Sleep...

[altariel]

Dammit, can't sleep. Shouldn't have watched The Blair Years in bed, it only made my teeth grind. Jersey Girl came on next, and I was about to turn it off when an Aimee Mann song started up, so I had to listen to that, and then I wanted to know how the story turned out. This is exactly the time of night when I need an episode of Law and Order, but there are none to be found, oh alas!

I thought Cranford was harmless, and sometimes funny. Jersey Girl was a very sweet story but had to start with the wife being killed, so that the lead male could develop Character and then find True Love. But if I la-la-ed at that, I liked the rest of it: quiet and touching and well plotted. I particularly liked the middle-aged Jay and Silent Bob.

Hmm, there's a repeat of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on. Will that simply start my teeth grinding again, or fill me with sufficient torpor that I'll pass out? When will I ever learn to save my episodes of Without A Trace for precisely this eventuality?

Comments

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I hope you did manage to find something that didn't make your teeth grind.

I went to bed early yesterday with a bad headache (I had strange lights in my vision and couldn't walk straight - I think that counts as a bad headache), and scuppered my plans for getting up at my usual time by sleeping in. Oh well.

Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

In the opening seconds of last week's Studio 60, I thought "I know that voice... My god, they have realised katlinel was right and replaced Amanda Peet with Allison Janney!"

Sadly, this was not so, though it spared me the cognitive dissonance of watching Janney doing love scenes with a character called Danny who was not played by Timothy Busfield, while Timothy Busfield was hovering in the background. Though I did have to deal with the cognitive dissonance of watching Janney playing herself opposite Busfield playing another fictional character.

That was very odd, but at the same time I felt guilty for worrying about it, because I regularly lose my temper with television critics who write that "it's impossible to take [actor playing straight role rather well] seriously because we keep expecting him to [do comic shtick characteristic of his role in popular TV comedy which I have never watched]".

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I had to rearrange my head for all those moments too.

I felt guilty for worrying about it, because I regularly lose my temper with television critics

I think the writing was doing it on purpose: Alison Janney was playing a character called "Alison Janney" who was kept quite close to C.J. in certain ways.

Her appearance really has been the highlight for me. I want to be Alison Janney when I grow up.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I think the writing was doing it on purpose: Alison Janney was playing a character called "Alison Janney" who was kept quite close to C.J. in certain ways.

Oh good, so not just my brain refusing to work properly and maintain the distinction between actor and character.

I'm not surprised she got exasperated with everybody in the show - they need her to shake them up a bit.

I want to be Alison Janney when I grow up.

Me too!

Along with things being better in space, are they also better with Alison Janney? Should there be Alison Janney in space? (Oh lord, yes. Just imagine if Alison Janney took over Torchwood? Just imagine if Sarah Jane teamed up with Alison Janney. *head explodes with happy thoughts*)

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Should there be Alison Janney in space?

By God, I demand it as my Right.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

By God, I demand it as my Right.

Television will not be complete until this happens.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Sadly no, no replacement! Drat.

Yes, I had that cognitive dissonance too, first working out whether Alison Janney was being herself or another character, or even CJ in her post-West Wing career.

The episode annoyed me for various reasons, but god I wish Alison Janney was in it permanently, and playing a decent character, who might have a love story, but for whom the love story wasn't the only defining characteristic.

I think I know what you mean re the television critics. I got very annoyed reading the recent Radio Times article about the new version of Room With A View, wherein one of the people connected with the new version complained that because Lucy in the Merchant-Ivory film was played by an actor with a double-barrelled surname, you couldn't take her seriously as a member of the middle classes, and therefore all the class issues raised by Forster just don't come across. And when I read something like that, I wonder whether or not the person saying such things has actually watched the damn film.

And having said that, yes, I still had that disconnect, so I probably shouldn't get on my high horse quite so much over this.

Maybe it's to do with investment in the character as well? If you have invested a lot in that character, it may be harder to move away.

I *so* need a CJ icon.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I wasn't quite sure whether I was expecting her to say "Danny, you gave up a brilliant career as a political journalist for this?" or "Tim, you gave up a brilliant career playing my occasional love interest for this?" But... something. Get him out of there, gal!

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

He occasionally plays a lawyer in Without A Trace.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And I remember a television critic who couldn't take him seriously as Danny because he was really somebody-or-other from Thirty Something.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Eliot! Yes, it took me a while to shake that off when I first started watching The West Wing. But when I rewatched some thirtysomething recently, I couldn't understand why he was kissing someone who wasn't CJ.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Also, though I'd seen the opening episodes of The West Wing long before House was thought of, when I came to see them again I thought it was awfully amusing that Cuddy had paid her way through medical school by working as a high-class hooker. Obviously she changed her mind about law as a career after meeting Sam Seaborn.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes! I absolutely had that cognitive dissonance too! *g*

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

He really does need rescuing.

There was a moment between the two of them, near the end of the episode (I think), and they played off each other so well, it was almost painful to watch compared to the dreariness of Studio60-Danny/Jordan and Matt/Harriet.

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[altariel.livejournal.com]

one of the people connected with the new version complained that because Lucy in the Merchant-Ivory film was played by an actor with a double-barrelled surname, you couldn't take her seriously as a member of the middle classes

Um, wouldn't that be what the acting would be for?

Re: Don't read this if you're still to watch last week's Studio 60

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

I didn't bother to watch the re-make, mostly as a result of reading the stupid article and the stupid things the writer/director/producer/whoever-it-was was saying.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ouch, more like migraine than bad headache, I think. Don't overdo it today - you did right sleeping in.

I slept in too: when I'm having an insomniac night, the only thing to do is stay up till I'm tired and then sleep it off the next night.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if it fell into the realm of migraine. I'm wary about claiming things like that when I know people who do get them, and it can be so much worse than anything I've experienced.

I'm glad you slept in, and I hope you managed to stop grinding your teeth, and relax, and just generally be ok.

*hugs*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Bright lights and interference with vision sound like classic migraine symptoms to me. Did ordinary headache tablets help at all?

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I didn't take anything - just went to bed. Still felt a bit queasy for a lot of yesterday though.

Hope you're feeling better, and got some good sleep.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Hope you got some decent rest in the end. I can't sleep if something makes me mad just before bedtime, either.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Not a bad night's sleep... although I've had another late night last night and I'm up too early this morning. My insomnia tends to last a day or two. I think I might start trying and wean myself off the coffee.