FanGirl Fridays!

Welcome back for another edition of FanGirl Friday where I talk about something in popular culture that I obsess about currently.

Some announcements:
-My character/region bios for my Month if Thrones series have finished so tomorrow I'm doing a look at Season Three and all of next week will consist of some news roundup and some essays covering interesting topics in the series
-I will be starting a Geek Cooking page, where I attempt to cook things out of recipes made for Game of Thrones and Star Wars type cookbooks, so that should be an interesting adventure.

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This show is something that I got into recently this past summer. I had heard so much about it and it was on Amazon Prime so I figured I would start watching it. I started with the new Who (episodes starting in 2005) since I felt a little overwhelmed by the numerous older series. I was intrigued by the concept and was taken in my the seriousness of some of the topics. What separates is this show are its aspects of realism despite having a science-fiction setting. Instead of most shows, people could and would die as a result of the consequences during the episode, which showed that the Doctor couldn't always save everybody, which affected him. This is what took the show from something cookie-cutter, where everyone lives despite the dangerous situations and breaches topics like humanity and sacrifice, which I love.

There were so many episodes that I loved and also some that made me emotional (mainly due to the Doctor and his companions). There are also so many cameos from other British actors (many from Game of Thrones) so it always kept me entertained. Although I obviously have to suspend belief with all of the Timey-Wimey stuff, but that still doesn't affects my interest in the show. One of the best ones in the first season have a ton of continuity which I appreciate. Some of my favorite episodes were The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, but I pretty much enjoyed most episodes from the new Who series.

I made it through all seven seasons in a fairly quick amount of time, so it was safe to say that I was hooked. I watched the 50th anniversary special and the Christmas special in real time. it was fun to be officially a part of the fandom and hype. I can't wait to see how the new Doctor acts and where his story will take him.I would love to go to the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One, but it's held in California so it would be really expensive for me to travel from the East Coast so I'll stick to looking at videos on YouTube for now. I currently have a T.A.R.D.I.S onesie and a matching robe, so DW is for sure becoming one of my favorite fandoms. I do recommend that if Docotor Who comes off as too family-friendly, its spin-off Torchwood is a fantastic adult sci-fi series.

I do realize that i need to watch Old Who to compare and see if the Doctor not having any romantic entanglements enhances the story (which I heard it does). This also is on Amazon Prime so I will eventually get around to watching those. Amongst the criticism, I love the acting and the unique stories that the show always come up with. The next season will be the first one that I watch live, so I can't wait to experience a normal pace of the show and all of the theories and speculations that come with it.

FanGirl Fridays

Welcome back to another FanGirl Friday!

Some announcements:
-Month of Thrones is still ongoing and even more interesting characters are coming up so stay tuned. -This also means that Game of thrones is mere weeks away and I am really excited to watch and re-experience the show
-I made a Facebook page here so be sure to like and share. Also add anything interesting that you would like me to talk about. Anything that goes viral or anything like that is fair game for discussion.
     -I will be posting interesting news and my blogs there
-I will be starting up something I will call "Cultural Phenomena", where I discuss how and possibly why certain things exploded into fandoms (like Lost, Breaking Bad, The X-Files) and become ingrained in popular culture.

Now on to my obsession for the week.. Lost

       "If we can't live together, then we're going to die alone." -- Jack Shephard

I'm bringing up this show since the cast have recently been doing press and conventions honoring the 10 year anniversary of when the show first aired. This show was an amazing ride over the six years that it was on and the final minutes of the finale still can get me choked up. But going back 10 years ago, I was in high school and was really big into watching Smallville at the time (I think it was on its second or third season). Once I saw the pilot of Lost, I stopped watching that and never looked back (they came on at the same time and I didn't have DVR). There was just something magical about the show that kept me hooked and looking for theories and explanations for that incredible world. Another funny thing about this show was that I really only got in it initially because I saw that Merry-Dominic Monaghan was in it and I was still

I can't name all of my favorite episodes (there's too many) but some are the Pilot, Walkabout, Man of Science/Man of Faith, and Through the Looking Glass to name a few. During and after the show, I couldn't wait to discuss what was going on in the show to try to better understand. It was one of the few shows that my entire family would watch and enjoy. My sister got me hooked on the Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack, which began my obsession with podcasts and moved more securely into the Lost fandom.

The best thing about lost was that it had everything from funny moments with Hurley (also wit from Sawyer), serious moments from Jack and literally everything in between. The music was an aid to the show and had just the right amount of power to really convey emotions and feelings about the character or a situation or to heighten the suspense. Fantastic characters and a generally great plot had me completely hooked. I never got bored because the characters were so complex and they were always growing and changing as the show moved on.

Some of my favorite characters were Hurley, Sawyer Kate, Charlie, John, Desmond and Jack. The fact that this list of characters is long is because there were so many great moments from each of these characters like Charlie writing "Not Penny's Boat" and discovering Desmond's horrible life in the quarantine area and Hurley's stoke of bad luck are just a few things about these characters that always kept me coming back.

I would honestly say that Lost was one of the best shows on Network television and probably up in the top 10 of greatest shows ever. For better or worse, it always got people talking and became a huge part of popular culture as a result. All this talk of Lost is making me want to do a re-watch (which I may do this year).

What are your favorite episodes and characters of the show?

FanGirl Fridays!

It's Friday so that means I geek out and talk about things important pop culture wise in my life. This time, it's Disney Animated Movies (including Pixar).

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Ever since I was little I have always loved Disney movies and to this day I still watch them when they come on ABC Family. I also go out of my way to find them on either Amazon or Netflix, so it's safe to say that I'm a fan (or a fangirl, perhaps). To bring the point home, I've seen 43 out of the 53 Disney Animated Features and 10 out of 14 Pixar Movies (I don't care for Cars at all). I can honestly say that I have re-watched a decent portion of those movies in the last few years.

The first movie I remember seeing in theaters was Toy Story (1995!), which I absolutely loved. One of the best moments for me came later when I was watching Toy Story 3 for the first time and was able to relive my childhood through some of my favorite childhood characters. I think that Disney is probably the reason for my love of  musicals due to all of the interludes during the movies. I even loved the movies made during the down period of Disney which occurred in the 80's after The Black Cauldron (ok, this was a failure box office wise)  and also included movies like the Rescuer's Down Under, Oliver & Company. As a kid I didn't know any of that stuff and watched what ever VHS' I could find multiple times over (90s kid alert!). The reason why it was a bad time was because things like The Land Before Time (another fave) were getting released around the same time and blowing the competition out of the water. Honestly, I can say I have a ton of favorites from Mulan to The Great Mouse Detective to The Lion King and Finding Nemo.

Some say that animated movies are for kids and I definitely don't think that's true. They cover many powerful topics like death, forgiveness, friendship, love and being/loving yourself to name a few. They're movies that everyone can enjoy because they understand different things about them depending on age and experiences. Like Frozen for example, some little kids may have just been hooked with Olaf the snowman but beyond that is an amazing story about two sisters coming together. Not to mention that romantic love takes a sideline in this story instead of being the primary motivation/endgame of the character (see: every Disney Princess prior to Mulan). There's just so many lines and characters and songs that always can bring a smile to my face. There's a point towards the end of "A Bug's Life" (or maybe it's the bloopers) where one of the grasshoppers gets so scared he sheds his skin completely. I can't even remember how many times I re-wound the tape to watch this hilarious scene. The best thing about Disney/Pixar is that there is always a movie to fit your mood. I could seriously go on forever but I'm sure I will do a Favorite Things list andlater down the line, a re-watch of every single movie which I would absolutely love to do.