83 The Dynamic Half-Dozen

Happy Friday the 13th, Bloggy Creek Campers!

Sometimes when you watch certain TV shows, you walk away from the screen feeling, empty and used. Like a hungry lab rat in some executive's attempt to pinpoint a demographic. Sometimes though, you walk away from a media experience fulfilled. A more meta, meta-monkey. You laugh or learn or both and it's fun or extremely engaging to watch. In the not-to-distant past, there have been many great shows. Well, maybe not so many. Some. Why would anyone ever want my opinion on any of these fine programs? Maybe they are looking for a lunatic fringe perspective? Maybe they are just smarter or crazier than I am? I don't know. Here's a nice box of 6 delicious TV doughnuts you will want your sweet, sweet, succulent brain to eat.

Comedy Bang! Bang! - The 2nd Seasoning

Scott and Reggie returned to IFC with their 2nd season of Comedy Bang! Bang! this July. It is the greatest and only surrealist-style talk show since Space Ghost, but it is much funnier and very different. Scott Aukerman is the show's creator, host, and Voltron-head of the always awesome VPN Station, Earwolf. Reggie Watts is Scott's co-pilot, and the show's one-man-bandleader. His spontaneous musical humor is as astounding as it is delightful. This show is an unpredictable one, yet inventively hilarious. It is extremely difficult to describe this show accurately, as it seems to be constantly changing. It evolves and advances comedy through it's creative, improv and sketch-based insanity. By the end of each episode I am baffled, enlightened and have laughed myself to tears. No other show does what Comedy Bang! Bang! does. No show ever will. It is truly one of a kind entertainment. Watch Comedy Bang! Bang! on IFC Fridays @ 10EST. You can also watch all of Season 1 on Netflix and buy new episodes from Amazon. If you love Comedy, Art and to voyeur on their hilarious hook-ups, you'll love this show! Comedy? You like? HA-HA. Bang! Bang! Best of the box.

Walt & Dex: Finite Infamy

A man can learn to live with his actions. But, can he live with himself? Both Walter and Dexter are fantastic examples of character studies in villainy. Rather than talk about their shows, (as the rest of the internet is surely doing) I will focus only on Walter and Dexter. These two characters have captivated millions worldwide with their respective ferocious yet intelligent evil pathos. We all love a tale of a man on the edge. We love it even more when we get to see him go over. In both Dexter and Breaking Bad, this happens constantly. They have successfully brought back the true cliffhanger ending. The kind where you always give a serious shit about what's next…

Walter White

To bear witness to the story of Walter White, is to see a man's morality devolve until it dissolves. It combines elements of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, with a modern day spaghetti-westernesque backdrop. Walt, through intent or circumstance, answers questions many of us hope we'll never come across in life: Can I kill? How shall I kill? Do I have to clean up the kill? How will I clean up the kill? Who lives? Who dies? How much money is enough? How many will have to die so I can keep it? Things only total assholes think about in real life. Somehow, Walt isn't an asshole though. We like Walt. We even root for him when we know what he's doing is crazy wrong. Why? He's our man over the edge. He's impressive. We admire his intelligence and ever-swelling "fuck you" attitude. We admire his fight with cancer. We admire how he outsmarts and destroys his enemies. We love the intensity. I will admit watching the fall of Walter White has captivated me. If you're like me and many, many millions of others, you will watch Walt's fall until the very end. Then find someone who hasn't seen it and watch Walt's fall again.

Dexter Morgan

Vigilantism. It can be construed as good or ill. In the real world, vigilantism is a crime punishable by imprisonment. In the world of Dexter Morgan's Miami, vigilantism is the selective killing of human predators. The story of how Dexter became a psychotic serial killer is too long for me to write out here and would have to contain an unreal amount of spoilage for those who've never seen it. Let's just say it involves intense trauma. Dexter didn't become a serial killer on his own either. He was taught. He learned that he should only kill those who meet a special checklist. It is when Dexter begins to bend his own rules that things become very interesting. At times, he will come mentally undone and always seems to be a gnat's nut away from being exposed for the killer he is. We root for Dexter as we root for Walt. We don't want him caught. We don't want the killing to end. We, his bloodthirsty audience, are responsible for Dex's success. As a classic, crazy-ass character he will live on long beyond his final season. The creepiest vigilante of all time.

Todd Margaret: The Ha-Ha Spiral

While we're on the subject of great characters on a downward spiral, let's talk about Todd Margaret. David Cross's cross-pond comedy-tragedy tells the tale of hapless boob, Todd Margaret. (Played ingeniously by Cross.) The full title of the show is The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. It's another killer comedy show from the IFC channel. I'm not sure, but I think this may end with ol' Todd ending our world as we know it. As we watch Todd make his Increasingly Poor Decisions, we laugh our respective American asses and British bums off. It's a fish out of water story. Like King Ralph, except consistently funny. With talents like Cross, Will Arnett, and Spike Jonze in the mix, this show has great acting and characters all of whom Todd Margaret manages to piss off or ruin in some way. The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret Seasons 1 & 2 are on Netflix. Still not got your Cross-fix? Watch the old-new Arrested Development, Scary Movie 2 or the pragmatic, super-dark, end-of-days comedy, It's A Disaster. They're all on there too. Go watch 'em. All of 'em. If you don't, Thunder Chicken will "punch you back up your Mama's pussy."

      

Jeremy Brett: The Only Sherlock

This is the only non-new show in this box of imaginary TV donuts. Think of it as a classic doughnut like a blueberry or chocolate cake. I know I've thrown around some snappy snark in this blog before about British-made, American Super Heroes. I may have been too vague about it then, so let's clear that shit up right now. Anglo-Superman sucked despite its effective effects. It tried too hard to be an American Superman and it failed. The Chris Nolan Bat-series was pretty. It also lacked good storytelling. It got less and less interesting to see Christian Bale become a parody of himself in each sequel too. After all was said and done, the trilogy, as a whole, shit the bed. Now, finally, there's an American Batman, but who cares? It's still the same dumb crab-boat-Superman-universe. Which brings us to American Sherlock Holmes. RDJ is a great actor, but those new Sherlock Holmes movies weren't so great. Whenever I think of RDJ, I think of his coked-out, one-shot, wall-walk in Less Than Zero. So awesome. So real. He's also rad as Tony Stark. I just can't see him as Sherlock, but I was spoiled…

I first saw the BBC Sherlock Holmes teleplays starring Jeremy Brett, as a kid. Although I had read all of Doyle's stories, and enjoyed several of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock movies, it didn't matter. Once you see Jeremy Brett do Sherlock, you know you'll never see it done better. His performance in these series is legendary as is his acting ability. He brings an eccentricity to the character that both Rathbone and Downey Jr. just can't touch. These used to be on Netflix. What the fuck? They were taken off to make way for the new BBC Sherlock show. I don't know or care who the talented young actor who plays Sherlock Holmes now is. I can guarantee you, he's no Jeremy Brett.

Tron: Rose Up

If you speak Cyberpunk, you already know. Tron rose from the alleys behind the New Rose Hotel where the sleek Molly Millions once spat her ninja tears. Tron came from the Aeon Egon Underground in the tunnels beneath Tyrell's Tower. It was born in even darker places, like the foxholes in Robert's Stone Brain. If you don't speak Cyberpunk, welcome to the Grid. The original, original Matrix. Tron: Uprising builds upon the already fascinating foundation of the current Tron Universe. If you liked the recent (2010) film, you may enjoy the show. The character design is unique and highly stylized. It seems to be modeled slightly after Aeon Flux, an animated short/show who's art anatomically paid homage to the figure paintings/drawings of Austrian Expressionist, Egon Schiele. Tron's characters are created along similar lines, but can move as Schiele could only have dreamed. It would be cool to go back in time and show Egon an episode of Aeon or Tron: Uprising. Maybe his brain would explode. Maybe he would laugh his ass off. My point is Tron: Uprising is one of the very few beautiful and beautifully written animated shows for kids. It's something parents can enjoy with their kids and it's really fucking cool-looking. It's so fun to watch, while you're watching, you may just forgive or forget that Disney made it.

Well, I gotta go. Time to make the donuts, as they say. Sure, maybe there are other shows worth watching. Maybe after you watch The Dynamic Half-Dozen, you can find the others. 

 -2013 Wielgorecki