I don’t hate everything

It has come to my attention that some people think I hate everything in pop culture, from music, TV to books and film.
Certainly, I do enjoy many things in this work-a-day world, but it is more fun to write about things that bother me.
So I am going to try and be a bit more positive in this post, but I must stress the word “try.”
Okay, let’s try this. The last film I saw in the theater was the “Sherlock Holmes” sequel. I enjoyed the first one, and second one was — pretty decent. Sequels rarely better than the first films. I can only think of “The Godfather II” and “Empire Strikes Back” as sequels which topped the first installments.
Alright, that went decently. Let’s try the last album I enjoyed, which was the new Mastodon album. “The Hunter” was a really good metal album that strayed from the concept albums the band has previously released.
Lately, I’ve been watching “Rescue Me” on Netflix, and thought that this was a very well written, well done show. It follows the lives of a New York City fire department dealing with their lives after 9/11. I’m not usually a huge fan of Dennis Leary, but his acting and writing blended with the show very well.
My only complaint is that it seems the show never ends. I’m 60 some episodes in and have another 30 some to go. It was a show that should have stopped after the third season, but while the later seasons are enjoyable, the writing kind of went down a notch in quality.
Recently, Sports Editor Chris Murphy showed me a strange, but hilarious clip on YouTube. It features Joe Paterno, who recently passed away, in a Big 10 college recruitment video. As a whole, the video is just another run of the mill commercial. But suddenly, out of nowhere, old Joe Paterno, looking like a demented elf, screams “Come to Penn State!” Which was funny for some reason. Perhaps because it’s just surprising and not expected.
I do not mean to disrespect the man, but if his wailing was the punchline to a boring commercial, then it is the best commercial I’ve seen in a while.
Now, just to round this out, I will rant about something that’s bothered me. It’s the new Honda commercial featuring Matthew Broderick kind of reprising his role of the title character from the John Hughes vehicle, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
The commercial has Broderick roaming around L.A. rehashing quotes from the classic film for a car commercial. He even sings in a parade.
For a guy for decades stated he would never reprise the iconic character, it seems pretty cheap and disrespectful to do so after John Hughes died.
So there, I don’t hate everything. A lot of things bother me, but not everything.