the groundhog day project

Watching Tru Calling again, and Luc and Tru have known each other for more than a month now according to dialogue but Tru's brother and Tru's best friend only got together like once according to dialogue, even though those things happened a day apart if anyone would bother with actual continuity. Groundhog Day doesn't have this problem, but imagine a Groundhog Day TV series... like Day Break minus the cops and criminals or Tru Calling minus the talking dead people. It would end up having a whole lot of continuity problems. Unless they had an entire crew of writers and producers responsible for nothing but continuity. Continuity is good. Groundhog Day doesn't have much in the way of continuity errors. The Phil Sign Girl's disappearing friend is the big one. That the DJ banter and the street scene outside don't have quite the same timing from Day 1 to Day 2 would be a little one. (I've gone over errors before , so let's not linger.) Continu...

Before Phil's first line, Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) pops up from the bottom of the screen to tell us that in France, Groundhog Day was called Day Without End and in Brazil, it was called Black Hole of Love . Then he does an awkward Ned dance and disappears. This is how the "Needle Nose Ned Picture-in-Picture Track" bonus feature gets going. That's right, I'm on the blu-ray again finally after my previous blu-ray copy got laser-burned. (I actually sampled the beginning of this commentary once just to see what it was, but I have neglected to get back to it until now.) That first pop-up was torso only. Ned pops up full bodied for his next bit of info, pointing out the hilltop road that was the only bit in the film shot near the actual Punxsutawney. I hope this track is not just rehashing stuff from Ramis' commentary track. The next one is torso again, just before the transition to Day One. Ned asks a trivia question, an easy one--the name of the TV s...

Day Break Episode 12: "What if she's the key?" Hopper finds Damian with Nick... conversation ensues. Meanwhile, I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books today, met Stephen Tobolowsky, got his autograph. And, Chad's and Rita's last name is Shelten, not Shelton. Who knew? Tobolowsky read the story "It's Not My Dog" from his 2012 collection, The Dangerous Animals Club . Hopper just ran into Margot, who apparently did not get hit by the bus today (maybe he called her offscreen to warn her). Is she the "she" in this episode's title, a little diversion from Rita? Hopper-less scene, Rita and Chad go to see Billy, Detweiler is there. Before Tobolowsky started the reading, he mentioned that he's got 2 rules for his stories: 1) they are all true and 2) they all happened to him. He said something like he's had enough of the lying "friend of a friend" and its descendant, "the internet." Apparently, the...

I won't post details just yet, but I thought this was worth sharing before I get into today's thing. Yesterday, now that I had finished critiquing and nitpicking, and occasionally insulting, Benesh, I sent her a message online. And, she messaged me back. But, that is all I will share for now (she'd only read the latest couple posts regarding her dissertation, as far as I could tell from our second round of messages). So, Day Break . Episode 9: "What if they're connected?" Episode begins with Detective Choi at Garza's house. On the one hand, it is not particularly jarring to have Hopper-less scenes, but on the other hand, given the premise, there is no real logical sense to including them except to avoid some exposition later to cover their contents. The writers of individual episodes should pay better attention. Last episode, Rita suggested Hopper has not told his sister or mother about their relationship. This episode she offers to answer his phone ...

Episode 5 of Day Break : "What if they're stuck?" Today I will be watching several episodes of Day Break , so I will try not to just list details about the plot with a comment on the time loop stuff here and there. Instead, I hope to comment on the larger use of the time loop and the show's themes. For example, Hopper's got a To Do list this morning, and he tells Rita that for the first time in a while "I see some daylight." The metaphor is simple; the time loop is Hopper (or Phil) in the dark, with all its complications, but there's light at the end of the tunnel (to mix metaphors). Speaking of which, I haven't commented on the title of the show itself: Day Break . On the one hand, the time loop seems to begin and end around daybreak (one word). When Hopper headed out of town a couple episodes ago, as the sun rose over the horizon-- Ehrmentraut (at the rock quarry, where this time they have Hopper and Rita): "Do you believe in deja vu?...

The Groundhog Day Project is, in a way, in its home stretch... really, it won't be winding down until summer time, but it's Day 251. This thing is more than 2/3 of the way complete... if it could ever be complete , that is. Since I hope to tie all of this into my thesis next year, I suppose I will have Groundhog Day as an integral part of my life well after the "Project" part is over. I wonder what I haven't done yet that I need to do. For example, other than a bit on Bill Murray , I haven't really done any actor profiles, which I thought would be obvious part of this thing--and I really should do something about Stephen Tobolowsky, if for no other reason to decipher the relationship between Groundhog Day 's Ned Ryerson and Glee 's Sandy Ryerson. I still need to finish reading Hannam's The Magic of Groundhog Day and Yoder's Groundhog Day and write about those. I will work on finishing and writing about Day Break . I keep having the urge t...

It is 10:43 PM. It is Day 250 of the Groundhog Day Project . My internet connection is a black hole of nothingness. We’ve got a new provider scheduled in a couple days. In the meantime, I cannot do what I was going to do for today’s landmark entry. It involved a TV Tropes page, some corrections, probably a few screencaps, and no mention of Benesh or Day Break . But, Phil just offered Rita his sausage… which sounds about as dirty as Bill Murray or Harold Ramis probably hoped it would more than 20 years ago when they imagined me blogging about the film. Now, the mouth full of cake, and Rita’s insult poetry. You can load the page on your own, I suppose. It’s address: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/GroundhogDay . I will celebrate Day 250 without rambling. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to celebrate a new milestone every day, especially when that means inventing new ones.

Hopper's helping Andrea deal with Eddie's body... I don't remember them talking about Eddie previously. I think he's Andrea's ex-partner. Oh, he's alive. Day Break again. But, I'm also most of the way through Groundhog Day for today already. I was cheating a little. Limited time because I was judging at a high school debate tournament most of the day and then went out to dinner with two of my kids. Got home and just had to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones but don't want to stay up until all hours of the night because I have plans tomorrow. New resumption on Day Break . But, I was telling the story about Game of Groundhogs ; that is to say, I turned on Games of Thrones on one screen and Groundhog Day on another. Now, I could have simply ignored Groundhog Day and claimed I had watched it, but no, I did my best to pay attention to both and got some awesome moments out of the juxtaposition. For example, as Phil talked to Larry about his...

Day Break episode three is entitled "What if he lets her go?" Benesh's (2011) next section is about "the respiration metaphor." These two things probably don't go together. Oh well. "This is the day that changes everything" instead of that bad day line from episode two. Good recap, though. Oddly, the episode begins by calling this "Day 1." I don't think they did that before, but maybe this episode is going to cover a whole lot of days. Hopper wakes with the bullet wound but it's fresh, just open. He sneaks into the bathroom and bandages it. Meanwhile, Benesh fits a few details into the respiration metaphor: Phil as a "blowhard," Phil blowing smoke at the Tip Top, Phil blowing a bubble while learning piano, and Phil performing mouth-to-mouth on O'Reilly (p. 101-2). She also includes Phil performing the Heimlich, because that "restores breath to Buster." Hopper's package he had to get has a small h...

The second episode of Day Break is called "What If They Run?" The cliffhanger ending, remember, Hopper and Rita were heading out of town, but trucks were waiting. Phil Connors never had to deal with this. Even when he managed to get out of town in the original screenplay--a narrative mistake, I think--there were not men waiting to kill him. (There's a handy intro setting up the repeating day before the second episode, though the opening line is a bit cheesy--"You think you're having a bad day?") Benesh (2011) talks about eating--the digestive metaphor--and makes some good points. I've written before about food (even mentioned Benesh, though at the time I was still avoiding reading her). And, I know these two things don't connect in any obvious way, but it occurs to me Hopper ate nothing in the first episode, just as Phil barely eats anything in Groundhog Day . And, I argued before, of course, that Phil doesn't have to eat, at all. Doesn'...

I Obvious time loop markers right away: the alarm clock at 6:17, the bird in the window, tripping over the gun, looking outside to not only see the garbage truck but two joggers running by it. Oh, I'm watching the first episode of Day Break . It's like Groundhog Day: The Series , if Phil Connors were played by Taye Diggs and was a cop, and Rita was played by Moon Bloodgood. Cuts himself shaving--hard to repeat, but I think I remember that's going to repeat at least once. Breaks a soapdish; that'll repeat. Newspaper headline about a dead District Attorney (with rather obvious closeups on a few phrases and a name, Garza). Getting coffee, a woman bumps into him, then comes the biggest marker: a bus smashing into a parked car. Ransacked apartment when he goes home--he believes his dog did it, because rowdy dogs usually open drawers. Nine phone messages waiting, including 6 hangups from his sister. And, he's arrested for killing Garza--hey, I recognize that name fr...

This entry is for new arrivals. It is unfortunate that a sad event--the death of Harold Ramis--might bring me new readers, but I welcome you nonetheless. This is The Groundhog Day Project where I watch Groundhog Day every day--today is day 210--and blog about it (or inspired by it). If you want to catch up, there are indexes (of everything prior to February) on Day 180 , Day 121 , and Day 62 . Or, if you just want to understand why I'm doing this, maybe read this , this or this . In the meantime... I meant to write about e' gia Ieri today. That translates as "it's already yesterday" but the film is also known as Stork Day . It's the Italian remake of Groundhog Day . Variety , 15 February 2004, tells us that producer Riccardo Tozzi and director Giulio Manfredonia "were talking about making a 'what if' comedy and decided to go straight to that subgenre's original source." The thing is, I never managed to watch it today. And, it...