A Fool's Utopia 08.06.09: Hidden Gems

Posted by Ron Martin on 08.06.2009

This week in one man's utopia we take a look at a few gems hidden in your TV. As an added bonus we talk the beer summitt, PTI, Clair Danes association with Soul Asylum, Scream 4 and reasons to watch Friday the 13th Part 6. As if you need reasons.

You watch TV. I watch TV. Sometimes, I even write about TV. Sometimes, you read enough about what I write to call me an idiot in the comments. Fair enough. Hopefully, through subliminal messages, I've turned you on to some programming that you like or led you to try programming that made you curse my name. Fear not for many people have cursed my name – at least they're thinking of me, right? This is a long way for me to get to some of TV's hidden gems which I have recently in the last six months or so discovered. I pass them onto you in hopes you will watch, like, add to ratings thus getting the shows renewed so I can have further enjoyment of them for many years. It's a I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine situation. Some of these "gems" I've mentioned about in passing, or in another column, so bear with me.

For those of you who skipped the first paragraph and just read onto the descriptions and pictures, here you go.

Warehouse 13. Syfy Channel



I have to admit that for me, Warehouse 13 had two strikes going against when it made its debut a few weeks ago. 1) Syfy hyped the hell out of it as the show that was to usher in the Syfy era. I hate to type Syfy and I hate the name change, so by extension, I was preprogrammed to dislike Warehouse 13. 2) It was being hailed as the next X-Files. Everything is hailed as the next X-Files. It's like the in thing to do now, call something the next X-Files. Since it was a walking cliché, it had that going against it. I wanted to hate the first episode…but I didn't. I pointed out some weaknesses out of spite, but they were minor and could be worked out. Most of them have been worked out. The acting has been better as the actors now have a few episodes under their belt and are more familiar with their characters and each other. Perhaps the word "gelling" should be used here. The dialogue and the subject matter set it apart from other shows, even on the SyFy Channel. Former Buffy writer Jane Espenson leads the way, and dare I say that the first few episodes even remind me of Season One of Buffy. Only a half dozen episodes in, you can catch all the episodes for free ON DEMAND.

Man vs. Food, The Travel Channel



I've spoken highly of this show before, and there's a good chance that I will speak highly of it again. For now, let me tell you that I never thought I'd be so entertained watching a man eat. Yeah, yeah, the Fourth of July hot dog deal is fine and all, but those guys are freaks. Tell me that a ripped Kobayashi can eat seven pounds in one setting, digest it and still be ripped for the next competition. Ricockulous, says I. Adam is just an every day guy like you and me. He's got a few pounds on me, but if I ate what he ate, I could only hope to be in half the shape he's in. Whoever pitched this idea to the Travel Channel scores bonus stickers and maybe a smiley face for such an ingenious proposal. A guy travels around the county taking on eating challenges. What's more, the show brings the funny. Adam's natural charisma shines through most episodes as the jokes aren't stale and don't have the "setup" feel to them. There's no doubt some of them have to be set up, but they play well. As a bonus, we get to see great restaurants all around the country. Adam may not be successful against his food challenge, but he is always successful in that his show is never boring. Quite a catch for the Travel Channel. I wonder if he pitched this to the Food Channel first.

iCarly, Nickelodeon



I'm going to finally admit it. This is a big guilty pleasure of mine. One an overnight amusement park trip a couple of months ago, my niece and nephew got me hooked on this. They got me hooked so much that when they tried to turn the channel (damn the short attention span on these kids today), I made them watch the TV in the other room. Since then, I've probably seen a dozen or so episodes. Maybe four on my own, the others with the woman in tow. I can't exactly pin down what makes this show great, but like Man vs. Food, it never fails to entertain. I can honestly say I've never seen a "bad" episode. Maybe it's the utter randomness or the never a break dialogue, but the adventures of Carly, Sam, Freddy and Spencer have me hooked. How badly? I'm actually going to DVR the iCarly movie while I work Saturday night. Even worse? Though I will get home around 1 AM from work, I will watch it before I go to bed. It's almost a shame that kid star TV law states only one of these young ‘uns can have a career when they get older. My money is on Miranda Cosgrove to have an Amanda Bynes/Hillary Duff we-know-you're-alive-but-what-have-you-done-lately type career. That will be sad, but until then I will enjoy all the iCarly I can. I will be the pitiful fully grown male buying the seasons on DVD acting like I have children. I may bring the niece or nephew as a prop but then I have to explain to them why they don't actually get to take home the season of iCarly. Eh, a fiver and they'll forget all about it.

Ghost Hunters International, SyFy



I know I briefly covered this show when I did the three-parter on supernatural reality TV, but it deserves a second shot at glory here as a hidden gem. To the ghost hunter (of which I am included), this show is what ghost hunting is all about. While the original Ghost Hunters started going through the motions years ago, the International crew not only acts like they want to be there, but enthusiastically tried to find new ghost hunting equipment, experiments with different techniques and is excited to get activity. Could they fall into the same traps TAPS did after a couple of seasons of Ghost Hunters? Possibly. They are only a few episodes into their second season and the demanding travel schedule along with team chemistry has already caused five cast changes. TAPS did their best work around the same number of episodes the GHI crew have in right now. Also around this episode count, TAPS was experimenting with new equipment, has an array of members that could show up on any given episode and were still legitimately searching for evidence of the paranormal. There is one thing going for GHI that TAPS didn't have – trailblazers. TAPS was going into unknown territory when the world of paranormal investigating met the world of TV fandom. They were writing the book as they went. GHI has the fortune to learn from TAPS mistakes and veer off on their own trail where the TAPS one gets rough. Until such a time, this show is quality ghost hunting. If you want to know what real ghost hunting is like, this one is as close as is gets – with lots of time condensing and much better equipment than you could ever hope to have.

If you're looking for something new and exciting, you can do a lot worse than the handful of show I've mentioned. I know I'm always on the lookout for quality hidden gems on my TV. If anyone knows of one or two, pass them along. I'll check them out.



-- I try not to get too political in this column, because, well we have an entire section for that here at 411. I try to stick to the topic at hand for the most part, but I do have an observation about the recently dubbed "Beer Summit." I thought it was a reaction to the overreaction of the President to the situation, but that's not the point. You're going to have a beer with the President at the White House. That's kind of a big deal. You'd better make sure you ask for the right beer, huh? I assume they had just about any beer they wanted made available to them. What did they choose? The Harvard law professor chose a flavor of Sam Adams – a strong beer brewed right in his place of work, Boston. The police officer chose Blue Moon, a tasty wheat ale brewed in Toronto, which has a baseball team in the American League, so it's close enough. The Vice President chose a non-alcoholic beer, which sort of mirrors his own position in the entire scheme of things. The President? He chose Bud Lite. While we might be able to push that as the common man's beer, it is also a beer that was very publicly sold to a German corporation not too long ago. Seems like an odd choice for a man who rules a country that needs every dime it can get. Even odder is that I didn't hear any outlet mention it. This is not a knock on Obama, just an observation by the media. If anything, Obama should pick a better beer during these things. Bud Lite? Is it $3 pitcher night at the local college bar?

-- I'm going to play the bad guy here to Bryan Kristopowitz and his TV's Rants and Raves column. Nothing wrong with the column, it's a fine read. I just disagree with his assessment of Pardon the Interruption. It can be a fun show. For years, I thought it was one of the top ten shows on TV. Popularity killed it. Now, it's degraded into something that is a parody of its former self. More often than not we don't even get Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon as the hosts. It's one or the other with another ESPN sportswriter (I grit my teeth whenever I watch in hopes that I don't have to sit through JA Adande). While there are still moments, they are far and few between. It seems like all I listen to is Wilbon bitch about covering a story too much (almost always football related) while he sneaks in references to Shaquille O'Neal and whines about how much more popular the NFL is than the NBA every day. That's what I'm sick of hearing about.



This leads me to a mini-rant, and this may be one of the reasons that I think PTI has suffered in quality the last few years, but I'm sick of reporters telling us what they're sick of covering. You don't like the Brett Favre story anymore? You don't want to talk about steroids in baseball anymore? I don't care. You get paid exponentially more than I do to sit on your ass and talk about it, so shut up and do it. If you don't want to cover sports stories anymore, then maybe it's time you got a new profession, though I can't imagine one easier than being a talking head and getting paid at least six figures to do so. It's not just Wilbon that I'm picking on. There are at least a half dozen sports reporters who do it. They think they can justify they're whining by starting paragraph with "I know you are as sick of this story as I am, but…" If the general public were sick of the story, you wouldn't be reporting on it. If everyone were so sick of Brett Favre, then those segments wouldn't get ratings and we wouldn't get Brett Favre stories anymore.

PTI isn't a bad show. I just lament that they can be so much better.

-- I generally hope Paula thinks twice about leaving American Idol. She is not Simon. The show makes her, not the other way around. While she might retain a tiny bit of relevancy on Dancing with the Stars, she's going to take a big hit. Idol is a pretty good gig, and while I see her point, I just don't think the grass is greener for her anywhere else.

FIVE RANDOM THOUGHTS
In a column mostly made up of random thought…

1. I don't know who this chick is, but I can tell you that Reggie Bush most certainly upgraded from the "Why is she famous?" Kim Kardashian. In fact, I am thinking of adding Reggie Bush to my fantasy team just because he banged this.



2. Does anyone who reads this column work at/have worked at a gym? The water at my gym used to be really cold and refreshing. Now it is lukewarm and not very refreshing at all. I am wondering if gyms change the temperature of their water to up sales of bottles of water from their vending machines. This is my suspicion, I just need verification.

3. I am an unabashed lover of the Scream series, even if they got creatively worse with each one. The first Scream I admire as the ultimate slasher flick. I do have reservations about Scream 4. While I am excited about another movie, I am worried about the quality bringing down the series even further.

4. What has Neve Campbell done since Scream 3 that's so important she can't be in the next flick? Neve is definitely a product of the 90s.

5. I'm guessing that the people behind GI Joe kind of got the feeling that their first few trailers were not well received so they are applying the force it down their throats until they think they like it strategy by releasing a new spot about every single day. If you connect all the trailers, you may be able to watch the entire movie.

Have you ever listen to a movie through a speaker hooked onto the edge of your car window? Do you know how to keep score in bowling because you've had to do it before? Do you understand the term "Where's the Beef?" If you do, then you might be ready for a little RETRO loving.




Where to start, where to start? I think I know. I'm going to start here.



The Pound Puppies and their kitten co-horts, the Pound Purries hit the height of their popularity during the mid-80s. Partly because of the catchy, sing it until your ears bleed jingle, but probably more due to the fact that Hardee's made them their toy dujour during that time.

I don't know what it was about me during this period. It was probably my pre-teen angst kicking in, but I hated those damn Pound Puppies. Felt like a real puppy, my ass. Do the good people at Tonka even know what a real puppy feels like? No. They were probably born in test tubes with only the dust bunnies the maid left in the laboratory to pet so they assumed that's what all cute, fuzzy animals felt like.



Maybe it was because my sister made such a big deal about owning both a Pound Puppy and a Pound Purry. It just gave me more time to torture Rainbow Brite as she fell out of favor – only I learned the torture was no fun when she didn't care. Poor Rainbow Brite. She's the only toy from the 80s not to make a comeback. Even these stupid pound animals that no one wanted and are doomed to a life of captivity in a cage until someone comes along and rips their stuffing out to provide for one of the many Make-a-Bear mall stations made a semi-comeback. I can sleep easy knowing that no one cared.

But yeah, anyways –- Pound Puppies. Came with adoption papers and everything. Really popular in the mid to late 80s. Let's move on.

I am pumped for my RETRO weekend. Activities include a Friday night of two-liters of Mt. Dew and pizza while playing old school games on the SNES (sorry, I no longer have a working NES) or equivalent thereof. I may upgrade to a better system. I haven't decided. Video games is video games, right?

Also on the agenda are RETRO approved movies and TV. This means evenings of TVLand and DVDs of such greats as Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Weekend at Bernies, Three's Company, Back to School, Monster Squad, The Lost Boys, The Burbs, Bachelor Party, Weird Science and more. I feel I'm going to have to add at least on Back to the Future and a Karate Kid. I'm hoping to catch some Newhart and Facts of Life on TV. I'm hoping BET is playing Purple Rain at some point.

To assist I have made a separate folder for 80s music on my ipod and acquired Now, that what I call the 80s 2 to go with the original. I feel guilty for using modern technology, but hey, I don't have a Walkman anymore.

Forgotten Video


Soul Asylum - Just Like Anyone (Official Music Video) - Funny bloopers are a click away

This one comes from the early 90s. On the fringe of the grunge era, Soul Asylum used a common look with solid if unspectacular music to put out a few hits. This wasn't one of their biggest, but it certainly got some airtime on both the radio and MTV. It is personally my favorite Soul Asylum song, mostly because I like the video a lot. I like it so much, one character in my novel was loosely inspired by the Clair Danes character in this video. While I am sure Clair is still working, that horrid Romeo and Juliet movie pretty much ended her career for me in the mid-90s. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Leonardo DiCaprio movie since that one, either. Back to the subject at hand, this is a good song with a decent video that I am sure everyone aside from me has forgotten about. Well, me and the band members of Soul Asylum. And Clair Dane's mom. If this has an ad in front of it, sorry, but some douche request all youtube embedding be disabled, if you know what I mean.


Random Screenshot from a Random SNES game I owned

23 YEARS AGO TODAY

August 6, 1986

#1 Song



"Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera

**Don't know if there was a video made for this one or not. This is a pretty good version, though.

#1 Album



Top Gun Soundtrack

NOTABLES: "On My Own" with Michael McDonald

#1 Movie



Aliens

NOTABLE OPENS: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Howard the Duck, Flight of the Navigator

THREE REASONS TO SEE FRIDAY THE 13TH PART SIX: JASON LIVES

1. Tommy Jarvis vs. Jason Vorhees



This is the closing chapter in the epic trilogy of battled between Tommy and Jason. Kind of. The middle chapter was secretly an imposter, but Tommy killed him for good measure. Tommy killed Jason as a kid, as a teenager, brought him back to life to kill Horshack and then killed him again. It doesn't get much more epic than that, kids. This is the last film Tommy Jarvis appeared in. I look forward to Friday the 13 Part 14 where Tommy kills Jason using the lime Jell-O and his daily medication at the senior citizen's home. I can only assume Tommy showed Megan a proper good time once the events of this movie were over.

2. Supernatural Jason



Ever wonder why Jason can't die? How he can shot six times and just keep on walking? If you talk to Friday the 13th historians (I am sure they exist somewhere), the reasons can be traced back to some combination of Part 6 and Part 7. For Jason Lives! role in the whole mess, Jason was impaled with a large metal pole which was then struck by lightning giving him powers than only drowning and an open board motor could defeat…for awhile. Dude does pop his eyes back open at the end. He may have been playing possum so that bully Tommy would leave him alone.


3. Creative Killings



While there were some unique killings in earlier films, I think Jason's rebirth was kind of the birth of creative killings. This movie has all kinds of odd goings on. A triple decapitation?!! You just don't see that anymore. What other villain has shoved some girls head so far into the side of an RV that her face left an imprint? Don't even get me started on just straight up bend the dude in half. Now, if he would have just taken care of those annoying little campers...

I must leave you now. I'll be back next week. Until then, stay out of the woods.