Congratulations on successfully meeting your glorious reading goal, Lindsay! SWTS is proud of you and would like to extend a warm welcome to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (the figurative world, not the fancy schmancy amusement park they are building). With regard to the Harry Potter film series, I suggest spacing them out and letting them sink in. This is a serious departure from my normal tendency to lean toward marathons (I LOVE MARATHONS!), and the only reason I say you should space them out is because there are now six of them. And since most of them run over two hours long, that would be one HELL of a marathon. I think the best idea might be to compromise and do a few mini marathons, maybe two or three marathons depending on your schedule. My recommendation for two marathons is to group the first four movies together and the most recent two movies together (movies 1-4 and 5-6, respectively). For three marathons, group the movies in twos. The actors and the tone of the films really darken as the franchise gets deeper into the series, which is why I suggest grouping them this way. The lighthearted, fun earlier films that are very much geared toward children should be viewed together and the more mature, artful films viewed at a later juncture.PS—Some unsolicited advice about watching the films: Go into them understanding they are adaptations, not exact replicas of the books on film. The crew does an astounding job of capturing even the minutest details of the Harry Potter world (they are visual masterpieces), but the plots do not always remain intact. If you get hung up on inaccuracies between the books and the films, it will be impossible to enjoy them. It’s best to view the literary series and the film series as separate entities. This advice can pretty much be applied to all film adaptations of books. My rule is to respect filmmakers’ decisions to change things for the sake of bearable run times and making studios happy, and to only disagree when a change is made for the sake of being different (which is dumb considering they are not telling an original story) or when the change destroys the integrity of the story (e.g., turning Harry Potter into Harriet Potter, the talking giraffe who practices witchcraft).
A related question—do you have any book recommendations? – Lindsay
Why, yes, Lindsay, yes, I do. A nice segue out of the fantasy world of Harry Potter would be to read Melissa Anelli’s Harry, A History, which chronicles the Harry Potter fandom from start to present day (which was probably late 2007 as the book was published in the fall of 2008). It’s a really good resource for those of us Harry Potter fans who came to the table late and basically missed everything during the real peak of Harry Potter’s popularity. I do have my problems with the book though, but there are some really good tidbits to be gleaned from its pages and the exclusive interviews with author J.K. Rowling are worth it all on their own. If you’re looking to make a clean break from Harry, that opens your door to about a bagillion possibilities. I’m a big fan of Paulo Coelho and highly recommend his novel Veronika Decides to Die (which has recently been adapted to film and will be released on DVD FINALLY in April). For some more good reads, check out the complete list of this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award winners.I am very pressed for time this spring. If you had to recommend 3 shows for me to put on my "do not miss" list, what would they be? I'm a fan of L&O and Bones, typically, but I've picked up some other shows this past year (Modern Family, Cougar Town, Mercy, and I wanted to try Parenthood). – Lux
Answering this question is going to be the biggest challenge I face this week. I will operate under the assumption that you will be catching up with all of the shows you follow at a later time. That being said, of the spring shows, I suggest sticking with a few of your favorites and not taking on anything new. Of the shows you listed, definitely stick with Law & Order. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (because I do realize I’ve been saying this nonstop since September), Law & Order is on FIYAH right now. This is my favorite cast since the Briscoe-Logan/ McCoy-Kincaid days. Not only is this show (still) amazing, but it offers two special opportunities: adding some variety to your limited TV-viewing schedule AND participating in a part of television history (longest running drama of all time?!?!). A big timesaver would probably be to cut the comedies. I adore Cougar Town with all my heart and soul, but half-hours are a lot easier to catch up with than hour-longs. I also suggest leaving Parenthood for the summer or when you reach a point where you aren’t so strapped for time. I say this for a couple reasons, mostly because there is no point in investing time in a show that you aren’t sure will return in the fall. I’d rather invest the little TV time I have in shows that have staying power and that I’ve been loyally following for a few years at least. (Note: This is in no way a reflection of the quality of the show. Two episodes in and I’m loving it to death.)What do you think of celebs who tweet? Do you follow any celebrities? – Random Twit
Celebrities who tweet can be endearing, entertaining, dangerous or any combination of those things. Some celebrities are straight up boring and only tweet about the exotic foods they eat at 5-star restaurants in Los Angeles and who did their makeup for an event (also in Los Angeles). Some celebrities have a magical ability to embed themselves in your life, creating inside jokes between themselves and their followers. And some give big pay-offs for being a follower like tangible prizes and inside information (ticket pre-sale times, anybody?). But, for real, in general, I think it’s great the way almost every level of the entertainment industry has embraced Twitter. However, someone should’ve given them a crash course in not making asshats out of themselves or spoiling the public before letting them loose online (see Julie Benz and her Dexter season 4 finale debacle and the angered thousands she spoiled). As far as who I follow on the Twitters, I started off following every single person or band or whatever that I love, which ended up creating a lot of work for me with very little pay off. Over time, I realized that just because someone makes great movies or records doesn’t mean I have to follow their tweets. I began unfollowing celebrities and now have a nice core group left that includes Conan O’Brien, who just recently joined Twitter and provides one tweet a day of glorious magical Conanness (example), and Tom Hanks, who recently tweeted a press tour snacks diary in pictures. I try to stick with celebrities who tweet sparingly, but when they do tweet it is actually worth it. My best advice is to give people a chance. If you end up following people who tweet every five seconds about brushing their teeth and getting in the car and going to rehearsal and stopping by Trader Joe’s for peanut butter pretzels snacks and taking their dogs to the groomers, no one will blame you for unfollowing them. No one.
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