The Wednesday Night TV Marathon
Thursday, February 24th, 2005Okay… despite the fact that AtS isn’t on the air anymore, Wednesday is still my favorite TV night. My routine is to watch Lost, flip over to West Wing, rewind the tape and watch Smallville and Jack and Bobby (which I record because once the VCR is going I might as well keep going, but I honestly don’t care about this show half as much as the much better West Wing). I know a lot of people love Alias but I can never seem to get into it.
West Wing… I’m beginning to suspect that this season is better than the first season. The way they’re mixing in the campaign episodes with the White House episodes is fantastic and amazingly good performances from guest actors (i.e. Kristin Chenowith, Mary Louis-Parker, Lily Tomlin, Mark Feuerstein) in recurring characters really bring out the best in the credited cast. This is what an enseble show should feel like.
Smallville… what can I say? I love arc-iness. So who’s got their hands on Clark’s stones this week? Jason, Lex, Possessed!Lana and off-screen characters all seem to be trying to grab at Clark’s stones. The episode kinda lived up to the promise of the previews – there were many beautifully shot scenes. Sure, it was a massive rip-off of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the fight sequence could have been done better. Nice (and a little sad) to see how they wrapped up the Dr. Swann storyline. My only complaint, no shirtless Clark this week (although we did get some shirtless Jason with the S/M themes, so it’s kind of okay).
Jack & Bobby… Thank god Bobby is starting to grow as a character in his own right and not just a reflection of his older brother. I’m also glad that they aren’t portraying him just as the “golden boy” – the scenes from the future (flashforwards?) don’t paint him as an unrealistic hero, either, but as a man making mistakes and not universally loved. Having sat in on one or two sexual harrassment/ethics counsel meetings, I thought they handled the subject rather well. I’ll say this for J&B – they aren’t shying away from tough subjects. I just wish I didn’t have to endure so much teen soap opera to see it.
The GLBT Center held a brown bag lunch this afternoon that only board and staff showed up to. We had a fantastic discussion about the community goals and ways to start dealing with one of Utah’s biggest problems – internalized homophobia. We have higher rates of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, depression and other self-destructive behaviors among GLBT people than most other states. As part of our discussion, we need to draft up an “it’s okay to be gay” marketting plan to reach our own community wherever they might be. It was a fascinating discussion, really, about philosophies, grass-roots organizing, and more. I’m really excited to be among this group of people on the board and staff. It reminds me of those heady days when I first got involved in activism.
Anyway, lot’s of work to do and I’m not getting it done on LJ.
ETA: Oh, and right before going to bed last night, I found a creepy white spider crawling across my pillow. Screw karma – my agreement with the universe is that spiders who stay out of my personal space are fine, but if they touch my bed, my shower or come within 15 feet of me – they must DIE. I killed the hell out of it. Seriously, I don’t know if we’ll ever get all the spider guts out of the carpet.
