The Simpsons – Season 19 – Episode 1 – He Loves to Fly and He D’ohs

September 24, 2007

Like most Simpsons fans, I too have come to grips with the fact that new episodes of this show will never match the brilliance of the early seasons.  Even the best episodes of the past five to eight years don’t compare to even the mediocre of the first eight or nine years.  I’m not sure what it is that’s missing.  I still like the characters and there are moments where I still laugh out but if you ask me to remember what happened in an episode 10 minutes after it ended, I’d be hard pressed to answer you correctly.  I think it has to do with looking at an episode as a whole package and seeing it generally not hold together.

Yet here I am watching as we go into the 19th season.  Now I haven’t seen the movie yet.  I know, I know – what kind of Simpsons fan hasn’t seen the movie?  I don’t know how I missed it but I just did.  The truth is that I don’t go to many movies.  I have young kids and when my wife and I go out the last thing I want to spend babysitting money on is to go see a movie, especially when movies come to video in 3 months and where I have a decent home theatre system.  I promise to see it soon.

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My Top Anticipated TV Events of 2007

January 10, 2007

I was reading this week’s Entertainment Weekly (the bible for pop culture junkies like me) and they had an article on their 20 big events of 2007 as well as a Winter TV preview and it got me thinking of what TV events I’m most looking forward to in 2007. So here, they are:

1. The final season of The Sopranos – After 5 1/2 seasons of therapy Tony and his two families are heading off into the sunset (or more likely for some the morgue and others witness protection). These final 9 episodes starting in April are surely going to cap off a series run that made a TV network the place to bring interesting projects but also cemented the difference between network television and cable. 3 months and counting.

2. Season 8 of Buffy – I’ve written about this before but in March Joss Whedon continues his epic show in comics. It’s been 4 years since we’ve spent time with our old friends from Sunnydale and I can’t wait to find out what’s happened to Xander, Willow, Giles and of course Buffy. If this isn’t enough here’s a summary of part 2:

The destruction of Buffy’s hometown, plus covert and powerful slayer “cells” around the world, add up to a new label for the Scoobies: Terrorist threat. Speaking of Sunnydale, the crater formerly known as, has opened to reveal the witch Amy, and boy is she pissed. Now: Giles, smoochies, a knife to the heart, and a big sleep. Season Eight continues.

Visit your comic store to reserve your copy today.

3. The return of The Shield – It’s been a long year waiting to see the aftermath of last season’s insane finale which killed off the conscience of the Strike Team. What’s going to happen when Shane learns that Lem wasn’t going to turn them in and even more important what’s going to happen when Vic finds out what Shane did.

4. New Babylon 5 on DVD – Just like with Buffy I’m looking forward to a return visit to the B5 universe. Read my earlier posting for details on Babylon 5: The Lost Tales scheduled for release in July.

5. The Simpsons Movie – The last few seasons have been generally forgettable. I still watch every week but there have been very few classics unlike the early days of the show. Still, advance buzz on this one is pretty good so I have high hopes that Groening will make the most of the bigger canvas to make The Simpsons movie the event we expect it to be.

6. Shows finally coming to DVD – As the publishers reach into their catalogues to release more classics TV on DVD here are some of my favourites scheduled to come out in 2007: Picket Fences (Feb), Twin Peaks (April) and WKRP in Cincinnati albeit with music changes (April).

Let me know what your most anticipated TV events for 2007 are.