(the) david press.com

Thought I would do a recent update post on what I watch, and some friends of mine on the blogosphere.

I’ve cut down on my television recently.  Gone completely is The Office, 30 Rock, and Lost, and only a few remain.

• Kings: I don’t get to watch it very much because my girlfriend loves the Amazing Race. The only thing I find amazing about that show is how much it is like the movie Rat Race.  Though, Kings, criminally under-watched but brilliantly detailed with really great performances is probably done for.  I’m with Graeme however, when I think it should move to the new SyFy channel, as a replacement for Battlestar Galactica. They are already re-running episodes on the channel.
• How I Met Your Mother: I’ve only just started watching this, and I really fucking like it.  There’s something severely wrong with it as it mostly involves drunken shenanigans and friends cheating on each other all presented in a care-free mood, and that’s why its fucked up.
• Breaking Bad: Goddamn brilliant show.  One of my favorite scenes involved Bryan Cranston lecturing his wife to slowly climb out of his ass.
• Friday Night Lights: I mostly never go out on Fridays anymore, and we like to stay in, make dinner for ourselves and watch this as our Friday night tradition.  This continues to be the best show on television, with really great acting and a story-sensibility that is right up my alley.  I’m really pleased its getting two more seasons.

If you like this blog, then I highly suggest you try these by people I’m lucky enough to call friends.

• Kiel Phegley: Kiel has been one of my favorite people writing in and around comics. His features, interviews and great sense of humor always make me laugh. When he is in town, I’m constantly clamoring to hang out with him, he’s just one of those guys that everyone wants to hang with. Kiel’s a bud among buds when it comes to comics and everything else.
• Ben McCool: Its about damn time my beer swilling, Pittsburgh Steelers loving, rabid Arsenal fan, and comic writer buddy got a blog.  Ben, fiance to the always delightful Heidi MacDonald, is always quick with a great story, and an inciteful comment on virtually anything.
• Rick Marshall: Rick’s a guy who has weaved in and out of my life in journalism over the years. He went to SUNY Plattsburgh, about forty minutes from Lake Placid, and chances are decent that we partied over the same keg without knowing each other’s love for comics.  Originally becoming acquaintances when Rick was at Wizard, we became friends while he was at ComicMix and I finally became one of his writers when he started running MTV’s Splash Page.  A great guy who can talk and write about virtually anything; from comics, to Hunter S. Thompson, to the Beat Movement, his knowledge of web-comics is just downright astounding. Rick has been one of my biggest supporters as a writer since starting this comics reporting journey in 2007.

I don’t want to leave anyone out, but I also really enjoy Laura’s Myriad Issues, because she’s probably the best writer reporting on comics today. To mix it up a bit, I really like and agree with Alex Pareene’s political commentary on Gawker, Fad23’s Glow in the Dark Thoughts, and Alex Balk over on Tumblr.  And I can’t not pimp home town hero Kayte Billerman’s blog because she is a pimp. Hahaha.  Have a good holiday weekend everyone.

Recently, a guy started following me on Tumblr. This guy, Paul Gulyas, co-wrote and produced a pilot called Graduates. Today, he posted it online for free.  

Over the holidays he had a screening in New York, unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it, but from what I had seen from it (just a trailer) had me in stitches. You know all those student films made in college that are supposed to be about college, but are really contrived and generally shitty? This isn’t one of them. It’s totally for that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crowd, but what makes it different than college movies about college is that it actually connected with me. What should connect for the audience in a movie (or pilot, in this case) about college is that they should be able to connect to the characters in a way that reminds them of themselves and their friends from college. And that’s exactly what this does: I know that kind of (frat) guy, those four friends remind me of my group of guys that I still hang out with and call my best friends.  So, watch the pilot at the Graduates site and send your support Paul’s way there and the rest of the talented people who put in their time and their money to produce such a viewing pleasure.  I’m a big supporter of indy film (coming from my days as an intern at the Lake Placid Film Forum) and so I feel like I must support efforts like this that are truly excellent.

Couple things today.  The ultra cool trailer to Joss Whedon’s webisode series, Dr. Horrible has been flying all over the internet for the past week.  Its old news for most people, but new news for me in the fact that it sent me in the direction of Horrible co-star Felicia Day’s own series, The Guild.  Which is about a group of online gamers, and the lives they have together in this really funny slice of life in a really kind of pathetic way.  Last Tuesday, over a drink, I was talking with some friends about gaming. On the one hand, I agree with Wil’s point of view on games, but on the other I tend to think that games are also a detriment on a social level.  Sure they’re beautiful works of narrative art, and a social activity viewed through the prism that is video gaming, but I really think that in order to have an even remotely normal social pattern you must turn off that xbox and go to the coffee shop down the street and interract with other people outside of your comfort zone that video games portray.  There are alot of upsides to video games including better hand-eye coordination, the beauty and originality in the narrative of alot of great games, but really, in interest of your own mental health go outside and take a chance talking to people who may or may not be into gaming.  It’ll make you a better person.

Other Brian im’d me the new James Bond trailer and its deeply stupid name.  Though, when you dissect the word “quantum,” it means a large quantity or a particular amount, by adding solace, James Bond wants a large quantity of comfort, or specifically consolation. When dissected in this manner, the title makes a lot of sense in a character way.  The journey Bond is taking now, he wants to console himself for what happened in the last movie, and in doing so is going after everyone that influenced the tragic path that led to the death of the love of his life, Vesper Lynd.  Though for the more action/adventure hungry movie types that the James Bond movies cater to the title will probably result in a “What the fuck does that even mean?” reaction. The title screams out: “Look at me! Look at how smart I am with my title, but my movie isn’t anything that’s really smart, or THAT different from any other action/adventure spy thriller!”

CHUCK: Twenty minutes into this show and I’m sold, totally a giant departure for Josh Schwartz from predictable horseshit OC. Its like the 40-Year Old Virgin meets Alias but you know, not serious at all. Like I could never think that any sort of bodily harm would be inflicted upon these characters. Still a lot of fun, and I like it because it being a departure for Schwartz.

JOURNEYMAN: Well…that was something, that was both kind of awesomely cliched and vaguely intriguing with how his former dead girlfriend knows that he’s traveling in time. And that, for me, is enough to keep me interested. Very Sorkin like dialogue, considering the creator was a staff writer on The West Wing.

REAPER: Flawless, quick and hilarious. I’ve watched two solid episodes of this show and the easiest way I can describe it is Ghost Rider, Can’t Hardly Wait and Kevin Smith, (naturally) without taking itself seriously. Which is exactly what’s wrong with Ghost Rider. It has its faults in that it could be another Smallville monster of the week thing but it’s better than Smallville in that it’s a comedy. I mean hybrid cars trying to kill the characters and dust devils that put out Fire-Breathing Firemen; come on, you can’t say that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

BIONIC WOMAN: I’m going to say one thing in regards to this show: don’t watch it. To find out why: watch it, I think you’ll find out quickly why you shouldn’t be watching it, and it won’t matter a pinch what I say.

PUSHING DAISIES: Just finished watching this and I think this was the better crafted show of the new batch. Probably the most perfect pilot I’ve watched in a week. Clever quick dialogue, with performances up to the task of performing the unique writing well, combine with the Lemony Snicket type tone to the narration and Barry Sonnenfeld directing the first episode makes this one a complete winner. And its just so damn unique in its characteristics and its creation that it sets it apart from anything else. It can’t be compared to anything new on television because its own thing, adhering to no one’s rules but its own.

I think there are only two new shows that I am revisiting after last years batch and that would be: 30 Rock (with Jerry Seinfeld!) and Friday Night Lights. The latter has been banished to actually being on Friday nights, but its so unfortunate because there is one thing about great shows being on Friday nights: no matter how great a show is, the vast majority of people would rather be out doing something on a Friday night than sitting at home watching television. Joan of Arcadia, anyone? Thank God, for TiVo is what I have to say.