Why I love television

Some of my favorite television characters. Truth.

Sometimes when I talk to people about television, I feel like they don't really get why I'm so passionate about it. Most people see television as a temporary distraction from real life, a source of information, or (perish the thought!) white noise. Scripted television has been, until recently, seen as a lesser form of entertainment; serious actors go to film, or the stage, screenplays are more complex and sophisticated than teleplays, and cinematic geniuses certainly don't sully their resumes with television projects. In recent years, those opinions have largely disappeared, but a large chunk of the general population still sees television as the awkward younger sibling of film.

As a child I was a Sesame Street fiend, and watched episodes of Eureka's Castle and David the Gnome while I stayed home with mom, before I started school. They whetted my thirst for stories, which was something I wanted however I could come by it. I had always been a consummate player of pretend, acting out stories in fantasy lands like those I heard about in books or saw on television. By night our family would gather around the television to watch The Nanny and reruns of The Cosby Show, educating me in the sitcom. By the time I was in high school, I had probably watched more reruns of classic television shows than anyone I would graduate with. It wasn't until high school, however, that I really fell in love with with it.

My love of television very much stems from my love of stories, and the disappointment I remember feeling when I would finish the too-short novels I devoured not long after deciphering the English language. All of the stories had endings, but the lives of the characters I felt connected to kept going, at least in my imagination. I wanted to know all about these people, their futures, their dreams, their passions, before I even thought about any of those things in my own life. It was the same with movies; what happened to Thumbelina and Prince Cornelius after they lived happily ever after? Did they have adventures? Did they have eight children and grow to be three hundred years old? These are things I wanted to know.

Television allows viewers to learn more about a character than a 120 minute movie can. We get to know a character over the course of roughly twenty-two episodes each year, each running from 21-50 minutes. Character development is done over the course of years, rather than minutes, and the creators are able to keep telling stories. I think that's really what I wanted when I would finish Zilpha Keatley Snyder's novel The Egypt Game, or the animated classic Anastasia. More stories with these characters I'd grown fond of.

When I first started watching Lost, the second semester of my freshman year of college, I was a woman obsessed. I watched multiple episodes a day, and was finally caught up to season four after a few months (which was not so good for my grades, but hey, awesome show, right??). I was enthralled by this group of castaways with the sordid pasts and the mysterious island that they were all somehow connected to. The characters made me want to keep watching as I became more invested, and the writers wove such fantastic stories with these characters that there was no way I could stop.

I never thought very much about how a television show is written until a couple of years ago. It simply never occurred to me that it was an actual career that I could have, taking my love of writing and meshing it with my love of television. There's nothing I would love more than to write amazing television like I've seen on Buffy, 30 Rock, Pushing Daisies, and so many more fantastic shows that I love.

So here's hoping I have a seat at the 70th Annual Emmy Awards. :)

Did I fall asleep?

It's been over a month since my last post (yes, bad Emily!), but I have fairly good excuses. I started a play a the local community theatre, I've been working, and classes have started, so I haven't exactly been sitting on my rump for a month.

Since my last post, I have worked my way through season one of Joss Whedon's latest television project, Dollhouse. I mentioned Dollhouse in my awesome short-lived series post a while ago, but then I had only watched the first episode, which was cool, but not the amazing piece of television I expected from Joss. The key to Dollhouse is to keep going. The first few episodes, while good television, are not on par with his other projects, but as the season progresses it gets better and better.

By the time I finished the second DVD, I was in love with the show and couldn't wait for more. Eliza Dushku gets to show off her chops, playing a party girl out on the town, a hardened kidnapping negotiator, and the vacant-expressioned active Echo, all in one episode. The supporting cast, which includes Tahmoh Penikett, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, Olivia Williams, Amy Acker, and Fran Kranz, are equally fantastic, and are part of the reason I wanted to come back for more.

Favorite things:

• Victor in his non-imprinted state. He's flippin' adorable.


• Echo saving the day when the leader of a cult she has joined becomes really scary.


• Topher and Adele under the influence of the drug in "Echoes".


• "Oh, my God. I find lentils completely incomprehensible."


• Topher imprinting Sierra to be his friend on his birthday in "Haunted".


• Alpha's many personalities.


• Victor and Sierra. D'awww.


• "Epitaph One". Gahhhhhh.


• "Remains" by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon. This song plays in "Epitaph One". I had already heard it, but was even more powerful in context. Fwahhhhh. Love it so much.


• "Carrots! Medicinal carrots! Personal-use medicinal carrots that were here when I moved in and I'm holding it for a friend!"

Emily's Emmy picks!

The nominations are in, and awards season is a glint on the horizon. In a little over a month, we'll find out who (according to Emmy voters) in television is among the best of the best. Usually the voters in question have a slightly different opinion than I do as to who exactly is the best of the best, so here are my picks:

It occurs to me that the only drama I consistently follow is Lost, but now I don't even have that, making my picks for any of the drama categories slightly biased. The Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category has me torn between two of the best actors on Lost, in my opinion. Michael Emerson always made me cringe (in a good way, a good cringe) as the awesomely creepy Benjamin Linus, and Terry O'Quinn showed us a different side of John Locke at the end of the series as Anti-Locke. Lead Actor is going to have to go to Matthew Fox (even though I really, really do not like Jack. Okay, I hated him less at the beginning and the end.). The only Lead Actress nominee I've seen in action is Law and Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay, who has only snagged one Emmy out of her six nominations, which was back in 2006, so maybe she's due another. I'm going to root for Mad Men's Christina Hendricks for Supporting Actress, based solely on her performance in Firefly.

I follow far more comedies, which makes it a little easier to be balanced. Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series will most likely go to Jane Lynch as her hilariously awful Sue Sylvester in Glee, which I could support, though it would also be great for Kristen Wiig to finally get her due for SNL, or Jane Krakowski for 30 Rock, but if I were a betting woman, it would be Jane Lynch all the way. My Supporting Actor pick has not changed for the past few years, and after four noms, I want to see a win. I will root for Neil Patrick Harris as How I Met Your Mother's Barney Stinson until he finally gets the award he deserves. For Lead Actress, I'm torn between my undying love of Tina Fey's Liz Lemon and my relative new love for Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope. So I'd rather not go there, thankyouverymuch.

I now move on to another paragraph for the bloodbath that is the Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category. I feel like I need to first apologize to both Steve Carell and Alec Baldwin for this, but I have to go with Jim Parsons as everyone's favorite neurotic physicist Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. He's kind of how I picture myself, if I were male, lacked social skills, was good at science, and had a degree or two.

Outstanding Drama Series is kind of a given, considering my prior comments--I'm not even going to insult your intelligence by naming my choice for the award. For Outstanding Comedy, however, I'm a little bit torn. I have to go with 30 Rock. I love The Office and Glee, but 30 Rock has been able to consistently make me laugh more than any of the others nominated.

Miscellaneous Awesome -

Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics

How I Met Your Mother - "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" - Girls Vs. Suits - Carter Bays and Craig Thomas

Outstanding Music Direction for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)

Lost - The End - Michael Giacchino, Composer

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie

Hamlet (Great Performances) -

Patrick Stewart as Ghost / Claudius

Outstanding Guest Actor In A

Comedy Series

Glee - Dream On -

Neil Patrick Harris as Bryan Ryan

Outstanding Guest Actress In A

Drama Series

Lost - The End -

Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke

Outstanding Reality Program

Mythbusters

Outstanding Writing for a Drama

Series

Lost - The End

Damon Lindelof, Writer

Carlton Cuse, Writer

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy

Series

30 Rock - Anna Howard Shaw Day

Matt Hubbard, Writer

I'm sure you all have noticed that I seem to be slightly ignoring Glee's 19 Emmy nominations. I'm not ignoring them, by any stretch. I love Glee, I really do, but to me it's sort of like a cool new friend at school. You like hanging out with this person, and think he/she is interesting, but you still have a core group of close friends that you would drop everything for. Glee and I are still in the first stages of our relationship, and I would feel a little like I was betraying my other sitcoms if I chose Glee over them.

Something that frustrated me a little bit is the total snubbery toward one of NBC's best new shows, Community. I got in on Community a tad late in the game, (like, two weeks ago) and fell in love with it.

Geronimo! (River wants to remind you about spoilers.)

I realized I hadn't done a proper Doctor Who post since David Tennant left and the new season began. Now that series five is over, I can do a no-holds-barred, spoiler-riddled, in-depth blog post, so beware! If you don't want to be spoiled, do not go any farther! I am putting this lovely picture of current Doctor Matt Smith and companion Amelia Pond, played by Karen Gillan, here to mark the divide. After the picture, spoilers. So don't keep going. Unless you are ready for spoilers. You cannot say I didn't warn you.

Aren't they precious? I mean, really.

I must admit I was a bit worried about Matt Smith. David Tennant was a fan favorite for four years, and I was afraid that he couldn't be properly replaced. I thought that Matt Smith was odd-looking, and I wasn't familiar with any of his past work.

Oh, how I was proven wrong. In action, Matt Smith's Doctor was every bit as charming, intense, sexy, and scary as David Tennant's, but with an even darker tone than any other, in my opinion. The feeling darkness is compounded by his youth; Smith is the youngest actor, at 27, to play the Doctor, Fourth Doctor Peter Davison being two years older when he began his run as the Doctor. The Eleventh Doctor is an interesting mix of contradictions, which is just how I like my Doctor.

Before I bore you all singing Matt Smith's praises, I'll move on.

There were a lot of really strong episodes this season, helped along by fantastic performances and amazing chemistry by the cast. Karen Gillan, as Amy Pond, is so much fun, and I absolutely love Arthur Darvill as her fiancé, Rory. While Amy's obvious attraction to the Doctor is something Rory obviously has a problem with, the two really do love each other very much, something we truly see when, after Rory is erased from history and Amy's memory is wiped of anything relating to him, Amy realizes that there is something missing from her life, something important.

We are also reintroduced to River Song, a character with an unknown relationship to the Doctor, first seen in series four's Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead, two of the creepiest episodes. Ever. Seriously.

One of my favorites this season was Vincent and the Doctor, in which Amy and the Doctor visit Vincent Van Gogh in order to investigate something mysterious they see in one of his paintings. While the monster itself was really nothing special, it was one of the more poignant episodes I have seen on Who. The episode examines Van Gogh as a troubled man inevitably descending into madness. A scene near the end has the Doctor and Amy bringing Vincent to an exhibit of his artwork. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry during the whole scene, huddled in front of my computer. It may also be interesting to note that this episode was written by Richard Curtis, who wrote a movie I absolutely adore, Notting Hill.

Other standouts this season include the two-part The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone, which reintroduced the delightfully creepy weeping angels, and the fan-frickin'-tastic two-part season ender The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang.

The reason I'm not mentioning more as standouts is because it all pretty much rocked. I, personally, didn't feel that any of the episodes fell very flat, and I have to give a hand to Steven Moffat, the new showrunner. Steven Moffat had written on Who in previous seasons, and has taken over after the end of the Russell T. Davies era. Moffat's previous Doctor Who writing credits include Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, Blink, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, and The Girl in the Fireplace, all of which are episodes I have loved and watched over and over again.

So, go you, Steven Moffat! Here's to many more years of fantastic Who.

Of zombies and daisies

There are really only three things that I remember about my dream last night.

They are, in order:

1. A used bookstore in NYC
2. My being in a band
3. Zombie apocalypse

I don't know what that means, but as long as it's not prophetic in any way (except maybe the first and second parts) I should be okay.

I didn't receive the next disc of Wonderfalls today. Netflix had it in his head that I would be getting it Tuesday, but it is now Wednesday, and my poor little disappointed self can only take so much. I'll be putting my account on hold shortly after, anyway. Money's tight. :(

I've been on a Bryan Fuller kick lately, rewatching Pushing Daisies with a friend of mine who had never seen it and rewatching some of Dead Like Me by myself. I've said this before, but I feel it merits repeating: Bryan Fuller is brilliant. His style is so imaginative and awesome. I want more than two seasons of him at one go!

He's apparently working on a Pushing Daisies comic to follow-up the series, which is way way awesome! Can't wait for that. And, he's purportedly working on pilots for NEW shows, including one for NBC called Sellevision, based on Augusten Burrough's novel of the same name about a Home Shopping Network-type television company. He also has another NBC script in the works, a comedy about an animal shelter, entitled No Kill.

I would really love to work with Bryan Fuller someday. The idea of making beautiful television like his makes me a little bit giddy.

"Can't we say "alive again"? Doesn't that sound nice?" - Ned the Piemaker

ALSO! It's Joss Whedon's birthday! I totally would have done an all Whedon post in his honor if I hadn't just now remembered. But there we are. I suck as a fangirl. I am appropriately ashamed. Happy birthday, Joss. :)

Is it Tuesday again?

Because it's Tuesday, I feel a strange compulsion to blog. Does this mean that I have (GASP!) developed a routine that involves blogging? Can I possibly have committed to a weekly blog updated....weekly?! Am I becoming, one small step at a time....RESPONSIBLE?!? I don't know what's gotten into me. This is the third week in a row I've posted on this blog and I don't know what to think of it. It's wigging me out a bit. But, it's possible this is just another neurosis that I've developed. But at least this is a helpful one.

Before I talk about television, the main reason for this blog, I feel the need to recount another one of Emily's Adventures with Balance, which today guest-starred the steps outside the office in which I work and God.

I was listening to NPR on my way to work this morning and getting bummed. There is so much crap going on in the world, and I found myself feeling utterly helpless. I have no power. There is absolutely nothing I can do to make this world any less screwed up than it is. And then it hit me. I'm a writer! Okay, maybe a sub-par amateur writer, who when sleep-deprived lacks her usually impeccable spelling capabilities, but a writer nonetheless. A writer can move mountains with the stroke of her pen! Make enemies fall in a sentence! And then I thought: The kind of writing that does that is really not fun. Maybe there's a way I could spin things as funny.

As soon as I thought that slightly inappropriate thought I stumbled on the concrete steps, taking a chunk out of my hand. I couldn't help but feel like I was receiving a karmic slap on the wrist. Sometimes God has a weird sense of humor. Grumbleowgrumble.

On to television!
The first disc of Wonderfalls arrived yesterday, and I've watched two and a half episodes already (I'll probably finish the rest today, actually, since I only work half a day). I really like it! It's just neat. It's similar in feel to Bryan Fuller's other work, but not quite so. I really like the protagonist, Jae. She's cynical and negative, yet has an endearing quality that I can't quite put my finger on. She reminds me a tiny bit of myself, were I more cynical and negative, I suppose. It's a shame that there are only fourteen episodes of this show, but it really is awesome.

It's definitely one of those shows that isn't for everyone, but I don't really get why. Why are viewers (and, as a result, networks) so afraid of the fantastic and imaginative? It seems to me that somewhere in the growing up process a majority of adults get the impression that nothing like that matters anymore, or that it's somehow bad to care about it.

The real world is cool and all, but there's no way it's cooler than fantasy world.

What's an addict to do?

Summer is here, and for television, that means reruns, bad reality shows, and the occasional miniseries. It can be hugely depressing for a TV addict. I mean, we need a constant stream of thought-provoking narrative and witty dialogue or we just can't go on. So to remedy this, I am filling up my Netflix queue with television that I somehow never got around to watching.

I'm starting off with the short-lived Bryan Fuller co-created (Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me) series Wonderfalls (2004). I was going to include it in my last post, but I didn't know enough about it to blog about, hence my summer viewing. The premise seems really cool, and Lee Pace is in it (my beloved Pushing Daisies piemaker), so I'm looking forward to it. (I was just struck with the notion of Bryan Fuller and Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams all working on a project together. I must place myself in the position to make that meeting happen.)

After that I'm going to finish Dead Like Me. I was over halfway through the second season, but for some reason never finished it. I was watching it on Hulu originally, and it's also on Netflix streaming, but my computer just can't handle it. It's rather sad, really. If anyone wants to send me the money for a new laptop, feel free. :]

After that it will be either Dollhouse, Studio 60, or The 4400. The 4400 because I remember thinking it looked really cool when it was on, but never saw it. That was before I discovered my voracious need for stories in television form. (And Summer Glau is in eight episodes, which is cool.) (Also, what channel did it even come on?)

In current TV news, I wanted to watch the NBC summer television event thing Persons Unknown last night, but wasn't able to. It seems like a pretty interesting premise, but not something to ask too much of. Considering I don't get channels with great summer TV like USA or SyFy, I'm having to make do with what is available.What are you watching this summer?