Daily Musing: Notes from an Oscar Party

Oscars 2011 marks the end of another year of film-making, with a stammering king, the facebook and dream invasions seeing the most gold.  "The King's Speech" took home the major awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay), and Colin Firth added to the loot by winning best actor, as expected.  "Inception" captured most of the technical fields, nabbing statues for Sound (Editing and Mixing), Cinematography and Visual Effects, losing out on Art Direction to Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland", which also won for Costume Design.  "The Social Network" cashed in on Editing, Adapted Screenplay and Original Score.  The remaining acting categories gave other movies a chance in the spotlight, as Natalie Portman collected her shoo-in best actress victory for "The Black Swan", Christian Bale won best supporting actor and Melissa Leo best supporting actress, both for "The Fighter."

I was able to enjoy this year's awards at a viewing party where everyone made and compared their winning picks.  The competition became pretty heated as the show progressed and bragging rights were at stake ... cheating was alleged, lovely banter exchanged ... and while I didn't win (came closest though!), I had a great time.  Some thoughts/observations below:

*  EVERYONE was cheering for Colin Firth to win - collective sigh of relief when he finally did (and gold stars all around for getting that pick right!).  The guy has no enemies (or maybe we are still all just P&P fan-girls at heart).  Well-deserved, and the speech was so British.

*  I always knew Natalie Portman would eventually win an Oscar, but all the red carpet talk about her being the only choice to win made me secretly hope for an upset there ... happy for her though.  Maybe she'll break the best actress curse by not being married (does fiancée/baby-daddy count?) yet at the time of her win?  

*  Is there anyone Melissa Leo didn't thank in her speech?

*  Christian Bale's beard and head color-mismatch was distracting ... but is this the second Batman to win an Oscar (after George Clooney)? 

*  Honestly, I loved "The King's Speech", but how could a story essentially based on documented history be an "original" screenplay?

*  "The Wolfman" (which I hear is a terrible movie) eked out a win for best Makeup.  Still, nobody had the urge to see that one as, in the words of Cate Blanchett, "that's gross".

*  Seriously, I didn't expect Harry Potter to win anything, but it's still annoying to see "The Wolfman" win a little golden man while HP has nothing : (  As consolation, in what I thought was the most pleasantly shocking moment of the ceremony, I am treated to the hilarious auto-tune segment of Ron's "little ball of light" speech, followed by auto-tuning of "Toy Story 3" and "The Social Network", and concluding with RPattz/Edward singing "he doesn't own a shirt" to a shirtless Taylor Lautner/Jacob (I take back what I said about not finding anything relating to Twilight entertaining).

*  "Toy Story 3" won best anime feature.  Despite some thinking the film promotes hoarders of tomorrow, it marked the end of an era for those of us who grew up on this series - and/or for whom "Toy Story" was our first exposure to CGI animation.  With such sentimental support behind TS3, the visually brilliant, wonderfully cute and touching "How to Train Your Dragon" didn't stand a chance ... any other year perhaps (except last year ("Up"!)).  Sidenote: I just wish I saw "How to Train Your Dragon" in theaters in 3D - the trailers did the movie no justice whatsoever.

*  Most of my friends thought James Franco was high and behaving extremely oddly.  I must have been too biased by my love for the guy (even if his stint on "General Hospital" did not really do the show any favors ... soaps are such a dying breed, but that's a rant for a different time).  

*  Anne Hathaway's dresses were made of pure win or fail.  Too bad she ended the night with the most hideous one ... great singer though!

All in all, not the most memorable of academy awards, but a somewhat flat decent attempt at wrapping up an interesting year of movies - I got my one wish (Colin Firth winning), so I'm feeling generous : )

TV Wrap Up: Nikita, V, Gossip Girl

Some powers unknown must have been making amends for Cupid's failure to shoot an arrow my way this year, because Valentines day led to a glorious week or so of television. Some highlights below.

Just when I thought "Nikita" couldn't top the epic win that was "Alexandra", which gives Michael and Nikita a chance to work together (and sort out some unresolved issues) and, more importantly, explores Alex's background and awakens her inner demons, the show now gave an awesome cliffhanger in this week's episode.  This one's sure to be a game changer.  It's interesting that the CW supposedly retooled this show to be more demographic-friendly (W18-34 is what the network caters to), because I actually feel like it's gotten darker!  I'm loving it though, so shhh, nobody tip off tptb!

Nice to see "V" holding steady in the ratings - is it too much to hope for a miracle renewal?  I still need to check out "Fringe", but until then this is the only Sci fi show that's keeping my interest these days - "No Ordinary Family" is fading fast despite early potential; to say "The Cape" is disappointing would be a major understatement; and the jury is still out on "The Event" (not holding my breath).  In recent episodes, we saw a sleeper V being skinned, the Fifth Column rebels join forces (sadly to a bloody end - drama and future implications galore though) and finally begin to piece together what the lizards in the sky are up to (with Erica becoming leader of the resistance), Chad Decker being of some use (or at least not as annoying), Ryan being gullible and making some bad (possible irredeemable) choices, priest-no-longer Jack finally growing a backbone, Lisa showing more defiance against her mother, Anna continuing to be deliciously villainous (props to Morena Baccarin for making me completely forget Inara!), and a new possible evil on the rise, Diane, the dethroned but obviously still scheming ex-Queen V.  The son Tyler still irks me to no end (and now we know he's not indispensable ...  if only Erica didn't love him so much), and chopping off his hair only made it worse.  On the other hand, there was a blatant spark between Erica and Hobbes in the last episode, which is a pleasant surprise.  I always called chemistry here, but this was an intentional signal for where the story's going - lots of meaty stuff to work with too, considering our resident tough guy is the V "asset" responsible for the bloody showdown that killed Erica's ex(but not really)-husband ... and all because of another woman [cue ominous music and sh*t hitting the fan when she finds out!].  I love Hobbes though, so he better stick around!  Also, more action and making good use of the now-widespread fifth column network would be much appreciated (though where are the actual Vs within this resistance??).

Finally, I am officially back on the Gossip Girl bandwagon, for the duration of the "Dair" (Dan and Blair) whatchamacallit anyway.  The two screwballs have been entertaining me since the show's return last month and are pretty much the only reason I tune in, other than to marvel at how Layla from One Life to Live (Raina) was able to nab a fairly significant role in primetime (though I must say Raina the character is way less annoying and actually admirably rational - brownie points for calling Chuck out on his antics and default "Imma-hurt-you-back" tendencies).  Back to the definitely/maybe new couple on the horizon ...  

I just love their witty banter, the brutal honesty of their snarky observations of each other, their movie dates non-dates (and apparently morning coffee runs to plan for more), and just the fact that they tend to balance each other out (Blair tends to have more of a conscience, and Dan tends to be the one who actually gets mischievous).  For someone who's been criticized as being too judgmental, D certainly tolerates and (perhaps?) even enjoys B's company despite always assuming she's plotting away - he expects it and just lets her antics slide (whoever said being on a pedestal was a good thing?).  They've also both been showing increased concern for the other (B telling off S for the way she was treating D, and in the V-day episode, D hand-squeezing/comforting B, who was once again disappointed by Chuck).The V-day episode culminates in cuteness overload, when the two have a "When Harry Met Sally" moment and end up watching "Rosemary's Baby" (and is also referenced in WHMS) together over the phone.  Not to be outdone, this week's episode has Blair admitting to needing Dan's help (after some prodding of course), and the two end up eating pizza and watching "The Philadelphia Story" in the same room, on same couch, in Brooklyn!  Oh, and she also falls asleep on his shoulder.  So charmed and hoping the writers keep building this up (though the show does go on hiatus after next week - boo).

Shout-out to Ted getting Zoe on "How I Met Your Mother" - even though it will "not end well", I am entertained by the process.  Checked out the two new comedies "Mad Love" (love the 2 friends who bicker constantly, and haven't seen Jason Biggs in a while ... so will give this a chance) and "Mr. Sunshine" (so randomly random ... would absolutely not be watching except I really love most of the actors on this show).  Also, it may be that time has erased some of the bland memories, but I am strangely excited for the return of "The Event" on March 7th.

Here's to more quality storytelling ahead.

Smallville: Marking the End of an Era

Smallville has just returned for the final stretch of its 10th and final season!  Yes, Smallville is STILL on the air ... if only I could get a nickel for every time I hear this question when the show is mentioned these days ...

If I had to choose in high school which one out of all the shows I watched would still be around 10 years down the road, Smallville (which I only saw off and on) would NOT have been my pick.  Yet, here it is, three academic degrees and the rise and fall of a whole lot of television favorites later, the sole survivor of a time when thirty was old (cue "Strawberry Wine" playing in the background).  [R.I.P. Roswell, Dawson's Creek, Friends, Alias, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, BSG, 24, Lost and all those in between.]

I may not have been the most steadfast fan of this series and will admit I've missed a couple of seasons entirely, but I am truly amazed by its perseverance.  Smallville 2011 edition is barely recognizable from the fresh-faced debutante it was in 2001.  It has survived departures of major characters (Petey, Johnathan Kent, Lex, Lana ... basically Clark and Chloe are the only regulars left of the original cast), the fall of a network (the WB frog is no more) AND a move to the graveyard (aka where-shows-go-to-die) Friday night time-slot.  Yet, I have never been more devoted to this show as I have been for the past two seasons ... maybe because I luuurve Lois (especially!) and Clark (or Clois to the shippers), or the addition of the Green Arrow, or the increased action and superhero alliance storylines.  Bottomline, I actually like the grown-up Smallville more!

On a network targeting Twilight tweeners, where attention spans tend to be challenged (see recent ratings for Gossip Girl, the ex-hottest-show-on-CW), this show's staying power is nothing short of remarkable.  Even on Fridays in its last season, it manages to attract a larger overall audience than most other CW shows (all but the Vampire Diaries maybe?).  Sure, the network is all about the 18-34 women demo (which, speaking as someone who still fits in this group, is alienating and does a disservice to the network should it ever want to expand its market share), but losing Smallville and its sizable (and likely more diverse) audience will no doubt hurt.

Anyway, now that the gang is back, I am hoping confident (power of positive thinking, right?) the writers will wrap up this show in a way that will do it justice, and go out with a bang.  Clark and Lois sticking it out, more superhero team efforts (preferably including lizard Visitor Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort), Clark finally flying,  and the return of Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) would be much appreciated!  I would like to see Lana back too, but only so Clark can go all "you out girl Lois is the one" on her =P