Sick Sucks, and other things that are better

I thought today would be the day my cold would end.  But it wasn't.  Doesn't being sick suck?  You never realize how well you feel on a regular basis until you are sick.  Then you yearn for the times you felt good and make a promise never to take your wellness for granted.  But then you forget.

I've had my cold since I woke up at 6 a.m. Saturday to go in to teach my 4 hour lecture. I thought I would come out of it that day, so I went home, exercised, and showered.  Then before I went to dinner at my parents' house that night as a "reunion" since they got back from Italy, it hit me.  I felt terrible.

The dinner itself was good, but I felt like I was going to fall asleep at the table.  Yes, the pictures were nice.  Yes, the food was good.  But I realized that I was run down.  And I still am as I continued to go to work and teach this week, despite being extremely tired and achy. 

A small few family members have followed up to see how I was doing, along with a few friends, but that's it.  When you're sick and it's not happening to you, I guess you don't care.  C'est la vie. La vie.  Get it?  If you've seen "Easy A" you might.  That's a gem I'm keeping. 



But I'm hoping that I finally vanquish my fever that has been persistent, along with my cough and aches, by Friday.  I'm taking it easy as best I can in the little time I have at home, but just when I go to sleep it's seemingly time to wake up and do it all over again.  Here's to getting well.

On a more interesting note, the fall TV season is in full swing and it's great.  With cable networks rolling out programming all year long, it's detracts from the fall season. Personally I feel like I've had new shows to watch all summer, a time when reruns and reality shows sated the cable-waves.

Yes, I'll admit, it was sad to see summer shows "Weeds" (SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW THE END, BUT SKIP TWO PARAGRAPHS AHEAD) end, along with "True Blood," but at least we had something to follow each week. 
With "Weeds" the question might be for next year, "Who Shot Nancy Botwin?"  But if you look closely, there was a silencer on the gun and the shot we heard could have been someone taking out the shooter, who I think was the son of the DEA agent vowing revenge at the end of an earlier season. "True Blood,"  on the other hand, ended in horror with Tara dying on the floor in Sookie's arms after Debbie has shot her (Sookie took out Debbie).  Nan Flanagan is dead and it seems there will be hell to pay from the authority. 

But as for fall shows starting up, the NBC comedy block of "30 Rock," the ever better "Parks and Recreation," and the underrated but hysterical "Community" have all started back up in full swing. 
I'm excited for the upcoming fall season and I hope you all are too.  There's too much good TV out there.  As for new shows, I watched "The Playboy Club" for about 20 minutes and decided its premise and plot lines are ridiculous. I tried "Pan Am" and found it a little boring, but it wasn't terrible and has some potential. 

Aside from that I will need to catch up on "Person of Interest" and "A Gifted Man." I'm super excited for the fall TV season and even more excited to have some nice crisp, cool weather with leaves changing and the smell of wood burning in people's fireplaces in the air.  I hope that you are excited about fall as well not only because of the weather and new TV, but also because it's football season! Have a great night.

True Blood Recap: She's Not There (HBO)

Well, truebies, we waited for what seemed like a long time (although what if we were in the fairy plane?) but True Blood finally returned for its fourth season premiere last night with a vengeance. Read no further if you do not wish to know the events of last night's episode. SPOILERS AHEAD...

In an amazing attempt at revitalization, we last left our heroine Sookie Stackhouse as she vanished suddenly into the light that on last season's finale that Nadine worried vampire Bill Compton would take from her. Last night's episode picked up where we left off, with Sookie inhabiting the fairy plane.

She sees a fairy eating a glowing fruit and recognizes him as the telepathic bellhop from season 2. She is told by the fairy queen to mingle and eat the light fruit, which looks like luminescent peaches. She does not eat the fruit but recognizes her grandfather in a corner grove by himself, also eating a glow fruit.

She tries to communicate telepathically with him, suspecting they are in danger. The other fairies hear her and the alpha approaches her. As she had done in past seasons, Sookie uses her light to rebuff the fairy and fling her across the field. However, in a "Lost" season 5 moment, the time seems to shift them to a different place. Fairies begin fighting and Sookie and her grandfather are momentarily brought to safety by two rebel fairies.

They are soon standing at the precipice of the real world and the fairy world which is rapidly closing (and apparently this was what the fairies desired...complete separation). Sookie and her grandfather jump through and are transported to the cemetery in Bon Temps. Her grandfather, having eaten the glow fruit, loves long enough to see Adele's grave and then vanishes.

Sookie returns to her old house only to find that someone Jason has sold it. She refuses to leave when the workers tell her to, and the police are called. Who shows up? Officer Jason Stackhouse, who is ecstatic to see her. In tow is Sheriff Andy Bellefleur, who we find out is now addicted to V. Bill and Eric also show up because they sense Sookie's presence, but not before Jason tells her she's been gone for twelve and a half months, even though in fairy time she was only gone twenty minutes. Time works differently.

Bill and Eric leave, along with Andy B addicted to V, and it is clear that Jason does not believe her story. That is, until she gives him a watch from her grandfather that he had with him in fairy land.

So as not to make this too wordy, let us visit other character's arcs.

Jason: Now a full-fledged cop, he is helping to feed the were panther family. he brings them food and one of the were panthers tricks him into thinking the box freezer is broken. Jason is then pushed inside and locked in. Still no sign of Crystal. What's up with that?

Tara: now a female boxer in New Orleans. In the only sex scene of the episode, we also find out that Tara now has a girlfriend apparently. When Lafayette texts her that Sookie has returned to Bon Temps, she quickly lies to her significant other by saying that her grandmother died. Will she return to Bon Temps to see Sookie?

Lafayette and Jesus: these two are exploring Jesus's witch inclinations and visit a coven in Bon Temps. The witches are sitting in a circle, holding hands, and chanting. Who is their leader? Why none other than Irish actress Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley from the "Harry Potter" movies).

The coven eventually gets Lafayette to join their circle after Shaw's character Marnie grabs his hand and channels Eddie, a character from Lafayette's past.

The coven eventually bring back to life Marnie's familiar, a bird, for a few minutes only to have it die again. Everyone is mystified and Marnie is very excited. To be continued, for now I guess.

Hoyt and Jessica: after a lover's quarrel over food, Jessica angrily scrambles a dozen eggs, shells intact. Hoyt eats them to make his point, and long story short they make up and go to Fangtasia. Once there, though, Jessica meets a mysterious fan anger albeit briefly, runs to the bathroom, and is berated by the lovable but mean spirited Pam. Pam mocks the idea of monogamy and Jessica dating a human.

The best of the rest: Nan Flanagan and the American Vampire League are trying to remarket themselves post Russell Edginton  with Eric and Sam as mouthpieces. Sam has joined a drinking klatsch of other shape shifters to deal with his anger management after shooting his long lost brother Tommy last season. Tommy has apparently been taken in by Mrs. Fortenberry who needs a son to take the place of her beloved Hoyt.

However, and most importantly, we come upon the last fee scenes of the episode. Sookie had earlier gone to a lawyer (Portia Bellefleur, no less) to try to get her house back. Later we see Portia enter a highly fortified compound not unlike bin Laden's in Abbotabad to meet with none other than Bill Compton, the apparently new Vampire king of Louisiana. How eerie.

As we leave the episode, we see the person who bought Sookie's house: Eric. He bought it so that he could own Sookie. This looks like it will be quite an interesting season and I will keep you posted. Hopefully the were panthers, witches, vampires, and fairies can all just get along, but I doubt it.

The Killing of Molly Hartley

There was a remake of "Charade" a few years back. I wanted to see it but couldn't remember what it was called. I knew there was something about somebody named Charlie. So I called it "There's Something About Charlie." In reality it was "The Truth About Charlie" and starred Mark Wahlberg and sylph Thandie Newton. I still haven't seen it though.

Another example: my brother Dennis has a friend named JJ. I could never remember his name for the life of me so I just started referring to him as "RJ Berger." Instead of saying, "Did you go to JJ's?" I would say "How was RJ Berger?" My brother would get very annoyed when I referred to his pal JJ like this so I stopped.

Back on topic, the new AMC show that premiered last night, "The Killing," is something I had wanted to see since I started to hear about it a while back. I remember the ads asking, "Who killed Rosie Larsen?"

I could never remember the Rosie tagline, so I simply referered to the show as "The Killing of Molly Hartley." The mishmash I put together sounded syllabically similar to "The Haunting of Molly Hartley," a movie that came out in 2008 starring Haley Bennett, Chace Crawford, and the grrrrreat looking AnnaLynne McCord. Rosie Larsen sounded like Molly Hartley to me so that's what I call the show.

It was with great anticipation that I waited for and finally watched the first two episodes broadcast last night. For those detective fiction fans out there (myself included), this show is an excellent mystery that utilizes nearly all elements of the genre masterfully.

Based on the runaway Danish hit Forbrydelsen ("The Crime"), it's dark, sad, cynical, and wryly funny at times. It opens with Rosie Larsen's last moments, although in excellent Holmesian fashion, we are made aware something terrible is about to happen but we do not know at the hands of whom.

We follow Detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos, "Big Love") on her last day of work before moving to California with her son and fiance, as she is called in to investigate a report of a potential dead body based on circumstantial evidence. We also meet her cocky new partner, who appears to have secrets of his own.

Molly's (I mean Rosie's) parents are played well, particulary her mother Mitch Larsen (Michelle Forbes, the one who's not Tara from "True Blood," in the picture below, a.k.a. the white lady). Her mother is at the same time laid back and tragic as she grapples with the loss of her daughter. By the way, I'm not really spoiling anything since the name of this show is "The Killing" and AMC has been advertising so much.

A politician named Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell, who played The Rocketeer in the Disney film of the same name) who becomes involved in the investigation later on or a vengeful, stuck up ex-boyfriend, could have committed this crime. Everyone has a motive. Perhaps Linden's fiance who is awaiting her arrival in California had something to do with it?

If you have a chance to catch it on repeat or on demand I highly recommend it. Every time the show builds the motive and opportunity for each character, we are introduced to someone else who has just as much motive. As lovers of detective fiction know, the interconnectivity of the characters is nothing new.

Potential red herrings are flying, and only one will ultimately solve the mystery. But until then we (or at least I) will keep watching, trying to figure out who killed Rosie Larsen.

And swear to Taco is a pretty lame way to end a blog, so I'm considering other options. Any suggestions would be appreciated.