Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
April 5, 2015
Television, What Won TV? Leave a comment
In this feature, I look back at each day of the past week and determine what shows “won TV” for the night. That is, I consider every episode of television I watched that aired on a particular day and declare which was the best.
Sunday – Going Clear
Monday – Better Call Saul
Tuesday – The Flash
Wednesday – The Middle/The Goldbergs
Thursday – Archer
Friday – Comedy Bang! Bang!
Saturday – Houston, we have a boner on SNL.
April 5, 2015
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television Carly Rae Jepsen, Houston we have boner, Michael Keaton, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 40, SNL, SNL Season 40 Leave a comment
SNL: Carly Rae Jepsen, Michael Keaton (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in April 2015.
Michael Keaton’s innate charm was on full display during this past awards season. That was not as present in his third “SNL” hosting stint (and first in over 20 years). Instead, he reminded viewers of his dark side. While he never actually suited up as Batman or Beetlejuice during the episode, his roles did seem to be inspired by that portion of his career. The result was a surplus of oddly severe sketches, some of which were praiseworthy in their boldness, but others which were cringeworthy in their difficulty to watch.
Final Four Postgame – “SNL” was operating right down to the wire here, as the Wisconsin-Kentucky game ended only about 15 minutes before the start of the show. That was no big deal, as the actual result did not heavily factor into this sketch, though there could have been a problem if the game had gone into overtime and lasted past 11:30. Anyway, this sketch was really about the eternal conflict between the two sides of the student-athlete identity. The alternate reality presented here – in which a star player like Duke’s Jahlil Okafor would miss the championship because of a biology test – was appreciably silly, but also way too obvious. This would have been much more reliable if it had just focused on the announcing crew. It would have been inconsequential, sure, but the latest gambling misadventures of Kenan’s Charles Barkley (now he’s got to eat a basketball) have more energy than a crack about Coach K’s $10 million salary. C+
April 4, 2015
Music, Television, VH1 Top 20 Countdown Leave a comment
Each week, I check out VH1′s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.
Original Version
1. Maroon 5 – “Sugar”
2. Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”
3. Taylor Swift – “Style”
4. Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney – “FourFiveSeconds”
5. Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding – “Outside”
6. Pitbull & Ne-Yo – “Time of Our Lives”
7. Nick Jonas – “Chains”
8. Tori Kelly – “Nobody Love”
9. Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
10. Kelly Clarkson – “Heartbeat Song”
11. Zedd ft. Selena Gomez – “I Want You to Know”
12. Tove Lo – “Talking Body”
13. Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
14. Sam Smith – “Lay Me Down”
15. Imagine Dragons – “I Bet My Life”
16. Lily Wood & Robin Schulz – “Prayer in C (Robin Schulz Remix)”
17. Jason Derulo – “Want to Want Me”
18. Walk the Moon – “Shut Up and Dance”
19. Echosmith – “Bright”
20. George Ezra – “Budapest”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Outside
2. Style
3. Talking Body
4. Prayer in C (Robin Schulz Remix)
5. I Want You to Know
6. Nobody Love
7. Chains
8. FourFiveSeconds
9. Shut Up and Dance
10. Love Me Like You Do
11. Lay Me Down
12. Want to Want Me
13. I Bet My Life
14. Time of Our Lives
15. Uptown Funk
16. Budapest
17. Sugar
18. Heartbeat Song
19. Bright
20. Thinking Out Loud
April 2, 2015
Television, The Middle, The Middle Episode Reviews Operation Infiltration, The Middle, The Middle 618, The Middle Season 6 Leave a comment
Take note: The FDA created Ebola to protect Area 51. http://www.starpulse.com/news/Jeffrey_Malone/2015/04/02/the-middle-season-6-episode-18-recap-o
April 1, 2015
New Girl, New Girl Episode Reviews, Television New Girl, New Girl 419, New Girl Season 4, The Right Thing Leave a comment
Careful trying not to fall in love with Winston, cause he’s lovable as hell. http://www.starpulse.com/news/Jeffrey_Malone/2015/04/01/new-girl-season-4-episode-19-recap-the
April 1, 2015
Community, Community Episode Reviews, Television Community, Community 604, Community Season 6, Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing Leave a comment
Community, “Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing” (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot)
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in March 2015.
“Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing” took the most advantage of Season 6’s lack of running time restrictions thus far, clocking in just under 31 minutes. This made sense, insofar as there were three plots and only two of them were even tangentially related. The structure of a typical modern network sitcom episode is generally not long enough to fully conclude the normal amount of three storylines. “Community” was not being indulgent here so much as it was just finding the necessary legroom. But even though each plot had enough space, it was not clear why Chang’s performance as Mr. Miyagi, the Dean joining the school board, and protecting a bird’s nest as IT work all needed to be in the same episode.
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