Your wish, my command
So, in accordance with the poll results, I started with Friday Night Lights season 2.
Strangely, I think I was actually more into the show this season than in the first? Maybe it's because I never really fell hard for the show the way everyone else did, so this time around, knowing that people considered it a weak season, I didn't feel this pressure to LIKE IT ALREADY.
Which isn't to say that I'm loving it, but, you now, enjoying it enough to keep watching season 3.
One thing that always freaks me out is how Tim/Lyla can hit EVERY ONE of my 'ship kinks, and still I dislike them intensely. I think it's because even though I enjoy the girl-falls-for-boyfriend's-best-friend trope, apparently it doesn't apply when the boyfriend is still the actual boyfriend and not an ex. And I never thought I was that against cheating, but it looks like I am. Or maybe it's because of their massive betrayal of their friend when he was hurting the most? I can almost forgive Lyla, even though I think she was the very cliché of a stupid high school cheerleader for pinning all her hopes and dreams on a guy, but Riggins? Dude, when you're in pain because something devastating happened to your best friend, HIS PAIN TOPS YOURS. Douche.
Pretty much the only time I liked Riggins was when he was acting as Julie's big brother, all protective and sweet. But then I remembered the whole betrayal thing and I went right back to dislike.
One thing that really bums me out is that Tyra was by far my favorite character in season 1, but the season 2 Premiere of Bad Things that Happen on Bridges left such a bad taste in my mouth that I never really recovered that love. God, I hope season 3 holds better things for her.
And I have a few thoughts on Shows Currently Airing.
How I Met Your Mother
I'm incredibly frustrated by what they're doing with Robin. Or not doing with Robin, I guess I should say. Where is she this season? It's like they forgot that they have their very own kickass female character, because when they're not ignoring her completely, they're remaking her into someone who wants to settle down and have babies. BABIES, for crying out loud! Just...UGH! The writers had better start redeeming themselves pretty soon.
It's such a shame, too, because I'm really loving what they're doing with Barney and the whole "in love with Robin" thing. My brother was pretty disgusted with how un-Barney he was this season, but I don't agree that he's become a softy. And we've known for a long time that there was always a hippie lurking underneath the surface, so I'm comfortable with pretty much any direction they choose to take him in from this point on - back to being the same old Barney (if Robin rejects him/never reciprocates), or make him more in touch with his emotions.
The Office
I'm just not feeling it. This whole Dwight/Angela/Andy thing has pretty much zapped me of any interest in the goings-on at Dunder Mifflin. It's just so sitcommy and beneath the show that I fell in love with.
Michael has always been the weak point of the show for me, and most of the time I'd just tune him out as much as possible. The difference in past seasons is that I've always cared enough about the rest of the staff to be pulled back into it whenever one of them came on the screen. These days, that's not happening so much.
I just really want this show to get good again. To feel honest and real in a way it hasn't in a long time.
Top Chef
Not that I think the judges made the wrong call, but I really thought Radhika was going to go all the way to the finale - or at least the top four - so I'm left wondering just who's going to stay in it, because right now I don't think any of them should be in the finale.
Fabio har more misses than hits, Jamie is a one-hit wonder, Hosea and Leah are only there for the DRAMA factor they bring, Carla is really nice and all, but she's out of her depth and Stefan...well, he creeps me out. He's exactly the kind of guy I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn he was a date rapist.
This season definitely hasn't been a high point of the show for me.
Being Erica
I'm really enjoying this show. The lead is delightful and the premise is interesting and doesn't feel old and tired.
I thought it was pretty funny that when Tyron Leitso showed up my first thought was "oh no, not him", only to realize that the show I didn't want him showing up on was To Love and Die, which I'd watched only a few days earlier (and on the same day that I watched the first episode of Being Erica). I'm actually liking him here, though I am a bit perplexed that they already went there with his character and Erica. I mean, halfway through the season MAYBE, but the third episode? Or maybe that is halfway through the season?
Oh, and speaking of...
To Love and Die
I saw this on the same night as Lie to Me and Being Erica, and of the three it was my favorite. I loved Being Erica and think it might actually have been the better show as well, and I enjoyed Lie to Me, but this show felt like a possible future fandom. Reading about it afterwards, though, it seems pretty much dead in the water. Such a shame, it had potential.
Also, I've been watching a lot of movies (well, for me), so here are a few reviews.
I was looking forward to this so much and it was pretty much all a big let-down. Self-indulgent, long-winded, kinda boring and its only redeeming qualities were that it had Kate! and Leo! and that it was pretty. Watching it I felt very much like fake!Monica on Friends:
FAKE MONICA: I - I used to be just like you. And then one day I saw a movie that changed my life. Did you ever see Dead Poets Society?
MONICA: Uh-huh.
FAKE MONICA: I thought that movie was so incredibly... boring. I mean, that thing at the end where the kid kills himself because he can't be in the play? What was that?! It's like, kid, wait a year, leave home, do some community theater.
Except I kind of liked Dead Poets Society. I mean, at least there the person who kills themselves is a teenage boy with a tendency for melodrama.
I still can't figure out what people see in Brad Pitt. It's not that I think he's a bad actor, or bad-looking, but I find him so wholly meh that I can never really connect with any of his characters. I guess that since with this one it felt like the point was "look what we can do with CGI these days", Brad Pitt being his uncharismatic self didn't really matter. I don't know, it wasn't a bad movie, but I just didn't care all that much.
Feelgood movie of the year! Definitely my favorite of the ones I've seen so far (which also include Australia, The Duchess and Milk). Since TV is more my speed, what I really want from movies is to come away feeling enriched, and this movie definitely accomplished that. Just all-around happy-making. It's the first movie in years that I'm already itching to rewatch.
Strangely, I think I was actually more into the show this season than in the first? Maybe it's because I never really fell hard for the show the way everyone else did, so this time around, knowing that people considered it a weak season, I didn't feel this pressure to LIKE IT ALREADY.
Which isn't to say that I'm loving it, but, you now, enjoying it enough to keep watching season 3.
One thing that always freaks me out is how Tim/Lyla can hit EVERY ONE of my 'ship kinks, and still I dislike them intensely. I think it's because even though I enjoy the girl-falls-for-boyfriend's-best-friend trope, apparently it doesn't apply when the boyfriend is still the actual boyfriend and not an ex. And I never thought I was that against cheating, but it looks like I am. Or maybe it's because of their massive betrayal of their friend when he was hurting the most? I can almost forgive Lyla, even though I think she was the very cliché of a stupid high school cheerleader for pinning all her hopes and dreams on a guy, but Riggins? Dude, when you're in pain because something devastating happened to your best friend, HIS PAIN TOPS YOURS. Douche.
Pretty much the only time I liked Riggins was when he was acting as Julie's big brother, all protective and sweet. But then I remembered the whole betrayal thing and I went right back to dislike.
One thing that really bums me out is that Tyra was by far my favorite character in season 1, but the season 2 Premiere of Bad Things that Happen on Bridges left such a bad taste in my mouth that I never really recovered that love. God, I hope season 3 holds better things for her.
And I have a few thoughts on Shows Currently Airing.
How I Met Your Mother
I'm incredibly frustrated by what they're doing with Robin. Or not doing with Robin, I guess I should say. Where is she this season? It's like they forgot that they have their very own kickass female character, because when they're not ignoring her completely, they're remaking her into someone who wants to settle down and have babies. BABIES, for crying out loud! Just...UGH! The writers had better start redeeming themselves pretty soon.
It's such a shame, too, because I'm really loving what they're doing with Barney and the whole "in love with Robin" thing. My brother was pretty disgusted with how un-Barney he was this season, but I don't agree that he's become a softy. And we've known for a long time that there was always a hippie lurking underneath the surface, so I'm comfortable with pretty much any direction they choose to take him in from this point on - back to being the same old Barney (if Robin rejects him/never reciprocates), or make him more in touch with his emotions.
The Office
I'm just not feeling it. This whole Dwight/Angela/Andy thing has pretty much zapped me of any interest in the goings-on at Dunder Mifflin. It's just so sitcommy and beneath the show that I fell in love with.
Michael has always been the weak point of the show for me, and most of the time I'd just tune him out as much as possible. The difference in past seasons is that I've always cared enough about the rest of the staff to be pulled back into it whenever one of them came on the screen. These days, that's not happening so much.
I just really want this show to get good again. To feel honest and real in a way it hasn't in a long time.
Top Chef
Not that I think the judges made the wrong call, but I really thought Radhika was going to go all the way to the finale - or at least the top four - so I'm left wondering just who's going to stay in it, because right now I don't think any of them should be in the finale.
Fabio har more misses than hits, Jamie is a one-hit wonder, Hosea and Leah are only there for the DRAMA factor they bring, Carla is really nice and all, but she's out of her depth and Stefan...well, he creeps me out. He's exactly the kind of guy I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn he was a date rapist.
This season definitely hasn't been a high point of the show for me.
Being Erica
I'm really enjoying this show. The lead is delightful and the premise is interesting and doesn't feel old and tired.
I thought it was pretty funny that when Tyron Leitso showed up my first thought was "oh no, not him", only to realize that the show I didn't want him showing up on was To Love and Die, which I'd watched only a few days earlier (and on the same day that I watched the first episode of Being Erica). I'm actually liking him here, though I am a bit perplexed that they already went there with his character and Erica. I mean, halfway through the season MAYBE, but the third episode? Or maybe that is halfway through the season?
Oh, and speaking of...
To Love and Die
I saw this on the same night as Lie to Me and Being Erica, and of the three it was my favorite. I loved Being Erica and think it might actually have been the better show as well, and I enjoyed Lie to Me, but this show felt like a possible future fandom. Reading about it afterwards, though, it seems pretty much dead in the water. Such a shame, it had potential.
Also, I've been watching a lot of movies (well, for me), so here are a few reviews.
I was looking forward to this so much and it was pretty much all a big let-down. Self-indulgent, long-winded, kinda boring and its only redeeming qualities were that it had Kate! and Leo! and that it was pretty. Watching it I felt very much like fake!Monica on Friends:
FAKE MONICA: I - I used to be just like you. And then one day I saw a movie that changed my life. Did you ever see Dead Poets Society?
MONICA: Uh-huh.
FAKE MONICA: I thought that movie was so incredibly... boring. I mean, that thing at the end where the kid kills himself because he can't be in the play? What was that?! It's like, kid, wait a year, leave home, do some community theater.
Except I kind of liked Dead Poets Society. I mean, at least there the person who kills themselves is a teenage boy with a tendency for melodrama.
I still can't figure out what people see in Brad Pitt. It's not that I think he's a bad actor, or bad-looking, but I find him so wholly meh that I can never really connect with any of his characters. I guess that since with this one it felt like the point was "look what we can do with CGI these days", Brad Pitt being his uncharismatic self didn't really matter. I don't know, it wasn't a bad movie, but I just didn't care all that much.
Feelgood movie of the year! Definitely my favorite of the ones I've seen so far (which also include Australia, The Duchess and Milk). Since TV is more my speed, what I really want from movies is to come away feeling enriched, and this movie definitely accomplished that. Just all-around happy-making. It's the first movie in years that I'm already itching to rewatch.