what dread hand

That was a fun show.

I mean, it was interesting and well-thought-out and well-acted, but it wasn't really something I'd go mad about and join fandoms for. A nice change. Mellow-y. Enjoy it and leave it.

Most of that probably has to do with me not fancying any of the characters, though I did come to like several of them midway through, which was unexpected. Angel is nice, the Japanese (?) forensic guy is fun, and the sergeant and lieutenant were bitches but in the interesting multifaceted way.

Dexter's sister, if I had known her in real life, is the sort of person I'd suspect being clinically retarded.

No, I didn't call who the killer was. Well, I mean, I called it when I saw him on screen, but I couldn't figure out the why. It was a good touch. Odd about him being released of mental hospital, though. Can you "cure" personality disorders?

The last scene was so absurd and surreal it made me laugh out loud. Whaaaaaat the hell.

Slight spoilers in extended entry.

When it comes down to it I do like and enjoy these movies as a fable of the free individual's victory over imperialism and enterprise, though I don't think any of them are very good movies. The first one frankly bored me except when Jack Sparrow was being funny and Jack Davenport was being snippy, the second one was fun but ultimately ill-balanced with the third, and the third one was interesting but far too self-indulgent.

The OTP? Barbossa/Ragetti. Ragetti has had Barbossa's saliva in places no man should have another man's saliva.

Spoilers in the extended entry.

Dexteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer! ♥ I didn't realize how much I had liked and missed this show's humour until I saw the opening credits again. It's so innocently morbid and ... fleshly.

What is great about this show is that it's not actually about the murders and how gruesomely they are portrayed. It's about Dexter, as a person, his personal problems and his voice, and how the writing gradually makes you care about his frankly fucked up personality and problems is what makes it work. Nothing much really happened in these two episodes, plot-wise; it was mostly a two-parter about Dexter trying to move on from the events in season 1. Still, absolutely enthralling. And hilarious. I like Rita, I do, I think she has a spine and is capable of setting her foot down when she deems it important enough, but she's also so fucking hilariously quick to jump to conclusions. Also, the huge dude? The music that played every time he walked in? The way Dexter gaped at him, like a teenage girl who just fell in love? Absolutely. Fucking. Hilarious.

I think I used "fucking" a lot today, because I have fucking begun to fucking like fucking Deb. What happened!? And Maria is still a manipulative bitch who kicks much ass. I can't wait for the investigations to start in earnest ... so when's episode 3 airing?

I had saved these two episodes till today, hoping they would get me through The Day the Internets Stood Still (aka HP7 Day), and it worked nicely for this morning and I was at work all afternoon which distracted me nicely, but I have no idea what to do now. So I'll have a beer. And stare at SR and ZQ staring at each other. WTF, guys. Stop making me a tinhat, k?

An NBC pilot starring Zachary "I went to the Maxim party with two guys from Heroes and promptly people started writing gay porn about me" Levi.* I watched it because there was hype. Then after I finished watching it, two people told me it wasn't very good. People! I need to know these things sooner!

The premise is that Chuck is a regular nerd who gets an e-mail from a college friend who had become a spy in the meanwhile, and when he watches the e-mail he downloads a huge load of spy secrets into his brain. For this, he is hunted.

Good parts: The nerdy stuff. Chuck is fun and sorta cute when he's being a geek, and Levi plays him well. Chuck's awkward virgin nerd friend Morgan is a good touch. The deadpanned reactions by the regular folks at the over-the-top spy action had me laughing out loud a couple of times. The Candyman (otherwise known as Tony Todd) and Dexter's semi-Japanese colleague (C.S. Lee) was in it, which automatically means win in my eyes.

Bad parts: Er, the premise? If it's going to be a series of stand-alone episodes about Chuck solving some national crisis or the other using the secrets in his brain ... er, count me out. Also, the emotional stuff at the end had me "lalalala"ing, so I probably won't care about Chuck's romantic plots or family life. The heroine can be a fun character but she's too fucking thin (sorry, but this matters to me).

So basically this would be a fun show if it were nerdy comedy show with a little bit of over-the-top spy fun on the side, but a boring show if it turns into a spy thriller with a bit of nerd on the side. Who knows where it'll go.

I might watch it to find out what the significance of the pies is. Mmmmmm, pie.

* I say that as though I had nothing to do with it, which I didn't. Really.

Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig ...

I ship the two aunts (Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz) and I blame Ela for it. Except they sure do have interesting wardrobe and hair. They should be unrelated and sleep in the same bed.

I was asking Ela earlier, after only having watched the pilot, whether there was fic where the two main characters have sex through plastic foil. She objected loudly, saying this show was too innocent to have such filthy fic, but it seems pretty much canon to me. End of episode three? They totally did it after the fadeout, sry2say. The show on the whole: love it, episode three really picked up.

No, I've been doing nothing but catching up on TV shows all weekend, why do you ask?

(Also, Chuck: still boring; Levi needs to cut his hair, grow some dirty stubble, and start wearing really really tight tee-shirts for me to keep watching. As it is, I'll just be over here re-reading the Z² RPS.)

It's not a subject I talk about a lot, except occasionally to complain about the misogynistic women in fandom, but let me talk about it for once in reference to an actual object of fandom. Namely, the show Chuck. Here's why I don't want to watch it, above and beyond "its pacing is bad and bores me so much I find myself reading youtube comments instead of actually following the story":

1. Chuck (both the show and its title character) is a prime example of how men can be attractive even when they don't fall into the conventional definitions of "desirable traits both physical and mental" that our civilization and culture upholds.
2. While women cannot. They must be conventionally attractive and preferably have the model-type thin body of no hips and no ass and no muscle, even when they're combat-trained special agents.

First point: Chuck is a nerd, but he can get the hot girl because he's special. He works as a sales clerk but he's too good for that and everyone knows this. Turns out he's even too good for the CIA, because he's too good a guy, and everyone knows it. He's the jerk-off fantasy of nerds everywhere, the one they can identify with to tell themselves that they, too, are too good for the lives they live and their ugly girlfriends, and they are "special" like Chuck and everyone will know it some day, while they laugh at the nerdy and pathetic antics of Morgan, Chuck's supposed best friend who is actually only in the show to make Chuck look good and make the nerd viewers feel better about themselves, because hey, if they can laugh at Morgan it just means they aren't as pathetic as him, right?

Second point: I honestly think this speaks for itself if you've seen the female lead and female guest stars of this show.

I don't mind any of this, per se. I don't mind that male viewers get a jerk-off fantasy or two on their TV. God knows this fantasy isn't solely a male thing; the gender-swapped version of the plain girl who is "discovered" by the attractive male lead because she's "special" in some unexplained, unfathomable way is certainly rampant in the lighter spectrum of fiction for girls and women being produced as we speak.*

I just, y'know, don't care. I hate the model body type in women, as it does nothing for me, and I hate that this show (and many others) display it as though it's the only attractive body shape that a woman can have. Variety would be nice. Variety in fan service would also be nice, which is why I think Chuck should cut his hair, grow some stubble, and wear really really tight tee-shirts. And make out with his male best friend from university in flashbacks. He won't, though. So I won't watch it.

* Though maybe I should add that I dislike this jerk-off fantasy, too, because it seems to propagate the idea that women should realize themselves through men or at least through romance, which is a notion I dislike and never identified with. I identify as sexual (porn? sex? masturbation? orgasm? all great!), but I'm decidedly aromantic.

Potentially disturbing.

I know I owe e-mail replies and I'll get to it and omg you guys rock etc. etc. but I'm at work and there are some things I just need to let out first and waaaaah!

I know I'll be tempting Random Lurker even more by saying this (given in yet, have you?), but Dexter ... was good. I'm not going to cut this because it's hardly a spoiler to say that people die on Dexter, but Ela said it best when she said that Dexter? Not Heroes. Although I wish it were. Proper deaths, proper emotional responses from every character, properly handled and just, gah, I actually cried through this episode. Man. I really, really like every single character on this show. They're bastards and bitches most of them, most of the time, but they're so real and lovable.

Wasn't as good as season one, though, but that'd be hard to top. I'm not sure about season three, since I fear the repetition, but I also feared that for season two and although some of it was repetitive I enjoyed the ride immensely, so ... I'll be tuning back.

And I need to say this again: DL's death was the sole motivation for Niki and Micah's actions through season two. I'm not saying Niki's storyline was perfect, it wasn't, but saying that DL was just killed off because he was "unpopular" or "black" negates everything he did and every highly believable reaction his family had to the fact. It was tragic, but it was dealt with, and I hope Nathan will die and have the same proper aftermatch. For his sake and for the sake of the show.

And now, a meme. Because obviously, what I should be doing right now as a very pressing matter is answering memes. Yes, of course. What else? Stolen from aerie.

SIX PAIRINGS I LIKE:
1. Sylar/Mohinder (Heroes)
2. Deb/Lundy (Dexter)
3. Kurama/Hiei (YYH)
4. Ryan/Keller (Oz)
5. Skinner/Krycek (The X-Files)
6. ZQ/SR (Heroes RPS)

THREE SHIPS I'VE ABANDONED:
7. Matt/Mohinder (Heroes)
8. Tezuka/Fuji (Prince of Tennis)
9. Viggo/Bean (LotRips)

THREE SHIPS I'VE NEVER LIKED:
10. Nathan/Peter (Heroes)
11. Mulder/Skinner (The X-Files)
12. Beecher/Keller (Oz)

TWO SHIPS THAT HAVE PIQUED MY INTEREST:
13. Mohinder/Maya (Heroes)
14. Chuck/Olive (Pushing Daisies)

Questions below.

Tim, fuck me.

Now.

ETA: Caught up. Runway fandom, here I come. Where's the slash.

I'm rooting for Elisa, btw, because she's funny. And Rami, he's the hottest. I want to bitchslap Christian. (I already feel I'll be a fandom outcast.)

ETA2: And now, thanks to SHE KNOWS WHO, I'm shipping Zachary Quinto/Tim Gunn in my brain. GEEZ, THANKS FOR THAT.

(No, really. Thank you. That's hot.)

LOL Wesley.

(Secret between you and me: before I saw his face properly I thought it might have been Robert Duncan McNeill. Suffice to say, I was disappointed. Mmmm, Tom Paris. Hot.)

I should tidy up, but the cold has spread to my head. Augh.

ETA: LOL CHRISTOPHER LLOYD WTF. Best episode EVAR.

I'm such a geek.

"I've made more mistakes at 3am than I can list."

List them, Tim! List! LIIIIIIST!

Someone needs to write a fic titled 3am mistakes y/y?

(Back later for more coherent thoughts. For now, suffice to say that Tim Gunn = ♥ ♥ ♥)

ETA: k, finished it.

Wow, Ela was right. Young-ish Grunny hurt and crying and emotionally vulnerable and infected with an STD is totally hot.

Aside that, erm, not particularly making me want to watch more. I'm sure this show is very good if you like medical drama. I don't mind that House is a jerk, but I do mind that the other doctors and interns are made out to be idiots so he can appear smarter. It's bad storytelling.

In other news, I had a 60-dollar Amarone today. It was the first red wine I've enjoyed in years! Price matters. Actually I don't even know if that's a lot. I'm a beer drinker.

Hey, Dean Winters is in it! IMDb didn't have that listed. Awesome. And Richard T. Jones! What is this, reunion of all my favorite TV supporting actors? I also really adore Lena Headey, but she's much more charming with the British accent, meh. Of course I mostly checked it out for Thomas Dekker, who plays young John Connor, but quite frankly he's just a regular teenager while his mom and Summer Glau gets all the action and, well, lines. Haha. It's okay, though; it's pretty obviously setting itself up as a coming of age story for him, and I'm looking forward to see him whining about "why meeeee" and "why can't I be a normal teenageeeeeer" and growing up into the adult we know he will.

I was liking that it took place in 1999, because it's rare to get TV series or movies set in such a close past that I've actually experienced, and the subtle clothing, car, and music references were fun, but then they went to 2007. Damn them.

Over-all, I rather liked it! Which was a surprise, because I thought I'd find it corny. Which it is, sort of, especially in Sarah's voice-overs and the slow-mo and cuts of the action scenes, and it could certainly use some more tongue-in-cheek humour if they expect people not to fall asleep for an entire series, but the mother and son seem to have a real connection going and the the motives of the surrounding characters also could develop to be very intriguing. I'll probably watch it.

WHY AM I POSTING SO MUCH THESE DAYS SORRY.

Series about swingers in 70s American suburbia. Watched for Jack Davenport.

... sex is scary.

I know what it's trying to do and I can see how it's relevant and so on, but it's just not fun to watch. It's one of those stories where the surface is "sex is fun" while the point is actually "sex is miserable". It's depressing, and one of my least favorite plots. Even with Jack Davenport. Sad.

It's getting better, but it's too serious for its own good. Slow-mo angsting, pseudo-deep monologues, deep dreams, historical and thematic frameworks ... no.

MOAR AKSHUN, LESS DWAMA AND PRETENSHUN.

And make John Connor do something. I mean I know this is a the Sarah Connor Chronicles, but dude, he's one-third of the main trio and so far he's ... been cooked up in a safehouse, snuck out to see his step-dad (Dean Winters!), and angsted about how he couldn't save a girl who jumped off a building. I knoooooow his job on this show is to be angsty and go through growing pains to become the hero we know he'll become, but com'on.

And for odd reasons which aren't my slash-radar, the Sarah/robot chick interaction and the John/step-dad interaction are way more interesting than the mother/son relationship. I don't think it's badly-written, they just seem to lack the chemistry.

But I'll probably watch episode four, too. Because despite what I said above, it is actually pretty good. No, really.

I asked levitatethis over on LJ what her icons were from, and v_a linked me to a good bits collection on youtube. I've been watching it for the last half an hour. I haven't really watched gay cinema since I was a teen, but I'm obsessing over this one now. So. Much. Pretty.

I guess I can overlook the unpretty of Daniel Day-Lewis in the dim lighting. /blasphemy

Everyone watch! Watch! Then write me fic about nipples.

I'm still on 3.3, while 4 and 4.1 seem to have nice features and plugins.

I'm lazy as fuck so I might never actually do it, but if this blog is down sometime in the near future, it's probably because I'm fiddling around with installations. Just so you know.

Plugins memo to self: comment subscribe, pagination, simply threaded (or, in other words, plugins to make MT more like LJ, lulz).

ETA: So far, MT4 is fucking ugly and annoying.

I've been watching Psych season one these past few days, wondering when it'd morph into the awesome hilariousness that season two is, and it seems to have happened at episode ten. Lassiter is becoming human and starting to prove he's a competent detective, instead of being a stupid jerk for Shawn to make fun of, Jules has better hair, and Gus is becoming more competent, too. See, it's exactly this kind of un-Gary Stu-ing of Shawn this show has been needing. Excellent.

ETA: Lassie is totally a moe character, episode 11 proves it. I never understood Shawn/Lassie, but I totally see it now. He's adorable. However, "Shassy" is not a becoming name for a pairing. Ever. It's worse than Mylar.

ETA2: Oh wow. Oh geez. By episode 12 I'm thinking Shawn/Lassiter makes perfect sense, and by 13, I'm thinking Lassiter is the cutest thing ever. I don't ship it, though. Shawn isn't really a match for Lassie (neither is he for Gus or Jules, come to think of it. Not that I I don't like Shawn, but still). Which leaves me with no one to ship him with. I guess that saves me from joining this fandom. Phew! He really is adorable, though. I want to read fic where he ukes to everyone.

How adorable is this show, and how adorable is Raja, and how adorable are the LLAMAS?

Also, it's cute and hilarious and not too "wow, Americans are fucking stupid". I recommend it.

It takes place in a town called Medora, though, which makes me jump every time it's mentioned.

ETA: I'm beginning to regret my choices in that "10 people" meme below, cf. comments to this post and this:

Jenn: Hey there! Can I start calling you Mrs. Robinson now that you're crushing on a teenager?
Me: SHUT. UP.
Jenn: Heh heh
Me: Or at least watch the show before you judge!
Jenn: Watching the show won't change the fact that he's like 14... *snort*
Me: How much do I hate you right now?
Jenn: You hate me not at all. Blowing shit at you is something I RARELY get to do!
Me: He was born in 1984!! HE'S NOT A TEEN!
Jenn: O ok
Me: :P
Jenn: Well damn, now I can't make fun of you. Should I expect some slash with him and Zac Efron sometimes soon?
Me: SHUT UUUUUUUUUUP
Jenn: *cracks up*
Me: Hate.