I'm not really sure where to go with this post or exactly what to talk about. Most of what I have to say is a mash up of a bunch of different things since 3/4 of my favorite TV is off for the summer hiatus and anything that I watch in the summer hasn't started yet. I've enjoyed most of the finales, especially "Numb3rs" and "Criminal Minds." Can't wait to see where the latter goes. It should be interesting given the way things ended. It was very shocking indeed.

In the absence of any good TV we've actually gone to see a couple of movies. I saw "Star Trek" twice on its opening weekend and over the past weekend my husband and I saw both "Terminator Salvation" and "Night At the Museum." 

I absolutely, utterly and totally LOVED "Star Trek" and I definitely liked both of the other movies but I'd have to say the better for the two was "Terminator." Though, I'm not entirely sure that it's fair to compare the two given their completely different genres.

While "Night At the Museum" was mostly funny, I thought that too often they interrupted the flow of the movie for an unnecessary gag or joke that just detracted for the story. It was like "ok, we get it. move on with the story now." I would've also liked a little bit more of a build-up on some of the "points" at the beginning of the film to get a better sense of the detachment of Ben Stiller's character from the Museum.  Those were really my two biggest complaints. On the upside I loved Hank Azaria! What a great actor! Very well done. I'd probably give the film something in the range of 6.5 to 7.5 out of 10.

"Terminator Salvation," on the other hand I'd give somewhere in the range of 7.9 to 8.9. There were a few nit-picky points that I had but they were just really minor. I loved all of the "throw-backs" and references to the previous "Terminator" films and I can't get over Sam Worthington's performance. It was completely stellar, on the back of his performance alone I truly cared what happened to Marcus Wright and just totally fell in love with the character over the length of the film. I know it sounds strange but I'd actually say it was beautiful.

Anyway, that's more than I expected to write and about all that I have time for. :) 

Wipeout starts tonight. Should be pretty funny!

Cheers!

I wasn't sure at first, but the more I hear about it the more I'm looking forward to the premiere of "Southland." I'm not sure we'll be able to watch it tonight but it's definitely going on the DVR.

If it lives up to some of the things I've heard, especially concerning the character focus, it should be pretty good. 

I probably don't need to get hooked on another show, but oh well. Such is what TV is for. 

On another front, I just got the chance to watch yesterday's "Crminal Minds," and I wasn't disappointed! Great episode. It seems to me like they're getting back to a lot of their "roots." Some of the things that seemed like they were phasing out, like the backdrop of the crime going on while characters were profiling, seem to be coming back. For a long time it felt like they pulled away from putting the profilers in the scenes while the crime was going on in the background, but no more. I'm glad they've put a lot of that back in. Plus, I love the character focus that's been going on with the show. It's great because every episode, every situation, has a character that it really affects more than the others. It's not just a procedural drama where they deal with a crime, solve it and move on. There's always chracter development through the crimes they solve. Last week it was Garcia, a couple of weeks ago Prentiss and this week Reid. Good stuff!

Anyway, "Hell's Kitchen" is on, gotta jet! 

Cheers!

I'm seriously getting sick of good characters dying.

I'm doubly sick of the "we're going to shake things up" and "no one is safe" attitudes. I want my characters to be safe. I want to know that I can tune into show "A" and be guaranteed to see my favorite characters "B" and "C." It's one of the few simple joys a television addict such as myself has. I don't want to have to get used to a new character, or new characters every other season. I want the ones I started with, the ones I initially fell in love with, to stick with me through the entire show!

IMO, if you have to get rid of a character, for whatever reason (I totally understand that sometimes actors want out), killing him/her/it  to get rid of them is the easy way out. I definitely think there are more creative, more enjoyable and/or suspenseful ways of "offing" a character. Come up with something new and exciting. We've seen main characters die over and over again. Please, let's try to come up with something new and refreshing. Let's find some better way of doing things! Please, for the love of television!

Take Law&Order: SVU for example. They lost two main characters at the end of this past season and neither one of them died. Now, both of their story lines were rich and suspenseful and again there was no death involved! Or consider Numb3rs, they recently had a character leave and she didn't die. Sure, her storyline/ending was a little less dramatic, but only at the end when it came. They built tensions into her interactions long before her final curtain to create suspense and drama in the show. It was, and is, rather refreshing. Heck, Law&Order even recently "offed" a character in a very gripping story without killing him. It can be done. So, come on PTB, let's get a little more creative shall we!

Anyway, I'm all fired up about this because I finally got to see the series 2 finale of Torchwood. I know I'm way behind, and I did have a little bit of an idea of what was going to happen, but I didn't think it was going to be as massive as it was. It's not only Torchwood though. Sure, watching the finale brought it all back up again, but there are so many of my favorite shows that have done this same kind of thing in the last couple of seasons. Enough of them have done it that it's starting to really irk me. There's Atlantis, Robin Hood, Torchwood, Prison Break, The L Word did it, and even Criminal Minds seems to have set up their finale with the death of a character though an exploding car. I'm not sure how that one is going to pan out, but it all seems to fit the same pattern.

I'm seriously getting sick of losing my favorite characters. I know, in many cases there are reasons that don't involve the quality of the show but instead deal with actors and contracts. Fine, if an actor wants out, let him or her out. Even so, if character departures have to happen I'd really like to see shows steer clear of killing characters. If an actor wants to leave, fine so be it, but can we please not kill their character? On the other hand, if an actor doesn't want to leave and is happy in their post, can we please find a better way of filling the show with suspense? Can we please steer away from killing characters for entertainment value?

I know there are holes all over my argument, and I know that sometimes to tell an amazing story it's necessary to kill good characters. I know all of it, I'm just sick of it!

Cheers!

Just for fun, and maybe to get some conversations started, I thought I'd post up my television week in review. It's just going to be my thoughts on the shows I watched this past week.

I was going to post this on Sunday but didn't get the chance. So, I'm adding reviews of Prison Break & House from this week since I've seen both of those shows' new episodes. :)

Anyway, if you're reading this humble little list of reviews and happen to like/dislike the shows I've written about and/or you disagree/agree with my assessment, I'd more than love to hear from you! So feel free to leave as many comments as you'd like. :)

CAUTION: Beware of Spoilers for the latest episodes of Prison Break, Corner Gas, House, Law & Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, Private Practice, Bionic Woman, Grey's Anatomy, Numb3rs, and Stargate: Atlantis



Cheers!

I was thinking that I'd like to have all of my icons in one central post. So, I'm creating this post.

I'll post any new icons in a separate and new post, like I've been doing already. Then, at some point, I'll put them into this one. Kind of like a gathering place for all my icons. :) Which, I think will be grouped by show just to make things easier.


So Far the breakdown of icons is like this:
4 - Criminal Minds (1 Gideon, 1 Reid, 1 Morgan, 1 Garcia)
15 - Numb3rs  (7 Don, 4 Charlie, 3 Don&Alan, 1 Don&Charile&Alan)
9 - General Hospital (7 Coop&Maxie, 2 for actor Jason Gerhardt who plays Coop)
10 - Grey's Anatomy (8 Addison, 2 Callie)
13 - Prison Break (3 Wentwroth from non-pb pics, 8 Michael, 2 Linc&Michael)
8 - Farscape (2 Crichton, 6 John&Aeryn)
2 - Stargate SG1 (2 Cam)
66 - Stargate Atlantis  (1 Teyla, 1 Michael, 12 Weir, 1 Sheppard&Weir, 1 Sheppard, 5 Ronon&Teyla, 7 Ronon, 1 Ronon&Beckett, 30 Beckett, 1 McKay, 5 Beckett&McKay, 1 Ronon&McKay)

*special thanks and credit to dllmzca, from GW, for all of his wonderful Beckett caps and for allowing me to use them.

*if you'd like an icon re-sized for use in a forum, or something, let me know. I'm more than happy to resize it for you.

*comments more than welcome. i'd love to hear what you think of the icons!

Teasers:

I finally figured out (with the help of someone's lovely tutorial) how to put up my own header on my LJ! Yay! I absolutely love my new journal look. Though I'm sure at some point I'll get bored with it and go changing it around again.

Anyway ... more to the point here, when I was making the header I got on a roll and started making icons. I made 11 tonight and I've got 6 that I made a day or two ago that I thought I should post with them.

Here's the breakdown:
1 - Farscape (1 Crichton)
1 - Criminal Minds (1 Garcia)
15 - Stargate: Atlantis (2 Weir, 1 Ronon, 1 McKay, 2 Beckett&McKay, 9 Beckett)

Teasers:   

So, I definitely meant to post in here again before now. The time has just slipped away from me though. Probably because I've been icon-ing it up! I've made sooo many icons in the last few days it's crazy (58 to be exact).

The Breakdown is like this:
3 - Criminal Minds (1 Gideon, 1 Reid & 1 Morgan)
9 - General Hospital (7 Coop&Maxie, 2 for actor Jason Gerhardt who plays Coop)
6 - Grey's Anatomy (4 Addison, 2 Callie)
13 - Prison Break (3 Wentwroth from non-pb pics, 8 Michael, 2 Linc&Michael)
1 - Farscape (1 Crichton)
26 - Stargate Atlantis & SG1 (1 Teyla, 1 Michael, 2 Cam, 5 Ronon&Teyla, 6 Ronon, 1 Ronon&Beckett, 10 Beckett)

Here are a couple of teasers:


Feel free to snurch, if you so desire.
& Please let me know what you think!

I think I've just found my new favorite song. It's a song called "Lullaby," by a band named Martyrs & Poets.

Last night while watching an old season one episode of Criminal Minds a second of the song played over the end of the episode. I was instantly struck by the lyric, which goes "I would wrap you in angels, just to keep you safe." After hearing it I immediately came online to see what I could find out. For the first little bit I thought I was on a wild goose chase. Luckily though, after a while, I got it all figured out and was directed toward this band. Their album "Whatever Happened to Main Street" was on iTunes, and after previewing a few of the songs I decided to buy the album. I have yet to be disappointed in that decision. It's such a great album!

Their website, http://www.bandspecial.com/map/index.asp, has sound clips and lyrics. I'd definitely recommend checking it out!