This week's episode was
great! It really was a perfect Entourage episode, both hilarious and with a lot of action relevant to the plot. Ari had to face the decision about taking the studio head offer, and had several characters influencing that decision. Lloyd has some great extended dialogue with Ari that was funny enough that it didn't get sappy/cheesy. And that plot encountered two twists that were both great...first with Ari discovering that Amanda would be the one getting the studio head job if he turned it down, effectively locking Vince out of Smokejumpers, and then later with Ari pulling a fast one by getting Dana chosen as the new studio head instead. It was satisfying seeing Amanda getting pissed after she had screwed the guys over a few times, and even better to see Dana showing Ari some genuine gratitude - a huge contrast from their normal phone calls.
Ari thinking about things he says to Lloyd
Turtle and Drama were back to their usual ridiculous side-plot, this time with Drama refusing to believe that Turtle got a handjob from Jamie-Lynn Sigler (who Drama kept referring to only as Meadow Soprano, her character in The Sopranos) while on a plane. Ultimately he found out that it was actually true, though by that point he had become so obsessed with finding out that he had blown Turtle's chances with her by spreading the word all over.
Some choice one-liners:
"Economy class is a killer, that counts a blood clot as a friend." "And you're gonna prevent one by blowin' yourself?"
"Is it that ridiculous?" "You fucking a Martian is less ridiculous, Turtle! Put it that way."
"You throw a lot of Jew guilt for a Chinaman!"
"Has so much cum been squirted in those eyes, you can't see what's right in front of your face? Amanda Daniels takes that job, Vince is fucked and I'm fucked. Which means we're all fucked. And we're fucked in the way you like to get fucked, not fucked in the way that normal people like to get fucked!"
This was a review of Episode 62. See more reviews. And here's HBO's music credits for this episode (may not be up yet).
dave submitted the following link and description from Destructoid:
This is a video review of Saints Row 2, wherein I weigh the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different gameplay mechanics and narrative conventions in an effort to, eventually, assign a numerical score denoting the game's value.
This week's episode was
a sprint. It felt like they suddenly remembered there was a plot that they haven't been addressing, and they wrote in a whole bunch of stuff to catch up. Of course, Ari getting offered Alan's job was a pretty big twist right at the start of the episode. The second big twist came when Vince found out the fashion designer wasn't trying to get with the girl Vince liked, but rather with Vince!
E got teased by a model the whole episode, but she ended up (presumably) getting with him. But she still wanted a manager, so it's possible she'll reappear though I doubt it. Turtle and Drama got nowhere with the models despite Drama's horrible attempts, but of course at the end of the episode a bunch of models got on the plane with them and they were happy.
Vince and Ari have a chat
The picture above was from the airport hangar when Ari and Vince meet and Ari basically breaks the news that he has a choice to make. I'm sure some people liked the drama and encounter, but it felt so over-the-top and Vince's "surprise" looked so staged that the whole effect was lost for me, and it just seemed like a contrived situation, particularly with Vince shutting the window shade on Ari. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if Ari is swayed by what Vince said. Really, his character wouldn't allow him not to take the deal and be the studio head. That also works out for Vince getting Smokejumpers and for E to take over his career fully. But Ari could just as well decide not to take the job and keep things more as they are now. Plus, what would happen to Lloyd? :)
Some choice one-liners:
"I want to be under you." "Dana, I told you, my wife is in the car."
"In fact, she'd make a great number two." "Did you fuck her?" "Maybe she wouldn't."
"Laugh Laugh Daddy. There has to be a father's role in there" - Jeffrey "George Sr." Tambor!
"Pick on me all you want Turtle, but you never and shall forever never get what I have." "Herpes?" "My dick is clean, tiny man!"
This was a review of Episode 61. See more reviews. And here's HBO's music credits for this episode (may not be up yet).
The Daily Show is following a path similar to SNL, in which they build and lose talent in waves. The first major exodus happened in 2005/2006 when they lost Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Ed Helms, and Rob (and Nate) Corddry. Now it looks like in the next year or two they will lose Rob Riggle, Jason Jones, and Samantha Bee (the latter two are married).
Riggle has signed a talent holding deal, which includes a development component, with CBS and sister CBS Paramount Network TV to create and star in a half-hour laffer. Riggle said he's kicking around several ideas at the moment, one of which may touch upon his background as a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. "I've got a notebook full of ideas that I've been keeping for many years," Riggle said.
Deal comes as two of Riggle's "Daily Show" colleagues, married duo Jason Jones and Samantha Bee, are also busy developing a half-hour at CBS and its sibling studio (Daily Variety, Oct. 14).
That would leave John Oliver, Wyatt Cenac, and Aasif Mandvi as their main correspondents, and others who appear less frequently like Larry Wilmore, Lewis Black, and Demetri Martin as well. But they will definitely need to get some new correspondents, and it'll be interesting to see who they pick. The choice of correspondents has a big impact on the overall feel of the show.
Variety has a story about a new show starting on CNN which is essentially their version of The Daily Show from Comedy Central. It does not have a name yet, but D.L. Hughley is hosting it and it'll be on Saturday's at 10pm ET (conveniently a half-hour before SNL airs).
The comments from CNN and D.L. are rather odd though, because both try to make a distinction between this new show and The Daily Show even though there doesn't appear to be any besides who the host is. The purpose seems to be the same, and the paragraph with D.L.'s comments seems contradictory.
"D.L. is a very thoughtful, well-informed guy with unpredictable views, and I've always admired his comedy," said CNN/U.S. prexy Jon Klein. "The basic premise of the show is, what if a guy like him was let loose in the CNN building for a weekend after the lights went off?" Klein said CNN could not release the name of the show yet. Veteran producer Mitch Semel will be the exec producer and showrunner.
While Comedy Central has two dominant players in the news-laffer genre - "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" - Klein said the new CNN skein will be different. "Daily" and "Colbert" are "fake newscasts, whereas this is really D.L.'s observations and comments on the week's events and his riffs on the news," Klein said.
"I'm a big fan of both of those shows," Hughley said, "but I've got a different skill set. I'm not going to parody a news show or a news anchor. My show will reflect my views on things just as their shows reflect their views."
For instance, as Hughley continued, "There have been six movies with a black man as the president, and in all those movies, the world was coming to an end. If this election isn’t art imitating life, I don’t know what is."
The question for CNN is whether younger auds will find the show.
On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart does exactly that...his views on the news. This will essentially be "The Daily Show with D.L. Hughley" despite the claims that it won't be. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see how it does and if it does manage to be innovative in any areas (I am a fan of D.L.). And at least with it's time slot and frequency, it's not really competing with or stealing the audience of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.
This week's episode was
not great. I was mostly unhappy with the number of cheesy moments they threw in. There were several in the Dom storyline with E repeatedly getting embarrassed about being wrong about Dom, and in Vince's speech about Dom. The whole plot was unrelated to everything and felt completely unnecessary.
Then there were more cheesy moments in the Turtle and Drama plot, with Drama taking Turtle on as an assistant, treating him like crap, and then giving him a speech about how great he is and that they're family. And Drama turned down the girl in the trailer? After she said she was his biggest fan? No way.
A game of golf...is that something you might be interested in?
Then, E is suddenly avoiding his managing duties? What was he doing? Why did he leave the negotiations about Charlie and let Vince make the deal? I like how Amy Miller had to say "I get it" to make it obvious Charlie had made a joke...the writers couldn't just have her laugh and let us figure out a joke was made?
Finally, Ari's golf game. Ari's plan was to hustle Alan. But Alan had Phil Mickelson coaching him, and was hustling Ari. That was pretty amusing. Bob Ryan was somewhat funny in trying to annoy Ari. And then Ari misses both opportunities (no way he'd have missed that badly on the first one) and you're wondering how he can possibly get out of this problem. Oh look! Alan has a heart attack! Seriously? That's the best way they could come up with to resolve the situation? By killing Alan? And Drama's line "is it?" regarding Alan's death being a bad thing seemed lame and out-of-character.
Overall I've been liking this season, but this episode had too many forced moments and too many completely unrelated-to-anything moments. Hopefully it was just an off-episode.
This was a review of Episode 60. See more reviews. And here's HBO's music credits for this episode (may not be up yet).
60 Minutes did a story on the "Shadow Market" that caused the financial meltdown we're in now, and a lot of it is really interesting and more detailed than the usual stories that have been circulating. I especially love how the CEO of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association acts like a gigantic jackass and pretends he had nothing to do with what happened.
At a time where the media in the US has been going crazy about the credit crisis and stock market, it's interesting to note that the EU looks like it may face even more difficulty as it's become more obvious that the financial situation is a global problem.
In the case of the EU, there's a single currency and it's supposed to act in the best interest of the whole market, but countries are jumping to save their respective economies and not all of them share the same problems and proposed solutions. Therefore countries have started making their own decisions and changes, and this could lead to a collapse of the system altogether:
Ireland was the first to break ranks by guaranteeing savers' money. Greece, Sweden, Austria and Denmark have all followed suit. And of course the pledge by Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to guarantee private deposit accounts has sown confusion and chaos in the markets. But just the day before Chancellor Merkel was standing in Paris with other EU leaders declaring that Europe needed to act together.
The problem with trying to coordinate a common approach is that the EU just does not have the right to legislate or act in many areas - they fall outside the EU's competence, to use a bit of euro-jargon. For example, regulation of the banking sector is handled at a national level and different countries have different problems to deal with. In Germany they do not face the kind of property crash being seen in Spain, Ireland and the UK.
But Pervenche Beres, the chairwoman of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee at the European Parliament, is dismayed to see countries putting their own national interest above a coordinated European defence of the banking system: "I think this is exactly what we shouldn't be doing. It might be helpful for a moment at the national state level but if you add it all, it will just destroy the European market. And if we destroy the little thing we have, I think it will be a disaster."
But in the face of this kind of financial crisis the EU lacks the mechanisms for the kind of swift response that national governments can provide. The architecture of the EU is too cumbersome. Typically the Commission may propose a measure. Ministers and - increasingly - the parliament consider it, perhaps over a number of weeks. Then there is a vote, and then agreement at heads of government level. It can take years to pass a single piece of legislation - hardly a recipe for the kind of decisive action that is needed in a situation that seems to change by the hour.
Besides which the managing of economic policy is one area that nation states jealously guard. This would move the EU on to very tricky ground. That is not to say a common approach will not emerge. For example, as more EU countries announce guarantees for savers, pressure builds on those countries that are holding back.
That's quite a tricky scenario to deal with, and it's interesting that there isn't much discussion about it going on in the US media. I'm guessing with the pace things are going it won't be long until this becomes a large issue and people start making more noise about it. It'll be interesting to see if the countries in the EU manage to get their act together in time, or even if it is a legitimate possibility that the EU would collapse.
This week's episode was
trippy. (I couldn't help it...that was too easy :) The episode was a refreshing change of pace even though not a lot happened in terms of plot. There was a lot more interesting character interaction, and there were several funny moments since Ari was with them most of the time. E not talking while on mushrooms was awesome too, not only because it was hilarious, but also because it made me realize how he usually talks so much in every scene he's in...it was really odd not having him utter a word. Also, Turtle insightfully pointed out that he has no job and no purpose...maybe they'll finally make him do something interesting again.
The whole Ari/Lloyd/Mrs. Ari thing was pretty amusing, though entirely predictable. I wonder if they'll show the conversation once Ari gets home (with Vince to back him up?).
The gang (and Arnold) crammed in Ari's Lexus
Vince says he isn't doing Benji and pushes for Smoke Jumpers, and you can tell from his comment that "something is going to change", that he'll get it somehow. However, I hope that happens soon...the plot's been moving at a snail's pace.
Finally, I found it pretty hard to believe, despite how dedicated they were to their mission, that they didn't get sidetracked by the girls going to Vegas. At the very least they could have had Turtle jump into their car from the Winnebago...he definitely would have done something like that.
This was a review of Episode 59. See more reviews. And here's HBO's music credits for this episode (may not be up yet).
"D.L. is a very thoughtful, well-informed guy with unpredictable views, and I've always admired his comedy," said CNN/U.S. prexy Jon Klein. "The basic premise of the show is, what if a guy like him was let loose in the CNN building for a weekend after the lights went off?" Klein said CNN could not release the name of the show yet. Veteran producer Mitch Semel will be the exec producer and showrunner.
