Everyone knows that TV weddings are ratings bonanzas, and the destructive aftermaths of those weddings are even more exciting. Happy couples tend to get boring pretty quickly, after all. It’s not surprising, then, that Gossip Girl celebrated its 100th episode last night with the wedding of Blair and Louis, even though Blair is still obviously in love with Chuck, in an hour with so many twists and turns and false stops that we’re still not sure what, exactly, happened. To celebrate their clearly ill-advised big day, we’ve put together a list of some of the most disastrous marriages in television history.
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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.” We get you, Juliet — names are just names, and what we’re called is irrelevant to our true, inner essence. But does this famous Shakespearean notion prevent modern TV writers from weaving a character’s so-called “embarrassing” middle name into a comedy’s occasional plot line? Of course not! When it comes to sitcom middle names, the weirder, the better. Iphigenia? Miervaldis? Leakey? Sure, why not! Let’s play a name game — click through to enjoy some of television’s silliest and most unexpected middle names, then hit the comments to let us know of any others that you’ve found noteworthy.
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What can you possibly learn in medical school that you can’t during a weekend-long marathon of House? We’ve only experienced the latter, so we can’t say for sure — but the answer seems to be “a lot,” considering that our doctors keep disagreeing with our self-diagnoses. Hospital shows receive endless scorn for their medical inaccuracies, and the customary rebuttal is the fact that they’re nothing more than entertainment. But we can’t deny that these series have taught us some things about the field, so we’ve rounded up some of their profound, didactic, med-school-worthy, and factually correct lessons.
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1. Winter’s Bone, a gritty family drama that’s set in the Midwest and based on Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 novel of the same name, won top honors at the Gotham Independent Film Awards last night. [via WSJ]
2. “How does it feel to know that you could have any man in the world? Or woman? How does it feel to know that you can turn straight women gay? … No one woman should have that much power.” – Kanye West interviews Rihanna in the December/January issue of Interview magazine
3. Vulture has learned that Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes is working on a new series for ABC that’s inspired by the career of pr guru Judy Smith — whose has worked with Bill Clinton, Michael Vick, and David Paterson.
4. These New Puritans’ latest album Hidden has been crowned NME’s Album Of The Year for 2010; Foals’ “Spanish Sahara” was named the Best Track.
5. After some recent drama with the Tate Britain and press photographers, the Turner Prize is moving from London to the city of Derry, in Northern Ireland, come 2013. [via UnBeige]
Bonus link: Did NASA Discover Life on One of Saturn’s Moons?
It’s a predicament of being a TV watcher in a post-Grey’s Anatomy age that now, every time one character on any show casts a sidelong glance at another, our mind jumps right to, “hmm, are they going to become an item?” And with more than half of our favorite shows these days featuring so-called platonic relationships between plucky women and their masculine bosses (Peggy and Don of Mad Men, Liz and Jack on 30 Rock, Betty and Daniel on Ugly Betty, just to name a few), this phenomenon is beginning to seriously mess with our heads. Witness last Thursday’s “Galentine’s Day” episode of Parks and Recreation…
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TV characters, you’re grossing us out with your fictional hook-ups. Usually we manage to be pretty zen about the whole thing, accepting of the plain fact that on any television show with a decently-sized ensemble, everyone will eventually hook up with everyone else. (Call it The Rachel/Joey Rule.) But then something so totally unholy happens, like the repeat Dan/Georgina encounter on last week’s Gossip Girl, or, worse yet, Peggy’s liaison on last night’s Mad Men, as to shock and appall us anew. Spoilers ahead, obviously. Read More »
We were just beginning to make peace with the news that George was gone forever now that T.R. Knight has declined to come back for one more episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Then we found out what the episode that we’ll never see was supposed to be about. Now we’re back at square one. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill, we were saddened that Kelly Kapowski hasn’t signed on for the Saved by the Bell reunion. We watched comparatively teeny lines form for the new iPhone whilst silently cursing our Verizon contract. We tried to watch this trailer for HBO’s new show, Bored to Death, without sound and thought it looked pretty good. We thought about the best beach reads of all time, and wondered if we’re the only ones who prefer to to read indoors. We were pissed that this huge Grey’s Anatomy spoiler got out, but upon further reflection, have decided to re-evalutate the impact that Grey’s Anatomy spoilers have on our lives. Finally, we read this list of best father-kid combos, and think not only that Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus suck, but that Ryan and Tatum O’Neal were totally robbed.
If there was an Academy Award for Best Escapism (and there should be during these times), Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, based on its magical trailer, would be the shoo-in. In addition to Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” as heard in the trailer, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, composer Carter Burwell, and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox are involved with the soundtrack. Dreamy. Perhaps our nightmares of Leo DiCaprio destroying NeverEnding Story can finally subside. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill HQ we read more Kindle 2 commentary. We got confused and thought that this was one of those charity supergroup videos. It’s not. We thought about nachos. We realized that there’s something oddly comforting about the fact that The Simpsons will live on forever. We liked the idea of Cate Blanchett playing Maid Marian. We were glad to hear that Jessica Capshaw is signing on to Grey’s — see, they’re not anti-gay! We cheered on the high school Rent production that almost wasn’t. And then tried to imagine what Rent would have looked like in our high school. Heh. We were fascinated by Paul Krugman’s taste in music. We checked out the Web site for Tetro. And finally, we had to hand it to MGMT; it takes some balls to sue President Sarkozy.
