News: TV Shows

     I know this is a blog dedicated to film, but a lot of people who enjoy cinema also enjoy the occasional television show, so I thought I would mention some great television shows I have been watching on DVD (which has been cutting into my movie viewing time). First off are two HBO comedies. "Eastbound and Down", starring Danny McBride as a "John Rocker-like" baseball player who had it all until he went on a racist and homophobic rant, ruining his reputation and along with diminishing skills, ended his career as a professional baseball player. This forces him to come back to his home town and live with his brother while teaching P.E. classes at the local middle school. Being a delusional self-conceited narcissist, instead of focusing on his job he focuses on winning back his now-married high school sweet heart (who also happens to teach at the middle school), and work on getting his career back in the Majors. The show is produced by Will Ferrell (who has a small part in the show) and it does have a little of that "Look at how funny I am" style that Ferrel has made a career out of, but unlike Farrell's work, after a few episodes you actually begin to sympathize with the characters despite all their flaws. It is a really good show (that just wrapped-up its second season), so if you have HBO I would definitely check it out, and if you don't have HBO, try renting it somewhere. This is one of the best current shows on television.

     The other HBO comedy is "Bored To Death". The show has a great reoccurring cast of Jason Schwartzman (the show's star), Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson. The show is a semi-autobiographical show about the life of writer Jonathan Ames (Schwartzman), who also moonlights as "a non-licensed private detective". The show's comedy style is worlds apart from "Eastbound and Down", but it incredibly funny nonetheless. The show relies on situational comedy and is much more subtle than "Eastbound and Down" and many of your typical television shows. It fits in with the type of comedy that Jason Schwartzman has been attracted to, not quite comparable to Wes Anderson's films, but calling them "distant cousins" would not be a stretch by any means. It I had to chose between the two shows, I would probably go with "Eastbound and Down" by a little bit, but both shows are more than worthy of your viewership. I am also about to start watching the HBO show "Flight of the Concords", so maybe I will let you know my verdict on that after I finish watching all the episodes.

     In the non-fiction departments, there are two shows I would like to mention as well. The first is a seven part series on TCM about the history of early Hollywood titled "Moguls and Movie Stars". Unfortunately, I found out about the show a little late, so I missed the first three episodes, but if you want to check out the last few episodes, watch new episodes at 8 p.m. on Mondays and reruns at 10 p.m. on Thursdays. The two episodes I have watched are pretty good, but it disappoints me that the series is going to stop in the 60's. I know TCM is all about classic Hollywood, but there is so much interesting history in cinema that occurs after the 1960's, so it saddens me to see the series is going to stop just as the auteurs really began to take over the filmmaking process.

     Finally, I would like to mention the real "mythbusting" by magician/comedian/libertarian duo Penn and Teller. The show is called "Bullsh*t" and airs on Showtime. The show looks at mistakenly believed "truths" that are perpetrated by scam artists and scallywags, such as new age healing and environmentalism. The show is strictly libertarian and uses and lot of swear words and nudity (somewhat randomly), so if you take offense to these sort of things easily, or if you can't stand listening to rational arguments against something you believe in, you probably won't enjoy the show. The thing I love about the show is it really tries to get to the heart of the motivations behind the people pushing the scam and the people who want to believe in the scam, but there usually very careful not to overstate their arguments, pointing out in weaknesses in their arguments and clarifying what they can and can not prove. If you're interested in debates in a wide variety of issues, ranging from the political to the spiritual, I highly recommend this show.