"There you go, finding a hidden advantage in an unfortunate circumstance...

...using pain to take you to the next level. Those are the things that turn players into kings."
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I wanted to post this last week while I was home in Philadelphia, but my mother's computer has gotten so slow that it would have taken me all week to finish. So here now, only a little delayed, are my favorite episodes of television from the past year. As I remind you every year, I do not think that they are necessarily the BEST episodes from the year, just my favorites. Be forewarned, there are plenty of spoilers ahead.

So, without further ado...

Sons of Anarchy "Laying Pipe"
This episode completely destroyed me. I was literally in a ball on the floor crying my eyes out by the time it was over. All that really needs to be said is that Ryan Hurst is a warrior and gave an incredible and heart-breaking final performance as Opie Winston. His presence on the show will be sorely missed but he went out in stellar fashion. I really enjoyed the entire season, but this hit me harder than anything else this year and really intensified everything else that happened the rest of the season. It will really set the tone for who Jax ultimately becomes. I said it last year and I will say it again, Kurt Sutter is a crazy genius and he has a phenomenal and totally under-rated cast backing him up.

The Vampire Diaries "Memorial"
Another episode of television that made me cry. I loved the whole episode, but I especially enjoyed the end where they released the Chinese floating lanterns in memory of all the friends and family they have lost over the past four seasons. And then, of course, when Damon refused to participate, he went to the cemetery to rant at Alaric's grave and as the camera pans out we see ghost Alaric sitting beside him listening and he says the best five words of the whole episode: "I miss you too, buddy."  So good.

Parenthood "One More Weekend With You"
This show has really stepped up its game this season. Parenthood has always been a great hour of television, but season four has been absolutely amazing every single week. A breast cancer storyline and a new character who is an Iraq War veteran has upped the stakes this year and every single actor has risen to the challenge. Monica Potter, Peter Krause, Mae Whitman and newest addition Matt Lauria are all especially mind-blowing in their performances. I liked this episode the best because it showed Kristina going through her first chemo treatment and the reaction she has from it in an incredibly realistic way. It also shows us for the first time, the real struggle that Ryan is going through after having lost one of his military buddies and how Amber deals with him and his situation. I really love the characters on this show and all of the actors that portray them. There really is not one weak link. It just continues to make me wish I were a Braverman.

"Gettin' knocked up and kidnapped kinda wipes the slate clean."

Sadly, my beloved Philadelphia Phillies have made an early exit from the post season. The only good thing about this is that I do not have to worry about catching up on all my TV shows because I am not watching any more playoff games, watching any baseball is just too heartbreaking :o(

But I digress...

Last week, I checked out American Horror Story on FX and I am not really sure what to say about this new show. Parts of it were interesting and parts of it were just weird. I cannot tell where the plot is going or how they are going to make an entire season out of it. I have not yet watched this week's episode, but I will give it another chance before I stop watching, if only because I really like Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott. As we all know, horror is not my thing, but if the story and acting are good, I might be able to enjoy this regardless.

Against my better judgement, and mostly only because I could fit it onto my DVR, I also tried to watch Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen. I could not even get through the first episode. I made it to the first commercial break and then I had to turn it off.

As expected, I am loving the new seasons of Parenthood, The Vampire Diaries and Sons of Anarchy. In fact, Tuesday night's episode of Sons of Anarchy totally blew my mind. I am ridiculously excited to see what Kurt Sutter does with the rest of this season.

And I think I can now officially say that Prime Suspect is my favorite new show of the season. Maria Bello is fantastic as New York City Detective Jane Timoney. I especially love the scenes when she is antagonizing the ex-wife of her boyfriend, played by Kenny Johnson. I also enjoy the other detectives in her office played by Kirk Acevedo and Tim Griffin because they make me laugh a lot. I can also now say that New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel, is my favorite new comedy and I am a little sad that it will not return until November because of the MLB playoffs.

"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.....

Jax: Is there anything you love so much, you'd protect it, no matter the cost, the damage it did to you?

Tara: Yeah, a child

Jax: Yeah. That's how I feel about this club. Since I was five, Tara, all I've ever wanted was a Harley and a cut. Change won't happen quick, or without blood, but it'll happen. It has to.

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I talked about my new favorite show, Sons of Anarchy, a few weeks ago, but never followed up after watching season 3. I could not wait for them to release each individual episode on Hulu, so I broke down and bought the entire season on iTunes. This was a good and bad decision for me. The good thing is I have now seen the entire third season and it was just as awesome as the first two, as I predicted. The bad thing is that I have now spent countless hours watching the first three seasons over and over again. 

My new love for this show also means that Charlie Hunnam has been added to my list of actors that I need to see almost everything they have ever done. This list has so far included Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Timothy Olyphant and Kristen Bell. Thankfully, Hunnam's is not a super long list and includes a few things I had already watched or was planning to watch.

He is a British actor that was first known for his role on the British version of Queer as Folk. Unfortunately, this is the only thing that I have not been able to find anywhere to watch. If anyone knows where I can get it without having to buy it, please let me know, I would really appreciate it! It is supposed to be one of his best roles, aside from Sons of Anarchy. 

I did not even realize that he was in Cold Mountain until after watching Sons of Anarchy and then checking his IMDb profile. It did not help that he does not really look like himself in this film and his character is a little creepy. It is one of my favorite books and I own the movie as well, so I have since re-watched the movie and still love it...although the ending inevitably always makes me cry. He plays one of the men in town who is tracking down and killing army deserters, a small but well-played role.

Undeclared is another case where I had watched the show before I knew who Charlie Hunnam was and had to go back and re-watch it. I had seen a few episodes over the years, but never the whole series. In this, he plays Jay Baruchel's foreign exchange student roommate, Lloyd. The show also starred Seth Rogen. I am not a huge fan of Judd-Apatow-humor, but it only lasted one season, so I am going to try to make it through all seventeen episodes. 

Children of Men was one of the movies that was already in my Netflix queue. It had an interesting concept, but was mostly just a weird movie that was kind of hard to follow. It stars Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore and takes place in 2027. Humans have not procreated in 18 years, so when a young pregnant girl is discovered, Clive Owen does everything he can to keep her safe. However, the movie does not do a very good job at explaining who the different villains are or why they are doing what they are doing. Hunnam plays one such dreadlocked bad guy who is trying to track down Owen. His role was not very big and he mostly ran around trying to shoot people :o)

Abandon was another weird movie, but one in which he played a main role. Katie Holmes is a college student at the end of her senior year. She is already under a lot of pressure to finish writing her thesis paper and find a job for after graduation, when her ex-boyfriend, who inexplicably disappeared two years earlier, reappears. Hunnam plays the ex-boyfriend, Embry Larkin. You are trying to figure out if he is dangerous and wants to harm his ex-girlfriend, but she is also a little crazy, so maybe she is just imagining that he is back. You are not really sure of what is truly going on until the end. It was a little scarier than I thought it was going to be but, I am not really sure what to make of this movie. It was not bad, but it was not really that fabulous either. Katie Holmes tends to annoy me, but Hunnam's performance was excellent. However, I would not have seen this had he not been in it.

He has a new movie coming out this summer called The Ledge, which also stars Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson and Terrence Howard. The trailer was released yesterday:

If you are not already watching Sons of Anarchy, you should catch up now and be ready for season 4 this fall. I also highly recommend you get more familiar with Charlie Hunnam. The movies he has done so far have not been stellar, but that is in no way because of his performances. He is a great actor that does not get anywhere near enough recognition for his talent. (Not to brag, but I said the same thing about Bradley Cooper right before his career exploded, so you might want to listen to me :o) 

xoxo

c

ps. If you are already a fan of Sons of Anarchy, make sure that you are following creator and executive producer Kurt Sutter on Facebook and Twitter!

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