How I Met Your Mother

Something happened to the sitcom and myself (and some of my friends) that deemed them obsolete and terrible. What contributed was the laugh track: if a show had a laugh track you could not watch it and your life would be better. But that's only for modern shows, say, in the past ten years or so. Nostalgia has a way of overpowering reason, and "classic" shows will always be as such, making it easy even now to watch re-runs of Friends in moderation.

I would hazard a guess and say that everyone is on the same boat, judging by the fact that half hour sitcoms have decreased in numbers significantly, being replaced by a boat load of CSI clones and legal dramas. Oh, and don't forget about the ridiculous volume of reality television wandering around too.

There have been a few short comedies that I've been watching (and enjoying) such as The Office (which is getting terrible), Parks and Recreation (which is getting better) and 30 Rock (which is the best). When How I Met Your Mother was suggested to me, I met it with great hesitation. I watched the first episode, or did I? Something may have happened and I didn't get any farther than that. I wasn't overly impressed, and it would be at least a year before I tried again.

Success. Consider me hooked. In my prejudice I've forgotten how well written and sharp a traditional "sitcom" could be. This show does have me laughing out loud on occasion, and I feel as though it is "keeping it fresh" so to speak. So what happens is that I watch the entire first season in about two weeks, and you could expect that I'll be done the second in half that time. Twenty-two minutes is nothing to consume; no real commitment is made and even at twenty two episodes a season, it just feels right. Truly, I have become conditioned on these hour long, twelve episode seasons found elsewhere.

Shut Up or Die

Pontypool. The movie. If you haven't seen it: see it.

One of the most interesting things about getting into a new zombie (franchise, if necessary) is exploring the world weaved. How is the zombification spread? What type of zombies are they? Do they move fast, slow? Do they have superpowers? This film delivers: the "infection" is spread through the English language and what better setting for the entire duration of the film than a talk radio sound booth?

This is a Canadian production and as such you can't expect very much out of it; I did not. But the movie delivers on a regular movie standard, and is not a situation where you would say "that was good, considering it's a Canadian movie." The type of originality you see here is astounding, and when you consider that it must have been done on a budget you enjoy it all the much more for it. And unlike other low-budget films, this one works that to its advantage: taking place in one area the entire time, i.e. the sound booth, and with a skeleton crew for a cast, it all lines up with a small town, small-budget radio station doing its thing every morning. It's perfectly woven into the delivery of the story and the concepts.

Through the call-ins, interviews and conversations with the field reporter, the situation progresses we are pulled in and our imagination can freely go wild. This movie is not going to show us too much as many others do, showcasing budget CGI, or revealing the creature at the end of the film.

Everything just clicks and this movie bubbles up to the top areas of my favourite movies, for at least the past couple of years.