1.14.07

Playoffs! PLAYOFFS?!?!??

Is it too bold to say that that was one of the best weekends of NFL football ever?? You had two great upsets yesterday, a bitch-slap to the meth-heads that said that Jacksonville could beat New England, and a (though horrendously disappointed) game in Green Bay that secured HDTV as one of the five greatest inventions of my lifetime (along with the plastic milk-carton spout, the IPOD and a couple others that I should really blog about someday...)

But here are some random thoughts:

-Don't be surprised to see Roger Goodell and Rupert Murdoch in luxury boxes for both Championship games rooting with everything they have for the Patriots and the Favres. If those two teams play in the Super Bowl, there is a decent chance that the game finally wins the ratings battle with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

-"Eli Manning wins his Second Straight Road Playoff Game" while true and mention-worthy, it just doesn't really sit well. Like that two-month stretch where my mom was listening to a "Presidents of the United States" album...

-I can't wait for Shaun Alexander to become a Raider in the off-season. If he and Culpepper ever start in the backfield together, they should be required to wear jerseys that read "Glory" and "Days".

-It has crossed my mind a few times that Ryan Leaf may have been as successful as Phillip Rivers had he had the luxury of playing with Ladanian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates. But yesterday, after seeing Rivers' post-game performance, I realized that Phillip Rivers IS Ryan Leaf.
Classy move Phil. I didn't think I'd have to amend The List quite this quickly...

-Ryan Grant's comeback from two early fumbles to rush for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns was not only a career-making performance----but also set the broadcast television record for most times an announcer has used the word "atoned".

-Tom Brady is REALLY F***ING GOOD. Heading into last week, I still had Peyton Manning as QB 1a...but Brady has taken the top spot, pushing Manning to number two (which isn't a bad fall--they may be the best two quarterbacks of all-time.)


DVD Burial Sites...

Let me preface this by saying that I own all three seasons of Arrested Development.

I own them.

I have them in my possession, and use them as frequently as I choose.

But while in San Francisco this weekend, the lure of the show's DVD-set sitting on John and Todd's coffee table was so great that we actually pre-empted portions of the NFL playoffs to watch them. (And Todd went so far as to leave the bar at 10:30, only to come home and watch 5 or 6 episodes by himself...)

The point is this: there are certain DVD sets that should come with warning labels on them that read, "Do Not Attempt to Use This DVD if you Expect to Have the Will-Power to Turn it Off."

These elite shows are so addicting, that good, testosterone-driven, sports-loving men like the people I was with this weekend were so enthralled with them that we turned off the friggen NFL PLAYOFFS to watch them! It's unreal...

Here are my Top Five Addictive DVD Sets (so you're forewarned...)

(In fairness, I have intentionally never watched 24 for fear that it would rank HIGH on this list...)

(NOTABLE EXCLUSION: The Wonder Years. Yes, it is my favorite 30-minute show of all-time, but the episodes have very little continuity (much the same as Seinfeld). The lack of cliff-hangers and continuing plots really hurts the DVDs.) (Also, the fact that you can only get the DVD on a bootleg copy that restarts "A Little Help from my Friends" every time you move the cursor on the menu, forcing you to mute the entire menu-portion of the DVD experience...)

5. The Sopranos: It makes the list because there are never bad episodes. It isn't quite as addicting as the other shows, but is frequently mentioned in thoughts that include the phrase, "Why Not? I've got an extra 51 minutes..."

4. The OC (Seasons 1 and 2 only): Make fun of me all you like...if you can put in Season One of the OC and stop yourself before the Chrismukkah episode, I'm THOROUGHLY impressed. I came home with my roommates on a Thursday night once (just before the second season came on television) at about 9, after all of us had had 2-3 drinks. We didn't want to "commit to a two-hour movie" so they agreed to try watching an episode of the OC to see what I'd been raving about.
At 3 AM, we finally called it quits, having made it through 12 episodes and about 40 beers.

3. The Wire: I finally just got into it, and despite warnings from seasoned Wire veterans, I've decided to watch Season 5 live, despite having only seen season 4. I'm sure it will take away from my experience, but the show is just too damn good to not be watching.
(Note: I had a tough time leaving this out of the 1 or 2 spot--the only reason it falls is because it is so intense, and covers so much territory in each episode, at times you just need to rest your brain before hitting "PLAY" again. A GREAT show though...)

2. Arrested Development: Not only is it the most-underrated comedy in the history of network-television, it might be the most-addicting DVD set ever. Its strength? A landmark show, coupled with shockingly strong plot continuation for a comedy, and the distinct advantage of each episode only running about 22 minutes. "I thought we were meeting them at 8??" "Yeah--but it is 7:45--we can watch one more episode---being 10 minutes late won't kill them."

(Note--the person depicted in this scene showed up at 11:20.)

1. LOST: No surprise here. If you put in a DVD for LOST, why don't you go ahead and just clear your next two days out---because once you start a season, you really can't stop. WHY?? Because 35 minutes into each episode, you're thinking "Okay--this is really good, but I'm stopping after this one." But at the conclusion, seven minutes later, you say to yourself, "THAT WAS THE GREATEST CLIFF-HANGER EVER! I HAVE TO WATCH ONE MORE!" Just the best DVD-show ever. (Quietly however, I think that this strength is also a weakness. It is my contention that the majority of the weekly-viewers of LOST started that way from the beginning, instead of say--seeing Season One on DVD and then picking up the show from there. Why? They can't take the week-long cliff-hangers---they're accustomed to having their problems solved in a five minutes instead of 167 hours. But those of us who have watched from the beginning live for the anticipation. That's just my theory though.)

(Note: I'm hoping to release McFly's LOST SEASON 4 Preview on the 31st when the show premieres for it's (hopefully complete!) second-to-last season. My only fear is that going on to the message-boards for info could lead to some serious spoilers----unfortunately, I knew exactly how last season was going to end before it ended...and I hate myself for it...)


Real quickly--I'd probably be remiss if I didn't give you the top-five movie-series to kill a Saturday afternoon with:

5. The Godfather
4. Indiana Jones
3. Rocky
2. Ocean's (you know--the ones with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and that guy who has Ben Affleck hanging from his nipple??)
1. The Karate Kid (I, II, III---there was no fourth.)


On this note--it is nearing the time to put together this year's version of McFly's Top 100 Movies. I'm going to (try to) be a little less stubborn this year, and actually rent a few movies that are probably too culturally-relevant to have skipped as of yet. This far the list is:

Gladiator
Braveheart
Titanic
The Breakfast Club
Citizen Kane
Orgasmo
The 300
Apocalypse Now
Platoon
The Last Emperor
The Unforgiven
Blonde Ambition


If there are others that I HAVE to see before making a new list, please let me know ASAP. There's no way I'm going to get to all of these, but I can sure as poop make an effort.

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