Thank you so much, steady readers and faithful commenters (special shout-out to our hardcore fans!), for keeping us honest and pushing us forward to watch more TV and movies, listen to more music, and keep scouring the internet for long lost video clips from bygone eras. (I’m still hunting for a clip of that Mervyn’s lady chanting “open open open open”!)

Please keep in touch with us writers, there are exciting new projects coming down the pipe this summer!

snarkysmachine: Snarky’s Machine occasionally haunts her flagship blog, but the best place to catch her is on Twitter or blogging about office supplies. She’ll spend the summer being paid to sit through summer blockbusters, but not enough to end her long standing ritual of bringing her own snacks to the theater.

raymondj: If you are in Chicago in June, Raymond will be on stage at Poonie’s Cabaret at Links Hall and also appearing in the play Fa$hion, as part of the Alcyon Festival. Otherwise, come hang out with him at www.araymondjohnson.com or follow @raymondj.

p0plife: Poplife will continue to listen to music while yelling at kids to stay off her lawn. She will be releasing the second printing of her zine, “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” this summer while working on the newest issue, a Crispin Glover fanzine, new music-writing, and half-assed training for a 5k. You can see updates/drawings at noisyspoon.tumblr.com

evmaroon: Everett Maroon will be guest blogging for Bitch Magazine this summer and for Gay YA.org, while he gets started on a new book about mummies and spies. He’s also excited to be part of the team putting together the upcoming book, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, and in his free time, he’ll continue to blog at Transplantportation.com.

s.e. smith:s.e. smith can always be found at this ain’t livin’, ou personal website, as well as on Twitter and Tumblr. smith also has a regular television criticism column at Global Comment, appears frequently at Tiger Beatdown and The Guardian, and will be returning to Bitch Magazine this summer in a series on mental health in pop culture. As always, dial meloukhia at gmail dot com for interview requests, commissions, and related matters.

redlami: Redlami says funny things on Twitter And no, he probably won’t answer any computer related questions.

…..and leave a comment here if you want us to follow YOU!

Until our paths on the information superhighway cross again……

There’s a reason I started consuming pop culture and was willing to push through the cultural barriers created by spending my early childhood in Greece and missing out on a lot of the pop culture phenomena other people in my age bracket take for granted. It wasn’t until high school that I really started engaging with pop culture, and realised I’d been doing it on a subconscious level my whole life. I was steeped in pop culture references and actually becoming a student of pop culture gave me a deeper appreciation for all those things. (And helped me figure out why people looked at me funny sometimes.)

I love pop culture because I love to be entertained. There is a special feeling I get when I’m settling into a chair and cracking open a new book, throwing in a DVD to rewatch, consuming a great piece of art. It’s a thrill that tingles all the way down my spine as I look at this piece of art that someone has made for me. It’s the thing that swells up inside my chest and makes me grin despite myself every time I’m at the movie theatre and the opening credits start to roll. The same thing that uncoils at the end of the movie and makes my eyes mist over during the credits (well, wait, that might actually be the overcranked A/C).

We humans have longed for entertainment for a long time. Those stuffy ‘classics’ people shove down your throat in school were the pop culture of their generation. A Tale of Two Cities was pop culture. The Sistine Chapel was pop culture. Ὄρνιθες (The Birds) was a work of pop culture. Discussing Greek theatre with my father recently, we were talking about the tendency to pick over the bones of Greek drama, and he said ‘what if these guys were really just writing these plays to entertain people, and people thought they were fun, so they kept going?’ It made me think about the potential for critical meta-analysis of the things we’re consuming now by scholars 2000 years in the future. What’s going to survive, and what are people going to think of it? Will it be Days of Our Lives that people turn to as the informative text on US culture in the 20th century?

I like entertainment. I like to laugh. I like to feel my heart catch at the back of my throat. I like to be royally pissed on behalf of whichever character is getting totally fucked over. I love pop culture that tears at my emotions and puts me through the wringer and makes me feel like I need a warmup towel when I’m done. Wait. That sounds dirty.

And I love the connections that pop culture creates for me. Common ground is only a shared favourite television series away, the cover of the novel you’re reading, a mutual appreciation for pop art. Sometimes other divides seem unbridgeable; there’s no way I’m going to reach a person, until I find the chink in the armor and we can talk about pop culture. And sure, sometimes pop culture is the means to an end or the backdoor to a serious discussion. But also? Sometimes it’s just the foundation of a great new friendship that I’ll enjoy for years to come.

And, yeah, I love what pop culture says about me, and about society. I love pop culture as a vehicle for commentary you can’t get away with in other forms of media. I think pop culture is a tremendous tool for change, especially when the creators aren’t consciously setting out to create change, but rather to make something fun, and entertaining, and awesome that creates change along the way. And I love tearing apart the things I love to see how they’re put together and how people interact with them. That, too, is part of my love of pop culture.

Pop culture saved my life; not in a hyperbolic sense but in the sense that during a severe depressive episode several years ago, it really was a television show that I was living for. And it was moving through that television series that gave me something else to live for. All the psychotherapy in the world couldn’t give me that; it took a creator of art who wanted to make something entertaining to do that.

And that’s pretty fucking cool.

For months fans were warned the season seven finale would not be the full frontal visceral assault observed last May. With expectations tempered I went into the finale hoping there would be some forward motion on all those stagnant story arcs that have languished in the wake of the exciting trinity of Mark/Callie/Arizona. As a person who likes the trinity a lot, I was still eager to spend time with the three remaining original residents: Alex, Meredith and Cristina. While there was nary a grief stricken shooter or gratuitous bouts of Emmy-bait acting, the emotional casualty rate was high. And after the jump, I’ll tell you all about it. If you haven’t seen the episode and don’t wish to be spoiled, do not read any further.

she's the one

Since the staged catastrophe episode I had my money on April as Chief Resident, with Alex as her only real rival. I never thought Mer or Cristina would be Chief Resident, mostly because despite being a prestigious position in the hospital it’s not exactly going to provide opportunities to showcase some of that patented Grey’s overacting. Besides, it damn near derailed Callie’s character development and being fired as Chief Resident was the best thing that ever happened to Callie and Miranda (who eventually went on to be chief resident). April is the perfect chief resident because even though everyone wanted to win the competition because they are competitive as all get out, none of them actually wanted to do the job. April was the only person who wanted to actually be Chief Resident. She’s similar to the vanished Sydney Heron in that regard. I was pleased to see April snag it, because let’s face it, with everyone else acting a fool, suddenly April’s killing a patient due to a simple error pales when compared to her especially naughty competitors. Besides, unlike many fans, I like April. I’ve liked her from day one.

The episode actually begins with Meredith and Alex falling out over his drunken revenge involving blurting out Meredith had tampered with the research study she and Derek were working on. Well there was some stuff that happened prior to Alex getting evicted from Casa Mer and their friendship imploding before our eyes. I think of all the choices the writers made with this episode, Alex and Meredith’s conflict was by far the bravest. Cristina getting pregnant: been there and done that during season 1 or 2. Mer and Der yelling at each other. Yeah, we done already caught that show on multiple nights. Don’t get me started on the number of times the Chief and Meredith have stumbled into conflict because that seems happen at least once every five episodes. I guess fathers and daughters are like that. Oops, did I say that out loud? Forget the race of the actress that plays Meredith for a second, but is there anyone who doesn’t think Mer is Richard’s daughter with Ellis? They’ve been fuzzy on the timeline in terms of when Ellis was knocked up and whether or not she was involved with Richard at the time, but still… It does make you wonder.

Anyhoo, the fallout from Meredith’s clinical trial tampering was a nonevent: Richard couldn’t fire her outright because well, she’d tampered with the study in order to ensure his wife received the active agent and not the placebo. Hard to fire someone who’s trying to save your wife’s life. And Richard definitely wasn’t the man for that particular job. He gave her some half ass suspension, which mostly comes across as time Meredith can spend getting acquainted with her duties as new mom to adorable baby Zola, who Mer and Der were granted temporary custody of. This would be fabulous, except, well Derek’s not actually on speaking terms with his wife since she destroyed his clinical trial and possibly his reputation amongst fellow researchers. Yes, it’s shocking when a man who cheats on his wife (out of revenge by sleeping with an intern he doesn’t realize works at his hospital after meeting her in a bar) discovers the woman he decided to make his life with is not all she’s cracked up to be in the integrity department. Shocking! And so much for Shonda’s oft repeated vow never to break up Mer and Der again. Oops. I guess we got played on that front as well.

Meanwhile – because Grey’s is a soap – Cristina discovers she’s six weeks pregnant and freaks out. For someone who is adverse to pregnancy as Cristina she seems woefully ill-informed about how this whole getting knocked up process works. It must have been especially troubling for her since we were all but told in season two than an ectopic pregnancy/burst fallopian tube most likely left Cristina unable to conceive. Though to be fair it was mostly implied. In any case, Cristina does not want to have Owen’s baby or anyone else’s. I was surprised at how aggressive Owen was given that Cristina has always been fairly direct on the subject of children. It had little to do with her career aspirations, but rather her disinterest in motherhood. I thought the writers could have done a better job of conveying that message because through most of Cristina and Owen’s meltdown it was unclear why they were hollering at each other. I have never thought Owen and Cristina worked as a couple, but I do like them together. Owen is not Burke, but then Cristina is not the same Cristina she was when she was with Burke. Oh yeah and when Cristina came back for another round to tell Owen she was terminating the pregnancy he gave her le boot. Lots of emotional fallout from her drawing a line in the sand. I’m not sure how the two them are going to find their way back from this, but it will definitely make season 8 interesting.

A plane went down in the sound taking with approximately 240 souls. Seattle Grace was the designated trauma center, but mostly this involved standing around in trauma gowns looking uncomfortable as each moment made it clear there would probably be no survivors. I think they were mostly hiding from the traumatized family members who had been sent to the hospital in order to await word about their loved ones. Mark managed to take time to both play Angry Birds and insult Avery. The moments with grieving family were some of the best of the episode. I totally got misty during the mini Six Feet Under minor character reunion portion of the finale when Keith Charles’s mom told Claire Fisher’s friend Anita they’d waited around to make sure the titular unaccompanied minor and sole survivor of the plane crash had someone pulling for her. It was a treat to see Beverly Todd and James Pickens Jr. on the same show again, even though they weren’t playing Keith’s dysfunctional parents. This will only make sense to you if you’ve actually watched Six Feet Under, otherwise it just sounds like I’ve added a bunch of new characters to Grey’s, which isn’t in fact the case.

This is already way too long and I want to leave room for others to weigh in on their opinion of the finale. Also, I don’t do book report summary style recaps of anything anyway! I found the finale very satisfying and a worthy coda for the season of healing. I think the writers made good on all those promises of emotional shootouts and casualties of the heart. the scene is set for fairly exciting season 8, which I hope will be their last. Go out on a high, Grey’s. don’t be like er.

It’s hard to pick one favorite Stevie Wonder song, or even a small handful of joints, but this is definitely on the shortlist of favored albums, period. If you’re looking to set the tone for a good weekend day, put this on first thing in the morning while making coffee, cleaning, or dancing in your PJs.

This was a karaoke standard for me for awhile that I’ve temporarily retired so I won’t stop loving it.

Here’s my favorite 60s Stevie……

…..and this is my favorite 80s Stevie.

A few weeks ago I posited that Wonder’s version of a classic Beatles song surpasses the original, and Snarky’s Machine recently reminded us of “jammin’ on the one.”

Happy Birthday, Stevie Wonder! I know this song was written for Dr. King’s holiday, but today you can give it up for yourself.

~~~~~~

What’s your favorite Stevie Wonder song, memory, or pop culture reference?

The film and television tropes discourse is usually centers around how little value (other than unintentional lulz) they add to the films and shows where they are utilized. But this is not always true. Sometimes they are quite helpful to both characters and the audience. Tropes often serve as visual shortcuts enabling filmmakers to get to the unremarkable ending as efficiently as possible. And who doesn’t love a shortcut?

1. The Exposition Hallway Walk

A staple of action and disaster films, the Exposition Hallway Walk involves assembling a collection of who’s that actors around a main character and having everyone stride purposefully down a badly lit corridor as the central conflict is presented to both the main character and audience (usually in rushed tones). In some cases another minor character will race to catch up with the procession in order to add a bit of character or situational back story and is often observed carrying a folder stuffed haphazardly with important papers.

Why it’s useful:Time is of the essence in action or disaster films; there is nothing more vital to success than ensuring that key players are all up to speed.

2. Plot Development is Just a Phone Call Away

No matter how inconvenient it might be, people always answer their phones in movies – unless they’re having sex or being brutally murdered. It’s a good thing too, since each phone call has the potential for information that will forward the plot! So next time you hesitate before answering your phone; don’t. It could be Bruce Willis alerting you that terrorists have seized the Nakatomi Building.

why it’s useful: people might ignore letters, rocks tossed at windows or messages scrawled in blood on a mirror, but rarely do they ignore phones.

3. One More Time for the Cheap Seats

When dealing with convoluted plots, scientific jargon or a really skeptical minor character, repetition, clarification and talking in ALL CAPS is extremely helpful. If the plot has gotten away from the characters, their best bet is to pause, take a deep breath, assemble some who’s that actors and take another hallway exposition stroll. If this science is really important, it will need to be explained in un-sciencey language or perhaps depicted in a series of quick sketches. For skeptics, however, you might just have to shove their face into a wall or extremely close to a recently departed co-star whose bullet riddled body ought to provide enough solid evidence the matter is to be taken seriously.

why its useful: sometimes even the audience can be confused, clueless or unconvinced.

4. The Guest Star DID IT

As often discussed around these parts, the guest star is usually the killer. This doesn’t mean there won’t be room for plot twists, turns or reversals of fortunes. It just means the writers were lazy or really liked the idea of Matthew Modine subverting his nice guy image by playing a serial killer.

why it’s useful: Sometimes you just can’t be arsed to sit through an entire episode of Law & Order: SVU

5. Unlocked Offices Are for Plot Twists and Passwords

Regardless of how classified the information or fancy the building, offices are rarely locked. In the rare instances they are locked, there’s always a kindly cleaning person who is more than happy to unlock the door. Though if there’s no cleaning person available you can always just shoot off the lock.

Why it’s useful: You’re gonna need those files, passwords or ledgers depicting cash bribes to make it to the end credit crawl alive.

Cast of NBC's The Event reacting to the news. Another casualty of the Blair Underwood curse.

FOX was the first to take an ax to its under-performing roster of shows and now NBC and ABC have rolled up their sleeves and done the same. No surprises: The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles were some of the shows jettisoned from NBC’s schedule. Chuck received a paltry 13 episode final season order, which I’m sure will still cause its loyal, small (highly coveted demographic group) fanbase to complain. Overall, things are looking pretty grisly for the big four networks. The viewership numbers just aren’t there, as other entertainment options lure away sometimey fans and the rapidly vanishing casual viewers.

But there’s more bad news. Firstly, the existing shows aren’t turning in blockbuster numbers. The procedural, which has seen its fortunes reversed thanks to an market saturated with un-tasty fakes, spinoffs and high concept premise hybrids, suffered another blow when CSI’s recent season finale posted the lowest viewership numbers in the show’s history. All year long we’ve been speculating on how the end of the 2010-2011 season would play out:

Saved for now:

Better With You, Chase, The Defenders, The Event, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Outsourced, Raising Hope, Undercovers

Don’t get real attached to any of these shows. Many will likely finish out the season quietly and be canceled with little to no fanfare. Practice your pretend surprise faces now!

Wait, how many of those are still left? Oh that’s right there are two or three on life-support and the rest are gone.

It almost doesn’t matter what shows networks are taking to series especially when it seems like most of them will be axed by this time next year!

Is it too early to predict which new fall show will be canceled first? Cuz the one known as Bosom Buddies 2.0. has to have that locked down.—
Kirthana Ramisetti (@popscribblings) May 13, 2011

Fry Butt’s own Pop Scribblings already has an eye towards next year’s roster of failed shows! What shows did you think would be spared? Which shows were you surprised to hear were still airing? Personally, I thought The Event had been cancelled ages ago!

7×14 – “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)”

One thing that both amuses and annoys me about Grey’s Anatomy is how the song in the title of the episode rarely makes an appearance in the episode. anyhoo…Meredith took a gamble on her mother’s legacy. While it seemed as though she was setting aside to allow the Chief the closure he’s clearly seeking from Ellis, I think it was interesting that she opted not to continue her mother’s work, given much of her self concept is wrapped up in Ellis Grey’s opinion of her. Still, it demonstrated some growth on her part, though after the fuss she made to join McDreamy’s study last week it seemed a waste of story arc. Now Callie asserting herself with Mark and Arizona; that was amazing. Lexie and Mer’s dad shows up with the titular “pretty young thing” by his side whom Lexie believes is nothing more than a mild life crisis with a pair of tits. I thought this was another example of how Grey’s struggles when portraying relationships the characters find odd. While it’s true that Lexie would have that kind of response, the classism made it pretty difficult to care about her feelings on the topic. I was kind of stunned that Meredith’s lecture wasn’t more of a smackdown. Avery attempts to pitch woo to Teddy and gets shot down and threatened with professional sanction. Oops, I guess those pretty blue eyes can’t make everything right.

7×15 – “Golden Hour”
I found it interesting that Meredith was able to spot neurological traumas a mile away, while another patient’s aorta shredded in the cat scanner! Also, when did Meredith become a trauma specialist? Certainly, she was good, but wasn’t trauma April’s thing? The child with a broken leg scanned a bit false to me. Where was social services? Where were the nurses separating the child from the parents until they could ascertain whether or not the injuries sustained were a result of abuse? An injury that severe in a child, particularly requiring surgery, sends warning bells to ER workers who practice defensive medicine in order to cover their backsides. The chief hadn’t had much of a storyline this season—other than getting his job back—and I was wondering when we would begin to explore his life. Of course, it would have been nice if it had under better circumstances. Derek walks in on Bailey and Eli in the throes of passion and is scarred by the event. I guess he doesn’t remember when Bailey caught him and Meredith banging in the backseat of his car. Their sexcapade in the car interfering with Bailey’s attempt to back her car out of Meredith’s driveway.

7×16 – “Not Responsible”

Attention disabled folks: we are not to love each other unless expressly permitted to do so by Dr. Teddy Altman! Meredith has to choose between pumping herself full of babymaking hormones and being able to see during surgery. Personally, I’ll pick whatever options doesn’t involve killing patients due to shifting vision. But that’s just me. Mark and Arizona are bullying Callie into acquiescing to their natal demands, which is curious, since Callie is the one who’s knocked up. It’s a difficult to parse what this episode’s trying to do; it’s all over the place, but given it’s midway through the season, its sagginess and slightly dull storylines are just par for the course for most episodic television shows with really loooong seasons.

7×17 – “This is How We Do It”

Each relationship had an interesting movement, but by far my favorite was between Owen and Christina. When did I start liking Owen so darn much? I found the interplay between the two characters and the romantic chemistry finally starting to gel. I especially liked Christina’s reaction upon discovering Owen would be selecting Chief Resident. It was unexpected and demonstrated a level of maturity that Christina hadn’t really displayed before. Not so much the freaking out, but realization that it was something TO freak out about. What kind of nurse/patient ratios are happening at Seattle Grace? When do nurses ever have time to ride shotgun on medical treatment option discussions? That said, I do think the writers were smart to explore the gender inequities as it relates to male nurses and female doctors. Particularly the way in which patients tend to further complicated matters. On one hand, patients are probably far more intimate with their nurses than their surgeons, it’s unlikely they would feel comfortable enough allowing the situation with Eli to play out. More importantly, with all that Miranda has had to overcome in terms of race and gender (and given the fact Webber was her mentor as well as Addison and Arizona) I felt Miranda’s loss of control of the situation rang false. For starters, knowing the patient she had, it didn’t make a lot of sense to select Avery as her resident. Karev would have been a much better choice. But Karev was needed for another story arc. Ah well.

7×18 – “The Song Beneath the Song” a.k.a – the musical episode

Full Disclosure: I loved this episode. I might be one of the only people to do so. I found it a lot of fun, but obviously not without its share of fumbles and flaws. It was brilliant! Okay, other than giving Lexi way too many Auto-Tuned solos just because her hair was cute and she moves great. I was most thrilled by Karev’s Burt Reynolds-esque sing/talking. One question: Loretta Devine was in the original cast of Dreamgirls (she plays Adele Webber), has been heavily featured of late and—oh yeah—she has a fabulous voice, yet she was ghost in the episode. I was waiting for her to sing something! Bailey and Callie were incredible, but Owen is my new favorite character with his stunning Murray Head-esque performance. Addison guest stars and exerts control over the new lady ob-gyn and I found it somewhat uncomfortable because it was another example of a woman’s authority being questioned simply because she needed a moment to consider her options before responding to an inquiry. It was actually disappointing to see the dissolution of the relationship between Cristina and Teddy. I wasn’t sure it was necessary to toss Teddy in front of a bus in order to demonstrate how much Cristina has evolved and learned from her various mentors.

7×19 – “It’s a Long Way Back”

After what seemed like months of waiting, Grey’s finally returned with a brand new episode. Maybe the wait was simply to clear the palette of the polarizing musical episode! People already tend to view clinical trials with unmasked suspicion and it seemed a huge character leap for Meredith, who SWITCHED THE INJECTION in order to ensure Adele got the active agent. Since when does she care about Richard or Adele? Hasn’t Meredith spent the better part of seven seasons telling Richard to stop acting like a father to her? Yet now she wants to play daughter. This seemed a dramatic leap, even for Grey’s. This episode was a hot mess of physician bad behavior and we still have no idea who the clear frontrunner for Chief Resident is! Callie had what seemed like a magically swift recover resembling time elapsed photo of blue liquid evaporating on the crotch of diaper in a Huggies commercial. What I took from the swift recovery was that physical pain can sometimes heal more quickly than emotional pain. Or maybe the writers got wise and decided not to drag it out for months. Most likely, the writers were uncomfortable with the idea of allowing the audience to see Callie as disabled any longer than they had to, which I find rather offensive.

7×20 – “White Wedding”

It was amazing how holding one adorable brown baby suddenly brought Derek back from the dead. For what seems like the last four seasons Derek’s felt very phoned in to me. He’s there, with the hair and the contrived softly spoken words of sensuality, loyalty and kindness, but something was off. Yes, he nearly got his hand sliced up by a bitter ex girlfriend, settled into a life of sleepy domesticity with his post-it wife, but somehow that wasn’t giving him the rush picking up women in bars and score settle cheating on his estranged wife used to. Capitalizing on the Chief’s drunken relapse enabled Derek to become Chief, which hardly nobody called him and he was rewarded for his efforts with a gunshot to the chest by a disgruntled spouse of a patient. And have you seen Mer’s bangs and the shadiness she’s been up to this last couple of episodes? Yeah, I guess Derek hasn’t had a lot to smile about. But Derek loves him so Zola and oddly enough Zola was the reason he opted to toss out the post-it and get married for real. Which feels a bit stingy since across town the recovered Callie and her bride were having their wedding officiated by Bailey who muttered, “I could have been home looking at TV,” as she ascended the fluffy, fantasy wedding platform to unite her some lesbians in holy matrimony. Mer and Der’s rushed, slapdash city hall marriage so they could look better to adoption agencies was supposed to make us reflect on all that is problematic about marriage inequality, but instead just made me side eye Mer and Der and hate them a little bit. The chief resident thing is still being dangled in front of us like tits as a strip club, but like tits at a strip club what we see is off limits and elusive and quite possibly fake.

7×21 – “I Will Survive”

The penultimate episode of the season sets up some pretty intriguing character arcs for next season – Meredith possibly becoming a mom while also getting sanctioned for tampering with Derek’s clinical trial. Mer was so worried about having enough time to parent a child, well given that she might be fired for her recent actions she’ll have all the time in the world. The chief resident thing – I just don’t know. They all seem like motherfuckers to me. Nobody – not even Alex or April (the ones I was rooting for) were able to stand up to Owen’s military like interrogations. I still haven’t figured why the Chief appointed him decider of Chief Resident. Perhaps to avoid fallout from his previous botched selection – Callie – who was like the worst Chief Resident ever. Or maybe it’s just simply because Owen has only slept with ONE of the residents vying for position. More importantly since everyone else’s candidacy as completely imploded over the course of the season, Chief Resident is shaping up to be a booby prize rather than a prestigious appointment. It’s like, “thanks for not being an ethics bending jerk! here’s your chief resident party pack!”

Next week is the big season finale. There is a lot at stake for Meredith, Alex and Cristina. Apparently the show is trying to quiet the incessant whining coming from a persistent strain of fan who doesn’t like all the emphasis on the new characters. Personally, I can use a break from Cristina, Mer and even Alex from time to time. I would not be mad if the show only focused on Mark, Callie, Bailey and the Chief. It would not be a bad show at all.

As with science fiction, a genre we discussed last year, horror tends to get a bad rep. It’s derided as trashy when in fact, it can have a lot of depth, and it can also be a lot of fun. And, of course, it’s a pop culture touchstone; you may not be consciously aware of it but there’s a good chance you reference famous horror films at least once a day!

You’ve got your classic horror:

And don’t get me wrong, I do like classic, deliciously campy horror films. I do. I like to laugh at the gore and throw popcorn at the screen and to watch them with the people who also take a deep pleasure in having some fun with their pop culture.

But I, personally, given a choice, prefer my horror on an intellectual, creepy level. Classic films don’t leave me checking under the bed before I go to sleep because they’re just so very cheesy and over the top. But when I watch a film that is beautiful, and also filled with really creepy imagery, it sticks with me, and I know I’ll be dreaming about it, and not in a good way.

Does anyone remember The Cell? Because I do, let me tell you. There was that one scene with…well. I don’t want to say, but let’s just stay it stuck with me in a deliciously creepy kind of way and I can never look at a horse with the same level of casual complacency again.

I like horror as a character study, as a film that doesn’t set out to frighten me with sheer ridiculousness, but rather by probing into minds and hearts and social attitudes, showing the slow deconstruction of a character. And it’s hard to do well, because many horror films rely on very familiar tropes about mental illness to get the point across; the killer is crazy, see, and that’s why it all happens. Movies that push at the human nature that lies beneath the surface of all of us without creating the automatic distance of mental illness as plot device impress me.

And aren’t just more enjoyable for me to watch because I can take a break from being reminded that people like me are evil, but also because it’s more creepy to think about the fact that all of us have the capacity for evil, and that all of us can get pulled along a journey that goes further than we expected.

Sure, The Cell featured a heavy reliance on mental illness for plot purposes, but it also poked at the history of abuse and torture that can underlie expressions of violent behaviour, and it complicated the storyline by pointing out that not even stereotyped crazed killers are wholly evil, that mental illness doesn’t consume people with violence (though the resolution of the storyline left something to be desired). For that matter, mental illness played a key role in From Hell, which explored the psychiatrisation of ‘deviant women’ in the Victorian era and ended with a horrifying use of lobotomy as punishment, a theme that came up recently in Sucker Punch as well (a film which, I note, explored a lot of topics surrounding mental illness, although this was largely ignored in discussions of the show).

How do you like your horror? Campy? Psychological thriller? Totally frightening? Not in any form, thank you very much goodbye?

Reboot may be just another word for nothing left to lose, but Tinseltown shows no signs of slowing down its sausage factory like production of refried source material. Charlie Angels has been reboot several times, most recently the two big budget, splashy film adaptations, but now the jigglevision franchise is coming back home to television. Veteran heartthrob Robert “RJ” Wagner is assuming the role of “Charlie” in the ABC reboot. The former Hart to Hart star and perpetual bon vivant is the right balance of cheek, charm, cheese and gravitas. And despite knowing better, I am kind of all over this potential reboot. The same can’t be said for 90% of the other dreck the networks have to sort through before announcing their fall lineups.Entertainment Weekly has a round up of the pilots hoping for that series order. Of the slew of pilot hopefuls, five impressed me by being the worst of a terrible lot.

“Work It” (comedy)

“Two out-of-work salesmen realize that it is now a woman’s world and decide that in order to find work and succeed, they are going to have to dress as women to get jobs as pharmaceutical reps.”

It should be fairly obvious to our readership why this is destined for failure. Leaving aside the high speed train bound for transphobia, the premise has been DONE. It was called “Bosom Buddies” and it was awful too. Besides, unless this foolishness is set on Wonder Woman’s island I’m pretty sure white collar males regardless of competency can find jobs without resorting to this.

“Weekends at Bellevue” (drama)

Drama based on the book by Julie Holland, MD; drama that centers on a psychiatrist in charge of the weekend shift of Bellevue Hospital psychiatric unit. (drama)

It’s based on a novel, which doesn’t mean it’s inherently better. Based on the cast (Lauren Ambrose) and the show runners (some people I’ve never heard of) I am not sure what could be gained from a show about a psych ward with its story focused on the poor, privileged clinical staff who have to treat the crazy people. Now a show about folks dealing with the system, the uneasy alliances forged with advocates and the passionate people in the trenches who eventually burnout because of lack of support – I’d give that looksee.

“Prime Suspect” (drama)

US Series adaptation of the British miniseries.

Absolutely not. Not with Maria Bello not even on a dare. La Mirren owned this role. Nobody can touch La Mirren. And more importantly, they shouldn’t try. This is from someone who enjoyed the slow-pitch version of “Life on Mars” that ran on ABC a couple of years ago.

“Good Christian Bitches” (primetime soap)

Set in Dallas and asks the question – Is it possible to start over in a town that thinks they already know you? Amanda once the ultimate “mean girl” in high school, returns home to Dallas after her marriage ends in scandal. Humbled, Amanda is nothing like the girl she once was. But as her old classmates reacquaint themselves with the new Amanda, will these “Good Christian Bitches” give her a second chance or is this their shot to seek revenge?

Wait, isn’t “Desperate Housewives” still on the air? Why do we need another one. It stars Leslie Bibb who I just think is a terrible actress.

“Halleluah” (dramedy?)

When the Tennessee town of Hallelujah finds itself being torn apart by forces of good and evil, a stranger arrives to bring justice, peace and quite possibly restore the faith in the world that the residents so desperately need. The episodes will be punctuated by songs sung by the gospel choir, which serves as a sort of Greek chorus.

Oh this sounds awful, and I love me some Jesse L. Martin singing! It also stars Donal Logue so even it does make it to series, it’ll be swiftly canceled because Logue is an anathema to audiences. But you’re not listening; you’re watching Jesse L. Martin singing “Science Fiction Double Feature” in the above link. Xena, what have we done to deserve this.

Review the entire list here and give us your picks for “Oh HELL NAW!”

Friend of Fry Butter Beth hipped me to the birthday of one of my favorite actresses – the terminally stunning Shohreh Aghdashloo (show-ray aug-dash-loo) – and even though it’s not Sunday, I had to make a special, “Who is that Actor” post in her honor. Aghdashloo first blipped for me – in all places – during her guest appearance on Matlock. It was a sliver of a role, but I was smitten and wondered if she’d break into larger parts.

Before I knew her name and she’d made a splash in bigger roles, I kept trying to explain her to folks, “She’s gorgeous and is like a non-white, I’m not sure though, Catherine Zeta Jonesish, but with a better acting range and fantastic voice. Do you know who I’m talking about?” Of course, nobody did and it wasn’t until I typed in, “Catherine Zeta-Jones lookalike actress” that pictures of Shohreh popped up! I seared her name to my memory! Even if I like an actress in a powerhouse role I always wonder what Aghdashloo could do with it. I’m thinking mostly of Damages, Body of Proof, Weeds or even the recently cancelled Lie to Me. Since she’s already made an appearance on Grey’s Anatomy as a patient, it’s not likely she could return as a bad ass cardio surgeon (which the show is in dire need of), but someone ought to cast her as the LEAD OF SOMETHING ASAP.

Shohreh snagged an Emmy presented by THE BACONS!!! for her work in a miniseries I have never seen nor heard of. But she was in some fierce fabulous company and graciously acknowledged each of them in her acceptance speech.

Shohreh guest starring on the Simpsons!

Shohreh guest starred on a Simpsons episode entitled “Mypods and Boomsticks” and had the best line of the episode – “Oh, you’re such a charmer!” She also had a great scene with Homer involving making more almond paste. The episode strives to say “something” about racial profiling, but it’s the Simpsons, so you know, it failed. Nevertheless Shohreh shined – but when doesn’t she shine – subverting her better known Dina Araz role on 24, for which she is probably best known.

Lest we forget The House of Sand and Fog which earned Shohreh a Best Supporting Actress nomination. It’s a complex and interesting film, which I wouldn’t recommend based on its strong adherence to RaymondJ’s rules for movies to watch once, but never again.

Happy birthday, Shohreh Aghdashloo! We think you’re tops around these parts.