This is going to be pretty random – it’s a brain dump.

Jennifer’s Body – Wish it didn’t star Megan Fox or Amanda Seyfried, because I don’t care for either of them. I’d rather watch Rumer Willis and Paris Hilton.
Leverage – Love it. It took a while to grow on me, but I love the characters and how they play together. The casting is just so much fun, and I’m a Hardison/Parker fan.
The Closer – Some people think it’s too formulaic, but whatever. It is my TV comfort food. It it the cable equivalent of oatmeal or chocolate pudding.
Burn Notice – This show should always be on. I miss it. This is my TV equivalent of popcorn. When is it back? January?
Dexter – Catching up on Netflix. I really want to live in Dexter’s apartment. A lot. A lot a lot.
True Blood – So much promise, but bad pacing really made Season 2 not so good. I’d still rather watch this than most TV, though.
Fringe – Based on a strong finish in the first season, I’m giving this one a chance again this year. If it gets slow at all, I will quit it like I quit Lost.
House – It’s been too, too long. The 21st can’t come soon enough.
V – Could never get into the original, but based on the cast, I am very excited for this remake.
Glee – Missed the Fall premiere… but will try and catch up.
Naruto Shippuden – I am just in love with this show, and I have been since I started it. It just keeps getting better and it is so emotionally raw that I can hardly stand it sometimes. But the fights are awesome, too. I try not to watch more than one series at a time, but I’m thinking about starting Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it’s queued on Hulu and I just have to press play, but the original series was so heartbreaking and awesome that I don’t know if I can take it…

Jeffrey Dean Morgan - ROWR. This man has charisma and I want to see him in more things. Hollywood, you’re on notice!

True Blood?

YES.

It is trashy and wonderful.

I first heard about it a little over a year ago, when it was debuting on HBO. In case you don’t know, it’s based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris about a waitress who lives in Bon Temps, Louisiana, in a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin” and are living openly. I read the first book when I heard about the show and I didn’t think it was too bad. I liked it more than the Anita Blake books (which are super-trashy and the basis for my favorite Penny Arcade cartoon ever) and thought I might check the show out once it was on DVD.

Will and Annika gave me a brief review of the show, giving the cold open a big thumbs up and the rest of the show a mild endorsement, which I will admit, made me a little wary of it. I mean, if Will and Annika like something they REALLY LIKE IT and shout it from the highest hill top, so the lack of enthusiasm was concerning.

Oh boy, I need not have been concerned. I watched the first four episodes without a break. And immediately wished that I had the rest of the Season One DVDs to watch.

Which is weird because the it seems like the first season is based on the first book and so I know what is going to happen.

Without being spoilery, I will say that the TV show has fleshed out (and added) some characters that I am really enjoying and added some subplots and secondary stories that I think are brilliant. Now, whether these stories show up in later books in the series, I don’t know. But I love that they are in the show.

I guess the reason I am really surprised that I like it so much is that I am not a fan of Alan Ball’s other HBO hit, Six Feet Under. That show did nothing for me and I thought that the actors sucked.

I love the actors in True Blood. I love that the accents all seem to be from different parts of the world, let alone the South, and, yet, most of the characters have never lived anywhere but Bon Temps! I love the trashy sex. I love that the classiest girl in the show is a waitress in a redneck bar. I love that it is gory and violent. I love how the storylines are being woven together.

I can’t really recommend it without reservation, though. Sort of like Breaking Bad, it treads a line. If you’re the kind of person who thinks that drinking, drugs, sex, nudity, blood, violence, and psychic powers are best done in small doses, and you thought that Buffy was too cheezy… well, you won’t like this show.

But I am not one of those people, this show was made for me.

Burn After Reading – Meh. The characters were really bland an the actors didn’t really do anything interesting with them. The plot was also kind of shitty. I guess they really blew their wad adapting No Country for Old Men.

Doomsday – Shot really well, but there was no story. Bland, not campy enough, not scary enough, which for a movie that wants to be a John Carpenter movie equals TOTAL FAILURE.

The House Bunny – Funny, but needed more irony or, and I hate to say it, gross outs to be LOL. I think because it’s about young women, the filmmakers just weren’t willing to go there even though the cast seemed very game.

Last Chance Harvey – Very good. Predictable, but it just goes to show that you don’t need to innovate to make a really good movie. Dustin Hoffman really gave something subtle and Emma Thompson was just wonderful (as usual).

The Ramen Girl - Cute & predictable, no new territory, and Brittany Murphy needs to push herself a lot harder because cute don’t cut it when you have a bad dye job and can’t cry on cue. The Japanese cast made her look like a high school theater kid. Wants to be parts Tampopo, Like Water for Chocotlate, and Lost in Translation – which should work and maybe with a stronger lead, could have. After making the theater comment, now I want to see it staged as a single-set play. Could be fun.

Slumdog Millionaire – The cast was wonderful. The story was interesting, but that “fairy tale magic” element was elusive. Still, I can see why it won Best Picture at the Oscars, it was miles better than any of the other nominees.

The Wrestler – Good character study. Not a lot of surprises here.

Next up: Defiance. I’m really looking forward to this one.

I don’t have a lot of new things to add about Michael Jackson’s death – in the last 15-20 years of his life, he was an out of control and dangerous freak. I made fun of him and I still laugh at his expense and take cheap shots.

I also still listen to his music.

When I was five, “Thriller” was HUGE. We had the record at my house, and I would lie on the floor, looking at the gate fold of Michael and a baby tiger, and I would think, “They should have made the tiger fuzzy so you could pet it.”

That was the last Michael Jackson album that I’ve had any ownership of.

There is a place that I thought of, that I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist and that it’s mine.

There are people who live there, who I’m pretty sure don’t exist except for inside me.

This could be interesting.