“A woman would at least be quiet and listen to her men.” —Alton
“There’s a fight in every corner of the house… Where am I?” —Chet
MTV’s fighting policy is weird. There’s zero tolerance for throwing punches, but apparently you get unlimited pushes and shoves, even when someone gets shoved to the ground for no real reason, like Sam was in last night’s episode.
I imagine MTV’s thinking is much like the NHL’s: They don’t want to be seen as condoning fights, but eliminating them completely would take something away from the game. Last night’s episode, in which everyone seemed to be fighting with everyone, showed just how fights and the game are interconnected. Continue reading »
There is nothing better than March Madness. But like all great things, March Madness gets exploited in the name of some stupid shit. And the ubiquity of various pop culture brackets every March is one of the most annoying trends.
This year’s bracket du jour is Grandland’s “tournament” of characters from The Wire. On paper, I should love this, as it combines two of my favorite things: March Madness and The Wire. And while I’m always in favor of conversations about the greatest television show of all-time, I was only mildly pleased by Grandland’s bracket—and not just because of the huge flaws made by the committee.
“You should be, like, a psychologist.” —Diem, to Ty
“Are you sure this isn’t racist?”—Emily, about to perform in blackface
Well, that was a really good episode of Battle of the Exes. At least, until MTV decided to cut it off before Ty and Emily’s Dome opponent was revealed—a classic move by Challenge producers in their most exciting episodes. Leading up to that, though, the episode had a nice duality, with the heartwarming story of C.T. and Diem, the challenge’s winners, contrasted with the depressing tale of Ty and Emily, its losers.
With shades of Breaking Bad, the episode began in medias res, showing scenes from the fallout Ty and Emily’s fight before flashing back to Two Days Earlier, when it was C.T. and Diem who were dealing with the fallout of a recent fight. Diem explained that, in the three days since the blowout featured in last week’s episode, she and C.T. have not spoken or even so much as looked at each other: When one of them enters a room, the other leaves. Continue reading »
But, of course, NPI wouldn’t be NPI without rankings. And so to commemorate our 1,000th post, we’re ranking our rankings. To keep it manageable, we limited the list to the collaborative rankings. We also threw Josh’s ranking of the Bill of Rights in there (John S and Tim’s ongoing rankings, respectively of Bob Dylan songs and everything in history, being incomplete and therefore ineligible). What was our result?
Last year, my “Best Of” music post didn’t come out until January 27th. Well, I wasn’t about to let that happen again. Hopefully, you’re not sick of reviews of 2011 music yet.
Here are the best songs of 2011 (with a limit of one song per artist):
25) “The Merry Barracks” – Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil
I love the way this song moves from simple to complex.
At the start of the 2010, I made a goal for myself to read one book a week—a goal I ended up abandoning by, I believe, the end of January. (Do you realize how much reading that entails?) In 2011, I tried to keep it more manageable: I made a plan to listen to one new album per week. While I once again fell short of my attempted goal, this time I came a lot closer to completing it and, as a result, I ended up listening to far more new music this year than any year since high school.
You would think that this would make compiling a Best Of list easier, but it did not. Unlike last year, when my number one album was never in doubt, 2011 lacked a standout record. This is not to say there weren’t great albums released, but there were none that had the impact of The Suburbs, or This Is Happening. Over at The A.V. Club, Steven Hyden called this year “The year of no Important Albums,” and while I don’t really like the term “Important Album” (important to whom?), I pretty much agree: This was a year of a lot of Very Good albums, but few Great ones. Continue reading »
Well, we promised rankings of the second season of Louie, and we followed through. It took us several weeks, but we followed through. If you want to see how Josh and John S broke down this summer’s best comedy, just keep reading… Continue reading »
Season Two of Louie debuted Thursday on FX, and John S and Josh will be offering NPI readers their reactions to each episode. At the end of the season, we will rank the episodes. Get excited. Continue reading »
The Bob Dylan Rankings have been on an extended hiatus, but they’re back today—in honor of Dylan’s 70th birthday— with “Down the Highway,” from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. It’s something of an odd selection: In addition to not being a particularly memorable song, it’s also incongruous with Dylan hitting an age so neatly associated with old age. “Down the Highway” is a playful and undeveloped song, and in some ways immature.
Nevertheless, “Down the Highway” allows us to delve into one of the most ubiquitous motifs of Dylan’s now seven-decade-long life: the road. What, after all, is Dylan’s obsession with highways? Continue reading »
“A woman would at least be quiet and listen to her men.” —Alton
