Why I Need TV to Be an Escape

20 Feb

(AKA: I Spoke Too Soon)

Remember a few weeks ago, when I said I was trying to get my life back to “normal” and was going to start blogging again? And remember how I only posted once after that?

It appears I spoke too soon.

I really wanted to get back to blogging. Over the course of the past year, I’ve come to really love writing about television. Aside from my best friend in the world, who lives hundreds of miles away and is knee-deep in doctorate work, I don’t know many other obsessive TV geeks (and she’s not nearly as crazy as me, either). I see my boyfriend’s eyes glaze over when I get all fangirly about shows I love, and I know he doesn’t understand how I can binge watch an entire series in a week. So this blog has been my outlet, my place to fangirl, the only way for me to express how awesome I think Liz Lemon is, how much Fringe broke my heart on a weekly basis, or how funny Schmidt and Nick Miller are.

Writing about TV, though, requires keeping your brain turned on while watching your favorite shows. Before my dad’s heart attack, I loved that feeling of being extra-engaged with a show, instead of just passively absorbing episode after episode. With everything going on in my life now, though, I need to just get lost in my favorite shows. I’m spending a possibly unhealthy amount of time curled up in my comfiest PJs, cuddled up with my favorite blanket, letting TV take me away from all the awfulness going on with my dad. When Bunheads whisks me away to Paradise for an hour every week, I forget about how terrible my dad looked the last time I visited. When the gang on New Girl play True American and make me laugh, I stop thinking about how much I miss being able to talk to my dad, especially now that it’s hockey season again. When Ron Swanson is…well, Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, I can turn off all the “what ifs” rattling around in my brain for just a little while.

Long story short – I don’t have it in me to blog right now. Not regularly, anyway. I’m not sure when I will. I may find myself randomly inspired by something here and there (I just binge-watched United States of Tara on Netflix and am feeling somewhat compelled to write about that), but aside from that, I can’t guarantee I’ll be posting much for a while. Not until life gets a little less…hard.

I’m still pretty active on Twitter, so follow me there if you want to talk TV in the meantime.

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What I Watched This Week – February 3

3 Feb

The best laid plans, huh? I had every intention to blog this week – especially about that amazing 30 Rock finale – but then, on top of everything going on with my dad, my grandmother passed away late Thursday evening. I’m not even sure my family is going to get up to New Hampshire for the funeral (we live in New Jersey) because my dad is being moved to a new facility this week. Needless to say, I’ve been distracted for a few days.

That said, I wanted to at the very least post a few thoughts about said 30 Rock finale and this week’s terrific episode of New Girl. Mini recap post, I guess?

Here we go!
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Catching Up

27 Jan

fringe-enemyoffate

Well, it’s been a hard month, but I’m back-ish. My dad is still in a coma due to the brain damage he experienced while without oxygen during his heart attack. His doctors have no idea if/when he’ll ever fully wake up, or how  much normal brain function he’ll get back if he does. At this point, all we can do is hope for the best and wait. I miss him terribly (especially now that hockey season has started up again).

In any case, I’m trying to get back to whatever normal life looks like on the other side of a tragedy, so I’m attempting to get back to blogging. I can’t promise any sort of consistency – my energy level and ability to focus on this are pretty non-existent these days – but at the very least I plan on getting back to my weekly round-up posts, and maybe the occasional episode review.

In the meantime, to get back in the swing of things, I thought I’d write up a few quick thoughts on some of the stuff I’ve watched over the past month that would have merited a post had my life not been so screwed up. So, no more babbling, and on with the real post!

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Temporary Blog Hiatus

31 Dec

I unfortunately have to put my blog on hold for a while to deal with some family stuff. My dad had a massive heart attack the day after Christmas and we’re still waiting to see if/when he’ll wake up or if he had extensive brain damage from being without oxygen after he collapsed. It’s been a hard week.

I had some fun stuff planned for the new year – the blog’s one-year anniversary is sometime later this week – including finally designing my own theme for the site and starting some new regular features. Once life goes back to normal, I will make all of that happen, but for now, family comes first. I’ll still be around on Twitter a bit, have to pass the time somehow ;)

If you’re the praying sort, any and all good vibes for my dad would be appreciated.

Happy New Year.

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Top 10 Shows of 2012

27 Dec

It’s Top 10 list season, so I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring and write a quick list of my favorite shows for the year. They’re in “order”, although if you asked me again tomorrow that order would probably change. I included some other notable shows from the year after the list as well. There’s also a few “dishonorable” mentions – shows I watched regularly that I thought had a particularly bad year (and in a few cases, gave up on them).

On to the list!

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What I Watched This Week – December 22

22 Dec

Last round-up post of 2012! I’ll have a top shows of the year post up sometime next week, but that will be it for me until 2013. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays! :)

How I Met Your Mother – “The Final Page, Parts 1 & 2″

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  • When this show has an episode like the second half of the two-parter this week, I remember why I fell in love with it in the first place, and why I feel the need to stick it out to the bitter end. It’s been a ghost of its former hilarious self most of this season, but this was a really strong episode (and actually, even the first-half was better than most of what has aired this year).
  • I know most people are talking about the proposal scene – and I’ll get there in a minute – but my favorite part of this episode was the conversation Ted and Robin had in the limo. It’s been a long time since Ted was likable, but he really went out of his way to make sure Robin took the risk and went after Barney, and I loved every second of it. Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders knocked the exchange out of the park.
  • As for that proposal – sort of creepy, but it made me smile like an idiot anyway. Which is kind of perfect for a Barney Stinson proposal, don’t you think? I was glad Robin was initially put off – she’s been so not-Robin-like lately that I half expected her to turn around, see Barney, and just fall into his arms or something. But of course she was going to say yes. I’m definitely curious to see what engaged life looks like for the two of them, though.
  • Obviously the second half was the much more exciting part of the two-parter, but I thought the first part was pretty enjoyable as well. It was fun to see Seth Green and Alyson Hannigan on-screen together again, and silent!Barney made me laugh.
  • Also, I don’t think I can properly express how annoyed I am CBS is about to renew this show for a season 9. I JUST WANT IT TO END, YOU GUYS.

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What I Watched This Week – December 15

15 Dec

Pretty light lineup of shows this week, as most things have gone on their winter hiatus.

New Girl – “Santa”

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  • I laughed SO hard at Jess running into all the glass windows at the second party. This may have been partially because I could totally see myself doing exactly that, but it was hilarious regardless. What an amazing bit of physical comedy from Zooey Deschanel.
  • I thought for sure half-deaf Winston yelling at everyone was going to get old, but instead it just kept getting funnier (and they pulled the plug on it at just the right time). The best use of his inability to hear was definitely Jess lying about the two of them dating – and Winston inadvertently commenting with the perfect double entendres.
  • Can we all agree that Jake Johnson is amazing? Good. I know everyone falls all over Max Greenfield – rightfully so, because Schmidt is hilarious – but I think Johnson has been spectacular as Nick this season. His apology/confessions to Angie at the radio party, coupled with his hilariously bad lap dance, were perfect. And he continues to have great chemistry with Deschanel as well, as the two of them shared a great moment in the lead up to that scene.
  • I’m still sad Cece decided not to get together with Schmidt again, but watching the two of them fight and then make up was still pretty fun this week. Scorned!Schmidt was entertaining, and it was still blatantly obvious the two of them have a strong connection.

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Episode Review: Fringe 5.09 “Black Blotter”

15 Dec

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Episodes like last night’s new Fringe remind me why I love this show so much, and why I’m going to miss it when it ends in a few weeks. We’re starting to run out of new episodes, guys. The show wrapped production yesterday (here’s a great picture of Joshua Jackson and John Noble after they wrapped, courtesy of Joel Wyman’s twitter), and after last night’s episode we’re down to the final four hours of the show. I’m not ready!

As far as “Black Blotter”, it was clearly meant to be the shortened season equivalent of their traditional super-trippy episode 19. It wasn’t my favorite episode of the season, but it definitely made some progress toward figuring out the ultimate plan to defeat the Observers. Plus we got to watch Walter tripping on acid for an hour, which I will never, ever complain about.

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Episode Review: Parenthood 4.11 “What To My Wondering Eyes”

13 Dec

parenthood-whattomywonderingeyes
This week brought us Christmas with the Bravermans on Parenthood! Despite a promo that had me concerned for Kristina’s survival (and my ability not to spend the entire hour sobbing), the episode was another really great installment in what is by far my favorite season of the show yet. The holiday spirit was alive and well with Braverman family.

As usual, I’ll take it one group of Bravermans at a time!
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What I Watched This Week – December 8

8 Dec

I apologize for being MIA this week – I had grand plans for writing up a bunch of episode reviews for some of the winter finale episodes that aired, but alas, life got in the way. On that note, this is going to be a pretty quick weekly wrap-up – I’m going to bypass a few shows entirely. Hopefully things will settle down in my little corner of the world next week and we’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Once Upon a Time – “Queen of Hearts”

  • So, SO glad to have Emma and Snow back in Storybrooke. Having to deal with the split up stories was getting pretty old. Also, I may be in the minority here, but I honestly could not care less about Mulan and Aurora finding Philip or not. I just want to focus on Storybrooke from here on out, thanks.
  • The shift in Regina this season has been really interesting, and I found myself genuinely feeling bad for her when everyone skipped off without her at the end of the episode. She really is trying hard to change for Henry – and despite making a terrible initial decision about that portal, she fixed it and SAVED THEIR LIVES – and she’s not getting much credit for it.
  • I can’t wait to see Cora and Hook facing off with Gold and Regina in Storybrooke. Should be a lot of fun. I also really want to see more of Emma and Hook interacting, because they have great chemistry – even when they’re sword fighting!
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