Desert Island Pop Culture Tournament: Round Two – Day Four

The premise is easy. You are stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life and are permitted to bring just one entertainment choice along with you. Chad Campbell & Justin Rozzero, along with an assist from the PTB Nation staff, have chosen 64 essential items across eight different categories. After a random draw, these 64 items have been matched up tournament-style. You will vote to determine the one item you could never live without! Here are the categories!

Games & Activities: All materials needed to play the game or activity are included

Yearly Events: You get to watch these special televised events each year

Complete Television Series Collection: You receive a DVD set of the entire series

Complete Movie Series Collection: You receive a DVD set of the entire collection of movies, where applicable

Wrestling Pay Per View DVD: You receive a DVD copy of the full unedited wrestling DVD

Magazine Collection: You receive an ongoing subscription to the magazine

Complete Video Game Series Collection: You receive a copy of the entire series of a game title, where applicable

Music Albums: You receive a digitally mastered CD of the album

Come back each and every day to vote and share your opinions at the Place to Be Nation Facebook page!

Catch up on all the second round voting here.

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Award Shows vs. NFL Conference Championships & Super Bowl

We start off the last day of Round Two with the award show circuit going up against the three biggest NFL games of the year.

Awards Shows have become an event in American culture.  All four main award shows (Grammys, Academy Awards, Tonys, Emmys) bring together the main medians of entertainment.  Usually featuring snippets of the best aspects from the nominations, watching the four award shows would be a great crash course on the prevailing opinion in regards to entertainment for a given year.

It is no secret that the NFL is booming right now.  Bypassing MLB as the #1 U.S. sport, the ratings for the championship games and especially the Super Bowl are astronomical.  The Super Bowl in fact has become a holiday that is looked forward to as much as some of the most revered holidays in our culture.  It is essential that you at least have a passing knowledge of who is competing in these games to avoid facing ridicule at the office the next morning.  Watching these three games will allow you to have a passing knowledge on the full NFL season as a whole and maybe celebrate a championship in style on the desert island.

Grand Theft Auto vs. Money in the Bank 2011

Next up, the pinnacle of open-world video gaming versus one of the most memorable WWE pay-per-views of all-time.

Grand Theft Auto had an inauspicious debut when it debuted in an 2D environment in 1997.  The first two entries in the series received decent praise, but the series really came into its own with Grand Theft Auto 3′s release in 2001.  Featuring an expansive 3D environment that allowed the gamer to control the destination, GTA changed the rules in regards to open world video games.  The most anticipated game of 2013 is the upcoming release is Grand Theft Auto V, which we can assure you will have before you depart for the island.

Money in the Bank 2011 seemed like a ho hum PPV three weeks out.  Then, CM Punk cut “the promo” and the rest is history.  The build and intrigue to the MITB PPV has been unmatched since.  For a long term fan like myself, it harkened back to the pre-internet and dirtsheet days.  The PPV didn’t disappoint with two really good ladder matches and another great match in the outstanding feud between Christian and Randy Orton.  The attraction that catapults this show into a list like this is the main event.  CM Punk vs. John Cena was one of the best PPV matches of all-time and was beautifully crafted to have the finish be satisfying but exhilarating to see what would happen next.

The Sopranos vs. Star Wars

Next, an ultimate battle in medium popularity as The Sopranos goes up against Star Wars.

The Sopranos made HBO the destination point for quality television.  Oz preceded it, but the Sopranos molded and changed the rules on how high quality television could look like,  Tony Soprano remains one of the most complicated characters in television history and his family both in work and at home brought a complete world to the viewer.  The ending also was so ambiguous that it still creates heated discussion five years removed from it.

If you haven’t seen Star Wars, I don’t know what to tell you.  The first trilogy, starting with Episode Four, that was released in 1977 is one of the most heralded movie trilogies in history.  The second trilogy could be used for comic relief on the island and you may be able to become good friends with Jar Jar Binks.  Who knows what the new trilogy yet to be released will hold.  Let your inner nerd live on the desert island with these cinematic gems.

Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm

We close out Round Two with a monster television match-up.  Only one of these series can advance!

“I’ll Be There For You.”  Debuting in 1994, Friends solidified the Must See TV block along with the back half of Seinfeld’s run and then anchored that block for NBC after Seinfeld departed the airwaves.  Friends was a “feel good” show that could carry some emotional beats such as Phoebe’s pregnancy or the Ross/Rachel/Joey love triangle.  Friends has a rightful place on most DVD shelves to this day due to the large demographic that watched the series.

Originally airing as an HBO special but picked up as full time series, Curb Your Enthusiasm hit the premium cable airwaves in 2000. Starring Seinfeld co-creator Larry David as himself, Curb follows the day-to-day minutiae and antics of its lead character, his wife, friends and colleagues. The show is filmed around a loose script with improvise dialogue and is littered with fantastic cameos and over the top every day scenarios that David always seems to find trouble within. The show continues to get better with age, as two of the best seasons have come over the past three (seasons 6 and 8). Whether you love or hate Seinfeld, if you love to laugh at awkward comedy and always find yourself in socially troublesome situations, you owe it to yourself to check out Curb. It’s pretty…pretty…pretty…good.