Lamenting the loss of Selfie

No, not that kind of #selfie. I’m pretty sure the art of selfies is still raging strong, offering us a plethora of duck faces and inside peeks at people’s bathrooms for years to come.

No, what I’m mourning is the loss of ABC’s Selfie which premiered this Fall only to be canceled in early November after harsh reviews and low ratings. Though the rest of the episodes that had been shot up to that point were slowly released on Hulu, I was disappointed to watch the “final episode” which aired on December 30 and frankly didn’t tie up the plot enough at all. [read: They didn’t freaking kiss!!!]

But the thing that bothers me is those awful reviews of Selfie, like people just didn’t get it. I know with a plot that #basic that maybe people totally didn’t understand that the premise of Selfie is literally Pygmalion. And maybe Average America is reading that and going “Pyg-whation?” My Fair Lady, guys. It’s My Fair Lady. Remember, Family Guy did a spoof of it that one time? “Ohhhhh that. Yeah. That was great!” Well so was this.

I hear your complaints.

Was Eliza absolutely over stereotyped and ridiculous in the Pilot? YES. That’s kind of the whole point. She was the walking stereotype for the modern, Internet obsessed, Instagram loving, partying too hard, self absorbed 20 something and she was working it out. I don’t know if people didn’t get that the whole point of the show is Eliza’s character development or if they didn’t enjoy that harsh light of reality shining on their faces when they realized that the show was making fun of them. #sorrynotsorry

But I can’t talk about Selfie without talking about the extraordinary cast. Maybe this is lost on you people with your lack of BBC America but Eliza is played by Karen Gillan. THAT Karen Gillan, you sweet little Whovians. Or THAT one if you are more of a Marvel Comics fan. The point is, this is an actress with range that should blow your mind. Her portraying the character of Eliza Dooley was an extraordinary feat – she was amazing. And even in her character’s most vapid moments, she managed to bring heart to her role and make you root for her.

And John Cho did a stellar Henry Higgins who literally took my breath away a few times. Nerds will remember that Cho starred as Sulu in the Star Trek reboot and was also in the Total Recall remake. Not to mention Harold & Kumar, American Pie and more importantly that time he was the literal saving grace of Matthew Perry’s awful show Go On. I could go on. Cho was a phenomenal straight man to Eliza’s antics and he frequently gave me all the feels.

I was so grateful that Hulu had the good sense to pick up the show’s remaining episodes, even if it meant having to remember to go to Hulu and look for them over the weeks and navigate their terrible website. It was worth it for the weekly fix and being able to thoroughly enjoy the show until it basically just ended at mid-breath and made me go all slanty faced and ranty about it.

Bottom Line: This show had an incredible cast, the writing was superb and the on screen chemistry had me fangirling all over the place. And now it’s over and I’ll never get my happily ever moment. I know shows get canceled all the time – we geeks have our share of brilliant shows that were canceled too soon (*coughs*firefly*coughs*). But I would be remiss if I didn’t take the time to defend this one and throw my gauntlet down about it.

Links to Great Stuff: November 14, 2014

Things online that I’m fangirling over:

Watch Benedict Cumberbatch Do 11 Celebrity Impressions in 1 Minute at EW.com.

Learn how to draw a perfect circle freehand at Interesting Engineering.

Find out 21 Amazing Things You Can Do With Google at aplus.com.

Watch Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi Send a Video Message to an Autistic Boy Who Lost His Nanny via comicbook.com.

Thoughts on: The First Three Doctors

You may have picked up on the fact that my husband and I are giant Doctor Who Nerds or Whovians. We have seen all the of seasons of the newest reboot of Doctor Who which includes all episodes from 2005-present. We have been anxiously awaiting a new episode on BBC America since Christmas.

So you can imagine we were all kinds of delighted when we noticed that Netflix has now compiled Classic Doctor Who episodes in one handy little link on Netflix Instant. We spent the weekend watching episodes from the first three doctor’s collections of work. The collections or seasons are pretty sparse with just four episodes each for the first two doctors but I actually found this to be a nice manageable way to get a taste for each doctor and sample 20 years or so of Whovian history.

We are about halfway into the fourth collection of episodes, The Three Doctors (1972) which actually has all three of the first three doctors working together to solve an attack at Unit HQ. So while I am certainly not an expert on the first three Doctors, I have seen enough to throw in my two cents on each of them.

The First Doctor (played by William Hartnell) played the doctor from 1963-1966. To be fair I’ve only seen 4 or 5 episodes of Hartnell’s (mostly The Aztecs) portrayal as the Doctor but if I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t a fan. His version of the Doctor felt a bit stiff and boring and occasionally mean. He didn’t seem to have that urge to Save the World that his later incarnations had and I didn’t necessarily buy him as this amazingly brilliant guy who could figure anything out. The show itself just wasn’t as fun. If this had been my first introduction to Doctor Who, I’m not convinced I’d still be watching…

The Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) starred in Doctor Who from 1966 to 1969. He is definitely a much sillier Doctor and appealed to me quickly in the Mind Robbers episodes that I watched as well as his stint in The Three Doctors in the 70’s. He is much more youthful as the Doctor and has that amazingly intelligent thing down. Perhaps this had more to do with the era in which he played the doctor than anything, but either way it made for a much more enjoyable watching experience. My six year old Whovian fanatic son would agree with this assessment. I also really liked his companions in the Mind Robbers a lot, where I never really took a shine to the first doctor’s companions.

The Third Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee) played the Doctor from (1970–1974). Netflix has a lot more of Pertwee’s episodes available to watch and luckily for me I like him perhaps best of the first three. He has the same smarty pants quality but charm to spare as well. His companions have been intelligent but not boring and his story lines good though the first couple of episodes were a bit trying on my patience as they mostly featured the other actors (members of UNIT and the bad guys, etc.) and though the plot was interesting, the good Doctor definitely made the shows worth watching. Luckily he got a lot more screen time as the episodes progressed!

That’s just my take of course. What did you think of the original Doctors? Who were your favorites / least favorites?

You aren’t seeing double: This post is cross blogged at Jen’s personal blog.

VIDEO LOVE: CALL ME MAYBE DOCTOR WHO PARODY

Sometimes I see a video online that is so fantastic that I just have to share. This parody of the current hit song, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen is both clever and awesome. It makes me want to say Allons-y and wear old Converse sneakers, so really, it’s pretty great, right? And also, thank goodness there are other people in this crazy universe that get as unreasonably obsessed about television as I do.

I found this video at Anglophenia, a blog that any Who-vian needs to know about, btw.

And no, you aren’t seeing double. This was cross posted at Jen’s personal blog.

THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT DOCTOR, MATT SMITH.

Remember when I complained incessantly that David Tennant was lame and that the only true Doctor in my heart was Christopher Eccleston? But then thanks to Tennant’s amazing powers of brooding and a few really great side kicks (Martha & Donna) I slowly grew to enjoy David Tennant and maybe even kind of really liked him.

So of course the universe could tell that I was starting to get attached and gave us this guy. Don’t get me wrong, he’s fine. He seems to truly love this awesome job he’s gotten himself and the writing continues to impress so of course he says cool stuff. But… he’s no David Tennant and certainly no Christopher Eccleston. And I feel as though something has changed.

He doesn’t seem as… Amazing as the previous two doctors. Instead of whisking in and saving the day and making bad aliens quiver with fear, he’s kind of getting by on the skin of his teeth frankly and squeaking by on reputation still. I know he’ll save the day in the end because 50 years precedence kind of establishes that it’s likely but instead of him seeming like a Bad Assed Time Lord who knows all and always has a plan he seems more like a really smart kid who might figure it out eventually.

I know. I’ve complained before and come around, but really? I’m not pleased. And also is it fair that my husband now gets to look at her every night:

And I’m stuck with Matt Smith and Rory?

I mean it’s not like they are hideous or anything but… they kind of make David Tennant seem insanely hot by comparison. Or maybe David Tennant really grew on me a lot more than I realized? Or maybe it’s that the previous two doctors were like men old enough for me to consider attractive and not nearly prepubescent? Okay that’s not fair, according toWikipedia Matt Smith is actually two months older than me, but STILL. That’s not the point.

The point is that apparently I don’t handle change very well yet and I’m annoyed with the Doctor Who universe for making me miss this face so damned much:

Also, doing a google image search for David Tennant as Doctor Who, by the way, yields some pretty hilarious and terrific results. I miss corny freeze frames that make me giggle incessantly.

Stay tuned for the inevitable future post about how Matt Smith isn’t that bad and the next new Doctor Who is apparently terrible. Poor guy (or gal??) hasn’t even applied for the job yet and I’ve already got it out for them.

You aren’t seeing double: This was cross posted at Jen’s personal blog.

THOUGHTS ON THE 10TH DOCTOR SO FAR…

I know, I know, I am ridiculously behind the times and every good Doctor Who fan is caught up watching the 11th Doctor by now, but when we last discussed Doctor Who around these parts my beloved 9th Doctor had just reincarnated into the 10th Doctor and I was reeling pretty hard and feeling very disillusioned. I was not pleased with the on screen chemistry (or lack thereof) between David Tennant and Billie Piper and moreover I was just missing Christopher Eccleston something fierce.

In Tennant’s and Piper’s first season together (and last) I continued to scratch my head at their chemistry. It seemed forced and odd but the two just sort of marched on and pretended like it was normal and I tried to also, though knowing that it was Piper’s last season made it hard to feel committed to the two of them together. That said, when she left, in the way that she left which I won’t talk about because I don’t like spoilers, I’ll admit that I cried. Like a baby. A lot. Her ending was extremely well written and torturously sad and despite the lack of chemistry between these two actors, David Tennant can brood like it’s no one’s business.

In the next season’s premier and Christmas special, at the end of the episode when the Doctor saves the day and goes all dark and bad assed? That was the moment that David Tennant won me over. I think I swooned.

Seriously, over this guy. I swooned. And now as the Doctor tries to move past his loss of Rose and take up with his new companion, one Martha Jones (played by Freema Agyeman), his continued brooding of Rose feels so genuine and right. Of course we want the Doctor to be happy eventually, but I think if he’d simply said “well that sucks, hey you, pretty girl? Wanna be my new chicky?” that it would have just infuriated me. His hesitance to get close to Martha despite the fact that she seriously kicks ass and also, frankly, has better on screen chemistry than Tennant ever had with Piper (the kind of chemistry that Eccleston and Piper had and I loved) actually makes it work for me.

I don’t know if they will ever be an “item” or if he’ll continue brooding over Rose into his next incarnation but at the moment I’m okay with not knowing (you hear me, internets? No spoilers!) and frankly enjoying watching her squirm over it all. It makes for good television.

So in conclusion: I like Martha. I like Tennant. I like the brooding. A lot. At the moment, at this point and time, I am content in my Doctor Who-niverse. And I forgive them. For now…

You aren’t seeing double: This was cross posted at Jen’s personal blog.