2012: A Year of Firsts

It’s the last day of 2012. Society practically dictates that you take a look back and reflect on what you’ve seen and done throughout the course of the last 365 days (plus one for a leap). For film critics and other fanatics, this usually takes the form of “best of the year” top ten lists. I suppose I could have written one of those. However, in comparison to years past, I’ve hardly seen anything. Instead, I’ve looked wider and deeper at my life to uncover what I’ve accomplished this year for the first time ever. Don’t get too excited, as the following list still leaves me wanting.

1.) A full-time job. I know, I know. At 26, this should have happened to me earlier in life. But remember, I’ve been in school for about 20 cumulative years, and I only ever worked part-time before. Anyway, I’m still getting used to spending 8-hour-long days, five times a week, on my feet (and decidedly not behind a desk). This is just one of the many reasons why I’m not ideally suited to this particular full-time upright position. Side note: I was also an election judge for the first (and probably the last) time ever.

2.) Experience working with kids (no, I never babysat during my teenage years). More specifically, experience working with ESOL students. As you may already know, I think I want to be a public school teacher whose specialty is English for Speakers of Other Languages. For years, I have been working toward achieving this goal. 2012 was not without its setbacks in this regard, but in response to the first one I received, I chose to volunteer in the ESOL classroom. So far, so good. I’m set to continue my work next year.

3.) A movie-centric blog. I created CINE FEEL YEAH in January and redesigned it several times as its content areas quickly expanded. It took up so much of my time that I have all but quit hosting it. Perhaps next year I will return, with a simpler conceptual framework. Either that or I will start all over again, as I am wont to do.

4.) Compulsive TV-watching. Sure, I have always watched TV. But never before have the hours spent watching TV programs outnumbered the hours spent watching movies. Moving back home, where there is premium cable, at the end of last year pretty much sealed the deal. Some of my favorite programs to watch include Raising Hope, The Mindy Project (which I hate-watch, actually), The Neighbors, Modern Family (way over-hyped, but it’s solid entertainment), Nashville, Parks and Recreation (the best comedy on television), Grey’s Anatomy (don’t judge; I hate it as much as you do), Elementary, Rock Center with Brian Williams, Shark Tank (I’ve waxed rhapsodic about this one before), Downton Abbey (before everyone else was hooked!), Girls, True Blood (whose only good season was the first), and Boardwalk Empire, which leads me to the last item on the list…

5.) A crush on Jack Huston. His character on Boardwalk Empire, though a ruthless killer (he trained his sniper rifle on over 60 men during his stint fighting the Great War, which also left his face horribly disfigured, his voice raspy beyond all repair), is the most sympathetic and respectable of the bunch. What can I say? Men in three-piece suits just kill me. I freely admit that my admiration for Huston’s anti-hero has influenced me to see the actor in a special light. I’m not that familiar with his other work, and I suppose that if my crush was more fevered, I’d probably be rushing out to see David Chase’s coming-of-age rock ‘n’ roll story, Not Fade Away. But I’m not.

Here’s to hoping that, starting tomorrow, next year will be filled with even more firsts!

Going Upstairs Downstairs Brings You Nowhere

I just got an email from PBS’s long-running Masterpiece program (formerly Masterpiece Theatre) reminding me to tune in Sunday night for the season two finale of the remade Upstairs Downstairs series. Damnit. I was relieved when I thought last week’s episode was the last, even if I thought it ended rather strangely. To recap: Lady Agnes found the tee-totaling housekeeping manager Mr. Pritchard hungover on the steps of her London home. “The Last Waltz” indeed—except it isn’t.

Let me be clear: I am a sucker for British TV drama, particularly of the period costume variety. It’s in my constitution that I just have to watch that sort of thing. When it was first announced, Downton Abbey was accused of plagiarizing the original 1970s version of Upstairs Downstairs. However, with UD‘s second season airing between sets of new Downton Abbey episodes (aka “The Drought”), I have to say that the new Upstairs Downstairs tries too hard to replace its much more popular contemporary in the “dramatization of the British social classes” department. In other words, it’s no Downton Abbey. All of the characters are uninteresting, the situations either way too contrived or simply ill-conceived, and the historical backdrop is a bit “been there, done that.” I watch Upstairs Downstairs, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s just a way to kill the time until January 6.