Merged and moved on...

For those of you who stumble upon this blog, I've moved my stuff on to a merged blog over here. And so far it's been a lot more TV than movies or other stuff, so you're welcome to check out my fresher takes on shows there. In time I guess there will be a lot more movies, comics and books as well, but it will still always be a lot of TV going on.

http://lostintranscript.blogspot.com/

Moonlight

A vampire show just ahead of the curve. A couple of years later we've seen The Twilight Saga, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries amongst those who've made a genre of vampires.

Moonlight follows private investigator Mick St. John in LA. He's also a vampire, and his life is about to change as he gets involved in the life of a mortal reporter. I'm not all that impressed by Alex O'Loughlin as St. John, but I adore Sophia Myles as Beth Turner (the female reporter) and I once again enjoyed Jason Dohring (Veronica Mars) more than his role enables him to.

The arch stories aren't quite deep enough, but the episode stories work quite well. Easily enjoyable popcorn show that only got 16 episodes, and deserved better.

Firefly

Unlike movies, TV-shows are much like people in some ways. Movies might receive a cold welcome, they don't take in the expected cash and obviously disappear into oblivion for a while. Still. If it's really a quality movie, sooner or later word of mouth will salvage it into cult status. A cult status that will inevitably make sure it gets seen by thousands and thousands of people in years to come, and in its intended form.

That can't happen to a TV-show. When a TV-show is canceled, it can't be restored. If it dies in its youth, it'll never get around to live the life it might have deserved or planned. The world isn't fair, and many people die way too young. Such is the case with TV-shows as well, and Firefly was slaughtered as a child, never even hitting the teenage years of rebellious youth. I pray whoever was responsible for that decision is kept far away from making similar decisions still.

Firefly's short life at Fox started by the canceling of the last show I reviewed here, Dark Angel. I never liked that decision either, but Dark Angel did at least live to see its early twenties. How I wish Firefly had managed the same.

From the creative mind of Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel) came the story of Sci-Fi outlaws, well cast, well written and well directed. It didn't help much as Fox screwed over the airing, advertising and everything else, but Firefly have become a legend in time. A cult story that will live on forever as the cautionary tale. TV isn't about quality.

12 episodes were aired, but there's 15 to be watched, including the original opening double episode they actually aired last. It's well worth your time. I get the chills just by hearing the opening sequence linked to in the video above. Pure entertainment. Thankfully Whedon got to clean up some of the mess with a 2005 movie entitled after their home, Serenity. Some of the loose ends got tied up. It's not much of a bandage for the wounds of those fans that had to live through the cancellation, but it's more than many ever get. There's some consolidation in that.

R.I.P. Firefly, you'll always be remembered. . .

Shows followed from birth to death

Just making a list of shows I'm sure I've watched every single episode of, and as my memory will probably fail my I'll have to update this as I recall them. Alphabetically listed and shows seen more than once in bold.


Alias
Beverly Hills, 90210
Corner Gas
Coupling
Cupid (both 98/09)
Dark Angel
Dawson's Creek
Fastlane
Friday Night Lights
Friends
Firefly
Joan of Arcadia
Joey
Kidnapped
Monk
Moonlight
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
NewsRadio
Num3ers
NYPD Blue
Party of Five
Seinfeld
Sports Night
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
The Good Guys
The King of Queens
The O.C.
The Shield
The Unit
The Unusuals
The West Wing
The Wire
Third Watch
Traveler
Two Guys and a Girl
Veronica Mars
War at Home
Without a Trace

Currently airing multi-seasonal shows I haven't abandoned yet:

Bones
Chuck
Criminal Minds
Entourage
Flashpoint
Fringe
NCIS
One Tree Hill
Spooks
The Big Bang Theory

Dark Angel

I'm not going to pretend I'm something I'm not. I got hooked and ran through Dark Angels in two days, and I just wish it lasted for three or four days. Jessica Alba might not have the TV-show presence of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) or the beauty of Sarah Walker (Chuck, Yvonne Strahovski), but she sure made a presence and showed her sex appeal through her movie career after Dark Angel got cancelled. I like both Alba and Michael Weatherly (NCIS), but Dark Angel never got its chance to survive into fame. For that I'm truly sorry.

The arch story isn't as interesting as it could have been, but it's hard to resist the Max character. She might kick some ass, she might have some attitude and Jessica Alba sure is pretty, but it never took of like it might have done. I'll still remember Jessica for bringing Max to life, and hopefully will some others. Dark Angel still deserve an audience, just a little more than it ever got airing.

You'll never be truly satisfied by its ending, but its better than it could so easily have been. I'll remember Max, and I'll save a quiet prayer for her man to stick by her side. Hopefully you'll too.

Books read

I'm not intending to review any of my read books, but as I read on I'll try to keep this up do date with what and when I've read, as well as how well they were enjoyed. As I rarely have the time and inclination to review TV-shows anymore, I'll just add it here at the same part of my blog-sphere.


A Walk To remember by Nicholas Sparks (03/11)
Jane Grey by Charlotte Brontë (02/11)
Emma by Jane Austen (02/11)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (02/11)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (01/11)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (01/11)
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (12/10-01/11)
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (11/10-12/10)


Notes:
Title by Author (read:mm/yy)
Highlighted books/series considered well worth the read.
Highlighted and underlined books/series considered must read classics.

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory
Genre: Sit-Com
Theme: Nerds, Physicists, Hot girl next door

TBBT come from the creative minds of Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady

I've only watched a few episodes of Chuck Lorre's Two and a Half Men and a few episodes of Bill Prady's Gilmore Girls, and neither from their beginning. I know both shows have huge fan bases, but I've never got around to catch any of them. Lorre and Prady co-operated earlier at Dharma & Greg back in the days, but when I learned these guys started working together again to create The Big Bang Theory about a group of geeky physicists and the hot girl moving in next door, I didn't think more of it at the time. Of course chatter about its qualities soon enough reached me, and I had to check it out. The rest is sit-com history, or something along those lines.

Just like when they were kids

A cast without made stars

I haven't seen more than a couple of various episodes of 8 Simple Rules either, and that's all I'd seen from Kaley Cuoco (Penny) until TBBT. Not enough to be impressed by her acting or taken by her beauty. I'd seen Simon Helberg (Howard) in his supporting role at Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but his role was far from big enough to really establish him in my memory (despite some quite memorable impressions). I also barely knew Johnny Galecki (Leonard) from his guest appearances at My Boys the year before. I'd never seen Kunal Nayyar (Raj) at all prior to TBBT and most noteworthy is the fact I hadn't seen Jim Parsons (Sheldon) before either.

The on-screen story of The Big Bang Theory

Anyway. TBBT is the story of the two highly intelligent physicists, Sheldon and Leonard, sharing an apartment and additionally two other smart friends, Howard and Raj, all working at Caltech, an university in Pasadena (Los Angeles County). When the transvestite across the hall moves out, a beautiful blond girl moves in there and that's it for life as they knew it. They just don't know it yet.

Sheldon is by far the smartest of the four friends, but he's also the one with least social skills. The competition being Raj, whom can't speak to beautiful women, it tells a lot. Leonard on the other hand wants to branch out, and discovering Penny moving in he sees it as an opportunity. Penny being a social outgoing girl and working as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory while dreaming of becoming an actress, isn't exactly book smart. A lunch invitation and a following favor is the beginning of their interactions, and the show is based on those interactions between such different people and how they influence each other, how they change and how they learn from each others strengths and skills.

It's also about a lot of geek allusions to everything from comic book superheroes to Star Trek characters and scientists and physicists who has changed the way we look at everything around. Add video games, lack of exercise, lab work and every other nerdy aspect to the mix, and you've got the world Penny is colliding with.

One of the lovable Penny traits

Kaley Cuoco is Penny

One of the reasons Kaley Cuoco's Penny works so well as the hot girl next door is seen left. She doesn't always look like a million bucks on the show, but rather quite often when one of our nerds knocks at her door; she really looks like she's coming straight from bed with her tired look, comfy clothes and fluffy hair. If she'd always looked like the Maxim-babe Kaley also can appear as, the show would miss out on an entire layer. Penny is in my opinion the second most important character of the show, but without her to attract our physicists out of their usual orbits in the first place there wouldn't been as much of a story.

Sheldon, mind blowing in so many ways...

The comedic genius

The most important character is Sheldon Cooper, and in my opinion Jim Parson should have won Emmy for that character a long time ago. His comedic talent and timing is so incredible, his acting stands lonely at the top of sit-com standards and he's of course also got the most interesting character to work with. Sheldon doesn't get social norms, he doesn't care for wasting energy learning something as trivial as driving, but he's got few problems spending time learning Finnish or Mandarin in-between other research, his strict routines and hobbies. Without the polarized mind and knowledge of Sheldon Cooper, TBBT wouldn't have been half the show it' today.

The minority support


Raj and Howard have important balancing roles, but there is no doubt they are the supporting characters of the group. Howard is the Jewish engineer still living home and the only one of the boys without a doctorate, but he holds a master's degree in Engineering from MIT. He's the kind of guy hitting at every girl, but with less success than most who rarely hits on girls at all. Raj is from New Delhi, India, and is extremely shy when it comes to women. He can't speak to them at all, a pathology much to Penny's amusement when she first get to know them.

Coffee and make-up does wonders

Why TBBT is my favorite running show?

TBBT is funny because of the allusions towards geeky pop culture, because of the science discussions even if you don't understand more than bits and pieces of them, because of how little Penny understands of both the work and hobbies of the boys and because of all those small quirky habits of Sheldon combined with his lack of social skills and lacking knowledge of everything about human interaction. It's funny because of a well written script with simple one-liners as well as layered jokes within one of the many fields one or more of our friends are familiar with. And TBBT got a big heart, always remembering to develop their characters according to their interactions with each other as well as foreign elements.

I'm far from convinced smart is the new sexy, but The Big Bang Theory is no doubt my favorite TV-show of those currently airing and Jim Parson's Sheldon Cooper is by far my favorite character of those hanging around TV-sets these days.

This review is based on the first three seasons and it's content and rating is subject to change based on new season(s), a possible drop in quality, replaced actors/actress, writer(s) leaving or running out of ideas, or just about anything else likely to influence the quality of a beloved TV-show.