[Let me re-write this to expand on the subjects and television from tonight.]
Sports: Well, more accurately, the Mets yet again only won the game he started. They almost blew a game earlier, but the umpire felt they deserved something back, and in a messy season for umpiring, the Mets benefited. Not to worry, in another game, a changed call (the second base umpire saying a person was hit by a pitch, leading the home plate umpire to overturn his call -- Manuel was quite pissed and got himself tossed; the inning/game went downhill from there). Anyways, the Mets aren't hitting, losing today 1-0. It's too painful to watch, but who's really surprised?
Television: I got the second set of episodes of the British series William and Mary, briefly referenced earlier, from Netflix. A bad year of movies sort of continuing (maybe, it's just me?) into 2010 meant that it was easier to watch the few movies I wanted to see on DVD or directly online via Netflix or some other service. [And, a few of the movies I did see, such as Creation, were disappointments.] For instance, I saw one lesser movie directly through Fios pay-per-view. TiMER was already available via that route while it still was in the movies (or a week or so gone), but even cheaper to wait a month or so longer for Netflix.
I am also watching the 4th season of the show Doc Martin via Netflix, the first three available on IMDB. I already mentioned that the female lead of that series led me to two British police shows; the male lead led me to William and Mary. It is a romantic comedy/drama (more drama really) about an undertaker and midwife who meet and fall in love via a dating service. Nice balance there; also the leads are no movie stars in the looks department, though she's cute (but has those bad British/Scottish teeth). His wife died in a car crash, but he didn't really love her; she found out her ex (black) was an ass. His first experience leads him to be quite passionate about doing it right this time around.
As remarks over at IMDB and Amazon note, the show is well written and the leads charm you by not being stereotypes but well rounded people. Each really can have their own show, her dealing with various working class births, he funerals with a deft touch, even if he never wanted to get into the business. Her mother is an annoying character, though she is a bit less hard to take in the second set of four episodes (three seasons, six apiece, but the last is not available in the U.S.). The second set of episodes are something of a downer -- dealing with both her ex and mother while his mother (older) dies -- but the leads hold our interest.
I would add a bit about Drop Dead Diva tonight -- in one case, a chimp was allowed to do sign language to get a sense of whose custody he wishes to stay in and not only was one of the two people allowed to do the signing, but no independent sign language person was available. Unless the other person knew sign, which was not evident, not only could the chimp be picking up on cues, but who's to know if his signs were accurately translated? That is pretty lame, even for a show that is a bit lax on the legal end.
The actual idea that chimps can be treated as a person in some contexts and the emotional connection we can have with them was a nice subplot. OTOH, Leelee Sobieski as "Deb's" birth sister was pretty stiff, which unfortunately for her is not a total surprise. The actual case was okay. Her guardian angel again was an amusing presence while still adding some serious words.
Army Wives, however, was overall a good episode. One aspect that it does pretty well is to show the complications of married life and the nature of the characters' relationships. I'm not sure if that is done enough on various shows. I like that about William and Mary too, including aspects that arise from their situation, though it does rush through their relationship a bit. In fact, I do wish more focus would have been put on their relationship in episodes 5-8 than on the drama around them.
Book: And, a bit more about Perchance to Dream, the book referenced earlier. The first book introduced us to Beatrice Shakespeare Smith, a seventeen year old apparent orphan who lived in an enchanted theater where actors (and four fairies) are the actual characters they play, including Ophelia from Hamlet. The author, a theater lover and writer of plays, provides a rich and often amusing (with a serious undertone) universe here in Eyes Like Stars. It ends with her finding out who her mother is and going out into the real world to find her father and her kidnapped potential love interest, the pirate Nate.
She also finds out her power to write plays and have them come true ... in a fashion. I add that bit because in the sequel, B. is not quite able to harness this power, perhaps because of her tendency to write poetic lines that could have more than one meaning. Anyways, this book is largely about a journey, but it does not really take time to have use get a sense of it. In fact, more than once, B. uses her abilities to try to rush it along, and other times something else stops certain scenes from continuing. This might be somewhat intentional (the flashes a sort of "dream," dreams often hazy and abrupt in some fashion), but it got annoying and hurt the flow of the book. It also made us unable to get to know new characters.
We didn't even get the same about of emphasis on the few returning favorites, including her fairy friends, Ariel (the mercurial free-spirited sprite that loves her) or of course Nate (mainly off screen). We meet her dad, but he doesn't really come off that well, even though he is type of mythical bird-man creature. The best part, if not free from bother, is the final part. The charm actually is that the book lets the story play out, the exposition grabbing us more than more disjointed earlier scenes, written in a bit too precious of a style.
I do wonder if the author's comfort with the theater world made it something of the "write what you know" variety, while this was a tougher task. The first also dealt with her growing-up, her heart split over two guys and other personal issues, but did so in the midst of a better story. I thought the bit where we find out she loves both of them equally (akin to a coin landing on its side) a bit dubious. Her final escape also seemed a bit of a deus ex machina. But, overall, it was that the first 2/3 of the book was too much of a trudge, a potential good account of her journey and who she met on it not given a chance to breath.
I hope the final chapter of the trequel works better.