This Is Not The Sci-Fi You Are Looking For

My father and I were discussing Star Trek. As you do. 

Me: So you have The Original Series, right?
Dad: Right...
Me: And then you have The Next Generation.
Dad: ...
Me: The one with Patrick Stewart?
Dad: Right.
Me: And then you have Deep Space Nine, and then comes Voyager, and THEN you have Enterprise, which is set before TOS, so it's a prequel to all the other shows.
Dad: Then where does that other show fit in?
Me: Which other show?
Dad: You know, that show you used to watch?
Me: (thinking) What Sci-Fi show did I watch that my father knows I watched? He can't mean... (aloud) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA?!
Dad: Oh yeah, that one! Where does that fit in?
Me: They have nothing to do with one another! The two are set in completely different universes!
Dad: But they both have to do with galaxies or something...
Me: ... You are aware Star Trek and Star Wars are completely different too, right?
Dad: Oh, that I know.

I am convinced he thinks that all Sci-Fi that lacks lightsabers is automatically Star Trek.

Ten Reasons To Watch Chuck

1. It's a show about a nerd who gets top-secret, super-classified government intel stuck in his head... and now he fights crime!
2. Zachary Levi, who plays said nerd Chuck, is adorable and remarkably attractive in a rumpled sort of way. 
3. His handlers, CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin) are just badass. 
4. The rest of the cast is just awesome, which one rather expects when you have a character nicknamed Captain Awesome.
5. The guest stars! Matthew Bomer, Tricia Helfer, Scott Bakula, Chevy Chase, John Larroquette... It's an ongoing parade of awesome.
6. The UST between Chuck and Sarah. Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski have amazing chemistry and when Chuck and Sarah finally get together, it's going to be epic in the best Veronica Mars sense, "Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. Epic." (To put it in perspective, Booth and Brennan wish they had this much UST.)
7. It's co-created by the guy who brought us The O.C....which, admit it, you loved.
8. The really cute opening credits are set to an instrumental version of a Cake song. Cake! Who doesn't love them? 
9. The Buy More, where Chuck works, is basically Best Buy dressed up for TV. And so if you believe what you see on TV, most of the folks at Best Buy are apathetic at best, extortionists at worst. Hah!
10. Best use of Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto ever!

My Not-So-Secret Shame

Now Playing: Auletta - Meine Stadt

Here it is, the year-end TV meme of shame, ganked from Indiequill. The rules are simple:

1. Bold all of the following TV shows which you've ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
   
2. Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode of it.
   
3. Highlight new additions with an Underline.
   

Now, I honestly don't know where I found time to watch all these shows. I suppose a future version of me could have come back to the past with time-dilation technology which she lent me to do good works with, I wasted it on TV, she threw her hands up in despair and left, but not before erasing my memories of her and said technology - but the more likely explanation is that I'm epically kamchor. Also, there are some shows on this list that I know I must have watched, but for the life of me I can't recall a single episode. What happened on The Nanny besides Fran Drescher being shrill?

• 24
  
• 30 Rock
  
• 90210
  
• 7th Heaven
  
• ALF
  
• Alias
  
• American Gothic
  
• American Idol
  
• America's Got Talent
  
• America's Next Top Model
  
• Angel
  
• Arrested Development
• Ashes to Ashes
  
• Babylon 5
  
• Batman: The Animated Series
  
• Batman Beyond/Batman of the Future
  
• Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
  
• Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
  
• Baywatch
  
• Beverly Hills 90210 (original)
  
• Benidorm
  
• Bewitched
  
• Big Love
• Blackadder
  
• Bonanza
  
• Bones
  
• Bosom Buddies
  
• Boston Legal
  
• Boy Meets World
  
• Breaking Bad
  
• Brothers And Sisters
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  
• Burn Notice
  
• Californication
  
• Castle
  
• Catherine Tate Show
  
• Chappelle's Show
  
• Charlie's Angels
  
• Charmed
  
• Cheers
  
• Chuck
  
• Clarissa Explains it All
  
• Columbo
  
• Commander in Chief
  
• Crossing Jordan
  
• CSI
  
• CSI: Miami
  
• CSI: NY
  
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
  
• Dark Angel
  
• Dark Skies
  
• DaVinci's Inquest
  
• Dawson's Creek
  
• Dead Like Me
  
• Deadwood
  
• Degrassi: The Next Generation
  
• Designing Women
  
• Desperate Housewives
  
• Dexter
  
• Dharma & Greg
  
• Different Strokes
  
• Dirty Sexy Money
  
• Doctor Who
  
• Dollhouse
  
• Dragnet
  
• Due South
  
• ER
  
• Everwood
  
• Everybody Loves Raymond
  
• Extras
  
• Facts of Life
  
• Family Guy
  
• Farscape
  
• Fawlty Towers
  
• Felicity
  
• Firefly
  
• FlashForward
  
• Frasier
  
• Freaks & Geeks
  
• Friday Night Lights
  
• Friends
  
• Fringe
  
• Futurama
  
• Gavin and Stacey
  
• Get Smart
  
• Gilligan's Island
  
• Gilmore Girls
  
• Glee
  
• Gossip Girl
  
• Grey's Anatomy
  
• Grange Hill
  
• Growing Pains
  
• Gunsmoke
  
• Happy Days
  
• Harry Hill's TV Burp
  
• Have I Got News For You
  
• Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
  
• Heroes
  
• Home Improvement
  
• Homicide: Life on the Street
  
• House
  
• How I Met Your Mother
  
• Ideal
  
• I Dream of Jeannie
  
• I Love Lucy
  
• Invader Zim
  
• Invasion
  
• Hell's Kitchen
  
• JAG
  
• Jackass
  
• Joey
  
• Kim Possible
  
• King of Queens
  
• Knight Rider
  
• Knight Rider: 2008
  
• Kung Fu
  
• Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
  
• La Femme Nikita
  
• LA Law
  
• Laverne and Shirley
  
• Law and Order
  
• Law and Order: CI
  
• Law and Order: SVU
  
• Law and Order: UK
  
• Legend of the Seeker
  
• Leverage
  
• Lie To Me
• Life on Mars
  
• Little Britain
  
• Little House on the Prairie
  
• Live At Apollo
  
• Lizzie McGuire
  
• Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
  
• Lost
  
• Lost in Space
  
• MASH
  
• MacGyver
  
• Mad Men
  
• Malcolm in the Middle
  
• Married… With Children
  
• McLeod's Daughters
  
• Melrose Place
  
• Merlin
  
• Miami Vice
  
• Misfits
  
• Mission: Impossible
  
• Mock The Week
  
• Modern Family
  
• Mod Squad
  
• Monk
  
• Mork & Mindy
  
• Mumbai Calling
  
• Murphy Brown
  
• My Life As A Dog
  
• My Three Sons
  
• My Two Dads
  
• Mythbusters
  
• NCIS
  
• Ned Bigby's Declassified School Survival Guide
  
• Nip/Tuck
  
• Numb3rs
  
• One Tree Hill
  
• Oz
  
• Paradox
  
• Peep Show
  
• Perry Mason
  
• Power Rangers
  
• Press Gang
  
• Prison Break
  
• Private Practice
  
• Privileged
  
• Profiler
  
• Project Runway
  
• Psych
  
• Pushing Daisies
  
• QI
  
• Quantum Leap
  
• Queer As Folk (US)
  
• Queer as Folk (UK)
  
• ReGenesis
  
• Remington Steele
  
• Rescue Me
  
• Road Rules
  
• Rome
  
• Roseanne
  
• Roswell
  
• Royal Pains
  
• Sanctuary
  
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
  
• Scrubs
  
• Seaquest DSV
  
• Seinfeld
  
• Sex and the City
  
• Six Feet Under
  
• Slings and Arrows
  
• Smallville
  
• So Weird
  
• South of Nowhere
  
• South Park
  
• So You Think You Can Dance
  
• Spaced
  
• Spongebob Squarepants
  
• St. Elsewhere
  
• Star Trek
  
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
  
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  
• Star Trek: Voyager
  
• Star Trek: Enterprise
  
• Stargate Atlantis
  
• Stargate SG-1
  
• Starsky & Hutch
  
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
  
• Superman
  
• Supernatural
  
• Surface
  
• Survivor
  
• Taxi
  
• Teen Titans
  
• That 70's Show
  
• That's So Raven
  
• The 4400
  
• The Addams Family
  
• The Amazing Race
  
• The Andy Griffith Show
  
• The A-Team
  
• The Avengers
  
• The Beverly Hillbillies
  
• The Big Bang Theory
  
• The Brady Bunch
  
• The Colbert Report
  
• The Cosby Show
  
• The Daily Show
  
• The Dead Zone
  
• The Dick Van Dyke Show
  
• The Flintstones
  
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  
• The F Word
  
• The Golden Girls
  
• The Good Wife
  
• The Honeymooners
  
• The Jeffersons
  
• The Jetsons
  
• The L Word
  
• The Love Boat
  
• The Magnificent Seven
  
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  
• The Mentalist
  
• The Monkees
  
• The Munsters
  
• The Nanny
  
• The O.C.
  
• The Office (UK)
  
• The Office (US)
  
• The Powerpuff Girls
  
• The Pretender
  
• The Real World
  
• The Shield
  
• The Simpsons
  
• The Six Million Dollar Man
  
• The Sopranos
  
• The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
  
• The Twilight Zone
  
• The Vampire Diaries
  
• The Waltons
  
• The West Wing
  
• The Wire
  
• The Wonder Years
  
• The X Factor
  
• The X-Files
  
• Third Watch
  
• Three's Company
  
• Top Chef
  
• Top Gear
  
• Torchwood
  
• True Blood
  
• Twin Peaks
  
• Twitch City
  
• Unfabulous
  
• Ugly Betty
  
• Veronica Mars
  
• Weeds
  
• Who Dare Wins
  
• Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
  
• Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
  
• Will and Grace
  
• Wings
  
• Xena: Warrior Princess
  

I think I may have to renounce the material life and live out the rest of my life in a monastery with no wifi or TV reception.

Murder For Less

Amazon.ca has season 1 of Castle for only $19.99! Granted, that's only ten episodes, but there's all those delicious extras (not to mention delicious Nathan Fillion.) Oh, I wants it...

"I'm on TV! I can do what I want!"

Because Leverage is awesome and y'all should be watching it -

What is it about bad boys?

"The crazy matricidal homicidal serial killer who eats brains is not hot. The evil serial killer is, I repeat, not hot. (pause) Except for the part where he totally is. (sigh)"

Life on Mars

Is Sam Tyler mad, in a coma, or back in time?

We don't know yet, but Life on Mars is still made of awesome.

Supernatural

Two (really hot) brothers fight evil (hotly). And Denny is their Dad.

Green Wing

It's Grey's Anatomy - only funnier, made of crack, and British.

Why the Internet makes you crazy, part 6

Now Playing: Zero 7 - You're My Flame

I *heart* Heroes. There, I said it. Y'know, the night of 4th March, when it turned out there were no more new episodes till the end of April? That funny wail you heard? Yep, that was me.

Although the fates of the various characters are in limbo until April 23rd or thereabouts, they are alive (and kicking, and whining) in cyberspace. That's right, they're blogging. That includes my TV-boyfriend Mohinder Suresh, everyone's favourite overprotective TV father & that old cliche, the politician with a heart of gold.

Totally unofficial, of course, but anything that fuels my delusions of Mohinder surviving the Winchester Treatment is fine by me.

Dean said, Sam said

Why are more people not watching this show?

Merry Christmas!

and because I am on such a Supernatural kick right now -

The Killing Box, or why Prison Break is made of awesome

Now Playing: Corinne Bailey Rae - Like a Star

Why I watch Prison Break -

• It's a conspiracy show. I cut my TV-teeth on The X-files, and so conspiracy shows always make me feel warm and fuzzy. (Unlike sitcoms, which fill me with feelings of dread and paranoia.)

• It keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. (Unlike Lost, which has spent the last two seasons giving us four seasons worth of backstory to go with half-a-season's worth of plot!)

• It has interesting, even compelling characters, who, while not always sympathetic, are fun to watch.
  

The main reason why I watch Prison Break, though, is Wentworth Miller, whose Michael Scofield is the linchpin of the show, and a total woobie to boot. Plus, he looks like this:


Dude's so pretty, they call him that on the show. Seriously. Him and Dominic Purcell (who plays his older brother, Lincoln Burrows) are pretty much the second-hottest TV brothers ever.*

So, you'll understand I thought the show was pretty good before this Monday's fall finale, "The Killing Box" aired - but then they went and just added big heaping portions of awesome, with Kellerman (Paul Adelstein) shooting his fellow Conspiracy stooge Mahone (William Fichtner) and offering his help to Michael and Lincoln in taking down the President, who's at the centre of the Conspiracy. See, Michael's uber-smart, but he's a puppy; Licoln's the proverbial all-brawns-not-all-that-much-brains - but Kellerman is smart, nonchalantly evil, and in the words of TwoP's Sobell, pretty much a magnificent bastard.

The Scofield-Burrows-Kellerman alliance, should it last longer than five minutes (given that Kellerman just tortured Dr Sara Tancredi, the object of Michael's affections, and that he murdered Lincoln's ex-wife and framed their son for the crime) promises to be a thing of absolute badassness. Too bad we'll have to wait until January 22nd to find out.

*The absolute hottest TV-brothers? Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Paladecki & Jensen Ackles, respectively, from Supernatural) -


See?

More Pointless Blabbering for the Masses

Now Playing: Erik Satie - 1st Gnossienne

After the quizfest that was my last post, I think I've got the quiz bug out of my system. On to more pointless blabbering for the masses!

In the aftermath of the beef-in-black-bean-sauce debacle, I decided I had to get back in the culinary game, so I enlisted the help of Thangam Philip's Modern Cookery, Volume 2. Now, this is probably the oldest cookbook we have - it's tattered and falling apart, the instructions are no-nonsense & text-only, but the recipes work! My first attempt was a pork curry - took forever to prepare, but turned out alright. It got me to thinking - Indian Cooking is really dependent on women having nothing better to do. I mean, the pork curry took me around three hours from start to finish - what with frying, blending and simmering - and this is today, when we have electric blenders and ready-ground spices, as opposed to when you had to grind the spices yourself using a heavy grindstone. Anyway, my latest effort, Chicken Rogini is my masterpiece - it's chicken in a creamy yogurt and cashew sauce. Deeelicious!

New TV show with potential: Prison Break. The first hour was a bit annoying - "watch Wentworth Miller and his steely glare!" - but as the second hour progressed, and it turned out that jail is a bit much for even Michael "anticipate-every-contigency" Scofield to handle - well, I'll be watching from now on. It doesn't hurt that Wentworth Miller is really easy on the eyes.

Finally saw Paheli & I loved it (except for the gratuitous CGI). It's photographed beautifully, and Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee are awesome together (plus SRK in a moustache? teehee!). Also saw Dus. The less said about that one, the better. I mean, it has Abhishek Bachchan and Zayed Khan (who can't act, but he's easy on the eyes) but the sheer implausibility of the plot and the emphasis of style over substance ruin a movie that could have been pretty darn awesome.

Sanjay Dutt and Abhishek Bachchan in Dus (Indian anti-terrorism agents never take off their holsters, not even at the office,and yet, the lines of their suits aren't ruined.)

Zayed Khan in Dus (he doesn't take off the shades even when he's defusing a bomb and he emotes like he's stoned, but hey, he's cute!)

That's it for me - ciao, people!

Pluck The Day!

now playing: garbage - boys wanna fight

New TV Obsession: House, M.D. Who knew Hugh Laurie could play an acidic, unpleasant, sarcastic guy and still make the character so damn likeable? I mean, he was Bertie Wooster, for crying out loud! Nevertheless, House is compelling & entertaining drama, fuelled by great writing & brilliant acting. If you don't believe me, ask Mary!

Those of you who watch Lost (hey, Mith!) know the awful, awful fate that befell Boone. Now, Boone is played by Ian Somerhalder who's so good looking, I always referred to his character as "pretty-boy." No, I'm not being mean, the guy is seriously pretty. *grin* So, when Boone met his untimely demise, I shouted, "No! They can't kill pretty-boy!" Imagine my surprise when an article in the Star referred to the character as pretty, pretty Boone. It's not just me! (And if you don't believe me - here's a picture. enjoy.)

(You've gotta admit I'm right about the pretty part, huh? :D)

Anyway. On to (slightly) more substantial things. Summer is nearly upon us, and therefore, for a few brief months, we get to indulge in frappacinos and other uber-refreshing drinks. (Not that I don't try them in winter, I just enjoy them more in the summer :-)) So - here are my two most essential beverages for the summer:

1. Tim Horton's Iced Cappuccino - relatively cheap, and yet more refreshing than its pricier counterparts at Starbucks & Second Cup. Whatever you do, don't try it with chocolate milk - instant addiction will result (& I speak from experience & what a wonderful experience it was, too... where was I? Oh, right. )
   
2. Iced lychee flavoured green tea with tapioca "bubbles" from TeaShop 168 - so refreshing, and the fruit flavour lets you believe it's good for you!
   

If you're one of those few people in Toronto who hasn't tried one of the above - you're missing a real treat. :-D

And now to end with a rant inspired, as is frequently the case, by the TTC . The other day, I'm on the bus & it's stopped in traffic 10 feet from a bus stop. This guy pulls the cord to signal that he wants to get off at the next stop & then shouts to the driver, "Can I get off here please!" (The lack of a question mark is intentional - he didn't ask, he shouted.) The driver doesn't reply. Now, as a rule, they don't let you off before or after an official bus stop, unless you're a woman and it's after seven at night. What does the guy do when he hears no reply? He twangs repeatedly at the signal cord, until the driver, who happens to be a woman, says, "Sir, you're going to have to wait for the next stop." This guy says, out loud, "Guess she must be PMSing or something!"

Okay, general rule of thumb for guys - when a woman is bitchy or doesn't agree with something you say/do - it's not always cause of her hormone levels - it could be just that you're being an ass. There is something so annoying and patronizing about having an action/statement of mine being attributed simply to PMS. Women are not driven solely by hormone levels - don't insult us by insinuating we are.

*ahem* rant over. have a nice day, catch some sun, have an ice-cap - carpe diem, people!