There are no bad episodes of Party Down. In two seasons of ten episodes each, Party Down — one of my favorite shows of all time — landed a hit with each half hour. The blend of darkness with warmth, fast-paced scripts filled with raunch, fantastic relationships between characters, and great guest stars almost every episode makes Party…
Small-Screen 66 – #52: MythBusters (Discovery, 2003-Present) “Don’t try anything you’re about to see at home.” “We’re what you call ‘experts.’” This admonition, in addition to being whole-cloth hogwash (if no one ever “tried this at home,” how could anyone BECOME an expert in the first place?) opens each episode of today’s selection. Fortunately, the…
Small-Screen 66 – #53: Adventure Time (with Finn & Jake) (Cartoon Network, 2010-Present) Let me start by saying that those who like this show tend to REALLY like this show. If I come across as an insufficiently devoted fanboy, I apologize in advance. Adventure Time originated as a seven-minute short produced by series creator Pendleton…
Small-Screen 66 – #54: Mr. Bean [and Blackadder] (ITV, 1990-95) / (BBC, 1983, 86, 87, & 89) “Ecce homo, qui est Faba” (“Behold the man who is a Bean”) As the Countdown continues, I find myself feeling more and more eager to write the later entries (the top 10 or so), and resenting the earlier entries…
Today, as far as I’m concerned, should be a national holiday. The reason, of course, is the release of Furious 7, the latest intrepid installment of a virtually unprecedented movie franchise. (By the way, since we’ve now moved beyond midnight showings to evening-before showings, can we just say that movies like this open on Thursday…
About a month ago, the Earn This staff and a few of our friends put together our most ridiculous list ever: a ranking of the numbers 1-10. The criteria was intentionally unspecified, and the results were wonderfully disparate. It made for a fun article and some fun arguments. We had so much fun with it…
Download link (you may have to right click and “Save As”) In case you missed it: here is a link to part 1, covering 1960-1990 This is the second half of the podcast Colton and I recorded in the wake of the Grammies walking through and evaluating the history of the Best New Artist award. (Spoiler alert:…
This is the third and final part of my Tomas Kalnoky/Streetllight Manifesto retrospective. Read part 1 here and part 2 here. After the release of Somewhere in the Between, Streetlight Manifesto’s incessant touring continued, as did their lofty promises. Within a year or two of the release of Somewhere in the Between, the Streetlight website announced a…
Ah, the jingle. Brainwashing at its most palatable. Like all aspects of advertising, jingles are carefully crafted to instill a need in you, the consumer. Without the company’s product, your life lacks meaning, and you are an inefficient, unsuccessful organism. You loser, you. Better do something about it right quick. The most insidious (and…
This is part 2 of my Tomas Kalnoky/Streetllight Manifesto retrospective. Read part 1 here. After BotAR broke up, Kalnoky got together a lineup that more resembled a traditional ska-punk band: trumpet, trombone, two saxes, guitar, bass, drums. This new band recorded an EP, signed a 5-album deal with Victory Records, and named themselves “Streetlight Manifesto.”…