I get why Easter is a big deal.
The change of the season from Winter to Spring (don’t we all feel a little more sane with more sunlight?), and there is the whole religious aspect for many (I was raised Catholic; of course Lent for me growing up was usually giving up something I didn’t care about, like vegetables)… But for me… honestly… this time of the year is all about Cadbury Eggs.
Man, I love Cadbury Eggs!
A piece of heaven trapped in a shell of chocolate.
Does anyone else remember when they had the orange ones out a few years ago? They had an orange filling (as compared to the caramel one that is too sticky for me and the chocolate one that is a little gross) and it was wonderful! This year I can’t find them anywhere. Bring back the orange! So I am stuck with the normal eggs. Now that doesn’t mean I am complaining, it’s just that a little variation in my favorite chocolate egg delicacies is not a bad thing. Like I said, I love Cadbury eggs.
Am I rambling?
Anyway, this year for me the holiday has been pushed aside by the priority of television.
Yes, for you this weekend may mean bunny rabbits, chocolate, and brightly-colored clothes on Sunday morning, for me it means a time-traveling police box and a long sword possibly with a white wolf’s head on the end of it.
Bring on the fantasy!
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Thank you Doctor!
Great Gallifrey!
On Saturday my current favorite show returns to TV, Doctor Who (overseen by the genius Steven Moffat). And with its return, the TV news is filled with stories about what is coming in the new season, whether Matt Smith (the current Doctor) will stay with the show or not (this speculation is a typical thing for each actor playing the Doctor), and everything else related to our favorite alien. Oh, I am going to fawn over this show for a bit (like I did in this more-detailed post on the show here).
I’ve been waiting for this show to come back, doing everything but pace back and forth in my living room (Okay, I have done that). I even began watching Torchwood just to have something from the universe new to devour.
Okay, on a side, how do I feel about Torchwood? Well, it is darker, I’ll give it that. At first it feels like an X-Files ripoff with its alien of the week and secrets, then by season three it became something like a mini-series which seemed to fit the style of the characters more. Yet, Season 3 almost turned me off the show completely (I’m more sensitive to stories involving children since I became a dad). It’s not a show I would easily recommend to a viewer since it can be so bleak.
This year is the start of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, and while my knowledge of the Doctor really resides in the new seasons of the show (starting with Christopher Eccleston) I appreciate what this means for fans. I really look forward to seeing all of the specials around it.
Recently, the show has had quite a change in their cast, with Amy Pond and Rory Williams both disappearing into the past, lost in time (the Doctor can’t see them again because they are in a fixed time… it’s a time travel thing… okay, just see the show). Now for the other fans of the show out there, when Amy and Rory disappeared, did any of you wonder and worry about Brian too?
Brian was Rory’s dad and the last time we saw him he told his son to go and explore the universe with the Doctor, help him. Well, that is all good and nice but in the next episode Rory gets zapped back to the past and his dad will never see him again… of course, Brian doesn’t know that. This is the first time in watching the show that I felt like a mistake was made. So my hope with the new episodes (and maybe next season) ist that we see Brian again and get closure to that bit. Because right now, I feel really sad for Mr. Weasley… I mean Brian Williams.
The big news this season is the new addition of the character Clara, a strange young woman that the Doctor keeps bumping into, followed by her death each time. I’m guessing at this point that there are hundreds of her scattered through time and she is a clone of some sort (probably to draw the Doctor someplace), but we’ll see. Moffat is good at surprising me. Oh, and I want more River Song on the show. I find that storyline/relationship a lot of fun.
Yeah! The Doctor is back!
Okay, I am done fawning now.
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Beyond the Wall
Yeah, I admit I wrote this blog post a few weeks ago, and I stand by much of what I wrote in it. So why am I changing my mind and deciding to brave the next season of Game of Thrones?
They offered me HBO for free for three months.
Those bastards.
See, I called AT&T to ask why my bill jumped up and after negotiating with them about my Uverse package they suddenly asked, “Hey, we have a special going on right now with HBO free for three months. Would you like it?”
Ah… yes… yes, I would.
So here I am excited about watching the next season of Game of Thrones, knowing exactly what horror is awaiting me. The red wedding is coming and I am certain that it will be done in such a way that it will haunt me, with blood and screaming and sadness. So why can’t I look away?
What has George R.R. Martin done to me?
All logic has escaped me!
I have written two very detailed posts on this site (here and here) discussing my issues with the books and their inspired show and yet I keep returning, hoping for… what exactly? It’s the literary equivalent of driving passed a car accident. But the problem is I keep reversing my car to look at it again and again and again.
So I’ll be there with everyone else on Sunday night, preparing for the random bits of nudity that have nothing to do with the plot or character growth (It’s HBO, remember?), and violence that always seems more disturbing than it ever did in the book.
It’s like I am looking forward to being tortured…
Oh, and on a side note, I want to know who the HBO executives were that decided to premiere this season on Easter of all days? I can’t help but imagine them giggling like prep schoolchildren about to pull off a prank on a too-serious nun.
Shame on them!
Well, shame on me too. I plan to watch. Pass the Cadbury Eggs.
Happy Easter!
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If you liked reading this post, why not check out one of my books? I’ve had three novels published in the last few years, A Jane Austen Daydream (to be released on April 30), My Problem With Doors and Megan. You can find them via my amazon.com author page here, or as an eBook on Google eBooks here. Thanks for reading!…
The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard 
Have you had a Cadbury Scream Egg? They were out at halloween and had a green yolk.
No way! For Halloween??? That feels wrong and awesome all at the same time. Did they taste different?
Yep, Halloween. And no, they didn’t taste any different, which was disappointing. It was just a creme egg with a green middle and the wrapper was green, purple and black. I swear the POS stand made out that they tasted different so there was much build up to the tasting of these new delicacies. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a creme egg, but when you call something a ‘scream egg’ and use a similarily gory tagline, you raise people’s expectations (or should that be egg-pectations)!
Well that is disappointing.
Scott,
I’m so glad you will be watching (season 3) Game of Thrones. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine that you’d be able to stay away, even if you insisted you absolutely would.
You are a moth to the flame, and so am I.
Sure, it’s HBO, so you’re right. They add sex and violence to lure in the young (with the exception any age group who loves that sort of thing). But I don’t allow the sensationalism to kill my enjoyment (unless HBO should ruin the plot and theme all together, and I don’t think they will.)
Here’s the deal. The books are great (although I hear Martin may have lost his edge with book 5, which I have yet to read.) The Game of Thrones TV series is beautifully written, magnificently filmed, and perfectly cast (at least so far.)
Should we expect a book and a film or TV show to perfectly parallel each other? It’s impossible. It’s the responsibility, the integrity, of the director (cast, crew, artists, camera men, etc) to make Game of Thrones come alive, and I think everyone’s succeeded for the most part.
I think it helps to look at the book and the series as two entirely separate genres. Perhaps I’m using that statement as an excuse because I can’t resist the series, but
it thrills the heck out of me that HBO is bringing fantasy lit alive to the masses … some of whom would never be able to get through the books.
The fact that the book and the show share a sort of English History atmosphere helps, too. There’s a definite Tolkien feel there, only much more raw in nature. (I’m a Tolkien fanatic.)
Anyway … remember when ShowTime gave us The Tudors? I was discussing that series with my niece, an English History professor, about how accurate/inaccurate the series was. (Should I mention that my husband was appalled that Henry the VIII still looked pretty darn good in his old age, versus the portly, gout-infested king his actually was?)
My niece was baffled by all the inaccuracies, but was thrilled that many of her grad students had transformed into English History lovers … most especially lovers of the Tudor Period., because of that series.
I have a double major in Theatre and English, so I argue with people about this all the time … I just enjoy debating. But I am taped to both sides of the coin, so I have to stick somewhere when the coin is dropped.
And, by God … I’m sticking with Game of Thrones!
I hope you do too.
Thanks again for another great post — enjoy those silly eggs.
I couldn’t watch The Tudors either! Had a lot of issues with the historical accouracies.
I’ve gone on quite a bit in my two editorials around my issues with Martin’s soap opera/fantasy (the big point can be summed up as “what is the point?” since we have yet to really get an exact “mission” for the characters, which is a standby for fantasies).
The fifth book was better than the fourth (most books would be), but it was kind of meandering. Nothing really happens, sad to say.
Martin ran out of space. sounds crazy, but it’s true.
he shoulda goen wiht the timeskip
Do you ever think it is funny how long it actually took for winter to arrive?
Yep. I know what you’re saying, and you’re definitely correct that we still don’t have a mission. Maybe the series has blinded me?
Regarding book 5? Ack! Meandering does not sound good.
It’s a fun word to say.
Silly Human. of course they have a mission. The mission is to live!
(or to die at age 80 with a girl’s ** around your ****)
Seriously, I don’t think this is one of those Hero’s Journey books…
I don’t know. I think it is one of those stories because so many of the standards for a fantasy adventure are there (and he is building up to something, there is an energy to the writing of it). Whatever the case he is doing something new. How success it turns out in the long run… well, we’ll see in… what? Ten years?
Ah… Game of Thrones. Watching. My claim to fame? Stumbled across the first book the day it was released, having only read a very old book by George R.R. Martin – got hooked, now going insane wondering if we’ll ever know how the story ends – because the last two volumes pretty much sucked. And Cadbury Eggs are the best!
We are on the same page (regarding Martin and eggs). Cheers!
I got addicted to Game of Thrones on a flight to London – Evil Virgin Atlantic! I had to buy Season 1, then wait for almost a year to buy Season 2. I don’t have HBO, so I’ll have to wait an entire second year before I can buy Season 3. Good grief!
Please blog about it so I can enjoy viewing vicariously. 🙂
I’m hunting down some possible egg options to test this Sunday. I’ll keep you posted on this very important experiment.
Yay for Dr. Who!
Awesome. an egg experiment. LOL.
I agree with everything you said about DW and Thrones (expect the less River Song the better for me, she annoys me!). Long live DW! 🙂
I love the writing of River; they are never in the right order. So creative. If it makes you feel better I think the River storyline is coming closer to an end.
Hopefully! I know some really like her, but to me she comes off as too smug and superficial, and I don’t see the chemistry with Matt’s Doctor. Don’t understand why he married her! The only time I liked her was in the Library ep when she “died” back in S4.She seemed like a more real and intriguing character back then, but now she’s like a caricature, IMO. Hopefully her final ep brings back some realism and real depth to her.
Well, knowing River I can’t imagine her being happy with how much Clare flirts with the Doctor.
You will know her storyline is coming to an end when he gives her her own screwdriver (on the last boxset it showed them on their last date in a video).
@Scott: Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, hope that happens soon, but it sounds like Moffat loves the River character too much. And you’re right, River should not be very happy with Clara. I like Jenna and Matt’s chemistry, but I think it’s too soon for another romance. Hope they don’t go there with her…
My gut is she is something designed to capture his imagination. It’s almost as if she is programmed just right to befuddle him (flirting to mystery, )I put my money on that being the twist at the end if the season.
The Doc also was put off his game when Amy flirted with him.
I like your ideas. yeah, after Rose and River I think he should concentrate in other things, and I don’t find it right for the character to be falling in love so often. I got why after the Time War he would fall for Rose, she gave him a reason to live again and made him feel young and appreciated. River, well, I think that was a bit too soon as well, TBH, especially because Ten truly fell for Rose, and I don’t think that had happened to him in a very long time as far as I know. Plus He’s a genius and has lived so long, he should know better. Oh well, guess I take this show too seriously! 😛 thanks for reading, hope you enjoy tonight’s new ep! 🙂