Weekend Watchers

TV Recap: 30 Rock, “Today You Are a Man”

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: If you don’t love Kristen Schaal, there’s something seriously wrong with you. She’s one of the funniest women in showbiz today, and just about every time she pops up in some movie or TV show, it’s terrific. Her turn on the new 30 Rock as an incompetent but well-meaning page employed by Kenneth to make the TGS gang realize how much they need him was no exception. Schaal was on top of her game – funny, charming, weirdly sexy, and above all, goofy as hell. God bless that woman.

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TV Recap: ‘Alcatraz,’ “Cal Sweeney”

Image courtesy of avclub.com

Abrams and crew decided to shake things up for the Alcatraz squad this week.  Instead of a murderer, they went after a bank robber.  Although he did kill some people, so I guess he’s a murderer, too.  The former prisoner of the week is Cal Sweeney, who seduces lonely bank tellers in order to get at the safety deposit boxes in the bank (he never robs the vault in order to avoid a federal sentence, so I’m not exactly sure how he ended up in Alcatraz in the first place). Continue reading TV Recap: ‘Alcatraz,’ “Cal Sweeney”

TV Recap: ‘Parks and Recreation,’ “Bowling For Votes”

Image courtesy of NY Mag

The Knope 2012 team capitalizes on the momentum Leslie’s campaign has gained and holds a focus group, whose irrelevant and petty criticisms frustrate Leslie. When one citizen states that he doesn’t think Leslie is the kind of person he’d go bowling with, Leslie can’t let it go, so she convinces Ben that organizing a free bowling night with Pawnee voters will be a good way of showing the public that she can be laid-back and fun. But of course, Leslie can’t help but ensure that the citizen who first made the bowling comment attends, and she can’t help but strive desperately toward convincing him that she is the right candidate for city council.

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TV Recap: “Glee,” ‘Michael’

It’s been two weeks since Finn popped the question to Rachel, opening the possibility for all sorts of drama, but first things first: the formal Trouble Tones are annoyed they didn’t get to sing Michael Jackson at sectionals, and this simply cannot go unaddressed! “They Wanna Be Startin’ Something’,” so Blaine leads them on a musical romp through the school that finishes in the auditorium with everyone dressed in imitations of Michael’s most famous outfits – and this is only the first number!

Courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

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TV Recap: “Downton Abbey,” Season 2, Episode 4

Time’s flying by this season. This episode opened in 1918 in Amiens, France with the English troops waiting nervously to start a siege on the Germans. Matthew’s leading the charge for the troops, with William close by his side. However, the two run into trouble in the trenches when a bomb detonates and injures the two men. What will be their fate?

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Film News

The Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue brands Rooney Mara, Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jessica Chastain as the faces of the industry’s future. (Vanity Fair)

The Hasboro board game Candy Land is in final talks to be turned into a live-action movie by Columbia Pictures and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison pictures. It is reported by Deadline that . . . → Read More: Film News

Media Timeout: Grading Shaq’s performance on Inside the NBA

I watch a lot of sports-related television. In fact, it’s the only television I watch on an actual television, thanks to Hulu and, erm, dubiously legal streaming sites. I find sports TV fascinating. It’s entertainment that’s treated like news and news that’s treated like entertainment, existing in some nebulous other realm where narratives – some real, some manufactured – compete with the drive to produce compelling programming. In Media Timeout, I’ll try to hold the major players accountable.

TNT’s Inside the NBA has five Emmy awards, all of which it deserves. If it wins another after this basketball season, though, that award will be unearned, and the reason why is simple: Shaquille O’Neal should not be on television. He is a petulant, selfish, uninteresting jerk who doesn’t enunciate and makes the show awkward when he does.

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Film Review: Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie

At its peak, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was one of the best, most subversive comedies on television. Bizarrist auteurs Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim gave us five seasons and a holiday special’s worth of hilarious non sequiturs, visual gags, fake infomercials and more guest appearances than you can shake a Cinco Pasta Bear at. When they announced plans to shoot a feature-length film, Awesome Show fans – myself included – rejoiced. Now, that film, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, is available on-demand via iTunes, Roku and a host of other media providers.

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TV Recap: 30 Rock, “Idiots Are People Three!” and “The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell”

I suppose we can blame NBC’s scheduling department for making the two-episode week for 30 Rock the same week they were airing the back half of a two-parter, but even with that minor weirdness aside, it was a fairly strange week in Rockefeller Center. The “Idiots…” storyline resolved neatly, and the one-off-with-no-possible-consequences-in-the-30-Rock-universe “The Ballad of Kenneth Parcell” was possibly the funniest episode all season – even though it was almost certainly its worst.

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