['Tos]

credit: Alex

Hi guys! Welcome to the new OT2 thread #14!

This is a second OT thread that focuses on shows, books, movies and music we're now obsessed with since Everwood ended. Important: This thread is focused on promoting in depth discussion.

Reminder:
This thread is about discussing shows, books, movies, and music we love with as much insightful discussion as possible. Bring over your opinions on latest episodes, discuss characters and storylines, books you're reading, movies you're watching, music you're listening to, but please remain cordial, respect one another and refrain yourself from turning this thread into drama land.

** This board has always been very mature and we'd like it to remain this way.

With that said, and keeping that all in mind, we'd like to welcome you to this new thread!

Shows Everwood members watch :

Michelle (Wilpen) :
Lost, Brothers & Sisters, South of Nowhere, Pushing Daisies

Alexandra (buffyannAlex) :
Gilmore Girls, Lost, 24, Prison Break, Grey's Anatomy, House, Supernatural, Scrubs, Veronica Mars, Bones, (Desperate housewives), Heroes, Brothers & Sisters, Battlestar Galactica
New shows I'd check this year : Dirty Sexy Money, Bionic Woman, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone

Ashley (AppleBehry22):
Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Nip/Tuck, Roswell, Reba, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Lost

dawnie@ :
Gilmore Girls, Lost, One Tree Hill, 24 ,Hell's Kitchen2

Angela (AngelaiDanes):
Lost, Gilmore Girls

Alan (The Crow) :
Kyle XY, Instant Star, South of Nowhere, Smallville, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Lost, One Tree Hill, My Name is Earl, The Office, Without A Trace, The 4400, The Dead Zone, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Family Guy, Gossip Girl, Chuck, Reaper, Bionic Woman, Pushing Daisies, Friday Night Lights. Heroes, Burn Notice

Tos' :
Privileged, Mad Men, Dexter, Lost, Gossip Girl, Heroes, Brothers & Sisters, Fringe, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Chuck, Dollhouse, Kings.

Coffee
Watch: Prison Break, Supernatural, House, Gilmore Girls
Want to watch but always miss it: Bones, Grey's Anatomy, Veronica Mars
Future Shows, I'm planning on watching: Jericho, Heroes..

The Ken
Current: The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, What About Brian, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Nip/Tuck, Lost, One Tree Hill, Smallville, The Office, The O.C., Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, South of Nowhere, Instant Star, Degrassi, Entourage, The Sopranos, Laguna Beach, Kyle XY, Psych...I think that's it.
New shows: Six Degrees, Heroes, Brothers & Sisters, Dexter, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Class, The Nine...

everwoodfan52 :
Brothers and Sisters, Friday Night Lights, Greys Anatomy, House, Gossip Girl, Privileged, Chuck

MrsBrown : The Office, Lost, Friday Night Lights, Brothers and Sisters, Battlestar Galactica

BepperGirl: Gossip Girl, True Blood, Bones, How I Met Your Mother, South of Nowhere, Life, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes

ShadowMagist: How I Met Your Mother, Privileged, Greek, Pushing Daisies, Smallville, Supernatural, Reaper, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters

Thief Of Love: Mad Men, Privileged, Psych, Gilmore Girls, Life on Mars

['Tos]

From the old thread

With Eli and Dirty Sexy Money biting the dust and B & S battling mediocrity, hopefully Berlanti can rebound. Otherwise, he won't be the networks' fair-haired boy much longer.

With his new idea about an alien invasion show, I'm not all that optimistic. He's got too much on his plate and it has definitely affected his work, and that won't change when the Green Lantern goes into production. One of these days I hope we get back to something simple and real and smaller.

[Thief Of Love]

'Tos, could you please add Life on Mars to my list of shows? I thought of that awhile ago but thought I'd just wait 'til the new thread to mention it.

['Tos]

Added it.

I've always been really tempted to watch Life on Mars, but I'm really wary of starting new shows right now because everything I tune into seems to get canceled. Have you watched the British one as well?

[everwoodfan52]

Thanks, Tos! I wasn't paying attention to the count!

[Thief Of Love]

Watched and loved the British one, which drew me to the American version but also made me a little wary at first. However, the producers have done a really fantastic job of making this its own series, while occasionally throwing in things to trip up those of us familiar with the British show -- a few episode storylines have been taken from the British series, but they always end up taking off in an entirely new direction that works better in this new setting (New York City versus Manchester, which...yeah, not the same kind of place, hee) and with the characters as they've been developed here. Also, while the British series had a pretty set explanation as to what was happening to Sam, the producers of this version have set up multiple possibilities, and just opened up even more with the most recent episode (recent = November). It's just been a really enjoyable, intriguing series overall so far, with a good balance of humor and darkness, and a great soundtrack to boot.

I hear you on the cancellation thing, though, particularly given ABC's trigger-happiness of late. It's being moved to the post-Lost timeslot in a few weeks, which makes a heck of a lot more sense than the post-Grey's Anatomy slot that it started off in, but then, shows that air after Lost usually bomb, so it's kind of a draw.

[ShadowMagist]

Agh! I too missed Eli Stone, guess I'll have to watch it online sometime. Yay for SN being in the episode though. So, she's back to her blonde roots then?

['Tos]

I think she's still had the red hair. I only saw her for about ten seconds, but I think that's right. I think Betty was referring to the hairstyle that was similar to season two.

Thanks, Tos! I wasn't paying attention to the count!

Hee, me neither. I was looking at the board and a light bulb went on over my head and it finally came back to me that we're supposed to stop threads at 300. Oops!

Ack, pressed reply by habit. Well then, ETA:

Thief, when does Life on Mars come back? Do you think I could pick up and watch the newest episode when it returns and "get it", or will I just be completely lost? A mention of a great soundtrack put me over the edge, and now I'm wanting to tune in, heh.

[Thief Of Love]

I knew the mention of the soundtrack would get you, heh. It returns January 28, and...hmm. I would say that with most episodes you should be able to jump right in and not be too lost, just knowing the basic "2008 guy gets hit by car and wakes up in 1973" premise, but the last ep ended on sort of a mysterious cliffhanger note. If the show is smart, however, it will make this first ep back accessible to both new viewers (since it's in a new timeslot) and to returning viewers who might have forgotten what happened last (since it will have been off for two months).

['Tos]

I'm sure they'll at least do a big "Previously on...". Hopefully it's not as mythology-based as Lost, because there's, like, two episodes where you could pretty much walk in and enjoy the episode, and that's the Pilot, which doesn't count, hee, and "The Constant" because its' so standalone. The rest are just impossible to go into without watching every single episode, and I really don't want to tune into every episode of LoM between now and the 28th!

Mad Men

I've been watching the first season DVD, and of course it's just as incredible the first time. I mostly wanted to post about the commentaries, because that's what really made me want this so bad. They're on every single episode, which sounds incredible, and it typically is. Matt Weiner is great to listen to, funny and interesting. One thing bugs me, though, and that's on a few of the commentaries, only one that I've listened to, two of the actors do the commentaries separately, and they edit them together, and it's extremely disconcerting to the extent that I can't even listen to them! I need interaction. Plus if the commentaries are spliced together, they often don't talk about what's on the screen and it's all very general, or they repeat what the person they didn't record with just said. There's a commentary nerd's only complaint of the DVDs so far.

And I've got some music thoughts, but I've typed more than I wanted to already, hee, so next time.

['Tos]

Double post because I felt like it, heh.

Music

Really found The Shins this month. Great stuff. Liked both of the albums I tried, every single song. I guess everyone and their mothers knows about them, but I have no idea what's popular or not, so I just found 'em, hee. And they're amazing!

Tried out Belle & Sebastian's Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (any idea what the story behind that title is, Thief?) and as always I'm really into them. My faves were "String Bean Jean" and "I Love My Car", but there's a lot of neat treats on that compilation!

And I really enjoyed Camera Obscura. I started with their second album and I can't remember why at the moment. Hmm. Anyway, loved 'em! Although I like the girl singing much more than the guy. I liked "Lunar Sea" by him the most, but otherwise I'd much prefer to have her singing. Plus his "Your Picture", Leonard Cohen ripoff much? Hee. Although "A Sister's Social Agony" is pretty ripoffish too, but I liked that a lot, so there's some bias! Saying that, I did like all of his songs, just not near as much as I liked hers. And I don't know any of their names, so that's a bunch of pronouns, hee. Actually, for all I know there could be more than two singers? *shrugs*

I also listened to a lot of Mew, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Stars (like The New Pornographers who are another very good Canadian indie band).

*another monthly report done* Hee, I don't know, I really like talking about music.

[Thief Of Love]

Music

Regarding Camera Obscura, rest assured that the guy's gone by the time of their third album, hee. I'm actually still having some trouble keeping the band members who aren't Traceyanne Campbell (lead vocalist) straight myself, because I think a couple of different male band members have tried out as vocalists. They really need not to, though. Heh. My weird experience with the band is that they have a number of songs that I'm not hugely crazy about; they're decent, but nothing that really sticks with me. But the songs that I really like, I love. My faves from Underachievers Please Try Harder are "Keep It Clean" and "Books Written for Girls" (which is reportedly about Stuart from B&S, because the Glasgow music scene is a small, small world). My absolute favorite CO songs, though, are from their singles and EPs -- "The Last Song," a B-side from their Tears for Affairs single, has been probably my second-favorite song, period, for the last three months. I've no idea why, I just adore it. And it's fun to sing along with, hee.

From what I've heard, Push Barman to Open Old Wounds comes from graffiti that Stuart saw somewhere and thought would make a good album title, heh. I always mentally divide the album into its two parts; from Disc 1, my favorites are "Photo Jenny," "Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie," "Beautiful," and "Put the Book Back on the Shelf," and from Disc 2, "The Gate," "Jonathan David," "The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner," "I'm Waking Up to Us," and "I Love My Car." Which...sounds like a lot, but there are 25 tracks on the whole thing, so it's not so many, hee.

My listening is very eclectic at the moment. I'm doing some '60s, just getting into Love's Forever Changes and delving deep into The Zombies. But I'm also hitting my old CD from Jazz History class and figuring out where I want to go from there to expand on that (Miles Davis and the Dave Brubeck Quartet, probably). And then I'm using an Amazon gift certificate I received towards a recording of late cellist Jacqueline du Pre perfoming Bach, Brahms, and Elgar so...it's just all over the map right now, hee.

ETA: I've only ever heard two Shins songs (actually, parts of two Shins songs) and didn't really like them, but their fanbase seems to overlap somewhat with B&S's, and if you're enjoying them now, too, 'Tos, maybe I should give 'em a go. What would you recommend as a starting point?

['Tos]

Music II

Regarding Camera Obscura, rest assured that the guy's gone by the time of their third album, hee.

Thank goodness, hee. His one great song isn't worth it!

"Books Written for Girls" was one of my faves too. What's with songs that have the word "book" in the title being good? Hee.

Ooh, The Zombies. And Miles Davis! I haven't delved all that deep into either, hee, but what I have heard is fantastic. I'm trying to do the indie thing right now (well, not Bobby Dylan or Neil, but you know, otherwise) because at least I can have some faith in new music.

ETA: I've only ever heard two Shins songs (actually, parts of two Shins songs) and didn't really like them, but their fanbase seems to overlap somewhat with B&S's, and if you're enjoying them now, too, 'Tos, maybe I should give 'em a go. What would you recommend as a starting point?

I would definitely start with Oh, Inverted World. There's definitely a nice 60's vibe over the album, purposefully, that isn't on their second one nearly as much, and that might explain a little of the overlap with B&S? I can definitely see some similarity with some of B&S's faster songs, although I like Stuart's voice a lot more. Plus, Scottish, heh. I'd say The Shins are more poppy in general musically, although lyrically I think they're quite good. "Girl Inform Me", "Caring is Creepy", "Girl on the Wing" are my faves, but you may absolutely hate them, hee. It's hard to know what you'll think, but that album is definitely your best shot for liking them with the whole 60's thing that they're doing for a majority of the songs.

Ooh, Braveheart is on. Ach aye, what a bonny film! One of my faves. I mean, it's a movie all about Scottish pride, so of course it is.

[Thief Of Love]

Music, again

I spent a good hour or so listening around on iTunes and ended up with something totally different as my Shins starter track -- "Saint Simon" from Chutes Too Narrow. Liked it very much; interesting beat, and they managed to cram three of my favorite lesser-used instruments in there (xylophone/vibraphone/glockenspiel [I can't actually tell the difference, but one of those, heh], violin, and pedal steel guitar), so I have to dig that.

I'm trying to do the indie thing right now (well, not Bobby Dylan or Neil, but you know, otherwise) because at least I can have some faith in new music.

I'd love to find more new music to really get into, but it's all just so overwhelming. There's...so much of it! And even more comes out every Tuesday, hee. At least with the older stuff there's a limit and it's pretty easy to determine which musicians and bands are worth the effort.

[everwoodfan52]

Mad Men I've been watching the first season DVD, and of course it's just as incredible the first time.

Tos, a family member received the first season DVD for Christmas. I have been watching several of the episodes with him. I'm really trying to see what it is about the show that you and so many people like, and I am really struggling. I know that I must be missing something (maybe I'm just not deep enough). I'm finding the action tediously slow, the acting not very good (especially Betty.....she reminds me of a Barbie mannequin.) I can't relate to any of the characters (none of them seem to be "good" people. Peggy is pretty decent.....but I find her odd. And, frankly, how could she give birth to a baby and not even know that she was pregnant!
I have heard that Season two is better.


ETA:I am looking forward to new episodes of Brothers & Sisters, Gossip Girl, and Privileged this week.