Sometimes, you just need what is familiar to make everything right! And what is more familiar than a TV show you have watched multiple times? In fact, whenever I visit my blog, I smile when I see my ‘Dawsons’ tag and today I noticed it getting smaller, meaning that the proportion of my posts tagged ‘Dawsons’ is going down. I wanted to remedy this situation immediately so here is my new series: my favourite episode from each season. Enjoy!
Season One – Episode 11 Double Date
Synopsis:
Dawson and Jen double date with their respective partners to the carnival fair thing even though Dawson blatantly is interested in Jen and as a result he treats his date appallingly. Meanwhile, Pacey and Joey end up in detention together and as punishment (for Joey at least), she is forced to help with with his marine biology assignment. We never did any of this stuff at school! Anyway, naturally, they end up having to wade in the creek to find snails and must MUST take off their clothes to prevent hypothermia. Pacey notices that Joey is hot stuff. Joey notices that Pacey is too and is less hateful than she thought.
Highlight:
When Pacey tries to kiss Joey.
Lowest Point:
Dawson getting annoyed at Pacey liking Joey even though he isn’t interested himself.
Quote:
Joey: Let me get this straight. You’ve tried to create some sort of a snail menage-a-trois? Pacey: Well, it sounds stupid when you say it out loud, but I just saw this really pretty snail in the tank over by the window, and I don’t know. Last night it just seemed really brilliant. Joey: Let me fill ya in on something here. You know this pretty little snail over here by the window? It’s what you call a carnivorous snail, and do you know what carnivorous snails eat?Pacey: Other snails. Joey: Yeah, other snails. Other snails such as our snails, such as the snails we are desperately relying on to raise our marine biology grades.
Why I love it:
Pacey and Joey have their first kiss and Pacey realises Joey is a cool gal way before Dawson gets with the programme.
I am quite interested to watch Suits which is starting over here in the UK on Dave tomorrow night at 9pm. From the press release:
The all new American drama focuses onMichael ‘Mike’ Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a lazy but brilliant college dropout with a photographic memory. On the run from a drug deal gone bad, Mike accidentally slips into a job interview with one of New York City’s best lawyers, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). Tired of cookie-cutter law school grads, suave quick-witted businessman Harvey takes a gamble by hiring Mike on the spot, despite the firm’s policy of hiring only Harvard Law graduates.
Proving to be an irrepressible duo and invaluable to the practice, Mike and Harvey must keep their secret from everyone including managing partner Jessica (Gina Torres) and Harvey’s arch nemesis Louis (Rick Hoffman), who seems intent on making Mike’s life as difficult as possible.
I will admit that Gabriel Macht may be influencing my desire to watch this since he is pretty darn yummy but it also has Gina Torres (Buffy! Firefly! Alias!) and it looks witty and a bit different from the usual legal procedural. It will also be nice to see Patrick J Adams play a less douchey character – he was not exactly a gentleman in his small role in Friday Night Lights as Connor Hayes, the guy who has a fling with vulnerable yet fierce Tyra. The trailer:
A little while ago, I shared with you some of my favourite new TV shows that I am watching. There were others, however, that didn’t make the cut (after all, I can’t – and don’t actually want to – watch ALL the TV):
Ok so I pretty much hated this, despite having some high hopes. Created by Ryan Murphy, AHS could not be further from Glee. It is basically a horror film in a TV show format and that is one of my beefs with this show: I like watching horror films but only because I know that state of tension and scardeyness is limited to a couple of hours. I am not interested in staying in that state of tension for an entire TV season. Connie Britton is such an amazing actress – if you know me, you know how much I love Friday Night Lights in which she played the awesome Mrs Tami Taylor. But to see her playing this damaged woman was a little heart-breaking (although I am sure she is finding it rewarding to be playing such a different character) and don’t even get me started on Dylan McDermott‘s character – he plays her adulterous (and admittedly, pretty fine for an actual fifty-year-old) husband who is all hard done by because she doesn’t feel like getting it on ever since her terrifying miscarriage.
The family have just relocated to try to get over the husband’s infidelity and the house they chose is huge, creepy and a bargain on account of the double-homicide/ murder-suicide (I forget the details but needless to say, any normal family would steer well clear). It all felt a little forced – like Murphy was trying to prove he wasn’t just about singing high schoolers. This was not enjoyable viewing – I watch TV to be entertained not offended and grossed out (hence why I also steer clear of Jersey Shore).
So Terra Nova isn’t bad. It just wasn’t great and when our TV schedule is pretty full already, we just weren’t captivated by this far-fetched tale. At the beginning of the pilot, we are in the future, a bleak, smoggy future where the air isn’t breathable and it’s all gone to hell. A family of five are breaking the population regulations by having three kids (which is never explained further than ’cause they wanted to) and as such they are punished. The mother, however, is a top-scientist and is given a place on a trip back in time (with her kids) to a nice, clean, prehistoric earth where the human race is trying to start again. Her husband manages to escape from prison and improbably catches up with his family just as they are about to step into the time-travel thingy… anywaaaaaaay.. back in time it’s all green, clean air, dinosaurs, camps, fruit and there are already different factions (humans are pesky things that just can’t seem to get the hell along). We gave up on this although it was a fair effort at an interesting concept. I just couldn’t seem to give a damn.
This show has all the elements that I usually (or maybe that should be used to) dig about a TV show: magic, teenagers, Britt Robertson (I loved Life Unexpected!), pretty location. I watched the first episode and really struggled to care about any of it. I think in my days before Evelina, this could be the sort of show I would turn to if I was poorly, when I could lie on the sofa and watch crap all day. Now, if I get a moment to watch TV, there are plenty of other shows to fill my time. Pretty Little Liars also falls into this category and as yet, I have not succumbed to watching that either. Maybe this means I have finally grown up (although I can’t imagine giving up Buffy and Dawson’s, so maybe not).
You would need to be living under a rock to not realise that the latest Big Thing is Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time and Grimm on TV, Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror on the big screen in 2012. You could even say that they are this season’s vampires. The premise of ABC’s Once Upon a Time is this: fairy tales are real. All the characters from all the stories really live in a fairy tale type world until one fateful day, the bad queen from Snow White casts a curse on the whole land exiling all the characters to a small town in modern-day America called Storybrooke. None of the characters remember who they really are and they are unable to leave the town (although they don’t realise this). Time has stood still in the town for 28 years until the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming is brought to the town by her son (given up for adoption 10 years ago). Her son was adopted by the bad queen who does seem to remember stuff. Confused? I promise it makes much more sense in the show itself! I haven’t quite worked it all out yet as I have only seen the first three episodes but it has been done so well, it looks so great and the cast is so superb (I adore Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas seems most promising!), I can’t wait to see more. Jane Espenson is a consulting producer which is a great sign and it was created by Lost writers. Maybe this trailer helps matters:
As I said, more fairy tales! This time, on NBC’s Grimm, Nick Burkhardt, played by David Guintoli, learns that he is a descendant of hunters known as Grimms, who are themselves descendants of the Grimm Brothers. These Grimms are the only people able to see ghouls and goblins in their real form – they are hidden to other humans. I have only seen the first episode but it was a strong pilot and I am certainly intrigued. Whether I can stomach two fairy tale dramas is yet to be seen although the tone of Grimm is very different to Once Upon a Time. Grimm fits more into the police procedural category with the added bonus of supernatural stuff! Exec Produced by another Buffy alum, David Greenwalt, and the adorable and talented Sean Hayes, this is again a promising sign.
A new addition to ABCs comedy line-up, this new half-hour gem is very funny. The cast is perfect – I actually LIKE Jeremy Sisto for a change and his daughter is played by the Emma Stone lookalikie (but great in her own right) Jane Levy. Alan Tudyk also stars so I am in more Whedonesque heaven. A trendy father and daughter move from NYCeee to the suburbs and have to deal with a whole bunch of plastics.
I must admit that I have a massive girl crush on Zooey Deschanel who is beautiful, talented and funny. Her new show, New Girl, casts her as Jess, a heartbroken women who moves in with three guys who she has found on Craigslist (like Loot – does that even exist anymore?!). Hilarity ensues. Plus she has some cute chemistry with her roommate nice guy Nick, played by cutie-patootie Jake M. Johnson. Max Greenfield from Veronica Mars plays another of her roomates as the incorrible but loveable douchebag Schmidt. The third roomie is now played by Lamorne Morris after some scrabbling on the part of the showmakers when Damon Wayans who was in the original pilot was taken by his show Happy Endings (which I think he had thought was going to be cancelled). I think the word ‘adorkable’ has been bandied about a lot to describe Deschanel’s character (and it could be used for several of her previous characters for that matter) but it does describe her kind of perfectly.
Switching gears now, Homeland is a Showtime show (= boobs!) – a gritty but engrossing thriller/drama about a CIA operative who has information that a US POW has been ‘turned’. The intel is deemed unreliable as there are no known American POWs alive until ‘lo and behold, a US solder, Brody, played by the incredible Damian Lewis (his accent is flawless), who has been held captive for 8 years is found alive and (kind of) well. He is thrust back into his life at home with a wife who thought he was dead so had found comfort with his best friend (oops) as well as his work life as a beacon of American valour The CIA operative who is alone suspicious of this American hero. It is very exciting, well written and Claire Danes is awesome as the strung out, mentally ill CIA agent who is trying to find out the truth and not let another 9/11 happen on her watch. Plus there is more Whedon alum in the shape of the lovely Morena Baccarin who plays Brody’s wife.
The main allure for this show was the superb Michael Emerson, best known for playing creepy lunatic Ben Linus in Lost as well as the co-creator JJ Abrams (Alias! Lost! Star Trek!). in CBS’s Person of Interest, he plays a genius who basically built ECHELON (although it is never called this) – a system that uses all surveillance means (emails, calls, CCTV) to find potential terrorist threats. He quickly realised that the software also threw up all kinds of people in trouble, although the US Government is not interested in using the system to detect potential ordinary crimes. Realising that his system gives him the ability to identify and help potential victims, he seeks out a suitable action hero partner to help him. In comes the improbably deep-voiced Jim Caviezel who affects a strange diction to play this mysterious ex-Special Forces tough guy. I worry that this show could get repetitive but they have laced in a nice mob-based B story to the A story of saving this week’s victim or stopping this week’s potential assailant.
