Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
June 23, 2014
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 – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Monday – Louie
Tuesday – Fargo season finale, oh yah
Wednesday – Jeopardy!
Thursday – Comedy Bang! Bang!, even though men aren’t funny
Friday – The Half Hour: Chris Gethard
Saturday – Orphan Black Dance Party
June 21, 2014
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. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
2. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
3. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
4. Rixton – “Me and My Broken Heart”
5. Katy Perry – “Birthday”
6. Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun”
7. Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake – “Love Never Felt So Good”
8. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
9. Sia – “Chandelier”
10. Ed Sheeran ft. Pharrell – “Sing”
11. Ingrid Michaelson – “Girls Chase Boys”
12. Phillip Phillips – “Raging Fire”
13. Magic! – “Rude”
14. Lorde – “Tennis Court”
15. Sara Bareilles – “I Choose You”
16. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
17. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
18. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
19. MKTO – “Classic”
20. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Latch
6. Stay With Me
7. Tennis Court
8. Am I Wrong
9. Ain’t It Fun
10. Birthday
11. Love Never Felt So Good
12. Problem
13. Love Runs Out
14. Sing
15. I Choose You
16. Rude
17. Girls Chase Boys
18. Classic
19. Raging Fire
20. Me and My Broken Heart
June 19, 2014
Best Episodes of the 2013-2014 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Television Leave a comment
Season Analysis: When you get used to the insanity of Always Sunny, it becomes increasingly difficult to note what is unique about any particular season’s stretch of insanity. And I’m saying this as someone who hasn’t watched all nine seasons, but only the last three.
“Flowers for Charlie”
The lack of hard science in the novel Flowers for Algernon makes it ripe for being picked apart. That story of a man with a low IQ becoming super-intelligent, only to revert to his original state, does not need a detailed explanation, because that is not really the point, but a version of that story that focuses a great deal on the science would be problematic if it did not have an adequate explanation. In It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s version, the scientist (Burn Gorman, who was one half of the best part of Pacific Rim – the other half, of course, being Charlie Day) and his assistant running the experiment to increase Charlie’s intelligence are given plenty to do, so it is only natural that their methods should be explained. And it is perfectly Sunny to have that explanation be a ruse in which Charlie was merely led to believe that his intelligence was increased. His fake Chinese and chess skills were wonderful displays of how confidence and thoroughly realized bullshit can be just as enthralling as actual talent.
June 17, 2014
Fuse Top 20 Countdown, Music, Television Leave a comment
Each week, I check out FUSE’s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.
Original Version
1. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
2. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
3. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
4. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
5. Jason Derulo ft. Snoop Dogg – “Wiggle”
6. DJ Snake & Lil’ Jon – “Turn Down for What”
7. Pharrell – “Happy”
8. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
9. John Legend – “All of Me”
10. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
11. Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun”
12. Ed Sheeran ft. Pharrell – “Sing”
13. OneRepublic – “Love Runs Out”
14. 5 Seconds of Summer – “She Looks So Perfect”
15. Sia – “Chandelier”
16. MKTO – “Classic”
17. Rixton – “Me and My Broken Heart”
18. Bastille – “Pompeii”
19. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
20. Katy Perry – “Birthday”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Happy
5. Come With Me Now
6. Latch
7. Turn Down For What
8. Stay With Me
9. Pompeii
10. Am I Wrong
11. Ain’t It Fun
12. Birthday
13. Problem
14. Love Runs Out
15. Sing
16. All of Me
17. Wiggle
18. She Looks So Perfect
19. Classic
20. Me and My Broken Heart
June 15, 2014
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 – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, featuring Right Said Fred
Monday – Louie
Tuesday – Fargo, with the most tension-filled episode of television of 2014
Wednesday – Clueless Gamer, with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, on Conan
Thursday – Comedy Bang! Bang!
Friday – Jeopardy!
Saturday – Orphan Black
June 14, 2014
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. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
2. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
3. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
4. Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun”
5. Rixton – “Me and My Broken Heart”
6. Katy Perry – “Birthday”
7. Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake – “Love Never Felt So Good”
8. Ingrid Michaelson – “Girls Chase Boys”
9. Phillip Phillips – “Raging Fire”
10. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
11. Sia – “Chandelier”
12. Sara Bareilles – “I Choose You”
13. Ed Sheeran ft. Pharrell – “Sing”
14. Neon Trees – “Sleeping With a Friend”
15. Lorde – “Tennis Court”
16. Magic! – “Rude”
17. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
18. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
19. John Legend – “All of Me”
20. MKTO – “Classic”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Fancy
4. Come With Me Now
5. Stay With Me
6. Tennis Court
7. Am I Wrong
8. Sleeping With a Friend
9. Ain’t It Fun
10. Love Never Felt So Good
11. Birthday
12. Problem
13. Sing
14. All of Me
15. I Choose You
16. Rude
17. Girls Chase Boys
18. Classic
19. Raging Fire
20. Me and My Broken Heart
June 12, 2014
Awards Shows, Emmys, Television Leave a comment
The 2014 Emmy ballot is out. Before I post my nomination wish lists (and possibly predictions), here are my thoughts on some oddities and other points of interest:
-Mads Mikkelsen submitted as Lead for Hannibal after submitting as Supporting last year. An argument could have been made either way for Season 1, but in Season 2 he was definitely a lead. (Meanwhile, Laurence Fishburne was not even submitted.)
-Despite not even appearing in the last nine episodes, Rob Lowe STILL submitted as Lead for Parks and Recreation.
-Allison Tolman submitted as Supporting for Fargo, even though she’s arguably the main protagonist.
-Last year, Tatiana Maslany’s roles for Orphan Black were listed as “Sarah, Beth, others.” This year, that was wisely expanded to “Sarah, Beth, Cosima, Rachel (and more).” (Why didn’t she include Alison?)
–Amy Schumer once again submitted as Supporting, even though she appears in every one of her show’s sketches, and her name is in the title. Also, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein for Portlandia, and Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele for Key & Peele, all submitted as Supporting, ignoring the fact that it is possible to have two leads in one show. Maybe they are thrown off by the weirdness of sketch and alternative comedy performers competing against sitcom performers. I mean, really, where does something like Comedy Bang! Bang! truly belong? Maybe it is the collaborative ethos of improv comedy that led Scott Aukerman to submit as Supporting even though he’s the host of his show.*
-Several Mad Men regulars took advantage of the vagaries between the Supporting and Guest categories and submitted as Guest. This is nothing new, but it was particularly egregious for Robert Morse in a year that Bert Cooper died and then had a posthumous song-and-dance number.
-Speaking of Guests who were really Supporting, Damon Wayans, Jr. is a regular now on New Girl.
-Miniseries do not have a Guest category, so folks like Key & Peele – who have only been in the last few episodes of Fargo – must enter as Supporting; meanwhile, fellow anthology series True Detective entered the Drama field, so Alexandra Daddario was able to opt for Guest.
-Here is the summary for Charles Grodin’s guest submission for Louie: “Dr. Bigelow is philosophical.” (All of the Louie guest summaries are wonderfully minimalist.)
–The Neighbors’ Clara Mamet’s last name was misspelled as “Memet” (unless that was intentional and she’s trying to branch off from her famous family).
*-I have been told that this may be because performers on shows submitted in the Variety category are not allowed to submit in the Lead field. See this article: http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/06/emmy-questions-why-is-amy-schumer-a-supporting-actress-for-inside-amy-schumer/372495/
June 11, 2014
Best Episodes of the 2013-2014 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Television Leave a comment
Season Analysis: Season 2 of Comedy Bang! Bang! reached the heights of 2013 television as its absurd brand of deconstruction made it one of the best shows about putting on a show of all time.
“Gillian Jacobs Wears a Red Dress with Sail Boats”
In playing around with the conventions of talk-based television, Comedy Bang! Bang! understands that effectiveness is achieved by specificity. The ubiquity of Chris Hardwick hosting live recap shows is ridiculous, and it would be even more ridiculous if one of those recap shows were recapping a talk show (parody or regular). Thus, the Comedy Talk! Talk! segment is spot-on and filled with crazy details (one of Hardwick’s guests will be Jacoby from the band Papa Roach, the winner of a Twitter-based contest will receive a “bucket of backyard bourbon burgers”). It is not too of-the-moment, because it must be of-the-moment to effectively skewer the state of television. “GJWaRDwSB” also gets a lot of mileage out of its parody flashback/flash-forward structure, going so far as stretching the gag out to a future beyond episode’s end, as “It Was Onions” (the in-universe name of the episode) completes the EGOT, with Adam Scott himself presenting the Tony, and then taking the flash-forward to the past, as time travelers head to the prehistoric era to present this episode for caveman Reggie Watts’ viewing pleasure. There really is no opportunity to catch your breath with all the structure-breaking of this episode, as also exemplified by the “clip” from Gillian Jacobs’ “new movie,” which seems to be taking place backstage during this episode. Finally, “GJWaRDwSB” is chock full of great performances, particularly from Jason Mantzoukas as vampire chef Emeril Luigi (actually Lugosi), who isn’t particularly monstrous or even a jerk. He’s just professional and annoyed that Scott isn’t; you may think that, as a vampire, he would want your meats to be bloody, but he’s more concerned about cooking food properly, so as to avoid watery shits.
June 11, 2014
Best Episodes of the 2013-2014 Season, Best Episodes of the Season, Futurama, Television Leave a comment
Season Analysis: Futurama was energized in its final batch of new episodes, adding a few new entries to its pantheon of all-time classics.
TIE: “Murder on the Planet Express” and “Meanwhile”
Throughout its run, Futurama established a reputation for engaging both the head and the heart. It explored legitimately engaging science fiction concepts and managed to be one of the most poignant animated series in television history. I had to pick two episodes as the best of Futurama’s 2013 output, as they respectively exemplified these two major aspects. “Murder on the Planet Express” mish-mashed the trickery and paranoia of The Thing, The Game, and Alien in a nifty tale in which a trust-building exercise for the Planet Express crew quickly turns into a fight for survival as a hitchhiker turns out to be a murderous shape-shifting alien that mimics and eats the members of the crew one by one, and then it turns out this shape shifter was part of the trust exercise all along.
The series finale, “Meanwhile,” used a much simpler concept to achieve a much deeper emotional effect. The Professor has invented a device that can send the user 10 seconds back in time. Fry plans on using it to watch the sunset over and over as he proposes to Leela, but all the time-jumping goes awry and the device gets broken, thereby freezing time. Fry and Leela are the only ones who remain unfrozen, and they live out an entire married life together, against the backdrop of the universe at the moment their marriage began. Eventually, the Professor breaks through via some dimension-hopping and everything is reverted back to pre-10-second-time-travel shenanigans. Fry and Leela will not remember this time together, but it surely remains in existence in some realm, just as Futurama itself bids us farewell but surely lives on in some way.
June 10, 2014
Fuse Top 20 Countdown, Music, Television Leave a comment
Each week, I check out FUSE’s Top 20 countdown, and then I rearrange the songs based on my estimation of their quality.
Original Version
1. Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea – “Problem”
2. Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX – “Fancy”
3. Nico & Vinz – “Am I Wrong”
4. John Legend – “All of Me”
5. Jason Derulo ft. Snoop Dogg – “Wiggle”
6. DJ Snake & Lil’ Jon – “Turn Down for What”
7. Pharrell – “Happy”
8. Calvin Harris – “Summer”
9. Sam Smith – “Stay With Me”
10. Paramore – “Ain’t It Fun”
11. Ed Sheeran ft. Pharrell – “Sing”
12. 5 Seconds of Summer – “She Looks So Perfect”
13. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith – “Latch”
14. Rixton – “Me and My Broken Heart”
15. MKTO – “Classic”
16. Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake – “Love Never Felt So Good”
17. Katy Perry – “Birthday”
18. Sia – “Chandelier”
19. Kongos – “Come With Me Now”
20. Pitbull ft. G.R.L. – “Wild Wild Love”
Jmunney’s Revision
1. Chandelier
2. Summer
3. Happy
4. Fancy
5. Come With Me Now
6. Latch
7. Turn Down for What
8. Stay With Me
9. Am I Wrong
10. Ain’t It Fun
11. Love Never Felt So Good
12. Birthday
13. Problem
14. Sing
15. All of Me
16. Wiggle
17. Wild Wild Love
18. She Looks So Perfect
19. Classic
20. Me and My Broken Heart
Jmunney's Blog 