The Starter Wife, a limited run mini-series, starring Debra Messing and premiering Thursday, May 31 on USA Network is an adaptation of the New York Times bestseller of the same name by Gigi Levangie Grazer. The series takes a cynical look at the Hollywood underbelly and social circle memberships which are vied for by all based on who you are and who you’re married to and how divorce in this life could mean your end, if you let it.

The adaptation is a great melding of drama mixed with clever writing creating a black comedy tone throughout including a forecasting dream Molly Kagan taking place on the yellow-brick road complete with an evil wizard in the form of Molly’s soon-to-be-ex Kenny (Peter Jacobson). There’s definitely some substance to the comedy here with more than a few laugh-out-loud moments propelled by Messing’s abilities.

Debra Messing is the real star of the series in the scenes USA provided for preview as her experience in comedy, starring in Will & Grace, truly shines her as she embodies the role of Molly and her never falter, keep-your-head-up mentality as she struggles with the reality that she is, in fact, a starter wife and sees her life disappear around her. This doesn’t’ stop her, however, from living.

The supporting cast also performs admirably including Joe Mantegna, Judy Davis, and Miranda Otto among others in the little bits available for preview. Unfortunately the screener provided doesn’t show a wide range of the supporting characters, instead focusing on Messing’s centerpiece.

It seems almost unheard of, after reading the premise of the series, that a twentysomething male editor would find something to like in The Starter Wife, but the script is tight and if the scenes previewed are any indication, the six-hour series has a lot to offer both sexes.

The Starter Wife premieres Thursday, May 31 at 9/8c on USA Network.

If the first two big sequels of the summer movie season are any indication, things are not looking good for the latest entries in the Pirates, Die Hard, and Rush Hour franchises as both Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third have disappointed with substance but taken the box office crowns each and every week. Things may look up though, for first entries into many franchises like the Michael Bay-directed Transformers and The Simpsons Movie, but with a nosedive in quality here in the first month of the season, one can only hope reprieve is at hand for us all.

Shrek the Third is just not a funny movie; it’s an animated comedy about an ogre who doesn’t want to be king and sets out to find the next heir, thereby shunning his job on to a young boy, Arthur (Justin Timberlake). Although after rolling in the allies during the COPS sequence in Shrek 2, there were high hopes that Mike Meyers and company would be able to top themselves in every respect, unfortunately this did not happen, so instead of another Wayne’s World, we’re left with Wayne‘s World 2, and we’re not happy about it.

The entire cast returns to reprise their voice rolls this time around which finds the aforementioned Shrek (Mike Meyers) seeking out Arthur to become rightful king of Far Far Away. Dastardly Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) has other plans as he organizes all the fairy tale villains to siege the kingdom and crown himself king after the death of Princess Fiona’s (Cameron Diaz) father.

Unlike the second film, the pop-culture jokes have been toned way back, with only a few shout-outs to Foot Locker and other small chains instead of the massively funny montage scene from the second film. Even the slapstick humor that set up the series in the original Shrek has been toned back, there’s very little social commentary, all in all it feels as though the series has lost that spunk, that fire that made it so popular with kids and adults alike in its previous two installments.

Sure, there are still a few moments where you’ll find yourself laughing, the Gingerbread Man’s life flashing before his eyes is priceless, but the fairy tale characters that played such an important role lampooning themselves and the Disney-treatment they’ve gotten over the last 60 years is sadly missing from this installment in the series.

So yet another third installment and yet another disappointment, it’s almost feeling like studios should go right to number four after two as three just might be a tad unlucky. Even for true fans of the series, Shrek the Third comes out smelling like an un-showered ogre.

Joe Rogan comes out swinging on Shiny Happy Jihad, his first stand-up CD in seven years, with a lot of different material that ranges from Osama bin Laden coming straight from a Stan Lee comic book to why would you put a sexually repressed priest into a little, dark room and listen to sinners sex stories, there’s something here for everyone to enjoy and/or become grossly offended.

The CD starts off rather slow, and its delayed release leaves some of the obvious Fear Factor jokes gasping for air since the show was canceled last year and the CD was only released in March 2007, leaving the source material out of sight, out of mind for most people. And judging by the final season’s ratings, many who purchased the CD even last year, should it have been released, would have been asking, “That show’s still on?”;

Rogan takes ample time to warm up and get into the meat of his material, that dealing with the Middle East and how the war (ripe material for anyone in the industry) has affected us at home and the observations of how things are so different half way around the world. He does raise some very funny points about how we are still not able to capture the super-villain like bin Laden and how he would win the war (of which is very amusing).

While the CD induced very little belly laughs, it did score a fair amount of chuckles throughout its brisk runtime. The routine actually ends four tracks early, leaving the final four featuring Rogan taking unscripted questions from the audience. This is where the comedian really shines by being able to keep up with his fans and also stay consistently funny by cracking jokes and impressions on the fly.

Joe Rogan has caused some controversy of late in accusing other comedians like Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook of stealing material, but that doesn’t come to light anywhere on the disc (due to its 2006 recording date), and the disc is certainly not for the easy offended, but there’s a quality comedy act here, and while it won’t knock you back, its an enjoyable experience.

Christopher Titus is one of the most intense comics alive. Just hearing him perform stand up gets you pumped and ready to give the whole world the middle finger, and The Fifth Anniversary End of The World Tour is no exception. Titus again delivers on the angry, intelligent humor that makes him one of the best comedians to listen to.

In Tour, Titus covers subject matter ranging from kids and birth to the September 11^th attacks to a British Batman to dealing with his father’s death. But an important underlying theme is this “End of the World”; notion. He talks a lot about bringing his daughter into the world a month before one of the most devastating things to happen to America and how it will affect her growing up. Granted he does this in a way that will have you on the floor laughing, but that’s how his comedy works. Titus has never been a person who pulls any punches. He will talk about anything and everything, and somehow turn the most serious and depressing situations into the most hilarious thing you’ve ever heard.

The two disc set is definitely worth the listen, and more than once. He talks about so many different subjects that every time you go back through the tracks you pick up on something you missed the first time. It’s no wonder that his tour has sold out all over the country, and it’s another testament to FOX’s missteps in cancelling good quality shows.

The success of Weird Al in the record industry is fully seen with his 2006 release of Straight Outta Lynwood which features some of the best Al songs since Bad Hair Day and its collection of hits. The album is, for the most part, the most solid experience we’ve seen in years and this all comes to a head with the albums first single “White and Nerdy“; which screamed up considerable buzz for both Al and the album showing the world that he’s still got it.

While it takes time to usually issue an album of parodies, so the dated tracks like “Canadian Idiot“; spoofing Green Day’s title track from their Grammy-award winning album can be excused for being a bit late to the scene, but the content in the songs makes up for their tardiness. The thought of launching a pre-emptive strike against our neighbors to the north should put a smile on any American’s face.

After some problems with licensing of the initial single “Your Pitiful“; the release of the CD was pushed back to omit the song (which was subsequently only released online). Several of the songs popped up before the CD’s release in addition to the aforementioned single. “Weasel Stomping Day“; was shown on Robot Chicken as a music video, which is subsequently included on the second disc of the CD/DVD set. The “We Are the World“;-inspired “Don’t Download This Song“; puts Al’s tongue firmly in cheek and calls out to all the P2P downloaders around the world to not download the freely released MP3 from weirdal.com.

With the standard mix of original content and parodies, Straight Outta Lynwood makes up a careful balance, and nearly every song has something to offer the listen and entice them back for a second listen. The only weak point of the original material is the second track “Pancreas“; which is an ode to the digestive organ in the body. “I’ll Sue Ya’“;, while an original track, is clearly influenced by the abusive cords and lyrics of the newly reassembled Rage Against the Machine. The song really comes into its own with the provided video which makes the lyrics stand out as visuals course across the screen.

The main stand out on the album is the 11-minute “Trapped in the Drive Thru“; parodying R. Kelly’s similarly titled “Trapped in the Closet“;, which takes us through one couples journey to just get something to eat and what the lack of onions can do to a man.

Lynwood offers the listener six animated videos at the time of purchase for “Don’t Download this Song,”; “I’ll Sue Ya,”; “Virus Alert,”; “Close But No Cigar,”; “Pancreas,”; and “Weasel Stomping Day.”; Each video is animated by a different artists with the likes of Seth Green & Matt Senreich (Robot Chicken), John K (Ren and Stimpy), and Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton. The DVD also includes karaoke versions of each of the album’s songs and a Dolby 5.1 mix of all the songs for your listening enjoyment.

In the end Lynwood is Al’s biggest commercial hit thus far in his long and illustrious career and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With so much material just ripe for the parody treatment, one can only hope that services like MySpace, allowing the artist to better connect with their fans, only fuels the fire more and we’re treated to more songs in the shortest amount of time possible.

FOX, and parent News Corp., has been known to drop the ball from time to time. OJ Simpson’s book deal, the marketing and demise of Arrested Development, but one of the biggest problems they’ve faced is properly marketing, supporting, and releasing products from Mike Judge. His first film, Office Space, the very definition of cult classic was shunned theatrically but found new life on home video and DVD, spawning some of the most quotable lines of all time. His animated series, King of the Hill, was picked up at the very last minute last season leading to a shortened and late-starting season, and, over the last year, he’s seen his latest film, Idiocracy, go from collecting dust on a shelve to being unceremoniously released on DVD with a bare-bones package and no marketing.

I shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the movie was delayed, screened, delayed again, and then totally dropped from even a limited theatrical release, but there’s some obvious reason. First off, Hollywood likes movies in which they can make trailers for; Idiocracy is not one of those movies. The industry also likes movies which don’t step on the toes of companies who also fund other divisions of the same company. Carl’s Jr., Starbucks, Fuddruckers, and Costco are lampooned so badly in this satirical piece that executives must have just been waiting to sue. Starbucks gets the worst of it, turning the coffee shop into sex shop.

The movie focuses on Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an Army librarian and the epitome of average. He’s recruited into a secret Army experiment to freeze a human for one year, hopefully one day saving our best soldiers for wars that haven’t begun yet. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned, and the capsules that Bauers and a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph), are incased in are forgotten about. The base is destroyed and replaced with a Fuddruckers, and the world changes.

As the opening narrative explains, those with the high IQs plan their family lives much more in-depth than the white trash, low-IQ residents of American, who spreads his idiot seed all over turning the American population into monster truck watching, beer swilling, ball-cracking-loving imbeciles throwing natural selection out the window. In the year 2505, the world is stupid, Costco is as large as a medium-sized state, and buildings are duct taped together, and it’s hilarious.

The beauty of Judge’s work on the story is the biting satire of a future, owned by corporations where ads appear everywhere (including your pajamas), similar to the office environment in Office Space, the United States 500 years in the future is a reflection on current times (in this case, two years ago because of the numerous delays in the film’s release). The sight gags are more prevalent than in any of the director’s previous work, but they all work while poking fun at a consumer driven America reliant on advertising and buzzwords to get through the day.

This is by no means a cinematic masterpiece, but the acting, director, special effects, and story all wrap up into another cult classic notch on Judge’s belt, who routinely produces quality comedy in either animated or live action form. While 20^th Century FOX may have handled the film like the plague, there’s nothing to fear here. There’s a very polarized opinion on the film to those who get it, and don’t get it. Those who understand the satire involved, including being fascinated with a show completely focused on one man getting kicked repeatedly in the balls, will find an enjoyable film biting in its wit and capitalizing on Judge’s talents. Those who don’t understand may find easier comedic faire in simply punching a friend in the junk.

Idiocracy is now available on DVD, do yourself a favor and at least rent the film and show FOX how badly they messed this one up.

ABC’s latest try at a comedy series comes out resoundingly well in the form of The Knights of Prosperity which seeks to rob the multi-million dollar New York apartment of Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones. Jagger himself provides a hilarious cameo lampooning himself as a hat-addicted, Asian-assistant employing, movie lover complete with a Rolling Stones tongue that squirts butter on his popcorn.

The real standout about the series is the lack of laugh track and the honest laughs that truly hit their mark in a series not seen since the fallen Arrested Development. Only NBC’s The Office and Scrubs seem to pull of the intellectual humor to the same degree, but there’s also some humor for everyone’s taste.

The ensemble cast lead of Donal Logue, late of Grounded for Life, also stands out as the standard sitcom caricatures  we’ve come to expect over the years, but with each actor personifying the role and bringing a little big of something to it. Whether it is the dim-witted, bombastic Rockefeller, the Indian cab driver who loves his crazy bread, or the intern duped into thinking the group was making a sequel to the Jimmy Fallon vehicle Taxi, the cast really shines.

Even with the hi-jinks, obtuse named “operations,” and the thought that no group as incompetent as them could pull of an Ocean’s 11-like heist like this, they make surprising progress in the pilot to obtaining the keys and access to Mike Jagger’s apartment. The ending scene shows how worthless the key is, but the joy of the hunt is much better than devouring the prey.

With all hope the ratings for the series will hold steady (especially anchoring the 8PM MST hour and leading into the returning Lost with the recently introduced In Case of Emergency). For those still lost after the demise of Arrested Development, there’s something smart back on TV that will have you laughing and wondering what this mish-mash of would-be criminals will do next.

Starz Comedy’s new series, Stand Up or Shut Up! takes a backstage look at what it takes to be a standup comedian and how different topics are address by comics. The screener provided delved right into one of the most poignant and hot topics in the comedy world today, politics. The comics interviewed for the micro series, and host Michael Somerville, give their opinions on how political humor is address in the industry and how they use such topics in their own act.

The series breaks things up by showing the comics talking to the camera either walking through a park or walking down the street and also in workshop classes at the American Comedy Institute in New York City complete with small standup sessions with their classmates.

One of the great things about the series is it isn’t afraid to show the would-be-stand-ups fail in some of their jokes, in fact, a great majority of them aren’t particularly funny to start off by even over the course of a 10 minute episode you can see them become more comfortable with some of the material the show addresses.

Standing out amount the comics featured on the show is Aussie-native Josh Zepps who had me laughing hysterically when he compares gay marriage to shellfish and how the Bible doesn’t seem to distinguish any difference between laying with another man and eating crab cakes.

The series has been running since July 21 for a 10 week run culminating in the graduation of the comics from ACI. There’s a lot to like about the series, including its condensed, no-nonsense time frame that gets you in for a few good laughs and leaves you wanting just a little bit more.

Stand Up or Shut Up! runs on Starz Comedy every Friday at 7:50PM. Check your local listings for actual time and channel.

For more information on the series, check out the official website.