Sound Bites

I'm Chuck Bass

I admit it... I watch Gossip Girl. Furthermore, I like it. It started off a too melodramatic but has, over the course of the season, upped the humor to a point where I think it's genuinely enjoyable. Not quite first season O.C. but close.

However, I have issues with the Gossip Girl conceit. GG is a dishy website that has spies everywhere, yet not once did it ever say anything like, "Spotted: A certain Brookynlite seen hanging with his S's ex best friend, G." This is monumental dirt, and it never comes up on a gossip blog? And the whole "Serena killed someone" cliffhanger last week turned out to be a whole bunch of nothing, and we had to sit through some Lisa Loeb, which was just as bad as when when it first happened 15 years ago. Plus I don't see why Georgina still has a hold over miss Van der Woodsen when all it will take is one sentence to instantly refute everything (even if she and Dan do it he won't stay with her)... yet I still enjoyed this first season's penultimate episode, if just for the dialogue. I loved the scene where Chuck, Blair and Nate were all trying to one-up each other on who was the most horrible person. ("The non-judging Breakfast Club.") Chuck won with "I'm Chuck Bass," which I'm still laughing about. Chuck has become my favoritist Gossip Girl character.

MP3: The Republic Tigers - Fight Song (buy)

I like this Republic Tigers album, Keep Color, especially the dreamy songs but they are a snooze live. They played the that Tribeca Film Festival show at Webster Hall and actually said, "This is our last song, 'Fight Song.' You can hear it on Gossip Girl next week." Republic Tigers are signed to Chop Shop, which is run by GG music supervisor Alex Patsavas. Also on that bill -- The Virgins who once had every song on their EP featured in one GG episode. They were actually pretty good but it felt like Gossip Girl Live!

I'm looking forward to Georgina's dressing down on next week's season finale.

Getting High

So my cable provider, Time Warner, just announced that by the end of this year they're upping the number of "free" HD channels to 50 as of today and promise over 100 by the end of the year. Wisely, they have eschewed things like AMC, Sci-Fi, FX, or Bravo in favor of channels like the Hallmark Movie Channel HD and A&E HD which, by the looks of the schedule, should actually be called the CSI Miami HD Channel.

But the best new addition to TWC's HD line-up has to be NY1 HD, the station everyone turned on in the morning to get the time and temperature before we all got a widget to do the same on our computers. Actually, I'm pretty sure today was the debut of NY1 HD, and oh boy was it worth the wait:

I really feel sorry for the people with old-fashioned 4-3 TVs who don't get to experience what I'm dubbing NY1's "HD bars." This is truly "next gen."

Elsewhere 2.13.2008

If the weather's as bad where you live as it is in New York, you might consider staying home and watching all three episodes so far of AMC's awesome new series, Breaking Bad which I wrote a little about last week. The mini-marathon starts at 8PM. [AMC]

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Ida Maria played Later with Jools Holland last week, along with British Sea Power and Morrissey. Watch the whole thing here. Ida was good, but rather subdued compared to the show I saw at Galapagos back in October. [BBC]

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Yay, the writers strike is over! Find out when your favorite shows are coming back and how many new episodes will be made before the end of the season. Sorry, Bionic Woman fans... all three of you. [TV Guide]

These are the Breaks

If you're not passed out after the Super Bowl and can tear yourself away from whatever super-extra-complicated disease FOX has cooked up for their post-game episode of House, I highly recommend you switch over to AMC for the rebroadcast of the first two episodes of Breaking Bad, maybe the best new television show since the network gave us Mad Men over the summer.

While initial descriptions made it sound like another Weeds, we've got much darker material here, with Brian Cranston (the dad from Malcolm in the Middle) as a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher who, upon turning 50, experiences a mother of a midlife crisis. Cranston absolutely makes the show that might have been crass with another actor. And when I say dark, I'm talking tar black. But it's also very funny and, after two episodes, I really have no idea where it's going next. I can't say that about many shows.

The episodes start at 10pm tonight... set your TiVos/DVRs if you have to. Or if you don't have cable, you can watch them right now online.

Everyone Looks Good in a Sheinhardt

I'm 100% behind the WGA strike, even though Fall 2007 has been disappointing as far as most shows go. But there two shows I'm really gonna miss when we soon run out of new scripted television -- Pushing Daisies and 30 Rock. The latter faltered a bit out of the gate but has really brought the funny these last four episodes, and last night's "Secrets and Lies" was one of the funniest the show has done yet, with maybe the most quotable lines ever. Don't read below if you didn't see it already (go ahead, watch it online), but here were my many favorites:

• "The whistle part fell off but I liked how it looked, so I kept it."
• "I got a squeezer from an Indian girl on a bunk-bed, so I think I got the whole Harvard experience."
• "That word bums me out unless it's between the words 'meat' and 'pizza.'"
• "This corporation has a very strict 'Bros Before Hos Policy.'"
• "Try not to dress like a small-town lesbian."
• "I spent two days making this movie from home and what did I get? A million dollars, a yellow Bentley and nothing!"
• "Thanks a lot, Puritans!"
• "Your lame thing is on his pants!"
• "Perfect. That's just when I get back from Maiden Voyage -- Newark's first offshore Gentlemen's barge."
• "Banter!"
• "What's your favorite pizza topping? Mine's plain, but I like others!"
• "Shark attack!"
• "I drag myself out of bed at four in the morning, go home, get dressed, come in here... and he doesn't even mention my name?"
• "The squirrel! It's not afraid of people!"
• "Captain Beefheart."
• "Oh god, it was my birthday yesterday!"
• "That's NBA sexual assault money."
• "Everyone looks good in a Sheinhardt."
• "But the Toofer/Frank rivalry has finally exploded!"
• "...and your name is probably something like Melissa."
• "Oh Melissa, your face is on the phone. Soccer practice is over, and you need to pick it up!"
• "...Cajun-style!"
• "Wake me up if Andy Dick calls."
• "Ooh... cuh-runch!"
• KAYFABE
• "Here's your John Legend CD."
• "I'm 43 and you have great hair. I can let this play out a little longer."
• "These people are my peers, my heroes, my past and future Secret Santas..."
• "I'm Black."

Even the shill-a-rific American Express Holiday Funtime things are pretty good:

• "Bento box from Sushi King, lesbian scene from Mullholland Drive -- time for Gentlemen's Lunch."
• "KOMURSHL"

One episode left, people. Personally, I'm hoping for a Christmas Miracle.

He's a Peculiar Boy

OK, this is driving me crazy. Does anyone know what band/artist is performing the cover of The Monochrome Set's "He's Frank" in the club scene of tonight's episode of Heroes? ("Four Months Ago") I have Googled, gone on message boards, etc, all to no avail.

I love the Monochrome Set and "He's Frank" is one of their best-known songs. The only band I've ever heard cover it is The Sneetches, which they actually released as a single back in 1989 or so. This version sounded more like Iggy Pop or Alabama Three or Leonard Cohen. But I'm stumped. This is what the Internet is for, right? Surely someone knows.

In the meantime, here's both the original and the Sneetches' cover:

MP3: The Monchrome Set - He's Frank (Slight Return)

MP3: The Sneetches - He's Frank

UPDATE: Unlikely as this sounds, I remembered this morning that an old friend of mine, Errol, is actually producing the Heroes soundtrack. So I emailed him with my query and I got this response: "Ah - thats off the forthcoming soundtrack and is not available anywhere yet...  ; )." Gee, thanks, Mr. Evasive. I then prodded him further and he told me but asked that I not reveal it. It was recorded exclusively for the soundtrack... which doesn't have a release date yet but will be "early 2008."

And if you aren't familiar with The Monochrome Set, they were certainly one of the odder bands from the post-punk era -- dandys with razor-sharp, funny lyrics, and cabaret stylings but yet they kind of rocked in their own way. Also makers of great instrumentals. You can't miss with this Greatest Hits collection. I'm going to have to do a proper post on these guys sometime soon....

Friday Night Lights Season 2 Premiere Tonight

I should've posted this earlier, but just a reminder that the Season 2 premiere of Friday Night Lights is tonight at 9pm. It's good that the show is now actually on the night of its name but I imagine this will be one of the most time-shifted (industry speak for watching it on another night via DVR) shows of the week. Then again, I live in a big city, maybe people in other parts of the country stay home and watch TV on Friday nights. When I was growing up Dallas was the biggest thing on television and that was on Friday nights at 10pm.

Anyway, you should watch. You've probably heard it enough about how good FNL is, but it barely got picked up for Season 2, so set your DVRs if you got 'em. And if you haven't watched it at all, you can get the First Season DVD Set for less than $20 -- with a money-back guarantee if you don't like it.

I've seen the Season 2 premiere and it's just as good as last year... until Something Happens in the last ten minutes which makes me and others who've seen it already worry that the suits at NBC have forced the producers to throw in some overly melodramatic plotlines to get more viewers into what is one of the more realistic portraits of small town life ever on TV and the best portrayal of high school since Freaks and Geeks. (Even if the actors are too old for high school, but that's been a problem since Happy Days.) It's even more troubling as it involves one of my favorite characters -- Landry, who has been mainly a welcome source of comic relief. But for now I'm trusting that FNL main man Jason Katims is not going to allow this show to so obviously fumble. I know, but hey, I'm allowed one lame football reference.

MP3: Wilco - Muzzle of Bees

Setting the Tone

It's about as deep as a petri dish, but I must admit I'm liking Dirty Sexy Money. Simultaneously glamorizing wealth but sticking it to the rich -- it's my kind of show. The cast is pretty great, with Donald Sutherland obviously having a blast as the Darling family patriarch, and Peter Krause is great as the put-upon, good guy lawyer (that's how awful this family is, they can have a lawyer be the only person you sympathize with) thrown into the deep end with these well-off buffoons. Tonight's episode went disappointingly soft at the end, though I guess it can't be all lions, trannies and murder. It's a lot more fun than the somewhat similar Gossip Girl.

But the icing on the cake tonight was one of the most unexpected songs in a network TV show I've ever seen. Right after the title card, The unmistakable riff from The Fall's awesome 1985 single "Cruiser's Creek" comes blaring out of the speakers and plays through an entire scene. Any show can throw in Peter Bjorn & John. The Fall shows class.

MP3:  The Fall - Crusier's Creek

Push It Real Good

This was originally supposed to be  part of a big Fall TV Preview I was going to do, as I have a friend at an entertainment magazine who lent me all the fall pilots back in July. This was as far as I got. You know how it goes. Pushing Daisies airs tonight...

Pushing Daisies | ABC | Wednesdays at 8pm | Debuts Oct. 3
The gist: As a boy, Ned discovers he has the power to bring the recently dead back to life with a touch. Two caveats: if he touches them again, they're dead for good; if he doesn't, someone else in the near vicinity must die in their place. He learns all this tragically, of course. As an adult, Ned (Lee Pace) pours his energy into pies, while making extra money working with a P.I. (Chi McBride) solving murders -- it's easy when you can ask the victim who killed them.

Pros: The pilot, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (the Adams Family movies), is just about perfect: a whimsical, visually impressive modern fairytale (narrated by Jim Dale, of Harry Potter audio book fame) that's funny, surprising and utterly charming. As is Anna Friel as the Love Interest.

Cons: The whimsy level is Amelie high, and though the pilot pulls it off, how the hell are they going to maintain the tone over the course of a season? And where can the story go? It's one of these shows that seems likely to have a "Save Pushing Daisies" before the premiere even airs. Creator Bryan Fuller is king of the fan-loved, ratings-deprived One Season Wonders (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls).

Competition: Nothing drama-wise; Deal or No Deal and America's Next Top Model seem like a different, but massive, audience.

Verdict: Unless you have a cold, black heart it's hard not to fall for this show. Can they do it for a whole season? It's worth tuning in to find out.

MP3: Baby Bird - Daisies

The Emmys: Nothing is Impossible, Except Dinosaurs

Holy crap, 30 Rock gets 10 Emmy nominations, including Best Comedy, Best Actor (Alec Baldwin), Best Actress (Tina Fey), and Direction. It also got two for writing -- "Jack-tor"  (aka the "pos-mens" episode), and the equally-funny "Tracy Does Conan," though personally I would have offered the near-perfect "The Head and the Hair" or "The Source Awards" up for eligibility. If there was a category for Best Hats, I'm sure Frank would've been nominated too. Sure, they'll lose most of them to Ugly Betty and Two and a Half Men, but for a show I figured would get ignored, this restores a modicum of faith in award shows. This feeling will fade quickly no doubt.*

If you're still not hip to the funniest new series of the 2006-07 season, you can watch all the episodes online for free. And the Season One DVD set comes out September 4. And if you're already a fan, did you know Kenneth has his own talk show on the website? And that Frank has a blog?

And in other Emmy news, "Dick in a Box" is up for Outstanding Music and Lyrics.

Friday Night Lights, no surprise, got shafted (two noms for Casting and Directing), but it still seems a crime that Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton didn't get Best Actor and Actress nominations.

*The love is gone. Any year where On the Lot gets more nominations than The Wire is not a good Emmy Year.