Alert! Hulu shows!!

Wire in the Blood: rad BBC procedural

Faerie Tale Theatre: rad 80’s theatrical productions

The Avengers: 60’s super sleuths, of course

Felix the Cat

Raines: totally underappreciated cancelled procedural

Review: M

Well, what I saw of it was awesome. I have to admit that I fell asleep like an hour into the movie but, really, up until that point was really good and scary! I think it was just after my bedtime or something.

Review: Klute

Once I was able to get over Jane Fonda’s brutal haircut I found that it was as I had expected – it’s a good movie, Donald Sutherland is really cool, and Jane Fonda is not as irritating as I had imagined. AND not totally dated – I was actually ill at ease during the scary scenes!

Review: True Blood

Once again the Vampire thing. I hate to even say the word. It’s such an obvious freudian symbol – like guys who buy fast cars. That being said this show is rad. Now I won’t say that I haven’t at times totally failed to cover a snigger or two at some of the dialogue but, hey, as long as you don’t take it TOO seriously it’s all in good fun. And it’s WAY better acted than certain other vampire blockbusters out there I might mention. Or maybe it’s not the acting either way. Maybe it’s just got a better director. Regardless it’s got everything: swamps, scantilly clad ingenues, mind control, black oppression, jesus, drug dealers… everything you need for a good soapy hour of escapism. Plus the opening credits put you in the perfect crazy mood. It’s like David Lynch doing a tv show about vampires. Perfect.

Review: White Collar

Ok now I’m completely hooked on this show. It might be the adorable star, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer). But it CAN’T just be the adorable star because I even like Tiffani (Amber) Theissen and I NEVER expected that. And Special Agent Peter Burke ( Tim DeKay) is an excellent foil for all of that smooth, wide-eyed-ness that Neal Caffrey does all the time. It’s stylish and and smart and that’s all I really feel I need to say about it except I watched everything on Hulu and they should make me some more. Oh and Dihann Carroll is totally unstoppable!

Review: Unscripted

I have to admit here that I can’t stand actors. I’m not saying that there aren’t exceptions who are totally rad and down to earth and perfectly ok to date but, as a general rule, I’d say actors (and musicians) are at the bottom of my list of people I’d like to talk to. My opinion is based on years of experience but, as I said, it’s just my opinion. However I believe it will inevitably and completely skew my opinion on any movie or tv show or book that is created with the actors experience in mind. I should have known better -  I should have just clicked past it but the word “CLOONEY” floated through my field of vision and I just immediately moved the show to the top of my Netflix queue.  Not even Clooney though can make me care about the lives of actors I don’t know and actor-centric inside jokes just make me nauseous. Of course I’m sure it’s just GREAT for people who’re actually actors because I bet they can see the truth in every gesture. For me though, as someone who spent too many years dealing with actors egos, it’s just geometrically more annoying to watch a tv show about what it is to be an actor – it’s ABOUT them AND FOR them. But that’s just me with my little growing-up-in-Southern-California issues which I’m sure I’d be able to make some really great progress on if I just used that rage productively… like in a scene or something… No way man! I’ll never drink that acting kool-aid!

ps. Lots of love goes out to all my actor friends. I know you work hard. This isn’t about you. You’re great.

Review: Pulling

This show is totally rad. Everyone in the show is totally believable and totally talented and totally totally crazy. Anytime you start to feel a little insecure about the trashiness of your family or how badly you handle difficult situations or how you’re failing to progress like real adults are supposed to all you have to do is watch this show and you will immediately feel better about everything. The characters are amazingly flawed – for example, one “lady” is arrested after the cop finds her a. naked from the waist down, b. eating the discarded food she found in a telephone booth in which she, c., took a dump the previous night. This may sound bleak to some and her particular character is definitely hanging on by a thread (did I mention she’s a teacher?) but I really enjoy how completely unglamorous these ladies are and, surprisingly, the comedic timing is so fast and their snappy patter is so fast that you sort of just get caught up in the whirlwind of rediculousness without being weighed down by “reality”. So your mother is dating a teenager? And she dresses up like a hooker? And you had to bail her out of jail? And since he dumped her she needs a place to live?! Excellent!

Review: Black Books

Ok this is based on watching the first 5 minutes of the very first episode which is always bad and I KNOW (I know!) that it’s a great show and all and that it’s right up my alley and, really, if it wasn’t for that heinous laugh track I probably would really like the show after they get over their first episode jitters but, for now, I can’t do it. No. Same thing goes for Little Britain except less so because I think you have to be British to enjoy that show and I’m not so I just couldn’t stand it. Agg!! I have a genetic predisposition to like things with “Black” in the title but, no, not this. Not right now. Maybe later.

Review: Twilight

Well,…

There is at least one thing going against the book on which this movie was based.

1. the horribly long, unnecessarily drawn out discussions about unrequited blah blah blah. I swear I could have blacked out 50 % of the 498 pages and it would have been perfectly alright.

Additionally, the movie itself has a couple of things that are really really bad.

1. Most of the actors, I’m sorry to say, are terrible.
2. The special effects only detract from the story.
3. and, hence, there’s no fear whatsoever of the giant amounts of danger stalking Bella.

However…

And I’m being honest here…

I can’t get enough of it.

Here are some reasons:

1. I really like the REST of the book.
2. I’ve spent time in that part of the country and I think both the writer and the director(s) really got what’s great about it.
3. Some of the actors are really good/great
4. The movie soundtracks are amazing and the music is timed perfectly to really punch up the action
5. In certain ways the teenage-me can really identify with Bella
6. Taylor Lautner is totally adorable in real life
7. everyone likes Vampire movies

I have talked to a high school friend at length about this whole phenomenon and what it says about us that we LOVE this stuff. We’re both intelligent practical adults who happily left behind adolescence and everything it entails without looking back. I guess however that there will always be that part of us that never gets over high school and is always that youthful innocent before we learned how everything REALLY is. But, at some point, in order to really embrace the responsibilities of adulthood, we all had to stop indulging our romantic fantasies and really buckle down with our noses to grindstones etc.

I guess I know I am not alone in feeling this conflicted but I think Dana Stevens from Slate  argues eloquently in the pro-Twilight column this way – “a true juicebomb, by definition, requires no defense”. Life is just too short for us to channel Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins all the time and never again indulge that bright, youthful, romantic part of ourselves.

Review: Murder Party

Charming little horror movie though the best parts were the non-horror parts; my next cat will definitely be named Sir Lancelot and there’s now a small part of me that wants to try extreme truth or dare. That’s all I’ll say.