14 posts tagged “television”

I really like television, can you tell? I'm actually quite picky about what I do watch but what I do watch, I love. These days it's all about Darkplace and Man to Man with Dean Learner. I have both hilarious shows on dvd, if you care to ever check them out. They are incredibly funny.

Also going strong this season is Dexter. Casey and I finally got to sit down and watch Episode 4 (See Through) and the show, despite the fact that it's no longer relying on the plot of a Dexter book (Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay, he continues on with more Dexter books after this one but the show opted not to continue following the books after the first series), has remained funny, intriguing, and complex. Most exciting is the fact that Dexter is starting to come to terms with himself, not as a monster, but with something that might be called humanity. Of the four so far, Episode 3 was incredible - so funny, touching, and Masuka says "Redonkulous."

Last Thursday's Office turned out to be my favorite of Season 4 so far. It was definitely a less silly, more emotional and serious episode than we've seen (Episode 3, Launch Party, was a bit too broad and goofy for my taste), but still hilarious. Mose is my favorite rarely-seen character. Jim connecting with Dwight over heartbreak was so touching, as was his passionate love for "Italian food." And I loved that the audience got to connect a little bit more with why Jan and Michael are still together, after all this time - maybe the first evidence that they're relationship isn't totally wrong, after all. And Darryl/Kelly? Definitely the thing I am most excited to see more of this season.

Tonight is a new episode of the Office - I think they are going back to half-hours now. Frankly, I'm a little sad but also a little relieved. The one hour format felt like a bit of a stretch sometimes; I would prefer having two half-hour long new shows back to back, as opposed to one monster show, but I'm just nitpicking here.

More videos:

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace:

Aye yi yi yi, what a week. It's actually flown by fairly quickly - maybe made faster by the fact that Monday was an all-day training at work and Casey quit his job at UPS already. Nights got lonely by last Wednesday, so I'm glad I don't have to keep suffering through quietly entertaining myself after 9 PM. Though last Thursday, J., S., M., B., and N. all came by to keep me company and that was nicer than nice. I was so pleased that Casey's friends are kind of like my friends too. Last night I had a great time catching up with Girl-Casey, J., and C. at Fondi, a neopolitan pizzeria that is pretty much exactly like Tutta Bella but also, like Tutta Bella, pretty delicious. We split a bottle of wine, a large salad, a pizza, and each got little dishes of gelato and it was as close to a perfect dinner with coworker/friends as you could get.

Plus, RICH FULCHER sent me a myspace message and it literally has made me thrilled with life all morning, as dorky as that is. Myspace, I knew you were good for something.

So, in honor of the very funny and (as it turns out) very nice Rich Fulcher, I bring you:

In case you didn't watch (but ignore if you don't care, like Casey) the finale of TOP CHEF was last night. Aside from CJ, who is tall (and cute) my favorite contestant has been Hung. Why? I like the jerks! He's a jerk in the kitchen when it gets down to the competition, but he genuinely tried to be sweet and get along with people outside of that arena. He was hugging and congratulating with the best of them. And he was the smartest about the competition, even if he was an ass about it. Plus? He was clearly the most skilled chef. I'm glad they went with him over the "bold and inventive" "big gay chef" Dale, and Casey, who is a nice girl (and it would have been lovely to see a woman win TC) just couldn't quite cut it.

At any rate, I was quite pleased. Congratulations Hung, you silly, egotistical maniac!

In even more exciting news (to me, and again, not to Casey) tonight is: new episode of the Office, new episode of Mad Men, and leftover gnocchi. Hurrah!

That's supposed to say BUSIEST beaver! Anyway. Today I am very busy. The weekend was far too short and I've got so many things on my to-do list that I'm trying not to drive myself insane. Plus, a totally horrific tale of woe about my work, that I'll share with anyone who's interested but is far too depressing to discuss in any reasonable manner on this blog.

This weekend I went to the Magnuson Park SPL Book Sale (!) which apparently is a big deal. I didn't realize that it even existed, but we get there and it's in this massive hangar at Magnuson and there's like, ten million people there. Maybe not quite that many, but it's packed. Books run at .50/.75/1.00, unless you go in the "Better Books" section where they are priced as marked. I bought a bunch of old cookbooks for .75/ea., 2 WWII cookbooks, 1 Microwave cookbook from the 70s, and one really old cookbook from 1936. I know that it's weird, but I really have loved reading them and am thinking of making this into a hobby (insert Casey rolling his eyes here). I find them fascinating. And a funny part about the Microwave cookbook, they have about every kind of food you could imagine in there - a whole turkey, even! They give you all these recipes, but under POPCORN, they say, Popcorn is not recommended cooked in the microwave! So apparently in the 70s, people were cooking turkeys but popcorn was a no-no.

In other news, if you care, the IT Crowd Series 2 has just been released in the UK. Graham Linehan said on his blog that he tried to get them to release it as region free, but it was nothing doing. I'm poor, so I've decided to wait and rent it from Scarecrow and when I have more money, buy it from Amazon.co.uk, since apparently 14 pounds equals close to 30 dollars. But S2 is absolutely hilarious, though episodes 5 and 6, while funny, were a bit broad/goofy for my taste. Still, a very funny show that I have only grown to love more and more. I have Series one and I'm more than happy to show people how great an import it really is, plus make popcorn.

I know I forgot to post music over the weekend, but I'll try to remind myself tonight. Also, I started watching Dexter, and though disturbing, I give it a thumbs up. Also fantastic is Freaks and Geeks, I am working my way through the DVDs. I've only been getting 1 at a time through Netflix, which is a good thing, because I think if I had them all, I'd watch them all at once. I find the show a bit draining since sometimes it's so alarmingly like how high school really was that it makes your skin crawl with the awkward remembrances of it all. Really a bit painful at times. I've found that after 3 episodes (or 1 disc) I feel a little exhausted. One thing I must say, is that though the show was great when I started watching it, I'm around episode 7 or 8 now and it's incredible how much the show tightened up in that amount of time. The acting is better, the writing is funnier... Definitely worth sticking with, if you've rented the complete series.

And finally, my lunch (rice and beans and half of a tomato) is really quite sad. I would take a picture of it, sitting here before me on my desk, but it's mostly gone now. Still, not the cheeriest of lunches. Happy Monday.

[POST SCRIPT] I forgot to include that I watched The Wind that Shakes the Barley over the weekend, and was mostly a little bored the whole way through. The acting and writing was excellent, for sure, but I just don't like war movies, I find them dull. Definitely a great movie, if you like historical war movies, and/or Cillian Murphy, and/or Irish accents so thick we required subtitles. Not my proudest moment, those subtitles.

Hurrah! Flight of the Conchords. Everyone loves it, I know, I know, but it's so hilarious I cannot deny it.

That Geico ad where the caveman is in the airport? Yeah, I love the song playing in the background. It's by Royksopp - Remind Me. Here's the video, and the full song for your enjoyment.

Top Chef

Last night, between being entranced by So You Think You Can Dance* and Creature Comforts**, I watched the Top Chef head-to-head season 1 vs. 2 challenge. Season one might be a more cohesive (and more mature) group, I can't help but feel affectionately towards season two, which was chock full of drama and angst. Despite myself, I kind of like Ilan, I always liked (and still do) Elia, thought Sam was totally robbed, enjoyed Cliff being around (it was sad when he had to leave) and the rest of the contestants were pretty inconsequential. Oh yeah, and Marcel existed. Plus the whole shaving your head thing. Elia rocks!

Season 3 began last night at 10 PM and was an extra long episode - going until 11:15 instead of the regular 10-11 slot. A couple thoughts:

• I really dislike Padma Lakshmi. I just found out she's married to Salman Rushdie, which I found fascinating, but doesn't make her delivery of lines on that show any less wooden. She's like a mannequin, people, albeit an extra beautiful one.
• Side note, the first host - something Lee Joel - is married to Billy Joel, so I guess they (Bravo - Top Chef) just like pretty ladies married to very famous men that also happen to be terrible at hosting this show.
  
• Anthony Bourdain is awesome. That is all.
• I would not eat most of the things they served (Surf n'Turf challenge with exotic ingredients - rattlesnake, ostrich, black chicken, whatever that means, kangeroo?). No raw monkfish livers, thanks anyway.
• Thoughts on the chefs: Well, you knew it wasn't going to work out for either of the two "I'm going slow because time will not be a problem for me" guys. And, as promised (thanks, Top Chef editors), they ran out of time at the end. Suck on that, you cocky bastards!
• It was pretty obvious that Clay was going home. Even if he cooked something better, I think he's better off because clearly, he did not have the backbone or the confidence to fight for it. Though I was irritated by Tom Colicchio giving him so much crap for saying that he stood behind his dish and then backing down from it. I think the fact that his food was poorly cooked should have been the issue, but Tom's kind of a douche, so well-played.
• Guesses for the final three? Tre, Hung (which I'm sure they will try to make out as the Asian Marcel), and maybe one of the ladies. Micah? The lady with the red lipstick (don't know her name yet)?
• Oh, and New York Guy? Shut up about New York. Seriously, no one cares.
  

* So You Think You Can Dance is some great dancing interspersed with some terrible television. But seriously, the dancing is great. Wade Robson choreographed the most kick-ass hobo dance with some dancers who couldn't quite pull it off entirely; my other favorites were Anya the cute booty-shaker and whatever her guy's name is, and the people who did the song from the Wiz. It's all about the musicals. Also, the Asian guy named Hok with the braids? I'm going to take a controversial stance and say I like it. He was working it.
** I happened upon Creature Comforts by accident. I guess they went around and interviewed lots of random people around the U.S. and had it animated by the guys that do the Wallace and Gromit (+ Chicken Run) and it was super, super cute. The best were the daschunds, the two green birds in the cage, and the two rabbits. And the owls. But all of it was cute, and kind of funny.

Top Chef is returning on June 13th. I will not miss it, and neither should you. Last season ended in such heartbreaking disappointment that I failed to watch the final episodes. With Sam, the clear and obvious (and most deserving) winner, kicked right before the finale, I could not watch an Ilan-and-Marcel douche-a-thon cook-off. I couldn't really stomach it. So cheers to new beginnings, and fresh starts. KAMPAI!!!

Sorry I haven't posted anything today! I've got a giant pimple. Not that that's a good excuse, but it's huge. It's like, that one episode of My So-Called Life where Angela has that hu-mon-gous pimple and she has to be in that fashion show with her mom, and she's really angsty because her mom was really beautiful when she was Angela's age and instead she just has a giant pimple and also is Claire Danes, who is really beautiful but not in a traditional or obvious way, especially back then but I totally worshipped her and wanted to dye my hair flame red. And also Jordan Catalano aka Jared Leto. Existed. And was beautiful. And then turned in a giant douche. So, great.

Basically, I'm saying I have a television-fake-pimple pimple, that's not fake. And - I really miss that show sometimes.