Twins seem to be the theme this season on television.  ABC Family brought us the small screen adaptation of The Lying Game by Sara Shepard.  Easy to see why they choice that series after the success of Pretty Little Liars.  Also we have CW bring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy!!!) back to television with Ringer.

The Lying Game brings us the story of Emma and Sutton.  Emma takes her twin’s place while Sutton is on the search for their mother. Emma struggles to keep her identity secret while trying to uncovering plenty of secrets of her own.

Ringer tells a similar story of Bridget who takes on her sister Siobhan’s life after she believes her sister commits suicide.  She sees taking her sister’s place as a way to escape her past but soon finds out Siobhan’s life may just be worse.

The two shows have many similarities between them.  Besides the twin thing, there are many similarities between Bridget and Emma.  The first being that they both appear to be the twin in the more unfortunate situation.  In Emma’s case she is a foster child and flees from the current family she is with after she is accused of stealing money.  In Bridget’s case she was an ex stripper who was witness to a crime.  Fear of the man accused coming after her drives her to seek out refuge with her sister.  Both stories include cops after the runaway twin.

Siobhan and Sutton are also similar.  Both come from rich lifestyles and appear to have the perfect life.  But those around them are keeping secrets that their twins came across and taking over their lives.  Another similarity between the two is that they were both having affairs.  Sutton with Ethan and Siobhan with Henry.  The two guys seem to not be similar characters at this point.  Ethan realizes right away that Emma is not Sutton but ends up falling for her and helping her put together clues about her mother.  Henry seems to be a fairly cocky character so far.  I really thought when he first kissed Bridget that he was going to call her out just like Ethan did but that has not happened yet.

Both series very from the book series The Lying Game.  In the books, Sutton is actually dead and the story is told from her perspective. At first I thought that Ringer was going to be similar to the series in that one sister is dead.  At the end of episode one we realize that is not that cases though when we see Siobhan in Paris.

So far, I am enjoying both series because of the fast pace and mystery that builds with each episode. The books series was impossible to put down and I can’t wait for the next one to come out.  As for the television shows, as much as I love Sarah Michelle Gellar, I would say that I prefer The Lying Game.  The drama in it pulls me in and I love that there is also stuff that makes me smile like Ethan doing nice things for Emma.  Plus Ethan is super super hot.  Although I do love Kristoffer Polaha who plays Henry from his days of playing Baz on Life Unexpected.

Fingers crossed that it is not the end.

Sorry I keep posting like crazy but I’m not going to stop.  I truly love every second of this show.  It is so well written and is quality television.  Anything I can do to try and keep it on air, I will do.

http://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2010/11/03/save-life-unexpected-and-help-some-kids-in-need/

I’m super, super tight on money right now but I’m still going to send some money.  And I have been meaning to change the lightbulb on my lamp in my living room to a energy saving one so I’m probably going to send the old one to the address given.  If you love LUX, please help!

This is by far my favorite television show and I am so sad to hear that the CW has not ordered more episodes.  They almost let it go last season but the fans would not have it.  Let’s fight again.

Online Petition

Please sign this.  Post anywhere/everywhere for people try to get the show back.  It is rare for a show on tv to have so much heart and it is a shame to see it go.

Good guess but no.

I’m not going to say what she is but I will say that the answer is in From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris.  It’s the eighth book in the series.

I am curious whether they will tell us on the show or not.  I’m very curious what else people might be guessing she was.  If it wasn’t for the books, who knows what I might think.

Who else is completely loving season three?!?

The first thing I love is how perfectly they cast everyone.  Every character except Claudine is exactly what I saw in my head while reading the books. Um, speaking of Claudine, I was so excited to see her show up.  When I saw Charlaine Harris, she implied that we might see her and that personally, she was looking forward to that. 

Crystal and Jason! Crystal is perfect. In the books, I definately have a love/hate relationship with her.

Debbie and Alcide are basically the descriptions in the books brought to life.  Alcide is so hot by the way.  The more Alcide we see, the better in my book.  If they follow the books, we will be seeing a lot of him for quite a while.

I’m enjoying seeing more of Hadley too.  They never really describe her in the books but her story always seemed very interesting.  I hope they continue to fill in a peices of plot that we got in the books.

Another thing I am loving this season is Sam’s plot.  In the books, he leaves sometimes to visit his family out of state.  If I remember correctly, only his mother is a shifter and his family kind of freaked out when they found out. Actually really freaked out.  The first episode or two that they introduced Sam’s family, I was a little unsure of. Now I’m completely in love with Tommy and am excited to see where they go with his plot line.

          Which gets me to my point, I want another season! Well, lots of other seasons but that starts with getting a season two.  E! is doing their annual Save One Show campaign.  Life Unexpected has made it into the top five.  The voting has started again so please go to their site and vote for LUX!

I also changed my twitter icon to the ‘save the foster child, save the world’ I’ve seen around.  If you have twitter you should change yours as well.  Let’s get people voting and watching!  Here is my link to copy the photo from.

http://twitter.com/heatherfinley

And here is the E! link

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b174881_save_one_show_vote_now_final_five.html?sid=twitterfeed_kristin&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_kristin

PS, I’m not sure, but I think you can vote more than once.  I just went their again to get the link and it appears to have let me vote again.  So yeah, vote for LUX as much as possible!

          A very brief description is that the story is about Lux, a foster child, that ends up living with the parents, Baz and Kate, that gave her up.  Baz is still kind of a screw up and Kate is a successful radio personality that is dating her cohost Ryan.  The plot revolves around each of them growing up and trying to be a family.

          So let me first say, I am not the kind of girl that cries often.  Like movie wise I can count the times I’ve cried on one hand.  Less.  The only three I can think of is Marley and Me (I’m an animal person) and Adam.  Maybe I got a little misty eyed at Blind Side too.  Can’t remember. Books sometimes make me cry.  Television shows and for the most part real life, never make me cry.

          In just this week’s episode of Life Unexpected, I cried multiple times.  Full on tears rolling down my cheeks, sniffling kind of crying.  Ah when Lux was talking about her childhood I was bawling.  When Baz told Bug, Lux’s boyfriend, that he would like to practice being a dad with him I cried more.  I teared up a little again when Lux came home.  Then I was crying because I was so happy when Ryan was talking about socks at the end. 

          Seriously, this show pulls at the heartstrings.  I hope so badly that it doesn’t get canceled after the first season because people don’t know how good it is.  If you haven’t watched it, go check out an episode.  You will fall in love with every person on the show.

          Personally, I also love that it takes place in Portland.  Always good to see places I know on shows and movies.  Plus I dated a guy that looks so much like Kerr Smith, it is ridiculous.

        So I’ve noticed that at least half the traffic brought to my site from searches are people trying to look up information on Callisto from Living Dead in Dallas by Charlene Harris.   I actually know a lot about Callisto in Greek mythology (I have a cat named Callisto and tattoo based on the myth even) so here is some information I know and comparing it to the book.

          The book describes Callisto as a maenad. Maenad translates in English to the raving ones.   The name refers to females that follow the god Dionysus.  He is basically the god of partying, drinking, and some madness.   There was different types of maenads ranging from women who follow him, women who do not and therefore go crazy since he demands worship to devine beingings.

          In Living Dead In Dallas, I would say Callisto would definately fall under the category of devine being.   Her being in the wilderness, changing into an animal, and demanding worship are all evidence of this.  I think nymph might be fitting as well since they are known for all the things that I just mentioned and usually are associated with a certain god or godesss.

          In actually Greek Mythology, Callisto is a nymph that is loyal to Artemis or Diana, the goddess of hunting.  Callisto took a vow of chastity like all of Artemis’ nymphs.  There are tons of different versions of the story. The first that I heard was the Callisto was the most beautiful of all the nymphs. Naturally Zeus decided that he wanted her.  She and Zeus fell in love but kept it secret . Months later it was discovered by Artemis that Callisto was with child and thus she was banned from serving the goddess.  After giving birth, Hera was still hellbent on killing Callisto and her son Arcas.  She turns Callisto into a bear and demands that Artemis shoot her.  Zeus decides to hid Callisto in the stars so she cannot be harmed.   She ask Zeus to save her son as well.  Not being able to turn Callisto back into a nymph, he turns Arcas into a bear as well.  These constellations are today known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.   More commonly, the big and little dipper.  This is my favorite version of the story.

          The most famous version of the story is told by Ovid.  His telling is with the Roman versions of the gods so Jupiter, Juno, and Diana were the main characters besides Callisto.  In his version, Jupiter turns into Diana and rapes Callisto.  Diana finds out Callisto is pregnant and when asked about it, Callisto not knowing better tells Diana it is her fault.  Callisto is banned and gives birth.  Juno is mad and decides to change Callisto into a bear. Jupiter hides Arcas.  Sixteen years later Arcas has turned into a great hunter and comes across a bear that he shoots.  Zeus saves her by putting her in the stars and does the same to Arcas, making him a bear as well.  Juno is insanely  jealous so convinces the titan Oceanus to make it so that the two never touch his water.  This makes them appear that they never set in the sky.  They are always visable from certain places on earth.  Since the world has moved around since ancient times, in Greece, Ursa Major actually does dip a little under the horizon now. 

         One of the moons of Jupiter is named Callisto.  Galileo is known as finding the existance of this moon but another astronomer named Simon Marius claimed that he found them first.  He was the one that named the moon Callisto after the story of Jupiter and Callisto.

          Callisto was also a character in the television series Xena the Warrior Princess.  In the series, she was not related into the greek myth.  She was a human that Xena attacked her village when she was little.  She because tramatized by this event and thus goes completely crazy.  If I remember right at some point on the show she did become a goddess. She was always by favorite character. 

          There is also an X-man character named Callisto.   She appeared in the comics in the 80′s.  Her drawings always remind me of Joan Jett with an eye patch for some  reason.  There isn’t anything related her to greek myth what so ever.  She also appeared in the second X-Man movie.  She was the girl with tons of tattoos that can sense what others powers are.  The actress that played her is one of the twins on Heroes.

             Hope this helps people that were looking for information on Callisto in the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  I love greek mythology in general.  Oh and here is my tattoo that is the constellation Ursa Major.  The words are lyrics from the band The Higher.  The song is called “Movement.”  Eventually I might add the lyric “Give your immortality to me, I’ll set you up against the stars” which cames from the song “Red Wine” by The Hush Sound.  The tattoo was done by the Traci Manley at Infinity Tattoo in Portland, OR.  She is awesome.  I have another one from her too.

http://www.infinitytattoo.com/portfolios.cfm?artistID=24

Sorry this picture is a little blurry.

As requested by KonstantinMiller, here is some more thoughts on tv shows verses books. 

          I came across this on YouTube and thought it was quite fitting.  I loved that Stephen Moyer has read quite a few of them.  It seems weird to me that the other two stopped.  More so that there reason’s for stopping was that they wanted to take their characters in their own direction.  Those two characters were not present in the least in Dead Until Dark. 

          In Season Two, Tara is staying fairly close to her character in Living Dead in Dallas.  In the book she is Sookie’s friend from high school that is dating a guy named Eggs.  Yeah, that matches perfectly.  Towards the end of the book we see them in a situation similar to the party scene that was in S2 E3 of True Blood.  Tara’s reaction to the party seemed to be similar in the two.  Like she was there on her own accord but it was making her uneasy.  The writers of True Blood are doing a good job of filling in Tara’s story for us.

          As for the Maryann character from the show, she is deviating a long way from the novel.  In the book we only see her as what she really is which they haven’t competely covered that yet. If you have seen interviews or read any, they have been openly discussing that though.  In the books Sookie and Bill leave to Dallas and something obviously happens between Sam and Callisto. Maryann’s name is Callisto in the book.  I don’t know why they changed it.  I liked Callisto better since the tattoo on my rib is actually the Callisto constellation from my favorite Greek myth.  I named my cat at my parents’ house that too. Anyways, in the tv series they are obviously going to have Bill and Sookie leave soon.  Following with the rest of the tv show, the writers are finding themselves trying to write stories about what is happening in Bon Temps completely on their own.  It is going to be very different from the book but I think as long as they keep the characters in tack in isn’t going to bother me too much.  Plus I love Sam don’t mind seeing more of him.

          Another book series that is now on tv that I realized I have read is Gossip Girl.   I think I’ve read about five or six of the books.  I do intend to someday finish them.  They are extremely fast to read.  Perfect for a break after a lengthy or dense book.  Like True Blood, the show Gossip Girl is staying fairly close to the books.  The characters are there and some of the story lines are but we are seeing lots of differences too. 

          Some characters are completely different. Eric van der Woodsen for example is the older brother that has a thing with Blair in the books but a younger gay brother on tv.  Aaron Rose appears in the books as Blair’s stepbrother who has a crush on her. On the show he is a random dude that Serena dates.  I actually didn’t watch most the second season so I don’t know if they did more with him or not.  The parents play a lot more into the television show as well.  I really like the story the tv producers came up with Rufus and Lily.  Personally I wouldn’t mind if they show mostly focused on them. 

          The spin off doesn’t sound all that appealing to me though.  Maybe I’m just getting old and teen drama’s aren’t as much my thing.  Although I did absolutely love Priveledged.  I think it got canceled already though.  Very sad. The main character was attempting to be an author.  It is another show based on a book.  How to Survive the Filthy Rich by Zoey Dean.  Maybe I will try to find it next time I’m at the book store.  It would be interesting to compare how a book series converts to a tv series verses a single book being made into a tv series.  I do have Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell but haven’t read it yet.   Ah the list of books I want to read in the near future.  I really do have stacks and stacks of them.  Just call me Alaska Young.