More Casting Announcements for Fox’s remake of Broadchurch

Most people that know me will not be surprised in the slightest that I am a huge fan of Broadchurch, which aired early this fall on BBCAmerica. I love a good mystery, and especially one that can keep me on my toes! While there were some things I “saw coming” in the show, in general, I enjoyed being along for the twists and turns and debating with The Boyfriend which characters were good and which weren’t.

David Tennant in Broadchurch (Photo credit: jwatari, via Flickr)

I am not excited that Fox will remake Broadchurch in the US, starring David Tennant in the same role, that of disgraced and strung out DI Alec Hardy. He was phenomenal in the original, and his presence alone might make me tune into Gracepoint (the new title of the US remake) even though I don’t think we need an American version of an already wonderful, popular show. I’m not even sure that I’m excited that there will be a second series to the original. I honestly wonder what more there is to be said about the small, seaside resort town left grieving and confused after Danny Latimer’s death.

Today, TV Guide announced two more casting choices for Gracepoint: Anna Gunn as Detective Ellie Miller and Jacki Weaver as Susan Wright.

I have a few thoughts on these announcements. First, I wonder why the producers/writers aren’t changing character names. If it’s truly an “adaptation” and not a straight-up remake (which the change in location name and title seem to suggest), there’s no sense in keeping the original character names. If anything, it’s going to make viewing the new version a lot less interesting for people who have already seen Broadchurch.

Which brings me to my second point. . .there will be literally no mystery for the many people who tuned into the original when it aired on BBCAmerican unless they make some changes to the plot, which I really don’t want them to do. One thing that I loved about watching Broadchurch was that I constantly had to challenge my assumptions and beliefs about who could commit such a murder, why, and how. There were many stereotypes that the series resisted buying into and engaging. It will be hard to keep fans of the series involved in Gracepoint if they are simply porting over all of the characters and plot and changing only the location. However, I think there is a serious risk to enact or engage the stereotypes and assumptions that Broadchurch seemed to challenge if the producers and writers do attempt to make the plot more original.

Finally, it’s hard to get hyped up about a remake of something I love when I feel completely neutral about the recently-announced casting choices of two characters who have such strong and important roles. I’ve seen both Gunn and Weaver, and while I don’t dislike either of them, I can’t say that I feel very strongly about them either way. Perhaps this will be the show in which they impress me, but it will be hard to not compare them to Olivia Coleman, whom I have adored since I saw her in Peep Show and who handled some very challenging moments incredibly well in Broadchurch, and Pauline Quirke, whose positively charming IMDB photo makes her seem nothing like her Broadchurch character, who I both despised and loved at various points in the series.

On my drive home today, I also realized I’m just not satisfied with the new name they have selected (Gracepoint). Wouldn’t it make much more sense if we just called it New Broadchurch?

Any other fans out there? What are your thoughts on the upcoming “adaptation” set in the US?

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November 13!

 

This will be a short post, in which I share my excitement.

After having a rough week of even getting started and doing any writing (see all the ugly, non-green squares in that NaNo Progress Calendar on the right?), I finally had a day of excellent writing, with a good end result that is well over my daily goal. I also have a cool idea to work into my story concerning the narrator and the overall structure, but I think I’m going to keep that on d-l for a bit.

Anyway, I’m up to 32,658 words, and I’m so so so thrilled to see that I have officially hit a point where I have to write less than 1000 words a day to finish on time.

We’re almost halfway through November. . .Other NaNo-ers, how are you doing?

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Graze Box #1: Super Berry Detox

Today’s NaBloPoMo post is brought to you by my delicious afternoon snack.

I mentioned over the weekend that I was super excited to finally (finally!) receive my first Graze box. If you didn’t check out the post, you can find it here. And if you don’t know about Graze and want to learn more, you should definitely check out their website.

Today, I brought the Super Berry Detox to school with me. Here it is looking yummy and delicious in its packaging.

I resisted the urge to have it for breakfast and with my lunch. I knew that this would mean I would be starving by the time my office hours rolled around, which is, sadly, my prime snacking time. And since Halloween I’ve had a steady supply of candies waiting for me in my office. I originally signed up for Graze to start bringing some healthier snacks into my life, and I wasn’t going to end up eating a bunch of Snickers with Almonds or Reese’s Cups this afternoon because I decided to eat my snack for my breakfast.

I’m glad I waited.

Overall, the smell of Super Berry Detox reminded me mostly of Craisins. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because dried cranberries is one of its four ingredients. Paired with the cranberries are green raisins, goji berries, and blueberries. They are a colorful mix!

I liked this mix a lot and would definitely eat it again. I’m not sure how well I really enjoyed the dried goji berries (which are the reddish/orange looking things). They had an almost pungent taste to them, to me. They tasted fine when I ate them with at least one other of the berries, though.

The ingredient that really stole the show for me, however, was the green raisins. I love green (white!!!) grapes. They are crisp and refreshing, and the dried version of them did not let me down. I’ve never had green (white!?!) raisins before, and I have a fairly ambivalent relationship to raisins as most of us know them, so I was pleasantly surprised that they were so good. I even saved a bunch of them to eat when the whole mix was done so that I could finish with the taste of them.

Other people do that, too, right?

Graze’s websites says these are only 133 calories for the whole pack (woo!) and that it is 27% of the DRV of iron (based on a 2000 calorie diet).

Verdict: A-. This mix is delicious enough that I would definitely eat it again, but I don’t think I would ever go out of my way to locate it. My snack craving DOES feel satisfied (for now) so that is a definite plus.

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In the Kitchen: Goat Cheese Pasta Bake with Chicken

So, last week Lovie and I had a marathon writing night for NaNoWriMo, and I posted (albeit briefly) about making this delicious pasta bake. One of many things that Lovie and I have in common is our love of both chicken and carbs, specifically in the form of pasta and potatoes.

Normally when we cook, we go for chicken and noodles, especially now that Lovie has perfected it as a crockpot meal. But this week, we were in the mood for a little something different. Thanks to Pinterest, we got it stuck in our heads that we really needed baked macaroni and cheese, but we couldn’t quite find a recipe that we really wanted to follow. So we decided to make one up.

Making up a recipe has never worked out so well.

Ingredients

• about a pound (1 box) of pasta
• about 1 cup of half-and-half
• about 1 cup of milk
• 6 ounces goat cheese
• 6-8 ounces shredded Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheese
• 2 chicken breasts
• Salt
• Pepper
• Red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Bring water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. While pasta cooks, prepare the sauce.

3. Cut the goat cheese into smaller pieces, then combine with milk and half-and-half in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat.

4. As goat cheese melts, add in about half of the shredded cheese blend and stir. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Reduce heat to allow to thicken without overheating.

5. Prepare chicken breasts as desired. We grilled it on a George Foreman Grill for about 10 minutes with just a little salt and pepper.

6. Grease an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish with butter (or cooking spray, if you prefer to be healthier).

7. When pasta is done cooking, drain and set aside.

8. Cut chicken breasts into strips or small pieces as desired.

9. Assemble all the ingredients in the baking dish, stirring together to ensure the cheese sauce coats the noodles and chicken. Sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese blend.
10. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is golden and melty.

11. Eat too much of this delicious meal, spend the next five days thinking about making it again.

Do you Graze?

Like I admitted to you in this post last week, I am a horrible snacker. Even as I write this, I am munching on white cheddar Cheetos, which is even more ironic considering this post is about how I excited I am to have finally received my first box in mail from Graze.

What exactly is Graze? I see you wondering. I first heard about it from another friend, who posted about how excited she was to receive her first box from the environmentally- and health-conscious mail order snack distributor. Graze will send you a box of four delicious, natural snacks in the mail every two or four weeks. All packaging is recyclable, and it’s small enough to fit in your mailbox.

You can even rate the snacks you get so that you don’t receive something you know you don’t like. As soon as I heard about it, I was hooked, especially considering each box is only $6. I know I certainly spend more than $6 every two weeks to buy snacks that are bad for me. With Graze, I don’t even have to leave the house to get a box of deliciousness. And, each snack is portion-sized, so you don’t have to feel guilty about eating all of one of your goodies in one sitting.

 

Lovie is very excited about her first box of snacks, too!

And here I am, posing with my goodies last night.

My first box includes four snacks that I am super excited about trying: honeycomb crunch, fruit & seed flapjacks, super berry detox, and cracking black peppercorn.

I can’t even lie about how excited I am about this honeycomb crunch. Just a couple of weeks ago, Lovie and I were talking about eating honeycombs. To be honest, I didn’t even know that you could! But she is very jealous that I received this in my box, so I am definitely gonna have to let her sample until she gets it in her own box.

So why am I eating my Cheetos instead of this deliciousness?

I need to make it last! I am the worst about snacking on bad foods during the week, so I am trying to resist eating all of it this weekend. Trust me, I could.

In fact, It took a lot of restraint not to sample every item in the box last night.

 

Day 7: NaNo is Better with Sprints

Is there anything better than a successful day of writing? How about when that writing actually feels like it’s pulling the plot together and doing something more than being word vomit all over the screen?

This is kind of how I am feeling. Last night, my BFF Lovie (who is now blogging about writing and copyediting and her other loves over at Copyedit ‘Til I Die) and I had a great night of NaNo work. It was much needed because neither of us have been feeling it most of this week. But we did it!

After spending part of the afternoon hanging out and doing real work (read: me grading annotated bibliographies), we hodge-podged together a delicious recipe after decided to make baked macaroni and cheese. I refused to use Velveeta, decided I really wanted goat cheese, and it worked out well! I will share the recipe later, but here is a picture to keep you enticed.

Look at all of this deliciousness.

With dinner a success, we set about to writing. Lovie didn’t get to write on Tuesday, so she wanted to make it about 3,000 words. Both of us had a slow start that consisted of too much time on Facebook and chatting and cackling with our friend Miller, who lives in Delaware and is in the process of starting a nationwide hipster game through this kickstarter. Even if you don’t care about hipsters, it’s worth watching the cool, talkie-esque video that accompanies it.

Then, we GOT TO IT. This is what it looks like when we write:

I promise, neither of us are sleeping in these photos.

We also made deeeeeeeelish papaya and passionfruit black tea. And drank out of classy tea glasses.

And here we are! A successful night of noveling, leaving me with 20,883 words and almost halfway to winning NaNoWriMo. Yeah. It feels good.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Let’s Talk Sequels

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is not getting ten responses from me. It only seems fair since the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish list a cumulative ten. And while I am excited to participate, I am not in the midst of reading ten different series. So what I have is what you get, partially because I tend to devour series all out once rather than go through the agony of waiting for the next book to be published (like I did with Harry Potter).

So, here with go: Series Sequels I Can’t Wait to Read

1. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

This is no surprise, as I think I’ve mentioned at least once that MaddAddam is just sitting on my bookshelf, staring at me until I finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (last night, I was 81% finished, so it looks like I might finally be getting close!). I loved Oryx and Crake and The Year of Flood, which I read in a couple of weeks almost three years ago. I can’t wait to open up MaddAddam and see where the story goes.

2. The Winds of Winter by George RR Martin

A Song of Ice and Fire as been around for a long time, but I was only introduced to it two year ago. I read all of the books that are currently published in just a couple of months because apparently I have an addictive personality or something. I have read both of the excerpts of Winds of Winter that Martin has put on his website and am excited to read more. . .whenever that happens. Let’s just say I’m not getting my hopes up.

3. Mysterious, Unnamed Sequel to The Cuckoo’s Calling by JK Rowling

If Goodreads is an indicator, The Cuckoo’s Calling is not the only time we’ll get to spend with Cormoran Strike and Robin as they solve crimes. I don’t know if there is even a planned sequel, but the Goodreads listing has “(Cormoran Strike #1)” after the title, which seems to be telling me that more is coming. And the potential for a sequel is definitely there in the end of the novel.

4. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

Okay, confession: This is one of the only series I have just given up on. My dad LOVES it but I had a hard time getting through The Gunslinger and stopped about halfway through The Waste Lands when I tried to read it a couple of summers ago. I have been thinking about it a lot again lately, and it seems like it could be time to give it another go in the near future. But I have a lot of other great books lined up to read first, so we’ll see.

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