Thank God for Tony Soprano
It was not a good Saturday to be me. I finally had a full weekend off this weekend, and I chose to spend the Saturday portion watching some sports on TV. I should have taken the previous night as an omen; my West Genesee Wildcats lost a must-win game against Auburn, all but ending their chances at both the playoffs and a winning season. The last time they had a winning season was 1993... my SOPHOMORE year there. Anyway, I was watching Florida State play Miami (rooting for FSU; my two favorite college teams are Syracuse and whoever is playing Miami), while listening to the Syracuse-Temple game. Any of you who are big followers of college football know what happened next... Syracuse lost.
We lost. To Temple.
WE LOST!!! TO @%#&ING TEMPLE!!!
Anyhoo, SU is now 0-5 (beating a I-AA school doesn't count), and I have long since cancelled my plans to go to Morgantown next weekend for SU-West Virginia, because I have no intention of watching 0-6. At least not in the stadium. Moments later, FSU finds a new way to lose to Miami... wide LEFT, rather than wide right as they have done so many times in the past. Within minutes, I learn that Susquehanna scored an impressive 35 points against highly-ranked Widener... and gave up 52. Then I watch as Penn State loses to Michigan in overtime, so not even my adopted hometown team wins today. The capper comes later that night, as the Minnesota Twins (who I declared on the radio as my pick to win the World Series) fell behind 3-1 to the Angels in the ALCS. Hell, even "Saturday Night Live" sucked.
However, there was one saving grace for my Saturday, and that is that I finally had a chance to catch up on the TV shows I had to tape throughout the weekend. Not being able to watch prime-time television anymore is an unfortunate side effect of being the highly-rated night slammer that I am. The biggest problems with this are 1) remembering to set the VCR to record, and 2) finding time to watch what you have taped. I also have a problem with the fact that my digital cable box apparently cannot switch channels by itself, so I can no londer record two shows on two different channels. I know what I need, I need TiVo...
Anyhoo, Saturday night, once the Twins have been put away, I dive into an evening of catching up, and most importantly, that means finally getting to watch last week's episode of "The Sopranos". Yup, I too am an addict. Former roommate Jay got me interested in the show; the first hook of course was Jamie Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano, but once that gets you in the door, you get hooked on everything about this show. It is, quite simply, the best show on television. This is why every other show breathed a huge sigh of relief when they learned it would be 16 months between seasons, and therefore, "The Sopranos" would be ineligible for this year's Emmy Awards. Those were the only people sighing relief; the rest of us were waiting eagerly for the next season to begin. I got HBO just so I could watch the new season.
To put it mildly, "The Sopranos" is a national obsession, more long-lasting than "The Osbournes" or even Anna Nicole Smith. More people watched the season premiere (on a pay cable channel) than anything on regular network television that night. And the day after the second episode, everyone had one question on their lips: "Did you see Adrianna throw up all over those FBI guys???"
And I have to bet that the show is providing an invaluable lead-in for the two shows that follow it: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Mind of the Married Man". I for one had never seen either show before the new season of "The Sopranos" started, but I have to say that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is pretty good, and "The Mind of the Married Man" is absolutely hilarious. Larry David continues to excel at the type of comedy that made "Seinfeld" a classic series, only now he does it with real celebrities like Ted Danson and Richard Lewis as his comic foils. And Mike Binder is a freakin' GENIUS! Just the sequence from last week's episode where he's watching his wife and infant son leave for church was brilliant; Binder's character "Mickey" yelling into a toy megaphone, "There is half a midget Jew in the cathedral...." as they walk out the door. Then, once the door closes, Mickey announces into the megaphone, "Break out the porno!!!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Then, the closing sequence with Mickey in the church imagining the "Jew alarm" going off and him getting the "gag communion wafer" was priceless.
But back to "The Sopranos". This is a show that takes so long to produce for a reason: excellence takes time. To the point that some are expecting excellence and so they even criticize one-episode storylines like the whole Columbus Day bit as sub-standard for this show. I understood the storyline perfectly; I interpreted it as a jab at all the Italian-American groups who whine about the show being offensive. And the scene in the car on the way back from the casino where Tony is going on about how Gary Cooper wouldn't be belly-aching about offending Native American groups or gays, and Chrissy responds with, "Gary Cooper was gay?" Great television, a sprinkle of comedy in the right places, everything a good show should be.
And by watching last week's episode last night, the wait will be short before a new episode, which I can actually watch WITHOUT TAPING IT tonight. So, the weekend is looking promising after all. After all, my Jets can't lose this week...
It's their bye week.
We lost. To Temple.
WE LOST!!! TO @%#&ING TEMPLE!!!
Anyhoo, SU is now 0-5 (beating a I-AA school doesn't count), and I have long since cancelled my plans to go to Morgantown next weekend for SU-West Virginia, because I have no intention of watching 0-6. At least not in the stadium. Moments later, FSU finds a new way to lose to Miami... wide LEFT, rather than wide right as they have done so many times in the past. Within minutes, I learn that Susquehanna scored an impressive 35 points against highly-ranked Widener... and gave up 52. Then I watch as Penn State loses to Michigan in overtime, so not even my adopted hometown team wins today. The capper comes later that night, as the Minnesota Twins (who I declared on the radio as my pick to win the World Series) fell behind 3-1 to the Angels in the ALCS. Hell, even "Saturday Night Live" sucked.
However, there was one saving grace for my Saturday, and that is that I finally had a chance to catch up on the TV shows I had to tape throughout the weekend. Not being able to watch prime-time television anymore is an unfortunate side effect of being the highly-rated night slammer that I am. The biggest problems with this are 1) remembering to set the VCR to record, and 2) finding time to watch what you have taped. I also have a problem with the fact that my digital cable box apparently cannot switch channels by itself, so I can no londer record two shows on two different channels. I know what I need, I need TiVo...
Anyhoo, Saturday night, once the Twins have been put away, I dive into an evening of catching up, and most importantly, that means finally getting to watch last week's episode of "The Sopranos". Yup, I too am an addict. Former roommate Jay got me interested in the show; the first hook of course was Jamie Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano, but once that gets you in the door, you get hooked on everything about this show. It is, quite simply, the best show on television. This is why every other show breathed a huge sigh of relief when they learned it would be 16 months between seasons, and therefore, "The Sopranos" would be ineligible for this year's Emmy Awards. Those were the only people sighing relief; the rest of us were waiting eagerly for the next season to begin. I got HBO just so I could watch the new season.
To put it mildly, "The Sopranos" is a national obsession, more long-lasting than "The Osbournes" or even Anna Nicole Smith. More people watched the season premiere (on a pay cable channel) than anything on regular network television that night. And the day after the second episode, everyone had one question on their lips: "Did you see Adrianna throw up all over those FBI guys???"
And I have to bet that the show is providing an invaluable lead-in for the two shows that follow it: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "The Mind of the Married Man". I for one had never seen either show before the new season of "The Sopranos" started, but I have to say that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is pretty good, and "The Mind of the Married Man" is absolutely hilarious. Larry David continues to excel at the type of comedy that made "Seinfeld" a classic series, only now he does it with real celebrities like Ted Danson and Richard Lewis as his comic foils. And Mike Binder is a freakin' GENIUS! Just the sequence from last week's episode where he's watching his wife and infant son leave for church was brilliant; Binder's character "Mickey" yelling into a toy megaphone, "There is half a midget Jew in the cathedral...." as they walk out the door. Then, once the door closes, Mickey announces into the megaphone, "Break out the porno!!!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Then, the closing sequence with Mickey in the church imagining the "Jew alarm" going off and him getting the "gag communion wafer" was priceless.
But back to "The Sopranos". This is a show that takes so long to produce for a reason: excellence takes time. To the point that some are expecting excellence and so they even criticize one-episode storylines like the whole Columbus Day bit as sub-standard for this show. I understood the storyline perfectly; I interpreted it as a jab at all the Italian-American groups who whine about the show being offensive. And the scene in the car on the way back from the casino where Tony is going on about how Gary Cooper wouldn't be belly-aching about offending Native American groups or gays, and Chrissy responds with, "Gary Cooper was gay?" Great television, a sprinkle of comedy in the right places, everything a good show should be.
And by watching last week's episode last night, the wait will be short before a new episode, which I can actually watch WITHOUT TAPING IT tonight. So, the weekend is looking promising after all. After all, my Jets can't lose this week...
It's their bye week.
Labels: television
posted by Dave | 12:16 AM
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