VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 7/14/12

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I’m too busy watching Billy Eichner to write a snappy comment.

Original Version
1. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
2. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
3. Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
4. Gym Class Heroes ft. Patrick Stump – “The Fighter (Unplugged)”
5. Kelly Clarkson – “Dark Side”
6. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
7. Usher – “Scream”
8. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
9. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
10. Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
11. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart a Break”
12. Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo – “Let’s Go”
13. Carrie Underwood – “Good Girl”
14. Linkin Park – “Burn It Down”
15. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”
16. Train – “50 Ways to Say Goodbye”
17. B.o.B ft. Taylor Swift – “Both of Us”
18. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
19. The Lumineers – “Ho Hey”
20. fun. – “Some Nights”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Lights
2. Titanium
3. Where Have You Been
4. Wide Awake
5. Ho Hey
6. Good Girl
7. Call Me Maybe
8. Give Your Heart a Break
9. Let’s Go
10. Next to Me
11. Burn It Down
12. Some Nights
13. Scream
14. Dark Side
15. 50 Ways to Say Goodbye
16. The A Team
17. Everybody Talks
18. Both of Us
19. Payphone
20. The Fighter

Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 7/10/12

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Ummm … let’s do the time warp again?

Original Version
1. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
2. Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
3. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
4. Gotye ft. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
5. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
6. Usher – “Scream”
7. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
8. Breathe Carolina – “Hit and Run”
9. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
10. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
11. Mac Miller – “Party on Fifth Ave.”
12. One Direction – “What Makes You Beautiful”
13. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
14. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
15. Flo Rida ft. Sia – “Wild Ones”
16. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”
17. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
18. Usher ft. Rick Ross – “Lemme See”
19. Kanye West ft. Big Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
20. fun. – “Some Nights”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Titanium
3. Lights
4. Where Have You Been
5. Wide Awake
6. Call Me Maybe
7. Mercy
8. Brokenhearted
9. Some Nights
10. Boyfriend
11. Wild Ones
12. Back in Time
13. Scream
14. Everybody Talks
15. Hit and Run
16. Payphone
17. What Makes You Beautiful
18. Party on Fifth Ave.
19. Lemme See
20. The Fighter

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 7/7/12

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Bing!

Original Version
1. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
2. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
3. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”
4. Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
5. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
6. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
7. Kelly Clarkson – “Dark Side”
8. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
9. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart a Break”
10. Usher – “Scream”
11. Carrie Underwood – “Good Girl”
12. Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
13. Calvin Harris – “Let’s Go”
14. John Mayer – “Shadow Days”
15. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
16. Linkin Park – “Burn It Down”
17. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
18. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”
19. B.o.B ft. Taylor Swift – “Both of Us”
20. The Lumineers – “Ho Hey”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Starships
2. Titanium
3. Lights
4. Where Have You Been
5. Wide Awake
6. Ho Hey
7. Good Girl
8. Call Me Maybe
9. Give Your Heart a Break
10. Let’s Go
11. Next to Me
12. Burn It Down
13. Scream
14. Dark Side
15. The A Team
16. Everybody Talks
17. Both of Us
18. Payphone
19. Shadow Days
20. The Fighter

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

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Season Analysis: Seemingly burdened by a concept that looked like it would work better as a movie or at most a miniseries, Awake did a more than passable job of stretching it out to a full season and looked like it was ready to make it work over multiple seasons if given the chance.

“That’s Not My Penguin”

Most of Awake’s episodes followed the tried-and-true cop show formula to an almost painful degree, but they were always saved (at least somewhat) by the twist that the lead detective was working two separate cases concurrently in two different worlds that tied into each other obliquely.  “That’s Not My Penguin” thankfully mixed up the formula by having Detective Britten held hostage by mental hospital patient Gabriel.  A hostage situation is not an unusual one for a stunt episode, but it did work strongly in Awake’s favor, allowing it to really take advantage of its premise in astute and truly weird fashion.  Gabriel’s mental construction of an alternate reality obviously paralleled Britten’s situation, suggesting that Britten might be crazy enough for institutionalization but also presenting a contrast that showed that even if he is crazy, he has found a way to make it work (for now).  Britten’s hallucination of Dr. Lee in the hospital actually served to demonstrate his ingenuity in solving this crisis, and it added to the whole show another layer to chew over by showing that hallucinations could possibly be appearing within Britten’s hallucination/dream.  Combine that with the penguin hallucination in the other reality, and it seemed to be that Britten’s mind could be going in any number of directions at any time no matter what the location.  More than any other episode of Awake, “That’s Not My Penguin” pressed the rhetorical question, “What’s so crazy about being crazy if you know how to make it work?”

Best Episode of the Season: Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 Season 1

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Season Analysis: After a seven-episode first season, Apartment 23 hasn’t met its full potential yet (or at least, I hope it hasn’t met its full potential yet), but it has enough promising elements that it could very quickly become one of the best comedies on the air at some point in its second season just like another ABC sitcom that used to air Wednesdays at 9:30.

“The Wedding…”

Who ever thought that June was boring?  She is uptight, sure (though not uptight as all get out), but uptight hardly means boring.  Uptightness may make someone allergic to fun, but the uptight person could very well be fascinating as far as her uptightness is concerned.  So when June’s former fiancée called her boring, and Chloe’s response to that accusation was, “That’s, like, the worst thing you can say to anyone,” my reaction was, “Yes, it is, especially if you’re a character on a TV show.  So good thing June’s not boring.”  While June set out to show everyone at the wedding that she is an interesting person, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 set out to show that it is a program that is putting all of its pieces in order.  Chloe has been rubbing off on June, and June has been influencing Chloe, though not necessarily definitively, but enough so that she cares enough to help June out with the whole charade to prove that she is not boring.  The fact that James van der Beek exists in these characters’ world has become something that is just accepted, which is surely necessary but sort of bittersweet (as June says wistfully, “I used to have a poster of you”).  And Eli is no longer just the creep who masturbates across the hall, with his gig in the wedding band making him more recognizable as an actual person than any other episode thus far.

Best Episode of the Season: Modern Family Season 3

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Season Analysis: During its first season, Modern Family was good – really good, easily one of the best comedies of the season.  In its third season, it wasn’t really bad, but it wasn’t exactly good either.  And the thing is, it still seems like the same show that it always was, which has led me to wonder if Season 1 really was as good as I remember it, or if I just imagined it.

“Treehouse”

Season 3 of Modern Family did not feature any overall brilliant episodes, but there were some episodes that had their moments.  The B- (or C-) storyline of “Treehouse,” with Cam attempting to prove that he could successfully fake being straight and pick up a woman in a bar, was pleasant enough, especially since it is always nice to see Leslie Mann.  She infused a great deal of personality into what was an otherwise nothing role.  But the best moment of this episode – and of the whole season – came at the very end of the titular A-plot.  I think that most viewers were as disappointed as Phil was that Luke eventually gave up on the father-son treehouse building, but all was forgiven in the sweetest, most unexpected epilogue of perhaps the whole series.  Phil’s interaction with Andre touched on the question of “How well do we really know our neighbors?” (Phil and Andre have lived next door to each other for nearly a decade and this is this their first conversation) as well as the struggles for male adults at making friends (Andre’s declaration of “Honey, the guy in the tree’s cool” represented a delightful overcoming of this struggle), and it also introduced plenty of people to the criminally underused Kevin Hart.

VH1 Top 20 Countdown – 6/30/12

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I would say that I don’t think “Lights” is popular enough to be #1, but apparently this countdown is based on viewer voting, so instead I’ll say, “Cool.”

Original Version
1. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
2. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”
3. Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
4. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
5. Carrie Underwood – “Good Girl”
6. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
7. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
8. Demi Lovato – “Give Your Heart a Break”
9. Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
10. Kelly Clarkson – “Dark Side”
11. Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
12. John Mayer – “Shadow Days”
13. Nicki Minaj – “Starships”
14. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
15. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
16. Calvin Harris ft. Ne-Yo – “Let’s Go”
17. Linkin Park – “Burn It Down”
18. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – “Never Go Back”
19. Usher – “Scream”
20. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Starships
2. Titanium
3. Lights
4. Wide Awake
5. Where Have You Been
6. Good Girl
7. Never Go Back
8. Call Me Maybe
9. Give Your Heart a Break
10. Let’s Go
11. Next to Me
12. Burn It Down
13. Back in Time
14. Scream
15. Dark Side
16. The A Team
17. Everybody Talks
18. Payphone
19. Shadow Days
20. The Fighter

Best Episode of the Season: The Middle Season 3

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Season Analysis: This was the first season that I watched The Middle.  I have heard from other critics who have been watching since the beginning that this was the best season yet.  I won’t argue with that assessment.

“The Play”

It seems that I have not given myself the opportunity to write articles here relating to Norm MacDonald very often, so let me just make it clear that Norm is by far one of my favorite comedians, so any episode of The Middle with Uncle Rusty is practically guaranteed to be a fine episode in my book.  Norm’s observational, satiric style is different than the normal comedic style of the Heck family’s misadventures, but his persona of being easygoing while also keeping himself at a slight remove actually fits his role of the flaky uncle and the show as a whole quite well.  His memorable quotes from “The Play” are plentiful enough to fill up an entire one of these posts, but let me just point out the one (“Coffee’s bad. Cigarettes are bad, too. I’m gonna go have both, but let me be a cautionary tale for you”) that best exemplifies how it seems like he is on a completely different plane of existence than the rest of the Hecks while actually fitting into their world quite seamlessly (which I guess is pretty much how it goes with absentee family members).  Now, as much as I love Norm and as big as a reason as he was for this episode being the best of the season, I do not want to imply that the usual stable of actors on The Middle are not able to hold their own, because they are, and in fact, they were all quite sharp in this episode.  Neil Flynn particularly raises his game whenever he has to confront Rusty and actually display some emotion.  And in the storyline that this episode gets its title from, Patricia Heaton and Eden Sher bring out the best in each other, as Frankie gets a major role in a community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz, while Sue gets cut from the show due to her crazy eyes.  Frankie is forced to hide the fact that she is still in the show, since this was something that she and Sue were supposed to be doing together.  It was nice to see Frankie actually let loose a bit, and just as amusing to see Sue go a bit dark (in a way that was not very threatening but was completely devastating) upon discovering her mother’s deception.

Fuse Top 20 Countdown – 6/26/12

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My guess is that Carly Rae Jepsen will NOT be a one-hit wonder.

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. Pitbull – “Back in Time”
5. Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
6. Chris Brown – “Don’t Wake Me Up”
7. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
8. One Direction – “What Makes You Beautiful”
9. Ellie Goulding – “Lights”
10. David Guetta ft. Sia – “Titanium”
11. Kanye West ft. Big Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
12. Flo Rida ft. Sia – “Wild Ones”
13. Karmin – “Brokenhearted”
14. fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – “We Are Young”
15. Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks”
16. fun. – “Some Nights”
17. Usher – “Scream”
18. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
19. Wiz Khalifa – “Work Hard, Play Hard”
20. Gym Class Heroes ft. Ryan Tedder – “The Fighter”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Somebody That I Used to Know
2. Titanium
3. Lights
4. Where Have You Been
5. We Are Young
6. Call Me Maybe
7. Mercy
8. Brokenhearted
9. Some Nights
10. Boyfriend
11.Back in Time
12. Wild Ones
13. Scream
14. Everybody Talks
15. Payphone
16. Work Hard, Play Hard
17. What Makes You Beautiful
18. The Fighter
19. Don’t Wake Me Up
20. I Won’t Give Up

Best Episode of the Season: Glee Season 3

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Season Analysis: In Season 3, Glee became the worst possible version of itself that its biggest critics think it always has been.  (But the last few episodes were pretty good, so maybe not all hope is lost.)

“Props”

When the “Here’s what you missed on Glee” portion of “Props” focused on consistently neglected Tina, it was clear that Glee was finally responding to its critics, and then some.  Personally, I was so busy criticizing the show’s treatment of the characters that actually were still getting screen time that I did not even realize how underutilized Tina had been – basically, I had barely noticed her at all.  Glee took a bit of a risk by essentially admitting, “We’re even worse than you thought,” but it was the right call creatively.  As soon as Tina hit her head and entered into the body-swap fantasy world, it was clear that the show had turned a corner.  Finally, Glee was willing to try out an unusual idea – the strategy that had made it interesting in the first place.  This sequence allowed the show to address the annoying aspects of its characters in a way that did not break the fourth wall too much for a show like Glee, and everyone in the cast seemed to be having the most fun they’d had in a while.  Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison particularly seemed to be enjoying themselves, with Morrison more amusing as Sue Sylvester than he’s ever been as Will Schuester.  It was enough to save a show that I was thisclose to giving up on.

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