verushka70

I think some of the old school stars had great longevity -- or would have, if what was considered popular in music hadn't changed. They probably knew better how to take care of themselves and their voices. Even if they didn't, their managers (financially exploitive as they often were) had a vested interest in them remaining viable singers as long as possible, which presumably would have given them access to voice coaches, etc. I do wonder about Adele's vocal longevity, too; we already lost Amy Winehouse (but if she were still alive, I have to wonder how her voice would sound, now... maybe not too good). But I guess that's what Autotune is for... since it turns perfectly lousy singers into chart-topping pop stars...

Yes, Ronnie Spector's show was really enjoyable, I had a good time. And I really enjoyed my nephew's recital. It's the last Christmas recital he'll do; he graduates high school in June, then it's off to college. He'll have one more Spring recital. *sniff*

I wouldn't say I'm filled with holiday spirit... just that I've lost my "Bah, humbug!" attitude, mostly and feel a little more Christmas-y, I guess. Unfortunately the radio at work in our unit is tuned to some "Christmas mix" station of hits and Christmas songs, and it drives me batshit crazy sometimes; it's actually probably killing my Christmas spirit slowly, day by day. But then, not much fills me with any particular kind of spirit these days. Except the spirit of excessive irritability and a short fuse. I blame perimenopause, lol. No period for 2 months, then 2 periods less than 3 weeks apart. Grrrr.

I'm glad to hear Broadchurch is coming to Netflix! I'll definitely check it out. I've seen some really great shows via Netflix, like The Fall and Top Of The Lake, that I probably would never have seen otherwise.

Yeah, I'm done with VD. I won't watch it again -- except to re-watch old episodes from S2-S3, maybe. I tried watching The Originals, but I couldn't get into it (even with Elijah). I tried. I'm not surprised the VD cast are bored; it's the same old crap ep after ep. Too bad they're locked in, but maybe VD will be a springboard for their future careers. They're all very pretty and I'm sure they'll do well. Don't understand how VD gets the ratings it does, except for the predictable demographics. But then I guess compared to the real hit shows, VD doesn't get very good ratings anyway.

OMG, you must watch Archer! All seasons except the last one are available on Netflix. Since it's a half hour animated TV show you can easily bingewatch. Last season will probably become available on Netflix when they start the new season in January. I would say the best seasons are S2-S4, all of which are on Netflix now. But they're all good, although S5 is kind of weird (I should say weirder than usual, lol). From what I've read, before S5 the writers agreed to change the name of Archer's spy agency, ISIS (the International Secret Intelligence Service) due to the emergence of the real ISIS threat. So they found a... unique way to get rid of ISIS in S5; as a result, the show became even more cracktastic. Took me a while to get into S5.

Archer may be an acquired taste... full of equal opportunity political incorrectness, inappropriate hookups both slash and het, and lots of sometimes esoteric pop and high culture references (many of which go over my head or send me Googling). It is a hilarious mix of high and low brow humor, wit, and utter depravity.

Re: Elementary, I get the sense that the writers have developed a formula to fuck with either Holmes or Watson or with the Holmes/Watson partnership, and then foreground it in the last half of each season. S1 it was Irene/Moriarty. S2 it was Mycroft (and, to a lesser extent, Joan deciding to move out of the brownstone). It looks like it will be Joan's new bf and Kitty this season. The obvious dangling threads are annoying and glaring glitches in the writing.

Grey commented on this xpost on LJ that she heard Lucy Liu is pregnant. So then I thought Kitty was introduced due to Liu's impending largeness/delivery/mommyhood. But I Googled for more info on Liu's pregnancy, and it looks like that may have been a hoax.

In the process of said Googling, I found an EW blurb about the Elementary writers deciding to turn Holmes and Watson's partnership into a kind of parenthood of Kitty in order to kill any possible romantic hookup between them (find that here). Then I read that Stuart Townsend (!) will have a multi ep story arc on Elementary this season (over here). It's starting to look like this season is going to get even more convoluted... and I already felt like it was kind of losing focus.

I don't dislike the character of Kitty per se. Actually I've grown to like her. But my problems with Kitty are that, aside from being an obvious insert into the Holmes/Watson partnership, she is supposed to be this terrible victim of a horrific crime.

I just don't get what would be the narrative function of that kind of backstory. I don't want to see it, but telling it rather than showing it makes it seem a cheap hack to introduce her villains later in the season. That's the only explanation I can find, a move I find pretty dubious from both a writing and dramatic standpoint. Although given the Holmes/Watson parenting angle, maybe it was only introduced for that purpose. I just am not comfortable with this whole "super damaged Kitty" thing.

While I agree with you about watching Elementary more for the characters/their development/their relationships than the mysteries, I am a fan of the original Conan Doyle stories: mysteries. So the predictability of some of the mysteries gets kind of annoying after a while. I'm tired of figuring out who did it 2 or 3 commercial breaks into the ep.

And you're right, Mrs. Hudson and Alfredo should be around more. So I was happy to see Mrs. Hudson again in a recent ep. I like all of Holmes' "Irregulars" and it looks like they'll be including more of them, though hopefully not to the exclusion of other recurrent characters like Mrs. Hudson.

Agreed on the 'scrubbing clean' of Sherlock. The wardrobe change is especially noticeable and sort of mystifying, though it seemed to occur around the time they brought in Mycroft. I too noticed the change in Sherlock's apparent sexual appetite. In S1 he seemed much edgier both in his sex life and his clothes, lol. I enjoyed those little glimpses of Sherlock's interior life; I'm sort of disappointed they became infrequent in the latter half of S2 and nonexistent in all of S3 so far.

The writers sort of blew it by introducing Irene so early in the series, too. Canonically speaking, Irene was the only woman Sherlock ever loved, so introducing her and then carting her off to prison so early in the series kind of makes bringing her back (except perhaps in flashbacks) difficult, if not impossible.

Sherlock/Marcus? Hm. Let me think about that. Gotta say, I didn't see it until the trouble between them last season. Must re-watch and re-examine, lol. I've seen most of S2 only once and I don't have the DVDs, just a few of the S2 eps I missed I got off bittorrent because I missed the original broadcasts.

For the most part I haven't felt slash-inspired by Elementary. My canonical knowledge of Holmes from the original stories hasn't proved an obstacle to seeing the slash of the BBC's Sherlock or Guy Ritchie's films, so I'm not sure what it is. There was big Irene/Sherlock chemistry, though that never precludes slash in my book *g*. Maybe it's because of the way Jonny plays Sherlock, with obvious emotional and social limitations and detachment. I'll have to rewatch S1 and S2 and look again for slash. I did get a little Sherlock/Watson/Mycroft twinge just because of their interplay and Sherlock's obvious jealousness. (Plus I have a kink for m/f/m threesomes; brotherhood or male relatives are no obstacle to my kink, lol, from VD to Cronenberg's Dead Ringers).

(You'd think the latter would have made Supernatural an obvious choice for me. But I tried watching it. It was so "meh". Not even the slash aspects made it worth it for me; I am still unclear on why it has legions of fans.)

Re: HWTGAWM -- yep, incredibly OTT, lol! I kind of find nearly all the supporting characters generic, except for Viola Davis. She's kind of the burning core of the show, eclipsing everyone else. Probably why I find everyone else either annoying or boring and merely blocking her light. *g*

It does require quite a lot of handwaving. I am not versed in legalities, but I tend to kind of dismiss most legal, medical or law enforcement portrayals on TV as utterly fictitious; since I became and RN it became apparent how much of it is wildly inaccurate, so I figure that's probably true about most of the other professions portrayed.

OMG, yes, Penny Dreadful! What a lovely fever dream of a show. Got to do some handwaving there, too, especially as regards Dorian and his leather pants *g* but the premise intrigued me and the execution seduced me. I love Eva Green on that show, and the plethora of 'ship possibilities. Didn't see the Dorian/Ethan thing coming but I was like, Whoa, YEAH! when it happened. I can't wait for next season.