Pop Culture Wrap Up (7/27-8/27)

It's been a big month for me, pop-culturally speaking. I've seen things. I've done things. I've seen some of the things I've done. Basically, I've had some experiences, and I want to talk about those experiences. But what do you do when your whole life is packed to the brim with pop culture but none of it is really deserving of its own blog post? Well, I'll tell you: you cram everything into one post and hope that your immediate family will account for less than 50% of the readership.

Hit or Miss: Quick Movie Reviews 8: 4th of July Edition

You guys! Here in America, it's Independence Day, which means it's time to celebrate 'Merica the only way we know how: drinking too much, eating a variety of meats, prank-calling anyone named Tim Howard, and spending a long weekend watching movies. To help you make the decision on what movie to see, I have spent the last few days watching a crap-load of movies. Like, I don't know how I do it. It's staggering. And since you can't spend this whole weekend in a cinema, I'mma tell you which ones to HIT the theater to see, and which ones you can MISS:

Man, The Emmys Were Weird This Year

Be honest. You came here to see Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

The 65th Emmy Awards rolled onto the tiny screen last night. It was a time to celebrate the beautiful, buxom, and big-headed stars of all of our favorite television shows. And also Modern Family. It was a weird night, with everyone trying really hard to show everyone that this is the Golden Age of Television. Except that all that posturing made everything seem all the more desperate.  Television is still relevant, and to prove that, here's Carrie Underwood singing a song by The Beatles. Because when you think The Beatles and Walter Cronkite, you think scripted television.

Other than being tonally inconsistent, this was also possibly the saddest Emmys in recent memory (I know that the Modern Family peeps made some reference to this, but I was too upset about 30 Rock/Louie's loss to really pay attention). There were a lot of great actors and actresses that died this year, and it's great to remember them, but the one-on-one eulogies were more painful than anything else. I didn't need to see Edie Falco's strong tears - why you play me like that, Emmy? Also, it's hard to swing back into comedy after seeing the JFK assassination, which was included in the broadcast because...TELEVISION!

She won!

At the very least, this was a very unpredictable Emmys, especially in terms of lady winners. Tina Fey won for writing, which is what Tina Fey should always win for, Merritt Wever gave a delightfully brief acceptance speech, Anna Gunn got some much-deserved love for Breaking Bad, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus proved that she is just better at comedy than anyone else.  Speaking of, it was a pretty great night for Veep and Breaking Bad, the former of which won two big acting awards (Whoo! Tony Hale) and the latter finally picking up the win for Best Drama. Also, The Hour won for writing, and I love that show and I miss it almost every day. Even Jeff Daniels' confusing win for the inscrutable Newsroom couldn't bring me down with wins like that.

Still, the last two hours were a bit of a drag, and host Neil Patrick Harris seemed off his game for the entire night.  We get it, people watch television on their phones. Hilarious. Oh, and you want to make a joke about Thai hookers when introducing the sisters Deschanel? Perfect.  Even with the increasingly odd parade of thin women that used to not be as frighteningly thin, there were a few moments that were pretty great. Will Ferrell's bit with his kids was cute, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey proved once again that they're just the best, and Sarah Silverman and Nathan Fillion were featured for seemingly no reason, but in a good way. It was the Emmys, so, even though it was terrible (nothing for Enlightened, still no love for Jon Hamm), it was still better than most nights, because America, and the world, got to spend a little more time with the pretty people.

Onward and upward.

(source)

Sarah Silverman PSA: Be Bro-Choice

We here at Tableau Your Mind are not political. We would love to be, but when we try to learn about politics we end up more confused and/or bored. But we do love Sarah Silverman, who is pretty outspoken politically. And we also love this video, if only because of the last three words that Sarah Silverman says. Wait for it:

Be Bro-Choice: A Public Service Announcement from Sarah Silverman from Sarah Silverman     

To Blow You! That's basically an endorsement of this blog!  Hooray!

30 Rock Thursday Rock!

It’s difficult to put into words how much we love 30 Rock. The greatest showing of our affection is that the show was the subject on of our senior thesis papers in college. And while “30 Rock and Its Big Mirror” is pretty much unreadable today, it is a perfect example of our devotion and ridiculous attachment to this show. How else could you explain the use of the completely nonsensical sentence “30 Rock represents the future of post-broadcast, neo-network television by firmly rooting itself in the present”? That’s stalker-level lunacy, people.

We say this because 30 Rock is currently in its final season on NBC. Though we will forever be comforted by the many episodes we will watch in syndication, Netflix Streaming, and on DVD, we are nonetheless crestfallen. When news came of a shortened final season, it was bittersweet at best. As any fan of the show knows, 30 Rock was lucky to see a second season, and with dwindling audiences and lessening critical cache, it seemed like getting a Season 7 was a gift from God. It was a gift from Anna Howard Shaw, at the very least.

As 30 Rock draws to a close, we will be devoting each Thursday (or every Thursday that we remember to do it) to some aspect of 30 Rock that we adore. It’s called “30 Rock Thursday Rock”, and it’s real. It’s as real as an egg.

So join us on this journey, looking back at great episodes, amazing guest stars, funniest lines, and weirdest patterns. Join us for the end of 30 Rock and the beginning of our clinical depression.