Kings

In 2009 NBC brought out a television show called Kings based on the Biblical Story of King David. Below is the promo that came out with it.

My mother was a fan of this show while it aired on NBC. While the show was on she was always glued to the tv, you couldn't get her to pay attention to you at all. I tried getting into it with her but i hadn't watched the first episode. I always like to start from the beginning with television shows.

So I had some time on my hands tonight and this show came to mind. I searched for it online and found that it was on Hulu. First episode in and I am already hooked. This show is written and acted really well, even to a degree that you rarely find with shows that have come out this year. The plot makes you intrigued with where they could possible take a modern day King David story. Adaptations of biblical stories usually don't go over well production wise in this day and age. The viewer wants to see where the characters portrayed will go next.

Watching this show and getting so wrapped up in what could possibly happen next makes me also really pissed off. Here you have an example of a really great show that got canceled. NBC tried cash in as much as possible on this show, moving it from one night to another, and eventually canceling and rejecting the idea of another season. Seriously NBC, you couldn't keep this well scripted, well developed, and well acted show, but you can play reruns of Two and a Half Men. Don't get me wrong, Two and a Half Men minus Aston Butcher is hilarious. It just riles me up to think that stations like NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox control what we airs on television but have the audacity to say that they base their decisions on viewership. I call bull on that one. The average American does not watch television anymore. You know what they do. They record their shows on DVR, they watch their shows online, they wait for it to come on Netflix.

Big stations are just looking for big money and I highly doubt they are making money off of television programs the way they used to. I am rambling but I really am pissed of that shows like Kings, like Firefly get cut off before their time for shows with more viewers. How about we keep the intelligently done shows and tell the people who want to be zoned out on Big Brother for an hour that they should go get some fresh air instead. I realize that my argument is not sounds but I mostly just wanted to pour out my outrage. Now I will go back to watching Kings. Try it you might like it too.

Birchbox 3: July 2012

For the month of July, birchbox matched their theme to Glamour magazines and celebrated the five senses. I'm all about using beauty products to engage my senses, so this box was a hit with me.
I recieved the following:

Prime: Movie Review

Originally I was going to write a movie review on Bad Teacher or Step Up Revolution (aka Step Up 4). You know, some movie that is more recent than Prime. But last minute I changed my mind. Maybe a review on the previously mentioned movies will come later. Now onto Prime.

 ******Warning: Spoiler Alert******

This 2005 movie stars Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep and Bryan Greenberg. Can we take a moment to talk/gawk at Bryan Greenberg?

Okay. Had your fill? Moving On.

Greenberg is 35 year old Nebraska native, singer, song writer, and actor. You may know him from One Tree Hill, October Road or his most recent television show, How to Make it in America. He also stars in Prime as the 23 year old love interest.

So back to Prime. I had friends who had watched and talked about this movie before I happened to randomly sit and watch it on television. Peoples comments spanned from "there was a lot of sex in this movie" to "its the perfect crazy mother movie". Basically, a 37 year old divorced woman falls for a 23 year old artist. As their relationship develops she confides in her therapist. But the therapist turns out to be the guys mother! And instead of his mother ending the therapy sessions she continues to listen to all the gory details of her sons relationship. And I mean all the gory details.

So to my thoughts of this movie. I always heard about all the crazy amounts of sex in this movie. I watched this on television and just assumed that they cut out all the sex. Out of curiosity to see how much of this movie was cut out when played on television, I watched the movie again on Netflix. Now I wasn't expecting a porno but I was expecting some Unfaithful caliber sex scenes. Unfaithful is a movie notorious for its hot and steamy scenes that don't cross into the line of porn. I got nothing. Cable didn't cut that much out of the movie; there wasn't really any sex in this movie. I bring this up because this is one of the main comments I always heard about this movie. Now that I have seen this movie for myself I have to come up with some sort f explanation for other peoples commentary of this movie. I am going to assume that most people watched this movie with their parents and therefore any instance of making out or about to get down and dirty is too much to handle. Its like when watching the movie the Namesake with your parents all of a sudden its become a full on porno. When watching by yourself, there are some mediocre sex scenes thrown in for no reason because they definitely weren't there in the book.

Secondly, the trailer makes this movie out to be so freaking funny. Don't get me wrong, the movie is funny but not in a romcom, I-am-laughing-more-than-half-of-the-time, while I am watching this kind of way. It is more funny in an indie film, throw in a couple of awkward funny moments kind of way. This movie lands more on the romantic side than on the comedy side.

Thirdly, and this is a HUGE SPOILER if you have not seen the movie, they are not together at the end of the movie. Now as a 23 year old woman watching this movie I was icked out by the idea of dating and being in a relationship with someone who was 37. Sue me, I am shallow. But by the end of the movie I didn't get why they couldn't be together. They seemed perfect for each other to me. Did I miss something? I mean by not ending up together, you just put the audience through all your drama for no reason. I barely remembered that the mom was even an issue in the relationship. It was always an age issue. What was I suppose to learn from this movie again?

Bottom line Prime is a good movie. Watch it if you haven't seen it. And I may be biased because Bryan Greensberg is in it and I could stare at him all day.

Kdrama Drinking Game

I just finished watching a drama called Can Love Become Money and I think one of the show's secret goals was to include as many kdrama cliches and or tropes as possible. In honor of that I decided to compile a list of some common drama tropes and make them into a drinking game. I do not recommend following all of them all of the time, as depending on the show you are watching this could lead to alcohol poisoning. However, I do recommend making up drama specific ones. Like for Boys Before Flowers you can drink every time someone drowns/has a water related injury.

Image Credit: kimchidramas.net

1) Drink when the characters drink. Specifically, when someone drowns their sorrows in soju shots, take few sips yourself.
2) Drink every time there's a flashback to something that happened in the same episode
3) Drink twice if the flashback is of something that happened in the last ten minutes
4) Drink three times if the flashback is literally to the previous scene. As in something happens, a character exits and then immediately flashes back to what just happened.
5) Drink every time a character stares meaningfully off into the distance
6) Whenever there is a staring go-round (multiple characters meaningfully stare either in the same shot or in the same scene), sip your beverage through the entire stare-go-round.
7)Drink every time the parent of a main character (usually the heroine) loses all their money/goes into debt
8) Drink when the mob/money lenders show up
9)Take a shot for each birch secret revealed.
10) Drink for references to other shows (if you can catch them)
11)Drink when someone (usually the annoying second female) wails "oooopppaaaa" to get her way.
12)Drink if someone gets water thrown in their face
13) Finally, sip your way through the kdrama base system. That is, one sip for first base (the wrist grab), two sips for second base (actual hand holding), three sips for third (the backhug), and four sips for a home run (a kiss!). Bonus drink if the kiss looks good and not like two faces smushed together.

So there is my -possibly hazardous- Korean drama drinking game. Obviously there's a lot more I could have done, but I tried to stick away from things that are clearly built into the premise (like prickly on the outside, lonely/vulnerable on the inside chaebols and forced cohabitation). That said, happy drinking/watching!

America Runs on Dunkin'

So I like to think that I am not one of those New England snobs that thinks that New England is Gods greatest gift to earth and that there isn't anywhere else worth living on this lively planet of ours. You know who I'm talking about. When the word scenic gets thrown down like the royal seal of New England. But I am going off on a tangent.
When teainacan told me that she hadn't found a Dunkin' Donunts in Iowa I was shocked but I conceded. In some states Tim Hortons, Krispy Kreme and a variety of other donut shops dominate the cheap coffee and donuts industry scene. Her response was that she hadn't seen any cheep coffee/donut shops in Iowa at all. I swear to God my response seriously was " but America runs on dunkin'"

So two things about that
1) clearly I secretly am a New England snob and think that New England is the shit. And no where else can you pull off saying science 11 times in a day while looking at fall foliage and have each view be more picturesque than the next. There is something about New England that just touches the soul. But that's just my opinion.
2) what great advertising on the part of Dunkin' Donuts that subconsciously even I thought Dunkin Donuts was all over America when really its a New England staple.

Now I am not saying Dunkin Donuts serves the best donuts, the best coffee or the best tea. I am saying for under $5 I can have a pretty satisfying breakfast, a sweet treat, or a on the road sugar rush. They don't advertise excellence. They advertise simplicity, which in New England that counts for a lot.

So next time you are in New England teainacan your Dunkin' fix is on me.

Birchbox 2: June 2012

The theme of June's birchbox was travel and ironically my own travels kept me from receiving it until July. Still it was a wonderful thing to come home to.
This month I got:

Stila's One Step Bronze. First of all let me say this was huge. In fact I'm pretty sure the packaging was full size, which is impressive. On the other hand, bronzer is something I don't really use. Whether it's from reading too many vampire novels as an impressionable teen or trauma from burning until I had blisters, I tend to prefer my skin to stay in it's natural, pasty form. On the other hand, I got this bronzer at the most tan point of my year-- a month in California helped-- so I felt like I could apply it without having an orange head on top of a rosy beige bod. And indeed the bronzer was not orangey! Or otherwise my family has been lying to me.

Unblened, kinda blended, super blended.

 The "one step" in the name is not because most bronzers are multistep processes but because the bronzer is also supposed to function as a primer for foundation, an illuminator, and has skin friendly things in it. I haven't used it under foundation since the closest things I have to foundation are Korean BB creams which come in pale and alabaster, so I haven't experimented with that. Mostly I've just applied to my whole face. With that it gives a subtle, but sparkly glow. It makes me look healthier according to my brother. I've also tried to use it to contour. That effect has been so subtle that I'm not sure there is one. That's probably because my application method is extremely amateur. I still can't see myself reaching for it all too often, but the bronzer does what it says it will and doesn't break me out. Also the packaging is bomb.

theBalm's Staintanic in beauty queen. Like the bronzer, Staintanic is a multiuse product; it's both a cheek stain and a lipstain. It gives a very subtle wash of color both ways. I appreciate that it's low-drama as a cheek stain, but wish it had more color on the lips. The texture is nice, like a gel and it dries a little more slowly then I was expecting. Everytime I use it as a lipstain I think "what a pretty color!" and then a few minutes later, possibly because it's seems so natural, I feel like I'm not wearing any lip product and wish I were. I think I would turn to this to balance a very dramatic eye look.

Cleanwell cleansing towelette. On the one hand, this is super exciting since having a cute little towelette to clean everything and anything appeals deeply to the germaphobe in me. On the other hand, there's only one making it a kind of cheap sample. On my nonexistent third hand, the stila sample is huge. I've been anxious to chose exactly the best moment to use this, which hasn't turned up yet. I might end up buying a pack just so I can keep this one special forever and still enjoy herbal cleansing towelettes.
Juliette Has a Gun, Not a Perfume. I loved this. They say it's "not a perfume" since instead of being a composition, this is just a single note ambroxen. My careful interent research says that ambroxen is a synthetic fragrance made to replace ambergris.  It smelled both warm and cool to me. It has both a cool, synthetic character and also the warmth of an amber. I also love the packaging of Juliette Has a Gun. Ive thought seriously of buying it, but something in me says I could buy a gallon of ambroxen for the same 85$.

Hoodwinked

The television show Battlestar Galactica (2004) is a great example of how main stream home viewers can be hoodwinked or trapped into watching a SciFi television show. Once in a while a network or a team of producers can pull this off so seamlessly that a viewer can watch an entire series without categorizing a show as Science Fiction. Lost is another example of this.
Webster dictionary defines Science Fiction as fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component. In the television world this means that there are a group of people or a niche that are interested specifically in Science Fiction media. Many people, not having a true understanding of what science fiction entails, simply imagining dorky people with no friends deeply engraved in imaginary worlds, so they tend to shun anything openly claiming to be SciFi oriented. 
Then you have a show like Battlestar Galactica that was so well made that people who never had an interest in science fiction were hooked. Part of the reason for this phenomenon was that Battlestar not only showed on the Sci Fi channel but also aired on NBC, a major network and during prime time hours. NBC hardcore marathoned the show from season start to season end. They showed back to back episodes leaving people nothing else to watch during prime time. Some people turned on their TV to their favorite channel and had no clue what they were watching. But as the drama of Battlestar unfolded they were hooked and wanted to know what would happen next.
The beauty that surrounds Battlestar is that it was intelligently done. The show does not focus on technology or fancy gadgets. The show focuses on people, creating characters that everyone can relate to and root for. There is an underlying darkness to the show that fans appreciate also. The majority of television is very light hearted, bright and happy go lucky. In Battlestar you have to work for those happy moments and they mean so much more to you. 

Most people don't realize that Battlestar Galactica is a remake of a television show from the 70's that also had a great following.Starbuck, played by Katee Sackhoff, was originally written as a man. Shocking I know. Battlestar Galactica (1978) can be found on Netflix if you would like to take a peek. It is pretty hilarious to me.

Essentially this show bases itself on a concept that everyone can relate to even if they are not a "SciFi" fan. People's genuine struggle to survive and deal with the consequences of their actions. Yes this show can be thought of as dark and dreary. Teainacan likes to say its like watching a puppy get kicked over and over again. I disagree, its more like watching someone heal after a bad trauma or accident. It ain't pretty but it is amazing.


Can you tell that Starbuck is my favorite character? So because I am way too in love with this show i tend to ramble and gush with no real point in sight. If you take anything away from this it is this: give every show a chance, you might like it when you get hoodwinked.


-SardonicQueen