Sick blogging...or what I learned from teevee while having chills

[liz_marcs]

Feel. Like. Crap.

Which means I've been laying like a blob on the couch after I get home from work and unable to move.

Know what sucks about being sick and single? Still have chores to do and no energy to do them. Bleh.

I think I've watched more teevee in the past three days than I have in the past two weeks.



Arrested Development
I've been watching my Arrested Development DVDs (S1 and S2) straight through. I think I discovered a fresh kernel of a joke running through the whole thing, and it's one that actually adds a layer of deliciousness to the whole show.

Michael Bluth is not a nice guy.

It isn't that Michael is a bad guy. He's an average guy that tends to fall on the passive-aggressive-judgmental side of the Venn diagram (with a dash of drama queen). What saves Michael from himself (more often than not) is that he's a contrarian at heart. If he was in a family of saints, he'd make GOB look like a reasonable human being. However, he's in a family that's kind of evil...and not good evil, but useless evil. Ergo, Michael tries to be decent.

I can't believe I missed that. Or, maybe it's the Tylenol making me see things. Either way...funny.


Star Trek: Voyager
You are all so very fired for failing to tell me that SpikeTV is re-running this series weekdays at 6 p.m. (Not that I'd really get to see it that much anyway.) It isn't that I loved it or anything, but...well it's been years since I've seen any episodes.

Last night was something from S2 or S3...where Kes gets unstuck in time due to some kind of a particle of the week. From a warhead. I think. And...bleh. Way to be reminded of why I disliked Kes, although I think it's because Jennifer Lein sucks in the role (I've not seen her in anything else, so maybe she's okay when not playing a Mary Sue wannabe). Good call dumping this character! Too bad she couldn't take Harry Kim (and awful, awful Garrett Wang) with her.

Here's the thing: Neelix was kind of a sucky character, who tipped over in my "like" category almost entirely on the strength of Ethan Phillips' acting. No matter how inconsistently Neelix was written, Phillips somehow managed to make the most OOC shit look in-character. Just for that alone, I put him as one of the better actors (next to Robert Picardo and the woefully under-estimated at the time Jeri Ryan) in the cast.

But, woah! Wait. Did Kes actually not know who B'Elanna was? The hell? I'm confused. She seemed to know who everyone else was. I think. But then again, Lein looks like she's not only sleepwalking through the role, but that she's frigging stoned on top of it. Gah! Down with Kes, now and forever!

Another thing that I was kind of reminded of in watching this episode: throughout the whole Paris-Torres arc they kept throwing out all signs that "this ship is doomed to end in tragedy" all the way up to the end. How many times did they play out the "Torres dies on Paris" plot line? I can think of four times at least. Yet, at the end of the series, I distinctly remember that of all the Voyager pairs Tom and B'Elanna were the only ones who were 1) both still alive; 2) happy; 3) still together; 4) not bitter against anyone; and 5) had jobs they loved. BWAH!

Voyager is bad. Very bad. But it's bad in a way that eating bon-bons are bad. There's enough good about it that you like it despite/because of the sheer cheese. Unlike, say Enterprise, which was just bad.


Enterprise
Speaking of Enterprise here it is on the SciFi channel. Gawd. What happened to Scott Bakula's acting ability? He was awesome on Quantum Leap and pulled off all kinds of crazy shit on that show. Although, to be fair, Bakula had zero ability to turn shit into gold even back them. The scripts had to be solid to begin with. Trust me, bad Quantum Leap is pretty bad, so it was a good thing that the scripts were good more often than not. But even bad Quantum Leap had Dean Stockwell to save it's sorry ass.

Epiphany time: Enterprise desperately needed a lot of Stockwell to save it (and possibly Bakula). I'm glad that BSG got him, though.

Side note: Am I the only one who loved the ending of Quantum Leap? I think I just might be. How shocked was I when I found out that liking the last episode in the series was an unpopular opinion.

Anyway. Enterprise. Bakula suxo0rs. Connor Trinneer (Trip), on the other hand, rocks rocks the house.

The acting was so painful, I couldn't watch more than 15 minutes. It was something about T'Pol introducing the unevolved apes of Starfleet to Risa. Sheesh. I think I can see quite clearly why former Trekkie 4-life Joleen Blalock (that would be the actress who played T'Pol) was sooooo fucking bitter against franchise by the end of Enterprise's run.


MythBusters
Things go boom. Me like, especially when I'm shivering under a blanket and feeling miserable. Heaven is a Mythbusters marathon.


Idiocracy
Enjoyable, even if it beats you over the head with its point. But then again, I kind of like Mike Judge's body of work as a whole, so I tend to be forgiving. God knows it's better than most "message movies," or comedy movies for that matter.

I can kind of see why Fox didn't put any muscle behind the movie...mostly because Judge takes very specific aim at Fox (and FoxNews especially). Not to mention that everyone pretty much gets it in the neck. (Unh, Judge is a bit of a misanthrope, isn't he?)

I think if I was feeling better, I might've liked it more for the split-second visual gags in the background. Office Space benefited from its greater subtlety. Idiocracy needed a little bit of that subtle. There's still a comedy that can be made about a society where the one guy (or gal) with critical thinking skills rules over a population that has none. (It's a one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind thing.) This movie isn't it, though.


Inside the Actor's Studio
Flipped to this one off-and-on. It had Tom Hanks. Who...actually had good advice that wasn't just applicable to acting. He pointed out that whatever you do creatively, artifice just doesn't work. He's also admitted that there isn't a single thing he's ever done where there isn't some point where he has to get up and leave the room because he can see that what he's doing is so obvious (and obviously fake) that it makes him cringe. The trick, he said, is to make sure no one else notices. Awwwww. I think I love him for that.


Apollo 13
I know, I know. The movie's been boiled down to its catch lines so many times that it's almost a cliché of itself. You tend to forget that it's a good movie with a solid storyline and great acting that sucks you in despite yourself. It was nice to be reminded, even if I was seeing kind of blurry at the time. I didn't even flip during commercials while watching it.


CSI
I think I watched something like four episodes in two days. SpikeTV's moto: All CSI, All the Time. It's like USA's moto: All Law and Order, All the Time. And the History Channel's: All World War II, All the Time. I don't love the show, but when you're feeling miserable it's like eating chicken soup...with a TMI camera. What does it say about me that the TMI camera doesn't gross me out?


Psych
I am...attracted to this show. I must make an effort to find out when it actually airs on USA, because damn I did enjoy the marathon on SciFi. It has a ton of elements that I generally don't like in a show (it's gimmicky for one thing, a cocky lead for another, cops with sticks up their asses, and a sidekick who sometimes has a hard time keeping up), yet its so sparkly, buddy-cop, and light-hearted fun that I can't help myself.


Blurgh. I need to go lie down. My head feels too spinny and my eyes hurt..

Comments

[invisionary.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting view on Michael. I hadn't considered that before. I tend to see Michael as basically good, because he does try to do right by his son most of the time (even if, very often, his idea of what's right is... skewed, to say the least).

The other thing about Michael is that he's really pretty screwed up, too. Only in a family like the Bluths could he possibly be seen as the "normal" one.

Btw, I hope you feel better soon!

[huzzlewhat.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely yes about Michael. He's not very nice. In fact, I think the only nice one on the show is George Michael, and I think it's only because he's so helpless.

Side note: Am I the only one who loved the ending of Quantum Leap? I think I just might be. How shocked was I when I found out that liking the last episode in the series was an unpopular opinion.

No. You're not the only one. That ending was perfect — one of the very few perfect series wrap-up episodes ever. But I'm wondering if we might be the only two. ;-) I remember having an argument with my mother and sister about this, and their being outraged that he didn't "get" to go home. I got very frustrated, and finally pointed out that they explicitly pulled out the Jesus parallel in that final episode, that it was his choice, to save people at the expense of his own life and happiness, and "What kind of Christ figure would he be if he decided 'fuck this shit' and climbed down off his cross?"

Blurgh. I feel the same way about Smallville fics that have Clark giving up his powers for happy domesticity with Lex/Lana/Chloe/Lois/whoever. He's Superman, for goodness' sake. Or Buffy, choosing not to be a Slayer in exchange for a 'normal' life. You've got a hero... to have them make the selfish choice, instead of choosing to serve humanity, lessens them.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

....say, _nice_ icon. //totally OT GIP comment

[skipp-of-ark.livejournal.com]

Speaking of icons...Holy crap, that's one of the scariest characters on TV ever. I really should put Millennium DVDs on the Christmas list.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

((beams)) Yeah! Isn't she neat? A friend of mine swears he was in an elevator one day and "Love is Blue" started up and he HAD TO GET OFF on the next floor.

[minim_calibre]

Side note: Am I the only one who loved the ending of Quantum Leap? I think I just might be. How shocked was I when I found out that liking the last episode in the series was an unpopular opinion.

Nope! Sounds like there are at least three of us out there.

[swedish15.livejournal.com]

Increment by one; I, too, liked it.

[redrikki.livejournal.com]

Psych is a good show. It airs on Friday nights at 9 I believe. Althought it may be 10. Either way, new episodes are on Friday nights.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

a) I hope you feel better. :( Oddly enough, I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of months watching daytime tv during my recovery. Catching SpikeTV's reruns of DS9 was a lot of fun. :)

b) The ending of Quantum Leap made that show as far as I was concerned. In that one episode the show managed to transcend the bad acting, terrible storylines and ludicrous technology gaffes (I wanna know how many of those writers went on to write "shuttlecraft" scripts for ST:Voyager!) to one of the finest hours of television I've ever seen, before or since.

c) Voyager was wildly inconsistent, cheesy and riddled with bad acting. But when the writers were on top of their game, the show rocked. Unfortunately, in seven years, this happened less than a dozen times. The Year of Hell episodes stand out for me as some of their best work. But overall, I'll stick with DS9. The acting, writing and special effects were just better.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're not feeling well. I hope you can lie down on the couch and watch more relaxing TV and drink tea until you feel better.

Mythbusters obligingly provides a boom at least once per show, I believe. Maybe it's in their contract?

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about Psych. It makes me grin.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

I too found Enterprise unwatchable, and frequently watched "Voyager" just because it was there. I actually liked Kes, though; apparently I'm the only person around who was annoyed when they dumped her for Jeri Ryan's breasts. This is no slam on Jeri Ryan, who I think is an excellent actress. It's just that that didn't seem to be the primary motivation behind her casting. Personal "Voyager" connection: The brother of friends of mine was the character who said "Kes! I never thought we'd see you again!" in the pilot. Unfortunately that was pretty much the highlight of his acting career, and he moved on to do somethiing related to the stock market.

You are 100% correct about Michael Bluth. I realized that fairly soon after I started watching the show, which, sadly, was only at the beginning of the last season. Someday I'll have to catch up on the whole thing.

My children, spouse, and I all love Mythbusters! That, IMO, is true family television. Did you see the one where they tried to find out whether it was possible to chop one sword in half with another sword? Or the one where they showed that if you jumped off a building and went through three layers of window canopies like Indiana Jones, you probably wouldn't die? Awesome stuff.

Apollo 13 was a really good movie, wasn't it? I should watch it again.

Hope you feel better!

[averageshmoe.livejournal.com]

Hi,

Don't have much to comment about when it comes to the tv viewing, but I saw something that might make you feel better. Over at Twisting the Hellmouth there is a continuing story, one that any member of the site can contribute to. Tales of the Barman revolves around Xander, his bar in Cleveland called 'Nights'and the patrons who come in to share stories and leave mementos behind for the wall.

As with most round robins the quality of the stories vary greatly, but Marcus Rowland has some very nice, clever pieces up and well worth checking out. But it's the older, gently wiser Xander that I appreciate the most. Especially when, I think it's in the first piece, he mentions 'friends' who were killed in L.A.. I like to think that Xander would come to think like that.

pgavigan

I want an <i>Airwolf</i> windbreaker!

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Things go boom. Me like, especially when I'm shivering under a blanket and feeling miserable. Heaven is a Mythbusters marathon.

Würd!

And you probably don't watch FutureWeapons, but my friend works with software related to the Osprey, and it was on the last ep. The Osprey is cool.

Ideocracy

I think they could've either done much more with Maya Rudolph (often my only reason to watch SNL) or done away with her completely.

Apollo 13

What I loved about this movie is that it's about action heroes (and hey, if astronauts are not, by definition, action heroes, who is) who save the day using math!

Psych

It's a hella likable show. Fridays, right after Monk, btw. We make sure to watch it in my household.

Sidekick: Gus can often keep up. He's a supply guy for a pharmaceutical company, so he can be counted on for medical and chemical information that, let's be honest, a slacker like Shawn would not know.

And compare to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Gus is Shawn's Cameron, except that, much more than Cameron, Shawn gets off on the colossal joke they're playing just as much as Shawn does.

Cops with sticks up their asses: O'Hara and the Chief do not. And O'Hara and Shawn are becoming a near-item. It's Lassiter that's the closest. He started out very much the Frank Burns, the anti-Mary Sue, the guy with no redeeming qualities. But, at the end of S1, it was proved that he did. There was a serial killer, and Shawn, being Shawn, figured it out. But the serial killer didn't want to go to jail. He wanted to kill some more. Shawn folded, because, y'know, heavy. Lassiter was every bit of the cop you'd want between you and a crazy killer. And he's shown other signs of heart in other eps, too. He's becoming closer to, although not quite, a Charles Emerson Winchester III. (If you get the extended M*A*S*H comparison.)

I see your point about Michael, too.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Oh man, were we seperated at birth or something? Your summation of Voyager and Enterprise expressed my feelings about the two shows to the letter. I started off hating Neelix but ended up liking him, and I adored any scene where Picardo and Ryan played off each other.

Being the geek I am, we own Apollo 13 and the two audio commentaries are fascinating. Especially the one with the Lovells.

Keep resting up and feel better soon. I wish I had some magic, cure-all soup to send you.

[skipp-of-ark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Harry Kim was the character the Trek franchise gave up on the fastest. Although why the hell TPTB didn't just kill him off and replace him with innumerable nameless yellow shirts of the week escapes me. I can't help but wonder at the cosmological significance that GW was in the cast of (shudder) Pinata with NB, given how quickly their respective showrunners gave up on their TV characters.

And if you haven't, watch the Inside the Actors Studio with Dave Chappelle. It's two hours long, but it's both damn funny and very educational.

[nocturnalista.livejournal.com]

A little late in the game, but: I hope you feel better. And Mythbusters is the finest damned show on TV.

[lacontessamala.livejournal.com]

Voyager is bad. Very bad. But it's bad in a way that eating bon-bons are bad. There's enough good about it that you like it despite/because of the sheer cheese. Unlike, say Enterprise, which was just bad.

Thank you. I'm so glad someone could finally articulate why I have this bizarre addiction to Voyager.