i wish i could live inside my tv
1. It's been a WEEK since I've posted. Whaaaaat. Where does the time go? Oh well, it just means less verbal diarrhoea for you guys to wade through... or it just means that it ALL COMES AT ONCE, like I expect it will in this Omnibus Post of Doom. Heh.
2. Work. Holy god, WORK. Last Wednesday was legit one of the worst days - WORST DAYS - I have ever spent in the office. I left work at 9pm the night before, dragged myself back in by about 5am, and WORKED and hammered my brain into submission and wrote something like 11-13 paragraphs, NONE OF WHICH WAS USED, and basically wound up in a stairwell crying. Yeah... really NOT a highlight of my career to date. And to just add insult to injury on that bad, bad day, I went in search of some Japanese food in this particular restaurant... only to discover the restaurant had closed (temporarily, for renovations, but REALLY, talk about shitty-assed karma, huh?). SIGH.
3. So HOW have I rewarded myself for that much fail? I think it's called an epic EPIC marathon of TV over the weekend. Basically, I watched over half of Season 5 of Desperate Housewives AND got caught up on the new season, and just finished watching House, Bones, Glee AND 30 Rock. A++++ me - bringing couch potato-dom to new heights of obsession every day.
a. Desperate Housewives: OH. GOD. Seriously this show is just so silly and trashy and SOAPY, but I forget how well it really can do that. And how it can make me care SO MUCH about the characters even though they're all selfish, flawed, terrible people... i.e., real human beings! Funny how that works. Season 5 was SO EPIC. I hadn't expected to get as caught up in it as I did, but I powered through half the season and it was AMAZING.
- Special enormous shout-out to the show's 100th episode. Okay, so it was a bit maudlin and a jolt out of the running storylines of the season and OMG Beau Bridges, but I actual cried SO HARD throughout the entire episode, getting to see each housewife right back when you first got to know them, even before Season 1 had started. I swear I cracked at Bree's memory of Eli: especially when Rex turned up (although it was the chauvinistic Rex, as opposed to the one who died with his wife thinking the worst of him), and how Bree was sitting there, all alone and broken after his funeral, and Eli gave her her dreams back. Awww. Lynette with Penny too - again I say Felicity Huffman is an actress of incomparable amazing; she gets the silliest storylines, and even when they're good, they're hardly milked for any kind of dramatic potential (HELLO, CANCER), and she STILL made me cry because she realised she'd forgotten her daughter out in the car. Even Susan, who used to annoy me even on a good day, had me all teary with her lock-changing. AND THEN MARY ALICE, AT THE END. AUGH. CRIED FOREVER.
- I was so. sad. when Edie died. I didn't cry half as much as in the Eli episode, because the Edie flashback episode felt a little more stilted and forced - but that moment with Lynette was absolutely fantastically done. So beautiful... and so REAL, when she straight-up said that Lynette was the strongest person she knew, and wanted her to FIGHT the cancer. God. A+++ on keeping that in character, with the tequila shooters and dodgy bar and whatnot. Or Edie shaming Bree into becoming a better person with the prison visits to Orson, ahahaha.
- LILY TOMLIN RULES EVERYTHING. I wish she had MORE to do, but it was hilarious watching her as Roberta, boozing all over the screen with Karen McClusky. A+++
- The David Dash mystery was annoyingly obvious and dragged-out (worst murder plot in the world), but I still cried at the end, when he told MJ to get out of the car. I'm such a WIMP.
- I'm still so in love with Carlos/Gabby and Lynette/Tom... I don't know how or when it happened, but Carlos and Gabby have sooo become one of my favourite ships on the show. Although in recent episodes they're turning Gabby back into old!self-centred!Gabby, which is less fun, but still amusing when she's policing sulky teenager Ana (Gabby clearly being in the best position to do so, from experience et al). And I will never stop loving Lynette/Tom, however much they screw with them and don't really give them enough to do.
- I even found Susan less annoying all season! YAY! And poor Katherine... although she appears to be slightly COMPLETELY CRAZY in the current season, which should be fun.
- Bree... hmmm. I LOVE the Bree/Karl relationship so far, especially since she's getting all self-righteous about having an affair ("I thought I was the only woman you were cheating with" or some such), and how passionate and uninhibited she is around him... but I HATED - absolutely HATED - the way the Bree/Orson relationship suddenly deteriorated. That, I'm afraid, did not feel real to me. It was so jarring for Bree and Orson to be working through their problems after Orson was released from prison, in a very touching way on most occasions (like her struggle with how to employ him without betraying Katherine - that moment with Katherine helping her through her relapse was FABULOUS, one of my favourite things on the show ever, and the way she admitted it to Orson, AMAZING)... and then SUDDENLY, boom, just because Orson started stealing to hurt her - SHE HATES HIM FOREVER. Urm, they went through SO MUCH, and were such a great, adorable couple through it all (I have to admit I'm a huge Bree/Orson shipper), and for it to dissolve over this?! At least, this quickly? Did not ring true to me. I hate it that they built Orson up as they did, and suddenly turned him into a jealous, controlling, evil bastard, literally on a dime. I could have bought it if the first half of the season didn't make it seem as if Bree and Orson were really making things WORK after he came out of prison. If the entire season had been festering hatred, okay. But... well. At least I like Bree/Karl?
What amazed me is that my obsession with DH carried me through, like, 20 episodes and past all the NEW shows I was supposed to be watching. Good thing I watched them TOO.
b. House 6x05 Instant Karma: okay, so, you know, not one of the best episodes of the season, I'm afraid. I cared neither about the POTW nor the Dibala aftermath (though there was very good acting from Jesse Spencer and Omar Epps). I did like staring at Hugh Laurie's blue blue eyes, but really I like that no matter what the case, so I must admit to being slightly bored by this episode. I didn't care about keeping 13. (Malaysia is NOT THAILAND, guys, why are they always and ONLY taking Malaysia Airlines every time they travel to Southeast Asia? Your conference was in Singapore in that Snark On A Plane episode, and they travelled by MAS, WHAT.) I don't care about Foreman getting his panties in a twist. It just felt weird to me... not that House wasn't present and accounted for in most of the episode, he WAS, but he felt... almost incidental to me, and I hate it when that happens. Was I the only one who felt as if House wasn't... IN the episode, even though he very clearly was? Clearly I like my House with a slice of anarchy and a helping of pure evil on the side... this new House is intriguing when done right, but kind of boring when he's passive-aggressively sitting back trying to figure out the dynamic of his new old team and pining after 13. Enough already.
The promo for next week looks pretty rocking though.
c. 30 Rock 4x01: I STILL LOVE ALEC BALDWIN KIND OF A LOT. I've decided to stop trying to explain it and accept it for what it is. ;) Jenna's country music video was a hoot. Liz and her cheese whatsits. And Tracy trying to connect with the common people... random as ever.
d. Bones 5x05 Night At The Bones Museum: HOLY GOD MY LOVE FOR THIS SHOW CONTINUES TO KNOW NO BOUNDS. How. fucking. adorable. is. this cast. I don't even KNOW, but I was super-obsessed with how ADORABLE Brennan was throughout - her giddy, geeky excitement over the mummy (to the point that she went as FLAILY as Brennan gets, and dorked out with DAISY, of all people, LOL. Or how about when she RECITED DIALOGUE ALONG WITH BORIS KARLOFF, HMMM. The look of horror and disgust on Angela's face made my LIFE. Literally I squeed all over that moment in such a tragic, fangirly way I'm glad I was alone in the room. Cam's comment that finding 3,000-year-old bugs made Hodgins all "weepy" cracked me UP. And I am a SUCKER for a good rom-com setup, so omfg WHAT WAS THAT FINAL SCENE BETWEEN BONES AND BOOTH. WHAT EVEN. "You changed history, Bones, how many people can say that?" And her telling him he changes history all the time, and him saying with her help, and then when she said that IT WAS BETWEEN THEM AND SHE WAS GOING TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. OH GOD. I wanted them to kiss SO DAMN BAD at that final scene. Especially since they were both heartbreakingly gorgeous and togged out in lovely evening wear. ♥ Also there was this tiny little moment when they were walking to the suspect's car, and Brennan brushed her hand against Booth's, and Booth just looked down and NOTICED and I was, like, O GOD THIS SHIP, MY HEART CANNOT TAKE IT. I have to say, getting all excited and happy for this show and every character on it just made it more jarring when I watched...
e. Glee 1x07: Let it be said, now and forever, that I worship the ground Jane Lynch walks on. With every successive episode, she draws Sue Sylvester out as one of the best comic creations and television characters ever - from the duelling voiceovers, through to her "minority" elite club, the snarling, the snark, the sunglasses, the vomit comment, everything. She IS this show for me, and I have to admit I'm really watching it for her at this point. Rachel, Finn and occasionally "Q" annoy me (I have decided with this episode that Corey Monteith cannot really sing). I did like having more dance numbers than usual - the jam by all the kids was nicely done, and YO I like it when Mercedes gets to be centre-stage for once. Otherwise... I'm just there for the Sue Sylvester. Still waiting for the day she SINGS. Make it happen. JANE SINGS. She actual does.
BACNE, LMAO.
Jane singing her answers to an interview, I'M OBSESSED, SERIOUSLY. Also, she did a movie with Carol Burnett, Michael Keaton, and one of the girls from Gilmore Girls? WANT WANT WANT.
Oh... shit. It's Post Grad. And the Gilmore Girl is Alexis Bledel and not Lauren Graham. DAMMIT. IT MEANS I HAVE TO SUCK IT UP AND WATCH IT. The same way I'm gonna watch that dreadful manipulative Jodi Picoult movie because Emily Deschanel is probably in two minutes of it. ARGH.
4. WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF TV. Amidst all of that, I still managed to find time to meet friends on Sunday afternoon to FINALLY watch Julie & Julia - OH HAPPY DAY. I have such a craving for French food right now, and am about three million times more excited for It's Complicated.
- MERYL IS MY FAVOURITE. She was fabulous. So fantastically real as Julia Child, never once venturing into maudlin or making her portrayal a send-up or a caricature. I loved her portrayal as much as the character - it was just so WARM, and so sweet, and seriously the huge laughs from the audience? All from Julia.
- I'm actual obsessed with the whole Julia and Paul relationship and HOW ADORABLE THEY ARE. The onion-chopping scene! The Valentine's Day profession of love (and how she made her pin-on heart flutter)! The POSTCARDS, what what what. ♥
- I kind of was impossibly sad at that tiny moment when Julia got news that her sister Dorothy was pregnant - the way she crumpled into sadness and sobs, folding into Paul. Oof. :(
- SPEAKING OF DOROTHY. I fangirl squeed, I must admit, when Jane Lynch burst onscreen and was this impossibly tall, effervescent woman SO like her sister, and so unlike their parents - that dinner when they just talked over each other, the same bright spark of crazy life in the way they spoke and LIVED. LOVED that.
- Amy Adams is criminally adorable. She didn't have much to DO though.
- The movie was... okay. I loved the performances and the relationships, but as a movie, it really wasn't particularly dramatically engaging or exciting. A bit too long. A fun diversion, and well-made, and NOW I REALLY WANT TO LIVE IN 1950S PARIS. (The Julia portion of the movie was better than the Julie one by a country mile.) But you know you're not really swept up in the film when one of the main characters (Julie) deposits a block of butter on a table in tribute to another main character (Julia) and your reaction isn't "awwww", but "ewww, that's going to melt and be really disgusting and the museum curator is gonna HATE YOU."
5. Everyone needs some pretty damn awesome Bebe Neuwirth in their lives. No lie. All fact. Courtesy of illusory_thrill.
6. I really need to go to bed, though I'm not sleepy at all. Good thing I'm away from regular work for the next two weeks and can use that time to recover my sanity. Oh, and buy tickets for NYC. XD I'm so tempted to get tickets for A Little Night Music RIGHT NOW, guys, but the tickets are so expensive and Telecharge isn't offering up anything AWESOME. Are they holding blocks of seats in reserve and only releasing them later? Should I wait a bit? Will there be discounts? Because ticket prices for this show are LEGIT INSANE. Oof.
2. Work. Holy god, WORK. Last Wednesday was legit one of the worst days - WORST DAYS - I have ever spent in the office. I left work at 9pm the night before, dragged myself back in by about 5am, and WORKED and hammered my brain into submission and wrote something like 11-13 paragraphs, NONE OF WHICH WAS USED, and basically wound up in a stairwell crying. Yeah... really NOT a highlight of my career to date. And to just add insult to injury on that bad, bad day, I went in search of some Japanese food in this particular restaurant... only to discover the restaurant had closed (temporarily, for renovations, but REALLY, talk about shitty-assed karma, huh?). SIGH.
3. So HOW have I rewarded myself for that much fail? I think it's called an epic EPIC marathon of TV over the weekend. Basically, I watched over half of Season 5 of Desperate Housewives AND got caught up on the new season, and just finished watching House, Bones, Glee AND 30 Rock. A++++ me - bringing couch potato-dom to new heights of obsession every day.
a. Desperate Housewives: OH. GOD. Seriously this show is just so silly and trashy and SOAPY, but I forget how well it really can do that. And how it can make me care SO MUCH about the characters even though they're all selfish, flawed, terrible people... i.e., real human beings! Funny how that works. Season 5 was SO EPIC. I hadn't expected to get as caught up in it as I did, but I powered through half the season and it was AMAZING.
- Special enormous shout-out to the show's 100th episode. Okay, so it was a bit maudlin and a jolt out of the running storylines of the season and OMG Beau Bridges, but I actual cried SO HARD throughout the entire episode, getting to see each housewife right back when you first got to know them, even before Season 1 had started. I swear I cracked at Bree's memory of Eli: especially when Rex turned up (although it was the chauvinistic Rex, as opposed to the one who died with his wife thinking the worst of him), and how Bree was sitting there, all alone and broken after his funeral, and Eli gave her her dreams back. Awww. Lynette with Penny too - again I say Felicity Huffman is an actress of incomparable amazing; she gets the silliest storylines, and even when they're good, they're hardly milked for any kind of dramatic potential (HELLO, CANCER), and she STILL made me cry because she realised she'd forgotten her daughter out in the car. Even Susan, who used to annoy me even on a good day, had me all teary with her lock-changing. AND THEN MARY ALICE, AT THE END. AUGH. CRIED FOREVER.
- I was so. sad. when Edie died. I didn't cry half as much as in the Eli episode, because the Edie flashback episode felt a little more stilted and forced - but that moment with Lynette was absolutely fantastically done. So beautiful... and so REAL, when she straight-up said that Lynette was the strongest person she knew, and wanted her to FIGHT the cancer. God. A+++ on keeping that in character, with the tequila shooters and dodgy bar and whatnot. Or Edie shaming Bree into becoming a better person with the prison visits to Orson, ahahaha.
- LILY TOMLIN RULES EVERYTHING. I wish she had MORE to do, but it was hilarious watching her as Roberta, boozing all over the screen with Karen McClusky. A+++
- The David Dash mystery was annoyingly obvious and dragged-out (worst murder plot in the world), but I still cried at the end, when he told MJ to get out of the car. I'm such a WIMP.
- I'm still so in love with Carlos/Gabby and Lynette/Tom... I don't know how or when it happened, but Carlos and Gabby have sooo become one of my favourite ships on the show. Although in recent episodes they're turning Gabby back into old!self-centred!Gabby, which is less fun, but still amusing when she's policing sulky teenager Ana (Gabby clearly being in the best position to do so, from experience et al). And I will never stop loving Lynette/Tom, however much they screw with them and don't really give them enough to do.
- I even found Susan less annoying all season! YAY! And poor Katherine... although she appears to be slightly COMPLETELY CRAZY in the current season, which should be fun.
- Bree... hmmm. I LOVE the Bree/Karl relationship so far, especially since she's getting all self-righteous about having an affair ("I thought I was the only woman you were cheating with" or some such), and how passionate and uninhibited she is around him... but I HATED - absolutely HATED - the way the Bree/Orson relationship suddenly deteriorated. That, I'm afraid, did not feel real to me. It was so jarring for Bree and Orson to be working through their problems after Orson was released from prison, in a very touching way on most occasions (like her struggle with how to employ him without betraying Katherine - that moment with Katherine helping her through her relapse was FABULOUS, one of my favourite things on the show ever, and the way she admitted it to Orson, AMAZING)... and then SUDDENLY, boom, just because Orson started stealing to hurt her - SHE HATES HIM FOREVER. Urm, they went through SO MUCH, and were such a great, adorable couple through it all (I have to admit I'm a huge Bree/Orson shipper), and for it to dissolve over this?! At least, this quickly? Did not ring true to me. I hate it that they built Orson up as they did, and suddenly turned him into a jealous, controlling, evil bastard, literally on a dime. I could have bought it if the first half of the season didn't make it seem as if Bree and Orson were really making things WORK after he came out of prison. If the entire season had been festering hatred, okay. But... well. At least I like Bree/Karl?
What amazed me is that my obsession with DH carried me through, like, 20 episodes and past all the NEW shows I was supposed to be watching. Good thing I watched them TOO.
b. House 6x05 Instant Karma: okay, so, you know, not one of the best episodes of the season, I'm afraid. I cared neither about the POTW nor the Dibala aftermath (though there was very good acting from Jesse Spencer and Omar Epps). I did like staring at Hugh Laurie's blue blue eyes, but really I like that no matter what the case, so I must admit to being slightly bored by this episode. I didn't care about keeping 13. (Malaysia is NOT THAILAND, guys, why are they always and ONLY taking Malaysia Airlines every time they travel to Southeast Asia? Your conference was in Singapore in that Snark On A Plane episode, and they travelled by MAS, WHAT.) I don't care about Foreman getting his panties in a twist. It just felt weird to me... not that House wasn't present and accounted for in most of the episode, he WAS, but he felt... almost incidental to me, and I hate it when that happens. Was I the only one who felt as if House wasn't... IN the episode, even though he very clearly was? Clearly I like my House with a slice of anarchy and a helping of pure evil on the side... this new House is intriguing when done right, but kind of boring when he's passive-aggressively sitting back trying to figure out the dynamic of his new old team and pining after 13. Enough already.
The promo for next week looks pretty rocking though.
c. 30 Rock 4x01: I STILL LOVE ALEC BALDWIN KIND OF A LOT. I've decided to stop trying to explain it and accept it for what it is. ;) Jenna's country music video was a hoot. Liz and her cheese whatsits. And Tracy trying to connect with the common people... random as ever.
d. Bones 5x05 Night At The Bones Museum: HOLY GOD MY LOVE FOR THIS SHOW CONTINUES TO KNOW NO BOUNDS. How. fucking. adorable. is. this cast. I don't even KNOW, but I was super-obsessed with how ADORABLE Brennan was throughout - her giddy, geeky excitement over the mummy (to the point that she went as FLAILY as Brennan gets, and dorked out with DAISY, of all people, LOL. Or how about when she RECITED DIALOGUE ALONG WITH BORIS KARLOFF, HMMM. The look of horror and disgust on Angela's face made my LIFE. Literally I squeed all over that moment in such a tragic, fangirly way I'm glad I was alone in the room. Cam's comment that finding 3,000-year-old bugs made Hodgins all "weepy" cracked me UP. And I am a SUCKER for a good rom-com setup, so omfg WHAT WAS THAT FINAL SCENE BETWEEN BONES AND BOOTH. WHAT EVEN. "You changed history, Bones, how many people can say that?" And her telling him he changes history all the time, and him saying with her help, and then when she said that IT WAS BETWEEN THEM AND SHE WAS GOING TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. OH GOD. I wanted them to kiss SO DAMN BAD at that final scene. Especially since they were both heartbreakingly gorgeous and togged out in lovely evening wear. ♥ Also there was this tiny little moment when they were walking to the suspect's car, and Brennan brushed her hand against Booth's, and Booth just looked down and NOTICED and I was, like, O GOD THIS SHIP, MY HEART CANNOT TAKE IT. I have to say, getting all excited and happy for this show and every character on it just made it more jarring when I watched...
e. Glee 1x07: Let it be said, now and forever, that I worship the ground Jane Lynch walks on. With every successive episode, she draws Sue Sylvester out as one of the best comic creations and television characters ever - from the duelling voiceovers, through to her "minority" elite club, the snarling, the snark, the sunglasses, the vomit comment, everything. She IS this show for me, and I have to admit I'm really watching it for her at this point. Rachel, Finn and occasionally "Q" annoy me (I have decided with this episode that Corey Monteith cannot really sing). I did like having more dance numbers than usual - the jam by all the kids was nicely done, and YO I like it when Mercedes gets to be centre-stage for once. Otherwise... I'm just there for the Sue Sylvester. Still waiting for the day she SINGS. Make it happen. JANE SINGS. She actual does.
Click to viewBACNE, LMAO.
Jane singing her answers to an interview, I'M OBSESSED, SERIOUSLY. Also, she did a movie with Carol Burnett, Michael Keaton, and one of the girls from Gilmore Girls? WANT WANT WANT.
Oh... shit. It's Post Grad. And the Gilmore Girl is Alexis Bledel and not Lauren Graham. DAMMIT. IT MEANS I HAVE TO SUCK IT UP AND WATCH IT. The same way I'm gonna watch that dreadful manipulative Jodi Picoult movie because Emily Deschanel is probably in two minutes of it. ARGH.
4. WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF TV. Amidst all of that, I still managed to find time to meet friends on Sunday afternoon to FINALLY watch Julie & Julia - OH HAPPY DAY. I have such a craving for French food right now, and am about three million times more excited for It's Complicated.
- MERYL IS MY FAVOURITE. She was fabulous. So fantastically real as Julia Child, never once venturing into maudlin or making her portrayal a send-up or a caricature. I loved her portrayal as much as the character - it was just so WARM, and so sweet, and seriously the huge laughs from the audience? All from Julia.
- I'm actual obsessed with the whole Julia and Paul relationship and HOW ADORABLE THEY ARE. The onion-chopping scene! The Valentine's Day profession of love (and how she made her pin-on heart flutter)! The POSTCARDS, what what what. ♥
- I kind of was impossibly sad at that tiny moment when Julia got news that her sister Dorothy was pregnant - the way she crumpled into sadness and sobs, folding into Paul. Oof. :(
- SPEAKING OF DOROTHY. I fangirl squeed, I must admit, when Jane Lynch burst onscreen and was this impossibly tall, effervescent woman SO like her sister, and so unlike their parents - that dinner when they just talked over each other, the same bright spark of crazy life in the way they spoke and LIVED. LOVED that.
- Amy Adams is criminally adorable. She didn't have much to DO though.
- The movie was... okay. I loved the performances and the relationships, but as a movie, it really wasn't particularly dramatically engaging or exciting. A bit too long. A fun diversion, and well-made, and NOW I REALLY WANT TO LIVE IN 1950S PARIS. (The Julia portion of the movie was better than the Julie one by a country mile.) But you know you're not really swept up in the film when one of the main characters (Julie) deposits a block of butter on a table in tribute to another main character (Julia) and your reaction isn't "awwww", but "ewww, that's going to melt and be really disgusting and the museum curator is gonna HATE YOU."
5. Everyone needs some pretty damn awesome Bebe Neuwirth in their lives. No lie. All fact. Courtesy of illusory_thrill.
6. I really need to go to bed, though I'm not sleepy at all. Good thing I'm away from regular work for the next two weeks and can use that time to recover my sanity. Oh, and buy tickets for NYC. XD I'm so tempted to get tickets for A Little Night Music RIGHT NOW, guys, but the tickets are so expensive and Telecharge isn't offering up anything AWESOME. Are they holding blocks of seats in reserve and only releasing them later? Should I wait a bit? Will there be discounts? Because ticket prices for this show are LEGIT INSANE. Oof.