Television

Locked on the roof? Seriously?

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I really loved the West Wing, most especially when Sorkin was writing for it, and I really do like Studio 60, for the most part. But lately the weird thing Danny’s doing to Jordan, the sort of creepy-stalkerish, pre-rapey, not really romantic, “refusal to take no for an answer” thing is really disturbing, especially since we know Sorkin’s setting this up to have them get together eventually. Note to Aaron – No really does mean no, dude. If you want me to start surveying the women around to to see if you’ve pulled this crap on them, I will. I’m not kidding. Cause you apparently think this kind of thing works in real life. But In real life it only works if you’re trying to get a restraining order.
And last night’s episode, where they get locked on the roof? Um, no. Like Jane Espenson calling for a moratorium on scenes where the character kicks a machine and it suddenly starts working, I’m making a new rule – no more locked rooftops. Really. Get a frackin’ key before you go there. Why would the door on the roof need to be locked anyway? Is Spider-man going to break in?
For all Aaron’s bitching that his audience just isn’t smart enough to get him, he certainly does insult the little intelligence we do have. But I guess I’m “just a blogger” so my voice shouldn’t be equal. After reading that Chicago Tribune piece I’m tempted not to watch the show ever again.

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On the Subject of the words “Faggot” and “Dyke”

Other that some passing linkage, I haven’t weighed in on the controversy surrounding actor Isaiah Washington and his use of the F-word twice in the last three months on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy” and at the Golden Globes. The New York Times summarizes the events. Given that there has been lots of commentary, I think I should say something.

For me, the use of the words “faggot” and “dyke” are as unacceptable as using the N word. Having been the victim of a violent hate crime in which I was repeatedly called a dyke (an event where I was threatened with death and where I honestly didn’t know if I was going to be killed) I’ve had a particularly strong reaction to the word ever since, no matter who uses it (I’m still pissed as hell at that being called that recently, and still intend for there to be some accountability for it eventually.)

There are souls out there in the universe for which the words “faggot” and “dyke” are the final words ever they heard as they were beaten and killed. For that reason alone, I don’t think the use of them should be taken lightly, and I think trying to “rehabilitate” the words diminishes the suffering of those souls.

People who use these words with malicious intent should be shunned in the same way that we ostracize and revile people who use the N word. I care about free speech too much to suggest that there are words that should never be used (I think the fact that we censor “swear” words is egregious to say the least) but I do think we can institute social consequences for bad behavior where legal ones are not appropriate.

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Song of Ice and Fire to be HBO Mini-Series

According to George R.R. Martin’s blog, and according to Variety:

HBO turns ‘Fire’ into fantasy series
HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series “A Song of Fire & Ice” into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
“Fire” is the first TV project for Benioff (“Troy”) and Weiss (“Halo”) and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.
The series will begin with the 1996 first book, “A Game of Thrones,” and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season’s worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won’t complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.
The author will co-exec produce the series along with Management 360’s Guymon Casady and Created By’s Vince Gerardis.
Martin’s series has drawn comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien, because both are period epics set in imagined lands. But Martin has eschewed Tolkien’s good-vs.-evil theme in favor of flawed characters from seven noble families.
The book has a decidedly adult bent, with sex and violence comparable to series like “Rome” and “Deadwood.”
“They tried for 50 years to make ‘Lord of the Rings’ as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three,” Martin said. “My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you’d have to choose one or two characters.”
Aside from writing the most recent draft of “Halo,” Weiss recently adapted the William Gibson novel “Pattern Recognition” for WB and director Peter Weir.

Sweet! I can’t wait to see this. I love these books. I get pretty bored with Fantasy fiction novels because they all seem to be built around the same cliches, but this series breaks away from most all of them, and is complex, well-plotted and interesting. It should make a great series.

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Veronica Mars & Fall TV Schedule 2006

“Here it is… first day of college. What do you say Veronica? New school, fresh start, how about you try not to piss anyone off this time around.” Heh.

Barely made it home to watch the season premiere after water aerobics last night — which I must repeat, I am really enjoying. We managed to watch an episode of the Amazing Race and the Daily Show before it got too late to stay up.

This plan I have, where I watch all these shows… not working so much. Our DVR is 88% full and we seem to be falling further and further behind, what with the gardening, house repair, house rental, ball room dancing, dressing up like pirates, etc. Curse you, real life, for getting in the way of my television!

NaNoWriMo 2006 Participant
NaNoWriMo 2006 Participant
I have no idea how I’m going to manage National Novel Writing Month, but I did sign up today, and am and official participant. Perhaps I’ll cheat, and make my characters thinly disguised real people. Hmmm, who’s pissed me off lately?

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Fall Television Viewing Season

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Every year I sit down with my Entertainment Weekly and put together the list of fall TV shows that I think might be interesting viewing. I try to watch the first few episodes of each of them, and some inevitably fall off the viewing chart, never to be heard from again, when I pare my list down to a more reasonable schedule. For the last several years I’ve put my chart of potential shows online, and here is this year’s list.

There are 30 shows on my schedule, for a whopping 26 hours of viewing a week. (Yeah, that’s not gonna work. I have to actually do laundry and sleep sometime.) 10 of these are brand new shows, and that’s probably where most the dropping out will occur, unless one of my returning favorites goes way south. This year there are an unprecedented 6 sitcoms on the list, which hasn’t been the case in several years now. But there are several funny, interesting sitcoms on the air now, which proves the genre isn’t dead after all. There is a single reality show — The Amazing Race. After this summer’s horrible Big Brother All Stars, I can’t imagine adding another reality show to my viewing.

Time Show Network Premiere Date
Sunday
7:00 Everybody Hates Chris CW 10/1
8:00 The Amazing Race CBS 9/17
9:00 Desperate Housewives ABC 9/24
9:00 Cold Case CBS 9/24
10:00 Brothers and Sisters ABC 9/24
Monday
8:00 The Class CBS

9/18
8:30 How I Met Your Mother CBS 9/18
9:00 Heroes NBC 9/25
9:00 Runaway CW 9/25
10:00 Studio 60 NBC 9/18
Tuesday
8:00 Gilmore Girls CW 9/26
8:00 Friday Night Lights NBC 10/3
9:00 Veronica Mars CW 10/3
9:00 House FOX 9/5
Wednesday
8:00 Bones FOX 9/6
8:30 30 Rock NBC 10/11
8:00 Jericho CBS 9/20
9:00 Lost ABC 10/4
10:00 The Nine ABC 10/4
Thursday
8:00 My Name is Earl NBC 9/21
8:30 The Office NBC 9/21
8:00 Ugly Betty ABC 9/28
9:00 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 9/21
10:00 Six Degrees ABC 9/21
Friday
8:00 Degrassi: TNG the N 9/29
8:00 Ghost Whisperer CBS 9/22
9:00 Battlestar Galactica Sci-Fi 10/6
9:00 Close to Home CBS 9/22
9:00 Men in Trees ABC 9/15
10:00 Numb3rs CBS 9/22
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Daylight Savings Time and Cable

I noticed with some grumpiness this morning that although my digital cable had adjusted correctly to the new daylight savings time, my DVR settings did not, so my show recordings are all off by an hour — instead of recording Desperate Housewives, then Gray’s Anatomy, my DVR recorded Gray’s Anatomy and the evening news instead. Combined with the general wonkiness of the DVR’s recording in general, this didn’t make me happy. I have to go in an tweak my settings in ways that I should not have to, or I occasionally will miss something.
I know must have happened because I had the selection of “record all episodes of this show in this time slot” instead of “record all episodes of this show at all times.” But the second setting results in recording five versions of the same episode, or causing repeated episodes to “bump” other original airings of shows off the schedule without warning. I have no way to tell it to prioritize one show over another, and it doesn’t tell me if it has bumped a show off my recording schedule, so I don’t know to go back and add it in later. That’s broken.
With some other video recording programs, you can tell the recorder to get every episode of a show, but to only record any episode one time, so the when a network re-airs a program, the DVR sees it’s a duplicate episode and ignores it. You can also program them to prioritize one show over another if the schedule moves around and you accidentally try to record more than two things at once. And they will tell you what show was bumped off the schedule, so you can go back and re-set it to record the next week
I have some friends who were showing off their satellite TV/Tivo combination package, which currently weighs in at less money every month that my cable, with more features and reliability, including the ability to transfer shows from one TV to another, so I could move a show upstairs to the bedroom to watch it. I hate to go to all the trouble of doing that, but given that I’m paying more for less service, it might be time to make the switch.

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Dark Kingdom

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I keep seeing the ads for “Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King” on the sci fi network premiering Monday, March 27th — a dragon slayer, a two strong warrior women, a ring of fire — Nibelungenlied? Yep, after further investigation, I called that one correctly. I’ll definitely be watching that; my ancestors are Rhinelanders.

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