The Joy of Community

There is a little television show that has been my favorite thing on television for the last three years. Well, this last season it hit a little bit of a road block, in that, CBS decided to move their highly rated and very popular (because people like dumb things) 'Big Bang Theory' to the same time slot so that it could compete directly against 'Community'. This led to a further fall in the ratings and finally the network (NBC) fired the show creator and runner Dan Harmon and then moved the show to Friday nights.

As you can imagine this caused quite a stir among the fan base for the show. I am torn because while I feel a loyalty to Dan Harmon, I also really like the actors that are on the show and I want them to continue working and to continue to enjoy them playing the characters on the show. So I am hoping that the show will continue to be of good quality and enjoyable to me. Also I really should be happy because most shows that I like tend to get canceled within a year or two. I like to think that is because my taste is so refined and of such high quality that the rest of the common people just are not able to handle it.

Really though I am writing this post mainly as an excuse to post a couple of pictures of that cast that I really liked.

This was from an episode where Jeff Winger went undercover as a street Magician a Criss Angel type of character and Britta was his assistant. I found the whole thing highly amusing but what really surprised me was how attractive I found Britta in her costume. I had no idea that her look would work for me like it did. I also thought Jeff looked amazing which left me confused and slightly ashamed but I think that is really just because I was jealous of how he looked and really wish that I pull it off. That would be awesome. 

Have a good week folks. 

Big Bang Theory Redux

So I am just finishing up season 3 of Big Bang Theory and as I mentioned earlier I am going to be revisiting the show. I am still a little skeptical as to the premise of the show. But I can see why people enjoy it. That isn't to say that I think it is a quality show. Because I do not.

I still feel that while the interactions of the characters have changed with the introduction of the female characters. The show is still a pretty typical sitcom. There are no real surprises. You could see that Leonard was going to wreck his relationship with Penny. So when it happened it was not a surprise or particularly sad. It just happened. I think part of the problem is that I do not find Leonard a particularly likable character. He hurts the show for me.

I think that the show works for me when I have it playing in the background and am reading a book or playing a video game. It doesn't need my full attention. It just rumbles along and every now and then I get a chuckle or perhaps an awwwww moment. There might be a nerd specific guest star to gain a little media attention. "Oh look!! There is Stan Lee." But there is nothing greater involved with it. There is no deeper meaning there is no overall story arc that is being told. That is fine. There doesn't need to be a far greater concept in everything. But in my honest opinion that is what I like. I like there to be something deeper to what I watch. It can be a horribly made and acted show and if there is some sort of deeper mystery at the core of it I will watch it.

What I find most upsetting is that the shows that I like most. Those shows get canceled far earlier then the shows that I don't like.That just means that I like things that the rest of the world is just not cool enough to really appreciate. Yep. That has got to be it. My tastes are just to refined for the tastes of the common man.

I always knew that I was special. I have always had a taste for things of higher quality am really able to get the most out of the most subtle of flavors and of entertainments. I just generally operate at a higher level then the common peoples around me. It is hard I must admit that I am so much better then you my readers but that is the sad truth.

Now, I do not expect this realization to change things between us. I still imagine that you will come to me for enlightenment and honestly who else would you go to. The wisdom I impart is far greater then anything you are going to get anywhere else. So feel free to donate to the landrewc Wisdom Fund so that the insights can continue.

Have a good day and be well.

Television Thursday

I just finished season 1 of "The Big Bang Theory". I am still not sure if I enjoy it or not. The show will be entering its 5th season next year and has won a few different awards and has been nominated for several as well. I have always been of the opinion that winning awards does not always mean quality and I think that I feel the same way about the show. To be sure there are some very funny bits here and there and I really enjoy the nod to popular nerd culture. But I am not sure if on a consistent basis this actually holds up.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the show the basic premise is this taken from their IMDB page

"Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are both brilliant physicists working at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California. They are colleagues, best friends and roommates, although in all capacities their relationship is always tested primarily by Sheldon's regimented and non-conventional ways. They are also friends with their Cal Tech colleagues, mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. The foursome spend their time working on their individual work projects, playing video games, watching science fiction movies or reading comic books. As they are self-professed nerds, all have little or no luck with "popular" women. When Penny, a pretty woman and an aspiring actress originally from Omaha, moves into the apartment next to Leonard and Sheldon's, Leonard has another aspiration in life, namely to get Penny to be his girlfriend."

The creator of the show is a man named Chuck Lorre who has been mostly responsible for the majority of bad sitcoms on CBS right now. Though he did have a hand in "Roseanne" but that was never a show that I liked all that much. I found her loudness tiresome and not amusing in the least. But his biggest crime is that he created "Two and a Half Men" and in doing gave Charlie Sheen a career resurgence that has since allowed for the epic meltdown we all got the pleasure of experiencing earlier this year. I feel that for this crime alone Chuck Lorre should be flogged and hung from the town clock tower but I digress.

The concepts behind "The Big Bang Theory" (TBBT) are pretty basic and the show is filmed the same way that all sitcoms are filmed. As far as technique goes it could be "Laverne & Shirley" or "My Two Dads" there is nothing groundbreaking about what is going on behind the camera in each episode. The has some slight foreshadowing but the only kind of continuing story arc was the will they or won't they of Penny and Leonard. Believe me they are not Sam and Diane as much as Chuck Lorre would like us to believe they are. The interplay and the pining of Leonard towards Penny is interesting and believable. Who hasn't pined after someone who is out of their league. I realize that we are supposed to accept some fantastic things when watching a television show. But there is no way on Gods green earth that this woman

Is going to date this man

I really think that over the course of the first season Leonard has been releasing some form of gas into Pennys apartment and this is making her more malleable to his advances. There is no other reasonable explanation for them even getting involved. I have an incredible personality and I am good, good friends with many woman who are far out of my league and there is no way that it will be any different. This show does a disservice to poor lonely nerds everywhere (Who, lets be honest, have no where near the amazing personality that I do) in making them think that they could ever date a smoking hot babe like Penny. It is never going to happen. LET THE DREAM DIE NERDS!!!! LET IT DIE!!!

The show is also filmed in front of a live studio audience and I am just not a big fan of that. I do not like being told when to laugh based on the reactions of the audience of the laugh track that is being played. It isn't a horrible show but it isn't an amazing show either. I think that is why it is a success. It thrives in it mediocrity. The audience doesn't have to think. They do not have to feel. They can sit in their stupefied state. They are allowed to just float along without any effort on their part.

So that being said. I do find it something that I can just stare at and listen to while I do other things and let it just wash over me. So if that is what you are looking for then "The Big Bang Theory" is the show for you.