Chatter Of The Squirrel

TV: The Big Bang Theory

Been getting a number of good props for this series, from oft trusted and credible sources. But yet when I sampled a few random episodes from the end of season 2, I was largely unimpressed.

Founded on the timeless formula of 2 neighbouring apartments with quirky room-mates. The gimmick here is the 4 geeks being an extreme condensate of the worst stereotypes of Otaku, MMORPG junkie, Trekkie, comic geek, science geek, sci-fi geek, video-game geek and all other manners of geekdom that the writers never lived and poorly imagined.

Yar, it’s quite amusing that many jokes incorporate random geek stuff. The Picard-Kirk debate. The Hadron Super Collider. MMORPG Raid-speak. Comic book superheroes.

Other elements the writers THINK are funny: the chronic shyness and social awkwardness of nerds, their cluelessness about sports, their lack of appeal to the opposite gender, etc.

The characters and writing is quite juvenile and unimaginative. The jokes are predictable. Admittedly, there was a hilarious ROFL moment when Sheldon divided mitotically, completely blindsided me. But one good laugh like this in 1.5 seasons… Needs More Effort. It’s like, Garfield hates Mondays but love lasagna. Alf likes to eat cats. Good gags. But it gets old.

I enjoyed the early episodes. But towards the end of the first season, it had become evident that the schizophrenic C-3P0 (ie. Sheldon) is the show-stealer. Whereupon the Kramer of the show outshone the Seinfeld. And that’s also where the writers & producers took the path of least resistance, pushed the whole show to C-3P0, and gave up developing any of the other characters beyond their offensive geek stereotype.

It’s like producing Scrubs, with one J.D., a half dozen Todds, and nobody else. The Todd is a gag character deliberately written to be one dimensional for comedic effect. Many of the other characters in the show slowly developed depth as the years went by. Not so with Big Bang. They accidentally found their Kramer, and are so excited about him that they’ve allowed him to be the entire show henceforth. After so many episodes, I can only remember the names of Sheldon and Penny.

I have lots of geek friends. Several of them socially awkward characters. I’ve been mired in borderline neurotic geek conversations many times. Any of them are more animated and more interesting than the writers’ narrow perception of “Geek”.

How to fill a 100Gb harddisk

So a colleague tossed me a harddisk to fill up with goodies.

That’s a bit like making a mix-tape. Without any parameters given.

I see this as an opportunity to impress some culture and introduce a healthy expectation of quality to the youths of tomorrow.

So, my insane media collection of diverse genre and periods. And an itteh-bitteh little harddisk.

Although there are no parameters, it’s probably not the best idea to put in too much self-indulgent geek stuff in there. Had to leave out Kevin Smith’s stuff. It’s with a heavy heart that I was unable to put Futurama and Family Guy on the list either. Can’t include Firefly, cos who wants a story that was left hanging? But what made the cut, should still be pretty good.

The following TV Series:

Coupling – best British sitcom ever
Dexter – season 4 ended BRILLIANTLY!!
Scrubs – I’m still walking down nostalgia lane

The following animations:

Avatar The Last Airbender – brilliant writing, for a cartoon
FLCL – most visually amazing anime, accompanied by music by The Pillows
Persepolis
American Tail
Fievel Goes West
Bolt
Coraline
Hoodwinked
Horton Hears A Who
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – still the best Disney cartoon ever
Secrets of the Furious Five
9
Over The Hedge
Ponyo
Wallace and Gromit
Wall-E

The following movies:

Departures
The Shaolin Temple – the first kungfu movie I ever watched and never forgotten, made during a time when I could afford to pay Jet Li’s salary
300
Assassination of a High School President
Before Sunrise
Equilibrium
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Forrest Gump – I can’t just assume that everyone has watched this already
Hot Fuzz
Identity – great whodunit
Iron Man
Dr Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog
Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail – a vital component of geek references in these pas
SPL – drew my attention to Donnie Yen
Stranger than Fiction
Surrogates
Taken
The Butterfly Effect
The Emperor and the Assassin – most re-watched Chinese movie
Red Balloon
The Usual Suspects
The Cove
Watchmen
Zombieland

TV: Flashforward

Interesting new TV series starting up.

At 11am, every single person in the world blacked out. Simultaneously. For 137 seconds. Cars crash. Planes crash. Surfers drown.

During the blackout, everyone ‘remembers’ what happens to them 6 months from the blackout. They have a memory, or a flashforward, of 137 seconds of their future.

Some people ‘remembers’ reading the newspaper. Some remembers having an ultrasound for a pregnancy that hasn’t happened yet. Some a lover they’ve not met. Some remembers nothing. And one remembers a late night investigating the very phenomenon that just happened.

It looks like a show trying to run on the same rail as Lost. In fact, there are Easter Eggs in the first episode. You’ll catch a billboard for Oceanic Airlines if you’re watchful.

The cast is interesting.

Will from Shakespeare In Love.

Dr. Sulu from Harold And Kumar Goes To White Castle.

Steve, from Coupling.

And I think Steve is the lone mystery man who did NOT suffer the blackout when the whole world did.

The premise is very interesting. Let’s hope they don’t lose the plot.

TV: Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

Some part of my brain has been bludgeoned by Harvey Birdman.

Just the title, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, should send alarm bells ringing… But a friend somehow convinced me that a cartoon about a washed out, antique Hanna-Barbera cartoon hero who went into law and represent Shaggy in court against charges of possession is funny.

Long runaway sentence. But it was an absurd point, and I’m trying to get it over with with the minimum of effort.

The idea is kinda funny. Birdman was a solar-powered Superman with wings, and fought kooky villians. I can’t fathom the choice to make him an attorney, but I’m sure it has to do with the insanity of his gallery of villians.

Mentok the Mind Taker is Birdman’s judge in most of his cases. I can understand why he has his fans.

There are many stupid cases with a crazy cast of nostalgic characters. There is some ha-ha funny. But also a lot of brain-damaging, silently screaming, “WHY~~~~~~~~!!!!!!

Fred Flintstone is a mob don. The Jetsons comes back from the future. Shaggy got pulled over cos he looked and talked like he’s on dope. Droopy the dog has a botched botox. And many easily identifiable characters, if you grew up in the right decade.

But… the brain damage…

Time I’ll never get back.

Maybe I need to watch it a second time to better appreciate it…

Did you know there’s a VIDEO GAME of this??!! Imagine that, a court case simulation video game. I’ve never taken mind altering chemicals, but this must be what it’s like.

TV: Better Off Ted

Funny, funny TV series.

Brand new. Season 1 of Better Off Ted just ended. And I hear it’s getting renewed for another season.

Ted Crisp works R&D at Veridian Dynamics, a multinational company that can invent ANYTHING. Usually something malevolent.

Ted works under Veronica (aka Sub-zero Nell).

Comedy ensues.

Veronica: We want to make a mouse that can withstand temperatures of up to 195 degrees.

Ted: We can do that…. Er, computer mouse or live mouse?

Veronica: …… I’ll get back to you.

….

Veronica: Computer.

Ted: Easier.

It’s a hilarious Dilbert work environment. Comes complete with a pair of Beverly Hills Scientists, like an Eddie Murphy and Dilbert team-up.