Squidbillies - Season 6

Another year goes by, and Squidbillies trucks along as strong as ever. It's hard to really compare different seasons of the show, because the division is meaningless. A new season just means another batch of episodes, and each episode is pretty much the same concept. Early will be an asshole, the people around him will be hurt because of it, and there will be some slight satire of certain cultural or political concepts involving the south. It's a basic formula, and it works because it's consistently funny and that's all it has to be. I'm coming to appreciate how good of a character Early is - he's possibly the most despicable television protagonist there is, hateful and ignorant and moronic and violent. And yet he's just so damn amusing that you love him anyway. It's partly the writing, which always finds new twists on some combination of those characteristics, and it's partly Unknown Hinson's consistently brilliant voice acting. I don't think there's a sentence in the English language he couldn't at least make partly amusing if he wanted to.

This was also a good season for the sheriff, although most of them probably are, because he tends to get the most good material besides Early and maybe Rusty. Granny definitely gets a lot more jokes, but they're usually pretty easy ones based on stuff we already know about her, while the sheriff's always optimistic take on things seems fresher for some reason. There's nothing much I particularly want to point out, other than this Sunday's season finale about transporting illicit cargo with high speed truck chases might have made me laugh out loud more than any other episode of the show, which I find consistently entertaining but rarely elicits actual chuckles for me. Mostly I just smile at the wordplay and cleverly deployed violence. For what it's worth, Squidbillies has been the better of the two shows that David Willis works on for a couple years now. It's a similar situation to Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy and American Dad! - the former is more popular with America and is maybe saddled with certain expectations, while the latter is able to do its own thing and is much more consistently funny for it. Squidbillies is not anything close to a world changing show, but it's a really enjoyable one, and that can be enough.

Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 - Season 8

The funniest thing about the overhaul Aqua Teen got this year is how little it actually affected the show itself. Renamed Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, the show has a new theme song, a new intro with stylish visuals, George Lowe announcing the episode titles, and has been relocated to rainy Seattle. Once the show actually starts though, it's basically exactly the same. Despite apparently moving, the squad's home looks exactly the same, and Carl still lives next to them. They were back to being detectives for about an episode before it was completely forgotten. The whole attempt to change the show significantly was a ruse, and a funny one. The show didn't need to change, really, and if people don't like it, there's not a lot that's going to affect it. So Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 is Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and that's fine by me.

Not that I really loved this season more than the last couple. I believe I said last time and maybe even the time before that the show leans a little too far towards weird instead of just funny these days, and that's not really less true here. It's still a funny series, we're not talking about anything too far out here. It's just less consistently laugh-out-loud hilarious. It's hard to keep coming up with ideas after a decade, especially with something so off-the-wall by default as a cartoon about giant talking fast food. The primary issue probably is that they're just not as good at coming up with new characters that are as entertaining as in the beginning. A lot of the time the new characters only exist to react to whatever messed up thing Master Shake is doing, or their entire schtick is a pretty familiar case of an unusual thing talking about an unusual situation as if it's totally normal. Which is cute, just not as inspired as guys like the Mooninites or Happy Time Harry. I did really like the season finale, which brought back the detective idea a little bit with a parody of every overly-twisty crime drama ever made. It's far from the best stretch of episodes the show's ever had, but I had a good enough time with it nonetheless.

Squidbillies - Season 5

Squidbillies continues to be a funny show in its sixth year of existence. It also continues to be difficult to find images of online. These ten episodes continue to bring its combination of broad social satire, funny performances, some surprisingly clever touches and enjoyable animation, especially when something violent is happening. Some targets this season are polygamy, the holodeck from Star Trek, GPS units, and the Insane Clown Posse. Quite an eclectic group of subjects for humor. Early continues to be one of the biggest uninformed jerks on the planet, Granny is still addled but surprisingly horny for an ancient squid, and the Sheriff is still too easily bossed around. The final episode is half an hour again, and this time it's a musical extravaganza with a bunch of guest musicians. It honestly didn't start out that great, But the second half was stronger and I ended up enjoying it a lot despite the terrorism stuff being a bit too obvious. Squidbillies is the kind of show I wouldn't terribly miss if it ended, but it's definitely funny whenever it's on.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Season 7

I'm pretty sure the season is over at this point, so I'm doing this, even though I got burned on the same thing when FOX decided American Dad! wasn't over when Sons of Tucson bombed a little while ago. But no big deal, right? Right. It's in this season that the now venerable Aqua Teens reach their 100th episode, and it's one of the better runs in a while for the show. The easiest way to describe this season is really weird. I mean, the show has always been odd, but they stepped up their game again this time, and I have to say it worked out for the most part. It began last year with a Christmas episode where a very disrespectful Shake decides to cut a rap album, and continued in February with a string of relative successes. The first of these continued off of the previous season finale and had a lot of homages to the first episode ever, really setting the strange tone that would define what followed. The teens visit an island of dangerous birds to use their eggs for a pinball machine, keep their hands on a giant hamburger until long after it is no longer edible, and in the finale, realize that thanks to the show's short running time they're only halfway to the hundred half-hour qualification for syndication and then get lost in a Scooby Doo parody. Can't really say at this point how much longer the show can last, but there's at least one more movie coming anyway, so I'll enjoy it while it's still around.

Squidbillies - Season 4

I'm pretty sure this season's over now? Yeah? Whatever.

You know, as time goes on the less sure I am that Matt Maiellaro really has anything to do with this show. I've seen him credited along with Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator Dave Willis and The Brak Show's Jim Fortier for something, but I'm not sure he's really involved. Anyway, at this point I think Squidbillies is more of a creative outlet for Dave at least, if not both of them, than Aqua Teen. The latter is still pretty enjoyable from time to time, but Squidbillies is just more consistently humorous week to week. The messy, simple art and abrasive characters make it seem like something that could be easily hated, but if you give it a chance it's actually secretly pretty clever and uniquely funny. It's not the kind of thing I'm always in the mood for, but it can be quite enjoyable when you are. There was some good stuff this season, including the first two part episode which I'm fairly certain was the finale. Squids. Hillbillies. Squidbillies.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Season 6

I'm pretty sure they're done with this production cycle, but there's gonna be hell to pay if they're not. Ten episodes this time, and most of them are pretty bizarre. I hate to say the show's not as funny anymore, but it's not even really what they're going for - they seem as concerned with doing something completely insane as making the audience laugh. There's some good moments, and the premiere "Gene E." is as funny as the series has been in a while. There's also some genuinely disturbing things like a Spider-Man story except if instead of a spider it's a black man, a werewolf that's not really a werewolf, and Frylock's horrifying attempts to get together with a computer technician. The time travel episode was pretty good even if the odd plot twists didn't make any damn sense, and the live action finale featuring Jon Benjamin and T-Pain was enjoyable. I'm not sure what's planned for the series' future besides a second movie, but I feel like it's running on fumes at this point besides the occasional moment of brilliance.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Season 5

I wasn't sure exactly whether the "fifth season" was complete, so I waited a while before talking about these nine episodes. The sixth DVD set includes them plus four more which still haven't aired on TV, but those are the beginning of season six I guess, so here we are. Normal episodes of Aqua Teen took a year off in 2007 thanks to the movie, but returned last year in more or less standard form. The best of the series is probably behind it by this point, but there was still quite a few laughs in these episodes.

There's actually a surprising amount of continuity in the first few episodes, as Carl tries to sell the Aqua Teens' house for the vampire landlord while they're away on vacation, although he runs into some trouble with robots, sirens, John Kruk (former baseball player, terrible analyst), and a giant spider thing. Further craziness ensues as the plots continue to remain slightly more outlandish than they usually might be, like a strange recorder leading to an invasion by furries and all of meatwad's dead pets returning from the grave, including a sign-talking, horny gorilla. There's also some fun cameos by guys like David Cross and Kristen Schaal (the increasingly psychotic Mel from Flight of the Conchords) as well as a not-so-subtle jab at Comedy Central for buying Futurama away from Cartoon Network. New episodes are supposed to be coming by the end of the month, and I'm always ready for that.

Squidbillies - Season 3

Squidbillies is one of the strangest and most disturbing shows on Adult Swim. It came around about the same time as 12 Oz. Mouse and Perfect Hair Forever, but those shows have faded away while Squidbillies is still going pretty strong. It's written by the guys behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Brak Show, and you can see the influence with the bizarre situations and characters, but the Cuyler family takes it way farther. Early is one of the most despicable main characters I've ever seen, a terrible father, son, and person in general. But that's usually what makes him funny, so you don't end up minding how awful he is. The rest of his family provides entertainment as well, especially the grandma played by Dana Snyder, most widely known as the voice of Master Shake.

The show focuses on them, but the sheriff is another funny character, who ends up getting killed nearly as frequently as Kenny used to, and this season in particular featured a lot of Dan Halen, an evil businessman with a gigantic mouth. Unlike some other shows, Squidbillies features very little recurring plot ideas, as it's not uncommon for everybody to end up dead or in terrible situations. The show's pretty violent, and combining that with the odd art style it would probably put off quite a few people. But it's often much cleverer than it appears at times, and always good for a few sick laughs. Not the kind of thing anyone should probably get too into, but it's funny.

Movie Update 2: 2007 In Theaters

Here's what I went to see so far this year, in chronological order.

Ghost Rider


This was a stupid movie, but the people making it knew that, and they benefited because of it. It never takes itself too seriously. It's not exactly campy, it just has the right tone to it. I like Nicolas Cage a lot, I just think he's had a really weird career. He always plays odd characters, and he's rarely spectacular, but usually plays his part well and enjoyably. He makes a lot of bad movies, but it's hard to care because he makes just enough good movies to keep you on his side.

The visual effects are decent, but yet again, we have a super hero/comic book movie that has nice looking action scenes that don't have enough action. The transformation from actor into flaming skull head is well done thanks to the computer effects and Nick's acting, but once he's changed he just drives around quickly on his motorcycle and gets in very short battles with half-baked demonic enemies. They aren't that interesting as foes, and they don't get a chance to make a case for themselves because they get dispatched within moments of confronting the hero. The final bad guy makes more of a stand, but the way he's defeated is still a cop-out. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies are still the only series in this decade's wave of super-hero movies to have decent fights in them. Ghost Rider is enjoyable, but definitely a few rungs below the better stuff Marvel has done in film.

300


I think I should read some Frank Miller comics if they're really as interesting as the movies based on them. I thought Sin City was awesome, and 300 is just as visually interesting. I have to wonder how much of it is Frank's source material and how much is Zack Snyder's direction. Regardless of how good a comic is, putting something to film is different. I don't think Snyder's a bad director, but his remake of Dawn of the Dead, while decent, wasn't nearly this good looking. Considering that all of the sets are digitally constructed and a lot of the beauty comes from slow motion, it's possible neither are chiefly responsible for the look of the movie.

It starts off slow, but once it gets to the battle scenes, 300 really takes off. It gets made fun of, but it uses quick transitions between slow and quick motion to great effect. It adds a lot of style to the fights, and they're a ton of fun to watch. The movie is really bloody too, filled with detailed decapitations and cartoony blood spray. The movie itself is a little contrived plot-wise, but it's a satisfying backdrop for the violence.

Grindhouse


What's interesting is how different the two main features of Grindhouse are while still maintaining the tone and atmosphere they were going for. Planet Terror is a ridiculous, over the top zombie movie filled with guns, gore, disgusting bodily functions, and horror cliches. Robert Rodriguez doesn't make brilliant movies, but he is noteworthy for how cheaply, quickly, and well he puts together his productions. His part is funny and action-packed, and his trailer segment, Machete, with Danny Trejo, is comic gold.

Death Proof is much slower paced and scaled back, but still very entertaining. The first half seems kind of pointless, as it spends a lot of time developing characters that just get killed. It's fairly enjoyable as it's happening, since Quentin Tarantino still knows how to write good dialog, but you kind of wonder afterwards why it was there. The second half starts similarly, with a bunch of girls talking about nothing, but gets better when Kurt Russel tries to do his vehicular manslaughter thing again. It's easy when you do it like he did the first time, but a little harder when two of the three girls in the car are professional stunt people. It leads into a long car chase, that's still a little quiet compared to Planet Terror, but quite good in its own right. It comes to an end a little abruptly, but it's still funny how it happens. Combining the two features with the scratchy film, hilarious fake trailers, and missing real jokes, and Grindhouse is a very fun, long experience at the movies.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters


I was curious how the makers of a show that lives off of random absurdity would stretch that into a full length movie, and it turns out, they just made a long episode. Aqua Teen was always weird, but it was funny because the characters were well acted and had a lot of good lines, so it really isn't that hard to translate. All of the most popular recurring characters return, and none of them feel wasted. There are also some funny new additions, particularly a pair of government agents who seem convinced their enemies are invisible. The movie does a good job of finally explaining the origin of the characters which is hinted at in the show's background and end credits, and while it gets convoluted, it's for comedic effect.

The best part of the movie is the beginning, where movie theater food items sing a song about how you should act at the theater. It doesn't sound great, but believe me, it's hilarious. The makers finally had free reign to have the characters say and do anything they want, and there's plenty of great stuff there without going overboard. The movie works, it's funny, and you should see it if you like the characters. It has a pretty good soundtrack too. If you do see it, make sure to stay after the end credits.

Best of 2006 Redux: V For Vendetta

I somehow forgot about this movie when making my list of the best movies from last year, and it definitely would have made the cut. I guess that's what happens when you make a list over a year since that year began.

Anyway, V is yet another movie based on a comic book. The writer came out publicly against the film, and I'm not sure why. It may not be quite as good, but it maintains the spirit of the book while updating it for the modern age. Hugo Weaving proves he can be more than a good villain, as he expertly speaks the poetic lines and manages to make a character interesting without the use of his face. The movie's evil fascist regime obviously has some parallels to Bush's administration, and the fact that some of them noticed it shows they did what they wanted. It's a smart action movie that has a good story and doesn't rely on violence, which makes the superb final fight a complete bonus. It's one of the best stylized pieces of choreographed combat I've seen in a while. A well done movie with a strong message.