Over the television year, not only do specific shows and specific seasons stand out, but so do specific episodes. Certain episodes rise above the rest of the television landscape in a variety of ways, whether it’s due to excellent direction, strong character exploration, or something else entirely. For the past few years, Sound on Sight …
The notion that a relatively low-performing sitcom airing on broadcast television could have within its stable of stars two MCU superheroes (Ant-Man, coming this summer) is relatively ridiculous, even given that one of those stars is Paul Rudd. But Chris Pratt has spent seven seasons on Parks and Rec showing time and again why he has the charisma to help turn a no-name team-up of comic book weirdos into one of the highest grossing movies of 2014.
During its rocky first season, Parks and Recreation faced much criticism for being too similar to The Office – Leslie was just a female Michael Scott, Ron Swanson was the new Dwight Schrute. Setting it in the vibrant and weird Indiana town of Pawnee instantly assuaged some of these fears. Even during that first season, it was clear from the town hall meetings where Leslie and company had to defend themselves against the many residents of Pawnee that Michael Schur and his writers had dreamt up one of the most vivid communities for a sitcom. So, in honor of Parks and Recreation’s final episode, here are the ten best recurring characters on the show. Here’s to hoping they all make cameos during the finale.
This week, Parks and Recreation, created by Michael Schur and Greg Daniels, will finish its seven-season, 125-episode run. With that conclusion not only comes the end of one of television’s most rewarding series in the past decade, but the end of its main character’s long, memorable arc.
Whilst the development of technology continues at such a rapid pace, the brightest and most talented innovators amongst us persist in creating new and exciting technologies for us all to enjoy and benefit from. And it’s the media industry that often benefits so greatly from these new devices and modernisms. For television and movie productions, …
While we’re still waiting on the actual story of how Burt Macklin – FBI was actually the one to assassinate Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty, this expertly made video mash-up of the Jurassic World trailer with some of Andy Dwyer’s finest moments from Parks and Recreation should do the trick. Thanks Mom Productions …
2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t disappoint either, with visionary creators bringing new life to familiar settings and taking greater risks with their returning series, deepening their worlds. Throughout the year, directors and cinematographers brought lush visuals, composers pushed the auditory envelope, and an astonishing number of actors gave fantastic, memorable performances. More than a few shows delivered spectacle on a weekly basis, while others went small, deriving incredible power out of stillness and self-reflection. Some series swept the audience up, week in and week out, and others built subtly, only showing their hand in their season’s final episodes. There truly was too much great television this year for any one person to see it all (95 separate series were nominated by our contributors!), so limiting the discussion to 10 or even 20 series would be ridiculous. Instead, here is Sound on Sight’s list of the 30 best series of what has been another wonderful year for television.
2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t disappoint either, with visionary creators bringing new life to familiar settings and taking greater risks with their returning series, deepening their worlds. Throughout the year, directors and cinematographers brought lush visuals, composers pushed the auditory envelope, and an astonishing number of actors gave fantastic, memorable performances. More than a few shows delivered spectacle on a weekly basis, while others went small, deriving incredible power out of stillness and self-reflection. Some series swept the audience up, week in and week out, and others built subtly, only showing their hand in their season’s final episodes. There truly was too much great television this year for any one person to see it all (95 separate series were nominated by our contributors!), so limiting the discussion to 10 or even 20 series would be ridiculous. Instead, here is Sound on Sight’s list of the 30 best series of what has been another wonderful year for television.
2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t …
Ever since NBC killed “Must See TV” on Thursday nights (RIP), the Peacock network has felt only spy/cop dramas (ex. Blacklist, State of Affairs, anything by Dick Wolf) and event programming (The Voice, football, musicals) can be successful. In other words, not comedies. Robert Greenblatt, NBC Entertainment chairman, fixes this problem for the seventh and …
Nick Offerman is a man of many talents, and among his many manly hobbies is woodworking. In fact, Offerman supposedly runs a carpentry shop producing high-end handmade goods. The Parks and Recreation star appeared on a recent episode of Conan and starred in this commercial parody for his series of handcrafted wood emojis. Enjoy! Parks and …
The fall TV season is just kicking off and it’s time to begin crafting a weekly TV-viewing schedule that fits your needs, genre preferences, and tastes, and that hopefully includes something old, something new, and something that’s been around for a while that you’ve been meaning to check out. Following up on Sound on Sight’s coverage of …
YouTube announced a contest this week in collaboration with director Guillermo Del Toro in which entrants with YouTube channels can submit a short horror story to be judged by Del Toro, with the winner getting the opportunity to sign a deal with Del Toro’s Legendary Pictures. The contest is called “You Tube Space House of …
2013 was an incredible year for standout episodes – even, in some cases, for series that didn’t necessarily have a great year overall. Prompted by this wealth of televised riches, TV editor Kate Kulzick, Televerse cohost Simon Howell, general editor Ricky D, and managing editor for TV Randy Dankievitch brainstormed and compiled their personal favorites, with only those deemed worthy by a majority making the cut. The resulting list of survivors (organized by airdate) is a wonderfully diverse picture of the medium at work in 2013, in 15-to-60 minute chunks.
Delivery Man Written and directed by Ken Scott USA, 2013 Somewhere in the last 10 years, Vince Vaughn decided to smooth out his edges, sanding down his hard exterior to a bland nub. His acidic work in films like Made, Swingers, and even something as outrageous as Old School is a thing of the past, …
It’s not a particularly good sign that the end credits for A.C.O.D. are more revealing and poignant than the film preceding them. As the credits roll on one half of the screen, a montage of (presumably) the film’s crew members plays on the other half, as they identify as being either Adult Children of Divorce (hence the titular acronym) or not, defining when or if their parents split up, how, and why.
We’re The Millers Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber Written by Bob Fisher, Steve Faber, Sean Anders, and John Morris USA, 2013 We’re The Millers is a mighty schizophrenic movie, sometimes shuffling from plot point to plot point as if you can literally see a committee of studio executives hovering next to the actors, offering notes …
The amount of time it takes to exhaust the goodwill one has accrued towards an overqualified and bursting ensemble cast is roughly 70 minutes, if The To Do List is any indication. The film’s high concept and its performers, from Aubrey Plaza to Connie Britton to Alia Shawkat to Clark Gregg, are enough to engender some interest for a while, but eventually, The To Do List peters out, squandering away its likability on a strange, ballsy-for-being-irresponsible message and a muddled third act.
As my Televerse cohost Simon Howell and I discussed in our Top 10 TV Series of 2013 (So Far), this has been a spectacular year for television, with many shows delivering remarkably consistent seasons (or half-seasons) of memorable, moving television. A number of series were in contention for our Top 10 but didn’t quite make …
It may seem like a fool’s errand to ascribe deeper meaning to a 75-minute lark of a movie, but it’s not terribly difficult to spot a theme recurring throughout Somebody Up There Likes Me, specific to the very meaning of life.
This Thursday, stand up comedian and actor Patton Oswalt guest stars on NBC’s beloved Parks and Recreation as a Pawnee, Indiana citizen who tries his best to stop a city council vote with a lengthy filibuster. When asked to talk at length about whatever he wanted by the producers, Oswalt chose to rant about Star …
Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal USA, 2012 So little in this world is tangibly right or wrong that when an opportunity to channel our innate desire to see good triumph over evil comes along, we grab at it with all our strength. Such a chance arose in the aftermath …
The Future of AMC The news of showrunner Glen Mazzara leaving The Walking Dead over creative differences with the network last week is hardly a surprise: Hell on Wheels just hired its third show runner in three years, and the tense Breaking Bad and Mad Men negotiations of recent memory are ugly blemishes for a network with an increasingly unstable relationship with …