Weekend Rant - Holiday Time

Having already past Canadian Thanksgiving (last month) we are now at Turkey Time in the USA and the holidays are just around the corner. Things are starting to wrap up for the Fall season, and some of the shows won't be back until February.

I am still not completely sold on the remake of V, but curious enough to want to see more and how things will develop. I still think they missed out on creating more buzz, and they should have shown more of the aliens and their dastardly plans for the Earth to keep everyone hooked, but there was some plot development and I like some of the actors so I am hoping to see more.
Dancing with the Stars surprised me with Donny Osmond winning the big prize (that Osmond Family is huge after all and the whole bunch of them must have voted) instead of Mya. It was a fun season full of surprises and lots of fun to watch, so I am looking forward to the next round.

Heroes is still crawling along (this storyline is taking wayyyyyyyyy too long to get anywhere) and with the ratings in the gutter it is pretty sure that this is the last season. Too bad for that... the show had potential but is just flushing it down the toilet. I am looking forward to when Chuck is back.

Survivor is still churning out one of the best editions yet, with one of the best villains, Russell, who seems to be able to find Immunity Idols like no one's business. I have never seen another player be so sneaky and literally run circles around the other competitors. If the rest of them don't wake up soon, and get him out, he risks to be the big winner. Dave seems to be pretty slow for a genius and the game is going to start getting really nasty over the next few weeks.

Glee is still one of the best things ever on TV and I love the combination of geek and music. More of the club has been showing their singing chops over the past few episodes, and I have been more than surprised by some of the mash ups that have been put together. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and pray for a pick up and another season.

So you think you can Dance? has finishing culling the herd and we are now in Top Ten territory. I am not happy with their final cuts (I would have rather seen Victor and Karen stay and see Nathan and Mollee hit the road), but they are all talented dancers. I have high hopes for Jakob, but this show is not noted for letting gay dancers win the title. Some of the numbers have been quite surprising and I am starting to warm up to some of the new choreographers.

Modern Family is still one of the funniest things on TV, and it's nice to have some hilarious, complex and well written gay characters. Cameron has been stealing the show, and I am completely in love with the snarky Alex. I am still surprised that we haven't touched on a gay issue in Big Bang Theory, but that will more than likely be around the corner, Sheldon seems pretty uptight about a lot of things and I wonder how Mr. Asexual would react to a guy coming on to him.

I am looking forward to the return of Scrubs and catching up on a few series that have been put aside for the holiday season, and will be working on my Top Ten choices for this year. I can't believe how quickly this year has zipped by!

Weekend Rant - November Sweeps

This November flew by in a blur, and while some shows have been hitting it out of the park, there are others that are boring me silly, and after the holiday break I will think twice before continuing on. On the fence currently: Flash Forward, Stargate Universe and Heroes. The storylines are not grabbing me and the action is way to slow.

Smallville has been a huge success at home this season, and I am really digging the heroic storyline with Zod, all the action between Lois and Clark and the further developments with the WatchTower and Chloe. The writing has been great this year, the only thing missing is a familiar red and blue costume that I hope they get too eventually. I am really hyped for the upcoming Justice Society episode which looks great in the preview. This show is the biggest surprise so far this year.

Project Runway finished off this season (finally) and while it was nice to see all the gang back together, the season was boring and it better get back on track next time around, or Lifetime will not be happy with their purchase. I was happy Irina won, she may have been a bitch but she makes some fierce clothes.

So you think you can Dance ? has me confused with their new set (hate it) and some of the new choreographers. I hope that this season finds a better balance, I am not digging the new combination of Judges ( Adam is too long winded) and miss seeing some of the other greats on the panel like Debbie Allen or even Tabatha and Napolean. The show is off a bit this time around, and I am not sure if it is because it feels rushed coming so closely after the last round this summer.

V has still not caught my attention like the original
series, and at this rate I am not even sure that they will produce more episodes after the pilot. As usual, this remake is not as good as the original series and it is missing that delicious tension that existed in the first series as the Visitors created a totalatarian state and were more alien (voices) and had their penchant for eating rodents. Some things should not be changed. The good news is that Elizabeth Mitchell will more than likely be free to do some work for Lost.

Melrose Place heated up and seemed more interesting with the arrival of Heather Locklear, and it may garner more of my attention in the future.... but that will have to be seen, I am not into most of the characters on the series.

The Amazing Race is humming along towards the finish line, but I have to say that those 2 Harlem Globetrotters are pissing me off and have no sense of sportmanship. I hope the team of gay brothers wins and puts them in their place, I hate teams that play mean.

On the reverse side of that, this season of Survivor is one of the best ones ever, and that is mostly due to Russell and his uncanny ability to sniff out hidden Immunity Idols. I have not laughed as hard, or seen things change so radically (those 360 degree turns can make you dizzy) in the space of minutes on this show in ages. I would still like to see Shambo get the boot, she is a mean player (but tries to cover it up) and her come uppance will be quite the site to see. I am in glee watching all this happen and to see everyone scrambling.

Speaking of Glee, the series is incredible and every episode is well put together and brilliant. I love the Diva-off a couple of weeks ago, and this past week's Ballads episode was hilariously entertaining. I hope this show sticks around for quite awhile, it is one of the biggest highlights of the week for me.

I am still catching up with several things, but did grab the Doctor Who Special last week - The Waters of Mars, and it was another incredible adventure with the Doctor. I am starting to dread the Christmas Special and the End of Time as I dread seeing the end of this present incarnation of the Doctor, but I know that I will experience a great story and some outstanding writing. I have kept my last 2 episodes of the Sarah Jane Adventures for this week, to tide me over until Christmas.

Finally, I am a tad surprised that Joanna didn't make it to the finale for Dancing with the Stars, I saw her there more than Kelly, but I am pretty sure that Mya and Dmitry will win the Mirror Ball Trophy as they are the hottest thing there, Donny Osmond made Top 3 just like Marie, but he doesn't have that sexy vibe with his partner like Mya, who has literally been burning up the dance floor with all of her sexy moves.

Weekend Rant – Short & Sweet

I am in another very busy period (work related stuff) and am just doing a quick Rant before skipping this upcoming week of posting on the blog. Work obligations have reduced my free time, but I appreciate having this outlet and the loyal readers that follow my rantings.

This week was a surprising one on the Dance side of things, and I am still reeling from the loss of Bianca on SYTYCD. I didn’t expect to see 2 of our tappers eliminated in the same episode, and, for the life of me can not understand why Nigel is so horny about getting Paula Abdul on the panel as a judge. I think they have enough wacky energy on the panel, and I am beginning to understand more why Mia Michaels has decided to distance her self from the show. I am still in awe of home girl Stacey Tookey and her amazing number… wow !

Over on Dancing with the Stars, I shed a tear for Mark & Lacey as they were eliminated (too bad), but wasn’t surprised that Mike & Anna were shown the door. I think Aaron was shocked to be in the low scorers, especially after his high scores the night before. I still want Mya to win, her and Dmitri are the hottest couple there.

Supernatural had me in hysterics this week with their TV Land inspired episode. The humour was quick and sharp and had that familiar feeling that a good episode pulls out of you. I just love the guys when they mug for the camera and roll their eyes as they have to do something really corny. The continual shifting from genre to genre was well done, my favourites being the Japanese Game Show, Doctor Sexy was hilarious, and I wish that we could have gotten treated to more commercials with the guys. Watching Sam have to be a genital herpes spokesman was very funny, and the icing on this very tasty cake was the Knight Rider inspired segment, which was far superior to that dribble that NBC tried to sell last season.

Speaking of remakes, I was bored senseless with the first episode of V … and hope to hell it improves from this point or I don’t see myself watching more than the mini series. They should have kept some of the original format, and broadcast at least 2 hours to hook the public. I barely had time to be introduced to the characters before the first hour was done, and it was missing the intrigue and fascination that existed in the original series. I hope it improves.

Stargate Universe is a heartbeat away from getting cut off the list, and I was ecstatic with the return of Legend of the Seeker, and the return to TV of Charisma Carpenter (aka Cordelia from Buffy & Angel). Damn I wish the days of Buffy and friends could be back but am really liking this series and it’s kinky characters. The Mord'Sith look like dominatrix with these dildo weapons, the stuff that they can get away with in the sci fi genre is ridiculous sometimes.

Will be back soon!

Weekend Rant – Reality Round Up

There are quite a few reality genre shows on the Watch List, and this past week saw the Season Finale and crowning of Canada’s Favourite Dancer on So you think you can Dance Canada. Congratulations to Tara Jean for taking home the big prize. I was pulling for (and voted a ton for) her fellow competitor, Jayme Rae but glad that one of the girls won this time around. This season was another one filled with great dancers and some fantastic pieces of choreography, and I am ecstatic that it will be back again (soon) and they are already gearing up to start the audition process. We may have also have seen the last Mia Michael creation on a SYTYCD stage for the eminent future, as Mia has moved on to other things. I hope to see more of her work elsewhere.

Continuing is SYTYCD territory, the Top 20 performed on the American version sans my favourite, Billy Bell, who had to drop out due to illness. I am a tad more lukewarm about this crop of dancers and will have to see who catches my eye now that my favourite is gone. I hope he comes back next season. It is still early in the competition and I get more hyped once the herd has been culled down to Top 10 territory.

Battle of the Blades continues to perplex me with the strange voting system used by the Judges, the comments that don’t seem to always fit the performance and the continuing drama of eliminating one of the couples on elimination night after the big Skate Off. It’s all for charity so I try to keep an open mind, but things always feel slightly off balance. I still get a kick watching the Hockey Players figure skating and seeing how comfortable they can be and if they have any actual grace. I am pretty impressed with a lot of the lifts the guys are pulling off and all that strength is good for something.

Survivor is churning out a great season with our über winning Galu tribe dominating the Fao Fao tribe. Russell is turning into the biggest ego that Survivor has ever seen ( the guy is delusional in his perception of the game) and I can hardly wait until the merge and watch all his plans go down the drain. I love it when the merge happens and we get down to individual play and you can really see who the power players are. Let’s just hope the Immunity Idols are played this time around, I always laugh when I see them being hoarded and then their owner gets blindsided. It has happened to the best of players and it would be sweet irony to see that trick played on Russell. Just a thought… I would love to see Erik win it all (I love his tree house), and think he is playing a pretty decent game so far. Besides, he is not so hard on the eyes either.

The Amazing Race continues on it’s trip around the globe, and I love how we see the teams go into meltdown mode and it all hits the fan. Canaan & Mika paid the price for a fear of heights, and it was interesting to see one the other teams, the Globetrotters, break their friendly image and freak Mika out even more until she forfeited her place and quit the Challenge. I don’t think they played dirty (it was a bit mean) as they were waiting in line for her to finish. It was the first time I heard anything about a time limit for starting a Challenge, and they seem to be insisting on the rules this season. It’s always good fun but the Race is getting harder and there only a few teams left. I am hoping for the Gay Brothers, Sam & Dan, to win, but they haven’t been the smartest knives in the drawer so far so that may be just wishful thinking.

Top Chef continues to challenge our Chefs, and unfortunately, one of my favourites, Jennifer, is cracking under pressure and will be eliminated soon if this keeps up. I thought it was a given that one of the brothers would win (Michael or Bryan), but Kevin has been pulling off a lot of wins and feels like the front runner at this time. The Quick fire Challenges are always a ton of fun and I loved our TV dinner themed one this week, even if some of the Chefs completely missed the concept with their creation. There seems to be a lot of tension in the house, and I wondering if it something that they put in the water that keeps everyone on edge like that. I find the gang a tad too harsh on Robin, but I don’t have to spend all my time with her.