Monday, September 14, 2009

My Summer Book Report

At the tail end of June I outlined my plan for my TV viewing. I was working some weird hours that didn't really allow for my regular movie-a-day schedule and allow me to get enough sleep to deal with an energetic and mischievous toddler.

By the time the previous and inconvenient shift started coming to a close I managed to find the two hours I initially complained about not having to watch movies and switched my movie habit for my TV show habit.

In that blog posting I likened the whole thing to a summer high school book report and promised to state my progress at the end of summer.

The Twilight Zone (Season One)

At the time I last wrote about this matter, I was almost done with the first season of The Twilight Zone. I finished that season and never went back to it. I'm going to start the second season shortly. The nice thing about this show is that they're all standalone episodes that really have no bearing on one another and very few of the first season I've seen disappointed. It's a good show all around and I look forward to introducing it to future generations.


First season rating: ****1/2

The Mighty Boosh (The Complete Series)

A couple months ago I also vowed to finish off The Mighty Boosh, a hysterical British comedy show. Sometimes surreal, often nonsensical, frequently referential but always funny, I can't recommend The Mighty Boosh enough. Lots of fun music, funny as shit characters, great make-up (even for Julian Barrat's Bryan Ferry which consists of a picture of Ferry's chin over Barratt's) and fantastic sets make The Mighty Boosh a true gem. With most any show, some episodes were better than others but none of the episodes were completely disappointing. That's the fun of being able to watch all the episodes of a TV show back to back--if one episode sucks you move onto the next one.


Series rating: ****

Star Trek: The Original Series (Season One)

For me and just about anybody else who doesn't live in their parents' basement, the words Star Trek carry a certain stigma which screams fucking geek. Before J.J. Abrams' re-did the series earlier this summer and minus a few enjoyable moments I would've agreed. On top of making what might be my favorite movie of the year, Abrams also brought to our (by our I mean my) attention how great these characters are. So much so to the point of pushing us (by us I mean me) to re-examine the original series.

Before I cracked into the Season One box set I'd been exposed to maybe a dozen out of the original 79 episodes. Most of my knowledge of the show came from pop culture references and punchlines so I was half-expecting to get bored or just think the show merely alright and put the set back up on Amazon. This didn't happen and I was completely sucked in.

Admittedly, Star Trek wasn't without its campy and/or cheesy moments (the seizure-induced faces of Charlie X, the raving fuckedupedness of The Corbomite Maneuver's finale, a mint julep-drinking Dr. McCoy in This Side of Paradise and Shore Leave in general) but the redone effects add a great deal of credibility to the series without distracting from the actually great stories and bring the series out of mom's basement. Can wait for the other two seasons.


Season rating: ****1/2

Spaced (The Complete Series)

Maybe it was all the underground or cult hype surrounding Spaced or my love of Hot Fuzz that pulled me towards the purchase of the Spaced box set but when all was said and done it wasn't all that. Don't get me wrong, I liked it. I just didn't love it. Spaced is seemingly based entirely on pop culture references and I managed to hold my own pretty damn well. My favorite references were the Pulp Fiction reference in Back or the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-based Mettle. Unfortunately, Spaced would be lost on the average non-pop culture junkie but Hulu's got it for free right now so you wouldn't be wasting more than some spare time. Spaced isn't a bad series, it's just not great. Or as great as I was lead to believe.

Series highlights: Beginnings, Back, Mettle

Series rating: ***1/2

The State (The Complete Series)

Every so often I'll get excited about something I haven't seen in forever getting released on DVD. The hype and excitement will ferment slowly until the release date at which point the lid comes off the whole damn thing and 9 times out of 10 you'll get a vat of farty-smelling disappointment.

About 5 years ago the Spider-Man 67 collection was announced to come out on DVD. You remember the one, don't you? Catchiest theme song ever. Watercolor backgrounds that Spider-Man somehow managed to make his webs stick to. Ridiculous sound effects and webs being fashioned into anything from water skis to working pad locks. I hadn't seen the show in a good 15 years before I bought that box set at 8:09 AM at my neighborhood Target. And I'll tell you that show fucking sucked. I'm sure by 1967 standards it was awesome and before the character aged and was developed from a character standpoint over nearly 40 years between '67 and 2004 the '67 Spider-Man series it was a blast. But I'm just going to say that show didn't age well.

But back on Earth I was both anticipating the DVD release of The State and dreading it. I looked forward to such characters as Barry and Levon, Louie and Old-Fashioned Guy. I was also apprehensive out of fear of revisiting that unforgettable and uncomfortable disappointment which Spidey delivered half a decade before.

But that 9 out of 10 times with the stinky letdown I mentioned before? The State was that non-pungent remaining percentile.

The State was every bit as funny as I remember it. Anyone who's seen any of the offshoot shows that came from The State will tell you the show and its players have aged but seeing The State again proves said aging didn't go badly. My only complaints on this series were that by the time the fourth season rolls around you can tell the cast was ready to make what would be the ill-fated move to network TV. They're kind of just waiting for it to end and they kind of make you feel that way too. My other compaint is that for copyright infringement reasons none of the original music was used. The set actually comes with a note explaining the reasons. The replacement music does the job even if the picture quality looks like it was transferred over from someone's VHS collection they got off Ebay.

Series highlights: Pick one but you're better off sticking with seasons 1 and 2

Series rating: ****

The Venture Brothers (Season Three)

At the time I wrote the reading list, I was either halfway through the 3rd season of The Venture Brothers or hadn't started it yet. The 3rd season was a little bit of a dropoff though still riotously funny. The creators seemed to get into offshoot one-shot stories involving secondary characters and if I remember correctly a couple episodes didn't even feature the Ventures.

This was also the first season of The Venture Brothers where I didn't have the option to go on to the next episode. Upon the release of season 3 of the show everything was out on DVD and when I got to the end of this season I was all caught up. As a result, the cliffhanger at the end of the season stung a bit but that's what next season is for.


Season rating: ***1/2
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