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As time wears on, I - like most other television watching Americans - want the Writers Guild of America strike to end. For the most part the strike doesn’t bother me (God forbid I be forced to leave the house or read a book), but I am annoyed by the idea that the strike might promote an influx of more eye-gouging ‘reality’ television or that it could negatively impact the shows that are coming to an end this year.

I have no sympathy for the producers and studio executives who could have easily forgone a strike by making equitable concessions to Writers Guild demands. I was surprised by how little control and compensation many Hollywood writers receive for their work, which plays no small role in making studios billions of dollars. I understand that the major studios are playing their available cards - and that their considerations encompass more than just appearing insuperable to the writers - but this generally sucks.

On the other hand, it irritates me to see two generally wealthy and well-off groups argue melodramatically about money, particularly when the country is filled with people who are much more screwed over than Hollywood writers are.

Seeing the panic that “new media” has caused for both the film and music industries, I think it was wise of the writers to go on strike now. I disagree with those who say that they should have waited to see how lucrative methods of “new media”/internet distribution will become. If companies do find means of profit in these distribution methods, I would think that it would be much harder for writers to get financial ownership of them down the road. What would compel major studios to generously give up the financial rights to an assured area of tremendous revenue? It could be argued that the studios would want to invest what is necessary to keep their “new” revenue stream going, but I suspect that wouldn’t turn out to be the case.

My primary concerns, as I stated above, reflect my status as a television watcher; not an insider. What will happen to the shows whose final seasons are this year? Will I be able to see the end of Scrubs as it was intended? Will scripted comedies and dramas become even less visible on television as studios favor even more easy-to-produce ‘reality’ shows? As with many other things, we probably won’t be able to assess the damage until it’s done. Here’s to pastime creativity.

For making Ebert and Roeper watchable again.

For exhibiting laudably intelligent and humorous characteristics.

For delivering substantial, articulate, and mentally stimulating film critiques.

For offsetting Richard Roeper’s overall weasellyness.

For obviously loving your job and for conveying that general love to your audience.

There are no YouTube clips of his recent Ebert and Roeper appearances, but YouTube, at the very least, has some footage from his HDNet show which is called Higher Definition. The link is to one of those amusingly frivolous outtakes reels. Enjoy.

If you’re into that sort of thing.

It was excellent. It definitely lived up to the high standards the show has set for itself. I haven’t laughed that hard at the movies in a while.

… according to Duchovny.

I’m so sorry to have to link to E!Online, but there’s some wonderfully titillating information in this article.

X Marks Spot for Files Sequel

- Production will likely ramp up after that, with Duchovny anticipating getting in front of the cameras as early as this fall.

“I think it’s November for a summer [2008] release,” he said.

- “All Chris says is that he wants to make a really scary horror, like a stand-alone episode,” said Anderson, who has kept busy with film work, including last year’s The Last King of Scotland. “I don’t think they’re interested in touching on any of the conspiracy stuff.”

Everything I would want to hear. Makes me nervous.

Dare I say more and fate it to be untrue?

I dare not.

“This gift that you gave me for my birthday. You never got to tell me why you gave it to me or what it means… but I think I know. I think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and… extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals… that what can be imagined can be achieved… that you must dare to dream… but that there’s no substitute for perseverance and hard work… and teamwork… because no one gets there alone… and that, while we commemorate the… the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible.”

- Spoken by Dana Scully, Season 4, episode “Max”

Duchovny told the Hollywood Reporter that he’s seeing the script next week:

Second X-Files pic moving toward production

AND he mentioned that the current script is written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, as well as the fact that both he and Gillian Anderson have emphasized in the past that they are “on board” for another movie.

What more can I say? It’s terribly thrilling.

This was brought on by a recent article in the Wall Street Journal which has received a lot of attention, called “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled”. I’m not linking it because I don’t want to give the individuals who have written it what they want, which is more people reading their vacantly inflammatory rhetoric.

Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were “special” just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.

No. No that did not get “lost in his self-esteem-building patter”. It is not his fault if other people misinterpreted or distorted his intentions and teaching techniques. Modern teenagers and young adults feel more entitled because the people around them have created that sense of entitlement.

Lazy, well-off parents throw money at their kids instead of paying attention to them or giving a damn about the way they treat other people. They also scream at teachers who don’t hand out A’s like business cards; administrators who won’t automatically enroll their children in Advanced Placement or Honors classes. People who don’t correct or yell at their kids because it’s easier not to have to play an actual role in raising them. People who think Bratz dolls are harmless or boys acting like psychopaths are ‘just being boys’. “I deserve whatever I want and don’t have to do anything to get it” attitudes are not only pervasive, but celebrated, and that sure as hell wasn’t what Mr. Rogers was promoting when he told kids they were special and could look forward to getting up in the morning.

I detest when people do this - attack someone or something who does not deserve censure because they’ve either failed at identifying the source of a problem themselves or because they want people to pay attention to them. Way to use your shockingly impressive powers of observation and means of mass communication to achieve positive ends, you inane poseurs.

I really really do. Summer is one of the best times to have it, too.

I wish I could just buy the one station instead of the whole ridiculously fluffed cable package. Pfft.

Well, most of this season’s episode runs have come to an end. Here is my brief summary of what I’ve seen and thought. It’s going to be a long wait until 2008.

Battlestar Galactica - Anyone who saw this knows that it was unbelievable. We finally found out who the Final Five are; it was devastating. Starbuck died only to come back in the form of the Arrow of Apollo. Baltar not only escaped death, but is now being exalted as a savior by a certain contingent of mentally fractured survivors. The whole BG universe has been turned on it’s head, and it’s amazing.

The Shield - There was a lot that was going to be addressed this season that made the fans of this show antsy to see how everything heretofore open-ended was going to be resolved. Because of all those loose ends, sometimes it felt like this once final/now extended last season of The Shield ran like a freight train. The last episode of the season was excellent. For weeks it looked like Vic was going to not only lose his job but possibly have to pay for all of the horrible things that he’s done. Now he and Aceveda, through an extremely fortuitous discovery, own Los Angeles entirely. There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t like that. From the look of things, the final episodes of the series are going to be great.

The Office - Appropriately executed and deftly written. I wasn’t blown away by the episode until the two capper moments at the end of the episode took place, the ones that everyone was talking about the next day. They ended things perfectly with Pam and Jim. Ryan being promoted and breaking things off with Kelly was unexpected and hilarious. The writers, cast, and crew handled things well.

Lost - Oh. My. God. As someone who has been at alternate times enamored of and disenchanted with Lost, let me say that this season finale was absolutely unparalleled. It was shocking, tense, and satisfying. The Lost writers love to dangle the answers to a few questions in front of your face only to thrust in others immediately after. In this episode, they managed to do both in the same jaw-dropping unanticipated moment. I remember thinking Matthew Fox was kind of an ass after his comments in the recent spotlight Entertainment Weekly did on the Lost group. He claimed that people criticizing the show were never really fans in the first place. I still think his comment was idiotic and untrue, since the show and ABC have definitely made some mistakes, but anyone who ever enjoyed Lost would be foolish not to follow the show through to it’s conclusion after the events that took place in the season finale.

Veronica Mars - The season finale for Veronica Mars is now doubling as the series finale, and in that respect it is expectedly unsatisfying. This isn’t the cast or crew’s fault. The demise of this show had been rumored for a long time and unfortunately some mistakes were made this season that not only turned off the show’s previously loyal fans but any potentially new fan base that might push the show into further production. The refreshing thing about the season finale was that it reminded one of the glory days of Veronica Mars in it’s first season, representing a temporary return to the basics of the characters that everyone who revered the show fell in love with. It wasn’t a bad finale, although significantly awkward given the formula of previous seasons where the final episode was the resolution to a season-long mystery. Au revoir, Neptune.

Heroes - Many people seemed to have hated the season finale of Heroes. I enjoyed it. I thought the resolution to the “exploding man” storyline was surprising and sad, although I hope Nathan isn’t gone from the series now. Yes, Sylar’s death was uneventful, but what did people want? They wanted some insane, high stakes battle between Sylar and Peter. I can understand how they would feel unsatisfied. The action in the episode wasn’t out-of-this-world but it worked, especially for the first season of a show that is trying to establish a serialized, self-containing formula for itself. I’m glad the production crew didn’t adopt the “we’ll surprise you by killing off a slew of major characters” mentality. And I’m really glad Mr. Bennett (whose name, apparently, is Noah) didn’t die. He’s my favorite character, ridiculously enough.

Into the summer, then. Please don’t let me become hooked on any new shows next year. I need to leave the house sometimes. And read.

In a perplexing and unsettling occurrence, Amy Fisher has apparently reentered some sort of relationship with Joey Buttafuoco.

What.

The.

Hell.

KGET TV Blurb About The New ‘Relationship’ Between Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco

I remember watching Amy Fisher’s interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this year. I was never overly interested in the Amy Fisher case, partially because it turned into such a disgusting reflection of American society. I was younger when it happened. Too young to really understand it’s significance; too young to understand what all the sexism, cruelty, and exploitation meant; too young to feel the sick, vulnerable feeling in my stomach that I now associate with the term “Long Island Lolita”.

Amy Fisher was a child when all of this happened. She was sixteen years old. She couldn’t drink. She couldn’t vote. She wasn’t even a senior in high school. Joey Buttafuoco was (and is) a repellent sub-human bottom feeder whose pedophilia was treated more like a gaff than a crime.

Amy Fisher did something horrible. She shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face, but she only fired the gun. Joey “Stereotype of Sleaze” Buttafuoco created the entire situation. He initiated a sexual relationship with an underage girl. He turned said girl into a prostitute. He created the illicit double life that his wife ended up being punished for. He decimated the lives of two women in one fell swoop.

So then why in God’s name would Amy Fisher voluntarily enter a romantic relationship, or any form of a relationship, with the man who willingly raped and pimped her? Because he raped and pimped her, it would seem. Her Oprah interview was fascinating, insightful, and tragic. The current Amy Fisher seemed like an abused, psychologically damaged woman who was trying to figure out what kind of a life she was supposed to have; grasping at straws to see if anything would make her happy.

The news of this floored me at first. Not in a surprised way, but in a, “Why would whatever cosmic force governs the universe let that be true?” way. It makes me nauseous. This whole rumored tv show situation further illustrates how evil reality television as a genre generally is - not because it’s intrinsically evil, but because television executives exploit it to pursue all their wildest idiotic programming dreams.

The following excerpt is from Oprah’s website, summarizing the interview with Amy. I wanted to focus on the transcript in detail, but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere online. The confusion this whole situation has wrought is pretty well reflected in the quote below though.

When it comes to talking to her children about her past, Amy feels she’ll be able to be honest. “No parent ever wants to think their child could view them as a bad person. When the time comes and my son asks me about my past, I’m going to be honest with him. All I can do is explain to him that everybody has a past and all we can do is learn from our mistakes and be a better person. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of, but that doesn’t define who we are.”

What have you learned, Amy?

Want to see something disturbing?

I always thought that was a wonderfully strange question.

That observation not withstanding, you’ll probably want to see this.

Fetch Me My Axe
“Read This” - The post is regarding the coverage of the police brutality caught on film during the May Day Pro-Immigration Rally in Los Angeles. I’m not well acquainted with all the associated blog controversy, but it doesn’t seem like you have to be to get the gist of what’s going on.

I hadn’t seen the videos. I may be behind the times, but I wanted to respond to it anyway.

Terrifying is the best word to describe it. As I began watching the first video, not really knowing what it was I was seeing, I was passively paying attention to it until the officer pushed the reporter. Then I knew that something really sinister was going on. The protective line, however fragile and tentative, formed by the presence of the media was actively being destroyed. It wasn’t just reporters doing reporting. It wasn’t just cops acting out of control. It was a conscious, straight-forward decimation of the laws and basic principles that once governed America.

Why is this happening? How is this happening? What can be done to stop it? Regardless of how you feel about immigration or pro-immigration politics, that video should frighten you. Americans should be embarrassed, appalled, and outraged.

The new regime is taking our country away from us. Why are we letting them?