Tag Archives: television

Halloween Movie Night!

I had this delusion I was just going to spend most of the day vegetating and alternating between reading Joe Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts and watching movies. Didn’t quite work out, although I did manage to combine a run and The Devil Bat (1941) – one of the few times I was glad the gym has installed individual tv’s on some of the treadmills. I had someone else turn it on, because most people watch CNN at my gym and I didn’t want to take the chance on a random sighting on day 2 of my CNN detox.

Devil Bat is so hilariously bad it was almost dangerous to watch while running. I love the opening sequence, where Mad Scientist Bela works to perfect his species of Giant Devil Bats using electrical manipulation of their glandular processes. He does this when he’s not busy inventing a new aftershave. His conversation with the stock footage bat before he carries the completely unconvincing rubber model into the laboratory is priceless. I mean that literally, it couldn’t have cost anything to produce that scene. And if it did, someone should have been fired. I swear the actual plot of this movie is: Mad Scientist hates his employer, develops a shaving lotion that causes Giant Devil Bats to attack whoever wears it, commits mayhem.

I’d planned to make tonight a triple-feature: The Haunting (1963), Evil Dead and the 1st Halloween, but those best laid plans and all. It’s okay, I’ve already decided that Halloween is going to last through election-day this year so that I have time to get through everything left on the Tivo, finish the Frankenstein marathon, and read the Joe Hill short stories and David J. Skal’s Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. Both of those books have been sitting on the coffeetable mocking me ever since the start of the 10 day migraine that kept me from reading.

I was so tired tonight that I decided to postpone the movies and watch Halloween episodes from Buffy. I haven’t seen any of them in ages, they’re funny, and they don’t require much attention span. I picked season 2 (where everyone becomes their Halloween costume) after realizing I was too tired to even watch more than one tonight. I never mentioned it here, but I kicked off the 13 Days of Halloween fest with the Halloween episode from the final season of Angel, “Life of the Party.”

Influential 80s movies (13 Days of Halloween)

John Landis wrote and directed American Werewolf in London, which wowed audiences with it’s amazing effects (Oscar win for Rick Baker), humor, gore, sex, and more gore. It’s pretty dated now and the effects don’t stand the test of time, but the movie is still funny, goofy fun. The soundtrack remains amusing, it’s chock full of songs that make reference to the moon – “Moondance”, “Bad Moon Rising,” multiple versions of “Blue Moon.”

Next up was 90210. I had to know if Naomi ended up doing time after getting caught with Adrianna’s stash. Plus, I needed the dish about Silver and Dixon’s date last week. And what about Teacher Ryan pining away for Guidance Counselor Kelly while Youngish Allegedly-Hip Principal Dipshit figures out what to do about his own problem. Namely that he never knew he had a love-child from his teen romance with Adrianna’s mom 18 years ago. She so kept the baby. Except then she gave the baby up. Plus, even if an episode is boring, you can always count on Jessica Walter showing up and having an excellent Lucille Bluth moment because that’s who she’s basically playing.

Then it was time for A Nightmare on Elm Street, which I realized I’d never seen before. It was kind of boring and very 1984. At first that seemed appropriate because I’m finishing the cuff of a purple sweater dress I just made that’s a wee bit 80s, but then it started to make me sleepy so I put it (the movie, not the dress) on the backburner and watched James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein instead. I have a truly fab Bride wig and costume, maybe I’ll wear it Friday while I hide in the basement from Trick-or-Treaters and conclude the film fest.

Numb3rs

Today I’m going to watch Obama’s speech, so no spoilers, ok?

Last night I was actually able to sort of focus through the pain and drugs long enough to watch a little TV, we watched the first 5 or 6 episodes of Numb3rs, a show I’d been avoiding because Rob Morrow annoyed the shit out of me in Northern Exposure. Now, I realize that it was Northern Exposure that I found so annoying, not Rob Morrow. I might be able to work up to Galactica 1980 by the weekend, but not yet.

When they first broadcast Numb3rs, CBS showed the episodes out of order, and so they’re in that same goofy order on the discs so the character development is sort of confusing. It’s ok, though, cause I’m not going to remember much of it anyway.

The lesson Numb3rs wants to teach us is: Mathematicians and Physicists are Teh Sexy.

We knew that.

Galactica 1980

It may at last be time to face my arch-nemesis. No, not Wolf Blitzer. Galactica 1980.

I’m about to go totally meta here, and quote from that previous post about why you don’t want to try this at home:

Here are the original posts from that first little (mis)adventure, to help newer readers understand why they shouldn’t try this [watching Galactica 1980] at home. Not without first undertaking a rigorous training regimen. And possibly lobotomizing themselves with a number 2 pencil.

Remember people, I watch so you don’t have to. I am a trained media professional and this is the big time. You should not, I repeat, not, try this at home.

And if you do, I’m not responsible for the psychological carnage. Nor will I come to your home and scrape the fetid remnants of your anguished soul off of your rug.

1) galactica 1980 marathon, part I (caution: new series spoilers)

2) Cousin Oliver gets kicked to the curb; or, Galactica 1980 marathon, part 2

3) Mormons, or, Galactica 1980 marathon, part 3

4) Galactica 1980 marathon, part 4, wherein I talk about Knight Rider instead because I still haven’t been able to bring myself to finish watching episode 5

5) Galactica 1980 post part 5; I only wish the 6th episode starred Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce

6) And, if you got through all that, a bonus post, at no extra charge: The Big Score, and a minor Battlestar Galactica (new series) spoiler

(Original post here).

The DVDs are standing by. If anyone wants to undertake this mission with me, drop me a line. Be warned that you aren’t getting your mitts on one of the lollipops and you’re going to need to know me fairly well to be allowed to babysit.

The category index for Galactica 1980 is here.

Narm!

Husband and I recently watched the SciFi series, The Lost Room. It was pretty good, and much more clever than I expected.

It stars the excellent Peter Krause. You know who I mean. Nate, from Six Feet Under. I only watched the first two seasons of Six Feet Under and then I think I just saw random episodes of the final three seasons.

Figuring I’d forget any spoilers by the time I got around to watching the show, I did read Heather Havrilesky’s review of the finale on salon.com last year. Unfortunately, this meant I kept wanting to yell Narm!” every time Peter Krause entered the Lost Room. If you haven’t seen the finale of Six Feet Under, you probably shouldn’t go read that review, but I have to tell you it’s really funny.

Confusingly, that same week we watched the pilot episode of Dexter, which stars Michael C. Hall, who played Nate’s brother David on Six Feet Under.