DIG (on USA!) #DigDeeper (you know you want to)

You guys!!! This is IT!!! Dig (on USA!) is about to start. TOMORROW! I can't even...this feels like I've been climbing the Matterhorn and I'm about to ski down it. TOMORROW!  At 10 PM (9 Central), USA Network. (If you have DISH Network, it's on Channel 105.) (If you have something else, go do your own Google researching.)

I've been following the making of this show since this summer; I've practically bought stock in it (I don't know if you can tell or not). So I think we should petition Congress to have a national DIG (on USA!) holiday moment. I already have an itinerary for us, America. Here it is:

March 4 (today!!)--DIG Eve. Get your popcorn ready, make your Jell-O shots, decorate (ancient archaeological/Negev/Sonoran Desert themes ONLY). Get ready for amazingness and good cheer (and fire up the Google so you can double check on whether or not the stuff from this show could actually happen).

March 5--DIG Day (D-Day). Invite family and friends or just friends who are like family over for the major television event of 2015. Jason Isaacs (we're Twitter buddies again, now that I've completely absolved and totally forgiven him his trespass of last week) says they'll be live tweeting the show. I don't know how I feel about live tweeting, quite frankly. Sometimes I like to watch it as it happens, but then I always feel under way too much pressure to add to the conversation, and if I'm going to add to that kind of a conversation, I prefer to just be witty and clever. And I can't just...BE witty and clever, Internet. The stars have to align just right for everything witty and clever that leaves my brain. So I stay out of live tweet fests. Unless I've been drinking, but that's another tale for another time. 

And also, I think I'll need to focus on this show. Because I think there may be a lot of: What?! Oh no he DIDN'T! and Holy shit!! Could that seriously HAPPEN?!?! and That is sooooo very messed up!! and This planet is going to hell in a handbasket! going on in my brain. I may even say some of that aloud. I don't know. It depends on how tired I am--10 PM is about an hour past my regular bedtime. It is nothing short of a testament to my admiration for Jason Isaacs' innate ability to tell good stories that I am staying up past my bedtime and with a massive head cold no less....and! I'm not even expecting a thank you! I'm merely doing this because he's a fellow creative, and I sense this is going to be a don't-breathe-or-you'll-miss-something kind of show. ..........Okay, okay, FINE. He also spells swanky and I have an inability to deny men with British accents. Even though he sounds like Chicago in this show. Which is slightly sad, I feel. But I wasn't in charge of deciding the character's accent.

March 6-Boxing DIG Day. Like Boxing Day in England, except no charitable collections (unless you want to). This is the day we gather around the water coolers at work, or meet up at Starbucks or happy hour after work, or get on Facebook and Twitter, and start our arguments, our analyses.

We will continue this process, every week, for the next nine weeks (actually, as a matter of fact, I just realized: this show is going to take me through the end of my school year. Just as DIG ends, I will be going on summer break. Y'all! This is an omen, it's a SIGN.) We will continue this process:every Wednesday will be pre-DIG Day followed by Thursday DIG Day and then Friday post-DIG Analyses/Arguments Day, you know...just basically making ourselves insane until the 10th episode airs, when our minds will be blown because I have it on good authority that that episode is going to be crazy epic. 

But then this is the fun of an action/adventure/thriller/conspiracy story, isn't it? The insanity that taunts you, til you reach the very end, the very explosive and mind-blowing end. Just like sex, except this is going to be FAR less messy and sweaty (maybe) (you may experience at least the need to catch your breath periodically throughout the pilot, switch viewing positions, whatever).

Here are some more fun things for you to watch, so you can start to get your DIG on:

Have I mentioned that this show ALSO has Downton Abbey's Richard E. Grant in it? Oh, how I do love Richard E. Grant. I need to stay focused on the topic of this show, what this blog is about, so I can't go into more detail than that. But remind me: because I heart Richard E. Grant a whole heckuvalot, and I will point you to some of his marvelous body of work some other time. 

I confess: I really don't watch a lot of TV on actual TV...I usually get my shows via DVR or Netflix or Amazon or some other way--it's a time constraint/raising a small child issue. But if YOU do watch actual TV, and you've been watching anything on USA Network, then you've probably seen them interrupting your viewing pleasure with weird and creepy DIG promos. 

I don't know what these look like, but according to a lot of irate people on Twitter, they are creepy and STOP IT, USA NETWORK. You know what else they've been doing on Twitter? Randomly selecting people to tweet at, saying mysterious things to them for no apparent reason, when the person has been tweeting about something that has nothing at all to do with DIG (on USA!) whatsoever. Like THIS. And THIS. 

Stuff like this just makes me like USA Network even more, because I am always so amused when people's regular routines are interrupted by the loud and obnoxious. It's a breath of fresh air in a stale, beige world.

Will you watch DIG? If you don't, and I blog some more about it (and FYI: I will blog some more about it, and there could be spoilers, I simply cannot be held responsible if you don't watch--I will give you til each Sunday to catch up and watch Thursday's episode, but after that? I cannot be held responsible. Sundays are going to be my DIG de-brief day, and if you don't watch, you won't have a freaking clue what I'm going on about...and I am NOT stopping to catch you up). You'll be out of the loop. On the fringes. Flailing in the wind. Tossed about in a wide, Sargasso Sea. Lost and confused. Don't do it to yourself, reader(s)! Don't do it.

Wait! Before you go...do you have about 20 minutes? If you do, watch this video of Jason Isaacs talking about DIG (on USA!) and his role in it.

Source: Seat42F.

 All I could do, the whole time, is wonder: what the heck did they do to your FACE?? Followed by: I am so in the wrong job. How fun would THAT be, to have the make up department mess your face up every day? Because after work, I'd leave that beat up face make up on, go out to dinner and act all casual but also really skittish, and just let the other diners wonder about me. And if I could go out with other people for dinner whose faces were also destroyed by a make up department? Oh happy DAY! We could create a whole scenario and really freak out the other diners. I'd write a script and everything for it. Live dinner theatre, if you will.

I'm going to put that on my bucket list, right up there next to "have tea at Buckingham Palace."

And if you have 12 minutes more, you can watch this interview with lovely Anne Heche:

Source: Seat42F.

And here's another lovely find--what a nice human being. If you have 15 MORE minutes, you can watch this interview with talented Ori Pfeffer:

Source: Seat42F.

...In his interview, Ori talks about Jason's love of bringing music on set. I don't know if Jason realizes it or not, but there's like a whole psychological thing behind using music to motivate; I do it all the time with 7 and 8 year olds--everybody works better including their teacher. Ori also talks about Gideon Raff's Israeli series Prisoners of War, something you should watch if you love Homeland (it's the series that the Showtime series Homeland was based off of) (have you seen that amazing series, Homeland? If not, honestly. I don't even know what to do with you. Go click those links I posted and Get. Busy.) (but first: watch DIG on Thursday). Both Prisoners of War and Homeland are stories that are all kinds of complicated and multi-layered, two things I'm a ginormous fan of in most of my stories. 

Okay, let's summarize your homework (due tomorrow, so focus!):

*get popcorn/Jell-O shots ready (you can choose other snacks if you'd like...if it weren't a school night,  I'd be drinking chocolate martinis, for instance).

*decorate your house (Negev and/or Sonoran desert and/or ancient Middle Eastern archaelogical themes ONLY)

*Set your DVRs or TIVOs or whatever, because you'll probably need to review some of the more brain exploding parts. This will also make you the DIG expert in all your arguments until next week's episode.

*Watch all of the videos I've posted. (I'm not kidding. There may be a quiz.)

*Watch Prisoners of War and Homeland. (We'll count that as extra credit.) (On the quiz.)

Ready? GO!