jebbypal

In lieu of focusing on current events, when I'm not at work, I'm focusing on fact that fall TV is back.

Boreanz's new show -- SEal team i think -- is so very clearly trying to be hurt locker + seal team 6 (history channel) but omg it fails on so many plotting and pacing levels in first episode. And dudes, Mamet already did 1000x better with The Unit.

so on to NBC's The Brave which I have to admit I had NO EXPECTATIONS for based on hokey over patriotic promos I saw. However, I am pleasantly surprised. Pilot was tight and not 1000percent predictable. the various team chemistry are great. Second episode was better than the first.

Bonus: they have a female sniper on the team -- unclear if this is meant to be delta force or seal team -- but it definitely works without seeming like a ploy, while they also acknowledge fact. Also, second episode focused on rescuing female CIA agent who also did a very good amount of self rescue.

So kudos to the Brave writing teams and NBC, because this show has quickly become my only new must see TV for me.

Will try out SWAT primarily due to Shawn Ryan attachment.

Other than that, I'm primarily back with Lucifer, Lethal Weapon, Chicago Fire as eye candy, and then waiting on final season of Major Crime (boooo).

After many years, I've also finally started watching the Orange is the New Black -- oh thank god it's not as "office-y" as I'd thought. Though I am sick of the male fiance story line. Also mainlined the first 3 seasons of Wentworth in a full week a bit back. Not as depressing as Oz, but wow. Though i am now really tired of psycho warden in all her incarnations, thank you very much, and so taking a break from it.

Australia Rush 2008 series went off hulu finally :(:(:(:(:(:( I hadn't gotten up to doing a full second rewatch yet so i may have dropped too much money on buying the dvds. need to hook up my international dvd player that I got when same thing happened to sea patrol and make sure it works.

9pm to 2am and my house is clean again. Okay, except for kitchen counter/stove that I have to do this AM and the pile of clean clothes that need to be relocated to spare bedroom. But still!! And for once I even organized the top of my dresser (since my friend and her son will be sleeping in my bed). I'll take the small victories.

Of course, it will now be a small miracle if I don't have a migraine today. Though I think I did figure out how I end up waking up with potential triggered migraines that quickly die away -- need to make sure my jaw is supported by my pillow during side sleeping, otherwise my jaw muscles engage trying to keep my teeth aligned. My body, people, it never does anything the easy way. As evidenced by my trainer's continued amusement when I'm doing a new exercise for the first time and say "so, should my triceps really be engaged?"

Her: no, it's for your abs. what are you even doing? *cue manaical laughter*

Rinse and repeat for different muscle group combination.

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When winding down by watching the new call to the midwife, I realized my DVR fell down on the job and didn't capture the christmas special. Or it didn't air in US? Need to poke amazon/netflix.

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Did you vote for the save my show USA Today poll? https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/04/05/save-our-shows-2017-cast-your-vote-bubble-shows-worth-saving/99989312/

I'm REALLY hoping Timeless comes back, which is probably its death knell. But it really was the smartest show on TV. And the rare show where there were actually twists I didn't see coming on occassion. Oh, and they have Pitch on the poll too. Which is probably an even longer shot, but hopefully? Who knew at the age of 38, Mark Paul Glossear kneeling would be a draw on TV? LOL. Though really he's the least of the attraction of Pitch.

Everything else, meh. I voted for Prison Break as well for all my PB-obsessed peeps. I've been occassionally making my way through the original show which I never followed.

Of course, all this may be moot what with the news last night of 45's spontaneous decision to bomb Syria. Not that I don't think Assad didn't deserve it, but it really should be done as part of an international response IMO. Plus, not a great end to the sabre rattling with North Korea.

Except I realized this AM I actually have 2 projects for work I have to finish today:P:P

5-6 inches of snow here so far. 1st round of shoveling done - about an hour with no breaks, and I don't feel like dying. Nice to know all my training sessions haven't been wasted $$$

Now hopefully my wrist and shoulder joints won't stage a rebellion later tonight. Especially as I know I have 1 more shoveling session at least to go since it started snowing harder right after I came inside

Fandom wise --
Wow, Wednesday nights on TV are a plethora of good shows. Wow. Thankfully peak tv is occuring in an era of on demand viewing, because DVRs really can't keep up with this. Expanse and Legion are on my dvr waiting.

LETHAL WEAPON!!!!!! Seriously, did not expect to love this as much as I do. Really went into it with very mild hopes. But the entire season has been great. ( last night!! Maureen!! ) LOVE!!

Okay, time to go start my stew and then get to work.

Yay for friday.

Boo for Wednesday night charlie horse in my calf that still has my calf sore. I've never had issues with charlie horses until I got the sports massage back in December. Which really did help my back, but she only spent like 5 minutes on my legs and my calves have never been quite the same. sigh. I really want to figure out if I can find a sports masseuse that can do the necessary things without reducing me tears though.

About half way through the first episode of S2 Expanse. ( spoilers for comparison to book 2 of Leviathan )

Regardless, still good TV! And Nick E Tarabay, more often known as Ashur from Spartacus series, is in this!! He's such a great actor, I hope he has more than just an occasional part.

1) doughnuts on a weekend (mostly because i was too lazy to do waffles)
2) completing uncharted 3 with minimal walk through help. Yes I was a
On very easy because I suck at fps. So what.
3) amusement gained from trying to tell my father how to get the plane ticket I bought him online
4) continuum season finale. Sooo much love. So dystopian and completely grey no matter which side you look at. And probably the biggest whose your daddy twist ever. Just perfection.

Is it 2014 yet?

So, somehow Walking Dead keeps breaking records. And I can only wonder why? I managed to tune in for the 1st ep of s2 after getting through most of s1 (thanks to fastforward) and really? None of the characters even approach likeable anymore, and the writing was, IDEK. From what I saw of recaps, it didn't seem to improve much after that either.

Pan-Am made a sporadic return this week. And crash landed ratings wise so it's probably dead and gone. Which, I tuned in to watch on demand, and was highly confused....it seems like we got the season finale the last ep and this was an unaired ep back from pre-Nico being turned. 0_o. So I imagine that actual fans that normally watched tuned in, saw nico, assumed it was a rerun, and changed the channel. Which, I couldn't even bare to watch it all the way through since the ep was smack in the middle of all the story lines I loathed. Bye Bye mindless classic fluffy soapish show. It was nice to have known you.

I really liked this week's Once Upon a Time though. Didn't quite make up for my disappointment at no Good Wife for 2 weeks in a row courtesy of superbowl and grammys, but still.

Which reminds me, you'd think the networks would cue into the fact that half the issue with the poor ratings even for well performing shows is the fact that it's on one week, then off 3. And thanks to big events like superbowls, grammys, etc, we can't even count on a sweeps month to provide 4 weeks in a row of new content. It's beyond frustrating.

Let's see, I haven't watched the last 2 eps of SPN. I've seen the talk of a potential new season, and I think I may have lost my will to stick it out to say I saw all the seasons. It really isn't the same show any more. I'm bored of most of the story lines, and well, it's just time.

Fringe. Oh Fringe. I'd say that it's sad you're doing so poorly when I just found you, but wow, I'm sick of this season's plot lines already. STopping the marathoning now that I've caught up has helped somewhat, but really? Also, JJ, you make interesting tv, but someone needs to have an intervention with you about alternate realities and timelines. And seriously, if that's all that Alcatraz turns into, we may be through.

Emails with LD reminded me about Breakout Kings. Which returns March 4. \0/. She wants Leverage/Breakout Kings crossover. Me, I just keep wanting Breakout Kings/Justified crossover. If I could come up with the right plot bunny, I might be tempted myself. Fingers crossed that nothing about the show gets lightened up. I like the grit and the grey areas people. Keep them. Please.

Justified feels like it's suffering from post-excellent arc let down. I know last year's tightness and twists are hard to follow up, but something needs to get shaken in the writers room to get this season on track. Not sure exactly what. Frankly, I'm a little tired of Dickie. Why did we have to keep Dickie and kill Mags? Well, other than the fact that Mags probably would have been a little too thorough in her revenge if her entire clan was dead. But still, I find Dickie to be pretty much the least interesting of the Bennet clan. Coover could sometimes be more interesting. Ah well, at least we still get the occassional Loretta cameo. Though I continue to be disappointed that the entire "Art thinks he caught Raylan stealing stuff from evidence" story line seems to have been COMPLETELY droppped. That and the fact that we never seem Timmy. :( We need a Tim and Rachel only ep please.

Okay, should really finish getting ready for work now!

It's been a while. Before I bitch about tv, short update.

( now that I've figured out my cut problem )

( hellcats finale )

( Grey's Anatomy )

Seriously Shonda, let's get a little bit more active feminism in her instead of constantly reinforcing patriarchal story lines. I'm practically looking forward to Supernatural to wash this bad taste out of my mouth because if I'm lucky it will be another actress-free night on the show and my feminist hackles won't come out. Of course, that's probably untrue.

( also, STOP WITH THE PREGNANCIES )

Val Kilmer to guest start on Numbers season premiere...

WOWWWW!!!!

Oooww. Man was that a bad headache last night, though deserved with the weather changes. I'm just glad I ignored the urge to take an excedrin since today I appear to be suffering slightly from taking two on thursday. Nothing bad, but I know how it could be.

Ah well, headache last night gave me an excuse to indulge and stay up to watch the rest of the two discs of Shield Season 4 I'd gotten from netflix. Man, I'd forgotten how good this show was and how much better than everything else on network TV it is.
( thoughts )

Man, when I compare this to the Unit, it's just wow. You really start to realize exactly how much the network TV system cripples the creative narrative. There's no way that any of the grey characters on The Shield would be able to be present in the Unit without there being "retribution" coming for them very very quickly. Hence why the one greyest character had to get married and stop fooling around w/ his subordinates wife. It was too dark and too "bad". It was either that or he'd have to be killed or something in punishment. Those are the laws of the network.
( more examples with some spoilers for nics )

I don't know, I guess having finally experienced Carnivale, Deadwood, and the Shield, I'm just spoiled on network TV. I'm the same way when I read a book that was okay, but could have been so much better. Annoyed at the wasted time, aggravated at the failings. At least Carnivale and Deadwood have taught me that even when everything about the storytelling process succeeds and flourishes, cable networks will still be idiots and flush it all down the toilet. Hence why I'm more accepting of The Shield's faults. For every cliched moment, I remind myself that the writers did it so they can prolong their time on the air and tell more stories that do overcome their cliches and become fresh again.