this entry is 99.9% TV!

[falulatonks]

I cannot say how much I love Leslie Knope, but I can sort of try? I think she's wonderful. I think she's smart and pretty and good. I love how everyone in her office is genuinely, unfailingly loyal to her, and they want to help her and they admire her! April, who is apathetic to pretty much anyone but one Andy Dwyer, clearly likes her more than she lets on. Ron Fucking Swanson, who has no good relationship with literally any other female, thinks she's unselfish, and works hard, and one hell of a guy - also, he lets her off for saying 'frickin'' instead of 'fucking', which certainly means something. Even Tom does things for her, and how often does Tom do things that don't particularly help him?

I think it's so great that there's a character like this, who is naive but clearly smart and so idealistic and hopeful despite the crazy she puts up with daily. She doesn't care what people think of her, as long as she's getting her opinions across. And as long as she gets the Woman of the Year award.

Ms Knope, you are my woman of the year. And I will always vote you over Jon Stewart.

-

Other TV shows -

1. Psych was great this week. I haven't watched this show properly since it came back this half-season, which I don't even really feel bad about, but this finale made me so happy - great writing, great acting, a lot of fun, and just the right amount of creepy. Seriously, a Hitchcock tribute? I love this show. There's a big problem with this show, though, and I think it's how it writes its romantic relationships. Honestly, none of it has worked for me so far, especially after they swerved from the cute Shawn/Juliet to the overly-dramatic, "everyone thinks they're meant to be", "they will angst about it forever" S/J that started around halfway into S3. I liked Shawn/Abigail a lot together because they were light and cute and sweet and funny, but it's clear the writers didn't want them together, and that annoyed me, because I'm tired of being told S/J must happen because they love each other, and would rather see that. Subtly-done, too, not bashing-on-your-head style.
   
   The friendships, however, are pitch-perfect, and what James Roday does perfectly when writing is giving all the possible friendships or platonic relationships a great voice, and I love him a lot (a lot) for that - Shawn-Gus is pretty much written consistently wonderfully by him, because they're totally there for each other while snarking each other's butts off, Shawn-Henry is great and the quiet kind of "I'm right here behind you", Shawn and Gus with Lassiter shows a lovely kind of respect underneath the general snark and meanness, and Lassiter with Juliet is perfect, because the two bits in this episode (where he says he wants to go save his partner, and later when she breaks down) showed a kind of evolution unlike anything else we'd seen with them before. Why can't this show have purely friendship to fuel it? It does that well enough, I think. And people who do 'ship Lassie/Jules should be relieved, because not having them be romantic on the show pretty much ensures that their relationship will not be ruined by the writing.
   
   That said, this show is awesome, and this episode was awesome, because even the romance here was handled in a restrained way, and it was the friendships that took the forefront. James Roday, keep writing. I think you're fantastic.
2. Parenthood is still kind of nice and way better than Life Unexpected, for me. I haven't watched Glmore Girls other than a lot of the more famous clips on YouTube and the pilot, but I have a lot of love for Lauren Graham and how she's playing things right now. The whole family's so interesting, though, which is great! I love the big group scenes.
3. Chuck was fantastic, though with a fair share of clunky bits. I've been extremely exasperated with this show for how insconsistent it can be, especially after an awesome episode that ran all the way through, because the next episode is almost always pretty lousy after spending too long on the good episode. or something. (This sentence made sense in my head, I swear it.) Chuck and Morgan's friendship makes me insanely happy, though. And GODDAMN IT. Chuck/Sarah when it's light and fluffy is way more compelling to me than when it's angsty, and I'm tired of having the same stupid revelation tacked onto every episode - oh, I love him/her, I don't know what I'm doing by not doing anything about it! SHUT UP. You are being extremely frustrating.
4. Castle is lovely, as always. Team Beckett (Ryan, Esposito, Beckett, Castle) is amazing, and I love them so much together. I am serious when I say that this show handles relationships in all in such a mature, believable and natural way that it makes me happy to be watching it, such a normal but charming show. Even that last scene of Ryan with his girlfriend Honey Milk/Jenny made me feel warm.
5. How I Met Your Mother - Oh my god, this show acknowledged past events! Robin and Barney acknowledged past events! The writers made it more believable! And oh, Robin. Oh, Ted. Oh, Marshall. Marshall's song! Ted's song! Barney and Robin and that scene at the gun range! Robin crying! I loved this episode a lot. (I left a comment on cashewdani's LJ about this and there was a lot more flailing, so I really did love this episode so much more than I am eloquent enough to get across.)
6. The Office - I liked this episode. The Jim-Dwight storyline was awesome, awesome, awesome. I miss that equal crazy a lot - it's been a while tsince Jim's had to fight back instead of saying "I will write your face up!" or something. The Andy/Erin thing fell flat, though, especially that apartment part, which was kind of weird. I did, however, flail when Erin kissed Andy on the cheek, because of Andy/Ed, because you know what he did? HE CLOSED HIS EYES! HE WAS SAVOURING IT! I love him so much, you guys. That second made me want to tackle him for a big, long hug.
7. Parks and Recreation - AGH THIS SHOW!!!! My love for Leslie has already been showcased, but I am really quite madly in love with everyone in this show. April, oh, you. Screaming with Leslie in this episode was one of my favourite things about you ever, and I love so much of you already!!! And OH, ANDY. I love you. Andy and April are adorable and sweet and a little bit heartbreaking, and I adore that. I don't want them together still, but I want to watch them like this forever! I know that doesn't make much sense, but seriously. I mean, really. When he came back the next day and apologised and told her he'd never do anything he did the day before ever again, I fell more in love with him than before. It makes me so happy. I love this show so much, you don't even realise.
8. Community is always, always amazing, and I can't detail how happy it makes me when the core seven come together as a crazy, amazing family, who genuinely care for one another and help out and everything. Can I just say, though, if they're telling us to stop 'shipping Jeff/Annie, they're doing a TERRIBLE JOB. They're so adorable together, and they're completely different around each other and it's warm and sweet and lovely. And Abed and Troy are wonderful. And Jeff hating Glee MADE MY LIFE. I totally lost it.
9. Modern Family makes me laugh so hard I cry, sometimes. It made me cry more last week, but this week was good, too, especially wih Shout! The award recognition it got earlier this season was totally deserved, but it's getting even better now.

I think it's been such a great year for comedy in general that I'm excited about Emmy noms this year - I may be too optimistic about this, but I think there'll be new shows and actors in the running, mixing things up, and I hope so much that it happens. If Amy Poehler isn't nominated for Parks this year, I will lose it. Just like Danny Pudi as Abed in Community, because as much as I think everyone in the show is well-cast and spectacular, Abed is special.

I think I got it all.

I've just started Sports Night and I finished all of the first season within the last day.

I like it a lot, but The West Wing works better for me in terms of characters and writing - the relationships in SN are dysfunctional and a little imbalanced (other than the Dan-Casey friendship, of course, and Isaac with anyone), and that makes me frustrated, because the women here aren't given justice. And the dialogue is a fun, but more grating, too, especially when they get incredibly repetitive, which never bothered me in TWW. I don't understand! Sorkin-speak gets into my head after a while, too, and I've basically been speaking quickly and repetitively for the last day, which my sister has already grown annoyed by (oops). I really enjoy the way he writes in general, but the writing here in SN feels a little try-hard. I like it, I like it a lot, but I think it's incredibly flawed, basically.

I love Casey and Dan, though, especially together, because there's a nice friendship there (and I loved Dan talking to Casey's kid in the S1 finale and telling Casey, "He's such a good boy" - sweet, and of course he talks to Casey's son often!). They are so awesome together. And I love Dan a lot on his own, like when he gave that little speech to Rebecca about her husband and how he's better than that. Actually Dan may be my favourite thing about this show, even if Casey's conversationally anal-retentiveness is incredibly familiar to me.

And I really like Isaac, and how everyone interacts with him. He's so much like Leo from TWW it's not funny! I like that. And his relationship with everyone on the show's given me two of my favourite scenes so far - Dan and Casey coming to grips with his stroke in Eli's Coming, and Dana, Dan and Casey reacting to his return in the finale, What Kind of Day of Has It Been?

I liked Jeremy at first, but then it turned out he's pretty much been right all the time when arguing with or talking to Natalie, and that annoys me. And how repetitively redundant is this guy?! I liked Dana at first, too, but I think she's going to piss me off in S2, we'll see.

A surprising amount of plotlines are re-written in TWW, and I think it's done better in that show - for example, the letter-writing thing is used thrice already, and the second time had something happening in the background which the writer was awestruck about ("The person who was supposed to lose the tennis match is still going!" vs "The man giving a filibuster is tired and still going!"), and it just feels so much more personal in TWW. The political diatribes also feel more believable in the White House.

I do think the idea of writing and managing a show is much better done here than in Studio 60, but that's easy because basically I think S60 is a terrible show that completely lost what it was focusing on, who its characters were, and how to manage its relationships. SN doesn't seem to have a problem with that, which I find preferrable, even if I think that the relationships here need some working on.

As you can see, I'm pretty much having a mess of feelings about SN, because I am enjoying it a lot and am interested enough to keep watching it, back to back to back to back to back, but there are things about it that are annoying me. The overwhelming feeling here is to stop SN and take out TWW again and watch the first two seasons straight through, but I'm probably not going to do that. I'm probably going to finish SN now. And then I'm probably going to watch Black Books, because I have one week to do whatever I want without feeling guilty about it, and that's the most freedom I'm going to have for the next eight months. So.

I'm sorry this entry is so full of TV rubbish. This is my first day of eight days that I have off, and I'm going to spend it wasting my time a little bit, because it's basically the only time I can do this for the next eight months or so.

-- rachu

ETA: Maybe I'll watch Firefly now instead. I feel like watching amazing writing right now.

ETA again: JOE/DEMI ARE OFFICIALLY DATING?!! KJASLDAJDKASJDALS I HAVE BEEN AKLSJDKALSJDAKSJDAING ABOUT THIS SINCE I FOUND OUT!! ASKLDJA!!! SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS i'll stop now i'm done aksdajksdlasd.