Weekend In Reviews

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend - In case you're planning on watching this movie, I won't spoil anything for you, I'll just say that as romantic comedies go, this is slightly less formulaic than some and quite a bit harder to figure out than most.  That's not to say it was a bad movie, on the contrary, the fact that the twist wasn't something you could see coming makes it a little better than I thought it was most of the way through. 

What does all of that mean?  It's hard to say without telling you what the twist is but suffice to say, I can see why this movie never made it into the theaters but it would do very well on cable.  Despite feeling like I shouldn't, I find Alyssa Milano quite likable and Christopher Gorham and Tom Lenk are sure to win me over.  If you have NetFlix Instant and you like romcoms, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes of your life. 

Beauty and the Briefcase - I have no excuse for why I watched this made-for-ABCFamily movie other than I was in a romcom mood on Saturday and this was one NetFlix Instant had that I hadn't already seen. 

So Hilary Duff is a writer whose dream is to work for Cosmopolitan - right off the bat, I'm predisposed to hate this because I have feelings about that magazine and the maturity level of those who read it.  But as I reminded myself that it was on ABCFamily and therefore the target audience was exactly the girls who think Cosmo is the best thing ever, I let the story be what it is and just watched.  It was completely predictable and silly but the fashion was pretty terrific and the boys were very cute and it was the viewing equivalent of a fluffernutter and sometimes that's really all you want - it might not be good for you or have any nutritional value whatsoever, but it tastes good going down. 

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6 - Kelly and I watched the entirety of Season 6 this weekend.  It's been several years since I've been back to this season and I'd forgotten how emotionally exhausting it was.  Hot on the heels of Joyce and Buffy perishing in season 5, we're left to deal with Buffy's sadness after her trip to Heaven was cut short; the taxing back-and-forth of the Buffy/Spike relationship; Willow's decent into addiction, break-up with Tara, and extreme annoyingness; the disillusion of Xander and Anya's relationship; Tara's death; Giles' departure, return, departure, return and near-fatal Willow intervention; and Xander's big yellow crayon speech that saved the world.  There was a cacophony of tears at some of these episodes. 

Naturally, my favorite thing about the sixth season is "Once More With Feeling" (the musical episode).  What I'd forgotten about that episode - likely because of all the many times I've watched since it's original airing, very few of them have been in the process of rewatching the entire season - is that in addition to the fun, witty, catchy songs, so much is revealed in the episode.  It advances every plot and hits so many emotional notes.  It's really pure brilliance. 

We're on to season 7 now and then we'll start Angel.  This is turning out to be a very busy TV summer.