Tag Archives: tv

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars Movie

My Life, , , ,

Even though it’s already been funded in the time it took me to write this, I would still hope my fellow marshmallows would fund the Veronica Mars Kickstarter because … Because.

I liked Veronica Mars. When it was new, I advocated people watch it. I speculated on it (I thought Lamb was the season two killer, I was wrong, but he went out with an awesome line of “I smell bread…”). I thought it said goodbye in the best way it could.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to revisit it.

Veronica Mars

In 2004, it was a rarity: Smart TV with a female protagonist. Veronica was the outcast (a common trope I know), and she was raped (again, I know, and I hated that), but season one was brilliant. It blew my mind that we got a TV show that rarely talked down to us, that touched on the many challenges faced by Veronica (poor girl, rich boyfriend), who was best friends with the murdered sister of her boyfriend, who may or may not be her boyfriend’s sister (wasn’t), whose boyfriend’s pregnant ex-girlfriend was in a coma (and died, and he ran off with the baby), who ended up dating boyfriend’s best friend who just so happened to be the son of the dead best friend, whose father was fired as sheriff only to be rehired and fired again as the show ended…

The layers upon layers that Rob Thomas (not that one, the other one) put into his show was astounding. I don’t agree with all his choices for characters (Beaver in season two, rape AGAIN as a trope I dislike) but every character felt real and genuine. Rob Thomas was like Joss Whedon, without the fantasy/sci-fi aspects. In fact, Whedon guest-stared on the show! That’s a lot of love.

Before the show ended, many of us campaigned, sending Mars Bars to UPN. After the end, we hoped there would be a resurrection, maybe a movie… Nothing happened. It’s been six years, and like Firefly, if they said “Hey, we’re gonna make a movie!” I would drop everything and go watch.

They’re trying to make a movie!

At the time I posted this (and determined that my comic book money was going there instead of to comics), they went from $1,940,000ish to $1,972,206… And it’s climbing as you watch this. It’s crazy. I don’t know who they blackmailed in the WB to do this, but I’m excited. I mean … shit, it passed $2 million by 5:50pm Pacific today.

You should still donate. $1 to $100, or whatever you want. And go get the DVDs to watch three seasons of the only smart shown UPN (aka WB) ever aired. EVER.

Veronica Mars Kickstarter

If you’ve watched the show, you should also see the follow-up series that was pitched: Veronica Mars: FBI

Weird sidenote. The first time I posted about Veronica Mars was when I’d gotten back from my uncle’s funeral. My uncle bore a more than passing resemblance to Jeffery Tambor. Tambor looks freakishly like Pope Francis I (elected today).

Edited to add…

Look, I know, paying to make a movie is something WB should do, but they aren’t willing to take the risk, and honestly, I wanna see it. The WB is picking up the tab for marketing, promotion, and distribution. The $2mill is for all production costs. Yes, you can make an indie movie for way less, but by comparison, Firefly cost $39 million. We’re not making an indie movie, we’re making a big damn movie. It’s a gamble. There’s a risk/reward situation here. And it’s less about the money here, and more about proving a point. The point is this was a damn good show, it’ll be a damn good movie, and I look forward to seeing it next year. The point is that there is a fanbase for the movie, and it should make it. The point is that WB (and other companies) have not yet moved to understand their audiences, and if we can help them understand we’re here, we’re really, and we’re more than just Nielsens, then it’s worth $50 to me.

If it’s not worth it to you, don’t donate! It’s worth it to me.

Tabatha Coffey

Reality Absurdium

My Life, ,

You have to wonder what’s going on in the heads of people coming up with these Reality TV Shows.

“So here’s the idea! We’re gonna have a reality competiton show. I know it’s been done ad nasuem, but mine’s special. It’s about, get this, hair sylists!”

And then you sit and think about how stupid that concept is. Who’s going to watch a bunch of pople cutting hair? Where’s the drama in that? But then … we watch Project Runway (we love Project Runway). And Survivor is in it’s nine-billionth season. So we sit and watch people compete to be a sweet genius, or not get chopped, or whatever else they come up with and people point and laugh at us.

Hey, you watch grown men chase a football around when only one guy kicks it. And you, over there, I know cried when the Indians lose to the Marlins in 1997– Wait that was me. Still, people find it totally acceptable to follow sports teams or the Olympics, which I do, and that’s social okay. But saying “I love watching Chopped” gets you funny looks.

For me, it boils down to whether or not the show is exploitative. I detest Dance Moms, because of the damage they’re doing to those poor kids, and I no longer watch Survivor, because there is a limit to how many times you can sit and watch people get filthy on an island. Also I started to notice how they were bringing back people over and over, and that just didn’t entertain me.

But what I do watch are elimination shows, like Project Runway and Sheer Genius. What? No, that wasn’t a typo. The first image in this post was Tabatha Coffey, who was a stand out fan favorite from a show about hair stylists. She didn’t win the show (she lost in a team challenge with someone she didn’t get along with) but was Fan Favorite. And for once, I didn’t argue with that designation. She was amazing. Take no prisoners, tell it like it is. And she’s the one who decided to take back the word bitch. Sounds familiar? I call myself “Half-Elf, Full B.I.T.C.H.” because of her.

Then there’s also Tim Gunn from Project Runway, who isn’t actually a fashion designer, but has a way with understanding the heart of both fashion and design in a way unparalleled. He’s witty, smart, darling, and I just want to have him for dinner to hang out.

It’s the interesting people that I grow attached to. Like Padma Lakshmi from Top Chef, which is also where I first saw Elizabeth Falkner, whom I in turn root for in The Next Iron Chef.

All the shows I like are about people pitting their skills against over people, where we get to see art born out of fury and rage and a little bit of diva-ing. But what I love best is when people forget the competition and just set out to make the best whatevers they can, with love and fervor.

Those are the reality shows I like.

John Munch: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Richard Belzer – Center of the Universe

My Life,

John Munch: Law and Order: Special Victims UnitRichard Belzer plays Detective John Munch on Law & Order: SVU.

Except … he doesn’t. See, Munch has been found in the following TV shows, as John Munch:

  • Homicide: Life on the Streets — all episodes (main character)
  • Law & Order: SVU — main/recurring character
  • Law & Order — four episodes: “Charm City”, “Baby, It’s You” (part 1), “Sideshow (Part 1)”, and “Entitled (Part 2)”
  • Arrested Development — two episodes: “S.O.B.s” and “Exit Strategy”
  • The X-Files — one episode: “Unusual Suspects”
  • The Beat — one episode: “They Say It’s Your Birthday”
  • Law & Order: Trial by Jury — one episode: “Skeleton (Part 2)”
  • The Wire — one episode: “Took”
  • Luther — one episode (mentioned as a US contact)
  • Paris Section Criminelle — one episode on the French spin off of Law & Order

So … if you work under the theory that once a show has a crossover, or shares a character, the shows are in the same ‘universe,’ we have to add the following shows to the Munch-i-verse:

  • St. Elsewhere — Dr. Roxanne Turner and Dr. Victor Ehrlich appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street
  • Chicago Hope — crossover with Homicide (surgeon Jeffrey Geiger drops off an organ transplant)
  • New York Undercover — crossover characters (psychologists and psychiatrists) with Homicide and Law & Order
  • Deadline — crossover characters (reporters) with Law & Order
  • Conviction — spin off of Law & Order: SVU, with ADA Alex Cabot
  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent — spin off with many of the same characters
  • In Plain Sight — crossover with Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Mary Shannon, one episode)
  • Law & Order: LA — spin off of Law & Order, with a couple of the same characters

Think about that.

Oh and the St. Elsewhere connection is the one that should really piss you off. See, that show ended with the autistic son of one of the doctors, Tommy Westphall, looking into a snow globe. The implication that the whole show was his imagination. Which means so are all those other shows. Oh, and St. Elsewhere crossedover with … someone did the math, and about 90% of all TV shows in existance (as of 2003). The attached PDF is from Tommy Westphall’s Mind: A MULTIVERSE EXPLORED, and determines over 200 shows are intertwined.

For example the St. Elsewhere doctors went to the Cheers bar, Fraiser was a spin-off of Cheers, a character from the John Larroquette Show called in to Fraiser, so the John Larroquette Show is related to St. Elsewhere and thus, Homicide and Law & Order.

It gets even crazier the deeper you get down the rabbit hole and find out Buffy exists in this universe, as does BSG and Doctor Who. And M*A*S*H.

While everyone says Tommy’s dream is the center, I prefer to think it’s John Munch. He’s awesome. And it makes it one inch closer to everyone having a Lenny Brisco in their life.

Jane and Maura are totally dating.

The Difference

My Life, ,

Jane and Maura are totally dating.I like stories, be they novels or TV or whatever in between. And I like Rizzloi & Isles. No big secret here, I just like it. But I finally twigged to what it was that I really hate about that show. And it’s men.

Look, I’m not a misanthropic, I like men. I don’t date them, but I love that there are men. I like hanging out with men, talking with them, etc. Men can be cool,just like women, and the only real ‘difference’ is that I don’t date them. Oooooh. This actually makes it a lot easier to be friends with men. None of that sex shit gets in the way. And it’s that sex shit that makes my head hurt with the Rizzoli & Isles stuff.

The show is supposed to be a buddy cop show, like, for example, Psych. At the end of the day, the most important thing are the two main characters. Sometimes there’s dating, but if it takes away from the relationship between the mains (i.e. the ‘buddy’ part), then it’s for a plot. And as far as that goes with most shows, including R&I, it works. The dates come and go, but at the end of the day, we care about Jane and Maura.

But how many times on those two-men shows do you make a fuss, in promos and in casting news, about the ‘new love interest’ when it’s not a special guest, related to the case, who will be gone next week? No one cares! No one makes a big deal that Gus is getting a date until seasons and seasons down the line, when his horrific luck with women has become a joke.

Buddy first, cop second, everyone else last.

So my problem isn’t that the two leads date men, it’s that they make a big deal about it.

Make the dating a ‘whatever’ unless we’re watching a relationship drama. Look at The West Wing. We knew people had relationships, but it was rarely a big deal unless it was a part of the plot. Focus on the primary topic of the show, and let the rest be whatever.

Still works! Not on wood.

iSonic

My Life, , ,

I had this idea.

I wanted a Sonic Screwdriver and an iPad stylus. So I went and bought a Sonic Screwdriver with the intent of making it a stylus.

Turns out all I needed was a no-scratch scrub sponge and some ‘wire.’

  • My sponge of choice was the totally common re-washable one from 3M
  • My metal was tinfoil.
  • My Sonic was River Song’s.

Before I actually did this, I went and got an exacto knife holder from my civilized half (she does art things), put a wedge of sponge in, and tested. It took about an hour to sort out that what I needed was to run a large enough sponge-wedge in there, and then connect it via tinfoil to the metal, and thus, magic.

Now on to River’s! Hello, Sweetie!

The first step was to figure out how to wrap the wire. I didn’t want to drill a hole (though I have a Dremel and can do that pretty easily) because I was afraid of cracking the plastic. I ended up taking my time sorting out where I put my fingers. Do I hold it close up to the tip like a pen, or farther away like a brush. Finally I realized the options were run things outside, or use the detachable end where I change the batteries.

For what it’s worth, reason set in before I picked up my massive drill and made a hole in the end! I took the titanium drill bits and worked them through, smallest to largest, until I finally had a hole. I did it manually, and sanded the edges down. Took about an hour, while I Skyped with Podz and the boys. Amusingly, Nacin still can’t pronounce my name.

Now I had to get creative here, and figure out how to transmit electricity without frying anything I needed. Luckily, there’s tinfoil!

I shoved some sponge in the hole, screwed it back into place, and then trimmed off the foil. Oh yes, it works without me having to touch any foil!

The final product?

An alternate idea I had was to use some conductive ink and ‘paint’ on it, but I couldn’t find anyone who had done that (and given the risk, I was loath to try it myself). Also it’s surprisingly expensive (more so than just buying a damn stylus) and the paint washes off with water! Not what I wanted. Then I found http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/b70c/ - $4 from Think Geek. And they also sell Sonics! So if I do another, I’m going to try it that way.