Jim Gaffigan is known as the king of clean comedy, meaning he does not drop any F bombs or talk about anything grotesque during his act. Basically he is the opposite of Bill Burr, but just as damn funny. Personally I think Bill Burr is the best, but Gaffigan is right behind him. They both talk about everyday life things that happen to everyone, and you connect to both of them like you are talking to a friend at the bar. The lastest special is called "Cinco" because it is his 5th comedy special. If you have not watched his other specials, be sure to do so because you will not be disappointed. Most of them are on Netflix, and you dont need to watch them in any order since they all age well.
In this special he talks about going on summer vacation, the speed of technology, still having a landline, being a fat guy, growing up in the Midwest and going out to eat at a steak house. I was laughing so hard the entire time I'm sure I forgot a lot of things, but you will not be disappointed. Honestly I woke up this morning and my stomach hurt from laughing so much.
The Crown is a Netflix series thats is going to follow the life of Queen Elizabeth over six 10 episode seasons. The first season occurs between 1947 and 1955. It starts with the Queen getting married, when she was still a princess and it ends with Winston Churchill stepping down as prime minister and handing his position to his foriegn secretary Anthony Eden. The 10 episode series cost $130 million dollars!, and it has been a hit, so I expect more and more companies, like HBO and Amazon throwing more money into orginal programing in order to keep up with Netflix.
At first I would think all the British accents would drive me nuts, but when you watch the show you end up having favorite characters and characters you despise, which makes it a good show. Also the actresses who play Queen Elizabeth and Princess Maragret are not bad looking at all, so that definetly helps. John Lithgow was awesome as Winston Churchill. He as well as the actress who plays the Queen (Claire Foy) were both nominated for Golden Globes, and she won it, and I expect both to be nominated again come Emmy time.
I think people will not give this show a try because it has a snobby Hollywood vibe to it, but it really is good. I think if you like Game of Thrones, you'll like this show. It doesnt have the action and fantsy like Thrones, but this is a storytelling series of the English Royal Family. As the series goes on other actors will have to play the characters, since of course they will be getting older, so that will be interesting to see how that plays out. As for season 2 the actors who play Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will be back for season 2, after that some other actors will take over. All in all, I'm all in on The Crown.
I realized I am a litte late, like over a year on this Netflix comedy special, but who cares, maybe you havent seen it. If not please do. If you do not laugh during this 60 minute comedy special, please leave the country and join ISIS, because you clearly hate fun and you hate America. I know John Mulaney was supposed to be the next big thing, but his show did not take off, and I thought we would just be a nobody, but I gave this comedy special a shot the other night and it was great. He talks about getting married, growing up in Chicago, buying a house, The Back to the Future movie, pot becoming legal, meeting Bill Clinton and buying a house. A very diverse range of topics, but what is impressive is he changes topics so quickly you are still belly laughing from the last topic. My personal favorite was his bit on buying a house. It's funny because its true.
Hell or High Water is available now on demand. This movie came out in late August in theaters, but at the time I never heard of it. I usually rent my movies through Amazon Fire, but I know its availabe on Verizon Fios on demand, and I'm guessing Comcast has it too. I always go with Fire over Verizon, because for some reason the rentals are 50 cents cheaper and you get it for two days instead of one day. That is useful if you are old like me and fall asleep sometimes during a movie late at night.
The move is about two brothers who are robbing a branch of banks in West Texas in order to pay off a loan from the same bank in order to keep their family ranch. One of the brothers, played by Ben Foster is a complete nutcase. He's and ex-convict who is completely insane. The other brother played by Chris Pine, is the Robin Hood character of the story. He is just in on this crusade to get enough cash to pay off the bank loan. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger trying to catch these two robbers. There robberies are so unusual that they only take loose cash and not marked bills, so the whole time he knows something odd is happening.
This move is up for a bunch of awards, and you can tell why, because it has a very artsy feel throughout the movie. The beginning is intense, then it slows down a little with some artsy fartsy crap in the middle, but the ending is incredible. The last 40 minutes has a ton of action. You will not be disappointed. It reminded me of "No Country for Old Men" but this movie was better than that. Its a guy movie with a sprinkle of the drama.
Hip Hop Evolution is a four part documentary series on Netflix. It was orignally made in Canada, but you dont really need to do that. The guy who is the narrator is a Canadian rapper named Shad. Who knew they listened to rap up there? I thought it was all hockey and snow. All in all, it's like a history class in hip hop. The first two episodes explain how the whole hip hop scene started in New York City and the last two episodes explain the explosion of hip hop on both the East Coast and West Coast.
In episode one you hear a lot of names of guys you have never heard of before. Names like Kool Herc, Coke La Rock, DJ Hollywood and Mellie Mel. The only group I heard of was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. If you dont know that name then just listen to this song.
The song is so damn cheesy now, but back in 1982 it was bananas. Seeing all the guys in the documentary now is also quite funny. It reminded me of the Dave Chappelle Show episode of "Player Haters Ball". Just a bunch of old washed up rappers reminiscing about the past. Just take a look at this guy; Mellie Mel, the lead MC of the Furious Five.
Episode two stays on the same path describing how Hip Hop went from a local sound to actually having it's first radio hit. The first radio hit of course was Sugarhill gang, Rappers Delight.
At this point everyone thought rap was just a dumb fad and anyone could do it. The documentary shows people mocking it on SNL and even Rodney Dangerfield mocking rap. Basically the mainstream never thought rap would be more than a one hit wonder.
Epsiode three is when the documentary, for me anyway, takes a turn from being a hip hop history class, to one of enjoying nostaglia. This episode focuses on how Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin started Def Jam Records. LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC are talked about and then it ends with talking about Public Enemy. Just a murder's row of great hip hop groups. The episode basically shows how popular hip hop had become. It was no longer a fad, it was here to stay. It was so popular that Run DMC got a sneaker deal with Adidas, because the group had made their white and black stripe shoes popular.
Episde four is the concluding episode of the series and focuses on west coast rap. Ice T and Ice Cube are in the documentary to talk about the rise of rap on the west coast and the formation of NWA. If you have already seen the "Straight outta Compton" movie, this part will be very familar, but the documentary gives a lot of good old school footage of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre before NWA was even formed. Dr. Dre used to actually wear a doctors mask when using the turntables. It's pretty funny to see that, but I really cant laugh at it now since the guy is worth a billion dollars.
One part of this episode that brought back memories was when Tipper Gore was going in front of Congress asking for "Parental Advisory" stickers on rap albums. Looking back I think that made the music even more popular than it would of been. Gangsta Rap in the 90's was going to be a hit, but those Parental Advisory warning stickers gave it more publiclity and made young kids like myself back then want to listen to the music. I basicaly thought, well if thats so bad, I got to hear what they say on it. I mean Run DMC and Beastie Boys were hits, but Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog were superstars. They still are to this day.
If you like music this is a must watch. A fun, entertaining documentary.
