The Online Comic XKCD

If you’ve been in the library lately, you may have heard horrible hacking coming from behind the Information Desk. That would be me…on week 8 of bronchial pneumonia. Weeks 4-6 were the most interesting. I couldn’t sleep because every time I fell asleep I woke up choking and then I went on an antibiotic notorious for causing insomnia. So, what does one do when one can’t move but can’t sleep? Watch. A. Lot. Of. TV.

I think I’ve watched more tv in the last month than I have for the previous year. In practice, what that means is that I watched a lot of  bad tv, but my Netflix & DVD roulette actually turned up some gems. So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s what I can recommend:

Invention of Lying (2009) Starring Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais has a touch-pretty much everything he does is just charming and Invention of Lying is no exception. The opener of the movie states that in this world, no one has ever learned how to lie. Since no one knows how to even tell a polite fiction, dates end with brutal dismissals, bank tellers take your word for how much money you have in your bank account and movies are restatements of history told by a guy sitting in a chair. Mark, the main character, is a screenwriter assigned the 13th century “when nothing ever happens.” After he gets fired, he has a breakthrough and tells the first lie in the world. This quickly snowballs and feel-good-ness ensues. The movie could have quickly gone very, very dark as the entire world consists of people just waiting to be fleeced, but Gervais takes it to a really sweet conclusion. Truly adorable!

Stuck in Love (2012). Starring Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly

Normally, I avoid movies about “normal life” like the plague as I feel I have a surfeit of normal life around me. However,  since I had the plague, I figured I might as well give it a shot. Stuck in Love recounts the Borgen family saga from one Thanksgiving to another. Bill, a semi-famous writer, and his wife Erica are divorced and the entire family is “stuck”. Bill can’t get over Erica, his son Rusty is “stuck” at school and his daughter Samantha is stuck at college. When Bill encourages his son to go out and get some life experiences, Rusty hooks up with troubled teen Kate. Meanwhile, Samantha is having her first book published and is determined to avoid love at all costs. Despite not being my kind of movie, Stuck in Love sucked me in and got me involved. Fabulous!

Big Bang Theory. Starring Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons & Kaley Cuoco 

I have to admit this was a re-watch, but I needed something light and Big Bang Theory fit the bill. For those who have not watched this show, it’s one of those interesting intersections of tv for both geeks and non-geeks. IMDB says, “A woman who moves into an apartment across the hall from two brilliant but socially awkward physicists shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory.” What’s nice about it is that the physicists and the woman actually end up sharing their loves, both of the geek/science world and the normal world. My one problem with it was every time I laughed, I coughed.

Man from U.N.C.L.E (2015)  Starring Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander

Getting my husband to watch this with me went something like this:

Kay: Do you want to watch Man from U.N.C.L.E?
Bryan: Meh. You can watch it, and if it’s good, I’ll watch it with you.
Kay (10 minutes later): I watched the opening sequence and it’s really good.
Bryan: …..
Kay: You said that if it was good, you’d watch it with me.
Bryan: I meant the whole thing!
Kay: Well, it’s really good. It reminds me of the early James Bond movies-witty dialog, good chemistry between the cast members and great action scenes. If you watch the opening sequence and disagree, you can give up.
Bryan: *grumble, grumble, moan, dragging feet, whine, grumble*

2 hours later:
Bryan: Thank you. That was very good!
Kay: Uh-huh.

So, there you have it. Happy Holidays Everyone (just passed and coming up!)