The Last of Us - TV show

New thing today, finished The Last of Us season 1 on HBO Max. Holy smokes is this thing good from beginning to end. I didn't want to care, but I did. And it went to some interesting places. Love and darkness all wrapped together. My favorite episodes were probably 3 Long Long Time, 5 Endure and Survive, and 9 Look for the Light. Unexpected consequences of love may be the running themes in those episodes. I haven't enjoyed a show in awhile, and honestly was expecting to be disappointed, but this... all the feels. I also needed a week between episodes to recover sometimes. I may rewatch the season, but overall, pretty incredible. Moments were just heartbreaking in some really good ways. Just some incredible moments - great job everyone who worked on that show!

Top Chef Masters

New thing today, started watching Top Chef Masters. It came on automatically after I finished a Top Chef season. Surprisingly my new favorite background noise show. Has the Top Chef formula but is kind of boring. I can easily do other things while it's on, but is only interesting part of the time. Makes me restless but also has some gems in it. It also is fairly old so could be dated, but overall a new delightful discovery.

Top Chef Season 10 - Restaurant Wars - Urbano!

New thing today, watched Top Chef Season 10 - Restaurant Wars. Spoilers up ahead (well for whoever hasn't seen it yet) !

Sheldon made Filipino food! And he won with Filipino food! And he did really well with Filipino food! He cooked with soul! He cooked with heart! And he cooked with my people's food! Oh it's pretty awesome and I just saw this episode. Was so excited and so happy that Filipino food and culture was represented so well.

Yeay Sheldon Simeon and the Urbano restaurant! This totally cheered up my Monday. I had a case of the Mondays today, so this was an awesome end to it.

Medium Season 7 - The Devil Inside & How to Make a Killing in Big Business

New thing today, revived and watched Medium, season 7, and the multiple episodes in The Devil Inside & How to make a Killing in Big Business. I watch a lot of TV. I've been trying to kick the habit, but it's a tough habit. Anyway I managed to start watching these and was fairly productive overall even while watching it. They're really good episodes. Overall I'm coming back to Netflix and enjoying the non-commercials. Love it! Anyway, here's to guilty pleasures.

The Alton Browncast - Andrew Zimmern & Samantha Brown

New thing today, listened to The Alton Browncast for the first time, and listened to 2 episodes - the interviews with Andrew Zimmern and Samantha Brown. This was pretty awesome because they are two of my favorite Travel Channel show hosts! I'm not a huge fan of the Alton Brown personality from the Food Network, but mainly because I don't watch him or pay attention. These podcasts were great so I may start having to pay attention to him. Anyway these were great interviews and it was really interesting to hear about my favorite travel hosts!

I love how Alton Brown wants to ask questions that have never been asked before and the way he engages and interviews people. I may be subscribing to this podcast. Anyway here are some highlights.

Andrew Zimmern - I had no idea he was an addict who struggled, recovered and succeeded. He goes into a bit of his story in this podcast and that really surprised me and made me appreciate him a lot more. I also loved his perspective on life and travel and how he tries to appreciate other cultures through the Bizarre Foods show (also a favorite). Overall a very interesting interview.

Samantha Brown - She has a luggage line! So exciting! I did not know that. I also appreciated her perspective on travel and the way she finds connecting with people and finding her own path and adventure more exciting than "hitting the greatest hits list" when traveling. They talked about getting lost and staying safe and travel preferences, as well as traveling and eating off the beaten path. They're both fun to listen to and also a great interview.

Fun new thing! Learning to travel life in your own style :)

David Chang - The Mind of a Chef

New thing today, watched David Chang, The Mind of a Chef on Netflix.

So my "gave up TV" thing for Lent actually went alright most of the time. I found I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. Sometimes I craved having a mindless chatter show going on in the background, but when I didn't or couldn't have it on, I was able to focus on other tasks, or really kind of zone out and relax, which was nice. I actually liked it so much that I may put myself on a TV show diet, maybe just a little at a time. No more marathons. Also the quiet time and space, I don't know, it was like, you know when you're at the ocean and the tide is low and you're just mellowing out, like that.

Anyway, so my first TV show back from the break, I was craving a show about food/cooking/restaurants so I put this on. I thought it was more about this guy and his restaurant, but instead it was about David Chang, Asian food and places he visits and random food things. It's entertainment, travel, part scientific and just sort of running commentary on food. I got tired of it by the 3rd episode because he kept talking about noodles, broths and Asian food. It didn't feel very diverse. Also I found it kind of noisy and vapid, which is what most of the TV shows are like, but maybe being so long without it makes me less tolerant towards that type of stuff.

Overall I was bored after awhile. Not sure if it's due to the TV diet, or if the show was bad. Maybe I just like ridiculous sensational stuff like Gordon Ramsay cooking shows. Actually oddly enough, after those few episodes and all the noise, I just want quiet and am happy blogging, reading and listening to the sound of the keyboard. Weird.

Dexter - Show Finale

New thing today, we finished Dexter. We've been watching it for years, but the entire thing was recently on Netflix so we decided to finish off the entire series. The last seasons made me want to re-watch the whole thing from the beginning. Enjoyed it overall. Spoiler alerts and commentary ahead.

Season 1 - Ice Truck Killer - pretty awesome season and introduction to world and characters. I personally loved Deb and she's been a fave of mine through all the seasons.

Season 2 - Some good moments and characters. I like Lundy, Lila and found Doakes annoying in his constantly angry black man gig. Nice cat and mouse going, but eh, whatever season.

Season 3 - Smits season. Honestly I don't remember a whole lot?

Season 4 - Trinity killer! It's a favorite of many fans. I found it good, but wasn't in love with it like some other people. It's pretty cool overall and definitely raised the quality of the series in this season. Plus pretty fabulous finale.

Season 5 - The Lumen season. I liked this one. It's also a bit of a love season with suspicious Quinn and Deb and Angel and LaGuerta.

Season 6 - Doomsday. Eh it was alright. I liked the psychosis of Colin Hanks. It felt like a build-up to season 7 with Deb & Dex.

Season 7 - Amazing. Probably my favorite. A lot of S*** goes down. It's got Deb finding out about Dex (fully!), Hannah relationship starting (which I loved), Isaak (pretty great friend character) and all the closing in on Dexter. Plus one hell of a season finale, pretty incredible.

Season 8 - a bit boring in the first half, but got better at the 2nd half of the season. I liked Dr. Vogel a lot and had all sorts of ideas about how they would wrap it up and end it. Was a surprise to see Hannah again and then found the last scenes with Deb and Dex pretty touching. I found the end very tragic and it made you think about it a lot. I thought it might end with a circle of life ending, with Harrison being surrounded by someone's blood and turning into a psychopath. But alas, there was hope and tragedy all at once.

So in the end, I think it's a very very good series. They ended it, which is important to stories. I believe you shouldn't let TV shows linger on becoming sick, frail and annoying for years and years. Instead shows should have an arch, a story and a proper ending. They did a really good job with this series. Ending was good as well.

In fact, the last seasons actually made me want to watch the previous seasons because they referenced previous stories and murders from the Dexter universe. Plus I miss extra foul-mouthed Deb. She got tamer over the seasons and I miss her spew of profanity on a regular basis. I may watch this series again one day.

Ramsay - The London Reservations and Hell's Kitchen season 5

New thing today, made reservations for Gordon Ramsay's The London West Hollywood restaurant, and started Hell's Kitchen season 5 (Thanks Hulu!). It's a Ramsay themed evening. We're planning to go to The London for Christmas with the family, as a gift and fun thing to do for Christmas. I've also been on a chef show kick/resurgence, so putting on Hell's Kitchen and enjoying a relaxing evening at home. Funny thing, but all the work stress and drama, makes me love being home all so much more. Hearing Ramsay yell at people, being badgering and belligerent, helps me appreciate what I have. Just staying positive and enjoying an 80 degree weather day in December :) Must appreciate the little things.

Philip K. Dick - Prophets of Science Fiction

New thing today, watched another episode of Prophets of Science Fiction - Philip K. Dick. I didn't even know I loved Philip K. Dick until recently. I was a fan of all the movies that were based on his stories and I had no idea. I just thought me liking Total Recall (1990), Minority Report and Paycheck and all these other obscure, not so popular sci-fi movies, was just a me thing. Then somehow I discovered they were all based on his writing, so I got interested, really interested in reading his stuff.

I did manage to read a few short stories when I borrowed The Collected Stories of Philip K Dick from the library. I thought "The Little Movement" was a darker version of Toy Story and I could see this influencing some writer at Pixar or Disney. One of his short stories "Stability" was very haunting and I believe caused me to have a nightmare, which just proves how great he is at capturing our imagination. I haven't read everything, especially his more famous stories, but it's on my list. It might even be on my Christmas list?

Anyway this episode talks about Dick's alternate reality ideas, robots and tricks of the mind and memory. It was a little more surface level regarding his stories and the science that generated from it. Mainly I found the details of Dick's life very interesting. I love that he was a bit off, and that he used the I-Ching to write his stories, and just that he believed in insane stuff that you wonder if he was really seeing into another reality or world.

This has inspired me to add to my list of things to read, his writings and to watch his stories. So much to do, so little time! But so many new topics to blog about if I can get to his stuff :) I'll probably read his Wikipedia article soon :) Learning new things every day!

Mary Shelley - Prophets of Science Fiction

New thing today, watched the first episode of Prophets of Science Fiction - Mary Shelley. This was interesting! More documentary than I expected. Sometimes these shows appear to be hype and speculation more than anything concrete, but this was enjoyably grounded in reality and documentary type show.

It's part history and documentary lesson on Mary Shelley and the book Frankenstein, and other part about science and technology related to human body reanimation as in organ donations, death, electricity, DNA, and the latest brain and neurology developments. They take the idea from the book, talk about today's technology related to it, and future possibilities. They talk about the themes and implications of the book and its lesson regarding science as well. It talks about the Frankenstein movies and has clips from various movies. The show also talks quickly about the influence Frankenstein has had on pop culture.

It's masterfully put together! It's an appropriate time to watch this considering Halloween Oct 31 just passed, and All Souls Day Nov 1 just happened. Fascinating stuff!

I will be watching the rest of these and blogging happily as I've found a new show that lets my brain feed on something more than just junk :) I love science fiction as it is taking science, today's technology and ideas, and through imagination, transforms it into entertainment. One interesting thing is I think science fiction writing also inspires and feeds back into science, and gives these nerdy guys who develop things, and helps them come up with new ideas and experiments and goals. I'm such a nerd!

Prophets of Science Fiction - Discovery Science.com Link and Wikipedia Link

Glee - Goodbye to Finn - Cory Monteith Episode

New thing today, watched the Glee episode where they grieve Cory/Finn's death. Wow that was sad. I balled. I was surprised how truly sad it was, I suppose because it was so real. Didn't think I would cry, but I did.

Sniff sniff...

They did a good job with it.

SNL - Bruce Willis & Katy Perry aired Oct 12, 2013

New thing today, watched the SNL episode with Bruce Willis & Katy Perry aired Oct 12, 2013. I love Bruce Willis & I love Katy Perry. I don't usually watch SNL (Saturday Night Live) but when I saw this on Hulu I had to watch it.

Pretty funny :) I'm glad this had good stuff, considering that I've seen SNL episodes in the past that have been total duds. The sketches were pretty great.

Opening - Bruce Willis on Harmonica. He just made it cool for this year and the next few years. OMG he rocked it and I loved it! I didn't know he could play harmonica and he could do it so well!

Sketches - My favorites were probably the Boy Dance Party sketch and the War Operation Planning sketch. Boy Dance party was just silly and super fun. Great to see the dance moves.

The Black Ops sketch is where he pokes fun at his own action movies. They are planning a detailed desert war operation and Willis comes in and explains how he would do it in a very fantastic movie drama way, whereas everyone else is trying to do the operation professionally and realistically. In the end, well they decide they'd rather do the Willis version :)

Music - Katy Perry! I love her because she has fun and has a good sense of humor about everything. She performed Roar, and dressed in a leopard print outfit with her band and backup singers all in animal costumes! Fab! Then in her next song Walking on Air, they had a lot of air blowing through the performance with fabric and wind and it was very very well done I thought :) At the end of SNL where they say goodbye, she wears a tiger costume/pjs - very cute.

On the side, I thought Weekend Update this episode was excellent! Very well done. They also had a great cameo. There was a sketch making fun of e-cigs, but instead using and promoting e-meth. Then at the end Jesse from Breaking Bad shows up and says "e-meth, you know it's good cuz it's blue bitch". LOVE IT! :)

This is my first SNL in a long time, and I may start watching again, since it looks like it will be a very good funny season.

Good review and some videos of the sketches in this article. 'SNL' Scorecard: Bruce Willis Looks Like He's Having Fun in the Huffington Post.

Boardwalk Empire Episode 1

New thing today, watched Boardwalk Empire episode 1. It's been on our Netflix queue and been interested in seeing it for quite some time. The trip to the Mob Museum in Vegas really got us into the mood, and so we finally decided to start it. Overall I'm a little confused but intrigued.

There are a lot of characters introduced and I haven't connected people's names and faces quite yet. I don't know enough mob history to get their significance of the characters. The only characters that are introduced that sound familiar are Lucky Luciano and Al Capone. I love how Capone is currently a minor character and that the story is told from the perspective of Buscemi'a character - Nucky. Maybe it will be good that I do not know who's who right now, and it will all be surprising and new to me when things unfold.

The storytelling and mood of the 20s is interesting and annoying at times. Even though I love the time period, it feels very stylized and not so real. Some of the scenes have a very Scorsese feel. I don't really understand or know what's going on.

I know the first episode should introduce everything, but it doesn't really have much pow. Game of Thrones had a very powerful first scene and episode that had you captivated and hooked. This feels like a slow tease. It's like the base of an elaborate painting, I hope. It looks messy and unorganized now, but with future layers and development could turn into something beautiful.

A first. We'll see how the rest of it turns out.

The Dollhouse Finale

New thing of the day, saw the end of the show and season 2 of The Dollhouse.

Awesome with awesome sauce :) Loved it and may re-watch it to learn more, and may even check out the supposed comic book series? Who knows. Loved it! Go watch it and I hope it has enough of a fan base that maybe it'll come back? Probably not, but - LOVED IT!

Watching TV on the treadmill

New thing of the day, watched an episode of Dollhouse Season 2 while on the treadmill at the gym.

I have an iphone and it gets Netflix. Bless Netflix. Anyway I took an easy walk on the treadmill, put on headphones and hooked up to Netflix. It was awesome. The only bad thing was my eyes sorta were over focused on the tiny screen and I couldn't refocus them after awhile. Overall though fun! I think that'll be my new motivation for the gym. Plus I saw a great mind-blowing episode of the DollHouse season 2.

So new thing, doing two normal things at once :)

From Threadless.com - Runnin Rhino - Awesome shirt! 

Dollhouse Season 2

New thing of the day, watched the first few episodes of Dollhouse season 2.

I am a huge fan of the Dollhouse season 1. We watched season 1 on Netflix instant and I absolutely loved this show. I saw that Dollhouse season 2 was on instant finally so decided to watch the first episode.

Oddly enough, I don't remember very much of the first season, especially the cliff-hanging finale, so I was very confused at the first episode. They didn't really do a recap of the first season, and so I was stuck. Decided to watch a 2nd episode and it was good but I still don't remember the longer plot line which they base half the story on, so I'm going back to season 1 to re-watch some episodes, or at least read up on what happened on Wikipedia.

I'm really surprised I don't remember what happened. There are a few main points that escape me that are bothering me. Also, well, I was confused because on Netflix instant, the last episode of season 1 never actually aired - it was a weird pilot episode or a weird "alternate reality" episode, and when I saw it I thought it was the finale, but it actually had nothing to do with the whole series. Anyway, I am slightly confused, but am very excited the season 2 is online.

I highly recommend this series! It's great sci-fi, action, alias type espionage and overall an interesting show. I'm sad it ended, but seeing what's been going on the past 2 episodes of season 2 and the last "lost" episode of season 1, I can see where it might have lost some if its appeal or audience.

Here's also a new first that hasn't happened in awhile. We slept in today until noon - NOON?! Can you believe it? It's been an exciting and tiring weekend, and looking forward to more sleep, but not to Monday.

Mad Men

New thing of the day, saw the first 3 episodes of the show Mad Men.

We heard good things about this and so wanted to give it a shot. It's sorta cool watching 60s era stuff like the sexism, racism, lack of technology and fashion style. I love how women in this show have curves. Kudos to a woman's self image!

It's a bit hypnotic to watch, but overall we're not really thrilled or get why everyone loves it so much. I know it's the first 3 episodes so it might take some time to get good. Although the main character is so brooding and serious it's a bit annoying. I think I like it, but I need to see more. I will probably see where it goes. I didn't like the first episodes of Family Guy but as the season and shows progressed it just got better and better. I'm willing to give this show a shot.

Least to say I love the style of the era. Blast to Americana past this weekend. I like the fashion. I think I like all the gimmicks more then I like the story so far. The husband isn't on board for this one, but maybe this will be one of my shows? Who knows, verdict still out but so far it's slightly intriguing.

Dexter Season 4

New thing of the day, started Dexter Season 4.

We got hooked on Dexter awhile back and have slowly been watching from the beginning. It's been a very tiring and exciting week. Vegas was last weekend, then the Kings game yesterday, so today was a need to relax evening. Sitting on the couch with a blanket in my sweats and possibly falling asleep early was an absolutely divine and exciting idea. So we picked up KFC for dinner, and vegged out in front of the TV - oh so wonderful.

We saw the first few episodes of season 4. I was so mad a few weeks ago because I was flipping through an Entertainment magazine and saw the season 4 mind blowing finale spoiler, as they were talking about season 5 Dexter. I was absolutely mortified. I won't spoil it for anyone else, but I was really really sad that I didn't find out on my own, through watching the show - you know? That was sort of a first. I've never really been sad or upset of knowing the end before seeing it myself - but this was the first.

Anyway so we started season 4. Love John Lithgow. We're only about 4 episodes in, but it's very exciting. I'm finding myself upset at the end of every episode because they leave you wanting more! Instead of feeling satisfied, they hook you and do that annoying TV thing where it keeps you wanting more and more. It's great so far.

I saw a posting that LAPD is hiring and I was entertained at the idea. I thought it might be cool to dress up and be a cop on the street or behind a desk. Not sure if Dexter is having that influence on me, but that was also a new thing - possibly inspired by this show.

So staying tuned and loving Dexter :)

Tales from the Crypt

New thing of the day, watched Tales from the Crypt, the first few episodes from season 1.

Along with our belated Halloween themed movies, my husband mentioned he had never watched Tales from the Crypt as a kid. The beginning always freaked me out a little bit as did the crypt keeper, but I liked it and liked the Twilight Zone twist stories. There's a similar Nickelodeon series I liked watching called  "Are you afraid of the dark?". I think I just like macabre stories with good plot twists or surprise endings. 

So we saw the first 3 episodes of the first season. As an adult, I find them rather slow and a bit boring. I can guess the ending about 10 minutes in. It's nice to recognize actors in the earlier years and see some celebrities making cameos. The first one - was an executioner who gets electrocuted.  The second one - psycho santa. And the third one which was the most interesting - the 9 lives cat guy with that guy from the Matrix and Bad Boys and The Fugitive who always plays sort of a jerk/annoying guy - Joe Pantoliano - he's in everything. 

Anyway, I like the stories but they're from the past so they're a little slow to build and deliver. I don't remember there being that much death in the episodes, but it's interesting. I like how the older style of TV storytelling involved more story and less special effects. The crypt keeper was cool - but it's interesting to see how much is left "to the imagination" or how different the feel of the older TV shows are. 

I'm not terribly interested in the rest of the episodes or seasons. I might read about their plots online. They're on Netflix, not streaming, so I don't think it's worth the dvd mail delivery. If it were online I might watch more of them, but we may keep them on the queue if husband wants to see more. Overall I'm "eh" with it, and will keep it in fabulous nostalgia category. 

So that's that. I dreamt of zombies last night. Maybe I'll dream of cats or bad santas tonight?

The Walking Dead

New thing of the day, watched The Walking Dead episode 1.

They had it online, and the coworkers were talking about it so I was curious. The husband likes 28 days and apocalypse scenarios so I thought he might enjoy it too. We found it online and decided to watch the first episode.

I thought it was a bit slow in the beginning, but sped up nicely and introduced some interesting story lines and characters. Spoilers to come so stop reading if you don't want to know what happens.

I like the scene where he's waking up and walking out of the hospital trying to figure out what happened. Very ominous and creepy. I actually thought him having a horse would be really cool. It was a great mix of cowboy and wild west with zombies. Such and awesome and fun juxtaposition. I really thought the horse would be like his zombie alarm system - I mean a horse being sensitive to smells and an animal being more sensitive to its environment. It would wake up and warn him of danger. It would run and keep them out of zombie populated areas because it could sense them better than a human. I thought the horse would survive and be his pal throughout the series. I was very sad to see him ambushed and the horse eaten by the zombies. I wonder whether the horse would become a zombie.

Overall it's interesting and I hear it's only 6 episodes long. They're contracting for more seasons after the popularity of the show. I hope they keep it fresh and interesting. I'm also hopeful it's one of those things that we can watch fairly up to date, and be "in time" with, with online episodes. Watching this only about 1 week after its premier - very hopeful we can keep up :)

Arrrrghhhhhhhh!