Monday Morning Musing: Snow, Cabin Fever, and Snowpiercer

 

When we moved to the west side of Michigan, I expected snow. Our first winter (2012-14) we got over 350 inches. Yep, you read that right. It reached the top of our mailbox and you couldn't see around corners. You had to creep out and hope nobody was coming. I hope we don't see that much snow this winter, but the winds are blowing across Lake Michigan and bringing all the white stuff with it. We have a lovely neighbor who uses his snowblower on our driveway and shovels our sidewalk. What a guy! If we have to go anywhere, we can do so safely.

Cabin Fever is a common ailment in the Midwest in the winter. First, the lack of sunshine is a biggie. Something about all that water around us sends up enchanted clouds to block our sun. (That's the technical explanation. LOL) Then, there's lake effect snow. I heard about that the first time we moved to this side of the state. The wind blows cold, arctic air across the open water Lake Michigan creating snow. It's not a big band of snow, either. The farther you are from the lake, the less snow you get. It's common to see school closings scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen. Snow day, yay! Poor moms (and dads) who have to put up with kids who can't go outside and/or need sitters so parents can go to work. For us retirees, we enjoy staying home. But only for so long then, like kids, we get antsy. One good thing about west Michigan: we get so much snow, the county is prepared with heavy duty snow plows that keep our roads clear.

Speaking of snow. Have you seen the TNT presentation of "Snowpiercer"? The premise is that seven years ago, the world froze up, and the remnants of humanity are on a perpetual motion train traveling around the world. The very rich (those who could afford tickets) are in the front of the 1,001-car train. Class divisions all the way to the tail. Like any good post-apocalyptic story, politics, class warfare, and efforts to survive abound. I watched the first season, got sidetracked during the second, and today the third season starts. Guess I'd better catch up before watching the new season. With all the cold outside, I'm not so sure a frozen wasteland will be fun entertainment.

Keep warm and stay safe. 

 

 

 

Television Binge Watching #MFRWAuthor

For two weeks, I participated in MFRW's 52-Week Blog Challenge on Fridays. I was really happy about the 3rd week's topic--bingeing on TV shows. So happy, I wrote my post before realizing I'd already committed to Chrys Fey's "I Survived" Blogfest last Friday. Waste not, want not, as my mother would say. Even though, it's not Friday, here's my post.

TV Shows I Binge On

If you follow my blog, you know I love watching movies and television. Never ask me to name my favorite book, movie, or TV show. I can’t. My favorites change like Michigan weather. Binge watching takes favorites to an extreme. Let me tell you about some shows I’ve binged on.

photo: IMDB

Firefly: science fiction adventure. Long gone, but not forgotten. After watching the movie Serenity, I found a DVD with all fourteen episodes. Watched them all the way through and then over again several times. What’s not to like about Captain Reynolds (Nathan Fillion)?

photo: IMDB

Stargate SG-1: action/adventure. I missed all ten seasons when they were on originally. I’d catch one here and there, but not faithfully until we got Amazon Prime. Binged on all of them, just not all at once. Interesting premise (traveling via a portal to different planets) and a great cast.

photo: IMDB

Farscape: science fiction, action/adventure/romance. Totally missed this series during its four-season run. Besides the sci-fi aspect, I loved the creatures designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The romance started slow and built. I just hated the way the series ended.

The above were shows I binge-watched because they were no longer on. But I have other favs besides science fiction. Here are my current ones. Thank goodness, we’re getting the Ovation Channel now on cable.

photo: IMDB

Murdoch Mysteries (aka The Artful Detective): mystery. My sister gave us the 1st season on DVD for Christmas one year. She is so lucky to live near Detroit because she gets a Canadian channel and watches new episodes as they're released. For ten years, Detective Murdoch, with the Toronto Constabulary, solves crimes in the 1890s using unusual at the time (but commonplace now) scientific methods. Meanwhile, he and Medical Coroner Dr. Julia Ogden danced around each other in a will-they/won’t-they romance. Based on books by Maureen Jennings. Before Ovation came to our cable network, I went to the library and borrowed the DVDs.

photo: IMDB

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: mystery. Another recommendation from my sister. Phryne Fisher of Melbourne solves mysteries in the late 1920s in this Australian three-season series. Based on the books by Kerry Greenwood. I'd read the first book, Cocaine Blues, first in the series before watching the TV series. Love the period costumes, Phryne’s battles over injustice, and her banter with Detective Jack Robinson. I haven't seen all the episodes but, sheesh, would they just kiss!

photo: Amazon

Father Brown: mysteries on PBS. You might recognize the actor who plays the sleuth-priest in a 1950s English village from Doctor Who (Rory's dad) and Harry Potter (Ron Weasley's dad), Mark Williams. He's accomplishes are a hoot. As I've said with regard to most of my favorite shows, it's the cast that makes the show.

See what I mean about not being able to choose one?

Do you binge watch? What are your favorites?

Second Time Around Movies

Remember when you watched a movie more than once because it was so good? I still do. Every time Indiana Jones or Goonies or The African Queen come on television, I’ll watch them. Never mind I have all on DVDs and could watch anytime.

But sometimes I have to watch a movie because either I missed things the first time around or got hopelessly lost. People on the ‘net will talk about a movie I’d just seen and mentioned things I missed. One reason is that I have tunnel vision. Seriously. Not in everyday seeing—like when I’m driving, but while watching a movie. I concentrate so much on the main character that I miss all the stuff on the periphery. Another reason for not getting everything is the sound in theaters. Sometimes the music and sound effects drown out the dialogue. Thank goodness for closed captioning on the DVD or television. Am I showing my age or what?

A movie I had to watch three times before I really got it was Inception. Holy smoke! How many dream levels were there? And what was with that ending? Reality or a dream? Talk about complicated. Now Interstellar was pretty straight-forward. Search for an alternate planet because Earth’s food supplies were running out. But then someone in a Facebook group mentioned the tesseract scene. Say what? Where was that? I thought I knew what a tesseract was from A Wrinkle in Time. So I had to watch the movie again to find it. Oh, yeah. They even mentioned the word tesseract in the movie. Totally missed it first time around.

This weekend, I watched Jupiter Ascending. First, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I knew it was sci-fi, but somehow I missed reading about the premise. I had to watch it a second time to figure out what was what and who was who. It would have helped if I hadn’t been reading email the first time around. I have to say the graphics were great, the space scenes terrific, and I enjoyed watching the relationship between Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. I caught a few send ups to The Matrix trilogy (same producers) and Star Wars. I’m sure there were others that I missed even the second time around. I’m glad I didn’t see it at the theater, though. Either the mix was poor on the DVD or they cranked up the music and effects in the space scenes while the dialogue was so quiet. Eddie Redmayne’s character practically whispered. Very annoying.

I’m not saying I don’t like complicated plots. I like movies (and television shows) that make me think, that have several layers. Shows that can be enjoyed on different levels. But mainly I watch to be entertained. On Saturday, my monthly post on Paranormal Romantics was about Science Fiction Friday and the new shows on the Syfy channel. I think I OD’d on sci-fi this weekend. As if movies and TV weren’t enough, we had our grandson overnight and had to watch three episodes of Star Wars Rebels and read stories from the show to him. Good thing I like sci-fi.

What do you think of movies? Do you rewatch or is once enough?

Doctor Who

For several months, I’ve seen references to Doctor Who on different blogs. Doctor Who? What? My curiosity finally got the best of me so I “Googled” it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a science fiction adventure television series that has been around since the early 1960s about which I knew nothing. I had to correct that.

After reading as much as I could online, I set my DVR to record episodes. Did I ever pick the right time! A marathon of Doctor Who episodes ran all last week leading up to the 50^th Anniversary Special on Saturday. It will probably take me all winter to watch the episodes and specials.

For those of you, like me, who are unfamiliar with Doctor Who, it is a British television program about a humanoid alien and his human companion(s) who time travel to different parts of history and the future to save the world. They travel in a blue police call box (which looks a little like an old American-style phone booth) that is much bigger inside than out--like the tents in the Harry Potter series. To explain the change in actors, the Doctor “regenerates” after a life-ending incident into a new body and with a new personality.

Doctor Who reminds me of Star Trek (the original series) and Firefly, television shows that ended too early for the viewers. Unlike those shows, Doctor Who returned after a fifteen-year gap. Thank goodness for fans. Also unlike Star Trek and Firefly, the network listened to the fans and revived the series.

Why is it that networks give up on shows too soon? Even write-in campaigns or a huge following on Facebook can’t save programs viewers love if The Powers That Be declare it’s kaput. I almost hate to invest time and interest in a new show because it might not return.

I’m glad I let my curiosity lead me to a new program. I’m late jumping on this bandwagon but not too late. I am thoroughly enjoying this discovery.

I'll be writing about Thanksgiving on Saturday during my usual spot on The Roses of Prose blog. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all.