Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Dollhouse: “Vows”

Echo gets married. No, seriously.

And should I find it funny that I find it a bit hard to hear the word "glitch" used on this show without thinking about poor SpiderGwen?

TV Quote of the Week

Nothing solves everything forever like a wedding.
--Julia Kavner, The Simpsons, "Rome-Old and Juli-Eh"

Movie Quote of the Week

From thy wedding with the creature who touches heaven, lady, God preserve thee.
--Jeff Bridges, King Kong (1976)

Movie Song of the Week: "Wishin' and Hopin'"

In honor of the late Hal David, a cover version by Ani DiFranco of one of his more famous songs. In case you don't recognize the origin of the clip, it's from the opening credits of the 1997 movie My Best Friend's Wedding. However, that is definitely not Cameron Diaz in the bridal outfit -- gracias a Dios.

Pop Song of the Week: "Hot N Cold"

But enough about the presidential candidates, Ms. Perry. Apart from that, how do you really feel?

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): "The Wedding of River Song"

That's it? That's the big season finale?

I should have known something was up when I found
myself increasingly distanced by the show's endless references to the Doctor's impending death. Granted, even kids in grade school had no problems predicting that the Doctor really wouldn't die at the end of this season, but still...

In any event, I still enjoyed the episode. I just wish things had been tied together just a bit more.

And I did love the hint that the Doctor was Jewish. Indeed, at the end of his impromptu wedding ceremony, I kept expecting him to break a wine glass beneath his feet while Rory and Amy cried, "Mazel Tov!" But I guess Moffat figured he had played with the minds of Doctor Who fans long enough.

However, I find myself even less optimistic about the next season than I was at the end of last season. And that is a real shame given that Matt Smith has shown a lot of potential this season for becoming one of the most memorable Whos since -- well, David Tennant. I don't really want to see the show go back to its "Doctor Who as the ultimate imaginary boyfriend" formula of the first few seasons but I don't want to see it become unwatchable either. So once again I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Though, come to think of it, a Doctor Who/Primeval crossover episode would not be a bad way to start the next season...

Movie Song of the Week: "I Love to Cry at Weddings"

For the good people of New York -- and of course, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Trailer of the Week: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)

Who needs a royal wedding when you can go see a movie like this?

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Sarah Jane Adventures: “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith”

Oh, no! It's the last appearance of David Tennant as the Doctor ever! And for what it's worth, it's a doozy.

Plus there's some funny business involving Sarah Jane and the mysterious gentleman she is planning to marry -- and no, she isn't marrying the Doctor but I can't say more than that without revealing -- you know -- spoilers.

However, I will admit that it was nice that the writers for this series found a way to get K-9 out of that black hole. Surely that doesn't count as a spoiler, right?

Pop Song of the Week: “Running with the Night”

Sheila E. sitting all alone at a Mexican wedding reception? For some reason, I find that hard to believe. And oh, yes, Lionel Richie is in this video too.

Movie Song of the Week: “June Bride”

Given the number of wedding songs I posted last June, one would think that I would have remembered this one prior to last week but I did not. From 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, it is the most obvious June wedding song one can think of -- if one is not me, of course.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Update: There's an even longer version of this song available on YouTube but it's not available for embedding. So you have to follow this link to see it.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Office (U.S.): “Niagara”

For some reason, it's not fashionable to like traditional wedding scenes in TV shows which is a shame because traditional weddings can be just as much fun to see on TV as they are in real life.

Anyway, this was not exactly a traditional wedding episode and I thought the writers did an excellent job of combining cynicism and sentiment in that special way that we have come to expect from this series. Plus I got to see a bit of Niagara Falls, which is always nice, though for some reason, the Falls never seem as impressive on TV as they do in real life.

I must confess that I would have gladly forgone the inevitable shout-out to a recent YouTube video but to be fair, even that part was true to the show's characters. Michael Scott -- the boss of the happy couple Pam and Jim -- has an established history of stealing the thunder from other people's special occasions and of course, he also has a history of borrowing ideas from the Internet, regardless of whether they make any sense or not. So it was rather inevitable that he would do that yet again, regardless of whether Pam and Jim wanted him to do so.

That said, I am glad he is a fictional character because my own real-life wedding plans had enough problems...

Movie Song of the Week: “One Hand, One Heart”

One of my favorite wedding songs from one of my favorite movies, 1961's West Side Story.

I hope you like it.

Movie Song of the Week: “Sunrise Sunset”

My late father was never much of a movie musical fan nor, of course, was he Jewish. However, I'd like to think he'd appreciate the sentiments of this song from 1971's Fiddler on the Roof. If nothing else, it reminds me of my sister's wedding which took place in late May over two decades ago. For that matter, it reminds me of a first cousin's wedding I once attended and indeed, from a certain angle, the bride shown in this clip almost looks like the cousin in question. Curiouser and curiouser.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Runaway Bride”

Oh, great. A week after my breakup with my former bride-to-be, I broke down crying halfway through a viewing of Sweet Charity. Why? Because I had just gotten to the part when Charity's boyfriend was breaking up with her and for some reason, the scene evoked bad memories.

Yet weeks later, I'm watching an episode of Doctor Who that seems calculated to push all my emotional buttons and I don't even shed a tear. (I did cry the morning after, but I wasn't exactly thinking about the episode at the time.)

The emotional buttons in question:

1. Disrupted wedding? Check.

2. Bride-to-be who has issues with her parents. Check.

3. Reminder of a past girlfriend (Doctor Who's, of course, not the bride's, though that certainly would have made for an interesting subplot). Check.

4. Torrent of endless heartbreak. Check, check and check.

And yet again, I note, I did not shed a tear.

I don't know how to explain it. I still go off when I see certain reminders of my bride-to-be though I do not go off as often as I did two weeks ago. But it seems a trifle unfair to take it out on the show and I must admit that “The Runaway Bride” was one of the better episodes I've seen. (Someday, I'll give my thoughts on earlier episodes but not right now.)

Anyway, the story proved to be very entertaining. I must admit to having a soft spot for spunky redheads and while the runaway bride of the episode's title was not hardly the brightest companion the Doctor has ever had, she was certainly one of the most memorable.

I'm not sure what to say about the not-so-subtle anti-marriage subtext (after all the romantic rhetoric about marriage in Season One's "Father's Day" episode, this episode's take on marriage seems a bit harsh). Nor do I really want to comment on the subplot concerning a deadly single mother. (Yes, another single mom. Apparently the show's writers have a weakness for such characters.)

And what's with the episode's last-minute deus ex machina? Could it be connected to a future episode?

It's interesting to compare this series' “so what?” attitude to interracial relationships to the “let's shock the bourgeois” attitude seen in Borat. Of course, it would be argued that any series that has an alien as its protagonist and Earthwomen as its secondary characters would have to have a liberal attitude towards interracial relationships lest it suffer a charge of hypocrisy. After all, who would want to watch a show that expects you to buy the lead female character mooning over an alien but has trouble depicting a relationship between a black Earth man and a white Earth woman? Okay, some people probably would, but not the type that I prefer to know.