older blog (2006)

Millennium and Bricks?

Greetings, Gentle Reader, from the Parents-Reads House!
How strange it is to post a blog from here. The memories just come flooding back, which is, in itself, Very Strange, as I grew up before the internet was "cool" (or very accessible--I remember the days of pay-by-the-hour AOL!). But as Mom and Dad Reads are sleeping, and Mr. and Miss-Pup Reads are watching television on the couch, I decided, once again, to grace you with my presence.
In keeping with the mood of One Girl's Foray Into Geekdom (tm) that this blog strives towards, I wanted to talk about two recent additions to my geekosphere: the television show Millennium, and indie-movie Brick.

Mr. Reads and I, as previously mentioned, have subscribed to Netflix recently, and are working through all nine seasons of The X-Files. But sometimes (just sometimes, Dear Reader!) the discs don't come fast enough for our liking. As mentioned in "Part IV: Collecting New Geeky Things" of my blogging introduction, I'm very, very good at obsessing over new, geeky things (hence the apropos title of that post). What we do, and do very well, is barge through several seasons of a television show in a few weeks. We did this with Buffy, with Angel, with Carnivale and Sopranos and Band of Brothers. Working in academia allows for few stretches of time to call our own; between writing dissertations and grading papers and visiting family and--very rarely--attempting to have A Life, Mr. Reads and I find that, say, Thanksgiving, or Arbor Day, lend themselves well to obsessive tv watching. That is, of course, dependent on having current obsessions in hand.
All of this to say that we can't get our Netflix fast enough in those rare pockets of time, and the other six and a half days of the week, we are forced to work, *work*, Gentle Reader, instead of sitting on the couch, eating microwave Kettle Corn, drinking coffee or tea, and watching The Show.
All of *this* to say that we've borrowed Millennium from Mr. Reads' father, and are supplementing our Netflix viewings with it.

First episode, first season:
Very intriguing, albeit a bit anachronistic for us, as the Y2K fervor has, in the passing six years, proved to be a bit hysterical. Frank Black, a near-psychic profiler, is an intriguing and sympathetic character, but I find myself longing for Mulder/Scully repartee, witty barbs slashed back and forth between two rather interesting people. The tension just isn't there for me. First episode, first season of X-Files, you are immediately on the defensive. There is conspiracy about, darnit, and you will find out what the black hats are up to! But here, I don't feel conspiracy as much as legacy, and that legacy has long since expired. But who loves on the first date? We have several more episodes to go, and really, all of that "spare time."

Brick, however, is The Smartest Movie I've Watched In Months, the last being, of course, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. If you've not seen Brick, Dear Reader, or Kiss2Bang2, then you must run, run, run to the video store (or open a new tab on Firefox and pull up that Netflix queue) and rent this movie (or these movies) forthwith. When Mr. Reads' Very Hip 20-Something Brother asked me to describe said movie, I replied, "It's The Big Sleep meets Miller's Crossing meets Clueless/Cruel Intentions. That is to say, if Marlowe and Tommy and Vivian were in high school, this is who they'd be."

This movie is *smart*, Gentle Reader, and while I've said it before (re: Buffy, re: Angel, re: Firefly, re: X-Files, etc.) and I'll say it again and again, it's just true. It's Chandler meets Hammett meets my teenaged journal meets the Coen Brothers meets Vanity Fair meets genius. But a word to the fairly wise: through the first viewing, leave the subtitles on. The characters speak so fast and with such style and vivacity that lovely trips of the tongue may get lost in the shuffle.

Stay tuned, Friends, for more installments of Ms. Reads' Geekosphere Index. When I am more awake than I am now, mere hours after a lovely meal at The Melting Pot for Momma Reads' birthday, I will return to the discussion of superheroines and their tangible vs. physical powers, of the Mulder/Scully dynamic in The X-Files, and, of course, Whedonesque musings. But until then, I bid you adieu as I return to my irregularly scheduled programming of Vacation.

It's a fairly alien concept to me, so please understand if I am a bit giddy.

posted by Amy Reads @ 11:18 PM