Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps

The Olympics were two of the greatest weeks of 2008 and there were dozens of amazing moments ranging from the incredible Opening Ceremonies to the unforgettable I Love Beijing theme song. There were so many great moments this year it’s hard to choose just one that stands out. Ok, that’s a lie. There’s one moment that was far better than any other and is, quite frankly, the greatest moment in aquatic sports history. The Justie for the Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps goes to Jason Lezak’s amazing comeback in the 4×100 relay which won the USA a gold and created one hell of a story. There has never been a comeback quite like that nor has there been an instance of shear determination. Way to go Lezak, way to go.

Greatest Thing on TV

All in all, it’s been a pretty crappy year for TV. The Writers Strike cut a lot of seasons short and seemed to affect the quality of TV for this season as well. So the pool to draw from here is obviously pretty slim. But there were some stand outs. The Office and 30 Rock have been stellar and new shows Fringe and Life on Mars have been entertaining. But one show has been better than the rest, so the Justie for Greatest Thing on TV goes to Chuck. Chuck is consistently entertaining and just quirky enough to be endearing but it was “Chuck Verses Tom Sawyer” that pulled it in. Twin Galaxies, arcade games and Rush? Can’t get much better than that.

Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic

People search for funny things on the internet. Some people spend tons of money and time trying to figure out the best combination of Julianne Hough, Will Smith, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, the Jonas Brothers and Wil Wheaton to get their search engine ranking high enough for people to notice. Around here I do things a little different. I write things and then see how people find them. If a Miley Cyrus mention gets slipped in, well, so be it. It was earlier this year while perusing my site logs that I came across this category’s winner. The Justie for Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic goes to this post about Chinese food and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’ll let you figure out what people were searching for.

Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me

A lot of crappy things happened in 2008 including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires and a new Rambo movie. I jumped off a cliff and blacked out in the water, but I’m exempt from this category for obvious reasons. No, there was one crappy thing that unfortunately deserves this Justie; the Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me Justie goes to the economy. Sure, I’m affected indirectly, but whatever. The economy pretty much sucked this year and have put hundreds of thousands out of work. Unfortunately it looks like it may get worse before it gets better but one thing is for certain, it will get better. Here’s to hoping that the economy earns the 2009 Justie for the Greatest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me.

Most Addicting Social Media Outlet

Hello my name is Justin and I’m a social media addict. This year there were plenty of social media sites begging to earn an addiction: Facebook, Shelfari, Strands, and Last.fm just to name a few. But there was one that stood out far above the rest — possibly combined. The Justie for the Most Addicting Social Media Outlet goes to Twitter. I wasn’t the only one addicted either. Not only did twitt rank as one of the years ‘buzzwords’, but now CNN even takes comments — and in some cases breaking news — from Twitter.

Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To

This one is a tough one to call. I’ve been a number of places this year including Seattle, The Bahamas, New Orleans, Key West, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah. In those various places I’ve seen a fair share of strange things, like the odd traffic lights on the highway in Seattle, but by far the Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To goes to Utah. Why Utah? Their numbering of streets is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is laid out in a grid, which makes sense, but that grid is far too large. For instance, we had to turn from S 700 E onto E 10600 S. Does that make any sense? Then, thrown into the middle of that was State St which does make sense. I don’t get it. Way to earn that Justie, Utah.

Coolest Thing of the Year

Despite all the crappy things that happened, 2008 had it’s share of some pretty cool things. Myron Rolle won a Rhodes Scholarship and I read Snow Crash, both pretty cool. The Dark Knight made a ton of money while the Devil Rays won the American League without any. Tiger Woods had the comeback of his career and Bill Gates ended his. All of these things are pretty cool, but only one can win the Award. The 2008 Justie for the Coolest Thing of the Year goes to The Olympics.

It was going to be pretty hard to beat the summer games. They began with the coolest Opening Ceremony ever performed (no video links available, stupid NBC) and included some unforgettable moments, a lot of which occurred in the pool. Michael Phelps won a record setting 8 gold medals, which will probably never happen again. Countless records were broken, smaller countries shined and for a few weeks in August the world actually came together and enjoyed each others company. You can’t really get much cooler than that.

All the Justies have been handed out and I’ve got nothing left for 2008. The ball will soon drop and bring in 2009. Let’s see what happens.

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The first show is Saturday Night Live. To say SNL has writing issues is an understatement. The show has downright problems. In the two episodes that have aired so far there has been one sketch that was actually funny: the Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton season opener.

After watching the rest of the episode, and a majority of the one aired this past Saturday, it seems as if Tina Fey herself might have written this one. The SNL writing has been in trouble for a very long time and this season it just seems worse. It begs the question, will NBC grow a pair and clean out the write staff or *gasp* cancel the show?

The next show that makes me wonder what the writing team is thinking is Fringe. I’ve talked about Fringe before, it’s a great show that is part LOST and part X-Files. One of the main characters is a former mad scientist who has been locked up in a mental institution for the past 17 years. While most of the writing revolving this character is done well, there seems to be one “out” the team is using.

In the first episode Bishop, the character in question, wanted to use his lab from 17 years ago. Good thing it still exists! Harvard just decided to use it as storage. And by storage they meant cover the equipment with a tarp and put a few boxes in there. Convenient. In the second episode Bishop needed a file he left in his car. Well guess what? His car is in the same pad-locked garage it was 17 years ago! Again, how convenient? Finally, last night, Bishop needed a piece of equipment he hid in the wall of his former home. Well guess what. It was still there. But it wasn’t in a wall, it was in a dumbwaiter merely covered by a bookshelf. Do the writers really expect us to believe that the key to all of Bishop’s experiments are littered all over Boston and somehow completely untouched and right where they were left 17 years ago? Come on?

The final show I’ve watched so far this season has been Heroes. Cut to only 11 episodes last year because of the strike, it’s been a long time since Heroes has been on the air. But watching the two hour premiere on Monday, a few things struck me about one of the main characters, Peter.

Peter can absorb every power that he comes in contact with making him pretty much the most powerful “hero” of them all. Yet, somehow, Peter manages to constantly make poor decisions and, as a result, the world ends four to five years later. This season, future “Dark Peter” has come back from the future to prevent bad things from happening. But here’s what I don’t get: Dark Peter has a giant scar across his face. Lest we forget Peter has the ability to heal himself. Curious? Even more curious is that two of the powers Peter has absorbed involve being able to see the future. Given this, you would think Peter would know that his horrible choices have an effect down the road. Either that or the writers just assume we don’t remember these things.

None of these writing slips will cause me to stop watching the shows, well except maybe for SNL. But after waiting so long for good TV to come back on, I’d like to think the writers would be willing to not treat the audience like children and actually write the show without the sloppy “outs” they have been given themselves. Maybe it’s just been so long that I forgot this is the small screen norm and am being overly critical. If Toby shows up on The Office on Thursday I’ll know sloppy writing abounds.

What do you think? Have you noticed other instances of sloppy writing on TV so far this year? Leave it in the comments.

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Monday’s proved to be exactly what NBC has needed for a number of years. Their new shows Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip have both received a fair share of critical acclaim. Ok, I guess I’m being modest. Studio 60 has received a quite impressive list of critical acclaim and Heroes has become the most successful new show on television. Both live up to hype.

Heroes follows various “super heroes” from around the world who are all discovering their new abilities and are being drawn together to “Save the cheerleader. Save the world.” This show brings back the comic book fan from my childhood and draws me in with the excitement of a serial drama with a touch of comedy thanks to the Hero character. That’s his name, really.

Studio 60 has far surpassed any expectations I had at the beginning of the season and is quickly becoming the single best show on TV. It carries a sense of humor that is witty and brilliantly penned but at the same time elevates itself from most television dramas to a place that few shows have ever reached. It was a shame a few weeks back when rumors circulated the internet that Studio 60 was going to be canned by NBC for lackluster ratings. In fact, it’s almost impossible to fathom that each week CSI: Miami almost doubles the viewers of Studio 60. Though NBC, almost the next day, ordered a full season. It may have been pressure from the critics but I’d like to hope NBC has more faith in this show then that as Studio 60 could easily be on for a very long time.

I don’t actually watch any live television on Tuesday — well if I do it’s a rare occurrence. However I do utilize the trusty DVR and watch Tuesday programing at my connivence. At the beginning of the season there was a lot of stuff I was considering watching on Tuesday nights. Though here at the midway point only one show has survived and that is the trusty Veronica Mars.

After renting the first season of Veronica Mars over the summer I have been hooked. Season three brought Veronica and the gang into their college years and, as creator Rob Thomas puts it, a growing up of the show. This was done in part to revamp the show as well as pick up the ratings. Moving to the new CW network was a crap shoot for Veronica Mars. An initial order of only 13 episodes was given with the understanding that if the viewers didn’t turn out, the show would be pulled. I’m not sure if it was the writing or the lead-in from the Gilmore Girl’s audience but something worked and this Fall Veronica saw the highest ratings of it’s entire series run. An entire story arc was wrapped up in the 9 episode fall run that involved Veronica solving a campus rape case. At the very end of the episode a lead-in to the second half arc was presented with a dead university dean. The future is looking bright for Veronica and that’s a good thing because the show is just quirky enough to be enjoyable.

Everyone knows that Wednesday’s belong to LOST and, well they still do but with a slight hesitation. Don’t get me wrong I love the show but I guess my hopes for the special six episode Fall season were too high. I was hoping for some sort of complete story arc but instead received little substance until the final two episodes. Those two episodes however restored my faith in the show — or is it the island? — and will tide me over until the end of January when the show returns for it’s uninterrupted run.

We left our castaways with the life of Ben (who although appears to be in charge of The Others seemingly takes his orders from a guy named Jacob who has yet to be introduced) in the hands of Jack who has basically given up his life to save Kate and Swayer — oh and Eko died. That’s pretty much what took six hours of multimillion dollar programing gets you. Sure, other things happened like Desmond discovered some sort of weird ability he may or may not have had pre-hatch meltdown and Locke returned to his sweet take-no-crap prior self, but we’re more or less back where we started. January will be big though, hopefully.

Thursday is another day that NBC, at least as of last week, has finally done right. The “Must See” comedy block has returned with My Name is Earl, which I’ve lost complete interest in, followed by long standing favorites The Office and Scrubs — and new show 30 Rock is thrown in as well.

This season The Office saw Jim leave the branch to avoid Pam and through a branch closing and subsequent merger come back with a new girlfriend. The hilarity of the show this season has been wrapped around Michael dealing with his new employees. At one point the transfers were all standing on a table to emphasize that everyone is to be treated equally (right), he outed a homosexual employee and locked the entire staff in the conference room with the idea of showing them that their job is better then prison.

Scrubs has been back for only two episodes but is in it’s full form. I mean, how can a show not be funny when Dr. Cox throw’s an entire plate of spaghetti on a three year old’s head in order to show him what it feels like. There is some weird stuff going on with everyone having a kid except Elliot but it’s hard to find fault with anything Scrubs does — or the music they utilize in each episode.

As you can see the list has been slimmed down considerably. There have been other shows that I have gotten into throughout the season but have lost interest in or were canceled. Standoff on Tuesday was mildly interesting until the World Series interrupted it by about a month. After that I just didn’t care anymore. Surprisingly Kidnapped was a great show that was canceled after five episodes. With credit to NBC, however, they decided to have the writers finish the story arc in 13 episodes and will, at some point, air the remaining episodes on NBC.com. The Nine, which ABC had following LOST held my interest for about 1.2 shows. It has since been canceled. ABC’s Daybreak, which replaced LOST’s 9pm Wednesday time-slot, has been pretty entertaining and has hooked me. It’s been designed as a 13 week filler until LOST returns. Hopefully it lasts that long. Another of ABC’s shows, Six Degrees, has disappeared from the schedule. Unfortunately I don’t think the network ever had much faith in this show even though it was on a level of it’s own — much like Studio 60. I hope it returns in the Spring but I’m not going to hold my breath. I’ve also thrown in a few Discovery Channel shows, thanks to the DVR like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and newcomer Man vs. Wild. While most shows have gone into hibernation for the Christmas break I get to catch up with Entourage on DVD. Spring will bring the return of all of these shows and potentially a few more to add to the mix. Most importantly day six of 24. Enough said.

That’s a good way to end it. Can you tell I’m tired?

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Monday’s

9:00 pm

Starting on September 25th I’ll be tuning into NBC’s new Heroes. This show seems to be about ordinary people who somehow obtain super natural powers. In the preview there is a guy who can stop and turn back time and a man who can fly. It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes but one storyline that I have always loved is ordinary people in extraordinary situations — and super heroes. Hopefully this show will deliver the goods.

10:00 pm

After Heroes I’ll be sticking with NBC to try out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which starts September 18th. This new show features Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, as well as some of the production team, and looks to be witty and fun. Early hype on this one is good so again, hopefully NBC’s West Wing replacement will be a hit.

Tuesday’s

8:00 pm

Although the network is new, CW brings Gilmore Girls back in its usual time slot on September 26th. I’ve mentioned before that yes, I do enjoy the Gilmore Girls. It’s witty and quick and, although it often features women yelling at each other, is very humorous. I’ll be tuning in. After all, I have to find out who Lorili is going to do next…

9:00 pm

This time slot will be my first use of the DVR during the week. Over on FOX, the new show Standoff will be debuting on September 5th. This show pairs Office Space’s Ron Livingston with Anna Espinosa herself, Gina Torres as FBI hostage negotiators. Interesting casting yes, but the show looks like it could be edgy enough to maintain interest while supplementing layered characters to carry over story lines from week to week. While Standoff is running on FOX, CW will bring Veronica Mars back for it’s third season on October 3rd. When I first discovered Kristen Bell Veronica and her friends I was instantly hooked. The second season was recently released on DVD and should start arriving through Blockbuster Online tomorrow. An interview with the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, reveled that VM has only been brought back for an initial 13 episodes this season and that if viewership doesn’t increase, the show might be doomed. Hopefully airing directly after Gilmore Girls will help and Kristen Bell Veronica Mars will get to stick around for a full year.

Wednesday’s

8:00 pm

With last season’s cancellation of Arrested Development, television was left with a serious gap in the comedy genre. NBC looks to try and bring a bit of that back on October 4th with the new 20 Good Years. This new show stars AD’s Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow. The premise is simple but looks like it could be highly entertaining. We shall see.

8:30 pm

Looks like I’ll again be sticking with the Peacock to check out the new 30 Rock starting October 11. 30 Rock is the new Tina Fey concoction that brings former SNL cast members together again and looks to be funny. I’m not holding my breath however as such pairings have often crashed and burned in the past.

9:00 pm

One word, LOST. It returns on October 4th for a “mini-season” and then will return again in January for an uninterrupted run ala 24. I can’t wait to find out what The Others wanted with Jack and co. Can’t wait. Period.

10:00 pm

The ten o’clock hour will again put the DVR in use. There are two brand new shows that have caught my interest in preseason commercials. NBC’s Kidnapped, which debuts September 20th, has peeked my attention since I participated in a feasibility test for the show. The show has serious potential, but very well could wind up being another dud much as NBC’s mid season replacement, Heist. The other show premiering in this time slot is ABC’s The Nine. This show focuses on nine people who are all caught up in a bank robbery that turns into a multi-day standoff. The show, utilizing it’s post-LOST time slot, seems to edge toward how the nine people’s lives are all intertwined and connected. This show looks very interesting. My only qualm is that ABC not try too hard to push the LOST crowd into The Nine by making the show too “supernatural” — as was the case with Invasion, which bombed. We’ll see on October 4th when the show debuts.

Thursday’s

8:00 pm

My Name is Earl returns to NBC on September 21st to try and recapture the brilliant idea of the first season. Hopefully it does.

8:30 pm

NBC’s critical and viewer loved The Office also returns on September 21st. This is pretty much the funniest show on television right now. Need an Office fix? Check out the special webisodes on their website.

10:00 pm

ABC is paring some of the creative team that formed LOST and Alias (interested yet?) to bring Six Degrees to life on September 21st. This show follows the six degrees of separation idea and shows how six people in New York City are connected. This could be interesting, but it also could be a little too much like The Nine. Hopefully there will be a significant distinction between the two.

Friday’s

This is a crappy night for TV. Shows airing here are usually doomed to an eminent cancellation. That said, if I’m home and bored — or if I feel like using DVR space, I might tune into Las Vegas during the 9:00 pm slot beginning October 20th — even though the latest seasons were never able to live up to the brilliance that was the first.

Well, there you have it, my list of must-watch-TV (notice I didn’t infringe on NBC’s trademarks). There will be other shows added in as the season progresses as notably Scrubs has yet to have a start date announced. Also, come January, 24 will return to the picture. While there will be some noted additions, there will also be some removals as some of these new shows will no-doubt be cut from the list because they fail to preform. Here’s to hoping it’s none of the ones I get attached to.

I might be addicted to television…

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This past weekend I was wondering the streets of Universal Studios Orlando when a man asked if I would like to take part in a survey. Knowing that you usually get something out of these surveys I said yes. Much to my surprise the survey consisted of rating two new NBC television shows (NBC now owns Universal hence the NBC Universal logo). The shows are both pilots which are going through some sort of focus group study like the one I participated in to determine if they will see a network broadcast or be doomed before it even gets started. They showed about a two minute trailer for each show twice and gave us these buttons to push if we liked what we were seeing or if we hated it. Afterwards there were various “what did you think about this” questions and some demographic stuff. Surprisingly though, the shows were pretty interesting and should NBC actually put them on the air I’d probably turn them on.

The first was a show called Heist, which TV.com already has a page for. Here is their description of the show:

From NBC Universal Television Studio, Hypnotic and Sony Pictures TV, “Heist” is about a group of thieves who plan to rob three jewelry stores on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills simultaneously. Dougray Scott will play the mastermind of the scheme.

Basically, from the preview the show will follow the planning of the big ‘heist’ from week to week and the robbery will be at the end of the season. The preview also shows that there will be a focus on the cops who are evidently already onto the guys and there will probably be some sexual tension deal between the robber and the lead detective. All in all the show looked pretty interesting and actually very funny. There were a few lines in the preview that I laughed out loud at–which was probably a site to see considering I was sitting at a computer terminal wearing oversized headphones holding these “like” and “dislike” buttons in my lap.

The second show had a much more serious tone. It’s called Kidnapped and is kind of like Man on Fire meets 24. Zap2it’s description of Kidnapped:

The series will aim to blend elements of family drama and thriller as it shuttles between the FBI agents working the case, the victim’s family and those involved in the abduction.

This show looked pretty interesting, although very dark. The guy hired by the family to work the case–not the FBI, some private sector guy–was very interesting and seems like he would be the driving force of the show. The head FBI agent was played by Delroy Lindo which I found pretty cool.

According to the guy conducting the survey NBC is using our testing data to determine what works in the show and what doesn’t. If all goes well one or both of the shows could make it in as a midseason replacement this Spring or perhaps even get a shot at a run in the Fall season. It was a pretty fun experience to see how they test these pilots before going to air. It’ll be pretty cool if one or both of these makes it to air–I’ll feel like I had a part in getting it there.

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