On Notice: Castle

Oh, Nathan Fillion, I love you so. Why can the TV not find you an awesome thing for you to be in??? Oh, I forgot. They already did and Fox cancelled it. BOO.

Castle is a show that took a few episodes for me to really get into it. I don't normally watch silly mystery shows (which is a COMPLETE lie, I love Psych and if that's not a silly mystery show, then I don't know what is), that is I don't watch shows with what I like to call "busybody detectives." Mrs Marple is a busybody detective. She's a bored old lady who likes to solve crimes. Kinsey Millhone is a private detective. She gets paid to do what she does, and ultimately, I enjoy those kinds of mysteries more than the ones who do it out of boredom. I think it's because ultimately the busybody detective strains credulity to the point of breaking, and usually it breaks fairly quickly for me. If someone's getting paid, it makes sense them for them to be sneaking around in rose bushes. If they're not, I eventually want them to get a life and stop sneaking around in rose bushes. And of course there's the old joke about Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) about how after a while you'd think people would want to avoid her. After all, everywhere she goes, someone ends up dead!

The thing with Castle is that it made sense for a while. Famous millionaire novelist, friends with the mayor, wants to shadow a cop to get information for a new novel. Fine. But once that novel is written? Weird. Okay, he wants to write another novel so somehow they get permission for him to stay on indefinitely. But like I said, credulity is beginning to Strain. Quite strenuously. But as long as everything else was fun to watch, I was still in. Until the season 2 finale.

This is a show that insists on having a "the two leads are so hot they really need to get together but we can't actually do that for whatever reason so we're going to tease it as much as possible and then plotblock* them whenever we can." I don't mind so much if there's just some flirting and teasing and mild jealousy, but when they decide to move further and actually almost get them together, then don't follow through, it's seriously annoying. Hence "plotblock." The season 2 finale had Beckett all set to finally declare her love/lust for Castle and go away with him somewhere, but Oh Noes! He invited his ex-wife instead! So when the show came back, they had to do the obligatory Beckett makes puppydog faces and gets upset that he didn't call all summer or some High School crap. And by the end of the episode a reset button was pushed and now it's business as usual.

Except now that they did that, I'm just annoyed going forth. Now I know they'll do it again, because they can't help themselves. Bones had this same problem and I'm done with it as well. I didn't do an RIP because I was pretty much done a few seasons ago but still kept watching, until about 3/4 of the way through last season. And their season finale was even worse than the Castle finale, so I was done and won't watch again.

So, Castle, you are On Notice. Give me the funny, give me Nathan Fillion in silly outfits and being adorable, and Stana Katic in short dresses and heels, and all will be fine. Until you pull out the plotblock again. And then I'm OUT!

*I stole the term plotblock from someone at the AV Club. It's just so perfect.

New TV Watch: No Ordinary Family

This was one of the shows I was most looking forward to. The plot seemed like it would be a good live-action version of The Incredibles (one of my favorite movies). And Michael Chiklis! Love Him. Oh, and Romany Malco, who needs to be on my TV more often. Well, I started watching it on Hulu this morning, and got about 25 minutes in and just had to stop. Most people are saying that the family aspect of the show is the weakest, and I won't disagree with that. They were doing this lame faux-documentary thing, so it kinda felt like they were trying to do Modern Family, and it really slowed down the whole thing. It didn't add anything and just felt lame.

This is one that maybe if people say it gets better, I'll check back in later. But damn. What a disappointment.

New TV Watch (late ed.): Raising Hope

I didn't write about this show last week cuz I'd kinda forgotten about it. Actually, I hadn't intended on watching it, due to lukewarm reviews. But then I read a review that made me decide to catch it on Hulu, and as it turned out, it's a pretty damn funny show. It's done by the same dude who did My Name Is Earl, which I enjoyed for a few years before it got kind of stale.

Anyway, it's one of those shows where if you're easily offended, you'll probably hate it. I like it enough that I'll stick around for the foreseeable future.

RIP: The Office

The Office had a pretty good run. It was able to make me laugh quite a lot through most of its run, and it was even able to transcend a few sitcom tropes along the way. Jim and Pam got together. Companies merged. Probably a few other things I can't recall. But then last season, it just fell apart somehow. The company was bought out and rather than having that be a real shake-up for the show, it was resolved with no real conflict. It became just another stoopid show where everything basically resets at the end of the episode. And having proved it could do better, that was just unacceptable. I watched all last season, but I did consider giving up a few times. And I was all set to give this current season a chance.

But then I started watching the season premiere, and I just didn't care. I didn't want to watch. I didn't want to watch them do the same old shit anymore. The show basically had its high point last season when Jim and Pam got married. After that, it pretty much went to shit. Even the baby episode was mostly lame and forgettable.

So, byebye Office. I reserve the right to watch any future episodes that contain Amy Ryan, though, because she was an awesome character and I really want to see Michael end up with her.

RIP: Weeds

I watched Weeds through the end of the fourth season. I really loved the first two seasons, and while the third wasn't quite as good, I was still into the show. And I wasn't certain if the show could be as good away from it's suburban setting, I was curious to see where it would go in the fourth season. And I think I mostly enjoyed the fourth season, but towards the end I got a bit annoyed with it. And then when Nancy pulled out the ultrasound to show the dude who was probably about to have her killed that she was pregnant with his baby, I got really annoyed with it. I just didn't want to know where it would go from there.

Well, over the summer hubbie decided to watch the fifth season on Netlix streaming, and he really enjoyed it. And since it had been awhile, and I really did like the characters, I decided to give it a shot. And I mostly enjoyed it. But now in the sixth season, it's just wore me down. The characters DO NOT CHANGE. For the most part, they don't learn from their many, many mistakes. And Andy. Andy was my favorite character. He had an actual chance at happiness with Alanis Morrissette. Then he did something really stoopid, and Shane did something really stoopid, and suddenly, the Botwins are on the lam. Again. And Andy could have stayed and tried to work things out, but no, he had to go along with Nancy, who I started to kind of loathe.

And I watched a few episodes of the current season, and I just don't care. Even the presence of Linda Hamilton isn't enough to keep me around. Besides, she's on Chuck this year, so I won't be missing her. I dunno, I don't think it's necessary that characters change. But at some point, they need to do something, I dunno, unexpected. Something to keep me interested.

And another thing is that I decided to re-watch the series from the beginning, and after an episode I realized: these are really the exact same people. They were fucked up from the very first episode and they were basically Doomed to it. So, I'm done with Weeds for now. I might go back some time, but I dunno. I'd rather just remember that I liked it once.

New TV Watch: Undercovers

I forgot to write about this one last Wednesday. I was excited to watch Undercovers because the leads are very pretty and the trailers indicated it could be good, if mindless, fun. I guess I was excited until I started reading some of the reviews, that is. Most of them said it was mindless fun, but not as good as it could be. And they were right. The leads are indeed pretty, but they're kinda bland underneath. I didn't end the show just dying to see what would happen next. This one's on Hulu, so it's still around in 5 weeks and I feel like it, i might check in again, but unless someone else says it got better, I probably won't.

I will say it's rather disappointing on another level that this show wasn't better. As far as I know, this was the first show of its kind with two African-American leads. A show on a major network. If it doesn't do well, some programming idiot's gonna think it's because America wasn't ready for it or some shit. Then again, it could do well simply because it is kinda bland and breezy. I mean, Castle is entering a third season. Now, I like Castle cuz even though it's mindless, the characters aren't bland. I had hoped that this Undercovers show could have been fun, with good characters, but it just wasn't.

New TV Watch: Boardwalk Empire

I finally got around to watching the pilot for Boardwalk Empire, and man, it was good. I mean, DUH. I didn't expect anything less. I will say that I'm not rip-roaringly excited for the next episode, but I definitely want to keep watching. Steve Buscemi is, of course, a total bad ass and I adore him.

Update: Yeah, I did like the pilot, but so far I still haven't watched the newest episode, and yes, it's up On Demand. And a new episode is on tonight. It might end up being like Treme for me. I could never watch Treme "live" because it was on at the same time as Breaking Bad, and I COULD NOT miss Breaking Bad. And I never really felt like watching Treme On Demand, even though I really enjoyed the show. I'd end up saving two or three and then watching them all at once. I just enjoyed it more that way. It's what you call a "DVD show", because it flows better when you can watch more than one episode at a time. So maybe Boardwalk Empire will be the same way for me. I'll RIP it if I end up deciding I don't like it, but I definitely need to see more episodes before I can make that kind of decision.

New TV Watch: Nikita

This was one I hadn't planned on watching. I quite enjoyed the original French movie, and just the fact that this show is on the CW kind of turned me off to it. I love Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries, but when I think CW I generally think One Tree Hill and 90210 and generic crap with generic, interchangeable teen actors that I can't fucking tell apart. So yeah, this wasn't high on my list.

But then Mo Ryan from TV Squad gave it a pretty good review, and Alan Sepinwall didn't exactly love it, but said it was better than expected. I wasn't watching anything else at the time, and it was on right after the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries, so I gave it a shot.

And it was pretty good. The actress playing Nikita was pretty kickass and the story was interesting enough. I did like that they pick up Nikita 3 years after she's escaped from Division rather than having yet another origin story. I don't know how long I'll watch this one, though, since I watch two other shows at the same time and I may not want to be watching that much TV. Oh, who am I kidding?? I loves me some TV. I am less certain of this one, so if I feel meh about it after 3 eps, I'll probably stop watching.

UPDATE: I actually had zero interest in watching the second episode, so I guess I'm already done with this one. I can always catch up with it later if I want. It's just so weird when I really like something and then never want to watch it again.

New TV Watch: Terriers

Every year I watch a handful of new shows. What I decide to watch depends on various things, such as creators, writers, directors, actors, storyline, etc. And of course, the all-important, what time is it on and does it conflict with something else I watch? That last isn't necessarily a barrier anymore though, since a great deal of new shows can be viewed later via Hulu or On Demand.

In the case of Terriers, all I really knew was that Donal Logue was in it, and Alan Sepinwall of What's Alan Watching really liked it. So I watched it and immediately liked it. The two leads have great chemistry and the story was okay. I can forgive A LOT if the characters are convincing. I'm not sure I would have made it through the first season of Supernatural if the two brothers weren't so awesome.

I've liked Donal Logue for a long time. He has a certain snarkiness and charm, and on Terriers he also gets to be a bit more dramatic than usual.

I don't think I'll rate these things cuz it seems a bit pointless, I'll just say I really liked it and if I had a DVR this would get a season pass.

The Crazies (2010)

Alas...My beloved Timothy could not save this movie. The only way it would have been ultimately worth watching is if he had gotten very nekkid, which he didn't.

Thoughts on the Lost finale

Shut Up. Just Shut Up. I know this is months after the fact. But I started writing this in a Google document and I wanted it to be somewhere else, so here it is.

I really enjoyed the Lost finale, up to the last few minutes. The fact that it was set in a stoopid church and Christian (fucking) Shepard went off into a stoopid white light really torked me off. But as I read other people's reactions I wonder if my knee-jerk reaction to any hint of religious crap makes me lose sight of what was, really, not necessarily a religious crap thing.

As was pointed out by many, the church wasn't necessarily a Christian church. There was iconography from other religions in the chapel. And the more I read, the more I think that maybe I missed out on something wonderful because I was so annoyed at what I saw as religious crap.

I mean, even if it is religious crap, who cares? Does that invalidate anything that I feel and think about religion? I dunno. I mean, there was always that element there. Like the BSG finale that had people so up in arms. I mean, religious crap was always present on that show. You could interpret it however you wanted and it wasn't necessarily Christian, even the one true god crap. But even though that last hour of BSG was pretty stoopid, I didn't feel betrayed by the ending, I just felt it should have been about 45 minutes shorter. And the last five minutes I prefer to forget entirely.

But. Back to Lost. And to religious crap. I do have a tendency to see things in religious black and white. "Ooh, white light! Must be God and Heaven and all that Crap!! I must now hate the show and all it stands for!!!" Which is highly Stoopid of me. I can enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia without hating C.S. Lewis.

So, all of that is to say that even if it was a religious ending, who cares. It doesn't invalidate the fun I had watching it for 6 seasons (not all of which was fun, but anyway). And in retrospect, I don't think I missed out on a wonderful thing. I did enjoy the finale. It just leaves me with some questions, which are coincidentally the same kinds of questions I have about Heaven.

I mean...ALL of these people wanted to be together for this last thing? None of them were thinking "meh, I can never see these people again and die happily?" I mean, if my version of heaven is to be with my family forever...yuk! I don't even like most of my family. And that's usually what people say, you'll be with your loved ones forever. Loved ones, fine. But...sometimes the people you love are not the people who love you. So will you get stuck with someone you didn't really care for, but they really liked you? Will there be different versions of everyone in different people's Heavens?

Yikes. It just all sounds so ludicrous (maybe cuz it IS). And I know, the whole church thing at the end of Lost wasn't Heaven, it was like a holding place or something. But dammit! It's just still kinda stoopid.

Quick thoughts

I watched the movie Hot Rod this weekend. I actually liked it quite a bit. Yes, it was extremely silly and yes, I kept thinking the writers must have been 12-year old boys, but I dunno, I still laughed a lot. The scene where Andy Samberg is "punch-dancing" in the forest just killed me. If you like silly humor, I recommend this one. One thing I really quite liked about it is that the level of gross-out humor was actually pretty nil. Also: the music of Europe dominated the soundtrack. Ya know. The '80's group that sang "The Final Countdown" (a.k.a., that song that Gob Bluth played at his magic events). It was actually perfect for the kind of movie that this movie was spoofing.

Gak, and how can I forget? Al Fucking Swearengen played Samberg's stepdad. He was funny and weird and dammit! Ian McShane needs to be on my TV screen more often, somehow, anyhow.

Another movie I watched, because a friend lent it to me and I'd had it forever, was The Big Tease, a 1999 movie with Craig Ferguson. It's a faux documentary about Scottish hairstylist Crawford Mackenzie (played by Ferguson), who comes to America to compete in the Silver Scissors hairstyling competition. It was pretty stoopid. It really was. But it was still watchable and I did want to know what was going to happen next. And it did have one fairly large admirable thing about it. Crawford is gay. He's a gay hairstylist. Let that sink in and imagine all the awful mannerisms and lisps that he's going to have, the awful jokes about him being gay, etc. And now ignore that cuz that wasn't in the movie. There were references to it, but it wasn't played for laughs the way it could have been. He just happened to be gay. So, even though I wouldn't seek it out or anything, it did have that awesome thing going for it. Plus, Craig Ferguson. Hello!!