Reviews and More

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog how I love wristwatches and have a pretty extensive collection. In the past, I’ve purchased more expensive timepieces from manufacturers like Cartier and Gucci, but these days I’m more interested in buying great-looking watches that I’d be more comfortable wearing on a daily basis. I’m no longer working outside the home, and am fully aware of how ridiculous it must look to wear a Cartier watch along with sweats and a t-shirt!

Anyway, my husband has a Casio watch that he likes a lot, so I was thinking about following suit and buying one for myself. My husband paid less than $100 for his and has had it for more than two years now, so I know this brand is functional, durable, and affordable.

I was just looking through the selection of discount Casio watches over at GreatTiming.net and saw several very nice models. For example, the one pictured above is an analog Baby G with a mother of pearl face and link bracelet. I think it’s pretty cool, especially because I could wear it around the house or whatever and not be too self-conscious about it. Plus, the price quoted on the site is $43 less than the MSRP, so I’d be getting a fantastic deal on the watch.

GreatTiming.net also has nice timepieces from well known designers like Invicta, Skagen, Kenneth Cole, Citizen, and more, so I’m going to give those a look too. With these low prices, I’ll probably end up buying two watches anyway!

I was feeling a bit nostalgic over the weekend and wanted to watch some of my old TV shows. I therefore borrowed a couple of DVDs from my cousin’s collection, including a few episodes from the first season of The X-Files.

I didn’t start watching TXF regularly until Season 4 or Season 5, but once I really got into it, I was completely hooked. To this day, I think Mulder and Scully are two of the best characters I’ve ever watched on television. They were intelligent, had unique personalities, and had incredible chemistry together. Besides Josh and Donna on The West Wing and early Seth and Summer on The O.C., I can’t think of another TV couple (from the shows I watch, of course) that had as much chemistry. Never mind that it was all ruined once they actually got together…!

Anyway, here are a few thoughts about the Pilot, Deep Throat, Squeeze, and Conduit.

• I’ve seen the Pilot at least 10 times by now, but this most recent viewing was the only time I’ve ever felt it to be cheesy. It definitely isn’t one of the best eps in the canon!
• By contrast, I was surprised by how well Squeeze has held up over the years. This is definitely one of my favorite TXF eps of all time, and I can’t believe Chris Carter & co. struck gold in just their third try.
• Even though I know it’s coming, the scene at the end of Conduit where the boy’s printouts turn out to be a portrait of his missing sister freaks. me. out.
• I was never a fan of the mythology eps, but the early ones like Deep Throat are okay — particularly because we see Scully still trying to find rational explanations for everything she sees.

I watched a couple of these episodes on Sunday right after football, just like years ago when TXF was still airing, and that made me miss the show even more. I probably won’t have any time to watch more eps since the new fall TV season is right around the corner, but it was nice to revisit Mulder and Scully down in the basement with the “FBI’s most unwanted” after so many years!

I recorded the Emmy Awards last night so I could fast-forward through the boring parts and not have to spend three hours waiting to see who would walk away with statues. It’s a good thing I did, because even though there weren’t that many musical numbers, the show felt incredibly long and dull.

It started out with a bang, as they announced several good awards right after Ryan Seacrest’s monologue, but then things got slow when all the awards for miniseries, TV movies, and variety shows were announced. I never watch those, so I didn’t really care who was nominated or who won.

And I hated the pacing of the show. They took their sweet time with the stupid awards in Hour 2, which meant that the major awards, the ones that a majority of the viewers tuned in to see, were totally rushed at the end! That was just dumb.

The biggest disappointment of the evening for me was when Vanessa Williams didn’t win for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. I think she’s awesome as Wilhelmina on Ugly Betty, and felt she definitely deserved some recognition. I was also disappointed that Hugh Laurie didn’t win, but I didn’t really expect him to.

I was happy for James Spader, Jeremy Piven, America Ferrera, and The Sopranos. I was also happy that someone from Grey’s Anatomy won in the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category, but thought that it should have been Sandra Oh, not Katherine Heigl.

None of the acceptance speeches were memorable, in my opinion. I get so nervous when these actors go up on stage without a script to read from because it always seems like they’re going to say something embarrassing or stupid. Oh, and what was with all those people saying they’re going to let their kids play with the awards? Those things look sharp, heavy, and dangerous… there’s no way I’d let my boy near one! He’d probably poke his eye out! Wouldn’t it be better to celebrate with the family by booking an Orlando rental home and spending a week at Disney? Doesn’t that seem more appropriate? I’m just sayin’!

Also, I’ve always wondered how winning an Emmy affects an actor’s pay. Do they have incentive clauses in their contracts like athletes do? I mean, if an NFL player makes the Pro Bowl or earns a postseason award, he almost always earns a bonus as well. Do actors have the same types of incentives?