Monday, April 16, 2007

Antsiness and Drive

Okay, so 40-degree weather with 50-mile-an-hour winds and 32-degree wind chills aren't that bad when compared to further north. I mean, does this look like spring to you? And we were supposed to look like that and escaped--didn't even get the torrential downpours they were calling for.

But come on. Even in 1996, when we got two feet of snow a few days later than this in April, it was preceded by real spring weather. We had two days of 70 degrees two weeks ago. Since then it's been rain and wind and 20 degrees at the bus stop. Number two has had three of four soccer games canceled, and she has to do fall tryouts in 40-mph wind gusts tomorrow.

Sigh. At least the rain has stopped.

But anyway, the worst part is the constant winds. My wind chimes in the carport haven't stopped rattling for 24 hours. The howls and rustles and constant movement have been making me very antsy. Like there is no calm left in me, or in my world. Ugh.

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So, Drive premiered last night. I wasn't blown away, but I was hooked. The car chase scenes were great, but I have a feeling I couldn't handle 13 episodes with that much speeding fiberglass and metal (there's an old truck and an old big car, and those are metal *g*). I loved Tully (Nathan Fillion) and the new mom ("I think maybe I should have shot you") and Winston, who is played by Justin's father on Ugly Betty. There are some annoying people, though--I guess they're meant to be, so maybe it's okay.

I thought they did a good balance between revealing motivations and even a couple of "secrets" but leaving plenty to discover. I like seeing people work out clues (almost exactly they way they did in The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner, which I just finished reading yesterday). There was plenty of action and humor and some really tense moments. A small twist I didn't see coming. A complaint that was immediately resolved (I thought the police were idiots or assholes for ignoring the abused new mother's obvious signs of being an abused wife, but when we came back from commercial, they addressed it).

Most of all, Nathan Fillion rocks and even if the rest sucked, I'd watch it just for him. I may not count in the ratings, but TiVo knows I recorded the episode, and that counts SOMEWHERE.

Overall, I'm going to say...as intriguing as Heroes without being as annoying or broad...as many interesting characters as Lost but without the tension of the first season or the depth of the pilot...not as much chemistry as Supernatural but definitely as much humor, as well as great cinematography and decent music. Plenty of potential here.

Now, if only Fox hadn't made the baffling decision to only air 5 of the 13 episodes they ordered, before they even premiered...Firefly all over again?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Natalie,

I forgot that this show was on yesterday. I might catch it if they re-run it again. anyway this is just for you.

http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=2940510&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1

My local fox morning show went to the set of Drive(they do this on set visit to most of the shows that are filmed here in Los Angeles)


Good luck with your weather is sound not so nice. Right now I wish we would get some of the rain you guys are getting we've gotten a total of 2 1/2 inches of rain since last June when our "normal" rain totals are supposed to be in the range of 13-14 inches in a year.


Rose

MJFredrick said...

My ds LOVES this show. I like Winston, too - he reminds me of one of my students. And of course I love Tully!

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Hey, Rose! Always great to "see" you on here! Thanks for that awesome clip.

Mary, good to hear you guys are enjoying it, too. :)

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Shoot, Rose, I meant to add that I wish I could send the rain your way. I didn't know things were so bad out there!