My Hulu Favorites

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America's Next Top Model, ANTM, book, books, House, Hulu, movies, Once Upon a Time, Parenthood, reading, television, The Biggest Loser, The Hunger Games, TV

I don’t have television, so everything I watch is either a movie or found on Hulu.  With the start of a new year comes a bunch of new seasons of my favorite shows.  With limited time, I’ve already lost interest in some of them.

Take Once Upon a Time.  It took me a little time to get into it, and now that other shows like The Bachelor are back on, I just don’t have time to keep up with it or Pretty Little Liars, another show I really liked for a time but have lost interest in.

So what do I watch?  The Biggest Loser!  I don’t know when I started watching “reality” TV, but I know Fearfactor was what started it.  I’m also very addicted to House.  I wish the girl from Joan of Arcadia had lasted a bit longer, but her character couldn’t have stood House for very long without compromising too much of her character, so I’ve accepted it.  Sometimes I watch Parenthood, more because Lauren Grahm is in it than anything.  Waiting to see if there’s another America’s Next Top Model because you already know I’m an addict.  (Why oh WHY did Alison not win?  *pouts*)

What do you watch?  Do you have any shows you’re waiting for that haven’t aired yet?  What about movies?  Anyone else really excited for The Hunger Games?  The trailer was good enough that I’ve actually gotten the book and started reading it because I’m determined to finish the book before the movie.  Even though Ermisenda has already reviewed it, I’ll be throwing in my two cents as well.

-Eliabeth

__new disney movie: Brave

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Brave, childhood, Disney, female protagonist, fiction, life, magic, movies, stories, television, trailer, young adult

I’m a massive fan of Disney. It’s hard to pick favourites so I won’t even begin (e.g. The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Emperor’s New Groove, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Tarzan, Chicken Little…) because I will end up naming them all anyway (Oops…). A friend of mine told me that they were releasing a new Disney Pixar film called ‘Brave’. We quickly went online and found the trailer.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Not only is she a princess but she kicks butt! Merida defies an age-old custom and destiny, unleashing chaos in the kingdom set in the mysterious highlands of Ireland. I’m a big supporter of strong female protagonists (so sick of Twilight garbage. *Lifts up shield to protect myself from the fans*) and this looks like it will be great. Apparently the director will be a female as well, meaning that this will be the first movie to be directed by a female for Pixar productions and Merida will be Pixar’s first female protagonist – some random trivia. (I wonder why it took Pixar so long to get some kick-ass females!)

Is anyone else excited by Brave? And don’t tell me I’m too old to get excited by Disney movies! It’s impossible to be too old for them. 😀 Are there some ‘children’ movies you can’t stop re-watching?

– Ermisenda Alvarez

Rejection Quote

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ABC, authors, Castle, comedy, failure, publishing, quotes, rejection, television, TV, writing

“Rejection isn’t failure.  Failure is giving up.  Everybody gets rejected.  It’s how you handle it that determines where you end up.”

Castle S4E3: “Head Case”

Castle is a comedy about a writer who follows NYPD Muse Detective Beckett around while he writes mystery novels.

Spoilers follow.

Narrating Action

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action, books, film, Gilmore Girls, movies, narration, television, The Booth at the End, writing

People tell writers to show rather than tell in scenes, but one of the fascinating things about the Gilmore Girls television series, is how well they pull off the exact opposite.  Characters recap events not filmed during conversation.  Either the scenes would have been too drawn out to film or too difficult.  Here are some of my favorite examples:

A hungover Lorelei sits in the inn’s kitchen after Lane’s wedding the episode before.  Her best friend Suki recaps some of the more interesting moments that would have been too drawn out to film.  Suki tells Lorelei about using an old man’s cane for a limbo contest, awkward gyrating, posing, and strutting as Lorelei used the wedding photographer to film her audition for Top Model, and ends with the exuberant departing cheer Lorelei used the night before.

__superstars: authors

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authors, next top author, shows, superstar, television, writing

I recently read the Freshly Pressed article “America’s Next Top Author” by Here’s to us. It is a refreshing read and I found it very humorous. When I was scrolling through some of the comments I noticed that some people claimed television shows for competing authors would be a bad idea, because it would discredit them; it would devalue the work of the author. Would it, really?