Monday, July 26, 2010

Thoughts about last week's Y&R, AMC, and OLTL

I usually watch The Young and the Restless, All My Children, and One Life to Live on weekday mornings, when SOAPnet airs them in a three-hour block. I don't actually sit there the whole time and watch them with the same intense concentration I do my primetime shows, but I do like to keep up. With that in mind, I have a few thoughts about last week's shows.

Y&R: Victoria shouldn't have shown up at the dinner at all. After having been ordered to attend, that's the last thing she should have done. It doesn't matter that she intended to take Billy with her to annoy her father; the fact that she showed up at all means that she's still unwilling to completely defy him. That doesn't mean she should act like Abby, because there's something seriously wrong with that one.

I do have to give the writers credit for not dragging out the "Chance cheats on Chloe" secret. I didn't even know they'd done it; I knew about the kiss but thought that was as far as it had gone until I saw the flashback.

AMC: I really, really, really want Caleb to mop the floor with Junior. Really. Speaking of Caleb, the way he kept referring to Jackson's "perfect hair" was priceless. It's annoying that Bianca has no intention of keeping her kids out of Caleb's wing of the house. It's going to be even more annoying when he tries to shoo them away and they end up chipping away at his gruffness, and you know that's what will happen. And, to risk overusing the word, Bianca is even more annoying than ever.

I can't forget to mention Angie. That woman is a menace. I don't even like Ryan, but the guy doesn't deserve what would have happened to him if Jake hadn't taken over in the E.R. Angie is supposed to help people--first do no harm--but she's too stubborn to admit that she shouldn't be practicing medicine right now.

OLTL: I actually saw less of this than the other shows last week. One thing that stood out was Charlie and Viki's plan to get David and Dorian back together. It was silly but still fun and hilarious.

I keep waiting for Starr to dump Cole. It looks like that's the direction they're heading, but she's being stubborn about it.

I'm also waiting for an explanation about Elijah/Bennett. What did he have against Kelly's mother and Marty?

That's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of a few things I neglected to mention, but they'll just have to wait.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Some of My Favorite Love Songs

I did something that was almost impossible. I compiled a list of my favorite love songs. Think I'm exaggerating about how hard it was? I'm a music lover. I always have a song in my head. Sometimes it's one that's been around for a while--a couple months, several years, a few decades--and sometimes it's a new release I just can't get enough of. When you take that into account, I think you'll have to admit it's hard to come up with a list of favorites.

I compromised a bit. I started by listing 20 of my favorite rock love songs. The only way to do it was to think of songs guaranteed to have me cranking up the volume. I went back pretty far but did include some newer selections.

When I finished that list, I started working on another one: 20 more great love songs that weren't necessarily rock. Again, I went back pretty far, but I didn't duplicate any from the other list.

I suppose I'll have to do some updated lists at some point. After all, great new songs are showing up all the time.

Awesome: The Best Word to Describe Chuck

Chuck is a fantastic show that has it all: action, adventure, romance, humor, and drama. In spite of this, the fans, cast, and crew are put through the wringer every year while NBC makes a decision about whether to renew or cancel. I just don't get it; Chuck is such a great show, yet the ratings are never what they should be.

If you don't watch Chuck, why not? "Awesome" is more than just a catchphrase in this show; it's also the best word to describe Chuck.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

A&E Haiku

Back in April 2009, I wrote a few haiku-style poems for National Poetry Month. One of them, "Classic Journey," shows the connection between the band and a popular show from a few years ago. In fact, whenever I watched the show and Journey came up, I had to chuckle. One character loved them, while his best friend just didn't understand their appeal and preferred Death Cab for Cutie.

I doubt there's anyone who hasn't gotten into a show, only to realize that the ratings aren't great and the network might give up on it. It happens to me all the time. When it's time for decisions to be made, each show is reported as being either renewed, canceled, or on the bubble, meaning that it could go either way. "On the Bubble" is a set of three haiku poems about the agonizing wait for the network execs to make up their minds. One of the shows mentioned is still on today, but the other was unjustly canceled. I still miss it.

What does this template have to do with arts and entertainment, anyway?

Wondering why I chose this particular template? Funny how that happened.

I was looking at templates, rejecting quite a few but adding almost as many to my list of maybes. When I saw this one, I knew I had to have it. I just didn't know where I was going to use it.

I narrowed down the list to a more manageable size, still trying to assign templates to each blog. When I saw this one, I actually thought, Ellie's Couch.

If that were the scene outside my window, I'd want to curl up on the couch and read a good book or maybe watch TV. Either that or just enjoy the gorgeous view.

Then when I asked for my husband's opinion about which templates to use on which blogs, he also chose this one, but for a different reason. "It's cinematic," he said. I realized he was right. That gorgeous scene could easily have been taken from a movie.

So, that's how it happened. I realize that most people probably won't see it as a logical choice, but it makes perfect sense to me. Maybe someday I'll change it, but for now, it's here to stay.

Atta Boy, Luther: A Review of The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is a 1966 film starring Don Knotts, who plays scaredy-cat Luther Heggs in what is arguably his best work. Spooky, hilarious, and just plain fun, this is my all-time favorite classic movie.

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Strange Turn of Events: A Review of Being Erica

Poor Erica Strange just had a terrible day. First, she got fired from her job at the call center--for being too bright. Then she got dumped so that the guy she'd been seeing could go to the gym. After getting drenched in a sudden downpour, she sought shelter inside a coffee shop and ended up having an allergic reaction to a free sample. That's what landed her in the hospital, where she met the mysterious Dr. Tom.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Motel Hell: Cult Classic from the '80s

Motel Hell is a hilarious classic horror movie from 1980. The title is something of a play on words, depicting both the name of the motel and the general state of affairs for the unfortunate soul who wanders anywhere near the motel and its proprietors. The story takes place at the very rural Motel Hello. However, the letter "O" on the sign has a bit of trouble, its light flickering on and off. The light on the other letters are fine, so that when the "O" is out, only the first four letters of the word remain. "Hell" is a good description of the motel, as you're about to learn.

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Review of U2's The Joshua Tree

If you've ever listened to the radio, you're probably already familiar with several tracks from The Joshua Tree, U2's Grammy-winning album from 1987. "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "With or Without You" seem to have received the most airplay, at least to my recollection.

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Monday, July 12, 2010

New Night for Persons Unknown

I pulled up my cable guide last night to check the time for tonight's episode of Persons Unknown. It had aired in an early timeslot for two weeks, and I wanted to find out the story for this week's episode. Well, I wasn't happy to see that it wasn't even on the schedule. I thought it was possibly on hiatus--which happens all the time--but thought it was more likely that the network had canceled it. Since it was already pretty late, I decided to wait until this morning to investigate the situation online. I was relieved to learn that it had been moved to a different night. Instead of Mondays in varying timeslots, it's now scheduled for Saturdays at 8:00 pm EDT.

This is both good news and bad news. Persons Unknown was doing poorly in the ratings, and NBC decided to move it instead of canceling it--yet. I don't know what the network will ultimately do with the show, but my guess is that the move will actually save it. The ratings probably won't improve, but the networks don't seem to care as much about ratings on Saturday nights anyway.

We'll see what happens.

Welcome to Ellie's Couch

When I watch TV, read, or listen to music, I'm usually on the couch. For me, it's the most comfortable place for those activities. That's why I chose "Ellie's Couch" as the name for this blog about books, television, music, and movies. I won't be writing about everything I'm watching, reading, or listening to; that would be a monumental task. Instead, I'll choose the most interesting ones and see how that goes.