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Posts published in September 2008

America needs a prune (Emmys 2008)


Probably the best line of the night next to Piven’s diss of the opening.

I like Survivor but man did that Emmy hosting suck.
Even Probst was bad, and he was the one to win the Emmy.

When you precede Tinay Fey/Amy Poehler and follow Ricky Gervais/Steve Carell, it’s time to GTFO ASAP.

I would love to be in the office of the Emmy guy on the day he decided who was going to host the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Maybe they wanted to avoid waves and anything politically incorrect.

I guess that’s why thoses bastards decided to cut Kirk Ellis when he was talking about the Founding Fathers!


Yeah, let’s show some respect to the writers who make the medium what it is by minimizing to the extreme their speeches (Ellis was told to “wrap it up” just as was getting on stage!).

I also find ironic that for a show that celebrates TV and coming on the heels of a writers’ strike, they chose five reality hosts for the Emmys.
Nice touch.

Regarding the actual results, I’m really happy for Brian Cranston and Breaking Bad, great show, great actor.
Happy also for Ivaneck, the guy deserves to finally win!
I like a lot Mad Men but I still feel as though it is over-hyped, especially considering the other shows nominated (except Boston Legal).
And Tina Fey still rocks.

It’s also interesting to note the downfall of the networks (and HBO). 10 wins for HBO (long is gone the 3-digit), 4 for NBC, 3 for AMC (!) and ABC, 2 for FX (!) and CBS as well as Comedy Central, and finally 1 little Emmy for FOX and PBS.

And how weird was that Forrest Gump/Punchline reunion?

Red Dwarf is back!


Yes you have read correctly: the cult-classic scifi/comedy show is back (more or less)!

It has been confirmed this week that four all new specials will be produced and prepared for a premiere sometime next year.
The best news of all is that the regular cast will be reprising their role!

This news coincides with the 20/21th B-day of the show (has it been that long already?).

Now unfortunately, as far as I’m aware, the specials won’t be original footage so to speak of new Red Dwarf episodes (except maybe for one or two).
The first special will take us behind the scenes of Red Dwarf.
The second and third special will be a 2-parter where the cast get “back into character, and costume” a decade after the end of the show.
The fourth and (hopefully not) final special will be an “original” clipshow so to speak where “the cast do it their way”. A Red Dwarf that we “have never, ever seen before”.

The specials will be shown next year on Dave in the UK and on Sci-Fi in the US.

No-show

Burn After Reading was funny.
It was so funny that the guy at my right almost had as asthma attack.
True story.

Sure, it isn’t oscar-worthy but it’s at least saturday-night-popcorn-movie-of-the-week worthy.

[Kinda-Spoiler Alert]

Anyway, what is interesting I thought about the movie is that it violated one of the basic rule of screenwriting: Show, don’t tell.
‘Guess the C.I.A. Superior didn’t hear about that one.

I agree with certain critics that described the characters as being here for nothing more than a couple of jokes and the ensemble is basically a mess. You don’t really get what’s going on half of the time, nor why the frak it is happening.
But what if that was the point of the movie? Life is just messy, stuff happens. Get over it.
Or maybe everything we see is what is told to the Simmons’ character, litteraly. Maybe he imagines the whole movie while reading the crappy rapport report, hence the crazy cartoonish characters.

You jump through one scene to another, trying to grasp its meaning before we jump back to Cox’s story or the C.I.A. HQ.
Hell, the actual ending is told to us!

Or maybe I’m taking all this a bit too far but isn’t that what movies (and TV) are all about?