Be still my heart

Check out this EW video interview with the cast of ABC's upcoming V reboot. (I would embed, but they only allow you to get linky).

Not only does this show look pretty damned good, but Elizabeth Mitchell continues to affirm my undying geek love for her. First, she's on this show (with everyone's favorite space hooker, Morena Baccarin). Next, in the interview, she talks about being a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica (the old one AND the new one!). And of course, she's been magnificent in a little thing called Lost.

Oh, and she made out with Angelina Jolie in Gia.

Young Love

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm taking a trip down memory lane and recalling those gals that made my young heart go aflutter.

(And for those who may not know me, I was a kid in the 70s, so it was totally appropriate to have a crush on Tatum O'Neal's Amanda Wurlitzer. Just like it's totally appropriate to be strangely attracted, years later, to the train wreck that is Maggie Gavin. Crushes die hard, y'all).

So, without further ado, let Cupid's arrow fly toward TNRLM's Top 10 Childhood Valentines:

Anne Lockhart as Sheba on Battlestar Galactica (Original Recipe). Not only was she a badass Viper jock, she was also the daughter of Admiral Cain. (Bonus points: Anne came from a geek lineage, as her mom, June, was the matriarch of the Robinson clan on Lost in Space).

Yvonne Craig as Batgirl. Comic book crime fighter in skintight spandex. (Serving as a gateway drug to later efforts by Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, Famke Janssen and others). 'Nuff said.

Oh, even better? Yvonne Craig was also a green Orion slave girl in the OG Star Trek.

Tatum O'Neal as Amanda Wurlitzer in Bad News Bears. A cute girl that could bring the heat (from a baseball perspective), cuss with the best of 'em and get Buttermaker a cold beer? This Little League shortstop's heart went pitter-patter.

Kim Richards as Tia in Escape to Witch Mountain. One of the first Disney sci-fi movies I remember seeing. And who better for a lonely only child to bond with than a girl that was a bit....alien. (Even the fact that Paris Hilton is now her niece doesn't ruin this childhood memory).

Jessica Lange as Dwan in King Kong. Twas beauty that stirred the beast of puberty.

Jenny Agutter as Jessica in Logan's Run. This movie came out around my birthday, and I thought it was a perfect gift from the geek gods directly to me. After seeing Jessica prance around in that outfit trying to find "Sanctuary," I didn't care if my Lifeclock turned red.

Haley Mills as Sharon and Susan in the original Parent Trap. Ahhhh, young love before Hef would redefine the notion of hanging out with identical twins. This would probably foreshadow my long time love of short hair.

Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand in Star Trek. My dad introduced me to the show on late night cable reruns when I was 11 or 12, and I was fascinated with the major babeage on the show. Whuppin' Klingon and Romulan ass every week was cool for a starship captain, but as we can see, there were other benefits as well. Plus, Yeoman Rand probably served as a precursor to my love for Cindy from the B-52s.

Farrah Fawcett as, well...Farrah Fawcett. What kid of my generation didn't have this poster in their room?

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. What geek collection of hotties would be complete without the Mona Lisa of nerd love? Even without knowing that she would grow up to be a boozy, brilliant slinger of bon mots as a writer, Carrie captured my heart from the moment her sassy princess from Alderran graced the screen with her cinnamon bun hair, lip gloss and gauzy dress (as George Lucas famously said, "there's no underwear in space"). And that was before the slave girl bikini.

Ahhhh, good times, when the heart was young and innocent and unbroken.

Happy Valentine's Day to all the TNRLM readers and their significant others.

If you don't love the Buffster, we may be done

Last night, I caught up on Monday's season premiere of How I Met Your Mother, and it was de -- wait for it -- lightful. Both the A and B stories were funny and character-driven, and it was great to have this group of television friends back.

One of the plot points revolved around Ted worrying that his new fiancee, Stella, might not like his favorite movie (Star Wars). IO9 has a take on it here.

This struck a chord with me, as I've long contemplated the "pop culture relationship deal breakers." For some folks, it can be politics, sports or religion. (For the record, I've dated liberals, conservatives, jesus freaks, atheists, Gators, Vols, Bugs and even folks who don't think of football season as the High Holy Days). Or in Ted and Stella's case, it was a movie. For others, it can be music.

But my pop culture world revolves around the tube, and I've even kept a list on my CrackBerry, entitled "TV for S/O." (That would be Television for the Significant Other). I understand that not many chicks are going to be geeky enough to know the difference between a Romulan and a Klingon, or be able to explain the alien conspiracy on The X-Files. Hell, I can't even explain the alien conspiracy on The X-Files. Nor, apparently, could Chris Carter. But there are some shows that are just so transcendent and so important that it's critical your long-term significant other develops an appreciation for them. Perhaps they've never had a chance to view them. Or perhaps they've been turned off by a "silly" title (*cough* Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica *cough*), without ever watching the show with an open mind. However, if they've been exposed to your favorite shows and still don't feel passionately (or even positively) about them, it would make me wonder if there was something fundamentally wrong with them, and that we wouldn't be compatible in the long run. I've got scores of TV shows on DVD, about 50 season passes on the TiVo, and have seen every single episode of literally hundreds of different series. But here are the TV dealbreakers for me:

• Lost
• Arrested Development
• Buffy
• Angel
• Firefly
• Battlestar Galactica
• Mad Men
• Veronica Mars
• Dexter

What about you, TNRLMers? What are your TV (or Pop Culture) Deal Breakers?

Time's 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. And we can't be in love if you don't watch some of them.

Time recently published a list of the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. Naturally, this will spark some debate. And ordinarily, I would write about 204,500 words on the subject. But I'm looking at a glorious sunrise over the mountains and my mind is already drifting toward Athens, so I'll try to be brief.

One of my favorite TV critics, Maureen Ryan, has her take here.

As I usually agree with her opinions, I think she's right in her opening "huh?" reaction to the list: No Angel. No Farscape. No Frasier. No Northern Exposure. All those would definitely be in my Top 100.

Other glaring omissions off the top of my head:

Magnum PI
Star Trek The Next Generation
Sports Night
News Radio
Dexter
Firefly
Veronica Mars

Shows that I was pleasantly surprised to see on the list, though in my mind they should OBVIOUSLY be there:

Arrested Development
Battlestar Galactica
Buffalo Bill
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Deadwood
Lost
Moonlighting
Rocky and his Friends
Soap
Star Trek
The X-Files

Oddly, a couple of weeks ago I was having a similar conversation with a brilliant friend about "must see" TV shows, and I put together a short list of shows that my "significant other" would have to have watched and loved, or at least be open to trying, or there could be no basis and foundation for a lasting relationship. (Oh, yeah, love and sex and trust and respect and wit and charm and all that are still important. But c'mon, television is a critical ingredient of any successful coupledeom. You know you agree with that). All the shows on my short list are on the Time Top 100, or in my list of omissions. In no particular order, that list consisted of Battlestar Galactica, Arrested Development, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Farscape, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Lost, any of the Treks, Moonlighting, Northern Exposure, Veronica Mars, Seinfeld, The X-Files, Lost.

What else was missing from the Top 100? And do you have a "relationship" short list?

Back to school shopping and love games

Interesting article on back to school shopping for girls over on Slate. While there is no "fault" in a true free-market economy -- companies can manufacture and market whatever they want, and consumers can select and purchase whatever they want -- it is sad that the options mentioned in the article are viable for a large portion of the population. Obviously, there's a middle ground between dressing in head to toe "prairie wear" like Nikki Henrickson and auditioning to be the next Pussycat hooker, but impressionable teens and tweens get their cues from the pop culture media, and hopefully, from their parents.

Scan the headlines of any pop/gossip website and you'll see all you need to know about examples set by Lindsay, Britney, Paris and their ilk. And it probably doesn't help if mom makes those tarts all look like Elizabeth I. I'm sure some of these back to school shopping questions have arisen in suburbs all across the country, like this one, for example. However, it's probably hard to have any parental moral authority on the subject when mom's own "wardrobe" was frequently found wadded up the next morning on the floor of random apartments, trailers and backseats, ostensibly for business ("pay for play"), pleasure ("I'm sorry, your name was....?") or economic security (Two Step Financial Planning for college flunk outs: 1. Lie. 2. Open knees).

On a quasi-related note, too bad I didn't know there were "simulations" like this a couple of years ago. Hell, even the Sims would have been smarter than I was.

I'll be her Romeo any day

Of course, that means we'd wind up dead. Which in my experience, would seem to be par for the course of love.

Last night, Lost delivered another in a stunning series of exceptional episodes. (In fact, it was so good, I didn't even notice the absence of Locke). I was going to draft a long, analytical post filled with praise, observations and insight, but wound up writing about pigs all day (long story. And strangely, it's not about last year). However, a few things that really rocked the house in "One of Us:"

• Sayid's questioning of Juliet.
• Sawyer and Sayid playing "bad cop" and getting morally bitch-slapped by Juliet.
• Anytime, any episode, where Ben is on the screen.
• Chugging the spiked OJ of mysterious travel.
• Herarat Aviation. Could be "Her A Rat." Could be an anagram of "Earhart," as in Amelia (got "lost" in a plane, ya know? And remember those two skeletons in the cave way back when?). The whole company name could be an anagram for "a variation earth."
• More good work from Batmanuel.
• "Well, if it ain't three men and a baby. I counted Hugo twice."
• Mikhail's creepy info center, and the heartbreaking reaction of Juliet to the video of her sister and child.
• Curing cancer but preventing childbirth? Give me the fucking OJ, I'm moving there NOW.
• The twist at the end, with Juliet and Ben planning this all along. Question is, how much does Jack know? Has he figured this out? Or duped by a hot chick again? (I feel, Jack).
  
• And what's gonna happen in one week, island time?

Great, great stuff. I was also going to gush about my burgeoning love affair with Juliet (and Elizabeth Mitchell's delicious performance), but I noticed someone already did it much better than I. Check out TV Guide's Matt Roush, complete with Shakespearean reference.

"Other"-worldly indeed.