Worst Week is an American adaption of a British series about a guy going to visit his girlfriend's family preparatory to asking for her hand in marriage. Along the way, there's a series of contrived mishaps that put him in increasingly embarrassing situations.
There's one episode of The Brady Bunch (Season 5, Episode 18, "Two Petes in a Pod") that I use as my farce benchmark. This is the episode where Peter meets an identical looking kid at school, then puts him to work when he accidentally has two dates on the same night. The doppelgänger later backs out, and Peter has to keep both dates on opposite sides of the house, while running back and forth keeping them entertained. One date expects to be going to a costume party, so Peter's dressed up like Dracula, with a cap, and fake hair and teeth. Everything starts to fall apart when Peter forgets to take off part of his costume when going to the other side of the house.
If I'm watching any sort of show where there's any case of mistaken identity, or someone has to keep someone else occupied while pretending to be something else, or there's some giant misunderstanding, I immediately think of Dracula and try to determine if what I'm watching is better or worse than "Two Petes in a Pod".
So, back to the review. In the opening credits, there was an "Adapted for American television" credit. Becki saw this, and said "It must have been French. Or worse, Belgian". I thought about this for a second, and actually, this show would have been way better if it had been French. I don't mean of French ancestry, but actually French, like with French actors, speaking French, with English subtitles. If I went to the movies and saw something this silly and contrived (example: guy pees in a pot containing a marinating goose, thinking he's in the bathroom), but in French, I'd probably be rolling in the aisles. I would expect that out of the French. Instead, I'm just groaning.
There are other things wrong with this show besides the fact that the premise of ridiculously forced predicaments can't possibly last more than a few episodes. Example: the male lead looks like a potato. There were a couple of good things about the pilot, though. Aziz Ansari was in it, which made it a little more bearable for the 30 seconds he was on screen. In a scene in a funeral home, Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey" was on in the background, which is funny because it's so out of place.
We recorded the second episode to see if we could figure out how they could possibly extend the premise past the pilot, and see if by chance it got any better or what. It didn't.
So, anyway, this is worse than the one where Peter left his Dracula cape on.
September 29, 2008
September 3, 2008
Beautiful Naked [Large-Chested] Women Just Don't Fall Out Of The Sky, You Know...
A couple of weeks back, I made a post about backup software that posed questions and concerns that I needed addressed. I was amazed to see that within hours, there were several relevant comments, including one very in-depth comment from the maker of the software in question. These comments were completely out of nowhere, from people who don't read my blog, but just jump in whenever and wherever some Google alert tells them they're needed.
The first thing I thought of when all these comments started pouring in was a scene in Dogma, where Jay and Silent Bob are following the lead, Bethany, and yelling at her about not choosing to stay with them. "Guys like us just don't fall out of the [expletive deleted] sky, you know", says Jay. At this point, a naked black man falls from the sky. When the man lands with a thud on the road in front of them, Jay is quite taken aback. But, he pauses only a couple of beats before looking up at the sky and yelling, "Beautiful naked [large-chested] women just don't fall out of the sky, you know!"
The second thing I thought of was that one time, when Scott made the post about chicken fingers, and then the guy from Raising Cane's got in touch with him and gave him a gift card. That was awesome.
Well, it turns out that I'm going to Vegas in a couple of weeks. They have Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers there, so I'm finally going to get to try the goodness that is Raising Cane's for myself. I thought it must have been cool for Scott to get a gift card, and wished I had a gift card for myself, so that I could either eat in greater quantities, or perhaps obtain more food for others in my party to try for themselves. Then, I thought, "If it worked for Scott, maybe it can work for me, too". So, I decided I would post here to see If I can perhaps show up on the Raising Cane's radar with equally positive results.
This is part experiment and part shameless begging on my part, but I figure if there's someone out there actually looking for blog postings about Raising Cane's, they might see my post and see fit to bestow a little bit of free chicken fingers on me. So I'm purposefully trying to shake that dude out of wherever on the internet he/she lives with this Google-bait so I can state my case for free chicken fingers. So, how about it, Mr. Raising Cane blogger searching guy? I've heard such good things about your establishment. I'm already committed to trying it for myself, but would love the opportunity to also treat my wife and mother-in-law to your fine chicken fingers. I promise that if you give me anything at all, I will come back from my trip and post glowing reviews of your establishment and your food items here on my blog where all 4 of my readers will see them. Hey, I may not have many readers, but every single one of my readers has considerable influence in their household.
If this possibly works with Raising Cane's it wouldn't hurt to try with the other places I plan to eat in Vegas as well. Cafe Rio, your salmon tacos and tortilla soup are wonderful, and my wife loves your barbacoa pork salad with salsa instead of dressing and no cilantro. We don't get to eat at Cafe Rio where we live, but would like to in Vegas. Can you help?
Togoshi Ramen, we will definitely be visiting you if you are not closed for health code violations. If you are not too busy trying to stay open in the face of whatever vermin infestation you are battling, can you spare some ramen or even just some gyoza to throw our way?
I'd also really want to go to one of the good buffets, like Paris or Bellagio. I'd especially like to try the Wynn Buffet, because I haven't been to that one yet. Casinos, do you have some way that someone like me can enjoy a free buffet? You do? So, let me get this straight: You will provide me free things as long as I stay there and gamble a lot at your games of chance? Hmmm... Intriguing... Just out of curiosity, do you perhaps have some way that doesn't involve me losing a lot of money?
The first thing I thought of when all these comments started pouring in was a scene in Dogma, where Jay and Silent Bob are following the lead, Bethany, and yelling at her about not choosing to stay with them. "Guys like us just don't fall out of the [expletive deleted] sky, you know", says Jay. At this point, a naked black man falls from the sky. When the man lands with a thud on the road in front of them, Jay is quite taken aback. But, he pauses only a couple of beats before looking up at the sky and yelling, "Beautiful naked [large-chested] women just don't fall out of the sky, you know!"
The second thing I thought of was that one time, when Scott made the post about chicken fingers, and then the guy from Raising Cane's got in touch with him and gave him a gift card. That was awesome.
Well, it turns out that I'm going to Vegas in a couple of weeks. They have Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers there, so I'm finally going to get to try the goodness that is Raising Cane's for myself. I thought it must have been cool for Scott to get a gift card, and wished I had a gift card for myself, so that I could either eat in greater quantities, or perhaps obtain more food for others in my party to try for themselves. Then, I thought, "If it worked for Scott, maybe it can work for me, too". So, I decided I would post here to see If I can perhaps show up on the Raising Cane's radar with equally positive results.
This is part experiment and part shameless begging on my part, but I figure if there's someone out there actually looking for blog postings about Raising Cane's, they might see my post and see fit to bestow a little bit of free chicken fingers on me. So I'm purposefully trying to shake that dude out of wherever on the internet he/she lives with this Google-bait so I can state my case for free chicken fingers. So, how about it, Mr. Raising Cane blogger searching guy? I've heard such good things about your establishment. I'm already committed to trying it for myself, but would love the opportunity to also treat my wife and mother-in-law to your fine chicken fingers. I promise that if you give me anything at all, I will come back from my trip and post glowing reviews of your establishment and your food items here on my blog where all 4 of my readers will see them. Hey, I may not have many readers, but every single one of my readers has considerable influence in their household.
If this possibly works with Raising Cane's it wouldn't hurt to try with the other places I plan to eat in Vegas as well. Cafe Rio, your salmon tacos and tortilla soup are wonderful, and my wife loves your barbacoa pork salad with salsa instead of dressing and no cilantro. We don't get to eat at Cafe Rio where we live, but would like to in Vegas. Can you help?
Togoshi Ramen, we will definitely be visiting you if you are not closed for health code violations. If you are not too busy trying to stay open in the face of whatever vermin infestation you are battling, can you spare some ramen or even just some gyoza to throw our way?
I'd also really want to go to one of the good buffets, like Paris or Bellagio. I'd especially like to try the Wynn Buffet, because I haven't been to that one yet. Casinos, do you have some way that someone like me can enjoy a free buffet? You do? So, let me get this straight: You will provide me free things as long as I stay there and gamble a lot at your games of chance? Hmmm... Intriguing... Just out of curiosity, do you perhaps have some way that doesn't involve me losing a lot of money?
September 2, 2008
Fall TV Review: 90210
The local CW affiliate has their transmitter located south west of our house, and 'A' Mountain is directly between our house and the transmitter. So, I can't get an HD feed over the air from them. DirecTV doesn't include the CW in the HD locals they provide, so I can never see anything on the CW in anything better than blurry over-compressed satellite delivered standard definition. So, anything on the CW automatically has a strike against it.
Because of some screwup with the DVR where it was trying to get the over-the-air channel that it should have known it can't get, I lost the first 45 minutes of the 2 hour premiere. I'm not sure that having those 45 minutes back would have made this any better though.
The first scene I saw had what looked like a spoiled teen shrugging off someone's attempts to protect her and taking responsibility for her own actions. I thought I was watching some pilot from Bizarro world, but luckily it didn't last.
Shortly thereafter, some people went to some rich people's birthday party where Tilly and the Wall were playing. This part was awesome. The only bit of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 that I ever watched was one time when I recorded it because The Cardigans were on. It's fitting because Tilly is likely all I will remember about this version. I was only able to enjoy Tilly for a little bit, because it was at this time that the local affiliate declared a tribute to the silent movies of yesteryear and stopped broadcasting sound.
The sound was cutting in and out for about 15 minutes, and the picture was lost a few times as well. During this time I saw Lori Loughlin, who strangely doesn't look a second older than she did on Full House. I also saw Jessica Walters apparently reprising her role as Lucille Bluth. I also saw Shannen Doherty who looks about a ton uglier than she did before somehow.
By the time the sound came back for good, they were into some sort of plot that I couldn't keep straight because I honestly can't really tell all these young good-looking people apart. Like when one girl is introduced to a guy, but looks awkward, is it because this is the guy she was just on a date with, or this is the guy that she ditched to go on the date? I don't know. The kids these days all look the same to me. Especially when I'm yelling at them to get off my lawn.
So, I didn't really follow any of this well enough to determine if it was any good, but, come on. It wasn't likely that this one was getting added to my list anyway
Because of some screwup with the DVR where it was trying to get the over-the-air channel that it should have known it can't get, I lost the first 45 minutes of the 2 hour premiere. I'm not sure that having those 45 minutes back would have made this any better though.
The first scene I saw had what looked like a spoiled teen shrugging off someone's attempts to protect her and taking responsibility for her own actions. I thought I was watching some pilot from Bizarro world, but luckily it didn't last.
Shortly thereafter, some people went to some rich people's birthday party where Tilly and the Wall were playing. This part was awesome. The only bit of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 that I ever watched was one time when I recorded it because The Cardigans were on. It's fitting because Tilly is likely all I will remember about this version. I was only able to enjoy Tilly for a little bit, because it was at this time that the local affiliate declared a tribute to the silent movies of yesteryear and stopped broadcasting sound.
The sound was cutting in and out for about 15 minutes, and the picture was lost a few times as well. During this time I saw Lori Loughlin, who strangely doesn't look a second older than she did on Full House. I also saw Jessica Walters apparently reprising her role as Lucille Bluth. I also saw Shannen Doherty who looks about a ton uglier than she did before somehow.
By the time the sound came back for good, they were into some sort of plot that I couldn't keep straight because I honestly can't really tell all these young good-looking people apart. Like when one girl is introduced to a guy, but looks awkward, is it because this is the guy she was just on a date with, or this is the guy that she ditched to go on the date? I don't know. The kids these days all look the same to me. Especially when I'm yelling at them to get off my lawn.
So, I didn't really follow any of this well enough to determine if it was any good, but, come on. It wasn't likely that this one was getting added to my list anyway
September 1, 2008
Annual Fall TV Review 2008
It's that time again, time for my annual assessment of the new fall TV season, where I sift through the crap so you don't have to.
It's starting early this year, because the CW was hell-bent on getting 90210 to start on September 2nd, as in "9/02". Thanks a lot, CW. I just barely finished the Olympics, and I was counting on taking a few weeks to catch up on other stuff. But no, you needed the gimmick of the date (because every little bit is going to help this turd, right?). So, why couldn't you get the show to start at 10 PM?
It's starting early this year, because the CW was hell-bent on getting 90210 to start on September 2nd, as in "9/02". Thanks a lot, CW. I just barely finished the Olympics, and I was counting on taking a few weeks to catch up on other stuff. But no, you needed the gimmick of the date (because every little bit is going to help this turd, right?). So, why couldn't you get the show to start at 10 PM?
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