))<>(( • Entourage has been picked up for a sixth season. Will these bitches never stop hugging it out?

Comments (1) latest by goathair

It's Like Lost, But Somehow Less Probable • Fringe has been picked up for a second season. That's right, 22 new dead end mysteries to never solve and heavy handed examples of Walter Bishop's eccentricity. Congratulations, J.J. Abrams. You'll finally be able to afford that underwater helipad you've always wanted.

Comments (3) latest by Genevieve

Which New TV Show Is The Most Popular Based On A Ridiculous Scale Of Measurement?

It's been a few weeks since this year's crop of new shows started, and the question on everyone's mind is HOW ARE THEY DOING IN TERMS OF FACEBOOK? Admittedly, that is not a question on anyone's mind. You could have Walter Bishop create a global neuroscanalyzer out of a softserve ice cream machine in the Massive Dynamic cafeteria and it would show you in pictographic images how not a single brain in the whole world is thinking about that. But just because a question isn't being asked doesn't mean it doesn't have an answer. Many of this fall's shows are already pulling ahead of the pack by the one true measurement (not the one true measurement) of pop cultural relevance: the Facebook fan page.

So, how ARE this fall's new shows doing in terms of Facebook?

Continue reading Which New TV Show Is The Most Popular Based On A Ridiculous Scale Of Measurement?...

Posted by Gabe at 4:15 PM in What America Wants
Tags: 90210 | Facebook | Fringe | Gary Unmarried | True Blood | Worst Week

Comments (5) latest by snowak

Wakka Wakka Wakka, Thomas Friedman

The Muppets are back, you guys. First there were those unaccounted for Muppet viral videos, then there were rumors that The Muppet Show might be revived. Meanwhile, Jason Segel is currently writing a new Muppet movie, and a Fraggle Rock movie is currently in pre-production.

But the true test of just how back the Muppets are, that proves their backness, is the appearance of Statler and Waldorf as Op-Ed columnists in today's New York Times. Wait, whuuuuuuut? I love Statler and Waldorf as much as the next guy who's old enough to remember Statler and Waldorf, but the Op-Ed page of the New York Times? They'll give those things out to anyone these days, huh, David Brooks? More importantly, does this mean the "paper of record" is going to have to include an op-ed from Alligator Boots now? So that the American people get a black puppet's perspective?

Posted by Gabe at 9:45 AM in What America Wants
Tags: Muppets

Comments (2) latest by coo

David Blaine: Living Historical Metaphor?

Gabe has already done the proper Videogum evisceration honors for both David Blaine's epic fail last night, and Blaine's excuses today that it was caused by George Bush's "Stock up on potable water, whatever that means." last-minute speech. But I have to post this clip I grabbed last night, which at the time I thought was funny because of its inherent assumption that there are people out there who were worried and upset that David Blaine's Dive Of Death special might be cut off by the President's speech. I thought it was dumb of ABC to think they needed to reassure people (even though, obviously, I was taping the David Blaine special.) But then I watched the speech, and now I just feel like this 30 seconds should go in a time capsule. Kinda funny, kinda scary:

It might just be a me thing, but it seems like a lot can be summed up in that 30 seconds.

Posted by Lindsay at 4:00 PM in What America Wants
Tags: David Blaine

Comments (2) latest by Dolf

October 12th, The Greatest Show On Television Returns

Exciting news time. On October 12th, 2008, at 10PM, on VH1, season 2 of The Pickup Artist begins. The original series spawned numerous parody videos, but nothing really compares to the real thing, which is already mostly a parody of itself. Although to be fair, the show, like From G's to Gents, is a surprising mixture of the lowest brand of realitysploitation and genuine emotional uplift. Yes, the "contestants" are socially awkward men put into situations for the express purpose of national ridicule, hosted by a mascaraed Canadian sex clown in a feather-covered Jamiroquai hat, but the show also provides a refreshingly earnest dissection of the societal pressures on mahood and masculine sexuality, not to mention the loose and generally unstable framework upon which we all hang our sense of self-worth and our facade of confidence.

But mostly it's ridiculous!

To make matters even more exciting, there will be a couple new twists to the new season. For one, a lady!

Continue reading October 12th, The Greatest Show On Television Returns...

Posted by Gabe at 3:00 PM in Reality TV, Wait For It..., What America Wants
Tags: Mystery | The Pickup Artist

Comments (5) latest by Katherine

Confirmed: Kanye West Has Made A Terrible Mistake

It was reported yesterday that Kanye is developing a puppet-based variety show for Comedy Central called Alligator Boots. I made the argument that this sounded like a terrible idea. Today, we get our first glimpse of what the show is going to look like, and I don't want to blog I told you so, but WOOF.

This is the final proof that we need to convince a hesitant public that it's time to put an end to calling things the "Muppets of [blank]." Meet the Feebles was not "the Muppets on drugs," Crank Yankers was not "the Muppets meet the Jerky Boys," and this is not the "Muppet Show for hip hop." Just because you put puppets in something terrible doesn't make it comparable to something that was good. REAL TALK.

Posted by Gabe at 4:15 PM in Music Related Content, What America Wants
Tags: Alligator Boots | Kanye West | Muppets

Comments (8) latest by Parker

Fringe: Exploring The Massive Dynamic Website

Fringe KILLED IT again last night with the opening, and then kind of dissolved into an unstable puddle of exhausting ideas and half-thought-out premises. That's basically how this show operates. It builds you up, only to tear you back down. BUT WHAT A BUILD UP. There was a bus, and a gas attack that turned into a solid gel, trapping everyone inside "like bugs caught in amber," and there was a dirty psychic, like literally dirty, he had dirt on him, and he was psychic. Then it was all "Walter's crazy this," and "Massive Dynamic controls the world but we have no idea how subplot" that. Why is Fringe so good at the first five minutes of Fringe, and so bad at the rest of Fringe?

Speaking of Massive Dynamic, it follows, of course, that a fictional megacorporation that surreptitiously controls geopolitics (fictionally) and is also deeply entwined with a global phenomenon of paranormal attacks called "the pattern" should have a flash-based website for users to explore the world of the show. And they do.

Continue reading Fringe: Exploring The Massive Dynamic Website...

Posted by Gabe at 11:45 AM in What America Wants
Tags: Fringe

Comments (1) latest by Becca