ReviewsHow I Met Your Mother 6×15 – “Oh Honey”

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I haven’t written about the last few episodes of How I Met Your Mother because I thought my comments would be redundant.  I was happy to see that Robin finally, finally getting some job satisfaction and upward mobility in her career, and felt sad for Marshall because he lost his father so suddenly, but didn’t have much else to say.  I have a few brief thoughts on last night’s “Oh Honey.”

The Feminist in Me Thinks… I am so beyond tired of the “Barney hits on dumb girls, manipulates them in their dumb dumb dumbness, and the hot dumb girls sleep with him in all their dumbosity” plots on this show.  The writers are enamored with womanizing Barney to the point where they ruined a very promising Barney/Robin romance last season.  I much prefer the Barney who concocts ridiculous schemes that have nothing to do with seducing dumb women, and are just ridiculous for absurdity’s sake.  So I was pleased to see him break down in front of “Honey” and cry about his daddy issues rather than actually sleep with her.  There are two reasons why Barney’s womanizing can still be funny on occasion: NPH’s talent as an actor, and the fact that Barney only succeeds about half of the time.  I’m enjoying the character much more than I did last season because they’re finding a decent balance.

The Comedian in Me Thinks… By far, the most amusing part of the episode was Marshall’s older brother Marcus recounting the Ted/Zoey story with overly flowery narration ripped out of the pages of a fairy tale romance, and then capping it off by tricking Marshall with the oh-so-old “Hertz Donuts” joke.  I also giggled when Robin wound up ruining the dinner party because she was thinking of the oven settings in Celsius – even though that would result in her UNDERcooking the meat, no?

My Verdict: Go away, Katy Perry.

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ReviewsGlee 2×11 – “The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle”

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Theresa Basile

On the very special Superbowl episode of Glee, Will and Coach Bieste force the Glee club and football team to join forces and get along so they can get rid of the enmity between the group, Sue Sylvester gets angry and throws a lot of things, the girls step up their game, a bully almost gets redeemed through song and dance, and Kurt and Blaine get precious little (but still precious) screen time. Continue reading →

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ReviewsBridesmaids Trailer: Initial Impressions

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Oh, wow.  I am super conflicted about this:

This movie looks like it might entertain me and irritate me in equal measure.  It looks both feminist and anti-feminist, both stupid and smart, both original and cliched, all at once.

I could wait until the movie actually comes out to write a review…but where’s the fun in that?  I’d much prefer to analyze its worth based on the 2:21 minutes I’ve seen so far. Continue reading →

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ReviewsCommunity 2×14 – “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Theresa Basile

In this week’s Community, we have another bottle episode.  This time, instead of getting stuck in the library because they’re searching for Annie’s pen, they’re in the library all episode because they’re playing Dungeons and Dragons with their suicidal classmate, “Fat” Neil, trying to break him out of his depression and extend an olive branch of friendship.

This is the exact kind of premise that makes me love this show so, so hard.  One of the best things about Community is the way it will take a serious issue or a character’s internal dilemma and turn it into an incredibly silly episode without sacrificing the heart.

Was this episode successful on that front?  Yes and No. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsThe Top 4 Reasons Why I Love and Hate Glee

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Theresa Basile

After a painfully long two-month hiatus, Glee is finally returning to FOX next week with TWO episodes: one airing right after the Superbowl, and one during its regularly scheduled time on Tuesday.  Prepare for a Glee invasion on this blog (complete with Glee-related puns) because the thoughts I have about this show could probably fill a book.

The 2009-2010 TV season was good to me, as it introduced me to three new shows – The Vampire Diaries, Community, and Glee – to fall in love with.  But if shows were high school students, The Vampire Diaries and Community would be the naturally gifted and hard-working kids who aced every test, and Glee would be the kid with a ton of raw talent who never did any homework.  The show manages to fill me with delight and thoroughly irritate me in equal measure just about every episode.

Why?  Well, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time and material to elaborate when the show returns for the second half of Season Two, but in brief, here are the Top 4 Reasons Why I Love and Hate Glee. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsJane Austen Reader’s Block: The Problem with Fanny Price

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I planned to make January 2011 my month for rereading all of Jane Austen’s novels, but it’s February and I’m only halfway through.  Oops.  I can keep reading, of course, but while “Janeuary” has a certain punny ring to it, I don’t think “Februausten” is as catchy.

So why have I fallen behind?  Part of the delay is because of the blog.  Writing about everything I read and watch takes twice as much time as simply reading and watching.  But I’ve also, admittedly, hit a wall with Mansfield Park. I reread the first fifty or so pages a week ago, put the book down, and haven’t returned to it since. Continue reading →

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Blog PostsFemale Character of the Week: Britta Perry

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Theresa Basile

All the female characters I’ve honored so far have endeared themselves to me the first moment I met them.  The one I’m honoring today was an acquired taste, and deserves some kind of Most Improved Award.  Since I’m still high on the joy of having Community on my screen every week, I’m selecting Britta Perry as my Female Character of the Week. Continue reading →

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ReviewsEasy A: A Fauxminist Film

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Theresa Basile

It appears that star power is on the rise for the funny, luminous Emma Stone.  She first caught my attention as the snarky cool girl who was way too good for Jonah Hill’s character in Superbad (and not because she was hot and he was fat, but because she was sarcastic and witty and he was whiny and entitled).  She continued to charm me all the way through Zombieland, which was no easy feat when she was the prickliest of the four main characters.  Finally, someone decided to give her a starring role in a movie called Easy A. I saw the trailer for this and was immediately intrigued.

I thought, “Ooh, feminist issues!  A comedic look at sexual hypocrisy in society, especially high schools!  A cast with funny actors!  Count me in!”

I saw it in the theater.  I laughed.  I sympathized with Emma Stone’s character Olive, found myself crushing on the character played by Penn Badgley even though he failed to even make a blip on my radar on the one episode of Gossip Girl I watched, and thoroughly enjoyed every scene with Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s quirky, hippie parents.  I went home with a smile on my face.

The smile soon turned into a straight line, which eventually became a scowl, as the more I thought about the movie, the more it annoyed me.  I think it’s much less feminist than it seems, and for that matter, not as funny as I thought it was when I first saw it.  (Warning: Spoilers ahead). Continue reading →

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Blog Posts1/30/11 – Links I Like

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Theresa Basile

It’s time for another Sunday blog roll.  Here are links that I like this week:

Iconography: Covering Up Race – at Bitch magazine.  A look into a disturbing trend in YA publishing.  Books that have people of color as their protagonists are being whitewashed – as in, the book covers will display white people.

Review in Conversation: Black Swan – at Bitch Flicks.  A discussion about Black Swan and its levels of feminism or anti-feminism.  I saw the movie twice and loved it, but the reviewers have interesting points about Barbara Hershey’s stage mother character and a woman’s impossible pursuit of perfection.

Reasoning with Vampires – a Tumblr that is made of win.  Every day – sometimes even twice a day – the owner will post an excerpt of one of the Twilight books and mock Stephenie Meyer’s awful prose.  The whole account is made of win.

Trailer for the movie, The Tree of Life.  This ran before Black Swan. I missed the trailers the first time I saw it, but saw it the second time.  I’m linking to it because I’ll give five dollars to the first person who can tell me what the hell this movie is about, without having to look it up.  Is Brad Pitt Sean Penn’s father…from the past?  Is this some futuristic dystopian society where soldiers are tear-gassing neighborhood kids…except it looks like the 50s?  I DON’T GET IT.

Chipping Away at Roe…and the Definition of Rape – at Shakesville.  This isn’t so much a link I like, as a link that is necessary to read because it’s infuriating.  The House wants to introduce an anti-abortion measure that would restrict and chip away at the definition of rape.  Whether one agrees with abortion or not, this measure is horrifying.  My representative in Congress does not support this bill, thank God, but if yours does, you should write letters, emails, or call.

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ReviewsCommunity 2×13 – “Celebrity Pharmacology”

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Theresa Basile

On this week’s episode of Community, Annie put on an anti-drug play, but compromised her artistic integrity when Pierce wanted to be center of the show, because he gave her money for rent when she was hurting for cash.  Chang continued to try to get close to Shirley, and Jeff decided to mess with Britta by texting on her phone and pretending to be her – and wackiness ensued!

The Feminist in Me Thinks…I hold the belief that nothing should be off-limits when it comes to comedy.  At the same time, I get very uncomfortable with rape jokes, and angry with jokes about periods.  Rape is NOT inherently hilarious while rape jokes like to pretend it is, and period jokes usually fall under the “look how crazy/irrational women are and look at the poor men who have to put up with them!” variety.  This scene from last night’s episode has a joke about rape and periods:

I laughed at both. Continue reading →

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