Celebrity Apprentice

I don’t know why I thought that this stupid, idiotic, pointless, show was finished.  Going over the television listings, I see it is still with us proving once again that there are literally millions of brainless vacuum brained people out there who would watch a squirrel eat nuts if you put it on top of someone’s head.  Any hope I had for mankind left the building a long time ago, and a seventh season of Celebrity Apprentice won’t bring it back.

C’mon people, quit being The Stupid.

A Vegas Musical Based on Dork Dynasty? Hold Your Nose.

Las Vegas is going to become a less pleasant place to visit.  Anybody who would spend money to see a play based on these bigoted disgusting holier than thou bearded shitheads  really really need to take a lesson in lifting up their self esteem.  Why punish yourself?

Better that you do something useful like put that money into a slot or playing the roulette wheel.  The only thing you'll get from watch this over glorified crap is the need to immediately head to your hotel room and take a shower to wash off the stench. 

Forget that.  The putrid stink of this endeavor is liable to blanket the entire West.  Keep it up, Uhmer’ca.  Soon, we can go back to living in the age of Neanderthal Man.

So how much are they going to white wash these bigoted homphobic jerks?  Probably a lot.

Variety:

“We’ve enjoyed the process of making a musical alongside the team who is interested in telling the Robertson family story from an outside perspective,” Willie Robertson, chief executive of the Robertson company Duck Commander, told the Times.

“The Robertsons are so unusual, their story so juicy, and theater shouldn’t be limited to telling stories about people you resemble or revere,” said David.

Jeff Calhoun (“Newsies”) serves as the musical’s director, according to the Times, and Steven Morris is a composer.

The news comes nearly a year after the family drew massive criticism — as well as support — for Phil Robertson’s anti-gay comments, made in an interview with GQ in December 2013. A&E suspended him after the remarks went public, though it ended the suspension later that month.

The only good thing about this is inspired me to come up with a new label for stuff like this. File this project under totally worthless crap.

Still Real After All These Years: The Real McCoys

 

I found out today that the final two seasons of The Real McCoys went on sale in August.  I also found out that they are sold out already.  Why did I just now find out about this Amazon, when you have a record of me buying the other four seasons?  Isn’t your “recommendations” supposed to be the best system on the internet?

So I just checked again, and they now say available in 5 to 11 days.  I guess that’s narrowing it down, right Mr. McFeely’s Speedy Delivery?

Season Six would be a curiosity piece at best since that was the year they killed off Kate and shipped the kids out, thus totally wrecking the show.  Even in the sixties TV Executives were a bunch of know-it-all dumbasses.  Decades later, and nothing has changed.  But I still want it, because I always like to complete a set of my Classic Series when possible. 

If you are unfamiliar with the series, as I’m sure many of you are Read On.

From Wikipedia, my favorite source of infallible information:

The Real McCoys revolves around the lives of a mountain family who originally hailed from fictional Smokey Corners, West Virginia. The McCoys moved to California and became dirt farmers.

The family consisted of Grandpa Amos McCoy (Walter Brennan); his grandson Luke (Richard Crenna), Luke's new bride Kate (Kathy Nolan), Luke's teenage sister Hassie (Lydia Reed), and his 11-year-old brother, Little Luke (Michael Winkelman).



The double-naming of the brothers was explained in the first episode by the elder Luke: Because their parents were so excited over the birth of the younger boy, "they forgot all about me!" Only Crenna was in every episode.



The McCoys' farm had previously been owned by an uncle, Ben McCoy, who died. The former West Virginians joined the Grange farm association and acquired a Mexican farm hand named Pepino Garcia, played by the Puerto Rican-born Tony Martinez.

In the episode which aired on January 8, 1962, Pepino becomes an American citizen and takes the surname name "McCoy".

The McMichaels, a brother and sister combination played by Andy Clyde and Madge Blake in twenty-nine and twenty-one episodes, respectively, lived on the hill not far from the McCoys. Amos McCoy and George MacMichael, both rather devious individuals, would sometimes quarrel, particularly over their games of checkers.



Kate was friendly with Flora McMichael, George's sister, and became involved with life in the community. Though still in her twenties, Kate served as a mother figure for Luke's younger siblings, Hassie and Little Luke, and one episode shows her bewilderment in trying to entice the children to take responsibility for their school studies.

Many episodes have a moral theme consistent with the conservative views of Walter Brennan, such as two 1957 segments entitled "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" with Joseph Kearns, later of Dennis the Menace, and "Gambling Is a Sin," in which Amos allows a casino to advertise on McCoy property before the ethics of the matter is brought to his attention.

Other such episodes are "Go Fight City Hall", "The Taxman Cometh," "You Can't Always Be a Hero", "You Never Get Too Old," "Where There's a Will", "Beware a Smart Woman", "Money in the Bank", "How to Win Friends," "You're As Young As You Feel", "Honesty Is the Best Policy", and "Never a Lender Be".

I must have them.  So hopefully they’ll still be around come next pay day.  Season Two, after having been out of print for a while is now available with the same waiting period.  Season One is still showing “not available.”  But I suspect they may finally reissue it because the price gougers who were charging over $100 and they are nowhere to be found.

I highly recommend the series because after watching the first four seasons, I found them to be much more entertaining then I remember from back when I was five or six or eight or whatever it was.  Meaning, I didn’t really remember a damn thing about them except for the “divining rod” episode which is mentioned in the Wikipedia article.

And if nothing else, it is my honest opinion that Kate McCoy (Kathleen Nolan) was the hottest farm wife to ever grace your TV screen and that’s reason enough to own this set.  I’m sure you’ll agree.



Of the original cast, only Kathy Nolan and Lydia Reed survive.  Brennan died in 1974 at the age of 80, Crenna passed away in 2003 at age 76, and Tony Martinez in 2002 in Las Vegas at age 82.  Michael Winkelman, who also served in Veitenam, would die at the age of 53 in Riverside, California.

Anyway, if you’re familiar or curious, you might invest in at least a season or two because don’t count on them coming back if they disappear this time.  I’ve been waiting about five years or so for these final seasons so that should give you a clue.  And you won’t be shortchanged.  Although the price may seem steep, remember there were 30 episodes or more in a season in those days.  Plenty of entertainment in that deal.  Use the picture of the DVD set at the top of the page for a link.

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.

Cloud Files Hacked, Nude Photos Appear of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and others.

One of the actresses, initially denied the pictures were of her.  That's the worst thing you can do.  It's like trying to hide the fact that you did something wrong.

None of these ladies did anything wrong.  Should they have been more careful in regards to where they put these?  It's hard to say.

I keep files in the cloud, but not anything anybody would really care about or bother with. 

But a person should expect a certain amount of privacy, security, and safety from companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon.  And if they can't provide that privacy and protection, then it's best to use some common sense and discretion in regards to what you keep in the cloud.

As I mentioned earlier though, with these companies offering free cloud service for photographs, you may not even know that your private pictures are being uploaded if you accidentally authorized the service or did it without knowing what you were agreeing to.

Variety:

Nude photos of “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Ariana Grande and Kirsten Dunst, among others, leaked online Sunday morning in one of the biggest celebrity hacking scandals in recent memory. The images, which first appeared on image sharing site 4chan, show most of the celebrities nude or in provocative poses. A spokesperson for Lawrence confirmed the images were of the Oscar-winning actress and blasted the hackers for their “flagrant violation of privacy.” “The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,” her representative warned.

So, a developing story. What makes this different is the fact that so many accounts were hacked and exposed, and if they were all kept by the same service, be it Apple or whomever, it will not be good for them. My advice: As soon as it is confirmed which company was hacked, I'd find other places to put my files and cancel the account. And remember: Don't put any personal information be it pictures or documents in the cloud. Use an external hard drive.

Will Greatest American Hero Rise From The Dead?

The Greatest American hero was a show that ran on ABC from 1981 to 1983. It was initially quite popular but its growth was stunted when the usual network meddling sealed its doom. 

ABC moved it around in the schedule so often during its final season that it should have had a travel Visa.

Now Fox is considering reviving it. And with the right cast members it just might work. But we'll take a wait and see attitude as to whether it even gets done.  This has been talked about before in one form or another and nothing ever came of it.

I love the original series myself and own it on DVD. You can now buy it at a much much lower price than what I paid for it on Amazon originally. Turn off your ad blocking use the inserted ad if you're interested.  I may make five or ten cents in the process, which would be the first commission I’ve made in months.

The show starred William Katt, whom you may remember as Carrie's doomed date at the prom.  He also costarred with his mother Barbara Hale as the son of Paul Drake in the Perry Mason movies. And besides Carrie, he costarred in the movie First Love with Susan Dey.  (Use the links to see what I had to say about those films.)

The show also starred Robert Culp and Connie Selleca.

From Variety:

“Hero” had a bumpy run starting as a midseason entry for ABC in March 1981.  But the show remains well-loved among TV buffs for its offbeat mix of comedy and fantasy. The original starred William Katt as a goofy high school teacher who has an alien encounter in the desert one night that leaves him in possession of a red jump suit that gives him superpowers including the ability to fly.

In short order, he loses the suit’s instruction manual and falls in with an FBI agent who persuades him to help fight crime despite his trouble in figuring out how to work the suit. Robert Culp nearly stole the show from Katt in the role of FBI agent Bill Maxwell in the original series — a character so out-there he would occasionally be seen eating dog biscuits straight from a Milkbone box, without generating any comment from other characters. Connie Sellecca, future co-star of ABC’s “Hotel,” played Katt’s sympathetic girlfriend.

“Hero” was known to have been one of the prolific Cannell’s favorite shows from his long run in TV. It marked the first series to get on the air after Cannell struck out as an independent producer following his long tenure at Universal Television, where he co-created the indelible “Rockford Files” and worked on many other shows. Fox took control of the Cannell Prods. library in 1997 with its purchase of New World Communications. (Cannell died in 2010.)

“Hero” yielded a hit record for singer Joey Scarbury with its theme song “Believe It or Not.” But as noted in “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present,” the series had the misfortune of giving Katt’s character, Ralph Hinkley, the same last name as John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan just two weeks after “Hero’s” premiere. The character’s name was hastily shortened to “Mr. H” in the classroom.

At one time there was talk of a theatrical feature based on the series but that never came about. Let's hope something comes of this. Let's also hope it's done as well as the original if it gets done at all. You know how these things go.  And like I said if you can catch the original please do so. You will be entertained.

The Variety article also talks about a possible remake of The Twilight Zone (again) and Remington Steele the show that launched the career of Pierce Brosnan. My thoughts? No, we don't need another rehash of the Rod Serling classic when the original is just that perfect. No, I don't care if they do Remington Steele or not.  I didn’t watch it then, I probably won’t watch it now.


There's also been talk this week of reviving Full House. Gag me with a maggot.

Cops Crew Member, Bryce Dion, Shot and Killed during taping of an episode in Omaha.

It's probably been years since I’ve watched an episode of Cops. Even in its heyday I was not a big fan of the show. Once you've seen two or three episodes you realize that the episode you're watching is just like the one you watched the week before and the week before that and the week before that etc. But that's the way it is with any reality show, whether it's American Idol, Survivor, The Bachelor, Honey-Boo-Boo, the Bigoted Dork Dynasty guys, or the latest episode of Fun in the Wilderness  brought to you by the Queen idiot of Alaska, Sarah Palin.  Reality shows? I'm just not that into you.

Cops has been on the air for over 20 years and has had its first fatality. No it wasn't one of the boys in blue, it was one of the crew members. As bad as this is when you remember that the show has been in production for that long and this is its first fatality, that's not a bad record.

There are a lot of dangerous professions in this country. I know this to be a fact from first-hand experience. Back in the days when I was working in convenience stores I was held up two different times. The fact that I'm here writing this means just one thing: that I and some of the people I were is working with during the second robbery were damn lucky. 

On the first robbery I was working by myself. Due to the stupidity of one of the thieves I accidentally caught a glimpse of his face. When they tied me up in the back room I thought for sure I was a goner.

It's amazing that people don't realize that many of these convenient store workers who get nothing but minimum wage are working one of the most dangerous jobs we have for very little money.
So was there some supreme being looking after me? No, it was just pure dumb luck that I survived. I could just as easily have been very dead.

What makes this even worse is that Mr. Dion was killed by friendly fire.   But once again you have to wonder, was 30 shots absolutely necessary?

From Deadline Hollywood:

Omaha police chief news conference: “This was a friendly-fire situation. It was an officer’s round that struck Mr. Dion,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said at a news conference that just wrapped, discussing the shooting death of Cops crew member Bryce Dion last night during police response to a robbery at a Wendy’s restaurant.

Cortez Washington, the robbery suspect, fired the first two shots and while his weapon was discovered to be an Airsoft pistol that does not fire bullets, Schmaderer said the shots produced a muzzle flash and sounded like actual gunshots to the police officers.

“Like I said earlier, his gun was an Airsoft gun and looked and sounded like it was real,” Schmaderer said. Schmaderer said the three officers who had entered the restaurant fired at Washington who ran out of the restaurant’s east door; Dion was in the east doorway and was hit. Dion was wearing a ballistic vest, but the bullet “came in under his left arm and slipped in between the vest, where there is an open area.”

Local media have reported 30 shots were fired by officers responding to the scene. Schmaderer declined to confirm that because, he said, “it is the subject of a grand jury investigation.” But he added the reporters “inference” is that the number of shots fired by the three police officers who went into the restaurant was excessive, “and I don’t believe it was.” He vehemently denied suggestions the hail of bullets suggests the police were showing off for the Cops camera.

“Any criticism is unmerited. The grand jury will see this video, and I’m confident they will come to same conclusion,” he said of the footage the Cops crew had shot at the scene, which he said has been turned over to authorities for the investigation. The three officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, Schmaderer said, adding that a grand jury has been convened with regard to the shooting.

Read the rest of the story by using the provided link.

Recapping Bates Motel Season 1

A few days before Season Two of Bates Motel debuts on A&E, I finally finished  watching Season One.  I’ve had the complete first season on my Dish Hopper since the show finished the first run of ten episodes last spring.  However, I opted for viewing on Netflix which was more seamless. 

Until a few weeks ago, I had only watched the first two episodes, not because I had no interest in continuing on, but life gets in the way sometimes.  So much to do so little time.  The question is, is the show really worth a second season?

Obviously A&E thinks so.  But then, A&E makes decisions that sometimes aren’t so hot and the fact that Norma, Norman, Dylan and the gang reside on that network is probably the worst thing about Bates. 

A&E is the Network that brought us the showcase for celebrating homophobia and racism known as Dork Dynasty.  The show that feeds into the brainless twats who love to hide their prejudices under the guise of religious freedom.

But Bates Motel is a scripted fictional show (so is Dork Dynasty, but they disguise it as reality) so no worries there unless one of the writers or stars do their own Gentleman’s Quarterly interview and say something  totally off the wall stupid like Phil “I Never Met a Black Man or Gay Man I Liked” Robertson.  I don’t see that happening though.  Once bitten, twice shy.

For those who may not have been watching, Bates Motel is a re-imagining of events that happened before Norman Bates sliced and diced Marion Crane in the Hitchcock classic Psycho.  By labeling it a re-imagining, and since it is fiction, the Producers, Directors, and it’s team of writers can do just about anything they damn well please with the whole she-bang, and that is exactly what they have done, purists and internet fan boys be damned.

In the very first episode, Norma and Norman take ownership of the now infamous Motel which has been relocated from Fairville, California to White Pine Bay, Oregon.  I guess it’s easier to make Canada where the series is filmed look more like Oregon than California.  Weather being the damn nuisance that it is.
The ownership of the Motel is a new start for the gruesome twosome after husband and father Sam Bates (David Cubitt) has been mysteriously killed in an accident that is not so accidental.  It’s a mystery that is cleared up halfway through the season, and one of the few that is.  Bates Motel asks a lot of questions, but like the series it’s modeled after, Twin Peaks, it answers damn little of them.  So take it any way you can get it.

Previous owner,  Keith Summers (W. Earl Brown) is none too happy about losing The Seafairer (the previous owners spelling, not mine) and the house overlooking it to a bank foreclosure and he wants it back.  And what better way is there to get the old homestead returned to the family fold than raping the new owner.  Yeah, it’s that kind of show, and from that extremely violent point on you can anticipate just about any plot manipulation possible and an outburst of bloody violence at any moment when you least expect it.

The Sheriff of White Pine, Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonelli), begins nosing around the Bates Motel along with deputy Zack Shelby (Mike Vogel).  There’s not much that goes on in Sheriff Alex’s town that he doesn’t know about.  And if by chance something escapes his attention, such as why Keith Summers parked his pickup truck in an unlikely place and just left it, Romero will find out why before gracing the windshield with a parking citation.  Deputy Dawg Zack does his own nosing around in his own special way as well, spending much of his time sniffing around Norma.  He’s much much friendlier towards her than Sheriff Romero is.  How much friendlier?  To put it bluntly, he goes in where Keith Summers has been except he doesn’t have to force entry to do so.  But he does have a secret tool that helps pry her pants off.  Shelby, just like practically everybody else has secrets of his own.Norman also meets his first real love interest in episode one, when Cystic Fibrosis stricken Emma Decody (Olivia Cooke) befriends him on his first day of school.  It’s pretty much a one way street on her part though as Norman only has eyes for Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz) whose father is mysteriously murdered.  I guess you can just go ahead and attach the word “mysterious” to anything that goes on in this neighborhood.  And although Norman is there when Bradley needs a shoulder to cry on, there’s a difference between being a “thing” and “hooking up” as Emma tries to explains to Norman, who isn’t very open to that explanation.  At least not until Bradley’s real boyfriend explains it to him in the season finale.

By episode two, Norma’s other son, Dylan (Max Thierot) takes up residency at the creepy famous house on the hill.  This is not an example of the Prodigal Son returning home to the welcoming arms of mother and brother.  Norma and Norman would just as soon  he be on his way, but the producers having invested in putting Thierot’s name on the opening credits, we’re pretty sure he’s not going anywhere for a while.

Dylan gets a job being a security guard.  Well, sort of.  He’s hired to protect the local marijuana crop which is also the main source of income for practically all the residents of White Pine, as it was for the former residents who keep showing up slightly dead.  He takes to the life of crime like a duck to water, which means he’ll fit right into the town of White Pine Bay.

English Teacher Miss. Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy), takes a special interest in Norman.  But not the kind of interest that Miss Landers showed for Beaver Cleaver and his classmates.  No, Miss Watson’s seems to have kind of a creepy way too much for her own good  kind of attraction towards Norman.  Think of her as being sort of like Norma without the shrillness and actually being sympathetic.  That being said, it’s never really spelled out for sure exactly what her thing is, and by the end of Season One, it’s one of those plot points that we are left wondering if it will ever be cleared up. It’s sort of like the whole is there or isn’t there some kind of incestuous relationship between Norma and Norman.  It’s never spelled out one way or another. It’s hinted at on more than one occasion, but either it’s a line the network, the producers, and the writers don’t seem to want to cross openly, or it’s left to be resolved for certainty at a later date.  It may be the same reason that Mary Kay Letourneau double, Miss Watson, intentions are left for us to decipher because by the season finale, there’s a good possibility we may never know what was up with her and that would not be good.  Plot points left hanging are a very bad thing in series television.Midway through the season, the villainous Jake Abernathy takes up residency in Room 9.  He’s looking for something, thinks Norma has it, but she doesn’t.  We do find out what he is after, but this too just leads to more and more questions. 
Norman adopts stray dog.  Dog becomes Road Kill.  So Norman does what any kid in the U.S. would do when losing a pet.  He takes it to a taxidermist to have it stuff so he can keep it with him forever and ever.  Hey, don’t knock it.  At least he didn’t bury it in the Pet Semetary which would make this an entirely different show.
It is actually Emma’s dad Will (Ian Hart) who make his living doing taxidermy.  And no, he doesn’t stuff the animals with marijuana leaves which is probably why Will and his daughter are kind of out of place.  He decides to teach the trade to Norman, which does relate back to Hitchcock’s film where taxidermy was Norman’s hobby.  A hobby that would serve him well later on in life.  Besides the two main characters and the name of the Motel, it’s one of the few times the series actually acknowledges the original film.

It would be impossible for me to relate every sudden plot twist and turn that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere.  Bates Motel is not a series you can just drop in on and know what the hell is going on.  I’ve watched all ten episodes and even I’m not sure.  You would be best served going back to watch the first season on either Netflix, DVD or Blue Ray, or look for reruns on A&E before jumping in. 

It will hold your interest throughout, but whether it can keep up this pace for much longer is questionable.  There could be problems ahead.

Notably, on the one hand Vera Farmiga does a terrific job as Norma.  She’s overbearing, obnoxious, shrewish, creepy, annoying, and way over the top in everything she does.  And I guess that’s a necessity in explaining what happens with her sons.  On the other hand, a little of this goes a long long way and after a few episodes it begins to wear a bit thin.  You just wish there was something more to this woman than constant bitching.  More Norman and Dylan and less Norma would be a very good thing, and if she ever bites the dust I’m sure her demise won’t be looked upon with any regret.

Bates may also be running into the old too much of a good thing problem.  So many minor plot details are left hanging that you wonder if they’ll ever be resolved or just forgotten as if they didn’t exist.  This often happens in series that begin to think plot twists for the sake of plot twists and no sensible solution will get them by. 

This was part of the problem with Twin Peaks as time went on.  So many open ended plot elements and issues left open ended, you have to wonder if these writers have an end game in mind or is this another make it up as you go along and throw things in just for the hell  of it sort of thing. It’s one thing to play your audience like an instrument, but eventually you’re going to wear down and break those guitar strings and your audience will quickly disconnect.  As Twin Peaks went on, audiences were worn down and eventually tuned out.

Highmore as Norman is okay as far as it goes.  You just wish he was more animated.  We never know for sure what he is thinking, feeling, or what is real and what isn’t.  Maybe we’re not supposed to and that may work in a feature film, but I’m not sure that in a series it will hold up that well for a long length a time. 

Even Tony Perkins who played the adult Norman understood that you have to bring more to the table than appearing to sulk your way through ten episodes.  Most of the time we can even sympathize with Norman because of how he is treated by Norma, Bradley, and some others.  But his disconnect and treatment of Emma makes us just think he’s nothing more than a brain damaged spoiled little shit.  And frankly, the whole is it real or is it Normanized shtick will quickly get old under these circumstances.  Another gimmick that could quickly wear out its welcome.  Those who have watched, know what I mean.

Max Thierot is a revelation, and one of the best things about this show.  Despite his criminal tendencies, he's just about the only main character who lives in reality and sees things for what they are.  Back in 2007, he had the misfortune of playing Ned Nickerson in Emma Robert’s Nancy Drew movie.  About that I said:

This Ned is written as the exact opposite. He's not sure about anything and although he comes out to Hollywood to join Nancy, he isn't very helpful and is given little to do except sit around and mope, even to the point of worrying that Nancy is going to run off with thirteen year old Corky. By the time he heads back to River Heights, he had already overextended his welcome in my opinion. And if this Ned had popped up in the books, Nancy would have vanquished him by the end of Nancy's Mysterious Letter, the volume where he popped up in the first place.

You can forget that. Given the chance to actually act, he's much much better here and is one of the few things that helps keep this potpourri stirred.  But he’s six years older as well so maybe it’s the maturity.

While it doesn’t exactly have me on my feet giving it a standing ovation and clamoring for season two, Bates Motel has drawn me in enough to stay tuned.  There are  a lot of good things here, so lets hope the writers and producers make good use of them and unscrambles some of the plot mess they’ve made.  I mean, even the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer wasn’t really great, but by the second round it turned into one of the most memorable shows in Television History.

Speaking of round two, that starts up on A&E Monday March 3.  Check your satellite and cable listings for time.

Snake Bit

I had never heard of this show until now.  But it's the typical reality b.s. for stupid people with mini-minds and zero thought process. 

It would be almost ridiculously hilarious reading National  Geographic's excuses and nonsense for putting people like James Coots and those like him on the air, if the real reasons weren't so blatantly obvious. 

They do it for the ratings, to attract viewers who will remain perpetually ignorant and watch any garbage out there.

National Geographic:  "He died doing what he believed was his calling."

No he didn't.  He died because he was a blooming idiot.  And the more we glorify idiots such as James Coots  or the phony bearded bums from Dork Dynasty, the stupider people in this country become. 

I guess it's no surprise at all that he's from the state of Kentucky, home of the Creationist Museum.  Where else would he be from?

Coots claimed it was their first amendment right to play with snakes.  It's also his right to be brain damaged.  And guess what Coots, it's also your right to be totally, unequivocally dead.

From Deadline Hollywood:

Jamie Coots, one of the stars of National Geographic‘s reality show Snake Salvation, died Saturday of a poisonous snake bite. According to reports he refused medical attention after being bitten in his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky and died shortly thereafter in his home. The show debuted last Fall centered on two Pentecostal preachers who handle deadly snakes as part of a century-old Appalachian practice originating from a Bible passage that suggests those anointed by God will not be harmed by a poisonous snake bite. Coots had previously been bitten nine times and lost a finger to a rattlesnake bite. He starred on Snake Salvation alongside Tennessee Pastor Andrew Hamblin, both of whom claim serpent handling is their First Amendment religious right. The pair have come under fire from authorities for hunting and collecting deadly snakes for their church services. Last year Coots pled guilty to illegally possessing and transporting three rattlesnakes and two copperheads in Tennessee after the state seized them in a traffic stop as he was driving them from Alabama to Kentucky.

The Sound of Music Live: Best of Twitter

I don’t know how you felt about NBC’s live Broadway Production of The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood as Julie Andrews and some vampire dude as Christopher Plummer, but Twitter was on fire as #TheSoundofMusicLive was trending heavily.

I haven’t watched yet, but will later.  (I live on the west coast so we don’t get to watch it live regardless)  I’m sure the ratings will be red hot, but if Twitter is any judge, the whole experience was less than memorable.  So I gathered these up just for you to save you the trouble of sifting through them yourself.  You’re welcome.

And if the imitation Julie Andrews gave you heartburn, you can always get the blu-ray of the real deal to wash away your sins.  Thanks!