Are The TV Networks Actually Getting It?

Fresh off the news that my beloved Chuck has been renewed, albeit for a 13 episode pick up with possible cast cuts, I wonder if TV execs are finally taking things like DVRs and online viewing into account.  So many TV shows that were thought to be dead in the water are coming back and I’m thrilled.  I don’t know if it comes down to lack of anything better to air, actually recognizing quality, or considering the new media or a combination of all three, but I’m thankful.

Some of the shows that are returning, much to the surprise of TV media are Chuck, Dollhouse, my Friday Night Lights (for 2 years!), Better Off Ted, Scrubs…there are even reports that they’re thinking of bringing back Reaper.  In that case I’m sure it’s just the network having nothing better to air, it’s the CW after all.  But still, that’s the station that canceled my beloved Veronica Mars (no, I will never forgive them) that had more viewers than their current much hyped but not much watched Gossip Girl.

Friday Night Lights, recognized as a quality show with a small audience, gets to stay around thanks to a partnership with Direct TV.  They get to air new episodes first while us cable watchers wait impatiently til January to see the show, but you know what?  I don’t care as long as it keeps those beloved characters in my life.  When Zach appeared in the Grey’s finale, I kept watching him and saying, “My Matt” even though he was playing an army guy who wanted his leg cut off to return to Iraq.  So happy!

I think Dollhouse got another 13 episode order, which should give them time to either build a fan base or give us more of a wrap on the story.  I enjoyed this show and it got stronger toward the end.  I’m interested to see where they’ll take it and I’m glad Joss got a renewal.

Castle is another show being brought back, which thrills me.  Ratings had gone down but it’s a quality program with great cast and chemistry.  The show left on a pretty good “What’s he going to say?” moment and I’m glad we’ll get answers there as well.  That’s the problem, so many shows get cut dead without a proper ending, it just stinks.

I’m usually ready and willing to bash on TV execs for cutting off quality program before it’s time and there are some shows that got the axe this year undeservedly (farewell my Dirty Sexy Money) but more are coming back this year than expected.  For that I am grateful.  Now if they can only manage to start measuring things like DVR recordings and online viewing, maybe they’ll actually have a feel for what people are watching.  I just wanted to celebrate a couple wins this year, cause usually I don’t get em.  Thanks TV peeps, I won’t eviscerate you for a month or two at least!  🙂

Read Full Post »

Revisiting Veronica

It's always good to revisit an old friend.

A long time ago, we used to be friends but I haven’t thought of you lately at all…not entirely true, for I do think of Veronica Mars anytime I run across a former cast member or watch Gossip Girl and hear Kristen Bell’s voice overs there.  She came by that honestly didn’t she?  While I like the GG voice overs, they’re not nearly as good as Veronica’s.  Anyway, I came to the horrifying realization that I hadn’t watched VM since last summer and that depressed me, so this past weekend I had to visit my friends in Neptune.  And it was like I never left.  There they were, all waiting for me…Veronica, Logan, Mac, Wallace, Weevil, Keith, Lilly, Dick and even Duncan (though I did not miss him).

Wallace & Weevil, two fast friends Veronica makes in the first couple of episodes.

It’s so fun to go back to the beginning all over again, even knowing what I know about each character I still get totally absorbed in the story and the acting and the writing.  And you know what I realized?  Just how much happened in the first season.  The Lilly murder mystery wove throughout, but there was so much more, from the development of her relationships with Weevil, Wallace and Mac and of course Logan to Logan’s mother storyline and the Lianne Mars storyline and so many other things.  It just felt like alot, maybe because I got about 4 disks in over the course of a few days.  Not that I’m complaining.

Logan the OPJ from the pilot along with Duncan.

It’s so much fun to watch the evolution of Logan from the Obligatory Psychotic Jackass to a rootable anti-hero.  To watch Veronica go from a friendless outcast to a person with a very diverse group of friends.  To watch the LoVe relationship go from hate to attraction and like to lust.  It all just works!  They’re not even together yet on the disks but I’m already anticipating each little scene that built that bridge to what they became.   I just watched the episode where Logan finds out his mom is really dead and he breaks down in Veronica’s arms after the confrontation with Trina.  As he sobs “she’s really gone” my heart just breaks for him all over again.

Logan & Veronica's first kiss, I truly love that moment.

Those of you who have never read me before won’t know this but this show was the first and only show that I’ve ever sought to save from cancellation.  I participated in the Mars Bars campaign that failed epically.  The show got canceled a day or two before our delivery.  Sigh.  It broke my heart to have to say goodbye to Veronica and all the rest.  It’s also the first show that I really and truly became a shipper.  Logan and Veronica were it for me and it’s hilarious that I have yet to rewatch season 3 at all thanks to the Piz factor.  I don’t know if I’ve ever hated a character as much as I hate Piz.  Interloper.  Tool.  Dick.  Hate him.

I also have have cats named Logan and Lily (yeah I only used one L).  I used to get mad when people thought I named my first cat, Trinity, after the Matrix and here I was actively naming my new ones after television characters.  But I knew I wanted to pay tribute to Logan in some way.  Veronica seemed a silly name for a cat so I went with Lily instead.  Yes, clearly TV is a ridiculously huge part of of my life.  I am aware of it, I swear.

The other thing I really missed?  Watching Keith and Veronica relate.  They were such a wonderful but weird father/daughter pairing.  That she was able to joke about things like sex around him always made me laugh and freaked me out at the same time.  My dad would not have been amused, let me tell you!  But still, they worked.  The love between the two of them was palpable, even when they were on opposite sides of the spectrum.

The girl puts this in her locker to pimp the vice principal, how could you not love her?

I also missed the heck out of the side characters; Cliff, the shady lawyer (it’s tawdry, I kinda like it, these are my people V!), Vinnie Van Lowe, Sheriff Lamb, Vice Principle Van Clemmons.  The first time we see Mr. Clemmons, Veronica is voice overing that she knows when locker searches are going to be done before the vice principal does.  She opens her locker revealing a picture of Mr. Clemmons in a heart and says, “This is kinda embarrassing.”  He looks very bemused. hehe It’s fabulous.  And tricking Sheriff Lamb into reading “Veronica Mars is smarter than me.”   The cast worked in every way on VM.

I don’t want to talk about plots and mysteries right now because I still have two disks to go and some of my all time favorite episodes so I’ll just wait to talk about them in the next post I do, provided anybody finds it worth reading about!  I’m heading back to Neptune for now, I need to see some more LoVe and miles more snark.

Read Full Post »

Fictional Bad Boys & This Weirdo Who Loves Them

While being unable to sleep on a Sunday morning, my mind turned to my most recent obsessions (what else is there to do when you’re tossing and turning?) and I had an epiphany about myself.  When it comes to TV, movies and books, I’m a sucker for bad boys.  In my real life, I think I got over this phase after high school, but when it comes to fiction, badder is better.  So I thought I’d take a look at the characters I’ve grown to love and try to work through my issues here with you.  The first two characters on this list are not really bad boys by any means, but they have some bad boy traits that make them qualify.  Plus I just wanna talk about them and this is my blog, so there!

Edward Cullen, from photobucket

Edward Cullen, vampire from the Twilight Series. Edward is most certainly not a bad boy, he’s actually very heroic but he is a vampire with obsessive qualities and the burning desire to kill the girl he loves.  This is not exactly the type of guy that I’d bring home to mom and dad if you know what I mean.  He fights the monster in his nature and of course is triumphant, but with his super strength and desire for blood, he’s a little on the scary side.  Not to mention the fact that he’s an obsessed stalker who sneaks into his future girlfriend’s bedroom to watch her sleep at night.  I love Edward and Bella’s story but even I know that it’s a sick twisted love.  I just happen to be  fan of that!  I’m not hot for Edward but I wouldn’t mind having a slightly older version of him for myself (yeah he’s over 100 in regular years, but physically he’s stuck at 17 and that’s just a bit much for me).

Dean

Dean Winchester, Supernatural. Dean is also far more of a hero than he is a bad boy, but he does have some of the qualities that make a girl wonder why she’d want to get involved.  Dean is a player, never risking his heart and extremely emotionally unavailable.  In a recent episode, Sam told Dean he was a dick, which got some Dean fangirls up in arms but I actually stopped to ponder that and realized that he was right.  Dean can be a dick, he’s extremely sarcastic and he’s prone to use intimidation to get what he wants.  Again, I have no problem with any of these things, I find them extremely hot.  But if a parent had the choice of Dean or Sam to pick for their daughter, my guess is they’d lean to Sammy, demon blood or not.  Sam has no commitment issues at any rate, it’s just that the girls he commits to always die. hehe  Still I’d take Dean any day!

Logan, my psychotic jackass and first tv boyfriend.

Logan Echolls, Veronica Mars. The first time you see Logan, it is with a Veronica voiceover saying that every school has their obligatory psychotic jackass and he was it.  Watching him, he just looks like your stereotypical rich boy asshole and in the first few episodes that’s exactly how he acts.  Over time you learn that he has been abused by his father all his life, which makes some of his jerkery understandable, but he goes beyond just being a dick.  He arranges bum fights, he buys Weevil’s grandmother’s house and threatens to evict her (to be fair, Weevil did burn down his house, retribution you know), he sleeps with his friend’s stepmother…there’s plenty more but that’ll suffice to start.  It doesn’t matter though, I fell for Logan just as hard as Veronica did, though of course she was unable to admit it to herself.  He may not have been a good guy but really all he wanted was someone to love.  He captured my heart somewhere around episode 12 or so and kept it despite being overly emo in season 3.  Hell, I named my pet after him, so that should tell you just how much I adored him.

Sawyer, Lost. Ahhh now we’re entering more into the real bad boy arena.  Sawyer is a con man, an opportunist and a killer.  Being on the island has softened his edges some, but he’s still pretty much all about #1 (unless he’s helping Kate).  Season 1 Sawyer was hilarious to watch,  taking everything he could and holding on to it until he could barter for other things.  This past season saw Sawyer kill Locke’s father, the man who had caused the death of his mother and father.  This was understandable of course, but it’s not act a girl hopes to have her future lover pull either.

Eko

Mr. Eko, Lost. I know he’s been gone two seasons but he might have been my favorite Lost character this side of the next guy on this list.  Sawyer killed one guy while Eko killed tons of them as a drug lord in Africa.  He brought badass to a whole new level.  On the island he was silent and brooding but spiritual and interesting at the same time.  He could kick ass with no effort at all and I’m still not over his death.  The actor asked to be released from the show but I still hate that he’s gone.  Can you imagine the Losties fighting the Others with Eko on their side?  Maybe that’s why it’s okay he’s gone, cause I wouldn’t doubt the Losties would win if Eko was still there.

Ben, master manipulator

Benjamin Linus, Lost. While I’m not hot for Ben like I am for most of the characters on this list, I may find him the most fascinating of all.  He’s a master manipulator who manages to intimidate despite being smaller in stature than most of the male characters on the show.  He bends almost everyone to his will and always seems to be a step or ten ahead of everyone else.  The one rare time his plan went awry and his daughter Alex got killed right before his eyes, I got chills watching his face and waiting for the fallout.  I light up when Ben appears on the screen, I can’t help myself.  I’m just anxious to see what he’ll do next.  I’ll start Lost blogging when the show picks up and you’ll see just how much I adore this character.

EJ, once so bad, always so beautiful.

EJ DiMera, Days of Our Lives. EJ is sadly the one character who has devolved from awesome into a shadow of himself, but I still am able to love him thanks to memories of the old EJ.  That and the hotness.  I’m easy that way.  The EJ I love was a manipulator, a killer, a blackmailer/rapist…good times.  Ok, he was once a little too dark even for me but he wore it well.  One of his hottest moments was when he took off his belt and whipped Patrick with it.  If you’d have told me that I would ever find something that hot I would have laughed at you, but there you go.  Current EJ is just a shell of a man but it’s memories of the real EJ that keep me hoping he’ll resurface and start ruling Salem once again.

The Basshole himself

Chuck Bass, Gossip Girl. Chuck is a character similar to Logan in that I pegged him for a gigantic jackass in the first episode but he won me over a few episodes in.  He starts the show wanting to devirginize a 15 year old Jenny Humphrey and coming off as a potential rapist.  In typical form, I got over it.  Chuck is a major player, I couldn’t tell you how many girls he’s slept with at this point and we’re only in season 2.  His main goal seems to be to prove to his father that he’s a real man and he can run the business but he constantly winds up disappointing him.  Now that Dad is dead, Chuck’s entering a self destructive spiral that could go anywhere.   Chuck’s in love with Blair and vice versa but neither of them are willing to admit it and he figures if they do and get together they’ll lose the appeal they have for one another, so why bother?  It’s another twisted relationship that I can’t get enough of.

Sylar, my most twisted

Sylar, Heroes. Speaking of twisted, we come to probably the most twisted of them all.  I’ve always been a Peter Petrelli girl (particularly future darker Peter) but this season Sylar has overtaken him for my heart.  The first couple of seasons I didn’t really feel for Sylar, mainly because all we saw of him was just his desire to attain new powers and to kill.  That didn’t appeal to me, but this season we’ve seen the side of him that craves approval, that wants a family and that actually wanted to be better.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Sylar to be better, per se, not after the last episode made me love him, but I want him to be more complex than just some killer.  And that’s what he’s become.  His quest to find his family is going to be interesting to watch and probably make me like him all the more.

Well that’s my list of the fictional bad boys I’ve loved and will continue to do so long after their shows have disappeared.  What do you think?  Do you have the same bad boy jones that I do?  Who else would you add?  I’m sure I’m missing plenty but this was long enough without me reaching any further.  I’m dying to hear responses on this one, so let me know if you think I’m insane or if you’re just as nuts about some of these guys as I am.

Oversight addition: I forgot to include Dexter Morgan of Dexter. He’s a serial killer who kills bad guys and I really enjoy watching him struggle to maintain a normal fascade in everyday life.  He belonged here so I had to add him, my bad!

Read Full Post »