Watch Friday Night Lights, tonight...

...or this guy will beat you up.

Okay, maybe he won't beat you up. (He might, though.) (You never know.) (So you might as well not tempt fate.) (Just watch the show, okay?) FNL starts back up again with new episodes tonight (take note--new night--Wednesdays) at 8pm. I have nothing to do with the show, I just love watching it, and I want other people to start watching it (because I know you'll love it too) so that it'll stay on the air and I'll get to enjoy FNL for a long, long time.

If you're afraid of the show because you think it's just about football, it's so not just about football. Just watch it. You'll see what I mean.

Dexter

I've had a major Tivo backlog for the last few weeks and the shows just keep piling up, but tonight I made a little dent: I watched two episodes of Dexter (I'm not quite caught up, I still haven't seen last night's episode) and I cannot get over how good this show is. It's crazy good. And who knew Michael C. Hall was one of the best actors currently working in television? I mean, I knew he was good and I always loved him on Six Feet Under, but I had no idea he was great. He's so completely different and compelling as Dexter (and charming--which is a weird adjective to use when describing a serial killer, but he is--he's utterly charming) that I can suddenly picture him playing the role of Nate on Six Feet Under and I think that he would have been just as good in the role as Peter Krause (who I love, but who I cannot imagine being able to play David). I also never realized how hot Michael C. Hall is (I never really thought he was "hot" as David), but he's really freaking handsome.

Watch Friday Night Lights, part deux

I totally fell for Friday Night Lights last week. I've decided it's my favorite new show of the new shows on the telly this year. I've been thinking a lot about the final voice-over quote from the end of the pilot episode. Just been thinking about it. It resonates, and it really hit me when I was watching the show:

"Give all of us gathered here tonight the strength to remember that life is so very fragile. We are all vulnerable. And we will all at some point in our lives fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts: that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us. And that when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. We will now all be tested. It is these times—it is this pain—that allows us to look inside ourselves."

Oh, and the show's kinda hot, too. Not as hot as Paul Rudd,

but still pretty hot. (Am I really weird for thinking that the above photo of Paul Rudd is definitive proof that there is a God and he's a really good guy and he listens to my prayers? Like, is that weird? That THIS MAN is my ultimate fantasy?) (photo source: kenneth in the 212)

RG

Rebecca Gray, one of my favorite actors in Los Angeles (or anywhere), and one of my dear friends, was on Criminal Minds tonight, playing a mother who's daughter had been abducted, and she rocked it.

Congratulations, RG! You were awesome. Big xoxo.

Watch Friday Night Lights.

Okay, so I'm usually not really into sports, um, at all, which I think is a pretty well known fact about me. Like, you can start talking about sports and I'll try to keep up as best as I can, but after awhile I'll get kinda glossy-eyed because I have no idea what you're talking about and it starts to sound like you're speaking Egyptian and, well, I'm sorry about that glossy-eyedness thing I mentioned that I get, it's just that, well, it just happens.

But if I was going to pick my favorite sport, the only one that I really have any investment in is football--two of my brothers play football, see, and my brothers are pretty much the coolest people in the world, so if they love football, well then I'm happy I love the game too, dammit. Therefore, football's my favorite sport.

For the sake of full disclosure, I also have to admit that I've always loved movies about football. Especially movies about high school football. Um, remember that Goldie Hawn movie Wildcats? Yeah, I love it. And the Sean Aston movie Rudy? Turns me into a blubbering mess. I love underdogs.

Anyway, enough about me. One of my friends is on the writing staff of "Friday Night Lights," which premieres Tuesday night on NBC at 8pm, and she has assured me that the show is awesome, and even if she hadn't assured me, I think it looks pretty awesome myself, based on the promos (clink on the links in this sentence to see them) and I'm really looking forward to the show. I thought I'd pass on my friend's assurance of the show's awesomeness, and tell y'all to watch the show too, and then maybe, if we all like it, then we can, like, gab about the show together and stuff.

(By the way, as far as other new shows go, I love love love Ugly Betty so much I could marry it, I'm fascinated by Dexter and I already think Michael C. Hall should get an Emmy [except his character is way too fucked up to be recognized by Emmy voters], I'm getting really tired of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip but I'll give it one more week just because so many other people like it so much, I'm embarrassed to admit how much I really truly completely love Standoff, I'm so utterly bored by Brothers & Sisters that I took it off my Tivo list of shows to be recorded, I'm so utterly "eh" about Smith that I took it off my Tivo list of shows to be recorded, I thought Six Degrees only had two interesting degrees [Hope Davis and Campbell Scott] and that's not enough to hold my interest so I took it off my Tivo list of shows to be recorded, I'm totally into Kidnapped even though it almost feels like there's too much plot sometimes I'm still totally into it [and Jeremy Sisto could read the phone book and I'd be like "that dude has so much damage I wanna see more"], I thought Jericho was too depressing for words and not in a good way, and I like Men In Trees but it's no Ugly Betty.) (Oh, and if you think I watch way too much television, I'd like to point out that of the ten shows listed above, I just took five of them off of my Tivo list of shows to be recorded, so I'm not as much of a sloth as you think I am.)

List of Best TV characters ever

I feel like I haven't blogged in five hundred years. I'm sorry. I feel immense guilt about this lack of blogging. (Even though I think it's only really been, like, two days.)

I've had a lot of writing to do the last few days, which is why I've been so unbloggy. (It's not just my blog I've been ignoring--I've been ignoring my Tivo too! You should see the ginormous list of unwatched shows that have accumulated in that thing.) (Holly crap.) (And, yes, that typo was intentional.)

Speaking of TV, I was reading TV Squad and I like the lists they make (things like “5 best television ensembles” and “5 best TV moms” and things like that) and since it’s no secret I like to make lists, I started to make a list of 10 Greatest TV characters ever. This was really hard to do and I haven’t actually winnowed the list down to 10 yet. In fact, I haven’t even winnowed it close to 10. I’m still winnowing. (And still adding to it, too, which makes my winnowing that much more difficult.)

I’m going to post my list below and if you feel strongly that any of the following people should make it to the Top Ten or if you think I’ve made an egregious error and forgotten someone who should be in the running, then please let me know.

(Oh, also, as the list currently stands, there might be more than one character listed from certain shows. However, one of the rules I’ve decided for the final Top Ten is there cannot be multiple characters listed from any one show.) (Which means I'm going to have to choose between Spike and Anya, which is SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT than the choice that Sophie chick had to make.)

(Oh, and this list is all over the map right now.)

(And I feel like I should make separate lists for best main characters and best supporting characters, but everyone is lumped together right now.)

(in no particular order)

Agnes DiPesto from Moonlighting
Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties
Angela Chase from My So-Called Life
Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks
Brenda Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210
Boston Rob from Survivor: All Stars (I know this is stretching it, but he was definitely a "character." Come on!)
Carol Hathoway from ER
Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
Claire Fisher from Six Feet Under
Clayton Jones from Carnivale
Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy
Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks
Elaine Benis from Seinfeld
Emma Nelson from Degrassi: The Next Generation
GOB Bluth from Arrested Development
Homer Simpson from The Simpsons
Izzie Stevens from Grey’s Anatomy
Jack Tripper from Three’s Company
Jackie Harris from Roseanne
Jordan Catalano from My So-Called Life
Judy Owen from Homefront
Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years
Kimberly Shaw from Melrose Place
Laverne De Fazio from Laverne and Shirley
Lindsay Weir from Freaks and Geeks
Lorelai Gilmore from The Gilmore Girls
Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy
Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Nick Andopolis from Freaks and Geeks
Rayanne Graff from My So-Called Life
Ruth Fisher from Six Feet Under
Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap
Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sydney Andrews from Melrose Place
Tobias Funke from Arrested Development
Trudy Wiegel from Reno: 911!

HELP ME.

WHY DO I FEEL COMPELLED TO MAKE LISTS?

I'M NOT REALLY A *CRAZY* LISTMAKER. AT LEAST NOT ANYMORE. NOT LIKE I WAS WHEN I WAS A KID. NOW MY LISTMAKING IS PRETTY MUCH UNDER CONTROL. I DON' KNOW WHY I'VE DECIDED TO WRITE THIS IN ALL CAPS. I THINK IT'S BECAUSE I WANTED TO DIFFERENTIATE IT FROM THE LIST. WHICH IS A WEIRD AND DUMB REASON TO FINISH THIS BLOG ENTRY IN ALL CAPS. WOULDN'T IT BE COOL TO BE PAID TO MAKE LISTS FOR A LIVING. WHEN PEOPLE ASKED YOU WHAT YOUR JOB WAS, YOU COULD BE LIKE, "I MAKE LISTS OF RANDOM THINGS." HOW MUCH FUN WOULD THAT BE? WOW, THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING TO READ ALL OF THESE CAPITAL LETTERS ISN'T IT? I'M AT STARBUCKS RIGHT NOW AND I'M SITTING BY THE WINDOW AND THIS GUY JUST TOOK HIS SHIRT OFF OUTSIDE THE WINDOW AND IT WAS REALLY DISTRACTING. FOR A SECOND I FORGOT ABOUT ALL OF THESE CAPITAL LETTERS. BUT ONLY FOR A SECOND. I WONDER IF ANYONE IS STILL READING THIS? I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE ALREADY STOPPED BY NOW IF I WASN'T ACTUALLY WRITING THIS BECAUSE ALL OF THESE CAPITAL LETTERS ARE, LIKE, HARD TO FOCUS YOUR EYES ON. RIGHT? LIKE, IF I JUST SKIMMED THIS BLOG ENTRY, I MIGHT THINK THAT THIS WAS SOME SORT OF WEIRD LEGAL SMALL-PRINT MUMBO JUMBO AT THE BOTTOM. BUT THEN I MIGHT THINK, "BUT THE PRINT ISN'T ACTUALLY SMALLER THAN THE OTHER PRINT. WHY DID YOU THINK IT WAS SMALL PRINT?" AND THEN I WOULD BE ANNOYED AT ERIK FOR WRITING SO MUCH ABOUT SO LITTLE, i.e. FOR WRITING IN CAPS FOR SO LONG AND ACTUALLY WRITING ABOUT THE FACT THAT I WAS WRITING IN CAPS. WHY WON'T RYAN SEACREST JUST BITE THE BULLET AND FUCKING COME OUT OF THE CLOSET? (WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? OH, RIGHT, I JUST SAW THE PICTURE OF HIM KISSING TERI HATCHER AND IT'S PAINFUL.) WHAT IS IT ABOUT STARBUCKS THAT MAKES ME HAVE TO POOP. I MEAN, I HAVE TO POOP AT OTHER PLACES TOO BECAUSE I POOP QUITE FREQUENTLY, BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT STARBUCKS THAT REALLY DRAWS THE POOP OUT. MY BROTHER MATT IS THE SAME WAY WITH BARNES AND NOBLE. HE CAN'T GO TO BARNES AND NOBLE WITHOUT POOPING. WOW, THIS BLOG ENTRY IS DEGENERATING QUICKLY. I'M STILL REALLY MAD THAT TIMMY BEAT DERRICK IN THE GAUNTLET.

I NEED TO GET BACK TO WORK.

NOW.