Checking In

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Checking in on American Horror Story: Asylum. #2.

December 5, 2012 in off-color commentary by Christina | No comments

Um. Yeah. I… I really don’t know what the hell is going on with this show. It had ramped up to something so interesting, and then in a single episode… it just… it… I don’t know what’s going on. And the scenes from next week? Really, AHS? A creepy homeless man Christmas episode? I don’t have high hopes for next week. But we can’t talk about that until it happens, so I just wanted to check in on what we missed.

I knew I wasn’t going to be recapping this show every week, but I was going to try. But this show is so (delightfully) fucked up that sometimes it’s best to just wait it out and revisit it. So, what did we miss?

Two weeks ago, the story was mostly about Dr. Thredson and his kidnapping of Lana. The gist of what we find out is that he has some serious mommy issues. She was a young mother, abandoned him when he was young, and little Oliver grew up in an orphanage. But he made it to med school, and upon seeing his first cadaver, his immediate thought of course was “Mommy?” He knew it wasn’t actually his mother, but she represented his mother in that she was about the same age his mother was when she abandoned him, and… well I guess that was enough for him. She also had dark hair I guess. And was naked? I don’t think that was part of it, but Oliver apparently had no qualms about hugging the cadaver later that night after all the other students and doctors had left. So far so good. Read the rest of this entry »

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Checking in on American Horror Story: Asylum.

November 14, 2012 in off-color commentary by Christina | 3 comments

“These conditions are terrible. Idea: I’ll sneak in later. Everything will be fine.”

What up, OCTVers?! Hope you guys have been having a fantastic Fall Season so far. Here at OCTV, we can’t recap ALL the shows (though wouldn’t that be awesome!), so we pick and choose what we’ll cover. AHS was left off the list at the beginning of the season because… well… if you watched last season, you remember what a shitstorm of cray that beast was. I’ve been at this recap game for a while, and I’ll tell you… so much respect for last season’s recapper Jenna because I don’t know how I would have covered it every week. Seriously, that show was insane. Which, then, is fitting that this new season is all about an insane asylum.

If you have read any of my other recaps, you know how much I love crime and serial killers and crazy people. So this season’s premise really is my bag, baby. And now that we’re four episodes in, I decided I kind of wanted to try to helm this ship. I don’t know if I’m going to recap it every week, but I figured a check-in was at least a good place to start.

First of all, I am ridiculously thrilled with the way the creators/writers decided to do each season of this show (which slightly pains me because my hate of The Great and Powerful Murph is not unknown. The fact that I’m able to compartmentalize Ryan Murphy shows says a lot about the wonders of the human brain). Instead of having the same story, and having the same characters live a continuous life, they decided to confine each story to a single season. Which is why last season was all about “dead house” – and you guys… if you haven’t seen it, you NEED to. That shit was fucked. up. This season is about Briarcliff Manor, an insane asylum operated in the 1960s. This was all wonderful news. But then, OH THEN, they went and changed the name of the show to American Horror Story: Asylum. You can’t go and change the name of the show like that, TV people! It screws up our DVRs! UGH! But, it’s okay. I changed my DVR recordings, and we’re back in business. On to the show! Read the rest of this entry »

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An Open Letter to HBO’s “Girls.”

May 3, 2012 in off-color commentary by Christina | 5 comments

Dear Girls,

I’ve seen three episodes of you now, and that being my general new show grace period, I think it’s safe to say that I’m in really deep like with you. Like, I really like you. Like, if we had a few drinks, I might be inclined to have sex with you with a condom. You get me. Your commercials told me I would like you, but the strange, yet very cool thing is that I didn’t realize how much I would actually relate to you. I mean, I’ve never lived in Brooklyn, and my parents stopped financially supporting me back when I went off to college, and that was mostly because I was all, “It’s cool, parents. I got this.”

But I had a bit of a moment during your second episode where I was laughing and yet wanted to curl up in a ball and cry so hard for everything your girls were going through that I’ve also faced. After it ended, I sat up on my futon (I make no pretenses that I’m a real adult), stared at your credits and said out loud, “Fuck me” because now I was obsessed with “the stuff that gets up around the sides of condoms.” Of course, this wasn’t the first time I thought of that nastiness, but you brought it up, man! I still am a disenchanted 20-something praying so fucking hard that I figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life. I’m pretty sure I’m a voice of a generation too, but I’m the only one who realizes it. Hannah Horvath… she gets me, and I get her. Read the rest of this entry »

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Checking in on GCB!

April 12, 2012 in off-color commentary by offcolortv | 10 comments

Basically, there was no chance in hell (ahem) that I was going to NOT at least check out a show called “Good Christian Bitches”.  And even though they totally neutered the name of the show, that’s still what it is to me.  Plus, as I have announced no less than three hundred times on Twitter, Annie Potts is a goddess whom I will not must not CANNOT ignore.  Plus, I liked Sex and the City and I LOOOOOVE Steel Magnolias, and there are people from both involved, so it definitely did all it could to reel me in, and yet I still wasn’t sure I’d like it.

So this was my mindset going into it.  Several episodes in and … yeah.  I’m kind of in love with it.

It’s kind of fun getting to discuss a show after several episodes, rather than weekly.  Kind of a novelty!  I don’t know if you guys ever read any other sites about TV (not so much because this one is the best or most fun, except it totally is, but more because there are only so many hours in a day), but something I’ve noticed in the last few months are how much TV bloggers love talking about themselves and TV blogging.  It’s all very masturbatory, but ANYWAY, I’ve seen several posts recently about the nature of blogging per episode, immediately after, and how it affects the overall quality of “critiquing” … I don’t know, blah blah, basically, but it’s somewhat interesting and you DO have a different perspective on a show when you kind of view it in a block and not just per each episode, so that’s kind of the route I’m taking here.  And that was just a long and boring way of telling you that.

Anyway.  My favorite thing about GCB is how it hits all the perfect campy notes for me, and you guys know how I love my camp.  It’s cheeky and self-aware and makes no apologies, but it also has legitimate character and plot moments, and it all really works.  In fact, it occupies a similar place in my heart as Hart of Dixie.  It’s light, cheesy, escapist FUN.  And it’s REALLY fun. Read the rest of this entry »

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Checking in on Chuck. Adventures With Dad.

April 19, 2011 in off-color commentary by offcolortv | 1 comment

Well, we are getting pretty near the end of the season and I haven’t been doing regular Chuck recaps, but tonight’s episode was pretty great so it seemed like a good time to check in on it.

There really was no movement on the villain front in this episode, but I’ll take a moment anyway to say how much I’ve enjoyed the Volkoffs this season.  Timothy Dalton is amazing–he’s hilarious, totally scary, and incredibly badass.  He may be my favorite “big bad” this show has had.  And Vivian is really well done too.  I never thought I’d be NOT annoyed at Lauren Cohan’s fake British accent, but this show has really used her to great effect and I’ve loved the slow build of how she’s turning into a villain.  Plus, she really DOES look like Timothy Dalton, no?

Chuck and Sarah continue to be adorable, obviously, but the best Sarah pairing for me is ALWAYS her dad.  I get teary EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Even though the piggy bank stuffed with hundreds was cheesy and kind of a stretch, it was still really sweet and I liked it.  But the dance, him saving the day with his speech about being a bad dad … just all of it, really.  And I LOVED the shout out to his first appearance when he called Casey “Cop Face” again.  Hee!  He TOTALLY has a cop face.

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Checking in. American Idol Top 11.

March 24, 2011 in off-color commentary by Strunkette | 5 comments

American Idol returned with new judges and while most thought it was going to be a disaster, they’re doing a pretty decent job.  Who knew Randy could actually be a decent judge?  I guess Simon was stifling his honest juices (eww!) and/or they finally got him off the weed.  Knock on wood, I haven’t heard “dawg” come out of his mouth in a long time.  Jenny from the Block has been inconsistent, but she brings the nice with some constructive criticism thrown in.  Much better than Paula in that regard.  Thank goodness we have Steven Tyler to bring the crazy.  It’s like they took all the old judges’ quirks, threw them in a pot, added a singer, pseudo-singer/actress/fly girl, and a bassist for Journey and pulled out a decent judging panel.  I miss Simon’s strange analogies, but we can’t have it all.  So here’s my take on the Top 11.

*Note to all Idol contestants, friends and family of said contestants, and fans.  All observations and snark contained herein is all for fun.  I am in no way trying to be horribly mean.  That being said, anyone who allows a munchkin to do their makeup, and I’m talking to you J. Lo, has no one to blame but themselves.*

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Checking in on Face Off. Creativity vs. Skill and an S2 pickup.

March 17, 2011 in off-color commentary by offcolortv | 4 comments

Alright, so this season of Face Off is over, and that took like NO time at all.  If you haven’t seen the finale and don’t wanna be spoiled, don’t read on.  You have been warned.

So, one of the things that irks me about competition shows, and maybe it’s just that I’ve been watching so much Top Chef lately too, is how they try to make each elimination based just on the current challenge, including the finale, and I just think that’s kind of bullshit.  I mean, how you’ve done the whole time SHOULD come into play, right?

Anyway, last night, I disagreed with Conor’s win, but I do realize that the judges were making a decision of creativity vs. technical skill, which are related but are also very much apples and oranges, and if they wanted a more technically skilled winner, they picked the right guy.  Conor’s stuff does always look good, especially given the time constraints.  I just felt like Tate was a better overall, well-rounded artist from the get go.  He had a LOT of creative ideas, you guys, and the best example I can think of was when he did an alien and had the model crab walk out on her hands with the back of her head being the face.  That was such an original, boss idea with a lot of imagination.  And last night, his Little Red Riding Hood was AMAZING.  I wasn’t feeling the red eyes when they were putting it all together, but when I saw the finished project in the set, I was completely on board and thought it was an outstanding creative choice.

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Checking in on V. Second verse, same as the first.

March 16, 2011 in off-color commentary by offcolortv | No comments

Just to introduce you to this “checking in” thing, we’ll occasionally be doing posts here on the blog for shows that we don’t regularly cover but still watch and sometimes feel like talking about.  This is one such post.

Alright, so V finished it’s second season this week, and that seemed like a good time to talk about it.  It’s considered a bubble show at this point, but I’m not real confident it’ll get picked up.  It might, but …  Anyway, what follows will be a totally bipolar look and reasons why I kind of hope it isn’t renewed and a few reasons why I kind of hope it is.

It seems weird to hope for a show that you watch to get cancelled, mainly because 1. If you want it to get cancelled, why are you watching it? and 2. If you like it enough to watch it, why do you want it to be cancelled.  Listen, I don’t know.  Perhaps I am the mythical mystery wrapped in an enigma dipped in chocolate.  More than that though, I think I’m an optimist who keeps wanting the show to get better.  And to be real honest with you, it DID get better here in the last couple episodes and particularly in the finale.  I’m just not sure it’s enough.

I keep watching the show because I really like sci-fi, and for all the vampires and werewolves and zombies on TV right now, there’s just not much sci-fi.  I do have a void where Battlestar was, and I had hoped that V would at least somewhat fill it.  I knew any sci-fi show I tried to follow BSG with would be … less … but it’s like boyfriends, right?  You have to do the rebound thing with SOMEONE, so you might as well get it over with so you can move on to the next great love.  My biggest complaint about V isn’t that it’s BAD, it’s that it’s BORING.  There are good stories to be had, but the show gets suffocated by its own pace.  I commented to Billy about three episodes ago, maybe less, that if you hadn’t watched this show since early in S1, you would be able to come back in with no problem since absolutely nothing had changed.  Um, that is NOT a good thing, for those keeping track.

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