All Posts Tagged With: "Joan of Arcadia"

I’ve been catching up on the season three episodes of the TV show House M.D. that I haven’t seen. Has it been confusing to watch season four previous to this? At times, yes. But I can deal with some challenges (like matching black socks together). I always enjoy watching the show, even re-watching it. While I like all of the characters in their own way (somehow - even the ones I don’t like…if that makes sense) my favorite is Dr. House, played by Hugh Laurie. As for why or how so many people like the charming but jerkish character, I don’t know. Maybe we like the refreshing way he’s blunt. Maybe we just like jerks.

I googled for Hugh Laurie today, and via Automated Daydream I found this article from March 29th, 2008. Something that interests me is the fairly open way that Laurie has discussed his clinical depression. Like far too many other people, I suffer from it as well (in the form of chronic treatment resistant depression). Admitting this feels strange, because I don’t know who might see it. It’s difficult to talk about, but significantly more difficult to never talk about, or never admit - because it’s a part of me. My feelings on this seem to be echoed in a quote from the article:

So, do I gather he doesn’t like doing interviews? “No, but who would? Obviously, you’re in a very vulnerable position. You are putting your testicles out on a chopping board. Well, not a chopping board, that’s not a good image… I get anxious about a lot of things, that’s the trouble. I get anxious about everything. I just can’t stop thinking about things all the time. And here’s the really destructive part: it’s always retrospective. I waste time thinking of what I should have said or done.

That is exactly how I imagine this will play out. I will write this, and then over-analyze whether I should have posted it for days later. When it doesn’t matter anymore. But I’m wearing my resolve-face for now. Continued

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Sometimes you see a face on TV and then you see it again, and again, and again. You must then come to the conclusion that you’re going crazy, or that the actor/actress is getting tons of exposure in small bit parts. Such has been the case with Keri Lynn Pratt. You’ve probably seen her on TV, and don’t even realize it. If anyone thought she was stalking you via the TV shows you watch, sorry to burst that bubble. Mostly, I think she just can’t find the right show to join.

Her first role was in the movie Drive Me Crazy, as Dee Vine. (Drive Me Crazy on DVD) It’s a cheesy movie, but kind of fun in the way any 90’s movie can be when nothing else is on TV and you miss the simpler times when only the really rich, popular, kids had cell phones. (Writing about this moving is giving me weird Britney Spears music video flashbacks because her song You Drive Me Crazy was in the movie, and the movie was intertwined with the music video.)

In 2000, Keri Lynn Pratt was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I wonder if Melissa Joan Hart got her the role? (She was the leading lady of Drive Me Crazy.) I actually don’t recall seeing Keri Lynn on the show…not that I, uh, watched that show… ahem. If you were a teenage girl back then (or even if you weren’t) you probably watched it, too. Especially if you didn’t have cable, such as was my pitiful plight.

The same year, she was on ER, and was in the movie Cruel Intentions 2. The movie was hands-down horrible, but people remember it for a naughty scene she had with a horse. I think those who watched it hoped it would be something like the movie (Cruel Intentions) with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, and Ryan Phillipe. It wasn’t. Neither was Cruel Intentions 3. I watched it, just to make sure.

The year 2001 brought her a role on That 70’s Show. One year after that she was the main lead of a TV show called Class 0f ‘06. Unfortunately, the pilot never aired. (Apparently it was really bad.)

Bouncing back, Keri Lynn had a role in America’s Sweethearts, which was actually not a great movie, despite the A-list cast. But I watched it twice, because Julia Roberts and John Cusack are amazing.

She went on to be in a TV movie with Jennifer Beals called They Shoot Divas, Don’t They? (They Shoot Divas, Don’t They? on DVD) I remember seeing this on TV and trying to make two of my college friends watch it, but they didn’t like guilty-pleasure TV movies the way I do. Sigh! Continued

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Too many TV shows get canceled unfairly. And, for the sake of whatever sanity we all have, I think we should talk about that. This is our therapy session. But don’t lay on the couch, that’s not what people usually really do in therapy. Plus, the couch is covered in cat fur. That’s probably not a look you should go for.

I want to hear your frustrations about the shows you loved and had taken away. And if I don’t mention a show you feel deserves a nod, comment with that as well. These are like, the Oscars for the shows canceled unfairly. (I can guarantee you that would be a much more fun show.)

First, I must tell you a story. In third grade there was this girl in my class named Hayley. She was sort of an oddball. I remember that she had really straight blonde hair that she wore in perfectly parted pigtails. And she wore saddle shoes. No one else wore saddle shoes. No one else was as peculiar as her. If she knew she was viewed as peculiar, she didn’t seem to care.

Or maybe she did. But I thought she was very cool. Not like ‘wow, if I can befriend her I’ll get to sit at the cool lunch table’ (and who’s to say I wasn’t already sitting there, punk) but more like ‘here’s someone who is actually really interesting and different.’ She didn’t seem to have a lot of friends. By the end of the year, I had started to be friendly to her - which has always been difficult for me as I’ve always been a shy person. But we weren’t really friends. We didn’t talk over the summer.

The next year, she had transfered to another school. Gone forever, but memorable. She was interesting in a way that captured attention. (Get ready for the awesome segue!) This seems like a (questionably good) metaphor for TV shows that were great and then canceled before they got a real chance.

What shows in particular might I be talking about? Here’s a list from the top of my head: Miss Match, Firefly, Dead Like Me (kind of got a chance but not really), Veronica Mars (ditto), Joan of Arcadia, Wonderfalls, and Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane (ZDJJ).

ZDJJ is what I’d like to talk about. It began in 1999. This is a show that is essentially gone. There are no DVDs you can buy of it. I had two episodes taped, which I faithfully watched far too many times until I lost them.

The show had five main characters: Zoe (Selma Blair), Duncan (David Moscow), Jack (Michael Rosenbaum), Jane (Azura Skye), and Mrs, Bean (Mary Page Keller) as Zoe’s Mom. The first four were Continued

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