauty and genius. It was season two’s episode “I Second That Emotion,” (that’s the one where the Professor installs an empathy chip in Bender), in which it was revealed that the colony of underground mutants (long story) worshipped an unexploded nuclear bomb but, as one of the mutants commented, “its really just a Christmas and Easter” thing. Any show that makes Beneath the Planet of the Apes jokes (that’s where the whole mutants-worshipping-an-unexploded-nuclear-bomb thing comes from) without care as to the tiny amount of viewers who would actually get that joke is a show that guaranteed itself my viewership until the end of time. Anyways, this DVD movie was the 1st of 4 DVDs rescuing the show from oblivion. It’s the bees’ knees, baby.
II. Battlestar Galactica: Razor – Another direct-to-DVD continuation of a brilliant TV show. If you’re not watching Sci-Fi’s stunningly amazing reinvention of BSG, then I have only pity in my heart for you. This installment was, no surprise, gripping and surprising…in particular, the multi-layered structure of flashbacks-within-flashbacks was super-cool. And we got to see a young William “Husker” Adama battling “toasters” in the First Cylon War!
III. Zodiac – I totally missed this David Fincher film, about the real-life Zodiac murders of the 60’s & 70’s, when it was in theatres…and I don’t know quite what prompted me to pick it up on DVD. But I found this film to be completely gripping. A terrific cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Junior, and many many other familiar faces really kept things moving. And the beautiful set design & costuming combined with some really beautiful but extraordinarily subtle visual effects work brought San Francisco through the years to gorgeous visual life.
IV. Igby Goes Down – Check out this cast: Kieran Culkin, Clare Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillipe, Bill Pullman, and Susan Sarandon. Find it. Watch it. You won’t regret it.
More DVDS I watched and loved this winter coming tomorrow!