Open Thread for May 15, 2009

What food pellet or electric shock are you jonesing for as you compulsively press the lever in the cage of pop culture this week?

Three weeks into summer movie season, wrapping up TV season (or just on the verge of starting it, if you’re like all of us and love Burn Notice), and mere days away from the release of a new Tori Amos record. (OK, maybe that last one is just me.

What food pellet or electric shock are you jonesing for as you compulsively press the lever in the cage of pop culture… this week?

15 Comments on “Open Thread for May 15, 2009”

  1. perich OTI Staff #

    OMG Burn Notice WTF.

    SPEAKING CIRCUMSPECTLY TO AVOID SPOILERS, BUT YOU MAY WANT TO AVERT YOUR EYES ANYWAY:

    Now that Michael has (sort of) discovered who burned him, what do you think the inter-episode throughline will be in Season 3?

    Reply

  2. mlawski OTI Staff #

    @perich: I assume (or am hoping) that the throughline is, “I know who burned me, now I’m going to bring them down.” I’ve also read some interviews with Mr. Nix, who says that now that Michael is not being protected by Frasier’s dad’s organization, lots of baddies from his past are going to come out of the woodwork to try to get their revenge on him.

    In other pop culture news, 30 Rock finale-d last night. I’ve watched the show for a while now. It’s not the best thing ever (that would be Arrested Development), but it keeps growing on me. And Alan Alda was amazing, as expected.

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  3. Matthew Wrather #

    I’ve said it a million times, but we live in the golden age of television. Lucy has nothing on Tony. Or on Omar. (Who ****).

    And, the news keeps getting better… though this is not official: http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/05/dollhouse-second-season.html

    As far as finales go, The Unit was a bang not a whimper; 30 Rock was middling (the song should have been funnier), but still better than most other things on television; I don’t watch Lost; T:SCC was well covered on this site already. I discovered “Weeds” this month, and now I’m really looking forward to it.

    The big story, for me, was House, which has been kind of rote, was unexpectedly good in the last 3 episodes. The (mild spoiler) device of House’s hallucination let him really cut lose and be a sociopath, and I thought they earned the revelation in the finale. I was about to write that one off, but it looks like they may take it in a fresh direction.

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  4. Gab #

    Pst, I’m a Tori Amos fan, too. Rock on.*

    Yay Dollhouse!

    I WATCH LOST!!! If I’m the only one, fine, but let me say this: lots of mind f***age. My relationship with Lost is similar to the one I have with Dollhouse, only spread out over multiple seasons in the case of the former: some sticking it out through some not-so-good because I just want to see where they take it and thus being pleasantly surprised by what I see and how the show improves improves.

    None of the other shows I watched this season seem to have been shared delights, and I didn’t watch anything else mentioned above, so I can’t say much more about shows except that I’m almost positive I know who will win Dancing With the Stars next week…

    Being of the political leaning, I must ask: any opinions on Obama “flip-flopping” not once, but twice this week? And OH MY GOD HARRY REID ACTUALLY SAID SOMETHING ABOUT YUCCA MOUNTAIN!?!? Of course, all he’s *really* doing is just reiterating out in the open why the funding for it was (mostly) cut in Obama’s budget, but hey, at least he’s taking some sort of stand.

    Random question: Do you or does anyone you know ever say, “Yeah, no,” and then go on a bit in conversation? I’ll come clean right off the bat and admit my guilt.

    *Uh, you weren’t being sarcastic, were you, Wrather? I’m not.

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  5. stokes OTI Staff #

    I dunno, Wrather, I thought the song on 30 Rock was pretty great, both for its own sake and as a meta commentary on how 30 Rock has been doing the celebrity-of-the-week thing this season. I think it was seeing Moby up there that did it for me. Well, that and when Elvis Costello steps up and says “Now, you know when someone starts talking in the middle of a song, it’s important…”

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  6. Megan from Lombard #

    @ Lost; I tried watching it but found that if I missed even one episode I was utterly lost (pardon the pun) the next time I watched it. However, my sister is a devoted fan and it’s been amusing to watch her reaction when they kill a chacter that she likes.

    Apparently ‘Life’ was “offically” cancelled. Yet another example of a network not knowing gold when they have it. ‘Life’ was awesome in many ways, the least being Charlie Crews and how he got used to everything he missed while in prison.

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  7. Trevor Seigler #

    30 Rock is a great silly show that doesn’t ask you to keep up with story arcs of a Byzantine nature or otherwise you feel left out if you miss one week. It’s gone a long way towards rehabilitating Tina Fey’s comedic reputation in my eyes, because I can’t say I was a fan during her tenure as head writer on SNL (overall, I think the show wasn’t great, though the occasional gut-buster came through). Now, without the hamper of having to cater to a celeb guest star every week (well, at least not live), she and her team have created the best intentionally “zany” sitcom in ages. I think a reviewer at the Onion said that the Office and 30 Rock complement each other, and I’d agree. The Office has a grounding in reality, but 30 Rock is just out there.

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  8. Gab #

    I have only been to a handful of concerts so far in my lifetime, but she is on a short list of people I must see before said lifetime ends. I assume she’s worth it, since you’ve seen her more than once?

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  9. Gab #

    Oh, and about the FB page (which is awesome, btw)- is that where you intend to have the other forum discussion stuff you mentioned before?

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  10. Matthew Wrather #

    @Gab: Good question. Don’t know. The message board is enabled on the page, so why not?

    I’d also like to have something a little more robust than the comments on OTI. Frankly, the trouble is the technology… I’m not really happy with any of free open source forum software available or the integration options with the site.

    Reply

  11. lee OTI Staff #

    I wish I could share others’ joy at the news of Dollhouse getting renewed. That just makes it more likely that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will get the axe. :-(

    Reply

  12. D #

    Good see there are fellow Burn Notice lovers out there. Yet another reason I like this site.

    Reply

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