from Dodger, Tragic and Sean
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Best TV shows you never watched...
I blame you. Yes you! You lazy people who never give exciting new TV shows a chance. You know who you are. You're the viewer who watches the latest remix of "Survivor", "American Idol", or (god help you) that really awful show where people eat worms and drink 100 year old eggnog to win money. So I hold you responsible for the death of the following shows.
Dead Like Me
Here is what Entertainment Weekly had to say about this promising show back in 2003:
''Dead Like Me'' begins with a renegade toilet seat breaking free from the Mir space station and plummeting to earth, flattening aimless teen Georgia ''George'' Lass (Ellen Muth). Once dead, she finds direction via a grim reaper named Rube (''Chicago Hope'''s Mandy Patinkin, pictured with Muth), who talks George into spending her afterlife collecting souls. ''We facilitate their journey, wherever they're headed,'' says Patinkin, whose reaping team includes the bubbleheaded Betty (Rebecca Gayheart) and the rough-and-tumble Roxy (Jasmine Guy). Though George is initially sullen about her soul-trolling duties, is it really any surprise that death helps her, you know, appreciate life? ''I love the last line in the pilot,'' says Patinkin, who hasn't done series TV since he left ''Hope'' in 2000. ''George is sitting in the closet, looking at the young sister she never recognized in life, and says, 'I think for me, death was just a wake-up call.''' -- Lynette Rice
This show was a real gem. It was a shame that it only ran for two seasons. I really identified with the smart-ass Georgia and her struggle to become a grown up-- in life and in death.
2. Wonderfalls
Here is what Entertainment Weekly had to say about this show:
"The pitch must have sounded preposterous: ''There's this girl, Jaye. She just graduated from Brown, returns home to Niagara Falls, moves into a trailer park, and gets a job at a souvenir shop. Animal figurines start commanding her to do God's work, which leads to a huge revelation about her estranged sister and an emergency tracheotomy. Oh, and we want a former Canadian child star for the lead.'' The funny thing is, Wonderfalls works -- due to the charismatic and soulful performance of Quebec native Caroline Dhavernas, 25, who has the potential to be Fox's biggest (and flightiest) heroine since Ally McBeal.
EW What attracted you to the role?
CD I love that she has a philosophy degree and works in retail. It's different from what I had seen on television recently.
EW Well, how about that other sullen girl who takes orders from God on CBS?
CD Joan of Arcadia is much more dramatic, and it's quite different to talk to animals than the people she interacts with. Plus, Jaye doesn't want to help people. Helping people to her is disgusting.
EW Are you prepared if this show takes off?
CD I lived a little bit of it in Quebec -- we have our own little star system there. A show becomes really huge and no one else in the world hears about it."
This was another brilliant show that didn't even last a whole season. It was cancelled, I believe after a mere 6 episodes. You can order the complete first (alas, only) season through Amazon.com. This show was just so far out, which I absolutely loved. Again, what I really appreciated about the main character was her ennui: a grafuate from Brown who is so disaffected she works at a souvenir shop in Niagara Falls. One of my favourite episodes is "Karma Chameleon."
3.Firefly
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand." Sweet Lord in Heaven, did I ever love this show. Here's what EW had to say:
Lordy, does Joss Whedon ever love to tell a story, spin a yarn, get off a good 'un. Along with David Chase (''The Sopranos'') and J.J. Abrams (''Alias''), Whedon does what too many feature filmmakers these days do not: entrance us with elaborate narratives in which small, precise details add up to a coherent philosophy -- a worldview.
"In the new Firefly, Whedon's messages are: Learn to take care of yourself, because no one else is going to; and be stronger, smarter, faster than the next guy/gal, or he/she will get the drop on you. The show is Whedon's daring attempt to go where men have gone before all too often: to the frontier -- two frontiers, at that.
The notion of yoking the Western to science fiction isn't original. Michael Crichton did it 29 years ago in ''Westworld'' (remember Yul Brynner's robot gunslinger?), and while I never watched ''Star Trek,'' even I know there was at least one transporting-into-the-Old-West episode. But ''Firefly'' benefits enormously from Whedon's ability to take the clichés of any genre and give them a good, hard yank.
This series is the brawling saga of Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of his ship, Serenity, on the run from a totalitarian, multiplanet regime called the Alliance. We're told that Reynolds and his rebels -- who call themselves Independents -- will accept ''any job, anywhere'' to keep fuel in their tank and food free-floating through their space capsule. This means, in the premiere, agreeing to thieve cargo for some brutish space goons led by a graying baddie with a vaguely European accent, of whom Mal says, ''He's not the first psycho to hire us, nor the last.''
Excellent: moral relativism, plus a crew member (Gina Torres) who blasts people with (I'm dating myself here, but so is ''Firefly'') a sawed-off shotgun just like the one that Steve McQueen used in the 1958-61 series ''Wanted: Dead or Alive.'' Add to that Mal taking a bowie knife in the shoulder in the first episode and self-consciously funny dialogue like ''Time for some thrilling heroics!'' -- and count me as being on board for this sucker. Grade: B+"
Sadly, this show also died a premature death. It barely ran one whole season, but you can buy the complete DVD box set from any quality techie store. Also, you can buy the big screen movie, "Serenity" that starts up after the cancellation of this unique 'verse I came to love so. If you have never seen either, I recommend buying the DVD set of the tv episodes first and then the movie. Trust me. It's far better to see a story such as ths in chronological order. (Unless your FOX network, in which case you will air the episodes out of order, and then only after the series is being cancelled, air the pilot episode.
FOX TV: Where Great TV Goes To Die!!!
(off to bed)
xoxox Tragic
Dead Like Me
Here is what Entertainment Weekly had to say about this promising show back in 2003:
''Dead Like Me'' begins with a renegade toilet seat breaking free from the Mir space station and plummeting to earth, flattening aimless teen Georgia ''George'' Lass (Ellen Muth). Once dead, she finds direction via a grim reaper named Rube (''Chicago Hope'''s Mandy Patinkin, pictured with Muth), who talks George into spending her afterlife collecting souls. ''We facilitate their journey, wherever they're headed,'' says Patinkin, whose reaping team includes the bubbleheaded Betty (Rebecca Gayheart) and the rough-and-tumble Roxy (Jasmine Guy). Though George is initially sullen about her soul-trolling duties, is it really any surprise that death helps her, you know, appreciate life? ''I love the last line in the pilot,'' says Patinkin, who hasn't done series TV since he left ''Hope'' in 2000. ''George is sitting in the closet, looking at the young sister she never recognized in life, and says, 'I think for me, death was just a wake-up call.''' -- Lynette Rice
This show was a real gem. It was a shame that it only ran for two seasons. I really identified with the smart-ass Georgia and her struggle to become a grown up-- in life and in death.
2. Wonderfalls
Here is what Entertainment Weekly had to say about this show:
"The pitch must have sounded preposterous: ''There's this girl, Jaye. She just graduated from Brown, returns home to Niagara Falls, moves into a trailer park, and gets a job at a souvenir shop. Animal figurines start commanding her to do God's work, which leads to a huge revelation about her estranged sister and an emergency tracheotomy. Oh, and we want a former Canadian child star for the lead.'' The funny thing is, Wonderfalls works -- due to the charismatic and soulful performance of Quebec native Caroline Dhavernas, 25, who has the potential to be Fox's biggest (and flightiest) heroine since Ally McBeal.
EW What attracted you to the role?
CD I love that she has a philosophy degree and works in retail. It's different from what I had seen on television recently.
EW Well, how about that other sullen girl who takes orders from God on CBS?
CD Joan of Arcadia is much more dramatic, and it's quite different to talk to animals than the people she interacts with. Plus, Jaye doesn't want to help people. Helping people to her is disgusting.
EW Are you prepared if this show takes off?
CD I lived a little bit of it in Quebec -- we have our own little star system there. A show becomes really huge and no one else in the world hears about it."
This was another brilliant show that didn't even last a whole season. It was cancelled, I believe after a mere 6 episodes. You can order the complete first (alas, only) season through Amazon.com. This show was just so far out, which I absolutely loved. Again, what I really appreciated about the main character was her ennui: a grafuate from Brown who is so disaffected she works at a souvenir shop in Niagara Falls. One of my favourite episodes is "Karma Chameleon."
3.Firefly
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand." Sweet Lord in Heaven, did I ever love this show. Here's what EW had to say:
Lordy, does Joss Whedon ever love to tell a story, spin a yarn, get off a good 'un. Along with David Chase (''The Sopranos'') and J.J. Abrams (''Alias''), Whedon does what too many feature filmmakers these days do not: entrance us with elaborate narratives in which small, precise details add up to a coherent philosophy -- a worldview.
"In the new Firefly, Whedon's messages are: Learn to take care of yourself, because no one else is going to; and be stronger, smarter, faster than the next guy/gal, or he/she will get the drop on you. The show is Whedon's daring attempt to go where men have gone before all too often: to the frontier -- two frontiers, at that.
The notion of yoking the Western to science fiction isn't original. Michael Crichton did it 29 years ago in ''Westworld'' (remember Yul Brynner's robot gunslinger?), and while I never watched ''Star Trek,'' even I know there was at least one transporting-into-the-Old-West episode. But ''Firefly'' benefits enormously from Whedon's ability to take the clichés of any genre and give them a good, hard yank.
This series is the brawling saga of Capt. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of his ship, Serenity, on the run from a totalitarian, multiplanet regime called the Alliance. We're told that Reynolds and his rebels -- who call themselves Independents -- will accept ''any job, anywhere'' to keep fuel in their tank and food free-floating through their space capsule. This means, in the premiere, agreeing to thieve cargo for some brutish space goons led by a graying baddie with a vaguely European accent, of whom Mal says, ''He's not the first psycho to hire us, nor the last.''
Excellent: moral relativism, plus a crew member (Gina Torres) who blasts people with (I'm dating myself here, but so is ''Firefly'') a sawed-off shotgun just like the one that Steve McQueen used in the 1958-61 series ''Wanted: Dead or Alive.'' Add to that Mal taking a bowie knife in the shoulder in the first episode and self-consciously funny dialogue like ''Time for some thrilling heroics!'' -- and count me as being on board for this sucker. Grade: B+"
Sadly, this show also died a premature death. It barely ran one whole season, but you can buy the complete DVD box set from any quality techie store. Also, you can buy the big screen movie, "Serenity" that starts up after the cancellation of this unique 'verse I came to love so. If you have never seen either, I recommend buying the DVD set of the tv episodes first and then the movie. Trust me. It's far better to see a story such as ths in chronological order. (Unless your FOX network, in which case you will air the episodes out of order, and then only after the series is being cancelled, air the pilot episode.
FOX TV: Where Great TV Goes To Die!!!
(off to bed)
xoxox Tragic
Books Read 2005
Well, the year is almost up. Every year, I tally up the books I have read and enter them in a list. I've been doing this since 1999, which probably makes me really obsessive compulsive.
Anyhow, Here's my (gasp!! very very short) list for 2005:
1. Reading Lolita In Tehran: A Memoir In Books by Azar Nafisi
2. Finding Serenity: Anti- Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's "Firefly" Edited by Jane Espenson
3. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
4. Witch Child by Celia Rees
5. Maus II by Art Speigelman
6. Wicked by G. Maguire
I hang my head in shame. 12 whole months and all I read were 6 books. Ack! What has happened to me??
xoxox Tragic
Anyhow, Here's my (gasp!! very very short) list for 2005:
1. Reading Lolita In Tehran: A Memoir In Books by Azar Nafisi
2. Finding Serenity: Anti- Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's "Firefly" Edited by Jane Espenson
3. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
4. Witch Child by Celia Rees
5. Maus II by Art Speigelman
6. Wicked by G. Maguire
I hang my head in shame. 12 whole months and all I read were 6 books. Ack! What has happened to me??
xoxox Tragic
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Sunday's Suck
Sundays are the worst day of the week. Sunday evenings are the worst time of the week. Because you know, you just know Monday morning is on the way.
As the Great Dylan once said, "My weariness amazes me." And so, I'm off to bed.
Happy Holidays,
love, Tragic
As the Great Dylan once said, "My weariness amazes me." And so, I'm off to bed.
Happy Holidays,
love, Tragic
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