Category: TV

Steve Love’s One-Man Game of Thrones

Internet impressionist Steve Love posted this video of impressions from Game of Thrones. He does a good job with most of the characters, using their lines from the show. A few of them he completely nails. Love caps off the video with some fun at the expense of Ser Jorah Mormont. The clip makes me want to end every sentence with the honorific “Khaleesi”. Great stuff!

Congrats to TNA World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries!

Roger Federer won Wimbledon. The Yankees beat the Red Sox. Those were sweet happenings, but not as sweet as Austin Aries winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship! I’m so thrilled, happy, and proud of Aries for reaching to top of TNA. He has been the best part of the company — both in the ring and on the mic — for a long stretch. It’s fantastic to see his hard work and incredible talent rewarded. He totally deserves it. Now please join me in giving it up to A-Double, the vascular vegetarian, and quite possibly the greatest man that ever lived — Austin Aries!!!

Today’s Poll: The Incredible Hulk vs. Taxi

It’s time for a sad poll! Today it’s a battle of morose television theme songs. In the red corner is “The Lonely Man” from The Incredible Hulk. Most episodes of the show ended with David “Bruce” Banner walking off into the sunset to this sad song. In the blue corner is “Angela” from Taxi. This star-studded sitcom opened and closed with this excellent song by Bob James. It has a special place in my heart because it made one of college roommates sad (hi Steve!). As a prank, I would blast the song, take off, and leave Steve with his sorrows.

Kindly give both tracks a listen, vote in the poll below, and explain your choice in the comments section!

[poll id=”156″]

Olivia Munn: Duke PhD, Columbia Adjunct Professor

Episode two of The Newsroom featured the debut of Olivia Munn’s Sloan Sabbith. When I found out that our beloved Bolivia Bunn was playing a woman with a PhD from Duke, I laughed. When I learned that her character was also an adjunct professor at an Ivy League university, I snorted. Several days later, it still seems hilarious to me. I know this is acting and all, but this is just completely unbelievable. It reminds me of Denise Richards portraying a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough. Please don’t mistake this as me being sexist. There are lots of women that can play economic geniuses. Olivia Munn?!? Yeah… I’m not feeling it.

Of course I could be wrong. What do you think of Olivia Munn’s character on The Newsroom. Do you buy her as a woman with a PhD from Duke?

HBO’s The Newsroom and Our Previous Chats

Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom debuted on HBO last night. As a fan of Sorkin’s writing, I loved the first episode. It was full of the witty and snappy dialogue that he’s known for. The show also reminded me of several discussions we’ve had about the news — particularly broadcast news. Whether it was on here or on G4tv.com, I recall several instances of discussing with y’all what television news reporting was and what it has become.

For most of television history, the news was about reporting facts and putting them in context for the viewers. I suppose that’s still the case, but networks like Fox News and MSNBC have taken a more heavy-handed approach to contextualizing news, sometimes (often?) to the point where the facts are misrepresented. Back in the day, nightly news shows were a service and more often than not lost money for networks. These days, they’re profit-driven and agendas are often shaped by advertisers.

One of the themes in The Newsroom is taking the news back. The characters in the show want to make a modern news program with old-school sensibilities. The show’s protagonist laments that people choose the facts they want to hear these days, not just the opinions. Isn’t it funny that it takes a fictional news show to make things “right”? Has news reporting gotten so biased that the idea of a mainstream news program that’s balanced seem unbelievable? Perhaps I’m being cynical, but I think the days of broadcast news defined by people like Edward Murrow, Walter Kronkite, and Dan Rather are gone forever.

Anyway, I thought this would be a great time to discuss The Newsroom and broadcast news in general. More importantly, do you think The Newsroom will take a turn for the worse when Olivia Munn’s character debuts next week?

WGWG5: Phillip Phillips Wins American Idol

Despite thousands (millions?) of Filipinos faking their IP addresses and using VoIP solutions to vote for Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips won the 11th American Idol. P-Squared’s victory continues the streak of AI winners that can be described as white guys with guitars (WGWG). Teenagers and housewives love WGWGs, so I wasn’t surprised that Phillips became the fifth WGWG to win. What did surprise (and delight) me was that #WGWG5 was a trending topic on Twitter last night. That was awesome.

Congrats to WGWG5 Phillip Phillips!

American Idol Finale: Jessica Sanchez vs. Phillip Phillips

The finale for American Idol season 11 is set! In the blue corner is Phillip Phillips. Continuing the WGWG (white guy with guitar) phenomenon, Phillips is popular with the millions of teenaged girls and old housewives that watch AI. In the red corner is Jessica Sanchez. Genetically engineered to compete in talent contests, the artist also known as BB Chez has incredible talent and is backed by an ardent Filipino community. Who will win American Idol in 2012? Let’s break it down.

[poll id=”151″]

Talent vs. Popularity: Sanchez is clearly the more gifted singer. There’s no question about it. Her range and power are phenomenal for a 16-year old. On a technical level, Phillips is very limited…but there’s no denying his popularity with the ladies. Do you believe America will vote for talent? Or will the frau and teenyboppers flood the phone lines with votes for the guy they lust after?

Genuine vs. Fake: As limited as Phillips is, his style is established and he knows what kind of artist he wants to be. There were several instances of Phillips refusing to pander to voters, judges, mentors, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. He’s definitely the more “real” of the two. Sanchez, on the other hand, is clearly the product of an overzealous stage mom. Her entire home-schooled life was about preparing for stardom. Her style and song choices are all over the place, which indicates that she’s unsure of the artist she wants to be…which makes complete sense because she’s so young that she doesn’t even know what kind of person she wants to be. I hate when she sheepishly says, “Thank you so much.” It comes off as fake, as if she’s replying the way her mother instructed her to. On a side note, being so sheltered and manufactured means that Sanchez will either become an incredibly bizarre adult (see Michael Jackson) or have a series of spectacular breakdowns (see Britney Spears).

As Performers: Between lifting his leg like a urinating male dog, feeling himself up when he doesn’t use a guitar, and those strange, strange faces he makes Phillips is an unusual performer. Like his musical style, his performances are established. You know what you’re getting with P-Squared and it feels genuine. BB Chez is totally lost in uptempo numbers. Her attempts at stage dancing and owning the audience seem silly. She totally owns when performing power ballads, but raise the beats per minute and she looks like a little girl performing in a high school talent show.

X-Factors: While the ladies love Phillips, his singing faces are so weird that they turn some voters off. Is he constipated? Is he passing kidney stones on stage? (He actually does have kidney stones, fyi.) It’s just…funky looking (not in that George Clinton way, but in that dog feces way). People in the Philippines are actually mobilizing efforts to vote for Sanchez. Being half-Filipino means millions of Internet votes using fake IP addresses. Sometimes I love the passion of my father’s people. Sometimes it’s embarrassing. In this case, I’m not sure how to feel.

The Winner Will Be: On paper, Jessica Sanchez should win. This is a singing competition. She’s the better singer. That said, there are some people that are put off by her manufactured nature and (sadly) there are many people in the middle of America that won’t vote for a non-white contestant. Ultimately, it comes down to the power of the WGWG phenomenon vs crazy Filipino voters.

Many have argued that the last four American Idol winners — David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, and Scotty McCreery — were not the best singers or performers in the competition. Many believe they won because teenagers and housewives love white guys with guitars. I’m biased against BB Chez and I fear the frau, so I’m going to go with Phillip Phillips.

How about you? Please vote in the poll above and pick the winner of the American Idol season 11 finale!