Eberybudy wants to picks me up

Does this work?


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Hmm, so it does. Lets add another one.


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So damned cute.

Summer TV

Look at my earlier post about Fall TV!

I know I said there that there wasn't any summer TV I wanted to watch, but that was actually not true. Upon seeing this I realized that there's enough that it deserves it's own post.

Mondays
8pm Greek
10pm Weeds
10:30pm Nurse Jackie?

I might try and catch up on Secret Life of an American Teenager, as I've heard great things. But frankly I'm so backlogged on TV that may never happen. Can I just start watching season 2 and try and figure it all out? Really I'm just looking forward to a lighter than normal viewing schedule for a bit.

Tuesdays
8pm 10 Things I hate about You?
9pm Warehouse 13?

That's about it. I'm not even sure if I'll keep watching either of these, as I have yet to see the first episode. Yay another night to catch up on Chuck.

Wednesdays
8pm So You Think You Can Dance
10pm Top Chef Masters?

I love SYTYCD, so that's a given. As far as Top Chef, I'll watch it because Brian does, and because Neil Patrick Harris will be on as a guest judge at one point and I love him.

Thursdays
9pm SYTYCD Results show
9pm Burn Notice
10pm The Listener?
10pm Project Runway

I love Burn Notice, but it's a show I watch while I'm doing other things. Specifically while I'm playing games. I'm sure I miss out on a lot, but it's a fun summer show. I have no issues downloading it and watching it later. Listener is a show about a guy with telepathy, and I'm a sucker for a powers show. Maybe it will be better than Heroes. Well, that's not saying anything. Maybe it will be watchable. Runway doesn't start until August, so technically it's more of a fall show I think.

Fridays
9pm Eureka

Eureka doesn't start until July 10th, so it's going to be a slow couple of months. No complaints here.

Saturdays
8pm Kings
10pm Pushing Daisies

I've actually already seen all of the Pushing Daisies that are coming, but this show is so great it bears repeating. I'm really pissed that Kings is on Saturdays of all nights to get burned off. Put it on a Wednesday so at least people will see it and buy your fucking DVDs. Fucking NBC is really fucking up lately, and I'm kind of done with them.

Sundays
8pm How do you solve a problem like maria?
10pm Hung

I don't think I really get BBC America in my room, and besides the show is already over, but I may watch it if I get bored. Hung I'm watching because I like Thomas Jane, and it's about a giant penis. Really though I'm not going to plan my viewing night around a half hour comedy on Showtime. If I ever catch up on True Blood, and don't completely hate it, maybe I'll throw that in, but again I doubt it.

To be placed: Torchwood's week-o-episodes is coming up in July. There should also be the next Doctor Who movie at some point. And I'd love for the next season of Merlin to come out in the UK.

That's about it. It will be a quiet summer, but that's kind of nice after the Hell of last TV season. And the hell that will be Mondays and Fridays next season. Maybe I can finally catch up on things. That would be so exciting!

Plotting my TV Course

The best thing about up-fronts is trying to figure out a viewing schedule for the next season. Normally I'd talk about the new summer shows, but I think I'm lucky enough that the only new shows coming in the next two months are So You Think You Can Dance and Burn Notice. Mad Men starts in August, as does Greek, so I actually have a few months to catch up on things like Chuck and Gossip Girl. For future reference, I'm using this schedule.

Mondays
8pm Heroes/Chuck (Chuck switches in midseason)
8pm Gossip Girl
8pm How I Met your Mother
8pm House?
8pm Greek (when it returns)
9pm Day One?
9:30pm Big Bang Theory

Clearly there's a problem here. If they were at different times during the week, I would probably watch all of these shows. Seeing as they're not, I'm assuming a similar situation will occur next fall as occurred last fall: I will fall horribly behind and spend the summer catching up. To prioritize these, I will definitely catch HIMYM and Greek, as I love both of those shows. I think I will love Chuck, when I finally catch up with it. Gossip Girl is a guilty pleasure I enjoy watching, but it's rather low on the importance pole. House is a show I enjoy watching, but it's so procedural I have a hard time plotting my week around it. Heroes is...Heroes. God only knows if I'll watch this crap or not. Knowing me I will, and then bitch about it the whole time. I blame Adrik for my inability to quit this show. As for Day One, I'll give it a shot. I'm always up for some Post-Apocalypse, even if these shows never do particularly well. At least THIS pairing makes sense, rather than Kings on Sundays. And as for Big Bang, I'm kind of sad it won't be next to HIMYM in the 8pm hour, but then again there is so much else at that time I won't miss it.

Tuesdays
8pm So You Think You Can Dance
9:30pm Better Off Ted

Anyone that hasn't watched Better Off Ted, you are MISSING OUT. That show is hysterically dark. Odd time slot, though. Hopefully the scrubs lead-in will help. Of course I'm watching SYTYCD, but other than that Tuesdays are pretty quiet. Side note: I predict Past Life and the Forgotten will both tank after a month.

Wednesdays
8pm America's Next Top Model
8pm So You Think You Can Dance results
9pm Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee Glee

I thought about including "Eastwick" but I'm going to have to hear something about that before I start watching it I think. Model outranks SYTYCD, especially since Brian will hopefully be in the country by then. And the results are never as good as the performance show anyway. I'm curious about Modern Family, but nothing is going to beat out Glee. When Lost comes back, that will go in. I'm also curious about Parenthood, although it just seems like the NBC version of Brothers and Sisters. Hopefully it'll be better.

Thursdays
8pm Flash Forward
9pm Grey's Anatomy
9:30pm 30 Rock
10pm Project Runway

I love 30 Rock. It's one of the four sitcoms I watch. I'm very curious about Flash Forward, so I'll give that a go. If I ever catch up on Fringe or Supernatural (much more likely with Fringe, I might add) . Vampire Diaries is the type of teen crap show I would watch, but I kind of hate vampire shows. They're so over-done. I cna't really tell you why I keep watching Grey's Anatomy, other than it's popular. Short of Callie I dislike most everyone else, and I especially hate Derek and Izzie. Runway is back, which is awesome, and that's all that needs to be said.

Fridays
8pm Smallville?
9pm Dollhouse
9pm Southland
9pm Ugly Betty

Fuck you, Fridays. I know normally you'd look at that lineup and think "3 very different audiences" but not so. I've heard numerous blogs complain about these three shows all competing. Sadly, for me, I think Ugly Betty may lose out in the end. This past season was just not as great, and they focused a whole lot on characters I hate (Daniel, Betty) rather than characters I love (Willy, Marc, Amanda, Justin). Southland's season finale was pure awesome, so I'll definitely be back. And Dollhouse is top of the heap as long as next season is like the second half of this season. If they go back to lumping together their stand-alones I may be done.

Saturdays
Ha. Right.

Sundays
8pm Amazing Race
9pm Desperate Housewives
10pm Brothers and Sisters

Race is awesome. Housewives is crap, but I feel like after investing 5 seasons I have to see how it ends (IF it ends. Please God lets announce an end date). Brothers and Sisters will only get watched if there is a Scotty or Sarah-centric episode. The rest of them suck. This show also needs to end.

Other things that need to be slotted in as needed: Mad Men, Damages, Doctor Who, Friday Night Lights, United States of Tara, and things like V and Caprica and Stargate Universe, which don't start until later in the year.

I hate how everything has gotten crammed into Mondays and Fridays. I was never sure how some of these things survived Monday in the first place, and I'm really not sure what is going to survive on Fridays. My gut tells me Betty and Southland will both die slow deaths. FUCK YOU JAY LENO. I blame him for anything on NBC that dies due to a strange time slot. Except Heroes; I might congratulate him on that. *sigh* Why can't I make a living on this stuff?

"I like the boys to be boys"

Tonight was the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5, and as with any SYTYCD premiere, there were lots of really great dancers and really bad dancers. This show is a ton of fun, but I have a very serious problem with one thing: Nigel Barker. More specifically, his rampant homophobia.

Tonight in the premiere, there was a pair of two men who were dancing Ballroom together. They explained in their intro that they had originally had female partners, but it didn't work out, so now they partnered with each other. They came on the stage in typical ballroom performance costumes (think sparkles) and danced with each other. They took turns being the lead to showcase their talent, and they did alright. Towards the end they messed up a lift and both fell over, but they recovered alright. Overall they did passably. I would have put them through to choreography (and before I begin my rant, I should say they did go through to choreography). For those of you unfamiliar with the show, during the first audition weeks, you can either go straight through to the semi-finals, or they put you in choreography to see how you handle other stuff. It's better than a rejection, and it means they think you have potential.

Now for the rant. Mitch and Mischa (the two male dancers) finished their dance, and went up for judging. Immediately Nigel started in with "I don't know what to say. I prefer the boys to look like boys and the girls to look like girls." No comment about their dancing. Just that he prefers traditional gender roles for both partners. Are we really still that stuck in the past? I'm not saying the pair had to be put through. I thought they were passable but not anything amazing and unheard of. But Nigel's comments very much came off as him not being able to buy two men dancing a romantic dance together. If they're fighting, or trying to one up each other, that's fine, but love? Hell no. If you don't like effeminate men, why not have a dance routine with two strong men loving each other. Make them two soldiers from Iraq and have it be a commentary on Don't Ask Don't Tell. Have it be two football players. Have it be a lyrical hip-hop routine about the difficulty of gender roles in a same-sex relationship. SO MANY OPTIONS. But no, dancing must be a Man and a Woman.

If it had just been this routine, I would have shrugged it off as Nigel being so distracted by their bad technique that he blamed their same-sex-pairing. But Nigel has a history of expecting exceedingly traditional things out of his dancers, and I'm tired of it. This show is so great, but it also gets so stuck in certain ways of thinking. I'm not saying we should throw away traditional dance, because there is some amazing stuff out there for mixed couples. But I also don't think we should ignore all of the possibilities for same-sex couples. And if you're not going to include them can't we at least NOT making derogatory comments about them? This is 2009. 5 states have approved Gay Marriage. We almost had a gay American Idol (unless Adam is faking it and he's straight. Which I'm beginning to think might be true). We are far past this kind of homophobia, especially in the entertainment world. And shame on the producers of this show for not setting a better example for all of the young and confused boys and girls who love dance out there. You can't pick and choose when you're going to tell a finalist's story.

But why am I surprised? This is Fox. When the best portrayal of a gay couple happens on The Simpsons, how can any of us be surprised?

Finale Round-up MEGA Post Part 2 - Season Finales

So as promised, here's part 2 of the Finales Round-up. This one really will be ridiculously long. So long in fact I'll have to write it as I get to it, so check back regularly.

*** Season Finales ***

Monday

How I Met Your Mother: Eh. It was OK.
I really like How I Met Your Mother, because I think it's a funny show. I thought this episode just wasn't that good, though. The goat wrestling was stupid, Lily hiding her pregnancy bump is awkward, and Marshall wanting to jump was just kind of silly. I love Barney and I like Robin, and I think their scene together was interesting, but I also got annoyed because I don't like that kind of person. And I also think I just don't care who the mother is. At least it's no longer a bubble-show.

Big Bang Theory: Amusing but not one of the best.
I think, for me, BBT is funnier than HIMYM. All the geek jokes are hysterical, and Penny and Sheldon are a comedy team for the ages. That being said, while this episode was funny (and better than the finale of HIMYM) it really wasn't one of their best. I don't care for the Penny-Leonard relationship tension. I think they're better as friends who joke about how that side of things didn't work out. I'll be interested to see how things turn out when they get back from the North Pole.

Heroes: Annoying.
Where to begin with this shit. Overall I think the finale was stronger than many other parts of the season. The storyline was tight and linear and there was a clear POINT to everything. However, considering that I found the rest of the season to be complete and utter shite, there's no real comparison. I realize they were going for a Major Twist! by killing off Nathan, but to have Sylar take over as Nathan is so mind-numbingly stupid I don't know what to say. Why didn't Peter shape-shift into Nathan, fake his death, and then we all move on, minus one scary-ass killer? Obviously the answer is that Mama Petrelli has some serious family baggage. I'll be glad when that comes back to bite her in the ass. After four seasons Milo Ventrimiglia still doesnt' know how to act. And on a geek-note, what the hell is Sylar's power? As I understood the lines of dialogue in these last few episodes, his power is to understand how things work. That's why he's so good at clocks. That makes sense as a power! I can even, albeit by making a HUGE leap of faith, understand how "knowing how things work" applies to human brains. I'm not sure, however, how he translates that into making his own brain work the same way. Or how Peter could then steal those powers. Mimic couldn't mimic himself to get more abilities. It's all stupid and weak. Claire became more likable towards the end, but I really wish the bitch would take some self-defense classes. I hate how Matt Parkman woke up one day and is suddenly Emma-Frost-Powerful, as Adrik put it. Even if he has that potential, at what point did he hone his powers? And why are there no old people with powers? This show really seems to be writing from the seat of it's pants, and the Heroes universe suffers greatly as a result. The real question is if I'll be back next season, and right now I don't know.

Chuck, Gossip Girl, Reaper: Haven't watched em yet.
My goal this summer is to catch up on Chuck and Gossip girl. They got lost in the fact that I was busy and Monday Nights were over-packed with shit.

Wednesday

America's Next Top Model: I'm too biased
As Brian pointed out, in all of these reality competitions I pick a few people I want to win, and then become blind to anyone else having a chance. In this case, I would have been happy with Celia or Allison (although I knew Celia wasWAY too old to be a model), so I was perhaps blind to Teyona's merits. I thought Allison was cute and quirky, and randomly Stepped it UP that last episode. Teyona I thought had a very strange face and I was upset that she messed up the commercial. But Brian said, and I agreed, that they wanted an African American to win this season, so I wasn't overly surprised. Brian tells me she's good, so I'll go with that.

Lost: Wow.
This show is interesting for me. It's not something I exactly plan my week around, because I only like maybe two of the characters, but it's still something I love to watch. The story is so complex that you have to watch it closely, and apparently I just happen to get the whole time travel thing better than most people. Which reminds me, why is it so damned difficult for the viewing public? People have a linear time line, TIME has a linear time line. At no point do they have to have the SAME linear timeline. If you take a blue string and a yellow string and tie them together in various places, does the string become Green? No. You still have a blue and yellow string, they just intersect in different places. There are paradoxes I'd be curious to see explained, but I don't think they're going to pull the "alternate timeline" card. I loved when Miles was like "Uhm, did it occur to any of you that WHAT YOU'RE DOING might be the incident?" And I hate how Juliet went. She was one of my favorite characters in the show, and then she had to go and fall for Sawyer, who loves Kate. Everyone loves Kate. WHY? She's not that pretty, she lies to everyone, she gets her panties in a twist about random shit. YOU CAN DO BETTER. I loved all of the Jacob Storyline, and how basically everything we've watched so far is this battle between Jacob and the evil thing pretending to be Locke. This final season will be quite something to watch, and I cannot wait. I feel a bit like I should go back and watch seasons 1-5, but I doubt I have that kind of patience.

Damages: Good, if a little rushed.
Overall I liked the first season more, but I thought this mystery was interesting. This show is so complex to say anything about it would ruin any kind of surprise. I actually had one of the surprises sort of ruined for me (although I wasn't surprised really). It's a really creative show, though, and I'm glad it's still on. I love these stories where the timelines are all weaved together and you really have to pay attention to figure out what's going on. And the fact that it's only 13 episodes means it's easy to catch up on!

Burn Notice: Not invested enough to have a real opinion
I like to watch Burn Notice, but I always watch it while doing other things, so I never have fully-formed opinins about the show. I'm glad Carla is dead, and I'm curious to see what Michael will do against the new big bad played by Fraiser's dad. That's all I've got.

Thursday

Grey's Anatomy: Meh.
This show has lost some of it's luster. It regains it occasionally, but I really don't think it's as good anymore. I'm not sure what it is exactly. Bailey is less feisty. Izzy is annoying as hell and I hope she's dead, as I think it would make for better drama for Alex to go through finally falling in love with a woman only to have her die. And then we can work on George's rehabilitation, which will give him actual screen time. I don't really care for Meredith and McDreamy, or Lexie and McSteamy, so there you go. I like Arizona and Callie together (even if I think Hahn got short shift), and I like McTrauma and Christina. But really, when you walk away from a cliffhanger of which two main characters might be dead and you cant' really be bothered, what does that say?

Ugly Betty: Happens Tomorrow.
Not expecting much, though. This season has been kind of crap. I do not like Matt at all, and Daniel is trying my last nerve.

Smallville: Horribly backed-up. This too will come with Chuck later on.

Friday

Dollhouse: Amazing
When Dollhouse first started, I was disappointed. It wasn't bad, exactly, but it wasn't Wonderful Super Fantastic Coolness Remarkable like I was expecting. But then came episode 6, and things really started to change. By the second half of the season I couldn't WAIT to watch this show. The storylines were all complex and tangled. And the finale was pure awesome. I loved Alpha (won't spoil that, since no one watches the show), and I loved the Whiskey reveal. I never liked November so I'm glad she's gone. I like that Ballard now works for the Dollhouse, but I feel like his conscience is going to get on my nerves real damn quick. Maybe they'll make him into a doll and have him be shirtless all the time. I thought "Omega" was also bad-ass, and it was interesting to see how no matter how good the doll, there is always a part of themselves underneath it all. And always, when I think we're about to stumble headlong into "No More Plot" because a character became too self-aware, they reset it, but not in a cheap way. Echo is still moving towards realization, but not at the break-neck speed that makes everything unbelievable. In short, this show suffered from it's lame schedule which was imposed on it by Fox. Stupid fucking Fox.

Friday Night Lights: Good end to an awesome season.
I was not feeling the second season of this show. I mean, it was still better than 90% of the shit on TV, but it was lacking somehow. This season on the other hand was amazing. The scenes with Coach fighting for his position were great. The scenes with Saracen trying to deal with his grandmother were great. The scenes with Jason Street going away actually made me cry. This is one of the best shows on Television, hands down, and if you're not watching you should be. Awesomeness.

Sunday

Amazing Race: Yay Team Deaf lost.
I don't care if it makes me a bad person, I did not like Luke. I thought he was a whiny punk who would get mad at anyone thinking he was handicapped until it was convenient for him to emphasize the point. Without his mother, he would have been out in the second week. I dont' think he was stupid, I don't think he was incapable, I just think he was a bitch. He CLEARLY pushed Jen and yet SHE was the bitch? Oh no. And I wasn't sad Tammy and Victor won. I hated them until week 3, and then they started to become much more likable. I liked Tammy a lot. The red-heads were just a bit too nasty to the locals for me, so I wasn't devastated that they came in second.

Desperate Housewives: This show needs to die
It's not so much that I didn't enjoy the finale (although to say I enjoyed it might be a little strong), it's just that the show is getting stale. I just dont' see that many good options left for the characters. Maybe if MJ had actually died I would be intrigued, but I'm not. I hate how Katherine is underused and whiny anymore. I hate how Lynette recovered from cancer and turned into a raging bitch towards Tom. I hate Susan just in general. Gaby and Bree are still interesting, but Bree is about to NOT be interesting if she doesn't get away from Orson and Carl. And what happened to Andrew and his wedding? This is another example of a bad cliffhanger. The "Who did Mike marry?" question just does not interest me at all. I could not care less if I tried. And all of it just makes me think they should make season 6 it, and create some big mystery, and wrap it up that way. And as a side-note, who was the character from seaosn 1 that came back? I can't recall anyone new in the show.

Brothers and Sisters: Why do I watch this?
The answer is because of Scotty and Sarah. Every single other character I find boring and whiny. This is another show that I think is past it's prime, and should call it quits after the next season. At least now that Tommy's gone it should be more bearable, as his character I've always felt was terrible. Maybe from now on I'll only watch if there is some definitive Scotty storyline going on.

So I think that about sums it up. I actually did it all in one setting, although the later reviews are weaker because I was just worn out. I also watch Dexter and Mad Men, but I'm just as behind on those as I am on anything else. Not enough hours in the day, I say!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - The Drinking Game

This movie was such garbage that the only thing I can do is come up with a drinking game to help dull the pain. With Adrik's help, we've compiled the following list:

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

1) Every time the canon is blatantly disregarded, take a shot.

2) Every time someone is shirtless, take a drink.

3) Take a drink for every random power they give a character that a character is not supposed to have, or don't give a character that they are supposed to have. See: Emma not being telepathic, Gambit telekinetically moving the cards, Deadpool in general.

4) Every time Wolverine is referred to as Logan by people who know him only as James, take a drink.

5) Take two drinks every time the movie is more than a little homoerotic.

6) Take a drink every time the special effects are so bad they actually illicit pain. Bonus: Take two when you see Youngified Patrick Stewart.

7) Take a drink the first time you notice the nationality of a famous character changes. See: Emma Frost. Bonus: Take a drink every time Gambit's accent slips.

8) Take a drink every time you feel like you missed an important scene. Like when Gambit suddenly vanishes and shows up not 2 minutes later down the block on a rooftop.

9) Take a shot when a character without healing abilities manages to do something ridiculous and not die. See: Again, Gambit. Jumping off a building.

10) Take a shot whenever two characters that are unrelated in the comics are magically made to be siblings.

11) Take a drink whenever there SHOULD be blood on Wolverine's claws but inexplicably isn't.

12) Take a shot every time a character shows up and the only explanation you can come up with for their presence is that a fanboy wrote this shit.

13) When Wolverine gets the Amnesia Bullet, take three shots in the hopes that you will also forget everything that just happened.

Sadly, even with my changing several of them from "shots" to "drink" you still won't make it past the first ten minutes of the film.

Glee!

I know I have a whole long post to write about Season Finales, but I have to post about this first.

I am in love with Glee.

The Cast of Glee

This show is freaking awesome. It's about a small high school Glee club, and all of the misfits that join the group. The teacher, played by Matthew Morrison, was in the Glee Club when he was younger, and remembers it as the best time of his life. When he tries to start the club up again he realizes that things aren't quite that easy. There's the black diva, the handicapped kid, the gay kid, and asian girl with a stutter, and the perfectionist starlet. When it doesn't go well at first, the teacher (whose name I wish I could remember) decides he needs new guys, and stumbles across the quarterback singing in the shower. In a very amusing scene, he gets the football player to join the group, and they all start to bond over their love of song.

I admit, it sounds ridiculously gay. But it's such an entertaining cast, with great writing, that you can let it slide. And the songs are amazing, I think. I do not like Journey, but I've been singing "Can't Stop Believing" for two straight days now. In fact that scene actually made me so happy I got physically emotionally, which never happens to me. Those of you with Bit Torrent need to download it right now. Everyone else, you can find the songs on iTunes, and there are previews on YouTube (one of which I posted below).

Last night was just a preview, with the real series starting in the Fall. I'm very concerned because it's on Fox, which in my opinion has a horrible track record of shows. Renewing Dollhouse doesn't absolve it of cancelling Firefly and Wonderfalls, or of their complete lack of gay-visilibity on ANY of their shows. Adam Lambert doesn't count. But hopefully if they put this on after Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, it will carry over enough of the performance kids and stay strong. God I hope it does, as I'm getting really tired of these shows I love getting canned.

Finale Round-up MEGA Post Part 1 - Series Finales

As Adrik has been reminding me, I've been shit about the updates lately. I'm not really sure why I'm so busy, but it has a lot to do with my recent return to Final Fantasy XI. That shit is like cocaine, and I kick the habit for a few months until the white monster jumps on my back again. Anyway, between work and my new show and Jen's graduation party last week, I've been busy busy. Also, sometimes you just don't feel like blogging. Anyway, I want to do a rundown of the finales that have already happened. I'll put the series finales first, then the season finales. If someone could explain how to post links to JUMP to later parts of the article that would be great. WARNING: This is going to be a Mega Post.

***Series Finales***

Battlestar Galactica: Liked it.
This probably deserves it's own post, as it's a major finale for geeks everywhere. I'll admit that over time I've forgotten the things that annoyed me (the first 20 minutes, all that time when they first get to New Earth before people start disappearing) and I can focus on the things I loved (The attack on the colony, Roslin's death, Starbuck's disappearance). Roslin's death was awesome, except it was literally followed by a commercial break, so there was no time to absorb the emotion. It was like 'HORRIBLY EMOTIONAL SCENE 2 seconds MCDONALDS CM". Yuck. I know I'm in the minority that actually liked Starbuck's last scene. I thought it was so cool that she just stopped existing, implying that everything up until this point had been supernatural. So damned cool! I also liked that Head Six and Head Baltar are like angels, although the very final scene was a bit heavy handed. I enjoyed it, as long as I don't analyze it too much. So I'm sad to see this show go. It wasn't always great (Thank you season 3) but when this show was good, it was AMAZING. Notice how it got Bold, Italics, and Caps. Watching BSG was the first time I ever got chills from an hour of TV, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Which is why I've preordered the bigass Complete Series Box set. God knows where I'll put it. There might be more to say about this, but I feel like the SciFi did all the "goodbye BSG" shit to death.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Liked it. Ish.
I had to think about how I felt about this. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I necessarily liked it. For one thing I hate, hate, hate when they cancel a show AFTER it's finished shooting, so we never get closure. It's one thing to not renew it halfway through a season, so TPTB have time to cram something together, even if it's not as epic as what they might have planned. But to just cancel something without any sort of warning I find to be reprehensible. Especially when that something has a hard-core geek following, cause those Geeks will tear you to pieces. I'd bitch about Fox now but they renewed Dollhouse so they've won some points. Overall I think this show was good, although it got significantly better second season. At first I only liked Cameron, but this season I also started to like John a bit. Sarah annoyed me, and Derek was just alright. I loved the Red head, although I think she was a bit stiff (and not because she was a robot). I'll always mourn the passing of decent Sci Fi, but I think this show was about to get into some serious Time Travel stories, and the time line is already muddled enough. I think Time Travel is really cool, but has to be handled in a very specific way, or else you get paradoxes left and right. OR you get 200 alternate timelines, which is what Sarah Connor was starting to do. That shit gets horribly confusing because you never know who's from which timeline, and then you have to do some major event to consolidate them (a la Crisis on Infinite Earths). So all in all I will say I liked this series and will miss it next season.

Kyle XY: Liked it except for the cliffhanger
I already spent a post talking about this, so we're done. I'm not even going to tag this.

Pushing Daisies: Loved it
This show was so great. I didn't always love the characters (Ok, I really didn't like Chuck at all. And I didn't like Ned when he was mooning over Chuck) but the storylines were always cute and the general atmosphere of the show was fantastic. This cemented my love of Brian Fuller that had started earlier with Wonderfalls (I even caught the crossover. I'm that TV-Geeky). I think it was just a little bit too quirky to gain wide-spread acclaim, but I'm glad it lasted two seasons. I'm waiting for a "Complete Series" set to be released before I buy it (although what if there isn't one and it goes out of print? That's my current Big Fear regarding cartoons, which is why I've spent a fuckton recently buying DVDs before they die). Anyone that hasn't caught the first season at least should really try. I think there were only like 22 episodes of this show total, split over two seasons, so it's not hard to catch up. It's cute and unlike anything else on TV. And Kristen Chenowith and Chi McBride are GENIUS, especially together.

Those are all of the series finales I can think of, but I'll post more if I think of any. And as I must go home now, I'll save the Season Finales for another post. It's probably better to break them up anyway, as I watch so much damn TV.

Great Quote

I was just reading X-Men: Endangered Species, and this made me giggle:

Dark Beast: Tell me about the Greys. Jean and Nate.

Beast: They're both dead.

Dark Beast: Well, Yes. But with that family, I've found it's best to get frequent updates. Exactly how dead, at this moment in time?

One year gone

I didn't want the title of this entry to be quite so emo, but the topic makes me sad, so maybe it's appropriate.


As of yesterday, I've been back in the States for exactly 1 year. It's actually kind of a horrible anniversary to celebrate, because I really miss Japan. I'm not sure I'd want to go back there to live for two years, but I think I need to go back to visit. I met some incredible people and had some incredible experiences, and now I just don't. I still know incredible people, but I don't interact with them as much. And I still have incredible experiences, they're just much fewer and farther between.

So anyway, to celebrate, or more accurately commemorate, I posted pictures of some of my favorite places in Nagoya. These are the places I spent the majority of my weekends in the city, especially once Brian moved to Osaka. There are more places, but I don't want to use up all of the blog space. So I'm just going to be natsukashii for a bit. Sorry if this makes you sad, Adrik.

First Department store I ever went to in Japan. Ads, is this the Honbu side?

The magical clock where we all met

Oasis 21 needs no explanation

As a fun side note, I really liked this building, even though I never went inside.

It's Star Trek!!!!

That was awesome.

I now run the risk of overselling this movie, and then I will lead a legion of unimpressed followers in my wake and it will make me sad. So, how can I sum up this film without having a nerdgasm all over the keyboard?

Great Action.
Awesome special effects.
Believable plot.
Great casting and characters.
And plenty of one-liners and subtle nods to Trekkies everywhere. Including Tribbles.

I'll admit, I'm biased to this movie. But in both ways. I love science fiction, especially Star Trek. I now own the complete TNG, DS9, and Voyager, as well as 6 of the movies. But I also hated the original series, specifically Kirk (to be honest, when I went and watched the Original Series, I actually enjoyed all the storylines that weren't completely centered on William Shatner. Which by season 3 was none of them.). But Chris Pine did an outstanding job as Captain Kirk. He has all the bravado and bravery, without any of the overacting and smugness. I actually like all of the new casting, so I don't need to go character by character. All in all each character got face time (although not as much as Kirk and Spock). I really enjoy how they make room for this story in the overall Trek canon (it's sneaky, but believable for me), and I also enjoy how it's left open-ended (i.e. they don't all die and the Enterprise flies again. Prolly not a huge shock).

There are probably issues with the movie that a second viewing will reveal, but I don't want to get into them right now. Suffice to say go see this movie. Even if you're not a Trekkie, go see it. It's a fantastic summer blockbuster and I hope it makes a ton of money.

And as a side-note, there was no "secret scene" after the credits. I always hate when movies sneak those in and no one tells me, so I wait until the end of the credits and 9 times out of 10 I'm disappointed because I just wasted 5 minutes of my life waiting for the MPAA symbol. So I am sharing now that there is no secret scene.

Top Trek

As we already stated, I am awesome and going to see Star Trek tonight. In honor of that I figured I'd post some top ten/five lists. I say top ten, but it may very well be top 5 for some things. So here goes!

I should specify that I have not seen Star Trek: Enterprise, so I can't make any judgments about anything from that series.



Top 10 favorite Starships
1) Refit Enterprise D from All Good Things...
2) Enterprise E (Sovereign class)
3) Akira Class
4) Defiant class (it's boring, but it zooms!)
5) Romulan D'deridex class warbird (Cause they're flipping huge)
6) Galaxy Class
7) Prometheus Class
8) Nebula Class (it's not flashy, but it certainly looks sturdy)
9) Klingon Negh'Var class (You just feel like these things would fuck you up)
10) Excelsior Class (the Classic, in my opinion)


Top 5 favorite characters
1) Jean-Luc Picard
2) Guinan
3) Kathryn Janeway
4) Seven of Nine
5) Jadzia Dax and the holographic Doctor tie, I think


Top 5 LEAST favorite characters
1) James T. Kirk. To be blunt I hate him with the fire of a thousand suns.
**Edit: After seeing the new movie, I should specify that I hate Kirk-as-played-by-Shatner**
2) James T. Kirk. No, kidding. Harry Kim
3) Chakotay
4) Neelix
5) Jake Sisko


Top 5 Favorite Episodes
1) Yesterday's Enterprise
2) All Good Things...
3) Cause And Effect
4) Year of Hell
5) Sacrifice of Angels


Top 5 uniforms I would cosplay in (oh, yes, I'm serious)
1) Nemesis/First Contact Uniform (As seen in Picard's pic)
2) Post-season 3 TNG Uniform
3) First Contact Dress Uniform
4) Voyager Uniform
5) Future Federation Uniforms from TNG/Voyager finales


Top 5 favorite Alien races
1) Romulans
2) Changelings
3) Borg, before we had to go and humanize them
4) Klingons, as long as there isn't a stupid Kahless type episode. I like Martok.
5) Vidiians, cause they were so freaking scary


So that's that. There are other things I could probably count down, but I don't know what they are at the moment. I'm so excited to see this movie tonight, you have no idea. And the excitement is just growing!

I am a Trekkie

Somehow my sister managed to win two tickets to a sneak preview of Star Trek tomorrow night, and I have to say I'm so excited I could pee. The last Star Trek movie came out in 2002, and even though I loved it, it really wasn't so good. I didn't watch Star Trek: Enterprise because it infuriated me that they changed the canon, but even that hasn't been on since 2005. So four years without Trek and suddenly it's back! (The irony is that there were a whole bunch of years after the Original Series ended.)

It's not really a huge surprise to anyone that's had a real conversation with me that I like Star Trek. All sci-fi, in fact, but The Next Generation was what started it all. Back when the only things I was watching were He-Man and Transformers (and occasionally American Gladiators), I would catch random episodes of Picard and the Enterprise D flying through the galaxy doing all sorts of things that I wished I could be doing. Because I didn't understand the rules of syndication, or apparently how to read a TV Guide, back in the day, I didn't watch it religiously. But everything I caught I loved, and when I moved to my new house I started watching it a lot more. I remember when DS9 came on and I was so disappointed becasue I hated Sisko. I remember when All Good Things... was on and it was one of the best episodes I'd ever seen. I remember going to see Generations with my Dad and getting so excited. I remember tuning back into DS9 because Worf was joining, and there were giant epic space battles. I remember when Voyager launched at the same time as UPN. I remember the media attention when Jeri Ryan was cast as Seven of Nine in that skin-tight uniform. And that's enough "I remembers" to last any reader for years.

Needless to say I'm a giant geek when it comes to Trek, especially TNG. You can give me a random episode title and I'd bet 90% of the time I could give you an episode description. I've read the Enterprise-D Technical manual. Once in middle school I even went as a Starfleet captain for Halloween. Then of course I reached that age where I had to be cool, and put the fandom on a backburner (at least in public) but it never really left me. It morphed into a fandom of Babylon 5 and Farscape and Stargate and Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, although none of those could ever compare. It's really only a matter of time before I get some fancy costume maker to make me a uniform that I can wear to conventions. I used to be embarrassed, but as I get older I'm rapidly reaching the "Fuck 'em if they don't get it" age.

I don't need to be one of those geeks that gets all philosophical about his love of Trek. Suffice to say I am. It speaks to me in a way Star Wars never has. And while I wish they'd go and at least acknowledge homosexuality in the 24th century, the Federation is a place I'd very much like to be. This probably won't be my only Star Trek inspired post in the next few days, especially since I recently watched the original series all the way through, I've got all of the movies on hold at the library so I can watch them all through, and I've recently bought the complete series of TNG, DS9 and Voyager.

Told you I was a geek.