Sunday, November 27, 2005

There Was Turkey For Me, and Turkey For You

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. As the contented nothingness of the holiday weekend gives way to the return of the working week, I hope we can all look back at a few days of peaceful tranquility and say: "ahhh, that was good."

I feel I can, because, man, that extra little time off really gives ya that necessary buffer zone to just kick back and relax. Sure, I had to work on Friday, don the page polyester, and give two tours after a long absence from the NBC tour-giving circuit. But despite every fiber of my being wanting to sleep late on Friday, and despite the painful reality of having to get to work early after a mere one day off, the suffering was soon alleviated by a multi-hour nap that was just what the doctor ordered. Of course, even with a little extra time added to my weekend, I still have so much stuff left undone, but hey, it's the holiday, it's all about doing nothing, right? And I mean a GOOD kind of nothing. Not doing nothing like just sitting staring at the computer screen wondering how best to spend your carefully planned time. But doing nothing as in realizing that there's nothing more pressing to do than to just kick back and give the ol' PS2 a workout, ya know?

Forgive me for all this nonsensical rambling, I think I'm still feeling the after-effects of all that turkey, or something. Speaking of which, our little Page-Giving Thanks-Giving Feast was a good time, with lots of hearty food, mostly courtesy of fellow page and Julia Child-in training Abby W, who brought it on like Donkey Kong, serving up some home-cooked servings that left noone hungry for more. All that was missing was my uncle Michael to declare that the stuffing (if there was any), was, indeed, "well-stuffed." And of course there is no other experience that can quite replicate my hipster-Rabbi great-uncle Elliot belting out jokes and songs, Zaydee reading yet another Turkey Day proclamation from former CT governer Wilbur Cross, or the madhouse that m house becomes as we strive to vacuum, dust, and scrub every inch so that it meets my dad's notoriously demanding demands for cleanliness. On second thought, maybe a change of pace for one year wasn't such a bad thing after all? After all, we did have nearly 80 degree weather here in LA last week. Now isn't that something to be thankful for?

But don't worry all those in CT-land. I'll be back soon to visit and I can't wait for one more round of do-nothing vacationing, as I am beginning to think that the lazy life might really be my natural state of being. At least that's how it seems in the face of 11-hour workday NBC corporate craziness, which has a tendency to make a lazy day of relaxation look like just baout the greatest thing ever. And hey, maybe it is.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging:

AT WORK:

- Oh man, at work? Already? Yeah, and look at the time, it's been about a month already since I started my assignment, and my thoughts inevitably turn towards the unclear future ahead. So ... what the hell am I going to do next? Yes, I REALLY have to start thinking about life post-NBC pagedom. My ideal is probably to be a writer's assistant, but yeah, those types of gigs are not exactly a dime a dozen. So if you are one of those people who has, like, connections all over town (in a good way I mean), then give me a hand will ya, hook me up. Seriously, if anyone has any ideas or connections, fill me in!

TV REVIEW-O-RAMA:

- Okay, I hear it every day - people discussing LOST like it's ULYSSES and people dissing VERONICA MARS simply because they don't know what they're talking about. And yet while Lost continues to falter this season, Veronica Mars' second season is beginning to hit its stride, and just delivered another A-level episode. So let me quickly summarize while you should be watching MARS on Wednesdays and merely taping or Tivo'ing Lost to watch for later, even at the peril of god-forbid being excluded from water-cooler discussions the next day. So ...

WHY VERONICA MARS IS BETTER THAN LOST:

- CHARACTER THROUGH PLOT: While Lost needs to use contrived, formulaic flashbacks every episode just to give overly long explanations of why their characters are the way they are, the characterizations on Veronica Mars continually evolve alongside the unfolding mysteries of the show, and are revealed organically.

- CONTINUITY: While Lost has more loose ends than an unmade bed, Veronica Mars is meticulously plotted and mapped out, so that when mysteries are solved, you know you were i good hands all along as the pieces of the puzzle fit neatly into place. Lost has posed about 5,000 questions, none of which will likely ever be answered in a satisfactory way, simply because it's clear that the writers and producers never had a clear vision for where they were going with the show. So while you can legitimately watch Veronica Mars and piece together all the clues, trying to figure out how the island , the numbers, Walt's powers, the hatch, the Others, etc., all fit together on Lost is pretty much a lost cause (pun intended).

- ATMOSPHERE: While Lost gets all the comparisons to shows like X-Files, Veronica Mars shares an important quality with that show - it is positively dripping with dark, foreboding atmosphere. As a matter of fact, the whole show is film-noir DARK, with nary an "awww isn't that cute" moment in sight. Lost on the other hand is filled with wannabbe-Spielbergian moments that are just oh so cheesy, and that usually come wrapped in an all too convenient montage. Oh look, let's watch everyone hug for ten minutes in this past week's episode. Hmm, maybe the reason for all those montages is that nothing actually happens.

Okay, so I'm not here to just bash Lost. The thing is that I completely want LOST to be good. That's why I keep watching. There is so much potential in the show. The cast is great, the premise has SO MUCH possibility. And I am eagerly waiting and hoping for that potential to be fullfilled. But it is possible to have great characterization that is a natural extension of an ongoing PLOT. Everything doesn't have to stop just so we can find out that Ana Lucia was a cop. I've been reading a lot of Grant Morrison-written stuff this weekend, and that man packs more ideas into a single page of his writing than an entire season of Lost. And don't try and tell me the show is ABOUT the characters. EVERY non-procedural TV show is about characters. This show is about characters but also a lot more. What that more is though, has totally disappeared into the background, because the writers seem too afreaid to step up to plate and craft a real story that dazzles the imagination, that's more than just a soap opera set on an island. So come on behind-the-scenes people, step up the game! And everyone, watch Veronica Mars - it's dripping with dark atmosphere, rife with mystery, and is the best show on Wednesdays at 9 pm.

SUNDAY NIGHT REVIEWS:

SIMPSONS: A plot that lasted the whole ep makes this a decent effort, though what it had in structure it lacked in funny. Some good lines, Milhouse's middle name is Mussolini!, and an overall old-school tone made this, despite a lack of laugh-out-loud moments, one of the more solid efforts this season. My grade: B

FAMILY GUY: Alright, I guess there's no point in resisting it anymore, Family Guy is funny again. But I am stil lworried that it's becoming more "did you see what they just did?" funny and less the clever, downright hilarious, and innovative show that it originally was. Still, as far as offensive humor goes, this is still must-see material, and some of the gags this week were pretty freakin' funny (the doctor's schtick, Peter addressing the room full of fat people ...).
My grade: A -

And that's about all I got for now. I'd write more, but my sleep schedule is WAY off from this weekend and I can already tell that tommorow might potentially be one reaaaally long day at work. Luckilly there's the kinda-finale of PRISON BREAK tommorow, which is pretty much guaranteed to rule all.

So that is all for this EXCELLENTLY-EXECUTED posting. I bid you all goodnight and / or good morning, and good luck.

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