sounds like an assignment i’d have given my seventh grade english class. yes i taught seventh grade english once. it was hell. an old friend of mine, everett caudle, used to say that kids should stay home during seventh and eighth grades and return to school when they’d gone through puberty and their hormones had somewhat leveled off.
boy was he right.
anyway, my favorite current tv show until last night was “desperate housewives.” but not any more.
now “desperate housewives” is number two. and “deadwood” is number one.
i loved nypd blue, especially sgt. sipowicz as portrayed by dennis franz. sipowicz was, week in and week out, the funniest character on television. very few shows ever made me laugh out loud at the television. the simpsons. curb your enthusiasm. and always nypd blue.
that doesn’t mean lots of shows aren’t funny. “seinfeld” is hysterical. but nothing’s really “laugh our loud” funny to me. everything’s more “recognition” funny. in other words, i think it’s funny, but i’m just intellectualizing it. i’m thinking in my head that it’s funny, but i’m not physically reacting. maybe i’m just too damned cynical.
anyway, “desperate housewives” is not laugh out loud funny for the most part, except for occasional outbursts. but they are more like verbal sputterings that say “whoa, i can’t believe he/she/it did that.” that show is great for that. i hope that marc cherry guy has a file full of unused schtick, because if he doesn’t, he’s going to have a tough time following up this season’s shows.
but i watched “deadwood” on tivo last night…actually it’s not actual tivo but the time warner cable dvr box which to me is the same thing, except tivo is now a verb and is very convenient to use. much like the machine itself, i’m sure, although i wouldn’t know because i don’t have one. but i do have a dvr box (from time warner cable) and it is extremely easy to use, and life-changing. well, not exactly life-changing…
why do i suddenly sound like hank kimball, county agent on green acres?
anyway, “deadwood”. it’s created by the same guy that did “nypd blue” originally, david milch, except that now he is sober and is ironically writing a show where nearly everyone is drunk or high or on their way to it nearly all the time. and milch has a real knack for finding a non-traditional leading man and making him a leading man who is so interesting and you never would have thought he would be interesting, but he is. interesting. the dennis franz of “deadwood” is ian mcshane, and god is he good. i laugh my ass off every time he is on the screen. it must be a real delight playing that character, much as i would imagine sipowicz was a once-in-a-lifetime for an actor like dennis franz.
and i watched “deadwood” last year and it was good, but this year it is beyond good and is now, as i said before, my favorite show. ian mcshane last night (he was passing a kidney stone) had facial expressions i haven’t seen since chuck jones hung up his pen at looney tunes.
if you don’t have hbo you need to get it. and i’m not just saying that because i work for time inc., a division of time warner as is hbo, although it certainly wouldn’t hurt the stock price if you did add hbo.
and if you don’t have tivo or a dvr or whatever, you need to get with the program. the dvr costs me $3.71 a month or something close, and it’s worth every penny. i don’t watch any more tv than i used to, but i watch no time-filling crap, because there’s always a list of cool stuff to watch.
i know i’m a bit behind the curve on this technology. maybe tomorrow i’ll blog on the wonders of the ipod, and then segue to that cool new technology that lets you put your phone in your pocket and take it with you. i used to be so hip. oh well.
bottom line, watch “deadwood”. we need shows on tv where literally every other word is one of the seven dirty words you can’t say on television, and some they never even thought to include on the list. especially since if the government has it’s way, we’ll all be watching 24-7 retreads of “leave it to beaver” and crap like that.
don’t get me started on that.
p.s.–i’m thinking that instead of blowing that money i might win in the ncaa pool on a mac mini (see yesterday’s blog) i might just buy a dvd recorder with a vcr built in, so we can clear our house of videotapes which take up half our closets and shelves, if i win the pool. go tar heels, whoever they are.
