Bleach

I was obsessed with this show for about a month after watching it for the first time last December. It's easy to get hooked on to something so glamorous and entertaining. Bleach is anime. And anime always seems silly at first, but once you get hooked on, you get hooked on. Bleach is based off of "shonen manga," which means that it particularly has to do with fighting and becoming stronger. I'd like to say that although there is quite a bit of fighting, there's also a good balance of comedy and character building. I enjoy the enthusiasm and personality traits of all the characters- and what sets them apart.

Bleach centers around a fifteen year old boy named Ichigo Kurasaki who, like a lot of other asian protagonists has an intense drive to protect his friends and family. He has the "caring" syndrome and would go out of his way to save even the most annoying person he knows. Kurasaki is drawn in a semi-attractive way with orange hair and a dense, determined expression. Most of the characters in bleach have an interesting, attractive flavor to their physical appearance.

Kurasaki can see ghosts, and because of this strange ability, he soon encounters soul-eating demons known as "hollows." In order to balance the number of souls on earth, and in "soul society," "soul-reapers" destroy hollows. Rukia Kuchiki, a soul reaper, befriends Kurasaki and lends him her powers. By becoming a "substitute soul reaper," Kurasaki begins his journey as a warrior of stabilizing the peace and sanity of his town's souls, and protecting his soul-reaper friends. Kurasaki also has three human friends with supernatural abilities.

At first being a show focused solely on Ichigo and his town, Bleach soon extends to cover the dextrous and skilled guards of soul society and the powers that their captains' wield. Ichigo himself has to become more and more powerful to do the task of protecting his friends and all he cares about. He soon faces villains that get hotter and eviler.

Bleach's battles are entertaining, and the romantic possibilities are infinite - although the show doesn't pursue romance very seriously. The thirst for what happens next is huge and sometimes, the willpower of the main characters is inspiring.

I recommend it for those with lots of free time and willpower- to not get addicted.

Desperate Housewives

"Desperate Housewives" is made up of an interesting breed of characters. The "wives" in this program are indeed desperate- for either a "perfect" relationship with one of their thousands of desirable suitors, or from keeping their already crumbling marriages from falling apart. I've not seen one character on this show who is truly happy with what they've got. 

"I envy you" 

"Why? What are you talking about?"

"You're so detached. You treat men like tissues. You can throw each one away after using them." 

"Well honey, here's the difference between you and me. I want men. You need them. You're weak." 

"What?"

"My father left me and my mom and took away all my ceramic horses. After that, I've never trusted men again."  

So, Desperate Housewives is like a comedy-drama about not gaining happiness from relationships... and I guess it's entertaining. But what I enjoy more is the sinister mystery going on in each season. In the first season, it was the murder of Mary Anne Young and how her son was actually conceived. These murders and mysteries are not all serious, some are actually quite funny. It's a great sense of originality in the program. 

I suppose Desperate Housewives has some relevance to our lives as well: as people who always search for happiness in others instead of happiness within ourselves. But here's the irony-  only in TV shows can people get over cheating husbands and sudden tragic deaths. That's what makes them so fun to watch- people move on to better things. 

Of course, characters have to fall again, so we can watch them get back up. 

So I don't want to like this show, but I do. 

New Moon

I did not expect anything from "New Moon." I sort of walked in with a clean slate: without having done any prior research, or without having consulted Richard Corliss or Roger Ebert. That's why I am not at all surprised that I found New Moon to be a fun movie. I thought it was much better than the slow-paced first one- which yielded an entire scene of two people staring at each other while lying on grass.

One of the entertaining additions was the character "Jacob Black," who's hotness exceeds Edward's by a factor of a million. I wouldn't be disappointed if the directors decided to make Jacob and Bella a pair by the end of the series. 

Another addition is the awesome special effects... Jacob transforming into a werewolf is the coolest scene in the movie. I also like Victoria (the villain)'s lurking mysteriousness.  

Of course, the acting is eh, the drama is eh, the plot is eh. But the rest makes up for it! This is a movie after all, not a word by word reenactment of the bleeding wistfulness and desire in Stephanie Meyer's novel. 

So you should watch it! And see how you like it with no expectations. 

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is probably one of the most entertaining teen movies I've ever seen. The characters are well developed and the plot is simple. Basically, five totally different kids land up in detention together and slowly start getting along. You have the druggie/burnout, popular girl, the jock, the eccentric, and the nerd. If you ask me, my favorite character is the druggie because he's the one firing up all the conversations. 

He (Judd Nelson) asks the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall) why he thinks Ceramics would be an easy subject to take. 

Hall said that trigonometry's important because without it, there'd be no engineering.

Nelson said that Ceramics is more important because without it, there'd be no light. 

Nelson seems insightful, but at the same time we know that most of his jokes are wise-cracking and retaliating instead of meaningful. He has all this anger inside of him because of  his rough family situation- with a father on dope and a mother who's barely around. His aggression probably comes from his background- and his unresolved feelings. 

That's why it seems ironic that such a loud and obnoxious person like Nelson is the product of neglect from his family, from his peers, and even from the school principal,  who sees him as a screwed up case. This same sort of neglect also applies to the eccentric- who became an outcast because of parents who ignore her existence. Perhaps it also applies to the prom queen- who is given too much attention to get a chance to show her imperfections. And the jock- with too much attention from his bullying, perfectionist dad and friends- who constantly expect only the best or "coolest" from him. 

So we all have expectations, from other people, and mostly from ourselves. Perhaps we outta have our own mental breakfast club and just stop and think for a moment, about why we might feel sad or unfulfilled- and then try to resolve the situation. 

BTW: Don't get me wrong, this movie is NOT a complete drama- it's actually kind of a comedy. But it gets you thinking about some pretty serious stuff. 

My So-Called Life

On second thought.... maybe this show is making a statement about teenagers in a unique way... because at the end, by not making it obvious who Angela ends up with, the director is making it all the more realistic... 

As teenagers we haven't really found ourselves. We don't really know what we want... yet. 

My So-Called Life

Now, in 21st century serials, we see teenagers use words like "pirana" and "extortion". Words that we, as normal teenagers would have to look up in the dictionary to confirm. 

After watching "My So- Called Life" from 1994, it seems as though in the early 90's, this was the opposite.  

It's interesting to see how the characters in this show are very slow with their talking.

 "why are you, like the way you are?" (took a pause in between)

"why do you like, say things like that?" (another pause)

"what?" "huh?" (three minutes to just let this out)

"like.... whatever"(same thing)

I for one think that teenagers speak a bit more fluently than just three-five words at a time with swaggering stances. 

But you see, although I am a bit ticked off by the dialogue, I am impressed by the way the show leaves the audience hanging- who will Angela (school outcast) end up with? Jordan, the popular burnout? Or Brian, the sensitive nerd? Neither of the resulting relationships would be normal..

I believe there's been a lot of fanfiction about that...