Whitney – Crazy, Stupid, Words

Whitney is another one of the shows that is more of a guilty pleasure, and not so geeky.  The geekiest part of the show is Whitney’s husband/boyfriend Alex who is a bit of a nerd and created and sold a website for a good deal of money.  While he is a geek, he is also a bit of a hipster looking guy, though I suppose the two “types” can often merge.

The theme behind this weeks episode is trust in couples and couples sneaking in and reading each others email.  It starts off by talking about it while watching a couple at a restaurant fight about it.  Later, they go to Marks bar where they are talking about trigger words (a word that upsets you due to a past experience) and it progresses to Whitney taking a picture of her butt as a funny photo with her friends, which upsets Alex because that is *his* butt and only *he* should get to see it…  Right.  That part irked me a bit because it came off much too controlling than I felt the situation needed to be.  It honestly made me like Alex less as a character because it made him much more close minded than the hipstery nerd I saw him as. Moving along… after fighting, Alex decided to take a picture of his junk and of course at that moment Roxanne and Lily walk in to see him in all of his glory and he proceeds to slam the laptop shut… on his dick.

Once you are done cringing at the thought of that, it moves on to Whitney joking with her friends about the situation and Alex sneaking onto her email to read it (Who saw that coming? Oh wait… everyone).  After a bit of fighting, they finally sit down and discuss it like adults and they both discuss their trigger words and explain why they are triggers.

Overall, not one of the stronger episodes and there have been some that are quite funny, but this one just didn’t push that boundary for me, though the part of Alex being controlling and acting like he owns Whitney did push it down a bit as well.  I give it 4 nerd glasses out of 10.

Firefly – Serenity (Rewatch)

It has been a while since I have watched Firefly, at least in it’s entirety and I will admit, I have only seen it all the way through once.  I am usually late to the cool shows and it took several people pressuring me to watch it before I did.  I decided to work on re-watching it, not only because it is great show, but I am going to cosplay as Jayne at an upcoming con (RavenCon if anyone is going!), so I thought a re-watch could not hurt.

The first episode (in the proper order that is) is Serenity and starts off in a battle.  Having seen it all before, I already knew that this is where Captain Malcolm Reynolds is forced to surrender.  He does have a good quote in telling one of his men that “we are just too pretty for God to let us die.”  That is the one thing that I have forgotten, or I suppose just not realizing, but how many good quotes there are in this series.  It is here we are also introduced to Zoe and the relationship between Mal and Zoe as browncoats is a lasting one through out the series.

After the surrender, we meet up with the crew six years later as they are breaking into a ship to steal some goods.  We are introduced to Wash, Jayne, and Kaylee and Wash is at the helm playing with his dinosaurs (“Curse you sudden bu inevitable betrayal!”).  An Alliance cruiser comes along and the crew is able to distract them long enough to grab the goods and run.  We find out later that the goods they nabbed are for a character named Badger.  They stash the goods and head for Persephone to finish the deal with Badger.

As soon as I saw Badger, I realized that this is where I knew the actor from.  Mark Sheppard, who plays Badger, also played Romo in Battlestar Galactica and some characters in Doctor Who and Supernatural.  Seeing him here, I realized that is why I kept feeling like he was a sleezebag in Battlestar, because he really is here.  Badger refuses to pay Mal or even accept the goods, which leaves them in a bit of a rut.  Trying to decide what to do with it, Mal suggests going to Patience on Whitefall.  Zoe reminds Mal that she shot him the last time they met and he said that it was kind of a legitimate reason.

During this, Kaylee is looking for passengers and it is here that we meet Shepherd Book and Simon.  Inara also rejoins the crew and her profession becomes clear when Mal introduces her as a whore.   Later at dinner (with real food!) Simon is asking a lot of questions.  This was not something that stood out in my memory and it makes him seem very suspicious.  Knowing why he is there and what is in his crate, this seems like a poor move on his part.  Smuggling a family member seems like the best time to keep your mouth shut.  It’s also here that Kaylee starts to become interested in Simon.

Mal is washing up from dinner when Wash calls him, saying that he had stopped a hail from inside the ship for an Alliance cruiser.  Given his suspicious behavior at dinner, Mal assumes it is Simon, when really it was the thus far unnamed third passenger (his name ended up being Lawrence, if you were curious).  The spy tries to take over and Kaylee ends up getting shot just as the Alliance ship is ordering them to release the wanted prisoners.  Simon rushes to help her then backs away, threatening to let her die if they do not run, so they hightail it out of there and Simon patches up Kaylee.  I kind of think if Kaylee was very aware of his actions, she may not have liked him quite as much later on.  After Kaylee is stable, Mal charges out to see what Simon has in storage only to discover River.  This is where Simon explains his story and why the Alliance are after him and his sister.

As they approach Whitefall, Patience talks to them and agrees to deal.  However, Mal thinks she’s not actually going to pay him and will probably shoot him again, so they prepare to be screwed over.  They meet with Patience and she does try to take the money and the goods and a gun fight breaks out.  Zoe is shot, but we find later she was wearing armor that protected her.  Patience is the only one left standing on her side and Mal takes the money from her.  About that time, Jayne comes running in because the Reavers had followed them.  They rush back to the ship and Mal shoots the Alliance spy (who had escaped and was holding River hostage) and they take off.  Trying to outrun the Reavers, Jayne and Shepherd get Kaylee to the engine room and she gives them orders on what to do.  Wash say they are going to pull a Crazy Ivan (which is apparently an actual military thing relating to submarines).  With a Firefly class ship though, it’s having one engine forward and another in reverse to quickly spin around.  The Crazy Ivan was successful and allowed them to escape from the Reavers (after which lead to Zoe stating that she needed Wash to tear all her clothes off).

After the dust settles, so to speak, Mal allows Jayne to interrogate the Alliance spy.  It is here that the spy offers Jayne money to turn River in along with the rest of the crew.  At the end of the episode, Mal asked why Jayne didn’t turn on him to which Jayne replied that the money wasn’t good enough.  Mal then asked what would happen when it was and Jayne said it would be an interesting day.  In my first watch of the show, I never really questioned Jayne’s loyalty to Mal, but it does make me wonder if the money could ever be good enough.

Simon comes up to talk to Mal, who out of no where asks him to join the crew.  The best place for Simon and River to be is on the run, plus they could use a medic.  Simon’s concern is that Mal will try to kill him in his sleep to which Mal says that if he was going to kill him he’d be awake, looking at him, and armed.

During the episode, Shepherd and Inara have a few conversations.  During the first one Shepherd brings her dinner and she expects him to lecture her about her sinful ways.  However, they end up discussing Mal and mention how loyal he is to his own crew.  The second conversation is after they have escaped the Reavers, gotten their payment, and gotten rid of the Alliance mole.  Shepherd talks about how he has only been out of the abbey for two days and how he was not sure he was on the right ship.  His major dilemma is that Mal shot the mole and he was not sure that he could say that it was wrong.  Looking back on it, this shows a lot of his character and I think by the end, it will really show how his morality as a Shepherd and a member of the crew will evolve.

Overall, there was a lot of character building done in this episode, which makes it interesting that this was actually the 11th episode when it aired on TV originally (way to go FOX).  I never really paid much attention to how characters are set up, but the values and thoughts of the characters is definitely set up well for the rest of the series.  I give this episode 9 Serenitys out of 10.

The Neighbors – Mo Purses Mo Money Mo Problems

I am almost ashamed to admit that I watch this show, but I am less ashamed of this than… well I’ll save that for later.  If you haven’t see it, the only “sci-fi” element is that it is a neighborhood full of crash landed aliens and one human family moves in.  It’s a quick watch and doesn’t make me angry, so it’s kind of relaxing and just silly.

This episode starts by the Debbie Weavers (human family) wanting to have a yard sale and Jackie (alien mom) wants to help out, but Larry Bird says that women cannot work outside the home.  Jackie proceeds to help anyways and they make a deal to sell handmade purses to a business woman and Larry Bird is helping with the girl scout like troop and ends up getting them to help make purses in a sweat shop style setting.  Meanwhile, Amber Weaver’s ex-boyfriend is trying hard to get her back.

It all comes to a climax when Marty Weaver “solves the puzzle” and lays everyone’s problem out on the table for them.  The best part is Reggie’s nerdy little girlfriend telling Amber that she will fight for the things she really likes, which is total a nerd thing.  Overall, I give it 4.5 aliens out of 10.

Arrow – The Huntress Returns

I need to start this off with a disclaimer.  I have been watching Arrow fairly regularly since it began and I quite enjoy it.  That being said, I have not read the original comic that it is based on (as is true for pretty much all superhero comics… and comics in general).  Any of my writing will come from the view as Arrow as it’s own thing, since I cannot compare it to the comic.  I also watch because it has John Barrowman in it… mmmm… Oh right… Arrow.

The episode starts off in a fitting manner with the title of the episode and we see The Huntress (Helena) kill her father’s attorney to try to get his location, I am assuming she wants to break him out.  Later in the episode she shows up in Oliver’s house asking for help to find her father to kill him.  When Oliver refuses, Helena threatens his friends and family.  At the club opening, she captures Tommy and convinces him to help her.  The heist is planned and Helena gets caught and Oliver breaks her out and leaves her.  She breaks in and forces Felicity to give her the address to the safe house where her dad is held and takes off and of course, Oliver goes after her and epic battle between the Arrow and The Huntress ensues.  Okay, maybe not so epic, but they fight a bit.  To make things even more messy and complicated, Oliver’s detective girlfriend shows up and ends up getting shot.  No, she doesn’t die, but she does decide to move away for rehabilitation due to her injury.  I think her death would had added to the animosity between Arrow and The Huntress that could really be drawn on later, but perhaps there is a part for her later in the series.

In the last episode, we are introduced to Laurell’s mother, River Song, well at least the actress that plays River Song (Alex Kingston).  Here Laurell’s mother confronts her dad with her idea that her sister may still be alive.  She even has proof with a picture that was taken by a tourist.  It takes some convincing from Laurell, but her dad finally agrees to sit down and listen to her mother’s ideas.  I am quite curious as to how this will play out.  This plot point will have to tie into the main idea, perhaps relating to who caused the boat to sink in the first place.  Maybe the sister was in on it and was used almost as bait.  Otherwise, it seems unnecessary to the show.

Another side story is Oliver talking to Tommy about him now knowing his identity.  Tommy refuses to see past the idea that Oliver is a murder and said he would not believe any of his reasons or justifications.  Tommy is mostly upset that Oliver would keep a huge secret from him.  It seemed like he would never come around to it, but by the end of the episode, especially after what happens with Oliver’s girlfriend.  Yey they are friends again!

The flashback scenes in this episode were few, but seemed unrelated to the overall progress of the show.  It starts by Slade and Oliver observing one of Flynn’s camps where he has managed to acquire a missile launcher and Slade suspects he is trying to start a war with someone.  They sneak into the camp to destroy it, but Oliver removes a circuit board (I don’t know much about missile launchers, though I’m sure they have them, but this seems like a simple way out) to use for leverage.  It ends by trying to barter with Flynn to trade the circuit board for a way off the island.  We will have to wait to see how this plays out.  I do not think Flynn will give a way off the island so easily and I’m sure he has some tricks up his sleeve.

I was a bit disappointed because Felicity had very little screen time.  Her geek girl personality really appeals to me and one of my favorite episodes was when she upgraded Oliver’s hideout and essentially forced herself in, at least until they find his step-dad.

Overall, this episode lead to some interesting thoughts for me.  The Huntress is back and wants to kill her father and there is growing tension between her and Arrow.  I am sure that we have not seen the last of her.  I give it 8 out of 10 arrows.

Glee – Guilty Pleasures

So I’m not starting off with a horribly geeky series, but Glee has been a show I have loved since the beginning   I will admit it, I have a horrible addiction to musicals… Granted it has been a little rough lately, I still keep up with it pretty well.

This week’s Glee started with Blaine confronting Sam about stealing from the cafeteria only to find out that Sam has a guilty pleasure for creating portraits out of macaroni.  Yes… macaroni.  The portraits are pretty cool, but it was kind of a bizarre way to start off the show, but what more do you expect from Glee?  This scene sets the theme for the rest of the show: Guilty Pleasures.

With this theme, I can’t help but think of the first book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurel K. Hamilton by the same name, which amuses me, but moving on.  The weeks homework for glee club is to sing songs from your guilty pleasure artist and it included Barry Malow, the Spice Girls, and Wham!.  It’s shocking that with the Spice Girls they didn’t include some Backstreet Boys or *NYSNC, oh wait… they did that last week.

The two major plot points were that Blaine is in love with Sam and Rachael finding out that Brody was a male escort to pay for school.  Neither are very in depth and they both seem like filler to me.  It was nice that Sam is okay with Blaine’s feelings, but the part with Rachael and Brody was disappointing.  Rachael freaks out over Brody’s method of paying for school, rather than trying to understand that not everyone has parents that are well-off.  It would have been nice to see more of an understanding, even if they do break up, rather than shaming him for what he does to get by.

All in all, it was an okay episode.  My favorite part was the creepy boyfriend arm pillow.  Especially since Kurt named his Bruce *snickers*  I give it 6 nerd glasses out of 10.

Marvel Animated Short

I came across this on Facebook and thought I would share. Cute animation for various Marvel characters.

Frak you! I mean… welcome!

Hello sweetie!  Welcome to Frakin Spoilers!  I am Serenity Pond and I will be leading you through my thoughts, feelings and such on my geeky feelings on TV, movies, books, and possibly games (if I ever get around to and have time for them…).  The last year or so I have been going back and watching TV series that I never saw when they aired.  Last summer I watched all ten seasons for Stargate SG-1 and more recently I have completed all of Battlestar Galactica (which I will be writing a bit about).  I will end up mostly talking about TV series, because I simply watch a lot of series.  There are several I keep up with on a weekly (or somewhat weekly) basis and I do enjoy going back and watching other series that I’ve missed when my usual weekly shows are on hiatus.  This will be your only warning, there will be spoilers in probably damn near every post.  I mean come on, read the blog name again.  I will summarize and discuss my thoughts and feelings.  Now… on with the show! Hah, get it?!