Aerosmith 'The Other Side' [Compact Disc Maxi-Single]

It's been a long time since I've mentioned it, so here goes... The title of each posting is my musical selection of the day. Yes. I have a serious musical OCD where I only choose one thing to listen to during the day in my vehicle. It goes back to a time of the cassette tapes when a friend of mine had a car that could be easily broken into. After losing many cases filled with one-of-a-kind mix tapes and home recordings to thieves, he went with the one-a-day plan.

I felt that it made perfect sense. You only lose one piece of musical enjoyment to thieves or even, heaven forbid, a car accident. The rest of your treasured archives are safe at home.

And since I'm into music as much as television, I just thought I'd use the title of my musical selection of the day to give you some insight into my tastes. It can be difficult coming up with a title for each and every blog. Who has the time for that?

And now we're back to counting down my Top 5 Best New Shows of 2015 and my number one is an hour long drama from USA Network… Yeah! It surprised me too!

‘Mr. Robot’ didn’t grab me right off the bat. The second episode got me hooked while watching in passing… The scene that caught my attention was when Elliott came to visit his friend and drug dealer Shayla only to find her supplier, Fernando in her apartment. Fernando claimed that Shayla was taking a bath and she was all right. Elliott wasn’t convinced, but Fernando was holding a gun. They had a discussion and Fernando opened up long enough to wow the audience.

Elliot is a computer/IT guy for a large corporation. He is recruited by a socially responsible hacker group. He is conflicted about his actions on all fronts.

‘Mr. Robot’ turns and twists like a mountain road. It’s difficult to tell what is going on until the end of the first season. And it’s a helluva ride.

It’s finally good to see Christian Slater on a series that manages to last more than one season.

After the live on television shooting at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia… USA Network delayed the season finale one week. And after seeing that episode, I felt as if they made a wise decision.

The show is gritty, compelling, intelligent, and what book readers refer to as a page turner. As of this writing, you are able to watch the whole first season on USA Network dot com.

The show has a certain way of composing the shots and I love that. It's like they take a big canvas and let the background take up a good portion of the stage. Since I view television as an art, I feel like the point of those wonderful shots show us, the viewers, how small we really are in the big scheme of things.

Here's a shot that just floored me...

I had to snap a picture with my cell phone. The background doesn't always take a backseat on this series and I love it.

'Mr. Robot' will become available to Amazon Prime subscribers in the Spring.

No premiere date for the second season has been given, but sources are pointing towards July of 2016.

The Jerky Boys 'The Jerky Boys 2'

I have been the TV Guru on The Less Desirables podcast for several years. And every year I have cultivated a list of what this critic deems as the Top 5 Best New Shows of a given year.

Starting with the fifth television show that has made my top five best new shows of 2015… ‘Red Oaks’ from Amazon.

Amazon dropped all 10 episodes of this comedy back on October 9th.

At first, ‘Red Oaks’ comes across like all of the raunchy sex teen comedy films from the 1980s, the decade that the series is set in. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a coming of age story for main character David and a coming to terms story for his parents Sam and Judy.

Underneath all the bawdy sexuality lies the heart of gold and the exceptional writing that leads to a great comedy. They even take on the cliché of ‘personality transference’ where David (Craig Roberts) and his father Sam (Richard Kind) get to stretch their acting legs by taking a stab at pulling off the other’s mannerisms and the characters personalities. At first, that caused an “oh come on” groan from me as I thought they were going for the tired and overdone cliché story line. But the actors along with the great script and direction keep it from being the usual cheap, schlocky crap that these types of plot devices have become.

‘Red Oaks’ is flush with interesting and even distasteful characters. There’s the lovable drug dealing valet Wheeler (Oliver Cooper). There’s the conniving club tennis pro Nash (Ennis Esmer). There’s even the sleazy and Flock of Seagulls coiffed photographer Barry (Josh Meyers). The cast is near perfect and brimming with characters that will amuse.

Jennifer Grey is still looking fine as she portrays David’s mother and Paul Reiser’s tone and gruffness is perfect for Getty, the president of the country club.

Think of ‘Red Oaks’ as the rated R version of ABC’s ‘The Middle’ where family, friends, and doing the right thing are some of the most important things in life. ‘Red Oaks’ isn’t a riot of laughter, it’s so much more. It’s something to be enjoyed rather than just being watched. It’s a sly devil of a series that will surprise.