Favorite Film: Casablanca, followed closely by Miller's Crossing (not Star Wars or 2001)
Favorite TV show, drama: Northern Exposure (not Star Trek or X-Files)
Favorite TV show, sitcom: All in the Family (not Futurama or Red Dwarf)
Favorite Novel: The World According to Garp by John Irving (not Lord of the Rings or Ender's Game)
Current Favorite Television: Mad Men, Burn Notice, House (not Battlestar Galactica, Lost, or Doctor Who)
Hobbies: Martial arts, weight lifting, biking, hiking (not filking or speaking Klingon)
Status: Married with children (not single and living in my parent's basement)
But I am a HUGE science fiction fan.
The stereotypes are pretty tired, aren't they? As much as SF&F pervades media and culture these days, everybody is a fan of something.
9 comments:
The stereotypes are tiring, and increasingly wrong (when I hit a convention these days I am amazed by the diversity of attendees I see, and I think that's because genre has either lost whatever stigma it had wholesale, or more likely it's mainstream enough that there is a balance between those who partake and those who don't that cancels it out anyway). In regards to favorites, I often have trouble narrowing down to one favorite no matter what genre, or lack thereof, a story is in.
Among books The Color Purple was a moving experience reading, and the movie is a favorite as well. Casablanca is a good choice, too. In the realm of TV, I suppose The Wire is at the top as far as drama goes. It's one of the most textured shows of any I've ever watched, refusing to draw lines between the good and bad in people even though most characters are on one side or the other. M*A*S*H is up there for sitcoms, and newer Big Bang Theory is hysterical in its skewering of geekdom (especially in the person of Sheldon), even if it is formulaic for the most part. And then, I also watch a lot of HGTV (a lot). You could probably call the latter a hobby.
But also, I could list a bunch of SF/F shows/films/books/etc with equal standing. So I guess the answer for me that I can't come up with one concrete favorite. Whether that's because my interests are so diverse, or because I just can't make up my mind, well, I don't think I can make up my mind about that, either...
Northern Exposure is one of my all-time favorite shows. I didn't know you were a fan! This pleases me. I am also with you on Mad Men and Burn Notice, even though my current favorites are two of your parentheticals. (Haven't seen this weeks' Mad Men yet and it's killing me.)
Miller's Crossing is also one of my favorite films; I'm often surprised at how few people remember it.
Christian - I came close to listing M*A*S*H. The finale was one of the best TV events of all time. Certainly the best finale. Also, anyone seen that commercial with the father giving his son a viking helmet so they can watch football together? Geeks come in all shapes and sizes.
Dionara - Northern Exposure has never been equalled, though it should have ended when Joel took his spirit quest up north and magically walked back to NYC. Last week's Mad Men was great.
Ted - saw it in London when it came out with a bunch of American students who utterly missed the gay subtext. Drove me crazy so I saw it again to make sure I wasn't imagining, after which I was hooked. It's my favorite Coen brothers, and vastly superior to and more complex than the inferior Barton Fink which got all the critical acclaim because it required less intelligence to appreciate (and was about a screenwriter).
As a whole, yeah, I'd say M*A*S*H probably had the best finale, though final few moments of Newhart certainly nips at it heels.
It's funny how many of these would be my answers. I might have gone for Hill Street Blues or Homicide for the TV drama, but NE was a great show, doubtless without a doubt. (Also, the only martial art I practice is hiding when there's a loud noise.)
Miller's Crossing is extremely underrated: The Glass Key derails onto Love's Lovely Counterfeit and the Coens are there to faultless capture every relevant detail of the subsequent explosion. I guess there are some good moments in Barton Fink (many of them belonging to Judy Davis), but I'm sure that it gets more attention simply and solely because it is a period movie about Hollywood.
I was frustrated when critics described Miller's Crossing as indecipherably complex. And I remembered the Coen's saying they did Barton Fink to "relax" after Miller's Crossing...
Oh gosh! i can't even remember all the films, tv shows, & books I've read/seen/heard during my lifetime, so how could I possibly pick a favourite?
Hmmm. Let's see. Well, M*A*S*H IS the TV Sitcom definitely - I never missed a show. TV Drama - many years ago PBS had a mystery show with an intro drawn by Edward Gorey - it was called "Mystery Theatre" or something like that. A close second is "Hercules Poirot." When I was much younger - like 7 or 8 - it was "The Twilight Zone." Current TV - Anderson Cooper 360. Hobbies - reading & fibre art (quilting, knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, needlepoint, etc.) Status - married with no children. Novel - impossible, forget it.
P.S. I'm still working through Fast forward - I've gotten detoured by a request for a knitted hat.
Fast Forward 2 vs knitted hat. Hmmm.
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