Sex and the City

Never thought I'd watch this as I'd never seen the series that inspired but, here I am watching the Sex in the City movie. The movie finds Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda four years after the hit HBO series ended, as they continue to juggle jobs, friendships and relationships and start to navigate motherhood, marriage and Manhattan real estate. Most importantly, the main plot of the film finds Carrie and Mr. Big decide to get married. The film then races through various themes of love, commitment, individuality, forgiveness, friendship, loss, loneliness and just about every other human condition you can think of.

I'm surprised that I really liked this movie. The film was funny. Pure and simple it did the one thing I didn’t really expect it to be able to do: It made me laugh. A lot. The humor was more “male” than I expected it to be, and a little more crude at times. There were several solid laugh out loud moments and the rest was quite entertaining. In most movies, you have characters that make their way through the story. But Sex and the City didn’t really have a story. The characters WERE the story, and in this context it really worked because of the diversity in the 4 main characters and their legitimate charm and likability (aside from the Miranda character)… but most importantly because of the long tested chemistry between them all. The chemistry of that on screen friendship was palpable and carried the movie.

Although sometimes a bit forced, I found the emotional and touching scenes worked. Each of the main characters go through significant challenges in the movie and at times it is communicated quite well. As good as the film's drama is...there was simply too much going on. For some reason the producers felt the need to give each and every one of the 4 main characters a significant story line sub-plot instead of one central story or without tying them together. 4 full stories takes screen time, each one interrupting the other and causing far to many themes to be brought into it. It’s not that any of the stories weren’t good, nor that any of the themes introduced weren’t worthy ones to be explored, it's just that Sex and the City had too many things going at the same time, and as such it hindered my ability to savor or appreciate any single one of them. In spite of that I loved this movie and while I may not check out the series anytime soon, but I'll be watching this movie every now and then.

Hal Sparks: Charmageddon

I've only known of Hal Sparks from acting on Queer as Folk and his appearances on VH1's I love the 80s series. I've never knew he was a stand up comedian and a pretty good at that. His takes on the difference between women and men,sexting and anything else of pop culture,his take on comedy is definitely refreshing and straight forward. From beginning to end his set is packed full of intelligent, hilarious, and perfectly executed comedic insight that's so close to my own that I found myself exclaiming "Exactly!" "Yes!" and "That's so true!" in between fits of uncontainable laughter. His fundamental beliefs on "unsweetened" tea and drink sizes are raised to new levels with his passionate delivery and his priceless insight into the history and execution of "sexting" will made me sigh an enthusiastic "Nnnff..."! Sparks has a way about him, a command of himself and his audience that is at once disarming and just plain hot. And in this one hour special, he showcases his many levels of awesomeness perfectly. "Charmageddon" is indeed charming, but not in a wholesome and quaint B&B way; certainly not in a old school Austen hero way. It, and Sparks, are charming in a "woke up in bed with some guy you just met and are not sure how he managed to get you there or where your pants are" kind of way. And by that odd analogy, I trying to say that I really liked Charmageddon.

Glee - Season 1b

The extra nine episodes that were added to Glee's first season really feel that they should have given room to breathe as its own complete season. In fact, I spend a bit of time musing about how different the storyline would have developed if it was the proper 2nd season. These episodes "add on" status forces the various plots to rush themselves and squander their potential. The back nine episodes have certainly given us some great episodes of television - "Dream On" and "Theatricality" are probably the series' strongest hours, with "The Power of Madonna" coming out as the most fun. But overall, the conclusion to the show's first season is a bit uneven. The mid-season premiere Hell-O left a lot to be desired as it quickly undoes all that characters had accomplished in the prior run, while a great arc about Rachael finding her mother is rushed to hell and back. I mean, they have a small build up to it, the reveal tied nicely to the main arc, and then their relationship is quickly explored and wrapped up in one episode...as a B-story (well, as a b story to a really good main plot, but still more time could've been given to the story).

Perhaps, even worse is the revelation that the writers have no clue how to handle relationships. Will and Emma are somewhat tolerable. But the season's main triangle between Rachael, Finn and new boy Jesse St James. For one thing, The thrust of Jesse's relationship with Rachael is that he's exactly like her...without all the quirks that make Rachael enduring to watch. Also their relationship wasn't believable as Jesse's intentions weren't clear. The writers just kept flip-flopping about whether Jesse was actually in love with her or was just using her, so when the big betrayal comes along and Jesse starts going on about how he's the victim in the all of this, it extremely difficult to buy into because their relationship was poorly developed. It really really was the worse relationships I've seen played out on television in some time.

Anyway its not all bad. As I said, The back nine episodes have some of the season's best episodes. Sometimes, the show amazes me by bouncing great humor off of strong dramatic moments. The songs here are even more infectious the the last batch, the dancing is fun and the drama is both what you would expect from a high school show, while also making fun of the genre. The writers can do a great job when they put their minds to it and I guess they'll have had more time to plan the entirety of season two as it's produced. They get some good guests like Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris, and it's mostly enjoyable week in and week out. It definitely walks a fine line every time out, but I don't think they've really stumbled yet. I'm definitely interested in seeing more.

Family Guy - Season 8

With its eighth season, not only has Family Guy aired double the amount of episodes it aired before it was initially canceled, but it also reached it's 150th episode. I noticed that quite a few animated shows that I watch reached some kind of milestone episode this year: South Park reached 200, Simpsons reached 450, Aqua Teen made it to 100, and now this show has 150 under its belt. At this point the show has gone full on insane, trying everything in its power to show that there's still life in this show and that they haven't run out of ideas. This tactic actually works as this may be the strongest season since the 4th, when the show originally returned to television. They finally reduced their reliance on cutaway jokes and started to focus more on telling weird stories.

The season started off really strong with their traditional "Road To" episode that had involved traveling through a bunch of parallel universes. Its may well be the best episode of the show in years. The episodes only get more bizarre from there and I really liked that started to get the other characters more involved in the plotlines as opposed to using them solely for a quick joke. The 150th episode is one of the more notable episodes as its a completely character driven show that has Brian and Stewie trapped in a bank vault, and mostly focused on their unique relationship. It was surprisingly dramatic and while not entirely entertaining, I'd say it was one of the better efforts the show has ever put out. I don't know how much longer the show is gonna gone on, though Seth MacFarlane had stated that he has expressed ending the show after at least 2 more seasons, but we'll see if the promise of more money doesn't change that.

The Cleveland Show - Season 1

This show confuses me. For one thing, does Seth MacFarlane really need an hour and a half of television every Sunday night? I mean, I could see this show appearing if Family Guy or American Dad were finished, but to have three series in production at the same time seems to be overkill. Second, I can understand why Cleveland was chosen to have a spin-off, he's was (depending on who you ask) the most developed of Peter Griffin's entourage and would have the most to gain from having his own show...but why has his personality become so negative? They basically completely changed his personality to make him having his own show work and that may be one of the bigger faults for the show. He was the sanest member of Peter's group and was a likable supporting character, but here they keep trying to play up the idea that he's a horrible person and it just doesn't feel right. This personality swap became more apparent when in an latter Family Guy episode, Peter and the gang pop up at Cleveland's house and Cleveland acts more like his old likable self.

The best thing I can say about The Cleveland Show is that its at least better than what the promos made it out to be. The show is decent but while Family Guy and American Dad specialize in bizarre story lines, Cleveland is just a straight up sitcom with harsh jokes thrown around every couple of seconds. The only real standout moment from the season was a rap battle between Cleveland Jr. and a rapper played by Kanye West. Sure, there were funny jokes here and there, but nothing I can remember off the top of my head. There's room for improvement and I assume that the show did as well as the other Seth MacFarlane-produced shows. I guess I'll see what they can do with their second season.

The Simpsons - Season 21

Yep, The Simpsons are still doing their usual thing every Sunday night. And as usual I'm there to watch it when there isn't anything better on. The 21st season is ,of course, just more of the same. While it's a no brainier that the season is no where near as good as the show's early runs, I'd have to say overall this was one of the shows slightly stronger years. Some of better episodes this year saw Bart getting his teacher fired and getting a younger, more modern teacher as a replacement, Marge entering the Ultimate Punch Kick and Choke Championships in an attempt to get it to end, and Homer wins a million dollars through the lottery but can't tell Marge because he ditched her at a wedding reception to get the ticket. The strongest episodes appeared at the end of the season, among which, was an admittedly touching episode where Lisa tries to save a beached whale and a Sideshow Bob episode that was a huge improvement over the last episode to feature my favorite villain (which was over 2 years ago, I need more Sideshow Bob, please...). Sadly, the season ends on a pretty weak American Idol parody that continues the shows tradition of wasting their celebrity guests. Oh well, the show's neither purely hilarious nor incredibly terrible at this point. It's just middle of the road, but it has just enough going for it that its never too much trouble to check out what the Simpsons are up to.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Season 7

Rewatching the Aqua Teen Movie got me interested in regularly watching the series again, something I have haven't done since season 5. I guess I picked a good season to jump back in as it's in this season that the Aqua Teens reach their 100th episode, and it's a pretty good run of episodes for something so late in the series lifespan. The best way to describe this season is really weird. The show has always been pretty damn freaky, but I guess the show's been stepping up the weirdness angle by a ton since I stopped watching. For the most part I have to say that this tactic was a bit hit and miss. The season actually began last year with a somewhat mediocre one-off Christmas episode where a Master Shake decides to cut a rap album and the season resumed in February with a run of decent episodes. The first episode "Rabbot Redux" had a lot of homages to the first episode ever, and at first, I couldn't tell if this was a reboot for the series or just another screwy premise.

Other episodes had the teens visit an island of creepy looking birds to use their eggs for a pinball machine, Carl finding out what his life would have been like if he had a head full of hair, and the guys trying to keep their hands on a giant hamburger until long after it is no longer edible. The 100th episode finale has the teens realize that due to the show's short running time they're only halfway to the hundred half-hour qualification for syndication and then somehow get lost in a Scooby Doo parody. It wasn't too bad of an episode, but I personally think the aforementioned "Rabbot Redux" would have been a better choice for the 100th show, what with its string of fan references. I don't how much longer the show can last at this point, but there's at least one more movie coming anyway. But I guess for now I'll have to go back and watch the other seasons I missed.

Dexter - Season 2

The second season of Dexter just barely fails to reach the quality of the first, what with all of the revelations and such, but they still manage to weave a web of interesting characters and surprising twists. Sadly, I first started watching this show at the end of this season, so I kinda robbed myself of all the extremely intense moments that pop up over the season. While season one's plot seemed like something that would appear later in a series, season two's story seems like it could work as a final story arc. Season two sees another huge serial killer gaining attention in Miami, but this time it's Dexter himself. His graveyard of victims underwater gets discovered by accident, and he has to do everything he can to keep himself in the clear.

There's plenty of other subplots, like Dexter faking a heroin addiction to cover up his true secret and Deb trying to come out of her shell after what happened last season, and most of the supporting cast's roles are expanded and developed a bit. Whereas I found Angel and La Guerta to be pretty non-essential obstacles the first time, much more is shown about their true character, and they actually become somewhat sympathetic. The sole exception is Doakes. His actions rapidly cross the line into being just ridiculous. We're meant to believe that he has, quite literally, been following Dexter every single night for weeks now. Really? He's been portrayed as a smart cop in the past, but Doakes' "investigation" around Dexter is just silly. And his smug, hardass attitude doesn't make him any more bearable. Doakes being so suspicious of Dexter was a compelling idea and it definitely reaches an exciting climax, but its execution needed a bit more work. Kinda went off on a tangent there.

The show's still really about Dexter, and he's still a really great character, funny and resourceful as he has a major identity crisis and learns more about his past. I thought the background stuff revealed near the end of the first run came a little early in the series, saying too much too soon. But they proved that there's still plenty about the character we don't know. I also like how Dexter has to spend a good bulk the season playing defense and trying to manipulate the current crisis. I didn't care too much for the relationship drama Dexter endures, but Lila was a unique, interesting character that resulted from it. I also didn't care that the resolution to the story arc resulted more from him being lucky than smart, but that's not enough to distract from an otherwise excellent season and the first time I saw this it certainly made me interested to see what happens next.

Dexter - Season 1

Every year, I watch all the previous seasons of Dexter on dvd to refresh myself for the new one. Dexter is a unique series, though it isn't as clever or edgy as it thinks it's being, but it still stands out as a truly original take on the well-established and well-populated crime television genre. Dexter is a blood spatter expert who works with the police, and at night ritualistically murders criminals who have thus far escaped justice within the system. So, he's kinda like Batman, if Batman went around killing people. Dexter's moral code makes him more likable than if he was just a generic serial killer who killed innocents, but the show doesn't make him out to be a good guy either. The show does a good job of making him sympathetic while making sure we know he's still a disturbed individual who should not be emulated.

The show's not really about serial killing anyway, it's just an aspect of a really good character who helps solve crimes. Michael C. Hall does a great job depicting Dexter, both when Dexter goes through everyday life pretending to be normal and when he's letting his dark side loose. Hall plays the role with the perfect balance of cheerful insincerity and slight disdain for human interaction—believable, but he's never alienating or too creepy. The enthusiasm for the role is evident in every action of Hall's and it makes his character one of the mesmerizing in recent years. He's very funny, as his narration reveals character without being too obvious and adding some sly humor. The supporting cast is varying in quality, but his girlfriend Rita and coworker Angel are both very likable, while the his hard-edged rival Sergeant Doakes is very easy to despise.

The first season's story arc is something I might expect later in a show's lifespan. The plot reveals a lot about Dexter's character and how he became the person he is now. He and the police are working to find the Ice Truck Killer, a serial killer who cuts prostitutes into intricate pieces and leaves them at a scene with no blood. While the cops try to figure it out, they're missing pieces to the puzzle, as the killer leaves clues for Dexter himself. The story arc moves along at a comfortable pace always introducing something else when you're ready for the next twist. There's also some typical relationship problems to work through and the sub-plots for the side characters are entertaining in their right. The season finale does justice to everything they built and ends the season with a very interesting twist that provides some entertainment for the next season. The show really offers up some of the most satisfying crime drama currently on television today.

16 & Pregnant - Season 2

The stories that made up the second season of 16 and Pregnant didn't capture me in the same way the select few season one episode I saw did. Nor did they engage me in the manner that the excellent Teen Mom spin-off did. I'm not completely sure on this, but the concept of this series seemed designed to only run for one or two seasons. The stories told this go round are just too similar to one another and to the stories from last year. Every girl here is either a stupid spoiled brat who thinks that having a baby will not change their lives in the slightest (which makes their struggling with their babies all the more satisfying) or the girls have extremely douchebaggy boyfriends/baby fathers. In most cases the girls seem to be a combination of the two types.

One of the few interesting twists on the formula, was with a girl who was impregnated by her rebound boyfriend and really wanted to get back together with her first boyfriend. But it turns out that her old boyfriend is the douchebag type that most of these girls end up with and the boyfriend she's trying to ditch is the perfect idealistic one that most teenage boys should aspire to be. Its a shame that the rest of the stories couldn't live up to that one. I also can't help but shake this disturbing feeling that some of these girls got pregnant for the sole purpose of being on this show. It's a creepy thought, but some teens now-a-days are dumb enough to do something like that. Anyway, there's been rumors that a second season of Teen Mom is one the way, but it hasn't been noted if its going to follow the same girls from the first season or follow the girls introduced in this show. I hope its the former, cause most of these girls, as was the season as a whole, are just not that interesting to follow up on.

The Real World: D.C.

Well...I really don't know what to make of this. After the mediocrity of The Real World's Cancun season, I mentioned that I was actually excited for to see the show go to Washington DC, as it might allow for the cast to engage in some intelligent conversions in between all the boozing and drama. That's kinda what I got, but what I didn't expect was for all of it to be so boring. This may have more to do the fact that the cast itself was pretty dull. Almost all of them were either musicians, artists, or trying to get into the political scene. Now this wouldn't have so bad if there had been a bit more diversity among the cast's interests, but to have 2 to 3 cast members sharing the same goals, made for some pretty repetitive storylines. Its not even worth going into detail on each cast member except for Andrew, who was just weird and quirky and always kept things from getting boring. Mike's coming out to his family story was kinda sweet and some of the strives he takes to become more accepting of his bi-sexuality is pretty engaging. And I guess Ty is worth a mention...for being the most unlikeable twat to appear on the show in a while.

While the political angle of the show was a lot less appealing than I assumed it would be, it was even more disappointing to see that the drama that the show survives on wasn't that appealing. There was a war between "wound too tight" Emily and dumbass Ty that pretty much owned the show for the first couple of episodes, but that didn't really go anywhere and most of the conflict in that war came from Ty's blatant retardation. Even the season's most advertised moment, where Andrew suffers major injury (at the hands of Ty's retardation), went no where and the fact that nothing resulted from it after the episode wasn't much help either. Oh well the season was kinda watchable, at least it was better than the Cancun season, but it still can't measure up to the wonders of the Brooklyn season. I guess I'll never see a recent season as good that one again.

Archer - Season 1

Archer comes from some of the same people who worked on Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo (the latter more apparent through the character designs). Archer has the typical style of humor that Dingo established and its concept actually reminds me of The Venture Bros in that it's that kind of show where most of the stories revolve around the bureaucracy of adventurers as opposed to the actual adventures. The difference is that Archer trades out the Johnny Quest-like world for a James Bond-like one. Sterling Archer is a James Bond-ish spy, but mostly he's a jerk, a liar, and a sociopath with extreme mommy issues. The recurring cast of characters includes his mother, who runs the spy agency (played wonderfully by Jessica Walters), and his ex-girlfriend, the sexy black-ops agent Lana Kane, along with other members of the agency.

Archer manages to be a pretty good character-driven comedy that's able to mesh well with some genuinely interesting plotlines. The quality of the writing jumps about from time to time. Sometimes there's the string of intelligent dialogue and show effortlessly combines tight story-writing with the improvisational rhythm that most of the voice cast (Jon Benjamin in particular) are known for. But other times the writing can drop to "worst episodes of Family Guy" levels of crassness for crassness' sake. They manage to get things back on track often enough though and there was enough clever material and a few moments where I really have to give these guys some credit. The show could be better, but I'll be waiting to see where the show goes next season.

Freaknik: The Musical

There isn't much in the way of quality animated material starring a black cast. Bebe's Kids was a largely forgettable movie. The Proud Family and The Boondocks are the only television shows that come to mind, with the Boondocks being the only one that's legitimately good. Freaknik is an animated special on Adult Swim that pretty much continues that tradition. Seriously, This thing aired on television about three days ago and I'm still hard pressed to remember what went on during all of this. The special is apparently based on an actual party that used to take place in the south until it was shut down. In the special, the spirit of the party is manifested as the ghost of Freaknik...who barely does anything, which is a shame because T-Pain's performance as the character is great and things would have been much better if they'd focused on his antics instead of the unrelated rap group that serve as the focus of the plot.

From what I remember they were on their way to preform in some rap contest hosted by Freaknik and along the way they run into a bunch of characters that don't really help or hinder them. Meanwhile there's a secret society of prominent African Americans (I only recognized Oprah, Bill Cosby and Al Sharpton) that try to kill Freaknik but don't really do anything interesting until the end. The plot's very scatterbrained (like most Adult Swim shows) and the jokes aren't very good, with about half of them being directed at Al Sharpton. Despite being labeled a musical, there isn't much in the way of songs here. I can only recall like 4 songs and most of them were used in the first 15-20 mins of the hour-long show. It also didn't help that outside the main theme, none of the songs are that memorable, which is disappointing because the special features a huge gathering of hip-hop and R&B artists and its apparent that they didn't utilize their resources to their full potential. Oh well, Freaknik really could have been done better. I wasn't really expecting to be blown away by this, but I did get a few chuckles of it.

Invader Zim

Its been a while since I sat down and watched this show. I forgot how much I loved it. Jhonen Vasquez is well known for his graphic novels that have an...interesting sense of humor and style. They're not exactly kid friendly so I have no idea what the hell Nickelodeon was thinking when they got Jhonen to produce an animated series for them. But, it kinda worked out because we got an edgy, dark, and really unique series. Invader Zim is about Zim, who is sent on a fake mission to conquer Earth by his leaders because he completely screwed up their first attempt at universal domination. On Earth Zim and his faithful SIR-unit robot sidekick Gir study the human population (who are largely stupid and disgusting) and they come up with stupid ideas to enslave or destroy said population. Zim's schemes are often thwarted by the plans own flaws or by Zim's arch-nemesis Dib, a school kid whose freakishly obsessed with paranormal research. The two often come at odd and usually hilarity ensues.

Its hard to really find something to say about invader Zim that hasn't already been said. The most intriguing thing about the show is how its sense of humor is so unique and clearly of the shows own creation. Most of the humor tends to come from the odd use of a variety of animals (notably piggies and mooses) as well a wonderful disregard for human life. Jhonen Vasquez's whacked-out style works perfectly for the an animated series. His style has more appeal for adults than children, with its dark and sometimes morbid tones and sometimes shocking violence. There's also reference upon reference to science fiction stories and movies along with plenty of jokes that'll fly over the heads of the younger viewers. All these factors seem to have been too much for the figureheads at Nickelodeon too handle as they pulled the plug on the show in its second season.

The characters all have these quarks that would only work with them. Zim has a tendency to go on long rants about his plans and his delusions of grandeur always make him a delight to listen to, thanks in part to Richard Horvitz impeccable voice work. His sidekick GIR may be the only character that can get away with just saying random crap all day. He's adorable and he's one of those characters who's fun to watch do anything, having that right level of idiocy that makes him funny as opposed to annoying. Dib can fall into the annoying category from time to time but his insane attempts to get everyone to see that Zim is an alien are a treat. You really have to feel bad for the poor kid that just wants to help the human race, who in return, think of him as a freak. Its a shame that Nick couldn't handle the show, because it was really starting to get intriguing towards the end, with story arcs popping up here and there along with a greater importance on continuity (and an episode where Zim eats waffles). The show's cancellation was a tragic lost (especially with the pure junk that Nick put it in its place), but at least for a while we got to watch one of the best animated shows in the last decade.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns

Mewtwo Returns isn't a movie, its a TV special that was tarted up to direct-to-dvd movie status. As the title suggests, the special is a follow up the events of the first movie. From what I've been told, the English version is a direct translation of the Japanese script and if this is the case then the Japanese version of the series must be pretty boring. OK, the script is refreshingly intelligent so maybe its just the way the story progresses that is fairly dull. I mean, the movie features Ash and the gang having to deal with a large chunk of the Team Rocket organization (always a treat when it happened in the show) in addition to the team's boss Giovanni, but nothing really becomes of it. It's sort of a huge build-up to a big letdown. Mewtwo himself doesn't do much except continue to ponder his existence. Even when he finally does something, he just gives in. There are morals to story like in the first movie, but their now forced in your face or hypocritical and its actually kind of sweet. All-in-all the special is decent is worth at least one look. I know that I didn't have much to say, but there wasn't much to talk about.

Pokemon: The First Movie

Ah yes, lots of memories with this one. The first Pokemon movie was released at the peak of the craze the series commanded in the late 90s. I remember seeing this twice in the theaters and watching it countless times when it was on video. Just recently watched it for the first time in almost a decade and I found it to still be pretty good. I don't really have much to say here that hasn't already been said. This is the story of a human created advanced pokemon called Mewtwo and his quest for a purpose. Mewtwo then goes about attracting all the best pokemon and their trainers for a fight that the TV series main characters get involved with. Essentially, its the typical man creates beast, beast supercedes man, beast learns humanity stuff that movies churn out every couple of years. The movie is a tad darker than what was normally done in the regular anime series but it pulls it of fairly well and succeeds in conveying some form of emotions. On the flip side though, there are some god awful and just plain hypocritical morals that the film crams down our throats. Pokemon is the wrong franchise to try and drive home a "fighting is wrong" message or a racism stance for that matter. I've been told that none of that exists in the original Japanese version of the film which also features a better characterization of Mewtwo as opposed to dub version where he acts like a cold-hearted villain with a generic desire for world domination. I have no interest in going out of my way to see the Japanese version so I'll just take what I can get. The movie isn't as good as when I was a child, but its still a nice diversion.

Teen Mom - Season 1

One show I enjoyed last year was MTV's 16 and Pregnant, a documentary series that followed the lives of several girls who were...well, sixteen and pregnant. Despite not being in the target gender demographic, I was intrigued by the hardships that the girls were going through and was shocked that MTV didn't try to sugarcoat any of it and instead offered the cold hard truth about teenage pregnancies. Teen Mom is the follow-up series, focus on who I assume were the four most popular girls: Maci, Amber, Catelynn and Farrah. The series gives us a continued look into the lives of these now-teen parents and the events are narrated by each girl first hand as they must balance their personal life while taking care of their new baby.

Out the four girls, the most interesting one is Catelynn, who gave her baby up for adoption. At first I wasn't too invested in her and her boyfriend Tyler because they didn't have a child with them. But how the adoption effects them is truly an engaging story. This was clearly a difficult choice for them, and they are very supportive of each other as they deal with the pain of not having their baby in their lives. Their parents are not as supportive as Tyler’s dad refuses to forgive his son for putting Carly up for adoption and the same goes for Catelynn's mom. Maci and Amber are similar girls as their stories largely deal with the stress that their boyfriends give them and the difficulties that they have trying to continue their education. Both girls try to work things out with their boyfriends for the sake of their children with varying results. Farrah is, without a doubt, the worst of the girls. She's the only one of the group that doesn't have a significant other and as a result spends most of her time dating and trying to keep her social life exactly the same as was before she got pregnant. Her mother is overbearing as hell, but she basically has put of with a spoiled brat as she dumps her child on her to go out with her friends. Farrah does get her priorities straight by the end of her story, but its quite an annoying tale to watch.

Like 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom doesn’t sugar-coat the reality of being a mother. It shows each girl rising to the challenge of having to grow up before they are ready, and there were some cringe-worthy moments that demonstrated certain levels of immaturity...mostly coming from Farrah. The show's never pretty, it’s just an intriguing look into the life of four teenage girls, who will have to learn to take care of a new baby. The seemingly genuine stories and situations make for a both captivating and entertaining look into life-after teenage pregnancy. 16 and Pregnant is coming back for a second season and it looks be just as captivating as this was.

The Boondocks - Season 2 (Review)

I actually liked this second season of The Boondocks a lot better than I remember I did. The season aired on television almost two years ago and I recall not being as impressed with these episodes. I think that may have had something to do with the shift in tone. Whereas most of the first season focused on Huey and had some social satire hidden amongst it storylines. Most of the second season focuses on Grandad or Riley and the wacky misadventures they can get into and its more enjoyable than I gave them credit for. Most of these episodes are as hilarious as the first season's better efforts, but I think could've used a little more Huey in some places.

The dvd actually features two episodes that didn't air on television, one of which called the "Hunger Strike" just happens to be the only Huey-centric episode of the season. It attempts to capture the essence of what made his earlier outings so memorable, but ultimately feels weighed down by the BET caricatures (Though it wouldn't hurt to see more of them in the future). The other banned episode " The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show" actually might be one of my favorites for this season along with "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back", which continues an battle from season one while pushing things into a somewhat cleaver parody of The Exorcist. In any case, the second season is just as strong as the first even with the focus change. This is all thanks in part to the entertaining characters, a dynamic visual style and strong voice acting, which all form one of Adult Swims more enjoyable series

A Very Sunny Christmas (Review)

It's pretty annoying that the Always Sunny Christmas special is only avilabile on dvd. We all know that the episode is probably going to air next Christmas and there's been talk of it being included on season five's dvd release. Either way, this special is very funny and a bit stronger than most of season five. The story finds Charlie and Mac trying to recapture the magic of Christmas by reminiscing about the happiest experiences of their childhood. However, they discover that their Christmases suck and they set out to recapture the Christmas spirit. Meanwhile, Dee and Dennis are bitter towards Frank for all of the crappy Christmases he's given them over the years, so they attempt to stage their own version of A Christmas Carol in the hopes of making Frank re-examine his life.

Without spoiling to much, the special manages to be full of memorable moments. The flashbacks the gang as children and how horrible their Christmases were is delightfully spiteful (Mac's flashback in particular). There are some nice cameos from recurring characters and an "interesting" tribute to the old Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Though I've never given him praise before, I've always found Danny Devito to be hilarious as Frank and he's really the star of the show here (a particular scene involving a couch comes to mind). Despite being a bit more vulgar then the show, the episode still manages to embrace that sense of Christmas tradition and highlights the importance of friends and family(well friends anyway), no matter how retarded they are. It's a fun little episode that I might have to include on my yearly Christmas television list.

Glee - Season 1a (Review)

FOX extended this season by nine episodes that will air in the spring, but it's clear from the mid-season finale that these past 13 episodes were envisioned and written as a full season on it's own so I'll talk about this first part of the season as such. I really hadn't planned on watching this show at first, but the previews and the catchy songs they played during them got me interested enough to check it out. The show details Spanish teacher Will Schuester's attempt at forming a Glee club at his high school and that club's attempt to win at the sectionals competition, while cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester tries to disband or just outright destroy the club. Meanwhile all the students and even some of the teachers have to deal with their own problems; mainly multiple love triangles and multiple pregnancies. Oh...and all of this is a musical in the sense that we watch the glee club's performances and some of the characters have fantasy musical numbers (all pop-culture songs by-the-way).

Anyway, after the fairly ingenious pilot episode, the show kinda spends a few episodes trying to set an identity for itself. The show initially presented itself as a musical comedy, but at first it steered a bit too far into a musical drama with some fairly crazy storylines. The songs chosen to be preformed were odd (though preformed well) as most seemed to be done more for weak laughs than narrative progression. Luckily, the show finds its feet and plays to its strengths. The storylines becomes tighter and even the odd story arcs become interesting if just to see where they're going with them. The songs become stronger and fit into the various storylines much better and the characters have also developed a complexity rarely seen in high school series.

The characters are more likable than I initially expected. The pretty attractive Matthew Morrison makes the lead character Will Schuester loveable and relateable, while villainous Sue Sylvester is played to near perfection by the always hilarious Jane Lynch. Just as attractive and talented is Cory Monteith and Lea Michele as the student leads Finn and Rachel and Michele in particular shows considerable singing talents (taken from her years on Broadway). The rest of the cast all have their moments to shine (gay guy Kurt and wheelchair bound Artie are probably my favorites) and can all carry a tune pretty well. The show features some pretty good songs and performances from show-tunes to more recent popular music. The only real problem with the performances is the over abundance of auto-tune and at times flat-out piss poor lip syncing. That aside, Glee is pretty good and I'm curious to see where the remaining 9 episodes that will air in April will take the series.