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Tag: nbc

  • Friday Night Lights: “Keeping Up Appearances”

    I was mocked tonight for tearing up near the end of this episode. I can’t help it, as I’ve got much love for Billy Riggins. Every time I see that dumb lug bust his ass to help out his ungrateful little brother, I get to thinking maybe there’s hope for humanity after all. I know he’s a fictional character, but he’s also very real. If someone like Billy – filled with contradictions, prone to screw up, abandoned and unloved by his parents – can find enough love to do what he does for Tim, maybe the rest of us have a chance. ((In the short-term, it means I won’t be working on my orbital death ray tonight. Long-term? Don’t cut me off in traffic and you might all survive.))

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  • Friday Night Lights: “It Ain’t Easy Being J.D. McCoy”

    There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza
    There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza a hole.

    And with that unguarded, completely vulnerable moment, Herc and the Riggins boys know what’s at stake. This isn’t about Jason making money; it’s about Jason being a father. The reaction shot of Herc was a given, as Kevin Rankin brings such a sweetness to his role Herc would obviously be taken by Jason opening himself up like that. The more significant shot for me was of Billy. Billy knows what a loving, doting, caring father is: he just has to look in the negative space around his own deadbeat dad. Billy’s not going to be screwing around on this project anymore, even if it means putting up with Jason’s work list.

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  • Friday Night Lights: “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”

    It’s when all the scared rats start running away from a sinking market that the true entrepreneurs come in. The true visionaries.

    The Smash Williams Farewell Tour complete, it’s time for Six to take his lap around Dillon. And just like Smash, the start of his story places him on a road out of town. I don’t imagine this arc ending with an ebullient Jason Street, relishing a moment of simple pleasure with his friends before heading off on his life’s journey. Instead I imagine him quietly saying his goodbyes – to family, coach, and Lyla – before following Erin and his baby east.

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  • Friday Night Lights: “Hello, Goodbye”


    Y’all think I’m going to talk about Smash, right? Or maybe Matt’s mom coming back into his life like a bad penny? Or Tami relinquishing ground like some Soviet general setting up a pincer for the German army?

    I will. I’ll get to that stuff. But first let me tell you how I know this show we love is back.

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  • Friday Night Lights: “How the Other Half Lives”


    There were a few great, moving lines in this episode, but as usual it was the silences that spoke loudest. Two minutes, one line of dialog, and Death Cab for Cutie singing a lamentation.

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  • Friday Night Lights: “Tami Knows Best”

    Was it just me, or did anyone else get chills when the team came out to run with Smash? FNL does epic moments better than any show in recent memory, but we haven’t had one of them since the first season.

    Last week was a workman-like return to competence, but it was tentative and had lost a few steps. Like Smash, it needed a little help to regain its confidence and regain its footing. After the disappointment of its sophomore year, I think the little show we love is back.

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  • Friday Night Lights: “I Knew You When”

    So much joy in Mudville tonight. FNL returned. Pushing Daisies returned. I’ve only got one more day at my job. All in all, a pretty good day.

    And you know what? My first day at my new/old job on Monday won’t be nearly as bad as Tami’s.

    For those without DirecTV (and those who are out for the next week because some nimrod screwed up,) don’t read the rest. For those who got to see the episode legally or otherwise, more below the fold.

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  • Lipstick Jungle Axed – Anyone Surprised?

    NBC - Lipstick Jungle
    NBC – Lipstick Jungle

    Early this morning, word spread that NBC had axed Lipstick Jungle and My Own Worst Enemy due to poor ratings. As a female who enjoyed seeing other females make the dough and get the guy, I was disappointed about Lipstick Jungle. My Own Worst Enemy? I never bothered to tune in for, even having had a HUGE crush on Christian Slater as a little girl.

    But apparently, I’m one of the few who showed up each week to find out if Victory Ford would finally hook up with Joe or if Wendy’s marriage would survive that little kiss she had. And then there was Nico the cougar with her hot little waiter, Kirby.

    So – what about you? Did you bother watching either of those shows? Surprised at the news? Any other shows you fear might ‘get the ax’?

  • 30 Rock: Missed opportunities

    30 Rock came back last week but felt a bit off. It was madcap and witty, clever and bright, but I thought too much of the episode was bookkeeping, trying to get everything back into balance. With Jack’s departure from GE at the end of last season, the world was shaken up. The writers could have pretended it never happened and started out this season back at status quo, but made the more interesting choice.

    Then they spent all of one episode resolving it.

    Why, why put Jack at the bottom of the ladder if the writers weren’t going to do anything with it?

    What I would have liked to have seen, and what I believe would have been a richer vein of comedy for Jack, is a three-episode B-story arc seeing Jack’s meteoric rise from mail room to boardroom. Something a little like this…

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  • Jon Hamm hosts SNL


    Jon Hamm hosted the old warhorse SNL last night and I didn’t know what to expect. As expected, there was a lame Mad Men sketch, made only barely palatable by the presence of Elizabeth Moss and John Slattery, but whether Hamm could do comedy or not was up in the air. Plus, with Amy Poehler on the verge of dropping Will Arnett’s love bundle…

    Oh, she dropped. ((I’ve got Saturday Night Live Poehler-Arnett in the babyname pool.)) With musical guest Coldplay, that sadly meant more faux-angsty music so gay that it makes me feel like a red-stater when I jam out to West Side Story. But they had to do something to plug up Amy’s crack.

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