The Bell Tolls for The...Office

I really lament writing this, but I think The Office is finally done.  Maybe when Steve Carrell leaves at the end of this season there will be a sigh of relief and the show can find a new direction, but it doesn't look like it.

Last season had some highlights (see Date Mike and the parkour cold open), but overall if you missed it, you missed nothing.  The funniest thing was Kelly's music video, which was never on TV.  This season, more of the same.  I laughed pretty hard at the what will Stanley notice cold open, and moderately at a few things here and there.  The problem seems that they've run out of ideas.  They have tried to revive Jim as a prankster, but only half-heartedly.  They keep beating the Andy still loves Erin joke into the ground so that it just isn't funny.  The Dwight-Angela sex contract is just awkward and doesn't work unless the tension with Dwight caring more about Pam's friend is there.  Ryan is not funny. Period.  Ditto Gabe, and Erin.  I think the show needs more Creed, Daryl, Kelly, Oscar, Kevin and douche bag Andy.

The writers also seem to lack direction.  So many plots the past two season start, then kind of just sit in idle.  I'm not sure what they were trying to do with the baptism episode: there was nothing entertaining about the Jim/Pam plot and the Michael filled with the Holy Spirit plot was wholly predictable and didn't do anything.  When I watch I keep feeling like there is about to be some funny twist, but there just isn't.

At this point the show literally feels like we are watching an office, not The Office.  Yeah there are a few chuckles here and there, but no more ill-timed that's-what-she-saids, no more inventive pranks on Dwight or Andy, no more zany misinterpretation of social norms.  It's becoming too much work to watch a show that just seems like a normal day at work.  I hope that this is more a product of the Michael Scott farewell tour need to wrap things up for the character, but since last season was almost as bad I highly doubt it.  The cast and crew seem like every American worker at about 1:15 on a Friday, tired of being there and just waiting to get out.

A Fool and His Money Soon Parted

NFL players are dumb.  Why is there such an outrage that the league is going to strictly enforce rules already in place that are designed to protect everyone on the field?  On Tuesday the league announced it was coming down hard on players who use their helmets as weapons.  This is not a new rule; it has been in the books for eons.  The NFL is just taking steps in light of some recent harsh criticism for their lack of action on a disturbing problem in the NFL: neurological damage.

A recent study has shown that multiple concussions is related to Lou Gherig's disease.  If you don't understand how terrible it is to loose all control of your body slowly, ready Tuesdays With Maury.  Now it's a new study so it isn't definitive, but there are also countless other studies showing that repeated hits to the head aren't good for you.  There's also real life (see: Muhammad Ali, and countless other former professional boxers and NFL players.) 

Of course, this means that players will have to change how they play the game.  Heaven forbid.  James Harrison is throwing such a fit about this he is threatening to retire.  Talk about an immature brat.  These are the same players who complain that they are not getting enough health benefits from the union after they retire.  The league is now taking active steps to try to reduce long-term health of these people.  The stink the players are making show that they are arrogant fools who have no concept of anything beyond themselves at that present moment.  If Mr. Harrison leads with his helmet this weekend and damages a vertebra (heaven forbid) his career is over, his contract is void (because the NFL doesn't guarantee contracts) and he will have health bills for the rest of his life that will eat up a lot of whatever he has saved.  This is the classic case of a kid playing with matches because dad told him not to.

It is pretty well proven that leading with the helmet causes injuries.  What I cannot understand is why these players want to hurt each other.  The intimidation excuse is not viable.  You can hit someone just as hard without having to concuss yourself or your fellow player.  Aren't we always told the NFL is a brotherhood?  I don't think a lawyer goes into a courtroom hoping to do permanent brain damage to the opposing counsel, why is it OK for an NFL player to do the same?  It's not.

The other reason the players are being selfish is because they don't realize the message they send when they act like concussion seeking missiles.  America watches football.  America loves football.  America plays football.  Guess what age group has the most football players?  Kids under 18 years old.  They watch every Sunday and see these idiots leading with their helmets, hitting defenseless receivers, trying to hurt each other.  Those kids then go out and whether they consciously do it or not, they try to imitate the pros.  These overgrown babies playing in the NFL can try to say they don't mean to be role models, but they are.  Children under 18 exposed to head injuries while the brain is still developing are really at a huge risk of horrible long term damage.  The players may not like it, but they owe it to the kids (as corny as that sounds).

So in short NFL players, stop being selfish, spoiled, jerks.  You get to play a sport for a living.  The NFL is taking steps to not only protect you, but those who aspire to be you.  They are protecting your livelihood not only so you can keep doing it, but so America doesn't turn on a sport that was threatening to become too barbaric to play.  It is for your own good your helmet can't be a battering ram.  So sure keep on leading with your helmet.  I just don't want to hear it when you have to sit out.  Then I don't want to hear it when you have to retire early.  I especially don't want to hear it ten years from now when you finally feel the effects of the damage you willingly and brashly inflicted on your body.

Did What I think Just Happen Happen?

Did Entourage just grow a pair after 5 years of sucking?  Sunday's season finale was somewhere between their usual happy ending and nuclear fallout.  But it could have been worse, Turtle could have been whacked and Vince could have pulled a Dirk Diggler and started performing sex acts for blow.  Sadly, I think it is too little too late; there's only one season and possibly a movie left (a movie about a movie star?).  We've had one season end in total failure before, the Medellin season, and granted the following season was all about rehabbing Vince's image.  Yeah it was far fetched that one movie would totally destroy a career and much more believable that getting arrested for fighting Kevin Love, Jordan Farmar, Eminem, and bodyguards, and drug possession is harder to come back from.  But guess what? Robert Downey Jr. did it.  I just have a feeling this is going to be like the post-Medellin plot where it seems like no one wants Vince anymore and then some big name director decides he does; the show loves easy fixes.

Yes, I am interested in the show I have been begrudgingly watching for a while now.  But trying to make Vince an interesting character is a tall task with Adrian Grenier's limited acting abilities.  The only reason I knew he was upset was because everyone kept saying he wasn't OK and then he was doing lines by himself with a bottle of whiskey like he was a member of an 80's metal band.

Turtle's plot this year: boring.  I could care less about a tequila company or the girl they were trying to pass off as hot.  Even with that it was one episode she hates Turtle the next they're dating (easy fix again).  She and Sasha Grey just annoyed me. 

But hey, at least Sasha made Grenier look like a decent actor with her flat, emotionless lines.  She couldn't even convince me she was mad at coked out Vince trying to tell her what to do.  The only good part about that relationship was the irony that Vince was the one who wanted a serious relationship while the love interest was having sex with a lot of people.

E's plot was completely stupid.  I don't want to watch him take over his boss's firm.  Ari did that last year.

I want to see more Johnny's Bananas.  Why was there not at least a scene from that?  And yes please for more of E's secretary.  Hot and British?  I'll take it.

This brings me to the Ari plot.  Did things need to go against him?  Unquestionably yes.  Did his life need to completely unravel?  Unquestionably no.  The one character that has made the last few seasons bearable is Ari Gold.  He was good for entertainment, good for depth of character, good for quality acting.  If this impending divorce, and loss of respect in the biz cuts Ari's balls off I will be very upset.  He may not be the nicest person, but he got the job done, he made lives better (look at Lloyd, the man is a damn good agent because even though Ari yelled at him a lot, he was able to distill the message).  If Ari can no longer be Ari, Entourage can no longer be Entourage.

Streak Broken

No, Brett Favre started tonight.  I'm referring to my month plus hiatus from updating.  I blame it partially on the start of law school; I guess torts and property and contract law really use up a lot of thinking power so I don't have the neural juice to crank out a post every week.  I also really want to write about AMC's new show Rubicon, but it's all so up in the veiled that I can't really figure it out yet.  I will say this, James Badge Dale is a phenomenal actor.  His two roles (HBO's Pacific) this year where he did so much acting without saying a word have really swung me firmly in his camp.  Also, last week's bottle episode of API on lock-down trying to find a leak was the best yet.  The parallels of Will's team taking lie detectors and Will trying to figure out the lies he was living/working under was fascinating.

Courtesy of chicago-now.com

Rubicon is good, but I have to say a few words on Mad Men.  If Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss don't win Emmy's for their performances on this week's "The Suitcase," I don't know if they ever will (especially since fellow AMC show Breaking Bad won't be eligible for next year's awards).  The full range of emotions and interplay between Peggy and Don is some of the best work of the series.  Like the lead in show, this was more or less a bottle episode, so the plot of the episode was really driven by the actions and emotions of Peggy and Don, alone, in the office.

There are two really important strands I pulled out of this episode that I think are really worth mentioning.  The first is Peggy is clearly now Don's new Anna.  Anna was so pivotal to Don because she knew Don as Dick, who he really was.  Peggy, although she doesn't know his real name, does know Don as more than just the creative genius that drinks, carouses, and wows Madison Avenue.  They kept bringing up Peggy's baby because that seemingly meaningless moment at the end of season one, where Don showed up to visit Peggy in the hospital (her only visitor not related to her) he showed the caring, thoughtful, sympathetic man at his core.  Through this episode Don and Peggy realized what they always knew: they are kindred spirits.  They are both trying to make a life they never seemed destined to have, yet still fit into the boxes society wants for them.  Because of this their work is their only real joy.  Now hopefully Peggy can do what Anna did in season 2 and bring Don out of his funk.

Courtesy of amc.com

The other strand that seems insignificant right now, but has been touched on a few times this season.  Don does not believe in self-promotion.  We have seen this in episode 1 where he flops in the trade magazine interview and then in last week's where he bashes Muhammad Ali for being a braggart.  This could cause some problems pretty soon.  Very soon we will begin to see just how important being your own spokesman is to our society.  The question is can Don adjust or will he be passed by?  I don't think he'll let that happen, he's too strong, too much of a survivor.  But this will bring up an interesting conflict within him.  Can a man who is not really who he says he is, who doesn't want his past to be know, who wants his face to be his work, really become comfortable in the spotlight?

Why It's Mad Men

It has to be Mad Men.  It couldn't be Wall Men, or Court Men, or anything else.  It just doesn't work.

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the focus of AMC's show Mad Men, obviously.  It had to be about the men on Madison Avenue.  A show about the change in culture in America is best seen through those who are on top, but have to respond to those changes for their survival.  A stock broker doesn't need to realize that women are not just secretaries.  A lawyer doesn't need to realize that rock and roll is here to stay and forever dictate the music industry.

Since the advent of advertising firms they have had their fingers on the pulse of the nation.  They have to identify growing trends because they need to know what makes potential buyers click.  But they have to find a balance.  Their clients almost certainly are not always the most forward thinking.  The challenge for Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and the team is to almost trick the stodgy old farts who run Kodak, or Lucky Strike or whatever, into being hip, being fresh, and tapping into the power of an incredibly fast changing American society, without actually looking like they have changed a thing.

It are the subtleties, these nuances that really make the show click.  Especially since we can see how being on the leading edge (for corporate America at least) affects the lives of the characters.  We see Peggy embracing not only a career oriented lifestyle, but a mostly religious-free lifestyle.  We see Pete Campbell struggle with the shame of having to adopt.  We see Roger Sterling run off with his secretary.  A lot of what seem common place to us watching in 2010 is completely alien to the characters.  This is what is so striking to me.  It was only 40 years ago but what they take for granted and what we take for granted are so incredibly different it's amazing.  I'm going to try to be pretty good at reviewing each show for the upcoming season because this is my favorite show on TV.  Stay tuned.

The Fall

I just watched Germany pick apart what many considered a viable contender to lift the Jules Rimet trophy, Argentina.  It was a simple case of selfish vs. unselfish.

Selfish:  Maradona's inability to admit his tactics were not working and change them.  The always forward thinking Argentinians were undone by a complete lack of creativity in the final third.  Part of this is because Carlos Tevez can only do 2 things: score, or turn the ball over.  Since Argentina were shut-out guess which one he did the most.  His touch, his passing, or his inability to do either were part of Argentina's downfall.  So often did he just try to bull his way through a compact, organized German defense.  That is never going to happen.  Yes Tevez is a great goal threat, but it just wasn't his day.  Maradona did not recognize this.  He kept Aguero on the bench for way too long, and I want to know what he has against Diego Milito.  The man was brilliant for an Inter Milan side that won three trophies.

Maradona didn't make the necessary changes until the lid was on the coffin.  His answer: weaken an already shaky defense.  He took off Otamendi when the second goal went in, which he should have because the defender was lucky not to get a red, and brought on an attacking player, leaving three at the back.  This is why Germany was able to get 2 more.  The midfield would have been better served with Veron being injected in, because he can really pick passes and win balls, keeping valuable possession.  The attack needed more touch, more grace, more ability to connect on quick, touch passes, which Aguero and Milito both provide.  All in all, Mardona's personnel decisions were as puzzling as Bob Bradley's and like Bradley's helped lead to their downfall.

Selfish:  The Argentinian attack.  There was one person on that field who could win a game alone.  And his teammates refused to give him the ball.  Now Messi is not blameless here.  When he was on the ball he didn't look his usual self, but there were times when he was unmarked in the penalty area, and his teammate on the ball decided to try to dribble through 3 German defenders to try to salvage the game (mostly Tevez, but Higuain's ghost and Angel Di Maria also were guilty on occasion).  Messi should have been more demanding of his teammates, more vocal, more upset, but he's only 23 and he's never been one to be petulant.  He is the consummate team player, but the look on his face after the game was one of disgust.

Unselfish:  Everything about Germany's performance.  None of their 4 goals were scored by someone who had made a long run with the ball.  Klose's first was a perfect microcosm of the German philosophy.  Their strong defense patiently won the ball and moved it to the midfielders who got it wide for Podolski.  Podolski beat his man and instead of doing what the Argentinians had done all day and go for his own glory, he teed up Klose who walked the ball into a wide open net.  This is pretty much how goals 2-4 were scored.  Even the first goal highlighted a huge difference between the two sides.  On every free kick near the box Messi shot it, whether the angle was good for his left foot or not, even though the Jabulani is known to float when driven, even though almost no free kick goals have been scored.  The Germans on the other hand used their free kicks to set each other up.  In the third minute Schweinsteiger put a threatening ball into the box from a free kick and Mueller flicked it on with his head, into the back of the net.

I think the Germans sent a message to the world today: we are young, but smart, cool, and ready to hoist the ultimate prize.  They can play and score on the front foot or the back.  They will not be broken down.  Neuer is getting better and more confident every game.  They have officially played the "Eff you" and the "Nobody believed in us card."  The are efficient and unrelenting.  I hope that we get a rematch of the 2008 European Championship game in the next round to really see how much this team has grown in the course of the last month.  I think Spain will prove an excellent test because they too are a very well balanced side, and they keep possession so well, and are hard to hit on the counter attack because their midfielders win the ball high up the pitch.  That game, if it is to be, could come down to who has the most savvy and patience. 

Overall, this game reminded of a better played version of the US-Ghana game.  Poor coaching and team selection, and an inability of the attack to do anything of real threat met a well organized, hungry, unselfish team who were set up to execute their way to victory as one.  While I will miss Maradona, and you cannot give him enough credit for the chemistry he created with that team, I think Argentina would be best served with someone who can admit they are wrong, who will change tactics, who won't run over someone in his car and claim it was the victim's fault.  So until next time, keep watching the events in South Africa.

All The Wold's Stage Part 3

And now we reach the knock out stages.  So I'll let MJ kick-off on this one.

MJ Gunner:  Injuries, upsets and one man teams. Where to begin.. When I say one man teams I am referring to Diego Forlan v. Manchester United's Park Ji Sung, I mean Uruguay v. So. Korea. Okay they are not exactly one man teams but those are the headliners and they've had pretty impressive showings thus far. South America and Asia as continents have been quite exceptional thus far and this game should impress viewers and pundits. I say Suarez and Forlan each score to knockout a South Korean side that can only manage one goal.

The injuries.. well most teams are picking up knocks and battling existing injury but England v. Germany is where I see two battled teams showing us a cagey affair by less than full fit squads. Schweinsteigger may sit and Rooney is definitely showing the woes of a long club season. Phil Lahm was quoted and I piggyback him, this one could go to pens. Pens where ze Germans will win.

Argentina v. Mexico is going to be an office-stopper. Especially if Carlos Vela is deemed fit and can participate for Mexico. Mexico has everything and nothing to play for. If Mexico loses, yeah sure they played a powerhouse Argentina but a win would be monumental. Here's to hoping the two quick passing, attack oriented sides put a few into the net on the way to an Argentina victory. The likes of Messi, Higuain and Tevez surely cannot be stopped but in this World Cup I was surely certain Italy and France would still be chilling in Johannesburg preparing for their next big match.

Matt I will let you take the reigns for the rest of the matches. I don't think I could put an objective sentence together for the USA v. Ghana game. I want blood filled revenge and a freaking early brace of goals.. We'll find out soon who plays Brazil and Portugal and I am sure you will have the wraps on those previews because La Roja will hopefully be involved. 

Me:  Well as I write this the bottom half of the bracket is in the process of being completed so we'll talk about that a little later.

We stand a chance against Ghana.  A good chance: we are experienced, mentally tough, and a cohesive unit.  But we also are a little lax in the discipline and finishing department.  Ghana is young, and missing their talisman Michael Essien.  They will be physical and defensive.  It will be a lot like the game against the Algerians, but the Ghanians have a bit more talent.  If we don't concede early and don't have too much of a hangover from the dramatic win, we could do quite well. We are going to be at a serious disadvantage crowd-wise, with Ghana being the last African side.  I will not be surprised if we fall behind and allow Ghana to just sit back and defend in numbers.  Luckily there has to be a winner, so being cagey and trying to simply not lose is no longer in the books.

I really like Uruguay.  As you said, Forlan and Suarez are both on target so far this tournament.  But what amazed me is they didn't concede a single goal in the group stage.  That is impressive I don't care who was in their group.  This side is skilled but also physical and disciplined.  South Korea is just disciplined and very fit.  I see another win for a country from South America.

The big question for the England-Germany game is the heads of the English.  Are they thanking their lucky stars they are just in the knock-out rounds?  Was the 1-0 win a spark?  Will they tighten up against their long-time rivals Germany?  Germany may not be full strength, and Schweinsteiger is a huge loss in the midfield.  I just think the Ozil is in too fine a form to be shackled and no one from England has shown that prowess yet.  Rooney is the difference maker: Man U Rooney shows up and England could shock some people; typical England Rooney shows up and they could be down to 10 men and out of the tournament.

You are absolutely right about Argentina-Mexico.  This should be a cracker.  Messi will have acres of space to work his magic.  I will be interested to see whether Maradona sticks Tevez back in the starting line-up.  Everyone has been praising his performance, but he just doesn't seem to work that well wit Higuain and Messi for me.  Maybe it's his fabled selfishness, or maybe its just that the English game doesn't have swift ground combos with strikers and forwards, but he just can't seem to find his battery mates from the run of play.  I noticed in their game against South Korea that as soon has Tevez came off and Aguero came on, the Argentinians played quicker, more open football.  It could have just been an off day for Tevez, we shall see.

The games this weekend should be excellent because there will be winners and losers, no ties; only big boys play in this sandbox.  Go USA! and see you Monday.