Frisky Dingo
Filed Under TV
Apropos of very little (since we are currently watching The Tudors), I get a kick out of watching Frisky Dingo out of order. (It’s often the way we end up watching it—I think maybe we end up recording different time slots or something—and in fact I made sure to watch some of the first season backwards, just because.) Any given bit is funny. But it’s especially amusing to watch an episode we’ve skipped, and realize “Oh, that thing a couple episodes down the line makes sense.” For the definition of “makes sense” that applies to Adult Swim shows.
Returning to the subject of TV habits
Filed Under TV
Last night, we went out to dinner. En route home, we made a kamikaze grocery run, decided who would feed the dogs, and debated whether or not The Wire started at 9:00 or 10:00. (We had been unable to get wireless for Larry’s XO, so we couldn’t check in the restaurant, and as previously mentioned we don’t know when anything airs.) We were home by about quarter of nine and established that the show started at 9:00.
So we set the tivo, futzed around, and half an hour later went downstairs to start watching.
So no, this post is not an extended swoon about how The Wire is—was—the best-written show on television. Though it was, and unlike so many other shows that have been contenders or held the title for a couple seasons (Sopranos, West Wing, Babylon 5), the quality was consistently high throughout the run. This last season wasn’t as strong as the fourth season, but really, that’s a remarkably high bar, and the show shouldn’t be penalized for merely being excellent rather than mind-blowingly excellent.
(Okay, I guess there was a bit of swoonage.)
Dear Verizon FIOS
Filed Under TV
Let me give you a glimpse into the workings of a customer’s brain.
I am now trained to watch TV on demand. I came to your service pre-trained by Comcast, and though your menu interface is kinda inconvenient and slow, I adapted quickly. Because, really, it’s a matter of clicking on whatever I want to watch, and like many TV viewers, I am fundamentally lazy. The manufacturers of TV remotes have thoroughly explored the commercial opportunities of such laziness. And now, thanks to advances in digital entertainment, I don’t even have to purchase tapes (tape! what a silly storage medium!) and remember to program a VCR. (I am lazy, not stupid. Programming a VCR is easy. Remembering to program it is more challenging.)
You have trained me well, you On Demand providers. I don’t know when shows air. I don’t care when shows air. When they queue up, I watch them. Happiness abounds.
And yet, you have betrayed me, Verizon FIOS. At the beginning of series programs, you have spent months hyping the fact that I, as a privileged On Demand customer, have the benefit of watching shows a week before they premiere. As previously mentioned, I have been trained not to care when shows are actually scheduled. But I am a product of a consumer society; I absorb advertising, and my antennae quiver angrily if I feel it is false advertising.
Therefore, when I attempt to watch a show on Monday evening, and am told that I cannot watch it for another week, I am miffed. Had you not spent months harping about how I am a privileged On Demand customer, I would not particularly care. Had you not made me, selectively, a privileged On Demand customer, I would not care. I would not even notice if shows were not available On Demand until after their regular premiere. But I assure you, I have noticed that I must wait two weeks between episodes of The Wire.
Just say “fuck” already
Filed Under TV, Pet peeves
It bugs me when people use invented substitutes for “fuck.” Specifically “frack” and, before that, “frell.” Please, just say the word. If you can’t, or don’t want to, write around the word or just fall back to “freakin’” or “effing” or something; it may still be a cop out, but has the advantage of being transparent.
I don’t know why this bugs me. I often like real world appropriation of fictional words. I think it’s the supposed cool factor. The Battlestar Galactica people seem to have expended a lot of marketing energy trying to convince viewers the show is edgy and well-written. Every time I see or hear “frack” in another context, I want to point out that no, the show’s really a mess, and the characters only say “frack” because you can’t say “fuck” on television. And while I respect folks who jump through hoops to get their work past censors, let’s all keep in mind that it’s not an artistic choice. It’s a necessity.
Which is a whole other discussion.
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Apparently, size does matter
Filed Under TV
Or so ad agencies would have us believe.
Last night we saw an ad for Southwest, where they promised that you’d never have to worry about flying on a little plane. Was it misdirected, intended for a market without a major airport, where puddle-jumpers are more common? Or was it an attempt to create the perception of a problem? Movie ads illustrate the trend of “be #1 in something”—even if you’re just the #1 canine romantic comedy released on DVD last week—so maybe Southwest thought this was the best way to make the uniformity of their fleet work to their advantage.
A little later we saw an ad for UPS, where they illustrated the fact that UPS has trucks larger than the common brown delivery vehicles. Again, Larry and I wondered if anybody is ever actually concerned about this fact. Has anyone ever said “Hm, I want to ship this ridiculously large object and, obviously, UPS only has those little brown trucks and won’t ship anything one guy in shorts can’t lift, so I guess I’ll have to call somebody else”?
I guess one or more ad agencies conducted a study, and the results are just now filtering onto the airwaves. Or maybe they didn’t bother with studies, and just assumed “bigger is better” is a good standby.
Code Monkeys
Filed Under TV
I get a kick out of this show. It makes me nostalgic for 80s video games, which is a pretty good trick considering how few I played. I never owned an Atari, and while I never wanted one as a kid I now feel deprived.
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Non-review round-up
Filed Under Books, Movies, Comics, TV, Anime
I used to try to write reviews regularly. I hated it. Nonfiction takes forever, even when it’s a review rather than criticism. (Yes, there’s a difference. No, I’ve never written anything I consider to be criticism.) But a quick opinion, and maybe a random tangent? I can manage that. Welcome to Web 2.0.
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