Friday, March 17, 2006

The 10-Pound Challenge/Veronica Mars/Television to Wait in Line For

My membership in the Gold's Gym 10 Pound Club is going pretty well so far. I've been to the gym four times in as many days. I'm alternating days between the treadmill and the stationary bike. This afternoon I hit the treadmill for 27 minutes on "weight loss" at Level 7 while watching 50 First Dates (not recommended) on Cardio Theatre. But ah, the weekend is here.... We shall see if I can find those Popeye's coupons...

My morning wasn't even as enjoyable as a bad Adam Sandler movie. (Is there any other kind?) I went to Saturn to get my oil changed...and got a new water pump. But at least I produced eleven hand-written pages for the novel while I waited.

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Since Cindy's on tour, I've begun the Wolverton Tour of Television Shows on DVD via Netflix. I finished the first disc of Firefly, which I thought was overall quite good. I'll definitely queue up the next disc.

I also watched the first two episodes of Veronica Mars Season One. While not as enjoyable as (and also quite different from) Firefly, I'll probably keep watching beyond the first disc. Veronica's relationship with her father is fairly entertaining and the mystery of what really happened to her murdered best friend keeps the interest going, but the stereotypical teenage kids doing stereotypical teenage things at a stereotypical rich-kids' California high school is getting old after only two episodes. Plus I can't believe I've actually watched something with Paris Hilton in it. I guess I'm one of those people who just doesn't get it. (You know you're getting old when you think Lena Olin is much hotter than Paris Hilton.)

Other shows lined up for the Wolverton Tour of Television Shows:

Taken (a mini-series, actually)
Buffy Season Two (I own Season One, but have never seen anything beyond it.)
Lost
Kingdom Hospital
Battlestar Galactica Season One (Already saw the mini-series)

These are shows I enjoyed during my "formative years." I want to see if they still hold up:

Kolchak - The Night Stalker
Night Gallery
Rat Patrol (I never actually saw this show, but my brother used to be so jazzed about it, I figure it's worth a shot.)

With all these TV shows being resurrected from the dead for DVD, you'd think somebody would bring back The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the original Mission: Impossible episodes. I know they would both probably look like a cheese-fest in 2006, but heck, they've got The Flying Nun and Gidget out on DVD for cryin' out loud.

Now Playing = Back at the Chicken Shack – The Incredible Jimmy Smith
Now Reading = Air – Geoff Ryman
Watching = Veronica Mars, Season One, Disc One

6 comments:

John said...

My latest old-TV indulgence is Remington Steele. My parents videotaped and rewatched this religiously, and I discovered--much to my horror--that I can actually quote large portions of several episodes. But the first season was decent, and the second season was terrific--before the writers built out so much backstory behind Pierce Brosnan's character's mysterious past that it practically choked the series.

Magnolia said...

I agree with you that Paris Hilton was abysmal in the second episode of Veronica Mars, but give the show a few more episodes and it will really grow on you. It took me until episode 5 or 6, but after that, I was totally hooked.

Veronica's relationship with her dad Keith is the best part of the show and the whodunit mystery gets more engrossing as the season goes along. The characters may seem stereotypical at first, especially the teenagers, but one of the themes of the show is that everybody has secrets and nobody who is who they appear to be on the surface, so some of those "stereotypical" teens may surprise you. And the plot twists on this show are unusually clever, imho.

Andy Wolverton said...

Hi Magnolia - thanks for reading.
I actually watched the third and fourth episodes last night and thought they were far better than "Credit Where Credit's Due." The Lilly Kane flashbacks serve a dual purpose of fleshing out backstory and tightening the screws on the mystery. I thought the episode with the kid trying to find his father was excellent.

Yeah, with these episodes I can see more depth in several of the characters, especially Duncan and Logan. Disc Two is on the way.

Magnolia said...

I thought the episode with the kid trying to find his father was excellent.

I liked that episode a lot (great twist!) but I loved episode 5 even more - the one where Veronica's new boyfriend gets his car stolen coming back from Tijuana. Never saw that twist coming.

And the stuff between V and her dad was superb in that episode, imho, when he finally confesses that he really isn't all that interested in finding her mother.

Andy Wolverton said...

Don't tell me too much!

Magnolia said...

Oh, I'm sorry! I was thinking that there were five episodes per disc. Is it just four?

I didn't give anything away, but I apologize anyway.