Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

However you choose to celebrate the holiday (or don't), I hope the day finds you happy and well.

Last Week in Pop Culture #13: All Christmas Edition

Quick note: since this is an "all Christmas" Last Week in Pop Culture post, looking at the various Christmas episodes I watched recently, and because nobody wants to read about Christmas stuff after Christmas, I'm posting it a little earlier than the usual Saturday. 

The Simpsons: White Christmas Blues

This was a messy episode. The plot was, what, Marge turns the house into a bed & breakfast for the holidays, then has to deal with the inconveniences that brings? Meanwhile, in the wisp of a B-plot (that isn't even introduced until about halfway into the episode) Lisa learns not to be sanctimonious in her gift giving.

Nothing here was bad - it's always good when Marge gets a chance to be just as whacky and irrational as the rest of the family (and her insistence that Christmas carols only have one verse was easily the comedic highlight of the episode), and there's nothing wrong with Lisa having the piss taken out of her every once in awhile - but it was all so scattered and formless I spent more time trying to figure out what the story was than I did enjoying it.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

However you choose to celebrate the holiday (or not at all) I hope the day finds you happy and healthy.

Also, enjoy this ad for the Charlie Brown School of Dance, thanks to Blam, who brought it to my attention.

Merry Christmas!

"... on this day a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don’t, and that’s cool, but we’re probably right, amen."

- Homer Simpson, "'Tis the Fifteenth Season"

On this day, may you be a double-bacon genius burger, and just a little bit drunk.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Last Week in TV #13: All Christmas Edition

A couple of quick housekeeping notes. There will be no "Last Week in TV" post next week; if TV can take a week off, so can I. The following week (the 6th), we'll take a look at all the new shows I've been watching (many of which I haven't been writing about consistently) and evaluate what shape they're at mid-season. Then the week after that (the 13th), we should be back with regular material, taking a look at returning shows (and likely playing catch-up on some old stuff as well). Moving into the second half of the season, my hope is that my schedule will even out a bit, and I should be able to cover shows in a more timely manner than I have thus far. We shall see (best laid plans and all that). Anyways, on with the Christmas!

The Simpsons: Holidays of Future Passed

Not surprisingly, The Simpsons has, in its twenty-three season history, managed to create several subsets of episodes. There's the annual "Treehouse of Horror" anthologies, of course, and the themed anthology episodes inspired by those (like "Simpsons Bible Stories" or "Simpsons Tall Tales"). Then there's the clip shows and the high concept episodes, like "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "Trilogy of Error". This episode falls into two subsets: Christmas episodes, and alt-future episodes.

Countdown to Christmas #25: Christmas

Dur. 

Countdown to Christmas #24: Christmas Eve

"To the most beautiful moment in life, better than a deed, better than a memory, the moment...of anticipation!"

--Jacques, Marge Simpson's would-be-lover in the season 1 episode "Life on the Fast Lane".

In much the same way that Friday is my favorite day of the week because the promise of what the weekend holds is usually better than what actually ends up happening, I've always enjoyed Christmas Eve far more than Christmas Day.

Countdown to Christmas #23: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Without a doubt, A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite Christmas TV special, though it's difficult for me to explain exactly why. 

Countdown to Christmas #22: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

If Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is the Rankin/Bass version of a modern comic book writer's pedantic origin story, than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is their version of a batshit insane Silver Age DC comic.

Countdown to Christmas #21: The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas movie, one I watch in whole or in part every year. The movie takes the standard story of A Christmas Carol and adds the Muppets (including Kermit as Bob Cratchett, Fozzie Bear as Fezziwig and Statler & Waldorff as the Marley Brothers), Michael Caine as Scrooge, original songs and fourth wall breaking narration from Gonzo (as Charles Dickens) and Rizzo the Rat.

Last Week in TV #14

Walking Dead: TS-19

Not a bad episode, but not quite what I was expecting. I'm curious at what part of the production process it was determined that episode six was the first season finale. When Rick and company arrived at the CDC at the end of the last episode, it seemed to be setting up the kind of status quo ending in which season finales traffic. I didn't expect them to spend the rest of the show hanging out there, but I thought maybe the next season would open with them there before something forced everyone to leave. Instead, it looks like the CDC was just one more step in the journey, and the status quo that ended was more thematic (now that they've realized the full extent of the zombiepoc, perhaps they'll look for salvation somewhere other than a pre-apocalypse institution of authority that maybe survived intact). 

Countdown to Christmas #20: Soundwave

Yes, Soundwave. Megatron's second-in-command (well, the second-in-command who wasn't also constantly trying to kill and/or usurp him). The monotone Transformer who turns into a tape player.

Countdown to Christmas #19: Christmas Village

For whatever reason, I've always been fascinated by Christmas villages, those dioramas of buildings and figures you'll see in fancy Christmas stores. My grandpa always setup a small one on an end table in the living room, and I think my interest stems from that (as well as the fact that, as a kid, I never just played with my action figures but set them up in elaborate diaroma-esque scenarios first).

Countdown to Christmas #18: The Elves Song

 From the Futurama episode "A Tale of Two Santas", one of my favorite Christmas episodes.

Futurama
New Santa
www.comedycentral.com
Funny Jokes It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Ugly Americans

Countdown to Christmas #17: Christmas Comic Books

Whether taking on A Christmas Carol or featuring Superman teaming up with Santa Claus to defeat Toyman, super hero comic books, like TV, have a long tradition of paying homage to the holiday.

Countdown to Christmas #16: Elf

The most recent of my favorite Christmas movies, Elf combines my love of Christmas with my love of Will Ferrel comedy into a fun little movie I watch in whole or in part every holiday season. Though the climax bugs me (specifically the shoehorning in of some pretty random action movie beats) there's plenty of good stuff to balance that out in this story of a man raised to be an elf trying to reconnect with long lost father.

Countdown to Christmas #15: Candy

The candy most associate with Christmas is, of course, the candy cane, but I'm not a big fan. They make my hands sticky and get rather difficult to eat as one approaches the curve.

Countdown to Christmas #14: Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town!" is one of Rankin & Bass' Christmas stop motion specials (and is less well known than their Rudolph special, which will be covered in this series in due time). It first aired in 1970 and is essentially the origin of Santa Claus, but even better, it's the origin of Santa Claus as though a modern comic book writer wrote it for the most pedantic of comic book geeks, in which even the most minor of details are given a specific background story to explain it. This thing is like the "Superman: Birthright" or "Green Lantern: Secret Origin" of Christmas specials.

Last Week In TV #13

The Simpsons: Donnie Fatso
What started out as a rare New Years episode turned quickly into a fairly standard mobster/mafia movie parody. As a result, the best stuff was, as usual, in the first act (the New Years stuff, Homer's tickets, Moe on the set of Wicked) before the main plot kicked in and the story started hitting all the expected beats. For a moment, I wondered if the show was going to do one of its rare continuity changes by replacing Fat Tony with Fit Tony, but I did enjoy how they showed us the reset button by transforming Fit Tony into Fat Tony II instead of just bringing back Fat Tony in a later episode with no explanation.

Countdown to Christmas #13: Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics

"Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" is a Christmas album released in conjunction with the South Park episode of the same name. Like most of South Park, the songs (some original, some covers of classic Christmas songs) are crass, offensive and hilarious.