Princes of Malibu my new Reality TV Fix

For me, most of reality TV doesn't interest me. There are a few reasons why I don't like much reality TV.

1. The premise doesn't appeal to me. Most of them pretty much suck to me. I'm sure that to many people, the relationships, alliances and deviancy of the contestants is the primary appeal. The cast dynamic is what is great, but the producers can't wholly create entertaining conflict without it going out of reality TV and being staged-reality. Although I imagine a lot of RTV series are like that anyway. However if the premise doesn't fly, I'm not hitching a ride.
2. The general pace of the soap operatic shinnanegans doesn't appeal to me. The problem with that is it's pretty much like a soap opera winding out. If point #1 doesn't annoy me to change the channel first, then the 2nd one would be the second attempt to kill any interest left. It really just seems so slow to boil over, nothing of which would make you go what the fuck?
3. It isn't smart. I know...that's pretty much an oxymoron. But I value cleverness over anything else when it comes to reality TV. There is your basic level of cleverness which is basically backstabbing, but it can come in many different formats. From insults, to techniques, to how someone acts. Basically said the cleverness of the show should be first and foremost all the time, not in a generic way, but in a way that just breaks fucking boundries all the time.

I love Hell's Kitchen because it is the anti-thesis of the 3 reasons I outlined above. The contestants being humiliated and destroyed is at a fucking constant, there is nothing letting up. This really might have something to do with Ramsay...actually being there most of the time. The premise of cooking is great since I love it. And the cleverness of it all, well it just goes to show how clever they will get to really fuck over the contestants and even moreso to make them feel like absolute shit. This isn't torture by the contestants own stupidity, there's someone there to call them out on said stupidity and it's great.

But what about Princes of Malibu? Now I'm not really for family-invade-my-home-reality-tv series. The music business seems to go hand in hang with that for some bizarrly strange reason. But lo and behold we come to David Foster and his step sons who are college drop outs and basically freeloading off his hit record producing empire that is basically a fucking entire slope of a hill. I didn't think much of it, it was somewhat like Growing Up Gotti, but with an incredibly more slacker fare (if that were ever possible). But it really...REALLY fit into criteria #3. This show was clever. It wasn't clever as to how they insulted each other...no that was left to either Simon or else Chef Ramsay. It was clever in the way that if you had two sides trying to one-up each other with pranks, clever ploys and trickery but had unlimited access to funds.

That's how clever it is.

This is a show that is just a vengence addict's fantasy. The incredible lengths that these people will go to fuck each other over is so humourous and amazing, it makes Survivor look like a grade 3 playground with clique alliances. And this is all that happens, intentionally, unintentionally, pranks and stupidity is pulled that just amounts to war.

Wikipedia Article of the Day: Beast Wars

In order to upgrade on my geek knowledge, rekindle some past personal favorites and just learn new stuff, I decided to venture onto Wikipedia once in a while.

Beast Wars was a Transformers Cartoon created by Mainframe entertainment and was basically one of the best shows I've seen when I was growing up. Most of you Canadians might have remembered it to be under Beasties because this was during a time when Canadian censorship was in a upheaval about violence in youth targetted TV, with Power Rangers being struck from the proverbial landscape. We can't have people ever think that there were actual Beast Wars happening in our world.

It does however bring up a moment of reflection of what the voice actor for the opening sequence was thinking at the time that instead of just roaring out "Beast Wars!" for the title sequence...he also had to yell out "Beasties!" for an alternate cut. Perhaps he was thinking what a fucking stupid idiot he already sounds like for wanting to growl Beast Wars! only to be asked to gather that very same motivation and growl with a straight face Beasties! Then again they are the professionals and not me. He was probably most concerned about his paycheque for doing such embarassing and deamning work.

Opening title sequence voice acting embarassment aside it was a fairly good series with great characters that rival the G1 Transformers we've come to all know and love. What appealed to me most was that it was very much crafted like Disney's Gargoyles in which even though there were adventures that happen each episode, there is a sub-plot that strings them all together very tightly. This isn't to say that it's just like Gargoyles, I do consider Garygoles to have a bit more cohesiveness to everything discussed in previous episodes. Beast Wars just didn't seem as meticulously planned that's all. But it did have a great story with actual depth that goes beyond your simple saturday cartoon story with a message.

It was peculiar as to how I came to first see this series. The thing is, the first two episodes did not originally air back in September 1996 as many people would remember it, but the spring of 1996. I forget how I came about it, but it was during a very late morning, WPIX 11 (then channel 25 or 26 I think) was in the wee hours in the morning. Suddenly this 3D animated title sequence blasted onto the screen. I was basically stuck there for 1 hour as I saw the first two episodes of Beast Wars being broadcasted....right in the middle of the fucking night with hardly anyone to see it. I even doubt that New York kids were watching what I was watching. After the second episode finished, it had a little promo clip saying to stay tuned this fall for more Beast Wars. Stupidly enough I waited next week thinking that it might show up again, but to no avail.

It wasn't until later in the summer during a swim meet of all fucking places that I heard about Beast Wars again. Apparently two of my teammates (who were in seperate motel rooms at the time) saw it with one bringing up dicussion of it. He said "Hey I was watching this awesome cartoon about something...(inaudible)...Transformers" I instantly knew what it was, although I quite forget if I had watched it earlier the night before as well in another motel room.

Regardless it was a well crafted well produce show. I did however lose track of the actual episodes when WPIX and YTV would have different airing times for all new episodes. Eventually around late Season 2 and most of Season 3, I hardly knew what was occuring let alone how many of the characters suddenly got mutated into new forms and such. And like Gargoyles, it had a unbearable end to the series with Beast Machines...which was even worst and yet I still don't know how I managed to sit through that fucking drivel to the bitter end. Sadly even Beast Machines was still infinitely better than the Takara produced Transformers anime that followed it...which thankfully has absolutely no reference to the Beast Era of Transfomers.

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

I'm pretty much proudly Canadian, especially when it comes to our imaginative culture. There might be a big expectation for Canada of just being nice and a lot of times, being second (re: 5th) best when compared to world rankings. I admit we do have our own problems and we are in no position to greatly boast about our geopolitical position in the world...but when it does come to something great in comedy and the arts, I'm all over that shit.

I'm proud of shows that are so great that they transcend the typical idea of what Canadian content usually is; most of which seems to consist of either Canadian docudramas or Nativeploitation films. Perhaps a result of Canadian collective guilt. So basically said, I like stuff that has a universal feeling with a slight Canadian flare. But not so Canadian you basically drown in the references. So when I read Scott Pilgrim, it pretty much plucked my patriotism string.

What is it about? It's about a guy (in Canada of all places!) who has to fight 7 evil ex boyfriends in order to solidify the relationship with his current girlfriend. Most of these fights seem to end up as typical video game warfare. Well it's basically what you'd get if you mixed the graphic novel Blankets with Penny-Arcade. It actually features a lot of aspects I like about television, movies and books. The first one being most of the characters, if not just the main one, are assholes. This isn't to say that I like characters who are completely reprehensible such as Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. But ones who have a smidgen of being humble within their character. Basically an ass who's a good loser.

Another aspect I like is how the world is created and the weirdness that appears is basically accepted. I always find that some aspects in other shows or works introduce something in a plausible way at sacrafice for pace. But being able to create a world without having the need to explain but just...show that it exists I find to be a great talent. I guess it depends on the person's ability to suspend belief or disbelief, but I consider it a product of good writing and execution if someone is able to slide in something different without the audience missing a beat as opposed to holding their hand and forcing them to understand.

With tons of video game references, relationship angst up the ying yay and enough weirdness to keep it well into comic territory, it's a great series that I suggest anyone to read, especially fans of games games and more motherfucking games.

Il Diavolo Porta Prada Review

For some of the more standard girly filmfare (let's face it...there really isn't any other way to say it), I have my buddy Carla to rely on to go to such films I'm interested in. I guess in someway she's my beard to prove I'm not entirely gay, or stupid, but I guess at least I have someone to talk to about the film. It's also fun to poke fun at her husband Jeremy in telling him outrageous lies on the movie we are going to see. Take for instance Take the Lead in which I proclaimed it to be the best and newest action movie of the year featuring Vin Diesel. Bullshit! He accurately cried as my grave mistake of thinking he has not seen the trailer. Next time Jeremy, I'll get you.

However on movie night we all decided to see The Devil Wears Prada starring the ever so doe-eyed Anne Hathaway (with equally large areoles featured in Brokeback Mountain, Jeremy can attest to that, but that's another story) and the maticulous Meryl Streep.

If you ever wanted to see a film of someone, or even Meryl Streep, play a character that tears a fucking strip off anyone and everyone's ass with a voice nary going above an audible whisper; this is the film for you. Streep nails being a cold and calculating leader of industry who doesn't put up with bullshit, who does her job damn mother fucking well and who's opinion is law because it works and because she knows it.

It is your typical story of the protagonist being caught up in a lifestyle/job/world in which he/she/it loses sight of their own humble beginnings yada yada yada etc. etc. However in someways it doesn't follow the right convention because it goes to show a certain cold hearted reality of how the world works. The highly expected scene where the protagonist picks up her shoes (literally), hikes up her pants and decides she's going to show the world that she can succeed never started out in a moment of empathy from a potential mentor or parent figure. There was no sympathy, no coddling, not even an acknowledgement that they care for her. They straight up said...you aren't doing your job period. There is no one to congratulate you on what's expected what is minimum requirement.

But it doesn't really stop there, it goes so far as to make you question certain moral changes in people. Certain moments of weaknesses that make someone seem human, suddenly causes someone to re-bitchify in the next moment. How even within the world that is basically making you the person that you originally hated, allows you to still act like a good person. Not in a "[i]I'm going to prevent the corporate takeover my boss is planning for the good of the people[/i]" but loyalty above all else even for someone who treated you like utter shit.

Overall it's a good movie just to waste a night with. Jeremy thought it was good as did Carla so we all enjoyed ourselves.

3.9/5.0 stars.

Samurai Champloo

It has been about a year or so that I decided to pick up where I left off with Samurai Champloo. At the time they were regularly being released in Japan, fan subbed with me downloading about the first 5-6 episodes. Cowboy Bebop with Samurai is what a lot of people expected considering it is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. What he did by mixing sci-fi with Jazz and blues, he does with Edo Period Japan with Hip Hop. Verily a hard act to follow up coming off of Cowboy Bebop.

As you begin to watch the series the first thing that comes to mind is direct comparisons to Cowboy Bebop. How would it stack up to it? Would lightening strike twice? How do the characters here relate to the characters there? I've begin to have doubts when I saw the first six episodes. Granted the animation was great, it was somewhat funny, it seemed to show that touch of authenticity in their characters and started to really create a world in which you could believe could exist but something didn't click.

I dropped the series up until a week or so ago. There was something that didn't click. It might have been that I wanted it to be like Cowboy Bebop or something more. I suppose that in my tastes I have a bias to western settings than to eastern ones, but I suppose after that year or so I chose to put it away probably did some good. Now refreshed and actually wanting to finish what I started, I begin from where I left off.

Once again it felt the other episodes I saw didn't click. There was something missing, a sense of fun or heart. It could be because most of the sub-characters were too generic, not well too defined. Or that each situation that the characters enter seemed so commonplace. When it got to episode Ten though "Lethal Lunacy" it hit its stride. Similiarities with Cowboy Bebop did bleed through, but instead of copying it, it made it it's own. The action seemed more refined and the direction clear. Suddenly I found it's heart and it found me, it was a great series now.

So I could say that this series is an acquired taste, but it's not since you just have to wait until it gets to the good parts. You won't be disappointed when great gems appear as it begins to take itself more loosely and confidently.