Tag: tv

Why I Absolutely Adore Jane the Virgin

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

This week, something extremely important happened in my life. What was it, you may ask?

Jane the Virgin returned after its mid-season break this Monday night.

*screams very loudly*

I love Jane the Virgin. I don’t know how many times I can say it in a week – I said it on Monday when the show came on, I said it on Tuesday night to my friends, I said it Wednesday to a girl I had just met. I love this show.

So here’s the story. Last semester, I was scrolling through Netflix to see what they had added recently, and I saw Jane the Virgin on there. I was instantly excited. I had heard really good things about the show, even if I didn’t know anything about it. However, this meant absolutely nothing. There are about 100 things on my Netflix queue that I was “really excited about” 3, 4, 5 months ago.

So when I was having a particularly bad day, and I didn’t feel like doing any homework (although, to be honest, when do I feel like doing my homework), I laid on the couch in my apartment with the lights off and looked on Netflix for something to make me feel better. Surprisingly, I clicked on Jane and started episode 1.

Eventually, one of my roommates migrated into the living room around episode 2 or 3, and we ended up watching either 7 or 8 episodes together. And after that I was hooked. The show was funny, dramatic, serious, clever, intuitive – everything I never knew I could have in a TV show but now needed.

I began telling everyone I knew about this show. I ended up convincing my other roommate to start it, and with one roommate already done, and three currently watching it, Jane the Virgin kind of became the apartment show.

However, all good things must come to an end, and by the time winter break rolled around, we were all done with season one and had to catch up on season two, so that this week we could all watch it together. And of course, we did, and it was fantastic.

Now that we’re all caught up to the present, I should maybe talk about the actual show. There are so many good things I could say about the show, I don’t even know where to begin. As someone who truly cares about diversity (#OscarsSoWhite y’all), I tend to get excited about things that feature a diverse cast. Last semester, I was all about Quantico. Though they could do a bit better, especially in the male cast, I am in love with Priyanka Chopra and Aunjanue Ellis is queen. Last year, I was all about Fresh Off The Boat, featuring the first Asian-American cast on primetime television in 10 years, even if its been surrounded in some much-needed controversy about representation of minorities on television.

So when I started watching Jane the Virgin, I was already pleased at how well the cast was organized. Jane has very strong latina roots, and they come across loud and clear on the show, and yet because of her sunny disposition and ability to befriend anyone, the cast opens up so that it isn’t just a latin@ show, and it doesn’t claim to be one. It doesn’t stigmatize or stereotype the lives of the women on the show, and yet they clearly aren’t there for diversity’s sake. They have complex, emotional lives, and are highly relatable characters.

And not only is the show centered on the lives of latin@s, it also focuses on female relationships and even, at times, prioritizes them over male relationships. For Jane, family is everything, and all of her decisions, her thoughts, feelings, dreams – they are all closely tied to her family. And for a very, very long time, her family has been three women. Three strong, independent, resilient, vulnerable, caring women. Even when portraying Jane as the “good girl” who took care of her teenage mom at times, Xiomara herself isn’t portrayed as helpless. I mean she raised Jane for crying out loud, so that’s saying something. And while Alba may be the grandmother, and therefore the oldest out of the three, she isn’t portrayed as “outdated” or “old-fashioned” in any way. She’s portrayed as strong and caring as well, clearly showing how her traits have been passed down all the way to Jane.

I could keep going, but I think my point is clear. Both comedic and dramatic, both sad and hilarious, both fresh and funny, Jane the Virgin is dazzling. It’s complex, it’s diverse, it resists and even challenges stereotypes, and seriously, when’s the last time you saw the main character of a TV show pregnant for the majority of it? And as evidenced by my apartment, it brings people together.

So your homework this weekend, then, is to sit down and marathon Jane the Virgin. You won’t regret it.

How to Study Like a Pro

Hannah Levine Leave a comment

Monday is the last day of classes and we all know what that means—finals time. Like any good little student, I’ve perfected my finals studying schedule. I’m a senior, so be warned. This method is not for everyone.

First, I look at everything I have to do. I write every assignment in my planner and make sure to include due dates and a realistic timeline of how long each final assignment will take me to do. Keep in mind the word “realistic” here. There’s nothing worse than pretending it’ll take you three hours to write a paper knowing full well it’ll take you more like six once you fall into that dark hole of the Internet.

Second, write down the dates and times of your final exams in your planner, on your phone calendar, on your hand, whatever works best for you to remember to be there. This is an important step as not taking your exam generally leads to a very poor grade in the class.

Third, and this is my favorite part of my finals study schedule, choose which television show to start unnecessarily binge watching until it becomes really late and semi-stressful to do your work. I usually choose a show that has been on my list for a while or is easy to finish so that once I’m done I won’t have any distractions from my schoolwork. Most of the time this even works.

This year I decided to focus on the Marvel Universe, so I took a dive into Hell’s Kitchen and followed around everyone’s favorite PI, Jessica Jones. The amount of stress it caused me to actually sit there and watch probably didn’t help relieve any of my finals anxiety, but it sure was a hell of a show, and I am in no way upset I spent 10 hours watching it. (See, 10 hours. Totally manageable.)

For those of you who don’t know, Jessica Jones is one of those Netflix original series that makes you glad Netflix started making television instead of just streaming it. It’s really that good. I loved the story. The characters, like almost all superheroes and super villains, are interesting and exciting, lovable and despicable. Krysten Ritter plays Jessica, a truly strong female lead that you can’t help but despise a little bit while you root for her. David Tennant (I know, Doctor Who fans rejoice) is an excellently evil purple-loving Kilgrave who makes you kind of sick to your stomach and at least a little sorry for the way humanity can sometimes act, even in fictional stories. Together, they make one of the best match ups I’ve ever seen in a good versus bad story, and I had the hardest time every time I had to shut my computer before it was over.

You may think, how does this help me pass my exams? Well, the TV watching really doesn’t. It just makes you take a break and relax a little bit at a particularly stressful time in the semester. So I admit it, there is some actual studying in my finals study schedule. Once I’ve finished binge watching my show, I actually get down to business and study it up until finals are over. Maybe I’m just lucky, but so far this schedule has worked well for me. I can’t actually suggest putting off all of your homework and studying until after you watch endless hours of television, but I can tell you that Jessica Jones is a great television show. If you haven’t started it yet, it just might be the perfect addition to your finals study schedule. Tell yourself you’ll use it as a break if you have to. Whatever you need to convince yourself Netflix is not the enemy, because it’s not. It’s just a method to slow down, that’s all.

To those of you who opened this to actually learn some good study methods, I’m sorry if this isn’t what you wanted to read. However, I really have done very well on my examinations and papers over the past three years, and I think taking some time for yourself is a really good thing. If you don’t want to watch Jessica Jones I understand. (Not really. It’s so good you really just should.) But please, do something to break up your studying so you don’t try to jam everything from the last semester into your brain all at once. Who knows, you might actually learn something that way, and even enjoy these last couple days of classes and exams.

Watching TV Together

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

Despite all its perks (and yes, it had quite a few, I will admit), growing up an only child was difficult. From very early on I was an outgoing, happy child – nothing’s really changed on that front – and I loved making friends. I loved talking, I loved getting to know people, and again, not much has changed. But after school, when I got home, I didn’t really have anyone to talk to. My dad was gone a lot of the time, working to support me and my mom, and I thank him every day for that, and my mom was there but she also had her own life, which of course I don’t fault her for. She didn’t spend every waking moment with me, and that’s okay – but it was hard. Sometimes I’d go outside and talk to my dog, wishing that she’d talk back, or maybe that she’d bring me a little sister to play with (I would have taken a little brother too, but a sister would be preferred).

Which is why, when I got a bit older, I always looked forward to about 7 or 8 pm. Why? Because that’s when me and my mom would watch TV together. My mom always tells me I wasn’t like other kids – they would get up and walk around about 30 minutes into watching Cinderella. Not me. I’d sit in front of the TV, staring at it as though all my wishes could come true. I loved the TV. I didn’t have to sit and think about how bored or lonely I was – the kids on the screen would entertain me, tell me stories. I was best friends with Lizzie Mcguire and went to the same crazy school as Raven. But things got even better when my mom started letting me watch the adult shows with her.

I remember it, the nights when we’d go sit on the couch, maybe with popcorn or ice cream, snuggle in with a blanket and watch Heroes together. I think Heroes was our first, though I could be wrong. She wouldn’t let me watch Lost, because it might scare me, but Heroes was our show. I think we even watched The Bachelor together at some point. Watching TV with my mom has always been comforting, which may be why, now that I have an apartment with a TV, I’ve been turning to it more and more.

This week was a pretty stressful one for me (ugh, midterms), but what did I do? Marathoned seven straight episodes of Jane the Virgin of course. My roommate came and joined me around episode 4 and ended up staying through episode 8 – mostly ignoring her work, but also doing some reading too. Whereas I just laid on the couch and let Jane make me forget about all my stress. Sure, my work didn’t go away, but in some small part of me I remembered what it was like, at home with my mom, snuggled up to watch a show.

There’s no doubt about it; TV is obviously changing. Netflix is coming out with original (fantastic) television shows, and HBO has an online service separate from their television package. More and more people are turning into themselves to watch their favorite shows. When I told my friend that for one of my film classes I had to go to a movie screening every week she said “it’s on Netflix right? Then why go – you could just watch it here in your pjs?” And don’t get me wrong – I love my pjs, and I love my Perry the Platypus pillow pet (thanks Sarah) – but my professors aren’t wrong to make us all watch the movie together. It’s the same thing as when my roommates gathered to watch the premiere of Scream Queens.

There’s just something magical about watching TV together.

We Know What’s Going to Happen, You Don’t

Erika Bell 1 Comment

Do you ever watch your favorite show, read your favorite book, or start a great film and already know what is going to happen? The plot unfolds right at the beginning with you, the viewer/reader, as the initial confidant and the eye-witness to the madness. Then as the plot of the said show/book thickens, and the music starts racing in the background as the characters look at each other in worry, you sit back and realize that wait…you already know the big secret of the plot…the other characters don’t! This my friends is called dramatic irony, and I absolutely can’t stand it.

“Dramatic Irony – a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.”

Yes it can be found in the classics like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and even modern works like ABC’s Revenge (cough, cough..hint, hint). Dramatic irony can be the best thing that could ever happen to a plot, and the absolute worst thing that can happen to an audience.

I came to the realization that I detest dramatic irony whilst watching my favorite drama/mystery TV shows. Yeah it’s great that we know that there’s a murder and some form of deception by this person, but do we as viewers really need to sit through 5 seasons of watching characters build up the courage/knowledge to confront the people or entity holding them back? Now that’s just ridiculous.

Dramatic irony sets up a storyline that we know will run its course. Did you think if we knew who the mother was before Ted met her, we’d even care after 9 seasons? What really pushes viewers and readers to stay passionate about these creative works, is the perfected art of surprise. Not many writers have it in them to continuously draw its audience in without giving much away, but to be honest, that is what makes for great drama. It’s the constant need to know on the audience’s end that will always make the pages worth flipping through or the shows worth watching.

In giving the very juicy goods away as soon as audience becomes acquainted with the text, it becomes a game of what character do I care enough about to stay invested in this? What character will I wait to know what I know, and will they react how I want them to? Even with this criteria in mind, I find that character-pull is becoming more and more weak. Do I even care about this character’s reaction enough? Eh..not really.

I urge creators of dramas to consider dramatic irony’s effects, and if it really brings forth what you want it to. Consider practicing the art of surprise, and how keeping the audience in the dark might bring forth amazing stories.

Why I Think Jimmy Fallon Revolutionized Late Night Television, Part 1

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

When I was little, I obviously had a concrete bedtime that my mom and dad used to enforce fairly strictly (mostly my mom on this one). But as I got older, they loosened up, because honestly, their bedtime habits aren’t the best, and it was hard to make me go to bed when they weren’t going to bed themselves. So around the time I was in middle school, I discovered late night TV and all the wonders it held.

And by wonders, I mean…not wonders. Sure, I thought it was cool to stay up so late that I get to see David Letterman, and maybe sometimes I’d get some of the jokes, but most of them flew straight over my head. However, I did enjoy the guests they brought on the show, especially when I started exploring music on my own terms rather than just based on what my mom played in the car. As I got older, I watched more late night TV, maybe not religiously but often enough that I decided who my favorites were. I wasn’t a big fan of Letterman, so I often fluctuated between Leno and Kimmel – Kimmel was crass (I got the jokes now) but funny, and Leno was mean but funny, so they evened each other out. There was even a period of time when me and my mom would curl up most nights and watch Craig Ferguson together, because we found him to be hilarious for some odd reason.

Late night TV, for me, was always a kind of frivolity. Like, if it’s on, sure, I’ll watch it, but I never went out of my way to see something. But then I realized that this was actually kind of a problem. As I learned more about general pop culture and became invested in it, I realized that my generation, the teens/young adults, we were the audience that was hard to crack. Not only are we apathetic about the world, we also had weird, unpredictable taste (Backstreet Boys? Really?). According to them, that is. According to me, late night was just boring.

But then something happened. My mom told me that there was a new guy on the Late Show, some comedian named Jimmy Fallon. She would call me into her room every so often, because Emma Stone was on or they were playing some wacky game.

I don’t think I need to say anymore about how Jimmy’s popularity skyrocketed. Also being a casual watcher of SNL, I learned that Jimmy had been on SNL years before, and for some reason I was surprised. Jimmy as a sketch comedian? Really? He was perfect for late night. But then it made sense. Jimmy isn’t perfect for late night…he’s just a funny guy. Period.

Over the past few days I’ve found myself pulling up videos of him and showing my friends his hilarious videos, whether it be his “show” “Ew!” or the lip sync battles, and then asking them why they like Jimmy Fallon so much. It’s no surprise that I talk to my friends and they all agree that he is hilarious and we all love him.

At first I thought it was just because he cracked the code somehow. Like he “gets us,” and he gets the age of technology. Leno had Headlines, from newspapers, Fallon has Hashtags from Twitter. But then I thought that wasn’t exactly right. I mean sure, his YouTube videos have tons of hits, but it’s gotta be more than relatability.

And I think what I’ve come up with is a pretty solid explanation. Jimmy’s show is clearly different from other late night TV. I mean, where else can you see a host and his guest get up spontaneously and sing “It Takes Two?” But more than his structure, it’s Jimmy himself. He makes fun of other stars, to be sure. But it’s not like Letterman, where there was a hint of poison in his barbs. Jimmy is like your best friend making fun of you. They can make fun of you because you know so clearly that they’re joking. You can’t help but to laugh along instead of being offended. And when he’s not doing a monologue, he’s having his guests do crazy things that are starting to revolutionize late night TV (okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I repeat: lip sync battles). He’s making late night TV fun instead of following the usual monologue-guest-guest 2-music format. And my age group is responding to it, if 28 million views on #Hashtag says anything.

Over The Garden Wall: Musings

Jeannie Marie Leave a comment

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So two days ago I was on the interwebs (as I usually am, no surprise there), and I happened across a thing. I wasn’t sure what this thing was so obviously I googled it, and it came up, no problem.

This thing was called Over the Garden Wall and I realized that this was probably a really, really big thing.

Over the Garden Wall is a miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network around three weeks ago and apparently gained a lot of attention from kids my age. Really though, I wasn’t surprised, because the show is made by someone who worked on Adventure Time, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that I should watch Adventure Time (protip: it’s a lot). I haven’t gotten around to it yet, and really, I’m not sure it’s gonna be my thing.

But the other night while I was in desperate need for a break from writing (protip: I do a lot of writing), I decided to go ahead and watch the first episode since Cartoon Network so kindly put it on YouTube for me to enjoy.

The first thing I’ll say about it is that it’s dark. Like I probably wouldn’t show it to my kids dark. And it;s not necessarily anything plot wise, the show just gives off a creepy vibe. And I absolutely love it.

However I’m not sure how I feel about the show. It’s intriguing to be sure, and I’ll definitely finish it (I’m currently on episode 6 out of 10), but I’m really on the fence about it.

On the one hand, the animation is absolutely gorgeous, though I’d expect nothing less. The dark colors, deep plums and greens from the forest don’t mute the show but make it stunning, and the style is somewhat reminiscent of Gravity Falls and Adventure Time, but it’s still completely unique.

And the format is nice, the episodes being bite sized rather than full length. And I’m really enjoying the writing, it’s smart and at times witty and the characters are really unique, even the comic relief.

But still, in terms of liking it, I’m not sure. I’ll have to wait until I’ve seen the whole series until I can judge, but nonetheless it’s very well executed and it deserves a lot of praise. Smart programming for children (though, I’d argue, the target audience isn’t exactly children) is always something I enjoy and look forward to, so hearing about Over the Garden Wall was a nice breath of fresh air for me.