Take A Torch To Torchwood

I may make a few enemies with this post. Bring on the "Torchwood" fans! Bring on the comments! Bring on the controversy! I am ready for you.

Because, based on the research I did about "Torchwood" to find out if there are others who..let's see how to put this diplomatically..find this the most boring, insipid show they HAVE EVER SEEN, most of the viewers of this show are pretty rabidly enthusiastic about it.

I don't get it. Really I don't.

We have learned to be fair when we start a series. After I gave up on "Buffy" after a couple of episodes and decided it was the stupidest, campiest, boringest, most ridiculous show I had ever seen and Tom had to come upstairs to drag me back down, saying "You won't believe what just happened! You HAVE to come watch it again", and we discovered this was the BEST SHOW WE HAVE EVER SEEN, we now give them at least a few episodes before we give up. So, even though we looked at each after episode one of "Torchwood" and said "What the heck? That was AWFUL. Terrible story, terrible acting, terrible special effects...just...terrible." We persevered. Because we are nothing if not fair to our (slightly) fanatical TV viewing.

So we watched the next one. And the next. And the next. We watched almost half the season before we decided we were not wasting one more minute of our lives on this show.

The stories, they are terrible! The acting, it is awful! The special effects, they make us cringe! And I thought I was the only one who was mesmerized by the terribleness of Gwen's teeth until Tom said he could NOT look at the rest of her face. Every time she came on the screen, his eyes zeroed in on her terrible teeth. It wasn't just me.

This is absolutely not the only reason we will not EVER watch this show again. In all fairness, I have an issue with the main character's teeth in "Robin Hood" as well (although I either got used to them or he had some work done between Season 1 and 2) AND I think he is a little skinny for the role AND I try to avoid thinking about the fact that I am pretty sure there is some kind of comb-over going on with his hair. But all of that fades away when the story begins and you are lost in their fantastical, romantic world.

That never happens with "Torchwood". You are too busy concentrating on the flaws to enjoy the few good things in this series. I'm sure there are some good things. I just can't think of any offhand.

So, what do you say? Did you hate it? Love it? Why? I truly want to know.

Riding Through The Glen

So, I was looking for some new TV series to add to our Netflix kwee (as my son-in-law called it) in order to fill the DEEP AND ACHING HOLLOW HOLE IN MY HEART left when I finished "Gilmore Girls" and I stumbled on a TV series called "Robin Hood". I thought, heh. Probably some old series that will be really lame but it might be mildly entertaining, so I added it. And we started watching it a couple of weeks ago.

Let me just say. If you like action and adventure and romance and stories about a group of individuals who are friends while at the same time being heroic and smart-alecky; if you like a show that can make you laugh out loud and bring tears to your eyes in the same episode, you are going to like this. Let me just give you one example. At one point, they think Marian is dead (of course, she recovers) and the outlaw gang is standing by her bed, mourning her. And Little John says "Her we liked". And Robin gently corrects him in his oh-so-sexy-could-you-die British accent and says "Her we looved. Robin looved." And it's so sad and so sexy and so fabulous, you could just die. Even if, for some inscrutable reason, Robin is talking about himself in the third person. I'm telling you, go add to this show your Netflix kwee now. You will like it. Let me know.

Apparently, there are all kinds of shows going on that we know nothing about. It's amazing the things going on out in the world that I know nothing about. I am constantly surprised. This show was produced by the BBC last year and actually just finished the second season in December. There will be a third season, probably in the fall. I was also surprised to learn that we get the BBC as part of our cable lineup so there may be other shows we will start watching as well.

While researching this "Robin Hood", I stumbled on a web page and this song began playing.











And I thought, " I KNOW that song. I have heard that song. It is faintly tweaking a childhood memory. It's the theme song from a TV show called "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from the 50's. I must have watched it. All I remember is the theme song. Sound familiar to you???

I AM That Girl

Y'all already know that Tom and I are serious TV addicts. You have heard about it here and I have mentioned it in several other posts. We are also movie addicts as I told you here and the two addictions can now easily and conveniently be combined with our couch potato, dinner on TV trays, clothed in pajamas status, since Netflix was invented and now will deliver movies and TV series to our mailbox in a virtual cornucopia of entertainment.

I LOVE that you can get TV series to watch from Netflix. I decided I wanted to catch up on "Gray's Anatomy" since Tom started watching it before I did. He does this often. And then he nags me until I watch it with him, even though I am so obviously doing something critically important to the state of the world like blogging or reading the latest best seller. And then he gets me addicted and I have to watch it with him. I think this is how cocaine dealers work also. So, I'm watching the first two seasons on DVD. And, I will just tell you. This is the ONLY way to watch TV. No commercials. No waiting to find out what happens when they leave you hanging with that last crucial scene. Did she? Will he? Oh, my God, what next? Well, let me see. Let me just click on the next episode. Ha. Now I will find out! How great is that?

Well, it's pretty damn fabulous. But I have something even more fabulous to share with you. Even more spectacular. There are REALLY OLD TV SERIES ON NETFLIX TOO! We saw the preview for the new Bruce Willis movie this weekend when we sent to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - and, by the way? The people who say it's too long, it's too slow, it's not as good as the others - they are just simply full of crap. Disregard all their advice and go see it this weekend. It's good. But I don't have time for a movie review right now because y'all? When I saw Bruce Willis in the new "Die Hard" movie preview (and isn't that just SO COOL when he propels the car in the car like a rocket and tells the kid he did it because he was out of bullets? Is he COOL or what?) I got to thinking about "Moonlighting" and I wondered if that was available on Netflix because I would love to see that again. Bruce Willis with hair. Oh, yeah, baby. And you know what? It is. So I thought "Hmmm...I wonder what other TV shows are on there."

I'm so excited I almost can't bring myself to share this with you. Because maybe you will go to YOUR Netflix and add it to your queue and I will have to wait for it because you will take FOREVER to return it but I just had to tell someone. "That Girl" is on there.

I...almost can't believe it. I WAS "That Girl". I LOVED that show. Marlo Thomas was just so cool. I can't wait to watch them all. And "Mary Tyler Moore" is on there too. And "Bob Newhart". God, the Friday nights Tom and I sat on the couch and watched those shows when we were dating. Our Friday night had to be planned so that we would be home in time to watch them. Maybe it was Saturday. Whatever, it was the weekend. And we had to be home because VCRs had not been invented yet. That's right, kiddies, they had not even been thought of. If you missed a show, you just missed it. You didn't have it recorded on a tape. You didn't TIVO it or DVR it. You didn't go to the website and watch it. You missed it.

But now I can watch them all again. No commercials. No interruptions. Snacks and pajamas. Could life POSSIBLY get any better?

Well, maybe if someone would rub my feet while I am watching. Tom?


I just had one more thought and went to check and see if "The Monkees" was available. It IS. I LIVED to watch that show every week in high school. God, I was so in love with all of them. A different one each week. I was pretty fickle. I may have to rent those too. The series, not the guys. Although I bet Davy Jones has held up pretty well. I wouldn't mind renting him.