a song... or three.

So my musical tastes are very... mainstream. Well sort of. Mostly. But I go through phases with music I like to listen to. But right now, my current phase has me listening to a lot of American Top 100 pop music. I like to pretend that my musical tastes are way more sophisticated but really the bottom line is that they're not. Here are three songs that I hear on the radio *all the time* and that I seem to have very strong opinions about.

"Sexy Bitch" (radio version: "Sexy Chick") by David Guetta featuring Akon: I hate, hate, hate this song. I have no idea who this David Guetta dude is, by the way. But there are two reasons I really hate this song. First: the radio version totally cleans it up to "who's a sexy chitch," not "chick." Second: it gets stuck in my head for hours on end (especially because of the repetitiveness of "who's a sexy bitch") and drives me nuts. So needless to say, it's stupid, but I really cannot stand this song. And "chitch," what is UP with that?!?!

"Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga: Anyone who knows me knows that I extremely unreasonably hate Lady Gaga. It's bothered me for some time because, well, I can't come up with a reason why I just hate her so much. It's not like her pop music is all that much better/worse than other dance-y pop music. But I hated "Poker Face," didn't like "Just Dance," haaaaated "Love Game" (um, hello, "I want to take a ride on your disco stick"?!), and wanted to hate "Paparazzi." Well, going on that track, I was inclined to hate "Bad Romance" as well. Somehow that didn't happen. I don't particularly like listening to "Bad Romance," but I begrudgingly was made to acknowledge the musicality of what Lady Gaga. Additionally, there's something kinda cool about her referencing Alfred Hitchcock in her verses, too. But really, this youtube clip is what made me realize that there is possibly more substance to her music (as least this time) than just crazy theatrics and singing weird lyrics.

"Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus: I will never cease to be a teenybopper. I loved Britney, I loved Backstreet Boys, I liked 'N Sync, and... I like Miley Cyrus. I don't know why. And I can't even defend this musical like, but I really enjoy "Party in the U.S.A." It's sad, huh? I think it is. But it makes me happy.

So obviously I have no musical high ground to hate/love certain artists/songs to stand on, but... These are just my random, recent musical observations. :) I may be exiting my pop station phase soon, though. "Sexy Chick" is getting way too much airtime.

T^2: Who is...

M: Who is your most hated fictional character? And on a similar (but different) note, who is your favorite fictional character to hate?

Mira: For whatever reason, it's easier to think of favorite character to hate... Anyway, I pick Rebecca Logan from Greek. I love Greek, first of all, and secondly, they've developed her into this fun character that's got lots of layers, but not necessarily easy to like. Similar to Paris from Gilmore Girls. But Paris was just socially awkward because she was the stereotypical uber-nerd, but Rebecca isn't like that at all. Instead she's this weird mix of extremely spoiled, and really smart in terms of understanding how life functions, but insecure in unexpected ways and emotionally stunted, too. If that makes any sense in a package. I love what her character adds to the show, both her good and evil sides!

Now to the most hated character... it's tempting to say Amy from Little Women (movie version, I've never read the book)... Or Bingley's sister from Pride & Prejudice (book and all tv/movie adaptations)... Or Dan from One Tree Hill (the father, he's utterly worthless as a human being character. So evil!)... Or April in Gilmore Girls (I blame HER for Luke & Loralie not getting married, but I guess the kid wasn't terrible.)... But instead I'll choose... AHA! I got it! It's actually a character in a Korean drama called All About Eve (Heo Young-mi). She's supposed to play the antagonist, but let me tell you, she was sooooooo evil. What pisses me off the most about her?? She didn't get what she deserved at the end. UGH! I hated her! The drama itself I really, really enjoyed but have been unable to watch again because of the evil girl. Even thinking about her makes me really mad!

Jennifer: I guess I'm the opposite...it's much easier for me to think of characters I just plain hate. The first one that comes to mind is Joey Potter from Dawson's Creek. I hated her so much that the hate has transferred over to Katie Holmes, who of course is not helped by being married to Tom Cruise (ick). But I think the character I've most hated is actually Sylar from Heroes. Now I quit watching Heroes during the third season so I have no clue how what he's like now but I just could not tolerate him. He was a stupid villain and every time he was on screen I wanted him to get killed off.

That kind of brings me to the love to hate category. I think that in a way, all the best villains should be in this category. They're evil but you love reading about/watching them because they're complex and compelling. One complication is that a lot of love-to-hate characters end up being sort of redeemed in the end, like Spike on Buffy and Snape in Harry Potter. I didn't really want to pick one of those types so my pick is Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-files. It's been awhile so truthfully I don't remember how his arc ended but he was so evil and mysterious throughout the series. Runner up: Regina from Mean Girls. Heinous but so fun to watch!

5 Years of we like TV!

Can you believe it? It's been exactly 5 years since our very first post here at we like TV. And this is our 555th post! (If you were wondering why our blog output skyrocketed this week, it's because we were trying to get to that number.)

Mira and I had been friends since childhood and have always been very into books and TV and movies and talking about them so we started this blog back in 2005 as way to share our thoughts with each other. There have been some dry spells here and there, but amazingly 5 years later we're still at it!

We haven't actually gained much of a readership at all but I don't know that we were ever really doing it for popularity. For me it's just been a fun way to record of what my tastes and opinions have been over the years and the only place I get to do any writing. As a kid I actually wanted to be a writer when I grew up, but obviously that has not happened so it's nice to have an outlet for that side of myself.

So, living up to the name of the blog, most of our posts have been about TV. The top shows we've posted about are:

1. Top Chef (36). I think there were a few stretches where I posted on it every week! Obviously reveals the foodie side of me.
   
2. Gilmore Girls (27). Towards the end we had more of a love/hate relationship with this show (mostly hate when it came to Rory) but man were we invested in it...
   
3. So You Think You Can Dance (24). Yeah, we're obsessed.
   
4. Veronica Mars (24). Logan was hot.
   
5. Friday Night Lights (24). Me watching a football show?!?
   
6. Project Runway (22). Unlike with Top Chef, I'm actually not even interested in fashion in real life. But who doesn't love Tim Gunn?
   

And here are some of my favorite posts:

1. Favorite "ships" - In which I list many of the TV couples I've "shipped" over the years.
2. The problem with Lost - In which I vent my frustration with Lost. All my points are pretty much voided now but I'm amused by how fired up about it I was.
3. So bad they're good: my favorite guilty pleasure movies - In which I list those movies that are "bad" but that I love anyway.
4. Remembering Madeleine L'Engle - In which I fondly remember one of my favorite authors.
5. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - In which I get angry at Twilight and suggest that Edward should have died at the end of the series (I know, blasphemy!)
   
6. Harry Potter and the End of an Era - In which I sum up the last Harry Potter book and the series as a whole.
7. The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld - In which I discuss one of the stranger reading experiences of my life.
8. Rewatching My So-Called Life - In which I relive the seminal 90s series on DVD.
9. North and South - Mr. Darcy watch out! - In which I finally get over Colin Firth and my Anglomania starts kicking into high gear.
10. My Favorite Songs of the 2000s - In which I list my 38 (I know, random) favorite songs of the decade, much of which is possibly unrecognizable unless you're also an indie music snob

You know, the past 5 years have brought a lot of change to how we all consume media. We now have DVRs, Hulu, iPods, e-readers, smartphones, 3-D movies...and anyone and everyone is sharing their opinions about it all on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I know we like TV is just another blip in the massive amount of chatter out there but I'm really glad we've stuck with it. Thanks to everyone who's dropped by our little corner of the web!

a book, a movie, a song...

It's funny. In creating this blog we decided it'd be a way for us to do what we did in conversation anyway -- talk about TV, books, movies, and music. However, I've noticed that our blog has become primarily TV-focused. I think there are multiple reasons for that: keeping up with TV can take up a lot of your "free" time (especially given the number of shows Jenn and I each follow!); TV is a constant life companion whereas books/movies are not (meaning there's always so much TV going on, whereas you really need to make time for books/movies. Plus, it's easy to write about something on TV at any given point in time, but books/movies probably should be blogged about soon afterward); music-wise, I tend to get nostalgic as opposed to move forward in my tastes (though Jenn does tend to extensively find new music); and I'm sure there are more excuses why I mostly blog only about TV. (Jenn points out that the blog is called "we like TV" with the rest in subtext, but I kinda think that we chose that as the title in creating the blog because it sounded catchier. But really, who knows? I certainly don't remember those details!)

In any case, as we embark upon our 5th year of existence on this blog (more on that later from Jenn!), I'm going to make a much more concerted effort to blog about the other things in addition to TV. It is my goal henceforth to blog about a movie, a book and a song monthly. :) And as you noticed, we're growing our blog a little, too, and inviting some of our esteemed readers to have "guest blogging" privileges. (Welcome, Burkie!) Looking forward to more of that as well!

Thursday Talk: Week 6!

J: I totally forgot about this last week! I even had a question in mind and everything but Thursday came along and it just slipped my mind. So here it is this week instead: Which reality show would you want to be on?

Jennifer: To clarify, I have absolutely no desire to be on TV and would never in a million years actually apply to be on any reality show so this is more a hypothetical, as in which reality show I would want to be on if it, you know, wasn't being filmed and broadcast on television. The easy answer for me would be the The Amazing Race. I love traveling and it looks so fun and exciting (though really tiring and some tasks look positively miserable). But the other show I think I would want to be on is Made on MTV. I'm too old now but during high school or college I think I would have loved the chance to be "made" into something that I so wasn't, like an athlete or performer of some kind or a girly girl. Of course this show usually involves a fair amount of pain, crying, embarrassment, or all of the above, but the kids almost always seem to feel better about themselves in the end. Though I guess that could be the editing...

Mira: It's funny, my other friend Jennifer also is obsessed with getting on The Amazing Race. I love scavenger hunts and puzzles and traveling, but the physical challenges, the eating challenges -- definitely not anything I can do. I'm definitely too afraid of too many things! (Case and point, I didn't go bungee jumping, sky diving, or canyon swooping with Jenn and the others on our New Zealand trip last year.) But this question definitely stumped me. My favorite reality TV show hands down is So You Think You Can Dance, but I wouldn't want to be on it! So anyway, this is the show I picked: Project Runway. I know it's kinda ridiculously ridiculous (yep, I just said that) because I have never sewn an article of clothing, nor have I ever fantasy designed anything, but in my head I could learn to and love to do those things. And I definitely think I'd be able to represent a point of view that is both accessible and wanted by the everyday viewer as well as unique and not commonly found in everyday fashions. In my head. :) Plus I love the idea of unique challenges that make you seriously think outside of your box, and I love making stuff, or the idea of making stuff.

A Blizzard, a Guestblogger, and a Movie Called Adam

gavin cardigan walked into jenn & mira's blog and said, "whoah! i don't think we're in Poor Yorick's Pub anymore!"

"go back to the Pub, gavin. i've got this one covered," burkie waved off his protagonist.

yep, burkie's in the hizzy! i , like mira & jenn, have been stuck in the hizzy for days waiting out 2 blizzards. yesterday was the one day i could get out, so i went to blockbuster® and picked up a bunch of movies. mira suggested this would be a good opportunity for me to guestblog.

so here i am. i watched Adam tonight. mira is the one who told me about this movie, which is a love story about a girl who meets a boy who has Asperger's syndrome. that's a formula that immediately sounds like, well, a formula. i think the writer/director (Max Mayer) did very good job of not falling into that trap. this is not a Lifetime movie of the week (not that there's anything wrong with that!), and it's not a gimmick movie. it's a movie about two people in a relationship and how they have to learn to manage that relationship with all that both parties bring to the table. it just so happens that one of them brings Asperger's to the table.

the performances were good. i'm not familiar with either of the leads (hugh dancy & rose byrne), but they were both charming and compassionate in their roles. too much so, of course, but this is hollywood after all (yes, even indie films are considered hollywood). i'm no expert on Asperger's. i have known a few people with Asperger's and i've read mark haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. i would think that those who have Asperger's or who have loved ones with Asperger's would be favorably disposed toward this film. you get to see adam's idiosyncrocies, his gifts, his struggles to manage social situations, his failures & successes, and his humanity. you really get to know adam himself rather than a person with Asperger's.

as for beth (rose byrne's character), she's an alarmingly pretty school teacher and aspiring children's book author, rebounding from a failed relationship with some pond-scum guy, and has just moved into adam's building. she is also dealing with some family drama (parents played by amy irving & peter gallagher). she meets adam while doing laundry and finds him "sweet and interesting." and while her character is probably a little too...everything...to be true, you can't help but like her.

as the relationship progresses, there are ups and downs, humor and anger, compassion and misunderstandings. the audience is being groomed for a desired outcome, but whether they get it in the end, well, you'll have to watch the movie yourself to get that answer. i will say that the movie did a good job of stirring my emotions at several points, but i was surprised that i never actually, um, suffered an allergy attack. i was expecting it and, when the movie ended and i never had such an attack, i felt almost cheated. i watched the alternate ending and the deleted scenes to see if an of them would trigger an attack. pretty pathetic, huh? still didn't work. overall, a good, sweet, and compassionate film and is certainly worth watching.

Caprica: A Different World

Although I suppose one can watch and enjoy Caprica without having seen Battlestar Galactica, the series Caprica is a prequel to, it might kind of hard for me to not reference BSG in this post. So be warned as you read ahead.

I've heard BSG described as a "space opera" and I always kind of wondered about that description. I've watched my share of daytime and nighttime soaps and BSG, especially considering its military and political themes, didn't really have too much in common with those entities.

But Caprica? I think Caprica would definitely fall into some kind of soap category. The show revolves around two families, the Graystones and the Adamas (yes, Admiral Adama is here but is still a kid), and there are big corporations, mobsters, teenagers, cults...classic soap opera elements. The difference here is that Caprica is set in a very different but at the same time very familiar world. You could probably call it futuristic, as there are robots and artificial intelligence and computers that look like a sheet of paper*, but there's no indication of how or even if this world is related to our time or Earth at all (although BSG fans know where this is all going...)

*Is this what we're moving towards with the iPad??

And I've really been enjoying discovering the little ways Caprica is similar or different from our own world. For one, this is a polytheistic society, where those who believe in one God are considered terrorists. Homosexuality and group marriages appear to not be a big deal, but racism is still very prevalent. (There are "Twelve Worlds" and each planet seems to have one ethnicity?) The most popular sport is called Pyramid, which is some kind of ball game. Oh and the Graystones have this funny little servant-robot named Serge who totally cracks me up; it's very Jetsons.

Anyway, the show kicks off with a train bombing that kills two teenage girls, Zoe Graystone, and Tamara Adama. Zoe is the daughter of Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), the briliant and wealthy head of a technology corporation, who is a computer genius herself and member of a monotheistic cult. Tamara Adama is the daughter of Joseph Adama (Esai Morales), a lawyer who is part of the Tauron ethnic group and has connections to a Tauron crime organization through his brother, Sam. Joseph's wife is also killed in the blast. These two men initially connect because of their family tragedies but quickly become enemies.

Here's where more of the science fiction stuff comes in. Before her death, Zoe had been working on an "avatar" of herself that exists in a virtual reality type world accessed with "holobands" that were pioneered by her father's company. We don't know all the details of her plans for this avatar, but after her death, Avatar-Zoe continues to exist. Daniel learns about the avatar from Lacy, one of Zoe's friends, and "downloads" this avatar into one of his 6-foot robots intended for military use. Daniel thinks that this failed and that the avatar is lost, but Avatar-Zoe is now stuck. She's the first Cylon!

So yes, Caprica is a very different show from BSG but so far I'm very much enjoying it. It's too early to tell if it'll have the same kind of critical acclaim or pop culture resonance that BSG had (well, in the geek world anyway) but I'll definitely be sticking with it.

snowed in tv

As you may or may not know, Jenn and I are snowed in this week. Okay, I'm snowed in and not working, Jenn's snowed in and still going to work. And actually, being that we have all of two readers, my friend Burkie and Jenn's brother Kevin, you probably already knew all that. But whatever. Anyway, bottom line is, I've had a lot of time at home with little to do except avoid homework and watch TV. And I've watched a lot of TV. Additionally, we've been really good with the DVR lately at my house, so I haven't had DVR stuff to catch up on. So I've been watching a lot of random, crappy TV. Actually, in my case, for whatever reason I prefer to watch movies rather than TV shows... So here's what I've watched while being snowed in (Note: this is all on TV, not from my DVD collection):

The Princess Diaries (and I own this on DVD!)
Bring it On Again (Yes, AGAIN meaning the sequel.)
Hanging Up
27 Dresses
Moulin Rouge (I own this on DVD, too.)
And whenever I can't find anything to watch, whatever is playing on Lifetime Movie Network...hanging my head in shame, but you gotta admit, given that list of movies... not too surprising!

So question for our 2 readers (or anyone else, feel free to chime in!), what channel do YOU turn to when you're bored?

Monday Madness

Shows I watch that air on Mondays:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Chuck (NBC)
Gossip Girl (CW, currently on hiatus)
Life Unexpected (CW)
Make it or Break it (ABC Family)
Greek (ABC Family)
Castle (ABC)
Damages (FX)

Shows I watch that air on Tuesdays:
None

What the heck??

hospital shows that i still watch...

Grey's Anatomy: I think this show has only gotten better with them losing George and Izzie (okay, so Heigl is only temporary gone) and gain Owen and Teddy! Plus I love that MerDer are no longer the tortured couple but fully functional and married on a post-it note. No big hoopla over marriage but completely comfortably accepted. I also love that they're developing the relationship between Meredith and the Chief, more and hence developing his character much more. And Bailey has romance storylines in the works! The Christina-Owen-Teddy love triangle could be really annoying but they've made it work. I think it works because nothing is kept as a secret and festering -- all 3 characters are pretty blunt characters and when something is discovered it comes out before the end of the episode. I appreciate that, A LOT. Ooh, and the last thing I do like is Arizona (who is one of my faaaaaavorite characters) taking Alex under her wings to do pediatric surgery. I've always loved the tidbits they've shown of Alex working with children/babies and so this is so fitting! All in all, there's not a storyline that bothers me this season. (Especially because the Mercy West-Seattle Grace merger isn't a main part of the storyline. Oh, and especially because Sloane's daughter Sloane has been gone for the last 2 episodes. That helps, too.)

Private Practice: This show sucks me in because of the complex relationships between all the characters. I don't particularly care about any of the storylines, especially not the Mia (Naomi-Sam's daughter) being preggers or Cooper-Charlotte fighting or Sam-Addison being attracted to each other. In fact, I really don't like a lot of these storylines! But, I love the dynamics between the characters and I love the characters. And I love the little episode-long storylines. For instance last week, a family had to choose one twin daughter to save with a needed blood transfusion (or something, I don't remember the exact procedure). Or Dale dealing with almost losing his daughter because her drug addict mother was making meth in the kitchen and the house exploded. Or -- ooh! Addison finding out that her cheating father wasn't the cheater, her lesbian mother was! And these are things I enjoy about the show that I don't feel guilty about enjoying the way I do when I enjoy watching 90210, or Melrose Place, or Gossip Girl. (BTW, I did force myself to drop 2 out of 3 of those shows.) To sum it up, I still love sexy doctor shows.

Unfortunately I dropped House sometime late last season. I heart House but I just lost interest in some of the full season storylines and pretty much all the side characters. Oh, and Wilson was getting annoying to me, too. So basically House and Cuddy weren't enough to keep me devoted.