Vintage '80s television...

shows, when viewed with the critical eye of one who has witnessed the evolution of special effects over the past two decades, are really pretty cheesy.  Even when they are written and produced by the late, great Stephen Cannell.  Did you ever watch Stingray?  It's the show with the guy who helps people and the only payment he asks for is a favor - which can be anything at all - to be redeemed at a later date when he is helping someone else in trouble.  Sort of like Robert McCall in The Equalizer, only as I recall, people did pay Mr. McCall for his services - or how would he have paid Mickey?  Both series came out in 1985 and I've always found it odd that both shows had virtually the same premise: a mysterious guy with no discernible means of support who goes around helping people who have somehow gotten themselves into some serious trouble - usually through no fault of their own.  Maybe that sort of stuff happens in New York - where Mr. McCall and his classified ads could be found - and in Los Angeles, where Ray seemed to hang out in any number of bars just waiting for potential clients to buy him a drink and pour out their tale of woe.  I happened upon the DVDs of the entire two seasons of Stingray at WalMart a while back for a mere ten bucks.  How could any lover of eighties television pass up that kind of bargain?  I am sorry to say that I didn't even make it through the first half of the pilot episode before I was bored and wondering why I ever sat in front of the television wasting an hour the first time I saw it.  Maybe because that was the eighties and my twenty-something self still thought I had all the time in the world.  I don't know - but unless the second half of the pilot improves drastically the next time I feel like planting myself in front of the TV, the disc is going back into the case and into the drawer.

Or in the Goodwill box...

I had a lovely evening...

spent on patrol with Mr. Monk.  I really miss watching Mr. Monk solving murders in his own inimitable way on television, but I have the say that the books have turned out to be even better.  The latest paperback release, Mr. Monk on Patrol, is the best one yet.  If you're a Monk fan, you know that Randy Disher moved to Summit, New Jersey at the end of the series to be with Sharona.  He's the chief of police there and it seems he is having some difficulties with some city corruption.  He asks Monk and Natalie to head east and work with him for a few weeks to help catch some serial burglars.  I can't spoil the plot, but hilarity ensues, particularly when Mr. Monk meets a lady who runs a gift shop which sells items manufactured from, well, poop.  As you might imagine, Mr. Monk is horrified to the point of donning a hazmat suit to extract Natalie from the store.  It is purely delightful, purely Monk entertainment from beginning to end.  Not a bad way to spend an evening.  If you are a Monk fan, check out the mysteries - you will be glad you did!

The Cabot Cove of England...

is the fictional county of Midsomer and its various little villages: Badger's Drift, Martyr Warren, Haddington, and many others -as well as the larger county town, Causton, where DCI Tom Barnaby lives with his wife, Joyce, and daughter, Cully.  As with most shows of the cozy genre, it is ever amazing how many seemingly normal people are willing to commit murder for one odd reason or another.  We watched murder and mayhem for years on Murder, She Wrote and just imagine, it's been going on all along in England, too.  I tell you, I could watch the BBC every day and be perfectly happy.  Having watched every season of MI-5, I've moved on from terrorism to more mundane crimes on Midsomer Murders.  It's available for free on AmazonPrime and I've watched five or six episodes - and so far, it has not disappointed.  It's not so much mysterious, thrilling suspense as it is the mildly humorous business of the classic whodunit.  DCI Barnaby is a good judge of people and does most of his work through observation rather than direct questioning of the suspects.  His assistant, Detective Sergeant Troy, is good sidekick material and provides a good deal of comic relief with his lack of driving skills and brilliant perception of the obvious.  The coroner, George, is almost too good-natured for a man who spends the vast majority of his time with dead bodies.  Mrs. Barnaby cannot cook, much to her husband's chagrin, but is passionately interested in the arts and the theatre.  Their daughter, an actress, appears to be more like her father.  And then there's the oddball cast of what seems like thousands: the victims, suspects and various other individuals who inhabit the fictional jurisdiction of the thoroughly likeable fictional detective.  Midsomer Murders is not only entertaining and funny,  it's lots of fun, too.  Check out the pilot episode, and if you're even remotely a fan of Agatha Christie, you'll be hooked.

There's a new cast of characters...

in my head and they're spooky.  Well, not spooky, but Spooks as this show is known on the BBC.  MI-5 is one of the series you can watch for free on AmazonPrime - so obsessive compulsive that I am, I started with Season 1, Episode 1 and last night I just watched Season 7, Episode 6.  Yes, it's habit-forming.  One of the startling things about it, as opposed to American television, is that pivotal characters are killed off with alarming regularity.  Peter Firth is great as Sir Harry Pearce, the head of the British secret service and he is assisted in all things technical and espionage-related by Malcolm Wynn-Jones, played by an adorable Hugh Simon.  I am much more enamored of the older British gentlemen than I am the young ones, but then that's just me.  Matthew Macfayden of Pride & Prejudice fame (he was Mr. Darcy - not as good a Mr. Darcy as Colin Firth, but not bad) is Tom Quinn, the initial protagonist of the story.  He eventually suffers from spy game burnout and is replaced by MI-6 officer Adam Carter, played by Rupert Penry-Jones.  Adam has way too much angst to suit me - but who wouldn't, what with all the personal trials and tribulations he encounters.  When he's blown up by an IRA car bomb, leadership of Section D is taken over by Ros Myers - a super-spy with ice water flowing through her veins.  Can you tell I've really gotten into this show?  Anyhow, Richard Armitage has just joined the team as Lucas North - a spy who has come in from the cold, as it were in all his mysterious, blue-eyed, baritone glory.  And no, he's not as old as Harry or Malcolm, but he has great potential.  Seriously though, if you like the espionage genre of mysteries, check this out.  The last two seasons (9 and 10) are not available online yet, but I am hoping at least Season 9 will be by the time I finish watching Season 8.  Season 10 - the final series of the show - just concluded on the BBC, so I am sure it will be a while before I'll be watching that one.

And wondering: will Harry and Ruth ever get together?

If there is comfort food, is there also comfort TV?

Silly, right?  Now, you know I like murder and mayhem as much as the next person, but I am really tired of violence, bad language and gratuitous sex.  I think that's why I like to read - my imagination controls the decency rating of the images elicited by the words on the page.  Make sense?  No reality television for me, either.  I don't see the sense in rewarding people for behaving badly on camera.  Since I don't have cable, I watch what programs or movies I want to see online on on DVD.  I like the TNT shows like Memphis Beat, Rizzoli & Isles and Leverage - and I am disappointed that CBS cancelled CHAOS - I loved that silly show.  Anyhow, I've gone retro for the past week or so, watching the first season of Scarecrow and Mrs. King - very eighties - and I am sure that there are lots of kids out there who have never even heard of it!  I loved this show the first time around (fortunately I don't remember much of the story) and I still enjoy it: there's murder and mayhem but you don't have to see the blood and guts, there's mystery plots and intrigue galore, there's comic relief and there's even some sexual tension - but instead of wondering when they'll hop into bed, we're just wondering when Lee will finally kiss Amanda.  Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I am not ashamed to admit that I like wholesome television.  Maybe it's having been raised on Andy Griffith and Petticoat Junction.  Or maybe I'm just boring.  But I am still wondering when Lee will finally kiss Amanda.  On to season two...

While I'm in the mood...

for science fiction and conspiracy theory, I've started watching Season One of Fringe.  It came highly recommended by my friend, Richard, and I've watched three episodes so far.  The Dr. Walter Bishop character, freshly sprung from seventeen years in a mental hospital, is wildly amusing.  He is the quintessential mad scientist.  His son, Peter Bishop, is a charmingly sarcastic naysayer - like a Fox Mulder who isn't quite sure whether or not he believes the truth is out there just yet.  I haven't made my mind up about the rest of the characters yet  - or who can or cannot be trusted.  I guess that's the whole point of the show.  I'm going to keep watching just because I think Walter is a hoot.  I mean, the man can whip up LSD in his Harvard University lab!  I can't wait to see where his little pharmaceutical experiments go...

Just finished watching...

yet another television series that I missed completely when it was on during prime time.  Firefly ran on SciFi several years ago - and although it was cancelled after only fourteen episodes, it was actually not bad.  I used to watch a lot of the shows on SciFi (I love a good conspiracy theory!) when we had DirecTV - thanks to TiVo.  Sometimes I do miss that, but on Netflix it's actually nice to be able to watch a forty minute episode with no commercials while I'm having lunch or dinner.  You can watch a whole season of a series in a couple of weeks that way.  Firefly was okay - not as good as Eureka - but a space western is sort of a new genre for me.  I wish the characters had been better developed - but fourteen episodes is not a lot of time to develop a back story on a relatively large ensemble cast.  Here's the basic plot: Freedom fighter turned space smuggler travels from planet to planet with his band of merry men fighting injustice and creepy bad guys.

Oh, and shiny means cool.  Just in case you want to tune in.

It's a heat wave...

and I'm staying cool inside reading my Richard Castle books.  Actually, their style is very James Patterson, but who knows - they might be a collaboration between Patterson, Michael Connelly and Stephen Cannell (RIP) who are the fictional Castle's writing buddies.  That being said, they're quite good - almost as good as Castle itself.  It's transparent who the books' characters are - even though Castle (or whoever) has marginally changed their names.  Nice, light summer reading - murder, mayhem and New York cops on the case - with a bumbling journalist along for the ride, who just happens as it turns out, to moonlight as a writer of bodice-ripper romances.  I didn't see that coming.  Heat Wave is better than Naked Heat - and they should be read in order for continuity's sake.  Personally, I prefer the television series - but that's just me.  The next installment in the Nikki Heat series comes out in December - but my cheap self is waiting for the paperback.

And it gets better...

because Season Two is even better than the first!  I have to say that I like Castle almost as much as I like Bones.  But not as much as Monk, but that goes without saying.  The characters are much more human than the cast of Bones, but maybe that's just because I find Brennan a pretty annoying cold fish know-it-all type.  It's fun to see the development of Castle's interaction with his daughter and mother, as well as the way in which Beckett regards her crime-solving partner has changed a bit over time.  I am looking forward to their eventually solving Beckett's mother's cold-case murder - I mean, you know they will.  I'd like to see more of the medical examiner character, Dr. Parrish, because she is as hilarious as her counterpart, Dr. Perlmutter, is curmudgeonly.

And once again - no commercial interruptions!

Another guilty pleasure...

like I don't haven enough of those already...  Richard recommended Castle to me a long time ago, but for some reason I never took the time to watch it.  What was I thinking?  This show is great - and I'm only in the middle of watching Season One.  It's funny, suspenseful, well-written and the cast is great.  Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic are new to me, but I have always thought Susan Sullivan was an amazingly classy and funny lady.  The rest of the supporting cast is great, too.  It's a police procedural with a twist - the mystery writer is helping the cops solve crimes by getting them to imagine the story.  I love a mystery - and it doesn't get any better than this - with no commercial interruptions!

Those Geico commercials...

are a crack-up!  I just saw the "Do dogs chase cats?" commercial the other day for the first time.  That cat looks just like Peter.  He may be moonlighting as a stunt cat and I just don't know it.  I'll know for sure if the royalty checks start arriving in the mail.  Then I discovered that you can watch all the Geico commercials on YouTube - a boon for those of us who like to waste time on the internet.  I'll admit it - I've watched them all.  At least once.  I really love the "Is the pen mightier than the sword?" commercial.  Especially when the delivery guy asks for his pen back.  My dad used to say that when I was a kid, I could be running around the house making a general nuisance of myself when everyone else was trying to watch television (Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare or Sing Along With Mitch, probably) but when the commercials would come on, I'd be right in front of the screen watching with rapt attention.  In kid time, a commercial is just the right length.  I still get a kick out of them.

Bones...

Ever been too tired to read?  I mean, to concentrate on what you’re reading?  Well, that’s me the past few days.  As much as I’d love to put my feet up and peruse all the free books I’ve downloaded to my Kindle, I am just too tired to even think at the end of the day lately.  So I’ve started watching Bones.  It’s another one of those shows that was recommended to me by someone whose opinion I do not hold in high positive regard, so I’ve never bothered to watch it.  But Richard has told me for some time now that it is a show well worth a few minutes of my time, so I decided to watch the first episode.  I’m now halfway through Season One and I actually like it.  Not Bones herself – she’s incredibly irritating.  No one with her education and responsible position at the museum can possibly be that socially awkward and completely ignorant of other people’s feelings.  On the other hand, Booth more than makes up for her complete lack of likeability.  I love the boss and Dr. Hodgins is a trip.  Zack is a little out there, but he grows on you.  I haven’t made my mind up about Angela yet – but I am definitely looking forward to the next episode.  And it’s easier to concentrate on a forty-five minute mystery than it is to read for forty-five minutes without drifting off to sleep!

NCIS...

I love Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  It’s too bad he’s not a real person.  He’s kind, caring, smart, patriotic, steadfast and strong – not to mention seriously good-looking, even with that jarhead haircut.  And he’s been known to shoot bad guys in the ass.  What more could anyone want in a man?

I'm just not sure...

that I can like a serial killer.  Even if he does only kill bad guys.  I mean, it sounds like a good idea in theory, but the jury is still out on putting it into practice.  Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Law & Order over the years, but Jack McCoy or even Marshal Matt Dillon didn't just shoot the bad guy.  A friend of mine recommended this show to me - which in itself is surprising - and I tried to look at Dexter as just another TV show.  Well, that didn't work.  I know it isn't real, but I was completely grossed out by all of the blood.  And his lack of conscience.  Anyone who knows me knows I love a good murder mystery, but this goes way beyond the scope of any mystery I ever read.  I must have read too much Agatha Christie over the years - no blood, no gore, just a dead body and a detective who will eventually figure out whodunit.  I grew up watching Perry Mason and Columbo - even Murder, She Wrote was family friendly!  I watched the entire first season of Dexter, thinking maybe he'd grow on me, but it just didn't happen.  Perhaps I tried to experience Dexter Morgan too soon after the end of my all-too-brief  eight season love affair with Mr. Monk.  I don't know - but I do know that I won't be watching any more Dexter.  I'll leave him to the hardcore mystery fans.

Dinner and a Monk-a-thon...

Thanksgiving dinner with Tom & Al was great - Tom is an excellent cook.  The mashed potatoes were to die for - but of course, I forgot my camera - so no photos of the lovely meal.  (I borrowed the photo of the dogs from Tom's Facebook page...)  We even had homemade wheat bread!  These are their sweet rescue dogs: Cassie the rat terrier and mad French kisser, Duncan the smiling spitz and Suki the sweetie pie spitz.  They also have three cats: Daisy, a little seal point Siamese and her fluffy fourteen-pound husband, Chubbs and the latest addition to the family, Betty Grable, a mischievous grey kitten.  Aggie was invited, but had to stay home due to her bad behavior this morning - she got away from me outside and I had to chase her down.  No mean feat, believe me.  I am stuffed full of turkey, sausage stuffing, potatoes, corn pudding, homemade cranberry relish (just like my Grandma's!) and two kinds of pie: pumpkin and cherry.  Aggie and Peter got their turkey treat when I came home and we have settled in for the evening.

We're back to our Monk-a-thon - we're pretty much at the beginning of Season Three, watching the episode called Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf.  I don't know why everyone thinks he's so weird.  But that's just me. 

I've just discovered...

Mr. Monk!  I can't believe I never watched this great show - I mean, an OCD detective is right up my alley.  I just watched the first two episodes - thank you, Netflix.  And all eight seasons await me...  I can so relate to his uncontrollable urge to straighten things, even in other people's homes.  It's sick, I know.  But nobody's perfect.  Except maybe Mr. Monk.

The saga continues...

as I try once again to restore my damaged and possibly hopelessly lost Outlook pst file.  After using the utility software I got online, my Outlook calendar and email program disappeared completely.  Richard brought me his Office CD so I could re-install it, which I did, and I got Outlook back, but no files.  When I spoke to Tim about my dilemma, he offered to buy me the new Outlook 2010 software that should remedy the problem.  He was on his way to Naples this afternoon, but he has stopped at Best Buy and purchased the software - I just have to meet him at the I-75 exit tonight to pick it up since he needs to get back to Tampa as soon as possible.  I can do that - anything to resolve this computer issue!  And so I have distracted myself today by watching online episodes of NBC's new sitcom Outsourced.  It's apparently based on an independent movie with a similar plot line: Todd has to go to India to run a call center or he's out of a job.  It's pretty amusing - the characters are funny and it's hilarious watching this guy trying to explain why oddball American novelties are funny to the rather uptight call center employees.  As you might expect, Todd has fallen for the very attractive Asha who is in the beginning stages of choosing a husband for her expected arranged marriage.  Todd fills out an application - under the name of Pradeep - and slips his application into the file, in hopes that Asha will realize that Pradeep (Todd) is her soul mate.  Guaranteed to make us wish for a happy ending!  If you haven't watched it and like a good pointless sitcom, check it out - it's sweet and funny - with no redeeming social value.  My kind of TV show.

Happy Halloween...

Instead of answering the door for trick-or-treaters - of which there were none (knocks or trick-or-treaters), Aggie, Peter and I watched the pilot and first two episodes of Warehouse 13, a series from the Syfy channel.  I saw it in Netflix and it sounded good, so it went into my queue.  Since I don't have cable, I wasn't even aware that the show is still being broadcast.  Apparently it is now in season two - so I will have to catch up before season 3 starts.  I wonder if you can watch it online...  Anyhow - it was cute.  Sort of like X-Files meets the Librarian, both of which I loved.  It also has Saul Rubinek as the caretaker of the Warehouse - so that's a great reason to watch it right there.  I loved him on the Nero Wolfe mysteries with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin.  If you've never seen Warehouse 13 and you like light science fiction with a bit of mystery and humor mixed in - and can suspend disbelief, as Ambrose Bierce would say, my furry associates and I highly recommend it.

Arrested Development...

How did I ever miss this show?  I was probably too busy watching movies with Tim - he's a typical male channel surfer who hates commercials and can't stand to watch sitcoms or anything that even remotely resembles a chick flick.  That being said, he would surf the movie channels (we had a satellite dish at the time) and find a movie he'd seen before and then watch it from the middle to the end.  I can't tell you how many partial movies I've seen and pretty much memorized.  I can recite the dialogue from Fargo, Independence Day and Robo Cop (I like it! the idiot criminal shrieks...)  Don't get me wrong, I love movies.  But silly me, I like to watch the whole movie - not just the end.  Anyhow, I was raised on sitcoms.  My dad loved them and since he was in charge of the TV channel - my sister and I alternately served as my dad's remote (I'm showing my age!) - we watched most of the situation comedies that came along.  I loved My Mother the Car, Gilligan's Island, My Favorite Martian - you name it.  I know I missed some during the seventies and eighties due to college and a hectic work schedule - but I have rediscovered comedies over the past several years.  Somehow, I missed Arrested Development.  I caught up on it over the past week on Netflix.  If you haven't seen it, it is hilarious.  I don't think I could even decide which character is the funniest - although I am partial to Buster and George Michael - mainly because while neither of them have a clue, they are probably the sanest members of the family.  Oh, Michael (Jason Bateman) is sane - but this poor guy is stuck with the worst family on earth!  The best part is really the guest stars and the oddball characters they play: Henry Winkler as the clueless attorney, Liza Minelli as the vertigo-plagued neighbor and Charlize Theron as Michael's mentally challenged love interest, to name a few.  The whole story wraps up neatly at the end - but not the way one might imagine.  If you've never seen it, check it out for some great entertainment.

Lazy Saturday...

I love a good nerd comedy.  I love The Big Bang Theory and it irks me that I can't watch it online anywhere.  Netflix doesn't even have it yet.  However, while I was looking for a way to waste time something to watch on Saturday, I remembered that Richard had told me how funny Better Off Ted was.  I think I had actually watched the pilot episode way back when I had cable and so I thought, what the heck?  If you have never seen it, and you love a well-written nerd comedy, then this show is for you.  All of the characters are great, but Portia de Rossi steals the show as iron-lady boss Veronica Palmer.  She is at the same time brilliant and obtuse - and totally self-absorbed - but underneath it all, she has a heart.  Phil and Lem, the two brilliant lab geeks, can invent just about anything - after a fashion.  The dialogue is a riot and each episode contains a commercial for Veridian Dynamics at some point where they tout the company's latest technology.  My favorite is - and I can't even type this without giggling - a "new generation of hurricane-proof dogs."  I mean, was there an old one?  Ted, the main character, is the boss who wants everyone to like him.  He is attracted to Linda, a product tester,  who basically serves as the company's ethical compass.  Well, most of the time.  Better Off Ted is one of those unfortunately short-lived well-written shows that can't seem to snare an audience.  Except after they're cancelled.