Jennifer Aniston and Will Ferrell Get Serious
Will Ferrell may be a big jokester, but his latest endeavor is no laughing matter. The Semi-Pro star is one of many celebs (along with Jennifer Aniston) who are participating in public service announcements to help end human-rights violations in Burma and free imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
I can exclusively tell you that Ferrell’s PSA will debut online tomorrow at BurmaItCantWait.org as a kickoff for the Human Rights Action Center and U.S. Campaign for Burma’s new celebrity PSA program.
"Every now and again, a single person or event captures the imagination and inspiration of the world,” Ferrell says in his spot. “This moment belongs to Burma and to Aung San Suu Kyi. Please, honor her courage, honor your compassion and let this be the month you join an effort to change the world."
Aniston’s PSA will post online on Friday, followed by spots from other boldfaced names like Ellen Page, Anjelica Huston, Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman and Sylvester Stallone.
Medium: Wicked Game (part 2) - VIDEO
(S04E10) I suppose one of the drawbacks of a suspenseful show like Medium doing a two parter is that while waiting a week for the second part, most viewers will have come close to figuring out what’s going on. In this case, I wasn’t too concerned with figuring out why Suzie Keener’s roommate wasn’t dead until I was stuck in traffic today and started thinking about reviewing the show tonight. Moreover, the previews made it pretty clear that Joanna was the mastermind of the entire abduction.
Luckily, this was all made clear in the first fifteen minutes of the show. What followed was my favorite kind of episode. The kind where we, the audience, know exactly what happened, and we get to watch the hero snare the guilty party. It was like watching a pretty version of Columbo.
In a world where TV kids are too often irritatingly sweet, Maria Lark is a pleasure to watch. As a parent of a nine year old, I am amazed at how she perfectly plays her role with believability and character. I know it’s been mentioned many times by me and by other fans of the show but regardless of how compelling Allison’s latest vision is, it’s the other members of the Dubois family that I watch the show for. In fact, when Bridgette told Joe about her dream, I stopped caring about the psychotic girl and only wanted to see Joe get his hands on some solar energy moolah.
I was really going to try and get through this review without mentioning Anjelica Huston, but It’s just impossible. First, let me say that I think Ms. Huston is a brilliant actress and a very elegant woman. However, her character on this show is annoying, unattractive and unbelievable. Do the producers purposely put her in unflattering clothes? Was it a choice to give her a the worst haircut possible and do they insist on keeping her time in the makeup chair at a minimum? I really hope so. Each week, I hold on to the expectation that her character will prove to be more than a two-dimensional foil for Allison and each week I am disappointed. The only thing worse than seeing Huston play the same record every week is seeing Allison make her deer in the headlights face while lurking behind her.
To make matters worse, after all the berating Allison has had to take from Cynthia, it’s Allison who ends up apologizing. I suppose that’s a big part of what makes Joe’s dilemma so important. From his perspective, if Allison hadn’t used her “talent” to get a job with Devalos, they would still be a happy family with him designing rockets and her going to law school. However, he knew he had to stand by her like a good husband should, especially after they ended up losing so much. Now, Joe has an opportunity to make a new life for his family and Allison doesn’t believe in him enough to let him do it. We can all understand why she’s hesitant, but, in my opinion, if you can’t trust your partner 100% then why bother being married?
Regardless of the problems I had with this episode, I must admit that the last fifteen minutes were brilliant. Bridgette pointing out the white-haired man had me dying to know who he was and knowing that the blonde psycho killed her ex-boyfriend gave me hope that the ending would be unexpected. Once I saw Joe in the hospital, I expected to see the white-haired man show up with a check for his broken wrist, so that wasn’t a big surprise but it was certainly pleasant. However, there is no way I would have expected Cynthia to exact revenge on her daughter’s killer. Seeing her sitting on the steps with nothing left to give was extremely powerful and now that Cynthia is leaving the show, I almost feel bad for the mean things I said about her character…almost.
Medium: Wicked Game (part 1) - VIDEO
(S04E09) “What could possibly give that woman nightmares other than someone named Dorothy dropping a house on her?” - Joe Dubois
Finally a show that isn’t afraid to face the real issues men face today. Can’t we just be allowed to have our swimsuit issue without being made to feel guilty?
I guess our collective suspicions about Cynthia Keener were right, although it isn’t much of a shock. Her abducted daughter not only explains why she is committed to finding missing children but also why she’s such a bitch.
I never thought about it before but I bet it would be pretty cool to have a dad who is a rocket scientist. You would have the coolest science projects ever. I mean, I loved my Dad and I appreciate him teaching me the best way to check for freon leaks but it just hasn’t been very useful information.
I don’t know why it took so long for us to see one of Joe’s dreams but I’m glad we finally did. More importantly, the show is finally proposing a sensible solution to Joe’s unemployment. He’s a smart guy so there must be plenty of other ways he can make a living. Ron Popeil isn’t the only person who invents things nobody wants. I have no idea how feasible it is but I would think a moonlight powered tanning bed would be a big seller.
His second dream was the highlight of the show for me. It was more like my own dreams in that it was totally out there. It’s also nice to see a pleasant dream that makes me smile for a change.
I have to say I think the writers made a mistake with Cynthia’s daughter. Anjelica Huston has been so unlikeable for so long that now it’s really hard to sympathize with her or the daughter we just found out about. I feel worse for the other girl in the basement who clearly had something to hide.
Cynthia’s anger at Allison was pretty lame. I guess now that Joe has finally accepted that Allison’s dreams always mean something, they needed another character to be skeptical. However, it doesn’t make sense that the woman who has actually paid Allison for her psychic abilities would turn around and fire her for what she believes to be incompetence. I anxiously wait for the moment when Allison finally decides to look Cynthia or Devalos or Scanlon right in the eye and shout, “I f-ing told you so!”
While I would be hard pressed to risk the future of my daughters, I have to sympathize with Joe. It’s not that Allison didn’t believe in him but more about how she wouldn’t even consider it. Is she really content to go on living on Joe’s unemployment and her occasional check from Cynthia? In any event, I am very happy that there is an end in sight for that particular storyline.
While I have some ideas about how the conclusion will go, I’m nowhere near positive. Here’s hoping next week’s second part is better than last week’s.
Medium: Do You Hear What I Hear - VIDEO
(S04E04) ” ” - The cast of Medium
There are probably a lot of things about being deaf that are not pleasant but not being able to listen to a Godzilla movie is one that never occurred to me.
I understand that actors will often be typecast into a certain role and may play similar characters on television, but I would think the casting director for Medium would have a little more sense than to cast Dr. Martin Candle from Lost as the hearing specialist.
I can’t help thinking that when you live the unexpected life of a psychic, it must be helpful to have a husband who’s a genius. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to use a computer to communicate with the hard of hearing but it clearly helps.
This is one of my favorite things about Medium. Allison lives in a world where much cannot be explained, whereas Joe has spent much of his life explaining why things are the way they are. That kind of situation adds a level to the show that is both subtle and interesting.
It’s nice to see Joe & Allison finally beginning to understand that there is always a connection between Allison’s physiological status and her psychic experiences, although it still took way too long. As for Cynthia, she seems to get it almost every time. I can’t tell if Anjelica Huston is purposely playing the character as somewhat unlikeable or if I just don’t like her. In any event, I’m starting to think Cynthia has a hidden agenda and I am interested to see what it is.
While my innate laziness has prevented it, I’ve always felt that it’s a good idea to be able to speak sign language, although It never occurred to me that one of the reasons is that I may be suddenly struck deaf without reason. I really liked how we saw the frustration that Allison went through just trying to function without her hearing. I have to give David Arquette full props for making his point without going over the top. I honestly didn’t think he could be so subtle. Charley Weaver would be proud.
For a minute, I thought it was stupid that Allison wouldn’t just text Joe what she wanted to say, but then I realized that she is probably one of those people we all know who doesn’t understand how to utilize all the features of her cell phone. From what I have learned, in my limited dealings with people who have hearing problems, the ability to text from a handheld device has been a huge advance in helping them communicate, but I suppose if you hear perfectly fine and so do all the people you know, texting isn’t really that common, unless, of course, you’re in high school.
I really didn’t see the conclusion coming and I loved how believable it all was. The acting and directing really helped to make the entire ending very dramatic. Another really good episode.