Oh, My Goodness....Is That?

Maybe it's because most of my favorite shows are filmed in Vancouver.  Maybe certain actors/actresses just naturally gravitate toward certain types of shows.  Maybe Syfy, one of my favorite TV channels, just happens to move its actors from show to show like chess pieces on a board.  Or maybe it is just a coincidence but lately I've been noticing some very familiar faces popping up on new shows.

Case in point - I was watching a Canadian TV show from my Netflix Instant Queue called "Intelligence."  By golly, one of the main characters was played by Ian Tracey, who happened to play crazy Adam Worth on my SyFy show, "Sanctuary."

Speaking of "Sanctuary," another actor from that show, Christopher Heyerdahl, who played Magnus' love, John, showed up on another new show I like, "Hell on Wheels," as The Swede.

I have been watching the new show, "Grimm" and on their latest episode which centered around a woman who changed into a spider-like creature who sucked the juices out of her victims in order to stay youthful, I realized that the woman was none other than Amy Acker, who played Fred on my beloved vampire series "Angel."  (And we all know that Angel has been reincarnated as Booth in the popular TV series, "Bones.")

Speaking of vampires, one of my very favorite vampire series is Blood Ties, unfortunately cancelled but still available via reruns.  The other day, while I was watching an episode of "Intelligence", I sat up and looked closer and realized that one of the lowlifes on the show was Michael Ecklund, who played creepy Norman in several episodes of "Blood Ties."


But my latest discovery was this week when I was viewing the American version of "Being Human."  One of the main characters, a vampire, was interacting with a vampire that he had sired.  All of a sudden I sat up in my recliner, leaned forward, and said, "It's Henry!"  Yup, my favorite vampire from Blood Ties, Kyle Schmid, who played "Henry Fitzroy," is now on "Being Human" in a recurring role as a vampire and his name is, get this, "Henry."  Unfortunately, THIS Henry is not quite as honorable as MY Henry from the previous show but at least I can enjoy his company on TV once more.

Maybe it's like weather and fashion, .....if you wait long enough, they all come back again.  So, has anyone spotted Adrian Paul recently?

How DARE You Preempt My Show?

This was to be the big week of season finales for many of my favorite TV shows.  I had carefully  gone over the TV Guide and coordinated our viewing schedule with the Commander.  Where there was a conflict, he had set up our DVR to record shows so that we could watch them later.  We were all set!

Tuesday evening I was in my favorite recliner, knitting in hand, and had just settled down to watch NCIS when it happened.  Twenty-five minutes into the season finale.....in what was promising to be a real cliff-hanger, the local TV affiliate broke into the show and started giving us a severe weather warning. 

OK, it's probably a good idea to know if a tornado is headed your way.  Even Jethro Gibbs would agree with that statement.  But come on, folks!  Five minutes later, they were still showing us doppler radar and telling us the track of the storms and expected arrival times as well as giving us advice about where to head inside your house in case of an approaching tornado.  Ten minutes later.....same thing.  Fifteen minutes later......same old thing.

Who knocked my NCIS off the air?  Just let me at them!

By this point, my blood pressure was approaching the boiling point and I was practicing my sailor's vocabulary as I addressed the news station, loudly.

"They'll probably switch back to the show after the alert runs out," called the Commander from the computer room.  (He was wisely keeping out of my line of fire.....just in case.)

Thirty minutes into the weather commentary I had had enough.  I stalked upstairs, put my head in the freezer while I tried to cool off, and then decided to make myself a large plate of cheesy nachos.  Nothing says "relax" like a tasty snack.

"They've just switched over to "NCIS: LA," my husband called upstairs, "and they've promised the viewers that they will let it run in its entirety."


"Who cares," I hollered back.  "They've already ruined my entire evening."

Just then, the microwave dinged and the nachos were ready. OK, so maybe things were starting to look up.  But I'll tell you this, I will not EVER watch a local newscast voluntarily on that channel ever again.  Hell hath no fury like a viewer preempted!

Pardon Me, Reality's Knocking!

I can more easily tell you which of my favorite shows are on TV on any particular day than tell you what the actual date is.  I don't mean to give you the impression that our lives are bounded by our viewing schedule, but in actuality, they are.  We do LOVE our shows.

Last evening was no exception.  The Commander and I were in our recliners watching Castle.  Police shows with a sense of humor are favorites of ours.  I guess that's why you can also find us in front of the TV for shows like The Mentalist, NCIS, and NCIS LA. 

Maybe that's why we didn't realize that the sounds of sirens weren't coming from the TV set but instead, were in our own neighborhood.  In fact, we were completely clueless that there was a real, live police drama unfolding on the street right behind ours as we watched our show.  Police had been called to a home where a fellow with a small arsenal of hunting rifles had opened fire on them.  The suspect fired over 20 shots at the police before they apprehended him in the wee hours of the morning.

The stand-off began around 10:30 p.m. and ended around 3 a.m.  By that time, the police had evacuated about two dozen neighbors for their safety before setting off some diversions and storming the house. Shots fired?  Evacuations?  Sirens?  Huh?  I guess you could say that we were FOCUSED.  The dog didn't even give us any indication that anything else was up other than the case that Castle and Beckett were working on together.

That's why we were a little surprised today to hear all about this on the morning news.  Good thing that we weren't interviewed as potential witnesses.  Just color us "clueless."  That's why, if you ever have to reach us in the evenings, you'd best either text us on our cellphones or get the cable company to scroll a message across the bottom of the TV screen.  And that's a fact!

It's All About the Commercials

Despite the best efforts of my man, Troy, the Steelers lost the Super Bowl.  I saw that it was going badly early in the first half so I brought the netbook downstairs so that I could do a little blogging while I watched.  Some of my musings follow:

Since my Steelers are screwing up in the Super Bowl, I figure I might as well take a break from cheering them on  to do a little commercial critiquing. I think my favorite commercial so far has been the Passat commercial with the little Darth Vader.  What a cute commercial. What a great dad to play along with the fantasy.  Reminds me of my dad taking time during his lunch breaks at the factory to write notes to me from "Peter Pan" back when I was a kid.

The Budweiser commercial in the Old West bar was lame.  Come on, breaking into a song after getting a Bud?  If you're going to write something that is unbelievable, at least make it funny.

(Whoops, had to take a break for a moment to cheer the Steelers' touchdown just now right before the half.  Yay, Hines Ward.)

The commercial for Coke with the castle storming and dragon was also not very impressive.  I thought that the graphics were impressive but didn't find the "hook" very memorable.  It wasn't endearing, not funny, meh!

The commercial for the job site with the fellow trying to park and the monkeys parking him in on both sides?  Lame, again.  I didn't find it funny.  Certainly nothing to talk about with coworkers in the break-room.

Frankly, so far, the most excited I got about a commercial was the commercial for the upcoming episode this week of "Bones" where Booth is buying an engagement ring.  Now THAT is going to generate some discussion.  Man, I hope he doesn't propose to Hannah.

I'm not sure what "chatter.com" is but the commercial looks pretty awesome on our new HD plasma TV.    Ditto on "The Daily" interactive newspaper for your digital tablet.  Loved the graphics effects. The same goes for the NFL commercial touting their apps for tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc.  Cool graphics effects. 

I've always loved the talking baby commercials although the one with his tailor isn't one of the best or funniest.  It really doesn't do much to sell me on e-trading.  The Best Buy commercial with Ozzy and Justin Bieber was dumb.   The Coca Cola commercial featuring the two border guards was delightful.  The two actors were physically  just right for the parts and I loved the story without words.  I'll remember the product, too.

Speaking of remembering a product, what was with the Stella Artois beer commercial?  I liked the jazz and Adrian Brody was a nice choice for a smoky-voiced, smooth singer but I failed to see what was bringing the women to tears.  (Yay, my Steelers are now only down by 3 points.)

Another fumble?  Another Green Bay touchdown?  This is pathetic!  Well, I missed a bunch of commercials, too because Jason and Laura called and we Skyped.  However, our big Skype surprise (which I can't blog about yet until we actually surprise them with it) failed to work so we could only talk to them and not actually see them.

Well, had to pause for awhile to finish watching my Steelers lose the Super Bowl.  Phooey!  But the Green Bay Packers played a better game.  Back to the commercials.....

The car that brakes for the beaver by the side of the road...now that was cute when the beaver returned the favor by crashing a tree across the road to save the driver later from the washed-out bridge.  Of course, from an ad viewpoint, I guess it was a failure because I don't know what it was advertising.  Tires, maybe?

I liked the beetle with the racing stripes on its back that was whizzing through the landscape.  Turns out it was a commercial for the new revamped Beetle car.  Now I'm curious to see what the latest model is going to look like.

I liked the Mercedes Benz commercial with all the different model Mercedes cars heading to the showroom to be there for the unveiling of the newest line.  P. Diddy actually did some decent acting in this commercial.  Cute!

I'd say my other favorite commercial of the bunch was the one for the Chevy Camaro where the two fellows are writing a commercial in their heads as it plays out on the screen for the viewer.  Having the driver come soaring over the edge of a building and into the school parking lot, now that was a cute touch.  I'll remember that commercial and the product.

I missed some commercials because of Skyping and running upstairs for breaks and food but hey, such is life.  All in all, I have to say that there were no commercials that just made me roar with laughter OR made my jaw drop.  It was a rather disappointing crop of ads AND a disappointing game for a Steelers' fan.  However, as Scarlett O'Hara would say, "There's always tomorrow."

I Need a Viewing Secretary

I've been a delinquent girl lately.....delinquent in the fact that I haven't been blogging like I usually do. I'm blaming it on two things - books and DVDs.  I've discovered the joys of getting an entire TV season on DVD and going on a viewing marathon.  Yup, I finished up the entire (and ONLY) season of "Moonlight", worked my way through the first two seasons of "True Blood", got caught up on both seasons of "Vampire Diaries," (What can I say? I was raised on "Dark Shadows.) viewed Season 1 of "Being Human"  and the Commander and I are trying to start with Season 1 and work our way up to today with "Eureka."  I also have 3 other series sitting in my cupboard waiting to be viewed.

In addition to those, I have been enjoying reading on my Kindle and flew through an entire series by one author (9 books) in a week and a half.  Now I know I've shared with y'all that I'm a tad obsessive-compulsive and NEVER do anything just halfway so the only thing that stopped me on that reading binge is that I now have to wait for that particular author to write another book.  Humph!  Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on one's viewpoint) I have plenty more books to read.

And NOW, oh my......I sat down with the new TV Guide which has been full, just absolutely FULL, I tell you, of ravings about all the new shows coming out and the returns of all the old favorites and I tried to make up a list of ones that we plan to watch.  OK, here is what I came up with:

Dancing with the Stars - Mondays at 8
Castle - Mondays at 10
Hawaii 5-0 - Mondays at 10
Glee - Tuesdays at 8
NCIS - Tuesdays at 8
NCIS Los Angeles - Tuesdays at 9
Survivor - Wednesdays at 8
Vampire Diaries - Thursdays at 8
Mentalist - Thursdays at 10
The Good Guys - Fridays at 9
Eureka - Fridays at 9
Human Target - Fridays at 8
Being Human - Saturdays at 9
Amazing Race - Sundays at 8

Houston, we have a problem!  Thank goodness for FiOS and the fact that we can record 2 different shows while we watch another, I think.  Oy!

On the plus side, I AM getting a lot of knitting done when I watch TV.  This is the Dana Hurt square for my Great American Aran Afghan.  There are some boo-boos in it but that's ok.  It wouldn't be "me" without a few quirks.

Can't sign off without a pic of our little granddaughter, Mika, who is now pulling herself up and standing, according to our #1 son.  She also has two teeth.  Wow!  Can't wait to see her again.