All posts by Chris

Bizarre But Fitting End to Fargo

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(Beware: Spoilers Ahead For the Finale)

Fargo wrapped up its ten-episode run on FX last night with with a tense, often gruesome hour and a half time slot. As bizarre as all previous episodes, the finale was also a real nail biter.

A very pregnant Molly wrestled with how involved to get in solving what was essentially her case, seeing that nobody else made the connections and stayed on it the way she did. Gus, watching her wrestle with it and fearing for her life, finally overcame his own fears with regard to Malvo and really stepped up.

The relationship between Greta and her newly anointed grandfather, Lou (Keith Carradine), was a satisfying thread to the family that Gus and Molly weaved throughout the series.  The jeopardy the family faced created the bulk of the tension in the episode.  The question of Lester’s survival provided not so much tension, but real curiosity, and at times, of course, the viewers were very much ready for his survival to be nonexistent.

The end to Malvo was a surprise and rather satisfying. The end to Lester was likely a little disappointing to those hoping for something more vicious.

The final moments, despite constituting a happy end for the Solverson-Grimly family, nonetheless felt a little somber. Fitting, since there wasn’t much joy in what they’d all experienced, just an end to the carnage.

(And no, it has not escaped our noticed that the brilliant law enforcement officer is named Solverson and the somewhat gloomy Gus is named Grimly. The psychotic, bad guy killer Malvo was equally subtle. Well played, Fargo. Well played.)

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By HodgePodge
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Please Save Us From Heroes

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There is a reason NBC’s Heroes fell out of favor with fans after an initial burst of wild popularity. For a show with immense potential and a great, if unoriginal premise (see our post about The 4400), the show ended up limping to its drawn out, long overdue demise after four seasons. Despite this, NBC has brought on show creator Tim Kring to helm a mini series follow up, called Heroes Reborn.

Planned to air in 2015 some time, the mini series details are still extremely scarce.  It is still unknown how many original series characters will be making a return, but it seems as though it will be light on them, with more focus on different characters, given that NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke said, “but we won’t rule out the possibility of some of the show’s original cast members popping back in.”

Winces among television fans around the Internet are an indication that this mini series really needs to deliver and generate some positive, well-earned buzz if it’s going to get viewers to point their remotes to their local NBC channel.

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By HodgePodge
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Orphan Black Amazing Weirdness

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This show continues to be utterly weird and completely amazing. Season 2, episode 9 aired last night, June 14th, on BBCA. Last week saw the introduction of transgender clone Tony, and this week saw jaw-dropping developments with Helena.

In a show that naturally and effortlessly demonstrates the power of women, it was a risk to go into the territory of subjugating women for the purposes of essentially making them breeding stock. But the risk paid off as two of the women being abused took cringe-worthy and deliciously satisfying revenge.

The sight of an abuser in stirrups has to be a highlight for many, many women out there, and no further explanation why is really necessary.

Just one more episode in the season remains, and audiences should expect shock, twists and more generally amazing weirdness to feature heavily.

See the complete list of episodes here (but be careful of spoilers):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Orphan_Black_episodes

Check out the show’s official BBCA page here:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/orphan-black/

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By HodgePodge
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Entertaining Weirdness of Fargo

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Just one more episode of Fargo remains, and the show continues to be weird, entertaining and unique, despite being a series reboot of an almost iconic movie.

Billy Bob Thornton never disappoints, and his Lorne Malvo character should prove as memorable as any of his other roles, including his Karl Childers role in Sling Blade.

Colin Hanks has been fun, too, but the real surprise is newcomer Allison Tolman, playing Deputy Molly Solverson. Her Molly is expressive, likable and utterly believable.

This show isn’t for everyone, but those who are okay with more risqué network cable  content and are okay with occasional gore might enjoy this series. Oh, the viewer must also enjoy weirdness.

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By HodgePodge
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Comedy of Errors: Cantor’s Exit

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Political TV and political junkies on the Internet are saturated with the stunning news of Eric Cantor’s loss of his congressional seat in his primary election. This was the first time since 1899 that a sitting House Majority Leader has lost his seat in a primary election.

Word as of now is that there were two main issues. One, is that Eric Cantor seems to have fallen asleep at the wheel of his campaign. Pundits are speculating that little campaigning and only a late push right before the election signal complacency.  Cantor wasn’t even in his district until late in the day when it became apparent he was in trouble.

The second factor appears to be the topic of immigration. The tea party base is so far to the right on the issue that any willingness to even discussion reform at all is taboo, as Cantor discovered. It did not appear to help that Cantor did not manage his message on the issue well at all, too busy playing a game of denying he was interested in immigration reform in any sense.

However it happened, it made for the kind of news night that makes political theater enthusiasts make popcorn.

It will remain to be seen how this shocking event affects the other far right Republicans in their primaries and general elections this year.

 

 

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By HodgePodge
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This Week in Political TV

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Monday June 9 – Sunday June 15

Mon-Fri Meet the Bergdahls
Zany comedy featuring the usual right wing suspects, and starring Fox and CNN. Loosely affiliated psuedo journalists try to piece together a POW’s history from Wikileaks and rumors, to perpetrate another bizarre smear campaign on the Democratic administration they loathe.

Sun Here Comes the Cryptkeeper
Comedy-Drama featuring a weathered, increasingly senile senator from Arizona. Sunday mornings will never be the same after John McCain leaves behind his special brand of old white man bloviating nonsense and hypocrisy. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes baffling, this Senator’s partisan rants amuse and frighten us at once, knowing he sits in a position of power in the US government.

Mon-Fri How I Skipped Your Briefing
Black comedy in which Republican members of Congress and the US Senate take turns skipping classified briefings so they can hold press conferences bemoaning the lack of information disseminated to them.

Sat The Lazy Ones
Drama that highlights graduating college students flipping burgers and making tacos on Saturday nights instead of spending time with friends, because they’re drowning in student loan debt and there are no jobs for them upon graduation. While shoving fries into cartons and getting berated by fat customers for not doing better with their lazy lives, some of their fellow grads look through the window, wishing they could get even that much work.

Mon-Fri Don’t Just Shoot Me
Comedy-Drama with a star-studded cast of NRA die hards and their victims, children and adults. As decimated bodies pile up, the NRA finds increasingly gross ways to justify the lack of regulations on weapons of death. Nonsensical shrieking about the second amendment and bizarre references to the dangers of knives and cheeseburgers are just two of the deranged gun nuts’ tactics.

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By HodgePodge
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GOP versus Vets on Memorial Day

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The media outlets had plenty of political antics to chew on over Memorial Day weekend and just after, thanks to the hilariously poor timing of a GOP senator.

Recent hearings about the troubles at the Veterans Administration included speakers from various veterans groups and organizations. Richard Burr,  who has never served in the armed forces, is the GOP’s ranking member on the Armed Services Committee. That would not be so shocking or unusual, if not for what occurred over the weekend.

Continue reading GOP versus Vets on Memorial Day

Patenting White Backdrops?

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The US Patent office has actually granted a patent to Amazon that would give them the sole right to be able to photograph people against a white backdrop. Seriously!

The level of brazen idiocy and catering to big corporations is just staggering.  Does the patent office not understand the hugely widespread, commonplace practice this is with photographers world wide?

For this interested, there is a Watchdog petition demanding that the patent office revoke the patent granted:

http://act.watchdog.net/petitio/4634?ls=0SxdLL_VjPY

The West Wing

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Going back to watch early episodes of The West Wing, it is interesting to see the issues that some understood and examined but that went over the head of many others.

Back in 2000, many people were concerned and outraged by the military policy called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, as that issue came up in key plot lines.

The startling inadequacy of Mercator projection maps, created for navigation only in the 16th century, that still fill geography classrooms is discussed in the show.

Growing income inequality and concerns for rising tuition costs were also featured in some episodes.

Discussions of Islamic fundamentalism and unfair maligning of all Muslims as a result was filmed before 9/11 occurred, with the air date happening to fall just a couple weeks later.

The show undoubtedly upset a number of people on the far right, but it made a number of people think, and that makes it a shame that it flew under the radar for people who didn’t watch.

The Wil Wheaton Project: S1-E1

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Making its debut tonight (Tuesday, May 27th) on SyFy network was the Wil Wheaton Project.

It’s something like The Soup, but for geared for science fiction and fantasy. Wil Wheaton is a likable host who clearly enjoys what he’s doing, and that makes it fun for viewers, too. The show pokes a little fun at the highlights for the week, but it also clearly revels in the genre programming covered.

The show featured special guest Chris Hardwick, aka The Nerdist and a few words from Shawn Ashmore, who plays Iceman in the X-Men movie franchise.

Next week, Felicia Day will drop in.