September 7, 2010 – 10:49 pm
At the end of tonight’s season premiere of “Sons of Anarchy,” all that was running through my head besides “OMG” was Ron Burgundy’s famous quip, “Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.” And yes, invoking “Anchorman” to describe the horrible scene at the end of tonight’s episode, entitled “So,” is a little crass. But it’s not exactly inaccurate, either. If the majority of the episode was an inhale, then the final few momens were the exhale that huffed and puffed and blew the season open properly.
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September 7, 2010 – 7:26 pm
I’ve talked about “Rubicon” intermittently since it started here on the blog, although its placement right before “Mad Men” means that my recapping energies are pretty much spent by the time I detail Don Draper’s latest drunken dovetail into the abyss of his soul. But while I haven’t written about “Rubicon” on a weekly basis, I have been watching it each Sunday. After a few episodes that one might generously describe as “glacial” in terms of pacing, the last few weeks have taken things up several notches. While it’s still methodical, one gets the sense that the show is at least moving towards something specific, and moving there with an ever-surer hand.
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September 6, 2010 – 10:21 pm
Maureen “Mo” Ryan and I are back, this time with another guest for our weekly “Mad Men” podcast. We had the pleasure of having Tom Fitzgerald, one-half of the dynamic blogging duo over at TomandLorenzo.com. Tom joined us a few months ago over at “Orientation: Ryan Station,” and we were thrilled to have him back to ask his expert insight into last night’s episode, “The Suitcase.”
In the second podcast, Mo and I have a long overdue chat about the summer finale of “Burn Notice” and preview three shows debuting this week: “Sons of Anarchy,” “Terriers,” and “Nikita.” Why are all three worth your viewing time? Listen and find out!
As per usual, you can subscribe to the podcast here. Soon, you’ll be able to download all podcasts directly from Mo’s new digs over at AOL, but for now, subscribing is your best option to ensure you get all episodes of “Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan.” If you absolutely hate iTunes on the same level at which Nikita hates the operatives that turned her into a killer, here’s another link for downloading MP3s.
September 6, 2010 – 6:12 pm
You’ve seen crime shows. You’ve seen buddy shows. But you’ve never quite seen anything like “Terriers” (premiering on FX September 8th, 10 pm). The brainchild of “Ocean’s 11” scribe Ted Griffin with “The Shield” showrunner Shawn Ryan alongside as co-executive producer, “Terriers” shows a shaggier, seedier side of private investigation with a healthy dose of humor, mythology, and a bit of the old ultraviolence thrown in.
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September 5, 2010 – 11:12 pm
Some episodes of television are meant to be epic experiences. Others focus laser-like on minutiae, taking off the wide lens to focus on something smaller, although often more vital. Tonight’s episode of “Mad Men,” entitled “The Suitcase,” was the latter episode, and we as viewers got to watch Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss essentially own our collective asses for an hour. Note to self: get Peggy Olson something for her birthday next May, and find out where Don Draper gets such fast dry-cleaning service.
If Eugene O’Neil once wrote about a long day’s journey into night, then Matthew Weiner essentially constructed a long night’s journey into day in this episode. While the majority of the firm was out watching the now infamous Liston/Ali fight on closed-circuit, Don forced Peggy to stay behind and work on a stalled Samonsite campaign. Long before a gorilla famously (and unsuccessfully) unleashed a can of whup ass on the famous luggage, Peggy pitched a then rookie quarterback Joe Namath to be the spokesman for the company’s rugged line of travel gear. Don’s familiar negative response not only set the two at odds throughout the contentious night, but also highlighted just how much the personal lives of these two individuals are affected by their dedication (some would say obsession) to the world of marketing.
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September 5, 2010 – 3:51 pm
“Sons of Anarchy” has the best start-to-finish season of anything I saw over the past year. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have the pleasure of actually starting said season until last Tuesday, when the DVD set finally hit the market. Better late than never, I suppose.
Like many other people, I saw the commercials for “Sons” before it aired its initial season, and said to myself, “Nah. Not for me. A show about a biker gang? No way.” No one ever accused me of being smart. By the time Season 2 rolled around, enough critics that I respected were singing the show’s praises and using cool-sounding acronyms like SAMCRO in their reviews and making me think that, once again, I’d overlooked a great show. “Sons” is about biker gangs in the way that “The Wire” is about police officers. In other words, what’s seemingly simple on the surface belies the complexity underneath.
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September 2, 2010 – 9:00 pm
For months, the masses have cried out, “Tell us, Ryan: where will you be writing this Fall?” And by “masses” I mean “my mom,” who doesn’t even really know about this blog. So announcing it here might be kinda pointless. On the other hand, it gets me out of a phone call. So you take the good with the bad and produce something not unlike the facts of life.
Most people know my writing through my old “Lost” blog, so it’s not always apparent to everyone that I’ve been writing about other shows for the past few years as well. A quick glance down the “Categories” column on the main page here should give you an idea of how many shows I’ve covered, to one extent or another, since I started writing about television. With “Lost” now over, I have a chance to not only watch more shows, but spend more time and energy writing about them as well.
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September 1, 2010 – 8:07 pm
To wildly paraphrase Big Bill Shakespeare: I come to praise “Better Off Ted,” not to bury it. For those of us that loved this all-too-prematurely cancelled show, we got to see the final two episodes thanks to its release on various platforms today, such as iTunes and Netflix’s Streaming Service. It was both fantastic and depressing to see the final two episodes of this fantastic show beam across my TV. It’s all the more depressing now, since as I write this, “Minute to Win It” is currently on the screen that just recently housed the antics at Veridian Dynamics one last time.
Excuse me while I dip my privates in bird seed and go streaking at the local hawk compound.
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August 31, 2010 – 10:38 pm
In this latest installment of the podcast, Maureen “Mo” Ryan and I discuss the launch of her new site over at AOL, briefly recap The Emmys, and then delve headlong into previewing the return of some of our most eagerly awaited shows.
The mission was simple: we each had to come up with five shows and present them to the other. We overlapped on two, which means we preview a total of eight shows in this podcast. Next week: we’ll be sharing thoughts on our most anticipated new shows premiering this Fall.
So what did we discuss? Well, that would be cheating, now wouldn’t it? You’ll have to listen to find out all of our choices. Some will be predictable, but several may surprise you.
As per usual, you can subscribe to the podcast here. Soon, you’ll be able to download all podcasts directly from Mo’s new digs over at AOL, but for now, subscribing is your best option to ensure you get all episodes of “Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan.” If you absolutely hate iTunes on the same level at which SAMCRO hates having its freedom limited, here’s another link for downloading MP3s.
August 30, 2010 – 7:33 pm
We’re back with another podcast, boys and girls. This time, Maureen “Mo” Ryan and I were lucky enough to have our good friend James Poniewozik from Time Magazine along for the ride. We talked Don’s descent, Peggy’s ascent, and the possible arc of the rest of Season 4.
As per usual, you can subscribe to the podcast here. Soon, you’ll be able to download all podcasts directly from Mo’s new digs over at AOL, but for now, subscribing is your best option to ensure you get all episodes of “Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan.” If you absolutely hate iTunes on the same level at which Don Draper apparently hates sobriety, here’s another link for downloading MP3s.
If you’re not a “Mad Men” fan, don’t worry: Mo and I will be recording another podcast tomorrow previewing the Fall TV landscape.
Enjoy!