Returning home from back-to-back travels is never a good thing. Not only has work piled up while you were gone, but your TiVo ends up so packed with television shows to watch that you have to wonder if you will ever manage to work your way free.
Fortunately, there are only two shows I can't live without, and all the rest I am pretty much skimming through, so it's not as bad as it could be. Good thing, because I don't have the time for television right now...
Sigh. When a television genius like Joss Whedon says that Veronica Mars is the best TV show ever you would think that people would want to watch it. The fact that this is a true statement makes you think that people would be dying to watch it. Every episode is so tightly written and so brilliantly acted that the show seems to redeem television all on its own. Sadly, despite all of this (or, knowing American viewing habits, IN spite of this), the show will be lucky to last out its second season.
What is wrong with you people?
Last season was excellent from start to finish, and the last few episodes had jaw-dropping moments so profound that I wanted to have Rob Thomas' baby (he's the guy who created the show). This year, Veronica has shown no signs of slowing down and the episodes have been as amazing as ever. If you think this is just another high school angst crapfest, you couldn't be more wrong. It's a brilliant detective drama/comedy that's the one of the most clever and intelligent series ever to air on network television. It's only been five episodes and already we've had a tragic bus crash, a cameo appearance by Kevin Smith, Charisma Carpenter in a bikini, Steve Guttenberg, and Veronica is being her usual self... destroying powerful people and solving mysteries that Jessica Fletcher wouldn't have the balls to face. If you are missing Veronica Mars, you are missing life. The first season is out on DVD now, so there are no excuses.
Speaking of Kevin Smith, he's got a blog running for the filming of Clerks 2 and a spoiler images he's provided shows that one of the funniest people on the planet, Wanda Sykes, will be making an appearance. This woman is so funny that I actually sat through the movie Monster-in-Law (starring, heaven help us, Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez) because Sykes was in it. I am trying really, really hard not to get overly-psyched for Clerks 2, but I absolutely cannot wait to see what crazy stuff Smith is going to do with the "Jersey Trilogy" this time.
After Veronica Mars, the best show going has to be Grey's Anatomy (Sundays at 10pm, ABC). The medical drama part is better than ER, the comedy part is sheer writing genius, the eye candy is sweet (in the form of Katherine Heigl and Sandra Oh), and it has my favorite character on television (George). This show could have failed so easily because the dialogue doesn't really impress on the page, but the cast somehow makes every line sparkle. Who could guess that a simple exchange like this could be the funniest thing on television all week...
Izzy: "Way to go George!"
George: "I have my finger in a heart."
Izzy: "Very cool!"
It's just so flat when you see it in print, but when performed by Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight it totally kills. I have no idea how they can keep things going so well for more than a couple of seasons, but I sure hope they manage it. Veronica doesn't have the ratings (a scary 2.5) to run much longer, but Grey's is a hit (a stellar 12.2) and can have a nice long run if they keep things interesting enough.
And speaking of stellar, Mr. Sulu has just come out of the closet and announced he's gay. Well, not really Mr. Sulu... he's married and has a daughter just out of Starfleet Academy... but the guy who plays him, George Takei. This got me to wondering why we haven't yet seen a gay character in Star Trek. I mean, in the Star Trek future everybody is supposed to be so advanced and tolerant of alternative lifestyles (you'd have to be with aliens walking around), yet it seems that anything not hetero has been jettisoned into space. It's all kind of bizarre when you stop and think about it. For the next Star Trek series, why not toss in a couple of hot alien lesbians and see if that affects ratings any. Nothing makes a sci-fi geek happier than hot alien lesbians.
And, since there is no better way to end a post than by talking about hot alien lesbians, I guess there's no point blathering on any further.
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Couldn’t agree with you more on both shows. Thanks to you, I’m addicted to Veronica Mars and it has bumped Lost to the VCR from the TiVo. Got a season pass on Veronica now.
Katie and I both love Grey’s Anatomy passionately. And George is our fave as well. Funny, huh? We were so proud of him when he was stuck with Alex in the elevator. When he started relaying all the items he would need for the surgery to the Chief of Medicine and you saw him nodding his head in impressed agreement, you couldn’t help but feel that George was finally making a place for himself in the hospital.
Dave, if you really want to get more viewers for Veronica Mars, all you need to do is pander a little to the male audience and put up pictures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell). She’s absolutely gorgeous. The first time I happened upon Veronica Mars I was just channel surfing, but I abruptly halted my surfing when I saw Kristen Bell. I then watched the rest of the Veronica Mars episode and fell in love with the series (not just for Kristen Bell at that point).
There was an episode of ST:TNG where Riker fell in love with an androgynous alien, where the alien basically is persecuted like a gay person for loving.
It’s close to having a gay alien episode.
I remember that one! But that’s a far cry from hot alien lesbian on alien lesbian action! In fact, that’s about as far as you can get from hot alien lesbian on alien lesbian action.
Here’s an idea to kill two birds with one stone… after UPN stupidly cancels Veronica Mars, Kristen Bell can play one of the hot alien lesbians!
Okay, okay already… 😉 I’m going to buy the first season of Veronica Mars! And umm, even as a sci-fi geek of the hetero female variety, I’ll admit that lesbian aliens are teh hawtness.
I have been watching my DVDs of the first season over the past week… I am -amazed- at how carefully constructed the pieces to the mystery puzzle were planned from the very first episode. Everything unfolded so flawlessly, that I had forgotten so many little things that would later prove so critical to the story.
Knowing what I know about how it ended up doesn’t lessen my appreciation for the absolute brilliance unfolding on my television screen! I find myself just as anxious now to make it to the final episode now as I was when I first watched it!
It’s funny you should mention that VM and GA are your favorite shows. USA Today recently picked the four best shows on TV and chose all shows in their sophomore seasons: VM, GA, Lost and House.
I love Kristen Bell more than anything, but Katherine Heigl may be a close second on my girl crush list. Drop dead gorgeous, loads of charisma, and she can really act. Rare combo, but those two have it. And I’m a straight female, so there you go.
As much as I like GA, though, and I do, my problem is with the lead. Ellen Pompeo is just so mousy and isn’t a very compelling actress to command attention as the lead. She gets overshadowed by Heigl and Sandra Oh, imho, who are both more interesting. But Dr. McDreamy makes up for that, I guess. ::sigh:: GA is fun and I do watch it every week, but it’s not nearly in the same league as VM in my book. GA is your basic medical drama – slash – bedhopping soap opera juiced up with clever writing and an extremely appealing cast (albeit a sort of dull lead).
VM is a true original and as close to flawless as network TV gets imho. VM is the rare show that combines a complex narrative structure with strong characterization: the best of both worlds, so to speak.
Meredith is just a spineless, whiny, distraction from Cristina, Izzie, and George on the show… which is a real pity considering she is the show lead. Even when she finally stood up to McDreamy and spelled out what she wanted, she was whining in a way I don’t find even remotely attractive. “Choose me?” Forget it… If I were McDreamy, I’d stick with my wife.
“House” I can see… it’s predictable, yet highly entertaining, with good dialogue and capable actors. “Lost” I don’t understand at all. Best sophomore season WHY? They’re just re-treading the same crap as last season without giving the viewers any kind of pay-off. I don’t even bother to watch it anymore… if they start answering any questions or exploring new territory… somebody let me know.
Malcolm Reed on Enterprise is gay. He just hasn’t come out, even to himself. He’s so deep in the closet he can’t find the doorknob, but he sure sets off MY gaydar.
I forgot to mention that based on your “Dave Approved” recommendation, I did buy the VM season 1 set. Well, your recommendation as well as the fact that I had seen three of this season’s episodes and loved ’em all.
Just finished episode 5 (the Troy Vandergraff saga). Great stuff. It’s hard to press the stop button.
As for cancellation, I’m not entirely worried about it. It’s on UPN. Do they actually have something else that is getting higher ratings other than Everybody Hates Chris (and that’s questionable at best in terms of ratings). What are they gonna cancel it for? Moesha: The Second Coming?
Dave: How about the DS9 Dax lesbian kiss? It’s hot lesbian alien loving, just not as graphic as we would like (eh guvner I know what you like).
GAAAHHH! MY EYES! MY EYES!!! That’s not hot OR sexy… that’s scary. SCARY alien lesbian kiss! Are they diseased or something? They’re not green like Kirk’s hot Orion babe… they’ve got spots! WAAAAAAHHHH! Now when I try to think of hot lesbian aliens, THIS is what I’m going to see in my head…
Sob! Thanks a lot Troy!
Hmmm… on second thought… that alien babe on the right IS kind of hot, even though she has space herpes growing on her face!
Ooog. I need to get me a girlfriend.
Or at least rent one for a few hours.
If they cancel Veronica then I’ll fly to the States and kick every UPN boss in the balls. With steel caps.
Think of the spots on the alien lesbians as henna tattoos, Dave. You’ll be OK.
For some bizarre reason, we do not get UPN in our DirecTV service, but since you said the first season is on DVD, we will definitely be checking it out. I guess if it gets cancelled, you could just watch “Pootie Tang” over and over. IMDb says she’s in that.
And thanks for the tip on the Clerks 2 blog…hubby will be deliriously happy.
I think the problem with homosexuality in outer space is that when your spaceship hits a certain warp speed, the space/time continuum makes certain sexual positions difficult.
Really? I’d have thunk that zero gravity would make space-sex be all kinds of funky… no matter what your sexual orientation.
Veronica Mars really didn’t capture me completely until episode 3. The first episode was amazing, but it was so much information as they introduced everybody, that the mind couldn’t process it all. Then the second episode came and it was excellent, yet still had failure potential. But then #3 came along with a mystery that was so clever and unique… and the end result so touching,,, that I suddenly realized that even if the “big” season-long mystery sucked, then the individual shows would still make up for that. Of course, the “big” mystery absolutely did NOT disappoint (on the contrary, it totally killed), which only cemented the show as an all-time favorite. I totally envy anybody discovering it for the first time.
just testing, Dave
OMG those are my favorite shows right now too!!! every ep of GA has me going “George is such a cutie, i want to take him home with me!!” okay that’s more than enough exclamation points.
“uh, there were these three nurses. and they were naughty. very, very, naughty…” i need to start recording GA along with ever VM ep. both have really good music too, although they both use a lot of Tegan & Sara and Mike Doughty than is really necessary.
George gives hope to awkward geeky nerds everywhere. But he can do so much better than Meredith that he keeps pining after. Bleh.
Yes, VM and GA use the very same Mike Doughty and Tegan and Sara songs sometimes! Although that Mike Doughty song from last week’s GA “I hear the Bells” has yet to play on VM (I think), even though it’s on the VM soundtrack.
I can’t really object to Tegan and Sara, because the songs do fit both shows. T&S are the “go-to” artists for angsty young women songs these days.
Last night’s GA really demonstrated how whiny and annoying Meredith can be. All that “you can’t abandon her” screeching was all about her, not the patient. A bit heavy-handed imho.
Dave: The spots on the aliens from DS9 are part of their alien species. And the one on the right is hot. Jadzia Dax played by Terry Farrell. Sweetness indeed.