Category: By munchman

Munchman: Love This Post or I’ll Shoot My Dog

Munchman’s TV Musings #9
by Munchman

Well, m’luvs, it’s that time of year again. You know, the time when TVWriter™ visitors start writing nasty emails to their fave site (um, that’d be this one in case you forgot) about their un-fave writer – moi.

Yeppers, it’s taken 8 weeks, but we’re back to where we were a coupla years ago when Yer Friendly Neighborhood Munchman did that “Love and Money” column about new TV series in development and hordes of interweb critics complained about my “attitude.” That last time around I was young and full of spunk and – truth! – was one of the stars of a hit TV show under my supposedly real name (actually an agent-assisted stage name (but that’s another story) so I didn’t care what anybody thought about anything and pressed on until I was simply too busy.

Now, though, I’m unemployed, my latest true love has left me, my agent only calls to yell at me to stop calling her, and all I have is this teeny spot on the interweb to use as a way of keeping my dreams of life and professional success alive, so munchamaniac clearly has to not simply respond to the criticism but bow down before it. read article

Munchman: Who Will Stop The Current TV Madness?

Munchman’s TV Musings #8
by Munchman

Last week, Yer Friendly Neighborhood Munchman got all ranted up about the need for TV to come up with something new. On actual Old Media television, I mean. Web series are something else. Or at least they should be…as in original.

This week, well, it’s looking like I’m going to have to dish up more of – choke! – the same. I’d apologize, but it seems to me that’s the broadcast and cable channels job, They’re the ones still pushing the same old TV dreck, right? read article

Munchman’s Latest TV Musings

Munchman’s TV Musings #7
by Munchman

When I was a wee lad in Dublin, my parents’ generation had a saying. “Old wine in new bottles” was their oh-so-intellectual way of saying that a recent film or play or book or short story, whatever, wasn’t exactly as new as it claimed. It had been done before, usually by somebody else, but its essence, for better or for worse, was repackaged and put out before the public.

In other words, yeppers, kids, this was the polite way of saying, “Jeezus, dude, can’t you fucking come up with anything new?!” Yer Friendly Neighborhood Munchman brings this up becuz guess what? Today’s column is filled with old wine, new bottles, and – but oui, oui, monsieur, pinheaded intellectuals using bullshit phrases to hide from the truth. Cases in point: read article

Munchman’s Latest TV Musings

Munchman’s TV Musings #6
by Munchman

  1. Everywhere Yer Friendly Neighborhood Munchovy looks on the interwebs he finds reviews of Marvel’s latest film, Doctor Strange. And every one of those reviews the munchy one has read starts out by apologizing for how much the critic has loved the furshluginner thing. Alas, sad as it is to say, Munchmoi is now joining the legion of the damned reviewers and saying, “Yeppers, kids, you’re right. I shouldn’t be so fucken positive but the rep-ruining truth from this particular youngish curmudgeon, “Holy Dread Dormamu, but I really did love this silly movie!” It’s my favorite Marvel comic character brought to life in a way that made me cry when I realized that creator Steve Ditko probably isn’t getting one single cent of the till. What’s that you say? Slammin’ Steve is only the co-creator of Doctor Strange? Well, folks, that depends on your definition of “creator,” doesn’t it? And the way Muncharoni looks at it, if the guy who called him back in the ’60s and said, “Steve, I need a magician character for next Thursday” deserves to be called a co-creator, then Rod Stewart’s ex-wife Britt Ekland deserves to be credited as co-writer of all the songs he wrote while she fellated him. (Yeppers, Britt went to court demanding credit and moola, and Red said what he said about her contribution to the writing, and the judge said, “Buh-bye Britty!”)  Bottom line here: Go see this movie. You’ll have a blast.
  2. On another positive note, I’m pleased to report that a site I never heard of before, called ITVT.Com AKA InteractiveTV Today, is every bit as good as most of the hyperbole on its “About Us” page says. Which come to think of it, means all those words of self-praise aren’t hyperbole at all, just good old self-promotion. Note to ITVT staff: This definitely is gilding the lily. You motherfuckers are awesome. Munchacha particularly is enamored of your new column “Run of Show,” about today’s “star showrunners,” who they are and how they came to be. Although I admit to being a little disappointed in the column title. “Run of Show” sounds just plain awkward to me. Why not something cleaner and simpler, like, say, “Head Honchos?” or “Unsung Heroes?” Wait, scratch that last suggestion. Showrunners aren’t exactly unsung anymore, are they? Thanks for helping with that, ITVT!
  3. Saw an article headling saying, “Why You Need to Change Your Writing Style” at another site I wasn’t familiar with, BaselineMag.Com, and immediately got all freaked out. You know, along the lines of, “Who the hell are you, asshat, to be telling me to change how I write? Munchester is so damned unpopular I’d bet half of Trumpazoid’s billion bucks (but not of me own) that you’ve never even read me!” Then I read the article, and now I’m here to recommend it. Here’s the opening sentence: “If you’re using a writing style that worked a few years ago, it’s probably obsolete.” The rest of this little gem explains why and how to fix it, and every word Mike Elgan puts out there is right on. Especially if your audience is younger than Gen X, the concept that if your examples or language usage is based on samples and usage from 10 years ago or more. Nobody that young has a clue, for example, of what the hell the phrase “right on,” means. Yeah, I snuck that in deliberately cuz like being an anachronistic kinda guy!
  4. Time now to return to the Negative Zone. Munchadario just ain’t buying a how a recent article on inews.co.uk spent about as much verbiage as the rest of us have whining about President Elect Tramp on an article titled “Meet the Visionairy TV Writers Behind the Autumn’s Hottest Dramas. Come on, people! TV show creators aren’t goddamn visionaries, they’re writers! Visionaries are magical beings, people, and, dammit, ain’t no TV writer who’s magic. Put a magical visionary thinker in a room full of TV executives, baby, and believe me, it’ll be like feeding a unicorn the lions. TV is pretty damn good these days, but it ain’t up there at the heavenly heights. Of course, I’m working for a guy who once had business cards claiming he was a “televisionary,” so WTFDIK? (Hope I’m not hurting your feelings, LB.)
  5. Last but not least, another, shorter rant to close my douching mouth. Have you seen the Netflix series, Black Mirror? (Actually, it isn’t a Netflix series, it’s a U.K. series picked up by Netflix and…oh, the hell with it. You get the message, yeah?) Anyway, Black Mirror is getting as many great reviews as Doctor Strange these days, but with one difference: Nobody reviewing it is apologizing for all the luv they’re dumping BM’s way. Methinks this besottedness is a generational thing, by which I mean that nobody I know who has seen both BM and the original oldie but goodie The Twilight Zone has said anything other than, “Hey, been watching a new version of Twilight Zone on Netflicks. It’s called Dark Mirror or Black Reflection or something like that.” In other words, BM is good, but it ain’t all that. Yeppers, I know most of you who’re reading this have no idea what half the words I just used mean. Mike Elgan already told me that. But mind-messin’ is a Munchman kinda thing!

That’s it for this week. Seeya soonish with less about the interweb and more musings about Love, Money, and popsicles on TV!

Munchman’s Latest TV Musings

Munchman’s TV Musings #5

  1. Here’s something Yer Friendly Neighborhood Muncher can definitely get behind. The winners of this year’s Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards have been announced, and I’m sure we’re all happy as can be to know that the first prize winner is Eric Mallory Morgan for his screenplay Tonya. Second place winners are Burnett Fisher for Damascus and Nicholas Adams for Falling. Yeppers, a tie. Third prize goes to Dominic Abeyta for 100 Degrees, and Honorable Mention belongs to Meedo Taha for the script Other People. Put your hands together for these fine writers, whose chances of becoming rich, sort of famous, and maybe even happy have just leapfrogged high and far over yours and mine!
  2. Balancing the good stuff is recent research that shows that in spite of all the progress the TV biz seems to have made in the area of diversity, behind the scenes diversity is still, you know, considerably less diverse than it should be…and also less diverse than onscreen. This according to Darnell Hunt, Director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. In the Center’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report he says that “Even on so-called diverse shows, you’re still going to see a showrunner who’s a white man for the most part….” He also has a lot more to say on the subject, as do many other experts. Why is it so hard to get more inclusion of minorities in the Industry? I’m thinking it has to do with a single sad fact of life: for every bright-eyed, brilliant minority individual who gets a TV gig at last, there’s bound to be the corresponding loss of a job for, yeppers, you guessed it, some white guy. And the white guys who do the hiring haven’t exactly gotten where they are by fighting the status quo, so…. (Right, you get the sorryass idea, yeah?)
  3. Der Munchhausen (das ist me) just read an article about how Supergirl “is the best superhero show on the CW,” which tells me quite clearly that I sure as %@$# don’t want to even try watching Arrow, The Flash, or Legends of Tomorrow. FTR, it isn’t the sunniness of Supergirl’s disposition that bugs me about her show. It isn’t even the writing, which when you get down to it perfectly captures the DC comic book universe as it existed right around the time when I was born (as long afternoons spent in my local comic book shop snapping up affordable back issues have shown me) because I kinda like that whole ethos. No, what drives me batshit about Supergirl is how totally cheesy it is visually. Bad sfx, dumb camera angles, ridiculous cuts…and the music, yikes! Munchareeni here doesn’t see anything even remotely resembling respect for comics on Supergirl. Just mockery and dis-fucking-dain.
  4. Meanwhile, back in the Positive Zone, Fox TV says it’s developing a pilot for a series based on Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling career. It will be a comedy, natch, and the writer, Brian Gewirtz, has what most likely is the best possible qualification for the gig: He used to be head writer for the WWE. Seems like a natural, and I’ve unselfishly texted me old buddy Bri to tell him how happy I am for him. And, of course, included with it are a couple of selfies of me working out at the closest Gold’s. That’s right, wrestling fans, Muncho’s abs are every bit as good as me writin’, but it’s the pecs that I’m thinking will make the lead in the series mine!
  5. Dontcha luv how showbizzies have finally learned how to at least pay lip service to the writers they’ve been exploiting and denigrating for years? The most recent example is an announcement by the Female Spike Lee, Issa Rae, who just sold a new series to, um, somebody who reckons they’ll be able to get it out somewhere peeps like us can see it. “I’m so proud of the writing team behind Minimum Wage,” she said.  “It is the beautiful product of collaboration, creativity and inclusion. We’re so happy to have partnered with Project Greenlight Digital Studios to find, out of over 2,000 submissions, these dynamic women writers.” I’m guessing that Issa’s executive team is hella lot more enlightened than the executives I mentioned above. Hats off to them and, more importantly, to Rebecca Hu, Arpita Kumar, and Maya Houston, the writers whose lives, I hope, I hope, I hope, are about to bloom!
  6. Quick shout out to Jordanna Fraiberg on her new job as head of development for Insurrection Media. Congrats, you, and whatever else happens, please, please, please don’t let this executive turn change ya. Be true to your school…and the fans of your YA novels, who will be counting on you bringing that same inventiveness to the new TV gig. At least, yer munchikins will.

That’s enough positivity from me for this week. Seeya soonish with more TV musings!