32 posts tagged “drama”

So "Grey's Anatomy" totally stole the idea of a live grenade/bomb in someone's chest cavity from an episode of "Emergency!".  Except since "Emergency!" was made in the 70's, the only way you'd ever know the guy had something in his chest was because they put a little bit of red on his shirt - you never see the actual hole and hardly any blood.  (Seriously, throughout all the seasons, you never see anybody actually get a needle put in them - they always zoom in on a face or put props in front of it.  It's actually kind of funny.)  Also, when they finally get the grenade out of him, the bomb squad puts it in a padded bucket, sticks the bucket in the back of their station wagon, and then drives off with it.  What makes this whole thing even stranger is that the episode of "Emergency!", titled "How Green Was My Thumb?", aired January 26, 1974 and the first part of the "Grey's Anatomy" two-parter, titled "It's the End of the World", aired February 4, 2006 - 32 years & 9 days later.  I'd say the writers of "Grey's Anatomy" watched the episode of "Emergency!" when writing their episode but the DVD it's on didn't come out until a year after the "Grey's Anatomy" episode aired.  Eh.  Who knows?  I just thought that was interesting.

Thanks to the university giving my apartment complex free(!) Showtime, I'm going to be disappointed when I have to move back home in March.

I happened to see the 5th season premiere of "The L Word", caught up on the previous four seasons, and fell in love with the show (even though I  wouldn't mind if two of the characters left and never came back).  Now, thanks to CBS showing the pilot of "Dexter", I have fallen in love with that show.  I just finished watching the entire first season thanks to Netflix's Watch Now feature.  The show was awesome and I didn't even really care that I saw some plot twists coming a mile away.  My only complaint is that the second season isn't out on DVD yet (although that's probably because it just finished airing a couple months ago) but I think I'll buy the book the TV series is based on to keep me busy until that happens.  And of course, there's "The Tudors".  I'm a little mad the second season doesn't start until March 30th because that means I'm going to miss the entire thing.  I just hope Hulu, Fancast, or Showtime.com itself streams the episodes online because I'd rather not use the other method of getting them on my parents' internet connection.

The only downside to watching all these shows on Showtime is that the university spoiled me so now when I get my own apartment & cable connection, I'm going to have to spring for the package that includes Showtime.  Hopefully it won't cost too much.

I know there are some people in my 'hood who watch "Chuck" (Chuckers?  Chucksters?) so if you haven't already heard: NBC is airing the last 2 episodes of "Chuck" tonight.  The first one airs at 8 PM and the second one airs at 10 PM.  Even though I'm sad these are the last episodes of "Chuck" I'm happy to finally have new episodes of a TV show that isn't a reality show.

Oh, and in the continuing weather saga - it got down to 0 degrees F sometime last night (which WeatherBug is reporting as -0 which is impossible *is a math geek*).  Thankfully it's warmed up to 3 degrees and I'm hoping it hits 4 or 5 before I leave for class.  And thank God tomorrow's Friday so I only have to brave the cold to and from one class.  Hopefully it starts warming up around here soon.  And by warming up I mean reaching freezing at some point.

What was the best movie you saw this year?

I'd have to say it's a tie between these two movies:

Waitress (Widescreen Edition)

Across_the_universe

Edit: OK, now it's a 3-way tie because I just watched this movie:

Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition)

The series finale of "Journeyman" aired on Wednesday and even though the series didn't really grab my attention at the beginning, I was really starting to enjoy it by the time these last few episodes aired.  I am glad though that NBC aired all the produced episodes and that the show actually had an ending which a lot of canceled shows don't get.  I liked how they wrapped things up and how they got the chance to explain things that people (including myself) had questions about.  I also liked how much it paralleled the first episode.  I thought that was a nice touch.

Speaking of abruptly canceled TV shows... "The 4400" is officially canceled.  I know they left their season finale wide open for a new season but for the life of me I can't remember what happened.

For a third and final piece of TV news, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are returning on January 7th.  While I'm glad they're coming back, it doesn't sound like the WGA is too happy with them.  Or are they not happy with Comedy Central?  I can't really tell.  While I would love for the strike to be resolved as soon as possible and for the writers to get the residuals and everything else they deserve, I kind of like not having any TV to watch - it allows me to do other things like get a life concentrate on my final quarter of classes.

Tonight's episode of "Chuck" is (I believe) the last episode until the strike is over.  So what is the local NBC station showing?  "Chuck", you say?  Wrong, I say.  They're showing "Celebrating the Life of Ruth Bell Graham" instead.  WTF?  They couldn't wait until next week to show it?  Was it really so important to show "Celebrating the Life of Ruth Bell Graham" tonight?  Thankfully, hopefully, it only lasts an hour so I can still watch the new episodes of "Heroes" and "Life".  It also lets me watch "The Year Without Santa Claus" but still.  You don't bump "Chuck" to show some thing (it's seriously almost infomercial-like) about Billy Graham's wife instead.

I'm glad I started um, "collecting" episodes of "Chuck" when I did.

Despite the fact that it never got above 28 degrees today, today was not a bad day.  Well, at least TV-wise.

Not only is there a possible deal to end the WGA strike by Christmas but both "Chuck" and "Life" got picked up for full seasons.  While I'm glad they both got picked up I'm surprised "Chuck" wasn't picked up before the strike began.  Everyone I know who watches it loves it and it seems to be doing fairly well in the ratings.  I guess I'll forgive them for taking so long and just be happy it was picked up.  With last week's (the week before last?) news that "Dirty Sexy Money" got picked up for a full season, it's been pretty good TV-wise.  Except for the fact that, as of now, the WGA strike is still going on.

I am sad that after tonight there's only one more new episode of "Heroes".  Tonight and next week better make up for the horrible beginning to the season.

Saw this linked on a message board and just had to share.  It's an edited version of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as performed by the cast of "Scrubs".  Enjoy!

Across_the_universe

After close to two months of waiting for "Across the Universe" to come to town I was finally able to see it this afternoon.  And believe me, it was worth the wait.  I'm trying to think of all the other movies I've seen so far this year and I think this one is the most visually stunning one I've seen so far.  The colors, the dancing, the visual effects - they're all amazing.  And the songs - I thought the songs were done really well.  (Of course, I've been listening to them for almost 2 straight months.)  There have been some bad covers of Beatles songs (see the "All You Need is Luvs" commercial) but for the most part I thought these were really good - they'll never compare to the originals but then again, what can?

I think what I like most about this movie is that it's basically a modern musical.  There's a plot but people break into songs at random times and we don't see movies like that very often anymore.  I think my favorite choreographed musical number was the "I Want You" scene.  (If I tried to describe it I wouldn't do it justice - you'll have to see it for yourself.)  I did like how at the end of the movie they had the cast singing on the roof with the police trying to stop them as an homage to the Beatles' "Get Back" roof performance (see below video).

I would definitely go see this movie in the theater again (I was almost the only one in the theater when I saw it but then 3 people came in right before it started) and when it comes out on DVD (probably after Christmas), I think I'm going to buy it (maybe then I can get my mom - an original Beatles fan - to watch it).  Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go listen to the soundtrack some more.  :-)

The Beatles performing "Get Back" on a London rooftop:

From S3E09 of "The Office":

Dwight Schrute: Prison Mike, what's the very very worst thing about prison?
Angela: Don't encourage him, Dwight.
Michael Scott: The worst thing about prison was the... was the dementors. They were flying all over the place and they were scary and then they'd come down and they'd suck the soul out of your body. And it hurt!
Karen: Dementors like in Harry Potter?
Michael Scott: No, not Harry Potter.

Yeah, I know, the past few weeks have all been "The Office" quotes.  I haven't had much time to read lately and I haven't come across any worthy passages from the book I'm currently reading.  However, I will be starting Stephen Colbert's book soon (I hope) and you know there's going to be some great quotes from that.