Life in the Whedonverse

Brought on, I'm sure, by Dollhouse's season premiere, a couple of publications have been posting lists of the best of the best in the land of Joss Whedon. I mostly agree with both lists (one ranks them by number and one does not) and they do overlap quite a bit. But, I have one major problem. Mood. And for me, in the Whedonverse, that means everything. What do I watch when I want to laugh? When I need a good cry? When I need a WTF moment I know is coming? The brilliance of Joss' work is that it can be all of these things all at once and then still be separated into groups. Want romance? Want danger? Horror? Humor? There is something for everyone. Here is my take.

Best real life situation = "The Body" Buffy, Season 5: For anyone who has ever dealt with the loss of someone close this one really hits home. Especially the silence. When you are alone with death there is no background music, no sweeping crescendo. Just silence. And fear. And pain. This episode was so beautifully done that I felt like I had lost my own mother all over again.

Best I'm really gonna kick your ass = "Not Fade Away" Angel, Season 5: This came too soon and too fast but the moment when Angel vamps out on Hamilton and when Illyria puts her fist through Vail's face, you just can't stop yourself from cheering out loud! And in case we expected anything less from our favorite hero, his final wish is to slay dragons. Poor dragons.

Best family that doesn't know it's a family = "Out of Gas" Firefly: Until this episode (if you watched them in order on DVD instead of Fox's f'd up way) the crew of Serenity seemed to be a pretty loose knit and just sort of fond of each other bunch (at best). This episode was so intense in showing love and devotion that it fully cemented the 9 of them as a family unit that you would never doubt again. And one of the best lines I have ever heard (still brings tears) 'When your miracle gets here, call us back"

Best WTF = "Needs" Dollhouse, Season 1: I knew when this episode started that it had to be some kind of trick or device. But, that didn't stop me from gasping out loud almost every 5 minutes. I loved getting to find out some of what the dolls were before they were Dolls.

Best could have done without that = "I Will Remember You" Angel, Season 1: This entire episode is just a gratuitous meal for the hungry Angel/Buffy shippers. And I loved every minute of it. I have watched A LOT of television and A LOT of movies and yet I have never witnessed anything quite as heartbreaking as this episode. It builds up so much hope and love and then just rips it all away before you even realize what's happening. I'll never again feel the same way about yogurt.

Best was that really necessary = Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog: I want all of my friends to see this. It is a masterpiece of creation. However, they're not really into sad. So, I always advertise it as a hilarious and catchy musical. Which it is. Totally. And then Penny dies. And then they all hate me. However, they are all hating me while having the songs stuck in their heads for life. So I consider it a win.

Best are they allowed to show that on TV = "Smashed" Buffy, Season 6: Until this episode sex in the Buffyverse had always been sweet and lovey dovey. And then there was Spike. Holy crow was this hot or what? And the "I can't believe they are showing this on TV" sex continued in "Gone," "Doublemeat Palace," and "Dead Things." If Spike wasn't a permanent fantasy object before this, he became one very soon after.

Best funny thing to happen to a group = "Tabula Rasa" Buffy, Season 6 & "Spin the Bottle" Angel, Season 4: An entire group of demon fighters losing their memories is hilarious the first time around. And the 2nd time around. Both of these episodes really forced the actors to act - outside of the characters they were so used to. And some of the funniest, laugh out loud, fall off the sofa hilarity ensued. "It was about time that the English got what's coming to him, I'm rooting for the slave." "I don't see any booze, I don't feel any head bumps, I don't see Allen Funt." And then cruelness came. Both episodes ended with tears (from me anyways).

Best I wish there was more = "Serenity” Firefly Movie: This was supposed to be the answer to all of the fans' wildest dreams. Which it was, in a way. All it did for me was make me even more attached to the characters and their stories than I already was. The movie did have some of the very best moments though (River against the Reavers) and will always make me cry. And scream for more!

Best so scary I peed my pants = "Hush" Buffy, Season 4: The moment when one of the Gentlemen glides across the screen right in front of Olivia makes me jump out of my skin every single time I watch this episode. I have seen this at least 20 times. It never becomes less scary. Just the thought of having my voice stolen makes me shudder. Brilliant story telling.

Best OUCH = "Innocence" Buffy, Season 2:  Yikes!  Can you imagine the horror!
Buffy: You just left.

Angelus: Yeah. Like I really wanted to stick around after that.
Buffy: What?
Angelus: You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I guess you proved that last night.
Buffy: What are you saying?
Angelus: Let's not make an issue out of it, okay? In fact, let's not talk about it at all. It happened.
Buffy: I-I don't understand. Was it m-me? Was I not good?
Angelus: [sarcastically] You were great. Really. I thought you were a pro.

Best friend = "War Stories" Firefly:  Mal does exactly what it takes to keep his pilot alive.  It sounds horrible coming out of his mouth, but it gets the job done.  I can only hope I have friends willing to be that awful to me if the situation called for it.

Best guardian angel = "The Target" Dollhouse, Season 1: I have had dozens of nightmares where I am being chases by something terrible.  This Dollhouse episode puts it all into perspective as I have never once been hunted by the hot guy I just slept with.  The entire situation is way too scary  - until Boyd comes to the rescue.  His love for Echo is all over his face.  What makes it even better?  Echo saving him right back!

Best sexy drink = "Graduation Part 2" Buffy, Season 3: I have screened the bit of this episode when Angel bites Buffy for a number of different people and I always hear a lot of "gross."  I don't get it.  There is nothing gross or icky or sick about this entire portion of the episode.  As a matter of fact, it is one of the sexiest, most intense love scenes I have ever laid eyes on.  I've seen True Blood, Moonlight, Twilight, Blood Ties and dozens of other vampire bite situations.  And still.  This is hands down the very best of them all.  Anyone know where I can find one of those arrows?

Your thoughts?  What did we miss?

More Dollhouse!

A couple more Dollhouse articles!  I LOVE that it's getting so much attention!!  Hopefully this will turn into amazing ratings that will make Fox want to keep it forever!  A girl can dream right?

Chigaco Tribune article on the show

SciFiWire article with behind the scenes photos!


I realized I hadn't posted the actual trailer yet.  So excited!!

Return to the Dollhouse!

Dollhouse is finally back tomorrow and I have spent all week collecting must see/read items in preparation for the premiere!  Thank you Twitter for hooking me up with all the goods!

Joss Whedon interview from Complex Magazine (talk of Dr. Horrible 2)

Fox interview with stunt man Mike Massa (p.s. he was David Boreanaz's stunt double for Angel)

Fox interview with Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard)

Another great Joss interview

Joss on io9

Great article on Joss' amazing mind

io9's review of the premiere

New Moon Soundtrack!!

The song list for the New Moon Soundtrack has been finalized!!!  The album is due out October 20th and you can pre-order from Amazon here.

I am super stoked about the bands being included on the soundtrack (especially Muse and BRMC) and cannot wait to pick up my own copy in just a few weeks!  Here is the list:

• DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE — MEET ME ON THE EQUINOX
• BAND OF SKULLS — FRIENDS
• THOM YORKE — HEARING DAMAGE
• LYKKE LI — POSSIBILITY
• THE KILLERS — A WHITE DEMON LOVE SONG
• ANYA MARINA — SATELLITE HEART
• MUSE — I BELONG TO YOU (NEW MOON REMIX)
• BON IVER & ST. VINCENT — ROSYLN
• BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB — DONE ALL WRONG
• HURRICANE BELLS — MONSTERS
• SEA WOLF — THE VIOLET HOUR
• OK GO — SHOOTING THE MOON
• GRIZZLY BEAR — SLOW LIFE
• EDITORS — NO SOUND BUT THE WIND
• ALEXANDRE DESPLAT — NEW MOON (THE MEADOW)

2009 Emmy's

So the winners were a little disapointing (then again so were the nominees) but it was still a fun night.  Neil Patrick Harris rocked it out as host and Ricky Gervais was hilarious as a presenter.  My  favorite parts:

True Blood - The Aftermath

Sunday night's True Blood party was a wicked good time with an abundance of food and wine and even a newly invented shot.  The vampire cupcakes were also a huge success (see above).  Oh, and the episode was good too.  It looks like it will be back no later than June of next year so it should be another bloody good summer in 2010. 

The True Blood girls and I had a lot of conversations about the show on Sunday night but the most interesting by far was regarding certain character look alikes (thank you Paige!).

The first was her comparison of Jason Stackhouse to George W. Bush.  You can just imagine how fast all of our jaws hit the floor.  Come on!  Jason is the yummiest of the yum and any comparison that detracts from that is just not ok with me.  However, as much as I hate to admit it, there is an uncanny resemblance:

Scary right?  I'm not even sure I want to know how she figured this out.

The second was the Eggs/Obama match.  Again.  What?  And again, no matter how much we would love to deny it, here it is:

It works better without the eyes but they do have similar smiles and (yes Paige) ears.  I wonder if the President looks as good with his shirt off.  Yikes.

Vampire Odds and Ends

Thank God!  The new New Moon trailer was leaked online and I do not have to suffer through the VMAs today in order to see it.  And, now, neither do you! It's a GREAT new trailer:

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And in case you are completely oblivious to the world, you haven't forgetten that the True Blood season finale is just hours away! Here's a bit of a taste:

New (to me) Must Read Series

When one of my best friends first handed me this series of books to read all I gave her were raised eyebrows.  The series by Rachel Vincent is about Faythe Sanders and she is a Werecat.  Yes.  A Werecat.  I don't know why I thought this was silly at first.  After all, I've read and loved dozens of books about flying broomsticks and vampires who go to high school and date waitresses.  So it was no surprise to me that it took a little while to get into the first of the series, Stray.  What did surprise me was how hard it became to put down.    Faythe lives in a world she is dying to escape, constantly under the supervision of her Werecat family and their hired protectors.  She has complicated relationships with almost everyone in her life and is just looking for a little independence.  That is, until her entire world threatens to come crashing down around her.  Once the action starts there is little time to do anything but breathe as the whirlwind continues through all 4 books (each of which I devoured in just a few hours).  Not since Scarlett O'Hara has there been a heroine so fallible and at the same time so endearing.  Not to mention the ass kicking she can dish out, the likes of which you haven't seen since Buffy Summers hung up her stake.  The world she lives in is full of danger, politics and mystery with a healthy dose of love and devotion so strong that the first tear is sliding down your cheek before you even realize how invested you've become.  Four of the six planned novels are out in paperback now (see above) and the 5th is due out March 1st of next year which, for me, feels like a lifetime to wait after tearing through the first 4 so quickly.  You can order Stray from Amazon here and you may as well order the other 3 while you're at it.  You'll thank me later.  I'd bet all nine of my lives on it.

Vampire Diaries - My First Impression

Well, so far, so good. I have to say, all I have heard about this series for the last couple of months is how much like Twilight it was going to be and for the most part, I disagree. Of course the books this show is based on came out about a decade before Stephenie Meyer had her infamous Twilight dream so any similarities would be purely coincidental either way. And while I did get similar feelings watching this pilot as I did reading the first few chapters of Twilight, the sameness stops there. Actually, I felt a lot more of a Dawson's Creek mood (they have the same creator, Kevin Williamson) and Stefan throws off much more of an Angel vibe (his brooding brows and manly man jaw line, hello!) than an Edward one. Other immediate thoughts as I was watching:

1. The soundtrack is AWESOME! Silversun Pickups, Placebo, MGMT and more! I hope they put out a soundtrack.
2. How great was it to see fangs in the first 60 seconds?
3. Nice shout out to my home, the Witch City. Go Salem!
4. As a general rule, I hate teenage girls and that Caroline ditz is doing nothing to change that. I hope Damon bites her.
5. The fog coming into the cemetery when Elena was there looked like bad concert effects.
6. All of the boys are delicious. Even the human ones.
7. What's up with that older guy calling Stefan Uncle?

Final thoughts? This is a show I will be following closely. If only for the good vampy fun. Your thoughts? Are you gonna tune in next week?

True Blood - We're almost there!

The finale is just a couple of days away and I'm so excited!  Here are a couple of things to get you through to Sunday night.  First, a TV Guide interview with the maenad herself, Michelle Forbes and a People interview with the very sexy Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten).  I'll have my review of the finale on Monday and then it's a good thing regular TV starts back up again - what else would I do?!!

Also, Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton) was on Live with Regis and Kelly the other day.  It was a pretty cute interview.

True Blood - The Music

The soundtrack for this show has been out for a while but the music I have been waiting for just made it to the shelves today.  The Score.  I'm not a classical music junkiie but there are certain scores that just tell the story almost better than the show itself.  This is one of those.  Despite the Eric fever that is sweeping the nation, you can't help but fall in love with Bill all over again when you hear Nathan Barr's haunting melodies.  This music puts you in Sookie's shoes when she meets him for the first time and takes you through their entire thrilling and sometimes chilling world.  Listen to Hairclip and Bill's Lament loud and often and you will find yourself all of a sudden in Bon Temps.  If you love the show you will love this.  It goes down easier than a bottle of O negative.

Fall TV Returns - And a bit of rambling.

The Fall TV schedule has started to fill up my Tivo To Do list and is causing some summer entertainment reflection.

I started this blog in June to give me something to do while I was unemployed.  Sitting around waiting for the email to ding or the phone to ring was starting to make me a little lot crazy.  I was spending most of my time reading, watching TV and listening to music and when I was in the company of others all I wanted to talk about was what I had just read, watched, listened to.  A friend gave me idea to start blogging about it (she's a bit of a blog addict) (you know who you are) as a way to put out into the world everything I was so excited about.  At first the title of the blog was kind of a joke.  But, the more I worked on the blog, the more I wanted other people to start enjoying what I had been discovering in my time off and the title started to become more of a reality than a joke.  I have watched and re-watched countless hours of my favorite shows on DVD (The O.C., Everwood, Buffy, Angel, Dead Like Me, Firefly, Bones, Supernatural, Moonlight, True Blood, Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl).  Not to mention the INCREDIBLE summer TV (So You Think You Can Dance and True Blood are at the top of that list).  I have discovered (through the help of a certain reading addict) new book series that have caused serious character attachment much in the vein of Harry Potter and Twilght (Stray, Hunger Games).  And I have added at least 1000 new songs to my iTunes in just the last couple of months.  Soon I will be going back out into the real world where I don't get to spend the day surrounded by the pop culture I love so much.  Of course everyone's dream job is getting paid to do something they love.  If I could survive otherwise, I wouldn't even want to get paid.  Getting to experience this much greatness in such a short period of time has been payment enough.  And there is still so much to look forward to!  All of my TV favorites will be returning within a matter of weeks and 2 CDs I have been looking forward to are also released this month.  Plus, my favorite holiday in October and New Moon in November!  Having entertainment OCD isn't such a bad thing I guess.  If you need help planning your fall check out the 2 links below:

Fall Premiere Dates

Major Network Fall Schedule

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Cake Wrecks Book

Don't forget to pick up the new Cake Wrecks book - on shelves tomorrow!  I was introduced to the blog by an article in Details Magazine and have since gotten all of my friends competely addicted to it.  Jen (the author) is one of the funniest writers I have ever experienced.  It's one of the few blogs I make sure and check every single day and more often than not, I'm convulsing in laughter the whole time I'm reading.  I can't wait to add it to my library. 

You can order the book from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Cake-Wrecks-Professional-Cakes-Hilariously/dp/0740785370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252026030&sr=8-1

The Master!

That would be Joss Whedon of course. Don't miss this awesome article from EW.com on the brilliant creator!

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/09/02/joss-whedon-dollhouse-dr-horrible/

Gossip Girl - Season 3 Sneak Peek!

I am extremely grateful to EOnline for posting the following new Gossip Girl Sneak Peeks! Even though it makes me think that the next 2 weeks are going to feel more like 2 years.

http://www.eonline.com/videos/v36569286001_Gossip_Girl_Peek_9/14.html

http://www.eonline.com/videos/v36569288001_Gossip_Girl_Peek_9/14.html

http://www.eonline.com/videos/v36556385001_Gossip_Girl_Peek_9/14.html

http://www.eonline.com/videos/v36569289001_Gossip_Girl_Peek_9/14.html

http://www.eonline.com/videos/v36565345001_Gossip_Girl_Peek_9/14.html

I swear they do this just to torture me!!!

Catching Fire - Finally!

And I'm spent! After what seemed like an eternity waiting for this book I was up most of the night finishing it. Despite the protests from my brain and eyes this morning, one would have had to pry it out of my cold dead fingers in order to get me to put it down. If you have not read the first book in the series, Hunger Games, stop reading here. Catching Fire joins up with Katniss just a few months after her and Peeta's defying double victory at the 74th annual Hunger Games and they haven't seen much of each other since. Most of the first half of the book follows Katniss through her life as a victor, the changes her District 12 has experienced and the painful pull she feels between her fellow winner and her best friend Gale. Don't take this to mean it's a "day in the life" of a contest winner. The anxiety and urgency begin almost immediately and will stay with you through to the very last page - and beyond. The action sequences are such a frenzied blur that you feel like you've just watched it on the screen instead of reading it from the page. There was not a lot of the usual re-telling of the original story that authors of series often use, which is great as I hate feeling like I could have skipped the first 10 pages. What I did have to be reminded of however, was how old Katniss is. Her trials and wisdom are so far beyond her age that it's easy to forget that she's only 17. Be sure to have a box of tissues on hand as the opportunities for tears are many. And though it wasn't often, I did find myself laughing out loud a few times. I can't say why without giving big portions of the story away but I will say that pages 232, 241 and 316 held a few special delights. Overall, the book was so well done that I find myself caught half way between glad I devoured it in one night and wishing I would have savoured it over time. I was both heartbroken and empowered throughout and feel quite emotionally drained after the experience. I dare you to pick up this book and not dread having to put it down. Even after you're finished.

And now begins the long countdown to the final chapter.

Bones Season 5 - More Spoilers!

Before I start - a great big congratulations to Bones star David Boreanaz who, with wife Jamie Bergman, welcomed their new daughter yesterday. Congratulations David!
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20301743,00.html

I am starting to think that I know all there is to know about the Bones Season 5 opener at this point and still I cannot wait to see it! EOnline had a Q&A with a few of the stars last week which you can read here:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b141547_emily_deschanel_promises_more_kissing.html

Emily Deschanel was on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson last night and was adorable as usual (even though she could hardly get a word in edgewise). No new spoilers but they did show a new clip:


And Fox has made available the same clip but more of it:

Jason Stackhouse = The Perfect Dumb Yum!

A big huge thanks to Wicker for pointing me in the direction of this month's GQ Magazine (Michael Jackson is on the cover). The issue includes 6 delicious photos of Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse on True Blood). He has been, by far, one of my favorite characters on the show this season. He has had me going from slapping my forehead in disbelief of his absolute stupidity one minute to drooling over his gorgeousness the next. I have scanned in a couple of the photos for your viewing pleasure but be sure to pick up the mag to see the rest. You'll be thanking Wicker too!

Catching Fire - The wait continues

I guess I'm not the only one who couldn't wait to get their hands on this book. My local book store was sold out already this morning and now I will be heading to the big box book store this evening. I've already waited nearly a year for it so what's a couple more hours right?

If you have not yet read Hunger Games (the first in the series), pick them both up at the same time. If you hate it you can send me nasty emails at no cost to you. I'm certain this book will be as quickly devoured as the last one was. I should have my review of the new one posted before the long weekend so check back!