bedlamsbard | Entries tagged with television

It’s interesting rewatching a show that you originally watched as it was airing – I didn’t watch a lot of TV live (ish – episode by episode as it aired, I mean, same or next day; I didn’t have a TV in college and was watching on the network websites) and I’m not totally certain what shows I watched from start to finish on that timeline. The Unit, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe – I think that’s actually it, aside from Rebels. (I didn’t start watching TCW until near the end of S4.) A couple I picked up after the first season had already gone to DVD (Eureka, Jericho), or started at the beginning but dropped at some point (Supernatural – I think I stopped around S3, S4 – and Friday Night Lights). There are plenty of things I was in the fandom for but couldn’t watch live for various reasons (Stargate SG-1, SGA, Buffy – this was back when fen would transcribe the episodes, so I read all the transcriptions of both BtVS and AtS, but still have never seen most of the eps). Really my college years were just about the golden age of my watching TV, since I was at school and had a faster internet connection than I did at home, so I could stream stuff on my laptop, but a lot of my formative influence television dates from about 2006-2012, so high school through college.

Anyway, this is a long way of saying I’ve been rewatching Fringe, possibly for the first time since it originally aired back in 2008, and first of all, holy shit Olivia and I are the same age now, I don’t know how to deal with that fact. I rewatched Jericho and the first season and a half of The Unit last year, and I’m just…I guess I’m just always really surprised at how specifically TV will date to a specific couple years in time? Of course the mid/late-’00s were when I was first really starting to be aware of both wider world events and trends in TV/film/fiction; I was already active in fandom, but this was also when some of those canons for various fandoms were starting to become accessible to me for the first time. (Checking, this is also around when (a) Netflix’s DVD rentals started to really take off and (b) when Netflix started streaming a few years later. But I still remember trying to get Smallville and BtVS DVDs from my local Hollywood Video and Blockbuster.) (My public library has them now, but definitely did not in 2005.)

…I don’t remember where I was going with this. Oh, yes, now I remember. Anyway, I wrapped up S1 tonight, which has a pretty dramatic last shot (if you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to spoil it even though it’s ten years old), and I was just remembering how much of a shock it was to see in 2009 when it first aired. It’s weird going back to things. I don’t really have that experience with media I engage with pretty deeply (i.e., Star Wars) because I go back to it over and over again; I can’t remember the first time I saw or read it. Or with something like Outlander, where I read the books almost twenty years ago (yes, I was too young for them), watching the show is a completely different kind of emotional experience. (I cried during the series premiere.) It’s weird going back to stuff. Sometimes it’s good weird. Sometimes it’s bad weird. Sometimes it’s just An Experience.

Lo, I have returned from York!

Actually I don't think that I ever mentioned that I was going to York, so there's that, and also for the first part of last week my tendonitis flared up so badly that I couldn't actually type and was at one point sitting at my desk crying at how badly my wrists hurt, so there wasn't a whole lot of typing going on at all. (Tagging Tumblr posts hurt, and that's like three letters before you can start scrolling, that's how bad it was. Worse, I couldn't figure out how many of my meds (steroids in pill form, according to my doctor back home) to take because I...couldn't find the dosage info anywhere on the package or the instructions...turns out it was on the back of the blister pack, which is the last place I thought about looking, and I didn't find it until after the worst of the pain had passed. And if you've been here a while you'll remember I have personal family issues with medications, so I don't want to use them unless I absolutely have to.) So I couldn't type for a couple of days, or at least could only type for a very limited span of time, which has thrown my dissertation writing schedule all out of whack, which is kind of shit, because I don't want to write much more than 500-750 words a day tops, both for my sanity and my wrists, but I'll have to.

Anyway, I went to York for three days with

aella_irene, and you will be glad to know that we did not kill each other, even though there may or may not have been some temptation there, partially due to, uh, Richard III and my tendency to, uh...gloat. (Someone may have told a Richard III reenactor at the Yorkshire Museum that I was from the archaeology department at Leicester and then left me in the middle of a discussion about whether York or Leicester should get the remains. I'm not saying who, but WOW THAT WAS SCARY AND I MOSTLY LEARNED MY LESSON.)

York is very pretty, though, and York Minster is very large, and there was an AMAZING cupcake shop a few minutes from the Minster. AMAZING. I am not kidding when I say that we went there every single day. I'm pretty sure that raspberry cheesecake cupcake was actually a religious experience and I don't think that

aella_irene would disagree.

Also at one point we were drinking on a boat. It was a very classy trip, okay? Nobody got murdered or tossed in the Ouse to feed the seemingly random Canadian geese (why are there Canadian geese in York, y'all? or was I mistaken and they are not actually Canadian geese? I'm pretty confident in identifying Canadian geese, since I saw them every year until I went away to college) or transported back through time in Jorvik or had their head cut off and displayed at Micklegate Bar or anything. (Okay, actually, the least classy part was me getting sick on the last day (yesterday), but hey, that happens, and it could have been worse since I was at least upright the entire day and mostly manifested as having no appetite whatsoever until I got back to Leicester, at which point it switched to every part of my body aching like a sumbitch.)

Also we learned that I am not a morning person, like, at all. I babble. I mean, I babble even at non-morning hours (honestly, I talk pretty much like I type online; if you've ever gotten an e-mail from me, it's just like that but worse because you can't click away), but I babble even worse for several hours right after I wake up and then remember absolutely none of it.

aella_irene: I am sorry. Because I have absolutely no idea what I said for three mornings running. I hope that at least it was amusing at some point.

*

In other news, I have finished watching the entirety (so far) of Sons of Anarchy, which is not the fastest I have ever mainlined an entire TV show (I think I watched all of Weeds over the course of three or four days, but those are short episodes and it was also only three seasons then), but is definitely up there. Obviously I liked it since I went through it freakishly quickly, but I'm not sure I have enough coherent thoughts to stitch together a real reaction. (Organized crime and family feels, with some occasionally incestuous undertones? I can't possibly think what I would see in that -- oh wait.)

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/842160.html

The problem with marathoning TV shows is that you end up going, "Well, that escalated quickly," because you just watched three seasons in a week and you're still back at season one characterization since these shows are not designed to be watched in a week.

Although I can only think of one show that I actually watched through and lasted long enough to get to that point, and I can't remember if I did the same thing when S4 of Fringe hit -- actually, come to think of it, remembering S4 of Fringe, I probably did. Maybe it is just third and fourth season slump. *ponder*

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/841537.html

Since I skipped season six of Spooks in a fit of frustration with Adam Carter, the overarching plot, and some fury both generalized and specific and have now happily gone on to season seven in order to better, uh...let's just skip verbs here and say, Richard Armitage, I have now utterly ceased watching for the plot, and whoops, my train of thought derailed. (Did I mention he has Russian prison tats? I honestly can't tell if Lucas North is a character type I really like or if it's just, you know, Armitage. I swear I used to be less shallow.)

...anyway, where I was going with this is today's Hobbit art rec theme, which is, of course, Thorin Oakenshield:

Work by

vanoty
The Mountain King by

lorna-ka/

lorna-ka
Thorin: doff by

em-mika
We must away ere break of day by

SceithAilm
Thorin Oakenshield by

loobeeinthesky

I think that's the easiest rec set I've ever done. (I guess I could have narrowed it down a bit more, made it "Thorin Oakenshield looking dreamy and possibly shirtless," but I gotta save something for later.)

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/819497.html

I apparently took the week off posting art recs, but I also took the week off research, PhD hunting, and being a responsible human being as well as being on vacation, so, okay. I have instead been -- well, I was reading a lot, but -- mainlining Spooks, a.k.a. MI-Everyone You Love Will Die, at a rate of roughly 2.3 days per season. I really want to watch The Hobbit, but I can't seem to stop watching Spooks, and unfortunately I still have another 52 episodes to go. (Fannish life is clearly the most productive life.)

Let's be honest, though, the thing that's surprised me the most so far in Spooks is Andy Serkis playing a human.

I had a craving, so I started rereading Dragonlance for...I honestly don't know, kicks? (This is the original trilogy, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning.) I'm about a third of the way through Dragons of Autumn Twilight right now and...yeah, okay, I don't even know what to say about this. I'd somehow completely managed to forget Tanis had a beard and also that Tas even existed. (I haven't read those books in a really long time.)

I keep walking into the store and buying tea. This means I now have nineteen different kinds of tea. I...don't even know what to say about this. This includes five packages I haven't even opened yet, because WHAT EVEN.)

The other day I went to the library and I almost walked into the Leicester City Coroner's Office instead. There's the first chapter of a murder mystery novel somewhere in there. (In my defense, they're almost right next to each other and the entrances look virtually identical, except one says "Leicester Central Library" and the other says "Leicester City Coroner." BIG DIFFERENCE.)

My right wrist has started twinging again. I'm hoping that this is only because I've started doing fairly intensive cables in my knitting and that's just my wrist coping with being in unfamiliar positions and not my previous wrist disaster coming back, since it doesn't hurt the same way.

Desperately need to get my hair trimmed, which means I eventually have to walk into a salon and ask for an appointment. Anyone who says that long hair is easy to take care of is a fucking liar. I like having long hair, I like being able to do things with it, but I kind of feel like it's at the point where it's too long to do things with most of the time, so it ends up in a French or a Dutch braid a lot. (Though I'm now at the point where I can put it in a French braid and it will actually stay in, which I wasn't at about two months ago, so yay for that.)

Only one day until I can once again tell the story of how my dog ate the Easter Bunny.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/818631.html

Well, the good news is that I have 454 words of paper #1 written, the bad news is I haven't started paper #2. (For reference: because my professor apparently hates all his grad students, they're due on the same day -- two different classes, same professor.) At least I am, at the moment, reasonably confident about the quality of my prose, if not necessarily the quality of my research. As

aella_irene said, if I can write 20,000 words on murderous architecture, I can write 3K on the startling lack of modern research on the Roman navy of the Middle Republic and 3K on archaeological evidence of the Roman slave trade. (The latter is the one I have no research on yet.)

Probably the really pathetic thing is that this is not even the least prepared I've ever been about a paper or set of papers. Thank you, undergrad; I do research more than a week in advance of a deadline now! And thank you, undergrad, for letting me know that I am in fact fully capable of writing a ten page paper in about twelve hours and typing sixty pages or so over the course of three or four days. (This was my last finals week senior year. Good times. My hands cramped up and I was incapable of typing. Good times. I'm pretty sure I started drinking after that -- no, wait, I figured out I liked tequila right before that. Uh, this sounds worse than it was.)

*

My right wrist keeps popping and it's extremely annoying. I swear I almost dislocated it or sprained it or something when the timer went off for my 20 minutes of paper writing (more tomorrow, I just needed to get something started) because it kept twinging for about fifteen minutes afterwards. Stupid thing.

*

I've started watching Elementary. I'm about five minutes in and it's fabulous, and -- okay, I honestly didn't know I needed this, but it's so refreshing to see that an Asian-American woman as a main character on a mainstream American TV show. I've gone almost my entire life without seeing characters who look like me, act like me, have a similar cultural background to me, in media, and I didn't think it would mean that much. I said the same thing a few months ago, when I read Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken -- the main character is Japanese and British -- and it's...shocking. I never thought that it would be something I even wanted in my life; it's very unexpected. But it's kind of an amazing feeling. I've always thought of my background as a combo between something very weird and very ordinary, though not necessarily or mostly because of being half-Japanese; that's so much a part of me that it only really comes up when I'm having a race-related crisis. (This happens every few months or so, sometimes more often; I think I had one last week, but it was a small one.)

Anyway. I love Joan.

*

Hobbit rec posts: Drinking! shall be the theme for the day.

cheers! by

lissinator
in the pub by

villidia
beer pong by

deckitout
you're drunk, bro by

maxkennedy
Young Dwalin, Balin, and Thorin by

doublenegativemeansyes

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/812067.html

Things that I would like to see in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5:

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/775666.html

My joy at tonight's season finale episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars cannot be textually rendered. I -- I want to write fic, y'all. (Okay, granted, I want to write the genderfuck version of the story where it's lady!Obi-Wan because canon takes care of male!Obi-Wan for me, but still! I want to write lady!Obi-Wan dealing with this startling turn of events. Okay, and I also want to write canon follow-up stuff too, aside from just genderfuck. It's only genderfuck ninety percent of the time with me, okay?)

All the feelings! I am having them! Coincidentally, so is Obi-Wan.

*flails* ALL THE FEELINGS. Man, I hope Anakin gets captured and tortured to torture Obi-Wan next season.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/765791.html

I love Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I love it so much. It's like really excellent, really hilarious, occasionally really awful (but hey, it's Star Wars, what else do you expect?) fanfic but with fewer makeouts and less nudity. Because it's a kids' show. I love it so much I am actually spending money on it, which is kind of significant since the DVDs aren't really available that cheaply. But it gives me such sheer joy that it's worth it.

(I am, for the record, working my way through S1 and fully caught up on S4, but have not touched S2 and S3. The lulz, the lulz are so great. In the last episode, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Dooku had to team up: IT WAS AMAZING. And oh, the lulz. This is a thing of which I am very fond. ANAKIN POUNCES ON OBI-WAN FROM THE CEILING. ANAKIN AND OBI-WAN HANG IN A GIANT HEART AND ARE ELECTROCUTED TOGETHER. ANAKIN AND OBI-WAN THROW ROCKS AT MONSTERS. ANAKIN, OBI-WAN, AND DOOKU ARE CHAINED TOGETHER.)

Sadly there is so far a sad lack of Obi-Wan kicking people violently in the face, which is, as everyone knows, my bullet-proof kink. But there was pole-vaulting in the last ep. (I COULD NOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP. STAR WARS MEANS NEVER HAVING TO MAKE IT UP. ASK ME ABOUT THE ZOMBIES.) I think Padme kicked someone in the face a few eps back: it was awesome. (Padme, more badass here than she manages to be in RotS. Also, you get the idea that Palpatine sends Jar-Jar on diplomatic missions in the hope that he'll eventually sabotage the Republic, but everyone else works Jar-Jar into their plans.)

I have actually been watching so much Clone Wars that it keeps shocking me when I go back to the movies and I'm like, "Wait, this is what they look like in live action? Weird."

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/762128.html

I keep feeling like this story wants to be weirdly sexually charged. Like, maybe that's a good thing? But it feels wrong to me, but maybe that's just because it's Star Wars and/or I'm still going through that period where I have no interest whatsoever in trying to write porn. I can't tell. *hands* I never got any feedback on part one, so I'm working totally in the dark here, which is...discomfiting. Not really on the level of OH GOD EVERYONE HATES IT WOE IS ME, which is interesting, but more on the level of, "Wow, I could be totally off-base here and not know. Weird." Which isn't bothering me as much as it has before (thank the muses, I'm just saying, because that's all I need, another batshit insane over feedback incident), but it's...strange. I'm sure there's some kind of evocative metaphor I could come up with that would more accurately describe my dislocation, but it's escaping me at the moment.

(It's not that I think I'm out on Narnia entirely, just for the minute, because something finally rubbed me the wrong way and I'm backing off until I can think straight on the subject or until it translates from despair to inspired anger. I don't know why I feel the overwhelming need to explain this; it's no one's business but mine, but I feel guilty?)

ETA: Actually I think I do want someone to talk through Dooku's motivation with me, so if you happen to be interested in plotty SW genderfuck set during the Clone Wars, please hit me up.

*

TV what I am watching right now: Fringe, Castle, Revenge, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Alcatraz, which is fabulous and which I've seen very little about (we're only up to...mmm, I think six episodes? So you can easily catch up!).

I didn't actually mean to stop watching Criminal Minds last season, but I didn't think I was emotionally in a place where I could handle what happened to Prentiss, so I stopped right before "Lauren" and just...never caught up. I'd like to do so now, since that...thing...has apparently since been rectified, but I just haven't gotten 'round to it. I guess I should do that, since it used to be one of my favorite shows.

Last week I finished working my way through Prison Break, since I'm going through another one of those periods where I have to have some kind of background noise for my homework. Unfortunately I haven't yet found anything to replace it -- I started rewatching Lost, but I started getting too annoyed at everyone, because apparently that show really is better when you're drugged up (which I was, the first time I watched it, since I'd just gotten my wisdom teeth out and I was in a lot of pain and had nothing better to do).

*

Volunteering at a battered women's shelter for my public service. Today Oregon (whose in my public service class as well as my Greek class) and I spent two hours cleaning the kitchen, and about an hour in my back pain flared up something fierce and hasn't gone away since. This was -- uh, seven hours ago? It's gone up and down in intensity since, but it's definitely still there. I really wish I knew why this was happening, and some way to make it stop, because Advil doesn't work.

I'm sure this was not helped by the fact that I (a) hadn't gotten enough sleep and (b) had barely eaten anything all day. By the time we got back to campus, I was starving and in so much physical pain I could barely think aside from "MUST GET FOOD."

(For some reason going in to the doctor's office for the back pain is really bizarre to me, despite the fact that it's been going on for at least three years now. I know I probably should -- I mean, I could just go to Health Services on campus -- but...I don't know. Maybe part of me is convinced that it's all in my head, especially since painkillers have never, ever made it stop.)

*

Mardi Gras season down here, and wow, Mardi Gras really snuck up on me this year. It's my last year in New Orleans, and I feel like I should spend it going to parades! Except I'm too tired and keyed up and even more antisocial than I was as a freshman to go to them, and also now I'm mildly annoyed because there are only two parades I always go to (well -- one, but the other follows immediately after) and they just got moved to different days because the weather forecast for tomorrow is RAIN. But I'll go to Iris and Tucks anyway, because those two are mine.

(Man, the stories I could tell about parades past, and my stories aren't even that thrilling, since I've never tackled a police officer or had my teeth knocked out or been present at a shooting. Mine are just things like, "Once a cup bounced off my head! Once I saw a chain gang cleaning up the streets, and it was the creepiest thing ever! Once I saw a car chase coming back from a parade! Once my roommate punched a guy (but I wasn't actually there)! Once I saw a couple walking past carrying a giant thing of tequila at eight in the morning!" Oh, New Orleans. HOW CAN I EVER LEAVE YOU?)

*

I am however thinking about getting an entire king cake. Last chance! Unless I do decide to go to LSU for library school next year.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/757820.html

In the continuing saga of Bedlam breezing through SW:TCW: so there's a scene where Obi-Wan is whipped! Followed by a scene in which Anakin is ordered to whip Obi-Wan in an arena in front of a screaming audience! Preceding this by a couple of eps is a scene where Dooku orders that Obi-Wan be brought to him on his knees. OH DOOKU, I NEVER KNEW YOU CARED.

(Have I mentioned it is full of lulz? It is full of lulz. It's also seriously dark at times, which kind of impresses me.)

They make such a point of arguing that the clones are individuals and can make their own decisions, which makes Order 66 even worse. New head canon is that at least one clone disobeyed orders and ran off with a Jedi. (Someone ought to get a happily-ever-after, at least.)

ETA: OH MY GOD NOW WE'VE MOVED ONTO PRISON BREAK: STAR WARS. ALL THE LULZ. OBI-WAN ILU. YOU ARE MY VALENTINE.

ETA2: Also known as plotline Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Better Than YOU, making up for all the times he gets beat up in the last plot-arc. But now I'm through with all aired S4 eps; guess I should go ahead and shell out for S1-3. It's worth it for the lulz.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/757080.html

You know, I take it back. For a lulzy kids' show about a canonically long, bloody, and ultimate pointless civil war that canonically includes child soldiers, ethically ambiguous soldiers, and genocide (and probably other things that I haven't run across yet), and which has to end in mass murder, treason, and betrayal with the main character turning into an evil, child-killing, murdering traitor, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is actually surprisingly classy. I know! I'm shocked too.

I will add as a disclaimer that I have only actually seen about eight episodes, but other attractions: Anakin and Padme actually have chemistry, one of the mains is a kickass female Jedi, Obi-Wan is more badass than he manages to be in AotC, and the lulz are appropriately lulzy in true Star Wars fashion. I suspect the continuity's a bit off, and I don't quite buy it as being as canon as the Clone Wars comics, but hey, Star Wars EU canon, whatevs.

You can see the first few episodes of S1 starting here. (And yeah, I guess it's kind of complicated, but it's pretty high-quality for YouTube.)

I almost don't want to know what happens to Ahsoka when the Purge happens. Because I don't want her to be murdered! And I don't want her to live to see Anakin go Dark Side! But I don't want the last episode to be her dying in combat, either! And I don't want her to spend the next twenty years or less of her life being hunted down by her former master and her former troops, so basically, THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING. Man, the trials and tribulations that come from being a PT fan.

(This is for S4, the current season.)

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/756953.html

Y'all may have already heard of it, but this, omg: First lesbian couple get first kiss at Navy homecoming. They are so cute! And this is just generally pretty damn awesome.

Today I baked a cranberry buckle, which looks really good, so hopefully it turned out well too.

I renewed my driver's license! And got really worried I was flunking the vision test, because I have a lazy eye (apparently). Also...the vision test thingy needs to be lower, because I was standing on my tiptoes just to put my forehead against the bar. Should have worn heels today, seriously. But the license is renewed; hopefully the new one will arrive before I fly back to New Orleans.

My mother bought me boots (two pairs! riding boots and ankle boots) and they're really comfortable. Well, the ankle boots, anyway (flat, with a seriously good tread); I can't wear the riding boots because I don't have any pants narrow enough to tuck them in).

Thrifting success! Two long wool skirts (in about the calf-length zone), one of which is 100% wool and is from the Pendleton Woollen Mills, so under normal circumstances, probably in the $150 range (so not bad for $3.99, even with one small hole), and two 100% wool sweaters. So I'm happy, although I have to figure out how to handwash the sweaters. (Can't be that hard, right? Since I don't want to dry clean them.)

Library trip today -- a lot of books came out this past season that I want, but my library hasn't got them in yet, so I'll probably end up buying them later, but I got a few things and I've got enough books at home I need to read through anyway.

Aside from my mysterious Greek grade, I did get A's in Chaucer and Latin, and an A- in Greek Art & Archaeology.

The current chapter is Dust is going well, and I suspect I'm going to reach my preferred wordcount instead of falling short the way I've done on a lot of the Dust II chapters. (I prefer my chapters to be at least 7K, but I think they've been closer to 5K or 6K recently.)

I found my Space: Above and Beyond DVDs.

Hobbit trailer. (I am ready to buy the soundtrack already!) Borgias season 2 trailer. (I really need to watch the S1 finale.) Game of Thrones season 2 trailer. (Listen for the three hornblasts -- Others!)

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/744790.html

*fans self* Well, that happened. I went through the entire second season of Dollhouse in two days (probably less than twenty-four hours, actually), and lo, it was good. Season one was shaky, and I'm still bitter over the fact that they dropped T:SCC in order to pick up a second season of Dollhouse, but S2 is pretty damn good. What a turnaround, seriously. (Especially since for some reason I thought the general consensus was that S2 was terrible -- I mean, it did get cancelled -- but it was good: characters, plot, some super creepy bits, thematic -- eh, I'm not a hundred percent sure on this one, but I'll take it.)

( brief spoilers )

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/742116.html

Okay, so it probably shouldn't have taken me a month -- or more -- to figure this out, but, oh hey, I actually talked in my seminar when I was still taking copious notes in the readings + eating enough + and getting enough sleep.

Probably might have been nice if I'd figure this out sometime before the last day of class. *headdesk* Okay, technically tomorrow is the last day of classes, but today was the last day for my seminar and my Chaucer class. And I was basically half-asleep through all of Chaucer, since I didn't get enough sleep last night; I came back to my apartment and sat around going, "Did we actually get to The Parson's Tale? I can't remember." Turns out we did, I took notes on it, I just can't...figure out what they were on. Since I was mostly asleep. And my handwriting goes when I'm asleep. Well, there will be choices on the final; I just won't do anything that involves the Parson's Tale.

For some reason yesterday I completely blanked on the fact that I have an 8:30 class this morning, despite the fact that I've had an 8:30 every freaking Thursday this semester, and only remembered at the lovely hour of midnight, which means I didn't get to bed until sometime around 1:00 and I just. I cannot function on six hours of sleep.

I'll be very glad when the semester's over just so I can make another try at readjusting my sleep schedule to something resembling normality. (Actually, I am so tired that I'm going to finish this post, take a shower, and go to be, which might help. Sleeeeeeeeeep.)

*

Unrelatedly, today I watched, or tried to watch, the pilot episode of Carnivale (Ron Moore! Tim DeKay! I like playing, "Where have I seen this actor/television-related personage before?"). It was...interesting. Very HBO-y. There were a couple things in that episode that really, really put me off, so I had it on as background noises while I switched windows (...I can't remember, there might have been one scene where I actually took out my headphones), which led to me missing things when I went back to it and suddenly there were things like MYSTERIOUS RAIN OF BLOOD. Hopefully all the things that set off my stupidly sensitive embarrassment squick were used up in the pilot, because I'm interested enough to go on, it's just so...HBO.

Even less relatedly: Am still poking at the Dollhouse/BSG crossover, though my enthusiasm appears to be fading (except for when Athena or Leoben HACKS THE DOLLHOUSE COMPUTERS IT WOULD BE AWESOME, and the Colonials are all, Ha, this is why you frakkers shouldn't network!), and I keep weirdly coming up short at the difference in fight scenes between the two. Because Dollhouse is almost gratuitously violent, with these long, stylized fight scenes -- apparently Tahmoh Penikett choreographed a lot of his own fight scenes, though! -- and trying to mash up that up with BSG is just...it's really bizarre. We've got a couple of hand-to-hand fight scenes in BSG -- Kobol's Last Gleaming Part Two, the one with Starbuck and Six, and...maybe Unfinished Business? Those are the only really extended ones I can think of; there are also cases of people getting beaten up, which don't really count. The feeling is just so different between the two, it's weird. And I like writing fight scenes, so trying to mash up those two styles just...it's not working for me right now. It's a moment where I go, "Well, if I was writing Dollhouse fic, this would be going on a lot longer and they'd completely trash the apartment. But if I was writing BSG, he'd probably just get hit over the head a couple of times with something heavy. OMG WHAT DO I DO?" Look, I like writing fight scenes. I can probably say with some certainty that I like writing fight scenes more than the average fanperson. I haven't even started writing this fight scene and just trying to figure out some kind of balance between Dollhouse-style fight scenes and BSG-style fight scenes is completely stopping me in my tracks. What a weird thing to get hung up on, right?

The weather can go back to being in the mid-seventies any day now. Get on that please, New Orleans! (Sure, y'all may have, like, snow and ice and below-freezing temps or something, but the mid-forties is really goddamn cold for us, okay?) I am totally rethinking my plan to go somewhere with four seasons. Seasons! Who needs them?

Am working through the first season of Dollhouse, which is one of those shows that definitely improves on a second watching and going straight through, rather than week to week (I saw it when it was originally airing, then never bothered with the second season), mostly for Tahmoh Penikett. Also for lulz, since in episode two we got Tahmoh Penikett and Mark Sheppard in the same scene, which is the sort of thing that makes me go, "Helo and Lampkin!" (I think Jamie Bamber might show up in the second season, but I never saw that season the first time round.)

I...also kind of think that Ballard is a substantially less stable Helo; they've got pretty similar personalities, and for exhibit A, I give you "The Woman King" from BSG. And because my brain is stuck on "everything is a crossover!" mode right now, this lets me slide into some kind of BSG AU that involves reincarnation and cycles and something, but Echo is no Athena, I'll tell you that.

...on the other hand, that might be a better way to think of the show, so maybe I'll go with that for right now. Ballard kicks way more ass in one episode than Helo did in the entire series run of BSG, which, wah, why couldn't we have seen Helo take someone out with some kind of flying kick to the face or whatever the hell that was in episode one? (Probably because he was always fighting Centurions. Except when he was (a) beating up Apollo or (b) getting beat up by other humans.)

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/741040.html

Caprica! I have finished it, mostly by virtue of the fact I watched approximately two-thirds of the season yesterday. (I just couldn't stop.) I'd seen all of it except for the last five eps that didn't air in the U.S., and gosh, those eps are when it gets really, really good.

( spoilers, I guess? )

In further conclusion: Caprica vid rec! (Which looks like it came out early in the season, since it doesn't have a lot of the bits from the back half.) Brand New You're Retro by

hollywoodgrrl.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/732045.html

So I have finally hit the eps that I hadn't seen yet! And...I was going to do a link to my previous ep recaps, but I...can't find them? They're not tagged under either "BSG" or "television", anyway. I know I did them; I have them on my computer, and I remember replying to them! Did I only post them on LJ? Is that a possibility? Am going to check now.

Oh, I did. And never cross-posted. Why didn't they cross-post? Was that during the period when I wasn't cross-posting except manually? WEIRD. Um, anyway, my first set of ep reactions are here, about a page back since the new stuff crowded it out.

I started watching about a year and a half ago (looks like July 2009) and made it all the way up to 4.06, "Faith," but I only posted ep reactions up to 4.04, "Escape Velocity." For completeness' sake, I'm going to go ahead and put up the two ep reactions I wrote in July 2009 for 4.05 and 4.06 up here.

( 4.05 (The Road Less Traveled) and 4.06 (Faith) )

And here are my ep reactions for the ones that I watched today. This was very stressful! But on the bright side I finished up my Saroyan scarf, except for blocking. This batch contains my favorite line in the entire series so far: "Captain, you are not married to the entire production here."

( 4.07 (Guess What's Coming to Dinner?), 4.08 (Sine Qua Non), 4.09 (The Hub), and 4.10 (Revelations) )

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/727385.html

Finally I feel emotionally capable of looking at graduate programs again, which is good, as a lot of them open up for applications in October. The University of St. Andrews seems nice? And is really gorgeous, at least judging from the pictures on the website. (This is basically Bedlam's guide on how to choose a graduate school by being shallow. I got a prospectus from the University of Leicester yesterday that said something about Leicester having the largest market of its type in Europe and I went, "Sold! When do I need to apply by again?" Alternately, you can call it Bedlam's guide on how to choose a graduate school based on a strong desire to leave the country.)

One slight problem: with some schools, I haven't quite decided whether I want to go for medieval history or classics. I'm a little in the mood of swinging back over towards medieval, which might be due to my frustration with the classics department at Tulane, but I really do like medieval! Obviously it is not like anyone is saying that if I choose the one then I am cut off from the other ever more, especially since I'm just looking at a master's and not the PhD, but I am torn, y'all, I am so torn.

Unrelatedly: I have just finished my epic rewatch of Harper's Island, where I rediscovered my frankly irrational love for this show is still in effect. It is not exactly quality television! But I really do adore it. Partially because it's set in my home state and it looks like it (probably because it was filmed just over the border in BC, natch) and it feels like it (Washington's principal export: creepy serial killers. No, wait, we keep those to ourselves). And partially because it's just a lot of fun.

Okay, okay, I'll back up and explain: seven years ago, a series of horrific murders were carried out on Harper's Island, a remote island off the coast of Washington State (in the show, it's one of the San Juan Islands). The murderer, John Wakefield, was killed by the sheriff (Jim Beaver), whose wife had been murdered by Wakefield. Now the sheriff's daughter Abby Mills (Katie Cassidy), sent away for her own protection, has returned to the island to celebrate the wedding of her best friend. Only now people have started dying, murdered horrifically, and nobody knows who's doing it -- or who will be next. All anyone knows is that somehow it's all tied back to Abby.

Obviously it is not a show to watch if you can't handle blood and gore and/or violence. It doesn't do torture porn or rape. I like most of the characters. (Aside from, you know, the creepy serial killer/s. But I like him/her/them most of the time too!) And it is amazing at cliffhangers; I am honestly not sure how I watched this show the first time without having a minor heart attack every week. Obviously it is not the kind of show that is everyone's cup of tea, but I love it a lot. And the love stories, omg.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/719199.html

My local library has a surprising number of BBC series/miniseries on DVD. Which is lovely, up until the point when someone else has out the next disc of Island at War or Foyle's War and you're leaving town in a week. (Yes. In some cases, my smalltown public library has a better movie collection than my big city uni library.)

THE LIBRARIES IN MY LIFE WANT ME TO BE SAD. This is why Tilton will do things like only have the first season of The Sopranos and the second and third seasons of Being Human but the entire series run of Sex & the City. (It also lacks things like, oh, you know, Pearl Harbor and the second two PotC movies, but I reiterate my point on the entire series run of Sex & the City.)

Also, there is nothing more frustrating than one library having the first book of a series, another library have the second book of said series, and neither library having the second two books. (Well. Aside from neither library having the series at all, or only having the last three books in a twenty-book series. Hi, I'm still trying to read the entire Falco series in order, ask me how.)

Anyway. I watched the first two episodes of Island at War and was very very sad that the second disc was checked out at the library when I went in today, since that means I'm going to have to cross my fingers and hope it's there when I come back in December. Or I guess I could ILL it.

In the meantime, I realized that, uh, I should probably upload my pictures from England so that they are somewhere besides on my camera. There are a lot of them. They're not labeled. This is going to be a great test to see if I can remember what grassy field and/or barrow this is. (Don't worry, Stonehenge I can recognize.

highlyeccentric, your pic is somewhere in this bunch. I haven't arrived there yet. I appear to be in Peterborough Cathedral. Wow, I really hope I can tell the difference between Peterborough and Ely. We went on the same day, so the pictures are right next to each other.)

GRE on Tuesday, which reminds me that I should probably get at least an idea of where in the U.S. I want to apply -- U of Washington, UC-Berkeley, Ohio State, probably; maybe Brown, Yale, and Emory? I shouldn't apply to that many schools. (The UK ones I don't have to worry about the GRE, at least.) And back to New Orleans on Saturday! Where I will get my honors thesis sorted out and then make appointments with all my advisors to get the, "I am applying to graduate school, what should I do?" initial questions out of the way.

I am writing. Something. Fic-related.

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/709132.html

beyond the wide world's end

laissez les bons temps rouler

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

and the standard "oh god essays" icon comes out

random thoughts on SW:TCW

it's been a really long time since I got this excited about a TV show

my love cannot be textually rendered. also I need an icon.

randomness

if this was live-action and it was ewan and hayden, it would be SO HOT.

the clone wars

things which are good.

dollhouse s2

randomness

nothing like actor crossover, huh?

caprica

BSG ep reactions: front end of S4

grad school, harper's island

woe.

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