Banana Scoop

I’ve been a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly since 2009 I believe.  I actually do read it [most of the time] from cover to end.  It’s absolutely one of my favorite magazines for several reasons.  1) It’s not so much a gossip magazine that focuses on the most uninteresting people that so many people find interesting.  2) They cover two industries I love dearly: movies and television.  3) They get the most absurdly early looks at upcoming projects such as pictures or interviews. And finally 4) In the past they’ve introduced me to some of the most beloved shows I’ve come to know.

Sure not all their stories are the best [I can’t tell you how many times K-Stew and R-Pats have been on the damn cover and I groaned], but I’ve compiled a list of 5 pieces of pop culture [coincidentally all TV shows] that, while always hearing they were great, I didn’t actually start paying attention to until I read an article on Entertainment Weekly.  And surprisingly enough, they weren’t all cover stories.  Read on below for the full Scoop.

Parks and Recreation

A friend of mine once told me about a funny show he’s sparesly watched that involved Aziz Ansari sitting in a Jacuzzi telling old people jokes.  As he repeated the exact lines, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes because I didn’t get what was so funny.  When he said I should start watching the show Parks and Recreation, I didn’t pay much attention to it.  A couple of weeks later, a cover story involving the entire cast arrived and I was genuinely surprised that people were calling it the smartest television show on air.

I had heard that it was simply an Office spin-off, but the article told me otherwise.  A couple of weeks later, I fell head over heels for Amy Poehler and Parks and Recreation since then.  It LITERALLY.  is one of the funniest and most heartwarming shows on television right now.

Game of Thrones

This is a complicated one.  It wasn’t necessarily a cover story and at first I had no idea what the hell it was about.  It was a story in the middle of the magazine that had a couple of pages and included Sean Bean.  I initially shrugged it off as another Uwe Boll project like In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale [Yikes. That’s how ignorant I was back then.  Yikes.].   But as I read it, I became more and more intrigued, primarily because it was Sean Bean, if I’m being honest.

So I gave the first episode a shot.  And have since then ben an entirely changed man.  Like seriously.

American Horror Story

I’m not too much into scary movies, so the idea of a scary show as not something I particularly wanted to be a part of.  So I had heard about American Horror Story on FX and I put it behind me as another cheap jump horror story, one especially made by the makers of Glee [double Ugh].  But as the cover story rolled out and I flipped through the pages, I was generally intrigued.  Intrigued enough to give the first episode a shot.

I was literally covering my pillow in front of my eyes.  That shit was seriously scary.  The rubber suited man, the monster in the basement. The suspense.  All this from the makers of that teenage show about people singing?  It was quite the thrill ride from the rest of the season [with an amazing turn by Zachary Quintos gay character] and I’m genuinely pumped for season 2.

Happy Endings

Another non cover story that intrigued me none-the-less.  I had watched the entire series of Friends by the time I read this article, so when I hear it was very similar to Friends, I was actually interested.  Now that Friends was behind me in life, I felt as though I needed another quirky group of six friends who go through life together.  What I got was quite possibly the funniest show I had ever seen.  It certainly had the same structure as Friends, but the much quicker humor and more up to date jokes tickled my funny bone quite a bit.

It’s really upsetting more people don’t watch this show.  I betcha they would enjoy it.

Louie

I’ve always heard great things about what a great comedian Louis CK is and all that.  But I never really cared.  At least until he appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly did I even bother looking at his television series.  My review on his series explained on how much it had an effect on me.  It’s consistently remarkable how much this series speaks to me, so much to the point where I had to go watch all his stand up on Youtube.

I can’t believe I would’ve missed out on these things if I never bothered reading about them in Entertainment Weekly.  It makes me think what other shows and movies am I missing out on because I don’t read a certain publication.  Have I as a writer been serving as a publication that you read to influence your taste?  God I hope so, that would give me so much meaning to life.  Share with me what you’ve learned from this blog or any other publication you’ve read and you never regretted since then.