Saturday At The Movies #95 - The Beauty Inside

No, you're not seeing things. It may be Monday, but Saturday at the Movies is back. Though I'm excited about the new TV season, today's feature is a Saturday at the Movies first - a web original.

I first stumbled onto The Beauty Inside by accident , when it came up before the video I'd meant to watch. Average guy gets out of the bed where his female companion still slumbers and furtively dresses in clothes that obviously do not fit. In voiceover, he introduces himself as Alex and mentions he has a condition- every time he wakes up, he's a different person. Literally.

They had me right there. Alex, played by, well, many different actors, never knows if the body that gets out of bed the next morning will be male, female, old, young, pretty, ugly, fat, thin, Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, etc, etc, etc. Alex supports himself (voiceover is always male, and Alex seems to identify as such) by restoring antique furniture and doing business online. One gets the impression Alex knows how to handle this, and though it's far from normal, but normal for him. Work, one night stands, and a daily video diary so that he can keep track of who he's been. His bodies never repeat, so each diary entry ends with the same phrase, "that's it for me."

Now that we have the Ordinary World part of the story established, it's time for our protagonist to find his complication, and it comes in episode two, which introduces a love interest, Leah. Alex meets Leah when he ventures into the antique store where she works. He and Leah share the same passion for antiques, Alex is physically attracted to her and the chemistry is palpable...but how can he pursue a relationship when he doesn't know who he'll be tomorrow?



All I'm going to say is that there is a happily ever after. For those who love watching actors do this thing, this is a smorgasboard. While a couple of the Alexes will be familiar to the casual viewer, most will be new, which fits the character and the story. Since this film was cast on the internet, with an open call, there's a huge variety of Alexes, consistent with the single character.

The love story is gorgeous, one perfect night of sneaking into a museum to indulge their mutual love of the past, capped by Alex's bittersweet voiceover that he would see Leah again, but she would never see him. Or is there something he could do about that? Leah's journey to discovery and acceptance of Alex's condition is beautifully acted, and if this were made into a traditional television series, I can only imagine the dazzling array of Alexes we might encounter. There are only six episodes, and Alex and Leah's romance is complete, but I do have to add them to the list of couples I ship. This is one love story romance fans won't want to miss.

First episode here:

Saturday at the Movies #80 - Alcatraz

Alcatraz, oh Alcatraz, where do I begin? With some shows, you know. With Moonlight, I knew. With Lost, I knew. With New Amsterdam, I knew. There were others: State of Grace; Cold Case, The Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels, even How I Met Your Mother.

I had that same feeling the first time I caught a glimpse of Alcatraz. No surprise to my regular readers that anything with that gloomy grunge aesthetic is going to catch my attention. There's the fact that we have a prison on an island, as in

...and there are spooky goings on and since this is on network TV, odds are that I will not have to watch every week through my splayed fingers (and I am still too chicken to watch Shutter Island, and yes, I do know it's also a book, but that's for another entry.) Bonus points to Alcatraz for being a real place, and the fact remains that since it still stands and I am still alive there is a chance that I might actually be able to go there at some unspecified place in the future and indulge my love of places-where-people-should-be-but-aren't.

What cemented my interest, though, is that the cast includes Jorge Garcia, who was amazing as Hurley on Lost. In Alcatraz, he's Dr. Diego Soto, Alcatraz expert and comic book writer. I am sold right there and would not have needed to hear more. Add in the bit about missing people from the past coming back to the present (okay, sure, they're all convicted crimnials...well, and the associated staff, so we do have a chance for some good guys) possibly for some greater purpose, though we don't know if that's a good purpose or a bad one, and I'm there. Cherry on top is Sarah Jones as Detective Rebecca Madsen, the homicide cop who has tragically lost a partner and has her own take on how the job should be done, and in certain shots, giving off a rather Sophia Myles-esque vibe. All we need now is a couple for me to ship. Jeffrey Pierce, as Jack Sylvane, the first inmate to reappear, is certainly equipped with the looks to qualify him as a possible love interest for Detective Madsen, and he has a sympathetic backstory, and I'm genre-savvy enough to know that a four-letter name ending in a consonant is code for hero material in such well favored gentlemen, but...

:happy sigh: Yeah. I could seriously go for these two, and since the first thing Dr. Soto says to Det. Madsen is "marry me," well, come on. I'm a romance writer. What do you expect? Granted, the proposal was an expression of admiration for Det. Madsen's knowledge of comics lore, but what male comic book aficionado wouldn't fall hard for a gorgeous blonde who also loves comics? Come, on, it's perfect. Nope, Dr. Soto doesn't have a rock-hard physique (pun intended) but he's got that geeky-suave charm, he's smart, enthusiastic, and he works what he's got, and I think this could work. What do you think, faithful readers? Am I barking up the wrong shipping tree, or am I on to something? Or does it not matter because of the great visuals, the history angle and super cool plots? Take a look at the trailer below. What do you think?

Saturday at the Movies #32 - I Will Go Down With These Ships

The prhase "I will go down with this ship" has an appropriate meaning for those who champion certain couples in thier tv or movie viewing. In honor of Valentine's Day, I refuse to accept anything but a true happily ever after for my favorites and if the canon version doesn't provide, I can and will make my own in my head and count that as the real one. Also possibly lead a torch bearing mob on the powers that be.

First, up, Temperance Brennan and Seely Booth from Bones. This show is steeped in romance: Angela and Hodgens are finally happily married and expecting what has got to be one unique but wonderful baby who will never have to work a day in his/her life; Sweets and Daisy are reuniting, and Cam and her (adopted daughter's former) gynecolegist show fine promise as well, but Booth and Bones, well, auuuuugh, such a delicious tease. I have every faith the HEA will come, but in the finale. In the meantime, what a ride.


There's a reason the opposites attract trope gets a lot of play in romanceland, and who doesn't love a good fairytale? I was always fond of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so I immediately recognized the dynamic in The Big Bang Theory. Except there's four of them and they're nerds, and aspiring actress Penny has her own kind of smarts that don't come from books. If I were still writing fanfiction, I'd have Penny land an audition for the reboot of a beloved SF tv franchise as well as finally making things work with Leonard. Sheldon, however, would still be Sheldon.


Rough patch, smough patch. When Barney and Robin from How I Met Your Mother get their second chance, these crazy kids are going to have a life together that is legen...wait for it...dary.


Moonlight only got one perfect season (and hey, good Regency title there, hm?)but watching a goodhearted vampire and his inquisitive ladylove work through those early stages to get to one of the best declarations of love I've seen on the small screen prove that sometimes, one is all you need.


My all time favorite TV couple would have to be Duncan and Tessa from Highlander. Even after Tessa died, we got fake Tessa, and the series finale gave us AlternateTessa, in a reality where she'd never met Duncan. If I were going to fanfic this, AlternateTessa's husband would end up in a tragic fatal accident on his way to that meeting, thereby freeing Tessa for Duncan, who finds a way to stay in the AU and they all live happily ever after.


Which TV couples are your favorites? If the powers that be didn't (or haven't yet) given them a romance novel worthy HEA, how would you have the story end?

Obligatory Lost Post

At least the first one. There may be more, because not only did we have six years of amazing storytelling, acting and speculation, but now that the finale has finally aired, there may still be as many questions as answers. I consider that a good thing. Fittingly enough for Lost, I'm of two minds about the finale.

One the one hand, and I think DH will side with me here, I still have questions. Whatever happened to Mr Abbadon (other than his actor's migration to Fringe) and what was his function? Who was Jacob and MIB's adoptive mother and how did she get there? Stuff like that. Must confer with DH on specifics before blabbering further.

On the other, this show has always been about the characters for me, and on that front, the finale excelled. I cried. A lot. It felt good. I think I have a better grasp on the whole flash sideways world/holding area/let's all meet at the church thing after I've had a couple of days to ponder it. My personal theory on why Ben wasn't ready to move on yet is that he wanted to stay longer in his flash sideways world and I can't blame him. The guy never had it so good as he did there. The flash sideways world gave him as much peace as he'd ever been able to have, but I still missed having him with everyone else. I like to think that, at that point, he would have been welcome.

Now that all's said and done, I have to give the romances on Lost an A+ overall. Sun and Jin. Rose and Bernard. The Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet quadrangle, though I'm still not sure if everyone landed where I wanted them to land in that one. Maybe they did, maybe not. Sayid and Nadia. Sayid and Shannon were good, and a very interesting pairing, but Shannon rather than Nadia in the end for Sayid? Really? Really? :headshake: Eh, if it was plane people only, I guess. Hurley and Libby. Daniel and Charlotte. Charlie and Claire. Not to forget the big, big, pull out all stops romantic pairing of all, Desmond and Penny. If you aren't a slobbery pile of goo after watching this scene, I doubt your humanity:

Desmond and Penny's phone call

The last two lines between Sayid and Desmond can also apply to my overall impression of the Lost journey.

The (Guiding) Light goes out

I haven't watched Guiding Light in years. In college, though, it was a different story, and one of the reasons I loved my nanny job in my freshman year was that it allowed me to watch GL without interruption during my three-year-old charge's nap. His infant sister learned to recognize Josh and Reva when they were on screen. They were my favorite couple on the show and long after I stopped watching, through all the breakups, reconciliations, other spouses, amnesia, kidnappings, misunderstandings and such I gleaned from the world at large, still held out for their happily ever after. Yep, definetly a supercouple in my book. Today is the last episode of GL ever, after several decades of scandal, trauma and over the top weddings. Even though I haven't watched in years, I will miss it, but no matter what happens according to that final script, I'm going to believe Josh and Reva are living happily ever after in the locale of their choice.

Below, perhaps *the* iconic Josh/Reva scene, and below that, a few brain droppings of my own.

Why this scene sticks with me: It's raw, honest, emotional and risky. At this point in the story, Reva and Josh, though they do love each other, have a lot of baggage. Reva has already married and divorced Josh's brother and is now married to his father. Josh has some attitude issues and we have two alpha characters with big chips on their shoulders and things are going to come to a head.

This is definitely something I want to bottle and learn how to use in my own writing, and I would love to see more scenes of this impact in historical romances. Passion doesn't only occur during love scenes, but is at the core of both characters and that depth and intensity of feeling will spill over into everything they do.

Heroes and heroines do make mistakes and bad choices and they will have to live with the consequences, but for my money, that's part of what makes the ride to the HEA that much fun. For a supercouple, ramp that up another notch or two.

Other soap supercouples I have loved:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Brady_and_Hope_Williams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Deveraux_and_Jennifer_Horton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Black_and_Marlena_Evans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Donovan_and_Kimberly_Brady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Johnson_and_Kayla_Brady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Newman_and_Nikki_Reed (I didn't actually follow this one by watching the show, but still enjoy the dynamic)

and the classic that started it all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Spencer_and_Laura_Webber

(though I do maintain heroes do not rape and rapists are not heroes)

There are others, which I will explore later. What couples would you put on your supercouples list?