Two weeks ago, I invited those who were interested to ask me any question they liked, with the promise of an honest answer, provided that the question wasn’t asking me my street address or Social Security number. There were some great questions asked, and while these answers are a week late, I hope they still prove to be interesting!

No question of the week this week, but I do have many answered questions to make up for it:

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: Black books

Summary: Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) runs his own bookshop despite his dislike of customers and employs former stress victim Manny (Bill Bailey) to help him run the shop, encountering many hilarious obstacles with the help of Fran (Tamsin Greig), the proprietor of the store next door

5 Words/Phrases: Hilarious comedy; pitch-perfect performances from the main cast; lots of UK TV stars that had guest appearances; possessed a unique charm; annoying laugh track

Most Impressed By: The great comedic timing from Moran, Bailey, and Greig – they are all superstars of comedy for a reason!

Least Impressed By: The godforsaken laugh track often made things less funny than they actually were

Overall Rating; 9.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: A touch of romance. A touch of mystery. A touch of magic.

Pushing Daisies Season 2

Summary: The story of a piemaker, Ned (Lee Pace), who can bring the dead back to life and works with private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) to solve murder cases as well as running his bakery, The Pie Hole, with the help of waitress Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth) and Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), Ned’s childhood sweetheart he brought back to life

5 Words/Phrases: Very visually bright and stunning with excellent costumes, quick and witty dialogue with moments of great comedic timing, good development of storylines introduced in season 1, sometimes a little too much going on in each episode to keep track of everything, satisfactory ending considering the early cancellation of the series

Most Impressed By: The interactions between Ned/Chuck/Olive/Emerson; the development of old characters and storylines; the closing narration in the last and final episode

Least Impressed By: Too many storylines at once at times; some characters/plot lines were introduced without any seeming relation to the rest of the episode/season

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Since I asked for TV show recommendations last Sunday, it’s only fitting that I post a list of my favorite TV shows in the hopes of introducing people to fantastic TV. (I should have probably done this the other way around – posted my list of favorites first, and then asked for recommendations from others. Oh well.)

These are my all-time top five favorite TV shows, in order:

• Skins
  This drama is complete and utter brilliance. It’s about the lives of a group of British teens and their lives of love, drugs, alcohol, authority figures, and the trials and tribulations they encounter as they grow up. It’s very realistic and I could picture myself and my own friends in many of the situations that were present in Skins. It’s just the best show there is out there. My favorite character is Michelle (April Pearson).
• Spaced
  I’m a huge Simon Pegg fan; Spaced was one of his earlier projects. The comedy is spot on and each of the characters are equally nutty. The humor is sharp and witty, and there are some slick pop culture references. It’s brilliant!
• How I Met Your Mother
  While the main character of Ted (Josh Radnor) irritates me (I find him really pretentious), the rest of the cast and the brilliance of the characters more than make up for it. It’s about Ted’s quest for true love (the show is narrated via flashbacks as Ted tells his children the story of how he met the kids’ mother) and the outrageous, humorous, and funny things the gang does along the way. My favorite character by far is Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris). He very well might be one of the best characters on all of TV!
• The Big Bang Theory
  The Big Bang Theory is geek humor (for lack of better term) at its best. The two main characters, Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), are brilliant physicists, but their lack of “real world” knowledge is one of the main aspects of the show. Jim Parsons is fantastic as Sheldon and he’s essentially what makes the show so great. (I’m so excited that he got an Emmy nod for this!)
• The Tudors
  Showtime’s racy show about Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and his six wives has utterly captivated me from the very beginning. This is to be expected as my favorite era in history is the Tudor era and my favorite historical figure is Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer), Henry’s second wife, but The Tudors does an absolutely fantastic job of bringing history back to life in a compelling and remarkable drama.

Shows I also like but didn’t make the top 5: Supernatural, Chuck, Gossip Girl¹, Pushing Daisies, America’s Next Top Model², and Merlin.

1. Gossip Girl would have been on the list if season 2 hadn’t gone wrong in so many ways! I’m hoping things will pick up in season 3. [↩]
2. ANTM is more of a guilty pleasure than a favorite, though. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I liked the character of Cassie less and less as her story arc in Skins progressed, but I will always, always remember one of the things she said in the show:

I’ll always love you. That’s the problem.

I don’t know what I wouldn’t give to be able to not relate to what she said.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.