Back from a weekend of birthday festivities, Yom Kippur fasting, and leg injuries - now, for a little while, at least, it's back to the grind.
Okay, where to start? Well, first off, when I last posted here on the ol' blog, I wrote about how I was hobbled from an unfortunately-timed leg injury that resulted from a physical therapy session last Tuesday. The short version is that, for the last few weeks, I've been going to twice-weekly physical therapy to help strengthen my never-healed-quite-right ankle. So after a long day Monday where I was on a plane most of the day, travelling from Hartford to LA, I was pretty stiff and cramped heading into the following day's session. But, I still didn't really suspect that a routine leg excercise would so seriously mess me up. I left PT that day feeling a bit sore but mostly fine, but when I woke up on Wednesday I was in very bad shape. I could barely even stand up, let alone walk. By Wednesday night I was only slightly better, then I really began to freak out on Thursday and Friday when I was still very much limping around and unable to fully straighten my right leg. I had had muscle cramps before, but man, this was the monster of all muscle cramps. During Friday's PT session, they left my ankle alone for the day and went to work on my calf to try to help me out. Friday night, I stayed in and just spent most of the night lying down on my bed with heating pads on my leg. Saturday, I was slightly better but still really hurting.
And that kind of sucked, because Saturday was my birthday party (or my Mega-Atomic Birthday Meltdown, if you will - a name that tragically proved to be somewhat prophetic). I almost considered cancelling the festivities, to be honest. Not only was it hard for me to walk, but all of the hobbling around that I had been doing made me kind of exhausted overall. Aside from all that, LA tends to be a difficult place to get large groups of people together for anything. Not only is there the high-flakiness-factor at play, but on any given weekend in LA, you can count on the fact that any number of young Hollywood jetsetters will have several *very* important events pencilled in on any given weekend, or else, depending on their family's financial situation, will either a.) be off travelling to exotic locales around the world, or b.)working at their "pay-the-bills" second job. Suffice it to say, a humble, low-key birthday party is often forced to compete with any number of potentially more attractive options in the too-cool-for-school world of Hollywood. That said, Saturday's festivities still managed to be a lot of fun despite my bad leg and despite the fact that Hollywood etiquette states you can't RSVP to something until you've made a last-minute determination regarding its coolness factor. (And yet, I have this sadistic impulse every so often to send out mass-invites to various events - why, I don't know.) Seriously, I had a good time reliving my early days in LA, keeping things simple and local. A bunch of us had a nice, hearty delicious dinner at Buca Di Beppo, and then the celebration continued at Howl at the Moon nearby, which was a rockin' good time. I wasn't quite as mobile as I'd have liked to be, but hey, there was some great music, some good friends, and a couple of fun photo ops to boot. Unbelievably, this marked my FIFTH birthday celebration in LA. It's hard to believe, but I came here as a 22 year old and am now the big 27. Holy lord, how did that happen? The worst part is, when you're in your twenties you don't even know how you're supposed to react to becoming another year older. In theory, you should be getting older, wiser, more mature, more stable, and more adult. On the other hand, with each passing year you realize that you only have so much time left to be a "twenty-something," and that you'd be an idiot if you didn't take advantage of your relative youth. And then you realize that maybe you've *tried* to take advantage of your relative youth, but due to limited time, money, energy, and several dozen other factors not in your favor, you may have potentially tried and failed. And then you just get depressed and scared and freak out. And then you get distracted with TV and Facebook and laundry and groceries and work, and lose sight of the big-picture until something else snaps you back.
Um, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, so, Saturday was, in the end, a fun birthday celebration, and thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate!
Whew. Now, although my b-day celebration was on Saturday night, my actual birthday was on Monday (9/28). Which, of course, was also Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. So yes, I spent the majority of my birthday fasting. And yes, for the record, my break-fast included cake. I will say though that my brother found a pretty cool service to attend for the high holidays, put on by a group called Valley Ruach based out of Adat Ariel synagogue in Valley Village. The services that we went to for Kol Nidre on Sunday night and for Yom Kippur proper on Monday were very nice - a bit experimental, with guitar, flute, etc accompanying the prayers, but also filled with tunes that were very familiar to anyone with a conservative Jewish background. It was a good group of people, and everyone was friendly and welcoming. So, I came away feeling like I had one of the better high holiday experiences that I've experienced thus far in LA.
And maybe those good vibes helped my leg? After a couple of days of little to no improvement, Monday and Monday night I finally began feeling markedly better. Today, I am walking *a lot* better. Still limping slightly, but I can put almost full weight on my right leg now and can even stand on it alone on one leg. I'm really hoping that it is fully better by the end of this week, because I want to make sure I can continue to focus on getting my ankle to 100%, and I am already dreading the bill from all this physical therapy.
So. in spite of any passive-aggressive negativity from earlier in this post, it was a really nice weekend overall, with a fun birthday celebration and a good Yom Kippur. We even had a hearty break-fast afterwords that included bagels, brownies, lemonade, and birthday cake, and several episodes of The State on DVD. Not bad at all.
Alright, enough about me ...
TV STUFF:
- Let's talk about SMALLVILLE. It's funny, even though I had low expectations for this year's premiere, I still was slightly giddy and excited to watch it. I mean, this Fall TV season has not exactly been awash with high-concept action-adventures, so there was something about the idea of once again seeing the continuing adventures of the man-who-would-be-SUPERMAN that really appealled to me. And you never know - Smallville can be an unpredictable show - just when you think it's hit rock bottom, it can come out of the gates with a blockbuster episode. Would this in fact be one of the show's trademark high-octane, movie-like premieres? Well, the unfortunate reality was that this season premiere was a letdown. Not only did it not feel as big or important or as epic as past Smallville season openers, but it just was not that good of an episode, period. For a long time now, Smallville has felt like one giant treading-water tease, with no payoffs, ever, and none in sight. And this ep felt like more of the same. The black-clad, trenchcoat-wearing Clark here felt like a retread of the same emo identity-crisis crap we've already seen about 100 times on this show. Plus, Tom Welling just looked lame wearing a black T-shirt with an S-symbol and a 1997-era black trenchcoat ensemble. But more than that, it's just unbelievable that Clark is STILL grappling with the exact same emotional and moral issues that he faced YEARS ago at this point. Smallville is a serialized drama - the whole point is to have characters that grow and change, especially given the premise of the show. The show is supposed to be about how Clark goes from zero to hero, how he becomes Superman. But, since the show has to delay his heroic transformation each and every year, it constantly has to force itself to delay the inevitable. They *could* do this by coming up with new and unique plotlines - maybe send Clark glovetrotting around the world, or in space, or forced underground because he's hunted by the government. But no, instead we just go back to the same well over and over again. Even the big villain this year is simply a new spin on an old Smallville favorite - Zod. Now, Zod can be a great badguy. But this version was matched with an underwhelming intro. The whole thing was just confusing. I'm a longtime Smallville viewer, and I was struggling to understand where Zod and his army came from, when they came from, and how this younger version fit in with the one we've previously seen on Smallville. Also in the annoying category: Chloe. The character has had her ups and downs on the show, but she is quickly becoming pretty useless, and ultra-whiny too. Her plea to Clark to go back in time and save Jimmy was supposed to have been dramatic, but instead it was just groan-inducing. Like most Smallville fans, I am sick to death of Clark being only half-a-hero. For once, I want to see Clark on a big adventure where he knows what the right thing to do is, and simply uses his heroism and willpower to kick ass and save the day. You know, a good old-fashioned Superman adventure. And yet, we're back to conflicted, emo Clark on a misguided mission in which he loses touch with his humanity. Enough already! Thank the TV gods for Oliver Queen and Lois Lane - the two spark plugs that have kept Smallville watchable over the last year or so. And I did like the introduction of Brian Austin Green as John Corben, aka Metallo. Overall though, this was a very un-Super season premiere, and it was especially disappointing given how much opportunity there is for Smallville to really come back with a vengeance this year, as the playing field for action-dramas is currently wide open. For now, I want to just skip ahead past this Zod stuff and get to the Geoff Johns-penned JSA episode coming soon. Now THAT could be good.
My Grade: C-
- Quick thought about Thursday night comedies. First off, I've really been digging THE OFFICE so far this season. I thought Thursday's sophomore ep was pretty hilarious, and also a great character study of Jim and Michael. There were some very, very funny bits here, and Dwight's rage-filled reaction to Jim's promotion was classic. It's been great to see The Office back on track to start off this season, and I can't wait for the upcoming wedding episode - all indications are that it will be a classic. Meanwhile, PARKS & RECREATION has really rebounded from its somewhat shaky first season. It still has some kinks to work out, but I thought the second episode of S2 was another very solid effort. It seems like the cast is really starting to gel, and the characters are finding their voices. On the other hand, COMMUNITY still feels like it's missing something to me. There just seems to be a looseness to the show, like the premise of these people who meet via a Spanish study group is only barely holding the storylines together. Also, the jokes are just not 100% working for me. That said, there were flashes of greatness, like the ending montage that showed off Joel McHale and Chevy Chase's crazy Spanish presentation. But there will have to be more than one such bit of brilliance per episode for this one to really work.
My Grades:
The Office: A-
Parks & Rec: B+
Community: B-
- So how did I like ABC's much-hyped sci-fi drama FLASH FORWARD? Well, the short answer is that I'm hooked. I thought that this was an amazingly-done pilot that was Lost-like in how well it presented you with a compelling cast of characters and a mind-melting central mystery that has you dying to know where things go from here. The production value was top-notch, and the cast seemed very solid. I also liked some of the twists and turns of the pilot, and I think the episode went a long way to establishing that Flash Forward is more than just a pure character drama. I really liked the hints at the shadowy conspiracy behind the forward flashes, and to me we got just enough info to really make you wonder about what kind of craziness might be afoot. The sci-fi elements and the hints of shadowy villainy did a lot to satisfy my inner fanboy, but we also got some very nice character moments as well. The opening moments presented an intense sense of dread and foreboding, as all hell broke loose due to the world literally grinding to a halt while everyone was passed out from the flash. I also thought a nice sense of scope was established - the flash really felt like a *big* event. I hope that future episodes give an even bigger sense of scale. I'd love to see some science-based characters brought into the mix, for example. I also think the show could use an everyman type - it's own version of Hurley, if you will. I liked the main cast, but all of them were very serious and important types played by very Hollywood-ish actors and actresses. We need a loose cannon, a nerd, a rebel, etc to mix things up a bit. And we also need to very quickly take examine the implications of the flash from a logical point of view. For example, I hope that, soon, we see what happens if someone goes out of their way to contradict something they glimpsed in the flash. But really, this was one hell of a pilot episode. Time will tell how things go from here, but in terms of setting the stage for what could be a truly epic story, this one got the job done.
My Grade: A-
- I'm still kind of on-the-bubble about GLEE. I like a lot about it, but I also just don't fully buy into the show. It's weird - I love the show when it's being darkly humorous. Everything with Jane Lynch, for example, is pretty awesome. But other times the show loses me, and I feel like I'm watching a dirtier version of High School Musical. The tone of Glee is just so all over the place. It seems to at times poke fun at the absurdity of its characters, Arrested Development style, but it also tends to take them very seriously. Definitely sort of a schizofrenic show. I guess a small part of the show appeals to fans of offbeat comedy. But then the other parts of the show seem designed to appeal to young women who harbored proto-American Idol fantasies in high school. I am definitely not in that demo, and to that end, some of the characters in Glee I just find pretty off-putting. Like the main glee cub teacher, for example. He seems like a guy that exists purely as some kind of female fantasy. Now, countless female characters on TV exist only as the manifestation of male fantasies about women, so I guess it's only fair. Still, I'm not all that interested in rooting for an emasculated glee club professor who never stands up to his ice-queen wife and gets bossed around by a bunch of obnoxious high school kids. All that said, I thought this past week's ep was definitely GLEE's best yet. It had heart. It was fun. Despite the tonal inconsistencies, it built up to an exciting finish and a heartfelt epilogue. It went a long way towards fleshing out some key supporting characters. If Glee is this good every week, I could probably stay onboard ... because even when I feel like I'm not the show's target audience, there is something about it that I like. It's different. The fact that it is so all over the place can be anoying, but it's also kind of fascinating. Still very interested to see where this one goes.
My Grade: B+
- I really liked the 21st season premiere of THE SIMPSONS. The Seth Rogen-penned ep covered some familiar territory for the show, but the story of Homer being cast as a new Hollywood superhero, Everyman, was also a lot of fun and pretty hilarious. I mean, sure, I get slightly annoyed when The Simpsons blatantly covers well-worn territory, but I'm willing to forgive that if the writing is sharp. And this was a great script - a lot of memorable jokes, some classic one-liners, and some nice commentary on Hollywood's creative deficiencies as well. Plus, it's always nice in this day and age to see a new Simpsons ep that has a clear, coherant story that lasts from the beginning of the episode to the end, with no random subplots or diversions to interrupt the flow. This, to me, felt very old-school in that respect. Plus, I give it bonus points for plenty of awesomely nerdy in-jokes. And Comic Book Guy going Hollywood? Hilarious. This is definitely up there as one of the better Simpsons eps of the last few years.
My Grade: A-
- Family Guy was actually pretty decent as well. The show's season premiere was by no means a classic, but it was a funny, somewhat odd episode in which Brian and Stewie go Sliders and travel to several alternate realities, thanks to Stewie's latest scientific invention. The ep had a lot of fun with the premise. The visuals alone were pretty great, and there was a fantastic Disney-verse sequence that had some amazing animation done in a pitch-perfect parody of / homage to the Disney house style. I thought there were some clever gags, and none of the obnoxiously mean-spirited stuff that the show has become known for in recent years. Few of the jokes were true home-runs, but this was a good start for FG after a pretty abysmal season last year.
My Grade: B+
- Alright, more to come soon. Stay tuned ...
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