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Whole Lotta Wrestlin'
May 2nd, 2009
I have to first start off by apologizing for not posting the Heroes Season Finale review as well as the American Dad and Family Guy reviews from last week. The reason why it hasn't been posted is because I have been so swamped with school work (graduate school sucks) that it's been tough to do any of my normal reviews. I have the Fox shows done, though. Luckily grad school is OVER for the semester and now I have time to watch my shows. So, tomorrow night I am booked but expect the Heroes review by sometime Tuesday or Wednesday night.
Well it is Sunday and it is time for the weekly DVD reviews. It's another two-fer this week as I am slowly clearing out the backlog. Both of these were finished in early 2009 so at least I am in the right calender year now! First up is WWE: Best of Raw - 15th Anniversary. It was a look at the 15 year history of Monday Night Raw. Second is the WWE: Brian Pillman - Loose Cannon DVD. There's even more wrestling I have for you, as there is a huge cache of matches from WWE Legacy and their April highlights. I couldn't do all the matches, as you'll read in the review, but it was a lot of fun and I hope you have fun reading it. It can be accessed from the Legacy page on my website, or by clicking here.
There's not much else to say right now. I am finishing up the WCCW DVD that was released by the WWE a few years back and it just so happens to coincide with the WCCW stuff on Legacy. I hope to have posted by this Friday the Heroes/American Dad/Family Guy reviews and the four Superstars episodes on Legacy (including tomorrow's) that I haven't watched yet. We'll see, but since I have more free time now, it should be manageable.
TV Show Round Up
May 4th, 2009
Family Guy 04/26/09
Episode 13: Stew-Roids
Everyone celebrates the birthday of Joe’s baby girl (while we learn his son is dead) and Stewie gets beat up by her, prompting him to head to the gym. Peter unwittingly gives him steroids and Stewie becomes buff. Meanwhile, Chris is asked out by Connie D’Amico because she’s been out with all the cool guys and only the losers are left. She wants to make a loser into a cool guy and Chris is her pick. Soon, Connie starts falling for Chris for real. Soon Meg is sad because she’s not part of the in-crowd and Chris actually dumps Connie and now she is a loser. Connie actually goes to Meg for help. They embarrass Chris, and Connie’s popular again. The show kind of sputters to an end after that. Not a strong finish but some jokes make this watchable, namely the eating a horse joke. B.
Family Guy 05/03/09
Episode 14: We Love You Conrad
Jillian is getting married and Brian finds he’s jealous of this. He goes out with her and the fiancée and ends up sleeping with Lauren Conrad. He dates her but Lauren is too smart for him and corrects him like he did with Jillian. Brian does realize he still loves Jillian and he goes to tell her, only to have it basically stuffed back in his face. The fact that Lauren was in here was useless, but a funny cutaway (the praying mantis) and the late-night talk about Lauren/Brian, with appearances by Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno and Colin Ferguson provided some laughs. Another average episode for the season. B.
American Dad 04/26/09
Episode 17: Every Which Way But Lose
Steve is not getting any attention from his father so he decides to join a football team. Stan ends up coaching it, and cuts Steve because he’s a loser. So Roger and Steve plan to get back at his father, by making him lose the football game. The b-plot features Francine and Hayley in a pie bake-off. So Stan loses and hangs himself. So, Steve gets Stan to show his emotions by crying. For the first time in a while, this was weak episode of American Dad. There wasn’t anything terribly funny and it was just a huge miss compared to the greatness of other episodes this season. C.
American Dad 05/03/09
Episode 18: Weiner of Discontent
Roger’s lived his whole life saying he’s important. One day, Stan gets fed up and tells him he’s worthless. That is when Roger tells him he’s the decider and he gets to decide if the Earth lives or dies and thanks to Stan’s unkind words he has decided they shall die. He goes to his secret base, which Stan doesn’t believe exists, and astonishingly, it does exist! Roger puts some code into his plane but nothing happens and Stan finds out that Roger was really just a crash test dummy. Roger’s completely discouraged and after moping gets a job, hoping to become a decider again. He starts working at a hot dog shack and when he’s in charge of bad hot dogs that will kill; he keeps them to decide if they should be thrown away. This actually comes back to the b-plot, of Steve insulting Toshi and being challenged to a hot dog eating contest. Guess which hot dogs were about to be used? Luckily, the hot dogs aren’t used and they are destroyed. Roger is again discouraged until Stan realizes why he’s treating Roger the way he is, since he got looked over for something at work. He puts him in charge of his allergy medicine and all is right with the world. The bumper at the end is hilarious, too. Just a wonderfully well-written episode. It was actually Seinfeld-ish, where they tie together both stories. To boot, it was actually funny. Clearly American Dad is in another league compared to Family Guy. A.
Heroes 04/27/09
Episode 25: An Invisible Thread
Angela senses Nathan’s in trouble as Bennett drops off Claire and Angela before being stopped by a roadblock. Nathan tells Danko of his plans, and shows that he can’t be killed because he moved his “off-switch.” Then he becomes Danko and makes sure he won’t be a problem anymore by shooting someone in his guise. Claire shows up to see Nathan, who is really Sylar in disguise. He leaves with Claire and shortly afterwards Peter finds his Nathan, just waking up from getting knocked out. Danko’s taken to jail where he sits with Bennett. Hiro and Ando head to Building 26 as Hiro gets sick from using his powers. They free the prisoners (and unknowingly Danko/Bennett) and Mohinder tells Hiro that he shouldn’t freeze time again. Claire soon discovers the truth when Nathan writes with the left hand, and she knew her father was right-handed. So Sylar keeps Claire prisoner as Bennett heads over to Sylar. Hiro uses his powers to take out Danko, and then passes out. Nathan shows up to his friend and tells him that they are super-powered as well and Peter and Nathan try to take out Sylar. He’s ready for them, and it’s time for a showdown. Sylar and Nathan fly off and Sylar slices Nathan’s throat wide open. Angela finds Parkman and Bennett finds Claire and Peter, who reveals he has taken Sylar’s power. Parkman and Angela find a dead Nathan. Well, he died last season, too, but he lived. Sylar meets the president and shakes his hand, to get his powers, but it’s really Peter, who injects something into Sylar. That was awesome. Even more awesome, Bennett and Angela use Parkman to make Sylar think he is Nathan, complete with all of Nathan’s memories that he already swiped. So they burn the old fake Sylar body and Nathan is still Nathan, though he’s really the body and soul of Sylar. That was taken from a recent Exiles storyline but it worked really well in this context. I have to say, it was a great conclusion. Nathan and Bennett start up a new company, Hiro is still hurting, Parkman goes back to his kid and it’s a nice conclusion to season three. If this show doesn’t get picked up again, it was tied up well. Volume 5 is previewed with Nikki/Tracy coming back to kill government people. Her ice powers seem to have shifted to Hydro-Man type powers. Angela talks to Nathan, who seems to be obsessed with clocks. Looks interesting. Once streamlined, this show got a LOT better.
WWE Superstars - Last 2 Episodes of 1990
May 7th, 2009
Well, I'm all caught up on WWE Superstars now. If only I can get TPL done before it is three days late...
Anyway, here's the next two epsidoes, 12/22/90 and 12/29/90.
By the way, I'm running a 5K this weekend in Sag Harbor, so I will be out on the Island all day Saturday. Long story short, don't expect many more posts between now and Monday! Wish me luck! My goal is 33 minutes.
How we gonna pay?
May 10th, 2009
It's Mother's Day so everyone should take a minute out of reading this blog to wish their mother's a Happy Mother's Day!
I'll make this DVD review quick today, I still have a lot to do today and still need to call my mother! I'm only going to post one DVD review this week, and that is the Rent: Live on Broadway DVD that I finished back in February. I don't think I've kept my love of Rent any secret on this blog and it is a fitting (albeit way to short) look at the final performance of one of the longest running shows in Broadway history.
I also have an update to the Legacy page, updating another episode of Superstars that can be found here.
That's all for now. I am done with school so I hope to update a little more frequently than I did last week, and look for the Monday dose of Family Guy & American Dad, as well as some WWE Legacy stuff later on this week.
Animation Domination (well, half of it)
May 11th, 2009
Family Guy 05/10/09
Episode 15: Three Kings
This could be an interesting episode. The premise is Peter Griffin inserts him and his friends into three different Stephen King stories. The first is Stand By Me. It’s a coming of age story of four young guys who found a dead body. The four young guys are Peter, Quagmire, Joe and Cleveland. The nostalgia references are very well done by the writers and the whole thing plays as a very funny homage to films like this. The next story mimics Misery, with Brian as the writer (complete with Stephen King getting hit by a car joke), and Stewie as the crazed female fan. Joe shows up as a sheriff (and loses his legs and is a theme emerging?) though the thing kind of just ended. They end with Shawshank Redemption, and Joe is crippled, again. Peter teases us with a Shining spoof but sadly we don’t get that. The ending was pretty satisfying, especially the dig at the next show, which is just another Seth show. I hadn’t seen any of these three Stephen King movies, but that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of these three homages. I thought this was an ambitious episode, tying together both the Star Wars spoofs and the Viewer Mail episode that ended the original run of the series. One of the best episodes of the season so far. A.
American Dad 05/10/09
Episode 19: Daddy Queerest
Stan is embarrassed bringing Francine to parties because she is so socially awkward, laughing at the wrong times and talking about things she doesn’t know. That’s just the set-up for the gay couple, Terry & Greg, dropping off their child at the Smiths because Terry’s father, a famous football player, doesn’t know he’s gay. So Terry decides to tell his father he’s gay, but chickens out at the last minute and says he’s married to Francine and Stan is the gay one with Greg. Greg stays with Stan and they go out to dinner, where Bullock shows up and Stan is actually invited to one of his party’s, something he never got with Francine. So Stan goes and he realizes that he is Greg’s Francine. So Stan gets drunk and gets Francine back and tells Terry’s father that Terry is gay. Everyone’s mad at Stan, who tries to fix everything. Everything is fixed by the end. True love conquers all. The b-story sees Steve trying to buy liquor from a guy behind the store, and that guy is Roger. So Steve gets drunk and makes out with perhaps the ugliest beast that has ever walked Langley Falls so Roger prevents further alcohol use by showing the pictures of Steve and the ugly woman. What a great episode. They don’t need the cutaway scenes here like Family Guy does, and the show is better for it. A.
NHL 2009 Playoff Preview - Conference Finals
May 15th, 2009
Eastern Conference
(4) Pittsburgh vs. (6) Carolina
Carolina has been hot lately, pulling off Game 7 victories in New Jersey and Boston, and doing it in stunning fashion; beating New Jersey with two goals in the last 120 seconds and beating top-seeded Boston in overtime. You can’t overlook them, especially with the strong play of Staal and goalie Cam Ward. The Penguins pulled off a Game Seven road win as well, beating Washington in a laugher, when the previous 6 games had all been pretty close. You can’t overlook Carolina here, as they’ve pushed two very good teams to the limit, and both those teams they beat had better goalies than Fluery. The Pens do have Malkin and Crosby and Ward hasn’t dealt with anyone like those two in the playoffs, yet. Both of these two teams have shown they can win in the playoffs and this should be a close series. Carolina won’t go easily, but in the end the Penguins are just too good.
Prediction: Pittsburgh in Seven
Western Conference
(2) Detroit vs. (4) Chicago
This is a great Original Six match-up and should be one to put up some big numbers. I was surprised at how well Chicago played against a really good goalie in Roberto Luongo, especially scoring 7 goals in the deciding game 6. The Red Wings faced tougher opposition from the Ducks, needing all seven games to close that series out. This will be great, the young guns of the Blackhawks going against the Wings and their proven winners. Khabibulin has shown he can win in the playoffs, having won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004. I don’t know if I am sold on Osgood, though. He can win, but can he withstand the onslaught that Kane, Sharp, Toews, and Havlat will throw at him? He did defeat the Penguins last year so he has shown he can deal with offensive threats. The Blackhawks will do their best to dethrone the champs, but the experience of the Wings will prevail.
Prediction: Detroit in Seven
Looking Ahead
I haven’t been doing too well with these predictions but I think I may get this one right. Having a rematch of last year’s final will be really interesting to watch. Let’s just hope the NHL can keep up the great hockey we’ve seen the last two rounds.
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