Stewie gets a tan…Peter learns a lesson

Lessons learned are not lost on The Family Guy. In fact, every episode often has a lesson or moral, otherwise the characters journey would have been worthless.

Let’s talk about Stewie for a moment. He is basically left in the sun to bake and shrivel like a raisin, but soon discovers that tan is IN. And when something is IN, Stewie takes it all the way. He even went so far as to have a “Tanned People” Club/get together thing. And when left to his own devices, stays in a tanning bed for six and a half hours…And with Peter being a bully (I’m getting that part in a minute), he smacks Stewie across the back and asks how his tan is doing. Priceless. Once Stewie starts to peel, he discoveres a new mole that Brian believes may be cancerous. Now Stewie spends the rest of the week doing things he’d never done before…things he’s always wanted to do before he died. But, of course, the mole is not cancerous.

Peter learns about being a bully after Chris gets beat up by a neighborhood kid who stole his paper route. Peter finds that being a bully is fun, and proceeds to bully everyone: his family, friends, and strangers. What had me dying was Peter chasing Meg backwards around the kitchen table, farting on her until she threw up and passed out on the floor.

And of course there’s the creepy old guy with the high voice who likes little boys. He gets creepier every episode…

Eventually, Peter learns that bullying is not okay…but only after he attempts to bully the man who bullied him as a child, but now has MS…and Chris stopped him and beat the crap out of him.

The moral of the story: Bullies are mean, tanning can kill you, and be nice to your friends.

Battlestar

The upcoming episode of Battlestar Galactica did not air tonight as previously mentioned. It is scheduled to air next Sunday, February 25 in it’s usual time slot.

Prestige vs. The Illusionist

I know I’ve dedicated my life to tv, but after having watched EVERYTHING on my DVR, and being a little disappointed that things didn’t turn out better with Logan and Veronica…and now that I think about it, I haven’t watched House yet, so not EVERYTHING on my DVR…

I watched The Prestige and The Illusionist. The Prestige isn’t out until this coming Tuesday, but I’m sure you know by now why I watched it today. With that said, I felt they were both fantastic movies, and competely different…and I’ve become obsessed. I didn’t think it so, but it happened.

Understand this: they are NOT the same movie, not at all…and yet they are. Both deal with magic…magicians, rather, and the art of the illusion. Fascinating, really. The only real difference is that The Prestige deals with the mechanics of the illusions, and The Illusionist deals with what we see as innocent bystanders.

Please do not compare the two, as they are both of excellent quality with fantastic actors and characters and complex storylines. And even though only one movie mentions the process by name, they both include “the Trick, the Turn, and the Prestige.” The Trick is what the audience sees, and what you profess to the audience about what is about to happen. The turn is when it happens, the audience sees it, but doesn’t clap because there HAS to be more…and the Prestige is in essence the finale, where whatever has disappeared has reappeared, and so forth. In The Prestige, all of that was painfully obvious because they kept mentioning and saying, “are you watching closely” and “are you paying attention.” As the audience, we try to rationalize what we’ve just seen and work through to understand how it possibly could have been truth, but stop because we like to be fooled.

In The Illusionist, the illusions appear to be real. There are no contraptions or machines to aid the illusion or trick, everything just appears to be as it is, but special.

I don’t wish to give away any spoilers to those who haven’t yet seen either movie, but fair warning, there are twists and turns along the way that will keep you guessing. And just when you think you’ve figured out the trick, you’ve got it completely wrong.

So, now, here I am Monday morning (technically…it’s 12:10 am), debating on whether or not to stay up until the wee hours and watch one or both again. The illusions and the tricks are what keep us coming back. So, it’s no wonder that I have the urgency to watch it again. And it’s not really about figuring it out either. It’s about the journey, and it’s about the discovery of something so simple that’s it’s complex and something so complex that it’s simple.

Please forgive my inherent obsessive personality, but it’s been a great long while since I’ve seen one good movie, let alone two…in a row. It is important for a great movie to have such an effect on its audience, and I really feel that this movie is great.