Summer TV Review: How I Met Your Mother episode 3: Sweet Taste of Liberty

written by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, directed by Pamela Fryman

This is the first episode of the show that was not written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who are both Dartmouth graduates, only wrote one other episode of HIMYM, but are credited as co-executive producers on 17 episodes. Miller and Lord would go on to write the screenplays for Extreme Movie and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

"Sweet Taste of Liberty" begins with Ted wanting to spend Friday evening at McLaren's. However, Barney wants to get Ted out of his rut, and he makes plans to go somewhere else. Somewhere legendary. To Ted, McLaren's is safe; it comes guaranteed with an above average amount of fun. A "legendary" night with Barney usually does not live up to the hype. Still Ted reluctantly gets into a cab with Barney, and their night begins.

Barney mentions to Ted that he needs to stop at the airport to pick someone up. Ted finds out that Barney actually plans to hit on chicks and pick them up. They meet a couple of girls who are flying to Philadelphia, and after talking with them for less than a minute, they decide to buy some tickets and follow them to Philly. As it turns out, the girls are going to Philly to see their boyfriends.

Meanwhile in the B story, Marshall is at home studying, while Lily and Robin are having a girls night out at McLaren's. The allure of a night in Philly with his bros is too much for Marshall, and he jumps in his car and starts driving. At McLaren's, Lily is frustrated that so many guys are hitting on Robin, while none are even giving her a second glance.

When the flight lands, airport security take Barney and Ted to a room where they are interrogated due to Barney abandoning (forgetting) his bags at JFK. Ted tells the truth to security, who don't seem to buy it. However, they are cleared once JFK security finds that the abandoned bags are just filled with condoms. The night still has a chance to be "legendary" as Sasha, an airport employee, invites them over for a party. But the party turns out to be two other dudes drinking hard lemonade in her basement.

Back at McLaren's, Lily has removed her engagement ring to try to get guys to hit on her, but it still doesn't work. Finally, a guy comes over to her, but it's not to hit on her. He's gay, and he just wants to tell her that she sat on a grape. Marshall calls Lily's phone, which Robin answers, letting him know that Lily has taken her ring off and that she's talking to a guy. Marshall turns around and heads back to New York. He somehow gets back fairly quick, and he enters McLaren's just as the gay guy is dabbing Lily's butt with some club soda to remove the grape stain. Marshall becomes a jealous tough guy and challenges him to a fight, but nothing happens.

Back in Philly, Ted and Barney head back to the airport, but Barney wants to take a detour to the Liberty Bell to lick it. Ted is pissed, and questions why he even hangs out with him. Barney gives Ted a speech about living life, which changes Ted's mind. They go lick the Liberty Bell, and Ted realizes that Barney and the risks that he brings are what make life fun, and give him some great stories to tell his future kids.



Some notes:
-This is the first episode with multiple storylines, since the characters are not all together for the majority of the episode. I believe this is also the first use of "Legendary" and "Legen - wait for it - dary."

-It looks like CBS covered up the logo on Barney's down jacket.

-Marshall drives a Pontiac Fiero.

-The girls on the plane mention that their boyfriends are both linebackers on the Philadelphia Eagles. LBs on the 2005 Eagles included Dhani Jones, Jeremiah Trotter, Keith Adams, Justin Ena, Alonzo Jackson, Mike Labinjo, Matt McCoy, Zeke Moreno, Dedrick Roper, Jason Short, and Mark Simoneau.

-Barney: "Cute girls are not from Buffalo."

Nitpicking:
-At the beginning of the episode, when Barney tells Marshall to get in the cab, Marshall responds with "Lily and I are...," before Barney cuts him off. However, the episode reveals that Marshall spent the evening studying, while Lily had plans with Robin. Possible mistake, or was Marshall trying to get out of going out with Barney?

-When Ted and Barney first get to the airport in NY, Ted asks Barney about the suitcases that he has with him. Why wouldn't Ted ask about this when Barney was getting them out of the cab, or had Ted just not noticed yet?

-Would a martini really only cost six dollars in a New York bar in 2005? That seems low, since that price seems about right for bars in less pricey areas.

Rubicon

AMC released a promotional poster and trailer for their newest show Rubicon. Honestly, if this show wasn't on AMC, there would be nothing about it that would make me say "I've got to see that."

Rubicon is a conspiracy thriller created by Jason Horwitch, and starring James Badge Dale, Miranda Richardson, Peter Gerety, and Dallas Roberts. I'm rarely sold on new shows based on their concepts (and this one looks like something that would be at home on Fox or any other big network), so the idea of a conspiracy thriller wouldn't sway me one way or the other. Usually, my main reasons for checking out a show are creators/writers, actors, and/or networks*. With that in mind, none of the names listed above do much for me.** So, my plans of checking this show out are based solely on the fact that it is airing on AMC, who have a pretty good track record from Mad Men and Breaking Bad***.

Rubicon is set to debut on August 1 at 8pm with a two-hour episode, which will lead into the second episode of the new season of Mad Men. However, rumor has it that AMC will air the entire first episode as a sneak preview this Sunday (6/13) after the Breaking Bad season finale. As of this time, AMC has not yet advertised or acknowledged the sneak preview, and my cable box doesn't list it.

(poster via EW)


*The practice of watching a show based on which network is airing it doesn't usually work too well, since all of the networks air both good and bad tv shows. However, I'm willing to give more of a chance to a new shows on some of the better cable channels (HBO, AMC, FX), simply because they have put out many shows that I have enjoyed in the past.

**Series creator Jason Horwitch created and wrote for Medical Investigators, a drama that aired 20 episodes on NBC during the 2004-05 season. I'm not familiar with this show, but it looks like pretty standard network fare. As for the actors, I'm familiar with Peter Gerety's work in Homicide: LOTS and The Wire, and I've heard good things about lead actor James Badge Dale in The Pacific.

***I was going to use the phrase "two for two" to describe AMC's success with original series. However, a look at their Wikipedia page revealed that they aired an original series called Remembering WENN, which ran for 56 episodes from 1996-1998. I've never watched it, previously heard of it, and I have no clue about the quality of the program.

Summer TV Review: How I Met Your Mother episode 2: Purple Giraffe

How I Met Your Mother s01e02 “Purple Giraffe”
written by Bays & Thomas, directed by Fryman

Before we see any of the actual episode, we get the first appearance of the title sequence, which gives away the fact that Robin will become friends with the rest of the group.

Lily and Robin run into each other at the bar, and Lily finds out that Robin is only looking for a casual relationship. She slips this info to Ted, who decides that he'll play it cool. By playing it cool, he goes to stalker-ish extremes, and waits until he sees her on a live news segment, runs to where it's being filmed, and pretends to run into her there. His purpose is to casually invite her to a party that he is throwing just so he can hit on her. After she doesn't show up to the party, Ted turns it into a two night party, and invites her to the second night. Once again, she doesn't show up, and Ted adds a third night. Since it is Sunday by this point, barely anyone is at the party, but this time Robin shows up. After trying to make out with Robin on the roof of his building, Ted realizes that he can't be a casual relationship type of guy since he is so into falling in love and finding the right lady. He and Robin decide that their best course of action is to be friends. And that is how Robin joins the group.

I found this episode to be an extension of the pilot, as it continued to set up the premise of the show, and got Robin integrated into the group of main characters. The episodes will get better soon.

Some notes:
-Barney got a haircut since the pilot.
- We learn that Lily can't keep a secret, which they will actually use later on in the series.
-Lily likes to get it on with Marshall.
-Barney uses “Have you met Ted” for the second straight episode. Robin also uses the line.
-Marshall claims to have eaten four cans of dip during the first party.
-Marshall refers to himself as “The Kid.”

HBO has cancelled The Life and Times of Tim, the animated show that was written and created by Steve Dildarian. I was a fan of the show during its first season, but I fell behind just after a couple of episodes of the second season. After being like three or four episodes behind, I decided that I would wait until season 2 hit DVD to watch the rest of the episodes. Hopefully HBO still releases the DVD. However, the news isn't all bad since there is supposedly interest from Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and TBS to possibly pick up the show.


Elsewhere:
-This summer The AV Club is watching and writing about the first season of The Sopranos and the first two seasons of Seinfeld. While Alan Sepinwall, who now writes for HitFix, is watching and writing about the third season of The Wire.

-Spin list 25 albums that matter this summer.

-Dime Mag list the 10 best basketball documentaries.

-The Rub's History of Hip Hop volume 22: 2000

Summer TV Review: How I Met Your Mother episode 1: Pilot

This is the first entry in my Summer TV review series. Since there are so few worthwhile shows airing new episodes during the summer months, I'm spending part of my free time re-watching older episodes of some of my favorite shows.

First up is How I Met Your Mother. The first season of HIMYM aired in the fall of 2005. I was aware of the show at the time, and almost watched it due to Jason Segel*. But I was busy with school, and I did not watch very much TV at the time. I wouldn't check it out until late 2006/early 2007 when I was first looking for a post-college job. I actually first watched it due to a recommendation from my youngest brother, who usually doesn't have good taste in things. However, I was bored with too much free time, and I didn't have cable, so I was willing to give it a go. I can't remember if I was enamored with it right away**, but I quickly watched all of the first season episodes and then got up to date with the second season. Over the years since then, the show has become one of my favorite sitcoms, although I still think it's often too cheesy and, at times, a bit too close to traditional sitcom fare.


*I was fan of Segel's work on Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

**The fact that I watched the entire first season doesn't necessarily mean that I loved it. I have watched way too many episodes of shows that I don't really care too much for simply due to boredom. A specific example would be My Name Is Earl, which I watched a lot of during that same time frame. If I'm bored and I have access to a full season DVD of a show that isn't too bad, I might put together a few four-five hour sessions and watch the whole thing.

And now some words on the pilot episode:
originally aired 9/19/2005

written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. Bays and Thomas are graduates of Wesleyan University, and both wrote for Letterman from 97-2002. They also both have credits as supervising producers on 24 episodes of American Dad. Bays and Thomas's band The Solids also created the theme song for HIMYM, which is actually part of their song “Hey, Beautiful.”

directed by Pamela Fryman, who directed the entire first season, and has continued on to direct almost every other episode of the series so far. Prior to HIMYM, Fryman's major credits included directing 80 episodes of Just Shoot Me, 33 episodes of Frasier, and 20 episodes of Two and a Half Men.

Generally speaking, I'm not usually a fan of pilot episodes, even of the shows that I like. Pilot episodes need to establish the premise and the characters of the show that we will be watching, and are often times short on plot.

The premise of How I Met Your Mother, as it is layed out in the pilot episode, is that Ted Mosby, a father of two children in the year 2030, is telling a story about how he met their mother. The story takes place in our present time (2005, which was the present on the original airing), where Ted is a 27 year old architect living in New York with his best friend from college Marshall Eriksen*. Marshall is a law student with a long-term girlfriend, Lily Aldrin. The other main character that the pilot episode introduces is Barney Stinson, a sleazy bro in a suit, who believes himself to be Ted's best friend.

When Marshall proposes to Lily, Ted realizes that he needs to get his life in gear and find the woman that he will spend the rest of his life with. Ted and Barney go to McClaren's, the bar that they will spend the majority of the series in, and Ted sees Robin, a tv news reporter and the girl that he thinks he wants to marry. Ted goes on a date with her, and things go well, but Robin has to leave before Ted gets a chance to kiss her due to an emergency news story that she has to cover. Ted tells his friends about the date, and they tell him that he missed the signal. Ted, being obsessive, steals a blue French horn, which Robin had admired at the restaurant on their date, and takes it to her apartment in the middle of the night. She likes the gesture, and invites Ted up to her apartment. Ted then gets out of control and tells her that he loves her. As he's leaving the apartment, Ted tells Robin how good of a husband he'd be. The night ends on a handshake between the two, and Ted thinks that he'll probably never see her again. In the final narration by Future Ted, he tells his kids that that was the story of “how I met your Aunt Robin.” The kids are pissed because they thought they were going to hear a story about their mom, and Future Ted lets them know that he's getting to it and that it's a long story. This sets up the fact that it will probably take the entire series, or perhaps a good chunk of it, to reveal who the titular mother is.


Some notes:
-“Suit up,” and “Have you met Ted?” seemed like they may have been set up as potential catch phrases. I can't recall if either made it into any later episodes.

-It seems like the writers wanted the bartender, Carl, to possibly be a recurring character.

-One of Marshall's quirks is introduced: he's afraid of opening champagne bottles. I don't think it ever comes up again. Also, he's the type of dude who would call dibs on a pop tart found under the fridge.

-We learn that Lily is also somewhat dirty. She likes to be spanked. She also doesn't think much of Barney. She refers to him as the dumbest single person alive. She also thinks Barney's disgusting. After Barney asks a cab driver if he's done it with a Lebanese girl, Lily says “Okay, that's my Barney limit,” as she exits the taxi.

-Things we learn about Barney: he likes suits. He likes girls a lot. He likes lasertag. He has a blog.

I don't know if I'll write the same way about future episodes, since as the series goes on, we, as viewers, get to know the characters better, and I can discuss more about what worked and what didn't work in the episode. These early episodes are still setting up where the series will go. I've already re-watched the first six episodes, so all I have to do is scan through them again and take some notes, and I'll be ready to write some more. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to all of them in the next week.

This Week In Football

New York Gets Its Super Bowl
Last week the NFL announced that Super Bowl XLVIII, which is in 2014, will be held at the new Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Usually I could care less where the Super Bowl is being held since it doesn't effect me as a home viewer. But that's because for the viewer there is only one way the stadium can affect our enjoyment of the game; weather.

I'm not one of those people who think that fast-paced, airing it out football is better and more enjoyable than slow-paced, grinding it out football. However, both styles can realistically be executed in domes and warm weather stadiums, whereas a cold weather stadium in January would certainly favor the slow-paced style. But even that isn't too big of a concern for me since the best teams in the league, the Super Bowl caliber teams, should be able to adjust to the situation. My complaint is that an outdoor winter game in the northeast runs the possibility of being somewhat unwatchable.

As a fan of a cold weather northeastern team, the Buffalo Bills, I have seen my share of horrible games that had more to do with the weather than the talent of the teams involved. The game that comes to mind when I think of unwatchable bad-weather games is the Bills vs. Browns game from the 2007 season. It took place in Cleveland in week 15. The temperature was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it was very snowy. Cleveland won the game 8-0 by scoring two field goals and getting a safety*. Other than the lack of scoring, the game was nearly unwatchable because it was actually hard to tell what was taking place on the television screen. There was just too much snow blowing around.

I doubt that weather will ruin New York's Super Bowl since it's the Super Bowl, and if the weather is looking bad, the NFL will get as much manpower as it needs to make sure that the biggest TV event of the year isn't ruined by some snow. However, there's always the possibility that Super Bowl weekend will feature the type of snowstorm that brings everything to a dead halt. My fear is that in that type of situation the NFL won't reschedule, and viewers will be stuck with a boring, hard to watch game.

*I am aware that both Cleveland and Buffalo have been pretty bad teams most of this past decade, and maybe that is why the game was so horrible. However, that year the Browns just missed the playoffs finishing 10-6, while the Bills finished a lackluster 7-9. But at that point in the season both teams were still in the playoff hunt as the Bills were 7-6 and the Browns were 8-5. And if you saw the game, you know that weather was a much bigger factor than the quality of the teams.

Home Field Advantage in the Super Bowl
It's never happened before, but there's a chance that a team could play in the Super Bowl on their own home field in the next few years. The next four Super Bowls are all taking place in the stadiums of teams that made the playoffs last season: Dallas, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and New York.

Elsewhere:
Peter King on why Pat Tillman doesn't belong in the hall of fame
Chad Ochocinco is a good dude

-Aziz Ansari dropped the news that MTV will be airing the first new Human Giant sketch in two years on the MTV Movie Awards this Sunday. If Aziz acting as host wasn't enough to get me to tune into this, then this certainly is.

-Donald Glover is twitter-campaigning for an audition for Spider-man 3. Even if Donald Glover got to audition, I highly doubt that he would actually get the role, but it would make for a great video to pop on Youtube someday.

-According to Time's James Poniewozik, the pilot episode of CBS's Shit My Dad Says isn't too good. Even though I was kinda intrigued by the idea of a tv show based on a usually profane Twitter page, I didn't and still don't expect much out of a CBS sitcom.


Elsewhere:
-Madlib's sixth installment of his monthly Medicine Show will be a "psych-prog-avante-freak-out-funk rock mix CD."
-Unkut.com's analysis of Kool G. Rap albums
-New York Magazine list the 101 best sandwiches in NYC (with pictures!)

What's Cool Calm Pete up to?

I've been a fan of Cool Calm Pete since his 2005 debut album Lost. However, since then he has not yet released a followup album, instead releasing one-off tracks and guest appearances sparingly.

There once were rumors that he would release an album on Def Jux, but that's probably not going to happen*. However, over the past couple of weeks some CCP material has surfaced from the newly formed Modern Shark Records. The first release from MSR was a label sampler that featured "Millins," a new Junk Science song with a guest appearance from Pete. This week Modern Shark released Over You, A Make Believe Film Arranged by Cool Calm Pete. As far as I can tell from what I've heard so far, there is no music by Pete on this. It's more of a mixed tape.

With this recent barrage** of Cool Calm Pete material, my hopes have been raised that we will get an announcement soon on a new CCP album.




*Who knows for sure? It seemed like Def Jux was done releasing albums, but I received an email today with info on Camu Tao's album, which is being released by Def Jux and Fat Possum Records this summer.

**Yes two new pieces of music count as a barrage from an artist who has probably released less than an album's worth of songs in the past five years.

New Books

I went online to spend some Amazon payment money that I had racked up from MTurk, so I bought some books. I picked up Light Boxes by Shane Jones, A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind The Curtain by Tamler Sommers, and Button, Button: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson.


I'm not really a fan of book trailers, but here's one for Light Boxes.

Light Boxes was the main reason that I placed the order, as it was just released today by Penguin Books. The book was originally released last year by Publishing Genius Press out of Baltimore in a limited run of 600 copies, which sold out. Spike Jonze must've gotten his hands on one of those copies, as he optioned the novel. The movie is in development with Jonze producing and Ray Tintori directing*. I've been anticipating reading this book for a while, even though I barely read any of the descriptions, and I only have the slightest idea of what the book is about. The main reasons that I wanted it were a)the Spike Jonze/Ray Tintori connection b)the cover looks cool c)i couldn't have it for so long because it was out of print.*** d)Shane Jones is from Albany, NY and he is about my age.

A Very Bad Wizard was recommended to me some time ago, and I'm finally getting around to checking it out. I've been wanting to read some of Richard Matheson's short stories, and Button, Button was only five bucks, so I bought that to get Amazon's free shipping***.

I also decided to buy some other books that I've been wanting to read for a while, but I bought them used on Half.com rather than Amazon. I got Paul Feig's Superstud and Kick Me, 2666 by Roberto Bolano, and Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson.

*If you aren't familiar with Ray Tintori, get familiar: watch his short film Death To The Tinman.

**I probably would've bought the book anyhow if it hadn't been out of print earlier. However, I probably wouldn't have bought it yet. The out of print situation increased my anticipation just enough to make me buy it as soon as it was available.

***If you didn't know, Amazon has free shipping on orders of $25 or more. In some cases, such as this one, when you are just under $25, it's actually cheaper to buy one more item (a cheap one) and get free shipping than it is to just pay for the shipping.

What Is Buck 65 up to?

I first started writing this post because of the Lost Tapes DVD trailer which popped up on Buck's Youtube page last week with no explanation. At the time, all I could find on the subject was an old tweet from January mentioning that the DVD and an ep were finished. Today, I went to his website to see if any info on the DVD had been released. What I found was even better: a redesigned website.

Here's the info that I got from Buck's new site:
-The Lost Tapes is an hour-long movie featuring live music from the spring of 2008 and much more. It was directed by Christopher Mills, edited by Winston Hacking, and features illustrations by Nicole Aline Legault. The DVD will be available on June 8, and is available for pre-order.

-The DVD will be packaged with an ep 20 Odd Years: Volume 1 - Avant. The ep features four new songs including a collaboration with Nick Thorburn of The Islands, and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire" with Jenn Grant.


I will be placing my pre-order as soon as I'm done writing this. I can't wait to watch/hear this.


Here Buck 65 takes us on a guided tour of 20 years of Buck 65 vinyl.

A Monday post

I'm starting my quest for summer viewing since most of the shows that I regularly watch had season finales last week.* As for brand new viewing, the networks don't seem to be offering much so I'll look to cable for my programming. Currently, the best summer shows look like True Blood and Entourage on HBO, Mad Men on AMC, Louie on FX, and Players on Spike TV.**

With the limited options offered by networks and cable, I'll probably go the DVD route and watch some previously enjoyed seasons of television. Currently, I'm thinking about re-watching season one of How I Met Your Mother, the complete 18 episode run of Freaks and Geeks, and season one of Deadwood. I'm hoping to write about the episodes after I watch them.

Another thought I have is to watch more movies. Many of the possibly interesting titles that were released in theaters in the wasteland of January-March have been/ will soon be released on DVD. Currently, I'm planning on checking out Edge of Darkness, Youth In Revolt, The Book of Eli, The Wolfman, Cop Out, and maybe Alice In Wonderland. The best part of all these movies is that I don't have high hopes for any of them, which means even at their worst I won't be disappointed.

There are also many 2009 releases that I never got around to checking out. Here's a partial list: Bad Lieutenant, The Informant, Bronson, The Road, In The Loop, The Brothers Bloom, The Invention of Lying, The House of the Devil, Black Dynamite, Cold Souls, The Men Who Stare At Goats, An Education.

These are just some of the things that I may watch this summer***, but as always I am open to suggestions. So if you know of any TV shows or movies that I may have missed and are worth my time, let me know.


*How I Met Your Mother's season finale is tonight. Also, there's still a couple of episodes of Justified and Breaking Bad left, and a half a season of Party Down.

**I find Entourage to be stupid, and each season is less enjoyable than the previous one, but I continue to watch.

***If someone actually hires me for a real job sometime this summer, I will probably not watch nearly as much tv/movies, and will also probably not write as much on here.

Clipse "Freedom"

Jay Electronica "Exhibit A" partial video

Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk from Motion Family on Vimeo.

Jimmy Fallon and the Muppets spontaneously perform Three Dog Night's "One"

Recently Bookmarked

Articulate Matter
Eating The Road
Nic Cage As Everyone
Sam McPheeters' twitter
Nobody Likes You

Everything you need to know about Lost in 8 Minutes and 15 Seconds.
Although, you should probably just watch the show.
(via io9)

Shutdown Corner lists the best games of the 2009 NFL season.

(via With Leather)

Jay-Z "Young Forever"