Everything Bad is Good For You

Parents can sometimes be appalled at the hypnotic effect that television has on toddlers; they see their otherwise active and vibrant children gazing silently, mouth agape at the screen, and they assume the worst: that television is turning their child into a zombie. The same feeling arises a few years later when they see their grade-schoolers navigating a video game world, oblivious to the reality that surrounds them. But these expressions are not signs of mental atrophy. They’re signs of focus.

2005’s Everything Good is Bad for You by Steve Johnson is a challenge to the idea that pop culture is ruining our brains. Mainstream television shows are quantifiably more complex and mentally demanding than the shows of previous decades, and video games test and develop our problem solving skills better than ever before. Definitely worth reading.

Amanda

Is Amanda Kimmel the most tragically flawed Survivor player? She spent 78 days in China and Mironesia without ever getting voted off, but no million dollar prize. She has the strongest social game of any player I can think of, but can’t communicate the worthiness of that skill to the jury. The players who voted for Parvati really thought that Amanda was lucky and had no idea how she got there. I’m not sure she knew how she got there either, but she wasn’t lucky.

 

amanda.jpg

For the past few seasons I’ve bought into a Survivor pool and I picked Amanda in Survivor: China.? Her main flaw seemed to not knowing when to oust Todd at the right time, but she also made a terrible case for why she should win.? In Micronesia she had to work much harder to stay, but was always able to repair her alliances after they were broken.? She also was the first person ever to properly use the hidden immunity idol and that allowed her to coast into the final four.

Going into the final she decided to take Parvati over Cerie, presumably because Parvati would be less sympathetic to the jury, but Amanda never used the final tribal council to highlight any of the reasons why Parvati shouldn’t get the million.? Eliza even handed the roadmap for Amanda in one of the earliest questions.? She told Parvati that she respected Parvati’s game, but didn’t understand why she also did plenty of mean and arrogant things that didn’t affect the game one way or another.? If Amanda had used that angle I think she would have turned Eliza’s vote making it 4-4 instead of 5-3.

?I’m not done writing on this topic, so I’ll probably add some more later.

 

Free Radio

Most trends are easy to spot in hindsight, so now it definitely seems as though fake-realism has overtaken situational comedy as shown on the Office, Colbert, Ali-G, etc. The latest in this trend is VH1’s Free Radio, starring Lance Krall and Anna Vocino as a pair of radio talk show DJ’s who take over after their star morning jock leaves unexpectedly for satellite radio. Lance, previously the station’s intern, has no idea what he’s doing but in the world of amateur success we live in today the show becomes a hit.

Lance Krall from Free Radio

Free Radio seems like an Ali-G style interview show, but in this case all the celebrities are in on the jokes. Still, I think it works despite missing the humiliation factor. What’s really funny are the questions that Lance decides (or doesn’t decide) to ask. I loved when he asked what the big deal was about “Ugly Betty” since there has always been shows with ugly stars, such as Roseanne or the Golden Girls.

Here’s the trailer:

Sopranos Finale

Note:? It’s been weeks since I first watched the last episode of the Sopranos and I’ve been working on this post forever.? It’s taken me forever to write it and I may edit it later, but for now, here it is!

Journey? At this point I have to take a second look at everything I’ve ever seen in the opranos. David Chase looked us straight in the eye, cranked up Don’t Stop Believing, and kicked the teeth out of Sopranos fans everywhere.

Or he made the greatest television show of all time.

Sopranos

My impressions of the final episode and the entire season after the jump. Please don’t read it unless you’ve seen (almost) every episode. Continue reading “Sopranos Finale”

TV Shows Broken By Time

As society moves on, some of our beloved television shows can’t move with it. Culture and technology conspire to break sitcom plots every day. Is there any way to fix them? Here are a few examples:

My Two Dads
My Two Dads
Premise: A woman dies leaving her daughter in the dark about who her real father is. The girl and her two possible, and very different, dads end up living together.
Why it’s broken in 2007: Two words: Paternity test. This show would be over in one episode.
How to fix it: Make the two dads identical twins. Make that conjoined identical twins.

Bosom Buddies
Bosom Buddies
Premise: Two guys want to take advantage of the cheap rent in an all female apartment building, so they dress in drag.
Why it’s broken in 2007: Henry and Kip would sue for reverse discrimination and get the apartment.
How to fix it: Instead of women, the tenants are predominately cross dressing men. Kip and Henry still want the cheap apartment, but always have to be careful if the new hot girl in the building is really a dude.

Three’s Company
Three?s Company
Premise: Two women need a third roommate to cover the rent and find one in Jack Tripper, but their righteous landlord won’t approve of the living arrangement so Jack pretends to be gay.
Why it’s broken in 2007: To be fair, this premise was shaky already and the gay angle went away once Don Knotts became the new landlord, but it’s hard to imagine a landlord refusing to rent to a non-married couple in the 21st century.
How to fix it: Jack is an illegal immigrant…. from another planet!

Can you think of any others?

RIP Mr Wizard

Mr Wizard passed away at 89. Three of his experiments are absolutely burned into my mind.

1. Boiling water in an enclosed container will cause it to explode.

2. An experiment where he had a kid try to suck water through a straw several stories high.

3. Obviously: Ping pong balls and mouse traps.

Mr Wizard passed away at 89. Three of his experiments are absolutely burned into my mind.

1. Boiling water in an enclosed container will cause it to explode.

2. An experiment where he had a kid try to suck water through a straw several stories high.

3. Obviously: Ping pong balls and mouse traps.

Jeopardy Three Way Tie

I’m a big Jeopardy fan and I can’t believe they had a three way tie on Friday (I just watched the episode). I don’t understand why the champion didn’t bet one dollar more to make sure his winnings would cover the other guys’ maximum bets.

When a tie occurs on Jeopardy, the players return back the next day. It’s happened for two players a bunch of times, but never all three players. I wonder if they get to keep the money they earned that show or do they now have to win on Monday to keep it.

Also, in looking up a news article about the tie, I found this site made by an ultra obsessive fan. It lists every question from every show!

I’m a big Jeopardy fan and I can’t believe they had a three way tie on Friday (I just watched the episode). I don’t understand why the champion didn’t bet one dollar more to make sure his winnings would cover the other guys’ maximum bets.

When a tie occurs on Jeopardy, the players return back the next day. It’s happened for two players a bunch of times, but never all three players. I wonder if they get to keep the money they earned that show or do they now have to win on Monday to keep it.

Also, in looking up a news article about the tie, I found this site made by an ultra obsessive fan. It lists every question from every show!

Cole Hamels married Survivor Amazon’s Heidi Strobel

Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels just got married to Survivor Amazon’s Heidi Strobel.

Another Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels, is having better luck. He and new wife Heidi Strobel barely had time to recover from honeymoon jet lag before flying off to Clearwater, Fla., for spring training the other day.

Theirs will be a commuter marriage for a while, says Strobel, who in June will get her second master’s degree, in secondary education from West Chester University. Her classes this semester are Mondays and Wednesdays.

The couple – he’s 23 and she’s 28 – met about 21/2 years ago at a minor-league game in Florida. Strobel, who appeared in the sixth season of the reality show Survivor, was at the ballpark that day to throw out the first pitch.

Weird. Amazon was definitely my favorite season of the show.

I just saw Stephenie Lagrossa from Survivor Palau and Guatemala at the Flyers game the other night and I guess she works for them. Survivor Fiji starts on Thursday.

(via the 700 Level)

Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels just got married to Survivor Amazon’s Heidi Strobel.

Another Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels, is having better luck. He and new wife Heidi Strobel barely had time to recover from honeymoon jet lag before flying off to Clearwater, Fla., for spring training the other day.

Theirs will be a commuter marriage for a while, says Strobel, who in June will get her second master’s degree, in secondary education from West Chester University. Her classes this semester are Mondays and Wednesdays.

The couple – he’s 23 and she’s 28 – met about 21/2 years ago at a minor-league game in Florida. Strobel, who appeared in the sixth season of the reality show Survivor, was at the ballpark that day to throw out the first pitch.

Weird. Amazon was definitely my favorite season of the show.

I just saw Stephenie Lagrossa from Survivor Palau and Guatemala at the Flyers game the other night and I guess she works for them. Survivor Fiji starts on Thursday.

(via the 700 Level)