The Superbowl is this Sunday, which I couldn’t care less about. But I do enjoy some of the big game commercials, where advertisers pull out all the stops to entertain us.

Some of the Superbowl commercials are already available for you to see on YouTube.  The one everyone is buzzing about is the “Matthew’s Day Off” ad for Honda – it’s a spoof of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, starting Matthew Broderick.  Very entertaining.  Other ads that you can watch now include a commercial for Acura featuring Jerry Seinfeld, and a commercial teaser featuring dogs barking the Star Wars Theme from Volkswagen.  (Since when did commercials need teasers?!?)

Update: The full Volkswagen ad is now available on YouTube. Watch it until the end for the Star Wars connection to the teaser ad.  I’m not sure what Volkswagen, dogs, and Star Wars have to do with each other, but it’s entertaining at least.

Ian and I (and most of our friends) love Modern Family, the sitcom on ABC.  It just cleaned up at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night, and the Season 3 Premiere is on tonight at 9pm.  It’s a special 1-hour episode.

Also on tonight – Up All Night.  Did you watch the pilot last week?  What did you think?  What are some of your fave TV shows?

There are a handful of new TV shows starting up soon that I’m kind of excited about.  Up All Night looks hilarious (and very timely for Ian and I).  I love Will Arnett (he was so funny on Arrested Development) and Maya Rudolph is a genius (so funny in Bridesmaids, so lovely in Away We Go).

New Girl could be quirky and fun, like most of what Zooey Deschanel does, or it could totally suck.  I can’t tell.  Same with the American version of Prime Suspect – Helen Mirren’s show from the UK, but with Maria Bello (isn’t she so beautiful?).

And for the Sci-Fi hole in my life left by Lost, Terra Nova could be good.  But somehow I doubt it.

NY Magazine has a great roundup of the new shows.  Have a look at their slideshow here.  And if you don’t see anything you like, don’t worry… Downton Abbey is coming back!  See a trailer for Season 2 here.

Remember the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” commercials for Apple?  You can watch all 66 of them over at Adweek’s website.  Can you believe there were 66 ads? I like the one where they flashback to being kids (above).

I just saw the trailer for this movie (above): Beginners starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer.  It looks lovely.  According to IMDB, it comes out on June 3.

50 States, 50 Designers – each one creates an illustration around their state’s motto.  See the gallery here.  More are posted every day.

My favourite is the one for Florida designed by Two Arms Inc, above.  Sidenote – who knew that was Florida’s state motto?  I guess they couldn’t find an original one, so they copied the motto for the entire country.

[via DesignWorkLife]

Are you sick of the snow yet?  Having trouble seeing the beauty in winter when you have to trudge through the slush every day?  Maybe these gorgeous winter travel photos from BudgetTravel will cheer you up.  See the slideshow here.

On Wednesday I wrote about how much I loved Downton Abbey, and now that it’s over, there’s another TV miniseries I’m quite looking forward to – Mildred Pierce on HBO.  (sidenote – don’t you love how TV miniseries are better than movies now?)

Mildred Pierce will air in March, and it stars Kate Winslett, Guy Pearce, and Evan Rachel Wood.  It’s directed and co-written by Todd Haynes (who made the the Bob Dylan film I’m Not There and the Julianne Moore period drama Far From Heaven).  For more info, watch the Behind-the-Scenes clip I’ve posted above.

Have you heard about Downton Abbey, the 7-part British television miniseries?  It aired on ITV in England back in the fall, and was just broadcast on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre in January (where it was cut differently, and pieced together into 4 parts).

I haven’t loved a drama so much in a long time – TV or movie.  I couldn’t get enough of Downton Abbey.  The writing is so good – the characters have so much depth.  That’s thanks to Sir Julian Fellowes, who also wrote the fantastic film Gosford Park.

If you missed the show when it aired, don’t worry – the DVD is now available.  Look for it at the video store, or buy it online here.  Trust me – it’s well worth it.

And, if you can’t get enough of the show and want to know more, check out the mini-website that PBS put together for the show.  There are Q and A’s, cast chats, and more info about the real-life location where Downton Abbey was shot.

Finally, it has been confirmed that a second season is coming.  From Downton Abbey’s Wikipedia entry:

The second series will be composed of eight episodes. Filming begins in March 2011. The second series will air from Autumn 2011, and will be followed by a Christmas special later in the year.

Michelle Dockery, Dame Maggie Smith, Brendan Coyle, Rob James-Collier and Dan Stevens have all signed up for the second series.

CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Sometimes you just don’t want to read words – you want to look at pretty pictures.  If today is one of those days (as Mondays often are), then check out The Steward, a photo tumblog from Britain.  Not totally sure what the theme is, other than gorgeous images.  Like the ones above.

[via sarah.wandering]