Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Pop Culture Roundup, April 29

Welcome to this week’s collection of fun pop culture stories.

The Movie Biz
TV Happenings
Supernatural
Random Stuff

The Movie Biz

Fox to Remake Famed Schwarzenegger Pic
This news makes me want to die. I liked Commando as much as the next middle school girl whose dad was all about Arnie. But I don’t need to see a re-imagined version of it. Please, Hollywood, make new movies with new scripts, not just a bunch of remakes and rehashes of things we’ve seen 20 million times before. Perhaps then, number of ticket sales would increase along with the ticket prices and newer movies might really have a shot at being number one of all time. (Avatar is only number one if you don’t adjust for inflation. Gone with the Wind is number one.)

TV Stories

Television Review: Happy Town
Did you watch Happy Town last night? I have not watched it yet, because I was just way too tired to start a brand-new show at 10pm. My dog woke me up at 4am Tuesday and Wednesday, and I didn’t go back to sleep either morning, so I was wiped out last night. I will give it a shot, though, perhaps this weekend after I catch up with the pre-empted episode of Chuck. (Yay for the Blazers in the playoffs. Boo for pre-empting Chuck. I will be at the game tonight, thanks to the generosity of my husband’s workplace, cheering on Portland’s only major sporting team.)

Avatar: Are We Ready for a New Dimension in Television?
Are you ready for 3-D TV? I’m not, but Mr. Pop Culture Curmudgeon, with his rampant need to buy the latest and greatest, can’t wait until I allow him to buy a snazzy new TV.

The Future of VJs
Deborah Potter looks at the current and future changes in the television news genre.

SyFy’s New Drama Haven Premieres in July
Stephen King’s name gives this show a little street cred. Will you give it a shot to enter your summer rotation?

Supernatural

Supernatural: Hammer of the Gods
Another great episode review from Sylvia Bond at Pink Ray Gun. Did you like the episode? Did you recognize all of the gods in the episode? Did you understand the significance of the ones they chose to include in the little confab?

Mark Sheppard Returns to Supernatural: First Looks
Crowley is back tonight, to help the boys? Ulterior motive? Or does he really want the boys to win?

Second Webclip: Episode 20, the Devil You Know
A little clip from tonight’s eppy to whet your appetite.

Book Review: Supernatural, The Unholy Cause
Sometimes, I feel like a bad fan because I’ve never read one of the SPN tie-in books. Do you read them? Will you read them after the show is over?

A Show that Caters to Supernatural Fans Who Miss Ellen and Jo Harvelle
Ma’s Roadhouse is coming to truTV, and this blogger thinks it looks a little like our Roadhouse. Did you actually miss the Roadhouse when it was destroyed? I didn’t, although I was a big fan of Ellen’s character.

Random Stuff

Dyspeptic Ouroboros: Alyssa Rosenberg on Pop Culture and Criticism
An interesting look at the sometimes confusing world of assessing our pop culture preferences.

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Pop Culture Roundup, March 11

Welcome to this week’s collection of fun pop culture stories.

In Memoriam
The Movie Biz
TV Happenings
Random Stuff

In Memoriam

Losing a Lost Boy
Yesterday morning, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that 80s teen heartthrob Corey Haim had died of an apparent drug overdose. I had a huge crush on Haim after The Lost Boys and License to Drive. It is too bad that he was never able to get is substance abuse under control. Read another personal reaction here.

Merlin Olson, Football Star, Commentator and Actor, Dies at 69
Little House on the Prairie was one of my favorite shows (and book series) as a young girl. I remember the calming influence Johnathan Garvey often played. I am saddened to hear that he suffered from mesothelioma, a cancer often caused by exposure to asbestos. Find out more about the disease.

Movie Stuff

Behind the Scenes of “The Runaways”
I am typically not a theater-goer these days. I used to work in a theater (for five years in high school and college), so I am well aware of the joys of the crowd, the isolation, and the overall theater experience. But, I don’t always like the crowds, and I’d rather watch a movie on my big screen with my home theater system and with my dogs sitting on the couch with me. But this little movie about Runaways is almost enough to lure me out of my cocoon. I LOVE the Runaways. Are you planning to see it, either in the theater or on DVD? (Compare the movie girls with the real thing here.)

The MPAA Says the Movie Business Is Great. Unless Its Lousy.
The MPAA released a report about the state of the movie industry. Grosses are up. More technology is in theaters. But, of course, they never want to talk about the fact that grosses are only up because of inflation.

TV Stories

Comedy Leads the Way among 86 Pilots for Fall TV Season
It never fails. When one show succeeds, the copycats come out of the woodwork, and the networks bite. With the success of the ABC comedies this season, everyone wants to make a new 30-minute comedy. Hopefully, they won’t try to rip off Modern Family too much or focus on the things that don’t matter to viewers. (Really, do you care whether the show is a one-camera or multi-camera comedy?) Make good shows, and people will watch them.

The Mouse That Roared: Turning to the Internet to Catch a Favorite Show
I still think this is the way of the future, even though it is challenging now. For network shows, it’s easy. Pay cable, possible. Sports, nearly impossible. And the lack of easy access to sports online is why we keep the DirecTV subscription for now. Mr. Pop Culture Curmudgeon will not go without his sports.

Random Stuff

Exclusive: Co Co a-Go-Go: Conan Tour Starts April 12!
The rumored Conan O’Brien tour is a go. And it is starting in my old place of residence, Eugene, OR. That is weird to me. Are you gonna go see Conan live?

BTW, only two weeks until a new episode of Supernatural.

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Movie Theaters Are the Newest Addition to the Endangered Species List

Nikki Finke is reporting that studios want to bypass movie theaters and go direct to consumer with first-run movies.

Do you still go to the theater? Would you if you could watch movies at home on their initial release?

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Comedy Movies Are Too Long

I am tired of comedy movies that clock in longer than 2 hours.

(Cue old codger voice.) I remember when a comedy was 90 minutes and a drama was 2 hours. Occasionally, dramas were longer, but 2 hours was the norm. (Old codger voice ends.)

The Judd Apatow movies started the trend, but other comedies seem to have jumped on the bloated runtime bandwagon.

Directors, you don’t have to give every one of your friends a character in every movie.

Knocked Up would have been so much better without the roommates. I love Jason Segel and Jonah Hill as much as the next girl, but the pinkeye scene was useless. The beard bet, also useless. The weird “I’m sad that you’re too old to get into the bar” rant, beyond useless.

Dodgeball would have been tighter without the “Ben Stiller’s character used to be fat” diversions. It was a good bit of backstory, and it’s initial use in the film was important to developing the character. But the fat suit crap at the end? Not needed.

Perhaps these writers and directors need to learn a little something from novelists: You don’t need to include every bit of backstory in the pages. Write the backstory and use it to guide your character’s decisions. But don’t bog your story down with unneeded diversions from the mail plot or the important subplots.

Learn to edit and tighten to make your piece stronger as a whole. Let viewers see the deleted scenes as separate entities on the DVD. The different versions of the “You know how I know you’re gay” bit from The 40-Year Old Virgin? Priceless as added features. Speaking of 40-Year-Old Virgin, though, never cut scenes involving Jane Lynch. She is comedy gold.

Your turn to weigh in. Do you think movies have gotten to be bloated, self-indulgent crapfests? Or, do you like the added characters and subplots in your comedies?

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Movies That Stand the Test of Time

I was watching Empire Records over the weekend, and even though it is so steeped in the mid-90s alterna-culture, I think it still stands up. The funny lines are still funny, and the underdog story is fun.

Many comedies don’t work after a few years have passed, because their jokes are based on current events and ideas. There are some great movies, of course, such as anything by John Hughes or Cameron Crowe. However, there is one relatively unknown 80s movie that is funny even more than 20 years later: Secret Admirer. If you can find a copy of it to rent or buy, go for it. It is like a classic French farce, with a set of unsigned love letters that each reader thinks is written to him or her.

What movies stand the test of time for you?

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Will Philip Jose Farmer’s Dayworld Series Be Adapted for the Big or Small Screen?

I watched the 2003 adaptation of the Riverworld series on SyFy over the weekend, and all it made me wonder is why they haven’t yet made Dayworld into a movie or TV show. SyFy is releasing a new adaptation of Riverworld next year, so I think it is time for some of Philip Jose Farmer’s other works to be adapted.

I tried to read the Riverworld series while I was in high school, but I never found it as compelling as Dayworld, Dayworld Rebel, and Dayworld Breakup.

The trilogy focuses on a future in which over-population has driven the government to restrict all people to live only one day per week. The rest of the time, they are in coldsleep. They share homes with families who live in the other six days of the week, but all people live completely separate lives.

A group of Daybreakers resist the law and live more than one day per week, keeping separate families, jobs, and social lives on each day.

The series explores the role of government in our personal lives, the problems of over-population, and the inner workings of resistance movements as one of the Daybreakers runs afoul of both the government and the anti-government movement he is a part of.

I think this could make a good miniseries or even a feature film. I don’t remember how dense the books are, so I can’t say whether it should be condensed into one film or done as a series a la Lord of the Rings. But I know it could be good. Done right, it could even be a cable series.

What books would you like to see adapted?

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Will They Ever Make a Feature Film about Mia Zapata and The Gits?

I was in the mood for a little angry music last night while I was driving home from the old day job, so I pulled up my favorite song by The Gits, “Spear and Magic Helmet.” In the song, Mia Zapata sings about getting revenge on a man who raped a friend. (Here’s a link to the lyrics and a link to Evil Stig’s rendition of the song.)

Sexual abuse was a common theme in women’s punk music at the time, so this song wasn’t unusual, except that less than two years after the single was released, Mia Zapata was raped and left to die on the streets of Seattle. The punk community banded together to keep the investigation into her murder alive as long as they could. Many Seattle Bands released benefit albums and played shows to raise money for the cause. One of the highest profile benefits was Evil Stig (Gits Live backwards), made up of the surviving members of The Gits and Joan Jett. They released an album of Gits songs and toured to raise money to fund the investigation.

Zapata was murdered in 1993, but they didn’t find the murderer until 2002. A DNA sample taken from a man in Florida matched a saliva sample taken from Zapata’s skin.

I remember listening to an interview with the policemen who tracked the man down. They had been working the cold case files, looking for the killer for quite a while. They were so excited when they found the DNA match. One of the policemen looked at his luggage in the airport, and noticed that the tag said MIA, the abbreviation for the Miami airport. He got a feeling that Zapata was telling him they were on the right track. (Listen to the full story here.)

Zapata’s friends formed an organization called Home Alive, which provides self-defense education and promotes safety for all people, regardless of sex or race.

I wish I could say that I had been a fan of Zapata’s before her death, but it wasnt until 7 Year Bitch released Viva Zapata and a friend clued me in to Evil Stig that I heard of her. I would love to see more people exposed to Zapata’s infectious enthusiasm and The Gits’ great music.

I hope that The Runaways movie, starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, will be successful and raise awareness of female punk musicians. If it is a money-maker, other filmmakers will try to replicate that success and I hope come across the story of this amazing vocalist and compelling stage presence.

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Land of the Lost Is Ruining My Childhood Memories

I never thought Land of the Lost was a work of cinematic genius. It was cheesy and silly, but it was one of my favorite shows when I was a little girl.

I was excited when I heard they were doing a movie. Scared when I heard it was a Will Ferrell vehicle. Appalled when I saw the trailer.

Apparently, audiences who sat through early screenings are on the same wavelength. This post from the LA Times blog predicts a dismal opening.

What do you think? Does LotL look fun to you? Or do you think they have messed with one too many childhood treasures, and they must be stopped?

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Are You a Reader or a Watcher?

I like to read. I learned to read at a very young age, and I spent much of my childhood lost in a world of books.

When I went to college, I had to read for school. I felt guilty if I read a book for fun during the term. That typically meant that I read three or four books over spring break. It also meant that I watched TV as a break from schoolwork. I watched a lot of TV. During those years, I shifted from being a reader to a watcher. I could read the classics, or I could watch the BBC production or the newest movie adaptation. I chose the latter.

I read less and less after college, focusing mainly on magazines as my written material of choice. Part of the issue was my day job: I was an editor on academic journals and a trade magazine. I did a lot of reading on the job, so it was really hard to get any energy to read anything during my off time.

I think I was lucky to read one book a year for quite a few years in a row.

Thankfully, a friend of mine changed that when she got me to read Twilight. It’s not the best written book out there, but I love vampires and teen angst. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for Gossip Girl goes vamp. I moved on to the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Sookie Stackhouse books. Reawakening my love of reading also reawakened my dream of being a writer. Hence the birth of this blog, which helps satisfy my writing bug and my ridiculous celebrity obsession.

I want to know your story. Do you prefer to get your classics served up by a Hollywood director or in their original black and white format? Do you spend your time reading or vegging? Me? I multitask, reading or writing, watching TV or a movie, and watching the dogs all at once.

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Winners and Losers of the Award Season So Far

I’m still shaking my head at Mickey Rourke’s surprise win at the Golden Globes. Many commenters thought he should win, but that the HFPA would go with a safer choice. I haven’t seen The Wrestler, so I can’t really comment on his performance, but I am happy for him. His rags to riches to rags story has been compelling to follow as he made his comeback after a disastrous turn as a pro boxer.

Anyway, on to my analysis of the awards season so far.

The Winners

Cable. Mad Men remains a critical favorite, and HBO racked up impressive wins at Sunday’s Globes, with actor nods for Anna Paquin and Gabriel Byrne and an impressive showing for John Adams. In fact, the only non-cable winner in the television categories at the Globes was 30 Rock. Thank god NBC has stuck with this great comedy!
Small films. It was nice to see a return to honoring the smaller films and the risks they took. Other than The Dark Knight and Wall-E, the Globes favored a host of independent films, awarding Slumdog Millionaire the top honor.

The Losers

The people. I love small, independent films and quirky cable shows, but I know that they don’t appeal to everyone. And when the blockbusters don’t make it through the awards gauntlet, the average viewer gets turned off from the process of honoring the highest achievements in film and television.
Network television. Not all shows on cable are award-caliber masterpieces, and not all shows on network television are utter crap. But the awards shows sure make it seem that way. Friday Night Lights is an amazing show that starts its run on NBC this week, and it never gets any award love. And, Supernatural showcases a brilliant actor (Jensen Ackles), who never gets award recognition because he is on a genre show on an afterthought network. (And what happened with the People’s Choice Awards? Heroes? Really?)

I can’t wait to see how the rest of the award season progresses.

What have been your disappointments so far? Your pleasant surprises? Will you now rush to see Slumdog Millionaire?

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