Lobo: A New Addiction

I blame Raissa for introducing me to this highly addictive (at least for me) TV series about werewolves (lobo) and a group of military-trained people and scientists determined to exterminate them. The series is shown in the Philippines and in the DirectTV Filipino channel as a daily 30-minute episode which began in January of this year. To date there are 116 episodes and the teleserye (TV series) will have its finale this month, and in my rough calculation there will be a total of 128 episodes on 16 DVDs, that's 8 episodes per DVD. I bought the first 16 episodes on DVD vols. 1 and 2, vols. 3 and 4 arrived yesterday, yay! another 16 hours of viewing. 96 hours more to go, oh boy.:D

When we were in the Philippines I barely watched local TV except for sitcoms and late night talk/variety shows, nothing during the day because I was at work. But I love werewolves movies no matter how cheesy they are, one is the awesomely cheesy 70s British movie THE BEAST MUST DIE. Another of my favorite werewolves movies is DOG SOLDIERS which is rather gory and of course a bit cheesy which is why I like it.

LOBO is part action, part comedy, part drama, part romance, well a little too much romance IMHO, but it's okay. My favorite scene: when the 2 main characters were still kids, they each have a necklace broken in half that when they connect together the girl utters "magic embrace!", I laugh my head off, my daughter and I have endless fun saying it to each other. So cheesy yet so lovable, my kind of TV show. Favorite expression: claro? (is that clear?). Just like Raissa I'm hopelessly addicted*sigh*.:D

For the synopsis and episodes click here.

I Heart Chuck!

CHUCK, that's the new NBC show that debuted last night and it was love at first watch. The show is Mission Impossible meets Beauty And the Geek, the difference is the Tom Cruise-like character died, which is good, and the beauty who is actually smart, works as a CIA agent and is adept in using knives to defeat her adversaries of the moment. The whole show is funny, not slapstick, but intelligent funny and action-packed. Read more here. Chuck, the lovable geek and social nerd, works at a BestBuy-like store and drives a tiny geekmobile. He shares a house with his sister and her boyfriend, also his co-worker and best friend is even geekier than he is. The dead guy sent him an email containing government secrets that got embedded in his brains when he opened it which will eventually lead him in coming episodes to work with the agents. My favorite scene: When Chuck and the girl were preparing for their date, in their respective houses of course, she was strapping on her ankle a thin belt full of small knives and wore 2 deadly metal chopsticks as hair accessory which she later used against a group of NSA agents while they were dancing in a club. Chuck did not notice the approaching men in black and that they were falling one by one except for one. But he wised up to the government agents' agenda, prevented an assassination, disabled a bomb, then went back to his job the next day. All in a day's work. Excellent show. I now have something to look forward to every Monday evening.

For the past 2 or 3 years I have been watching only a handful of the regular network's TV shows, Heroes, Medium, and Law & Order SVU are my favorites. There were no sitcoms or dramas worth my time. I occasionally watched Dancing with the (has been)Stars and regularly some of Bravo's reality series like Project Runway and Top Chef and the very funny Showdog Moms & Dads a few years ago. I think I'm the only person on this planet who hasn't seen a single episode much less a single minute of Grey's Anatomy, I got tired of Desperate Housewives pretty quickly, and lost interest in the second season of Lost.

The new TV season looks promising. The Journeyman is okay but has the potential to improve. I'm not sure about Bionic Woman but Ill watch it, Pushing Daisies from ABC is also interesting. Sitcoms are hopeless, though, nothing new that will make me watch. I miss Seinfeld. I'll continue watching America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek, at least they're entertaining.

TV, Movies & A Book on CD

I reserved a book, PUCCINI'S GHOSTS by Morag Joss, at the library and when I picked it up today I was given a book on CD (11 cds in all) instead of the book itself, I'm not sure how it happened. I have never tried "listening" to a book before but I took the CDs home anyway. I made another reservation for the book and will have to wait probably 3 more weeks for it. I listened to cd 1 in my car and I kinda liked it, it's not bad at all. I feel like a child having strangers tell me a bedtime story, and I will be able to continue "reading" while doing other stuff, like beading.:-)

TV shows: I haven't been watching a lot of tv lately, there aren't many interesting new sitcoms or dramas. The only shows I regularly watch are Heroes, Medium, and Law & Order SVU and the reality shows Project Runway and Top Chef. Top Chef had its finale last week and Bravo introduced another reality show, Top Design with Todd Oldham as host. There are 12 contestants, 6 men and 6 women, although I believe ALL the men are gay, including the married one with a 3 year old child. Even the tough guy who complained that he will be living with all these "girls", I think is also gay, he was eliminated on the second episode. The show is just okay, not as interesting as Project Runway, it also has some product placements but not as blatant as Top Chef. The judges seem to be uninterested and lifeless, I'll give it another week to see if something exciting happens.

Movies on DVD:
I just saw a very fascinating, funny, intelligent, entertaining, bizarre, and sad (in a way) movie, I love, love, love it: THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP by the same person who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is one of my favorite movies. This is the kind of movie that you will either hate or love, there's no in between. If you don't get it you will hate it for sure. Five Brilliant Stars

HOLLYWOODLAND, a movie about the actor who played superman on TV, George Reeves. I borrowed this movie because Adrien Brody is in it. I absolutely love him (and his beak) in DUMMY and of course THE PIANIST. The movie is very good, Ben Affleck is surprisingly not bad. Four Stars