Watching TV on a Saturday night...

...it was a hoppin' night in the Boy/Butterfly house last night...thanks to yet another 11am football game (the scourge of tailgating), all friends and fellow Mizzou fans were on their way back to their homes last night instead of sticking around and going out (a mistake-prone Mizzou loss didn't help their partying spirit any...nor did the massive amount of partying that took place in StL after the Cards' win Friday night...damn Cardinals...they ruin everything)...so Boy and Butterfly ordered take out at Buffalo Wild Wings and settled into a lovely night of vegging out in front of the tellie...I have comments about all of the major things we watched...

1) Texas at Texas Tech football

I don't mention much football on this site (instead I go leave my comments on one of Alter Destiny's threads each week), but here's something I really need to say...I've always been a proponent of instant replay in sporting events...I mean, what's not to like? In theory, a wrong call on the field is made right in the booth--justice prevails. Again, what's not to like about that?

But as with everything else they touch, the NCAA has apparently botched this relatively simple idea. Every week that goes by, officiating gets worse, replay reviews get more ridiculous and intrusive, games drag on, and somehow, more bad calls are made. I was left absolutely fuming at the refs 3-4 times during the Mizzou/Oklahoma game yesterday (to the point where I called an OU-fan friend of mine to yell at him, "I know OU is owed some makeup calls from the Oregon and Texas Tech debacles, but get them back on your own home field!"), but that was nothing in comparison to the Texas/Tech game last night. A Tech receiver makes a lovely play on a 3rd down, and right before the next play is snapped, somebody in the replay booth independently tells the ref they're reviewing the play (without a coach's challenge), then incorrectly changes the call from completion to incompletion (even though the replay conclusively showed it was a catch). If you're going to be intrusive, at least make the right call. Instead, the refs on the field are completely noncommital (last night two refs couldn't agree on the spot of the ball, so they basically just turned around and looked at the press box for help...and once again the incorrect call was made).

Somehow Big XII officiating, which has always been awful, has gotten worse with the introduction of instant replay. Only the NCAA can create a system worse than the NFL's "Let's have the ref on the field look through a little viewfinder while fans are yelling at him 20 feet away, yeah, this is the best solution" system and made it worse. Congrats.

Seriously, how hard is it to a) have a simple system where a coach can challenge a call, and if it doesn't go his way, he loses a timeout (with no limits of "one per half"...that's stupid in and of itself...if you get screwed twice in a half, you just have to live with the second one?), and get rid of this whole "Big Brother"-style system where the booth can randomly review even the most unimportant of calls (yesterday, the wind blew the ball off the Mizzou kicker's tee on a kickoff, and they spent 5 minutes reviewing whether he had nicked the ball or not...OU didn't even care about this, and they reviewed it anyway); and b) stock the replay booth with people who aren't legally blind?

Ahh...much better...had to get that off my chest...

2) Thank You for Smoking

After a busy Homecoming weekend last week, we finally got around to watching this, the latest Netflix rental. Good movie. Great acting, though Katie Holmes was one again woefully miscast (worse here than in Batman Begins...there, she was just a blank slate, not necessarily miscast). Seriously, 5-6 years ago I was as big a Katie Holmes fan as there was...and even relatively recently, she was quite good in Pieces of April and still showing promise as an actress. Maybe the Scientology thing has painted her in so negative a light to me that I just won't be able to see her positively in anything, but...casting her as a slutty, get-the-story-at-any-cost journalist? I could think of 15 actresses who could have sold the role much better than her. She just has too much "sweet" in her face to pull this off. The good news, however, is that thanks to certain decisions in her personal life, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say she won't be getting any more roles like this in the near or distant future.

That said, this really was a good movie. It both challenged and reinforced stereotypes...it make the Smoking industry look just as evil as they really are while showing that the other side isn't exactly pristine and sin-free. This isn't a movie that will change the world or even change people's minds, but that said, more movies like this need to be made. Even if you don't deliver answers, raising questions and making people think is always a good thing.

3) VH1 Storytellers: Dixie Chicks

We all know about Shut Up and Sing coming out, and even though I've only seen the trailer, it's pretty obvious that this is going to be a pretty good, entertaining movie. If there's good storytelling involved, it could be a great movie. We'll have to wait and see.

That said, the Chicks on Storytellers was pretty good too. I think the thing that struck me while watching this is, these three women are pretty damn normal. They poke fun at each other for their past choices in men, they look pretty vulnerable and emotional talking about family issues, they seem genuinely taken aback and flattered when the crowd showers love at them, and there's just not much "superstar" in their personality. Which makes the stupid controversy that has surrounded them in the last 3.5 years seem, well, that much more stupid.

And in case you manage to be one of the 2-3 people in the world who visit our site and not Atrios', you may not have seen this trailer yet, so...



And while we're at it...



4) Saturday Night Live

Last but not least, our evening once again ended with me nodding off while watching SNL. That had as much with me needing caffeine (seriously, when you crack open your first beer at 9am thanks to an 11am kickoff, that really drags on you come 11pm) as it did with SNL. From what I saw while awake, the Borat opening was quite funny (though I cannot IMAGINE an entire movie of that), Weekend Update was solid, and a few of the skits were predictably terrible. At this point, SNL is the ultimate TiVo show. There will be a few funny moments per show, and you can tell which skits will be terrible within about 30 seconds of their start...meaning you can just skip right through them. So what you end up with is a decent 30-45 minute show.

This season, like many recently, is a season of transition for SNL...Tina Fey's gone, as are four other long-running cast members, and they're left with 11 cast members, many of whom are new to the show. They're doing a decent job, but...

...they're just not being used right. Andy Samberg was part of the great "Lazy Sunday" digital short last year, and he was used very well in a few other digital shorts last year. Even though they obviously weren't performed live, those shorts were the most encouraging thing SNL's had in quite a while. While he's had a part to play in a couple of those shorts this year, he's been put in some skits where he just doesn't belong (why was he chosen to be Ken Mehlman in a skit last night?). That's probably because they don't have too many options and have to use somebody in these skits, but it still doesn't feel like his talents are being maximized. Same with Kristen Wiits. She has a couple of recurring characters, and she really is probably the future of the show, but she's not being maximized either. Really, this is probably because of the new Fey-less writing staff, and I'm willing to give the show some time (especially because of TiVo), but there is quite a bit of unused potential here. And I love Amy Poehler, but even she was completely unfunny half the time.

Granted, I would have been dozing off last night no matter what (I even did during Weekend Update, which was relatively solid), and it's not like I'm taking a daring stand here by saying SNL isn't all it could/should be (actually, I can't find anybody who's saying that it IS all it could be), but...yeah, I guess I just said it anyway.