TV & Movies

I was thinking of rounding up a list of cultural endeavours I loved in the last few months. You might know I love old movies so there are a few of that. I'll stick with recommendations.

TV Series

1) Chuck: Of all the new series from last season, this is my favourite. I lost my other love, Pushing Daisies. I cannot say enough good things about it. It's got comedy, spy action, and romance. I love the characters. It's perfect TV fluff. I really hope NBC doesn't cancel it!

2) Breaking Bad: Such a dark series about a chemistry teacher who learns he has 18 months to live after being diagnosed with cancer. To leave money for his family, he joins forces with a younger guy to make crystal meth. So it's a totally crazy premise, but the characters are flawed and interesting, and you just want to know what will happen next. It's a series by Vince Gilligan, who was my favourite writer on The X-Files.

3) Being Erica: I've talked about it before, but I was totally sucked into this dramedy about a 30-something girl who lives in Toronto. The season finale really makes me die to see how it continues.

I also really enjoyed two BBC miniseries I watched: Cranford and State of Play.

Movies

1) Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? What a fantastic movie! It's a creepy thriller, and Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are both great. That movie had me on the edge of my seat.

2) Vertigo:. I had a Jimmy Stewart double bill a few weeks ago: The Philadelphia Story, which I love, and a movie I had never seen, Vertigo. I don't know that I was totally sucked into the movie, but I can definitely see why it's been so influential in terms of film making. It's definitely very interesting as far as how it is shot. And the plot has lots of twists and turns.

3) Sunshine Cleaning: I saw this movie last weekend. It's the story of two sisters who start their own crime scene cleaning business to try to rise up above in their situations. It's a quiet little film about the struggles of life. It just touched some cords in me. Made me cry like a little girl.

Other mentions: Loved Rachel Get Married. It was my favourite Oscar season movie along with Milk. I saw Monsters vs. Aliens in IMAX 3D. That was just a whole lot of fun. On the more serious side, Waltz with Bashir, a movie about the Shatila Massacre in the 1982 Lebanon War, is very poignant.

I have a few old school movies lined up in the next few days: 1) Hitchcock's Rope, which I have seen before but is just a great movie, 2) To Have or Have Not, a Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie, and 3) Fellini's 8 1/2.

I'll be back tomorrow with my favourite books that I've read lately.

Erica Strange's Video Blog

I love the show Being Erica and I discovered they made video blogs of her talking to Ethan about a bunch of daily events.

Here's an example...



I can only relate too much to encountering a mouse, wanting to flee, and the fear of becoming a cat lady. I love this show.

Snow and TV Shows

It's been a snowy weekend, so I had fun with my camera!








As far as TV goes, I'm so sad that Pushing Daisies has been cancelled. Now, ABC may not even air the last episodes. Boo, ABC, boo.

On the plus side, there's this new series on CBC on Monday nights (which I've heard will air in the US on SoapNet, but it's totally not a soap) called Being Erica. It's about a girl who gets sent back in time to moments she felt she screwed up to try to fix them or learn from her mistakes. The writing is really good, and I just got sucked into the show. The third episode was on tonight, and it's just so enjoyable. Plus, you get a lot of music from the 90s, which is so cool. The fact that the series is about a single girl in her early 30s living in Toronto and coming home to her cat and kinda of confused about it all might make me identify a tiny bit. ;) Highly recommended.

Chuck and The Office are also very enjoyable this year, and The Daily Show is on fire so I'm pleased as punch.

Oh, to end my post, here's a little cutie. :)