On The O.C. (in observance of the fifth anniversary of the series finale)

photo: The WB

The final episode of The O.C., "The End's Not Near, It's Here," aired five years ago today on Feb. 22, 2007.


It's difficult for me to believe that it's been five years since I last hung out with Ryan, Seth, Summer, Sandy, Kirsten and Julie, but that's probably because I haven't spent the last five years without them. I have probably thought about them at one point or another every day since then. As weird/sad/awesome as it is to say, those characters and that show became a part of me.

So many moments from The O.C.'s run are iconic to me: from "Welcome to the O.C., bitch" and Ryan carrying Marissa after her overdose to Captain Oats and Chrismukkah to the New Year's Eve kiss and Seth and Ryan's horror at discovering Luke and Julie's affair. From Seth sailing away and Marissa's poolside freak out to Ryan chasing Marissa around with a giant penguin and Seth and Summer's Spider-Man kiss. The list goes on and on and features so many of my favorite moments ever on television.

I know The O.C. wasn't flawless. There were missteps: the Marissa-goes-to-public-school arc, many of the Sandy/Kirsten love triangle attempts, Sandy running the Newport Group... Season 3 was rough in general. And I will probably never agree that killing Marissa off was the right thing to do for the story. I'll readily admit that some of the other shows I've watched have more consistently maintained a higher level of quality than The O.C. did during its duration - Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Community, Mad Men, and certain stretches of Lost, for example.

But, still, The O.C. remains my favorite of them all. Because when I define "favorite" as the show that has most infiltrated the various aspects of my life, The O.C. takes the title in a landslide. It has impacted the actors I like, the movies and TV shows I've watched, the music I listen to, the books I've read, the things I laugh at, the way I talk, and the way I think.


The O.C. premiered the summer before I started college and ended a couple of months after I graduated, and different moments from the show remain forever tied to different moments in my life. I remember watching the pilot in the summer of 2003 (coincidentally right before I took my own trip to Orange County) and being excited by the unexpected awesomeness the show offered. I remember being rendered so desperate by my lack of a working television during my first week of freshman year that I made a rare attempt at socializing with other people on my floor just so I'd have somewhere to watch The O.C. Just hearing the opening strains of "Honey and the Moon" sends me instantly back to my freshman dorm room, where I obsessively listened to The O.C. soundtrack while studying for finals. I remember my four different dorm rooms that I watched the show in, and I know which one I was in when Marissa shot Trey and where I was sitting when Marissa died. And I remember watching the finale five years ago and bawling like a little child during Ryan's flashbacks in the Cohen house (the image of Marissa standing on the curb while Ryan drives away gets me every freaking time).


I started this blog a couple of months after The O.C. concluded its run, so I don't have an blow-by-blow online account of my adoration for the show like I do for Greek and So You Think You Can Dance and others. But it's rather telling that in the past five years, after it's last episode had aired, I still managed to mention The O.C. and its characters in 86 posts on this blog. (This post makes number 87.)

The O.C.'s Season 1 finale was called "The Ties That Bind," and some pretty formidable ties continue to bind me to this show. So how will I observe this milestone? By watching the series finale. I think it will be the first time I've watched the entire episode since it aired five years ago, a fact that's especially surprising considering that I've probably watched many episodes of this show upwards of a dozen times. But I've never been really excited to watch the finale again, although I absolutely loved it. I think I just never wanted to remind myself that the show was actually gone. But on this anniversary I think I can handle watching the finale again, because after five years it's clear that The O.C. has become part of my identity and, to me, it will never truly be gone.

Greek: Law and Disorder

Greek:
"Defending Your Honor"

Oh, Greek. It's been so long, and I'm so happy to see you. I'll save for later the long, sappy speech about how much I love this show and how much I'll miss it after it wraps up it last season. For now, I'll just happily welcome back my old friends.

(And I'm back from an extended blogging hiatus in honor of Greek's return. I'm with these CRU kids to the end; as long as Greek is on, I'm going to try to blog about it.)

This was not Greek's best episode ever, especially considering it was how the show kicked off its last season, but I love this show and these characters so much that I don't even care at this point.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• How creepy is it that Evan Chambers is starring as the Craig's List killer on Lifetime right now? That's a big step away from hitting people in the face with a pledge paddle.
• Ahhhhhhh! They're graduating!! There were times where I literally thought this day would never come.
• HEATH!!!
• Dale: "There's Casey! I could spot those blond locks in the middle of a Swedish flea market."
• Casey's parents went back to the hotel instead of congratulating her after the graduation ceremony?! Those Cartwrights sure are tough nuts to crack. Lame.
• Law school prep? That seems a bit contrived, but I do think that Casey needs all the help she can get.
• Casey: "How am I supposed to look cute in this stupid graduation burka?"
• Ugh, Pull-Ups commercials. Advertisers seriously think that Greek's audience is made up of a bunch of toddlers.
• And now suddenly summer's almost over already! Time is flying by tonight, folks!
• Cappie better get his act together soon, or Rusty's going to have to get used to having Evan Chambers as his brother-in-law.
• That photo of Evan, Casey and Cappie with Casey in the middle is convenient, since she can just fold it to hide which ever one of them she's mad at at the moment.
• Betsy: "She does have over 20 years of experience."
  Rebecca: "So does Kirsten Dunst, but that doesn't make her movies good."
  
• Cute hair, Evan!
  
• How did Casey get a higher LSAT score than Evan?
  
• If Cappie really wanted to avoid this situation, he should have made his trip last until after Casey had already gone.
  
• Casey would really want to go to CRU instead of George Washington?
  
• Beccs: "Not everyone likes Casey Cartwright?!"
• Still loving Evan's hair, especially from the profile view.
• There are law school dorms?! CRU is just full of surprises.
• Why does this dude keep getting cast as a professor (first Greek, then Gossip Girl)? He doesn't seem very professorly to me at all. And he's always a professor who at least tries to have an inappropriate relationship with a student (Casey and Serena). Of course, he'll always be Joan's dumb husband from Mad Men to me.
• So did he write her a bad recommendation to CRU but a good one to GW? How does one do that? Or did she not need a recommendation from him for the GW application? This is confusing.
• Rusty: "You sound like Cappie. And Dale. And Calvin. ...And mom."
• Rusty's looking cute this year too.
• Eeeew, old sheets from the motel across the way?! Make a toga out of ANYTHING else, people! Gross!
• Go Casey! Stick it to him!
• I'm SO over Cappie--and I've only been watching him for 38 minutes. He needs to get it together, or this season is going to be tough to watch.
• Ash yelling "Yeah! Bye, Cap!" through Casey's phone.
• Now Rusty's looking kind of hot in his toga! It's a good look for him. Who would have guessed?
• Rusty: "Campaign promise fulfilled."
  Heath: "Calvin was already my boyfriend?!"
  
• Dale: "You did not just call me fat!"
  
• Dale: "Well, I can diet, but you'll always be ugly on the inside!"
  
• Rusty: "I wanted to punch you, but I couldn't."
  
  Cappie: "Yeah, I know. You've got weak wrists."
  
  
• Um, Cappie, you already DID lose her. You IGNORED her for an entire summer! He's scared he's going to lose her, so he goes away and hooks up with a lot of girls? Idiot.
  
  
• Mercy, Evan is cute.
  
  
• Oh, Casey. You can't stay at CRU forever. Why do you want to stay here? With Beccs? Eesh.
  
  
• Dale: "Why don't you like me?"
  Rebecca: "Because you're weird."
  
  
• Dale: "Why does the Greek system rely on...stupid skinny ties?"
  
  
• Oh no. Is the only way we can stop Rebecca/Evan by starting Dale/Rebecca?! I want Casey/Evan to happen something awful, but I don't know if I'm willing to sacrifice Dale to the cause.
  
  
• Is Casey going to keep living in the ZBZ house? That's pretty lame.
  
  

Ok, here is my official Last Season of Greek Wish: If Casey absolutely has to end up with Cappie in the end, can she please hook up with Evan at least one more time along the way? Pleeeeeeease!

photo: ABCFamily.com

Premiere Watch '09: Community

Community:
"Pilot"

I loved, loved, loved Community's pilot episode. It was fantastic and hilarious. It's a sign that a comedy is awesome when I'm trying to write down the funny lines and I end up writing down basically the entire script, and I totally did that for this episode.

I adored Jeff's "Shark Week" motivational speech. That speech was definitely the best persuasive oratory I've seen on TV in a long time that wasn't delivered by Don Draper.

I was already a Joel McHale fan because of The Soup, and he was great in Community (plus the Seacrest joke was a nice shout out to The Soup). I loved Troy, Abed and Duncan as well.

If this show continues to be this funny on a weekly basis, you can definitely count me in! It might even inspire me to consider enrolling in a community college just for kicks. Well, probably not.

Highlights and observations:

• The guy standing up close to the stage listening to the dean looks cute from the back.
• I liked how they used the dean's speech as snappy way to give quick introductions to the characters.
• Dean: "That's what you've heard, however...I wish you luck!!!"
• Abed: "My dad is Palestinian. He's an American citizen. He's not a threat to national security or anything. Most people want to know that after meeting him because he gives off an angry energy. Not angry at America; angry at my mom for leaving him."
• Jeff: "Abed, nice to know you and then meet you in that order."
• Jeff's got an interesting look: Adidas athletic pants, collared dress shirt, sweater and suit jacket.
• They've got a rather nice looking cafeteria.
• Jeff: "Oh, sorry, I was raised on TV and I was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 is a cosmic mentor."
• Abed: "Oh, a text message! Let's give this bad boy a read! I've never gotten one of these before..."
• I loved Abed reading "Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you" to everyone on the room multiple times.
• Abed: "'Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you.'"
  Jeff: "Do you have to pee?"
  Abed: "No!"
  Jeff: "Well, then I'm stumped."
• The professor's text message: "Con-4-s-8-tion on football field now!!!"
• Jeff: "I discovered at a very early age that if I talk long enough, I can make anything right or wrong. So either I'm God or truth is relative. In either case, booyah!"
• Duncan: "Interesting, it's just that the average person has a much harder time saying 'booyah' to moral relativism."
• Duncan: "I'm a professor! You can't talk to me like that way!"
  Jeff: "A 6-year-old girl could talk to you that way!"
  Duncan: "Yes, because that would be adorable!"
  
• Troy: "That means you do my homework, right Seacrest?"
  
• Jeff: "I'm going to go to the bathroom and bring my jacket, wallet and keys with me...in case there's a fire."
  
• Pierce calling Annie "Princess Elizabeth"
  
• Aww, it's Trudy Campbell from Mad Men! Maybe she should stand up and do the Charleston like she did on MM with Pete.
  
• Jeff: "Pierce! Let's discuss this creepiness."
  
• Pierce: "Sexual harassment! That makes no sense. Why would I harass somebody who turns me on?"
  
• Troy: "Keg flip! They're very hard to pull off!"
  
• Lol, Abed's quoting Breakfast Club. And finishing it up with "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."
  
• Jeff: "Bluffs this weak are how your people lost the colonies."
  
• Duncan: "Take this car--it's good for the environment."
  Jeff: "Yeah, so is wiping your butt with a leaf, but it's not how a man gets around!"
  
  
• Jeff: "You know what makes humans different from other animals?"

  Troy: "Feet!"

  Pierce: "No, bears have feet."
  
  
• Jeff: "We're the only species that observes Shark Week. Sharks don't even observe Shark Week. ...It's the same reason I can pick up this pencil, name it Steve and do this and a little bit of you dies. We can connect with anything. We can sympathize with a pencil, we can forgive a shark and we can give Ben Affleck an Academy Award for screenwriting. People can find the good in just about anything but themselves."
  
  
• Jeff: "And don't test her on that because that thing about the jukebox was way too specific to be improvised."
  
  
• Jeff: "You are all better than you think you are, you're just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself."
  
  
• That speech was actually pretty fantastic.
  
  
• Jeff: "I was a lawyer!"

  Group: "Ohhh. That explains everything."
  
  
• Troy (laughing): "Asperger's."
  
  
• Duncan: "Before you say anything, you might want to think about the gift you've been given."
  
  
• Jeff: "An excuse to punch a hippie?"
  
  
• At least Jeff got his car back.
  
  
• Troy: "Wow, you just wrinkled my brain, man."
  
  
• Troy: "You seem pretty smart; you've got a sports coat."
  
  
• Abed: "What's going on? Can you guys hear me? Am I deaf? Can you hear me talking right now?"
  
  
• Abed: "I'm sorry I called you Michael Douglas, and I see your value now."
  
  
• I adore the cover of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" that they played at the very end.
  
  

Premiere Rating: 9.0/10

(Photo: NBC)

Breaking Bad: Horrific Prefection

Breaking Bad:
"ABQ"

OMFG, Breaking Bad's season 2 finale was phenomenal. The second-to-last episode ended with Walt's horrifying decision to not help Jane as she choked to death in her sleep, and the season finale kept the WTF moments coming. The shockers were relentless: from Gus touring the police station to Skyler catching Walt in his lies and kicking him out to the terrifying revelation that the now infamous pink teddy bear fell from the sky after an airplane collision that was caused (albeit inadvertently) by Walt's actions.

Breaking Bad has always lived in the world of moral grayness and ambiguity. With this finale, however, the show moved further into the dark end of the morality spectrum than it ever has before. The show has extensively explored the dangerous nature of drug dealing for the novice dealers, but in our eagerness to see Walt and Jesse succeed and make boatloads of money, we sometimes lose sight of how destructive the drugs they are selling can be. Example A: Jane, who all in all seemed like a sweet girl and was dearly loved by her father and Jesse (and had a tremendously awesome mural on her bedroom wall), dies from choking on her own vomit after a drug binge. Her death leaves Jesse, one of our heroes (or anti-heroes), completely devastated and also leads to Example B: Jane's grief-stricken father, an air traffic controller, is driven to such distraction that he fails to prevent a collision between two airplanes above Albuquerque.

Wow, that plane crash. The source of the teddy bear, the glasses, the wallet and the other debris littering Walt's back and front yards. And the cause of probably upwards of a hundred deaths of innocent people (including the child owner of the pink bear). How can we justify what Walt has done in the face of all this destruction? What started out as a dying man willing to do anything to provide for his family has resulted in a series of progressively horrible events. Walt is already racked with guilt--imagine how he will feel when he finds out about what caused the plane crash. Even aside from all of the collateral damage, has any of this worked out for Walt at all? He beat cancer (for now anyway), but he lost his family anyway.

It's all so bleak. The one heartening moment in the finale came when Walt hunted Jesse down and went into the crack den (is that what that freaky place was?) to save him. Jesse's raw grief was devastating, and it was nice to see Walt vow to help him. If nothing else good has come from any of this, at least these two men have formed an indelible bond.

The up-shot of it all: Breaking Bad should win the Emmy for Best Drama Series. I've watched Mad Men, Lost, Damages, and a myriad of other shows, and nothing has been as consistently stellar this season as Breaking Bad. Additionally, Bryan Cranston has made an extremely strong case for repeating his Best Actor win, and if Aaron Paul's brilliant work is not recognized with at least a Best Supporting Actor nomination, I may cry.

I, for one, am fascinated to see what season 3 will bring. Will a post-rehab Jesse still want to be involved in the drug trade after drugs led to the death of his girlfriend? Will Skyler find out the truth and how will she react? How will Walt come to terms with the fact that his quest for financial security has led to the deaths of so many people? Is there any redemption at all to be had here, or must we now just embrace the dark side?

(photo: amctv.com)

Breaking Bad: Meth Madness

Breaking Bad:

"Seven Thirty-Seven"

Yea! I'm glad this show is back; it's so flipping awesome. I watched and loved it last year (but never got around to blogging about it for some reason). Bryan Cranston winning the Best Actor in a Drama category at the Emmys was definitely one of the highlights of the awards ceremony for me (the others being Zeljko Ivanek winning Best Supporting Actor for Damages and Mad Men taking Best Drama. I also think that Aaron Paul deserved a nomination.). Geez, cable dramas are good.

In fact, I wonder if Breaking Bad isn't overall the best show on television (Steven King thinks it is). It certainly has got to be in the top five. It's amazing how quickly it can go from being completely devastating one second to absolutely hilarious the next and then right back to devastating. I mean, this show is grim. There's no way to deny that, but it also includes these moments of comic genius that break the tension for one quick beat. One I remember in particular was when Walt told Jesse that they'd need an eye-wash station in the RV where they were going to cook meth. I mean, does it get more high school chemistry teacher than that? It's these moments of unexpected, dark humor that keep us viewers from exploding from the stress or running screaming from the room.

This particular episode, however, was more terrifying that humorous (although that "rice 'n beans" joke was hysterical). Like seriously terrifying. As in, I'm a little scared to go to bed tonight, and Tuco doesn't know what I live. And that stuffed bear is going to haunt me. Holy crap.

Highlights and observations:

• Oh my gosh. That is easily the creepiest looking stuffed animal I have ever scene. That thing is terrifying.
• Oh, yeah, I forgot about the blue meth. (Wait, of course I forgot about it--this show hasn't been on for a freaking year.)
• After an impressive display of mental math, Walt figures out that he needs to leave his family $737,000 to take care of their major future needs. That amounts to eleven more weeks of cooking meth and eleven more drug deals with Tuco, which Walt decides is "definitely doable."
• One minute later, Tuco comes back because the guy he just beat up is now dead. He expects Walt to fix it, but come on: he's a science teacher, not a doctor! This is one crazy-ass drug deal. Tuco is beyond nuts. Eleven more drug deals with Tuco is suddenly not seeming "doable" at all.
• I like their green nursery.
• Well, I can understand why Jesse might think that he needs a gun to make it through 11 more Tuco deals, but I don't think it's going to help.
• Walt: "This is conjecture."
• Jesse: "Are you basing that on that he's got like a normal healthy brain or something?"
• Wow, Walt and Jesse have gotten themselves into several "him or us" scenarios in a pretty short amount of time.
• How much Splenda can Marie drink in her coffee? And, holy crap, she just ran over the poor kid's remote control car! She is hanging on by a thread.
• Hank: "Try rolling it, morons! It's a barrel! It rolls!"
• Holy effing heck, that's Tuco's car at Walt's house!
• Ha! Skyler hung up on her sister! (I can't say that I blame her.)
• Jesse: "Don't we, like, double our chances...mathematically?"
• Walt: "I have a better idea: beans. Caster beans. ...We're going to process them into ricin."
  Jesse: "Rice 'n beans."
• Ohhhh, I forgot about the tiara incident.
• Maybe Hank will look the other way if he finds out about Walt's drug dealing since he looks the other way on his wife's shoplifting.
• Hank: "We've got to be understanding. We've got to support the shit out of her."
• I think Jesse is too involved with this ricin making. I wouldn't really trust that job to him.
• Walt: "How much salesmanship to we really need? That degenerate snorts anything he gets his hands on."
• Oh my gosh--I thought Hank blew up Walt's house or something since he called with the flashing police lights behind him. I totally fell for that fake out.
• Ack! Tuco killed the big guy (Gonzo) too?
• Who takes a picture of two murder victims and sends it to his brother-in-law?
• Lock the door after you enter the house, Walt!
• Don't leave the money and the gun on the floor of the nursery in a diaper box!
• Wow, Hank and the other police people are jerks! Taking pictures with themselves and dead people? Ugh.
• OMFG. Tuco's in the back seat of Jesse's car! AHHHHHHHHHH--and that's the end of the episode! Since I'm watching this a couple weeks late, I do already have the next episode on tape and I want to watch it, but I don't think I'd be able to handle another hour of this right now. I think I'd better give myself some time to recover. I hope Walt and Jesse will be ok. Especially Jesse--I love that kid.
• So what the hell was up with that pink stuffed bear, anyway?

(photo: amctv.com)

Opening Credits Death Match

Mad Men vs. Damages:

Mad Men's opening title sequence is so good it's art, but there's something undeniably awesome about Damages' montage too.

Mad Men:


Damages:

(This is from the first season; I couldn't find the new one, but I think it's basically the same but with different names.)

Damages: Just for a Thrill

Damages is back! Damages is back! Damages is back!
It's about 9:40 p.m. EST, so the show is not even on yet, but I'm so excited that I am starting my blog now just so I can talk about it. Damages!

There was a time when I never thought I'd see the day that this show would be back on the air. It's been, what, about 15 months now? And, frankly, I can't remember much about what happened in season 1. To be fair, I don't think we really knew what was going on at the time though, so I guess there's some consolation in that.

Here's what I can recall: Patty tried to kill Ellen...Ray was awesome but he killed himself...Jenny Garth's husband/Carlisle Cullen was hit by a car...there was this sketchy, bearded fellow who broke into Ellen's apartment and tampered with something...Frobisher was bleeding to death in a field...Patty's kid was creepy...Patty cried over a grave in a cemetery...Jimmy Cooper let Patty kick him around a lot and his name is not on the door of the law practice...Ellen's kindly old mentor guy turned out to be evil (I think)...Katie lived a life of narcotics and intercourse...

But I'm thinking there must have been more to the story...

Yea--now it's about 9:58 EST, and it's almost starting!!! My hopes for season 2: Katie comes back. Ellen kicks some serious ass.

Damages: "I Lied, Too"

The play-by-play:

• Oh no, are we going commercial-free again for the premiere? I should have gone to the bathroom before this started. I didn't learn my lesson from the pilot.
• Who did have David killed? Do we know for sure it was Frobisher, or is that just what Ellen thinks? I don't remember if we found that out or not. I think it had to do with the sketchy, bearded guy.
• This opening monologue by New Ellen is scaring the hell out of me...and I kinda love it.
• Do civil litigation lawyers really go on Regis and Kelly? Maybe if they win a $2 billion settlement.
• Sam Arseno. (I feel like I should write down the names of everyone who is mentioned to try to avoid confusion later.)
• Patty's hair looks flippin' awesome.
• Ahhh! Theme song, how I've missed you!
• How long has poor Frobisher been in this field? He better rally because Ted Danson can win that Emmy now that Zeljko Ivanek (Ray Fiske) isn't around to take it away (BTW, Zeljko taking winning that award was the highlight of the Emmys. It was very well deserved.)
• Ellen was in the cabin? Wearing a hunting vest? Ahh, it's ok, it's just as "revenge fantasy."
• Pete!
• That's kind of a tiny conference table these bigwigs are sitting around.
• Wow, Rose Byrne kind of sounds like January Jones. I thought I was listening to Betty Draper there for a second. Weird.
• Sam Arseno: "In the '80s, we all did shit like that."
• Wait, did Sam's story even pertain to this situation? Or did he just want to brag about once having a girl under his desk?
• Patty: "There are a lot of clowns under the big top."
• Daniel Purcell.
• Ooh, dark fingernails are acceptable for high powered lawyers.
• Yeah, this infant mortality/HMO thing has Patty written all over it. Nice work, FBI.
• Hmm, this guy at grief support counseling (Wes Krulik) is a real keeper, what with his head-kicking story. Ahh, it's ok, he's just describing a "revenge fantasy." I keep falling for those.
• Patty's creepy kid!
• Patty has a lot more guilt about this attempting-to-kill-Ellen thing than I would have expected.
• He he he, did Patty set Lily Arseno up for this drug bust? Of course she did.
• You know who would fit in with Patty? Blair Waldorf. They are cut from the same cloth.
• Is Patty's hair suddenly substantially longer? Was it just more flipped up before, or have we time jumped?
• Hmm, how does Patty know this Daniel fellow, and why is this situation so awkward? I'm guessing it has something to do with the girl in the grave. Maybe?
• Oh, Wes knows the exact date and the day of the week that his girlfriend's killer is going to get out of jail. Poor guy.
• Ray! Ahhhh! Hallucination Ray!!! Ray!!! "Hungry children ain't going to cut it." Ahaha. Holy crap, I love Ray Fiske. I hope the Damages people got Zeljko to more guest appearances. I want to see more of Hallucination Ray!
• He he, I knew "Mrs. Frobisher" was going to be Ellen. But is this just a "revenge fantasy"? Hmm, no, this one looks real.
  
• Yep, Arseno, your daughter was set up. What I can't believe is that you haven't figured out who set her up. Come on.
• This Arseno guy really is a delight. Everything he says turns into a metaphor involving genitalia...
• It's nice that mother and son Hughes are in cahoots now.
• The back of Ellen's cocktail dress is stunning.
• The girl in the grave was Patty's daughter (who was stillborn). Did we know that for sure, or was that just a guess?
• Ok, Patty, I thought we were telling the truth now. Guess not. The person in your apartment was not looking for you. We're not buying it. Does Patty know Ellen's working with the FBI?
• Oh dear, Daniel's wife is dead. I thought he was dropping the case; why'd they kill her now? It will just makes him come after them. (Like when Patty killed Katie's dog so she'd get involved in the Frobisher case.)
• Whoever Ellen's talking to in the flash forward (the present?) is being very silent. (Do they have tape over their mouth?)
• Ellen: "Well, it's ok. I lied, too." (bang, bang)
  

So, what is the name of the song that Ellen is listening to? Well, after a quick Google search of the lyrics, I can tell Ellen what she can't remember: the name of the song is "Just for a Thrill." Tell me that doesn't mean something. (Here are the full lyrics for your analyzing pleasure.)

What I loved most about this episode was that it was fun to see all of these characters again. It was like a reunion, seeing Tom (Jimmy Cooper), Frobisher, Ray, Pete, David, etc. I was even excited to see Patty's creepy kid. The last time all these people tangled turned into such a horrible mess that we can only imagine what they'll do to each other this time.

Well, all in all, I'm not as blown away and exhilarated as I was after the pilot episode and at other points during last season, but I'm definitely on board for this new chapter and intrigued to see how it all goes down. Team Ellen!

(photo: Damages/FX)

My Take on Twilight's Casting

I know that everyone and their little sister have already weighed in on the Twilight movie adaptation's casting decisions, but I can't help but throw in my two cents as well.

Of anyone in the whole world, I think the person who best embodies the vampire's combination of excessive beauty and inherent scariness is Jonathan Rhys Myers. There's certainly something other-worldly about him. Unfortunately, Twilight couldn't really capitalize on Jonathan's clear vamp-ish qualities, because he doesn't really fit any of the book's characters. Perhaps one of the other myriad of vampire related films and shows will be able to take advantage of them at some point.

I'm not sure entirely which Twilight role they should have given him, but I'm convinced that Ed Westwick should have been in the movie. These photos prove that he's got the pale, beautiful, and brooding thing down. Masterfully.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the casting of Twilight's leads. Kristen Stewart is okay by me, and I think she fits Bella pretty well. And Robert Pattinson has certainly turned out to be quite the find. What confuses me is the supporting cast. And namely that several members of the supporting cast were featured in the sub-par season three of The O.C. I don't think Josh Schwartz even liked that season, so why would anyone look there for casting inspiration? And if you had to scavenge amongst The O.C. season three actors, why wouldn't you pick Willa Holland or Johnny Lewis or Eric Mabius, who were definitely the bright spots among the new cast members that year? Why would you pick Volchok and Sadie and Caitlin's boarding school boyfriend? The choices just seem bizarre to me.

Frankly, I imagine I'll always hold some sort of grunge against Cam Gigandet for playing the guy who killed Marissa Cooper and Nikki Reed for her stint as whiny Johnny's annoying jewelry-making cousin. Ick. It's been years, and I still don't even like to think about that whole debacle. What's especially weird about Nikki's casting is that she's playing Rosalie who is supposed to be tall and blond and Nikki is neither of those things. And it's not like tall blondes are rarities in Hollywood, right? I would think you could walk down the sidewalk and swing your arms around and hit 20 or 30 of them.

But this necessary hair dying thing seems to be a trend with the Twilight casting selections. The blond kid from 90210 (Kellan Lutz) had to dye his hair brown. Peter Facinelli had to dye his hair blond. It seems like they were trying to force certain people into certain roles whether they really fit or not.

Peter Facinelli, for instance. I like Peter; I thought he was great in Damages. But I don't think I'd necessarily classify him as "more handsome than any movie star," which is what Dr. Cullen is supposed to be. (And especially not when he's got this freaky blond hair and white makeup.) My suggestion for Dr. Cullen, and I'm pretty confident about this one, would be Ryan McPartlin a.k.a. Chuck's Captain Awesome! I cite his appearance in Mad Men as proof of his handsomeness. I mean, Betty Draper wouldn't put down her gimlet and have a tryst in the back room of a bar with just any guy, right?

Oh, and I've also been pretty turned off to Elizabeth Reaser in general by her messing with poor Alex on Grey's Anatomy and her love of combining Ugg boots and shorts in The Ex List.

I am kind of excited that Rachelle Lefevre landed a role in the film. She keeps popping up in various television shows I watch, and I always wonder what else I've seen her in before I remember that it was Big Wolf on Campus. Yes, I'm admitting that I used to watch Big Wolf on Campus.

So, anyway, my copious television watching has certainly colored my opinions about the Twilight cast. Will any of this stop me from going to see the movie at my earliest convenience? No, it absolutely will not.

(photo: Twilight Official Movie Site)

Pushing Daisies: Do You Believe In Magic?

Pushing Daisies:
"Oh Oh Oh... It's Magic"

Speaking of magic, Pushing Daisies could have used a little magic in the ratings department for the episode that aired on Wednesday, but unfortunately none materialized. In fact, the ratings were even worse than usual, which is something I totally saw coming. After two weeks off the air and no promotion by ABC to speak of, even I (who have sent postcards to ABC to plead for it to continue to air PD) almost forgot that PD was going to air this week. Would it kill ABC to substitute every third Desperate Housewives commercial for one about Pushing Daisies? Whatever, ABC, PD's 11/19 ratings woes fall directly on your shoulders. The show is delightful, and it shouldn't take too much of a marketing genius to be able to convey that to the people out there in the world who want to watch some delightful television. Where is Don Draper when we need him?

In any event, "Oh Oh Oh... It's Magic" was a delightful episode, and Pushing Daisies viewers should really cherish every episode we get. Ned started off the episode a little whiny for my tastes, but he rallied and ended up bonding with his half-brothers. He even figured out a way to trick Lily into admitting to Chuck that she's her mother, while not spilling the secret that Chuck's alive. The scene in the car of Ned and Chuck listening to Lily's stories and holding their hands up to the glass that separated them was simply beautiful.

I'm wondering if Ned's dad had some kind of a secret that drove him into repeatedly abandoning all of his family members. Some Ned-like magical ability, perhaps?

Highlights and thoughts:

• Young trick-or-treating Maurice and Rawlston were cute!
• The "Magicians? Illllluuuuuusionists!" exchange was straight out of Arrested Development.
• Quote of the episode:
  Emerson: "A magic show?! Where did I put that rat's ass I could give?"
• Wow, Chuck got all kinds of dressed up to go to the magic show. I didn't realize that magic shows were such formal occasions.
• Emerson: "I was just going to tell you all to shut up, but you stopped talking, so I didn't have to."
• Well, at least Chuck's unsuccessful crank calls to Lily are giving her the opportunity to practice her accents.
• "Cementia" turns out to be quite the involved trick...what with the blow torch and all.
• Ned's dad ditched the twins at a Sunday matinee magic show! Ouch! At least he was nice enough to send Ned to a school before disappearing on him.
• Chuck's dad and Ned's dad were both in the Peace Keepers? Neither Charles Charles nor Ned's dad strike me as much of a do-gooder.
• Olive: "He's also dead, so that's why he really can't talk."
• What in the heck is going on with the collar of Chuck's coat?! She looks like she has a black lion mane or is dressed like a black Big Bird! Holy moly!
• Ned: "Herman will be avenged. I don't mean vigilante style justice, because what kind of an example would that be?"
• Ned: "Rawlston, we're two grown men with dad-related bodily fluid issues."
• Emerson: "You need to get yourself a bigger human shield; you're hanging out all over the place."
• Ned's shirt/sweater combo is very grandfatherly.
• Lily: "Tell me, when you were a jockey, did you ride the horses or just beat them when they were dead?"
• This pesky former-Peace Keeper friend guy knows way too many secrets now.

(photo: ABC/Pushing Daisies)

A 'Mad Men' Halloween

Several weeks ago, the perfect Halloween costume idea came to me: Joan Holloway from Mad Men. It was brilliant: I already had the hair, I just needed to add some '60s-esque office attire and a gold pen necklace. Here was the end result:


Aside from me not being stunningly gorgeous like Christina Hendricks, I think the whole thing worked out pretty well.

The costume's main downside was that I couldn't think of a single place to wear it where anyone would have any idea who I was supposed to be. I don't think I personally know a single other person who watches Mad Men. If only I'd been invited to a party with only entertainment bloggers and television critics comprising the guest list, the costume would have been a hit. (Do those parties exist, and how can I score an invite?)

Happy Halloween (a day late)!

(picture of Joan: amctv.com)

Mad Men: In the Event of an Emergency

Mad Men: "Meditations in an Emergency"

It's no secret that I didn't love Mad Men the first time I saw it. But, for some reason, I could never really shake this show. When it was on, I'd occasionally check in on it, and I kept abreast of the larger plot points by reading the articles and spoilers about it on tvguide.com and ew.com, etc. It was definitely, though, the show's second season that really hooked me. Somewhere along the line, I found myself watching one of the season 2 episodes and not being able to turn away. Then I watched the next one and then the next one and then the next, and suddenly a full-on obsession was born. With starling precision, Mad Men turned from a show I begrudgingly respected to a show I couldn't stop thinking about. In fact, it's now easily among the 5 shows that I'm most emotionally invested in at the moment (I suppose the others would be Gossip Girl, Greek, Pushing Daisies, and Chuck).

What's most amazing is that the characters I didn't like from the pilot have turned into people I literally spend time worrying about. (Will Don ever get his act together? Will Joan be able to find the strength to leave her asshat fiance? Will Betty float away? etc.) Impressively, Mad Man takes a bunch of characters who are not overly likable on the surface and makes you truly care about them anyway. It's kind of like a show full of Chuck Basses. So of course I'm loving it.

I thought this season 2 finale episode was fantastic. Set during the uncertainty of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the characters struggled with uncertainly in their own lives. The episode was packed with new developments: Betty finds out that she's pregnant, Don finally mans up and makes a better effort at trying to get Betty back, Pete reveals that he knows he should have picked Peggy, Peggy reveals to Pete that she had his baby, Don threatens to leave Sterling Cooper, etc. But even with all of that, Mad Men still found time for some of those heart-wrenching moments of quiet desperation that define the show. This episode was a tour de force from beginning to end, and I think somebody wants another Emmy. (Speaking of Emmys, if the women of Man Men get shut out again, there is no justice in the world.)

Highlights and mediations:

• I adore this show's fantastic opening theme and credits. It's addictive. I just want to keep watching it over and over again.
• I loved how the episode began with Betty looking at the deer panting in the doctor's office. She definitely has a Bambi quality to her and also a deer-in-the-headlights look and attitude.
• Oh, poor Betty is pregnant. Which is just awesome, because Betty and Don make such fantastic parents.
• Doctor: "Are you concerned with your appearance?" (What a butthead.)
• Finally, people are speculating about what Don's problem is and where he disappeared too!
• WHAT?! Don came to the stables? Holy moly, even the slightest show of (normal) effort from him floors me sometimes.
• I have a feeling that "I was not respectful to you" might be the closest thing to an admission of the affair(s) that we're going to get out of Don.
• But, it's not good enough for Betty. No, no, Betty, this might be the best you're ever going to get. It's time to stop being an ice queen.
• Poor stupid Pete is scared out of his mind about the Clearasil thing.
• Oh no, don't promote Pete! That seems like something we might regret.
• Duck's banking on Don having a non-compete clause in his contract with Sterling Cooper.
• Don (to Peggy): "Do I work for you now?"
• Wow, Peggy looks hot today; she's wearing a form-fitting dress. So, what happened, she heard about the Cuban Missile Crisis and decided to tart up her look?
• Pete: "What happened? One minute I'm standing next to you in the car port and the next I'm tap dancing for General Dynamics!"
  Don: "Sorry, I missed that."
• Don: "You wanted to see me?"
  Roger: "About three weeks ago."
• Roger: "Kennedy's daring them to bomb us right when I got a second chance."
• Sally: "Mommy doesn't like to eat."
• That was a gorgeous shot of Betty looking in the store window.
• Well, I guess with all of Betty's drinking and smoking, there's a chance the baby isn't going to make it anyway.
• Wow, Bar Guy is hot! And he sounds familiar...do I know him from somewhere? OMG, I looked it up, and he's Captain Awesome from Chuck!!!! I couldn't even tell from looking at him. Oh, that's so cool.
  
• Whoa, Betty! Making out with Bar Guy in the bathroom hallway! She looks like she's going to pass out. Betty! I know the guy's hot, but this is not the appropriate way to deal with your issues.
• Yea, Betty's eating something! (I guess it takes adultery to make her hungry?)
• Pete's wife (Trudy) is evacuating to Rehoboth Beach!! Count me in!
• Harry: "Bad news! ...I checked the fridge and there's canapes--really good ones!"
• Wow, Pete told Don about Duck being president; he's kind of redeeming himself.
• Don's letter to Betty: "I understand why you want to move on without me, and I know that you won't be alone for long, but without you, I'll be alone forever."
• Roger: "Don, is this necessary?"
  Duck: "It is. Because he likes this room and hearing the sound of his own voice."
• Don doesn't have a contract! He can start his own agency. Wow. That could be very interesting.
  
• Any way the Russians can just nuke Joan's fiance and no one else?
• Pete: "You're perfect... I wish I'd picked you then... I love you and I want to be with you."
  Peggy: "Pete, I could have had you in my life forever if I had wanted to."
• Despite the threat of impending nuclear war, Pete had been having a pretty good day: he was promoted, he got praise from Don...but this scene with Peggy has brought his good day to an abrupt end. He just poured his heart out to her, and she rather calmly replied by telling him what has to be one of the most devastating things imaginable. I know Pete's a schmuck, but you have to feel badly for him now. My guess is that this experience hardens him and he turns into an even bigger jerk than he was before.
• So the Drapers are going to try to get it together for Baby Number Three. I'm sure it won't be an easy road, but it's nice that they're actually going to give it a try.
• I liked that they showed footage from the Mad Men wrap party after the episode. It's nice to see all of the actors in modern clothing (Elizabeth Moss looks so much better). I didn't know that Christina Hendricks has a Southern accent. I wish they would have shown some footage from the Mad Men review as well!

It sounds like it might be a long wait before Mad Men returns, but I can't wait for this fascinating ride to continue.

(photo: amctv.com)

Premiere Week '08: The Office

The Office:

"Weight Loss"

How sweet was Jim's rest stop proposal to Pam (complete with quite the hot kiss)? It's a testiment to this show that it can offer up some of the funniest material on television one minute and then conjure up a scene of real, genuine emotion the next. And its sweetness is never forced or heavy-handed (like Ugly Betty's premiere episode was).

This wasn't the funniest episode of The Office ever ("The Injury"), but it still had plenty of great moments:

• Ha! They're purposely eating lots of food before the contest starts so that they'll have more weight to lose.
• Jim can't believe that Michael doesn't say "That's what she said" after Dwight said "Hold it in your mouth if you can't swallow."
• Wow! Look at young Stanley!
• For an HR rep, Holly's not very politically correct, what with her lesbian jokes and all.
• I love that Holly still thought that Kevin was mentally challenged and got all upset when Angela called him an idiot.
• Michael: "Do you know what the number 1 cause of death in this country is?"
  Dwight: "Shotgun weddings."
• Jim: "Beer me five!" (That was a blast from the past.)
• Angela demanding to get married in a 1,000-year-old church in the continental United States.
• Andy is being soooooooooooooo sweet to Angela. Why? Why? Why?
• Kelly: "I swallowed a tapeworm last night."
• Ryan! I thought he was in jail. Ahahaha! He's the new receptionist!
• Jim's insistance on pointing out that Ryan's new-found devotion to community service is court-mandated.
• Andy: "This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I haven't had a very hard life!"
• Ryan: "I wanted to saw I'm sorry for how I treated you the past two years. I was in my mid-20s...I don't think I ever really processed 9/11..."
• Oh no, the guy from Mad Men is kind of adorable... Don't stray, Pammy!
• Oscar and Dwight doing the Michael Klump impression too.
• Michael: "What makes her beautiful?"
  Ryan: "Everything. She's perfect." (I have never heard Ryan say anything so sweet!)
• Andy: "Andy Bernard does not lose contests--he wins them...or quits them because they're unfair."
• Oh no--Angela not accepting Andy's college a capella group performing at the wedding is a deal breaker!
• Stanley: "I'm going to take five days off anyway."
• Gasp! Toby! He broke his neck! Oh nooooo, poor Toby! He just can't catch a break.

Premiere Rating: 7.0/10

(photo: nbc.com)

Best TV of Summer 2007

Well, quite honestly, I didn't do much of value this summer. I did, however, watch an awful lot of television, so I figure I might as well handicap it down to a nice little "Best Of" list. Here goes:

Best Reality Show:
So You Think You Can Dance -- For the second straight summer, I've been captivated by this show's great dancers with fun personalities who hip hop, mambo, waltz, quick step, krump, cha cha, swing, jazz, and contemporary (ok, I realize those last two aren't really verbs) their way into our hearts. My Season 3 highlights: Pasha, Sara, Pasha and Sara's West Coast Swing, Pasha and Lauren's Transformers hip hop, Neil and Sabra's table jazz dance, Danny and Lacey's mambo, Pasha and Lacey's mannequin hip hop, and of course the two guys swing dancing during the auditions.

Best New Show and Best Drama:
Damages -- Yea for FX giving us a show this intelligent and this exciting and this well-made in the summer! The great thing about this show is the characters keep getting smarter and more willing to do absolutely anything to get their way. The stakes have been ratcheted up so high that the audience feels like it's all about to hit the fan at any moment. Patty Hewes steals the show (she is being portrayed by Glenn Close, after all), but many of the other characters are amazingly fascinating--and amazing flawed--from Frobisher to Katie to Gregory to Tom to Fisk.

Funnest New Show:
Greek -- It's not the smartest show and it's probably not going to change the world, but Greek is pretty darn fun and there's nothing wrong with that. The characters are varied, interesting, and mostly likable (and many seem like people you'd actually find on any college campus). Greek is funnier than you'd expect and, on occasion, actually shows physics geeks discussing physics.

Best Show I Now Realize I Should Have Been Watching All Along:
Burn Notice -- After catching a few reruns last week, I now regret not being on the Burn Notice bandwagon all summer. The show has the "fun spy" feel of Alias and its well-utilized, often comedic voice-over smacks of Veronica Mars. Congrats to USA for finally finding Jeffrey Donovan a vehicle that showcases his talent and total hotness. And I love that this USA series is doing a season-long story arc (unlike Monk and Psych which have become terminally serial).

New Show That I Totally Respect Yet Have No Desire To Watch For Any Extended Period Of Time:

Mad Men -- Something about watching this show makes me feel yucky...which is exactly what they are going for. It's intricate, sneaky, and gorgeous. And the whole thing makes me feel fantastically uneasy, much like I imagine actually having to spend time in an ad agency in the 1950s would.

Best Character:
Cliff, Hidden Palms -- While Hidden Palms was nothing to write home about (and had possibly the worst main title sequence ever), the character of Cliff was a revelation. Michael Cassidy masterfully walked the line between devastatingly charming and possibly dangerous in a tour de force performance that transcended the series. It turned out that Cliff wasn't as nefarious as we originally were led to believe, but still, he had a knack for making bad look very appealing.

Funniest Lines of the Summer:

Cappie, Greek: "We may be puking, but the Omega Chis are not used to running on puke like we are."

Gus, Psych: "Some people are just born evil...like the kid from The Omen, the Children of the Corn, Chad Michael Murray."

Ellen, Damages: "Emily Dickinson. That bitch will say anything."

Pawn Shop Guy, Kyle XY: "Ok, easy, Veronica Mars!"

Best Unintentionally Funny Moment:

"I Don't Dance" baseball number, High School Musical 2. Ok, in my opinion, there wasn't much to redeem HSM2. Trite, sappy, rather poorly acted, etc., etc. But, I am more than willing to declare the "I Don't Dance" baseball song and dance number an instant classic. Because, I mean, what makes more sense than a boy adamantly claiming that he doesn't dance while dancing his way through a baseball game? Factor in some strong, if unintended, homoerotic overtones and this scene ranks as one of the funniest moments of the summer.

Stand-out episodes:
"Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" Monk -- In my favorite episode of Monk this season, Sarah Silverman (who I don't always enjoy) guest stars as Monk's obsessed fan and shows us her Monk-centric dioramas complete with a Troll doll serving as Natalie. And, yes, those are Monk's pants she's wearing...

(more to come)

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (a.k.a. It's a Man's World)

Mad Men:

Hmm. Well, I've be reading and hearing such great things about AMC's first original series Mad Men that I was pretty excited to check it out tonight. And I don't know. It was very well made--the periodness was impeccable and the cinematography was lovely. But the whole thing just didn't suck me in as much as it apparently should have. I don't know. Could it be that watching people brainstorm about advertising campaigns just isn't the most exciting thing in the world? And that it's still not particularly interesting even if you make them all chauvinist jerks?

I guess considering all the hype, I was expecting the pilot to jump out of the screen and grab me, and it didn't. Watching it wasn't particularly enjoyable. I don't think I liked any of the characters and they weren't really the kind of "psychotic jackasses" that you love to hate either. Oh, and as soon as Dennis Martino/Gaby's mayor husband shows up in something, that's a huge strike in my book.

The big development at the end that the main guy had a wife and kids was not particularly surprising. And they were sure hitting the fact that the one guy was closeted and gay really, really hard. I would imagine that one would be better at hiding things like that if one lived in such an intolerant society. He was being so obvious that the other characters just looked stupid for not picking up on it. And women weren't considered equals and treated like crap. Ok, we get it.

I did want to like it. There were some good things: There were some moderately funny parts. (However, the "Freud, you say? What agency does he work for?" line would have been soooo much funnier if delivered in a Veronica Mars-like manner.) It was like a history lesson (wait, is that good or bad?). The opening credits were nice. The slutty secretary in the green dress had pretty hair.

Yep. That's all I got.

While I was watching it, I wished I was watching the Men In Trees rerun. Does that mean I'm shallow? Or does it just mean that I don't hate women? Or does it mean that John Tupper is just way hotter than all Mad Men's guys with suits and slicked back hair combined?

30 Rock:

Hahahahaha. The receptionist girl wants to name her baby "Bookcase."

The Office:

I love that even Michael Scott came to the conclusion that Ben Franklin is "kind of a sleaze-bag." That's what I've always thought.