The Great TV Meme Day 18 -OR- Is Nothing Sacred

The Great TV Meme Day 18 - Favourite Title Sequence

Mystery! on PSB (The Edward Gorey version). I love this opening sequence. I always wished there was a show done completely in this animation style. I think it is a travesty that the classic Mystery and Masterpiece Theatre openings are no longer used. Who was the genius who made that decision? Ugh.

The Great TV Meme Day 17 -OR- You Had Me at Pemberly...

The Great TV Meme Day 17 - Favourite mini-series

The Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle "Pride and Prejudice". This is the best adaptation of a book to screen that I have ever seen. The casting is spot on, the dialogue brilliant, the scenery exquisite...seriously, how can you not love this production?

As for the more recent film adaptation of Miss Austen's novel, I have only this to say:

It's alright if you like the new Pride and Prejudice movie. Just don't call yourself a Jane Austen fan.
(Courtesy of Facebook Flair.)



I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching this.

The Great TV Meme Day 16 -OR- I Am The Picture of Innocence

The Great TV Meme Day 16 - Your Guilty Pleasure Show


Well, I don't really have a guilty pleasure TV show. I don't watch that many TV shows now, and those that I do watch, I watch with enthusiasm.

But I do have a guilty pleasure Movie series.

I am a Twilight apologist. (Which means that I like it, then immediately feel the need to apologize for liking it.)

I know I shouldn't like it. I know that Bella is even worse than Pepper Potts or Elisabeth Swan. But for some strange reason, I still like it. Plus, Howard Shore is scoring "Eclipse". So it can't be all bad, right?

Yes. Yes it can be.

The Great TV Meme Day 15 -OR- This Was Easy

The Great TV Meme Day 15 - Favourite Female Character

Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5.

I was 14 when I started watching Babylon 5. To me (the girl who, at the ripe old age of 4 would tell her parents to just drop her off in a friend's apartment's parking lot because she was perfectly fine walking to said apartment by herself) Ivanova made perfect sense. She was strong, self-assured, fiercely independent and loyal. She was also scared to let anyone too close to her for fear that they would leave her, and she definitely had a temper.



I grew up watching characters like Ivanova. Now you know why I find characters like Pepper Pots and Elisabeth Swan annoying and insulting.

The Great TV Meme Day 14 -OR- I'm Gonna Have To Think About This One

The Great TV Meme Day 14 - Favourite Male Character.

I'm declaring the first tie in the lineup: Marcus Cole (Babylon 5) and The 11th (!) Doctor (Doctor Who).

I have always loved Marcus. He is loyal, brave, noble and very, very snarky. Plus he has a British accent. And a Minbari fighting pike. Marcus = awesome, and I think he might have been the origin of my deep love of Snarky British Guys (SBG)



(Sadly there is a major lack of Marcus clips on YouTube)


Now for the other winner.

When the BBC announced that Matt Smith was going to replace David Tennant as The Doctor I was completely baffled. Matt Smith is younger than me! His forehead is huge! And WHAT is with that hair?? Needless to say, I was highly skeptical. But I was also highly skeptical about Tennant and he turned out to be brilliant. And Matt? Matt is turning out to be even more brilliant. I have rarely been so pleasantly surprised. Well done, Mr. Smith. Well done.

(The best thing I could find is a fan made music video, but it's actually quite good)

The Great TV Meme Day 13 -OR - I Was Always A Little Different...

The Great TV Meme Day 13 - Your Favourite Childhood Show

My parents tell me that when I was a child (about 4 or 5) I used to ask them about the Masterpiece Theatre epic "I, Claudius". Apparently, I was always wanting to know if it was on and if I could watch it.

You say "weird", I say "gifted".

I think this clips pretty much sums up my entire childhood:



Om, nom, nom!

The Great TV Meme Day 12 -or- Really, it only looks easy

The Great TV Meme Day 12 - An Episode You've Watched More Than 5 Times

I'm going with "All The Queen's Horses" from Due South.

This episode has it all - Mounties, Leslie Nielsen, more Mounties, a Kiss, even more Mounties (now with 100% more singing! Go back to Day 9 for more details)

This is just a joy to watch, so I watch it frequently.

Did I mention there were Mounties on a Train?

The Great TV Meme Day 11 -OR- Do You Know How Hard It Is Thinking Up Clever Subtitles?

The Great TV Meme Day 11 - A Show That Dissapointed You

Crusade.

By now it should be obvious that I'm a huge fan of J. Michael Straczynski's work. Crusade, a spin off of Babylon 5, had a lot of potential, but it was on the wrong network. TNT kept trying to get JMS to change the show by adding more "sex and violence" (which apparently is what all network suits think will make a show successful) and ultimately the show was cancelled after it's first season. There were a lot of kinks and wrinkles to iron out, but I think most of them could of been fixed. Because this show had one major thing going for it:

Galen.



The show was all over the place and never had a chance to hit it's stride. And the music was a major departure from Chris Franke's amazing work for B5; at the time Crusade originally aired, I hated it. But it may be time for another viewing.

the Great TV Meme Day 10 -OR- I actually liked the ending...

The Great TV Meme Day 10 - A Show You Thought You Would Hate But Ended Up Loving


LOST.

I didn't get into this show during the first season. I didn't get into in the second or third season, either. I saw a couple episodes in the fourth season, but once they killed off Delenn (I mean Rousseau), I was beyond not interested.

Then in November '08, while visiting Val in DC, I saw the season 4 episode "The Constant". Romantic, tragic Scotsman? Well that changes things.

I got caught up via Wikipedia then watched Seasons 5 and 6. And I really did like the finale quite a bit, though it's still not my favourite (guess which is).

Want to know what it's all about? Here's a great summary:

the Great TV Meme Day 9 -OR- I have to choose?!

The Great TV Meme Day 9 - Best Scene Ever.

Best Scene Ever. They want me to choose? How?! There are way too many shows to think about!

For instance, do I go with Due South and the spontaneous singing mounties?



Or do I go with Doctor Who and the uber uplifting "Everybody Lives"?


And reprise:


Don't even get me started on the ending scene of Babylon 5's series finale...

And then there's this, which is BRILLIANT:


But ultimately, I decided on this, because it just fills me with joy and happiness (scene in question starts at minute 3:00)

The Great TV Meme Day 8 -OR- My Favourite and My Best

The Great TV Meme Day 8 - A Show Everyone Should Watch

This is easy. Everyone should watch Charlie and Lola. It's adorable and the kids have British accents and say things like "You must not run in the corridor," "But it is -my- book!" and "That is proper and secret path to the elephant".

I have these taped from the Disney Channel and on DVD. Lola reminds me of me when I was that age.

Go watch!

The Great TV Meme Day 7 -OR- It's still better than BSG

The Great TV Meme Day 7 - Your Least Favourite Episode of Your Favourite Show

I suppose the traditional pick would be "Grey 17 is Missing" as even JMS is disappointed with how part of that came out, but I'm going to go with "TKO" from the first season. The premise is that a human prize fighter is trying to convince aliens to let him enter an elite aliens only fight and it just didn't do much for me. The other part of is that I've watched Seasons 3 and 4 (and the latter part of 2) so much, that parts of Season 1 and 5 are very blurry to me. They're the "well they're good because they're B5 but not GREAT like the others" episodes. I suppose I really should go back and watch them, especially Season 5.

You can't win them all.

Bonus post -OR- My first short story

Back in October, Jon, Val and myself each wrote a story using the same first line: "Children used to call it the shadow game." This was the first original short story I wrote (I had written two really awful Les Miserables fan fics when I was teenager, but they don't count. Yes, that's right. Les Mis fan fiction. Don't judge me.)

So here is my little story, which I'm really quite happy with.

The Darkest Cellar

Children used to call it the "shadow game". It was as simple as it was ancient: the local children would gather on the first Harvest moon of the Third Season and count the shadows in the Darkest Cellar. The honour of having (or Hosting) the Darkest Cellar was immensely coveted; the selection ceremony was carried out with a solemnity that the local parson would have done well to imitate. The children would each light a lantern and carry it in a very serious manner as the procession visited each of this year's candidate cellars, carefully watching the number of shadows that danced along the dark walls. The cellar with the most shadows was voted the official Darkest Cellar.

On this particular night, Caleb Brown, being the previous Host of the Darkest Cellar, was leading the procession among this year's candidates. Caleb was a self-assured boy of ten, which also made him the oldest in the procession, and he prided himself on being a Learnett Skoller. (Scholars had little need of spelling). Caleb slowly opened the doors of his family's cellar, taking an almost fatherly pride in the rusty, squeaky hinges. How many other folks had an official Darkest Cellar -and- squeaky hinges? Caleb was giddy with the prospect of Hosting the Darkest Cellar two years running. He was sure there was no finer honour in the world. (Except perhaps owning a store-bought walking stick; but that would almost be too grand. Caleb didn't want the others to think he had a big head. )

Caleb waited until the last child in the procession, little Emily Miller from up the road, was in the center of the cellar, before he slowly closed the door. (Just listen to those hinges squeak!) He held his lantern up to his face and looked around the room to double check that they were all there.

"Say "I" when I calls your name, alright?" he announced to the others.

"Bobby Brooks?"

"I," replied a tall, lanky boy of nine. Bobby and Caleb were best pals and had known each other as long as the other could remember. If Caleb couldn't win this year, then he sure hoped that Bobby would.

"Mary Sue Ellen?"

"I," was the timid reply from a blond girl of seven. It should be noted that Mary Sue Ellen was timid by nature, but not afraid of dark cellars. No one was afraid of dark cellars. It was what was outside of the cellars that you were supposed to be afraid of.

Caleb continued with the role call.
"Lenny Smith?"

"I," replied a muffled voice. Though Lenny was only eight, he had the appetite of a full grown man and was always munching on something. None of the others had ever heard his voice without something else being in his mouth at the same time.

Caleb shot Lenny a meaningful look as if to say "How can you think of munching at a time like this?", but Lenny didn't seem to see it in the dim light. (Not that he would have seen it in the sunlight, either.)

"Emily Miller?" Caleb looked for the little girl to make sure that she was close by. It wouldn't do for the youngest member to get lost, especially not before they had found the official Darkest Cellar.

"I'm 'ere, Caleb" replied the curly haired five year old. She was supposed to just say "I" like the rest had, but this was Em's first Shadow Game. Caleb supposed she could be forgiven for not knowing all the rules just yet.
"Just say "I", Em." Caleb instructed helpfully.

"I," was the proud reply.

"Let's see... Rebecca Johnson?"

"What did I tell you 'bout callin' me 'Rebecca'?" came the forceful reply from the other eight year old in the group. "You know full well that my real name is Becca!"

Caleb rolled his eyes.
"Oh very well then, 'Becca'. Is you here?"

"I," replied the girl who was most definitely not Rebecca.

Caleb counted off his friends on his fingers. There were six of them so far, including himself, so that left just one more child... oh yes, Benjamin.

"Benjamin Luther?"

"I..." replied the quiet little six year old. Benjamin was not Ben in the same way that Becca was not Rebecca; and that was pretty much all they knew about the quiet boy.

Caleb turned to his friend: "Bobby, you ask me if I'm here."

"But we already know you's here, Caleb," Em pointed out.

"Yes, but it's not official until I say 'I' after my name is called out. We got to do it by the rules, Em." Caleb was firm believer in rules.

Bobby raised his own lantern to his face and looked solemnly at Caleb.
"Caleb Brown?"

"I," replied Caleb, glad to finally be getting down to business. He was the first to set his lantern down on the dusty floor.
"You all know the rules," said Caleb. "We all sets down our lanterns in a circle, then twirl around three times fast, then stop, an' count the shadows. Y'all ready?"

"Ready!" Caleb was pretty sure there were six voices that replied.

"Right then," Caleb replied, in what was meant to be his official sounding voice. "Everyone put down your lanterns in a circle."

This was done quickly, but not too quickly. This was the Official start of the Official Shadow Game. It was Important.

Caleb carefully inspected the circle of lights. Once satisfied, he called out his next instruction.
"Now everyone take three steps back."

Everyone did.

At this distance, Caleb could almost make out the features of Benjamin, who was standing directly opposite him. Benjamin looked even smaller than usual in the dim light of the lantern circle. Caleb briefly wondered why that was before turning his attention back to the Shadow Game.
"Everyone ready?" He asked the others.

"Ready!" This time Caleb thought he only heard five other voices replying. Was Benjamin...afraid? 'Course he wasn't. How could he be? No one was afraid of the cellars. Caleb was surprised that he even considered it. That was a low thing to think about someone, even if you didn't really know them enough to be best pals like he and Bobby were.

"On your mark, " Caleb said dramatically, "get set...twirl three times fast!"

"Twirl three times fast!" echoed back from the others as they spun around like tops before coming to an abrupt halt.

There they were - the shadows! You had to be quick to count them, or you'd miss them.

"Hurry, start countin'!" Caleb commanded.

"I got fourteen!" This was from Becca

"I got fifteen" Bobby, this time.

"I got fifteen, too!" shouted Caleb

"I got...uh...how many is fifteen?" That was Em. Caleb wondered if five was still a little young for such an important game.

"How many do you count, Lenny?" Caleb asked the boy to his right.

"Fif'teem" mumbled Lenny.

Caleb turned back to look across to Benjamin. He tried not to think that Benjamin truly looked scared this time.
"How many do you count, Ben?" Caleb thought that maybe giving him a nickname would help Benjamin relax.

"Fif..fifteen..." whispered Ben, who still looked scared even with a nickname.

Caleb was beaming. Fifteen shadows! That had to be a record. Last year there were only twelve that the six of them had counted. He felt that he was for sure going to be the Host again this year. Just think about it!

Caleb was about to say something about this being an unbeatable record when Bobby piped up.
"Hey, Caleb, ain't there supposed to be only as many shadows as us when the twirling is over?"

Caleb looked over at Bobby, a slightly puzzled look on his face.
"I reckon so. Why?

Bobby looked slightly nervous.
"'Cause I'm still counting eight shadows, but there's only seven of us..."

Caleb did a quick shadow count. Bobby was right, there were indeed eight shadows for the seven of them.
"Maybe one of the lanterns isn't working right."

"It's not the lanterns." Benjamin replied in a barely audible voice. "There's one extra shadow."

Something in Benjamin's tone made the other children unconsciously move closer to one another. As they huddled together, so did their shadows; all except one.

Em threw her arms around Caleb, burying her face against him.
"Caleb, I'm scared."

Definitely too young, thought Caleb as he picked Em up.
"Now Em, there's nothing to be scared of. It's just..."

That's when they noticed that the extra shadow was slowly walking back and forth across the room. The children froze where they stood, their shadows also frozen, all eyes fixed on the solitary moving shadow.

Caleb was getting angry. You weren't supposed to be afraid in a cellar. What's more, what if the others thought he was cheating to win again this year? Caleb raised himself up to his full height and stared straight at the shadow.
"What do you think you're playing at? You don't frighten us!"

The extra shadow then turned and seemed to look right at Caleb. Caleb simultaneously thought that it was impossible for a shadow to look at someone, and that leaving the cellar might just be the best idea he'd had all night. He tightened his hold on Em, bent down to pick up his lantern and called out over his shoulder, "This isn't much fun anymore. Let's just go home and get our apple cider."

There was a shuffle and clatter as the other children hurriedly agreed and picked up their lanterns. Bobby opened the cellar door and led the procession, who were not scared, just...tired, into the cool autumn night. Caleb turned to make sure that all of the children were outside of the cellar when he noticed that Benjamin wasn't with the rest of them.

"Ben? Benjamin?" Caleb hoped that the younger boy was just still in the cellar and not...well, not.

"I'm coming", was the soft reply. Benjamin clambered up the cellar steps, after which Caleb quickly shut the heavy door. (Why did those hinges have to squeak so much?)

Caleb gave Benjamin a worried look.
"You okay there, Benjamin?"

Ben looked himself again, small and quiet.
"Yes, I'm fine. "

Caleb gave Benjamin a playful shove.
"In that case, I'll race ya' to the Smith's barn. Last one there is a horny toad!"

The children took off running, eager for pie and hot cider. Benjamin started running as well, a smile slowly breaking across his face. The moonlight on the dusty path almost obscured the fact that there was a second shadow running alongside him.

The Great TV Meme Day 6 -OR- This...wrong tool

The Great TV Meme Day 6 - Your favourite episode of your favourite TV show.

I have to pick? Yikes.

There are so many great episodes of Babylon 5, so many that I love. There's the brilliant Season 3 trio of "Messages from Earth", "Point of No Return" and "Shattered Dreams", then there's also "Z'ha'dum", "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" and the series finale "Sleeping in Light", and that's just to name a few.

But if I had to pick a favourite, I'd go with the two part "War Without End" (you knew I'd find a way to cheat a little).

In WWE, we see the flipside to the Season 1 episode "Babylon Squared" and how Babylon 4 (the station built before Babylon 5) disappeared. We see into the future of several of our main characters (Sheridan, Delenn, Londo and G'Kar), as well as the future of another pivotal character which ends up being in the past...it's a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey, but that's why I love it so.
And it also has Zathras:



This has some of the best "payoffs" I've ever come across (Valen); and you know you're in good hands when you're shown the end of certain stroylines more than two seasons before we even see the beginning of those ends (G'kar and Londo). WWE has almost a mythic feel to it, not surprising really giving the immense span of time it covers. (I think the final season of LOST would have worked better if 'Darlton' had used an approach similar to this when explaining about Jacob and the Man in Black.)

The Great TV Meme Day 5 -OR- Can't I Just Whine About "Gladiator" Instead?

Day 5: A TV show that you Hate

Huh.

There are plenty of tv shows that I don't like, but if I don't like them, then I just don't watch them and don't invest energy in hating them. Reality TV falls into this category. Survivor, Big Brother and the Bachelor/Bachelorette in particular. I also don't like American Idol.

But -hate-?

I guess I'll go with 30 Minute Meals (or whatever it's called) with Rachel Ray. I can't stand her and I'll quickly change the channel to anything else.

Are you sure I can't just whine about how much I hate "Gladiator" instead?

The Great TV Meme Day 4 -OR- Who are you? What do you want?

The Great TV Meme Day 4 - Your Favourite TV Show

Babylon 5.

There are many shows that I love, but my favourite shows tend to be Sci-Fi - Star Trek, Doctor Who, Twilight Zone, Jericho- but one stands out above the rest, and that is Babylon 5.

Babylon 5 was created, produced and written by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS). JMS is one of my favourite writers and he conceived the series as a 5 year story with a clearly defined beginning, middle and ending. Joe often says this about plot: "If you fire a gun in Act 3 Scene 1, then you must show the gun in Act 1 Scene 1. Conversely, if you show a gun in Act 1 Scene 1, you must fire it by Act 3 Scene 1." Babylon 5 is the most satisfying long story that I've read or seen because of the fact that there are very few cheats; what you see is what you get, and what you get is brilliant.

The characters are also some of the absolute best I've come across, and this is what ultimately makes Babylon 5 my favourite. They are not perfect, they make mistakes, some horrible mistakes, some not so horrible, but they also overcome them. I've yet to find characters that I have cared more about. It's ironic that that a show largely about aliens is at it's heart as human as it gets.

Thanks, Joe.

The Great TV Meme Day 3 -OR- Reptiles vs. British Actors with fake American accents

The Great TV Meme Day 3 - Your favourite new show (aired this TV season)

This is a bit hard, as there are only two new shows I watched this season: Flash Forward and V.

Flash Forward is loosely based on a book by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer in which everyone on the planet blacks out at exactly the same moment and flashes forward to the same day in the future. It looked cool. It started cool. It had cool actors like Joseph Fiennes, Jack Davenport, Sonya Walger and Dominic Monaghan. But Joe Fiennes just couldn't seem to reign in his character, the writing was uneven and it went on hiatus for the Olympics, and when it came back, a lot of us didn't really care. I watched the last few episodes and the season (or as it turned out, series) finale was interesting, but ultimately it just wasn't quite right. Maybe a second season would have fixed it - maybe not.

V is (yet another) re-imagining of a classic Sci-Fi series, in which Visitors from another planet land and assure us all of their Good Intentions, while secretly being evil, hungry lizards who want to take all of our water and eat us for dinner - sound familiar? The new series started out well, but was also a bit uneven, though it features strong performances by it's two female leads Elizabeth Mitchell and Morena Baccarin. This ended up being the reverse of Flash Forward as it got progressively better leading up to it's season finale (which was really quite good). V has a lot to live up to - I'm a huge fan of the classic series and I've also read a little of J. Michael Straczynski's proposed script for a re-launch back in the mid 90's.

So the Lizards win. This round, anyway...

The Great TV Meme Day 2 -OR- And so it begins...

Day 2 - A show you wish more people were watching

Dear reader,

If you ignore everything else I have said (though why would anyone do that?), please, please do this:

Go watch Babylon 5.

This show originally aired in the mid 90's and was years ahead of it's time. Every time I mentioned this show to fellow geeks and/or video store clerks they would always tell me to watch the new Battlestar Galactica. BSG has -nothing- on Bab5. I really wish this show was on now so that more people could see it and love it.

It's available on iTunes, Blockbuster, DVD, etc.

Go. Go now!



(Just watching this gives me goosebumps.)

The Great TV Meme Day 1 - OR - I'm back...

This meme has been making the rounds on Lj, and I thought it might be fun.

Day 1 - A show that should never have been cancelled

So many of my favourite shows were cancelled, most of them by CBS (Brooklyn Bridge, Due South, Jericho), but my very favourite was on what used to be American Movie Classics.

Remember when AMC only showed movies made before 1969?

Remember when there were no commercials?

Remember Nick Clooney and Bob Dorian?

Remember WENN?

Remember WENN was a 30 minute period show written by Rupert Holmes (insert obligatory "he's the guy who wrote the Pina Colada song" reference here), which took place in a small Pittsburgh radio station in the early '40s.

It was brilliant. There was the wide eyed, idealistic intern from Elkhart, Indiana (Betty Roberts), the fast talking, faster thinking station manager (Victor Comstock), the "man of a thousand voices" (Mackie Bloom), the on again/off again couple (Jeff Singer and Hilary Booth) Mr. Foley, the sound effects man (who never said a single word in an episode) and more. A strong ensemble cast, great writing, zany antics and one of the most tortuous season finale cliff hangars in the history of TV ("Buy barley futures.")

AMC cancelled the show after the end of Season 4 and they've gone downhill ever since. It was supposed to be on VHS (the series was cancelled in '99), but AMC has yet to release any of it, so I only have a few episodes to watch (the execs at AMC have yet to realize that we would gladly pay money to own the series on DVD). This was a gem of a show and one of my all-time favourites.