British mysteries

I've been watching British murder mysteries recently. It started when I discovered Prime Suspect at the local rental store this summer. Starring Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect is a terrific police procedural drama with well developed characters. One of the best things about British mysteries is that they seem to develop characters much more deeply. American dramas often fall into the trap of having beautiful people solving crimes quickly and moving on to the next. The format of British TV lends itself to a longer, much more developed story. The shows seem more like mini-series than seasons of episodes. I recommend Prime Suspect, especially if you like to watch a strong female character who looks like a real woman instead of a Barbie doll. Why do American TV producers seem to think that we won't watch shows unless the people are unnaturally beautiful? One exception to this I enjoy is Gil Grissom on CSI. William Patterson plays a quirky, middle-aged curmudgeon (surrounded by beautiful people....)

Anyway - the reason I brought all this up is that I have been renting the Wire in the Blood series with Robson Green. I am impressed. Green plays a wonderfully twisted psychologist named Tony Hill who helps out the police with particularly gruesome and deviant murders. He profiles the murderer and is invaluable. Of course, there is the required UST (unsatisfied sexual tension) between his character and the police detective he is helping. She is played by Hermione...something. I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway - good story, but characters are what make the show. Dr. Hill is so caught up in his work that his personal life seems to be abandoned. It is interesting to watch him try to deal with normal people. He seems to be much more comfortable with the clinically insane. I am moving on to another mystery series starring Green. It's called Touching Evil. I'll rent Series 1 after I finish with Sports Night. (I just can't get enough of Aaron Sorkin.) We'll see how it goes...

Loving The West Wing!

I cannot get over how much I am enjoying The West Wing! Aaron Sorkin is an amazing writer and has the ability to infuse high drama with humor in a way I haven't seen before. I have finished watching the first two seasons and I must say that the second season's first two episodes have got to be some of the best scripted TV I have ever seen. Wow. (Of course, the fact that my favorite character was near death had nothing to do with it...yeah, right.)

Can I just say that Bradley Whitford is my new hero? The man can deliver a line. (Not to mention that he has a very cute "good lookin' nerdy guy" thing going for him that really works. Wow.) Yep - choosing between Rob Lowe and Whitford, I'm gonna have to go with Brad. Not that Rob isn't doing a great job also. He's got a self-deprecating sense of humor that is a joy to watch.

I am looking forward to the 3rd season coming out in DVD in November and am not looking forward to the end of the 4th when Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme (the primary director) decide to leave the show. What in the world was NBC thinking? Were the top executives all on some bad crack?? I can't imagine anyone else writing this show and it being any good. Sorkin's voice is so distinctive. We'll see, but I'm not expecting great things in terms of the scripts without him.

BTW - I have to mention the chemistry between Whitford's character, Josh Lyman, and his assistant, Donna Moss, played by Janel Moloney. You can almost see the sparks. I hope that something happens between them, although that would spell doom for the show. (Always does, you know.) Of course, not doing anything in the official canon of the show always makes for good fanfic ideas...

I've got to get back to painting my air intake grates and grading my student's work. Ugghhh. Real work. Why can't the summer last forever? It's not a completely impossible request, you know...

Last day of freedom!

School district meetings start tomorrow...today is my last day of summer. What will I be doing? Going to school and working....

To return to the media issue - I saw Princess Diaries 2 this weekend. Hmmm - what can I say? First of all - I enjoyed the first one. It was a sweet story that streched the suspension of disbelief, but didn't completely break it. The second installment - blew it out of the water. I won't say the movie was idiotic, but I wouldn't argue with someone who did. The sad part is that it had potential. I love a good fairy tale. I love a good women power movie. Ever After did both well. PD2 did not. I think the problem was twofold. The script was very elementary and had several scenes that seemed to be in there just to appeal to young girls and did not advance the story or the character development at all. The second was, with a few exceptions, the actors seemed to be just going through the motions.

There was one scene that was incredibly tragic. This was probably unintentional, but I almost cried. Julie Andrews sang a song and it was so sad to see evidence of what she has lost. Her voice (which was so unique and exquisite) is gone forever. She almost had to speak her way through the lullaby and Raven Simone joined her, perhaps to cover this up. I can't imagine what Ms. Andrews has gone through since that surgery and I am so impressed that she moved on with so many other projects. She is currently directing a stage version of The Boyfriend, the musical that first brought her to the public's attention so long ago.

I did start watching The West Wing last week. I am now 1/3 of the way through season 2. (Yep, that's 30 episodes in 5 days.) I am completely impressed with this show. The writing is amazing and I am so intrigued with all the characters, especially Josh Lyman played brilliantly by Bradley Whitford. I have even developed quite a bit of respect for Rob Lowe. In addition to being beautiful, the man can act. As I am sure you know, the show is definitely biased toward the left, but is actually somewhat balanced. It shows flawed individuals and policies on both sides and there are characters deserving respect on both sides. It definitely slants its portrayal of the issues, but it does so in a way that the audience is well aware of the slant. This is a democratic White house with Democratic staff. What else are they going to do? I only wish that season 3 was already out on DVD! I understand that Aaron Sorkin left the show after season 4. I'm skeptical of the writing quality after that. We'll see.

Ackkk - Real life is taking over...

I don't want to give up on this chronicle of the media I am watching, so here's another stab at it. I have watched the first half of the first season of Nip/Tuck in the past few days. Interesting show. One of the reasons I wanted to watch it is that it is one of the shows that is most objectionable to the ultra conservative community here in the US. (The Shield is the other show that gets a lot of attention.) I can definitely see why the PTC (Parent's Television Council) has spent so much time and energy fighting this show. It is definitely not appropriate for children. However, I see some interesting issues. There is a character on the show (ironically, his name is Christian) who lives an incredibly hedonistic lifestyle. His life is a constant search for the perfect woman and the perfect car. Of course, the woman of the moment will never live up to his vision of perfection. It leads to him leading a very empty life of money and sex. Although the sex is pretty graphic for network TV, it is very clear that his life is not supposed to be enviable. As the season progresses, we begin to see some motivation for his behavior which includes childhood sexual abuse. I am interested to see how the story progresses.

I think I'm gonna start watching The West Wing tonight... Never seen it before. We'll see.

What am I watching?

I'm sitting here on a Monday morning a little loopy on Valium and Darvocet (chronic massive headaches...long story). Anyway - I thought I might change the focus of this blog a little. I would like to keep a log of what I am watching and reading. Maybe give anyone peeking in a taste of a few different movies, TV shows, and books. This list is completely dependent on my likes and dislikes. There won't be any stupid humor movies (sorry Dumb and Dumber fans) and there probably won't be any books from Oprah's Book Club...(small sorry gestures to her many fans.) For the most part, I don't like entertainment that is depressing or takes itself too seriously. I do like movies and books that tell a story, especially if there are characters that I can get to know and come to care about. (The exception to this rule is any movie with really good explosions or car chases...I love a movie where a big wall of water destroys New York City.) :-) Big disaster movies pull me in for their special effects alone. Who cares about the men slowly trudging across frozen Maryland?? Give me a tidal wave! :-)

So - this weekend was a little interrupted. My parent's house flooded. Not the typical "river rises and we have to evacuate" kind of flood or even "a pipe burst and we have to dry out the hallway carpet" fiasco...No, no. This was "my parents are on vacation and no one noticed the burst pipe for days" kind of flood! By the grace of God, a friend went over there on Saturday night and found it. We (15 friends and I) worked until about 3:00 AM and sucked about 400-600 gallons of water out of my parent's house with shop vacs. We ripped out almost all the carpet and carpet pads and moved all the furniture into the garage. (The carpet is now draped over the fence in the backyard...very white trash looking. I am so surprised that the neighbors haven't left a note!) :-) Anyway - it's been an ordeal and I just ache for my mom who is coming home today to a house that is no longer livable. They just finished a huge remodel on the downstairs and it is all destroyed.

Anyway - all that to say, this weekend's entertainment has consisted of very little. I watched a few episodes of Stargate SG-1 Season 2. Stargate is an interesting sci-fi show. Certainly not as involved or written as well as Babylon 5 or Farscape, but there is something so appealing about the humor and character interactions. Amanda Tapping is terrific as she plays one of the few women in this world of testosterone driven he-men. The exception of course is Michael Shanks' Daniel Jackson (BTW - originally played by the brilliant James Spader in the movie. Check it out.) Daniel is by far my favorite character - a brilliant, slightly nervous, good looking anthropologist and archeologist...yummy. The interaction between Daniel and Jack (Richard Dean Anderson) is what keeps me coming back to the show. I am not watching it on the Sci-Fi channel, I'm just watching the DVDs as I get a chance. We'll see how the show progresses. It looks like it might be getting a bit more complex. I'm all in favor...

I picked up the first volume of Battle Angel Alita last night. I have just started reading comic books and Manga. I wanted to understand a bit more about this form of literature. Some of my high school students read manga all the time, so I figured I should check it out. I decided to look into Alita because I heard that James Cameron is developing it as his next project. Terminator is one of my all time favorite movies and so I thought it would hurt to take a peek. I'm not completely sold on it yet, the losing and replacing of body parts is getting a little redundant, but I will stick it through 'til the end of this volume. We'll see.

I'll post this for now and pick it up again later on today. TTFN.