Aelfgyfu

Hoo boy! Summer has given me more time for tv, including a new obsession (for which I totally blame LJ friends, and I would blame you by name if I remembered properly). I hope you will read the parts for any shows you watch, and discuss, even if you haven't seen some of these eps in a while! Just skip the ones that don't interest you. Don't let the size of the post deter you. Talk to me about tv! That's kind of why I'm here on LJ!

I miss Chuck; we're waiting for last season on DVD!

In no particular order, with spoilers through the episodes indicated:

( Greatest American Hero into early s2 )



( The Sarah Jane Adventures, through 2.8, but with general comments and not reviews of each episode )

Can anyone tell me how much SJA has shown in the UK? I'm so far out of it I don't know if they've completed s3, or started s4, or anything.



( Psych through this week's 'Not Even Close . . . Encounters' )



( Doctor Who, the whole first season of Matt Smith )



And now the moment you've all been waiting for! (What? You weren't? Huh.) Y'all have hooked me on White Collar. I know it was more than one of you, but I don't entirely remember whom to blame. Please, take responsibility in the comments (and let me talk about the show with you!).

The one person I know I can credit is stasha2g; I liked some of her recs in other fandoms so much that I actually read White Collar fic before I saw the show, which sounds kind of crazy, but the last straw was her rec for "I Lie, I Cheat, I Steal (and I Just Don't Get Any Respect)" by fiercelydreamed. I read that story for Leverage though it's a crossover with WC and made Brilliant Husband read it, even though that's not exactly the way I see Leverage. Then I had to watch the show because the story made me helpless with laughter, and I wanted to get more of Peter, Neal, and Elizabeth. If you want another gem, by the way, read "Four Cups of Tea (and a waffle iron)" by LithiumDoll.
( White Collar: we've seen 1.1–1.3 and 2.1–2.2 )

Small Child remains enamored of Greatest American Hero. I've been discussing with a few of you in a few places (but primarily the comments to my recent books post) the problem of a perverse SC who takes recommendations from her parents as poison. Some of you may remember how much she loved The Sarah Jane Adventures. She cried real tears that we didn't get s2 over here (ever, so far as I know), so her devoted parents got her the boxed set of s2 for Christmas this past Christmas. The one over six months ago. We have seen one two-part story of SJA now, because since we showed too much eagerness to see it, she's no longer interested. We have threatened to watch without her, though it seems unfair since it's her set.

I think the fact that we never urged but merely allowed her to watch GAH has provoked her into a fan-like love for the show. She has already rewatched two or three episodes that we all saw together. I didn't dare tell her about the SyFy channel marathon today for fear she'd demand to watch all 22 episodes. She wanted to see another episode. We suggested SJA. We finally, grudgingly allowed that we'd watch an ep of GAH as long as we all watch SJA tomorrow (which we all have off because Independence Day fell on a Sunday this year). I think she felt quite victorious about the negotiations. It's a good negotiation: everybody wins! (We win twice, but who's counting?)

Thus we've seen three more episodes since my last post on the show. I still love this show. Part of me is [age redacted] again when I watch, but part of me appreciates the less obvious humor more. Spoilers in my posts for individual episodes.

( Fire Man )

( The Best Desk Scenario )

( Operation: Spoilsport )

I enjoyed all three, and I certainly hope to see more Pam in the next episode than in "Operation: Spoilsport"!

SciFi—excuse me, I guess that's SyFy—is having a Greatest American Hero marathon tomorrow! They seem to be skipping the two-hour premiere and going straight on to "The Hit Car," then showing them mostly in order for half the series (22 of the 43 episodes). They're skipping "Reseda Rose"; I wonder why? Catch up on the show with me and read my reviews of the first six episodes! Agree with me, argue with me—just don't spoil me for what comes later. We're still plodding along on Netflix and haven't even started s2 yet. I have memories of a couple of specific episodes and scattered scenes, but I've forgotten an awful lot.

. . . or, if you prefer, watch or rewatch more of the episodes on Hulu.

I loved this show when it first aired, 1981–83. Strangely, though, I gave it only occasional thoughts until they announced the death of Robert Culp in March. I could not believe Culp had died; for me, he'd stayed Bill Maxwell, in his 50s, since I last saw the show in 1983, though I'd seen the occasional picture of him later.

And that's the beauty of it: Bill Maxwell is forever. I was a little afraid to watch again; watching other childhood favorites like Lost in Space and the original Battlestar Galactica ruined those shows for me. I pretty sure I'm laughing at different bits now on GAH, but I'm still laughing! I still love all three of the main characters. We seem finally to have found a show that we can all enjoy together, and which has lots of episodes.

(Isn't "GAH" the most appropriate abbreviation for a show ever? I think at least two of the characters make sounds like that on a regular basis!)

So I hope some of you will follow me down memory lane, or avail yourselves of the fact that nearly all the episodes are on Hulu, and share some fond memories that I've recently renewed by starting the series once again! In order, with spoilers for each:

( The pilot, apparently clever titled 'Greatest American Hero'; it's not available on Hulu (sorry) )

It's not about the plot. It's about the people. And I love these people.

"The Hit Car" is the first episode available on Hulu and Netflix Instant Queue. If you can't get the pilot, just start here. You don't really need that much background. (If you do, ask in comments! I'll be happy to tell you everything you need to know!) ( The Hit Car )

"The Hit Car" has to be my favorite episode so far in rewatch.

( Here's Looking at You, Kid )

( Saturday Night on Sunset Boulevard )

( Reseda Rose )

( My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys )

I love how excited Bill gets when they're going to catch the bad guys; he never really did grow up. He's still a little kid at heart playing cops and robbers, but with live ammo. I love how Ralph sometimes gets excited and happy—and sometimes, it's just because he's amused at seeing Bill so excited! Poor Pam gets left out of that a little, but when it comes to insults, she gives as good as she ever gets!

Brilliant Husband just called me in to see an ad that ran during his show; conveniently, it's on YouTube:
(30 second promo for Psych and White Collar)



OMG! Now I want Psych back! Gus, you are my man! Plus now I want to see White Collar!

When can I fit in White Collar, though?
1. We just heard that Chuck has been renewed; we're still on s2. Must finish s2, then mainline the DVDs of s3 (if available) before s4 starts in the fall.
2. I returned to the fold and resumed watching SGU (thoughts on that later—remind me, 'k?).
3. We're (re)watching Greatest American Hero (I saw it all, I think; BH saw much of it, but it's been years, and dang but it's still funny).
4. Soon Psych will return, and
5. I'll probably go back to Warehouse 13.
6. Oh, and there's Glee (known in our house as The Kurt and Mercedes Show; who's with me on this?)
7. Of course, we still have Big Bang Theory.
8. We're watching Leverage even more slowly than rewatching GAH; I think we're averaging one episode of Leverage every six weeks or so.
9. We haven't yet seen s3 of Slings and Arrows.
10. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but those may be the shows people have urged me to start (West Wing, Man from UNCLE, I Spy) that we haven't actually started. (We watched one episode of I Spy, but I have to finish the rewatch of GAH before I do more of that, or I'm going to have some serious cognitive dissonance. I had enough difficulty with that one episode as it was. Not enough to stop me from watching more at some point, however.)

When did I last have this many shows at once? What the heck am I doing with a job? Clearly, I need to stop and just start watching shows full time! Ah—but then it might get hard to pay for cable and Netflix. Catch-22.

Back to the salt mines. (I get paid to read Old English. I don't complain too much about that!)

Just watch the little promo above.

Most of my posts since mid-January have been brief birthday wishes. Obviously, I am pressed for time and brain cells.

Today, dear friends, I have put aside some time for your amusement (I hope). I have continued through SG-1 and must post some s6 reactions just as soon as I remember what those episodes were and how I reacted, but that will be a whole post in itself.

I have tried a few new shows, and I have scattershot comments. I'll put spoilers for each behind cuts. Please don't spoil me either! Thanks!

Leverage
We've only seen three episodes of Leverage. Mostly, I like it--which surprises me, because I am generally turned off by revenge, and Leverage is the ultimate revenge fantasy. Some of my friends seem really to enjoy it, and I couldn't resist aurora_novarum's Leverage/SG-1 crossover "Wargames Didn't Play Out Like This" even though I'd never seen Leverage. We gave it a try when it came up on Netflix in "View Instantly!"
So tell me, friends who enjoy it: is it really crackfic every week? Because all three episodes so far have been pretty crack-ridden! I don't just have to suspend disbelief; I have to lock it in a box and shoot it into orbit!
I do enjoy the characters, even as I think, "This could never possibly work." I like Hardison: he just struck me from the start as the one of these people I could actually enjoy spending time with. Parker is great fun to watch. Eliot gives me trouble--he's a killer, and I like my heroes not to kill the bad guys, even if they deserve it. I like that Sophie and Parker get scenes together and they never seem to be talking about guys! My gosh! Male creators and writers can write women like this?
The show is clever, even if it's completely farbot. I don't feel compelled to watch it, though; I don't say at the end, "Let's watch another!" as I do with the next show.
No spoilers here; I haven't seen enough!

The John Casey Show (aka Chuck)
Chuck was another show I watched because friends enjoyed it so much. Brilliant Husband watched some and gave up. I thought he'd watched several episodes. Only when I finally decided I had to try it did I find that he got no further than the crotch scene with Chuck and Morgan in the premiere; he saw that and thought, "I don't need to see any more of this!" He got past it on his second try (and I on my first).
I really like Chuck. He's smart, he's cute, he's sweet. He deserves a much better life than he gets. I kind of like Sarah, although I have some misgivings (under the cut). But why do I keep watching?
Adam Baldwin plays John Casey. Adam Baldwin: Col. Dave Dixon on SG-1, Jayne on Firefly, the guy you've seen lots of places but who never plays the lead. He may not be the lead, but he owns this show.
We're well into the second season now, and I'm still loving it! I do get to the end of an episode and say, "I want another!" (but we never do, because it's always bedtime; we do, however, sometimes cheat and watch the opening scenes of the next episode, because there aren't any previews on the disks). I love Ellie and Awesome. I even kind of like Morgan. (Jeff I could do without, seriously.)
( Spoilers under the cut up to 2.11, 'Chuck Versus Santa Claus' )
Oh, and I think I've won over redbyrd_sgfic to The John Casey Show, too. Just passing on what other friends did to for me!

I Spy
I was stunned by Robert Culp's death. I loved Greatest American Hero back when it ran, but I I hadn't looked for it again until he died. I couldn't believe he'd grown older! He was still Bill Maxwell to me, though that was a quarter century ago. Now I do want to see it again, but our TiVo couldn't find it, so we recorded an episode of I Spy instead.
I had never seen I Spy. I don't know why. I kind of always knew it existed, but when we turned on the one episode we got from Rerun Retro TV, I discovered I didn't even have the premise quite right! I knew it was about a tennis pro and his trainer posing as spies, but I thought Bill Cosby was the lead and played the tennis player, and Robert Culp was the sidekick. Okay, that was backwards.
When we watched the opening credits for the episode "It's All Done with Mirrors," Bill Cosby's name is there, but all the scenes showed Robert Culp! I did figure out Cosby wasn't the lead. The episode was surely quite atypical (details after the cut), but I do have remarks that shouldn't be spoilers.
First: those men go around with no shirts on an awful lot! I think at least half the episode must have had one of them shirtless! (I could also not help but notice they were never both shirtless at the same time, but then again, the episode was atypical.)
Related to that: I found myself repeatedly thinking, "Wow, I never knew Bill Cosby looked--" before my brain started screaming, "NOOOO; that's Cliff Huxtable you're talking about!" My first exposure to Cosby was Fat Albert. As I recall, Cosby showed up himself in non-cartoon scenes to dispense fatherly advice every episode. Cosby has always been a father figure to me: Fat Albert dates to 1972, folks, so it was around before I can even remember. He looks good in a three-piece suit, too--NOOOO! Brain says NOOOO!
It's slightly less disturbing to see Robert Culp looking really good, because a) I always knew he'd been a leading man (even if I hadn't seen it) and b) he never came off as a father figure to me. Slightly loony uncle, absolutely, but he was my favorite on GAH (more below). My reaction to him outside shirtless was a little more, "Put on some sunscreen, man! You'll burn!"
I found parts very funny, although some unintentionally so.
( This episode )
Conclusion: must watch more episodes to see if other episodes are even funnier (these guys are both hilarious!) and to see if they usually go around shirtless. (I think my LJ friends are corrupting me; I never used to say things like that before I got on LJ myself. Thanks, gang!)

Musings: Chuck as Greatest American Hero for the aughts?
Think about it: in the eighties, we had a show with a fairly normal but really, really sweet guy in a frustrating job who suddenly gained unexpected powers. He had a devoted girlfriend and a crusty FBI handler (who really cares for him). No-longer normal guy keeps his day job, tries to keep his new job secret. I love crusty handler best.
For the aughts, we have a more powerful woman and a far more aggressive agent, but we still have a really, really sweet guy in a frustrating job who suddenly gained unexpected powers. He has a devoted CIA handler pretending to be his girlfriend who really has feelings for him, and a really hard-core NSA handler (who denies really caring for him but I don't entirely believe him). No-longer normal guy keeps his day job, tries to keep his new job secret. I love slightly psycho handler best.

What do you think?