The Conical Glass: Best of 2007: TV

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Best of 2007: TV

1. "Slings and Arrows": I already wrote about it at length here, but this bittersweet Canadian series is worth plugging again. Available from Netflix, and you'll want to keep it in mind when the writers' strike drags on and the American networks are serving up "Big Brother XXI" and "Who Wants To Be Hooked Up To A Lie Detector?" It's enough to make you wonder what other televised entertainment they might be cooking up in the Great White North.

2. "Flight of the Conchords": Utterly hilarious, deadpan comedy about two New Zealand naifs who move to New York to jump-start their musical career, with the help of Murray, their manager/deputy cultural attache at the Kiwi consulate, and Mel, their only fan-cum-stalker.

3. "30 Rock": There's hope for American TV yet, when something this strange and wonderful can get on the air. Sometimes during its first season, I felt it was trying a little too hard to be the next "Seinfeld," but it's really come into its own now, thanks to both the brilliant ensemble (Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Tracy Jordan) at its core and a host of memorable supporting characters.

4. & 5. "The Daily Show"/"The Colbert Report": It's been so long since they've been on the air with new episodes that fans are going through withdrawal. They'll both be back on Jan. 7, but without their indispensable writers, what will these shows be like?

What I'm watching now: Season 2 of Discovery's "Everest: Beyond the Limit." I have a weird fascination with Mt. Everest, probably because I can't understand why anyone would want to climb it. You have to spend tens of thousands of dollars and set aside months of time, and your dream could be thwarted at the last minute because of poor weather, or you could lose all your fingers to frostbite, and for what -- just so you can say you were there? I guess I don't have the adventurer's spirit. "Everest" follows a group of climbers, including an arrogant American biker and (my favorite) a Danish triathlete with asthma who insists on attempting to summit Everest without the use of bottled oxygen, as they try to make their dream come true. The narration (by a voiceover guy who sounds exactly like the "In a world..." man who narrates every single movie trailer) is usually annoying, managing to mention approximately 48 times per episode that climbing Everest can mean death, but the scenery is jaw-dropping -- it's almost like being there, without the risk of hypoxia and cerebral edema! Besides Dane Mogens Jensen, my two fave personalities on the show are Monica Piris, the British expedition doctor who always keeps her cool no matter what medical emergencies come into her tent, and Phurba Tashi, the super-sherpa who's constantly rescuing stupid Westerners from life-threatening situations with grace and style.

posted by 125records @ 8:34 AM

2 Comments:

At 3:22 PM, 2fs said…

Except for Stewart/Colbert, nothing here makes me regret giving up our TV to nothing but DVDs. Anyway: I agree with you on Everest, and similar high-risk activities - just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, if I really felt my life was meaningless unless I'd climbed a huge mountain, why would climbing it actually help? (PS: I will add that that usage of "-cum-" is one of my pet peeves. Does anyone ever say that type of formation out loud?)

The captcha thingy is the famous pan-flute player of yore, Zhxlhir.
At 3:26 PM, 125records said…

I probably say it out loud, but I'm weird that way. As for DVDs, we watched both "Slings" and "Conchords" on DVD since we don't get the Sundance Channel or HBO, and the first season of "30 Rock" is available on disc as well.