Best Episode of the Season: Napoleon Dynamite Season 1 (First and Only Season!)

June 7, 2012

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Season Analysis: Napoleon Dynamite the movie was already cartoonish enough, so the development of an animated series was a natural and pleasant enough transition for the citizens of Preston, Idaho.

“Ligertown”

There is plenty of potential for a momentous occasion when someone finally meets the object of one’s affection.  Ligers had pretty much been Napoleon Dynamite’s favorite animal, believing as he did that they were bred for their skills in magic.  Obviously when actually meeting ligers for the first time, he would discover that they were not in fact magical, but for the sake of good enough television, the ligers needed to be even more disappointing than just “not magical.”  Thus, Napoleon discovered them in an environment in which they were allowed to lie around all day and get their heads stuck in empty chicken buckets.  This episode of the short-lived Napoleon Dynamite TV series is a minor example in the canon of stories of children growing up and learning the sad truths of life, but it did have an enjoyable Napoleon Dynamite-esque oddness that made it a somewhat memorable half hour of television.

Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 6/5/12

June 7, 2012

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What are Juliya and Allison’s deals?

Original Version
1. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
2. Gotye ft. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
3. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
4. fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
5. Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo – “Let’s Go”
6. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
7. One Direction – “What Makes You Beautiful”
8. Flo Rida ft. Sia – “Wild Ones”
9. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
10. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
11. Train – “Drive By”
12. Nelly Furtado – “Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)”
13. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
14. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
15. Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull – “Dance Again”
16. The Wanted – “Glad You Came”
17. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
18. Wiz Khalifa – “Work Hard, Play Hard”
19. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
20. B.o.B – “So Good”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Starships
3. Lights
4. Where Have You Been
5. We Are Young
6. Call Me Maybe
7. Brokenhearted
8. Wild Ones
9. Back in Time
10. Big Hoops (Bigger the Better)
11. Boyfriend
12. Work Hard, Play Hard
13. So Good
14. Let’s Go
15. Payphone
16. What Makes You Beautfiul
17. Glad You Came
18. Dance Again
19. Drive By
20. I Won’t Give Up

Best Episode of the Season: The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret Season 2 (Final Season)

June 5, 2012

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Season Analysis: More so than even its decidedly idiosyncratic first season, the second and final season of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret was thoroughly unpredictable from scene to scene, which was generally maddening, but occasionally satisfying, and led to a conclusion that felt like it was planned all along but also felt like it came from out of nowhere.

“The Crime Scene, The Storyteller, and the Sanctimonious Tower of Morality”

I got the sense about halfway through Todd Margaret’s first season that David Cross did not really know how long he wanted this passion project of his to last.  He had enough ideas to last a few, if not several, seasons, but it seemed to have a small-scale structure appropriate for a one-season miniseries.  Thus, season 2 did not feature any particularly great episode of television, and “The Crime Scene…” was not really an exception, but it is an episode worth highlighting, thanks especially to Graham Duff’s impressively committed performance as Todd’s peculiarly English pedophile cellmate.  Also, there was Spike Jonze getting all Sherlock Holmes-ian.

Jmunney’s 2012 MTV Movie Awards Prediction Scorecard

June 4, 2012

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I correctly predicted 8 out of the 13 winners.  My successful categories were Male Performance, Female Performance, Comedic Performance, Music, On-Screen Transformation, Gut-Wrenching Performance, Fight, and Hero.  I was off with Movie (I picked Hunger Games over Twilight), Breakthrough Performance (Melissa McCarthy when it was Shailene Woodley), Kiss (Tatum-McAdams ,but alas, KStew-RPatz), Dirtbag (Bryce Dallas Howard, but then Jennifer Aniston), and Cast (Hunger Games did not beat out Harry Potter).  I guess I let Twilight‘s lack of nominations overall lead me astray.  I’m not sure why I didn’t pick Jennifer Aniston.  Harry Potter over Hunger Games?  Well, I guess the Potterphiles found a way to have at least one win.  I’m a bit confused at Shailene beating Melissa, but since that category wasn’t picked by viewers, I’m not sure what way exactly I should be confused.

Best Episode of the Season: Beavis and Butt-Head Season 9

June 3, 2012

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Season Analysis: As simple and as crude as it was originally, but somehow more sophisticated, Beavis and Butt-Head may just be the best example of a show returning after a long hiatus off the air following supposed cancellation.

“Tech Support”

When B & B stumble into a tech support call center while looking for the abandoned drive-in and then discover some computers, they naturally have only one goal: porn.  But since they can’t find what they’re looking for right away, they fit in by acting like children, parroting the stock phrases of stereotypically Middle Eastern call center employee Hamid.  Depending on one’s point of view, their constant refrain of “I understand your frustration” is either plain unhelpful and even infuriating or evidence that they are doing a great job.  When their shenanigans ultimately lead to a power plant meltdown, it is a beautiful illustration of how they are savants at creating anarchy with little effort and zero focus.

Best Music Video Segment: “Cinema”
The video for Benny Benassi ft. Gary Go’s “Cinema” features a series of fantasies that could very well go along with self-pleasure.  Most people are not absolutely consumed with such subject matter, so when they do talk about it, it is often overly crude or overly euphemistic.  But since it is one of B & B’s favorite pastimes, they are veritable poets and cultural scholars when it comes to the topic of masturbation.

Best Reality Show Segment: 16 and Pregnant
What is particularly striking about the 16 and Pregnant clip in the episode “Daughter’s Hand” is not how much of a crisis teen pregnancy can be, but just how mundane and thoroughly unfulfilling the lives of these teen parents appear to be.  As Beavis interprets the mom, “She’s not a bad actor, just a bad person.”  Without its anarchic nature, Beavis and Butt-head would be just as depressing as this clip, and it is thoroughly fascinating that this seemingly hopeless picture of “reality” is what currently dominates MTV’s airwaves.

Best Episode of the Season: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 7

June 2, 2012

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Season Analysis: This was the first season of Sunny that I watched, and I heard from some sources that it was not its best season, but I think that with a show as outrageous as this one, there are bound to be a few clunkers amidst the classics.

“Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games”

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia feels like it is more or less made up on the spot, by insane people.  I could possibly be off a bit in this assessment, as I have only recently become a regular viewer, and there could be foundational elements from earlier seasons that would make it clear that there is in fact some planning involved in this show.  But that improvised feel does work to the benefit of an episode like “Chardee MacDennis.”  On a slow day, the gang has nothing going on, so they decide to play a game, a game that they have not played in a while, a game that they invented.  So what we have here is something that was more or less made up on the spot, by a group of insane people.  Just because Chardee MacDennis is more or less unbridled insanity in game form does not mean it is not satisfying; Charlie, Dee, Mac, and Dennis were not just insane when they created this game, they were also insanely focused.  Thanks to that focus, this episode provides memorable gags such as Frank having to eat a cake (i.e., the ingredients of a cake), Mac drunkenly attempting to lift up a board that has been nailed down despite acknowledging ahead of time how fruitless such an effort would be, and Charlie failing to answer a question that he himself had written (“Dennis is asshole.  Why Charlie hate?”), and there is even a satisfying resolution to wrap up all the chaos, which, appropriately enough, was thought up by Frank while he was imprisoned in a dog crate.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 6/2/12

June 2, 2012

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Is this the first time their top was my bottom?

Original Version
1. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
2. Gotye ft. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
3. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
4. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
5. Train – “Drive By”
6. fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
7. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
8. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
9. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
10. Calvin Harris – “Feel So Close”
11. John Mayer – “Shadow Days”
12. Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
13. Daughtry – “Outta My Head”
14. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”
15. Andy Grammer – “Fine By Me”
16. Carrie Underwood – “Good Girl”
17. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
18. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
19. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
20. Pitbull – “Back in Time”

Jmunney’s Version
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Feel So Close
3. Starships
4. Titanium
5. Lights
6. Where Have You Been
7. Good Girl
8. We Are Young
9. Call Me Maybe
10. Brokenhearted
11. Back in Time
12. Everybody Talks
13. Payphone
14. Shadow Days
15. The A Team
16. Drive By
17. The Fighter
18. Outta My Head
19. Fine By Me
20. I Won’t Give Up

Best Episode of the Season: Futurama Season 6-B

June 1, 2012

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Season Analysis: The second half of season 6 did not feature any outstanding efforts to stand among the series greats, but it was easily consistently strong enough to justify its continued existence.

“Neutopia”

“Neutopia” takes on one of Futurama’s favorite themes: gender relations, perhaps its most favorite non-future-specific theme.  Regarding human affairs, gender relations are a timeless matter, and this episode takes the fitting approach of dealing with the show’s male-female conflicts as poorly as they have always been dealt with.  The male characters are frequently sexist, blatantly and casually so, as if their sexist attitudes simply represent the way things are (“Ladies, here are your demeaning, skimpy stewardess outfits”).  But there is hope, in the form of a bored rock creature alien, who removes the elements of gender from the Planet Express crew with the goal of teaching them … well, it’s not quite sure what it means to teach them.  His attitude is most clearly expressed in lines such as, “So far I have learned nothing.  But that’s probably as much my fault as it is yours,” and, “Perhaps it is I who have learned a lesson.  Or something.”  “Neutopia” does not have much to say about gender relations in general, and it basically does nothing to affect the underlying gender issues on Futurama, nor does it care to.  But it is a funny episode, in that its blasé attitude regarding its ostensible concerns is its own statement: a society that is unwilling – or profoundly unable – to examine its own prejudices is a big joke.

2012 MTV Movie Awards Live Tweeting

June 1, 2012

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I will be live tweeting the MTV Movie Awards this Sunday, June 3, at 9/8 central.  If you want to follow, go @jmunneymalone.

You know you love me.
xoxo,
Jmunney

The 2012 MTV Movie Awards Preview

May 30, 2012

jmunney Awards Shows, Cinema, MTV Movie Awards, Television Leave a comment

The 2012 MTV Movie Awards are airing on Sunday, June 3, at 9 PM (8 Central!), and guess what?  Twilight ain’t gonna dominate this year.  It’s simple math: even if it wins every category it’s nominated in, that will result in a grand total of two wins.  So, we’ve got a one-year reprieve from the Twilight awards, as this year the moonmen look to be dominated by the new based-on-a-YA-novel-series in town.  Katniss has taken her aim on the MTV generation, so here is a will win/should win breakdown of the 2012 Hunger Games awards.

Best Movie
Bridesmaids
The Hunger Games
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
The Help
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Will Win: Don’t let Twilight‘s general lack of nominations fool you – Twihards are still insane, so it may yet still pull out four in a row.  But most signs point to the newer and more unanimously beloved Hunger Games.
Should Win: Bridesmaids was seriously funny, and seriously meaningful.

Best Male Performance
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Ryan Gosling, Drive
Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games
Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Channing Tatum, The Vow
Will Win: Josh Hutcherson – he was in The Hunger Games.
Should Win: An actor like Ryan Gosling only comes around once – if at all – a generation.

Best Female Performance
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Emma Stone, Crazy, Stupid, Love
Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence is more beloved than Kristen Stewart ever was.
Should Win: Kristen Wiig wasn’t afraid to go to unflattering places.

Breakthrough Performance
Elle Fanning, Super 8
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Liam Hemsworth, The Hunger Games
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Will and Should Win: This category is not determined by viewer voting, so the award may just go to the most deserving nom – Melissa McCarthy, the name we couldn’t stop talking about in 2011, after not talking about her very much in 2010 or before.

Best Comedic Performance
Oliver Cooper, Project X
Zach Galifiankis, The Hangover Part II
Jonah Hill, 21 Jump Street
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Will and Should Win: MTV voters may or may not recognize Melissa McCarthy as the breakout act that she was, but I’m pretty sure they will recognize how funny she was.

Best Music
“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO, 21 Jump St
“A Real Hero” by College with Electric Youth, Drive
“The Devil is in the Details” by The Chemical Brothers, Hanna
“IMpossible” by Figurine, Like Crazy
“Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi (Steve Aoki remix), Project X
Will Win: “Party Rock Anthem” wins by default, as the most popular of these songs, in the most popular of the movies in this category, despite not being featured very prominently.
Should Win: “A Real Hero” – the synth-heavy, atmospheric soundtrack was the best part of Drive.

Best On-Screen Transformation
Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games
Johnny Depp, 21 Jump Street
Colin Farrell, Horrible Bosses
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Will and Should Win: Elizabeth Banks was hardly recognizable – and she was in The Hunger Games.

Best Gut-Wrenching Performance
Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Ellie Kemper, Bridesmaids
Ryan Gosling, Drive
Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help
Jonah Hill and Rob Riggle, 21 Jump Street
Will and Should Win: If voters saw Bridesmaids, that moment was etched upon their memories forever.

Best Kiss
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, Crazy, Stupid, Love
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, The Vow
Will Win: In any other year, Gosling-Stone would be the easy favorite.  The long-awaited Watson-Grint kiss can’t be counted out either.  Lawrence-Hutcherson must be considered because it’s The Hunger Games and all.  But, of course, RPatz-KStew have won the last three years running.  But I’m going to go a bit out on a limb and say that Tatum-McAdams may pull this one off, having kissed in the love story to end all love stories.
Should Win: Gosling and Stone were very cute together.

Best Fight
Daniel Radcliffe vs. Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson vs. Alexander Ludwig, The Hunger Games
Tom Cruise vs. Michael Nyqvist, Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill vs. the Kid Gang, 21 Jump Street
Joel Edgerton vs. Tom Hardy, Warrior
Will Win: The ultimate Harry Potter-Voldemort showdown may have a chance, as I’m not sure The Hunger Games will dominate completely, but let’s stick with the final tributes.
Should Win: You usually don’t feel for both combatants in fighting movies the way you did for Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy.

Best Cast
Bridesmaids
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
The Help
The Hunger Games
21 Jump Street
Will Win: No way this doesn’t go to The Hunger Games.
Should Win: 2011 was the year of the woman, and Bridesmaids was no small contributor.

Best On-Screen Dirt Bag
Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses
Oliver Cooper, Project X
Colin Farrell, Horrible Bosses
Jon Hamm, Bridesmaids
Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help
Will Win: Anna Kendrick won Breakthrough Performance a couple years back for Up in the Air, but it was really essentially for Twilight.  Bryce Dallas Howard might benefit from Twihards, but she may have been good enough on her own anyway.
Should Win: Considering the context, Colin Farrell was unbelievably psychotic, and also entertaining.

Best Hero
Chris Evans, Captain America: The First Avenger
Chris Hemsworth, Thor
Jonah Hill, 21 Jump St.
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games
Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Will Win: Voting in this category is done by tweeting.  I can’t tell you how that will affect the results, but I can tell you that Harry Potter currently has nearly twice as many votes as Katniss.
Should Win: Captain America, Thor, Katniss Everdeen, and Harry Potter are all iconic; Jenko – not so much. Chris Hemsworth as Thor gets my vote for being perfect for that role, while the others weren’t quite perfect.

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