Reviews...Magic Mike, Do no Harm...and Monday Mornings

1. Just finished watching Stephen Soderburgh's Magic Mike, which is a story that is loosely based on Channing Tatum's past as a male stripper at 18 in Tampa, Florida.

The premise? Out of work and directionless, 19 year old Adam who is currently living with his older sister, meets Magic Mike at a roofing job and Mike gets Adam a job as an exotic stripper at club he co-runs with Dallas and has been dancing at for 6 years.

The best part of the movie is the dancing. It's burlesque, which means gyration and male stripping. The story is sort of lame. And when we aren't focused on the dance scenes, the movie slows down to a crawl, with stilted dialogue and lots of tepia style cinematography similar to other films by Soderburgh, who likes a sort of pseudo-hyper realism. So if you don't like watching male burlesque, I'd skip this movie - because that's really the only reason to see it.

Mathew McConaughy's Dallas basically steals the movie from Tatum and Pettifiyer, who play title character Magic Mike and his prodigy, 19 year old Adam. When Dallas is on stage, the movie takes off and becomes electric, when he's off...it slows down. And well there's the dance scenes which are surprisingly good. But, again, not for everyone. If you are not a fan of male burlesque, this isn't for you. I love dance and love to watch dancers move on screen.
So the dance scenes, much like the dance sequences in Rock of Ages, Flashdance, and Burlesque made those movies work for me. I sort of ignored the rest of it.

2. Do No Harm which was airing on Thursday nights on NBC, until NBC quickly yanked it and put on Law and Order repeats instead. So I don't know if it will return or not.
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3. Monday Mornings - TNT - don't know how well this is doing. Ah, as badly as Do No Harm apparently.
Methinks the medical drama has reached its saturation point.

What's odd, is violent shows, very violent shows like The Following, Revolution, and Elementary are doing well. I don't know why. But it is disturbing. And if looked at a certain way, does explain our violent society and the rampant sexism. ( Read more... )

30 Day TV Meme and Merlin...

1. Eh, I think I finally hit the section of Merlin S5 that everybody on my flist (that is into Merlin) despised. It's the episode with Gwen/Morgana and The Dark Tower. I know the series gets better, because everyone was raving about the last three or four episodes of it. It's just what is done with Guenivere in the middle section that they despised.

2. Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching

Hard one. Considering most of the series I'm watching right now aren't in great danger of being cancelled, and/or are naturally winding down.

I'm going to go with Once Upon a Time - this series is getting better as it goes. And is quite subversive in its story tropes. Plus, it plays with established Disney Fairy Tale Tropes, often twisting them on the heads. Pinnochio isn't such an upstanding guy, Captain is a delightful rogue who reminds me more of Jack Sparrow and less of the guy in the long red coat and black whig running from a big crocodile. And the series two kick-ass female heroines..in the form of Snow White and her estranged daughter Emma Swan. But the best thing about it is the ambiguous Mr. Gold/Rumplestilskin who manipulated the Evil Queen into cursing all of fairytale land into our magic-less world just so he could be reunited with his son, Baelfire.

I wish it was better executed than it is, but it is improving with each episode...and definitely has a great deal of potential. Also, it's amongst the few series I want to write/read meta or fanfic about at the moment.

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1. Will give the tv series the past two years credit for one thing - they have fast pacing.
Possibly due to an increasingly distracted and fickle audience who has one too many options.
Arrow is moving at breakneck speed. If this were Smallville, we wouldn't have the confrontation we're about to have next week until at least the second season or third season.

At any rate, last week's episode was quite good. I adore Paul Blackthorn who plays Detective Lance, Laurel Lance's dad. You guys can have Oliver Queen, I want Detective Lance. I actually like this actor better than James Marsters...which is odd I know, but there it is.
Still depressed that the Dresden Files didn't continue and weren't better written and executed. Damn Nick Cage for being a crappy tv producer. Because Blackthorn was perfect for that role.

Also, am quite the Tommy Merlin/Laurel Lance shipper. I do not want her with Oliver or Arrow.
I like her better with Tommy. And I enjoy the friendship dynamic between the three.

And...the plot thread of Moira Queen and Merlin's father (John Barrowman) is getting more and more interesting and convoluted. Both are extremely layered and fairly ambiguous characters - perfect villians/foils for Queen. Although not quite sure they really are villains.

And yay, David Anders made an appearance as yet another nasty sociopath. That guy gets more work. Sebastian Roche and David Anders take turns playing the same types of roles. I think Anders best role to date is on Once Upon a Time, while Roche's was on Supernatural, although I still have a soft spot for the irredeemable Jerry Jacks on GH.

2. Still reading politically incorrect romance novels by Judith McNaught - who wrote a shit-load in the 1980s and 1990s. (Basically about spoiled rich people who fight each other for the perfect orgasm, whoops that should be love.) But I'm getting close to jumping genres again. Possibly to fun mystery novels, we'll see. Picked up Laura Lutz's The Spellman Files at the book store today.