Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale.

Spoilers for Battlestar Galactica - 4x10 - "Revelations" under the cut.

Bear McCreary got nominated for an Emmy! For main title theme music (for Human Target, which I have yet to watch), not for the actual scoring itself, but still! He is nominated!

Day 24 - Best quote.

I narrowed it down to five, which considering I could make an entry for Best 50 Quotes From Arrested Development, was tough. I found it interesting that three of the five are Crowning Moments of Awesome, two of which are also Big Damn Heroes moments, one being the eponymous BDH moment, of course. These are clearly the moments that stick with me.

In alphabetical order based on show.

Angel - 2x12 - "Blood Money"



Arrested Development - 2x04 - "Good Grief."



Babylon 5 - 3x10 - "Severed Dreams"



Battlestar Galactica - 4x14 - "Blood on the Scales"



Firefly - 1x05 - "Safe"

Day 21 - Favorite ship.

HAHAHA like I can pick just one. Let's face it - shipping is important. Sometimes that brief hand-hold or peck on the cheek is all that saves an otherwise mediocre episode. You need to see characters grow and evolve over the years, and no better way to do that than to see relationships grow and evolve as well. And, you know, shallowly, sometimes you just want to see attractive people make out.

So I narrowed it down to the top five. I couldn't cut any more than that. In chronological order from when I shipped 'em.











Yeah that last couple made it on the list! Why else do you think I managed to watch the entirety of seasons three and four in eight days? (Okay, it was like 30% ship, 60% the show was just that good, and 10%...because...I have a crush on Bruce Boxleitner. I mean, come on!)

Day 19 - Best TV show cast.



Duh.

Day 18 - Favorite title sequence.

I love opening credits. To me, they're an integral part of the viewing experience; when we're watching TV together off DVD, Laura gets frustrated because she wants to fast-forward through them and I'm always like, "No! Credits! Love!" I don't think it's a huge surprise to say that my favorite title sequence is BSG's - besides the fact that aside from a handful of episodes at the beginning of S2, they were always different, with that little sneak-peak of the episode to come, I also loved that technically, there were two sequences - the credits proper and the Cylon Background Info that came before the previouslies; my favorite of that was S3's, because "They rebelled...they evolved" is in the right order and I love that shot of Six from Downloaded.



Unfortunately, there isn't a YouTube video of the actual credits, at least that I can find in a normal search - they're all fanmade or set to different songs or whatever, which I don't really get. You know what they are though.

Some other faves:

Great music and lovely images:



My childhood:



I love these because they're so elegant, so simple and yet there's so much packed into them (hidden clues!), and, again, the music:



And because I'm obsessed with it right now:

Day 15 - Favorite female character.



What's there to say? Most awesome female character ever.

The runners-up:

Day 09 - Best scene ever.

Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show.

Since I had two favorite shows, I had to pick two favorite episodes.



Post-Modern Prometheus! I really don't know what to say about it that I haven't already. It's pretty much perfect. I love the following: black and white cinematography, Cher, the Frankenstein take-off, message of acceptance, dancing, Cher, "What's not to love?", John O'Hurley, Mulder getting drugged, Cher, and dancing.



This episode, you guys. There isn't a moment that I feel like fast-forwarding, a beat that feels wrong, a single actor that isn't at the top of their game. The action is so well-paced, the special effects are amazing, the music is perfectionary. And the last seven minutes are killer - I never fail to get a little misty at Tigh and Starbuck's just numbed reactions being back on the Galactica. When Bill tells Tigh, "You did it. You brought them home," and Tigh chokes out, "Not all of them," that's pretty much the theme of the show.

Day 04 - Your favorite show ever.



I went back and forth. If I picked BSG, I felt like I was betraying my childhood; if I picked XF, I felt like I was living in the past. They're both my favorite show ever, for different reasons. XF because it was the show that informed all of my dramatic sensibilities, the first show whose fandom I entered, the first show that I was crazy over; BSG because it's the best show I've ever watched, because I learned how to be a writer while I watched it and I'll always connect the two in my mind. When XF ended (for me, at any rate; I still have yet to watch S9 beyond the finale), I was certain that I would never find another show to make me feel the way I did for XF. I had several shows after that I loved and that meant a lot - Buffy and Angel, Arrested Development - but nothing that was quite the same. That BSG made me feel the same way that XF did when I was a kid means there's no way to put one above the other. It's a tie!

In case Holly was interested, some various BSG desktops (or website banners I turned into desktops) I've made over the years. I think they're all 1024x768, so if you want different dimensions (probably bigger, almost all were made with my ickle laptop screen), shouldn't be a problem, just let me know.











I also have a couple that are just promo images that were big enough to slap up without needing to do anything else, really, so you should have those on the DVD, too. :D

Caprica pilot soundtrack. I really don't understand why Bear McCreary is still scoring for TV. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to hear his stuff on a regular basis, and the quantity is not at all affecting the quality. I just can't believe that he hasn't been snatched up for feature scoring yet.

I want to do some art. I don't know which medium, I'd have to dig through my college stuff to see what paper/supplies I have, and I don't know what I want to draw or paint. I just feel like doing something.

The vaguest entry ever! "I feel like doing something." Yep.

We went out for my mom's birthday last night to an Irish pub. It was really good food - we had curry and chips as an appetizer, then I had a corned beef and braised cabbage boxty with mustard tarragon sauce (after one bite I announced to the table I'd need another bite to be sure, but it was probably the most delicious thing I'd ever eaten), a scone with honey butter, a Guinness, and fried bread pudding. Sarah's a pretty big Anglophile, so she was just in heaven. Our host was in his 40s or early 50s, about six-four and maybe 150 pounds, wearing a tweed suit with slicked-down hair and a John Waters mustache. He had a very delicate, upper-crusty accent and was quiet and very nice. I caught Sarah gazing at him once or twice, her head in her hands; I asked if she was in love. Without a shred of irony, she answered, "Yes."

Marshall didn't go as he had already made plans to visit his girlfriend in Lawrence and couldn't postpone or cancel for his own mother's birthday. My mom shrugged her shoulders, but also vowed darkly that she would not forget.

Holly, where are you in BSG? I was going to put some stuff up for fun but it would be kind of silly it you'd already watched the episodes. I thought you might enjoy the first season soundtrack, though.

This took a lot of time. Not so much with the Photoshop or even with the write-ups, but with finding episode-specific pictures and videos on YouTube, for which I was almost entirely successful (one I couldn't embed, which kind of threw off my overall plan, but it's no big). Here goes!

Favorite Episodes of Television 2009

10. Modern Family - “Run For Your Wife”



I started watching this show because Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cameron, went to my high school, although he graduated six years before I showed up. But it’s a great sitcom all around - I’ve enjoyed it more than Glee (blasphemy!). Funny, entertaining and with characters that - and this is sometimes rare in TV - I actually like. The show was funny before this sixth episode, but this to me felt like when everything really clicked into gear.



9. Star Trek - “Balance of Terror”



In which we first meet the Romulans. The original series is often can be campy, but this episode is deadly serious and tense; I read a review that likened it to a Cold War submarine movie, which is dead-on. Everyone - the actors, the writer, the director - brought their A-game.



8. Deadwood - “Sold Under Sin”



I feel like the appropriate level of praise I could bestow upon Deadwood would be taken as hyperbole, but it’s a fact that the level of quality in every aspect of the show is unlike most else in TV.



7. Big Love - “Come, Ye Saints”



The very large Henrickson family takes a cross-country trip, visiting the most important locations in the history of the Mormon religion as they do so. As one often sees in film, traveling lends an opportunity to strip characters down and allows them self-reflection in a way that can be difficult when trammeled in by their day-to-day lives. A beautiful, heart-breaking episode.



6. Fringe - “Bound”



I didn’t catch Fringe when it started. Then Alyssa wrote an incredibly scathing review of the second episode (scroll down to September 17) and I figured I’d not waste my time. Then, about three months ago, I saw this gif somewhere:



And I was like, I absolutely have to watch this show. So I checked it out from the library, and…this is one of those things where Alyssa and I will just have to disagree, because I love this show. No, the science isn’t real and it doesn’t make any sense, but I love the floating location tags, I love the characters and the actors who play them, I love the mood and the music and the funny. I picked this episode not just because it’s around when the show really started finding its feet - as well as defining its internal mythology - in season one, but also because of what came before it. The episode before ended in a cliffhanger as FBI agent Olivia Dunham was abducted. A lot of shows would have had that female character in peril all hour, finally to be rescued by a man. This show? Olivia rescued her own damn self before the opening credits. Awesome.



5. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - “Self Made Man”



Cameron is a Terminator assigned to protect John Connor. Terminators don’t sleep. So what does Cameron do every night? That’s the premise of this episode. What I loved about this show was how well it was able to expand from its basic premise, which we all know from the films, to create its own intricate and unique universe. While there were a lot of pure killing machines on the show, Cameron wasn’t the only Terminator to be a character in her own right, and watching her investigate with the dogged determination only a computer mind can bring to bear while being forced to interact with illogical humans made her one of my all-time favorite characters.



4. Dollhouse - “Belonging”



There are a lot of Whedon fans who seem to grudgingly watch this show, out of loyalty it seems, who don’t seem to actually enjoy it. It’s pretty common, when reading message boards or blogs about it, to see more complaints than anything else. Which I don’t get. It started off a little wobbly but don’t most shows? I’m very sad it’s been canceled, especially since the second season has brought us stellar episodes like this one, exploring the ramifications of the Dollhouse and how the dolls ended up there in the first place. Visually, this is one of the most stunning thus far. NB: This episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes.



3. Father Ted - “The Passion of Saint Tibulus”



Bishop Brennan asks Father Ted and Father Dougal, priests who have essentially been exiled because of their incompetence to tiny and remote Craggy Island off the coast of Ireland, to boycott a film that the Church has condemned. A film that no one on the island was planning on watching until the Fathers handcuffed themselves in front of the theater with ridiculous signs. I had to pause this episode three times because I was laughing too hard to live.

Video here - I couldn’t find one with embedding enabled. :(

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation - “Cause and Effect”



It’s a fairly straightforward SF premise, really: the Enterprise gets stuck in a time loop that keeps repeating itself, and must figure out how to get out and save the ship. The structure of the episode could have made it even more boring: each act repeats itself, with slight changes as the crew figures out what’s going on, but the basic action is the same. It’s also a bottle episode, so no big battles or special effects. It ends up being so fantastically fabulous that I have to give a lot of the credit to the director: that’s right, Jonathan Frakes! When you’ve got two episodes in my top ten, you’re doing something right.

I also should point out that I made nine icons from this episode. Nine. That means there was some prime Beverly Crusher action going on in here, and you know how I feel about that.



1. Battlestar Galactica - “The Oath” / “Blood on the Scales”



Okay, two episodes, but how could I really pick one? I’m not sure what I need to say about this two-parter. Action, tension, romance, lots of killing and running and even crawling the length of the ship. Roslin and Balter stuck somewhere together, bitching at each other. Starbuck holding her guns in a stupid, improbable way yet still being badass. The music when everyone joins Adama in the corridor. “I am coming for all of you!” Perfection.

Icons! A bit more diverse a set than my last few; still a lot of Star Trek, but also some Terminator, a few assorted other shows, along with various actors. I experimented a bit with colors on some of these, and tried to wean myself off of just slapping a light texture on top of everything.

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24.

25. 26. 27.

My favorites are 2, 10, 18 and 27. I think it's interesting that I generally prefer to icon women; I don't really know why that is, but it's something I've started to notice. Heh, and now all I can hear is Starbuck. "That's fascinating...you should write a paper."