No one on the series “The War at Home” is capable of understanding how to properly pull off mean spirited comedy. Take shows like “Married… with Children,” and “Titus,” shows that excelled at show mean-spirited comedy with its own agenda. The former was pure trash and nothing more, a forefather of the shit to come from FOX, while “Titus” was in its roots about a comedian whose father never treated him as well as yours may have.
Tag Archives: TV Show
Masters of Horror: Right to Die
I’ll buy that Superman can not be recognized as Clark Kent once he flips his S Curl, I’ll buy that Peter Parker can reveal himself to a crowded train and not be sold out by someone interested in making money, and hell, I’ll even buy that there’s some appeal in MTV, but I admittedly had a hard time buying that our character would trade his utterly gorgeous wife in for a run of the mill redheaded nurse who only sought out to cash in on him. But alas, “Right to Die” is a very good episode in spite of that lapse in logic. Martin Donovan (who you may remember from “Weeds”), is a man who has just witnessed his wife be burned alive after a horrible car accident and now is forced to face the consequences of such an incident. Burned from head toe, and comatose, Cliff struggles to fight off his mother in law who is attempting to keep him from pulling the plug on his wife, and after horrible dreams of her burned body coming to wreak havoc on him, he’s beginning to think his in-laws are not the only people he’ll have to battle.
Aquaman: The Pilot You’ve (Probably) Never Seen!
It’s very rare that cult classics become cult classics on one episode only. Surely, shows have become cult favorites with one season; there was “Firefly”, “Freaks and Geeks”, and “Brisco County”, but on one episode? I can’t think of too many series like that. “Aquaman” has become a cult classic not because of its quality, but because of curiosity. Curiosity not from comic book fans only, but from fans of “Smallville”, and the public whom enjoy kitschy entertainment. And sure, some people have managed to enjoy it. Okay a lot of people. But is it for the right reasons? First called “Mercy Reef” (taking off on the “Smallville” formula), then called “Aqua” and now called simply “Aquaman”, this series was an attempt to spin off from the popular guest stint of Aquaman on the “Smallville” series. The CW changed the series from “Mercy Reef” to the blunt “Aquaman” mainly because Aquaman just doesn’t hold the clout Superman does, and many people consider the character quite lame.
Masters of Horror: Valerie on the Stairs
Being an aspiring writer, knowing aspiring writers, and being apart of a world filled with aspiring writers, “Valerie on the Stairs” was really an interesting installment that spoke about how ideas and imagination can tend to die with a horrible writer, and on how some ideas can be housed somewhere. In “Valerie on the Stairs,” we visit a home for aspiring writers whose own abode has become the breeding ground for a monster who perhaps may be a figment of imagination taken shape. Garris’ installment is a provoking little humdinger, with slight shades of subtlety, explore the condition of being a writer and the suffering that becomes apart of it. What happens when unfulfilled imagination manifests and rebels violently against its creators?
Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain, Volume 2 (DVD)
Fans of my Volume 1 reviews, stand at attention, rejoice, and testify, for we are here with reviews for Volume 2 of “Animaniacs” and “Pinky and the Brain,” the gorgeous collections for animations fans, and fans of the series. Guilty on both counts, suckas. So, for this time around, “Animaniacs” and its spin-off really seem to come into their own. Where as the first volume was more of them feeling their oats, the writing team really exercises the comedy for this go around, particularly with “Animaniacs.”
For all the grief animation gets, “Animaniacs” is both a show for adults and children. While we have mallets, and anvils, we also have funny one-liners set to a “Moby Dick” spoof, and inside jokes referencing the likes of Groucho Marx, Milton Berle, and the great Madeline Khan whose own personality is reflected in an episode of Rita and Runt as they stumble on a Frankenstein scientist who looks an awful lot like the late comedienne a la Mel Brooks.
Masters of Horror: Screwfly Solution
What the hell is going on here? Did all the directors from season one meet up in a room and decide that they would turn up the heat this time around? Because season two of “Masters of Horror” has been one big punch in the gut, and I’m surprised. Dante, who came at us with my favorite episode “Homecoming,” repeats his one-two punch with “Screwfly Solution” an utterly violent and original picture of the apocalypse. I have a soft spot for films or television that paints the apocalypse or post-apocalypse, and “Screwfly Solution” is a fascinating story about the line between sexual aggression and aggression thinning into a gory result. How does this happen?
Masters of Horror: Pelts
I am not one who is all about the gore. Granted, I loves me some blood splatter, and I’m not opposed to torture, but I also like it when it’s accompanied by a story, or at least engaging characters. “Pelts” essentially doesn’t have compelling characters, but the story is entertaining. I was not a fan of Dario Argento’s prior effort, “Jenifer.” I thought it was bland, Stephen Weber’s performance was cartoonish, and the climax was brutally predictable. “Pelts” is a step up in the gore department, and in the plot. It takes the concepts of furs turning against the people holding them, and never exhausts itself. “Pelts” pulls out all the stops, not only in the gore, but in the grueling scenes of self-mutilation, and it’s typical Argento. Meatloaf plays a vicious and rather slimy fur buyer who works his factory workers to the bone, and aspires for quality.