Hage 1 10 Bivis The Lion’ S Eye On SOG r. October 15, 2008 Generation. He Said} Jersey Shore By Kenny Lankford--Lions Eye Staff Writer--kgl5040@psu.edu The Jersey Shore is simply not worth watching this season. I'll admit I watched the first season and was even en- tertained, but the show’s time has come. It is the same story, different day, and to be honest, the show has just become annoy- ing. The only redeeming part of the TV show last season was Mike “The Situa- tion” and his hilarious antics. This season, though, viewers have seen a very different character. This is especially evident in the last episode when “The Situation” was being overly aggressive towards girls. He was the only one not enjoying himself when the cast went out and tried to convince everyone to leave early, simply because he wasn’t having a good time; this lead to a fight with Snooki after he slapped her in the face. The drama that usually makes the show entertaining has been so unin- teresting this season, as well. The entire cast members have broken into their own little clicks and get into fights over nothing. J- Woww and Snooki form one click, Mike, Vinny, and Pauly another, Ronnie and Sammi, and then Angelina all by herself. Even in the click of MVP (Mike, Vinny, and Pauly), there is tension between Mike and Vinny. Each of these friendships is equally annoying. The most annoying clicks would have to be the ones including Ronnie and Sammi, and the one person click of Angelina. I can’t stand watching Ronnie and Sammi bicker for thirty minutes of television time over the most pointless topics. They break up and get back to- gether every other day. The most annoy- ing part about them is Sammi’s whining voice or Ronnie’s attempts to explain to Sammi how much he loves her despite She Said] By Judy Bowker--Lion's Bie Entertainment Editor--jlb5706@psu.edu MTV's Jersey Shore is one of the most watched shows on the cable network with their first season premiering with about 1.4 million viewers and the season’ finale having about 4.8 million viewers. It is growing to be MTV's highest rated original series in more than two years. With everyone recapping the first season his actions. Then, it allowed there’s Angelina. The the second only way that she has season to be contributed in a good more suc- way to the show this cessful with season is when she the premier decided to leave early. bringing Besides being a com- in about 5. plete drama queen, her 3 million classless antics are just viewers too much to handle. making it In closing, the number The Jersey Shore is one tele- no longer what it used casted TV fabs, The first Season ~~ Photo Courtesy of bscreview.com Series for entertained viewers J people aging because of the shock 12-35. Jer- value of the show, but now, it’s old news. It doesn’t even take place at the actual Jersey Shore. Who wants to watch a show about a group of people who hate each other anyway? They used to all get along; besides minor instances, and go have a great time with each other, but those days are over and so are the days when this show was worth watching. sey Shore has been a great way to renew MTV's idea about The Real World, as we all know The Real World has been around for about 24 seasons and has become predictable and not as enjoyable to watch. Jersey Shore gives you the same aspect of the Real World but has a consistent cast that viewers have come to love and know. The fact that they bring back the same cast every season, for the most part, makes it easy to get caught up inthe show and want to keep coming back for more. I, being an avid fan of the Jersey Shore, have never missed an episode. It has become a tradition every Thursday night to gather in my apartment with my three roommates and watch the show and laugh at, yes, how ridiculously stupid they all act. But this allows me to make my point, I do not like the show because it gives meaning to my life or anything, I watch it because it’s funny, almost the same reason why people watch Saturday Night Live. Each character brings a differ- ent piece of life to the house and they have created themselves a “family” as they all would say; maybe a dysfunctional one, but they are in fact a family. They would all do anything for each other but at the same time have no problem getting in each other’s faces when they have an issue with one another, which is a main reason for most of the drama throughout the show. Jersey Shore also has built the revenue of New Jersey making it a more desirable place to visit. New Jersey used to be con- sistently looked down upon, whereas now since the premier of Jersey Shore, people want to go and see if it truly is what its hyped up to be. People who adamantly dislike this show need to relax, it’s only a show people, live and laugh a little. Boardwalk Empt ire Dissected By Evan Romano--Lion s Eye Staff Writer--ebr5008@psu.edu I am not a fan of HBO series. I have HBO, but I missed the whole The Soprano’s, Entourage, and True Blood hype. They never interested me for reasons I can’t really put to words. I guess I just live under a rock. Some- how I caught wind of Boardwalk Empire. “What is this” I said, “A series about history during the prohibition era and organized crime?” I was sold. Three episodes deep and like a moth to an open flame I’m sucked in. Along with my praise of this incredible time piece I would like to share my concerns. Boardwalk Empire is about the life of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson who is loosely based on the his- torical “Nucky” Johnson. He is a political figure who controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey during 1920s and 30’s Prohibition Era. “Nucky” Thompson is involved with the underground liquor trade of the east coast and controls Atlantic City in almost every way. He played by Steve Buscemi (The crazy guy from Armageddon or any movie he is in for that matter) and is portrayed as a very business savvy, strong willed, smart, corrupt politician. His character has depth though, his wife who he loved very much died awhile ago. He has shown a liking to a young pregnant Irish immigrant named Margaret Schroeder who is delicate and in need of help. I really like Nucky, he plays the gangster politician everyone can love. He’s mean to the bad people and nice to the good people. This series does a great job of highlighting the strange duality of the gangster mentality. “Nucky” Thompson often shows his compassion for those around him that are in need, but is quick to remind his brother Jimmy that he can have him killed for what he did. He also was willing to help Margret Schroeder with money, and then turned around and had her abusive husband killed. Gangsters, they’re kind and gentle people until you mess with them. The other main character is James “Jimmy” Darmody, Nucky’s protégé and driver. He’s played by Michael Pitt and is the young rebellious character that kind of just screws everything up as he goes through life. I don’t really like his character, despite him playing the role very well. His attitude annoys me and his actions are often impulsive and naive. I guess that what he’s sup- posed to be; besides eye candy for women. If I was a girl I wouldn’t want to watch a series where I had to look at Steve Buscemi’s ugly face for an hour a week. I adore the dialogue. The authenticity of this series is something I have never seen before. It doesn’t feel scripted but every line feels as important as the next, even conversation about nothing. It’s like watching Pulp Fiction in episodes; the dialogue is just that amazing. To exemplify my praise, in episode one, Jimmy Darmody is standing outside talking to the Chicago mob boss’s henchmen. They casually discuss the worth of the people they are protecting and just wonder in awe of these people. It’s a lighthearted pleasant conversation, but it was about nothing. They introduce their names at the end of that entire conversation and the young, short, henchmen from Chicago is none other than Al Capone, the most famous and notorious gangster of all time. I nearly jumped out of seat. “NO WAY! THAT’S AL CA- PONE!?” The boardwalk looks as authentic as it could possibly get. The clothes, the sounds, the shops; every- thing on a visual level feels real. There is so much history in each scene that you could talk for hours about just the backgrounds, props, and topics in the dialogue. One of the problems in. this series that is quickly becoming apparent is its lack of direction. Where is this series going? The main cause of my concern is there has been no central plot; all that has happened has been a plethora of side stories including, Nucky juggling the cra- ziness of his life and Jimmy screwing up the liquor trade. The final scene of the third episode has me with hope that something major will be revealed. A subtle dose of sym- bolism as Nucky walks into the elevator and looks back at the ground; the camera tracks his muddied footsteps. They go all the way into the elevator and reveal a sour face on Nucky. To me this is a sign that he has muddied himself, meaning that things are becoming less clear and his composure and control of the situation is weakened and could be followed with a central plot revealed. PSU Brandywine & Team up to create a short video that displays and de- fines student life at PSU BW. Register now, in teams of 2-5 students, by emailing nittany- film@gmail.com, or see Su- san Curtis in Commons Build- ing, room 202.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers