The Series Review

[ROC]

I figure I'll repost my two show reviews from my board on here to encourage discussion of the show(s) mentioned.

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Well, here it is, my new column documenting TV's finest (and worst) programs. I'll start this off with a review of the new FX series from Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock.

30 Days (FX, Wednesday, 10 PM Eastern)

Taking up on the formula of his surprise hit documentary Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days explores the idea of taking somebody out of their surroundings and surrouding them with people from a different lifestyle, culture, class, and even religion (as the episode I will review features). What differs this from other reality programs is that the emphasis is not on a monetary prize but on changing their view or idea of the people they've been around.

In the most recent episode, a Christian man decides to live with the Muslim community for 30 days. During that time, he has to also observe the Muslim practices (prayer five times a day, only eating 'blessed' types of meat, etc.) while he also continues to be judged by Americans as a "terrorist" Muslim (the episode notes that it is the first time he had ever been stopped at airport security checkpoints). It is with this point that Spurlock shows the episode's true idea: that the actions of some should never judge everyone in a particular race or religion. He effectively shows us that prejudice is a ridiculous notion that is sadly present in America's view of Islam. Sure, it's a point you probably knew and to expect all Muslims to act as peaceful as the ones the Christian meets is pretty ludicrous. But it still doesn't make the prejudice justified.

While it is boring at points, 30 Days effectively drops the veil on the issues of our post-9/11 time. It's good to see a reality series actually show me human life and REALITY. Once you see FX's 30 Days, all other reality shows feel faker than a softcore love scene.

Rating: 8/10

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Now it's time to delve into a world less traveled. The world where only 6-year-olds are entertained. The world known as KIDS TV.

Lazytown (Nickelodeon, Monday-Friday, 10:30 AM Eastern)

For the first time in years, messed up concepts reign supreme on kids TV. This series, created by and starring Magnus Schaving as an acrobatic superhero of sorts in a town of puppets, has a normal concept at first. It has the traditional moral message undertone in every episode, it has the puppetry element in effect, and it has the traditional villain (although much different than you except, as I'll explain in a minute).

What makes the show messed up is simply this: TECH...NO...MUSIC. Every show begins and ends with a techno theme ripped from the dance halls. It feels very strange, but then again, this is FOREIGN. Then, there's a little girl (named Stephanie) that looks like Natalie Portman's adorable likeness in Luc Besson's The Professional, which creates an odd feeling of dirtyness in watching her prance, dance, and jive around her lazy town...

Now, you may be wondering, "Why the hell should I even give a shit about Lazytown?" Two words: Robbie Rotten. He's the overextravagant villain you've seen on every other kids' show, yet there's a sense of ridiculous uniqueness about him. Even when he fails (which is, of course, every episode), it's always fun to watch what he plans the next time. And his plans are usually comic gold. Everything from disguises to bribes to going inside and hacking a computer (oh yeah, they went there).

Lazytown is not perfect. Hell, it may not even be good. But damn is it entertaining and considering the usual dumbed down modern show of kids TV, that's saying something.

Rating: 5/10

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*waits for EWBers dissing me for remotely liking a kids TV show*

Edited July 13, 2005 by TheROC-Revolt

[ROC]

For my third edition of this column, I’ve decided to expand my reviewing a bit and instead of just review a whole show, I’m gonna take on reviewing a network. This network will be one I’ve watched a lot of recently, yet isn’t either known or liked by too many people. That network is a network that bills itself as “Videogame TV”, G4.

First, let’s start on the flagship show, X-Play.

X-Play (G4, Monday-Friday, 11 PM Eastern)

Out of the number of shows picked up during the G4 buyout, this is the only one that’s stayed reasonably intact (for now). And that’s a positive thing for this game review/preview/skit show, considering it was pretty damn good on TechTV back in the dog days of 2003. The reviews work because they feel unbiased. Many times they even go against the curtain, like their recent reviews of Advent Rising, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. As for the skits, they share a good bit with another show in terms of their use of ridiculous peripheral characters, Late Night with Conan O’ Brien. Sure, O’ Brien’s schtick is much, much funnier, but the show does maintain the sardonic attitude of dissing skits involving themselves.

While it is permitably stupid at intervals, X-Play is easily the best show on the network. And as you’ll find, its misses are much more entertaining than G4’s other hits.

Rating: 8/10

Next up is the show ran by longtime game reviewers and containing one of the more hatable hosts on television (though, I don’t necessarily hate him myself).

Judgment Day (aka Reviews on the Run) (G4, Monday, 10:30 PM Eastern)

The brainchild of Canadian TV presenter Victor Lucas and well-known, though not well liked, game music producer Tommy Tallarico, this show once again features reviews balanced with the odd joke. Consider this also to be a balance of sometimes surprising opinions (though, not exactly unbiased, as I’ll get into in a second). You can also argue that there’s a bit more insight into the games in their show than on X-Play, yet it’s easily seen that Tommy does have a rather big bias against Nintendo, which leads me to wonder just how the hell can you give Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door a 5 for any other reason than “I hate RPGs” or “It’s too kiddy”.

Considering the obvious Tallarico factor, it’s probably hard to even recommend this show to any one who hated him on The Electric Playground. But if you don’t mind Tommy’s anti-Nintendo bias and want a tiny bit more insight into a wider scope of video gaming, this might be up your alley.

Rating: 6/10

Now, it’s time to dig into the crappile of the network. I drop my head in disgust for these awful shows.

Video Game Vixens (G4, currently off from new episodes)

Hal Sparks, aka nobody that you’ve heard of, hosts a show that mixes one-part nerdalicious video game babes, and eleven-parts total sucktitude into a half-hour waste of time. To be honest, it isn’t shocking that a video game beauty pageant series doesn’t work, but it is shocking how much it doesn’t. First, Hal Sparks strains too hard for a laugh, telling bad jokes that feel forced, leading into lame potty humor, lamer nerd-dissing humor (the Vixen Hunter burns my EYES...), and just plain awful judgment (Rikku from FF 10 looks like a frickin’ man). It’s a brew that never works. Not even the appearance of Joy Giovanni’s sexy self can hardly redeem a show of this magnitude. Ugh.

Rating: 2/10

Race to G-Phoria (G4, Tuesday, 10:30 PM Eastern)

Hey, we have the perfect idea to promote our game awards show, how’s about LAME SKITS!? Ugh, can’t they just do it traditional style. Oh wait, that doesn’t suck enough. It’s a surprise so many G4 hosts actually were willing to go the extra mile to be even more annoying (don’t get me started of Pereira and Foy). It still sucks, even if they did have the sense to nominate RE4 for about every category it should be nominated in and even if Johnny Xtreme gets his own ball cutting hilarious segment.

Rating: 4/10

(If only for Johnny Xtreme's ball cutting hilarious segment.)

I’ll continue this look at the network later, including my final opinion on the network itself.

Edited July 20, 2005 by TheROC-Revolt

[tristy]

Fuck off for saying X-Play is better than Attack Of The Show or Icons.

[ROC]

Fuck off for saying X-Play is better than Attack Of The Show or Icons.

←

[tristy]

That's pretty much why I watch Attack Of The Show.

I don't get why they had Sessler host for a week, and not Morgan. Damnit. I liked it when Kevin P. said X-Play is "Morgan's show" though. Because it's true.

Help me remember all the female hosts on X-Play before Morgan. And before it was called X-Play.

[ROC]

That's pretty much why I watch Attack Of The Show.

I don't get why they had Sessler host for a week, and not Morgan. Damnit. I liked it when Kevin P. said X-Play is "Morgan's show" though. Because it's true.

Help me remember all the female hosts on X-Play before Morgan. And before it was called X-Play.

←

[Guest Mr McFarlane]

That's pretty much why I watch Attack Of The Show.

I don't get why they had Sessler host for a week, and not Morgan. Damnit. I liked it when Kevin P. said X-Play is "Morgan's show" though. Because it's true.

Help me remember all the female hosts on X-Play before Morgan. And before it was called X-Play.

←

All I remember is the most known co-host, Kate Botello, back when it was Extended Play. Don't know about the Gamespot TV era because I never watched then.

Last I heard about Botello, she was playing Judy Garland in some show off-Broadway.

←

[ROC]

Well, here’s part two of my look at the video game network, G4.

First, let's start with the other alright shows on the network.

Icons (G4, off from new episodes)

G4's biography show is one of the more fascinating concepts on the network. It isn't anything groundbreaking or new to the genre of the biography show, but it does provide good insight into the game series, creators, and companies profiled. In some episodes, it even addressed common criticisms with the games profiled (Gran Turismo's lack of damage, Donkey Kong Country's collecting of bananas, etc.). However, sometimes the material is far too recent to be considered an icon, IMO (Splinter Cell is a good example). And a few later episodes haven't even covered video game prolifics (a recent episode featured Frank Miller, a true icon of the comic industry, but hardly one of video gaming).

Still, while it is formulaic of its genre, it is nice to see one of these type of shows for gaming.

Rating: 7/10

Attack of the Show (G4, Monday-Friday, 7 PM Eastern)

After the G4 buyout of TechTV, the network slowly finished off The Screen Savers. After TSS cast members like Yoshi left, the network retooled the show (with a stupider name, no doubt) as Attack of the Show. The show is hosted by Kevin "Arena's douchebag" Periera and features Brendan Moran and Sarah Lane. Recently, they are into the guest hosting era post-Kevin Rose, which has ranged from entertaining to rather boring. But the good thing about the series is how it's distancing itself from TSS. It obviously knows that to try to be The Screen Savers without Leo, Patrick, Megan, or even Kevin R. is going to head nowhere but failure.

AotS is more driven by entertaining content. Nearly every facet of tech is featured in some part on the show and does make the show interesting for tech fans. To be honest, the cast is pretty drab, too. Kevin P. = douche in nearly every aspect. Sarah also seems to like way too much stuff (she's supposedly liked every movie she's seen this year, a call that she could be BSing). Brendan is alright, though, his segments can wear a little thin.

It isn't TSS, nor will it ever be as long as Kevin P. leads the way, but it's rather entertaining.

Rating: 6/10

And now, the rest of the bunch, albeit much briefer in review since I don't like them enough to give them full attention.

The Electric Playground (G4, Friday, 10:30 PM Eastern)

Ever since they stopped reviewing content and saving it for JD (or RotR), it's just been a 22 minute long gaming advertisment. Okay, but nothing more.

Rating: 5/10

Filter (G4, Monday, 10 PM Eastern)

Losing interest. Fast.

Rating: 4/10

Cheat! (G4, Tuesday, 10 PM Eastern)

Holt's hot and it's much better than it was during the Rouse era, but it still is rather useless.

Rating: 4/10

G4TV.com (G4, Friday, 10 PM Eastern)

Foy = twat, Wood = hot person, Keighley = Wait...who?

Rating: 4/10

Street Fury (G4, Sunday, 10 PM Eastern)

Meh. I like Asian chicks, but I prefer the Internet for that.

Rating: 4/10

Formula D (G4, Sunday, 10:30 Eastern)

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE MOST USELESS SPORT EVER!

Rating: 3/10

Well, there's the shows, but what's my opinion on the network? Well, here it is.

G4 (Owned by Comcast)

G4 was a rather bland network when they started around 2002. The only two good shows on it were Icons and Judgment Day (if only for the fact that it actually gave opinions rather than sucked up to the game companies). Perhaps its shining moment is the buyout that so many net fanboys curse about to this day (go to GameFAQs and read the continuous bitching). I mean, it did give them shows like X-Play and AotS. And there's still Anime Unleashed in the night hours, too. Unfortunately, the creative juices at G4 are still rather awful, seeing as three of its worser shows (four, if you count the brief run special Race to G-Phoria) were developed and began in the last six months. And, when the inevitable day comes in which X-Play, Judgment Day, and AotS must go away, what would they have to fall back on? Poser shows about drifting? Video game beauty pageants? Let's hope G4 has sense enough to stop what it's creating.

Rating: 5/10

Edited July 15, 2005 by TheROC-Revolt

[ROC]

Now, here's a profile of one of the more likable shows currently on HBO.

Entourage (HBO, Sunday, 10 PM Eastern)

From a man you've never heard of unless you watch way too many urban comedies, comes one of the more original takes on H-Town, Entourage. Adrian Grenier stars as the rising star Vincent Chase, a man loosely based on Mark Wahlberg who executive produces the show. His entourage (thus the name) is played nicely in Kevin Dillon, Kevin Connolly, and Jerry Ferrera. All three men bring some hilarious characters to the table, yet none of the four have anything on Jeremy Piven, who delivers perfectly as Vincent's agent Ari. He's the most obvious asshole you'll meet on TV and delivers some majorly hilarious lines (the show's unofficial tagline, "Let's hug it out, bitch." is easily one of them).

Yet there's more than performances keeping Entourage together. There's also a nice satirical element to it. Well, that and hot females... The storylines have also gotten much more interesting in season 2. Last season's Queens Blvd. drama was interesting, but not hardly as fun as this season's Aquaman drama. Though, I wonder what strings they'll have to pull to get a certain famous director to guest. We'll see.

Perhaps the only real problem is that nearly every script Chase and Co. read is "great". Either this Hollywood is literally flowing with great material or Chase doesn't know what the hell he's really reading.

Still, Entourage is a rather interesting look at H-Town. And Season 2 also happens to be its best year yet.

Rating: 8/10

[MalaCloudy Black]

Bugger off, G4TV.com owns!

[ROC]

Bugger off, G4TV.com owns!

←

[Corizzle]

G4 sucks for 1 reason, it raped TechTV when they bought it to where the only show remaining is X-Play. And all the shows on the network basically suck now. AOTS is a piece of crap without Kevin Rose anymore, G4TV.Com sucks just because of Laura Foy. Video Game Vixens and Formula D are just lame attempts at getting a different demographic(Sex-Crazed Maniacs & Racing Enthuiests). Really who cares about looking at hot girls from Video Games, they are fucking pixels on a screen. They have shows like that but cancelled great shows from TechTV like Call for Help & Unscrewed.

Now that my G4 Rant is done, I must also say that 30 Days is a great show, I just wish it got showed up here in Canada(we don't get FX). I do agree that it can be a bit boring at times, but the other parts far outweight those.

Edited July 18, 2005 by Corizzle

[ROC]

Erm, I'll be making a few minor changes to my Race to G-Phoria review after watching the second episode...

[ROC]

This review is much shorter than the other reviews for one sole reason...to control my sanity...

The Andy Milonakis Show (MTV, Sunday, 10:30 PM Eastern)

One word: RE-TARD-ED.

I will admit that the Blog bit was an okay satire of the absolutely meaningless style of some blogs but the rest of the show is just retarded.

Rating: 2/10

It's official: Adam Carolla > Jimmy Kimmel.

Carolla's upcoming Comedy Central talk show will probably own Kimmel's ABC show as well.

EDIT:

I don't get why they had Sessler host for a week, and not Morgan. Damnit. I liked it when Kevin P. said X-Play is "Morgan's show" though. Because it's true.

Edited July 27, 2005 by Deep Cover

[ROC]

While it's not much of a review or anything, I am convinced that AotS had their best set of episodes ever last week. Maybe that's the hotness of both Morgan Webb and Sarah Lane talking...okay, there's no doubt that is what's talking.

I'm also liking this week's episodes with Seanbaby guesthosting. He may have sucked on Video Game Vixens, but then again, that was Video Game Vixens, too.

[Psicosis]

One thing i've observed from watching the G4 E3 specials and Attack Of The Shit is, all the presenters seem to be told to do lame comedy. Just get on with presenting the damn games.

[ROC]

Pimp My Ride (MTV, off from new episodes)

It's a simple idea really. Get some old cars, a rapper with a good amount of charisma, and a decent production budget, and voila, you have Pimp My Ride, a show that just works well. Xzibit is a rather entertaining host and the usually entertaining shenanagans of the WCC crew is rather funny. They're also obviously fantastic at their jobs and do a good job of pimping the rides well. And, well, that's it. No deep meaning. No satire. Just a nice little show.

Rating: 7/10

[ROC]

Sh-izz-ort reviews...

Weeds (Showtime, Monday, 10 PM Eastern)

Nice series with some good moments and good talent holding up a good dark comedy.

Rating: 7/10

G-Phoria (G4, any time G4 needs time to fill)

Awful, lame, awful. There were two moments of any worth, one is the hilarity that ensues with Ron Jeremy in a Mario costume and the other is a nice tribute to the much underrated Ralph Baer. But two segments on a 90 minute award show does not a good show make.

Rating: 3/10

Barbershop: The Series (Showtime, Sunday, 10 PM Eastern)

The series creation of part time movie reviewer John Ridley and Ice Cube's production company Cube Vision, Barbershop: The Series is a conundrum of television oddness. It seems to bring nothing truly intriguing and funny to the story, even with some well done barbershop bits. It's not terrible, just way out of place on Showtime. It would probably be much smoother (albeit very much censored) on a network like BET.

Rating: 5/10

Oh, and not a review, but Entourage + Malcolm McDowell = total awesomeness. McDowell is just frickin' amazing on it. (Y)

That and Emmanuelle Chriqui has also been on the show recently as well.

Edited August 23, 2005 by Reptilia

[ROC]

Wild 'N Out (MTV, Thursday, 10 PM)

The young nut of film cinema, Nick Cannon, brings the crunkified version of improv in his new series, Wild 'N Out. The show looks to have decent promise as it expands a bit with some of the stuff that works extremely well on shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway? Unfortunately, that promise hasn't shown itself too well in the last few episodes. Sure, there was some good stuff with Kanye West and Orlando Jones's guest appearances but there's just not enough funny skits. Sorry, Nick, I liked you in Drumline but it just isn't working out.

Rating: 4/10

[ROC]

The War at Home (Fox, Sunday, 8:30 PM Eastern)

Michael Rappaport, an actor who has a considerable amount of comedic talent who seems to have nowhere good to use it, stars in yet another sitcom on the Fox network. Now, as you all may remember, Fox has done very well with sitcoms, especially considering their first sitcom was the hilarious hit Married...With Children. But while that show did a good job of pushing envelopes and parodying the typical sitcom, this series just treads down the same paths that other shows have tackled for forever. Sure, there's a bit more raunch in this series and maybe there's envelope pushing potential, but barring a couple of clever lines from the wife, there's nothing that funny on the show. And in a block featuring shows that are either: A. brilliant, B. past their prime but still funny, or C. good political humor, this show doesn't seem to fit. Once again, Rappaport finds himself flailing when he shouldn't.

Rating: 4/10