spinning-jennie: the media b/log

Scrubs - The Complete Sixth Season

Apparently ABC wants to carry it next year.

Personally, I got so fed up with all the scheduling fits and starts over the past couple of years, I'd pretty much made my peace with seeing NBC wrap it up this year. Maybe if ABC can handle it better... It's not as if they have anything else good going in the way of sitcoms.

The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection)

Janus Films and The Criterion Collection will be releasing The Red Balloon (as part of a double feature with White Mane) on DVD April 29th. The bub and I, however, have already enjoyed it several times on the PC via Netflix's Watch it Now, and he is just as enchanted with it as I was, seeing it for the first (and only, before now) time as an elementary school student.

In fact, we're already considering it a good candidate for a Halloween costume -- just a tight grey turtleneck sweater and pants, brown shoes, a little old schoolbag, and a big red balloon on some kind of wire. Tres facile, non?

I guess at least some of the adults would make the connection...

X! Files! Crappy bootleg teaser trailer and nice production still here.

Indiana! Jones! Trailer here.

Mister! Darcy! The 2005 production of Pride and Prejudice (with mmmmmMatthew MacFadyen and Kiera Knightley) will be premiering on Oxygen Saturday, March 8th at 8pm PST.

F**king! Matt! Damon! Jimmy Kimmel's gut-splitting followup video here.

There's a list at EW of how many episodes of each show will be produced this season (if any), and when they'll begin to air. I'm just going to list the ones relevant to me here, for my own quick reference:

Desperate Housewives - 4 or 5, late April

Heroes - 22+, Fall 2008

Lost - 13 total, in progress (break in mid-March)

The Office - 5 or 6, April 10

Scrubs - 5 (+4?), April 10

Ugly Betty - 4 or 5, late April

Then I realized that this list isn't complete, pshaw. So on to the next list, at TV Guide:

Jericho - 4 (I think?) episodes left, continuation of series TBD

Journeyman - Kaput

Pushing Daisies - Fall 2008

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Future TBD

And of course The 4400 was cancelled a couple months back. No idea about Breaking Bad, though it appears to be doing well ratings-wise and critically, so I'm assuming it'll live another season at least.

Breaking_bad

I don't watch the AMC site, but I probably should. Because I know I miss great classic movies all the time, and I nearly didn't catch their fantastic new original series, Breaking Bad. I might have caught on eventually, through Entertainment Weekly, but then I would've missed out on a few weeks of super WGA strike programming, and what a shame. It was just pure dumb luck that I happened to be watching an AMC movie live (never happens), and caught an ad that reeled me right in like a worm-starved trout.

Bryan Cranston was a comedic genius as the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, but he really gets to show off his range here, as a madly desperate cancer-stricken chemistry teacher. But the plot runs just a wee bit crazier -- nay, effed-upped-er -- than all that would imply (don't go in with a weak stomach, either). I haven't watched many basic cable dramas, but I'll go out on a limb and guess that this one isn't anywhere near run-of-the-mill. The premise is fresh, the writing and cinematography cinematic, and the casting a treat.

You can watch episodes one and two online right now. Hooray!

Cloverfield

See, you have to go in knowing what to expect. Which is a thriller, plain and simple, and not the twisty-plotsy surprise! stuff that you're used to getting from Bad Robot.

So with that in mind, it wasn't bad, especially if you willfully ignore all the leading build-up over the past year. Don't think about that. Then you'll just feel like you were cheated out of something groundbreaking and clever. If you expect a pretty good monster movie, you'll end up much more satisfied.

You'll also be happier if you have a strong stomach, one not prone to motion sickness. Mine is made of steel, only assailable by viruses or other physical attack (or pregnancy hormones, bleargh), and I still got a little queasy about halfway in. And this when my tummy was all happy and soothed because of Junior Mints (they offered me a box from the fridge, how awesome is that?)! I was forced to look away from the handheld camerawork for a few seconds to calm it down. D. was queasy until we got some fresh air after the show.

One thing it does share with previous Abrams work, Alias, is the vaguely Michael Vaughn-esque Rob Hawkins character. Or that could just be me, projecting my Michael Vartan love... hmmmmm.

1. Stardust * *
2. The Bourne Ultimatum * *
3. December Boys * * *
4. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants * * *
5. The Ex * * * *
6. The Terminal * * *
7. Cloverfield * * *
8. Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything * *
9. Live Free or Die Hard * * *
10. National Lampoon's Class Reunion
11. Jurassic Park (RiffTrax'ed) * * * * *
12. Pride and Prejudice (1995) * * * * *
13. Sherrybaby * *
14. Stranger than Fiction * * *
15. The Matrix Reloaded (RiffTrax'ed) * *
16. Chocolat * * * *
17. Zodiac * * *
18. Beowulf (RiffTrax'ed) *
19. Eight Legged Freaks * *
20. I Am Legend * * * *
21. In Her Shoes * * *
22. Hide and Seek * * *
23. Crossroads (RiffTrax'ed) * *
24. Casanova * * *
25. Cloverfield (RiffTrax'ed) * * *
26. My Boy Jack * *
27. The Darjeeling Limited * * *

1. What to Keep - Rachel Cline
2. The Owl Service - Alan Garner
3. The Generous Years: Remembrances of a Frontier Boyhood - Chet Huntley
4. The Forest Lover - Susan Vreeland
5. Open House - Elizabeth Berg
6. Before Green Gables - Budge Wilson
7. The Lost German Slave Girl - John Bailey
8. Mudbound - Hillary Jordan
9. The Overland Trail - Wendi Lee
10. Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity: One Season in a Progressive School  - Elizabeth Gold
11. The Speed of Dark - Elizabeth Moon

12. Reading - Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us) - Mona Charen
13. Reading - Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure - Sarah Macdonald
14. Reading - Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library - Don Borchert

Audiobooks

1. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

2. Listening to: Before I Die - Jenny Downham

The 4400 - The Complete Second Season

Obviously, it hasn't been a great fall for television so far. I'm still reeling over love found and and so soon lost, if only "temporarily" (Pushing Daisies). Time to step up the Netflix consumption -- BBC and HBO, here we come.

It's not likely to be a great summer, either, not the least of which is because The 4400 has been cancelled. Now, I'm realistic, and even though I've always been a staunch champion of the show, even I saw that it was losing a little more steam with each season, and I wasn't into the characters as much as in the beginning. And then Heroes, which has a budget, came along. So the time had probably come. Still, though, it was nice to have something fun and a little different to see in the summer.

Maybe I'll have to start watching Monk. Or go outside...

The Office - Season Three

(cross-posted from spinning-jennie)

If you're an Office fan, you might be familiar with the Dunder Mifflin Infinity game, with which I've been playing along. Well, the results from our first task are in, and I won our branch logo contest! I was a little geeked, since the tools they gave us were infinitely frustrating, and there were nearly 200 entries. Mine may be among the least creative (I really admire the shapes that some were able to acheive given such fickle tools!), but it is corporate-y, which was my goal.

And then there's nepotism. Goooo nepotism!

So now, the logo chosen by each branch goes to a public vote. Not only would I win real honest-to-goodness swag from the cast (squee!), points (or, SchruteBucks, in the game vernacular) would be earned for every one of the over 700 members in our branch.

If you could drop in and vote, that would be fantastic! Just go to:

http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/tasks/globalvote?week=1

Our Waterloo logo is on the last page (page four). Just click on the image, and then hit vote. Easy peasy!

And I think you can still join the game, too. Sign up for the Waterloo, IA branch, and our Regional Manager will approve you ASAP. We have such a fun little community already, so I hope you do!