“Sex is now a conceptual act, it’s probably only in terms of the perversions that we can make contact with each other at all.”
— J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition
I do not like to reblog posts to Project Athens too often, but I would just like everyone to know that 30 Rock has been strange and fantastic this year.
With the possibility of Hulu becoming a pay only website (which I think we all hope will never, ever happen), I decided to go through and watch all the interesting recommendations the site gives me, starting with this particular movie.
This film, from 1995 is an adaptation of Stella Gibbons classic dark comedy set in 1920’s rural England.
@1 month agoI first fell in love with this awful show last winter break. My apartment was cold and I’d had a big fight with my best friend, sending me to the depths of the warm blankets on my bed and hulu. I’d seen everything I knew I wanted to see already and in my search I found one of the worst shows ever, Legend of the Seeker.
Legend of the Seeker comes from the same team that created Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules (Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert), but the new show lacks the humor and acting talent present in the others. I really can’t say this emphatically enough, but don’t watch this show. It sucked me into its awful mythology in what I thought was an ironic way, but I truly love it now.
This will be my first review that deals with any of the real particulars of this series. I won’t reveal any juicy plot developments, but I will discuss basic arcs within the series that have been established. Long story short, don’t read the rest if you haven’t seen this show!
(And go watch it if you haven’t because it has potential, an audience, and doesn’t suck!)
“I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.”
—Dale Cooper
Almost twenty years ago, the United States huddled around its metaphorical television set, changed out of its hammer pants, and put on its bizarre, post modernist thinking cap to watch David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, a show truly encapsulated by the above quote from its main character.
The answer can never really be known since both are pretty damn awful, but for very different reasons.
Unfortunately, not as Mal Reynolds, but as Richard Castle, the best selling and eccentric mystery writer who shadows a New York City cop for inspiration. Castle is a buddy cop procedural with more personality and camp than Law & Order and less “science” than the CSI/NCIS franchises. Really, if I were going to compare this show to anything else, I would say it’s shooting to be like Moonlighting, a late 80’s sitcom that followed Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis having sexual tension and high ratings.
Nathan Fillion as Castle is really fun to watch. He’s goofy and funny and flirty and a good dad and nice and sexy and great and I’m in love with him, so it doesn’t really matter what Nathan Fillion does other than maintaining his incredible charm and sense of humor. He does that well, in a show that really is middle of the road. The other actors all acquit themselves well enough, but none of them really come close to Fillion, which is not surprising. He’s joined by Stana Katic as Det. Kate Beckett, the woman he shadows, and Molly Quinn and Susan Rodgers as his daughter and mother, respectively. Everyone has good chemistry, but nothing to rewrite the periodic table of elements over.
Mostly, this show works because the cast seems to be having fun and they show that on screen. The mysteries are all pretty simple and predictable, but they aren’t bad, just easy. Overall, that’s how I would describe the show: it’s not bad, but it certainly isn’t good. I like the cheese factor and I like Nathan Fillion, so I have to say I like Castle. If you like those things, I’d suggest it.
Article by Maggie Kantor
@3 months ago with 1 noteThis week’s episode featured some great plot development and intrigue, making me wish all the more that we would see more V before 2010, but this will be the last dose until it returns from hiatus. V will be returning in March, but before it finished the first leg of its debut season, V gave viewers a lot to chew on. Spoilers after the jump.
If you haven’t seen the pilot episode of V, I suggest doing that right now. Seriously, stop reading and start watching. This is my second favorite new series of this year (nothing is going to beat Glee in quality, excitement, or heart) and it is chock full of paranoia, action, hot chicks/dudes, and aliens (!).
_](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktbyj3tWhL1qz4tsq.jpg)
I love television. To quote Kenneth Ellen Page, “more then jazz, or musical theater, or morbid obesity, television is the true American art form.” Television is one of the best mediums to tell stories because it allows the grand sweeping epic to unfold across seasons of rich plot and character development. When done right, it has none of the time limitations of film, but it retains the visual element that so entices the public. Really, in my opinion, books are the only medium that beats television. Both have grand sweep and long term prospects that allow stories to finish, but books win because they don’t get cancelled and they allow so many points of view to come out.
This website’s goal is to provide a different view of pop culture, a view with a less mainstream edge. I’m here to take the on television outside the mainstream, so there will be no American Idol or Desperate Housewives reviews here. Instead, I’m going to try to review my favorite current shows (Glee and Legend of the Seeker), some shows from our collective past (Veronica Mars and Twin Peaks), and some shows you may not have heard of (Blackpool and Farscape). These will roll out as I write them, but I can take suggestions and run with those as well!
Article by Maggie Kantor
@3 months ago with 2 notesThe answer can never really be known since both are pretty damn awful, but for very different reasons.
With the possibility of Hulu becoming a pay only website (which I think we all hope will never, ever happen), I decided to go through and watch all the interesting recommendations the site gives me, starting with this particular movie.
This film, from 1995 is an adaptation of Stella Gibbons classic dark comedy set in 1920’s rural England.
Unfortunately, not as Mal Reynolds, but as Richard Castle, the best selling and eccentric mystery writer who shadows a New York City cop for inspiration. Castle is a buddy cop procedural with more personality and camp than Law & Order and less “science” than the CSI/NCIS franchises. Really, if I were going to compare this show to anything else, I would say it’s shooting to be like Moonlighting, a late 80’s sitcom that followed Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis having sexual tension and high ratings.
Nathan Fillion as Castle is really fun to watch. He’s goofy and funny and flirty and a good dad and nice and sexy and great and I’m in love with him, so it doesn’t really matter what Nathan Fillion does other than maintaining his incredible charm and sense of humor. He does that well, in a show that really is middle of the road. The other actors all acquit themselves well enough, but none of them really come close to Fillion, which is not surprising. He’s joined by Stana Katic as Det. Kate Beckett, the woman he shadows, and Molly Quinn and Susan Rodgers as his daughter and mother, respectively. Everyone has good chemistry, but nothing to rewrite the periodic table of elements over.
Mostly, this show works because the cast seems to be having fun and they show that on screen. The mysteries are all pretty simple and predictable, but they aren’t bad, just easy. Overall, that’s how I would describe the show: it’s not bad, but it certainly isn’t good. I like the cheese factor and I like Nathan Fillion, so I have to say I like Castle. If you like those things, I’d suggest it.
Article by Maggie Kantor
I first fell in love with this awful show last winter break. My apartment was cold and I’d had a big fight with my best friend, sending me to the depths of the warm blankets on my bed and hulu. I’d seen everything I knew I wanted to see already and in my search I found one of the worst shows ever, Legend of the Seeker.
Legend of the Seeker comes from the same team that created Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules (Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert), but the new show lacks the humor and acting talent present in the others. I really can’t say this emphatically enough, but don’t watch this show. It sucked me into its awful mythology in what I thought was an ironic way, but I truly love it now.
This week’s episode featured some great plot development and intrigue, making me wish all the more that we would see more V before 2010, but this will be the last dose until it returns from hiatus. V will be returning in March, but before it finished the first leg of its debut season, V gave viewers a lot to chew on. Spoilers after the jump.
This will be my first review that deals with any of the real particulars of this series. I won’t reveal any juicy plot developments, but I will discuss basic arcs within the series that have been established. Long story short, don’t read the rest if you haven’t seen this show!
(And go watch it if you haven’t because it has potential, an audience, and doesn’t suck!)
If you haven’t seen the pilot episode of V, I suggest doing that right now. Seriously, stop reading and start watching. This is my second favorite new series of this year (nothing is going to beat Glee in quality, excitement, or heart) and it is chock full of paranoia, action, hot chicks/dudes, and aliens (!).
“I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.”
—Dale Cooper
Almost twenty years ago, the United States huddled around its metaphorical television set, changed out of its hammer pants, and put on its bizarre, post modernist thinking cap to watch David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, a show truly encapsulated by the above quote from its main character.
I love television. To quote Kenneth Ellen Page, “more then jazz, or musical theater, or morbid obesity, television is the true American art form.” Television is one of the best mediums to tell stories because it allows the grand sweeping epic to unfold across seasons of rich plot and character development. When done right, it has none of the time limitations of film, but it retains the visual element that so entices the public. Really, in my opinion, books are the only medium that beats television. Both have grand sweep and long term prospects that allow stories to finish, but books win because they don’t get cancelled and they allow so many points of view to come out.
This website’s goal is to provide a different view of pop culture, a view with a less mainstream edge. I’m here to take the on television outside the mainstream, so there will be no American Idol or Desperate Housewives reviews here. Instead, I’m going to try to review my favorite current shows (Glee and Legend of the Seeker), some shows from our collective past (Veronica Mars and Twin Peaks), and some shows you may not have heard of (Blackpool and Farscape). These will roll out as I write them, but I can take suggestions and run with those as well!
Article by Maggie Kantor
