Television: Halt and Catch Fire

I wanted to like this. I really did. AMC's advertising tried to tie it emotionally to Mad Men, and I think that was a mistake. Because Mad Men has the alien vibe of being truly in the past. People think and do things that seem inconceivable or unforgivable ("Do you belong to someone else?") but we're convinced. And we even like those people. Eventually.

Sure, I've only seen two episodes of Halt and Catch Fire. But it doesn't have that feel of a foreign country, of alien beings built from the inside out. There's a self-conscious awareness of the contrast between the past and the present. The outrageous statements seem to know they're outrageous. The predictions of the future are far too accurate. The pretty characters choose clothes that we could wear today, while the unpretty ones look as if they dressed out of their own parents' closets.

I wondered if I was being unfair, demanding too much. But Mad Men isn't the only recent-past period drama that works. The original British Life on Mars, for example,  was entirely convincing, despite having a character who knows all about our present right in the middle of it.

Maybe it'll get better.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Television: Thanksgiving Episodes

I love television. I read books and I watch movies, but I also watch a lot of television. Days off, like Thanksgiving weekend, are an opportunity to keep the TV on through all my waking hours. I'm not so much watching it all that time, but it's still on.

So right now, Himself and I are lounging, puttering with our computers, and watching some of our favorite Thanksgiving-themed TV.

Buffy: It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham.

Willow: You're not gonna jokey-rhyme your way out of this.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Pangs"

We already watched Pangs, an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, yesterday while getting the living room in shape. This is what I call a "payoff episode", an episode of a TV series where the ongoing character and plot threads come together and we get to see the things we always wanted to see, or things that we would have wanted if we'd ever thought of them.

For example, we get extra Spike. First watching wistfully-lit scenes of murder and torture, and mourning the fact that he can't join in. Then interacting with the Scooby gang to a previously unprecedented degree, because for once that interaction can't be cut off with a fight. ("...Spike had a little trip to the vet, and now he doesn't chase the other puppies any more.")

And there's a lot of Anya--I love Anya, and this is one of her best episodes. She's changing roles, from vengeance demon to Xander's girlfriend and member of the Scooby gang, but her demon past still influences her view of the world. ("To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie.") There's Angel running around on the fringes, and Buffy's desperate determination to have a perfect Thanksgiving. And that's before we've actually touched the core plot, the ancient spirit determined to avenge past wrongs, and the gang's conflict over the right or wrong of killing him.

Next were the two Mad About You Thanksgiving episodes, Riding Backwards and Giblets for Murray. Riding Backwards is set entirely in the train, as Paul and Jaime (the young married main characters) ride to and from New Haven to spend Thanksgiving with her parents. There's squabbling and fake engagements and a FedExed Jell-O mold from his mother. ("What an insult!" "It was a gesture.") Giblets for Murray is the next step--they're hosting Thanksgiving for both families, and battling for control. The same mother that mailed the Jell-O mold last time, this time brings her potato casserole and, upon being told that Jaime already made potatoes, declares "so she'll freeze hers."

C.J.: They sent me two turkeys. The more photo-friendly of the two gets a Presidential pardon and a full life at a children's zoo. The runner-up gets eaten.

President Bartlet: If the Oscars were like that, I'd watch.

The West Wing, "Shibboleth"

President Josiah Bartlet: If I cook it inside the turkey, is there a chance I could kill my guests? I'm not saying that's necessarily a deal-breaker.

The West Wing, "The Indians in the Lobby"

Next? West Wing. Shibboleth includes Christian refugees from China, prayer in the schools, and turkeys in need of a pardon. The Indians in the Lobby includes two Native Americans looking for some justice, and a call from the President of the United States to the Butterball Hotline.

Then we ran out of Thanksgiving television and watched Buffy in Beer Bad. It's not unusual for our television watching to begin and end with Buffy.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Rambling: Lazy Sundays and Zombies

Damn it, Valentine, you never plan ahead, you never take the long view, I mean here it is Monday and I'm already thinking of Wednesday.
It is Monday, right?
Earl Basset, Tremors

I slacked off on the decluttering today. And I didn't bake any squash or do any laundry or any cleaning or gardening. And I'm only 250 words into NaNoWriMo for the day, at ten o'clock at night.

I have a zillion things that I want to do. NaNoWriMo. Decluttering. Planting a whole lot of garlic and potato onions and tulips and daffodils and a small number of medium expensive lily bulbs. Cleaning up the portion of the Farm that some cat has recently claimed as its litter box and putting bird netting over it to prevent recurrences. Reading another 23 books to make the 100+. Buying Christmas presents.

I'm not so much doing them. Well, writing this counts as NaNoWriMo, but mostly I'm just sitting here staring blankly at The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead isn't a happy show. You might have guessed that from the title. Most of humanity is dead and most of the rest wants to eat you. Whee!

And I'm enjoying it. A while ago, while reading Flood by Stephen Baxter, Himself commented on the way that certain works of fiction can make you feel better about real life, because real life at least isn't as bad as that. The same apparently goes for The Walking Dead. Also, as zombie disasters go, it's a lot more fun than 28 Days Later. The cast of characters that survives for more than twenty minutes is a good deal larger, and there's a little bit of soap-opera-style bedhopping.  When people have to kill their friends because said friends have been infected by zombies, they get a little more time to think about it. What more could you want?

But it's not nearly as much fun as Night of the Comet, one of my favorite movies. A friend once asked for clarification on that point, I suspect hoping for reassurance that I meant one of my favorite junk movies or eighties teen movies or some other category that would make my disastrous taste lapse smaller. Nope. One of my favorites, without disclaimers.

Have you ever seen it? Two teenage girls survive a comet shower that turns most of the rest of the world into zombies. Then they go shopping. "Daddy would've gotten us Uzis" is one of the classic lines. How could you not love that? Or this photo?

All righty, I'm off to watch more zombies.

Image: By Marteen64. Wikimedia Commons.