During the whole thing with the big ol' balloon from China last week, I made the following prediction to Andrea: on Saturday Night Live, Bowen Yang will show up in a bulbous oversized white costume as the big ol' balloon from China.
Sure enough, in the cold open sketch was Bowen Yang as the big ol' balloon from China.
How did I make such an accurate prediction? I watch too much TV.
Let's fire up the Touchbase, guys!
Today's Tuesday TV Touchbase touches base on two TV projects that can't be more different than night and day. But both have a couple of things in common:
1) I've finished watched the first season of both.
2) They both have Patton Oswalt his own damn self.
The Sandman dropped on Netflix back in August but I only just finished watching the first season a week or so back.
Episodes 7 to 10 adapt the Doll's House storyline from the comics. A young woman named Rose Walker has a lot on her plate. After the death of her mother, Rose is trying to find her long lost brother Jed who was shunted off into foster care years after being separated from Rose. Then Rose discovers a grandmother she knew nothing about, Unity Kincaid.
Unity was afflicted by the sleeping sickness while she was still a child when Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, was imprisoned. She has been in a coma for decades during which time someone raped her and she gave birth to a daughter, Rose's mom.
Awake at last, Unity seeks out the last remnants of her family and offers to fund Rose's search for her brother.
Meanwhile, Jed is in foster care hell. Let's say Harry Potter was in the lap of luxury with the Dursleys compared to Jed Walker's living nightmare. His only respite is in his dreams where he fancies himself a superhero called the Sandman (patterned after the Jack Kirby/Joe Simon creation from the 1970s). This heroic fantasy plays out in Jed's dreams with help from Gault, one of Dream's servants who's supposed to be charge of nightmares.
Gault is one of the many things on Dream's plate. Seeking to restore the Dreaming after his years long captivity and absence, Dream is seeking the return of 3 key servants, Gault, Fiddler's Green and the Corinthian.
And on top of that, someone in the waking world is a Vortex, a destructive force that shatters the walls between the waking world and the Dreaming which is a very bad thing and the only way to stop the Vortex is to kill the person who is the Vortex.
And that person is (of course it is) Rose Walker.
Among the story points adopted from the comics is the serial killer convention where the Corinthian is the keynote speaker. Just as in the comics, Dream destroys the assembled serial killers by taking away their dream, their delusions they are the heroes of their own stories. The killers leave the convention to either turn themselves over to the authorities or to take one last life, their own.
Speaking of taking life, will Dream be forced to kill Rose Walker to save the Dreaming and the human race? There may be another way out when Dream discovers sibling Desire has been up to shit most sketchy.
(It's so weird seeing Mason Alexander Park being so creepy and sinister as Desire when they are so nice and sincere as Ian on Quantum Leap.)
There is an 11th episode which features 2 stories, an animated entry called "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" which has a really heartbreaking moment involving a litter of kittens. And "Calliope" about a writer who acquires a captive muse to help him write one more book. The skuzzbucket rapist author is played by Arthur Darvill so Rory Williams is ruined forever now.
Through out the season, we get snarky wisdom from Matthew the Raven who is voiced by Patton Oswalt. Yes, Matthew is funny but Oswalt conveys this humor with an undercurrent of sad poignancy.
There's not a lot of call for sad poignancy as the Tuesday TV Touchbase turns it's attention to Patton Oswalt's other role, a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy.
Patton was a great example of a celebrity contestant who took the game seriously. Yeah, he had some funny stuff to say and was very entertaining but the dude came to play: he knew stuff, he was quick on the buzzer and he knew how to make a competitive bet when he landed on a daily double.
Landing on a daily double sent a lot of celebrities into a tizzy of confusion like they never seen the show before and didn't know what was expected of them.
Like Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, sometimes Celebrity Jeopardy played fast and loose with who I understood to be a celebrity. So we got down to the final game with a million dollars for charity at stake, we had these final three celebrity contestants.
- Wil Wheaton! I know who that is!
- Patton Oswalt! I also know who that is!
- Ike Barinholtz! I... have no idea who that is.
To the Wikipedia?
Yes, to the Wikipedia!
Ike Barinholtz (born February 18, 1977) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer. He is best known for his starring roles in the comedy series MADtv (2002–2007), Eastbound & Down (2012), The Mindy Project (2012–2017), Bless the Harts (2019–2021) and The Afterparty (2022).
Thank you, Wikipedia!
I still do not know who Ike Barinholtz is! But he is a damn fine Jeopardy contestant with some remarkably wide ranging knowledge, real quick on the buzzer and willing to make some really gutsy Daily Double wagers. The upshot is Ike Barinholtz wins the million dollar donation for his charity.
Wil came in third but that mostly owed to Patton and Ike dominating on finding the Daily Doubles. Wil was smart and knew stuff but got beat on the buzzer. Patton gave Ike a real run in the end with some extraordinarily brave Daily Double wagers that kept him in contention with Ike.
The final game was truly exciting. I just wish the format didn't take so damn long to get to this point.
And whatever questions one might have about Mayim Bialik as a Jeopardy host, I think she was an ideal choice for host of this celebrity edition.
And that is that for the Tuesday TV Touchbase this week.
Next week, it's time for a look at the Night Court revival.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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