Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars is a new hour-long drama on ABC family airing during this summer season, and I recently checked out the first episode on Hulu (but it's currently also available for free on Itunes so check it out before that deal expires).

It tells the story of four girls whose best friend mysteriously disappears and how they deal with the crisis that follows. In the pilot, the best friend's, Allison, body has been discovered but the girls are still receiving mysterious person texts and letters from "A", posing as Allison.

I enjoyed it, even though some parts of it were confusing (I kept mixing up the two blond characters and forgetting which one went missing). I also couldn't figure out whether or not Jenna had been there at the beginning sleep over where Allison had gone missing (turns out she hadn't been--I'm confused as of right now where this whole storyline is going). I'm hoping the series explains more and gets better as it goes on.

Overall, it was pretty decent (especially for an ABC family drama) even if it seems kind of similar to Gossip Girl with the whole secret text messaging thing. Check out episode 2 on ABC family on Tuesday at 8.

What have you been watching this summer?

Party Down

Party Down is a show about people who are struggling in Hollywood business (actors, comedians and writers) who work for a catering company as a day job.

I'm actually quite surprised with how much I've seemingly managed to fallen in love with the show. I've watched both season 1 (10 episodes) and caught up with season 2 on Netflix in under a week. Yes, I happen to have a lot of time on my hands (I don't start working til like June 17th), but the show itself is addicting.

Season one took a while for me to get into, it seemed to drag a little and be a little boring. And I just didn't really like Jane Lynch (usually I adore her scene stealing roles) in the first couple of episodes, but around the third episode, Pepper McMasters Singles Seminar, the whole entire show started to begin to click. I think it was finally because the catering company started working these odd quirky parties that fit the cast themselves. Also, it was funny because it became more than the characters acting quirky at boring parties. The parties themselves became entertaining.

My favorite episode of the first season had to be the James Rolf High School Twentieth Reunion. I love how Ron (the company's boss and "Team Leader") thought it would be a good idea to work his own reunion to show people how successful he's become. It's hilarious.

My two favorite characters have to be Casey and Henry. I just love the chemistry they have and how you can tell that even though they when they aren't together as a couple you can still tell they have feelings for each other. Also, in kind of a weird way, can't help but love Roman. I love how he's so incredibly socially awkward and I never go an episode

Unfortunately, Jane Lynch left in the last couple of episodes of Season One (and does not appear in season two so far) to go be on Glee. In order to get the actors they did for the show, Rob Thomas and the creators only required a one year contract allowing the cast to pursue other pilots in case Party Down didn't make it. And Lynch did.

This also means that Adam Scott was free to leave at the end of season two to go pursue another role on Parks and Recreation, meaning he won't return if season three ends up happening.

Either way, Party Down is a show worth seeing. Check it out on Netflix, DVD or Starz website.

I don't Usually Do This, but...

Helen is a good friend, so I figured I'd give her blog some love. She's doing a giveaway of Meg Cabot's Runaway over at her blog Bookaholic Extraordinaire.  Everyone should go enter and follow her blog.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I'll be posting about Party Down and Rescue Me soon!

Summer Television Woes

There isn't much to watch on TV when it comes to the summer. Network stations begin running reruns and reality TV shows (which I'm not a big fan of) leaving viewers without much to watch. So what's a serious TV addict to do during this television drought? You wouldn't think there would be a lot of options, but thanks to TV on DVD and the internet there's plenty.

One of my favorite websites to watch TV is Netflix. Sure, it coats a little, but it gives you plenty of options. For instance, I'm beginning to watch Party Down (a Starz series produced by Rob Thomas, the creator of Veronica Mars). It also stars a lot of my favorite Veronica Mars actors (and Jane Lynch) which is a huge plus. I also plan on catching up on Rescue Me (an FX series I've seen some episodes of) before it premieres July 29th.

I also exploring my old favorite TV shows on DVD. I've recently been doing a rewatch of Veronica Mars (it's been years since I've watched the episodes straight through in order). I'm also looking forward to the release of Everwood Season 3 (one of my other favorite cancelled shows).

I'll be posting on what I think of both Party Down and Rescue Me once I get a couple of episodes in to each series. But for now, how do you deal with the television drought during the summer?

A Letter to Ryan Murphy

I know, sadly, this blog has been lacking a lot of Glee content. And this post is going to be a little bit of complaining and personal opinions, so don't hate me. I just need to voice it.

Dear Mr. Murphy,

Glee was perfect in the first 13 episodes. I loved it almost as much as I've ever loved any TV show before. I slowly fell in love with the characters of Rachel, Quinn, Finn, Brittany, Puck and Emma. I loved the music too and listened to it repeatedly.

But somethings been missing in the back 9. Story lines have seemed forced. My favorite character, Quinn, barely had any lines. She disappeared. Also, you seemingly kicked Emma to the curb as well. I don't think we've really seen her in an episode for quite some time either. You brought in too many guest stars (whom I love--NPH, Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenowith) but they were given more solos than Quinn, a main star of the show, had during this whole half of this season. I would have loved to see these guys more spread out over the entire series, but they just took over, and I missed my main characters (who are the reason I love the show).

But you did give the show one redeeming thing in the back nine--Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff). He's what kept me watching. He became like a main character in my mind (and in my heart). But, Mr. Murphy, you didn't use him right. Yes, I realize he had to break Rachel's heart (Mr. Groff will be starring in a musical in London this fall, making his season 2 return improbable). But why does Jesse St. James go from this character who admits that he has feelings for Rachel in one episode (Dream On) and then up and leave for Vocal Adrenaline claiming he's been done wrong and no longer loves her two episodes later in Funk? Something felt like it was missing: it shouldn't have gone from him telling Shelby he has feeling for her to that he didn't belong in New Directions and it wasn't going to work out. It felt like a scene was cut--or even worse--the writers did some seriously sloppy writing. We should've seen the McKinley High kids being meaner to him. We should have seen Rachel and Jesse interact before things completely fell apart or how they fell apart. (Also--did the "Here's what you missed on Glee" thing say something about how Jesse and Rachel had broken up or was that just me hearing things?) This sudden breaking of Rachel's heart just happened so you could nicely tie up the season finale bow of Finchel. It wasn't right.

So you may have finally gave us Quinn lovers some Quinn in Funk, but you took away our St. Berry. And not kindly, might I add. I'm not sure I can keep watching Glee unless it starts to shape up better. Especially given the numerous ill-sounding rumors you've put out about season 2, which I don't even want to get into.

So, what will it be, Mr. Murphy?

Please stop ruining Glee.

Community Wrapup

This is a guest post brought to you by Joe. Check out his blogs On Repeat and Pizza Prospects.


By far the show I was most fond of this season, or maybe any season ever (1), was NBC’s underdog/fanart-stimulator/Soup -host-vehicle/Channel 101-mastermind-masterminded/community-college-set Community. In 09-10, while most people were getting too-involved with the conclusion of Lost (2), I was trying to figure out how to make .gif files so I could join in all the fun people were having with the Community ensemble on Tumblr and Livejournal (3). Speaking really broadly: I liked the show a lot and I think it worked on a whole lot of levels.

(More specific now!) The show sometimes gave me butterflies and I think its first season excelled because it featured: a great ensemble led by a fairly-recognizable anti-Seacrest who is able to make my DAD laugh; an exaggerated but accurate portrayal of a few aspects of college that haven’t yet been beaten into a desk (classroom puns!); inter-character chemistry that became a shipper’s dream; fans that (I think probably) mostly experienced and expressed love for the show on the web; the Dan Harmon that listened to those fans; and Alison Brie.

A laundry list of stray observations that are related to most of the laundry-listed reasons above, written both now and over the course of the season:

Nailing “It”

Community has, in perfect, realistic amounts, been nailing aspects of college that nothing else has nailed. Last week (episode 121, "Contemporary American Poultry,") it was chicken fingers... or rather the fetishization of edible cafeteria food. This week (episode 122, "The Art of Discourse,") it goes a step further/deeper and examines the inner-clique tensions that rise towards the end of the school term. I don't know about you but when the semester starts reaching its end, I notice, plainly, people getting sick of each other. I'm obviously not exempt. And in that same episode, Community acknowledged that a lot of times you have to stoop down to the level of annoying high schoolers and how hard that can be. “You have to bang his mom!” Britta Perry exclaims.

Abed

I like that the writers don't overdo it with Abed. I think Abed is two things: a TV character with Asperger's and great meta-commentary on how everyone wishes their life was more like a TV show and will go to distant ends to make that a reality. It would have been really easy to: have the entire character (and maybe even entire show) revolve around the fact of Abed's Asperger's... the entire show would devolve into jokes about his "social awkwardness" (in most college lecture halls and conversations, being "socially awkward" is considered a disease unto its own) and Abed's storylines would be centered around trying to get him to assimilate into, like, normal society or whatever, and the lessons it would teach would be "it's OK to be different!" (Which it is, and I don't have a problem with that being "a lesson that is often taught," but it would get tired.) Also it would be really easy to have each episode be some amalgam of sitcom tropes and Abed would sort of ground the whole thing by calling everyone out on it. This is something the show does do a lot but not to excess. Abed isn't a crutch the show leans on... he really is like some kind of commentator keeping each character in check. In that way he works to the show's total advantage. Just as the audience is catching on, saying to each other "Hey this is just a riff on _________," Abed steps in and calls everyone out on it.

Comedic “Synergy”

Sometime midseason, Community hit on a new weirdness that utilized actors’ ability to do physical comedy and tempered that with their great dialogue/chemistry. I think it created comedic “synergy” that carried it through the rest of the season. Moments like Britta being hit with a switch by Troy’s grandma didn’t make viewers uncomfortable like they probably should have.  We were just delighted that Troy and Britta were getting an episode together and it was working out nicely.

______/______

And in keeping with that _____/______ episode thing, here is a listicle of different combo episodes in order of how well they worked, least to most. Actually they all worked surprisingly well and without feeling forced. What do we owe that to? Dan Harmon seems like a really great guy to work for, for one. Also, none of these people were exactly stars going into the show. Alison and Joel and Yvette have shows on now that reach a medium sized but demographically particular audience (4). Chevy Chase, probably the biggest “star” of the lot, hasn’t had a big role in years though was likely responsible, along with Joel, for a bulk of the shows early viewers. I doubt there was much ego-butting on set.  Judging by their Twitter feeds, the cast seems to be an actual community that gets together pretty often.


-Troy/Abed episodes *

-Jeff/Britta episodes

-Jeff/Annie episodes *

-Jeff/Shirley episodes **

-Jeff/Pierce episodes

-Jeff/Abed episodes

-Britta/Troy episodes

-Britta/Shirley/Annie episodes

-Britta/Shirley episodes

-I think one or two Annie/Abed episodes

-Pierce/Shirley episodes (or maybe just one of those.)

-Pierce/Britta episodes

-Troy/Pierce episodes


Without drawing a chart for you, I think you can gather that these characters all shared functional, laugh-inducing/memorable screen time with each other.

Is this really what you want?

Because of a vocal web, creator Dan Harmon was really in tune with what people wanted out of the show, for better or for worse. Case in point: Jeff and Annie. Up until the debate episode, I thought I was a Jeff/Annie loner (I had yet to really explore the concept of “shipping” but I was a kind of quiet shipper.) Actually, I’m having trouble stringing together dates here. At the start of the season, things were clearly going to be Jeff/Britta. Then, either before or after Debate, I don’t really recall, people started becoming more vocal about Jeff/Annie. This may be post-debate, actually, because I don’t think people really knew what they wanted until they got it. So Harmon teased that nothing was really written in stone and that since people seemed to be into Jeff/Annie, Jeff/Annie might be what we get. Things kind of cooled off for the middle of the season, which was a totally smart move. I’m really glad the writers didn’t get couple-happy; chemistry was milked, slowly. And then, just when things were starting to turn out Jeff/Britta and I was kind of cool with it, we are given Jeff/Annie in the finale. A finale that gave us a little bit of everything, actually. It was definitely a reward for dedicated fans, especially because it was written before NBC ordered more episodes and a second season, and it made my stomach turn with apprehensive “glee” (5). Although it’s thrilling that a well-loved show like Community would recognize those that love it, to me it didn’t really feel like the writers’ finale, didn’t really feel “true.” However, I’ll reiterate: I’m fucking thrillllllled we got to see Alison Brie and Joel McHale make out again. I’ll be back for more.



Footnotes:

1.    Have really avoided getting too attached to a TV show until this season, season 5 of “Lost” aside. However, I have grown too attached to TV shows through DVD rewatches: Veronica Mars, Arrested Development, Radio Free Roscoe etc.

2.    Which I watched, and was often thrilled with, somehow managing to only go on Lostpedia once or twice.

3.    I’m not exactly well-versed in sitcom fandom on the web but it seems like Community has attracted a lot of fans that have shipped and .gif’d at an above average level.

4.    Those willing to subject themselves to the “wow, those sets and their behavior and outfits are really period appropriate!”-borefest that is Mad Men, people willing to get past the contradiction that is a comedian making fresh fun of celebrities on the E network (a contradiction that Joel would be the first person to point out,) and fans of Nickelodeon’s Drake and Josh, respectively.

5.    Glee became a really great in-joke on Harmon’s Twitter feed and in bits of dialogue. You’re pretty much in one camp or the other when it comes to shows about schools filled with
“loveable misfits.”

So I'm Still Completely LOST

Not that I really expected to not be lost after the finale of LOST.

Note: This was my first time watching Lost in about 3 years. I gave up watching long ago when they killed off Charlie. The recap before the finale helped clear up some of the murkiness of what on earth sideways-verse was, but not totally. I get the that in the end, yes, the plane crash did happen (I would have been entirely too upset had it not) and that sideways-verse was kind of the way to allow all of the losties to find each other again and be happy. And I'm glad it ended happy and that I got to see all my favorite characters again like Boone.

But still: I want more explanation of how they traveled forwards and backwards and forwards again. I think a gigantic Lost re-watch is in order.

How did you feel about the Lost finale?