Entries in the Category "the office"
The Best Actress Fallacy
One of the more controversial Oscar winners from this past weekend was Sandra Bullock. This past summer, her career was seemingly in the toilet thanks to that All About Steve fiasco, and then suddenly The Proposal made a buck or two (although if my sister didn’t like it, I do not see what it could possibly have to recommend itself as a romantic comedy). And then this The Blind Side thing happened, and somehow her career trajectory veered so crazily in the opposite direction that she—as predicted—won a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year.
So the question becomes: does Sandra Bullock, mistress of pratfalls and goofiness, big opening weekends and almost supernatural hotness in her mid-forties (YES, REALLY), fit the profile of the Academy Award-winning actress?
First, we need to establish what the profile is. There’s this tendency to think of Oscar winning actresses as grande dames of cinema.
Bette Davis in All About Eve, for example
Or Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard
Would it surprise you to discover that both of those women went up for Best Actress in the same year, 1951? And that both of them lost? Who swiped the award from these two women in the prime of life, tackling two of the meatiest roles in Hollywood history?
Judy Holliday (age 29) in Born Yesterday
Nothing against Judy--that's a great movie, and her performance is more nuanced than 'dim bulb with a heart of gold.' Although that's a lot of it.
Continue reading "The Best Actress Fallacy"
Community Does Mad Men!
Community is getting awesomer and awesomer every week. I can understand why you might not like it--it really doesn't have a ton in common with its more understated Thursday night neighbors The Office and Parks and Recreation--it's more of a whip-fast smart-silly like 30 Rock.
I'm a Renaissance woman so I enjoy both of those types of shows. But of the three of them that aired last night (30 Rock was shuffled off so Jim and Pam could have a full hour to birth their baby) Community was easily the funniest. There was a good plotline about Jeff taking pool for his phys ed credit and objecting to required uniform of 80s-style short-shorts (I won't go into how that story wraps up because you've got to see it to believe it).
But the best moment was courtesy of oddball Abed. See, the gang thought that a pretty girl from Spanish class liked him and they were encouraging him to go talk to her. He didn't think he could as himself, so he tried out a variety of characters who might feel more comfortable hitting on her ("I think that one was a vampire") until he settled on the right one.
This wasn't it, but it was my favorite.
The impersonation was SO GOOD that I knew who he was doing before he said so. Right around, "Then you picked the wrong outfit."
The inside joke: Annie, played by Alison Brie, plays a secondary character (she's Mrs. Pete Campbell!) on Mad Men.
Two Bittersweet Stories About Roger Ebert
Certainly my favorite film critic writing right now is Roger Ebert, who in less than 1000 words can cut a bad movie down to size, or build a pedestal on which a great movie will sit. His health problems of the last few years have had severe effects on his body (robbing him of his voice, notably), but that has only caused him to multiply his writing output. In addition to his reviews, he's blogging and philosophizing and even tweeting continually.
A few weeks ago, he authorized a cover story to be written about him for Esquire magazine, revealing very intimate details of his life as a partial invalid. It's a sad and lovely article, making you feel like you're hanging around in the viewing room with Ebert and his kickass wife, Chaz.
Roger Ebert: The Essential Man (Chris Jones, from Esquire)
Today, I read another tribute to Ebert, this one of a very different kind. A writer called Will Leitch describes how he idolized Ebert, hugely insulted him in print, and grew to regret it. It's a really compelling tale, with Leitch in full apology mode. Remember that time Ryan on The Office excused his past behavior by saying: "I was in my mid-twenties"? That basically sums up Leitch's explanation of his behavior, but he is wise enough as a writer now that the story he wrote here is really about what an unmissable writer Ebert has continued to be despite his ordeals.
My Roger Ebert Story (Will Leitch, from Deadspin)
The Era of the Clip Show is Over (and The Office Didn't Get the Memo)
I was about five minutes into tonight's episode of The Office when I said to myself, "...Are they doing a clip show?" I hadn't seen one of those in so long it took me utterly by surprise.
Remember when clip shows were on all the time? Friends used to air one every season. I think the first one was the episode where Ross wavered on whether to send Rachel an invitation to his wedding, and, once he did, she wavered on whether or not to go. That flimsy 'plot' was interspersed with flashback clips of Ross and Rachel's relationship. (P.S. To all Martians or Amish people or people raised by wolves who haven't seen that season of Friends, DO IT! You won't believe how that whole wedding thing goes.)
The Office did much the same thing; there was some weak premise about some guy from corporate who had to do something or other and just asked questions meant to lead up to clip montages: "Have there been incidences of sexual harassment in the workplace?" Oh my gosh, there have! I won't even talk about the cheesetastic Jim-Pam montage.
Although I never pass up the opportunity to watch the Jim-masquerades-as-Dwight moment again ("Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.") the other 29 minutes of the episode seemed pointless. Thinking back on that episode of Friends ("The One With All the Invitations"), clip shows actually had a function then. Friends wasn't in syndication yet, and no shows were on DVD. If you wanted to see that moment from the prom video episode or whatever, that was kind of your only opportunity. That episode might have felt a little cheaty at the time, but what it did do was remind viewers of all of Ross and Rachel's greatest hits and set them up for the big season-ending wedding extravaganza.
But The Office? Do you know how many times I've watched that show on DVD? Do you know how many Tuesday nights I've spent parked in front of TBS watching their weekly marathon? Let's just call it most Tuesdays. I'm just so used to that show being above average, and not falling back on hacky sitcom tricks. I might be a bit disillusioned now.
Best clip show ever? How about "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"? That was a parody of the clip show, and according to that link, it aired in 1995. Let that tell you something, producers of The Office.
A Note to My Local NBC Affiliate
Hey, Cleveland-area television programmers! Just living in this town doesn't give us an innate interest in the outcome of the Browns game! Some of us would much rather be watching new episodes of The Office and 30 Rock like the rest of the country gets to do!
Blerg, NBC. Blerg.
Emmys Day-After Recap
I’ve got my Emmy food (pizza and mint creme Oreos) and I’m ready to go!
The Host
Neil Patrick Harris is totally cool. He’s singing and dancing, he’s wearing a white dinner jacket, and I think he just insulted Two and a Half Men. (Theme songs are getting so short, next year’s theme to the show will just be "meh." HA!) Later: I love the way he keeps introducing people from their obscure early credits (“from the 1987 Afterschool Special…”).
Click ahead for much much more!
Continue reading "Emmys Day-After Recap"
Mad Men: It Returns!
Mad Men is coming back with its third season premiere on Sunday night. I can't wait!
The second season of the show sold me in a way the first season did not manage to do. The show increased in depth and breadth exponentially, I think. The episodes were always textured--they had really careful writing and directing, and they looked great. I read something this week which suggested that the show is setting a new standard for visual quality on television. In the second season, the quality of the drama caught up with the quality of the product.
I've come around on Betty Draper. Betty, chain-smoking, tippling and unwashed, Betty off the rails, Betty fights cheating with cheating! Betty wants an abortion, the second saddest "doctor won't do an abortion" scene I watched this summer (the worst is in A Place in the Sun). I can't believe that January Jones didn't manage to get an Emmy nomination with the emotional gymnastics Betty turned out this season.
My newfound interest in Betty came about just around the time I grew increasingly tired of her husband Don's journey. It looks as though he may have made a turning point after his annoying detour through Southern California. I did love the fleshing out of his backstory, the way he draws support from the other Mrs. Draper. I could not have foreseen that.
I continue to be fascinated by Pete: fighting every losing battle, fighting against his wife's needs, fighting his compulsion to be liked with his compulsion to be a smarmy ass. I did not expect him, in the season finale, to lay his heart out there to Peggy--he doesn't deserve her, and he really didn't expect to get leveled by her, either. I don't love him, I don't hate him, I don't even love to hate him--this guy has to be one of the most ambiguous characters on television, ever. He may be more like a Michael Scott figure--you loathe and pity him in equal amounts, and often at the same time.
Speaking of Peggy, I am desperate for Peggy to succeed, insanely invested in her story. The end of the episode called "Maidenform" when she appeared at the strip club to celebrate with the guys (because she was tired of being left out, and that's where they were celebrating)--I both cheered and cringed for her, while she looked equally proud and humiliated. I like what they've done bringing her Catholic faith into the story, as well; she's really struggling, inwardly, as Don is. Beautiful.
I've also been enjoying savvy secretary Joan, frustrated middleman Harry, and wheeling-dealing dog abandoner Duck.
It'll be great to see them all again (10pm on Sunday, on AMC!) and hope others tune in as well.