I had a long discussion this weekend about continuity in films and on TV.  Basically, I was venting that it pisses me off so much when they fuck it up.  For example, on the new NBC show Life (good show by the way), there was a scene where this guy who was in a car accident and had now recovered but still had a band-aid on his forehead mystically had the band-aid change sides on his forehead between shots.  Now this is bad on its own, but in the next shot, IT CHANGED BACK.  Now, sometimes I think I notice things that other people might miss (for example, in Dirty Sexy Money I noticed a character changed grips on his wine glass from shot to shot) but this one just seemed so blatant.  The character’s head was in the center of the screen and this big band-aid switches sides.  Twice!

I could really go on about this forever, but I’ll spare you and jump to the point.  This pisses me off because it means that either the companies producing these shows figure the viewers are too stupid and absent minded to notice or be bothered by such things (which, honestly, they’re probably right about) or it means that an entire department (the continuity department) is slacking on their jobs.  They pay people so that this type of thing doesn’t happen.  So does that mean that these professional continuity people are worse at noticing these things than a common watcher who rarely sleeps?  Yikes.

Mainly though, I just want someone to hire me as a continuity expert.

I realize that this means I have now taken the last three posts to talk about Gossip Girl, but…well…actually I have no excuse, but I thought I should formulate my opinions a bit more.

All in all, yes, the show is terrible. Does it have some redeeming moments? Yes. Especially towards the end of the episode when it stopped whining like a little bitch. By that I mean when it stopped essentially insisting that it’s characters and plot were dramatic and instead let things play out a little on their own. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep that up.

The thing that really kills the show though, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is the voice over and the concept behind it. It’s like okay I know that gossip is huge in high schools and especially in private schools and especially in New York, but the idea that there’s some internet site that EVERYONE is reading that contains every little detail about these people’s lives is ridiculous. I mean, maybe something has changed since my time in a New York City private school, but I don’t think it’s changed that much. I mean we were self-involved and everything, but not THAT self-involved. Seriously, if I have to hear that overly important voice one more time, then it’s death to Smoochy. (more…)

Okay, so I’m on a sick day and watching this Gossip Girl crap load. And wow it really is a crap load. I can’t even really describe it. Typical dribble. Blowing through stereotype after terrible stereotype and my god its terrible. Let’s see. In the first ten minutes or so, there is a terrible voice over like horrible voice over then there’s the characters. Just terrible. There’s a character that literally says “The scene is getting dull” after mentioning that Serena is back in town. Are you serious? The guy who says this just like looks the part way too much and sounds like an idiot every time he opens his mouth. I don’t know how much of this I can actually take. Next time I might have live blog it just so I can get through this.

Maybe I’ll have more clearly formed thoughts after I get through this crap fest.

UPDATE: This voice over is atrocious!

UPDATE 2: I think this guy is wearing two polo shirts, the one underneath has a popped collar.  I was right.  Yep.  Either that or a polo underneath a button down with the polo popped collar.  Also, the brunette looks way too much like Rachel Bilson or however you spell it.

So, you may or may not have heard of this new show coming out on the WB (It’s the CW now? What the fuck is the CW?) called Gossip Girl. I first caught wind (haha, caught wind - fart jokes) of it over at Jezebel (for the last time, yes, I read a fashion celebublog) and was, well, highly disappointed - given I only saw one minute of one scene. The show is created by same dude who did the OC so while it may be strangely addictive, it will most likely be entirely over the top and inaccurate; something that troubles me as this is now about my city. I’m sure people from the West Coast frowned upon the OC in the same light (or at least I hope they did). I don’t know why I’m always so disappointed with the majority of movies, TV shows, and teen novels written about New York City (or why for that matter I’m convinced somewhere deep down that I can do it better - yes, very illogical), but it just seems to me like they always get it wrong. They don’t capture it all. And maybe that’s the thing. Maybe it is just impossible to really show New York in its actuality, which is kind of unfortunate.

The truly unfortunate thing? I’ll probably tune in tonight. Uch, I feel dirty just typing that.

The internet can truly be a wonderful place. With the rapid exchange of information and unlimited access, we can get important breaking news as its happening, research the troubles plaguing our world, and, of course, help those in need. Or you can get that dude Mystery from the Pick Up Artist’s phone number as it seems the good people at Jezebel have done (yes, I occassionally peruse fashion blogs - and yes, I occassionally use the word peruse).

The interview is quite priceless and includes tidbits about anal licking people spiritual and…well…yeah, stuff about anal licking being spiritual. Couldn’t really get past that one there. It’s hilarious. He also responded to the post with a text that was funny in its own right. (more…)

When I first saw the headline that Simon Cowell was quitting American Idol, I was blissful. I think that show and the culture it has spawned are the absolute dregs of society and the entertainment industry. So, the sooner its gone the better. Unfortunately, it seems that soon is three years and that the show might continue without him. Good god when will it stop? Are any of these people getting famous anymore? Is there anything beyond shtick to all of this? Am I the only one that finds this all kind of vomitizing? (Interesting note: vomitizing - clearly not a word - but spell check on Firefox suggests unappetizing which shares few of the same letters but a similar concept - Computers! They’re smart!)

So now I have to suffer through three more years of this crap and its endless spinoffs and Hasselhoffs. Big question: how in the fuck is Hasselhoff a judge of talent? This guy:

Apparently the Freakonomics dudes found out that the drug dealing in it is incredibly realistic. And I find that awesome. There’s some other really interesting stuff in their about the organization of gangs and how that’s changing with the introduction of Meth into the equation. Good stuff. Smart people.