Pondering 'Big Love' Premiere, 'It's Complicated' and Midseason TV

What do I do when I'm not blogging here at Notes from the Asylum? Write and write and write, read, watch TV/films, consume caffeine and, on occasion, sleep. Here are some the recent pop culture musings I've recently composed:

Big Love Premiere: I was disappointed in the Big Love season four premiere because I felt as though it was consumed by dark, weird humor and not a sufficient number of meaningful moments. Likening it to Weekend at Bernie's gone awry, I wrote a guest column for the TV-centric web site CliqueClack TV complaining about how the Romansicle in the white hat which traversed the southwest in the back of various vans unfortunately dominated the night.

It's Complicated: After watching the delightful Meryl Streep in her light, enjoyable comedy It's Complicated (Alec Baldwin was fearless), I found myself asking in my Pop Culture column on Mommy Tracked whether it was just Baldwin's character or whether women who are in the midst of the heavy-lifting phase of childrearing are viewed as unsexy.

Midseason TV: Big Love isn't the only show that's kicking off a new season this winter. In another Mommy Tracked column I highlighted several TV programs which are premiering in the next several weeks. In addition to Big Love, I mentioned 24, Lost, Nurse Jackie, the United States of Tara, and the new NBC show starring Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham and Six Feet Under's Peter Krause, Parenthood.

What mid-season shows are you looking forward to watching? Any on-going shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, House, etc.) for which you’re eagerly anticipating new episodes?

Image credit: HBO.

JibJab Guys Say Goodbye to 2009, Plus an Anti-Resolution List

My Notes from the Asylum blogging has been a bit on the light side over the past week or so as I'm trying to give myself a mini-break before I plunge into some major writing/editing/blogging in the new year.

But in between numerous Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations, the kids' Christmas break, barely eluding being guilted into taking my 8-year-old to see Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakquel (a friend's mom took him), seeing It's Complicated with a gal pal, baking loads of holiday cookies and, at the behest of my daughter, polishing off the last of the Twilight series (just finished Breaking Dawn today), I learned that the JibJab guys have finally released their comedic send-off of 2009 called, Never a Year Like '09. Don't play this video at work or in front of kids though. The Octomom part made me laugh/cringe, as did the scene with David Letterman's "late night lust" and Miss California fake-humping the state of California.

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Speaking of the New Year . . . I'm not one for resolution lists and media tips which proclaim to possess the answers to how to make your life better, particularly around this time of year, so for my GateHouse News Service column this month, I wrote a snarky parenting "anti-resolution" list including recommendations on embracing the crazy, acting more like moms on TV and campaigning for national acceptance of "underparenting."

Happy New Year. See you in 2010.

'It's Complicated' . . . a Grown-Up Love Story

While everyone (including yours truly) has been musing at length about the box office smash of a tragic love story between a vampire, a werewolf and a teenaged human gal, movie theaters have been playing a trailer for a distinctly mature love affair between a divorced couple who have adult children but suddenly find themselves attracted to one another again after all these years.

The trailer for the Meryl Streep/Alec Baldwin/Steve Martin comedy It's Complicated (open Christmas Day) looks so good, I can only hope (and cross my fingers) that the film is half as decent as the ad. Trailers can be utterly deceiving. (*cough* Revolutionary Road *cough*)