What I Think About Shows I Like

• 31Jan 08

  Invader ZIM: A Classic Cartoon

  They say that Nickelodeon was looking for a cartoon aimed at their Older Demographic, and so in 2001, Invader ZIM was born.

  This pre-dated Cartoon Network's Adult Swim by half a year, so you really couldn't say the market was clamoring for an adult-oriented children's cartoon (as opposed to an adult-oriented adult cartoon like the film 'Heavy Metal' or anything you'd find on MTV back in the day or Comedy Central today). In fact, given the time frame, it's difficult to see why they'd want to market to adults at all, since Nick has always prided itself on being the only network for Kids.

  Marketing cartoons to adults is stupid anyway. If an adult latches on to a child's cartoon, it's almost certainly by accident and in spite of the childishness of the show itself. See: Spongebob Squarepants. EVERYONE freakin' loves that guy, but it's not like Nickelodeon's airing it at 11pm so adults have an alternative to Daily Show repeats. They air it in prime kid time and the adults just have to adjust or catch it on one of its millions and millions of re-runs.

  That having been said, I'm kind of surprised Invader ZIM didn't make it as a kid's show; it strikes me as something I would've fawned over as a 10 year old. I mean, for Christ's sake, Ren & Stimpy was at the core of their Saturday Morning Lineup! Looking back at some of the themes and gags, you're telling me a 10 year old mind can fully comprehend what's really going on in 'Space Madness'?

  Invader ZIM reminds me in a lot of ways to Ren & Stimpy. You've got the diminutive little a-hole alien bound for world domination through antisocial tendencies and a general distaste for the pit-i-ful HUmans; and you've got Ren, the diminutive little a-hole chihuahua bound for fame and glory and awesome pecs. Zim has his lovable, good-natured foil in G.I.R. and Ren has his Stimpson J. Cat. The social dynamic between the main characters and those surrounding them are fairly similar as well, with the bulk of the Earthly population being bumbling morons who are merely fodder for the main characters' whims.

  The obvious differences lie in animation style (ZIM tending toward that slick Anime style without being too over the top; think Boondocks, since both creators started out in comics) and overall storyline. That is, Zim actually HAS a storyline, while R&S lean towards those classic Bugs Bunny types of one-offs, only more perverse and with far more boogers.

  The worst thing you can do to a show is shift its timeslot; especially on cable and ESPECIALLY when you're a children's network and kids have the memory retention of a squirrel. If the fans can't find the show, then they won't watch; and if potential fans can't find the show, they'll never know it existed until its 27 episodes are packaged on a DVD set seven and a half years after the fact.

  But, some things just weren't meant to be. I mean, it's not like ZIM had a block of popular like-minded cartoons coming out with it. It was on an island out there while Ren & Stimpy had Rugrats and Doug all joining the Nicktoons fray at the same time in the early 90s.

  I will say this, the best children's cartoons are those that appeal greatly to adults. I felt that way when I was 10 and it's still true. Invader ZIM followed a long line, from Ren & Stimpy and Rocco's Modern Life and Animaniacs and Eek The Cat and Life With Louie and The Real Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Transformers and anything made by Warner Brothers before the 1960s. You don't NEED to be an adult to enjoy those shows, which I did, but in being an adult, you can look back on these shows and realize they did something special while all the G.I. Joes and Alvin & The Chipmunks and any of the myriad of bastard Walt Disney spinoffs failed miserably.

  A classic cartoon will always withstand the passage of time and keep well-preserved long after childhood whimsy has passed you by.

  • Posted Jan 31, 2008 7:40 pm PT
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• 31Jan 08

  Six Feet Under - Almost Over: The Predictions

  So I'm at the point where Nate had his numb arm numarm narm thing and I'm not about to speculate on anything regarding his fate (even though I'm like 99.9% sure he dies in the end because I keep up on the news of TV shows I don't even watch sometimes).

  I'm here to talk about Claire. The younger sibling. The one I had the most respect for.

  Now, I'm assuming at this point - episode 8 in the 5th season - that they knew this would be their final year, so any and all plotlines involving individual family members are at the point where they're wrapping things up for a conclusion. Not necessarily meaning everyone's going to die, or that it's going to drop to black suddenly, but that we'll get an honest assessment of where the characters will be from here on out. I'm here to give my predictions, meager as they may be.

  Ruth's back with Hiram. I guess she could do worse, after the debacle that was George. I like how Ed Bagley Jr. pretty much plays himself, only as an effeminate hairdresser. Hiram is equally as health-and-eco-conscious and equally as off-putting to look at on screen. This could go to a happily-ever-after kind of end, but I'd prefer the one where Hiram and Nicolai duel to the death after 20 consecutive vodka shots. Lord Have Mercy! Lord Have Mercy! Lord Have Mercy!

  David and Keith have their adopted black children - one a sweet and sensitive 9 year old, one a hellraising 11 year old; brothers from the same mother - and after a more-than-rocky start, it looks like Keith is making the effort to make the committment. David, of course, has been gung ho all the way (easy to see who's the mother and who's the father in THIS relationship). I've really liked how, as all this depressing crap has gone on the last couple seasons, David and Keith have managed to keep it together and make their relationship work. Nobody's rooting harder for these two, so I hope things work out in the end. Something tells me they will, but something also tells me there may be a biological mother in their future contesting custody of their foster children.

  Rico's back in the house with Vanessa, but she still hasn't forgiven him for cheating, so they're at this crossroads where they live together but it's Not Like Before. I have no idea where this is headed; I kind of root for them to end up well, but I also kind of think Vanessa is a tnuc At least, that was my reaction last night. Why do you ask him to move back in if you can't be the wife you know he needs in his life? He was all ready to get his own apartment with bedrooms for the kids and she sucked him back in because her Canadian nanny turned out to be cuckoo. I'm seeing a definitive split before all is said and done.

  Nate and Brenda are mired in a Nate and Brenda kind of relationship. Fighting and cufking and co-dependency issues abound. She's pregnant with a child that may or may not be retarded, he's questioning the meaning of the universe (even going so far as to delve into Quakerism), and he's taken quite a shine to George's daughter Maggie - who he just had sex with in the last episode prior to his Narmisode, while Brenda decided to make the effort of meeting him halfway by secretly attending the Quaker church gathering he was supposedly driving Maggie to. So, he's dead? I don't know, I guess he could be. Seems a little early; for some reason I had him pegged as dying in the final episode. This is going to be a pretty big cufking bummer for the last three episodes if indeed the next one involves his funeral. I'm saying he's getting revived tonight, but something will happen later that will cufk his tish up.

  Meanwhile, what perfect timing for him to drop unconscious of a stroke/heart attack. You think they were fighting before, just wait until he got home to Brenda after she sat at that wacko church thing all by herself, KNOWING what he was really up to. If death or near-death gives us anything, it's a little cufking sympathy when you cheat on your wife while she's pregnant with your child that you don't really want in the first place because you've already had one with another woman who's dead by mysterious and unresolved circumstances.

  But this Claire thing has me cufked up most of all! Nate could die, David and Keith could separate, Ruth could be butchered in her sleep by a wild-eyed George and I wouldn't give two tish's compared to the fate I'm seeing in store for Claire!

  She started out so innocent, so relatable, so angst-riddled and condescending and sarcastic. Then, she became Queen of the Art School, got big into sex and drugs, and was making me proud by being a raving student success. This translated into her dropping out, moving in with Brenda's brother Billy, and pretty much living off of her art and his money. Things fell apart when Billy went off his meds and went battish, then she couldn't get her trust money left by her dead father, then she was denied the federal grant, then her mom forced her to get a job. Which she did.

  As a temp.

  But it's only temporary.

  But it's only for now.

  But it's ...

  And now she's at this law office and her co-workers are annoying cufktwads who say "Yeah Baby!" all the time a la Austin Powers ... and she's kind of making an effort to FIT IN!

  By attending their after-work social gatherings at the tishty bar inside the local shopping mall. By buying multiple power suits with many pairs of pantyhose. By bringing in fresh-baked cookies to share with the animals! And now, apparently, she's dating one of the low-level attorneys!

  In the last episode, she ran into one of her best friends from art school who she never sees anymore and decided to take her new lawyerman with her to one of their art shows. They were all still young and wild and crazy and sexed up and drugged up and FANTASTIC!

  And she was ... over all that. At 21, having not picked up a camera in ages, having seemingly no desire to do so in the near future, saying she's working in hell while purchasing the proper sunblock to adjust to the temperature, she's no longer the free-wheeling child of a lost generation whose art WILL make an impact upon mankind.

  Instead she's ... GASP ... a yuppie!

  It's the ultimate betrayal; I'm truly sick with this. I can't tell if this is the writers trying to end the series with her on a high note, like her life's going to be okay because she's got this stable, rich boyfriend and she's no longer suffering from depression because now her life has meaning in all the bulltish assignments she's asked to perform. She's no longer listlessly throwing her life away via drugs and tishty men; she's ABOVE all that. She's Grown Up. She's Matured.

  Cufk that!

  Her aunt - who first inspired her to pursue art as a life choice - recently said, "Maybe you AREN'T an artist." I hope that's not the theme of the whole thing. I hope it can't be that easy to just shut off that side of you. Sure, she turned into a factory, cranking out the same tired pieces over and over and when she tried something new failed and subsequently gave up trying thereafter; but you can't just LOSE that desire to create, can you?

  Something tells me that eventually she'll come to her senses, realize she's 21 years old, and figure out that she's NOT supposed to be stuck behind a desk in a cubicle with the same company for the next 20-40 years; nor that she belongs in some big house as some rich man's exotic trophy wife. She's BETTER than that!

  But, I don't know, and that scares me more than any of the other possible outcomes this series has in store in the final four episodes. All that's left for me now is to watch them

  Covering my eyes during the scary parts.

  • Posted Jan 31, 2008 7:29 pm PT
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• 31Jan 08

  Six Feet Under Mid Series Report

  Looking back at it, Six Feet Under isn't necessarily the kind of show I would normally watch. On a whole, I don't think my family is any more or less functional than any other family on the market. And it's nearly painful to go back and watch the movie American Beauty (shares creators with Six Feet Under), which in spite of popular opinion does NOT withstand the test of time or repeated viewings.

  But, I love it. I love this show! I love the characters, I love the storylines, I love the depth and the growth and the humor and the sorrow and the grieving and the depression. I love Nate Fisher as the relatable righteous moral authority and brother David as the uptight, conservative, religious moral authority (who just so happens to be gay and sister Claire who's the angst-riddled artist continuously cufked over by the losers she attracts and mother Ruth as the widow stay-at-home who's wound up tighter than a coil.

  Seeing them interact and react and try to cope and survive and lead healthy lives in spite of all the cufked up death that surrounds them (the family business is a funeral home) is the one singular joy derived from this show.

  And yet, I wouldn't put it in my top 5 all-time TV shows. Right now, I'm not even positive it's in my top 10, but I've still got one and a half more seasons to pound through before I can make a definitive judgment. For a show that's so well-acted, with characters you believe in and want to see do well in life, it's hard to sit back and watch all the tragedies that splash on their shores like a series of tsunamis.

  I mean, right off the bat the show starts off with the dad being killed in a bus accident. From there, to the numerous break-ups among all of their relationships to the mysterious death of Lisa, Nate's wife, to the fact that in every single episode somebody's dying within the first five minutes, guaranteed, it's just this heavy cufking entity that you're forced to wade through. For every episode that makes the viewer chipper with glee (pretty much anything with Kathy Bates, but that's like a three-episode run), there are eight or nine that will completely shatter you.

  The latest one I saw is no different.

  Nate's still grieving over his wife's death, Claire is facing a temporary setback in the poor reception of her submission to that day's art class, Ruth and new husband George are embroiled in the sensitive issue of his long-lost bastard son, and David's boyfriend Keith is touring as a security guard for some singer and it's the first time they've been apart (aside from the breakups they've endured).

  Then, as David is driving a body back from the morgue, he decides to be a Good Samaritan and pick up a hitchhiker.

  Now, things like that will instantly raise a red flag (like whenever you see that the creator of a series just so happens to have written and/or directed an episode ... you know tish is GOING down within the next hour), but this is Six Feet Under, so you can't necessarily expect your first instinct is going to be true. And, for a while, as they're going to get the gas can from the station, things are looking kinda OK (really, the only danger at this point is David fantasizing about a possible fling with this maybe-gay stranger, which isn't a rarity in this show).

  And then out comes the gun from the satchel, and the entire last half of the episode is devoted to the ensuing kidnapping (leaving completely forgotten all the other storylines this episode started out with). Just, some of the most riveting television you're ever going to see. David takes the guy to buy crack, David's forced to smoke it at gunpoint, David gets tied up while the guy robs a liquor store and frees himself, escapes, runs off and hides, and gets caught when his phone goes off. David driving the guy to Long Beach where he's promised that he'll be let go. Finally, the entire episode culminates with David in an alley being doused with the gasoline they bought before and being threatened with a gun and a lighter. The guy ends up sparing him, though, steals the van, and leaves David soaking, beaten, in a dangerous neighborhood, finally happening upon a passing police officer as he walks back toward civilization.

  I'll find out what happens in the next episode tonight, but I can't say I'm necessarily looking forward to it. Watching Six Feet Under isn't like popping a frozen pizza into the oven; it's like single-handedly cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people. There's a lot of tish involved, you can't help but feel overwhelmed and distressed the entire time, and when it's over you're a complete wreck, wasted in emotional fatigue.

  In that sense, Six Feet Under achieves what no other show has that I've ever seen. To elicit that kind of response from the viewer can mean only that the sheer power and talent in writing with this show isn't matched by The Wire or The Sopranos or anything else. When all is said and done, I wouldn't be shocked to see this show scratch and claw into my top 5; but you'll have to give me a week to recover before I can make such claims.

  • Posted Jan 31, 2008 7:24 pm PT
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