Grey Ghost
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006
 
Couple of TV comments just to throw something up here.

Knight School
I was dying for this one. Early on, I was a little disappointed in it. I didn't like the floor level close up shots of the basketball action. That movie cut editing doesn't show you anything. Basketball people are watching this. Give us that 10 rows up basketball shot so we can assess the basketball play. I could watch an extra hour of raw footage of just drills and have you down to the final four candidates easy. But then you wouldn't have a month's worth of programming.

You have to suspend belief for the coaches roundtable segment. C'mon, do you think these guys don't know which kids even remotely have a chance? And, maybe I'm being harsh here, but do these guys suck or what? Could be the editing's killing them or could be they suck. I think if I could see a little bio on each player it would spice it up a bit. At a big school, it's not unusual to find really good players just walking around. Some guys burnout. Maybe they didn't get recruited right. They didn't want to go DII or too far from home, but they were leading scorer/all conference in high school. If I know this I might not judge as harshly. If you were 11th man on a 5-18 private school team, you either suck or your the underdog the whole show can get behind. Tell us something about them.

Knight comes off well in this. However, I wouldn't think he would explode in a walk-ons only practice. I remember at the end of the controversy at Indiana, Vitale came on ESPN and said there where a hundred college coaches more volatile than Knight in a practice. I believe that. High school & beyond, most coaches will, sooner or later, have a vein popping Vesuvius style blow up. It's how they are away from those moments that you judge them. I think Knight has empathy for his players.

The Telfair Movie
Truth be told, I still need to see the second hour. Like a lot of people, I'm sure, I flipped over to The Sopranos halfway thru. There going to repeat it, right? Like they don't throw enough poker repeats at us. For ESPN, poker repeats are this generations version of Australian Rules Football.

I digress. I heard "best sports documentary since Hoop Dreams". I don't know about that. I like the brother in Greece. I think he's a story right there. Leading scorer/All conference, thinks he's in the first round, ends up in Europe. That's closer to Hoop Dreams than Telfair. And it's the same story arc I just asked for from Knight School.

If I have anything more significant to add, I'll weigh back in after I've seen the whole thing. Props though to ESPN for bringing it. ESPN Reality has got to be their next channel. Dibs on that idea, but I'm sure they won't pay me for it.

The Sopranos
So The Sopranos jumped the shark for me back somewhere during the dream sequence episode/too much trouble with the wife stretch. I tuned back in last year & watched most of the last season in repeats to see how they iced the girlfriend/snitch.

I guess if there's only a season and a half left I can hang to the end. If I don't, it wouldn't be the first show I bailed on. I think I stopped watching NYPD Blue at least 1/2 way thru Sipowicz's next to last partner.

Sopranos is landmark television, but like a lot of things on tv it's pretty repetitive. Tony's already been shot before this Sunday. Hell, Dallas only shot J.R. Ewing once. The fringe characters have a "guy with the wrong color shirt on Star Trek" predictability to them.

The social issues are tired. Tony's mom didn't love him. Junior's got dementia. Christopher's got a drug problem. Now we got a gay wise guy. "We're mobsters, with real problems." Got it. What's next? Mad Cow? Speaking of which, knowing what they know, would the FBI guy eat a sausage sandwich from that butcher shop? Please.

So, I guess we all watch & wait for A.J. to wack his first guy so the torch can be passed. Ooops, did I let out a secret? If not, dibs.
 
EMail... Personal Observations on Sports, Media, and Life ,from the Grey Ghost, a Guy's Guy Now Slogging Through Middle Age

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