The “Serial” podcast is a must-listen to. “Shawshank” turns 20, and Andy Dufresne is still fantastic. And maybe the best NFL catch ever by Odell Beckham Jr., and other football thoughts

So I don’t know if you people are as into podcasts as I am, but if you are, I just about demand you start listening to “Serial,” if you’re not already.

It’s so addictive it ought to have an FDA warning on it. A spinoff from the wildly popular “This American Life,” “Serial” follows one Baltimore murder case from 15 years ago with a new episode every week, tackling a different aspect of the case.

The host, Sarah Koenig, is fantastic, walking you through all the twists and turns of the story of convicted killer Adnan Sayed, interviewing him, the friends and family of Hae Min Lee (the teenage victim, Adnan’s ex-girlfriend), and doing such a thorough investigative job that every week, I go back and forth as to whether Adnan really did kill her.

The podcast has blown up huge all across the world, becoming the No.1 download on iTunes; high school teachers are using “Serial” as part of their curriculum, and it may lead to the actual case being re-opened, since there seems to be more than  enough reasonable doubt about Adnan’s guilt (but like I said, that’s how I feel today; after the next show I may feel differently).

Seriously, it’s the best thing I’ve heard in a long, long time. Check it out on the “Serial” site here, or download it on iTunes. There have been nine episodes so far, but they’re each only about 35 minutes, so you could totally binge-listen and catch up.

**Two decades ago, a little movie based on a Stephen King book about life in a New England prison in the 1950s was released to very little fanfare. Nobody had any idea it would become a classic, one of the most beloved movies of all time.
“The Shawshank Redemption” blew me away the first time I saw it. And the second time, and third time, and every time I catch it on cable, which seems to be every week or two. It’s a near-perfect film, written, directed and acted so beautifully, by every person in it.
On its 20th anniversary last week, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman and director Frank Darabont got together to discuss the movie’s meaning.
I went through a bunch of scenes before picking the above iconic one to put here; truly, this movie gives me goosebumps every time.
“Get busy livin’, or get busy dying.”

 

**OK, nothing that happened in the NFL Sunday, and there was a lot of great stuff happening, was as amazing as this: Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants made one of the three greatest catches I’ve ever seen (one of the other ones was by a Giant, David Tyree, in the Super Bowl).
How does a human arm stretch like that? Is he Elastic Man? What an incredible talent.
Some on the Web Sunday night were calling it the greatest catch ever; not sure about that; the Tyree catch in the Super Bowl had bigger stakes. But man, this sure was sensational.

Odell Beckham Jr. Yet another fantastic rookie receiver in the NFL not drafted by the New York Jets. Sigh.

— Because I apparently love suffering when it comes to my NFL teams, I’ve been watching the Cleveland Browns a lot this year. They are wildly dramatic and entertaining to pay attention to, but boy, being a Cleveland fan has to be as brutal as rooting for my Jets.
Sunday they had a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter against Atlanta, had several chances to put the game away, saw Brian Hoyer throw two horrendous interceptions, then rallied to win after falling behind with a field goal as time expired.
Whew. Browns are 7-4, but I don’t know how. Nice to see Josh Gordon back on the field.

— Very cool touchdown celebration by Indy’s T.Y. Hilton Sunday; his wife delivered their first child earlier in the morning, and this is how he paid tribute:

— Would anyone be surprised if the Seahawks end up winning the NFC West after all? I know they’re still two games back of Arizona with four to play, but Drew Stanton is not an NFL starting quarterback, and he’s all the Cardinals have got for the rest of the year.

— Finally, seeing that damn Rob Lowe DirectTV commercial 14 more times Sunday is making me retroactively hate every character he ever played, including Sam Seborn. Enough, DirectTV, we get the message!

Where’s the media outrage about the second St. Louis police killing? Kids hilariously quote political climate-change deniers. And the Cleveland Browns are for real, and other NFL thoughts

**Some Monday thoughts while contemplating the notion that the state of Mississippi is at the center of the college football world and the Kansas City Royals are the best team in baseball, and wondering what alternate universe I’ve wandered into…

One of the many valid criticisms of the American media that I spent a long time being a part of in my life is that the first incident of something controversial gets a huge amount of attention, and hours of television coverage and analysis, reams of newspaper ink and untold amount of Internet web hits.

Then, a few weeks later, a very similar incident happens … and almost no one cares. Everyone’s moved on, having used up their outrage, and no one seems to mind that the second victim is worth our attention just as much.

That’s what’s happened in St. Louis right now. The Michael Brown murder deservedly provoked anger and a furious response from African-Americans and whites alike, as a white police officer fired six bullets into an unarmed black teenager.
The police response to the ensuing protests was overblown and awful, and of course plenty of media attention was used on that.

Except now the Brown attention has died down and we had another awful St. Louis-area police shooting, you’re hearing very little about it.

Vonderrit Myers was an 18-year-old African-American killed last Wednesday by a 32-year-old off-duty police officer who was working a shift as a security guard. Myers walked out of a sandwich shop, and was shot at 17 times by the police officer.
The police say he had a gun. Witnesses, and Myers’ family, say he didn’t. There have been multiple versions of what happened told by the St. Louis police, as documented here, with details changing all the time.
And the security firm that employed the police officer in question has a history of being involved in police brutality cases.

And there are protests ongoing in St. Louis, people once again outraged… and the media coverage seems to be nowhere.

The New York Times is barely covering it, and CNN, MSNBC, etc. seem awfully preoccupied with Ebola and other matters right now.

And it’s a damn shame. Myers’ life was just as valuable as Michael Brown’s, and deserves just as much attention.

**And now, something a little more fun: little kids quoting some of our political leaders who don’t believe in climate change. Hilarious, and sad, because it really only takes a fourth-grader to understand that climate change is real.

**Finally, some thoughts on an NFL Sunday that surprised, enthralled, and of course, enraged if you’re a Jets fan:

— Gang Green actually didn’t play that badly Sunday in the loss to Denver; Geno Smith did OK, and the defense did a pretty decent job on Peyton Manning. But fumbles, mental mistakes, and an inability to get one final defensive stop did ’em in. So the Jets are 1-5, with a trip to the Pats on Thursday night looming. I’m sure that’ll be fun.

— No fan base had to be happier Sunday than Cleveland’s, and that’s just not a sentence you get to write very often. After 15 years of getting their butts kicked by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Browns got a bit of revenge, destroying Pittsburgh 31-10. Only the second time since 2004 Cleveland beat the Steelers, and this Brian Hoyer kid looks pretty good, huh?

— Hell of a win for the Dallas Cowboys. Going into Seattle and winning is the hardest thing to do in the NFL these days. Cowboys are for real, and we all have to watch Jerry Jones gloat for a while. Also, heard a lot of Cowboys fans at the game making noise, how is that possible in Seattle?

Still, we all know Dallas is headed for 8-8 again like the last 3 years, so it’ll be fun watching them collapse.

— Bengals-Panthers was a hell of a game. No idea how Cincy can be a Super Bowl contender with such a leaky defense.

–And finally, if you watched Jacksonville vs. Tennessee, those are three hours of your life you’ll never get back. Yeesh.

The Emmy Awards: a “meh” telecast with some great surprise winners. And another nutty day in the NFL, as my Jets win an ugly one

Pretty darn good Sunday, I’d say: The Emmy awards, and a New York Jets win (more on that in a bit).
I always love the Emmys, because there’s so much good TV out there these days, and with Neil Patrick Harris hosting, well, it was sure to be great.
Except…

When the hell did the Emmys become the Tonys? In the vocal tone of Chandler Bing, could there have BEEN more musical numbers in that show? I mean, I know you have Neil Patrick Harris who’s awesome at musical numbers, but good heavens, people, even Harvey Fierstein was probably watching going “OK, that’s enough.”
It’s the Emmys people, we don’t need so much damn music! You’re telling me we needed seven minutes of Elton John instead of a few good Edith Bunker and Tony Soprano clips?
Ugh. I thought it was a so-so telecast and the musical numbers were so unnecessary. Lots of other things I liked and didn’t like, including…

— Loved the surprise winners. Quite a few of them. The awesome Merritt Wever (above) from “Nurse Jackie” was a terrific shocker, as was “The Colbert Report” beating “The Daily Show” twice, and Tony Hale from “Veep” was a well-deserved winner, too (and his bit with Julia Louis-Dreyfus was great when she won, too.) And so happy for Bobby Cannavale, who won for his terrifying season on “Boardwalk Empire.”
But Jeff Daniels winning over Jon Hamm, Bryan Cranston and Damien Lewis was a crime.

— From the wife, when Melissa Leo walked out: “What the F is she wearing? Gold hot pants?” Followed by “she looks like the ringmaster at the circus.”
— Jon Hamm’s beard scared me.
— I’m a huge fan of the death montages, and I loved that they broke out five notable passings for small tributes. The Rob Reiner/Jean Stapleton and Edie Falco/James Gandolfini ones were particularly beautiful and well-done. Bravo.
— Michael Douglas looked like death warmed over.
— Claire Danes: Terrible dress, beautiful speech.
— Finally, the “How I Met Your Mother” cast skit about Excessive Hosting Disease was spot-on and hilarious. If only that show were still funny.

**OK, now on to the football. The New York Jets, who I said before the season might win four games this season, have now, improbably, won two of their first three.
Sunday’s game was an affront to football in some ways, as both the Jets and the Bills tried their damnedest to give the other team the game.
But Gang Green, despite committing 20 penalties (20!), got a great game from the defensive front seven, and had a better rookie QB than the Bills did.
Geno Smith threw his usual two interceptions per game (definitely not a good habit), but threw a couple of beautiful deep TD passes, including one to Santonio (Big Mouth) Holmes for the game-winner in the fourth.
It was, typically, a tear-your-hair-out kind of Jets win, but this year especially, I ain’t looking for style points. The Jets got a win against a division rival and stunningly, look like they might be good enough for mediocrity this year, maybe 7-9 or even 8-8.
Dare to dream boys, dare to dream.

Couple other quick-hit NFL thoughts:
— Good for the Cleveland Browns and their fans, who saw their team idiotically trade away their best player this week, then finally go out and get a win Sunday, beating Minnesota in the final minute. Brian Hoyer, your time is now!
— The Giants. Oh my Lord, the Giants. This is Ray Handley-level putridity, Giants fans. Thirty-eight to zip to Carolina? Wow.
— Anyone who had the 49ers 1-2 after three games, raise your hand. Didn’t think so.
— Finally, I love Marv Albert, we all love Marv Albert. But listening to his call on Jets-Bills was like getting a root canal. He was awful, misidentifying players, five seconds behind the action, and just plain bad. Is this what it was like for you older folks watching Willie Mays stumble around the outfield for the Mets?