Linkspam and TV spam
Oct. 9th, 2013 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalLinks:
* Kyle Chandler is the reason we are not getting a Friday Night Lights movie, y'all. Not surprising, as he's said before that he thought the series ending was perfect.
* I'm not sure which part of this is stranger - that they are making a musical out of American Psycho, or that Matt Smith is playing the lead.
* Turns out Showtime wouldn't let the writers kill Dexter. Why am I not surprised?
* First song from Idina Menzel's new musical If/Then!
* Aaron Tveit is adorbs, as usual - and also busy, since he's got two movies coming out soon. That's my boy.
* So this is why Rob Lowe is leaving Parks and Recreation.
* Albuquerque Breaking Bad fans placed an obituary in the local paper for Walter White.
* Still finding the occasional Breaking Bad reaction post - this is a good one on the show's portrayal of "toxic masculinity."
* Here in the DC area, lots of people have been debating lately whether to change the football team's name, and finally someone asked actual Native Americans how they feel about it. It's a really good read, and pretty neatly illustrates the privilege inherent in even having the debate.
I've also been watching more fall premieres on TV. Here's how things shake out.
New shows: The Crazy Ones and The Michael J. Fox Show. Both caught my attention because of the star involved (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michael J. Fox, respectively), but neither is really living up to the actor's potential. I'll stick it out for a few more episodes, but I'm not too impressed.
Masters of Sex, on the other hand, is excellent, and you should be watching it. If you're unfamiliar, it's Showtime's new series about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, who pioneered research into human sexuality in the 1950s. It's not as obsessively ~period as, say, Mad Men, but Lizzy Caplan is fantastic as Virginia, and the show handles gender and sexuality issues with plenty of awareness and care. Easily my favorite new show of the season (though that's a pretty low bar).
The Originals... lol nope. I tried. If only for completion's sake, I figured I should check out the TVD spinoff, but unsurprisingly, all the things I disliked about the Originals on TVD is, like, times a million on their own show, and I really don't care about any of the new characters or the ~werebaby (lol). I am eternally thankful this show exists, because it gets them OFF MY SHOW, but I don't think I'll be tuning in unless I hear really great things down the line.
Returning shows: Well, Revenge and Scandal are back to their hilariously OTT melodrama. Revenge seems to be taking the "lol let's pretend S2 never happened" approach, which I can't say I mind. These are my "turn off your brain" shows, so as long as they keep being fun, I'll keep watching.
I liked quite a lot about the Vampire Diaries premiere, thought other parts of it were LOL, but honestly it's too early to tell where this is going just yet. Parks and Recreation, The Good Wife, and Parenthood continue to be solid. Homeland is also too early to call, but other than refusing to jettison the Brody family, seems to be correcting a lot of what was wrong with S2.
What are you watching? Anything good that I'm missing?
* Kyle Chandler is the reason we are not getting a Friday Night Lights movie, y'all. Not surprising, as he's said before that he thought the series ending was perfect.
* I'm not sure which part of this is stranger - that they are making a musical out of American Psycho, or that Matt Smith is playing the lead.
* Turns out Showtime wouldn't let the writers kill Dexter. Why am I not surprised?
* First song from Idina Menzel's new musical If/Then!
* Aaron Tveit is adorbs, as usual - and also busy, since he's got two movies coming out soon. That's my boy.
* So this is why Rob Lowe is leaving Parks and Recreation.
* Albuquerque Breaking Bad fans placed an obituary in the local paper for Walter White.
* Still finding the occasional Breaking Bad reaction post - this is a good one on the show's portrayal of "toxic masculinity."
* Here in the DC area, lots of people have been debating lately whether to change the football team's name, and finally someone asked actual Native Americans how they feel about it. It's a really good read, and pretty neatly illustrates the privilege inherent in even having the debate.
I've also been watching more fall premieres on TV. Here's how things shake out.
New shows: The Crazy Ones and The Michael J. Fox Show. Both caught my attention because of the star involved (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michael J. Fox, respectively), but neither is really living up to the actor's potential. I'll stick it out for a few more episodes, but I'm not too impressed.
Masters of Sex, on the other hand, is excellent, and you should be watching it. If you're unfamiliar, it's Showtime's new series about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, who pioneered research into human sexuality in the 1950s. It's not as obsessively ~period as, say, Mad Men, but Lizzy Caplan is fantastic as Virginia, and the show handles gender and sexuality issues with plenty of awareness and care. Easily my favorite new show of the season (though that's a pretty low bar).
The Originals... lol nope. I tried. If only for completion's sake, I figured I should check out the TVD spinoff, but unsurprisingly, all the things I disliked about the Originals on TVD is, like, times a million on their own show, and I really don't care about any of the new characters or the ~werebaby (lol). I am eternally thankful this show exists, because it gets them OFF MY SHOW, but I don't think I'll be tuning in unless I hear really great things down the line.
Returning shows: Well, Revenge and Scandal are back to their hilariously OTT melodrama. Revenge seems to be taking the "lol let's pretend S2 never happened" approach, which I can't say I mind. These are my "turn off your brain" shows, so as long as they keep being fun, I'll keep watching.
I liked quite a lot about the Vampire Diaries premiere, thought other parts of it were LOL, but honestly it's too early to tell where this is going just yet. Parks and Recreation, The Good Wife, and Parenthood continue to be solid. Homeland is also too early to call, but other than refusing to jettison the Brody family, seems to be correcting a lot of what was wrong with S2.
What are you watching? Anything good that I'm missing?
no subject
Date: Oct. 10th, 2013 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 22nd, 2013 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 10th, 2013 06:40 am (UTC)Network interference: never a good idea. Though to be fair, it's not like the writers had been doing a stellar show that the network just ~ruined.
The Crazy Ones and The Michael J. Fox Show. Both caught my attention because of the star involved (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michael J. Fox, respectively), but neither is really living up to the actor's potential.
Yeah, I watched the first few episodes of both and then dropped them.
What are you watching? Anything good that I'm missing?
I've been watching The Blacklist. I'm waiting to see if the plot twist is going to be the expected plot twist or an unexpected plot twist.
no subject
Date: Oct. 22nd, 2013 06:38 pm (UTC)Yeah, true. I mean, if the episode had just ended with Dexter dying in the hurricane, it wouldn't have been any better (though it would be significantly less LOLtastic than Dexter the Sad Lumberjack).
no subject
Date: Oct. 11th, 2013 06:22 am (UTC)the show that was once thought to be predicated on the suspense that its character might end up dead or in jail, until we all realized it was really about the suspense of whether he’d get to be in love or in the lumberyard.
God bless AV Club.
That Breaking Bad article about masculinity was so on point. LOVED everything the author said about Jesse being the ultimate example of the toxicity of masculine standards. I think I have a kinder view of the conclusion to Walt's story, though. IMO it's pretty significant that Walt went out while saving Jesse, which is... kind of the antithesis of his original plan to ~go out like a man -- and his need to dominate everyone around him, generally. Walt essentially dying in Jesse's place was justice.
I AM BEING HARASSED ABOUT WATCHING THE ORIGINALS FOR THE SUPPOSEDLY CANON KLAUS/REBEKAH. WILL REPORT BACK.
no subject
Date: Oct. 22nd, 2013 07:00 pm (UTC)I don't know. I mean, in the end, Walt still gets to be the one calling the shots, doesn't he? He decides whether Jesse lives or dies by saving him. And he always expected to die in that shootout, so it's not like he ~sacrificed himself to save Jesse. Even offering Jesse the chance to kill him is still trying to do things on his terms (which Jesse finally recognized and called him on).
At the same time, though, it does set up Jesse's small victory over this toxic masculinity - in refusing to kill Walt, refusing to give in to the desire for revenge - rejecting the power he's offered because he knows it is toxic and ultimately meaningless.
LMAO I was tempted to watch the second ep of The Originals just to see the Klebekah canon. It was not worth it. I officially quit this show.