Sunday!
When watching Person of Interest, there was an episode where Maribou said “Huh, that’s Veronica Mars’s dad” and, of course, it turned out that he wasn’t merely the Person of Interest of the week, but establishing a recurring character (to the point where we said “Oh! It’s a (character name) episode!”
Well, in Burn Notice Season Five, there’s a character that showed up that made me say “Huh, that’s the guy who played in Dear John back a million years ago. I’m glad he found work.” Wouldn’t you know it, he ended up being a recurring character. On top of that, much to my surprise, he’s got a ton of range… in Dear John, he played a guy who was like a non-connected and somewhat dumber Paulie Walnuts while, in Burn Notice, he plays a guy who, among other things, is an exceptionally insightful therapist.
Now, the nature of the business is that the guy or gal who gets a guest role on ER is likely to show up a few months later with a guest role on Monk and then another guest role on Fringe and, if we’re lucky, a season of his or her own show before it gets cancelled and then back to another series of guest roles. (The earliest I can remember this happening is probably The Love Boat/Fantasy Island but I’m sure that it happened with stuff like Love American Style and Gunsmoke and Dragnet and all the way back to the birth of the medium.)
But it’s still nice to watch a show and say “hey, it’s that guy!” and, it turns out, he’s one of the main characters for the season.
So… what are you reading and/or watching?
(Photo is “Movie Night“, taken by Ginny, used under a creative commons license.)
I went bookshopping yesterday and picked these up:
The Origin of the Brunists by Robert Coover
Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe by Peter Heather
Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929 by Maury Klein
I am currently reading The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before The War 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman.Report
We used The Proud Tower as a text in one of my high school history classes. I should reread in one of these days.Report
The best voice actor in big Hero 6 is Pete from 30 Rock.Report
Yeah, Jere Burns (who I assume is That Guy you are talking about) does have surprising range. He plays an amoral gangster with a highly-developed instinct for self-preservation in Justified, and also played a very empathetic rehab counselor in Breaking Bad. He was also in Max Headroom.
Veronica Mars’ dad was also in Galaxy Quest. And a very funny guest role on Party Down.
Watched the pilot of Person of Interest. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really watched many procedurals, or much network TV in a while, but it was a little rough (definitely bluntly over-explained things it should trust the viewer to get). Will watch some more and hope it gets better. The first couple eps of Vikings S2 were equally rough with some inexplicable character actions/motivations, but hopefully once the action kicks back in it will get better. I will say that the opening sequence (which uses Fever Ray’s “If I Had A Heart” to haunting and brilliant effect) continues to be almost enough on its own.
Watched the Amazon pilot for a TV series adaptation of PKD’s The Man In The High Castle. Not perfect, but certainly interesting enough that I definitely want to see more, I hope they move forward with it.
Agent Carter was a slight step down last week, but still very enjoyable/entertaining. Parks and Rec and Portlandia are still on the DVR unwatched. Maybe tonight.Report
definitely bluntly over-explained things it should trust the viewer to get
I’ve heard this a couple of times now. I find it kinda comfortable. I mean, if I want to get drunk while watching an episode, I don’t have to worry about it. They’ll keep me in the loop.Report
Since Party Down is one of my three favorite sitcoms ever and I’ve watched every episode about six times each, I’ve gotten pretty good at picking up on PD guest stars cropping up in shows and movies. Most recently, ABC/Marvel’s Agent Carter has featured TWO! alumni: the actor who played the caddish Mark Defino in “James Rolf High School Twentieth Reunion” and the actress who played the priggish Mrs. Doyle in “Precious Lights Pre-School Auction.”
The funny thing is that they are both playing the exact same types on Agent Carter that they played in Party Down. As Jane Lynch’s Constance Carmell might say, “It’s like a fairy tale!”Report
@glyph
Yes, I like Agent Carter quite a bit, though I agree that the third episode was a step down from the first two. I think the mini-series (vs. ongoing series) approach might be more fruitful for building the Marvel universe on TV. It looks like Agent Carter has the same total budget for 8 episodes that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has to spread across 22 episodes.
On the other hand, Arrow and now The Flash seem to indicate that you can do superhero TV well in the ongoing series format.Report
Was Jere Burns Max Headroom? I always thought it was Matt Frewer, (who I loved in Doctor Doctor, and who was the time traveling con man in STNG). I totally got fooled there.
And I also didn’t know Veronica Mars’s dad was in Galaxy Quest, but once I though about it I went – OH!!! Of course!Report
@tod-kelly Matt Frewer was Max Headroom, but Jere Burns was also in the show.
@michael-m – Party Down is criminally underseen, but I guess that’s what happens when it was on Starz. Are you liking Agent Carter as much as I am?Report
I saw Galaxy Quest for the first time recently. It was fun, but exactly the movie I expected, and Tim Allen was perfectly type-cast.
Anyway, I recognized him from Just Shoot Me.Report
Galaxy Quest is such a fun movie with a great cast. First time I ever noticed Sam Rockwell, he practically stole the show from under Rickman, Weaver, and Allen, and he’s gone on to be pretty good in everything I’ve seen him in.
By Grabthar’s Hammer…what a savings.Report
I’ve loved Rockwell in everything but the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie, where he was a terrible Zaphod Beebelebrox. But the movie as a whole was so bad he didn’t really detract from it.Report
I want to kick myself for having the though, but you know who would make an awesome Zaphod? James Franco.Report
I am caught up on The Bridge, which I really liked. It initially (briefly) looked like it was going to the “The Wire, but for the border” but kind of moved away from that in the first season and definitely in the second, where it takes on CIA/DHS intrigue.
It had Kubiak from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose in it.
Audiobookwise I am still on Harry Turtledove’s Atlantis series.Report
OOC, is the Dear John guy on Burn Notice Jere Burns? Because he’s been doing absolutely stellar work as the reoccurring Wynn Duffy on Justified these past few years.
As for me, I have gotten into Alias again. I have tried it twice before, and each time I got to the first few episodes in Season 2 and kind of lost interest. We’ll see if I get further this time.
Last night the family finally watched Chef, which I really enjoyed. How could you not love a movie where redemption is discovered through the creation of a perfect Cubano sandwich? If there was anything that I wished they’d done differently, it was casting and/or costuming of the two main females. I can suspend a lot of disbelief, but a very heavy and schlubby John Favreau having to choose between dressed-and-made-up-to-look-perfect Sofia Vergara and a dressed-and-made-up-to-look-percfect Scarlett Johansen was a bit much.
Not too much reading this week due to schedule, but I’ve gotten a bit into The Golem and the Jinni and have been enjoying it.Report
I have tried it twice before, and each time I got to the first few episodes in Season 2 and kind of lost interest.
The premise of Alias changes massively about halfway through season 2. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you. (And it changes a few more times, usually at the end of seasons.)Report
Watched a “dual-layer” DVD I found at the library that appears to be one of a DVD set called The Roger Corman Collection. The first movie was 1959’s A Bucket of Blood, in which Dick Miller plays a simple-minded busboy who desperately wants to be an artist like the patrons of the cafe where he works (in the words of one of them, “…we’re sophisticated beatniks!”) and discovers a unique if bloody path to achieving his dream. This film has a screenplay by Charles B. Griffith worthy of Joseph Mankiewicz, with so many zingers and such pointed and expertly woven satire that it was almost jarring to stop laughing when the film takes its turns to the horrifying. As far as I know, this is one of the few times in over 100 movies that Miller got the starring role and boy does he make the most of it.
And speaking of jarring, the other film on the DVD was 1970’s Bloody Mama. What a difference 11 years makes — Corman’s low-budget response to Bonnie & Clyde is a highly fictionalized depiction of the Barker Gang’s Depression-era exploits and is fairly explicit about every bit of perverse behavior it attributes to them (including-but-not-limited-to hetero- and homosexual rape, child sexual abuse, drug abuse, incest, murder, sadism and insanity). Shelley Winters as Ma Barker chews up the scenery, spits it out, then chews it up again for good measure, and the film boasts a young Robert De Niro, in his first gangster role, as one of her sons. The movie delivers Corman’s trademark satire (Ma Barker voiceovers: “We didn’t go much for politics. When we wanted to steal, we did it our own way” and “1929 was a tough year, with the rich folks jumping out of windows. As usual, they landed on the poor”) but it is swamped by the violence. This is a dark and brutal film, filmed entirely in Arkansas, that would be a more appropriate match with Deliverance than it is with A Bucket of Blood.Report
Oh, and I just watched the NFC championship game.
Holy s**t.Report
I’m stewin in some bad juices. I’ve never seen a team go into the prevent offense with 10 minutes left to play. Grrrrrr. GB didn’t deserve that game. Bad coaching, IMO. Excellent play by the Seattle down the stretch, tho. Just as anyone – everyone – shoulda expected.
Grrrr.Report
Yes, a great day for us ‘Hawks fans (at least the 4th quarter was.)Report
Yeah, what a collapse by the Packers. If I were a Seahawks fan, I wouldn’t feel too confident that 15 minutes of good play will beat the Pats.Report
Me neither.
I’m still not entirely sure how they won today, to be honest.Report
How the fish do you blow a two-score lead with only five minutes left in the game and possession of the football?
Somehow, my Packers found a way. I will be buying Tod some Scotch in the future.Report
@burt-likko
It usually involves the ball bouncing off someone’s head.Report
In their bowl game, the University of Pittsburgh lost a 21 point lead in under three minutes.Report
Will,
Wait, Pitt plays football?Report
I rarely watch football (only when the Seahawks are playing and theres’s something notable about the game), but I watched that one, and it was amazing! Did not remotely expect that Seattle could win when they were two touchdowns down with a few minutes left.Report
This week I read the new Murakami, and all I can say is that it is a quite sad, intensely beautiful book. Not his best (there are few books as magnificent as Wind Up Bird) and definitely on the side of smaller scale, less magical realism. A very personal book.
We have been watching Transparent, which is also quite good. A difficult subject matter handle quite nicely.Report
While you’re all watching foot ball and playing video games, I’m trying to emotionally recover from this. (That link goes to my tumblr.)
It frightened the beejeesus out of me. I can barely let my sweetie out of my site.Report
Jeez louise! Chicken soup!Report
Twelve degrees, and he was wearing cotton?
Please tell me never again…
Get him some good wool.Report
I’ve been watching the hell out of Misfits (sadly only the first 2 seasons are free. OK, Hulu, you can have 8 dollars of my money but that IS IT.) Right this second I am watching Downton Abbey. Still watching The Librarians with friends on the weekend, we got a week behind so last week will be the last week of that for a while (back to Star Trek till April!). And I’m still rewatching HIMYM in the gaps, that’ll probably go on for months and months.
Been reading mostly therapy-related books but also Liz Prince’s splendid graphic memoir Tomboy and the pointless but amusing late Agatha Christie, Postern of Fate. Lots of other things but I’m more interested in Downton than in remembering what they were :D. Oh! I went on a kids’ books tear – Eleanor Farjeon and The Number Devil and so forth.Report