This week Tiny and I welcome our friend Greg Lenz (from We Are Libertarians) to review Steve Jobs, gush over Aaron Sorkin’s work, and draw parallels between this movie and The Social Network! In potpourri, I review Rick and Morty season 1 and indie drama Unexpected; Tiny talks about NBC drama Nashville; and Greg talks about his excitement for The Big Short and the Tarantino police boycott controversy. Continue reading →
I will be upfront here; I’m a bit out of my element with this post. I watched season 2 of The Newsroom in a vacuum, completely free from all internet chatter be it reviews or tweets. You can read my thoughts on the season itself in this week’s The Week in TV post. In this post, however, I would like to address something that surprised me.Continue reading →
Pilots are interesting beasts in the television world. They’re used to convince a studio to shell out more money for more episodes. In order to do that, a pilot needs to succeed on several more fronts of storytelling than any other single episode. A pilot needs to introduce the major characters of a series in an engaging, often standalone, story that will leave the audience clamoring for more.
Furthermore, a good pilot needs to rely on a strong cast to build a rapport in a short period of time. Writers working on pilots also have to gauge possible long-term onscreen relationships completely blind of actors’ chemistry. Because of these factors, I live by one steadfast television-viewing rule:
Never judge a show by its pilot.
But some series have such strong pilot episodes that you can and should judge them on the pilots. And so, here I have compiled a list of some of my favorite pilot episodes. They aren’t necessarily my favorite shows ever, and they aren’t exactly the best episodes of said shows. These episodes are just the most engaging series-starters that I’ve seen. They also introduce the characters and story arcs in a highly satisfying way.
You can click the episode titles in the list to buy them digitally on Amazon.
According to my records, it's been 10 years since I've seen Minority Report. It holds up well. Spielberg tackling Philip K Dick's universe is a pretty unique mixture. Though Spielberg's eye for more fun adventure-style action kind of gets in the way somewhat. The fist fight between Anderton and Witwer in the automobile factory and the jet […]
Dig the concept. But the execution is pretty haphazard. Atrocuously awkward visual effects, zero chemistry between Biel and Cage, and the plot is nonsensical at times. The nuclear threat feels very much shoehorned into the story in a "let's make it like 24" way. (Funny too, since Thomas Kretschmann played a villain in 24 season 2 - the one wit […]
Sure, I had a really hard time buying into Matt Damon as a "bad boy congressman", but there's something to the general aesthetic and dialogue that feels so appropriate for Philip K. Dick. I applaud the movie for that alone because PKD's writing style has such a surreal and lived-in feel to it that translating it to film is really difficul […]
I remember seeing this when it first came out and being really disappointed by it. Revisiting it now, I thought "it can't be that bad, right?" Then I saw that the Farrelly Brothers directed it and that confirmed for me that, yes, it can be that bad. And worse.It's repetitive, dumb, and much more juvenile than it needs to be. There's […]
I'm just realizing right now I might hate rainbows. Oh my God, me too. Let's just keep this really real and grounded.Wait. You guys do realize...sorry, rainbows are real.I am really surprised how charmed I was by Unicorn Store. This movie is a whimsical take on confronting adulthood and adult responsibilities when life crushes your soul and aspirat […]
