Television

South Park Renewed Through 2013

South Park has been renewed. After the phenomenal critical success of the satirical religious musical “The Book of Mormon” penned by series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (alongside Robert Lopez), many fans of the show fell into speculation surrounding the future of South Park, when its renewal wasn’t announced alongside the usual crop of Comedy Central shows. Although Stone and Parker were quick to dismiss the suggestion that they were leaving the show behind for further ventures onto Broadway, it did little to calm the waters. 

The June mid-season finale of the show “You’re Getting Old” helped not one bit with the speculation, with its content and premise essentially suggesting that Stone and Parker were getting bored of the show. Following increased speculation with the episode out in the public domain, Parker, whilst appearing on The Daily Show to promote the musical, responded with “We love South Park, that’s still our thing.” 

True Blood – I’m Alive and On Fire

True Blood
is on a downward spiral. After a decent enough episode last week, which
was still riddled with flaws, I was hoping that the show would pick
itself up by the bootstraps and multiply the positives that existed in
the weeks to come. Instead, it seems like Alan Ball has taken a couple
of weeks off. “I’m Alive and On Fire” had so many problems that
articulating them all into prose would be quite the challenge, but at
its core, the episode was not an episode. Character arcs can happen
separately from each other, and in fact all of the best television
around works by having a diverse and interesting universe, but at this
point, True Blood feels like five different shows stuttering into each other for fifty minutes.

Breaking Bad – Box Cutter

Breaking Bad kicked off their fourth
season with an episode that had just about everything you could
expect from the series. The dark humor, powerful drama, brilliant
acting, and emphasis on presentation were all apparent. The episode
wasn’t without its flaws, though, namely some scenes that dragged on
and broke the tension that was building so well from all the way back
in the third season finale. “Box Cutter” may not have done
everything right, but what it did get right made for amazing
television.

Haven – A Tale of Two Audreys

“A
Tale of Two Audreys” only won its title during the excellent last five
minutes, which is too short to deserve the word “Tale.” The episode
brought us a better than average Haven investigation with our
Audrey taking center stage, and the newcomer remaining largely a
bystander despite some efforts to the contrary. Granted, with the other
newcomer, there was some effort to start the season with an intriguing
additional layer, but for now, I would have to say that sub-plot
fizzled.

The
story picked up precisely where we left off in the previous season
finale. Audrey, Nathan, and an FBI agent pretending to be the real
Audrey Parker held each other at gunpoint, with the latter demanding
some explanation. The scene was flawless and because of the “pull
another gun” comment, it successfully established the connection between
the two Audreys in the two cops’ and in the viewers’ minds. With more
guns on their side, Audrey and Nathan handcuff New Audrey and are about
to bring her to the police station when it starts raining frogs. That of
course is the second of the ten plagues of Egypt, the first being water
turning into blood a few frames earlier at the reverend’s place.

Emmy Nominations 2011: Fringe Snubbed & Game of Thrones Praised

This year’s Emmy nominations have just been unveiled as reported by Ali, and two dramas dear to Player Affinity TV (PATV) have met strikingly different fates. Fringe was all but ignored while Game of Thrones not only won recognition but arguably broke the glass ceiling. Since the announcement yesterday, Fringe
seems to have garnered better chances in a less prestigious contest.
The series has been appearing systematically on lists about the “Biggest
Snubs” of this year’s Emmy Awards. Fox’s sci-fi drama received Emmy
nominations in 2009 and 2010 for visual effects and sound editing
respectively. For its third season, generally considered by fans as its
best by far, expectations were high. Many timidly hoped for a nomination
of the drama series itself, more felt Anna Torv’s performance deserved a
nod, but all agreed John Noble could not be denied an Emmy. Anna Torv
and John Noble have both impressed and delighted viewers by each of them
playing several characters throughout the season.

Louie – Joan

“Joan” was probably the least
enjoyable of the second season episodes so far. But when the bulk of
the episode is a conversation with Joan Rivers and it’s still
watchable, then you’ve accomplished something. While it wasn’t the
most laugh-laden of episodes, “Joan” still showcased many of the
things the series does right. It also proved that C.K.’s recent
acknowledgment from the Emmy committee wasn’t unwarranted.

Right off the bat, Louie
was showing it can do what Wilfred
has forgotten how to do since its pilot: make toilet humor funny.
The standup segment in which Louie confesses he’s always within a
forty-eight hour window of having diarrhea was hilarious. He managed
to take something crass and elevate it, with an excellent sense of
timing, and the heart that comes from C.K.’s self-deprecation. When
Louie and Wilfred started out this season, they seemed like a great
match, both for their use of dark comedy and witty twists on
juvenile humor. As the season moved on though, Louie
is proving to be alone in its ability to add something more to crude
jokes, or at least not rely so heavily on them. That difference is
making Wilfred stand
out as the lesser of the two shows, while making me wonder if Louie
doesn’t deserve to be in better company.

Wilfred – Acceptance

This episode did see improvement over
the last two, but Wilfred is
still suffering from the same problems it has had since the pilot.
Namely an overabundance of juvenile humor that doesn’t come with the
subtle twist necessary to take that kind of comedy out of the gutter.
A strong finish and the return of one of its funnier characters helped “Acceptance” tremendously, but not enough to completely
get it over the show’s existing flaws, or another humorless guest
star.