I Heart TV

How I feel about the men of American Idol

2006-03-29T13:57:00.000-05:00

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)

2005-12-08T13:12:00.000-05:00

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)

2005-12-01T12:49:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-10T14:16:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-02T11:47:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-10-31T11:52:00.000-05:00

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!

veronica mars: blast from the past (3.4)

2005-10-27T12:22:00.000-04:00

Some thoughts on last night's episode:

- I'm really pleased with this latest development in Wallace and Veronica's relationship. Too often on TV shows the sidekick is nothing more than a sidekick, but I think that this season Wallace is really coming into his own. I thought Veronica was abrupt and insensitive (but not out of character) when all she said was "the parent who stays is the one who cares" by the lockers, and it's really rewarding to see Wallace call her (and Jackie) out on being too wrapped up in themselves to see what was going on with him. I don't know if I buy Wallace leaving town with Nathan though. Father or no father, he's still a stranger, and that's not exactly a safe move. Plus, what about school? Though maybe they were just going away for a weekend to get to know each other.

- Speaking of Jackie, this week we got our first hint that maybe she's not a cold heartless bitch when she was so upset about Wallace not going to the homecoming dance with her that she took some pills. And her scheme was pretty smart. Still, I hate her, and I don't like the hints this week that something may happen with her and Logan. It reminded me a little too much of Lord of the Bling.

- Duncan and Logan's reunion was the sweetest thing ever, but I wonder what will happen when Veronica finds out?

- Assuming Jackie was telling the truth about only feeding the psychic the stuff about the boob-enhancing cream (and I think she was, because she wanted Veronica to know that she had punked her, and the stuff about Lilly could have been said by anyone), why would the psychic say such a thing? It was a weird, disquieting moment.

- I think we saw a more evil side of Lamb last night. In the past his badness has mostly been about neglect, about not doing his job as sheriff and refusing to consider any solution but the easiest one and refusing to consider anything that contradicts his world view.

- When is Meg going to wake up? I checked imdb for as many episodes as they have listed (up to at least episode 9, if I remember correctly) and Alona Tal isn't listed for any of them. Is she ever going to wake up?

- I feel like we learned a lot in this episode, but I don't like how we've dropped the Casablancas storyline for two episodes in a row now. Wouldn't the kids be talking about it, especially Logan and Duncan when they hang out? I know more stuff about them must be coming up, but I would have liked, for example, if Duncan said to Logan "hey, you can even invite Dick and Beaver" and Logan could have shrugged and said "I don't think they're up for partying" or something like that.

how could you, prison break?

2005-10-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

RIP Marilyn.

Oh yeah, and it was sad when they killed 3 people in this episode, too.

oh now I get it

2005-10-24T14:53:00.000-04:00

This is the first season that I've watched The Amazing Race devotedly, and according to most of the internet I picked a bad season for it. This is the family season, with teams of four instead of two. While it's not heart-stopping excitement (or even as exciting as two episodes ago on Survivor when Blake was surprisingly voted off after talking only about his best drunk stories and his girlfriend's humongous breasts), I've been enjoying it. I was even excited to talk to my mom about it, since she and my sister are longtime fans. But my mom offered an "Ugh!" in response, and echoed the common complaint that it's supposed to be "a race around the world" and that this season is just boring.

Reading the recap of last week's episode on Television Without Pity this morning, I finally understood what all the criticism is about. Miss Alli, the TWOP recapper, was talking about a clue in which teams had to drive in their SUVs to a BP station in Mississippi, find a man named Les, and get their next clue from him. It wasn't terribly interesting to watch, although one team, the Godlewski sisters, did initially miss the station. She says:

When you think about the fact that this is this season's version of finding a guy named Pablo in Mexico City without any indication of who he is or where he is other than a picture of a building, you will weep openly. Because now Mexico City is Richfield, Mississippi, and Zocalo Square is a BP station, and locals are Slim Jims, and Pablo is Les, and the picture is an address, a named location, and a mallet to hit yourself with in case you need additional help.

That quote helped me understand a little bit better just why so many people find this season lacking.

schroeders

2005-10-19T10:41:00.000-04:00

As we watched The Amazing Race last night, my roommate and I wondered about New Orleans natives the Schroeder family, the latest to get kicked off the race and one of my favorites. This article from CBS News details their trip back to their home after the hurricane. It also mentions that the Rogers family, who did not come off well on the show, took the Schroeders in after the hurricane. Aw.

Also, you would think that an article on a network site would get the names of all the families on the show correct. But you'd be wrong.

old favorites: roseanne

2005-10-18T10:03:00.000-04:00

Last night, with nothing on the tivo that we both hadn't seen, my boyfriend and I sat down to watch two episodes of Roseanne. Roseanne was one of my favorite shows growing up, and it's one of the few that I remember watching each week (Wednesdays at 9, if I recall correctly) in my parents' bedroom (the place to watch tv uninterrupted, with my sister already asleep in our shared room, my dad working nights, and my mom watching the day's soaps in the living room) while eating microwave popcorn (my favorite snack in those days) and laughing hysterically. Even at that young age (the show premiered when I was 7), I knew that there weren't many families like mine on tv--families where money was always an issue, where people yelled and were sarcastic and things didn't always turn out okay.

But a lot has been said about the less-than-perfect lives of the Conners, including by me in a paper I wrote for my Women and Television class in college about the conflict between Roseanne and her uppity neighbor Kathy Bowman in season four. But one thing I had forgotten about the show is that things often ended on a very, very down note. This was evident last night in the two episodes we watched from season seven--White Men Can't Kiss and Maybe Baby, about racism and abortion. (They skipped the Thanksgiving episode in between the two, probably because Nana Mary talks about her actual abortions in that one.) Maybe that's also part of what kept me tuning in week after week--I wanted to know if things would be okay for the Conners.

But don't get me started on the last episode of Roseanne, one of the worst last episodes EVER.

sick days

2005-10-16T21:28:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past week battling a stomach virus of death, and that meant a lot of time in front of the television. Unfortunately, due to some active Tivo watching last weekend and the World Series, there wasn't much on the tivo when I stayed home from work Tuesday, just the most recent episode of the O.C. Feeling too out of it to even tackle that, I collapsed on the couch and just went from channel to channel, watching whatever caught my interest.

That sort of random TV watching is something I very rarely do these days. For me, the tivo has made channel-surfing an obsolete activity. If at any given time I have things that must be watched, shows I like that are waiting patiently for me, why would I watch random crap? But on Tuesday, oh boy did I watch a lot of random crap. Even my old standbys--E true hollywood story, law & order, etc--weren't on, so I watched some things I usually never watch. For example:

A Baby Story: I have watched A Baby Story (as well as A Makeover Story, A Personal Story, A Wedding Story, and A Dating Story) before, but an episode about natural childbirth is not something you should watch when it feels like your stomach is trying to exit your body.

Oprah: The last time I watched an episode of Oprah, it was an episode about journaling shown during my Women & Television class in college. I cried. Not just a few tears, we're talking uncontrollable bawling. I am proud that I did not cry this time. It was the episode about how a pedophile was caught after Oprah showed his picture. Although it's a great thing, it wasn't a very moving episode, but then again, what can really be moving when you're trying not to puke?

Murder, She Wrote: The episode I saw featured all kinds of 80's stars and was about a murder at a Napa winery. I watched most of it with my eyes closed and yet still didn't miss anything, but it was oddly comforting, like a very quaint Law & Order.

One Life to Live: There's something endearing about the fact that I haven't watched even one episode of this show in over 2 years and I was still sucked in, able to figure out most of what was going on. Characters on soap operas are so deliciously evil.

I watched other things, of course, but those are the three that stand out. Despite being so very sick, it was actually a little bit fun to guiltlessly watch random TV for a day and escape the pressure of the tivo and the pressure to be productive. I'd like to think it made me feel a little bit better, too.

shows i have abandoned

2005-10-06T11:23:00.000-04:00

To recap mostly for myself, as the fall season started I had plans to watch (or at least check out) the following shows:

Sunday: The War at Home, Family Guy
Monday: How I Met Your Mother/Kitchen Confidential, Prison Break
Tuesday: Biggest Loser, My Name is Earl/Amazing Race
Wednesday: America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars/Lost
Thursday: Survivor/The OC, Everwood/Reunion
Friday: Twins?
Saturday: ?

The War at Home turned out to suck, with the only bright spot being the son who everyone thinks is gay dressing up like his mom in order to steal the car and then forgetting to take off the women's clothing while driving by the hot girls in his class, so that's out. I've been watching Family Guy, but this past week was already a repeat! It's what, the third week of the season?

So far I am still liking How I Met Your Mother. I think it's the most realistic sitcom about a group of friends that I've seen in years (since Friends, which was not at all realistic on the whole but somewhat so in the way the friends related to each other.) There are no weak links in the cast, but I will admit right now that it's Neil Patrick Harris who makes me want to watch each week. I don't know if it's just that "holy shit, Doogie's doing what?" feeling that I like, but he is surprisingly hilarious, especially after re-watching season 1 of Doogie recently. The one thing that annoys me about this show is the main character's future kids. I think they could have Bob Saget just narrate the whole thing without those little scenes and it would still work.

I liked Prison Break from the start, but only in an "ehh, it's decent and everybody else is watching it" kind of way. Then, last week, with the prison riot, it suddenly got super suspenseful and I actually started to care--not about Lincoln, the character set to die, who defines the term "big lug," but about the other characters. I will actually miss this show during the baseball hiatus.

My other roommate (the non-TV-loving one) changed the channel during the premiere of the Biggest Loser, and just like that, I stopped caring about it. Sure, I could have downloaded the episode, and then I thought to myself, am I really going to go to all that trouble just to watch anonymous (i.e. non-celebrity) fat people lose weight? Besides, I get my reality fill on Tuesdays with The Amazing Race, though the Paolo family reminds me too much of my own and I sort of hope they get kicked off soon. My early pick to win, the Black family, got kicked off at the end of the first episode, so I've got no hunches now.

And My Name is Earl really was great, much quirkier than the average sitcom (and quirky in the real way, not quirky as a synonym for obnoxious), but to watch it, we have to tape it on the other TV, and I'm just not into the effort, especially for a sitcom.

More on the other days of the week later. Back to work.

two words: um, ew.

2005-09-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

Tonight I watched my favorite episode of every America's Next Top Model season: the makeover episode. It was very low on freakouts but still fun, and it most cases the makeovers GREATLY improved the models' appearances. (And here I am thinking of Coryn, who may not be a man now. Maaaybe. And Sarah, whose shorter hair shrunk her lips to half their normal size.) I totally sympathized with poor Cassandra, the girl who got all her hair cut off. I'm growing out a pixie cut and I would break down like that--or worse--if asked to cut it all off.

Last week, the best phrase of the episode was Ebony's catchphrase: Don't. Get It. Twisted. (complete with finger snaps.) Now that Ebony's gone, this week's best line goes to James St. James. I gasped when I saw him. James wrote Disco Bloodbath, the story of his time as the "first club kid" and best friend to murderer and night club fixture Michael Alig, and he is, to put it as Tyra might, fierce.

So tonight, when he saw Ebony's outfit at one of their challenges, he nearly predicted her demise by saying "Two words. Um, ew." What will next week's catchphrase be? I don't know if anything can beat "two words: um, ew," but Miss J in flippers, teaching the girls to walk, might provide something awesome.

i can't even believe i'm keeping up with the new shows

2005-09-22T13:26:00.000-04:00

I keep hearing that this is the year that will be the turnaround for sitcoms, that good shows have arrived to rescue us from crap. Having seen five new fall sitcoms now, I'm almost starting to believe it. Of the five I've seen, I've only thought one (The War at Home) was bad, and it wasn't even monstrously bad, just average bad. Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother, Kitchen Confidential, and now My Name is Earl are all shows that I would recommend to a friend. I'd even be watching all four if not for multiple time conflicts.

Last night I watched the premiere of My Name is Earl (on tivo), and the first thing I thought was, damn, Ethan Suplee's lost a lot of weight. Suplee (Boy Meets World, The Butterfly Effect) was almost unrecognizable as the brother of Earl, played by Jason Lee. Still fat, but not as fat. Anyway, I laughed! (I love how sitcoms have become so bad that I feel the need to note it with an exclamation point whenever I laugh at a show.) Jason Lee is what made the show for me, as he still manages to be appealing even with that horrible moustache. And I like seeing characters on sitcoms who aren't rich or even middle class (I'm betting Earl is going to blow through that $100,000 he won mighty quickly.)

I also watched the premiere of America's Next Top Modellast night. I realize we're only starting the fifth season, but I like how ANTM never gets old, unlike, say, Real World. Maybe it's because there are challenges, and not much drinking/partying. The first model kicked out was Ashley, who seemed like a bitch and wouldn't help poor, lesbian Kim with her makeup. Kim's already one of my favorites, because I always like the smart one, but I don't think she'll win. At this very early stage, I'm tentatively picking Nik to win. I'll probably change my mind next week though.

i continue to watch more new shows

2005-09-21T13:49:00.000-04:00

I think I'll try and update every time I see three new shows.

My Fair Brady
I really wanted to like this show, which showcases Adrianne Curry of America's Next Top Model and Christopher Knight of the Brady Bunch as they explore the love they found on Surreal Life. I don't watch SL, but after recently watching the first season of ANTM on DVD I grew to love Adrianne, despite her heavy Chicago accent and her tendency to not open her mouth when she talks. Also despite her wearing a choker for most of the season. And when I read about her allegations that she never really received the promised prizeshere, I grew even more curious to see how she was dealing with life as a continuing reality show star.

Plus Peter was always my favorite Brady.

Unfortunately, My Fair Brady is not nearly as compelling as the model competitions (though slightly more compelling than the Brady Bunch. Except for that Hawaiian episode. Or the one where they all get the mumps.) Like many other couples, Chris and Adrianne fight about her dependence on him, living together, getting married, household chores, etc. Adrianne burps a lot, and sometimes she spanks Chris. She looks even more beautiful now, but it's still not enough to keep my interest. They're just too normal, which is good for them but bad for the show. I'd watch it at the gym though.

Kitchen Confidential
I had high hopes for this one as well. KC is based on the life of chef Anthony Bourdain, who was something of a "bad boy." It stars Bradley Cooper, who is unbelievably hot and who used to be on Alias, as well as a lot of other people (Nicholas Brendon, John Francis Daley, Bonnie Somerville, Andrea Parker, Bitty Schram) who used to be on a lot of other shows (Buffy, Freaks and Geeks, NYPD Blue/The OC, The Pretender, Monk.) There were a few great parts (the end, when Jack asks Stephen if he's high, for example) but nothing clicked for me. It was definitely funny, but like I said in my short review of How I Met Your Mother (which is on against KC), I need some emotional connection for a sitcom to draw me in from week to week and earn a spot on the tivo. It was the first episode, though, and I will maybe check in again in a month or two, but How I Met Your Mother is what I'll be watching regularly.

Though, I should note that I watched this with my friend Dora, a veteran of many restaurant jobs and a fan of the book, and she really liked it and said it was dead-on accurate.

Bones
Way too much time is spent on this show with holographs in the lab. I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but at the same time I couldn't remember this morning if they had ever explained why the killer did what he did. I mean, they must have, but it can't be a good sign if I don't remember it. Emily Deschanel looks way better than she did in Boogeyman, though (to me she looked really old in that movie), and I liked David Boreanaz. I can't see myself watching it every week, but I think it could improve.

how i met your mother: possibly good!

2005-09-18T19:17:00.000-04:00

I just watched a preview DVD of How I Met Your Mother, the new show on CBS (Mondays at 8:30) starring Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris, and it was actually good! It's been years since I liked a new sitcom, but this one made me laugh several times. Most shows that try to portray a group of friends in their 20s seem totally unrealistic (like, say, Friends), but HIMYM came pretty close. The show is told in flashbacks as the main character tells his children how he met their mother. Hannigan, Harris, and Jason Segel of Freaks & Geeks play his friends. Josh Radnor, who plays the main character, was totally sympathetic and lovable, and, thanks especially to a slight twist at the end, I really want to know what happens next. That, I think, is the key these days to a successful sitcom--having a somewhat serialized story.

So, I highly recommend it.

Today I also watched the season finale of Kill Reality, and was appalled. Totally appalled. Jonny Fairplay took a shit on Trish from the Bachelor's bed. How do you do that? What motivates you to do that? How do you take a shit on someone's bed WHILE THEY ARE SLEEPING IN IT? On television? Fucked up!

shows i have seen so far and what i thought of them

2005-09-16T19:28:00.000-04:00

I've already written about Prison Break, but I've watched some other new shows, too.

Reunion
You've probably heard about the premise of Reunion. One of a group of six friends has been murdered, and the season will review the events leading up to that crime, with each episode representing one year. 1986 was unimpressive. Yes, I'm dying to know who dies, who killed the victim, and why, but that doesn't mean I'm going to watch the show. Watching "1986" was excruciating. The costumes and sets were very "like, OMG! It's 1986!", and the characters were simple stereotypes: the rich kid, the poor kid, the pretty girl, the plain girl, the slutty girl, the nerdy guy. It felt very much like a bad teen novel. I have a feeling this show will be this year's Desperate Housewives for me (but not have any of the success that DH has had.) All year I would read recaplets of what was happening on DH and think, "hmm, maybe I was wrong. Maybe the show really is good." But then I would remember how much I hated the few episodes I watched, and I think Reunion will be the same way--compelling ideas but poor execution. I may watch one more episode, just to be 100% sure (I believe last night's what pre-empted for Bush's speech), but only if nothing else conflicts.

The War at Home
I once read something about a show (and it may have been this show, actually, but I can't remember) that described it as though it was a refugee from the Fox lineup of the early 90s. That line pretty accurately describes TWAH, a poor man's Married With Children. I hated Married With Children, by the way. The first few minutes weren't that bad, but the show quickly went downhill when it tried to make racism funny. I love when shows tackle taboo subjects, but it has to be with an awareness of the uncomfortability of laughing at something like that, and this show has no awareness of anything. I'm curious as to how it will do this year, sandwiched between The Simpsons and Family Guy, but I have a feeling it won't make it past 5 episodes.

Everybody Hates Chris
I obtained a preview DVD of this, and it was pretty good. Not hysterical, not the funniest show ever, but not bad. One problem that I think the show might run into is that (to me) the best parts of Chris Rock's routines are the more "adult" jokes, and he can't really lay those out here. If this weren't on against the O.C., I would probably watch it.

That's what I've watched so far, but I've got The Biggest Loser and Survivor Guatemala waiting for me at home.

friday tv preview

2005-09-16T13:42:00.000-04:00

Friday!

Friday is a sad, dead night.

8:00 PM
Supernanny (ABC)
Ghost Whisperer (CBS)
Dateline NBC (NBC)
Bernie Mac/Malcolm in the Middle (FOX)
What I Like About You/Twins (WB)

Jennifer Love Hewitt in Ghost Whisperer? I can't watch a show with a star who (once?) preferred to go by "Love." But I'm secretly enticed by Twins, if only because it stars Sara Gilbert. She was so funny on Roseanne once that maybe she can make a show about feuding fraternal twins running a lingerie company whose parents are Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker interesting.

9:00 PM
Hope & Faith/Hot Properties (ABC)
Threshold (CBS)
Three Wishes (NBC)
Killer Instinct (FOX)
Reba/Living with Frank (WB)

I think Reba/Living with Fran might be the most annoying hour on television all week.

10:00 PM
20/20 (ABC)
Numb3rs (CBS)
Inconceivable (NBC)

Numb3rs isn't bad, as those shows go. But none of those shows really intrigue me.

And that's it for the week. Gone are the days when Saturday meant sleeping over at my grandma's house and watching Golden Girls, Empty Nest, and Nurses.

thursday tv preview

2005-09-15T13:36:00.000-04:00

Thursday!

8:00 PM
Alias (ABC)
Survivor: Guatemala (CBS)
Joey/Will & Grace (NBC)
The O.C. (FOX)
Smallville (WB)
Everybody Hates Chris/Eve (UPN)

Thursday is another somewhat tough night. Joey was always my least favorite friend (tied with Phoebe), and Will & Grace is another show on its way out, so that can be ruled out easily. Last year I tried giving the first season of Alias on DVD a try, and it lost my interest after about 10 minutes--I still don't get what everyone sees in this show. I think Chris Rock is hilarious, so I'd like to see Everybody Hates Chris, and I'd like to get back into Survivor (I haven't watched regularly since the first season), but my heart belongs to The O.C. Can it rebound from the suckiness of last season and go back to being the show I loved?

9:00 PM
Night Stalker (ABC)
CSI (CBS)
The Apprentice (NBC)
Reunion (FOX)
Everwood (WB)
Cuts/Love Inc. (UPN)

I saw Reunion this past week, and it was bad--not "so bad it's good" bad, but just plain bad. The gimmick is all it has. Everwood is probably the best quietly good show on TV, and my roommate loves it, so that's what I'll be watching.

10:00 PM
Primetime Live (ABC)
Without a Trace (CBS)
ER (NBC)

Remember when ER was good? Me too.

wednesday tv preview

2005-09-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

Wednesday!

8:00 PM
George Lopez/Freddie (ABC)
Still Standing/Yes, Dear (CBS)
The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (NBC)
That '70s Show/Stacked (FOX)
One Tree Hill (WB)
America's Next Top Model (UPN)

Freddie? Why can't we have more Sarah Michelle Gellar instead? I hate The Apprentice, and I hate Martha Stewart, so I won't be watching that even with all the buzz. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I kind of like Stacked, but That '70s Show is dying a long, slow death. I hear that the cast of this season's America's Next Top Model is the hottest ever, so that probably means they're the bitchiest, too. ANTM all the way.

9:00 PM
Lost (ABC)
Criminal Minds (CBS)
E-Ring (NBC)
Head Cases (FOX)
Related (WB)
Veronica Mars (UPN)

As if there was any doubt, I'll be watching Veronica Mars, THE BEST SHOW EVER. Every person I've introduced to this show loves it, too. But my roommate and I will tape Lost on the other television. I ended last season pretty dissatisfied, but I haven't totally given up. Depends on what's in the hatch.

10:00 PM
Invasion (ABC)
CSI:NY (CBS)
Law & Order (NBC)

Nah. Nothing fascinating here.

tuesday

2005-09-13T13:19:00.000-04:00

Tuesday!

8:00 PM
According to Jim/Rodney (ABC)
NCIS (CBS)
The Biggest Loser (NBC)
Bones (FOX)
Gilmore Girls (WB)
America's Next Top Model repeat (UPN)

I know a lot of people who love Gilmore Girls, and I've watched a few episodes, but I still can't get over my horror at Rory and Lorelai's relationship enough to enjoy the show. No one talks like that to her mother. I like David Boreanaz, and I've heard mixed reviews of Bones, so I may try to check it out at some point. But I'll be watching The Biggest Loser. I only hope that real people are as compelling as those on Celebrity Fit Club. Plus, watching weight-loss shows always makes me feel better about my own health habits.

9:00 PM
Commander in Chief (ABC)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC)
House (FOX)
Supernatural (WB)
Sex, Love & Secrets (UPN)

This is a tough hour. I can immediately rule out Sex, Love & Secrets (too cheesy) and Commander in Chief (too boring.) I love horror movies, so I'm intrigued by Supernatural, but it also has the potential to be cheesy/not scary. House has gotten so many good reviews, and I am curious, but something about it just can't lure me in. The real contest for me here is between My Name is Earl and the Amazing Race. I love Jason Lee, and people are saying this could be the sitcom that saves comedy. Plus, I do like comedies where the main character isn't totally sympathetic. But the winner for me here is Amazing Race. I've never been a regular watcher, but every time I catch an episode, I wish I was. Last season it was up against Veronica Mars, so there was no way in hell I was going to watch it, but I've been waiting all summer to start watching it this season.

10:00 PM
Boston Legal (ABC)
Close to Home (CBS)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)

Nothing much here. I love SVU, but it's hard to make it appointment television when it's on 87 times a week on USA.

monday tv preview

2005-09-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

Monday!

8:00 PM
Wife Swap (ABC)
The King of Queens/How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Surface (NBC)
Arrested Development/Kitchen Confidential (FOX)
7th Heaven (WB)
One on One/All of Us (UPN)

Did you know that 7th Heaven is starting its 10th season? I don't think the show even has any cheesy value anymore. Put it out of its misery, please, somebody. Then again, I don't watch it, haven't seen an episode in years, so maybe it is secretly awesome.

This is a tough time for me. 8:00-8:30 is reserved for Arrested Development as per my roommate Andy, as it's one of only 3 shows that he actually gives a shit about. But 8:30 is so troubling. I'm dying to watch How I Met Your Mother. Allyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris? It has a lot of potential, and despite being intrigued by Kitchen Confidential, I thought I had made my decision to watch a show on CBS for the first time in years. But then I read an article about Kitchen Confidential, and I thought about how I don't think I can remember another show centered around high-pressure cooking. Plus, it has John Francis Daley of Freaks and Geeks in a supporting role, and I'm curious to see what Sam Weir is like all grown up. I'll have to watch both and then make a decision, and of course there's the possibility that I won't like either show and instead I'll read books during this hour.

9:00 PM
Monday Night Football (ABC)
Two and a Half Men/Out of Practice (CBS)
Las Vegas (NBC)
Prison Break (FOX)
Just Legal (WB)
Girlfriends/Half & Half (UPN)

I am ashamed to admit that for a moment I was weirdly enticed by Just Legal, starring Don Johnson and one of the guys from Undeclared. I probably won't watch it, but I might remain secretly curious for awhile until it gets cancelled and I forget it ever existed. This hour will be devoted to Prison Break and its potential toe-chopping, at least for now.

10:00 PM
CSI:Miami (CBS)
Medium (NBC)

I have to leave this time slot free for the eventual return of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Maybe this will be the season I finally win the online game! You know, one year i was 400th or so out of 80,000 people. Can I win a car by watching CSI:Miami? I think not.

sunday tv preview

2005-09-11T21:06:00.000-04:00

This is the first of my fall previews! Welcome. I'll be doing one per day. Today is Sunday. (I would also like to plug last week's Entertainment Weekly, which has a very nice fall preview that I savor a little bit each day on my lunch hour.)

Sunday!

8:00 PM
Extreme Makeover Home Edition (ABC)
Cold Case (CBS)
The West Wing (NBC)
The Simpsons/The War at Home (FOX)
Charmed (WB)

I've only heard terrible things about The War at Home, but I'm giving it a chance because I like Michael Rappaport. It seems like a typical family sitcom, and I tend to not like typical family sitcoms. I'm guessing I won't watch it past the first week. My new boss gave Cold Case a pretty glowing review, so I think I'll give it a shot even though I'm not that into procedurals. I'll watch The Simpsons if I happen to be sitting in front of the television, but 8 PM isn't a big time for me. Nothing will get the tivo. Extreme Makeover will undoubtedly win the time slot.

9:00 PM
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
CBS Sunday Movie (CBS)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC)
Family Guy/American Dad (FOX)
Blue Collar TV (WB)

I HATE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. I really gave it a try, but I find it boring. I hate shows that feature crazy things happening in suburbia and everyone being so shocked about it. Picket Fences did it a million years ago and did it way better than DH ever could. That being said, Alfre Woodard is becoming a regular this season as a woman living with her son who has a secret. I am going to bet right now that the secret is that she and her son are having sex. Mark my words. I'll be tivoing Family Guy, of course. Some episodes in the recent season fell flat, but some (like the one with Cleveland and Loretta's affair) have been even better than the old ones. I may also check in with Criminal Intent, but only on the weeks that Chris Noth is on, reprising his role as Mike Logan from the original Law & Order.

10:00 PM
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Crossing Jordan (NBC)

I watched Grey's once and didn't hate it, but I also wasn't very impressed. Nothing for me in this time slot.

So as you can see, Sunday isn't a big night for me. What will you guys be watching?

special message to livejournal users

2005-09-09T20:26:00.000-04:00

just a quick note: for anyone who's reading this over the livejournal rss feed, if you have any comments I would love it if you clicked through to the blog and left your comments here. Comments here get emailed to me, but comments on the LJ feed kind of disappear into nothingness. And I like to write back!

the o.c.: the aftermath

2005-09-09T11:54:00.000-04:00

1. One thing I had forgotten that I like about this show is the fast pace. It feels great to get rid of Trey (for awhile, anyway) after one episode. Sure, real criminal cases might take longer to resolve, and real coma victims might take longer to recover, but that would be boring. We hate boring.

2. Seth and Summer were nothing but sidekicks in this episode. It was necessary this time, but will it be that way all season? Can they give S and S a storyline that doesn't involve them breaking up again?

3. Summer looked so pretty though. Even Marissa looked less skeletal. The boating scene made me really want to start wearing headbands again.

4. Julie Cooper! Her ponytail in this episode was kind of weird. Her trying to pay Trey off makes sense though, but you think she would be a little less confident about not getting caught after the whole porn scandal. Though maybe Caleb dying was the lucky break that made her into her old self. Sadly we might never hear about the porn again, since Marissa still doesn't know. I would have liked Marissa to have been able to throw that one in Julie's face. (Does Jimmy know? I can't remember.) They're laying it on a little thick with the will stuff, though. It's pretty obvious Caleb cut her out of the will--if she was ever even in it! I'm sure it all goes to Kirsten. It would be awesome if Caleb had put everyone--Kirsten, Hailey, Seth, Sandy, Marissa, and even Ryan--in the will except for Julie.

5. Speaking of laying it on thick, okay, we get it, Jeri Ryan is EEEEEvil. I know it's early, but I am calling it--she is this year's Oliver. My co-worker thinks that Jeri will try to steal Kirsten's life, and I think she might be right. I do like that they at least made Kirsten slightly skeptical of her--she didn't seem all that thrilled when Jeri asked her to get coffee sometime.

6. I think it's a mistake--both a writerly mistake and a mistake if it were in real life--to not tell Kirsten about the shooting. Especially now that everyone is okay and no one is going to jail.

7. I'm sad that Jimmy has ulterior motives. But it will be awesome when Julie finds out.

8. I thought the scene at the end with Ryan and his brother as the bus drove away was very poignant, and exactly what the show had been trying to do ever since Trey got there--to portray Ryan and Trey's relationship as both good and bad, and to show why it was so easy for Ryan to believe Trey would do horrible things but so hard for him to let go. I think the problem was always Logan Marshall-Green, the actor who plays Trey. It's not that he's a bad actor, but Ryan is such a silent character. For Trey they needed someone charismatic, someone who could draw everyone in--and I did not see that. They should have gone for charming fuckup instead of brooding half-wit.

9. All in all, a good episode that resolved what I wanted it to resolve. Except for the Jeri Ryan thing, I liked it very much.

the O.C. premieres TONIGHT, people!

2005-09-08T16:13:00.000-04:00

I started this blog for many reasons, but one of the major ones was that I had been "recapping" (I put that in quotes because I wrote jack shit about the plot itself but a whole lot about how I felt about it) the O.C. on my livejournal for most of a season and people actually seemed to like it, so it seemed like I needed a place for my O.C. ramblings that didn't also have work bitching and pictures of my friends at the beach.

So I'm a little excited that tonight is the season 3 premiere of my beloved (less beloved than it used to be, but still beloved) show. I'll be watching in complete silence with a group of friends while simultaneously tivo-ing, and I hope all of you will be, too. We've all admitted to ourselves that last season wasn't as good as season 1, but that leaves plenty of room for season 3 to be awesome. And besides, even if it's not, we can have fun wondering who will be this year's Oliver.

One thing that gave me hope was reading this great interview with O.C. creator Josh Schwartz at ESPN.com. The writer, Bill Simmons, is a huge fan of the O.C., as well as 90210 and Melrose Place, and it shows in his writing. Josh Schwartz also makes some astute comments on some of last year's biggest failures (REBECCA) and offers up some reasons why this season will be better while responding to a barrage of questions from Simmons. I think my favorite was when Bill asked why there were no black people on the O.C., and Schwartz replied by asking if Simmons had seen Laguna Beach and pointing out the sad reality of Orange County. (I just really thought about how the O.C. is directly responsible for Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, and couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Probably bad. I think.)

So go read it, and watch tonight, and check back in sometime in the next few days for my recap. Pretty please.

kudos to kanye

2005-09-07T14:43:00.000-04:00

Politics isn't one of my main interests, even when it intersects with television, but when I heard about Kanye West's recent comments on the NBC telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina, I was instantly curious. West said, among other things, that President Bush doesn't care about black people. Popwatch linked to a video of Kanye's commentary, and it wasn't what I was expecting. To be frank, I thought it might be another blowhard speech, but instead I was moved by Kanye's obvious nervousness and heartfelt emotion. Usually when celebrities choose to enlighten us about their issues during awards shows and other events, it comes off as crude and out of place. Some people think Kanye's comments could be described the same way, but I think the opposite--it was EXACTLY the right time and place for him to say what he said.

Plus, it was fun to see the look of total shock on Mike Meyers' face.

This incident raises the question of how we view our celebrities. We tend to want the whole package. Not satisfied to merely enjoy someone's work, we want to know everything about them. To those saying that Kanye should have kept his mouth shut, I have to point out that Kanye's political views have inevitably informed his music, the very thing that made him famous, and we should appreciate his willingness to unleash what may be an unpopular opinion.

In a later post, Popwatch tells us that the Billboard sales for Kanye's latest album topped 900,000 copies sold this week, so perhaps a lot of people were thinking what only he was willing to say. Or maybe they just like his music. Either way, I'm glad his career didn't suffer for him taking that risk.

first new show of the season!

2005-09-05T22:03:00.000-04:00

I think the fall 2005 television season officially began last Monday with the premiere of Prison Break on Fox. It took me a week to watch the two-hour premiere, and it was worth it. Prison Break had been heavily hyped before the premiere; Kristin on E! has been going nuts over Wentworth Miller, the star (who is admittedly very hot.) While I don't know if it'll be the best new show of the season, it has earned its season pass. The basic premise of the show is that Michael, a structural engineer, robs a bank to purposely get sent to prison in order to break out his death-row-dwelling brother, who claims to be innocent and is probably the victim of a government conspiracy.

One thing I liked about the show was its quick pace. I felt like each scene raised more and more questions, and I like feeling like a show is one step ahead of me. Small things, like what was up with the screws that Michael was struggling to get, were resolved before the end of the two hours, and that made it easier to process the big, overarching scary conspiracy, and a little easier to have faith that it will eventually be revealed. I've also heard (I think it was in Kristin's column) that if the show sees a second season (and at this early stage it looks like it might--the ratings were decent), the characters will break out of the prison, and the show will follow their continuing struggles on the outside against the conspiracy.

One thing I absolutely hated, however, were the short sequences played before commercials, where the camera zooms in on something, like a vent or a screwhole, and zooms through the insides of the prison to show how these paths might lead to escape. It fits with the theme of the show, but I find it distracting and a little lame.

But it's a small quibble, and on the whole I would definitely recommend the show. The premise requires some suspension of disbelief (when asked what he would have done if he hadn't been sent to the same prison as his brother, Michael replies that he would have just served out his term), but once you accept that, the scenes inside the prison seem realistic enough to me. It's not for the squeamish (does Michael still have a toe? I guess anyone who watched tonight's episode knows the answer), but what prison show is? I hope he still has all his fingers and toes though.

wealth and reality tv

2005-08-23T22:59:00.000-04:00

Reality Blurred recently linked to a great article in the Los Angeles Times about the failure of The Princes of Malibu, the recent reality show featuring Brandon and Brody Jenner (sons of Bruce Jenner) and their angry stepdad, composer David Foster. The show lasted only a few episodes before being pushed off onto the Fox Reality Channel amid allegations that the action on the show wasn't exactly "real."

This is a claim I've also heard recently made in reference to Laguna Beach, and I think the article subtly raises the question of whether or not this is a positive direction for reality shows to take. Is this genre of shows where real people play themselves in somewhat staged situations even really "reality"? (Obviously not, I guess.) But what else can we call it? I'm generally not a fan of this reality subgenre, with the exception of those shows that are also competitions (like Real World Road Rules Challenge) and the "what happens in Cabo stays in Cabo" episode of Laguna Beach.

But the main question of the article relates to the intersection between wealth and celebrity and reality television, and attempts to answer a question I've often wondered about. What drives relatively famous and wealthy people (and their children) to develop their own reality shows? Why is some fame and forture not enough?

can kids hack it on the amazing race?

2005-08-17T11:30:00.000-04:00

Reality Blurred points out that CBS has the cast of Amazing Race 8 up
on its website now. This
season is the "family" season on Amazing Race, and it's been made a
little more family-friendly--the 10 teams only traveled 30,000 miles,
less than half the normal distance. When I first head about this
season, I imagined that all the teams would have child members, but
that's not the case here. Half the teams are made up entirely of
adults (though whether they'll be acting like adults is anyone's
guess) and a few of the others have teenage racers.

Only two teams have children under 14: the Gaghans of Connecticut and
the Blacks of Virginia, and in a contest between the two I'm pretty
sure the Blacks would kick ass. Bill, the Gaghan dad, admits in his
bio that his biggest pet peeve about himself is his lack of patience.
Sure, who needs patience when racing 30,000 miles with two small
children? Billy, 12, wants to "show his dad he has what it takes to
compete" and Carissa, 9, who is so adorable it hurts, "wants to show
her parents she is a tough competitor ready to take on the adults."
The girl is nine! And looks to have the competitive spirit of a teddy
bear.

On the other hand, Kenneth Black, 11, is a black belt in tae kwon do,
and his younger brother Austin, 8, the youngest competitor ever on The
Amazing Race, has a brown belt. The Black children won't have to prove
to their parents that they can take the heat of the race; you can tell
by the looks on their faces that they think they've already won. Even
though they're wearing tie-dye.

how tv guide was once relevant

2005-08-11T23:18:00.000-04:00

There's a great article on Slate today about TV Guide and its once and future relevance. Despite a recently announced overhaul on the horizon, TV Guide still seems to be headed ever closer to oblivion. With a Tivo and its season passes, I rarely have a need for TV listings, and as a kid we never subscribed to TV Guide (despite my begging) because there was a guide that came for free with the newspaper. I scan it every week now, since we subscribe at my (soon-to-be-former) job, and I do like Mike Ausiello's column online, but I don't really respect TV Guide, and neither does Slate.

But it wasn't always that way, according to the article. In TV Guide's golden era, it published contributions from Margaret Mead, John Updike, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. It was more than a listings guide, more than a place for puff pieces. It was a haven for TV scholarship, the kind of writing that I still feel like I don't see enough of, and the kind of writing that motivated me to start this blog. I feel like there's so much great, snarky, hysterical writing about tv out there, but very little scholarship.

did real world go too far?

2005-08-08T13:14:00.000-04:00

Heather Havrilesky briefly escapes her NARM! obsession to talk about last week's episode of the Real World in her I Like to Watchcolumn. (Scroll down to the bottom of that page, and continue on to the next.) In her opinion, the show went too far not in showing Danny's grief but in flashing back to his phone call the previous week with his mom, where she talked about how much she loved him and he brushed her off.

I was surprised to read this column, because I thought this was one of the best RW episodes in a long time. Even if you had missed the earlier episode where it was mentioned that Danny's mom was an alcoholic and that he was not close to her (I believe it was in the very first episode), it was clear that he regretted that conversation. Havrilesky says:

Just in case you're not sure why Danny's feeling guilty, we flash back to Danny's last conversation with his mom over the phone, just a few days earlier, during which she tells him she's sooo glad he called and that she loves him sooo much, and he grunts incoherently in response, then gets off the phone quickly. "Wow! He really should feel guilty!" the preteens at home agree, not remembering that Danny's estranged mom, who struggled with alcohol, quite possibly let him down countless times until he felt nothing but anger toward her. Let's not explain any of that now, though; let's maximize the drama by cutting back to Danny, who's saying he'll never forgive himself.

If I were a preteen, I would find this quote even more insulting than I already do. The "preteens at home" may very well remember that Danny's mom is an alcoholic. And even if they, or the teens or adults watching the show, don't remember, I think anyone can sympathize with the thought that someone close may die before you have a chance to tell them what they mean to you, especially if that person is your parent. As a teenager, how many conversations did I end with my parents by shouting "I hate you"? Tons.

Real World isn't brain surgery, but I do think it's a little more complicated than Havrilesky gives it credit for.

recent tvgasm/real world

2005-08-04T13:42:00.000-04:00

You can see more of my recent TVgasm columms here and here. That first link is a bit about Veronica and Rachel (of RW/RR) and their upcoming reality show. The second link is to an article I worked very, very hard on, and it's on a subject very close to my heart. It's all about why people should watch Veronica Mars.

There's also a post up on TVgasm (not by me) on this past week's episode of Real World. I won't spoil it in case anyone hasn't seen it, but watching it this morning in some spare time before I left for work I almost cried. I can't remember when I last felt any emotion besides derision or disgust while watching RW, but this did it for me.

antm/vm crossover

2005-08-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

I just read on Neptunesite (be careful, there are spoilers there) that Naima Mora, winner of this past season of America's Next Top Model, will guest star in the premiere of Veronica Mars as the new journalism teacher. Will she still have her mohawk? Will she be less wooden? Why can't Neptune High keep a journalism teacher? Only time will tell.

great minds

2005-08-02T16:15:00.000-04:00

An article in today's New York Times discusses Celebrity Fit Club 2 as part of a larger trend of overweight-celebrities-shedding-emotional-and-physical-weight shows. On that note, be sure to watch next week when Victoria Jackson confronts the gymnastics coach dad who told her she was too fat AT AGE FIVE.

don't feed phil

2005-08-02T15:29:00.000-04:00

Now that I have had Tivo for awhile, you can tell how much I like a show by how soon I watch it after it is taped. Right now I have 3 or 4 episodes of Veronica Mars, my most favorite show, waiting for me on the Tivo; my plan is to watch them all in a row this weekend while eating newman-o's and snuggling on the couch. Shows that I like a lot, but not as much as VM, get watched within 2 days, usually. Shows that are low on the totem pole can languish for days or even over a week.

I watched Sunday's episode of Celebrity Fit Club 2 last night, so with that turnaround, you should know that I like it very much. I wrote about how much I liked the first episode, but it's still high on my list of shows to watch right now.

One thing I like about CFC2 is how the participants (Jackee Harry, Gary Busey, Phil Margera, Toccara Jones, Jani Lane, Wendy Kaufman, Victoria Jackson, and Willie Aames) don't live in a house together. In fact, they don't even all live in the same city. It's up to each one to go home and try to incorporate the diets and exercises into their "real" lives, coming back every 2-3 weeks for a physical challenge and weigh-in.

Although I like all the contestants, my favorites so far are Toccara, for her awesome self-confidence, and Phil, because he's Phil. How can you not love Phil? He just looks so genuinely nice. He has by far the best attitude of anyone on the show or anyone on a reality show.

This Wikipedia entry tells how much each member of Celebrity Fit Club 1 lost. Phil and Gary are definitely on track to beat those totals, but I'm not sure about anyone else.

TVgasm posts

2005-08-01T14:04:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm currently guest-columning on TVgasm. You can find my most recent posts, on Situation:Comedy and Dancing with the Stars, here, here, and here.

NARM! part two

2005-07-29T15:55:00.000-04:00

Heather Havrilesky addresses Six Feet Under and Nate dropping to the floor after fucking Maggie (if only he'd had his pants around his ankles) here. She makes some interesting points but says NARM! too much.

NUMB ARM! NUMB ARM! NARM!

2005-07-29T12:43:00.000-04:00

On this week's Family Guy, a worm in Brian's stomach made a joke about Six Feet Under, saying something like "I've only been alive for six weeks, and I've never been outside this dog's stomach, but I still know that Six Feet Under is pretentious."

My boyfriend and I re-watched that FG episode last night, and then watched this week's 6FU. At the start of the episode, my boyfriend asked if I thought that 6FU was pretentious, so I tried to explain what's been bothering me about this season's episodes.

I've never been a huge 6FU fan. I didn't have HBO for the first two seasons, but sometime between the second and third seasons my roommate Andy borrowed some tapes from a friend and got hooked, and when one person in our house becomes obsessed with a show it tends to spread. So now I have seen every episode in seasons 3, 4, and 5 (so far), maybe about half of season 2, and maybe one or two episodes in season 1. I've always liked it, but somewhere along the way (like the start of this season), it became less something I looked forward to every week and more of an obligation. Like, well, I've watched this show for awhile now, and I want to know what happens. But I don't enjoy sitting down and watching each episode as much as I used to.

I found out about Nate's collapse before I had a chance to see the episode, and it didn't affect me much. Part of that comes from knowing beforehand, and part of it likely comes from not seeing all of the original "Nate has brain disease" episodes. But part of it also comes from my dissatisfaction with this season. I'm losing hope for these characters. I'm seeing how they act, and I hate it. I hate seeing them fuck up their lives week after week. This mostly applies to Nate and Brenda.

I'll still be watching, of course. But I won't be as sad when it ends.

YOU can be on the challenge. Yes, you.

2005-07-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

Bunim-Murray and Real World/Road Rules Challenge offer regular people the chance to compete.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that if I were in better physical shape, and didn't already have plans to go to the beach on Saturday, I would actually consider trying out. My refusal to hook up with anyone or drink at all would get me zero screen time, so I could worry more about winning ~$50,000 and less about looking like an asshole. Though I think that the one thing all people on reality shows have in common is that money is more important than not looking like an asshole.

good blog alert!

2005-07-27T10:13:00.000-04:00

Popwatch is my new favorite blog. Brought to you by Entertainment Weekly, one of my favorite magazines, it updates me on the news I want to hear most...that is, entertainment news that does not involve bombs on the subways or discussions of just how hot it really is in NYC today.

brand names continued

2005-07-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

Josh came up with many, many more producer/creator/directors who function as brand names in the comments to my last entry, so I'm just going to cut and paste his comment here in case you missed it:

Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, Blind Justice, Over There)

David E. Kelley (LA Law, Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, Picket Fences, The Practice, Boston Public, Boston Legal)

Aaron Spelling (90210, Melrose Place, 7th Heaven, Summerland, Love Boat, Starsky & Hutch, etc etc)

Bunim-Murray (Real World, Road Rules)

David Simon (Homicide: Life in the Street, The Corner, The Wire)

Spielberg is starting to have quite a TV franchise: (Band of Brothers, Taken, Into the West

Dick Wolf kinda counts for the Law & Order franchise, as does Anthony Zuiker for the various CSI's.

Does Matt Groening count? James L. Brooks does (Mary Tyler Moore show, Taxi, The Simpsons)

Peter Engel? (*lol*)

Scanning this list I have to wonder once again why Picket Fences hasn't made it to DVD yet.

I haven't been watching too much TV this past week. My roommate was out of town and so I tried to barrel through as many of my DVDs on our joint Netflix queue as possible. No Netflix TV rentals this week, though my next disc will be the start of Sopranos season 3 (I'm watching all Sopranos ever right now.)

One thing I have been thinking about is the age of the target audiences for my favorite shows vs. how old I am. At a family gathering of my boyfriend's this weekend I was outed as a TV fanatic and asked what shows I watch. When I named Veronica Mars and the O.C., someone said "oh, so you watch all the teen shows." It's interesting, because I don't think those two shows are necessarily aimed at teens, even though they feature teenage characters. I wonder if part of the reason I relate to these shows is that I know the actors themselves are my age. Or if it's that the shows I watch present a very fictionalized view of what high school is like. Then again, I watched Life As We Know It, and I felt that was a pretty accurate depiction of high school.

What I'm really asking is this: Am I ever going to feel too old to watch these shows? I certainly hope not.

(I have more thoughts on this topic. Maybe a longer piece will come later.)

producer/writer/director brand names

2005-07-23T10:26:00.000-04:00

With the upcoming release of Joss Whedon's new film Serenity, based on Firefly, a show cancelled after less than a season's worth of episodes, I've been thinking about the few television writer/director/producers who constitute a brand. I don't think I'll like Serenity/Firefly (the "space western" genre isn't appealing to me--two genres that i don't like put together? not awesome), but I do like Buffy and Angel (not a rabid fan, but I like them), and so I am a little bit curious. The name Joss Whedon signifies certain things to me, as I'm sure it does for many TV fans. But what other auteur has this kind of power?

I would say J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost) fits into this category. For me, Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) definitely will from now on. I bet Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) will as well. Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) is the king of name recognition on the reality side, and I would say Norman Lear (All in the Family, Good Times, One Day at a Time, Sanford and Son, and many others, including a less-mentioned favorite of mine, The Powers That Be) was perhaps one of the first examples of this.

Who am I missing?

Veronica on CBS!

2005-07-22T17:13:00.000-04:00

An anonymous reader tipped me off to this news, and here's a link to it on Neptunesite: Four episodes of Veronica Mars will air on CBS in the next few weeks! Viacom owns both UPN and CBS, and this just shows how much the network is behind VM. If we are lucky, it'll run before or after CSI or Two and a Half Men. Here is the episode breakdown:

Friday, July 29th, 8 PM - the pilot
Friday, July 29th, 9 PM - Echolls Family Christmas (#10)
Friday, August 5th, 8 PM - Clash of the Tritons (#12)
Friday, August 12th, 8 PM - Ruskie Business (#15)

Now you have no excuse! Watch! Please! I will come to your house and act out what happens in the episodes between these if necessary.

This press release also tells us that season two begins on September 21, just two short months away. It also means that there will only be about 3 weeks between the start of season two and the release of the dvd. That means that if I know you in person, I will keep all season two episodes on the tivo until you can watch all of season one in order on the dvd.

In other IMMENSELY EXCITING Veronica Mars news, my boyfriend works at a photography stock agency and yesterday got a call from someone at Veronica Mars wanting to buy stock photos for the set! My boyfriend spoke to someone on the set of Veronica Mars!

why will & grace

2005-07-21T10:28:00.000-04:00

This article attempts to explain why Will & Grace received the same number of Emmy nominations as Desperate Housewives despite being "past its prime." Unfortunately, the writer just asks the stars (Eric McCormack) and the creators (Kohan & Mutchnick), who would never say "yeah, we totally sucked this year! isn't it funny we got nominated?" (I haven't watched this year, so I don't know if it sucked.) Anyway, their contention is mostly that a) the show is still good, and b)lots of famous people like it. And famous people are so in touch with what the American public likes! Right.

10 years of RV living

2005-07-20T11:38:00.000-04:00

Road Rules Web celebrated the 10th anniversary of Road Rules yesterday. The website has Jake (of Road Rules Islands) talking a bit about the RR experience and an anniversary poll. It feels strange to celebrate 10 years of Road Rules when everything I've heard says the show is gone for good, though I've never heard why. Too expensive? Insurance issues? Who knows. Still, it was "the first ever adventure reality TV show and second reality TV show ever." Plus, in later years, I actually enjoyed it much more than Real World, as the "adventure" and competition elements gave it something to tune in for besides pretty people getting wasted. Happy anniversary, bastard stepbrother of Real World!

over there

2005-07-19T16:35:00.000-04:00

My copy of Entertainment Weekly this week came with a promotional DVD for Over There, a new series premiering on FX on July 27 at 10 PM. I also saw this DVD in an issue of Time that we got at my office this week, and I'm wondering what other magazines had it (now that I think about it, it makes sense that EW and Time both had it, since they're both Time Warner properties.)

I think the DVD just has a few scenes (and maybe a battle?). I haven't watched it yet, and I may very well not, just because a war show is never going to be a show for me, but it's an interesting promotional tactic. From what I hear, the show's gotten decent reviews so far, and I'm wondering what kind of an effect this will have on viewership, and if that can even be measured accurately.

You know, if I could, I would love to burn DVDs of all my favorite shows for my friends to get them to watch, and I bet it would work, too.

books to tv

2005-07-19T13:13:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of The Dive from Clausen's Pier, a 2002 novel that had been recommended to me a long time ago by a friend. Turns out that this Sunday the movie version will air on Lifetime. I'm only about a third of the way through the book right now, but I'm still annoyed that Michelle Trachtenberg will be playing the part of Carrie. She just seems too young and goofy to play Carrie. I hated her as Dawn, Buffy's little sister, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I might be carrying a personal grudge, since Michelle grew up in my neighborhood and was reportedly very snotty to the woman whose kids I baby-sat, a teacher at Michelle's elementary school. But maybe she'll surprise me. I didn't hate her as much on Six Feet Under. Though I'm preemptively pissed that they changed the name of the main character from Carrie Bell to Carrie Beal. And Mike is Mike Mayor instead of Mike Mayer. Why?

veronica mars news

2005-07-18T10:11:00.000-04:00

I'm a little late on this, but Charisma Carpenter and Steve Guttenberg will be joining the cast of Veronica Mars. Charisma Carpenter is better known as Cordelia from Buffy and Angel, and Steve Guttenberg was in Three Men and a Baby and Police Academy, among many other movies that I watched while growing up. Charisma will play Kendall Casablancas, stepmother to Dick and Beaver, and appear in at least 6 episodes, while Steve will play Woody Goodman, a mayoral candidate who will appear in at least 7 episodes.

I support anything that brings more viewers to VM, but it makes me sad to think that maybe some of last season's regulars will appear less so that they can afford Charisma and Steve. I do think Charisma will make an awesome trophy wife, though.

In other Veronica Mars news, two things from E Online's Watch With Kristin:

And furthermore, a hearty "Hear! Hear!" to the words of my dear friend, Lost boss Damon Lindelof, who returned my congratulatory email with: "Thanks so much for all your kind words and support! P.S. I think Veronica Mars got shafted."

Nice to hear. Kristin also names VM as her number one "summer show to watch." She also tells us that Logan will be in every episode next season (yay!). However, she has reneged on her initial report that someone would leave after episode 5 or 6 (a pretty widely circulated rumor until Rob Thomas, exec producer, shot it down in a TV Guide interview) and now says the person will leave after approximately 12 episodes. Kristin is right more than she's wrong, but I have to say I have my doubts here, just because she was wrong the first time. (Although that might not have been her fault...a gossip is only as good as her sources.) Later on, she says it's not Weevil, though he is down to 12 episodes from 16. And we've already learned it's not Logan. Duncan? Aw, Duncan.

Also? I want Kristin's job. Dream job.

Also, last night I hosted a little Veronica Mars viewing party and I was so happy to see that my two friends loved the show, even asking to watch three episodes instead of the planned two. Since we've seen episodes 1 (Logan fucks up Veronica's car), 6 (Logan arranges boxing matches between drunk homeless people) and 10 (Logan makes racist comments to Weevil), they currently think Logan is an asshole. Little do they know!

I will not rest until everyone I know watches this show!

Emmys!

2005-07-14T11:57:00.000-04:00

The Emmy nominations were announced today, and despite my most fervent hopes, Veronica Mars was not nominated for anything. I didn't really believe it would be, but a girl can always hope. Anyway, I thought I'd share some thoughts I had as I read through the 36 page nomination list.

- The nominations were presented by Michael Imperioli (Sopranos) and Jami Gertz (um, Less Than Zero? the phone sex woman on Seinfeld? I could have also sworn she played Lisa on Another World back in the late 80's, but that was Joanna Going, recently on Into the West) I met Michael Imperioli once (I was baby-sitting for a friend of his daughter) and he was very nice and normal. But has Jami Gertz been in something recently that I'm forgetting? IMDB says no. Or is someone at the Emmys just a huge Jami Gertz fan?

- CBS led network TV with 59 nominations. (HBO led overall with 93.) I watch zero shows on CBS.

- Family Guy got nominated for Outstanding Animated Program! But for North by North Quahog, the season premiere, which I thought was very ehhh. I bet some of the more recent, extremely foul-mouthed episodes didn't air before the cutoff date.

- Carnivale was nominated for a lot of non-performance awards, like art direction and hair and makeup. Earlier today I was reading something I wrote the day after the season 2 finale and I got a little sad thinking about how it will never air again.

- I had no idea there were Emmys for casting. How does one get involved in casting? I've always wondered that.

- Reefer Madness got two noms (choreography and song) so at least Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) is in there somehow.

- Another category I didn't know existed was Outstanding Commercial. I don't recognize any of the nominees, but thanks to Tivo I've seen a total of maybe 5 commercials in the past 6 months.

- It's interesting to me that Desperate Housewives (with numerous nominations) is categorized as a comedy. One of the few things I like about the show (I am most definitely not a fan) is the way it straddles the line between comedy and drama. I feel like when shows are in-between in such a way, they get lumped in with comedies for a better chance to win. Unfortunately I can't think of any examples right now. If I had to pick, though, I would say that DH, like The O.C., is a drama with comedic elements.

- Quentin Tarantino got nominated for his CSI episode. I'd like to catch that at some point--I'm not a big CSI fan but I can definitely watch an episode or two every once in a while.

- Nominations for Deadwood and Rescue Me make me think I should give in and get into those shows. Maybe when I finish my All Sopranos Ever project (I have finished the first two seasons.)

- MADtv got a few random noms, like hairstyling. I had no idea this show was still on. Remember when it was going to dethrone Saturday Night Live?

- I also had no idea there was a category for title design. I wonder if Carnivale was nominated for this when the show as first on, as that was one of my favorite title sequences ever. Veronica Mars would have been a great addition to this category; it's one of the few shows where I don't fast-forward through the credits because it sets the mood so perfectly. (A side note about mood-setting: When Allison and I would download Degrassi: TNG episodes after they aired in Canada, there was always a short intro with a screenshot crediting the person who downloaded and sent them out, accompanied by a weird rap song. Now, when I watch the eps on TV, I kind of miss the song. Anyway...)

- And now, onto the big guns...I'm happy that Zach Braff was nominated for Lead Actor in a Comedy, even though I've never liked Scrubs. I tried to get into it after Garden State to no avail. Still, I like Zach and his blog, so I'm happy. And better him than Ray Romano.

- poor, poor Eva Longoria. Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Teri Hatcher were all nominated for Lead Actress in a Comedy, but nothing for Eva. Hell, even two of the supporting women got nods. That's going to be just a little awkward.

- Naveen Andrews and Terry O'Quinn (Sayid and Locke) got nominated for Supporting Actor in a Drama. If only Hurley had been nominated, now that would have been exciting.

- The biggest surprise to me was that That's So Raven got nominated for Outstanding Children's Program. That show sucks. A lot.

That's all for now. I'll give my predictions as we get closer to the ceremony.

the shame of the real world

2005-07-12T12:03:00.000-04:00

Times when last week's episode of Real World Austin made me ashamed to be a woman, and then ashamed to be someone in my 20's, and then ashamed to be a human being:

1. When two random girls in a bar shouted "get a prettier girl!" to wes as he sat on the couch with rachel. Rachel is very pretty! Also, what kind of asshole would say that? (Oh, wait. An asshole who wanted to be on television. Willingness to be an asshole to get on TV makes me so sad. Unless these girls were already assholes. Then I'm sad in a different way.)

2. When Wes declared "I'm drunk, so now I can tell you that I like you" to Johanna.

3. When Johanna told Rachel that guys don't like her (Rachel) because she throws herself at them.

3a. When Johanna threw herself at a bartender she had just met, made him do a body shot off her, and made out with him, all while he was AT WORK. then she declares to a friend on the phone that she is in love with him.

There were more moments, but I think I've blocked them out. I think I'm getting old.

celebreality

2005-07-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

I've never seen an episode of The Surreal Life, but that'll change come this Sunday (or shortly thereafter on Tivo.) The show has never appealed to me; part of the problem of a show filled with has-beens (or those who never were) is that sometimes people are has-beens for a reason. But Janice Dickinson and her frankness have grown on me after watching America's Next Top Model, and so I've set the Tivo to tape episode 1, though I've never even heard of Carey Hart or Caprice and I think it will make me a little bit sad to see Balki Bartokomus embarrass himself. Word has it he hits on anything with a pulse. Oh Balki, how far you've fallen.

On the other hand, I'm pretty psyched about Celebrity Fit Club, though I've never seen an episode of that, either. At least celebrities will be improving themselves AND making asses out of themselves, instead of just the latter. Plus, one of the celebrity fatties is Phil Margera, father of Bam Margera, who I grew to love while watching Viva La Bam. Most of my favorite Viva La Bam moments featured Phil, such as when Bam ironed pictures of hamburgers onto all of Phil's clothes, or when Bam organized "Don't Feed Phil Day," putting up billboards all over town with Phil's face on them instructing citizens of West Chester not to feed Phil.

But sorry Hulk Hogan, I will not be watching Hogan Knows Best. I can only do so much when it comes to watching former celebrities look silly.

payback

2005-06-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

Last night, my boyfriend and I went to see Land of the Dead. Normally I'm a huge fan of zombie movies, but this one just didn't cut it for me--it was just like a crappy action movie, except with zombies. Really gross zombies. And one of those zombies was played by Shawn Roberts, otherwise known as Dean, Paige's rapist, on Degrassi: The Next Generation. When he died (I guess I'm spoiling a little, but it happens within the first five minutes of the movie), I had to stop myself from screaming, "That's what you get for raping Paige, asshole!"

veronica mars news for next season

2005-06-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

Veronica Mars producer Rob Thomas (not the guy from Matchbox 20) has a great website with lots of VM good stuff--pictures, clips, etc. There's also an option to write to Rob himself (which I did...come on, I am a psycho fan) and ask to be put on his mailing list. Well, on Thursday I got my first Rob Thomas email!

Some of the season 2 information had already been revealed in last week's Ask Ausiello column on TV Guide (scroll down a bit to get to Ausiello's interview with Rob.) However, there were a few tidbits he saved for the email. Such as:

-Dick and Beaver Casablancas will become series regulars, along with a featured role for their stepmother, their dad's trophy wife. She's "Bunny Lebowski ten years later" according to Rob, and will not (necessarily) be played by tara reid, despite rumors to the contrary.
-Veronica will get a new friend in the form of Jackie Chase, daughter of a famous baseball player.
-Keith will be asked to run for sheriff again! by the new candidate for mayor, whose daughter will also be a new cast member.

But the biggest, and most reassuring news by far, which also appeared in Ask Ausiello, was the news that despite some very serious rumors to the contrary, no cast members will be killed off in episode 6! I had read this rumor in so many places that I pretty much believed it, and was leaning towards Weevil or Duncan though my deepest fears said it might be Logan.

In his email, Rob explained that although UPN has asked that they add all these new characters, they don't really have a budget that's any bigger, so some characters' episode counts have been reduced. He said on TV Guide that, for example, Weevil has gone down from 16 episodes to 12. The prevalence of the rumor makes me wonder if, at first, they considered getting rid of a character completely, and then rethought the idea when fans got upset. Either way, I'd much rather have less of a few characters than have to lose someone.

Some other cool things in the email included info about a contest for unsigned bands to get their music on VM, and Rob's pretty inventive idea for getting more music into the show--having established musicians come on and do karaoke, while having their latest singles featured elsewhere in the show. Whether or not people would do it is up in the air, but I think it's a really cool idea, and certainly better than another Bait Shop.

Also, some sad news for those of you waiting for the DVD to catch up on VM before the second season starts: Warner Home Video doesn't want to compete with the DVD releases of Lost and Desperate Housewives in September, so the VM release won't be untl October! At that point, you have to wonder why they just don't wait until January and release a set with commentary and extras, but I guess the idea is still that sooner is better.

Rob ended the email with some pictures of his adorable baby daughter. Even though this was just a mass email, I really feel that by being so involved with VM, I've become a part of an awesome community of television fans.

the real world: making cool cities uncool

2005-06-21T13:50:00.000-04:00

The Real World/Road Rules Blog pointed me to this article in yesterday's New York Times about the new season of The Real World that premieres June 21 and takes place in Austin, Texas. Real World ruler Jon Murray talks about the city selection process and posits The Real World as not only an arbiter of cool but as a cool-ing force, bringing tourism (and other kinds of) dollars to the cities it inhabits.

Is this really true? Of course, I live in a Real World city, but I don't think New York really needed the help. Are there people out there watching MTV and saying "oh gee wow, Philadelphia looks like so much FUN! all the drinking! the sexual confusion! the lackluster efforts at working or being real adults! now that's where I'm going on my next vacation!"

I guess any publicity is good publicity, right?

how i know i am in love

2005-06-21T13:00:00.000-04:00

Right now, there is an episode of Family Guy on my Tivo, even though I've already watched it and in spite of my intense Tivo anxiety, just because I think my boyfriend might want to watch it, too.

complete nielsen ratings?

2005-06-21T10:40:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know where I can find a listing of the complete Nielsen ratings each week? It's pretty easy to find the top 20, but I want to see all the shows. I'm dying to know how the Veronica Mars repeats are doing in the ratings, and all I know right now is that Dancing With the Stars was last week's number one show and that Two and a Half Men aired something like six times last week. Help me!

what's so great about the inside?

2005-06-20T20:28:00.000-04:00

A while ago, I saw the new remake of Amityville Horror and it scared me to death. No matter that it got mixed and even atrocious reviews--I was terrified. So, when I read that one of Fox's newest dramas, The Inside, featured Rachel Nichols, Amityville's bad babysitter, I made a mental note to check it out. Although it premiered two weeks ago, last night my roommate Allison and I finally found the time to sit down and watch it.

I wasn't impressed. Tvgasm, one of my daily reads, recommended it so highly (and steered me so right with their recommendation of Beauty and the Geek) that I was expecting better. That's not to say that The Inside is bad--it's not. It's original, which is quite a feat considering the glut of crime shows out there. Each twist of the case in the first episode, which features a murderer who slices women's faces off (with surprisingly subtle grossness), surprised me. The tone is subtle--no dun dun DUN moments.

The real problem is the characters. We have the gruff and mysterious boss. The team member who also wants to be a friend. The one who is distrustful. The one who doesn't have many lines (the woman, of course.) And in the center of it all, the woman with a gift for crime-solving due most likely to a deep, dark secret.

Haven't we seen it before? Silence of the Lambs. Medium. Profiler (a great show that never got enough attention.

Jonathan V. Last at the Daily Standard tells the story of The Inside's evolution here. Apparently, the original premise featured Nichols as an agent undercover at a high school, and I think the promise of inventive, emotional interaction would have been stronger there.

The Inside might improve, though it'll have to struggle against its premise to do so. Unfortunately, I won't be there to see it happen. The Inside is currently up against Veronica Mars and Lost, and this first episode wasn't enough to shake my loyalty to either show (as if anything could shake my loyalty to Veroncia Mars.) Did anyone else watch it? What did you guys think?

tivo anxiety

2005-06-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

In college, I almost wasn't an English major. I spent the first year and a half of school fearing the required British Literature I and II classes. My interest in literature never really ventured farther back than 1900, and even that was pushing it. I have a hard time with archaic language, and I didn't think I'd find much to capture my interest in the early days of Britain.

I was wrong, of course. (And I should have been dreading the sleepy semester of American Lit I; the Puritans are no strangers to archaic language themselves.)One of the things that endeared my Brit Lit class to me was our discussion of the anxiety over print culture that many people experienced after the advent of the printing press. Suddenly, there were thousands of books to read (well, maybe not suddenly, but relatively suddenly considering the time)and no time in which to read them. With neverending piles of books to read "for fun" after I finished my school reading, I sympathized.

And now, in addition to feeling this way about books, I've come to feel this way about my Tivo.

A few days after I hooked up my Tivo, I was interviewed for an article about Tivo obsession (you can read it here if you've got a free New York Post login, or here if you don't, though you'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.) At the time, I was oh so skeptical about the power of Tivo, the unique, pressure-filled relationship that I would come to have with the little box in my living room with the dancing television on it.

But now my Tivo anxiety has kicked in full force. 12:45 am one night last week found me in front of the television--not watching anything, but rather staring at my "now playing" list and my "to-do" list, obsessing about when I could find the time to watch and delete. At the quality my Tivo is set to record, I can fit about 18.5 hours of television on it. You would think that would be enough, but one week of putting Netflix and reading and going out over Tivo (and VH1 rerunning the entire first season of America's Next Top Model) and it was nearly full.

A quick Google search shows I'm not alone, though this older article from the San Diego Union-Tribune might take things a bit too far:

TiVo television recorders that allow viewers to replay programs and skip commercials have turned casual TV watchers into prisoners shackled to sofas, unable to keep up with the flood of their favorite shows.

Or maybe it doesn't. These casual TV watchers that this quote speaks of? That's not me. I tend to think that even without Tivo, my television fanaticism would crop up in other ways. And nothing is more relaxing to me than a few hours spent with Tivo. Hopefully I can continue to cope with my Tivo anxiety . . . at least until the day I can afford a bigger Tivo.

the next food network star

2005-06-17T10:37:00.000-04:00

I've quickly become addicted to The Next Food Network Star, currently airing on the Food Network. It's only airing for about a month, and I already know I'll miss it when it's gone. Basically, eight finalists were chosen to compete in a series of contests to determine who will get a six-part series on the network. It's not your typical reality show in that so far everyone seems to be getting along very well, with no fights in the kitchen or anything like that.

I'm a closet cooking show fan. I don't really talk about my love for the Food Network, and I don't even have any attachments to any particular shows or hosts. As a picky eater, I sometimes find it hard to think about food in new and interesting ways--sometimes I think I'd be content to just eat pasta with pesto sauce every day. Watching cooking shows gives me a little bit of the desire to try new things, and that's worth a lot to me.

Anyway, the show site is great with info if a little slow and clunky. All the contestants' recipes from each show are there (I'm excited to try Eric's potato salad, which one of the judges claimed was the best potato salad he'd ever had) along with contestant profiles and little mini-blogs.

remember when she had big black hair on All My Children?

2005-06-13T16:06:00.000-04:00

I've always liked Kelly Ripa. When I was a kid, my mom would tape her soap operas during the day and watch them at night, and I often joined her. I still remember how shocked I was when Kelly, who played Hayley on All My Children, first took off the huge black semi-punk wig she wore for her first few months on the show and revealed herself to be a perky blonde. I like her on Regis & Kelly, too, though I've never seen Hope & Faith.

So this week's TV Guide cover story really disappointed me. Kelly is the main part of a larger article on celebrities keeping fit, and she says some things that were downright offensive to me. A selection:

But back when she was a big-haired high-school cheerleader, the 5-foot-4 blonde clocked in at 128 lbs. "That was a fun weigh-in for cheerleading," Ripa jokes. "I was stout. I had four legs, including my two upper arms." The talk-show host and sitcom star, who now tips the scales at a trim 108...

Also (this quote isn't on the web, but it's in the longer article in the print edition):

As for those current whispers that Ripa is now too thin, she insists, "I'm built like a lot of women in New York who are lean because we walk everywhere." Not that she cares about the rumors--she's just happy that when she looks in the mirror now, she doesn't see that stubby cheerleader.

Of course Kelly has the right to hate or love her body at whatever size it is or was. But I think it's a terrible thing to talk in a national magazine about how 128 lbs just isn't thin enough. For the record, I am 5'3" and 125 lbs, and though I have my self-deprecating days I know that my weight is perfectly normal. And on those self-deprecating days, I would not announce to millions of women, most of whom probably weigh more, that this weight is unacceptable.

Also, to insinuate that her thinness is due to living in New York and walking everywhere...well, I doubt it. Sure, people in NYC are thin, but I think it's part of a larger health consciousness rather than simply an increased amount of walking.

I just hate articles that talk about how a given celebrity "eats pizza constantly and doesn't do yoga, Pilates, or weights" and still weighs 108 lbs.

at least it did better than four shows on the wb

2005-06-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

Last week's issue of entertainment weekly featured a list of the complete 2004-2005 TV season ratings. Here are five shows that in my perfect world would not have done better than Veronica Mars (number 149 out of 156 shows, with 2.5 million viewers):

Point Pleasant (#134, 4.1 million viewers)
The Swan 2 (#83, 7.2 million viewers)
Rodney (#58, 9 million viewers--I've never even heard of this show)
Joey (#43, 10.1 million viewers)
Everybody Loves Raymond (#10, 16.9 million viewers)

This chart is also interesting because it shows the percentage change in viewership since last season for returning shows. The O.C., for example, dropped 28%. The biggest drop on the list is The Bernie Mac Show, at 37% (what a shame.) The biggest gain was Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, with a 30% gain, making it #15 overall. One surprise for me was that Scrubs dropped 33%. I would have expected a gain after the release of Garden State.

Oh, and the top show overall was the Tuesday showing of American Idol.

Seeing this list makes it really hit home what a miracle it is that VM was renewed for another season. Remember, reruns start this Tuesday at 9 and continue on Wednesdays at 9 after that.

I'll keep the issue around for a few days if anyone wants to know where their favorites ranked.

summer doldrums and spoilers

2005-06-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

The weather turned oppressive in NYC this week. It's finally summer, and along with the hot weather there's been a lackluster few days of television. I've been hearing good things about Beauty and the Geek, so despite Ashton Kutcher's involvement I'm giving it a try; the first episode is waiting for me on the tivo right now.

Last night was the season premiere of Six Feet Under, but I haven't watched it yet (and therefore you get no link, since I can't risk going to the site and getting spoiled). Speaking of spoilerage, I've been noticing lately that certain news outlets are much better than others in terms of what they'll ruin for you. Entertainment Weekly is pretty good; TV Guide is not, especially if you're a subscriber and get the issues a week early (we subscribe at work.) It's not even that they give away spoilers, really, but the articles tend to point your attention toward specific moments or episodes, as if they don't trust you to pay attention on your own. In the SFU article, they named a specific episode where important things will happen. But that begs the question: how much enjoyment would a viewer really get out of that episode if he or she hadn't been watching all along?

What they did for the finale of Lost was even worse: an entire article on the subject of the last scene on the boat, published the week the finale aired. Wait a minute, you mean they're not going to get rescued, and bad things might happen when they think that's happened? You mean I should pay attention? Thanks, TV Guide, but I think Lost itself dropped more than enough clues that something bad would happen to our rafters; if nothing else, the previously on segment featuring every "dun dun DUN" moment of the season should have tipped viewers off.

Not that I'm some kind of spoiler purist, but I do live in fear of accidentally learning something major about a show before I can see it. The moment before I choose to read a spoiler is always a little intense. I just want to have the choice, even if it seems like the spoiler itself doesn't reveal much of anything.

what happens after the best first season ever (news on next season's veronica mars)

2005-06-03T16:18:00.000-04:00

some possibly bad news from eonline (potentially spoilerish, if it's true):

According to sources close to the show, Veronica's second-season pickup came with a suggestion: that producers try to pull in a broader audience closer in demographics to its new time-slot partner on UPN, America's Next Top Model. To do so, the idea was that Veronica should get a female companion, hopefully with a "name" (rumor has it they tossed around the name Tara Reid--though I choose not to believe that), an older love interest and, here comes the hard part, that producers scale back two characters close to Veronica (meaning, they won't be in every episode), and write off a third.

The full article is here, though I have to warn you there's an even bigger potential spoiler there, one you may not want to hear.

The legitimacy of this news is questionable; Tara Reid's name was tossed around for the role of Trina (which ultimately went to Allyson Hannigan), so it might just be recycled gossip, plus isn't she the new host of Wild On?

Later in the article, Kristin begs the powers that be not to fuck with Veronica Mars, and I have to agree. More characters, fewer characters . . . that kind of stuff ultimately doesn't matter as much as the tone, the quality of the writing, the emotional heft behind the stories. It's a lesson we all learned on The O.C. this season; a great first season does not guarantee a second, and there's a delicate balance between new and fresh and too many scary changes. Maybe that's why this news has me a little nervous today.

I've devoted so much of myself as a viewer to this show, and I just want it to be worth it. But as I said to Allison: no matter what happens, we'll always have season one.

desperate women?

2005-06-02T09:54:00.000-04:00

Does anyone remember a show called (maybe) Desperate Women? It was on in the early 90's, and in New York City aired on channel 9. It was about a group of women both in and recently out of prison. For some reason this show just popped into my head.

And while we're talking about obscure shows that aired for brief periods of time that I wonder if anyone besides me watched, does anyone remember Tribes? It aired on Fox, also in the late 80's/early 90's, at 5 pm on weekdays and was pretty scandalous for that time of day.

veronica mars reruns

2005-06-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Via Neptunesite, here's the schedule so far for this summer's Veronica Mars reruns. I've added the episode number in parentheses. Reruns will air Wednesdays at 9, except for the pilot which will air on a Tuesday:

6/14/05
"Pilot" SPECIAL TUESDAY SHOWING! (1)

6/15/05
"Return of the Kane" (6)

6/22/05
"An Echolls Family Christmas" (10)

6/29/05
"Silence of the Lamb" (11)

7/6/05
"Clash of the Tritons" (12)

7/13/05
"Lord of the Bling" (13)

7/20/05
"Mars vs. Mars" (14)

7/27/05
"Russkie Business" (15)

I'm a little upset that they're not showing all the episodes, but I wonder if they'll show the rest of the episodes after the 27th. It seems likely that they would, since the last two episodes were the best of the season, and then they would have shown 11 through to the end, which isn't so bad. plus, the earlier episodes are lighter on lilly kane stuff and heavier on the mystery of the week. still, one of my favorite episodes is #4, The Wrath of Con, which features flashbacks from homecoming and Lilly's memorial video.

Anyway, I hope everyone watches. My roommate Allison and I had been planning to have a VM party at our house, showing the first 3 episodes to all the people we've pressured to watch, but I'm not sure of the status of that now. We could watch #1 and #6 and #10 and I could stand in front of the room and fill people in on what happens in between.

It doesn't seem to be up on the web yet, but I saw in the latest TV Guide, in their "what we hope happens at the Emmys" article, that they've got as much love for Veronica Mars as I do. They had it picked as their hope for one of the best drama nominees, and Kristen Bell as their hope to win best actress. Not likely to happen, but hopefully their enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm of so many other critics, is enough to bring some more viewers to the second season. Now let's just hope it's better than the second season of The O.C.

degrassi: it goes there

2005-05-31T10:33:00.000-04:00

some recent degrassi news:

Degrassi junior high season two goes on sale on tuesday. The amazon editorial review actually does a nice job describing the show. I got season one as a birthday present this year and recently watched the whole thing in order with my boyfriend. I was obsessed with Degrassi in a weird way when I was younger. The show seemed to air at completely random times on PBS, and I would catch an episode here or there without having any real concept of its context in the overall series, something that would frustrate me now that I insist on watching everything in order. Seeing season one I realized that most of the episodes I had seen as a kid were actually from later on in the series; still, it was fun to see all the actors so young, especially those who are adults now on degrassi: the next generation.

Speaking of degrassi TNG, this article talks about how with production beginning its fifth season, we're now celebrating the 25th anniversary of degrassi. I'm wondering if this will be the last season for TNG; more than half the characters are graduating, and the original degrassi only had five seasons. The article is a tad bit spoiler-ish in that it reveals (in very broad terms) some upcoming storylines and also lists the cast, with at least one person not returning if the list is to be believed.

I also wonder what they'll do on DTNG this season to top last season, with its school shooting and STD storylines (and the abortion storyline the season before.) What taboos are left? What issues are still unexplored? Lesbianism? Incest? Those are the only two I can think of.

Is there any other show out there that has seen success twice, with two (mostly) different casts of characters in the way degrassi has?

planning for summer

2005-05-26T11:10:00.000-04:00

The Futon Critic has a useful grid of all the summer schedules. My plan for the summer is really to catch up on my netflix, but there are still a few shows I'd like to check out. I just set the tivo to tape Medium, House (both regular season shows that I want to check out based on recommendations), Beauty and the Geek, and Hit Me Baby One More Time, with a few others still on the table (tivo only has schedules about a week or so in advance.)

Any other recommendations of broadcast tv I should be watching this summer? Or, more importantly, anything on cable? I wish some of my favorite cable stations were included on this grid.

bands on the run, and things that conspire to remind me of it

2005-05-25T13:16:00.000-04:00

Tonight's the finale of American Idol. I hope Bo wins, but if Carrie wins I won't mind that either. We all know that after each season of AI, it's not only the winner who will end up making an album but also whoever comes in second, and sometimes whoever comes in third and fourth, sometimes with equal or greater success (see: Clay Aiken. do not see: Justin Guarini.)

The second season of AI was the only one I was passionately involved in from start to finish, but I've checked in a few times this season and read the recaps on TWOP. However, as I was thinking about it today, I realized that whatever I may feel for AI, it's nothing like what I felt for Bands on the Run during the summer of 2001.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show, Bands on the Run was a reality show on VH1 that aired for just one season. It featured four bands touring around the country. In each city they competed to see who could get more people at gigs, who could sell more merchandise, and occasionally, who could drink more beer.

It was (and this may sound pretentious, but we've all thought it at one point or another) the only time I've ever felt like the people on a reality show were just as smart as me, and where they were honest-to-goodness nice people who wanted to be famous for their music rather than just famous for being on a reality show.

So, for those of you who watched, here is what I discovered when I googled all four bands today, in the order in which they were kicked off and also (more or less) the other in which I liked them:

The Josh Dodes Band: It appears that the band itself is no more, but Josh Dodes is still a) playing music and b) bald (though by choice, he says.) one of the girl singers is playing with fischerspooner now. This interview talks a little about the show and about what Josh Dodes is up to now. They were my least favorite just because I didn't like their music as much--they were kind of jammy.

Harlow: I always got the feeling that I would be really afraid of Harlow if I ever met them in person. Their lineup has changed since BOTR: Rayshele and Rebecca are gone. They all have livejournals but don't really seem to be an active band right now.

Soulcracker:These guys also seem to be semi-defunct, and they also seem to have gotten rid of a member (Beastie, my least favorite.) None of the photos on their site do Bob justice--he was my favorite of every person on that show.

Flickerstick: As Josh Dodes says in the interview I linked, they seem to be the only BOTR band still active, though they've also had lineup changes (losing cory and dominick.) Although they were my favorites, I never bought their album (though I did try to go see them once, at Wetlands right before it closed for good); still, I'm happy to see they're still a band.

Two other things inspired me to look all this stuff up: Suzun asking me the other day if I knew of any sites that keep tabs on the current whereabouts of former reality stars (I don't, but I wish I did), and my trip this weekend to Suzun's hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where on my last visit in 2001 I watched much BOTR, as you can see:

here

and here.

behind the scenes people with their silly names

2005-05-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

from last week's American Idol recap on television without pity:

I get obsessed with names, like in the credits of TV shows. I don't even care who they play or what their role is on the show. Like "Bunim." I just hear it over and over in my head and I wonder how it's actually pronounced. Or Joey's sister Bessie, "Nina Repeta." Over and over and over. "Nina Repeta Nina Repeta Nina Repeta." Silently, of course. And so this season, being that I watch every second of every episode multiple times, I have now become completely obsessed with "Cecile Frot-Coutaz." What the hell is that? She's an Executive Producer, so I'm sure she's very nice and cool or whatever. Studio people are usually geniuses, and overly kind at that. But "Frot-Coutaz Frot-Coutaz Frot-Coutaz Bunim Bunim Bagdasarian Asaad Kelada Bunim." You know? Do you do that? Sorry. Anyway…

It's not quite the same thing, but my own personal name in the credits obsession is W.G. Snuffy Walden, composer of t.v. theme songs for such shows as My So-Called Life. In college, an RA in a friend's dorm showed all the episodes of MSCL, and I remember giggling to myself every time I saw W.G. Snuffy Walden on the screen. Snuffy! Hee.

Not so dearly beloved: The O.C. season 2 finale

2005-05-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

In the days since Thursday, I've read a bunch of different opinions of the o.c. finale. Some people seem to have had their faith restored with this end to what most people thought was a subpar season, but for others, the finale just confirmed the show's downward spiral. I liked this season at the beginning. I liked Zach. I liked the Bait Shop (well, sorta.) I liked Alex. I liked Marissa as a lesbian. I didn't want to be a naysayer. Last year, I rarely left the house on Thursdays, and I just didn't want to admit to myself that things were just not the same.

The turning point for me was the appearance of Trey. From the first sight of him leaving prison all coiffed and pretty, I could smell trouble. Trey introduced what I like to call the caper era of the o.c.--an era in which silly plots (risky business, for example) too precedence over sharper humor and actual character development.

In light of all that, I didn't have much hope for the finale. But I have to say that it exceeded my expectations in many ways, both good and bad. So, first the good:

Things I Liked About the O.C. Finale:

1. Summer is a nice person again! From the moment she walked into Seth's room with Princess Sparkle in tow, I felt better about Summer's character than I have since the Spiderman kiss. This has been the season of selfish Summer, and it was really great to finally see her not take no for an answer when questioning Marissa about what happened with Trey. She finally seemed like a best friend and a girlfriend again.

2. The Coopers! I still think Julie Cooper is the best thing about this show, and Tate Donovan is a lot funnier than people give him credit for. I even teared up a little at the end when Marissa hugged Julie (shut up.)

Things I Had Mixed Feelings About:

1. Kirsten. I read a comment on another blog where someone said that they felt the drinking storyline came out of nowhere, but I disagree. Kirsten has been a serious social drinker since the beginning, and it's escalated slowly, which I think is fairly realistic. Plus, Kelly Rowan did a great job. But I feel like by shipping her off to rehab, they're avoiding a discussion of Sandy and Kirsten's marital problems, and placing blame on Kirsten that should go on Sandy. Then again, I don't ever want to hear Rebecca Bloom's name ever again.

2. Ryan and his "I've tried to be different and it didn't work" line. If this season had been done better, that could have been an amazing moment. I feel like we haven't really seen how difficult this has been for Ryan, and all the stuff with Trey has been so heavy-handed that it sucked any poignancy right out of this story.

Things That Just Sucked and I Hate Them:

1. Guns at the Bait Shop/Jess the Drug Ho (as she is affectionately referred to on television without pity.) I'm sorry, but since when is this show about guns and drug deals and FUCKING CAPERS?

2. The end. Again with the guns. My roommate Allison pointed out that every character acted very true to themselves in this moment, and I have to agree with her. But at the same time, I feel like this is just silly, especially the death scene. The blood spurting out of the bullet hole was the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. On the other hand, I am curious about how this will be resolved, so that has to say something, right?

I think this show has just lost its way this year. There were too many supporting characters, too many soap opera plots, too many capers. Too many things happened this season that didn't resonate or have any long-lasting effects for any of the characters. I still can't get over the stupid Risky Business episode.

I still have hope, though. How can a show start out so good and end up so bad?

welcome

2005-05-21T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hi! My name is Erica. I really like television. A lot. I also like to talk about television, and I find that talking about a show, or an episode, or an actor is often what makes tv-watching most enjoyable for me. I'm lucky in that I have a lot of friends who like tv, but I wanted a place for all my tv ramblings. So here we are. I have a boring job, so look for posts at least once a week.