Morning Coffee (1/1/14)

Happy New Year! Sorry so late - I got up and started drinking coffee and reading a book and completely forgot to post.

Lord Kitchener will be on the two pound coin, because seamless joins are important. And, you know, other reasons.

Almost Human fans, here are some great behind-the-scenes photos of the sets.

Aww: Orphaned polar bear cub bonds with teddy bear

The Madame Tussaud of the American Colonies Was a Founding Fathers Stalker

Old, but I just came across it and was delighted: Shit Book Snobs Say: Translations

Best Justified GIFs of 2013

There Is a Book Inside of You

Guess the Book from Its Library of Congress Subject Keywords!

Morning Coffee (3/6/12)

Good morning. I am unhappy with my cereal. I thought you'd want to know. Also, a lot of shows are off this week, so I've been catching up on Cougar Town, and boy, is it amazing. Ignore the title! It's really good! Give it a try!

A bunch of celebrities (including Matt Bomer) did a reading of the play 8 (about Proposition 8 and marriage equality) over the weekend. Head to Alyssa Rosenberg's blog to see what she has to say about it and watch it for yourself. (I haven't had a chance to watch yet, but am planning to do so ASAP.)

Freema Agyeman was cast in the CW's Sex and the City prequel, and I cannot settle on an opinion about this. More Freema on my TV! Yay! But will this show be awful? Probably. Will I watch it anyway? Yes. Does this mean bad things for either Law & Order: UK as a whole or her role on it? Unknown. Do I support the CW hiring real adults who can actually act? Absolutely. Will I watch the whole thing while screeching "Martha/Alesha, what are you doing?" Possibly. See? It's a complex issue.

In other Doctor Who-adjacent casting news that will interest many of you, John Barrowman has been cast in one of the starring roles on Gilded Lilys, an ABC pilot about a family running a luxury hotel in New York City in 1895. This pilot also stars Matt Lauria and may in fact be God's way of convincing me that He does actually exist.

Justified has been renewed for a fourth season, and the A.V. Club says it best:

Considering that Raylan Givens has only shot more and more people with each passing year, expect the next season to just be Olyphant making laconic wisecracks from atop a heap of pill-strewn corpses. Note to FX: We would still watch that.

So say we all.

Take a gander at the cover of Beautiful Redemption, the upcoming fourth book in the YA Southern Gothic series you should be reading.

And finally, two new (or at least new-to-me) Tumblrs for your amusement: The West Men, "the most Emmy-winning TV mashup blog of all time," and the inevitable Hey Girl, Matt Bomer edition.

Morning Coffee (2/21/12)

Yeah, trying this format again. I don't know. We'll see.

I saw This Means War over the weekend. It was really cute, if you keep yourself from thinking about any of it at all. Alternatively, if you think about it enough to make it into a secret Star Trek movie, it actually makes a lot more sense.

I hate the news that Cirque de Soleil is performing at the Oscars - but they're not having any of the nominated songs performed. I don't even just care because of MUPPETS. It's the principle of the thing.

"First, Atlas shrugged. Then he scratched his head in puzzlement." Indeed.

Gilmore reunion! Kelly Bishop's going to be in Amy Sherman-Palladino's new show with Sutton Foster.

Also getting a new show: Mary McCormack of In Plain Sight and The West Wing. Yay.

Michael Fassbender as Cuchulainn? Sign. Me. Up.

The Justified drinking game could be dangerous.

And then you must watch Justified.

For some reason - perhaps the TV gods have it out for me - two of my most-anticipated January premieres, White Collar and Justififed, are happening during THE SAME HOUR tonight. Why is so much awesomeness being so concentrated? ANYWAY. I've seen both premieres, and they're both really good. Justified is sort of a quiet show, and it's slow and complex and doesn't always get a lot of attention, but it has first-class writing and acting and great, careful production, and it's really worth your time. It's very serialized, though, and while they have a new Big Bad for this third season, the previous two seasons are out on DVD and aren't very long so I would definitely recommend you catch up in order if you possibly can. Don't ignore it if you just don't like cowboys stuff or Westerns - it's more of a Southern Gothic, anyway, and the quality of the writing and the complex characters make it appealing outside of a genre base. If I had to compare it to something, it's sort of Winter's Bone meets Burn Notice.

And, so: Since they're on the same hour tonight, it's at least useful of the shows to be on cable channels that do a lot of repeats. If you can't record them, I'd watch White Collar live at 10 and Justified when it repeats a few minutes after 11, because White Collar doesn't repeat until later. If you are going to DVR, you have plenty of options for timeslots. Just make sure you watch these shows.

A Random List of My 10 Favorite Current TV Shows, In Order

I love lists. I'm always making lists in my head, making myself sort and classify things. And no one's been clamoring for my list of favorite shows, but I've felt like I should have one handy, and it finally coalesced in my head last night. I managed to put them in order, even! (For now. May change with my mood. You know.)

1. The Vampire Diaries
2. Burn Notice
3. Castle
4. In Plain Sight
5. White Collar
6. The Good Wife
7. Justified
8. Haven
9. Doctor Who
10. Community

Interesting note: There are three shows from USA Network (my favorite, I love them, they have my heart), but then not more than one from any other channel: ABC, BBCA, CBS, CW, FX, NBC, SyFy.