Let’s continue our look at Horror on TV with another classic episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Just as yesterday’s episode focused on a supporting character (Xander), this episode focuses on Willow!
I was going to say that Doppelgangland was one of my favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but then I realized that everyone would probably say that. This is an episode that truly shows why countless fans continue to love the show after all these years.
OH MY GOD, IT’S BUFFY!
I love Buffy The Vampire Slayer and it’s always bothered me that I haven’t been able to share any episodes on this site. But, fortunately, this Halloween, Hulu has come to the rescue!
The Zeppo is one of my favorite episodes. While Buffy and the Scooby Gang save the world in the background, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) finally gets an adventure of his very own! Actually, there’s a lot of things that Xander finally gets to do in this wonderful episode!
(On a personal note, it breaks my heart whenever I read about Nicholas Brendon getting arrested and I’m reminded that Xander was just a fictional character.)
Seriously, enjoy Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
In this episode of The Twilight Zone, Gladys Cooper plays an elderly woman who lives in such fear of death that she refuses to even open the door of her apartment. Then, one day, a young policeman (Robert Redford) is shot outside of her apartment and Cooper is forced to finally confront the world.
This episode was directed by Lamont Johnson and written by George Clayton Johnson. It originally aired on January 5th, 1962.
“Room for one more, honey!”
Agck!
This classic episode of the Twilight Zone originally aired on February 10th, 1961. It was written by Rod Serling, directed by Jack Smight, and stars Barbara Nichols.
In this episode of the Twilight Zone, a con man (Harry Townes) has the ability to change his face to make himself appear like anyone he wants to be. Needless to say, this ability doesn’t quite work out as well for him as he might have hoped.
This episode originally aired on January 1st, 1960.
(If the video is not showing up below — some browsers apparently have problems showing embedded videos from Hulu — you can watch the episode at http://www.hulu.com/watch/440771.)
Along with starting each day of October with a horror film here at the Shattered Lens, we’re going to end each day with a horror-themed television show.
While I had previously caught a few episodes of the Twilight Zone during one of the annual holiday marathons on SyFy, I didn’t truly appreciate the show until I first exchanged e-mails with my friend in Australia, Mark. Among other things, Mark expressed a very eloquent appreciation for The Twilight Zone and that inspired me to watch quite a few episodes that have been uploaded to YouTube and Hulu. Along with being an essential piece of television history, the best episodes of the Twilight Zone remain watchable and entertaining 50 years after they were first broadcast.
Considering the esteemed place that the Twilight Zone continues to occupy in American culture, it seems appropriate to feature it during Horror Month here at the Shattered Lens.
The Jungle, which first aired on December 1st, 1961, is a personal favorite of mine. A businessman returns to New York from Africa. While in Africa, he upset a local witch doctor. Though the businessman, at first, laughs off the possibility that he may be cursed, it soon turns out that he’s wrong. There’s a lesson to this episode and here it is: Don’t piss off a witch doctor.
When I first saw this episode, the final scene caused me to have nightmares!
(By the way, I’m embedding this episode from Hulu. Sadly, you will have to deal with commercials. However, it’s really a great episode!)
(It has also come to my attention that some browsers do not work with embedded Hulu vidoes. Seriously, the internet is so frustrating! If the embedded video is not appearing on your browser, you should be able to watch this episode on Hulu. Here’s the link — http://www.hulu.com/watch/440777. I apologize for the inconvenience but still, it is a really good episode!)
Project Greenlight may be the most guiltiest pleasure to be found on television right now.
The show, which is currently airing its fourth season on HBO, was one of the earliest reality shows. The concept behind the show is deceptively simple. Every season, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have held an online competition for aspiring filmmakers. The winner of the contest gets to direct a feature film, with the understanding that there will be TV cameras present to record every decision, argument, and screw up. At the end of the season, the film is released and hopefully, a major new filmmaker is discovered.
The pleasure part is obvious. If you’re like me and you love movies, there’s no way you can’t be fascinated by the chance to go behind-the-scenes of an actual production. It’s always fun to watch as the director struggles to maintain his (so far, all of the directors have been male) vision against the whims of studio execs who, often time, seem to be annoyed by the director’s very existence.
As for me, I’ve always been fascinated by the casting process. (Don’t believe me? Check out this post that I wrote about The Godfather. And then check out this one too!) My favorite part of Project Greenlight is always the episode that deals with the casting. I love seeing who auditions, who gets turned down, and who decides that they want nothing to do with the film. It’s a lot of fun!
As for the guilty part of this guilty pleasure, it comes from knowing that a show like this thrives on conflict. As much as Ben and Matt may say that they are only interested in selecting the most talented director, it’s also obvious that the director they pick has to make for good television. If production on the film goes smoothly, that’s good for the film but it’s not necessarily good for the show. That’s just the truth when it comes to reality television.
Hence, watching Project Greenlight always leads to conflicting emotions. On the one hand, you want the movie to turn out to be a good movie. You want the director to be up to the task. On the other hand, you’re specifically watching this show to watch the director screw up and make mistakes and piss people off and get into fights. Gossip lovers that we are, we love the behind the scenes drama but it’s rare that drama actually leads to a good film.
Check out Project Greenlight‘s track record.
Season 1 started way back in 2001! (Both this season and season 2 are available on DVD and I recommend checking out both of them.) The winner was Pete Jones, a friendly nonentity who went on to direct the extremely forgettable Stolen Summer. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes conflict, mostly due to a clash of personality between certain members of the crew. From the minute the season started, it was obvious that Pete was a nice guy but essentially in over his head. And, in many ways, Season 1 taught viewers an important lesson: when it comes to the film industry, nice guys get screwed.
However, as chaotic as season 1 may have been, it was nothing compared to what happened in 2003 when season 2 aired! Whenever anyone wants to make the argument that Ben and Matt purposefully pick directors who are totally wrong for whatever film is being made, they usually point to season 2. Season 2 featured the directing team of Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle directing The Battle of Shaker Heights. The Battle of Shaker Heights was supposed to be a quirky coming-of-age dramedy and a character study, so, of course, Ben and Matt selected two directors who were apparently incapable of human emotion. And the end result was pure chaos!
Now, I will say a few things in Kyle and Efram’s defense. When you watch season 2, the overriding theme is that these two directors totally ruined a great script. Just in case we missed that, the show even featured screenwriter Erica Beeney complaining that these two directors were totally ruining her great script. Well, sorry — the script for Battle of Shaker Heights was never that good to begin with. (“It’s about this kid — Kelly — who is really pissed off,” Erica would tell us at the beginning of every episode, as if she was the first person to ever write about a kid who was really pissed off.) I doubt anyone could have made a good movie out of that script. Picking two directors who were so totally wrong for the material only served to compound the inherent suckiness of the material.
Season 2 has got a true train wreck appeal to it. It’s one of those things that you watch with horrified fascination. (Incidentally, Shia LaBeouf is heavily featured in season 2 and I have to say that he fits right in.)
The third season of Project Greenlight aired in 2005. It was broadcast on Bravo and it’s unique in that it actually featured a good director (John Gulager) making a reasonably successful film (Feast). As such, it doesn’t quite work as a guilty pleasure because, from the minute Gulager starts directing, you don’t feel any guilt about watching him. Instead, the most interesting part of the third season comes early on when a bitchy casting director continually tries (and succeeds) at sabotaging Gulager’s attempts to get a cast with whom he feels comfortable.
(Season 3 has never been released on DVD but, the last time I checked, it was available on YouTube.)
After that third season, Project Greenlight went away for a while but now, 10 years later, it’s back! It has returned to HBO and, after three episodes, it’s starting to look like this season may be the guiltiest and most pleasurable of all! Ben and Matt were producing a comedy called Not Another Pretty Woman this time around. (Pete Jones even returned to write the script.) Not Another Pretty Woman has been described as being a broad comedy. So, of course, they selected Jason Mann, an extremely intense elitist film snob. One of the first things that Jason Mann did was try to fire Pete Jones and replace him with the screenwriter of that well-known comedy, Boys Don’t Cry. When that didn’t work, Mann abandoned Not Another Pretty Woman and instead requested to make a film called The Leisure Class instead. And, amazingly enough, he got HBO Films to agree, which means that either nobody had any faith in Pete Jones or everyone has total faith in Jason Mann!
Will that faith be rewarded or will The Leisure Class be another Battle of Shaker Heights? Will Jason Mann be another John Gulager or will he fade into the same obscurity in which Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin currently reside?
As of right now, I don’t know.
But I can’t wait to find out!
Previous Guilty Pleasures
I’m the exact same way when I don’t want to wake up.
(Well, not actually. I’ve actually been told that I’m very perky in the morning but then again, I’m weird. Most people seem to be more like Jessica Jones.)
Like our intrepid TV correspondent, Patrick Smith, I also watched the Emmy Awards last night. There were bits of the show that I liked and there was a lot about the show that I didn’t care for. I felt that Andy Samberg fell flat as host. I thought that a lot of the acceptance speeches were so dull that I considered them to be a personal attack on anyone watching. (I’m looking in your direction, Lisa Cholodenko.) The political posturing felt shallow, as it often does at the Emmy awards.
(Even the political speeches that did work often seemed like they were being wasted on a crowd that has no concept of self-awareness. Viola Davis made a passionate, timely, and articulate plea for diversity but it’s hard not to feel that, even though all the white liberals in the room patted themselves on the back for listening to her and applauding, that’s probably all that they’re going to do.)
And yet I was happy because Veep — my absolute favorite show — finally won for Best Comedy! I love Veep because it’s a show where everyone in politics — regardless of party or ideology — is revealed to be either a terrible human being or totally and completely ineffectual. Julia Lous-Dreyfus won the Emmy for Best Comedy Actress while Tony Hale picked up his second consecutive supporting award.
The only disappointment in Veep‘s victory? Anna Chlumsky did not win the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. This season of Veep was truly Chlumsky’s season! The scene below — which is today’s scene that I love — shows Chlumsky at her absolute best. In this scene, Chlumsky’s Amy Brookhiemer finally reaches her breaking point as she realizes that her boss, President Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus), essentially stands for nothing.
Even though most of us will never work for or even know a President, I think we can all relate to Amy’s feelings. And, seriously — who hasn’t wanted to tell someone off as beautifully as Amy does here?
For this scene alone, Anna Chlumsky deserves all the awards in the world!
Ok, let’s get over this, Andy Samberg was bad, not just bad, but really bad. All I wanted was Amy Poehler and Tina Fey back! The opening song was pretty funny, but after that, nope.
Here is the opening song.
Niecy Nash, “Getting On”
Julie Bowen, “Modern Family”
Allison Janney, “Mom” *WINNER
Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live”
Mayim Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory”
Gaby Hoffmann, “Transparent”
Jane Krakowski, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
Anna Chlumsky, “Veep” *really??? How did this not happen??
Kyle Chandler, “Bloodline”
Jeff Daniels, “The Newsroom”
Jon Hamm, “Mad Men” *WINNER *Finally!
Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”
Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”
Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards”
Claire Danes, “Homeland”
Viola Davis, “How to Get Away With Murder” *WINNER
Taraji P. Henson, “Empire”
Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black” *Robbed Again!
Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men”
Robin Wright, “House of Cards”
Anthony Anderson, “black-ish”
Louis C.K., “Louie”
Don Cheadle, “House of Lies”
Will Forte, “Last Man on Earth”
Matt LeBlanc, “Episodes”
William H. Macy, “Shameless”
Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent” *WINNER *Yes
Jonathan Banks, “Better Call Saul”
Ben Mendelsohn, “Bloodline”
Jim Carter, “Downton Abbey”
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones” *WINNER
Michael Kelly, “House of Cards”
Alan Cumming, “The Good Wife” *Should have
Joanne Froggatt, “Downton Abbey”
Lena Headey, “Game of Thrones”
Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones”
Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men”
Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black” *WINNER* Yes, Yes!
Christine Baranski, “The Good Wife”
Andre Braugher, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
Adam Driver, “Girls”
Keegan-Michael Key, “Key & Peele”
Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”
Tituss Burgess, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
Tony Hale, “Veep” *WINNER *Well deserved!
Those are the major awards, but lets not forget Outstanding Structured Reality Program (Shark Tank) and Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program (Deadliest Catch) are categories too!
But I want get on to something else, Tracy Morgan; OMG, when he came out and gave his speech, I won’t lie, I cried! After the crash and recovery he went through, just to be on the stage. WOW!
You can watch his speech here.
Through the Shattered Lens