definitely, possibly, maybe

i'm not a huge fan of alternate reality episodes, usually because i feel like it's a way of cheating, used only to justify the current writing staff's decisions with regard to their characters. but sometimes, because the alternate reality allows the writers to pair up actors who don't usually have a chance to work together, you see some interesting possibilities open up as a viewer (sadly these rarely seem to open up to the writers) and there are opportunities to see the characters in a different light. "general hospital"'s what if barbara jean jones had lived, and maxie jones had died episode, got off to a somewhat painful start. having maxie provide commentary while surrounded by some weird white background was bad enough, but then to have her talk on and on about how lulu and johnny were supposed to be in love? what was that about? maxie has always said that lulu and johnny weren't right for each other, and in her heart to heart with johnny during t...

"general hospital" has outdone itself in promoting women's awareness of heart health, and by outdone, i mean managed to ruin at least three consecutive episodes with some stultifying, stiff dialogue as well as some eye-gouging-worthy scenes. 1. max & milo counsel diane on her heart health. i fast-forwarded through this, and i recognize that this is a ridiculous thing to share, but this scene sums up how awful and ridiculous and incompetent the gh writing staff is, and does an admirable job of showcasing the tawdriness of the product placement: yes. it really is that bad. and what's worse is that this lasted for three days. i'm hoping that today we saw the last of the heart healthiness, though we do apparently have a "it's a wonderful life" alternate reality episode coming up with maxie tomorrow. if the above scene was awful, the scenes below might be even worse, i actually sat through these the first time too. why would max sit on the bed that c...

i don't know. i mean...i had been enjoying the "grey's anatomy"/"private practice" crossover event, but...meh. i think that they could have done way more interesting things with it than they did. the heart of the crossover had a pretty great mix of the grey's cast interacting with the pp cast. but as it wound down, it didn't really deliver any real goods. here are a few thoughts on what grey's should do to improve things: 1. spend less time in surgery i know they are surgical residents, but the surgery scenes are challenging to watch because the actors all have their surgical masks in place and are stuck emoting with their eyes. it gets boring to see meaningful glances exchanged over the body being cut open. 2. when focusing on patients don't line up each patient so perfectly with the doctor's own story line every single time having the events in patients lives echo what is going on for our main doctors is okay sometimes, but it's g...

so how eerie was it to see the oceanic 6 get on that plane? especially considering the mysterious circumstances that gets them to come together: jack bringing the dead body of john locke, hurley with his comic book and guitar case (something of charlie's perhaps?), sayid filling kate's role of fugitive, and ben running into the airplane just in time, much like hurley did for flight 815. here's the thing. i'm not a big jack fan. his hero complex, his need to fix things, his idea of what is right, i find it all so annoying. i don't understand why everyone is so willing to follow his lead, because most of the time i wish he had just died the way the original script intended. most of this is due to the character, but some of it also has to do with matthew fox and how i couldn't stand him on "party of five" because he just had to be right and keep the family together. kate is a more complex character to understand. i can never fathom her motivations. i...

so remember how i had those 6 episodes of "fringe" stored on the dvr? yeah, they became a total of 9 episodes. but i took advantage of president's day and having the day off work and watched them all. (well, actually only 7 of them, i had to watch the last two episodes last night.) (also, i am a bad friend because what i should have been doing on monday was read my friend ian's novel and send him feedback on it, but i'm having a hard time getting around to it since he sent it to me on paper and it's 600+ pages in this huge black binder that i can barely carry.) anyway, i finally watched all the episodes, and have to say i'm glad i did. the show seems to be settling into it's formula, and the characters are interacting together more naturally, more organically. i still think anna torv as olivia dunham can be a little to dreary (a major problem is her voice/speech and this is likely due to the fact that she is masking an australian accent, unfortunately...

it's getting to the point where it's not just the lostaways who have aching heads and nosebleeds (well, okay, i actually haven't had a nosebleed), what on earth is going on with time on the show? scratch that, what on earth is going on? i was very sorry to have charlotte die. i thought that there was more for her to reveal, particularly as a dharma dweller. i actually think it's likely that we will see her again, and that daniel will try to protect her from the island. a mistake that will exist on an endless loop, since you can't stop the island from getting what it wants. i imagine that charlotte's mother left the island to protect her. i wonder what happens to the lostaways now that locke is gone, and the closest thing they have to leaders are sawyer and juliet. sawyer starts the series not really caring about his fellow survivors, but over time that's changed. what happens now, when he is their pseudo-leader. and how soon do we think jack will be back to ...

so i never meant to post solely about television. i just happen to watch a lot of it, and unlike high school, where my friend, alex and i would call each other to dissect the latest gh events every afternoon, my friends and i talk about more adult topics nowadays, like how much we hate work, or politics, or babies. this has proved to be a great channel for my thoughts on tv. but i also read a lot. and one of the reasons i read a lot is that i read a lot of trashy romance novels. the thing is, i don't think of them as trashy. there's a lot of stuff being published, and some of it is real crap, but some of it is really well written and entertaining. and well, i've decided to track some of them here, in my new feature: seriously romantic. this week i'm going to cover julia quinn 's bridgerton book series: the duke and i ; the viscount who loved me ; an offer from a gentleman ; romancing mr. bridgerton ; to sir philip, with love ; when he was wicked ; it's in his ...

i've been focusing a lot on "general hospital" and "lost" lately, so here are my thoughts on some of the other shows i watch. chuck so last week's 3-D episode was good, but also a bit of a let down. i thought that the tension between chuck and sarah after he witnessed her shoot a fulcrum agent in cold blood would hold over a few episodes. instead they address it after a few scenes of chuck behaving oddly in sarah's presence. while chuck is still uncomfortable in his spy role, he's been playing a larger part in the missions and as the end of the episode shows us, is clearly committed to the work that they do. how i met your mother this show is so brilliant. i'm really loving the robin-barney love connection. i think they've been able to mine a lot of great comedic material for barney, and it's been fun watching the other characters realize that barney has the hots for robin. right now lily and ted are the only other people aware of his fe...

" On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux . [One cannot see well except with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.]" i don't know how many times my high school french teacher, mme. alio, repeated this line to us as we read antoine de saint-exupéry's le petit prince . so when i found out the latest episode of lost was named "the little prince" i couldn't help but think that by choosing to name the episode after a book about two castaways, the writers/producers we giving us a critical clue to understanding the story that is unfolding on my television screen every week. i think, perhaps, that john locke, richard alpert, and benjamin linus, are the only characters who have ever been able to understand the island without questioning it. and the struggle to understand what the island is asking for is what has dogged the lostaways since they first crashed there in 2004. and maybe as the island skips through ...

how is it that the gh characters have access to all these guns? i mean, it's ridiculous. i know port charles is set in upstate new york, but they do actual have gun control laws there. so all the people running around with guns stuffed in their pants don't really make a lot of sense. and you know what really doesn't make sense to me, is why all these mob characters always stick the gun in their underwear when they leave the house? isn't that a bad place to put a weapon. i mean, why would a guy point a gun at his privates? all of them do this, it doesn't make any sense to me. don't they have holsters??? the police don't have a monopoly on holsters. anyway, of course sam shot jason. the fact that sam and jason are in the hospital is so ridiculous. and i get that it's all about reuniting sam and jason and lucky and elizabeth. but really sam trying to be helpful is so irritating, and the fact that she's there trying to help but instead getting in the wa...

i'm always making excuses as to why i haven't posted. and part of the reason this is late, is because i wasn't able to watch the last episode of "lost" when it originally aired. but i caught up quickly, and have just been plain old lazy about writing. oh well... so "jughead" takes place on the island as it skips through time and desmond's quest to find faraday's mother. it also catches us up nicely with what desmond and penny have been up to, and provides a touching moment honoring the fallen lostaway, charlie. anyway, here's the thing about time travel, because the lostaways are skipping through time, do they have any direct causal relationship with the events that brought them to the island? as they skip through time, it looks like they stay in each time period for a bit longer, will the skipping stop somewhere specific? are the lostaways in some way connected to the others or dharma. the season opener showed us a scene where daniel was cle...