r o b o t m i n i o n

Because Musical Theater Majors were insufferable enough...

  SCPA 
  Originally uploaded by emjones

Cincinnati boy and fellow SCPA alumna Nick Lachey is apparently trying to pimp out my high school for an MTV reality show.
He must be stopped.

The untitled pilot from Lachey revolves around the students at his alma mater, the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati. Tony DiSanto, executive vp series development and programming, said the project boasts a unique format that breaks new ground in the reality arena, similarly to how MTV's "Laguna Beach" launched a new form of unscripted storytelling.

It organically will blend performances by the students with the narrative about what takes place in the school. For example, it might feature students breaking out into dance in the cafeteria or use a student's practice session on his or her instrument as the soundtrack for a scene. DiSanto added that the project also features a "unique visual language that sets it apart" from other shows.

Let me just tell you that if you're sitting in the cafeteria and someone breaks into song, the only unscripted quality might be the mashed potatoes that get thrown that way. Also, unless they're going to wait until the school moves into their new campus, the "visual language" will be one of Cincinnati Public School's deferred maintenance plan.   

It is what it is

So.

Michael became Omar.
Dukie became Bubbles.
Sydnor became McNulty (Season 1 McNulty — not bullshit serial-killer McNulty)
Carver is on his way to becoming Daniels.
Slim Charles becomes Prop Joe.
And Marlo, who looked like he was on his way to becoming Stringer, not surprisingly proved instead to be cut from the same cloth as Avon — unable to walk away from the game.

Some things I particularly liked from the episode:
- Slim Charles killing Cheese (If you heard a group of white people in Federal Hill being too loud last night, that was us... we cheered)
- Michael becoming Omar (not that this was a positive development for his character, I just feel like we need an Omar to restore balance to the universe)
- Valchek (Valchek!) becoming the stats-faking Police Commissioner of Shelia Dixon Nerese's dreams
- the return of Freamon's near-blind stripper girlfriend Shardene
- Prez
- Chris Partlow befriending Wee-Bey (though I would've like to see Avon there as well)
- and Norman's inability to keep his shit together and not laugh

I also liked this bit from Slate's TV Club:

Instead, we got Jimmy and crazy Larry. I suppose this particular pairing was meant as grim commentary on the fate of the American city? Jimmy's final "let's go home" was intended to remind us—as if the previous 64 hours and 59 minutes hadn't—that only lunatics and hopeless romantics would want to make their home in Baltimore.

When Slate started running TV Club on The Wire I started reading Slate again. Guess I'll stop now.

We come not to praise Omar, but to hate on HBO On Demand

I was going to post about how much I hate HBO On Demand and how I think it's ruining America. Sunday night, my favorite show killed off everyone's favorite character. Omar, who has wondered around Baltimore dodging death for five seasons now finally got one to the head after ignoring the presence of an 11 year old hopper in a West Baltimore convenience store. He always did have a weak spot for kids. The first time we see him in season 5, he's handing out candy to the youngins on some Caribbean island (PR?) far removed from the game. But not far enough.

Earlier this season, before I realized what was going on with HBO On Demand, I wondered over to my favorite Wire blog. I sort of scanned the page to make sure there were no spoilers, but because I hadn't paid close attention to the episode numbering before I realized they were talking about an episode I hadn't seen, I saw one word. Butchie. And I knew. I knew something was going to happen to Butchie and I had to keep this terrible secret to myself until Sunday night. Instead of looking forward to watching the show that week, I just dreaded it.

Similarly this week, coworkers started buzzing about what a BIG episode this was and how mad they were. Well, since the last time we saw Omar he spontaneously and sloppily decided to end Savino's run as  Baltimore drug muscle and since that decision seemed the sloppiest thing we've ever seen Omar do, I think I knew this week would be the end of him. When Terry Gross interviewed Michael K. Williams on Fresh Air, in response to Omar's future, he replied "It's Baltimore baby!"

I think Omar was everyone's favorite character because he was the least believable and that is precisely why he had to die. The streets are no place for a romantic.  Omar shouts that "Marlo Stansfield is not a man for this town!" but I would argue that he is a man for this time.  And if there is one thing I've learned about Baltimore in the year we've been here, this place is teeming with Kenards. I also liked the banality of Omar's death. I think the hoppers raiding his pockets, his failing to make the paper, and the almost mix-up at the coroners office all served to underscore Beadie's speach to McNulty about what the lucky people get when they die. Some people have argued that the coroner at least knew who Omar was and corrected the tags because of that. I think that the coroner recognized that the other white dude wasn't the victim of a gunshot to the head and reversed that tags and smiled a little because of the obvious error.

On a slightly brighter note, HBO has announced that the last (the last!) episode of The Wire will not air ON Demand until after the regular broadcast.  And also for the record, while I enjoyed Omar immensely, my favorite character is the Bunk. 

The Wire Season 5

We've steadily been making our way through all four seasons of The Wire, which is one of the best tv shows in the whole world and set right in our new hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. We especially loved season 2, which takes place mostly in our neighborhood. The other night we had to go back and watch the first episode of season two after our neighbor told us that one of her best friends was featured as one of the dead Russian prostitutes. She also said her dog was in a scene they filmed one street over.

On Friday I had a quintessential Baltimore moment I've been waiting for since we moved. I was on my way home and stopped to get gas at the BP on Key Highway at the bottom of my street and who should I see filming as they drove a blue Crown Vic? Dominic West, aka Jimmy McNulty.

I knew they were filming season 5 now, but we hadn't seen them around yet. I used to live in NYC and I saw celebrities on a very regular basis, but right now we are so emotionally invested in The Wire's characters, you have no idea. I could barely dial my cell phone to tell someone. So look for a silver Honda civic at a gas station. Coming soon to season 5.

All Apologies

This summer I've probably spent on average about two hours a week watching TV. A lot of that is due to the magical time-shifting properties of our DVR, and all of the shows it is allowing me to save for a time when there is less sun outside and less graduate school all around. One hour a week is almost always spent at my friend Melanie's house with my girlfriends watching an hour of whatever show happens to be in series (usually on HBO) at what we call Girl's Night.

Last night we watched the end of Six Feet Under.

The finale was both understated at the beginning of the episode and ended up somewhere near over the top towards the last 15 minutes. I'm not going to complain. I've been a fan of the show for a long time and I think that's kind of how the series progressed as well.

My apologies go out to the people of Victorian Village, who may have heard intermittant wailing, crying and exclamations of disbelief that sounded a lot like someone yelling, "Why did they have to go and kill Keith?" The montage at the end where Claire is driving east to New York and we see how all of the characters will die was incredible. It was big, bold and really cheesy in the sense that it gave the viewer exactly what they wanted in a way that the series itself often didn't. Just like Brenda, the series died while discussing it's own sense of "closure."

There are a million little good things about the show. Sometimes, it's throw away one liners that make their way into our vocabulary, often it's how frustrating the members of the Fisher family are when they keep making the same mistakes over and over again, just like you're real family. One of the best things about the show is how every Sunday night, I go home from girl's night after watching a show about death and feel so good about life that I hug the boy and the dog that much tighter.

This week, on a very special "The OC"

Tonight's OC was merely "meh." Very disapointing, because it was two hours of new episodes.

This week has been a grab-bag of non-stop drama, and I'm feeling very Mary J Blige about all of it. A lot of it has to do with work, and the stress of work bleeding over into areas that the stress of work is not supposed to go anywhere near for fear that my large hunky boyfriend will kick its ass. That's a metaphor. You can't kick stress's ass, stress's ass is way to scrawny.

Things are looking up though. In the immortal words of Mary J., No. More. Drama. For the love of Pete.