I set aside this blog for a long time because I was too busy with work and too tired of the computer to bust open my laptop at the end of the day. Also, I was peeved about the Veronica Mars cancellation. But I find I miss it; I like having a place to put my thoughts and analysis out there about the TV and movies that I watch. I like having to be analytical and try to identify what makes something divine or crappy, why dialogue sparkles or thuds, why an emotional scene resonates or makes you cringe.

In 2009 I consumed more than my share of great television and movies and books. A few of my favorites follow, based on when I watched/read them, not when they were created, and in no particular order, and entirely subjective, as always.

TV:

• Chuck
• Glee
• Modern Family
• The Good Wife
• Mad Men
• ...and I guess Lost, though I barely remember it at this point! Its return in February will be most welcome.

Movies:

• Julie & Julia (and not just because of the name!)
• Rachel Getting Married
• Star Trek
• 500 Days of Summer
• ...and I really want to see Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker and Crazy Heart.

Books:

• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• What the Dead Know
• Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
• ...and I'm very much excited to read Middlemarch, a classic I never got to in school.

What were your cultural highlights of 2009? What are you looking forward to in 2010?

Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=506 Julie - Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:00:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=505 Filed Under: Cupid

The Cupid remake, starring Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson, is on its way!

I've been a longtime Cannavale fan, and I'm on the fence about Paulson -- liked her in Down with Love, didn't like her in Studio 60. The original was great, but I think this could be different and equally good. Really, I'll sign on to at least try anything from the guy who created Veronica Mars.

Actually the first footage from the show is good enough that I'd watch even if there'd been no original and Rob Thomas weren't the man behind it.

Watch the promo, and decide for yourself, then let me know what you think in the comments.

It seems to happen almost every time I start to like a show, particularly shows that have the misfortune to be aired on a Friday. Most of the time it's a show targeted at women. It's romantic, but not uncomplicated. An hour long dramedy with a decent ensemble cast.

Miss Match? Set on fire. Men in Trees? Sawed down. Now, The Ex List? An ex-season pass.

I don't get it, CBS. It had a promising premise, a non-cookie-cutter cast, and smart writing. It wasn't squeamish about showing the upsides and downsides of sex and love. It wasn't a mindless procedural that bore no resemblance to actual life. It had potential.

The Ex List wasn't without flaws, but not much out there is. I'm going to miss it anyway, even though we only got 4 dates to get to know each other. Boo.


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=504 Julie - Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:28:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=503 Filed Under: Supernatural

It's no surprise that I loved last week's little Supernatural stunt with Jensen Ackles.

But what I love even more is knowing the backstory -- that it was Jensen Ackles' response to a missed cue: when the cameras just kept rolling, so did he. And we are all the better for it!

Another TV season, another set of shows to delight in and deride. After a long absence, you get a long post. For this, I'm putting shows in a few categories:

Shows I am definitely watching
- Chuck: if possible, it has improved this year. I love that they have just decided to accept that Sarah finds Chuck foxy and awesome, and to run with that fact in their many storylines. I would like to see more Awesome, though.
- How I Met Your Mother: the first episode was brilliant. It's a way to let Barney be Barney and not have that interfere with the fact that he's in love with Robin. Everything has worked out as it should for them, and for Ted and Stella. Now we must wonder if they'll write Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy into the show!
- Fringe: standard sci-fi fare is improved by great performances from Jackson and Noble.
- Privileged: my favorite this season. Love Megan and her pining buddy Charlie, love the family drama. JoAnna Garcia rocks at showing how being a straight arrow doesn't make you boring or unsympathetic.
- Bones: the chemistry is still there for those two hot leads. And while I don't love the Angela-Hodgins breakup (don't showrunners believe committed couples are interesting?), I think maybe something dramatic could prove to these two that they do trust each other and belong together.
- The Office: one Holly I'd actually like to work with...though the Jim-Pam stuff makes me a smidge nervous.
- Grey's Anatomy: they've continued to keep up the high quality after last season's stellar finale. I'm still invested.
- Supernatural: I think the standalone goofy eps are the best, but with the addition of more religious issues they've reinvigorated the show in its 4th year.
- The Ex List: Elizabeth Reaser gets on my nerves, but the writing is smart, and the show has a mature and realistic look at relationships. The timeslot means it's probably doomed, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Shows I am kind of watching
- The Big Bang Theory: because I thought my boyfriend would kind of like it, and he did, and we spend a lot of time sitting on the couch together.
- House: the thrill is gone; I'll never love this one as much as I used to. But I'll continue to half-watch the eps with alternate amusement and horror.
- Pushing Daisies: half-watching this one on the computer. I got somewhat tired of all of Olive's nun shenanigans, but the circus episode was a quirky delight.
- Private Practice: I don't know why I am still watching this, but I am. This must be the thing that proves I am an optimist -- I still think it could get better.
- Life on Mars: It's early yet, but this is an interesting one. I don't know the Brit original, but it has potential. It does make me miss Journeyman, alas.
- Ghost Whisperer: my not-so-secret shame. This week they're on a haunted cruise ship. Spoooooooky!

Shows I have stopped watching
- Gossip Girl: have missed a lot of eps due to scheduling conflicts, but when repeats are on I'll get back to this, maybe. Maybe.
- Terminator: TSSC: Cameron can be brutal, but not as much as Mondays at 8. Had to cut this, but don't miss it much.
- Heroes: if them bringing on the full casts of The Wire and Veronica Mars can't entice me to stick with this one, nothing can.
- Samantha Who: Not even the occasional promise of romance could keep me in this one. Maybe if they made Timothy Olyphant a regular, I'd come crawling back.
- My Name is Earl: when I stop laughing, I stop watching.

Agree? Disagree? What am I missing -- or dissing -- with good reason?


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=502 Julie - Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:00:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=500 Filed Under: Bones

If you didn't watch the Bones season finale last night, better stop reading now.

The revelation of the Gormagon killer was astonishing, unsettling, and frankly, not that well executed.

If you tell me a character I've come to know very well, who has been with the show for a long time, who to all appearances is a mild-mannered is a killer, you better have a damn good reason to back it up. (See, e.g., Beaver from VM.) And for all their "Zach is logical to a fault" talk, they just plain didn't.

I should've known earlier, when they were putting so much suspicion on Hodgins, that it couldn't be him. I should've guessed it had to be Zach, because they'd already taken him out of commission with such a serious hand injury, they might as well take him out of the show. But it just didn't make sense. They'd never really even hinted at such a thing before.

I don't think this is a case of lazy writing -- or, not entirely. I think this is a case of the strike resulting in some storylines getting short shrift. Like Zach's return from Iraq, a case of PTSD that could certainly help explain his bizarre actions. Like the complete dropping of the Angela-Hodgins marriage talk. Or, most egregiously, like the "did they really just do that then totally gloss over it" Booth shooting and fake death. There was so, so, SO much more that they could've done with that. Indeed, the whole episode felt like they crammed into one episode enough material for two or three. Bummer.

Even though I was disappointed with the finale as a whole, and all the great things they'd set up all season (and, even just in the previous episode!), I'm still going to watch the show. I'll miss Zach, but it isn't ruined for me like it would've been if, say, they'd made it out to be Hodgins. (Of course, it would've been interesting to see how Angela dealt with that...but it wouldn't have made a shred of sense.)

Eric Millegan, who played Zach, has spilled the beans about his exit from the show. I'm sorry to hear that it wasn't his choice, but it seems that they have left the door open for future appearances. And as we learned from Bones' dad, just because you commit murder, doesn't mean you're a bad guy.


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=500 Julie - Tue, 20 May 2008 12:00:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=499 Filed Under: Saturday Night Live

I have a feeling that some time from now I'll regret how into Shia LaBeouf I am. He could turn out to be irresponsible, too cocky, too one-note, an arrogant hack. He could do unattractive things with his hair. His fast-talking charm could degenerate to the oily slickness of a car salesman. He could date someone I don't approve of. He could lose that hint of lost-boy vulnerability that makes you think underneath his goofy bravado is a beating heart. He could pull a Lohan.

In the meantime, though, I'll just keep enjoying him -- like his performance on SNL manana.

If you ask me, The Beef is cooking.


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=499 Julie - Fri, 09 May 2008 17:00:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=498 Filed Under: Veronica Mars, How I Met Your Mother

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: It's hard for me to imagine looking forward to a movie more. And it comes out today...at last! Just think of it:

(I'm hoping.)

I mean, take a look at K Bell. She is just quirky and charming and delightful, right? I'm not sure she'll be all that as Sarah Marshall, but I think she'll be a hoot.

And the movie will be a hoot! Woot! Why aren't I watching it NOW???

Oh, 'cause I have a job. Riiiight. I guess we can't all sit around in our sweatpants every day of the week.


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=498 Julie - Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:30:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=497 Filed Under: Men in Trees, Life, Ghost Whisperer, American Idol

A few days back I took the time to point out a few new-ish shows that caught my eye...though I took my sweet time talking about them. Today, it's on to the shows that have been around for a bit, but that I rarely talk about.

Men in Trees
It's not as good as it was at its best (like a mini-rom-com every week!), but it's still a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and I've stuck with it. I'm now a big Annie fan, though it took me a while to really warm to her. Ironically, I think it's the fractured romance between Annie and Patrick that's now my favorite aspect of the show; he's so different now, but I think they're still right for each other, and I keep waiting for them to figure that out. On the other hand, the writers seem to keep tossing in arbitrary obstacles for Marin and Jack, and that's never a fun thing to watch.

Ghost Whisperer
If I don't mention it often, it's out of shame. So it doesn't have wonderful characters, or inventive plots, or realistic dialogue. So what? It has a great wardrobe (ok, better in past seasons than lately), some ridiculous hairstyles (because we all wear extensions daily), the comfort of a quickly resolved storyline (often heartwarming!), and the immaculately made-up J Lo Hew (seriously, those eyelashes are a trip).

Life
This one kind of slipped my mind, but I did enjoy it when it was on. Okay, if I'm honest, the thing I enjoyed the most was the intimate-yet-inappropriate connection between Charlie and Constance. Why am I such a sucker for forbidden love? But I think the quirky personality they managed to give Charlie worked out, and I became more and more involved with his quest to find out the truth as the season went on. The last episode, where he found the girl whose family he'd been accused of killing, without realizing it was her till the end, had a nice twist and good plot development. I'm interested to see where this one goes next season.

American Idol
I don't watch often, because I don't like to see bad performances or people getting ripped to shreds by the judges. I don't like to see people flail; I like to see them succeed! (That's why I love this compilation of the 15 Top All-Time Idol performances. "Stuff Like That There" is a personal fave.) This season, I did notice Michael Johns as a particular highlight, and dug his performance of "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right"...just in time for him to get kicked off the show. No wonder I don't keep up with it.

Do you ever watch these shows? What others fall into your list of watch-but-don't-mention?


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=497 Julie - Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:00:00 PST television movies entertainment http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=496 Filed Under: Miss Guided, Samantha Who, New Amsterdam, Sarah Connor Chronicles

There are plenty of shows I watch, but don't say boo about. So I thought I'd take a bit of time today to highlight a few of the shows I've neglected over the past few months.

Let's start with the new shows that may or may not return (after tonight, in the case of one of them).

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I didn't love it the way I could've (I am, after all, a sucker from ass-kickin' chicks), but I think this one improved significantly over its short run. They set up the mythology of the show nicely, had decent visual effects, and got some surprisingly great performances from folks like Brian Austin Green. (I'm not kidding. I even found him marginally attractive. Trust me, I'm as disturbed by that as you are.) I liked that they hinted at the idea of robo-Cameron exploring art and beauty -- an area we consider strictly human -- and Derek getting a bit freaked out by it. I also liked the nostalgia he clearly felt for the world he saw get torn apart. While I always found Thomas Dekker a bit wooden, he grew on me too. I'm really hoping this show comes back.

Samantha Who
If I don't mention it often, it's because I can't quite figure out why I'm still watching it. Could it be Christina Applegate's freakin' adorable haircut? Could it be that I miss Sookie and will settle for Melissa McCarthy however I can get her? Could it be that I just think this premise is too good to give up on? None of those reasons seems strong enough, but I've continued to watch this show, mostly online, mostly in the background. It'll be around next year, and I'm hoping it gets better.

Miss Guided
Did you miss this one? You probably did. ABC only aired a scant 7 episodes, but I really liked them -- and you can still see them on the ABC website. They're worth a watch, I think. Judy Greer, who is just damn fantastic in everything, imbues her nerd-turned-high school counselor character with the right amounts of grit, goofiness, and naivete -- hard to pull off, indeed, but she succeeds, and you root for her while simultaneously recognizing that she's kind of weird. If you're curious, give "The List" a try - with sharp writing that smartly skewers today's gossip-driven world, it's 22 minutes of your life I don't think you'll regret. Plus, Chris Parnell!

New Amsterdam
Not a bad premise (cop lives forever -- or until he finds his soulmate). Not a bad lead actor (Nikolaj Coster Waldau). Not bad writing (but not quite good either). Yet, why doesn't this show do it for me? I think it's the lack of drive. It's just coasting along. What I would've loved to have seen, being the romantic sucker that I am, is more of a dilemma for our laconic hero: what if he met two women at the same time, his heart stopped, and he knew one was his soulmate... but didn't know which one? Now that I think could make for some interesting drama -- trying to present both ladies as viable options, making them pretty different so they bring out different parts of John's character. I would've liked to see that.

Later this week, I'll move on to the ongoing shows that don't get enough love from me on the blog, but that are still in my weekly viewing rotation.

In the meantime, what do you think about these flying-below-the-radar shows?


Permalink | Comments | Email Us]]> http://www.tvandsympathy.com/Article.php?ID=496 Julie - Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:00:00 PST television movies entertainment