He Knew All The Words

Archive for the ‘television’ tag

Glee tackles bullying. And teenage dreams.

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I’m going to write a longer entry about bullying, about the It Gets Better campaign, and about my complicated reaction to tonight’s episode of Glee. But for now I’ll just say two quick thoughts (and yeah, #1′s a big spoiler):

1. The bully is gay? The bully. Is gay. ????? Would you please give me a fucking break.
2. Darren Criss is ridiculously cute, and this rendition of what’s-her-name’s stoopid song is soooooo much better than the original! Here it is:

Heart melts.

Written by David Zaza

November 10th, 2010 at 2:10 am

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Elizabeth, Zac, and Don

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Thursday night I had the pleasure of going to The Museum of the City of New York for the premiere screening of The Bungalows of Rockaway, a new documentary produced by my friend Elizabeth Harris. It tells the story of the development, demise, and the beginnings of renewal of beachside bungalows on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens. It was a fascinating look into a bit of New York history that I knew nothing about. It’s easy to think of New York’s history as an American tale of the development of a huge international metropolis — but this film reminds us that a big part of our history is about working people, affordable housing, ocean & beach access, and redevelopment projects that can permanently alter the character of neighborhoods, often for the worse. It’s a terrific nugget of information and charm. It is planned to be broadcast on New York’s Channel 13 PBS station in September. Some out of town cable systems may carry that channel, so check your local listings or the film’s website for more information.

After that nice intellectual pursuit on Thursday, Friday night was all about pop culture, in the form of the 21st century’s first matinee idol: Zac Efron. Pity such a good looking young man is stuck in the trashy piece of moviemaking that is Charlie St. Cloud. Efron actually does a good job, or at least as best he can given how god-awful the script is. But you know, the cinematography is gorgeous, and he’s gorgeous, so it’s not an unpleasant way to spend 100 minutes unwinding after a hard week. However, this movie is a good example of how hard it is to adapt a novel to film. I can imagine the otherworldly themes of this story could work well in a novel, but it becomes a joke on the screen no matter how beautiful the scenery or the actors. So if you haven’t gone yet, or if you aren’t having a bad week, this isn’t really one to add to your scheduled movie-going or your Netflix queue. It’s pretty weak. If you’ve seen the preview and cringed, well, you were right. To get a much better taste of Efron’s acting talents, check out the little-seen Me and Orson Welles, a small period piece about Welles’ theater troupe, which was directed by Richard Linklater and which comes out on DVD next month. Preview here, Netflix link here.

In other news, this week’s episode of Mad Men sucked. [WARNING: Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't watched it yet you should skip this.] I’m tired of Don Draper being a fuck-up. How long do we have to settle for this redefining of his character? Yeah, I get it: He’s a big fat liar who must be punished. He’s unhappy. Until he’s true to himself he can’t be true to those around him nor succeed in his work. What’s new? That’s been the theme throughout all three previous seasons. Except before the focus of the show was on the advertising, Don’s brilliant ideas, and the interaction of the personal with the business-related. Now it’s becoming just a boring soap opera. I liked this season’s premiere episode last week because it was establishing the time jump from season three, the new business landscape, and introducing new characters and situations. But this week felt like retread of a lot of that, with a ridiculous storyline about Sally of all people thrown in for good measure. One of the things that I hated about the first season of Glee that just ended, was that every time the story shifted to the adults it seemed a waste of time and utterly stupid. Please tell me we’re not going to have the opposite problem with Mad Men now making eleven-year-old Sally’s character a major plotline. Reintroducing Freddy (now sober!) was a welcome twist this week. Reintroducing the perverted little shit from down the street, Glen, was a big mistake. And once you learn that Glen is played by Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s son then you can really see this emperor is wearing no clothes. One thing I do like is the ongoing development of Peggy, who’s always been my favorite character. I mean, I’m tired of her getting the short end of the stick, and I don’t like her new smug boyfriend, but it’s all interesting and her character’s rich for further development. So let’s hope that keeps up. Here’s what I hope does not happen next: Given the already rocky relationship of Betty and Henry, if Don and Betty get back together I’m turning off the show permanently. Just kill Betty and Henry off in a car crash or double-suicide already and let Don rise to the occasion with the kids. Here’s what I hope does happen: I loved the return of the smarmy Lee Garner of Lucky Strike. Please please please let a future episode push him even further over the line of appropriateness with Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and then threaten to fire them — at which point I want Don to blackmail him for being gay and making them fire Sal. It’s a long shot — and totally un-PC which is why it would work and why it probably won’t happen — but I can dream can’t I? Anyway, the writers need to get back to advertising, pitches, and a bit of success. Something new, sure — but new and successful. The hook of this show has always been that despite the soap-opera level of sex, office intrigue, the smoke and the booze, and the excess v. repression themes, you really wanted to be these people, you wanted to go back in time and live in their world (or relive in that time if you were there then). The current direction of the storylines — particularly Don’s — doesn’t make me want to do that. It makes me want to change the channel.

Written by David Zaza

August 2nd, 2010 at 1:49 am

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Mad Parents

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I’ve never seen it, but I know my parents are fans of the TV show Mad Men, so I used the new Mad-Men-Yourself tool to make Mad Men versions of my folks. How’d I do? (Dad, I gave you thin lips).

[nonmobile]Mom and Dad, as characters from Mad Men

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[mobile]Mom and Dad, as characters from Mad Men

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Written by David Zaza

July 30th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

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