Long Episodes, Short Episodes, And All The Episodes In-Between
By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - 4 Comments
While Glee doesn’t seem a great bet for a long run (the ratings weren’t great for a post-Idol show and a lot of people tuned out in the middle), there’s a growing sense that it might have done better if the network had aired a longer version of the episode. The version of the pilot that was sent to critics, and which turned up on various online sharing sites, was several minutes longer than the version that ran after American Idol. The aired version was about 43 minutes, the length of a regular Fox episode; the original version was closer to the length of one of Fox’s “remote-free TV” episodes. And while Fringe and Dollhouse have not made particularly great use of the longer format (which they will no longer get to use next season), the Glee pilot in its uncut form apparently was much more coherent and unified than what millions of people saw. In particular, it had an opening that explained why the lead character was so obsessed with teaching Glee club, it had scenes that filled in other plot holes, gaps and backstories, and it had a little throwaway scene that gave the star, Matthew Morrison, a chance to do some singing himself.
When producers have to cut several minutes from an episode, they cut the scenes that can be sacrificed most easily, which are often throwaway scenes and backstory moments, but when a show loses everything that isn’t directly related to the forward motion of the plot, it winds up feeling choppy and mechanical. In the case of Glee, this created a situation where people who had seen the advance screeners (the uncut version) were raving about it and people who saw it on Fox (the way most people saw it) were wondering what the fuss was about. By not giving a few extra minutes to this show, Fox may have really hurt its chances for a success. They will try to make up for this by showing the “director’s cut” — i.e. the long version — before the series’ official premiere in September, but they’d have been way better off showing the longer version right up front.
Although I’m an advocate of longer episodes, I don’t think longer cuts of an episode are always better. The short version of the Arrested Development pilot works better — is tighter, faster and funnier — than the 28-minute version that starts off the DVD set, and most shows that put the deleted scenes back in for the DVD make the episodes worse, not better. There’s a certain art in getting shows down to a certain time; as Greg Daniels has commented, sometimes the necessity to get the shows to length will inspire creative solutions. But with Glee, it really does seem like the producers expected to have a longer episode, cut it with that in mind, and then had to cut more than they had planned. Maybe that’s not the way it happened, but it would explain why the long version made a better impression than the one we saw last week.
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John and Jim go way back
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 1:38 PM - 18 Comments
John McCallum, Apr. 26, 2006. Mr. Speaker, he has confirmed that he is both incompetent and fleecing the poor. I have a question concerning a more immediate issue with regard to the budget information just released by the member for Halton. The Minister of Finance has two choices: either he will tell the House that this information is wrong or he will admit that his budget is seriously flawed and immediately resign. Which will it be?
John McCallum, Nov. 1, 2006. Mr. Speaker, let me explain to the House what the Minister of Finance offers. He offers a gross failure to manage the economy, a betrayal of investors who mistakenly took the minister and the government at their word, the single biggest blow to the wealth of Canadians ever dealt by a finance minister and a banana republic process, bringing disrepute to Canadian capital markets. It is obvious that the minister has been a disaster on this file. When will the Prime Minister fire him?
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It's even worse than Janet Napolitano imagines
By John Geddes - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:52 PM - 2 Comments
It occurs to me that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano might have understated the extent of the problem when she said, “The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours… That’s why you have to have a border, and you have to have border policies that make sense.”
We don’t just let crazy terrorists into out country—we allow them to be born here!
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The Nostalgia Critic Takes On FULL HOUSE
By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:36 PM - 0 Comments
The new review from “That Guy With the Glasses,” who angrily reviews bad movies and TV shows (“I’m the Nostalgia Critic; I remember it so you don’t have to”) is of Full House. It’s not nearly as good as his review of Saved By the Bell, because he seemed to be more familiar with that show than he is with Full House. To really hate a show like Full House, you have to sort of like it. But there are some good moments, like the Aladdin reference, the montage of sappy music moments, and his explanation that the Full House characters life “the life of people in picture frames.”
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2609510&w=425&h=350&fv=]
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Go Jim Go!
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:33 PM - 11 Comments
Dion’s Liberals called for a ministerial resignation every couple of weeks. Most of the cabinet was eventually asked to go away. Strangely, the government never heeded their requests.
If the official opposition carries through with this in Question Period an hour and a half from now, it will be—if short-term memory serves—the first such demand of the Ignatieff Era.
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Add another name to the unCanadian list
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:22 PM - 41 Comments
Liberal Senator Dennis Dawson wants to extend election spending limits on political advertising to cover at least some of the time between elections. Steven Fletcher, the minister of state for democratic reform is intrigued by the idea and interested in investigating it further unimpressed.
Steven Fletcher, the Conservative minister of state for democratic reform, immediately slammed the bill as an anti-democratic and “un-Canadian” assault on free speech … “It certainly seems like it will severely limit freedom of speech and that’s un-Canadian and hurts our democracy,” Fletcher said in an interview.
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Dubya downsizes
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:18 PM - 1 Comment
New Dallas digs are tasteful and modest
George W. Bush’s last residence had 34 bathrooms. His new US$2.1 million, 8,500 square foot house in Dallas, Texas, has a mere four. The NY Daily News provides photos of the former president’s tasteful, but considerably more modest, new digs located just a few miles from his forthcoming presidential library.
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Six months in space
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 1 Comment
Canadian Bob Thirsk launches into record-setting space mission
Blasting off from Kazakhstan in a Russian spaceship, Bob Thirsk is on his way to spending six months in the international space station. The mission has many firsts—every international space agency is involved, the most astronauts ever will be working in the station (six), and at the mission’s end, Thirsk will have spent the longest amount of time in orbit of any Canadian. The long stay is meant to test the endurance of the human body in space, information that could be used for the construction of colonies on the moon or other planets. This is Thirsk’s second mission—he will be working as the crew’s robotics expert and medical officer. He says that with six astronauts living so close together, things could get a little cramped.
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Bitterness breeds bad brains
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:13 PM - 0 Comments
Psychiatrists find new disorder in people who feel chronic bitterness
Post-traumatic embitterment disorder, modeled after post-traumatic stress disorder, occurs after someone feels so wronged that they are unable to function, dedicating their energy to stewing in feelings of revenge, anger and hopelessness. It is a long-lasting response to a traumatic experience, a problem that has become common and destructive enough for psychiatrists to call for it to be labeled as a mental illness at a meeting of the American Psychological Association last week. The disorder usually appears in regular people who work hard toward a goal they then see as being unjustly swept from under them. A feeling of being victimized pervades and they are left unable to move on. The condition is estimated to affect one to two per cent of the population, and could possibly be connected to cases where normal people snap and commit murder-suicides.
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Spin Cycled
By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM - 7 Comments
SWEET NEW ‘ALL MAXIME, ALL THE TIME’ UPDATE BELOW!
The rejuvenation of Maxime Bernier is officially upon us. Maxime, who basically got himself into trouble because he a) likes attractive women; and b) is forgetful enough to leave sensitive documents at the house of at least one attractive woman, has apparently figured out that he can get the media on his side by peddling a storyline. Hence, his tryst with a moderately dubious woman in a tube skirt and the subsequent whoopsie with the documents suddenly became his fall from grace. Every hero needs to struggle, though, so Maxime went to a monastery for five days to wrestle with his political fate. He consulted with his political mentor, a certain tall, flat-faced fellow with an unmistakable baritone, the Mickey Goldmill to his Rocky Balboa. He came back a changed man, newly chastened and humble, ready to soldier on for his constituents–and, of course, for his government, which desperately needs him. He then sold this dreck one year to the day of his backslide.
It’s crass. It’s nakedly transparent and terribly cynical. And it sold, hook, line, sinker (fishing rod, tackle, boat…) to two big news outlets, who ponied up dozens of drippy column inches for the occasion. Mission Accompli! More after this…
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Professors Napolitano and Van Loan conduct a seminar
By John Geddes - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:55 AM - 7 Comments
Let’s review this morning’s lesson from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Canadian Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan about the threat of terrorists from Canada entering the U.S.
You’ll recall how last month Napolitano told CBC that some of the 9/11 terrorists snuck into the States from Canada. She was, of course, trading in an outrageous myth that’s been enormously damaging to Canada’s interests. But that, apparently, is beside the point.
You’d think the cabinet secretary responsible for U.S. security would have been embarrassed to be caught out having such a tenuous grasp on how the most catastrophic event in recent U.S. history unfolded. Not really.
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China's booming auto industry
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments
The “Send Automobiles to the Countryside” campaign is working
China, like the rest of the world, has been hurt by the economic decline and the slowdown in manufacturing. But one area that’s escaped the downturn is its auto industry. In rural areas, the government has been offering big incentives to boost the sale of small cars and trucks—part of what it calls the “Send Automobiles to the Countryside” campaign. It offers a 50 per cent break on sales tax and a hefty 10 per cent rebate for those who buy cars with engines that are less than 1.3 litres. While the U.S. has seen car sales drop by nearly 40 per cent in the first four months of this year, China’s sales are up nine per cent. Some dealers can’t keep enough cars in stock (the biggest sellers are micro-minivans that go for about US$5,000). China’s rural residents have, traditionally, been big savers, but the car buying incentives may help break that habit. One economists says that half of the farmers in eastern China can now afford a car—that’s 200 million people. There’s some good news for Detroit in this, too. A lot of those cars being bought by Chinese farmers and migrant workers are made by GM.
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Cocaine found in Red Bull Cola
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments
The beverage may be banned in Germany
A small amount of cocaine has been found in Red Bull Cola and German authorities are considering a ban on the popular energy drink the makers say “gives you wings.” The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment is now intervening to determine whether drinking the sweet beverage is a health risk. But several German states including Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Lower Saxony and Thuringia have begun pulling it from store shelves. The controversy began after tests were done by the North Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Health and Work in which researchers concluded there was a very small concentration of cocaine (0.4 milligrams per liter of cola) believed to be the traces of the coca plant extract used as flavouring.
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Budget-slashing Schwarzenegger not so easy to like anymore
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:06 AM - 5 Comments
California will cut health care, education, welfare and parks
Remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Republican even liberals sort of admired, what with his environmentalism and all that? This week, the California governor proposes to cut more than $5 billion in state spending by drastically squeezing, among other things, health care, education, welfare, and parks. He would end treatment for breast and cervical cancer for illegal immigrants and women older than 65. Testing and counseling for HIV would be slashed. Many state parks might have to close. Not exactly padding the presidential resumé.
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Why the Dos Equis man works
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM - 8 Comments
The Most Interesting Man in the World is not so much a brand icon as a celebrity endorser
There’s something wonderful about those silly Dos Equis ads with the Most Interesting Man in the World. Seth Stevenson, Slate.com’s house critic of all things commercial, puts his finger on it in a review of the ad, lauding the campaign’s loopy Wes Anderson aesthetic, illustrated by vintage film stock of our playboy hero engaged in “absurd endeavors.” These ads stand out from the dime-a-dozen frat-boy spots typically used to sell beer (hello Coors Light), Stevenson notes, and Mr. Interesting is no standard brand icon. Indeed, the ad makers’ genius has been to invent a celebrity endorser whose pitch line speaks to his offhanded confidence (“I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I drink Dos Equis”). Stevenson gives the ad a B+, but only because the Most Interesting Man in the World is too cool to actually peddle a mass-market product.
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Who will protect civilian workers in Afghanistan?
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM - 2 Comments
When Canadian soldiers pull out, private security firms will take over
When Canadian soldiers leave Kandahar in 2011, their civilian counterparts working on ambitious reconstruction and development projects will have to rely on private companies to protect them. That’s the message from Ron Hoffmann, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan. His comments confirm that there will be no Canadian troops left to protect Canada’s Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) headquarters in downtown Kandahar city, nor some of the signature projects that will stretch beyond 2011, such as the much-hyped Arghandab irrigation project. “There are many theoretical options on the table for how our civilian presence will be shaped and will look like, post-2011,” Hoffmann said. “But those decisions have not yet been made.”
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Mike Tyson tragedy
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:54 AM - 0 Comments
The boxer’s four-year-old daughter accidentally strangles herself with treadmill cord
The troubled life of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson took a tragic twist this week, when his four-year-old daughter accidentally strangled herself while playing on the family’s treadmill. Exodus Tyson was pronounced dead yesterday, one day after her neck somehow got stuck in a cord attached to the exercise machine. Tyson, who has been living in Las Vegas while promoting a new documentary about his life in and out of the boxing ring, rushed back to the family home in Phoenix after hearing the news. “There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Exodus,” his family said in a statement. “We ask you now to please respect our need at this very difficult time for privacy to grieve and try to help each other heal.”
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Natural birth classes: bogus?
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments
Relaxation classes don’t reduce need for epidural in labour, study shows
In a Swedish study, over 1,000 pregnant women attended one of two classes. One taught natural coping methods like relaxation and breathing techniques; the other emphasized pain relief. In the trial, thought to be the first major one of its kind, no difference was found in the use of epidurals between women when they went into labour: in both groups, just over half of the women chose spinal analgesia to reduce the pain of contractions, the BBC reports, even though 70 per cent of the women who went to the natural childbirth class employed the relaxation techniques they’d learned. What’s more, the proportion of vaginal births versus emergency Caesareans was the same in both groups, although in the natural childbirth group, there was a slightly higher rate of instrumental births (which involve forceps or a ventouse). Most women in both groups were satisfied with their experience. “Our conclusion is that natural childbirth preparation with psychoprophylaxis does not reduce the need for epidural analgesia or improve the birth experience, when compared with the standard form of antenatal education,” said study co-author Malin Bergstroem.
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"This is a war for our survival"
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:49 AM - 0 Comments
Bomb attack in Lahore kills at least 23
At least 23 people are dead and hundreds are injured in Lahore, Pakistan, after armed men attacked buildings belonging to the police and ISI intelligence agency. The attackers shot at police before detonating a massive car bomb. The Pakistani government blames the Taliban, and says the assault was in revenge for an ongoing government offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley. “Enemies of Pakistan who want to destabilize the country are coming here after their defeat in Swat,” said Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister. “There is a war, and this is a war for our survival.”
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Provocative stuff
By John Geddes - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:47 AM - 2 Comments
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl will address the Economic Club of Canada on June 2, daring to announce as his subject, “Making Positive Change Together.” Hope he’s ready to run the inevitable gauntlet of screaming anti-positive-change-made-together demonstrators outside the Chateau Laurier.
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Paikin v. Page
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:46 AM - 2 Comments
Steve Paikin talks to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
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In Ottawa, all politics is federal: Liveblogging the Larry O'Brien trial for a day
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 4 Comments
Up til now, ITQ had been able to resist the siren song of the Larry O’Brien trial. But with so many Hill staffers — and the occasional minister — turning up on the witness list, not to mention the historic ruling by the judge to allow journalists to liveblog and twitter from the courtroom — it was inevitable that she would eventually be lured into the maw. Anyway, with PMO appointments czar Dave Penner slated to testify this afternoon, it turns out that today’s the day that ITQ goes hyperlocal.
Also scheduled to testify today: local Conservative fundraiser Thom Bennett and Nepean-Carleton Progressive Conservative MP Lisa MacLeod. The action gets underway at 10am today, so check back for full liveblogging coverage, ITQ-style, although I should note that I’m not sure whether I’ll inflict minute-by-minute updates of the voir dire arguments on my unsuspecting readers. I’m not a monster, after all. But be sure to check out Hot Room Colleague Glen McGregor’s twitter feed, too, since he’ll have no such compunction
Oh, and if you haven’t been following our made-for-a-cheap-Canadian-knockoff-of-Law-and-Order political melodrama, drop by the Ottawa Citizen and CBC Ottawa for all the background info. (Note: Links shamelessly plundered from ZeroMeansZero, Ottawa’s one-stop shop for scurrilous and unsubstantiated gossip about City Hall, which, more often than not, turns out to be pretty much dead on accurate.)
Good morning, local city governance enthusiasts and/or fans of PMO appointment overlord Dave Penner!
This is ITQ reporting live from a surprisingly sparsely populated Courtroom 36, which is tucked away on the third floor of the historic Ottawa courthouse. I’ve staked out a prime viewing spot at the very back of the room – which is, I guess, the officially designated renegade realtime media section – beside the already-linked Colleague McGregor, who is tapping away furiously on his Mac.
Also on the scene when ITQ arrived was the Oliphant-flashback-inducing Barry McLoughlin, who is handling media relations for the mayor. Who, incidentally, is here too – the mayor, that is. He nodded vaguely but benevolently in our direction while striding to his reserved-sign demarked seat.
I’m not sure whether this court – which is presided over by Judge Cunningham, for future reference. – is run on the same to-the-second timeline as the inquiry — by my watch (or, in this case, timestamp), it seems like we should have started already. I’ll keep you posted, tho. Gosh, this is already more fun than hanging around the caucus room.
10:02:06 AM
Okay, so apparently, the judge has been “delayed”, hence the lack of all-rising. I hope this is a regular occurence, or I might start to worry that ITQ’s very presence in a courtroom augurs misfortune for the judge. There was that knee incident with Oliphant, after all.10:06:02 AM
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MUSIC: Treasure troves
By Paul Wells - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 9:13 AM - 2 Comments
Two astonishing online resources for fans and students of music.
First, the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is happening right now in Fort Worth, Texas, and you can watch it all online, live and archived. They announced the semi-finalists last night; the only Canadian in competition, Ang Li, didn’t advance, but after watching the Russian Eduard Kunz play, I’m glad he did: his playing is beautiful.
Second, the legendary Smalls Jazz Club in New York City has been recording everything every musician has played there since September 2007. A very large fraction of the audio files are already online, with more to come. It’s hard to overstate how gloriously nutty this is. This is many hundreds of hours of live jazz, much of it by young musicians, who’ve long used Smalls as a training ground before moving onward. You can pretty much wander through the archives at random; for starters, here’s the wily veteran Italian pianist Dado Maroni.
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PMO gets colourful, Harper goes red
By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 8:38 AM - 6 Comments
Yesterday several top PMO staff got colourful with their ties.
PM spokesperson and media man Dimitri Soudas in yellow.
Media Officer Mike White in orange.
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Advertising? Not their forte
By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 6:02 AM - 7 Comments
I don’t like television commercials, and not just because Jared never answered my fan…
I don’t like television commercials, and not just because Jared never answered my fan mail. I don’t like them because mostly they’re terrible. We’re talking about a medium through which one toilet paper company has mounted what feels like a decades-long campaign in which their product is endorsed by crudely animated bears pooping alongside trees.
So I do not purport to be an advertising expert. However, I feel comfortable advancing my bold theory that the point of a commercial for a car is probably, all things considered, to make the viewer want to buy that car. (Obviously, his does not apply to those “Our Country” commercials for the Chevy Silverado, the point of which was to make the viewer wish John Mellencamp were mauled by panthers.)
But if the idea is to sell cars in a competitive age of $0-down, 0%-financing and free weekly backrubs from Lee Iacocca, what is the deal with those Continue…
