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Doctor Who

Have I mentioned that I love Netflix?

My friend Jenn has been recommending I watch Doctor Who for a few years now.  I always shrugged it off with a lopsided mental image of Ed Wood meets 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but on a lower crappier budget. I knew my perspective was way off, but whatever, I didn’t have time to bother.

Recently I decided I did have time and I was ready to give it a try.

Glad I did.

I am about half way into series 2, so no spoilers please, and enjoying it.  To be clear, I dove into the more modern Doctor Who, beginning to air in 2005 with the 9th Doctor.

Briefly, the show is about a humanoid alien named The Doctor.  He travels through space and time in a blue British police box, taking on aliens and disasters to right the world and save the weak.  He shares his adventures with a human sidekick.

For those none Doctor Who fans,every few series or less they ‘reincarnate’  the Doctor, replacing him with a new actor.  The show explains this lead  change, in a semi mediocre, but acceptable way.  So far I am partial to the 9th Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston.  He was replaced at the end of series 1 with David Tennant as Doctor number ten.  I think its Eccleston’s more rugged looks and easy going personality compared to Tennant’s cleaner cut looks and cooler personality that I prefer.

His side kick through the first and second series is Rose Tyler played by Billie Piper.  I like her fun character although I am ridiculously distracted by how giant her mouth is.  Sort of like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Unlike my lopsided preconception of the show, it is more like a British version of Sliders meets Warehouse 13.

I don’t know that I would rearrange my schedule to catch it on TV, but as a Netflix show, I am enjoying it.

A side note, the British show, Torchwood, is a spin off from Doctor Who.  Captain Jack Harkness, who is first seen in several episodes towards the end of the first series of Doctor Who, was then revived in Torchwood. So far there have been a few offhanded references to Torchwood in series two of Doctor Who.  Pretty neat.

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by riderofchaos on October 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on October 5, 2012

https://allthingskrista.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/doctor-who/

The Mindy Poject – Win Win

I love the fall.  It’s the best time of year.  The weather cools off, the outdoors turns whimsical colors, the ponies get fuzzy, the dogs and cats get cuddly and it’s time to break out the hoodies.  Fantastic.

It is also the start of TV time.  Yeah yeah, boo to TV.  I gotcha.  And generally, I am not a big TV fan either.  But I do enjoy snuggling on the couch in my PJs for the start of some new TV shows as part of the change to this wonderful season.

Yesterday on Hulu.com I watched the pilot of a new show, The Mindy Project.

This is a show I had caught a few commercials for and was not particularly excited about.  I like the main character played by Mindy Kaling, who is also the creator of the show.  Mindy is probably best known for her role as Kelly Kapoor in the popular TV comedy, The Office.  Since I like Mindy, I decided to give the show a try, and I am glad I did.

After just the one episode I would best summarize the show as; Scrubs meets Sex in the City with a little bit of something else added in to make it all its own.   We follow the main character, Mindy, as she traverses life as an early 30 something physician, and her exploits in the dating world.  The character appears to have a strong fondness for romantic comedies and is both fun and quirky with a touch of Phoebe from Friends.   In the first episode we saw Mindy deliver a baby, make a sloppy fool of herself at her X’s wedding, banter with coworkers and go for a drunken bike ride.  She totally pulled off being a hot mess with style.  The show is light and easy to enjoy, and I found myself laughing out loud and smiling at the antics and easy come wit.

I have added The Mindy Project to my Hulu.com  queue in case I miss the second episode next Tuesday on Fox after New Girl, another one of my favorites.

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by riderofchaos on September 27, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on September 27, 2012

https://allthingskrista.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/the-mindy-poject-win-win/

Revolution – Second Thoughts

This show sounds like the perfect new TV show for me; dystopian society, horses, good vs evil, fighting, action, the end of the world, all that fun ‘what if’ stuff.  But two episodes in and I am getting a bit apprehensive.

To start off, the show is currently playing in a one hour time slot on Monday nights starting at 10pm.  Way past my bed time, and coming off the shirttails of typically exhausting weekends, this does not make for the ideal late night for me.  Last Monday, for the first episode, I fell asleep shortly after it started.  Although I had already watched it on Hulu.com, so not such a big deal.  This Monday, I started struggling to stay awake around 8:30 but did manage to wake back up and stay awake for the entire episode.

My second issue is the main character Charlie and the way she over reacts to everything.  It’s almost as if she did not spend the past 15 years growing up in a harsh world where we suspect nearly the entire population has died.  She is presented as a tough rugged hunter but then whines about killing enemies and not reaching her brother fast enough.  In the second episode she also predictably defied her travel companions and ran off in the night.  These traits just do not fit into this rugged kill or die future.

Other than the time slot and  cry-baby-Charlie, the show is captivating and already throwing some nice curve balls, and twists that are sure to keep viewers like me coming back for more.  I am bated to know more about Grace, and bad guy Tom Neville played by Giancarlo Esposito is fantastic.  And I am a little captivated by Bass Monroe and Miles Matheson.

Maybe we are being shown how sheltered and easy Charlie has really had it and how fast she is going to grow up now that she is on the road.  Or maybe it’s the writer’s way to let viewers have hope that even if the power goes out for good, some people won’t lose their soft inner core (not everyone wants a cut throat ‘reality’).  It is also very possible that I was so tired that I just needed her to shut the hell up so the show could move along.

The show’s late time slot is already making it hard to catch, and being a little annoyed with one of the main characters is not helping.  Is this show going to become a next-day-Hulu.com show for me?  No matter what, I am certain to tune into episode 3 next week.

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by riderofchaos on September 26, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on September 26, 2012

https://allthingskrista.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/revolution-second-thoughts/

Revolution – My New TV Show?

I have been wanting a new TV series that I can get excited about each week, and plan ahead to watch.  A new TV show to be dedicated to.  Years ago I was dedicated to Lost.  It was a good show with a little drama, a little mystery, well developed likeable characters, a weird science fiction twist to the whole thing and some comedic relief thrown in for good measure.  That show was a project of JJ Abrams, who also brought us some other interesting shows like Alias and Fringe (which I have on my “to watch one day” list) and movies including Cloverfield and Super 8.  Intriguing and despite mixed reviews, I like the guys work. 

This summer during the Olympics I saw some commercials for a new JJ Abrams show, Revolution, which starts Monday September 17th on NBC.  It looks like it is will be right up my alley.  A Weekly, one hour time slot, of action and mystery with a science fiction twist.  The show is set in the future, 15 years after the power goes out.  Post-apocalyptic action and adventure, sounds perfect, count me in!

Starting today, Tuesday September 4th, you can watch the entire pilot episode on Hulu.com.  Which is pretty darn cool. And Also a bit of a tease.  I decided to jump the gun and watched the preview episode today at lunch. 

 

The show started off in the present with the, what happened set up, but rolled through it rather quickly.  It did fill us in a little with some flash backs, that I expect will continue throughout the show to give us a bigger picture.  Generally the episode introduced us to the characters we are going to be rooting for throughout the show, as well as the ones we are going to love to hate. 

 

We are introduced to the good guys including, Charlie, the late teen female character, who has a similar toughness and post-apocalyptic fashion to Katniss from The Hunger Games.  She is joined by Aaron, a character I expect to be a lovable comic figure that viewers will be endeared to.  We also meet the adorable Maggie, who sports a sexy Australian accent and a stand up attitude. 

 

One of the bad guys, Captain Tom Neville, is played by Giancarlo Esposito, who played Gus in AMC’s Breaking Bad.  I instantly warmed to him as a bad guy, and think he fits this roll excellently.  We also met a young male character named Nate, played by JD Pardo, and are left a little unsure of his affiliation.  He has the look at of a teen heartthrob, with the buff smooth appearance that was garnered by Taylor Lautner who played werewolf, Jacob Black, in The Twilight Saga. 

 

During the episode we get a few glimpses of the world of over grown buildings, flooded roads, boarded up towns and weathered structures as well as a look at how the world of no power operates.  We also get a teaser of an underlying plot, and in typical JJ Abram’s fashion, with some mysteries to be solved, the episode ended with me wanting more. 

 

The episode felt fast paced and a bit overly introductory.  I felt that the FOX network show from last year, Terra Nova, also started out similarly paced.  Additionally I found some of the characters in Revolution to show excessive emotion in a way I would not expect in a world that has been forced to live such a hard existence.  Charlie’s brother, Danny, came off as overly immature for someone growing up in this world. 

But all in all the pilot pulled it off, and I am ready to dedicate myself to the time slot and see how it goes. 

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by riderofchaos on September 4, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on September 4, 2012

https://allthingskrista.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/revolution-my-new-tv-show/