Deadwood and Lazy Writing

Last week I tweeted this...

An adjective is a modifier of a noun, or so says Dictionary.com Meaning if you want to add emphasis or emotion to a common noun, add an adjective.

On that fateful night of Feb 8th the man I sleep with* was watching Deadwood. I have heard amazing things about this show, not only from him and a number of friends, but from the internets themselves. I have been looking forward to getting into this show. I like good TV and I like good Westerns.

However, my working to the audio of Deadwood in the background has really soured my impression of the show. This is what I heard for the rest of the night,

In actual fact that is a video of all the swearing in one episode cut together, but it pretty much sounded exactly like that to me for an hour and a half.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with swearing. Anybody who has spent any time with me at all knows I don't shy away from a few curse words myself. And by a few I often mean long strings that make people wonder what type of person I am. Swearing doesn't offend me.

What does offend me is lazy writing! What offends me even more is writing purely for the shock value. And the swearing, particularly the use of the word fucking is a cross of both. First it's very lazy, both in Deadwood and in the language of many young people. Fucking is often used as an adjective before a noun to express anger. That's fine once in awhile, but if it is used every time it loses all meaning. Try another adjective like bloody, or shitty or douchey, or cunty.**

It's also clear the excessive use of the word fucking is purely for shock value. One character, Ian McShane's Al Swearengen***, has a lovely poetic use of curse words, full of cunts and cocksuckers and the occasional adjective fucking, so the writers understand that there are many beautiful words to be used, but choose not to the majority of the time. As well, it's unlikely that the word fucking was used commonly in the 19th century as anything more than a colloquial for sex, so throwing it in every other breath here is not authentic in the least.

Who would have thought that excessive use of swearing would ever turn me off anything, but in this case it has. Someone please convince me to give this show a try, or find a way to edit out at least every other fucking.

Footnotes (Really? How pretentious!)

*Commonly known as a Boyfriend, but since I have many friends who are boys that particular noun really describes nobody in particular. I guess I could call him my Fucking Boyfriend, but that's uncouth.

** Told you swearing didn't offend me

***Whose name is clearly descriptive

Stalled!

It's been ages since Annika and I have watched any Gilmore Girls. We managed a couple of episodes over the September long weekend. Last we watched Rory was accepted to Harvard, Yale and a number of other schools, but she chose Yale after all.

It's hard for us to find time to watch new episodes right now because Annika and her husband are watching through Smallville for the first time. They have just reached Season 4. Do you know who is introduced in Season 4?


This guy,







And what does that have to do with Gilmore Girls? It all leads to this show,

A show I have been re-watching over this summer as well.





Dean?






Dean?











Sammy?







Logan?


Logan?










Oops, got sidetracked there.

I do love the old WB/CPN/CW days when all the actors from every show crossed over to every other show.

We are not alone

Hey check it out! We are not the only people in the world watching a show about 10 years old. Over at Digital Hippos Will Harrison is also making his way through all the episodes of Gilmore Girls, and blogging about each episode! Judging by the frequency of his posts he will catch up to our 3rd season point soon and surpass us quickly!

Hopefully now that the summer is over Annika and I will settle back into a regular schedule and put the Lorelai's back on the priority list!

Anticipation for the next episode of Gilmore Girls

It's been a very busy month for both Annika and I, and it will continue for another three weeks, so we've not been watching very much of the show.

We did manage to squeeze in two episodes yesterday, episodes 5 and 6 of season 3. Which leads me to my anticipation for the next episode, number 7 They Shoot Gilmores Don't They?

I've been looking forward to watching this episode since we began this thing. It is my favourite episode. Of course that's difficult to say since I only watched the show in real time and this is my first time going through the episodes in about 10 years.

When Gilmore Girls aired I had a friend that I shared the show with. We were both big fans and would watch every week and then dissect every episode together at work for the rest of the week. It was during this season that we discovered the others love for the show, so I think back to our conversations every time I watch an episode now.

We also shared Dawson's Creek. Eventually, instead of just watching the episodes and discussing them at work, we would tape them and then get together on Friday nights and watch them both together.

It always amused me, and continues to, when people think either of these shows are fluffy teenage soap operas. Both Kimberly and I have a love for literature and the classics and dissecting and deconstructing every word chosen. So people would look at the two of us and think "Why are they watching and enjoying such crap tv?", never thinking that it's possible that the quality of writing on these shows is as good as any classic novel I've written a paper on.

I still hear from people, years later, who have finally watched one of the two shows and said to me "Wow, that really is good!"

But anyway, back to They Shoot Gilmores Don't They?, which was well covered by Kimberly and I upon airing. I feel I can say it is her favourite episode as well. This episode is amazing. The timing of everything falling apart is so well done. As a viewer we become as exhausted as the characters as the night and the dancing and the emotional turbulence just keeps coming, without a break.

I'm looking forward to watching it, to see how I react to the episode. To see if I become as ragged watching it.

I've never seen the film on which the episode title, and the premise is taken They Shoot Horses Don't They? Maybe this time around I should watch that first and go into it with new eyes to watch it with.

Gilmore girls

Like Candice said we have been watching Gilmore girls lately. At first we only had one season that I got for Candice for her bday. But now my yoga trainer Orsi moved to BC and she asked if anyone wanted to borrow her collection as she didn´t have super much space for moving. And I said Yes, me me me :). Now we are in the middle of the second season.

I am totally hooked on that show. I feel like I am partly living in that small town..with all the awesome people. There is only one but... that sometimes they make some quotes or funny jokes..and I don´t get them at all. Candice does..but I guess i can hope I can get better in English.. and one day when I re-watch the show - I will get them all!

AyYeah!

P.S. There is one customer in Pier1, who is soooooo totally Miss Patty ;) (but she has blond hair)

  

Lorelai and Luke

As Annika and I frustratingly watch the ups and downs of Luke and Lorelai's friendship we sometimes talk about the impossible question of "What is love?"

Today, after episode 6 of the second season "Run Away, Little Boy", Annika got angry as usual saying "They tell each other everything about their day!"

I'm with Annika, that's a very simple definition of love, but one I believe. The person you want to share all the details with, important or not, is the one you love. And the one you want to hear tell all the details is the one you love.

Is it really that simple?

***image from Fuck Yeah Gilmores

The TV watching blog

So it seems Annika and I have completely stopped watching movies together. However, we are watching Gilmore Girls fairly regularly. So I propose that for the time being and for the next 6 seasons of Gilmore Girls, we will talk about our watching of that show.

I used to love Gilmore Girls. I watched it religiously when it aired in real time. In fact, I would also often record the episode, as well as that week's Dawson's Creek, and watch both shows with a friend I used to work with.

Neither of us fit the type of person you would expect to be watching cheesy teen shows, or girly shows. But I also don't think either Gilmore Girls or Dawson's Creek fit the description that was often tacked on them.

Gilmore Girls, while being an amazingly well written and acted show, also was so aware of the world it lived in. The pop culture references were spot on, and well researched. What show, purportedly written for 16 year old girls, made reference to Frederico Fellini?

Gilmore Girls is an intelligent show, written for an intelligent audience willing to invest time and thought into what was going on on-screen. It is also a warm and heartfelt show that explored relationships and let us know that it was okay to not feel comfortable in a traditional relationship, and that sometimes intimacy means more than being part of a couple. And it explored relationship issues from the eyes of a teenager and as an adult, so now while re-watching I am able to understand the Gilmore Girls from a different perspective.

We've completed the first season, and have now started the second season. While I've seen the entire 7 years, Annika has not, and it's all new to her. And I'm sure her impression of the show is totally different from mine.

Well this is not working in the slightest! We've fallen to the worst enemy any blogger has, real life! Between both of our jobs Annika and I have not seen any movies together, or even separately watched the same movie.

Well, except for You Again, but I don't want to talk about it. The only reason I had to see it was because of my undying loyalty to Kristen Bell and everything she does.

I don't know what she has against me that she keeps forcing me to watch chick flick movies I would never in a million years choose to watch. Thank god for Burlesque coming out soon!

The other problem is that Annika gifted me Gilmore Girls Season 1 on DVD for my birthday, which basically means she gifted herself as well. Any time we have some time to squeeze in some TV watching, it's another episode of GG. And even that we are having trouble finding time for! It's been two and a half months and we haven't even finished disc 2 yet!

One day we will get back to our film club. One day.

Our movie watching schedule

Yeah that's just a tease, cause we don't have one! As you can probably tell by the fact that we watched one movie two weeks ago and haven't posted since.

We are probably going to settle into one a week, but Annika and I were both crazy busy last week with Fan Expo, representing each Mind's Eye the webseries and Polaris the convention.

Hopefully we can watch something again soon. I think we've scheduled Body of Lies as our next film. Watch with us and chime in once we post our thoughts!

Candice's Personal Challenge

I've been blogging about my personal challenge a bit on my LiveJournal and my Facebook, so why not here as well!

Besides the film club that Annika and I have started I also set myself a personal challenge last month to watch every movie we have in the house. Since then I've created a couple of exceptions. One, I don't have to watch the same movie each time I come across multiple copies. And two, if I've watched the movie within the last 10 months I don't have to rewatch it (unless I want to). Why 10 months? Well that's because I watched the first 3 Saw movies around Christmas time and really don't want to watch them again.

So I'll mark my progress here and if Annika feels like she wants to chime in on any of the movies in my challenge she will. We will probably watch some of them as part of our club as well, cause really I only have 24 hours in a day!

The first month of watching is here, in short form:

Unforgiven - very good, love Clint Eastwood as a director, but it took me time to quit rebelling against my dad and saying I hate Eastwood.

Bill Cosby Himself - super funny, made me want to watch old Cosby show episodes, loved his bit about people drinking and how most of the way through his joke he reminds us that these drinkers started the night "deserving" this night out.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - God awful, totally dated, have you even seen Breckin Meyer's hair in this? And Worst. Kill. Ever. Freddy plays a video game?

Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master - had to wash my brain of the awful Freddy's Dead and so chose to watch a much better part of the series. I will go back and watch other ones throughout the next however long it takes me to get through every movie in the house, but I'd seen almost all the other ones pretty recently so this was the one I chose to watch.

Back to the Future 1, 2 & 3 - I was super excited to see this set on the shelf once I really started looking. That is until I started watching numbers 2 and 3. I know other people enjoy those movies, and I've heard some even say they prefer the sequels, but it took me days to get through them. They just didn't keep my interest and I kept drifting to doing other things while they were on.

Catch Me If You Can - released at the height of my "I can't stand watching one more Leo movie" and corresponding with my ongoing "I can't stand watching one more Tom Hanks movie" . Even though I loved Leo as a young actor and enjoy him quite a bit as a seasoned adult actor, he was all over the place for a few years and you couldn't have paid me to watch one of his movies, and that's exactly how I still feel about Tom Hanks. It has nothing to do with whether or not they are good actors, or the movie is any good or anything, it's just the hype that makes me feel ill. I enjoyed the movie immensely and may have more to say about it later, but still would not have watched it without my promise to myself. Now if only I can keep it when it comes time to watch Road to Perdition.

Spiderman 1, 2 & 3 - the first film is still incredibly watchable and even though I put it on in the background while reading marketing books for work I was still caught up in watching it. The second and third films are not as watchable. The second one took me three viewings to make it through to the end, and the third about the same number. James Franco and JK Simmons continue to be the best parts of the entire series. James Franco is just about the only watchable part of number 3 and I love his role so much in that one I would almost purchase it so I can watch him over and over again. Topher Grace is also great as Eddie Brock, I just love Topher and I really wish he had a better film to be a part of. I look forward to the day I pick up the house copy of In Good Company to watch since I haven't seen it yet.