Tag: Chelsea Handler

Chelsea: The Day After – Tears and Platitudes

Chelsea Handler Netflix

There may have been other celebrities who pushed their fans to make sure and vote in this election, but none of them were as vocal as Chelsea Handler.  Her Thursday show, which was not aired until Friday, showed just how much she cared about this particular election and the Democratic candidate.

Ultimately, the show was full of tears and platitudes. The former a show of frustration at a giant leap backward and the latter meant to rub a soothing balm over the hurt.

The main guest Senator Barbara Boxer spoke of how the losers in this campaign should buckle down and prepare for the next chance. She reminded everyone that in two years time they could start to try again.

2016 will be the election year that history will show as taking a giant leap back into ignorance, racism, misogyny and homophobia.  All the strides taken by society to make everyone truly equal has been shot down in flames by a reality television persona.

A caricature  of a politician who knew what buttons to push on the people most dissatisfied with the country.  He almost did not make it, Hillary Clinton won the “real” vote, but the Electoral College put the two harbingers of evil into the white house.

As a fan of Chelsea Handler it was sad to see her so affected by the election results.   However, Boxer, the best possible choice as guest for this show, poured oil over troubled waters and gave a bolstering cry of “Two Years.”

She also reminded the audience in the studio and at home that “we” the people also wield reins of power.  The John and Jane Does of this country do still have a say and it is now our job to do that. Let the orange monster and his whitebread sidekick know when they have stepped out of bounds.

It was fitting that all of Chelsea’s guests were women.  The big push from the talkshow host and from many feminists in the US was for Clinton to be their figure head.  The guests on this somber and tear filled episode did not mention this but the democratic party throwing Bernie Sanders under the bus to support Clinton may have cost them dearly.

Regardless of whether the system is wrong or not, the main issue may well be that the US is not ready for a female president yet. The world’s other countries, considerably older than the USA, took a long time to elect female leaders.  Look at Britain.

Maggie Thatcher was the first  woman prime minister in  1979. The Iron Lady held that position until 1990 when a political coup was staged by her own party to remove her from office. (And on a sidenote, if anyone has trouble understanding Brexit, take a look at the “10 key events”; linked above,  they could be the blueprint for why the country voted as it did.)

As sad as Chelsea and her guests were, there may yet be a silver-lining somewhere in all this mess.  It was not discussed, this was, after all, a sort feminist tete a tete to mourn a huge set back. (We all mourn with you, by the way, to have come so far and to be sucker punched by an orange muppet is indeed a bitter pill to swallow.)

Trump has lawsuits outstanding, he also refused to show his tax returns. These may be the beginnings of his fall.  Although if he does “go down” that will leave his second-in-command in charge which is enough to make anyone shudder.

This episode of Chelsea may just have been the best of this season.  Why? Because it gave us a glimpse of what is behind the entertainer. The talkshow host whose career is based on a certain bravado and irascibility.

A woman who is not waiting for the world to acknowledge her, she has acknowledged herself, thank you. Like an old Rodney Dangerfield punchline, she is not waiting on you.

Chelsea normally airs Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on Netflix.

Chelsea: Immigration Day, Craig Ferguson, Mike Colter and Diane Guerrero

Chelsea Handler Netflix

Today’s episode of Chelsea was all about immigration, except for the segment about Luke Cage and its star Mike Coulter, and Charlize Theron gave the show’s staff and Ms. Handler a test.  We learned that the Statue of Liberty and Justin Bieber are both immigrants and smelly b*tches.

Other lessons included not saying two thousand and eight, and learning just how difficult the test for American citizenship is. Chelsea started with an ode to immigrants and her first guest was Scottish performer Craig Ferguson.

The Celebrity Name Game host talked with Chelsea about being an American citizen and Scotland. Donald Trump was mentioned and essentially the two got on really well.

After a lesson on whether a gentleman looks at a lady’s vagina, they talked about Craig’s kids. They also talked about Tinky Winky and Po from the the Teletubbies.

Throughout the episode a grim Charlize Theron questioned the staff and Chelsea about the constitution. It was shown in parts and it was not pretty. Suffice to say the average citizen would not be able to answer those questions. Theron was suitably intimidating.

Mike Coulter was up next and he plugged his new Netflix series about Marvel superhero Luke Cage.  (Reveal of the evening was Coulter admitting that his wife works for Netflix. She also came with the actor to his interview on the show.)

The actor talked about how fun it is to be a superhero. He and Chelsea also talked about Cage wearing a hoodie. Coulter admitted that after the Trayvon Martin shooting it was a conscious decision to have Cage adopt this look.

Coulter also talked about growing up in South Carolina. Chelsea asked about Colin Kaepernick and the furor over his sitting down for the National Anthem.

Lastly, they talked about using the ‘N’ word in the new Netflix series and how Mike himself feels about using it.  Coulter gave good interview and was entertaining. He also revealed that he is a Chris Rock fan. He also told Chelsea he would love to do another season of Jessica Jones.

The last guest up was Diane Guerrero from Orange Is the New Black. She was there to plug her new book; In the Country We Love: My Family Divided. The book tells of her family being deported to Columbia; she was the only American Citizen in the family, so she remained on her own.

The actress talked of coming home to find her family gone and staying here and going to school without her parents.  She revealed that her story is an American one. The point being that, as Ferguson pointed out earlier, except for Native American’s everyone in this country came from immigrants.

Guerrero supports her family back in Columbia and sketched her plans for the future.

Chelsea finished with Craig joining her for a “What Have We Learned Tonight” segment. The two talkshow hosts engaged in banter and talked looking at boobs and vagina’s.  Craig explained that Chelsea smells good and she replied that it was money.

Great segment with a splendid turn by Theron in the citizenship question segment.

Chelsea airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on Netflix.

Chelsea: The Porn King of Japan and Ben-Hur (Review)

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea “The Porn King of Japan”  was a celebration of the male form.  All of the guests were male and featured Jack Huston (grandson of John and star of the newest version of Ben-Hur) as the first male guest.

The English actor and Chelsea spoke of the film.  They revealed that Jesus was in the movie, although they did not mention  Morgan Freeman (who played God at least once in his career) who is also in the film.

A little Roman history was trotted out for the audience and Huston spoke of the William Wyler version of Ben-Hur. He mentioned that it was rather daunting to follow the film that garnered Charlton Heston his only Oscar.

Chelsea suggested that Huston was returning to England to be the next Bond. Jack laughed this off and revealed that as far as he knew, Daniel Craig was still playing 007.

Next was a pre-recorded segment where Chelsea met with the porn king of Japan. A fascinating look at  the less savory side of the country.  Shimiken,  real name Ken Shimizu, is the number one male porn star in Japan.

Curiously, his interpreter Tony Crosbie,  was a heavy-set chap from Liverpool.  The translator got on the bad side of Chelsea when he started putting words into Shimiken’s mouth.  Chelsea asked about the industry and how a growing number of people in the country do not want to have sex.

Amazingly, in Japan there are only 70 male porn stars and 10,000 female ones, at least according to Shimiken.  The porn star gave Chelsea a t-shirt with her name on it.

Back in the Netflix studio the next two guests were  hosts from American Ninja Warrior; Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila.  Chelsea has known Iseman for years and the two used to share venues in stand-up. Iseman actually told a story about a masturbation gag that Handler used to do. From the long-shot on Chelsea she was not overly pleased at this trip down memory lane. 

The two men managed talked about the sports competition show and how contestants differ.  They also spoke of how popular the show has become and Akbar suggested that Chelsea go on the show.   Rather interestingly, American Ninja Warrior originated as a Japanese television show. Making a nice link to the Shimiken segment.

Matt talked  of being on the celebrity version of The Apprentice and being stonewalled by Arnold Schwarzenegger after doing his Predator impression.

There were no politicians on this episode, thankfully, and it proved to be quite entertaining as a result.  Chelsea finished with another pre-recorded segment. It was a very funny sexual harassment video that she shared with her housekeeper.  (It can be seen down below.)

Episodes like “The Porn King of Japan” make this talkshow different from the rest.  Of course Chelsea hosting the show makes it different already but her eclectic choices of topics make the entire thing entertaining.

Chelsea may be an acquired taste but even those who are not familiar with her laid back style will soon become addicted to her show.  The series airs three times a week on Netflix.

Chelsea: Charlize Theron, Eva Longoria & Competency Tests (Review)

Chelsea Handler on Netflix

Chelsea this week had two beautiful and talented performers on. Eva Longoria, who was on for “Mexico” night and Charlize Theron to promote her latest film effort and to talk about HIV and Aids.  Topics included Donald Trump, on both episodes, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Sumner Redstone.

The upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions were touched on briefly by Jacob Soboroff  from MSNBC and her third  guest was Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef .  Two assistants came on at the beginning to talk Sumner Redstone, part two.

Both shows were informative and interesting but episode 26 was, perhaps, the  most amusing.  The Sumner Redstone “Part 2” analysis was a rehash of the billionaire’s increasingly bizarre behavior.

Politics slowed things down but at least there was talk of dumping Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the presidency.   Interestingly enough, Bassem Youssef showed how to lose a western audience with his “killing Christians” quip before talking about red Christmas cups.

Right up until the quip, Youssef had the audience in the palm of his hand. He made some great humorous points about the US  political system and made fun of Trump’s campaign rhetoric “I’m going to bring back Christmas.”  (As Bassem pointed out, “Where did it go?”)

Theron, was on at the start of the episode (after the Sumner infographic) and she talked a little about her latest film, Kubo and the Two Strings.  The oscar winner voices the monkey who “adopts” a boy and looks after him.

She then moved on to speak about her own adopted son and how her body generated pregnancy symptoms while she waited for the process to finish. She and Chelsea talked about  more Charlize’s son Jackson and then the subject moved to HIV and AIDs charity work.  Theron passed on some disturbing facts about the disease and ended by saying that “We could be the generation  that ends HIV.”

The previous night featured Eva Longoria who revealed that she is Mexican. That episode was about “all things Mexico.”  Chelsea went to a bullfight, which was rather revolting – the bullfight, not Chelsea being there – and visited with the former presidente  and Diego Lun.

Longoria came on to talk about moving to Mexico and being a “Texican.”  She also talked about her new clothing line opening.  Eva explained a good bit about Texas history, which used to be a country.She also reveled that she only recently learned Spanish.

This week on Chelsea things were not quite as bubbly as the prior week.  The guests were interesting but not quirky and the humor was fairly  low key.  There was an educational slant to these episodes. Longoria with her history lesson on Texas, the bullfighting lesson and the political information about the Republican Convention.

It is to Chelsea’s credit that all her shows are entertaining, even the esoteric and eclectic ones.  The actual sight of matadors stabbing the bull and eventually killing it was disturbing  and those who are easily upset should not watch this segment.

There was a plus side however. Only Chelsea Handler could  turn the whole bullfighting segment into a joke about anal sex and prison.

Chelsea airs on Netflix.   Tune in if you are fan of Ms.Handler.

The Jim Gaffigan Show: Thanks Chelsea Handler

Jim Gaffigan

Until earlier today Jim Gaffigan was an unknown entity except for his teaser adverts on Hulu. Not knowing that he was on TV Land or who he really was, these quick commercials did not lead to his show.   Chelsea  on Netflix had Gaffigan as a guest and Ms. Handler recommended her viewers go check Jim’s show out. “It is funny as f**k,” Chelsea claimed. So thanks to Handler, Gaffigan was discovered by Mike’s Film Talk.

Those high words of praise resonated and a search was on for TV Land and the stand-cup comedian’s show. There were  three episodes available to binge  so the challenge was on. It was time to discover whether the show would live up to Chelsea’s recommendation.

After 63 minutes of viewing, sans commercials, the verdict was positive. The Jim Gaffigan Show is indeed “funny as f**k.”

Each 21 minute episode (longer if one forgets to turn the adverts off) was brilliantly  funny. Well written and the guest stars were just spectacular:  Alec Baldwin,  Zachary Quinto, Gilbert Gottfried (his “Affleck! Affleck! was hysterically funny), Raven-Symoné and Macaulay Culkin (to name a few) and the regular cast are all excellent comedic actors. 

For the record,  the cast includes Adam Goldberg,  Michael Ian Black and  Ashley Williams. 

The three episodes on offer in season two are: The Calling, The Trial and Ugly.  Each one has a prevalent theme. Episode one was about what one should do with their life. In other words a person’s “calling.”  Two was all about that Gaffigan tweet about women doing their nails:

Jim Gaffigan Article About That Tweet

Three was about auditioning for a part in an Alec Baldwin  film as a lead character whose name is Ugly.

Each episode has a couple of things going on along side the main storyline. In one,  the gay realtor Daniel (Black) is pranked by a man whose boyfriend he lured away. YouTube celeb Tyler Oakley is the punch line. 

Jim’s onscreen wife Jeanne (Williams) is catcalled as she walks past a construction site on another episode…by a female worker. Her decision to retaliate causes a riot.

These episode are laugh out loud funny.  It is no mean feat to write and star in a show which results in honest to goodness belly laughs. The Jim Gaffigan Show does this easily with each episode leaving the viewer an urge to watch all this comedy over and over.

Gaffigan’s real-life wife, also named Jeannie, is producer on the show that her husband co-created with Peter Tolan. This is a match made in heaven for those who love comedy done well.  It is criminal that the series is hidden on an obscure network (?) such as TV Land. 

Chelsea Handler’s having Gaffigan on as a guest, where they talked about the tempest in a tweet that was,  allowed us to find this brilliantly written and delivered show.  Mike’s Film Talk has fallen in love with this show, its characters and the wealth of “name” guest stars.

The Jim Gaffigan Show airs Sundays on TV Land. Take a moment to find the network and check this show out. It will be well worth the time spent.  Thanks to Chelsea Handler we found the series and have become instant fans. She was right, it is funny as f**k.

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