The Americans

Are you in or out? I was really looking forward to this show because the premise was interesting (2 KGB agents undercover in Cold War America) and it was executive produced by Graham Yost who is the EP of Justified, and you know how much I love that show.

Turns out, I didn't love it. It was ok. Part of what makes Justified so awesome is the humor and dialogue. This show doesn't break up the levity with moments of humor. The lightest moment of the ep was the family going for ice cream (I do love me a soft serve). 

I thought Keri Russell was amazing in it and Matthew Rhys more then held his own. He's the sympathetic character and I loved him. Whenever I see Noah Emmerich (the FBI neighbor) I think of the movie Beautiful Girls which I loved so it's always fun to see him but for me, overall, the tone was way too dark. 

There was a problem with my cable and I wasn't able to watch the last 15 minutes of the show which tells me right there, I wasn't really invested because I didn't care that much. If I missed 5 minutes of Justified I'd be ranting and raving, and then watch the repeat the next hour, LOL. I didn't bother with the repeat of The Americans.

Not to say that this is a bad show. I think, for me, it's one of those shows that needs to grow on you and since my Wed nights are pretty packed, I don't know how much I'm going to be watching it. Depends on how tired I am that night. 

BTW, the 20 year old flashbacks were hard for me to believe because Kerri Russell looks the same. I was like, how could this be 20 years ago?

Did you watch? What did you think?  Will you be watching again?

Go Dead Yourself!

The Walking Dead has a web page where you can go dead yourself. It's hilarious! I love it, so many cool options. What is great is you can still tell it's me, even as the undead I have a cheesy smile! Go here and Dead yourself too. I'd love to see the fruits of your labor so email me your results and let me know if you want me to post it so others can see too. Thank you Lisa for posting this link on your FB!

I told Lin to stay away from Su's food. Su doesn't share well. 

Mia looks like such a sweet zombie, well, until those chompers bite into you. 

Downton Abbey Broke Our Hearts

I am late to the Downton Abbey bandwagon. It was on PBS so I never saw commercials for it, once people started talking about it, it was too late for me to join the party, or so I thought.

My sister has netflix and we were just hanging out so we decided to check it out, with some encouraging from my friends, and spent an entire day watching Season One.

A couple of weeks later I bought the second season on Amazon and spent a night watching Season Two. Man, Downton packs a lot of punch in their short seasons. While in the US a normal tv season is 22-24 episodes, in England a normal season is 8 to 10 eps. Cable television has been prepping us because they have adapted the short season schedule but at least they break it up so we get 2 seasons in one year. By the time I start to miss a show, it's back. I love cable!

I totally planned on watching season 3 live but my friend sent me the third season and I was weak. I watched them all in 2 days, along with the Christmas special. Did I mention how weak I was? Because I devoured the eps, I haven't been blogging about them since I know what happened during the season but this ep I have to talk about.

I'm a total spoiler slut so even before I watched this ep I knew what was going to happen but even knowing doesn't prepare for the actuality of it. It might even make it more poignant knowing what is going to happen.

Lady Sybil has always been the heart and soul of her family and Downton Abbey. There are some people who are just so good that you don't trust them, people just aren't that good. Then there are people like Lady Sybil, who are so inherently good and kind that it makes people like Thomas cry when she dies. She touched everyone's life with her kindness.

When Sybil passed I had the sore throat kind of crying going on. Not just a tear or two but the pain of holding it in type of tears. To watch her family react and beg her to breath, beg her to live, beg her to not leave them, beg the doctor to do something. It was heart breaking. I was so moved I had to watch it again afterwards. I know, a little masochistic of me, but the scene was so emotional and moving, and the acting was so awesome that I had to put myself thru it again. Just talking about it makes me want to watch the episode again.

Have you recovered from Sunday's episode yet? What did you think?

BTW, I read somewhere it was a surprise that the cast won the SAG award for best ensemble, as soon as heard the nominees I knew Downton would win. Their shock at winning was fun. Yes, that's the housekeeper who is accepting the award! Who knew she was so beautiful?

The Following

The Following replaced the lead agent from the pilot with a new one, Annie Parisse, most people know her from Law and Order, I remember her from As The World Turns (I miss that show!). It's a good thing they did because a week later and I don't even remember the other chick, Annie will definitely be a welcome addition.

The main antagonist of this series is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe. When I was younger I would read everything I could get my hands on, including EAP. I can't believe I used to read him considering what a scaredy cat I am (and yet I watch shows like this). It's interesting to be revisiting Poe thru this series. I'd forgotten how much of his stuff I've read and I'm surprised by how much it's stuck with me. That's some wonderful intense writing. I'm tempted to read him again but I think I'll just stick to wikipedia'ing the stories.

The scene that made me jump out of my skin was when he was in the room with the Poe masks. I thought it was creepy before that guy jumped out at him. Holy he*#! I did not see that coming. I did see the chick killing her mom, you so knew that was going to happen.

My question is, are these the worst security guys ever? First last week a house full of cops and the woman is kidnapped and killed and guess what, this week, a house full of cops and feds and what happens? They only send one guy up to check the perimeter and he's taken out. What's his face's cult would be less successful if the cops weren't so inept. I think they need to smarten up the cops, or it will become a farce.

What did you think of that last scene? Some people think she's working with him, I think it's more like she's trying to get into his mind. Your thoughts?

Review: Silver Linings Playbook

I thought it would take more effort to make Bradley Cooper not look like one of People's Sexiest Men alive, turns out all it took was baggy sweats, a close cropped hair cut and a garbage bag. Actually, it took a lot of great acting on Bradley's part.

We watched Silver Linings Playbook this weekend. Kim didn't know if I would like it or now. I asked her why, she just said, it wasn't really my type of movie. Maybe because I like romcoms and this isn't? I don't know. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Sure the characters a cuckoo for cocoa puffs but who isn't? I can't stand characters who aren't likable and leave you nothing to root for, that's not the case here.

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are two very seriously flawed characters but they are also two people with so much baggage BC should would need a few more garbage bags to hold it all.

It's hard to see JL as a trampy adult when I just watched her as a teen in Hunger Games but she's great in this role. They both deserve all of the accolades that they're receiving. Another treat in this movie is Robert DeNiro. Even in comedies he usually plays a tough guy and here he's a father trying to figure out how to deal with his bi-polar son who doesn't want to take his meds. As much as this story is about BC and JL it's also about how a family lives with a son who has mental issues. BTW, how much does Jackie Weaver, the mom, remind you of Sally Struthers? I thought that was her at first. Weird to see Chris Tucker in a non Rush Hour movie. Loved him too. OK it was just an awesome cast overall, LOL.

This movie was written and directed by David O Russell who's son is also bi-polar. His son has a cameo in the movie as the neighbor kid who keeps trying to interview the crazy next door for school.

I have to say, this movie had one of the best dance sequences over. It was so awesome! I went from full out laughter to giggling to laugher again. Just to see that scene it was worth watching the movie.

Lina loved this movie so much that she wanted to see it again in the theaters. I wouldn't say I loved it that much but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Have you seen it? What did you think? What was your favorite moment?

I've seen the light! (UPDATED)

I have always loved candles. My friends would buy me candles and cool candle holders for birthdays and such but while I had them sitting around the house, I never burnt them. They were a special occasion item. 

That is until I was in Vegas hanging out with my friend Rosie. She would come home from work and light candles every night. What an epiphany! Candles are meant to be enjoyed. Not to only sit around looking pretty. Now I would say I burn candles about 4 or 5 nights a week. Mostly in my room but sometimes in the kitchen when it needs freshening up. 

My favorite cheap candles are the Glade Angel Whispers ones, only a couple of bucks, they smell great, not too strong and a very clean smell. My favorite not as cheap ones are the Tommy Bahama candles. They have an exotic scent but aren't too overwhelming and they burn forever! 

I thought I would share this trick with you that I learned from my friend Bailey. The real reason of this post. You know I love to share what little knowledge I have. I was over at her house place recently and she had a jarred candle that had burned so low the wick was out but there was still plenty of candle left so she had it sitting on a stand with a tea light under it. Brilliant! For years I've been throwing out candles once the wick was out. What a waste!

I have this oil diffuser that my brother gave me, that I never used since I prefer to burn candles over scented oils. I broke the candle in pieces and threw about one fourth of it onto the top of the holder. I literally have been burning this fourth of a bottom of a candle for weeks! Since the flame is not directly on it, it burns slower yet I'm still getting the wonderful scent in my room. The only bad thing is now I have to go stock up on tea lights. You know the cheapo in me is excited to get more mileage out of my candles. 

I know it's all very Scentsy like but now you don't have to go thru them. You can  do this with your favorite candles. Just make sure you have a great stand for it, I don't want any fires started because of this.

I've heard from Bailey and she used a Scentsy base for her candles. You definitely need to use something with ventilation otherwise the candle will go out. She also suggests taking the wick out so it burns prettier. 

TV Week in Review

I'm way behind on my tv blogging so am going to do one mega post on the past week's tv shows, if I miss something you watch that you want to talk about, please feel free to post about it.

Let's start off with American Horror Story: Asylum. Last night was the season finale. I remember how ticked I was at the end of season one. I was going to boycott season two. I hated that the entire family died. People argued with me that they got their happy ending, to me, that wasn't a happy ending. Ryan Murphy was a smart man, he opened the season with my boyfriend Adam Levine, how could I not watch?

We found out who cut off Adam's arm on the finale. Was there any doubt? That was the most suspenseful moment of the night. We knew what was going to happen. The tension and knowing really made that scene.

This Snatch is Off Limits

My favorite line from last night's Justified. I have to admit, I thought last week's season premiere was a little slow but this episode really got into the groove of things.

I loved having Art go out on a job with Raylan and Tim. Turns out the marshal's office has mandatory retirement at 57 and Art just turned 56, people are starting to show up sniffing about his job. One of my favorite dynamics is Raylan and Art, throw Tim into the mix and it gives me a marshal stiffy. The more these three interact the better. I've read that we're going to see more of Tim this year which we've all been clamoring for. This is how Art describes him, a former Army sniper, with probable PTSD, looking for the next chance to shoot someone who's probably an alcoholic. He left out how cute he is. He also loves to bust Raylan's balls.

I loved the Truth family! I'm sad to hear that they won't be in another episode this season, hopefully we'll see more of them next season. A bunch of rednecks who are willing to shoot pervies (government men) over their father's disability check. They're ok with dying, they're surprised they lived this long. There's a dead guinea pig lying around their living room, to help paint the pic of who they are.

Boyd stopping by the Last Chance Holiness Church tent was pure gold. After all, he tried and failed at trying to find religion but he's great at preaching. Looking forward to seeing more of this story play out.

If you aren't watching this show you are missing out! If you are watching, what was your favorite part of last night?

Fun Foto Friday - Mr. T

A few years ago, some of the gals and I were in New York for a quickie trip. We had actually been on a different trip with more girls and decided since we were so close to NYC, to go there for 4 days since Nancy and I had never been. 4 days is not enough time in the city, we barely scratched the surface but we had a lot of fun while we were there.

On our last day there we were at Carnegie Deli, a place Su suggested (we had the best borscht ever there but the borscht at the Vegas one sucks) and on our way out I was paying the bill when the girls started whispering. I asked them what was up and they said, "that's Mr. T." They were already walking out the door when they told me and I asked, "Do you want a picture with him?" At the time, I lived in Los Angeles and I can tell when someone doesn't mind being asked and when they do. I don't normally ask for a pic when they are on their own time but Mr T walked in totally boisterous and seemed approachable.

They of course said yes so I walked over and told him we were visiting from out of town and literally heading to the airport and would he mind if we took a picture of him. He bellowed out that he would love to. He had a hat on at the time and he took it off so his mohawk would show. Some guy walked in front of the camera the first time we took our pic and he yelled at them (nicely). We asked him where his bling was, he said at home, you don't wear it walking the streets of New York if you know what's good for you.

Overall it was a wonderful experience and a great way to end our trip.

He also took a pic with Su and Barb but I don't have it scanned.

Big Bang Funny

The Big Bang Theory hit a new ratings high last night and scenes like this are the reason why. I was literally laughing out loud watching this. To set the scene, the boys were on their way to a mini-comicon when they decided to make a stop and take some photos in an area where a lot of Star Trek scenes were filmed. They were not in costume in the car which makes this scene even funnier.

New Walking Dead Poster

This looks awesome! Can't wait!

Is it October?

It certainly feels like it with all of the new and returning shows. Whereas mid-season replacements used to be where shows were thrown to see if they stick, there seems to be a real effort to have quality shows all year long, which I appreciate.

I think a lot of that is due to cable television. There are a lot of great shows on cable and they usually go with a shortened season broken up into two parts and it's working. As soon as a show I love goes on hiatus another comes on and then my other show is back before I've really missed it.

The hard part is figuring out what of the new shows I'm going to watch and to remember when my faves are on. There's no such thing as a regular viewing schedule anymore, if it wasn't for FB I'd forget what was on what day. One of the problems of not having a show I watch for 9 months a year.

Les Miserable: My review

This past weekend I finally made it to see Les Mis, I know, I had to wait 5 whole days! It was torture. When the movie was originally announced I figured I would be going by myself. No one locally shares my love of Les Mis, try as I might but Nancy and Kim wanted to watch it also so that made it more of a fun outing. 

The showing we planned on watching was 70% sold out and the seating was bad so we went with a later show and stood in line with others, gabbing, eating popcorn and drinking root beer. All a part of the experience.