CSD: Fantasy Edition

I just had a really upsetting bout of my Character Separation Disorder.

I've dove headfirst into George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice and Fire series over the past week, and last night and today finally finished out the first season of HBO's adaptation of the books, Game of Thrones.

After shutting off Thrones, I started flipping and found The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring on Starz.

I was horrified as I watched Ned Stark (Sean Bean) try to steal The Ring from Frodo. HORRIFIED! Of course, here Bean was not playing Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, but Boromir of Gondor. And while Ned is you know, the man, and holds honor above everything, (except maybe the life of his teenage daughter...*sigh* Poor Sansa) Boromir is kind of a dick. But still ends up dead before the end of the first book. (Seriously, try playing a character who makes it.)

While the one thing that I've been assured is absolutely true in Martin's fantasy world is that no one is safe, I still find myself continually shocked when characters I love die.

Anyway, other ghosts of fantasy epics past who keep showing up in Westeros?

Osha, a Wildling (indigenous people) who befriends Bran Stark (the cutest little kid on the planet) is played by the same actress who played Nymphadora Tonks in Harry Potter. I do not want to see Osha die a horrible grisly Ice and Fire death, but at least I'll be prepped, having seen her do it before. (That sigh from before, for Poor Sansa, also applies to Poor Teddy Lupin).

It's also confusing to see Sarah Connor (or her TV version at least) running around ordering the death of direwolves and boinking her brother as she plays Queen Cersei. But, hey, at least she has a different hair color, such simple distractions make all the difference when you're suffering from CSD.

Game of Thrones in general is like begging me for a big ol' CSD attack, but I think I managed it pretty well.

Making it new

It was kind of a good year for new shows. Not a great one by any means, but there was a decent crop of new shows that made their way to us. And I picked up a few of them, two of which at least aren't coming back next year. (Hellcats we hardly knew ye...) And since I don't exist in a vacuum, where the only things that exist are my television, this blog and myself (I tried that once, it didn't work out), I asked some of my friends and family about what they liked best about that was new this TV season.

First, I'm going to talk about Mr. Sunshine, which did not get renewed, no absolutely no one's surprised. I enjoyed the show, Matthew Perry and Thomas Schlamme's little sitcom worked decently well, and if it had been given a chance to find it's stride I think it could have been really good. I was most excited about it because Perry was writing the show. While Matt had no comedy writing experience, per se, his reason for trying to write was because on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin cast him as a comedy writer and he wanted to give it a shot in real life. This got me thinking about other actors that might want to try out jobs that Sorkin once gave them. If Peter Krause hosted Sports Center, I might watch it more often, for example. Many a case of CSD has been caused about Martin Sheen being the president, and hell, perhaps Jesse Eisenberg would make an excellent CEO of Facebook. I do think it's funny that we got ten episodes caused by Matt's CSD about himself.

I wrote a whole post about how much I love Hawaii 5-0, and how I think everyone should watch it. It's nothing compared to my mother. Mom's as big a TV fan as I am, seriously, I come by this completely naturally. And we started watching Hawaii 5-0 for two simple reasons, Scott Caan, and curiosity. Sometimes remakes work, and Caan had already been involved in one that did (Ocean's 11!) plus he'd just had a pretty amazing run on my family's favorite show, Entourage. So we checked out Hawaii 5-0, and it really is fantastic. Remember how Law and Order used to be really awesome? It's like that, but in Hawaii. Also, after seven years, Grace Park managed to unseat Eva Longoria in my mother's mind as the Most Beautiful Woman on Television. If you've ever talked to my mother about Eva Longoria, you know what a really big deal that is.

My sister Mary does not watch as much TV as my mother and I, but she's still into it. When I asked her what she liked that was new this season, she had one answer, and one answer only, "Happy Endings!" Happy Endings is a late season replacement on ABC, about a group of six friends in their late twenties, navigating life in the big city. If it sounds familiar, please note that these friends are in Chicago, not New York, and they hang out in a diner not a coffee house. Also, there's a gay guy and a black guy. So see, it's different than that other show about six friends in their late twenties navigating the big city. When I asked Mary why Happy Endings was her favorite new show, (she still hasn't gotten over the loss of Scrubs. She hasn't loved anything the way she loved Scrubs, it broke her heart) she answered simply, "because, uhhh it's hysterical. Especially the gay guy. He's great...also I love that the girl from Scrubs (Eliza Coupe, and see, Scrubs) is married to a black guy, because on Scrubs she was hooking up with new black intern." You should know, this is because I demanded she expand and she did it on the fly.

Harry's Law might be my new favorite show of the season. I'm not alone by the way, it's also Katherine's favorite. In her words, (which I'm telling you are often the same as mine), "The lawyers work in a shoe store. And Brittany Snow is there. Do I need other reasons to love this show? Oh right, Kathy Bates. It's a wonderful, feel-good, underdog kind of story told in true David E. Kelley fashion and I cannot get enough." Kelley writes fantastic law shows. The Practice was always one of my favorites, and Ally McBeal had uhh...well, it had a really good cast. Harry's Law is following more in Ally McBeal's footsteps, in that it's a funny fish out of water, type show, but it's dealing with bigger issues than the length of Calista Flockhart's skirt and whether or not men and women should use the same bathroom.

Of course, that's just the stuff I was watching, but I do have to say, the fall season looks promising. Much more promising than this one, and this one was pretty good. Anyway, summer's coming, and with summer comes blockbuster movies, HBO, and lots of reading. I'm looking forward to it, aren't you?

Pop-cabulary

I realized earlier today that when I said used one of my favorite made up words that my friends and I use to describe things in pop culture, or life in a pop culture context. So here's a quick index of some of those words:

Jimandpam- verb When a TV couple isn't even on again off again, simply will they or won't they. Derived from The Office, who went 4 seasons Jimandpamming us all over the place, with Jim and Pam.

Used in a sentence:
"I'm getting fed up with Glee and how they keep jimandpamming Will and Emma."

Entering OTH Territory - verb, meaning when a show leaves behind all pretenses of being grounded in reality, or at all original. Derived from the way One Tree Hill did around the middle of season 2, when Nathan had that dream where he and Lucas switched places.

Used in a sentence:
"When Liz Lemmon dumped Matt Damon on the plane 30 Rock totally entered OTH Territory."

McLaren's - noun, any bar that is located underneath a residence. Derived from the bar where they hang out on How I Met Your Mother, which is located under Ted's apartment.

Used in a sentence:
"Remember when Katie had that apartment in Hoboken and we went to McLaren's?"

Character Separation Disorder (CSD) - noun, A difficult personality disorder in which a pop culture addict cannot separate an actor from the iconic roles they have played. Derived from something that I do frequently, also when my brother suggested that Martin Sheen could get elected president, because people in this country are that stupid and oblivious.

Used in a sentence:
-My favorite part of He's Just Not That Into You is when Rachel Greene marries Holden McNeil. It's so nice that he's not a neurotic paleontologist, and she's not a lesbian.
-The thing is, in that example, you're not suffering from CSD, that's just how lazy the characterization in that movie was.

The Jacob - noun, the third, usually more awesome tip of a love triangle who for some reason the main person in the triangle doesn't choose. Derived from Twilight, and Bella Swann's inexcusable stupidity of choosing Edward Cullen over Jacob Black, particularly in the movie versions, where she is choosing Robert Pattinson over Taylor Lautner and it makes no sense at all what so ever

Used in a sentence:
In this whole forced, QuinnFinnRachel triangle Rachel is totally the Jacob. But in the PuckQuinnFinn triangle, it's Puck and in the FinnRachelJesse triangle, it's Jesse. (Glee works well for this one, because like Twilight, it's protagonists are really stupid and whine a lot.)

Those are a few examples, any others?

CSD - Oscar Edition

Last night's Oscars were pretty much predictable, (Although The King's Speech taking home the biggie over The Social Network was kind of a shock) but the whole time my pop culture addled brain was completely thrown off, I will give you a glimpse into the confusion...

As the night kicked off and Mia Thermopolis and Harry Osbourne led us through the night's best picture nominees,I giggled a few times. It wasn't Oscar's best opening sequence, but it wasn't terrible either.

As the night continued on I couldn't put my finger on things, like why was Jackie Burkhart presenting an animation award with the guy from "D**ck in a Box?" And how did Princess Giselle lose yet another Oscar? She's been nominated every year pretty much...

Then some writer won for Best Adapted screen play and gave a speech that sounded exactly like something President Bartlett would reassure the nation with and I felt like I was going crazy! And everyone kept showing shots of Bellatrix LeStrange and I was thinking "OMG! Why hasn't anyone captured her?" Viola De Lesseps sang a country song.

Finally Jack Kelly won an Oscar and then later Padme Amidala got up there and she was pregnant, and I was all..."But you already had the twins!" and then to top it all off Mr. Darcy got up on stage and made the whole ballroom fall in love with him.

Character Separation Disorder is a very serious disease that affects pop culture addicts the world over. Learn more about it here, and please, spread awareness and if there is a pop culture addict in your life, give them a good shake and tell them that it's not real. These people are just actors. Just actors...

CSD and It's Victims

I've spoken before about my severe case of CSD or Character Separation Disorder. It's a terrible disorder that effects pop culture junkies everywhere. It is the inability to separate actors from the popular characters that they've played over the years, usually this happens with actors who work in franchise films, or who have been on television.

Here are some of the actors who I have the most severe cases of CSD with:

Joshua Jackson: The Mighty Ducks, D2: The Mighty Ducks, D3: The Mighty Ducks, Dawson's Creek, Fringe

For most people suffering from CSD Josh will always be Pacey Whitter, the lovable screw up. But anyone who's worth their pop culture weight, knows that Pacey was just a teenaged sexually active version of Charlie Conway, captain of The Quack Attack. And his current character, Peter, is just Pacey in a lab, and since Pacey was really just Charlie, without the skates and with a hotter girlfriend, it stands to reason that Peter is Charlie, all grown up and in a lab.

The Entire Cast of Entourage

This applies most strongly to Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven and Kevin Connolly, but mostly because Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon haven't done much since taking on Turtle and Drama. I can't be the only person who watched The Devil Wears Prada and thought, "Why is Vinnie following Aquaman with this? It doesn't make any sense for his projected career path." Or when I watched He's Just Not That Into You and I felt so bad for poor E when Scarlett Johansson was treating him like crap (the same way his ex Kristen did!) or well, Piven's a totally different story. Watch Keeping Up With The Steins, where he plays Ari but without the potty mouth. Or PCU where he plays Ari running a frat house. Or...well, I think you get the point.

Nathan Fillion: Firefly, Serenity, Castle, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

Let's be honest, Nathan Fillion is one of those actors who has fully embraced CSD. Castle is just a riff of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, just like Captain Hammer is a perversion of him. Castle even took this to the next level.

Matt Czurchy: Gilmore Girls, The Good Wife

Logan Huntzberger was a slimy, scummy pathetic excuse for a man until Rory Gilmore whipped him into shape. Matt's character on The Good Wife, Cary, is a slimy, scummy excuse for a man, with no Rory in sight to whip him into shape. This is a clear case of the writers even embracing it, when in last week's episode Cary stalled a judge on the phone as Alicia finished preparing a last minute brief, in the exact same way that Logan did when Paris self destructed one night at The Yale Daily News and he and Rory had to save the day.

Aubrey Graham aka Drake. Degrassi: The Next Generation, Huge ass Rapper

OK, so the first time my friends had me listen to "Unstoppable" I was impressed. I'm not a huge rap fan, but I like some of it (Eminem, Jay-Z, Biggie and Outcast) Then someone told me that it was Jimmy from Degrassi. I laughed, and said "yeah right!" Except it is. Personally, I like this better.

Because let's face it. Ash is a bitch. She had a right to her anger, because I mean, hell, if my boyfriend got Manny Santos pregnant, I wouldn't be happy either. (Of course if my boyfriend was Craig, I might forgive him.) But still, I'm just saying long before "Unstoppable" he was rapping about far more important things. Like how Ash should make Craig lunch.

Tomorrow I'll write about actors who have miraculously overcome CSD. Check it out