"I threw my pie for you."

I follow a lot of entertainment-related people on my Twitter account. I also tend to follow people that I agree with so, sometimes my perception of what the majority of people are actually watching and enjoying is a little skewed. From my Facebook feed, it seems like most of my friends have not yet discovered my two new favorite shows so I thought I would try to change that, especially considering those same friends compose the majority of my readers.

Over the past month, my Twitter timeline has been a constant love-fest for new shows Orphan Black on BBC America and Orange Is The New Black on Netflix. I was not initially planning to watch either, but I could not ignore the loud voices telling me how amazing these shows are and I am very glad that I gave into the peer pressure. They were right and you should all be watching them as well.

While it was actually airing, I had only seen a few posts here and there about Orphan Black but again, mostly from entertainment writers and bloggers and mostly from the same few people. However, after hearing about Tatiana Maslany for four days straight at this year's ATX Television Festival, I decided I should probably see what everyone was talking about.

The pilot starts with a woman named Sarah Manning standing on a train platform when she sees another woman who looks exactly like her jump in front of a train. Sarah steals this woman's purse and identity and plans to clean out her bank account before leaving town with her own daughter and foster brother. However, she soon discovers that there is much more to this woman, Beth Childs, and their identical appearance than she first thought and she soon meets Katja, Alison, Cosima and Helena. They are all clones and are trying to figure out where they came from.

Maslany plays all of the clones and is absolutely fantastic. You forget that the same actress is playing all of these characters because they look and act and sound so different. It is rather remarkable. I had only ever seen her in one episode of Flashpoint and she was great in that small role but, after watching this show, it is baffling to me that she has managed to stay under the radar until now.

The rest of the cast is equally fantastic and includes Jordan Gavaris, Dylan Bruce, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kevin Hanchard, Michael Mando, Skyler Wexler, Inga Cadranel and Matt Frewer.

The second season unfortunately does not come out until April 2014 but, luckily for you, the first season DVDs were just released! That means you have plenty of time to catch up on this amazing show!

"There is nothing to hold onto but reality, to realize the present whatever it may be."

I am very excited to be volunteering for Season Two of the ATX Television Festival here in Austin this weekend! Just like last year, this festival will bring together actors, writers, directors, producers, music supervisors, studio executives and fans to talk about the past, present and future of television. There will be screenings, panels, parties and live music with some of the industry's leading professionals.

Tomorrow's opening night screening and party is presented by Netflix and will feature a few of the new Arrested Development episodes followed by a Q&A with the cast. Other screenings going on throughout the weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz and the State Theater are Scandal, The Riches, Hart of Dixie and The Vampire Diaries, as well as the new season premieres of Falling Skies, Hell on Wheels, Perception and Sullivan & Son. We are also excited to be premiering AMC's new Summer drama Low Winter Sun and Fox's new Fall comedy Enlisted. But that's not all! On top of that awesomeness, there will also be cast reunions for My So-Called Life, Party of Five, Boy Meets World and American Dreams!

This year's panels include Veronica Mars: a TV show...no wait, a movie!, Directing in a Writer's World, Structure of a Sitcom and the Rise of the Anti-Sitcom, Creating the Sound of a Show and Casting Deconstructed. Michael Jacobs will also reflect on his career, which includes shows like My Two Dads, Dinosaurs, Boy Meets World and the new Disney show, Girl Meets World. Panels and screenings are being moderated by Meg Masters from TVLine, Robyn Ross from TV Guide, Ben Blacker from Nerdist, Jarett Wieselman from ET online, Laura Prudom from The Huffington Post, Ryan McGee from the AV Club and a few others.

I can hardly contain my excitement!

"In these moments, you can normally find an Italian who isn't too picky."

Apologies for the lack of posting this month. With the big move approaching, I have had a lot going on and not much time to get to the movies or do much writing. Unfortunately, this will probably not improve much for a few weeks. However, thanks to Netflix, I was able to watch the show Downton Abbey and am now officially a fan.

I had not heard much about the show while it was airing on PBS last year. My mother may have mentioned it, but she watches a lot of random British shows and movies on PBS and BBC all the time and I tend not to pay attention to a lot of them. It was not until the last few months when award nominations came out that I started reading about how good this show is and figured I should give it a chance.

The first season centers around the Crawley family, the Earl and Countess of Grantham, and their servants and takes place before the start of World War I. In the first episode, the Titanic has sunk and it turns out that the fiancee of the eldest daughter was onboard. He was also the heir to the title of Earl of Grantham and the family must now figure out how to keep their family from having to move out of Downton Abbey.

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

The Way We Were...

...the first movie I ever got from Netflix.

If you have not already figured it out, I watch a significant amount of television and movies. The amount tends to go up even more in the summer because my other activities go down (ie. church commitments-which are numerous). I catch up on shows I didn't have time to watch and are now on DVD or movies I missed in the theater. However, my obsession really did not start until college. I watched a lot of TV in high school and went to the movies, but never really paid much attention to specific actors or directors. This started to happen about Sophomore year of college.

Sophomore year is a phenomenon I was not prepared for and was not aware happened to most people until a couple years later. You make this great group of friends Freshman year, most of whom live on your hall or are in your classes. You see them constantly and do not have to make too much effort to find someone to hang out with. Then Sophomore year comes and everyone moves all over campus, and even on a small campus like Elon, the other side of campus seems like a world away. It is at this point when you figure out who your real friends are and who are friends of convenience - unfortunately for me, there were more of the latter. It also didn't help that three of my close friends transferred schools that year. Needless to say, I needed to find something else to occupy my time. I mean, I clearly wasn't going to study more :o)

I went to visit my brother in Jackson, Wyoming during winter break that year and one of his friends had Netflix. I thought it was brilliant, I could choose movies from my dorm room and they would be in my mailbox within two days. I am not trying to be an ad for Netflix (although, I do highly recommend it) but for me at that time it was just what I needed. It was a way for me to get my mind off of things and I was going through several movies a week. It also gave me something to look forward to doing and I was getting mail on a regular basis, which is key for any college student.

The obsession has continued mostly because I like to lose myself in these make believe worlds. It sometimes make me feel better to imagine that I could have been a pirate in another life, or a passenger on a Firefly, or a teen detective, or a vampire slayer who falls in love with the vampire with a soul, or found my one true love as a teenager and lost him because my parents didn't think he was good enough for me but find each other later in life to spend eternity together :o)

It is now goal of mine to see every single movie on my Netflix queue before I die. I still have over 200 on the list...I'm trying to get down to 150 before I add anymore...it's not going so well, but I'll keep you updated.

I swear I'm not as big of a loser as I sound...a dork, maybe...but not a loser :o)

xoxo
c