New Look, Same Old Shit

Alright, so last week, I started a new blog but was promptly thwarted by my inability to spell or, in fact, spell check.  So, my web address was all wonky.  Anyway, I transferred all my old crap over to a new address and made a pretty blog header etc.

Hope you enjoy the layout because I spent all morning on it, drinking only chocolate milk for sustenance while I worked feverishly, handicapped by my lack of decent software (see that gorgeous header... yeah... I made that in MS WORD... for realz.) Anyway, if you've never been here then it's all new so feel free to read my past rants.

Saturday's a slow tv day for us.  We usually catch up on the stuff that's fermenting in our DVR or have giant DVD marathons.  But today, we're leaving it on History International and I'm watching RoboCop talk about civic engineering. 

It's even better than it sounds.

Terriers etc.

TV Watched Today:
Ugghhh... so much TV.
We were both working all day long so we had the TV on in the background and it's all sort of a blur. I can tell you that we watched MASH, My Name Is Earl, and How I Met Your Mother as well as Batman: Brave and the Bold and The Good Guys.  Everything else was sort of background noise while I did laundry and lesson plans and worked on my graduation lecture.

I've really been in the mood to watch some Buffy lately.  I started re-watching it a few months ago but inadvertently abandoned it when we started plans for the big cross country move. Maybe when I finish The X-Files, I'll spend some time in the Hellmouth. For now, while it's still just Mulder, Scully & Skinner, I'm happy to stick with X-Files.

Anyway, one of the new shows we picked up this season is Terriers.  Terriers is a bad-ass show. It's on FX, same as another of our hour-long favorites: Justified. The show centers around Hank Dolworth  (brilliantly played by Donal Logue) and his best friend Britt (the wonderful Michael Raymond-James) who go around solving crimes as PIs without their PI license. Hank is an ex-cop (thanks to a drinking problem) and Britt is an ex-thief (thanks to a going to jail then finding the perfect girl problem) and their friendship really anchors the whole show.
 
I can't imagine the casting sessions that went on before this show was finalized but I totally believe that when Logue and James finally got in a room together and started reading these characters that little baby angels started singing, new stars formed in the sky, and all across the planet people started smiling but couldn't understand why. What I mean is... these two are effing great together.

Aside from the mystery of the week, this show is really about these two men, their friendship, and the things that are always screwing up their lives.  Hank's ex-wife pities him and is trying to marry a major douche.  His brilliant sister who suffers from schizophrenia shows up a few episodes in and they take care of each other.  He's an ex-alcoholic, still battling his demons.  Britt, meanwhile, has a lot of cronies who'd like him back in the thieving profession. He's in love with his gf but she effed up and screwed her professor and now she's pregnant and doesn't know who the baby daddy is. Etc. Etc. Life is hard and it sucks and these guys are probably really like... bitter. Right?  Well... no. They're not. They don't lay around in their apartments lamenting their tragic lives, constantly overtly dealing with their issues. Instead, they're kicking ass, taking names, and dealing with their shit by being awesome and funny and taking care of each other.

The one who really comes out as the star is Logue, who plays Hank Dolworth so brilliantly, with such grace and finesse that he absolutely breaks my heart in every single episode. The man is amazing. Dolworth is perfectly written and that's gotta help, but Logue sells it 100%. 

To top it off, Terriers has a kick ass theme song that works perfectly for the show which you can enjoy here:



Anyway, Terriers is awesome.  If you haven't been watching it... you should.  It's on Wednesday nights on FX.

Last night was a big night for us.  Thursday... also known as BIG TV NIGHT. We had: Community, 30 Rock, Modern Family, The Office, and Fringe

I'm not sure I have enough energy to go in depth about any of these so here are my general thoughts on the two of these shows that matter the most to me right now:

Fringe: Holy shit. Just get Olivia out of frakking Earth 2.  I love you to death J.J. but it's time to get her out. I miss our Olivia with our Walter and our Astrid and our Pacey.  We're on something like episode five.  Look at it this way.  If The X-Files suddenly focused on Mulder's sister for five straight episodes... well... it would be what happened in Season 8.  So... damnit... just let's try to get her back home by Christmas.  Still, even with all this mess going on, this show is still better than about 90% of everything that's currently on. I do love seeing Charlie. And I think the alt-universe plots are pretty cool... I just miss my regular show.  Hey... maybe Liv could bring Alt-Charlie with her since Our-Charlie is all... dead. That would be pretty sweet.

Community: Oh my god if this show gets any more meta it's just going to eat itself.  But... this isn't a bad thing. On the contrary, I LOVE all this meta shit so they can just keep on keepin' on with all the weird, tv-show-inside-a-tv-show stuff.  It's awesome. Still, remember Scully's snake tattoo:

 

Yeah, well... it's like that. 

Triangle and Time Loop

TV watched today:
MASH: Season 4 eps 3 & 4
My Name Is Earl: Pilot
Stargate SG1: Random
Glee: Funk
How I Met Your Mother: Murtaugh
Burn Notice: Wanted Man

Last night, during my X-Files stint, I finally happened upon an episode I've only seen once but have been remembering fondly since 1998. That episode is: Triangle.
Wow, this episode is crazy.
Crazy Brilliant.
Basically, it's this: If Hitchcock's Rope and The Wizard of Oz had a baby and gave it to Chris Carter to raise, it would be Triangle.

Mulder sets out on a secret mission to find the Queen Ann, a British luxury liner missing in the Bermuda Triangle since 1939.  He gets there and gets swallowed up in time, fighting off Nazis who look suspiciously like Douchey Agent Spender and the Impossible-To-Kill Cancer Man. Skinner's in the mix too and soon Scully hits the scene looking all 30's vixiney in her pin curls and sexy red gown. Mulder gets all beat up and taken hostage and then it's the commercial break. Bam! Just like that.
Then there's Scully, back at a lame desk at the FBI. The Impossible-To-Spin-Off Lone Gunmen find her, explain Mulder's situation and she spends eleven minutes trying to get the info that will inevitably lead her to Mulder. Oh yeah... and this happens:

Sweet!

Anyway, back to Mulder, who's all... Time Lost. He teams up with Past Scully, who has no idea who he is, but she's got a lot of moxy so she's willing to help this weird, babbling American take out some frakking nazis. Awesome. So they run around the ship together just as Our Scully also clambers aboard the Queen Anne... but the ship Our Scully's on is eerily quiet-- a ghost ship. And when Mulder and Past Scully and Our Scully eventually cross paths... they can't even see each other... though both Scullys clearly get that goosebumpy WTF feeling when they walk THROUGH each other.

Anyway, finally all is made well. The Nazis don't get what they came for and Mulder jumps into the blue, somehow knowing that this will get him home. He wakes up in the hospital to the whole-- "you were there... and you were there... and YOU were there..." Oz stuff. 

But here's what makes this episode so irresistible: 

Aside from the fact that it appeals to my historical fiction lust, it's shot in a series of frak-long takes. Just like Rope. It's very kinetic, always moving forward, always pushing the story. Just like Rope, it also cheats a little. It's not ACTUALLY just four takes, it's digitally altered to make it look that way, as each time we go though a curtain, the take changes. But still, it's the appearance of continuousness that matters to me, the viewer. And to me, it looks like FOUR takes. I know it would probably get old eventually, but as I watched it I thought, "Why couldn't all X-files be like this?" 

Well, obviously, I know why. It's hard to make. Hard to write. Hard to shoot and edit and all that. But wow. Triangle is so amazingly watchable,  I might just watch it again tonight. 

NEXT! 

Ok...so since last winter, we've been watching Stargate Universe. Known in this household as Battlestar Gate Voyager. For... obvious reasons. If you haven't seen the shows or any of the shows I just referenced I'm not entirely sure why you're reading this blog, but I hope you're interested in broadening your horizons because I'm about to explain it to you. 

Battlestar= Because it's shot like, and has a tone very similar to Battle Star Galactica

Gate= Because it actually is a Gate show, the sort of grandchild of the movie and child of SG1

Voyager=Because they're FRAKKING LOST IN SPACE! Just like Star Trek: Voyager

Anyway, in spite of its similarity to all these scifi premises and... maybe because of them, we really, really like this show. It's smart and even though it looks a lot like BSG and recycles a lot of the Trek plots, it still finds a lot of room for itself. It's got its own voice and it does a lot of things Trek would never DARE to do.  

For example: In one episode, a young crewman is mortally wounded and begs his commanding officer to just end it. In BSG they would've just pulled a gun, squeezed the trigger, and downed a pint of space-hooch, before the crewman could finish his plea. In Trek, the commander would either deliver a pc speech about euthanasia OR the crewman would die totally unnoticed because he's a redshirt. 

In SGU, Young feels REALLY bad but puts his hand over the kid's nose and mouth and effing SUFFOCATES him, holding his own breath the whole time.  Once the kid is dead, he finally breathes out, tears welled up in his eyes. That's some good shit. And that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. SGU is different, in spite of the fact that it's so much the same. 

Anyway...

This week, Adama er... I mean, Young starts having crazy ass dreams about the Enterprise, I mean, Destiny, blowing up because 7of9's, I mean, Chloe's weird alein-ness is attracting other aliens. Baltar, I mean, Rush is being a huge douche the entire time and Apollo, I mean, Scott has to do some taking over. Meanwhile, Neelix/Data/er... I mean, Eli is totally hitting it off with this Maquis, I mean, Lucian chick who totally digs his equations. 

 That hoodie you wear every day really brings our your sexy math skills.

The episode is pretty hardcore even though the Groundhog Day premise has been sorely abused in SciFi.  Just as I said before, SGU found a new way to both explain and solve the problem, then they subverted their own explanation in the end. Pretty brilliant. Can't wait for next week. 

That's it for tonight. Modern Family's on.

Watching X-Files With No Lights On

TV Watched Today:
Community Season One: Pilot
MASH: Random Episode
Cash Cab
X-Files Season 5: The End
X-Files Season 6:The Beginning, Drive
Stargate Universe: The Greater Good

Tonight I was feeling a bit down and decided to watch something dark and dreary. It's sort of like engineering a vaccine by sampling the virus you're trying to kill. Anyway, for the last few months, I've been watching X-Files off and on through Netflix's FANTASTIC Instant View feature. It's been great. All of The X-Files in order, right here on my laptop.

Season 1 was nostalgic. Season 2 was tremendous with oh-so-much Darren Morgan goodness. Season 3 and Season 4 were awesome and very scary and now we're at the end of Season 5. I remember the fifth season as one of, if not the best. But I think that may just be because that was during the pinnacle of my X-Files fangirlness... oh yeah, you know I was totally reading me some fanfic.

Season 5 ends the same way approximately 95% of all X-Files seasons end: "They're shutting down the X-Files."
Wahhh Wahhh. Sad Trombone.

Still, this one is a little more visceral. Cancer Man actually burns that shit down. I mean, the "I Want To Believe" poster is all curling at the edges, licked by flames and everything. Then, Mulder and Scully have a sad embrace in their (I just came from Scully's apartment where we were lying "just friends style" on the couch together) street clothes.

Upon my more recent viewings of this show I've realized some things:
1-Mulder is way snarkier than I'd remembered.
2-Scully is struggling with some serious inner demons throughout the show... I'd sort of forgotten all about all this.
3-A.D. Skinner is f*cking HOT! I mean, like... mad sexy.

I mean really... for about three seasons the producers of this show found at least four reasons per season to put this surprisingly buff dude in his underpants.  Sadly, Skinner is grossly underrepresented in shirtless photos on Google Images. Sure, Mulder's infamous teacup shot is all over the place and believe me, my ninth grade self was SUPER happy about this. But now, in the aftermath of my teens, I find that my X-Files crush lines up more closely with my Star Trek crush:

Last night, I watched some Star Trek TOS.  Classic episode actually, Plato's Stepchildren. This episode is a little wacky and I really don't care for the ending. I wish Kirk had busted some Platonic ass and kept those jerks from being able to use their super food induced powers. But I digress...

OK, yes. This zany episode does contain TVs FIRST interracial kiss.  It's between Kirk and Uhura and a bunch of Southern networks actually refused to air it. It's just that epic. However awesome this factoid is, it's obscured by the fact that Kirk and Uhura were FORCED to kiss by these jackass Platonians which is too bad really.  Would've been much better if they just up and made it because they WANTED to.

You can read more about it in lots and lots of places. I'm actually more excited about my own minor discovery which is...

 Last night I found the two douchiest douche bags in all of Star Trek TOS:

I mean really... look at these guys.

 REALLY look at these guys.

Last night, I couldn't stop laughing and today it's just as bad. 

I challenge any of you to find two douchier douche bags than the ones here. Also, I challenge you to find quite as many fantastic screen grabs.  This was no quick and dirty google image search... No sir. This was some real, serious Star Trek, Batman, Detective shit. 

You're Welcome.

The Blind Banker

TV Watched Today:
Community Season 2: Basic Rocket Science (third viewing)
Chuck: Chuck vs The First Fight
Hawaii 5-0:  Ho'apono
Naked Archaeologist: John The Baptist
The Daily Show
Star Trek TOS: Plato's Stepchildren

Last night I was graced with the fabulous second episode/movie of Masterpiece Mystery's Sherlock. This episode, called "The Blind Banker" follows Holmes and Watson as they investigate series of  spray paint clues that turn out to be an ancient Chinese language cipher. The episode features a weird, tiny (only like 10 people are in the audience and they aren't provided with basic conveniences... like chairs) Chinese circus, complete with an aerialist and a crossbow escape as well as a possible girlfriend for Watson.  Unfortunately the circus is a front for a crime syndicate and Sherlock continuously cock-blocks Watson so they all eventually end up in an abandoned tunnel fighting off a bunch of acrobatic assassins.

Although this episode of Sherlock was still better than just about anything, I still felt like "The Blind Banker" wasn't quite as good as "A Study in Pink."  I think this is probably because Watson's attitude shifted in the second installment, from being amazed and excited, happy to be pulled from his post-war depression, to a more surly, annoyed version of himself.  I'd bet that this stems from the writers trying to inject conflict into the story but I really feel that chasing down awful murderers and dealing with your own personal conflicts, your inner demons, is quite enough.  I feel like hanging out with Sherlock Holmes and solving crazy mysteries would be all I need but I'm a bit of a cultural outlier and I quite fancy the idea hanging out with like-minded high functioning weirdos, rather than going on random, meaningless dates. 

Still, this is the middle of a three part series and I'm sure this is all leading up to something else that's all amazing and stunning and brilliant. 

I know one thing for sure: When this show starts, I instantly shut my laptop, stop writing or reading or whatever it is I'm doing and just watch.  That's pretty rare for me.

Walking Dead #1

EEEEEEWWWWWWWWW... Gross.

Let me just begin by saying that I really hate zombies. As a girl with a way over-active imagination and a brain prone to god-awful, cold-sweat-producing nightmares, I've not allowed myself to watch horror movies for about six years.

That being said, I took it on good authority from numerous friends that Walking Dead was going to be GOOD. Even my own husband tried out the comic book and said, "It's good, I wanna try it." So, ok. I did try it. And, honestly, it was really good.

The whole "Zombies Getting To The Heart Of What It Means To Be Human" thing has been around a long, long time... like... as long as zombies.  It's not anything remarkable or new and neither is the lone decent man, roaming the land in search of other survivors. Having to shoot someone you love in the head because their brain is all melty zombie mush isn't new. Wondering whether you should just end it all, right there in the basement/car/rooftop because the world isn't worth living in isn't anything that hasn't been one before.

So, what sets Walking Dead apart from Every Other Zombie Everything? Well, I'm not really sure. It's beautifully shot and even though it's disgusting and gory and sad, it's shot more like a regular police procedural.  The washed out post apocalyptic grey/sepia scale effect that digitally colors every single post apocalypse movie isn't present here (except in the promo image above for some reason.)  The colors are all alive and well and the regular old noises of nature (summer cicadas, rustling wind, bees, flys) are still fully present. Life goes on.  Just... maybe not human life.

More than anything else, this show really looks like a Western. I mean, come on, our hero even dons his Sheriff's hat and rides into Hot-Zombie-Lanta on a freaking HORSE. (btw- I was totally ready to abandon ship if the horse turned out to be a zombie too... thankfully this wasn't the case) Walking Dead also feels like a Western, especially with the Sherrif's Deputy aspect going on.

So here's the report card:
Good characters.
Good action.
Great suspense.
Beautifully shot and directed.
Watch next episode?   Yes. Though, this is contingent upon my ability to sleep tonight.

Epidemiology

Community Season Two: Epidemiology

It's Halloween and I'm celebrating by re-watching the totally weird-ass Halloween episode of Community. Zombies abound. Halloween Costumes reach new heights of hilarious. And, in the midst of it all, we get great insights into character friendships.

Britta: (To Jeff) Man, I wonder how much effort you put into being unintentionally handsome.

later...

Troy:I'm a sexy dracula.
Abed: You mean vampire.
Troy: I don't need to know WHICH dracula I am to be a dracula. Nerd.

All the end-of-days commotion starts when Terrible Dean chooses to cater Greendale's Halloween party with MREs from the Army Surplus Store. He unintentionally purchases radioactive waste and feeds it to the group which causes a ton of gross, zombie-like side effects. The group quickly separates and Jeff, Abed & Troy find themselves in the basement, being constantly spooked by a screaming, horror movie cat.

Jeff: What is up with that cat?
Troy:Is someone throwing it?

Jeff's vanity finally gets him taken down by a zombie horde and soon Troy and Abed are left to fend for themselves as the Greendale Zombies hungrily chase down their sweet, costumed flesh. Abed helps Troy escape just before he's overtaken.

Troy: I love you.
Abed: I know.
(SQUEEEEEEEEE! Loved this part!)

Eventually, Troy decided to face down the zombies with the "POWER OF IMAGINATION!" which he soon discovers to be a terrible plan. In the end, all is well and no one remembers their zombie-fied night.  A kooky Abba soundtrack plays throughout, adding to the cartoony-ness of this episode.  The hyper-reality of it all is very reminiscent of "Modern Warfare" and "Contemporary American Poultry." There are a ton of pop culture gems in this one including a Ripley/Alien Queen showdown and there's a great Change/Shirley happening which may or may not be forgotten in future episodes.  I'm anxious to see how that plays out.

 To top everything off, George Takei's voice...

makes a special appearance, providing narrative bookends to the episode. He also had a special surprise for all the Kevins out there, when he gave a free (totally kick ass) voicemail recording saying, "Kevin can't come to the phone right now because he's on a spaceship with me, George Takei."


Yeah, Community, I'll take that. Good job.