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.

Lemme just jump right into this!

Paley fests were... umm.. interesting? I feel like the moderator for TVD and Revenge was just terrible. On the Revenge panel she didn't really talk about anything other than plot speculation/psuedo spoilers. Boring! Plus, the guy who kept saying "I'm talking too much" but everybody kept kissing his ass and telling him he wasn't? HE WAS. Absolutely, he was. The cast barely got to speak. (What? They're pretty! Let them talk!)

The best moment of that panel was the adorable Nick Wechsler mishearing a question and playing with his tie and just being cute. Also there was Joshua Bowman being gorgeous and English. And Gabriel shipping the hell out of Emily/Nolan! Oh. Em. Gee. You guys! Just... love. Ashley is so lovely. Emily is adorable. This whole cast. *stars in my eyes*

The TVD panel was a little bit random. Were they all on drugs? I could have done without mention of "Ernesto Riley" and his twitter-capades. Dude gives me the heebs. Truth. But but but! This reminded me how much I truly dig Ian as a person. I mean, okay, so he's kind of into himself a lot, but genuinely I like the dude. (And I approve of his new haircut. I was praying to the barbershop gods for forever that he would cut it.) Candice was adorable. And Paul and Ian were bromancing the hell out of that stage. It was pretty much glorious.

Shows I am currently behind on: Lost Girl, Shameless, Happy Endings, Awake (don't know if I'm going to watch the 2nd ep, convince me?), Modern Family
Shows I am current with/caught up on during vacation: Jane by Design, Switched at Birth, Parks and Rec, Suburgatory, Revenge, Grey's Anatomy, Hart of Dixie

To be perfectly honest with you? That list feels short. I'm looking at that going "Something's not right here. There's gotta be at least 20 more shows I'm forgetting."

Also, Jon Bernthal cast in L.A. Noir Pilot!! This makes me weirdly and stupidly happy. Not only for Bernthal, who I've taken quite a liking to, but because 1940s/50s noir! Now that is something I can see myself watching. Interested to hear more about who else is being cast and what it's all about. Hope it's not too heavily "mobster" and more "mystery" but we'll see.

I didn't watch the Oscars, but did everybody see this?

Coolest American promo for a TV show that's not on cable that I can remember seeing!

→ 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.

I've decided I'm also going to start doing episode responses again, okay? This has nothing to do with how awesome Revenge was tonight.

( OKAY - I LIED - IT TOTALLY DOES )

So... I am still loving Revenge.



♥!

Spoilers for 1.10 of Revenge:

That scene! ( spoilers )

Unrelated note!
I SUCK: At this whole Christmas advent thing! I am sure I missed fic that was written for me so if you've written any and I haven't seen it, please link me. And I'll do the same with you guys. But I am just having a hell of a time writing. I plan to get a bunch of stuff done over the weekend though. (I hope.) I swear I will do all of them. Whether it's on time or not is another matter entirely!