tee vee

i always feel silly writing about television. im not a television critic, and the aim of this blog isnt to ponder or analyze the wonderful world of boob tube programming, but i find myself, when unable to find anything else inside to write, falling back on television as the subject at hand.

funny thing is, i dont even watch that much television. i have a select amount of shows i tivo, some are must see's and some are just there to waste time or help me wind down at 3am. but i dont immediately turn on the tv when i get home. i dont rely on it as my sole source of entertainment. in many ways, i do feel it is a mostly a complete waste of time. an imagination suffocating poison designed for stealing away precious hours one could spend doing something productive. and also, almost to a fault, i fear that if i write about television too much ill come across as a lazy ass american.

which, of course, i am.

that being said, yesterday i watched a couple hours of television and was thoroughly happy with them. as usual i didnt really start watching until 2am, but i find watching tv at night helps me downshift my brain, otherwise im up for hours "thinking." sometimes thinking is for chumps.

before that i watched the newest Harry Potter movie [on dvd], while eating take out chinese food. it was pretty good. Harry was a little edgy in this one. not in a telling racist jokes and wearing eyeliner way, but in a dont say the wrong thing or he'll turn you into a frog using his freaky magic wand kind of way. there wasnt much exposition in the movie, i guess the filmmakers assume that if youre watching the fifth installment of the franchise, you already know whats going on and dont need to be caught up. and this was nice, i appreciate when fims arent dumbed down for my benefit, but i found myself many times throughout the movie wondering what the hell was going on and why no one was asking questions.

the thing about the Harry Potter movies is that they dont stick with me. i watch them and have a relatively pleasant experience. the special effects are decent and the world that is created is imaginative and fun, but not long after i see it, i forget what the hell happened. honestly, i probably could not tell you the plot to any one HP movie, and ive seen them all. some more than once. im sure the books are much more engaging, but the movies, for some reason, ring hollow for me. they are just frames for spectacle; there isnt really much there other than that.

anyway, the movie was pretty good i suppose. there wasnt any specific character or special effect that blew me away, but the pacing was competent and the sets were cool. you know what i realized though? i dont really understand the relationship between Harry, Hermoine, and the red headed kid. there were moments where they would sit there talking to each other, and the dialog would be light and casual, banter between friends, and then they would all giggle and look at each other slyly or some shit. i would be like, "what just happened? did i miss something?" half the time i would just ignore what they were saying and hope some freaky CG monster would bust through the wall and Harry would have to use some rare spell to defeat it. i mean, thats what you watch the movie for, right? at the end of the day, i dont give a fuck which british kid has a crush on another british kid, just get to the god damn sorcery already.

after that was over i watched tv, which is what i was getting too when i started this post. i hadnt really watched the tube in a few days, what with being busy and all the porno on the internets to peruse. it was getting late and i was in my wind down phase, so i went to my tivo list and saw what i had missed.

apparently, it wasnt much. but what was there was good enough to keep me from throwing my tivo box out the window. first up was How I Met Your Mother, in my opinion, the secret weapon of network sitcoms. i wont go into how clever the various time lapses are, or the witty set up and execution of jokes the writers come up with, but i will say that i laughed a lot and at the end of the episode was pleasantly shocked at the twist they introduced.

but the money shot was Battle Star Galactica. BSG might be the best show on tv since The Wire ended [not including LOST, which is like the holy grail of network programming]. The writing and tone of the show are clearly defined, and the fact is, they have made a sci-fi show the absolute best drama there is these days. the last episode was one of the most riveting episodes of television ive seen [outside of lost] this year. i swear, i never thought i would get into this show, and the only reason i watched it was because one of my best friends is a total geek for any and all things cyborg, and he convinced me that i wouldnt lose my hipster pass if i tuned in every week. i have to thank him for that, because shit, that show is AWESOME.

usually, if i were a real tv blog, i would go into what developments the characters went through, or what plot points were pushed forward, or some analytical shit like that. but this aint a tv blog. i just wanted to say i like BSG. that is all for now.

[note: blogger image is acting weird. sup with that shit?]