Archie comics are certainly diverse in their output. Starting in 1942, it’s one of the longest running series in all of comicdom, following the adventures of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica as they go about their lives in Riverdale. The amazing thing about the franchise, it also manages to come up with some extremely novel ideas and concepts. Much like his superhero counterparts, Archie has been part of a gay wedding, met the president, grown up, and in a controversial turn of events; died.
After her great run with last year’s Bridesmaids, it’s no surprise that Kristen Wiig is back this summer. Only this time she’s just merely starring in the movie, Girl Most Likely, instead of writing it as well. Slacker. It is actually written by Michelle Morgan with her second writing credit, go Michelle! The fact it’s directed by the husband and wife team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman who directed one of my favorite movies, American Splendor, moves Girl Most Likely up my list of “must see” movies this summer.
At first glance, it looks a lot like Silver Linings Playbook with the mental illness/moving in with parents aspect, but trailers often have a tendency to paint a much different picture than the actual movie ends up being. Even if I wasn’t a Wiig fan, Annette Benning is always damn near perfect. Of course the Glee star Darren Criss is going to bring out the teenyboppers in droves so maybe I’ll go to the earliest showing possible like the old lady I am while all the youngin’s are still in bed. Either way, Girl Most Likely looks like what it probably sets out to be, a cute story with moments of humor and likely a happy ending. Sign me up.
It’s still the holiday season last time I checked, so it’s that time to figure out what we need to get the people in our life. More importantly, what cool stuff that they totally think of you and your awesome gift-giving abilities. Gone are the days where you can give people a coupon book for free hugs, we now have to figure out what truly will touch their holiday hearts. Well have no fear because we are here to the rescue and are letting you know what cool stuff is hitting the streets. Let’s look at some new release movies first, shall we?
We have a good crop of new releases out this week, obviously led by Ted. Hilarious movie that everyone should watch and pick up for sure. For the kiddies, you also have the latest Ice Age movie so you can impress them when you fire it up on Blu-Ray 3D and watch it slowly scramble their brains when they gather around the TV during the holidays. We also have the Bourne Legacy coming out on Blu-Ray, which I definitely didn’t enjoy but that doesn’t mean you might not. Futurama Volume 7 also hits the shelves, which is a great, great, underrated show that everyone should watch. Other notables would be Dick Tracy on Blu-Ray, the Criterion Collection version of The Following, the first Christopher Nolan flick, Girls – Season One, WWE: Raw – The Top 100 Moments, and Miami Connection, the cult movie that just came out for everyone to laugh and cry about how awesome the 80s truly were.
For music this week, we have the new Bruno Mars album Unorthodox Jukebox dropping, along with the new Glee Christmas CD, as well as the 3rd Green Day CD this year and the Music of Nashville album based on all the songs from show so far. The most important album you need to pick up of course is the soundtrack score to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey because Howard Shore if a flipping genius.
As for video games this week, the two major ones are the Wii U version of 007 Legends and all the downloadable episodes of The Walking Dead that if you’re too lazy to download on XBL, you can now just pick it up at your local store and have at it. I also included Call of Duty: Black Ops II in the Amazon Carousel above but it’s a truly awesome game. I’d say challenge some of the Grizzly Bomb crew here but we don’t want to lose your respect because we are probably the worst team out there.
Child, please. Of course it’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
That’s it for us today, hopefully this has helped inspire some gift ideas because Christmas is the time of getting a Blu-Ray so you can ignore freezing outside and just warm up by the fire with some Ted. Or Ice Age, depending how you want to expose kids to the vulgar nature of an awesome teddy bear. Your call.
Well I’m really glad that the last episode of SNL, hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was good because this week it was just awful. I don’t know that awful is even strong enough a word for how bad this episode was. Usually I make two lists; one of good sketches, and another of bad sketches. This week there was not even an entire sketch in the good category, just one name. And it certainly wasn’t Daniel Craig’s.
Obviously, the cold open had to do with the debate. It was nice to see Chris Parnell back as the ineffective Jim Lehrer, but man alive this sketch was weak. Jay Pharaoh’s Obama impression is getting better but if the material and sketches don’t improve, I’d rather have Fred Armisen back as Commander-in-Chief. The monologue was just bad. Dear writers; if the phrase “I love this song but don’t know the name, can someone Shazaam it for me?” is what passes as a good joke these days, there is a problem. The catcalling construction workers wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. It was just there and what seems to be a trend this season so far, it didn’t know when to quit. The “Bond Girls” fauxmercial was okay. I did enjoy Diane Keaton and Taran Killam in bed together. There was a moment where I was wondering how many people out there watching would remember Lea Salonga and then was really confused when they kept going back to her. I’m ashamed to admit I even wondered out loud, “has Lea Salonga even done anything on tv or been in a movie recently?” Well as a matter of fact the last tv/movie thing she did was the 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables in 2010. My confusion only increased.
All that said- I’m an idiot. For it wasn’t Lea Salonga they were talking about at all. Rather it was that chick from Glee, Lea Michele. Once I realized that, those parts of the sketch made a lot more sense. They weren’t any better, but they made sense at least. Another sketch about the debate in which Jason Sudeikis was hysterical as a sleep deprived Chris Matthews. Keenan Thompson is always fun as Al Sharpton but overall the sketch was a bore.
The happy Republican girl who said nothing but how happy she was this week was amusing in her simplicity. Next up was the pre-recorded “Long Island Medium” sketch and if there was a highlight of the night, this was probably it. That’s saying a lot. Kate McKinnon played the reality tv “star” who makes a living going up to random people and telling them about their loved ones who died. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen the show so I don’t know how spot on it was, but it was funny. Bobby Moynihan as the subject of one of the medium’s not-quite-so-accurate readings was the first time I laughed.
Unfortunately Bobby went from making me laugh to making me unintentionally impersonate my dog when he cocks his head to the side and gives me that “what the hell have you been smoking woman?” look. Seriously, what on earth was up with that space station sketch? It was just awkward and weird and I’m usually a fan of awkward and weird but it was not working for me. At all. It was interesting to hear an entire audience simultaneously let out an “awwww” when Fuzz Aldrin appeared. Thank god there was a cute cat because otherwise that sketch was a goner.
Musical Guest Time! It was Muse and they were good. During the first song though I could not get past the fact the dude was playing an ipad. Seriously.
I don’t know why I was surprised, hell you can damn near perform brain surgery nowadays after watching a few YouTube videos but this guitar/bass/iPad thing he had going was just fascinating to me. If I learned nothing else on Saturday Night it was this- America still loves Big Bird. I mean, who can blame us? Follow That Bird was one of the greatest movies of its time. Put Big Bird on Weekend Update? The tv watching nation will go nuts.
Did you know that Big Bird is on twitter? Well he sort of is, he just tweets through the general Sesame Street account though. Sharing is a big thing on Sesame Street. Did you also know that Grizzly Bomb is on twitter? Of course we are! After Weekend Update I’m pretty sure Lorne Michaels spontaneously burst into flames and the entire cast was too distracted by it to actually put forth the effort to make the rest of the show watchable.
“Sorry Lot We Are” was just horrendous. When you are making references to movies that have been dead and gone for quite some time (The Full Monty and the even more obscure, Waking Ned Divine) people are going to start to think you are phoning it in. Even more aggravating was this was the first time we got to see Aidy Bryant do more than one short line. I had started to wonder if she was even on the show anymore because we’ve seen plenty of Cecily Strong and Tim Robinson but unfortunately not much of Ms. Bryant. If “man in drag awkwardly rubbing themselves against other cast member” hadn’t been done in the last episode, it might have been better received this week. Then again, there is only so much of Fred Armisen’s crotchtal region that I want to see, so maybe not.
Apparently Fred’s crotch was the last straw because after another performance by Muse, it was a repeat of the “Undecided Voters” sketch from last week and that was all she wrote. Thank the angels and saints in heaven above. So all that was in my bad/not good column. The only thing in my good column? Kate McKinnon. She was all over this episode and even though it looked as if Vanessa McBrayer was being groomed as the next Kristin Wiig, Ms. McKinnon seems ready for that role. Despite the entire episode sucking as a whole, she had some bright moments. I’m looking forward to see her performances as the season goes on.
To sum up: episode was bad, Daniel Craig is pretty but should stay away from sketch comedy, Big Bird is a fan favorite, and I’m trying to forget this show happened and just look forward to October 13th when Christina Applegate hosts with musical guest Passion Pit.
It is that time of the year again and it is time to revel in the wonders that is the San Diego Comic-Con 2012! One of the biggest things this year for our site is that we will actually be in attendance and representing GrizzlyBomb as we go to the biggest place where news on comics, television, movies, and video games breaks every minute from July 12th-15th and of course we will document it all. We are going to be on the show floor and I will be your guide and your way in to panels, booths, and probably pictures of the lovely booth babes so please visit as much as you can during the next week because we’re going to be knee-deep in some fun stuff.
Over the years, the panels have become some of the biggest places where announcements are made, stars have shown up, great Q&As have been done so we are going to do a preview on what we think will be some heavy hitters and must sees in San Diego.
NBC’s The Playboy Club will be airing this fall…at least on most channels. As I mentioned in a previous article, this show will be racy. Of course this is expected because of what the Playboy symbol represents. Most stations were okay with this, but KSL-TV in Salt Lake City Utah is not on board. The president and CEO Mark Willes said that what the Playboy brand stands for is inconsistent with what the station stands for. I looked at this station’s regularly scheduled programming guide, and they are right. They play nothing racier than Days of our Lives and Law and Order: SVU. In The Playboy Club, or at least what I have seen from the trailers, there is a lot of adult content, and all of the women are dressed like bunnies in cute little leotards and fishnets.
But what is worse? a woman in a leotard, or a couple cheating and half naked on a soap opera? I understand that it is going to be a sexy show, but the nudity clause the cast had to sign was specifically for in-DVD extra content. No one will be getting naked on NBC. It is ridiculous. For example, Glee shows two girls making out who are IN HIGH SCHOOL, couples cheating on one another, a pregnancy, and drunken Britney stripping. I am sure that if Glee was put on by NBC, this channel would have no problem airing it. Yet, because this show has the playboy symbol, suddenly it can’t just be a sexy drama… it must be too provocative. NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said that they are the only place reacting this way, and it is their prerogative to do so.
Heather Morris strips on GLEE – You’re welcome Doc!
Playboy is all about sexuality and beautiful women…but this show does not seem to be any worse than what appears in soap operas or teen dramas. I guess we will have to wait until it premiers this fall to say for sure, but I am of the opinion that KSL-TV has no reason to pull this show from their lineup. The Playboy Club has been adopted by Salt Lake City’s My Network affiliate, KMYU.
At this point in their careers, it is safe to say that the creators of Glee have turned everything they touch into gold. Glittery, shimmering gold. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, only 455,000 viewers tuned into Oxygen’s new show. The Glee Project premiered Sunday night at 9pm. This show begins by putting 12 people between the ages of 18-22 into a contest which includes vocals, acting, dancing, as well as taking direction. Every week the group has a guest judge. The first week’s guest judge was Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson). At the end of every week, the bottom three contestants are chosen to perform in front of the creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy.
I watched the premiere episode, and I have to say I liked it… but there were quite a few problems with it…
First off, I am not sure who was in charge of advertising for The Glee Project, but I have obsessively watched every single episode of Glee, not only at the time it was aired, but multiple times afterward. I can honestly say that I wasn’t quite sure what The Glee Project was when I was going to write this article. I had seen commercials about it, but they all said to go to a website, or download an app for more information. This show is much like American Idol, without seeing all of the embarrassing moments that everyone watches those types of elimination shows for. I think that if this show had been properly advertised, the premiere would’ve done better. In fact, I may have made an event of it. Hell, I would have auditioned.
Incognito
Secondly, the most interesting parts of the show were not drawn out as much as they should have been. They had a guest judge – one of the lovable gays from the show, and barely showed him when it aired. He worked with one of the contestants on his vocal, but you only see about a minute of them working together. I am not sure why they did that, but I would have wanted to see more Blaine…
The show needs a lot of work. As a Glee fan, I hope it does get better.
In my second piece of exciting news, Executive Producer Ian Brennan has said he wants to create an episode in Season 3 to feature Bruce Springsteen. It is rumored that The Boss might play Finn Hudson’s uncle on the show, which would be perfect!
Glee has already had fantastic guest appearances, such as Britney Spears, and a recurring role as a substitute teacher played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Not to mention Neil Patrick Harris, Kristin Chenoweth, and Uncle Jesse himself – John Stamos as a dentist.
I am very excited about my next order of Glee business. On June 13th, I attended a fantastic concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills (Home of the Detroit Pistons). One so fantastic, and full of so much talent (and so many 12-year-olds) that they must have made a fortune off of this show. I am, of course, talking about the Glee Concert. During this performance, all of the Glee cast members stay in character (Kurt is gay, Brittany is dumb, etc…).
This concert could not have been done better, in my opinion. The only critique is that it was a somewhat short show, but I understand that most of the fans had a long hard day of junior-high mathematics to attend the next morning. The cast pulled out all of the fans’ favorite show-stopping moments, including when Brittany was Britney Spears, when Kurt did the ‘Single Ladies’ dance, when normally disabled Artie gets out of his wheelchair and does the ‘Safety Dance’, and my personal favorite of the night, Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’ sung by Santana Lopez (played by Naya Rivera). Of course, my favorite performer is always Finn Hudson (played by Cory Monteith). You should see him sing live. He has a permanent O-face. It is extraordinary. Overall, the show was very well put together, with very intricate dance moves, and even special video recorded appearances by Jane Lynch and Matthew Morison.
I am not the only person to have seen the show…not by any means. But according to the Chicago Sun Times, one journalist has lost her job for fabricating details about the Glee Live Show on June 3rd. Chicago Sun-Times TV critic Paige Wiser had gone to watch the concert with her son and daughter. According to Wiser, at one point in the concert her daughter threw up and her son fell off of a chair. Under the stress of her job, she made a snap decision to continue the writeup of the concert and fabricate some details, even though she did not stay for the entire show. A reader noticed inconsistencies in her report, which lead Editor in Chief Don Hayer to announce Wiser’s dismissal in a note posted online on June 9.
He wrote in that note: “Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers. We regret the incident and apologize.” Wiser said that she is ashamed, and admitted responsibility. “I’m at fault. I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed, and it’s just a matter of making bad decisions when you’re exhausted.”
For my final bit of information for you, I give you the host of this year’s Emmy Awards: Jane Lynch! I have to say, after seeing her on Saturday Night Live, I am looking forward to how she will put her spin on hosting an award show such as this.
Lynch won “Outstanding Supporting Actress” last year, and has been nominated for a Critics Choice TV Award“Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series”, which she would definitely deserve. The Emmys will air September 18 on FOX.
As some of you may already know, I am a fan of the TV show Glee. It has been a favorite of mine since it first aired in 2009. However, in a recently publicized article by MTV, I learned that one of my favorite musicians denied his band’s music to the hit TV show.
Dave Grohl has been the in the band the Foo Fighters since July of 1996. Before that, he was the drummer for my favorite band of all time, Nirvana. I have always enjoyed Dave Grohl’s musical endeavors. He is extremely successful, and deservingly so.
For those of you with the inability to hear or see anything, Glee is one of Fox’s number one shows right now. It follows a group of teenagers, some outcasts and some jocks, while they prepare for singing competitions. The show also follows the personal lives of the Glee Instructor, as well as the Cheerleading Coach and other faculty. I’m sure that is all you want to read about Glee.
Glee creator Ryan Murphy reportedly got angry after Dave Grohl denied the use of Foo Fighters songs on the show. At that point, Grohl came to the defense of his band as well as fellow rockers Slash and Kings of Leon. Murphy called Slash a “washed up old rock star” when he made it clear he didn’t want the teens of Glee doing Guns N Roses music, claiming he “hates musicals”.
“F**k you, Kings of Leon. They’re self-centered assholes, and they missed the big picture. They missed that a 7-year-old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song, which will maybe make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument.”
Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill fired back via Twitter:
“Dear Ryan Murphy, let it go. See a therapist, get a manicure, buy a new bra. Zip your lip and focus on educating 7yr olds how to say f**k.”
To which Murphy responded:
“Just read Nathan Followill’s Tweet…in which he implied I should ‘get a manicure and buy a bra.’ Wow. That’s a homophobe badly in need of some education. I’m all for manicures, don’t wear a bra. Would guess most gay dudes don’t. But it’s telling that Nathan can reduce a group of people to a mean-spirited cliché, in a time where young gay men are killing themselves all over the country because of hatred like this.”
Kings of Leon
I can understand these artists’ frustration with the situation when the show’s creator is making rude comments about them, but it does seem a bit dramatic for men who are out of high school. Furthermore, because of Murphy’s reaction to the band’s decision to keep their hit “Use Somebody” off of Glee, and all that transpired after, an open statement from the entire band was released. It stated that they have a new album coming out and that they did not want to promote Use Somebody right then.
Grohl was also quoted by Hollywood Reporter saying that it is every band’s right to choose whether or not to let a show use their music:
“And then the guy who created Glee is so offended that we’re not, like, begging to be on his fuc***g show. F**k that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.”
Recently, former SNL star Victoria Jackson made wildly homophobic comments about a long anticipated kiss between two gay teenaged boys on the show. I have decided not to go into this, since she hasn’t done anything important since 1992 when she left SNL and began her career as a tea party activist BLAH BLAH BLAH NO ONE TAKES HER SERIOUSLY!
Dave Grohl has been the only artist so far to take the aggressive stand, and say PISS OFF RYAN MURPHY for your holier than thou attitude. I applaud that, but as a fan of Glee I am disappointed that I will not hear their songs sung by my favorite teen gays.
[Ed – Michelle can like Glee all she wants, I’m still convinced there are only 3 reasons for straight dudes to watch Glee…
Grizzly Bomb 