I've read all the books, so I'm gonna try really hard to not spoil anything from those, and just concentrate on the show.

( Random spoilers here and there for the series so far. )

Phew! I wanted to get this out before the new episode tonight.

So I just wrote up a post about my overall thoughts on Revenge in my new attempt to start posting about more than just The Vampire Diaries in my lj. I was hoping for some feedback from my lovely flist. These are the shows that I like enough that I'm willing to sit down and write thoughts about (overall for now, and about when they come back) ... please click any you'd be interested in reading about. And feel free to hit me up for suggestions or just talk about the shows in comments. :)

Poll #1842473
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

Thinky-thoughts on TV!

So I've never actually posted about Revenge. But in an effort to feature more in my livejournal than 99 posts about The Vampire Diaries and 1 post about ... not The Vampire Diaries, here are quick overall thoughts about the show, and the finale in particular. I've actually watched this one from the beginning and quite enjoy it for the campy, soapy, creepy goodness it is. (Spoilers for the finale included.)

( Nolan is all the win in the universe. )

- I watched Scandal, it was awesome. Another show to watch come fall. :)

- I've been listening to Kris Allen's new CD, Thank You Camellia. It is awesome. I just ordered the fan version (with 5 acoustic tracks, whee!). I can't wait to get it. I also got Haley Reinhart's CD and Adam Lambert's, I may or may not write a full post on all three CDs once I've listened to them a bunch.

- Lastly, I was bored last night, Bones is ON DEMAND, so I watched the first five minutes or so of a month-old episode before going to bed. What I saw I liked enough that I decided to check Netflix and lo and behold, they have the first six seasons on watch instantly. I have no clue where I stopped watching, so I'm going to start from the Pilot and see if I find that old lovin' feeling and get all the way through. Spoiler alert for current Bones -- damn, Tamara Taylor's hairstyle is ... not good.

And that's all she wrote ............

John Scalzi wrote an article called: Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. Naturally there was a LOT of butthurt from straight white males. So, he wrote a follow-up: Straight White Male Is The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is: A Follow-Up.

Both are genius. You can go to the links above ( or just go behind my cut. :) )

SO AWESOME! To see his other stuff, check out his website: Whatever.

What's nice is that for the first time in a while, I only have two heavy days, and on Tuesday, two of the shows are reality competitions and I tend to fastforward through most of the filler, and three half-hour sitcoms, so not bad. The trouble night is still, of course, Thursday. And chances are fairly high that I won't get to watching most of those shows until Friday unless it's a Vampire Diaries rerun. Still, lighter schedule than usual. Yay. :)

( My likely fall television schedule. )

Woohoo! Less than a month between icon updates! (And I actually had these done over a week ago, but it was timed with the finale, so I didn't want to post them then.) So here be icons from episodes 1.17 ("Let the Right One In") and 2.17 ("Know Thy Enemy"). These feature Damon, Elena, Caroline, Katherine, Stefan, Alaric, Jeremy, Bonnie and Pearl.

Here's a teaser:



( 1.17 'Let the Right One In' icons )

( 2.17 'Know Thy Enemy' Icons )

Discussion came up in one of my Vampire Diaries posts about Damon being the central character in "The Descent", and crowandfog came up with the idea of listing the central character from each episode to see how it played out. (You can see that list here.) She wound up picking more than one character for certain episodes, and it was interesting to see her choices, but I wanted to take it a step further. I decided to make it harder on myself and just choose one character (as the show generally has an A, B, C and sometimes a D plot going per episode), the character focused on in the A-plot (unless a lead wasn't the central figure of that plot, but rather a recurring character was highlighted; in that case I then moved to plot B), and to explain why I chose that character using the following parameters:

1) Which character had the strongest emotional arc?
2) Which character drove the most story?
3) Which character had the most key focus in their scenes (and in scenes not involving them)?
4) Which character interacted with the most characters?

First of all, these are the characters that I consider lead: Elena, Damon, Stefan, and the secondary leads are Caroline and Bonnie -- they've driven multiple episodes, and have been the lead B-story in more than a few episodes). They are all regular cast members and main characters (ie, even though Katherine is played by lead actress Nina Dobrev, I don't consider Katherine one of the main characters). Alaric, Jeremy, Vicki, Jenna, Tyler, Klaus and Matt fall under the supporting roles for me. While we've seen them lead some stories, it's generally the B-story, and more often than not, they are supporting.

( Previous Central Characters write-ups. )

( Finishing out season 03. )

It stars two actors I love (Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu). I like the concept, and as one who's not all in love with Moffat's Sherlock, I don't find this even remotely sacrilegious. And frankly, based on this preview alone, it's a VERY different kind of Holmes. Finally, judging from this preview, it sure looks like Miller and Liu have great chemistry.

Season finale of Smash OMG! That was so good. I loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. Best episode since the Pilot. Now if they could maintain that awesome balance throughout the whole season, it would be awesome. Sure there were some great episodes in-between, but this one really just seemed to slay on all levels. I LOVED IT!

And that final number, dude, I was clapping!