RhymePhile's Rat Race

Am I the only person that watches 30 Rock? Well, technically I watch it online on Hulu.com on Fridays because it airs opposite Supernatural, and there's no way I'm missing the Winchester boys.

Anyway, just thought I'd say that I love Will Arnett as Devon Banks. When he and Alec Baldwin are in the same scene together it's like a battle of the basso profundos. Arnett's Banks is a gay guy who's marrying the boss' daughter in order to get a hold of NBC, with Baldwin's Jack Donaghy fighting him every step of the way this season.

We now return you to the few hours you must watch the clock until you can get the hell away from your job for the weekend. In the words of Liz Lemon, "Aw, blurgh!" TGIF.

It's another nice morning here in Manhattan, so once again I decided to walk the 26 blocks to the office. It's partly because I'm in no particular hurry to get to work, and partly because it's good for my fat ass.

On the way this morning I saw a Tylenol billboard that said for every one pound of weight lost, four pounds of pressure are taken off your knees. I'm all for that.

But the most iconic NYC thing, if you will, I saw this morning was a guy taking a pee completely in sight of everyone on 9th Avenue. This wasn't one of those crazy homeless guys; oh no, it was just some worker dude who didn't even bother to find a john. Or even walk farther down the street to at least hide the fact that he was pissing in front of everyone for that matter.

As I passed him, by strange chance a female cop was walking my way. She didn't look like a parking cop as they have different patches on their uniforms. I told her there was a guy pissing around the corner. Her response?

"I don't wanna see that!"

*sigh*

And in semi-related NYPD news, could last week's teaser for last night's episode "Closet" of SVU be any worse? I'm guessing NBC chose to purposely ignore the gay athlete storyline and instead chose to focus on Bill Pullman's 2 minutes on screen? WTF? I tuned in last night more than halfway through, and when I saw the pretty, pretty guy Lincoln (played by an actor named Bailey Chase if you're interested) I was pissed that I might have actually enjoyed the episode. But noooooo, don't tell us that the storyline might actually mention homosexual reltionships, NBC! Instead, show us the awkward weird kiss between Oh I've Been Dating Her For Months Offscreen, Why Don't You Move In With Me Bill Pullman Character and Worst Detective EVAH Olivia Benson Who Had The Audacity To Be Annoyed When It Was Her Fault Cute Gay Sports Guy Almost Got Killed?

GAH, this show. Next week is Robin Williams chewing the scenery and shitting out Emmy nominations. That's a big HELL TO THE NO. I'll hold up my end of the bargain to the 170+ people that subscribe to my YouTube channel in order to watch the teasers, but that's it.

Meloni, when you're done with that poorly-written crap, let us know, okay? Even you can't get me to watch anymore.

Just a reminder...

I haven't been so bored with TV in a really long time. The only thing I'm looking forward to is the Torchwood season finale this Friday (to be hopefully downloaded and watched Saturday), and the Battlestar Galactica premiere the same night. Well, that's putting it mildly. I can't wait for the BSG premiere. I shall be wearing my "Frak Off" T-shirt to work in honor of it.

Everything on television right now is reality, reality, reality. I don't care! I'm quite happy with all my documentary shows (what's on Frontline tonight, I wonder?) but some new dramatic programs would be welcome.

Despite working in a TV-related field, my viewing tastes are specific. I don't watch reality shows. It's too much fakery and pandering. I choose instead to watch documentary-like reality shows, such The First 48 on the A&E Network, or Deadliest Catch on Discovery.

Of course I love Battlestar Galactica and Torchwood, but the bulk of my television watching (like 99%) revolves around documentaries.

( Rhyme is saving the world, one electrical plug at a time )

A few weeks ago I brought the last Torchwood disc over to my girlfriend's house in order to force encourage her to watch the show. I had already seen "Captain Jack Harkness" but wanted to share the boy kissing with her.

She liked it. What wasn't to like? Boys? Uniforms? Kissing? From there we watched the finale of Series 1, and since I hadn't seen it, we both squealed when Ianto and Jack kissed.

Since we both adore Ianto, I hinted about the copious amounts of boy kissing suggested we both download Season 2.

I've been downloading at home thanks to one of my Flist. Except today, I might have downloaded the third episode in work so I could watch it during my lunch break. Hee! I couldn't wait until tonight!

I hope the rest of the season keeps up at this pace, because each episode has been better than the last.

ETA Some Lost-related stuff: It returns tonight! You can watch a clever 8 minute and 15 second summary of all three seasons to remind yourself what's happening (or to see certain scenes for the first time, after you got completely annoyed with the show and kept shutting it off every week when you were half-way through an episode) right over here.

There are two short clips from the new episode airing tomorrow and two short interviews with Jensen and Jared right over here.

Make sure you watch the second episode clip first, then the top one. I don't know why they set it up the way they did, but it makes more sense to watch the second clip first.

Obviously you're going to watch four full minutes from the episode, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't watch.

(No spoilers here, but spoilers in the comments)

I downloaded and watched the second episode ("Sleeper") of Torchwood last night, and I was blown away by how good it was. It was tense, scary at times, violent at others, and the guest actress, Nikki Amuka Bird, was amazing.

It was one of those characters that even though you know it's a guest role, it stays with you. The best example of a character like that is Peter Boyle's Clyde Bruckman from The X-Files episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."

And one more thing...I need to make Ianto icons. My love knows no bounds.

I just turned on my iPod in work and it started with Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye." That song brings me back to the early '90s, when I was working part-time in a movie theatre. We had a disc of songs handed down from corporate that would play in between shows, and "Last Goodybe" transports me to busy Saturday afternoons as I swept up popcorn and M&Ms that littered the auditorium floors. I've always loved this particular song, probably because Buckley's voice would float over the theatre sound system so perfectly.

I finally got around to watching the first episode of Torchwood, despite having downloaded it more than a week ago. I was sick, and then I was away for the weekend, and I didn't get around to it until last night. I have to say, I think James Marsters worked harder on his accent here than in the past and it was much improved. And after having watched the episode, I think the silly shit he was spouting in interviews about his girlfriend having to be on the set when he kissed John Barrowman did him a disservice. There was some nice chemistry there, and if he was uncomfortable in any way his professionalism made up for it.

TV rec: If you haven't seen Breaking Bad on cable network AMC yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. First of all, it's written by X-Files alum and wunderkind Vince Gilligan. If you know your X-Files, his name alone should send you scurrying to the show. It stars Bryan Cranston -- who was always very good in Malcolm in the Middle -- but he's a fantastic dramatic actor. The show is about a high school teacher, Walt (Cranston), who discovers he's dying of cancer and decides to team up with one of his former students who cooks meth. Cranston is excellent in his role, and the show is darkly funny. You can catch episodes 1 and 2 again on Sunday, February 3 at 10 p.m. est, right after the Super Bowl. At least put them on your DVR, and then keep up with new episodes Sundays at 10.

The WGA has another one of those YouTube parody videos out, this one with Mariska hollering "Can you write for me now?" over and over into her phone.

I, being the rabblerouser and annoyed SVU fan that I am, posted the following response to the video:

While you're on the phone, Ms. Hargitay, could you ask the writers why they continue to churn out soap opera-esque hacky plots and weak storylines for SVU? If they answer you let us know, because then I'll start watching again.

ETA: Looks like I already ruffled feathers, *snort*.

For those of you on torch_wood or barrowmanfans, you've already seen these (via poster hobbitz4peace), but I thought I would share a link for the rest of my Flist, because, hello, boy kissing!

And not just any boys -- John Barrowman (aka Cap'n Jack from Torchwood) and James Marsters (that bleach-blonde vampire Spike from Buffy and Angel, if you didn't know).

Heh, obvious spoilers for the first episode of Series 2 of Torchwood behind the cut.

( I wouldn't have minded seeing this on Angel )

Why don't we have a talk show like Graham Norton's in the States? Even though I don't know who many of these British celebrities/popstars are, I always enjoy watching his programme <-- (that's cuz I'm talkin' about UK TV).

I caught up today with two episodes I had taped but hadn't watched. One was Miriam Margolyes and Ashley Jensen (both of whom I didn't know, even though Jensen is on Ugly Betty) and the Christmas special, which had Russell Brand, Lorraine Kelly, Christopher Biggins, Barbara Windsor, & The Feeling, all of whom I didn't know either. The Feeling was another British emo boyband that Graham is so fond of (are there thousands of them across the UK fer crying out loud?).

Stage actress Miriam Margolyes was an absolute hoot, and comedian Russell Brand was hysterically funny. I loved the way he used language -- I dunno, I can't describe it properly, only that he was really clever. Here, see what I mean.

I love the way Graham turns the show into an audience participation event, and gets the celebrities to talk about stuff you would never hear about on US TV. US TV talk shows are so frickin' boring. I mean, Miriam was talking about the time she had a guy (fully clothed) stick his erect penis into the bum area of her skirt when she was on the Tube. And Russell was talking about going to a sex addicts recovery center. Do you know how boring US celebrities are when they keep repeating the same thing over and over on talk shows?

And the funny thing is, even though I don't know who these people are, I never fail to watch, and laugh.

For a short time, Gillian Anderson will be hosting the new, revamped, Masterpiece Theatre.

Renamed as Masterpiece Classic, it will be hosted by Anderson through May. She starts January 13.

Read more about it right over here.

(This info comes from my former roommate, Joey D., who e-mailed me this afternoon)

If you're a Torchwood fan on my Flist, perhaps you've seen the new promo photo someone at torch_wood posted yesterday of James Marsters as "the new character whose name I know and is mentioned in the linked photo but won't say here in case people get bugged about spoilers"?

I haven't read any spoilers explaining exactly who he is (I want to be surprised) but the photo is worth looking at, just because. And may I just say that it's been a while since I've been this excited about a guest star on a TV show in a really long time?

/in Drusilla's voice: Spoike!

I'll put this behind the cut for those of you who either haven't seen it, don't watch, or don't care.

( Thoughts on Razor )

For Battlestar Galactica fans, tonight is the 2-hour movie premiere of Razor, the movie that fills in the gap of what happened to the Pegasus (commanded by Admiral Cain, otherwise known as actress Michelle Forbes, aka Ensign Ro Laren from ST:TNG) when it first survived the Cylon attack, and it gives us a bridge into Season 4 (which doesn't start until APRIL, GAH).

The reason I mention this, aside from the obvious fangirling, is that the first hour is up against TWO BOYS KISSING ON TORCHWOOD.

The programming monkeys are so mean!

If you get BBC America but aren't a fan of Torchwood, at least tune in around, oh, 9:45 p.m. or so just to see the smooching. I timed the boy on boy kiss, and it's approximately 22 seconds of hotness. It will be interesting to see if BBC America shortens the liplock with an edit for prudish American standards. Let's hope not!

Oh, sort of speaking of, I hear Jamie Bamber (Apollo on BSG) is one of the actors that have filmed a public service announcement on behalf of GLAAD. The spots use actors to urge viewers to combat homophobia, and immediately after Razor (or during, the media release isn't totally clear) you can see the spot.

I was watching the Supernatural episode from two weeks ago online, the one with the ghost ship (the title of which I can't be arsed to look up because it was so boring I shut it off), and thought I recognized the Yellow House shooting location from back in Millennium days.

Turns out I was wrong, and this Millennium fan site told me so.

While there, I happened upon info on the new X-Files movie. Apparently it's being called "Done One" (heh) for casting purposes. The Millennium fan site linked to some casting info...no actors yet, but characters are listed.

Find it here.

Via a link at TV Squad, comes some interesting news about actors on NBC-Universal shows.

According to the story at Deadline Hollywood Daily:

The force majeure provision allows studios and networks to suspend SAG members' deals immediately once production on their shows has shut down.

This means that actors on shows like 30 Rock, The Office, and Battlestar Galactica have been suspended, without pay, until the strike is resolved. It also means the actors are still contracturally obligated to the shows they signed up for, whether they're getting paid or not. So, let's say new Show Y comes around and wants to hire Actor X from NBC Show Z. Since Actor X's contract holds them to Z Show (even though they're not getting paid) they can't take the role on Show Y.

Crazy.

I wonder if the Law & Orders received their letters.

This will definitely affect the SAG contract negotiations that are coming up.

First, a quickie about Torchwood: if anyone is still confused as to what exactly will be in/edited out of the Region 1 set that's going to be released January 22, you can find more information at torch_wood here.

Next, is anyone a Friday Night Lights fan? I should have mentioned this Friday when I saw it, but whatevs.

The next time you see the teaser for this Friday's episode, play attention to the flashback scene where Landry attacks the guy who tried to rape Tyra. In the teaser, they used the original version they filmed of the scene, where the Bad Guy was facing Landry, and Landry used a beer bottle, and he only hit the guy once. Of course, the scene they used was far different, involving a lead pipe, an attack from behind, and two swings to the head.

Last night I taped SVU and watched Nip/Tuck. My co-worker Mary doesn't have a TV but became obsessed with the good doctors of McNamara/Troy via DVD. I've been recording it on DVD for her. And also, many of my Flist watch. (colleendetroit, I was thinking of you during almost every scene last night!)

Apparently while I was watching the glorious hedonism of Sean and Christian in LA, I missed exploding pizzas in the squadroom and Olivia booking a suspect -- literally. I heard she actually hit the guy with a book.

I need a moment to BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

*wipes tears* Oh, SVU. You've turned into the soap opera of dramas. Are we going to get evil twins next? Characters that have been married multiple times? Scenes like that classic from Soapdish?

"He was decapitated! Do you know what that means? It means he doesn't have a head! How am I supposed to write for a guy who doesn't have a head? He's got no lips, no vocal cords!"

Or maybe we're going to get some kind of horrible, Emmy-worthy ailment, like blindness?

Oh, wait...

( More bwahahahaahaaaaing and Nip/Tuck-ing behind the cut )