Thursday This N That

Where, oh where does the time go? In my part of the universe, time seems to be forgotten as it’s nearing the end of April and Mother Nature still has not brought us spring. As I’ve learned from Sam Carter and Stargate SG-1, time is relative. Funny how I never really learned that in my high school science classes back in the day, but when it’s said by Sam, I seem to remember things easier. Go figure.

I’ve been pretty much spending my time lately with Twitter, which is usually much easier to ramble in 140 characters or less than typing up sensible blog posts (are any of them really ‘sensible’ to begin with anyway?). 

Anyway…back to the topic at hand – which would be tv shows.

Many of the fall/winter shows will be wrapping up their seasons shortly.

That includes NCIS, and from what I’ve seen, it sounds like probably a cliffhanger (which I absolutely hate!), but at least we’re going to get a bit of Tiva goodness in the eps leading up to the finale. I know they won’t give us much, but I’m grateful for the bits & pieces that we’ve gotten over the years.

I watched the NCIS:Red pilots that were part of the NCIS:LA episodes, and they were pretty good. I actually liked them until they brought in John Corbett as an antagonist/ex-lover for Kim Raver’s character. Why do the main characters usually have to be spurned lovers with a history? Oy! I liked the premise of an NCIS ‘mobile’ team that wasn’t stuck in one place for too long.

Chicago Fire has only a few more episodes to go. Unfortunately, it seems that bad-cop Voight is out of jail again and will be in the thick of the plot to end the season. That is SO annoying. I’m also not too thrilled with the Mills/Dawson/Casey love triangle thing. Hopefully with the return of Hallie, things might cool off with that. (doubtful) I also don’t like how they’re using every lesbian cliché they can think of when it comes to Shay. So annoying. All they need to do is bring me episodes with a bunch of call-outs and emergency rescues and I’ll be happy.

Revolution is into its second half of the season now. I’m not too pleased with some of the storylines, and I really could use more Nora. Since they’ve got Daniella Alonso on the show, which means she can’t get back on Rizzoli and Isles any time soon, they’d better give the woman some more damn screen time to make it worth my while. After all, she’s the only reason I’m watching this show.

Speaking of R&I, I saw the new promo pic for season 4 with Jane and Maura handcuffed together, and both in bright red outfits.

Nope. There’s nothing remotely lesbian about that pic, right? Didn’t think so. Haha. I have to wonder, though, why they have June 16^th as the premiere date, when 1) that’s a Sunday, not a Tuesday 2) the premiere date is actually June 25^th. Somebody in the PR department needs to be arrested by Jane and charged with ‘false advertisement’.  I do love that season 4 will bring us through Paddy Doyle’s trial, and of course, Hope will be there too. Now, if we could only get Constance to come back, and it would be nice to see the elusive Mr Isles. Whatever they do, there had better be no Jane/Maura angst this season like the beginning of last season. I don’t think my heart can handle that again.

A few new shows are getting underway now.

I watched the first couple episodes of Bates Motel (based on the movie, Psycho), but it was a bit too dull for my tastes. I’ll probably catch an episode here or there down the road when I remember that it’s on. I struggled through the premiere of Hannibal a couple weeks ago. I liked the visualization of Will Graham being ‘in the moment’ at the scenes and the way they shot them. However, the presence of Laurence Fishburne killed any enthusiasm I had of making this a regularly watched show. He’s just way too dull. All I could think about is that it’s Ray Langston incarnate, and that made me remember the bad-old-days of CSI. The show about Hannibal Lecter also made me yearn for a Jodie Foster appearance – or at least someone named Clarice Starling. This Lecter seemed much slimier than the highly-intelligent Doctor that Anthony Hopkins played.

One series premiere that I greatly enjoyed was Defiance, shown earlier this week.

 
I instantly fell in love with Doc Yewll. It may have been because of her witty sarcasm & one-liners – “good human,” and “if you rush me, we all go boom. If you yell at me, we all go boom. Now you know how I’m doing up here.” And how can you not love a new show that basically starts out with two main characters singing along with Johnny & June on “Jackson”?! That made me smile from ear to ear. One thing that kind of annoys me is that they occasionally talk in a different language. However, there’s one Castithan word that will easily stick with me: Shtako (translation = the 4-letter “S” word, crap, poo, doo doo, etc). Why are the curse words always the easiest to remember? LOL

There will be a few more shows starting soon, including Warehouse 13 Season 4.5 returning April 29^th on Syfy. 

Wednesday This N That

I’m not sure who has garnered more of my ire lately – Mother Nature or the tv schedulers.

Last week, Mother Nature blessed us with a couple inches of snow. Yes, SNOW – in the first week of October, for goodness sake. Thankfully, it melted in a day, but temps are still a bit cooler than normal around here. I’m not amused.

Another thing that doesn’t amuse me is the current tv schedule. I thought my Tuesday schedule was bad enough with Parenthood and Sons of Anarchy airing at the same time (not to mention TNT airing Rizzoli and Isles reruns at that time as well. UGH). Beginning tonight, the Wednesday tv schedule is unamusingly jam-packed and stuffed-to-the-gills in the 9pm hour here (Central Time).  Yes, that’s the normal time slot for CSI, which isn’t a major concern for me these days because I’ve lost quite a bit of interest in the show and have only become a ‘casual’ watcher lately. The problem comes with the two new shows that premiere tonight in that time slot – Chicago Fire on NBC and Nashville on ABC.

I’ve watched the pilot episode for Chicago Fire and loved it. It reminded me a lot of LA Firefighters, a short-lived show from 1996 with Jerrod Emick, Christine Elise, Alexandra Hedison, and Brian Smiar, and even had a few of the same storylines (colleague’s death, blaming co-workers, taking care of the widow, etc) as well as Emergency (from the 1970s) as it follows both the firefighters and paramedics. The character I was most intrigued with is Monica Raymund as paramedic Gabriela Dawson. She has a great storyline in the pilot episode where it’s her actions vs consequences. And of course, Taylor Kinney (Rizzoli and Isles fans may know him as evil baseball player Jesse Wade) and Jesse Spencer are some nice eye candy. I guess stories/shows about firefighters always intrigue me. Back in the mid-80s, a relative of mine was a volunteer firefighter in a small town, and was killed after falling off a fire truck when responding to a call. How appropriate that Chicago Fire premieres during National Fire Prevention Week.

As for Nashville, I guess I’m not expecting to enjoy the show. All of the promos have made it seem too soapy instead of about the music and the struggle to "become a name." I’m hoping to be proven wrong. I'm hoping that it turns out to be something like the movie, "The Thing Called Love" with River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Sandra Bullock and Dermot Mulroney. But I'm not holding my breath on that. However, the absence of Nashville from my over-cluttered schedule would probably be a relief. That would leave only Chicago Fire and CSI in that time slot.

Speaking of CSI – I had a brilliant thought last night that a perfect role for Marg as a guest star would be on Rizzoli and Isles as one of Korsak’s ex-wives. We’ve already seen one of them (Lolita Davidovich as Melody) and during the upcoming winter episodes of season 3, we get to meet another of his ex’s. That leaves one more available, and it would be great to have Marg & Bruce McGill reunited again.

Lest I forget – ‘Arrow’ also premieres tonight on CW. Thankfully, not in the same timeslot as the others. However, I’m not putting much hope into keeping this on my ‘to watch’ list, but I will at least check it out.

Strangely enough, I’ve still got three shows on my Monday night schedule. Of course, two of them have to overlap as well – 2 Broke Girls & The Mob Doctor. 2BG is basically the only comedy show that I actually still watch. I seem to like Mob Doc more every week. I like how Grace seems to learn how to ‘play the game’ more each week, but that also means she’s getting herself deeper into debt as well. How long will Constantine let her keep playing both sides?

Revolution keeps growing on me as well. I actually didn’t mind that they killed off Maggie this week. I can only hope that would mean more screen time for Nora (I love Daniella Alonso) but I have my doubts. I’m guessing it just means more screen time for Elizabeth Mitchell’s character, with whom I’m not impressed.

And finally, there’s Downton Abbey. God, I love this show. There are so many different subplots, that it’s hard to keep up with everything, but they somehow manage to keep it all so intertwined and flowing smoothly. Bates/Anna is so heartbreaking to watch. Matthew Crawley, you’re really going to open a big can of worms now, aren’t you. Yikes. However, I’m not so keen on having them bring Ethel back into the storyline.

I’ve also realized that NCIS:LA can be a great show if there’s enough Kensi/Deeks banter throughout. Those two have such an old-married couple vibe, with a bit of brother/sister one-upmanship.

There will be no new episode of Elementary this week because of the political debate crap that will pre-empt regular programming. As if politicians weren’t high enough on my ‘avoid at all costs’ list, they have to take away more of my regular shows as well?  Assholes.

Now that we’ve caught up on the current tv stuff, let’s take you back a couple decades to some great movies – starting with one of my favorites – Eric Stoltz & Mary Stuart Masterson as Keith & Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful – such a great love story.

And a little bit of insight to A League of Their Own with Penny & Gena.

Friday This N That

I'm still trying to figure out why I even bothered to watch this week's season finale of CSI, when I knew that it was basically going to be crap. I even used the Catherine Willows theory and came in with very low expectations. I guess they really weren't low enough.

It still begs the question - why do the CSI writers ALWAYS have to end the season with a "bang" (or in this case, more of a slight whimper)? Do they STILL not realize after all this time that the greatest ending for any of the 12 seasons of this show is still season 1 - with the entire team sitting at a diner & eating breakfast together. The case was solved, the FBI got the credit, but our favorite team just shrugged it off and continued on with their normal routine.

Did we really come to the point of actually caring about DB's granddaughter yet? We just met her. She might as well have been listed as a "red shirt". Back when Lindsey was in peril during Lady Heather's Box, and again in season 7's BTK, we had already known/heard about Lindsey for years. That's why we cared. Maybe they should have had Charlie (DB's son) kidnapped in this instead. We've seen him before a couple times. Maybe we'd care more.

I still can't figure out - were they really trying to rip off the Cath/Sam shooting scenario in BTK2 with Morgan & Ecklie in this one? Could they seriously not come up with anything more original that recycling the biggest moment in the Cath/Sam relationship?

Another reason I've almost lost total interest in the show is that there's no "team" anymore. It's DB and his family (his continually increasing family), a transfered CSI whom Russell used to supervise, another transfered CSI who is the daughter of the Undersheriff, and the remaining three from the "original" cast, who really don't seem to do a lot these days. Add a glimpse of Doc Robbins, a touch of Brass (when he's even there) and a wimpy excuse for a plot, and that's all there is lately. Oh, wait. I forgot the dead body. There's ALWAYS got to be a dead body in each case now, right? No simple kidnappings, no trick rolls, no burglaries - unless there's a dead body. Maybe they're turning over a new leaf for the beginning of next seasons, because you know they won't let DB's grandkid die. We know George is coming back so Nick won't be leaving, and I've gotta figure they're not going to be cliche enough to kill off Ecklie like they did Sam (with hardly even a mention of Sam's passing in the next season), so what's really the point of all this drama. Why not come up with an interesting case that doesn't include corrupt law enforcement? (That has become such a cliche)

Okay, okay. Rant enough for ya?

Let's move on to brighter things --

such as this week's episode of NCIS:Los Angeles. Strangely enough, I've been watching this show a bit more. This last episode has been the best so far. I love the Kensi/Deeks episodes. This one had the two posing undercover as a married couple. You can only guess the fun & hijinks that scenario caused. It was awesome - especially when Kensi kicked that lady's ass during their fight. You don't mess with Kensi Blye.

Since today is Friday, that means a new Fairly Legal episode as well. Looking back to last week's episode, I was actually surprised that I'm kind of starting to like Ben - sort of, anyway. I guess he's acceptable in very small doses. They just need to get rid of his overly abundant annoying snark and save that for the one that really does it best - Kate. I also really like the way they've toned down Lauren a bit. Thankfully they've taken away much of the Kate/Lauren "evil stepmother" synopsis...a little bit anyway.

Also last friday brought the series finale of In Plain Sight. While I knew Mary & Marshall wouldn't get together, it was nice to see a happy ending for all. Through the five seasons, I even grew to like Stan really well. He kind of reminded me of CSI's Conrad Ecklie. Their characters really started to grow on me as they were finally given some character development.

Taking a quick look at new shows - I saw some of the first pics for the new show, Chicago Fire.

It made me nostalgic and wanting to dig out my old vhs tapes of LA Firefighters, with Jarrod Emick, Christine Elise, and Alexandra Hedison.


I also saw yesterday that Parenthood has been renewed for another season. It'll be great to have some more Bonnie Bedelia sightings again. I just wish the sightings occurred more often.

on a final note - I saw this pic of this sculpture made of tin cans.

Maybe they should put it next to Constance Isles "hanging water bottle" exhibit that Jane "adored" so much on Rizzoli and Isles.


and related to Rizzoli & Isles - I just saw the cute little interview with Sasha Alexander & her daughter, Lucia, from the new issue of Redbook. Lucia interviews her mom. So cute. ( you can check it out here at the Ausxip website )