I haven't done a full round-up for awhile, so November will have a little pumpkin spice mixed in.
TV
The Darkest Timeline (Community, NBC)
WHY DON'T YOU WATCH THIS SHOW? America! What is wrong with you? A couple of days after my last pop culture round-up, Community once again proved that it is both one of the cleverest, and one of the most emotionally-rich shows on television. In the episode "Remedial Chaos Theory", the show explored multiple possible timelines all hinging on the roll of a die. And it did it in 22 minutes. I know some people consider that such episodes of Community are gimmicky, but Community always has their "gimmick" episodes mean something in the emotional lives of their characters. And that is why our darkest timeline seems to be the one we're now trapped in, as NBC announced they will temporarily pull Community from their line-up.
Just don't call it Doctor Who with dinos. (Primeval, BBCA)
I discovered this show because there was an ad for it on BBCA and I saw that it stars Alexander Siddig, who was one of my teen crushes back when he was called Siddig el Fadil and was on Deep Space Nine. So I watched an episode, but then realized there was a lot of backstory. I paused watching new eps, which premiered this month, and caught up with the past few years. There's a lot about the premise that feels like a kids' show (it's about creatures that come through tears in space time and the team that hunts them down. So really it's more like Torchwood with dinos). But the characters sucked me in right away; it's one of the only shows on TV where I feel like all of the female characters in the core group are people I'd want to hang out with. Unfortunately, that's pretty rare anywhere on TV these days, and especially in the world of sci-fi. Plus, there was a plotline about Spring-Heeled Jack. Love.
Must-See TV (The Middle, Suburgatory, Modern Family, Happy Endings, ABC)
Remember must-see TV? It started the same year that I started college. And for several glorious years, NBC was the home of a hilarious block of sit-coms that really said something about America, man. (I mean, it still is, but nobody's watching, ahem -- see above). With its Wednesday night programming, ABC has "revived the family sit-com". And what do these shows say about America? There are gay people here. But ... apparently only one black person, so we haven't come that far yet.
Movies
Movies kinda sucked last month. I heard this movie came out about glittering vampires ...
Actually, there are several small movies that came out last month (Melancholia, The Descendents) that I'm really excited about, but I haven't seen them yet.
Books
30 Days. 50,000 words. (nanowrimo.org)
You know how suddenly, everyone was doing marathons? Like, all of a sudden everyone you knew was doing Team in Training, and they were traveling to San Diego and Nashville to run? Marathoning is an interesting phenomenon, because it's really hard, but most people can do it if they practice and stick to it. But there are some of us (shall we call us... nerds?) who believe that running might be good for you but just don't see the damn point. And for us, there is National Novel Writing Month. Marathoning for nerds. Because it turns out that anyone can write a novel if they stick to it. During NaNoWriMo, people all over the world write 50,000 words in 30 days. And that is cool.
Music
From Ceremonials, by Florence + the Machine
From Camp, by Childish Gambino (Warning: Explicit)
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