Looking back on 2014

Inspired by my old year-end list of 2005 where, among others, I listed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as my favorite book of that year (I can't believe it's been 9 years!), I thought I'd do another list this year for posterity's sake and for a nostalgic read 9 years from now.

Television

For the first time in years, my free time was not mostly spent in watching TV shows. At the start of the US fall season, I only followed four tv shows: Downton Abbey, Gotham, The Big Bang Theory, and The Amazing Race (now in its 25th season!). As of this writing, Downton Abbey has ended it's 5th season, and I lost interest in Gotham (not enough Batman) and Big Bang Theory (no longer funny like the first few seasons). I'm down with one remaining show, The Amazing Race, which in itself will end its 25th season this Friday. Between the two, Amazing Race and Downton Abbey, I don't really want to (and don't need to) choose a favorite. Both are clearly my favorites seeing that they're the only two shows that I watched in its entirety. Side note to TV: I also watched season 6 of Master Chef Australia. I like the Australian edition of Master Chef better than the US one: less politics, no trash talks, simply mentoring and cooking competition.

Movies

In the big screen arena, I also saw only a few movies in cinemas this year compared to last year thanks in large part to my big move to a "small" city. I loved How To Train Your Dragon 2 (as good as the first one). I also loved Big Hero 6 (Pixar-level Disney movie). Lastly, I loved Paddington, an origin movie of sorts for that famous plush toy from the storybooks of the 1950's. The movie was great. The plot progressed briskly with both light and emotionally charged moments, especially the notion of being lost and then being found. Side note to Paddington: LOST: 2 main stars left Downton Abbey 2 years ago to pursue movie careers forcing the writer to kill off their characters in the TV series. The movies they pursued were not memorable. FOUND: Hugh Bonneville (who plays the Earl), on the other hand, did not leave Downton, but found time to be in this good movie. The take away here, I believe, is don't leave Downton.

Books

I'll write about my favorite book (or books) this year  some other time. I'm writing this in my coffee break at work so I don't have much time. Au revoir, for now.

Fringe 3.0

I've decided to trim down my TV series watch list this season. I'll just stick with Merlin 3, Fringe 3, Amazing Race 17, The Big Bang Theory 4, How I Met Your Mother 6, and Glee 2. I don't think I'll be able to cut this list further. The rest I'll just watch next year on DVD (divisoria editions).

Fringe 2.0

Fringe was my favorite series of the recently-concluded
regular TV season. But this is _really_ just a test post that if
successful will help me blog at the office. :)

Susan Boyle

Afternoon, April 14, Tuesday. I took a logical break from work and checked what's trending in Twitter. People are twittering about "24". I clicked. Immediately I was bombarded with spoilers from the latest episode, which I planned to watch that evening. The episode was spoiled, but the spoilers made me anticipate watching the episode even more. After checking out other familiar stuffs that are trending in Twitter, I went on (like I usually do) to check the unfamiliar trends, things that don't ring a bell. One of those trends that afternoon was "Susan Boyle", a 47-year old hopeful in the regional auditions for Britain's Got Talent and in the tweets are links to the same Youtube video. Video streaming is blocked at work. So I sent an email to my personal email account containing the link to the video so that I could check it when I went home. "Susan Boyle" wasn't really trending very high then, and I figured she wouldn't be trending anymore by the time I check twitter trends at home. I couldn't have predicted how unnecessary that was. It's Saturday already and "Susan Boyle" is still one of the top trends in Twitter.

That audition clip, uploaded to Youtube, which as I wrote this has 19.6 million views, was truly one of a kind. It got all the elements working for it: Susan Boyle's life story and the perfect song choice. I have seen my fair share of American Idol episodes, and in that type of competition, song choice often made or break you. Boyle couldn't have chosen a better song to sing in that audition. She was there in the auditions to try to lived her dream of becoming a professional singer. And she chose to sing I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Lés Miserables. The orchestral accompaniment, which the editors have used as background music in the post-audition interview and the "three yesses" and then in Boyle's exit of the stage, where she blew a kiss to the audience was perfect. All these elements coming in together made for some very dramatic moments that rivaled any scripted TV. It's the best feel-good moment I have seen from any reality series or competition so far (at least from those that I watched).

Of course, song choice was just one factor. She still had to have the voice. And her voice was amazing. Some people would say it was nothing extraordinary. That maybe, she herself admitted on television that there's room for improvement, but I have heard several versions since I watched her Youtube clip, and her's is still the best that I have heard. A recording she made in 1999 for her local town's charity cd (only a thousand copies were produced), in which she sang Cry Me A River surfaced on Youtube recently. And it, too, was brilliant. I could just imagine what it would have been like if she was "discovered" at the age of 20. She would have by now 27 years of singing career under her belt. She would probably have been one of the judges in Britain's Got Talent. Although, considering how beautiful her voice still is at 47, she'd probably be busy touring the world to judge a talent competition.

Dollhouse and Role Models

Dollhouse

It's a new scifi drama series created by Josh Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Firefly", and "Angel") about an organization called Dollhouse whose main products are so-called "actives", human beings who have no personality and therefore can be imprinted with anything their clients want. In short the "actives" will be anything the client wants them to be. It's an intriguing story, but the second episode seemed like an episode fit for a mid-season run already. Someone's not very confident with the show. That's probably the reason why it's on a Friday, the day of the week with the least number of primetime viewers in the US.

Role Models

It's a comedy film starring Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd. The two main characters work in the marketing department of an energy drink. They got into trouble and broke some laws. However, instead of a 30-day stay in jail, they're sent to 150 hours of community service. The community service happens to be the comedy world's answer to Jedi master-apprentice thingy. The two become unwilling mentors to two unwilling child mentees. And of course, half-way through the movie the two unwilling mentees got a change of hearts. They now like their mentors. In the end, the mentors finish their community service and nobody went to jail.

I'd say it's a light comedy, with not too many laugh out loud moments. It's a straight-to-video material and it probably was.

First post for 2009

In a few days month number one of 2009 draws to a close. And as I expected, I'm back in Cebu and not blogging. Perhaps there's something in Cagayan de Oro that makes me want to blog.

Anyhow, I've seen several movies already (not necessarily released this year): Burn After Reading (2008), City of Ember (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Millions (2006), Seven Pounds (2008), and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Here are my thoughts about these movies.

Burn After Reading - There were some funny moments, but it was just not my brand of comedy. Most of the time I wasn't laughing at all.

City of Ember - It was the company's October movie night pick last year, but unfortunately it opened in Cebu in December that resulted into the cancellation of the movie night for that month. I like sci-fi so maybe this is the reason why I liked this movie. It reminded me of Wall-E, only this time the people chose to wait it out underground instead of outerspace.

Eagle Eye - This received many bad reviews, but it's a good thriller actually. The super-duper-computer looked stupid, laughable even, though.

Millions - This came from the makers of Slumdog Millionaire. But it was the more feel-good of the two films and involved saints and an overflow of Scottish accents.

Seven Pounds - The only thing that this movie had it going was Will Smith. Without him (except if maybe replaced with Tom Hanks, the other most likeable actor) this movie had nothing worth watching. The story was intriguing but the movie itself was boring and slow.


Slumdog Millionaire - This came from the makers of 2006's Millions. Supposedly what I saw was the real India or at least the real Mumbai (skyscrapers surrounded by slums) and its people's stories distilled into a single story of one Who Wants To Be A Millionaire contestant. I have the feeling that the same story is true here in the Philippines. This movie pretty much explained why game shows are the number one shows here in the Philippines, and to a lesser extent why poorly-made fantasy series are hits to the masses.

***

It seems that the current (fourth) season of Prison Break will be its last. The remaining episodes of the series will be aired in the US, Friday nights starting April 17. Apparently most Americans go to the movies or somewhere other than their homes on Fridays, so the networks dump their soon-to-be-axed shows or those on which they don't have much confidence in that day. Oh well, the big twist this season was pretty much over the top, and somehow it felt like the show was asking for its own death sentence. And Fox gave it that.

Favorite TV 2008

Merlin from BBC-1 is my favorite TV series of the year. It's a retelling of the legend of King Arthur (who's still a prince in the series) that focuses on Merlin and his friendship with the once and future king. They are of the same age in this series. Evidences that it's not a big-budget American TV program that looks and feels like a movie  (e.g. Prison Break, 24) show up in sequences that required complex special effects, but the story itself is very engaging and the reason why I was hooked from the first episode. Its Wikipedia page says that it will be shown in the US by NBC for the Spring 2009 TV season. This series, more so than the good but rather inferior of the two, The Legend of the Seeker, could potentially usher in the rebirth of the high fantasy genre to television, which if I remember correctly was last brought about by Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: The Warrior Princess.

The Big Bang Theory from CBS is my favorite comedy series of the year. It's a sitcom about two brilliant physicists room mates (Leonard and Sheldon), their two genius friends (Howard and Rajesh), and their hot neighbor (Penny). The writers kept coming up with very funny, highly rewatchable episodes each week.

Fringe from Fox is my favorite sci-fi TV series of the year. It's about a group of government agents involved in cases that are related to what is collectively called "fringe science". Only the scientists who know real fringe science will not like this new series from J.J. Abrams, creator of Alias and Lost. The rest of us who like science fiction but don't really care whether the science in it is realistic or not will love this show. The special effects in this series are rather good and have a movie-quality feel to them. If only Merlin have the same budget.

Of course I still like and still watches Prison Break, The Amazing Race, House, and How I Met Your Mother. 24 took a hiatus this year, a casualty of the 2007 writers strike. I have a feeling that 24 would have been my favorite of the year had their 2008 season not been cancelled. But then again, tomorrow will already be January and it means the new season of 24 from Fox is just around the corner.

Aside from books

My former college classmate, let's just call him RonMyks for privacy reasons, reportedly took a day off work so that he could finish his Gossip Girl season one marathon. The series must be that good. Besides, I've read good things about the series before. So last Thursday after checking out what changed and what did not change around the city, I bought the season one DVD. I watched the first three episodes last night and I thought it was written well. Can't wait to watch the rest of the season.

***

I also bought The Unit season one and watched the first two episodes yesterday afternoon. Well, it wasn't bad. But I thought it wanted to be something more than what its budget was capable of and its writers were capable of writing.

***

The acoustic guitar that my parents bought me when I was 14 for my high school music class is still alive. I thought it was given away a long time ago. I never really got the hang of learning guitar back in high school. But maybe in this long vacation, when I don't want to read books or watch DVDs anymore, I could take time to learn how to play the guitar again.

That other vampire movie

If you want a more compelling love story between a vampire and a human, you'd want to see Let the Right One In. The vampire is the girl and the human is the boy. They're both 12 years old. You get to see the vampire be like a vampire and the human be more like a human. It's a love story within a horror story.

I have to give the writers credit for convincing me to care for the vampire that, unlike in Twilight, actually did vampire stuff (like killing an innocent stranger for blood). Hey, it's not everyday that I sympathize with vampires. When I was eight, there was this certain time when I and my friends wore red arm bands as protection from vampires rumored to be roaming around preying on children. On hindsight, it was very naive of us to believe that a piece of cloth of a particular color would protect us from the bloodsucking creatures of the night, but the most interesting thing was that it was our parents who actually made us do it. It was as if all the parents in our neighborhood unanimously agreed that vampires did exist, infiltrated our peaceful village, and the red arm band would spare us. It was a very rural thing. And it was my childhood. And here I am, actually caring for this bloodsucking vampire in a way that Twilight never made me, however tame the vampires in there were compared to this one in Let the Right One In.

Go see it if you get the chance. It's a Swedish film based on a Swedish novel.

***

Speaking of writers who made me care for characters whom I normally wouldn't, I can say the same thing for the writers of the Prison Break TV series that is now in its fourth season. It takes time for a US series to come here in the Philippines. At first, I mainly only heard about this series in its pilot premier. I heard about it from the Fox News Channel. They were predicting it to be a hit and I thought I'd never watch the series if it ever came here in the Philippines. When I was young and whenever we heard news about a local prison break, our neighborhood would become alert all of a sudden and our parents would barely let us out especially if the escapees included murderers. I'd imagine, if that breakout from the first season of this popular TV series happened in our city, my parents would never let me out the house and play with my friends until all of them are aprehended or killed. And here I am, many years later, actually sympathizing with the escape convicts from the series. The writers should get an award for each season the series is on air.

You belong to me

Last week on American Idol, 64-year old Sherman Pore of Los Angeles, California was able to get on the auditions despite him being way beyond the AI age limit of 29 because of the petition that he and his wife worked on. He dedicated his audition song, Dean Martin's You Belong to Me, to his wife. She died of cancer two days before he got on the auditions. He sang from the heart and sent Paula to tears and Simon to being pleasant. The song itself is a very simple and beautiful love song.

You can watch his audition here (from Youtube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhWwTreZs0

Or you can listen to the whole song here:
http://annak75.free.fr/zic/tome.mp3



You Belong To Me
(Dean Martin)

Watch the sunrise on a tropic isle
See the pyramids along the Nile
Just remember darlin', all the while
You belong to me

See the market place in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me

I'll be so alone without you
Maybe you'll be lonesome too and blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it's wet with rain
Just remember 'til you're home again
You belong to me

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it's wet with rain
Just remember 'til you're home again
You belong to me

Sana maulit muli

They say that life is a game of destiny and that love is a matter of fate. But what if destiny seems to be playing a trick on you? Will you change your destiny if you were given that one chance?

Now that I'm done watching the first five seasons of 24, I now have a few extra time to watch something else on television or to read a book. One of these "else" is Sana Maulit Muli, the newest drama series on ABS-CBN. I can't talk about the plot without spoiling anything, so just read the first paragraph (and quote) of this post. It pretty much sums up what you can expect from this drama.

I like this drama, especially the first two weeks of it. The story unfolds relatively faster compared to the usual slow-moving Filipino television drama. What I don't like about it, and about Filipino TV drama in general, are the paper-thin, underdeveloped, supporting characters (villain or otherwise). It seems that the writers focus on what the main characters are all about and then just surround them with predictable supporting characters. In the episodes that I've seen so far, for example, there's only one supporting character (Camille, the fake Poknat) that hints of being more than a flat, straight out villain. So aside from the Travis/Bokbok and Jasmine/Poknat characters, only Camille is believable.

Right now, I'm interested on what will happen next. I'm just not sure for how long. I'm not sure if I can sustain the interest.

24: Jack Bauer's longest days

On the day that this year started, I had nothing else better to do. Actually, I did not want anything better to do. I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV as a reward for sitting on the couch and watching TV and then listening to music for the first three hours of the new year. Anyway, I happen to stumble upon "24" season 4 marathon on channel 23 (Studio 23) and got hooked. What a beautiful drama! It got action and it got story and plenty of characters trying to make a difference. Days later I bought the DVD's (seasons 1 to 5). Right now I'm in the middle of season four. Yeah, I know I've already seen this season, this is the first season that I watched, but still the DVD version is much clearer. For the last few weeks I've been sleeping at around 1 o'clock in the morning due to this unhealthy craving for at least an episode a night no matter how late I come home. This is one well-written series. I'd say it's better than Lost, the other well-written series shown on AXN and Studio 23. It keeps me on the edge of my seat with its suspense, and has me fighting back tears with its drama. It has plenty of heroes and villains that are real people with real emotions with real dilemmas while being true heroes and true villains. You prick them (literally and figuratively) and they bleed and cry.

24 is mostly about a day in the life of Jack Bauer of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Los Angeles Domestic Unit trying to save America from an imminent terrorist strike. Each episode corresponds to one hour of the 24-hour period covered by each season. Each season is Jack Bauer's longest day. And it is the reason for my longest nights of this first month of the year.