Still yelling about Wes Welker dropping a pass that there is no reason he shouldn't have caught? Here's what you missed on TV this week.
Political Football
Madonna's laughable, inane halftime show during the Super Bowl was immediately made even more irrelevant by an extremely powerful car commercial, featuring two minutes of American icon Clint Eastwood talking passionately about our country's can-do spirit, resilience, work ethic and pride in the face of trying times. It was patriotic and heartwarming -- not the political statement, for one side or another, that too many pundits tried to make it into.
One Reason Why I Don't Have Kids
I felt the first season of Portlandia was a little too twee and self-involved, but this year has been much sharper. A sketch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein as hipster parents at a PTA meeting complaining about the LPs being donated to the music class was brilliant. Watching Brownstein scream "I find it very disturbing that the head of this school doesn't know about Neu! " caused my wife and I to grimace a bit in self-realization.
Oh, So That's What Happened
This week on Luck, we finally found out why Ace (Dustin Hoffman) had done a stretch in prison. It turns out he took the fall for his grandson, who had been caught hiding six kilos of cocaine in Ace's loft. It does show an admirable code of honor, but c'mon, why are we only finding this out this far in the series? Am I the only one who thinks this series is just deadly slow? When will the good stuff start?
Dave's At A Loss For Words
Overhyped novelty act Die Antwoord, a South African dance-pop trio featuring a tiny woman with bleached hair, no eyebrows and insect-like contact lenses, appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman to perform their grating new single "I Fink You Freeky." Dave, who has reached the point where he no longer has to pretend to care about popular music, was clearly making a mental note to have words with his music booker as he tried to be as polite as he could following their performance.
Paying Tribute To An Inspiration
Promoting her new series Smash, Debra Messing got a surprise on Live! With Kelly, when she discovered that her drama teacher from her Connecticut high school was in the audience. Appearing genuinely choked up during the reunion, she praised her instructor for being the inspiration behind her career. I still have a lot of fond memories of my high school drama teacher myself, so I admit I misted up a bit during this. I'm still on the fence about Smash, though.
