How I feel about the men of American Idol

I am sort of a little bit in love with Elliott Yamin. I've always liked his voice, but something about him last week and this week is really getting to me. I think the stylists are slowly evening out his hair-to-ear ratio each week and taking his shirt length up an inch or two. It also helped that last night he actually sang a song that I know.

one angry veronica (2:10)

Was it just me, or was this episode really not all that great? The past three episodes were my favorites of the season, and I was expecting this one to be just as good, especially since there won't be any new episodes until January 18.

- the sex tapes investigation: I know that this was a big deal, and that they might not be able to convict Aaron for Lilly's murder now, but I still felt like this was something of a non-issue. Yes, the tapes are gone. But Veronica, Duncan, Logan, Leo, several other people at the sheriff's office (presumably), and possibly other people have seen them. And, more importantly, the tapes don't really affect the prosecution of Aaron for the attempted murder of Veronica and the assault of Keith and the man whose house they were at. It's not like he can say that Veronica locked herself in that refrigerator and lit herself on fire from the outside. I think this means we're about to see more of Aaron's prosecution, now with no real proof that he was having an affair with Lilly, unless Weevil turns up with the secret that was inside the pen and they can analyze it for Lilly's handwriting.

- I was kind of bored by the jury storyline. Class tension! OMG! Like, we know already. But I did think it was a nice touch that Veronica was initially willing to acquit the 09ers.

- I thought for sure the baby wouldn't be Duncan's, but I was wrong. I'm a little disappointed that maybe Meg didn't really have a secret life, and that now she's dead. I wanted her bitchiness to be real, not the cause of hormones and sadness over seeing her baby's daddy with someone new. And I thought for sure when Meg asked Veronica to take care of her baby that it meant Meg was safe, so I was kind of surprised that she died. I think they could have done so much more with her character, but I didn't want to see a baby drama storyline, so I guess they had to kill her for a slightly less conventional baby drama storyline.

No new episodes till January! The horror.

my mother, the fiend (veronica mars 2.9)

Each week, I watch Veronica Mars at my house with my friends Allison and Lara. But last week I went to stay at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. My family was pre-warned about the need for VM time, and I had a TV all to myself, but no tivo. More than most shows, VM is especially suited for watching with tivo, whether to pause for discussion with the aforementioned Allison and Lara or to pause to let things sink in or just scream "WTF?" at the screen. Without that ability, I found myself unable to think clearly about the episode the next day, and I finally understood why a lot of people just don't watch, especially after my mom turned down my repeated invites to come watch with me. It's not an easy show to watch. It demands a lot from viewers. But that's why I love it so much!

So, last night's episode!

1. I love that Clemmons busted Veronica, even if it was to ultimately serve his own interests. I can't remember if he took all her keys away, but if so, doesn't he only have the right to take away the school keys? Veronica might need that Vespa key someday. With all this mention of the Kane scholarship, I'm thinking it's going to figure in at the end of this season--like maybe Veronica wins it and they refuse to give it to her?

2. I also love that this episode centered around Lianne without her ever appearing (I read on a gossip site that Corinne Bohrer wanted too much money to come back, but take that with a grain of salt.)

3. It was awesome to learn some more about the Jake-Celeste-Lianne history, but I still want to know more. How did Lianne end up with Keith? How did Lianne and Jake end up fooling around again, and how many times did it happen and for how long? When and why did she start drinking, if she was such a great person in high school? We never did find out whether Celeste was pregnant--if she had been faking it all along, why didn't Jake then dump her and get back together with Lianne? There's a lot more we can learn about this whole situation, and I hope we will.

4. Speaking of Celeste, there has to be another side to her. Yes, she's mean to her servant, but it is pretty nice that she would offer to send her to grad school afterwards. When Lianne's old friend mentioned that Celeste had to move away and attend Pan High, I thought maybe there was something there. Maybe she was really rich and her family lost all its money? Why does she hate Lianne so much, if she stole Jake from her to begin with? And one thing that has always, ALWAYS bothered me about Celeste is that we've never even been given a hint of why she hated Lilly, her own daughter. Obviously parents have favorites, but it seems like it was a little extreme. Why? No one on this show is all evil!

5. The prom baby storyline was nicely done, I thought. I had suspected it was Trina at first, but then I fell for the servant thing too. And it was nice that Veronica clued Trina in on what she was going to do--I think too often Veronica thinks that people (mostly her dad) will try and stop her when in reality they won't.

6. The meeting between Trina and Kendall (aka the Buffy reunion) was okay, but Logan had the best line with "Rode hard, meet put away wet."

7. I think it's still up in the air as to whether Kendall and Duncan did anything. She said she's been in his bed, but that doesn't mean anything.

8. Beaver and Mac! I love them both. Does anyone else think Beaver is just setting Kendall up?

9. Weevil and Logan teaming up is amazing. I wonder if they're going to include Veronica?

10. Ok, so Keith is tampering with evidence with that rat in the freezer. But I don't really think it matters, because Lamb never would have found it anyway.

11. And finally, Meg. I'd seen some message board speculation that Meg might be pregnant but written it off, so I was still surprised to see those two heart monitors. I said it before, but I love what they're doing with Meg, showing that it's not just the evil characters who have other sides to them. And I'm very happy to see she's awake. That's going to be good.

12. The alternate ending: First, it was really annoying that each ending was the same for the first ten minutes or so. Why not just start the clips with the hospital scene? Second, I did not at all expect Meg's mom to kill her, and it was very chilling. But I prefer the original. The alternate made Meg's family almost too fucked up, and it also would rob us of Alona Tal, who is really good as Meg. We're just starting to dig below the surface on Meg, and I would hate to see that end. Plus, it would be super boring and annoying if we knew that Veronica hadn't done it but everyone thought she did. This show is way, way above hijinks like that.

13. NEXT WEEK SOMEONE IN VERONICA'S WORLD WILL DIE. But before that, does anyone else think it's probably not Duncan's baby? It could be Meg's dad's (I would not be shocked at sexual abuse), Mr. Fuller's, the mysterious non-Duncan boyfriend she brought to the Fullers, Chris Talley, or any number of other people, because Meg is totally wild and fucked up, apparently. So Laura Palmer.

But yes, someone will die. We watched the part of the preview with all the squares of different people in slow motion, so I can tell you that most people on the show were on it. If it's a main character, I'm still going with Duncan, though that is a little disappointing since I feel like we're on the brink of having his character get way more interesting. If it's Weevil, I'll cry. (Speaking of crying, I teared up when Mary Mooney told Veronica her mother was nice.) The only people I was surprised to see were the Manning family members, but I can't decide if that's significant or a red herring.

One more episode until the winter break! Then no new eps until January 18.

nobody puts baby in the corner

Veronica Mars: Season 2: Episode 7: Thoughts!


- This was the best episode so far this season. Not coincidentally, I think it would be a great one for introducing someone to the show (a topic that is frequently on my mind, of course.) We learned very little about the bus crash itself; all we got on that front was Keith following up with the mayor on whether or not Lamb is investigating, which was pretty tame after his dead-rat-in-pieces-taped-to-underside-of-bus-seat discovery last week. And yet I'm suddenly more suspicious of everyone in the entire town. Plus, I feel like this week's abused child mystery was very compelling (and creepy!) on its own, though of course you would get more out of it as a longtime viewer.

- I think it's interesting that while we saw Veronica struggling with whether to read Meg's files a few weeks ago, she apparently had no qualms about Duncan doing it. Sure, he claimed it was the memory of Meg's struggle to help an abused child that led him to read her emails, and not the other way around, but I don't know if I believe that. Duncan has been very sketchy this season so far with regard to Meg.

- I love that they brought the Fullers back from last season to be one of the babysitting families. That little detail sums up a lot about why I love this show.

- My friend Lara called the whole "maybe it's MEG'S family that abuses their kids" thing before it happened. I'm getting a little creeped out right now just thinking about the moment they find all the notebooks in Grace's room and pull open the secret door to reveal her sitting on that chair in the closet secret room looking like a ghost. This whole plot makes me want to rewatch "Like a Virgin" from last season for insight into the Manning family. I'm getting a very Laura Palmer vibe from Meg now. Mostly, I'm just very impressed that they took a well-liked, reasonably well-developed (for a supporting character) role and just dropped the bottom out from under it.

- Just last week I criticized the show for making Lamb too evil this season, so I felt like it was my own little shout-out when we learned that Lamb had grown up in an abusive home. I love that he drove Veronica and Duncan away in handcuffs and dropped them off on a random street before letting them go. Again, they took a character we knew well and totally changed things with one line.

- And speaking of shout outs, I'm sure all the television without pity fans caught the "awkward" one at the beginning.

- Going back to wtf Duncan, did Duncan sleep with Charisma? I had read a spoiler about it, but wasn't expecting it so soon. I'm going to say yes for now, and also, what the fuck? Maybe Duncan is evil!

- I need to leave for work now, but I'm also happy that: Veronica keeps writing to Wallace, Logan told Veronica about Duncan and Charisma (sort of), and also, Gia Goodman is still a beast.

last night, on veronica mars

Att: my friend Dora. Stop reading! Now! (She hasn't seen this season's episodes yet.)

So . . .

-Keith lost the election, probably because he refused to release the bus crash tape to the media. I really love the contrast between Keith, who constantly struggles to do things the "right" way, and Veronica, who is more concerned about the end and less concerned about the means.

-Is it just me, or is Lamb more evil this season? (The way he treated Veronica after her rape notwithstanding.) He used to be a bumbling idiot, and now he's more of an EVIL bumbling idiot.

-I'm sorry, but Dick would NOT have a thing for Gia. I like her less than I like Jackie (who is thankfully absent this week), and I hate Jackie. Jackie at least has a personality you can hate. This girl is so bland. Plus she reminds me of Eddie Munster.

-Yes, just like I wanted last episode, we got a small conversation between Dick and Logan about Charisma, plus a little bit about Big Dick. Awesome.

-I was NOT expecting V to find Amelia DeLongpre in that icebox. I thought maybe Amelia had just left her Palm Pilot behind. Nice surprise.

-I LOVED Veronica and Wiedman working together. I think he always did have a grudging respect for her last season. Shouldn't he be on trial for obstruction of justice too though?

-The scene between Logan and Aaron was great too. Logan seemed a bit subdued this week though, especially when Weevil came to him to talk about how Logan bought his grandma's house.

-I don't really have any complaints about this episode. Nothing especially significant happened, but everything was handled well. I'm looking forward to maybe learning a little more about what was on Meg's laptop next week though. Pretty please?

first impressions can be wrong

Before this season of The Amazing Race began, I made this post. As you can see, I was very pro-Black family (the first team eliminated) and anti-Gaghan family (eliminated last night in the fifth episode of the season.) In their picture and bio, the Blacks seemed spunky and ready for anything, but in the first episode they were more sweet and slow.

On the other hand, I'll admit that, based on their picture and bio, I thought the Gaghans were going to be evil. They just looked too perfect, too wholesome. But they became my favorite team on the race by far, and I was sad to see them go last night. If I had been alone, I probably would have cried along with Carissa. In a season of a lot of indistinguishable teams, both within each team and in the larger race (I don't even know the names of all the individual Linzes, Godlewskis, and Bransens), the Gaghans stood out for me.

Now, of course, I'll be rooting for anyone but the Weavers. One of my favorite moments this season was the Detour that featured driving trucks through mud. The Weavers, who were having major problems, scoffed when the Gaghans appeared, saying they were "city people." (Um, I live in New York City, and Glastonbury, CT is not a city to me, thanks.) Of course, the Gaghans flew through the mud, leaving the Weavers behind.

omg! bands on the run!

In this post back in May, I discussed my love for the long-departed VH1 reality show Bands on the Run. It's probably my favorite reality show ever, even beating out the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. This morning, Reality Blurred readers that the band Faster Pussycat (I haven't heard of them, but that's not really saying much) is currently filming a pilot for a second season of BOTR, with the same format.

Bands on the Run could be back! And, even better, maybe they will re-run the first season. Oh, I'm so excited!