"Think Lovely Thoughts"

Once Upon a Time-- Season 3 Episode Eight

We start out with an introduction to Rumplestiltskin's scumbag cheater father. Young! Rumple is innocent and has a lisp, that's about all I can say for him character wise. He wants his father to be honest and good, etc. etc. Eventually Rumple's father promises to "get a job" and deposits his son with these two.

 What the heck, are these the dad's lesbian sister and her girlfriend? We're not told who, and that really seems like the most plausible answer. Rumple's father gives him the doll we saw him find on Neverland and he names it Peter Pan. Dad promises to be "right back".

Meanwhile, in Neverland, Neal reveals the prophecy that says a child will be Rumplestiltskin's downfall, and everyone (including Hook, for some reason) freaks out that Rumple wants to murder Henry and tell him how that is one-thousand percent never going to happen. Also they pose like this:

 
 Are you kidding me, people? If the man really wanted Henry dead he could have done it a hundred different ways, and without getting any of you involved. Seriously, get a load of yourselves.


Fairytale land:

 The lesbians tell Rumple that his father is not out looking for a job *gasp* but is back to his old tricks. His bad name will follow him everywhere, forever. But don't worry, there's a solution. All that Rumple has to do is take this magic bean and it will portal him to somewhere else!

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU GIVE THAT PORTAL BEAN TO A CHILD? What is wrong with adults in this universe? The Blue Fairy did the same thing to Baelfire, and it's just generally a horrible idea. They're just children, and you want to send them careening off to some unknown world? What is your problem?

Instead of taking that horrible advice Rumple goes to find his father, who apparently used to dream of a place called Neverland. He thinks that sounds like a great place to go back to. Clearly the Neverland he was dreaming about is a lot different from the one we know now, or he's just way messed-up. I have a feeling it's the latter.

Neverland, present day. The gang storms the camp and finds that Wendy is one cold-hearted chick. "Oh, yeah, Henry's gonna die and Pan will be all-powerful and immortal. Nbd." You do realize those are bad things, right, Wendy? While she's busy not caring and trying to hit on Neal, Pan and Henry are on their way to Skull Rock in a rowboat. The whole scene screams Dumbledore and Harry at the end of Half-blood Prince.

When the good guys follow Emma runs into a magic protection shield. Regina throws fire at it, which bounces right back at her. Good thinking, Regina. Rumple: "Pan's magic is too powerful. At least for you." *slinks through like the sassy bastard he is*

Because he doesn't have a shadow he can get through. *EPIC INCEPTION LIKE MUSIC PLAYS*

Did Pan seriously cast a spell keeping "people with shadows" out? You'd think he could make it DNA specific or anything that couldn't be defeated by Emma and Regina doing this:

It blocks out their shadows, don'tcha know. 

So it turns out that in the past Rumple's father abandons him to the creepy shadow in order to stay in Neverland and be young forever in the form of Peter Pan. Now Rumple confronts Pan. What a weird scene this must have been for Robert Carlyle and Robbie Kay to film.

 They both nailed it, though.

Although claiming he "never forgot" about his son, Pan still traps him in Pandora's Box. A+ parenting.

We see in a flashback that the shadow dropped him off at the lesbian couple's house.

 Meh, could be worse. His dad (newly shrunk into Peter Pan form) flies to Skull Island and exclaims "A giant skull. It's glorious!" How was this guy not locked up for being a serial killer or something?

"Neverland is a place for children to visit in their dreams." --the Shadow
More like in their nightmares-- it's not exactly a Disney sing-a-long here.

Peter Pan the psychopath convinces Henry to pull out his own heart. Henry is not the least bit disturbed to do so. His family rushes in and starts yelling at him to NOT HELP THE EVIL DUDE BECOME ALL POWERFUL. Henry tells them they don't understand what heroes are, or something like that, and gives Pan his heart. AWESOME CHOICE, HENRY. WAY TO BE NOT STUPID.

 All in all this episode was one of the best this season, but I don't think I want Henry saved. 

"Welcome to the Hellmouth"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode One

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite show of all time, so fangirling will happen. I have strong opinions on a  lot of the characters. Spoilers may occur. (I feel a little silly since it's been cancelled for ten years, but you never know.) I'll be focusing less on plots of individual episodes than characters, lines, whatever catches my attention really. I have seen all the episodes, but only once and I know I've forgotten a ton of stuff.

On to the episode!

Our first introduction to one of my favorite female characters ever, Buffy Summers, is through these three words: "I'm up, mom!"

We quickly meet Xander and Willow. Xander is skateboarding and Willow explains the library as "Where the books live." Quickest character development ever.

Our introduction to Sunnydale, home of the most insane high school in the country, is the principal ripping up Buffy's school files and then taping them together again. I can't.

"Xander. Is me. Hi. Maybe I'll see you at school, since we both go there."

Oh, Xander. 

Cordelia shares her book with Buffy and proceeds to be nice for about two minutes. I think, "Oh, I might not hate her!" but then.... "No wonder you're such a boy magnet!" Poor Willow baby.

I love that the show sets up the library to be creepy since pretty soon the gang will be hanging there every spare second. But you can practically see the tumbleweeds blowing through the room-- does ANYONE come in here? Ever? Sunnydale High.

Giles introduces himself as Mr. Giles, and I hope he enjoyed hearing it out loud because he'll never be called it again. Then he pulls out this bestseller.

Buffy and I make a similar face.

One scene later we get....

The first dead body of the show! Reaction of a student: shrill screaming like any normal person.

I'm curious to see how long it will take them to be get jaded. 

Awww, Eager! Willow is adorable.

And she totally has a crush on Giles.

Xander's friend Jesse is totally adorable. And I can't fault the boys for their insta-crush on Buffy.

She is fabulous.

What kind of school/town/anything just leaves their dead students lying on the locker room floor only covered with a blanket? Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Sunnydale High School.

"You are the Slayer." *cue dramatic music*

Buffy and Giles are having a bantery little conversation about the roles of a Slayer and a Watcher and it's all fun and games until suddenly we are hit with this speech:

"Prepare me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead. Prepare me." Yikes. Joss Whedon is giving us a teaser that he is not afraid to pull out the big guns emotionally.

I love that the library is so abandoned Giles and Buffy can have a conversation about vampires and the fact that Xander is in the library at all is a shock. Sunnydale High.

 Dang, these vampires are ugggly.

An interesting choice given that they're usually portrayed as sex symbols (no, I'm not talking about Edward. Dracula, my friends, was no hundred-year-old virgin.)

Dang, gurl, you are fantastic and don't let anyone ever tell you different.

ANGEL'S FIRST INTERACTION WITH BUFFY IS GETTING KICKED OVER. I am such a huge fan of this.

Buffy asks, "What do I want?" And Angel tells her she wants to "Kill 'em all." I think he's been watching a little too much Pokemon.

Our heroine now enters The Bronze for the first time.

Oh, this club.

"Life is short. Tomorrow you might be dead." --Inspiring speeches by Buffy

"You think is my idear of a party?" I forgot that Giles was British.

Buffy's first impression of Angel: "I really didn't like him." Hehe.

When Cordelia wants to make a call on her cell phone she has to literally pull out the antennae first. Haha! Nineties.

I'm sure I'm not the first to say this, but the Master looks an awful lot like Voldemort.

Sunnydale apparently has an ice cream bar! I now understand Willow going with the vampire guy.

"If we don't find her there's going to be one more dead body in the morning." Sarah Michelle Gellars is an intense and incredible actress and she's not afraid to show it. 

When there's a fight you can almost see Buffy snap into her zone. All the insecurity or denial of her identity fade out of focus and the sassiness makes an entrance. "Are you sure? We're talking violence, strong language, adult content...."

And we're left with a "To be continued". Wheeedon!

Episode Tallys
Shattered windows-- 1
Body count--2
Times Joyce caused me to facepalm-- none yet

Buffy hair porn:

And I leave you with Truly Atrocious Outfits by Willow:

Really solid first episode, it makes me excited for all the character growth yet to come.

"Local Ad"

The Office-- Season 4 Episode 5

This episode opens up with Phyllis calling out, "Dancing babies!" I'm kind of surprised that wasn't Angela, since she's the one with the baby poster obsession. But then we quickly get Andy in a cappella mode, which is the only mode I can stand him in. And although my roommate knew how to complete the "Break me off a piece of that......." I did not. Too young. Jim could make fun of me forever.

These are the ad men brought in to help create a Dunder Mifflin commercial. And this is them thirty seconds later.

I feel sorry for all the outsiders roped into this den of insanity.

The opening sequence rolls, and I am left to wonder once again if they are ever going to revamp these credits. It's effective and all, but come on. Relationships have been formed. Characters have been added. The times they are a changin'.

Dwight's Second Life avatar is going to haunt my dreams. *shudders*

So the (M)ad men run their commercial that they made for a previous branch and although it is pretty bland the music is pretty catchy. "Not too shabby," as Michael would say. But he, no surprise, hates it.

Andy continues to be captivated by Angela, and for reasons I cannot fathom she is apparently spending time with him outside of work. In a romantic fashion. Necking, but not kissing. Disgusting. Anyway, Andy tells Dwight this and this brings out Dwight's murder face.

Haha! Another great reaction face follows shortly-- Ryan (the facial hair has turned him super hot, by the way) being told he has a call from "Eddie Murphy".

Scranton haunts him, you can see it in his eyes.

So Michael dismisses the (M)ad men and tells corporate he will be making his own commercial. Turns out that the office actually has a lot of untapped talent, because guess what? DARYL CAN PLAY THE PIANO. I squealed. I love Daryl more with every appearance he makes. Kevin, Kelli, Andy, and Creed accompany him in a lovely ditty-- "Dunder Mifflin: People Person's Paper People." Try saying that five times fast. But Daryl has got some serious skills going on and I would like to see them utilized more often.

This woman ruins people's lives. Poor Phyllis.

Pam's art skills are back in play with animating the commercial. She ends up falling asleep at her desk and stranding Jim in the parking lot with Meredith. Oh, Meredith. (Side note: Say what you will about Meredith, but her hair is fabulous.) In the morning Jim calls her (Pam, not Meredith) to say good morning from his desk and it's too cute for me to handle and AHHH my babies, you must be together forever. Also he brought her breakfast.

How many nights does Dwight spend at the office?

Update on the Andy and Angela situation: She says, "Oh, D" while they're necking. This makes Dwight very happy, and he and Andy chant "Oh, D!" in a very disturbing manner. She wants the D.....

I would rather die in a fiery car crash than make out with this man in any fashion. Angela, this break-up has done terrible things to your already questionable judgment.

It's ten days later, Michael's ad was rejected, and the (M)ad men's is played. The Scranton branch waves at the end. Then we get to see the ad that the office put together, and I kind of love it a lot. Kelli gets told (in Indian dress) that someone loves her, Dwight is Phyllis' son, and Stanley is a ditch digger. In the end Michael gets a crumpled up piece of paper that dubs him World's Most Creative Boss. It goes without saying that "Chariots of Fire" plays over the whole thing.

One of the (M)ad men compliments Pam on her animation and invites her out for a ride on his motorcycle. Jim does this:

Possessive! Jim is the cutest thing ever, oh mah gosh.

Closing scene: Andy finally finds a solution to his jingle (he's tried applesauce, poison gas, and football cream to name a few). He settles on Fancy Feast. This episode was fantastic.

Favorite line of "Local Ad":

"I looked away for a second and Creed swiped your hash browns." -Jim


I'm new to this whole "organized blogging" so please give me any feedback you have, positive or negative, thanks very much. 

Hello!

Hello there!

My name's Rebecca and I will be your tv reviewer today. I run a personal blog, but I want to try sticking to a topic with more consistency. I'll be posting reviews from old shows that are on Netflix (currently I'm watching The Office for the first time) and also some current ones like Castle, Once Upon a Time, and Sleepy Hollow.

I will post things that invoke strong emotions from me (positive and negative), reaction faces (love me some reaction faces), and general thoughts on the episodes.

No one ever reads these introductory posts but I felt like I should write one anyway.....I will try to update twice a week, but we'll see how that goes. Anyway, I'll leave off with a picture of Nicolas Cage as a Disney princess and wish you an excellent day!