As much as I love this show, I try to keep away from these sneaky preview shows and other online “entertainment” that exists mostly to satiate those fans who’ve not read the books and only stick to the show’s canon (or fans of the book who want to get all picky and pissy about the changes). I’m still flipping a coin as to whether I’ll watch this behind the scenes clip show as I prefer going in cold and letting the assorted writers and directors have their way with me and the stories and characters they’ve added to Martin’s work. Then again, it’s the same for me with The Walking Dead and any other show I like based on something else…
As we all know (well, those of us addicted to the HBO series, that is), last season saw the exit of quite a few Stark family members and a few other shocks to the system (unless one had already read the books years earlier and was suitably prepared). Of course, HBO isn’t going to rest until we all have gray hairs and they’re on the floor scattered around the TV room because we’ve gone and yanked them all out because of a few more earth shaking demises and other mind-blowing revelations. In English: Season 4 will kick some ass. April 6, 2014 is just around the corner, you know. Sort of. Well, the way time flies these days, it’s coming up sooner than you think. By the second, yet. Look at that clock go! Wooooo!
Okay, I’m calm now. Or calmer than I was a few seconds ago…
I live in an area that’s not too hard to figure out if you live here and spend time walking around on a semi-regular basis. However, on occasions where people who drive here to visit friends or relatives, they often run into trouble with one particular spot where an oval splits into four different directions and streets that need to be followed to their destinations or else you end up driving in some rather oddball directions only to find yourself maybe back where you started or worse. This evening as I’m walking home, a car pulls up beside me and as the passenger side window rolls down, I know exactly what’s coming. Sure enough, a woman pops her head out the window and asks which way a certain street is because she and her husband had been driving around for a good fifteen minutes looking for the building.
Nice guy that I am, I point them in the correct direction and of course, the missus is all “See, I told you it was THAT way” while the hubby is getting a case of the “Yeah, yeahs”. As they both turn to thank me, the husband asks “I suppose people get lost around here a lot?”, to which I respond “Well, it’s not so bad here – you could be in the Pine Barrens”. I do believe the husband happened to get what I was referencing, because he burst out laughing so loudly that his wife jumped in her seat and did a double take before asking what the heck was so funny. As she closed the window back up (I’m assuming no one “rolls” a window up any longer) I waved goodbye, turned and left them alone and walked away with a smile knowing the mister would have to do some fast talking to stay out of the perceived doghouse he just cracked himself up into. Thankfully, that episode of The Sopranos is a pretty darn funny one and I’m glad someone actually got a joke I’d made without having to explain it. Victory!
So, yeah… Kenny Powers is back for what looks like one final go-round on life’s rollercoaster and he’s still a total mess. HBO has gone and posted the first of the final shows online already (thanks, folks!) so if you don’t have HBO or HBO on Demand or don’t want to get it you can at least check it out and see if it’s up your alley. Of course, Kenny doesn’t give a crap if you like his show as long as you watch it. And even if he did, he sure doesn’t care now that he’s fallen off the wagon in such a big way. Yeesh. WHO keeps a tackle box full of drugs in their garage and how old is that stash, anyway? Er, not that I take a lot of drugs mind you (one or two aspirin a day for me is all!). Anyway, is KP is going to flame out on his road back to some small success or will he be redeemed at the last minute? Hell, the answer to that isn’t even the important part – it’s the road to that answer that’s going to lure in fans for this last ride…
OK, I don’t own a DVR here, so I’m going to be playing catch up this week with a LOT of stuff. I’m sticking with Breaking Bad and Talking Bad tonight (both are extended shows and will take up the better part of tonight), but it’s also the night that Showtime’s Homeland kicks off its third season followed by the premiere of Masters of Sex (still a coin toss as to whether or not I’ll commit to another new show). Meanwhile, on HBO… the awesome and hilariously outrageous Eastbound and Down is back from the “dead” for one final go-round on HBO, followed by Hey Ladies (which I currently don’t watch). TCM has a couple of Hitchcock flicks running all day until midnight, but as I’ve seen them all a few times, it’s all about AMC tonight. THANKFULLY, I’m not a sports fan or a network TV viewer or my poor little head will explode.
OK, back later… probably not until after midnight when I’m through processing the chaos BB is no doubt going to end on… whee.
Trying to explain Eastbound & Down to someone who’s never seen it is quite an interesting exercise. Granted, you don’t need to explain much before you have them plop down with all the previous seasons either on disc or HBO on Demand, but expect a few funny looks and perhaps the occasional query if your victim isn’t ready to be exposed to Kenny Powers and his rather… er, twisted take on things. I love that the show has no moral center at all, but Kenny tends to figure some things out as he torpedoes every ship in the port and then sets the docks on fire for good measure. The man’s a bridge burner SUPREME, but he still manages to be so dumb to the point you think he’s faking it. Fortunately, he’s not and similar to Larry David’s classic Curb Your Enthusiasm, the ensuing chaos is where the bulk of the so not PC laughs come from.
Anyway, Season 4 of Eastbound & Down premieres on September 29th, only on HBO (of course!).
A long wait reminder AND a deleted scene tease? Stab, STAB! Gee, thanks HBO! Oh alright… it’s not THAT bad, but still… Season 3 isn’t out on disc until next February 18, 2014 and the world could end by then! WHAT will we GoT fans do then? OK, “die miserably” are the operative words, but I’m not going down without a fight. Of course, those of us with HBO On Demand have been and can still catch this anytime we want until doomsday (or the next Season of GIRLS, ha, ha, ha). You sort of don’t realize how cool On Demand is until you run into people who don’t have or use it (which is one huge reason why you still see disc-based movies and TV shows selling). That said, I’ll probably not re-watch this past season thanks to the rather depressingly high body count from episode 9 (ouch, ouch). Eh, I’ll probably be one of those clowns who shells out for a complete series set once that finally comes out (provided the planet hasn’t friggin’ MELTED by then), so I guess I’m just complaining for practice at this point…
The first time I saw this promo, I almost thought it was a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (yay!)… but it’s not (boo!). Well, maybe not (boo!), as it’s another Larry David-led ensemble cast improv class in TV comedy that’s bound to be full of awkward moments and “Wait, did (s)he just say that?” dialogue. Of course, it’ll be tough to top that last season of Curb for cringe-worthy and fall off the couch funny bits, so hopefully this film is Larry testing the waters before maybe bringing himself back for one final season of his show. He can’t stay in Paris forever and I think the French would kick him out of the country even quicker than he had to leave New York City. Eh, we’ll see, I guess…
I actually didn’t like The Sopranos the first time I saw it (coming into the middle of an episode in the middle of a season has that effect on some people), but I wised up and stuck with it, enjoying the ride over the last four seasons or so and going back to catch most of the episodes I missed out on. For me, that final episode was quite a nice surprise but not too surprising, as it didn’t go for the expected. Of course, neither did the show on many occasions where stories were layered with hidden and not-so hidden depths mixed in with some shocking deaths just to hammer home the point that Tony’s world wasn’t a very nice place after all. I liked James Gandolfini’s work in most of the films he was in, but like many fans, he’ll always be Tony Soprano, driving down that highway through New Jersey on the way to raise some hell or suffer through some of his own creation. He’ll be missed…
As an impressionable teen, these commercials for Slim Whitman’s albums had my friends and I always laughing (and occasionally warbling awfully mangled versions of his tunes while strolling down the street), but I think they also made us appreciate other musical styles. Granted, I’m a nut with wild musical tastes (AM radio USED to play great music before it became home to the insane, incessantly annoying “opinions as facts” and “I’m famous because I have a radio show and people who believe my crazy BS!” talkers), so I think I came to see the man’s genius a bit more over time. But I do recall having the stupidest yet most amazing dream where Slim was covering The Ramones and yes, it was a spectacular a vision indeed. “I Remember Yoooooooou-ooooooooou-oooooooou!” (I still can’t listen to that song without laughing, by the way).
That and hell, Slim Whitman saved the earth, dammit. Go watch Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! if you don’t believe me…
Amusingly enough, I used to work in a small indie game shop and there was a customer who was a big fan of the GoT books who came in one day in a lousy mood about the original version of that “Red Wedding” sequence (which I found out after some poking around yesterday) was actually much worse in the books (as well as a bit more visually twisted).
Anyway, it’s been really interesting to hear and see people who didn’t read the books go totally bat-crap crazy over the episode, as it’s been known all along that no one is really safe from an untimely demise. Sure, it was definitely shocking (and how!), but that ticking clock for the characters probably has a few more stops to make before all is said and done…
That said, this is probably one of the few episodes I won’t watch multiple times, as I usually end up catching them again On Demand when I’ve got a free hour or so to spare.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 