Splash

The first show I ever bailed on was The X-Files and it wasn't entirely intentional. I had started to lose interest during the 5th season, my living situation changed not long after, and I just never made an effort to be home or record it. Basically, I kind of drifted away. I've lost interest in some new shows after a couple of episodes, but I'm almost always in for the long haul after the first couple of episodes of the second season. We've had a DVR for many years now and that's allowed me to be annoyingly wishy washy about shows that annoy me. Once a show get on the DVR list, I used to never delete it, even if I stopped watching because it started to suck, but I finally, and gleefully, got rid of both Covert Affairs and Scandal in the past year. I had about 7 episodes of Scandal that needed to be watched and finally sat down to see if it was going to get any better. After about the 3rd episode, I realized I was fast forwarding through half of each episode, so I finished it out and deleted it. That's the first and last Shonda Rhimes show I will ever watch. With Covert Affairs, I grew sick of early on in the season before the current one, decided it wasn't worth the aggravation and deleted everything without watching the recorded episodes. I have a tendency to bail on books if I lose interest, but will suffer through movies. The only movie I ever shut off was Forgetting Sarah Marshall and suffered through most of it, but just gave up about 15 minutes before it was over.

I am very sad to hear about this. I've been a fan since the Mork and Mindy days and there have been very few of his movies that I didn't enjoy. I loved his standup and he was one of the few talk show guests that I'd make an effort to watch, regardless of the host. I know there was some concern that he would be "Robin Williams" and take over on The Crazy Ones, but I think he quickly settled into being a part of an ensemble. One of the highlights in my household was watching the outtakes at the end, because it made it clear to me that the entire cast was having a blast.

I'm in the middle of a marathon rewatch and have just started the episode Changing Channels. I've watched this episode many times and I cannot believe it didn't click with me before that "Dr. Sexy, MD" references the book series that Chuck's publisher said people wanted to read instead of the Supernatural books in The Monster at the End of This Book. It's amusing me to think that Dean might have started reading the books, then became a closet fan of the tv show because of that.

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. First of all, a marriage license in New York is valid for 60 days, so why did they wait until the last possible second? And according to the City Clerk's office, "The application is an affidavit where you and your prospective spouse must list [the usual crap]; and marital history. When you sign the affidavit, you are making a sworn statement that there are no legal impediments to the marriage." So, an officer of the law signed a document stating she had never been married, when, in fact, she had been married for the past 15 years. Ignorance of the legality of a Vegas marriage is no excuse. I have never met a person who has believed that if you get married it Vegas, it "doesn't count" and I'm finding it very hard to believe that Beckett hasn't known anyone who has went there to get married or has talked about it. But fine, we have an ex-husband to deal with and Beckett drives up to get him to sign the papers, but refuses until she helps him. So, Rocky or whatever his name is, blackmails a police officer into committing burglary for him. That feels like a felony on his part and corruption on hers. And she does it instead of, I don't know, calling the cops and refusing to bail him out until he signs the papers. Then we have the wedding drama. "Oh no! The venue is destroyed the day before the wedding! Whatever will we do??" No worries; we'll just have it at the beachfront mansion we have in the Hamptons! Problem solved! Then, "Oh no! A pipe burst and your wedding dress is ruined! It's too late to get another dress in time!" Well, except that the groom is loaded, the bride is built like a model, and you live in the fashion capital of the world. Somehow, I'm pretty sure that there's a dress there that will either fit you perfectly or you can hire a team of designers to work overtime to ensure it fits perfectly. Oh, but wait. The bride's dad just happens to have her mom's dress and it just happens to be in perfect condition and fits exactly right. Problem solved again! I believe that the reason Castle was driving from New York to the Hamptons, after meeting with his lawyer to do the emergency divorce filing. Why exactly is he driving all over the place to meet his lawyer, and on his wedding day, no less? Why did Castle have to be there for the filing and not Beckett? It's not his divorce, it's hers, so if anyone would need to be there to see the judge or something, it would be her. And really, your wedding day, of all days, would be a perfectly acceptable reason to take a helicopter. This show used to be 'must see' for me and I would never let more than an episode pile up on the dvr, but in the 1.5 seasons or so, I've just become tired of the dragging out of storylines. There is no reason that there shouldn't have been a wedding, other than to jerk around the viewers. And as far as I'm concerned, the Beckett's mom storyline is done. I was about 15 minutes into the episode before this one and realized I was bored and annoyed, so I'm done with it and won't be watching anymore episodes about that nonsense.

Wouldn't the background check that Beckett had to go through to become an FBI agent have shown she was married? I'm assuming she put single on whatever paperwork she filled out for them, so the fact that she's been married for 15 years have thrown up some red flags. Hated the cliffhanger ending and wished that Castle was just being paranoid as the ominous looking SUV passed him.

So when I watched the yogurt debate, I missed it the first time that this was a 4th grade project and thought this was a serious debate about the official New York state snack food (rather than some sort of civics exercise) and I though that someone should think about checking the floor for a carbon monoxide leak or something, because they've all lost their minds. I'm impressed that Sen. Apple Muffin was able to keep a straight face for as long as he did.

Renewed! http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nashville-renewed-third-season-at-703002

Even though the past two seasons have been pretty uneven, I'm still sad to see it go. I'm guessing everyone was preparing for this possibility, but I had hoped that we would have been able to see some of the minor characters one last time before it was over.

I've been recording the episodes on FXX, because I stopped watching regularly near the end of the pregnancy season and pretty much stopped halfway through the next season. I don't know if it was having the baby that caused such a drop in quality, but the over the top camp factor was in high gear during these seasons. It feels like every episode was either centered around the baby or an overly quirky relative. I was watching the episode where Mabel won't stop crying, so they demand to see the doctor in the middle of the night and the entire episode just bugs me. I hate that they insisted on seeing the doctor, then took off and left him just waiting around when she stopped crying. I have such a hard time believing that filmmaker Paul wouldn't have thought of riding the elevator or driving around to get her to sleep, considering that trick has been done in tons of movies. The only thing that made me laugh in that episode was Paul turning the elevator to express and not changing it back.

But I am VERY into the IHOP cinnamon squirrel, Rinaldo! Not really, just spaced when doing the title.

To my horror, IHOP's new breakfast item is "Cinnamon Squirrel". At least, that's what the announcer said every time I rewound and re-watched the commercial. I'm glad for the text that later clarified that it's actually "Cinnamon SWIRL"; too bad they didn't tell the announcer to enunciate!

I never enjoy the hour long PSA's that this show seems to do occasionally. I have no issues with marijuana use, so that didn't bother me, but I found the fact that everyone seemed initially shocked by Wendell's "confession" and their immediate overeager support obnoxious. If they had to beat us over the head with the issue, why not have Wendell be against marijuana use, even for medicinal purposes, but become convinced throughout the course of the show? It would make more sense with what we know about the character, to have him decide to start using it and resign because he knows that federal employees aren't allowed to use for any reason. I also really hated that Hodgins and Angela were pissed at Cam because she fired Wendell. It's not as if she could have went to her boss and said, "Oh, come on; it's Wendell! He's a good guy and he has cancer!" and expect the rules to change, just because he's a special snowflake. The main plot didn't hold my interest in any way, but I did like Booth's plot about trying to get a higher score on his tests, rather than just being satisfied with just doing 'good enough'.

If I had to rank the seasons, I'd go 1, 3, 2, 5, and 4. Season 1 started off slow and I thought it took them awhile to find their footing, but started to ramp up around episode 9 and got better from there. Favorite episode of the season would have to be Modern Warfare. I got so into that episode that I cheered at the end. Season 3 has so many of my favorite episodes and that's the season where they found the perfect mix of absurd and character development. Favorite episode is Remedial Chaos Theory. I loved seeing a glimpse of how the group dynamics would have been different if you had taken out any of the characters. And the darkest timeline made me laugh so hard that I had to pause it, because I was missing too much of what was going on. Season 2 is such a close third, but I didn't like the second paintball episode as much as the first and there were a couple of episodes that weren't very notable to me. Favorite episode is Epidemiology, hands down. Easily one of my top three Halloween episodes of any show. I'm liking season 5 so far, but it's a bit uneven and I think it's lost some of its quirky charm. I think that might be because we're not seeing much of the secondary characters like Leonard, Neil, and Garrett and it feels less like it's set on a college campus and could be anywhere. Favorite episode would probably be Cooperative Polygraphy. Making them take polygraphs is such classic Pierce and I loved Walton Goggins. "And here's your sperm." I think that season 4 was just a mess, but not because Harmon wasn't around. It's like they tried to capture the spirit of the earlier seasons, but didn't understand that what makes the show great isn't what the characters do, it's how layered the characters reactions are to what happens to them. For example, in "Beginner Pottery" Jeff initially didn't care at all about the class and was just happy to coast to an easy A, but when he tried and failed, he started Goldbluming and had a meltdown. I felt like season 4 would have allowed Jeff to have one of those emotions in an episode, but not both. It was if they said, this week you are going to be uptight Anne or rebel Britta and that's how you're going to react to everything that happens in that episode, regardless whether or not you'd actually act that way. Favorite episode would probably be Intro to Felt Surrogacy. I liked the creative use of puppets.

I haven't thought about this show in years, but ended up pulling out my dvd's of the first couple of seasons and I think it has held up pretty well. I was a preteen when the show started and had no intention of getting married, but I also thought that if I was going to get married, I wanted Paul and Jamie's relationship and life. I think theirs was the first "tv couple" that I thought was at all realistic, so I decided that was what the relationship of a young, professional couple should look like. I'm now closing in on 7 years of marriage and it's amused me over the years how tiny tidbits of this show has somewhat crept into my life. I don't know if that's because those things are common arguments/discussions in a marriage or if I've somehow filed parts of this show away forever in my brain, but it makes me laugh to watch this show because I can see my husband and me in Paul and Jamie. Right now, I'm watching the one where Jamie feels they are boring and they can't manage to get out the door on a Sunday. I still love their apartment. Our place has never looked that put together, but still lived in. And I still want their floor to ceiling bookcases.

Of the top of my head, my favorites have always been the Thanksgiving episode and the one where they were locked in the bathroom.

I haven't yet watched Original Who (it's a bit overwhelming to try and pick a place to start!), but my favorite Doctor/companion is Ten and Donna. I love Ten's enthusiasm and excitement, but appreciated that he had this kind of detached fury just below the surface. And I love everything about Donna. She wasn't infatuated with the Doctor, but she was attracted to his sense of adventure and I think it was a fantastic idea to have them become best friends. The way her story ended still makes me sad.

The intern was more than old enough to recognize that she needed to excuse herself and go somewhere more private to cry. She wasn't taking cues from her superiors on the proper way to behave and was causing a distraction, since two other employees were consoling her. Diane might have been a bit harsh to fire her outright, but I don't blame her. The one nitpick I have is why Eli wasn't informed sooner about the shooting. There's a shooting at a city courthouse and the first the Governor's Chief of Staff hears about it is from Kalinda, just before the Governor is about to make a speech at a Correspondence Dinner. I find it very hard to believe that not one of those reporters received a text about what was going on and that no one on Peter's staff wasn't trying to get in touch with Eli the second the news broke. I loved David, Diane, and Cary's reactions to the news. When David left the room, I was sure he was going to start contacting clients, so I was very surprised at his emotion. But true to David, he got down to business quickly to deal with the incoming client chaos. Every reaction Diane had was perfect to me, from her dazed reactions when she first walked into the office, to how she bluntly told the partners what happened, to calling that client in to fire him in person. That client was a prick and I loved how shocked he was when she told him they were done. I can't decide which scene of Cary's I like better, his stunned reaction when Alicia told him the news or his anger in the deposition. Kind of a tossup, I think.