A different look at Heroes

A and I have an interesting relationship… he’s my work friend, and we’ve hung out, gone to lunch, and whatnot.  And we talk TV.  That is the bedrock upon which our friendship was founded.  A love for good TV.  The first week I met him, he loaned me the Firefly series and Serenity.  And I loved it (even thinking about buying it on iTunes so I can watch it on my iPod).

Anyhoo, one of the bonding shows we have right now is Heroes.  He sent me this recap from EW that takes a little bit of a different insight into this new season, and I can’t say I don’t agree.  Take a look.

I watch enough TV, I don’t need to watch that show

And you should know by now, gentle readers, that I’m talking about Fringe.

Honestly, I tried.  I’m a FOX girl.  My internal default setting is FOX.  I’m loyal to the station, and I love the dramas.  And it’s home to House, Bones and Prison Break. 

I tried.  I gave it 3 episodes.  A real chance.  But it just couldn’t win me over.  Even my TV boyfriend (formerly the one and only Pacey Witter) Joshua Jackson couldn’t bring me back.

And it’s not that it’s a bad show.  It’s actually pretty good.  It appears to be well written, and it takes place in Boston, which couldn’t be cooler.

But when you don’t pause it when you get up to do something else, or freak out when the commercials are over because you might miss something,  I think it’s a bad sign for the show.

It’s trying to be the X-files without being the X-files.  The whole premise behind it is experiments and “Fringe Science.”  Which is pretty cool, especially when dealing with astral projection, or genetic mutations or anything else that may seem weird on this show.  But the writers keep going back to one thing: past experiments.  Apparently, they are having a hard time finding reasons for what is going on, so they default to, Oh, this was an experiment we did 30 years ago, and it’s come back to haunt us.  Um, no.

The only thing that will save this show is if they steer away from the past experiments thing.  Deal with what is happening today.  There MUST be a new experiment, or something unsavory or morally wrong going on in TV land for them to work with. 

I just don’t know yet.  I will be watching tonite… but mostly because there isn’t anything else on that I need to watch.

Weevil and Veronica reunite on Heroes

Finally, I have the chance to sit back and write a review of the first few episodes of Heroes.

To be perfectly honest, for  me (being a Veronica Mars fan, especially), was the best part of the Heroes premiere.

Let me put it this way: After last season, I was expecting a solid first-season reminiscent opener.  But we didn’t get that at all.  And it’s not that it was dull.  There were a few things I didn’t like about it… and a few things that really made me think.

Firstly (and make a list in a bit), I didn’t like that they still aren’t done starting the story.  In two hours, I feel that there should have been a lot more being covered.  And maybe that’s just me. 

Here goes… what I loved about the first 2 episodes:

• Weevil and Veronica’s stunning reuinion!  Those of you who have not seen Veronica Mars don’t know that I am referring to the Francis Capra and Kristen Bell scene in the second part of the episode.  Francis Capra plays an “inmate” and all around bad-dude named Jesse. 
• Hiro…. I’ve always loved Hiro.  I don’t like his nemesis… some blond chick who is really fast.  But it cracks me up every time Hiro encounters her and says, “Ah, my nemesis.”  Too funny.
• The Haitian is back.  It was good to see him back in the second episode.  And the previews for next week are looking good, and the Haitian looks like he will be coming back into play as Noah’s partner.

What I didn’t love:

• Mohinder’s storyline.  Apparently, he’s slowly becoming Spiderman.  I guess the only saving grace for him at this point is if he starts losing his powers.  It will create a whole new layer to the story.
• Nikki is dead, that we all figured.  Especially after the explosion last season.  But she was laid up in a coffin in a house with Micah, for lord knows how long.  That has a certain creep factor.
• Peter and Nathan’s mother being the mother of EVERYONE.  Allegedly, she is Sylar’s biological mother and gave him up for adoption when he was young… perhaps explaining why he was confused and lonely most of his life and had the need to understand, and killed his adopted mother.
• Sylar being partner to Noah.  “One of us, one of them,” Noah said.  But still… It has the potential to be badly.  The saving grace to that is Noah is an expert manipulator, so by him telling Sylar to stay put, he knew Sylar would come to the rescue.
• Battle of the mothers.  Claire’s adopted mom and Claire’s real mom are at odds.  They had a great scene between the two where the adopted mom showed her dominance… but a few scenes later, Claire was off and about with her birth mom.  Sure, they have something in common, but what happened to actual family?

What confuses me, that may or may not be explained later:

• Future Peter and Past Peter… If Future Peter was able to put Past Peter into the body of an inmate, why didn’t Past Peter pick up those abilities?  And where did Future Peter learn those abilities?  And shouldn’t Past Peter be able to absorb them while Future Peter is using them?
• What is going on with Tracy Strauss, Nikki’s look-a-like?  Is she a clone?  Was she created with abilities?  Does that mean all the “heroes” were created? 
• What is the formula for?
• If Past Peter was in Jesse’s body, does he absorb his abilities?  While Future Peter was pushing him out and while Jesse was using his ability, did Past Peter absorb it then?
• Where’s Elle?

Well, I suppose that will do it for the moment.  I’m sure I’ll think of other things later on…  And there are more than a few things that I have to wrap my head around.

Umm…. What???

Wait… slow down!  What the bloody hell is  going on???

I watched Bones last night and all I did was have WTF moments.

Zack returned for this episode to help with a case.  He “escaped” from the looney bin. 

And the kicker to this episode… (SPOILER alert)

Zack didn’t kill anybody!  No, seriously.  He didn’t.  Not now.  Not then.  Never.  He confessed to the shrink in the end that he was not a killer, but he told the killer where to find the victim… and the rest is history.  Making Zack an accessory to murder.

“Hodgins assures me that I would not do well in prison,” Zack said at the very end, explaining why he took full blame for murder.  Looks like he got off easy.

Makes me think he’ll be back later in the season as a vital character once again.

I knew they wouldn’t get rid of him, and I knew he wouldn’t be gone so easily. 

But I’m still proccessing the episode right now… So I’ll post more specific thoughts later.

Things that annoy me right now…

And these are in no particular order…

*Snoring… Because believe it or not, I can’t sleep in the bed, let alone the same room as a snorer. I pretty much want to stab them in the eye for keeping me up.

*1-ply toilet paper… I’m sorry, but this just should not exist.

*Being attacked by a giant bug right before you leave the movie theater. Yes, that was NOT cool.

*Movies that make you think. While normally this is a good thing, sometimes having to decide between 2 morally unacceptable things a character did, and which was the better of the 2. Makes things harder. Racism, or the abuse of power. Not as easy a choice as it looks.

I’m sure there are other things out there that annoy me, but for the moment this is it.

The Cellphone Crisis

I just read an article from the LA Times about cellphones on TV and in movies.  It has some interesting points about how creating stories involving cellphones or surrounding cellphones has been more and more difficult.

Personally, I can see them being used more in some shows, and from what I can see, they are being tastefully, and cleverly dealt with.

One show that pokes fun at it from time to time is How I Met Your Mother.  In Sweet Taste of Liberty, an episode early in the first seaon, the cellphone play is heavy.  The very first scene opens with Ted on the phone with Barney, and Lilly on the phone with Robin.  Ted and Barney are engaging in hand gestures over the phone, which decidely did not work, and 2 seconds later, Barney pulls up in a cab.

Later in the same epsidoe, Barney is trying to demonstrate being on the same page or his eyes being on you, and he sends pictures via text message to Marshall to convince him that coming to Philly would be fun.  Both scenes are incredibly hilarious.  And well done.  They don’t come off as awkward or cliche. 

In The Pineapple Incident, drunk Ted starts drunk dialing Robin, in a few pretty funny scenes.  My favorite being Ted dancing to Cheap Trick into his cellphone to Robin, then promptly falling off and spraining his ankle.  In that episode, he leaves Robin severarl drunk messages which are insanely annoying, but the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

But perhaps the best cellphone scenes I’ve seen are in Moving Day, where Barney steals Ted’s moving truck, and calls his cell, disguising his voice. 

So they’re not boring… by an turn of the phrase.  That doesn’t mean the cliches won’t start piling up eventually.  But adapting has to be creative.

Bones has done a great job in keeping things different and out of the ordinary, cellphone wise.  They like to use computers, and possibly their webcams to communicate.  It provides a way to experience the evidence as it is before anything is moved, and allows for more personal, face to face communication.  That alone is priceless.  A moment between Angela and Brennan would not have the same effect over the phone as it would with them looking at each other.  It gets funny when people get too close to the camera… or there is a character that requires a personal moment, but can’t always acheive that because of the other people standing and watching. 

So, I have complete and total faith in things going forward, and I will have to keep those things in mind in creating my own scripts.

90210 in Sunnydale?

Well, all of my worst fears have been confirmed.  APPARENTLY, the location of Sunnydale High, aka Torrance High School, will be the primary location for the new 90210 season.  Torrance High will transform into West Beverly High.

What’s even funnier is that Torrance High was formerly West Beverly High during the original airings of Beverly Hills 90210.  What a small world.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  But I guess now I’ll have to watch the show for a bit.  I’ll give it 3 episodes and take it from there.

As a loyal fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s easy for me to be annoyed at this new development.  But considering Torrance was the home of the original 90210, I guess I can’t be annoyed.

This was a pretty busy high school in the 90’s.

I’m posting about Prison Break again…

…because it’s the really one of the only new shows on TV this week.  Or at least last night.  House and Fringe are new tonite, so yay!

But Prison Break is starting to impress me again.  It’s really starting to feel like the first season, where I’m on the edge of my seat, and getting pissed off and stressed out because the episode ended just as something HUGE was about to happen.

Granted, there is still a looong way to go.  And a lot of ground to make up for.  And it’s definitely a different show than when they started, although I’m noticing a few references back to Fox River.  Which is awesome.  I’m actually planning on picking up the first season again and going back through it, because it was definitely great.  I can’t believe it was supposed to only last one season, and here we are… four years later… and they’re still going.

My favorite part about this, aside from Michael Rappaport being a bit sketchy and no one really knowing what side he’s supposed to be on, is Cress Williams who has done episode stints on both Veronica Mars and Grey’s Anatomy.  On Prison Break, he plays a hitman, who killed Mahone’s son, Sarah’s family friend, and is now after Sarah.  He really is brilliant.  And mean.  And scary.

So what’s up for tonite?  The premiere of House and a new episode of Fringe.  You know where I’ll be.

‘Tis the Season

I’m having a hard time getting through this birthday season.  It’s actually harder than I thought it would be this year.

You see, September beings the rush of the holiday season for me.  Well, in my family.  It starts September 10th with my Dad’s birthday, then comes my older brother which is today (September 15th).  October is rounded out with Mom’s on the 10th.  And then there’s mine, November 3rd.  Of course, following all of that is Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

Not only has it been difficult shopping so far for my brother and Pops, but I’m generally feeling depressed.  We are encroaching on the anniversary of my horrid breakup with the ex.  So, naturally, I’m thinking a lot about the good times, and the awful times, flipping back and forth between whether the good times were good enough to have made it a good relationship, or were the bad times just to bad.

Anyway.  I got to thinking about my birthday last year, and how it was probably the hardest I’ve ever had.  I never realized turning 25 would be so difficult.  I literally cried for the entire week leading up to it.  And not for any particular reason.  Or at least not one that I can remember.  And in thinking about the hardest birthday ever, I started thinking about the best birthday I’ve ever had.  Which was 22.

A few years ago, a year after getting engaged, and mere months after moving in together, Mike and I were cohabitating, and quite well, if you ask me.  Life could not have been better.  I was depressed about the birthday, but I was excited that my family would be coming up to see me.  I worked at a bank at the time, and had to work that day (I don’t think I’ve ever taken my birthday off from work…).  Mike stayed home, took the night off from work, and spent the entire day at home with the cat decorating.  He put up a birthday sign, and streamers, and blew up balloons.  And it was incredible.  He even went out and bought that fun flavored Smirnoff stuff that I love.  And it was great.

My family came over, and we got Chinese food.  And we laughed and had a good time.  And by the end of the night, I was nearly drunk and giggling, and so glad I didn’t have to drive anywhere afterwards.  I don’t remember what gifts I got (other than an iPod, which MIke bought me that year… back when he was generous, and we were in love), but the only thing that mattered was that we were together.

It’s hard to think about how good that day was.  In retrospect, that was probably one of the hilights of the relationship, when we were actually getting along.

And here I am.  Four years later.  Living in my parents attic with my cat, until I can save up enough to get my own place.  Alone.  It’s hard.  And sometimes I regret taking the cat with me.  I often think that maybe that cat would have been better off staying with Mike.  But at the same time, I couldn’t live without my cat.  He’s the love of my life.  Really.  Aside from my family, the cat is the one of the only things that matter to me in life.  Once upon a time, it used to be Mike. 

Things went badly very quickly, and here I am.  I think I’m a stronger person for leaving.  I’m a stronger person for surviving.  I’m a much different person than I was 4 years ago.  I’m a different person than I was a year ago.  Things are hard.  Life is hard.  But I’ll be okay.  I AM okay.

But it’s hard.

What do you do when your IQ drops 10 points?

Not sure, actually. 

It was pretty weird.  D and I went to the movies, as went our usual routine.  We pretty much do the same thing every weekend, but I’m a creature of habit, so I like routine.

So, D and I went to the movies.  Friday night, we saw Righteous Kill which was that DeNiro/Pacino flick, and OMG was it good.  It felt like it was going to be predictable, but at the last possible moment, there was a twist that made me go WTF?!  But it was good.  And my IQ didn’t change from watching that movie.

Saturday, D’s nephew had a birthday party, which we were obligated to attend, which was fine.  He’s 3, so there were a lot of little kids, and a lot of parents, and it was just boring after awhile.  So after cake, we went to the movies again.  And we saw Burn After Reading.  The tagline of the movie is “Intelligence is Relative,” which couldn’t have been more appropriate.  In the first ten minutes of the movie, my IQ started dropping, and by the time the movie was over, I literally sat in the theater open-mouthed, again thinking WTF.

It was bad, per se… but it wasn’t good either.  It had its moments of funny.  But not really funny, more like the dumb, I can’t believe this is happening funny. 

Basically, everybody was sleeping with everybody else.  And the CIA doesn’t  care about its Agents and former Agents doing anything dangerous.  Meaning, if you are an analyst with the CIA and they fire you, whatever information you may have doesn’t matter… so if you kill someone, the big guns are just going to brush it off and get rid of the body.

I have no words.  Like I said, it was funny… but I left the theater with a lower IQ than I went in with.

Do I reccomend seeing this movie?  Not sure.  If you’re in the mood for mindless drivel, absolutely!  But if you would like to maintain your sense of intelligence, I would not suggest seeing this movie.

Try something else.

The best part about Burn After Reading was Brad Pitt being one of those hyper gym staff workers who bikes everywhere and LOVES Jamba Juice… AND the simple fact that he was shot in the head point blank a little more than halfway through the movie.

And also, George Clooney being a womanizer.  What else is new?

All in all, it was a so-so movie weekend.