Once upon a time, this was a pop culture blog. Oh, how the times have changed! Now the only popping I seem to be doing has something to do with a weasel, and, luckily for those of you who still care, the only culture to which I have any exposure at all comes from the small screen. With nursing and bottle feeding and staying upright for hours on end with E, I've been watching even more television than usual, though I wouldn't have thought that possible. So, I've decided to cast my cares away for the day and return to my roots with a good, old-fashioned television assessment.
First, let me state again, for the record, I am most PUT OUT by the fact that many network shows have gone on an inexplicable (and ill timed) hiatus for most of February and March. i'm forced to watch not-so-good standbys like Lost (the Jacob vs. the man in black storyline is TEDIOUS!), Gray's Anatomy (I can't quit you!), and Survivor (Heroes vs. Villains season is really put all the crazies in one place season, so that's a plus). But that's not enough, and this has forced me to go further afield in my viewing choices and yielded some surprisingly good shows I might otherwise have missed. However, I am still miffed. MIFFED, I tell you!
For example, a little program named Mercy has been steadily producing new episodes, and I've fallen in love. It's set in New Jersey (accents and all) and follows an Iraq war vet nurse and her nursing compadres, her heavy drinking Irish-American family, her ex-husband/childhood sweetheart, and the doctor vet who followed her home. There's a bit of stunt casting (Dawson himself is a cocky doctor) but the dialogue seems real, particularly in her interactions with her family, AND, just last week, Mary Stuart Masterson appeared for a guest arc and so any time Watts from Some Kind of Wonderful makes an appearance, you know it's a good thing!
I just watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and I think anyone who has kids in the US school system should find and watch this program immediately. The premise is simple: using what he learned from revamping British school eating habits, Oliver has gone to Huntington, WV, the most unhealthy city in the country, and is trying mightily to change it. He has been allowed a test run in the local elementary school, complete with resistant lunch ladies, a hapless principal, and a community that thinks he's bonkers. He is also opening a free cooking school for locals and teaming up with a local pastor to visit homes with particular needs. Oliver is refreshingly uncensored and clearly sincerely concerned about people, which makes for an endearing viewing experience.
I've also watched the current crop of genealogical programs, PBS's Faces of America and NBC's Who Do You Think You Are. Both have a similar premise: trace the genealogical backgrounds of celebrities and film the results, but the programs approach this premise in different ways. WDYTYA focuses on one person per episode and follows that person as he or she goes across the country following his or her own roots. FoA is hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and he sits down with each of his "guests" and shows them the genealogical discoveries he and his team have made through documents and bits of film. He visits the places and then returns back and reports in thematic episodes dealing with topics like immigration or genes. I like the first model better, but the second show has better stars. Both make family historical research seem easy-peasy, but I suppose that's a good fiction to maintain for a neophyte audience.
Supposedly, new programming returns in April, so let's quickly note those to which I am looking forward: Glee (yay! a Madonna episode is coming!), Bones (still going strong), Fringe (getting better all the time), and Friday Night Lights (very curious to see where it goes next). Quality, people. That's all I ask!
Showing posts with label pop up video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop up video. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Teach me all that I must do
Random connection for the day (with an unnecessarily long prelude).
First, the back story: the husband and I watched (the vampire television series created by Joss Whedon) Angel together in syndication when we were first married. It came on at a convenient time (dinner-ish, I think), and I had told him how much I had liked (the preceding vampire slayer series, also created by Whedon) Buffy and how fabulous I thought the first little bit of Angel was. I'd missed most of the seasons after the first one, so it was great for us to watch the rest together. (Plus, broody star David Boreanaz was a local boy, the son of a Philly weatherman.) Unfortunately, neither of us knew at the time that Angel had been cancelled abruptly, so the disappointing ending to the last season was actually the incredibly more disappointing ending to the entire series. The husband was (and is--just ask!) very, very, very bitter about that (or don't ask, if you want us to stay friends).
However, he forgave me eventually, sort of, and later we watched Whedon's Firefly, another clever series killed before its time. This time around, however, Whedon finished things with a satisfying movie, Serenity, which we also enjoyed. By then, I had completely turned the husband into a fan of the Whedonverse, so much so that, even later still, when Whedon released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a sort of mini musical made for the web, the husband was the first to hear about it, buy it, and watch it, all by himself. Soo, when Whedon's latest network show, Dollhouse, finally debuted, we were both watching on Hulu (and every once in a while in real time on Fox).
Cut to the present: when I was catching up on the last episode today, I noticed there were some web-exclusive clips which seemed intriguing, though I never watch these sorts of clips. (I'm interested in the episodes only, thank you.) But I clicked on one, in which Eliza Dushku, the star of Dollhouse, was talking with her new web guru (since apparently she's techno-phobic and had some contest to design her Myspace page...?). He was explaining something to her, and she sat down and cooed "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me," a line which will just seem clever(ish) to my non-Mormon readers but which will set off all sorts of recognition bells for the LDS crowd, these being the lyrics of a common children's song.
A little Googling later, and I discovered I was right: Dushku was raised LDS. Or, as several of the blogs/bios I read hilariously put it, she is "ethnically Mormon." (What does that even mean, people?) Of course, given that the show is all about wish fulfillment using often scantily clad "dolls" for hire, it's clear she's no longer practicing, but hey, as I've said before, we're everywhere!!!
First, the back story: the husband and I watched (the vampire television series created by Joss Whedon) Angel together in syndication when we were first married. It came on at a convenient time (dinner-ish, I think), and I had told him how much I had liked (the preceding vampire slayer series, also created by Whedon) Buffy and how fabulous I thought the first little bit of Angel was. I'd missed most of the seasons after the first one, so it was great for us to watch the rest together. (Plus, broody star David Boreanaz was a local boy, the son of a Philly weatherman.) Unfortunately, neither of us knew at the time that Angel had been cancelled abruptly, so the disappointing ending to the last season was actually the incredibly more disappointing ending to the entire series. The husband was (and is--just ask!) very, very, very bitter about that (or don't ask, if you want us to stay friends).
However, he forgave me eventually, sort of, and later we watched Whedon's Firefly, another clever series killed before its time. This time around, however, Whedon finished things with a satisfying movie, Serenity, which we also enjoyed. By then, I had completely turned the husband into a fan of the Whedonverse, so much so that, even later still, when Whedon released Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a sort of mini musical made for the web, the husband was the first to hear about it, buy it, and watch it, all by himself. Soo, when Whedon's latest network show, Dollhouse, finally debuted, we were both watching on Hulu (and every once in a while in real time on Fox).
Cut to the present: when I was catching up on the last episode today, I noticed there were some web-exclusive clips which seemed intriguing, though I never watch these sorts of clips. (I'm interested in the episodes only, thank you.) But I clicked on one, in which Eliza Dushku, the star of Dollhouse, was talking with her new web guru (since apparently she's techno-phobic and had some contest to design her Myspace page...?). He was explaining something to her, and she sat down and cooed "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me," a line which will just seem clever(ish) to my non-Mormon readers but which will set off all sorts of recognition bells for the LDS crowd, these being the lyrics of a common children's song.
A little Googling later, and I discovered I was right: Dushku was raised LDS. Or, as several of the blogs/bios I read hilariously put it, she is "ethnically Mormon." (What does that even mean, people?) Of course, given that the show is all about wish fulfillment using often scantily clad "dolls" for hire, it's clear she's no longer practicing, but hey, as I've said before, we're everywhere!!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Looking out for love
Mormons are the new black.
No, really, it's true. Just take a look around. There's the guy on Survivor (Tyson, a crazy cyclist), the guy on The Real World (Chet, who was thought to be gay by his other roommates), various people on American Idol (none of whom made it to the final 12, I think, but then last year there were two in the final 4 or 5 and one in the final two), and, well, that presidential candidate from last year. And those are just the examples I can think of on the spur of the moment. (I'm not totally sure what explains our fixation with reality shows, but that's for another post.)
It's true. We're in vogue. Who knew we could be so of the moment? Sadly, that hasn't really translated into any actual cultural cache, but hey, who needs cache?
I mean, okay, so we're still not exactly cool. And some people continually confuse us with freakish cultists, despite our best efforts at clarification. And being part of the zeitgeist has other downsides. Just this week, for instance, there's the profaning of the sacred being perpetrated on Big Love. They swore up and down that their polygamist fete was in no way depicting the reality of the LDS church, and yet, this week, they are fictionalizing some of our most holy ceremonies. By their own admission, the show hired an ex-Mormon as a consultant, yet they claim to be "very respectful" in the episode. The stills I've seen seem anything but respectful and, in fact, appear to be downright mocking. And the whole thing just muddies those waters we've tried so hard to clarify, and for what?
I can't boycott HBO, because I'm not a subscriber, but perhaps you can. I think you should.
No, really, it's true. Just take a look around. There's the guy on Survivor (Tyson, a crazy cyclist), the guy on The Real World (Chet, who was thought to be gay by his other roommates), various people on American Idol (none of whom made it to the final 12, I think, but then last year there were two in the final 4 or 5 and one in the final two), and, well, that presidential candidate from last year. And those are just the examples I can think of on the spur of the moment. (I'm not totally sure what explains our fixation with reality shows, but that's for another post.)
It's true. We're in vogue. Who knew we could be so of the moment? Sadly, that hasn't really translated into any actual cultural cache, but hey, who needs cache?
I mean, okay, so we're still not exactly cool. And some people continually confuse us with freakish cultists, despite our best efforts at clarification. And being part of the zeitgeist has other downsides. Just this week, for instance, there's the profaning of the sacred being perpetrated on Big Love. They swore up and down that their polygamist fete was in no way depicting the reality of the LDS church, and yet, this week, they are fictionalizing some of our most holy ceremonies. By their own admission, the show hired an ex-Mormon as a consultant, yet they claim to be "very respectful" in the episode. The stills I've seen seem anything but respectful and, in fact, appear to be downright mocking. And the whole thing just muddies those waters we've tried so hard to clarify, and for what?
I can't boycott HBO, because I'm not a subscriber, but perhaps you can. I think you should.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
I wanna fly away
It's been brought to my attention that I have really been slipping the TV reviewing element of my blog. And yes, yes I have, but, luckily for ege, I just watched a TON of make-up television all at once, to catch up after my trip across the pond, so I have LOTS to say about LOTS of shows (if you're not a fan of this part of my blogging life, you've been warned). Lest anyone read the following list and get truly alarmed on my behalf, let me just say that all of this viewing takes place while I am doing lots of other things like laundry and cleaning and researching the latest parenting problem and unpacking and playing pretend kitchen with Baby J and making and eating lunch, etc, etc, etc. I am a serious multitasker!:
Heroes: as one of the girls from GFY said recently, I stopped watching this season after a few episodes and I've never been happier. I discovered I was about 5 eps behind, tried to get through the first one, couldn't do it, and just decided I was better off. The story hasn't been compelling for me at all this season, and I was really just going through the motions of watching it anyway, so it's officially off the list, because I just can't take the inanity.
Grey's Anatomy: there is nothing more special than watching Callie explore her newfound love of girls in a bathroom in a bar with your father-in-law watching along with you. As I explained to him, I KNOW this is a bad show, soapy and silly in the extreme, but I remain sucked in, now because I'm waiting to see how they get rid of my least favorite characters (some of whom they have just dropped off the screen entirely with very little fanfare--see much missed Dr. Hahn and the annoying Sadie) and because I still love McDreamy. I did like having Addison return from Private Practice for a few (what was it, like 10?) episodes but that doesn't make her own show any better, sadly. Even with all the Grey's crossovers, PP was still just sad and mopey, mothers abandoning children and babies with diseases notwithstanding (come to think of it, they could stand some peppier story lines, no?).
Life: it finally came back while I was gone, and it's still as snappy as ever. As I was telling the husband, one of the things I like best about this show is that the main character is corny and everyone around him treats him as such. In other words, unlike most other shows on right now, they don't pretend his jokes are funny; they act like he's bizarre, so the show never takes itself too seriously, which is such a novel concept. Sadly for me but happily for her, his partner is pregnant in real life but not on the show, so we now get the added bonus of watching how they disguise her pregnancy (so far, tactics have included a new haircut--look up there, shiny!--looser blouses--she is tiny and has worn only fitted things thus far--and lots of sitting--she spent one entire episode taking a lie detector test for the FBI--tee hee!). Seriously, people, why are you not watching this show?
Friday Night Lights: along those same lines, get thee to a tv or computer immediately and get caught up with the third season of FNL, still as glorious as ever. It's the subtleties of the episodes that get me, moments such as the time when the coach opens the car door without saying a word for his wife after she is right about something, in silent acknowledgment, or when the now demoted senior quarterback sits eating his grandmother's favorite sandwich cookies to console himself about his loss of status or even the coach's agonizing decision to demote said senior. As the husband points out, this show really isn't about football at all, a negative for him, a huge positive for me!
Burn Notice: I think there are perhaps even fewer people watching this show than are watching FNL but it's almost as good. Michael the former spy is deep into finding who kicked him out of the biz, and the show's frothy fun is not overrun by the minimal back story. In other words, it's not a huge commitment to watch this show (LOST, I'm talking to you), so what's stopping you?
Lost: my head is spinning. The time travel/physics mumbo-jumbo is making me crazy. Fortunately, they've also ramped up the human interest stories and finally (finally!) let the women share some of the spotlight. Sun the gun wielding revenge monger, Juliet the continually impressive Jill-of-all-trades, less Kate (I've really had enough of her), Charlotte and her past, even Daniel's mother the freaky science school marm, all are great additions to plotting. And the pace of the show does seem to have accelerated since they settled on an end date, all of which combines to breath some new life into what was once floundering narrative.
Bones: the most consistently fun of all my viewing experiences, Bones continues to shine. There is talk of taking the core friendship into dangerous romantic territory, but I am ignoring these (I hope) unfounded rumors (la la LA, I can't hear you!) and hoping they avoid the well trod terrain into cancellation as walked by such shows as diverse as Moonlighting and The X-Files.
ER: as ashamed as I am to admit it, I've come back to ER for the (could it really be?) final season. I hardly recognize anyone anymore, but I'm not alone. Carter and his cronies are returning episode by episode, and the only people who can welcome them back are Chuny the nurse, Malik the orderly, and random EMTs. Seriously, Carter came back in one episode and saw some burly African American EMT and said "Robert (or whatever), it's good to see a familiar face!" And I'm thinking, I'm pretty sure that guy didn't have a name until just that moment and has he really been on the show that long and, man, now is a good time to be a bit character on ER! They're the glue that holds everything together! Frankly, it's laughable. So I'm enjoying the "very special season," though not perhaps for the reasons the producers might like.
Heroes: as one of the girls from GFY said recently, I stopped watching this season after a few episodes and I've never been happier. I discovered I was about 5 eps behind, tried to get through the first one, couldn't do it, and just decided I was better off. The story hasn't been compelling for me at all this season, and I was really just going through the motions of watching it anyway, so it's officially off the list, because I just can't take the inanity.
Grey's Anatomy: there is nothing more special than watching Callie explore her newfound love of girls in a bathroom in a bar with your father-in-law watching along with you. As I explained to him, I KNOW this is a bad show, soapy and silly in the extreme, but I remain sucked in, now because I'm waiting to see how they get rid of my least favorite characters (some of whom they have just dropped off the screen entirely with very little fanfare--see much missed Dr. Hahn and the annoying Sadie) and because I still love McDreamy. I did like having Addison return from Private Practice for a few (what was it, like 10?) episodes but that doesn't make her own show any better, sadly. Even with all the Grey's crossovers, PP was still just sad and mopey, mothers abandoning children and babies with diseases notwithstanding (come to think of it, they could stand some peppier story lines, no?).
Life: it finally came back while I was gone, and it's still as snappy as ever. As I was telling the husband, one of the things I like best about this show is that the main character is corny and everyone around him treats him as such. In other words, unlike most other shows on right now, they don't pretend his jokes are funny; they act like he's bizarre, so the show never takes itself too seriously, which is such a novel concept. Sadly for me but happily for her, his partner is pregnant in real life but not on the show, so we now get the added bonus of watching how they disguise her pregnancy (so far, tactics have included a new haircut--look up there, shiny!--looser blouses--she is tiny and has worn only fitted things thus far--and lots of sitting--she spent one entire episode taking a lie detector test for the FBI--tee hee!). Seriously, people, why are you not watching this show?
Friday Night Lights: along those same lines, get thee to a tv or computer immediately and get caught up with the third season of FNL, still as glorious as ever. It's the subtleties of the episodes that get me, moments such as the time when the coach opens the car door without saying a word for his wife after she is right about something, in silent acknowledgment, or when the now demoted senior quarterback sits eating his grandmother's favorite sandwich cookies to console himself about his loss of status or even the coach's agonizing decision to demote said senior. As the husband points out, this show really isn't about football at all, a negative for him, a huge positive for me!
Burn Notice: I think there are perhaps even fewer people watching this show than are watching FNL but it's almost as good. Michael the former spy is deep into finding who kicked him out of the biz, and the show's frothy fun is not overrun by the minimal back story. In other words, it's not a huge commitment to watch this show (LOST, I'm talking to you), so what's stopping you?
Lost: my head is spinning. The time travel/physics mumbo-jumbo is making me crazy. Fortunately, they've also ramped up the human interest stories and finally (finally!) let the women share some of the spotlight. Sun the gun wielding revenge monger, Juliet the continually impressive Jill-of-all-trades, less Kate (I've really had enough of her), Charlotte and her past, even Daniel's mother the freaky science school marm, all are great additions to plotting. And the pace of the show does seem to have accelerated since they settled on an end date, all of which combines to breath some new life into what was once floundering narrative.
Bones: the most consistently fun of all my viewing experiences, Bones continues to shine. There is talk of taking the core friendship into dangerous romantic territory, but I am ignoring these (I hope) unfounded rumors (la la LA, I can't hear you!) and hoping they avoid the well trod terrain into cancellation as walked by such shows as diverse as Moonlighting and The X-Files.
ER: as ashamed as I am to admit it, I've come back to ER for the (could it really be?) final season. I hardly recognize anyone anymore, but I'm not alone. Carter and his cronies are returning episode by episode, and the only people who can welcome them back are Chuny the nurse, Malik the orderly, and random EMTs. Seriously, Carter came back in one episode and saw some burly African American EMT and said "Robert (or whatever), it's good to see a familiar face!" And I'm thinking, I'm pretty sure that guy didn't have a name until just that moment and has he really been on the show that long and, man, now is a good time to be a bit character on ER! They're the glue that holds everything together! Frankly, it's laughable. So I'm enjoying the "very special season," though not perhaps for the reasons the producers might like.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
You take the good, you take the bad
So, more TV season updates (I have seen only two of these shows in real time, by the way. The rest have been viewed on Hulu or the network websites):
The Office: I know, can you believe it, I actually watched an episode of this show, despite my inability to deal with the constant embarrassment on which the show is based! I'll admit it, I was pulled in by the cliffhanger Jim and Pam story line. I had to know what happened! But now that (spoiler alert!) they're engaged, I don't have to watch it ever again. Because doing so was VERY uncomfortable for me. Very.
Grey's Anatomy: I've already deconstructed the season premiere with ege, the only one reading here who probably cares at all, but I have to say, I'm not in love with any of the characters except for Lexi and Dr. Bailey. Otherwise, the whining stories continue, McDreamy continues to lean, the characters get less and less sympathetic with each passing season, and yet I'm still watching. It's a sickness. I am disappointed with the "I kissed a girl" story, however. How very unlikely that it was both of their first times "experimenting." Could we at least try some verisimilitude at way-too-fictional Seattle Grace? Though the "we've slipped in the rankings from #2 to #12" gimmick could be promising. We shall see....
Survivor: Why does one of the "Americans" in Gabon have a European accent? Why are so many of the contestants so ridiculously attractive? Why do they think we like the fact that they strand them in their street clothes so we can see these same outfits get dirtier and dirtier and used in more and more creative ways and, this season, shared amongst the contestants. I saw one pair of boxer briefs on no less than three different people, two girls and one guy. Ewwww!! Why can't they just repeat some challenges instead of creating ever more complicated get-ups even Probst ("Emmy-winning" reality host, though this is a joke of a category) can't keep straight all the time? Why do they include two senior citizens every time to be sacrificed at tribal council early on? Why are there so many questions about a show that involves so little of one's brain?
Life: There is only one question here: Why are you not watching this show? The writers' strike debacle saved it for another season, and it's worth your time, I promise. I would not lead you astray. It's witty and unexpected and consistently well written and good and funny and engaging and airs on Friday nights but is also available on Hulu. Watch it. NOW.
Heroes: They promised that season 3 would make us forget about disappointing season 2. I had already forgotten and long since stopped caring, and I was not alone, apparently, since this season began with a Heroes "event" which was essentially a clips episode to catch us all up. During the premiere that followed, the husband said he felt like no one had ever said, "umm, I think we need another take." He was right: the acting was wooden and the plotting uneven. By the third episode, things had settled down a bit, but I'm still worried we have another big puff of smoke on our hands: it looks significant and turns out to be nothing in the end.
Private Practice: It's funny that this show, which tries to be so "adult," is actually one of the most sophomoric selections out there. Kate Walsh is still beautiful and redheaded and all the other players are the same familiar bunch you've seen many places before, but the show struggles and takes itself too seriously, with disastrous results
The Office: I know, can you believe it, I actually watched an episode of this show, despite my inability to deal with the constant embarrassment on which the show is based! I'll admit it, I was pulled in by the cliffhanger Jim and Pam story line. I had to know what happened! But now that (spoiler alert!) they're engaged, I don't have to watch it ever again. Because doing so was VERY uncomfortable for me. Very.
Grey's Anatomy: I've already deconstructed the season premiere with ege, the only one reading here who probably cares at all, but I have to say, I'm not in love with any of the characters except for Lexi and Dr. Bailey. Otherwise, the whining stories continue, McDreamy continues to lean, the characters get less and less sympathetic with each passing season, and yet I'm still watching. It's a sickness. I am disappointed with the "I kissed a girl" story, however. How very unlikely that it was both of their first times "experimenting." Could we at least try some verisimilitude at way-too-fictional Seattle Grace? Though the "we've slipped in the rankings from #2 to #12" gimmick could be promising. We shall see....
Survivor: Why does one of the "Americans" in Gabon have a European accent? Why are so many of the contestants so ridiculously attractive? Why do they think we like the fact that they strand them in their street clothes so we can see these same outfits get dirtier and dirtier and used in more and more creative ways and, this season, shared amongst the contestants. I saw one pair of boxer briefs on no less than three different people, two girls and one guy. Ewwww!! Why can't they just repeat some challenges instead of creating ever more complicated get-ups even Probst ("Emmy-winning" reality host, though this is a joke of a category) can't keep straight all the time? Why do they include two senior citizens every time to be sacrificed at tribal council early on? Why are there so many questions about a show that involves so little of one's brain?
Life: There is only one question here: Why are you not watching this show? The writers' strike debacle saved it for another season, and it's worth your time, I promise. I would not lead you astray. It's witty and unexpected and consistently well written and good and funny and engaging and airs on Friday nights but is also available on Hulu. Watch it. NOW.
Heroes: They promised that season 3 would make us forget about disappointing season 2. I had already forgotten and long since stopped caring, and I was not alone, apparently, since this season began with a Heroes "event" which was essentially a clips episode to catch us all up. During the premiere that followed, the husband said he felt like no one had ever said, "umm, I think we need another take." He was right: the acting was wooden and the plotting uneven. By the third episode, things had settled down a bit, but I'm still worried we have another big puff of smoke on our hands: it looks significant and turns out to be nothing in the end.
Private Practice: It's funny that this show, which tries to be so "adult," is actually one of the most sophomoric selections out there. Kate Walsh is still beautiful and redheaded and all the other players are the same familiar bunch you've seen many places before, but the show struggles and takes itself too seriously, with disastrous results
Friday, September 12, 2008
The world is awaking
The fall TV season is upon us...sort of. Once upon a time, September rolled around, and the summer re-runs ended and new shows began and old ones returned and all was right with the world. Now, the fall "season" really is a full season, the winter of our discontent, with some shows not coming online (how's that for tech speak?) until October 30th (thank you very much, 30 Rock!) and others not appearing until January or later (I'm looking at you, 24, Lost, Battlestar Galactica). It makes disucussing the current crop of offerings a long, disjointed process. So I'm not even going to try for coherence but talk about those shows I've seen so far and address the others as they arrive. I like to watch the first episodes of lots of shows and then discard those that aren't worth my time. It's really very efficient, trust me.
Bones: the premiere was two hours (nice) in London (dumb), giving Booth a chance to sound ridiculously and stereotypically American (annoying) and Bones the chance to flirt with a smart British dude and later investigate his murder (overdone and way too pat). But the second episode found them back at home and back in the swing of snappy banter, gross bodies in various states of decay, and some funny new characters, at least one of whom is definitely not sticking around, my gut tells me. So far, so good.
ANTM (and if you don't know that stands for America's Next Top Model, you can just skip this paragraph): The whole "futuristic" selection process with a glamazon "Tyrabot" was inane, but the crop of would be models they picked is certainly diverse. There's the girl from Alaska who grew up without electricity and running water! There's the predatory bisexual girl! There's the ultimate fighter chick! There's the pre-op transgendered woman named Isis! There's the blond, sporty racist from Pawley's Island, SC (we're very proud). There are three girls named Brittany! It's a jamboree!
Fringe: This new Fox show keeps trying to bill itself as not the X-Files but close. So far, the most X-File-ish part of the show are the special effects (they do not shy away from the gruesome, folks). Fringe refers to fringe science, as in telekinesis, ESP, advanced bionics, reanimation (oh yes, you read that right), and some global conspiracy involving a "pattern" that the FBI woman and the crazy scientist and his reluctantly involved genius son are now on a quest to identify. And there was a cow in a lab in the first episode. In other words, it's complicated. Perhaps too much so. Perhaps not. We shall see.
Prison Break: So I stopped watching this after the first season when they, you know, broke out of prison and the whole thing seemed, well, done. But I was sucked in because they premiered early and were broadcast on Hulu.com, my new favorite mode of watching television. And now no one is in prison and they are fighting to stay that way by doing some covert government op. And Michael probably has a brain tumor. And Sarah, who was beheaded last season apparently, now has a head again (ha ha, it was a joke, you see). And I'm over it once again.
Bones: the premiere was two hours (nice) in London (dumb), giving Booth a chance to sound ridiculously and stereotypically American (annoying) and Bones the chance to flirt with a smart British dude and later investigate his murder (overdone and way too pat). But the second episode found them back at home and back in the swing of snappy banter, gross bodies in various states of decay, and some funny new characters, at least one of whom is definitely not sticking around, my gut tells me. So far, so good.
ANTM (and if you don't know that stands for America's Next Top Model, you can just skip this paragraph): The whole "futuristic" selection process with a glamazon "Tyrabot" was inane, but the crop of would be models they picked is certainly diverse. There's the girl from Alaska who grew up without electricity and running water! There's the predatory bisexual girl! There's the ultimate fighter chick! There's the pre-op transgendered woman named Isis! There's the blond, sporty racist from Pawley's Island, SC (we're very proud). There are three girls named Brittany! It's a jamboree!
Fringe: This new Fox show keeps trying to bill itself as not the X-Files but close. So far, the most X-File-ish part of the show are the special effects (they do not shy away from the gruesome, folks). Fringe refers to fringe science, as in telekinesis, ESP, advanced bionics, reanimation (oh yes, you read that right), and some global conspiracy involving a "pattern" that the FBI woman and the crazy scientist and his reluctantly involved genius son are now on a quest to identify. And there was a cow in a lab in the first episode. In other words, it's complicated. Perhaps too much so. Perhaps not. We shall see.
Prison Break: So I stopped watching this after the first season when they, you know, broke out of prison and the whole thing seemed, well, done. But I was sucked in because they premiered early and were broadcast on Hulu.com, my new favorite mode of watching television. And now no one is in prison and they are fighting to stay that way by doing some covert government op. And Michael probably has a brain tumor. And Sarah, who was beheaded last season apparently, now has a head again (ha ha, it was a joke, you see). And I'm over it once again.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
One day at a time
Getting back to my (blog) roots, I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately, but I have been doing my part to catch up on some TV offerings via Netflix and Hulu.com. TV on the computer is so convenient. You can stop and start and view any time you want. Love it!
So first I watched a British mini-series called State of Play, starring lots of people you'll recognize, notably Bill Nighy, and lots of people you won't, most of whom are, for some reason, Scottish. It was a twisty, kind of gritty, vaguely sexy mystery, the heroes of which were newspaper reporters acting like Sherlock Holmes. It involved Parliament, affairs, assassins, misconceptions, and stopping the presses (literally). In short, it was good, though the resolution happened a little too quickly for my taste. But that's a minor quibble, really. So, I recommend it, if you're feeling...Brit-y.
I also watched the first season of Burn Notice. I caught the first two episodes way back when came out on USA, but then it faded away and I lost contact. Then I heard the show had been picked up for a second season and had been getting a fair amount of buzz for a basic cable offering and I got intrigued. I had it listed on Netflix but then found the whole season on Hulu, so we were off to the races. Michael Westin is a spy who has been "burned," or blacklisted, and he's living in Miami trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, he and an ex and an old friend help people with problems that might need his particular skills (knowledge about how to con people and an affinity for guns) while he engages in all sorts of shenanigans to solve his own mystery. I'm interested in this show for many reasons, not the least of which is that the main character appears at turns attractive, like a main character should be, and very strange-looking, like his face is squashed or something. It's fascinating to see which Michael turns up in any given scene. (Reminds me of the husband's reaction to the actress who plays Meredith Grey on Grey's anatomy: "Okay-looking, okay-looking, ugliest woman you've ever seen, okay-looking, ugly again" etc., etc., etc. He really doesn't like her!) Oh, and Toby from The West Wing made an appearance in the first season, so that was a bonus.
Next up in my Netflix queue is the first season of Mad Men which I missed completely the first time around (even when we had cable, we didn't have that channel. Fascist Comcast!). I've recently realized one of the stars also had a recurring role (two episodes but the whole series is like 12 so that's recurrent enough for me) on Firefly, one of my all-time favorite series AND another main character is also from The West Wing, another bonus (that wasn't a recent realization, by the way. I'm not THAT behind!).
We'll see where the TV review leads me next. I'll be sure to tell you, whether you want to know or not!
So first I watched a British mini-series called State of Play, starring lots of people you'll recognize, notably Bill Nighy, and lots of people you won't, most of whom are, for some reason, Scottish. It was a twisty, kind of gritty, vaguely sexy mystery, the heroes of which were newspaper reporters acting like Sherlock Holmes. It involved Parliament, affairs, assassins, misconceptions, and stopping the presses (literally). In short, it was good, though the resolution happened a little too quickly for my taste. But that's a minor quibble, really. So, I recommend it, if you're feeling...Brit-y.
I also watched the first season of Burn Notice. I caught the first two episodes way back when came out on USA, but then it faded away and I lost contact. Then I heard the show had been picked up for a second season and had been getting a fair amount of buzz for a basic cable offering and I got intrigued. I had it listed on Netflix but then found the whole season on Hulu, so we were off to the races. Michael Westin is a spy who has been "burned," or blacklisted, and he's living in Miami trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, he and an ex and an old friend help people with problems that might need his particular skills (knowledge about how to con people and an affinity for guns) while he engages in all sorts of shenanigans to solve his own mystery. I'm interested in this show for many reasons, not the least of which is that the main character appears at turns attractive, like a main character should be, and very strange-looking, like his face is squashed or something. It's fascinating to see which Michael turns up in any given scene. (Reminds me of the husband's reaction to the actress who plays Meredith Grey on Grey's anatomy: "Okay-looking, okay-looking, ugliest woman you've ever seen, okay-looking, ugly again" etc., etc., etc. He really doesn't like her!) Oh, and Toby from The West Wing made an appearance in the first season, so that was a bonus.
Next up in my Netflix queue is the first season of Mad Men which I missed completely the first time around (even when we had cable, we didn't have that channel. Fascist Comcast!). I've recently realized one of the stars also had a recurring role (two episodes but the whole series is like 12 so that's recurrent enough for me) on Firefly, one of my all-time favorite series AND another main character is also from The West Wing, another bonus (that wasn't a recent realization, by the way. I'm not THAT behind!).
We'll see where the TV review leads me next. I'll be sure to tell you, whether you want to know or not!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Everybody hurts
This will come as a surprise to some of my newer friends (and not at all for the older ones), but I used to watch The X-files religiously. I saw some episodes during the first season and was completely underwhelmed, went on my mission, came back and went to grad school and by then episodes from the first three seasons were playing every night at 11 or 12pm, about when I got home from studying/working/drinking way too much hot chocolate every night (I was in lactose allergy denial then), and I fell in love. I followed it to the bitter (and not so good) end. I also tracked gossip on websites and bought badly written fan books and printed out episode guides and wished for Mulder and Scully to hurry up and get it on already and avoided the icky fan fiction and got gifts of posters and prints from knowledgeable friends and coveted mtg's Mulder and Scully action figures and developed all kinds of theories about the conspiracies and deconstructed episodes with like-minded friends and, occasionally, freaked myself out watching all alone in my bedroom late at night. I told you, I loved it all.
Well, that's not quite true. One benefit of reading episode guides and reviews and starting well into the series' run was that I got to avoid many episodes that were heralded (though that's not quite the right word) as being particularly scary, since I am not much for the abject terror/horror genre. And I was largely successful in ignoring those episodes that were truly over the top and in turning the channel when a new episode seemed to be heading too much in that direction for my delicate sensibilities. However, in retrospect, I think I was actually able to handle much more frightening stuff than not, because I just looked at TWoP's list of the top 10 scariest X-Files ever, and I remember seeing all but one of them and only being really freaked out by a few. (I missed the #1 contender, Home, which is truly, truly, the most awful piece of vileness in the whole run, and I never saw it, though I did end up having to hear more of it than I wanted to when one of my roommates insisted on watching even though I warned him repeatedly this was a really, really bad idea. The house wasn't big enough to escape the putrid dialogue entirely, you see, and the fact that he absolutely regretted ignoring my advice was small consolation.) Indeed, two of the episodes that freaked me out the most (both about a guy who may or may not have been the Devil) didn't even make the cut. The husband once bought me many seasons of The X-files, and we watched several together...until one about a chupacabra overwhelmed him, and he declared that the show was too scary for him to watch.
Which brings me, the long way 'round, to my current dilemma: the newest X-files movie comes out today and, by all accounts I can find, it's supposed to be pretty scary. But, is it really scary or just scary weird, which tends to freak out the uninitiated more than it would a true X-Phile like myself? Reviews of the current movie are maddeningly ambiguous. For example, the NYT notes that "As production neared, Mr. Carter wondered if a PG-13 would render the movie too tame. “I didn’t want to be hemmed in,” he said. “I remember saying to Tom Rothman: ‘Look, we’re in a new world now, we’ve got the “Saw” movies, the “Hostel” movies. I want to do something that scares people in a big-screen way.’ He was very thoughtful about the evolution of that particular appetite. And in fact that period of horror seemed to run its course with audiences in a very short time.” What does that mean?? Because if the new movie is like Saw and Hostel (!!), I am definitely out out OUT because, well, yuck! But if it's not, because "that period of horror [has] run its course," then we may still be in business. Or the Charlotte Observer observes "the plot involves a missing persons case, severed body parts and some creepy hunts and chases through the snow." Umm, okay, check, but how frightening is all this? Or Reuters claims "Rather than a creepy supernatural thriller, "X-Files" creator Chris Carter, who directed "I Want to Believe" from a script co-written with producer Frank Spotnitz, spins a second-rate "Silence of the Lambs"-type serial killer mystery." Again, what are we saying here? Second-rate actually sounds promising as far as scariness factor goes, but "Silence of the Lambs" terrified me, even though I saw it many years after the fact and on TV no less (it was the girl in the pit more than anything else).
And all this matters because I'm most likely going to have to go see this movie alone. All my X-philiac companions live elsewhere now and the husband has left the Pentagon, as it were, so I'm left with few options. And the idea of going to a thriller by myself? Now that is scary!
Well, that's not quite true. One benefit of reading episode guides and reviews and starting well into the series' run was that I got to avoid many episodes that were heralded (though that's not quite the right word) as being particularly scary, since I am not much for the abject terror/horror genre. And I was largely successful in ignoring those episodes that were truly over the top and in turning the channel when a new episode seemed to be heading too much in that direction for my delicate sensibilities. However, in retrospect, I think I was actually able to handle much more frightening stuff than not, because I just looked at TWoP's list of the top 10 scariest X-Files ever, and I remember seeing all but one of them and only being really freaked out by a few. (I missed the #1 contender, Home, which is truly, truly, the most awful piece of vileness in the whole run, and I never saw it, though I did end up having to hear more of it than I wanted to when one of my roommates insisted on watching even though I warned him repeatedly this was a really, really bad idea. The house wasn't big enough to escape the putrid dialogue entirely, you see, and the fact that he absolutely regretted ignoring my advice was small consolation.) Indeed, two of the episodes that freaked me out the most (both about a guy who may or may not have been the Devil) didn't even make the cut. The husband once bought me many seasons of The X-files, and we watched several together...until one about a chupacabra overwhelmed him, and he declared that the show was too scary for him to watch.
Which brings me, the long way 'round, to my current dilemma: the newest X-files movie comes out today and, by all accounts I can find, it's supposed to be pretty scary. But, is it really scary or just scary weird, which tends to freak out the uninitiated more than it would a true X-Phile like myself? Reviews of the current movie are maddeningly ambiguous. For example, the NYT notes that "As production neared, Mr. Carter wondered if a PG-13 would render the movie too tame. “I didn’t want to be hemmed in,” he said. “I remember saying to Tom Rothman: ‘Look, we’re in a new world now, we’ve got the “Saw” movies, the “Hostel” movies. I want to do something that scares people in a big-screen way.’ He was very thoughtful about the evolution of that particular appetite. And in fact that period of horror seemed to run its course with audiences in a very short time.” What does that mean?? Because if the new movie is like Saw and Hostel (!!), I am definitely out out OUT because, well, yuck! But if it's not, because "that period of horror [has] run its course," then we may still be in business. Or the Charlotte Observer observes "the plot involves a missing persons case, severed body parts and some creepy hunts and chases through the snow." Umm, okay, check, but how frightening is all this? Or Reuters claims "Rather than a creepy supernatural thriller, "X-Files" creator Chris Carter, who directed "I Want to Believe" from a script co-written with producer Frank Spotnitz, spins a second-rate "Silence of the Lambs"-type serial killer mystery." Again, what are we saying here? Second-rate actually sounds promising as far as scariness factor goes, but "Silence of the Lambs" terrified me, even though I saw it many years after the fact and on TV no less (it was the girl in the pit more than anything else).
And all this matters because I'm most likely going to have to go see this movie alone. All my X-philiac companions live elsewhere now and the husband has left the Pentagon, as it were, so I'm left with few options. And the idea of going to a thriller by myself? Now that is scary!
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