dexter and deborah get hitched

Although I'm a fan of the show, I didn't realize Dexter's Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, who play a brother/sister duo on the show, were dating until a few months ago. They've been pretty good about keeping it a secret... but now it's being reported that they eloped on New Year's Eve. Technically it's not incestuous, but it still kind of weirds me out since I've only seen them together as a brother/sister team. At any rate, they will be taking their relationship (I mean, marriage!) public on Sunday at the Golden Globes. Congrats to the happy couple!

episode: 30 rock, "senor macho solo"

Some quick thoughts on last night's spring premiere of 30 Rock...

Is it just me, or was Peter Dinklage looking really hot with that new haircut? And is it just me, or should Salma Hayek's breasts not have made an appearance at her niece's quinceanera? As for the episode, it was more situational than it was comedic. Everyone seemed to have a storyline, and the biggest one -- Jack's adoration of his mother's nurse -- was random and didn't follow through very well. It could be that I don't find Salma Hayek to be a particularly engaging actress (admit it, she's not very good), but it could also be that this episode was a bit crowded narratively. On the other hand, I did enjoy the throwback to the season premiere's emphasis on Liz's urge to adopt. It was a lackluster episode that left a lot to be desired, but it was still an enjoyable half hour of television. I have to wonder... will it ever reach the high-larious status of the first and second season again? Could the writers' strike really have made such a difference?

Highlights:

-- Liz Lemon's handbag full of stolen baby shoes
-- Tracy Jordan's Benny Hill reenactment
-- instead of meowing/growling, Liz actually says "cat sound"
-- Kenneth's "Top That" rap from Teen Witch (seriously, watch the ridiculous clip)

Quotes:

Liz: (after mistaking him for a little boy) I like your tie.
Stuart: And I like aggressive women with a nerdy vibe. How about we grab some coffee and explore this?

Jenna: (dressed as Janis Joplin) Whoa, what is that iron bird?
Jack: They had planes in the 60s, Jenna.

Liz: (on dating Stuart) What if I say something stupid? Like order a tall coffee or talk about my Ninentdo Wii.

Liz: It's not because of your size! I have a thing about intimacy. I'm the weird one!
Stuart: How am I weird?
Liz: You're not! That came out wrong.
Stuart: You came out wrong.

film news: january 2009

Film School Rejects has listed the 25 Most Anticipated Movies of 2009, and amongst them are James Cameron's The Lovely Bones, Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, Ricky Gervais's This Side of Truth, and Judd Apataow's Funny People (which stars Eric Bana!!).

Via Film Junk, Mickey Rourke is in talks to play the villain in Iron Man 2, though it's not clear who that villain will be. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Rourke should get back into the blockbuster arena. He shouldn't have a Robert Downey Jr.-sized comeback.

Cinematical reports that Adam Shankman is going to remake Bye Bye Birdie. I can't help but think, out of all the musicals, who would want to remake that one? And why won't someone bring the musical Ragtime to the screen?

The Movie Blog lists out the upcoming comedies, horrors, and family films of 2009 by month. FYI: There's a family movie called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Seriously?

Also from Cinematical, Hugh Jackman has dropped out of Steven Soderbergh's musical remake of Cleopatra. I think that's a wise decision, considering the previous fallout of 1963's Cleopatra.

Scott Weinberg at Cinematical lists his movie resolutions for the new year. 1. No more enjoyment of Milla Jovovich movies. 9. Find a way to cover hardcore pornography at Cinematical.

Den of Geek has the top 50 movie special effects shots -- complete with clips! I'll save you the suspense; #1 is from Jurassic Park where the T-Rex investigates the light (and the pupil dilates!). And I guess it would be cheating to have the entire film 2001: A Space Odyssey in the top 10, so they don't list the ultimate sci-fi film until #29 (entering the airlock without a helmet), which, yes, is absolutely unforgivable. Other notables: at #7, Hannibal Lecter eats Ray Liotta's brains for dinner in Hannibal; at #18, the receptionist recolors her nails in Total Recall (this beat the three breasted woman and the unlocking of the woman's mask?); and at #41 (seriously), the Dark Lord rises in Howard the Duck (seriously). I don't agree with list, but I appreciate the clips.

the new doctor is... matt smith

From BBC News:

The BBC today announced that Matt Smith has been cast in the role of the Doctor in the iconic BBC series Doctor Who. Smith will be the eleventh Time Lord and will take over from David Tennant who leaves the show at the end of 2009. He will be seen in the forthcoming fifth series that will be broadcast in 2010.

The fifth series will also have a new lead writer and Executive Producer in the form of the BAFTA award winning writer Steven Moffat who is taking over from Russell T Davies. Moffat will be joined by Piers Wenger who will be the new Executive Producer for BBC Wales making the show.

Following David Tennant's decision to step down at the end of 2009, the team behind the new series set about casting the new Doctor so that new adventures could be created and scripts written with Matt in mind.

The identity of the new Doctor was revealed on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential that was broadcast on BBC One on January 3rd at 17.35hrs. In it Smith revealed his initial reaction at taking on such a legendary role and his thoughts on what direction the Doctor might now be going with him playing the part.

Matt Smith said of his new role "I'm just so excited about the journey that is in front of me. It's a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on. I feel proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity to join a team of people that has worked so tirelessly to make the show so thrilling.

"David Tennant has made the role his own, brilliantly with grace, talent and persistent dedication. I hope to learn from the standards set by him. The challenge for me is to do justice to the show's illustrious past, my predecessors and most importantly to those who watch it. I really cannot wait."

Lead writer and Executive Producer Steven Moffat said "The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man. 2010 is a long time away but rest assured the Eleventh Doctor is coming - and the universe has never been so safe."

sepinwall's interview with ron moore

With the premiere of Battlestar Galactica just two weeks away (my heart is racing in anticipation as I write this), Alan Sepinwall has posted his interview with creator/mastermind Ron Moore concerning the last season of the greatest show on television. I've said this before and I'll say it again... I probably wouldn't like Ron Moore if I ever met him. On the DVD commentaries, he notes which scotch and cigarette brands he's using, and the idolatry of that man is enough to annoy me. But still, he's created the best television show I've ever seen, and he's never insulted the intelligence of his audience, and in a business that is determined to dumb down its audiences, I really respect how Ron Moore has handled this show, its well-constructed characters (there is not a character I don't love -- though Gaius Baltar beats them all), and certainly the brilliance of its episodic and continuous narratives. So here, below, I've included some interesting sections of Sepinwall's interview (including bits on the upcoming Caprica series), though I definitely would encourage any fan to read the whole thing here.


Talk me through the narrative and thematic style of ("Caprica"). You like to compare "Galactica" to war movies and political films from the '70s. What's something that looks like what "Caprica" is going to be?

It's hard to say. The comparison I used to keep making was "It's a sci-fi version of 'Dallas.' But the deeper we get into it, it's not. It's so different in tone and style to what we did on "Battlestar." If you just watched and didn't know the other program or didn't know what the connective tissue was, it wouldn't feel like they're part of the same family. They're very different stylistically. This is really a character piece and a drama that's very political. It has a lot of religious issues too. There are terrorists and terrorists bombings, religious strife... In "Galactica," we talked about monotheism versus polytheism; in "Caprica," those ideas are just starting to percolate.

Prequels can be very tricky to deal with, especially when one of the characters is from the other show, and a lot of what we know about him has to go a certain way. What made you want to tell a story in the past of this universe?

I knew the series of "Battlestar Galactica" was going to end with a period at the end of the sentence. Because of the way we're ending "Battlestar," I didn't see other stories beyond it that I felt were interesting or had any real relevance to what the show is about. But we had a very rich backstory to deal with. I mean, we could have done another Battlestar, or the first Cylon war, but those would have been repeating things we had done. Remi Aubuchon had come to the studio with an idea to do something unrelated to "Battlestar" about robots and artificial intelligence and the creation of life, and when we started talking together, I got interested in the idea of doing a sci-fi show that was set on a planet, did not have an action adventure component to it, is even more of a character piece than "Battlestar," where it really has to live and die on its characters and its story without the Cylons attacking every week. Could you sustain a science fiction show in that kind of context? That's what got me excited.

Ever since you did the reveal of the Final Four, people have been really fascinated by the origins of the skinjobs and how they came to be. How much of that's going to be revealed in this final batch of "Galactica"s and how much will have to be in the new show?

It's mostly revealed in "Galactica." I don't think there are many pieces of the puzzle that are set up in "Galactica" that we held out for "Caprica." Most of the questions raised in "Galactica" are answered in "Galactica." We just said, "The Cylons were created by man and turned against their masters." And now we're telling that story.

The "Star Wars" prequels had lots and lots of problems, but one of the big ones was that we knew they were going to a fixed point, where Annakin is going to turn evil, the Republic's going to collapse, etc. How do you tell the story of the creation of the Cylons when we know what's eventually going to happen to them? Will there be a lot of scenes where one guy says, "Are you sure this is such a good idea?" and his buddy insists, "Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?"

I think that's a good tricky point. I think there's some important differences. We're not tracking a given set of characters through this. Willy will be the only person from the other show who even figures into it, and he's a kid. Internally, it's like doing a period piece. If you do a WWII piece, you know the Nazis are going to lose, that the North is going to win the Civil War, but you can still tell good stories about those periods. The fact that you do know where it's all going to end adds a certain layer of dread. Events have a certain import, because Caprica is doomed. The opening line that we show on Caprica, right now is "Caprica, 51 years before the fall." Right from the get-go we're telling you these people are all doomed. In some ways, we're taking the fact that you know where it's all going work for us.

So, for instance, when you decided who four of the Final Five would be, how much thought did you have to put into it before revealing it in "Crossroads," and how much was, "Oh, we'll say this and figure it out over the hiatus"?

The impulse to do it was literally an impulse. We were in the writers room on the finale of that season, always knew we would end season 3 on trial of Baltar and his acquittal, the writers had worked out a story and a plot, they were pitching it to me in the room. And I had a nagging sense that it wasn't big enough, on the level of jumping ahead a year or shooting Adama. And I literally made it up in the room, I said, "What if four of our characters walk from different parts of the ship, end up in a room and say, 'Oh my God, we're Cylons'? And we leave one for next season." And everyone said "Oh my God," and they were scared, and because they were scared, I knew I was right. And then we sat and spent a couple of hours talking about who those four would be. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to lock in who made the most sense and who would make the most story going forward.

One of the things I've thought about since you revealed them is the amazing chain of luck that had to happen for these four to survive everything that's gone down. They survived the genocide, Anders survives his time on Caprica, they all survive being the resistance leadership on New Caprica. Is this a coincidence?

This very topic is wrestled with at the end of the new season. Within the show overall, there's been a constant discussion of, "Is all this a coincidence or is there some meaning to it?" It's a glass half-full or half-empty question. Adama took a hard-line secular view on things a lot of other characters took a miraculous view on, and we the audience have seen a lot of things that can't be explained by rational means. How did these four survive through all of this -- how did all these people survive? -- and ultimately the show does have an answer to it.

One of the things I've always liked about your storytelling style is that you let a lot of things just be assumed: "Oh, the fans are going to understand this, we don't need the technobabble or whatever. I just want to hit the parts of the story that are interesting to me, even if we don't explain everything."

I like doing it that way. On some level, I write the show for me and what I like, and I flavor everything in that light. "This is how I would like to tell a story." And I just assume that the audience is as smart as me, easily and they've seen a lot of TV and seen a lot of stories, and they can fill in the blanks and make the leaps with me on certain things.

A lot of times in the podcast, you'll say things like, "I know people are interested in this, but that's really not where the story's going." You didn't really deal with the toasters becoming sentient again, that sort of thing. After I watched "Revelations," I thought it was a great ending, but I jotted down a list of things that still had to be dealt with. I'm wondering, without you giving it away, whether these things are going to be addressed or whether these are things that we're thinking a lot more about than you were.

Do you have a list?

1. Obviously, the identity of the final Cylon, we will find this out?

Yeah.

2. The origin and nature of the Final Four and how they're different from the rest of them?

Yes.

3. The origin of the rest of the skinjobs?

Yes.

4. What happened to Earth and what happened to the 13th Colony?

Yes.

5. Who, if anyone, is orchestrating all of this?

Basically, yeah. I don't know if it's going to be wrapped up in a neat bow. The show has an answer for it, whether it's a satisfying answer, I don't know.

6. Will "All this has happened before and it will happen again" be explained in some way?

Yes.

7. The opera house?

Yes.

8. What happened to Kara when she went through the Malestrom?

Pretty much.

9. Identity and nature of the "head" characters?

Yes.

10. Tigh and Six's baby, and whether that means Cylons can breed?

Yes. That's not a "yes" to whether they can breed -- the question will be answered.

11. The fate of Boomer and whether there are other 1's, 4's and 5's floating out there?

Yes.

12. Roslin's health?

Yes.

Okay, that's a "yes" on all of them.

See? We knew what all the questions were! I'm kind of proud of myself. "Yes"es to all of them. I thought you were going to throw a curve at me, like, "Oh, (bleep)."

You said there's a part of you that wished you had done what David Chase did with "The Sopranos." How do you want, or how do you expect, people to react when we get to the end of this?

I hope it's satisfying. Ultimately, I hope it's satisfying. This one is a closed-end story to an extent, setting aside "Caprica" for the moment. It's a beginning, middle and end, "Battlestar Galactica." This big story, how it all began, the apocalypse of the 12 Colonies, then the journey, and then they get here. This is the end of all these characters that you have come to know and love. I really wanted it to be satisfying and answer questions that the audience has asked for a long time. I wanted them to like the answers, or at least appreciate the answers, that thought was given to them. At the end, you can say goodbye to the characters as you're saying goodbye to the show, and there's not a dry eye in the house.

Other than the toasters getting free will this year, what are some other stories you had to drop that, all things being equal, you wish you could have done something with?

The big one that we had to make a shift on in the first season is we never got out into the civilian fleet and showed those other ships. I always felt like different cultures would be on different ships, and as time went on, would develop into their own little mini-societies depending on their circumstances. Over here, you have one captain and 50 people, and here you have four captains and 500 people, those are very different worlds that they're trapped in. For production reason, we were never able to leave Galactica for any length of time. That's a big open chapter that I never got to write.

Things I would have done differently was the Lee and Dualla romance. It sounded better in theory than the way it worked out, and I would've laid more pipe to get there in the beginning if I had known. As it was, it felt a little too thrown together and punched in too quickly.

new Doctor to be announced today

Via yesterday's The Guardian, the new Doctor will be announced today.

After months of furious speculation over who will replace David Tennant as the new Doctor Who, the BBC is set to reveal all tomorrow (Saturday).

And in a remarkable bit of chutzpah - and confidence that the name will not leak before 5.35pm on Saturday, January 3 - the new doctor will be unveiled during a BBC1 Doctor Who Confidential special that will also be simulcast on the corporation's big outdoor screens in city centres around the country.

The Beeb is set to air an interview with the new timelord in a show, called Doctor Who Confidential - The Eleventh Doctor.

However, the question remains - who will be the eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who for the fifth series since its return to BBC1 in 2005?

I have to admit, I'm going to miss David Tennant. He was a delight to watch, and in all honesty, he was the reason to watch the reinvented series. But there are some names being thrown around that I would actually stick around for -- among them, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Love, Actually; Serenity), David Williams (Little Britain), and Richard Coyle (Jeff from Coupling!).

David Tennant is a beautiful, beautiful man, and I will miss him as the Doctor. He brought nerdy hot to a whole new level. I will post the results when I hear them.

winter TV viewings

Over the past three weeks, I have been slowly de-evolving in front of my television set, but I think it's been time well spent. I've been watching four really well constructed comedies (two British, two American), and I would recommend any of them to anyone, though they are in my order of preference. Enjoy my thoughts on Black Books, Sports Night, Coupling, and How I Met Your Mother.

Black Books


Easily the best thing I watched these past two weeks, Black Books follows the ridiculous friendship of Bernard, an Irish drunk who owns the main setting book shop, Manny, Bernard's man-child assistant, and Fran, their next-door shop owner who is seemingly the most normal of the three. Luckily, this is a British show so the complete series (3 seasons, 6 episodes each) is available as one purchase, and I was able to experience the whole show in a short amount of time. To get a sense of the show, I recommend the following Youtube links (unfortunately, the embedding feature is unavailable): Bernard and Manny write a children's story about an elephant and a lost balloon, Bernard invites Mormons into his shop as to avoid doing his taxes, and my favorite bit, Bernard gets locked out of his shop and works at a fast food place for a bit. For those of you who enjoy British comedy, a lot of the guest stars will seem familiar to you. There's Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Lucy Davis (all from Shaun of the Dead, though Davis might be most famous for The Office), and David Williams, of Little Britain fame.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys clever writing. The show's structure is a bit like Coupling (see below) in that each episode has a theme to which each scene relates. There are references galore (early on there's a brilliant moment where Bernard has to create his own wine and Manny plays Igore to his Frankenstein), but have no doubt about it, Bernard is absolutely the reason to watch this show. He's bitter, rude, filthy, and his misanthropic retorts make Dr. Gregory House look like a cuddle bunny. Dylan Moran (also of Shaun of the Dead) is so gut-bustingly funny as Bernard that you don't even mind that he's the worst human being on the planet. Also, a fun game to play is spotting new additions to the set dressing. The sign for the shop constantly changes, going from "Closed/Closed" to "Closopened," and the chalk board's edits include "No Cell Phones" to "Don't Do That!" Really fantastic show.

Sports Night


I tried watching this show a few years ago, but I couldn't get past the overall feel of the show. The laugh track annoyed me, and the slapstick pacing distracted me. It felt like a set. Also, Jeremy (Josh Malina of that other Aaron Sorkin show The West Wing) and Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd of Sliders) really bugged me with their high-energy performances. (If I knew either one of them in real life, I would probably punch them.) But trying the show a second time, I've come around to really enjoy the characters and their relationships. It's an easy show to watch episodes back-to-back, and they're only 22 minutes long, so you can watch six episodes for the duration of one movie.

This show really exceeds with Sorkin's writing (no surprise there). The conversational banter is realistic but still clever enough that you take mental notes of the retorts to use later. And the Casey-Dana relationship works extremely well because Sorkin avoids the obnoxious trend of will-they-or-won't-they of having the two leads ignore their feelings. Instead, these two characters know of their feelings and address their issues with one another. But more than anything, I'm impressed with Josh Malina's ability to carry a monologue, as evidenced by this scene (with Sorkin's self-righteousness written all over it): Jeremy explains why hunting is "just mean" and not a sport. Also, as a liberal, I agree with most of what Sorkin preaches (especially Isaac's speech -- near the end of the clip -- regarding the confederate flag), and I enjoy the B-storyline inclusion of moralistic narratives (like Dan's "public apology" for saying that marijuana shouldn't have the same punishment as harder crimes). I'm only through season one, but I certainly look forward to the rest of the series (like Black Books, the whole series can be found in one set). I know that smart writing is always in store.

Coupling (Series 1)


A friend introduced me to this, and honestly, my face hurt from laughing so much. British comedy can be more sexually aggressive because they don't have to use allusive metaphors for masturbation, threesomes, and porn addictions. For instance, you probably wouldn't see the following clip on American TV, though it's incredibly well written: Jeff hits on a woman who doesn't speak English. And Jeff is absolutely the reason to watch this show (and it's sad that actor Richard Coyle is replaced with a different character in the fourth season), and though the other characters aren't annoying or aggravating or anything, I keep hoping that Patrick will grow beyond his libido and that Sally will be more than a shrill complainer. But still, the situations are wonderfully set up, and the character relations are so much more natural and realistic than Friends or Seinfeld or any other American comedy. I'm only at the end of season one (though I've seen episodes from later seasons), but I should be done with the series in a few weeks. It's the type of show to keep handy for bad days or lazy weekends or low-key get-togethers.

How I Met Your Mother (Season 1)


Wow, Ted is not annoying in the first season. The reason I like this show -- and why I liked only the first few seasons of Friends -- is that the characters actually laugh when someone is being ridiculous or says something funny. And most of the reaction shots (minus Ted's) are natural. Although Ted is less annoying in the beginning, Lily is more so, but it's a comfort to know she's toned down later in the series. And of course, Barney steals the show, but don't overlook Robin or Marshall because they crack me up the most. Robin's the "normal" one and she's probably weirder than any of them, and Marshall's random singing is quite contagious. I particularly liked the "Slutty Pumpkin" episode and thought it was sweet. Ted spends every Halloween atop his building hoping for a woman he met years ago at that party, and he acknowledges that he doesn't really expect her to be there. He's just holding on to the hope that there's someone out there for him. This episode represents the show, I think. Barney was at his ridiculous horny best (and had the best intro with the Top Gun theme), and Robin defended her right to be a "me" instead of a "we", while Lily and Marshall's nicknames for each other (Lily Pad and Marshmallow) really summed up their coupledom. So yeah. This is a sweet show, and I definitely enjoy it, but it's not anywhere near brilliant or clever.