These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.
Game of Thrones Gendry: How do you keep your balls from freezing off? Tormund: You have to keep moving. That’s the secret. Walking’s good. Fighting’s better. Fucking’s best.
Arya: The world doesn’t just let girls decide what they’re going to be.
Preacher Herr Starr: Why go on looking for God when you can just be Him?
Midnight, Texas Mr. Snuggly: Oh my beeswax, the cat talks!
Will Emilia: Some fight with a sword. You fight with a pen. Will: Pathetic. Emilia: We must all be the hero we were born to be.
The Bold Type
Jane: Well, gentlemen, it’s been…well, Walt, you already know what I’m going to say so, goodnight.
Queen of the South Teresa: I know the risks. King George: But do you know the consequences?
Pote: I told you, you’re not Camila. I meant it. You’re better. You got heart.
Killjoys Pree: Speak now, or forever hold your shade.
Wynonna Earp Doc: Sorry I’m late. I kinda died. Wynonna: Who didn’t?
I do not get to screen new shows, so my first impressions are usually based on the description, first trailer, and reviews from trusted TV journalists. Sometimes I am completely wrong, and sometimes I find something that I love. It was actually a little harder this year to pick eight new shows because I am not that excited about most of the new Fall line-up, but these are the shows that I am definitely going to check out. There may be a few others that I add, and a few that drop off after the first episode, so keep an eye on my Currently Watching page to see what I stick with.
1. Star Trek: Discovery, premieres September 24th on CBS then moves to CBS All-Access, stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Yeoh, Rainn Wilson, Terry Serpico, Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Maulik Pancholy, Anthony Rapp, Kenneth Mitchell, Clare McConnell, Damon Runyan, Rekha Sharma, Sam Vartholomeos, Mary Wiseman, and Wilson Cruz. Ten years before Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery explores new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. I have never watched any of the other Star Trek series but I enjoy the most recent movies, and I love the cast, so I will give it a try.
2. SEAL Team, premieres September 27th on CBS, stars David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Neil Brown Jr., AJ Buckley, Toni Trucks, and Jessica Paré. The lives of the elite Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute dangerous, high-stakes missions for our country. Deployed on clandestine missions worldwide at a moment’s notice, and knowing the toll it takes on them and their families, this tight-knit SEAL team displays unwavering patriotism and fearless dedication even in the face of overwhelming odds. It looks like it will have a pretty standard procedural format, but I like to mix those kinds of shows in with my more serialized dramas. There are several new military shows coming out this Fall, and I will probably check out most of them, but this is the one that has the most promise.
3. Will & Grace, premieres September 28th on NBC, stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, and Megan Mullally. This is technically not a new show, but because it has been off the air for ten years, I am counting it as new. In the original series finale, Will and Grace had lost touch as they started new families of their own. However, that ending will be completely ignored when the show returns. Jack and Karen will be back in their original homes, and Will and Grace will have moved back in together. I honestly have not watched this show since it went off the air, but I am excited for it to return.
4. The Gifted, premieres October 2nd on Fox, stars Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Coby Bell, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Percy Hynes White. Based on character from Marvel’s X-Men universe, this new series centers around a suburban couple who discover that their children possess mutant powers. They are forced to go on the run, and end up joining an underground network of mutants fighting to survive. There are also several new comic book-based shows coming out this year, and I may give a few of them a try, but this one looks the most interesting. I like the cast, and it has a darker tone, which will hopefully help ground the show a little bit.
In honor of last weekend’s season finales of Turn: Washington’s Spies and Orphan Black (which were both fantastic), I have made a list of other favorite series finales. Most of these finales are attached to personal memories, and some are just really good episodes of television. All these shows affected me in different ways at different times in my life, but I felt a real sense of loss when they ended. There were a couple great finales this year, but I did not include them because it is likely they will make my list of Best Episodes of 2017. As long as you do not watch the videos, there should not be any big spoilers.
1. Sex and the City: I was in high school when this show started, and I used to watch it at night when my parents were in bed, because my mother would have never approved. When I got to college, it was the show that everyone watched. It ended my junior year in college and I remember watching it with my roommates at our apartment in Elon, North Carolina. I would actually have preferred for Carrie to end up with Aiden, but I was happy with the way the other three women’s stories were wrapped up.
2. Parenthood: Jason Katims knows how to do a series finales, as evidenced by Friday Night Lights also being on this list. I do not like too much ambiguity in my series finales, and this let me know that the Bravermans would all be okay. I watched this finale at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas surrounded by other Parenthood fans for an ATX Television Festival event. There was something cathartic being in a theater full of people, all of whom were sobbing.
3. Sons of Anarchy: I got into SOA in the middle of season three. I had put off watching it because of the subject matter, but could not ignore the critics raving about it. It also came to me at a time in my life when I needed to just completely lose myself in a world so unlike my own. When I moved to Austin, I bonded with one of my new friends over our love of Charlie Hunnam and the show, and we started watching the episodes together each week at my apartment. Obviously, I wish every character could have had a happy ending, but that is not what this show was about. It was about dealing with the consequences of the life each of them had chosen, and the actions they had taken along the way.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I do not really have a fun story for where I was when I watched the finale of this show. I actually think I was alone in my parent’s basement, which sounds kind of creepy. I got into this show late, and I don’t think I had even caught up on all the seasons yet, but wanted to watch the finale live. I did not really know what was happening at the time, but have obviously gone back and watched the entire series several times since then. This speech still brings me to tears every time I watch it:
These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.
Game of Thrones Lady Olenna: The Lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No. You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.
Grantchester Sidney: It’s one thing for someone to accuse you of not belonging. It’s another to know it in your heart that they’re right.
The Bold Type Oliver: Real is good. Real is what makes you who you are.
Younger Liza: You sure know a lot for denying you have anything to do with the stuff. Redmond: Well, what else am I supposed to do alone on a Friday night after an entire bottle of rosé and seeing an ex on Instagram with his new boy toy in Costa Rica?
Killjoys Gander: I can give you whatever you hunger for. Delle Seyah: Said every gross man ever.
Wynonna Earp Dolls: Neutral men are the devil’s allies.
Turn: Washington’s Spies Mary: The man you are is a man who would do anything for his friends.
Robert: Those whose sit on the picket fence are impaled by it.
Orphan Black Felix: My sister and I are orphans, you see, and, um, we could’ve ended up anywhere. We could’ve ended up in any family. And if we had, we would’ve been entirely different people. But my mum, Siobhan, this woman, come on, this woman… This woman, she chose us as her own. We are who we are because she carried two little London urchins on her wings to Canada. Watching her raise my sister, watching my sister raise her own daughter, finding my biological sister… it’s quite mad. It’s taught me that we are all… mysterious works of chance. Of choice. Of nature versus nurture. So, to my galaxy of women, thank you for the nurture.
These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.
Grantchester Sidney: This is the life we are here for. We owe it to ourselves to live it.
Preacher
Jesse: This woman last night, she told me about some secret organization with designs on world domination. You know about that? Cassidy: Yeah. Sure. Which one? Is it Z.O.G.? Rosicrucians, Reptilians? Secret society of alien lizards. They impersonate celebrities in an attempt to take over the planet through popular culture. Is that it?
Jesse: …No.
Will Alice: You’re a man. Don’t talk to me about not being free.
Marlowe: Greatness comes at a cost. Yours is to endure your guilt.
Animal Kingdom Smurf: Everything’s fine. Bring your gun.
The Bold Type Kat: Open a bottle of gin. Chase it with nothing. Start typing.
Sutton: I can’t have my hand up there an hour before I’m supposed to shake it with the entire ad sales team.
Suits Harvey: You know I have more than one trick, right? Mike: No, I kow you think you do, but just because you put on a different costume doesn’t make it a different trick. Harvey: Yeah, I liked you better when you were drunk. Mike: I liked you better when I was drunk too.
Queen of the South El Santo: I will not be infected by your faithless deals! Teresa: And yet, here we are.
Guero: I’m not saying I’m not gonna kill you. I just…I’m not gonna kill you right now.
Killjoys Banyan: I thought you were just the funny one.
Johnny: I multitask.
D’avin: I know I should feel worse about punching an old blind dude, but I don’t, and I’m cool with that.
Playing House Maggie: I want to shove my mouth full of meat, and then I wanna hit the dance floor!
Bob the DragQueen: We’re all born naked, and the rest is drag!
Turn: Washington’s Spies Anna: I don’t just have a job to do. I have a job to pretend to do.
Orphan Black Krystal: She’s been poisoned…by big cosmetics. What about that is confusing?
Since the ATX Television Festival, my schedule has been little wonky. So, here are my favorite quotes from the past two and a half weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.
Orphan Black Alison: Poop on a stoop!
I’m Dying Up Here Edgar: That is not how a bladder functions. Gabe: Shut up, Edgar. I’m Jewish, you’re Mexican, which automatically makes me closer to being a doctor than you.
Downward Dog Martin: I think, so often I forget the really, really obvious things in life. Because I don’t think it’s all that hard to be happy. I…I think you just have to be grateful. Like, you have to remember to be grateful for what’s right in front of you. Because me and Nan are really, really different. Like…like, we’re, like, 60% compatible at best. And, like, we have these huge issues we have to work out. But, like, when you’re always running around looking for what’s wrong with everything you just – you just end up miserable. Yeah, like, I’m a trash dog and she’s, like, a fancy lady, but we have each other, and that’s what’s important. We’re not alone. And for that…for that I’m honestly, really, truly grateful.
Martin: One thing I’ve always wanted to ask is just, like, what if we never got out of bed? Like, ever. Why are we so convinced it would be bad? Like, that might – that might solve everything. Or we could not try my suggestion, and we could just, like, keep getting out of bed every day expecting somehow to achieve a different result, even though that’s the actual dictionary definition of insanity. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe it’s worth a try.
iZombie Liv: He escaped.
Justin: How’d that happen? Liv: Said the guy who showed up late.
Fargo Emmit: A lie is not a lie if you believe it’s true.
Doctor Who Bill: You’re not cowards. You’re scared. Scared is fine. Scared is human.
Doctor: That’s the trouble with hope. It’s hard to resist.
Turn: Washington’s Spies
Judge Woodhull: When the consequence of the day rears its head, then we’ll know what we learned.
Orphan Black Rachel: You can be part of this change, or you can be part of the past.
NBC announced last October that they were going to do a live production of one of my all-time favorite musicals, Bye Bye Birdie, with Jennifor Lopez producing and playing Rose Alvarez. Nobody else has been cast yet, so these are some of my dream casting choices for the main singing roles. A few of them may be completely unrealistic, but I am still putting them out into the universe just in case.
1. Zachary Levi as Albert F. Peterson
As soon as I saw him in She Loves Me last summer, I knew that he would be perfect for this role. I grew up watching Dick Van Dyke, and I think that Levi has a lot of that same earnestness and heart.
2. Selena Gomez as Kim McAfee
Not only does Gomez have a great voice, but she has that sweet, innocent quality that embodies Kim. She also has the ability to be a little edgier for Kim’s night out on the town with Conrad.
3. Jeremy Jordan as Conrad Birdie
For Conrad, the hip twitch is very important. I mean, he makes women faint with his hips. For the life of me, I could not find a good clip of Jordan dancing, but he has done plenty of Broadway shows, so I think he can pull it off. If nothing else, he definitely has the sincere bad boy thing down, and an incredible voice. I mean…
4. Grant Gustin as Hugo Peabody
He has that sweet, slightly nerdy quality that Hugo possesses. I am hoping that, for this production, they use the film version of ‘A Lot of Livin’ to Do,’ because Hugo does not sing in the Broadway version of the song.
In preparation for Saturday’s final Orphan Black season premiere, I thought I would share the blog I wrote after watching the first season, which was originally posted at Aye, Tortuga!. I updated a few sections, otherwise, these were my first thoughts about the series.
I follow a lot of entertainment-related people on my Twitter account. I also tend to follow people that I agree with so, sometimes my perception of what the majority of people are actually watching and enjoying is a little skewed. From my Facebook feed, it seems like most of my friends have not yet discovered one of my new favorite shows, so I thought I would try to change that, especially considering those same friends compose the majority of my readers. (Sadly, this fact has not changed much since that first season but, there are a few more Clone Club members now.)
Over the past month, my Twitter timeline has been a constant love-fest for new show Orphan Black. I was not initially planning to watch this show, but I could not ignore the loud voices telling me how amazing it was, and I am very glad that I gave into the peer pressure. They were right and you should all be watching it as well.
While it was actually airing, I had only seen a few posts here and there about this new BBC America series but, again, mostly from entertainment writers and bloggers and mostly from the same few people. However, after hearing about Tatiana Maslany for four days straight at Season 2 of the ATX Television Festival, I decided I should probably see what everyone was talking about.
My TV Family 