Trish's May recommendations

Just one recommendation this month:

The French Open began it's second week of play this afternoon. The men's final is on Sunday. If you haven't watched any of it, start tomorrow (it begins live coverage at noon on ESPN2), and if you have been keeping up-to-date, keep up the good work! The top four are still in it (#4 pending finishing the match that was suspended due to darkness today) and the women's side is anyone's game as usual.

I can't make any other recommendations when the majors are on. I'm sorry.

Oh, and never, ever see Thor. Unless you enjoy watching terrible movies that don't follow the mythology they're based on. And watching Natalie Portman destroy her career. (Ok, so I lied about not recommending anything other than tennis. Forgiveness?)

Unknown Persons: Terrible show, fantastic ending

So I don’t really have a “random” review to provide you with this week. This past week has been full of packing, moving, unpacking, moving around, and working a lot of hours to cover my co-jewelry worker’s vacation, so I haven’t had a lot of free time to whip up any funny reviews. And I do not want to review my moving abilities because I think it goes without saying that they are lacking. Also, my room is far from being unpacked so thinking about it is also extremely depressing to me. So, instead of forcing something, I am going to cheat a little and review some television this week (because I always have enough time for that in my life).

I just recently decided to splurge on myself and opened up a Netflix membership. Now, I shamelessly watch a lot of bad televisions and movies that it keeps recommending to me. (As a side note, whoever came up with the algorithm for that site needs to find a new vocation.) My latest series that I just finished yesterday morning was a mini-series that played on NBC last summer, Persons Unknown.

What initially drew me into watching the series was that the description made it seem strikingly similar to one of the Saw movies, which I will admit is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Here’s what it’s about: a group of seven individuals wake up in a mysterious town with no idea how they got there, or where the town is located, and are trying to figure out a way to escape while solving the mysteries of the town. And it was similar to Saw (in some ways). Much, much, much less graphic, but it maintained the ideal of: how far would you go to survive?

The series was far from perfect. A lot of what happened was downright stupid and unnecessary. Out of the seven main characters, I could only stand to watch four of them, and I only enjoyed to watch two of them (only one of them by the finale), and all the other characters really annoyed me. I hated the guest stars that popped in and out, only there to serve one purpose or another. And I didn’t really care whether they escaped the town or not.

But I loved the final episode. I really loved it. Because, for once, the makers of the show did what they promised they were going to: they answered all the questions about the town, and showed you the people who were running it. Of course, if I were to sit down and analyze the show, I would probably be able to come up with a million questions they didn’t answer by the finale, but I felt satisfied that by the end credits, I knew what I needed to know about that town. I certainly knew enough to know with certainty that I didn’t want to end up there.

Beyond the answering of questions, I thought the final two or three scenes of the show were two or three of the best final scenes I’ve seen of any show. It was one of those times when you feel pity for the characters, but you can’t help but to smile at the intelligence of the people running the show (both on and off screen).

If it were possible to understand the show by only watching the final episode, I would recommend only that one, but since it’s not, I would say this is the type of show that a viewer should proceed to watch with caution. And it’s not for the type of viewer who wants to be instantly entertained or gratified. This show requires perseverance, for sure.

Moral lessons and missing identities

I think some of the best shows on television have been cancelled prematurely. Some of these shows go on to be somewhat of cult classics (My So-called Life, Freaks and Geeks) and some of them were just horrendous and never deserved to receive air-time in the first place. And then there are those that are gems that just got lost and forgotten in the mix.

One such of these types of shows was one of my personal favorites, Samantha Who? which ran two seasons before having the plug pulled.

Starring Christina Applegate, the show is about a woman, Samantha Newly, who wakes up from an eight-day coma with no memory of anything that happened before getting run over by a car, including forgetting her semi-crazy parents (Jean Smart and Kevin Dunn) who she hasn't spoken to in two years, her live-in (ex)boyfriend Todd (Barry Watson), and two best friends, Andrea and Dena (Jennifer Esposito and Melissa McCarthy, respectively). The more memories she reveals about herself, the less she likes the person she was before the accident and the more she tries to make herself a better, reformed woman.

 What made this show so great was that each episode outdid the last one. Every time you thought that Samantha couldn't possibly discover anything worse about herself than what she had already discovered, she did. From helping her mother dump her father's car into a lake to sabotaging her best friend's relationships to causing the extinction of a species of butterfly, there was no stone left unturned by her in her evil path. And every time the "new" and improved Samantha tried to make things better, she, of course, made them much worse in the appropriate comedic fashion.

There were, of course, times when the show made cheap, slapstick type of jokes, but it never felt like they had to put on the "clap" sign for the audience to get a sympathy laugh, so I can overlook the occasional cringe factor. Most of the time, it was witty and engaging to watch her discover all these terrible things about herself, mostly because it isn't me who has amnesia, and it isn't me who didn't pass along the message about the job interview to my boyfriend in order to go on vacation. This show is made for people like me who enjoy watching other people mess up their lives and basking in the simple joy that at least it isn't happening to me.

 The only gripe that I have with the show is that it's riddled with underlying moral messages. And by "underlying", I mean in-your-face obvious moral messages that are revealed to the audience by the completely unnecessary voice-over narration. I have never been a fan of narration, I think there are better ways to tell a story, but as far as this show is concerned, the narration isn't too annoying most of the time. And at least there are good-looking men (Barry Watson has grown up a lot since his Seventh Heaven days) to combat the fact that the show was about a woman trying her hardest to take the moral highroad after thirty years of taking advantage of everyone she encountered. I only wish that we didn't have to take the highroad with her every episode.

Overall, Samantha Who? is a fun, quirky little show that entertains and teaches

 

Characters you love to hate and hate to love

In my opinion, a television series is made by the characters in it. Often times, it only takes one character to make me love it. Or, at the very least, continue to watch it. Call me easy to please, but I prefer to think of it as being loyal to my fictional soulmates. I have hated shows that I watched because I couldn't give up on my favorite character. So I thought it would be nice to kick off 2011 by paying homage to those selective few who have a special place in my heart. To you guys.

1) Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) - Gossip Girl
I'll admit I only started watching Gossip Girl recently (11 days ago, in fact, while I was dog sitting), but it only took one episode to get me hooked to this conniving, manipulative, gorgeous piece of man. He kicked off his appearance in the pilot by making sexual reference to almost every girl in the cast of the show, and he's just gotten worse and worse every episode since (or the first season and a half that I've watched, at least). I love him because I can't believe the things he says and does to people. He knows what he wants and he'll stop at nothing to get it, no matter who he has to step on to get it. Perseverance is something I have a great deal of respect for. And, I love a man that doesn't waste his time pretending to be something that he's not. It's quite refreshing. If Chuck Bass were a real person, I would marry him, sexual references and all. So please, Chuck, don't change a thing about yourself.

2) Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) - Queer as Folk
Queer as Folk is my favorite television show of all time, but mainly because Brian Kinney was so irresistible. His motto was always that he believed in sex and not love, which is pretty much the opposite of what I believe in, but again, I can respect a man with values that he sticks to, and not believing in love is pretty much what characterized Brian throughout the series. He was opinionated and outspoken, and often he was a total asshole, but he was never really wrong. He called the other characters out on their bs and they remained his friends because of it. He didn't believe in apologizing or regretting anything, which is something I think everyone can gain a few things by believing in, as well.

3) Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) - OZ
My mother raised me to love prison shows, and I learned to love them well from her. And if you're going to watch a show about prison, you want the characters to be really despicable. I do anyway. Keller was one such character. He fell in love with another man and because he loved him so much, he helped to break almost every bone in his body, and then somehow managed to get that guy to fall back in love with him. That 's charisma I can envy. He even got the nun to fall for his tricks, which is nothing short of genius. He was remarkable and I know there are people in the world just like him, which is remarkable, as well. He's certainly someone I would want on my side if I ended up in prison for some reason.

Basically, I could go on and on for days talking about characters I love in television shows, but no one compares to these three. They've made my television experience all the better with their presence. Let's see if they can be dethroned in 2011. Good luck, gentlemen. May the most dubious reign victorious.

Rocky Horror Glee Disaster

I know that a million people will probably review this episode of Glee and I'm even afraid that some of them may have liked it, but in keeping with what I said earlier, I am going to start writing about things that interest me. And while Glee's torturing of one of my favorite childhood favorites may not classify as "interesting" to me, it does qualify under the category of things that fire me up. Because I was a big fan of Glee before tonight, and now I must admit, that I don't think I'm ever going to watch it again. A big of an over-reaction on my part? Perhaps. But everything is black and white, hot and cold in my world.

God bless my mother because if she hadn't been texting me during the show, I would have shut it off after the first thirty seconds, and I would have missed the horror that was the rest of the episode. Even though I complained bitterly and asked my mother to gag me when Uncle Jesse from Full House started butchering Meatloaf's work, I'm kind of glad that I muscled my way through the episode. Because their rendition of "Time Warp" was that horrendous.

Here's my problem with the episode: it was clearly made for people who had already seen Rocky Horror. They make countless references to how inappropriate it is for students to perform the musical without going into any detail as to why, and they talk about the nature of the midnight shows in a familiar way that would only make sense to someone who had either gone to one, or heard about one prior to the episode. Even the characters in the musicals and their roles aren't addressed. That being said, if you are going to make an episode about a popular musical and gear it towards the audience that always loves that popular musical, why would you steer so far from the classic? Frank-N-Furter is played by a girl? Rocky Horror is wearing a shirt?

My biggest problem with the episode, and with Glee as a whole in fact, is that all the songs sound the same. Exactly the same. You have Rachel singing lead and Finn attempting to sing alongside her. And all the songs in Rocky Horror don't sound the same, so it was disappointing that you couldn't tell one from the other in the episode.

Maybe I'm just being nostalgic. Maybe it's really the absence of Tim Curry that's pissing me off. But the episode was bad. Really bad. Beyond bad. And also, other words that you could say that mean the same thing as bad. It ruined Rocky Horror, and furthermore, it ruined Glee.

You missed the mark, my friends, and I'm not sure I can give you the second chance to see if you make it back on track. Sorry. Better luck ruining another hit next time.

Hello again, it's been a long time

I just recently moved into my very first apartment. As I was unpacking, I came across all the diaries that I’ve kept during my life. I had no idea where they came from, so like the child that I still am on the inside, I called my mother. The saint that she is had found them when she was packing up underneath my bed for me (I was too busy throwing a temper tantrum to my father, I’m sure), and she thought I might find them amusing. And amusing, they were.

So the day I moved into my apartment, instead of unpacking or doing anything in the realm of productive, I sat down and read through fifteen hardcover notebooks that were preserved with love in an old shoebox, and I reacquainted myself with my former self. It’s amazing the things I had forgotten. Crushes whose names I had long since spoken, people who seemed so important to me at the time, people I thought I couldn’t live without, people who were forgotten over time. I read those diaries and I felt I was meeting a whole new person. So, in honor of that person that I found, I am going to do something that I haven’t done since December 3, 2006: my top five’s.

I am not much for playing the “favorite” game anymore, but apparently I used to be. My favorites were all over the place in those pages. So, for old time’s sake, here I go:

Actors:
Russell Crowe
Vin Diesel
Mark Wahlberg
Christian Bale
Bradley Cooper

Movies:
All Over The Guy
Catch and Release
Heights
Labyrinth
The 24th Day

Books:
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
A Separate Peace – John Knowles
Dear John – Nicholas Sparks
The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis

Songs:
Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls
Existentialism on Prom Night – Straylight Run
Undisclosed Desires – Muse
Wait – Something Corporate
Walking By – Something Corporate

TV Shows:
Queer as Folk
Dawson’s Creek
OZ
Heroes
Sex and the City

I just spent the last hour thinking up that list. The consensus I found was that my top three choices were always solid and easy to make, but then I started to get unsure as the list got more towards the bottom. This is why I avoid the “favorites” game—it’s so damn hard to just pick a couple things that I love.

I’m done school for the summer now so I plan to do a lot more writing. If any of you nine followers are still with me reading this thing, I can assure you that there will be less academic posts and more fun ones to come shortly. I, of course, don’t have the Internet at my new apartment, but I am working out a plan to sell my soul to the devil in order to check Facebook so I’ll be around.

<3