I saw six movies for the first time in April, up one from last month but down one from a year ago.  My ratings this month averaged out to 3.41, an increase over March and the second highest of the year thus far behind January.  I remain ahead of last year in total movie viewings, with 29 as of the end of April, compared to the 24 I had seen at this point last year.  I saw a single 2008 release, the direct-to-DVD animated film Justice League: The New Frontier.  I saw one picture from last year, the creepy The Mist.  Included in my viewings was a rare documentary, Hoop Dreams, and what is probably the oldest film I have ever seen: the silent German Expressionist horror film, Nosferatu.  Following, I saw the fictional making of Nosferatu picture, Shadow of the Vampire.  Slipping in at the end was my first viewing of Gladiator, a movie I found good but not great.  My repeat viewings included Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the best of the Potter films), and two Batman adaptations: Batman (a nostalgic favorite) and Batman Begins (my 2005 favorite film of the year).

’20s: 1

’90s: 1

’00s: 4

I am continuing with the first season of The X-Files and Twilight Princess.

Performance of the Month (only new viewings): Max Schreck in Nosferatu; runner-up: Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire as Max Schreck.

Rewatches: Batman, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Batman Begins

My movie viewing slowed in the past month, dropping a full 50% from February.  Despite this, it was a good month averaging 3.2 out of 4 stars, up impressively from 2.4 in February but down from 3.6 in January.   Even with the slower month, I remain well ahead of my movie count from 2007, with 23 new movies having been viewed since the new year began.  I saw no 2008 releases and all but one film was from 2007.  Sunshine and Michael Clayton both lived up to expectations, while Into the Wild disappointed and The King of Kong soared to among my ’07 favorites.  My sole classic was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a fine film that didn’t quite live up to my expectations.  I think I’d like it more on repeat viewing.   Oddly enough, all three of my rewatches were 2007 films.  My only theater experience of the month was a rewatch of the superb No Country for Old Men, a very worthy Best Picture winner.

’70s: 1

’00s: 4

I am continuing with the first season of The X-Files and began Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams from my Father.  I also watched the first, and so far only, season of the HBO series Flight of the Concords.  It is probably worth its own blog entry.  A terrific musical comedy, it came out of nowhere for me.  You can blame some of my movie-less nights on the new Nintendo Wii system I finally got my hands on.  After, literally, months and months of searching the Wii was found.  I am currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Thanks to school, things are moving slowly on that front.

Rewatches:  The Darjeeling Limited, No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton

This month I saw a surprising 10 films for the first time. Most of the films I saw (6) were from 2007 as I continue to catch up on the year and prepare my top 10 list. Like January, I saw only a single 2008 release, this time Semi-Pro, a movie I would recommend to Will Ferrell fans and only Will Ferrell fans. It is definitely in the lower tier of Ferrell movies.

’50s: 1

’00s: 9

Not much diversity in time periods this time around, mostly reflecting my desire to see all of the ’07 releases I can before starting any sort of top 10 list. Three films were seen in theater, while two came from regular television with commercials. For the first time, I saw a film through Netflix’s Instant Watch option. The rest came through DVD rentals.

Sadly, I was unable to finish North by Northwest, what was to be my first complete Hitchcock viewing. The biggest surprise of the month was easily Gone Baby Gone, while Atonement was a massive disappointment. I feel I may have rated that particular film too high. In better news, There Will Be Blood finally arrived in my area. A great film showcasing an incredible performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.

I began watching The X-Files from the beginning and also read The Great Gatsby for the third time in my life. The first was in high school, the second in college, this was the first time I’ve read it simply for pleasure.

Rewatches: Ghostbusters, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (’07)

The X-Files was one of those shows that came on mostly when I was still a kid. So I watched, but not all of it and a lot of what I did see I remember fuzzily now. I do remember my parents not allowing me to watch a couple of times and I remember being scared by it at least a few times. I needed a tv show to watch right now and since there is a new movie coming soon I figured I’d give this one a rewatch.

Pilot (1×01) – You can tell this is a television pilot filmed in the early 90s. Not only does it scream 90s, you can see the cast and crew still trying to figure out just how to snuggle into these stories. A lot of the episode feels awkward, like they don’t have it down just right yet, especially the movements of Mulder and Scully. It’s still not a terrible mystery though and it is a not altogether shabby introduction to the series. I especially enjoyed the moments at the beginning where they run down the background and resumes of Mulder and Scully and how they got to where they are.

Deep Throat (1×02) – The show already looks a lot better in its first episode after the pilot. While it is still obviously rusty and early on, it has a more polished look. This is another mythology episode, with Mulder finding an Area-51 type military base and even spotting a UFO, before having it wiped from his memory by…the air force? The special effects are shaky at best, but still work because of the atmosphere (like Mara said). Seth Green guest stars as a stoner who helps Mulder onto the military base.

I bet Mulder’s new “friend” will pop up again and again.

Watching these two episodes I was really struck by how young Scully looked. In some scenes she looked like a college student. She looked like someone my age. Then I found out that Anderson was only twenty-four when the show started! She really is about my age at this time (at least the actress is, the character is obviously at least four years older than that).

Squeeze (1×03) – The first monster of the week episode. As someone who is already greatly familiar with the characters, it is a lot of fun to watch how they initially introduced Mulder and Scully to the audience and how their relationship develops. There is a lot in this episode about Mulder’s reputation as “Spooky Mulder” and the effect that reputation has on everyone around him and even on Scully through association. The main subplot centers on Scully and an old academy friend of hers, of course in the end she has to choose between him and climbing the ladder herself and Mulder. The actual monster was creepy enough, a century old serial killer who can stretch and squeeze himself through any opening.

Conduit (1×04) - An alien abduction story. This episode focuses mostly on introducing us to Mulder’s backstory, specifically the possible abduction of his younger sister. Throughout the episode we see Mulder relating his own experience to that of the family as he looks at photos and talks to the abducted girl’s brother. You can see his dedication here, both toward solving this specific case (being very personal to Mulder himself) and toward the X-Files in general. We see that Mulder’s obsessions with things that go bump in the night is a direct consequence of the loss of his sister as a child. The final scene with Scully listening to Mulder’s hypnotic recollections of the abduction on tape while Mulder cries in a church over a picture of himself and his sister is really affecting. Not a very scary episode, but definitely an emotional one that fleshes out Mulder’s character very well. We can see how he became “Spooky” clearly now.

Knowing that Mulder’s obsession with his sister is a continuing plotline, I’m looking forward to seeing more. Although I seem to remember the buzz around the conclusion of this story to be a let down. Still, I always thought that Mulder and his sister were really the heart of The X-Files, the driving force, so it will be interesting to see if that holds up.

Once again we see the FBI’s attitude toward Mulder and Scully having to choose between supporting her partner or feeding him to the wolves. Despite backing Mulder, she does her best to reign him in on an obviously emotional case, perhaps even doubting whether she should be allowing him to continue.

I was surprised to see Mulder in a church. I always thought he was a believer in everything but religion, while Scully was a skeptic of everything but religion. Although I do seem to remember the pair of them crossing over at the end of the series, with Scully becoming more believing in the supernatural and Mulder more accepting of religion.

And I just have to say, Mulder and Scully are totally rocking the shoulder pads at this point. Not just Scully, but Mulder too. Hilarious 90s fashion.

The Strike is over.  Woe is me.

Of course I am glad that the writer’s strike has finally ended, after all, I really need new episodes of The Office as much of LOST as I can get this year (13 episodes).  It’s good news for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.  Both of those programs struggled without a writing staff and understandably so.  But it was a different story over at NBC and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  Conan may have had the only show on television that actually got funnier without writers.

It should come as no shock to anyone that the worst parts of Late Night have always been written.  Jokes are hit or miss.  Always have been and always will be.  Conan’s first night back with his writers showed that particular television law to remain unbroken.  The “Conologue” was back with its usual variable quality.  I don’t know that I should say that Late Night has bad writers, but the show’s writers certainly write bad jokes.

If only we could go back to the glory days of the strike.  It couldn’t have been more amusing that an entire segment of the first show back with writers was taken up by a montage of moments from when the show did not have writers.  It will take more than a year for a Late Night with writers to build up as many laugh out loud moments as that sole month contained.   But at least Conan’s strike stretch ended on a high note, with him finally beating his record ring spin using teflon and a MIT physics professor.

It started last week with “The Beginning of the End” and continues tonight with the second episode of an eight episode reserve that survived the writer’s strike. The powers that be ( “Darlton” ) seem to have taken a different approach when kicking off this, their fourth, season. Past years begin with mind-blowing BANGS! Just look back to the pilot, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” with Jack entering the infamous Hatch, and “A Tale of Two Cities” with our introduction to the Others. One thing is for sure, each opener established the plot and tone for its season, so expect the same to come from BotE. These “rescuers”, whoever they are, and the division of the lostaways into the JACK PACK and the LOCKE FLOCK will no doubt resonate throughout this season…or however much of this season we get.

Thankfully, things are looking better on the writer’s strike front. Could we be getting good news within a week? As it stands, it is probably too late to salvage the full season, but we just might get a few more episodes and a good finale out of this. That’s IF things go well and the whole strike is called of very soon. In the meantime, I’ll be savoring every second of LOST I get.

Two good things have come from this writers’ strike (amongst the myriad of bad things).

1. Justice League got canned.

2. Conan O’Brien lost his writers.

Now I could go on forever about JL, and maybe I will one day, but I’m just going to focus on Conan at the moment.  I sat back tonight to watch Conan, as I have every night since he came back during the Strike (save for last Friday, when I caught Cloverfield instead).  To my great alarm, Conan appeared sans-beard.  At first I was horrified!  HOW DARE HE! Thankfully I soon realized that this was only a rerun.  No need to fear.  As far as I know, Conan’s glorious beard remains intact.  But as I watched this year old rerun, I realized something I had already suspected.  This show is better without writers.

I soon realized why I had gotten out of the habit of watching Conan each and every night in the first place.  The writing isn’t that good.  Sure, Conan is always hilarious, and it’s those few moments of his personal hilarity that I watch the show for to begin with, but with the writers in place those moments are so spread apart.  The current Strike-show, sans-writers and with-beard, is almost pure Conan.  It’s up to the man himself to guide us through the hour, not a writing staff.  I’d take a Strike-episode of Conan over a written episode any day of the week.

So while I continue to hope for a speedy resolution to the Strike (both for the real life people involved, which is too often forgotten about, and for the hope that my shows will return to me with new episodes, I’m looking at you LOST!), until then I can at least enjoy Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  It’s the best the show has been in years.

Or the Producers as David Lettermen refers to them.

The WGA Strike of ’07 is no longer, now this atrocity spans TWO years. Amazing that well over two months later there is still no end in sight. Worst of all, the bad news continues to build for my favorite shows.

LOST – According to one internet speculator, if LOST doesn’t go back into production by January 31st, season four may be a bust. However, if the Strike doesn’t last too far into the Spring, there may still be hope to get those 8 lost episodes back (no pun intended). But as each day slides past, my long standing fear comes closer and closer to reality. If this Strike lasts for very long, LOST may be in serious trouble. With the way the contracts are designed, they can’t just add extra episodes to season five’s 16 episode allotment. We may end up in a situation where 8 episodes are truly gone for good. Hopefully the showrunners can come up with some solution to remedy this…that’s if the cowards don’t have their way.

THE SHIELD – This show did well in comparison to most shows (thankfully, since this is its last season), except for one worrisome blemish. No Shawn Ryan on set for the series finale. In fact, there wasn’t a single writer anywhere near the set. As fortunate as we are that the finale script was already written, all previous episodes of THE SHIELD have had a writer on set to make sure the show stays consistent. Amazing that the only one lacking this will be the most important of all. Turns out, Michael Chiklis (as the only non-writing producer) was in charge for the Barn’s last hurrah. So if it turns into a pile of garbage, you can blame Vic Mackey himself. Or more accurately, the cutthroats behind this debacle.

THE OFFICE/HOUSE/ETC. – All down for the count. Although we may luck into a couple of House episodes sometime this Spring. Not all have been shown yet. Still, as the months pass without new episodes…thanks weasels.

Round III, not to be confused with Round II.

Nearly a full week into it and things are roughly as I left them last time. The biggest change this week was the return of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report sans writers. The result wasn’t pretty. Kudos to Stewart and Colbert for putting something on the air, but this was a clear example of why we need the writers back soon. While the traditional talk shows on the big networks soldier on much as they did before, it’s the pair of Comedy Central programs that seem to be suffering the most. With Jay Leno writing his own material, The Tonight Show continues relatively the same. If you hadn’t told me Leno didn’t have writers, I never would have guessed it. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien, despite being the most vocal supporter of the writers (and keeping that awesomest of beards on), seems out to prove he doesn’t need writers at all. Despite a few lulls here and there, the show has been in top form since it returned. While Letterman was shaking off the rust, Conan was putting on a clinic of late night comedy.

While I was sad to see Dave’s beard go on Monday, at least he provided us with the bloody execution. No joke, the man looked like he had just been in a knife fight.

Following their first nights back on the air, all four of the top late night talk shows received a major viewing bump. Leno, as usual these days, lead the pack with 7.2 million viewers and a 43% bump from his pre-strike average. Letterman had lower numbers, at 5.5 million, but had a slightly higher rise of 45%. O’Brien and Ferguson each received increases as well. Conan won the hour with 2.8 million and a 37% bump, compared to Craig’s 2.2 million and 28% increase.

All in all, the second night went about like the first. Dave’s show ran smoother and had more laughs as he knocks off the rust, while it becomes even harder to tell the difference between Leno’s pre-strike show and his strike show. Just like the night before, it was Conan that struck big with plenty of laughs. His trip up to the catwalk (including his discovery of a man who apparently lives up there and doesn’t know who the president is) and his harassment of NBC tour guides provided plenty of fun. My favorite part of Conan’s ‘Late Night’ has always been these types of stunts, usually pre-recorded, that allow Conan to be himself and interact on the fly with regular people. Whether it is berating a tour guest who claims to only watch his show on ‘YouTube’ or hiding behind boxes to listen in on a studio tour, Conan brings the funny like no one else on late night tv.

Apparently the WGA isn’t too happy about Leno’s admission that he writes his own monologues beforehand. I don’t hold it against Leno to write his own material each day (you honestly can’t tell the difference between when Leno writes it all by himself and when his 19 writers do it for him), as he is no doubt being forced into a very precarious situation, not wanting his numerous non-writing staff members to lose their jobs.  Whether the WGA will see it the same way or not, we’ll have to wait and see.

Source: CNN.com – http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/03/hollywood.labor.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview