Fun Fact #47: I think I'm nostalgic for "I Love the 80s"

Is it weird to be nostalgic about a show that was based solely on a sense of nostalgia for a certain era?

I was came across VH1's "I Love the 80s" in a moment of utter boredom and decided to watch it for a little bit. I definitely remember watching it with my friends/siblings and discussing how humorous it was. And while it's still funny, it now feels weirdly dated which is random since a lot of humor from the show comes from how dated things from the 80s have become. There are a lot of "celebrity" figures who were obscure then and are now totally off the radar.

I looked up "I Love the 80s" on Wikipedia and discovered that premiered in 2002. It is one of those dates that doesn't look like it's that long ago but it's actually six years ago. I guess the show just reminded me of how quickly time goes by and, sadly, made me somewhat nostalgic 2002.

But I guess I'm not the only person because I learned that VH1 recently premiered a series called "I Love the Millennium"...

Fun Fact #37: Could "Hamsterdam" ever become a reality?

Editorials can be hit or miss. Sometimes the author just seems to whine and complain, but other times editorials can be thought provoking pieces that tackle some of the toughest issues in society.

This editorial, titled The Wire's War on the Drug War, written by the scribes of The Wire (some who are also extremely respected novelists) definitely falls into the latter category. As I mentioned in my previous post, our prisons are overcrowded with drug offenders and obviously something needs to be done. But I didn't (and still don't) have an answer to that question.

These esteemed writers suggest a rather controversial, though admittedly only partial, solution to that problem:

"If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun's manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens."

They're basically saying that they will vote to acquit if they ever serve on jury for a drug trial (which is unlikely after writing this editorial), no matter what the evidence is (though acts of violence are taken into account). They argue that other "people of conscience" should follow their example.

I personally think that they make an amazingly good case considering it is such a controversial "solution". I don't necessarily agree with it but it's certainly a thought provoking concept. It's almost as though "Hamsterdam" (for fans of the show) would become a reality...

Fun Fact #27: Police without guns just look off

The weather has been horrible in Pittsburgh and I've been been feeling kind of sick, therefore I've been staying inside and watching TV. The current writer's strike has caused a total lack of new episodes of any of my standby shows, so I've been forced to turn to other sources. I get a few channels that randomly show British mystery/crime shows. The acting and writing is surprisingly good and they often play more like little movies (running about 90 minutes each episode) rather than TV show.

Anyways, crime shows will obviously have characters that are cops and those cops will inevitably spend some scene running after a criminal. And it's during these scenes that I notice the biggest difference between American and UK crime shows. This is because when the cop either starts chasing the suspect or catches up to him/her, he'll pull out his weapon and brandish it at them in an attempt to get the suspect of comply with his orders. But, the thing is, most UK cops are not allowed to use guns....

The weapon of most British cops according to Wikipedia and my TV

They instead use an extendable baton. A baton!! I realize that it can cause great pain (and probably even kill) when it's used to hit someone, but it doesn't really look threatening compared to a gun. I know some UK forces are armed with guns, but most are not. If I were a criminal I'd be a lot more likely to submit to a cop with a gun than a freaking baton. It honestly takes me out of the program when I see one of the cops whip out their baton and begin the chase.

I guess it can also be a sign of how much the media influences how I, and probably others, view things because I've never actually seen a cop pull out a gun on anyone, but it's still something I see as the norm. I'd bet that a lot of criminals in the US, no matter how much it could actually hurt them, wouldn't feel very threatened when being chased by a cop wielding a baton.

But of course, let's be honest. I'd be terrified of cop chasing me no matter what he was wielding, and probably submit pretty quickly (if I hadn't already tripped on my own while running). I'm not really a hardened criminal type though...

Fun Fact #10: I'm becoming more emotional

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I don't show much emotion and that sometimes flinch when certain people touch me,which makes me sometimes appear to be an elitist bitch (though my totally not). But I think my experiences in Pittsburgh are making me into a more sensitive individual for better or worse.

I have developed a tendency to cry when I watch certain crappy TV shows. I used to occasionally cry with shows, such as that one brutal episode of Grey's Anatomy where the mom has to tell her daughter that she'll be dead from cancer in a matter of months. I also cried hysterically with one episode of Futurama, which I rarely watch, because it involved a dog waiting until his death for his master to return home because his master promised him that he'd return. Just try to watch the final scene without tearing up a little...

But recently I've started to cry whenever I watch a episode of Cold Case. Now I don't even like Cold Case or think it's a particularly good show, so I don't even really know why I watch it.

And it's not the whole show that gets to me, it's the last like three minutes. All the episodes end with this montage in which the dead person (who almost always died some years ago) stares at their friends and loved ones in the present day while some melodramatic song plays in the background. This usually includes the person who killed them, because the show stresses the idea that people you trust will one day kill you and that justice will only be served by an intrepid detective (with horrible hair) and her team. And the part that inevitably sets me off on a crying jag is when the dead person lovingly looks at the person who cared most about them when they were alive. I really don't know what's become of me.

Sometimes these scenes are well done, but most times they're just hokey. They shouldn't cause me to cry, but for some reason they do. I think I need to stop watching the show before I become too sensitive for my own good. My future career plans, though they've toned down a lot, still call for me to be an insensitive bitch most of the time.