Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Really Long German Word

I went out after work last night (yes, I have a life) and didn't get to watch HIMYM until I got home this evening. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed. Last night's episode was OK, but a definite step down from last week's Slapsgiving. Here's the rundown:

Ted has one of those moments where he realizes he's out of shape (I have one of those moments every morning when I get out of the shower.......ugghhh), so he decides that its time for all of them to join a gym. This results in the night's two funniest moments, neither of which have to do with the A-plot, so I'll leave them for later. Barney already belongs to gym, but he doesn't work out there. Instead, he "invests"--he chats up overweight girls so that they'll remember him when they get skinny. The man might be an innovator, but he also might be crazy. While ordering a smoothie, Barney encounters Rhonda, his mom's chain smoking friend who he lost his virginity to. There's one small catch: Rhonda has no idea who he is. Apparently Barney wasn't as good out of the gate as he thought he was. We flashback to a grungy, ponytail Barney, who has just been dumped by the girl he was saving himself for. In attempt to get him back on his feet his brother (again played by Wayne Brady, who does a really good job with the not-out-of-the-closet-yet jokes) gets Rhonda to sleep with him and tell him he was great. I think one of those shattering glass noises from a couple of episodes ago would be appropriate here, given how Barney just falls apart as he realizes his entire sexual career is based on a lie.

In an attempt to turn things around, Barney scores three passes to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show afterparty (hey, what do you know! The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is going to air on CBS next week!). He makes a bee line for the first supermodel he sees and totally strikes out. So he moves on the second. And strikes out. And the third. And.....you get the picture. Apparently Barney has a case of "the yips," meaning that he is incapable of hitting on girls. I always thought it was called "horribly awkward in social situations," but I'm not one to turn down a new catchphrase. Barney spots Heidi Klum (who is so freaking hot I thought my computer screen might melt) in the crowd, but instead of talking to her, he just makes noises at her, then goes to a table and cries. Heidi asks Ted if he's ok, and Ted tells her he has the yips. Heidi sympathizes and says that in Germany they call it (really long German word which she will repeat again--it's a good moment). She then cheers him and tells him to get back on the saddle by sleeping with Rhonda and actually "rocking her world" this time. After some standard back and forth between Barney and Rhonda which I don't feel like recounting because it wasn't really that funny, Barney does the deed and gets right back to his old self.

The side plots revolve around the gym and give us the two funny moments I referenced earlier. Funny moment one: Marshall's cut, petite female trainer calling him a little bitch. That was great. Funny moment two: Robin grunting as she does bench presses with Ted looking on. Cobie Smulders can pull off the physical comedy quite well.

And that's the episode. There's only one more left (unless the strike ends this week--keep your fingers crossed!), so I guess I should have savored this one a bit more. But I didn't. Eh.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Chicken Soup Has Returned!

I love Thanksgiving. The food is always good, the company is always interesting (especially if you spend Thanksgiving with my family--think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" but with Italian people), and I always go to sleep happy. Especially this year, since TV gave me a little surprise--the return of "October Road." I had no idea that I when I turned on the TV at home Thursday night, I would find the show that I defended so vehemently last spring. Now, don't get me wrong, I know "October Road" is NOT good TV. The plotlines are silly and bordering on saccharine, and the dialogue is so melodramatic that sometimes I want to vomit. But sometimes, saccharine and melodramatic are exactly what I need from a TV show. When friends used to ask why I would ever watch such a crappy show, I would say "It's like chicken soup" (because it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside--I'm a clever one, aren't I?). So for all of you out there who think that I'm completely insane, I can only say: (1) Shut up, b/c I won't be blogging about it b/c I know I'm the only fan and (2) What do you have against chicken soup, hmm? Don't you like feeling happy? And with that, I'll leave you to enjoy the few remaining hours of Thanksgiving weekend.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Toeing the Line

Since I was out of town all weekend, I didn't have a chance to catch Friday Night Lights (aka The Perfect Show) until tonight. As many of you that have been watching know, the show has been good this season, but there have been some problems (Tyra and Landry, I'm looking at you). In the past couple weeks, the show has gotten back on point, but this last episode concerns me. Here's why: FNL has always (and when I say "always" I mean "the perfection of Season 1") been about subtle drama. The things we loved were the little things: the nervous way Matt used to talk to Julie, the small moments between Coach and Mrs. Taylor, that one episode where Tyra has dinner at the Taylor's house and she's both delighted and disappointed at the same time, etc., etc., you get the idea. By contrast, this past episode hits you over the head with exposition. Here's the rundown:

The small town event of the week this episode is Pantherama, which from what I can gather is some kind of pep rally on steroids. Mrs. Taylor, who planned the whole event last year, is far too busy now with the new baby to be able to do it again this year, so she enlists the help of Tyra and Lyla to plan the entertainment portion of the event. The girls, making great use of their natural gifts, i.e. their hot bodies, get the football team to perform a striptease at the event, pushing the boundaries of decorum for many of the adults in attendance, who ultimately seem to like it, and Mrs. Taylor, who does not. Matt, who for the first half of the episode interacts cutely with his new girlfriend (although I'll be damned if I can remember her name.....Leslie, maybe?), has trouble with the dance and gets help from his grandmother's sexy Latin nurse. Her reward? A kiss from our QB 1, which should be totally inappropriate, but doesn't seem to be given the looks they were shooting each other the next morning over breakfast. Yeah, that relationship definitely ain't kosher and is way too soapy for my liking. There's enough of a story with Matt just dating the new girl and getting over Julie, no need to add the older hot Latina into the mix.

Speaking of Julie, she's apparently part of the school newspaper, where her assignment this week is to write an article about Pantherama which is supposed to focus on the seedy underbelly of the event. You know what I'm talking about: one of those articles that's supposed to expose school corruption that would definitely never get published in the real world b/c the faculty adviser would be too afraid of pissing the administration off. Speaking of the faculty adviser, he's a new young teacher who went to Columbia and worked at a newspaper and is supposed to be all cool and interesting. He and Julie become friendly after she ducks into his classroom to avoid Matt and his new girlfriend and then starts crying and tells him the whole story, blah, blah, blah, we all know where this is going. In fact, I knew where this was going as soon I saw her go into that room. I swear I could "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police playing in the background. It wasn't? Well it should have been. Even Mrs. Taylor thinks so because she does not respond well to finding the two of them talking alone together in his classroom. Have I mentioned how awesome she is?

In a plotwise unrelated but episode-theme related coincidence, this week also happens to be the first week that college recruiters can talk to senior Panther players about scholarships and the like. Smash is as excited as a geek on a visit to the Lucas Ranch (what, you thought I was going to make a sports reference?) He sees this as his first step towards the pros and he'll do anything to make it happen, even if it means going against Coach's instructions and possibly damaging his high school eligibility. Some might say Smash crosses a line here. Are you sensing a theme yet?

Tim decides to move out his house because his brother and the older lady from next door that he used to do the nasty nasty with have been spending too much in the house. He stays with Tyra for two nights, but she makes him leave after that because if he stayed any longer it would be crossing the line (did I just say that again?) So he moves in with some guy with ferrets. Yeah.

And finally we have Santiago (Lyla's project, remember?). It turns out he has no legal guardian, which just makes me feel even worse for this guy, because he seems ok. Until he gets one, Mrs. Taylor won't clear to play on the team as Tim's replacement. Coach's solution? Let Buddy Garrity become his legal guardian. Great idea coach, given how much his other kids still like him. The episode ends with Santiago moving into Buddy's apartment and Buddy apologizing for the room being so small. Santiago doesn't mind, though, because it's his first real bed. Way to make choke up, show, way to make me choke up.

I think the Santiago and Lyla/Tyra storylines were the strong ones tonight, as they were believable but not over the top (some might say the Santiago one is, but given that Buddy's always been over the top, I think it fits). The Smash plot was also fairly realistic, but I didn't like b/c I don't want Smash screwing things up for himself. The weak storylines: Julie's and Matt's. Can we stop having these two hook up with inappropriate people, please? This is not The O.C., thank you very much.

So what do you guys think? Is the show staying too soapy? Would you like if it did? (If you answer yes to this question, we can longer be friends). One final piece of good news: FNL will have 15 episodes completed once they finish filming all of the scripts that were written before the writer's strike, meaning that the show will stick around for a while after all of your other favorite shows go off the air. That's something to make sure your thankful for as you gorge yourself on turkey on Thursday.

Picking Up Steam

I'm glad I waited until this morning to write this post, because it gave me the opportunity to have a nice, insightful conversation with one of my friends about what's been going on with this show lately. I think some poor choices were certainly made early on in the season (which fyi Tim Kring has apologized for), but I think it's still going to take some time for people to get back on aboard. That being said, I think the last two episodes have gone a long way to making that happen. That and the fact that Kristen Bell is smoking hot. Yeah.

I think the main reason last night's episode was much better is that (a) we're starting to move towards the resolution of the virus/old heroes dying plots which means (b) our characters are starting to cross paths again. The Bennet family is preparing to flee since Mr. Bennett can't deal with the fact that Claire has a boyfriend and is making friends at school (albeit by faking her own death to make another girl look stupid and thus exposing herself, but who's keeping track?) Mr. Bennett is not without reason, though, as Bob, Mohinder, and Veronica Mars (ok, I'll call her Elle from here on out) are hot on their trail. Mohinder wants to find Claire so he can save Niki from the virus, although I think we would be better off letting Crazy just pass on, because frankly I'm sick of her. Bob, on the other hand, is out to get rid of Mr. Bennett. Apparently we can only have one middle-aged, glasses-wearing white guy on this show. The three want to set a trap for Bennett which involves Elle shooting lighting, which is never a bad thing. Claire's boyfriend West, who has recently figured out that he was abducted by Mr. Bennett as a child, confronts him but then offers his help when Claire is in danger. One might say he wants to "play the hero." (Wop, wop) When the two are confronted by Elle and Mohinder, some quick work on their part allows them to take Elle hostage and use her as collateral to get Claire back. And given that we've all seen Isaac's paintings, we know how this plays out: Bennett gets shot in the eye and dies. End scene.....wait, it's not over? No it's not: Mohinder uses some of the blood Bob collected from Claire to revive Bennett, who wakes up in a company holding cell in shock and says 'Holy ---," just like his daughter did a year ago in the medical examiner's office. Nice touch, show, nice touch.

In the B-plot, Hiro can't deal with his father's death, so he decides to go back in time to stop it, but instead Papa Nakamura teaches him that just because one can change time, one shouldn't. This would have been a useful lesson four episodes ago when Hiro was still acting idiotically in Japan. And in the C-plot, Parkman realizes that not only that he can hear other people's thoughts but he call also transmit mental commands to them as well. He uses this newfound ability to interrogate Mama Petrelli as to why Adam/Kensei is killing all the old-people (they locked him up, and oh, p.s. he's immortal) and the identity of the unknown woman in the old Heroes photograph (her name is Victoria Pratt, and she will eventually played by Joanna Cassidy, who was in lots of things but whom I can only remember as the boss from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead).

Noticeably and welcomely absent from this episode were the Wonder Twins, whom I can only hope are dead in the desert somewhere. Seriously.

Ok, that's it for this week. I'd like to hear thoughts about the way people feel about Heroes lately, since I'm beginning to get way too biased to be objective (although you have to give me props for cutting down on the Kristen Bell rhetoric-although you should all know that she is the Best. Actress. Ever.)

Monday, November 19, 2007

Happy Slapsgiving Everybody

So its been a loooong time since my last post. Every time I sat down to write another update something would come up and I would put it off. I wasn't even planning on writing an update tonight, but then something magical happened. what was that magical thing, you ask? Slapsgiving.

This was, by far, the best HIMYM episode of the season, in my humble opinion. It had all of the required elements: generic life event (first Thanksgiving with friends), funny catchphrases (relapse five--that's a high five, then an awkward pause, then another high five), inside joke (the title of the episode pretty much sums it all up), and that moment that makes you say "Aww, I wish these were my friends" (I'm looking at you Robin and Ted).

The quick rundown: Lily's is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the group as its her and Marshall's first holiday together. She wants everything to go perfectly, but the others, lord bless them, make sure that that doesn't happen. Marshall chose Thanksgiving as the day when he would deliver his third slap to Barney (you remember slap bet, don't you?) and as such has rechristened the holiday as Slapsgiving. Robin, who thinks of Canadian Thanksgiving as the real Thanksgiving, invites her current beau, Bob, to spend the holiday with the group. Bob happens to be 41, which means Ted can make lots of jokes about him being old as dirt, which Ted of course does. Coincidentally, Ted does so when making pies alone with Robin. This leads to an argument, which then leads to sex. The next day at Thanksgiving, Robin and Ted gossip with Lily and Marshall and Barney, respectively. Robin, like a normal, healthy adult would like to talk about what happened. Ted, like a man, would rather pretend that nothing happened. If I had a dollar for every awkward hookup that I pretended didn't happen the next day, I would have a lot of dollars. Well not a lot, but several. Well, actually a lot. But enough about that. After Lily locks the two of them in Ted's bedroom, they decide that they're not really friends and haven't been since they broke up, so they decide that after dinner, they'll stop pretending to be and go there separate ways. Sniffle, sniffle. That is until Marshall's speech at dinner which leads the two of them to do that thing that really good friends do: say something at the same and look at each other and giggle. That leads to the best voiceover ever: "Friendship is like a reflex. It just happens." Do you hear that sound? It's my heart inflating by three sizes. Sigh.

What, I'm forgetting something? Oh yeah Barney get SLAPPED as the slap countdown clock runs out. Afterwards, Marshall sings a very Manilow-esque ditty about getting slapped and all is right with the world. Happy Slapsgiving everybody.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Apologies

So my life has gotten a little out of control lately. Work got busy, friends came to visit, and I didn't have time to blog. But due to popular demand, I feel compelled to resume blogging. So I will, starting tonight. HIMYM and Heroes updates to follow.

Monday, October 22, 2007

I Did Warn You.....

YESSS!!!!! That's all I have to say......well, that's the start of what I have to say. I'm going to start with a little story. Last summer, I was interning in D.C. without very much to do or people to do it with. While working, I used to play this game where I would trade quotes from TV shows with a friend from school. It was mostly Alias, Friends, and Grey's Anatomy, but I accidentally dropped one in from this other show on UPN. The show was called Veronica Mars. My friend was surprised, b/c she didn't know I watched the show (which I didn't). So that weekend, I picked up Season 1. I finished it in 3 days. Season 2 hadn't been released yet, so I tried to download as many episodes as possible until I got the DVDs. Once I had gotten through all the DVDs, I eagerly awaited the season 3 premiere. Most of my friends made fun of me, because I, a 21-year old heterosexual male, had become obsessed (that is not an exaggeration) with a show about a teenage girl detective.

Did their mockery bother me? No. Why? Because Veronica Mars, or VM, as I affectionately call it, is about so much more than a teenage girl detective. It's about class issues, the resurrection of the 40s noir movie as a TV show, teenage sex, rape, the death of your best friend, coping with an alcoholic parent, dealing with the mean kids in school, growing up, being who you are and accepting it. In a word, VM was perfection. It was smartly written and directed and acted. The cast was pitch-perfect. At the center of all this perfection? You guessed it--Kristen Bell. I can still remember the moment in the pilot when I knew that I was hooked. It happens early on in the episode, when VM is asleep on her desk and the teacher asks her a question about some quote and what she thinks it means. Without missing a beat, Veronica replies with a smile,"Life's a bitch until you die." I can remember thinking, "Ah if only she was real." That's when I knew VM would join my pantheon of favorite shows, which is no small feat since I watch a lot of TV. I eagerly watched every episode, relishing in the snark and sympathizing with the sadness. Kristen Bell played Veronica perfectly--just the right mix of steely sarcasm with occasional vulnerability. I still cannot fathom how she or the show never received an Emmy nomination. When VM ended, I think a little part of me died with it. I checked the entertainment pages every day, hoping that somehow, someway, the CW would have a change heart and bring it back. It didn't. I wrote a nasty e-mail to Dawn Ostroff lamenting her poor, poor decision making (which still seems pretty poor given how bad Life is Wild is doing). I got no response. I took refuge in ice cream and the DVDs. It was sad.

A few months later I found out Kristen Bell would be joining the cast of Heroes. I was thrilled. After watching the episode, I still am. One thing to know though: Elle (her character on Heroes) is no Veronica. I think it's a testament to Kristen Bell's chops that she could make me forget about Veronica and focus completely on this new character. And I have to tell you, Elle is one scary girl. She's hardened and cold, with no warm fuzzy center. She can sweet talk people, just like Veronica, but she is much quicker to drop the act and get annoyed. And certainly don't annoy her, or you might wind up electrocuted and dead. Just like the poor Irish girl's brother. Elle definitely works for the company and apparently so does her "Daddy." I am intrigued and I definitely want to see what else happens. But lets be honest, I would watch an hour of Kristen Bell reading the dictionary if it meant I got to see her on TV.

A bunch of other stuff happened tonight, which I'll address in a separate update, but for now I'll go to bed knowing that all is right again in TV land, at least until the impending writing strike screws it all up again.

Blah-blah, Ha-ha. No seriously, ha-ha.

Hello, friends. First, let me apologize for not keeping up with my updates. I've been a lazy man. I will do better in the future. Scouts honor.

So, another week, another new HIMYM. I didn't think last week's episode was particularly funny, so I don't feel so bad about not recapping. This week, on the other hand, was very funny. The basic premise: Ted meets a (crazy) girl on the Internet, and while introducing her to his friends, the audience gets treated to a bunch of flashbacks about how the gang all met each other. The highlights:
  • Barney's Hot-Crazy Scale. I think that is the most useful tool to use in evaluating relationship prospects. I will make use of it in the future.
  • Blah-blah, aka Ted's date. She definitely fits into the bat-shit crazy category. I loved how she kept trying to pick fights with Robin.
  • The word repetition. Robin said no 16 times when asked if she and Barney were dating. Ted said "Lily, c'mon," three or four times when trying to convince Lily they had kissed. Lily said no 5 or 6 times when refusing to believe they had kissed. I just put myself to sleep by making funny moments sound horribly boring.
  • The sandwich metaphor. That's one of the more creative ways I've seen people talk about pot on TV.
  • Ted knowing sign language. It's just a cool little fun fact that adds depth to the character, and we all know how much I love character depth.
  • Lily wearing flannel in college. I know we've seen that before but I still think its funny. It's a nice time period detail.
Thing I didn't like:
  • Lilly and Ted supposedly having made out. It reminded way too much of the Friends episode where Chandler and Rachel supposedly kissed when they were in college and we flashback to it. I know this show is supposed to be the new Friends (or at least that's what some people say) but I think it's original enough to come up with its own plotlines, thank you very much.
Ok, I think that's all I have to say about that tonight. I will be back later with a nice long update about Heroes and the appearance of a certain actress who I may have mentioned before.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

And I've Always Thought of Watching This Show as a Relgious Experience.

Hey, America, you'll watch Women's Murder Club, but you won't watch FNL? What's wrong with you? Tell me, please, so I can help you fix it.

For those of you who do watch BSE (Best Show Ever), let's discuss how much we loved this week's episode, because we all should have loved it. Or at least most of it. Here's the list of things we liked:
  • Lyla trying to get Tim to go to her church. Additionally, Tim going to Lyla's church and then later using the line that he feels closer to God when he's with her. And I thought these two were headed for a reunion. Oh well.
  • The way the show presented Lyla's church. I had a nice discussion with a friend about this, and I really feel like it was an objective presentation. I think that when religious institutions like this one are depicted in the media, it's often with an inherent bias towards derision which I didn't really feel here. Kudos, show.
  • Mrs. T slapping that little bitch Julie. Girl needed a reality check. I know if I came home after 3 a.m. when I was in high school, I would have gotten a lot more than a slap. Also, the way Mrs. T broke down b/c she hit Julie. Lady's losing it and Coach had better get home to take care of her. Speaking of which,
  • Coach making a deal with the devil, i.e., Buddy Garrity, to get his old job back.
  • Matt hitting Smash at the end of the game. Just because I like the rivalry, and b/c it shows the people of Dillon how bad the new coach is for the team.
Two things I didn't like:
  • The way the relationship dynamic between Matt and his grandmother's nurse seems to be heading. It's bad enough that the show has one soapy plotline (Landry and Tyra, although I'm so happy that they're together). We don't need another.
  • Jason going to Mexico for surgery. Same reason as above. Also, when Jason said he was going to get the surgery, I just kept thinking of last week's 30 Rock episode when Jenna asks about her crazy surgical options. Yeah.
I think things are on the up and up here, and it seems like that dumped body story line will start moving towards resolution next week, which should be great.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

First Impression: Samantha Who?

Ok, so I decided to eat lunch at my desk today and I realized that I forgot to record the premiere of Samantha Who? (Mondays, 9 p.m., ABC). I had twenty minutes to kill, so I gave it go. Boy did I like what I saw. First off, the show made me manage to forget where I was and what was going on around me, which means it automatically gets a second viewing. (I've told you before how much I like shows that do that.) Second, I'm surprised that it took so long to get Christina Applegate back on to a sitcom. We all saw Anchorman, right? Girl's got game, and by game I mean great comedic timing. (If you'd like an example, watch the scene of her in the AA meeting. That's priceless.) Third, the supporting cast has an awesome pedigree: Jean Smart, recently from 24, plays her mother and Kevin Dunn, who's been a guest on a lot of shows I can't think of right now, plays her dad. Melissa McCarthy, Sookie from Gilmore Girls, plays her childhood best-friend who now wants to reconnect (cough...stalker....cough.....gonna be funny....cough). Barry Watson (7th Heaven, What About Brian?.....I think he likes appearing in shows with interrogative words in the title) is the boyfriend and Jennifer Esposito, who for a minute I thought was that girl from Dirty, Sexy, Money, but isn't, plays the actual bitchy best-friend. I think their's a lot of comedic gold to be mined from her finding out about her past (she wasn't exactly an angel) and the show seems well written on first-watch. Given my allegiance to Heroes, I'll be recording this for now, but its something I would definitely watch immediately afterwards.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Come Fly With Me

Ok, so I had another lost weekend, hence the lack of updates. I will be rolling those that I missed into this week's updates. Also, I think I'm going to move away from recapping the entire plot each time and instead just highlight my likes and dislikes, if that's ok with all you. Sound good? Good.

Ok, so let's talk about Heroes. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so stay with me. Let's start with Claire and Mr. Bennett, since their story received attention both last week and this week. When last we left our indestructible cheerleader, she had been caught cutting off her toe by her Flying Stalker. She spent most of the last episode trying to tell FS that he simply saw her giving herself a pedicure. FS obviously knows that she's lying and tries to restart the whole lizard evolution discussion in class, severely pissing Claire off. Dude, if you like the girl, don't call her a freak in front of the entire class. She won't respond well. After much back and forth, FS picks up her up and flies her away to the beach where they totally make out and FS reveals that he was abducted as a child.......by a man in GLASSES. Cue ominous music. This week, Claire acts like a teenager and lies to her parents to go on a date with FS, who takes her to the top of the Hollywood Sign. Nice. She doesn't really feel that comfortable with him, because her dad doesn't want her dating (he thinks the Company will get to her), but FS gives her a nice line about letting go, convinces her to jump off the sign (not as suicidal as it sounds), and then flies down and catches her. Double nice. They make out again. When Claire gets home after curfew, she lies to her father and tells him that she had tried out for the cheerleading and that "cheerleading" makes her feel good and is important to her. Hehe, that's what they all say.

Peter has to help the Irish guys steal a bunch of money in order to get the box with his memories back and we find out that he can do a bunch of stuff that he maybe couldn't do before.

Hiro's still in the past being awesome and sending notes to Ando through his sword.

DL is definitely dead and Niki/Crazy leaves Micah in New Orleans with DL's family while she goes off to the Company to get cured. DL's family includes Monica (I think that's her name), who can see something on TV and replicate it. She goes all badass wrestler on some guy trying to rob her burger joint, which is awesome. Her little brother convinces Micah to rig the TV to get free pay-per-view which is eh. And Grandma, she's UHURA, people, UH-fricking-URA. (For those of you that have never seen Star Trek, you can't appreciate why this is so important, so boo you).

Mama Petrelli confesses to killing Papa Nakamura, b/c she thinks that will save her life. Sorry, try again. Parkman enlists Nathan's help to figure out who's really responsible and Nathan shows him the picture of the older generation of Heroes, which includes Mama and Papa Petrelli, Papa Nakamura, Linderman, Mr. Devaux, and MATT'S DAD, who turns out to be the BIG BAD who's been tormenting Molly. WTF? I know, I know.

Sylar gets whisked away to the jungles of Mexico, by Candace (the one who change reality remember, and who actually looks like a frumpy middle-aged woman, fyi) with no recollection of what happened to him or any of his powers. He kills Candace, but he still can't make anything happen. So he's goes wandering off into the jungle and eventually winds up on a road where's discovered by the wonder twins, Maya and Alejandro, but as I could really care less about their story line and creepy eye-bleeding power, I'm not spending anymore time discussing it. They're either going to kill Sylar or Sylar will kill them, so that's that for now.

Ok, I think that catches us all up. Next week it looks like we're going to find out what Peter's been up to. Apparently it involves a perky blond teenage detective with an aptitude for snark. What? I'm conflating shows? Damn. Ok so KRISTEN BELL, I repeat, KRISTEN BELL, of the prematurely cancelled Veronica Mars, joins the cast next week as a Hero with ties to Peter. As you can guess by previous allusions, I'm absolutely in love with Kristen Bell and the thought of her coming back to series TV gives me goosebumps. I'll forewarn you that next week's recap will be mostly about her. If you love her as much as I do, then we both have something to look forward to. See you next week.



KRISTEN BELL!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! (Ok, I'm really going now.)

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Breaking News

Hi all. Due to severe time constraints this week, I won't be writing an update for Heroes. I just can't do it and keep up with watching and writing about everything else. I'll cover this week's events as part of next week's update. Apologies.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I Want to Ride the Tricycle!

Can I just say I love I this show? Like I really love it. I want to be Ted and be friends with Barney, Marshall, Lily, and Robin. I read some of the reactions to Monday's episode and I can see why some people didn't like this episode. Yeah, the Robin subplot was kind of boring, and yeah it wasn't as funny some other episodes, but I think the good definitely outweighs the bad. Here's what happened:

Show opens with Marshall and Barney playing Wii tennis. I've heard a lot about Wiis and they seem like fun. Ted calls Barney and tells him he's going for "the belt." Barney can't believe him. I'd like to know what the belt is. Wait, I'm about to find out. Cut back to half an hour earlier (side note: I love how this show does these flashback things. I think its one of the things that makes it stand out). Ted's suited up and ready to go out, but Barney and Marshall aren't leaving till the game's over, so he heads down to the bar alone. He picks up a couple beers and runs into WINNIE COOPER (I watched the Wonder Years religiously as a child, even though I was probably too young to really get it and I always had a secret crush on Winnie). Apparently she was in an episode that had something to do with a pineapple that I never saw. They start talking, but then Winnie's old sorority sister, Audrey from Dawson's Creek, shows up. Ted thinks its over, but Audrey apparently wants him to stick around. They start getting drunk and frisky, leading to Ted eventual phone call to Barney. Apparently Ted is about to "ride the tricycle" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) which will automatically entitle him to the belt, which turns out to be an actual belt that kind of looks like those professional wrestling belts. The girls want to head upstairs and listen to Ted's WILCO cd, aka, make a little whoopee. Ted texts Barney, so Barney, Lily, and Marshall all hide in Ted's room. Do people ride the tricycle in front others? I wouldn't know since I barely ever ride the bicycle, but this isn't about me. Whatever. Barney takes the WILCO cd and snaps it in half. If he can't have the belt, no one will. Eventually we find out that Barney had the chance to ride the tricycle but chickened out. He decides to help Ted do it instead, but takes so long that the girls disappear.....into Marshall and Lily's bedroom! Oh yeah. Cut to the next morning, everyone's back at McLaren's and Barney wants to know what happened. A gentleman never tells, Barney, a gentleman never tells.

In the B-plot, Robin refuses to shave her legs until the third date so she won't be slutty. This all changes once she meets her date: a British surgeon. Yeah, I'm usually a sucker for accents too. She tries desperately to get someone to bring her a razor so she can shave her legs: she calls Lily, who is too busy trying to help Ted ride the trike, and pays the waitress to go get one for her. Only problem is that the waitress comes back without shaving cream. What does Robin do? She uses butter! Oh that Robin, so clever. While trying to shave her legs, she slips, falls, hits her head, and passes out. The waitress leaves with her date. Like I said, not that funny.

And the two quotable quotes from tonight's episode both belong to Lily:
  • in reference to Marshall's possible sex life after her death: "If I died, I'd just come back and haunt your penis."
  • and, drumroll please, to Audrey from taking the boots she was trying to buy during a shoe sale frenzy: "You just made the list, bitch!" SO. FUNNY.
Ok, that's it for this week. What did you guys think? Up to snuff, or no?

P.S. I just looked up Danica McKellar (WINNIE COOPER) on wikipedia and apparently she's not only an actress but a mathematician as well. I think I'm in love.

And Somewhere An Angel Just Got Its Wings

Friday night marked the return of the most perfect, most beautiful, most wonderful, most (insert platitude here) show ever to be on TV. Ever. You know which one I'm talking about.......The Ghost Whisperer! Just kidding, although Ghost Whisperer is not bad fluffy TV. No I'm talking about the critically-acclaimed, massively-underrated Friday Night Lights.

The show brings us back to Dillon eight months after last season's finale and times have changed. Coach Taylor has apparently been in Austin for the better part of that time. Mrs. Taylor is about nine months pregnant and still looking like the best MILF in town. Julie is a lifeguard at the pool where everyone hangs out and she and Matt seem to be on the outs even though they haven't broken up. Julie only seems to have eyes for someone called the Swede but isn't Swedish but grungy and in a band. Whatever. Tim seems to have spent the better part of the summer drunk and Lyla found Jesus. Landry is still pining over Tyra, but they at least seem to be friends now. We don't hear much about Smash, except for the fact that he's on the cover of Texas Football magazine. Ok, so Tami is at the pool when she goes into labor, then she Julie are at the hospital in the delivery room waiting for Coach to show up, which he does right before the baby is born and its beautiful and touching and AWESOME, all at the same time. Things don't stay AWESOME for long though. Julie's apparently been acting up at home, mostly because she resents her dad for being away. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Eric finds out that he's going to have to go back to Austin much earlier than he thought, which results in a tense and heartbreaking scene where he asks Tami to talk to him but she can't and then she breaks down in tears right after he leaves the room. Julie sneaks out to a bar to go see the Swede's band play (really sweaty bad emo band, by the way. I mean this guy instead of Matt? Come on.) only to find out that the Swede has a girlfriend. Having sent her fried Lois home (I think is the first time we've actually seen Lois, so it was nice to finally put a name with a face), she had to call her Dad for a ride home. Coach starts to rip into her, but then Julie goes and plays Daddy's Girl card and starts crying and tells her dad how it sucks that he left and that she's afraid to be with Matt because he's perfect and he's afraid she'll wind up like her parents which she knows isn't bad thing but she wants to see the world an is afraid of getting trapped at 16. I can remember feeling the same way at that age. Coach goes AWESOME again and tells Julie that everything is going to be ok and that if she doesn't want to keep dating Matt she shouldn't. I still can't understand how this show got no major Emmy nominations and Boston Legal did. I mean, BOSTON LEGAL?!!! Come on.

Ok, now it's time to address the other major plotline, the one most people have been having a lot of issues with. Tyra's being stalked by the guy that attacked her at the end of last season. He almost runs her over with his car and she's basically scared shitless for most of the episode. One night she thinks she hears noises outside, so she calls Landry to come over and check. It turns out to be a skunk, but since he's there they watch a movie. Landry thinks this is his shot, so he calls Tyra from Matt's bathroom while trying to freshen to up. Matt, having been ditched by Julie (she went to go see the Swede, sorry for not mentioning it earlier) tells him to brush his arm against hers and if she doesn't freak out than he's probably ok. Landry, after a long buildup, lays his fingers on her arm. Instead of freaking out, Tyra decides she hungry and they head out for food. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. At the deserted convenience store, Tyra decides to wait out by the car while Landry goes in. She's not even sitting in the car. If I was being stalked, I would think being alone in a deserted parking lot might not be such a great idea, but that's just me. Sure enough, we see Stalker's car pull up behind her. He gets out, calls her, and then grabs her Landry comes out in the nick of time, and gets stalker off her. Stalker walks away but says that he'll get her eventually. As he's walking away, Landry picks up a pipe and hits him in the back of the head, then hits him a couple more times for good measure. Tyra starts to freak out b/c Stalker is good and dead. Instead of calling the cops, they get Stalker into the car and dump his body off a bridge. At least that's what the editing makes it look like, but this show has always been about the cool editing, so I can't be sure. I talked about this for a while with a couple friends and to be honest, Landry hitting the guy with the pipe didn't really bother me. He did what it took to protect the person he loves. What did bother me was the completely uncharacteristic move of trying to dump the body instead of calling the cops. It doesn't fit with what we know about him and Tyra as well. I think the reason this bothers people so much, aside from being kinda gruesome, is that its not the kind of drama we're used to from this show. I read one article that called the show a subtle drama and this storyline soap operatic. It's totally true. Think about the scene with Tami and Coach earlier where they don't talk; they don't make any noise. Think about how Matt and Julie talked to each other last season. The best moments on this show are often about what's not said, what's not done. The show is believable as real life. Throwing the guy off the bridge? Not so much.

A few other things I liked:
  • Lyla ripping into her Mom and Mom's new boyfriend while saying grace.
  • Lyla and Tim's quick little interaction. I have funny feeling these two will be getting back together somewhere down the line. They're chemistry is too good to be wasted.
  • The new coach, only b/c he's such a jerk that's going to get fired and Coach is going to have to come back.
What do you guys think? Are you as ecstatic as I am that FNL is back? You should be. And if you've never seen it, please, please give it a chance. It will change your life, I promise you. If it doesn't, then you probably have no soul, so I have nothing further to say to you. Goodbye.

Good News!

I finally got a new computer! My blog updates should be much more regular now. Just thought you should know.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Oh, Ok, the Writers Have Been Taking Meth!

Another week, another new episode of Grey's, and another installment of the WORST STORY LINE EVER (WSLE......sounds like a TV station). Actually, I may, and I repeat MAY actually come to terms with this in the future, but I'll get to that later. Here's the rundown:

The MVO (Meredith voice over) goes on and on about addiction. We're treated to Mer and Derek doing the "horizontal mambo" (his words, not mine) and laughing and giggling until Mer tells him the relationship can be sex only b/c she's effed up in the head (more on that later too). Then we cut to George and bat-shit crazy Izzie sitting downstairs. George has suddenly realized that he married Callie b/c he was sad over his father's death and thought it would have made the old guy happy. Well, duh, jackass, we've known this for a while now. Izzie's sitting there smiling and making crazy eyes at George and nodding rapidly, probably thinking that she and George are about to do the horizontal mambo again as well. Thankfully, George still wants to be an upstanding guy and will not do anything with Izzie until he ends things with Callie. While I don't agree with his choices, I can respect that. After he leaves, Izzie remains on the couch looking crazy and whispering "He loves me." Psycho. Cristina sits alone in apartment, staring at all her wedding presents (there's like a truckload of gifts sitting there). She starts fitfully ripping them open, b/c she's ANGRY people, or did you not get that.

At the hospital, Callie's struggling with being Chief Resident. I think we all have to feel bad for her. She's a nice girl, she doesn't deserve being crapped on all the time, which will unfortunately happen for most of the episode. The case of the week is a bunch of people who were hurt in a meth lab explosion (thus working the addiction stuff from the MVO into the plot.....oh Grey's, you're always so subtle). The lady is pretty badly hurt, but Derek performs his neuro magic and makes her better. The guy is pretty much unscathed, but his baby can't stop crying b/c he's all hopped on meth. Alex gets assigned to the baby, and stupidly confronts the dad, who knocks him out and runs away with the kid. This leads to a nice scene where Alex and Bailey observe a surgery and Bailey lays into him b/c he asks her too. He thanks her, but I think she's the one who's really thankful since she's makes a little o-face and seems like she needs a cigarette once she's done. Have I mentioned that I love Bailey? If I ever met her on the street I think I'd ask her to yell at me. Meredith gets stuck working in the clinic with Lexie, who just stares at her and tries to be friendly and nice, two Meredith does not want from her. She tells her as much and perky Lexie tries to explain that she's really great if Mer would just get to know her, but Mer responds that she can't b/c Mer's dad basically ditched her so he could go have new family and that's why she can't commit to Derek. Wait a sec, Mer has daddy issues? No way! (It was really nice though to her her say it. At least she's knows she's dysfunctional, and that's half the battle).

I feel like I'm missing someone. Oh yeah, Cristina spends the whole day avoiding MAMA BURKE, who came back to get some of Burke's things. While waiting for Cristina, MAMA lays into Meredith for what she said at the wedding (Good job, MAMA), tells Derek to stand up for himself, and tells George that he's too young to stay in a loveless marriage. When Cristina finally talks to her, MAMA is actually nice: she tells Cristina she's a strong woman and that she'll be ok. When Cristina asks if her visiting means that Burke won't be coming back to say goodbye, MAMA says yes, but we already knew that b/c Burke's over on Bionic Woman doing Bionic things that don't involve doctors. Oh, and MAMA awesomely gets rid of all the wedding presents for Cristina.

Other things I liked:
  • Cristina trading her wedding presents for favors and good surgeries.
  • Bailey yelling at Lexie and intern number 2 for acting incompetent in the clinic. Along the same lines, Cristina yelling at her interns and only calling them by numbers. I hope this goes on for a while.
  • The eye-acting (whenever any of the characters are in the OR, wearing masks, and having conversations about big plot points that require them to give meaningful looks to each other). Case in point: Crazy Izzie stupidly telling Callie that she thinks she's doing a good job as Chief Resident, which immediately makes Callie figure out that George is having an affair. Seriously, if you're going to steal her husband, you can't feel bad about it.

Things I didn't like:

  • The Chief ripping into Callie for losing the baby. Dude, you made her chief resident when Bailey obviously should have been. You don't get to yell at her all the time as a result.
  • George and Crazy Izzie's (Crizzie? Just trying out a new nickname) encounter in the hallway. Standing that close to each other and speaking w/o kissing is just uncomfortable to watch. (I have a pet peeve about close talkers, so maybe its just me).

I think that covers most of the bases. What do you guys think? Is the Gizzie storyline becoming more palatable to you, or do you think the writers are still taking meth? Does Mer deserve the bat-shit crazy title too or is she just sad for being so effed up in the head? And what about poor Callie? Ok, that's it for this installment.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Sour Lemon

I've been waiting for this since I first discovered 30 Rock over the summer. I think the show is amazing and wonderful and perfect and......can I add anymore platitudes? Probably. I knew 30 Rock was the comedy I had secretly been searching for when I heard Kenneth the Page say this:

"Do you know why I put up with this pitiful job, Mr. Donaghy? Why I fetch these folks lunches and clean up their barfs? Because they make television. More than jazz or musical theatre or morbid obesity, television is the true American art form. Think of all the shared experiences television has provided for us; from the moon landing to the Golden Girls finale; from Walter Cronkite denouncing Vietnam to Oprah putting that trash bag of fat in the wagon; from the glory and the pageantry of the Summer Olympics to the less fun Winter Olympics. So please, don't tell me I don't have a dream, sir. I'm living my dream."

Yep, love at first watch. I think 30 Rock completely deserved its Emmy win and I can only hope that it will bring more viewers to the show.

Now let's get to the premiere. I thought it was ok, but I didn't completely love it. I think the stunt-casting of Jerry Seinfeld was a bit too much. He seemed a bit rusty, but his argument with Jack at the end was worth it. I think it does take some time to get back into a groove after a summer hiatus, and I know this show will.

Things I loved:
  • Liz talking to Seinfeld and then crying in a Seinfeld-like voice. "This is what I sound like when I cry!" Hehe, awesome.
  • Jack trying to knock Seinfeld over the head with the statue.
  • Cerie's reaction to Liz and Jenna agreeing to be bridesmaids: "Now I have my something old."
  • The secret European country only rich people know about.
  • Tracy asking Kenneth to be his "work wife" then getting jealous that Kenneth is enamored with Seinfeld. I think Tracy definitely falls into the "bat-shit crazy" character category (at least he's in good company. Katherine Heigl won an Emmy for being bat-shit crazy on a weekly basis).
  • Tracy ministering to tranny hookers by trying to get them to go to computer school. See bat-shit crazy reference above.

Ok, maybe I liked it more than I thought. My favorite shows have a way of doing that to me. And this one will definitely have me smitten for a long time to come.

The Busiest Night on Television

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but Wednesday's have suddenly become my busiest TV watching night. I find this amazing since every show I've watched or tried to watch or DVRed so I could watch it later wasn't even on the schedule last season. Of the 14 shows airing on Wednesdays, 9 are new. All of ABC's shows are new (a risky move, but ultimately a good one I think, giving the strong ratings it's gotten from them so far), and 4 of the 5 shows that air at 9 p.m. are new. All of this newness, while exciting has made it very difficult for me to figure out what I should be watching. I recorded Pushing Daisies so I could watch Back to You (which was good this week, but not nearly as funny as last week, which I hope is just a one time aberration and not a trend). I watched Private Practice with my roommate and forgot to record Bionic Woman (that title just makes me laugh. I don't know why, it just does) and Gossip Girl (which is still the best TV show that you should never tell anyone you've seen.....wait, I shouldn't be telling you that), and I watched DSM and recorded Life, but I still haven't had a chance to watch it. Complicating matters, my old college roommate is visiting this weekend (which should be a lot of fun, b/c we used to get ourselves into quite a bit of trouble back in the day), meaning I will not be able to catch up on things until at least Monday, not to mention all of the Thursday night shows I'm supposed to watch. We're only two weeks into the new season and I already feel overwhelmed. I'm obviously going to need to cut a couple shows, but I'm not sure which ones those should be. Any advice?

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

This Little Piggy Went to Market, This Little Piggy Stayed Home, This Little Piggy Got Cut Off But Completely Regrew Itself

Oh Heroes, the ways in which you keep me watching. The week's episode, entitled "Lizards," slowed things down a bit from last week, but given how much was packed into the last episode, I certainly welcomed the change. The brief rundown:

Claire gets all excited in science class when her teacher talks about certain animals having the ability to regrow lost appendages and starts talking and asking question and drawing attention to herself in the way her father doesn't want her to. Some of this attention comes from new "friend" West, a.k.a. The Flying Stalker. Flying Stalker gets totally turned on by Claire's interest in genetics and starts telling her about some book written by this Indian doctor, blah, blah, blah, you've heard this before. Claire pretends like she doesn't care at all (even though she does) and leaves abruptly only to find her car stolen. She tells her father (H.R.G. as most online writers refer to him) and then starts whining about how she can't hide who she is, blah, blah, we've heard this too. Then at the end of the episode she cuts off her pinkie toe to see if it'll regrow (which it does and its REALLY FREAKING COOL). Flying Stalker watches her through the window and sees what happens and flies away when she realizes that he's there. She runs outside to confront him but only find Papa Suresh's book in the driveway. She looks from side-to-side to try to fins him, but she should be paying attention to the dog, who's barking up at the sky b/c Flying Stalker, well, flew away.

Mohinder gets his first assignment, which is to go to Haiti to find some guy who contracted the virus. Hmm, I wonder who it could be? (I was actually very disappointed in myself for not realizing earlier that it must be the Haitian last season). Mohinder gives him some of his magic blood and the guy recovers, then promptly wipes Mohinder's memory and flees before Mo can bring him back to the big bad Company. Instead, he goes to visit H.R.G., which was what Mohinder and H.R.G. wanted anyway. Why, you ask? Because H.R.G. needs to track down some of Issac Mendez's (the guy who could paint the future and who died at the end of last season) paintings which show a bunch of people dead, supposedly all of the old people who started the company (Papa Nakamura, who is dead already, and Mama Petrelli, who seems to be next).

Speaking of Mama Petrelli, she's a suspect in Nakamura's death and gets brought down to the police station to answer some questions from newly-minted Detective Parkman, who uses his telepathic powers to listen on Mrs. Petrelli's thoughts. He gets promptly thought-scolded and Mrs. Petrelli decides that now would be a good time for a lawyer. Left alone in the questioning room, she gets attacked by something (I don't know what but I hope its the BIG BAD as I want to see who or what it is ) but survives.

Hiro is still stuck in 1671 trying to make Takezo Kensei a Hiro, I mean hero, and is facing some resistance because the guy's basically a giant douche. Hiro decides to take matters into his own hands and dress up as Kensei himself and confront the baddies who are attacking the pretty swordmaker's daughter. He rocks and the girl begins to fall for him, although Hiro knows its Kensei who's supposed to get her. He goes back to Kensei, who seems to like the idea of the girl falling for him and decides to help. The problem is that as soon as Kensei walks out of his hiding place he gets hit with a couple arrows from the baddies and dies. Wait, did I say dies? I mean briefly passes out but then goes all indestructible cheerleader and heals himself. Not much of a problem after all.

Peter is still in Ireland not knowing who he is. He fights some guys in bar, shows of his electric powers again (where did they come from?), then gets blackmailed into helping his captor steal something else to make up for the missing iPods from last week. How do they blackmail him? with a box that is supposedly full of information about who he is. Yeah.

Last but not least, wonder twins Maya and Alejandro are still trying to get to the U.S. so they can get help for Maya, who apparently kills people by secreting black goo from her eyes, the only remedy for which is her brother, who can make it go away. Yeah, I don't really get and she looks really creepy with the goo.

(Exhale) Ok, I think that's everything. There's so much going on with this show that it takes quite a bit of mental gymnastics to keep it all straight. Things I liked:
  • Claire telling her dad she'll promise to always keep her new car locked. Seriously, she didn't lock it? Guess her common sense isn't indestructible (I know that doesn't really work as a joke, but at least I'm trying, right?)
  • Apparently Mama Petrelli and Papa Nakamura did little bow-chicka-wow-wow back in the day.
  • The dog Mr. Muggles watching the dog show intently and then barking when the channel was changed. I appreciate this b/c I used to put Teletubbies on for my dog and I swear that show was like Valium b/c it was the only thing that could shut him up.

One thing I didn't like: the new "slogan" for the next few episodes, "What's in the box?" or whatever it was. "Are you on the list?" was ok, and obviously "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" became a pop-culture phenomenon in its own right, but I think the show is good enough to not need such gimmicky advertising. No Micah or Niki this week, but the promos make it seem like they'll be back next week. And let's not forget, Kristen Bell makes her Heroes debut in t-minus 19 days. That's it for this week.

Busted!

Another week, another new episode of HIMYM. It was a solid episode, though not as funny as last week. Here's the rundown:

Ted and Barney get sick of watching girls fawn all over Robin"s Argentinian boyfriend, then get the brilliant idea that they too should pose as out-of-towners (which actually is a brilliant idea when executed properly. I used a variant of such a story in Montreal once with a friend who we claimed could speak only Spanish. The girls we were talking to could speak Spanish and in reality neither of us could. Crash and burn. And there I go on a tangent again.) They wind up picking up two girls who happen to be from Jersey and wind taking them to the South Bronx late at night where they proceed to get mugged. I'm not sure which was worse. You decide for yourself. Robin began to grow tired of Gael's constant "paint with all the colors of the wind" mentality, especially after he invited a bunch of Australian backpackers to stay in her apartment. (By the way, did it bother anyone that Robin keeps a gun in her nightstand? She just doesn't seem like the kind of girl I would want to have a gun.) Lily and Marshall spent most of the episode arguing over what they had written in their letters to each other in their death folders. This resulted in a nice scene at the end where future Marshall reads Lily's death letter in 2029 (which the writers make seem like was the year she had died, but she didn't), and gets caught by her. Did it bother anyone else that future Marshall and Lily were dressed the exact same way as old people now? Where's the futuristic silver clothing, hmm?

Things I liked:
  • Robin's book of pictures from Argentina. It's full of naked people with whom Lily plays Where's Waldo's Genitals. FYI, she won everytime.

  • Robin almost making out with her dream self then telling Barney about hooking up with her dream self.

  • Ted calling the Holland Tunnel a "sewer pipe."

  • Barney using big words to talk to Robin while Gael was around so the latter wouldn't be able to understand. "This is all going to return to masticate you in the gluteals." Hehe.

Well that's it for this week. I'm still seriously loving this show. What do you think?

Monday, October 1, 2007

Because I Don't Watch Enough TV Already............

Good Morning and Happy Monday. (What you don't like Monday mornings? You're not looking forward to waking up every morning before the sun and going to work? What's wrong with you?....I'm going off on a tangent again. Apologies.) As we all know, last week was premiere week and the networks rolled out most of their new shows. Having several holes in my viewing schedule as a result of time changes and cancellations (I still will never, ever forgive Dawn Ostroff, president of the CW, for cancelling Veronica Mars. Never.), I decided to scope out some of the new shows to figure out what I would be watching for the rest of the year. Here's what I found out:

  • Journeyman. Mondays, 9 p.m., NBC. I started watching this one because it came on immediately after Heroes. I had seen a bunch of commercials for it and I thought it looked pretty cool. I'm sorry to say it wasn't. I actually thought it was kind of boring and changed the channel to MNF by the second commercial break. I think my problem with it was that I just didn't find the characters or the dialogue to be engaging or interesting. For future reference, my rule of thumb for judging a TV show is whether or not I'm able to do other things while its on. With some shows, e.g. Lost, Grey's, Heroes, I won't move while it's on and the other people in the room aren't allowed to speak while I'm watching. With others I'll fold laundry but still try to follow the plot. With this one, I made a couple phone calls while checking my e-mail. I'm interested to find out whether anyone else liked this one and if they have some reasons why.
  • Back to You. Wednesdays, 8 p.m., Fox. This one definitely falls into the folding laundry category. I've been a big fan of Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton from their previous shows (I swear that Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond is an alternate version of my mother). Plus, given the proliferation of single-camera comedies over the previous few years, I enjoy seeing a show making the multi-camera format work. It feels comforting and safe. (Did I just it makes me feel safe? I'm thinking I need to start taking advantage of my mental health benefits.....I digress.) I thought the pilot was solid but a little cheesy (apparently the two leads had a one night stand about ten years ago that produced a child that Grammer didn't know about, blah, blah, blah) but it's worth watching just to see the two of them snark back and forth at each other. Plus, there's not much else on at this time that's worth watching (although I may change that opinion once I see the Pushing Daisies pilot) so I'd recommend giving it a look.
  • Private Practice. Wednesdays, 9 p.m., ABC. Now it kills me to admit that I watched this show (which I will henceforth refer to as PP because I am an overgrown child and think saying PP is funny and will make an excuse to do so whenever I can) for several reasons. (1) It's bad enough that I watch Grey's Anatomy, and if my friends found out that I watched this one too I think may not be able to show my face in public again. (2) I was completely dead set against the idea of taking Kate Walsh off Grey's because I thought she was one of the bright spots on the show and it would certainly suffer from her departure (which may not actually be the case given the Grey's premiere from last week, but you've already heard my opinion on that one). It kills me even more to admit that I actually enjoyed watching it, especially given all of the bad buzz surrounding it. Kate Walsh is definitely able to carry a show on her own and her scenes are what make this show worth watching. I don't really like Amy Brenneman's or Audra MacDonald's characters (although watching the latter eat cake while crying in the bathroom was pretty amusing). I think that Addison's character is quite different here than it was on Grey's, but I chalk that up to her trying to change her life (moving away, dancing naked, blah, blah, blah). I'm willing to give this one a chance, and I think you should too, although there is a secret part of me that hopes it gets cancelled so Addison will return to Seattle.
  • Gossip Girl. Wednesdays, 9 p.m., The CW. Much like the last entry, I am horrified to admit that I watched this show. I have no idea why. I am also embarrassed to admit that I liked it, since it is clearly targeted at teenage girls and I'm neither teenage nor a girl. I do, however, know exactly why I like this show and will list the reasons for you now (1) Kristen Bell is the narrator. Enough said. (I'm still holding off on my complete declaration of love until her first episode on Heroes, which is now only three weeks away). By the way, I had to rewind her saying "fuster cluck" a few times because I was sure I had just heard the f-bomb getting dropped on national television, which would have been a-w-e-s-o-m-e. (2) It reminds of the girls I knew in high school and how bitchy and conniving they could be while pretending to like each other. There's just something about a bitchy girl that I find intriguing. (3) It makes great use of the ironic background music, which doesn't surprise me since it was created by Josh Schwartz (I think that's how it's spelled). I'd say definitely watch this one, but only with the door locked and curtains closed so no one catches you.
  • Dirty Sexy Money. Wednesdays, 10 p.m., ABC. Pretty. Freaking. Good. All I have to say. Awesome cast (Donald Sutherland, Peter Krause, and Samaire Armstrong (Anna from the OC) just to name a few), exaggerated plot lines, fairly funny dialogue, what's not to like? Watching rich people act crazy always makes for great television in my book. Highlights from the pilot: Karen telling her fiance that the family's new layer Nick was the one who "deflowered her." Father Brian whispering "I hate you" at Nick every time he walks by. Furthermore, I'm absolutely convinced that Nick's father is not dead, following the time-honored soap opera tradition of no body = not dead. This is one that I'll be adding to my DVR. (Although the DVR told me I had to add it or else.......yeah I think it's time for the shrink.)
  • Big Shots. Thursdays, 10 p.m., ABC. For now I'll be placing this one into the folding laundry category. I thought it was funny, but not that funny; engaging, but not engaging enough to stop from wondering what I had to do tomorrow. I've always like Dylan McDermott since he was on The Practice (one of the better ABC shows in recent memory) and Michael Vartan was on Alias (One of my top 3 shows ever), so I knew I had to watch this one. Plus, the commercials all had that Frank Sinatra-music playing in the background. I think the thing that drew me most was my secret hope that one day I would be in my late 30s, and rich, and have an awesome life and play golf all the time. I think the "Sex and the City for men" description I've seen used for this show is fairly accurate, although I think quality-wise it's not quite there yet. But I think it could be and I'm interested to see where it goes.

So to sum up: Dirty Sexy Money and Gossip Girl, definitely yes. PP, yes but maybe no in the future, Big Shots and Back to You, yeah but do something else at the same time, and Journeyman definitely not. I'm sorry I have nothing to report on Chuck or Reaper, both of which I've heard good things about. I'll try to watch them sometime this week and let you know if they're worth a look.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Wow, that was a great epi--------NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

That pretty much sums up my reactions to the closing moments of the mostly-enjoyable Grey's Anatomy season premiere last night. I'm sure most of you can guess what caused my outburst of disbelief and disgust, but for those of you that have been living under a rock, I'm referring to George's declaration of love for Izzie, which still makes absolutely no sense to me. None. But I'll get to that later.

The episode opened with the new residents giving their interns the same speech that Bailey gave them in the pilot. I'm sucker for self-references, so I was immediately pleased by this acknowledgemnt of Grey's happier, funnier, less-filled-wth-relationships-that-make-no-sense past. It seems to be almost everyone in the hospital's first day on the job, b/c apparently all of the new residents took extended vacations after the end of last season's events, although I think I would need a vacation too to get all of those crappy plotlines out of my head. Again, I digress. Apparently, Meredith went with Cristina on her honeymoon and has not spoken to Derek since the wedding. Alex took a road trip and grew beard. Izzie did not speak to George (which IS A GOOD THING, can you hear me writing staff? GOOD THING). George spent most of the time being mad that he was going to be an intern, again. As for Bailey, she was A-N-G-R-Y at the Cheif for passing her over for chief resident. One can only hope that this anger means that the Nazi will be making a return this season, because Bailey is so much better when she's abrupt and cool. And Burke? He resigned two weeks ago (I understand this was a necessary given that Isaiah Washington got booted, but it still seems contrived).

The new residents first day was spent dealing with the aftermath of a car crash caused by a deer and each person got a case that mirrored their current situation and helped them get to some important realization about their current situation in life, blah, blah, blah, we see this every week so I'm not going into it here (Check out TWOP or zap2it if you want a better plot recap). I will address Izzie trying to resuscitate the deer, because I'm really convinced that's she just bat-shit crazy (a term coined by one of my friends in college that I try to work in whenever I can). To be fair, I've been calling Izzie crazy since she cut the LVAD wire at the end of season 2 (when ever discussing her character I refer to her as CI--Crazy Izzie), but all of this stuff with George and her insisting on saving the deer is just getting to be too much. I did like her little speech to her interns at the end, though. But seriously a deer? And then telling George she's Bambi? Come on, Shonda, you can do better.

Moving on, I really, really like Chyler Leigh as Meredith's sister Lexie. She reminds me a lot of the way Meredith used to be in season 1--rambly, a bit nervous, but ultimately self confident, and very, very cute. As George said, she "is kind of awesome." I can understand Meredith wanting to not get involved with her given her past history with her father's family, but I do think if anyone could understand her, it's Lexie. I'm interested to see where this goes.

Other things I liked:
  • George delivering the baby like a pro. It's too bad that the other interns will eventually have to find out he's repeating his intern year, b/c I like that they think he's awesome one.
  • Cristina and Alex commiserating over their loneliness. They've come a long way from "Evil Spawn."
  • Meredith and Derek breaking-up then hooking up. It seems like they're going to start from scratch this time, sleeping together then getting personal. Hey, if it worked for them before, it could work again now.
  • Bailey making it rough for Callie. I like Callie, I do, but Bailey deserved to be chief resident. "Better luck tomorrow." Hehe. Old Bailey is BACK!.
  • Sloan telling Derek he came to Seattle to win him back. Gotta a love a little bit of man-love.

Now for what I hope will become a weekly feature: Sage Wisdom from People with Dysfunctional Lives--This one comes from Meredith, who is trying to console the single pregnant woman with one arm: "Much better to be alone and be a success than be in a relationship and feel like a failure all the time."

Ok, now for the thing I and I'm sure all of you hated the most: George's confession of love to Izzie. Why? WHY? WHY?!!! Everyone I've spoken to and everything I've read indicates that NO ONE LIKES THIS STORYLINE. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. HE'S MARRIED TO CALLIE. The previews for next week make it seem like George is going to run and get a divorce no so that he and Izzie can be together. Ugh. I mean, I know that sometimes people who are friends can develop feelings for each other that they didn't expect, but come on, we kind of already saw this with Derek and Meredith and it's more enjoyable when its with characters you know belong together as opposed to characters are being thrown together because the writers seem to either have run out of ideas (which the rest of this episode indicates that they have not) or have started taking mind-altering drugs so that they now live in world where this seems like a good idea. Which it is obviously not.

Ok all, that's it for this week. I'm excited to see where the show goes this season (except for the George/Izzie storyline). What do you think?

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Required Reading

As a TV addict, I tend to make references to a bunch of different shows when talking about any one given show. I realize that some of you may not get all of my little inside jokes and cute references, so here's some stuff to get you up to speed. Hopefully you'll soon have a little more insight into the warped inner workings of my brain.

  • Television Without Pity. www.televisionwithoutpity.com : This site (TWOP to the cool kids) provides sarcastic recaps of most of the big shows on TV. They also have an archive with all of the shows they used to re-cap that are now no longer on the air. The recaps for the especially bad shows are really fun to read (If you have some time, check out the recap the Charmed series finale. Funniest thing I've ever read, and I never even watched that stupid show).
  • EW.com. www.ew.com: Entertainment Weekly's website has some great columns (be on the lookout for Doc Jensen when Lost comes back on) and they also recap most of the big shows as well. I suggest reading this one before TWOP if you miss an episode, b/c this one is marginally more objective.
  • Spoilerfix.com. www.spoilerfix.com : This one has spoilers and upcoming episode information for most of the most popular shows on TV. If you like to watch without any knowledge of what's coming, then I suggest staying away from this one.
  • Zap2it. www.zap2it.com : Great general entertainment website. They recap A LOT of shows, usually in blog format. They also update daily with the previous night's Nielsen ratings. I also suggest reading the TV Gal blog (she's pretty insightful and watches a lot of the same things I do, if you're interested in a different perspective).

Ok, I think that should be enough to get you started. Happy reading.

IT'S BAAAAACK!

I realize this update is a day later than expected, but since I have to write these posts at work, this is the best I can do. (For those of you interested, my computer has officially died. It will not boot up. The screen will not turn on. I hate Dell.)

Ok, now to the important stuff. First off, I'd like to start with a disclaimer: I'm genetically predisposed to liking Heroes. Growing up I loved X-Men and Spider Man (I dressed up as Wolverine one Halloween), and like any normal person, I wish I too would develop some power to help me escape the mundanity (is that a word? Well it is now) of everyday life. As such, I tend to be more forgiving when Heroes gets a little stinky than other people will (reference Season 1 finale, although even I find it hard to defend those final scenes). Fortunately for me, though, Monday night's episode was AWE-some with a capital A-W-E.

Personally, I love it when shows jump into the future so you have to guess what happened to your favorite characters in the interim (e.g., the two year jump on Alias, although that storyline wound up being very poorly executed). I think it makes watching TV just that much more fun and can provide hours of endless discussion when you've run out of important things to talk about with your friends. So to recap all of the changes: The Bennetts are now the Butlers and live in California instead of Texas. Claire is no longer a cheerleader and her dad works for a copy place instead of a paper company. Claire makes friends with some kid who keeps asking if she's an alien or a robot, which he really has no right to do since he's neither (He can fly though). Nathan grew a beard and got drunk and certainly does not seem to have anything to do with Congress. Mohinder and Parkman are roommates trying to take of little girl Molly (the one who can instantly tell you where a person is) and bring down the mysterious company, which we found out was started by the original generation of Heroes, including Nathan and Peter's mom and Hiro's dad. Speaking of Hiro's dad, he gets pushed off the Devereaux building by a mysterious person from his past who also seems to be targeting Mrs. Petrelli as well (They both got ripped pictures of themselves with the little Heroes symbol scrawled over their faces). As for Hiro himself, he's back in 17th century Japan discovering that his hero Takezo Kensei is neither Japanese nor a hero and really just a big jerk and that in order to put history right he's going to have to do the heroic stuff himself. We're also introduced to new characters Maya and Alejandro (I think that's his name), who are on the run and trying to figure out how to control Maya's power (apparently is something to do with killing people and making thwm bleed out of their eyes......creepy). Ok, I think that's everything, right? What I'm missing something? Oh, yeah, Peter's ALIVE in Ireland with no memory of who he is and shooting electricity out of his hands, which, last time I checked was NOT one of his many powers. Also, he's got a cool looking necklace with the Heroes symbol on it.

Whooo, ok, time for a breather. Ready? Now some random thoughts:
  • It's good that Claire's made a new "friend" (I say "friend" because it's completely obvious that they're going to be more than friends very soon), but I'm a little disappointed that his power is flying. We've already seen Nathan fly, and unless this is another one of his illegitimate children (which would make the scenario I just described instantly gross), I think they could have come up with another power.
  • The scene where Claire calls Nathan: so sad. If I were Nathan, I'd be happy that my illegitimate daughter whom I tried to send to Europe so my real family wouldn't find out about her still wanted to talk to me, because it seems none of my other family members want to.
  • So Molly's having creepy dreams about the Big Bad (I love calling unknown villains Big Bads. It's like talking about monsters from under the bed from childhood). I wonder when we're actually going to get to see this guy.
  • People we didn't see this week: Niki, Micah, and DL (although I'm pretty sure DL is dead), Sylar, and......well I'm sure there's someone else, but there are so many characters on this show that I probably won't remember who it is until I see them next week.

So, I think I'll leave on that note. I'm really excited to see where the show goes this season, especially since Kristen Bell will be joining the cast in three weeks time (I'll have more on why that's so important to me when the time comes). I'll be back later in the week with more on the Grey's Anatomy premiere and a quick rundown of which new shows are worth watching.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Tramp Stamp

Last night marked the return of "How I Met Your Mother," or HIMYM as I will henceforth refer to it. (All the cool kids use acronyms). I discovered this show at the beginning of last season and it quickly became one of my favorites, mostly because the characters are believable and the writing is FUNNY (something a lot of comedies don't think is important anymore). Ted, Barney, Marshall, Lilly, and Robin all seem like people I would be friends with. Also, I tend to identify with the storylines (having just graduated from college, long term relationships seem to have grown in importance lately).

Ok, enough about me and why I like the show. Let's get to last night's episode. I'm surprised at how well the writers are handling Ted and Robin's break-up. It definitely seems like they will not be having this pair get back together and are moving forward to having us finally meet the mother. I like shows that move towards resolutions instead of wandering from place to place without any sort of clear destination, creating completely unnecessary problems for itself (e.g., Season 9 of Friends and the Joey/Rachel relationship). I also liked how Ted went to Robin's apartment at the end because he needed to yell irrationally and hadn't been able to do that yet. Again, kudos to the writer's for creating real characters.

Second, and this is another one of my favorite things about this show, I love how the writers work in current pop culture slang, e.g., calling Ted's lower back tattoo a "tramp stamp." I first heard the term from my younger sister (who is much cooler than I am and thus up-to-date on such terminology) about six months ago. This is not the first time they've done this and if anyone else can think of another example, please let me know.

The stunt casting of Mandy Moore and Enrique Iglesias was a bit unnecessary, but they didn't do a bad job, so I won't complain. All in all, I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of this season, especially since they're going to bring back the Slap Bet gag from last season. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the Season 2 episode "Slap Bet," which also features Robin Sparkles, another gag I hope to see again soon). I can't wait until November to find out what happens when the Slap Countdown clock runs out.

Happy New TV Season

Hello and welcome to My DVR Rules My Life. I started this blog because, well, my DVR rules my life. That and my friends have started to get tired of hearing me rant and rave about what happened on one of my many favorite shows the night before. I've realized I'm completely addicted to television and, rather than fight it, I've decided to share my copious TV knowledge with whoever out there is will to listen (or read, since this blog is written and you can't actually hear the sound of my voice).

This season I'll be blogging about the following shows:

How I Met Your Mother
Heroes
30 Rock
Grey's Anatomy
Friday Night Lights

I'll also be adding Lost once it comes back on in February and one of the new fall shows once I get a feel for which ones I actually want to watch. I'm also thinking of doing a weekly recap of what else is going on out there in TV land, but we'll see how that pans out.

Well that's it for now. My first post should be up later today.