Despite what you may have read in the voluminous commentaries on other web sites, this season of The Wire is as awesome as every other season. Various journalist-types have spent a lot of time griping about the unrealistic newspaper scenes, but as someone with no more first-hand knowledge of a newsroom than a police department, I find them very interesting.

This is the first time I’ve watched the show weekly instead of in giant DVD-sized binges, so it’s been a different experience. But what’s really annoying me is HBO’s weird schedule. The new episodes are available on HBO On Demand 6 days before it is “broadcast” on Sunday night and everyone who reviews the show waits until the show is “broadcast” before they discuss it. Isn’t that just a weird fiction? Is there anyone who has HBO who doesn’t have HBO On Demand or who waits until Sunday to watch the show when they could have watched it 6 days earlier? I can tell you who’s not waiting: this guy. And “next week’s” episode was great.

Despite being reduced to a fancy-looking press conference, as experienced at our house, last night’s Golden Globes were the best ever. After watching the surprisingly good Sarah Connor Chronicles pilot, we switched over to an already recorded copy of the Press Conference. We fast-forwarded through every single extemporaneous bit of commentary and watched a series of clips and award announcements in about 20 minutes. Like Dan, I had no interest in hearing what Billy Bush has to say about anything.

I’m very happy about the Tina Fey win, but awarding a perfectly good movie like Atonement when you have two  movies that are head and shoulders above every other movie released this year really highlights what a farce the whole Golden Globes thing is. They’re awarded by an association of fewer than 90 entertainment journalists. Why their opinion means anything is beyond me. In a category with 6 nominees you could get a plurality with 15 votes. Anyway, There Will Be Blood was robbed.

As someone who works in the movie business, I’ve been following the WGA strike very closely, although so far it has affected me a lot more as a fan of television than as an employee of the Hollywood Dream Machine TM. I’m not sure I’ve ever even worked on a movie that had a WGA writer. Yeah, it’s a glamorous life. I am in the Editors Guild, which is part of IATSE, which is officially mad at the WGA for putting us all out of work. But I’m definitely in favor of the writers. They should take whatever they can get. I wouldn’t mind getting a piece of those new media revenues too, but editors don’t get any residuals for old media either.

The news so far has been pretty boring. Our favorite TV shows are dropping like flies, while movies will continue for a long time without any theaters going empty or filling their screens with artsy foreign and independent films. But I think the recent news that the WGA refused to allow the Golden Globes or the Academy Awards to show any movie clips is fascinating. I can imagine an awards show without writers. It might even be fun. But take away clips from the movies and previous awards shows, and we’re getting pretty close to the pure, masturbatory essence of the Oscars.

WGA member Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars this year and it seems pretty unlikely that he’ll do anything more creative than introduce people. Even if he starts with some prepared remarks about supporting the strike, that would be writing. In fact, his main job as a WGA member should be to make the show as boring as possible. A lot of people will be watching the show, and the Worst Oscars Ever would be a good reminder of the importance of writers.

In other strike news, the WGA wants to negotiate separate contracts with everyone now. They’re sick of dealing with the AMPTP (who was already refusing to negotiate with them anyway) and now want to divide and conquer. One of the first producers to make a deal will be David Letterman. His production company Worldwide Pants owns his and Craig Ferguson’s shows, and as a long-time WGA member he will be happy to make a good deal with the WGA. If he can bring his shows back along with is writers, it will give him an advantage over Jay and Conan, who are both just hired guns at NBC and will have to convince the network to make a deal with the WGA in order to get their writers back. It will put some nice pressure on NBC. Jay and Conan are coming back January 2nd, with or without their writers. I’d love to see Jay’s ratings finally plummet, but the truth is he’ll probably be just fine. People who watch Leno are obviously not watching it because it’s so well written.

Throughout the strike, the members of the WGA have been busy making their case on the Internets. The Late Show Writers on Strike blog—written by Letterman’s writing staff—is my favorite. There’s been a mostly lame series called “Speechless” where famous actors don’t say any of the witty or moving things they usually say, you know, indicating that they don’t make it up on their own. The only one that I’ve really liked is with Woody Allen, who actually does make it up on his own.

The Late Show Writers did their own version which is also funny.

File this one under “huh?” For some reason the establishing shot of the kid with the bad heart’s house on Pushing Daisies this past week was the view from Bill Murray’s window when he finally gets to the next day on Groundhog Day. Here are the two shots:

Groundhog Day:

Pushing Daisies:

The only difference is the lone pedestrian in the distance.

It seems like an odd choice, since it’s such a memorable shot. Bill Murray looks out that window several times throughout the movie and every time it’s the same except this one. It’s how he proves to himself that it’s really the next day. Maybe someone on the show just likes Groundhog Day.

Also, apparently Groundhog Day was remade in Italy a few years ago.

Last night Maggie and I (and friend-of-the-faux Katie) had tickets to one of the hottest shows in town: the live reading of an episode of 30 Rock at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. We got there 80 minutes early and still barely got seats. I think the majority of the audience was standing or sitting in the aisles. The place was completely packed. I didn’t catch a lot of familiar faces in the audience. Brian Stack of Conan fame sat in front of us, and I saw Amy Poehler talking to him after the show. Other than that, the big names were all on stage.

I expected an old show (we were hoping for “Tracy Does Conan” with a cameo from Conan) but they actually did a staged reading of a show that airs in 3 weeks. Tina specifically requested that we avoid posting plot details on our blogs because the show is “kind of like Heroes and [they] like to keep it a secret.” But I will tell you a few things.

The entire main cast was there, with the exception of Special Guest Stars Edie Falco and James Carville. Falco’s part was played by Paul Pell, who recently played Pete’s wife on 30 Rock, but is perhaps best known as a frequent fake audience member on SNL. James Carville was played by a guy who looked a little like James Carville and wore a shirt that said “James Carville” on the front and the back. Signed copies of that shirt, and the Shinehardt Wig Company “NOT polluting rivers since 1997″ shirt were raffled off during commercial breaks. Some of the supporting cast also couldn’t make it, including Maulik Pancholy (Jack’s assistant Jonathan). His one line was read by one of the writers. Grizz and Dot Com didn’t have any lines in the episode.

Commercials were somewhat successfully improvised by Jack McBrayer (Kenneth) and John Lutz (Lutz). The best involved the two of them pretending to play basketball, with Jack McBrayer on defense waving his hands around hilariously. When Tina saw Jack McBrayer in his NBC Page costume she couldn’t help laughing. She said her one wish is that the show lasts just long enough that he has to wear the costume for the rest of his life like Bob Denver (fun fact, Gilligan’s Island was only on for 3 seasons).

The episode itself was typical 30 Rock, full of shenanigans and great cutaways, which was a little tricky to pull off on stage, but the thrill of seeing everyone in person made up for any performance problems. There was a lot of time spent waiting for the audience to stop laughing. Alec Baldwin and Paula Pell had a great time pretending to have sex in various positions. Tina warned us before the show started that he might try to rape her. I laughed as soon as Tracy Morgan started talking. He has such a naturally funny and forceful voice it was just hilarious to hear him say anything at all. Liz Lemon calling Kenneth a “fucking hillbilly” during a game of Celebrity (Maggie’s favorite game) is something you won’t be hearing on NBC.

The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes, which is about half as long as we waited in line, but it was totally worth it. Much better than my experience playing “Audience Member #224″ in the pilot episode.

Now I don’t know a lot about Mike Huckabee, but he strikes me as someone I will never vote for. That said, the man makes a funny political ad.

It reminds me of that time Bob Dole went on Letterman after he lost against Clinton. He was a humorless bore during the election but after he lost he was hilarious (creepy Viagra ads notwithstanding).

Is it possible for a serious contender (which Huckabee clearly is not) to stop being so serious during an election and still remain a serious contender?

I’ve been following the Lonelygirl15 story off and on since the wonderful Proving Science Wrong days. I stopped watching when it turned into the whole “save Bree from the cult” thing. But I was poking around on Wikipedia today and discovered that Bree—Lonelygirl15 herself!—was killed off in August.

Yet the show continues without her. I hope someone is enjoying this stuff.

I don’t know how to make this any easier. Vote for TiFaux directly on our site!

Recently featured on the YouTube homepage, guaranteeing a lot of views, Pink: The Series is the rare YouTube video that satisfies most of the requirements I laid out when I started my Internets TV posts. The major exception is rule #3: “The credit sequence cannot take up more than 1/3 of the running time.” Every 3 minute episode begins with a snazzy 30 second animated opening and ends with 30 seconds of “next time on” and credits. I realize that it’s important to give people credit for their work, but it makes actually watching the series a real chore.

Also making it a chore is the in-between-credits parts. It’s exceptionally well shot, but each episode takes a very small amount of time to parcel out a very small amount of information. It’s like watching the first episode of Lost 2 minutes at a time. And unfortunately the sound does not match the quality of the picture. It really undercuts the work that went into the rest of the production. The final nail in the coffin though was Episode 3 when the heroine indicated her desire for a baby by repeatedly cupping her crotch. Ladies is that what you do when your biological clock starts ticking like Mona Lisa Vito’s?

Throwing a nice, meaty bone to Battlestar Galactica fans, the “Razor” movie is a great way to keep up interest in a show that’s taking its sweet time coming back for the final season. The movie will screen for free in select theaters around the country on November 12 (Only LA, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Seattle have open registration slots at the moment) and premieres on the Sci Fi Channel on the 24th.

Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

The movie alternates between flashbacks to Lee Adama’s first mission as a real boy commanding the Pegasus, and flashbacks to the Cylon attack and immediate aftermath from the point of view of the original Pegasus crew. And while it’s great to be back in the world of Battlestar Galactica, everything feels a little redundant. We already know how things are going to end up on the Pegasus. We know when Belzen questions Admiral Cain’s orders that she’s going shoot him in the head. We know Number 6 is on board and bad things are going to happen to her. We know they’re going to rob civilian ships and leave them to die. It’s often compelling to see how they actually played out, but the major story points have already been revealed. It’s an unfortunate problem that seems to be the nature of prequels. Everything is pre-ordained, which drains the suspense.

I’m sure the writers understood that limitation, which is why they combine that story with a mission involving most of our favorite characters (with the notable exceptions of Gaius, Chief Tyrol, Helo, and a few others) that somehow never came up in conversation during the third season. It turns out at the very end of the First Cylon War Bill Adama stumbled across a horrific human/Cylon hybridization experiment that escaped just as the armistice was being signed and was never heard from again by humans or Cylons. According to Cylon lore (referred to hilariously as “our databases”) the hybrid is a kind of dead-end evolutionary path that never worked out, like Neanderthals. The hybrid (accompanied by Cylons from the original series) has captured some of the Battlestar’s crew and Lee has to get them back and blow up the hybrid.

The connection between the two stories is Kendra Shaw, a tough young lady who doesn’t play nice. Kendra joins the Pegasus on the same day as the Cylon attack and lives through some really bad stuff. Lee makes her the XO when he takes over the ship, and she has to confront her many demons from the past while she deals with the hybrid. To nobody’s surprise, she doesn’t play so well with Starbuck.

Interestingly, despite feeling mostly unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, the movie feels too short. The two stories jostling for screen time mean that each one doesn’t get developed as fully as they would if they had to carry a movie on their own. Kendra never really gets as interesting as the other characters, mainly because she was created as a useful plot device rather than a character we would grow to love/hate over multiple episodes. There are some very nice touches though, many of them related to fleshing out Admiral Cain’s character, like her lesbian relationship with the undercover Number 6, her dislike of chairs, and the possibility that she wasn’t just a crazy psychopath.

By far the best thing about the movie is one key revelation that left everyone at TiFaux Central with their jaws on the floor begging for the 4th season to start. You won’t hear it from me though. You’ll just have to wait to see it yourself.