Category Archives: No Spoilers
“Parks and Recreation”: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
Ah, welcome to summer! That magical time of year when all the TV goes away. All of it! Even Game of Thrones is over now! WHY BOTHER BEING ALIVE?
The answer: To catch up on old television you may have missed! So we’re bringing back the Skip It/Watch It Guides for a few weeks, specifically to give you some extra viewing options as we head into the hot hell of July and August. And to kick things off — we’ve got Parks and Recreation!
Once upon a time, Parks and Rec was known as “the show that’s not exactly a spin-off of The Office that stars the blonde chick from Saturday Night Live. You know, the one who seems to be pregnant all the time.” But it has since evolved into one of the funniest and best-hearted comedies on television, with a top-notch cast and complex yet clearly defined characters. It is a show about a bunch of people who work in local government, but unlike local government, it’s hilarious, affecting and inspiring.
In case this isn’t clear: I LOVE this show, to the point of near obsession. And you should love it too! You probably will love it too. It’s great. But like many fantastic shows, it takes a bit of time to find its footing, and thus I have gone to great painstaking effort to create a detailed guide that will enable you to fall in love immediately… Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank Who Catherine Tate (The New Boss of “The Office”?) Is
Dear Frank,
According to the Hollywood Reporter, British comedian Catherine Tate, who’s one of the half-dozen or so candidates guest-starring in The Office season finale airing tonight, is NBC’s top choice to fill the gap left by Steve Carell’s departure. I LOVE Catherine Tate, so I’m in a happy place right now, but it appears that many people are not familiar with her, which is a shame, so let’s fix this, shall we?
Basic deal, Frank: Catherine Tate’s like a British Tina Fey, except that she not only had a long-running comedy series (and with her name in the title), but has proved her abilities as a dramatic actress in a wide range of roles. I’ll admit that I didn’t really become familiar with Catherine Tate until after her first appearance on Doctor Who (I chalk this up to my general preference for British drama over British comedy) but I’ve since come to respect her as possibly one of the funniest women in the world. Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In “The Hunger Games” (Sorta.)
Dear Frank,
This week, I’m deviating a bit from our established pattern to tell you about something not so you can skip watching it, but instead to encourage you (and others) to enjoy it. See, Frank, I am fully aware of the fact that you are a cultured man who has read many books, long complex books that use big words. I bet you’ve even finished a David Foster Wallace novel! Maybe not Infinite Jest, because c’mon, but certainly maybe one of his shorter works.
So I understand that young adult fiction might not necessarily be your genre of choice. But The Hunger Games, a post-apocalyptic trilogy of novels written by Suzanne Collins, is a terrific and heart-breaking ride. And you should read it.
I’m making a big thing of this because I first read The Hunger Games about three weeks ago, and the second I started talking about it, it turned out that, like, half of my friends had also read it! And had not told me about how great it was! Which is bullshit! Friends, I mean no offense, I know you lead busy lives, but stuff like this is IMPORTANT, okay? (Sure, this would have all been avoided had I been reading IO9 regularly, but whatever.)
Anyways, here are the basics: In a bleak post-America totalitarian empire called Panem, 12 districts live under the thumb of the Capital, which every year demands a “tribute” of one teenage boy and girl, who are forced to compete in a televised fight to the death. (Yeah, another social commentary on the evils of reality TV, though to Collins’ credit it doesn’t belabor this point too hard.)
So, yes, technically, this is a young adult series, but it’s also a young adult series where, in the first book alone, over twenty children are brutally murdered. These books do not fuck around. Read the rest of this entry
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Season 1: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
Hey, want to check out on the complete series? A guide to all seven seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as its spinoff “Angel,” can be found in “Liz Tells Frank: The Skip It/Watch It Guides,” now available on Amazon!
A quick bit of back story: Karmically I feel obligated to write this guide, because I never would have watched Buffy without my friend Nicky. Nicky was a good friend from high school who moved to Arizona my senior year; for the next five or so years, I’d visit every once in a while for a few days of sitting on her couch and watching TV. (It was glorious.)
It was on one of those trips — right before the premiere of Buffy season four, if I recall — that Nicky said “Okay, it’s time for you to understand Buffy,” and using her insane archive of videotapes (Nicky taped everything) I proceeded to get a highly compressed version of the first three seasons, which was instrumental in helping me fall in love with the show.
The first season of Buffy is a season spent figuring out tone and plot and character; there are a few great episodes, but nowhere near the number that would follow in subsequent years. So, if you’re new to the show that made Joss Whedon a nerd god and wanna get to the good stuff faster, here you go!
Buffy Season 1: The Skip It/Watch It Guide Read the rest of this entry
“Fringe” Season One: The Skip It/Watch It Guide
Hey, want to check out on the complete series? A guide to all five seasons of “Fringe” can be found in “Liz Tells Frank: The Skip It/Watch It Guides,” now available on Amazon!
A few weeks ago, I spent a whole bunch of words telling Frank how great the show Fringe is. But I included this one caveat: The first season is pretty problematic, as it darts between narrative-heavy developments and stand-alone monster episodes almost at random. That might have worked for The X-Files in its day, but screw The X-Files, it’s the 21st century and Chris Carter floats in exile on a surfboard. We can demand more from our TV, is what I’m saying.
So (because I have had at least four friends request it) here is a guide to watching Fringe that should help you avoid the less consequential episodes and focus on the good stuff that relates to the ongoing narrative. I try to add as much guidance as possible when it comes to the Watch It episodes, so that if you’re on the fence about a particular storyline you can use your own judgement. But otherwise, trust in me to steer you around the dull bits.
Fringe Season One: The Skip It/Watch It Guide Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In “Madea’s Family Reunion”
Dear Frank,
First, an important administrative note: For a number of reasons, I have pledged to spend the next month abstaining from alcohol, which means that until February 7th, all Liz Tells Frank subject matter will be reviewed stone cold sober. Given that a refreshing vodka soda or two in the past has helped dull the pain of child incest and born-again Christianity, I anticipate full mental breakdown around Week 3.
Especially with friends like these! Frank, I have received some excellent suggestions of things to tell you about in the future, though by excellent I mean excrutiating. I’m taking the bull by the horns here, though — that’s the cliche you use when you decide to watch a Tyler Perry film, right? Right.
I picked the wrong month to quit drinking, Frank.
Madea’s Family Reunion is the first Tyler Perry movie I have ever seen (and will, hopefully, ever see). According to Laurel, Kara and Aimee, who came over to watch with me and said many funny things that I’ll try and include in this letter, it was not quite as randomly violent and batshit insane as Diary of a Mad Black Woman, the film that launched the Tyler Perry empire. But that turns out to be a very very high bar for crazy indeed. Read the rest of this entry
Liz Tells Frank What Happened In... 