Pop Culture Will Eat Itself » TV

Too Much Awesome: Christoph Waltz as Der Humpink

Sean — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:31:57 +0000

Christoph Waltz is awesome. He was completely deserving of his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for portraying Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Eduard Khil is awesome too. His wordless singing has been all the rage on the internets lately, and still makes me laugh after about 25 viewings. So it stands to reason that Christoph Waltz + Eduard Khil = TOO MUCH AWESOME. Waltz did a bit for Jimmy Kimmel Live where he pays homage to the Russian singer:

How does Kimmel get folks to do these videos? He is truly one of comedy’s greatest heroes. Thank you Jimmy. Thank you.

RIP Captain Phil Harris

Sean — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:48:57 +0000

Captain Phil Harris, famous for skippering the Cornelia Marie on Discover Channel’s Deadliest Catch, has died from a stroke. He was 53. Phil was known for being a hardass captain, pushing his crew – including his sons Josh and Jake – to the limits to catch their quota of crab. His most harrowing moments on the show came in its fifth season when he got a blood clot in his lung and had to leave the boat in the middle of the season for treatment. Phil was one of the most intriguing people of the show, and it won’t be the same without him.

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad: Google Goes French

Sean — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:35:32 +0000

Sure, it wasn’t as funny as the Doritos samurai or the Snickers commercial that had Betty White getting tackled, but I think my favorite ad from the Super Bowl was Google’s. It’s rare that a 30 second commercial manages to tell a whole story, with a beginning, a middle, and a happy ending. The little touches, like the suggestions that come up as our protagonist is typing, leading you in different directions, are exceedingly well done. Instead of using cheap gimmicks to get easy laughs, Google raised the bar and went for something memorable for the right reasons. Bravo. C’est magnifique.

Lost: The Plane Crash in Real Time

Sean — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:43:44 +0000

Get ready Lost fans. We’re just over a week away from the show’s final season, where hopefully we’ll find out the answers to all of our big questions (like “what the hell is the smoke monster?” and “how the hell could you kill off a badass like Mr. Eko?”). Here’s a little something to whet your appetite.

YouTube user pyram1dhead has put together a 24-style video that lays out the events of the crash of Oceanic 815 in real-time, as they happen. It splices together what’s going on in Othertown, with Desmond and Kelvin, and on the plane itself. It’s got some clips I completely forgot about, and it’s really cool to see them all presented like this. Check it out:

Jack Bauer’s Badass Move of the Week

Sean — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:12:26 +0000

24 is back, which means another very bad day for Jack Bauer. And another string of clips added to his highlight reel of badassitude. In case you aren’t familiar with Jack’s bad ass highlights, here’s clip to catch you up:

This week’s “premiere event” brought us the first four hours of Day 8, and to be honest, Jack was kind of shown up in the badass department. Ortiz drove over a bomb to save President Hasan and Renee cut off a Russian dude’s hand to get his parole bracelet off. Those are strong badass moves. Jack did get some good work in though. For his Badass Move of the Week it’s a close call between two. It was almost his kicking the crap out of Herc from The Wire, while tied to a chair. But I’m going to have to go with him burying a fucking fire axe in a dude’s chest as he came around a corner. Ouch.

Nice job Jack, that’s your Badass Move of the Week.

Trailer for The Avon Barksdale Story

Sean — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:45:06 +0000

Everyone knows The Wire was pretty much the greatest television show ever, right? If you haven’t seen it you should really stop reading this and go watch it. All five seasons worth.

Finished? Good. Now we can discuss. So now you know the first couple of seasons revolved around a drug kingpin named Avon Barksdale. Series creator David Simon loosely based that character (as well as his foot soldier Bodie) on a real Baltimore kingpin of the same name. Now there’s a documentary coming out about the real Avon Barksdale. It features the man himself, being interviewed by Wood Harris, who played him on TV. Check out the trailer:

Honestly, the trailer makes this look like it’s part bad documentary and part bad America’s Most Wanted recreations. But being a big fan of The Wire I think I have to check it out.

For more info head to Nah Right.

Mashup Fun: Star Wars Meets A-Team

Sean — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:42:46 +0000

We’ve seen the MacGuyver theme recreated with clips from Star Wars, but that doesn’t seem to be the end of the genre. Talented folks are pouring over other classic TV intros and pairing them with clips from the classic Lucas series. Here’s the best example, an homage to The A-Team:

Trailer for the Next Family Guy Star Wars Spoof

Sean — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:34:35 +0000

If you’ve seen Blue Harvest you know that Family Guy does a pretty good job lampooning the Star Wars universe. Well, they’re at it again. Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side comes to DVD on December 22nd, and it spoofs the best Star Wars of them all, Empire Strikes Back. Check out the trailer, which is chock full of Family Guy inside jokes:

A New Preview for HBO’s The Pacific

Sean — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:24:38 +0000

HBO’s Band of Brothers may be the definitive piece of cinema about WWII. With any luck their upcoming miniseries, The Pacific, will give the other half of the war the same detailed, emotionally resonant treatment Band of Brothers gave to the European theater. We have to wait until March to find out, but HBO has released a second preview (albeit only in a tiny, tiny form). From what we’ve seen so far I’d have to say it look really, really good.

A Preview of AMC’s Remake of The Prisoner

Sean — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:24:31 +0000

Even if you’ve never seen an episode of The Prisoner, if you’re a big TV watcher there’s a good chance you’ve seen references to it. The Simpsons did a parody of it. Lost owes some of it’s weird island stuff to it. Hell, it’s even referenced in High Fidelity (Rob asks Barry who the show’s star was while he’s chatting up Marie De Salle in the bar). Not bad for a show that only ran two seasons.

AMC is bringing the show back, if only as a six episode mini-series. It stars Jim Cavaziel as the protagonist, Number Six, and Ian McKellen as his nemesis, Number Two (quit giggling, it’s not a poop joke). That’s right, we finally get to see Jesus take on Gandalf. Check out the preview AMC released for the show:

Looks pretty interesting, doesn’t it. The Prisoner debuts November 15th.