Misc. Monday: Thanksgiving Week

Well, hello, people of the interwebs! Just dropping in to share a few updates for the week coming up.

See Any Good TV Lately?

This past week's Supernatural  had Cas in it again! Happy Dance! With Bobby gone, Cas is by far my favorite character, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of him this season!

Once Upon a Time killed off Billy/Gus the Mouse (apparently), and gave us some more backstory and development for Ruby, one of it's most interesting secondary characters. I like this version of Red Riding Hood because she's portrayed as a very typical, urban fantasy style werewolf with all of the conflicts there in--controlling the beast, finding a pack, maintaining humanity, and so forth. Very cool, indeed.

I'm glad Arrow seems to be doing well, since I really feel that TV needs a superhero or two, and why not one with a hood? My only critical comment about the overarching plot is HOW are all of these really corrupt people all in one city? I guess Sterling is to sleezy business men as Gotham is to psychopaths?

Grimm is a great show in many ways, but it annoys the piss out of my husband. He can't get over how slow the overarching plot is to progress--"I see one out of three shows, but I don't feel like I missed anything!" And he's not entirely wrong. It is first and foremost a procedural cop show with a fairytale twist, so right now it leans more toward episodic than saga style storytelling--fine for some viewers, apparently frustrating for others. What can I say? I still find the show engaging. Although I agree with hubby on his one other criticism, which is that Juliette has become horribly annoying in her obliviousness and lack of judgement. She can die any episode now, doesn't matter to me.

Beauty and the Beast is stupidly cheesie and not all that original, but still very watchable. If it were a book series, it would be paranormal romance Lora Leigh style, but without all the sex. It would be better with sex. As would so many things.

I also caught one episode of Revolution, and I liked what I saw. Problem is, I don't really have time for all of my TV and books as it is (I'm losing sleep here, people), so to fit this in something else would have to go. Anyone been keeping up with this? Want to tell me if it's worth squeezing in?

Reading Goals Are Holding Steady!

 

I surpassed the number of books read last year (97) and just hit 101! I'm so very proud of my extreme nerdiness! My goal for the year was 112 books, and with just over a month left I can't slow down now, but I'm confident I'll make it!

What will my goal for next year be? Perhaps 113, or something even more ambitious. Next year may be a bit easier without school or a wedding to deal with.

Some Thanksgiving Advice From Your Friendly Neighborhood Penguin

 

If I'm not around much this Thursday and Friday, it is of course because of the holiday. We here in the US will be celebrating our Thanksgiving diners, and then on Friday the shopping madness begins. On Friday . Friday. And that's the first point I want to make to you all, is that Black Friday should be strictly a Friday thing. Thanksgiving is for food and football and time with your family. Many retailers have gotten greedy and are starting their sales at 7 or 8 on Thursday. Nonsense.

I bring this up because right now, I have a day job (sometimes night job) at one such popular retailer. My schedule for the holiday actually worked out okay for me. But many of my coworkers were not so lucky. In the past, everyone had to work on Thanksgiving, but only 4 or 6 hour shifts. To cope with the early sales, almost everyone has to work 9+ hour shifts on Thanksgiving--sacrificing their time with their families. Do us a favor, please--vote with your pocket books, and stay home until Friday. Friday morning--go nuts, shop til you drop, we're ready for you. But please don't encourage companies to continue with these early sales--the hidden costs are paid by workers and their families.

Happy Holiday Season, Everyone!

Misc. Monday: Wreck It Ralph

Another week has just begun, folks. There are a lot of great reviews coming up this week, but for today I'm just going to share a few brief updates and a short movie review.

I Watch TV Now! Sometimes...

 

This season probably sets the record for the most shows that I've actively tried to follow at once. It used to be one. Now it's...five? I think there are five. Holy cow.

ABC's Once Upon a Time is probably the one that I look forward to the most right now. So far, I really like season 2. I appreciate the fact that it's gone in a different direction from season 1, that it hasn't started to feel formulaic. I really like most of the characters, and I like that the world feels big and it seems like they have loads of stories to tell. Is it kind of BS to have characters like Lancelot or Mulan or, God help me, Frankenstein in a fairy tale world? Yes, yes it is. But on some level, I don't care, because the show amuses me. That is all.

Supernatural is the stale bread of TV shows right now. It is no longer, and will never be as awesome as it once was...but it's still consumable. I've found season 8 at least passably entertaining, even though the overarching plot--Sam's normal relationship, Dean having been gone, blah blah--to be redundant of things hashed out in previous seasons, and just uninteresting overall, there are other things about it that I do like. I just hope they wrap up the show before it molds over completely.

Those of you who've been with me since last fall will remember that I had mixed feelings about Fox's Grimm. I still have mixed feelings. Some episodes are good, but some are far too procedural cop show for my tastes. But I like Monroe. And I'm intrigued by the royals, or whatever they are...

Speaking of procedural cop shows, masquerading as something more interesting...Beauty and The Beast is a thing now, again. The "Beast" is a guy who was given adrenaline based super soldier powers by the military, and is now in hiding. Beauty is a detective, but doesn't seem to be great at her job. It's honestly a bit of a train wreck, and boy is it cheese-tastic, but I'm going to keep watching it.

I've been watching Arrow, and it is also full of the cheese, but I do like it. It's basically a typical superhero story, but I like that sort of thing. Umm, the acting is kind of bad though.

Movie Review! Wreck It Ralph

 

Hubby and I knew we wanted to see this the minute we saw the previews. In sum, it's a story about video game characters, specifically Ralph, who is a bad guy that wants to be a good guy. So he leaves his game and goes to other games with the goal of winning a medal that will earn him respect and so forth...

What Worked In This Movie...

 

Ralph is likeable. The premise is likeable. You sympathize with his and you get emotionally invested in his desire for a less miserable life.

It was a lot of fun to see cameos from games that we know and love--Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-man, and so forth. The references were fun. I got the feeling that the writers know and feel affection for video games, and for arcades, and for the era when such things were at their peak. I loved the attention to detail.

It's just a really happy movie. It made me smile. But, I mean, it's a kids movie, it ought to make you smile.

Except this part. Homelessness is a bummer.

 What Didn't Work

 

If I had to name a disappointment, it would be the amount of time they spend in the race game "Sugar Rush", with the little girl character, Vanelope (sp??). Yeah, she's cute, but I wanted to see more, different games. She kind of takes over the plot. It's not bad, but I can't help but feel that this movie would be so much better with less of her.

Recommendation

As such things go, I would recommend this movie. That is, if you like children's/family movies, this is a good one. I like gamers in particular will get a kick out of it.

That's all for now, fellow penguins. What have you been watching lately?