I (Heart) Penelope

(picture day)

Once you have kids, you will have a whole new appreciation for this show.
(why do my kids love this show so much?)

A Little Help From The BSG Crowd...

As some of you know, I'm making my way through the Battlestar Galactica series. I'm almost through Season 1 and I have loved it.

There's so many great things about this show - the writing is clever and unpredictable, the soundtrack is perfect and their use of "handheld" cinematography within a space series is brilliant and refreshing.

But one thing is bothering me and I'm trying to find out if it is common practice within the series or something specific to the DVDs. So far, each show has opened with a brief recap ("last time, on BSG...") then an opening scene or two to setup the episode and then a standard intro. The intro starts off as slow recap of the premise...superimposing texts over images and to let folks know how the whole thing got started.

BUT THEN...the music jumps pace and a massive drum outburst accompanies a fast-paced montage. The only problem is that the montage is made up of scenes from the show you're about to watch! Which means that if you watch the whole intro, you're going to see a snippet or two that's coming up. So far, this has ruined a couple of good surprises for me personally.

Can anyone who watches in primetime answer this for me? Do all the shows run that montage preview just before the actual show starts? Or is it something new on the Season DVDs?

And if it's standard practice, does it bug anybody else? Not that it's a big deal, it just seems like a weird move for a show to make.

I Know That Guy...

Famous actors that remind me of Lance Burch.

Kids TV, Part I (Jonah Edition)

It happens to us all.

If you're a parent, you're going to be watching some television programming for children. Granted, some parents limit their kids' TV intake to a very thin stream. Others pretty much let their kids watch whatever they want, whenever they want.

But unless you're the most strict parent on the planet (or) you have a child that doesn't watch TV, you're gonna' see some of this stuff.

Jonah has always been a TV kid. He's always loved it...and we have to be careful with how much he watches. Here are some of his favorite shows (right now.)

BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE

Jonah loves Ben 10. I think were three seasons of the "normal" Ben 10, but now Cartoon Network has created a new version. Ben 10 Alien Force involves the same characters, but takes place 10 years later. At this point, Ben and his pals are older, wiser and more powerful!







THE SECRET SATURDAYS
Jonah got interested in this through Cartoon Network's "cryptid" promotion. The Saturdays are a superhero family that seeks out strange and unusual cryptid creatures around the world. Oh, and they fight evil.








THE MIGHTY B

This show is hilarious. Mainly because of Amy Poehler's fantastic voice work. (Poehler used this voice on SNL for a sketch about a hyperactive pre-teen.) The voice alone is worth thirty minutes of my time...plus I love the simplicity of the animation. In a high-tech world, the Mighty B looks almost like something created in my day.






DRAKE AND JOSH
This show isn't in production anymore, but that doesn't keep Nickelodeon from cashing in on it!

There's some funny stuff on this show, but it tends to make Jonah wild. (Josh tends to yell a lot. Or is it Drake? The one who lost all the weight tends to yell a lot.)

This one can pretty annoying.



STAR WARS: CLONE WARS
I don't know any six year old boy who's not into Clone Wars. Jonah and I caught the movie when it hit theaters. We loved it. Imagine his shock when the new Friday night TV series was unveiled. Watching Clone Wars is fast becoming our Friday night tradition.




iCarly

I love iCarly. It's hilarious. Great characters, great writing, great online presence/sub-culture. I'm partial to Sam. She's awesome.





SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

This one is, by far, the most popular. I don't really have a problem with Spongebob. Sure, sometimes it's a bit crude, but six-year old boys like crude. At least, mine does. Other than that, it's a pretty silly show that can be, occasionally, pretty funny. (I've found that it gets funnier the more you watch it. Lunacy is like that, I think.)

No, my problem is that this show is on ALL THE TIME. Shortly after we got our DVR hooked up, Jonah tried to setup some recording. Being new to the remote, he picked "all" instead of "once." A day-and-a-half later, we had 18 episodes recorded.

18 episodes.

That's too much Spongebob, gang.

_______________________

So, moms and dads....what are YOUR kids watching?

Do you find yourself enjoying THEIR shows?

DEPRESSED IN SECONDS

I've made no secret of my love for the Discovery Channel's new show DESTROYED IN SECONDS.

Add this, of course, to my love for Discovery's CASH CAB, DIRTY JOBS, MYTHBUSTERS and a new favorite for Jonah and me - STORM CHASERS!

But one thing bothers me. This show is different because I never know what the recap is gonna' be for these little segments. Discovery is way more graphic than other shows of the same type. In this show, it's a little too often I'm hearing stuff like:

"Sadly, five people died when the crane fell 42 stories and landed on a church/orphanage." "All seventeen jets then exploded in the parking lot, incinerating everything inside the PetSmart, including the live animals."

Maybe I should stick to watching Mike Rowe wade through muck. That's way less depressing.
After spending time at the Discovery channel website grabbing some links, I've decided they are the greatest channel in the world. How can you not love this line up?
1. A Haunting
2. Cash Cab
3. Deadliest Catch
4. Destroyed In Seconds
5. Dirty Jobs
6. Iditarod
7. Koppel: The Last Lynching (okay...don't know anything about this one. Sounds horrible, though.)
8. Man Vs. Wild
9. Mythbusters
10. Planet Earth
11. Prototype This!
12. Shark Week
13. Survivorman
14. Time Warp
Why don't they just call this "the-channel-that-dads-will-like"?

What's your best channel? What keeps you up way too late watching TV? (Blake, DO NOT say "The Hills.")

Don't Do This To Me, J...

A new show from dudes who like to stress me out.

Thoughts?

Strange, But True...

Nickelodeon or somebody just started re-running Family Matters.
Jonah had been seeing the previews and was dying to see it, so he sat down with me and Kristen the other night and watched it.

And we laughed.
Hard.
I'm not kidding around. It was great.
How many Urkel fans we got out there?
When's the last time you watched Steve and the whole Winslow family?

Todd Is Late To The Party...

Okay, okay...it took me forever to give this show a try.

But in all honesty, it is so beloved by so many people that I trust, like, and want-to-be-like that I had to give it a shot.

I'm extremely new to it, but...dang, what a show!

This thing is 10,000 times better than I thought it would be and I am officially declaring myself a full-on BSG fanboy.

I don't even think it matters if you like science fiction...it's just a great show.

Don't think I didn't try to find a way to use "frack" in this post. But somehow, none of them felt right. Guess I need more practice.

Mike Rowe is the man.

Love This Commercial

Movie Trivia (Don't use IMDB)

Young Guns 2 / Pat Garrett

Who played him?

I'm watching an epidsode of"Punk'd" with my wife, (tt featured Hugh Jackman, and Kristen Wright is ALL about Hugh Jackman, gang,) and Kristen says something like:

"It seems like they only do this stuff to nice people."

I think she's right. On this particular episode, they "punk'd" Elijah Wood, Hugh Jackman and Rihanna. Of course, they all were very freaked out...but for the most part behaved themselves in a kind and respectful manner with the supposed authorities.

Then I started thinking about who would be the worst, most dangerous and violent people to "punk."

Can you imagine if Ashton "punk'd" Mickey Rourke? That would be awesome!

So...who do you think would be the Worst Punk Ever?

Why Are Beer Commercials So Funny?

The Season 1 Finale of the West Wing has to be one of the most powerful moment in the history of dramatic television. I've seen it so many times, but still find myself on the edge of my seat regardless!

I highly recommend this show to anybody interested in great acting, creative writing and political conversation!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Nothing on TV brings me more pleasure than this little series:

What about you? What show makes you stay up way too late?

Best host in late-night?

Okay, the writing on TBS' hyper-promoted House of Payne is really, really bad. It's almost like they opened up the Big Book of 1990's Sitcoms and lifted every predictable punch-line every penned. However, this dude...is hilarious. Definitely worth 22 minutes of drivel. Almost.

This show is amazing. Absolutely one of the best written shows of late. No, it's not reality TV, no it's not a season-long countdown to see how many way Jack knows how to maim and murder, and no, it's not the insane story-arcs of the twisted mind of J.J. Abrams. It's just good writing - plain and simple.

NBC is running new episodes in summer, partly because the show hasn't put up the numbers that it has in order to stay alive.

I also think it's a really important show for Christians to be aware of. So far, Studio 60 has proved to be one of the most fair and balanced shows with regard to issues of Christianity in a long, long time. They don't sugarcoat anything, and there's plenty of God-arguments going on, but it's a great thing to see Christians represented honestly and respect.

Thursdays at 9pm, NBC.


Check it out. It won't disappoint.