I’ve been wrapped up on a TV/Movie watching kick for the last few days. I wildly set my Tivo to record every show I haven’t watched in the last 6 months to catch up on where a bunch of series were headed, because if I get a last-minute audition for Ghost Whisperer or something, it’s good to know that the ghosts don’t look pretty when they talk to the main character, and the tone is different from the similarly-themed Medium. And it has a lot of excellent hair and skin 🙂

With half the shows recorded, I ended up fast forwarding to the end, because it’s really hard to just jump into an episode when I don’t know where the characters are coming from. It was refreshing to catch something like Law and Order, because it’s a nice tidy story that I can immediately leap into, unlike Grey’s Anatomy where the lineage of “who’s slept with whom” is critical to understanding why one person is tiffy with another 🙂 I did start to get into Bones, and the new Flash Gordon is so cheesy I can’t help like it. A little bit. Oh, and Weeds is GREAT. That went on the list of “Shows I want to watch without thinking like an actor”.

The best thing I’ve seen in my spree movie-wise is the Russian movie called “Nightwatch.” I think visually, it was the most interesting film I’ve seen in a long time. Most films seem like the director storyboarded all the cool shots in the beginning 15 minutes, and then after that, it turns into standard cinematography. This movie, even if you were like “What the hell is going on in this scene”, had breathtaking visuals that kept you wondering “how they did that?!” I was thrilled to see that the director has a big Hollywood film coming out called “The Wanted” with Angelina Jolie. Can’t wait to see if he retains his flair in English!

Lastly, I’ve watched like 6 Westerns. The best part of being a actor for me, is the part where I get to immerse myself in cultures/research that I’m not familiar with. Boy, do I have my hands full with this one 🙂 I don’t want to be specific as of yet, but I am currently working on a role that has both Western and Religious themes, two of the areas which I most avoid in my daily travels. When I was a kid I ate up movies, but I tended to avoid Westerns and Military pics. I’ve rounded up a lot of DVD’s and am plowing through them, crash course in the genre. I’m starting to enjoy them! They have a set of cliches that become a little predictable, but the characters are interesting, and I try to ignore the total political incorrectness of vilifying American Indians and mowing them down like they’re James Bond henchman. 🙂 If anyone could recommend any specifically with strong women characters, or religious themes I would love to add titles to my growing collection of research!