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New Kids on the Block shined.

New guys in town, Denny Crane broke character (again) to greet them.

Jeffrey: We’re the new guys.
Denny: Nonesence. New guys’d show up in the season premiere.

Denny: Welcome to Boston Legal.

Denny: cue the music!

Jeffrey Coho (what a funny last name), played by Craig Bierko who was nominated for his Broadway leading role in The Music Man and turned down the role Chandler in Friends, was brought in as a new partner. You can imagine how pissed Denise must have been. But Shirley’s “when you’re better” shut her complaints. Claire Simms, played by Constance Zimmer who played Brianna, a character I didn’t like, in In Justice, came with Jeffrey. She looks tough and irritable, despise Denny (err… who doesn’t?) I like her a lot. She looks tough, but fun. Not at all like the squid.

They made a impressive entrance and hopped on a case instantly.

Jeffrey worked on the judge killer case and Denise was assigned to him when Claire was pulled to help Alan. It’s basical a Jeffrey show. Denise was just “there” but didn’t really do anything. Jeff came on strong, with DA, with the judge and with Brad. It’s funny that Brad always ended up in an inferior position (ex. Brad v Alan, Brad v Jeff, Brad v Denise) but fortunately he get to keep his role of office hunk, at least he claimed he does.

On the other side of the office, Alan and Claire took a crossgender-seem-to-be client, Clarice, who was laid off for trying to take a maternity leave. To our surprise, Alan here took a more sensitive stand. He was all caring about Clarice/Clarence’s feelings while Claire was bluntly straightforward. Alan stopped Claire from ripping Clarice’s masks off brutally and later when he observed Claire encouraged Clarice and lent a helping hand, he gave her an intrigued look, “You’re fun.” I’ve told you she’s fun. ;)

All in all, I like Alan + Claire very much. It’s nothing like Alan + the squid, which was purely lust. I’m not talking about personal relationship here. (Though I don’t mind if they wanna develop something else later on.) For me, they’re great working together and I believe they’re equivalently talented. I look forward to their working together again and I think they have the potential to be friends.

As for Denny, don’t really wanna talk about him. The only spark he brought to this excellent, exciting episode was those 3 character breaking lines.

Heroes s1e1 Genesis


科學家的狂想, 陰謀, 假意外, 超能力.

每個人都是特別的, 但有地球上有一小群人是真正的與眾不同.

Heroes 的 pilot 就已經十分亮眼, 幾個重要的角色介紹出來, 每個人各有不同的背景觀念與特色, 而這些看似毫無關係的人, 卻又巧妙地牽起一個互相連結的人際網. (6 Degrees?) 大反派也出來了喔! 會怎麼發展就讓我們拭目以待吧!

* 日本人的那一段, 真的貨真價時地在日本找了一堆日本人拍, 講了好多日文, 如果聽得懂應該蠻好玩的.
* 印度教授的英文也太沒口音了吧… 根本不像印度人啊
* Peter 是 Gilmore Girls 裡的 Jess.
* 又見 Greg Grunberg (為什麼他沒去演 JJ 的 6 Degrees? 他不是 JJ 御用演員嗎?)

這是 Studio 60 回到 Danny 與 Matt 手上後第一天開張. 首先是 Jack 很擔心的記者會, Jordan 表現得很好, Matt 談笑風生應答如流, 出狀況的卻是大家一向認為是最穩重的 Danny. 無法掌控事情全局的 Jack 一直一副快心臟病發的樣子, 而新官上任三把火的 Jordan 很刻意地要打破一般人對女性掌權的刻板印象並以堅決的態度建立威信. Jordan 對她在行的事很有一套, 但也看得出她就是那種見人說人話見鬼說鬼話的角色, 人味不重.

第一天上班, Danny 說服 Matt 接收 Wes 的辦公室, 他們打開了牆上的倒數鐘, 正式感受到製作 Studio 60 的壓力. Wes 的爆發才過幾天, Studio 60 裡人心惶惶, 不知誰會被掃地出門誰會留下. 上一集 pilot 要交代太多事情, 只介紹各個角色出場, 這集每個人的個性都更鮮明了起來, 角色間來往三兩句對話, 讓我們可以稍微窺見他們之間的歷史. 當然 Danny 與 Matt 還是最活潑生動的兩位, 最後幾個人在 Matt 辦公室內激出點子的那一幕, 真讓人看得熱血沸騰, 不知不覺也跟著興奮起來了. 當牆上的鐘倒數最後幾秒, cast 就位唱起他們的開場歌, 一股感動油然而生. 然而, Matt 辦公室的倒數鐘, 又跳到六天二十三小時五十九分五十幾秒了.

Bowling For Soup, the band brought us 1985, Girl All The Bad Guys Want , is back! Do check out the lyrics. It’s hilarious.

fan made video

Continue Reading »

原來

都要努力, 都是有壓力, 都是必須用心血粹煉出來的
就像 Matt 盯著 Wes 留下來的倒數計時鐘, 節目開始又是重新一輪被時間追趕
你說他沒壓力嗎? 我不認為. 但你說他不快樂嗎?

原來不是輕輕鬆鬆不費吹灰之力才叫做擅長才叫做適合

I was so freaking wrong -_-

seriously.

2006-07 TV Lineup

努力砍卻還是有十部… orz (updated)

當大家喊著星期四將會是場混戰,令我煩惱的卻是星期二。單單星期二的八點檔,就有兩部我固定看的影集,還有兩部有潛力的影集。對我來說… Tuesday, bloody Tuesday。

我的2006-07 Lineup Continue Reading »

Not particularly interested in what will happen between Meredith and Finn and Derek. (I hate Finn.) And the panty thing was just nasty. But I do like the way it interwove what’s going on with flashbacks. In this episode, we got to witness the day they first met each other. One and a half year ago, with different reasons and similar ambition – to be a surgeon – they started their lives together at Seattle Grace. They’re friends, collegues and competitors. It’ fun to see how George was attracted to Meredith at that time, but Meredith was absent minded because of Chief. And Burke was indifferent to the over-enthusiastic Cristina when the first met. What happened when Derek caught Addison with Mark was also revealed. I was amazed by Addison’s shamelessness. The way she persuaded Derek to stay was as if he was the one who cheated. But maybe marriages are just different from other kinds of relationships. What do I know, eh?

* I felt very uncomfortable writing this. The show was bashed hard. But I have to stand up for what I like, right?
Heck, I’m so not-care-about-what-other-people-think-of-me when I said I enjoyed watching the Covenant.

Invincible (2006)

Have been wanting to watch this for a while. Thanks to the schedule, chun had to watch this with me.

Like I said before, I cannot resist this kind of movie: sport-related (though no one would consider me a sport person), inspired by/based on true stories, such as Remember the Titans, Glory Road, The Greatest Game Ever Played and Coach Carter. Even though I don’t like American football and golf, I still enjoyed them.

Invincible was based on the true story of Vince Papale and the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles had been doing bad for several seasons, but Vince still remained to be a hard-core Eagles fan. Vince was facing a very difficult time in his life. He lost his part-time teaching job, his wife left him and took everything in the house with her, and… the Eagles had another awful season. Coach Dick Vermeil was brought from college football to save the team. In order to get everyone excited, he held an open tryout, not really intended to find anyone. But he discovered Vince.

It’s a great movie. (Janet was cute, especially when she cheered for Giants among all those Eagles fans.)

The Covenant (2006)

It’s kinda embarrassing but I still have to say… I really like this movie. (Does that mean I’m brainless teenage-wannabe?)

Anyways…

When I first saw the preview few months ago, my interest was quickly aroused. I’ve always liked these kind of themes: mysterious, supernatural… especially power/secret inherited from ancient families. But then I realized that it was categorized as horror. I don’t do horror movies. However, it turned out that my instinct was right. There’s nothing scary about this movie. The storyline was simple without any unexpected twist, but at least it flowed. There are a lot of movies out there which cannot tell a simple story well.

That’s about it. I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the 87 minutes I spent. It’s quite relaxing.

Stick It (2006)

I was quite looking forward to this film cos I’ve always been a big fan of gymnatics. I remember watching Olympics since I was just a kid and gymnastics along with diving are my favorites. Stick It was written by Olympic who brought us Bring It On (2000), hence I held high hopes for this movie. However, it sort of let me down. The story was kinda weak and the connection and transition were awkward. I can tolerate naiveness and irrealistic idealism in a film which aimed to be uplifting, but that’s way too much. I understand they have a point to make but I think there’s a fine line between being idealistic and lame. Moreover, there’s a sense of lost in this movie. It seemed that the storyteller wanted it all in a movie and made it a little bit of everything and not exactly anything. It’s like what we said in Chinese, 貪多嚼不爛。

Aside from its story, Missy Peregrym was not so bright unfortunately. In her outbreak scene she totally overdid it.

What a shame. It had the potential to be a good movie. (I really like Bring It On despite the fact that Kirsten Dunst was in it.)

Chelsea welcomes you to London,
Alan and Denny welcomed you back to the world of BL.

我喜歡他們給影集取的名字, 很有巧思。
Can’t we get a lung?
Can’t we get along?
Can’t we get alone?

這集中規中矩沒有特別令人驚豔,應該是要先讓觀眾找回對 Boston Legal 的感覺。

先聊 Denise, 因為我心愛的 Alan 跟 Denny 在本集還沒有讓我重燃對他們的熱情,
而 Alan 若有所思的樣子不及 House 來的有魅力。

開頭來個一小回合的 Denise v Squid 對決,Denise 仍佔下風。還好 Marlene 就要離開,不然再這樣吵鬧+辦公室激情下去,實在很膩。上季末 Daniel 回來,丟下個求婚炸彈。這集 Denise 開心地跟眾人宣佈好消息。然而 Daniel 在這集表現出他面對生命的態度,卻開始讓 Denise 感覺不確定。

公平, fairness, 到底要怎麼界定?
你要怎麼在只要花錢就能買到,與有錢也不能買中間畫界線?
在這樣的灰色地帶當中,是非黑白並不是那麼容易分辨,
更何況,很多事並沒有絕對的對與錯。
很多所謂的公平往往是依照人的主觀來判定,
而不同背景出身的人處在不同的狀況下,對於”公平”的定義通常不一樣。
從這個角度看,覺得”是啊~ 非常有道理。” 從那個角度看,又會認為他的作法值得非議。
這時,就看誰的口才好了吧…

另外,捧著 58th Emmy的 Christian Clemenson(Jerry Espenson, “Hands”) 回來了。今年他以 “Hands” 這個角色擊敗 Michael J. Fox (同樣是以 BL 中的角色被提名) 拿下 Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series。也許就是大家太愛他,於是他總是三不五時出些狀況,回來讓 Alan Shore 拯救。

這集 Jerry 帶著他的娃娃開 car pool lane 被警察攔下,卻因為警察企圖收押他的娃娃而爆發。還好這是Boston Legal,不然那這樣走下車,還試圖跟警察搶東西,在別的劇裡應該是必死無疑。(在大部分的電視電影裡,被警察 pull over 的人若是未獲允許擅自下車,警察都會超緊張,然後往往因溝通不良以警察開槍收場。) 但我看到那一幕時還是為他捏了把冷汗…

不知為何,Alan 總是對 Jerry 很溫柔。Alan 將 Jerry 保釋出來後,仍想進一步地幫他建立一些健康的關係。然而在 Alan + Jerry + Doll 與 sex surrogate 的諮商中,看起來反而是 Alan 需要幫助。Marlene 的離開造成 Alan 如此大的衝擊讓大家驚訝。Marlene 給我的感覺只是一個征服的對象,一個跟 Alan 在辦公室胡鬧的厲害角色,她的離開卻讓 Alan 陷入頓失浮木的不知所措。我們高傲,不可一世,充滿自信的 Alan 越來越脆弱了…

至於 Denny v Shirley 事件,我只能說真是 bad taste。(別搞錯,我不是討厭 Shirley 啊!) 沒有讓我反感,但也不值得我一談。

*Denise 表現亮眼,就不用多說了。第二季初我很愛的 Lori (Monica Potter) 離開,本來我是冷冷地看 Denise (Julie Bouer)的,但第二季看下來,實在無法不喜歡這個有點神經質,有點 un-balanced 的溫柔俐落女強人。

*Danny Crane 在一開頭又一次 break character

Criminal Minds

看完 DWTS 不小心轉到,好像很好看… 糟糕~

Jane Eyre

我很喜歡 1997 A&E 出的 TV movie 版本,Jane Eyre 由 Samantha Morton 飾演 (她在97年A&E的 Emma 中演 Harriet Smith) 而 Ciarán Hinds 飾 Mr. Rochester。Morton 演出了 Jane Eyre 堅毅又不失溫柔的氣質,雖然 Ciarán Hinds 詮釋的 Mr. Rochester 有點太過狂放,卻也瑕不掩瑜。

BBC 在今年拍了 Jane Eyre 的 mini series,想來應該是跟 BBC 1995年大受好評的 Pride & Prejudice 同樣形式。在這部新的 Jane Eyre 中,由 Ruth Wilson 飾 Jane Eyre,也許是我已經習慣 Morton 的 Eyre 了,Wilson 看起來太單薄; 而飾 Mr. Rochester 的 Toby Stephens 看起來又不夠陰沉,比起鄉間豪邸主人,紅花俠也許更適合。(但我心目中正牌的 Scarlet Pimpernel 只有 Richard E. Grant!) 小時候的 Jane 由 The Chronicles of Narnia 的 Georgia Henley演出。

雖然我好像嫌東嫌西,其實我非常期待,畢竟 BBC 出品,必屬佳作。

除了 97 年 BBC 與 A&E 合作的 Ivanhoe 以外 (慘不忍睹的作品,角色個性都被扭曲。註, Ciarán Hinds 在那部 Ivanhoe 中飾 Ivanhoe 死敵 Bois-Guilbert。XD)

Not so much to talk about really.

到處見批評這集醫學的觀點來說恐怖的錯誤百出, 但我不是專家, 所以我不太管。
我實在愛看 House 時不時被一些話語或情境衝擊而陷入或長或短的沉思的畫面,
但看多了,又不禁懷疑這真的代表什麼嗎?
也許只是 Hugh Laurie 這樣的表情加上這樣的拍攝角度特別好看而已。

我喜歡看人被一些人事物觸碰到內心而反思的畫面,尤其是他那種收斂隱諱的氣質。

回到 House 本集的糟糕 medicine 上來…
我覺得 House 是批得的,畢竟他們自己標榜盡量做到醫學寫實,
也有專門的blog在討論其中醫學正確性。
所以有人跳出來批這集 House 多麼亂七八糟,實在沒什麼好罵人家”愛看又要嫌”
(這種人比起不看又老愛批評的人要來的正常多了)

畢竟 House 不像 Grey’s Anatomy 擺明就是在演肥皂劇,
邊看 GA 邊批他們如何如何 procedure 做不對, 感覺有點把精力花在莫名其妙的地方上去了。

(看 GA 就是該批XX到底該不該跟OO在一起這種事啊… XD)

(such a long title)

The Black Dahlia, The Covenant, Crank, Hollywoodland, The Illusionist, Invincible, The Last Kiss

How can I possibly finish them all, now that I have TV to tend to?

Today I have House, Dancing with the Stars & Boson Legal. Tomorrow I’ll have DWTS result show, and Thursday, Six Degrees, Shark. Friday church. Saturday, Chelsea v Fulham & Sonoma. Sunday, church, Farmer’s market, Snow Patrol…

And I still got Rear Window, The affair of the necklace, An American rhapsody DVDs at home waiting for me.

movies I’m probably gonna see

Invincible
Aside from musical movies, sports-related, based-on-true-story movie is another genre I cannot resist. See Glory Road, Remember the Titans, Coach Carter and so on.

The Prestige
Magicians in 19 century. Again, starred Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson (something’s going on between these two!?)

The Covenant
I like this kinda of story, but I suspect it’d be good. Anyways, it’s nice to watch good looking guys.

Hollywoodland

The Black Dahlia
Didn’t receive much good critic, but it’s said to be a film noir. I like those kind of movies so I’d give it a try.

Children of Men
Adpated from P.D. James novel, starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. Must-see. (Before hearing about this, I didn’t know P.D. James writes Sci-Fi, too)

The Guardian
Ashton Kutcher finally has a break through performance (at least he looks convincingly serious in the trailer.)

The Last Kiss

The Holiday
Don’t like the actresses (Diaz & Winslet) but love Jude Law and Jack Black. Half of the movie took place in English country side. How can I possibly resist it.

Casino Royale
I was attracted by its poster, but I didn’t realized until now that it’s a 007 movie. Daniel Craig is the new James Bond. We’ll see if he can really portrait the charismatic James Bond. (He looks like Ed Harris in the poster.)

Copying Beethoven
Ed Harris played Beethoven

Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
Looks fun.

Flicka
A story that reminds me of Black Beauty. Tim McGraw not only sang the theme song but also played Katie’s father. I don’t know he can act. (Maybe he can’t… oops)

Marie Antoinette
I hate Kirsten Dunst, but I can’t resist 16th-19th centuries movies

All the King’s Men
Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini… Do I need to say more?

I was working on something and a thought came to me, “I haven’t talked about my name on this blog yet!” So I digged out info on Acapulco H.E.A.T., a short lived, ill-reviewed, bikini secret agent-team show based in Acapulco, Mexico.

and I accidentally found its DVD was just released this summer!

With the DVD release of Newsradio(1995/2005), Silk Stalkings(1991/2004), Due South(1994/2005), La Femme Nikita(1997/2003) and now Acapulco H.E.A.T.(1993/2006), my teenage TV memories came back to me. Different from MacGyver, Knight Rider and Star Trek: The Next Gerneration which accompanied me during the earlier stage of my life(childhood), these are the shows that actually affected me. They were a very important part of my life back when I was in high school. And I love them so much that I made Nikita one of my screen names and Ashley (name of the leader of H.E.A.T.) my “official” name.

Aside from those five, there were still some other TV shows that I watched and loved but never got to be put into DVD. It’d be unfair if I don’t mention them here. So here you go. Wings(starring my beloved Tim Daly), Café Americain, Babylon 5, Sea Quest: DSV, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Get Smart, Ask Harriet, Nash Bridges, Moon over Miami

*甯甯你覺得我要不要買這個DVD? :p
(我現在手上有兩季Newsradio跟兩季Silk Satlkings XD)

Middle Names

Ref
Take my name for example. Hu Yung-Ching (or Yung-Ching, Hu, if you like)

Considering “Yung” (or “Ching”) as my middle name is as stupid as saying Ash is my frist name and Ley is my middle name.

雖然贏了, 但是上半場看下來… 利記是輸在運氣不好 orz

別忘了 Aaron Sorkin 的 Studio 60 將於今晚十點 NBC 首映!!

強力推薦!

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