Currently at 50,226 words.

I’ve been more than a little absent from the blogosphere for the better part of a week because Hilary and I have been sick. We sat on the couch and did very little productive. On Wednesday, we went to the doctor to discover that Hilary had the dreaded H1N1 brand of the flu. Luckily, her fever broke the next day, and she has made a full recovery. Unfortunately, the doctor ordered her to rest and “avoid unnecessary social interaction,” meaning that we would miss visiting with the family for Thanksgiving. My parents brought us leftovers, which were good, but it’s just not the same. I thought I’d give you a list of the fairly unproductive things I did this weekend (because I know you care):

1. Watched Dead Like Me… the entire series and the movie. The show was awesome, mostly because of Mandy Patinkin; the movie blew.
2. Read 1.5 books: I finished Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor and have just a few pages left in Slam by Nicholas Hornby. They’re sort of ironic books to read back to back.
3. Built a fort.
4. Rented and played a ton of Assassin’s Creed II. It is vastly superior to the first.
5. Watched as much Glee as Hulu would allow. That is a great show. I feel bad for all the people on the bandwagon I guffawed at in my head.
6. Put up the Christmas tree and various other decorations.
7. Watched Hilary crochet. A lot.
8. And least, but definitely not least: I all but finished both of my major papers for the semester. They’ll both get at least one more heavy edit session, but the pages are written, and the bibliographies (my least favorite part) are complete.

So there you have it. My Thanksgiving stay-cation. I’m typically an obsessively productive person, but thankfully, the flu took all that out of me for one glorious and enjoyable week. I just hope I can get re-motivated now…

Nel panorama delle serie tv di questi ultimi anni un posto secondo chi vi scrive di un certo rilievo è giusto che abbia la serie dark trasmessa dal canale via cavo USA Showtime poi diventata cult del 2003 ,Dead like me, che esorcizza un’argomento sempre particolare da affrontare come la morte.

La morte qui però non è la sola protogonista.Più che altro è uno spunto trattato in una commedia ben strutturata per trattare l’argomento in maniera semplice ma non drammatica.Assolutamente da riprendere la storia della giovane Georgia una ragazza distaccata e svogliata, che vive la sua vita senza fare nulla né per cambiarla.

Durante una pausa per il pranzo, nel corso del suo primo giorno di lavoro, viene colpita dalla tavola del bagno della stazione orbitante Myr, e ovviamente muore. Ma, per quanto sembri un paradosso, proprio da quel momento per Georgia ha inizio una nuova “vita”.Diventa la collaboratrice della morte, che aiuterà gli umani a passare oltre.

Dead like me : หนูนี่แหละยมทูต

ตอนนี้กำลังติดตามซีซัน 2 ทางช่อง 21 ที่ว่าติดตามคือดูบ้างไม่ดูบ้างไม่ดูบ้าง แต่ส่วนใหญ่ชอบดู เพราะมักจะออกอากาศในช่วงกำลังชิลๆของวันพอดี

เรื่องราวของ จอร์เจีย แลส หรือ จอร์จ สาวน้อยวัย 18 ที่เสียชีวิตจากอุบัติเหตุ “ฝาชักโครกจากสถานีอวกาศตกลงมาใส่หัว” (อนาถแท้) เริ่มเรื่องมานางเอกของเราก็ตายซี้แหงตั้งแต่แรกเลย แต่ก็ดันได้รับสิทธิพิเศษคือเป็นผู้ไม่ตายหรือ Undead มีภารกิจคอยรับส่งวิญญาณของคนตายหรือที่เราเรียกว่า ยมฑูต จากนั้นจึงถูกชวนให้มาเป็น grim reaper (พญามัจจุราชของฝรั่งที่มักจะถือมีดโค้งตัดหญ้า) คอยไปรับวิญญาณคนที่ถึงกำหนดเวลาตายในแต่ละวัน

จากเค้าโครงเรื่อง “On A Pale Horse” ที่แต่งโดย Piers Anthony ความแตกต่างของนิยายกับซีรี่ย์คือในนิยายมีgrim reaperเพียงคนเดียวเท่านั้น แต่ในหนังมีหลายคน รู้ป คือเจ้านายในโลกใหม่ของจอร์จ เมสันจอมกวน ตำรวจจราจรสาว(จำชื่อไม่ได้) และดาราสาวหน้าใหม่ที่ตายระหว่างถ่ายหนัง(จำชื่อไม่ได้เหมือนกันแต่สวยนะ)

ตลกร้ายที่เล่นเกี่ยวกับความตาย ทำให้เราได้รู้ว่าความตายมันช่างง่ายดายและอยู่รอบๆตัวเรานี่เอง ไม่ว่าจะกำลังทำอะไร เล่นโยคะ เป็นเกย์ หรือกำลังส่งนม…คนเขียนบททำให้ความตายถูกมองเป็นเรื่องขำและแสนน่ารักแต่แยบยลในเรื่องแง่คิด หลายครั้งที่คิดตามว่าเมื่อตายไปตัวละครยังเสียดายในสิ่งที่ยังไม่ได้ทำ แต่ท้ายที่สุดก็ยอมรับได้ในนาทีนั้นว่าพวกเขาตาย…และไม่ว่าจะอย่างไร ก็ไม่สามารถย้อนไปแก้ไขอะไรได้อีกแล้ว

เป็นซีรีย์เบาสมองที่มักเรียกน้ำตาและให้แง่คิดเรื่องเวลากับเจ้าของบล็อกได้เป็นอย่างดี

อ.ล.(อนาเซียลิขิต) ชอบจอร์จ นางเอกของเรื่อง หน้าตาเธอสื่ออารมณ์คนเบื่อโลกได้ดีแท้

BROADWAY BABIES: After they co-starred in Evita, she went on to recreate stellar stage roles at home and abroad in Sunset Boulevard, Anything Goes,

MANDY & PATTI: together in T.O.

Sweeney Todd and Gypsy and on screen in the hit TV series Life Goes On. He graduated to Sunday In The Park With George, made his mark on the big screen in The Princess Bride and Yentl, then scored a hit in three top-notch TV series, Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me, and Criminal Minds. But they always were, and still are, traffic-stopping singers who remain dream-come-true interpreters of Broadway’s greatest composers. The good news is, they’re together again at last, on a rare reunion concert tour. The better news is, they’re coming to Toronto. An Evening With Patti Lupone & Mandy Patinkin will rule the Royal Alex for one short week only, Feb. 9-14, and tickets are already on sale. So don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Because this will truly be a night to remember.

NO, NOT THAT MADONNA: After kicking off its 40th (!!!) anniversary season with Brad Fraser’s high-octane crowd-pleaser True Love Lies, Factory Theatre reportedly has another big winner in The Madonna Painter. After a

HUDSON: that's Mrs. Mandela to you

week of buzz-provoklng previews the world premiere of Michel Marc Bouchard’s theatrical parable, directed by Eda Holmes, opens tonight with a stellar cast including Bartholemew Fair scene-stealer Juan Chioran, who’s already set to headline the Stratford revivals of Kiss Me Kate and Evita next season. In Bouchard’s play, set in rural Quebec at the end of World War I, a village priest commissions a fresco dedicated to the Virgin Mary to protect his parishioners from a flu epidemic, and assistant director Cory O’Brien hints that the synergy between the premise of the play and our current H1N1 headlines was downright eerie. “Coughing rattles throughout the rehearsal hall,” he blogged two weeks ago. “Either our actors are overly ‘method’ or we’ve encountered a very strange coincidence. In a play filled with the ominous threat of the Spanish flu our cast has fallen sick. Stay home? Or come to rehearsal? Ginseng. Hand sanitizer. Cold formula tea. To get the flu shot or not to get the flu shot. That is the question.”

Should be fascinating to see who makes it to the stage tonight.

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Glee club guru Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison) and rabid cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (aka Jane

MORRISON & LYNCH: Glee-full

Lynch) got together last week when Morrison stopped by the off-Broadway’s theatre to catch Lynch and Tyne Daly in the current Nora & Delia Ephron hit Love, Loss and What I Wore … Lisa Ray, currently being treated for multiple myeloma, is preparing for a stem cell transplant to treat her rare cancer. Next week the gorgeous star of Water and Bollywood/Hollywood starts a two-week procedure that involves releasing her own stem cells back into her blood to “reboot” her system before any further treatment … Jennifer Hudson will go to South Africa next spring to star in a screen biography of Winnie Mandela, the controversial ex-wife of Nelson … and L.A. audiences got an unexpected bonus last week when Dick Van Dyke joined the national touring cast of Mary Poppins for their curtain call at the Ahmanson Theatre.

TOMORROW:

Lily in Las Vegas

-/-

Blogging about things that I hate = too easy.

Last night SciFi (I’m sorry, I absolutely refuse to use the ridiculous name Syfy) played the direct-to-DVD Dead Like Me movie, and it interested me enough to make me add the series to my Netflix queue. God, Brian Fuller can’t catch a break, can he? I think he’s just a shade too whimsical for American television. We Yanks are simply not, on the whole, a whimsical people. (Most present company excluded, probably.)

What goes with early cancellation? Wine! Specifically, Contadino Pinto Grigio Vivace from Trader Joe’s for $6.99. The “Vivace” part means bubbles. That’s right, it’s a sparkling Pinot Grigio, and it is my new best friend. It’s fruity, but not like, sickly sweet fruity. More like how a grapefruit can be said to be “fruity” in that it is indeed a fruit. (Does that make any sense? I swear I am not actually still drunk, I finished the bottle last night.) There’s a nice light acidy finish that doesn’t take the roof of your mouth off. And I can tell you from firsthand experience that it goes really well with goat cheese.

In other news, I would have had another softie finished over the weekend but I accidentally bought polyester batting instead of polyester fiberfill. Who hasn’t made THAT mistake, eh? Actually, this is a really good hobby to take up during unemployment because felt is only either 29 or 99 cents a sheet, depending on the size. A bag of fiberfill big enough for several projects is usually less than $5. And things like floss and beads and such I of course already have.

I don’t usually get into TV shows that are on before midnight, but it seems like when i actually do, those shows get the boot. Right now the only show that I watch regularly are True Blood, which is entertaining.

My previous favorites were canceled in there second season; Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me( both created my Bryan Fuller). I miss these shows, and I wish they would get picked up by another station.

Just in case you are not familiar with either show, here’s the run down:

Pushing Daisies: Is about a man named Ned, who can bring the dead back to life for one minute by touching them. He has to touch them again before one minute is up, or else some one will die in their place.

It sounds odd, but it was a great show, with excellent performances by, Lee Pace(Ned), Anna Friel(Chuck), Chi McBride(Emerson), Kristin Chenoweth(Olive), Ellen Greene (Vivian), and Swoosie Kurtz (Lily).

Dead Like Me: An unhappy girl is killed by a toilet seat from a space station. After finding out she is dead she is assigned a job as a grim reaper. She has to reap a certain quota of lives before she well be able to “pass on”.

Really Really miss this show, and once again we are now missing out on fantastic performances by: Ellen Muth (Georgia), Callum Blue(Mason), Jasmine Guy(Roxy), Mandy Patinkin(Rube), and Laura Harris(Daisy).

Come on Networks, pick up this shows! Please

~Nicole

Freshly, homemade sushi, my favorite items to nibble on and homemade fruit salad.  These are just a few of my favorite things and yes he made them.  I know I’m still stuffed.  A few slices of avocado this morning was all I could handle.  It was nice to have dinner together and just chill for a while after watching old eps of Dead Like Me.  Today however we really do have to get some cleaning up around this house done.  It’s time to do the fall cleaning and purge all of this things that just aren’t getting used.  Donation centers here we come.

Dear Elsie,

I know you are angry at Kate. She was acting spineless and like a wimp. Still, you need to help her, or else the plot’ll just fall apart. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?

The author.

*

Dear author,

Why should I help Kate solve her messes? She’s old enough to do so herself. She should be old enough to do so, anyway.

Elsie

*

Dear Elsie,

Because I said so.

The author

*

Dear author,

I am not spineless. It is just not my fault, so why should I solve it?

Kate

*
Dear Kate,

Because I said so. And it is your fault, don’t try and duck your responsibilities.

The author

*

Dear Inner Editor,

Take a break already.

The author.

*

Dear author,

Shan’t.

The Inner Editor

With Saturday the 31st upon us, this TV enthusiast will be gathering a collection of her favourite Halloween episodes and settling in to celebrate with some beloved fictional characters. If you’re planning a marathon of your own, or simply looking to kill an hour or two before trick or treating or a Halloween party, here are some of my favourite episodes of Halloween television for your consideration.

How I Met Your Mother, “The Slutty Pumpkin”

Barney: Flight-suit up!

An instant classic from the first season, this episode sees Lily and Marshall attempting to win a costume contest at the bar and Robin having trouble “putting on the girlfriend costume” to please her date. However, the episode revolves around Ted’s annual tradition of attending the Halloween roof party at his building in hopes of meeting “the slutty pumpkin”, the one who got away four years earlier. This has all the heart and all the laughs you’d expect from How I Met Your Mother, and Barney is his usual awesome self. You’ll come away with a few fun new variations on “suit up!” as well as a fun mixed drink recipe!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Fear Itself”

Giles: It’s a sombrero.
Buffy: And it’s on your head.
Giles: It seemed festive.

Buffy has a grand total of three Halloween episodes, but this one is my favourite. “Fear Itself” is full of memorable moments, from Anya’s choice for a scary costume to the now unemployed Giles getting into the Halloween spirit. As Willow, Oz, Xander, and Buffy attend a Halloween party in a frat house, the house comes alive and plays upon the fears of its inhabitants. What really makes the episode are the last five minutes though and the appearance of the fear demon itself.

Dexter, “Let’s Give the Boy a Hand”

Dexter: “I love Halloween, the one time of year when everyone wears a mask, not just me. People think its fun to pretend you’re a monster. Me, I spend my life pretending I’m not.”

I believe that Dexter is one of the most consistently good series on television, which means that it has few weak episodes and this is not one of them. A fan of the holiday because he’s no longer the only one hiding, Dexter celebrates Halloween with Rita and her kids, while also deciphering disturbing recreations of his past left by his fellow serial killer, who has been leaving severed body parts in the locations of childhood memories. The theme of masks and hiding is continued throughout the episode, as is the question of what makes a monster.

Supernatural, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”/”Pilot”

Sam: “For us, every day is Halloween.”

I can’t decide which Halloween episode of Supernatural I enjoy more. The pilot has the distinction of being the episode that started it all and as far as pilots go it’s a great one. Twenty-two years after the mysterious death of his mother, college student Sam Winchester has a girlfriend, an interview to get into law school, and no desire to join the family business. Then brother Dean shows up, revealing that their father went missing while hunting demons and Sam rejoins Dean for a one-time deal and a show was born. The pilot manages to hook you in and sets up a season long hunt for John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

Fourth season episode “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” is worth watching for entirely different reasons. In it, the angels tell Dean that he must find a witch and stop the raising of the demon Samhain or they will smite the town and all of its 1200 inhabitants. The opening of the episode uses the urban legend of razor blades in Halloween candy, but it’s the end, where the audience begins to see the humanity in the angel Castiel that makes this one a Halloween must for me.

Dead Like Me, “Haunted”

George: “It’s not so bad, being dead like me.”

My favourite Halloween episode to date has to be the brilliant series finale of Dead Like Me. The grim reapers prepare for Halloween and George Lass, dead one year in her home town, learns about a reaper legend that says all reapers can be seen as themselves on Halloween. As Mason goes on a candy gathering mission, with George along for the ride, a serial killer is on the loose. Meanwhile George’s family gather in the graveyard to pay their respects on the Day of the Dead. There are few cancellations more upsetting than this one, which was never really explained and caught the writers and producers of the show off guard, meaning some loose ends were never tied up, but the show did go out on a high as George begins to accept her life as a reaper at last.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Em véspera de Halloween, nada melhor do que falar sobre a série mais sobrenatural de todas: SUPERNATURAL.

Apesar de muitos associarem o seriado a antiga série “Arquivo X”, a fórmula e roteiro de SUPERNATURAL segue uma linha totalmente nova e diferenciada de qualquer uma já vista (ou produzida).

Ao som de uma ótima trilha sonora repleta de clássicos do rock e hard rock, que ecoam do impressionante Chevy Impala 67, os irmãos Winchesters cruzam as fronteiras das cidades americanas em caçadas ao sobrenatural; famosas lendas urbanas; rituais de bruxarias e vampirismo; lutando contra o mal desconhecido.

Diferentemente de “Arquivo X”, cujas secretas operações eram todas governamentais, Dean (Jensen Ackles) e Sam (Jared Padalecki) se utilizam de meios ilícitos para subsidiar suas aventuras, como identidades e cartões de créditos falsificados, na qual de uma forma divertida remete a uma série de ícones da cultura americana e os coloca em constantes problemas com autoridades (como se eles já tivessem poucos problemas com o sobrenatural).

O roteiro da série consegue ter a medida exata de certos ingredientes, sabendo se usar de passagem bíblicas e teorias interessantes da teologia, histórias e lendas.

Atualmente a série esta sendo transmitida em sua primeira temporada diariamente pelo SBT (como o nome SOBRENATURAL), mas já teve inicio de sua 5ª temporada na sua transmissão pelo canal pago WARNER.

***

Ainda falando sobre séries do mundo oculto, outras duas séries se utilizam do tema espiritual como linha de roteiro: “Ghost Whispers” e “Medium”.

Apesar de não acompanhar (e nem gostar muito), vale a pena fazer uma menção a elas, porém para relembrar outras duas séries que não duraram muito, mas que praticamente abriu essas portas a esse universo…

***

DEAD LAST (2001)– Essa série com apenas 13 episódios, transmitidos pela WARNER, que tinha em sua linha de roteiro, uma banda de rock formado por 2 rapazes (Kett Turton e Tyler Labine) e 1 garota (Sara Downing) que encontram um amuleto no qual permite a eles verem os mortos que ainda rondam entre nós e por isso tinham o objetivo de resolver seus problemas para que pudessem encontrar seus caminhos, os quais só conseguiam com soluções bizarras e muita ironia. O seriado parecia ser muito bom, mas infelizmente foi cancelado.

***

DEAD LIKE ME (2003) – Uma garota morta de forma prematura por uma tampa de privada (???) que se desprende de uma aeronave, é recrutada para ser uma ceifadora (coletora de almas) dando conforto aos futuros – recentes mortos. O seriado também foi morto prematuramente apenas com 29 episódios, mas não deixou grandes saudades como “DEAD LAST”.

***

Outra série que estreou recentemente nas nos canais pagos foi “VAMPIRE DIARES”, que a principio parece seguir exatamente a mesma receita e que fez o grande sucesso de “CREPÚSCULO”, tendo no enredo principal dois irmãos, Stefan (Paul Wesley) que apesar de ser vampiro quer viver e interagir com o mundo dos humanos de forma pacífica; e Damon (Ian Somerhalder) que mostra todo desprezo e fúria vampiresca que as lendas contam. A série provavelmente fará determinado sucesso entre os adolescentes as sombras da trilogia cinematográfica da qual foi adaptada.

by Shannon Baldo
Columnist

In honor of Halloween, I have decided to focus this week’s column on a show which adeptly and comically handles one of the concepts most central to this holiday: death. Thus I present to you yet another show canceled far before its time: “Dead Like Me.”

Originally broadcast by HBO in 2003 and 2004, “Dead Like Me” offers a fresh new take on death and the afterlife. Originally developed by television mastermind Bryan Fuller – whose other projects, such as “Pushing Daisies,” have met some acclaim – this show remains distinct for its inventive concept, phenomenal development and clever comedy tackling otherwise serious and at times dreary topics.

“Dead Like Me” follows an 18-year-old girl called George Lass (Ellen Muth), who begins the pilot episode as a college dropout feeling out of place in her dry, suburban life. Yet, halfway through this introduction, she dies suddenly as a toilet from the space station falls directly onto her from orbit. The end of the story? Not in this world. Her soul appears 20 feet from her body, and, as she swears at the deity who condemned her to such a short life, she meets a man called Rube (Mandy Patinkin in his best role yet) who invites her to work as a Grim Reaper.

George reluctantly takes the job and begins her afterlife, charged with the job of guiding souls peacefully through death. Assigned to Rube’s division of “external influence” deaths (murders, suicides, accidents, etc.), George joins three other Reapers as they interact with souls on the brink of death and attempt to navigate a world in which they do not and cannot entirely belong.

Such a strange concept may at first seem rather ridiculous, yet the show’s brilliant writing manages to save it from the traps such a premise would seem to lay for itself. George narrates each episode, a piece of writing filled to the brim with sarcasm, wit and dry humor which never fails to make me laugh; plus, usually a life lesson or moral ends up buried within her cynicism, marking the profound depths to which this show can reach. What’s more, each of the characters is given a distinct personality, backstory and identity which allow the writers to toy with each of them and to explore many themes.

Yet, above all, “Dead Like Me” presents a fantastic perspective on death. Because the show focuses almost exclusively on the subject through comedy, death here takes on a brighter tone than in other shows where it is filled with despair and depression. In “Dead Like Me,” death becomes nothing more than part of life. When each of the characters exists solely to bring death, it loses its terror and becomes something natural, understandable and even ordinary – a fascinating and relatively profound perspective.

And, most of all, this show is absolutely hilarious. With a sarcastic, clever, witty sense of humor, “Dead Like Me” places its characters in supernaturally comical situations, whether it be filing people’s final thoughts or threatening rude drivers with their power to remove souls. The juxtaposition between the Reapers’ undead state and the normal world in which they live forms the stuff of many jokes, which the series constantly uses.

“Dead Like Me” consists of two seasons and a subsequent movie released in 2009. The series can now be streamed for free on http://hulu.com.

vat  vsiai  nieko filmas…. Ir serialo  du sezonai yra…  reikės pažiūrėt…

O čia galite peržiūrėti filmą online…

As I mentioned in a previous entry on my favourite Thanksgiving episodes, I like to celebrate the holidays in true TV enthusiast style… by watching a marathon of themed episodes. Predictably my marathon includes episodes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dead Like Me, but each fall, new Halloween episodes air, some of which will become instant classics and be added to my annual marathon in years to come. This year, with supernaturally-themed new shows like The Vampire Diaries and Eastwick, the amount of Halloween content seems to have increased. Here’s a look at the Halloween-themed episodes airing this week.

Monday

Teen hit Gossip Girl has Lily and Rufus celebrating Halloween in “How to Succeed in Bassness” tonight on The CW, while ABC drama Castle has a nice surprise for any Browncoats out there in the new episode “Vampire Weekend”. The episode features Castle and Beckett investigating the murder of a vampire fetishist, whose body is found with fake fangs and a stake through his heart.

Wednesday

With a show about witches and the devil, it would have been crazy not to have a Halloween episode of Eastwick. In “Bonfire and Betrayal”, Roxie envisions an ill fate for her loved-ones and tries to prevent it from happening. Meanwhile Kat attempts to reunite Will and Joanna, who continues to encounter misfortunes after having trouble with her career and love life. The ABC drama hasn’t received a full season pick-up and it’s ratings have not been promising, but maybe a little Halloween magic can turn that around.

Thursday

NBC has a full night of Halloween comedy lined up beginning with a Day of the Dead party on Community, a Halloween party on Parks and Recreation, and finally a themed episode of The Office, in which the office plans a haunted house for kids in the community. Meanwhile, the pairing of the CW’s best performing show The Vampire Diaries and genre hit Supernatural is a no-brainer for Halloween. Although the later doesn’t specifically have a Halloween episode this season, it’s demon-fighting theme and tendency to tackle urban legends make most episodes holiday appropriate. Lead-in The Vampire Diaries will air the new episode “Haunted”, which includes a visit to a haunted house. Freshman drama FlashForward is also getting into the spirit with an episode titled “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps”, and CBS has a new episode of The Mentalist titled “Red Scare”. On The Mentalist, witnesses claim that a wealthy man was killed by a ghost haunting his mansion.

Friday

With CBS’ double feature of Ghost Whisperer and Medium, Friday is already a night for the supernatural, so it’s fitting that both shows will air Halloween episodes this year. Melinda encounters the headless horseman in a themed Ghost Whisperer episode called “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, and Alison dreams she has been cast in the zombie film Night of the Living Dead in a Medium episode titled “Bite Me”. The night wraps upon Numb3ers, where the body of a dead woman  turns up at a decommissioned air base where paranormal activity has been happening.

There’s plenty of spooky new television to be had, but if you’re ready for more Halloween content there’s always the numerous specials and horror movies airing all this week. A more complete list can be found here.

Laura Harris as Zoe Barnes in Defying Gravity. Photo by Kharen Hill and copyright of ABC/Fox TV Studios

For as long as she can remember, Zoe Barnes has always been the type of person who has identified a goal and then worked hard and done everything in her power to obtain it. She was determined to be one of eight astronauts selected for the Antares mission – a six-year journey to explore Venus as well as other planets orbiting Earth’s sun. Zoe succeeded in turning her dream into a reality, but in order to do so she had to abort her pregnancy, the result of a one-night stand with fellow astronaut and Antares crew member Maddox Donner. As the Antares travels deeper into space, this dark secret begins to weigh heavily on her mind, giving Defying Gravity’s Laura Harris, who plays Zoe, the chance to deliver a multi-layered performance.

“Zoe is very confident in the way her life is going and what that path is going to look like, so much so that it verges on hubris,” explains Harris. “So what happens when you’re overconfident, crap happens, and that’s definitely the case with her, but in a way it’s good. By that I mean Zoe rediscovers her true confidence in order to get back on her path. What’s interesting about our show is that we see our characters in the past as well as present, so you have an idea of what’s going to happen with them. I like that because you don’t have to explain back story, but at the same time we as actors discover more and more about our characters as well as have more questions with each new script. That helps keep things fresh for us and the audience.

“One of the biggest challenges I had stepping into this role was getting into science mode. As soon as I got the job, I planned a trip to NASA [Goddard Space Center] in Maryland. A friend of mine who works there showed me around, which was awesome, especially from a day-to-day standpoint. There’s quite a bit of archive footage and stories about the dramatic and exciting part of space travel, but there are also the everyday jobs that have to be done. I got to meet with a lot of extraordinary scientists as well as engineers and one astronaut, who also happens to be my next-door neighbor and an engineer.

Zoe in ISO's (International Space Organization) Mission Control. Photo by Sergei Backlakov and copyright of ABC/Fox TV Studios

“So that helped get me in the right mindset. Zoe is a lot like Jodie Foster’s character in [the feature film] Contact, a strong woman who has her own ideas about her life, all of which revolve around the space program and geology. My character is done with Earth rocks. Zoe wants space rocks now, and that’s all she cares about,” jokes the actress.

In the first episode of Defying Gravity, Zoe and the other prospective candidates for the Antares mission undergo a series of grueling physical tests to determine who will be able to endure their outer space adventure. This includes a ride in the centrifugal force chair, an experience that left Harris a little shaken but none the worse for wear.

“They strapped me into the chair, started to shake it and me, and said, ‘It’ll be all right,’ and it was,” she recalls. “Thank God for YouTube because it’s totally changed the way an actor can prepare for a scene like this because you can actually see the effects of things like centrifugal force and nitrogen narcosis on the human body. There’s tons of footage showing pilots experiencing such things and what you’re supposed to do, including this little breathing exercise that sort of tenses up your whole body. So that’s what I did and I think the scene turned out good, especially considering the way it was shot, which was guerilla-style.”

At work in the Antares' lab. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of ABC/Fox TV Studios

From simulated events to practical ones, the Antares crew experiences firsthand what it is like to work as well as live in zero gravity and float among the stars. That required some wire work along with green screen work for the cast of Defying Gravity, something that was both fun and taken seriously by all those involved.

“You want to be able to show a person experiencing the cosmos when they’re actually in it,” says Harris. “It’s a very human thing to just look up at the sky and experience the cosmos, but to tangibly be in it, I don’t know, I just think it must be pretty miraculous. So you don’t want to milk it, and in a show like this it’s easy to overdo something like that, especially me. I’m someone who’s into experiencing nature in all its grandeur, and I’ll admit that over the years I’ve sometimes looked kind of goofy standing in front of a green screen trying to imagine what experiencing the cosmos would be like,” laughs the actress. “I’m hoping they edited any such moments out of Defying Gravity, but I tried my best to appear believable and sincere when imagining and reacting to such situations as Zoe. I feel like we have a responsibility to the audience, and that makes the work all the more challenging.”

During their five years of training leading up to the mission, Zoe and her fellow crewmates develop relationships of varying levels and dynamics with one another. In the present, those bonds become valuable lifelines as the astronauts learn to adapt to and interact with each other onboard the Antares.

Zoe and Steve Wassenfelder (Dylan Taylor) watch intently as a situation unfolds onboard the Antares. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of ABC/Fox TV Studios

“There is a great deal of growth with all our characters’ relationships, a lot of which isn’t what you might be expecting to see, and I think that’s pretty cool,” notes Harris. “Jen Crane [Christina Cox] and Zoe are best friends, whereas Zoe and Nadia Schilling [Florentine Lahme] have this sort of modern-day love triangle between them and Donner [Ron Livingston]. Neither woman, however, is outwardly jealous of one another. Zoe and Nadia have their own rules and ideas about how they run their lives, and Donner is something that they both share, which is rather interesting. As for Zoe and Donner, they’re connected in some way. I don’t think either of them is clued into why or how, but there’s a definite connection between them that’s beyond their control.

“I have to say that working with this cast is such a delight, and that’s true of every single person. I’ve had some really awesome scenes with Paula Garces [Paula Morales]. I love her character and everything that goes on with it. It’s amazing to watch her drop into character because she does it just like that,” says the actress, snapping her fingers. “For whatever magical reason, everyone has it in their heart when it comes to playing these roles, but there is also a major and very real transformation that takes place when we’re in front of the camera. And that’s something you don’t always see. It’s very much a wow-type moment of watching your castmate deliver his or her lines, and then stepping up to the plate and trying to match what it is that they’re giving you,” she enthuses.

A familiar face to TV watchers, Harris has guest-starred on numerous series including The X-Files, Stargate Atlantis and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as well as had recurring or regular roles on 24, The Dead Zone, Woman’s Murder Club and Dead Like Me. In the latter, she played Daisy Adair, an actress from the 40’s who died but was then reborn as one of a group of “grim reapers” who collect the souls of others just before death and help them cross over to the other side. 

A contemplative moment for Zoe in the Antares' observation room. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of ABC/Fox TV Studios

“I loved doing Dead Like Me because I got to be girly, and the thing is, I don’t think I’m really a girly girl at all,” says the actress. “Daisy was so different from who I am, so it was a true acting adventure. And as a cast, we had so much ridiculous fun together. We had such raw creative energy and everything we did was full of love. The show was truly a gift and I’m so glad I had the chance to do it.”

For Harris, it is who she works with that makes her job so rewarding. “You can’t beat experiencing creative teamwork with really special, interesting people,” she muses. “I love people anyway, and acting makes you go to places that you might not necessarily want to. In the process, you end up loving and appreciating people even more, because things that may seem unapproachable as qualities in others, all of a sudden aren’t so unapproachable, do you know what  I mean? And that sort of realization makes anything in this world seem possible.”

Steve Eramo

Defying Gravity is produced by Fox TV Studios and OmniFilm Productions in association with the BBC, Canada’s CTV and Germany’s ProSieben. As noted above, all photos by Sergei Bachlakov or Kharen Hill and copyright of ABC TV and Fox TV Studios, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!