TVSquad

After a brief break to watch season four of Weeds last week, Jane After Dark is back with The Wire. I'm half-way into season three, and while there are definitely parts of this show that put me to sleep (ducking and running for cover), it's still a brilliant drama. My teenage son popped in for part of an episode, decided it was too "real," and promptly lost interest.

To help me organize my thoughts, let's take a look at a few characters:

Stringer Bell. I'm really digging Idris Elba dressed up in his fancy suit, running the real estate company, working with government officials, and holding drug meetings using Robert's Rules of Order. It's fascinating that there's this whole hierarchy within the gangs that most of them respect and follow.

Over the span of Hung's first few episodes, Ray Drecker utters a lot of depressing one-liners. Things like "everything's falling apart" and "I used to be a big deal" are common phrases for him. However, as the title of the show suggests, Ray Drecker (played by The Punisher's Thomas Jane) has at least one thing to be very happy about.

The new HBO dramedy is set in Detroit against the backdrop of a financially ruined automotive industry skyline, and as the world crumbles around him, Ray is forced to re-evaluate his life while everything he cares about slowly slips away. It's unsettling and sad, but in some ways, fortuitous ... at least for HBO anyway. Considering the current economic crisis many Americans are experiencing, a lot of people are going to relate to this show. Just probably not to the big penis part.

One of my pet peeves is when someone says that they're too young to remember something that happened in history. As if they couldn't have read about it somewhere. I thought of that after seeing this clip from Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher. It's Democratic strategist Paul Begala making a joke about Meghan McCain's comment that she wasn't born when Reagan was president so she wouldn't know what he's talking about.

Now, I'm not a big fan of Begala, but he does have point (though he could have used a more accessible example than the French Revolution, it would have been more pointed). I can't decide if McCain was being serious or if she was making a joke about Begala's age or if it's part of the "dumb blonde" joke she makes later in the clip. You decide.

For some strange reason, I was initially compelled to start this installment of Sketch Comedy Saturday with "Never fear, Little Britain is here!" I suppose there was a need for a campy intro. Then, I realized that there are actually plenty of things to fear in Little Britain: Matt Lucas wearing really tight shorts, old women violently projectile vomiting on everything in sight, more Matt Lucas wearing really, really tight shorts ... Really, the horrifying list goes on.

As John Howard noted in the comments in last week's Jane After Dark column, I really haven't talked much about Omar yet. I just finished season two of The Wire, and to be honest, most of my thoughts right now revolve around the Sobotka clan.

First of all, how stupid was Ziggy? The guy's always been a live wire, and you could see the bad karma building throughout this season, with him flashing money around, showing off his Italian leather coat, and going a little bonkers with the stolen Mercedes. Things were bound to go bad for him, and they did just that when his deal with Double-G went oh so wrong.

If you enjoyed the Yo Teach ... ! clips Jason Schwartzman did to promote Judd Apatow's Funny People, then you'll dig the following teaser for HBO's Bored to Death. The upcoming comedy stars Schwartzman as a struggling writer who moonlights as a detective.



Writer Jonathan Ames is the man behind the series, which features an amazing cast including Zach Galifianakis (still riding a buzz from The Hangover), Ted Danson, Parker Posey and Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig.

It's been a good long while since Michael Richards has been on television. If you don't know the reason why, then you either don't watch TV or you've been frozen since 1952 and had your body reanimated to combat the deadly disease for which you've found a secret cure.

If it's the second option, then stop being so selfish and share your cure with the world. Stop being so cold, no pun intended.

2009 could mark the beginning of Richards' comeback, as he and the rest of his Seinfeld pals will make an appearance during the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

On July 16th when the Primetime Emmy nominations are announced, one name that is likely to appear in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series is Aaron Paul. As Jesse Pinkman on AMC's Breaking Bad, Aaron has done amazing work, revealing a character as fascinating as he is flawed.

His performance this past season on Breaking Bad has generated lots of talk about an Emmy nomination, but not to be overlooked is the fact that Paul is also doing great work on HBO's Big Love. On that drama, his character, Scott, is the antithesis of Jesse. It's a testament to Aaron's skill as an actor that I didn't recognize him at first from Big Love when I watched Breaking Bad. A search of his IMDB listing was one of those 'ah-ha' moments. Recently, I had to chance to speak with Aaron, and we started with the jaw-dropping season finale of Breaking Bad.

The New York Post reports that Artie Lange is no longer welcome to appear on HBO Sports or Joe Buck Live. I'm not sure if that ban extends to the entirety of HBO. For those of you that missed his, to say the least, controversial appearance, TV Squad had it covered but sadly the video was taken down.

Considering the company that Artie keeps on Sirius Satellite Radio, being banned should not be a foreign concept to him. No doubt they'll talk about it on Howard Stern's radio show for days on end.

Artie Lange, Paul Rudd, and Jason Sudeikis were on the premiere episode of Joe Buck Live last night, and let's just say that Lange took control of the show with a dirty put down to Buck after the host brought up TMZ.com. (The after-the-show webcast can be seen at HBO's site, but it seems to be down right now.). Sports Illustrated has more, including comments from HBO and Buck.

Oh, Brett Favre was on the show too.



[via Awful Announcing]

I'm three episodes into season two of The Wire. I tried watching it online as Usama suggested in last week's Jane After Dark comments (thank you for that awesome site!), but decided to just buy the DVDs, because I stop and start a lot and need easy access to it. So I looked around town and found a fairly reasonably priced season two at FYE. It's new; no one seems to have any used sets, which makes me think - as you all have suggested - that no one ever gets rid of their DVDs of The Wire. They keep them around to watch again and again. I'll probably just buy each season as I work my way through the series.

And speaking of starting and stopping, The Wire does not get any easier to watch while doing something else at the same time. Whenever I try to do that, I end up replaying those parts again, because there's way too many subtleties to be only half-paying attention.

I've talked at length in the past about how much I've loved all the creative taglines Entourage has featured over it's previous five seasons. They're short and witty, yet the brevity always gets across the point of the season too. The latest promotional campaign for Entourage's upcoming sixth season is no exception:

"Life changes. Friends don't."

When we last left Vinny and the boys, they were gearing up for Marty Scorsese's Great Gatsby re-imagining and it began with moving home to Queens. Speculation seems to be leaning towards Vince finally getting his due and being recognized for what's sure to be a stand-out performance in a Scorsese classic.

I just watched the last episode of season one of The Wire. You guys are right. It's good stuff. Most of season one was pretty slow-going, but things started to kick in during the last few episodes, about the time Greggs got shot.

As in last week's Jane After Dark column, I'm still a bit lost on exactly what's happening, but that doesn't seem to really matter. The characters are so interesting to watch. It's almost like you're watching a documentary about the real thing, rather than a scripted TV show. I took the suggestion of some of you and started watching with the subtitles on. It really does help!

I noticed that Alan Sepinwall is also blogging on The Wire -- and writing a masters thesis on each episode. He even has two different versions -- one for newbies and one for veterans. I'm the anti-Sepinwall, just trying to grasp the storyline and get the basic gist. But I did read his newbie editions and found them helpful.

E!'s Watch With Kristen is reporting that Zac Efron will be joining the Entourage gang for season six. Well, maybe not exactly joining the gang, but at least making a cameo on the HBO show.

Ok, so the question is, will he be playing himself? One of Ari Gold's newest It-Guys? An excitable young actor who tussles with Johnny Drama? My guess is that Efron will be playing himself, because he's becoming the Next Big Thing in Hollywood -- if he isn't already there.

And it just makes sense, because so many other stars have appeared as themselves on the show; notably, James Woods, though I've always wondered if he's as hot-headed as they make him out to be on the show. If so, he has quite the sense of humor about himself.

I never intended to watch The Wire next in my Jane After Dark pursuits. In fact, I planned on watching Veronica Mars, as many of you suggested. But a good number of you also recommended The Wire, and I had season one sitting here, so I popped it in one night.

I'm not gonna lie to you. It's been slow going. Here's how it went down:

Episode 1: I was completely lost, so I watched it twice to see if I could grasp it the second time around. Then I read the detailed synopsis on The Wire's official HBO site. Clearly, this show is not meant to be watched while you're doing something else. You need to sit down and focus on what's going on.