Grid Effect

We didn’t bother with the links today because there just wasn’t that much to post. Today, however, well, today isn’t much different. But we have to post something and we’re too busy to mentally run through all of last week’s Rescue Me episode. I watched Joe Buck Live because I basically hate myself, and I want to know who told Joe Buck he was funny. Or interesting or deserving of his own HBO Talk Show. But mostly funny, because we don’t need him doing stand up before each episode.

Oh well, at least I could fast-forward through the Brett Favre story, because I think we all know it by heart at this point. And Artie Lange gave the show a bit of a pulse, though probably not the type Buck was looking for, in fact I think Lange almost jump-started a heart attack for our newly-minted show host. I heard the “Overtime” segment on HBO.com got even more uncomfortable, but I haven’t had the chance to watch it and now they’ve taken it off their site. Woe is me.

UPDATE: Deadspin is now streaming the “overtime” video.

Also, we’re looking for a Weeds outlet, hoping Netflix comes through again. And now that you know the rest of the story, here are some links.

Not that anyone who might read this site would care, but the Rose Bowl is eventually going to end up on ESPN. It’s all the same, really, Disney owns both networks. Just so long as the game doesn’t end up on FOX. Probably the network least equipped to cover a sport that they’re actually contracted to broadcast. Seriously, it’s fucking awful. Outside of Jimmy Johnson, there isn’t a single, solitary personality that either broadcasts games or provides analysis that either cares or knows what they’re talking about. It’s what I imagine watching Mormons provide commentary for the World Series of Poker would be like. At least we only have two more seasons of this bullshit.

Go see "3:10 To Yuma".

Hey, remember the kind of douchey guy who was on this season of Survivor that coached women’s soccer and claimed to also be a maestro? What was his name again?…Damn, I wish I could recall…Anyone?…Oh, that’s right: Ben Wade. Anyways, he’s decided to go down in flames as opposed to the much more favorable meekly drifting away: A book is being written about him. Well, more specifically, that most likely bullshit story he told about being kidnapped and sauteed by “indigenous peoples”. Yeah, I think even I hate him as much as the girl who wrote the TWoP recaps for the Tocantins season. Though I probably won’t mention it so frequently.

If you were wondering why AMC wanted to insert more commercials into your average Mad Men episode in the first place, it’s because their ad space isn’t worth shit. Well, they run significantly fewer commercials than most other hour long dramas, but also because they don’t make any money. A commercial on the best show on television runs a company roughly ten grand. For the same space on, say, Burn Notice, runs over twice that. America, why do you do me this way?

Here’s a Variety article comparing the alumni of Daily Show and SNL, asking which is better (I’m assuming this is of the past ten years or so). If you’re asking on a strictly critical level, it’s not even close. Ed Helms is on the best comedy on the broadcast networks and was the second lead in the best comedy I’ve seen since Big Lebowski, Steve Carell has been in about four blockbuster comedies (Evan Almighty notwithstanding), Stephen Colbert has one of the best variety shows on television…I’m not going to sit here and list everyone and there credentials. But if you take Will Ferrell (who has three good movies) and Tina Fey (the second best comedy on broadcast network television), there isn’t much to sift through.

David Letterman has apologized to Sarah Palin a little more sincerely than he did before. Great, now we can all put this behind us, and get back to focusing on the mess that is this country and virtually every other nation-state on the face of the earth (Read: those that aren’t in Scandinavia). Oh wait, obviously I’m overlooking the immense amount of political capital to be gained from a misunderstanding over a dumb joke on a late night show. Silly me. I hear every great politician’s career starts by feuding with late night hosts. That’s how Reagan got elected, he accused Carson of being a nymph.

And finally, no one can claim Daily Show and Colbert Report is watched by dipshit partisan college kids, because your average viewer of the two shows is 41.4 and 38.3, respectively. No, now you have to say it’s watched just by dipshit partisans, which I guess includes me, but not really.

Alright, we’re working on catching Weeds later tonight or this week for recapping purposes (we don’t tend on waiting a full week to recap episodes) and expect Rescue Me’s recap coming later.

Well, we meant to watch and write a review of The Goode Family, the ABC animated series about a overtly-liberal family living in Vermont. Considering it was from Mike Judge, you could basically regard it as the democratic counterpart to King of The Hill. It looked kind of tiresome, but an animated series in prime time on ABC seemed like something…different enough that we could stand to watch at least one episode.

But alas, we never got around to it. Once again, the NBA playoffs were too engaging for us to tear ourselves away from, so we are left to skirt our desire to make this site even a tad interesting, and instead just opting for news links. The sacrifices we make sometimes surprise even me.

Not scantily clad photos available of Miss Spiro, sorry. Probably why she's toiling away in virtual obscurity.

Here’s Jordana Spiro, who plays the lead on My Boys, talking about the  season finale. Something we also skipped due to the NBA playoffs, the only difference is between this and Rescue Me is we’re not even remorseful about missing this. TBS and TNT really just need to hang up the cleats used for their original programming game, because neither seems all that impressive. They won’t, both networks score too high a Nielsen for this to actually happen (Tyler Perry, Kyra Sedgewick, etc.), but it’s a dream of ours. We will admit that on the laundry list of networks we wish bad things on, the Ted Turner networks fall somewhere in the mid 50’s.

NBC is taking us “inside the Obama White House” next week. Again. I don’t blame them, the nation demands updates on that dog. Come on, NBC. I try to defend you when my dad all but claims you to be Satan’s mouthpiece on planet earth, so please stop with the embarrassing fluff pieces. You and your cable network don’t want to be the new FOX News.

Speaking of The Goode Family, here’s an article deliberating whether or not the current American optimism (which, correct me if I’m wrong, has waned quite a bit since inauguration) is ready to see a family that would support Barack Obama be mocked. Again, I haven’t seen the show, so I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I certainly hope so. Maybe I’m part of the minority, but I don’t want to live in a country that is an extended version of the Mormon family from South Park.

So Susan Boyle spends her entire life being overlooked because of her physical appearance, finally catches a break on a national television show that has become an international “sensation” (god what an awful word), and her main competition is…a twelve year-old boy. It seems that her endless stream of bad beats is never coming to an end. Even when she makes it, she does against someone she can’t beat. Sure, she can win in a literal sense, but even if she does, she beat a middle-schooler. It’s like being forced to wrestle a girl for your high school team: regardless of what happens everyone will only think less of you.

And finally, just in case anyone is mistaking me for some partisan hack: Let me present you with (among other things) Bill Clinton’s TV preferences, which include Mad Men and Damages. Say what you will about the democratic party, they do tend to watch far superior film and television than their political opponents. But, let’s be fair, if he regularly watches Desperate Housewives, he’s savvy enough not to mention it in public. Also, I’m sure Bill Clinton can, on some level, identify with Don Draper.

Back later today with Goode Family review.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled to not have any series’ to watch. Finally, I can just sit here, be oblivious and churn out some good ol’ fashion links. This is truly a blessed day for Grid Effect. For the past week we’ve felt more like an automaton programmed to write absurd TV reviews as quickly as possible rather than an actual living, breathing human being.

Entourage is reportedly sparing no expense in its online marketing campaign, which is odd because this is the first I’ve ever heard about it. Then again, I’m probably not the standard Entourage viewer, so anywhere I might see this campaign is not somewhere I would normally be. If I had to guess it is probably on something like Perez Hilton’s website, and as “hilarious” as it is to crack jokes about starlets multiple public indiscretions, we have yet to ever mosey on over an see what that freak of nature is actually devotes his efforts towards.

As you’ve probably all heard by now, McCain snubbed David Letterman out of an interview in favor of Katie Couric. Yes, it was a shitty thing to do, but does Letterman think he was the first show host to ever be denied an interview from an in demand politician? I mean, McCain basically canceled an appearance on Letterman’s entertainment show in preference of a news show on the same network. So what? How entitled and out of touch does one have to be to actually like a petulant child about this? Either way, Craig Ferguson rushed to his mentor’s defense.

We’ve marveled in the past about ER still being on the air and now, as if someone actually reads this site, they’ve managed to even astonish themselves. Yes, this is the final season of the acclaimed medical drama. A series that has spawned such hits as 3 LBS. and Chicago Hope is finally closing the curtain on its 100 year run. I, for one, am going to miss those promos during The Office the few times that I actually watch commercials.

ER's contribution to television is unparalleled.

If you’re wondering what Sarah Michelle Gellar has been doing as of late, the answer is trying to finagle her way into a TV deal with HBO. For you Buffy fans, you will be happy to know that it worked. She will be part of an ensemble cast for a series called The Wonderful Maladys’ . Unfortunately the show is about three young adults who lost their parents at an early age. So not to be too superficial, but unless the character has severe daddy issues, we probably won’t be seeing her naked. Sorry ladies, but a guy hears “Sarah Michelle Gellar” and “HBO” in the same sentence, and that caveat is the first thing that comes to mind. Anyhow, I’d bet 10 to 1 that she got the job by promising to make a True Blood appearance should the series make it past its first season.

Good news, people. Jeff Probst is blogging about Survivor for Entertainment Weekly, meaning you have no reason to read one of our Survivor posts ever again. But still, he won’t provide the irreverent wit and brutal honesty that we do. Sure, he will be tough on the contestants, but this is a man who once called China, “one of the greatest seasons in the history of Survivor“. If you want to avoid that kind of hyperbole, stick to Grid Effect. Your move, Probst.

I haven’t read his book, or any of his books for that matter. But we tend to think Bill O’Reilly gets a bad rap as the ultra-conservative fascist that no one left of center seems to like. He is a conservative, but he isn’t Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, those are the republican equivalents to Keith Olbermann. We tend to think he is just entirely too abrasive, and he gets the “fascist” moniker for being the headline act on FOX News.

That said, O’Reilly doesn’t do himself any favors when he blames the liberal media for the shortcomings of the Seinfeld finale. Again, we haven’t read his latest memoir, but according to this post, Bill O’Reilly stated in “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” that the creators of Seinfeld, as well as the creators of The Sopranos, intentionally made a dud to end their respective series’. It is kind of an incomplete blog post (or incomplete book), because it doesn’t state why or how O’Reilly believes this to be true or why the showrunners would intentionally sabotage their own work, but either way, assuming the blogger isn’t taking O’Reilly out of context (which is entirely possible), this is about the most random shit I’ve ever heard.

Back with more later.