The 200

Happy Thursday! Today is, in fact, the 200th post to this Thursday-exclusive blog. So Happy 200th Thursday Day!

This week should appropriately be my DEADWOOD review week. Seeing as I've burned through the first two seasons in a little over a week (not that much of a feat, running 12-episode seasons (and I also fastforward through plotty bits)), it's something that I have analytical opinions about by this point.

DEADWOOD is, for those of you who don't know, an HBO western that ran three seasons at some point in the recent past. It's set in the mining camp of Deadwood in the Dakota hills, at a time where laws didn't reach that far and saloon owners did a lot of conniving. I only picked it up because it's one of Megan's favorites and we happen to be writing a western these days.

Strictly speaking, DEADWOOD is not one of my favorite shows. Specifically, there's only three or four reasons I watch it, all of those reasons being characters, some of whom are dead now. And it took me a great deal of investment just to build up an investment; i.e., I slogged through the first five episodes just because I had them, not necessarily because I wanted to.

Like the town, the show was not initially very welcoming. Characters had their bubbles and they stuck to 'em, lonely little satellite communities revolving Ian McShane's character who only just recently warmed up at all. His character pulls the majority of the strings and can rightly be considered the main character in this ensemble play. But (until recently), he was not presented in a sympathetic manner and you couldn't relate to him. He just was who he was (he still is, but now you're used to him). So I fast forwarded through him and whenever plot was happening, because it invariably involved him.

Then people started intermingling, and by the second season it had really become a town, a whole community. And if you want to learn about the art of the character-driven storyline, here's the place to study. There's almost not one thing that simply happens to a person--these people take action and they take it often. The drawback of this (to my sensibilities) is that it becomes almost "slice of life" in its temperament; very naturalistic and paced in relation to who feels like doing what. So sometimes ripping along but more often just plodding. In the first season there really was no overarching theme or tribulation that encapsulated those episodes. Not epic. And I like my things epic.

The second season focuses on a camp-wide danger (muffled and distorted and exaggerated by various parties for their own agendas), and ties more than one season-long arcs off at the end, which I appreciated. And it's not like they don't know how to pull a heartstring. But I still fast forwarded through the talky plotty parts because I only needed the gist--the show is about the characters and I only needed to watch the ones I cared about.

Still, most anybody I've brought it up with will swear by the show. It's very popular. And I'm not at all saying I don't like it; I'm picking up the last season tomorrow. But if there's one thing I've learned from my dabbling into cable shows (DEXTER, WEEDS, etc) it's that I don't want my show to be so down-to-earth gritty. I don't need the language and the harsh situations. I'd prefer to present something more stylized and refined. Like BSG was gritty and harsh, but I could still watch it with my parents. It had scope that I find absent in DEADWOOD (and WEEDS).

My regular shows are starting come come back on, like flowers emerging delicately from the snow. The OFFICE is off an running, steady as usual. HIMYM made me giddy with happiness, and HEROES was just as bad as I would have thought. DOLLHOUSE tomorrow, and I'm sure there was something else that premiered that I missed and will be sad about when I remember.

FLASH FORWARD, today, was interesting. I kinda wasn't into it very much, until something completely unexpected and irrationally creepifying happened and creeped me out real bad. AND on the imdb boards there's a whole thread dedicated to people saying how it creeped them out. If you saw it, you'll know the moment. My question is: how on earth was that so creepy? I don't know why it creeped me out. But I feel that if I knew the answer, if I could learn to wield that power, I would be unstoppable.

In more fishy news, one of the fish had babies, although by now only one as not been eaten. I'm gonna try and section off the tank for it tomorrow. If it's still there in the morning.

I also got (helped get) my dad Beatles Rock Band for his birthday, so we've been jammin'. Fascinatingly, both my household and Carolyn's separately constructed mic stands out of tripods and cardboard tubes. The universal subconscious at work.

Here's the most bizarre thing that happened to me all week:
Me and Brian are standing around at work, nothing to do. We start up about these dumb little energy drinks that never sell. He says he bought one once. I say that must be why there's one missing. No more than fifteen seconds later, a guy walks in, grabs two, and goes to check out. "I only came in here for these," he says.

Inexplicable.

-Stephanie