I Had a Clever Title, But Forgot It
Long time, no post. I've come to the conclusion (AKA as "DUH") that without one of my primary fandoms to talk about (Battlestar Galactica, White Collar) I'm not terribly motivated to post. This wasn't always the case. I use to talk about every show I watched, even if it was just quick thoughts. While my social networking habits have changed (I email more, I tweet), I also think my viewing habits have changed. I don't know if it's that I just don't care to invest as much time in TV or TV discussion or if shows are currently underwhelming me. House I catch weeks later on Hulu, if at all. Chuck is such a mix bag that I think I refrain from posting because I fear sounding bitchy. (Accept I must say, Brandon Routh, you suck and need to find another career.) The Office and 30 Rock are showing there age. Castle, while I agree with my friends who say it does a kick ass job with the female characters, I'm still no fan of Stana and the plots make White Collar's look brilliant. So (somewhat) engaging me?
I'm struggling with The Pacific. Admittedly, I only - and very belatedly - started watching Band of Brothers to catch Jamie Bamber's two minutes of screentime. But, as I waited for him to appear on screen, I found myself growing interested in, and caring about, the other characters. And there were a lot of characters to care about. But four episodes in, the few characters we've had to focus on, and the horrifying situations they have had to deal with, are leaving me cold. It didn't help that I learned the relationship depicted in the third episode, which I felt came off as a Hollywoodized, was a work of fiction. The Pacific is a series I feel is important. I know far less about the war in the Pacific than the one in Europe and there is an opportunity to be educated. The production is exceedingly well done. Yet, I don't care.
Justified has lived up the the hype, even if last weeks episode suffered from Dumb Criminal Syndrom. I've never had strong feelings, good or bad, for Timothy Olyphant as an actor, but watching his performance as Raylan Givens I'm struck that it's a role he was born to play.
I finished watching the first season of The Wire. The story felt as if it was wrapped up a little too quickly, but given there was a lot more closure than I anticipated, I got the impression they didn't know if a second season was in the cards. Continuity whore that I am, I appreciated the moments that hearkened back to the early episodes. And I liked how success was depicted as not necessarily being what you expected it or desired it to be. Many people went to prison and most people on the outside would look at it as a stunning victory on the war on drugs. But as Avon and his soldiers are sentenced, we see many more are left to continue the drug trade. And, with the exception of Freamon, the detectives either return to the jobs they had before or are punished for their efforts.
I caught the first episode of Season 2 on In Demand last night and I'm intrigued as to where the arc may go.
There's a new Doctor, did you hear? ;) I don't know if I'll be 'acquiring' the episodes each week. BBC America is broadcasting the episodes only two weeks after they air in the U.K. and while I like the show, I don't LOVE the show, and don't yet know how anxious I am to see each new episode. I just didn't want to be out of the loop during the premiere.
Given that I was never invested in Tennant's Ten, I considered myself fairly open to the new guy, though what I had seen in promos was not making me incredibly optimistic. Turns out, Matt Smith is a pretty good Doctor. I've seen people remark he was channeling Tennant's Ten a bit too much, but, to me, it seemed a natural part of the regeneration process. As someone on my Flist pointed out (sorry, I can't remember who), Ten slept through much of his regeneration so I can at least hand wave why we didn't see much, if any, of Nine in him. (For those who don't know, my 'Who' knowledge doesn't go much beyond Nine, so if the personality overlap is completely new it could turn out to be an issue in Matt's performance or a result of Moffat trying to put a new spin on the process or an acknowledgment of Ten's lasting imprint on the franchise.)
There were numerous tweeks, both small and large, by Moffat. I can't say the new music or graphics bothered me, perhaps because I felt they weren't very radical. I'm a little confused as to why the TARDIS regenerated with a new look. I don't recall it changing much, if at all, when Nine became Ten. It also, oddly, to me, seemed smaller. And this may be the self-centered American in me, so, apologies ;), but the show looked more like a U.S. production than a BBC production. It had, as Shaney put it, a more polished look.
Moffat continues to write creepy otherworldly entities better than anyone else in the Whoverse. The Doctor's warning to 'not look at it from the corner of your eye' immediately reminded me of the statues in 'Blink'.
Not as creepy, but potentially as emotionally scarring, is the Doctor's lousy sense of time. We're once again seeing the effect the Doctor's failed promises have on others. I wish a direct comparison had been made between his disappearing and reappearing from Amy's life and Madame de Pompadour's in 'The Girl in the Fireplace'.
I really liked Amy. She could rival Donna in my affections! She was intrigued by the Doctor, but not enamored with him, THANK GOD. The wedding twist was rather lame. I suspect she's going to miss her wedding, but we've been there/done that with Donna. And Mickey ended up a suspect in Rose's year long disappearance. I hope Rory fairs better.
Thursday I will be flying to Seattle for Bitchinparty and not only will I be meeting up with friends there, but, as luck would have it, other friends will be hanging around the hotel. Woo! I'll be back home Monday night. Knowing my luck, AMC will announce whether or not Jamie has been cast in The Walking Dead when I'm not tethered to a computer.
I had a shockingly productive weekend! Just to pat myself on the back, the things I accomplished:
- Picked out and ordered new glasses
- Did massive amounts of laundry in preparation for going out of town
- Folded and put away said laundry right away (trust me, this is a big deal)
- Cleaned living room and kitchen
- Did some minor Flist/Comms cleaning
- Emailed everyone I needed to about trip
- Cleaned off the backlog on the DVR
- Did my taxes. WOO!
- Paid my bills
- Cleaned out some drawers and storage containers and put stuff together that should be together rather than in three or four different places (I had Star Wars buttons and didn't know it!)
- Changed the ink on the printer
- Printed out travel information
- Turned on VAIO laptop for first time in a month. Updated a bunch of programs. Oops.
- Started this post
Oh, I figured out the problem with Flashforward. Surprisingly, not Joseph Fiennes, though he is a rather weak lead. The problem is the characters spend about half of each episode flashing back to their flashforwards. Or talking about their flashforwards. Discussing ways to avoid what happened in their flashforwards. And obsessing over their flashforwards. This is not only redundant, but makes for incredibly boring TV viewing as we watch the same scenes replay over and over and over again. The premise is intriguing and could have, possibly, played out successfully as a mini series, but it's time for ABC to cut it's losses.
ETA: I failed to originally mention Friday Night Lights. I hope to feel compelled to post about it when it airs on NBC. I already have notes! I may have acquired it already. ;)
I'm struggling with The Pacific. Admittedly, I only - and very belatedly - started watching Band of Brothers to catch Jamie Bamber's two minutes of screentime. But, as I waited for him to appear on screen, I found myself growing interested in, and caring about, the other characters. And there were a lot of characters to care about. But four episodes in, the few characters we've had to focus on, and the horrifying situations they have had to deal with, are leaving me cold. It didn't help that I learned the relationship depicted in the third episode, which I felt came off as a Hollywoodized, was a work of fiction. The Pacific is a series I feel is important. I know far less about the war in the Pacific than the one in Europe and there is an opportunity to be educated. The production is exceedingly well done. Yet, I don't care.
Justified has lived up the the hype, even if last weeks episode suffered from Dumb Criminal Syndrom. I've never had strong feelings, good or bad, for Timothy Olyphant as an actor, but watching his performance as Raylan Givens I'm struck that it's a role he was born to play.
I finished watching the first season of The Wire. The story felt as if it was wrapped up a little too quickly, but given there was a lot more closure than I anticipated, I got the impression they didn't know if a second season was in the cards. Continuity whore that I am, I appreciated the moments that hearkened back to the early episodes. And I liked how success was depicted as not necessarily being what you expected it or desired it to be. Many people went to prison and most people on the outside would look at it as a stunning victory on the war on drugs. But as Avon and his soldiers are sentenced, we see many more are left to continue the drug trade. And, with the exception of Freamon, the detectives either return to the jobs they had before or are punished for their efforts.
I caught the first episode of Season 2 on In Demand last night and I'm intrigued as to where the arc may go.
There's a new Doctor, did you hear? ;) I don't know if I'll be 'acquiring' the episodes each week. BBC America is broadcasting the episodes only two weeks after they air in the U.K. and while I like the show, I don't LOVE the show, and don't yet know how anxious I am to see each new episode. I just didn't want to be out of the loop during the premiere.
Given that I was never invested in Tennant's Ten, I considered myself fairly open to the new guy, though what I had seen in promos was not making me incredibly optimistic. Turns out, Matt Smith is a pretty good Doctor. I've seen people remark he was channeling Tennant's Ten a bit too much, but, to me, it seemed a natural part of the regeneration process. As someone on my Flist pointed out (sorry, I can't remember who), Ten slept through much of his regeneration so I can at least hand wave why we didn't see much, if any, of Nine in him. (For those who don't know, my 'Who' knowledge doesn't go much beyond Nine, so if the personality overlap is completely new it could turn out to be an issue in Matt's performance or a result of Moffat trying to put a new spin on the process or an acknowledgment of Ten's lasting imprint on the franchise.)
There were numerous tweeks, both small and large, by Moffat. I can't say the new music or graphics bothered me, perhaps because I felt they weren't very radical. I'm a little confused as to why the TARDIS regenerated with a new look. I don't recall it changing much, if at all, when Nine became Ten. It also, oddly, to me, seemed smaller. And this may be the self-centered American in me, so, apologies ;), but the show looked more like a U.S. production than a BBC production. It had, as Shaney put it, a more polished look.
Moffat continues to write creepy otherworldly entities better than anyone else in the Whoverse. The Doctor's warning to 'not look at it from the corner of your eye' immediately reminded me of the statues in 'Blink'.
Not as creepy, but potentially as emotionally scarring, is the Doctor's lousy sense of time. We're once again seeing the effect the Doctor's failed promises have on others. I wish a direct comparison had been made between his disappearing and reappearing from Amy's life and Madame de Pompadour's in 'The Girl in the Fireplace'.
I really liked Amy. She could rival Donna in my affections! She was intrigued by the Doctor, but not enamored with him, THANK GOD. The wedding twist was rather lame. I suspect she's going to miss her wedding, but we've been there/done that with Donna. And Mickey ended up a suspect in Rose's year long disappearance. I hope Rory fairs better.
Thursday I will be flying to Seattle for Bitchinparty and not only will I be meeting up with friends there, but, as luck would have it, other friends will be hanging around the hotel. Woo! I'll be back home Monday night. Knowing my luck, AMC will announce whether or not Jamie has been cast in The Walking Dead when I'm not tethered to a computer.
I had a shockingly productive weekend! Just to pat myself on the back, the things I accomplished:
- Picked out and ordered new glasses
- Did massive amounts of laundry in preparation for going out of town
- Folded and put away said laundry right away (trust me, this is a big deal)
- Cleaned living room and kitchen
- Did some minor Flist/Comms cleaning
- Emailed everyone I needed to about trip
- Cleaned off the backlog on the DVR
- Did my taxes. WOO!
- Paid my bills
- Cleaned out some drawers and storage containers and put stuff together that should be together rather than in three or four different places (I had Star Wars buttons and didn't know it!)
- Changed the ink on the printer
- Printed out travel information
- Turned on VAIO laptop for first time in a month. Updated a bunch of programs. Oops.
- Started this post
Oh, I figured out the problem with Flashforward. Surprisingly, not Joseph Fiennes, though he is a rather weak lead. The problem is the characters spend about half of each episode flashing back to their flashforwards. Or talking about their flashforwards. Discussing ways to avoid what happened in their flashforwards. And obsessing over their flashforwards. This is not only redundant, but makes for incredibly boring TV viewing as we watch the same scenes replay over and over and over again. The premise is intriguing and could have, possibly, played out successfully as a mini series, but it's time for ABC to cut it's losses.
ETA: I failed to originally mention Friday Night Lights. I hope to feel compelled to post about it when it airs on NBC. I already have notes! I may have acquired it already. ;)