Tag Archives: highlights

2011 MTV VMAs: Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Adele big winners

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Last night the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards was underwhelming without a host, and yet it seemed to get the job done anyhow. Lady Gaga opened the show as her male alter ego Jo Calderone. After a dizzying monologue she finally showed off her mega-pipes and belted out a memorable rendition of “You and I” on the piano with assistance from Queen’s Brian May. Kudos must be handed out to Gaga for managing to keep herself in one dress (and personality) for the entire duration of the show. She totally stole the spotlight away from Britney Spears when the pop queen was presented the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award. Other highlights from the night include… Kanye West and Jay-Z performed a low-key version of their Watch The Throne single “Otis” in front of a cheering crowd; Russell Brand’s tribute to Amy Winehouse was heartfelt in all the right ways, Tony Bennett’s prerecorded duet with the late jazz singer was uplifting, and Bruno Mars’ “Valerie” was full of retro flair and fitting to close out the tribute; Adele’s “Someone Like You” performance was only rivaled by Beyonce’s “Love On Top.” During the pre-show Beyonce announced that she is pregnant with first child; rap king Jay-Z is the baby daddy. Immediately following the entrancing performance (you can’t help but get lost in Beyonce’s glowing face and rockin’ bod), she dropped the mic, unbuttoned her shirt and showed off her slight baby bump. Now that’s a way to walk off the stage. Speaking of walking off the stage, that’s exactly what Lil Wayne should have done before opening his mouth to rap (if you even want to call it that). Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Weezy’s music, but man was that a lousy way to close the VMAs. Over the top auto-tune doesn’t work live, especially if you can’t sing and it hurts when your song contains so many expletives that viewers only hear half the lyrics. Chris Brown’s medley didn’t do it for me either; the crooner can move (hell, he can even fly), but I was expecting him to sing a bit and wearing that headset was just redundant.

But I don’t want to wrap things up on such a sour note. Overall, yes, the show was underwhelming (there was no hostful opening monologue, acceptance speeches were kept to a minimum, the telecast was controversy-free), but it worked because for the most part the performances were solid (I’m thinking about Gaga, The Throne, Adele, Bruno Mars, Beyonce) and the show never felt like it was dragging along (expect maybe the part when Jonah Hill proved that he’s not funny when he’s skinny). Kevin Hart could have made a great host; his mini-monologue and commercial break segments were enjoyable. Maybe next year.

And now let’s turn to the night’s big winners. A geometry-influenced Katy Perry took home the coveted Video of the Year award for “Firework.” (I still can’t believe that beat out the Beastie Boys’ “Make Some Noise”; oh well.) She also scooped up Best Collaboration and Best Visual Effects for “E.T.” Kanye West was on hand and kept cool to accept the award with Perry. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” won two awards for Best Female Video and Best Video with a Message. Adele won the most awards (4), but they are all in the technical categories so unfortunately she never made it on stage to make an acceptance speech. Other notable winners include: Tyler, The Creator is Best New Artist, Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” somehow nabbed Best Male Video, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” was Best Hip-Hop Video, Foo Fighters won Best Rock Video with “Walk”, and “Till the World Ends” gave Britney Spears the award for Best Pop Video. Jump after the break for the full list of winners.

Update: The numbers are in. This year’s Video Music Awards drew 12.4 million total viewers, making it MTV’s most-watched telecast ever. That’s up 8% from last year’s show which attracted 11.4 viewers. See what happens when MTV airs music-related content? Craziness!

Continue reading 2011 MTV VMAs: Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Adele big winners →

Comic Con 2011: ‘Fringe’ (Peter Bishop audition tapes inside)

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The Fringe panel at Comic Con contained the greatest amount of energy of all the panels I attended. Even though the panelists kept season 4 secrets closely guarded, the attendees made it known how much they love and respect one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever produced. Onto the highlights:

  • The panel started with a sizzle reel highlighting major events that happened throughout the series so far. Peter Bishop (played by Joshua Jackson) was not present in the clip.
  • When the clip ended the stage filled up with actors Anna Torv, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown, Jasika Nicole, and new series regular Seth Gabel (he plays Lincoln Lee); and executive producers and showrunners J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner. Again, Josh Jackson is no where to be found.
  • Immediately the panel turned to the audience for a Q&A session. Pinkner confirmed, “It’s not that Peter’s consciousness is anywhere. There is no Peter. Peter doesn’t exist. But we’ll let you know when he shows up.” An astute fan asked how a lovechild between Bolivia and Peter could exist if Peter never existed. “The question is, is there a child?” replied a cryptic Anna Torv. Interesting…
  • Cue another clip. This time it’s Peter Bishop audition tapes! The video features famous actors ranging from Lost‘s Michael Emerson to Community‘s Dani Pudi wearing a fake mustache. It ends with a shot of Joshua Jackson dressed in an Observer suit with pale skin asking, “What do you want me to do?” Watch it after the break.
  • And the crowd goes wild! Josh Jackson emerges from stage right and sits down next to his TV father on the panel. He’s looking rather dapper donning an Observer-esque hat. Are all of these hints of what’s to come in season 4? One can speculate…
  • When asked if Jackson will ever get to encounter an alt-universe version of himself he replied, “I don’t think Peter will ever have an alternate, but however he gets folded back into this season, it will be a very different version than what we’ve seen before. He’s in a different place now.”
  • It was also brought up that viewers haven’t seen an alt-version of Nina Sharp. “I’m not sure that [she] isn’t an inanimate object like a lightbulb or a toaster,” Brown hinted. She mentioned that since we still don’t know which side Nina lies on (good or bad), perhaps she will reveal herself as something destructive on the other side if it turns out she’s working against our heroes.
  • And what about Astrid? Nicole shared, “[We’ll see] a different kind of Astrid then we’ve seen before.” Then she belted out a rendition of Aerosmith’s classic tune with the words “Astrid’s got a gun.”
  • When a viewer asked whether or not Olivia will learn to control her Cortexifan-intensified powers this season Pinker dropped this: “I’m not sure we’ve seen all of her powers yet.” He cushioned this with, “What’s going to happen is really hard to answer because we think it would spoil letting the show unfold.” And this was the theme of the panel; not much could be revealed and so we’ll have to wait until September to be fed answers.
  • I cannot end this panel highlight post without mentioning Noble’s kind words that opened the panel. “Seriously, without your efforts, your rabid support, we wouldn’t be here right now. You are the best fans that ever existed.” He proclaimed that Comic Con “is our Emmys” and every single fan in attendance showered the panel with love.

Scrub through the gallery below to see pictures from the lovefest that was the Fringe panel.

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Continue reading Comic Con 2011: ‘Fringe’ (Peter Bishop audition tapes inside) →

Comic Con 2011: ‘Game of Thrones’

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Like the Fringe panel, the Game of Thrones panel was not heavy on upcoming season spoilers. In fact, much of the panel was just Jason Mamoa (he played Khal Drogo) and Peter Dinklage (The Imp) making jokes and George R.R. Martin geeking out over his own creation. Anyway, here are the few takeaways from the packed panel:

  • The panel consisted of actors Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, a brunnette Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Jason Momoa; showrunners/executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff; and author George R.R. Martin, who served as a knowledgeable moderator. Star Sean Bean was noticeably absent.
  • Benioff shared, “Well, those who’ve read the books know what to expect, but we’ve got a bunch of new characters coming in. It’s time to meet the Red Priestess. It’s time to meet Stannis Baratheon. There’s bad stuff lurking north of the wall. This will be a season of exploration.”
  • The Battle of Blackwater will take place in season 2, and Martin is penning the script for it.
  • The panel discussed the nature of the show and how it will follow the books in terms of how much each season will cover. Book 1–Game of Thrones–managed to fit into ten episodes. A Clash of Kings will likely also fit nicely into a ten-episode arc, but by the time they get to the beefy A Storm of Swords that story will likely encompass one-and-a-half or even two seasons. Benioff said that as long as the team behind the show makes it through the pivotal event he referred to as “RV” (so as not to spoil it for non-readers) he will consider the HBO adaptation a true triumph.
  • The season 1 DVD & Blu-ray packages won’t come with any deleted scenes simply because the creative team managed to stuff everything they shot into the season. The cast’s audition tapes will be included.
  • When a fan asked why so many characters get killed in his A Song of Ice and Fire series Martin replied, “I’ve always believed that I want people emotionally involved in my stories. I want the readers almost afraid to turn the page because they don’t know who’s going to win.”

Pictures from the Game of Thrones panel below.

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Comic Con 2011: ‘Family Guy’, ‘The Simpsons’ & ‘American Dad’

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Here are Comic Con panel highlights from a couple of Seth Macfarlane cartoons and that one from Matt Groening.

Family Guy

  • The panel kicked off with a revealing clip that shared a bunch of upcoming story lines involving the Griffins and their friends. Ready, set…
  • Meg turns 18 and Quagmire hits on her; Brian takes shrooms and goes on a crazy trip; Stewie and Brian travel back in time to the pilot episode (the original crappy animation is still in tact; “It’s very “All Good Things” for you Star Trek fans,” Macfarlane says); a new Viewer Mail episode is in the pipeline; somebody tries to kill Chris; Stewie runs away from home and lives with the housekeeper Consuela; Stewie drives; Lois kidnaps a kid; Peter gets in a tussle with the Amish; Peter embarks on a road trip with Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland; Peter and Quagmire get arrested by Joe.
  • So many guest voices next season and they include: Ricky Gervais (he’ll voice a dolphin), Cate Blanchett, Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, and Mark Harmon.
  • Macfarlane confirmed that a Family Guy movie is happening. It’s just a matter of when. “We’ve actually had meetings about it, which makes it real,” he said. The team is trying to figure out how to keep spitting out quality episodes and work on the feature film at the same time. The Simpsons managed to do it, so I have full faith Macfarlane and co. will get it done.
  • Macfarlane and the Family Guy voice actors spotted the American Sign Language interpreter during the panel and took advantage of him by forcing him to sign all kinds of curse words and foul situations. Funny stuff, but the joke was stretched out far too long (as FG jokes tend to do, also).
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The Simpsons

  • The Simpsons kicks off its 23rd season this September, can you believe it?! The 500th episode (!) falls on February 19.
  • A bit from this year’s “Treehouse of Horror” was shown; it features Ned Flanders in a wonderful parody of the Dexter opening credits.
  • The other clip shown was from an episode in NMA-style animation (that’s the Taiwanese company that produces CGI reenactments of popular news stories).
  • In last season’s finale Marge urged viewers to vote on whether or not Ned Flanders and Mrs. Krabappel should be together. The producers promise that the issue will be laid to rest in the premiere. If they end up together (and they likely will), Groening promises that their relationship will stay consistent in all future episodes. Groening himself admitted that he’s pro-Nedna since Ned deserves love and “Bart deserves his teacher living next door.”
  • The Simpsons family is traveling to the one continent they haven’t been to yet: Antarctica.
  • In the end, Lisa will end up with Milhouse. “I don’t know how the show will end or when, but in my heart, I think they’re going to be together,” shared producer Al Jean.
  • Check out this list of guest stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Andy Garcia, John Rivers, Jane Lynch, Jonah Hill, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric, Neil Gaiman, Gordon Ramsay, Armie Hammer, Michael Cera, and Jeremy Irons (he’ll voice Mo’s bar rag). Also, they’ll be using audio from a 1918 President Theodore Roosevelt speech in an episode where we find out Superintendent Chalmers’ hero is Teddy. Said Jean, “I thought, ‘Finally! We can put a president in the show. And a good one too. We’re going to give him a little credit at the end.”
  • When asked if we’ll ever see the Simpsons age, Groening replied “we may do it when we run out of ideas. That may be the last sad season of The Simpsons. Bart will turn 11.”

American Dad

  • Though the voice cast (including Seth Macfarlane) came out for the panel, the bulk of it was taken up by the screening of the season 7 premiere episode “Hot Water.” Cee-Lo Green guest stars as a singing maniacal hot tub and Asa Taccone (brother of SNL’s Jorma) wrote the music. Michael Peña (Crash) guest stars as the hot tub salesman. So that they could screen in the episode in its entirety, the first half of the episode was screened in black and white storyboard format as per FOX’s request. Watching this was pretty neat, actually. Character movements are not fluid, but you can really see all the hard work that the animators put into making an episode. Eventually a refreshing splash of color was introduced and the episode played out like we’re used to. Overall, the premiere is a solid episode. Cee-Lo croons over catchy Asa-produced beats throughout, and the story involving a hot tub with a mind of its own getting in-between Stan and Francine’s relationship works well.
  • During the season there’ll be an episode where a ship from outer space comes to get Roger; in it Shannon Sharpe will voice an alien bounty hunter.
  • Other guest voices include Dr. Dawg and Charles Barkley.
  • There will be plenty of musical numbers sprinkled throughout the season, too.
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Comic Con 2011: ‘Alcatraz’

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At Comic Con I was afforded the opportunity to watch the Alcatraz pilot not once but twice. Warner Bros. held a screening on preview night, and then during Comic Con proper I sat through the screening plus panel featuring the show’s stars Sarah Jones and Jorge Garcia, showrunner/writer Liz Sarnoff, and director Jack Bender. Here are my initial thoughts:

Alcatraz is from J.J. Abrams; the ending credits begin with the Bad Robot squeal. It takes place on an Island. It’s overtly mysterious. It makes use of flashbacks and a loud sound like closing prison doors clanks before and after each time jump. It stars Jorge Garcia, known to most heavy TV viewers as Hurley Reyes. It is extremely hard not to compare this show with Lost. The plot elements and even the behind-the-scenes pedigree (Sarnoff and Bender wrote and directed pivotal Lost episodes, respectively) radiate elements from the arguably the greatest mystery piece of our generation. At the panel, Sarnoff admitted that they’re “embracing Lost similarities” but at the same time “we’re our own show, we want to do our own thing.”

So how did their “own thing” work in the pilot? Pretty well, actually. By no means is this pilot grander than what Abrams directed for Lost back in 2004. That said, it still managed to pique my interest enough to have me recommend others to tune in when it premieres midseason (Sarnoff confirmed it’ll begin its run in January). I am not going to recap the entire episode; I think it’s best for you to watch the mystery unfold when the episode airs. However, I will reveal that the pilot generates a ton of mythology from the get-go and hopes that bits of it (if not all of it) sticks and pulls you in so that you’ll tune in again the following week. The pilot introduces a story where Alcatraz inmates disappear from their cells in 1963 and mysteriously reappear in modern day society. Sam Neill (Twin Peaks) plays Emerson Hauser, a man who heads a secret task force with Parminder Nagra (ER) aiming to figure out exactly why the inmates are coming back and who’s pulling the strings to make it happen. Strong female lead (J.J. knows how to find them) Sarah Jones is Rebecca Madsen; she teams with Jorge Garcia’s Dr. Diego Soto (an Alcatraz expert) to investigate the disappearances and reappearances. Eventually they get caught up in the middle of Neill’s long on-going investigation and they agree to help Neill and Nagra forge onward. That’s essentially what’s set up in the pilot. Sarnoff explained that the show will act like a procedural (there’ll be an “inmate of the week” that wrecks havoc in present day) with serialized elements (flashbacks will explore Alcatraz history and slowly reveal the mystery behind the reappearance of the inmates). My hope is that the inmates, especially the one featured in the pilot (Jack Sylvane played by the suave and sophisticated Jeffrey Pierce), are factored into the story more than I think they will be. Without spoiling the pilot’s conclusion, I will say that it seems like we won’t be seeing Sylvane in the present all that often (and no, he doesn’t get killed).

I can’t reiterate this enough: comparisons to Lost will be made when Alcatraz premieres early next year. Thing is, the core audience that’ll give Alcatraz a try are coming from Lost and they want a show that can compete with that great achievement in TV history. Like almost all genre shows, if Alcatraz wants to succeed and step out of the shadow of Lost it’ll have to balance plot mythology with deep character exploration. Sarnoff need only look at another Abrams show Fringe for an idea on how to do that. If the promising and intriguing Alcatraz manages not to get lost in confusing mythos (no pun intended) and puts character development and relationships first, I have high hopes that it’ll shine as the next great genre story that network TV has been desperately trying to tell once more.

Stills from the panel hang below.

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2010 MTV VMA highlights, winners enclosed

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Last night the MTV Video Music Awards made big winners out of Lady Gaga and Eminem.  Gaga, who was nominated for a record-breaking 13 moon mans, was awarded Best Female, Pop, and Dance video for “Bad Romance” and Best Collaboration for “Telephone” (featuring Beyonce).  Eminem took home Best Male and Hip Hop awards for “Not Afraid.”  Video of the Year–you guessed it–went to Gaga for–right, again–“Bad Romance.”  When she accepted the top prize (covered in meat, mind you), Gaga announced the name of her second record (it’s called Born This Way) and she even recited a line from a new song: “God makes no mistakes. I’m on the right track baby. I was born this way.”  Look after the break for the full list of winners.

11.4 million viewers tuned into this year’s VMAs making it the third most-watched telecast in MTV history.  See MTV?  People want music videos, not crap reality shows.  The over-the-top performances really made the show worth watching.  Eminem started things off with a bang by performing his smash hit “Not Afraid” followed by “Love the Way You Lie” with a surprise guest appearence by a red-headed Rihanna.  The Bieb followed with “Baby”, “Somebody to Love”, and a drum solo.  Next his mentor Usher lit up the stage (literally) with an amazing dance routine for “DJ Got Us Falling In Love” and “OMG.”  I really didn’t mind that he dropped most of his vocals from the performance; he is a dance god.  And that light up floor was beyond cool.  Florence + the Machine performed “Dog Days Are Over”, proving to be a huge contender in the music industry.  That Florence Welch can sing.  A bit later young miss Taylor Swift took the stage barefooted to sing her song about the Kanye West incident that happened last year.  The song was introduced by a brief video recap of the incident; without that you might not have been able to tell it was even about the controversial night.  I will have to scan the lyrics to find clues; anywho, let’s all move on from that fateful night, shall we?  Swift looked great and the performance was classy, per usual.  Drake, Mary J. Blige, and Swizz Beatz did “Fancy”, and boy did they sound great together.  This marked Drake’s first time performing at the VMAs, and he proved he can work the crowd.  I’m looking forward to what he’s got in store for next year.  Linkin Park nailed it with a fun performance right outside the Griffith Observatory.  And then came Mr. West.

Comedian Aziz Ansari hopped onto stage to give a hilarious introduction to the main (and closing) event.  Anticipation built as Kanye walked onto stage donned in a red suit to meet his sampler.  As ballarinas began to flutter around the stage, Kanye dropped the heavy beat to a never-before-heard track called “Runaway”.  And the chorus goes: “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags, Let’s have a toast for the assholes, Let’s have a toast for the scumbags, Every one of them that I know/Let’s have a toast to the jerkoffs, That’ll never take work off/ Baby, I got a plan, Run away fast as you can.”  With “Runaway” Kanye acknowledges his past mistakes in a rather tongue-in-cheek manner, but at the same time retains his comeback stature.  In other words, it was a runaway success.  Can’t forget to mention fellow G.O.O.D. Music artist Pusha T who added a worthy verse to the mix.  Any “booos” that might have lingered before the epic performance had quickly turned into “Kanye, Kanye, Kanye” cheers by the time the song was over.  Jump after the break to watch the performance, complete with Aziz’s intro.

A few more highlights.. Host Chelsea Handler did a great job (when she came out wearing that house I was in stitches, plus seeing Chuy there was a nice treat); house DJ Deadmau5 looked freakin’ sweet in his LED mouse head piece; Nicki Minaj’s pre-show performance (featuring will.i.am) was a ton of fun; and how amazing did MTV do up LA’s Nokia Theatre? Continue reading 2010 MTV VMA highlights, winners enclosed →