Enjoy!
Opinions!!
Looking back on Episode III almost a week later...
The Good:
Now imagine 200 people crowded into the first floor of the Talking Head, which is pretty much the size of my combined living/dining rooms, all rocking out with their cocks out. Sounds like a terrible idea, doesn't it? Yeah, well, apparently the band agreed and they ended up playing outside in the alley behind the club (territory that I'd "marked" more than my fair share of times back when it used to be the Ottobar.) Luckily, I've got friends with their ears to the ground and when we heard the rumors that they were going to move the show outside, we shoved our way though the now overwhelming crowd and set up camp outside. The tip paid off and there we were, mere inches from having our teeth knocked out by a stray tuning peg from dude's bass. Then it began...and we prayed at the altar of the almighty rock, distilled down to its purest essence. Bodies compacted into one sweaty heaving mass all vibrating in time with the beautifully brutal aural onslaught. The feeling was indescribable. About four or five songs in, it started to rain. Luckily, it wasn't going hard enough to make them quit and actually helped to cool us all down a little bit, though really not nearly enough. So pushing on, they continued their assault for another handful of songs before the cops showed up and forced us to scatter.
In retrospect, it was probably for the best since I don't think my brain could have taken much more before either shutting down or just melting completely and running out my ears. Either way, words can't really do it justice. It was easily the best show I've seen all year and a definite contender for top 5 of all time. I can't stress this enough but if you've never seen them, then make it a point to do so.
There's still a couple more chances this tour for you east coasters:
Now is the part where you (providing you're still reading at this point) come in. It's up to you to keep this show on the air. If you've never seen it before, watch the reruns this summer. Find the episodes on the internet. Buy the DVDs. Ask me to lend you the DVDs. Whatever...just WATCH! I guarantee this hermanos, you will not be making a huge mistake.
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So, as some of you might know, while I don't watch a lot of TV...I am fiercely loyal to the couple of shows I do watch. Now, the problem here is that all these shows usually end up getting cancelled and I am usually left high and dry (as far as TV is concerned.) I have a couple of theories about why this is (one of them being that the Nielsen Ratings are inversely proportionate to the viewers' IQs. This theory can be supported by the charts found here) Over the past couple of years, I've watched excellent show after excellent show get shitcanned, (Futurama, Angel, Wonderfalls, Freaks & Geeks, and Firefly, to name a few) while Law and Order is in it's fourth or so spinoff and they run American Idol 3 times a week (to the tune of 11+ million viewers an episode.)
This time, the show on the chopping block is my beloved Arrested Development. For those of you that haven't seen this show, I can only describe it as brutally funny. I laugh out loud at least two or three times an episode, and there's very few shows I can say that about. I mean, shit...The Simpsons hasn't made me bust a gut laughing in years...literally. What makes AD so brilliant is that they don't pander to the audience one bit. They assume that the viewers are at least as intelligent as the writers, which makes for the same sort of humor as, say, Futurama, where jokes may actually even go over your head the first time around. The upside to that is that it basically forces you to watch the episode more than once in order to even catch all the jokes, as they come at you non-stop (unlike Friends, for example, where they'll do a setup, then some lame joke, then wait for the laughtrack before setting up some other lame joke.) Each episode of AD is so densely packed with a stellar cast, clever wordplay, callbacks to previous episodes, ridiculous slapstick, and the best guest stars on TV (Ben Stiller, Ione Skye, Carl Weathers, Bob Odenkirk, Dan Castellaneta, and Henry Winkler...to name a few.) I really can't praise this show enough...which gets me back to my point. Fox, in its infinite wisdom (*coughgreedcough*) is currently reviewing its initial decision on whether or not to cancel the show. Apparently, they've already cut this season down to 18 eps. from 22 and the final fate will be decided soon. This is where you come in. I urge everyone who comes across this to not only check out Arrested Development but to sign this pledge to Fox that you will be a regular viewer (it only takes a second and you paranoid types can even send it from a fake email account, so quitcher bitchin you fucking baby.)
Now if you've never seen it before, it's on Sunday nights after the Simpsons (which, due to the sharp decline in both quality and viewership, may be AD's main problem) at 8:30. Since it's a show that builds on previous episodes, I'd also recommend checking out the first season on DVD. Rent it or, better yet, buy it today. Or, if I know you, just ask and I'll lend it to you. Fuck, I'll even buy it for you! I mean, the more DVDs they sell, the better chance the show has. My point is, just watch the damn show, please! You'll really be glad you did...and I'll be even happier since I won't get screwed out of, yet another, brilliant show.
