Netflix Snags the Rights to Fox’s “Gotham” Before One Episode Has Aired

I'm sure that after the recent success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, there are many out there eagerly anticipating the arrival of  for the prequel “Gotham” on the Fox Network.

Has it only been a year since the arrival of another movie based spinoff by the name of Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. was also delivered into the eager arms of Marvel fan boys one and all?  By the time the first season of Agents ended, it seems like most people have forgotten that it even existed.  The show everybody was talking about became the show nobody was talking about.  Agents of What?

But Netflix is betting that Gotham won't meet with the same fate. They have just paid Fox for the exclusive rights to stream the series.  Netflix chief, Ted Sarandos, says “it’s the most anticipated series of the new fall season”.  I suppose so, unless of course that means that the new lineup which begins this month is mediocre fodder from beginning to end.  By the end of the month, they’ll be dropping like flies.


So how much is Netflix paying for the privilege of streaming what they and Fox must believe is the greatest TV show ever?

Let me put it to you this way: They paid $2 million an episode to NBC for the privilege of bringing you "The Blacklist." You can also use this chart to determine how much Netflix is paying to produce original programming.


The Hollywood Reporter:

Under the deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution, the streaming service will get exclusive subscription video on demand rights for Gotham in the U.S., territories in which Netflix operates, as well as some additional territories. Seasons of the series will become available after their initial broadcast dates starting in fall 2015.

"Gotham is the most anticipated new series of the fall season and we are thrilled to offer it to our members around the world," said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos in a statement. "The Batman origin story is sure to have massive global appeal so it is fitting that, along with Warner Television, we have created a new model for distributing a show that international and domestic audiences will love."

Netflix declined to comment on how much it was paying for the rights. It recently paid a pretty penny for rights to NBC's The Blacklist, coughing up $2 million an episode for the series. Deadline first reported the news of the Gotham deal. Gotham, which takes place years before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, centers on the early days of James Gordon (Benjamin McKenzie), who in DC Comics lore eventually ascends to the position of Gotham police commissioner.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think streaming reruns of Gotham or The Blacklist for the amount of money they are undoubtedly paying, is good for subscribers. Eventually Netflix is going to raise its rates, and the content will start to grow lackluster in many other areas as the big money goes to a chosen few with not much left over for anything else. 

How many of the package deals will Netflix be able to sign up when their cash flow is tied up in a few single series?  I don't have the answer to that, but maybe Police Commissioner Gordon does. Ask him.  We'll wait and see.

What is my favorite Robin Williams film? The World According to Garp.

Robin Williams starred in some really good films over the years, offering up some wonderful performances.   But he also starred in many middle of the road films, and had his share of clunkers as well.

But even watching a movie like RV, I always felt that Williams gave it a 100 per cent effort regardless of the material he was working with.  Sometimes he was able to rise above it, sometimes not.

I’ve been asked several times over the past few days what my favorite Robin Williams film is and after considering all of his films that I have enjoyed, I always came back to the one I still find the most fascinating.  That would be The World According to Garp. 

I don't know why but this film often seems to be overlooked when talking about Robin William’s resume.  The rating for it at the IMDB is 7.2, and that's certainly nothing to sneeze at.  But what perplexes me is the attitude that Warner, who owns the rights seems to have towards it. 

Yes, you’ll repeatedly hear about Dead Poet’s Society, Mrs. Doubtfire or his academy award winning turn in Goodwill Hunting but seldom do people mention Garp these days.  It seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle, and there’s no reason for a film this well acted and this well made to be left for dead.

 

I had the film in my Netflix queue for well over a year in the number one spot.  It was on very long wait in the "expected availability" during that time and never budged or nudged upward to even just “long wait”.  Netflix should start a new category and call it "You'll Get it When Hell Freezes Over."  And checking now, I see it is no longer available and if you know anything at all about Netflix, that’s the end of that.

Warner, has relegated the film to it’s Burn On Demand DVD-R program which is sort of like the shit end of the DVD Stick.  When they do that, seeing a movie get a decent blu-ray release is practically nil. But, it’s better than nothing.

But Garp should have a blu-ray release with all the trimmings. If you've never seen it or read the book, there's a lot going on here.  So much so I wouldn't even begin to run through the plot with you but if you want to know just look up the synopsis on the internet where I'm sure you'll find it.  The film was released in 1982, and it came after the disastrous Robert Altman version of Popeye (which currently has no DVD release).  And the failure of Popeye has more to do with Altman’s insistence on doing his artsy fartsy shtick than anything Williams did.  The film was an incoherent clumsy bore.  (Caveat: Ebert gave Popeye *** 1/2 stars, but I don’t see it). But I’ll leave that criticism for another day.


Ebert gave Garp three stars and you can read his review here.  But those that have read Irving’s book and seen the film are just as likely to come away with a completely different interpretation.  The movie is a discovery of the unexpected, at times uplifting, but tragedy is always lurking around the corner. As  Ebert puts it, “Garp is bleak, but it has something to say.”

In some ways, the events of Garp do mirror the image we have of Robin Williams.  He has a strong will to overcome, but he cannot ignore the bleakness of humanity that surrounds and engulfs him.  Garp believes that life has much to offer, but when one tragic event leads to another, it’s as if he’s beating his head against the wall.  But he never succumbs to the cruel jokes played by destiny.

 

Could you imagine if this movie had been given a commentary track with Williams, Lithgow, and Glenn Close?  Lithgow was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award as transsexual ex-football player Roberta Muldoon.  And Glenn Close was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award as Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields. 

But Warner please take note:  As I write, every single one of Williams films on blu-ray is now on back order from Amazon.  This film deserves to be yanked out of the forgotten pile and placed front and center. Many people believe that Good Morning, Vietnam was his first good film. A few Altman devotees believe it was Popeye.   It’s too bad that Garp came immediately after Popeye, and five years and a few other forgettably bad films before his shining moment as Adrian Cronauer.  This terrific film has just been lost in the shuffle.
You can purchase the DVD-R either through the Warner Archives Store where I got mine just a few weeks ago when they were having a sale or through Amazon.  But it's the same DVD-R disc.

Or, you can buy it digitally through Amazon for $7.88 so if you have a way to view it that way, that might be your best bet since it's HD.

There comes a moment just as the funeral of Garp’s grandfather (Hume Cronyn whom along with Jessica Tandy as the Grandmother are terrific in small roles) is ending, and immediately before we transition from the years of Young Garp (wonderfully played by James McCall) to the adult Garp played by Williams.  And in a way, besides summing up Irving’s Garp, it may have foretold Williams own life.

Young Garp (to his mother Jenny Fields):  Now you don’t have a father either.
Jenny: I know.  Everybody dies.  My parents died.  Your Father died.  Everybody dies.  I’m going to die too.  So will you.  The thing is to have a life before we die.  It can be a real adventure, having a life.

On the outside, Williams always seemed to be living the adventure, bringing joy and touching the lives of so many.  But it was never enough to placate those demons that haunted him throughout his life.  And because of that, the world will forever be a sadder place.  Because as Jenny said, everybody dies.  Sometimes, way too soon.

Why Cable Monopolies and Internet Monopolies Continue to Suck the Life out of and Hold Their U.S. Customers Hostage.

Our designated cable company where I live is Brighthouse.  Brighthouse is in fact owned by Time Warner but operated by another company thanks to some fancy stock dealing.  In other words you can take it to the bank that when push comes to shove, in the end you’re still dealing with Time Warner. 

In my area where I live, the only way that Brighthouse keeps from losing customers is by bundling internet with TV and phone to make it look like you're getting a really good deal by combining the three.  That may be true if you can harangue them into a short trial installation such as those given by the Satellite companies, but after that expires they really put the screws to you and the deal is no deal at all.  But they figure you’ll put up with it because it’s cheaper then switching to Satellite for TV, and your phone service by another carrier, because they also know if you want any decent internet speed at all, you have no choice in the matter.

By the time I dumped Brighthouse, my bundled services were close to $200 a month.  The only pay channel I carried was Showtime because Audrey likes Dexter, Shameless, Californication, and some other Showtime stuff.  I also carried a smaller $6 package that included Encore and a few other lesser channels.   Well, it was supposed to be six dollars.

I had already made up my mind to try and get the bill down to a more reasonable figure.  We didn’t really need the phone service.  Everybody in this house has a cell phone so there was no real point to having it.  But when I told the Brighthouse representative I wanted to cut off just the phone service, the bill only went down about six bucks, even though the monthly statement always showed the phone service as being $30.  It’s called Monopoly math I guess.

When I said I wanted to get rid of the small encore package, the total price went up  because well, you see, I had been getting a deal and now I wasn’t.  It’s total bullshit nonsense designed entirely to discourage people from moving on.  But I’m smarter than that. I told them to shove the whole thing up their ass except for the internet.  I would have told them to choke on that service as well if we had one decent alternative.  But we don’t.

In most areas of this particular region, if you want good internet speed you really only have one choice.  That's Brighthouse.  They have a monopoly for the most part, although in some places in Bakersfield you can get Cox. 

So if you unbundle, Brighthouse jacks up the price for internet to $60  or more.  $70 if you want the mid range service which you practically have to have for streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.  Well you do have a choice of the inconsistent slower speed if you don’t mind sitting and watching Netflix buffer the show you’re watching three or four times and hour.  The top tier will cost you even more.  Life is grand for big corporations with huge monopolies. 

The only internet alternative I have is AT&T who keeps sending us ads telling us that we can get fast internet service for the low “introductory” price of $14.99.  That "fast internet service" is in reality, "up to 3MBS".  In other words, forget streaming or doing much of anything besides browsing the internet.  Fine for a few, ridiculous for most.

This is after AT&T had promised the FCC that they would be providing better speeds in areas such as this.  That of course was total b.s.  It took them forever just to begin providing DSL service here at all.  I did use their service once, but that was before the days of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc.  As Google Fiber slowly works it’s way around the country, I’ll be cheering them up although it’s doubtful I’ll live long enough to see them finally give Brighthouse a run for their money.

But I still saved money.  I switched to Dish and for the first year,  even after paying Brighthouse their King’s Ransom for internet service, I saved quite a bit.  For the second year, I’m still saving about $30 a month over Brighthouse, and this is with a package that includes the same Showtime and Encore packages we had before.

Better yet, the new Dish Hopper beats anything Brighthouse has by leaps and bounds.  For instance, I no longer have to worry about setting up to record particular network shows from ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX in prime time.  It records all of them automatically.  Every single one.  And if you wait until the next day to watch a recorded show, it’ll skip the commercials for you on those programs as well.  Add a two terabyte external hard drive as I did, and you have more than enough room to record whatever you want.  Not that the space already provided didn’t do the job.  I had well over 500 shows recorded before getting the external hard drive and still had room left over.  But I wanted to keep a season’s worth of episodes on a few series so this arrangement just made that easier. 

On the downside, Dish is really not much different from the cable company despite it’s lower price.  You have to buy “packages” and often the networks you want to watch  are upper tier packages as this is what happened in my case.  Who knows what would happen if people were actually able to pay for only those networks they watched.  I could do away with well over 90 per cent of what I’m paying for.

Most of the smarter people I know have given up Brighthouse for either Dish or Direct TV.  In this area you don’t have to worry about storms, snow, or clouds or any of that other stuff that can cause Satellite reception to go haywire but from what I read that’s not as much of a problem as it was in the early days of Satellite TV.

If I had my own personal choice though, I would put a decent antenna system up on the roof and say goodbye to Dish as well.  We live far enough from any local stations that rabbit ears just don’t work.  We are also hindered by the fact that the signal sent out by the Bakersfield stations are terribly weak.

Two things hold me back.  Girlfriend Audrey watches a lot of shows, and second for health reasons I can no longer go climbing around on roofs and install an antenna system on my own.  And I can’t find anyone around here who does that kind of work anymore.

But I’ll look into it again and will see if I can’t talk the girlfriend into giving pay television the big kiss off when our Dish contract is up next year.  This is the last season for Dexter coming up so she won’t miss that.  Most of her other shows and a couple I watch, would be readily available with an antenna, although we would probably have to invest in our own DVR initially.  No big deal.  We’ll  still end up saving money over the space of a year. 

And one more word of advice if you have Brighthouse.  Don’t ever never be late paying your bill even by a few days because you somehow missed it, or just over looked it.  Why? 

Because they’ll send a guy around to hang a threatening notice on your door to let the whole world know you slipped up as if somehow you’re a dead beat because you didn’t get them their internet ransom demand in a timely fashion.  And then, they’ll charge you an extra $10 for having experienced the privilege of being shamed. 

I had this happen once.  When I called the lady at the company, she said this was their “new policy.”  In other words, another way to squeeze $10  more out of you.  I told her that their policy was a bunch of crap (I used stronger language) and that I had never ever come home and found a notice like that hanging on my door and I didn’t give a damn what their pathetic reasoning was, especially when I had been a customer for years and had never missed a single payment.  And if you think the $10 dollars goes to pay the guy for putting that crap on your door, think again.  Most of them live in your neighborhood or are working there anyway.  As a matter of fact, there’s a Brighthouse employee that lives two blocks from me.  I know this because the company truck is always parked in his driveway.

One thing for certain, when it comes to internet service, cable, or cell phone service, U.S. customers are screwed thanks to their representatives in congress constantly lining their pockets with a mountain of cash from these media giants and their continuing flow of highly paid lobbyists.  Overseas, internet connections are faster and a whole lot cheaper.  People in Europe would not tolerate shit like this, so why do we?

Take Me Out To The Ballgame – Turner Classic Movies Style

Monday, April 1st is the opening of the major league baseball season.  In actuality, the first game of the season is being played as I write, March 31, but I’ve always thought that particular Sunday Night Game Before Everybody Else Plays as a bullshit bush league move on the part of MLB and ESPN.  From the day they decided to pull that nonsense years ago, it pretty much crapped on one of baseballs time honored tradition.  That was, because they were the first professional team in existence, the Cincinnati Reds always had the honor of being the first team to open the season.  If their game started at one, all other games would usually start a tad later. 

This event is tantamount to being a holiday in Cincinnati.  They have a parade, there’s a lot of pre game hoopla,  and the local newscasts are taken over by the whole event as if Jerry Springer had just returned to town having been elected president.  Now, there’s a thought.

When I lived in Ohio, I made it a point to do my best to watch the event on television.  I never had a chance to be there in person, but I wish I had accomplished that feat at least once.  Despite the attempt by MLB and the almighty advertising dollars of ESPN to water it down, it’s still a big deal for the people of Cincy.  So the Astros's, the Rangers, Texas in general, MLB, and ESPN can go screw themselves.

I don’t follow baseball the same way that I once did.  I still keep track of the Reds and how they are doing by checking scores and the standings on occasion, but I couldn’t tell you too many names of the players on their roster or when was the last time I watched a complete game.  It’s not always been like that.

When I first moved out west, it was almost as if I hadn’t left the Reds behind.  Back in 2001 you could listen to the games for free on the internet by streaming from just about any radio station in the country and that included the Reds home of WLW in Cincinnati.

That didn’t last long and when MLB found out there was a buck to be made, that was the end of the freebies unless you did it illegally.  It’s not worth the trouble for me to bother. 

But all this accomplished as far as I was concerned was to make me less of a fan.  It was a cheapskate move on their part then and still is.  Charge all you want to for streaming video of the games.  I don’t care, because I won’t be paying.  But taking away the audio streaming rights from local stations was a pure b.s. move and I still feel the same way.

Turner Classic Movies is having their own celebration by broadcasting seven very classic almost forgotten baseball films.  All except one in living high definition black and white.  And I’m sure some of you will find them infinitely more entertaining than watching your team get their ass kicked over the course of 168 games again.  I won’t mention names.

You won’t see The Natural here, nor Field of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, Eight Men Out or even Bang The Drum Slowly.  Nor such idiotic worthless crap as Little Big League or Rookie of the Year.  They showed Little Big League on my cross country flight once.  I gave thought to jumping out somewhere over the Grand Canyon.

The films you will be able to watch are as follows, with times being EDT.  Adjust accordingly for your own zone:

Of the films listed here, I am most familiar with the top three.  Of the others, the only one I have seen and know something about is Kill The Umpire.  

In that film, William Bendix plays a fanatical baseball fan named Bill Johnson who is forced to become an umpire to make a living because his love of the game interferes with his life.  Due to the fact that that he uses some eye drops on the day of his “tryout” game, he begins seeing double, so he makes every call twice.  The guy that does the umpire hiring thinks this is a pretty cool gimmick, hires him, and gives him the name “Two Call Johnson.” Later, he is nearly chased out of town when he makes a close call against the home team in a playoff game.  It’s harmless comical fluff and not a bad way to spend an hour and twenty eight minutes.

As for Fireman, Save My Child and Take Me Out To The Ballgame, I can’t recall having seen either one.  And since Take Me Out is a musical with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, I’m sure I would have remembered it especially since I still have Kill The Umpire planted in my memory circuits.  Why I never crossed paths with it, well your guess is as good as mine.  But now I feel compelled to so I will record it tomorrow.

I also know absolutely nothing about Fireman, Save My Child except that it sounds more like a public service announcement than a baseball film.  The

IMDB gives this synopsis:

Joe Grant is an inventor, fireman and baseball player in his small home town. He gets an offer to play in a big team, he hopes to get more money for his inventions. But he is invited to present his invention to a fire-extinguisher company at the same time when he is supposed to play. Will he be able to show the effectiveness of his invention and win the game ?

The film stars Joe E. Brown, who as Jack Lemmon’s boyfriend Osgood Fielding III, delivered what is considered the ultimate, funniest line ever to end a film.  That was for Some Like It Hot (1959).

For my money the unsung gems are the first three films listed.  I’ve seen all of them several times over the years.  I wrote a brief review of Angels in the Outfield when I rented it from Netflix and back when I attempted to do something new in that regards.  That project turned out to be way more time consuming than I thought it would and you can’t do a movie review justice in just a paragraph or two so I’ve had to dispense with it for now.  You just as well write, “I liked the film.  It was good” because that’s about what it amounts to.  You can get a zillion comments like that on Amazon and IMDB anyway, which is why I put out the effort to do more.  Also because I just like doing it.

Please don’t mistake this version which has the great Paul Douglas as manager of the Pirates with the totally insipid Disney remake that came along in 1994 and included super angel special effects and people flapping their arms like they are angel wings at an Anaheim Angels game.  Believe me, it is the simplicity that makes the 1951 version so much better. 

In The Kid From Left Field, Dan Dailey plays ex-major league ball player Larry “Pop” Cooper.  Pop works as a peanut vendor who is more interested in what is what is happening on the field more than pushing peanuts.  At the same time, he teaches his son everything he knows about the game and he knows quite a bit.  He has way more knowledge than the manager of the team for which he works, the Bisons.  Through a series of circumstances, Pops gets fired from his peanut paying peanut job, his son Christie (Billy Chapin) becomes the bat boy, and then manages to relay the information imparted to him by Dad to the Bison’s roster, thus turning them into a contending team.  Eventually, it is Christie who becomes manager even though Pop is the one pulling the strings.  This was also remade as a Gary Coleman TV vehicle.  (Or should I say an Arnold Jackson and Benson DuBois get together?)  Forget that one as well and watch this one.   

In the case of, It Happens Every Spring, I’ve seen it many times.  In fact, I have a digital copy of it on my computer which I recorded on VHS off Cinemax years ago.  I transferred it onto my hard drive so that I could write a review that I still haven’t gotten around to.  I wrote one years ago for the IMDB, but most of my early reviews on there were a POS.  Now that it has returned to cable, I wish I hadn’t put it off.

The film is available on Amazon and from the Warner Archive Store on DVD.   I may wait until I can pick up a copy which hopefully is sooner rather than later.  But it’s a totally overlooked hilarious gimmick film, not acknowledged at all by Major League Baseball who views Professor Vernon’s  discovery as cheating.  Of course, there is no cheating in baseball, just steroids and an occasional spitter/greaseball.   The latter having been made into an art form by one Gaylord Perry.  Oh, and I guess Angels interfering in the field of play is okay too since MLB lent its license to that film.  Here is my plot synopsis from my original review:

 

Professor Vernon Simpson (Ray Milland) is a chemistry professor at a Midwestern college. He is in love with the Dean's daughter, Deborah Greenleaf (Jean Peters) and hoped that someday they would be married. College professor's salaries being what they were in the late forties, his only hope of being able to financially support Miss Greenleaf depended on an experiment he had devised that would one day change the world.

Like all normal American men of his day, Vernon gets caught up in the Rite of Spring better described as the opening of the baseball season.  He’s also  twitterpated by the Dean’s daughter as well so I guess the title does have a double meaning.

One day while in his lab working intently on his experiment, some of the young college students are outside practicing baseball. Unfortunately, an errant ball comes crashing through the window destroying the Professor's experiment and mixing his chemicals into a convoluted mess. Or so he thought.

While cleaning up the destroyed experiment, Vernon accidentally discovers that the mixture of chemicals left behind has the unique ability to resist wood. After testing the formula in his lab, he recruits the young college baseball players to scientifically examine the reaction of this chemical when applied to a baseball.Having acquiring enough data to prove to himself that when the formula is applied to a baseball, no hitter could touch it, Professor Simpson has no alternative but to offer his services to the St. Louis Team (you’re to take it for granted they are the Cardinals, although the Browns were also in existence at that time as well so choose one.  The Browns later became the Baltimore Orioles)  who are themselves in desperate need of pitching. Although skeptical at first, the owner of St. Louis gives Vernon a tryout in an attempt to embarrass him.  It is Vernon and his secret formula that teach the manager and the owner of St. Louis a thing or two, and they sign him to a contract that would pay Vernon $1,000 dollars for every game he wins.  A princely sum in those days I suspect.  At one point a newspaper shows that Vernon has won 38 games, and this is before the season is over and the world series where he pitches in at least another three.  If he were playing now, he would probably be paid at minimum, a million dollars a game.  Do the math.

If you can only catch one of these films, It Happens Every Spring should be the one. Paul Douglas is in this film as well, as a catcher who uses Vernon's formula as a hair tonic to hilarious results.  And if you can’t watch it, add it to your sports collection while you can.  Yeah, that’s a sales pitch. 

Have a great baseball season, hope your team does well, and in homage to Joe Nuxhall, a Cincinnati Reds broadcaster who should be in the Hall of Fame but isn’t, this is the old movie reviewer rounding third and heading for home.  Now go de-halo the Angels, Reds!

Random Thoughts: How I Met Your Mother - Redemption

I became a fan of How I Met Your Mother about a year ago, somewhere in the middle of Season 7.  But I had never seen it in the regular time slot it inhabits on CBS.  Just like I have done with shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Roswell, my girlfriend and I decided to give it a try and we streamed it on Netflix.  It didn’t take long for us to become hooked and we finished off the first six seasons in record time. 

The problem we ran into was that the network broadcasts of the series was in the middle of Season 7 and wasn’t available on Netflix Streaming at that time (it is now).   So the only choices we had were to begin watching Season 7 in the middle and catch up with the early seasons later on, or find some other way.  I opted for an alternative which was to purchase the complete season from Amazon. 

Yes, it was a bit pricey (just under $40 for HD) when you consider that I could have waited and watched it as part of my Netflix subscription later down the road.  But as I suspected, Season 7 didn’t become available until after Season 8, the current season, had already begun.  So I would be no better off.

I also might have been able to watch over the internet at the CBS web site, but that would have meant watching from my computer (ugh) and I believe they only keep up about four episodes at a time.  Can’t have people tuning out and missing the commercials although the CBS stream is not exactly light in that department either.  (5 commercials during each break).

And besides, despite what I had heard in some quarters, season 7 was for me at least, very satisfying.  Sure there were some clunky episodes, but when you have 24 episodes to get on the air, there are going to be a few rhinestones tossed in there along with the rubies, diamonds, and emeralds.

It was originally thought that Season 8 would be the swan song for How I Met Your Mother and that we would finally get to meet the mystery lady.   There certainly have been enough hints thrown in as to where, when, and how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) would finally meet the girl of his dreams.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the finale.  I was not the only one who had become hooked.  It seems that thanks to Netflix, many people like myself who had never seen the show became fans and the series experienced an unprecedented ratings boost unheard of for a show in it’s seventh season.  So negotiations were done, the actors signed on for one more round, and yes Virginia there will be a Season Nine.

However, not everything has been puppies and flowers.  The series and the premise began to look tired.  Unlike the previous seasons, there seem to be way more forgettable clunkers this season than memorable gems.  The first two episodes were certainly okay (Farhampton & The Prenup), but the two that followed were abysmal by comparison (Nannies and Who Wants To Be A Godparent). 

Honestly, I’ve found just about all the Mickey Aldrin (Chris Elliott) episodes to be more annoying than funny.  And it was becoming apparent that the episodes centering around Baby Marvin just weren’t cutting it either which is what happens sometimes when you have to introduce a kid into a series.  It gums up the works with baby poop jokes and sleepless parents.  Poor Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lilly (Alyson Hannigan). 

The Autumn of Breakups episode was fine, but hampered by Ted (Neil Patrick Harris) and his bro dog.  Or should I say Ted and his Bore Dog.  Splitsville would have been a terrific episode, but was dragged down again by the whole Marshall/Lilly/Marvin dilemma in which they were  unable to get some private time for sex.  Another episode dealt with Marvin having constipation.  Another episode had Ted witnessing Marvin’s first steps instead of Marshall and Lily.  What a drag. 

Then there was all the time spent getting to the mid-season finale The Final Page which included a guest appearance by Buffy alumni Seth Greene.  As usual, good guy Ted ends up with the short end of the stick.  And I’ll be honest.  I dearly love both Barney and Robin (Coby Smulders), but I’ve never really bought into the whole Barney/Robin  on again off again on again romance.  It just doesn’t work for me.  And the fact that Barney had to use every evil trick of deception in the book before proposing to her only added to my conviction.  But there is still a glimmer of hope that these two will never make it down the aisle together.  They just work better as separate entities.  Maybe something will change my mind although the possibility seems remote at this junction. But maybe the whole point is mute what with Season 9 wrapping things up next year.

Robin Sparkles did return, but the less said about that the better.  It was funny the first three times, but this is proof positive that too much is too much.  They should have learned that with the very disappointing reveal of Slutty Pumpkin in Season 7 which was nothing more than an excuse to find a way to use Katie Holmes.  After having heard about Slutty Pumpkin forever, that episode was a major disappointment, but not quite as bad as Robin Sparkles fourth time around.

Marshall’s mom Judy (Suzie Plakson) having sex with Mickey?  Even the thought was sickening.  It was also way out of character for everything we have come to understand about Marshall’s mom and his family in the few episodes she’s been mentioned in or made an appearance.

But the worst part of the whole season, and perhaps the low point of the series?  Ted’s overly obsessed and loony tunes girlfriend, Jeanette Peterson (Abby Elliott).  None of this relationship was remotely funny.  Not one single second of it.  Worse, it was downright painful to watch.  I wanted to throw something at the TV.

For anybody who has witnessed a basket case like Jeanette, or knows somebody who has been in a relationship with a bi-polar maniacal partner, they’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.  Worse yet, as destructive as this character was, Ted broke up and went back with her because despite everything she had done, the sex was good.  Give me a break.  My opinion is that the Jeanette story should never ever see the light of day again.  It’s one thing to make a funny over obsessed girl friend character, it’s quite another to turn her into a violent and dangerous felon with maniacal tendencies. 

“The Ashtray”, which brought back the Captain for no particularly good reason, “Weekend at Barney’s”, and “The Fortress” were not much better.  I was at the point where I didn’t even feel compelled to watch any episodes with the immediacy I once did.  If you’re going to bring back the Captain, wouldn’t you bring back his daughter Zoey?  Certainly that would have been far more interesting.  Okay, so maybe Jennifer Morrison, the actress who played Zoey, is busy on the set of Once Upon A Time.  Get another actress.  It’s been done before.

Then came this past Monday’s episode (3/25/2013), The Time Travelers.  This episode did not exactly start with a bang.  The whole premise centered around Ted and Barney being visited by their future selves to convince Ted to go to Wrestlers vs. Robots, with a silly sub plot added of Carl the Bartender naming a drink that Marshall had invented, calling it the “Robin Sherbatsky.”
For 3/4 of the running time, the episode not only seemed to be going nowhere, as they added Barney from 20 years in the future, Ted from 20 years into the future, 20 hours from now Barney, 20 hours from now Ted, and topped off with 20 minutes from now Barney, it appeared to be approaching total lunacy and not in a funny way.  I was ready to give up and turn in my How I Met Your Mother Fan Club membership.  But, in the last five minutes of the episode, the whole mess was brought together as if someone had shined a light from above and said enough with this b.s. 
What initially appeared to be another writing disaster, the hat check girl appears, the episode took a 180 degree turn, and I was reminded as to why I totally love this show and how the memorable moments, even the small ones, can wash away the bad taste of all the Jeanette episodes.


And in those five precious moments, we learned more about Ted’s future wife than we had in some entire seasons.

But even more, we found out how much he really will love her, forever and always.   And it is another great example of Josh Radnor’s talent, and why he is perfect as Ted.  He has never been given enough credit for his contributions.  In those five minutes, How I Met Your Mother had redeemed itself for the entire season.

If you haven’t seen the episode, I won’t spoil it for you but if you have given up as I almost did, try again.  By my calculations, there are about 4 episodes left until we get to the Ted and Robin’s wedding episode (or episodes if it’s a two part episode), where we might possibly get to meet the future Mrs. Ted Mosby for the very first time.  I hope so.  I’ll be sure to report back here with my thoughts on it when it happens or maybe even before that.

They’ll Be Back: Cast signs on the dotted line. How I Met Your Mother Goes for Season Nine

If it weren’t for Netflix, I never would have watched a single episode of How I Met Your Mother.  But since Netflix gives you the opportunity to watch past seasons in their entirety, I decided to give it a try and was hooked instantly.  In no time my girlfriend and I had gone through six entire seasons, and then caught up with Season Seven by purchasing it on Amazon Digital.  Since then, Season Seven has been added to Netflix.  We’ve been watching Season Eight episodes as they air. 

But I’m not sure how I feel about a ninth season.  How long can you drag this out?  If we meet the mother of Ted’s children at the end of this season, it could possibly open a whole new ball of wax for the final season.  If we don’t, then it could end up an exercise in tedium.  However, I am anxiously waiting to find out what disaster takes place at Barney’s and Robin’s wedding.  If you’ve never watched the show, and unless you catch it on Netflix, you won’t care either way.

From Hollywood Reporter:

How I Met Your Mother, currently in its eighth season on CBS, is nearing a deal for a ninth and most likely final run to air during the 2013-14 season. News of a pickup was announced with a Saturday tweet from the series' production account, but The Hollywood Reporter has since learned that the green light most likely won't come until after the Christmas holiday weekend. Representatives from the network and 20th Century Fox Television declined to comment.

This comes after months of co-creators and co-showrunners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays saying that they were approaching the series' natural end.

Amazon Adds More Content For Free Streaming with Amazon Prime

Amazon has announced that they will be adding some more Fox and PBS shows to their free instant streaming.  It appears they are the ones who may eventually be giving Netflix a run for their money.  After all they are cheaper.  At $79 a year, that’s less than $7 dollars a month plus you get the bonus of two day free shipping with everything you buy.  In my case, I buy a lot and have had nothing but satisfaction with Amazon.  In fact, everybody in this household now heads to Amazon to shop before even thinking about heading out to the department stores or malls.

I still have both streaming services, but I don’t know how long that will last.  When Amazon Prime comes up for renewal, I will probably dump Netflix streaming and just do some discs with them.  As it is now I have access to more movies than I could ever possibly watch.  There are all kinds of devices out there that stream Amazon.  I have three even without my computers:  A Roku Player, A Sony Blu-ray player, and my Vizio Blu-ray which cost me only $88 dollars and I couldn’t be happier with it.  And oh yeah, if you want to watch a more recent movie you can rent it from Amazon as well or buy a digital copy that you won’t have to store and will always be available to watch.  You can do that without even having Prime, as long as you have an Amazon account.  Anyway, here’s the Amazon announcement.