Currently...

Um. Hi. Remember me?

Yeah. There are times when I miss the days of unemployment, and blogging is a big part of that. Although given that I got my first full time pay cheque today, I can safely say that the money makes up for my lack of time to blog these days!!

So, rather than just disappear into a black hole due to lack of time and topics, I figured I'd do a "currently" post to give you guys a bit of an update on life in general...

Watching:
Essentially, the stuff I'm watching for Snark Squad - Dawson's Creek, Doctor Who, Supernatural - and occasional episodes of Criminal Minds and Bones. I desperately want to get back to watching Daredevil, but that means giving up something else, and...yeah. It just hasn't happened yet.

Listening to:
Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon is on INCREDIBLY high rotation. It's basically my time-to-start-my-90-minute-commute song, so I listen to it twice a day, minimum. And a hell of a lot of stuff that makes up Body Combat and Body Pump set lists, because I'm doing about three or four classes a week online.

Planning:
A trip to Dymocks tomorrow after work. WHEEEEEEEE, BOOKS!! Also planning a trip to Canberra during the July school holidays. Because, you know, the middle of winter is totally the best time to go to Canberra...

Thinking about:
How I should really be going to bed, but I really want to finish this episode of Criminal Minds. The fact that tomorrow's Friday. Little Miss A's birthday party on Saturday. How I really wish the vlog that's been uploading since 9pm would hurry up and finish so that I can go to bed when Criminal Minds ends.

Looking forward to:
Sleeping in on Saturday morning OMG IT WILL BE AMAZING. My little brother coming home for a visit at the end of the month. Orange Is the New Black season 3, although God knows when I'll have time to watch it. Going to Canberra, even though it's forever away.

Reading:
ALL THE THINGS, just for a change. I'm nearly done with Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and it's pretty damned fabulous. And this weekend, I'm planning on diving into the first volume of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, which a friend very sweetly sent me for my birthday.

Making me happy:
The fact that I've lost over 6kg on the 12WBT. That it's casual clothes day at school tomorrow so I get to wear jeans to work. That there's a Lego game of Jurassic Park coming out. The forthcoming Jurassic World movie. The new display that I put up at work today. And my nightly hot chocolate. Sure, it's not as healthy as Greek yoghurt and a teaspoon of honey. But it's way too cold for yoghurt at the moment, so hot chocolate it is!

What's new with you guys?

K xx

Any more and I'll have square eyes

I was originally planning on doing Top Ten Tuesday today, as per usual. But after spending the past hour looking for inspiring quotes and coming up with a whopping two possibilities, I decided that it wasn't worth spending the entire afternoon looking for others. And I've been talking about books a LOT at the moment anyway, so I figured I'd update you guys on what I've been watching lately. Because why the hell not.

Snark Squad stuff
We're getting towards the pointy end of series 2 of Doctor Who, and I've finally finished recapping season 3 of Supernatural (although I'm way ahead of schedule on that one at the moment). It's been a while since we got a Dawson's Creek recap up, but we're somewhere in the middle of season 3 with that one too.

Friday Night Lights

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I'm nearly done with season 5, but I've been putting off watching it because I'm not sure I want it to end... Although thankfully, it's on Netflix Australia when I inevitably feel the need to revisit Dillon.

Criminal Minds

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I'm half way through season 5, and I'm LOVING it. Although it's been on the backburner over the past week because I really can't watch it when I'm home alone or I rapidly become convinced that I'm going to be murdered.

Bones

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For some reason, when I put Criminal Minds on the backburner, I thought it would be a good idea to start rewatching Bones. And somehow, I'm already half way through season 2. I honestly don't know how this happened, but I'm so busy squeeing over Hodgins and Angela being adorable that I barely even notice the disgusting rotting corpses...

Daredevil

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I watched the first episode on Friday night and really enjoyed it. But then I spent the weekend catching up on Snark Squad stuff, and I haven't gotten around to watching any more yet. SOON. Because the opening credits are totally awesome, and I love the little nods to the Marvel movies, and I'm just really intrigued to see how it pans out, even though I don't care that much about Matt Murdock.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

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I've watched the first two episodes of this, and to be honest? I'm not sure about it. It definitely has its funny moments, but there's also been quite a bit of stuff that's squicked me out. I was never a huge fan of Ellie Kemper on The Office, which probably isn't helping. Because it sort of feels like an entire show about Erin, except not... I feel like I should give it a few more episodes before I decide, but at this point? I'm just not sure...

How To Get Away With Murder

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I think I've seen the first four episodes of this?? I was watching it as it aired in Australia, and then I sort of...forgot about it. So now there are a bunch of episodes that I've missed and at least one is no longer on Channel 7's catch up TV site and I'm not sure if I care enough to keep watching?? Because I was enjoying it. But it also felt really repetitive, with the same shots of the bonfire in every single episode...

Brooklyn Nine Nine

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Sweet baby Jesus, I am in love with this show. The first season is on Netflix Australia, and I basically marathoned the entire thing. It's absolutely glorious from start to finish. Two of the three female characters are Latina. Two of the four major male characters are African-American, and one of those two is also gay. None of the characters ever feels like a stereotype, with the possible exceptions of Scully and Hitchcock, who are very much the old school, slightly inept cops. But they're there for comic relief more than anything. And it's kind of great to have the middle aged white men be the stereotypes for a change!

Basically, Brooklyn Nine Nine is a gift and it's quite possibly the funniest thing I've seen in years and I absolutely adore it and yes, I totally ship Jake and Amy. Because of reasons.

I really need to catch up on Castle and Elementary and Sleepy Hollow and Outlander and the current season of Supernatural. But there are only so many hours in the day, you know?

What are you watching at the moment? And should I keep watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?? Tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

K xx

TTT - Top Ten TV Shows

It's time to link up with the Broke and the Bookish again!

This week, just for something different, we're not talking about books at all. We're talking about our favourite movies or TV shows. And let's be honest - TV shows are far more fun to talk about because you don't have to pick something else to watch after two hours. You just move on to the next disc/season/whatever. WIN. 

1. Orange Is The New Black

A recent addition to my list. I've been hearing great things about it for the past couple of years, but never got around to watching it. I think I was hoping that it would air down here and save me the trouble of locating it, seeing as Netflix isn't a thing in Australia. But unfortunately it's only screening on Foxtel at this point, which I don't have. So I caved and tracked down a copy instead. And it is PHENOMENAL. Every single character is utterly incredible (except Larry, who's a douchebag), it's brilliantly written and brilliantly acted, and it's equal parts hilarious and moving. Not to mention being one of the most diverse shows on television. Basically? You should watch it.

2. Orphan Black

Same actress three times, yo.

Look, Tatiana Maslany is a freaking powerhouse, okay? She plays half a dozen completely unique characters, all with their own speech patterns and mannerisms and styles of movement. And sometimes, she even plays one of her characters impersonating another and you're able to tell that it's Rachel impersonating Sarah or Sarah impersonating Alison or Helena impersonating Sarah impersonating Beth. It's incredible. Plus, you know, great stories, great supporting cast, great writing. 

3. Veronica Mars

I wasn't so keen on the third season of VMars, partly because it ended on such a vague note, but the movie earlier this year made me fall in love with the show all over again. It's funny and sassy and heartbreaking and just really, really good. And yes, I ship LoVe like there's no tomorrow. 

4. Sleepy Hollow

Admittedly, there's only been one really short season of this so far. But I absolutely loved every second of it. I mean, the fact that basically only ONE of the half dozen major characters is a white guy is pretty incredible. It's fun and creepy and the acting is great. And there's so much attention to detail with historical accuracy - the way Ichabod stands, how he fights, what he wears, his terms of address is all historically accurate and it makes my inner historian so very happy. Plus, Orlando Jones is AMAZING at interacting with the fandom. 

5. Firefly

Yeah, yeah. I said recently that I was breaking up with Joss Whedon. Despite his problematic aspects, Whedon's shows are still massively entertaining. And Firefly, by merit of only having just over half a season worth of episodes, exists in its own little special bubble wherein Whedon didn't get too much time to do things that made me stabby. While it was a massive flop on TV thanks to Fox showing it totally out of order, it's now achieved cult status, and with good reason.

6. Fringe

I was a big fan of The X-Files back in my high school days, and this fabulous show fitted neatly into that hole. And it's an ideal show for marathoning - I really struggled to watch it on TV because there were so many wibbly wobbly timey wimey elements to keep track of from week to week, but when you marathon it, everything suddenly slips into place. The characters are amazing, there's more of that Tatiana Maslany playing-multiple-versions-of-the-one-character stuff going on for most of the cast, and it's surprisingly funny and moving for a show about supernatural weirdness and fringe science. 

7. Elementary

I've talked before about how I really didn't enjoy Sherlock and how I loved Elementary from the get-go, so it's probably no surprise that it's made this list. Despite it airing on TV here, I've been a bit forgetful of late and still haven't finished watching all of season 2. But Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu (and the supporting cast) are so fantastic that I couldn't not include it in my top ten. Plus, the credits are fabulous.

8. Community

Yes, it wavered during its fourth season when Dan Harmon wasn't involved. But this show is just so much fun. Amazing characters, hilarious scripts, and far more feels-tastic moments than you'd expect from a comedy. And so many completely amazing themed episodes. 

9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy and I have had a rough road recently, due largely to recapping every episode for Snark Squad and the crap that we dealt with in the comments. But I'm pretty sure that sometime in the relatively near future, I'll start to feel the urge to revisit some of my favourite episodes again. Because it's so much fun and there are so many incredible characters and storylines.

10. Doctor Who

This is at the bottom of the list because while I love it a lot, I've had a lot of issues with the way Steven Moffat's been running/writing the show over the past few years. There've only been a handful of episodes that I've enjoyed since David Tennant left, but I'm hopeful that Peter Capaldi and his ability to throw his weight around a bit more than Matt Smith could will help in the new season! 

So. What are your top ten TV shows??

K xx

Same same but different

Do you ever watch one version of a particular story and you absolutely adore it to the point where no other version can even quite compare because It's Just Not Right? Yeah, I experienced this again over the weekend when I watched The Philadelphia Story. Which isn't to say The Philadelphia Story is a bad movie - it's pretty great, in fact, and totally deserves the Oscars that it won.

BUT.

It's not High Society, which I fell in love with about 15 years ago. While The Philadelphia Story may feature Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart all being amazing, it doesn't feature Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra singing utterly ridiculous songs and dancing around like loons. So while we get this:

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We don't get this:

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Or Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. Which is a shame, because he's awesome.

Admittedly, this is something that mostly occurs with adaptations of the classics, because they're the ones that get new movie/TV versions every year. But there are a few other adaptations that spring to mind here:

Pride and Prejudice

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Always the 1995 version. I have an irrational hatred of the Keira Knightley version, which may have something to do with Matthew Macfadyen (ugh) and that ridiculously awful foot fondling scene that was added to the American release to demonstrate that they actually did get married. In short, six hours of Colin Firth? YES. Two hours of Macfadyen? LOL NOPE. And don't even get me started on the 1940 version and its awful costumes. (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, I should mention, is a close second to the 1995 version)

Vanity Fair

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I have an undying love for this incredibly silly story and its deeply flawed anti-heroine, Becky Sharp. But when it comes to film versions of it, the 1998 BBC version starring Natasha Little captures Becky's playfully sneaky nature much better than the 2004 movie starring Reese Witherspoon. Also, the music is excellent.

Sense and Sensibility

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The BBC miniseries from 2008 is pretty damned good. But it just can't compare to the 1995 movie, which has a lot more heart to it along with that delightfully ridiculous scene of Emma Thompson's hysterical sobbing. Plus, Hugh Laurie's eternal sassiness.

Psycho

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I can't believe anyone would actually prefer the 1998 version of Psycho. Because it was TERRIBLE. Man, what was it about 1998 and terrible remakes? The original, on the other hand, is an absolute classic for a reason: it's phenomenal.

Les Miserables

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Much like The Philadelphia Story/High Society, I will always take the version that includes singing and dancing. I know, taking Russell Crowe and his decidedly average singing over the brilliant acting of Geoffrey Rush seems like a total travesty, but the 1998 movie was JUST SO BORING without the songs.

Jane Eyre

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The first adaptation of Jane Eyre that I ever saw was the 1983 version starring Timothy Dalton that we had to watch in year 10 English. And it's terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible. Partly because Zelah Clarke, who plays Jane, is like a foot shorter than Timothy Dalton, so every time they kissed it looked like he was breaking her neck. I saw the recent movie version (the Michael Fassbender one), and wasn't a huge fan of it - movies can never do the book justice in the way a mini-series can. But the 2006 BBC version with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens? Perfection.

The Italian Job

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This one is kind of a travesty, I know. But I actually prefer the 2003 version to the original. I don't quite know WHY, but there's just something about it that makes it fun. And the lack of an ambiguous ending is definitely a plus!

Needless to say, I am terrified about some of the adaptations that are slated for development in the next five years. Remaking The Birds? My Fair Lady? Police Academy? DIRTY DANCING?!?! WHY. WHY ARE THESE THINGS NECESSARY, HOLLYWOOD??

Do you have a preferred version of any of these? What else would you add to the list?

K xx

Weird casting choice is weird

I've been watching Bitten over the past week or so, and to be honest, I'm a little amazed it took me this long because Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books are one of my favourite series. They have great characters, awesome world-building, and fun stories filled with action and suspense and occasional squeeing. And yet, I was hesitant when it was announced that they were turning Bitten into a series.

Why? Because for starters, they only have the rights to the werewolf books, which basically means that they'll be forced to go non-canon pretty damned quickly. And secondly, because adaptations always come with a certain amount of "Oh. That's not how I pictured [person/place/event]" (see: the entirety of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice) or "Why didn't they include that scene?" (see: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) or "WHO DESTROYED THIS CHARACTER?????" (see: Ginny Weasley) or "Um. This is not how the plot goes at ALL." (see: anything titled The Lost World)

It's inevitable that this happens, and - based on some stuff I've seen floating around the internet - there were a lot of Women of the Otherworld fans who aren't happy with the way the show is going. I'm trying to keep an open mind - I still have two episodes left  - but there are a few things that I can't quite get over, and they mostly relate to characterisation.

1. Elena Michaels
Okay, so Elena is our protagonist. She grew up in the foster system, she fell in love with a guy, he turned her into the only female werewolf of ever. All of this applies to both the book and the series. But. Book!Elena is very jeans, t-shirt and sneakers low key. She ties her hair back with rubber bands, hates make up and perfume because it messes with her sense of smell, and she's a freelance journalist. What does the TV show give us?

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A pretty pretty princess. Okay, Laura Vandervoort is pulling off Elena's character better than I thought she would in the pilot. And admittedly, Elena's a bridesmaid in this scene. But that doesn't change the fact that Elena's basically a fashion plate in every episode: multi-layered expensive clothes, heels/heeled boots in every scene, perfect hair. I have yet to see her in an outfit that looks easy to get out of in case of unexpected werewolf-ness. And for some bizarre reason, they've made her a photographer????? But they never show her with a camera or editing photos or even having camera gear lying around the house. It's a little odd.

2. Clayton Danvers
Okay, so both versions of Clay have a PhD in anthropology and teach at universities periodically. Both versions are jeans and t-shirts types. But Book!Clay is basically described as a Greek god, with blue eyes and close cropped curly blond hair and a Southern accent. (Part of me has always suspected that Kelley Armstrong had The Wedding Planner era Matthew McConaghey in her head when she wrote Clay...) Instead?

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We get this guy. Who does not have a Southern accent. I'm learning to deal with him as Clay, but OH MY GOD, he looks like a total axe murderer in like half the scenes he's in. Which does kind of work for Clay's character, but DUDE. NO. Also, try washing your hair once in a while.

3. Jeremy Danvers
It's not immediately apparent in the first book, but it's revealed in a later book that Jeremy's mother was Japanese. He's described throughout the series as Eurasian-looking with black hair. This means that he turns into a black wolf (hair colour dictates fur colour). He has dark eyes and a lean build. And the show, in perhaps the most awkward casting choice of ever, gave us this dude:

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*headdesk* Don't get me wrong, I think he's doing a pretty decent job of portraying the character. But it's a little bit like casting Bonnie Wright as Cho Chang, and you're just left wondering if they even bothered to read the books.

That said, I'm totally on board with the casting of Nick and Logan. And I really like the additional female characters that they've created!

Weirdly, I'm more accepting of the plot changes that have occurred than I am of the casting and costuming decisions. And the hair department decisions, for that matter. Most of the villains looks like they've been raiding a wig collection from a 1960s church camp, and it's BIZARRE...

DANIEL. WHAT IS ON YOUR HEAD???? Source.

Have you seen the show? What do you think?? Are you on Team OMG THAT WAS SO AWKWARD over the scene where Elena and Clay were flirty frolicking through the forest as wolves? Because that scene was terrible.

If you haven't seen it, have you had to live through the trauma of seeing your favourite characters mangled on screen? Any tips for coping with it?! Because I could really use them...

K xx

Better alone

Do you ever come across these amazing female characters, and you absolutely love them? And they have a love interest, and you think they and the love interest are really cute together and you spend forever squeeing over them? And then they get together, and you squee like a lunatic. But as the relationship goes on, you realise something: deep down, you liked the character better when she was alone.

This has been happening to me a lot recently, and it's kind of an interesting phenomenon, because it's not one that I've ever run into with male characters, as far as I can recall (well, maybe with Dawson Leery, but that's because he's an awful human being who *deserves* to be alone...).

Anyway, I want to talk about some of the characters that I kind of think are better off alone. Because reasons.

Buffy Summers
It's not secret that rewatching Buffy for Snark Squad completely changed the way I felt about certain characters. Rewatching Angel for Snark Squad has made everything worse, because in season 5, we spend an awful lot of time watching Spike and Angel fight over which one of them gets Buffy. AND SHE'S NOT EVEN THERE. Her relationships with both of them were pretty fucked up, and her relationship with Riley was basically a season and a half of rebound. Even Buffy agrees at the end of season 7 that she's better off alone.

Katniss Everdeen
Much was made of the love triangle in The Hunger Games, but every time I read the books, I'm struck by how reluctant Katniss is to be involved with either Peeta or Gale. At the end of Mockingjay, she basically tells us that it took Peeta the better part of a decade to convince her that having kids was a good idea. Being a part of the Games forced her into faking a relationship with Peeta, which in turn led to Gale being all jealous and "I LOVED YOU FIRST"-y. Katniss is a hesitant participant from start to finish, and it almost seems like she ends up with Peeta just so that there's someone there in the night when she wakes up screaming.

Veronica Mars
Don't get me wrong, I adore Veronica and Logan. Piz can go jump in a lake for all I care. But I read the new Veronica Mars novel yesterday, and I thought it was really interesting that Rob Thomas chose to really limit the communication between Veronica and Logan throughout the course of the story. Yes, it's partly because he's deployed in God knows where. But when they DO communicate? The conversation is stilted and a little awkward. You can't undo nine years of separation in two weeks, so of COURSE it would be awkward between them. All of that aside, I found myself liking Book!Veronica more than I liked Couple-y!Veronica...

Natasha Romanoff
I love the IDEA of Clintasha so much it's not even funny. I squeed like a lunatic when I saw her arrow necklace. But do I want the MCU to be filled with a weepy Natasha by an injured Clint's bedside? Do I want them being all public-displays-of-affection-y before heading off on missions? Do I want a Clintasha wedding officiated by Tony Stark (who got a licence on the internet) in the ruins of whatever threat to the world they've just defeated? NOPE (except maybe that last one because it sounds kind of awesome...). I want her to stay her sassy BAMF-tastic, arse-kicking self. (Although if they want to include some anvils about #secretsexytimes, that would be fine)

Dana Scully
Much like with Clintasha, The X-Files dropped some pretty big anvils about #secretsexytimes between Mulder and Scully over the years. That said, when we did eventually get a canon relationship in the second X-Files movie, it was TERRIBLE. Much better to have Scully on her own with frequently dropped anvils than in a relationship that didn't live up to expectations.

Rory Gilmore
Rory, Rory, Rory. So incredibly smart. Such terrible taste in men... Dean turned out to be a complete douchenozzle with a side of extra-marital affair. And Logan Huntzberger was just awful from start to finish. Jess is clearly the best fit for her, but - much like Logan Echolls - he needs time away from her to deal with his problems and grow up. Thank God the show ended with her on her own, going off to take over the journalistic world.

Cristina Yang
Oof. Poor Cristina's had a rough road. Admittedly, I haven't watched the last season and a half of Grey's Anatomy - I kind of gave up a little after the plane crash, because Lexi was one of my favourites. But Cristina keeps getting paired with these characters who don't understand her or who want completely different things to her and can't see that she won't change her mind about them. And then when she's all "Um, no. You knew that before this even started...", they get all butthurt about it, and she's left to pick up the pieces of her life. Again... BLURGH.

Ellie Linton
I adored the Tomorrow, When the War Began books as a teenager. But Ellie, the gutsy incredible narrator of the series, is SO MUCH BETTER not in a relationship. She goes back to Lee time and time again, even though she hates the things that he does and the way it effects him. She has this awesome sibling relationship with Homer, and then the end of The Ellie Chronicles has a friend being all "You know Homer's in love with you, right?". Um. WHAT?!

Winifred Burkle
Oh my God. SO MUCH of Fred's character was destroyed by the writers making her the plaything at the centre of a love triangle between Gunn and Wesley. She deserved so much better than to wind up in a crappy relationship with either one of them. I don't think I'll ever be over how she was treated in seasons 4 and 5...

This doesn't mean that ALL strong female characters are better off alone - just look at Zoe Alleyne Washburne, or Rose Tyler. Pepper Potts or Willow Rosenberg (minus the Kennedy thing, because NOPE). Olivia Dunham, Elizabeth Bennet, Alexia Tarabotti, Elena Michaels, Piper Halliwell, Kate Daniels, Hermione Granger, Sydney Bristow. The list goes on and on.

Furthermore, this doesn't mean that the characters I've discussed above should be alone forever. It definitely doesn't mean that. What it DOES mean is that the writers aren't doing the characters justice. They pair them with unsuitable characters, turn their whole storyline into a relationship story, or have them fall apart where they previously would have stood up and fought. And it's infuriating...

Who would you add to this list? Are there any that you'd remove??

K xx

Best of 2013: Music and TV edition

I had intended to split this across yesterday and today, but yesterday was graduation, so I was eeeeeeeeeever so slightly busy. Here, have a picture of me looking incredibly dubious about the sleeves on my Masters wizard robe:

ANYWAY.

Let's start with TV shows, because there are only four new (to me) shows that I've loved this year and I'm pretty sure I've already blogged about how much I loved them:
1. Veronica Mars;
2. Orphan Black;
3. Elementary;
4. Sleepy Hollow.

Onto music. As I probably mentioned this time last year, I'm not really a big music person. I can't stand the radio, I rarely get all "Wow, I relate to this so much" about songs, and I generally have a policy of "Does this song make me happy? If yes, listen to song on a never ending loop. If no, skip song every time iPod attempts to play it" approach to things. Which means that I have a tendency to listen to the same 120 songs over and over again even though I have over 2,000 songs in my iTunes library. ANYWAY. Here's some stuff that got added to my "Press repeat" playlist this year, many of which I've been completely late to the party on:

Adele - Someone Like You
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks
Scouting for Girls - Millionaire


P!nk - Try
The Basics - Just Hold On
Darin - So Yours


David Guetta feat. Sia - Titanium
Mike Mains and the Branches - Stereo
The Basics - Hey Rain


Darin - Nobody Knows
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Friday on My Mind
The entirety of the Pitch Perfect soundtrack


Ollie Murs - Troublemaker
The Basics - Home Again
Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops


Yes, Eurovision is completely and utterly responsible for three of the songs on this list, and the gym is responsible for several more. Oh, and Ylvis has also been on high rotation in recent months. Because OBVIOUSLY.

What have you been watching/listening to a lot this year?

K xx

A Saturn for a Mars. In Neptune!

Yeah yeah, I'm a giant slacker. I finished watching VMars season 3 months ago, but never got around to writing up all my feelings about it until now. Womp womp. Better late than never, right? RIGHT. Let's get on with the show!

• Having this many Neptune High graduates who are good friends all attending the same university is suuuuuuuuuuuper contrivancey.
• Oh, Veronica. Only the first week of class, and you're already pissing off the TAs. Don't ever change.
• Ugh, Dick. 
• Are there ANY non-murdery parents in Neptune besides Keith???
• Aaaaah, Tessa from Supernatural!
• OH MY GOD, LAURA SAN GIACOMO. I AM DEAD.

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• Logan Huntzburger is bonding with Logan Echolls. Awesome.
• Dianna Agron? WHAT IS HAPPENING THIS SEASON?!
• Oh, Wallace. What did you do?
• Oh, honey. You *NEVER* leave your drink unattended.
• YOU FUCKING RUN TO HER, LOGAN ECHOLLS. YOU RUN LIKE THE WIND.

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• Mr Sheffield from The Nanny ahahahaha.
• Oh my God, Dick. You did not just call that a keister egg. Ahahahahaha.
• BRB, having Logan feels.
• Ahahahaha, only Mac would go to a party wearing a t-shirt that says "Ask me about my STD".
• Dick throwing dick pictures off the balcony is oddly hilarious.

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• I kind of love Piz when he's not being all desperate puppy dog eyes...
• I'm so torn on Logan right now. Like, I adore him. But he's the king of fucking things up, and desperately needs some therapy to sort his shit out.
• BACKUP!!!! I wish Backup had been a more regular character. Because of all the reasons.
• Keith, what even is this?? 

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• Oh my God, Dick locking Logan on the balcony so that the hotel staff can clean is PHENOMENAL. 
• Veronica in jail is magical.
• Logan is fangirling over Melville Dewey, and I want to hug him so much.
• SHERIFF LAMB. WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED OMG WHAT I CAN'T EVEN.
• Parker and Logan = nope.
• Paul Rudd. PAUL RUDD. AND HE IS SINGING. THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.

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• LaFayette from True Blood? Uh, AWESOME.
• Mac. You did not just make a joke about Piz-neyland. OMG. I love you.
• "Rob Thomas is a whore". LOLOLOLOL.
• Can we talk about how much I adore Veronica and Weevil's friendship?
• Okay, that ending SUCKED. I mean, as a season ending, it was fine. But as a series ending?? Thank God for the movie, that's all I'm saying.

Seriously, what is this? Also, source.

Is it March yet, you guys? Because I want it to be March...

K xx

Why you should be watching Sleepy Hollow

By some astonishing means, the powers that be at Australian television stations seem to have finally worked out that we don't like waiting five months for new shows every September, and that we will download them illegally if they don't screen them immediately. As a result, we're getting a decent chunk of the new shows like twelve hours behind the US this year. Which is indescribably exciting, as you can imagine.

In addition to flailing with excitement over the returns of Elementary and Supernatural and being able to watch them pretty much spoiler free (nothing is ever completely spoiler free any more, thanks to asshats who don't tag their stuff on Tumblr...), I've been very much taken with Sleepy Hollow in the past few weeks. And here's why.

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Remember that time I talked about why I preferred Elementary to Sherlock? When I watched the pilot of Sleepy Hollow, I was reminded a lot of all the things I love about Elementary, combined with the best bits of Supernatural. There are a lot of similarities between Sleepy Hollow and Elementary, including (so far) the following:

• Weird English guy with bizarre mannerisms who is completely adorable despite sometimes being a bit of a know-it-all asshat.
• Sassy woman of colour who puts up with precisely none of his shit and acts as the voice of reason. 
• A police captain who's not entirely sure this is a good idea, because it's really freaking complicated, but they seem to get shit done, so why not give them cases to investigate together?
• A brOTP relationship between the two main characters.
• Complicated sibling relationships.
• A mysterious ex who may or may not be dead.
• Recurring people of colour characters (recurring and one-offs) who don't fit within stereotypes or tropes.

In addition to that, four of the six recurring cast members to date are people of colour, and three out of six are women. That leaves a grand total of ONE white guy (Ichabod), and you have NO IDEA how insanely awesome and unusual that is. The three recurring female characters - Abbie, Katrina and Jenny - are total badasses in their own ways. 

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In addition to being awesome badasses, the two we've seen most of - the Mills sisters, Jenny and Abbie - are also flawed characters. Jenny's been in and out of mental institutions throughout her life, and Abbie's not sure she can admit to the things she's seen as well as having a handy dose of experience in breaking and entering, thanks to her days as a juvenile delinquent. They spent much of their childhood in the foster system, and have no qualms about discussing how hard it was. 

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While I have a few issues with the fact that we're four episodes in and Ichabod's still wearing the same clothes that he woke up in (um, ew?), the sense of historical accuracy that's been added to the character is phenomenal. Through Ichabod, we have acknowledgement that English soldiers defected during the Revolution and fought with the American colonists. We have acknowledgement that Native American tribes fought along side colonists as valuable allies, and that the idea of entire nations being destroyed as colonisation progressed west was staggering. The scripts feature historically accurate terminology, with Ichabod referring to Abbie as "Miss Mills" and Jenny - the younger sister - as "Miss Jenny". And, most recently, we have Ichabod standing in a traditional, one handed duelling pose when shooting, standing side on to reduce possible targets for your opponent and with the other hand tucked behind his back. 

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It's still very early days for the show, and I've had a few little niggling doubts to date (like John Cho's character in the first two episodes having the whitest name of ever. And the concern that Ichabod's eidetic memory will rapidly turn into a deus ex machina). But for the moment, it's a fabulous blend of spooky supernatural nonsense, action, and humour. And you should totally jump on board now while it's still early.

(If I still haven't sold you on it, check out Orlando Jones' Twitter account. He live tweets the episodes, and regularly asks people to send him Sleepy Hollow fan fiction. It's fantastic.)

Have you seen Sleepy Hollow? What did you think? 

K xx