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NGN’s Best of 2014: Character Arcs and TV Performances

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The women of Once Upon a Time, including Emma Swan, had some of my favorite character arcs on TV this year.

The women of Once Upon a Time, including Emma Swan, had some of my favorite character arcs on TV this year.

With the holiday season upon us, it’s always fun to reflect back on the year that was. Here at Nerdy Girl Notes, that means reflecting on all of the best things to happen in the worlds of television, movies, and books in 2014. In the days leading up to the start of 2015, I plan to share some lists of my favorite things about the media I consumed in the past year.

Because one of the things I enjoy most about running NGN is hearing about why all of you love what you love, I hope these lists can serve as a starting point for discussion about what meant the most to you this year. I’d love to see you share your own lists in the comments, and I hope you’re checking out plenty of other “Best of 2014” lists, too, including the ones made by everyone’s favorite beautiful tropical fish, Heather!

Today’s “Best of…” list is all about character arcs. This was a fantastic year for rich, complex character development on television, which means it was also a year filled with outstanding performances, as talented actors brought these character arcs to life. From first ladies and lawyers to evil queens and clones, here are my 10 favorite character arcs of 2014.

1. Emma Swan on Once Upon a Time (Jennifer Morrison)
If Once Upon a Time’s motto is “Love is strength,” then Emma Swan’s character arc this year was all about becoming her strongest self by opening up to love. In 2014, Emma found a home, made a friend, confronted her forgotten past, fell in love, and made the choice to love her true self even when that choice seemed anything but easy. Emma’s journey this year was a journey of vulnerability, and Morrison made me feel every painful and beautiful step of that journey. But it was also a journey of joy, of coming to choose hope and happiness after a lifetime of pushing those things away out of fear of them being taken from her. And, for as much as Morrison showed Emma’s growth so well in moments of tearful vulnerability, she showed it even more in moments of quiet joy and intimacy. It’s not easy to make a smile feel as important to an audience as an emotional breakdown, but Morrison managed that feat, making Emma’s choices to believe in love, in the people around her, and in herself resonate with me. They felt as heroic as fighting any wicked witch or evil spell.

2. Regina Mills on Once Upon a Time (Lana Parrilla)
This was a fantastic year for the women of Once Upon a Time in terms of character development. Regina started 2014 ripping her own heart out to save herself from having to feel pain, and she ended the year choosing to cause herself pain in order to spare someone else loneliness and loss. Regina’s journey towards becoming a better, more selfless person was a true joy to watch this year. Whether it was shown through making peace with Snow White, giving her heart to Robin Hood (in every way she could), or choosing to let him go in order to do the right thing, Regina proved that she’s become so much more than the Evil Queen. And Parrilla has found the perfect balance of sass and sincerity to completely captivate me as a viewer every time she’s onscreen. I want a happy ending for Regina so badly even though I used to actively root against her, and if that’s not the sign of a well-written and well-acted character arc, then I don’t know what is.

3. Louis Litt on Suits (Rick Hoffman)
In the barren landscape of summer television, Suits is an oasis of great characters played by incredible actors. And this summer, it was Louis (and Hoffman) who stood in the spotlight. Louis’s character arc in 2014 was all about emotion and the pitfalls of letting that drive you in a world as cold as the one he inhabits. Louis lost so much this year—his fiancée, his job—but he seemed to gain a real friend in Donna and more respect than ever from Harvey. But ultimately, Louis’s character arc led up to a final, climatic moment of emotion where he discovered Mike’s secret and used it to demand the one thing he’s always wanted: to become a name partner. Thanks to the brilliant work Hoffman turned in this year, I cried for Louis, I celebrated with him, and I ultimately shared his anger and sense of betrayal, too. But the fact that I genuinely feared him in his final confrontation with Jessica is the real mark of Hoffman’s skill and the genius of the way Louis is written. He could have been a one-note office antagonist or bumbling idiot, but he’s now one of the most complex characters on television.

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Fangirl Thursday: The Best of Castle and Beckett

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always

Can you hear the wedding bells starting to chime, fellow Castle fans?

On Monday night, after waiting what’s felt like forever, Castle and Beckett are finally tying the knot, so this seemed like as good a reason as any to reflect back on my favorite moments in their relationship over the last seven seasons. (I did the same for Leslie and Ben right before their perfect Parks and Recreation wedding a couple of years ago.)

Castle and Beckett’s love story is a story of two adults who have learned that nothing worth having comes easily. Happy endings aren’t given away; they’re things we have to fight for, things we have to choose even when we fear we’re not deserving of happiness because we’re too broken, too scared, or too used to being alone. Watching these two characters choose happiness with each other and choose to fight for that happiness whenever it’s been threatened has been nothing short of inspiring. We’ve already seen them choose to be with each other for better or worse; they’ve been promising each other “Always” since Season Three. This wedding is just icing on a lovely cake we’ve watched come together over the years.

Castle has always been, at its heart, a love story. And what an extraordinary love story it is. Without further ado, here are my 10 favorite moments in the relationship between Castle and Beckett (so far). Join the fun and share your favorites with us in the comments!

1. “I’ve gotten used to you pulling my pigtails…” (2.13: Sucker Punch)
This was the moment I went from liking Castle to loving it with the passion I still have today. This was the moment it became my favorite show on television. And it was all because this was the moment I went from enjoying the dynamic between Castle and Beckett to being moved to tears by that dynamic. I could write entire posts about this scene (In fact, I have.), but I’ll keep it short this time around. Castle showing up with every kind of food known to man just to make Beckett feel better is still one of the most realistically romantic gestures I’ve ever seen on television. It took my breath away then, and it continues to do so even now. And for all of the grand speeches and revelations these two have shared, I still think Beckett telling Castle that she’s gotten used to him pulling her pigtails is one of the most important. It was the first time she told him what he meant to her, and I will never forget how blindsided I was by the simple beauty of that moment.

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Fangirl Thursday: Making an Impact

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parks prom

We’ve all seen those lists popping up on our Facebook feeds—“15 Movies that Changed My Life,” “10 Books that Stayed with Me,” “10 Albums that Have Defined My Life,” etc. We’ve probably even made one or more of those lists ourselves. (I’ve done both the book and movies ones.) But I haven’t seen any of these “challenges” devoted to television.

That’s about to change.

I am the woman I am in no small part due to the movies I’ve watched and the books I’ve read in my 26 years. However, I’m also the woman I am because of the TV shows I’ve watched and the television characters I’ve loved. More than any other form of media, television has given me characters and stories to grow up with, to be inspired by, and to learn from over the course of many years.

Therefore, today I’m making a list of the 10 TV shows that have had the deepest impact on me. And I’m challenging all of my fellow nerds to make their own lists and post them in the comments!

1. Sesame Street: My love for television as a medium and my respect for it as a positive force in people’s lives can be traced back to mornings spent watching Sesame Street with my mom. It was the first TV show I was ever exposed to, and I want it to be the first TV show I expose my own children to someday. I love Sesame Street not only for the things it taught me (Spanish, letters and numbers, the continents…) but also for how happy it made me as kid and still makes me as an adult every time I see Grover or Big Bird or Cookie Monster spreading joy to a new generation of kids.

2. Boy Meets World: This was the first show to teach me that a piece of media can mean different things to you at different times in your life. I grew up with these characters not only when the show first aired but also through reruns that seemed to air just when I needed them in high school, in college, and even now. Boy Meets World’s series finale is one I treasure as an adult far more than I did as a preteen watching it for the first time, and it gave me some of the most profound advice any TV show could ever hope to give: “Dream. Try. Do good.”

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Fangirl Thursday: Playlists Full of Feelings

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I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of playlists on my iPod: “Workout Mix,” “Road Trip 2013,” “Yoga Time,” “Alias Songs,” “Extraordinary,” “Perhaps I Would,” “I Will Always Find You”…

Why yes, I do have multiple playlists devoted to songs that remind of my favorite fictional characters and couples. Doesn’t everyone?

Music makes us feel, so it’s always made sense to me that the right song would make me think about the characters and relationships that make me feel, too. It’s what we do as fans; we take the things we’re passionate about and make deeper connections with them than the ones we’re given during the small amount of time we spend in the movie theater, reading, or watching TV.

It all began—as so many things in my life as a fangirl did—with Alias. Season Three of Alias was a time of immense angst, so naturally, ever sad song reminded me of the time Vaughn spent thinking Sydney was dead or the time Sydney spent watching Vaughn be married to someone else. From the entire More Than You Think You Are Matchbox 20 album to Coldplay’s “The Scientist” and Garth Brooks’s “The Dance,” I spent my entire sophomore year of high school listening to angst-ridden songs—not because I was an angry teenager but because I was a fangirl.

More than 10 years later, I’m still the kind of fangirl who hears a song and immediately finds a character it relates to. And when I do, I add it to the playlist. Some of my playlists (like “Extraordinary,” aka my Castle/Beckett mix) also have songs used on the TV shows or in the movies themselves, but I love discovering new songs that unexpectedly give me all the feelings.

Today I want to share my top five songs from my three most-played fangirl playlists, ones devoted to Castle and Beckett (from Castle), as well as Snow and Charming and Emma and Hook (both from Once Upon a Time).

Extraordinary: My Castle/Beckett Playlist
1. “Shake It Out” (Florence and the Machine)
And I am done with my graceless heart, so tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart…
This song will always be Kate Beckett’s anthem to me. I discovered it right around the time “Kill Shot” aired back in Season Four, and its empowering theme of moving beyond the demons we carry with us seemed to be a perfect emotional companion for everything Beckett was going through in that episode.

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My Advice for Emmy Voters

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This year’s Emmy nominations are disappointing as a whole (despite some bright spots), and that statement has become as predictable as the nominations themselves. Every year, it seems the Emmy nominations are plagued by the same complaints: predictability and a very narrow view of what’s become a very broad medium.

In order to cope with my overwhelming frustration over this year’s nominees, I wanted to offer a little advice for Emmy voters. Follow these helpful tips, and maybe next year’s nominations will be met with something other than bored shoulder shrugs and frustrated sighs.

1. Stop nominating the same shows year after year when they’re not showing any growth.
Few things annoy me more when it comes to the Emmys than strong seasons of “dark horse” shows getting overlooked in favor of mediocre seasons of perennial “favorites.” Don’t get me wrong; I think Modern Family is still a very funny show, but maybe it’s time to open your eyes, dear Emmy voters, to see that there’s a whole world of network comedy beyond that show and The Big Bang Theory. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had one of the strongest freshman seasons I can remember. The Mindy Project created a season of television that was a better romantic comedy than any shown in movie theaters this decade. And Parks and Recreation continued to prove its underappreciated brilliance with a season full of brave storytelling that culminated in a truly genius finale. You have only one season left to honor Parks and Rec; don’t screw this up next year.

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The Magic of Music: My Favorite Disney Songs

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Is "The Circle of Life" one of your favorite Disney songs?

Is “Circle of Life” one of your favorite Disney songs?

Music has a way of moving us like little else on Earth. The right song—heck, the right note of the right song—can instantly bring tears to our eyes and goose bumps to our skin. Music has a magic that’s all its own.

Combining the magic of music with the magic of Disney only seems to amplify that ability to move people. The greatest Disney movies are made great by their soundtracks, and great Disney songs live on in pop culture forever. Hearing a specific song from a Disney film can transport you back to the movie theater where you had your first movie-going experience, or it can remind you of a time when you first watched a child fall in love with the magic of Disney. Disney music calls to mind Disney memories, and those are magical experiences for all of us.

While I’m enjoying my own magical experience in Disney World, I wanted to start a conversation here about your favorite classic and contemporary Disney tunes. Here are my 10 favorite songs from Disney films, and I hope you share yours in the comments!

1. Circle of Life (The Lion King)
The best Disney songs resonate on a level deeper than just their relevance to the film they’re in, and that’s certainly true of this song. Its poignant lyrics are matched by a sweeping score, which builds to a soaring crescendo that is guaranteed to give you the best kind of chills. There has never been a better song for introducing the spirit of a Disney film. The stirringly unique beginning of this song, coupled with the image of that rising red sun, created a truly iconic Disney moment.

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Life Lessons from Sochi

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davis white

I love the Olympics. I’ve loved them since I was an 8-year-old girl fawning over the Magnificent Seven in Atlanta. And while the Summer Olympics still captivate me every four years, I obsess over few things like I obsess over the Winter Olympics. I can remember the exact moment I lost my heart to the Winter Games: It was 2002, and I was watching Jamie Salé and David Pelletier skate their “Love Story” pairs free skate. They made 13-year-old me cry, and, as most of you know, if you can make me cry, I will feel an emotional attachment to you forever. Figure skating (every kind of it) makes me cry. Hockey makes me cry. A particularly great bobsled run makes me cry. Maybe I’m just more emotional during the winter months, but few things on Earth get the waterworks going for me like the Winter Olympics.

The Olympics are special because they showcase what sports can be—unifying, compelling, surprising, and about so much more than who puts the puck in the net or lands their triple Axel. The Olympics are about people—real people with real stories, real sacrifices, and real lessons to teach all of us watching about the ways to handle both incredible success and unfathomable failure.

Today I want to take a moment to look back on the 2014 Winter Games in a way that celebrates what I’ve always believed about the Olympics: They’re about the stories. We may not always remember who won gold, but we remember who made us feel and who taught us something more than just the rules of curling or the correct way to execute an ice dance twizzle.

Without future ado, here are seven valuable life lessons put into practice by the athletes of these Winter Games.

1. There’s no place like home.

Medal Ceremony - Winter Olympics Day 6

Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar were two of Russia’s biggest stars at these Olympics.

As an American girl whose favorite sports movie is Miracle, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I wanted our U.S. teams to beat their Russian counterparts whenever we had the chance. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t moved to tears more than once by a Russian winning a gold medal in Sochi. There’s an undeniable bond between a person and the place they call home. That bond was on display when pairs skaters Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar reacted with an overflowing of emotions in the face of the crowd’s jubilant response to their gold-medal-winning performance. And it was there when Adelina Sotnikova became the first Russian to win gold in women’s figure skating, finding strength and overwhelming joy in the cheers of her fellow Russians. Those moments reminded me that we all carry the places we’ve called home with us, even if most of us will never play for our country in the Olympics.

2. A little kindness goes a long way.

This may be the most popular photograph to come out of these Olympics.

This may be the most popular photograph to come out of these Olympics.

Years from now, will I remember Gus Kenworthy for his silver-medal performance in men’s slopestyle skiing? Maybe not. But I will remember Kenworthy as the skier who saw the plight of stray dogs in Sochi and did something to help those animals. By taking home a group of stray puppies (and their mother) and finding good homes for them back in the U.S., Kenworthy became a star of the Sochi Games for far more than just his performance on the slopestyle course. Kenworthy’s act of kindness made him a household name, proving that sometimes success is measured more by the things you do to help the people (and animals) around you than by professional achievements.

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TV Time: New Girl 3.13

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Title Birthday

Two-Sentence Summary Jess’s high expectations for her birthday lead Nick to plan the ultimate surprise evening for her, but first he has to get through the morning and afternoon without any birthday plans. Coach and Winston work through their competitiveness in their efforts to make the birthday surprise run smoothly, and Schmidt helps Cece with her bartending skills.

Favorite Line “A lot people never graduated high school: Einstein, Bill Gates, Anne Frank…I’m going to take back that last one.” (Schmidt)

My Thoughts Earlier this year, I tweaked my New Girl reviewing format because my dislike of “The Box” called for more space than my usual style allowed. This week, I’m tweaking the format again, but for the opposite reason—“Birthday” was so good that it can’t be confined by my more limited New Girl review setup.

Instead, here are 10 reasons why “Birthday” was the best episode of New Girl’s third season (so far).

1.) It balanced the characters’ more broadly comedic aspects with grounded emotions.
The worst episodes of New Girl reduce its characters to caricatures. Yes, their more over-the-top traits are parts of their personalities, but they’re much more than those things, too. What “Birthday” did so well was it gave us just enough of each character’s quirks to make us laugh while also reminding us that, at their best, these characters should be written to feel relatable. So while Jess’s sobbing over Nick not making plans for her birthday may have been a tad bit ridiculous, it was a comedic look at people (myself included) who still care a lot about their birthdays even as adults. There’s a difference between over-the-top and out-of-character, and this episode did an excellent job of remembering that.

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NGN’s Best of 2013 (and 2014 Preview): Movies

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American Hustle was one of 2013's most critically-acclaimed films.

American Hustle was one of 2013’s most critically-acclaimed films.

I hope all of you had a lovely end to 2013 and a fresh, fun, and hopeful start to 2014. May all your resolutions be beneficial and all your days full of learning, laughter, and love.

After ending 2013 with a look at the year that was in television, I’d like to kick off 2014 with a look at the world of film. It’s time to reflect on the performances and movies that made 2013 such a memorable year, and it’s also time to look ahead at what movies we have to look forward to in the coming year.

Top Five Female Performances of 2013:

1. Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld (American Hustle) and Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
Lawrence’s turns as American Hustle’s charismatic but unstable housewife and Catching Fire’s stoic but tortured heroine were both outstanding on their own, but what was truly impressive was looking at them side-by-side as a testament to her incredible range. For someone so young to have built such an impressive body of work is no small feat, but in 2013, Lawrence proved herself able to rise to every challenge put in front of her as an actress—and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another Oscar at the end of this year’s journey.

2. Sandra Bullock as Ryan Stone (Gravity)
Gravity was literally Bullock’s film—she was onscreen for nearly all of its 90 minutes, and, for much of it, she was onscreen alone. Bullock’s ability to convey the terror of her situation was excellent, but the most captivating thing about her performance was the way she was able to convey both the physical isolation of space and the emotional isolation of grief with such relatable humanity.

3. Amy Adams as Sydney Prosser (American Hustle)
For American Hustle to succeed as brilliantly as it did, Sydney needed to be the kind of woman everyone would fall in love with, and in Adams’s capable hands, she became that and so much more. Adams balanced Sydney’s sensuality, intelligence, ambition, and fierce vulnerability with grace and—even more importantly—with power you couldn’t help but be attracted to.

4. Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers (Saving Mr. Banks)
The way Thompson managed to show the broken little girl underneath P.L. Travers’s icy exterior was nothing short of magnificent. Her harsh sarcasm gave a film that could have been saccharine a nice edge, but it was her emotional journey that gave the film its most winning asset—its beating, beautiful heart. I still find myself tearing up thinking of the emotional range she showed during the scene in which Travers watches Marry Poppins onscreen for the first time, which was possibly the best acting without dialogue I saw all year.

5. Amy Acker as Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)
It takes an impressive actor to make me truly care about a Shakespearean character. So the depth with which I came to care about Beatrice proves what an impressive actor Acker truly is. The lines rolled off her tongue like she was born speaking Shakespeare, but it was the genuine humor and gravitas she brought to the role that made this character come to life for me as if she was as real as one of my friends.

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NGN’s Best of 2013: TV Episodes and Shows

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2013 was the year The Good Wife reminded us how good network dramas could be.

2013 was the year The Good Wife reminded us how good network dramas could be.

It’s time for the conclusion to my look at the best of the television world in 2013. There were plenty of memorable episodes that aired this year that people will be talking about for a long time—episodes that made us laugh, sob, and stay up way too late thinking about them. And whether you’re a one-episode-a-week viewer or a binge-watcher, there’s no denying that 2013 was a year where many great shows hit new heights of excellence.

Top Five Dramatic Episodes:

1. “Hitting the Fan” (The Good Wife)
It’s not often that a show manages to reinvent itself in its fifth season, but that’s exactly what The Good Wife did with this incredible episode. Tensions that had been building for five seasons found release in explosive scenes (Will and Alicia’s confrontation) as well as more controlled moments (Peter and Will’s phone call). Each member of this great cast brought their A-game to this episode, and their excellent performances were heightened by the expert pacing of this episode. “Hitting the Fan” was a bold move and a brave one, and it paid off tremendously for all involved, especially the audience.

2. “The Rains of Castamere” (Game of Thrones)
This episode will always be known by its more colorful moniker, the Red Wedding. The entire hour was a masterpiece of tension and foreboding, keeping audiences on the edges of their seats until the bloodbath began (which was when they moved from the edges of their seats to hiding behind their fingers). The brutal carnage still managed to surprise even those of us who read the books, but my lasting impression of this scene was not one of surprise; it was one of despair. Michelle Fairley made me physically feel Catelyn’s grief and desperation with a ferocity I’ve never experienced as a TV viewer before. This episode was raw and ruthless in its assault on my senses and emotions, and that’s exactly what it was supposed to be.

3. “Ariel” (Once Upon a Time)
“Ariel” represents what Once Upon a Time is at its best. It featured a faithful spin on a beloved fairytale (in this case, The Little Mermaid) with some fun twists (aka Lana Parrilla getting to channel Ursula); some delicious banter between Parrilla and Robert Carlyle; and some very human drama in the middle of a world of fairytales. Colin O’Donoghue, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, and Jennifer Morrison were at their very best as their characters shared their darkest secrets with one another in the Echo Cave. Each secret’s emotional impact was earned—from the beautiful (Hook’s admission that Emma gave him the hope that he could move on from his past) to the bittersweet (Snow wanting a new baby because her relationship with Emma isn’t what she wanted) to the painful (Emma telling Neal that she wished he was dead so she could finally move on). “Ariel” was a shining example of the emotional power of a television show that’s never been afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve.

4. “The Quarterback” (Glee)
This episode was a respectful, beautiful, and honest way to tell a story no cast should ever have to tell: the death of a friend who left this world far too soon. The emotions ran raw and real—almost intrusively so at times—but “The Quarterback” allowed Glee fans and the cast to mourn together. From the brutally sad moment when Finn’s mother broke down while cleaning out his room to Lea Michele’s devastating rendition of “Make You Feel My Love,” this episode allowed the people who knew Cory Monteith best to share their grief with the fans who loved him, too.

5. “Variations Under Domestication” (Orphan Black)
Great television is all about pacing—finding a balance between tension and release, drama and comedy, emotion and action. “Variations Under Domestication” struck a genius balance between all of those facets as well as between all of the increasingly complicated roles Tatiana Maslany was asked to play. Between all of the twists and turns in this episode (and there were plenty of great ones), I found myself invested in the emotional lives of Cosima and Alison more than ever before. I would have paid to watch a film-length version of this episode in a movie theater—that’s how entertaining it was.

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