Playing Catch-up...

Death Race-2008-(D-) Well, it was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who's essentially Uwe Boll with more money. I actually sympathize with the producers who have to work with this guy. For instance:

Paul Anderson: So let's put a big-ass eighteen-wheeler in the competition, blowing away all the other drivers, yeah?

Producer: But Paul, that makes no sense? If we have a story where a bunch of convicts are racing around a track in souped up cars trying to blast each other away, on pay-per-view... why, oh, why would the warden drop this aforementioned 'death truck' in the middle of the race, blatantly killing off all the participants? Wouldn't that be like having one team on a football field suddenly stop playing defense and start reading the newspapers that they just pulled out from under their jerseys? I don't think paying customers would appreciate such a blatant fix in the show they're watching?

P.A. Fine, you don't like it? Fire me, pay me out, and good luck recouping your money after I walk off this turd half-way through production and you go further in the hole getting this project back on track.

Pro: (sighs) Oh...kay. An eighteen wheeler, it is...

P.A. I loves my job!

Venture Brothers -Season 3 (C)

To be honest, this season's been the weakest one yet. I realize the creators Jackson Publick and Doc. Hammer felt the need to catch up on some characters' back stories, but to be honest...the audience didn't. I've noticed that the series tends to reference 'Star Wars' a lot, and I think it's picked up some of the Star Wars franchise's bad habits. Like giving us information that we didn't really need to know. We don't know how Master Billy Quizboy lost his hand and eye and we don't care to know. We don't care about Rusty's dad's inner life, or the fact Cato may have killed Jonas Sr., or yadda yadda ya. As a result, this season's been a bunch of filler episodes that don't go anywhere, and worse yet, don't let us see the characters we want to see.

Entourage- (C+) It's 'Sex and the City' for men. Well, unlike 'Sex', since it's about the trials and tribulations of an A-list actor and his friends/servants, there's an undercurrent of insecurity running through the series. Which gives it more depth than 'Sex', if just for that. Also, Jeremy Piven as the young actor's agent is a hoot and a half.

Generation Kill- (B) Even though this mini-series was produced by David Simon (of 'The Wire') and based on the award-winning book of the same name by Evan Wright, this series kinda got sunk in the ratings. I suspect the reason for that is that Americans tend to view the Iraq war with the same level of discomfort that they view a relative who's a drug-addled prostitute. Also, like the Wire, Simon brings the most clear-eyed, unsentimental view that he can to a soldier's life in the field. And by clear-eyed, I mean cynical. We see poor decisions from officers, lack of support, incompetent officers not being punished, good officers being investigated...well, it goes on. For what it's worth, the Forward Recon marines know full well what they've gotten themselves into, and it wasn't ideals like patriotism and payback for 9/11 that put them in Iraq.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil (C+) Like most beardos, I'm of the opinion that the last substantial piece Moore did in comics was 'From Hell', and all his work since, even his 'LoEG' stuff is kinda like a bottle of pop with the lid off. It's still pretty good, but the fizz is off, as they say. Anyways, what's interesting here is that Trey Parker, of all people, beat Moore to the punch in the exploration of the theme of how the world of our imagination is as real as the meatspace we currently inhabit. ( I'm referring to the three-parter 'Imaginationland' episodes in this season of South Park, don'tyaknow.)

What's odd in both cases how Moore and Parker, in making references to popular characters in our collective imagination, they go for the broadest, most easily digestible characters in pop culture. I can understand why 'South Park' would make references to say, 'The Cavity Creeps' from an old Crest gel commercial, for instance. But it would've been kinda nice to have Moore make a passing reference to maybe, Atticus Finch from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or Holden Caulfield from 'Catcher in the Rye'. Heck, even Steerpike from 'Gormenghast' would've been a nice touch. The problem with keeping your references to pulp fiction characters from the turn of last century is that you're giving a new life to characters who outlived their relevance decades ago, past the point to where even the people who created them stopped giving a crap about them. More, well, 'literary' characters in the story would've made the ending monologue have that much more resonance.I did like the appearance of 'Chitty chitty Bang-Bang' in Q's labs, though. (Geddit? Ian Fleming created both of 'em...)

And while I'm here... South Park-season 12 (B-) After a decade, Parker and Stone have finally figured out that pushing their Libertarian agenda doesn't make for good entertainment, while exploring the world beyond the four main characters does. In particular, the last two episodes were my favorite, if only because they highlight what an old fogey I am becoming. I'm talking, of course, about the show's commentary on 'High School Musical' and the Goth-lite 'True Blood/ Twilight' fandom. The former's appeal, as far as I can tell, is that tweenagers love watching asexual, scrubbed teenagers sing and dance about being popular, and the latter's appeal, as far as I can tell, is that vampire teenagers are cool and sexy and melodramatic as long as they aren't, you know, having sex or drinking blood. The final episode depicts how old-school Goth kids predictably react to this Goth-lite epidemic. With sneering, passive contempt, of course. Then with Butter's help, they burn down the local Hot Topic, which as we all know, is one of the primary offenders of repackaging the discontent of youth, and then selling it back to them at a hefty mark-up.