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Tag Archives: TV
Disney Likes Satan
If you get to Prometheus early, say, 40 minutes early, you get to see commercials for upcomng TV shows.
Synopsis: sexy New Yorkers argue and fornicate in a demonic apartment building run by a demonic couple. 666. Get it? Cue religious protesting groups.
In the trailer I saw, there was an interview with Vanessa Williams:
It’s one part Rosemary’s
ABC unveils the new….
I’m no stranger to typos… but somehow ABC’s own article, about its own show, about an ordinary supermodel offered a choice from among 25 replicants…
…going unnoticed for 11 hours, by either fans or editors… Just struck me as funny.
Highest rated network show in its time slot, though. Isn’t that something.
Rick Perry’s Big Gay Ad
Republican candidate for President Rick Perry released a new ad recently, titled “Strong”, and it’s getting tons of attention.
The key line is this: “there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”
Contrasting military service by openly homosexual individuals with the… Read the rest
Joe Strummer: The Past is Unintelligible
You’ve seen them. The concert films. The “rockumentaries.” These hagiographies of has-been musical acts that litter cable TV. They’re, always the same. There is some claim to the bands authenticity, though what they are supposed to authentically be is vaguely defined and quickly glossed over. There is a brief recitation of the band’s hardscrabble beginnings in back alley bars… Read the rest
The Gnawing Problem in The Walking Dead
There’s something rotten about The Walking Dead, but I haven’t put my finger on it until the last few episodes of this second season. The problem is this: The Walking Dead isn’t about zombies, it’s about the survival of traditional conservative moral values in the face of a social breakdown.
Zombie films are basically war films in which civilians… Read the rest
US Multiculturalism is funny: Republica Deportiva.
Most South American TV shows are produced in Miami and Los Angeles. Univision is the most successful Latin network outranking the CW in ratings (1). Its flagship Sunday sports show Republica Deportiva is insane (2).
Consider my first sentence. North America is largely responsible for the content consumed by Latin Americans. South America is not very good at studying,… Read the rest
Codebreaking: AT&T tries for authenticity
I’ve written before about the previously dominant postmodern cultural modes are yielding to a new cultural attitude that based in “our grandparents” generation, one that seeks authenticity, purpose, and meaning.
Advertisers and the commercial semioticians they employ, are of course among the first to pick up on this, dissect it, and attempt to exploit it. Here is a… Read the rest
How Critics Ruin Television
Apparently, most critics hated the season finale of The Killing. That isn’t notable. What is notable is why.
This is one of the most frustrating season finales in TV history. After a whole season in which Sud and her writers gave little (if any) indication that they didn’t know how to properly pace a story line to maintain… Read the rest
June 21, 2011
Tagged critics, drama, story, sweet valley high, television, the killing, TV
24 Comments
Codebreaking: Pristiq treats you like the automaton you are
Fresh from the Fritz Lang Institute of Psychopharmacology comes Pristiq, an antidepressant targeted at women who “feel like they have to wind themselves up to get through the rest of the day.”
Pristiq may be a wonderful and helpful drug, but there is something unsettling about this advertisement. What is the meaning of the toy? Why does the cured… Read the rest
Dr. House Tells You What Life is Worth
This post analyzes the latest episode of House, Last Temptation, for a which a full synopsis is not yet available. But before that, a question:
Say your a chef. Not only do you love cooking, you love eating. Finding new and interesting ways to blend flavors is what makes your day. Just thinking about heading… Read the rest
Will future generations understand “The Simpsons”?
An article in Salon questions whether shows steeped in pop culture references will be watchable by future generations. The underlying issue is much broader. If postmodern culture serves as the punchline to a joke whose setup is the decades of pop culture that preceded it, can any of it–music, movies, books, TV–be comprehensible to future generations who are… Read the rest
