15 May 2009

R.I.P. Scrubs

Finally watched the Scrubs series finale on the DVR -- a fine end for a show whose claim to fame was a phenomenally talented gallery of minor characters handling the comedy while the top-billed cast steered the show's considerable dramatic aspect. This season's addition of the Brain Trust (primary membership: The Janitor, The Todd, Ted, and Doug) was particularly inspired comedy. Nice work, folks, and thanks for the memories, especially the three amazing episodes with Brendan Fraser. As a corollary, after spending a week in LA, I'm kind of bummed about missing The Blanks at Largo tomorrow night.

The end of Scrubs, The Shield, and Battlestar Galactica, coupled with my not so-recent abandonment of The Office and Heroes, has left me down to my shortest list of must-see TV in years, and I'm pretty happy about that, as I've got a backlog of TV on DVD to get through (Deadwood, The Wire, Carnivale, Arrested Development, Weeds, Wire in the Blood, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter, etc).

My current watch list:

This is actually a pretty telling list, for those TV execs who happen to swing by my blog. (For their info, I'm in their favorite 18-49 year old male demographic.)

Trends of note:
  • Only one show (House) is a standard 22-episode series (which is WAY too long to maintain quality).
  • Only one sitcom (Always Sunny).
  • Only two shows are on major broadcast networks.
  • Four shows (the USA ones) are basically the same sort of whodunit or howcatchem.
I don't watch a single one of these shows live. All on DVR, skipping all commercials save movie/tv previews.

As an addendum, Doctor Who and Torchwood are on quasi-hiatus (and are anagrams), and I don't know if SciFi will air this year's BBC specials in the US. I'm also looking forward to Warehouse 13 and Caprica on SciFi, but I've got no idea if they'll be any good.

06 May 2009

May 2009 Movies

How about that? I finally saw a damned movie! Star Trek on the IMAX in Century City, which, to be honest, is an IMAX in technology only, not scale. Frankly, if the screen isn't 5 stories tall, it shouldn't be able to call itself a true IMAX. Anyone know of a list of IMAXes with truly giant screens?

By the way, Star Trek was awesome.

It's been awhile since I last posted my list of movies on my list to see. Thought I'd give it a whirl.

Here's my top 15 or so movies to see right now, some still unreleased, some increasingly ancient. The starred ones I've got on DVD or Blu Ray yet still haven't found the time to watch. A few movies have dropped of the list from last time just because I don't much care about them anymore.

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. Up
3. Moon
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince IMAX
5. The Fall*
6. Quantum of Solace*
7. Children of Men
8. In Bruges
9. Night at the Museum 2 IMAX
10. The Brothers Bloom
11. Coraline
12. Terminator: Salvation
13. Public Enemies
14. Funny People