Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday – They’re Watching

November 30, 2011 By 19 Comments

It’s that time again.

This week on Why It’s Worth a Watch, Tiffany and I return yet again to CBS. Tiffany is giving us her two cents on Unforgettable and I am filling you in on Person of Interest.

For those of you that joined us last week, you may remember that I mentioned Person of Interest in my DVR priority post. It seems only fitting that if it found a place in my queue, it should have a spot in the #watchwed lineup as well.

Person of Interest has an interesting premise to begin with. A man creates a program to help the government assess threats to national security after 9/11. The program does more than that, though. It spits out even the “less significant” threats. Since these threats aren’t considered important enough to be handled, they are ignored. This tugs at the system creator’s conscience. With the government doing nothing about these threats to individuals, this man, Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson, Lost), takes it upon himself to do something about it himself.

Why, hello there.

Or, at least with a little help.

Meet John Reese (Jim Caviziel). A former Green Beret and CIA Officer who is officially dead, yet very much alive, is a man with just the right skillset to assist Mr. Finch in saving those deemed “irrelevant”.

Armed with only a social security number, using Finch’s tech skills and general genius along with Reese’s military training, they set about finding a way to keep people from harm. Or in some cases, keeping people from harming others. You see, the computer doesn’t differentiate a victim from a perpetrator, so this difficult job is even harder than it looks.

So, obviously, I like this show. I’ve made that clear by stating that it has a spot in the DVR queue. But why?

While I am a fan of solving crime, this show is doing something different. Instead of solving a crime after the fact, it is all about figuring it out before it happened, then preventing it.

When it comes to saving people with amazing skill, John Reese not only impresses us with his training, but he doesn’t like to kill. After years of 24 on TV, it’s a refreshing change. Sure, there will be those who get their kneecaps shot, but hey, they’re alive, right?

And hey, in a post 9/11 world, who isn’t a little paranoid about when or where we are being watched? The intro of the show totally plays on this feeling, with the voice of Mr. Finch stating the following:

“You are being watched. The government has a secret system–a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because…I built it…You will never find us. But victim or perpetrator, if your number’s up, we’ll find you.”

The creators of the show are no strangers to success. I mean, you have heard of Fringe, Alias, and Lost, right? This is a J.J. Abrams show, so it’s no surprise that the show’s pilot tested better than any drama for CBS in the past 15 years.

I kinda have a geeky crush on him.

Michael Emerson and Jim Caviziel are both perfect in their roles. Jim Caviziel is so calm and collected in his work, not to mention mysterious and brooding, and Emerson, well, he is genius in everything he does.

I have to give Person of Interest a GMacTV rating – Gourmet Mac N Cheese. It just missed Gourmet, but that is quite a feat for crime drama these days. Lobster for everyone!

What do you think? Does Person of Interest deserve a spot in your TV viewing routine? Can Mr. Reese replace Jack Bauer?

Now click over to Tiffany’s and see whether or not she thinks Unforgettable is worth remembering to watch.

Come back next week when we’ll have plenty more to say about what you should or shouldn’t be watching.

Remember to stop by the #watchwed hashtag in Twitter to discuss any of today’s reviews, or to mention any television programs that you’d like to see on Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday in the future.

A Recap of The WatchWed Review System:
GTV (Gourmet TV): Everything we want and more
MacTV (MacNCheese TV): Guilty pleasure. Not perfect, but is satisfies
JFTV (Junk food TV): It’s not great for us, but we’ll go back for seconds
TBPTV (Twice Baked Potato TV): Part gourmet and delicious, while absolutely horrible for our cholesterol
SSTV (Still Simmering TV): It has potential, but the jury is still out
NIV (Nyquil Induced Viewing): Perfect for that late night television sleep timer
LOTV (Liver&Onions TV): Do we really have to explain? Blech

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Why It’s Worth A Watch Wednesday – DVR Priority

November 23, 2011 By 11 Comments

This week on Why It’s Worth A Watch Wednesday, Tiffany and I let you in on what shows are worth the space in our jam packed DVRs. Sure, you might be able to guess what lies in the queue based on our ratings, but you never know. We might surprise you.

Netflix has been a blessing when it comes to freeing up space on our DVR, since we can now stream shows like Oswald and Yo Gabba Gabba for the little man at will. We also can leave space that once housed my Law and Order: CI reruns, saved for laundry days.

The hubs likes to keep a steady flow of Dr. Who and Star Wars: Clone Wars in the queue for those rare moments of solitary downtime. But what do I throw into the mix?

When it comes to new shows, despite my lukewarm feelings towards Terra Nova’s debut, it does hold a solid place in the DVR. What can I say…a show spending that much money must be watched, whether it’s to see it succeed (Jose Molina, a Firefly writer is the writer there, so there is hope) or crash and burn. A new favorite for me is Person of Interest. Good guy action with a brooding and handsome leading man (Jim Caviziel), with the added bonus that he doesn’t like to kill. Move over, Jack Bauer.

While the jury is still out on how either show will fare, I have also given space in the queue to Grimm and Once Upon a Time. I am enjoying my weekly dose of fairy tales.

A show that gives me a good cry and laugh in every episode is definitely safe in its DVR priority. Currently, Parenthood occupies that spot. I love every episode, and I think it has characters most everyone can relate to. If it isn’t in your queue, you should definitely check it out. It should surprise no one that The Good Wife also has a solid foothold, given its past GTV rating (go, women writers!).

The comedy section of my DVR (if I could organize my recordings by category, that would be lovely) has the usual Parks and Rec/Office lineup from Thursdays, but it’s recently been joined by Suburgatory and New Girl.

Older favorites still hold spots as well: Castle, Chuck, House, Psych, and The Mentalist.

Is that all?

I do have a FEW guilty pleasures that creep into the queue. Survivor is one. I fought it for so long, but alas, I watched one season and that was the end of me. I have to admit that I love predicting what will happen, and groaning over the stupid decisions and actions. When it comes to reality competition, The Sing Off gets a spot every time. I mean, how can I resist Ben Folds on my TV each week? Not to mention amazing a capella talent?


Fortunately, these selections don’t overwhelm the queue, but if yours is overflowing, check Tiffany’s post. She gives some great recommendations on how to prioritize your DVR recordings.

What is a must see worthy of your DVR space? 

Come back next week when I hope to have enough brain matter to review something worthwhile.

Remember to stop by the #watchwed hashtag in Twitter to discuss any of today’s reviews, or to mention any television programs that you’d like to see on Why It’s Worth a Watch Wednesday in the future.

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Waste Not, Want a Lot

November 20, 2011 By 31 Comments

Despite being buried in words and toddler madness, I have managed to do a few things unrelated to either of those things.

With a few days recently dipping below 80 here in “we’ll melt your face off” Florida, I’ve been in a baking mood. Unfortunately, lack of time and ingredients have left my oven empty.

Until last week.

As I cleaned the kitchen, I spotted a few hunks of crusty bread, a few days old and doomed to be sent to the bin. Not wanting to be wasteful, I decided to try my hand at bread pudding. That’s what people do with old bread, right?

I don’t generally care for bread pudding, to be honest. Other than the prevalence of raisins, which I detest in all things baked, I can quite put my finger on what I find so icky about it. But, the hubs enjoys it, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a go. It would be eaten, just maybe not by me.

It seemed simple enough to gather ingredients: eggs, milk, sugar, butter, old bread. I opted  for cranberries instead of raisins, and tossed some crystallized ginger in there for a little kick.

I must admit, I am now a fan of bread pudding.

Impromptu Pudding

  • Some day-old bread (I used about half a loaf of Italian)
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/8 c cranberries (more or less depending on your feeling about dried fruit)
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • generous pinch of ground ginger
  • chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350F. Tear the bread up in bite size chunks and pile into a baking dish (I used a non-stick cake pan – be sure to spray with a little non-stick for good measure). I tossed my cranberries in at this point to make sure they were nicely distributed.

Once you’ve melted your butter pour it over the bread in the dish. Beat your eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and spices. Once beaten, pour it into the dish, pushing the bread down if needed to be sure everything gets to soak up the the egg mixture.

Say hello to my yellow friend.

Soaking in the egg-y goodness

Toss some chopped crystallized ginger over the top and throw it in the oven. (Not literally. That would be messy.)

Pantry staple if you love ginger.

Yes, I am allowed to handle sharp objects.

Cook for about 45 minutes. It’s done when the tops get golden and it bounces back when you press the middle.

Voila!

Now, for those of you with a sweet tooth, you may wish to get a little saucy with your pudding. Again, being inexperienced in this food genre, I had to wing it. I tossed butter, a little light corn syrup, and copious amounts of sugar in a pan and stirred until I had a nice syrupy sauce. Oh, and I added a little Irish Whiskey, because, well, it was in the pantry.

And we declared that it was good.

Warm bread pudding may now make a regular appearance in our household. Who knew.

Do you have a dish you’ve altered to make it a welcome addition to your table?

[Hellos to my fellow NaNoWriMo'ers...broke 30k and headed back into hiding]

Filed Under: Food (Nom Nom Nom) Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Update

November 18, 2011 By 18 Comments

As you may have noticed, I’ve been fairly absent this month of November. I’ve been buried in the many words of NaNoWriMo. Add to that some photo work and a toddler going through a very needy phase, and you get very little blogging.

So, sorry. I probably should have warned you all ahead of time.

As a matter of fact, even now, this isn’t really a real post.

I’m sure you’ll see lots more of me in December. Until then…

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