I've been watching Downton Abbey on PBS and I have to admit I am hooked.  I've just been considering the concept of having and/or being a servant and this view of English manor life before (and during!) the Great War is really interesting to me as a history buff who wonders about TEOTWAWKI.  Because World War 1 *was* the end of the world as they ( Read more... )

I'm going to the island today.  Really really I am.  I say this with resolve, yet haven't budged from my desk since 8 AM and can't imagine how I'm going to get everything done so I can leave in an hour.  But I'm leaving ( Read more... )

Last night on "Castle" there was a scene where Rick Castle's daughter asked her Dad to buy her a Vespa (a trendy scooter useful for NYC transportation in lieu of the subway or cabs or walking.)  Her Dad asked his sensible working-class cop friend Kate Beckett, who said that she wanted a motorcycle at the same age and "worked all summer to earn the ( Read more... )

Excuse me, but since when does Doctor Who convey information in a Spockian Mind Meld download administered by head butting?

Man, this is the best show of the season and networks are seriously screwing with the viewer base.  The first 8 episodes aired on ABC and you can find those on Hulu, but then the show moved to a Canadian cable station, SPACE, and the feed doesn't work for U.S. ip addresses.  Happily, I've got a source that can get me tapes, so I'll see the ( Read more... )

I'm not sure where Glee is going, and it's making me worried because I want to like this show.  I loved how the gay kid came out to his Dad and the Dad said, "duh" and loved him anyway.  I loved how the football player stepped back from bullying the crippled kid and said "no, that's wrong."  I started thinking this show had a good heart, that it'd ( Read more... )

I was blown away by the sexism.  I'm not even sure it was intentional, I think that's just the mindset the writers had.  I could be wrong, but it didn't strike me as a terribly self-aware show.

( Not okay. )

I hate to admit this.  I really do.  I swear I don't watch this show, I'm not a fan, it just happened to be on in the kitchen while I was making TV, probably because it came on after the Nightly News.

But I got caught by one of their leads: the heart-warming story of a stripper in Vegas who is still stripping at the unlikely age of 80.  How ( Read more... )

To whoever randomly mentioned how much they remembered and were affected by the 1984 movie "Threads".

Uh, thanks.  I won't be sleeping anymore now.

So far I have ( Read more... )