As you all know this woman has the potential to become my future wife. Her confidence yet humble nature (as I’ve listened to interviews) coupled with her sexy stature and beautiful features make for a great “life partner.” Although I have yet to have the opportunity to meet her, which will change, I am living vicariously through her music and I must say “In Love and War” will be on repeat!!! The album includes productions from Teddy Riley, The Buchanans, Jim Jonsin and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart & The-Dream and even the well known Brian Michael Cox. This album has got nothing but great sounds, melodies, and Amerie seems to have written the bulk of it as a personal tone is felt through each song. This album could even be the next album I use during my workouts, both physical and personal;).

Favorite Track: “Higher” (Warryn “Baby Dubb” Campbell/Amerie):

Honorable Mention: “Tell Me You Love Me” (Teddy Riley/Amerie)

Just Cause: “Dangerous” (Jonas Jeberg/Amerie)

LD

The new TV season is full swing, and yet here I am, still talking about last season. Of course, I’ve farted around for a couple of weeks doing very important things (not playing Halo 3: ODST, no matter what my endless tweets and Raptr updates will say), and am only now getting around to putting this up. Please forgive my tardiness.

Though I don’t want to say too much about the new season, which is just coming into shape, I will say that some shows (Fringe, House) have yet to get back to full strength, some (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Dollhouse, Lie To Me) have come back with a confident bang, and some new shows (Community, Flashforward) have really piqued my interest. One new show (Modern Family) made me think I will never trust another critic ever again. Unless something really dreadful comes along, I think I have my Worst New Pilot of the 2009-2010 Season winner already sewn up.

Anyway, here are my final thoughts on the 2008i-2009 season. There were originally going to be more YouTube clips on here, but I’ve had a dispiriting day watching them get taken down. Fox and NBC, sorry for infringing on your copyright, but all you did was get rid of some free publicity, as I was going to tell the world how awesome your shows were. Except for that clip from Heroes. That was up because Angela Petrelli’s insanely histrionic reaction to her son’s death was the funniest thing of the year. So I can understand that one. And now, on with the hyperbole…

Best New Show: Sons of Anarchy

If one were to be unduly harsh, you could compare the first episode of Sons of Anarchy with the pilot of The Shield. Considering that is easily one of the most impressive and instantly captivating pilots ever made, there was little chance that showrunner Kurt Sutter could ever compete. That he made a pilot as good as the one that kickstarted his biker epic is a testament to his skill as a writer, and his decision to get Sopranos director/producer Allen Coulter in to co-direct it is exactly the kind of smart move that a good showrunner should make. The first few episodes were not perfect, but the building blocks were there.

What sets Sons of Anarchy apart from every other show debuting during the 2008-2009 period — even the eventually superb Dollhouse — is how quickly changes were made, and how confidently they were put in place. By the time season highlight The Pull came around, it was already shaping up to be essential TV, but that episode propelled it onto a completely different level of excellence. Ramping up the pace of the show and throwing one or two of the less interesting characters into terrible danger / potentially ruinous moral compromise, Sons of Anarchy hinted that it could become something that will rival the mighty Shield for complexity and dramatic power. It helps that it features one of the best ensembles on TV right now, filling out its main cast (which, let’s not forget, includes Ron Perlman, an impressive star-making turn from Charlie Hunnam, and relentless magnificence from Kim Coates) with guests spots for Mitch Pileggi, Drea DeMatteo, Jay Karnes, Dayton Callie, Maggie Siff, and the incredible Ally Walker, who blows everyone else away with her terrifying warrior mentality and fearless sexuality. And in season two, we get Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins. Seriously, what’s not to love? From all accounts, the second season is even more unhinged than the first, which is saying something considering the incredible brutality and amoral shenanigans from the first. I can’t wait to dive in.

Worst New Show: Parks and Recreation

Creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur are not idiots, obviously, but this landed with a terrible splat and couldn’t convince me to hang around long enough to see if it would improve. Part of that was because I was mad at the dip in quality over at The Office. Was it fair to blame this show for that? Probably not. Parks and Recreation has been mooted for so long (remember when it was supposed to be a straight spin-off of The Office?) that their attention has probably been divided for a long time, and the fourth season of The Office was great. Nevertheless, the energy of one show definitely seemed to have been split between two, and the result was a listless hour of supposed comedy.

I have fought with myself over whether it would have been worth hanging around to see if it got better, but then I remember little things that irked like the way the showrunners differentiated the talking head interjections from those of The Office — using two cameras for the faux-interviews instead of one — which drove me into fits of absurd rage. The Office already has trouble keeping the faux-doc format going, and this conceit draws even more attention to the fakeness of it all. Perhaps I’m just burned out on this format. ABC’s new comedy Modern Family has been heralded as the next great sitcom after just two episodes, with across the board raves. We watched last week’s pilot in a state of shock. Flamboyant gay stereotypes? Clunking, obvious jokes about the generation gap? Appalling overacting from everyone (with Julie Bowen being the worst offender)? A character misinterpreting the accent of a Columbian woman? (I say Columbian because Sofia Vergara is from Columbia. She’s probably expected to play someone from a different country in this.) Modern Family is exactly the kind of retrograde laugh-track-enhanced sitcom that seems almost archaic now, but because it’s filmed in a single camera faux-doc style, it’s treated as a cutting-edge exploration of modern American mores. Bullshit. It’s Everybody Loves Raymond. Dressing a raccoon in baseball gear doesn’t make it a baseball player. It just makes it a raccoon covered in sport gear. (Note to self: use less raccoons in metaphors. It just complicates things.)

I also remember one potentially funny scene in Parks and Recreation — involving hapless and strangely unlovable Leslie trying to convince a bunch of ill-informed citizens that her plans are worthwhile — failing to take off, and I realise that after this summer of purposely ignorant right-wing hijacking of the health-care town hall debates, this kind of scene probably won’t ever be funny again. Democracy failing to work because of the Crazification Factor getting in the way of intelligent debate is something I just can’t laugh at right now. What makes this turn of events most sad is that the concept is so full of potential, and yet it didn’t even work before the protests. I can’t figure out how you could take an idea this promising and fail to make something that mixes madness and profundity in the same way as The Office. Compare that to Knight Rider. That was always going to be shit. This should have been a potent mix of satire and ridiculousness. That’s why I have to put it in this category. Apparently it has found its stride in the second season, from what I’ve heard on the Hinternet. Sadly, the people who are saying that also keep going on about how Modern Family is hilarious. So, you know…

Best Title Sequence of the Year: Hung

The choice of music (I’ll Be Your Man by The Black Keys), the phallic objects in the background, the pace of it…

…It’s a perfect title sequence.

Best Pilot: Kings

From what I can gather, there was very little publicity for Kings when it made its way onto the screen. Many have said this was the reason for its failure to find an audience, though to be honest a literate curio like this was unlikely to ever become a breakthrough hit. Alternate histories? Playing with Biblical stories? Unappealing main characters? It just seemed like a real long shot. It was impressive to see NBC gamble on making the show in the first place, but as with the equally intelligent Journeyman, making a show and trying to make the show available to a wide audience are two different things.

To be honest, with Journeyman the hurt is greater. That show was less ambitious, but as a result was more likely to find an audience if given a chance. It also improved as it went along. Kings started off incredibly strong and then stalled a little. That’s the problem when a show gets a pilot this impressive. Written by showrunner Michael Green and directed by the underrated Francis Lawrence, Goliath (the name of the pilot) was like no other pilot I’ve ever seen. Even though it was made on a shoestring, it looked incredible. Even more appealing, it had a weird edge of fantasy even beyond the alternate earth conceit, with God interacting with certain characters in a matter of fact way even though the show did not explicitly preach Christian values.

Perhaps this more than anything alienated audiences: atheists might rebel against a show that openly debates the wishes of God, and Christians might be irked by this God not being a recognisable version of their God. While I fall into the first category, I don’t mind God turning up in fiction as long as It’s not used as a deus ex machina or Unexplainable Puppeteer (hello Battlestar Galactica) or as an accurate version of “our” God (a sky bully who gets pissed off if we don’t play by Its crazy rules). The version of God in Kings was not a big deal, but Its mysterious behaviour, and effect on the behaviour of the main characters, was fascinating.

As was the superb character King Silas Benjamin (not to mention his allies and enemies), and the superb use of New York locations (standing in for the fictional city of Shiloh) to give a sense of epic scale to the show, and the incredible cast… As I say, the show was fascinating to watch right up until its unfortunate cancellation, but it never quite lived up to the promise of that amazing pilot, simply because the pilot made you think you were watching the most amazing show ever. We weren’t, but it was damn good nevertheless. Even the slightly disappointing finished product was better than almost everything else on TV. You could practically sense the cult following develop as you watched, not to mention hear the knives coming out for it as you realise how odd the project was. We’re lucky we saw any of it, to be honest.

Worst Pilot: The Unusuals

Seemingly rushed into production as a result of the writers’ strike, The Unusuals matched an underwhelming concept with a poorly defined set of uninteresting characters, failed to find a consistent tone, and handed off directing chores to the ever-feeble Stephen Hopkins, a man who has never made even one good film (I remember liking The Ghost and the Darkness when I first saw it, but I fear I’m being kind). There was no way I was going to enjoy this.

The main reason for my annoyance is that there were some good actors in there who just couldn’t rise above the material or the execution. Some of the most interesting actors — both promising and established — flounder within the show’s poorly thought-through format, with some characters played as broad as possible and others reining in the madness. Jeremy Renner in particular looks like he’s wandered in from another show. Harold Perrineau does okay with his skittish character, while Adam Goldberg sucks all of the energy out of his scenes with a sour and unappealing demeanour, not to mention a terrible mustache. The conceit that a hypochondriac with a fear of death is partnered with a man who wants to die and yet seems blessed is one of those ideas that sounds great on the page and fails on screen.

As for Amber Tamblyn, playing a high-society girl trying to make it as a cop in the cuh-rayzee precinct, it was a more entertaining concept when rich-boy Carter turned up in E.R. That was only one of the shows this seemed to emulate. M.A.S.H., NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Hooperman (for crying out loud): it was an echo of greater shows, a throwback to 80s cop dramas when they started to become more confident and complex. Sad thing is, we don’t want babysteps any more. We’ve moved on. The low ratings and inevitable cancellation of this show proved that. Let’s hope those good actors turn up in better projects now.

Best Pilot of the Year Not Selected For Series: Virtuality

I won’t go into how much I hated the Battlestar Galactica finale again, as I’m beginning to come across as a total crazy person who is obsessed with going on about it, but it did make me reconsider trying out Caprica, the Stoltzified spin-off. Why should I keep watching shows set in this universe, made by this team, who had so disappointed me throughout the last few seasons? Yes, Jane Espenson would be there too, and I love her work, but still, I cannot imagine being invested in this story any more. There is a good chance I’ll relent, because good SF is hard to find on TV at the best of times. Nevertheless, my annoyance remains.

You can imagine how uninterested I was in another Ronald D. Moore / Michael Taylor show (I was never fond of his BSG episodes), especially one that seemed so prosaic. Moore has stated in the past that he was interested in making BSG because he felt the urge to rebel against Star Trek’s chirpy universe and its reliance on holodeck technology to change up the show, which made Virtuality — a show about space travellers who use virtual reality technology to relax — a curious proposition. I resisted this too, and then relented after seeing the feeble Defying Gravity, which seemed to be drawn from the same template. Thinking Virtuality would be nothing more than a space soap along the same lines as the other network drama, I gave it a spin, expecting little.

I love it when I’m proved wrong like this. As much as Fox’s other new SF show – Dollhouse – Virtuality is a fascinating and challenging exploration of ideas, dramatically filmed and featuring an excellent cast. In fact, the cast is even stronger than that of Dollhouse, with excellent turns from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sienna Guillory, Richie Coster (who needs more work, stat), and the ever-dependable Clea DuVall. All the actors are on top form, but these four really stand out. As for the comparison with Defying Gravity, the only thing they have in common is being set in space. Virtuality is about so much more: our perception of reality and how it will inevitably be twisted by the lens we observe through, how technology can affect us emotionally, how we refuse to let it go even when it is obviously not doing us any good (an idea expressed far more clearly here than in Lee Adama’s ridiculous speech in the final BSG episode). While Defying Gravity really is a soap set in space (with one character seemingly completely defined by the pregnancy she once terminated, which is as regressive a character arc as is possible), Virtuality is about ideas. It’s proper SF.

At least, it was proper SF. Even though it was obviously incredibly ambitious and beautifully made (with top direction from Shades of Caruso favourite Peter Berg), and even though were was huge potential for relatively cheap but gripping drama, it was shelved. I’m utterly depressed by this turn of events. There was only one misstep in the whole pilot, with a nasty perception-rape sequence that made me uncomfortable. Reliance on rape plots always upsets me, but here even this most unpleasant of plot threads is used to further the show’s exploration of whether there is a gap between virtual and actual reality, and what happens to us when we lose track of the difference between the two. If the show was willing to treat something potentially exploitative as cleverly as this, we would almost certainly have seen a lot of very smart SF in the rest of the series. But no. While Whedon got lucky with Dollhouse, the Virtuality team saw their show taken away before they could go any further. The best thing I can say about it? It was better than most movies I’ve seen this year. It’s a crying shame there will be no more.

Most Unfairly Cancelled Show of the Year: Reaper

Patton Oswalt is a brilliantly funny and caustic man, but recently he broke my heart. In this interview, he explained how, while filming his turn on Reaper, he saw the crew and cast crushed by their parent network, The CW.

When I did Reaper, the episode I originally did was supposed to be the beginning of this introduction to this overall mythology, because they clearly were taking the Joss Whedon playbook: You have a monster of the week for a while, and then you start linking it all up, and you create this overarching kind of world and story. And in the middle of the week, the network just came down on them and said “No, go back to monster of the week.” And you could feel this deflation amongst the actors, because they really understood that they had to start putting mythology into things. The network was just like, “Nope!”

This is the network that, when it was The WB, cancelled Angel, so I already have a big problem with them. Now I have an even bigger one. It may have not become something more ambitious, but it was endlessly lovable, and became admirably silly in the second season. The first was funny, but at times the second season was funnier than many sitcoms. The monster-of-the-week format of the show, which had seemed so restrictive, sometimes ended up shoved into the cold open, with the rest of the episode dealing with silly relationship drama, Sock shenanigans, or sly mythology expanding business with recurring characters like Nina or Tony. This might not be as involving as Buffy, but it was never as blandly diverting as something like The Mentalist. It fell right in the middle, which is apparently deadly.

That greater focus on just being daft was working for us, but the lack of a coherent arc from week to week (other than Sam’s lacklustre efforts to get out of his contract, and the hints that he is a more important player in the battle between God and The Devil) seemed to doom it. More than any other show departing this year, this is the one we’ll miss. Goodbye to one of the most entertaining casts on TV, some of the most eccentric writing of the past few years, and most of all, goodbye to the best Devil in recent pop culture history. He may be showing up in Dollhouse, but will Ray Wise be this mischievous, charming, delightful? Ray Wise fans everywhere, please come together one last time to marvel at that beautiful, beautiful grin.

At least one of us is smiling, I guess. [Insert sad-face emoticon here]

Best New Double Act of the Year: Ray Drecker and Tanya Skagle - Hung

When compiling the list of best and worst characters, I had certain unspoken rules in place to stop myself from focusing exclusively on certain shows. Party Down’s cast of beautifully observed characters could have dominated the first list, and Knight Rider could have dominated the second. My biggest quandary was caused by Hung, HBO’s lovable male-prostitution-and-economic-disaster comedy that has so entertained us recently. How do I get to honour two of the funniest characters of the year without breaking that rule? As ever, inventing a new category is the perfect answer. Hung is a show that has a few tonal errors (what was going on with the horribly misconceived Jessica, played with occasional delicacy by Anne Heche?) and a very loosely defined season arc (two pimps fighting over Ray and his magical dong), not to mention some wasted actors (why hire Gregg Henry and put him in about five scenes?). At times, it felt like we were watching half a show.

Nevertheless, it became appointment viewing just because of the wonderful work of Thomas Jane and Jane Adams. Their chemistry, and their relentless bickering and grudging friendship, was the thing that made Hung exceed its limitations. It also made Shades of Caruso reconsider the talents of both actors. Thomas Jane was given moments of pathos which he has never really had a chance to play before, and he excelled, especially in the season finale. Jane Adams has always played sad-sack losers, but this time she was given a chance to give Tanya some nobility even as her plans fell apart around her. Both actors also got to show off their physical comedy skills, with Adams especially amusing during her many impotent temper tantrums.

It was their interplay that really held the show together. Even as other plot threads and arcs seemed to falter or shoot off in predictable directions, watching these two actors play off each other was more than enough to save the show. It’s notable that episodes where Ray and Tanya aren’t onscreen together were the weakest of the season, whereas the ones which explored their dependent relationship and accidental exploration of each other’s personality were the most satisfying. Hopefully the show continues to throw these polar opposites together next year.

Best New Couple of the Year: Sawyer and Juliet – Lost

Ah yes, the love triangle/quadrangle. The constant refrain of Lost doubters (and some fans) is that the show is wasting its time whenever it focuses on the relationship drama of Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet. “We don’t care about that shit! Show more Faraday!” Yes yes, love drama tends to make me go to sleep as well. Many shows are hamstrung by tedious relationship dramas: House is at its dreariest when Thirteen and Foreman, or Cameron and Chase, go on and on about their coupledom; Kings ground to a halt every time David and Michelle made goo-goo eyes at each other. Hell, even the otherwise perfect Party Down was at its least interesting every time Henry and Casey got together. So there is precedent.

However, I love the relationship drama from Lost for two reasons. One: at the end of the season, we see how far Jack has fallen from grace. We thought he was the square-jawed all-American hero who would bring everyone out of the wilderness like a be-stubbled Moses, but over time we see he’s a deeply damaged, semi-psychotic loser who – as we find out in the final episode of season five – even lied about his character-defining anecdote from the very first episode. How much of a loser is he? After pushing away the woman he “loves” with his whiny attitude and various emotional breakdowns, and after years of trying to figure out what his purpose is now that his dad isn’t around to torture him, he has two choices to make a difference in his life: a) man up and seek help for his depression, all while giving up on the thought of making a go of things with Kate, or b) detonate a nuclear bomb, killing everyone on the island, in the hope that it will change history and allow Oceanic 815 to land safely in LAX so he doesn’t have to put up with the mess he made of his life. I’ve said before that one of the things I love about Lost is that it shows the psychology of its characters in minute detail, and this final touch – showing how far people will go to avoid making simple changes in their lives because of their fear of what will happen if it fails – is the perfect metaphor for how we hold onto our broken selves even when we know how to make things better.

Two: It also gave us the wonderful, tragic pairing of Sawyer and Juliet, which justifies all of the sturm and drang to get there. So far, all of the pairings that have been tried were wrong somehow. Jack and Kate didn’t work because Jack is insane. Kate and Sawyer didn’t work because Kate keeps messing with Sawyer’s head. Jack and Juliet didn’t work because Jack was not even slightly into Juliet and was just using her to get over Kate. However, as soon as the fourth season ended with a shirtless Sawyer walking out of the sea towards a drunken Juliet, I knew we would get to see something go right. And, for the most part, it did, even though it was not to be.

It’s not just that the combined hottness of Sawyer and Juliet is so great that it probably melted most of the TVs in the world. It’s also not just that selfish Kate and crazy Jack were finally out of the equation. It’s even not just because seeing Sawyer and Juliet flirting while shooting people was the most awesome thing ever. It’s that there was barely any controversy in the relationship, which probably would have even survived the forthcoming Purge, somehow. It’s only when Kate returns to the island and reignites Juliet’s psychological damage (previously caused by the break-up of her parents, the infidelity of her ex-husband, and the death of her lover Goodwin) that it all goes horribly wrong. Did Sawyer still hold a candle for Kate? Probably. Did he love Juliet? I reckon yes, and I believe he would have done anything for her if she had given him the chance. All of this made the quadrangle emotionally powerful, as we finally had something to hang on to. Would Sawyer and Juliet survive the machinations of the island/Esau and Jacob? More than any other relationship in TV history (except for Fred and Wesley in Angel), my nerves were set on fire by the possibility that those kids might not make it after all. Of course…

Most Upsetting, Most Harsh, and Most Unfair Scene of the Year: The Incident finally happens – Lost

…we all know how it turned out. Nothing else this year made me cry as much as this.

Damn you, stupid TV show! Damn you for being so fucking mean! And damn you Emmy voters for not giving nominations to Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Holloway. They were amazing all season.

Worst New Couple of the Year: Luke and Bess - In Treatment

In Treatment’s second season deviated dramatically from its source material — the Israeli drama Be’Tipul — when it moved main character Paul Weston from Maryland to Brooklyn, allowing the show to dramatise his dislocation from his family, as well as to provide a reason for why he suddenly has so many new patients. This meant that we lost the chance to see season one patients Amy and Jake return, this time as a divorced couple fighting over their son, leading to the creation of two new patients, Luke and Bess. With their marriage in tatters and resentment flying between them, their son Oliver suffers terribly, putting on weight and falling into depression as his parents either fight for custody of him or, amazingly, against custody.

None of the characters in this show are particularly nice to Paul, but the games Luke and Bess play with him, using his advice as justification for a serious of awful, selfish choices, were worse than the usual antagonism people show their therapist. Many times during the season I was horrified by their behaviour, and by the time the season finished they were openly talking about how their lives had been ruined by their marriage and how they wanted another chance at what they had with barely any regard for Oliver’s well-being. When Paul finally loses his temper with them in episode 28, it elicited a round of applause from us. Figuratively speaking. And to be honest, he should have been even angrier with them.

Of course, this being In Treatment, these two horribly selfish people are written so well that we can see their point of view — and their humanity — clearly enough that even at their worst we cannot completely write them off. Their eventual remorse is a relief, but it’s still not enough considering how completely both parents are oblivious to the young boy’s needs. Thankfully, Paul is there to prove to Oliver that he will still be there for him, in some respect. His final scene with Oliver, talking to him via “phone” in his office, started a deluge of tears from this admittedly weepy viewer. If Oliver escapes this miserable situation with his psyche intact, it will have nothing to do with his parents.

Most Underused Character of the Year: Boyd Langton - Dollhouse

Whedon has a talent for peppering his casts with older character actors playing the “parents” to the younger crew. With Buffy we had Giles, in Angel there was Wesley (though his efficacy is doubtful; he’s arguably more flawed than any of his compatriots), and Firefly had Shepherd Book. These stern characters with hearts of gold gave their respective shows some kind of grounding when things got wacky, though Whedon wasn’t averse to making them run through some ridiculous hoops (Book’s mad hair, Wesley’s various pratfalls, Giles’ guitar playing). Sadly, while Langton got a chance to be silly in the disappointing comedy episode Echoes, he rarely got a chance to do anything interesting either. Many characters got to have interesting arcs and secrets, but Langton seemed to be getting less and less screentime as the series wore on. Making him head of security broke the student-mentor relationship between him and Echo, but then this might be Whedon trying to throw his own archetypes out, confounding our expectations. That he would give handler-duties to someone who appears to have an unhealthy sexual attraction to Echo (I’m talking about the plasticine-man known as Ballard) shows there might be something to that.

Nevertheless, it is a shame to cast someone like Harry Lennix — who has intense onscreen presence and then some — and then not give him as much to do as possible. His new role means he will interact more with Olivia Williams, meaning the two best actors on the show get to bang heads together: joy! That promotion, along with his new connection to Whiskey/Dr. Saunders, suggests he will be given more to do in the second season, but nevertheless, his relative inaction in later episodes was one of the few things I didn’t like about the improved half of the first season.

Most Entertaining Villain of the Year: Gemma Teller Morrow – Sons of Anarchy

One of the great pleasures of Sons of Anarchy is how it mixes up its Shakespeare. The debt it owes to Hamlet has been acknowledged by creator Kurt Sutter, but less attention has been paid to his shameless steal from Macbeth. Gemma Teller Morrow — former wife of SAMCRO leader John Teller — at first seems like a strong biker chick, but by the end of the pilot episode has revealed herself to be a conniving, power-hungry Queen whose sense of morality has been twisted until she will do anything to protect her family and the direction of the gang, a fact proved by her attempt at driving Jax’s junkie wife Wendy to an overdose. Later in the season she apologises to Wendy for this act, but even then she’s only doing it because she’d rather her son stay with a recovering junkie than return to his longtime sweetheart Tara. Plus, she does seem to be implicated in John’s death, possibly committed by her current husband Clay Morrow, which appears to have been done to prevent a change of direction towards legitimacy for the biker gang.

The most miraculous thing about this character is that she has dispelled my previous reservations about the talents of Katey Sagal. I’ve complained about her terrible voicework on Futurama before, where she leaves no joke intact, but I had suspected her dramatic work was not as shaky. She was great as John Locke’s departed love Helen in Lost, for example. In Sons of Anarchy, she’s even better, outacting even Ron Perlman when she’s in full flow. This display of Macchiavellian sneakiness got even more entertaining as the season progressed. There was a certain amount of character modulation during the latter half of the season, with some of her excesses toned down, and the horribly stagy confrontations between her and Tara tweaked until they sounded like actual human conversations, but even so, her Lady-Macbeth-esque manipulations of all around her were a source of delight even when she misfired a little. Gemma, as Journey almost said once, don’t stop conniving.

Least Entertaining Villain of the Year: Miguel Prado - Dexter

Dexter sure does have some crappy nemeses. In the first season, he goes up against his own brother, played with ridiculous camp evilness by Christian Camargo. In the second season, he is forced to conquer his evil girlfriend, manifested by Jaime Murray with a bag of absurd tics even more annoying than those of Dexter’s sister Debs, who is played by the equally dreadful Jennifer Carpenter. In the fourth season we’re getting John Lithgow. My memories of his madness from De Palma’s Raising Cain do not bode well for any Over-Act-O-Meters used to track the progress of this show, though I reckon he will be infinitely more entertaining than Dexter’s other “villains”.

Last year we got to see Jimmy Smits contend with the usual quota of ineptitude, improbable motivation, and mustache-twirling obviousness that comprises the Dexter Big Bad, and he made a meal of it. Amping up his intensity to sky-high levels, Miguel Prado went from saint to madman in the blink of an eye, all pretense at showing him as a morally complex human thrown out of the window with a haste even this most feeble of shows has never exhibited before. His cluelessness meant his occasional victories against Dexter relied upon our “hero”’s IQ dropping 100 points, which is a flaw that has run through the show from the beginning. Prado would then, naturally, make a bunch of mistakes, all the while chewing scenery like a murderous Donald Sinden. I say he was the least entertaining villain of the year because watching his character arc was deeply unsatisfying, with him changing his personality from moment to moment in order to move the plot, and not vice versa, but I did get a lot of pleasure from his reaction after he finally kills a bad guy.

Nastiest Villain of the Year: Nolan – Dollhouse

I can’t make any glib observations about this. Whedon is an avowed feminist, and this new show seemed to be a peculiar expression of that worldview, drawing both perplexed condemnation and optimistic readings. The fact that the show didn’t immediately say that the Dollhouse was a bad place threw a lot of viewers (including myself), but I’m sure a lot of Whedon’s fans (again, including myself) hoped that things would be clearer in the long run.

By the end of the season it was obvious that the Dollhouse tech was meant to be The Worst Thing That Has Happened To Humanity Ever, and not just because it brings about the end of the world (or at least, the end of Humanity). The most graphic and upsetting example of this comes in the excellent episode Needs, where the Actives come to and “escape” their prison (but only because they are allowed to). Drawn to the terrible things that have made them volunteer for Activeness, we see November visiting the grave of her child, and Echo deciding to stay behind to rescue her fellow Actives (surely this should worry the Dollhouse executives a bit more). Sierra, who I’d never found to be particularly compelling, goes to see the man who has paid the Dollhouse to make her an Active. Any doubt that the Dollhouse is a force for evil is removed once we find out that Nolan (played with oily menace by Vincent Ventresca) has paid the Dollhouse to turn her — a woman who once refused him — into an Active just so that he can violate a woman her whenever he feels like it. As Couch Baron says here, there truly are no words that can describe how awful this is. It was the most potent way to show how dreadful this technology is, and upset me deeply. The bad taste remained for the rest of the season. How rare for a network show to explore this kind of moral depravity without shying away from it.

Best Cast of the Year: Party Down

Just as with this year’s Best New Double Act category, I created this category last year to give shout-out to Reaper’s wonderful cast, which featured a host of great actors, especially Ray Wise, Tyler Labine, and Ken Marino. This year, Party Down gets a nod for featuring so many great actors, including Ken Marino. If I’d been blogging when Veronica Mars started, I probably would have highlighted the terrific cast of that show too, which would have meant discussing Ken Marino’s turn as sleazy private investigator Vinnie Van Lowe. Basically, Ken Marino seems to be my weakness. If he’s around, I am helpless.

Which is not to say Party Down worked solely because of him. As I’ve mentioned at length in my Best New Characters award list, Jane Lynch is breathtakingly good as Constance Carmell, and her replacement (Jennifer Coolidge) was just as good. Of the core cast, I’d highlight Ryan Hansen too, playing the adorably clueless Kyle Bradway — basically Dick Casablancas with a heart of gold. His vapid interactions with Jane Lynch are the highlight of many episodes, and he even manages to make tolerable the time spent with Martin Starr, here doing worryingly convincing work as the deeply unpleasant Roman DeBeers. He’s probably the weak link in the cast, though I would also become annoyed by the endless hipsterish emotional evasions of Casey Klein, played by Lizzy Caplan. (Side note: I think it’s fair to say that, thanks to real-world annoyances too numerous to count, I automatically take against any character on TV who spends all of their time on the phone instead of doing their job, or while other people are trying to talk to them. Those caveats are meant to signify that Jack Bauer is not to be considered one of these people. When he’s on the phone, he’s actually saving the world).

At the heart of this amazing ensemble is Adam Scott, formerly playing Palek the Vulcan Inseminatron from Tell Me You Love Me, and now utterly rehabilitated from that indie-movie-aping earnestness after his incredibly bold turn in Step Brothers. Here he is required to be in enormous emotional pain for the majority of the time, and it’s a credit to him that playing a completely shut-down shell of a man doesn’t mean he isn’t funny. His ability to mix up this world-weariness and emotional vulnerability with deadpan wit is essential to the success of the show. He’s Tim-from-The-Office, but even more pathetic. You weep for him in every episode.

So, they’re a fantastic core group, but they’re not the only reason Party Down wins this award. Just as with 30 Rock and Arrested Development before them, this show manages to get some of the best character actors around to populate the secondary cast. In the first season we saw Ken Jeong, J.K. Simmons, Steven Weber, Marilu Henner, Joe Lo Truglio, Mather Zickel, Joey Lauren Adams, Molly Parker, Breckin Meyer, Rob Corddry, Rick Fox (as himself), George Takei (also as himself), not to mention — for the Veronica Mars fans out there — Kristin Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Daran “Cliff McCormack” Norris, Ed Begley Jr., Alona Tal and Jason Dohring. Matched up to the best sitcom scripts of the year, there was no way this show was going to fail. Even though I’m agnostic on the appeal of Megan Mullally (drafted in to replace Jane Lynch in season two), I have a strong feeling she will be magically transformed by this most glorious of shows.

Worst Cast of the Year: Parks and Recreation

I feel a little ill, because I’m about to criticise the casting of a show that has Amy Poehler in the lead role. Amy Poehler, who was the best thing about last year’s Baby Mama. Amy Poehler, who was one of the best things about SNL for the past few years. Amy Poehler, who was one of the three things in Southland Tales that was actually great and entertaining instead of desperately bad and misery-inducing (the other two things being The Rock and Wood Harris, with whom she shared her scenes). She makes me laugh pretty much every time I see her, but not here. In that case, I’m willing to assume she was just dealt a bad hand, and given a character who is unworkable. The only times Leslie Knope comes alive and becomes more than a badly formed lump of unrealistic character flaws is when she pines over Mark Brendanawicz, her selfish and unappealing colleague played by the talented Paul Schneider. Again, another talented actor playing an unlikeable and uninteresting character. Maybe I should rethink this category. Is it the cast, or the show, that I don’t like?

Well, Aziz Ansari is in it. I’ll admit, I have not seen much of his work. He was in Funny People for a couple of minutes, and the effect he had on me was akin to having my soul Maced. Perhaps I’m wrong. This show seems to be underwritten and poorly thought through, which could account for it, but his turn as Tom Haverford is almost unwatchable. I’d say that’s more than just a glitch in the writing. The same goes for Nick Offerman as the Dwight-Schrute-esque Ron Swanson, a character that screams desperation from the writers but is not at all helped by Offerman’s flat performance. Both Haverford and Swanson seem like the kernel of a joke expanded to character-size without much thought given to whether these characters will work. As it is, they’re just belligerent. The less said about Aubrey Plaza and her pointless teenage character April Ludgate, the better. (See above for comments about affectless, oblivious characters like Ludgate and Casey from Party Down.)

Perhaps the thing I resent most is putting someone as funny as Chris Pratt opposite a comedy void like Rashida Jones. She was charming enough in The Office but wasn’t expected to be particularly funny. Here she is either a dope being manipulated by Pratt’s Andy, or she berates him, making her seem churlish and him seem like a victim, which he isn’t. Crappy couples on TV are not often fun to watch (ask any Lost fan who despairs whenever Jack and Kate get together). I’m more than willing to accept that a lot of these actors are far better in other roles. Hell, I’ve seen them be better. Pratt was hilarious in The O.C. as Che, and Paul Schneider was riveting in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Perhaps I’m being way too harsh on these actors. Sadly, the bottom line is that, unlike The Office that came with only a couple of good characters, already based on archetypes from the UK series, and then built the supporting cast as they went along, Parks and Recreation started from scratch and got none of the characters right. Even a good cast would have trouble making this bunch of half-formed comedic scribbles come to life. In time, if it doesn’t get cancelled, perhaps this will change. Let me know when it does. Until then, I’ll stick with Community, Dan Harmon’s brilliant new sitcom, which recently started almost fully-formed and will hopefully keep getting better.

Best Guest Star of the Year: Jon Hamm - 30 Rock

For a little while, we were non-converts to the Cult of Hamm. He entertained us enough in Mad Men, but we had enough reservations about the first season that he didn’t really register in our consciousness, even after the Dick Whitman revelation gave Hamm the best acting opportunities. Perhaps we thought he was just a pretty face, and couldn’t imagine there was anything else in there. Canyon was also offended by his Brylcreemed hair. She deemed it unappealing. I wasn’t about to argue.

Then came the far superior second season, and sightings of his normal hair (adorably floppy), and then a turn on Saturday Night Live that was so confident and charming that I fully expect Hamm to eventually challenge the hosting records fought over by Christopher Walken, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Dramatic excellence, perfect comic timing, a willingness to play off his image, and seriously, one of the handsomest faces on Earth; if he can sing and dance, he’s got it all. We are now members of the Cult. Wearing robes and everything. It’s proper infatuation.

His three episode run as Dr. Drew Baird on 30 Rock was joyous. It was so good that the plot of his final episode, with him coming to realise that having everyone fawn over him all the time is something that doesn’t happen to anyone else, was even alluded to in the third season of Mad Men (reacting with bemusement when Sal points out that he doesn’t get hit on by flight attendants on every flight he takes, unlike Don, who is obviously spoilt for choice). Once Mad Men is over, Hamm can pretty much pick a direction. Not many actors get to achieve stardom and show both comedic and dramatic chops. Maybe he’s more like Dr. Drew than he realises.

Most Resurrected Character of the Year: Captain Jack Harkness - Torchwood: Children of Earth

I thought I always wanted Captain Jack’s immortality to be used more, as it’s a nifty little gimmick. I don’t think that any more.

Most Surprising Directorial Work of the Year: Akiva Goldsman on Kings and Fringe

Akiva Goldsman has done some awful things. His script for Batman and Robin is rightly reviled. He’s great at simplifying complex narratives and turning them into multiplex fodder (A Beautiful Mind, I, Robot). He’s the go-to guy for big movies based on crappy thrillers by bad writers (he’s adapted John Grisham and Dan Brown). When nerds hear his name, they sob with misery. “Why is this man so beloved of Hollywood?”, they shout. “It must be proof of its awfulness, along with the career of Michael Bay!” Of course, my own feelings about Bay are not so straight-down-the-line, and now, Goldsman has begun to win me over.

All he had to do was build up his experience as a director by making two of the strongest hours of TV of the 2008-2009 season. His debut, on Kings‘ The Sabbath Queen, showed a talent for atmospherics and interesting visuals, pacing the episode beautifully and getting some good performances from even the weaker actors on the show. After that he wrote and directed Bad Dreams, one of the highlights of Fringe’s first season. Again, the creepy atmosphere was beautifully judged, and the opening few minutes were hypnotically staged. Even better, the big finale was disturbing and tense, even as it played with some less than fresh ideas, and then we got a video clip of a young Olivia that wouldn’t have looked amiss in Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. If you’ll forgive me for cheating and ignoring my own rules, we’ve also seen his work on the first episode of the second season of Fringe, and again, it was very impressive. In time it’s obvious that he will be directing films too. I hope he finds some interesting material to work with, but even if not, I look forward to seeing what he will come up with.

Least Surprising Directorial Work of the Year: Greg Yaitanes on House and Lost

Shades of Caruso took against the TV (and occasional film) director Greg Yaitanes after some hilariously overwrought and showy work on shows such as Heroes and Drive, and we’ve yet to be convinced he deserves reappraisal. Last year he won an Emmy for his work on the first part of the House season finale, which would have been understandable when you take the logistics of the shoot into account, but is frustrating when Katie Jacobs’ work on the far more affecting final episode wasn’t even considered (and she’s listed as co-director of the Yaitanes episode too, but didn’t get a nomination). Since then, Yaitanes has been given a co-producer credit on House, and contributed numerous episodes to this season, including the shocking Simple Explanation, in which Kutner (Kal Penn) commits suicide offscreen.

I will say this: the scene where Foreman and Thirteen discover the body was brilliantly done. Unfortunately, Yaitanes had a vision for this episode and went ahead with it. Everyone at Princeton Plainsboro is obviously very depressed about Kutner’s death, so Yaitanes lights the entire episode as if all the colour has been drained from the hospital. It’s an entirely grey hour of TV, just in case you didn’t get it from the performances or dialogue or sad music all over the place. To be honest, the episode Joy, directed by an unexpectedly off-colour Deran Serafian, featured the worst direction of the season, but Yaitanes was consistently bad here, and worse elsewhere.

You see, he also managed to infect my beloved Lost with his ridiculous film-cooties. I could talk about the flashy work he did on Heroes, but to be honest he’s the least of that show’s problems, so I don’t really mind if he stays on it. Lost, however, is a totally different matter. He had worked on the show before, in the first season, and as we started rewatching the show recently, I noticed he was kinda bad then too. That was when the show was in its infancy, and was still trying to find its tone, so his attention-seeking excesses were less obvious. By now, we all know what works and what doesn’t work within the very specific Lost world, which made Yaitanes’ excesses even more noticeable than usual. We know that Ben is creepy and Sayid is scary and intimidating, which are characteristics stressed by their very specific line-readings. In He’s Our You, we see a flashback to a face-off between the two characters, and both Michael Emerson and Naveen Andrews draw out their sentences to absurd lengths, with poorly edited pauses between each shot emphasising that they are both very methodical people who hate each other.

Lost usually treats these big moments with a sense of grandeur that works well, considering the unapologetically grandiose nature of the narrative, but this scene stepped over the line between epic and ridiculous. It made my favourite show seem like a parody of itself. I don’t even want to get into the awful “interrogation” scene later (included above), which was poorly written but even more poorly directed. What was Andrews doing here? It’s all over the place. The final scene with Sayid shooting young Ben was brilliant, but it was the only bright spot in a very disappointing hour of Lost. When you compare this horrible misinterpretation of the tone of the show to the consistently impressive work of star directors Jack Bender and Stephen Williams, it just looks amateurish. I keep hoping he’ll settle down, but the latest episode of House was directed by him, and as it was about a games programmer, most shots seemed to feature arms coming out of the side of the frame towards the person being observed, just like an FPS, so it might be a while before he realises less is more.

Best Shout-Out of the Year: House

Stephen Colbert is a huge fan of House, and it seems the feeling is mutual. (It’s the photo above his shoulder, obviously.)

This is the only way Colbert is ever going to get on a Fox channel without being mischaracterised as a baby-eating Trotsky clone.

Intensity of the Year: Lance “Intensity” Reddick – Fringe

While Parks and Recreation fans, or Dexterites, or people with Unusual taste, might be mad at me for being a big meanie and saying such terrible things about their favourite shows, surely there can be no controversy here. No one else this year was so stern and scary and just fucking in charge.

I suspect Lance “Intensity” Reddick can atomise titanium just by looking at it. As with Harry Lennix on Dollhouse, Reddick is pretty under-used on Fringe. Most of the time he is onscreen he’s taking the Fringe team to various crime scenes, or giving Olivia either a bollocking or a pep talk. This is not a good use of this man’s talents. He also showed up in Lost, as the sinister Matthew Abaddon, where he stopped being sinister just before getting shot and killed. Which sucked. I hope season two of Fringe sees him doing more entertaining stuff. I’d like him to shoot one of their ridiculous monsters (a part squid, part mushroom teenager hiding under carpets, for instance), or have more screen time with Blair Brown and Her Metallic Arm. If the Fringe showrunners don’t hurry up, he could well get very bored very soon. In this AV Club interview,  he says he wants to try his hand at comedy. (For the record, though he is seemingly never required to show it on TV, Mr. Reddick is fully capable of expressing amusement, and isn’t just a scarily intense man.)

If he left Fringe to do that, you know I’d be checking it out.

And that’s it for this year. In the next few weeks, some new polls or something. Maybe some chatter about the London Film Festival (I got really carried away buying tickets the other week). Stay tuned, new readers. As you can see, I may not post as often as I would like, but when I do, I tend to post big.

We love HBO, that’s not a secret. And we love it because, from time to time, it makes experiments, little pearls of beauty that satisfies our eager souls. And one of those experiments was this amazing one-season Tv show. Tell Me You Love Me was created by Chyntia Mort ( Rosseanne, Will & Grace ), produced and directed by Patricia Rozema. The show revolves around three couples, Jamie and Hugo (Michelle Borth and Luke Kirby), Katie and David (Ally Walker and Tim DeKay) and Carolyn and Palek (Sonia Walger and Adam Scott), each with their own problems concerning intimacy in their relationships. They seek the help of therapist Dr. May Foster ( Jane Alexander ), who herself has relationship issues with her partner Arthur (David Selby).

Each episode screens without any introduction, no title cards and no opening credits. The episodes are also shot with handheld cameras, giving the show a somewhat documentary-like feel. Each episode has no music score or soundtrack, except for one song which generally starts in the last 2-3 scenes and carries over the closing credits. The “Tell Me You Love Me” title card for the show is not shown until immediately before the closing credits.

So, apart from that, what makes this an exceptionaltv show, and what is called “an experiment”?? Well, I would say, it’s definetely sentimental pornography. There was a lot of controversy because of the sex scenes, because it shows some pretty specific and extremely realistic scenes, such as masturbation, oral sex or plain sex. But they were simulated. And if you watch the show, you’ll realize it’s the less important issue, in fact, you’ll feel more uncomfortable with their feelings than with their sex. They talk real shit about relationships, shit everyone has experienced. So that’s what makes it a show worth to watch.

I knew we were lucky to watch it, and by the time they canceled it, I was expecting that. because sometimes they dare to broadcast something so brave, but I’m sure someone’s gonna argue and fight back. Plus, the shares… Mostly, people watch shows that do not make them think ( ok, we’ll talk about Lost later ) and no ones likes to be confronted about their feelings, and miserable life. And this TV Show is no sweet candy, it’s sad, and tough and discouraging… so real. But it’s also tender, and revealing and it’s a way to heal your heart, if you’ve ever had it broken.

And it’s a masterpiece, almost a documentary, almost real life. Direction, photography and actors… Art !!!! So watch it, feel it, break it, cry it, live it and die it… but give it a chance, it won’t dissapoint you. I promise.

Some pearls :

Official page : http://www.hbo.com/tellme/

Imdb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809497/

Wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_You_Love_Me

season 6,batman anime,boondocks season 3,free e card,krazzy video,canadian idol season 6 auditions

The beautiful songstress has had yet another song leak off of her upcoming Def Jam album. But it’s all good; I like this one. You know the deal: link after pic.

Amerie – Tell Me You Love Me – DOWNLOAD.

Via OnSmash

Como ando um pouco irritado em pagar uma pequena fortuna em Tv a Cabo e nunca ter o que assistir ( tudo repetido, troca ou pessimos horarios de exibição, muitas ou nenhuma resprise ou seja: Praticamente um SBT) resolvi baixar as séries e estou me acabando.

Fora as habituais Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Gossip Girl e Cia que ganharam reprises super infelizes estou redescobrindo as séries da HBO ( que apesar da qualidade tem os piores horarios).

Minha primeira indicação é a realista e cruel “Tell me you love me”, Com um elenco totalmente desprovido de pudor a série mostra o cotidiano de 4 casais em diferentes momentos da vida “conjugal”. Muito sexo ( nada gratuito, apesar de bem explicito tem uma função para a trama), crises  e dramas bem reais!

A segunda é meu novo xodó: True Blood conta a história de uma garota sulista norte-americana ( e telepata) que se envolve com um vampiro. Até ai nada de muito novo, o bacana é que aqui os vampiros convivem em sociedade ( não quer dizer que são aceitos) por conta de um sangue artificial desenvolvido pelos japoneses.

Ana Paquin que me agrada desde pequeninha em O Piando aparece sexy e fofa no papel principal, já Stephen Moyer tem tudo para virar queridinho dos EUA pois não é necessariamente bonito o tempo todo  mas muito Charmoso.

Terminando essas começo Big Love e In Treatment e vamos ver no que dá.

Iran em momento super nerd

I have high hopes for Party down.  Not because I’m a Veronica Mars devotee — apparently there’s a significant cast overlap — but because I have a soft spot for weirdo American comedy.  Ken Marino, the horny, be-afroed, gum-chewing counselor from Wet hot American summer, as the team leader of a catering crew?  Great!  Bill Haverchuck, the single most pitifully endearing character in all of television history, as a science fiction-writing server?  Even better!  [That scene in front of the TV is guaranteed to choke me up, every single time.  I love you, Bill Haverchuck.]  Other regular cast members include Jane Lynch, the square-jawed father-to-be from Tell me you love me, and crazy Lizzy Caplan from True blood.  You had me at “Party.”

Two episodes in, though, I’m not sold yet.  There were a few GOL moments, a few good one-liners, but otherwise the interactions felt kind of forced.  The danger for the show, I think, will be to drift too far in the direction of American pie, to favor goofy jerk-off jokes over genuine awkwardness or absurdity without reserve.  Fred Savage’s directorial stint during season four of It’s always sunny in Philadelphia corresponded to a general slump in the hilarity (the season premiere excepted), so I wonder if his hand on Party down is what’s keeping things too conventional.  Maybe David Wain should direct an episode or two?

Yes, *this* Fred Savage.

Meanwhile, Reno 911! has also just started an unexpected sixth season, with a couple notable additions to the cast: Joe Lo Truglio (also with The state pedigree) and surprisingly hefty Upright Citizen Ian Roberts.  I stopped following the show after Reno 911!: Miami — great title, mediocre movie — but the season premiere shows promise of reinvigorating the series.

One final State-related observation: did anyone else ever fall in love with Stella and watch the “Office party” episode over and over and over?  Wednesday’s season finale of Damages felt a lot to me like the climax in “Office party,” when the CEO of the company fires Michael, David and Michael, who are then reinstated by the Chairman of the Board, who is then arrested for “corrupt business practices” by the District Attorney, who is then fired by the Mayor, whose authority is trumped, we learn, by the citizenry.

“O beautiful, for spacious skies…”

I chose this picture because Sarah is wearing one of my favorite Herve Leger dresses! Anyways, Sarah is finally making a comeback from her Buffy days. She’s been in a few movies but she’s also been off the radar for some time.

Nate Corddry (Gene on “United States Of Tara“) and Molly Parker (“Deadwood“) will join in as Sarah Michelle Gellar’s siblings in the new HBO pilot “The Wonderful Maladys.”

The comedy is set in New York and will revolve around the dysfunctional lives of the three siblings who had lost their parents at a younger age.

I’m excited to see this! The only show I watch on HBO is Entourage because Tell Me You Love Me got cancelled..

Source: ONTD

Listening to: Dyno Jamz – Universal Love

http://www.serieina.com/

Así es, tras casi 9 meses publicando entradas en este humilde blog ha llegado el momento de dar un salto y comenzar una nueva época. Imagino que muchos de vosotros os preguntasteis estos días por qué no actualizábamos el blog con la cantidad de noticias que hay. No nos hemos olvidado ni mucho menos sino que decidimos mudarnos a un nuevo servidor (uno propio) y hacernos con un dominio propio y estas cosas llevan su tiempo, sobre todo con la cantidad de problemas que hemos tenido a la hora de pegar este pequeño gran salto.

El caso es que, después de meditar si dar el salto o no, estamos muy ilusionados con lo que hemos hecho y con el resultado final. Todo esto no sería posible sin la ayuda de alguién imprescindible: Harmony de One Hundred Tears Away con la que siempre estaremos en deuda y agradecemos enormemente su trabajo; el suyo y el de su novio, dos personas claves y vitales en esta nueva etapa que vamos a comenzar. Además de Harmony me gustaría hacer una especial mención a todos los bloggers que nos ofrecieron su ayuda: Kyra de Maybe Tomorrow, Thrusnext de Al final de la escapada, Sunne de El Blog de Sunne, y toda la pantilla de twitter. Es increible  la cantidad de buena gente que hemos conocido a través del mundillo de las series. ¡¡¡Gracias por todo!!!

A partir de ahora para visitar Serieína tienes que escribir la siguiente dirección:

http://www.serieina.com/

Una dirección facilita, ¿no? Como es lógico, desde hoy mismo, este blog va a permanecer inactivo ya que desde ahora vamos a escribir todas las entradas en nuestro nuevo blog; un blog con mucho más estilo y muchas más funciones que este que estais leyendo. ¿Quién nos iba a decir a nosotros en junio pasado que ibámos a tener un servidor y dominio propio? Muchisimas gracias por leernos día tras día. Sin vosotros no hubiese sido posible.

Por último, sólo me queda despedirme del verde y dar la bienvenida a…. (no voy a decir el color, tendreis que visitar el blog xD) y también comentaros que para celebrar esta nueva época de Serieína, tenemos preparado un concurso en el que sortearemos algo muy difícil de conseguir y que os va a gustar…

Os invitamos a pasaros por la nueva y defenitiva Serieína… ¿A qué estaís esperando?

http://www.serieina.com/

(Originally posted Thursday, October 11, 2007)

2 CBS
CSI: Tonight, a credible forensic scientist using rigorous testing proves the existence of the Dark Lord Satan.

2 CBS
Numb3rs: Charlie uses an ingenious mathematical formula to prove that it was Don who took his milk from the office refrigerator.

5 Fox
“Don’t Forget The Lyrics” (game show): This week, contestants are confused, wrongly thinking that half the lyrics to the classic song “Louie, Louie” must have been the word “fuck,” or at least that’s what they thought when they were 12.

7 ABC
Dancing With the Stars: Bruno challenges the wisdom of poet E.E. Cummings, saying, “Sometimes it is better to teach the stars how not to dance.”

7 ABC
Grey’s Anatomy: Izzie must confess indiscretions to Lexie about that night with Poozle and Muff. Tracheotomy performed.

13 PBS
Another Mind-Numbing Repeat of Antiques Roadshow

14 TNT
Law & Order: Episode 1,062, “The Buttocks of Insanity.”

17 The History Channel
Catherine The Great: Strange Sexual Tastes

18 Univision
Catherine The Great: Sexo Con Caballos

20 Animal Planet
If You Become Friendly With a Grizzly, Kids, Animal Cops Will Have To Kill It

21 Toon Disney
Pucca (South Korea): Fed up with her failed attempts to steal a kiss from her favorite ninja Garu, young Pucca tries the date rape drug Rohypnol

25 Discovery Health
Large, suppurating boils

28 Spike TV
Those Funny Japs

29 HGTV (Home and Garden Television)
I can’t help but think, as I look out at my perennials, of what Keats said, “Of Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies.” And yet I will plant my red valerians anyway. … Sigh.

30 Ovation
A cool documentary on music that several years ago you might have seen on Bravo, before it was chased off by style and cooking shows whose hosts have an edge of hostility and menace.

31 TLC
Thursday is boy’s night, so we have to talk about ethanol motorcycles; Friday is girl’s night, so we have to talk about dresses with hip gussets

32 National Geographic Channel
Yes, we would put the word “naked” in the program’s title if we thought that would light a fire under your ass to learn something. Jeez!

34 Showtime
Failure To Launch

35 TV Land
Bob Denver, showin’ you how it’s done.

36 Lifetime
Women: Catchin’ the Criminals and Birthin’ the Babies (A Very Sassy Police Show)

37 C-Span Books
Feminist author Susan Faludi shows you how to marginalize yourself with a dogmatic, parochial and joyless critical agenda.

38 Crosswalk Open Access Channel
Anyone who understands the concept of specific heat capacity knows 9/11 was a hoax, says young man wearing red bandana over his face.

39 Fox News
Why the Liberals Hate Our Ongoing Four-And-A-Half-Year Victory In Iraq

40 Democracy Now
Iran-Contra Is Our Continuing Cottage Industry

42 HBO
Tell Me You Love Me, Episode 5 (More like, “Show Me You Love Me In An Extended Soft-core Porno Scene That Destroys Any Kind of Narrative Rhythm”)

Sex. Life. This is the story of three couples trying to stay afloat – and one woman’s efforts to show them how to do it. HBO’s newest adult drama series explores issues of intimacy – through the point of view of a 20-something couple, prenumpital concerns and fidelity are examined, while the series’ 30-something couple confront their failed attempts to start a family, coping with the effects it has on their sex life. And after two kids and 12 years of marriage, a couple in their early 40s question why their love and devotion hasn’t translated into physical intimacy in nearly a year. Tell Me You Love Me explores the telling, everyday moments that can make or break a couple’s commitment to one another, both emotionally and physically.

This 10-episode first season of HBO’s drama, Tell Me You Love Me, is a semi-sexy romp into the world of coupledom, though in total it casts a depressed glow on the possibility of long-term connection. In it, three couples plus their endearing shared therapist, May (Jane Alexander), feud over various issues arisen due to marriage, aging, differing sexual desires, and sheer boredom. Episodes rotate couples’ scenarios and are spliced with scenes showing each seeking refuge in May’s office. The youngest pair, sous chef Jaime (Michelle Borth) and her fianc� Hugo (Luke Ferrell Kirby), break their engagement over feared infidelity, while Jaime lands pretty boy Nick (Ian Somerhalder) to temporarily ease her pain over the broken commitment. Thirty-somethings, Pawlik (Adam Scott) and Carolyn (Sonya Walger), struggle to get pregnant. As their situation escalates they detest what they recognize in each other as parental traits they’ve both worked so hard to avoid. The most riveting and mature situation develops as Dave (Tim DeKay) and Katie (Ally Parker) realize that after 13 years of marriage and kids they’re incapable of having sex. DeKay and Parker make an eerily convincing acting team, mirroring oodles of couples who lack passion but don’t know how to fix it. Dave and Katie most successfully ask the core question of whether or not marriage can truly work. Here, sex and love are separated into two distinct categories. Failed intimacy abounds as emotional overload and stress sets in for each team of lovers. The first several episodes set up the dilemmas and are rife with fighting and despair; midway through, relief comes as Dave and Katie take their therapist’s advice and have some nights alone with no kids. Similarly, Jaime gives Hugo a break after he nearly overdoses. Episodes nine and ten are the juiciest, as one begins to wonder who will stay split up and who will weather the desperation. Carolyn reconsiders her anxiety-inducing job, while we see Katie and Dave still crumbling under tension as they remodel their already-perfect house yet again. Throughout, sex scenes amongst the two sexually active couples provide some respite from the bickering, though they mostly illustrate how sex serves as both sanctuary and escape. Tell Me You Love Me shows marriage as an uphill battle, though seemingly this means to inspire viewers to assess their own relationships for preservation. –Trinie Dalton

Tell Me You Love Me – The Complete First Season is available at Amazon for $19.99. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• Damages: The Complete First Season
• Californication – Season One
• Mad Men – Season One
• Dexter – The Complete Second Season
• The Tudors – The Complete First Season

Nu har jag sett de sista nakna kropparna i ”Tell me..” och spänningen blev trots det lugna  klipp-tempot genom hela tv-serien gräslig. Saker man inte väntat sig hände hela tiden, och plötsligt slutade allt under stor dramatik (men jag ska inte tala om huruvida det är professor Plommon som är mördare eller pastor Grön) som i alla fall lämnade mig lätt omtumlad.

Jag förstår nu också varför Calle Rehbinder kände så pass stor värme till serien, för tvivelsutan så känner man plötsligt för karaktärerna, och ler när de ler, blir illa berörd när de blir det, och ledsna när de blir det. Det är bara vid deras sex-scener som jag inte delat deras känslor eller upphetsning, utan mer känt att jag velat smyga ut och sätta mig framför tv:n tills de kommer ut generade och rosiga om kinden, (även om en av damerna i mitt tycke är mer intressant än de andra…gissa vem!!). I efterhand är det inte svårt att förstå varför det är lätt att fatta tycke för dem. De är mer mänskliga efter att man till och med fått följa med rollfiguren in på dass. Jag känner mig som en nyfiken, halv-voyeuristisk släkting.

Givetvis har serien gett mig spännande tankar om mig och hur jag ser på relationer och förmodligen fungerar, vilket givetvis var ett syfte när jag köpte boxen, men jag tycker nog att berättelserna har transcenderat över detta in i en god berättelse om fyra par och deras utveckling; hur de börjar finna sig själva och varandra, eller t o m kanske lyckas.

Kommer det en uppföljande säsong 2, tror jag att det kommer ställa väldigt stora krav på manusförfattaren eftersom man nog måste tillföra ett eller flera par, och dessutom låta det hända fler yttre händelser av episk karaktär mitt i denna långsamt rullande dagboks-dramaturgi sitt treriksrös mellan naturalism, symbolism och dekadenslitteratur.

Jag hoppas jag får träffa mina vänner igen. Det skulle vara kul om realismen innehöll någon minut av intellektuella samtal om verbformer eller amerikansk mångfaldsdebatt, gräl om det smakar margarin eller smör och några grova skämt samt att de blev lite mer övervikt, håravfall och skägg-vårtor. – Alla är på gränsen till för snygga, slanka och korrekta. Deras Tintin-mässiga genomsnitts-apparition, placerar dem med gränsen till det omänskliga inom synhåll.

Varje avsnitt innehåller fortfarande ganska mycket sex, och nu har man till och med låtit barnen upptäcka sin sexualitet. (Jag skulle kunna tänka mig att MRA och liknande måste ha blivit upprörda när de såg sönder avsnitten för att leta efter detaljer att slå ned på.) Men, med bara två avsnitt kvar tycker jag att det icke sexuella innehållet bara blir tydligare och tydligare, och sexscenerna bara mer och mer ovidkommande som självändamål men givetvis fortfarande betydelsefulla i handlingen som helhet, både som vacker respektive ful sex.

Fortfarande är de viktigaste frågorna i serien (a) alla outtalade förväntningar, men också mer och mer av (b) pinsamma lögner på grund av (c) skam för (d) maskera de outtalade förväntningarna.
Det nya tydliga problemet som verkar kumuleras är den ”spelade åsikten”, (ni vet den rödglödgat ilskne som säger ”jag är inte arg”

En annorlunda men kul sak jag upptäckt med dramaturgin i serien:
Handlingen i Tell me…är ju inte uppbyggd som ett episkt hjältedåd, där allt ligger spännande utanför personerna i ett (1) yttre problem (elak skurk) som klaras av genom genomskinlig karaktärsegenskap (mod) hos hjälten, vars akilleshäl (spriten) egentligen är ovidkommande (dricker när han är olyckligt kär) eller rent av chimärisk (han kunde bli nykter själv utan AA).

Uppbyggnaden är mer lik Oidipussagan: Visst finns det yttre problem att ta itu med, men allt utgår ifrån huruvida man också klarar sitt eget personliga öde, och sin skam. Om man inte kan bära sitt öde som gudarna (Afrodite) gett oss, så kommer även andras öden att riskeras – och man blir en skam.

Denna psykologi gör i alla fall att jag har lättare att leva mig in i historien (Visst har jag väl levt mig in i filmkaraktärer tidigare, men om dessa karaktärer känns som släkt eller vänner, så blir ju inlevelsen onekligen starkare). Trots viss kulturskillnad känner jag lättare igen mig i alla deras alla stadier i livet, och alla personer i serien; män som kvinnor. Ibland håller jag med dem, ibland vill jag nästan stänga av för att de gör eller säger så pinsamma saker.

Just genom denna allmänna inlevelse fick jag en lustig tanke i går när jag var och handlade och såg en dubbelgångare till en av kvinnorna i serien: Plötsligt blev hennes liv (den okända kvinnans i köpcentret) så mycket mer tydligt och mänskligt, och jag tänkte att ”Just det ja, hon kanske har det likadant som rollfiguren på DVD:n det vet man aldrig….och ändå är det så lätt att man låter sig falla in i snacket ”jag har det värst av alla i hela världen”. Tvärtom så kände jag en viss altruistisk och medmänsklig ömhet till en person jag aldrig sett, och förmodligen aldrig heller kommer att träffa.

Det är ganska skojigt med en film som både ger förklaringar, tips och hjärta för andra trots att den bara, om jag spetsar till det lite, handlar om makar som är taskiga mot varandra. Kanske är det som Marcus Birro ungefär menat: Varför gömma och dölja smärta, sorg och lidande. Lidandet likaväl som glädjen visar att vi är människor som lever.

Man behöver inte bli lika svart som Schopenhauer, men visst kan lidandet adla en människa, men också förgylla synen på den andra genom insikten att vi delar öde och inte är olika utvecklade, högre stående eller lägre. Vi är ett med våra mänskliga frågor.

“….Flickidolen visar allt i den nya skandalserien

Sex, porr och nakenhet är inte längre bara något för betalkanalernas sena timmar. I Tell Me You Love Me gör skådisarna “det” nästan som på riktigt. HBO:s nya serie fortsätter att chockera. Även om relationer och intimitet sägs stå i fokus i Tell Me You Love Me, är det de vågade sexscenerna som dramaserien blivit mest omskriven för.

Så säljs och annonseras tv-serien “Tell me you love me”, men ärligt talat måste man nog vara väldigt pryd för att bli upprörd över sexscenerna, även om man kan bli förvånad över seriens ovanliga erotiska frankhet. 

Men sexscenerna “i all ära”, de känns inte omotiverade i sig, och därför är det heller inte det som fastnar i huvudet och minnet när man ser serien, det är skådisarna och berättelsen om personerna. Genom att deras livsöden dessutom känns realistiska tappar inte heller skådisarna värdigheten trots sin påtagliga nakenhet i flera bemärkelser. Tvärtom

Tv-serien handlar i grunden ( jag har än så länge bara sett 3 avsnitt från boxen) om fyra par i olika åldrar (20-, 30-, 40- & 60-årsåldern) Dessa fyra par har såväl vanliga relationsproblem, som ålderstypiska problem. De löser dem på olika sätt och resonerar högst olika. Det spännande är att det är så lätt att känna igen sig i sättet att tänka. Jag känner igen mig i alla de fyra männen, och känner även igen kvinnornas sätt att resonera. Efter ett tag kommer man under skinnet på dem så mycket att man börjar se deras ansiktsuttryck skifta med känslorna (lögner, hemligheter, sorg, glädje) och jag börjar till och med gilla dem på olika sätt, nästan som vänner – snabbare än andra filmkaraktärer. Troligen för att man möter dem i ett vardagsliv man inte brukar möta filmkaraktärer utan bara riktiga människor.

Därför tycker inte jag heller att sexscenerna blir så störande. möjligtvis kan jag undra om det inte istället är jag som stör dem. Det känns som deras sexualitet, inte min.

Det som jag än så länge fått ut som gemensam nämnare i de avsnitt jag sett, är också ett av de temata som finns i den senaste DVD:n jag såg: andras outtalade förväntningar på mig, i möte med mina outtalade förväntningar på andra.

Det skulle därför vara kul om någon som också sett tv-serien när den nyligen gick både på TV5 och SvT, eller som box, ville kommentera sin syn på vad den handlar om, vilket det vanligaste temat är och om sexscenerna är motiverade eller inte. Tv-serien är absolut sevärd. Är man dessutom van vid eller road av relationsfrågor, går det ju lättare att se den.

(Min gamla barndomspolare numera också bloggranne Calle Rehbinder (http://tantrikblog.wordpress.com) har ganska nyligen skrivit om “Tell me you love me”. Det som gör hans åsikt spännande är att han och hans fru jobbar med rådgivning i sex och samlevnad. Jag minns inte vilket datum han skrev, och kan ej heller pga brandväggar på min dator gå in och kolla, men, det är bara några få inlägg tillbaka.)  Det som jag slogs av när jag läste hans inlägg, vvar den värme som fanns mellan bokstäverna. och någonstans kan  jag förstå: Man gillar karaktärerna eftersom de inte i enlighet med vanlig dramaturgi ömkar sig så att man tycker synd om dem, utan i enlighet med den retoriska devisen ”inget torkar fortare än tårar” så är de stolta och rakryggade i sina öden. De gör aldrig som Oidipus som försökte fly sitt öde utan att möta det, utan lever sina öden som de kan taskigt eller rättfärdigt men fullt mänskligt.

(Boxen går att köpa på välförsedda ställen, så den borde gå att hyra. Youtube å sin sida kräver inloggning eftersom citaten kan innehålla somt vilket är nakot)

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This morning was the morning I’d hoped for all week–alone time with The Director.

“Good morning! So, what time are you getting in these days?” he asks, unwrapping his scarf and removing his jacket.

“About 7. Maybe a little before.”

“Ah, good!” He exclaimed and went to perform his daily coffee-making ritual.

A few minutes later, he returned to my cubicle, either not noticing or not caring about the fact that I was shopping online for a scarf and not churning out his profits.

“So…How are things at home?” He leaned against the outside wall of my cubicle.

We had had many a conversation before about my troubled home life and my marital woes. However, I had never divulged to him the details of my problems: that I don’t believe in monogamy and my husband does, that I am an atheist and my husband isn’t, that I value my maiden name and my husband doesn’t.

“Eh, not good. Not good at all,” I replied, minimizing my Internet browser. “We just have major, major differences. Differences that cannot be resolved.”

“Hmm…” He stared at me squarely, waiting for more.

“My husband is very traditional, and I…am not,” I didn’t elaborate. I wanted him to interpret that statement on his own. After a dramatic pause, I added, “But I try to leave my problems at home.” I faked a smile.

But the contriteness of my positive attitude must have been apparent.

“But I’ll be you get lonely at home,” The Director said in his usual soft-spoken manner, looking down at me.

I gulped. “Yeah.” I thought about how hot the room was beginning to feel and that perhaps I should turn off my space heater.

He then asked, “Say, have you ever watched that HBO series called ‘Tell Me You Love Me’?”

“Um, no. I’ve never heard of it, actually,” I said, masking my intrigue with clumsy indifference.

“Well, it’s about three couples who have three different types of relationship problems. It can be graphic at times, but since you’re not a traditionalist, I figure it won’t offend you. Anyway, it’s very good! It’s comforting and refreshing to know that other people have these sorts of problems,” He said.

Does he have marital problems of his own? I wondered, but I didn’t ask.

“Sounds like something I’d like. I’ll add it to my Netflix list.”

As I pulled up the Netflix site and logged in, my most recent movie rental appeared on the screen.

“‘The Lives of Others’! That was an excellent movie!” He said, his blue eyes piercing my own, or so I perceived.

“Indeed!” I exclaimed, and we chatted about that film for a bit.

“Well…Anyway,” he continued, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you. Maybe I can help you,” he said, and he headed back to his office. I was too taken aback to search his face for any signs I could use to decipher his offer.

“I appreciate it!” I yelled over the cubicles as he got farther away from me, my eyes now free to widen in amazement and confusion.

“Any time!”

He can help me. Indeed, he can help me. How am I supposed to take that remark? Either way, I can take advantage of it.

I immediately Googled “Tell Me You Love Me.” It’s a show about sex, involving one couple dealing with monogamy issues.

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. I began melting into a morass of hormones and sweat and adrenaline in my swivel chair.

How am I to act? How am I to interpret these conversations? Is The Director being a friend? Does he genuinely care? Or does he seek what I seek–indiscretions?

I floated on an endorphin cloud for the rest of the day.

Igår kväll såg tittade jag på första halvtimmen av “Tell me you love me” . Att jag inte tittade mer än det beror på att den börjar klockan 10 (TV1) och det blir för sent för mig. Någon gång har jag tittat mer och då har jag ångrat mig dagen efter.

Första gången fastnade jag där eftersom en av skådespelarna är Ally Walker, som jag tidigare sett i “Profiler”. Sedan blev jag lite… hur ska man säga… chockad (?) över scenerna…

Det är nämligen så att det här serien skapade stora rubriker i USA därför att det handlar om tre par som går till samma terapeut. Det ena paret har inte haft sex på ett år, det andra vill först ha barn, men kan inte, och sedan när mannen inte vill, så blir kvinnan gravid. Och det tredje paret är ett ungt par där hon nyss blivit lämnad av sin pojkvän och försöker hitta en ny. Många sex scener, och väldigt… naturliga.

Och det är just det som chockade publiken i USA. Hur naturligt allt är, och på samma sätt, hur nära det är. Ett exempel. I en vanlig film, när kvinnan tror att hon är gravid, mår hon illa. Man ser aldrig det, hon men man uppfattar det. I den här filmen ser man Sonya Walger i badrummet. Hon känner på sina bröst att de är ömma och när hennes man kommer in ber hon honom röra dem. Det hade ALDRIG visats i någon film tidigare, men det är ju inte så onaturligt, egentligen. Frågan många kan ställa sig är, är det en porrfilm? Nej, det kan låta så, men det är inte det.

Egentligen handlar det mesta om känslor runt förhållanden, och runt sex. På ett väldigt intimt sätt. Så man nästan skruvar på sig i soffan när man ser det. Som igår, frågar terapeuten Tim Dekay (han som inte haft sex på ett år) vilken är hans favorit ställning. Hmmm… något vi kanske funderar på, men inte vill prata med en terapeut om!

Filmingen är också gjord på ett sätt som ska vara så naturligt som möjligt. Ingen bakgrundsmusik. Inga effekter. Det känns nästan som man är i rummet med skådespelarna.

Men här i Sverige är det inte många som pratat om serien. För pinsamt, kanske?

Ett år etter at Brotherhood, ble vist på svenske skjermer og to år etter den ble vist på amerikanske skjermer er den endelig tildelt sendetid på norske skjermer, og da velger Tv2 å gjemme den vekk på Zebra og gi den tittelen Bror mot bror.

Dette fantastiske eposet om den gamle Kain Abel relasjonen, med to brødre som står på hver sin side av loven, er drevet av dyktige skribenter og fantastiske skuespillere, og burde blitt gitt en primetime på en større kanal enn Zebra. Mikael Godø i Dagbladet har skrevet en fantastisk anmeldelse av Brotherhood. Vises tirsdager på Tv2 Zebra kl. 21:20- kjøp den heller på DVD til 249kr på Platekompaniet.

Brotherhood burde vært fredagsserien til NRK. I stedet velger de å sende den mislykkete HBO produksjonen Tell me you love me, som er blitt direkte oversatt til: Si at du elsker meg. Utgangspunktet for serien tre par i forskjellig alder som alle sliter på forskjellige måter og går til samme psykolog. Jeg prøvde to ganger å se serien da den kom, men måtte gi opp. Det ble for kjedelig, langsomt og trist, disse polerte menneskene er uinspirerte og mangler mål og hensikt i serien. Jeg klarte ikke en gang å komme til de beryktete sexscene, som visstnok ser så ekte ut, at produsenten måtte forklare at det kun var skuespill. Synd, for utgangspunktet er bra, og med riktige folkene så kunne dette blitt meget interessant.

Dagsavisen slakter serien og gir den 1, mens Dagbladet mener serien at “…helheten er såpass unik at den fortjener en sjanse“. Si at du elsker meg har premiere i kveld på NRK.