A Statement About the Kissing

In an attempt to be less lame, I am now going to write about kissing and television.

Why? Perhaps because it's going to be a while before I am next kissed .

Or perhaps just because this is my blog, and I can.

I was once again watching The Good Wife this morning-- it really has become my go-to "I need to wake up now, but I need to watch something first so I don't kill someone" show. I only have one ep left to catch up on, so next week should be interesting.

SPOILER ALERT. Or whatever. This morning was the episode entitled Heart, which garnered buzz for the leaps and bounds it made in terms of plot development, and also because it was a sort-of cliffhanger episode before the show's spring mini-break. Will and Alicia finally kissed.

Well, I told you spoiler alert, didn't I?! Now I know I haven't gone into a lot of the details and stuff on this show, but let me clarify: Will and Alicia are not married. He is her boss, and though she is very junior to him on the totem pole due to years off raising her family, they were at Georgetown together, and they had a thing. I don't know what kind of thing, because the writers are keeping it very closely under wraps, but it was a thing nonetheless. And finally during an emotional case, they couldn't take it anymore, and they KISSED.

Have I mentioned her husband was just released from prison and is under house arrest in their home? OK, good.

So maybe this post is less about kissing, and more about plot pacing. Here's the thing: in the emotional post-kiss meeting between Will and Alicia, where the words "I'm married" and "I can't because of the kids" are mercifully left un-uttered (yay avoiding cliche! woohoo!), Will says the most revelatory thing about their prior relationship to date. Something along the lines of "We have bad timing, Alicia. We always have bad timing."

We know that Alicia's husband is something less than thrilled that she's again working with Will, and the two men have had two direct interactions that were more-or-less Awkward Central-- once pre-kiss when Peter answered Alicia's forgotten-at-home cell phone, and once immediately post kiss when Will came to their home to ask Peter for a favor. Peter, of course, has no idea that the kiss has occurred.

And there is another telling moment. Peter has slept with prostitutes. He and Alicia are still trying to figure out how they can put their marriage back together. Now that Peter's home, he was looking for a letter opener in Alicia's bedside drawer, and he found condoms. Then he had a little conniption because she had her IUD removed and WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? And something curious happens. She plays righteous betrayed wife (as she should), but he makes an implication... That perhaps she had cheated on him (or had come close to cheating on him) before. Like, 20 years ago. With Will.

But there's pacing, and an aim for a multi-season show with depth and characters and a serious avoidance of soap opera antics. Which they have seriously managed to avoid so far. Seriously. They're not going to tell us everything we want/need to know right now or even soon. The show at least attempts to exist in the real world (slight melodrama aside) and these things don't always come out all at once. Especially when the characters themselves presumably already know their own history. It's called showing, not telling. It should be noted, though, that this does not keep me from wantingtoknoweverythingrightnow. Right. Now.

Will Alicia and Will get together? Do I even want them to, given that I actually do like Peter, and I want to see if it's in him to be a better man for her? And will someone please write a romance novel modelled on this plotline? Immediately?

KThanks.

A Statement About My Lameness. And The Good Wife. And Anything Else I Can Think Of.

I am lame.

Most of you already knew this, but I feel at this juncture that it's something I should confess in a full-disclosure-kinda-way. I can barely keep up with my reading, and as previously noted, I don't necessarily care about the TV watching. Also, I haven't watched a movie in... well... a while.

"So," you ask, irritated. "WTF are you doing here? And why do you have a blog in which you declare yourself to be 'The Movie Girl?'"

"Shut up," I reply.

I have been alternating my viewing experiences between my Buffy marathon (though I'm now well ensconced in the season 6/7 darkness and can only handle it in limited doses) and The Good Wife, which is as excellent and quality and compelling as has been widely reported. The court cases are borderline lame, and honestly it would be nice if she lost one once in a while, but the characters are magnificent, and this is nothing if not a character driven show.

My favorite character is Kalinda Sharma, the law firm investigator who is one part Jack Bristow, two parts James Ford. In a skirt and boots. She's tough, mysterious, loyal, and capable of getting anyone to talk about just about anything. Amazing.

Obviously we really love Juliana Marguiles and Josh Charles, but I didn't know how much I love them together. Chemistry! Loveliness! And a perfectly paced relationship! Hooray! And, having never jumped on the Sex and the City bandwagon, I haven't been sure about Chris Noth and his awesomeness, but I am now fully convinced. And is it weird that I have a little crush on him? Not a Mr. Big crush, a State's Attorney Florrick crush. Hmm...

Speaking of Josh Charles, I have been doing a mini Sports Night marathon as well-- every time I sit down to watch that show I am reminded of a) the 90s and b) just how amazing all of those actors are. Most of them have gone on to bigger and better, (or at least, bigger better Sorkin), but there is something about the chemistry of them all together that remains remarkable even a decade later.

I suppose that's all I have for the moment. Aren't you glad you joined me today?

A Statement About Me Being Late to the Party. Per Usual.

I think I have officially given up on television.

And now I have to clarify, because considering that my last post was about Lost, you realize that that statement cannot be as absolute as it first appears.

Here's the thing: watching shows when they air on television is kind of stupid, inconvenient, and a waste of time. The fact that I have to adapt my increasingly erratic schedule to when the networks deem is the proper time for me to watch a show (and they show such excellent judgment-- I'm looking at you, NBC) is just... not cool.

So this is what people have been talking about ever since the Writers Strike and the AMPTP announcement that there was no proof that alternate media would prove viable and monetarily fantasmagorical. The AMPTP, I think we can all agree, was incredibly, stupidly short-sighted in this regard.

No one watches every show they love in the original time that it airs anymore. Between the much more important and time-sensitive matters in people's lives and the counter-programming of the aforementioned favorite shows against each other (Hi Lost and American Idol. Sorry, AI. I'm done with you for the season because you'll actually be back next year), it's simply impossible to watch everything as it airs.

I personally have not seen my favorite shows on television since I returned home from The West. Thursday nights are one of my only "quiet" nights of the week, and sitting down to really enjoy an ep of 30 Rock and The Office is just not in the cards. Why am I not freaking out about this? Because Hulu exists. And if the eps start disappearing off of there, iTunes sells them for $1.99. And if I am still not in that much of a rush, they're on my pre-pre-order list on Amazon. We don't live in the time of "if you miss it on television, you'll have to try to catch it in reruns." We live in the time of "I'll definitely see it one way or another."

Which brings me to my final piece of wisdom for the day: New shows. I recently saw a Tweet by a romance author (apologies-- I don't remember which one) who said that she uses the lapsed time between the release of a book in hardcover and its release in E-Format to read the reviews and to decide if she really wants to read the book. I feel the same about television shows. I'm not going to commit myself to something that's a) going to get cancelled after 5 episodes or b) could have an amazing pilot and nothing else going for it before knowing what I'm getting in to. I just finally downloaded The Good Wife, because it's now a well established fact that it's a kick-ass show and will be picked up for next year.

So who cares if I'm a little late?

A Statement About Lost (and the Oscars. Sort of.)

It's been a while, movie friends! I should be writing about the Oscars, and explaining the reasons I didn't live-blog (I started, really I did... but then I just wanted to watch the show. Is that such a crime?), and the reasons I didn't post my picks (I just wasn't that into it... and then everyone who was supposed to win, won. How interesting is that?). So instead of trying to push through a post that I'm not interested in writing and you're not interested in reading (after all, the Oscars were over a week ago), I'm going to take a minute to write about Lost.

Yes, that's right. Lost.

You know, that of the "Final Season," mind-frak glory. Firstly and foremost I want to address my biggest issue with this last great season:

Tuesdays? Really??

I get it. ABC has a great new comedy lineup on Wednesdays, and Lost didn't do so well that one time they pushed it to 10pm. But I want to go on the record and say that Lost does not air on Tuesday nights. It's not a Tuesday night show. If they had done this in the earlier days it would have been cancelled for lack of viewership. The only reason this works now is because we're all so hooked, we'll watch or record it if it's on at 2pm on Saturdays. It just needs to be said, though, that Lost is not a show that belongs on Tuesdays.

It's been a slow start to the season. The flash sideways is interesting and weird-- I think it's safe to say that all of our characters who were touched by Jacob are living their lives differently from the moment he touched them. What's fascinating though is the difference and presence of the other characters who were not touched. At least, not that we know of. Obviously there is such a thing as the butterfly effect, and obviously the ones he touched are "candidates" (except Kate...?) but it's weird to see everyone else show up as well with drastically altered futures.

Which is almost too convenient. I get that seeing these lives intersect "no matter what" is important to the show and to the general mythology, but it's getting old. It's not surprising or fun at this point to see Charlotte show up in Sawyer's flash-sideways... Surprising to see Charlotte, yes. Surprising to see a familiar face? No.

There also needs to be a moment taken in memory of John Locke. Whoever this smoke dude is in no way makes up for the loss of a complex and compelling character. He was occasionally annoying and grating, but John Locke was a great man. And let's also say that Terry O'Quinn is an amazing actor-- there are not a lot of people who could pull off that kind of switcheroo.

I have complete and utter trust in Team Darlton (Carlmon?), but there are only 8 episodes left, and I'm ready for some answers. On a Wednesday or Thursday night. Maybe next weeks Richard-centric episode will open the can of worms...

But it's still on Tuesday night, dammit.

A Statement About the Golden Globes

Happy Award Season, everyone! I'm going to give live blogging the Golden Globes a shot this evening (while making chocolate chip cookies!), so... readysteadygo.

Thoughts before the show: How painful is the NBC pre-show? All I really had to see was Natalie Morales identify Samuel L. Jackson as "the bad guy" in Iron Man, and I knew we were in trouble. I'm currently taking bets on the number of Conan references, and could not be more excited about Ricky. Oh wait! It's starting...

*Ricky starts by slamming Steve Carell... woooo!

*The Office versus The Office. Glorious. Gervais can't decide which one he wants to promote more... Let's face it, no matter which one you watch, he's getting piles of money.

*NBC slam #1! Yessssssss.

*Masturbation jokes in the top half hour. Love it.

*"Let's get on with it before NBC replaces me with Jay Leno."

*Mo'nique gets the first award, and the first standing O. I guess this means the Oscar is hers to lose.

*Sofia Vergara and Matthew Fox?! Holy hot presenters, Batman!

*Toni Colette for the win! I think I'm doing really badly in the office pool at this point. I'm a little surprised it's not Lea Michele, to be honest... the Globes have a history of honoring longshot first-timers. And Toni is cute, but I'm tired of seeing her win things.

...aaaaaaand we're at the first commercial break. So far, so... boring?

PS- loving Evangeline Lilly in the L'Oreal commercials.

*Jim Parsons and Lauren Graham presenting together? Ausiello's in HEAVEN.

*Did Jeremy Piven get plugs?!

*John Lithgow. For the record, I have officially lost the office pool. And when on EARTH is NPH going to get a little love? I mean, for realsies. (However, Lithgow does know how to give a speech)

*Paul McCartney is a rock star-- in the "what a cool mo'fo" kinda way. Yay UP!

*Ohhhhh, The Invention of Lying. Have I mentioned that Gervais is killing it?

*Felicity Huffman is very nervous. Almost as nervous as I am about her body mass. But she looks pretty.

*Well, I'll give them this... they know how to pair presenters. Jane Krakowski and NPH! Woot!

*What is on Michael C. Hall's head? AND WHY DID HE JUST BEAT JON HAMM?? I really might stop watching.

*What is on January Jone's head? Perhaps we'll have themed winners (pleasepleaseplease?). NO. Juliana Marguiles. Who is gorgeous and whom we love. But why am I doing so badly at this?!

*Nice slam JM. 10:00 drama indeed.

*Yes, Gervais just called out McCartney on his divorce settlement. Yikes.

*I really have nothing to say about Aguilera and Cher. For serious.

*Yay Michael Giacchino. Not just because you're the first one I got right, but because I love you.

*Grey Gardens. Thank God. I mean, yay me. And the producers need to stop talking now. No one cares.

*Tom Hanks, you gem. That's two for Alec Baldwin, who now really wishes he had bothered to show up.

*Ricky took off his tie. Time to party.

*How beautiful is Meryl Streep, btw? She didn't divide her own votes! But she won for Julie & Julia, which is the only award that movie is ever going to get. There are no words for how awesome she is.

*Where did Jessica Lange go? She used to be there. DREW BARRYMORE?! That's pretty cool... time for Lange to share the wealth. And her speech we just right.

*I don't heart Cameron Diaz. But I kind of heart her dress.

*Someone needs to take over in the control room, because I'm getting seasick.

*Woooo Jason Reitman. Way to be your own artist. Rockin' love to Clooney.

*JENNIFER GARNER ALERT. Could she be any prettier? Too bad Alec Baldwin won.

*Samuel L. introducing Sophia Loren = class on a stick

*Amy Poehler and Zachary Levi might be my new fave couple. MAD MEN. Thank God. Especially after they submitted "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." Also, I'm enjoying the GG orchestra take on A Beautiful Mine.

RANDOM QUESTION: If you had to judge these television shows, how would you do it? I mean, theoretically you're supposed to judge based on the one submitted episode. Does that mean you don't watch the shows in their entirety when they air? Or do you watch all of them so you can give them all a fair shake? Or just watch the ones you like... in which case, why bother even watching the screeners?

*Christophe Waltz. Brilliant. Nice speech.

*Time for the DeMille (aka, Time to Make Dinner). Scorsese honored by DeNiro and DiCaprio.

*I love Ricky and his pint. AND HE DID NOT JUST NAIL MEL GIBSON. OMG. OMG. OMG. James Cameron... I knew it was going to happen, but I kind of wish it hadn't. Whatever. And he just spoke in a made-up language. I'm over it.

*Yay Glee! Glee kids hooray!

*LOVE Reese Witherspoon's dress. Love it love it.

*The Hangover just won best musical or comedy. And that's why I love this show.

*I'm getting really tired of Chrysler "inviting me to stay tuned." For reals... I'm not going to RSVP.

*Sandra Bullock, woot.

*How much do we love RDJ? SO MUCH.

*Jeff Bridges for the win. And the Oscar race just got more interesting... and a lovely standing O.

*Really Avatar? Really. Whatever. I'm going to bed.

Well, that's a wrap. Sorry this has been sort of boring... Aside from Gervais himself I can't say it's been a spectacular show. Maybe if you're lucky, we'll have a post-wrap tomorrow.

A Statement About Late Night Wars 2.0

So this one time, I was having trouble getting back into writing the blog.

It had been a while, and work was crazy, and I hadn't really had time to process anything I might want to write about. I started a post about how awesome Star Trek is/was (still to come), but I couldn't get in to writing it, because it wasn't a subject that grabbed me and demanded to be written about.

And then the late night wars of the 21st century commenced, and I had found my purpose for blogging again.

I could start at the beginning, with the great Late Night tradition, with Carson and his legacy, but I won't.

I could start with the fact that NBC gave Leno a five year head start to retire, and five years to get themselves comfortable with the fact that it was finally time to turn The Tonight Show over to Generation X.

But the issue goes beyond that. So instead, let's begin with the utter incompetent fools who are running NBC.

There's always the asinine fact that they did give a five year head start to the announcement of the changing of the guard. Leno is fine, but he's no Carson-level nation treasure, both by nature of his humor and length of his tenure. There are not generations, plural, who have set their nightly watches by Leno, or even who bothered to stay up and see his great farewell. No, we did not need five years to prepare ourselves for crippling grief or a landmark change to the nightly television landscape.

Which might have something to do with the fact that by the time he actually retired, we already knew he was coming back. The decision by NBC to introduce an hour-long comedy show every night in the ten o'clock time slot was ludicrous in the extreme: not only were they going to cannibalize their own franchise (who's going to stay up to watch a comedic wrap-up of the day after they've already seen one beginning an hour and a half earlier?), but they were displaying a massive disdain for quality original programming, effectively removing five hours from their schedule that could have been devoted to some of the new, groundbreaking dramas that have been flooding the airwaves in the past decade. Hell, they even could have brought Battlestar Galactica over from SyFy and started showing it from the beginning. It would have saved money. And I'd be willing to bet it would have gotten better ratings than Leno.

All of this doesn't speak to the fact that they brought back Leno to host this banality. And with Leno at the helm, it was only ever going to be banality. Leno versus Letterman aside, I have never personally found Leno funny. At all. He sort of comes out, and bobs his head, makes a couple of inane jokes (which he is sure to laugh at), and then gives seriously boring interviews.

Say what you will about Letterman, his humor and his personal life, at least his show is interesting.

But I digress. Let's talk about Conan O'Brien for a moment. I'm a little too young to have a staunch loyalty to him from his earlier work, but every time I have watched him I have found him humorous and appealing (and let's face it: his constant referencing and legendary cameo on 30 Rock certainly don't hurt), and I think he was a fine, fine choice to usher in the next generation of Tonight-ers. We are the generation of The Daily Show, and anyone who will fight with Stewart and Colbert in a stairwell during the Writers Strike will do nicely. He certainly isn't for everyone, but he isn't as divisive as Leno was against Letterman, and honestly, if I stayed up that late, I would have a hard time choosing who to tune in to.

To the surprise of no one, The Jay Leno Show at 10pm is an unmitigated disaster, no matter what the execs tell you about it performing "exactly as expected" (BTW, we in America have already voted against blind adherence to failed doctrine. Admitting your mistakes is "in" now... seriously), and now the show has been cancelled.

Well, actually not. It has been moved. To 11:35pm. In other words, they are bumping The Tonight Show by a half an hour for... Jay Leno.

There is so much wrong with this scenario that it's hard to know where to begin, but the fact that it's The Tonight Show, not The First Thing Tomorrow Morning show is a good start. Conan's insanely eloquent speech from TCA really says it all. There is nothing I can add to that to make the point better.

And so now, a new question emerges: how on Earth will NBC ever lure anyone back to host their late night? They already screwed Letterman for Leno, and now they're bumping Conan... honestly. How will they convince the next guy that he's not going to be another episode of Law and Order: LVU?

And more importantly, how will they convince showrunners that their ten o'clock hour is now safe for quality drama?

I guess we'll wait-and-see-pudding.

A Statement About Serious Neglect, and Perhaps a Little Bit More

Alright, peeps.

It's been a long few months. They had been saying over here that one day the work was just going to hit, and that nothing was ever going to be the same ever again. I believed them, but it's the kind of thing you can't really comprehend until you've lived it. And boy, have I lived it.

Right about the time I was supposed to be writing 1,667 words per day my work started to pick up considerably, and I am saddened to report that I didn't not finish my WriMo challenge.

And then I didn't blog for another month beyond that.

Work's still intense and in the evenings my concentration is pretty shot (not to mention that the Festival starts in about 2 weeks), but I'm trying to get back on track. I really have nothing to say about anything right now except Happy New Year, and I'm back.

Or trying to be, anyway.