Day 27 - Best pilot episode.

I tend to be pretty lenient with pilots; I always remember that they're not just the first episode of a show, they're also a sales pitch to the network. A pilot has to do a lot: introduce the characters, the setting, the tone, the premise, the visual aesthetic; it has to hook viewers; it has to be open enough that there are possibilities for dozens and dozens of episodes to come, but it has to be closed enough that there's some specificity there; it has to ask some questions and allowed them to remain unanswered, so the show has something to continue to explore, but not so many that you don't feel like you're going anywhere.



Most pilots aren't that great, really, or the show they set out to establish isn't the one it ends up becoming. The only pilot I've ever seen that does everything a pilot should do, is totally cohesive with the rest of the series, and hits the ground running is the Arrested Development pilot. I find it even more remarkable how well this pilot does everything it does in only 22 minutes.

Day 28 - First TV show obsession.

I was really into TV shows from pretty much day one. I rarely watched shows casually as a kid; either I made sure I watched every single episode or I didn't bother. But, as you might have guessed, it wasn't until The X-Files that I went crazy over a show. I imagine part of it was being at the right age, but it was also the first legitimately good show I watched as it was airing for the first time, and that was a big deal, too. And, of course, the shipping (from the show that brought us the term itself!). It's kind of hard to discuss obsessing over XF as a kid without mentioning that.



And, you know, it occurred to me recently that in a few months it will be ten years since I met most of you guys because of this show. So, y'know.

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 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!

Oh, BTW, Marshall moved up to his KU dorm on Sunday. In other news, it's been a lovely, peaceful four days around here.

Icons up to Aubrey! I'm including the small batch I made last year when my aborted attempt to rewatch the whole show got me all the way up to Conduit.

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15.

16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21.

22.

Rondo allegro from Symphonie Espagnole in D minor, Op. 21, Edouard Lalo. Joshua Bell, violin. (This is one of my very favorites; I listen to it all the time, especially when I listen to my nightly classical to help me fall asleep.)

Ghost in the Machine!













Ice!











It's interesting, because both these episodes are essentially rip-offs of classic SF films, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Thing respectively. But GitM is not a very good episode, and Ice is fantastic, and a classic. I think GitM could have been a good episode, and I don't know if it was budget or sfx technology that held them back, but there was a distinct lack of menace in that computer and building, whereas Ice is a very chilling (haha) episode, because what scares us more than anything? Ourselves, and each other, and the simple fact that when it comes down to it, we're still unpredictable, angry animals.

III. Sonata in G major, presto, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Great Piano Concertos.

Shadows!









Saw The Dark Knight today; it was very good, but I think it was too overhyped, because I ended up expecting a life-changing experience, and it was merely a very good movie. Heath was incredible, though. At this point, I would be surprised if he didn't score a nomination.

I now present my thoughts on Jersey Devil in pictoral form:













To be a little more serious, I really like the last scene with the two of them. "I'll hurt you like that beast woman." It's the first time their interaction feels really genuine, without that awkwardness you get around new people, where you still think about what you're going to say before you say it. The timeline's wonky because the Pilot is dated from 1992, so it's hard to say exactly how long they've been working together, but if you go by a case a week, which is how I generally did it unless instructed otherwise, it's feels right for two people who have worked together for around a month and are now more comfortable around each other.

I will probably stop recapping individual episodes at some point, but I really have nothing else to do right now. I am ready to start outlining a new draft on a script, so I'm at that usual awful cliff-jumping stage where I just need to take the first step out into thin air. And I keep finding ways to put it off just one more day.