the sopranos

i just never got into this show when it aired.

i had no real desire to watch it, & the only information i knew about it was what my parents, fans of the show, told me throughout the years. & nothing they ever said seemed interesting enough to make me want to delve into this series.

but i borrowed it for season one disc one & decided to give it a fair chance.

it's good, just like everyone says. the acting is good, the characters are really solid from the very first episode, & the plot is definitely interesting.

but i guess it's just not my type of show. i found myself sort of bored & really not caring about the characters or the plot. but i really don't think that's anything against the show. i think it's more on my end - this show just isn't for me.

oh, & no offense to the actors but every time the kids were on screen



i wanted to fucking kill myself. could they have PICKED more annoying kids!?

i think i'm more interested in sitting down with someone who has seen the whole series so i can find out what happens than i am in seeing the rest of the series.

it wasn't bad, by any means.

just really not for me.

gossip girl

i have a soft spot in my heart for teenage dramas centering around rumours, sex, drugs, high school, & stabbing each other in the back.

so really, gossip girl is the perfect show for me. i honestly just can't get enough of glossy lipstick, pouty girls, sex-maniac foxy guys, & a cast of characters who cheat on each other, lie to each other, & play each other for their own gain. bonus points if it all takes place in high school.

& while we see very little of these friends actually going to school, they are of the right age & the controversial issues are certainly there. the new 90210 was touted as the west coast gossip girl, but so far from what i've seen (& i'm enjoying the campy 90210, don't get me wrong) 90210 has nothing on gossip girl. maybe it's just east coast fashion (it IS different, i assure you) or just that the acting is so much better, but gossip girl is a show with style.

if the new 90210 is "fuck me pumps"



then gossip girl is "come tie me up & then fuck me boots".



& i honestly do mean that in the best way possible. on both sides. 90210 is what it is. it's not nearly as edgy as it's claiming to be, but it's fun. gossip girl, on the other hand, is dead serious. these kids aren't playing around. they mean business, & man is it a mean business.

i'm not from NY, but i am from the east coast. i guess we have a different definition of drama there. or, maybe it's just that gossip girl is willing to be more controversial. but it's a really glam-ed up & polished end result, whatever the reasons are. the acting is pretty solid, the characters are well-defined, & the plot is, well, wicked. (omfg).

my only complaint so far is how much the narrator sounds like sarah jessica parker. it's almost like gossip girl thought, for five seconds, that it wanted to be the new sex & the city. i've got news for you, gossip girl: you aren't sex & the city. but that's really ok. i much prefer you.

you know you love me. xoxo.

supernatural

man, i really did not want to like this show.

so much so, i had convinced myself that it looked really lame & that i would never, in a million years, actually identify with it. i respected people who were into it (i have a few friends who really do like it) but i just always assumed that it wasn't for me.

i was also completely unable to separate supernatural from smallville in my mind. i couldn't remember which was which, & would always use the wrong title when talking about one of the shows. when supernatural disc one began, i even said to myself, "fuck, which one is superman!?"

but boy, was i wrong about this show. i mean, seriously, i couldn't have been any more wrong.

this is exactly my type of show. i don't know if i was completely blind before, or just totally unwilling to give supernatural a chance. but i almost hate myself for not having watched it before this weekend.

in fact, as soon as disc one ended, i turned to sham & began brainstorming how we could get our hands on the rest of the season. i texted friends to see if i could borrow it. i even thought about buying it. i was immediately hooked!

the brothers play off each other so well. their bickering is really enjoyable to watch, & funny. because they can interact in this way, their characters seem pretty solid, even though the audience still does not know much about them. the younger brother is definitely more emotional, & the older brother is a bit of a hothead. they are nearly polar opposites & they don't really get along (unless they are putting their heads together to solve a case). but that's what makes their relationship really entertaining to watch. despite all the supernatural events occurring, the brothers are so real that it's easy to get sucked into the show. even if you don't believe in ghosts & goblins, you care about the brothers.

the effects are also top-notch. the first episode began with a doozy & i was pretty convinced the rest of the episodes would not be able to live up to it. again, i could not have been more wrong.



i'm totally hooked on supernatural.

& luckily for me, my dad is going to let me borrow the rest.

supernatural, i promise to never "accidentally" call you smallville again.

rescue me

now this is a good example of what a pilot episode should be. plot? strong. acting? stellar. characters? SOLID. this pilot puts many other pilots i've watched to shame. i don't know how many times throughout keeping this blog i've had to say to myself, "stick with it. most shows improve after the pilot episode."

luckily for me & sham, this time around was a real treat.

tommy (or, denis leary) begins the show with a whole lot of personality. he's tortured, angsty, nearly divorced, & a relapsing alcoholic. his fellow firefighters are all dealing with 9/11 in their own, fucked up ways. one begins writing poetry to deal with his feelings, only to find out from his wife that his poems are awful & that she thinks he's less of a man for writing them. another goes on an anti-gay crusade. even the two young ones have a few problems of their own.

i love all the characters & i was fully engrossed in the story. does his daughter live!? does his wife divorce him!? does he ever stop seeing the ghosts of his dead cousin, fellow firefighters, & two little children he tried to save? most importantly, is he going to be ok? is he going to survive the fucked up life we're seeing him in?

i certainly hope so. but i really think it's the ride there that's going to be most entertaining to watch.

good for you, denis leary.



& damn, are you foxy.

oz; 2

sorry HBO, but this one bored me.

& i don't understand the narrated sections. i'm sure i'm just missing something.

admittedly, the second episode was better than the first. & the third was better than the second.

but really, i just wasn't into this scattered show. too many characters, too little plot.

eureka; 2

ok, so this show is pretty formulaic.

something mysterious & sci-fi related happens in the town & the police get called in to solve the problem. just when it seems like they are never going to be able to crack the case, jack carter gets a brilliant idea & figures everything out. yay! end of episode.

but i still have to admit, for a show like this, the formula works pretty well. the characters aren't totally in-depth, & the plot is certainly repetitive. but, like i said in my entry about the dead zone, people like case-based television shows. it's hard to be glued to your television screen every week. it's nice to be able to tune in or out whenever you want.

that being said, i don't know if the characters or plot are strong enough to keep anyone tuning in all the time. but the show is definitely quirky & fun enough for me to want to tune in at least a little more. that is to say, i wouldn't go out of my way to watch more of this one, but if i turned on the television (& magically had the sci-fi channel) & it was on, i would watch it. at least, until i realized i had something better to be doing.

eureka is cute & entertaining enough. i like sci-fi, though. so who knows.

the dead zone

stupid dialogue? oh right, it's steven king.

driving directly into an 18-wheeler? oh right, it's steven king.

in a coma for six years? & a full recovery? really?

oh right, it's steven king.

don't get me wrong, i love steven king.



but his writing can be a little corny. oh, who am i kidding? he's not exactly known for his fantastic dialogue & really in-depth characters.

but he is a pretty damn good storyteller (or, more accurately, can be a really good storyteller). so, in theory, the dead zone is pretty cool. it's about a guy who wakes up from a six-year coma & finds that when he touches people, he can see things about them. yes, i know that's vague. but so is the show. apparently it can be in the past, in the future, in a POSSIBLE future, happening to someone else near them. oh, & it works with objects, too. but only SOME objects.

it's all very sci-fi & very mysterious. which, in my opinion, is cool.

anthony michael hall ("you gave me a birth control pill? do you know what that can do to a guy my age? ") does an alright job with the whole, going into trances thing. i have a feeling his acting improves over time, as he gets more used to the character. i mean, the show apparently ran for six seasons, so he had to be doing something right.

i can't totally speak to how the plot ends up working out. i have a feeling each episode is him trying to solve a crime or some other mystery that he receives from touching objects or people. that's what it seems like, based on the first few episodes. which is a good idea. people like case-based television shows.

this show is pretty cool. i don't know if i could ever get like, REALLY into it. or if i would ever want to buy multiple seasons & have the dead zone marathons. but i would totally watch it again if someone loaned me disc two.

Eureka

titles: "is that fucking papyrus font? it is! fuck this show. fucking over." i swear, some people.



I have a hard time understanding scifi i think. i mean, i have a difficult time suspending my disbelief. all i can think is "this is weird!" and i never really accept it and move on. i don't know. the show seems pretty standard. we're supposed to follow the main character because, like us, he has no idea what's going on. fair enough.
i do like the 15 year old because she's such a mouthy little bitch. she pretty much has the same lines as if she was playing an estranged wife instead of being the frustrated daughter. i'm into verbally violent young women. who knows why?
I also like the juxtaposition of the government as we know it with the strictly intellectual town. throw the military into anything involving free thinking (and science!) and you're bound to get a rise out of me. creationism & evolution! church & state!

rome

i didn't NOT like this show, but i didn't like it either.

it's very well done. the costumes, props, & sets seem to be pretty spot on.

i don't know how accurate it is, historically. but i do know that i think it gets a little bogged down with the history, like the tudors does from time to time. i don't really care about any of the characters, because so far they are only representations of a certain time period in history. they don't particularly stand out for me, & they don't really seem like real people. in the first episode alone, i couldn't tell half of the guys apart.

i feel like this show could be good, if it begins to focus more on the characters than the history/plot. this may happen, i don't know.

i've heard really good things about it, so i won't hate on it completely.

i like the tudors, but maybe only because jonathan rhys meyers is so hot. rome doesn't have a jonathan rhys meyers. at least, not yet.

felicity

so my major memory for this show is that a boyfriend of mine in high school got angry that i watched it one night instead of calling him to talk. what i never admitted to him, & haven't really thought about until right now, is that i was only using this show to avoid calling him for whatever reason. i think it was his birthday, & i was uncomfortable with the expectations that had been placed on me to be the "perfect girlfriend" in such situations. & i bailed, majorly, on calling him. but, i mean, i called him after.

needless to say, i obviously didn't remember much about this show. i think i did watch it. at least a few times. i remembered all the characters, & of the 4 episodes i watched, i remembered the plot of at least two of them.

i think that felicity gets a bit of a bad reputation. every time i mention it, someone inevitably groans & someone else mentions "that time she cut her hair". i mean, yeah, cutting her hair was probably a bad idea. but the show continued for two more years after that ill-fated season. so they must have been doing something right.

right?

one thing i liked about this show before i even began watching it is that there are only 4 seasons. so it's not overwhelming to want to get into, & it exists in it's own little world of college. she begins the show as a freshman & ends it as a senior. i don't know if the last show does any kind of a fast forward so we can see where all the characters end up after their lives at the university of new york, but i almost sort of hope not. i LIKE that the show exists in a little box, like a package tied with a bow. here is college life, complete.

i'm going to be honest here. i liked this show.

more than i thought i was going to, & definitely more than i did in 1998. probably because in 1998, i had absolutely no idea what college was. it was an idea to me only, something i saw in my future but of which i had no real concept. so can i relate to felicity more, having gone through my own 4 (to be fair, 3.5) years?

i don't know. i think so.

in my memory i remember felicity as "that show that tried to recreate dawson's creek for college kids". i mean, she's got a little dawson in her. she's over analytical about boys, life, friends, & classes. but that's about it. she's much more reserved than dawson is. in fact, i liken her more to angela chase than dawson leery. felicity is painfully shy, so much so that, even though she followed ben to new york, she had only ever had two conversations with him before (conversations that she remembers in painstaking detail). it's almost painful to watch her try to interact with ben, noel, her professors, basically anyone she meets. she's awkward & young.

unlike dawson's creek, we don't pick up with felicity already having a strong friend group in place. in fact, when the series begins, she doesn't have ONE friend. & when she does befriend julie, they have a very rocky start (basically due to the fact that julie & ben like each other more than they like felicity).

we also learn that felicity didn't do much in high school. she was very quiet, & seems to have done only what her parents wanted her to do. i don't even know if she had any friends then, either. we certainly never hear about any of them.

so really, we get to see felicity evolve from the very beginning. she's got no friends, no life, & almost no personality. she's got to cut out a place for herself in the world from scratch. imagine, dawson leery at, say, age 3.

i'm going to admit this again. i was into it. i'm not sure where her relationships with ben & the resident advisor noel crane (who has a webpage. seriously, go to that link) will go (although thanks, wikipedia, for spoiling a few details for me). i don't know who she will befriend next. or where her adventures in college will take her. & i'm interested. which has got to be a good sign.

apparently in later seasons, the writers began to run out of ideas for story lines. i mean, i guess there's only SO much drama that can go on during college.... (NOT). also, apparently the original writer was 32 & claimed to be 19 so there was a bit of controversy going on about this show. so i can't really vouch for the entire series. which is why i'm not giving this one more than four records as a rating.

but, i really & genuinely give felicity four records. i'm into it, & i hope that one day i can try out disc two. & who knows, honestly, maybe a lot more than that.

...at least until she cuts her hair.



just kidding.

mad men; 2

i hate myself for not having watched this show before last night.

i wish i was being melodramatic, but i'm not.

to be fair, sham & i don't have cable. so we don't get AMC. i wanted to watch this one from the very beginning but couldn't. so then i had my dad download it for me & mail it to me, but i really dropped the ball on that one also. i still have the DVDs, but i never once watched them. since i started this blog, i keep meaning to watch mad men online to review, but i never did. i've had the pilot loaded onto my firefox about three times now, but things keep distracting me or work keeps making me busy.

but seriously? SERIOUSLY?



i've been missing out. i mean, LOOK AT THOSE CLOTHES. i would give anything to be able to (afford to) dress like that every day of my life. the set design & costumes are absolutely stunning. i never ONCE didn't buy that these people are living in the early 1960s. every damn thing feels accurate to me, even down to the drinking glasses, cigarette cases, & home decor. i wasn't alive during this time period, but for 45 minutes at a time, mad men allows me to pretend that i was (& thank you for that, mad men. because it's not really a secret that i wish i could live in this era).

the acting is also superb. while watching the show, sham actually turned to me & said, "oh yeah, i forgot that people can act." especially on TV! i mean, i had begun to believe that ANYONE could get on TV, regardless of any actual talent. but thank you, mad men, for finally getting it right & finding people who could act. it really, really, really makes a difference.

ok, plot. sure, the clothes & hotties are what initially attracted me to this show, but will the plot keep me watching it? yes. absolutely. yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. on the first disc alone, peggy basically gets called a "strumpet" by her gyno because she wants birth control. then, she comes onto her boss & sleeps with a co-worker who is about to be married! yikes! don is already cheating on his wife (who almost killed her kids in a car accident because her hands keep going numb), yet he is frustrated because she seems sad. then, he had the audacity to tell a female client that he will not let a woman "talk to him like that" when she tells him his ideas are stupid. etc etc etc.

fantastic.

i don't feel like i'm watching TV; i feel like i'm watching a movie. a movie that i never want to end. do you hear me, mad men? i never want you to end! never!

mad men

first off, apologies all around. jessica is single-handedly keeping up this blog. what can i say? i'm a busy lady and i can't really blog when i'm at work. so how about this, i'm going to make really short updates, and then perhaps come back to them later if i feel like i have more to say. we'll leave the pontificating to my other half.

short sum up: everyone is right this show is great. i love when i feel like i'm not even watching tv, but am watching a movie. there is acting. there is costume and set design. i care about the story lines. i give my general applause to this show and feel guilty that i had not seen it until tonight.

plus- have you seen the outfits? fucking killer.


loves it.

my so-called life

i'm going to go ahead & steal a gem from a review i once read for this one.

if you don't like my so-called life, then i don't like you. seriously.

premiering four years after beverly hills: 90210 blew away the world by openly discussing topics such as sex, racism, drugs, & rape, & four years before dawson's creek shocked everyone with affairs with teachers & teenage sluts (think about that for a moment...when angela chase was 15, dawson was 11. ELEVEN!), my so-called life certainly lacks the controversial nature of other shows geared toward teenagers in the 90s. i mean, imagine this: angela DOESN'T sleep with jordan when he propositions her. whoa.

but what it lacked in the Controversial Department, it certainly made up for in the Realism Department.

my so-called life is the only (not first, or best, but only) show that accurately depicts teenage emotions & the torment that is high school. naturally, not everyone can relate to angela chase. she's miserable, depressed, EPICALLY unhappy, & it's utterly painful to watch her do anything or say a single word. this was certainly not everyone's high school experience.

BUT IT WAS MINE.

angela chase, you are me. you would have understood how i felt in high school. we could have listened to the cranberries in our rooms TOGETHER. we could have dyed our hair red TOGETHER (& oh, how i ached for her hair when i was 15). we could have giggled & obsessed about jordan catalano TOGETHER (i love how he, like, LEANS). we could have just, you know, like, hung out TOGETHER. we would have found solace in each other's misery.

but alas, the world at large couldn't fully grasp what angela chase was all about (much like how i felt it couldn't understand me when i was 15) & the show was cancelled after only one season. but oh boy, what a doozy of a season.

was my so-called life just too REAL for society? too ahead of it's time? like i said, despite the major gay character & a little adultery, my so-called life isn't terribly controversial. it's not the sex & drugs that got this one cancelled; it's the misery. the world at large simply just did not want to know what it feels like to be an unhappy teenager. it's easy to pretend that your teens are happy & enjoying life. it's much harder to know that they hate everything & would really rather not exist (as angela puts it, "you know what i'd really like? to be put out of my misery."). could society really just not deal with knowing what life was REALLY like for teenagers in the 90s?

let's consider the options. on season one, disc one of my-so called life, rickie is tormented for being bisexual. angela deals with the after effects of a nasty (& untrue) rumour that she slept with jordan. then, she has to deal with him telling her that, because of the rumour, she may as well sleep with him. THEN, she has to deal with him telling her that he doesn't have any actual interest in her at all. (epic). rayanne gets wasted & is escorted home by a police officer. brian (oh brian krakow...jordan may be a fox, but you always won my heart in the end) is continually made fun of, put down, & teased for being a brain. sharon is so angry at angela for dropping their friendship that she won't even set foot in the chase household. NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE HAPPY. they are all very, very, very unhappy.

at least in beverly hills: 90210, the characters would eventually learn to turn their smiles upside down by the end of an episode or two (even when faced with drug addictions & rape attempts). on dawson's creek, dawson would over-analyze everything until it didn't seem like such a bad thing anymore & he would figure out a solution to any problem. on my so-called life, however, even lasting ONE day at school was nearly too much for angela chase to bear.

& yes, i think that's a reality that society did not want to face.

which is sad, because really, in angela chase, i've always found a kindred spirit. & that last episode...(is it cheating if i discuss things not on the first disc? ok, probably. so i'll leave it vague)...that last episode man, is heartbreaking. & sadly, i'll never know what happens after that last moment between angela & brian. & that breaks my heart.

i miss angela. i wish that we had been able to have more time together.

instead, i've got to cherish what little time i DO have with her. season one, disc 2? disc 3? disc 4? yes. i salute you, angela chase, for showing the world what being a teenager is REALLY like.

& really, i agree with you, "can't people just cheer on their own? like, to themselves?" the world would be a better place if society had opened their ears to what angela chase had to offer.

the prisoner

i didn't stumble upon this one by myself. i've had two friends recommend this one to me on separate occasions. so today i thought, why not.

i have to admit, i am a little taken aback by the fact that season one, disc one consists of only one episode, the pilot (aka "arrival"). i don't feel that i can sufficiently judge the show based on only one episode, but to be fair to the rules of the game, i've got to.

first off, for anyone who doesn't already know about this one, it's about number 6, who resigns from his government position only to awaken to find out that he's being held captive on an island until an absent number 1, the man in charge, finds out WHY number 6 resigned from his position. the village number 6 now lives in is called simply "your village," & it's self-sustaining. number 2, the second in command, changes mid-episode (& i'm told this is a common occurrence). number 6 spends his days trying to escape from the island, but the ever-changing number 2 thwarts his every move. no one on the island knows why they are there, & they don't seem to care. oh yeah, & there are giant white orbs that suck number 6's face & knock him unconscious every time he strays outside of the village. at least, that's as much as i can piece together so far.

oh, i think i get it. basically, LOST already existed. it premiered in 1967 & it was originally entitled "the prisoner."

i admit, i'm still pretty confused about this one. but, that's probably the point. more questions were raised in the pilot than answers were given. i also don't particularly care much about number 6 yet, but to be fair, we've only spent an hour together so far.

i am pretty intrigued by this show. i want to know why number 2 keeps changing. & who are numbers 3-5? & why did cobb go by "cobb" & not a number? &, more importantly, where did cobb GO at the end of the first episode? & why is number 6 assigned such a low number, when there are clearly at least a hundred other people already on the island? where did all these people come from? what the hell are the white orbs? &, most obviously, who is number 1? at this point, i sort of imagine him like dr. claw from inspector gadget. (i'm sure i'm not very far off).

semi-futuristic & very bizarre, the prisoner proved to be quite interesting. i'm willing to give season one, disc two a chance (& by season one, disc two, i really mean episode two) to see what the show is all about. i have a feeling i really can't judge this one by its cover (& by cover, i really mean pilot episode).

so, the prisoner season one, disc two, i'll "be seeing you" very soon.

dawson's creek

to be perfectly honest, & despite what i sometimes pretend in nostalgic conversations about my childhood with friends, i watched very little of dawson's creek when it first aired. in fact, i've maybe only ever seen the first season before. & mostly, it was viewed at my friend courtney's house because my parents thought it was a little too "adult" for thirteen-year-old me.

that being said, i'm surprised by how much of disc one i actually remembered, nearly word for word. i'm not sure why i netflixed it to begin with, but once i put it in my DVD player (DVD player...did i even HAVE one of those in 1998?) i was overwhelmed with memories.

oh yeah, james van der beek CAN'T actually act. & that's riiiiight, joey WAS a major bitch. & michelle williams' clothes really are still THAT bad. oh &, you know what, pacey still is that fucking ADORABLE. (i always was a pacey girl, dawson is too pretentious for me.)

other than that, i admit there's very little to say. i COULD go into a long discussion about how it revolutionized teen television. on the first disc alone, pacey sleeps with his english teacher, mrs. leery cheats on her husband of 20 years, & jen admits that she is not only not a virgin, but a major slut! surprise surprise! or, alternatively, i could mention how, without beverly hills 90210 (my personal favourite), dawson's creek would never have been able to exist.

but really, what's the point?

the truth of the matter is, all of the characters are pretty annoying. i don't like dawson at all, & i perhaps like joey even less. jen is tolerable. pacey is, as always, the shining star of the show. the acting is subpar. the plot is a little melodramatic for my tastes. the dialogue is cringe worthy (not because it's so bad, but because it sounds more like an emerson student than a 15-year-old cape cod high schooler). &, as a 23 year old, i find myself able to relate to very little of the show.

but honestly, none of these things will stop me from acquiring season one, disc two. after all, isn't that how all season one, disc ones should be judged? do these three or four episodes keep my attention enough to make me want to invest more time & energy? do i find myself caring enough about if joey & dawson will ever kiss? or what ends up happening between pacey & the english teacher? or if jen & grams ever find common ground?

yes. yes i do care. very very much.

season one, disc two? absolutely.