Pop Culture Week in Review for 8/24-8/31

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On August 31, 2012

My dreams are coming true

If that didn’t get your nerd ~~engine revving~~ ~~juices flowing~~ excited bits excited, this should. Joss Whedon is returning to television. I’ll give you a moment to parade through the streets. ABC has ordered a pilot episode of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Whedon is executive producing and the pilot will be written with his brother Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen. For those of you who aren’t deep tracks Whedon-ites, Jed and Maurissa co-wrote Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and were staff writers on Dollhouse and Spartacus. So they aren’t as cool as Joss, but they are certainly cooler than anyone you know. S.H.I.E.L.D. ~~is exhausting to type~~ will follow the agency responsible for The Avengers. The agency is captained by Nick Fury but its near impossible Samuel L. Jackson will take a TV gig. Oh and Joss Wheden said it would have little to nothing to do with The Avengers. “I get to really build a show with people I really trust and love. What we’re building is entirely autonomous from The Avengers. It’s gotta be a show that works for people who haven’t seen the Marvel movies. It will please Marvel fans, I think,” he said.

So I’m going to venture a guess that the show will be about some lower-down-run-of-the-mill-but-still-super-smart-and-witty officers. Obviously I’ll keep you posted as casting develops.

Saturday Night Live has announced the first three hosts and musical guests

The season opener will be Family Guy and Ted creator Seth McFarlane with Frank Ocean. Though I think this is really to give people a chance to realize SNL is still happening before the real main event/second episode: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mumford and Sons. Come on. That’s going to be delightful. Mark your calendars for September 22. Or the 15th I guess if you like Seth McFarlane. Oh and the third is Daniel Craig and Muse but that’s hardly important.

I won’t say I agree with MTV’s programming choices

But I will say they know when to take their shows to a farm in the country where they’ll have plenty of room to run around and lots of other shows to play with. That’s my way of saying Jersey Shore has been cancelled. I’ll give you another moment to do a second parade through the streets. Your neighbors are going to think you’re weird, but who even talks to their neighbors anymore. I mean, we’ll still have Snooki and JWoww’s spin off show so we can only partially wash our hands of these people. To end, I’ll leave you with this disturbing though: Jersey Shore had more seasons than Freaks and Geeks, Firefly, and Arrested Development. Combined.

So I was all for the Mars Rover

Ok, maybe “all for” is a bit strong, but I certainly didn’t have anything against it. That is, until I found out about the the rover’s poor musical taste. On Tuesday, the rover transmitted “Reach for the Stars” from Mars back to Earth. A bit literal in our song choices, no? Question of the day: What other songs are on Mars Rover’s iPod? Answer: Horrible ones. But let’s be real- we all know I’m only talking about this so I can post the real first concert in space.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KygD_QLpKeU’]

Recommendation: Doctor Who

Ok, seriously, how are you not already watching this show? Series seven (of the reboot) starts on Saturday, so you have that amount of time to watch 6 seasons of hour-long television. I believe in you. You can do this. Speaking of children, there’s this one episode of this really creepy British kid in a gas mask. You’ll know it when you see it and you’ll be scared of the word “Mummy” (as in, “Are you my mummy?”) until the end of time. But seriously, if you love British things and science fiction and maybe also McGyver, you will love Doctor Who. For those of you already acquainted with the Doctor…

Recommendation #2: The Nerdist YouTube Channel

All weekend, they are doing Doctor Who themed shows. Chris Hardwick’s All-Star Celebrity Bowling with Matthew Smith (the eleventh doctor himself), Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. Something on the New York screening I did not win tickets to. I’m sure other stuff. It’s Youtube.com/nerdist and it is awesome. Also, if you aren’t listening to the Nerdist podcast, you should. Actually, all the podcasts on the Nerdist network are great. Oh- what was that just flashed by? That was your boredom flying away because now you have hours of entertainment for your ears just a click away. You’re welcome.

For more pop culture musings, follow my blog. I’ll be reviewing all the new shows that I can as they premiere on the television or the internet (look for The New Normal, The Mindy Project, and Ben and Kate reviews next week). And I would seriously LOVE to hear what you guys think about any of the above in the comments section. Which SNL host are you most excited for? Are you a Whovian? What song would you have chosen for the Mars Rover? Let me know!