Best In Show
Maybe it’s just me, but for some reason, my TV schedule seems to be crowded this year. And we haven’t even reached midseason yet! I may not have any new Smallville episodes to watch since its farewell last May (Boo!), but plenty of notable freshman shows have sprung up in its place. On a side note, the Smallville Complete Series DVD set comes out in 10 days (November 29. Yay!). I guess this explosion of fresh new television shouldn’t come as a surprise. A couple of seasons ago, it felt like a lot of TV shows were ending, or at least coming close to an end (see here). Now it feels like the opposite. It’s the circle of life, I suppose. The old has made way for the new. We’ve come upon a new TV era.
For example . . .
TV On the Radio
OK, confession time. I am not good at keeping up with the current music scene. I am more inclined to listen to standards like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and one of my favorite “current” singers is crooner Michael Buble. I also love Disney songs, movie musicals, and Broadway soundtracks. With this in mind, and the fact that I tend to listen to my iPod more than the radio, you can get a pretty good idea of how out of it I am when it comes to modern music.
However, there is one thing that I have going for me: I watch a lot of TV. More to the point, I watch a lot of TV shows that feature relatively new, up to date, even (dare I say) cool music. So I’m not totally out of the loop. And is it just me, or has this music spotlighting trend on TV intensified in recent years? I mean, in the olden days, the most a TV show was ever known for musically was for its theme song. Most TV shows these days don’t even have a theme song anymore, but music has nevertheless found other ways to dominate TV land.
Music is an integral part of the TV shows we watch and always has been, in whatever form it takes. It’s just become a bit more noticeable lately. Glee is in the forefront of this trend simply because its musical comedy format lends itself to easy advertisement. American Idol is another big influence on how we use and promote music on TV today. But mostly I just love it when a show I like uses a song to great effect to tell a story. Perhaps this is part of my musical-loving instinct. I remember and appreciate songs most when I can associate them with scenes, stories, and characters I know.
So thank goodness I watch TV, or I would be totally clueless. Need some examples? Here are some of my favorite music moments from TV.
Long Live the King
This past weekend The Lion King reigned—again—at the box office, earning $29.3 million in its first weekend of this year’s re-release. (It was also re-released for IMAX theaters in 2002.) This time The Lion King is re-vamped for 3-D theaters. It earned more than three of last weekend’s high-profile new releases combined (Drive: $11 million, Straw Dogs: $5 million, and I Don’t Know How She Does It: $4.5 million) and more than double of last weekend’s winner (Contagion: $14.5 million). In addition, The Lion King 3-D is the first re-release to win at the box office since Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi in 1997, and it earned more than double what the Disney studio expected for its opening weekend. (See MTV.com and The Washington Post.)
Being (Non)Human
I've become increasingly aware lately that human characters are scarce in the movies and TV that I watch. Perhaps this seems like it should be obvious, considering that I am a fan girl who likes mostly science fiction, fantasy, and other genre fiction, but really, if you stop and think about it, it's astonishing just how rare a good ol' human is in such stories. For example, the other night, I found myself rolling my eyes because yet another person had been turned into a vampire on The Vampire Diaries, taking yet another human out of the picture on a show that is already running low on human characters.
But let's look on the bright side of this situation, shall we? I mean, I must love all these shows, otherwise I wouldn't be watching them, and I wouldn't be watching them if I didn't love the characters. So, what is it about non-human characters that is so appealing? I think we are first attracted to non-human characters simply by virtue of the fact that they aren't human, which makes them different and fascinating. But I think what keeps us interested in these characters is what they teach us about our humanity in the long run. Because, underneath it all, they're all human. For example:
CLARK KENT (from Smallville)
Okay, I might as well get this one out of the way right off the bat because everyone knows how much I love Superman and that I’ll use any excuse to include him in a blog post. So here it is. Superman, the greatest non-human character in popular culture. There. I said it. But let me take a moment to specifically recognize Smallville and its contribution to the Superman lore. Christopher Reeve may be my favorite Man of Steel, but Tom Welling just might be my favorite Clark Kent. Smallville was the true reboot of Superman, reinventing the story like never before, and one of its true accomplishments was its focus on Clark's story and his human origins as well as his Kryptonian ones. We have yet to see Clark as full-blown Superman on the show, but however it ends, it’s going to be epic. And with Smallville now entering its final stretch, not to mention that Nolan’s reboot is well underway, it seems that the Superman legend still has some history-making moments on the horizon, even after all these years. I couldn’t be more excited.
And there's more where that came from. In compiling the rest of this list, I was surprised by the sheer variety of non-human beings there are to choose from. (So, no, it's not going to be all vampires.) I had a hard time narrowing it down. But given the number of awesome choices, how could I not share some of my picks with everyone? Vampires, wizards, aliens, hobbits, mermaids, Time Lords, angels, animals, Terminators, and Kryptonians. You know the drill. Here is my list of favorite non-human characters, just for fun.
Vampire Weekend
First let me preface this post by saying that, yes, I know you're probably sick of vampires. I understand, believe me. I thought I was getting sick of vampires. Don't misunderstand me. I am, and forever will be, a Buffy/Angel/Twilight fan. But for me, those franchises seemed to give me all the vampire I would ever need. I was happy, I was content, and consequently, felt no need to explore the vampire trend any further.
Which is why I have avoided The Vampire Diaries until now. On some level, I dismissed it, thinking it would fade as soon as the vampire craze was over. Nevertheless, fans and critics seem to love it, which got me wondering if it was worth its salt after all. So I borrowed a copy of the season 1 DVDs, BUT I still didn't watch it right away. It sat around for a while. Then, one fateful weekend, I thought I better watch it, if only because I had to return the DVDs eventually, so I couldn't put it off forever. I've now seen all of season 1 and most of season 2. What do I think? Well, funny you should ask.
A Thanksgiving Movie Feast
Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, and my family looks forward to it weeks in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like the forgotten holiday. Stores start to put up Christmas displays as soon as the Halloween decorations come down. Thanksgiving is barely a blip on the radar.
Also, the other day (sometime immediately following Halloween, in fact) my family wanted to watch a Thanksgiving movie to get into the spirit of the holiday. The only problem with that is, there doesn’t seem to be any Thanksgiving movies. There are plenty of Halloween movies and, obviously, lots of Christmas movies. There’s even Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which you could watch on either holiday. But Thanksgiving movies? Not so much. It seems that we skip right over Thanksgiving not only in stores, but in film as well.
Yeah, I know that some Thanksgiving movies exist, but not to the extent of Halloween or Christmas movies, and I can think of none that are true classics of the holiday. Wait. I take that back. There is ONE movie I can think of that is both classic and Thanksgiving-inspired: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. And no holiday would be complete without a Charlie Brown special to go with it. But that’s it. Any other Thanksgiving movies I can think of I either don’t like or I’ve forgotten for the moment, which isn’t very encouraging.
In an effort to fill this void, I’ve come up with some recommendations of my own. While these movies may not be directly related to Thanksgiving, I think they still capture its spirit, and that’s what matters. So what do we celebrate Thanksgiving for? Gratitude. Family. And, of course, the food. Without further ado, here is my list of movies to watch this Thanksgiving.
Note: By "Thanksgiving," I refer mainly to the American version of the holiday. But hey, if this appeals to readers who celebrate Thanksgiving elsewhere, or anyone who doesn't celebrate it, that's good too. Please keep in mind, this list is all in good fun.
Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman (For Now…)
It's official: Joss Whedon is directing The Avengers. Woohoo! But, of course, we knew that already. It's been solid speculation for awhile, even if not officially confirmed. When the news was announced recently at San Diego Comic-Con, it wasn't that much of a surprise. But it was still thrilling to see the cast and its director together for the first time, including fan favorite Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, etc. Also, each of the individual heroes created a respectable amount of buzz on their own. Captain America and Thor in particular were two of the big names this year, and with the addition of Green Lantern, Scott Pilgrim, and Green Hornet, there's no doubt that comic book and graphic novel adaptations are more popular than ever. In fact, it seems Comic-Con was saturated with superheroes this year, even by their standards. Is this a bad thing?
The Fangirl Emmy Awards
The Emmy nominations have just been announced, and there were a lot of surprises, including a busload of nominations for newbie Modern Family (love!), 19 whopping nominations for Glee (I’m sure everyone expected the show to get nominated but 19!?), NO nominations for The David Letterman Show or Entourage (good riddance), or Ed O’Neill, for that matter (oh no!), plenty of sentimental nods for Lost, and the list goes on.
If you remember, earlier I posted my list of Fangirl Academy Awards (see here). Well, now it’s time for the Emmy edition. Because while this is the strongest, most exciting Emmy roster I’ve seen in a while, the show would still go much differently if I were in charge. Naturally, I agree with the real list to some degree, but there are still a lot of actors and shows that didn’t make the list that I think deserve recognition. And this time I’m going to list my choices for nominations as well as winners because a full list is the only way to adequately summarize the great TV I’ve seen this year. Oh, this is going to be fun! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Fun But Ultimately Useless Stuff
Sorry for the slight delay in getting this post up, but now it's here. In the spirit of Chronicles of Mania's goal to write about fun but ultimately useless stuff, we have for you some miscellaneous movie and pop culture trivia that, while interesting to know, there is not much else you can do with it except share it! For instance, did you know that Walt Disney almost named Mickey Mouse Mortimer? (Disney's mother thought Mickey sounded better.) Or that Mel Blanc, who provided the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots? Or that on the day Gene Kelly shot the number "Singin' in the Rain" he was sick and had a high fever? You know, random stuff like that. So the question is, Did you know . . . ?
GLEE-ful Thinking
Season 1 of Glee is over, and yet I'm still excited about it. I bought the Glee the Music: Journey to Regionals CD and haven't stopped listening to it, plus I've got a whole collection of other Glee songs, which I've been buying throughout the season, that I have been playing and replaying. I rewatched the pilot episode after seeing the finale, just because. It seems I can't get enough. It's going to be a long wait until season 2. Thankfully, we've had some season 2 spoilers to keep us going. John Stamos is set to make a guest appearance as Will Schuester's main competition for Emma Pillsbury's heart. (Read details here.) Kurt & Mercedes will have new love interests. And a "Carrie Underwood-esque, Christian country singer" will be introduced as Rachel's new rival. Then there's Nationals . . . (See here.)
With a whole summer to wait before the next season starts, naturally there will be a lot of speculation about what could or should happen, but most of all, Glee fans like me are wondering, What music are they going to include? At least I'm constantly thinking about it. I find myself automatically thinking, "Hey, Glee should totally do this song!" whenever I'm listening to my iPod or the radio. This list is the result. Here are some of my picks for songs I would like to hear, if not in season 2, at least at some future point on Glee.