Pardon me while I discuss at length teen-oriented television drama...
So I must say, I'm really enjoying the show The O.C. more than I've enjoyed a show in a long long time. It's just too good to deny. It's really a fine, fine show, and entertains in every way you want a tv show to. I remember over the summer Matt would constantly guarantee that the show would be huge. After the first episode I though, "eh." It was ok. But just gets better and better. The pyshco-stalker plot was a bit in the wrong direction, but the great thing about this show is how quickly they go through plotlines. It's totally gratifying. There's maybe a week or two of one story, then it leads right into the next. Nothing really overstays its welcome. The character Anna is a perfect example. Shows up in one of the first episodes, is intriguing and entertaining, then disappears for a few months, comes back, has some good bits, gets tiresome, is off for a week, and back next week. Nothing's really overdone, except for the melodrama, which is outrageously overdone in the most entertaining way possible. And that's really the best part. Plus, it can't be understated how wonderful the pacing of the show is. The Oliver storyline, for example. I hate storylines like this. There's nothing I hate watching in movies or TV more than some crazy guy coming along and being suddenly credible to everyone in the supporting cast, and having the protagonist suddenly blamed for being paranoid. I hate that. It's very frustrating and annoying. I can't believe this sort of plot device is still used. So I was pretty glad that they got this out of the way fairly quickly. No season-long hinting or dancing around. In about 4 episodes, Oliver went from nice guy, to possible threat, to total gun-toting maniac. The only disappoint aspect of this storyline was the shitty trailer Fox threw at us that featured Oliver flashing the gun and then hearing a gunshot. There was no gunshot in the show. Which was really disappointing, because i was hoping that either Oliver or Marissa would get shot. I hate them. (Fox did a similar thing with a teaser for an episode of Arrested Development, adding blue electricity to a scene where Gob gets zapped with a prison guard's baton. He looked like R2-D2 when he got shot. It really bothers me that they feel like they need to add this stupid effects to attract viewers, particularly since these are two of my favorite shows.)
I think a big part of the cool cache of the O.C. is that the music is pretty nice as well. The first few weeks, I thought maybe it was sort of an anomoly, like some assistant music person slipped someone a cd. But the music (and musical references) has been consistently good. Not just the bands, but the songs as well. And it's not just the current, hot shit bands (although the Rooney guest shot was pretty dumb. Though it did serve as a good plot device, completing Luke's transformation to arrogant jock to total doofus). I was shocked during once scene where the soundtrack was the Smashing Pumpkins song "For Martha," since it was a non-single track off one of their least successful albums. And the end of this week's episode, the show has to be so cool as to play the full-of-hipster-cool Ryan Adams cover of Wonderwall. Despite the both (Don't call me B)Ryan Adams' and Oasis' permanent residency on my list of Major Wankers, it's a great song. A bit spookier than the Oasis version, and it gets to the guts of the song a bit better, largely because you don't have to listen to Noel Gallagher's annoying nasal yowling. I feel like the producers of the show were really pleased with themselves for finding this track, off an afterthough EP. It's just a cool thing to play I think. And I think their nod to this realization was to not only show Seth playing it, but playing it on vinyl. I mean, where in Newport would one find such a thing?
Also, a plotline I'm excited about is a show-within-the show. Apparently, there's going to be a "show" called "The Valley" that is going to be filming in Newport, and some of the characters get bit parts on "The Valley." In this week's episode, Summer was watching when Seth walked in. I think the plan is to have her fall for the guy who plays The Valley's dorky yet adorable ("adorkable") character, i.e., Seth. Yes, I am a sad, sad man.I think the fact that I live with my girlfriend has really given me license to really indulge my dorkier and more anti-social qualities. Like watching TV programs whose main advertisers seem to be feminine hygeine product manufacturers (and not even adult products. I'm talking commercials for girls just starting to use tampons and whatnot.) I mean, now that I don't really have to impress anyone, or at the very least go out and try to meet someone, I can just do the things I most like to do. So I never miss an episode of Gilmore Girls. Sue me. I can do whatever I want. Not that I feel like I'm taking the (Literally) Little Lady for granted or anything. But it's just, overall, a very comfortable existence at home these days. the most comfortable i've ever been. Ever. I've never had this much space that was all mine. "Mine" in the sense that there are no areas of the apartment that are off-limits to me, not in the sense that I control this domain. It's "our" place, but in the sense that we are a "we," we come both use the possessive "mine" when talking about it.
Anyway, besides unbridled levels of dorkiness and lewdness, other observed behavioral differences into this, my seventh month of cohabitation with the (Literally) Little Lady:
Much less red meat. I rarely eat red meat anymore. LLL is a somewhat selective vegetarian. She'll eat chicken and fish, and curiously, proscuitto. And if I'm eating a big plate of bacon, she is easily tempted. But she won't eat pork chops or beef or even lamb. I don't think she'd eat rabbit. She openly admits to loving these foods, particularly bacon and lamb. She just won't do it. In a way, this is infuriating, because it's not really based on some strong principle or anything. And it makes cooking meals more work, because I have to make sure nothing has beef in it. Who knew golden mushroom gravy had beef stock? No wonder it's so good. On the cooking topic, I cook a lot more meals for more than one person now too. which has lead to more ground turkey and tofu and less beef and bacon fat. I guess that's a good thing, though there are the rare occassions that I have a lot of sausage or bacon that's been sitting in the fridge, in which case, I have to eat a lot of it, and all by myself, otherwise it'll go bad. It's of the amount that's not really worth freezing, but too much to throw away. You understand.
I'm also going to bed a lot earlier, but sleeping less. Mind you, I still go to bed around 1 or 2 AM, but it used to be 3 or 4. But I don't sleep as much, because Triple L sets multiple alarms, and they all go off around 7:30, whereas mine doesn't go off until 8. The other day, she stayed home sick, and when I woke up shortly before nine, it'd felt like I'd overslept for hours. Still, I don't mind this change in sleep habits. Going to bed early and rising earlier is still better than my previous behavior, which was crying myself to sleep everynight.*sniff*
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