Summer TV 2010

Summer TV time is here and we're already in full viewing mode. We took a little viewing side trip last Saturday when Natasha came over and we watched 11 straight episodes of Bones (which was not on our viewing schedule, but we're always willing to watch some Bones). We'll be taking a few more side trips to Bones until we finish season 4 with Natasha. This summer will be a mixture of old favorites with at least one new series to add to our list, we'll also have to watch some regular tv since the networks have begun to use split schedules. So we have to also make time to keep up with Leverage and Burn Notice. I really need the summers off, don't really have time for work. So here's our viewing list for the summer:

BattleStar Galactica (4 seasons) - The one with Edward James Olmos. This is our new show to watch this summer. I never watched the original series from 78, looked way to cheesy. This one I like alot. We're already thru season one and have started two. I didn't realize that God and religion (a blend of Mormonism, a Roman mythology and even a little Buddhism) were going to play such a big roll in the series. Makes for an interesting show.

Angel (5 seasons) - Buffys darker and more existential spinoff. Since we watched all 7 seasons of Buffy again last summer we'll watch Angel this time. What I'm hoping for someday is that they'll put out a box set of Buffy and Angel together where they start alternating episodes in season four of Buffy and the first season of Angel. That's the way the show should actually be watched but I don't want to have to swap out dvd's after each episode.

Veronica Mars (3 seasons) - This has become one of our annual summer shows. It has a lot in common with Buffy without the super powers and supernatural aspect of the show. By the time summer rolls around we're always ready to revisit these characters.

Thats 12 seasons of tv squeezed a few months, not bad. After that not sure what we'll watch or if we'll have time (before school starts or the grandbaby comes). If we do have time we'll probably watch Firefly again. Watching BSG makes us miss the show.

Seven Years Ago

Seven years ago today the greatest tv series of all time ended. Yes, you know what show I'm talkin about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". If you know me you know my love of this show. My plan was to write a post about some of my favorite episodes, moments, characters, etc. But I really haven't had time to get it done this week, but I didn't want to let the anniversary to pass without writing anything about it. So here is an abbreviated post and a couple of links to articles I suggest you read.

Where Do We Go From Here - A farewell to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a look back at the show's ten best episodes. An article written 7 years ago today for Weekly Standard.com.

Joss Whedon's Favorite Episodes


My Ten Favorite Episodes in no particular order:
Once More With Feeling - episode 7 season 6
Buffy vs Dracula - episode 1 season 5
The Body - episode 16 season 5
Amends - episode 10 season 3
Conversations with Dead People - episode 7 season 7
Welcome to the Hellmouth - episode 1 season 1
The Wish - episode 9 season 3
Normal Again - episode 17 season 6
Lies My Parents Told Me - episode 17 season 7
Grave - episode 22 season 6

I do plan on finishing this post at some point but not tonight.
Here's one more link for more info on the show.

A Decade of Music, Movies and TV

Here's a short list of my favorites from the past decade.

Movies (I didn't include any horror movies since I've already listed my 13 favorite from the past 10 years in an earlier post)
Memento (2000)
Snatch (2000)
Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003) - All three should be seen together
Training Day (2001) - favorite Denzel Washington movie.
Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003,2004)
Serenity (2005)
Homemade Hillbilly Jam (2005) - Documentary featuring Big Smith
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Juno (2007)
That Evening Sun (2009)

Music - these are the cd's that I find myself going back to over and over again.
Origin Story - Idgy Vaughn (2006)
The Wind - Warren Zevon (2003)
Taking the Long Way Home - The Dixie Chicks (2006)
Sky Blue Sky - Wilco (2007)
Once More With Feeling - Cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) - oops slipped away for a bit reading about this episode, I'm back now. This gets played on any road trip I go on especially with family (everybody sings, Stephen hums).
Swagger - Flogging Molly (2000)
Sacred - Los Lonely Boys (2006)
Big Rock - Big Smith (2000) - Thanks to my Uncle David for introducing me to their music
Dragon - John Flynn (2004)
Life, Death, Love and Freedom - John Mellancamp (2008)

Television (No matter what anyone says, it was a great decade of tv. There are a number of shows that might have made my list that I haven't seen since I don't have HBO or Showtime plus a number of others that I just didn't have the time to watch, hopefully I'll catch some of them on dvd eventually)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) - Even though only the last few seasons were in this decade it was still the best series of the decade. Actually it's the best tv series that has ever been on.
Angel (1999 - 2004) - Buffy's darker more existentialist spinoff. Probably my favorite series ending episode.
Firefly (2002-2003) - The third Joss Whedon show on my list.
Joan of Arcadia (2003 - 2005) - at least the first season
How I Met Your Mother (2005 - )
Big Bang Theory (2005 - )
Bones (2005 - )
Veronica Mars (2004 - 2007) - I still miss Wallace, Logan, Weevil and the gang.
Gilmore Girls (2000 2007)
King of the Hill (1997 - 2009) - I tell you what. Nobody loved propane and propane accessories like Hank Hill.

What were some of your favorites from the past 10 years.

Makes Me Very Sad

Angel Star Andy Hallett Dies of Heart Failure

Wish I could find a clip of him singing "If I Ruled the World" from the last episode of Angel, but here are a couple of clips that I could find.





And finally a clip someone recorded from their tv.

Buffy

I don't think I can adequately write how much I loved and still love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was going to just do another 5 things post about my favorite Buffy moments but decided I wanted to write more about what is my favorite tv show ever. On the surface it was a teen fantasy/horror soap opera about a teenage girl fighting vampires and other monsters while spouting funny pop-culture one liners, but it was so much more. At it's best Buffy episodes were post-modern morality plays, parables, fairy tales using the vampires and demons as metaphors to deal with topics such as the nature of evil, redemption, sex, guilt, existential angst, selflessness and sacrifice, faith, hope, love, free will, friendship, betrayal and other realities of growing up all done with cool fights, cool music and witty well written dialogue.

In addition to watching the show when it first aired I've watched the seven seasons on dvd and it's darker more existential spinoff Angel's five seasons numerous times and it probably won't be very long before we start the cycle again. I would love to see a boxed set of both shows combined so we could watch it as one big story. I originally started watching the show with my youngest daughter Latisha, but over the years we gradually pulled the rest of the family into the cult of Buffy. It was/is not a show to be watched passively, it will engage you emotionally and intellectually. It has sparked hours of conversation and discussion within my family. Have I told you I love this show, I really do. Joss Whedon who created the show is very good at creating shows and characters that feel real and true even if the setting isn't. The characters in Buffy struggle, they fail, they fall down and don't always get back up, they can be petty, selfish, irresponsible, stubborn, self righteous and pretty unlikable but they are also capable of great acts of kindness, loyalty, self sacrifice, love and heroic bravery in the face of danger. The world of Buffy feels real also, actions have consequences, it's a world where evil exists and must be fought and even when defeated you always know there is more, life isn't fair but we can choose how we deal with it, redemption is possible but not without a price, it's also a world of friends, family, love, hope and humor. What more could you ask for in a tv show? Ah, but there is more.
It is in my opinion one of the most spiritual shows ever broadcast. Maybe not in a literal, fundamentalist evangelical way or in the sugary sappy simplistic way that shows like Touched by an Angel or Highway to Heaven were or overly earnest like 7th Heaven ( a show I liked alot for the first few seasons) but in the honest way Whedon (an agnostic/atheist not really sure which) deals with core issues of faith, hope and love. There's also the unintentional/intentional overriding theme of Buffy as a Christ figure and the countless uses of religious symbolism and imagery in the series. I've thought about writing a book or series of lessons based on Buffy and Angel, thought I'd call it The Buffyverse: Parables of Faith, Hope, Love and Redemption.

As I've stated a couple of times so far, I Love this show and I've tried to explain why and i think they're pretty good reasons for loving the show but when I really get down to the main reason I Love it so much is because of my daughter Latisha. I said earlier that originally it was just Latisha and I watching the show, Natasha my other daughter came next (kinda funny story), then Latisha's husband Stephen, then finally my wife Dianna. We started watching Buffy together when she was in the 8th grade. We weren't casual watchers, no this was mutual obsession watching, locked doors, refusing to answer or talk to anyone on the phone, leave us alone we're watching Buffy watching. Even when she went to college we still basically watched it together, sometimes watching while on the phone to her, sometimes just knowing she was in her dorm room watching then talking on the phone immediately after. As much as I loved making vhs copies for Natasha to watch when she was in Baton Rouge and the discussions we've had about it, or downloading episodes so we could huddle around the computer screen to catch Stephen up when he got back from Iraq, or enjoying them again as Dianna really watched them for the first time, it all comes back to Latisha. It was our's first, just us together, even now when I watch part of me still thinks of 8th grade Latisha, and 9th grade Latisha and ..... watching together. I love this show.

Confession

I am a horrible person. Didn't know that about myself until tonight. Aparrently I'm the kind of guy who stops at car wrecks just to watch the people bleed. What caused this self realization? It was "The Moment of Truth", a tv show where people subject themselves to a lie detector test and answer 21 increasingly personal questions in order to win up to $500,000. I'd never watched this until tonight, was just flipping channels seeing what was on and unfortuneately stopped on this. I tried to turn away and couldn't, oh I'd change for a little while but just kept coming back like a dog to his vomit. So while Randy's voyueristically watching people struggle with addictions (at least he's able to draw some inspiration and truth from the show), I'm watching people willingly destroy relationships and careers for the chance at a few dollars. Think I'll go pull the wings off some flies now.

How sad is this

I just spent the last hour watching The Top 20 Moments in Celebreality on VH1. What was even sadder is that I had seen a lot of the list when they aired originally.