Chuck Norris is one of those actors whose popularity as a cult icon has far surpassed his actual claim to fame (acting, in case you’ve forgotten). After his role as Walker, Texas Ranger, he became known as the ultimate tough guy. People started coming up with sayings - things like “Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.” or “There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.” Before long, “Chuck Norris Facts” became an internet phenomenon. When 24’s Jack Bauer gained popularity, many of the same facts were attributed to him. But Chuck Norris was always the original.
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I have a feeling that the premise of “Dollhouse” was supposed to wow us. I think we’re supposed to go, “gee, a secret organization that wipes people’s memories and imprints them with personalities and abilities and then rents them out for specialized jobs? I want to see how that plays out!”
My actual reactions to first hearing about the show were, in order:
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For me, the most interesting part of Big Love is the way Mormons and ex-Mormons respond to the show. I’ve seen all sorts of reactions, from “it’s filth” to “it’s accurate” to “there’s no way a polygamist family could live openly in LDS” to “yes there is, and yes they do.”
Admirably, I think, the show takes pains to portray the members of the Henrickson family - and their friends - with 100% realist accuracy. Their flaws are there, but so are their strengths. Their strong sense of family and community keeps them grounded, even though at times it seems to cripple them in pursuing their own happiness. Read more…
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For some reason, drug metaphors never stop being funny. If you’re not sure what do with your characters, make them hooked on something. The sillier the better. Chocolate is good. Hair gel is better.
“New Zealand Town” followed this winning formula, with Murray making a desperate attempt to up the guys’ cool factor via copious applications of hair gel. It works: audiences at shows respond better, showing their appreciation for the guys’ cool new look by not leaving the room as soon as they begin playing. The guys feel better too. A little…too much better. When the gel is gone, Bret and Jemaine become shifty shut-ins with terrible hair. And they will stop at nothing to get their next fix.
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Popularity: 4% [?]
Valentine’s Day is always a tough holiday for singletons. I guess. I never really experienced the pervasive bitterness that a lot of singles seem to go through, which - if this latest episode of “The Office” is to be believed - puts me in a very small minority. And no, I’m not sure why a Valentine’s Day episode didn’t air until March. I don’t make NBC’s schedule! Although I wish I did, because I’d just show the first two seasons of “30 Rock” over and over.
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Lately, it seems ABC’s “Lost” has been driving some people crazy. It has, after all, been dragging on for a very long time. And no matter how many things are explained, a few of the show’s enduring mysteries just won’t go away. And to make matters worse, we can’t even trust the show creators to be honest with us: in the past, they roundly denied that time travel was/would be going on. Now, people are jumping through the decades in every episode. Give yourself a break from all that headache-inducing confusion with our new Lost character quiz!
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It’s been a handful of episodes since Jenna had much of a plot. Maybe it’s that her self-centered antics have worn thin, or maybe they’ve just realized that people are really here to watch “The Liz and Jack Show.” She finally had a few significant moments in the last episode, desperate for attention on her upcoming birthday. But it’s the “B” plot, of course, as Jenna always is. The “A” plot is all about a pregnant teenager.
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And it is, you’ll understand, very much Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. Not Alan Moore’s. Though his graphic novel has been praised (?) as being “cinematic,” the great writer was correct in saying it’s unfilmable. What Snyder created is something that contains only echoes of the novel, though all the important points are there. One usually speaks of being “faithful” to an original work, but that isn’t always what’s called for. My favorite example of this is William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, the screenplay being a completely different animal from the novel, but both equally beloved. Goldman had the right idea, but few filmmakers have the courage to take significant liberties with someone else’s work.
In the novel, Rorschach is the star. Front and center, with the diary, with the ever-changing mask that betrays a greater range of emotion than his human face. But it was only inevitable that, in a purely visual medium, Dr. Manhattan should become the most fascinating character. While readers of the novel almost universally latch on to Rorschach as the most interesting of the vigilantes, the movie spends more time on the visually impressive (and equally compelling, really) big blue man. Ebert certainly experienced the fixation, and on his blog, he attempted to dissect the godlike figure: Read more…
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This season, all of Bret and Jemaine’s songs were written before the show began. I’m sure it was tempting to tailor all of the songs to the events in the show, rather than doing what they did in the first season - clumsily, awkwardly working in musical numbers at random points throughout. But they didn’t. The awkwardness is here to stay. That might not sound like a positive thing, but when it comes to Flight of the Conchords, awkwardness is the main source of comedy.
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WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR RECENT EPISODES OF “BIG LOVE.”
Now that Big Love’s third season is coming to a close, one begins to wonder: where, exactly, is the Henrickson family headed? It seems they can’t take a trip to the store or wash a window without getting embroiled in some major scandal that threatens their way of life. Maybe that’s just the way it goes for polygamists trying to integrate into mainstream Mormon society.
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