October 1, 2008 at 9:44 am · Filed under Tech News
If you still visit a blue box store every Friday night in order to pick up and watch a movie then you, my friend, are behind the times.
As I have said before Netflix is where it at for a number of reasons, but most importantly for me is their online distribution service. While it still only works in IE (soooo… 1997) it is one of the best movie players out there, the quality is great, it is quick and it doesn’t cost you an extra sent. I actually use the online player more than I do the movies at home. Those are a nice addition to the service, not the other way around. Soon the xbox will release an update allowing you to watch all those same movies via the xbox (so on your TV) which really will push it to a new level. I’ve seen screenshots and it looks very sick.
BUT. After a certain time you use up the good movies on Netflix. They add some , but for the most part, its not the A-list talent you could be receiving via the mail. New releases are non-existent so you are stuck to TV series and older movies. This works for a while as you go through the older content but you get to the point where you want some newer, fresher, material.
Today Netflix released 2 major things. The first of which is that they signed up with Starz to have their catalog online. I got this pic from Engadget and it shows some of the movies right now Netflix is adding in conjungtion with Starz. All A movies, solid watchable flicks, not second hand-ers anymore. Awesome. I just won’t be doing any homework for the next month or two.
Also today (it was a big day) Netflix opened up their API to anyone and everyone. Black, white, red, whatever you can sign up on your own and start developing for whatever you want. So expect a plethora of new apps for your favorite device, or website to only expand the use of Netflix’s services.
If anyone has an idea for a Netflix App let me know and we can get going on one, I’m sure they will be rolling out in hours for those truly dedicated freaks of nature.
September 29, 2008 at 1:28 pm · Filed under General
The shows I have been on talking about for months are now back online. I might consider finally signing up for showtime because of them… but you can watch the season premier of both of them online right now via this handy dandy link. You do have to sign-up but its just that one page 3-field form. Then you are good to go.
While we are at it : From the director of In Pursuit of Happyness and more importantly starring Will Smith, comes another really good looking flick… in the same serious tone of Happyness but hopefully happier. Plus Rosario Dawson is not hard to look at for two hours. I can’t embed the trailer, so here you go :
September 24, 2008 at 11:19 am · Filed under Reviews
It seems like all I have been posting about lately is TV shows, but thats how it goes at the beginning of the fall seasons. This will be my last one I promise. However, I must re-iterate that you SHOULD be watching Fringe (tuesdays), The Office (premiere thurs.), and How I Met Your Mother which premiered yesterday. Those are the must-watches.
This is less of a review and more of a command to watch this show. The first 3 seasons are available on DVD and I would recommend you watch this one from the beginning because some of the jokes are cumulative. Seriously just sign up for the 2 week free trial of Netflix and the cheapest 5.95/month plan and get the first seasons at your doorstep. In 2 months you can watch the first 3 seasons for a total of 10 bucks.
If however, you are cheap, jump into season 4 you will get 90% of the laughs, and you can pick up the characters easy. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Howser) is my favorite character on the show, so I bring you some of his greatest moments below.
September 10, 2008 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Reviews
I posted last week my list of shows to DVR this season, and Fringe was an unknown due to this being its rookie year. This JJ Abrams show stars Anna Torv, a female FBI agent forced to work with a scientist (Joshua Jackson, Mighty Ducks/Dawson Creek fame) to discover the source of some pretty frightening goings-on.
To begin, the production quality is top notch. The problem with SciFi is that the genre never gets much money thrown behind it but because of JJ Abrams and his history with LOST , Alias, Cloverfield etc… the studios are going to give him what he needs to make a cool show. Special effects aren’t cheesy, at times they are downright disturbing and the smaller roles are filled by known-actors not cheesy fill-ins so its good to see real money being thrown behind a show like this. Hooray Fox.
One of the main complaints about LOST (not by me) is that you sort of need to watch every episode to stay in the loop. Fringe has been set-up on purpose to not force that, so that one episode can stand on its own… thats a debatable choice in my opinion because I love the movie-like aspects of a story that doesn’t get wrapped up in 45 minutes every week, but at the same time, it can be a pain to keep up on top of everything, so I’m giving them a shot.
Joshua Jackson is awesome. Maybe he doesn’t have the range of some but he is ultra-likeable, and in this show, his character has an IQ of 190 which fits perfectly with what he plays best, the slightly cocky but equally charming young guy.
Anna Torv is eh. She’s good but there are some weird moments in the show, mostly revolving around her strange faces & reactions. However, the show is good. It’s not LOST , but what is? It definitely is fringe, in that the science is way out there, the people are slightly insane, but all in all is enjoyable.
Rather than embed this movie I’m gonna give you the link so you can watch it in high res if you feel you want to. http://www.hulu.com/watch/33786/fringe-pilot (please forgive HULU for going crazy with the ads on this show, its not normal for them, who knows)
September 7, 2008 at 7:11 pm · Filed under Reviews
I’m live bloggin entourage because nate is going to do a review of it as soon as it is done and I want to one-up him.
9:09 p, started a few minutes late because I was looking at the lovely ladies. Vince pulls a++ girls, and apparently multiples. What is up with the beard? Its big and awesome.
9:10 : Lloyd is awesome.
9:10 : Erik has a fantastic office… but really… bow wow? li’ blow wow?
9:13 : Kevin Dillon is the better dillon.
9:13 : Just checked out the TV guide, forgot it was a 1/2hr show…. super short.
9:14 : Waterskis / whales / fat white friend who makes me feel better about myself and is a personal driver / slave = future life.
9:15 : Apparently bow-wow is a big part of this show. Downgrade only from reputation. Danger Beach sounds amazing.
9: 17 : Didn’t E lose all his money on the ‘Median’ flop? How is he driving whatever that is a maserati, bentley, sick car? Pretty sure since I watched the last episode of last season yesterday that he lost $267,000 on the movie… and that was ‘all he had’.
9:19 : Bow wow is now driving that sick car. Drama is tele-conferencing with the love of his life who he hooked up with on the beach at the end of the last season.
9:20 : Show is 60% over and nothing has happened, 1/2 hour shows really should only be watched via DVD. Seriously there have been multiple island photo clips probably account for 2 or 3 minutes of airtime. Not to be picky, but thats 10% of the show’s running time. Previous assesment of this show as little much more than eye candy rings true.
9:22 : Ari does pull off the suits. Well.
9:23 : $80 a day? Sounds like I’m going to Mexico. E of course ruins Vince’s beautiful vacation with that talk. Now the season starts… with 6 minutes left.
9:24 : Drama quotes ” When I played that high school teacher with alopecia on 7th Heaven”… “I feel like the tropical sun melted your brain”… “aquaman is back!”
9:26 : So ‘High Tide’ is the new movie…. and apparently Adam is the new antagonist right now.
9:28 : Ooh, Adam is not an antagonist, I bet he appears again on the side of Vince and the gang.
9:30: Show ends with what else, Drama being the only redeeming comedic factor.
Show rating : 3/5. Best I can give it. sorry nate.
September 2, 2008 at 10:24 pm · Filed under Reviews
Its that time of year, the end of the crappy summer schedule and the beginning of Fall TV. Like normal the shows have staggered their 1st episodes over the next couple of weeks, but really next monday is the first day of the new season. I’ve been compiling a list of shows that I need to set up my recorder for and so I suggest these to you. Included a couple new ones just to see what’s going on but all the old classics are there. E.R. - (Sep. 25th) 10/9c - I’ve always been a fan of this show since the rents watched it back in the day, and this is its final season. Even if you haven’t watched it before you should try (at least go back and get the DVDs) because really this show has been one of the best on TV for a long time. Friday Night Lights - Oct 1st - I didn’t see this news until I was writing this post. This ticks me off but what can you do. Friday Night Lights is one of the absolute best shows in years in my opinion, I watched it every week, one of the few shows I plan my time around to watch. Apparently this season it will be broadcast ONLY to DirectTV via their channel 101, and after that might be broadcast at a later date on NBC (most likely in a miserable time slot , as a filler, and not in consecutive weeks I assume). I didn’t read the whole news release cause it is stupid, so here you go. Also a bummer since it is filmed in Austin, and I’ve run into every cast member once, makes it a cooler show IMO. The Office - (Sep. 25th) 9/8c - 1 hour premiere - Best comedy. Ever. Hands down. Every Episode. No Misses. Even though I almost ate my own head after the end of the last season because of the Pam / Jim mess. However…. this show is the show to watch. Watch the last couple episodes online via nbc.com but more importantly, follow theofficenbc on twitter and you can see all the webisodes / clips they did all summer. Very funny and unlike most other shows webisodes not a waste of time, just good stuff. Heroes - (Sep. 2nd) 9/8c - 3-Hour Premiere Event - This is a re-do season after the debacle of season 2. It was universally derided by fans as terrible, and the writer’s strike made it even worse. Hopefully we get something different and a return to season 1. I lost contact with this show because it was so bad so its gonna take something to get me back in it. Early 2009 - LOST -Watch all 4 Seasons in HD online - What more is there to say about this show? I’ll probably do recaps when the season comes back. I’ve watched the season 1 and 2 dvd’s about 5 times (of course every episode in order, over the course of a week, thats like 4 hours a day). Early 2009 - 24 - This is a re-do season for 24. Just like Heroes, the last season was not what we have come to expect from this show, and the producers realized it promising us something drastically different this time around. Entourage - HBO - (Sep. 7th) 10/9c - Great comedy, lacking in depth but still a good entertaining watch. Just don’t expect to be reciting the finer social commentary. How I Met Your Mother - (Sep. 22nd) 8:30/7:30c - (date comes from wikipedia, couldn’t find it anywhere else) - Comedy that must be viewed by all. Watch the first 3 seasons online if you can find them, it is legend-ary. Also it is the origin of legend-ary. Must See TV. 30 Rock - (Oct. 30) 9:30/8:30c - Sketch ball comedy. Not office level but definitely a good one to watch. My Name Is Earl - (Sep. 25th) 8/7c - 1 hr Premiere - I watched the first season and stopped but then for some reason started watching again and it is a very funny show.
The Less Important : Fringe (Sep. 9th) 8/7c – from the creators of Lost comes another TV show with a sci-fi twist, this is sorta x-files-ish. This time on Fox, with Joshua Jackson (The Mighty Ducks / Dawson’s Creek) and one of hte chicks from CSI. Check out the trailer here (I can not for the life of me find a decent version that will let me embed it).
Other shows I am going to add to the list but am not sure about :
Chuck - it was decently funny, the pilot and one or two other episodes, we’ll see if it holds up this season.
Eli Stone - I watched it due to following LOST but dropped off as the season progressed. Gonna try again.
Two and a Half Men - Also a funny show, I just add it to the list, I don’t make it a date to see it or anything but if you have some time it is good.
Right now this is just a Hulu list since thats what I’m mainly using. If you want to contribute on other legal online services right now post in the comments and I will include it.
Okay, I have been stressing the great power of Hulu recently, and have been a fan of watching tv via the internet for a while now via the different methods out there. One of the main issues with these legal tv-watching resources is a) organization (they are spread out over the web) and b) mixture in with the crap that those companies also want you to focus on.
For example the Hulu site is LOADED with ‘clips’ (30 sec - 2 min videos) pulled from the show, nothing special, nothing new, just clips. I think they are going for a you-tube esque variety of content but what they are getting is a bogging down of their real quality content, the good tv shows. While compiling this list I came upon many shows which they offer only clips for, or only 1 episode of the show to watch, really what good is that to us? Just think if these shows were added to the line-up of fully available content: Chuck, Battlestar Galactica, ER, Family Guy (maybe subscription based), House, Heroes, Monk, …. just to name what was on the top of my head.
I do need to make one disclaimer: It was hard for me to determine which shows allow (and update frequently) subscriptions via the built in tracker for Hulu. Some shows time out after a few weeks so their episode list may only list 10 or so episodes, but really that is the ten most recent. If you see a ‘possibly subscription based’ below in the listings that means I made my best guess that these shows will be adding new content to hulu when their seasons start up again.
Action
24 - Hulu - 10 Episodes - 1 hr length (season 1:1-5, season 6:1-5)
The lack of episodes is disappointing but I recommend it for the fact that somehow some people still don’t watch 24 and I think the reasoning is that its hard to jump into a show mid-stream. This offers the first season as a nice hook to get you going, so check it out.
Burn Notice - 17 episodes - 1 hr length - Disclaimer : These episodes may time out, unpredictable length of stay online
Arrested Development - 53 Episodes (whole catalog) - 1/2 hr length -
This is one of the best comedies in the last 10 years, and sadly cut short. Watch it.
30 Rock - Hulu - 15 Episodes - 1/2 hr length - Season 2:1-15 -
Great comedy with Tina Fey and …. oh you can’t even explain this one, short. happy. fun.
30 Days - Hulu - 12 Episodes - 1 hr length -
From the guy who brought you that McDonald’s movie, he takes on a certain job or task for 30 days and lives it completely. He is an entertaining narrator and I enjoy his bi-partisan take on everything, he tries to present everything fairly…. this is a decent show if you are bored.
Friday Night Lights - 37 episodes - 1 hr length-
This is one of those shows you need to watch from the beginning, and now you can do that. Hurry up and get ready for season 3. One of my top 3 shows on TV right now.
Top-Tier Extras
These are shows that I haven’t watched so can’t actually guarantee the quality of, but are marketed well and so therefore they may be decent.
I have reviewed a lot of good shows on here recently. Californication , Dexter and Arrested Development being the big ones of the group…. and I continue to push you to go watch those if you haven’t, but I have something special for you if you haven’t seen this show.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is fantastic. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the guy behind West Wing (one of my top favorites of all time), it follows the daily in and outs of a Saturday Night Live-like show aptly named Studio 60. The two main characters are Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford - West Wing) and Matt Albie (Mathew Perry - Friends). Can you get much bigger than that for your two leading stars. Supporting cast is made up of Amanda Peet, D.L. Hughley and Timothy Busfield (also from The West Wing). It really is a great cast beyond that also, smaller names but who play their parts great.
Its a Comedy-Drama that only lasted 22 episodes (1 season) for NBC and really one of those shows that after you watch it you will wonder how it got cut. The last episode aired in the summer of 07 so its been off the air for a year, but that works out for you because now you get to watch it all for free. Thats right. Free. On hulu of course. So… Here is the pilot : linkage . You need to check it out. It gets 5 stars from me.
Everything about this show is produced top notch which is Aaron Sorkin’s style. The writing is excellent and holds no punches politically, socially or even fights at time against the TV networks (which probably didn’t help keep it on the air). If you have never seen The West Wing or Sports Night you are in for a treat with the witty banter and fast paced dialogue, paired with the 10 minute scenes that you watch in wonder of how they were shot. Everything fits together here. I can heap no more praise, so go watch it… now.
I posted last week my list of shows to DVR this season, and Fringe was an unknown due to this being its rookie year. This JJ Abrams show stars Anna Torv, a female FBI agent forced to work with a scientist (Joshua Jackson, Mighty Ducks/Dawson Creek fame) to discover the source of some pretty frightening goings-on.
Joshua Jackson is awesome. Maybe he doesn’t have the range of some but he is ultra-likeable, and in this show, his character has an IQ of 190 which fits perfectly with what he plays best, the slightly cocky but equally charming young guy.
