Actually, that’s not possible, because British television is so much more liberal than US network television (as in, allowing swearing and nudity). So it’s more like, what Heroes should have been if it were on cable. Anyway, if you are like me, you thought Heroes sucked ass, and progressively sucked more ass as time went on. And if you were like me, you had never heard of Misfits. But now you have, and I recommend you find it somehow. Don’t look up the wiki because wiki gives away everything.

If you want to be legit, someone told me ep 1 is on netflix. However, I think you really need to watch the first two to get a complete feel for the show (ep 2 is pretty awesome, btw). At least for me, I don’t really like shows where a moron can be a main character (but only one of them is a total tool, and at least he captures the true essence of a tool). Hence, I never liked Dennis the Menace when I was a kid. In fact, I’d always hope he’d get caught.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve been looking for a show to watch while Lost is off, but I just couldn’t find one that I really wanted to stick with. Mad Men got a bit irrelevant (I’ll expound in the future), Dexter started to seem like a huge time investment (and murder-of-the-weekish), and Deadwood started boring the hell out of me. My friend mentioned Misfits, and the short 6 ep commitment seemed very tempting. It’s about juvenile delinquents sentenced to community service who somehow acquire minor supernatural powers. It sounds weird, but the writing is actually very good. The lack of crazy super powers makes the story more manageable, and more about the characters themselves rather than some kind of world-shattering predicament. And the delinquents feel authentic. You get to see (delinquent) teens be teens. Over here in the States, with all the decency rules, American-equivalent characters just feel so…fake. The closest I can think of was the much more serious and f’d up movie Kids. Other than that, you just get the typical brooding, back-talking punk. It’s so ubiquitous that I don’t think we Americans notice until we watch something like Misfits. Then it’s, “Aha, he reminds me of so and so when I was in grade school.” I’m sure most of us knew that one guy who was the perverted jackass of the class.

Anyway, check it out if you can. The main issue I had was trying to understand British slang. So far I’ve gathered that slag means slut. Other than that, no idea. Thankfully, there’s this: http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/. Misfits is listed as a dramedy, but I don’t really think it’s too comedic. There’s definitely very funny moments, though, but mainly because of what the main jackass character says. I guess it could be a dramedy, in the sense that Boston Legal is also a dramedy. But it’s not like Friends or anything like that.

Ok, “train wreck” is harsh. I’d give it a 3/5. But it was just such a huge disappoint compared to past Whedon works: Firefly, Dr. Horrible, hell even Buffy, and I didn’t really watch that one. The first half / first season was a complete waste, almost degenerating to Smallville’s villain of the week formula (oh god that was crap). It had the usual girl power angle, but none of the characters were around long enough to give a damn about (their minds are wiped after every ep, and so you’re left with characters with no fixed personality).

I randomly and reluctantly popped in Firefly the other day to put on as background noise while doing some cleaning. I say reluctantly because I had watched firefly so damn much, I didn’t think it’d entertain me anymore. Nope, to my surprise, it was still entertaining. And it just highlighted how much Dollhouse is “meh.” I really feel like Whedon blew it, not just for Dollhouse, but I’m worried for the execs, too, who may hold it against him.

Visually, it’s pretty cool. It has that slick Minority Report look to it, and the CG is nice. Plot-wise, it kind of has a Solaris feel to it, which is a little disappointing to me. I liked Solaris; it was weird, a little sad, and somehow romantic all at the same time.  But that’s not really something I’d want in a sci-fi series.  It kinda takes away from the sci-fi, and makes it more fantastical.  So now it’s taking the mystery angle, which is getting a bit tiresome, but I’ll probably stick to it for awhile, since there’s not much other sci-fi stuff out.

http://foodparty.tv/

The NY times article expired, but if you can find some clips, it’s very bizarre. It’s like pee wee herman + food + petite asian girl..

So Battlestar Galactica finished not too long ago. That left me with a TV slot to fill. At that point, I had been only seriously following two shows: BSG and LOST. I was trying to limit my tv intake, streamed or not. It just takes up too much time. But I think I over did it. I’ve been sampling a lot of shows and here are my results:

Current:

Lost
If you haven’t been following it, I’m sorry; it’s probably one of the best shows on standard broadcast at the moment. I say that as someone who previously gave up on it for a season or two. But they got their shit together, and every ep consists of relevant story arc. Catching up or starting now is going to be really hard. I tried a season marathon once; it was kind of painful. But I wouldn’t recommend diving in at a random point. The series is highly continuous (as the best shows tend to be imo). To help you out though, ABC has the most aggressive online strategy (and therefore the best). The entire show, seasons 1-5 is online, for free.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

Dollhouse.


You got the cosplay angle to attract the guys (hey a different sexy outfit every week!), and the strong female role to attract the gals. Unfortunately, this show started very poorly. I’m a big Whedon fan, primarily because of Firefly (see below), but Dollhouse just exuded mediocrity at first, with a lot of filler eps that didn’t really add much to an overall plot. I wasn’t a fan of Buffy, because it was a little too girly for me, but Buffy definitely seemed more interesting than Dollhouse.

The main problem with Dollhouse: The characters have deletable personalities. It’s difficult to like the characters because they have no stable character to like.

BUT, the last 3-4 eps have been pretty good. Actual meaty storyline occurs. Unfortunately, Fox gave Whedon a Firefly style screw-over by giving it a shitty timeslot, blah blah blah (although in this case, I don’t think Fox was that wrong to do so), and I suspect it’s already been canceled. My friend is bummed, but I kinda feel like Whedon wasted his shot with the first 5-7 eps. That’s a huge amount of capital to waste, especially with a network as fickle as Fox.

Southland

This is a very edgy show about the LAPD. At first, the moment I saw that guy from the OC, I thought it was going to be some bullshit mickey mouse cop show. But I watched some more, and it’s pretty dark and gritty. I like it! It’s also created by a stereotype-defying woman, interestingly enough. She must be a tough one – definitely a very intelligent woman behind the screens.

[Actually I take back what I said. There's a "why are the rich folks getting better police attention" arc, too.]
There are some questionable racial overtones, though. I’m not from South Central, so I can’t be totally unbiased, but the show seems to focus on minority criminals a lot. Although to be fair, there are multiple minority protagonists. So is that just the PC talking?

Hulu only keeps 5 at any given moment, so ep 1 is already pulled. Find it and catch up! Although I would say ep 1 isn’t entirely necessary.

Old Stuff

Firefly

I will always recommend this show. If you still haven’t seen Firefly, watch it. All 14 are on Hulu. It’s kind of like…Cowboy Bebop meets Buffy. It’s a very well written, fun show from start to finish, with the potential for years of interesting story arcs. I must have seen it 4x through now.

Without exaggeration, nearly every person I’ve recommended this show to has enjoyed it (and grown to hate Fox). Personally, I think it is Whedon’s best masterpiece. It appeals to a diverse group of people, male and female alike. My roommate even got a copy for his parents, and they enjoyed it as well.

When I do hear complaints about the show, they tend to be short sighted IMO. “Why are they still using horses and wagons on the border planets?” Because they’re frontier border planets. Why would high technology instantly imply “Star Trek”-style utopian socialism? Today, we can land people on the Moon at will, and yet you still find The Amazing Race contestants crying over starving animals and children eating out of the trash in India. Think about that one.
“Why is there country music?” Sorry, techno was unavailable. It fits the frontier theme.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Ok, maybe this one is Whedon’s best masterpiece. It might just be one of my favorite musicals, even among traditional musicals. It’s fun, short, and sweet.
Oh hey I just noticed that Harris did his first scene in one take. It’s nearly 4 minutes long, so that’s pretty notable!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f88f8d6385

I’ve never been a big fan of SNL, too many misses for my taste, but the political ones these past few weeks have been pretty sharp. “Shopping.” Ahh, Tina Fey is so awesome!

http://www.funnyordie.com/jokes/4c2ccba2c1

OK, I lied again. I’ll write about my thoughts on yin/yang and the arts later.

OK, I lied. I’ve been having difficulty concentrating lately. Maybe writing will help. This originally was going to be a post about just the first Kenshin OAV, but I think I’m going to extend it to other thoughts I’ve been having lately.

Anyway, Kenshin. I’ve been having the urge to watch the first Kenshin OAV again (there’s a second set that I wouldn’t really recommend). It’s one of my favorite animes. I don’t really watch anime anymore, since I find a lot of it to be unoriginal, or really just full of bullshit, but the Kenshin OAV has managed to be one of those timeless classics for me. So I found this clip on Youtube showing the extended version of the ending and noticed something interesting. Maybe someone can shed some light on it? If you haven’t seen Kenshin OAV, please skip the next few paragraphs. I don’t want to spoil anything.

Or, if you just don’t care, here’s a bit of background. Skip if you’ve already seen the anime or are familiar with this time period in Japan. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure blog! Hey…now that’s an idea…maybe later.

The first Kenshin OAV takes place around the Meiji Restoration. At the time, working to restore the emperor, imperial (Meiji) forces fought against shogunate forces (the Tokugawan government). The boys in blue, the Shinsengumi, a special police force (though I could argue they were practically a gang) allied themselves with the shogunate. For local folks, this is why I kind of find the local Shinsengumi restaurant to be amusing. In this anime, they are portrayed as the enemy, but in other Japanese works, they’re portrayed as heroes. It’s all about perspective, huh? Next time you read in the news about rebels, ask, are they rebels, or freedom fighters?

So anyway, the first OAV is about the origin of Kenshin, an expert swordsman-become-assassin. He starts off as a pure boy who just wants to protect the weak, but when he is older, he rationalizes that he must kill the few, without question, in order to protect the many. He has chosen to support imperial forces.

Pardon me, my Japanese is super rusty, in fact, it’s pretty much mostly gone, but starting at 17 seconds:

“Sumanai, Himura.” [I'm sorry, Himura. (he's the guy who gave boy-Kenshin the role of assassin)]

“Tomoe…ja, ittekuruyo.” [Tomoe...I'm leaving then (she's Kenshin's first love. His actions have caused the unfortunate)]

And then the interesting part. Look at how he reaches for his sword at 29 seconds. What say you?

Anyway, that is all. The rest won’t make any sense unless you’ve seen the beginning.

http://www.youtube.com/v/TvwVJYbixQU

I could be flatly wrong, but I love how it’s open to interpretation. I just can’t stand stuff where everything is spelled out for you.

I’m suddenly reminded of when I first saw Evangelion (it’s about a boy suffering massive teen angst. You really have to try hard to not want to slap him). There’s this scene that I didn’t really understand at the time, but I was a young lad then. “Huh? What is going on?” A later second viewing lead to a “Ooooooooh, I see.” Innocent Katherine refused to believe it. =p The scene is of Ikari standing over a hospitalized Asuka. Her breasts become revealed somehow (and no! that’s not what the anime is about!). The scene then cut away, and then I heard some strange sounds, and then something about loathing oneself. Actually. Why not just see it for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q0ClKn08vU

I remember thinking how bizarre it was after putting two and two. I’m an adult now. While I wouldn’t say it’s not bizarre today, it does make more sense now from a humanist point of view, considering the anime is about a fucked-up-in-the-head boy’s development, and I should hope that adult females would understand, too. He sees some boobies on his crush (that he himself isn’t even aware of), and schwing! I just realized this scene fits with the title even more. Ha.

Oh and, here’s the first ep of the Kenshin OAV if anyone’s curious, renamed Samurai X stateside. It’s pretty old now. Damn 9 years. It also can be pretty bloody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEBdjeYBy_Q

Anyway if you’re an all around nice person who thinks everyone is fuzzy wuzzy, this show probably isn’t for you. Just giving fair warning. Aw damn, in fact, since it’s for mature audiences, it looks like they require a login to “prove” you’re not some kid who can’t figure out how to lie about his age. Usually Hulu content is free to view by all. But seriously, I think it’s one of the better TV shows out right now.

http://www.hulu.com/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia

Season 2, Ep 8. I haven’t seen this one, but it looks election day oriented. Could fit the times.
Nm, just watched some of it. It’s pretty awesome.

Season 2, Ep 6 This one features sexism, racism, gambling, and alcoholism. I’m not selling this show very well, am I?

“No shit? I was so close…”

For the most part, the BBC version adhered quite closely to the book…and it was just so well done.  All the wit, nuance, and sharpness of Austen’s prose preserved and interpreted faithfully. It was really cool to see the actors bring her writing to life, even casting certain dialogue in a light that I had not originally read them, for the better. “Oooooh! You got served!….In the British manner…of the early 19th century.” So awesome. At times I felt like I never enjoyed myself thus with a Shakespearean work; the dialogue and banter here just seemed so much more fun and delicious.

When the BBC did take creative license, though, they kept it within the theme and spirit of Jane Austen’s original book. With the FF version, most of their original work just stuck out like a sore thumb. “Wait, not only did that not happen, that was retarded.” And the whole piece just felt so stripped and stupified. With the BBC version, it was more like, “Wait, did that happen? Because it seemed like it could have happened”, prompting me to go look it up. Sometimes, it had happened, perhaps modified or streamlined, or it had not, but fit well. There were some cheesy flashback scenes, though, but for a piece from 1995, meh. Damn, thirteen years ago, I’m old. Maybe save for that, it truly would have been a timeless piece for me. Well, ep 5 was kind of a drag, but portraying values that really aren’t applicable to modern society usually is, at least to Western society, specifically regarding family honor and reputation, and female virtue. These days a woman can take a few pokes here and there, well specifically there, and still be ok, though I suppose no woman would want to be called a bicycle. Although, my friend was telling me about a woman at his work that was called as such, and I tried to find amusement in it, but honestly, I really couldn’t. If a woman wants to sleep around, then whatever, that’s her prerogative.  I wouldn’t fault a free man for it, and I wouldn’t fault a free woman for it either, though I’d give both similar chances for having the plague.

Anyway…off topic. Generally, the acting was pretty much good across the board. Jennifer Ehle played a really good Elizabeth Bennet; her portrayal of her character’s intellect and thoughtfulness pretty much hit the nail on the head. Colin Firth played a convincing Mr. Darcy, too: a tool, but not too much of a tool.  Alison Steadman’s overbearing and over-dramatic Mrs. Bennet gave me a laugh, reminding me of the mom we’ve all met at some point in our lives, I’m sure. I could go on and on, but blah. I was tempted to read Pride & Prejudice again, but I think this series has satisfied me for the time being. Pwnage.