I just got back from the Milky Way

I just had my first visit in the dreamworld in 5 years with someone I love very much. Of course, I can't really know if it was real or not, but either way, it was lovely, and it was good to have him back. I guess this is proof that things happen when you least expect it!

By the way, this isn't the only dreamworld encounter I've had lately. I met someone else unexpectedly there while on my recent trip to Minnesota, and that one was very lovely too. If only my real life was full of such wonderful things.

This is a test, only a test

This is mostly a test to see if comments appear at the bottom of this post. They didn't on the last one, and I'm not sure if it was just a glitch or what.

1965 is to 1981 as 1993 is to 2009

Honestly, how often do you see a music video starring a rabbit? That alone is worth the price of admission! But while I was watching the video for this nostalgic song released in 1981, I asked myself how many years separated 1981 from 1965. In case you can't do basic math, the answer is 16. And then I asked myself how many years it's been since I graduated from high school, and the answer is also 16. Man, I feel old now!

Not gonna do it

So I just saw the first episode of Sit Down, Shut Up, and all I can say is "Nevermore."

April TV roundup

Since my post at the end of March, even more new TV shows have debuted, so here are my thoughts on them, plus a few other odds and ends.

Cupid-- I'm liking this one just fine. My ex-husband and I used to watch the original incarnation occasionally during our first year of marriage in Chicago*, so I have some pleasant memories from the original but not the baggage that a serious fan would have had. I've been able to watch this one with a mostly open mind, and it almost seems like a totally different show. Cannavale and Paulsen have no chemistry, whereas Piven and Marshall had tons, but I actually appreciate the greater focus on the couple of the week, so I can live with it.

The Unusuals-- I watched the first episode of this, found nothing to hook me, and moved on. I think the show suffers from a problem in tone. Before it premiered, ABC was calling it a quirky comedy, now they're calling it a "crime thriller," and neither is exactly right. Not that I think genre lines are absolutely impassible, but if you're going to cross them, you need to have something compelling, and this show isn't it.

Harper's Island-- I'm still on the fence about this one. I liked the first episode a lot, but the second had a lot more hacking and a lot less plot, so I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stick with it. Everyone knows I don't like scary things! On the other hand, there's been absolutely no feeling of suspense so far, so it's not actually that scary, and that's a sign the show isn't really succeeding anyway. But I have to keep watching because Christopher Gorham is so cute!

Parks and Recreation-- This show isn't as perfect as I'd like. For instance, they've wasted Chris Pratt by making his character totally unsympathetic (and that's pretty hard to do with someone who broke both legs in an accident!) However, I'm going to keep watching until Ugly Betty comes back, because it really does have its laugh-out-loud moments, and because I know someone just like Leslie Knope in real life.

Primeval-- I'd been wanting to watch this show ever since I read about it in Dan's Media Digest a couple of years ago. Dan Owen has always given it a hard time for not living up to its potential, and unfortunately I agree with him. You'd think that a show about dinosaurs coming to the present through a rift in time couldn't miss, but this is no Torchwood or even Sarah Jane Chronicles. Still, I'm going to keep watching it for the time being, because the urge to watch whatever British thing Sci Fi shows on Friday night is just too strong with me.

Surviving Suburbia-- I almost forgot I watched the first episode of this show while I was traveling and had already missed the beginning of Heroes. No, no, and no!

In old business, I'm very intrigued by the latest happenings on Chuck, am more optimistic about Heroes than I've been in a long time, am thrilled that Friday Night Lights will be returning for two more years(!), and am sad that I may never see Life again. (USA Today says it and Reaper are already dead, but I refuse to believe.) Oh, and I gave up on Kings and didn't watch it last night on its first Saturday showing. While I've enjoyed it, everybody knows it's a dead show walking, and I could think of better things to do with my Saturday night.

*Can it really have been 11 years? Time goes by so quickly when you're a grown-up!

Why don't you stop and think things over?

I've decided to resurrect my Saturday night video post, since I've had such a wonderful weekend so far. This is the song I've been thinking of, and yes, I am the same girl!

I'm back!

I have rejoined the land of the living! It's true that I got back from my trip on Wednesday as planned, but I spent most of last week and this weekend trying to catch up on all the homework I missed for my class (I'm almost there!) and doing my taxes. I'm not usually so last minute on that, and I don't know what my excuse is. But at any rate, I feel like I've finally arrived back home now.

A satisfying dream

Before I leave on my little trip (and don't worry, I'll be back on Wednesday), I wanted to talk about the Life on Mars finale. There are about a million things that could be said from a fan's point of view, but I finally realized it makes more sense to me to consider it from a writer's point of view. I think the writers tried their darnedest to give the fans maximum closure, and they did it by first wrapping everything in 1973 up neatly, and only then pulling away the curtain and revealing the objective truth of the situation. A lot of "it's all a dream" writers don't bother to do that, and often it's because they tack on that ending when the plot has become so convoluted that even they can't make sense of it anymore. But think about this in real life for a moment. When you are awakened abruptly from a dream at a crucial point, it haunts you all day. Only when the dream is allowed to end naturally is closure achieved. So I love it that, while acknowledging the fictionality of the 1973 setting, they allowed Sam and Annie to get together, Sam and Gene to make peace, and Sam to decide he wanted to stay after all. It's wonderful to look back on a beautiful dream that ended well, and now Life on Mars will be that for us.

Putting the kibosh on a rumor

I've had a question from a commenter that I'm 99.9% sure is a spammer, but just in case, I'm going to answer the question definitively. Unless you recorded the episodes when they first came on and still have them, THERE IS NO LEGAL WAY TO WATCH MEN IN TREES AT PRESENT. It hasn't been released on DVD, it isn't available to download from iTunes or Amazon, and according to TIOTI, there isn't any legal place online to watch it online for free. That means that if you did happen to find a certain place to watch it online (say, by following the link that my commenter nicely provided), it would be ILLEGAL, and that means that the person who possesses such a site is a CRIMINAL. Now let's see Google pick this post up and spread the news!