RANDOM THINGS PART 2!!

Hello everyone!!!!
Here is another post full of random things,I hope you enjoy it!!!

First of all:have you guys watched 30 Rock? Now that we're only 2 episodes left to the end,everything is really finding its place in the show and I can't even think of a life without Liz Lemon :(
She is one of my role model,I wish I could have her life (or Tina's)!!

 

 

So here is a lovely interview Tina Fey made some weeks ago about the end of her own show:

 

Oh Tina..I'll miss 30 Rock so much!!!

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Speaking about episode 7x11: seriously guys,what wasn't perfect in that episode??
I think these images speak for themselves:

And now a lovely video I found about Ben & Leslie of Parks and Recreation:

aren't they super cute??

Are you guys ready for The Walking Dead in two weeks?
Here is a new promo for episode 3x09 (it's obviously SPOILER ALERT! )

I can't wait!!!!

Luckily another show that's coming back is Community:as we all know Dan Harmon is no longer part of the show..will the writers be able to keep it going without him?
Here is a promo for season 4:

Speaking about OUAT,I didn't really like last week's episode,but as I previously said this sentence made it all for me :)

Also,every time there's Captain Hook on screen I'm happy (I'm a girl you guys,try to understand :P )

We finally found out that Mad Men will come back in April with a 2-hours episode..this is a wonderful news, I'm very curious to know what is going to happen to those people!
Here are some pictures that anticipate season 6:

Sadly, for a show that is coming back,another one has been cancelled:I'm talking about Don't trust the B.. in Apartment 23, which has been removed from television by ABC, due to low ratings.
This is a terrible news: I really loved this show and I thought it was very funny and witty without being stupid, qualities that you can't find in every comedy. However the network didn't think the same and they decided not to even air the remaining 8 episodes,which means the show didn't have a proper conclusion.

 

I'll really miss these crazy people!!! :(
I hope some other network will save Apartment 23, or maybe Netflix (the website that saved Arrested Development).
In the meantime,here is a link to the article I read and which explains a bit better the reasons behind this decision.

To conclude, some thoughts on this week's Pretty Little Liars:what did you guys think of the episode?
My problem with this show is that some weeks nothing happens,while some others the episodes are packed with action.
Like this week for example (SPOILER ALERT!!!):

the girls found out Meredith was giving drugs to Aria to keep her quiet and find the pages; Alison appears in Aria's dreams and gives her some suggestions; Byron comes back and confesses to Aria what really happened the night that Alison went missing; but most importantly, Spencer finds out that Toby is part of the A-team!!!!Isn't that a bit too much?

(I'm starting to think that maybe Alison isn't dead at all).

Also,what did Mona mean when she said "they have to understand that SHE is in charge"? Was she referring to "fear" as she was talking about that,or to someone else?Maybe even to Alison??
I hope we'll find out more next week!!!

So here is everything for today,I hope you liked this post!!
I'd really love to hear what you think..feel free to leave a comment below!!
Thank you for listening and stay tuned!

H.

THE BEST OF 2012!!

Hello!!

Now that it's almost 2013,I decided to write my own list about the best of 2012, meaning what I watched and liked during this year.
I will focus on TV series and not films,because I didn't have the chance to go to the cinema very much lately; these are my personal opinions, so don't be surprised if I put series that are "older" than 2012..maybe I found out about them just this year!

Ok let's start!!

BEST COMEDY SERIES
"Parks and Recreation"

This beautiful show stole my heart and it's now among the best series I've ever watched. I love every minute of it, every character and I can't get enough of it..I'm very happy I found out about it this summer!!

BEST DRAMA SERIES
"Mad Men"

As with Parks and Recreation, I only found out about Mad Men last spring. I'm very glad I did, because this show is amazing and every single episode is like a short film. Its writing is great (one episode that impressed me very much is "The Suitcase", in season 4) and the actors are all equally very good, with a special mention to Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss.

BEST EPISODE IN A COMEDY SERIES
"Halloween Surprise", Parks and Recreation, 5x05
This was hard,but I tried to focus on episodes that actually aired this year. Among them I had to mention this one,which made me cry of joy (Ben and Leslie fans will understand me).

BEST EPISODE IN A DRAMA SERIES
"The Stable Boy", Once Upon A Time, 1x18
As you have probably understood, OUAT is one of my favourite shows at the moment,so I could not help but choose this beautiful episode that allows us to better know Regina and her past, thus making the reasons behind some of her choices clearer.

BEST MALE CHARACTER IN A COMEDY SERIES
"Abed Nadir", Community

I have to admit this was hard, so I want to mention those who came 2nd and 3rd: Ben Wyatt (Parks and Recreation) and Jack Donaghy (30 Rock).

BEST FEMALE CHARACTER IN A COMEDY SERIES
"Leslie Knope", Parks and Recreation

Speaking of hard, how about female characters??Liz Lemon (30 Rock) came very very close to the 1st position!

BEST MALE CHARACTER IN A DRAMA SERIES
"Matthew Crawley", Downton Abbey

 

How can you not fall in love with him?

BEST FEMALE CHARACTER IN A DRAMA SERIES
"The Evil Queen/Regina Mills", Once Upon A Time

As I previously said, I think Regina is the star of OUAT and I just love her :)

BEST OPENING THEME OF A COMEDY SERIES
"Community"

No matter what,every time I watch an episode of Community, the opening theme remains stuck in my head! And how cool cool cool  is when they change it according to the theme of the episode?
This was for the amazing Dungeons and Dragons episode:

 

A special mention to the opening theme of "HIMYM" which always makes me smile :)
How great was this for example?

BEST OPENING THEME OF A DRAMA SERIES
"Game of Thrones"

This opening is simply epic, no need for more words.
I would like to mention the opening theme of "The Walking Dead" because I find it perfect for the show.

It makes me anxious every time :)

BEST COUPLE IN A COMEDY SERIES
"Ben and Leslie", Parks and Recreation

I love them very very much!!! <3 <3

BEST COUPLE IN A DRAMA SERIES
"Matthew and Mary", Downton Abbey

As with the previous couple, I'm in love with them too <3

So, what do you think??
Do you agree with me? I'm curious to know what you would choose!!

Thank you for listening and stay tuned!

H.

TRAVELLING: NEW YORK CITY

Good morning!!

Here is another section of my blog I'd like to create,I thought of calling it "Travelling in the alternative reality".
I mean to put under this label everything about travelling,but in a way that is related to TV shows too (or films or books, of course).

For example, today I'd like to talk about a city where I've never been, but that's on my list of dream places where to go: New York city.
As you all know, NY has been and still is the set for many TV shows and thus a dream place for TV lovers.
Among them I remember Friends, Sex and the City and more recently How I Met Your Mother.

Although I know that the main part of these shows has been filmed in studios, there are some scenes which show the city and its famous places.
Sex and the City in particular is known for having many of its scenes filmed in real streets and pubs of NY, because the city was like a "real character" to the writers and they didn't want to leave it out (at a certain point along the seasons they started to film more and more in studios, but then they luckily changed their mind).
Another show which is based in New York is also Mad Men,although in this case we're talking about New York city in the 60s.

Then of course I have to mention one of my favourite movies, Breakfast at Tiffany's with the lovely Audrey Hepburn, which is entirely based in NY.

Here are some pictures, have you ever been to these places?

Friends' apartment

 

Carrie's house

 

Nice map with some Mad Men places

 

 

Tiffany's

 

Holly and Paul in New York

 

 
Have you ever been to New York? Do you have other places to suggest?Did I forget some series?
I'm going to update the post with all the new images I can find, so keep looking!

That's all for today,thank you for listening and stay tuned!!

H.

MAD MEN: DON DRAPER

Good morning!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the subject of my first “official” post, I wanted to find the perfect TV show to talk about. Then I realized that there are so many shows I like, that I’m following now or that I’ve followed in the past, so I just decided to start with the first thing that came to my mind.

In these past months I’ve been watching non-stop Mad Men, a beautiful show that I had never considered before, since when a friend of mine introduced me to it.

Mad Men is an American TV show created by Matthew Weiner and first presented to the public in 2007. Since then, 5 series have been produced and had a great success (the show won several Emmys during the years).
 

 

There would be so much to say about Mad Men: it is about advertising in the 60s and tells the story of a group of ad men, better known as “Mad men” (Mad is the abbreviation of Madison Avenue, the iconic street in New York where the best advertising agencies had their offices). In the first episode we immediately have this explanation, and we also find out that the men themselves coined this term. Very much in Mad Men is about creativity, is about how to interest the public and make it buy products. It is a very modern topic, if we think that even today the main part of advertising is “to create a need” in people. If you feel that you need something, you are very likely to buy it (even though you don’t really need it). Advertising creates this need and Mad Men is very good in showing us how this works (What about the problem of smoking? In the first episode we are told that some medical researches show that smoking kills. Then the main problem for the Mad people is to find a new way to convince the public to buy cigarettes again).

But Mad Men is not just this. As I said, there is so much to talk about, that one single post is not enough. Plus, I don't want to give too many spoilers to those who have not seen the show yet. So for today I'm going to focus on one character only; there will be time to discuss the show in details, but I will announce it with a "spoiler alert" :)

The main character of the show is, without a doubt, Don Draper (Jon Hamm).

 

Important member of the Sterling and Cooper company, he started out as a simple creative (a copy- writer) and now he’s become the guy who says yes/no to projects. At the beginning of season one Don is married to Betty (January Jones) and has two children, Sally (Kiernan Shipka) and Bobby (played by different children during the seasons) . They live in a nice house in the suburbs and, while Betty stays home (as the perfect wife), Don goes everyday to Manhattan where his job is.

What seems to be the “perfect” American family is actually just a mask. Don is not faithful to Betty, he has several lovers around the city and he doesn’t seem to regret his behaviour. Betty doesn’t know about her husband's infidelity (or at least she seems not to know) and Don can live this double life without any problem.

It doesn’t matter how hard we try to justify him, Don Draper is not a good man.
He is unfaithful and doesn’t seem to care that much about his family; plus, he is not even very thoughtful with his lovers. 
But, and here's the contradiction, we can’t help loving him.
He just has something that attracts us to him and makes us think “oh well, it’s Don”. This is something that has “shocked” me from the very beginning: why do I like a character like that? What does he have to make me forgive him for what he does?
Well, left aside the fact that he’s a very handsome man (thank you Jon Hamm!), I guess that what is interesting in him is his psychology.
Don is a very complex man and we can’t say we know him well, even after five seasons. He has a difficult past, a story we are told along the seasons and that is supposed, in a way, to justify his behaviour.
Moreover, he’s very good at his job and gains a lot of respect for what he does.
But I think that for me, what makes me like him is his "unexpected heart”: sometimes, during the episodes, he is able to say something, do something very kind and thoughtful to someone, that you just want to hug him.
I’m thinking of the kindness he sometimes shows to his children, or the bond he establishes with Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), or the pure love he feels for Anna (Melinda Page Hamilton).

Don seems to be far away from us, he seems to live in a world of his own where we are not invited but sometimes, through these actions, he reminds us that he’s a man, like all of us, and that he has feelings.

What do you think? Do you watch Mad Men? Do you like Don Draper?

Ok it's all for today, thank you for listening and stay tuned :)

H.