TV on DVD

If I weren't living in China, I probably never would have ever watched "30 Rock." We have been buying, in addition to movies, DVD box sets of TV shows. We recently watched the first four seasons of "Monk" (the mostly Sharona Years). Now we are watching the first season of "30 Rock." It has to be one of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time, maybe since "Sports Night." It was hard for me to watch it more than once last fall in the US because of its time slot, and DVD sets in the US of TV shows tend to be expensive.

How much do I love Alec Baldwin in this show? Was he born to play a tool or what? I remember when I was in college, and the expression "He's such a Baldwin" meant a young man had freakish good looks. Now that might mean, though, bloated middle-aged man who has made some poor plastic surgery choices.

Another show we watched earlier this year was "Empire Falls," the mini-series based on the Richard Russo novel of the same name. What really impressed me about the miniseries was the wonderful dialogue. Well, that and Ed Harris and Paul Newman. I know Amy is a big fan of Russo (quote: "September 25, my personal Harry Potter Day"), but I hadn't really been exposed to his work before. I noticed that Russo himself was credited with the teleplay for the miniseries, so after watching the show, I was hoping to get a chance to read the book. A few weeks later I saw it on a featured shelf at a Page One in Hong Kong. It was difficult for me to put down each evening. Not in the same way as something like a Tom Clancy-type story, but I found myself getting so absorbed in the book. I don't think there's anything in common among other books that have similarly captured my imagination and held my attention: God of Small Things, Mayor of Casterbridge, Atonement, Tropic of Cancer, to name a few. Just good writing, I guess.