- Today I saw a man walking his child around on a leash. It was not like a dog's leash where it went around his daughter's neck, instead it used a harness which was attached to a backpack in the shape of a dog. The dog's tail was rather long and served as the actual leash. I guess I can understand the purpose of such an item (although the father was still unable to keep his daughter from running into a woman's leg at a high speed), but something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. As I put it in a text message to a friend of mine: "You can make it look like a tail, a tongue, or even a dick...a kid on a leash is still a kind on a leash."
- Baseball's Winter Meeting came to a close today, the next few bullets will be on the moves of the following teams: the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies.
- It seems that our country's atrocious economy hasn't stopped the Yankees from opening the checkbook, once today's announced signing of A.J. Burnett is official they will have allocated almost a quarter billion dollars on him and prize free agent acquisition C.C. Sabathia. After last year's "restrained" approach by the Yankees Front Office I almost completely forgot how obnoxious it is when they throw wads of cash around at the best free agents without restraint. Upon hearing about the Sabathia signing, however, it all came rushing back to me, years of frustration: Mussina, Giambi, Sheffield, Damon, etc. This probably means another October dedicated to rooting against the Yankees considering the Mets will have likely choked the season away by that point.
- That last sentence there may have made you think I'm not happy with the direction the Mets have gone in, right? Well had you asked me a few days ago I'd say you were correct. Omar Minaya has done a solid job the past couple days though and I am feeling a little bit more optimistic. While K-Rod was not my top choice to be the Mets closer, he is arguable the safest option and will undoubtedly quiet the mainstream media when it comes to the Mets bullpen...breaking the record in a ridiculously overrated stat such as saves will do that. So I was fine with that move, what happened next was the icing on the cake, that is, if I actually liked icing. Minaya traded Aaron Heilman (who couldnt possibly step on the Citifield mound next year), Joe Smith (always liked him but ultimately replacable), and Endy Chavez (hideously overrated by Mets fans and would've possibly been the most popular Met of all time had he been white), and minor leaguers for J.J. Putz (the man I wanted to be the Mets closer in the first place), Jeremy Reed (compared to Endy he's a wash), and Sean Green, a player that ESPN's Keith Law ( a man/Facebook friend whose baseball opinion I value over all others and a strong candidate for man-crush #3) thinks highly of. Omar still has a significant amount of work to do this offseason, another starter is needed as is some sort of offensive upgrade. I think it's safe to say he is off to a good start though.
- Finally we make it to the Phillies, who up until today had done nothing this offseason but talk shit (I'm looking at you Cole Hamels). Now winning a World Series grants you the right to say pretty much whatever you want so I'll keep my mouth shut on that issue. Today's signing of Raul Ibanez, however, is atrocious in my humble opinion. I'm not quite sure when it happened, but at some point Ibanez became hideously overrated. How this happened I don't know, I think a lot has to do with his RBI totals and RBI is, like saves, a statistic that has outlived it's usefulness. As soon as the rest of the baseball world learns this we will all be better off. Anyway, Ibanez somehow became a top free agent this offseason who a number of teams were targeting, the Mets and Phillies among them. I have been hoping for a while that the Mets wouldn't touch him considering I don't think he's that great and he really isn't a fit for the Mets as they need a right-handed bat and he is left-handed. So when I heard the Phillies signed him today I was relieved more than anything else. Sure it was an upgrade of sorts for the Phillies considering they needed to replace the nothing that Pat Burrell's vacancy created. Ibanez is going to be 37 this year and perhaps more importantly adds another left-handed bat to an already left-handed dominant lineup. I'd give more reasons about why this is a bad signing if Keith Law hadn't already written a scathing review of the signing. You can imagine my excitement when I read this as it says everything I felt about the move and much much more.
- Finally, we move away from baseball and get to a topic that I've been avoiding for at least a couple months now in hopes that it would resolve itself, this season of The Office. Before I get into this let me just say that I have been a fan of The Office from the very beginning. After forcing my friends to go see The 40 Year Old Virgin the summer it was released (an excellent call on my part) I tuned into the first season of the American Office mainly for Steve Carell. While the first season is nothing special, it was entertaining enough where I would download all the second season episodes since during their initial airings I was getting together with friends to watch the poor (but better on repeated viewings on SOAPnet) third season of The OC.
Then came the third season which is probably almost as good as the second. It's highs are certainly as good as those in the second season and the cast/crew did an excellent job of integrating new characters such as Andy Bernard into the mix. It was definitely a strong effort all around and when combined with the second season is likely the pinnacle of the show.
It's possible that the first major issues for the show came when they made the decision to start the fourth season with multiple hour long episodes. As nice as it was to have an extra half hour each week, it may have become too much for the writing staff to fulfill at this point. While I don't remember the specifics of all of these episodes, I do recall one of them focusing heavily on Michael's money woes. I believe this was the episode where Michael was shown to be working a second job, making cold calls to people's homes trying to sell diet pills. As interesting as this direction was for the show, it was kind of depressing. That said, the fourth season was OK overall and it probably would have been better had the writer's strike not thrown a wrench into things midway through it.
Which brings us to the fifth season. I actually just took a look at the episodes that have aired thus far and I definitely recognized some that I found pretty funny. I remember liking the initial weight loss episode, the one where Michael and Holly drive to New Hampshire with Darryl (which I recall was a very unpopular episode with a lot of people), and the one where Toby came back. Throughout most of the season some things have been bothering me though, and here they are in special numbered bullets:
- The Dwight/Andy/Angela love triangle. I guess this was kind of funny at first, but I think at some point it crossed the line into just plain mean. At what point does watching Andy go around being clueless to this whole situation stop being funny and become simply pathetic. You could argue that's the whole point and that's a valid argument but that would work better if Dwight was still a funny character, which brings me to number 2.
- Dwight isn't funny anymore, he's just a douche. Initially the character of Dwight was funny more so for his eccentricities than anything else. Yes, he was often abrasive coworkers but that was because he was too oblivious to know any better. Lately, his character has just been outwardly mean to those around him. I really can't think of anything particularly funny he has been involved with this season. His plot in the most recent episode was solely based around him screwing over lazy holiday shoppers which, while not really out of character, just wasn't funny. The best elements of it involved other characters (Michael knowing the slogan for the doll and Toby purchasing the black doll off of Daryll).
- Why is all the Jim/Pam relationship stuff so dominant on the show? I understand this is a major draw for a lot of viewers but by now what is the point of spending so much time on their relationship? I think it's pretty safe to say they are going to live happily ever after. There have clearly been a couple "scares" implemented this season (Jim deciding not to drive all the way to New York to see Pam on a whim, Pam liking the house Jim bought) but none of them have developed into anything. One thing The Office doesn't have is a shortage of characters to use, all I'm saying is that some of that Jim/Pam time could be put to better use elsewhere. Also, arguably the worst subplot this season was Pam teaming up with Jim's brothers to play a prank on him. Nothing funny came out of that.
- Getting rid of Holly. Michael's relationships with women have always been a highlight of the show. I really can't think of one that hasn't been hilarious (the real estate agent whose name escapes me at the moment, the girls from Benihana, Jan, etc.). His interactions with the HR girl Holly were no exception. It was also an added bonus to see him with someone who was so perfect for him. Getting rid of her was a poor decision that I would not be surprised to see rectified in the future. On the bright side I guess this resulted in Toby coming back, and we all know there's nothing wrong with that.
- The last issue really ties all of the prior ones together I think. The show is becoming too much of a soap opera in general. The personal lives of the characters are nice every now and then, but when I tune into The Office the only thing I want out of it is laughs, that's it. I didn't find the scene during the latest episode where Phylis revealed that Dwight and Angela were sleeping together to be funny so much as really really awkward. Yes, awkward scenes are nothing new on this show but generally there are some laughs intertwined with that awkwardness. This time they were nonexistent...at least for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment