rabid1st

Well, I hate to mention this because I fall a long way outside the acceptable demographic for this show, but I've gone crazy over Teen Wolf. I love it. And I'm thrilled to learn that they have been renewed for a 24 episode long Season Three. I am pulling for the dream team ship of Derek and Lydia. There is no evidence whatsoever for this ship, but I recently saw a couple of vids that woke the latent shipper in me and now I am all about Derek/Lydia...except I don't want it to be called Lyreck. But what can you do? Derdia is no better and then is no hope at all that, just this once, we could sidestep smooshing the names together like we are toddlers, is there?

Anyway, I am recommending Teen Wolf to those of you who love the cult television with snarky teenagers. I think one of the things I truly enjoy about this show is that it isn't as uber-cute as Buffy or as hipster as the CW teen stuff. These kids often act like kids. I particularly love the Stiles and Scott relationship. Not as a shipper, but just as smart kid and his goofy friend. Scott is a nimrod from time to time, more believable in his lack of cool than Buffy ever was. And Stiles is nerdy and remarkably brave and, yet, manages to still be believable as a teenager who let's his dad down. That's the thing about these kids, I believe they are teenagers, rather than glittery Muppets. They have angst, and lots of it, but they also have layers of hope and stupidity and just plain foolhardiness. And there are some interested adults as well as some obvious caricatures, like the coach.

First, I was a huge fan of S1 of The Voice. I didn't quite understand the popularity of Dia Frampton, but I was okay with her placement. And the overall talent level of the contestants in S1, really blew me away. Finally, I felt, there was a talent show worth my time. And then, we launched into S2 and I wanted to share the show with family and friends.

Only, I kept having to apologize to my family and friends. The song choices seemed to be coming out of a trickster's bag. The microphones seemed to be switched off during half the performances. Or, as my SO put it, "These people just don't have strong voices." But still, there were one or two bold blossoms hidden behind the shrinking violets. What rankled me was how determined the coaches seemed to be in undermining the talent this year. Pip was encouraged to sing a song that did nothing for his blue-eyed soul persona. And Cee-Lo overproduced his singers to the point where the "Walk Like An Egyptian" lady seemed to be falling into a pit lined with gold spandex.

And then there was what happened tonight...( Read more... )

So, I had this idea for LJ Idol's next topic: Inconceivable.

Fandom Embarrassment!

You know, it's when you download a few episodes of a show you used to adore years ago and, upon watching it, you find it inconceivable that you ever liked the show. And, in fact, you feel you might die of embarrassment. Case in point...imagine the chagrin of this poor singer over...wait for it...Baywatch.



I must have been a very young Rabid indeed. But I remembered my Mom was a huge fan of Randolph Mantooth in the early 70's show, EMERGENCY! I had a chance to watch some of it on HULU recently and it was so stilted and hilarious I couldn't believe it was once "cutting edge" TV. Here is some dialogue...

Paramedic John Gage: I remember... I was working B-Shift over at Station 10. That was a great, old station. Know why?
Paramedic Roy DeSoto: It had a pole?
Paramedic John Gage: It had a pole. A fire station just isn't a fire station without a pole.

And John Gage, Mom's crush, treating his own snakebite in the field.



Me? I have always had stellar taste in shows. I have nothing to be embarrassed about in my first fandom. Nothing at all...

Things are starting to stagnate a bit around ye olde TV. Seasons are winding down to their supposedly EPIC finales and it is all leaving me rather wrung out and unimpressed. I started watching House again a few episodes back, maybe it was episode 14 or 15. Anyway, once the Huddy was over, I poked my head out of my burrow to see what the show was doing. I just watched the one with the spud-gun competition and a famous face from the past. The face was a beautiful as ever, but I thought the episode was rather contrived. Contrived seems to be the norm these days with House. Maybe it was trying to make Huddy work or maybe it is just that the show is getting on in years and running out of steam. I don't know. I still have hopes for the shocking House/Wilson Series finale that will cause a real uproar in TVLand. But since this is America and the show is on Fox...I am probably just going to get some lame overdose fade out to heaven or something.

Doctor Who isn't really impressing me. I keep putting off viewing it. Pirate episode still to watch. Meanwhile, in Canadian TV, I just watched the finale of S4 of Murdoch Mysteries. I love that show, but talk about a contrived ending. I didn't believe one word of the season finale. Murdoch and Julia were completely out of character. My only hope is that it turns out to be a sick dream when we come back in a flippin' YEAR. How do people wait an entire year for these things shows? Luckily, the episode was pretty much designed to make me forget the show, so...I suppose they've done me a favor by making it such a hot mess.

And finally, some of my Supernatural friends will be pleased to know that I've seen the light re: Cas/Dean. For the longest time, I simply couldn't get behind the forbidden love of a guardian angel and his pet human. I liked Cas, I did, but he didn't seem to have much passion in him. I thought, perhaps, people were simply so appalled by the obvious incest subtext in SPN that they were desperately clinging to any other marginally viable pairing they could find. Cas was a great addition to the show, but, I didn't feel a spark with him, despite some obvious "he's gay for Dean" reference in S5. No spark = No shipping for Rabid.

But finally, I stepped on board the ship over these last few weeks. Something about the level of pain and angst Dean and Cas are going through now has tipped me to favor that pairing. Also, Dean showed some interest in someone other than his brother...which was a welcome change. I love all of these boys, don't get me wrong...but until recently I just haven't seen much to convince me that Castiel was in love with Dean. Now, suddenly...I buy it. So that is one thing that Sara has accomplished. Of course, now she has me in the fold, she's probably going to do something ridiculous to upset me.

And so...it is on to the dog days of summer reruns and replacement series. Psych is coming back. And SYTYCD. And I've yet to watch Fringe S3. All things to look forward to, but the Murdoch Mysteries finale really has put me in a funk.

Rae

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever:

1. Bold the shows you watch/used to watch.
2. Italic the shows you've seen at least one episode of.
3. Strikeout the shows you've never seen.
4. Post your answers.

50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City
45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers
40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python's Flying Circus
38. Curb your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted
35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood
30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf
25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office
22. The Shield
21. Angel
20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. Doctor Who
15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld
10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24
05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons

I really hate to count Friends, 24 and Lost as shows I watched, because I only watched them for a very short part of their overall run. Two seasons for Friends and 24 and only the first season of Lost. But it was definitely more than one episode so I'm counting them.

Confession time, I'm a fan of Simon Cowell. I think that he goes too far sometimes and can be rude to no good purpose, but I generally thought his criticisms were accurate. He was able to tell people with limited talent the limitations they were exhibiting. That's a good trait for a reality show judge to have. Nobody on the new show seems to have this same sort of razor tongued insight.

That said, however, I like what the new people bring to this very tired concept. American Idol has been dull as ditch water for the last five years, if you ask me. I stopped actually watching it and generally just let it play. Though for the last three years that was only to see one or two people and I had to turn the sound down for the rest of them. The year Adam Lambert was on, I recorded the show so I could skip most of the performances. I kept asking if America was this devoid of talent or if the producers of the show were just completely tone deaf or if there was a limit on talented exhibitionists.

Anyway, I understand the show's ratings dropped by 13 points from last year's premiere. And I can believe it when you factor in a show that has lost the main attraction and also has a worn to the bone concept. The premiere didn't do any favors for itself by having a self-congratulatory 30 minute intro all about how great the NEW judging panel was going to be, complete with the RIGHT STUFF slo-mo side-by-side striding toward camera. PUH-LEEZ! And then we had a series of softball contestants with lovely stories and voices. And when they, for some unknown reason, put the spotlight on a girl who seriously needs to be medicated, the bonehead judges put her through to Hollywood. Okay, I might have weakened when she fell to her knees and started crying, too. I felt really sorry for her. But SIMON would have told her to get back on the meds and try again next year. And that would be the correct thing to tell her. She was able to sing, but nobody is doing her a favor by encouraging her to freak out like she did in a professional audition.

That said, I am looking forward to tonight, because as the second day wore on I noticed that Steve Tyler got bitchier and J-Lo got bolder and I think by the end of this audition marathon, we will see people who aren't afraid to tell it like it is. I think most of what we saw last night was the AI editorial team trying to make everyone love the new judges. The strategy backfired, but hopefully, they can recut so we have some more hard truths. I do think Steve Tyler might warm up to the idea of cutting people off at the knees.

Here we go with another one...has it been a few days already?

Here is a link to the full meme, if you want to do it yourself...

http://rabid1st.livejournal.com/275285.html

Day 05 - A Show You Hate

Wow! Hate is such a strong word. I believe I have used it. I can vaguely recall snarling, "I hate this show" from time to time in the past. But generally, I don't care about enough shows to flat out hate them. It is hard for me to work up hate for a show that sucks, because I won't watch really awful shows. Like, I didn't care for the premise of Dollhouse. I didn't care for the long slide into crap that Battlestar Galactica had. Had I continued to watch BSG, I might have come to hate that show. But, I stopped watching when it started getting on my nerves. Most shows, if I don't like them, I just don't watch. It's not like I can hate them being out there somewhere. Most shows aren't THAT offensive.

I do sort of hate a couple of genres. I hate pundit shows, where some guy vents his personal prejudices, like Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann. I also can't stand the confessional/manipulation shows...like Big Brother or The Bachelor or Jerry Springer or Montel Williams or Top Chef. I don't like shows that make me spend time with people I wouldn't spend any time with in real life. I mean come on...who the hell would want to spend time with Glenn Beck? Or that Top Chef guy? They're both asshats. Seeing people faun over them makes me wince. It's the opposite of entertaining in my opinion.

I also don't care much for the situation comedy. I have found sitcoms that I very much enjoyed for a great cast or for the stellar writing. I can usually watch those for a few seasons...like Frazier or Mad About You. Those shows were brilliant, but they do have that reset switch that keeps the characters stuck in their dysfunctional behavior beyond the point where it is entertaining. This is why I could watch MASH. For the most part, MASH moved people forward, there were consequences for actions.

Rae
who feels a little bit pot and kettle over the whole idea of not liking people who are sharing their personal prejudices, while sharing mine. :smirk:

Today's writer's block question gave me an idea. Is there a specific episode of Doctor Who that you play to cheer you up when you are feeling down?

Also, is there another show that you can pop in and cheer up?

Mine would be...Fear Her or The Doctor Dances.

And my other shows would be pretty much any Psyche episode but probably the treasure hunting one most of all. And the Cow Creamer episode of Jeeves & Wooster.

Rae
finally posting something fun

I haven't watched Saturday Night Live since...well...Mad TV aired. You just get a little tired of this low brow type of humor, I suppose. But I happened to catch this clip of Sigourney Weaver helping the stock character "Grady Wilson" do a infomercial for a senior's sex tape...and I must admit I LOLed.

I want to say this is not work safe...but it's not exactly explicit, either. There is really nothing wrong with it...it's just...amazingly wrong in your head, suggestive is what I mean, and it gets funnier once Ms. Weaver comes in with her cheesy Scandanavian accent.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/121067/saturday-night-live-grady-wilson-fifty-and-freaky