tv-series: Chuck and others

What’s the fascination about Chuck? I’ve got no idea and yet I’ve been watching it religiously since the first episode aired some weeks ago. I could do with half of the idiot characters and I don’t really get the hype about Agent Warner but I can’t wait until this evening when the next episode airs.

Yes, I’m that old fashioned (sometimes) to watch series and movies on tv. This time it helps that it runs without any commercial breaks, the torture is over soon enough.

Would I choose it over any other preferred series of mine? No. But this won’t probably ever happen cause it airs in the early evening program.

Let’s see how this one develops ;)

Btw, my first thought when I heard the title?  “Why would anyone make a series about trainers?”

 

The Mentalist is a completely different topic. I didn’t like it - even hated it in the beginning. That has changed completely, I like it that much, that I even manage to stay awake until it’s finished.

The characters work better now and while Jane was in the center from the beginning, the others have had their time too. And Agent Lisbon is quite adorable ;)

 

But I seriously wouldn’t mind if the reruns of CSI stopped and we got some new episodes. What happened to all that talk about summer not being neglected by networks anymore, seems only to apply to the US and not to Europe.

The only highlight in the next weeks? Mistresses starts airing on German channel WDR this Thursday and can thus be seen via satellite almost everywhere in Europe. I only hope they didn’t synch it.

I just read that Arte will air Mistresses too, from August on. They’ll definitely stream the English audio too.

Movies and tv-shows – my „un“favorites

Let's first establish the fact that I love movies and watching them. There are just some I will never watch and even if they were the only movie left;) Not only am I known to not being a romantic person, what I really despise are romantic movies. Especially those that tell no other story that of straight-love. Ugh.

My favorite hate-movie is Titanic. I know, there's the story about Titanic, the crew, the passengers, the fight for life – and Celine Dion. I can't remember when that or what happened, I guess I even sort of liked her at some point, but at some point her music started sounding sterile, without soul, you could physically hear how much the production of the album had cost through the songs – I don't even change channels when she comes on, I switch off.

Then there are those movies that won every possible award or those who were a major success at the box-office and I can't even stand to sit through until their end. To mention just a few: Chicago (only one song for Queen Latifah?) and No Country for Old Men (too bloody). We didn't finish I am Legend (though the sound was really great) or Volver (too overwrought). The Departed was ok, except for the ending. Was that really necessary?

As for tv-shows I try to stay away from every story that is not finished within 45 mins. Translated this means, I like crime series because most of the episodes can be watched as standalone episodes. My most hated tv-shows therefore are soaps, even more the daily soaps.

So this is the point where I have to confess that – yes – I have never seen a single episode of The L Word. Do you like me less because of this? When it finally arrived on German television, it was buried late in the night, starting at 11 pm, which is really hard to stay awake when you get up at 5 am. Then I tried DVD, I own 4 complete seasons and never got around to watching them. This being more or less a soap, I always found other series I had to watch first. By now I know that I missed some cool ladies, though I probably would have stopped watching when Erin Daniels left the show, from the few things I know, she would have been my favorite woman on that show.

Posting this pic so you know, that I know what I'm talking about ;)

Watching TV-series

I started this morning wanting to write about ESC (Eurovision Song Contest) when I made the mistake of looking into my tv-recordings folder. Instead I started the day by watching some tv-series, I had started watching most of them but fell asleep shortly before the end. Not because they were boring, but because I didn't care to zap during the commercial breaks, which is something that puts me to sleep regularly. I lower the volume and off to the dreamland I am.

When channels started to air new episodes some weeks ago, I seriously intended to blog about them every week. I quickly grew tired of this, there was nothing really interesting report and I refuse to simply summarize the episodes. What upsets me though is that airing of Numb3rs has been interrupted for the sake of live-soccer-matches; they showed reruns only for the last weeks. Not much fun.

And now the "new episode season" seems to be already over. CSI Miami stopped in the middle of the season, CSI Las Vegas apparently too, Law & Order New York (SVU) ended last week, Criminal Intent reruns have been going for weeks and apparently NCIS also stopped yesterday and none of the last episodes were a season-finale episode.

That leaves us with new episodes for The Mentalist - a show which I didn't like in the beginning but I'm slowly taking too, Fringe - a show I loved from Day One, Bones - no need to say anything about if you follow me on twitter (I love it) and Life.

I've really come to appreciate sidereel, which introduced me to Lie to me, a show I like just as much as Fringe.

I always seem to forget to mention Cold Case, a show I truly like for the stories. I'm missing Criminal Minds, The Closer and Without a Trace. There are still some unaired episodes of Wire in the Blood, and despite this being a series I more think of the episodes as movies because of their length. And of Simone Lahbib.

My „no particular reason“ crush – Marie Labory

Marie Labory is a French TV journalist who has worked for ARTE Culture, hosting the shows alternating with Annette Gerlach for the last couple of years. The first time I saw on her tv I thought "well if she Is not a lesbian then I don't know who else is";)

Internet resources didn't deliver the expected results and trust me, normally I'm really good at digging. Ok I found out that she had worked for the gay channel pink tv, that was a hint but no proof. There's a certain type of women who appeal to the gay community and who therefore work for gay programs, events, magazines because they are successful at their jobs and not because of their sexual orientation.

Imagine my surprise and joy at finding an article on the French site têtu, confirming my hopes. Apparently she's been out forever :)

The article is about her being the only out female journalist and - here's the actuality angle - today's starting Festival de Cannes and how arte's daily show tries to be different from the others, e.g. Canal +. They're allocating the same space to all three sections of the festival, so we're going to learn more about the movies running at Un Certain Regard.
Looking forward to getting my daily movie dose presented by Marie Labory :-)

Official trailer at ARTE, looks like fun.

First guest will be Isabelle Huppert, president of this year's jury.

What I forgot in this week's tv series

Fringe, I totally forgot about Fringe and wonderful Anna Torv, aka as Agent Olivia Dunham. The show started airing last Monday with the 90-min pilot on pro7. I sincerely hope that - as much as  I would like to see new episodes of CSI:NY - VOX won't take the bait and program unaired episodes against Fringe.


Fringe is like The X-Files, only better - that's what I heard from several sources. It's true, in a certain way, but Fringe is also completely different in its own way. The main character is a woman (yeah, you already knew that, don't ya' ? ;-)) and intriuge and secrets also make up for a good part of the plot and the suspense. Then there's the technical, scientific aspect of the show - CSI and Bones put in a mixer and brought to next level.

Well it's somehow frightening how these old research results seem so completely plausible to me.
And this is where Fringe is so completely different from The X-Files. With The X-Files I always knew that most of the story were simply unbelievable and too constructed, they also lost me completely some time before the movie came out. Just to make this clear, I'm quite sure that we're not the only life in this universe, but I don't think that we're that important that others will constantly observe us ;)

It also helps that Agent Olivia Dunham is played by Anna Torv, former Mistress



and object of desire for Shelley Conn.




I'm looking to forward to see the next episode or more precisely the ending of the second episode, cause - once again - I fell asleep while watching TV. This doesn't say anything about the quality of what I've been watching: lack of sleep, waking up at 4am and pain killers are mostly the main reason for this.

I also watched Bones yesterday afternoon, that was one hilariously funny episode - the one where Bones has the guard of a baby for some days. This situation results in some of the best bantering dialogue we had for some time. And not only Bones, but Angela and Cam were also in this; Cam having the best line with "giving this body up for that?" - I'm so with you on this, Cam - especially when you're dressed like that!

 




The ending was so in line with Bones character, they had me almost thinking that she was setting up a fund for the little kid - but no, she provided help for the entire city and work for the adoptive mother.
I think I'll keep this episode for some time, I need to rewatch it - several times :)

This week's tv series

I'm not only behind on writing; I'm also behind on watching ;) This week's tv series offered the usual stories and somehow more of them than normal were deceiving.

Having watched 3 episodes of the Mentalist I don't think I'll ever get into that series. It focuses way too much for my taste on the main character (yeah, I know, that's what main characters are for) while the other characters remain hollow.
NCIS had its moments, which required an immediate post from my part already last Monday. Yesterday's episode concentrated almost exclusively on Gibbs and Gibbs sen., not much to write about Ziva. But she's always worth some screencaps.

 

CSI Miami featured Kate Moennig, but having never watched TLW I can objectively say that it wasn't the most important role in that episode, as it centered on the story of the M.E. and her son being the suspect in a drug deal and subsequent murder. Oh, and it's still my least favorite CSI, though I'm starting to think that this might be due to the synching.

Criminal Intent is also strange this season, at least Wheeler is back but all in all there are too many intrigues doubled with strange behaviour going on. Let's see when Criminal Intent and Life will change slots, I'm betting on this!

Law&Order SVU did a really weird plot this week, about homeless living together as a family and having harsh rules like disrepect requiring the death penalty. At least they didn't have any inconsistences with Det. Benson's hairdo.

CSI Las Vegas is still missing more female characters.

I forgot to tape Cold Case and Numb3rs, on my backlog watching list remain
1episode of Bones
4 episodes of Exes and Oh's
1 episode of La vie est à nous
1 episode of Wire in the blood

You don't know La vie est à nous? It's a french soap showing on TF1 Saturdays at 5.50 pm. Read what you missed so far on eurOut.

This week's tv series

Wow, tv-wise this week had a lot to offer. So much, that I completely forgot about Numb3rs, even taping it ;-(

It started on Sunday with 2nd episodes of NCIS and The Mentalist, and Life and Wire in the Blood. NCIS was cool as always, too much budding between Ziva and Tony, though I bet that the teasing will be back shortly. After all, the team had to be brought back and we can focus on more important things starting next episode, which will be on tonight.
I don't know what to think of  The Mentalist, it focuses too much on building the main character while the others are quite shallow. Knowing that the series is a big hit, I'll give it some more episodes.

Haven't watched the Sunday episode of Life so far, as it also started showing on Vox and I wanted to see where everything started.
My current favorite quote comes from this series

Crews: "You were once a child too,..."
Reese: "There's no proof for that"
Yep, wouldn't think so ;)



Monday's offer mostly reruns, except for Shark, but honestly? Without Jeri Ryan something is terribly missing from this show.

Tuesday had CSI Miami, which I watched but didn't pay attention too. Today we watched the first episode and this one had me wondering the entire time, what about this episode required the "not suited for under sixteen"?

Exes and Oh's also shows on Tuesday (gay station Timm), I watched some of it, which I like so far. I didn't like the fact, that I can't switch off the German subtitles, well but that's not Michelle Paradise's fault.
Wednesday went by so quickly, I'm sure there was an episode of Criminal Intent with Eames/Goran, but staying up late for Exes and Oh's took its toll and I was asleep half way through.

On Thursday I continued my obsession with Det. Benson's hair, CSI Las Vegas and Bones came later but I watched them on Saturday. CSI Las Vegas is missing another female character; there are too many men around in this season, hopefully this will change soon.
Bones, well Bones is Bones. I like it.

And the week finishes with Cold Case on Fridays, a series I not only love for Det. Rush but also for its plots. Most times they are not simply about murder or crime, but also tackle the reasons including society's problems from that time, which are not always that different from today's problems.






And don't forget, Fringe will start on Monday!

Stürmischer Start

Letzte Woche war wirklich heftig, nicht nur, dass ich mir die seit Jahren stärkste Erkältung eingehandelt hatte; nein, uns haben auch die Ausläufer des Sturms ziemlich durchgeschüttelt. Mit dramatischen Auswirkungen ;-) Immer noch kein pro7, sat1 und kabel1, arte und die digitalen von ard mucken auch ziemlich; oh und von Eutelsat ganz zu schweigen. Klar habe ich einen Techniker angefordert, der kommt auch schon in 14 Tagen. Noch zwei weitere Folgen von TSCC (The Sarah Connor Chronicles), die ich nicht sehen kann :-(
Hoffentlich klappt das dann auch alles, denn so langsam kommen ab Ende Februar auch endlich wieder neue Serien oder neue Folgen bekannter und geliebter Serien in der Kiste. Z.B. Cold Case, Spurlos verschwunden, CSI Las Vegas, aber auch Fringe mit der wunderbaren Anna Torv :) (So was wie Akte X nur besser *g)
Klar, natürlich läuft momentan auch neues von Law & Order SVU, aber irgendwie lenken mich die ständig wechselnden Frisuren von Det. Benson von den Geschichten ab. Mal schaun, wie das weiter geht.

My "no particular reason" crush

Naw, I won't start another series of "current crush" post, there are already so many out there, and they do it all better than me.
I'd still like to let you know of whom I've been thinking a lot lately, and that is Annette Gerlach. IMO she is *the* face of Arte.


She started out as newscaster for Arte Info and has been responsible for and hosting herself Arte Culture. She is German but speaks French fluently and she masters both languages equally and that on a very high level. Whenever I see her on tv it's only moments later that I realize in which language she is communicating. And it's been only a couple of weeks that I learned that she is German, I'd always assumed her being French.

I don't really know much about her, but it's that kind of mystery that's attracting ;-) Isn't it? And we're going to get some quality time with her, because she will be hosting the Teddy Awards on Feb 13th (aired on the 14th on Arte). If you're curious and can't wait until then, have a look at some videos from last year, with host...yes...Annette Gerlach.
The opening scene in that video shows Claudia Roth, one of my favorite politicians.

Tante Overbeck

Gestern abend gab es mal eine neue Folge aus der Krimi-Reihe Wilsberg im ZDF. Ich weiss ja auch nicht genau, warum ich mir das immer wieder antue, denn das Tempo ist ziemlich gemächlich.
Einer der Hauptgründe ist aber definitiv Rita Russek. Und gestern war sie brilliant (Bilder 5 und 11) :-)) Es war eine Jubiläumsfolge, aus der fast eine Art Kammerstück gemacht wurde. Ihr Assistent wurde kurzer Hand zu Tante Overbeck (der ist ja nun mal auch zu dämlich), sie gab sich als Frau Wilsberg aus, die aber ihren Namen behalten hat, also doch Frau Springer...einfach zum brüllen :-)
Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, ob es jemals so viele Szenen mit ihr gab, in denen Wilsberg nicht zu sehen war. Sogar die Schlussszene gehörte ihr!

Bambis 2008

Donnerstagabend gab es also die Bambis. Viel davon habe ich nicht gesehen, Herr Schmidt ist für mich unerträglich.

Ich wusste aber, das Pink auftreten würde und durch gutes Timing habe ich auch tatsächlich geschafft, ihren Auftritt in voller Länge zu sehen. :-)

Auch wenn sie in Abendgarderobe ein bisschen wie in Drag aussieht, besonders so wie sie sicht bewegt ;-), der Auftritt war spitzenmässig.

Freitagmorgen dachte ich dann, ich hätte mich verhört, als von Britney Spears geredet wurde. Aber als abends dann noch ein kompletter Bericht über sie kam, auch dass sie einen Bambi (??!) bekommen hat, weitere andere erwähnt wurden und Pink noch nicht einmal namentlich erwähnt wurde, war ich doch ziemlich sauer.

Ich will die beiden noch nicht einmal vergleichen, da Pink immer gut ist, egal was sie macht und ihr neues Album spielt wieder in derselben Liga wie die anderen und sie wird bestimmt noch etliche Singles auskoppeln. Und….aufgrund der grossen Nachfrage hat sie schon mind. 4 Zusatzkonzerte für ihre Deutschlandtournee eingeplant!

So what ! :P

This week's tv-series

My schedule changed this week, which means that I was busy with other things while Law and Order New York was on, was awake through CSI Las Vegas and saw parts of Bones. I taped them all, but haven’t yet had the time to watch them.

NCIS – still reruns, but a very likable episode where Ziva falls for a guy who has been exposed to radioactivity and will certainly die. The acting was well guided and directed and totally believable.

Criminal Minds – another episode with a gruesome story. The story itself was okay-ish, though if you think it through, this would mean that the tendency to brutality would be hereditary.

There was also a moment for fan fiction (f/), right at the end when everybody is leaving and Emily gives JJ a short but very affectionate pat on the back.

CSI New York –I like it. Nothing more, nothing less.

CSI Miami – I hate it. More and more.

CSI Las Vegas –not my favorite episode, hopefully it’ll be better next week.

Criminal Intent – with Goran and Eames. Tough subject, with unlikable characters who turn out not to be that bad after all.

Standoff – I despise it, don’t watch it.

Tonight there’s a “northern” Tatort with Komissarin Lindholm, and next Saturday will offer a new episode of Bella Block!

Go here for a brand new installment of CSI Alsace ;-)

This week's tv-series

Apparently my inner clock is working again, meaning I stay up after 10 pm and am still up before 5 am ;-)
CSI New York – finally solved the case of “333” and I must say, it was an extremely good episode. I’m not sure if we’re going to see more of that Chicagoan detective, hey …that was Erin Daniels!
Criminal Intent – a rerun – from quite the beginning. What I’d never realized until yesterday was how much Det. Eames had changed. Her demeanor had always been the same, but she looked so soft and innocent back then. It’s only been in the last two or three seasons that I really started acknowledging her, it’s as if they'd butched her up, though I can’t really say how. Something about her face.
NCIS on Sunday was a rerun too. But it started with the scene where Ziva shows the others how to handle knifes.
Criminal Minds was very disturbing, have their cases always been this horrifying? I think I remember when it was more about psychologies and not blood.

This week's tv-series

Let’s start my ranting with Saturday’s Rosa Roth. The sound was awful (but that must be a ZDF problem). The story and all the rest were great. And we got to see so much of her, more than in other episodes because she still had no other team. Then ending – well that was quite dark, but nevertheless typical for this series. All in all this week’s highlight.

CSI Las Vegas – what was that? The labrats getting an entire episode for themselves? No thanks.

Law and order New York – I had my doubts, when I saw the trailer and early on in the episode. But the episode didn’t turn out to be a homophobic one, no - that subject was treated quite delicately. But please give Det. Benson her cool outfits back, the no-nonsense t-shirts and shirts, and when did she start to wear those huge earrings? Why this femming up the character?

Criminal Intent –Dets Eames and Goran. Fighting against the FBI and making the agents look stupid. Good one, until I feel asleep. Which also happened the other days, cause I had problems adjusting to winter time. I was tired that I even forgot to record my favorite series…tough luck…