Monday, March 4, 2013

Things I Won't Be Writing About Today March 4th, 2013 (Updated March 5th, 2013)

Hello,

I'm currently listening to Jimi Hendrix's "People, Hell and Angels" on Spotify. It's a collection of all new studio recordings, although I'm not sure how "new" some of the songs are. It's probably not for everyone, but check it out if you like real rock music.

Things I won't be writing about today.

TV:

- I won't be writing about one of the dumbest ideas to ever appear on TV. "The Red Widow" made it's premiere last night, um no I didn't watch it. Just by it's title alone and the previews I've seen of it I knew it would be a stink bomb. And to no one's surprise the show was a ratings dud in it's premiere. From James Hibberd article at ew.com:

The crime family drama soap, which scored less than a 50 out of 100 among TV reviewers on Metacritic, launched to 6.8 million viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49. That’s 36 percent lower than the debut of ABC’s short-lived GCB in this slot last year. This ties Zero Hour(which was cancelled last week) as ABC’s lowest-rated scripted premiere ever, though the network points out that among total viewers Red Widow improved its time slot.

I do love the corporate America spin going on at the end of this paragraph that "Red Widow" improved it's time slot. That means the show that was previously in that time slot was even less liked than "Red Widow". I predict this show will be cancelled soon, but maybe not as fast as "Zero Hour". It appears "Zero Hour" was self-fulfilling prophecy.

The only show title I can think of with a worse concept and title than "The Red Widow" is "The Mob Doctor". No, I didn't waste any of my time watching that show either. Some ideas are just so stupid, that it's evident there's nothing of value there.  It came as no surprise that piece of crap quickly was cancelled. Actually I'm surpised that it wasn't cancelled quicker than it was.

- Then who are the people behind the new celebrity diving show, "Splash". Exactly what demographic are they going for with that? Will that show last one or two episodes?

- "The Following" has been a decent mid season replacement. However for the most part a mid-season replacement seems to mean the networks have given up. However Fox clearly didn't give up with "The Following". It features two premiere stars in Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. Purefoy plays serial killer Dr. Joe Carroll with way too much skill and charisma. He's completely believable as a charismatic serial killer. Bacon plays Ryan Hardy well also, although I do get tired of him getting out smarted so often.

It's so unbelievable how Carroll continues to outsmart the FBI, time and time again. Really with all the resources the FBI has, they can't figure out how to at least slow down Carroll's cult? When Hardy was firing shots at the helicopter I was sort of hoping it would blow up. I realize that's not very believable either, but it can't be any less believable than anything else that goes on on this show. I understand "The Following" has 8 more episodes so they have to stretch out the action as much as possible. I also realize the final showdown between Hardy and Carroll can't occur until the season finale.

The show has already been approved for a second season, what's going to happen in it's second season? "The Following" is coming close to taking after "The Killing", where they had to fill too many hours of show with boring storytelling. "The Killing's" first season had 13 episodes when there should have only been 8-10. That seems to be what's happening with "The Following" as well. I know that Fox will never pass up the opportunity to reducing it to 12 episodes. Corporate America always goes for profits over artistic expression.

Also the worst thing about watching any show on Fox is the relentless amount of commercials. Any Fox show you need to watch on a DVR. Each hour of "The Following" probably contains less than 40 minutes of actual show.

- After taking a break, I've resumed watching "Nashville", so I'm a few weeks behind. This show is definitely themusicaddict approved.  If you love music you really need to watch this show, if for no other reason than the excellent music itself. The show alone is also very good. There's only one thing holding back "Nashville" and that's the absolutely boring storyline about Teddy running for mayor. Yawn! Since I'm a bit behind I don't know if Teddy is voted mayor, although I'm sure he'll be.  But either way I have a feeling the political storyline will be a continuing theme through at least this season.

- "The Walking Dead" is one of only a few shows I actually watch when it originally shows. Although of course I watch it on my DVR to skip through the commercials. "The Walking Dead" continues to be a good show, except for the whole Governor storyline. My has that become boring, I'm so over the Governor. Why couldn't have Andrea killed him when she had the chance? At ew.com their show recapper brought up the fact that all of Season 4 of "The Walking Dead" could be the Governor vs Rick and friends. I couldn't think of a more boring story idea, especially over a full season. That  story line already has gone on too long!

I did like last night's episode, "Clear". I specifically liked that there were only 5 characters in the whole episode and that it was completely Governor free. I enjoyed the fact that Rick, Carl and Michonne had a bigger part to play than they usually do. Although I don't ever remember thinking, geez I wonder what happened to Morgan. It's good, I guess, to see what happened to him. Although with the battle looming with the Governor, I'm not sure why Rick et. al didn't pick up the hitchhiker. It seems like they need as many people as possible, especially after sending Tyrese and his group away. Tyrese was one of my favorite characters in the graphic novels.

Also why is AMC hyping up showing episodes of "The Walking Dead" in black and white? I getthat AMC wants people to watch reruns, however this seems like a lazy way to have people do so. I'm not sure what can be gained from watching "The Walking Dead" in black and white.

- I watched the premiere of "Golden Boy", it seems like it will be an okay show. Although after one episode it doesn't seem like it breaks a lot of new ground. There's only so many cases that can be solved.

- I was a little disappointed that "The Americans" didn't dig a little more into the story line involving the power struggle behind the scenes following the attempt on President Reagan's life. I thought that would be very interesting if the show had gone into that a bit more. I realize that's not what "The Americans" is about, but that seem to be a very rich bit of story telling gold.

- "The Good Wife" remains good as always. It retains it's great sense-of-humor. I especially love the quirky judges the show features. This past Sunday's episode, "Going For The Gold" featured the great Alan Cumming as Eli Gold. Gold has always been one of this shows best characters. I'm glad Gold is back as Peter Florrick's campaign advisor, I was tired of the boy wonder.  I also love the flirting/ legal machinations going on between Elsbeth Tascioni and Josh, especially his "pillowy lips" compliment. And any show that has the lovely Amanda Peet as a guest star is alright in my book. Her character, Captain Laura Hellenger, will clearly be hooking up with Will Gardner very soon.

The whole political storyline makes much more sense in "The Good Wife" than it does in "Nashville".

Movies:

-I saw "Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters" a couple of weeks ago, it was aight.

- I don't know if "Olympus Has Fallen" will be a good movie or not. However I can see what the pitch probabaly was for this movie,  "It's 'Die Hard' in the White House". I think people need to stop making "Die Hard" movies including Bruce Willis. He's great in the original "Die Hard", but the series has gone downhill since then. The reviews were so bad for the most recent "Die Hard" I didn't even see it. Let's not forgot that one of the things that made the original "Die Hard" so good was Alan Rickman's slithering villain. Truly one of the greatest villain's in modern movie history.

Sports:

- I've been very lukewarm about the Jazz the last season. It has been hard to get behind them as instead of building for the future, they're trying to win now. And that could be a fine strategy if this season's Jazz team had a legitimate chance of causing havoc in the playoffs. Three of the Jazz's starters didn't even score in this game! But let's be honest, they don't. Please Coach Corbin let Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter play a lot of minutes now so they can be much better when hopefully the games mean much more.

Last night's game against the Bucks made me realize again why I'm so lukewarm about this Jazz team. The Jazz had a good chance of stealing a win on the road. Paul Milsap hit one of two free throws to give the Jazz a 3 point lead, there was about 16 seconds on the clock. One of the things that have always driven me crazy about the Jazz is getting killed by the three pointer, especially since the Jazz aren't so good at shooting it themselves.

In my opinion, you've got to foul anyone that potentially can be a three point shooter. Just as long as you don't foul him in the process of a three point shot. But that's better than giving them the kind of shot Brandon Jennings got off last night. Of course he made the shot and the game was tied. The Jazz still had 8 seconds left and predictably weren't able to score again. Then in overtime the Jazz gave up two big three point shots to J.J. Redick. Milwaukee went on to win 109-108.

- On Sunday night The Miami Heat surged to their 14th straight victory, they knocked off the pretender Knicks in New York. Again no one should build a team around either Dwight Howard or Carmelo Anthony.  This season I wonder why even have the playoffs at all with Miami playing so well. Let's just go to a best-of-15 NBA Finals between the Heat and Thunder.

Monday night the Heat won their 15th straight game, they defeated the Timberwolves in what appears to be a very contentious game. The Heat are getting ready to defend their title.

- I had to laugh about the Knicks game last night, especially the not so graceful fall by Carmelo Anthony. He looked like a middle age man/ weekend warrior play at the rec center. On that stumble he didn't look like a professional athlete at all.

When Anthony tripped himself, the Knicks were down by 22 points. But what's even funnier is that the Knicks outscored the Cavaliers 72-45 AFTER Anthony exited the game. How is it that the Knicks played so much better once their "superstar" left the game? Later Anthony said that the injury was "not too serious at all". Well of course it isn't, it's only Carmelo Anthony, one of the most overrated players in the NBA.

Tonight I plan on watching an episode of "Nashville" along with at least a bit of the Thunder crushing the Lakers. Serge Ibaka you better watch out, Kobe Bryant won't put up with your shenanigans.

- But the best basketball tournament is coming here very quickly, March Madness. That's always been the much more exciting basketball tournament for me. (Also this year is an added bonus for me as I may be able to actually volunteer for the part that's in Salt Lake City.) There are so many more teams and so many more variables. Also the whole one and done is so much more exciting. Finally the fact that the whole thing is done in three weeks is excellent, the NBA playoffs grinds on for far too long. It's very rare that a surprise team plays in the NBA Finals. I can't even think of the last team that fit that criteria. However many years there are at least multiple teams that at least reach the Sweet 16, Butler made the NCAA Finals two years in a row.

- For March Madness it looks like there will be no teams from Utah to make the tournament this year. For BYU to make it they'd probably have to win the WCC tournament, which is highly unlikely. They would have to beat the current #1 team in the NCAA in Gonzaga, which they've lost to twice already this season. But any tournament is much more interesting if there's a team I can get behind. This season I'll be cheering for the Tar Heels and against the Duke White Devils as always. I will also be cheering for Gonzaga. John Stockton was the first Gonzaga player that made a name for the Bulldogs. Now his son plays for Gonzaga.

I'll be cheering for North Carolina this Saturday as they welcome Duke to the Dean Dome. I'm hoping that the White Devils don't get as many calls as they did at home against Miami.

- I'm excited for the World Baseball Classic, it's currently going on. Of course I'll be cheering for the American team, although I expect Japan to win the whole thing. I do wonder how good Cuba could be if the players that have defected from that country were able to play.

themusicaddict

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