Category: Movies / TV

The Office and Seinfeld

Last month or so I finished rewatching The Office, all 9 seasons. Before that I rewatched Seinfeld again, think I started that run somewhere in the later months of last year. Both can be found on Amazon’s Primevideo service. At least here in EU. The length of the episode (about 24mins give or take) makes it very easy to just squeeze a show in here and there.

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In my (humble) opinion, these two are the best comedies made. With Seinfeld being a little more groundbreaking than The Office. It’s also notable that the internet doesn’t play any part in Seinfeld, and only slightly in The Office. The dunder mufflin personnel watches a few youtube videos, and there is an episode where Andy keeps looking at the comments on his banjo video, but there isn’t much more than that.

It’s pretty weird to realise that a lot of scenes and situations would have been different, when the characters would have had the opportunity to look at the blind date’s facebook page or just been able to email, instead of calling or stopping by. Watching these episodes again, makes you realise how much life has changed even since the late ’90s, simply because of the internet.

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Masterchef US

As a big fan of all things Masterchef, I also enjoyed the American version of Masterchef. But only the latter stages to be honest. In the Australian version there is a lot camaraderie, sometimes a few quibbles here and there, but in the American version, the competition was much more fierce and sometimes down right dirty.

Last night I watched the finale, and a very remarkable winner came out on top, the blind cook Christine Ha ! She wins $250.000,- and a book deal ! Very impressive I must say, throughout the competition she almost always had one of the top dishes and even managed to get the presentation right despite her handicap. Gratz to her ;).

LA Times article

House–Everybody dies

All good things come to an end, and so after eight seasons, House MD comes to an end. I haven’t been following the series very closely the last two years. I was a huge fan for the first 5 or so seasons, and then somewhere during season 7 they kinda lost me. Late Season 5 and the start of season 6 when House dealt with his inner demons without the vicodine was the best part of the last few seasons, but the writers decided to go back to the ‘old’ house fast as it was harder to write for the new House I guess. Or people liked the old bully better.

But I did watch an episode here and there. This season has been a bit better lately. What follows are some thoughts about the series finale.

House - 8x22 - Everybody Dies

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At the start we find out that House has hit rock bottom, and (presumably) is passed out in an abandoned warehouse with a dead guy next to him. He was a patient and they probably went out to score heroin. What follows is a parade of characters that played a big part in House’s live as House is hallucinating. Kutner is the first one to appear, which I thought was interesting. Stacy, Amber and Cameron followed. Cuddy was unfortunately very much absent from the whole show. Oh by the way, the building happens to be on fire as well. Cameron even tries to convince him, it’s his fate and he should accept it, to die right there.

At the end Wilson and Foreman track him down though, just as the building collapses. House can be seen amidst the fire as the whole thing comes down. A body is later retrieved from the building and the dental records show it’s House. And that’s the part that is a little weird. Dental records don’t lie I would say.

House - 8x22 - Everybody Dies

And that’s where for me the show’s most ‘fun’ part started, the funeral where most living people close to House said something about him. Just as Wilson started to tell the truth and started yelling “He was an ass !” he gets a text message from House telling him to shut up.

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As a nod to Sherlock Holmes, House supposedly faked his death and has now five months to be with Wilson who is of course dieing of cancer. The end is wonderful “Cancer is boring !” is the last thing House says as they both get on their bikes and ride off.

Some people have suggested that the part where House turned out to be alive is a hallucination of Wilson who really wants him next to him in the final months of his life. And this could very well be the case. Just as with the Sopranos ending, I guess we’ll never know for sure.

House - 8x22 - Everybody Dies`

All in all a fitting ending to the House series. It could have been better, more emotional. Like Wilson on his deathbed and have the parade of character come and say goodbye (although it would have been harder to include the dead ones). Or something other. Maybe House cleaning up his act. Now it’s up to our imagination what happens to the supposedly dead House and how he deals with Wilson’s inevitable death.

Links:

Alan Sepinwal’s review

Keep me in your heart for a while

Polite Dissent – Medical review

sondaji

Summer TV

This summer it seems that there isn’t much worthy enough to follow as far as new TV series goes. I kind of like the new Canadian tv series Rookie Blue and that’s about it. True Blood apparently comes highly recommended, but I am not that much into vampires, and I didn’t see season 1 and 2 yet.

I do keep up with the What’s Alan Watching blog to see whether there is anything of interest coming up.

E.R. Season 1
E.R. Season 1

Lately I have been buying seasons of E.R. on DVD though to get some sort of tv series fix ! I never really followed it when it was aired at the time, but it’s still very enjoyable now. Let’s hope the fall will bring something remotely as interesting as E.R., Lost or Battlestar Gallactica, but it’ll be hard to fill the void !

Lost – The End

Lost got the finale it deserved. A wonderful 1hr 45mins long episode (not counting the commercials). I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the explanation of the flash sideways certainly caught me by surprise. Like many I thought somehow Desmond would set something off, and the timelines would merge. But as it turned out, the flash sideways were a place in the afterlife the losties created (some claim Hurley did) so they could return to that place once they’re dead.

This lead to all sorts of confusing on internet forums and blogs. A lot of people thought that it meant that the whole thing was a purgatory, and everybody died when the plane crashed. But no, it was very clearly said by Christian Sheppard that everything really happened. And Hurley thanking Ben for being no. 2 was also an obvious hint.

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And with that we also got just about the only / biggest explanation of the finale. Not a lot of questions (actually barely any) were addressed in the final two episodes. Why did infants die on the island ? What happened to Walt, and was he really special ? The numbers, were they just random numbers etc etc. And that was the downside of the finale I guess. The drama and action was excellent, the mythology, not so much.

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Seeing Rose and Bernard certainly made me cheer at the TV screen. Although it was a bit short, it was a nice appearance nevertheless. Man in Locke showed his very bad side by threatening to kill them painfully. I am still not buying the whole ‘he is pure evil’ argument though. We all know why he eventually became the way he was in the end. Once the light went out the rules changed or the ‘spell’ or whatever it was, was broken and it was possible to kill him. A somewhat lackluster ending on the cliffs. It would have been nice if he could have gone off the island at least once in his lifetime, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

It seems I was wrong about Ben. He didn’t have any sort of plan. He just followed whoever happened to come along. The conversation with Hurley at the end, who asked him to become no. 2 was very touching. Finally Ben gets the position he wanted and will be appreciated for his experience and knowledge. Hurley becoming the new no. 1 was a great touch. Being the nicest and friendliest guy of the whole bunch. Ben still had some unfinished business and didn’t ‘step into the light’ like the rest. I guess he just wanted to hang out some more with his daughter and Rousseau ! I guess we’ll never know how he miraculously was rescued from under that log he was trapped under.

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Whatever happened to the people (including Lapidus who of course wasn’t dead after all) that flew off is up to our imagination. I really liked that part of the story. Alpert was finally starting to age so he can rest eventually as well and live a normal life, was nice. You could see the relief on his face when he was looking at his first grey hair.

The final scene with Jack dieing on the very spot where he came to the island was very dramatic. Especially with Vincent by his side. And he also showed relief when he saw the plane fly by and knowing that his friends would finally make it off the island, and accepted his fate.

Possible spinoffs: Hurley and Ben protecting the island, or a Myles and Sawyer cop show ! Think they would both be very enjoyable.

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Lost – What they died for

This week’s episode was a setup episode for the grand finale that will air in the USA today when I write this. In the flash sideways, all the losties are getting together for ‘the concert’. I am very eager to learn what will happen there. One big flashback for all ?

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I was very glad to see Ben return to form. It seems he still got a very tricks up his sleeve, but I think Man in black is on to him. He’ll play some sort of important role in the finale I am sure. I am very glad the writers didn’t forget about him. Killing off Widmore even before the finale was a bit unexpected. I am not sure his ‘Jakob visited me’ redemption story was true, or if that was just to get on Ben’s nerve. Was Desmond as failsafe the only thing he told Man in black or did he whisper something else of importance ? Seeing Ben with Danielle was a great touch. And seeing her sane was a nice bonus :).

On the island, Jack is now finally officially Jakob’s successor. The scene at the campfire where Jakob explains things (sort of), was a bit over the top. We already knew most of it. “You were all flawed” was kind of new though. The protector job isn’t for happy people. The ‘I made him this way’ was weird. Did he refer to throwing his brother into the light ?

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As for Kate and Sawyer ? I have no clue what kind of role there is still for them during the finale. And what their fate will be. I hope Hurley won’t get killed or something terrible. “Thank God it’s not me” was a great line ! Desmond will probably have to go ‘into the light’, as he seems to be the only one who can handle it.

It’s very odd that the series will come to an end tonight. I am sure the finale will still leave a lot open for debate. It sure has been one helluva ride :).