NEW SOPRANOS DVD SET! TRUE BLOOD RULES! THE SHIELD is almost OVER!

BREAKING NEWS:
SATURDAY NITE'S SNL SUCKED.
The SNL digital short was actually pretty funny (the painters.) The thing with the parents kissing the kids was funny for about 2 minutes (I counted.) Beyonce looked pretty and sounded good - though I can't remember the songs. The opening Joe Biden thing was probably the funniest sketch of the night - and why is WEEKEND UPDATE advertising Amy Poehler in its promo when she's not there? And how unfunny is Justin Timberlake when he's trying to be funny?
Now that the election is over, SNL has to go back to being what it was.
Grade: C -


NEW SOPRANOS DVD SET, TRUE BLOOD RULES, THE SHIELD GOING OUT IN STYLE

There are 2 soundtracks that I cannot seem to find anywhere. If anyone has a lead on any of these, please send all info to: TheDigitalCouch@aol.com

The first is the soundtrack to the early 80s film, NIGHT SHIFT. The Ron Howard directed comedy that introduced the world to Michael Keaton, Shelly Long and the immortal line “Where the fuck is 4K?”
NIGHT SHIFT: A+

The other soundtrack which seems near impossible to find is John Woo’s THE KILLER. If anybody has any leads – please let me know. I recently found THE IDOLMAKER and was shocked at how well that held up.
THE KILLER: A +
THE IDOLMAKER: A +


TV 2 DVD BOX SET BLUES
Lastly – if anyone has the complete collection of IT’S YOUR MOVE on DVD – now THAT would be impressive. (It’s Your Move was an 80s sitcom starring a 14 year old Jason Bateman.) Or HILL STREET BLUES, since only the first 2 seasons were made available (they kept saying 3 was coming out – but I don’t believe it ever has.) The WISEGUY DVD box sets were a miserable joke. They only released a 3rd of the series, seriously out of order, replaced most original music, had serious quality issues – on one episode, instead of getting Ken Wahl’s optional commentary – there is no option – Wahl’s musings is the only audio available in the episode. It’s even missing at least 2 major arcs, including the final one that closed out the series. Nor did they ever bother to include the 2 hour wrap up movie that aired in 93’. Luckily, I have whatever the DVD set fucked up on videotape, but you'd think they'd put out a decent WISEGUY collection. They haven’t even put out a new WISEGUY set out in 4 years. Like they just gave up. How is that HILL ST and WISEGUY, arguably the 2 most important cop shows of their time, have no proper DVD representation?

Speaking of XMAS, I’m very anxious to get my hands on the brand new COMPLETE SOPRANOS DVD SET. It’s listed at 400 bux, but u can buy it at Target and other places for $250. I'm waiting to see if someone gifts me with it, otherwise - this is the entirety of the old set, (all 7 seasons) plus a 20 page slick booklet, an awesome DVD holder case, 3 discs of Sopranos music (I’m betting just a rehash of the SOPRANOS SOUNDTRACK initially released between seasons 1 & 2, then the much more ambitious 2 disc collection SOPRANOS: PEPPERS & EGGS that came sometime before season 3. So if you have those and all the previous collections – you have everything in this set – EXCEPT – 2 NEW DVDS with over 3.5 hours of contents – lots of missing, deleted scenes, interviews with the principles, documentaries (many I’m sure of which have been seen on HBO) and most tantalizing, alternate endings and a full segment of when the group did a round table discussion at the Palley house a few years ago, and a brand spankin’ new sit down dinner with most of the cast and crew. (T is absent – most others are there.)

Apparently David Chase stirs up more controversy during the dinner when he suggests that his SOPRANOS ending was based on 2001, in which the lead watched from afar as his life unfolds…suggesting that the onion ring scene didn’t happen but that Tony could've simply been ruminating – but then he backs off and says he always fucks up the ending whenever he opens his mouth. I haven’t seen it yet – but it makes sense – although – in 2001 – he watched a future that presumably did happen – so….this might all be REALLY pretentious bullshit from a man who at this point – should really best not talk about the ending and allow people to draw their own conclusions. I for one took it as it was, that Tony would be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life, and his life didn’t have long-term prospects, but that he was happy that his family was – at least in that moment – safe and restored. He also apparently puts to rest any ideas for a SOPRANOS reunion or movie, but added “never say never.” Let’s just say never, okay? We’re good.


TRUE BLOOD (HBO)
So…has TRUE BLOOD become Event Television – or is it just the coolest new series ever? I just caught up on the 2 last eps and thought they were awesome. Particularly the trippy sex/V-juice scene with the luminous Lizzy Caplan. There are only 2 eps left, but HBO has ordered up another season. This is a great show – I highly recommend you follow it from episode one. The funny thing is – this is an Alan Ball show and while I really liked AMERICAN BEAUTY (which he wrote - it’s a really good if flawed movie) I really didn’t like – and I’m sure I’m going to get shit over this because many of my friends loved the show – but I was never a huge fan of 6 FEET UNDER. I didn’t hate it or anything like that – I could just never really get into it and also found it weirdly predictable and way too full of itself. I hated the sister played by Lauren Ambrose, I’d never seen such a self-absorbed performance with such mediocre obvious material. I couldn’t stand Peter Krause on it – even though he’s great on DIRTY SEXY MONEY and he was one of the best things on SPORTS NIGHT. I thought the Brenda character was really over the top even though I loved the actress – and I fucking HATED the mom on that show. Although I liked when she was paired with James Cromwell. I just thought it was really pretentious.

So this same Alan Ball now makes the next great vampire show. (After BUFFY.) Go figure. While not exactly reinventing the entire genre, they have certainly put their own unique spin on things. It's also great storytelling, and the theme song kicks fucking ass.
GRADE: A

UPTADE: NEXT EP OF TRUE BLOOD:
Continues on towards it's final ep. RIP to a certain dazzling cast member, and I can't wait for Sunday's conclusion to the first season.


CHARM SCHOOL, SCREAM QUEENS, REAL LOVE and CELEB REHAB(VH1)
So many shows. So much reality. Or none. I guess it depends on how you look at it. These are the reality shows (and the CMT Wrestling) that I've allowed myself time to get to know.

Let’s start with Charm School. So when the FLAVA girls go to Charm School they get Mo’Nique, when the girls of ROCK OF LOVE go Charm School, they get Sharon Osbourne. Clearly a different vibe. But Sharon is an awesome head mistress – Mo was not. These girls are a ghastly collection of Vegas-style trash – and while I have no idea who these girls are in real life – I can only comment on what comes across on screen. Brandi C. – who went from ROCK OF LOVE to shooting some porn (a 3some!) and then to I LOVE MONEY and now here she is on CHARM SCHOOL – this bubble headed girl who might be technically insane has now starred in three series – that’s more than Patrick Dempsy! In one of the latest eps, a tearful Brandi C., after Meghan left, started crying that she wants out of the show and that just the sound of the other girls’ voices “makes me want to drill giant drills into my head.” That’s about as brain dead as this show is. And entertaining. (Brandi M. by the way, did porn as well.) I’m not saying you can plan an evening around this show – but it is undeniably fun to see these crazy girls from these previous shows – who we now know a little bit – compete for….in CHARM SCHOOL I’m actually not sure what the hell the prize is. Seriously. None of them are going to become ladies. They're all completely unchanged from the first series. In fact, for all the talk of transformation, not one of these girls have changed not even one iota. They’re insanely mean and evil and crazy. And hot (mostly.) But in fact, if anything - they've all gotten encouragement to be who they are on TV, so they're probably even worse. This latest outing with the DUCHESS (I’m sure the DUCHESS was an English actress from Central Casting – how the girls didn’t know this – or if they did – who knows – it was over the top and phony seeming)was laughable at how fake the Duchess was and how much the girls were buying into it. Still, this show works on its own demented level.

I also have been watching SCREAM QUEENS, which features a bunch of mostly bad actresses competing for a walk on role in SAW 6. I’m not kidding. That’s the prize. Although I’m sure to most of these woman the prize is being on TV. QUEENS kind of has a split personality. On one hand, the acting teacher seems very good and the presence of James Gunn, who is a great director and writer (he wrote the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake and the great low-budget horror film winner SLITHER) legitimize a lot of this. On the other hand, they go from being seriously legit to a naked bathtub scene to one of the girls getting kicked off because they didn’t want to make out with another girl. The woman who came in as a “scream expert” was ridiculous. And some of the "acting" here suggests that some of these ladies have never acted a day in their life. Witness the Asian girl doing that insane tongue thing while filming the trailer. The girl with the short hair (from her makeover) seems to be the best most level headed actress and seems poised to win. Unless I'm reading this wrong. And the acting challenges are actually really inventive and funny. What can I say - I'm a fan!

What to say about REAL CHANCE AT LOVE – I THINK that’s the title – I’m referring to the show where the improbably long-haired and sensitive Real (not sure why they think he's sensitive) and his truly insane, mean brother Chance (from I LOVE NY) are looking for love in a low-rent ranch as 17 ghetto crazies vie for their affection. I’m not kidding – the girls on this show are completely retarded and mentally insane. At the very least – they’re all in need of serious meds. The brothers aren’t exactly that interesting either, and the challenges and sets are so low rent I thought I was watching public access. Still, the formula is so set in these – they act crazy for an hour and someone gets sent home – that it still kind of works. Kind of.

All of these shows make CELEB REHAB look like CITIZEN KANE. Even though for the first few eps, I wanted to kill Gary Busey and his ridiculous acronyms, now that I know about his brain (literally) I understand him a lot better. But he’s still insanely annoying. Tawny Kitaen seems much less insane than usual. Nikki from AMERICAN IDOL – wow. What happened to that little spit fire from 4 years ago? Jeff Conway is back for a return engagement – this time with his crazy girlfriend. Amber Smith – a model I had never heard of is here and there is one scene where she is going through withdrawals and trying to make herself vomit that is so jarring you can’t get it out of your head. Former Guns' drummer Steven Adler is last year’s Jeff Conway. But by far, the most absolutely interesting character on this is Rodney King (that Rodney King.) He is movie star handsome, sweet, damaged, and utterly compelling. His recounting of the famous beating was the best moment of the show thus far. And very often, this show goes for the throat, and there is much to learn from this group of recovering addicts. Dr. Drew could not be a better host and this could not be a more worthwhile, if completely exploitative, program.

ROCK OF LOVE CHARM SCHOOL: B –
SCREAM QUEENS: B +
REAL LOVE: C –
CELEB REHAB: A


HULK HOGAN’S CELEB WRESTLING (VH1)
Continues to be kind of a great B-list roundup of some celebs willing to really take their lumps. This week the giggly Nikki Ziering left the show – and with good reason. She thought it was about being pretty and had no use for the actual wrestling moves. Trishelle, on the other hand, has managed to put her hotness into the actual wrestling act – however – as far as a wrestler, she’s overly measured and comes off very fake in her moves - and you don’t know what she wants to do – fight her opponents or fuck them. Interesting character. Screech slapped Danny Bonaduce during their promos, but I could swear they had worked that out beforehand. What? Something fake on a reality show?... Either way – this is really good, mostly unscripted reality TV that’s actually competitive. Highly recommended.
Grade: B


ROB ZOMBIE’S THE DEVILS REJECTS (DVD)
I caught most of this on cable the other day – couple of thoughts: no need to see prequel to enjoy this film, Bill Mosely is superb as one of the bad guys, great, grand film making for a small, dirty story, unusually excellent soundtrack, not sure if I ever realized this was set in the 70s, and not watching the unrated director’s cut made me yearn for the unrated director’s cut.
THEATRICAL VERSION: A -
UNRATED DVD VERSION: A +


SUPERBAD (DVD)
Watched again on cable the other day – couple of thoughts: Great soundtrack, Judd Apatow comedies really fucking work right now, Jonah Hill is even better than you think he is, Michael Cera is awesome, McLovin’ needs a sequel, the cop stuff wasn’t as funny as the other stuff, the “I love you” moment in the sleeping bags – didn’t really work…the movie is great, despite some flaws. Also preferred in the DVD unrated format.
Grade: A -


ROCKY BALBOA (DVD)
Saw on SHOWTIME the other day – perfect ending to the ROCKY series and great film all on its own. Stallone works miracles with the character all those years later.
Grade: A +


PRISON BREAK (FOX)
Is so good at this point it doesn’t even make sense. RIP Bellick. What a great, inventive and macho show. I have no idea what the fuck SILLA is, and I don't care. Our guys need to get it back!
Grade: A


Artie Lange fucking KILLED on Letterman Friday night. His new book “TOO FAT TO FISH” comes out in a few days. He then MURDERED on Kimmel a few nights later. Lange and Kimmel were so comfortable on that couch recounting Howard Stern's wedding it felt like two friends just shooting the shit. Speaking of Jimmy Kimmel, I recently unearthed THE COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF PAM ANDERSON. What a moment in time. Kimmel was hosting and had just started his TV show, Anna Nicole Smith was there with Howard K. Stern, Courtney Love was out of her fucking mind on drugs and stepping over everybody's lines and even tried to make out with Pam at the end of the roast until a compassionate Mr. Kimmel steps in and doesn't allow it to happen. It was great to see all these comics working particularly dirty, and Jimmy was a perfect host. The presence of Tommy Lee was sort of unnecessary - especially his song - but otherwise - this was probably as perfect a roast as you're likely to see.
Grade: A +
THE DVD has plenty of fun extras - highest recommendation.


I loved OPEN WATER. If you haven’t seen it – you should.


ELTON JOHN “RED PIANO” (DVD & CD - only at BEST BUY)
While being billed as a new show, the fact is that if ANSWER IN THE SKY is a new track on this, (I got an advance CD set)that this is no new show at all. In fact, my best guess is that this was taped sometime in mid-2004. ANSWER IN THE SKY is 2 CDs ago. That said, this is a terrific show, these are great versions of mostly crowd pleasing songs. But it's not exactly a very deep set list. Mostly the rockers that usually are played to end the show are given the full treatment here. It’s the brevity and the lineup – the last few releases spoiled us – this release gives us 15 songs or so and is clearly missing at least 20 favorites. This doesn't even include the actual hit in 04' "I WANT LOVE." (remember the great Robert Downy Jr. video?) The thing is – the nuggets that are there, like YOUR SONG, CANDLE IN THE WIND, PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM, and DANIEL – are rendered beautifully and with a slightly newish sounding piano arrangement and some new vocal subtleties that make these version pretty interesting. That said - you would way better off buying last years ELTON AT 60 which was 2 discs packed to the rafters of an acoustic piano MSG show (about 50 songs) and another 30 songs of outtakes, old videos, etc. This package doesn't come close to that - or even the previous year's BEST BUY package of 4 shows - which you can now find on AMAZON USED for about 12 bucks. So this RED PIANO is only for the Elton completest - which means I'll be looking for it under my tree. My Jewish Tree.
Grade: B -


THE OFFICE (NBC)
Actually had a pretty funny story re: the false reports Kelly files because of the party not attended; and the other story – which had Jim and Pam ingeniously connected 24/7 by Bluetooth technology was a great runner with an unexpectedly great pay off. Then again, there was that business with Dwight and the Shrut farm wedding…
Grade: B –

UPDATE: NEXT EPISODE --THE OFFICE (NBC)
Had a very decent outing that saw Michael, Oscar and Andy going to Canada for a business trip. In other OFFICE news, Pam and Jim went through yet another drama. I sort of do like this show besides it’s self-congratulatory tone – but this was a solid half hour.
Grade: B


FAMILY MAN (FOX)
The family gets a replacement dog when Brian shows signs of slowing down. Solid and funny, with a truly tasteless ending – that really worked.
Grade: B +


AMERICAN DAD (FOX)
Not so much. This show continues its downward spiral towards irrelevance.

UPDATE: AMERICAN DAD (FOX)
Had a very good ep concerning Hayley going out with her father's body double. This was the best episode they've had in a LONG time.
Grade: B


THE SARAH SILVERMAN SHOW (COM)
“Pee.” Perhaps one of the best half hours of this show to date, which is saying a lot. Sarah finds herself peeing in bed, does a hilarious song with a stranger at a pharmacy, and finds herself an outcast from her new problem. The awesome, gay banter between the two neighbors is better than ever as is Brian Poshn’s and Steve Agee's performances make them one of the funniest TV gay couples ever and one that does absolutely not pander to what we think the "gay couple" should be like and sound like (See WILL & GRACE for that.) This is the comedy not to miss. While it's lead in SOUTH PARK has been unusually uneven this year, THE SARAH SILVERMAN SHOW continues to reach new highs while hitting new lows - and Sarah’s performance keeps getting better and better. The other scene stealer lately: Officer Jay. Let this show live forever.
Grade: A +


CALIFORNICATION (SHOWTIME)
I just caught up with a bunch of them. Completely unrealistic in how much sex David Duchovney's character is offered, I'm completely bored by the wife, and the agent's descent into the world of porn is complete bullshit. That said - I really like this show for reasons I can't quite explain.
Grade: B


DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
Forget the fact that Michael C. Hall is so perfect in this role, that saddling him with this Jimmy Smits story in an extended way is…weird. They talked about their “friendship” so much in this last episode that it reminded me of John Woo’s “THE KILLER.” They just met 2 weeks ago so enough with the BFF. Also – not only is Smits doing a horrible accent and doesn’t come off in any way as a real ADA, but he’s dragging down our favorite character. Still, Hall perseveres because yeah – he’s just that damn good in the role. But this friendship with Smits isn't really working and somehow - feels less than authentic. But let’s not even think about that. Let’s not hink about the the over-the-topness that pervades the near entire rest of the cast. Let’s focus. Let’s focus on possibly the every worst actress of all time ever to be a regular character on a great tv series – no, I’m not talking about Aida Turturro who managed to sully so many scenes on the Sopranos she should be charged and jailed (seriously – though she did do some ok work in the final seasons) – but the truth is, Turtorro was a beacon of acting compared to the name I’m about to mention. Jennifer Carpenter. You know her. She plays Dexter’s sister. She’s bad. She’s so bad that it has to be seen to be believed. And the writer’s are no help – they just write her ridiculous speech patterns, ridiculous profanity which she sounds like a moron saying, and a personality that doesn't appear to be human or relatable. With any luck, this season ends with sis getting the AX... This is a great, great show - yet, with all the lousy b-players populating the side stories, it only warrants a:
Grade: B -


HARD CANDY (DVD)
Caught most of these the other day on cable – the first hour is perfect, the last half hour is not – but always very compelling. You can see why Ellen Paige become a star – but you can also see why the predator in this film (I forget his name) went on to get a lot of work immediately after this made the rounds (most notably LITTLE CHILDREN.)
Grade: A -


30 ROCK (NBC)
Had a solidly uneven half hour, with the Jennifer Aniston stuff with Alec Baldwin working quite well and first rate idea with the NIGHT COURT joke. Only – whoever was in charge of the NIGHT COURT stuff didn’t seem to truly have a rememberence of that show and the parody fell very flat. Hand it to FAMILY GUY, when they go on one of their non-sequitors about something from ancient pop culture – they go out of their way to get the details right. Everything Kenneth said about the 10th season of NIGHT COURT was slightly off, the actors dialog wasn’t very good and it wreaked of a rare, wasted opportunity. In fact, NIGHT COURT did have a final episode, though it was not the one Kenneth mentioned not because it was cancelled – but rather because it was kept. A quick look on the internet brings the details of the NIGHT COURT cancellation to focus:
• Season 8 was to be the last. Harry and Christine were to marry, Dan becoming a priest, among other big cast shake-ups. At the last minute NBC renewed the show one more season, and the Harry/Christine romance never came to fruition, the Dan character going after Christine in the series finale instead.
• The cast was offered more money to return for a 10th season, but the show would be put on a syndicated station as opposed to NBC. The cast declined.
• After the taping of the final episode on a Friday, the cast were sent telegrams to have their dressing rooms vacated by the following Monday or their belongings would be thrown away.
• Night Court ran for nine seasons, beginning on January 4th, 1984, ending on May 31st, 1992. 193 episodes.
In other words – they did plan to marry Christine and Harry but from what I’d heard Dan was supposed to meet the woman of his dreams – so who knows. In any case – it seems like a lot more fun could’ve been had with this. By the way – if anybody is still bothering to read this – tv truth – NIGHT COURT is considered to have paved the way for the SEINFELD structure in that you had 4 major characters and we followed all four stories – which frequently ended on their own, whereas SEINFELD tended to want to wrap up all their storylines in a related fashion. (SEINFELD by the way – was one of the top 2 all time sitcoms (along with THE HONEYMOONERS) but blew it with their final episode. Who would’ve thought that the very last episode of SEINFELD would’ve turned out to be the very worst episode of SEINFELD?

Bit we are rating 30 ROCK here, and as an episode, this earned a:
Grade: B


UNDERTOW (SUNDANCE)
This had been sitting on DVR for a long time. I watched the first 15 minutes and loved the credit sequence – the following 13 minutes – not so much. Couldn’t get through. Did I miss something?


FAMILY DOG (SHOWTIME)
I thought this movie looked really good, and then I couldn’t get through the first aggressively bad 10 minutes. Aggressively bad.


THE PRESTIGE (HBO)
Great movie. It's a full two hour production set in a time period with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two dangerously obsessed magicians constatnly trying to outdo each other while Michael Caine, in a great performance as a wise old magician, implores them each to just let it go. THis is a gorgeous, sumptous take and I didn't know till the very end that it was directed by Chris Nolan between the BATMAN movies. Great story, a little bit of a cheat towards the 3rd act, and yes - you can see one of the major plot points coming a mile away - but it doesn't detract from this grim, tightly wound film.
Grade: A -

Lastly - a major shout out to Rowdy Roddy Piper - that great, kilt wearing wrestler who invented PIPER'S PIT where Roddy would interview/berate his guests. For those of you who remember the wrestler Frankie Williams - a guy I watched wrestle as a kid maybe no more than 1000 times - I'd never - but maybe 2ce - seen this guy win - here is Roddy's wonderfuly compassionate interview with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW8-zP5WibU