Archive for August, 2007
After three episodes of “Californication” I guess it’s time for a few words from my side. A good introduction on the show can be found here. Since I never watched the X-Files the last memory I had regarding Duchovny on television was his one episode appearance on Sex and the City as Jeremy - Carrie’s high school sweetheart and I sort of didn’t like him there because I wanted her to get back together with Big and I was still annoyed from the “Berger” debacle. I thought he was somewhat boring. Then I turned the TV on to Showtime and was hooked after about 2 minutes. I must admit that at least up till now there’s a serious Sex and the City vibe surrounding the show but not in a negative way and I don’t feel like they are copying the show. The dialogues are so hilarious and refreshing and its nice to see Madeline Zima from the Nanny again and also Evan Handler better known as Charlotte’s Harry from SATC. I was just rewatching the third episode from Monday night and I absolutely love the scenes between Duchovny and Zima. I laughed out loud several times - even the second time I watched this episode.
Gillian Flynn on www.ew.com summarizes what Californication is all about when she writes:
“Join David Duchovny for an odyssey of self-loathing, despair, bitterness, and projectile vomit in Showtime’s ”new comedy” (huh, comedy?) Californication. Here, Los Angeles is a grotesque nihilopolis and Duchovny’s writer Hank Moody is its pissy chronicler, indulging in cocktails and revenge sex and anonymous sex and angry sex and massive doses of wallowy self-pity: After seeing his brainy best-seller turned into a mindless date movie, the guy can’t get it up, literarily speaking. He’s losing his longtime partner (Solaris’ Natascha McElhone) and precocious 12-year-old daughter (The Pillowman’s Madeleine Martin) to a safe, boring rich guy — whose teenage daughter he slept with, unknowingly….
….Hank’s a man in crisis, and the crisis is distinctly Duchovnyesque: sarcastic, understated, and buzzing with sly humor. This character, in fact, probably wouldn’t work without Duchovny, so oft-infantile Hank is. As with his X-Files persona, the actor brings just enough playfulness, and a goodly amount of sorrow, to make Hank palatable. And bless McElhone’s Karen, because if a woman that sensible and earthy still sort of loves the guy, it’s a pretty solid voucher. She banters with Hank, brushes him off, rails against him — and it’s in those scenes that Hank becomes a real person, engaged in a genuine dissolution of love”
I hope people turn on their TVs and keep watching this show because provided that it keeps this course Californication will be a potential success. I will put it on my weekly regular show schedule and I will make everyone I know watch it as well. The only bad thing about it is its episode length of maximum 30 minutes. They went by so fast that I initially thought I had missed a part.
I just ran across this short article. It’s about a writer’s love for Tina Fey. I love her too (Just wanted to mention my love for her again at this point) and I think she is one of the funniest TV actresses on American television. I can’t wait for Season 2 of 30 Rock- (And of course we will wish her lots of luck for the Emmys).
(Picture Source: www.popbytes.com)
Tags: David Duchovny, David Duchovny Californication, Gillian Flynn EW, Gillian Flynn, Californication Showtime, Californication, Madeline Zima, Evan Handler Sex and the city, Evan handler Californication, Tina fey 30 Rock, Tina Fey
TV Shows, 30 Rock, Californication | August 30th, 2007 by admin | No Comments
Hey y’all. And it’s Monday again. The weeks are passing by so fast you can almost smell the fall coming. I ran my first 16k last Saturday and it was a blast and actually not that difficult. I was so proud all weekend that I kept looking at the results on my Ipod. But in the meantime 16km doesn’t seem like that much anymore and I’m definitely going to try a 20k run in the near future. Thanks to various blister tapes and two pairs of socks I didn’t even get new blisters so alls good.
What’s new? I took the TV Addict’s advice and watched the first season of Friday Night Lights all in one weekend. Yes, it sometimes appears that I have no private life. No, I’m not ashamed of it. Well anyway, since I had never read about the show before I had to realise really early into the show that it was all about football. I’m not such a fan of football but since I didn’t want to waste a whole season of episodes and there wasn’t really anything else to watch I gave the show a chance and surprise…I was impressed!I really like the character of Kyle Chandler and also his wife in the show I think she is played by Connie Britton (I recognised her from season five of 24). This show really knows how to press my buttons. I cry a lot during TV but never before during football. So this was a first. The show is set up in Dillon, Texas. Coach Eric Taylor moves to Dillon with his family to coach the local High School football team, the Dillon Panthers. The whole town is revolving around football and the team is the pride and joy of the town’s inhabitants. Every Friday night there is a game - hence the name “Friday Night Lights”. Coach Taylor and his family have to learn that all his actions and decisions connected with the team are well perceived and judged by the town. Early in the season we realize how huge his responsibility towards this smalltown really is. The majority of the team members see football as more than just a game but as a ticket into a bright future outside of Dillon. We learn that this town will do everything to support it’s team and on the other side will let you feel it should you dare to go against it.
Throughout the season the Taylor family manages to win over the hearts of the town’s people as well as their trust not only due to the smart training of the Coach and the empathetic councelling work of his wife Tamy Taylor at Dillon High. We also get to meet the local dream couple Lyla Garrity( Minka Kelly) and Jason Street(Scott Porter). She a cheerleader - he the celebrated Quarterback. Their relationship is seriously tested when Jason has an accident during the first game of the season and becomes paralyzed. This gives the young talent Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) the opportunity to try himself as quarterback with the support of Coach Taylor. We get a good look into the family backgrounds of the team players and the problems and challenges they are dealing with. What I like about Friday Night Lights is that due to its strong characters and the numerous storylines evolving around them even the viewers who are not specifically interested in foodball will like watching it.
I must say that after 22 episodes and quite a few games I still don’t really get the rules but at least I can recognise a touch down when it happens. I really look forward to the season premiere in October where we will find out whether Coach Tylor will move to Austin to take that job at TMU or not.
(Picture source www.autinist.com)
Tags: Friday Night Lights, NBC Friday Night Lights, Kyle chandler, Kyle chandler nbc, connie britton, minka kelly, The tv addict, Scott porter, Zach Gilford
TV Shows, Friday Night Lights | August 27th, 2007 by admin | 1 Comment
Some good n
ews for all Kristen Bell fans. Our former PI has signed on to star in a multi episode arc of the upcoming season of Heroes. Read more here on Perez. I was happy about the news although I had stopped watching Heroes after the seventh episode and will have to take up watching the show although I had just categorised it as “tested and rejected”. I started watching in the beginning of the summer, very motivated and eager to watch the show after having read so many positiv reviews. I was looking very much forward to seeing some acters like Milo Ventimiglia, Ali Larter or Hayden Panettiere. After episode seven I gave up and figured that I’ve never been that much into the Sci Fi genre and that one should not force things too much even though a strong and promising show would have fit perfectly into my shrunken repartoire of weekly shows. Somehow I cannot feel enthusiastical about people with superpowers. Honestly the split-personality character of Ali Larter irritated me and parts of the storyline were just too strange. I like the Japanese guy though- he’s cute. Well anyway, I still can’t believe that Veronica Mars won’t be returning this Fall. At least we will be seeing her on TV even if that means that I have to get into watching that show again. I’m relieved she didn’t decide to sign on to “Lost”. I would have had to catch up quite a lot since I’m not watching the island show at all. I just think it’s a waste of her talent. Bell is such a phenomenal actress and she should have her own show, no broadway, no Heroes just a good and solid Kristen Bell show. Hm - I hate the CW!
I have developed a new obsession during the evening hours when I should normally watch TV like normal people. I hunt and then kill mosquitos. My mother bought several cans of biological spray that kills instantly. So my brother and I wander the rooms and will not cease the hunt and go to bed until we can be absolutely sure there ist not one single beast left. Last week a I stayed awake until 4 am hunting because everytime I lied down I heard the buzzing within seconds.I heard in the news that these insects have become much more dangerous this year since the summer has been so warm and rainy and that this is the ideal climate for them to reproduce. I even keep spiders in my appartments so that their webs help to catch these monsters. Yes I know not so exciting but this is what I do.
Have I mentioned how much I love Mr Monk? Well I love Mr Adrian Monk. Now more than ever. There are episodes when I simply fall over with laughter. I hope the writers never run out of good storylines which I can imagine isn’t always that easy. In times where the TV programs are so inconsistent and excellent shows get cancelled before you can say “veronica mars” it is always good to know that you can rely on Mr Monk returning weekly and providing you with an hour full of blissful quality time. I love that Mr Monk had “sand” shoes in “Mr Monk and the naked Man” and I thought the scene where Monk and Troy are trapped in Troys’s car in this week’s “Mr Monk and the Buried Treasure” was very excellent.
One last thought for today. “Weeds” has finally started its third season a few weeks ago and the first episodes were quite fun to watch but is it me or is Nancy getting whinier and whinier with each episode??? Ginia Bellafante has written an excellent article on the show in the NY Times. Read it here.
Oh this is a surprise!!! Can’t wait for fall. Mandy Moore in “How I met your Mother” Two good things melting together!!! Yeah!
(Photo via www.eonline.com)
Tags: Kristen Bell, Heroes NBC, Kristen Bell Heroes, Weeds Showtime, Monk USA, Save Veronica Mars, Mandy Moore How I Met your Mother, Ali Larter, Ginia Bellafante NY Times
TV Shows, Veronica Mars, Heroes, Monk | August 20th, 2007 by admin | 1 Comment
So whats new? Nothing really except that my feet are bleeding from running. This is not a figure of speech- they are literally bleeding. I’m not a psycho who doesn’t know when to stop but halfway through my run I get these blisters and this is really annoying because I’m not even exhausted und far far away from home so I bite my teeth together and keep on running. Now I’m being punished with at least 5 days no running. Watched “Damages” “Tastes like a Ho-ho” yesterday and I’m liking it mainly because of Glenn Close. I haven’t read that many reviews on the show so I wasn’t sure in the beginning whether her character was good or bad. After 4 episodes I still can’t tell. I would say she’s mostly evil (I keep visualising Fatal Attraction) and cold-hearted and this is probably how she’s supposed to be perceived by the audience. But then the writers occasionally throw in scenes with her and her loving husband when they deal with their disturbed son (who how it seems would like to kill his Mother with granates!!!) or when Patty is suffering under sleep deprivation because memories of a previous attempt on her life keep haunting her. During these scenes she is vulnerable and scared for her life (because she’s not yet aware that it’s her son with his twisted mind who would like to kill her…). Well anyway, “Damages consists of 13 episodes of which 4 have been aired. I haven’t done the maths but I guess there will be a more or less clean transition of this show’s finale and the beginning of all the other shows starting in the fall.
I was glad to see two former characters from The O.C., Marissa’s dad Tate Donovan and Summer’s dad Michael Nouri who I also noticed on Brother’s & Sisters during the last episodes. He is playing a friend of Saul - Milo Peterman -who has just left his wife and “come out” and the scene were they meet on Kitty’s engagement party after many years somehow gives the impression that Saul might share that vibe. Don’t you think? I just checked Nouri’s account on IMDB and noticed that he’s starred in several shows but he’s no regular anywhere. I like him and his acting and I’m not biased from his role as Dr. Roberts, no, no, but I wonder whether it’s satisfying for an actor to jump from show to show. On the one hand you have the challenge to get to know new characters and storylines regularly and it definately rarely gets boring but on the other hand you never get to work on one show intensively and get to know your character more in depth. I ask myself whether this is something the acters chose for themselves or whether they are possibly just not famous and popular enough to stay on one show for a longer period. I just read somewhere that he’s also a Broadway actor. This might explain it - he might be working on musicals and in the theatre and might only have the time to appear on TV shows occasionally. I don’t know him well enough to say for sure.
I recently watched the movie “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” which I loved!! I’m fond of these girl friendship movies. Another one I watched over and over again was ”Now and Then”. Well, “The Sisterhood” stars “Alexis Bledel” aka Lena (It was strange to see her outside of Gilmore Girls- but not in a bad way), “Amber Tamblyn” -Tibby- who is just totally hot (in a completely unlesbian way for me to say), “America Ferrera” - Carmen and “Blake Lively” as Bridget (Of whom I’ve never heard before until now) It’s about four girls who have been childhood girlfriends forever and are spending their first summer apart. Just short before their departure they find a pair of jeans which fits them all despite the fact that they all have different sizes. They decide to share the pants amongst them over the summer. Each one of them gets to keep it for a few days and then has to send it to the next one, and so on. Every girl experiences a totally different summer and we practically watch them while the pants travel around the world with us. I really liked it and was happy to see that they have already begun to film the sequel.
(Photo from www.randomhouse.com)
Tags: Alexis Bledel, Damages FX, Glenn Close FX, Tate Donovan, Michael Nouri, The Sisterhood of the traveling pants, Amber Tamblyn, Gilmore girls, travelling pants
Gilmore Girls, TV Shows, life, Movies, Brothers & Sisters | August 19th, 2007 by admin | No Comments
First of all - Happy Birthday to my company which is one year old today. I even baked it a cake. Well I was the one who
ate it but anyway. Some time has passed again since my last post but while I’m very disciplined in every other aspect of my life I’m not when it comes to writing. I have so many thoughts in my head but to put them on paper or in this case in my blog… I seem to be too lazy for that. While I love the summer I hate that there’s hardly any TV shows running. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m somewhat addicted to my tv but I guess I am, sort of. I pass my free time with running. For my birthday I got an 8GB Ipod nano which I love very much although it crashes around twice a day and I have to reboot and format it everytime. Running is so much more fun now. I also got the Nike plus set (which I haven’t been able to use yet since I have Asics and they are not compatible with Nike plus so I have to buy an adapter first) and a very trendy Armband which again isn’t compatible with my Ipod when attached to Nike plus… Yeah I know - very boring!
This happens when I’m suffering under withdrawal syndrome. I’m even watching “The Company” on TNT now - a sommer special three parter all about war and spies and deception, conspiracy etc. Honestly I don’t get the plot very much but since there’s nothing else to watch I keep going while feeling kind of dumb. I actually liked “Hidden Palms” although I absolutely despised Oliver on The O.C. But you know, there were palm trees, pretty people, cliché plots - thats about what you need to get me hooked and happy nowadays. I know it was pretty bad sometimes but after adjusting my standards a little I could see the potential. Needless to say the show was cancelled. I’m kind of used to it by now. I was left with a good soundtrack and some hard feelings towards the CW.
I’m not writing about Harry Potter in here (at least about the seventh book) since I want to give my German family and friends the chance to read the book in German and I wouldn’t manage not to spoil! I will write something about the Order of the Phonix movie though but I’ll be revisiting the theatre for the third time with a friend shortly and will then post my very qualified and well-phrased review in here since this will be so important to everyone - just kidding!
I’m really looking forward to the Emmy’s which are sometime in September. I’m glad I’m not in the jury - I would have a hard time chosing this year with The Sopranos deserving every award especially since this was their final season. Then again there’s “House” and “Greys” - I was surprised that “The Starter Wife received so many nominations” I loved the acting but the rest was really boring. And this considering that my high demands were already adjusted downwards.
Well anyway - later M.
Tags: Ipod Nano, nike plus, The Company, Chris Odonnell, Hidden Palms, The , O.C., The Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows, The Starter Wife, The Sopranos
TV Shows | August 15th, 2007 by admin | No Comments