Community: Abedman.

I was just watching the end of The Dark Knight (up at 5AM watching HBO, what what) and I started giggling as I remembered Abed’s costume on Community’s Halloween episode, “Introduction to Statistics.”

Abed is one of my top 5 favorite characters on TV right now. And if Danny Pudi looks familiar to you, that’s because he was the “Butt Dialer” (aren’t we all?) in this T-Mobile spot. And on closer look, that’s Tamara Mello (Popular’s Li’l Lilly Esposito) with him.

 

Castle Tightpants.

Last night on Castle, the man himself donned a familiar-looking costume for Halloween.

Note: Around the :24 mark, a square will appear onscreen, marking another Firefly Easter egg. On the bookshelf is Serenity’s compression coil’s catalyzer, which memorably failed in the episode “Out of Gas.”

 

“Dirty Harry,” Dexter: Comparisons.

As Dexter Morgan mulled over the similarities and differences between himself and the Trinity Killer, there was another comparison made that struck us as particularly funny.

From l to r: Predator, “predator.”

 

What I’ve Been Watching: Modern Family.

One of the other new shows I’m watching is Modern Family. It focuses on three families, actually, although they’re all connected. First, there’s Jay (the glorious Ed O’Neill), his much younger wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara) and her son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez II). Then there’s Jay’s daughter Claire (Julie Bowen), her husband Phil (Ty Burrell) and their three children: Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Luke (Nolan Gould). Finally, there’s Jay’s son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his boyfriend Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who in the first episode, adopt an infant girl from Vietnam.

As the title suggests, it’s about what it means to be a family in this modern age. It’s also just really funny.

Modern Family airs Wednesday nights on ABC at the jampacked hour of 8PM CST/9PM EST. Srsly, networks–move something to Tuesday, wouldja? There’s like, 500 things I want to watch on Wednesdays and Thursdays and absolutely nothing on Tuesdays.

 

Being American: I Object!

On the heels of my last post, I find out via ONTD that there are apparently plans to make an American version of Being Human. How about no. We already have at least 2 shows on television where vampires (for one) figure in, not to mention the other shows that deal with vampires and other supernaturals. Bad idea jeans all around.

Here’s my favorite scene from season one, btw–it’s definitely a spoiler, as you will find out how Annie died.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have Gilbert fun.

 

What I’ve Been Watching

As Tanis mentioned, she and Jess are in Europe and I’ve reacted much like a child left alone while her parents go away for the weekend–I haven’t done any of my chores. We are likely not doing the fall preview this year, but I thought I’d mention what I’m watching this season.

First of all, Tanis hates The Vampire Diaries while I love every soapy drop. It makes a fun lead-in to Supernatural, which has been on point this season, by the way. Watching both of them mock a certain inexplicable cultural phenomenon is hilarious.

 

Ausiello, you are terrible!

Greetings readers! Jess and I are writing you from Transylvania. No joke! We are on a five-week tour of Europe and we have found ourselves in Brasov, near the Carpathian mountains. We love it here! It’s snowing and the mountains are gorgeous. The vampires are, sadly, few and far between. Luckily, my rage concerning vampire shows is plentiful. Also, even in Europe, I wish Ausiello would shut up.

Read on for my dismissal of his spoilers about the Vampire Diaries, a show so awful I am loathe to write about it here at all, lest giving it attention grow its already decidedly annoying fanbase. But there’s nothing that can be done.

 

Glee: This is a throwdown…

It’s not exactly a secret that we think Glee is awesome. Despite its more stupid moments (Finn believes Quinn’s ridiculous lie about becoming pregnant after he, um, hits a high E in a hot tub/Mr. Shu doesn’t become suspicious about his wife’s non pregnancy/Emma accept’s Ken’s lacklustre proposal with a lacklustre yes/Shu’s wife blackmails her obstetrician into faking an ultrasound), the show provides America with what it wants: Attractive young people singing songs made famous by others.

And we like that, too. BUT. There are some serious issues with this show’s decision to showcase bland over black. We’re not saying there isn’t bland soul music, but dayum, the songs the kids want to sing that get them in trouble are almost always songs that are powerful and soulful and sexy. The songs the adults pick for them to perform are universally treacly power-pop ballads that don’t even have the decency to be so bad they’re good! Wither the Journey, yo?

Last night’s episode, Throwdown, made a point of showcasing the fact that almost half of the glee club’s participants are minorities. In particular, Mercedes asks to sing something a little more… black and Mike mentions that he is an excellent pop and locker. Shu ignores them in favour of having bland white bread singers Rachel, Finn and Quinn trade off on the lead vocals. So Sue devises a plot to split the glee club up, then picks all the minorities (including Santana, Wheels, gay kid, Asian, other Asian, Aretha and Shaft) for her team, then allows them to perform Hate On Me, which they nail because Mercedes clearly has the best voice of all of them and damn, Asian kid can really pop and lock.

Shu has all his leftover white kids sing some very bland song that we cannot even be bothered to learn the name of. We’re sure all the kids are making it their ring tone, but it was boring. And when the newly split Glee kids get together for an impromptu jam session, they choose to sing Nelly’s Ride With Me. And again, it’s awesome.

But in the end, when Will eventually learns his lesson and tells the kids that they are all minorities because they are in the Glee club, they celebrate by having Rachel and Finn sing some snoozefest of a song about togetherness or specialness or something. With the possible exception of the OTHER white-bread song, this was the whitest song that ever whited.

Of course, this episode actually had nothing to do with race or minorities or even music. It was about Jane Lynch being awesome. We lost count of our favourite moments with her because she just had so many, but Gosh, here are s few of the best moments as we see them:

Sue’s TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE use of the phrase “chink in the armour” after Quinn tells her the minorities don’t feel they’re being heard, Finn’s revelation of the best baby name ever: Drizzle, any scene with Principal Higgins (especially those involving anti-embolism stockings), Kurt’s Flashdance-esque leg kicks, aaaaand last but not least, Rachel’s awesomely creepy stalker telling her that the “independent polling company in his dockers” had determined she was the hottest girl in the school.

I guess I just want to see the Glee Club perform soulful songs with all the energy and power they’re capable of instead of this WASP-y, Top 40 anti-soul. It sucks the fun out of everything. Basically, if it sounds like and American Idol winner’s song about overcoming odds and seizing the moment and rising to the top, we’re kind of not feeling it. Sorry guys, but Aretha is right. This joint needs to get more crunk.

 

Glee: In Case You Missed It.

 

Re-Animator: The Allan Gray Legend (James Dean) Ad.

This is the ad created for investment bankers Allan Gray, which imagines what James Dean would have done with his life had he not died at 24 in 1955. It took 14 months, 300 cast members, and a 150-person crew. And surprisingly, I experience only a mild sensation of Uncanny Valley (unlike the Beatles Rock Band commercial, which makes me want to claw at my own face).

I still don’t like using reanimated icons in ads, though.