Girls Write Out
Thursday, March 07, 2013


Mel and I have become couch potatoes this past year. It seems when everything in life comes at you at once, it kind of knocks the breath out of you, so for the first time in my life, instead of taking things outside to the hiking trail, I've taken to lying on the love seat or the exercise floor while Mel lies on the sofa, and we watch shows on Netflix. I've blogged about this before and received some great TV show tips from this blogsite. Thanks, girls. You've told me about NCIS, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, Bones, Castle, some of the most exciting shows out there. Some gave me nightmares, granted, and I've had to get away from those at times and fall back on lighter fare, but you've given me some interesting hours of couch potato time.

Some friends of mine recently talked me into checking out Firefly--something I'd passed over before, even though it looked interesting, because it only lasted one short season. I figured the viewing public knew what they were talking about when they canceled it. After my friends did some arm twisting--these friends are of the creative persuasion, and insisted I must study the show for it's creativity--I decided to check out Firefly. Mel gave up after we were halfway through the long pilot because there wasn't nearly enough man-action while they introduced characters. I went back to my friends and complained. They continued raving about it. As a writer, I must experience it, or some such nonsense.

So while Mel was gone last weekend at a medical conference, I fired up the television, put on my exercise gear and went to work. I was going to find something to like about this show for the sake of my friends. Nathan Fillion (the star of Castle, by the way) is a funny actor. In my opinion, he has good comedic timing, which made the character work even when he was coming across as a hard-nosed jerk. I'm really slow on the uptake, but by the third or fourth episode, I realized the show was very truly a space cowboy show. In fact, the intro is played with extreme country twang and the picture shows horses running beneath a low-flying spaceship. Maybe in 500 years horses will become accustomed to spaceships and not stampede--oh, wait, come to think of it, they ARE stampeding on the intro.

Most of the settings are on western-style planets far from the center of the galaxy, and on those planets, the people live as Americans lived in the 19th century in the desert, much like the picture above. The main characters have quirks aplenty, and they talk the way we perceive hillbillies talked far out in the middle of nowhere over a century ago. I wasn't able to complete my marathon of 22 hours of Firefly before Mel got home Sunday night, so I tied him down and forced him to watch the final shows, as well as the follow-up movie, with me. He didn't complain much. We watched the movie, Serenity, tonight. I don't know that the movie would stand alone, but it does an interesting and exciting job of tying up loose ends, and there was plenty of fighting and action to keep even Mel interested.

One other perk, every time I watched it I saw our own beautiful Denise Hunter in the guise of one of the characters. If Denise had dark brown, wavy hair, she would be the spitting image of this young woman.

If you get Netflix, you might want to check out Firefly. It might not be for you, but then again, the dialogue truly is more interesting than the average fare. I fast-forwarded one scene I did not like, but I played back some scenes so I could catch the rhythm of the words.

So...anyone else have some favorite shows to share? Now that I'm done with Firefly I'm back to watching reruns.

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Hannah Alexander  
posted at 11:43 PM  
  Comments (10)
 
 
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10 Comments:
At 9:15 AM, Blogger Barb said...

We like to watch British TV shows at our house - New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, Inspector Lewis, and Sherlock.

 
At 10:09 AM, Blogger Hannah Alexander said...

Oh, wow, Barb, I've only heard of one of those. Heading to Netflix now...Thanks!

 
At 12:08 PM, Blogger Malia Spencer said...

I'm a fan of the USA shows, White Collar, Burn Notice, Suits, and I'm forgetting the names of the ones about the concierge doctor in the Hamptons and the one about the CIA with Piper Perabo.

If you like NCIS try NCIS LA or Jag. Jag was made by the same person who created NCIS!

 
At 12:41 PM, Blogger Hannah Alexander said...

Maila, yes, we've watched all of Burn Notice, White Collar, will have to look up Suits if you think it's as good as the others. Also NCIS LA, we watched and loved. My favorite of all time is still NCIS. Do you enjoy Jag as much as NCIS? Are the characters as clearly defined?
Thanks!

 
At 5:07 PM, Blogger Sandie said...

Love Firefly. Malia, the Piper Perabo show was Covert Affairs. I think it was cancelled but we enjoyed it also. I watched all the JAG episodes through Netflix but it's not on instant. You have to get the DVDs. Love that theme song. If you like NCIS, you will like JAG IMHO.

 
At 5:12 PM, Blogger Hannah Alexander said...

Thanks, Sandie. I just added ten seasons of Jag to my queue

 
At 6:05 PM, Blogger G. said...

I'm not one for TV, and if I see a movie I usually go out to see it. But I love to read, you have given me many hours of pleasure! I also enjoy reading all of your friends books and I keep you all in prayers. I can no longer afford to buy every book that comes out, and I live in a very small mining town that the library depends on the big city for requested books, sometimes and I regret to say sometimes we get them in the same year and sometimes not at all. But I've become pretty good at winning books and I love it when family members give me a gift card to Amazon. I have a pretty nice home library and received a kindle as a gift so I'm happy without TV or movies.

 
At 7:11 PM, Blogger Hannah Alexander said...

G, reading is my passion, too, and it has been for years. Thank you so much for your kind words about our books. I've found that I most love the novels written by friends closest to me--possibly because I can see their personalities shine through. I see Colleen's energy in her books, Denise's intelligent depth, Kristin's fun, saucy attitude, Diann's sweet humor, and I can feel as if I'm in the room with them, hanging out, giggling and talking late into the night. What a great connection.

 
At 8:18 PM, Blogger G. said...

It's easy for me to see what a blessing you are for each other and I really admire the strength of your friendship and the way you support each other with love, faith, encouragement and the ease with which you blend your personalities. You are all very special ladies and I feel blessed by your talent as it has been a gift to me.

 
At 9:39 PM, Blogger Hannah Alexander said...

G, I think I speak for all the girls when I say our blogging friends are a blessing to us, as well.

 

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The Authors
Kristin Billerbeck
Kristin Billerbeck is a proud Californian, wife, mother of four, and connoisseur of the irrelevant. She writes Christian Chick Lit; where she finds need for most of the useless facts lulling about in her head.

www.KristinBillerbeck.com

Colleen Coble

Colleen Coble writes romantic suspense with a strong atmospheric element. A lovable animal of some kind--usually a dog--always populates her novels. She can be bribed with DeBrand mocha truffles.

www.ColleenCoble.com

Denise Hunter

Denise Hunter writes women's fiction and love stories with a strong emotional element. Her husband says he provides her with all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too.

www.DeniseHunterBooks.com

Diann Hunt

Diann Hunt writes romantic comedy and humorous women's fiction. She has been happily married forever, loves her family, chocolate, her friends, chocolate, her dog, and well, chocolate.

www.DiannHunt.com

Hannah Alexander

Cheryl Hodde writes romantic medical suspense under the pen name of Hannah Alexander, using all the input she can get from her husband, Mel, for the medical expertise. For fun she hikes and reads. Out of guilt, she rescues discarded cats. She and Mel are presently taking orders from four pampered strays.

www.HannahAlexander.com

 
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