Thank you to the wonderful people who said such lovely things to me in
petra's Be Excellent to Each Other meme. ♥
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30 Days of TV meme
Day 01 - A show that should have never been canceledDay 02 - A show that you wish more people were watchingDay 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)Day 04 - Your favorite show everDay 05 - A show you hate Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV showDay 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV showDay 08 - A show everyone should watchDay 09 - Best scene everDay 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up lovingDay 11 - A show that disappointed youDay 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 timesDay 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male characterDay 15 - Favorite female characterDay 16 - Your guilty pleasure show Day 17 - Favorite mini series Day 18 - Favorite title sequenceDay 19 - Best TV show castDay 20 - Favorite kissDay 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finaleDay 23 - Most annoying characterDay 24 - Best quoteDay 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale Day 27 - Best pilot episode
I could say 33, but given that there was a BSG miniseries first, I'm not sure that should count (was 33 the series pilot? Because seriously, good job there.). Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest is also a pretty good introduction to BtVS, so that is a contender, too. The Alias pilot was FANTASTIC. But I was never as obsessed with Alias as other people, so it doesn't end up as my final answer. I also really would have liked Serenity as a pilot episode, but since it wasn't shown that way, I'm not sure it can count. But there are always two pilots that jump out at me when this kind of discussion comes up:
1. The West Wing Pilot, in which Josh is having a very bad day right up until he's not, the President comes to a sudden arboreal stop, and Sam goes home with a call girl who was Bobbi Bernstein in another life. Everything is firing on all cylinders here. It throws you right into who these people are and what they do and it moves, and as a viewer you just go with it, enthralled (or not, if you are not a fan of Sorkin's style).
2. Gone for Goode, the Homicide pilot. Because this takes the standard TV trope of introducing the new kid - Bayliss - so viewers can meet everybody the first time as he does. And it's already, in its first episode, its very own thing - we get the bleached out colors, the signature triple-take, Frank’s prickliness and the way other people deal with it. Crosetti and Lewis and the Lincoln assassination. Munch and the Big Man and "gimme a quarter." And of course, the two big speeches - "I am not Montel Williams" and "What you will be privileged to witness will not be an interrogation, but an act of salesmanship - as silver-tongued and thieving as ever moved used cars, Florida swampland, or Bibles. But what I am selling is a long prison term, to a client who has no genuine use for the product." And then that final shot, of the phone ringing and Bayliss picking it up. And every time, I still say, TIMMEH, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE! (Okay, so Kay wore makeup, but that's, like, the only false note in the episode. For a pilot, that's amazing.)
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
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Today is my brother's birthday (I've left messages for him both at home and at work). I remembered, this morning, the 1977 blackout, and the Carvel ice cream cake my parents had bought for his birthday (even though we had joint parties, we had separate cakes) and how we got to eat it because otherwise it would have melted since the power was out. Huh.
Now I am hungry and want ice cream. I should probably go eat lunch.
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Have a poem:
To the Gods of Summer
Dandelion, isn't it time?
Dark was the British winter, and dank,
and what passed for spring
just more of the same. When will you
show your face around here again?
Mayfly, who live for just a day,
when will you take the time
to drag your larger, longer shadow
down from the sundial?
May we be granted the sight,
if not of sun, then of a yellow
so luminous we gray souls look
and then look away:
let acres of oilseed rape bloom,
acidic as your grace.
Swift and swallow working your way
toward heaven on the wind,
let it rattle the scarecrows' rags.
But not enough to scare the rooks
picking at the field left fallow,
not bothering to beg your indulgence.
May the wild plum keep its flowers
just two more days, that it set fruit,
though, come summer's end,
the yield prove largely stone, and sour.
Consider the blackbird, beak full of straw:
who has no nest builds one now.
Who has a house wanders out of it, forgetting
where she was going in a sudden snow
of cherry petals, so fine their fury.
~Debora Greger
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Oh, also! For those of you who are interested,
tripoli did a great overview of Batman stuff non-comics SPN fans might need to know in advance of that Red Hood movie coming out next week:
Under the Red Hood: A Supernatural Fan's Field Guide, since Jensen Ackles is voicing the eponymous character.
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This entry at DW:
http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/192020.html.
people have commented there.