Some Good Movies and TV You May Not Have Seen #6



Watching video of something extinct is poignant, nostalgic, and sad . . . but the knowledge of the subject's impending demise imbues the viewing with something special-- for example, check out the video above to see one of the last living thylacines, soon after this film was shot (in 1933) the "Tasmanian tiger' was eradicated by humans; the seminal TV series Freaks and Geeks evoked the same feeling in me . . . as by the time I watched it, it had already been cancelled (only super-hip people watched the show when it was broadcast) and so each episode-- no matter how excellent-- was a countdown until extinction; and once again, my wife and I are in the same predicament, this time with the 2009 sitcom Better Off Ted . . . it's funny, smart, satirical, fast-paced, and rather lighthearted send-up of business ethics, research and development, technology, and office politics; the jokes are clever, and Portia de Rossi is perfectly cast as the cold and callous dragon-lady boss, and though it was critically acclaimed, apparently no one watched it . . . we've got ten more episodes before it dies in front of us, never to be queued on Netflix again.

5 comments:

zman said...

That's how i felt about deadwood. The end was too ubrupt and the story was left unfinished.

Dave said...

yeah-- that killed me, i loved that show. al swearengen > tony soprano.

zman said...

Agreed; he might be my favorite tv character ever (Magnum gives him a run for his money though). I changed my fantasy football team's name to Swearengen's Cocksuckers in his honor.

Clarence said...

If you garner enough post-cancellation momentum, there can be a resurrection, a la Family Guy after the DVD sales skyrocketed. Or the Arrested Development movie. This post could be the beginning of a new life for Better Off Ted.

Dave said...

i appreciate the optimism, but i think "better off ted' has gone the way of the thylacine.

by accident, i posted two sentences today. that really annoys me.

A New Sentence Every Day, Hand Crafted from the Finest Corinthian Leather.