nonTV

Parks and Recreation - Season 5 There’s something magical...

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:11:00 -0500

Parks and Recreation - Season 5

There’s something magical that happens when a TV writing staff decides to go for broke. That is, they write every idea they have within the episodes the network ordered, not saving any ideas for future seasons. Instead of dragging stories over multiple seasons to fill time, writers end them as soon as they instinctually feel it’s right.

Of course, this decision often happens under the threat of impending cancellation, so it can lead to mixed results. For instance, Dollhouse’s final season was exhilarating, but fizzled near the final episodes once the producers ran out of money. Community’s concept episodes are often spectacular, but each one requires so much effort from the writers that the episode immediately after it can feel rushed and mediocre.

But when a show is well-managed, well-funded, yet low-rated enough to leave its fate uncertain each season, you get Parks and Recreation. The results are spectacular. Instead of spreading plot arcs over the course of the season, they’re resolved within six episodes. And unlike The Office, where plotlines are ditched without payoff once it’s clear they’re no longer funny, these short arcs have a satisfying beginning, middle and end. Why? Because the writers refuse to assume they’ll be on the air long enough to resolve those stories later in the season. It’s a genius strategy which has kept Parks and Recreation in Season 5 more creatively fresh than The Office in Season 4. I can’t wait to see how this show continues to mature in the future.

The Mindy Project Mindy Kaling in NYMag, before her...

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 22:05:10 -0500

The Mindy Project

Mindy Kaling in NYMag, before her show’s premiere:

One thing that is different than other shows is that my character is weirdly, extremely confident. She feels like she should be dating Chris Evans. That’s something I learned from writing for Michael Scott. He thought he was going to marry Teri Hatcher, even though he was constantly being told that was not the case.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to model a character after Michael Scott, but Carell’s character was consistently presented as incompetent. Using a character’s screentime to laugh at (or with) their flaws and emotional life comes at the expense of highlighting their strengths.

The show presents Mindy Lahiri as a skilled physician, but rarely shows examples of her professional aptitude. Thus, the respect and occasional adoration which her colleagues display towards her seems self-indulgent and not quite credible. That’s when the show falls flat.

"A big question, what’s the most satisfying way to end this thing? But then, having said that, is the..."

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:08:48 -0400

“A big question, what’s the most satisfying way to end this thing? But then, having said that, is the satisfying way the right way? Without giving anything away, these are the questions we ask ourselves constantly. We stop ourselves every now and then and say: What are our hopes and dreams here? What do we want to see happen? And then we take a consensus around the room, and very often we’re all on the same page with what we want to see happen. And then we say, is that the right thing to happen? What’s the point of it all? What’s the point we want to make? Do we even have one? Some days I’m not sure we do. But then plenty of days, it’s just enough to tell a gripping story, to have showmanship and drama and moments and shock and awe, as it were.”

- Vince Gilligan

"The pitch was literally, and I’m not kidding: ‘Monster House….the house….is..."

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:42:46 -0400

“The pitch was literally, and I’m not kidding: ‘Monster House….the house….is a monster.’ And when Rob [Schrab] pitched it, he held his hands up one at a time, like Ed Wood pitching ‘Doctor Acula.’ And the head of Imagemovers stared at him, blinked, and said, “I get it. I like it.” And bought it in the room.”

- Dan Harmon

"In every episode, the idea is to reveal new things about the characters, and if we don’t do that..."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:41:45 -0400

“In every episode, the idea is to reveal new things about the characters, and if we don’t do that consistently throughout the season, then I think we’re blowing it. I don’t like shows where you feel like you know exactly who the people are and exactly how they’re going to behave in every situation. Then it just becomes color-by-numbers where it’s like, “Now these characters are at the circus. Now they’re in a coffee shop.” And you watch their complete, set-in-stone characters unfold in exactly the way you expect them to. That kind of television doesn’t really interest me as a writer.”

- Mike Schur, inadvertently explaining why Parks and Recreation will never go the way of The Office

"Tommy has decided that he prefers to be buried so “people can do sex on my grave"

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 01:00:00 -0400

“Tommy has decided that he prefers to be buried so “people can do sex on my grave””

- Greg Sestero (“Mark” in The Room). His book on Tommy Wiseau, entitled The Disaster Artist is apparently finished and will be released in January 2013.

"Then the shooting has proven my suspicions: he simply does not. Changed at least three times a..."

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:15:00 -0400

“Then the shooting has proven my suspicions: he simply does not. Changed at least three times a cameraman, multiple team replaced the stage, and there were people who left there to film themselves in the middle of the day. […] And the rotation of the end of my Wiseau thanked, praised, and he said, because I worked so well, free loan of the total sound equipment provided, if the next movie I’m doing well.”

- Zsolt Magyar, sound engineer for The Room, on Tommy Wiseau. [Apologies for the terrible Google translation.]

The Crunch Call - feat. Dan Harmon

Sat, 19 May 2012 10:26:21 -0400

The Crunch Call - feat. Dan Harmon

The Ties That Bind

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:34:36 -0400

The Ties That Bind

IFC greenlights Marc Maron TV series

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:22:00 -0400

IFC greenlights Marc Maron TV series

jsj: A plea from the bottom of my heart: please, please see Tim...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:34:44 -0500

jsj:

A plea from the bottom of my heart: please, please see Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie in a theater this weekend. The per-screen average of this weekend will go a long way towards deciding whether more Tim and Eric movies will be made. If you’ve enjoyed their work in the past, you should know that this is the best thing they’ve ever made. Very INTENSE and you will walk away from it HAVING CHANGED.

It’s now playing in these theaters. If you can’t make it to a screening, why not watch it on iTunes?

I just learned that my friend from college, @CoraRoseMusic,...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:32:00 -0400

I just learned that my friend from college, @CoraRoseMusic, wrote the song for the “lesbian Afro Norwegian funk duo” Nefertiti’s Fjord on Parks and Recreation last Thursday. Pretty fucking awesome. Here’s the full song.

She makes some pretty great folk music as well, when she’s not releasing novelty songs for major broadcast networks. Check out her website!

Arrested Development announces 4th season and movie

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:55:54 -0400

Arrested Development announces 4th season and movie:

Can’t believe I just typed that.

"I remember Dino and I breaking all these stories. I remember there was this little elf girl. There..."

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:38:00 -0400

“I remember Dino and I breaking all these stories. I remember there was this little elf girl. There was a visit to Duncan’s office where you actually meet all the broken toys outside the hallway. Christmas is a booming time for Duncan because of all the suicide attempts and thoughts and things, and there’s this little redhead elf girl out in the hallway who Abed befriends, and he indoctrinates her into the ability to willfully deny reality and just engage in this fascination. It just got too fucking dark. [Laughs.] Because she ended up killing herself again or attempting it. And it was like, “Oh my God, there was no way. I can’t even watch this.” So that may help explain why that episode seems kind of dark and depressing. You have no idea. That episode is Brady Bunch compared to what we were starting with.”

- Dan Harmon on how Dino Stamatopolous almost turned Community’s Christmas episode into Moral Orel

Sex Teenagers, Episode 1 [dir. David Seger / Tom Kauffman] If...

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:30:00 -0400

Sex Teenagers, Episode 1 [dir. David Seger / Tom Kauffman]

If you haven’t watched this yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Cold Weather [Trailer] After twenty minutes, what seems at...

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:41:00 -0500

Cold Weather [Trailer]

After twenty minutes, what seems at first to be an all-too-familiar mumblecore film about twentysomethings fucking around transforms into a legitimately suspenseful and occasionally gut-busting subdued genre piece within the span of a single shot. Completely illogical at times, but if something’s this entertaining does that really matter?

McBusters Oh, hello! It’s been a while. I may or may not...

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:57:00 -0500

McBusters

Oh, hello! It’s been a while. I may or may not update this more regularly in the future, but in the meantime you should really make sure to watch McBusters. Directed by Myke Chillian, who works as a character designer for The Ricky Gervais Show when not engineering this madness, the show premiered its third and final episode over at Channel101 last week. Watching this pilot again for maybe the twentieth time, the scenes of gratuitous violence and all of Mayor McCheese’s lines still manage to crack me up.

Best TV Episodes Of 2010

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:28:01 -0500

10. I See Her Face Everywhere - Childrens Hospital

9. The Angel At Hetton - The Trip

8. Mixology Certification - Community

7. Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday - Party Down

6. Asunder - Terriers

5. God - Louie

4. Chapter 10 - Eastbound and Down

3. Pilot - Lone Star

2. Just Breve - The Sarah Silverman Program

1. One Minute - Breaking Bad

HONORABLE MENTION

When It Rains, It Pours - 30 Rock

Skorpio - Archer

Food - Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule

Mole - Delocated

The Substitute - Lost

The Suitcase - Mad Men

Attack of the Were-Lawrence - Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole

Summer Catalog - Parks and Recreation

The Outsider - Rubicon

I’ll Fly Away - Treme

The Fuzz - Trailer Again, if you haven’t seen the...

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:36:00 -0500

The Fuzz - Trailer

Again, if you haven’t seen the Channel101:NY series Puppet Rapist (also from Waverly Films), you should probably go do so.

Source Code - Trailer This should be good. Managed to read the...

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:41:00 -0500

Source Code - Trailer

This should be good. Managed to read the screenplay for this six months ago on ScriptShadow and wow is it great. Grab the PDF before Mediafire takes it down.