I rewatched the 1 season there was of Freaks and Geeks, a show that brings me back to the time I used to watch it on TV when I was 15 or so. It's a brilliant TV show about these freaky (loser, burn-out, junkie but smart/funny) and geeky (physically immature, scrawny, dungeons and dragons) kids in McKinley High in the year 1980. It was made by Judd Apatow, and even though it got cancelled in its first season by icky ABC, it is no less than genius and currently has a huge cult following amongst teens.

People who starred in this show include Jason Segel (Marshall from How I Met Your Mother), Seth Rogen (who starred in Knocked Up etc), John Francis Daley (currently in Bones) and James Franco (Spiderman series as Harvey Osbourne).

The entire season can be watched on Youtube.

Rewatching this made me reminisce about what a huge Freak I was in my one year of American High School. I was burned-out, skipping classes, never turning in homework for some classes, and yet miraculously doing well for all my science tests. I dressed like a complete nobody, had my uniform of a plain khaki t-shirt and khaki pants or dark blue jeans and this blue shirt I would throw on, and when it was winter, I varied it with an oversized Men's jacket or my one and only long black trenchcoat I am still going to use in the UK this coming fall. Sigh.

Oh and I have the biggest hugest HOTS for James Franco:




That's him from the show btw, when he was 19 years old. I know he's not "handsome" but he oozes the irritatingly adorableness that is my WEAKNESS. The stupid doofus can make people melt just from the bull-shit that he spouts and even when you know you're being suckered, you can't help but indulge it. Sigh...

All the actors do a great job in this show btw. It's a real pity there aren't enough episodes.

Labels: television, TV

savoirefaire blogged at 11:27 PM

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It's monday, and today I realised that getting to work puts me in a foul mood. I get more work down in an "outside", non-work related environment, but I know I am just making excuses.

What pisses me off about my project right now is being completely directionless, and it is not my fault it is so. I have my lovely boss to blame for this. He is a well-intentioned man, with a scatter-brain and his idea that if you just keep going, and keep finding tangents you'll get somewhere. A real disaster for mentoring, yet I think he is brilliant enough and dedicated enough to his own work to get by. I, on the other hand, am trying to cling on to this trying period with whatever willpower I have and bang out something decent in the form of a report. It's a little stupid when all the boss thinks that can come out of this is some stupid correlation type analysis because he has run out of ideas for what we should do, given that we have no decent way to validate my observations.

I had a lovely weekend where I stayed in bed and watched Weeds, I am still trying to finish the second season (all thanks to Sidereel). I learnt a few things from the show:

a) If you're married and your husband dies suddenly, your sex-tape with him can come in handy for the times you really miss him. As cheesy as it sounds, the show managed to portray this bit in quite a sensitive manner.

b) If you're a guy and want your girlfriend to stay with you, getting her pregnant by pricking your condom is the stupidest thing to do. (Okay, so I knew that one).

c) No matter how hard you try to be, being the new age cool parent where your kids come up to you and describe their sex life and start calling you by your first name instead of Mom is a sign of TROUBLE.

e) Indian guys in Hollywood, American TV shows will always be geeky losers with identity issues, and of course, the fact you're Hindu will always get thrown around.

d) If you're a guy, and a woman lets you know that you're not her ideal male lover, but could pass off as some woman she'd sleep with, be prepared to get ass-raped by her strap-on.

e) Jewish people seem to be really fun to make fun of on these shows. (Okay I knew this one too)

f) Bean Pies are associated with the Nation of Islam.

g) Kids are far more perceptive than you expect them to be. They can also be far more compassionate about the grey moral areas in life. This is provided you have a smart, kooky kid and not one that's ruled by his dick.

h) Andy, Nancy's brother-in-law, has probably given the best "masturbation" guidance talk to his young kooky nephew I have ever seen. Must watch out for this one.

This list is not as comprehensive as I would like it, I just went by the anecdotes I can remember at this point. The protagonist, Nancy, reminds me a lot of Lorelai Gilmore of the Gilmore Girls. She is crazy, random but really smart at things like making business deals and smarming people. The dialogues in this show are as snappy as the ones in that show but of course the theme is much darker (about weed dealing and suburban living). This being a Showtime production (responsivle for the L word and Dexter), there's lots of random nudity.

Have I told you that the second season of this show has a different artist performing the opening credits song (a very apt one called Little Boxes by Mavina Reynolds) every episode? From Elvis Costello, to Ozomatli, to the MacGarrigle Sisters and I hear even The Shins in season 3. How cool is that?

Labels: Rantings, television

savoirefaire blogged at 2:43 PM

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Things I have been meaning to blog about:

TV: I got up to speed with America's Next Top Model Cycle 10 and I am a firm supporter of Anya (picture courtesy of www.fanpop.com):



I just saw a silly Yahoo Questions post and comments exchange and how so many people don't want her to win because of her silly accent and how it's "not Hawaiian". I don't really care, she takes amazing photos, has the soul of an angel (oh Bless Her) and is fucking HILARIOUS!!

Every episode, I am online with a friend and all I do is exclaim AAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA when she comes on. I don't know, it's just the response she evokes in me.

Note: I concur with two of my friends that we'd all die if Dominique won.

Also I started to watch this new sitcom called The Big Bang Theory which is really good. The witty geeky science and sci-fi inspired dialogues are something I latched on to immediately (because I am SURROUNDED BY IT). And there's the dynamic between all the characters that is full of spark and comic-timing, which I would say exceeds that for the other decent sitcom running in the US right now, How I Met Your Mother. My favourite character is Sheldon, who reminds me of all the tight-assed annoying INxJs out there (probably 9) with a hint of Aspergers. He is far more clueless than his flatmate Leonard who has a bonafide crush on their neighbour Penny, a regular fun-loving blonde, a waitress who aspires to be an actress. What I like about the show is that they don't really dumb down Penny, because it's really not required. She's able to hold her own with these geeks and give good retorts to their insane babbling, acting as a good counter-balance for their insanity. Two recurring characters (whom I think are as much of the show as the other characters) are Howard who's a really horny, short Jewish boy who lives with his overbearing mother, and Rajesh, a post-doctorate from New Delhi (and lives up to that description. I think what struck me is how the fact that Raj can't talk to women mirrors some of the strange Indian boys that were in my Uni, who thought talking to women was the greatest aberration and continuously ridiculed their friends who liked girls. If you enjoy watching people who dress up as the Doppler Effect, or peoplel arguing over the physics in the Superman movies, or going crazy playing Halo 3, watch The Big Bang Theory.

Now I was going to ramble about other stuff like my 4 day work-week idea and erm (shoot I forgot!) but I am going for lunch. Oh and after 6 weeks, I am finally completely fine and not coughing like a maniac.

Labels: ANTM, Health, television, The Big Bang Theory

savoirefaire blogged at 10:59 AM

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