Without a sound, Wednesday crept up on Tuesday, and engulfed it in its embrace. When the warm waves of Wednesday quieted, Tuesday had vanished. And thus Wednesday reigned. But when Thursday arrived, Wednesday receded with characteristic silence and grace, acquiescing to the new day.
Today has been a good, mostly lazy day to do laundry, read books, talk to people, and think. Among the things I have thought about are new projects and favorite television shows. And when presented with the question of what to post to my blog today, it was the television shows that shouted the loudest. Below, without much adornment, I present my 15 favorite television shows, as they occurred to me about an hour ago. I have left Japanese animated shows off this list, because for good or ill, they occupy a slightly different place in my mind.
1. The Sopranos. David Chase and his team of writers are cynical, cynical people with a cynical, cynical vision, and some of the greatest acting powerhouses in America. The American family, the media’s mob, the meaning of life–it’s all taken down with an impeccably entertaining touch.
2. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. This list is sadly lacking in television shows pre-1989, mostly because any shows I really liked from before then (Bewitched and I Love Lucy, for starters) were shows I pretty much haven’t watched since I was a teenager, and thus don’t really seem to count. But this show is practically nirvana. Its narrative tempo and proclivity for puns is, as far as I’m concerned, unrivaled.
3. Home Movies. The best American animated show since Rocky & Bullwinkle. Probably the best work anyone involved with it will ever do.
4. The Office (UK). Devastatingly funny. And just devastating.
5. The Wire. Season 4 may well be the height of series dramatic television. Season 5 isn’t.
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Has anyone ever successfully pulled off a non-anthology horror television series? (Genuine question–I don’t think I’ve seen it, though.) Because Larry David has, except he gives it to us dressed as a situation comedy.
7. NewsRadio. The middle three seasons of this show are probably the best, sharpest arguments for the medium of three-camera situation comedies that have ever been presented.
8. Freaks & Geeks. Show producer Judd Apatow has said that the good thing about so-called dramedies is that if the comedy falls flat, you can say it was supposed to be dramatic. Good thing this show excelled at both.
9. The Kids in the Hall. My favorite sketch comedy.
10. Seinfeld. Would probably be higher on the list, if I didn’t think Curb Your Enthusiasm improved upon what Seinfeld started.
11. Mad About You. That seasons 4 through 7 of this show aren’t on DVD is a sin. Few sitcoms could pull off capital-D Drama like this show could. That I’ve had a longstanding mancrush on Paul Reiser doesn’t hurt. The show spun its wheels and got a tad too maudlin near the end of its run, but redeemed its worst moments with one of the best bow-outs that’s ever graced television in its series finale. Really, my biggest beef with the show is that Anne Ramsay and Richard Kind both had their roles diminished as the show went on.
12. Arrested Development. The first season is pretty much perfect. Seasons 2 and 3 aren’t, but they’re still pretty great, for the most part.
13. The Simpsons. On the strength of its mid-nineties stuff, this might be higher. But then there’s all the episodes I’ve seen from this decade.
14. Good Neighbors/The Good Life. Mid-seventies British sitcom goodness.
15. Darkwing Duck. I’ll probably never be able to make a version of this list without Darkwing Duck.
September 12th EDIT: Slings & Arrows is conspicuously missing from this list. It belongs in the top 5-ish.
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Coordinated content is on hiatus. It may return in the near or distant future.
“You don’t think this day is the slightest bit significant?”
“What? Because at some point, a group of people set in place a system of recording time that would yield a day that would be known as 9-9-9? No, of course not.”
“Not even when I point out that it’s a Wednesday?”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Wednesday is the third day of the week–”
“–ah!–”
“–the workweek. And three squared is nine. Three threes is nine.”
“And three nines are twenty-seven. Still, completely meaningless.”
“Even in Europe, it’s 9-9-9 today.”
“Duh.”
“You’re saying that today does not portend anything significant or interesting?”
“Not likely, no.”
“Well…”
“Well, what?”
“Um. It’s my birthday.”
My weekend looks to be very busy, and I don’t have much time for coming up with a blog post for today. Instead, I’ll post a song I like.
I tend to listen to music visually. A little music video or movie, however abstract, materializes in my head. Sometimes, this takes me to a very beautiful place, which is why, over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening over and over to Korean singer and musician Younha’s song, “Strawberry Days.”
Younha, “Strawberry Days”, Someday
“This is bullshit,” Jake said, holding the plate up so that Ernie the busboy. Ernie was sitting at the far end of the kitchen, his necktie untied, texting something or other to someone or other. Ernie was Jake’s ride home, but he wasn’t about to just jump in and help wash dishes. “I’ve already washed this stupid dish three times tonight. I can tell, because it’s got this chip on the back.”
“Uh-huh,” Ernie nodded.
“It doesn’t end. I’m like that guy with the rock on the hill I read about.”
“Who, Sisyphus?”
“That’s the one. Every night, I come in here and wash the dishes and just an hour later I have to wash them again. It’s like–”
“JACOB COTTER!” a voice bellowed from somewhere below, rattling the pans hanging from the wall. Jake gripped the edge of the sink to steady himself. He looked over at Ernie, who indicated the drain in the center of the floor. “I, SISYPHUS, DO NOT GET PAID SIX DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS AN HOUR TO ROLL THIS BOULDER UP THIS STUPID HILL.” And then there was silence.
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This post is an installment in a continuing series of content coordinated by theme or motif with posts from Enoch Allred of Chiltingham, John Allred of clol Town, Jon Fairbanks of Funkadelic Freestylings of Another Sort, Eli Z. McCormick and Miriam Allred of Modern Revelation!, John D. Moore of Whatnot Studios, Davey Morrison, and Joseph Schlegel of Sour Mayonnaise. This week’s theme: ‘Sisyphean’.
When she was a baby, she was inconsolable, always desperate for attention, but unsatisfied when she got it. When she was a child, she was uncharacteristically despairing, reacting to each bit of ill news tangential to her own circumstance with anxiety and sorrow. When she was a teenager, she isolated herself from her peers, as everything they said stung with great venom and they could never understand. When she was in college, she mourned her high school years and wept for how they held her back. Now an adult, she wonders whether she would be so full of woe had she been born a day later, or had her parents never heard a nursery rhyme.
Two years ago, I released my first online animated short, “The Frog Prince.” I immediately started work on what was to be my follow-up, “Prince Charming.” In fact, at that link, I said that I hoped it would be done sometime in September 2007. That didn’t happen, mostly because of sudden dissatisfaction with my script.
I haven’t worked on it in almost 2 years. But as I was looking through some old files tonight, I came across all this character work and some animation tests. Perhaps it’s time to get cracking again.