What Won TV? – July 24-July 30, 2016

July 31, 2016

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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.

steve_brule-crime

Sunday – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Monday – Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Tuesday – Not Safe with Nikki Glaser (or REALLY Not Safe with Eric André, as it were)
Wednesday – Mr. Robot
Thursday – The season finale of Hollywood Game Night airing months after the rest of the season
Friday – Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule (Is this really the end of Dr. Steve’s cherry-red humdinger of a run?)
Saturday – I didn’t really watch anything that actually aired on Saturday, but I did finish Season 3 of BoJack Horseman.

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of August 6, 2016

July 26, 2016

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Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, and then I rearrange that top 25 based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. twenty one pilots – “Ride”
2. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
3. twenty one pilots – “Stressed Out”
4. James Bay – “Let It Go”
5. Coldplay – “Hymn for the Weekend”
6. X Ambassadors – “Unsteady”
7. Disturbed – “The Sound of Silence”
8. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, & Imagine Dragons with Logic, Ty Dolla $ign, & X Ambassadors – “Sucker for Pain”
9. Ben Rector – “Brand New”
10. The Lumineers – “Ophelia”
11. blink-182 – “Bored to Death”
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Dark Necessities”
13. Fitz and the Tantrums – “HandClap”
14. The Strumbellas – “Spirits”
15. Kaleo – “Way Down We Go”
16. Bishop Briggs – “River”
17. Bastille – “Good Grief”
18. The 1975 – “The Sound”
19. Good Charlotte – “Life Can’t Get Much Better”
20. Cage the Elephant – “Trouble”
21. Beck – “Wow”
22. Panic! at the Disco – “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time”
23. NEEDTOBREATHE – “Happiness”
24. Skillet – “Feel Invincible”
25. Goo Goo Dolls – “So Alive”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. River
2. Way Down We Go
3. Wow
4. The Sound
5. Unsteady
6. Dark Necessities
7. Ride
8. Trouble
9. Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time
10. Ophelia
11. Good Grief
12. Stressed Out
13. Heathens
14. Feel Invincible
15. Sucker for Pain
16. So Alive
17. Happiness
18. The Sound of Silence
19. Hymn for the Weekend
20. Spirits
21. HandClap
22. Let It Go
23. Life Can’t Get Much Better
24. Brand New
25. Bored to Death

Billboard Hot 20 – Week of August 6, 2016

July 26, 2016

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Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot 100, and then I rearrange the top 20 based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. Sia ft. Sean Paul – “Cheap Thrills”
2. Drake ft. WizKid and Kyla – “One Dance”
3. Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”
4. Justin Timberlake – “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”
5. The Chainsmokers ft. Daya – “Don’t Let Me Down”
6. twenty one pilots – “Ride”
7. Rihanna – “Needed Me”
8. Kent Jones – “Don’t Mind”
9. Desiigner – “Panda”
10. Adele – “Send My Love (to Your New Lover)”
11. Katy Perry – “Rise”
12. P!nk – “Just Like Fire”
13. Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”
14. Meghan Trainor – “Me Too”
15. Florida Georgia Line – “H.O.L.Y.”
16. Mike Posner – “I Took a Pill in Ibiza”
17. Britney Spears ft. G-Eazy – “Make Me”
18. Drake – “Controlla”
19. DJ Khaled ft. Drake – “For Free”
20. Drake ft. Rihanna – “Too Good”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Cheap Thrills
2. Work From Home
3. I Took a Pill in Ibiza
4. Needed Me
5. Ride
6. Send My Love (to Your New Lover)
7. Don’t Let Me Down
8. Rise
9. One Dance
10. Too Good
11. Me Too
12. Can’t Stop the Feeling!
13. Panda
14. This Is What You Came For
15. Make Me
16. For Free
17. Controlla
18. Just Like Fire
19. Don’t Mind
20. H.O.L.Y.

What Won TV? – July 17-July 23, 2016

July 24, 2016

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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.

MATCH GAME – Airdate: July 17, 2016 - The iconic panel game show MATCH GAME, hosted by Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin, returns to primetime airing on SUNDAYS (10-11pm, ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/ Heidi Gutman) JACK MCBRAYER, CHERYL HINES, IKE BARINHOLTZ (top row); LESLIE JONES, JOSH CHARLES, LEAH REMINI (bottom row)

Sunday – Match Game, with Leslie Jones and Leah Remini getting righteously angry and Josh Charles ruining a sweet Irish Catholic girl’s perfect round
Monday – Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Tuesday – Difficult People [7/26/16 EDIT: I initially picked Jeopardy! because I forgot to account for Hulu.]
Wednesday – Mr. Robot
Thursday – Jeopardy!
Friday – BoJack Horseman Season 3, especially the silent swimming
Saturday – CONAN on a Saturday?! Suicide Squad in tow, badass Viola Davis

This Is a Movie Review: Star Trek: Beyond

July 24, 2016

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star-trek-beyond

Star Trek: Beyond finds the Enterprise attacked by a relentless alien swarm, led by the hellbent commander Krall (played by an actor who has been in everything lately). It is not initially clear what Krall’s purpose is, which makes Beyond a little hard to get into. But that mystery is purposeful, and once all is revealed, the whole film retroactively clicks into gear. Before it ends up at that point, this entry establishes itself as the nerdiest of the rebooted cinematic Star Trek series yet. Main characters new to the series are caked under mounds of makeup and saddled with semi-permeable alien accents. First time Trek director Justin Lin’s approach is a departure from the accessible ethos established by J.J. Abrams, but not a complete one. Beyond is more episodic as opposed to being a grand singular statement, which makes sense for a series this old. There is a hard sci-fi style here that qualifies as throwback because most major geeky film franchises nowadays eschew it completely. The Enterprise’s mission is “to boldly go where no man has gone before” – in 2016, going back to where Star Trek has already been is also pretty bold.

I give Star Trek: Beyond 17 Alien Hairstyles out of 21 Beamed-Up Action Sequences.

This Is a Movie Review: Lights Out

July 24, 2016

jmunney Movie Reviews, Television 1 Comment

Lights Out

If you see Lights Out, do not be surprised if it is the most energetic movie crowd you have ever been a part of. The screams will be relentless, and the whoops will be boisterous. Generally, I do not let the crowd reaction influence my review too significantly, but the Lights Out crew is particularly instructive. This film is so in tune with the rhythm of horror reactions, and it manipulates them so thoroughly right down to the micro level. Jeers over characters making stupid decisions are immediately followed by cheers for their ingenious resourcefulness. Hardened horror vets often ask, “Why don’t characters just do [supposedly easy solution]?” Lights Out answers, “Let’s see what happens when they do. But for the record, it’s not easy, and there’s plenty more movie left to go.”

The premise – a villain that can only attack in the darkness – is a gracefully simple setup, though it does not necessarily portend innovative execution. At first glance, Lights Out looks like it is going to be a fairly straightforward genre exercise, just with above average spookiness and performances. But it ends up being filled with so many unusual, nearly confounding, decisions. It is like this from the get-go. Cinematic supernatural entities tend to reveal themselves gradually, but the presence of Diana – the darkness dweller – is immediately apparent. Arcs of characters coming to accept the presence of evil are compressed to one scene, if they are there at all.

Ultimately, Lights Out succeeds by combining the satisfaction of an understandable plot with the disturbing nature of a world in which everything feels just a little bit incomprehensible. There are several awkward line readings, and it is hard to tell how intentional they are, but regardless, the overall effect is unsettling. Furthermore, the twists are intensely surprising, but what truly sets this movie apart is what follows those twists: sudden, frankly manic shifts in emotion. In a way, this is a story of mental illness caused by ghosts instead of chemical imbalances. It only makes sense, then, that the ultimate explanation of Diana is prosaic but also supernatural, or corporeal but somehow also spectral. And so, Lights Out is a simple fright flick, but also a secret game-changer.

I give Lights Out 99 Surprises Out of 10 Smart Decisions That Seem Like Dumb Decisions.

Watch And/Or Listen to This: Eric Andre at the RNC

July 24, 2016

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“Black lives bladder.”

The Eric Andre Show returns August 5!

This Is a Movie Review: Captain Fantastic

July 20, 2016

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CFday25-580.jpg

Is the quest for utopia always a folly? It is hard to argue otherwise, considering the difficulty of convincing every member of a sufficiently large population to go along with the same grand unifying vision. But perhaps it can be achieved on a smaller scale, possibly with a family unit, as posited by Captain Fantastic. Viggo Mortensen plays the head of a brood living completely off the grid in the Pacific Northwest. He leads his six kids in rigorous physical and scholarly training, and for the most part they feel fulfilled.

When they must re-enter society for their mother’s funeral, their social shortcomings are brought into stark relief, but for all their eccentricities, they are more intellectually and emotionally capable than most of the people around them. They truly live up to their parents’ goal for them to be “philosopher-kings.” Eventually, compromises must be made to continue living alongside the rest of the world, and narratively speaking, they happen a little too quickly and cleanly. Captain Fantastic is a sort of utopian wish-fulfillment, but it is wish-fulfillment with conviction and a practical streak.

I give Captain Fantastic an 80% Satisfaction Rating on Noam Chomsky Day.

This Is a Movie Review: Ghostbusters (2016)

July 20, 2016

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , 2 Comments

ghostbusters2016

My overriding feeling after watching Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is that I would have preferred a different movie with this same cast. The chemistry between the four leads is right on, and all the supporting roles are slotted just as they should be, but the whole thing feels reverse-engineered to fit into the framework of the classic it is rebooting (a tough task no matter how much talent is assembled). There are plenty of great laugh lines (either improvised or just well-timed), because Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are so in tune with what their unique reaction to every situation should be. They could pull that trick off no matter what the kooky premise. But what they lack is deep-rooted conviction. For them, Ghostbusters does not feel like a necessity, but instead just a good idea. The former gets you a singular vision, the latter gets you a pleasant diversion.

I give Ghostbusters 6 “It’s Funny Enough to Justify Itself’s” out of 10 “It’s Unnecessary’s.”

Billboard Hot Rock Songs – Week of July 30, 2016

July 19, 2016

jmunney Billboard Charts, Billboard Hot Rock Songs, Music , Leave a comment

Each week, I check out the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, and then I rearrange that top 25 based on my estimation of their quality.

Original Version
1. twenty one pilots – “Ride”
2. James Bay – “Let It Go”
3. twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
4. twenty one pilots – “Stressed Out”
5. X Ambassadors – “Unsteady”
6. Coldplay – “Hymn for the Weekend”
7. Disturbed – “The Sound of Silence”
8. Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, & Imagine Dragons with Logic, Ty Dolla $ign, & X Ambassadors – “Sucker for Pain”
9. Ben Rector – “Brand New”
10. blink-182 – “Bored to Death”
11. The Lumineers – “Ophelia”
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Dark Necessities”
13. Fitz and the Tantrums – “HandClap”
14. The Strumbellas – “Spirits”
15. Kaleo – “Way Down We Go”
16. Bishop Briggs – “River”
17. The 1975 – “The Sound”
18. Bastille – “Good Grief”
19. The 1975 – “Somebody Else”
20. Cage the Elephant – “Trouble”
21. Panic! at the Disco – “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time”
22. Goo Goo Dolls – “So Alive”
23. Beck – “Wow”
24. Skillet – “Feel Invincible”
25. Brand New – “I Am a Nightmare”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. River
2. Way Down We Go
3. Wow
4. The Sound
5. Unsteady
6. Somebody Else
7. Dark Necessities
8. Ride
9. Trouble
10. Ophelia
11. Good Grief
12. Stressed Out
13. Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time
14. Heathens
15. Feel Invincible
16. I Am a Nightmare
17. Sucker for Pain
18. So Alive
19. The Sound of Silence
20. Hymn for the Weekend
21. Spirits
22. HandClap
23. Let It Go
24. Brand New
25. Bored to Death

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