food & TV

[sarea]

So I mentioned in my last entry that I baked a whole chicken ... well, being that I am only one person, I had lots of it left. I considered a number of things to do with the leftovers, but finally decided on ... chicken enchiladas! It's the first time I've ever made them (much easier than I had imagined), but they came out great -- especially cool considering I ended up adapting several different recipes and making my own enchilada sauce. I also made Norwich sourdough, which came out really well, and I was thrilled about that too, because the first time I ever made it, it was a failure. Recipe for the enchiladas and photos of both here.

TV stuff:

I love Ugly Betty, but Betty herself is actually one of my least favorite characters on the show. Everyone else has endearing foibles, but Betty herself is often annoyingly righteous and cutesy. Even America Ferrera made this comment recently that bugged -- it was about Gossip Girl not being a positive show for young women, which from what I know of it, I wouldn't argue against. But you know, not every actress is lucky enough to land the kind of role she did, one in which she gets to advance her career while being on a successful show that spouts (mostly) positive messages at the same time. Such opportunities are fairly rare for actresses. And especially considering Blake Lively is her co-star in the Traveling Pants movies, I just thought it was kind of an uncool public comment to make, even if the criticism is merited. It could have been said far more diplomatically, with the onus of the blame placed on society and television and the lack of positive female characters in general, while acknowledging that working actresses have to work.

But speaking of -- I'm downloading S1 of Gossip Girl. It seems SO guilty pleasure. I can watch it when I OD on the sometimes overly sweet Ugly Betty stuff.

I also watched the pilot of Fringe on Hulu and ... color me unimpressed. It's WAY too like the X-Files without any of the things that made XF great (with the possible exception of Joshua Jackson). I find Anna Torv completely distracting, because she has absolutely the worst American accent that I've ever heard! Her acting seems fine, good even, but I can't get over the accent. As Jade says, if an American did a British or Australian or any other accent that poorly, they'd get eviscerated. Within the first scene or two of the pilot, I was Googling her to discover her nationality, and what a surprise it wasn't to find out she isn't American. Seriously, if they really wanted her in the role, they should have had the character be an American who grew up overseas or something. There isn't a single scene she's in where her accent is convincing and I can't not notice it!

Comments

[corianderstem.livejournal.com]

Your enchiladas look good! I want to try making those.

I liked Gossip Girl last year - a total guilty pleasure. Somehow this year, I am way more into it. Not sure if that's just me, or if it's just gotten that much more deliciously awesome.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

You should! It's actually really easy, especially if you buy bottled enchilada sauce. The reason I went there is because after making chili, I had nearly all the ingredients I needed on hand to make the enchiladas. :D

I'm just over 50% of the way through dling GG!

[jade-okelani.livejournal.com]

I'm not really a big America Ferrara fan, but I will defend her on that: the question was totally phrased toward the answer she gave, and nearly every outlet cut out her "I love Blake so much, and don't judge the work any actress does, but..." which may or may not change your opinion of it (even completely in context, I still felt a bit irked - she's always struck me as very, very righteous and even naive about the way the business she's in works/what it is. It's supposed to be 'art' and 'entertainment' - not a social morality tale that gives young girls good role models. I would hope girls could find role models in, you know, real people. And if they can't, that makes the point that shows like 'Gossip Girl' are probably more representative of RL.)

You know ITA about Torv. It maddens me that she will one day get to kiss Joshua Jackson.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I saw it in People, and it did have her preface about Blake. Regardless, even if it was a leading question (I assumed it was), it could still have been answered in a far more diplomatic way but still get her point across.

Like, asshole reporter: Do you think that shows like Gossip Girl are a positive influence on girls today with all the backstabbing and rivalry that goes on between Blake and [insert the other star's name]?

Possible improved answer: I think there's an appalling dearth of positive female role model characters being written today in general. As a working actress, it makes it very difficult to find such meaty, positive roles while still paying the bills -- I've been very lucky myself with Ugly Betty.

That would have been a far more appropriate answer imho. A longer version would even have something about ethnic minorities and how they've been portrayed on TV, how such actors in the past would have to take stereotyped roles because that was all that was available -- but it made a difference because it at least created inroads for future generations, etc. etc.

I've never had much of an opinion of America Ferrara, but I agree that the things I've read have indicated to me that she's naive and possibly (though I can't imagine how) ignorant of exactly how lucky she is. Not everyone gets a show like Ugly Betty practically land in their laps giftwrapped.

And yeah, GG *is*, from what I know of it, representative of what teenage girls are like in RL. Exaggerated, of course, but it's TV, it has to be. But I bet nearly every teenage girl out there can relate to the tensions and subtle rivalries that go on. Whereas Betty is, I'm sorry, FAKE. It's an idealized version of what the real world is like, and while we need some form of that to move us forward, it's ultimately completely unrealistic and possibly even damaging for impressionable girls who see a show like that and find out one day that hey, I'm overweight and unattractive and go completely against the grain and yet I don't have 3 guys fighting over me and nothing works out completely in my favor?? But it works for Betty! Plus they just go overboard with Betty -- it's fine that she's the way she is and sometimes things go her way and sometimes they don't. But honestly? For her to constantly get new admirers and what not? It's like, yeah right. The morality tale part only works when there's still some semblance of truth to it. It's getting to the point where it's just turning reality on its head (and this is going beyond the outrageous subplots that have always been a cornerstone of the show).