Welcome to In A Lather. i'm sookie, and here you'll find my takes on celebs, tv shows and movies that are favs of mine, that i hope are or soon will be favs of yours too. Also events in the entertainment and fashion industry.Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to comment.
Question: What Emmy Award winning show are you probably not watching but most definitely should be? Answer: Breaking Bad on AMC.
Bryan Cranston plays Walt White. Walt teaches chemistry to highschoolers, lives in New Mexico with his pregnant wife Skyler and their teen-aged son Walt Jr. who was born with cerebral palsy. Skyler supplements the family income with EBay sales. Then Walt's world is turned upside down when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
A baby on the way, one child already and his own medical expenses skyrocketing, Walt needs to increase his income exponentially and quickly. So, as a man with a knack for science, and a death sentence looming, he decides to cook up methamphetamine, sell it, and stash the profits so the wife and kids will have a nest egg when he's gone.
Bryan Cranston who prior to Breaking Bad is probably best remembered as the dad from Malcolm In The Middle is just great as Walt. It's a tough row to hoe portraying a drug kingpin [alias Heisenberg] who's also an admirable character. Walt doesn't wallow in self-pity. Life has thrown a bushel full of lemons at him, but rather than give up he's making lemonade. Yes it's true that lemonade takes the form of one of the scariest controlled substances, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
i did not see the first season of Breaking Bad. It is now in it's second, and of the eps i have seen, Walt is not selling to minors, so any adult who makes the choice to use meth, i say that's their look-out. Now i know there are those who will say that a show about the manufacturing and selling of methamphetamine glamorizes the use and abuse of drugs, but in this case they would be incorrect. Breaking Bad does not shy away from showing the grittier, and lethal side effects and fall-out that come from the world of meth. And yet, it also manages to have a comedic side too. Fans, including late arrivals like myself are chomping at the bit for full length on-line episodes which Hulu is promising to deliver once they can iron out a deal with AMC. Breaking Bad's second season will conclude on May 31 2009. i am happy to report that it has been picked up for a third slated to air in early 2010.
Breaking Bad airs on AMC Sundays at 10:00pm [Please check your local listings]
Sword and sorcery, villains and heroes, and monsters and goblins that make OZ's flying monkeys seem cute and cuddly. Legend Of The Seeker delivers all that and more. The costumes are terrific, lots of jersey, leather, silk, lace and chainmail. The casting provides eye candy for both sexes. The women have that impossible mix that most can only dream of---girl next door beauty combined with bodies that are so hot they're liable to set off smoke alarms. The men, broad shouldered firm bodied hotties with sculpted triceps who mirror the models on the covers of romance novels. And the prettiest of the supporting players, lots of horses and the New Zealand countryside.
The Seeker, is Richard Cypher, woodsman, and tracker, prophesied to be the wielder of The Sword Of Truth. His nemesis is Darken Rahl, tyrannical ruler of the third land known as D'Hara. Rahl has many henchmen and rules with an iron fist---he uses the blood of those he's conquered for ink to write in his diary. On his side, The Seeker has the powerful good wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander [as the series progresses Richard learns that Zed is his grandfather] and The Confessor Kahlan Amnell, a woman who has the power to compel anyone to confess. Kahlan and Richard are attracted to each other, but their love cannot be expressed, for anyone who falls for her loses the ability to have free will.
Even though my fav baddie Ranssyn Fane Commander Of The Daharyn Forces was slain at the end of the Prophecy/Destiny ep, i am still hooked on Legend Of The Seeker. Darken Rahl more than makes up for the absence of Fane. The best thing about this show is that the characters are so engrossing you root for the good guys and the bad guys [at least i do] and the fun is in seeing who triumphs at each eps conclusion. The show has been in hiatus for the past few weeks, but hooray! 5 new eps are ready and the first of the 5 airs this week-end. The new ep is "Mirror".Check out the Legend Of The Seeker site: full eps and lots of other great features.
The next Legend Of The Seeker airs on the CW11 Saturday April 25, 2009 at 9:00pm [please check your local listings].
FX' Rescue Me is now in it's 5th season. i watched the show for the first time this past Tuesday, the episode entitled "Baptism"---Michael J. Fox being the draw for me. Despite the previous 4 season's worth of good buzz, i just couldn't bring myself to tune in. It's not that i have anything against FDNY, and as it happens, one of our windows looks out on the house that's home to 'The Pride Of The Upper West Side' Ladder Company 25 [Mascot Yosemite Sam]. i see these brave men go out daily risking their safety and lives to protect others, and even when they're stopping off at the local market to grocery shop. It was just that all these years later i still had 9/11 issues. we live several miles north of Ground Zero, but hubby has friends who live nearer and had to relocate as a result of collateral damage to the neighborhood. And even though we're fortunate that no one we know lost their life, there were factors that made the prospect of watching a show about NYC firefighters a dicey subject for me that i'd just as soon avoid.
Until now. Rescue Me is anything but a downer, and i'm sorry it took me so long to check it out. Other than Denis Leary's Tommy, i'm not familiar with the characters, but i'm looking forward to getting to know all of them better. So far the moments that hooked me were the scene where the crew are battling the blaze in a building where there are squatters, some of whom are also mentally unstable. One of the firemen has to clock one of them who refuses to vacate. Also the building turns out to have fireworks [they're illegal in NYC] stashed and they ignite as the guys are trying to get out. Then 'Murphy's Law' kicks in---the hydrant isn't functioning and the chief has to make a Hobson's choice.
i like Tommy's irreverence and brutal honesty. The scene of his dad's burial, someone comments on how much they enjoyed the bagpiper's playing of Amazing Grace. Tommy without skipping a beat replies that having heard the tune so frequently that he'd've been more impressed if they'd played Iron Butterfly's 'InnaGoddaDaVidda'. Later, his relatives are watching home movies. Everyone else is all sentimental but Tommy continues to tell it like it T_I_S.
Michael J. Fox' character Dwight is dating Tommy's ex, and is effortlessly pushing Tommy's buttons. Fox' story arc is only slated for 3 more eps, but i'll be sticking around after it concludes. Rescue Me has a new fan in me.
Rescue Me airs Tuesdays at 10:00pm on FX [please check your local listings].
i'm a gemini from wash.dc, married 35 yrs to an aries from san antonio texas.
i'm sookie, he's tex, together we are sookietex.
Many people think i adopted the name sookie after HBO's TrueBlood heroine Sookie Stackhouse.
Nope. It's not my birth name, but my older brother gave me the nickname sookie when i was a baby.
Best and might i add most prescient gift bro' ever gave me ;D
hubby and i live in nyc and even though we like it here, we dream of the day when we'll pull up stakes and move to austin, or maybe some other town in the lone star state.
a bit more about me and In A Lather public domain image credits
library of congress prints and photographs online: secession bubbleknow nothing soap
i am a child of the south, a "boomer", born in 1958, a child of the television age. This was a time when "African-Americans" referred to themselves as "colored". In fact on my birth certificate under racial description, "colored" is the word that is used. Today i still affectionately refer to myself as a "colored child". my paternal great grandpa was Blackfoot Nation, and my maternal great grandmother was also Native American, [but i have not found out which Nation]---i affectionately refer to that part of my heritage as 'injun'---hey i'm never going to be described as politically correct and have no desire to be.
my mother was a woman who was far ahead of her time in terms of "feminist" survival. Long before it was fashionable, she was a single parent. She did have support, and not just financial from my pop, but they did not live together as husband & wife. In fact they never did take that walk down the aisle...but that's another story. Mom was a woman who worked outside the home long before most women of her generation would have even thought of making that choice, much less do it. She fully appreciated the value, neccessity, and strength of a loving extended family. She did not need anyone to tell her it "takes a village".
When mother was at work, i, the youngest of 4 (2 sisters 1 brother & me), was alternately cared for by mother's eldest sister, "auntie" as we used to call her, and our nextdoor neighbors. They were like family to us. We called the elder woman 'grandma' (to this day I do not know her given name), and her daughter Miss Elsie, or more usually 'aunt'Elsie. They were very religious folk. God fearing, bible reading, honest, and i and my family loved them dearly. 'Aunt'Elsie always made sure my days were full of activity, but one of my favorite times of the day was when she would look at her watch and say "oh my, we'd better hurry, it's almost time for my stories". By her 'stories'
she of course meant the day's soap operas. For Elsie and her mother, watching the soaps was sort of a guilty pleasure, but at the same time they made it seem sacred. It was a ritualistic activity. Her favorites were The Edge of NightThe Secret Storm and General Hospital
Paul Harvey would say i am giving you "the rest of the story" so that you may better understand its importance, and how it relates to the spirit of this blog. Which is to say we all have drama of some level going on in our lives, so sometimes the plotlines of our favorite shows may seem either tame, empathetic, or absurd, depending on where life may take you on any given day.
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