Grid Effect

Good morning. I hope everyone’s evening was a little more rewarding than Donald Driver’s fantasy performance. Good lord is the guy all of a sudden over the hill. I might as well cut him, pick up Tim Brown and be done with it. I’d be getting virtually the same production and at least I could say that I have a future hall-of-famer. Also, thanks to the rest of the networks for bowing down to the majesty that is Monday Night Football and all but forcing me to watch that depressing performance. Yeah, I know, the game was almost classic, but that doesn’t mean shit when you’re getting hosed on the gambling front. And, you know, the fucker is on cable now, you could at least make a small effort to compete with ESPN, because if FOX Sports and Versus are the best we can do in the sports network world, then your “zany” and “serious” attempts at scripted series’ are our only hope.

Anyhow, enough grasping at straws and being completely off topic, fantasy basketball tips off tonight, and I can’t figure out if its depressing or encouraging that I’m genuinely excited for it. So there’s always time for redemption. Onto the links…

You know, I’ve always enjoyed Jerry Seinfeld’s work. But the saturation campaign for this Bee Movie is really starting to agitate. Here’s hoping that thing bombs, not only for the barrage of ads, but also because we’re growing irritable with digital talking non-sentients at the box office.

Matt McTighe, the guy who played the rapist/murder victim on Friday Night Lights, weighs in on all the hullabaloo surrounding the only storyline he’s ever mattered in. And honestly, it has to be considerably deflating for a young actor to land a part on a mainstream, broadcast network series, then have everyone and their mother bitch about your character’s very existence.

Speaking of which, even Jesse Plemons takes issue with the murder plot, but since he works on the series he followed up with, “I guarantee you there is someone out there who can relate to this.” And, for us at least, it has nothing to do with that. Is there somebody in some small town ducking a murder rap? I’m certain of it, but the series always dealt with nuance and everyday problems. Even the attempted rape at the time seemed far-fetched, but the attack didn’t completely adjust the way we looked at the characters involved. It changed them and they grew from it, sure, but there wasn’t any sort of moral or social code broken. With Landry, they took arguably the most innocent character on the series and turned him into a killer.

That ever looming writers strike is picking up steam. This could really be an issue, especially for television series’ that depend on intimate knowledge and familiarity with their characters. But for films, do writers actually believe that their aspiring counterparts who are not members of the guild are going to hesitate to cross the picket line? I don’t know the ends and outs of it, but I’d be willing to assume that writers are comparatively mistreated amongst the Hollywood elite, specifically because their name recognition is often so low that they’re not exactly box office pulls (with few exceptions). But a strike is an ill-advised approach. This reminds me of the baseball umpires strike from about a decade ago. Eventually, they train and hire new personnel and everybody moves on. Principals are one thing, but stupidity and entitlement are another, you don’t want to give up something you love because of an perceived slight; come to an agreement and cut your losses. /Sage advice

David Chase is at it again, saying about his ending which many thought to be a prank of sorts, “Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger?”. Um, this is a nice sentiment and all, but when he chastises his audience for showing interest in his series because there was a war going on while it aired, isn’t that what he’s kind of doing?

We’ll miss that smiling mug.

For the most part, what he has come out to vaguely concede about the series has confirmed my suspicions about the ambiguous finale — AJ being the noble (if troubled) one then selling out, The Final Scene being simply a reflection of how Tony lives out the remainder of his life — and it has admittedly been somewhat validating. But at the same time, he can’t have it both ways. Making a critically acclaimed series and reaping all the benefits of it, then bemoan the fact that we could only be so shallow as to be more preoccupied with his series than the war, seems a little hypocritical. If anything, he enables our distraction. In the immortalized words of Chris Moltisanti, “He pours your drink with one hand, and judges you with the other”.

Some helpful pointers for HBO to recover its tarnished image and reclaim the throne as king of original programming (currently being held by Showtime). It isn’t sullied past the point of redemption, but if they do not follow up The Wire series finale with something a little more commercially/critically friendly than John From Cincinnati, then it could be the end of a dynasty.

It was bound to happen, an article lamenting the excess of television options. We’re not going to complain about it, because it would be an asinine thing to do, but there is a reason we haven’t bothered to catch up on any Showtime series (specifically Weeds and less so Dexter), or we haven’t taken the time out to watch even an episode of Pushing Daises or Damages (despite conceding that all four show promise), and its because we’re content and almost overwhelmed with the series we currently watch. As of now, we’ll wait until The Wire finishes its fifth season, then try to catch one of them on DVD. Until then, we’re not adding anything else to the weekly rotation.

And finally, because all this Wire talk reminded us, we’ve already pre-ordered the fourth season set to be released on December 4th. It’s selling at a very, very reasonable price for twelve of the best hours of television you will ever see on Amazon. As you can imagine, we urgently recommend you watch this.

That’s probably it for today. Back tomorrow with something completely and utterly random.