Author: trishthedish

Setting the Mood – Part 2, The Comedies Strike Back

Comedies usually get the short stick when it comes to accolades, so as the funny shows are my go-to drug of choice I must give props to a few gems that have wonderful opening title sequences.

Top of the list is dearly departed Arrested Development. As the years go by it ticks higher and higher on many a list of greatest comedic series in television history, and rightly so. Even upon watching episodes for the dozenth time, the well-executed deliveries still make me laugh until it hurts and with the multi-layered writing and rapid-fire dialogue I’m continually catching new jokes. The opening credits are as fast-paced, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it amusing as every episode.

And speaking of departed, Dead Like Me was a fantastic short-lived series on Showtime from the mind of Bryan Fuller, creator of another fantastic short-lived series ABC’s Pushing Daisies (I wonder if he’s ever thought of shying away from the death-themed shows, seems almost a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point), where a young girl finds her untimely demise to be just the beginning of her life as she takes on the role of grim reaper, with a catch – she must continue to “live” in the world of the living, even holding down a temp job in order to pay for food and rent. The tongue-in-cheek premise is represented in its opening titles with a montage of death walking, working and riding the bus amongst us.

The opening for Weeds has an interesting history. In its first three years it had a full-length title sequence featuring theme song “Little Houses” and images that poke fun at how the cookie-cutter suburban life can be mind-numbingly repetitive.

As the show’s main character Nancy Botwin evolved away from subdivisions and soccer games, so has the title sequence. Nearing the end of its fifth season, each show has opened with a brief animated title card for the last two years, unaccompanied by music and only minor sound effects, the image pertains to something found within that particular episode.

 Weeds episode title card

Couture from the stores department

“Don’t bore Nina!”

Project Runway Season 6

It’s been far too long since last we visited with Klum, Kors and the rest of the Project Runway family, but thankfully the sticky litigation betwixt PR‘s EPs (that’s executive producers in H’woodese) the Brothers Weinstein and NBC Universal has been settled and fashion fans are breathing a collective sigh of relief as the sixth season will premiere tomorrow on its new home, Lifetime.

“Television for Women” is setting its cycles of chic apart from the first five “by Bravo” seasons most notably through inclusion of the new “Models of the Runway” half-hour following every episode, b/c as guru Gunn tells us “Models, this is a competition for you too.” With only 30 minutes to showcase the catwalkers I suspect we won’t be getting any juicy challenges that create the designer drama, but God willing we may get walk-offs here or there, although any head-to-head now pales in comparison after RuPaul re-worked it.

The new season airs every Thursday starting August 20th on Lifetime 10pm/9pm Eastern&Pacific/Central.

Welcome back, hot tranny mess (that’s a good thing, right?)

Vodpod videos no longer available.  

Setting the Mood, or The Art of a Title Sequence

A sucker for a good awards show – although they quite often leave me underwhelmed well before the final winner is announced – the Emmys will kick off the season in September with golden bar standard, and personal fave, 30 Rock leading the nominee pack (record-setting 22 for a comedy series – who says women aren’t funny!?) and while anxiously anticipating how many statues Fey & Co walk away with, the real category of intrigue is one that I, admitting with great shame, had no idea was even a part of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences – Outstanding Main Title Design.

Perhaps this is one of the “technical” (aka, snooze-worthy-so-let’s-sex-it-up-with-this-year’s-It-starlet-announcing-the-winners) awards they give away prior to a telecast, but please TV Academy let’s give some primetime credit where credit is due to a category with an amazing history of well-deserved winners, most recently last year’s Mad Men.

Its return with the third season premiere on Sunday reminded me how a brilliantly-executed title sequence can immediately capture the mood of show. Here the orchestral, Hitchcockian music and style/color design and most poignantly the use of a faceless man endlessly falling Vertigo-style through era-specific advertisements that feature a bevy of scantily-clad women, tumblers of drinks and a final image of the “perfect” nuclear family that sets the stage for vice-indulging, secret-keeping ’60s family/ladies/ad man Don Draper. Those MADison Avenue men are proud.

Being a research-loving fact-finder, I’ve discovered that the Main Title Design’s category inception was in ’97 and since then the Academy has bestowed wins to a number of shows that top my personal list of favorite opening sequences (yes, such a list does exist along with favorite font — for the record give me something in a serif any day). In 2002 a little network called HBO received its first win in this category with Six Feet Under.

Haunting theme music from Thomas Newman and artful images (love those chiaroscuro hands) that highlight preparation for one’s eternal dirtnap (thank you HBO for showing me the embalming process) encompasses the juxtaposition of beauty and decay found in death, and life, that the series so adeptly captured.

For a series focusing on the cause in addition to the effects of death, Showtime’s Dexter has a title sequence befitting its dark yet playful world — turning the mundane, morning routine of cop and serial killer Dexter Morgan (the amazing Michael C. Hall’s 180 degree turn in character from his David Fisher on Six Feet Under) into a menacing montage.

Finally, jumping back to HBO/Alan Ball collaborations and the jewel of this year’s Title Design noms, True Blood‘s opening sequence is an amalgam of dirty, swampy, sexy, fire-and-brimstone imagery coupled with twangy rockabilly song “Bad Things” (by Jace Everett, a decent alternative to Chris Isaak) that encapsulates the soapy, southern gothic nature of the supernatural saga.

See the complete list of this year’s Emmy nominees here .

Vampires are the New Black

Personally I never lost faith in the phrase “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” While the loss of seminal shows The Sopranos and Sex and the City in 2006 and 2004, respectively, seemed to create doubt that HBO could keep the “groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed, smash hit” original programming train rolling along, they’ve hit another one out of the park this past year with my, and many other fan(g)s, newest obsession True Blood.

Steering away from the heavy, dramatic themes of his first HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball’s latest is treading neck-high in the blood-soaked waters of the vampire mythos. Pulling from Charlaine Harris’s sudsy, southern gothic series of books and riding the waves of that other supernatural sensation concerning creatures of the night (who walk around during the day — really?) TB is leading the way in making HBO’s Sunday night line-up appointment TV and Monday morning watercooler talk again. In its second season premiere, TB received ratings that had not been seen on HBO since The Sopranos series finale, and continues to keep viewers hungry for more with nail-biting, jaw-dropping cliffhangers every week.

With vampires all the rage it’s not surprising the network that gave us a girl with all the gossip and a rebirth of the most well-known zip code in the country would follow the trend with their own adaptation of a living dead novel series as this fall The CW gives us the toothy(less?) Vampire Diaries.

Not to naysay on themes/storylines I find myself inherently mesmerized by — thank you Joss Whedon for giving me snarky vamps and wry werewolves — but try as they may The CW has not yet turned me to the dark side with its oh my guilty pleasure Gossip Girl or the resurrection of Kelly & Brenda on the new 90210. On this track record and seeing theTwilight re-hash sneak peeks I find myself incredulously investigating what appears less like a delicious spin on blood-sucking fiends and more a cliched weekly appeasement to Twi-hard tweens looking to tide themselves over until said movie series is back at their local multi-plex.

Make every effort to catch up on True Blood if you haven’t already been bitten – season 1 now available on DVD and iTunes, all previously-aired season 2 episodes now playing on HBO On Demand and new episodes every Sunday at 9PM Eastern/8PM Central until September. Jury’s still out on any tune-in worthiness of Vampire Diaries.

Throw Away Your Televisions?

Bold statement, and catchy tune from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but not something I find myself considering anytime soon. Yes, I have an iPhone, laptop, iTunes and Netflix accounts which are all lousy with saved episodes/webisodes and have played a huge part in keeping me sane while traveling, but I have never entertained the idea that these secondary media platforms would eclipse catching my shows in their “same Bat-time, same Bat-channel” first run.

In our brave new world of expanding (or shrinking, with more people getting their entertainment yayas from palm-sized devices) media, it begs the question – is the basic act of sitting in a living room at a specific time and day to watch your favorite television program, the only option for half a century, dying? And what does that mean for shows now and in the future?

Considering the breadth of channel choice available on your cable or satellite provider there’s something for everyone, maybe too much for some, and growth in channel selection was just the first small step in TV program-viewing freedom. Now more than ever we’re working longer hours, involved in multiple activities and generally overscheduled that the idea of only being able to watch a show on someone else’s terms is out-dated at best, and if you’re a network exec short-sighted and cause for a pink slip at worst. DVR, my own personal blessing (or curse depending on how close it is to capacity), has become almost archaic with Hulu and network websites streaming episodes free for all immediately after they air, and freedom of choice abounds with the growing number of shows now offered on iTunes.

New media is the phrase du jour for the entertainment industry, and it has completely redefined how we approach watching television. Today you can have TV on your own terms and while I choose that big high-def screen in front of a cozy couch as my first line of attack, the convenience of online and downloadable episodes is a welcome back-up plan and recently a savior for some of my favorite shows missed because of ill-placed timeslots.

This site is dedicated to getting the word out about, and in praise of, TV – the good, the gone and the guilty pleasures. Tune in regularly to get news, commentary and reviews on the latest and greatest shows you should be watching — in whatever way works on your terms.