Four years ago, our New York City foursome in Manolo Blahniks, Jimmy Choos and, well quite frankly, all the designer shoe labels that I can barely afford without leaving me in the poor house, left our television screens. Or at least left our screens in the new episodes sense, because I’m sure many of us have been watching reruns or re-watching episodes on DVD since then. Lo and behold, the Sex and the City feature film was announced, then filming started happening all around New York City, pictures started turning up all over the web, and I (along with the legion of other SaTC fans) began anxiously awaiting the release of the movie.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: A Web Musical Made of Awesome
If you haven’t already, get yourself on drhorrible.com and check out Act I and Act II of the 3 part web musical. It’s described by creator Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and Firefly and all-around genius, as a musical about a “low-rent super villain” that happens to also blog. The super villain is played by Neil Patrick Harris, who continues to be funny (and legend… wait for it… DARY) in everything he does. The best part of all this? It reminds me of the Buffy musical episode where the songs themselves are not only hilarious, but the way they break in and out of said song is just perfection (see Freezeray in Act I). Since this is a Joss Whedon project, one that was penned during the Writers’ Strike, you can bet there are some familiar faces from “Whedonverse” in Dr. Horrible. Felicia Day (one of the potential slayers from Buffy) stars as Penny, Dr. Horrible’s love interest, and Nathan Fillion (Caleb from Buffy as well as Malcolm in Firefly and Serenity) stars as Captain Hammer, his arch nemesis.
Act I came out July 15, 2008.
Act II came out July 17, 2008.
Act II comes out July 19, 2008.
All acts will stay up free for viewing until midnight Sunday July 20th. After that, it will VANISH off the website but will be released on DVD at a later date (along with some extras).
Seriously, go and watch it, go now. Or buy the episodes on iTunes.
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
Followers of my blog (all two of you!) may remember my previously voiced criticism and discontent over news of the live-action adaptation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. I understand the dilemma of trying to remold something that was popular many years ago to something that bears relevance to the culture and society of today, while still trying to keep the “essence” of that thing in tact. But what can I say? It’s a segment of my childhood that is so ingrained into my memories that the mere thought of Hollywood potentially ruining the formerly popular franchise was just exasperating and yet, I’m guilty to admit, somewhat intriguing. I wanted to see what they came up with and if my worst fears would come true.
ComedyCentral.com and TheDailyShow.com now blocking Canadian visitors
I found a solution! See bottom of this post.
Comedy Central’s Motherload is like the “interweb mecca” for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report fans. It offers a fairly large archive of clips for both shows, streamed for free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whenever you wanted a Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert (or *insert your favourite correspondent’s name here*) fix, you knew where to go. Because we all know with the recent Viacom (Comedy Central’s parent company) versus YouTube lawsuit, it’s pretty much the only source for video clips for these shows.
Then there was news of a better, more spectacular and centralized new site set to be revealed in October for fans of The Daily Show. The new TheDailyShow.com was trumpeted as “the ultimate online destination for ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ fans”. No longer would The Daily Show have to piggyback off the main Comedy Central website and, most exciting of all, the new site would feature video clips from every episode dating back to 1999, the year Jon Stewart took over the reins of The Daily Show, and would be expanded to include the show’s entire video history, totaling well over 13,000 high-quality clips [ source ]. It was a TDS fan’s dream! (The Colbert Report currently does not have plans to have a similar video archive centric website of its own Updated Sept 2008: Colbert Nation has received a facelift and now has a video archive available)
Unfortunately, and quite sadly so, us TDS fans up north are being left out. We’re just on the outside, looking in, whimpering and greatly irritated by the fact that when we now click to either ComedyCentral.com or TheDailyShow.com, we are greeted by this lovely page seen on your right… before being redirected to thecomedynetwork.ca. Thanks a lot CTVglobemedia.
Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies: Wednesday nights at 8:00/7:00c on ABC
Pegged as a “forensic fairy tale” and acclaimed by critics, Pushing Daisies is easily the best new television show of fall 2007. It’s not very often I become instantly enamored with a new show, particularly with the way network execs love to toy with new shows and cancel them at the drop of a hat, thus devastating those who were starting to become invested in said shows. This show, though, I think has real potential (worthy to note: I am writing this a few minutes after its first broadcast on ABC so the ratings have not yet come in).
Kid Nation
Child labour has never been this entertaining!