Workout Update: P90x Day 51

Day 51 was a return to core synergistics. It is, along with yoga-x, my least favorite workout in the P90X series. I hate the majority of the moves and am always tempted to just swap it out with cardio-x. But, I made it through the workout. It went about the same as the last time I did it. Some of the push-up moves I do on my knees, and others I can do some on my toes, some on my knees. The only moves that I cannot do very well at all are the Dreya rolls and bow-to-boat.  The others, I can at least struggle through the modified versions. 

Workout Update: P90X Day 50

 Day 50 was the start of the second recovery week. I did the x-stretch workout to save a bit of time. I plan to do both Yoga workouts back to back on Saturday and Sunday. So, I have basically done three straight days of stretching/yoga, which has helped my flexibility. Tonight is the core synergistics workout again. I am not really looking forward to it, but will get it done.

DVD/TV Series Review: ER - The Complete Series

 

At the time ER debuted it was the "It" show, meaning it was the show that, the day after it aired, people would talk about at work or school and even on talk radio. It instantly became the hot show of the season and a ratings giant for NBC. It told the story of a Chicago hospital, just known as County, and told the story of the doctors, nurses, and staff who worked there. It started out somewhat being told through the experience of a third-year medical student named John Carter (played by Noah Wyle) as he began the "hands-on" portion of his medical school training. The show had a true ensemble cast made up mostly of (at the time) lesser-known character actors. The most recognizable member of the cast at the time the show debuted was Anthony Edwards (who had been in Top Gun and had just come off a stint on Northern Exposure). Of course, cast members like Noah Wyle, George Clooney, and Juliana Margulies would go on to have huge careers after their run on ER, as would actors like Ving Rhames, and William H. Macy, while other actors like Laura Innes, Paul McCraine, and Eriq La Salle would transition from actors to directors after their time on the show.

The show can really be seen as two series. The first eight seasons and the final seven seasons. By season 15 there was an entirely different cast as new cast members were brought in to replace those who left. A few members of the supporting cast (mainly those who played nurses) did stick around for the entire series run, but pretty much all of the actors who played the doctors had turned over by the time the series ended. The show focused on all sorts of issues over the course of its run including drugs, AIDS, abortion, crime, racism, mental illness, and more. Sometimes there were cases of the week that took up most of the hour, other times it was just chaotic turnover in the ER with a show involving multiple storylines. The show took a lot of risks, including airing a live episode, killing off main characters, and generally putting characters through the wringer. An argument can be made that it did start to get stale by the end of its run, but overall it was a very well-written and well-acted show. And, the final season did manage to bring back some of the original characters to give those of us who watched at the beginning a boost of nostalgia. It also boasted a ton of guest stars who would become A or B list actors, including Mariska Hargitay, Ewan McGregor, Ron Eldard, Kristin Davis, Stana Katic, Kirsten Dunst, Lucy Liu, Thandie Newton, and Kat Dennings, to name just a few. And, some of the guest stars were already well-known, such as Rosemary Clooney, and Michael Ironside, Ron Rifkin, and Alan Alda.

There are a few different versions of the complete series set, but they all seem to just repackage the individual season releases. So, you get all of the bonus material that was originally released with the individual season sets. The bonus features varied from season to season, tailing off toward the end of the series as TV series on physical media were just starting to get cut back in favor of just streaming them. But, there were commentary tracks on some episodes, cast interviews, blooper reels, and the like, over the years. The series has not been released on Blu-Ray, and it would be a surprise if it ever gets one. Some older shows are getting Blu-Ray releases so it is not totally outside the realm of possibility that ER will get one someday, but it is unlikely. It is on multiple streaming services including Hulu and Peacock, so really, the decision of whether to shell out for this will depend on if you want to watch the DVD extras. It is definitely one of the best medical dramas that have ever been made and still holds up nearly thirty years after it originally aired and thirteen years after it ended

Workout Update: P90X Day 49

Day 49 was yoga-x. Again, because I did x-stretch the day before, I did just the first 55 minutes of this, up to the point where they end the moving asanas and the balance poses. Thankfully, I am getting to the point where the first portion of the workout does not seem as long, nor is it as hard to get through. So, I am improving. This upcoming week is the second recovery week, so I will have to do yoga two times this week. 

TV Series Review: Ringer

 

Ringer was the post-Buffy return to a starring role in a TV series for Sarah Michelle Gellar. It was a very uneven series that started out strong, got very silly in the middle, and ended strong, but bittersweet because it was canceled before it could really have any big payoff. Gellar plays twin sisters, one named Bridget who is a drug addict and stripper in Wyoming. The other is named Siobhan, a wealthy New York socialite married to a wall street investor named Andrew Martin (played by Ioan Gruffudd). Bridget, who is on the run from a mobster who she is supposed to testify against and believing her sister committed suicide, decides to take over her life. 

The show starts off very strong but gets very silly as the writers seemed to be going for a "Sixth Sense" like "twist" ending in every episode. Some of the twists were okay, but some were just dumb and after a while probably got to be too much for a lot of viewers, and the ratings pretty much tanked. The series was canceled after the first season, but likely sometime after the season finale was finished because it clearly was set up for a second season that never materialized. As a result, fans of the show were left with a very incomplete, and disappointing ending.

The show had a strong cast that included Mike Colter, pre-Luke Cage when he was still relatively unknown, Kristopher Polaha, who played Henry Butler, a friend of the Martin family, Nestor Campbell as FBI agent Victor Machado who was trying to take down the mobster Bodaway Macawi (played by Zahn McClarnon), and Zoey Deutch (who is the spitting image of her mother Lea Thompson). There were also very recognizable recurring cast members including Jonathan Banks, Sean Patrick Thomas, Madchen Amik, and Jamie Murray.

Like I said, the show started out very strong and does get pretty silly about halfway through the season. It takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to get through it, even moreso when the twists start getting totally ridiculous. Even people who really like the show will probably do some eye-rolling at some of it. Just know, that if you do watch it, it ends pretty abruptly with a shift in the storyline that never gets a chance to play out. It is not available on DVD. It has streamed on Amazon Prime and I think the Vudu streaming service, but as of now, it appears to be only available on the CW app (although they remove it from the app from time to time, so if you want to watch it make sure you do so when you see it available, otherwise it may be months before you get a chance to again).