Guilty Pleasure Songs

Here I am, putting a giant target on back, and humiliating myself a little bit

"Who Let the Dog's Out" by Baha Men

"How You Remind Me" by Nickelback 

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65  

"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by The Backstreet Boys

"Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice

"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley 

"U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer 

"Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix a Lot

Some of My Favorite Alan Rickman Characters (and Performances)

Alexander Dane / Dr. Lazarus: "Galaxy Quest"

 

The Sheriff of Nottingham: "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" 

Severus Snape: "Harry Potter" 

Hans Gruber: "Die Hard" 

Sadly, I wasn't able to find any clips of the clips of Hans Gruber I wanted to use, but that does not diminish my opinions on Hans Gruber as a villain and a character.  

Favorite Songs: Space Oddity by David Bowie

Top 50 Favorite TV Shows (40 - 31)

#40: Star Trek: The Next Generation: TNG is one of those shows that I haven't seen a whole lot of, but I do enjoy what I have seen. I've probably seen more of Next Generation than the original Star Trek. The reason I'm saying that is because I believe the characters in both shows are equally iconic. Besides all of this, Picard in Next Generation is probably my favorite of the Enterprise captains. 

#39: Sleepy Hollow: The story Sleepy Hollow is that Ichabod Crane was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, fighting on the side of the colonies. His witch wife cast a spell on him so that he would wake up should the Headless Horseman ever resurface, which he does in modern times. Mix in some biblical references to the apocalypse, and you've got a pretty solid fantasy-horror series that I think is worth checking out. 

     

#38: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: I won't lie. I am a lifelong Star Wars fan, and this 21st century CGI television series has just about anything Star Wars related I could ask for, solid lightsaber battles, a decently strong Padme, and an Anakin Skywalker that was stuck in perpetual whine mode. The Anakin Skywalker in this series actually felt like the character Ben Kenobi described in A New Hope. Jar-Jar's (admittedly limited) involvement in the series is the reason the show is as low as it is. 

  

#37: How I Met Your Mother: Let me start by admitting that this show would easily be a lot higher if it weren't for the fact that the main character was Ted Mosby, mostly because the supporting characters around are either less douchy, more interesting, or both. Ted aside, this show feels like the closest thing we've gotten to a 21st century version of Friends. 

  

#36: Family Guy: The Griffins may easily be one of my favorite dysfunctional TV families. Almost every member of the family offers a unique characteristic. You get the baby hell-bent on killing his mother and ruling the world (Stewie), the idiot teenage son (Chris), the sarcastic alcoholic talking dog (Brian), the daughter with low self-esteem who's the butt of every joke (Meg), and of course, the retarded patriarch of the family (Peter). 
     

#35: Veronica Mars: Another mystery series, Veronica Mars centers on a teenage private investigator trying to solve her best friend's murder. Season three may not be as good as the first two seasons, but the mysteries in seasons one and two are still really damn good. The creators of the show will have episode-long mini-mysteries while the protagonist finds clues and pieces them together to solve the season-long arc mystery. 
   

#34: The Big Bang Theory: To me, The Big Bang Theory appeals so easily because I understand a lot of the nerdy references. This is a group of friends who spend their time playing games in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment, or at the comic book store. Even though, for the most part, they are all highly intelligent, you see their emotional journeys. You don't often see them actually working at their jobs, so much as their conservations in the workplace cafeteria. I honestly love every member of the core cast, because in a lot of ways, I think they're relatable.

#33: Lost: I am a fan of J.J. Abrams, and while Lost certainly had its ups and downs, let's not forget, this show started out with an interesting puzzle that we were begging to have solved. Even when quality started to drop in later seasons, we were still invested enough to see what was going to happen, and whether or not all our questions were going to be answered. 
  

#32: Heroes: Speaking of shows that had their ups and downs in terms of quality, I honestly enjoyed the hell out of Heroes. The characters were pretty unique, for the most part. They almost all felt like they had layers to them, like they were actual people on top of their powers. My personal favorite was Sylar. Sylar is a character who is pretty much drunk on his power. He's a violent psychopath without any sort of remorse for his actions, and is easily the show's most tragic character. 
  

#31: The Walking Dead: I won't lie, I have waned on the show a bit in recent years. I do love most of what I've seen. Does this change my opinions on characters like Shane or Lori? Hell No! As far as I'm concerned, these two are still the most insufferable characters on the show. Thankfully most of the cast who's still alive are pretty solid, and the violence is unnerving.

Labyrinth (1986)

Image Source

It occurs to me that due to the recent loss of a very talented icon, the time has come for me to talk about Labyrinth. From what I can remember, the way I was first introduced to the late, great David Bowie wasn't through his music. It was through this movie. Make no mistake, I did find some of his music later (I personally love the song Space Oddity). To this day, I feel that Labyrinth is still a wonder in practical special effects. The puppet work done by Jim Henson and Jim Henson Studios is just incredible. The designs on the creatures in the fantasy world are bizarre and memorable. The same could easily be said of the look of said fantasy world. The production design is incredible, as is the makeup and the costume design. The one flaw I honestly have with the movie is the main character played by Jennifer Connelly (who I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of as an actress). It's not so much that I think she's a bad character as it is that she's just kind of bland, and, in my opinion, Connelly plays her kind of bland. Connelly and her character seems to just blend into the background for me when I compare her to everything else in the movie absolutely loved, especially David Bowie. I think this movie is a great example of the saying "a movie's only as strong as it's villain." This is a very good movie that I feel is amplified by Bowie's charisma and strong screen presence, making for a fantastic performance as the villainous Goblin King. If you've yet to see this classic, I absolutely believe that it's worth a watch.

9 / 10 

Top 50 Favorite TV Shows (50 - 41)

#50: Homeland: I'll admit that I haven't seen all of Homeland, but what I have seen I love. Basically, the story of the show centers on a CIA agent who suffers from Bipolar disorder and a prisoner of war who may or may not have been turned to the side of Al-Qaeda. 

#49: The Simpsons: The Simpsons isn't as good in recent years (mostly because it really does need to die) as it used to be. But those early episodes are so damn good, and the cultural impact this show has had is so impressive, I don't feel comfortable with not talking about it at all. Make no mistake,.  I do like this show a lot. It absolutely deserves a spot on the list. 

#48: Friends: Without Friends, we might not have shows like The Big Bang Theory and How I met Your Mother, both of which I will talk about eventually. The characters on this show are pop culture icons, and for very good reason. 

#47: Saturday Night Live: I'm one of those people who, when I can, enjoys watching those best-of collection videos for each and every member of the cast. I'll admit, the reason I have this show on my list is because of all the great people whose careers were launched, like Eddie Murphy, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, and Dana Carvey, just to name a few. 

  

#46: Pinky and the Brain: What would an all-time favorite TV shows list be without the two mice hell-bent on world domination? This is a show that offers one of my personal favorite theme songs ever, as well as some really damn funny scenarios that our favorite mice had gotten themselves into.   

#45: Shameless: Shameless is a show that I only started watching recently. I have had a blast watching this family full of despicable people doing despicable things. For example, the responsibility-lacking patriarch of the family has spent nearly a decade committing welfare fraud, and then, there's the younger daughter who somehow manages to steal a baby in an episode. 

  

#44: Castle: One of the recurring genres of TV shows that will pop up is mystery shows and crime genres. Most of my love for this show comes from the character of Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, as well the references littered throughout the show to another certain show, that I will eventually talk about. 

#43: Arrow: Something the CW really seems to do well is shows based off DC comics characters. I think some of their early shows like Birds of Prey and Smallvile might have had their troubles, but as far as I'm concerned, Arrow was when they finally started to perfect the formula. Oh, and one more thing, if it's possible, check out Arrow's just as good spin-off, The Flash. 

  

#42: Hannibal: Much like some of the other shows I've listed off, I haven't seen all of Hannibal. However, I loved what I had seen of the show, and that could easily be coupled with a love for horror and the Hannibal Lecter character. What I'm trying to say is, if any of these things make this show sound appealing, then I highly recommend checking it out. 

  

#41: 24: What 24 does so well is that it nearly always left you on the edge of your seat. Besides that, I honestly think Jack Bauer may just be one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written. The man constantly straddles the fence, with the moment constantly deciding just which side of the fence going to end up on.

Favorite Songs: New Divide by Linkin Park