Boardwalk Empire

Jeff and I recently watched the first season of Boardwalk Empire. It’s an HBO show staring Steve Buschemi. It takes place in Atlantic City in the 1920’s. Jeff and I thought it was a pretty good show – good cast, interesting storylines, definitely entertaining – I’d recommend checking it out.

Highlander - TV Series

A couple of years ago, when digital versions of TV shows started to become more readily available, I decided it'd be fun to watch some of my favorite series from start to finish.

One of the shows I've been working my way through is Highlander. Before starting this task, I'd seen a lot of the episodes - most even - but I hadn't watched them in order - it was always the odd rerun here and there.

I remember loving Highlander when I was in high school, so I was really excited to watch it. And I still love the idea - the prototypical hero who always saves the day, the sword-fighting, the "there can be only one" mythology, and all the fun history flash-back storylines.

Upon re-watching, I realized a few things:
1. There are a lot of episodes - six seasons with 22 episodes each season (except season 5 and 6, which were a bit shorter). (It took me more than a year to get through all of them!)
2. Some of the acting is really bad - just really hokey, and I don't like some of the main characters. Specifically, I never really cared for Tessa, and always thought Richie was a little irritating.
3. Some of the episodes and storylines are flat out not good. Super predictable (which can be ok), but also pretty boring.
4. Some of the characters are awesome. I always loved Darius, Fitzcairn, Methos, and (of course!) MacLeod.
5. Some of the storylines are soooo good! I love the whole watchers as hunters storyline from the end of the first season. And everything with Methos and the horsemen is great. And I actually love some of the simple one-episode storylines.

I also loved the series finale. Most of the series finales that I've seen just sort of drop off, without any major sense of closure. Highlander does a two-part "It's a Wonderful Life" knock-off, and then ends with a five-minute montage of images from the whole series set to one of my favorite songs. Awesome.

The song in the finale actually shows up multiple times in the show, and I love it every time I hear it - which is kind of crazy, because I'm not particularly into music - I generally like most things, but rarely really love a song. The song is called "Bonnie Portmore," it's Irish and basically about a tree. Here's a link to the montage - if you're not a highlander fan, just listen to the music and see what you think.

(Plus, the theme song is by Queen! How could you not love that?)

TV Time: Buffy, the Dollhouse, and Being Human

I convinced my friend Annette to watch all of Battlestar Galactica, so in return, she got me to watch all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I think she still owes me, really, because BSG has 75 episodes total and Buffy has 144.) Anyway, I finally finished watching all of Buffy. And then I started watching Dollhouse - another Joss Whedon show (love him!), and I watched one episode of "Being Human" - a new SciFi channel show. I thought I'd write about each of them quickly now...


I thought Buffy was a fairly good show, though it changes a lot over the course of the series. The first season or so is very light and episodic - fighting robots and fish monsters and things like that. There is some overarching story, but it's not all that intense. By the last season, things are much darker. I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without the Andrew comic relief (which constantly had me laughing out loud) - he just makes such awesome geeky references that I swear only a few people would get.

<> Really the last couple of seasons are pretty dark - ever since Buffy died the second time. Buffy hates being alive, Willow is semi-evil and/or can't do any magic at all (which is boring), Dawn exists (and is soooo whiny), Giles is gone, Spike is cool but never happy, Xander and Anya split up, then the long, drawn out "some of us aren't going to make it" stuff... Made me miss the days when they were high school students battling fish-swim-team-monsters. In some ways it was a better show, because the characters and stories had more depth, but it was a little less happy-go-lucky/ fun to watch. 

<> I liked the finale pretty well. I liked how they brought back every character ever, basically, and I thought the "making every girl a slayer" was kind of sappy/awesome. I thought it was good that not everyone made it (Poor Anya, though! The scene where Xander is calling for her is really pretty sad!) (And poor Spike - finally redeemed himself, though) but that most of them did make it. I also really liked the very end where its just chatting, like "what do we do now?" Such a cool way to end the show. Oh, and I loved that Nathan Fillion was on the show - it's hilarious to me that Joss Wheden just works with the exact same people over and over. 

Jeff and I just started Dollhouse about a week ago, and we're already a couple episodes into the second season. The premise is that there is an organization (called 'the dollhouse') where people sign a contract to have their mind wiped. Then, the people in the dollhouse program them with a new personality, memories, etc. to fulfill client's requests - instead of hiring an actor to pretend to be your girlfriend, you're buying someone who really believes that she is your girlfriend. It's a good show - interesting, funny, with constant changes. There is a good overarching storyline, so it's not just about the client of the week. Sadly, it was canceled after the second season, so only about 25 episodes exist total.

I watched "Being Human," while at the gym, because it's one of the only free TV shows on iTunes that looked halfway interesting, and I can play iPhone movies on the TV screen attached to the elliptical. The show is about a vampire, werewolf, and a ghost (all actors in their 20's) that decide to get a house together. The pilot was actually pretty funny and entertaining, which is rare for a pilot (I feel like they're usually awkward, because the actors haven't really figured out the characters yet).

Doctor Who Christmas Special

Every year on Christmas, there is a Doctor Who Christmas Special. Usually it's pretty hard to get it in the US, but this year, they played it on BBC America on Christmas Day. We were at Grandma John's while it was on, but we DVR-ed it and finally found time to watch it a couple days later.

Jeff, my mom, and I opened the bottle of wine and chocolates I got from David and Natalie and brought out some cheese and crackers, and then we relaxed and watched the show. It was a Doctor Who version of A Christmas Carol, and it was sooooo good! I won't give any more of the plot away, but you should definitely watch it!

Doctor Who Christmas Special

The other day, I was trying to think of a SciFi movie that was also a Christmas movie. Nothing jumped to mind, so I googled it. I didn't have much luck finding a Christmas-SciFi cross-over, but I did come across these articles about the Doctor Who Christmas Special, coming out in a few months. Apparently, it's going to be "the most Christmassy [Doctor Who] Christmas special." Yay!

The article I found had even more to say:

'This year's Christmas special will be Doctor Who's clever twist on the much loved A Christmas Carol.'

'Moffat clearly had a jolly time writing it: "Oh, we're going for broke with this one. It's all your favorite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters. And the Doctor. And a honeymoon. And ... oh, you'll see. I've honestly never been so excited about writing anything. I was laughing madly as I typed along to Christmas songs in April. My neighbors loved it so much they all moved away and set up a website demanding my execution. But I'm fairly sure they did it ironically!"'

I know it's Halloween today, but I'm already excited for Christmas!

True Blood

Up until now, the vampire craze has mostly passed me by, but I've had lots of friends recommend True Blood, so I thought I'd check it out.

First off, the concept of the show is much more interesting than I had thought. The concept is that someone in Japan invented synthetic blood, and now vampires all over the world can "come out of the coffin" and live in society openly. There are issues with vampire rights debated on local TV. The show all takes place in a small town in Louisiana. A vampire comes to town, and people are varying levels of accepting. The main character, Sookie Stackhouse, falls in love with this vampire, and gets pulled into all sorts of vampire-related issues.

The show is actually pretty interesting and creative. It engaged me enough that I watched the entire series (up through the middle of Season 3 - which is in progress now) over a four-day period.

In fact, my friend Neera came to visit for a few days, and when she arrived on Monday, I was just finishing up Season 2. It turned out that she's a big fan of the show, but hadn't seen any of season 3, so we watched all five of the season 3 episodes that night after work. :)

A Bit of British Television... and Dr. Horrible... Again

On Friday evening, we went to Annette's apartment to hang out with her. We ordered pizza and decided to check out some British humor. We watched an episode of Jeeves & Wooster - it's a TV show about a rich young man (Wooster) and his 'valet' (Jeeves). Wooster is played by Hugh Laurie (from House!) and Jeeves is Stephen Frye. Unfortunately, the episode we watched was just not funny. We had to stretch to imagine exactly what anyone would find funny about this. Has anyone else seen this show - are we missing something?

After that, we watched an episode of 'A Bit of Frye and Laurie,' which is kind of like a Saturday Night Live-type show staring only Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. It was also very British-humor-y, but I liked it pretty well.

Finally, we watched a few episodes of IT Crowd. This is the British sitcom about a few people who work in the IT department of a company. All of the episodes we watched were really funny. Although, actually, I think  one of the funniest thing is the menus on the DVD. The intro is a spoof of the "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" video game intro, and then the menu screen looks exactly like the Mortal Combat video game menu screen. Awesome.

Oh, and we watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog... again. :)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I had an awesome lunch today. I was attending an all-day meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's Heliophysics Subcommittee (which was actually kind of fun and interesting, but not the main focus of this blog post). There is a group of Next Gen people (young professionals) at NASA that get together once a week for lunch, and today I was able to join them. Usually they have lunch on the roof, but today, they decided to have a 'movie lunch.' They played the movie in the Space Operations Center (SOC). The SOC is the cool high-tech looking room with giant screens where they coordinate operations with astronauts on the International Space Station. But instead, we had giant screens playing "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." Awesome.

So, about the movie. 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' was created by Joss Weedon (same guy that did Firefly - also a great show). It stars Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser) as Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal on Firefly) as his nemesis, Captain Hammer. (Also, I justed noticed that it's kind of funny that Neil Patrick Harris plays a doctor in both of the shows I mentioned and Nathan Fillion plays a captain in both the shows I mentioned.) Dr. Horrible is odd and silly and I really enjoyed it. Definitely unique. I'd recommend checking it out! (And you can watch it for free on Hulu!)

Treme

Another show Jeff and I have started (and almost finished) is Treme. This show is made by the same people who made "The Wire," which is Jeff's favorite TV show, and arguably one of the best TV shows ever.

There are a number of actors from The Wire that are in Treme - Wendell Pierce (Bunk), Clarke Peters (Lester), John Goodman is also a main character. Other than that, wikipedia tells me that many of the characters were hired locally, which is cool (and similar to The Wire).

Treme is set in the Treme district in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Like The Wire, it follows a number of different characters whose lives sometimes intersect. There are the people who are moving back into their homes in the Treme, dealing with the destruction and rebuilding. There are a lot of poor musicians, looking for gigs. It follows a lawyer-professor husband-wife team that are active in the city. The one group conspicuously missing is the police, which is a bit strange, because every police officer on the show tends to be portrayed negatively and with no depth - very different than The Wire.

There is also a bit less of a story arc in this show - it's very character driven, but with no major obstacle that each character has to overcome - for the most part, it just follows them in the everyday ups and downs that they experience - though it stays . We're eight episodes in (there are only 10 in the season), and I like it so far.

Fringe

After I finished with my exams, I finally had time to relax and watch a bit of TV. One of the shows I had been meaning to check out was Fringe. My brother recommended it, and when I saw Leonard Nimoy speak last spring he mentioned that he was in it and thought it was very good. It's done by J.J. Abrams - the same guy who did Lost and the most recent Star Trek movie. So there were lots of reasons to watch.

Fringe is similar to X-Files in a lot of ways - each episode the main characters (including FBI agents) investigate some mysterious super-natural seeming crime (spontaneous combustion, walking through walls, etc.), and there is some bigger controversy behind everything. However, there are some differences. The events are explained with pseudo- or "fringe" science, rather than by aliens or other things.

One of the main differences, however, is in the characters. There is Olivia Dunham - the reluctant FBI agent involved, but there are some "consultants" - Walter Bishop - a mad-scientist guy (who was in a mental hospital for the past 10 years) who used to do fringe science experiments for the government, and his son, Peter Bishop (who is played by Joshua Jackson), who is coerced into staying to keep an eye on his dad. I actually really like the characters - particularly the Joshua Jackson character.

When I first started watching the show, I didn't think it was that great - it was pretty formulaic and each episode was pretty self-contained, with very little time devoted to the long-term story. However, as the show went on, it began to spend more and more time developing the characters and going into the details of the overall conspiracy, which was great. By the second half of season 2, I was completely hooked. I'd definitely recommend checking it out! And I'm excited for Season 3 to start in the fall!

Lost Finale

Even though it was only two days before my first comprehensive exam, I had to watch the Lost finale. I'm a huge fan - it's the only show that I watch in real time (instead of just DVR). So, for the finale, we got together with some friends and made it into an event. We watched the two hour summary show before the finale, the 2.5 hour finale, and when I got home, I watch the hour of Jimmy Kimmel interviewing the cast.

---Spoiler Alert---

Overall: So, in general, I really did like the finale. It was really sad, and also pretty final. It was character-based, which is what the producers said to expect, and seemed appropriate for the show. If they had chosen to answer all the random technical questions about the island, but not given closer to the characters, that would not have been as good. Everyone was pretty quiet when the show finally ended - definitely a sense of, "Wow... that's it. It's over."

Side Universe: I looooved the side universe. Ever since the Desmond episode this season, the parts of the show taking place in the side universe have been some of my favorite. It's so fun to see everyone find each other, and remember each other - such a cool idea!

What actually happened? Ok, it seems like people have different interpretations of exactly what happened in the show, so here's my take. I think they survived the plane crash, the island was real, and all of the adventure was real. Over the course of their adventure on the island, they all became very close and important to each other. The side universe was purgatory/limbo - and they all went there when they died (which wasn't all at the same time, hence Christian Shepard explaining that 'there's no time here'). In purgatory, they could take their time to find each other and remember everything that had happened to them, and once they had all remembered, then they could all "move on" together.

What about all the unanswered questions? It's true, there are a lot of things we still don't know. (Like who's dropping Dharma supplies on the island, still? And what was the deal with Walt? And why was Libby in the insane asylum in the flashbacks?) But like I said earlier, even if they had spent the finale explaining all these random things, it wouldn't have been very meaningful. Personally, I think they'll put out a book or a show or something that explains the Lost universe. Sort of like some of Tolkein's explanation of the Lord of the Rings world. I think they really do have answers for a lot of the questions that just didn't fit into the show, or weren't important enough to spend screen-time answering.

Awesome Videos: These are pretty much all thanks to Beth, but I'd recommend checking out the videos on this link - Particularly the ultimate list of unanswered questions, and the video showing the first and last 108 minutes of Lost. Incredible how similar they are.

3D TV Commercial

I just saw the first commercial I've ever seen for a 3D TV. I read that they were being developed (actually, I think we even wrote about it in The Space Report 2010), but I've never actually seen a commercial for it. The kids and parents in the commercial still had to wear goofy glasses, though, which seems less than ideal.

I guess technologies marching forward - I wonder if 3D TV will be something that catches on and eventually everyone has, or if it will be one of those fads that kind of dies away. My guess is the technology needs to get quite a bit better before everyone gets it. Right now, I think 3D is often more distracting than it is cool. And the glasses definitely get old fast. (Plus, if you have kids, like in the commercial, what are the chances those glasses are going to last more than a week without getting lost and/or broken?)

(Also, it occurs to me that I may not have seen a commercial for 3D TV because I almost never watch commercials anymore - with the DVR, I always just skip right past them. Lost is the one exception - the show is constantly revealing more and more about what's happening as it gets closer to the finale, and I hate the idea of not knowing everything there is to know as soon as the info is available, so I watch it in real time.)

Doctor Who is Back!

After a two-year hiatus, Doctor Who is starting a weekly run again – with a new doctor!

Yes, this deserves its own post.

Champagne, Baseball, and Movies

Yesterday was officially my last day at Raytheon. I badged myself in for the last time, dropped off my laptop, phone, corporate card, and other Raytheon things, and that was it!

That evening, Jeff and I had plans to go the the National's game. They just signed a new pitcher, and to celebrate they sold a bunch of tickets online for $1. The weather in DC has been super hot and muggy, with occasional rain, and it stayed that way during the game - mostly it was nice, but there were a couple times we paused for rain. Lucky for us, we were sitting under an awning, so we stayed pretty comfortable. The Nationals were doing pretty well, but then fell behind - they hit a homerun in the 9th inning, but it wasn't enough to win.

After the game we went back to our apartment and had some champagne to celebrate my last day at Raytheon. We also watched 'Sixteen Candles' which is one of those 80's movies my mom never let me watch. (Ferris Bueler and Breakfast Club were allowed.) It was funny and cheesy, with language bad enough that I probably wouldn't let a little kid watch it either.

The other thing I randomly watched this morning was the TV show 'This American Life'. It's just like the radio show on NPR (both narrated by Ira Glass). I love the radio show, so I guess it's no surprise. They do a really good job of getting really good, interesting or emotional vignettes of people's lives in a relatively short period of time. If you have netflix, it's available on 'play instantly', so check it out!

Dexter

Jeff and I just finished watching season two of Dexter the other day. It's been nominated for an Emmy for Best Drama Series and Michael Hall (Dexter) has been nominated for Best Actor in a drama.

It's an interesting show- the premise is that Dexter, the main character, works as a blood spatter analyst with the Miami Police Department by day, and by night, he's a serial killer - focusing on ridding the city of bad guys that fell through the system. The vigilantism reminded me slightly of Boondock Saints, except that in Dexter, his reason for killing is not because he wants to clean-up the city, it's just because he likes to kill people. Despite that, he's kind of the hero of the show - the one you're cheering for.

Definitely a different premise than I'd seen in the past. It keeps the show interesting and unpredictable. It's a bit creepy - maybe not the best show to watch just before bed - but still fun and sometimes even funny. Overall, I'd recommend checking it out - I'm excited to get started on Season 3!

Normal Week

I had a pretty standard week last week. Main daytime activities were going to Jeff's class and going in to work. It's been really rainy in DC (like record-setting, flash-flooding kind of rainy) which has put a damper on activities.

However, we did make it out to what we hope will become a weekly happy hour with friends on Tuesdays. Now that we don't see each other in classes all the time, we have to be a bit more pro-active in planning. :) (And thanks to Stephanie, who took the initiative to set it up in the first place!)

Jeff and I watched a movie at home - Hancock (starring Will Smith) which was cute and entertaining, as most Will Smith movies are. They didn't go into the logic or mythology to really explain how Will Smith had become a super hero or why he has a pair, but they did a lot of super-hero-y things, and were funny, so whatever.

Also, I don't think I mentioned yet, but the newest season of "So You Think You Can Dance" has started. I love that show (as anyone that's brought it up near me, or been near me when something reminds me of it, could tell you). So, check it out.

In other TV news, Jeff and I finally finished watching The West Wing. We started on the series about three years ago, and have been watching episodes whenever we get a chance since then. (Though no marathons, like my Four-Seasons-of-the-Wire-in-Two-Weeks activity earlier this year.) It's a good show, and (though it probably reflects poorly on the quality of my North High civics class) taught me a lot about what different people work in the White House and how various government processes work. (Not that I'm taking the West Wing to be truth on how the political system works, but still...)

So, that's it. Now time for weekend fun.

Movies - My Main Distraction

I really have been busy with work, but one of the main things I do when I'm not working is watch movies, so I've done a decent amount of that, too. Here are some of the things I've watched recently:

Volver
This is a movie set in Spain, starring Penelope Cruz. The premise is that her mother is back from the dead. It's an entertaining movie, and Penelope Cruz was very good, as usual. There were some serious themes that seemed to come out of no where, for a movie that is fairly light thoughout. Overall, I'd recommend seeing it.

Rushmore
Jeff and I are fans of Wes Anderson (Royal Tennenbaums, Darjeeling Limited, etc.) but had never seen Rushmore. It's about a student, Max Fisher, who has a horrible academic record, but involved in tons of extra-curriculars. Bill Murray plays the disillusioned father of some other students at the school. His character, who befriends Max, is hilarious - definitely one of the highlights. Max, Bill Murray, and a teacher at the school become involved in a love triangle that leads to all sorts of trouble. As with other Wes Anderson films, its a bit of an odd story, and ranges from funny to creepy to cute throughout the film.

Bottle Rocket
Another Wes Anderson film, Bottle Rocket was also quirky. The main character has just left a mental hospital and goes on a crime spree with a friend. They don't shoot too high, but still manage to boggle the job. Overall, it's a pretty funny movie - lighter and more silly than some of Wes Anderson's other films.

No Country for Old Men
This is a Coen Brother's film (like Fargo, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, etc.), but all the commercials I had seen billed it as more of a thriller film, which seemed odd. The commercial were true - don't expect this movie to make you laugh. It's about a guy who finds a bunch of money that at a drug deal in the desert that went bad. He then gets chased by Javier Bardem, who is extremely creepy throughout the whole movie. (He's got a sort of Kill Bill-like emotionless "kill everyone" style.) It's pretty violent, but doesn't show a lot of gore, which keeps it edge-of-your-seat, but not gruesome. Tommy Lee Jones does a good job playing the small town sheriff that's suddenly in the middle of everything. It's a well made and interesting movie, so I'd definitely recommend it.

The Game
The Game is a bit older, and is about a super-rich, hermit-like business man whose wild brother gives him a birthday card telling him to sign up with Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) to play a live-action. Soon the banker's life starts to go wild - his TV is talking to him, people are chasing him, etc. And "CRS" keeps showing up. The whole movie he (and you) is trying to guess what's part of the game. I thought the movie was exciting and entertaining - it was hard to tell what was real. The main issue I had was the ending. (Spoiler Alert - don't read any further if you haven't seen it and don't want to know the ending.) When he figures out that everything was part of a game - the death threats, etc., and is at the party, he seems pretty ok to me. This seemed so odd to me - like he needed no time to take everything in, and wasn't upset or in shock. I also wasn't sure how this was going to solve the issue of him being a hermit. Other than that, I did enjoy the movie.

So You Think You Can Dance

This is such a great show. I danced for about eight years when I was younger, and its so cool to see these amazing dancers do all sorts of forms of dance. It's pretty impressive, and is a quick-moving show. The competition episodes are the best. Check out the group dance on the episodes where they tell who is voted off, but you can skip the rest.

Firefly

Firefly is a TV series that used to be on the SciFi channel, and was also made into a movie "Serenity". The idea is that there was a war in space, and one group (the Alliance) won, taking control. The rebels now operate on the outer edges of the galaxy. Firefly is about some of these rebels, operating an illegal cargo ship. It's almost Western-like, even in the way they dress and talk. The characters are all really great - there are lots of laugh-out-loud funny moments. There are only about 15 episodes made, so it's fairly quick to see the whole series - and definitely worth the time.

Doctor Who (and Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures)

Doctor Who is one of my favorite shows. It's just so creative and fun, and the current Doctor - David Tennet - is amazing. If you're not familiar with the plot in general, it centers around The Doctor, who is the last Time Lord - a species that can travel through space and time (in the Tartus, his ship that looks like a 1960's British Police Box). He generally travels with another person. The Sarah Jane Adventures are actually based on one of the women that traveled with the Doctor on some episodes in the 1960's. Now she investigates alien plots on her own in the UK. Torchwood is a spin-off based on people that work in the UK to deal with alien issues - sort of like an MIB organization. All very fun shows.

The West Wing
This show is all about the president and his staff working in the West Wing. It's really interesting to see how the interaction happens between the White House, Congress, and the media. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but they deal with realistic and interesting issues, and it's fun to watch.