Yay Weather!

I am so loving spring right now. I'm walking around outside without a coat, I'm seeing the sky and sun, and there's no snow! So... win!

In not-so-win news, I'm sick. Fuck. And I did pretty shitty on my last Chemistry test, but it's OK, because I can make up the points on the final. Just need to study instead of watching Skins. Yeah, I was talking to my friend the night before my Chem exam, and she was randomly commenting about Skins. So naturally I downloaded the first episode and stayed up until 4am watching the show. I finished the first series in 2 days, and I only have the finale left to watch. Sure there were some eye-rolling moments, and sure it felt like the adults were written by what 10th graders thing adults are like, but damn, that show's addictive. It's definitely an English Degrassi, but with sex and drugs and nudity. Love it.

30 Rock 2.12
I didn't really love this episode so much. I mean, it was good to see Dennis back, that whole To Catch A Predator thing was just a misunderstanding, but I didn't feel much love. I liked the Tracy Jordan message "Don't Vote!" to Blackmericans, and I did like Bucky Bright's lines, about how being with a man in the old days wasn't gay, and how the writer's room used to be called "the Jew room". I did laugh a lot at that line. I did enjoy the parrot who died 9-1-1 and said fire, because he didn't know the word 'rape'. Hee!

That Nixon bit, as much as I love Alec Baldwain dressing up as an ex-president, fell a little flat to me. I was just sort of... OK... about the whole thing. I tried watching it again, but I still didn't feel love. So, w/e's, there's always next week.

The Office 4.10
I think I'm becoming disillusioned with the American version. I can't help but compare the US and the UK shows, and I'm becoming more and more let down by the US. I know I keep doing it, and I wish I could just let it go. I feel if I could just get past the fact that the US relies more on gimmicks rather than pure awkwardness, I'd really love it. In the past I have! But I find the times I love The Office are when Michael is toned down and is made kind of pathetic. OK, I like it when the US writers make Michael more like David Brent.

Take this week, I couldn't help but think about something Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant said about their show. They said if they wrote a joke, and it sounded too gimmicky, they just scrapped it, even if it was funny. That is something the US writers obviously don't do. The blind date could have been so much more awkward. In fact, the UK show put David Brent on a blind date, and it was ripe with the awk. I felt when the barista called out Michael's name, I believe it was his full name, it just broke the realism. Sure something like that could happen, minus the last name, but in this instance it felt forced and contrived. I know my sister said she was dying of the awkward, and I suppose if I had ignored my misgivings, I would have loved it too.

What I did love was Pam and Jim. I said last week they were too amicable, just friends, except they were dating. This week, we finally got back to the awesomeness of Jim being more interested in Pam than Pam is in Jim. In the UK version, it was Tim's constant desire to Dawn that drove the show and brought it to the end. Obviously the US version didn't head in that direction, and put Pam and Jim together officially. I really missed that tension and that adorable Jim joking-but-secretly-in-love with Pam. For the first time this season, we totally had that, this time with an engagement ring. I did swoon when Jim said, in his talking head "I was not joking... I bought it a week after we starting dating". NOW THAT IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Why didn't we see this sooner! I sincerely hope we have Jim playing down his feelings in that charmingly adorable manner like in the previous 3 seasons. Maybe throw Karen in the mix for some drama, and boom, we're back at square one, but without a Ross/Rachel will they won't they. It's just Jim biding his time, and hoping Pam is starting to feel the same way. I just hope the writers can balance keeping Jim and Pam together while making sure Jim wants something more, without dragging this engagement thing for eternity. I'm not exactly sure when it should pay off, I mean, if he proposes in the final, I feel like we've just relived "Casino Night" and are destined to wash, rinse, repeat until Pam and Jim get engaged. Rational people can see that this is not the way to go. But we're talking about television writers and network executives...

One thing I loved this episode was Andy. Andy had this brilliant moment, emerging from their meeting, parking spaces recouped, and Andy said "I did it", just as Kevin said, "We did it." You know what Andy did right there? He pulled a David Brent. That is something David Brent would totally do. WWDBD, I'm going to popularize that. Hey Office writers, when penning Michael's line, think, "What would David Brent do?" and move from there. Perhaps they are focusing all their Brent-ness on Andy. When Andy said that line, I suddenly saw him in a spin-off. So, let's set clarify some things. I will not watch the Office spin-off, unless

• The spin-off takes place at the Utica branch and we get Karen.
• Andy transfers from Scranton and heads another branch
• Andy transfers to Utica and we get both Utica and Karen. (Win)
• Andy transfers to the sister company, Wernham Hogg, and joins the Slough branch, headed by Gareth. (no Tim and Dawn and David, those character's are happily retired)

How likely do I see the aforementioned scenarios playing out? Well. not very likely, NBC's execs have their head so far up their ass they couldn't see a brilliant opportunity if it, too, was up their asses.

One last thing, maybe I'm overestimating humanity with my opinion on Michael's buffoonery. Last fall, I made the following note about "Dunder Mifflin Infinity" - " [Michael]'s absurd rambling about technology telling him to drive into the lake. Honestly, that's just dumb, like no one would do that." Well, I came across the following article about British drivers relying too much on their GPS systems. In one British village, a local bridge had been closed,

"Despite warning signs on both sides of the road, and nothing but water straight ahead, local villagers have found themselves pulling an average of two cars a day out of the river for the past week"

This isn't something I would expect from Americans, let alone the Brits. So... erm... society, get your shit together.

Battlestar Galactica 4.04
Erm... OK. I don't have very much to say. Starbuck doesn't really know what she's doing and unless she starts figuring things out, fast. Cylons are going to destroy themselves, though the Centurions are on the Six's side, and are present on all the basestars... Things won't end well, not at all.

It was nice to see Roslin holding a grudge against Lee, verbally bitchslapping him when he tried to support her. I knew that whole thing wasn't over with, and I'm glad the writers realized that. Thank. You.

So last week, when I saw the teaser for this episode, I felt that shit was going down. I didn't fully believe that Cally would actually find out about Tyrol, I thought maybe she would have a dream or it would be shrugged off or something lame. Well... No. Cally got her ass chucked out the airlock... by Tory! She seemed to have embraced her inner Cylon, taking it as a new way to live, albeit a slightly more homicidal outlook. I wonder if Tory was instructed to do this by Tigh or was taking matters into her own hand. I feel that this sort of bud-nipping is right up Tigh's alley. He is more of a "violence is the answer" kind of man. Quick thing about Tory, I was checking out wikipedia's page on the episode, and the description says Tory knocked Cally down with "seemingly-superhuman force". I rewatched that scene, and I don't know if it's superhuman force. Sure Tory backslaps Cally, and she does fall a little ways away, but it wasn't a Six-like across the room hit. I feel if the writers wanted to show Tory with incredible strength, they would have made the force a little more apparent, or maybe I'm just dense.

 
Doctor Who 4.03
Here's the thing, this episode itself wasn't bad, but I'm afraid it's setting a rather bleak outlook for the rest of Donna's time. The first episode was nice and light and cute, then last week we had the heavy Pompeii, killing 20,000 people downer with moral ambiguity, and this week... more down. Donna was all, "the universe is a terrible, horrid place, take me home", which isn't how most people would look at adventure and other worlds. Also, slavery is a bit of a heavy story, but it's not like similar things weren't dealt with before. "New Earth" had people used as guinea pigs, and that wasn't so down and depressing. To be fair, Rose had already been around with the Doctor to realize death happens when he's there... I don't know, but Donna's sure got a mind for the moral, not that that's bad. It just doesn't make the adventures quite as fun. I would have liked to see Donna have a moment, like "Oh, saving  the Ood... I understand how wonderful the world can be..." But we really didn't. So it felt heavy, and after last week, I needed a bit of levity. Rabid Ood don't scream hilarity.

Another thing, I love Rose probably more than the next girl, but are we going to get allusions to her returning and to her being trapped all series leading up to her appearance? If so, that's going to get really old. It's actually getting old, now. I know you can't talk about the Ood without talking about "Satan's Pit"/"Impossible Planet", so that would lead to Rose speak, but it doesn't have to be all sad. I mean, seriously, Rose isn't trapped in a hell dimension. She's in London, with Mickey, and her family, and a sibling... She's not exactly lost, though I get  the set up. Worlds are lost, Rose is lost... the worlds are going to Rose's world... Right. This episode wasn't too heavy on the Rose, but I can't imagine these references continuing all series. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be a pattern. If only they could pace it out.

This week's reference was a little different. "I think your song must end soon." Well that sounds a little ominous, doesn't it? Then the Doomsday song plays in the background, which led me to the eventual conclusion that it was a Rose reference. Elyssa had the brilliant connection that the Doomsday song represents the barrier between the Doctor and Rose and that is going to end. I had another, much lamer, but something Davies would do, interpretation, that the Doctor's song is sad and mopey, and  when Rose comes back it will end.

OR: there could be a surprise regeneration coming up. OK, the likelyhood of that happening is really slim, I mean the upcoming series of Doctor Who is basically molded around David's schedule with the Royal Shakespeare Company, so it's not likely he'll be dumped. But how amazing would a surprise regeneration be, I mean, I adore Ten, I really do. And there would be tears and moping, but the utter shock of change would rock my world. But then again, how would I have reacted if Billie's departure was never announced. I probably would have assumed she would be back for the third series, and been devastated when I actually found out. I remember when Martha left at the end of last series, I totally assumed she was coming back, just not for the Christmas special. I totally didn't see Donna coming, at all. So maybe a surprise regeneration would be sucky...

So three episodes in, and Martha's back! Unfortunately the episode is written by the same woman who wrote last series' "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks", which was pretty suck. So I have low expectations. Like, Donna is the new companion - low. So things could look up.