TV news!

So, it appears James Marsters is starring in another SciFi - excuse me, SyFy - series called Three Inches. It remains to be seen whether the quality will be BSG-esque SyFy or bad B-movie-esque SyFy.

I am also still plugging away at my TV-watching project. I finished season 2 of Six Feet Under this weekend, and I kind of remembered why I didn't get through this season the first time. I mean, I still think it's a great show, but it is definitely not up to season 1's standard. I think part of it is that, although the Fisher family is as fantastic as always, I find a lot of the supporting characters to be terribly grating, especially Brenda, Lisa, Nikolai, Rico's family, and Keith's niece Taylor. I did get a huge kick out of seeing Glenn Fitzgerald as the cancer patient who forms a relationship of sorts with Nate, since he and Peter Krause played half-brothers later on in Dirty Sexy Money, and Brian was one of my absolute favorite characters on that show.

Anyway, I love Nate's fascination with and fear of death, and his desperate need to figure out the nature of life after death brought on by his medical condition. I also loved seeing Claire discovering her talent and her passion for art and Ruth being so happy to be a grandmother. As much as my enjoyment of this show comes from how fucked up the Fishers are, I really just want good things to happen to them, lol.

Since I immediately followed SFU by starting Dexter season 4, I was of course completely blown away by Michael C. Hall (again, in reverse). It's weird how he seems so much older on SFU, I guess because David is so uptight and clueless and proper and Dexter's all scruffy and, you know, a serial killer.

I'm also glad to see the end of Kroehner. I honestly felt like that subplot was played out by the end of season 1. Exchanging Gilardi for Mitzi made it more fun, but I'm tired of Fisher & Sons constantly being under siege.

TV stuff

I'm free! For two weeks, at least, now that my class is done. And my boss is on vacation for most of next week, which means lots of TV watching. I finished The Office (UK), which I have to say, got harder and harder to watch. The special was just horribly unpleasant. Definitely, definitely voting for the US version as the superior Office.

I'm now watching Six Feet Under. I'd seen season 1 before, and rewatching it reminded me of how much I LOVED IT. I love every single one of the Fishers and their fucked-up lives so very, very much. Onto season 2 now, which I started long ago, but for some reason never finished. The funny thing about it is that originally I didn't have any impressions of the actors except for Peter Krause's role on Sports Night (which I loved), but this time around, nearly everyone is from some other show. Peter Krause's now on Parenthood, Michael C. Hall's on Dexter, Rachel Griffiths is on Brothers and Sisters, and Lauren Ambrose I need to watch more of because damn, she is awesome. I was impressed with MCH's range watching Dexter, when I knew him as David, and now it's happening again in reverse. Also, I don't hate Brenda as much as I did last time around, but I still find Sarah Walker to be infinitely more tolerable.

I've also started - dun dun dun - Lost. Thus far I've seen all of season 1 and am pretty much hooked. I am trying very hard not to think that anything means anything, because I know that way leads to madness, but I can really see why people got all fanatical about that kind of stuff. If I'd been watching it as it aired, without the benefit of knowing that it's complete and utter lunacy to try, I'd probably be writing essays about all kinds of thematic and symbolic shit.

I will say, though, that I am enjoying the story qua story. I like the way they are handling the flashbacks, and the character development seems to complement the tension from everyone keeping secrets and all the scary shit on the island (seriously, there sure are plenty of ways to die on that island, aren't there? It's a freakin' death trap).

TV stuff

I think I am losing stamina in my TV-watching project. It is quite a lot of work, but my Netflix queue is hovering at a perilous 499 (the max is 500) and I feel almost obligated to clear it out a bit.

I finally finished Rome. I don't know if it was me or the quality of the show, but I found myself getting bored a little more often in season 2 than in season 1. I liked it, but in a very detached way, such that I really didn't care about any of the characters. I mean, a LOT of people die in season 2, and I can't think of a single one that made me do more than shrug. (And it's not the "history is a spoiler" issue - I knew Caesar was going to die, and it still worked.)

I have noticed a pattern with the painfully long premium channel credits, though. The more I like a show, the more likely I am to fast forward through the opening credit sequence and not waste time getting to the next episode. I never watched the credits with Dexter, I watched them about half the time with Dead Like Me, and I always seem to watch them with Rome because I can't be bothered to fast forward.

I started watching Fawlty Towers, and unfortunately, was not terribly impressed. I can't help thinking it's just not as funny as it thinks it is. Maybe because it's old and all the jokes seem cliche now? I watched up to episode 5, but it felt like a chore to finish it up before moving on to the next show, so I decided to abandon it and skip to something else...

Which was series 1 of The Office (UK). It's weird how there's this sense of deja vu (especially in the first episode, which was almost identical), even though I know the UK version came first. I don't think I have an opinion yet on which is better, though at the moment I lean toward the US version, both because I saw it first and thus it is the standard to which the other is compared, and because I can identify with it better. Sometimes British jokes go over my head. :(

Dead Like Me (again)

Or should it be Dead(er) Like Me? Either way, I finished season 2 and liked it more than season 1.

Um, these are mostly criticisms (I really did like it, I just don't have much to say about the good parts). But they're in bullet form!

• I really hated Daisy's religion kick. I dislike Daisy enough already, making her self-righteous on top of being self-centered and airheaded is just cruel.


• I thought it was cool that we got some background on Rube. Unfortunately, the show didn't last long enough to really do much with it.


• I love Mason (apparently "snarky British fuck-up" is a kink of mine), but he is really annoying when he's mooning after Daisy. I can't decide if it's just because I hate Daisy or if he really gets whinier around her. Either way, I could really do without it.


• Roxy's bad-ass. We need more Roxy. Especially when she's threatening Mason with bodily harm.


• What is up with George's sudden abundance of midriff-bearing shirts? News flash, George, this:
  
  
  
  is a vest. You're supposed to wear a shirt UNDER IT.


• What is the deal with Misty the office slut? The show has somewhat toned down the over-the-top stuff, which makes her stick out like a sore thumb.


• I had some SERIOUS Friday Night Lights flashbacks with the whole Ray murder thing. Didn't Mason learn from Landry's five-state killing spree that violence doesn't solve anything?


• What the actual fuck happened with Ray? Was he possessed by the graveling, and that's why he was such an asshole? Was the graveling trying to provoke Mason into killing Ray? Why? And why was there no actual follow-up on the death without a post-it? Isn't that breaking the rules? Shouldn't there be consequences, aside from an annoying graveling? (Oh, right, I forgot, this show doesn't bother with "rules" anymore.)

Happy anniversary to me!

Well, this is quite a landmark weekend for me. First, July 3rd was the one-year anniversary of my move to DC. Yay! Second, obviously, was the 4th of July. I celebrated by going to the pool, then heading to Becky's house for a barbecue and watching fireworks on the Mall, which was pretty awesome.

I tried a new stir fry which was simple and delicious - Honey Walnut Shrimp. I started with this recipe and made some modifications. I used 12 oz. of shrimp, 1 cup of carrots, 2 cups of sugar snap peas (I don't like zucchini), and maybe a 1/4 cup of walnuts, which made about 2 servings. I also ended up adding extra honey (maybe another tablespoon?) when it was in the pan because all I could taste was the soy sauce. I probably could've added even a little bit more, but it still tasted good as is. I served it over rice.

Also, I finished season 1 of Rome. I liked it, but I have very little to say about it. I will admit, I had a lot of trouble following it in the beginning, because I couldn't tell the characters apart. The only people I recognized were Polly Walker (from Caprica), Suzie from Torchwood (whose real name I don't remember), and Kevin McKidd (whom I completely can't buy as an ancient Roman. He's just so... Scottish). Everyone else was a jumble (too many old guys, mostly), and so I had to follow along with the Wikipedia episode summaries to know what was going on. After a while, it got easier, once they used people's names enough times to match them up with faces. (Am I the only one who thinks that the guy playing Caesar looks like Alan Rickman, lol?)

Pretty much my entire knowledge of Roman history comes second-hand from my college friends who were classics majors (um, I remember Catullus), so I don't know how historically accurate it is, but the costumes and sets sure look spectacular.

Dead Like Me

I've finished season 1 of Dead Like Me. I liked it, but it's not something I'll dwell on very long.

Things I liked:

• George. She's snarky, which is always a plus. I liked that the first few episodes were about her learning lessons on being dead and being a Reaper, and the family dynamic of the Reapers is cute. As with most teenage characters, I am torn between being older and wiser and finding their teenage angst juvenile and at the same time feeling sympathy for them because I was just like that when I was that age. Ellen Muth seems young for an 18-year-old, though - I know she's not (I looked her up on IMDB and she was 22 when Dead Like Me was on), but she looks young.


• Mandy Patinkin!! You know how someone can play an iconic role, and then forever after it's impossible to see them in anything else without thinking of that character? This is like the opposite of that. It probably helps that he's older and heavier and has better hair, so he doesn't really look much like Inigo Montoya anymore, but every once in a while, he'll say something or make a facial expression that reminds me of Inigo, and it makes me happy.


• Mason. He's cute and British, need I say more? He seems kind of David Tennant-ish, but dumber and with poorer hygiene.

Things I disliked:

• The excessive quirkiness. Now, I like dark humor (I did just watch Dexter, after all), but this seems too over-the-top sometimes. Like the wacky and ridiculous accidents that kill people. It's funny once in a while, but when it happens every episode, it starts to get old. The same joke will only be funny so many times. I also thought George's family was too OTT, like Reggie's toilet seat obsession (and honestly, killing George with a flaming toilet seat from space was one of the most ridiculous deaths of all. It would be funny if it were unusual, but it seems that in this 'verse, it's an everyday occurrence).


• The inconsistent world-building. I mean, if you're gonna make up rules, at least stick to them! I realize that there were issues and Bryan Fuller left and so things changed, but it's really annoying when they've established something and then contradicted it in a later episode.


• Daisy Adair. I kind of hate her. This is partly because I'm bitter that they replaced Betty, and partly because I have loathed Laura Harris ever since she played the whiniest terrorist ever on 24. As with quirkiness, a little bit goes a long way, and Daisy's self-centeredness and her stories about her sexcapades got old really fast. (I minded her a lot less in the last couple episodes, where she was being less obnoxious and played off Mason and his issues instead.)

Catch-up on TV stuff

I watched Tin Man, the Sci-Fi miniseries based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and I rather enjoyed it, despite Zooey Deschanel being stoned out of her mind the entire time (or at least that what it seemed like). I generally can't stand her acting, with the spaced-out expression and the bizarre, flat speech patterns. It's actually rather similar to her sister's acting style, but at least Emily plays a character who's supposed to be totally out of touch.

The special effects are way better than you usually see in a Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Or maybe they've gotten better since the last time I watched the Sci-Fi Channel (which was before they changed the stupyd spellyng). I really wished they'd stop talking about "the O.Z." though. Every time they said it, it reminded me of The O.C. and I found it incredibly annoying.

I finished Dexter season 3, and okay, first, let's just get this out of the way: OMG JIMMY SMITS' MUSTACHE! I admit, it took me a little time to adjust and not think of him as President Santos, but that mustache... lol. Anyway, it felt like this season was a little off, but I'm still a big fan. Overall, I thought it was poorly paced and started off really slowly, but the Dexter/Miguel interactions were worth it. I really hope they try a new formula next season, though, because it's starting to feel repetitive.

I was disappointed in Rita's arc this season. She felt very much like a pregnant woman cliche, and although she and Dexter had some nice moments, overall it seemed like she was there more because she had to be, and not because they had anything interesting to do with her. On the other hand, I think I like Deb better now. Although I thought that at the end of last season, and then this season started and she was back to being dumb and obnoxious and had to work her way back up to mature and competent again. It's kind of starting to piss me off, that she has the same character arc every season, and then the next season it's as though it didn't happen.

I've started watching Dead Like Me, which I like so far, though I find it a little too quirky. (I thought the same thing about Arrested Development and Bryan Fuller's other show, Pushing Daisies, and both of those became so quirky as to be unwatchable, so we'll see). I'll probably post a reaction once I've finished season 1.

Boys from the Dwarf

As the culmination of my Red Dwarf rewatch, I finally got to see "Back to Earth." And I have to say... not impressed.

I'm completely amused at the "Nine Years Later" opening. I've learned not to expect this show to EVER resolve its big cliffhangers, so it mostly just gives me a giggle to see them blatantly ignore things like Red Dwarf being blown up and everyone but Rimmer being in the mirror universe when it happened. Series 8 is easily my least favorite, so I don't really mind pretending it doesn't exist. I appreciated the return of Red Dwarf (I love Starbug, but it was getting claustrophobic), but the return of the whole crew with it totally threw things off. Plus, it basically reset Rimmer to series 1 levels of smegheadery. I love Rimmer so hard in the later series, and as much as it breaks my heart when he leaves to become Ace, I love seeing how much he's evolved, so it's frustrating to have him return to form.

But this is supposed to be about "Back to Earth." The two things that annoyed me most were the "Hey, we're characters in a TV show" premise and the return of the despair squid. Seriously? Has Doug Naylor been reading bad fanfic? Because the "characters discover their fictitious nature" thing is pretty much a staple of bad fanfic (of course, it usually comes with a Mary Sue who can tell them everything they're doing wrong). And then to resolve the whole thing by using the same plot as a previous "warped reality" episode? Bah. Especially since "Back To Reality" did it MUCH better.

I have to admit, the Starbug Smartcar totally cracked me up (I want one! It would fit in my living room). Other than that, though, I didn't find it particularly funny. Certainly nowhere near their best episodes. Sadly, it really doesn't add anything to the series, except that it hammered home just how long ago this show started, because damn, the boys are starting to look old.

AND WHERE THE FUCK IS HOLLY? (Actually, I remember reading that Norman Lovett was really cheesed that he wasn't invited back, and I have to say, I am pissed on his behalf. This needed some Holly.)

Dexter

I've finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter, and I am officially hooked. If you've never heard of it, you live under a rock it's about a forensics consultant for the Miami PD who moonlights as a serial killer, but only kills other murderers.

First, let me say that this show definitely makes me think, "Wow, this is clearly on a premium channel," and you know why? It's not the nudity or the gore or the f-bombs - it's the insanely long intros. Only a show without commercials could spend five whole minutes on previouslies and the opening credits sequence. I know that a lot of people love the opening credits, and I give them kudos for being innovative and creepy, but damn. Longest. Credits. Ever. I have to admit, after the first couple episodes, I just started skipping straight to the beginning of the episode.

Anyway, I am a big fan of the morally ambiguous protagonist. (See also: Angel, Don Draper, Patty Hewes, Dr. Horrible.) However, it took me quite a while to get to the point where I felt more than a detached interest in Dexter. Like I'd be intrigued about what happens next, but not terribly invested in whether Dexter gets caught or someone close to him dies or whatever, and that's because Dexter starts out as a very emotionally detached character. I did think it got better over time, and by season 2, Dexter is much more capable of emotional connection. And while I still don't think I'd like to have a beer with him or anything (he is a serial killer, after all), I found myself caring very much about what happened to him and the people in his life.

I love Julie Benz like candy, so Dexter's girlfriend Rita is one of my favorite characters so far. I really didn't like Deb, Dexter's obnoxious sister, and I felt like the office politics at the police station were totally unnecessary, but I've really enjoyed the season-long arcs involving the Ice Truck Killer and the Bay Harbor Butcher investigations.

So, anybody else watching?

Lazybones

I have been doing nothing but watch TV and movies lately. I've made a nice dent in my Netflix queue, but I've still got 286 things left. Thus far, I've seen I'm Reed Fish, Spiral, Open House, See Jane Date, Series 2-5 of Red Dwarf, Heathers, Secondhand Lions, District 9, and Seasons 1 and 2 of Party Down.

So, I've been doing a rewatch of Red Dwarf, and sadly, it didn't cheer me up as much as I'd have liked it to, though I did have the amusing realization that my professor from last semester is exactly like Rimmer when he's had his anger removed by a polymorph. :) This, however, will never stop being funny. I'm on Series 5 now, aka the series with my two favoritest episodes ever, "Quarantine" and "Back to Reality." *bounces* Except I haven't seen it since I watched Buffy, and it's doing strange things to me. I was watching "Demons and Angels" and I couldn't stop thinking of "The Replacement," and I now want to see BtVS versions of "The Inquisitor" and "Terrorform." Also, it occurs to me that "Back to Reality" = "Normal Again," but funnier.

I also watched See Jane Date, starring Charisma Carpenter - who, btw, has enormous post-pregnancy boobs and fantabulous short hair that is not at all like the awful things they did to it on Angel. (Zachary Levi is also in this movie, but I'd already seen pretty much his entire scene on YouTube.) It was cute, although it kind of got my feminist hopes up, only to disappoint me. It starts out with a typical romantic comedy situation: Jane, tired of all the criticism and relentless nagging from her family and friends because she's single, lies and says she has a boyfriend - who, of course, is now expected to be her date at her cousin's wedding. So now Jane has two months to meet and fall in love with a guy, so she can bring him to the wedding and avoid getting caught in an embarrassing lie. After a string of horrible dates and her cousin's snide (albeit true) accusation that this supposed boyfriend doesn't really exist, Jane flips out, delivering an awesome and empowering rant about how trivializing it is to be judged on whether or not she has a boyfriend. She's a great person, and has a great career, and she's really satisfied with her life, and how dare they determine her self-worth based on her dating status. So Jane proudly ends up going to the wedding alone... where, of course, she meets the man of her dreams, and the movie completely undermines its message by being unable to deliver a happy ending unless its heroine is in a relationship. *sigh* I should stop expecting things from romantic comedies.

And one more

An addendum to my last post... CW has also announced its schedule, and the only show I care about is Life Unexpected, which is no longer in the same timeslot as Chuck and HIMYM, which was murder. So, yay.

Also, just as an FYI, in my last post I mentioned The Good Guys. It's bad. Really, really bad, y'all. I couldn't even make it through the first episode. So, boo.

Fall TV

Just a heads up regarding the announcements of fall TV scheduling from the networks: NBC, FOX, ABC, and CBS.

My schedule:

Mondays
8:00: Chuck (NBC)
8:00: How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Tuesdays
10:00: Parenthood (NBC)

Thursdays
8:00: Community (NBC)
9:00: The Office (NBC)
9:00: Fringe (FOX)

Fridays
9:00: The Good Guys (FOX)

I am so happy that Chuck was renewed, but can we please do something about the scheduling conflict on Mondays? Meanwhile, Parks & Recreation being bumped to midseason puts an annoying hole in the middle of my Thursday night, and I refuse to switch back to Bones. The only new show that looks interesting thus far is The Good Guys (which actually premieres tonight). It stars Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, so my attendance is pretty much required, even if he has a porn 'stache. And Colin Hanks earned some goodwill by being on Mad Men, so I'll see where it goes.

Stuff people should be watching, part 2

Community, which is my favorite new show this year. If you've never seen it, what's wrong with you? it's about seven very different (slightly crazy) people who form a Spanish study group at a community college in Greendale, Colorado. The study group was initially a ploy so that Jeff, a lawyer who was disbarred after his bachelor's degree was deemed invalid, could score with the hot chick in his class, but everybody's kind of bonded and now they're really good friends.

So, why do I like it? It's straight-up hilarious, for one thing. The cast is stellar. One of the things I love about it is that the characters are funny in just about every combination you can think of - the show does a good job of mixing it up so that different characters get to play off each other every week.

But I think the best thing about Community is the way they use meta jokes and references. It's sort of a defining characteristic of the show, particularly since Abed is a pop culture junkie who relates to the world through movies and TV. Thus, the show is ridiculously self-aware and the references come at a rapid-fire pace. But what I've noticed about the last couple episodes (where they did an episode-long extended homage to Goodfellas and then action movies) is that the jokes are funny even if you don't get the reference.

One of the pitfalls of pop culture is that it's not the same for everybody, whether because of generational differences or cultural differences between countries. (BtVS, for example, sometimes loses its international fans with very American references.) Community has addressed this head-on in some cases - like when Troy says, "It's a cookie wand. Me and Jeff made it because it made you look more like the Cookie Crisp wizard, which is not even a reference I get because the Cookie Crisp mascot when I was growing up wasn't a wizard. It was a burglar."

But the brilliance here is that I've never seen Goodfellas, and I still thought the chicken finger crime syndicate was fantastic. I don't need to identify every action movie being spoofed to find the paintball war hilarious. Because - as Alan Sepinwall recently pointed out - everything they do is "tied to honest efforts at characterization to work long-term. The Goodfellas episode was ultimately about how Abed and Jeff each relate to other people. A recent episode where uptight study group members Annie and Shirley turned into a pair of bickering buddy cops was largely about how both of them resented how they were perceived by the group."

The jokes come from the characters, not the other way around. Plenty of shows are guilty of bending a character just to get a good punchline, and ultimately I think viewers resent that. I know I certainly do (I'm looking at you, Bones). When the references are funny not because it's a reference, but because it's a character moment, then it works whether you get the reference or not. And if you DO get it? Bonus. You get to laugh doubly hard.

Stuff more people should be watching

Being Erica, because it's utterly adorable. It's a Canadian show that airs on SoapNet in the U.S., but the first two seasons are up on Hulu.

What if you could go back in time and fix all your regrets? That's exactly the chance Erica gets when she meets Dr. Tom. She's unhappy with her life - 32, single, unemployed, and currently hospitalized after going into anaphylactic shock - and there are so many things she wishes she'd done differently. Each week, Dr. Tom sends Erica back to a significant moment in her life and gives her the chance to do it over and change the outcome. But of course, things never turn out the way she expects.

It's got time travel! Crazy '80s outfits! Erin Karpluk being the most adorable Canadian ever! (Plus she has amazing hair, OMG.) Sebastian Pigott, who reminds me of a younger James Marsters. And he sings! (I am SUCH an Erica/Kai shipper and OMG that scene makes me cry.) It's funny and it's heartwarming, without being too sappy. It'll definitely put a smile on your face. But it's also got depth to it - Erica learns some very hard lessons about herself and the things she cannot change.

Plus, did I mention the time travel?

Freedom!

I am officially DONE with this semester - emailed my last paper to the professor last night. Which means I'm free... for a whole two weeks, and then the summer session starts. Oh well.

Anyway, it's that time of year, so if you're curious whether your favorite shows will be back next year, here's the chart for you. I'm happy to see that only two of my shows are "on the bubble" - Chuck, as ever (eat more Subway!), and Life Unexpected, which was cute, but I probably won't miss it. Getting the axe are 24, which I knew about and am ready for the end, and Dollhouse, which was canceled in the spectacular chaos of "let's cram five seasons worth of plot into the last six episodes" six months ago, so I'm not sure why it's even worth mentioning.

Stuff...

I will spare you my f-bomb and capslock laden rant about last week's Bones and just advise you that you won't be hearing more from me about that bullshit show.

I still haven't caught up on Fringe or FlashForward since they've been back. I am more likely to watch Fringe, but neither one seems to have been missed. I'm also at least 3 hours behind on 24. I'll be happy when this semester is over.

And in funnier things, this.

The Problem with Parenthood

(It’s mostly good stuff; I just liked the alliteration.)

So, I’m really enjoying Parenthood so far. Mostly the Peter Krause and Lauren Graham stuff, but that’s kind of what I expected anyway. I really enjoy seeing them interact with each other and with their kids. I loved last week’s episode where Drew was all excited to play baseball with Adam and Max and, like, actually have a father figure, and with Max obviously adoring Drew. And then Sarah getting all mama-bear about her kids – first with Julia when she was reluctant to have Amber babysit, then with Adam for letting Drew down. And somehow I’m managing to find the fact that Sarah and Amber both have a crush on Amber’s teacher to be adorable instead of creepy. :)

The whole Haddie and Yo-Yo saga is silly in the way that teenagers always are, but I kind of adore Adam’s reactions to his daughter’s boyfriend. It might possibly remind me of someone I’m related to. :) And I thought they touched on some depth for Haddie when she talked about how it’s always been all about Max. Another thing I liked was this week’s interaction between Kristina and Max’s behavioral aide. I remember reading that Jason Katims actually has an autistic child, and it definitely shows in the realistic way he portrays the struggles the family is going through.

I’m slightly less fond of the parents and Crosby, although they had some great material this week when Crosby broke the news about Jabbar, who, by the way, remains absolutely adorable.

So what’s the problem? Julia.

For one thing, I can’t buy her as a high-powered lawyer AT ALL. She looks like she’s fresh out of law school, if that. And the frazzled career woman role was played much more realistically by Rachel Griffiths on Brothers & Sisters. She was okay when she was giving Crosby advice on his situation, but I just can’t bring myself to care when she gets stomped on every week for being a bad parent (even though she’s usually right), and I really can’t get invested in the whole “stay-at-home husband who cheats” thing, which was also already done on Brothers & Sisters. Hey, maybe Julia can do something illegal and run off to Mexico, and we’ll never have to see her again?

Several weeks of Community

Let us commence with recording the workout I've given my On Demand lately. Community is easily my favorite new show of the year. I don't really have deep thoughts, just lots of awesome quotes:

Jeff to Annie: "I can't say no to those big doe eyes. It's like strangling a mermaid with a bike chain." Annie manipulating Jeff is my OTP.

Troy and Abed in the vending machine! "I think I hit G-13..."

Troy: "Oh my god, Pierce is going to be the only person ever to drown in a parking lot... twice." The entire sailboat-in-the-parking-lot thing was hilarious. Captain Shirley! Hee!

Pottery Teacher to Jeff: "Congratulations, you failed a class so easy that people passing in the hallway get contact credit."

Abed on Annie and Shirley teaming up: "That's a buddy cop movie I would watch." ME TOO, ABED. ME TOO. And Annie would so be the badass. Check out the way she slammed Jeff's head on the table and she loves him.

Troy to Britta: "You're more of a fun vampire, because you don't suck blood. You just suck."

Annie and the pepper spray OMG. "This is self-inflicted friendly fire, okay?" And Abed doing the black police chief, lol.

Troy and Abed in the Morrrrning!

TV talk

With the Olympics being on, and all my shows being either preempted or in reruns, there hasn't been much to talk about. But this week, shows are back!

OMG how much did I love this week's Chuck?? SO hilarious with Chuck being undercover, just cool enough to fool the bad guys (and how ridiculous were they, lol), but still lapsing into talking about cupcakes and sterile torture instruments. I have to say, I am really loving the new, more confident Chuck this season. I think they've got a great balance between making him kick-ass enough that I totally have a TV crush on Zachary Levi, but still maintaining that goofiness and occasional ineptitude that makes him Chuck.

After the whole crazy shipper thing that resulted from the last episode, I did get a chuckle out of the meta exchange about "will they/won't they" couples, but I imagine the crazy haters were probably not pleased by the outcome of this episode. Hannah's gone, but Sarah/Shaw took a giant leap forward, meaning that it's still an obstacle to Chuck/Sarah. To be honest, I would've preferred the opposite (lose the Sarah/Shaw stuff but keep Hannah around), which is surprising, because I thought I would hate Kristin Kreuk a lot more. Or at all.

I also watched the premiere of Parenthood last night. It's been on my radar because I absolutely love Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, and I wasn't disappointed by them. Lauren Graham's character kind of reminds me of Lorelai, if Rory had been a huge troublemaker instead of the perfect daughter, lol. Overall, though, the show reminds me more of Brothers & Sisters, but with more likable actors. (To be fair, I like both Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths a lot more after having watched B&S than I did before.) I had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters, since I didn't recognize many of the actors, and I'm still not sure how everyone's related. But the dialogue was fast-paced and snappy, and I do have a weakness for big zany family dramas (it's the only child thing, I think), so I'll keep watching.

Food for thought

I stumbled across this transcript of a keynote speech by Hart Hanson (aka the creator of Bones), and I thought he had some very interesting things to say. Some of them I agree with, some of them I don't (namely this: "My entire audience wants them [Booth and Bones] to get together." Um, not all of us, punk. Personally, I think you're killing the show by forcing UST where there isn't any).

One potentially controversial statement: "...without exception I’ve never seen anything on TV that rivaled a good novel." Which, on the one hand, is probably true, given that novels and TV are two very different types of storytelling (finite vs. infinite, standalone vs. episodic). But it also sounds very much like that "TV isn't art/literature because it's pop culture and pop culture gets no respect" mentality that really bothers me. As BtVS fans, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that there are TV shows out there with just as much depth and quality storytelling as a good novel.

He seems to suggest that writing for TV means writing for an audience, whereas writing a novel means writing for yourself. Which is all well and good, as long as you don't ever plan to sell your novel and make money from it. If you want to do that, well, you're probably going to have to take the audience into consideration. I think - again - he simply denigrates TV when he should be looking at both TV and novels as falling into two categories: those designed for mass market (pulp novels, TV shows like Bones, CSI, or American Idol) and those intended to be art (literary novels, TV shows like Mad Men). Every professional writer wants to attract an audience, no matter what type of writing they do.

Anyway, a lot of it is talking about how to be successful writing for a mass audience, and the answer seems to be, "Write about things that appeal to a large number of people, but don't pander," which is probably much easier said than done. This quote in particular stood out to me: "But if you cleave to, if you support – as an entertainer – the basic values of your culture and society, you have a much better chance of reaching a mass audience than if you challenge the mores and morals of a society." And I couldn't help but immediately think of Dollhouse. But you know what, Hart? For all the problems (and they were legion) that Dollhouse had, I'd still rather have that on my television than Bones, ten times over. Guess TV aimed at a mass audience just doesn't appeal to me.

I have to admit, I was pretty confused about the whole "redemption of Sweets" section. Did I miss the part where Sweets needed to be redeemed? 'Cause I kind of loved him from the beginning.

Oh, but then there's this: "And America is anti-intellectual, in a way. I find… it’s very anti-intellectual. They tend to… if I hear one more person say, “He’s a president you can have a beer with!” Jesus Christ! I don’t want him to have a beer; I want him to make me feel stupid." WORD.