In the last post, I talked about two very popular authors I didn’t like. One I didn’t care that I didn’t like him, and the other, I really wished I did. In this post, I’m going to talk about…well, I’m not exactly sure, buet it’s going to be related. Let’s go!
Let’s talk TV shows. I don’t like them. The end.
Just kidding. Not about me not liking TV shows. I don’t for the most part. But about me not talking about why that is.
When I was a kid, my brother and I were not allowed to watch much TV. We watched Scooby Doo on the weekends like many kids of our generation did. The TV shows we watched on the regular were The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and when I was older, Cheers. I also remember watching Facts of Life and Different Strokes.
I didn’t love any of them, mind you. They were just what was on the TV at the time. I didn’t know much about American culture and my father was (is) a fierce Taiwanese nationalist. He did not like Ameircan food, TV, movies, or anything else. I’ve been to two or three American movies with him, and he fell asleep every time. That’s not unusual as he could fall asleep no matter what the circumstances. He also had sleep apnea, so that probably didn’t help the quality of his sleep.
I liked Xena: Warrior Princess, but mostly beacuse I had a huge crush on Lucy Lawless. She was so beautiful and such a badass as Xena. I loved the campiness of the show and the fact that it wsa loosely based on Greek mythology. I was proud of the fact that the star of Hercules (the show it spun off from) was from Minnesota–until he went off the rails and now I pretend he doesn’t exist.
I did not watch from the start. I think I started around the third or fourth season–oh, wow. There were only six seasons. I thought there were more than that. If that’s the case, then I might have started watching earlier.
At any rate, I watched season three beacuse that’s when Jacqueline Kim was on as Lao Ma, the wise mentor who taught Xena how to be patient, reserved, and not a total asshole. I instantly adored her (in part beacuse she’s Korean American) andI loved her in Charlotte Sometimes. It has its issues as a movie, but she was fantastic in it.
Boy. I just watched one of the scenes with Lao Ma in it. She’s still got it! Jacqueline Kim, I mean. Also, Lucy Lawless. I’m including the scene below. Please remember this was a decade-and-a-half ago so the quality is potatoes.
I loved that there were underlying lesbian themes. I think I read that Xena and Gabrielle were supposed to become an actual couple, but that was not possible at the time. And if I made that up in my head, it’s still my head canon. I did not like Gabrielle much, but she did balance out Xena’s darker side.
It’s free on Amazon Prime (for once!). I may actually check it out.
I had a similar feeling for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I did not watch it from the beginning. I came in the second or third season (there were only seven) and I watched through the sixth season, I think. I will be very honest that the reasons I kept watching were because of the hotties. To me, that meant James Marsters, Annthony Head, and Amber Benson.
There were good episodes, but I did not care for the show overall. And when Joss Whedon killed off Tara simply to have Dark Willow, I was done. It’s such a tired trope–fridging the queer characters. I was disgusted–and not just beacuse she was my favorite character.
I didn’t think the writing was that good. Again, as long as it was mostly campy, it was fine. When it tried to dig deeper, it missed more often than it hit. And what I saw of the last season was a hot mess. Did I watch the whole thing? I might have, but I don’t remember because I have willfullyblocked it out.
I really liked thet premise of the TV show, Miracles, but it got hard done from the very start. Whichever channel it was on did not give it a chance and jacked it around because–I want to say Olympics? It probably wasn’t that, though. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because it was on ABC. They showed one episode out of order, and they moved the time around (again, if I remember correctly). There was no chance to let the audience build, but I’m not sure it would have, anyway.
The premise is that there’s a man, Paul, who is an investigator for the Catholic Church. He is played by Skeet Ulrich. He is looknig for miracles (thus, the name of the show) that can be verified for the Catholic Church. He can’t find any and is becoming discouraged. Then he actually finds one (or it happens to him), but the Catholic Church refuses to accept it.
Disheartened, he leaves his job and is approached by a man (can’t remember the name, but he’s played by Angus Macfadyen, a Scottish actor who was hot AF. Love that Scottish accent. Anyway, he approaches Paul and starts talking about a consipracy that I still don’t quite get. Paul is skeptical, of course, but things happen.
Each episode was self-contained, but also had breadcrumbs for the bigger mystery. It was notable that the four major players were a white dude, a Scottish dude, a Latino (the highly talented and esteemed Hector Elizondo), and a Latina (Marisa Ramirez). This was in 2003–20 years ago! Diversity wasn’t even a twinkle in the eye of anyone in Hollywood, so the fact there was such diversity in the show really stood out.
I liked each episode more than the overall mystery, but that was fine as well. The passionate fans petitioned to keep the series alive or at least to have an ending to the mystery. ABC did not listen, which was not a surprise. It never really caught on (again, in large part because of how shitty ABC treated it), and I would love to see a renewed version of it.
I can watch it on something called Tubi, apparently. It’s like Netflix for older TV shows, but the catch is that you have to watch ads. I hate ads. So much hatred for ads. There is an ad blocker specifically for Tubi, apparently, but then we’re just getting into the weeds. Still. It’s only one season of 13 episodes. I have the DVDs somewhere, but I do not have a DVD player. I do have my PS4, but I have never used it as a DVD player. I may give it a try.