New Girl- Season 2, Episode 12

By Genevieve (Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Cabin- Headsmack. We feel like this show made an irresponsible move having both Jess and Nick chug that much absinthe and then not die. Guys, they would have at least blacked out and hit the ground. We're not anti-drinking, but there is hardly ever a reason to even drink absinthe when regular alcoholic beverages will get you just as froggy, guaranteed. If you don't know anything about absinthe and then come across it at a party, remember: what it did to the people on New Girl was so tame it wasn't even funny. Seriously, it robbed all the comedy out of that part. They should have acted way more ridiculously.

Pretty Little Liars- Season 3, episode 14

By JJduncan80 [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

She's Better Now- FINALLY. Not only is this show back, but Mona is back at Rosewood. Actually, what the eff? In what world would Mona be allowed to go back to Rosewood? She would have to be in treatment for years. No one can cure crazy in a couple of months. After someone knifes a cow brain into Mona's locker, she stalks around the school hallways way too slowly to get to the trash can. She's secretly relishing everyone's fear of her.

Deception- Season 1, episode 1

By 2ndteam at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0), GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

Pilot- Our first thought when we turned this show on was, "Oh no, not another one." This show instantly reminded us of Revenge, and it was like another network was trying to imitate its success. Fortunately, it's a little different in tone. It's marginally less melodramatic and a tad more realistic so far. No one does karate, thank the Lord. There's already more emotion and life in the secondary characters than there was in Revenge at this point. If the show keeps up this level of quality, we are going to like it better than we do Revenge.

Revenge- season 2, episode 10

Power- This episode more resembled the season one revenge plots. It had a nice, tight story arc with none of the confusion of the first half of this season. This episode worked for us because of the judge's wife. That was a good story, we loved her bravery at the end, and we were touched when Amanda thanked her for writing a letter that gave her hope during hard times. Everything with Amanda, Aidan, Daniel, and the Graysons was gold this week. We loved the fake-up Amanda staged with Aidan in front of Daniel. We love that Amanda is trying to get Daniel into a fake relationship again and that she kissed him. Of course, she will develop feelings for Daniel...again...and a real triangle can emerge. We're girls. We love a good triangle.

If You're An American Watching Downton Abbey Series 3 for the First Time

Here's the link to our review of last night's episode.

Once Upon a Time season 2, episode 10

The Cricket Game- Hook definitely needs Cora. Can you imagine him trying to take on Rumpy by himself? That would just be sad. Leeard wants Lana Parilla's haircut. Ern wants Red Riding Hood's everything. And Mary Margaret's clothes in this episode. We love that Emma invited Regina to the Welcome Home party.

Our Favorite Movies of the '90s

Movies were good in the '90s, y'all. They were better than most things on TV. The TV golden age didn't start until later. The movies got bad and uncreative, for the most part, and everyone with talent and vision moved to the small screen. Not everyone wants to make the next Transformers. Fortunately for entertainment buffs, DVDs exist and you can go back to the good movies anytime you want. We hope you didn't miss these, and if you did, you have all the time in the world to get to them.

Our Top Ten Movies of 1999
1. Fight Club- This was not properly appreciated in its time, in theaters. It was not appreciated by Ern the first time she saw it. But this is one that improves with subsequent viewings. You have to catch all the dialogue. You have to get what it's saying. It's brilliant, darkly funny, and completely unforgettable. The book is good too. If you haven't seen it, or if you've only seen it once and weren't that impressed, go pick up a copy.
2. The Matrix- The first half is long, weird, and pretty original. The second half kicks ass. This movie changed action and sci-fi, and it told a pretty good, spiritual story while it was at it. Sadly, the sequels did not live up to the first entry, although the second one would have been a good middle had the third delivered a powerful ending. We forget which critic said it best at the time, but we remember reading that the third one was full of "religious obligation." Viewers wanted real triumph, not depressing sacrifice. Still, the first Matrix is not to be missed.

American Horror Story season 2, episode 10, and Downton Abbey season 3, episode 9

American Horror Story- The Name Game
We laughed pretty hard during the musical number in this episode. It was hilarious, and it was also funny that Ryan Murphy found a way to bring Glee to AHS. Jessica Lange did a good job selling it, and it was a good moment of levity for this extra-dark show.

Parenthood, season 4, episode 12

By Greg Hernandez (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Keep on Rowing- Why did this air on new year's? We almost missed it. The LIBRARY was closed on new year's day, and a network station is airing an important episode of one of its best shows? "Important, you say?" Yes, because this is the one where Kristina thought it would be empowering to shave her head. Guess what? It wasn't. She only lost one tuft. We say, if you have cancer, wait until it looks thin and then shave it. Keep that hair as long as possible, even if it's just a couple of days, jeez.

Happy New Year, TV Lovers

Our Favorite Movies of the 2000s By Year

First, let's get one thing straight: we are not movie buffs or movie experts. We're TV people. Movies pale in comparison to the small screen's ability to develop characters over hundreds of hours. We haven't seen a bunch of obscure, great things that your brother the film student has seen. But that might actually be best for most people. That means that the good movies listed here are the bare minimum for enjoyment of movies and pop culture at large. 

It means you should probably watch most of them (at least the ones that are in the genres you enjoy), as a cinematic primer or just to be able to dialogue with the rest of the world/catch references. On this list and the ones that will follow, you'll see the standards (Casablanca, Pulp Fiction, etc.) with only a few oddballs (and some of them are truly odd). There are a handful of foreign films. If you know of something great that we missed, let us know. We love hearing about good movies that everyone should have seen. 

Our Top Ten Movies of 2011 (previously blogged about last year)

Our favorite movies of 2012

We're doing another movie post as promised in the comments, but for now, here's 2012.


Our Top Ten Movies of 2012
1. Seven Psychopaths- This is the year that movies mocked movies in order to point out things about our media culture (see also: Cabin in the Woods). Seven Psychopaths tackled the Tarantino-esque, fast-talking, brainy, gritty action flicks that we all love. It pointed out the staples (you can't kill dogs, just women), while telling a violent, funny story of its own. The cast was solid, the laughs were steady and rollicking, and the script was devilishly clever. We had high hopes for this movie because its writer also created another of our faves (In Bruges). This movie exceeded those expectations. 

Homeland- season 2, episodes 10-12

By David Shankbone (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We finished Homeland season two. Lots of people think the show went off the rails in these episodes and that season two isn't as good as season one. First of all, what is? That's an incredibly high bar. Second, the show is still great. Season two was riveting, fast-paced, and risk taking. We loved the surprising finale. Brody was found out by Saul in EPISODE TWO. He became a different person. In the penultimate episode, they killed Abu Nazir.

Gossip Girl's identity makes no sense

But hey, at least Blair and Chuck ended up together.

Dexter- season 7, episodes 10-12

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The show went off the rails for the first time this season in the episode where Dexter abandoned his code. He really thought that his Dark Passenger wasn't him? We thought he at least knew it was a part of him. Dexter, as a scientific adult, seeing his urge as a separate entity doesn't make full sense for us. What Hannah said didn't seem like enough to convince Dexter to abandon the code. It wasn't explained well enough.

Scandal- season 2, episodes 7-9

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This season of Scandal has been a joy from start to finish. We don't even mind that they shot Hot President. He's gonna live. There have been so many twists and turns this season that we're tempted to call it The New Vampire Diaries, since the old, regular Vampire Diaries has decided to shell out no surprises this season. Yawn. We hope so much that Mellie is involved in the shooting. She didn't want to get out of the car, remember? It seems like she might know something. Trying to kill your husband is definitely a good enough reason for him to ask for a divorce.

Grey's Anatomy- season 9, episodes 8-9

photo by Alan Light [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We liked Neve Campbell guest starring as yet another of Derek's sisters. She's direct, smart, and honest.  We loved her calling out Meredith on being a selfish, distant family member who doesn't come to visit and doesn't seek relationships with her relatives. It really is weird. We get that Meredith didn't have a cozy family life growing up, but she needs to not let her crummy family make her pre-judge her new one. Neve looks like she could be related to Stephen King or Rob Lowe.

The Vampire Diaries- season 4, episode 9

By Gage Skidmore  Uploaded by MyCanon (The Vampire Diaries) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We're just going to ignore Elena's sire bond for most of this post. It's not romantic, it leads to sexist places, it's a cop-out, it cheapens the show's relationships, and it's boring. It's dragging down the show, hard. Now Stefan is all mad because Damon didn't break things off right away, but Damon ends up doing it at the end of this episode, blah blah blah, we don't give a scheiste (that's Ern's made-up German word that Leeard hates). It's time to end the triangle. We know they won't.

Glee season 4, episodes 8-10

Yeah, we're mean and tried to make you watch this again.

Thanksgiving- Whose idea was it to "have a Kiki"/do that song? How painful. We just watched it in awe, remembering that Glee really can be this terrible. We were also angry about Quinn. The show finally brought Quinn back, like we've been wanting, but we didn't get the mature, capable Quinn who left for Yale. The show brought back Crazy Quinn who is boning the wrong guy: in this case, her married professor. Yuck. Why does Sue have a baby? The show gave Sue a baby and then did almost nothing with it. Thank God, but still. It makes the whole thing more pointless and annoying.

Have You Guys Seen This Trailer?

Even though they cast guys who aren't our type, physically, this movie looks surprisingly awesome. We read three of the books and thought they'd make good movies, but usually teen books fail in the execution to become decent films. Here's hoping this is an exception.