TV Worth Watching.

Over at my Jacey Services website, I just posted news about shows past and, hopefully, future that appeal to me and might to many of you as well. Rather than repeat myself here, I'll just give you the link.

A Doctor Who guide.

I mention this show often and it seems tht a lot of people are totally unfamiliar with it even though it has been running for decades. Here's a good and simple guide to how to start watching if you are so inclined.

The truth is out there.

If the story about thousands of dead birds falling from the skies over Arkansas this weekend after "hitting something" unknown and unseen doesn't conjure up visions of alien invasion or, at the very least, infiltration, then I feel sorry for you for your lack of imagination. And fun.

Doctor Who update.

He's visited a lot of strange places but never one quite as strange as this one. I cannot wait (and if life was fair and I had a damned Tardis, I wouldn't have to).

Hey, Doc, bring Amy. Seriously (although you might want to keep her away from JFK).

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol.

This was, by far, the best Christmas show of the season on the tube, brilliant a retelling of the Charles Dickens classic in SF terms, set in the Who-verse. this is a marvelous re-imagining of a classic tale in science-fiction terms.

If you missed it but have BBC-America on your cable system, it will be rebroadcast on January 1 at 8PM EDT. It is a marvelous re-imagining of a classic tale in science-fiction terms. If you don't have access to BBC, seek it out elsewhere. But you should also be embarrassed and chagrined because you need this channel, trust me. It offers thought-provoking and challenging programming far beyond the best of US channels.

This is marvelous TV. Plus Amy, whose skirt is not at all too short.

(cross posted here)

Greatest "let's just get it on, baby" line ever.

On Monday night's second season launch of Men of a Certain Age, the Ray Romano character has worked up his nerve to have dinner with the hot traveling sales lady he had a failed encounter with in the recent past. The meal goes well and, at its close, he works up the nerve to ask "when can I see you again?" Her answer:

"How about right now?"

This is an excellent show, sort of a male version of the classic "chick flick" program. It is Romano's baby and he is marvelous in one of the three lead roles, a far cry from the classic sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond. The others are Andre Braugher, whole acting skills and brilliance we've all know about ever since Homicide: Life on the Street, and Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap), who, like Romano is a revelation.

Also, the final line of this second season initial entry was freakin' perfick.

Who killed Laura Palmer?

If you don't know what TV classic this week's Psych was sending up/offering a tribute to based on the headline above, the episode's title--Dual Spires--ought to give it away. If that doesn't do the job, you are just too painfully young my friend.

Another clue: check out that librarian. Look familiar (if older)?

The show in question was one of the great mainstream cult TV shows of the early 1990s. Psych is one of the marvelous character-driven cable TV shows which have turned USA into a player, to the degree a cable channel can be, in the big TV picture and helped turn "the season" into a year-round series of shorter runs and, in many way, reinvent what the TV audiences have come to expect. It is the show that inspired, and is way superior to, The Mentalist, much as In Plain sight gave us this season's "new" mainstream show, Chase. Trust me, seek out the originals.

USA started on this run with The Dead Zone, Monk and the The 4400, all shows which enjoyed long runs and significant popularity. Current very successful and enjoyable programming on the channel includes Burn Notice, White Collar and Royal Pains.

Other cable channels such as AMC, A&E, ABC Family, FX, SYFY & TNT are also dramatically changing the face of television drama, but that's a story for another day.

Back to Psych. James Roday is spectacular as the lead character, a fake "psychic detective." I knew squat about him before. The co-lead, Dulé Hill, made his bones on The West Wing in a dramatic role but his flair for comedy really blossoms here. Another familiar face is Corbin Bersen as the father of Roday's Shawn Spencer character.

As I said, the current episode (you should able to find reruns on your cable system, is particular fun. As to the show it celebrates/parodies, here's a another clue...

"A damn fine cup of coffee."

Checking out the ambulatory deceased.

I decided to pass on AMC's new hit show, The Walking Dead, right from the start, an attitude that was only strengthened when they canceled the intrigued, albeit flawed, Rubicon, as a result of its success.

I knew a lot about the show's background because the source material is a comics series for which my online mail-order subscription service has several subscribers and I am not much of a fan of the horror genre, especially when it's visual. The fact that I knew that that the putative hero's son was named "Carl," a fact that could potentially swing me to cheering for the zombies due to psychological scars I don't wish to discuss, was also a deterrent.

But, taking a break from football and reading all day, I watched a repeat of the first episode just now. God help me, they may have drawn me in. Still not sure which side I'm on though, due to that "Carl" issue.

Another reminder of why you should want live in Philly.

From the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program:

A Canadian couple, Todd and Meaghan, learned about the Mural Arts Program's Love Letter Tour and coordinated an extended layover in Philadelphia (en route to Paris) to experience this wildly popular tour.

Todd contacted the Mural Arts tour office to let them know he wanted to propose to Meaghan on the tour, and the Mural Arts Program offered a clever idea in making his marriage proposal extra special.

This video is a result of Mural Arts Program's partnership with The University of Pennsylvania - Penn Singers Light Opera Company and Penn Glee Club. We're excited to share with you the biggest surprise of Meaghan's life!

She may be swifter than I thought.

at this point in my life, I am well beyond being capable of keeping up with, or caring to keep up with, all the various singers, musicians, writers, artists and other creative types who have become or in the stage of becoming pop icons. For example, my total knowledge of the apparently very popular and successful Taylor Swift is from the night she hosted Saturday Night Live. From my brief encounter I formed a very quick and superficial opinion: cute, decent lyrics, weak vocalist.

But opinions can change. When I stumbled across a story online recently that talked about her going to a neighborhood music store and buying several items including two Bruce Springsteen albums, a Kris Kristofferson collection and the Dolly Parton/Linda Ronstadt/Emmylou Harris "Trio" album, my level of admiration moved up significantly (okay, it was pretty much at zero before that, but still...).

The fact that she was buying them on vinyl really sealed the deal.

Just sayin'...

America is a 300 lb, bearded, diabetic man. Accept it.

Top Ten (with an asterisk).

Apparently Entertainment Weekly (who knew that was still being published) has published its list of the 100 Greatest Characters (fictional) of the past 20 years and, while not specified, that seems to mean in movie and TV shows only.

The Top Ten were Homer Simpson (D'oh!), Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Tony Soprano, The Joker (Heath Ledger), Rachel Green (Friends), Edward Scissorhands, Hannibal Lecter, Carrie Brandshaw (Sex and the City) and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Carrie Bradshaw? Really?

I am particularly pleased to see Buffy Summers ranked so highly and only wish that the show itself had gotten the respect it deserved. But the Bradshaw character strikes me as way below the level of the other nine. Kramer (Seinfeld) is #11 and certainly, to me, was more memorable by far...as was almost any character on that show ever.

The complete list is here.Your additions, removals or comments invited.