This is probably completely worthless to you if you’re not familiar with Rich Christiano’s godawful American Christian film, Time Changer, but I’m posting it here anyway.
1. The Tatami Galaxy/四畳半神話大系
Word has it that anime in recent years has sucked mightily. One wouldn’t know it if one primarily watched the shows we’ve been getting every two years from Mindgame director Masaaki Yuasa. His latest is an 11-episode minor miracle. Also miraculous is the fact that it was simultaneously broadcast on television in Japan and on Hulu in the United States. His other two series don’t look likely to ever get a release outside Japan, and this is his best yet–a fun, jaunty, and frantic dip into issues of identity, regret, and life.
2. The Duck Knight Returns
You may know about my nearly-20-year-old Darkwing Duck obsession, a love that bloomed when the show debuted in 1991, which led me to running what was quite possibly the world’s most popular Darkwing Duck fansite (at the time) all through my high school years. Admittedly, I haven’t paid much attention to the Masked Mallard or his fan community of late, but rest assured: my heart still beats purple blood. So when I found out that Boom! Studios was giving Darkwing Duck a new comic book series in twenty-freaking-ten, that same heart nearly stopped beating. And upon actually getting my hands on the first issue, I rode the nerdiest high I’ve experienced in years. Ian Brill’s writing nails the tone of the show expertly. James Silvani’s gorgeous art makes Darkwing look more like Darkwing than he ever did in the series’ 1991 episodes. Saying the book feels like a natural and comfortable expansion of the show is no mere platitude. This is everything it should be and more.
Shortly before the release of the first issue, the planned 4-part comic story was expanded to an ongoing monthly, thanks to a voluminous outpouring of fan-love. Here’s hoping the same crew sticks around for a while. Good job, Boom! Studios, for finally getting me to be a comic book store regular again.
3. Bon Odori Dancing
I’m taking a Japanese course this semester and my teacher suggested that members of the class participate in the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple’s annual Obon Festival by practicing for and performing in the Bon Odori street dancing. It was a fun and beautiful experience, dancing in the streets in unison with hundreds of people from the Temple, the Japanese-American community, and the rest of the city, all of us in our yukatas and happi coats. And I’m kinda in love with the Japanese folk music we’ve been dancing to. After two weeks of practice, it came and went all too quickly; I’m already looking forward to participating next July.
4. Afterburner Climax
Oh my, yes. Yes, yes, yes. My friends, this is a video game. You shoot down hundreds of plains, and you want to shoot them down all in a row so you get mad points. It’s like 20 minutes long start to finish and it is perfect.
5. Twin Peaks
More specifically, the first 16 episodes or so of Twin Peaks. I don’t know what kept me from this show for so long, being something of an admirer of David Lynch, but I voraciously consumed the show’s first movement, delighted equally by its horror and soap opera qualities. And then, well, the quality plummeted drastically and instantly after the show’s main arc and I’ve only been able to choke down Guys, I would rather do homework than sit down and watch an episode of these middle episodes. I’m assured that it’s worth watching to the end, so I will. But in the meantime, this thing is work.
Seriously, though, Kyle MacLachlan’s Special Agent Dale Cooper is one of the best things that’s ever graced television. And this scene between the Brothers Horne is pretty much the best thing that’s ever happened to me. (Early season 2, mild spoilers.)
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.
1. Slings & Arrows
I don’t know how this incredible show managed to not really show up on my radar over the last six years, what with my routine checking of former Kids in the Hall cast members’ IMDb pages, but I’m glad it finally did. Eighteen episodes over three seasons of quality Canadian television, set at a fictional Shakespearean festival. Those eighteen episodes pack a lot of emotional punch, and the show’s case for great theatre and performances and the value of art is exhilarating. William Hutt’s Charles Kingman’s King Lear is one of the most devastatingly beautiful performances I’ve ever seen, and I can only wish that I could see him do the play front to bakc.
2. Now and Then, Here and There
There aren’t all that many new things on this list. This is an anime originally aired in Japan in 1999. It plays like a beautiful combination of Castle in the Sky and Grave of the Fireflies, set in the world of Nausicaa. Studio Ghibli references aside, it’s a powerful and thoughtful piece about violence and war, as well as the potential for goodness humanity has. It’s pessimistic and optimistic in the same breath. It’s wonderful.
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
There are few, few things I have found more satisfying than putting on my fucking demon pants and punching some demons in the fucking face. Like an inverted, Persona 3, this mainline Shin Megami Tensei game is light on story and dialogue, but incredibly expressive through its mood and design.
4. Little King’s Story
I’ve just begun this game over the weekend, but I’m already completely smitten. It’s an ingenious mix of time management, real-time strategy, kingdom simulation, charming design, and beautiful music. May be the best Wii original title I’ve played.
5. The Thin Man
I’ve been watching quite a few of the great screwball comedies of the thirties lately. Most charming in this recent batch was the incredibly funny 1934 film, The Thin Man. The banter between William Powell and Myrna Loy’s Nick and Nora Charles is some of the best stuff that’s ever been committed to celluloid.
A photo essay by John D. Moore
 Fig. 1. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson twiddling his fingers |
 Fig. 2. The twiddled fingers of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson |
Even if you don’t have time tonight to honor Chow Day by watching a film featuring on made by Stephen Chow Sing-Chi or didn’t get to attend a kickass Chow Day (observed) party yesterday, take just a bit of time to enjoy this amazing clip from 1994′s Love on Delivery (featuring the old “Gar Fei Cat” English translation). Film comedy doesn’t get any better than this, folks.
No disrespect intended, because 30 Rock‘s a good, well-written show and Alec Baldwin’s presence and excellent performance are essential ingredients to the show’s quality, but…
The characters’ similarities are pretty striking.
Quoth director Sam Raimi,
As far as Spider-Man, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about what people didn’t like and missteps that I’d made. But I learned those lessons on the previous two, I was just a little quieter about them. I made a lot of mistakes, and it’s part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker.”The Spider-Man films, I’ve made mistakes, but I really do look at them as things that I’ve learned, and hope that when I apply what I’ve learned to this next one, I really make a film that people enjoy and is really true to the character in a fresh, original way. That’s my goal.
So, I take this to mean that Spider-Man 4 will run a smooth hour and forty minutes. There will be almost no action sequences, save for a couple of short, very visceral mano-a-mano showdowns. Scheming villains will get very little screentime. The bulk of the film will consist of Young People having Young People Problems to amusing musical cues whilst delightfully mugging for the camera.
How he can hope to carry this off without James Franco, I don’t know. But if he’s truly learned about what works and doesn’t in a Spider-Man film, I’m very much looking forward to this. You have my attention, Mr. Raimi!