Posted Nov 22nd 2009 12:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews
(S35E07) I imagine it played out like this: Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at home last week, trying to mentally prepare for his first go as
Saturday Night Live host by watching
January Jones. Her performance turned out to be wooden and incredibly low energy and, consequently, the laughs were minimal. This struck fear into Mr. Gordon-Levitt's heart, and, terrified, he dropped the pint of Phish Food that he was eating in my imagination. "I won't let this happen to me," I bet he said. "I'm going to eat two fistfuls of Pixi Stix at 11:25 p.m. Saturday night and have someone inject me with a near lethal dose of adrenaline. I'll also wear a lot of vests."
And that's how Joseph Gordon-Levitt managed to exhaust a seated audience through sheer enthusiasm and volume alone. Maybe.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Dave Matthews Band
Posted Nov 20th 2009 9:46AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E10) A weird thing has been happening this season, where I find myself really
appreciating what the writers have been doing with the gang but I'm not laughing nearly as much as I should. This episode was a prime example of that. Dennis is notorious for his way with women, so hearing a full breakdown of the DENNIS System should have been a complete riot (a riot with cringing, sure). I smiled at certain parts and quietly enjoyed the scary-elaborate ways of Dennis and the rest of the gang, though ultimately, the laughs fell short. Perhaps things are feeling a little forced this season?
Trust in the douchiness of your characters and the chemistry of your actors, writers! The lines will come.
Continue reading Review: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The DENNIS System
Posted Nov 16th 2009 12:41PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) This episode was certainly a surprise in many respects. It was one of the funnier installments of the season so far. It also brought back a lot of old themes and cleared up some incomplete storylines that had started to gather dust. On one hand, I'm glad that those have been resolved, because most of them were revealed to be kind of irrelevant anyway, but I also felt as though it was rushed, like, five loose ends from old major arcs had to be hastily tied up in twenty-some minutes. Well, it's better than continuing to string us along, right?
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - The Revenge Society
Posted Nov 15th 2009 12:32PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S35E06) There was a strange moment of nodding recognition at the end of the night, as I watched Jason Sudeikis and January Jones in the cloud-gazing sketch. Throughout, the man pauses to consider the woman's weird behavior and then concedes, "Ohh, you're a very pretty, pretty woman." Yup. That's pretty much how I reacted the entire night, especially during really bad sketches like the farting Grace Kelly (take a moment to think about that: Farting. Grace. Kelly.)
Jones was kind of a stiff host with not particularly daring material, but, goodness gracious, her real-life 50s Barbie prettiness was mesmerizing. Her performances in the mid-century instructional video and the aforementioned cloud-gazing sketch were the best of the evening, but that's not saying much since the rest of her appearances were strange and wooden. Even her good night felt like it had been programmed in and auto-tuned for maximum polite insincerity.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - January Jones/Black Eyed Peas
Posted Nov 13th 2009 12:17PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews
(S05E09) Well. This episode was certainly successful in further quelling the doubts of any audience members that are still, for whatever reason, unconvinced that all the guys from
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia are actually super-gay for each other. Yeah, not just "gay" but "
super-gay." Considering the adorable, almost symbiotic nature of the guys' relationships, I would probably just refer to them as "hetero lifemates," but Frank and Charlie play Nightcrawlers and we all know what happened onstage between Dayman and Nightman in "The Nightman Cometh." Don't fight it.
Continue reading Review: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - Mac and Dennis Break Up
Posted Nov 9th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E04) It's enough to make you stop believing when tears come fast and furious, in a
town called Malice. Yeah. I totally just made that up. Right now. Free words of wisdom, from me to you.
This episode wasn't spectacular for the purposes of laughing-out-loud. It was funny in a few moments, yes, but I spent most of the twenty-some minutes resting my chin on my fist, brow furrowed with concern. All the characters are going through some heavy stuff right now, and that inner turmoil, dealing with loss and identity and love, came bubbling to the surface in this episode. Doing so, again, isn't much of a gut-buster, but it makes for beautiful character development. Can you tell I have faith in this show? Maybe a little too much.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Return to Malice
Posted Nov 8th 2009 9:40AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Celebrities, Episode Reviews
(S35E05) I had to talk myself through being allowed to criticize Taylor Swift. Ever since Kanye West VMA outburst turned everyone in America into Swift's over-protective mom, she's been shown even more as an innocent country-inspired sweetheart. Every time she messed up in this episode, I felt the need to hold back any not-super-great remarks because, well, she's a teeny-bopper! Teeny-boppers are just kids goofin' around!
And then I have to pause and remind myself that she's almost 20-years-old, around the same age as Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Page when they first hosted and Abby Elliiott when she initially joined the featured players. Screw it, there's no need to hold back. Swift is a musician, so we can't expect her acting skills to be super-good, but the fact I keep thinking she's only 14 shouldn't affect anything else.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Taylor Swift
Posted Nov 6th 2009 1:31PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E08) Yes! Finally. The moment we've all been waiting for. Ever since the season five promos first aired, I have been eagerly anticipating some sort of context for Charlie's uncontrollable eyebrows and the ridiculous Kitten Mittens (or Kitten Mittons, as it were). Seeing the ad in full certainly didn't disappoint, though I wish we could have seen more Kitten Mittons throughout the episode. Admittedly, thirty-some minutes of cats struggling in booties probably doesn't sound like a hot idea, but, hey, animal humor has sustained many a clip show.
Plus, I heart over-enthusiastic Charlie.
Continue reading Review: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 8:35AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews
(S04E03) I swear to you, dear reader, that I do my best to stay somewhat objective when reviewing
The Venture Bros. It's tough, though, when the writers keep knocking them out of the park like this. We're only a few episodes in, but I'm already enjoying things more than I did with season three, and it's not just because this episode had mind-blowing prog rock and UPS guys with the Shining.
Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - Perchance to Dean
Posted Oct 30th 2009 11:59AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E07) This episode brought back many things that fans of
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia have already come to know and love: nearly aggressive patriotism, needless shirtnessness, songs sung in falsetto and, of course, Rickety Cricket. I would like to also submit that the Birds of War get-up (pictured above) would be perfect for this Halloween, especially if you're desperate for few high-fives or silent nods of approval. It covers a wide range, as it appeals to both
Always Sunny fans and people who like America and/or chickens. I mean, eagles.
Continue reading Review: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - The Gang Wrestles for the Troops
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