Fumarama

So I was a bit disappointed by the Leo's funeral episode. I mean it was fine as an episode. But I was really only watching it because I wanted a tribute episode to Leo and John Spencer (Finals, I should not be watching tv shows unless I really really love them). I guess creatively I suppose it is better to move the plot forward rather than sit around having a tribute. But an episode filled with lovely Leo flashbacks (to the Aaron Sorkin days) would have totally made me cry.

That being said, I thought the opening scene was really good. I thought it was really powerful for no other reason but that literally every character ever on the show was in the scene looking really sad. It really felt like all the old cast members had shown to pay their respects to Spencer.

However, for the scenes they did dedicate to Leo stories, I don't understand why they had to make up new ones. I mean why didn't they just retell briefly stories that had actually happened on the show. I think it would have been sweet and nostalgic in a really wonderful way. Like Jed could have told the story about how Leo showed up to his office in New Hampshire and wrote Bartlett for President on a napkin, Mallory could have told a story about him sabotaging her date with Sam, it would have been really cool.

Finally, because at the end I sort of love obvious, blunt cheesiness, I am really happy that they have thrown out the rulebook of maintaining realistic scenerios and good writing and basically just have everyone hooking up with everyone. I find all this getting together so satisfying.

This from Pop Candy is absolutely hilarious:

Miramax Films has inked a deal with Elton John's Rocket Pictures to develop Gnomeo and Juliet. The movie is exactly what it sounds like: a new take on the Shakespeare play "set in the world of tacky garden gnomes." Think it couldn't get any more bizarre? Kate Winslet is set to star, and John will be contributing music to the soundtrack.

It even inspired to put my first ever picture online. Look up. Dude, if this movie is really ever made, I am totally going to see it opening night.

When I was 10, my favorite show was Saved By The Bell. But the one thing that got to me about the show was that there was no congruity in dress between characters in a given scene. So like Slater would be in a leather jacket and Lisa would be in a short little skirt and sandals. And 10 year old me was like if it is warm enough for Lisa to wear a tiny little skirt, how isn't Slater really hot in his big heavy jacket?

But have you ever walked down the streets of New York on a 72 degree day? No dress congruity. There are people in full on winter coats and then girls in tiny little skirts and tank tops. Now, I have never spent more than a week in Southern California, but I have been led to believe by nostalgic SoCal ex-pats that it is 72 degrees an awful lot there. So maybe Saved by the Bell was right after all. 10 year old me is sad that she was wrong.

So I've started watching the West Wing again....and if I can forget what it once was, and think of it as a brand new piece of tv, it is actually pretty good. I mean the characters are likeable and the whole political campaign story was pretty compelling, and I cared enough about the what was going on to be genuinely excited that Santos won.

Also, this campaign was a lot better paced than the one Sorkin wrote. I mean Sorkin was great at pacing single episodes, but at story arcs he was terrible. So while every campaign episode was great, it moved too quickly or something. This moved at a far better pace.

Also #2, these writers do a much better impression of the cable news networks. Sorkin was just too witty or something, so even his television announcers were kind of funny and cool. In this show, all the breaking news on the tv sounded like real breaking news. At some point, an announcement on one of the tvs was like "just to remind our viewers, red states means they went for Vinick and Blue for Santos," which was fabulous because that was precisely the type of idiotic reminders you get election night.

So I am still entertained by the OC, but now I sort of see it as watching animals in a zoo, it is diverting, but there is no coherent story lines there. Actually, maybe the animals are more coherent, so maybe my anology was terrible. But really, this show cannot keep the ongoing coherent story lines of say Americas Next Top Model.

Anyway, major questions from last night's episode:

Why would they only apply to one college?
-- there was even a trend article about this in the New York Times, high school seniors are applying to more and more colleges. So you know, the OC no longer has its pulse on the culture. Well, either way, Seth should not get into Brown just cause he was so stupid as to not apply to Brown without a back up school.

How in the world did Marissa get into Berkeley?
-- didn't she break the computer with her college essay on it in a fit of depression and rage? Also, wasn't she kicked out of school? doesn't she barely attend school now? This is one however I have the best logical explanation for that one. You know how Yale admitted the Osama's driver and said "diversity and he could benefit from a good education" maybe Berkeley feels the same way about Marissa and shooting a man.

Why would Brown send Seth a thick envelope in order to reject him?
--thick envelope/thin envelope good news/bad news. Come on, this is part of our modern folklore or whatever. I understand the need to build suspence, but couldn't they have done with the envelopes themselves.

What is the big deal if Sadie moves to Berkeley?
-- Seth gives this whole long speech to Ryan about how if Sadie moves to Berkeley they would have to live together and pay rent and Ryan won't get to live in the dorms. Um...why? Couldn't Ryan just live in the dorms and Sadie somewhere else and they continue to date? As far as I can tell, people successfully date all the time without living together. It does not seem to be a big deal.

Sadie's speech about pulling Ryan away from his life, wtf?
--ok, so she is sitting on the beach and he joins her and then gives him a speech about pulling him away from his life. What life? this was the whole theme of the Ryan Birthday Episode, Ryan has no friends at Harbor. i mean he does not seem to spend any time there so it makes sense. But if Sadie had not been there he would have either gotten together with Marissa for the 8th time or had to leave from boredome.

They kicked Sadie off the show already????
--if she is gone already, what was the point of their relationship?? They did not develop her character even a tiny bit. And she did not even have plot purpose. She did not break Marissa and Ryan up, Johnny did that. She did not even show that Ryan could date a normal girl, Lindsay did that. She was just killing OC time. I heard somewhere that they are bringing Anna back, but i feel like that will just depressingly point out to everyone that the OC at some point could make you care about the characters.

Kirsten leaves the house in anger?
-- did anyone even catch that storyline. Kirsten has two 3 minute conversations and suddenly she is gone. no build up at all.

Finally, to make matters even sadder, there are rumours that Mischa Barton (Marrisa) is thinking of leaving the show, apparently because they portray her to be a brat and the shows ratings have plummeted.