Week In Reviews

In case you don't already know, I have a job that has nothing to do with watching television or writing about it on this blog.  Occasionally it keeps me so busy that I don't have time to either watch television or write about it on this blog.  Last week was one such time.  But I put my weekend to good use and got caught up so let's talk about things shall we?  


Two Broke Girls - This is a decently funny show.  Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs are winningly funny separately and a great combination together.  The supporting cast is less than useless and there are definitely some cringey things happening overall but the laughs out number the cringes which is enough to get it a season pass at my house. 


How I Met Your Mother - I'm still watching this show but I don't think I'll be discussing it here.  My problem with the show is that after 6 years, it still wants to be about Ted and the title of the show despite the fact that I doubt we'll ever actually meet the freaking mother and Ted is intolerable.  I love Marshall and Lily and Robin and Barney but I can't take Ted.  So I'll keep watching but then I'll keep my annoyed opinions to myself.


Ringer - The second episode was a vast improvement over the pilot but I'm still not entirely sold on the show.  There remains a significant delta between what the show thinks it is and what it's actually capable of being.  I will give it another episode or two to find it's footing but it's position on my fall schedule is far from safe.


Free Agents - If I like Suburgatory when in premiers this week, I don't think I'll keep watching Free Agents.  I adore Anthony Stewart Head and Kathryn Hahn but the show isn't that funny or that interesting. 


Up All Night - Remember how I said I liked it but it wasn't that funny?  The second episode was pretty funny and now I really like the show a lot.  Though the Maya Rudolf character seems sort of shoe-horned in and while she's funny, I'm not sure she's completely necessary.  Still, this show is a keeper. 


Modern Family - The thing I like about this show is that the interactions are mostly kind and they're all exactly how families act...but funnier.  The third season started strong with two funny episodes and I look forward to more all season.  And I love Phil Dunphy most of all.


The Big Bang Theory - I thought Priya was gone but the Skype technology has decided to ruin everything for us.  Fortunately everyone else on the show is awesome and there's still hope that Priya will be gone for good soon enough. 


The Secret Circle - There is a truly unfortunate difference in the acting abilities of the cast on this show.  As with Ringer, I'm going to give the show a few extra weeks to win me over but so far I'm underwhelmed.  And the sex eyes that Thomas Dekker is throwing off are starting to make me uncomfortable.


Nikita - I was a little worried about how the show would deal with Alex teaming up with Division against Nikita and Michael but it seems like it's going to be a great twist that opens up a lot of good stories.  And somehow, being out of Division has made Birkhoff tolerable.  It's a Nikita miracle. 


Supernatural - So far so good.  I don't mind where the sho went over the past few years but I haven't been a fan of how it got there, this episode seemed like a bit of a return to things that I liked about the show previously.  Then again, I'm not sure I buy that Dean, Sam and Bobby would take the "wait around for something to happen" approach to Castiel going off the rails.  Even if he is God.  I love Death and I hope he drops in a lot more often this season and Leviathan Cas seems like an entertaining fellow, but overall it was only a mild improvement over the past few years.


The Good Wife - When this show gets steamy, it usually does so without showing us anything at all.  Last night Alicia had what appeared to be some very satisfying sex with Will in the full upright position while we saw them only from the shoulders up from which angle they appeared to be fully clothed and it was one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever seen on television.  And meanwhile Peter seems pretty intent on showing Alicia who's boss in the courtroom so there will clearly be all kinds of additional drama cropping up this season.  This show is so fun.


Felicity - I watched about 1/2 of the second season over the weekend and so did Claire though we didn't watch together this time.  We had the following conversation via text last night:

Claire: THE BOX.
Me: Did you love it?
Claire: I thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, it seemed really random.  Like really REALLY random.  I wish they'd have given more explanation. I NEED to know what's in the box! I'm also thoroughly enjoying the new counselor.
Me: Dr. Toni Pavone! She is my very favorite non-regular character on the show!
Claire: She is awesome, just like the music she always plays in her office. On a related note, did Felicity just consider dropping out of college or is my hearing off?
Me: Your hearing is fine.  Don't worry, Dr. Pavone will fix it.
Claire: Thank God. And if Ruby is pregnant, i will not be a happy camper.  This show gives me stress. 
Me: All the best shows do.
Claire: It's true.  Ugh.  I don't know what I'm going to do if this show ends badly.
Me: 2.16 right now at my house. Two people I won't name just got into a fight. It was glorious.
Claire: Stop torturing me. I'm only on 13.
Me: Sorry. Keep an ear out for my favorite Ben quote of all time.
Claire: Will it be profound or noticeable?
Me: It will involve him calling someone a dick. I think you'll know it when it happens. 
Claire: RUBY IS A SLUT. Noel deserves so much better! Like Felicity.  Or me!
Claire: That was a great quote.  "63% of me thinks you're a dick!"  I was impressed.
Claire: That was the stupidest/best fight ever.  Ever.
Me: I know. And after it's over it somehow gets even more amazing. Those two are really entertaining as friends.
Claire: I've noticed that.  I love this show.
Me: That makes me ridiculously happy.
Claire: I'm so glad you showed me this. And that it lasts longer than My So-Called Life.  So much more to love.  It feels like it'll be complete.
Claire: I like that Meghan has sworn to kill Felicity over Greg.
Me: Aw! Giving Meghan more to do was the best thing about Greg! I love Meghan.
Claire: Everyone should love Meghan.
Claire: I love that Felicity had no boyfriends in high school and now has been involved with 5 guys since she started college a year and a half ago. 
Me: She really blossomed in college. 
Claire: She did! I loved the Star Trek reference from Richard. I love Richard.
Me: Hee! Me too. 
Claire: OMG, AWESOME: "The thing about Ben is that he's this sweet, dumb guy. But the twist is: he's not dumb at all." Javier just summed up how I feel about Ben.
Me: And that's why I love both Ben and Javier. Well, that and everything that happens in 2.21 (The Aretha Theory).
Claire: Your goal is to make me too curious about upcoming episodes thereby depriving me of sleep tonight, right?
Me: Sorry.

The second season has gets a little maudlin here and there.  Some people are given too much screen time and others not enough.  Bad romantic choices are made.  Fashion atrocities committed.  But I love Felicity's short hair, I love Ben and Noel being friends, I love "The Aretha Theory" and I love this show.

Pilot Palooza - Round Five

Up next: Felicity.  This one is a life-changer.  

Right off the bat, I'm struck by how young Keri Russell looks and Mike says "she looks way too old to be graduating high school."  Perspective, I guess.  


First Noel sighting: "This is going to be one of those 'who's she going to end up with' things, isn't it?"  Not as big a TV virgin as I thought, this one.  


Mike says Ben has "Stefan hair" and suddenly I wonder why it never occurred to me that Stefan has Ben hair.  Maybe because Ben only has this hair in the pilot?  Hmmm.  


Audible gasp when Ben tells Felicity that he's into Julie.  


Cue the Sarah McLachlan.  

Sally!  Of all the things I miss about Felicity, and the list is long, Sally's voice overs are what I miss most.  Mike is very disappointed to find out we never meet Sally: "what?! That's bullshit!"  

He gives this one 7.5 out of 10.  Lower than I expected.  
His favorite thing about it is that it's set in New York.  He's a Ben guy, "Noel is cute and he obviously gets cuter but...Ben is hot.  Really fuckin' hot."  

Treasures From The Past

Having a bad day at work has yielded an unexpected and delightful gift.  While trying to find a file saved on one of the 12 unlabeled USB drives in my drawer, I came across this picture.  Who else misses the '90s?

Admittedly, this would be even more delightful if the 7th Heaven peeps were replaced with extra Buffy or Felicity cast members, but beggars can't be choosers. 

Pilot Palooza - The Premise

My friend Vicki recently said, "I don't know why people don't just watch what you tell them to watch. You have excellent taste in television."  You guys, she isn't wrong.  That's not to say that I don't watch bad shows because I do.  But I only ever recommend that people watch things I believe they'll genuinely love based on their own sensibilities and I have a very high success rate with these recommendations. Have I ever recommended that someone watch One Tree Hill?  Yes.  But I recommended it to people who enjoy bad, soapy melodramas as much as I do and they did, in fact, like it.  I don't go around telling everyone they should watch One Tree Hill though, that would be ridiculous.  

I do go around telling everyone they should watch Friday Night Lights and to-date I've convinced 12 people all of whom have loved it unabashedly and have gone on to convince others to watch it as well.  FNL's universal appeal is the exception, not the rule. 

Recently, I've had a run of success convincing people to take my advice and learn to love shows they should have been loving all along.  My friend Mike is one of my pet projects.  After turning him on to FNL, Gossip Girl, and The Vampire Diaries, he agreed to catch up with some old shows that would help him develop a better appreciation for the great shows of the past and better understand half of the references I make.  He's nearly finished with The O.C. and now it's time to pick his next adventure.  There are too many good ones to choose from so I was having a hard time figuring out what should be next.  That's how we came up with Pilot Palooza. 

This Saturday we will spend the entire day viewing the pilot episodes of the shows I've determined he's most likely to love.  I've put them in a specific order taking into account the duration of the series (the longer the series, the harder it'll be for him to get through it since he's kind of slow) and the likelihood of him choosing it to be his next adventure.  Most of them were chosen by me, some of them were added to the list at his request.

The Schedule
Veronica Mars
Everwood
Greek
Life As We Know It
Joan Of Arcadia
Felicity
Gilmore Girls
Buffy The Vampire Slayer

He's a smoker so we end up taking frequent breaks which means that while I could watch these 8 pilots in just over 6 hours, it may take Mike all day.  Like I said - slow.  However, if he's unable to make a choice based on the pilots alone, and we have adequate time, we will narrow it down and watch an additional episode of his top choices. 

Come back here on Saturday and find out how this project is going or follow us on Twitter (@PhantomRat and @miaz169) for the random thoughts as they occur to us.  And if you'd like to suggest other shows that you feel I've overlooked, I'm already preparing for Pilot Palooza II, leave a recommendation in the comments. 

The Canon According To Me - Felicity, Todd Mulchay Part 1

Felicity - "Todd Mulcahy, Part 1"
Season 1, Ep. 13

It was so easy to decide on my first Canon entry on account of this being maybe my favorite television episode ever.  I always thought Felicity was at its best when it was displaying its silly sense of humor and poking fun of itself while also embracing its college-girl melodrama.  This isn't the first episode to really do that - "Finally" (ep. 9) had some great scenes thanks to the smart cookies - but this is the first time that I found the humor and melodrama to be so beautifully woven through the entire episode in equal measure. 

The story revolves around this kid from Felicity's past who, after running into her at the supermarket back home over Christmas break, has decided that she may well have been the love of his life and the only way to know for sure is to kiss her.  He shows up in New York and, without really trying, insinuates himself into her life in this, like, really charming and funny way. 

He comes to her room asking for her and ends up helping Meghan pierce her nose.  He turns out to be an old skater buddy of Ben's.  He and Noel bond over graphic design and Mac nerdery.  He makes delicious chicken for Sean and Julie. 

First Noel freaks that someone is tryin' to move in on his woman, then Felicity freaks because Todd is exhibiting stalkery behavior.  She decides to seek advice from someone who knows a little something about being stalked which leads to possibly my favorite Felicity/Ben scene of all time.  It's the first scene in the video embedded above (sorry for the annoying subtitles, it's the only English version of this scene on YouTube, which is a tragedy for another time). 

After multiple attempts to convince him to leave her alone, Felicity finally meets him at a restaurant to let him down hard.  She tells him to go away and leave her alone.  He amiably agrees, walking away from her into the street.  He turns to her and continues slowly backing up, "Just know this - I am down," he says "but I am not, in any way," Felicity tries to stop him because he's about to be hit with the greatest "to be continued..." episode-ender of all time (pun intended, obviously) "out!"  And then he gets hit by a bus. 

I'll be honest with you, if all this episode had going for it were the Felicity/Ben scene and Todd getting hit by a bus, it might still be among my favorites.  I laughed so hard at that final moment the first time I saw it.  It was what you thought was going to happen but at the same time it was so horrific and insane that you were sure this show would never do such a thing so when they did, it took my breath away. 

But the episode actually has all these other things to recommend it.  All of the Felicity elements are here.  We have our "Dear Sally," voice overs, and two classic Meghan scenes ("if someone named Bridget calls, tell her she can have 'em back when she pries them off my cold, dead feet!  She'll know what it means.").  Sean is trying to invent milk-less cereal he's calling Lact-Os.  Elena breaks up with Blair who she caught cheating the previous episode and we all know that was the moment that cemented her friendship with Felicity.  Julie gets a job working at Carol's office without mentioning that Carol is actually her bio-mom.  Ben does not approve but tries to be supportive.  He also gets cut off by his dad, drops his favorite word (dick) on us, and gets a job at Dean & Deluca.  Noel gets blackmailed by Richard who wants to install a satelite dish in his dorm room and uses Noel's "fraternization" with Felicity to get his way. Even Javier gets a couple of scenes. 

There's also a scene where Julie, Ben and Elena hang out and another with Julie, Noel and Felicity which brings up one of my biggest pet peeves with TV dramas in general which is that whenever the cast contains more than 3 people, they very rarely have scenes containing more than two of them at a time.  Whole groups of friends rarely hang out together and so often they fall into these patters where, say, Ben will only ever have scenes with Felicity or Sean, Matt will only have scenes with Landry or Julie, Joey will only have scenes with Dawson or Pacey.  In life, when whole groups of people know each other, they will, on occasion, gather in random groups larger than two and hang out.  I like to see that happen on television too.  And we get some of that here. 

I love how they sort-of acknowledge how insane the entire premise of the show is by having Felicity yell at Todd in exasperation, "This is very rude - you coming here and making assumptions about me!" even after she's just admitted to Ben that everything Todd is doing now is exactly what she did to Ben a few months ago. 

And there are several throw-away moments that tickle my funny bone - when Ben tries the Lact-Os for the first time the conversation goes like this:

Ben: What the hell is that?
Sean: Needs a little work, huh?
Ben: Whatever that is, don't pursue it.
Sean: Alright, I'm gonna go get some powdered sugar.  Do you need anything from the market?
Ben: Mouthwash.

Anyway, the second part of this two parter introduces Eli (Simon Rex) and gibes us Taraji P. Henson as a hippy art student, and Maggie Lawson as Todd's fiance.  It's a fine episode but it leans much more heavily on the drama, which is understandable given that it's a lot about Todd almost dying and all, but it just makes it less perfect than Part 1 for me. 

This isn't the only Felicity ep that'll be making The Canon, just the first, but you'll have to stick around for a while to find out what my other favorites are.  Although, now that you know some of my favorite things about the show, maybe you could guess.

So, what do you think?  Is this your favorite episode too?  Do you hate it the most and wonder if I've lost my mind?  I'd genuinely like to know what your thoughts are on the subject so if you have any, let me know. 

Happy 35th Brithday

Scott Speedman

All these years later, I still think Felicity made the right choice.

Happy Birthday

It's Awesome Lady Day in our birthday files.

Katherine Keener is 51.

Hope Davis is 46.

Keri Russel is 34.

Michelle Monaghan (slightly less awesome in the acting department, but super pretty), is also 34.