Category Archives: The Roaring 10s!

2020/01/02 · 12:59 am

The Best of the Decade: The Teens

9CDA76C9-73D6-47DC-BF34-75D1738744F3Hello old friends! It’s the first day of the 2020s, so this feels like the appropriate time to look back on the last decade (and post our first article in about half a decade). As Jumped The Snark was alive (or in a deep sleep) for the entirety of the 2010s, it will likely stand as the iconic decade for this blog, and it was a ten-year period rich with memorable TV shows, movies, performances and viral videos. Instead of breaking it down by genre or format  (mostly as a TS (a time-saver)), I’m just going to present my “ten best” (whatever that means) things from the teens. And away we go:

Honorable Mention: BoJack Horseman, Mad Max: Fury Road, La La Land, Master of None, Crashing, Billy Joel at MSG, 2013-2014 NY Rangers, Frasier on Netflix, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Darth Vader hoverboard, Barry*, several seasons of Survivor, Adele Dazeem

10. Watchmen (2019) – Damon Lindelof’s dense and ambitious “remix” of the graphic novel came in just under the wire (not the HBO show). It felt like the culmination of Lindelof’s TV journey, mixing the mystery box elements and non-linear storytelling of Lost with the philosophical reckoning and real-life relevance of The Leftovers, creating something entirely new and incredibly assured. It was as if the were making Lost but knew all the answers, and more than that, knew how to slowly but successfully reveal them. It’s not an easy show to watch – it demands full attention (and a rewatch) – but it’s so rewarding. A swing that big shouldn’t be a home run, but Watchmen knocks it out of the proverbial park. Is this recency bias you ask (I ask)? Would the show be on my list if it came out a year earlier? I don’t know, but I hope so.

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Filed under Better Late Than Never, Brilliance, Lists, LOST, The Roaring 10s!, Winterfallen

2014/07/14 · 7:10 pm

Brooklyn is the Center of World (Cup)

WorldCupHeadquartersWell, it’s finally over. After a month of great, often breathtaking games matches and gorgeous goals, the World Cup finished its 2014 run in Brasil yesterday, leaving us both sad and already overflowing with excitement for 2018 (and 2022 on our home turf?) I watched more soccer football in the last month than I had in my whole life prior, and it’s not even close. Even more, I think I watched more of the beautiful game in the last four weeks than I have of baseball all season. And I love baseball. But the Mets are mediocre and uninspiring, and just plain difficult to watch. And, well, the World Cup worked very well with my current unemployment flexible schedule. Will I continue this trend and begin to tune into MLS games on a regular basis. Probably not (last night’s Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers prime-time matchup notwithstanding). I already went down that road four years when I really thought I was going to be big LA Galaxy fan, and that didn’t last long (but that’s the worldwide appeal of David Beckham, I guess). Truth is, I’ll probably finally get back into baseball post-All-Star break, or, perhaps, if the Mets continue to make mediocre an art form, I’ll just kill time until hockey starts again (whose void was filled so wonderfully, and at just the right time, by the World Cup). But I’ll be ready for 2018 in Russia, and I’ll always treasure the last month, when I felt at one with the world and the world felt like it came to Brooklyn (and I spent way too much time in a bar before 5pm).

My lasting memory, I think, will be that every bar, cafe, restaurant, McDonald’s, hair salon and tax preparation office seemed to be broadcasting the matches, trying to capitalize on a popularity that I didn’t quite realize the tournament possessed. There was no shortage of establishments showing the matches, and, it felt, no shortage of people who were interested in watching. Walking around Brooklyn, it sure felt that soccer, after two decades of promise, had finally arrived.

World Cup Bars Brooklyn, Greenpoint

 

Our collective  fútbol fever may now have subsided, not likely to return for another four years. But from now until then, we’re still infected, with another outbreak just lying in wait, from Brooklyn to Chicago, from Seattle to Kansas City, to Los Angeles to the White House. I look forward to the relapse.

 

 

 

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Filed under Across the pond, Local Flavor, Matt Christopher Books, New Favorite Show, The Roaring 10s!

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2011/02/25 · 1:30 pm

‘SNL Backstage’: More Like ‘SNL Backstab’

There’s literally nothing we like more than Saturday Night Live retrospectives.  Okay, well, maybe we like pizza, beer, the Muppets, 1986 Mets retrospectives and maps more.  But really that’s about it.  And it’s close.  Which is why we were so extremely disappointed in last week’s “new” two-hour prime-time special SNL Backstage. We were eager for the broadcast all week, making sure to set our DVRs before heading out to Philadelphia for the weekend.  We were far more excited about it than any regular episode of SNL all season, save for Jim Carrey’s return.  And from those great expectations came a great letdown.

The show was billed as, or so it seemed to us, a look behind the scenes at SNL, which we thought meant going beyond the origin of sketches and past cast changes and instead delving further into the process of the show, bringing us stories and details not found in the previous behind the scenes specials (SNL in the 80s: Lost and Found, SNL in the 90s: Pop Culture Nation, SNL in the 00s: Time and Again). Indeed, judging from the promo, we were going to be treated to some new never heard before insights and, most intriguing to us, a glimpse at how they pull up a live show with so many set and costume changes.  What we thought we’d be getting was a truly illuminating look under the hood of SNL, an expose on all its moving parts.

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But, basically, we were lied to.

More on the betrayal, and the only three minutes of truly new and interesting material.

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Filed under Analysis, Be careful what you wish for, Matt Christopher Books, Saturday Night Live, The Roaring 10s!

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2011/02/16 · 9:47 am

Kieran’s Korner In Memorium: A Eulogy For the Compact Disc (And the Worst It Had to Offer)

Jumped the Snark presents, with pleasure, the latest thoughts from Mr. Kieran Walsh:
They were shiny.   They were round.  After breaking the dorm room mirror I used one to comb my hair for an entire semester of college (true!)

And, now, suffice to say, they’re pretty much dead.

I’m referring, of course, to the Compact Disc.

Oh, you can still find them.  Most of the big music stores are closed, of course.  No more Tower Records.  Alas, Sam Goody.  Whither Virgin…

Yes, strictly speaking, CDs are still out there and, as long as what little I understand of economics still holds true in our increasingly bizarre post-TARP universe, they should be for a while.

But in terms of the popular imagination—in terms of being the de facto medium for pre-recorded music—the Compact Disc is history.

Read on: Kieran mourns the Compact Disc by mining thrift stores to put together the list of the Top Ten Used CDs.

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Filed under Kieran's Korner, Lists, The Roaring 10s!, TV Killed the Music Video Star, Tyranasaurus Sex

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2011/02/04 · 7:40 pm

‘SNL’ Programming Note

Before we head into the weekend we just wanted to remind you that tomorrow night’s SNL is a repeat from 2000 with host Dana Carvey and musical guest Linkin Park.  New episodes return ne…I’m sorry?  What’s that?  It’s not a repeat?  It’s a a brand new episode?  Really?  C’mon.  Really?  With Linkin Park?  Nooooo.  Really?? Okay.  Wow.  What, was Crazy Town already booked?  Jeez.  Alright.  I mean, you see why you’d think it’s a repeat, right?  Right.  But, hey, if it’s new, it’s new…so we’ve just been informed that tomorrow night’s SNL with host Dana Cavery and musical guest Linkin Park is, in fact, a new episode.  So tune in to see if Carvey does George Bush and The Church Lady, and maybe catch Linkin Park playing their hit song.

In the mean time, here’s our hands-down favorite Dana Carvey sketch, a performance we’d often recreate throughout elementary school.  My friend’s parents loved it.

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2010/12/27 · 11:35 am

Winter Cleaning: My (Belated) Top 10 TV Shows of the 2000s

With the snow keeping us indoors we thought it might be a good time to go through our drafts and let some of these long-languishing, somewhat unfinished posts see the light of day.  First up, our best shows of the 2000s, which we held off publishing until we could embed some video evidence.  But, at this point, we’ll put that responsibility in your hands.

My belated best TV shows of the 2000s! (in a semi-particular order)

1. LOST: For the reasons I outline here.

2. The Sopranos: The Godfather of dark, fearless cable shows with flawed central characters.  Might be responsible for killing network TV.

3. Arrested Development:  Simply the smartest sitcom of all time.  It was probably to clever for its own good.  It was basically teaching a master class in comedy while throwing out an impossible amount of sight gags, call backs and cutaways.  We should just be thankful that we got 3 seasons of this masterpiece.

4. Veronica Mars: Could have put it below Freaks and Geeks, but I give it the edge for somehow making it to season three (even if that was a neutered, watered-down version of VM).  I’d put the first season up against any season from the last decade.

5.  Freaks and Geeks: The most gut-wrenchingly accurate depiction of high school ever.  18 episodes of achingly beautiful growing pains [editor’s note: just watched much of IFC’s Freaks and Geeks Holiday Marathon, and if we revised this list today we’d be tempted to put this show at the top of this list.  It’s that fucking good].

More: 6 – 10 and Honorable Mention

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Filed under Best Show You're Not Watching, Bob Loblaw, Dillon Panthers, Discos and Dragons, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Flashback!, Lists, LOST, Mars Investigations, Mr. Gaeta, Prepare for Jump, The Roaring 10s!, The State

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2010/01/01 · 4:48 pm

2010 is Already the Best Year of the Decade! AKA Nothing Has Changed and Probably Never Will

First, congratulations to Jumped The Snark on two decades of cutting edge, premier, trenchant, award-winning* pop culture commentary.  The aughts were good to us, but we’re really excited about reaching new highs in the Roaring Tens.

But before we really hit the new decade you didn’t think we’d begin 2010 without a relevant New Years Eve video, did you?  Come on!  You should know us better by now!

Of course, the obvious and really only choice for this was, as we teased earlier, the last Pete & Pete special before it became a regular series, the epic “New Year’s Pete.”  Little Pete tries to make the better world for all mankind, but realizes that New Years resolutions, and life itself, can be pretty futile.  Dark stuff for a quasi-kids show.  And probably the only show on Nickelodeon ever to show a character smoke cigarettes.  But hey, that’s real life.

And if you’re not too hungover, here’s Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4.

Look for a cameo from a much slimmer Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore and don’t look for one from Hunter S. Thompson.

Diet starts today, right guys????

*And by “award-winning” we mean that we’ve received over 50 spam comments.  Thanks to everyone who helped make our dream a reality!

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