Saturday, February 10, 2007

What IS Sarah watching anyway?

I've been struggling to keep up with actually watching the shows that I like, let alone writing posts on them, and my TV-related thoughts have been directed toward my scheduled and subject-to-deadline posts over at The Hathor Legacy...apparently, that was a good move, if my goal is getting myself some attention, because salon.com wrote an article on Veronica Mars (scroll down), and of all the places they could link to on the internet to suggest that the show has come under fire for its portrayal of the serial rapist arc, they chose...my posts. Sarah says: buh?

Anyway, here's a TV-related thought that doesn't fit with the Hathor theme (or, really, with the fact that I have to be smart at Hathor, cause I might get linked by salon or something ludicrous like that):

I've fallen in love with the rather intricate web of crossover-ism on geek TV. It seems natural that genre writers/directors like Ronald Moore would hire other proven genre writers/directors like Jane Espenson, or whatever, but the way the same actors seem to be appearing in all the geeky TV shows is a little less natural. Other than the fact that the casting directors are likely to see them and see their ability to do sci-fi/fantasy type work (not to mention recognize their audience appeal), there's nothing that says a good actor for a sci-fi show has to come from another sci-fi show, but it happens all the freaking time. On Battlestar Galactica, we have (or, sniff, had) Lucy Lawless, Sam from Quantum Leap, Ensign Ro Laren, the original Apollo as Tom Zarek, and probably some more that I can't think of right now. On Veronica Mars, the Buffy-connected guest stars extended as far as Joss himself (being admittedly boring, of course). An old (well, obviously) episode of Babylon 5 I saw featured Majel Barrett, which is like the crown jewel of actors who will officially geek-sanction your show. And being the geek that I am, and given the fact that I watch the geek shows and follow the geek actors, I'm fallilng hook, line and sinker for their every marketing ploy and accepting the knighthood bestowed upon the shows through the sword of Xena, or whatever. The current show doing best at this? Unquestionably Heroes. Christopher Eccleston rocks--I'm really, really sad that he bowed out of the new Doctor Who after one season, because I actually can't watch it anymore because the new doctor pisses me off, and I was completely empassioned with Eccleston. I admit I get a little tickle every time I see even the most minor of Buffy guest stars on a show, so Leonard Roberts (Forrest) is points too. But what drives it over the edge? George FREAKIN Takei. I haven't watched last Monday's episode yet, so I've only seen him appear out of the shadows all imposing-like at the end of the previous episode, but that rocked so damn hard I can't even stand it.

While I'm on the track of not being smart and just geeking out for a while, can I also just acknowledge that the exchange between Pasdar and Masi Oka a couple of episodes ago (rumoured to have been ad-libbed) was completely unbearably awesome? From the moment Hiro yells "Frying man!" to Petrelli's surprised face, to the "But you fry! WOOSH!" [hand motion]/"Keep it down"/"woosh?" [smaller hand motion, very cute face], to the "Bad guy, like, birran?" exchange with Masi exaggerating his attempts to pronounce the "v", everything about it just absolutely killed me. I bust up a little every time I think about it.

No comments: