Tuned In

JPTV: What I'm Watching Tonight–Cartman and Cartwoman

Comedy Central isn’t going to let any flipping network premiere weeks scare them off: new seasons of South Park and The Sarah Silverman Program kick off tonight.

I don’t need to tell you about South Park. Either you’ll watch it or you’re beyond hope. Sarah Silverman–Sarah is a divider. People love her or hate her, and to be fair, while I dug the first season of her sitcom, it gave people reason to do both. Maybe 3 or 4 of the 6 episodes were great–and forever changed the way I think of Tab–while a couple were limp and shocking for shocking’s sake. (Though that’s not entirely untrue of South Park–that show may have a more positive ratio, but Sarah’s character is pretty much a female Cartman.)

That’s more or less the case with the two episodes Comedy Central sent critics of season 2. The first, about abortion, was hilarious; the second, about Sarah getting in trouble for kinda-sorta accidentally molesting her dog, not so much. But I much prefer a show that bats .500 and hits big when it hits to a show that’s consistently all right. Of course, I’m going to show you a clip from the episode I liked:

Related Topics: Uncategorized
  • Latest on Entertainment

    Prospero Pictures

    Pretty Boys Gone Wild, Part 2: Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis

    The Twilight star plays a young billionaire on a crosstown death ride in David Cronenberg’s bland denunciation of wretched excess

    Surprise! The Lowest-Rated Show in Broadcast History Is Actually GreatSlate

    MILLENNIUM FILMS

    Pretty Boys Gone Wild, Part 1: Zac Efron in The Paperboy

    The tweens’ dreamboat gets down and dirty in this lurid, racially charged melodrama

  • Chaddogg

    I’ll be watching Pushing Daisies, then watching my Cubbies in the playoffs on TBS.

    Which brings me to my time to rant – my building has Dish Network (not my choice). I get a great selection of stations, and I actually pay a little extra to have a HD-capable box.

    The first round of the MLB Playoffs are now on TBS, as well as the National League Championship series.

    Why is this a big deal?

    Because DISH Network does not carry TBS-HD.

    Seriously, what the hell is going on? There will be a riot in my building over this – how stupid can a satellite company be? The postseason features teams from the biggest markets in America – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles/Anaheim, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Denver, and Phoenix….and you DON’T CARRY TBS IN HD?

    I’m sooooo angry about this I can’t even think rationally. I pay for HD for 2 reasons: 1) sports, and 2) nature shows. Now, the biggest sports story in my city (Chicago) is the Cubs being in the postseason, and I won’t get to see ANY of their games in HD unless I head to a bar or friend’s house with Comcast/DirectTV, up until the World Series (thankfully, I get FOX in HD….assuming, perhaps foolishly, that the Cubs can make it).

    James – have any contacts over at DISH Network you could set me up with? I’d love to get through to them, and convince them that for the postseason, they should replace HD broadcasts of Law & Order reruns on TNT-HD with my Cubs in the playoffs on TBS-HD….

  • Keith

    Chad,

    I feel your pain. I have Cox Cable and they got into a big contract dispute with ABC over their HD programming. I watched Lost this past season on the broadcast channel of ABC. They finally resolved the dispute just this past week and we noe have ABC-HD. It took them ages to finally negotiate a deal with Fox over HD and I had to watch all of their shows on the broadcast channel as well.

    HD is great across the board, but I agree with you that it is outstanding for sports and nature shows.

  • Chaddogg

    Seriously, I just don’t get why they can’t just make their TNT-HD channel “TBS-HD” for all playoff games. I mean, the channels are OWNED by the same company – and I’m sure TBS wants ratings points, and not for people that might have Dish and a Nielsen box to depart for the nearest bar.

    I’m seriously very much worried by this….the Cubs make it to the playoffs, and I can’t watch them on my home TV in HD? Too depressing for words.

    (Then again, adversity is pretty much second nature to Cubs fans, after 99 years…)

  • Keith

    Well, hopefully that government regulation will eventually take effect and all broadcast will have to be HD. Given the government’s track record, I’m not holding my breath.

  • Intrepyd

    The Sarah Silverman show is made by the big orange gay guys.

  • James Poniewozik

    @chaddogg: Wow, that’s a kick in the teeth. Contractually, though, I’m sure you can’t switch programming just like that from one network to another, same owner or not, when MLB (or any other sports league) sold it specifically to TBS. (Much less for DISH network to do it.)

  • Reliable

    I don’t think its fair to compare Cartman with Sarah Silverman… Silverman is crap… I hope the Sarah Silverman Show doesn’t get a 3rd season.

blog comments powered by Disqus