"Good cop and bad cop have left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop."

For the past few weeks, I have been making my way through the first six seasons of The Shield and am about the start season seven. I have to be honest, it did not interest me at all when it was on the air. Even though it was getting great reviews from the critics, I do not remember a single one of my friends ever telling me that I should be watching it. At least, not until the last few seasons. But I am also not sure that I would have appreciated it as a freshman in college. Actually, the only person I ever remember telling me that they loved the show was the receptionist at my high school swimming pool :o)

So, why did I start watching it now? Well, it took a little while to get me to this point, starting with the FX show, Terriers.....

Damon: I took away your suffering once before. I can do it again, but it's your choice.

Jeremy: Look, I know you think you took it away, but it's still there.  Even if I can't remember why, I still feel empty...alone.  And making me forget won't fix it.  It won't fix what's really wrong.
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So here they are, my favorite TV episodes of 2010.  It was hard enough to pick these, let alone put them in some kind of order, so they are pretty much just listed as I thought of them :o)

Community "Cooperative Calligraphy" While I did love "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" a few weeks ago and last season's "Contemporary American Poulty" and "Modern Warfare," I think this was my favorite episode this year.   Annie accuses someone of stealing her pen and the entire group goes on lockdown in the study room.  There is nothing flashy or fancy about the episode, it is just the actors in a room being funny.  Plus, there is a Puppy Parade at the end!

Dollhouse "Epitaph Two: Return" Joss really started to hit his stride in season two of this short-lived series.  Network executives should know by now not to mess with the genius.  Alas, it was canceled before it's time, but not before giving us an AWESOME finale.  What happens ten years from now when the tech gets out of control?  Hopefully not what happened on Dollhouse, as I am hoping there is no one out there wiping people's memories and imprinting them with new ones.  But you never really can be too sure :o)

Justified "Fire In The Hole"  In the series premiere, Federal Marshall Raylan Givens is reassigned from Miami to his childhood home of Eastern Kentucky.  The episode sets up the character of Givens perfectly as an old-school Marshall living in modern times where, even in Kentucky, his cowboy-look is out-of-place and his quick-draw is not always warranted.  He is not where he wants to be and he now has to deal with all the things that made him leave Harlan in the first place.  The new season starts February 9 and if you are not watching this show, you really should be.

The Vampire Diaries "Founders Day" or "The Return"  It is hard to say whether or not I liked the finale of season one or the premiere of season two better.  The finale was action-packed and tied up the story of the tomb vampires, leaving us with three possible-death-cliffhangers.  Whereas the first episode of the second season gave us the infamous Katherine in action.  When this show started, I really did not think that it was going to be anything special but it continues to get better every week and is never dull.  I know the thing a lot of TV critics point to is the amazing acting of Nina Dobrev, but she really is phenomenal in her dual roles and the show would not be nearly as successful without her.  It also does not hurt that the ENTIRE cast is gorgeous :o)

Grey's Anatomy "Death and All His Friends" The reappearance of Denny Duquette in season five made me wonder if I should continue watching Grey's Anatomy.  But, my girlfriends and I endured (with the help of a few margaritas) and were rewarded by a great season six and an awesome season finale.  With a shooter on the loose in the hospital we saw many shocking losses and some heart-wrenching acting performances.  Shonda Rimes said early on in the year that the season finale would be a "game-changer" and she was definitely right.  We are still seeing the repercussions in the current season and I am glad to say that the show has rebounded nicely from its tumor-induced-hallucination.

White Collar "Copycat Caffrey" Neil and Peter discover that there is a Criminology class at a local college that is studying Neil and the work of several other white collar criminals.  The problem is, they are not JUST studying them but copying their heists.  Neil goes undercover as himself, minus the FBI job, and tries to get in on the students next con in hopes that it will out the professor as the leader of the group.  I pretty much love every episode of White Collar, but this one really made me laugh.  The dynamic of the Peter/Neil relationship, the return of Alex and the always-lovable Mozzie make for a very good time.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia "The Gang Gets Stranded in the Woods" This episode has guest appearances by Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.  Do I really need more of an explanation for why I love it?! :o)

Friday Night Lights "The Son"  Why this show has been nominated for so few awards is beyond me.  The whole series is phenomenal, but this is the best episode of this year.  It is not just about a boy whose father dies as a soldier in Iraq, leaving him to take care of his grandmother.  It is about a boy who struggles with the emotions of his loss and reconciling them with the fact that he hated his father for abandoning the family when he volunteered to go back to Iraq in the first place.  It really is a shame that more people, including myself, did not watch this show from the start and I will be sad when it is over at the end of this season.



Honorable Mentions: Spartacus: Blood and Sand "Kill Them All," Accidentally on Purpose "Speed," Mad Men "The Suitcase" and The Glades "Pilot"

What were your favorite episodes this year?!  Please let me know in the comments section!

I hope everyone has a very, Merry Christmas!

xoxo

c

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"The world would be a better place if more people weren't afraid to lose."

I apologize in advance if this blog is kind of all over the place. I have been watching lots of different stuff and this is the first post I have written in a while. I promise I will try harder to be more focused and write more often.

So here we go...

I have finally watched The Godfather: Part Three. It creeped me out a little that Sofia Coppolla had a kissing scene, that I almost thought was leading into a sex scene, in a movie directed by her father. And I was right about the movie not wowing me. I still do not understand the obsession with these movies. However, I have now watched them all, so no one can give me a hard time about not seeing them :o)

On my continuing quest to see everything Bradley Cooper, I have watched Jack & Bobby (which I discovered OnDemand and then on theWB.com), The Comebacks and New York, I Love You (which is in theaters right now).

New York, I Love You was a combination of several vignettes about love in New York City. I thought it was very interesting and had a stellar cast. Along with Bradley Cooper, it also starred Robin Wright, Natalie Portman (who also wrote and directed one of the segments), Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke, James Caan, Andy Garcia and many, many more. The stories were separate yet interwoven throughout the film, some were sad, some were happy, but they all were true to life. I think it is definitely worth seeing.

The Comebacks was one of the worst movies I have ever seen and that is all I will say about that.

Jack & Bobby was a great show and I am sad that I did not get to watch it while it was on TV. It was really well written and very entertaining. Although, I have to admit my absolute favorite part of every episode is actually the opening credits - the theme from The Patriot, written by John Williams, paired with clips of famous presidential speeches - you really cannot go wrong with that combo. I turn up the volume every time to listen to it and never fast forward through it. It sounds corny but maybe you need to watch it to understand:



Another cool fact is that executive producer, Greg Berlanti, is now one of the the executive producers for Brothers & Sisters and I noticed several similarities between the two shows. I don't think it is a coincidence that the main character on Jack & Bobby was a kid named Robert "Bobby" McCallister who grows up to be a Republican Senator and then goes on to be President, and Rob Lowe's character on B&S is named Robert McCallister, who is a Republican Senator who wants to be President. Plus, Logan Lerman looks like he could be Rob Lowe's little brother. Love it! :o)

I think Bradley Cooper should do more projects like Jack & Bobby and less projects like The Comebacks, but that's just my humble opinion.

I also watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail last week. The Monty Python boys are always funny, however, I found I enjoyed Life of Brian more than the Holy Grail, mostly because during this one, I pretty much had no idea what they were talking about half the time :o) I tend to prefer their shorts as they are much easier to follow..."I always wanted to be a lumberjack!" Maybe I just need to watch the movie again.

There are now 219 movies in my Netflix queue...I MAY have added a few more since my lost post...but I am still slowly working my way down :o)

In the world of television, I have become increasingly obsessed with The Vampire Diaries. As you may remember (http://ayetortuga.blogspot.com/2009/08/when-youre-wearing-pantyhose-on-your.html) I was not super excited about this show before it started, but I am a sucker for hot vampires, so I watched. The first few episodes were good, so I kept watching, and now the episodes just seem to be getting better and better each week. Then they had to go and add Matthew Davis to the cast (think Warren from Legally Blonde or Matt Tollman from Blue Crush) as the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman, so now I'm officially hooked.

I am also loving new USA Network show, White Collar. Matthew Bomer plays a white-collar criminal who makes a deal with the FBI to let him out of jail if he helps them catch other white-collar criminals. It is funny and extremely entertaining, and I am only slightly biased since a friend of mine is doing the marketing for the show ;o) The only downside is that it is on Fridays at 10pm, which is where my DVR comes in super handy.

I could not get into Cougar Town or Eastwick (which has now been canceled). I also stopped watching Modern Family. I thought the first couple episodes were funny, but I just have not been able to get into it. I watch enough television, so I think it is okay if I skip this one. I also stopped watching Flash Forward and never even started watching V because I decided I just was not interested in them.

Ugly Betty, Dollhouse, NCIS and Castle are having AMAZING seasons. Sadly though, the stupid FOX Network has already canceled Dollhouse, just as it was hitting it's stride, because viewership has been too low. But what do you expect when you put a show on Friday nights two seasons in a row and have it's lead in be totally unrelated sit-coms?!

Anyways, that's what I have been up to while currently unemployed. If you agree/disagree with anything I have said, feel free to leave comments below. I am really going to try to write more often, so stay tuned!

xoxo
c

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

I know I'll probably get yelled at a lot, but I am going to say this anyway, I don't really understand what the big deal is about The Godfather.

The first Godfather movie was well done...excellent acting and interesting story...but long. The second movie also had excellent acting and it was interesting to see the two stories side by side but was ridiculously too long and I ended up watching it in several sittings. Also, sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on. It must be a boy thing because I just totally don't understand why people are OBSESSED with these movies. Am I missing something? I mean, they were good, but I was definitely not blown away by them at all.

I prefer Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman or Angels in America.

I still have to watch the third one, but have heard it is not as good as the first two.

In between the Godfathers, I also watched The Soloist and Taken.

The Soloist had Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx and was good. I don't remember this getting very good reviews when it came out, so my expectations were pretty low, however, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a touching story and both actors gave awesome performances. I have not seen very many of Jamie Foxx's movies but I love Robert Downey Jr. My favorite Downey movie is Heart & Soul but I also loved him in Ally McBeal, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man. I am super excited about Sherlock Holmes and Iron Man 2.

Taken was pretty cool, action-wise, but did not excite me very much. Liam Neeson was totally bad-ass and I think the movie would have been worse without him, I just think the plot needed a little bit more...I really know what...just more of something. Maybe it was a movie better seen in theaters, but I just could not really get into it. I am looking forward more to seeing Neeson as Hannibal in The A-Team next June.

In the world of television, my DVR is definitely getting a work-out this year. I am loving new shows Accidentally on Purpose, Glee and The Vampire Diaries. NCIS: LA has been pretty good but not quite as good as the original. Last weeks Grey's Anatomy was probably the best one in a long time and Dollhouse has just been getting better and better as the season goes on.

Unemployment is helping me get through my Netflix queue and stay up-to-date on my TV shows. If only I had time to look for a job! Joking. I am capable of multi-tasking :o)

I have gotten my queue down to 215 and after watching the final Godfather movie I will move on to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I will also be watching my Philadelphia Phillies in the WORLD SERIES!!! Keeping my fingers crossed for a repeat championship :o)

xoxo
c

"When you're wearing pantyhose on your head, never wear control top."

As the fall season approaches, I thought I would share my fall TV schedule with everyone. I forewarn you, if you have not figured it out on your own, that I watch a lot of television. I usually try out a few new shows but do not necessary follow them all season. I also sometimes stop watching old shows that have jumped the shark.

My Returning Shows:

Greek

One Tree Hill

Gossip Girl

Castle

How I Met Your Mother

NCIS

Grey's Anatomy

Dollhouse

Brothers & Sisters

Ugly Betty

New Shows:

Glee

NCIS: LA

Cougar Town

Community

Accidentally on Purpose

Eastwick

Vampire Diaries

V

I am super excited for Greek, Castle, HIMYM, NCIS and Dollhouse to begin again. Grey's, B&S and Ugly Betty I just kind of watch out of habit now. They were not all that fabulous last season and I am hoping they can get back on track this season.

I am a little nervous about One Tree Hill returning without Hilarie Burton and Chad Michael Murray and the addition of several new characters, but I will at least start the season watching. I am also interested to see how Gossip Girl addresses the issue of their characters starting college. I always find it a little illogical that an entire group of friends would all end up at college in the same city, or even all at the same college, but sometimes the writers can make it work. It did not go well on Dawson's Creek, but worked out on Veronica Mars, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I am not particularly excited about Eastwick, Vampire Diaries or V and they may be the casualties of my over-scheduling, but I will give them a shot.

Anyways, there is it. Greek starts tonight (ah woo hoo!) and then it's about two more weeks until everything else starts up.

xoxo
c

Cordelia: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.

Oz: We attack the Mayor with hummus

Cordelia: I stand corrected
Oz: Just keeping things in perspective
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I went with my mom the other night to see Julie & Julia. If you have not yet seen it, you definitely should. Meryl Streep is, of course, amazing in any role that she takes on, and she is hilarious as Julia Child.

But that's not my focus today.

Part of the movie is based on the real life story of Julie Powell and her blog about cooking her way through Julia Child's cookbook and it made me think about my own blog. Her goal was too make all 500+ recipes in 365 days and she wrote about each one. Considering this, I feel like I need more focus and direction. I have no problem writing aimlessly about random thoughts I have about movies and actors and whatnot, but I now have a new plan.

I've talked a lot about my Netflix queue and how I'm slowly trying to work down from 230 movies - yes, that number has gone up since I last mentioned it - and now you get to go through that journey with me. That may not interest you at all, but like I said before, if you don't like it, don't read it.

Once the regular fall TV schedule starts up again, I might throw in some comments on current shows, and I'll comment on current movies as I deem necessary.

I feel better now that I have more direction :o)

As I am currently on my Bradley Cooper kick, I have been working my way through the entire Alias series. Although, he was only in the first two seasons, with a couple guest appearances later in the series. I did not watch Alias when it was on TV, mostly because none of my friends did - that I know of - and no one ever really told me that I should be watching it. So far, I have finished the first two seasons.

The first season was alright. I felt like I could not pay attention to the actual missions Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney, was sent on and still understand what was going on. The relationships were more interesting to me than the actual plot of the overall show. However, the second season was much more engaging, if only because Merrin Dungey's Francie had more to do than just constantly ask Sydney why she was traveling so much when she worked for a bank.

I find that, often, shows of this nature either have an amazing first, maybe second season, and then go down hill (ie. Lost, Heroes) or they have a mediocre first season and don't hit their stride until the next season (ie. Buffy, hopefully Dollhouse). The problem with that second scenario is that studios have no patience anymore and want shows to be a hit right away, so they end up canceling really good shows too soon that just have not found their audience yet.

The only thing that seriously bothers me about Alias is that, no matter how many hairstyles or different outfits Jennifer Garner's characters put on while undercover, her face always looks the same. You'd think as high-tech as these operations are, they could give her a prosthetic nose or something! Especially since she's usually trying to get information from the same people and several times has been recognized. I mean, come on, if I can figure that out, certainly the CIA should be able to!

Other than that I find the series interesting enough to keep watching. I'm not totally obsessed, but it's pretty entertaining. Mostly, I just hope that Greg Grunberg has more lines like this to Michael Vartan: "Well, something's going on. No man naturally smells as good as you do right now." :o)

Alias, season three, here I come.

I would love to hear your thoughts on anything I've said, even if you disagree with me, so feel free to take full advantage of the comments section below. Thanks for reading and spread the word to friends and family so that I can become famous, meet Ryan Gosling and have him fall madly in love with me.

A girl can dream.

xoxo
c

# of dvds in queue: 230

dvds at home: Alias - Season 3 - discs 1-3

"There are some things I can just smell. It's like a sixth sense."

Primetime Emmy nominations came out this morning. Here is the list of nominations, courtesy of TVGuide.com :

http://www.tvguide.com/special/emmys/nominations.aspx

Of the shows nominated, I watch the following: How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty, Mad Men, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, Top Chef, The Daily Show, Dancing with the Stars and Project Runway. I don't get HBO or Showtime, so I Netflix Entourage and Weeds once the lastest season is on dvd.

I felt like I should post something because this is a "TV and movie blog" but I don't really know what to say. I don't really watch the Emmys, mostly because the same shows and actors win every year. I also usually don't agree with the winners.

As I was trying to figure out what to write for this, I was checking my twitter (cmswim13) and found this interview with Joss Whedon thanks to his brother Jed (drhorrible) and sister-in-law Maurissa (MoTancharoen):

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/joss-whedon-on-emmys-dr-h.php

And it got me thinking.....

I was a little behind on the Joss Whedon train. I had seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie but had no interest in watching the TV show when it started. (I actually didn't realize until awhile later that Whedon had written the movie as well as created the show.) I was more of a Dawson's Creek girl in high school and I remember saying to my friends who watched Buffy, "At least Dawson's Creek is realistic, why would I watch a show about vampires?!" Clearly, I had no idea what I was missing.

Freshman year of college, while avoiding studying, I started watching the reruns of Buffy on FX. They would play two episodes a day, every week day. I very quickly became addicted and within a few months had seen most of the series. Then, because of a few crossover episodes, I started to get into Angel as well and soon got addicted to that. Both shows have a very different feel about them and I even know people who watched one but not the other.

I did not even know Firefly existed (way to go FOX marketing) until the movie, Serenity, was due to come out. I was looking through Entertainment Weekly's Fall Movie Preview one summer and found the article on Serenity. There was a picture of the cast and right off the bat I recognized Alan Tudyk from Patch Adams, 28 Days and A Knight's Tale. I also knew Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Gina Torres from Angel and Buffy but couldn't have told you their names. As I started to read the article and realized it was from the same guy who made Buffy and Angel (Joss's name still wasn't stuck in my brain yet) I decided I wanted to see the movie. After reading further and learning that Firefly had first been a TV show, I knew I needed to watch the series before I saw the movie. Onto the Netflix queue it went and after watching it, I was hooked. I was mad that I had never seen it when it was on TV and mad that it had gotten canceled because it was so good! Unfortunately, I missed the movie in theaters but saw it as soon as it was on dvd.

And then the Joss obsession started.....

I started to pay attention to projects he was working on and following his career. I had already seen Toy Story (tho I didn't realize he had written the screenplay at the time) and was very excited when he made a guest appearance on one of my favorite shows, Veronica Mars (another show that was cruelly canceled too quickly, but that's another story for another time). There was also a website for a movie called Goners that he was writing but that had little to no detail about what it was about an according to IMDb is not set to come out until 2011 but still has no cast or any sort of description. I then heard about his next project when he did an interview with TVGuide.com around the time of the writer's strike (or just after, I can't remember exactly). The project was called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along blog.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along blog sprung up during the writer's strike because people were trying to figure out how to create things without the studios dictating their every move. As you can read in the above article, it starred Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day (another Buffy alum and star of The Guild which can be found on youtube and which you should be watching) and Nathan Fillion (who I had seen in Firefly and then pretty much fell in love with after seeing him in Waitress). It was released on the internet last summer in three parts, each around 15 minutes. And it was just nominated for an Emmy (which is how this whole rant started in the first place). It's FABulous and if you haven't seen it we're clearly not very good friends :o) Seriously, go to www.drhorrible.com right now and watch it...RIGHT NOW!!!

Joss's current project, Dollhouse, is just as awesome as the rest of his work and I am very excited that FOX realized it in time to bring it back for another season. It involves several Buffy/Angel alum including Eliza Dushku, Amy Acker, and Alan Tudyk, as well as Tahmoh Penikett (who I loved in Battlestar Gallactica - and I've now solidified my standing as a huge nerd), Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz, Miracle Laurie, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, Olivia Williams and Reed Diamond . He also has another movie coming out next year called The Cabin in the Woods with Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

I will probably watch the Emmys this year, if only for the fact that NPH is hosting, and I certainly don't base my viewership on who wins awards, but it makes me sad when good talent doesn't get recognized...as I've clearly stated before. That being said, I really really hope Dr. Horrible wins...and maybe a few other underdogs.

Alright, I'm done ranting.....for now.

xoxo
c