Monday, April 16, 2007

Various stuff on a Monday
This is just a blog about a bunch of random stuff.

The final episodes of The Sopranos started airing, and the past two weeks have been fantastic. In the first episode, Tony and Carmela went to see Bobby and the ever-annoying Janice, and their adorable daughter. Tony is having serious doubts about Christopher’s loyalty, and has a serious discussion with Bobby, as if he sees him as the more trustworthy one. The highlight of the episode is a drunken game of Monopoly, Tony begins goading Janice and insulting her, something that has always driven Bobby nuts. When she takes ownership of Boardwalk, and he begins singing, “Under the boardwalk, with some guy’s schlong in Jan’s mouth” Bobby clocks him. The ensuing drunken brawl leaves Tony black and blue, Carmela’s shoulder in serious pain (she gets caught in the middle), Bobby angry and worried, and Janice even more worried. The result is a tension-filled chat between Janice and Carmela, and Bobby’s virginity is gone when Tony sends him on a hit. The episode opened with Tony being arrested on a crappy gun charge, and it ends with Bobby charging into a Montreal Laundromat and shooting a guy who grabbed a large piece of his shirt (and possibly some of Bobby’s chest hair) before dying. Bobby left it in the guy’s hand. Was Tony’s stupid arrest a foreshadowing of a much bigger one coming because Bobby left DNA evidence in the hands of the man he killed?

In the second episode, we finally see some of Christopher’s “Saw meets the Godfather” mafia horror flick, Cleaver. The movie stars Daniel Baldwin because Ben Kingsley (shockingly) turned them down (when Baldwin first walked onto the screen, I said to my husband, “What is Jack Donaghy doing there?” jokingly, and then sure enough, it was a Baldwin). The movie is bankrolled by Tony, and produced by Little Carmine. When Tony found out last season that he was going to be producing it, he said, in one of my favourite lines, “Little Carmine? It’s common knowledge, the guy’s retarded.” In this episode, however, there’s a great moment where Tony goes to see Little Carmine and LC talks about how his wife wanted him to get out of the life. It’s a discussion that really hits Tony, and you can tell he’s starting to rethink everything. Meanwhile, when he sees the movie, it involves a boss who gives orders in his basement, wears a white wifebeater with a long white robe, is banging his nephew’s fiancĂ©, and gets killed with a meat cleaver at the end. Christopher’s revenge fantasy, perhaps? Tony certainly starts to think so. The episode ends with a gorgeous moment where the whole family is at Christopher’s baby’s christening, where Tony is now the literal godfather, and as they embrace, you know that neither man trusts the other.

Entourage has returned in a big way. Ari is no longer Vince’s agent, but he can’t let go. Last week’s episode was hilarious, where Ari turned their relationship into a romantic one, insisting that he couldn’t just be friends. He shows up at Vince’s birthday party and gets into an argument with Vince’s “new relationship,” and she serves up the insults as quickly as Ari, which is surprising. But when Ari hands over the coveted script to Medellin, Vince is stuck, and doesn’t know what to do.

This week’s episode wasn’t as much fun as the first because the Turtle/Drama story was pretty boring and typical, and the Vince/E story was similarly blah. The real action was with Ari and my beloved Lloyd. When they want to sign up a gay TV writer who takes a shine to Lloyd, Ari insists that Lloyd go to the guy’s house to sign the deal. But then he can’t live with the guilt that he’s pimped out Lloyd, and shows up in a hilarious scene where he shows up the guy in a verbal showdown. NO ONE can take on Ari in a verbal showdown and come out the winner.

Somehow I missed the 2-hour premiere of Tim Minear’s new show Drive last night (thank you Fox for typically not really advertising it) so I’m currently do*coughcough*oading it so that I can continue to watch the series. I have no idea where it’s airing in Canada, but certainly not the same night. Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen much about it here. It’s been called the highlight of the spring season, so I’m definitely pumped. PLEASE, Fox, PLEASE, do not cancel this show before it’s had a chance. PLEASE.

In other news:
Still no word on Veronica Mars. Is it in danger of cancellation?


Charla and Mirna have lived to see another day. Sigh.

Don Imus is a dick.

Um… oops?

And finally, I can’t even express in words how sad I am about the Virginia Tech shooting. The death toll is beyond comprehension. What I find shocking is that the main thing President Bush has stressed is that people have the right to bear arms. Thanks, dude. That’s what we all needed to hear at this horrific time. Rah rah guns. Maybe this is a Canadian thing to say, but this guy couldn’t have taken out 32 people with a knife. Or any weapon that wasn’t an automatic. My thoughts are with the friends and families of these people.

I don’t want to end this post on a morose moment, so instead, I’ll give you something to smile about. This video has been circulating the internet all weekend long, and it’s PRICELESS. (Thanks for sending it to me, Crissy!)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I find shocking is that the main thing President Bush has stressed is that people have the right to bear arms. Thanks, dude. That’s what we all needed to hear at this horrific time.

thank you -- that was EXACTLY my first thought, too. in fact, that was the first part of his statement, wasn't it? the very first thing out of his mouth. gee, i'm sure all the families, friends, faculty and students will be really reassured to hear that. i was horrified. to use the worst massacre in modern US history as an opportunity to placate gun advocates showed a complete and utter lack of sensitivity, amongst other things. unbelievable ...

Anonymous said...

oops, and that was me, by the way. i forgot to put my name on the post. :)

Anonymous said...

I meant to email you about Drive, oops, sorry! My bad!
I actually thought you knew about it, since it was Tim Minear at the helm and was looking through your blog all weekend to find your all-knowing words!Aack.
It's on in our lovely country on Friday nights on CTV.
Katherine

Nikki Stafford said...

fb: I agree... as someone wrote in the Globe this morning, "The NRA will say that guns don't kill people; people kill people. But people kill MORE people with guns." Amen.

Katherine: I knew about Drive, but thought it was starting on Monday and not Sunday. D'oh. Thanks for the CTV heads up! :)