TV notes and lots of new music

John from Cincinnati made little to no sense. The acting was frequently terrible, even from normally talented actors and actresses. The cursing was nowhere near as good as Deadwood. I can't believe that I had a season of that rather than anything finishing off the story of Deadwood. That all said, I hate that it ended the way it did. And also a damn shame that Trixie and Wu were able to get in, along with Spiros, and that we didn't get more. I wanted to know what happened. Because I certainly didn't get anything remotely like closure on pretty much any plot thread. If I watched Carnivale I'd be pissed by that too.

Weeds is still pretty funny, and although I still don't like it as much as most I know, I certainly enjoy it enough to watch it. It does, however, fit very well before the very funny and surprisingly touching Californication. Which I highly recommend to anyone who has Showtime. It's like the promise of a male Sex in the City that Entourage was trying to do, but with far more talent. Duchovny is just hilarious, and there is more gratuitous nudity than you can possibly imagine. Although it isn't entirely gratuitous, I just like the word, and really, no nudity is ever gratuitous. It's the plot that's gone wrong without it. But it also has Natascha McElhone, an actress I will never ever give up on, due entirely to Ronin, a film for which I may have a slightly irrational love. And Evan Handler, a guy who looks fairly similar to one of my bosses. And Pamela Adlon from the late, lamented (by me, and possibly the three other people who made it through all the episodes of it) Lucky Louie. The guy who wrote this wrote for Dawson's Creek, so I have no idea what the hell is up with that. Maybe after a few episodes it'll stop working well, or something, but until that happens I'll keep watching.

If you haven't been watching the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Feasting on Asphalt, you're missing out on funny and/or deliciousness.

Also, who the hell decided to release just about everything today? The New Pornographers (which I actually got yesterday in the mail in super duper amazingly awesome Executive Edition), the new Caribou album (the opening track, Melody Day, may be the best thing Dan Snaith's ever done, and maybe for a few other people as well), the new Imperial Teen (after a five year wait, anything is better than nothing, and Everything is far better than nothing), the new M.I.A (Paper Planes, based upon Straight to Hell, has to be completely awesome due to the music, but the song holds up to that need), new Rilo Kiley, a new Travis Morrison (with the Hellfighters), and for a few other people out there there's some other releases, like Architecture in Helsinki and Talib Kweli. It's August, and we all know you don't introduce new products in August. What's up?

And one final note: There was apparently another Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare adaptation made last year of As You Like It set in Japan? Is someone trying to kill me with pleasure?