Archive for the 'teevee' Category

New year, old cliché

Published January 2nd, 2009 in teevee and retrospecticus. 1 Comment

Wow, this place is dusty.  Here’s hoping 2009 brings 2009 blog posts (or at least more than the handful 2008 brought).

But, with new beginnings brings a look back at what has passed.  Without my usual preamble, and just cuz I feel like it, the top 10 new scripted pieces I saw in 2008 (will feature mostly hour-long and half-hour TV, with a sprinkling of movies, since I didn’t see many, and possibly a video game, since they totally count).

10: House - 4×16 - “Wilson’s Heart”

HOUSE
Because it doesn’t hurt here.

Normally House is great because Beth and I can shout derisively at the screen - “House is always right!” - whenever a character decides to second-guess the amazing Hugh Laurie’s ascerbic diagnostitian, as they try to ratchet out conflict by having others doubt his crazy theories could be right.  They always are, and the mystery is always solved with nearly universally positive results. Last season’s finale got solved relatively quickly and easily, but it was the aftermath (the death of Wilson’s girlfriend due to House’s needing a lift from the bar) that revealed some of the most genuine and touching moments yet for the good doctor.

9. Mad Men - 2×11 - “The Jet Set”

KURT
I make love with the men, not the women.

An out there moment, to be sure, but one that kind of sums up perfectly what this show does best: take the morays of the 60s and throw them into question, oftentimes leaving its characters behind in what is going to be a huge social and cultural upheaval. And that doesn’t even touch on the fact that this was the episode where Don just took off from his conference in LA to join the crazy beach house and ended the week by calling someone as Dick Whitman, his long-buried secret identity. I almost lost these moments between the Decemberists intro and the Marti Noxon mandated rape plotline, but this show is still amazing.

8. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - 1×09 - “What He Beheld”

CAMERON
He said very little, and then he was quiet.

This show snuck up on me. I’m not big on the Terminator movies, but it is a damn fine hour of weekly sci-fi. It even made Brian Austen Green compelling! I know! And the image in the first season finale of bodies of armored FBI agents raining into an apartment complex pool to the tune of Johnny Cash made for a long summer of waiting.

7. 30 Rock - 2×12 - “Subway Hero”

BUCKY BRIGHT
I wandered around the building all night. I didn’t run into another living soul… except one gigantic lesbian. Who is Conan O’Brien, and why is she so sad?

This could just as easily have gone to “The One With The Cast of Night Court” for including, well, the cast of Night Court, or “Cooter” for the line “No it’s not. We’ve looked into it, and it’s not.”, but Tim Conway and the triumphant return of Liz Lemon’s delightfully sleazy ex-boyfriend Dennis (Dean Winters, also great as a polar opposite character on Terminator) took it.

6. Wall-E

WALL·E
Eeeee … vah?.

Amazing that they can do so much with so little.  A touching, whimsical, hopeful story.

5. Bioshock

ANDREW RYAN
A man chooses, a slave obeys.

Yes, it first came out in 2007, but I didn’t have my 360 until 2008.  Plus, the PS3 version was new in 2008, so I still technically didn’t break my rules. A gripping piece of work, I dare anyone playing through this not to be completely compelled and not just a little horrified. It’s very few movies even nowadays that can do such interesting work with ideas of free will, destiny and power, let alone go for 40 hours and let you shoot stuff the whole time.

4. Supernatural (Tie) - 4×01/4×08 - “Lazarus Rising”/”Wishful Thinking” (Honourable Mention to 3×13, “Ghostfacers”)

SAM
I’m really sorry to have to break this to you, but your bear is sick…

I knew there had to be a Supernatural on this list, I just didn’t realize how high it would be, or how many I had to weed through to pick just one. And even then I chickened out and took three. Could have been its own category. I like this show too much for my own good. But when it can wage an all-out war between heaven and hell one week, then have the boys hunt down a wishing-well animated, man-sized, stuffed (and clinically depressed) teddy bear the next, I simply must watch.

3. Pushing Daisies - 2×06 - “Oh Oh Oh, It’s Magic”

NED
It’s a magic show.

Not quite yet gone but already greatly missed. Ned finally started to get some movement on tracking down and coming to terms with his father, and Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles’ murder/undeadening kerfuffle started to really complicate. Plus Fred Willard showed up. Possibly the best Daisies of all.

2. Lost - 4×05 - “The Constant”

DESMOND
I love you Penny. I’ve always loved you.

It seems trite and simple, but seeing what is easily the most affecting personal story on Lost actually reach (at least at this point) a satisfying conclusion, one that is earned and rooted for, in what was also one of the most satisfying myth episodes of the series so far, with enough time bending and island-hopping to get any purist riled up, was nothing short of magnificent.  I tried to find another, less obvious Lost for the list, but “The Constant” was just too good.

1. Battlestar Galactica - 4×07 - “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”

HERA
Bye bye.

I’m not even really sure this is fully number one, as a whole, but for the biggest sheer oh-my-God moment I can remember from the last 12 months, it deserves pause. That little girl at the edge of her mom’s bed, saying goodbye, ready to go to Rebel Six (for reasons we’ve yet to really find out) before Athena goes ahead and kills said Six, not to mention the basestar jumping away and Gaeta’s creepy-ass singing before getting his leg amputated … man, that was a great hour.

It’s that time of year again

Published September 17th, 2008 in teevee and retrospecticus. 0 Comments

It’s crazy time. Fall premiere time. The time when my PVR gets way too much of a workout, trying out new shows, catching up on old ones, and maybe discarding a few that are past their prime.

Let’s do this in a simple +/- (with maybe a neutral thrown in) to see what I’m looking forward to, or what may have disappeared.

(+) House — Hugh Laurie drew us in over the summer, and we spent evenings catching up with his previously-ignored-by-us medical procedural. The show is a bit of a formula (bit?), but Mr. Laurie is one of the most compelling personalities on the tube.
(o) Heroes — the ads for the once-promising comic-booky skein (yay Variety-speak!) are overwhelmingly meh, as was the entirety of the second season. I’ll probably give it a shot, but if things start to look like they’re getting more stupider, it’s gone.
(+) Gossip Girl — I was not a big fan early last year, but I think it largely found the tone it needed to take (sufficiently ridiculous), plus, Chuck Bass is one of my favourite TV creations in a long time. That dude can pull off colours no other exceedingly heterosexual man can even dream of. I now covet a pistachio-green suit with pink shirt and pocket square.
(o) Bones — this one has been up and down for years now. Since Fox had them “retool” after the first season, the mysteries had gotten stupider and the characters less compelling. The first couple back have felt more apropos, character-wise, so there is some hope.
(-) Eli Stone — the strike made us watch some things we weren’t proud of. This preachy, saccharine, overly melodramatic hour had two words going for it: Victor Garber. And with our actual shows back, not just strike filler, so long Mr. Brain Tumour Thingy.
(+)(for now) Fringe — J.J. Abrams does X Files. Hopefully there’s more to it than that, but the first two hours don’t necessarily seem to indicate that will be the case. Characters are moderately appealing, but whether or not there will be a story to care about is yet to be seen.
(+) Supernatural — Dean went to Hell. But of course the show won’t keep him there.
(+) Pushing Daisies — Yay! The Pie Maker is bank! Look for my Ain’t It Cool reviews again this year, all two of my readers.
(-) My Name is Earl — I stopped caring about a third of the way through the jail arc. The initially cute premise has become very tired, though interestingly not in the usual way. Ironically, getting away from Earl’s ‘list’ was the least interesting part of the show.

There are more. Maybe later. I wanted to get to this…

(+++) 30 Rock — I forgot how hard this show made me laugh, until this morning. I can’t believe something this smart and funny has actually succeeded, and not been shuffled off for another laugh-tracky rom com years ago. Enjoy one of the finest segments of comedy I’ve seen in years, courtesy of the probably-more-than-slightly-crazy Alec Baldwin (you may have to sit through an ad first).

There is just so much going on over the course of 90 seconds, you hardly get a chance to breathe. If the man doesn’t win an Emmy for this, I don’t even know what cliche of disbelief I’ll resort to.

The best thing you’re probably not watching

Published July 4th, 2008 in teevee. 0 Comments

I may be assuming too much here, but I don’t imagine a whole lot of you, my imaginary readers, are watching AMC’s amazing Mad Men.

You should be.

Set in the misogynist and booze-soaked world of advertising in New York, 1960, it started last summer and ran its first season, and came pretty much out of nowhere. It was one of those shows that you’re not even sure you want to watch in the five minutes before it starts, because you’re worried it might be a little heavy for summer viewing, but not more than 10 minutes in, you’re hooked all over again.

Created by one of the guys responsible for a decent chunk of the Sopranos, I have to say I much prefer this to the Jersey mobsters. Blasphemer, I know, but it’s the truth. Could be something to do with the fact that I work in advertising, and have picked up a love of the era of the show (late 50s-early 60s) by osmosis through Beth, but the show itself shares a great deal of the credit. It’s rich, textured, funny, powerful, and so, so smart. Hell, it opened the era for me to the point that How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is now one of my favourite movies.

The first season built up so well, so gradually, that while the finale was playing, you finally realized how many balls were up in the air, and how masterfully they were being juggled. The clip below, I sent to my boss one time when I was arguing a point about how we needed to focus on a new viewpoint for one of our, shall we say more staid, clients. It may not make much sense to you out of context, except to know that Don, the dude making the speech, is in the midst of a family crisis (to put it mildly without spoiling), and that it is some of the finest writing you’ll see on TV in the past few years.

Season 2 starts at the end of the month, on AMC, while reruns have been on CTV for the past few weeks, and the CTV site has episodes streaming for everyone else to catch up. Or just go buy the DVD. It’s in a wicked cool Zippo case.

Either way, the only person I know besides us who is watching it is Dart, and everyone needs to be. So g’wan son, check it.

Setting the line right now

Published April 4th, 2008 in brain, teevee and poindextrose. 0 Comments

Before the final season starts, I am laying my cards on the table in re the final Cylon. Get it out there in print so I can look good once I’m right, or the fool once I’m proven wrong.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should probably turn back now, there’s nothing for you here.

I thought I was playing it cool over the last week, not geeking out quite so much, but turns out over the last few hours, knowing that the Galactica premiere airs in now less than four hours, I can’t stands it no more.

Last March, so very long ago, when the finale aired and four of the final five were revealed, I was pretty proud of myself for picking up three of the four (Tigh, Tory and Anders), but the accomplishment was minimized a little in that they pretty much told you as much in the first part of the two parter. Tyrol was a surprise, I believe I shouted at the TV.

I’d chosen two others in my back-and-forth with Ms. Julia Bronsteter (nee Kirkham), but now that we’ve only got one left, I’ve got to pick a horse, or chicken out and pick someone new.

Fortunately, I’m confident enough in my pick to side with one of my originals, and ride them ’till we’re done.

Felix Gaeta.

There, I said it. The marvelous, ever-present, vaguely simpering (in a good way) Gaeta. He was at the helm of the only ship destined to (really) survive the attacks; is responsible for the ‘mistake’ of miscommunicating jump coordinates when Adama is shot, a problem only solved by creating a dreaded computer network; sticks by Baltar’s side the whole time on New Caprica, but still helping the resistance, for some end; lies to implicate Baltar at the trial (he pissed off the Cylons); and is just overall one of those ubiquitous presences that HAS to have some sort of ominous hand in everything. Plus the gay vibe. Kidding.

There’s just too much, and he’s too shifty and sly, I don’t even think he’s a sleeper, I think he knows what’s what.

Very tricky, Mr. Gaeta. You have 20 episodes left to prove me right or wrong.

P.S. Jon, don’t you dare tell me anything. Or. Else. You. Die. I don’t care how married you’re getting. There would be killing.

Any fellow Galactites with theories?

It sure ai’is…

Published October 17th, 2007 in teevee, internetz and coolness. 0 Comments

Quick note from work, in between thousand-word academic research papers (essentially) for Humber College faculty site.

I’m back on the interweebs on a weekly basis at Ain’t It Cool News, doing pre-air (in America anyway) reviews of the wonderful Pushing Daisies, which I pimped not so long ago in the post directly below this one.

CTV is nice enough to have filled it’s Wednesday night with mediocre stuff from other networks, so it airs a day early on Tuesdays, before ABC’s slot the next night.

My first two are here and here.

Read and enjoy, and check back there weekly on Wednesdays for my reviews (as L-Prime, as the site uses clever pseudonyms), unless the guy was serious about being flown up to Vancouver weekly to review it instead of us Canucks. Somehow I don’t believe they’re serious.

A new sked

Published October 6th, 2007 in teevee. 2 Comments

So, fall is here. Well, calendar-wise anyway. And with it comes that which the wistful side of my TV-writing ambitious brain gets to sample the new fruits of the small screen. As always (at least for as long as I’ve been following it, which is to say about 5 or 6 years), there is a lineup full of ups and downs. I’ve actually gone about catching most (if not quite all) of the new shows on offer this year, taking at least the pilot of more than half for sure, maybe as many as 2/3, which is still pretty good, all things considered, and here we have my roundup of what is worth your time, and what to pass on by, maybe even with some personal recommendations for folks I know.

Let’s go in descending order of quality, shall we?

The best:

Pushing Daisies
ABC, Tuesdays at 8 (on CTV)/Wednesdays at 8

Far and away the best new show of the fall. Bryan Fuller (creator of Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, writer of the best of Heroes, and of some decent Star Treks even) finally hits it big and brings his best series yet. In short, a pie-maker can bring back the dead for 60 seconds with a touch (he then has to redead them with a second touch before the minute is up or else someone else nearby dies), an ability he uses in partnership with a private eye to solve recent murders and collect the reward, a scam which is complicated when he undeads the long-lost love of his life. Oh yeah, and he can never touch her again, lest she redead forever. Whimsical, fantastic (in both senses), bright, airy, gorgeous, meaningful, dense, funny, sweet, stylized, and even sporting a bit of an edge, it is a modern-day fairy tale the likes of which you have never seen before on TV or pretty much anywhere else. Just flat out watch it. You will smile, or you have no pulse.

A bit behind the best:

Chuck
NBC, Mondays at 8

A delightful little mashup of Alias and a slacker comedy, Josh Schwartz (creator of The O.C.) basically lifts a Seth Cohen-type nerd out of his previous show’s setting and dumps him into the middle of a turf war between American intelligence agencies predicated on the massive glut of government secrets that on old college buddy of Chuck’s sent directly into his brain before being shot. Action, great humour, very nice performances (Zachary Levi in titular role understands modern nerds perfectly, Adam Baldwin of Firefly fame is hilarious as the gruff NSA agent who’s in no mood to coddle Chuck), and a nice light tone.

Next:

Cavemen
ABC, Tuesday at 8

Yeah, I’m as surprised as anyone about this one. Universally panned beforehand (though to be fair, the original pilot sent to critics was apparently nothing like the one that aired), I found it to actually be a really smart and observant comedy that clearly flies over the head of anyone who decided ahead of time that it was an offensive racist sitcom. It is completely absurd, yet engaging, and really, really smart. The ‘cavemen’ are essentially normal guys, in a nice apartment, writing dissertations and cruising for women, but dealing with moronic stereotypes put on their kind. I laughed way, way more than I ever expected, and I will continue to tune in. Colour me shocked.

Reaper
The CW, Tuesdays at 8

Slacker comedy meets Buffy, a dude finds out his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born, and he is recruited on this 21st birthday to retrieve escaped souls from hell. The pilot was stronger than the second episode, which already started to show signs of a formula that could wear a little thin, but the three leads are all strong, with the sidekick in particular (fat guy from Breaker High) striking the right note of ingratiating and loud without being irritating. Ray Wise is also great as Satan himself.

Aliens in America
The CW, Mondays at 8:30

Fun fish-out-of-water comedy that is smart and engaging, and pretty smart, perhaps even a tad too smart for the target audience. Paired with Everybody Hates Chris, it might find the niche it needs.

Journeyman
NBC, Mondays at 10

Quantum Leap-lite with the enjoyable Kevin McKidd (Rome) as the Sam Beckett role, sans Scottish accent. Dude finds himself tripping through time, writing wrongs, changing lives. Decent, well-crafted, doesn’t try to be more than it is. Mythology seems fun, could get better if it’s allowed to develop.

Meh:

Bionic Woman
NBC, Wednesdays at 9

Lightning did not strike twice for David Eick (producer of Galactica) with a second 70s sci-fi remake. The pilot was kinda boring, and really gave no compelling reason why we should care about Jamie Sommers, the new Bionic Woman. Acting was mediocre all around, be it bland with the boyfriend, or over the top with Katee Sackhoff chewing the scenery.

Private Practice
ABC, Wednesdays at 9

Grey’s Anatomy spinoff that really wasn’t especially necessary, taking one of the less compelling characters and putting her into a situation that is far less interesting than a busy hospital filled with dying people and surgeries.

Gossip Girl
The CW, Wednesdays at 9

Mediocre teen drama that either needed to go full-on Cruel Intentions evil or lighten up a little. Watched the pilot and haven’t felt compelled to go further.

Life
NBC, Wednesdays at 10

NBC did a tortured cop show last year, and better. It was called Raines and starred Jeff Goldblum as a cop who saw dead people a la Sixth Sense. Kinda interesting for its lead character, played by Brit import Damian Lewis, who’s playing ‘tortured’ and ‘quirky’ to the hilt, having been incorrectly jailed for 12 years and then coming out all zen, but not for much else.

The worst:

Carpoolers
ABC, Tuesdays at 8:30

Truly, truly awful. I’d hoped for more from one of my beloved Kids in the Hall, but Bruce McCulloch had been famously uneven to begin with, so it isn’t totally surprising. Every single actor, minus the surprisingly excellent T.J. Miller as the very Napoleon Dynamite-ish son of one of the Carpoolers, is uniformly awful and grating, from Jerry O’Connell as the requisite sleaze, to Fred Goss (of the terrible Sons & Daughters from last season, a really cheap Arrested Development ripoff) as the mild-mannered schlep, to two other guys so non-memorable that I can’t recall their characters and don’t care to look up their names. A mean, mysoginistic, grating, irritating, boring, cliched, stupid, terrible mistake of a sitcom. Did I mention I didn’t like it?

I’ve got Moonlight, the vampire detective show that ISN’T based on Angel or Forever Knight, somehow, on the PVR, but I’m not really in a huge hurry to check it out.

As for people who need to see various shows above, I think everyone I know who likes good TV needs to check out Pushing Daisies, or just everyone in the whole world. Julia, Dart, Shaan, TLo and Jon in particular need to see it, if you haven’t already.

Dart, you’d enjoy Reaper.

Travis and Julia, you may hate me for it, but I think you need to check out Cavemen. It really isn’t terrible, I swear.

So, that’s my take. It was long, but hopefully informative.

Body count, rearview mirror

Published May 18th, 2007 in teevee and megaspection. 0 Comments

Quality TV dead this year:

Jericho
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Veronica Mars
Gilmore Girls
The OC
Rome

All eminently savable, only one really past its prime and ready to go (Gilmore Girls). Veronica did good to get its three years, I’ll take my DVD sets and walk away from the table. Rome and The OC were … I want to say basically the exact opposite of each other in almost every way, and victims of completely different business breakdowns, and I’d like to blame the deaths of both on Mishca Barton. I’m sure one case’d be easy to make stick, the other I’m just feeling like blaming.

Studio 60 gone means no more Ain’t It Cool reviews for me. Hopefully something decent airs a day early next year, I’ll take another stab. Luckily Julia has gotten me hooked on West Wing, so I’ve got seven years (five left to get through) of that to tide me over. Then maybe Sports Night, but my white-hot hatred of Peter Krause (thanks to the last season and a half of Six Feet Under) might prevent that from happening.

Jericho, which had intrigued me from the beginning, really ramped up over the second half of the season, creating a real, gritty and fascinating tale about the world’s most powerful nation forced to take a look at itself (through the lens of its most typical small town) and what it really was made of and believed in after getting blown to hell. And then they axed it in the midst of one of the biggest cliff-hangers since the hatch door got blown off, or the Cylons strolled down the middle of New Caprica City. It will be missed.

Reasons for hope:

Supernatural — I’ll keep calling it a sleeper until people watch the damn thing. One of the best hours going. Managed to survive in the toughest slot in TV. Great finale, one that understood how to give possible closure if no pickup came but still weave a compelling tale to pick up from.

30 Rock — I guess people were listening when I said if only one late-night-based show could be saved, make it Ms. Liz Lemon.

Galactica and Lost — Neither are quite where they were two seasons ago (though that kind of intensity is hard), but damned if they aren’t some of the finest storytelling I’ve seen in a while. People complain about both for not giving us everything while simultaneously keeping huge, labyrinthine mysteries. Cake, try to stick around after I’ve eaten you, please.

Surprises — And good to see some familiar standbys able to really pull out some great stuff. Numb3rs (the delightful Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz) just had a really good finale, with an honest to god twist, on CBS no less. I’m amazed they risked alienating their usual 80-billion year old audience by turning a good guy.
And CSI (the original, the only one that counts) has apparently kicked some ass this year, being all dark and twisty, hopefully we can catch some in reruns. Plus they had Liev Schrieber, my second favourite modern actor to play Orson Welles (Maurice LaMarche will ALWAYS be the first, even if it’s just for the voice), so how could that go wrong?
The Office too, loved loved loved the ending of the finale, and I’d even been tiring of it a little bit lately too. Steve Carell is turning into a bit TOO much of a caricature. I realize that’s the point of the character, and it was never going to be played as close to the vest as David Brent, but the cringe:laugh ratio with him was veering dangerously close to tipping the wrong way too consistently.
Heroes last. I expected to at least sorta like it, as cribbing from a bunch of my favourite sources (Rising Stars, Lost, X-Men) couldn’t possibly be THAT bad, and its admittedly shaky start smoothed out by midseason, and this home stretch has been stellar.

Letdowns — Grey’s Anatomy decided to blow everything up with no real good reason.
Veronica Mars (one of, if not THE, lowest rated shows on network TV) apparently decided NOT to hedge its bets and include a bit of closure in its finale, which we’ll see Tuesday — I’m hearing it may cliffhang a little. It would be a shame if pride prevented even a measure of resolution for these marvelous characters.
Scrubs just hasn’t been funny. At least not as good as its early reruns which I much prefer watching on SunTV to its new installments. I’m really sick of seeing Zach Braff pine for BlondeDoctor.
And the big, constant letdown of what the general public votes (with their viewership) to keep on TV. The fact that Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Search for the New Pussycat Doll are ratings hits (not to mention American Idol, Deal or No Deal, and that there is an honest to God bingo — BINGO — show airing tonight) just hurts my heart a little.

I think my writing is getting better. Cleaner. Must be a side-effect of doing it eight or so hours a day. *Edit: Or maybe it isn’t. I’m tired and it’s late. We’ll see how this actually reads in the morning.*

What a week

Published March 23rd, 2007 in teevee, coolness and cats. 0 Comments

Haven’t blogged in a while, but I’ve had a legit excuse for at least a week of that time.

First: this. Basically, Kaylee’s sick, so I’ve been worrying/given something to quantifiably obsess over. She’s got fluid in her chest, which needs to be drained periodically. I can monitor her breathing, resp. rate, food and water intake, and medicine. All of which means we’re dropping chunks of money on vet bills, but she’s family, so we don’t care. She’s got what is technically the best thing to have if you had to choose a disease that gives a cat fluid in the chest. Easily managable and not something that will affect any of the rest of her body. And she’s improving with each chest drain, less and less fluid, and she’s getting happier and happier.

Next: The week had a great distraction from the stupid cat-ness. Jon, one of my best friends in the whole wide world, and who works on the set of Battlestar Frakking Galactica, was in town visiting his brother for about 10 days, but his brother works during the days, so that basically meant we had about 3 1/2 solid days this week with a visitor and some fun to be had. He brought me scripts (different revision versions of three separate episodes so I can see how a script evolves through the editing process). I hope I can say this without him getting shot — but they’re long-aired episodes, so I can’t see the harm. I’m in geek heaven. It also gave me the inspiration and incentive to say ’screw practicality/realism’ and start writing a Galactica spec of my own. I’m already farther on it in 18 hours than I am in that old Supernatural spec in 2 1/2 months. And I’ve got it completely broken down story-wise, meaning I already know how it ends, a big problem with most things I start writing — I generally have no idea.

I’d held off writing a Galactica, because I was convinced I couldn’t do anything worthwhile in the canon of the show, and the act of even bothering to write a spec is generally dashed by how fast the show advances, making any story points you can think of moot. But I came up with a good idea. And it fits. So I’m doing it.

But as they say, and Beth pointed out to me not more than a week or two ago, once you start a project, something will get in the way of finishing it.

And something did.

A job.

In the time between starting this blog entry (earlier this afternoon) and now (dinner — Jon visiting for the final time got in the way), I received the call from the book reseller I interviewed at this week offering me the job. I am now a marketing assistant with *edited upon leaving*. For St. Catharines folks, think Book Depot, ‘cept (mostly) online. I think. For non-Niagarans, it’s remaindered and overstocked/overprinted books for cheap. There seemed to be a store/warehouse, but I’m not 100% clear on the specifics yet. I hope they’re not reading this now and regretting hiring someone who didn’t totally rock the homework on their company, but suffice to say I’m more than a little excited, as it seems like a great place to work (my job is writing blurbs for new books for the website, and designing catalogues and sales packs — ideal tasks for my skill set), and I loves me some discount books. This will help erase the credit card debt, help pay for the cat’s bills while she still needs the vet regularly, and maybe even let us move to someplace nicer (apartment-wise) down the road. At least I can spend some money on new clothes (mine are falling apart) and some fun stuff (a D100? 360? Not to go nuts, but I can actually think about things I want now, at least a little).

So yeah, good week. Very good week. I think I’m going to burn through this Galactica episode now. Maybe have a Coca-Cola. I think I’ve earned it.

Does it make me less of a person that:

Published March 11th, 2007 in brain and teevee. 0 Comments

1. The moment of remembrance that there is a new Battlestar Galactica tonight caused a feeling of joy normally reserved for … I dunno, births of children? I’d put myself into rerun-mode, thinking I was stuck with no new shows (’cept Lost) for a few more weeks. But a new one is about to start, and I was happy.

2. I’m having trouble ‘reading’. Hour-long storytelling, though I do want to make it my craft and my life, is disrupting my ability to slog through movies or books. Or I’m just being overly critical of the couple movies I’ve seen lately (The Science of Sleep — good, flashes of great; Running with Scissors — meh, flashes of good/great, largely from performances). And developing astigmatism.

3. I kinda liked The Winner, the new Rob Corddry sitcom “from the creator of Family Guy”. It started like the worst of canned laughter, multi-camera sitcoms of times past/According to Jim. Then, it got funny. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you.

Boil it down, that’s where the flavour is

Published February 22nd, 2007 in teevee. 2 Comments

It’s all about cred, man.

For some reason I kept holding back in blogging about what I know. What I do. What I live and breathe. Cuz I think it’s cheap. I’ve got some of that artsy-litzy guilt that prevents me from putting out what I know, and what I think. But y’know what? If you people don’t want to read about what I think about TV and why I think it, and why it matters to me, you can just stop reading. That’s all there is to it.

I love Grey’s Anatomy.

There, I said it.

I can hear the sniggering. I can hear the guffawing. First of all, he’s talking TV again. Second, Grey’s Anatomy? Is he gonna talk about how Mer should end up with McDreamy already, or whether or not I like Ellen Pompeo, or what Isaiah Washington called who this week? No. Because that’s not why I like it.

I like it — no, I love it, because it does what good storytelling is meant to do. It gets inside you, makes you feel things regardless of how much you see the soapy machinations coming, or how much you may actually kinda wanna smack certain lead actresses. It’s one of those series’ (just as one of those movies) that gets people right. Not real people. TV people. Real people are boring — I know I am. But all TV people are, at their best, are constructed, magnified, slightly blown out versions of normal people. Poorly made TV people are cheap cutouts, melodramatic in all the wrong ways, thin, vapid, un-self-aware, ciphers meant to say things that aren’t really worth saying anyway. Or on the flipside, bad TV people can be overwrought, painfully serious, too self-aware, thick, dense, detailed-to-death ‘reflections of real life’ that forget a cardinal rule of TV (or any storytelling) that I’ve already touched on: real people are boring.

Grey’s Anatomy, soapy and teary as it may be, understands that distinction between good and bad TV people, and executes it perfectly. It’s unfortunate that it’s got the following it has, and the stigma (for lack of a better word) attached to viewership, though it still manages to be one of the most watched things going. But there’s that guilt or that cheapening of it that goes along with even mentioning you watch it. Yeah, the promos butcher it, sensationalize, and the media coverage blows things to hell, but those are things savvy folks like us have to look past, or see for what they are.

If you say you care about storytelling, or drama, you should see the value in a thing like this. If the hip or ‘elevated’ reaction to something that tries to combine populism (and any schmaltz or sap that sometimes has to go with it) with a bit of sophistication is to crap all over it, well that’s just stupid.

I don’t care if McDreamy is ‘the one’, ultimately, I really don’t. I don’t care who gets chief resident, or who sleeps with who. But I do care about watching something that can make me feel something for the good TV people who do. It’s the essence of good storytelling, and to me, it’s plain as day.

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