Finales & Premieres

Today: Vulture offered up a guide to picking and choosing what TV shows you should watch three months from now. I think I've made my decisions based on the very little information I have, and let me tell you, a lot of it involves James Van Der Beek.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on NY Mag's site, I was reminded of why I love Paul F. Tomkins' American Idol recaps. The twice-weekly experience of reading them is not enough, however, to make me care that the show is apparently about to end or something. That country boy is about to win, yes? I sit here before you today with mixed emotions in knowing that I've finally reached the moment where American Idol is completely beyond my concern. To think that two seasons ago, I may have sent a text or two. What can I say, Kris Allen really got me with that Once cover.

Never fear; there's other stuff happening on the internet, like Louis CK's preview of the upcoming season of Louie:


The clip, of course, is not all that entertaining, but if you caught season one (on Netflix, natch-- what are we, pilgrims? We don't watch TV in real-time), you know just how fantastic this series is. I look forward to season two, which I will likely watch all in one sitting months after it airs.

There's also yesterday's Muppet trailer, a new Nerdist episode featuring Patton Oswalt (delightful!), the reveal of who Lenny Kravitz is going to play in The Hunger Games (lolwat?) and apparently the season finale of Glee is tonight, but we all joint-quit that months ago, right? RIGHT?

If not, take tonight as your opportunity to do so and spend that newfound hour of your life hugging your family or correcting someone on the internet or something. It'll be worth the sacrifice.

Unexpected It Is Unexpected

You know what's the best feeling? When you don't really know what you want, and then when you get something, you find out it was exactly what you wanted.

Like how moments ago, I was hungry, but couldn't figure out for what. We had Thanksgiving at my uncle's lakehouse, so we don't have any leftovers. I moped around the kitchen for a few minutes, pantry and fridge doors ajar, and finally settled on a turkey (cold-cut turkey, that is) sandwich with a little mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on it. I ho-hummed upstairs with my lame-looking sandwich, took a bite and realized-- what I'd wanted all along was a turkey sandwich with Parmesan cheese. Delicious.

Or like a couple of weeks back, when I wanted to watch a movie and couldn't pick one out. I crouched before my racks of DVDs, head cocked, reading each title silently and dismissing it in turn. Sighing, I decided on Stranger Than Fiction, which I'd seen in theaters, then bought on DVD when it was on sale one day and never watched. I wasn't in the mood for it, but then, I wasn't in the mood for any of my numerous movies. But once I popped the disc in the player, I was entranced. Will Ferrell, the delightful graphics the movie utilizes, the Spoon soundtrack-- and he brings her flours [sic]! It was the perfect choice to keep me enthralled and pull me out of the funk I'd been in when I'd set about to choose a movie.

And now my delicious, singularly appropriate turkey sandwich is finished. And, essentially, so is this blog entry. And I don't know what I want to do now. And nothing is jumping out at me. But whatever I choose, I hope it turns out to be exactly what I wanted.

We're All In This Together

A new addition to my list of Holy Trilogies?



Haha, nah. I wouldn't go that far (would I?). But I did make a point to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year earlier this evening with Sara and Edwin. (That's right; a boy. He can say we dragged him all he wants, but it didn't take too much convincing.)

I first made my running leap onto the HSM bandwagon awhile after the first film had been "released" on the Disney Channel. I'd been reading in Entertainment Weekly and elsewhere about this sensation that was sweeping the middle schools of the nation but knew little about it. I rented it at Vision Video ("just to see what all the fuss was about, of course"), probably sandwiched between a pair of classic or indie movies to keep up my street film cred. I sneaked it into my apartment in my purse and watched it alone in my bedroom so as to not alert my roommates to the fact that I'd apparently developed the movie tastes of an 11-year-old girl. But whatever, now I boldly hoist my HSM-flag high.

This, the third film in the franchise (and the first to grace the big screen), didn't quite live up to the sheer exuberance of the first. But if you're the type of person to like High School Musical, you'll probably like any iteration of High School Musical you can get. The songs are still catchy and it still made me leave the theater longing to go to a high school where we all knew the same dance moves (à la HSM's East High or even the school from She's All That, where Usher implored, "Now come on and do that dance I taught ya"). Score one more for the Mouse House.

A real exchange of voicemails between me and Ashleigh after I saw the movie:

ASHLEIGH: "Hey, you're probably seeing High School Musical right now, so call me later so we can talk about it!"

ME: "Hey, it's Amy, call me back so we can talk about Troy Bolton! Bye!"

ASHLEIGH: "Isn't Troy Bolton dreeeamy? Call me back!"

And really, are we right or what?

The Holy Trinity

While over at Sara and Edwin's apartment celebrating their brand new engagement (congratulations guys!), we started talking about the Final Destination movies, which had been on TV earlier in the week. "You just can't not watch," Sara said, pointing out that they'd even paused their DVR so as to go out and get dinner and resume watching once they returned. And trust me, I know this feeling. The Final Destination movies are by no means technically high quality films. I don't know that anyone would argue otherwise. And yet, anytime I'm cruising through the channel guide and notice that one of them is on USA or FX or some other cable network, I can't help it, I'm done looking. Final Destination will be playing on my TV until the last character has been chopped in half with rogue guitar strings. It is, for better or for worse, one of my Holy Trilogies.

Another Holy Trilogy, of which I am even less ashamed than the FD movies, is The Mighty Ducks. Who in our age group doesn't have gloriously carefree memories of Emilio Estevez's Gordon Bombay shaping up a band of rag-tag hockey brats and becoming a better man in the process, not to mention "quacking" Mr. Ducksworth? And what could top the first film than the cinematic masterpiece known as D2: The Mighty Ducks? It is a testament to the brilliance of the first two films that it still ranks as a Holy Trilogy in spite of the atrocities committed by the third, D3. The Ducks Go To College (and it wasn't even college, was it? Just a boarding school, because apparently Ducks never age, either) isn't a film I'll watch repeatedly-- except, y'know, on a Sunday afternoon, when the pickin's are especially slim. But it's hard to deny the appeal of one of these classic hockey underdog films. And I don't think I have to point out that they all star the young Mr. Pacey Witter, which scores bonus points in any Dawson's Creek fan's heart. Oh, Pacey. Swoonworthy even at 14.

I'll limit this list to a trilogy of trilogies, and so my final pick is one that I think any film fan can agree upon. It has it all-- action, romance, hovering skateboards and Huey Lewis & the News. That's right, I'm talking about Back To The Future. This time, it's not just the third lackluster installment (the wild, wild West? Please.) that has to be made up for-- Back To The Future, Part II may have a bit of childhood charm, but the first movie really carries this trilogy. The film's even been invoked in presidential addresses. It's timeless, I'm tellin' ya.

Other trilogies will come and go in my eyes--the original Star Wars three are pretty great, and Lord of the Rings, blah blah blah, whatever. But give me Devon Sawa & Ali Larter, Pacey Witter & Emilio and Marty McFly & Huey Lewis and I will have a 9-movie marathon of pure awesome.