HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG!!!!111!!!!!

Yesterday, for some reason, I was perusing the Ashitaka's Angels archives and stumbled upon the blog's first post. Turns out it was posted on this exact date 4 years ago:

Crazy how time flies. Even crazier is that this blog's name is based on a Princess Mononoke reference. (Or is it just awesomer?)

Anyways, in honor of the blog's 4th birthday, here is a picture of the Ashitaka's Angels official mascot, Domo, domo-ing at a TV:

Classic.

And here's Domo wishing us a happy birthday!

Does anyone know if Domo can actually speak?

Here's to more blogging, TV watching, and general (and entertaining) flailing courtesy of your Ashitaka's Angels!

YAY, TELEVISION :)

Ashitaka's Angels Doctor Who Live Broadcasts!

Friends, Whovians, general TV-lovers, lend us your ears!
The Ashitaka's Angels are shaking things up for September and the new fall season of television. As you can see above, one new thing we're trying out is live podcasting our reactions for Season 7 of Doctor Who.

After the premiere last Saturday, the Ashitaka's Angels and a couple friends of the blog got together (thanks, Mixlr.com and The Internet!) to have a roundtable that was chockfull of timey-wimeyness, laughter, insights, loud noises, and expectations for the new season. We had such a good time that we're hoping to do it again. And who knows? Maybe we'll get a few more Whovians to join us. More details to come on that front soon.

There are 3 ways to listen to the podcasts:
1. If you don't like waiting, and you want your Doctor Who commentary quicker than the time it takes a Weeping Angel to attack a blinking person, you can listen live on the Ashitaka's Angels Mixlr player located on the blog. We'll tweet on @ashitakasangels when we're about to broadcast.

2. If you kind of like waiting, you can listen to a saved recording of the broadcast on our Mixlr page: http://mixlr.com/ashitakasangels. These will post on the night of. This is the LINK

3. If you enjoy waiting a whole lot, we'll also post the recordings on this here blog via sound cloud usually a day or two after we've broadcasted live.

We'll be on-air next Saturday to talk about "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," or as I like to call it, "Motherf***in' Dinosaurs on a Motherf***in' Spaceship."

Until then,

zozizzle

DOCTOR WHO New Season 7 Trailer!!! I AM EXCITE.

Some stray thoughts:

• RIVER SONG!!!
• Re: The Dalek Tribunal: If they all say, "EXTERMINATE!" simultaneously, I may have to punch someone in the face. Their voices are sooo annoying.
• I.LOVE.THE.PONDS. 
• Rory(yyy!): "Who killed all the Daleks?" The Doctor: "Who do you think?" #DoctorDropstheMic

No official air date for the season premiere has been set , but it's been speculated that it'll take place near the end of August. This of course begs the question: What are you excited to see in the new season of Doctor Who?

Breaking Bad Season 4; Haiku Impressions

Hi, there! It's been a while. Contrary to appearances (and to echo those immortal words from one of my favorite parts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail) "[We] are not dead yet." Though our online commentary has slowed, our television-watching never will. And, oh, the television we have watched this summer! Game of Thrones, Mad Men, reruns of Game of Thrones and Mad Men, and more recently for me, Breaking Bad.

Thanks to methods I will not mention, I've recently been catching up on Season 4 of my favorite hour of children's programming, Breaking Bad, a show where the majority of episodes are brought to you by the letters A and B. "A" as in "anti-hero," "all the sads," and,  of course, "Aaron Paul's Emmy reel." "B" as in "blue meth," "blowing up shiz," and, of course, "Bryan Cranston's Emmy reel."

Originally, the plan was to post haikus after every season 4 episode I watched, but that didn't quite pan out, seeing as most episodes left me shocked, fascinated, mouth agape, flailing, and generally unable to form coherent thought for 17 syllables.  So, instead of 13 haikus, there are about...4?

This first one is called:

My Stream of Thought During Pretty Much Every episode:

[Walt,] How could you do that?!

Oh, no, that guy's gonna die.

[Walt,] How could you do that?!

Next is a tribute to ABQ's most feared fried chicken purveyor/meth distributor, the not-so-dearly departed Gustavo Fring:

Gus Fring: Chilean BAMF (Inspired by Ep. 10, "Salud") 

South of the border,

The Chicken Man gets pay back 

--sangre por sangre

Here's another one, also inspired by "Salud." Though most of the episode is about Gus showing Don Eladio who's really in control of the cartel, Walt finds out from his son how his own need to be in control has hurt his family instead of helping it. 'Twas an excellent interaction for both characters.

The haiku is simply called:

From the Mouths of Babes a.k.a. He Does More than Eat Breakfast

Junior finally 

gets out of the kitchen and

serves up some hard truth

And lastly, I leave you with my attempt at a season-wide haiku recap:

Bloodshed, Suspicion,

Innocence Lost: the side effects

of Breaking Bad

Hope you enjoyed these. If you have any Breaking Bad haikus nestled in your mind grapes, feel free to share them here :)

Breaking Bad Season 5 premieres tonight at 10/9c on AMC!!!

Leap Day

Happy Leap Day Everyone!!

With this extra magical day I've decided to finally say goodbye to Chuck (tear). I think its time plus I'll be able to pick up Psych starting tomorrow (girl without cable here). Yup today the mid-season of Psych with Gus and Shawn is back, its exciting.

But more exciting is a $5 Footlong from Subway and letting go of the best TV Boyfriend a girl could want.

Chuck vs. The Bullet Train

As promised the "Hail Mary" of blogging and Chuck Marathon ends in time for the series finale tonight. It's truly sad and depressing to think about, but the Saga ends here. So heres what you need to know before you tune in tonight.

Quinn has kidnapped Chuck, the two are on a bullet train in Tokyo miles away from Sarah and Casey. He plans to force Chuck to rebuild him a clean and working version of the Intersect, but unknown to Quinn, Sarah and Casey did not die but instead Sarah has the intersect and when she and Casey save Chuck and have Quinn captured he has to recalculate his plans. This leads to him using Alex as leverage against Casey.

Back in the States Ellie and Awesome are working to figure out how the Intersect melted Morgan's brain and erased his memories in hopes of preventing the same thing from happening to Sarah. But Morgan and Awesome get called away when they re informed of Aex's situation. But with all their attempts to be stealthy to two also get captured before they can save her. Luckily Jeff and Lester have been snopping in the parking lot where the drama is taking place and somehow with their over the top and offbeat talents turn out to be the heroes in exchange for the truth about the underbelly of the Buymore.



What Ellie learns from her experiment is that the more a person flashes the faster the memories fade. So in an attempt to prevent that from happening to Sarah they blind fold her because she cannot control her flasing and start working on a suppresion device. Unfortunately the formerly neutralized Quinn returns and draws both Chuck and Casey away from Sarah. When he seems to be losing the small space combat he takes off.

When he heads in her direction she takes it upon herself to stop him. As mentioned Quinn doesn't give up easily. So he uses he's transform he's retreat plan into an opportunity to take the Intersect with him and make her work for him. First he continues to fade and erase her memories with triggers from the Intersect; Which he has studied intensely.

The episode ends with Sarah waking up in her hotel room from five years ago without a clue of her life with Chuck. I really enjoy the homage to the old days and it almost feels like we're going to begin--like we get a chance to see what would have happen to her with the Intersect. Of course Quinn uses this opportunity to pose as her handler and inform her that Chuck is to blame for the injuries and loss memories from the last mission. Tonight's episode will be full of confrontations, danger, violence and of course the power of love versus the games life may play with your memories and true feelings.

Chuck vs Bo

With Jeff and Lester stumbling onto their secret agents for hire lair, Casey and Morgan go to work to make them forget and fill their heads with a faux trip to Vegas. The one thing they don't count on is the 24hour memory erase doesn't get rid of their suscipions about there being more to the Buymore. So this sends them in a loop, constantly ending up between Vegas and Burbank and thoughts of their co-workers being spies for the government.

Due to the recent pregnancy scare Sarah comes up with a new plan for the company in which they track down cyber threats to the country, hoping for a lot less kidnapping, torture and face down guns. Once Chuck and her get the rest of the crew on board all seems to be well.

But a haunted iPhone from Morgan's douche days shows up with a cryptic video related to the Intersect. This gives Carmichael Industries their last secret agents for hire mission.

For the mission to work douche Morgan with the frosted tips and they get led to Vail, Colorado where they run into Bo Derek. It turns out that Morgan had relations with Bo but she was interested in him because he was bragging about being the Intersect four months earlier. Surprisingly it turns out that beyond being the boy hood crush of Chuck and Morgan, Bo Derek is a spy. She also works for an ex CIA agent who was suppose to have the Intersect in the first place. A man named Nicholas Quinn. Eventually they end up figuring out where Morgan hid the shades and have a gunshoot out at a Bizarro Buymore (i.e. Big Michelle). In the end they finally succeed in getting rid of Lester and Jeff's suscipions and have the Intersect.

Just as they are planning to destroy the glasses and toast to their new company Chuck gets kidnapped by Nicholas Quinn. Of course he wants a trade and tells Sarah to bring the shades to get her husband back. Unfortunately Casey and Sarah end up out manned and all Sarah has left after the bullets are the glasses.

The episode ends with the wickedly awesome Walker using the Intersect to save her and Casey's tail. As awesome as an intersect she makes it upsets me that the Intersect keeps getting passed back and forth. The whole point of Chuck having the Intersect was based on the idea that he had a special brain that was receptive to that amount of information. It was a unique defining characteristic of his....I don't know how's its gonna end. Personally I feel that if Chuck doesn't have it no one should.

Chuck vs. The Kept Man

This episode is mostly about Casey and there's a lot of grunting. First Gertrude returns since the charges of Decker's death have been dropped and she wants to spend some time with her man. But of course Casey is distant in general and uses his job(s) as an excuse. So she hires Carmichael Industries as a security detail on her previously pitched romantic trip to South Beach, now a weapons deal.

Meanwhile Chuck gets caught giving Casey lessons on sensitivity and caring he misses the fact that Sarah thinks she's pregnant. Of course this leads to talks about how dangerous their job is and even if they should continue as potential parents in the future.

When the mission goes south and Verbanski's personal army shows up Casey feels used especially since her affections toward him seem fiscal. Can you imagine Colonel John Casey as a kept man? Super weird, anyways it turns out she does need him for the second part of the mission. When things fell apart it was more of a sting to get to a bigger and badder force in weapons dealing. So when she gets held hostage the crew returns to South Beach and save her and eradicate the ruthless weapon dealer.

With Jeff being clear headed he's picked up on the fact that a lot of suspicious things happen in the Buymore. Him and Lester seek to discover the truth and their secret forth member of the team. Morgan stumbles upon their board of theories and sends them on Awesome's trail because who wouldn't believe he's a spy. Anyways eventually the plan is to tail Awesome with Lester in drag but it ends when they break thru the wall and gets a glimpse of Castle.

Chuck v The Baby

Five years ago Sarah was sent on a mission thru the CIA to recover a package that turns out to be a baby. Simple right? Well turns out the baby girl is the heir to a large fortune and Sarah handler is dirty. I think as viewers it gets easy to forget the lethal assassin that Agent Sarah Walker was. In the opening scene she takes down eleven mercenaries in a lethal and impressive way.

But here's the thing Sarah never turned the "package" over to her handler or the CIA. So the question on her handler's mind and our is where did the baby end up. This weeks mission is birthed out the need for Chuck to be involved. Obviously we've seen Chuck doesn't handle not knowing something about his wife well. Sarah reluctantly accepts the back up of Carmichael Industries but holds onto the details and secret of why she's headed to Budapest in the first place.

After facing her old handler and being capture, she is reassured of the child's safety. Once the crew gets her out of a bind and they return to the States she realizes her loner mistakes and tells Chuck everything because she accepts her trust in him. Unfortunately her handler has bugged her. So in we are taken to her mom's house where she left the baby girl 5 years ago. Luckily her mom and her sister Molly relocate before the house gets an unwanted remodeling and Sarah gets rid of her greedy, cut-throat handler.

During the mission The Awesome's, Morgan and Alex have a game night which turns into Ellie and Awesome working to bring the two back together and the succeed; cause they're the Awesome's.

This episode is great because we finally got to meet Sarah's mother. Yep kiddos in the bleacher she saved the baby's life by giving her the home and normal life she never had and cut her mother out of her life entirely. The part that I liked the most about this story line is that this mission where Sarah tapped into her understanding, protective and selfless side. This mission prepared her to be Chuck's handler--more importantly it prepared her for a future with Chuck.

Chuck vs. The Santa Suit

It's Christmas in Burbank and this year the group's big present is the return of Shaw. If you don't remember Shaw he also happens to have the Intersect and a big old chip on his shoulder he'd like to stab both Sarah and Chuck with.

With the Intersect driving his plan, taking Sarah hostage in Castle is a breeze. He immediately informs Chuck of this news and puts him to work. He wants Chuck to retrieve a device from Decker's office in the CIA. While Chuck uses a Santa suit and General Beckman to get into the building, Casey finds a way into Castle. But while Casey is breaking in Sarah gets herself out of Shaw's trap. As soon as Casey gets in his shot by Shaw and thrown into a cell and Sarah is chained to a chair. Disarmed by the cold atmosphere he has created to protect the computers from harm.

Meanwhile the Nerds and Buymore are struggling to combat the Omen virus and get customers thru the door. On the side Morgan assigns Lester and Jeff to find out what the Omen does once it's taken over a system. With this information Chuck figures out Shaw's plan and devises a way to remove the Intersect from Shaw.

Once Shaw recognizes he has uploaded a human virus he still throws down against Chuck. The two face off in a very compelling fight but ultimately Chuck sends Shaw back to cell while Morgan and Casey save Sarah from hypothermic death. With Shaw in prison and Intersectless Beckman is more than thrilled and offers each one of them a job with the agency.

But before Shaw goes to solitary confinement for the rest of his days he plants a small seed of terror in Sarah's mind with the mention of a baby.

Chuck vs. The Curse

As soon as Casey is returned to Castle by the air duct system, the team is informed that the CIA has warrents to arrest them for the stolen virus and Decker's death. The team forms a plan where Casey heads to meet up with Beckman, Chuck and Sarah take to Orion's old hideout to search for whose behind the hunt for Carmichael Industries.

Meanwhile Morgan heads back to his and Casey's place to find Alex waiting. The two have a sorta date post break up, with Morgan spending the evening trying to secure Chuck's P.A.N.T.S. (Private Artifacts Not To Share). Speaking of dates amidst new parenthood Awesome and Ellie go on their first night out after baby Clara and the pair decided during date night to pretrend they're spies. Of course when you actually know spies and their a chance of mistaken identity this doesn't bode well for the evening. The two end up bargaining chips for the omen against Chuck.

With the Woodcomb's lives in peril, Sarah and Chuck are back to the old days, where Sarah is playing middleman between the love of her life and national security. Previous to this hard decision, Chuck has withdrawn back to his neurotic and slighty unsure self; Concerning himself with a family curse. Of course Chuck is not willing to sacrifice his sister and takes off on his own to face Robin Cunnings.

While Chuck is facing electrocution, Ellie and Awesome attempt to cause a distraction but Awesome himself becomes trapped. In the end Sarah and Casey execute excellent sniper skills to save the day but its seems a little too late because Robin has uploaded the virus.

Once Robin is in their custody they find out that she herself is just a henchman and does not know the face or name behind the hunt for Team Chuck.

Chuck vs. The Hack-off

Lester and Casey both en wad up in the county jail (bahaha), but it gets better with his tech savvy ways Lester ends up being the shot caller and protects Casey in the joint! In addition to this back at Buymoria in an attempt to get Lester to promise to stop poisioning Jeff they hire an Indian HinJew to make him jealous.

With Casey in jail Sarah and Chuck take a job at Decker's behest to track down a virus, know as the omen, which has the ability once uploaded to destroy and shut down our whole computer system. The deal is to get Casey out of jail. With a new and sketchy mission on hand Casey asks Gertrude to join the team and keep an eye on them for him.

Before this we get a glimpse of the Chuck who apparently has an infamous cyber hacking identity and the best part is that he chugs Charnade, which he calls his think juice. We also get to see hacker Chuck in a beanie! Super funny :)

While on the mission Sarah and Chuck stumble onto a nude cult, which the target happens to be a part of show they blend in. In the end Decker gets want he wants the virus and necessary device to upload it. Unfortunately this also means him framing Chuck and renigging on his promise to release to Casey. Just before Sarah and Casey retreat, Gertrude manhandles Decker and swaps the virus for a bomb. They leave the scene with Decker a dead and as possible fugitives. Ultimately Gertrude takes off and disappers but not before helping Morgan to get Casey out of the pen.

Chuck vs. The Business Trip

With Jeff being normal Lester has lost his scheming buddy and friend. In an attempt to bring the goofy brain damaged Jeff back he attempts to poison him with CO. Ultimately this causes panic in the Buymore just at the right time for the spy division below and the beloved phrase "Pineapple!" is brought back.

The plan to save Morgan's life is to remover the Intersect and get the hit called off, which Beckman helps with but it seems in situations like this there is always one assassin who cannot be called back once the order has been sent. In this case it's the Viper, with numerous kills under their hat. While Morgan is in lockdown at Castle, Chuck plays human target with Sarah by his side. Everything goes as planned and they capture the Viper, oh so they think until Morgan is being chased through the store and Chuck is facing a sensitive car bomb threatening to take Sarah's life.

It turns out while they were playing decoy and distracted by friendly normal's they brought home their own decoy. Once the carbomb is disarmed and the Viper apprehended the hit is officially called off by Decker. But unofficially the Viper is ordered to cleanse the Carmichael Industries Team and Alex, save Sarah and Chuck. Due to the late suspicions of Sarah, Casey is sent to follow the Viper and overhears these plans and shoots down the Viper squad. Of course Decker shows up to the Bartowski household to arrest Casey for murder.

Chuck vs. The Frosted Tips

Awesome takes his paternity leave and stays home with baby Clara. He soon finds out that baby time can go by very, very slowly. With him being Captain Awesome he has a hard time adjusting and takes on the project of fixing Jeff. He actually turns Jeff into a functioning, thoughtful, health conscious grown up--super weird!



As I mentioned Casey has a crush on Gertrude from their competiting firm, so when Morgan does the ultimate douchy act and betrays Carmichael Industries and his friends after Beckman gets them a mission that's actually legit, the team has to break into Verbanski Corp. This allows Casey the chance to do some more recon on his love interest and it turns out they uncannily are each others soul mates. The crew walks away with the drive but without their friend. I will say it is truly nice to have the old trio back at their finest. Working hard and standing together.


Just in case you missed it, here's a list of the douche things Morgan did, under the influence of the Interesect:
1. Trades to Verbanski Corp. because of his crazy ego
2. Gets frosted tips
3. Wears overly fancy cologne
4. Drives a motorcar into the Buymore
5. Dumps his girlfriend through text message
6. Hires a interior designer
7. Has his own personal assistant
8. Tells Chuck they are not friends


The episode nearly ends with the showdown between Carmichael Industries and Verbanski Corp. In the end they both split the check for a job well done with an explosion (of course). Chuck also is able to bring his friend back from the douchy dark side transported through a virus that has infected his friend's brain, ego and memories and Casey gets his girl.

But there's more.....thanks to Morgan's blabbing and sharing his Intersect secret there is now a hit on his head!

Chuck v. The Bearded Bandit

With their funds frozen and the future of Carmichael Industries looking bleak the trio goes on a sales pitch that gets upstaged by Verbanski Corp. The best part of the episode is when you know Casey has a crush on the competition. I knew the moment I saw the glances between Gertrude and Casey :)

While the group doesn't walk away with clients clammering at their door they still seem to snag one interested person. It turns out though after Sarah pulls off the best rock climbing stunt that they are working for the bad guy--who sold them on the story that he needed to save his brother whose life was threatened. When in truth he wanted him dead. Guess who was the brother, another hottie I've missed since he left Smallville: Justin Hartley (yum)

In the meantime, in an attempt to drum up some business in the Buymore Big Mike gets Awesome to shoot a commercial. Who just also happened to be an Ambercombie and Fitch model--no surprise there :)

Now that Morgan has the Intersect its a whole new world and the mission world is not the best place for him. Yet Morgan takes to being the Intersect a whole lot faster than Chuck did. In his excitement he charges into the bad guys massive fortress and gets himself and Chuck into a bind. Morgan believes that Chuck and him can be the heroes and save the day. But now that Chuck has been saddled with the responsibility of being his handler, their friendship and role-change has become even more complex. In his fear for his friends safety he calls Sarah and Casey for backup, against Morgan's wishes. In Chuck's attempt to protect his friend his ends up hurting his feelings.

The boldest move anyone can make is call in their competition to help and that's just what Casey and Sarah do to save Chuck and Morgan. While they saved their buddies they may have lost Morgan, their ultimate big mouthed weapon to Verbanski Corp. This episode ends with Morgan meeting with Verbanski and telling her with no qualms that he is in fact the human Intersect.