And we are go for liftoff!

Hallelujah! My laptop is fixed. It's been a long few weeks. It has also been busy, as well, for though my laptop has been down, I have continued to watch DVDs. Here are some reviews for just a couple of the television DVDs I've watched in the past few weeks:


First up, Band of Brothers. I posted about the first half of this almost a month ago, right before my laptop went down. My last post on this was written after what was the halfway, and low point, of the entire series. It really picked back up in the next episode.

I love this series. Right after I watched it, I immediately went out and bought the book so I could read it while watching it again. It was just that good. The most amazing part was how skillfully most of the actors were in showing the emotional impact the war had had on their characters. Some were barely even recognizable by the end.

I highly recommend that anyone who knows little or nothing about the history of Easy Unit in the 101st Airborne refrain from learning it before watching this series. There were a couple of episodes that took me completely by surprise because I had no idea what areas of the war the 101st was involved in.

Visually, this series is topnotch. It uses Spielberg's patented Saving Private Ryan-style of combat cinematography, which works very well psychologically. All the scenes in the first episode where the soldiers are training are filmed in the traditional Hollywood-style, and the scenes where the soldiers are at war or on their way to war appear as that washed out color. It's a very good use of style to moderate the mood.

The scene in the second episode where the troops parachute in is absolutely stunning; perhaps the most visually magnificent moment in television history. There have been few movies which have been able to achieve the sight of planes being shot at, and shot down, in the evening sky, with hundreds of paratroopers sailing through the night. That scene will stick with me forever.

The only thing that annoyed me was the sound. Many times I watch television while my husband is asleep, so I have to be careful what volume I have the receiver at. I had my hand on the volume button throughout every single episode of this series, turning up during quiet dialogue scenes and then hurriedly turning it down when things started to explode. It made for a very irritating experience. As has been made clear, I have hundreds of DVDs. Many of the DVDs I have are war films, including Spielberg's war film. This HBO series has the widest sound volume range I've ever heard for a DVD in 5.1. This is definitely a DVD you want to watch when you don't have to worry about volume.

Overall, I highly, highly recommend this. It was so good I watched it twice in less than a week. Just fantastic.



Next up, X-Files: Season 2.




What an utter disappointment. The highlight of watching this was finally getting to see the first episode of this series I ever saw. "Blood" was a typical monster of the week episode where people in a small town start seeing messages on the monitors of digital appliances that tell them to kill people. It was one of the best episodes of this season. I wonder if I would have kept watching this show if I had watched one of the truly horrible episodes in this season, especially the 2-part opener, first. I was so terribly sad to see how bad this season was as a whole. I have always had a very difficult relationship with this show. I lost interest in the whole mythology arc after the ridiculous first movie, stopped watching it for the most part when Mulder left, and was horrified by the series finale, one of the worst series finales of all time.

On the other hand, I loved so many of the monster of the week episodes. Even this bad season had some very good episodes, including one of the show's very best: Die Hand Die Verletzt If you see no other episode, see this one. One of the best television episodes from any show. Go rent it from Netflix if you have the chance; you don't need to know anything about the show at all to enjoy this episode thoroughly.

I think I may have been unlucky enough to watch the worst season (of the first seven anyway) of The X-Files. I watched the first season less than two years ago and enjoyed that one much more, and I know season 3 has a slew of great episodes. I do hope I am right; it would be sad to think that I have just grown beyond this show.


I am going to end it here. Next up: Taken, Frasier Season 10 and Stargate: SG1 Season 8.

Experiencing technical difficulties

So my laptop broke. While I do have a PC, it is located quite a distance
from the television. Since my style of reviewing requires my jotting down
notes while watching the DVD, and I write slow, I am faced with a situation
where it is unacceptably difficult to get these reviews done. As it is, I am composing
this on my iPod, which is taking me a very long time. My iPod
does not like this site. I am at the point now where I am going to start
watching again and give brief comments here overall each day. We will see how that goes.

War Is Hell

I just watched 5 of the 10 episodes of "Band of Brothers." While I do not think it is as great as many have indicated, I do believe it is a fine piece of television. So far, I find it to be a compelling story with mostly excellent acting across the board. The only problem I have so far is that though I feel it starts off strong, it started dragging a bit around the fourth episode. It can be monotonous watching the same maneuvers used every single episode. While I understand that this was likely historically accurate, it does not make for compelling drama. The only episode that I think handled this very well was the third one, which featured a soldier who was so scared, he had trouble fighting. Watching the episode through his point of view, sympathizing with his fear and the way he eventually overcomes it was very powerful. I think if the series had taken that approach, showing the fights through a personal point of view, it would be much more interesting.

Overall, though, I find "Band of Brothers" to be very good, and I can't wait to finish it.

Holy Cow, Batman!

It seems like just yesterday I was watching an episode of "Doctor Who," getting ready to write my review. Hard to believe that was more than three weeks ago. Since that time, I ran into some school issues, then some health issues, went on a cruise, and had some more health issues. Due to these health issues, it looks like I will not be going back to school until August. Thus, since I now have an abundance of free time, I have decided to get back on track towards watching as many unopened DVDs as possible. I've decided to stick to watching the television DVDs for now, but I am returning to watching as many as possible in a row. Hopefully, when this is all over I can go back and watch the ones I really like at a slower pace.

So, let's get this truck rolling. I've just put in the "Band of Brothers" DVDs into my player and am set to watch as many as possible today. Fingers crossed!

You have to take the good with the bad

It's been a long time between posts. Unlike in the past, it has nothing to do with lack of time. I am just sad about the fact that I only have 3 seasons of David Tennant as The Doctor. His final two episodes, The End of Time, are the only episodes I have not watched. I think a part of me figures that if I just don't go through these episodes, I can pretend that Tennant hasn't actually left. Silly, of course. So, tonight I will watch the next episode: New Earth. This is one of my favorites, so it should be fun to watch again.

"No, hold on...Sorry, that's The Lion King."

The Christmas Invasion
Written By: Russel T. Davies

"What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor who?"

That joke really doesn't get old.

The first thing that stands out in this episode is how good the sparsely used music is. There is an almost opera-like voice in certain scenes that sounds so strange and ethereal. It adds an almost alien dimension, which is perfect for this episode. The theme is really about how an alien is the Defender of the Earth. Even Rose, who became very capable of handling herself in disastrous situations in the first series, is shown to be incapable of doing anything without him.

The episode starts with Rose's mom and boyfriend, Jackie and Mickey, both hearing the sounds the Tardis makes, and running to the source. Out of nowhere, the Tardis comes careening out of the sky, colliding with buildings and almost hitting Jackie before it crashes onto the road. Out of the door comes the 10th Doctor, wearing the 9th's leather jacket, and appearing dazed. Jackie and Tyler look on confused, having no idea who he is; unaware that The Doctor has regenerated and has a new body. They are even more confused when he greets them with familiarity, wishing them a Happy Christmas. He then collapses at their feet, at which time Rose comes out of the Tardis to inform them that he is The Doctor. Cue the classic line.

Seriously, why on Earth does Mickey continue to let Rose treat him like crap? She is rarely ever there, puts The Doctor before everyone, and is clearly infatuated with him. This was another reason it took me so long to warm up to this show. She leads him on forever! It not only makes him look pathetic, it makes her look flighty and cruel. Definitely not good character traits.


I would just like to say that the idea of a deadly Christmas tree is pretty awesome. Watching it spin through Jackie Tyler's living room, slicing through everything in its way, is great. Jackie even has one of her best lines in the show in this scene: "I'm going to get killed by a Christmas tree!" Fantastic. This is also the last time David Tennant is awake for more than 20 minutes. In fact, he is only awake for about 25 minutes of the entire 60 minute episode. It is a great way to highlight how hopeless humans are against all the aliens in the universe without The Doctor. It's also a great way to show that the show is absolutely nothing without David Tennant. By the time he shows up again, I was getting antsy.

Harriet Jones, the Prime Minister: "Harriet Jones. Prime Minister."
Anyone she says this to to: "Yes, I know who you are."

This back and forth is used throughout the series, even when she's speaking to the invading alien leader, and it's just hilarious. The woman is so politely earnest in her introduction, not even considering the fact that everyone would know who she is since, as she keeps saying, she is the Prime Minister.

The aliens attempting to take control of Earth look pretty cool. Their way of trying to do it is pretty messed up: taking control of a third of the human population, then ordering all two billion of them around the world to climb the nearest tall building and stepping to the edge. The implication, obviously, is that if Earth doesn't surrender, the alien leader will order all of them to jump. The scenes of the husbands, wives and other family members of these men, women and children desperately trying to stop them from doing this is very touching.

Rose's feelings of abandonment and anger brought on by the new doctor lying in bed unconscious, not getting up to save the world, to save her, jump off the screen. When she says to her mom, "I don't know what to do, all right? I've traveled with him and I've seen all that stuff, but when I'm stuck at home, I'm useless," my heart breaks for her. She tries to save the world when standing in front of the alien leader by trying to string together various laws she's heard about around the universe to tell the alien leader that what it was doing was illegal. In response, the aliens just laugh at her. It is the ultimate point of how she needs The Doctor to be great.

So. All The Doctor needed to recover was some tea. How very English.

"Am I...ginger?"

After The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS to save the day, he asks Rose what he looks like. It seems weird that at 40 minutes into the episode, he still hasn't looked in a mirror.

Alien leader to The Doctor: "I demand to know who you are"
The Doctor: "I don't know"


The climax of this episode is absolutely brilliant. There is a fantastic sword fight between The Doctor (in pajamas) and the invading alien leader for the fate of the planet. Even better, it is an examination of who exactly this new Doctor is. His verbal introspection of what kind of man he is is a perfect way to introduce this new character to the audience. Plus it's just hilarious. Russel T. Davies has a tremendous talent for writing comic dialogue, and Tennant's delivery is perfect. These two men make a wonderful team.


The final few minutes of the episode are incredibly charming, and as I now realize after watching the show through Series 4, so very special. It's the first and last time The Doctor celebrates Christmas with other people. Watching him going through the massive wardrobe in the TARDIS to find out what type of clothes suit him while wearing a Tom Baker-type scarf is too cool. And the scene where Rose sees him in his pin-striped suit and trench coat for the first time is too cute.



As Russel T. Davies said in the commentary, only the British would use falling ash from a destroyed ship and corpses in place of falling snow on Christmas. Ick.


The chemistry between David Tennant and Billie Piper, who plays Rose, is sizzling in the final scene. It's even stronger than it was between Eccleston and Piper, which I didn't think possible. Proof positive that all it takes for there to be chemistry between any two actors is good acting. The way they both awkwardly try to tell each other that they each still want to continue on like before, traveling the universe, getting into one adventure after another, is goofy and adorable. It's one of my favorite scenes in the series.

Next up: New Earth

Allons-y!

I never watched Doctor Who growing up. I have always known about it, of course. Tom Baker was still playing the role when I was a kid, and the picture of him with his curly hair, frumpy fedora and long scarf burned as an iconic image in my young mind. Yet there was something about it that always turned me off. Granted, I never really had much access to it, and the only person I ever heard talking about it was my mom, who used to go on and on about how much she loved Tom Baker. I think the biggest impediment back then was that I was always told it was England's version of Star Trek, i.e., it was their own sci-fi show. I remember having these proprietary feelings about "my" show, and wanted nothing to do with "that other one." When the television movie came out in 1996, I was dating a guy who was a huge fan of the show, as were all his friends and brothers. I tried to watch it with them, but I just didn't like it. When the show came back in 2005, once again, I had no interest. Last fall, as I posted a few weeks ago, my husband started watching it. He tried to get me into it, but I really, really didn't like it. I realize a couple of days ago it's because the first episode I ended up watching was not its finest hour, and I was only paying attention half the time while surfing the intertubes the other half.


After that detour of an episode, which I found out was actually the Christmas episode that aired right before Series 3, he started watching them in order from the first episode of Series 1, starring a dude with a leather jacket and big ears. I really wasn't that impressed. He seemed to be all right, if a bit of a jerk. Mind you, once my husband told me what had happened to him, I became much more understanding. He went through a lot of terrible, terrible things. I did think actor, Christopher Eccleston, was good.

The problems for me were two fold. 1) The special effects looked pretty bad. Not as bad as they did when I was growing up, but it was very strange for me to see actors that were so clearly just wearing rubber alien masks. American shows usually have a much more slick look to them. But, this issue was trivial, and if it had been my only stumbling block, I probably would have warmed up to the show rather quickly.



This brings me to 2) The Doctor's companion: Rose Tyler. Oh. My. God. She is so ridiculously stupid in the first episode. This is the reason that I mocked the episodes my husband was watching from behind my handy dandy laptop. It was bad enough that the first glimpses I had gotten of the new Doctor Who featured a woman who is so dumb it becomes a part of the plot (Donna Noble in Runaway Bride). Now this actress, who was a regular for the first two series, also played a dumb woman. So far, this show was not making a good impression. I complained vociferously and often that the show would probably be pretty good if the writers would incorporate intelligent women.

But then something started to change. Half way through the first season, the stories became interesting and Rose less annoying. I started watching more and more to the point that by the last four episodes of the series I was watching them from beginning to end without once looking at my laptop. Thankfully, the writers of the show had allowed Rose to grow into a much more confident young woman who turned out to be not as dumb as even she believed she was. By the last episode of the series I was almost heartbroken that the 9th Doctor sacrificed himself to save Rose, even though I knew that he would regenerate.



I was so distraught over the 9th Doctor dying that I couldn't warm to David Tennant's 10th Doctor. There was also the problem with the fact that the first bits of Doctor Who I had seen, as I wrote above, were from Runaway Bride, which had David Tennant as The Doctor. I have already written this, but I really must stress how much I hated that episode. My husband kept trying to woo me back by saying that Donna Noble wasn't in all the episodes, and that I just happened to catch a bad episode. But no matter how hard he tried, it didn't work. Though I would sit on the couch with him sometimes while surfing the internet, occasionally catching brief glimpses here and there, I didn't really watch the episodes.




Then once again, just like at the end of Series 1, as my husband advanced through the episodes, I started catching bits of scenes that I really liked. I watched the last three episodes of the 3rd series featuring the Master, the other surviving Time Lord, and I just loved them. I didn't immediately start watching every episode, but by the last five episodes of Series 4 I was asking my husband to wait until I was home to watch them. When my husband had me watch one of the last one-hour movies featuring David Tennant, my fate was sealed: I was officially a fan of the new Doctor Who show. I also found, to my surprise, that I liked David Tennant even more than Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor. I never thought that possible.

As my husband and I were about to watch the final two David Tennant episodes, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea; I am sure my husband would have a very different description of it. As I detailed a few weeks ago here on this blog: I wanted to go back to Series 2 through 4 and watch them in order. Though I loved Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor, I didn't much care for half of the first series. I have already detailed my adventure of getting through Series 2, but as I mentioned in my last post, I am going back to The Christmas Invasion to start over. This post was originally going to be my thoughts on The Christmas Invasion, but as I was about to start watching it, I started thinking about how I came to love this show. This is my post explaining the process of how, very much against my will, I became a major fan of this show. All thanks to my husband.

Next post: The Christmas Invasion