Shiny Things
By BOP Staff
July 17, 2008
The Late Late Show
This is by no means a new show since it has been three plus years since Craig Ferguson took the Late Late reins in 2005. For me, here are a few points of disclosure: late night talk shows rarely hold my attention the entire hour and Craig Ferguson was nothing more than a supporting player on one of the countless sitcoms given to comedians in the 1990s.
I recently just stumbled upon it when a recorded show ended and the Late Late Show happened to be on. Ferguson's version is the polar opposite to Tom Snyder's earlier incarnation, which always felt like a hybrid of Larry King and Inside the Actor's Studio. With Ferguson at the helm, the show can best be described as an irreverently informal embodiment of ADD TV.
He often veers off topic during the monologue and infrequently returns to his original train of thought. This enlivens the tired pacing of most talk show monologues that follow the pattern of "segue," "set up," "punchline," and "segue again." Whether it's accurate or not, Ferguson's approach and delivery of non sequiturs feels more improvisational and less like a cue card reading session. If it is in fact very calculated and completely scripted, he pulls it off. This could be because he is more akin to an actor than most talk show hosts, who have stand-up backgrounds, excluding the always brilliant Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert,
Along with the more interesting and manic monologues, which are more random and don't mine the usual headlines, the other talk show staple of the guest interview seems revitalized. His interviews appear more conversational and less rehearsed with topics going off on tangents as expected if you watch his monologue. His frequent asides to the camera help keep the audience interested in even the most uninteresting guest, e.g. Richard Lewis. As a result, the guests are more personable and at ease. As evidenced during a recent interview with John Cusack, who was promoting War, Inc., Ferguson can hold an intelligent and thoughtful interview when the topic requires it.
One more final note before you undoubtedly rush off to set your timer to catch tonight's episode: Many laughs result from his physical humor and facial expressions, so it can't truly be appreciated if it is used for background noise. Now you can go enjoy the self-deprecating attitude of a brash but very funny Scotsman. (Daron Aldridge/BOP)
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Dinner Impossible
So, there I was, laid up in the hospital after abdominal surgery. The thieving surgeon had stolen several inches of my colon (yes, "Ouch!") and left me helpless, weak and violated. I had little to entertain me, as I was even separated from my beloved TiVos during this extended hospital stay. Forced to watch (*gulp*) live television, I found myself open to new ideas...as long as they did not involve changing the channel too much. Working the remote was too much of an aggravation for a person in my physical condition at the time. So, I wound up watching the same channel almost exclusively during my hospital stay. That channel was The Food Network and the program that won my heart during this period was Dinner: Impossible.
For those of you unfamiliar with this program (and judging by its ratings, that's most of you), Dinner: Impossible's premise is simple. A jarhead-looking chef named Robert Irvine is given seemingly impossible meal preparation tasks and given a short time frame in which to accomplish said goals. The muscle-bound cook has performed such culinary feats as feeding 60 patrons in Santa Fe while being disallowed from using electricity, making roughly a dozen international meals for over 100 homesick circus performers, and serving a five-course meal entirely flavored by beer (it's Norm Peterson's dream come to life) to hundreds of employees of Anheuser-Busch. What makes all of these situations so remarkable is that Irvine generally has eight hours or less to cook the same sort of catered events that generally require weeks of preparation from a staff of dozens. Instead, he is given only a handful of assistants, and not all of these people are even trained professionals. He once had to train a Calista Flockhart-waisted model how to make a dessert. The irony of this never fails to amuse me.
What makes Dinner: Impossible worth watching is that it is the rare type of show that tries to do something nice for the people involved. A couple of my favorite examples are disparate in tone, but they each drive home this point. Seeking to celebrate the collective works of Pixar, Irvine was dispatched to their island fortress in order to make a meal fit for the creator of Ratatouille, Brad Bird. His aides during this episode included one of the producers of the movie as well as Lou Romano, the voice of Linguini. The food he delivered was every bit as satisfying as the film it attempted to mirror. But that episode, as good as it is for movie fans, fails to compare to the moving experience when the Dinner: Impossible team went to hurricane-destroyed Biloxi, Mississippi and attempted to raise the spirits of the destitute. Not only did Irvine's team provide a meal fit for a king to hundreds of demoralized citizens, but Food Network also fully furnished a home for a woman whose prior residence had been destroyed by Katrina. The show provided exactly the sort of positivity that is rare on reality television.
If you start watching the show in coming weeks, there may be a change in hosts. Chef Irvine did not have his contract renewed with the Food Network due to irregularities on his resume that embellished some of his culinary accomplishments. This is a particularly troublesome issue for the cable channel given that one of their finalists in last year's The Next Food Network Star program had lied about his military service record. Irvine's situation is not quite as cut and dried, however, as he performed in the cooking events in question. The debate involved how much of a key cog he was in the various meal presentations. As such, his fate is not completely sealed for the upcoming season. If he is out, he will be replaced by the newest Iron Chef, Michael Symon. Independent of who the meal preparer will be, the show's format remains brilliant. Whether the diners are construction workers, baseball players, or children's spelling bee contestants, the missions are always simple but brilliant. Hundreds of hungry mouths must be fed by a chef who is provided with limited ingredients and even less time. The fact that almost all the missions are accomplished makes for a remarkable program. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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Mad Men
"What would Don Draper do?" That's not just a t-shirt you can find on Café Press, but also something I often ask myself while on the job. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is an ad man. He sells the American Dream for a living, but he's not quite living it. Sure, he's got the trophy wife (January Jones) in the suburbs and the corner office at Sterling Cooper. But that's not exactly who Don Draper is. In fact, his name isn't even Don Draper. So who is this guy who's equally masterful at selling a campaign to his clients as he is selling a lie to his wife? That mystery is only half the fun of the show.
Mad Men is about the pioneers of modern advertising. It's like Deadwood set in a 1950's New York ad agency. It transports the viewer to a time in American history that barely seems possible. Consider a gynecological exam where the physician smokes cigarettes and makes inappropriate female anatomy jokes throughout. Or Draper's young daughter playing "space man" and giggling when the dry cleaning bag over her head clings to her nose and mouth as she breathes. There's misogyny, Jewphobia, and a mini-bar and ashtray in every office.
The show has an amazing cast as well as cast of characters. There's Draper's naïve assistant Peggy (Elizabeth Moss), conniving junior account guy Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), vampy office manager Joan Holloway (Firefly's Christina Hendricks), and Draper's mentor/nemesis Roger Sterling (John Slattery). Rounding out the women in Draper's life are Midge (Rosemarie DeWitt), the beat SoHo artist he's screwing, and Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), the new client he'd like to be screwing.
But Mad Men isn't all barbaric gender roles, closeted art directors and adultery. It's also a fascinating weekly case study on an industry that swept the imaginations of Americans in the '50s and '60s. In the first episode when a big tobacco executive insists that "All cigarettes cause cancer", Draper corrects him, "No, OTHER cigarettes cause cancer. Lucky Strikes are toasted."
So, what would Don Draper do? The answer is simple. Kick all kinds of ass.
The first season of Mad Men is available on DVD and the second season premieres on AMC July 27 at 10 p.m. (James Wood/BOP)
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Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
If you've never heard of the Sigur Rós, you're not alone. The inexplicable indy rock popularity of an Icelandic band that plays highly orchestral, soaring, gibberish-filled ambient noise rock can't fully be explained. Unless you listen to the joyful, soaring, infectious second track on their new album, Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust.
Translated as "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly", Með Suð... is the fifth full studio album from the Sigur Rós and it is a monster. The aforementioned second track, "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur" ("within me a lunatic sings") is unlike anything the Sigur Rós have ever done and yet totally representative of the band.
"Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur" is an amazing, uplifting, anthemic song that broke my thesaurus as I looked for positive things to say about it. I have listened to it several dozen times and it rivals any stadium-lifting anthem from U2 or Arcade Fire. If nothing else, head over to iTunes and buy just that track. BOP gives you a money-back guarantee that you will enjoy it.* Don't let the fact that you won't be able to understand a word of it scare you off. Shut your eyes, turn it up as loud as you possibly can and bury yourself in the awesome.
With their previous album, Takk..., the Sigur Rós began a segue from the more sedate, meditative orchestral beauty that made up their previous albums and started to...rock. While the whole of Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust doesn't rock in quite the way that "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur" does, the first song (and single) "Gobbledigook" comes close. Listening to those two songs, you can't help but wish that the full album had gone down the rock rabbit-hole...but then you keep listening. And you're reminded that the Sigur Rós are the best highly orchestral, soaring, gibberish filled ambient noise rock band out there.
And I can't wait for their next album.
*Note: money-back guarantee will come in the form of future free content from BOP. (Les Winan/BOP)
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Burn Notice
Spies are awesome. If the James Bond and Jason Bourne movies have proven nothing else, we know that statement to be an undisputable fact. These are guys who can do practically anything and improvise with a moment's notice. They're this short of being superheroes, with men living vicariously through their adventures and women oohing and aahing at their incredible manliness. Or vice versa.
With the arrival of Burn Notice on the USA Network, we now have a new spy to add to the Best Ever argument. Michael Westen, as portrayed by Jeffrey Donovan, is exquisitely talented at his craft. Everything falls apart for him, though, when he is involved in a Nigerian operation that is blown apart unexpectedly and for no reason. Michael winds up in his hometown of Miami, and realizes that some higher up in the agency has "burned" him. What does this mean? It means that said agency is doing all it can to dismiss and discredit him as unreliable and rogue, and the process involves them freezing all of Michael's personal assets, keeping him under surveillance and preventing him from being able to contact any of his former intelligence allies (or foes, for that matter). This might have been expected had Michael actually done something wrong, but he knows he was excellent at his job and that his burn notice is a result of something much more nefarious. He becomes consumed with finding out who burned him and why, and in order to do so, he freelances on a variety of jobs to make some extra cash to fund his activities.
Michael is not without allies in Miami, though. His ex-girlfriend, Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) is a former operative of the IRA and handy with guns, explosives and covert ops. His mother, Madeline, lives in town as well, and while she's not particularly useful in helping Michael to find out what went wrong, she does help him find some clients now and then. She can occasionally prove to be Michael's weakness, too, as despite the fact that they haven't had a lot of contact in recent years, she's still his mama and he'll bend over backward to help her. Finally, there's Sam Axe, portrayed by BOP fave Bruce Campbell. Sam is a sort of retired intelligence operative and former Navy SEAL. Sam doesn't have much cash of his own, so he seeks out the company of rich Miami ladies to support him until such time as they get sick of him. He's Michael's only tenuous connection to his former world.
The show is presented in a first person narrative fashion, with the story unfolding from Michael's point of view. Throughout each episode, he provides little nuggets of advice on how to most effectively do spy things, which feels educational and is also pretty damned funny. Donovan is perfect for the role - he's brilliant and smug, but as we get to know him more, we see that he has a kind heart and genuinely wants to do the right thing. Also, as a friend of mine said, clothes love him. The man defines suave. Some people occasionally express frustration with Anwar's constantly changing accent, but that's sort of explained in the first episode as we learn that Fiona is constantly experimenting in that area and can't quite decide how she wants her Miami persona to sound. Once you get past that, she's a fascinating character in that she is tough as nails but totally vulnerable when it comes to Michael, for whom she clearly still carries a torch. And naturally we're going to love Campbell's Sam. His snarky sense of humor and delivery work well for the character and he's obviously enjoying the role a lot.
For those who have missed the show, now is the perfect time to catch up. Its first season was recently released on DVD, so it's a perfect time to rent or buy. The second season started airing on July 10th, so once you've finished season one, you can get all caught up by watching the episodes streaming at the USA Network. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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