Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is one of the most unique voices working in scripted TV right now. Sherman-Palladino’s sharp and cleverly crafted dialogue makes her work stand out on the tube, especially on ABC Family, which airs her new show, Bunheads.
Her voice and personality also influence the great music and memorable quirky performances her shows are known for. With Bunheads, a drama about dancers, those elements often come together brilliantly in unique and stunning dance sequences, like the one above set to They Might Be Giants’ “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” from Monday’s episode. Stream it, enjoy it, and don’t forget to watch Bunheads Mondays on ABC Family. (Check out my review of the series premiere.)
I’m one of those nerds who loves, loves, LURVES the country-fried Firefly theme song. Slap that baby over a nicely edited reel of Avengers footage, like some wonderful person did here, and you’ve got me wishing for Joss Whedon’s Avengers TV show (with Natty Fillion as Hank Pym, of course.)
Batman made a cameo at the MTV Movie Awards tonight. MTV aired some new The Dark Knight Rises footage at the end of the “awards” show. The ninety-second clip features Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, aka a very dour Anne Hathaway (Why so glum, Princess?) chatting with Joseph Gordon-Levitt about Tom Hardy’s muzzled baddie, Bane.
Last we saw Santigold, she was singing over erratic tribal beats and dancing with screwy cut-and-paste cartoon characters in the video for her single “Big Mouth.” The Brooklyn singer is in a more somber mood in the brand new clip for her latest track “Disparate Youth,” a hypnotic mix of lax vocals, driving beats and dreamy discord.
Santigold’s first new album in four years, “Master of My Make-Believe” is due out later this year. Santi chatted with MTV about the new album and the “Disparate Youth” video, which she co-directed. Here’s what she had to say about the song’s lyrics:
“But lyrically, I was trying to talk about what I want for the world and what I want people to be … The youth are the hope of the future, and I want people to have the courage to trust their own vision and instincts and make up the truth for themselves and question what’s told to them.”
It feels like I’ve been waiting years to hear something new from Santigold, the insanely talented Brooklyn singer/songwriter/producer who owned my world with her self-titled 2008 debut album. Oh, wait, it has been years. Right.
Santigold, who used to go by Santogold, was nice enough to drop the video for her new single “Big Mouth” in my inbox today. Stream it above. It’s a strange and wonderful sloppy kiss of bright colors, jagged animation and super catchy tribal beats. Her next album, “Master of My Make Believe” should be out later this year. (I hope it’s sooner than later.) Now let’s get back to dancing!
Lena Dunham is not the voice of her generation. But she made a pretty good little movie last year, and HBO, in its infinite hit-and-miss-dom, has decided to give her a show. It’s called Girls, or #Girls, and it looks like a breezier version of Dunham’s debut feature, Tiny Furniture. I will watch. (I am not a girl.) Here’s a preview of the show:
I bet Lena Dunham pees herself laughing every time she sees an ad for New Girl.
Apparently this is a film, or a TV show, or a web series, or nothing but a potentially great sci-fi comedy epic that will never happen (?) starring Billy “Pippin” Boyd, Amanda Tapping, Lana Lang, and that guy who can’t act for shit from Sanctuary. I like the tone, I like the music, I like it when Billy “Pippin” Boyd shoves the Sanctuary Debbie Downer aside. I hope Space Milkshake gets made.
I was already a fan of Wild Flag‘s curvy, come-hither grooves, but this video for “Romance” just sealed the deal — Wild Flag is, like, totally my favorite new band and stuff! Watch now:
This clip for “Electric Band” is also quite loveable.
I’m watching Weeds again. You too? OK, good, this should be fun.
Season seven opened with a three-year time jump, which didn’t really bother me at all. I didn’t mind skipping over the bulk of Nancy’s prison stay or the boys’ wild adventures in Copenhagen. I let Weeds take me wherever it wants to go, and I never get too worked up whenever things start to go off the rails or when the plot heads in a strange new direction.
Remember when Majestic burned down and Nancy moved the fam out of suburbia? I liked that. Up to that point, Weeds was somewhat of a dark and brilliant commentary on what’s really happening behind closed doors in our squeaky clean, manufactured suburban communities. Moving away from that premise was a risk, and several viewers and critics mark the end of season three as the point when the series started going downhill. Not me. I appreciated the change. I love TV shows that shake things up and allow their characters to grow and change and to follow something that resembles a natural arc. (Part of what made Buffy so special was that the characters were allowed to move on from high school and stumble into adulthood. Same goes for Gilmore Girls and several other of my favorite shows.) Early in the series’ run, the Weeds showrunners apparently decided that they didn’t want to be stymied by the “pot-slinging mom in suburbia” concept anymore, so they chucked the rulebook out the window (but not before dousing it with kerosene and setting it on fire). That decision has kept things interesting, to say the least.
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