by Diego de los Reyes | Aug 25, 2014 | Television
The Emmys are tonight and that means it’s time for our yearly 3 hours of outrage. Like in any award show, if the one we want to wins does it, we feel validated. If it doesn’t, then the Academy sucks and it’s wrong and we don’t care about these dumb awards anyway. In any case, here are my predictions for the 10 top Emmy categories: EDIT: Updated to see which ones where right or wrong. Green is right, red is wrong. I got 5/10 correct, but if we take into accounts the ones I wanted to win and actually did (shame on me, of little faith) I got 8/10. Comedy Best Comedy Series:“The Big Bang Theory”, “Louie”, “Modern Family”, “Orange Is the New Black”, “Silicon Valley”, “Veep” Should win: Silicon Valley. Though it took a while to get any traction, the fact that it’s nominated on it first season speaks volumes. Funny, incisive, and the best dick joke you’ll ever see. Will win: Modern Family. Because the Academy is boring. Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Lena Dunham, “Girls”, Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie”, Julia Louis Dreyfus, “Veep”, Melissa McCarthy, “Mike & Molly”, Amy Poehler, “Parks & Recreation”, Taylor Schilling, “Orange Is the New Black” Should win: Amy Poehler. She deserves it. While her work on S6 of Parks and Rec wasn’t particularly outstanding, she’s been hitting it out of the park for years. Will win: Julia Louis Dreyfus. She’s amazing, of course. And deserves it. But still, Poehler! Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory”, Ricky Gervais, “Derek”, Matt LeBlanc, “Episodes”, Don Cheadle, “House of Lies”, Louis C.K.,...
by Diego de los Reyes | Aug 21, 2014 | Review, Television
The fall season of television is about to start and some networks are releasing their pilots early to generate buzz. ABC did it with Selfie, and now NBC has done it with A to Z, starring Ben Feldman and Cristin Milioti. So how’s the pilot? It’s charming, even if it at times evokes Milioti’s previous show, How I Met Your Mother. There’s a narrator, a mystery, a guy believing in destiny and love at first sight. The show tells the story of the timed relationship between Andrew and Zelda. The narrator (Katey Sagal) offers an omniscient view, saying they will date for 8 months and change, and each episode will narrate a phase in their relationship. The pilot, for example, is titled “A is for Acquaintances”. Take a guess how the title for episode 2 starts. The show leans heavily on the romance, as it should as it is its strong suit. It particularly follows well how modern dating works. Facebook, Twitter, texts, everything. Even better, you can actually see it’s Facebook and Twitter, not a fake “Facenotebook” or something shows sometime use. Sorry, it’s a pet peeve of mine. The comedy doesn’t fare well at this point, though. Both leads have the obligatory best friend, and both friends seem annoying at this point. There’s also a Back to the Future joke that’s played way to far; the joke requires the trust of the audience, and it hasn’t earned it yet. But the leads have chemistry, and with the weak crop of shows this fall, I can see myself following this show once it premieres October 2 on...
by Diego de los Reyes | Aug 21, 2014 | Television
Writing television is hard. I guess. I’ve never done it. The How I Met Your Mother finale aired on March 31, 2014, almost five months ago. I watched it on the floor lounge of my residence hall with a crapload of candy. Oh, I’m not kidding: But here’s a more accurate representation of my initial thoughts: an abridged version of my Twitter timeline that day. [View the story “HIMYM livetweet” on Storify] I’m with Todd on this one. I don’t know why people ask for “five year plans” with shows. Is it (depending on the show) that the creator know where it’s going? Yeah. Should that be set in stone? Hell no. In this case, the Thomas and Bays decided let footage shot ten years ago dictate the ending. It didn’t matter, to them, what the show might’ve become. So here’s what bothered me the most about the HIMYM finale: Knowing the ending, they did THIS?!: Okay, fine. They were set to have Robin and Ted end together, disregarding the character development of the last few seasons, and their very-real reasons for breaking up way back in Season 2 (the show’s best season). Then why write an episode explicitly about Ted letting Robin go, complete with Robin floating away like a balloon? Why let Ted struggle with that decision the whole season (and maybe even bfore then), then solve it, and then bring it back in the last 3 minutes of the entire show? Removing Robin’s agency: Not only do Barney and Robin break up because Barney can’t handle that she, a journalist, travels. Something he already knew. And yet, they break up...
