Michael Emerson on The Soup and Jimmy Kimmel

Michael Emerson (Ben Linus in Lost) appeared on The Soup and Jimmy Kimmel this week to promote the new season of Lost. Both are pretty humorous and he mentions that he started out doing comedy which plays out here and in Lost as well. First up, The Soup which contains a spoilerific clip of the new season of 24 if like me you are a season behind, though having just seen this clip I don't think it really ruins too much, though I am intrigued as to why Jack is wearing glasses now (yes out of this entire clip that is what I pick up on which might be why I am a season behind):

Next up Micheal Emerson on Kimmel which is another good, funny interview where they discuss the show and of course he can't reveal much except that they only have four more episodes to shoot and how people react to him in public. Jimmy has a nice photo collection of the many beaten up faces that he has had throughout his five seasons on Lost. I'm very much looking forward to the scenes with Locke that he mentions and if only there would be a Lost spinoff sitcom called 'The Ben and Hurley Show', I'd definitely watch. There are some spoilers though for those that haven't seen the new episode 'The Substitute' so watch only after you have seen this (interview in two parts):

It's been a long time

The new TV season is upon us and despite my lack of blogging over the month of August I am excited about several old shows returning and a few of the new starters as well. I will be writing with more consistency (I hope) over the following weeks and months about these shows. The old returners I am looking forward to are; Bones (thought the bones promo below is pretty cool), Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office (once I have seen season 5- the DVD is on the way as I speak).

I will also be looking at the new season of Mad Men, that has been on for the past few weeks, so far I am enjoying this season and will be writing further on this in the coming week. Oh and I am really looking forward to the return of The Daily Show after the three week hiatus that it has been on, I've been missing my Jon Stewart fix, I'm so glad that the web site has all the old episodes on there to watch.

New starters that have produced an interest include Community (I'm a big fan of Joel McHale, as previous mentions of The Soup will testify), Flash Forward and the new HBO show Bored to Death. Other shows that I am currently catching up on (and need to catch up on) include Damages season 2, 90210 (got to love the trash TV), Dexter, 30 Rock and Harper's Island (I saw the first two episodes the other day and thought it was ok, like watching a long TV horror movie really). Oh and I will finally be catching up with The Sopranos soon as well having only ever seen bits and bobs from each season- though I am totally spoiled for the final episode, which sucks.

So there is plenty for me to be writing about, and I will be tackling many of the above shows in one way or another. See you all soon.

The Times '50 Best US Television Shows' and why lists like this seem out of touch

So last week The Times printed a list of their top 50 US television shows in recent years. They were broad in the term ‘recent years’ which allowed programmes that have subsequently finished such as Six Feet Under and Sex and the City to appear. The motivation behind this article seemed to be to demonstrate that US television is where the quality lies rather than from the UK, and that it is imported TV that is allowing television to be taken seriously again. Now there are several issues that I have with this sentiment one being that the imports from abroad have been consistently good for at least 10 years if not longer (Friends and ER did start 15 years ago after all, with other shows such as Twin Peaks and Hill Street Blues going back even further). It may be that with tools such as the internet, DVDs and cheaper multi channel packages that these have become more accessible to an overseas market but I believe that the sentiment that this is something more recent is incorrect.

The notion of how ‘worthy’ television is and whether it can be taken seriously is another which jars with me. Yes there are now hours of reality television and in a multi channel era there is always going to be much more on television that might be considered to be trash (however one persons trash is another persons treasure, for example I love the channel E! for escapist fun and at no point do I believe it to be something serious). I would just suggest that this list would be better suited as one to demonstrate that yes there are good shows that are coming out of the US but that this is not a new thing and it shouldn’t necessarily be coming from an angle which suggests cultural elitism.   

Another point is, is that the programmes that are exported tend to be the most popular and well produced ones, not shows such as ‘The Cougar’ or other reality titles such as ‘Axe Men’ and ‘Tool Academy’. So of course the television that we get from abroad is going to seem of a much higher quality as some of the ‘crap’ is going to have been filtered out. Although if you watch The Soup with Joel McHale he will watch all the ‘bad’ reality shows for you and show you the best bits (I highly recommend this show).

The people involved in making these quality shows that are exported is another area that should be considered; like the films that come out of Hollywood, it is not only the efforts of American talent that makes these but are generally made up of an international body, television is just like this with many non-Americans in leading roles in your favourite shows.

You should check the list out for yourselves and see if you agree with their choices, I myself do not agree with quite a few points and disagree with some omissions including The Daily Show and Fringe (especially as Dollhouse is on the list when it hasn’t even aired in the UK yet), I’m happy that they have shown both Chuck and Friday Night Lights love but like any list like this there is always going to be arguments as to why certain things should be higher than others. I guess the point of a list like this is to promote discussion and debate which it has definitely prompted with me, as you can tell from this entry.

 

Find the list here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6061203.ece

   

    

'The Soup's' kick ass clip of the week

Just wanted to write a small bit on last night’s episode of ‘The Soup’ and how at first I thought they had made up the ‘kick ass clip of the week’. Now sometimes on ‘The Soup’ they will take a clip and edit it with stuff they have filmed to make it look more ridiculous, with this clip of ‘One Tree Hill’ this is something they didn’t have to do. Seriously you have to see it to see how bizarre the whole thing is. I’ve never really seen ‘One Tree Hill’ all that much just bits and bobs here and there so I wouldn’t like to judge it unfairly, especially as it has successfully managed to run for six seasons, but really this clip just leaves me wondering how it has run for so long. Also I think ‘The Soup’s’ host, Joel McHale is brilliant and this clip allows me to show this also: