One of my new favorite sites is hulu.com. It’s a joint online venture from Fox and NBC. The site features full-length TV shows and movies for free. I signed up for the beta back in January, but it’s open to the public now, so check it out. They also have clips from lots of new and old television programs.
Here is an SNL clip to get you going. I tried to embed it here, but for whatever reason it wasn’t working.
I just read a post on another blog about The 20 Greatest Show intros of all time. After looking over the list, I was shocked to discover that the intro to the A-Team was missing. Blasphemy! I decided to compile my own list. As I was doing this, I also realized that most of these are from the late 70’s and early 80’s. I guess they just don’t make intros like these anymore. Note: I’m only doing 10 because I am lazy. I know that I’ve left off some other classics. Let me know about it in the comments section. (Read the article)
I just saw a commercial that CBS is going to start airing episodes of Showtime’s serial killer drama, Dexter, on Sundays in February. I think this is a fascinating decision. TBS has shown Sex and the City, A&E The Sopranos and BET The Wire, but I can’t remember a regular network showing a pay channel show before. Dexter is a fantastic show and I was pumped this year when Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under’s David) was nominated for a Golden Globe. Far less people have Showtime subscriptions than HBO, but with Dexter, Weeds and Californication its become the pay channel with the best original programming. However, I can’t see how its going to work censored because not only is there a lot of foul language and some nudity, the blood and guts are integral to the story of a vigilante serial killer in Miami. I know if I accidentally bought a PG-13 version of American Psycho from Wal-mart I’d probably wipe my ass with it before I returned it for a refund.
I was watching Boyz n the Hood recently on latenight cable and Doughboy’s quote above made me think about HBO’s show The Wire. It has just recently started its 5th and final season and is, for my money, the best show in TV history, yet it goes criminally unnoticed during the Emmy’s and my the general public. It is the anti-CSI, in that cases don’t wrap up in one episode. In fact, its the anti-cop drama, because its one of few instances where the writers have the balls to show that the main bad guys are at the top of their profession because they are really smart, maybe even smarter than the cops.
The Wire (which is created by David Simon and Ed Burns, the duo who created the equally great and unappreciated Homicide:Life on the Streets in the 90s for NBC) started its first season as a textured look at the battle between Baltimore Po-lice (as every character on the show says it) and the Westside drug cartel led by Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell. As the seasons have progressed so have the characters and storylines. The show has now become a microcosm of the decay of the American innercity. The Wire has become far more than simple TV entertainment and has become important social commentary. Simon, who covered the city’s police beat for the Baltimore Sun, and Burns, who was a Baltimore Homicide Po-lice, have woven the narratives around storylines about not only drugs and how they destroy the community, but police and political corruption, the failures of the family structure and the educational and child welfare systems. Its set in Baltimore but it could definately be NYC, Philly, DC and probably every other city in this country. This season is focusing on the media.
I stare hyperbole in the face when I say that anyone who cares about what’s really going on in this country should be watching The Wire. This is the shiz they don’t show on CNN. You can pick up the show during the final season that’s currently airing on Sundays on HBO. I have several friends that I recommended it to last season who watched season 4 and then went back and watched the first three; however, it would probably have more emotional impact to watch all of them in order. Its a dense show with dozens of characters and unlike a certain show about New Jersey gangsters, its all connected. Characters from previous seasons that haven’t been heard from come back and play major parts. The first 4 seasons are all available on DVD. If you don’t put them at the top of your netflix queue you’re proving Ice Cube right.
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