Movies - A Single Man, very stylish, well acted and sad. I felt bleak afterwards. Yeah, I had kind of the same reaction. Well done, but sad.

Guardians of the Galaxy, cute, imaginative, fun but I can't quite say I loved it. I thought this was a lot of fun, don't have to take it seriously, and can just go with it. Was rocking out to the soundtrack in my car yesterday.


Binge-watching Outlander - really enjoying it though I think it falls just short of greatness. The Scottish scenery is awe-inspiring, everything feels very authentic, and I think Graham MacTavish as Dougal is actually the most complex and interesting character of everyone. I have some issues with the heroine Claire who at times comes across as too much the romance novel cliche. Then Jamie appears, and I forget all about it. This arrives on Netflix March 3, looking forward to catching up with everyone else.

Also binging on Friends on Netflix. The laughs are all still there the way I remember them plus new unintended ones -- those '90s clothes and hairstyles and the phones and computers! What strikes me most what a great cast Friends had. I mean the central six had such amazing chemistry, it was hard for guest actors to blend in with them. Though I loved Teri Garr as Phoebe's birth mom. Casting perfection to a T. I should check this out to catch up on the stuff that gets cut out of the re-runs on tv. One of my favorite series ever.

Also caught most but not all of Richard Armitage's seasons on Spooks before it disappeared from Netflix. RA was as good as you'd expect him to be but the weakness in the show's premise is that while it's okay to speed through the weekly geopolitical crisis, you can't do that successfully with the characters' personal lives, at least as far as Lucas North was concerned. Sarah Caulfield? Please! Also, possibly the worst performance of an American by a Brit ever. Never bought into Maya either though I missed seeing all her episodes. OK, don't get me started on Sarah's "accent" - gawd awful! And yeah, I hear you on Maya, she was just kind of blah. Kind of a bummer Richard didn't have better characters to play off of.

Still hanging in there with Downton Abbey. (*sigh*) Getting really frustrated with the redundant story lines, endless melodrama at big fancy dinners and characters who should be changing and maturing but aren't (I'm looking at you, Mary.). Violet and Isobel's conjoined stories are about the only ones I'm enjoying. Except for the whole brush-up over the Marigold scandal and the flaming classicism exhibited by Edith, her granny and her aunt towards the Drewes which may be historically accurate but really makes me dislike them. And disliking the Dowager Countess just doesn't feel natural! I feel like things are picking up, and while I agree with you on the whole Edith storyline, I did like Violet's comment to Mary about being compassionate - I'm kind of tired of Mary's attitude and constant sniping. At least Rose and Atticus are sweet. But poor Isobel - how awful for her to receive such a reaction from Lord whosit's jerk sons.

I've been reading the books too (kindle had a special where you could get a bundled set of all three for $15). They're not great literature, but the people complaining about the writing apparently haven't read many romance novels. They're up to the usual standard, and that's good enough for me. I'm finding them to be unputdownable.