Who didn’t love to hate JR. Ewing but loved Larry Hagman? I know I did. I never seen an interview with him where he was not gracious, funny, and charming. His co-stars regularly said he was as stand up guy. May he rest in peace.
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I am so late to this show. I guess, I was afflicted with a little ABC snobbery, I don’t expect much from them since they cancelled Detroit 187. But Once Upon a Time is excellent. I watched the entire series on Netflix. Yeah, I can be one of those people who once I latch on to a good story I refuse to let go till I reach the end. Stephen King books ruin my life for at least a week because I won’t let those gabillion page novels down till the last word is read.
In Once Upon a Time the show bounces between the fairy tale characters we love in their world and the modern world in set in Storybrooke, Maine where those characters were transported by an evil queen. In this new world the characters have no idea who they are but the queen does and she rules as mayor of Storybrooke. Her adopted son knows she is evil and after his teacher gives him a book of fairy tales he connects the dots. He goes in search for his real mother who is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and the savior for all of Storybrooke and can release the curse.
The writing is awesome and the acting good. I could nitpick if I wanted to but overall the show is solid entertainment. My biggest critique would be that twenty-two episodes is too long. As with most drama serials the show really starts to lag around the eleventh episode and I can see why viewership dropped till the season finale.
Season two premieres tonight on ABC at 8pm. I will be watching and I hope the writing surpasses the first season.
You can watch all of Season One on ABC.com or Netflix, like I did.
I can’t say Bloody Hell without hearing Ron Weasly squealing it in every Harry Potter movie. I try to say it with a British accent but my British accent sucks, pretty much like when American tv tries to duplicate a popular British show.
Something gets lost when a television show crosses the pond. I don’t know of many successful transplants, actually only a few come to mind, Sanford and Son (Steptoe and Son), Three’s Company (Man About the House) and of course The Office. I believe what made these shows popular is the idea was borrowed but our originality was added. I’ve seen all three of the British version of these shows and maybe because I watched the American versions first and fell in love with their characters it was difficult to see them any other way. I do, however, think the original Office with Ricky Gervais does have the slight edge on our American version and I think it’s because they wrapped the show up in two seasons. We have dragged our version on way pass it’s jumping the shark moment, which for me is when Pam and Jim get married.
A few years ago MTV borrowed a popular teen drama Skins from BBC. I watched the Brit version on BBCAmerica and really liked it. I found it quite original and shocking. When MTV said they were using the script, the very same script I figured what could go wrong. I guess everything, for me anyway. I found it completely flat and contrived but it was the same script. I can’t explain it. Earlier today I caught another MTV borrowed show, The Inbetweeners. I like the original show and obviously MTV did as well so they used the same script but again it was flat and contrived. I’m not getting down on MTV because they do have a very funny show Awkward which I think it is quite good and its original.
One show I did like that crossed over here was BBC’s Life on Mars. It was about a cop that is struck down by a car and lies in coma in one world but is transported back to the 70′s in another.Again, the script was basically the same but the characters remained fresh and kept the aesthetic of the original series. Maybe because I am a huge Michael Imperioli but this show, which only ran one season on ABC, kept the juice it needed from the BBC version. I was not so happy with Prime Suspect (NBC) with Maria Bello as the flawed detective Jane Temoney that originally starred Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison. The lead characters name was changed which made no sense to me. Both characters were trying to forge themselves as relevant in a male dominated police force and although both had their personal issues Bello just never mustered enough compassion from me that made me root for her like I did Mirren. Another fail.
Syfy picked up Being Human. A show based on a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf who are trying to make it in the world despite their ‘abnormalities’. Most people I know had no idea that there was another version and love the American version of the show. I couldn’t. The actors just didn’t bring the full round of emotion, especially the conflict of Mitchell the vampire. In the American version he is such a whiner. Who falls in love with a whiny vampire?
Showtime seems to have been able to keep a lot of the grit of Shameless, something I know would have definitely been lost on network television. I was not a huge fan of the Brit version of Shameless only because this was one show I had a really hard time understanding the language! I blame myself for that but the American version which uses the same script clarifies a lot of the jokes for me and William Macy just owns any character he plays.
Now there is talk of bringing the new version of Sherlock Holmes to the networks. If you haven’t seen the updated version of Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch which bring Holmes into the present day, you may catch it on Masterpiece Theater (PBS). I’m afraid for this show. Jonny Lee Miller, who is British, will play Holmes and they will move the action from the streets of London to the streets of New York city. Le sigh. It gets worse, Lucy Liu plays Watson. Its due out this fall so I’ll reserve my opinion until I see a few episodes because maybe by changing location and gender to a character they could be creating another great version. I doubt it but I’m trying to keep an open mind. Bloody Hell, just bring Brit shows across the pond and let us watch them unfiltered, and unchanged. Most Americans have no idea what its like anywhere but their own neighborhood. Bringing the shows intact gives American a clean view of how others leave and you know how badly some of us need to know other cultures and countries.
A list of some of my favorite Brit Shows now and where you can catch them:
White Chapel (BBCAmerica)
Luther (Netflix and BBCAmerica)
Doc Martin (PBS)
Outnumbered (PBS)
Ashes to Ashes (PBS)
Top Boy (Netflix)
Commander (Netflix)
Snuff Box (Netflix)
so far…and I’m sick
It is beautiful in my neighborhood but unfortunately I have been sick since Tuesday. I never get colds but I am suffering from the worst chest cold. I sound like Dorothy from the Golden Girls, which is not a bad thing because I kinda like her voice, but I still feel terrible. I cough so hard and so long I get dizzy and I think Nyquil has crack in it because I maaaaaaaaaaaaay be addicted at this point.
It was 80 in RI yesterday and I couldn’t get off the couch so I watched The Killing. OMG why didn’t anyone tell me how awesome this show is? Anyway, I watched the whole series, yes, THIRTEEN EPISODES in one day on the best day of the year, so far.
Hopefully I will have some new posts before the weekend is out but now all I want is some more of that nyquil, my couch, and Netflix on my television. Sad, sad, sad 
Be back soon
A total let down.
OMG! How did I miss this gem???? Maybe, because I am not a YouTube follower of any kind but that has changed. Consider me a stalker now.
I go to YouTube when someone forwards me a link of some idiot doing something idiotic, or to view that little girl who is going to kick some monsters ass, and the occasional YouTube channel on natural hair.
I had no idea that there was the Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl! I love this girl! I love her hair and the funny as hell story behind it (hell yeah! I’ve cut my hair after a bad break up, more than once!), her filthy foul mouth rapping (sometimes curse words are fun!) and the love triangle that makes my heart go- awwwwwww!
Check out Episode One and Seven then go watch the episodes in between. You will not be disappointed.
Well, Congratulations Boston Fans! Your team earned it, deserved it, and got it!
Olivia Benson
The Coolest Chick
Who does not love Olivia Benson? She is one of the best characters on television!
Seriously! I love staying home from work but lounging on the couch catching up with the soaps and tv game shows is a thing of a very dissssssssssssssstant past.
I’ll be honest, I gave up on soap operas about ten years ago if not more. Seriously, how many times can you watch this storyline:
Jane loves Dick but Dick loves Emily. Jane gets Dick drunk and Dick passes out in Jane’s bed. Two days later Dick proposes to Emily and at their engagement party Jane rushes in and tells Dick she is pregnant with his baby-they actually never slept together when Dick passed out in Jane’s bed but Dick can’t remember. Emily tells Dick he must marry Jane for the baby’s sake, so Dick regretfully marries Jane. Jane thinks everything is gravy now that she has Dick in her bed and all she has to do now is get pregnant for real to keep him, until then she just fakes pregnant. Dick is still mourning Emily and Emily is still mourning Dick but they must stay away from each other. Now, its three weeks later and Jane is nine months pregnant and has to produce a baby or Dick will be gone forever. Luckily for Jane, Emily’s sister just had a baby six weeks ago. Jane schedules a business trip out of town-Dick begs her not to go since it is so close to her due date-but of course she does. She sneaks into Emily’s' sister’s home kidnaps her baby and passes it off as her own for six months before anyone realizes that a. the baby was too big to be a newborn b. she never produced a birth certificate c. she claimed to have the baby in the woods delivered by a lumberjack name Paul who never materialized when Dick wanted to thank him for saving his wife and child. Oh, she also said it was a blizzard that day but looking back they realized it was July.
Now, the first time I saw that storyline in 1978 I was all OMG Jane is such a bitch and poor Dick will never get Emily! But around 1988 I got tired of rooting for Dick and Emily because Dick really is just a dick and Emily is a wuss. I’m really mad at Jane, because she is beautiful, smart, and runs her own lingerie company, so why does she not have enough self-esteem to tell Dick to go F himself! Chasing a man who does not love you is so 1967…well mayb so 2011 too but I don’t want to watch it year after year!
But just because I have given up on soaps does not mean I think they should become extinct because I’m actually afraid of what will replace them. Will there be more WHO THE BABY DADDY episodes on Maury? That is scary and I REALLY hope those shows are fake because the idea of Tawanna Jenkins fifth appearance trying to find out who actually fathered her baby is just sad!
Let’s all walk away from the Jerry Springer show. Seriously, do you want to know about the dwarf transsexual confederate flag holding republican who fantasizes about a relationship with his brother?
Daytime+Television=DEAD BRAIN CELLS
GO TO EVEREST COLLEGE INSTEAD LOL
32 minutes ago by TMZ Staff
It’s official — the soap opera era is officially DEAD … now that ABC has announced they have cancelled “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.”
Daytime television has been dying for a while now…but I never thought I’d see the day that All My Children and One Life to Live would be gone. Even after my NBC fave Another World bit the bullet I thought Erica Kane would live to be a 1,000!
