Monday, July 09, 2007 Rant Archive
Don’t look now, but a woman is getting in the way of the band’s success yet again. Of course, as usual, she’s not a very serious girlfriend. But, of course, Flight of the Conchords is not much of a band either.
This time it’s Bret who has become smitten with Coco, his co-worker at the sign-holding job. Yes that’s Coco, which rhymes with Yoko — as in Yoko Ono, the original band-killer.
Bret and Coco are getting pretty serious, and probably would be even more smitten if it weren’t for Jemaine tagging along on all their dates. In fact, Jemaine suggests they start going to more manly places, like paintball or the strip bar, and maybe she doesn’t have to go on the dates all the time, either. But, that just drives Bret even closer to his new love.
The last straw comes when Coco goes to one of the band meetings and shows them a poster she made of the band (the first sign of the “Yoko syndrome,” according to band manager Murray, is an “arty” girlfriend). But, it ends badly as Coco walks out and Bret throws a sandwich in Jemaine’s face (I could listen to Jemaine whining “I’ve got to-mahto on me!” in that kooky New Zealand accent all day).
If MEDELLIN was a bomb, it would have at least exploded by now. Instead, it is an anchor and this show needs to set sail.
The amazing thing about ENTOURAGE is that one episode can encapsulate the entire filming of movie star Vincent Chase’s dream project, MEDELLIN. Months in the jungle, budgets blown, the director losing his grip on reality — it’s a veritable APOCALYPSE NOW for the younger set, all wrapped up in 24 minutes.
Then, a few episodes later, you will slog through those 24 minutes to get to one simple plot turn in the seasonal story arc. That’s what we had this week: one simple plot point. It is time to end this MEDELLIN plot line. The last two episodes started to gather some momentum, but this week the boys just fell flat. With shortened seasons and the freedom use whatever subject matter and language they want, the writers should not be allowed to have these “catch your breath” episodes. The direction the show was headed and the re-mingling of Ari into the central storyline was working, but now that energy is gone and has to be built up again.
With MEDELLIN getting into the Cannes Film Festival, Vince and Eric no longer need to settle for movie mogul Harvey’s offer to buy the film. Since Eric set up the deal, he has agreed to tell Harvey the bad news in person. A good deal of effort is put into building up this task by making a monster out of Harvey, played by the believable Maury Chaykin. Eventually, Harvey is told. That’s it.
“Could you pass the butter?” “No! You gave me gonorrhea!” This may the trashiest season of BIG BROTHER yet, and we’ve just started to scratch the surface.
While the producers of BIG BROTHER 8 have done away with aged contestants, they luckily kept an old casting standby: the religious devotee who has a problem with homosexuals. In the first episode, Kail proclaimed that she wouldn’t want any of her three children telling her they were choosing to lead a gay lifestyle. This week, she won the Head of Household competition and formed an alliance with the three young bucks, Mike, Nick and Zach. How crushed is she going to be when she discovers, as I did from the CBS website, that Mike’s favorite drink is Bacardi and Diet Coke? I don’t think Mike is gay, but that is certainly one gay lifestyle-friendly drink.
Kail may be a fierce entrepreneur outside of the house, but she didn’t figure out she should throw the first HOH competition. Sure, you get a cushy private room with pictures of your kids, who you haven’t seen for close to 30 hours, but then you have to get dirty and nominate two people for eviction. The three late-arriving houseguests — the dad, the ex and the rival — were safe this week, so Kail wussed out and nominated based on the first competition performances. Booo! Hisss! I expect better, more shallow reasons for nominations. It looks like I’ll have to wait for Jessica to win HOH. See, she doesn’t like girls who use curling irons on their hair. That’s the kind of logic I look for on BIG BROTHER.
When is a lie better than the truth? It doesn’t really matter if you find yourself around Diana’s (Jacqueline McKenzie) little sister, April (Natasha Gregson Wagner). After taking Promicin to soothe the sting of losing her fiancé to Diana, April finds herself with the ability to get the truth and nothing but the truth from everybody she talks to. This is another example of the power of the subconscious, which the creators of THE 4400 delve into week after week in intriguing and powerful ways.
This week’s episode deals with storylines featuring the regular and semi-regular cast — the true strength of the show, IMHO. The ongoing relationships — and how the return of the original 4400 impacts them all — is what ties this eclectic group of people together. The lines between right and wrong and good and bad seem to merge and cross over time and time again, leaving the viewer to wonder whose side they should be on. In a perfect example of just that, the new head of the National Threat Assessment Command (NTAC) is glowing over the miraculous recovery of her father, who was near death until Shawn (Patrick Flueger) used his healing ability to save him. But wait — doesn’t the government strictly prohibit the use of any 4400 ability? I guess nothing is impossible when you are the government. Well, maybe not everything is possible. I mean, poor Diana can’t seem to keep April out of trouble, no matter how hard she tries.