Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

RantTV
14 May 2011
14 May 2011 / 1:00 AM

Chuck Versus the Product Placement

Chuck AdvertIt’s hard to complain about product placement in Chuck. It was built on a foundation of product placement. The Buy More is almost literally wall-to-wall product placement. It’s the ‘quiet’ kind though – shelves full of brands sat in the background, peacefully minding their own business and not tripping up the plot. But as each season continues towards the inevitable question of whether or not the show will return, it’s the more blatant advertising wedged painfully and obviously into the plot that made me wonder if I was really that bothered any more.

I used to think that Chuck was a great show. Comedy, action, a plot not a thousand miles away from the sadly cancelled Jake 2.0 and a very likeable cast (with Yvonne Strahovski being all Yvonne Strahovski all over the place and the always fun-to-watch Adam Baldwin, ex-space-thug). It had it’s fair share of cheesy silliness, yes, but even that was charming in its own way.

Chuck, it seems, has been renewed for a fifth (and final) season. We can only hope that the writers spend more time on their storylines and less time trying to figure out excuses to awkwardly force a scene featuring a sandwich or a car somewhere into each episode. Maybe they were cutting budget costs by selling their souls to the advertisers but for whatever the reason, I have very little respect for TV shows that follow this route.

It’s a trend that seems to be seeping into more and more shows these days and it’s so blatant that it pulls you out of the moment. In an instant, you’re no longer following the story and enjoying the show. Instead, you’re painfully aware something is wrong – that the show’s producers are trying to pull a fast one. There’s no finesse to these in-show-ad-breaks, and really, there never could be. You’re just sat there feeling sorry for the actors having to whore themselves out like that.

Over the years, the audience accepted the idea that TV shows tried their utmost to avoid showing brand names if they could. For so long we had products turned away from the camera, mocked up brand labels or worse case scenario – black masking tape inexpertly applied all over the place. Slowly but surely, paid product placement started seeping back into soaps, dramas and comedies and before long there were the odd prominent laptop logo here or a very distinctive touch-screen mobile phone there. These I don’t mind quite so much. It’s when there appears to be a scene specifically included simply to show the characters interacting with a product, commenting on how great the features of this specific product happen to be and ending with a shot lingering for just… a… little… too… long… to… be… natural… of the product’s logo that I feel the rage building.

Will things change? I have my doubts. If anything it’s probably going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Do these antics stop people watching a show completely? Probably. I know that I’ve got to the point where I’ll seriously consider binning a show that included such shitty advertising gimmicks. But the question is, will the dipstick execs be able to correlate a drop in viewers with their increasingly unwelcome advertising bootprints all over our once-favourite shows?

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MoviesRantTV
18 Feb 2011
18 Feb 2011 / 1:02 PM

Remakes

BeesJust… seriously. Get the fuck over it. Yeah, there’s a film you really, really like. Maybe it defined your childhood, maybe it got you through a time of difficulty in your life or maybe it’s just a film you consider one of the all-time classics. Good for you. We all have films we love but then along comes some asshole in a suit who hasn’t had an original thought in his boss-pleasing, yes-man life and he’s decided it’d be a good idea (read: Ka-ching!) to take another swing at your cherished film. Remake, re-imagine, reboot, recycle – whatever the term-de-jour happens to be, they’re going to get that writer of some Sundance indie flick you never saw, attach a director who has only ever made music videos (did you see his last one? It went viral!) and cast a bunch of unknowns with more enthusiasm than talent, two currently hot TV actors who’ll return to the small screen with their tails between their legs after the film bombs and one fading legend destined to pop his clogs with this turd at the end of their illustrious résumé.

It’ll be shit. We all know it. Sure, it’ll do well, with the fans of the original propping up the numbers along with the regular popcorn munchers but it’ll never be more than a nice try. To top it off, it’ll probably be in ’3D!’ too because we all know the mindless fuckwits out there gobble that shit right up.

But… so what?

This is my problem. Whenever a remake is announced and yon fansites post the news, you’re guaranteed that 99% of the comments that follow the article will display a subtle “you muthafuckers shot my dog!” type of vibe. The wailing and gnashing of teeth, the how-dare-theys and clichéd ‘noooooooooooooo’s will be deafening. There’s just a few little things I want to point out to those idiots.

  1. You’re not being forced to watch the remake. No-one is holding a gun to your head. Mr. A Hole isn’t going to jet over a platoon of besuited thugs to frog-march you into your local cinema, strap you down and Clockwork Orange your ass into seeing this flick. There’s a very good chance that you could probably go your entire life without ever seeing the remake.
  2. The original will not cease to exist once the remake is made. Easy one to forget. Keep checking your DVD/Blooo-ray collection during the development and upon release of the film and I’ll almost certainly guarantee that your beloved film will not vanish. I say ‘almost certainly’ because the type of moron we’re talking about here probably loses shit on a daily basis so spontaneous evaporation of prized possessions is not completely off the books. But my point is, even when this turkey is released, the original will still be around, available and still standing head and shoulders above the weak pretenders to the throne.
  3. It might be… good? Okay, so chances are it’ll define new depths to which celluloid can sink but there’s always the ever-so-small chance that it might not suck. And even if it isn’t the best thing since freeze-dried instant happiness, it might just be different enough to be entertaining in it’s own right. Remember, Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly‘ and Carpenter’s ‘The Thing‘ are both essentially remakes.

On top of all that, they’re forgetting one of the most important upsides – once the film comes out and their friends go see it, they’ll be able to prance around saying “It’s not nearly as good as the original” with a few “Oh, you haven’t seen the original? You should. You really should!” thrown in for good measure. Yeah, they’ll be able to feel superior off of that doozy for good month or two.

So, when you hear about a remake of a film you consider to be a classic, take a couple of deep breaths, calm your mind and for a change of pace, shut the fuck up.

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GamingMoviesTV
22 Dec 2010
22 Dec 2010 / 11:56 AM

…than a duck’s arse!

SteamI just wanted to expand on a tweet I made yesterday just a little way below this post and ‘big up’ the Steam Holiday Sale (and slightly smaller but still quite large ‘big up’ Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas promo). I came to Steam a little late in the game, to be honest. I didn’t realise that there was this great little service sat quietly in the corner, offering great bargains on a fairly regular basis. Up until lately, it was merely “where my Team Fortress 2 lives” and “that thing that usually needs updating every time I boot it” (which admittedly, wasn’t that often). I knew you could buy games from it – I just didn’t know they were quite regularly cheap games! Being a tight-fisted miser at heart, Steam is now my best friend and with all the bargains this new Holiday Sale brings, it should definitely be yours too.

Like I mentioned, you could call me a bit of a Steam newbie so I wasn’t aware of last year’s blow-out sale when it was actually occurring. Only later did I hear the wonderful tales of the rampant discounts – 50%, 66%, 75% and even 90% off a huge library of titles. I made a point of keeping an eye out for it this year though. But Steam has been good to me all year round, too. They often have a sale-ette running, discounting titles both for the weekend and during the mid-week. Pretty much everything I’ve been playing this year has been from those Steam offers and has saved me a fortune compared to the prices I’d be paying from brick-and-mortar alternatives (and even online stores).

There are pros and cons. The big pro one for me is, of course, the savings. When I can buy a stack of titles for the same price as one store bought game, I’m a happy chappy. That said, it’s weird and a little unsatisfying not to have a boxed copy in your hands with all the unpacking and that new-manual-smell. Sure, no-one ever reads it and it’s usually just chucked back in the box which itself is filling your home with more clutter but it’s there all the same. Waiting for your game to arrive in the post is swapped for downloading it, and Steam keeps it up-to-date with all the latest patches should they appear. And, oh yes, the CD/DVDs. The only reason why you ever see those game boxes again – the need to constantly hunt down a game disc because it won’t run without it being in your machine. So happy to not have that arse-ache to worry about.

But getting back to the Holiday Sale – between the 20th Dec (yes, I’m late with this) and the 2nd Jan, Steam are offering huge discounts across a whole range of titles, changing the primary offers daily and selling bundles at a fraction of what you’d pay for them otherwise. Every genre is catered for and there’s even a special section for the flavour-of-the-month sub-section – Indie Games, where you can pick up bundles of bite-sized fun for next to nothing. So take a look, you’re almost guaranteed to find a game you’ve overlooked, now with a price to tempt.

12 Days of ChristmasApple’s 12 Days of Christmas is a somewhat different beast. Firstly, it’s for their iWhatever hardware and secondly, it’s free. For a 12 day period (26th Dec – 6th Jan), Apple give away a bunch of iTunes ‘stuff’ (music, videos, movies, TV shows, apps) you can download for absolutely nothing. All you need to do is pop along to the appstore and download the free 12 Days of Christmas app. If that doesn’t appeal, you can even just sign up for email alerts. You’re not guaranteed find everything offered quite to your tastes but hopefully there’s at least one gem in the rough to make it worth it. And it’s free so stop whining ;)

Here’s a run down of what they offered last year just so you can get some perspective.

  • Day 1 – Music: Snow Patrol ‘An Olive Grove Facing The Sea (2009 Version).
  • Day 2 – TV Show: Alan Partridge ‘Knowing Me, Knowing Yule’.
  • Day 3 – Game: ‘Trivial Pursuit’.
  • Day 4 – Video: JLS ‘Everybody In Love’.
  • Day 5 – Video: Robbie Williams ‘Morning Sun’.
  • Day 6 – Film: ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’.
  • Day 7 – TV Show: ‘Outnumbered’.
  • Day 8 – Game: ‘Labyrinth’.
  • Day 9 – Video: Leona Lewis ‘Happy’.
  • Day 10 – Film: ‘Peter and the Wolf’.
  • Day 11 – Game: ‘Let’s Golf!’.
  • Day 12 – Video: Foo Fighters ‘Wheels’.

So if you see anything up there that appeals, maybe it’s worth checking out this year’s promotion for similar ‘goodies’.

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RantTV
31 May 2009
31 May 2009 / 10:57 PM

Angus freaks me out!

Charlie Sheen, Angus T. Jones and Jon CryerThis post is about Angus T. Jones, one-third (or should that be one-fifth?) of Two And A Half Men. I’ve nothing against the kid and it’s not even that Angus specifically, as a person, that freaks me out. It’s that damn title sequence for the show. It’s gotten decidedly creepy and all evidence points to it getting worse for some time to come.

If you were one of the imaginary visitors who used to read my old site, you’d know I sometimes get a bit obsessed with TV show title sequences. I mean, we’re into season 5 of ‘Lost‘, people, and the BASTARDS still haven’t fixed the god-damned gaps in that rendered logo that flies past. The only way I could forgive it now is if the thing was integral to the plot and given how screwy the show has gotten, there’s actually a fair chance of that being true!

Anyway, back to Angus. Like I said, I’ve no problem with the actor. Sure, he’s no Olivier but that’s not really what the show demands. My gripe is with that morph they do when the little ditty they’re lip-syncing to comes to an end and ‘cute as a button’ little Angus goes all you-wouldn’t-like-me-when-I’m-angry and stretches out into teen Angus. Then he grins. Yeah, maybe that last little bit of creepiness is all Angus but the morph? Ick!

And it’s only going to get worst. This morph is something they’re updating every season, so that as Mr. Jones growth-spurts his way further from the cherubic mug that started this gig back in 2003, I can only assume he’ll start disappearing off the top of the screen. They’ve already announced the series has another three seasons all signed up. It’s going to be grotesque!

The series creator, Chuck Lorre has joked that the show remains ‘Two And A Half Men’ despite Angus becoming a ‘whole’ all to himself since both his co-stars are shrinking as age takes it’s toll. Given how he’s grown, I think either Charlie Sheen or Jon Cryer are going to have to lose a limb or two by season 9 just to even things out.

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