A Day of Video Games and Cartoons

[vovat]

So, the highlight of today was seeing Video Games Live, a touring show that consisted of an orchestra and a choir performing video game music, while footage from the games was displayed on a screen. Game franchises covered included Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Halo, World of Warcraft, and Kingdom Hearts. I knew some of them more than others, but the whole thing was fun. The Video Game Pianist, whose music I downloaded a few years ago, played a few numbers, and even wore a blindfold while performing the Mario theme. Audience participation consisted of a girl playing Guitar Hero and a boy playing Space Invaders with orchestral accompaniment, the latter of which really didn't work all that well, since it was his first time playing and that's not exactly an easy game. Oh, well.

In other viewing news, bethje and I finally watched the Sunday evening cartoon episodes from last week, as well as the most recent ones. Last week's Simpsons was actually pretty good, if for no other reason than its being the first to focus on Mrs. Krabappel since she broke up with Principal Skinner. I think the parody of The Secret is a little dated by now, but it was still funny, and forgivable in light of the time it takes to produce a new episode. Also amusing was the substitute teacher, although the way they got rid of him at the end was totally abrupt. He just all of a sudden decided to get drunk and endanger his job for no reason? Couldn't they have come up with a way to restore the status quo that didn't just come out of nowhere? I didn't care as much for tonight's episode. There were some amusing moments, especially in the training scenes, but it felt rather rehashed overall. And, once again, did they just not bother to write an ending that actually resolved anything coherently?

As for the other shows, well, last week's Family Guy was all right, although it really didn't seem to cover much that hadn't already been done in "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein." So why was it okay to show the new episode, and not "Weinstein"? Well, aside from the fact that they're now letting Seth MacFarlane do pretty much whatever he wants. "Three shows in one night? Well, hey, you're the one with the lucrative DVDs!" I really think he's spreading himself too thin. The second and third Cleveland Show episodes weren't any better than the first, and while last week's FG and American Dad were pretty good, this week's were lacking. Some Fox promo said that the Cleveland Show was the best-rated new program, but I have to wonder how much of that is due simply to people who watch both The Simpsons and Family Guy not bothering to change the channel in between them.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I thought "Bart Gets a Z" was kinda lame -- I thought most of the Zach jokes were sort of the Simpsons equivalent of old newspaper cartoonists thinking the best way to get a joke that the kids identify with is to just say "twitter", so, yeah. The Edna stuff was pretty good, but I think Zach really needed a retooling. There was a throwaway line about teaching breaking a lot of new teachers, but I think that's one problem explained more by the way that Fox keeps razoring the show lengths shorter and shorter.

"Family Goy" was... eh. It had its moments, but it was kinda a weak ep too. I thought it was neat they brought Max back, but hey.

(I missed the stuff from week before last too, so I also watched them yesterday.)

Have you seen this week's yet? I didn't bother watching Cleveland on Hulu, but this week's Cleveland wasn't that bad. Again, I got kinda bored and started fucking around on the computer during it, but it DID have its moments. I'm hoping it continues on this sort of trajectory -- sorta like how the first few episodes of American Dad were pretty fucking dire, and then it got up to "Oh, if it's on and I don't feel like going to bed, it's something to watch!" levels, and there's the occasionally actually GOOD one. (Like the one where Steve's girlfriend runs for class president and Steve punishes the pretty girls but it turns out it was his other friends and they have the whole Escape From New York thing or something.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I thought most of the Zach jokes were sort of the Simpsons equivalent of old newspaper cartoonists thinking the best way to get a joke that the kids identify with is to just say "twitter", so, yeah.

Yeah, maybe so. I guess Twitter WAS still pretty new when the episode was actually made, though. And I liked the parody of the YouTube video with the guy wearing a bunch of shirts.