On The Lot

Well, I guess since this is a blog, and blogs normally have deep intellectual meditations, and I’ve been kinda slacking in my meditations, I guess I should provide something. I had something beautiful and brilliant that I thought of last night to write about, but I forgot it. Of course. Maybe it will come to me as I write.

So I finally started watching some TV again. Now that Ed, Edd, and Eddy has fallen into the world of reruns (hoping for a complete series DVD one day), I’ve been forced to turn to other shows to enjoy, maybe something a little more mature or align with my mental capacity.

So you will probably be confused to hear that my new favorite show is on FOX. No, its not House, although I finally saw my first episode of it two weeks ago (it’s a little edgy of a show, but good. Hugh Laurie is incredible. But more on that later). No, my new favorite show tailors to my interests perfectly. It is a reality show, one where you get to vote for your favorite contestant. Yes, it is a shameless take off of American Idol, but there is something different about this one. Very different.

The show is called On The Lot. It is set in Hollywood, land of dreams. There are now 18 (there were 50, soon to be 15) contestants on this show, although they do not need to sing or dance to stay alive. They need to direct movies. And they only have so much time too. The prize: a $1 million deal with Dreamworks to direct a movie for them, executively produced somehow along the line with Steven Spielberg. So they do their thing, hoping, praying. . .

They first had to pitch a movie based on a predetermined logline. Some of them did rather well, others not so well. So that was the first wave of cuts. Then they had to work in groups of 3 to make a 2:30 movie in 24 hours. That cut a bunch of people too.

So that brings me to last night’s show. They had to work on a 1 minute comedy movie; they were all shown last night, and now we America are to vote on which we liked best. Except you only had 2 hours to do it last night, so I missed my window of opportunity. So now I’m worried that my favorite guy won’t make it, etc. He’s a family man, my favorite guy, with two kids and a loving wife. This will probably be his only chance to make it in the movie business. So I like him. His mind for stories is very nice, and it feels like he is a dad at heart. His minute clip was a neat thing about a guy who picks up a lucky penny, and then horrible things happen to him. It was really funny, kinda cute, etc. In other words, it was really well done, funny, and didn’t have to resort to bathroom or sexual humor (although one of the ones with bathroom humor was really funny).

Not all were like that though. Even when there was only a 1 minute runtime, there were still movies with 2 guys kissing, a man and woman feeling each other up in the security check for an airline, nice family friendly stuff like that. But most were not like that. Now I don’t know if that’s because the directors didn’t have enough time to work that in, but I’m hoping its because they’re above all that.

Either way, it looks like an interesting series, and even if my guy gets kicked off, I’m sure I’ll continue watching it.

Fun Times