undeclared

i first watched this entire series one afternoon/night. i was living in boston, & it was the night before i was meant to move out of my packard's corner apartment (72 gardner street, for those of you keeping tabs on me). all of my belongings were packed & most of them were already brought home. & i hated my roommates. so the options were leave the apartment or stay inside my room. because i was feeling particularly lazy & unhappy at my living situation, i decided to stay inside.

i had almost nothing to entertain me. but thankfully, before i packed my boxes of DVDs into my mum's SUV, i had decided to keep undeclared with me in case i needed something to watch. & watch it i did. the ENTIRE SERIES.

but really, that's not much of a feat. because, like its predecessor, freaks & geeks, this one only aired for one season (an incomplete season at that. one or two episodes never aired at all). which is sad. because both shows deserved at least a second season.

(freaks & geeks deserved a lot more than that, but that's for another blog entry someday down the line).

undeclared is certainly no freaks & geeks. but it's still quite enjoyable. it's pretty light-hearted & fun. i think it pretty accurately portrays college, without getting too bogged down with the emotions involved. but the dialogue & plots are realistic. i believe what's going on.

according to wikipedia, judd apatow has stated, "one reason for the death of college shows is that it's difficult to be honest about campus life on network or basic cable. it's hard to portray truthfully. the truth is, kids are high, drunk and having sex. no matter what you do, you're fudging it."

ok, so maybe judd apatow is right. but they did a pretty good job. after all, lloyd does have plenty of sex. (not that it's any wonder why! look at him! he's a cutie!)



& the gang do their fair share of drinking (they even empty a keg into every single cup in their dorm room & try to drink it all before it goes flat). certainly things were left out of the overall college experience, but undeclared gives it a good try.

i think what really makes it great is the casting. i really love the male casting choices. seth rogan! charlie hunnam! in fact, all four of the main boys do a really good job with this material.

the girls, however, i was less than pleased with. carla gallo, i apparently do not like you in anything you are in. & monica keena! fuck you, i didn't like you on dawson's creek & i don't like you on undeclared. get off my blog!

the true casting gem, however, is in lizzie's (carla gallo, ick) creepy stalker boyfriend, eric.

this is seriously good stuff here.



jason segel, you are always great. you are welcome on my blog anytime.

In Living Color, 2

i mostly just want to say "ditto" to jessica. i don't get it, but it's not targeted at me, so that's alright. i completely appreciate the show. i actually did laugh at one of the skits, though apparently it's the skit that replaced the date-rape one. jim carey is the ship captain (or, "boat pilot") who was responsible for a giant oil spill. as his wife does the dishes with her back to him, she rehashes the details of the spill and cleanup. carey, meanwhile, is re-enacting it all (accidently) with a horrific coffee spill that he tries to soak up with flour. it winds up with him lighting the kitchen on fire. stellar stuff, really.


i suppose i could get into the show on some level. i'm sure you could show me great skits and i'd love them. but all in all, it feels like an off-season of SNL. there's the occasional thing that is hilarious, but as a whole, i can't really be bothered to wait around for it. thank god for the internet though.

sub point: i hate madtv.

reno 911!

i'm not 100% sure what to say about this show. i've got no really in-depth thoughts about it. & my online research proved that there are really no secrets about this show to be revealed.

all in all, it's just hilarious. i mean, i always make a point to watch it whenever i catch it on TV. watching 8 episodes back-to-back may have been a little much. & since you don't need to watch every episode to stay caught up on any kind of "plot" or "character development," watching every season is really not needed. it's maybe more of a watch-it-when-it's-on but-don't-kill-yourself-if-you-miss-an-episode kind of show.

but honestly, it's really just hilarious.

The Tick (live action), 2

it's true, i watched all 6 episodes. it's an absolutely ridiculous show. very over the top, but that's what you want. i promise. it's bizarre and funny- i some how liked it and didn't like it at the same time. i think i got a little bored because i wasn't dedicating my full attention to the show. this is definitely something to watch with friends. comic dork friends if you have them. (i say that lovingly.)

i am going to agree with jessica- batmanuel is the best. maybe it's the sexy accent, maybe it's that he's a womanizer and kind of a dick, but i fell for batmanuel. even if his outfit was ridiculous.


did you see captain liberty's outfit?


yeah. that star is cutout for cleav. amazing. certainly just more of a demonstration of the hilarious satire that is The Tick. there was actually an episode about not donning the costume and wearing normal clothes. turns out superheros should stay in their outfits so they don't freak out their dates. long story.

i'm into it though.

chappelle's show

i always thought this show was called "the chappelle show". apparently it's not, & that blew my mind a little bit.

it's sort of a sketch show, like in living color or SNL. but it's also part stand-up show, which explains why it's called "chappelle's show" & not "the chappelle show".

by now, we all know that i'm not the biggest comedy fan. so i probably won't give this show an "i would watch the whole season" or "i would watch disc two" rating. but don't get me wrong, i did like the chapp - look, there i go again - chappelle's show. i laughed a whole bunch of times, & in general was amused while watching this show. & i wasn't even multi-tasking while watching it!

my favourite sketch (& the most popular, naturally) of the first disc was the black blind white supremacist bit. that's good stuff right there. for the most part, i thought chappelle's skits were pretty intelligent & very satirical. but, as sham pointed out, it was a little hard to figure out which sketches were political/cultural satire & which were supposed to be just plain ol' funny. but either way, i laughed.

but apparently this show drove dave chappelle ever so slightly insane. right before production of the third season he reportedly disappeared & turned up in south africa. it's unclear if he had drug problems, needed therapy, or just wanted to get away. but he later reported that stress had driven him to seek space from his show. apparently his fame was getting to him, & he has been known to complain that chappelle's show took his time away from doing stand-up tours, which is what he really enjoyed doing.

the details seem a little fuzzy, but chappelle even seems to have stated that he thought some of his sketches were "socially irresponsible" & that he realized that some people were laughing at him in the wrong way (like, laughing at him, not with him). i don't think i've seen enough of the show to really comment on that. he definitely does play on racial stereotypes often, but in order to show people how idiotic these beliefs are rather than to perpetuate them.

either way, this show seemed to ruin dave chappelle a little bit. which is sad, because honestly, it's pretty good.

in living color

i have to admit, before last night i had never before seen an episode of in living color. i always knew of the show, & i was aware that it had been pretty ground-breaking on many levels. but i had just never happened upon watching it before (nor have i seen most of SNL, i guess this type of format never really attracted me before).

i know a lot of people, of all races, sexes, & ages, who are big fans of this show. i've even been chastised in the past for not having seen some of in living color's more popular sketches. i always knew that it probably wasn't for me, as i don't really like "sketch" shows. but, to be fair to the rules of the game, i gave it a chance.

i did laugh, sure. & it was interesting to see so many famous faces when they were a bit younger.

i give this show incredible respect.

but in living color really isn't targeted to me. it's always hard to watch this kind of show outside of it's time period. i mean, a lot of the jokes and references went completely over my head. sham was able to explain a few i didn't get, but for the most part i have a feeling i missed out on a lot of the humour because i simply didn't get what was going on. at the same time, i'm not really a fan of sketch comedy. so i don't really want to judge this one on content.

so instead i turned to my trusty friend wikipedia, hoping to find some good nugget of information about in living color that would inspire this blog entry. this didn't really happen either. i was interested to read that the original pilot included a sketch that was only broadcast once (it's even been replaced on the DVD) because it deals with date rape. apparently the master tape for the episode was changed but keenan ivory wayans "accidentally" mixed up the masters so the true episode could be aired. once.

other than that, in living color didn't really stand out for me. i completely & utterly respect it for everything that it did, & for having the guts to fight censorship in the 90s. it certainly helped a lot of comedians get their starts, & i'm sure it inspired many viewers.

it's just not for me.

da ali g show

i still just don't get this show.

but that's ok, i'm REALLY not the target audience.