Posted Oct 11th 2009 10:29AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E03) Drew Barrymore is energy. Pure, almost-scary energy. It's disorienting to watch when one is bleary-eyed and staring at a tiny TV in the wee hours of the morning, but this trademark makes for consistent television-viewing. While the quality of
Saturday Night Live's writing may waver from episode to episode, every time Drew Barrymore returns, one can safely expect absolute enthusiasm and a palpable willingness to step back and laugh at herself.
All right, little Ms. "I Extra-Love Female Empowerment," prepare for me to work that ego.... Especially when one compares her to the typical "hot girl" host (see: Megan Fox's
SNL premiere), Barrymore doesn't box herself in and offers a lot more opportunity for fun characters. Would someone like Fox ever be willing to bolo it up to play Nina Wilkes Booth? I doubt it.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Drew Barrymore/Regina Spektor
Posted Oct 8th 2009 11:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E04) This week didn't really bring anything mind-blowing, but it returned us to old stomping grounds. With this episode,
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia revisited a few familiar themes: gross people from the gang's history and the never-ending quest to bang moms. Mary Lynn Rajskub (remember, it's like "rice cub") made her
Always Sunny debut as Dee and Dennis' "garbage pail cousin," Gail the Snail, and successfully joined the McPoyle brothers in that elite league of characters that make viewers feel greasy just from looking at them too long.
Continue reading It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention
Posted Oct 7th 2009 1:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Back in the day, before
Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie became America's favorite Kiwi musician-comedians, they did a six-episode radio series for BBC Radio 2. The audio has been floating around YouTube for a while, pleasing the fans desperate to get as much folkin' action as possible. To make things a little more legit and extra-fun (thanks to bonus materials), BBC Audio is about to re-release a bigger CD set of the
Flight of the Conchords radio show.
Continue reading Flight of the Conchords revisit original radio show
Posted Oct 6th 2009 1:00PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd
A few months ago, I ever-so-giddily wrote about the entire first season of the
British comedy Green Wing being available on Hulu to American viewers. It only seemed right to spread the good word, as it happens to be one of my favorite shows (it's like
Scrubs if it were a little less annoying and more demented).
Well, shame on me for being late with more news, because it wasn't until reader Erik pointed it out that I saw that the entire series of
Green Wing is now on Hulu. Having both seasons and the finale special means that you get the laughs
and closure. Isn't that nice?
Continue reading Green Wing finally available in full on Hulu
Posted Oct 4th 2009 2:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
(S35E02) After that Jenny Slate f-bomb nonsense and Megan Fox's not terribly original hot girl material from the
season premiere, it was exciting to see a really solid episode (and a star-studded one, at that). Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job as host (snaps for his wavering voice during the porcelain fountains sketch and accent in
SYTYCD), though he didn't have any major stand-out roles. Did I miss the memo that Lady Gaga wasn't just musical guest but co-host as well? Such a role is normally left up to Ryan Reynolds' giant biceps.
It's been a while since we've seen such consistently enjoyable writing in an episode. Usually, there's a distinct lull during the course of the 90 minutes, but I didn't feel it this time. Hopefully, this is a good indication of the rest of the season.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 3:35PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Exciting news for both fans of
Summer Heights High and men dressing as multiple characters in general! HBO is helping to launch a new
Chris Lilley project called
Angry Boys, set to begin production this month.
I've seen some of Lilley's other work and, while it's intriguing, none of it has been quite as amazing as the sheer ridiculousness that was
Summer Heights High. It became a phenomenon on the Internet and found a good deal of success when it finally came to the States via HBO.
Continue reading New Chris Lilley project in the works
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 10:00AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) Something was a little off about this episode. I still can't tell what triggered this reaction. I think it was because I only half-laughed once or twice during the entire thing, or perhaps it was the heavy-handed product placements that were too involved to be casual and excusable. Certainly, it wasn't terrible television; it just didn't live up to the quality that I've come to expect from the show.
If I wanted to be harsh and really ballsy, I could say this was one of the weaker episodes from the series. But I won't. Because I have no balls (I haven't perfected the technology for me to engineer a pair).
Continue reading It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: The Great Recession
Posted Sep 27th 2009 3:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
Yes,
Saturday Night Live new girl Jenny Slate's f-bomb was the most thrilling part of the show's otherwise bland 35th season premiere. It's not like we've never heard that word before, and it's not like accidental verbal naughtiness has never happened on
SNL (I still distinctly remember my extra-young self watching Cheri Oteri cringing as she contributed to the swear jar), but the pain still felt fresh with hot embarrassment.
This was partially due to the fact that it's just a generally bad thing to have happen on a player's first show (and in such a mediocre sketch, at that) but mostly because of this face that she made after she caught her boo-boo.
Twitter exploded with people's camera phone pics of this one moment.
Jenny Slate, welcome to the big time.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Megan Fox/U2 (season premiere)
Posted Sep 25th 2009 12:22PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E02) Although it's interesting to see the individual characters play in their own storylines and schemes every once in a while, there's a lot to be said about the chemistry and rapid-fire interactions when all five members of the gang are stuck together for an entire episode. Doubly so when it's an episode that mainly takes place in a tiny car or cramped U-Haul.
In addition to this, their poor decision-making seems to escalate faster when they're feeding off each other's bad intentions, which means more laughter and delighted points-at-the-screen for us bozos.
Continue reading It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: The Gang Hits The Road
Posted Sep 18th 2009 11:26AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E01) It's Always Sunny is back and it's kicking your ass. Or at least it's threatening you and your wife until you start crying a little bit and agree to partake in the antics, and we wouldn't have it any other way. There were a lot of good moments in the premiere episode, though it didn't really feel like a typical season opener, in as much as it didn't present anything too big and different from the usual
Always Sunny episode. Again, it was funny, of course, but it didn't scream "premiere", and perhaps that's the best thing for
Always Sunny.
Continue reading It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: The Gang Exploits The Mortgage Crisis (season premiere)
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