The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

What I've Been Watching: Monsters, Mad Men, and a Madman

  Between work and my non-blogging life, it's hard to find time to write really long posts the way I used to. 

 So for the foreseeable future, this is is how I'll be writing about shows: in short bursts, maybe once a week, taking a few shows at a time. It's not fair to something like Mad Men, which could yield 1,000 words an episode, but that's the way it has to be. It's that or I shut things down here, and I enjoy this too much not to do it.

 With that out of the way, let's talk about:

• Mad Men Lovely to have you back, Mr. Draper, even if you're more messed up than ever. Like I said above, I don't time to go into the episode in any great detail (if that's what you're looking for, I suggest reading Alan Sepinwall or Matt Zoller Seitz, both of whom are excellent). I will mention a few things I liked: Don's strange new bachelor life; Betty's new mother-in-law seeing right through her ("Those children are terrified of her."); Peggy and Joe's "John and Marsha" routine; Peggy and Pete's ham scam; Don's angry pitch to the bathing suit company. Also, I admire Matthew Weiner for skipping over some giant 1964 cultural touchstones (Beatlemania, the Lyndon Johnson "daisy" ad). Setting the story 11 months later will probably make sense, story-wise, in the long run, but it's also nice to see this show not taking the obvious route.
• True Blood I've had the same complaint all season: you can't give us vampire kings and Vikings fighting werewolves and expect us to be interested in things like Jason Stackhouse: Wannabe Cop and The Adventures of Sam's Cartoonish Scumbag Family. The world of the werewolves, the class was between them and vampires (a definite blue vs. white collar vibe there), and -- most of all -- Denis O'Hare's King Russell -- have all been fascinating this season. But whenever the show goes back to Bon Temps, things die down. Obvious solution: bring the king to Bon Temps. Which I'm sure is exactly what the show has planned. Cool.
• Doctor Who By the time I started hearing good things about the BBC's Doctor Who reboot a few years back, the show was already into its fourth season. So I'm used to watching it in big chunks, on DVD. When season five began a few months ago, my girlfriend and I watched the first episode, then decided we'd wait until we could see the whole season in one big chunk. Several spoiler-avoiding weeks later, we're halfway through the new doctor's first year. And so far, it's been great. I doubt anyone will ever top David Tennant, but newcomer Matt Smith is at least making the character his own. Can't wait to see how the rest comes together. 

 Tom Coombe

The Emmys: Filled With Glee. (Tom: Somewhat Pleased)

  Some quick thoughts on the Emmy nominations:

•  I'm not at all surprised at Glee's 19 nominations. It's fairly well-liked by critics, brought something unique to TV, and is hugely popular. But one of the best comedies of the year? Actually, I'd put Glee on the list before The Office and 30 Rock, which had really, really weak years. A better list would've left them off and replaced them with Parks & Recreation and Community, so that the Best Comedy nominees would, you know, actually include the best comedies. (Incidentally, Modern Family is a close third to these shows, and I was happy to see so much of its ensemble nominated.)
•  I'll confess: I'm wayyyy behind on my Friday Night Lights viewing (read: I've seen one and a half seasons). But by all accounts, the show has only gotten better over time, and it would've been clear to anyone who saw only the first few handful of episodes how good Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler were in the lead roles. So it's nice to see them finally being honored for their work. 
• Nominations that made me happy: Aaron Paul for Breaking Bad, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson and Matthew Fox for Lost; Amy Poehler for Parks & Recreation.
• Nomination that surprised me, and made me happy: Martin Short for Damages, a great performance in a little-seen show.
• Omissions which really bugged me: John Noble for Fringe, the fact that  no one Sons of Anarchy or Justified made the cut (thinking specifically of Katy Segal from the former and Walton Goggins from the latter.)
• Who I'm pulling for in the main categories: Breaking Bad, Modern Family, Matthew Fox (for making us like Jack again), Connie Britton, Aaron Paul, Christina Hendricks, Larry David, Amy Poehler, Ty Burrell and Sofia Vergara.

 Tom Coombe

At the Movies: Why I'm a Heartless Crank Who Didn't Cry During Toy Story 3

 By the time I was maybe 13 or 14, I didn't have toys anymore. I'm not sure what my parents did with them, nor do I really care. 

 I liked setting elaborate battle scenarios with my G.I. Joe/Star Wars guys. (And they were always guys; I'm pretty sure Princess Leia never made it into my vast collection.) But at a certain point, I just sort of forgot about them.

 All of this is a roundabout way of saying I'm apparently the only adult male in Ameirca to have seen Toy Story 3 and not left the theater weeping, or even a little misty eyed.

 Don't get me wrong: it was great, like everything else I've seen from Pixar. And it's not like the studio's other films don't have the power to move me. The wordless opening sequence of Up is one of the most affecting things I've ever seen in any movie, cartoon or otherwise. And the day after seeing Toy Story 3, I went back and watched the first one, and found myself with a little catch in my throat during the moment at the end when Buzz spreads his wings and flies. 

 And I found myself very scared -- and then very, very relieved for the toys during TS3's landfill climax, in which the Things-Always-Turn-Out-OK-in-Pixar-Movies part of my brain seemed to go on vacation, replaced by the newly-found This-Is-Terrifying-Why-Is-This-G-Rated? lobe. Yet when the end came, and goodbyes were said, and the toys moved onto a new life, I wasn't exactly weepy or choked up.

 I think it comes down to the fact that while I liked having toys, and playing with them, none of what I had was exactly cherished. I don't remember a favorite (I had a teddy bear when I was much younger, but it's not like I had him embarking on any adventures of the Buzz/Woody variety). I mean, Boba Fett was cool and all, as was Yoda, and I dug Vader's cape, but that's about all.

 Now that I think about it, when I played with Star Wars toys, they did Star Wars stuff. When I got out my G.I. Joe figures, they did G.I. Joe stuff, and so on. I like to think I have a strong, versatile imagination, but most of my flights of fancy as a kid came from books, and not from my toys, which all seemed to be off-shoots of movies or TV shows (TV shows made to sell the toys I played with). They were characters starring in spin-offs of their own stories, and I was simply their director. They were never my friends. 

 Maybe I'd relate better to Book Story than Toy Story, but I doubt even Pixar could get that one greenlit. And to be fair, if I knew Yoda and Boba Fett had wound up with the same fate the Toy Story toys narrowly escaped from, I might feel a little bad, even after all this time.

 Tom Coombe

What I've Been Watching, Vampire Edition

 Vampire-related things I've enjoyed:

 1.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 2. Its spin-off series Angel

 3. The Stephen King novel Salem's Lot, and its short-story sequel, "One For the Road," which is one of the creepiest things he's written

 4.  The Count, from Sesame Street

 5.  The original Nintendo system's Castlevania games (actually, in retrospect, the second one was pretty tedious.)

 6.  Let the Right One In

  Some day, I may add True Blood to this list. But for now, I'm still not sure how I feel about the show. Three episodes into the third season, here are some of my likes and dislikes:

•  Denis O'Hare as the vampire king (pictured above, on the left) and British actor James Frain (as some sort of vamp private detective: both great additions to the cast.
• The downside to introducing compelling new characters: the older ones have less to do. Nothing with Lafayette, Tara or Jason seems all that interesting.
• The show's take on werewolves is pretty neat. From what I can tell, none of that turning on the full moon, I'm-cursed stuff. I'd rather have working class werewolves than the tortured variety. Actually, there aren't a lot of tortured True Blood characters, except maybe Bill, who's kind of dull. 
• Which is problematic: the show's two lead characters are its least interesting ones. Giving Bill the chance to have head-twisting hate sex with his maker this week might've prompted a day or two of OMGs on-line, but it did little to make me more interested in him, or how he feels about Sookie. 
• I was interested last season to find out where Sam came from, and hugely disappointed to learn that it was from a family of cartoonish rednecks. Seriously, they might as well be wearing straw hats and bib-overalls. 

 All in all, the show is fast-paced, freaky and funny enough for me to keep watching, and I'm glad it keeps expanding its universe. I just hope that by the end of the season, a lot of this stuff will gel.

 Tom Coombe