life is a single skip for joy

Old Movies
I've decided to start watching a bunch of old movies that I've never seen before because when else am I going to watch them? I started with North by Northwest, a random Abott and Costello (Cause I'd never seen one), and Singin' in the Rain (OMG, so good! Definitely my favorite so far), totally obscure thing called Dr. Renault's Secret, and I have a ton more on my Netflix queue, plus I've been going to the local library to raid their shelves. That's where I got Dr. Renault's Secret. This week I picked up Shop Around the Corner, And Then There Were None, and All the President's Men, which is a little more modern than most of the stuff I've been watching so far, but it still fits! I am really enjoying myself. I kind of love old movies, which I sort of already knew, but I never went out of my way to watch all the old classics (and the not-so-classics). Anybody got a favorite old movie I should definitely put on my list?

Etc.
Speaking of movies. I really wanna head to the theater to see Frankenweenie. There are several others that I want to see too, Looper being one of them. I need to do that this week or something. Except I am broke and probably can't afford to.

New Shows
I have not watched any of the new shows except The New Normal cause mom wanted to watch it. (Meh.) I really really want to watch Nashville though even though I feel like for some reason I shouldn't want to? I can't help it, it looks good and I love Connie Britton. Someone tell me which new shows are or are not worth checking out. Visual persuasion is welcome.

Returning Shows
I kind of suck because I have been going to bed between 8 and 9:30 on weeknights (and sometimes on weekends, too) and so watching prime time TV has become somewhat of a challenge for me. But so far I've seen:

- Revenge: Just the first episode back, but I loved it. Mildly-spoilery reaction is that I'm tickled pink that Nolan is moving in with Em. The end.
- Parenthood: Everything. This show is perfect in ways that most people just don't know because they don't watch. And that's a shame. I don't think I'll be missing any eps of this one. Also? Ray Romano is awesome, and that's a sentence I never ever thought I would utter... or type. Perfect show is perfect.
- Grey's Anatomy: Alex and Arizona. Is that the shipper goggles talking? Yes. But still. THE ANGST.
- Haven: I missed the 2nd episode back, but last Friday's ep slayed me. Duke. He will always and forever be my favorite.
- Switched at Birth: I've missed a few episodes, but can I just say that this line (paraphrase?): "Regina's not a friend. She's family." Just blew me away. John and Kathryn used to refer to Regina as "That woman!" This is so much better.
- Hart of Dixie: Lemon Breeland ♥! She was great in this ep. I feel kinda vindicated for liking her so much last season. I loved that line "That seems like a mindless domestic task. Right up my alley!" Dripping with sarcasm. Good for her. Also, her working at the Rammer Jammer gives me all kinds of Wade/Lemon vibes, which, truth be told was and is a closet ship of mine. I could definitely be into it.

→ Grey's Anatomy: Am I the only one who feels like this show has ADD? Either that or they're so focused on misdirection that I just literally have no clue what is going to happen next. Next episode is a Private Practice crossover. My least favorite of all. Boo.

→ The Vampire Diaries: I watched it. I have a lot of feelings. Many of them involve Elijah. Some of them involve Kol and the word confusion. ( and )

→ Hart of Dixie: I'm kind of glad they brought up Lemon's "visit" with her mom over Christmas as a reason for her kind of manic behavior lately. She's one of my favorite parts of the show and she's been kind of getting the sour end of things lately in terms of likability and character growth. Good to know there's an explanation.

→ Switched at Birth: I finally caught up with this show. Still enjoying it a lot. Emmett is still freakin' adorable. However... if I hear John or Kathryn refer to Angelo and Regina as "that man" or "that woman" -- with the TONE to boot - one more goddamn time I might have to write a strongly worded letter. Are they serious? C'mon!

→ Jane by Design: This was recommended to me by some friends and I am really enjoying it! The plot is: High school senior mistakenly interviews for an admin assistant position in the fashion world, gets the position, and then has to try and juggle her life. Basically it's a silly premise, but with really likable actors/characters. It's very cute and as I discussed with Dayl earlier, there's actual tongue kissing! (Not important, just an observation!) Basically my overall feelings are that Jane Quimby and Billy Nutter need to hook up sooner rather than later, cause it's just inevitable isn't it? And also that Ben Quimby gives off a very Paul Rudd "vibe," which is okay by me!

→ Parenthood: I kind of feel like everything is about to come crashing down. For example: I want Amber to be happy and I feel like she is doing a great job and her romance is stinkin' adorable, even if slightly inappropriate, but I feel like that's all going to be taken from her. You could write a sentence like that about basically any other character, Crosby, Sarah (oh god, especially Sarah), Julia, etc. It all feels so precarious! I'm frightened for my beloved Bravermans!

→ Revenge: I promised a more detailed review but pretty much all I can muster is some incoherent mumbling, random guesses as to what is going to happen at that damn party, and basically just shouting Nolan's name in between bouts of hysteria. If I can gather my thoughts before Wednesday night I will present them to you. If not, this is all you get.

→ I'm behind on pretty much everything else that I can think of, Lost Girl, Suburgatory, Modern Family, Shameless, Parks and Rec, etc.

→ This week has been weird and I have been oddly sick and yet still not feeling like total shit. Fatigue and a fever, with only muscle aches to accompany it -- seriously? This is how being sick should be! (AKA, I have a seriously low threshold for pain, thus this is my dream cold/flu - relatively pain-free, yet super duper tiring.) So if I haven't responded to comments and such, you know why.

→ I'm rewatching Shameless with gigglemonster. Correction. I'm re-watching it, and she's watching it for the first time. It is glorious. Lip and Ian are even better the second time around. And Kev is pretty much the best non-Gallagher. Except for Steve and Karen, o'course. No. In fact, it's a close race and I am not entirely sure who is ahead at this point. Basically this show is love and stars in my eyes etc., etc.

→ I have some serious Vampire Diaries anxiety happening right now. I might have to kill myself later... metaphorically speaking. I have so many thoughts but I feel like it's probably best to keep these things to myself at the present moment. I want to not watch it and wait for reviews, but I know I am like a meth addict in need of another hit and I will end up watching it live anyway. Ugh. I need to throw up.

→ Can I just say that freaking Parenthood rocked my socks this week? Joel Graham is such a unique character on television and in life. (In fact, I'm pretty sure he could only exist in a fictional world.) Just this... soft-spoken but deeply-feeling stay-at-home dad/perfect husband. Pretty much the opposite of Zeek. Not that Zeek can't be likable and awesome at times, but never in the way that Joel can be/is. I had tears in my eyes. This is what real love feels like.

→ I started watching Suburgatory. Actually not bad. Cute and a great cast. It really rounds out Wednesday's powerhouse ABC lineup really nicely. Like I needed more television to watch? (No, I didn't. That was sarcasm.)

→ Hart of Dixie is pretty much amazing. Despite the fact that I was having hair issues with the lead character in the first couple of eps. It was just kind of all over the place and not at all practical? Put it in a ponytail doc! Seriously? But now I am pretty much in love with everybody. Even Lemon, who is baffling and yet at the same time really sympathetic. I loved Jamie's rant at the dinner table last episode. She was perfect.

Grey's Anatomy: Meh. I was suprisingly unengaged with the openers which is funny because their openers are often very good. ( speculation )

Modern Family: *\o/* That is all. (Perfect show is perfect.)

Community: So I watched this. I still like John Goodman. I am mostly whatever with this.

Parks & Recreation: It was awesome. What can I say?

Parenthood: I love this show but it's not getting off to the strongest start. Still one of the most underrated dramas on TV right now.

Haven: I'm an episode behind again. As usual. I love Duke even when Duke's being a dick. That's my story.

Lost Girl: An episode behind again! I'm catching up today before tonight's episode. Does anybody know where you can stream Showcase live? I've done that with Misfits on E4. I would be down with that.

The end of stuff.

☂ Community. I don't know. I just don't know. I enjoyed the two part finale kinda but I feel like overall my feelings on this season are so underwhelming that it's hard for me to even care. I feel like this has the potential to become something I don't watch regularly, but at the same time, I don't feel strongly enough about that to remove it from the DVR entirely.

☂ Modern Family. Love those Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker-Delgados! Yes! But has my enthusiasm waned? Yes. I can't explain why but I don't get excited for this show anymore. And yet I still love it when I do watch it. But I frequently miss several episodes in a row without even realizing it and mostly that's just because I don't even remember that it's on. The show isn't doing anything wrong, but I don't know. It's more like "old reliable" instead of "this exciting thing that I can't wait for!" That probably makes very little sense. Just go with it.

☂ Off the Map. Well, that got canceled. That sucks. Since it was just a mid-season replacement I'm not so totally bummed about losing it, but it would have been nice to see how it did a little further along. Oh well, them's the breaks.

☂ The Vampire Diaries. You're all aware that this is my new "main" fandom. While I have some powerful "multi-fandom" tendencies, there are always things that inspire me more than others in terms of making art or writing fic or gee, I dunno, stalking the cast on twitter, etc. And this is one of them, which took nobody more by surprise than me. I figured out that I started watching this show after the first few eps of the second season. Right around Bad Moon Rising, 2.03 -- I have no idea how long it took me to catch up. I'm guessing a couple of weeks, but it's kind of been this massive downhill slide into obsession from there. And I'm only mentioning this here because I've already talked about the finale. I pretty much agree with about 80-85% of what ozmissage said in her finale recap, and she said it far better than I did, so go read that if you have the chance.

☂ Parenthood. This show is so under-rated. I can't believe how under-rated it is. There are times when the storylines are not my favorite, but the writing on this show is so superb and real and you see scenes on this show that I don't know if I've ever seen before, and yet they're so completely simple. Not everything on this show is as affecting, but some of it just blows me away with it subtle power. And I'm so so glad it was renewed for a third season. Here's one of my favorite parts of the finale:

"Amber, you know, I was two years in Vietnam. Do you know what I thought about? What I dreamt about? Coming home and having a family and having grandkids. I dreamt you, Amber. And Haddie, and Drew, and Sydney, Jabbar, and Max. And we almost lost you. I know, you've had some bad breaks. You're not feeling good about yourself. You didn't get into Berkeley? Well, boo-friggin-hoo. You gotta suck it up, girl. You're a Braverman. You got my blood in your veins. You ever do something like this again, you even think about doing something like this, I will personally kick your little butt all the way from here to the Golden Gate Bridge. You do not have my permission to mess with my dreams. Are we clear?"

☂ Happy Endings. I don't know how much of this show is left to air? Maybe one episode? But this was such an unexpected delight! Seriously? How awesome is this show? I can't say they'll work that same awesome groove next season, but right now it is on fire. (Though the last two eps were definitely aired out of order, yes?)

☂ Grey's Anatomy. I... I don't know with this show. I hate to hope for anything with it because the characters I want to see fleshed out never really are. And I'm looking at you Lexie Grey. (No really, she has so many things going on every season that it feels like they just scratch the surface and we don't really get to see what's underneath.) But I guess there's one thing. ( And this is kind of spoilery. )

I feel like there are so many characters on this show that half of them just spend the vast majority of the time hanging out in the background, having these lives that we really know very little about. I mean, watching people brush their teeth together is one thing, but actual development is something else. I am kind of bummed that we are not getting that for some of these characters. The cast has grown so much and I feel like, even though I enjoy some of the new faces, that it's a detriment to the show in the end. I mean, I'm super stoked that "Noel" finally got the girl and all, but I would have liked to see that develop more. But with this show, that just doesn't seem possible anymore.

☂ The Killing. I'm behind! again! I do this every week and it's not because I'm not interested. Really. It's just because I don't get the TV on the weekends and then I have to make myself remember to download the show and watch it. I need a personal assistant just to keep track of my television schedule during the regular season. I swear.

☂ Summer shows! Summer is such a slow time for me TV-wise. I'm looking forward to Haven, True Blood, Entourage, and The Glades (off the top of my head) but I'm not jumping out of my seat for joy or anything. I think that may change from ep to ep with both True Blood and Haven though. (Both of the genre pieces, go figure.) But both Lost Girl and Misfits aren't coming back until the fall, so it'll be a relatively quiet summer I guess. Though I may be re-watching Veronica Mars again to make a vid, and The Vampire Diaries just cause, and I hope to knock out the next season or two of The West Wing as well. So there's that. Plus, I may finally give Castle a try (since a friend let me borrow the season one DVD I got them for Christmas) and finally mainline Six Feet Under like I've been meaning to. (At least season one. It's taunting me from my DVD shelf.) "The show where no one smiles" is what I used to nickname it back when my mom watched when it was still on the air.

☂ Does anybody else know what else I watch/am watching? I can't think of anything else. This is what happens when you make long lists.

So basically I am in The Vampire Diaries overdose? Everything else seems kind of boring and meh in comparison. Well, not everything else but it's certainly close. Haha.

→ Modern Family: This show is consistently good, but I find myself having less 'jump and clap' moments in the latter half of this season than I am used to. Not sure if it's the show, or if it's me just being too comfortable with and taking for granted its excellence. See, there was nothing about the last episode that I disliked at all, and in fact some of those moments at the end were beyond cute (which is traditional for this show) but I don't know. I keep forgetting it exists. This is not a good thing, haha.

→ Community: I never really got over the whole second season slump that everyone else seemed to be in at the beginning of the season. I am still hanging out there, in slump-ville. I am kind of ambivalent about it. I'm not sure how sad I would be if it were canceled to be honest.

→ Parenthood: February sweeps was over-fucking-whelming. The non-stop over-talking and shouting that I normally find so penetrating felt a little more grating to me. ( the most recent ep ) The bottom line is that I love these people and their lives. Period. It's kind of my new Friday Night Lights -- gasp, shock!

→ Big Love: I am so far behind on this show. I should download and marathon what I've missed so far. If my calculations are correct, the finale is not far off. I feel kind of relieved about that. What I had seen so far of this season wasn't exactly what I'd call its best season to date. I'm hoping things pick up.

→ The Vampire Diaries: Can we say too many weeks until a new episode! I don't know what I am going to do when the show is over for the season. It's going to come sooner than I think. My only disappointment with the last episode was one. ( knock knock )

→ Being Human UK: I haven't seen this week's yet, but ( 3.05 the longest day )

→ Castle: I have season one here borrowed from a friend and I am planning on watching it. I have seen the first few eps already, back when it first aired, but I never watched any further. Anybody into this show? What do you think?

→ Don't I watch more TV than this? I feel like I'm leaving some things out.

→ Grey's Anatomy: Yes! I forgot about Grey's. Still watching. Still enjoying it. Although there is one thing ( Dr. Kepner )

→ Off the Map: I forgot this show too! Whoops! I still love Dr. Ryan Clark and for crying out loud I wish she was a bigger character on this show. Alas, she is not. ( but... )

PARENTHOOD
( parenthood 2.15, just go home )

BEING HUMAN
I won't lie about the fact that I was really afraid after 3.01 that this show would never again live up to that league of quality. But so far it has not let me down. This doesn't mean I'm 100% on board with everything, but their game is the best its ever been this season, in my personal opinion.

( being human 3.03 & 3.04, type 4 & the pack )

I'm going to do this because I've been putting it off.

Show reactions! What has KC been watching this season? I have briefly touched on it this year but I have kind of sucked at the whole actual writing of posts about stuff. I'm going to make these as brief and non-spoilery as possible. I may have to cut for The Vampire Diaries. It is just that good.

Modern Family
General reaction I have every episode: Yay! Dunphy-Delgado-Pritchett-Mitchells!

Community
Season two is improving but I'm still not sure where I stand on it as a whole. It is always entertaining though. I'd like to stab fandom with a spork -- and that includes all sides of the great ship debate. I regret writing it -- it's like guilt by association -- but whatever. Some things cannot be undone.

Being Human [US]
Yeah, I didn't watch past the pilot. Trashed it.

Friday Night Lights
I am all caught up. I think I have finally come to terms with losing over half the main cast. I love Becky, Vince, and Jess. Luke is pretty cute too. I am beyond disappointed that it's ending but it really is time, I think. It has always been so under-appreciated but is still one of the most compelling, "real life", well-produced shows ever. I'll stand by that to the end.

Grey's Anatomy
I'm entertained. I like April -- much to the chagrin of probably everyone else who watches the show. That is how I roll apparently. Nothing special but a TV constant that I can depend on week-to-week.

Fringe
Have I mentioned I quit this show? I did. Sorry my fellow fangirls. I had to call it a day.

Off the Map
Again, as with Grey's, it's entertaining. I am all caught up and have enjoyed everything so far. I love Caroline Dhavernas and Zach Gilford so they brought me to the table, and my favorite characters thus far are Ryan and Charlie. I told hesperia that right now it's like a skeleton of a show. I'm waiting for the body to be filled in. (We're talking sketch artists, not corpses.) But I'm willing to wait. And even if it doesn't it's decent fair with pretty scenery.

The Middle
Not a regular watcher, but I find it hilarious.

Being Human [UK]
Haven't seen the last two eps but I'm pumped about season three. Hope it lives up to it. And if it doesn't? There's always Mitchell.

Big Love
Oh, Hendricksons. The show is as wacky and yet strangely compelling as always. Alby's still crazy. Bill's still kind of a douche. And I'm just hoping that they all get to take a really long nap by the end of the season. Cause goodness knows they deserve it.

Life Unexpected
I am sad that it is over and I think if it had a real chance it could have become one of my favorite things ever. They were going through a second-year slump but I always enjoyed it. Lux was actually my least favorite character. She didn't deserve all those super-nice people. Tasha included. (Ksenia!)

Parenthood
The show I watch about the mundanities of familial life and the impossibly close liberal family. Everybody's got their good traits and their bad traits and I find myself being really compelled by that fact. It's just like life. And the script is really amazing. One of the best-written shows on TV, even if it's not about anything too terribly exciting. I catch this one every week.

The Vampire Diaries
I love Caroline Forbes. And how is Stefan Salvatore almost perfect in every conceivable way? Plus, the pacing and the WTF-ery, and how I actually think the shows canon "otp" is adorable beyond belief? It defies the laws of my fandom gravity, this show. But I agree with gigglemonster ( about this spoilery thing )

Plus! Elena's ponytail was awesome! Bottom line? This show is awesome.

I feel like I'm leaving something out, which hardly seems possible. I'll get back to you.

( Community - Finale Reacion & A Bit of Overall Season Talk )


( Parenthood - Overall Season & Finale Reaction )


( Modern Family - Overall Season )

→ Just so you sneaksters know. Only like two of you who commented to this fic meme have actually re-posted it [or had already posted it]. Tsk tsk. I guess you don't really want fic after all...

→ I spent two entire days at work making an 11 minute sampler song mix for my boss. Far, far less gratifying than actual vidding, by the way. But still an interesting experiment. I think she had no idea it would take me more than ten minutes to put together. I think she expected that I was going to go into my magical cabinet and just snap my fingers and it would appear.

→ Also? This:

from here.

→ Have I mentioned that I really, really like this show?

Audio may not be exactly in sync. I can't tell. Vegas, why so buggy?