Midnight in Paris

"Love the sort of Van Goh poster"
a.k.a "The title card is too simple (not that I'm complaining)"

While vacationing in Paris with his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams), Hollywood screenwriter Gil (Owen Wilson) falls in love with the city and dreams of, in his opinion, its golden age in the 1920s. Drunk and lost on his way back to his hotel, the city clock strikes 12 and Gil rides a vintage car to the era he loves in the city he adores. That's when the rest of the movie begins, the romance flourishes, and the smiles chime in.

"A scene to tease and to deceive. Why? Watch."
a.k.a. "A kiss is always a good start to a movie"

Like Before Sunrise (also a love story set in Europe) or Vicky Cristina Barcelona (also written and directed by Woody Allen, but less whimsical than this one), the movie carries the same tone all three movies share—very spontaneous and carefree. But while it's a love story on many levels, it's also a fantasy adventure, kind of a time-traveling, self-reflection story of a guy who seeks more in life.

"I said "more in life". not more girls in life" a.k.a "Owen is one lucky guy"
(left: with Marion Cotillard); right: with Lea Seydoux)

Part of the mystique is having world-renowned artists and literary giants portrayed by current actors. If you paid attention during your art and literature classes, you'll spot them easily and get their drift and the narrative slightly better than those who flunked the subject.

"Star-studded cast both past and current" a.k.a. "The only few I know"
Clockwise from top left: The Fritzgeralds (Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston), Hemingway (Corey Stoll),
Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo), and Dali (Adrien Brody)

I love how all the movie's themes cut across time, also proving that old school can still be relevant in this day and age. Plus, to be so taken by the breathtaking sights of Paris—spectacular yet not very tourist-y, as Allen captured it—is always a pleasure. The film's premise and story is simple but profound, yet such a breeze to watch. And if you don't take with you romance or lessons, you should have at least bagged a good, genuine smile.


Midnight in Paris gets a seven-point-five out of ten for giving us a very timeless upgrade: romance with a hint of modern and a dash of nostalgia in the city of love.




*movie poster from apercucinephilia.wordpress.com; screencaps courtesy of VLC

Music Icons: Etta James

At last.


What? Don't force me to write a heartfelt obituary, because I only know one song from Etta James, and that's "At Last". Also, it's a kind of pun, like, "Finally, she meets her Maker. At last." You know, because everyone dies, so I'm glad she gets to rest in peace at last.



Jamesetta Hawkins. 25 January 1938 - 20 January 2012.



*some info from Wikipedia
pic from All Star Pics

Bridesmaids

A long-overdue post on the breakthrough all-female-lead comedy.

The photo above can make anyone dismiss Bridesmaids as a chick-flick. But it also has balls some men don't have the slightest idea how to own. Let's see why the film is such a hit that it was even dubbed as "The Ladies' The Hangover".

All the ladies, represent! (well, almost)
It's no surprise that we have stereotyped characters to start the story with; even the two semi-lead guys are no-brainer black-and-white "good" or "bad". What's nice is how they evolved through the movie—some more effectively than others, though.

Redefine your first impression of the girls from the first photo above.

"I can relate!" (first-hand or from a friend of a friend's perspective) 
We see very grown-up women in their very real girls-only environment—competitive, selfish, and selfless at the same time, etc. That applies, by the way, to all girls. Every girl is, one way or another, one time or another, like every other girl.

Sorry, Chris O'Dawd, you're cue but the girls clearly take the spotlight.

It's a team effort, really.
SNL alums (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph) pick up the cred mostly. Not-really-comic actors (i.e. Rose Byrne) also put in good work. The writing upped the ante, really—bride pooping in a designer-wedding-dress in the middle of traffic vs. cat fights all over.

Especially deserving of praise is Melissa McCarthy!

So why is the movie being a blown-out hit still a mystery to me? Maybe because not all jokes and puns are laugh-out-loud. Maybe because as a girl, the novelty isn't so new to me. Maybe because it's kind of predictable in honor of true girlfriends fashion.

Now I'm not dissing the hype this film had buzzing, nor do I object to the noms and wins it achieved. It's just not that all too much for me. But it has made its mark. It is, after all, very, very entertaining—hilarious at some points—to watch.


Bridesmaids gets a six-point-five out of ten. I strongly suggest not to follow this up with a sequel lest it be similar to how the The Hangover Part II turned out—NOT that this one is similar to that movie's predecessor. Puh-lease.



*photos from qfxblog.wordpress.com, moviesovermatter.wordpress.com, aleapopculture.blogspot.com, and prettypanda.blog.com, respectively

Happy Feet Two

I'm not sure if this film is made with a specific target audience in mind or if it totally wants to be like Pixar films in that it aims to hit both the young and adult audience with one stone. But in trying to do that though, I think we get more for a plot than we can handle.

First, it's reminiscent of the first film: Gloria (Pink) and Mumble's (Elijah Wood) son Erik (Ava Acres) is different. He may not have his father's rhythm or his mother's strong voice, so he thought maybe he could fly. Penguins fly? Not.

One happy family in the end, of course.

Consider also the friendship of the little furry penguins and the different family dynamics, aside from Mumble's family, we have dad Seymour and son Atticus (the chubby ones) and the British-accented mom and child. And there's also the small bit about the elephant seal and his kids' encounter with Mumble and the furry little kiddos—a really nice story though.

The former cult leader (right) and the new one (left) who didn't learn from him.

Then, there's also the new cult leader Sven (Hank Azaria) and his false hope of flight because he's really a bird, not a penguin (that beak should've given it away early on). And also Ramon's (Robin Williams) quest for love, which he found in Carmen (Sofia Vergara), you know, after a selfless act and some cheesy romantic stuff.

Second, the Penguin Nation is trapped by an ice berg gone rogue, so we have efforts to help them like giving them fish, the bit about Queen's "We are the Champions" and aliens trying to help, and tap-dancing penguins and elephant seals.

My favorites (even if they're such a distraction)

Plus, there are the krills Will (Brad Pitt) and Bill (Matt Damon), which is already a good short story by themselves. If they were trying to be kind of like Scrat in Ice Age, well, they've taken too much screen time that they take everyone's attention away from the main story. Oh, and don't forget the global warming stuff, too.

Those are a lot going on in a film, let alone a children's film. I wasn't surprised when my seven-year-old didn't pay attention to some parts and kind of wanted to stop watching even when it was so close to the end. It isn't entirely bad; there are lots of lessons to be learned. But it's just really... mumbled.


Happy Feet Two gets a five out of ten, for being a smorgasbord of a lot of stuff but not seamlessly fused together—a little too much for their real audience, the kids.



*screencaps courtesy of VLC

Moffat's Variations on a Theme

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. Read Only If You Had Seen the Season/Series Finales of Both Doctor Who and Sherlock. You have been warned.

The Secret Circle. Episode 12: "Witness"

"He didn't start the fire. It was already burning when he spread the flame-thing."

Whoa. Jake's at the infamous fire (because Little Jakey didn't want to be left at home then) but he can't remember stuff. He and Cassie had to sort of "witchy-timey-wimey" inside his head. And because of it, we now know that John Blackwell survived that night and the witch hunters were responsible for the fire. We'll meet Cassie's dad soon. Just a piece of advice to Blackwell: Please tell your daughter to stop barging into fires and rooms filled with smoke. 

Faye is on the brink of a drug-experimenting-confused phase. What with Lee dealing drugs only stopping after his girlfriend(?) had too much of it. Pffft. Also, all the parents in this show are liars—a very good example to the kids, right?



*screencap courtesy of VLC

The Vampire Diaries. Season 3, Episode 12: "The Ties That Bind"

O.M.G. is just one of the terms you're looking for.

ELIJAH (Aaahhh! Haha!) has been finally undaggered, one thing I've been demanding for since the return episode. I'm think a haircut is in order; that 'do isn't working for you anymore. But I'm really, really—really, really—glad you're back.

Now since the Damon-Elana kiss is out in the open, it's time to get over it. Stefan was clearly unmasked and he's threatened by the reality that Elena might be really lost to her, hence the kidnapping/turning-you-into-a-vampire-or-kill-you apology, kind of messing with her head even more. Every girl has her limit, dearie. Do you want to be with her or be the better villain?

Did I mention Elijah's back? Right, I did. Exciting isn't it?

Mama Bennet will be recovering her powers once she starts trying to do magic again with Bonnie. I'm not sure how their story arc checks out but it's nice for our resident witch to do more than just chant.

Tyler is still really a selfish douche to be able to control or get rid of his sire bond, if that means he needs to turn into a wolf a lot of times. (Why does Bill know about hybrids, anyway? There wasn't any during his time.)

And I don't care if Flirty Doc is using vampire blood to not have a patient die on her table. Even a doctor doesn't get to choose who lives or dies. Watch your ring, Alaric.

Oh, the ties that bind.



*screencap courtesy of VLC

Sherlock. Series 2, Episode 3: "The Reichenbach Fall"

How to Make a Series Finale


Dear everyone on television:


Here is how to make a proper series finale:

1. Get a BAFTA award-winning actor to do some really powerful acting for the opening sequence.

"I want another BAFTA."

Here you will see the intensity and the depth of the acting of Mr. Martin Freeman. We'd like to think that the BAFTA award-giving committee carefully deliberates before awarding an actor, and whenever someone tells us that another actor should've won the award, we just show them the opening scene. Also, we're pretty sure Benedict Cumberbatch will win a BAFTA for this one.


2. Please fans of the original canon.

Next item on my Christmas list: that hat.

And you can do that with... the deerstalker. Yes, the famous deerstalker hat, begun by Holmes illustrator Sidney Paget, and immortalized by countless Sherlock actors throughout history. That was a great way we introduced the hat in episode 1, don't you think?


3. Get a good director. 

Manila London Kingpin.

In our case, we got Toby Haynes. This is actually the first time we've used him for Sherlock, but he's already churned out spectacular work on Doctor Who. Check out the crown jewels sequence, and you'll see what we mean. The classical music isn't just some random soundtrack─that's Jim Moriarty's iPod playing. So that entire sequence was viewed from Moriarty's point-of-view. That was what was going on in Moriarty's head!


4. Get a good writer.

"Now where did that screaming girl come from?"

We can't be expected to write each and every episode now, can we? We've got other things to do, you know. So we got a writer who at least understands the vision of where we want this to go. Someone who knows how to stay true to the essence of the canon. Good job, Steve Thompson. Anyway, Thompson just did the technicalities. The story and the plot all have that traditional Moffat flavor.


5. Give them one hell of a villain.

"I'm going to conquer Hollywood with my nice American accent!"

Admit it, isn't our Jim Moriarty a great villain? Andrew Scott's one brilliant actor. Complete psycho: check. Heath Ledger's Joker: check. Complete psycho: check. Multiple personalities: check. Did we mention complete psycho? Of course we did.


6. Give it a WTF ending.

Seriously. WTF.

Yes, no one does WTF endings better than Steven Moffat. We don't want to spoil anything, so in case you haven't watched our series 2 ender, we're not going to mention our WTF ending here. But we'll give you a clue. "Sherlock Holmes is Jesus Christ." And we don't mean that in a Matrix kind of way.


Okay, everybody. Now that you know how to do a proper series finale, we don't ever want to see a terrible series ender. Or we will burn you. We will burn the heart of you.


Sincerely,
The makers of



Sherlock (Series 2, Episode 3). UK. 2012.



*DISCLAIMER: "Not really us." ─S. Moffat and M. Gatiss



Rating: Nine and a half out of ten.




*some info from IMDb
pics from VLC




You may also want to check out the review of Sherlock Series 1.

New Girl. Episode 10: "The Story of the 50"

Clap, clap, clap* Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much! *Clap, clap, clap*

At last, it's the long-awaited rightful return to the spotlight of the Douchebag jar. And it's not surprising that it timely did on Schmidt's birthday. And it gets a generous donation of $50; from whom or for what, I shall not tell.

But if your force me to name one more thing I like about this return-episode, I'd have to say Julia. I think I see a lot of me in her character—except I don't really punch people in the face (yes, really), nor am I a lawyer or as gorgeous as she... nevermind. Maybe I just love Lizzy Caplan.

How can you not love that?! I can seriously imagine making out with her.

"Whoah!"

I hope she stays as Nick's girlfriend. That evens up the number with the boys, don't you think? And so now, we have almost all the "normal" girls represented: Adorkable Jess, fashion-model Cece, and tough-girl Julia... just perfect.



*screencap courtesy of VLC, photo of Lizzy from IMDb

The Vampire Diaries. Season 3, Episode 11: "Our Town"

He's a "drink-my-blood kind of body-fluid-exchange" kind of guy.

Now that’s something else to look forward to. Seems Klaus might have a soft spot for our dear Vampire Barbie, who makes her return with a bang. Caroline highlights this episode with her birthday-slash-funeral, a love-bite from asshole hybrid Tyler, and a shot of Klaus’s blood. Cheers!

I knew it: Flirty Doc isn’t as innocent as her smile. I wonder how this vacation from Mystic Falls will affect Jeremy. Hmmm. By the way, the council is really a joke now, what with almost everyone in it knowing who's a vampire and/or hybrid.

After the kiss last episode and this episode’s confrontation with Stefan, plus Bonnie’s objection to Jeremy’s compulsion, one thing is for sure: it sucks to be Elena right now.



*screencap courtesy of VLC

The Secret Circle. Episode 11: "Fire/Ice"

I want Cassie to be evil, not already-resident-bad-girl Faye.

Voodoo guy seems to serve more purpose than he should. He’s only up to no good. Good thing Faye is such a conflicted bitch; otherwise it’s a waste of an episode. But seriously, her selfish spoiled-brat witch-princess antics are really starting to get old, especially since the show’s general direction is still a messy blur. There's so many issues up in the air now that I hope the writers can resolve most of them seamlessly as the season closes, and also pick the right cliffhangers to carry over to the next season—if and when they have one.

Salvage points for the episode are: 1) We finally see a kiss between Adam and Cassie, and 2) Jake’s back. To be honest, I like him more for Cassie than goody-two-shoes Adam. Neither of them is drop-dead gorgeous but it must be that bad-boy charm.

FYI: This episode title sounds so much like a chapter in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but not really living up to it though, if that was the idea. This show's really in trouble, if you ask me.



*screencap courtesy of VLC

Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked Review, or Adults Should Not Judge a Children's Movie

Here is an apparent problem with film criticism. Let me start by showing you two one-paragraph reviews, the first by a thirty-something adult, and the second by a seven-year old child.

ADULT

"We won't stop making movies until you all have sex and have chipmunk babies!"

Oh, Hollywood, make it stop. Please! How many sequels are you going to make before you quit? Are you going to wait for Jason Lee's hair to grow white? Yes, the Chipmunks were hit in the 60s─when music came in magnetic tapes that rolled faster when the player malfunctioned, thus creating high-pitched voices. But now, in this day and age? This is obviously a lame attempt for the Chipmunks creators to make them "appeal to a whole new generation". Frankly, they've lost their novelty decades ago, and I think we have too many people competing for the Best Pop Song Gimmick Award. I'm looking at you, Glee.


CHILD¹

I like Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chiprecked because it's funny. My favorite chipmunk is Alvin because he is wearing red. My favorite color is red. I also like Theo because he is cute and fat. The girl chipmunks are pretty. I always laugh when Dave shouts Alvin's name. He is so funny. I hate the bald man in a pelican costume because he is evil but in the end he became nice so I do not hate him anymore. I hope there is Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. I will watch it with my little sister so we can sing the songs and dance together.


There. See the problem I'm getting at? An adult judging a work meant for children will be using adult standards. But all those artsy-fartsy criticism jargon gets thrown out the window once a child decides that something is worth his or her precious time. Who are adults to judge what is or is not good for children? Broccoli is good for kids, but do kids really want to eat that?

So to resolve this conundrum, we shall just give this movie two ratings.



Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked. USA. 2011.



Adult's Rating: Four out of ten.
Children's Rating: Eight out of ten.




¹Not really a child
*some info from IMDb
pics from YouTube and All Movie Photo

Moneyball

Just like the game of baseball can be reduced to basically two things (batting and pitching), this film can also be reduced to two things: baseball and math. The cast can also be reduced to just two people: Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.

So it’s basically this: Brad Pitt is baseball, and Jonah Hill is math.

"If you're baseball, why're you wearing tennis headgear?"

Brad Pitt: Mr. Pitt is noticeably getting older, but his acting chops and alpha male-swagger are still there. And though he plays a retired baseball player, he never actually swings a bat. His professional youth was played by a younger actor who in my opinion looks nothing like Brad Pitt. Except maybe for the eyes. But why couldn’t they have just done some Benjamin Button special effects on Brad Pitt’s mug?

"I don't think so."

Jonah Hill: I don’t know if this is Jonah Hill’s first serious role (or first non-comedic role), but if it is, then congratulations to him. His face is actually better suited for drama. His eyes have that sorrowful look about them.

But he can also do joyful faces.

By the way, Philip Seymour Hoffman is also in this flick, but you hardly ever feel his magnificent presence. They’ve reduced him to a mere trainer who gets very few minutes of screen time. Too bad, though. What a waste of acting caliber.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk."

Apparently, Robin Wright was here, too. But who the hell notices Robin Wright, especially after her divorce from Sean Penn?



Moneyball. USA. 2011.



Rating: Six point eight out of ten.




*some info from IMDb
pics from All Movie Photo and YouTube

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

For this review, Da Couch Tomato was fortunate enough to interview the director and a few cast members of the Sherlock Holmes sequel, A Game of Shadows. Here is a transcript of that interview.


**NOTE: Not really an interview**


DCT: First off, congratulations, Mr. Guy Ritchie, on a nice film.

GUY RITCHIE: Nice?

DCT: Yeah, a nice film.

RITCHIE: That's all you have to say? "Nice"? Not great, or awesome?

DCT: Well, I just saw the second episode of BBC's Sherlock season 2. Now that was awesome. This was just... nice.

(Guy Ritchie gets up and leaves)

The Ides of March

Any English major can tell you what the title is all about. Or at least any Shakespeare buff. The title comes from the soothsayer from Julius Caesar's William Shakespeare. Oh, sorry... from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. "Beware the ides of March."

So what does this film have in common with Julius Caesar? Nothing, except the politics. So that is what we shall discuss.

First, the campaign team of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) as he climbs his way up the electoral ladder. There’s Paul Zara, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, brilliant as always. So we’ll skip him.

"Yeah, you know I'm brilliant."

Then there’s his protégé Stephen Meyers, played by Ryan Gosling. Now Ryan Gosling has an all-American face, and he can act with it, especially with his eyes. But he can’t act very much with his voice. He always talks in a certain slow drawl, and is most of the time devoid of any expressions and emotions. I think he should work on that a bit. All right, after Gosling, there’s the slutty intern played by Evan Rachel Wood. Sometimes she looks pretty, and other times, she looks like a cokehead slut. As if I even know what a cokehead slut looks like.

"Yes, a cokehead slut."

On the other side of the political fence, there’s Zara’s rival Tom Duffy, played by Paul Giamatti, who is kind of the opposite of Ryan Gosling in the voice department. Giamatti’s voice is annoying, to say the least. It’s whiny, and it’s nasal. But he’s a great actor despite that.

"We both got a problem with our voice, Gosling. Deal with it."

Other actors in the cast are Marisa Tomei, whose hair I don’t like; Jeffrey Wright, who I’m seeing a lot of lately; and Max Minghella, the annoying sidekick to the Winklevii twins in The Social Network.

I almost forgot to mention that this flick was directed by George Clooney himself. However, I only have one complaint, and that is regarding the character of Governor Mike Morris himself. I felt his character wasn’t fleshed out too well, especially since his character is directly involved in the film’s turning point. I hope Clooney doesn’t justify his lack of characterization with the fact that he was busy behind the camera.

"How 'bout I justify it with my
looking awesome instead?"

The Ides of March. USA. 2011.



Rating: Six point nine out of ten.




*some info from IMDb
pics from All Movie Photo

Sherlock. Series 2, Episode 2: "Hounds of Baskerville"

After recovering from the mind-blowing first episode of the second series, I have finally gotten my bearings together, giving me a clearer analysis of this second episode. And one thing I noticed was how diferrent it is.

1. Different title sequence
I should've mentioned this in the previous episode's review, but like I said, I was too blown away. So I'm mentioning it now. The title sequence is slightly different from series one. Well of course, this is a different series, so what did you expect? Wait, why did I even mention that? Okay, moving on...


2. Different style
The more discerning viewers among you might realize that this episode has a noticeably different style compared to the previous one, which was penned by Steven Moffat. That's becasuse "Hounds of Baskerville" was written by this series's co-creator Mark Gatiss, who also plays the adorable Mycroft Holmes. This episode is not as flashy as the Moffat episodes, nor does it utilize the "plant and payoff" narrative technique as much as Moffat does. Gatiss goes for straight-up storytelling. I am not saying at all that Mark Gatiss is an inferior writer; I'm just saying that the difference between the writing styles of Gatiss and Moffat are more pronounced now than they were in the first series. Just in case you've forgotten, Moffat wrote "A Study in Pink" while Gatiss did "The Great Game", and their writing styles were quite similar back then.

Even their use of on-screen text is different.

3. Different look
If you've noticed that this episode seems to have a different visual feel to it, that's because the action takes place not in urban London, but in the beautiful English countryside.

Not Middle-Earth.

There are no buildings, far fewer people, and sparing use of technology. Beautiful as this place is, this is not the natural habitat of Sherlock Holmes, and we can safely predict that they will be back in Baker Street for next week's episode.


4. Different story
The great thing about this show is that it is loosely based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the operative word there is "loosely". I've just recently re-read the original The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I had no problem with spoilers of any kind. That's because the BBC version is nothing like the literary canon, except in essence and spirit. Which is a great thing, actually, especially for die-hard fans of the canon. Baskerville is now a place instead of a person. Dr. Mortimer is now a woman.

"Don't even think about it, John."

I was expecting to see Sherlock's infamous drug use, though, but instead we get to see him settling for second-hand smoke like a pathetic junkie.

Would've been funnier if this was marijuana smoke.

All in all, great episode. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are at the top of their game. My only problem here was the hound. It was crappy CGI, to say the least. But I don't want to spoil it for those who want to see the hound for themselves. So I leave you with a glow-in-the-dark rabbit instead.

"Ta-da!"

Sherlock (Series 2, Episode 2). UK. 2012.



Rating: Eight point four out of ten.



*GIFs by me




You may also want to check out the review of Sherlock Series 1.

On Mainstream Film Criticism

The formalist criticism of film is treated as the standard mode of “reading,” especially in terms of film reviews—the main points of concern are the images, the quality of acting, the music, and progress of the plot, and so on. There is no attempt to decipher these in terms of their meaning; rather, the point is to critique these mechanisms in terms of their effectiveness, ultimately with personal enjoyment as the criterion. This, in itself, should betray the sad emptiness of mainstream reviews, which lends itself merely as a consumerist tool, and even as the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith’s exposition of Capitalist economy in The Wealth of Nations, which, from the enjoyment of the critique, makes sure that demand rises for certain works, and thus increasing their supply, and the opposite for others. It is here that we can point to the complicity of the mainstream critic vis-à-vis the machine of ideology.

The Secret Circle. Episode 10: "Darkness"

Time to rise above the past, dearie.

Now we see just how powerful Cassie can be already is with dark magic in her veins. Kill a person with a stare? Check. More powerful than an elder? Sweet. The only thing for her to do next is to learn it and use it—for the sake of the show.

Come on. We lost almost half the season being lost and confused. So much potential is wasted by slow storytelling and lack of a real threat—not to mention dated outfits and not-so-much acting. I think Evil Cassie might just save this show.



*Screencap courtesy of VLC

The Vampire Diaries. Season 3, Episode 10: "The New Deal"

Even I could will not pull away from that kiss.

Now that is the kiss every Damon-Elena shipper should swoon over, and not the Season-2-ender kiss. If Elena isn't confused yet, well, then she's in denial.

Right now, I'm just excited to unravel the whole Original story episode by episode. Aside from the highlight I already mentioned above, we know that Stefan is capable of feeling again; he's angry. Bonnie's witch voodoo is up. Tyler is still his sired asshole self. Rebecca is re-daggered by Klaus, who's sexy-back with that accent of his. I'm not too keen on the flirty doctor, but it's nice that Alaric has something else going on for him. Caroline and Matt are MIA.

So, will Jeremy say goodbye to the show? I've mixed feelings about that and, really, Klaus can track him to any other town if he wants to.

I demanded that Elijah to be un-daggered this episode but he's still in a coffin, probably the sealed one. This return-episode didn't really quite have that bang. Though it's nice to catch up with everyone—well, almost everyone.



*Screencaps courtesy of VLC

American Horror Story. Season 1

I don't remember the last time I saw a horror show on television. That's because I'm a wuss. It's not that I don't like them. It's just that I like getting scared, but I don't like getting scared. I'm not making sense. Let me put it this way. It's like you don't like the smell of your own fart, because it smells like rotten eggs, but you smell them anyway. It's the same with horror stories.

Anyway, this show seems to be critically acclaimed or something. But I've never heard of it. And that's the great thing about watching things which you know nothing about. There are no prejudices to begin with. So that when you like the show, you like it because it appeals to you, and not because of some review you read on a website by some writer who knows nothing of cinema.


1. "Pilot"

That's not what she really looks like.

Yes, it is creepy. The down syndrome kid is creepy. The burned-up guy Larry (Denis O'Hare) is creepy. The old maid is creepy. But the young maid is hot. And Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) is cute. And yes, she is Vera's kid sister.