The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

Many thanks to FrostyC for recommending this show to me in the comments. I told you guys i would check them out! ^_^ 

So, the show. Just wow. I found this show highly amusing and highly painful to watch. Like seriously, i was hurting from laughing and cringing. Todd Margaret has the worst luck/judgement on earth. Where do i start? I suppose i'll start where the show starts. In the courtroom. Every episode starts with poor Todd on the stand and the judge is reading out the numerous felonies Todd is being charged with. Then the show flashes back a certain number of days to show the events leading up to the prosecution. Which starts out as his boss giving him a promotion to head of the thunder muscle campaign. He has to sell energy drinks to the British. Easy, right?

So here is a sneak peek at how the show starts. 

And this is where making increasingly poor decisions can get you. In an earlier episode, Todd lied about a peanut allergy to Alice, a cafe owner who puts up with way too much of his shit because she feels sorry for him.. This lie has come back to haunt him in this clip :)

You might recognize actors David Cross and Will Arnett from Arrested Development if you're a fan. The show was co-written by Cross and he plays Todd Margaret so perfectly that it grates my soul. And Will Arnett is such a bad ass boss, so funny. I'd also like to mention  Blake Harrison as "Dave", Margaret's only employee when he gets to London. He is a dapper chap, always smiling and i can't help thinking he is up to something. Apart from the painful parts, it's the little nuances in these character portrayals that hooked me in the end. I just need to know what the hell will happen to/for/because of them!

I also like the clash of American and British accents. Following a painfully American salesman on his journey through London bought an almost documentary type feel to the show. Todd is a charicature walking through a cliche. The show has finished its first season and has been commissioned for a second. Can't wait to see how this wraps up :)

I recommend this show because it keeps you literally writhing in your seat until the end. Hope you're into that. 

I've been pretty busy lately due to exams and assignments and stress. I will try to post a bit more frequently in the future :)

As always, thanks for reading :)

Brotown.

We travel to the other side of the globe now, where men are men and sheep are scared.

Brotown is pretty much the best cartoon to come from New Zealand since Footrot Flats. It follows a self-proclaimed gang of five adolescent boys (four Samoan Pacific-islanders and one indigenous Maori) and their adventures in Morningside, a town in Auckland known for its huge polynesian population. Auckland in general is quite a popular destination for immigrants from surrounding island countries. Due to this, the show has a LOT of references to cultural differences and lower-class-specific humour. About the bubbling controversy surrounding this show when it first aired in 2004, the creators said "we aren't being racist, we're making fun of everybody." Which is awesome. I will never forget the first time i watched this show and one of the boys visits a white persons house for the first time. He's walking up the driveway and two poodles run up to greet him. "What th-... These dogs have been fed!" *shock*

I laughed a lot.

Also, these guys are cameo whores. The cameo list includes but is not limited to:

• Helen Clark, former Prime minister of New Zealand.
• Scribe, a rapper, also from New Zealand.
• Lucy Lawless, formerly Xena Warrior Princess, from, you guessed it, New Zealand.
• Ol' Charles, Prince of Wales, has also made a cameo appearance on the show, no shit.
• Rove McManus, Australian TV Host.
• Fat Freddy's Drop, an NZ band whose music ranges from dub, reggae to soul and techno.

Actually here's a song by them. It's pretty good. 

But back to Brotown. The show is probably aimed at the young adult demographic and wonderfully combines meaningful topics, like racism, sport or girls, with poop jokes and pop culture. Here's one scene where the two brothers Vale and Valea are being investigated by child protection services because of complaints about their drunk father (who is hilarious i might add).

And here's another scene, Pepelo Pepelo, father to Vale and Valea, is driving them to a school on his forklift. They are going on a field trip to a Maori village in the country to learn about Maori culture. On the way, Pepelo decides to give his boys a lesson on Maori culture because he learned all about it in prison. How handy! Thanks Dad!

So, im trying to think of a show to compare this to and i guess Boondocks comes to mind if you've seen it. But saying that, i didn't really like Boondocks, i felt it was a bit cliquey. It has a local feel to it. Not being from the America's and all. But this show couldn't be any more New Zealand if it tried. One side of my family is from New Zealand, so i can appreciate most of the jokes in this show. And (most of the time, unfortunately) i can relate to far too much of the show's content. So i realize that some people will not see its appeal or just plain think it's shit.

It should be noted that the creators of brotown are a live comic group, The Naked Samoans. Personally, i think their juvenile-style humour is far better portrayed in cartoon form but you can see more of them here if you like.

If you can appreciate the lighter side of racial stereotypes, this is a good show. The show is 4 seasons in length so far with a 5th in production. With all the progress the show has made, it has also changed a lot and i have to admit, i like their old stuff better than their new stuff. So i really must stress, start watching from the first season onwards if you're a new viewer. By the third season, they're starting to edit in a lot of mainstream music that doesn't fit the show and it gives it a weird vibe. But the animation, voice acting, (sometimes) plots get better over the course of the 4 seasons and it's fun watch the show find its legs.

If you already know you will hate it, you probably will. But if you still think you might dig it, check it out. It's a pretty fun, harmless show.

Here's one more clip for the road if you're still on the fence about it.. It's drunk Pepelo sputtering nonsense about Australian culture and Aussie beers. Thanks and stay tuned for more recommendations :)

Bibio.

Ok, so i'm currently working on a couple different articles, all at various stages of completion. I apologize about the delay in posts but i promise it will be worth it :) As thanks for your patience, here's a song getting a lot of play time with me at the moment :3

Do yourself a favour. Turn the lights down low, kick back, relax. I love chilling to this track. It's by a music producer in the UK, Bibio. This track is off the album "Ambivalence Avenue", consisting mostly of experimental electronic tracks, i can listen to this entire album from start to finish... 

~~~

Hopefully, i'm mixing things up pretty well so far. I want to introduce at least one new thing to every follower that they might not have considered, or even known about if it hadn't been for this blog. If you discover just one new thing, it's all been worth it :) 

Stay tuned for a bunch more (mostly animated) tv shows (from all around the world!) and possibly more music videos if i'm taking too long ^_^;

Highschool of the Dead.

A change of pace here with an anime i've watched recently. I'm a pretty big fan of the zombie genre. Not necessarily horror, just zombies. I think it's the survival thing. It's formulaic. I like the decay of human morals in the face of apocalypse. And secret bases. And looting. Seriously, zombie apocalypse has to be one of the best ways to go.

 In this series, we follow a group of students, a school nurse and a young girl as they struggle to survive in a world that has fallen to the dead in a matter of hours. And falls to the living with their nuclear holocausts, shortly after that. Hectic. The action scenes are great, covering sword and gunplay, it's got a bit of everything.

Not to detract from it's awesome plot, character dynamics and overall animation style, the first thing you will probably notice is.. The fan service. For those not familiar with anime, wikipedia defines fan service as the following:


In Japanese manga and anime, Fan service (ファンサービス fan sābisu), fanservice, or service cut (サービスカット sābisu katto),is material that is designed to amuse or excite the audience with especially derived content. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want" – and usually refers to "gratuitous titillation".


So, basically, boobs and panties. 

Pretty much.

Honestly, most of the time i don't even notice it, it's just a part of the culture when watching anime. But this show is seriously pushing it. A lot of what the zombie theme is about is the gratuitous gore. But most of the time, instead of showing the action, you get a close-up of their squirming panties. It's quite hilarious. At other times, just frustrating and annoying. But, honestly, if fan service is the only thing you have to complain about, it's not a bad anime, i guess.

Like i said, they're pushing it.

So. Gratuitous titillation aside, this show has all the classic zombie elements with it's own original twist. Being set inside the school in the first episode, the students are limited as far as weapons are concerned, it makes for some interesting improvisation. Also, one of the characters is your typical trench-coat-wearing, otaku, gun-nut whose biggest issue is pretending he isn't having the most awesome time of his mouth-breathing, basement-dwelling, geek-fest life.

"Finally, Wood-work class comes in handy!"

It's interesting to see how the different characters, from different backgrounds and social circles, deal with the inevitable decay of what they believe and how they think they should feel about hacking down the animated corpses of their former lives. I enjoy that they only really reveal themselves a little at a time.

Indeed.

So, should you check it out? If you're a zombie, anime, boobs and gore fan, yes. But unless you fit into a minimum of 3 of these categories, i wouldn't bother. The core story is good enough to keep the casual anime viewer interested but the fan service is seriously overboard. So, if you can handle that, i say check it out! 

Here's a video of the opening credits, to get an idea of the animation style. Cool, punky tune, too. If you've seen it, let me know what you think.

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, so let me know of some shows you like in the comments and i will definitely check them out! :)

Foster the People.

This band hasn't released much yet but I hope all of their songs are as good or better than this :) this track, "Pumped up kicks" grew on me pretty quick but I think I'll wait until an album is released before I make my final judgement. This is basically a filler post because I wasn't expecting 19 followers in 3 days.. ^_^; So here's something quick to chew on until I get around to doing something more detailed :) enjoy

Ugly Americans.

I'm not going straight into my first review with the best show i've ever seen, but rather a show i stumbled upon lately that has given me a few chuckles. Ugly Americans is a show based around Mark Lilly, a social worker at the department of integration in an alternate version of New York filled with crazy monsters and ghoulies.

Just a small portion of the colourful cast of characters.

Werewolf attacking people on the subway? Maybe he just needs some counselling. Two-headed monster fighting with itself? Maybe some mediation is in order. Just struggling to make it in the Big Apple after a long and weary journey from your home planet? Mark Lilly is the man for all these jobs and more.

"Is that your brain? You gon' eat that?"

This coupled with a zombie house mate, a succubus girlfriend/boss and his partner at work being a wizard makes for some awesome situational banter. Much like Futurama, a visual gag is that much funnier when something with plenty of WTF potential is considered completely normal by the characters in this world.

"You what?"

Personally, i think the entire show is a metaphor for racism, prejudice, life in the big city, stereotypes, the difficulties of adjusting to a new place, being human.. But the fact that the show doesn't constantly revisit this theme in an effort to shove some morality in the viewers face as undeniable proof that deep and meaningful thought was involved in the making of a sometimes disagreeable show makes me feel like the makers of the series are giving me some creedence as the audience. I enjoy interpreting this show the way i want to and i hope that was the producers intent. 

"Magic!"

Overall, i say definitely check this one out, it might be your cup of tea, it might not. But you can't deny the humanity of the show. I think we should all be more like Mark Lilly. That dude can handle a bad day. Like, really.

Leonard Powers is one of my favourite characters.

 Currently, there is only one 14-episode season out but it was announced by Comedy Central that another 14-episode season is on the way, release date TBA. 

If you've seen it before, let me know what you think! If there's another show like it that you want me to review, let me know in the comments! And if you haven't seen it, check it out!  

You might even learn a thing or two.

First Post.

I think i have pretty good taste in all things entertaining. This blog is going to be a comprehensive database of the things i watch and either recommend you do (or don't) watch. My main taste in shows/movies are: comedy action, martial arts, animation/anime, satire, dark humour, among other things and in no particular order. With Music? Well, i tend to rate most music according to the sound, not genre. But lately i've been loving electro, indie, poppy stuff. 12 months ago i was listening to metal. Go figure. Hope you enjoy my blog :)