Feb. 21

Yes, I'm still around. :)

Apparently Party Of Five didn't have enough pull for me afterall. I watched the first disc (five episodes), and never continued even though I had the second disc sitting here. Weird because I had wanted to see this for sooooo long, and had wanted to like it so much. And yes, I do like My So-Called Life better. Party Of Five is kinda, I don't know, too 'pretty people.' A bit too fake. Like, they're supposed to be this group of siblings struggling to get by but they always have the time, the money, the means to do anything at anytime. There are just too many other things I want to watch to keep struggling my way thru this series. I'm kinda bummed.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Season 1 (3-Disc Series) (2008) Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley) doesn't seem like the kind of girl who'd be facing an unplanned pregnancy. But at 15, that's exactly what she is -- and her all-consuming secret is going to be kind of hard to hide from her parents (Molly Ringwald and Mark Derwin). The baby's father, Ricky (Daren Kagasoff), has problems of his own: namely that he can't decide between Amy, his current girlfriend (Francia Raisa) and a virginal cheerleader (Megan Park).

This is the show I'm into now. I had never heard of it but one several weeks ago noticed the dvd in the 'New Releases' section while shopping. 'Teen pregnancy? Whoa, how did I not hear about this one?!' I had wondered and almost bought it on the spot. I talked myself out of it, deciding to Netflix it instead. I got the first disc while I still had Party Of Five here. That's probably what helped me decide to give up on PoF...hehe.

I love this show so far. It's not quite what I thought it would be, but I quickly got over that and enjoyed it anyway. I thought it would be a serious drama series. It's not...there is way more humor where the other characters are involved, but the pregnancy storyline stays pretty serious. Some of the acting is crappy, typical weekly series cliche delivery at times, but even with that some of the characters are hysterical. The way Ben and the guidance counselor get along is so funny. And the uber religious girl started out so hilarious that I instantly loved her. Can't stand ChurchGirl's boyfriend though, or the badboy manwhore in school. While I kinda like the skanky girl, I want to smack her for always lowering herself to skanky levels to keep manwhoreboy hanging around.

Molly Ringwald is the mother of the pregnant girl. It's funny to see her these days. Hubby used to be totally in love with her back in the day. When he saw her in this he sighed, "Aahhhh, still as good as always." LOL Josie Bissett plays the church girl's mom. I liked her back in her Melrose Place days and I still like her in this. John Schneider plays the church girl's father. Kinda funny to see him because I only ever think of him as Bo Duke/Dukes of Hazzard.

So anyway, watched the first disc immediately but it was only four episodes. And now I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the series from Netflix. I know the show is still on...second season?...but I don't want to start watching those current episodes until I get caught up.

Changeling (2008) Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, in an Oscar-nominated role) is overjoyed when her young kidnapped son Walter is brought back home. But when Christine suspects that the Walter who was returned to her isn't her actual child, the police captain (Jeffrey Donovan) has her committed to an asylum. John Malkovich co-stars as the crusading reverend who comes to Christine's rescue in this gripping, 1920s-set drama helmed by ace director Clint Eastwood.

Also got this from Netflix, watched it the other day. Very good movie! Very shocking, very sad. So sad that she never got over it, never stopped looking for him, never able to move on. The point where it looked like she might have finally been moving forward...that part with the Academy Awards and her boss inviting her to dinner...she got that phone call, and her hope was renewed. While it could be seen as wonderful to have something new like that to find hope in, it really was sad that it knocked her right back into that place.

It's also crazy to me that they had so little in the way of forensics and investigation techniques back then. I mean, we're so used to CSI...being able to find evidence in anything...'simple' DNA tests... When did they start doing even blood testing? A quick Google search didn't turn up much in the area I was looking for but in the 1920s it looks like blood typing/testing was still fairly new and not a reliable way to determine relationships. Just absolutely crazy that things were so primitive...boggles the mind. Really makes you wonder how many innocent people might have been sentenced, how many solvable (?) crimes just slipped by.

*shakes head*

Well, I thought I had tons more to write about but my mind is already drifting to various other things I could be/should be doing. Maybe I'll write more later...