anagram of brat

Haven't done a consumable media post in a while, eh?

Things I need to catch up with:

• the last season of Sons of Anarchy. I started it, stalled out.


• Mad Men. Haven't watched the last couple weeks yet.


• My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. I liked the 10 eps I watched. Haven't gotten around the rest yet.


• Beavis and Butthead. I missed a few eps of this, keep meaning to head back and catch them. I really enjoyed what I've seen of the reboot.

Things I HAVE been watching:

30Rock seems to have taken a hard left this season, and I can't exactly pinpoint what all is different and whether I like it or not. There are aspects I enjoy - much less Tracy Morgan, Kenneth trying to survive outside of the Page program, KIRSTEN SCHAAL (even if her character frightens me) but... hm. The rest of it seems like it's flailing towards something else and not quite getting there.

Community HAS RETURNED AND IT IS AWESOME. That and I always enjoy John Goodman in whatever he does.

Parks and Rec is on hiatus right now, and I miss it. It was one of those shows that I wasn't sure about whether I liked or not initially, since when it started ALL of the characters irritated the shit out of me except for Ron Swanson. With the exception of Anne and Tom, the rest of the cast has grown on me and I've gotten rather invested in Leslie's campaign for City Council while still trying to manage her team of amiable doofuses at the P&R department. So... we'll see when that comes back.

Law and Order: SVU: still quietly mourning the lost of my Meloni-meat, but I admit, liking the fact that Olivia now has a someone she can, well, knock boots with in a requited fashion. I wasn't sure about the new additions to the cast - while the blonde and her poor-me, I gamble problem is pretty forgettable, I like Detective Muro and my OMG is my deployed wife cheating on me?? angst a lot.

Have not managed to get into Downton Abbey yet. It will happen, my unrequited Maggie Smith love will not be denied, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Black Books: we're almost through this one on Netflix. Oh Bill Bailey, I knew there were more reasons to love you besides "Love Song."

RuPaul's Drag Race: I've watched seasons 2 and 3 and have backtracked to season 1. While I enjoy the silly bitchy camp of it all, there is something about how drag/gay culture, plus gender and its expression is portrayed here that I find vaguely not okay. It may be the current of misogyny/transphobia that runs under the show at all times, which is more than a little interesting considering it's a contest between 13 men over who can dress up and act like a woman the best. What. I'm sure there's an essay in there, but it's for someone a little more versed in the issue to write. Meanwhile I'm enjoying it, both as entertainment and also as research, as my character for verbena76's Vampire game is a Russian Tzimisce drag queen (damn! I meant to find Paris is Burning... later), but with that undercurrent of yick running through it. IDK.

Breaking Bad: cell23 and I are well into Season 4... man, this show. I think the best summary of watching this character blunder and flail through the show is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Looking forward to how they wrap Walter White's messy little life up at the end of season 5, which is supposed to be the final one.

I will note that once someone pointed out that Giancarlo Esposito played Buggin Out in Do The Right Thing it's been very difficult to unsee it, despite him being older and the two characters being vastly different. This has led to more than one inappropriately timed quip of why there are no black people on the walls of Los Pollos Hermanos.

Another note? I love the camera work on this show; it tends to get out there and experimental from episode to episode but it's always effective in conveying the mood of any particular scene, trademarks being showing the view from various household appliances or inside objects (looking up at a character from the bottom of a boiling pot of water was one of my favorites), and occasionally mounting the camera on an unusual place or a strange angle, like last week when there was a camera attached to the blade of a shovel slung over a character's shoulder.

Last note, the soundtrack is fantastic. There isn't an overwhelming use of music, but when it is used, the choices are pretty amazing. There is one episode that introduces The Plot Thus Far via mariachi band, which is just... funny.

Game of Thrones: Wellp, Season 2 has started. Ooog. HBO has its work cut out for them - in addition to having to keep up with the characters established last season that we've gotten to actually care about, it's introducing about fifty bazillion more. Even having read the book, if I hadn't read all the stuff leading up to the premiere, I would have been all "wait what? who the fuck is that? Back up, I'm lost." Sunday's ep was pretty much a continuation of the "Here's what happened last season" summary at the beginning of the show, more of a "here's what's happened in the meantime, oh and fifty bazillion more characters for you to keep track of." Overall, slow confusing start. But hopefully since they've spent the first hour establishing everyone (well, almost), the next few eps'll get a bit meatier and more exciting. Meantime it's fun cackling over non-book fans speculating wildly about who these people are and what's going to happen next. UR TEARS, LET ME TASTE THEM.

That's pretty much it.

This morning I had not 1 but 2 dreams about 30 Rock. The first one was that somehow one of the sisters had managed to get me, a couple of her friends, and herself a private tour of some of the sets, so were all hanging out sitting on Kenneth's desk (and oddly/appropriately enough wearing NBC page jackets) watching people bustle around elsewhere when Alec Baldwin comes by looking all Jack Donaghy dapper to chat with us, take pictures and just be all "yes yes, I'm a celebrity, I don't know you people, but I'm gonna be nice to you for five minutes." While he was at it, Dean Winters for some reason was passing through out of costume and makeup, so I had a crazy fangirl moment ("OMG! I loved you in OZ! And in all those Allstate ads! You do douchebags really well!") and he was really really nice about that, lol. And then Tina Fey showed up, appropriately cute and super pregnant (which she actually is right now - I guess the ep of SNL the other day saw fit to remind me of that), and we talked about comedy and what it was like working with various actors (Tracey Morgan neither came up in conversation or showed up in the dream, so no opportunity to punch him in the kidney transplant. Sorry.) I also asked if I could pose in Jack's office with Alec Baldwin wearing a tux and holding a scotch; while the idea made her laugh she said it wouldn't be a good idea due to network and copyright. Eh worth a try anyway right?

I woke up and was all like huh? remarked on it on Twitter, went back to sleep and the dream continued with watching the cast film scenes from an upcoming episode of the "Liz Lemon thinks she's losing her mind; mayhem ensues" variety, woke up for real and was all WTF.

Probably some combination of watching the opening of SNL last saturday (it was a rerun), wibbling about going to New York today, and other stuff going that cooked that up in my subconscious, but... really?

Anyway, must continue running about like a headless chicken and packing. Catch you guys on the flip.