Unless you are a celebrity or someone who can afford to fly Business or First Class on long-haul flights, there is nothing comfortable about flying for 15 hours – the longest route possible, I’ve been told – from Sydney to Dallas and then spending another couple of hours waiting in line to get through Customs and re_checking your bag for your connecting flight.  Call me a time traveller: my plane took off at 1.30pm in Sydney on a bright Sunday afternoon and I arrived in Dallas at 1.30pm on a bright Sunday afternoon.

As if that long flight isn’t exciting enough, how’s this for fun: for anyone who has paid any attention to the news about travelling into and within the US, you are only supposed to use TSA-approved locks (these allow agents with master keys to open your lock without having to break them) on your suitcases.  Well, my suitcase had 4 of those for all the side pockets. By the time I picked up my suitcase at my final destination, I noticed there was an odd lock on one of the zippers. It appears that whoever had checked my suitcase had opened my suitcase, then put someone else’s lock on my suitcase! Well, I am no master lock-picker, so I wandered around the airport asking for official-looking staff to help. Finally the lock was removed and now I am one lock short. Thanks a lot! Bye bye brand new $16 lock that I must now replace!

But I digress. By the time I checked into my hotel, it was just after 7pm. The hotel is not a fancy one (though you wouldn’t know it for the exorbitant price I had to pay for it) but it is a very well-located one and very comfortable – all very important qualities when staying in a strange city. There is no room service, which is a down-side because I was too tired to go wandering around looking for food. Thankfully, there’s Arby’s. Yes, it is a fast-food chain, but who cares when you’re hungry, tired and just need a good feed, right?

OK, so night 1 in my hotel bed. I was so tired that I had no trouble falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Unfortunately, I woke up only about three hours later. Welcome to jetlag. It is not pretty. I tried and tried to go back to sleep but to no avail. Finally decided to just give in so I got up and checked emails, Facebook, Twitter. I know that’s not ideal for trying to go to bed but I managed to get back to sleep at a time when I would normally have been getting ready to go to work. I did not set any alarms as I had no specific plans to be anywhere.

Score so far: Jetlag 1 – Valerie 0

As it turned out, by the time I woke up, I had missed breakfast being served in the hotel breakfast room. My chicken burger was well-digested and I was hungry again (yes, this seems to be a common theme with me).  And here’s where it is handy to stay in a hotel in a town where you know nobody. A quick visit with the Concierge and she was able to recommend a local popular haunt – so popular, in fact, that there was a long queue of people waiting outside by the time I got there and it wasn’t even noon yet! The wait was not long (thank goodness!) though, and the food was fabulous and inexpensive. With a full and happy tummy, I returned to my hotel to await pick-up for my city tour. This was a great way to get my orientation around the city and to give me an idea of places I wanted to return to.

Night 2 and I thought I would have greater success with sleep. After all, I was even more tired than the night before. I collapsed into bed around 10.30, which is really early for me. Sadly, I woke up two hours later. And I stayed awake…for the next SIX HOURS! I tried meditating. I tried watching TV (nothing but infomercials). I tried reading but my eyes were so tired I could barely keep them open to read anything. I tried to NOT try to sleep. Nothing.

Score so far: Jetlag 2 – Valerie 0.

Friends suggested I try melatonin. I’m not used to having to take supplements to sleep but I had no choice. So when I came upon a Walgreens the next day, I went straight in and got myself a bottle of these tiny life-saving pills. A day of sight-seeing and lots of walking (and shopping!) and a cocktail over dinner probably helped too. Finally, I got a glorious eight hours’ sleep. Hallelujah!

Updated score: Jetlag 2 – Valerie 1.

I’d like to think I have won the battle but I don’t want to jinx myself, especially considering I will have an early flight in a couple of days’ time, and all regular sleep patterns will go out the window again, not to mention I will be changing timezones yet again. Yep, call me time traveller

And on the subject of sleep, I think it is way past my bedtime now, in any timezone! So I bid you good night and a good rest!

White Collar star and director, Tim DeKay

February is here and WHITE COLLAR is back.  The upcoming episode, “Empire City”, marks the second directorial outing for its star, Tim DeKay.  As a big fan of Tim’s and the show, I was lucky enough to be invited to join in the press call with him to talk about this episode, the show in general, and just how much of a fan I am (getting up at 2.40am Sydney time!). I had such a great time chatting with Tim on the phone – can’t wait to meet him in person!

Here’s a transcript of my Q&A with Tim

Valerie: Good morning Tim!

Tim: Good morning Val, how are you feeling?

VL: I got about four hours’ sleep but I’m very excited to be talking to you.

TDK: Excellent, likewise.

VL: Last season you made your directorial debut filming in Yankee Stadium and this time you were in the Cotton Club. Where would you like to shoot next time around?

TDK: I’m aiming for the White House. We’ll see if that happens…I don’t know, we’ll see…

VL: Oh, that would require you to be out of state, right?

TDK: Yeah it would…so…some other iconic place in New York City…Madison Square Garden! There you go, that would be my aim for next season – Madison Square Garden. [I hope the writers are paying attention to this one for season 5!]

VL: That would be awesome…Having played Peter Burke for four seasons now, is there anything that you have learnt about Peter or anything that he has done that has caught you most by surprise?

TDK: Hmm…that’s a good question…what has caught me by surprise about Peter…I’d have to say I’m always surprised and challenged by his ability to balance between doing what’s right for Neal and doing what’s right for the FBI. The writers have been able to have Peter continue to walk down that line between being a friend to Neal and having to answer to his job as an FBI agent.

VL: This season has been very much about Neal’s back story and I don’t think the writers have reconvened for season 5 yet but are we likely to see more of Peter’s back story? Does he have some dark and seedy past we’re going to discover in season 5?

TDK: I’ve talked to some of the writers about that and I would love to have something uncovered about Peter that would be surprising to the audience. I think we have to be careful with any back story as long as it keeps the action moving forward. I think that’s important. So how we would delve into Peter’s back story would only be so that we could keep the story moving forward.

VL: You’ve done a lot of theatre work. Would you ever consider doing an international tour with a theatre company and bring your performance down to Australia?

TDK: I would. I would love to do that. There was a very famous production of…maybe I’ve told you this before, so forgive me if I have… a very famous production of Our Country’s Good* that was done in Sydney, I think it was near the Opera House, where the back of the stage came up and you could see out into the water. The audience was looking out on to the stage – I think it was in a warehouse or something. I would love to do that play in Australia, although I don’t think that would ever happen but sure, I would love to take any play and tour the world.

VL: Well, it would be a sell-out show for sure if you do come so I hope it does happen! Thanks so much for your time, Tim.

TDK: Sure. You can go back to bed now.

OK, so I managed to contain my giddiness long enough to ask some coherent questions!  But here are some highlights from the rest of the interview with other callers:

The ever-present trust issue

There is a wonderful dynamic between Peter and Neal – two best friends who enjoy each other’s company though they would never admit it. Yet there is always a secret, a chess game going on and they’re not revealing everything because often they think that keeping it a secret is for the benefit of the other person. The trust issue is always going to be there. Neal is criminal and Peter is an FBI agent. That is an inherent trust issue. But on other things they trust each other implicitly.

El asking Neal to lie to Peter

There have been many lies of omission but there has never been a time when Peter has asked Neal a point-blank question where Neal has lied to his face. On this occasion, Neal was given the green light to lie to Peter by Elizabeth. We’re going to see the force of El’s request play out to the rest of the season.

Directing Empire City

Tim’s greatest moment from this episode was directing Diahann Carroll singing in the Cotton Club. They had pre-recorded her songs earlier but with live musicians on set, when the cameras started rolling, she sang it live and they didn’t use the pre-recorded version. Also, keep an eye out for the wonderful music selection and transition montages of New York City used in this episode.

Marsha’s blonde wig playing the cigar girl

It was a surprise to Tim until he saw her in the scene with it and it turned out great.

Peter’s take-down of Pratt

Peter is a strong believer in the Bureau and to have someone in position of power tarnish the FBI infuriates Peter, and firing Hughes makes it even more personal for Peter because he is a friend.

Peter in season 5 and beyond

Tim would like to see Peter go undercover more. As much as he loves the suits they make and buy for him, he loves going to work and not having to wear a tie!

 Role reversals:

Tim would love to see an episode where Neal plays Peter Burke in the FBI office and Peter gets to be Neal in Neal’s apartment. He also loves seeing Neal and Peter work together on their cases but always have that mistrust.

The relationship between Peter and Elizabeth

They have a fantastic relationship but in order to show how truly fantastic this relationship is, they may need to have an arc for a couple of episodes where there is great conflict between them, and Peter goes to Neal for help, and we see how Peter and El handle this conflict.

You’ll find all my reviews of White Collar at LenaLamoray.com and stay tuned for my advance review of “Empire City”, directed by Tim airing next week. 

* Our Country’s Good is a British play, adapted from a novel written by Australian author, Thomas Keneally, set in 18th century Sydney during the First Settlement period.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 15 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

And so, here are some of my favorites for 2012. If you are interested in reading through some of my past TV reviews, you can find all the links to them on this site under “TV Reviews“.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@valshopaholic) and leave a comment below to share with me your favorites!

Favorite New Shows

Go On

Matthew Perry was always my favorite “friend” on the sitcom that made him famous and in the years since, he has made it clear he can master drama as well as comedy (remember his appearances in The West Wing and, more recently, The Good Wife?). Now Perry is back in the comedy world (does anyone remember Mr. Sunshine? Anyone?), playing radio sportscaster, Ryan King, who joins a community therapy group after the sudden death of his wife.  The premise may be a little predictable – from Ryan’s original dismissal of group therapy as being ridiculous and full of crazy people to his growing fondness of those crazy people – but who doesn’t need a little bit of cray-cray in their lives to make them feel more “normal”?  As with any story involving a death, I have to confess, the show brings the occasional tear to my eye as Ryan moves from denial to grief. The supporting cast is funny and quirky without being annoying, which makes a whole world of difference when it comes to whether a comedy works or not.  I, for one, am glad that NBC have decided that the show will, indeed, go on.

The Newsroom

As an avid fan of The West Wing, I was excited by the return of Aaron Sorkin to the small screen (after his award-winning effort on the big screen with The Social Network in 2011).  Sorkin spent a couple of years researching life behind the making of news programs. With the trademark Sorkinesque rapid-fire dialog, we are introduced to Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels), a respected TV anchor and editor of News Night as he suffers a very public breakdown.  The Newsroom uses real-life news events of the past year as a backdrop to the stories covered on air by Will and his team, led by former flame, Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) as his producer and Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) as his boss.  Throughout the season, we have seen Will face death threats, get high and confront politicians as election time neared.  The supporting cast is well deserving of every award just for being able to keep up with Sorkin’s dialog, with a special shout-out to Olivia Munn who shows off her Japanese language skills brilliantly.  It is exactly the dose of intelligent news reporting television audiences have been waiting for.

Bunheads

In my mind, Amy Sherman-Palladino is like the female equivalent of Aaron Sorkin – except her writing is focused on small-town families and not large-scale political statements. But the witty, rapid-fire dialogs both are famous for means Bunheads is an easy winner for me.  I loved Sherman’s Gilmore Girls, and although you can’t help but be, at times, slightly confused by the similarities between the two shows, including the fact that Sutton Foster and Julia Goldani Telles are spitting images of Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel from GG, you will quickly fall in love with this small town of Paradise, California. Michelle (Foster), a former Vegas showgirl, marries a well-meaning admirer – Hubbel (Alan Ruck) – one drunken night after being rejected at yet another audition.  She follows him home to Paradise and is introduced to his mother, Fanny (Kelly Bishop – a GG alum) who not only lives with him but runs the local dance academy.  The cast of quirky locals is a joy to watch and there are a lot of young talents showcased in Bunheads.  The freshman season continues with its premiere on January 7.

Arrow

I confess that the only knowledge I have on any comic book hero comes from the movies and tv shows made based on those characters (I may have seen The Avengers a couple of times at the theater and the Blu-ray at least once).  The latest comic book hero to make it to the small screen is Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), aka, Green Arrow, though this incarnation of the hooded hero is simply known as Arrow.  Every superhero has a back-story to explain how he came to be who he is, and Ollie’s is no different.  As the billionaire playboy son of Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan), Oliver had everything including a girlfriend who had no idea he was cheating on her with her own sister.  While on a yachting trip with his father, they encounter a storm that only he survives.  For five years, the Queen family and the rest of the world believed Robert and Oliver had both perished in the storm but then suddenly, a Chinese fishing boat finds Ollie stranded on a Chinese island and returns him to his mansion.  Ollie returns a changed man – not only does he now know how to hunt with a bow and some DIY arrows, but he is also now conversant in Chinese and Russian!  But that is not all – he is back with a vengeance to right the wrongs that his father admitted to committing just before killing himself to save Ollie. Whatever you may think of the weekly revenge stories on offer, my favorite moments come from the pop culture references that Ollie just doesn’t get, having been away from gossip mags and reality TV for five years (shouldn’t we all be so lucky?).  Oh, and have I mentioned that Ollie likes to train shirtless? Hmm…here’s to my new favorite twitter hashtag: #shirtlesstrainingftw.

Favorite returning shows

Justified

I was a latecomer to Justified – yes, how dare I?  But I have atoned for my sins by catching up on the first two seasons real quick, in time for season 3.  Based on legendary American author Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole”, it is safe to say that the TV series (with Leonard as a consulting producer) far exceeds expectations.  With Leonard’s trademark wit and cowboy cool, actors Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins bring to life the story of two old friends/foes – Raylan Givens, a Deputy US Marshal, and Boyd Crowder, an unforgiving, yet loyal felon who’s got his hands dirty in more piles of bad stuff than you can count.  Every episode is abundant with classic lines. One of my favorite S3 episodes is “Thick As Mud” in which one of the crooks, Dewey Crowe, is so adorably dumb that he believes his kidneys have been stolen (like in the classic urban legend) and attempts a string of armed robberies to get the money to buy them back.  Joking aside, one of the saddest moments of the series comes in the season finale, when Raylan explains to his ex-wife who is pregnant with his child, that his father had shot and killed a state trooper because he thought the man was Raylan.  Season 3 also introduced us to another fantastic villain in the guise of Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough) who was literally “disarmed” in an epic scene that will not be soon forgotten.  I can’t wait for season 4, set to kick off on January 8!

Breaking Bad

With all that has happened in the lives of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), it’s hard to believe that only a year has passed by since the former high school chemistry teacher-turned-drug-lord was diagnosed with terminal cancer on his fiftieth birthday.  In its fifth and final season, Breaking Bad sees Walter celebrate his fifty-first birthday as the new drug kingpin of New Mexico, having successfully ensured former employer/nemesis Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) met an explosive end at the end of season 4.  Throughout this entire journey Walter has taken us on, we have seen how he has transformed from being a family man whose only motive for cooking meth was to earn money to provide for his family, to one entirely obsessed with his new job because he has nothing left to live for.  As if eluding the DEA is not a tough enough job for any criminal, Walter’s brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), is a DEA agent and gets promoted to head his own taskforce to take down Fring’s (and now White’s) cartel.  Each time Hank gets close to discovering the identity of “Heisenberg”, Walter has managed to get away, but in the mid-season cliffhanger, Hank may have finally cracked the code that could bring it all crashing down on Walter.  Season 5 continues in the summer of 2013.

Homeland

The big question in everyone’s minds at the end of Homeland’s freshman year when CIA Analyst, Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), underwent electroshock therapy to treat her bipolar disorder was whether she would still remember all that she knew about Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis).  Several months have passed and Carrie has resigned from the CIA in an attempt to recuperate from her illness and live a “normal” life.  The CIA is still behind the eight-ball with Saul Berensen (the wonderful Mandy Patinkin) continuing the hunt for terrorist Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) but getting closer.  Brody is now a US Congressman and in the running as running mate for VP Walden’s (Jamey Sheridan) presidential campaign.  But Brody cannot keep his secret forever and Carrie is finally vindicated when her suspicions are proven to be correct.  In an award-worthy scene that lasts around 16 minutes in the episode “Q&A”, Brody finally confides in Carrie when he pours his heart out, confessing to (almost) everything.  There are endless twists and turns and although some have suggested that the season ender could have been even more impactful had Brody been eliminated, I believe the writers have set up season 3 rather nicely.

White Collar

A TV highlights report from me would not be complete without a mention of my obsession with all-things White Collar.  At the end of season 3, we saw TV’s hottest conman, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) do a runner with his partner-in-crime, Mozzie (Willie Garson).  Having given Neal the green light to flee, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) finds himself going after his friend again when another agent with a reputation for hunting down fugitives (dead or alive) is brought in to catch Neal.  When Neal is eventually brought back to New York, our dynamic duo returns to a life forever-changed: Neal reveals the truth about his childhood – his father, James Bennett (yes, Neal’s real last name is revealed!) had been a corrupt cop and he grew up in WITSEC with his mother and Ellen, who had been his father’s partner.   Unfortunately, before Ellen could tell Neal the whole truth about his father, she is murdered, telling him to “trust Sam”.  Amongst her belongings, Neal finds a video tape she made for him almost two decades ago, telling him that she has hidden evidence that could prove James’ innocence.  As Neal and Mozzie, and eventually Peter, find Sam and try to find Ellen’s killer, we are kept wondering just how much we know about the secretive Sam and whether he is who he says he is…until the mid-season cliffhanger when, through DNA evidence, it turns out that Sam is (drumroll) James!  But is he really?  Well, I have had the privilege of watching the winter premiere already but I won’t spoil it for the rest of you.  Tune in on January 22^nd to find out!

Usually this time of the year is also a time when many companies wind down and take a breather after a busy year.  For me, I have been working on a project that is scheduled to be implemented in early February, which means that, in fact, the majority of our work had to be completed just before Christmas.  So, instead of being able to take it easy, my team and I have been busier than ever, especially since most of the team will be on leave for the holiday season.

Whatever news reports may say of the retail sector suffering what with the economy being slow and people not being able to afford the indulgences of years pre-GFC, the shops are still busy and popular gifts are sold out.  Everywhere I go, there are still people rushing into the shops and lining up at the cash registers.  No doubt the madness will ramp up even more on Christmas Eve as people rush out to get those last-minute gifts for unexpected visitors or just because they had been too busy to do their shopping any earlier.

It reminds me of the very first record (yes, I am talking vinyl here) I owned – the Chipmunks’ Christmas.  On the record, there was a song where last-minute shoppers are rushing to buy toys for their kids and complaining that they didn’t come with batteries.  Amidst the madness was a poor mother who could not afford the harmonica that her sick son coveted. In the end, Alvin realised that he didn’t need the golden harmonica he so wanted and gave it to the sick boy instead.

Some call this the “silly season”.  As a practicing Catholic, this is quite contrary to the importance of the occasion – the birth of Christ, our Saviour.  Even if you are not Catholic or Christian, perhaps it is apt, in all your rush and madness, to take the time out and be still.  Reflect on the year past; reflect on all that you have and forget about all that you don’t.  On Christmas day, when it starts getting stressful about guests visiting or worrying about burning the turkey or not having enough food for all, or the dishwasher breaking down, take a deep breath and be still for a moment.  If you are lucky enough to be able to afford it, bask in the joy of gift-giving.  Be grateful for all the gifts that you receive.  Count your blessings and enjoy the day.

Merry Christmas xox