This just in...

I own too many books/DVDs. It's a little ridiculous.

I want love to love me back

I don't generally talk about music on here because...I don't know how. I mean, really, I could (and do) talk about television ad nauseam, but as soon as you ask me to discuss music I just get tongue tied. But my love for Mandy Moore knows no bounds, so a mini-review for her new album, if you will:

Amanda Leigh is gorgeous. Just folky, poppy goodness. Especially "Merrimack River" and "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week" and "Everblue" and "Bug." And there are little tastes of Wild Hope and Coverage while still being an unique album. Two thumbs up!

Plus, it's on PopWatch's Must List this week.

This is what Hulu is good for.

Commercial Free Comedy Day on Hulu means...well...not all that much, actually, since I'm not all that bothered by the commercials on Hulu. (They're rarely more than 30 seconds long. That's not even enough time for a bathroom break.)

Never-the-less, I used my commercial free comedy day to watch Andy Barker, P.I., a show I had never seen before, despite its creator (Conan) or ties to Jane Espenson (one of my very very very most favoritest TV writers ever in the whole wide world). Or the fact that Tony Hale plays the side-kick. Turns out, I was missing out.

I wouldn't call it the greatest show in the history of comedy, but it makes me laugh. Jane Espenson snuck in a reference to Buffy's Doublemeat Palace (which originated in a Jane Espenson penned episode...she's just this side of Aaron Sorkin when it comes to self-referencing, and I love it). Andy says things like "Excuse my French, but I am P.O.-ed." Tony Hale is hilarious. Wally, the owner of the Kebab restaurant, is played by How I Met Your Mother's taxi/limo driver, Ranjit (Marshall Manesh). The jokes range from very broad (Tony Hale trying to unbuckle a seat belt) to just plain smart ("Slaughter Room 5").

And there are only six episodes, so it's completely digestible.

(Plus, Richard Alpert shows up in episode 5.)

Look what I built!

I didn't build it from scratch or anything (it's a full-sized black-brown Malm by IKEA), but I did construct it from several individual parts. Mostly by myself (Miranda helped in the very early stages). And I'm very proud of it.

I also spent the past two days pinkifying those walls. Just yesterday morning they were yellow, but my bedroom in New Jersey was yellow...I figured it was time for a change. Nevermind that I'm now a twenty-one year old college grad with "Shy Little Piglet" Disney painted walls.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The movie. Again?

This is pretty much the worst idea that I can think of. Joss Whedon and Buffy are one and the same, so while Fran Kuzui might have directed the original crap-fest of a 1992 movie (and while I might have written an A paper on said movie way back Freshman year), I can't imagine it will go very far.

Still...I fear for the future of the fandom and the franchise if this is where things end up. There can be no Buffy without Joss...let alone SMG and the Scoobies.

Should it happen, I say "boycott!"

The Graduate

It hardly feels like it's been four years.

The End of Another TV Era

Scrubs: The episode that will always be "My Last Day" to me, because I like parallels and I think it was dumb that they titled it "My Finale" instead...even if that was the only imperfect thing about the whole episode.



Let's just start with the end, because...because I'm a sucker for a good ending. I'm a sucker for any ending, really, good or bad, because I'm a nostalgic person and because the tiniest smidgens of nostalgia can make me totally, outrageously weepy, but whatever. This was a good ending. It was an ending that followed with the entire nature of the show (that we see this world through JD's eyes, that JD's got a wildly romantic imagination, that maybe what we wish for will come true and that maybe it won't, but we can always hope for the best), and that gave us hope for the best possible future. Plus, it was set to the perfect song (as Scrubs was always wont to do) and it was both nostalgic and funny (I'm talking about Sam and Izzie's engagement, here).

I thought at first that the song was Colin Hay (I mean, this is Scrubs after all...and he did make an appearance in JD's Hallway of Memories), but it turns out it was Peter Gabriel.

This was only the ending of the perfection, though. The episode was arranged to trace JD's goodbyes through the hospital, so we were treated to one of those goodbyes every few minutes, but it did a good job of reminding us that, though this is JD's story and JD's world, things at Sacred Heart will go on after JD has left. There were still patients to see, the interns (who I adore, btdubs) had their own issues to deal with, and new things were introduced to the canon (Ted getting stuck on a thought, for example, and Glenn Matthews)...though I'm in the camp that hopes the series really will end here, that they won't try and carry on without the MAIN CHARACTER, it is nice to know that this world is not entirely in JD's head. The image of JD pulling away in his Prius as another patient pulls into the hospital (and an instrumental version of "Superman" plays) was so perfect...a reminder that life goes on.

JD walking down that hallway was what really got me. I knew that several past guest stars would be making appearances and I was really hoping to see Brendan Fraser and Kathryn Joosten. I guess if I couldn't have the first one then I'm glad I got the second. "My Old Lady" was the first Scrubs episode to ever make me tear up--it's a perfect example of how a good comedy is about more than just making you laugh. That's something The Office does on a semi-regular basis.

And there were other faces that I'd practically forgotten about. Tasty Coma Wife, Jill Tracy, Hooch and Mr. Cropper among them.

It's always nice to see Tom Cavanaugh.

I guess what it comes down to is that I like a finale that acknowledges that it is a finale. Whether that's returning guest stars or some iconic final image or even a self-conscious narrative/fantasy about the sitcom finale being a sitcom finale. And Scrubs did all three. We had that long walk, we had JD's dream future actually projected before his eyes, we had his fantasy about turning out all of the lights and the pandemonium that ensued (another nod to the fact that things have to keep turning there when he's gone, really).

We even got a moment between JD and Dr. Cox that made me tear up. (Reminiscent of the time that he told JD that he was proud of him.)

There was a brief period during the summer of 2006 where I was mildly obsessed with Scrubs (and it was quickly replaced by my desperate love for Doctor Who...that was the summer of "Doomsday," after all), but since then I've been more of a casual fan. I adore it, it makes me laugh, and season 8 has been perfect, but I wouldn't say it was my favorite show of all time.

But that doesn't mean I won't miss it. I hope to miss it anyway, because I can't see a ninth season working the way it should.

Anyway, I probably have more thoughts, thoughts that would require a third and a fourth viewing...probably a rewatch of the entire series, but those will have to wait. Instead, some highlights:
- Glenn Matthews (if that is his name)
- Music choices/cues
- Both of JD's great love stories (Turk and Elliot) seen through to the end.
- His final scene with Carla
- The Carla/Elliot hug
- Elliot being so Elliot (all season I've felt like Stella might have taken Elliot's place a bit, but, no, she was here for real in the finale)
- Keith!
- The penny
- Muh Night. (Made me think of M'Fashnik and Mmm'cookies.)
- Sunny
- Jordan and Ted
- Kelso
- Have I mentioned "Book of Love"?
- HUGH JACKMAN!
- Dr. Cox's big book o' rants
- The Cox/JD goodbye--and then the (almost) willing hug in JD's dream future.
- Elliot and JD's wedding
- The Christmas sweaters!
- A reminder of how Jordan and JD met
- Bill Lawrence as the janitor at the end
- Jo
- Ted's cup filled with dirt
- Sam and Izzie getting married (and that JD and Turk have barely aged)
- really just all of it. Really.