Weekend Rant - Holiday Blitz

Things have been zipping along this holiday season, and I wanted to get down some final thoughts before putting out my Top Ten lists of 2008.

First of all, congratulations are in order for the first winner of So you think you can dance Canada, the incredible Nico. It was not really a surprise, the guy deserved and easily won the title, and it was a phenomenal first season for the show. I am happy to say that the show exceeded my expectations and was more enjoyable than the American version.

Congratulations are also in order to Nick and Starr for winning this past edition of the Amazing Race, the brother and sister team were very impressive in this round and won many of the legs. It was nice to see a team that got along well, played hard and did a great run. It was an enjoyable season, and I am happy that the next one is just around the corner this February.

I am really getting into the final manipulations in Survivor: Gabon, and the wrench that Sugar threw in to the gears at the end of the last episode was priceless. I don't care what anyone else is saying, but I am convinced that Sugar is going to win it all. She has been under the radar a lot for someone who everyone knew had the hidden Immunity Idol, and her passing her idol to Matty at the last minute and ousting Crystal (thank god -- she really got on my nerves) has shifted the balance once again and Kenny better watch himself for the next round. I can hardly wait until the Finale this Sunday, and am still betting on the Pin Up Girl. She appears to be the accidental strategist but I am pretty sure there is more than that going on.

CSI is starting the departure of Grissom, and it's breaking my heart as much as the crew on the show. I bet the majority of tears on the show are the real thing and I can only imagine how emotional the scenes are. The introduction of our new (soon to be) level 1, Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne). I am happy it's not a quick in and out kind of meeting and that we get to see our new guy in his current job, but no one can replace Grissom. The big question will be to see what the chemistry will be like with the rest of the team, and how the new dynamics are going to play out. I am still interested but have quite a bit of trepidation.

Heroes is still not hitting all the right notes for me with the current storyline and I hope that things start getting back on track soon. I was disappointed that they decided to kill of Elle (one of the few interesting characters) and I am getting tired of all the back and forth with Hiro. At least it seems like he has his memories back but now is stuck back in time and powerless once again? I am starting to see Hiro as the joke here and never to be the actual Hero that he wants to be... at least the scenes with his mother were great but the time ripples from this particular event ( Hiro getting the catalyst instead of Claire) should be felt in modern time. This show is getting more confusing to watch but I am crossing my fingers that there will be something interesting that comes out of all of this.

Per usual, my biggest highlight of the week was Pushing Daisies. This past episode, The Legend of Merle McQuoddy, was such a brilliant combination of all the things that I love about this show that it's probably impossible to list every single thing that I loved, but some of the highlights included the developing drama with Chuck's undead Dad Charles Charles, and his disdain for pie. The whole pie or cake argument is not only a pivotal part of the storyline, but it is completely reflective of the fact that the show has only a few episodes left and soon all of us will be with out pie. I wish that someone had the balls to keep a quality show like this running on the air, but it appears that the almighty dollar reigns supreme once more.

Charles Charles is not quite the man that Chuck thinks he is (and how different is he really after being dead for so long and then undeaded?). The fight with him and Ned was brilliant, and we'll have to see what happens now that so many rules are being broken. I am surprised that we haven't seen Digby recently and wonder if he will show up in the last couple of episodes before the end.I almost expected Digby to jump in at one point and help Ned.

Olive just kills me, and between her snippy comments back and forth with the Diorama Widow (sorry but every time I think of those two and their back and forth passive aggressive barbs I hear Olive asking " Are those cotton balls stuck to your ass?".) I was rolling on the floor over that one and all the other bitchy comments that were exchanged between our ladies. Once again, high five to the art direction team and their brilliant choice of rain ponchos for our characters, Olive's rain gear was covered in olives (naturally), Ned had Pies all over his and our dear Emerson had Sharks all over his rain poncho. Sheer brilliance on all levels. Bryan threw a little nod to Prop 8 in his addition to the storyline that our Mr.McQoddy was shipwrecked and rescued by a Gay Family Cruise ship (more brilliance), and I loved the allusions to Batman at the beginning with the lighthouse signal, and it was another fun mystery story that got Olive further into the detective business with Emerson and a possible career option. We even got treated to a bit more music this week, this show must be saved some how. We need a Christmas Miracle!

Weekend Rant - The Week in Review

The past week was one of those ups and downs one on the tube. A few things were great, there was some real crap and I even discovered a new show that has been picked up on the schedule.

The Amazing Race is starting to pick up steam and the challenges are as interesting as always, but I know I will be way more in to the competition once we get down to the final few teams. I like our travelling around this week to Cambodia and the temples were astounding and beautiful. I am not surprised that our long distance couple, Aja & Ty, didn't catch up, they just had too much of a time deficit and didn't have much of a chance. I am still routing for our brother and sister team of Nick & Starr and I hope they kick our frustrated divorcees off the Race soon. Kelly & Christy have to go. We don't get to see enough Dallas.

Heroes rocked my world this week with a fantastic episode. Lots of plot twists and turns and it's getting really hard to tell who is good and who is bad. Lots of grey area in this show, but I am really enjoying seeing more Elle, and loved the flight scene with Claire. The blonde squad is pretty damn tough.

Momma Petrelli is one dangerous lady (even in a coma) and her influence with Gabriel (Sylar) seems to be stretching further than things appear. Peter's miraculous survival after being thrown out the window a few stories up was just a tad too convenient. I am really digging the direction of the series this year and as some plot lines get tied up (Maya), others are being opened up and it's an intriguing story.

I can hardly wait to see what kind of Dream walk Hiro goes on and I have the distinct impression he is going to run into Mama Petrelli, she seems to be off in the dream realm and this better be the time when Hiro starts going bad ass superhero and being the Hiro we saw in season 1. Maybe I am just dreaming.. to could be that timeline and alternate Hiro no longer exists in the current time space continuum. The bad news is that we skip a week due to the election, and of course just when things were getting really interesting.

Dancing with the Stars made me happy and sad this week with Lance rising to number one position (yippee!) and my beloved Cloris being let go. Guest Judge Michael Flatley was quite the bore, and I wasn't sure if his appearance was only PR for his upcoming show (interesting and yes he is talented but there is still something smarmy about him I don't like). His scoring certainly threw the curve off this week. I thought Bruno was going to have a conniption.

Congrats to Lance & Lacey for their great Jive and dethroning Brooke from her pedestal. I thought that even though she was suffering, Brooke did an amazing job and that her Rumba was very hot. I still think that the "stick with boobs" (Susan Lucci) should go and Maurice & Cheryl are not far behind. It's a shame that Julianna is having surgery as it may affect Cody's performance, and he has really grown on me over the past couple of weeks. Warren is still a force to be reckoned with and at this rate should be Top 3 if Cody isn't. I will miss Cloris and her wacky antics, but we all knew that she was going to have to leave eventually and she lasted much longer than expected. She deserved all the standing ovations that she got and she certainly added an interesting element to the competition. I bet you she will be hanging around in the audience for the next few weeks and stirring up some trouble.

Top Design started the finale.. and thankfully little Mr Martha Stewart was eliminated and will not be in the last part of the finale. My pick is still Nathan to win, and I can hardly wait to see how these condos finish up. Hopefully Kelly Wearstler will be there for the final judgement, I am getting tired of Bravo sending Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis to fill in as nothing can replace Kelly and that wacky energy she brings. I think she has a real job elsewhere and is always busy, or just can't really give a damn like most of us who are just watching to see how it ends as a matter of principal rather than actual interest. It'll all be over this week.. finally.

Smallville flirted with the idea of Clark being a superhero and Jimmy almost discovering the big secret about our farm boy. Since we no longer have the same creative team as the previous seasons... are we finally going to see more of a transition and some actual flying, costume and Superman? I hope so... I am really digging the new beat, Lois and Jimmy, the Green Arrow and the whole Metropolis thing. Tessmacher is still boring me to pieces but Chloe-Brainiac is starting to amp things up and it may get very interesting. Time for Clark to man up and start being a hero.

Supernatural killed me last week with their Fright episode and Dean's killer air guitar to Eye of the Tiger at the end of the episode (damn that boy is sexy and funny), was the highlight of last week. This week's Halloween episode was damn scary, and between the razors in the candy, the risks of bobbing for apples and the very old traditions of Samhain there were several shudder moments. The presence of a couple of scary angels that aren't afraid to smite a town to save the world managed to up the anty even more and things were very tense between our boys. It's an interesting dynamic with having one of the brothers influenced by angels and the other demons and it has a very Cain & Abel feel to it. My hope is always that over the long haul the boys will win their fight against evil. Lilith is turning into quite the threat. This show is still the highlight of the week and I can hardly wait until the next episode.

CSI is still one of the best shows on TV and I am really digging the new CSI Riley Adams and like her character and the way she fits in with the team. I still remember Lauren Lee Smith from Mutant X and glad to see her still flexing her acting chops. She has my interest and the stories are as still gripping as ever. I still dread the idea of Grissom leaving and know that it will have a profound impact on the rest of the team.

I no longer have any interest in seeing if any of those vapid twits on Paris Hilton's My New BFF get to be in Paris' posse. All I can say is no Onch means no interest so TTYN Paris. Thankfully I came to my senses this week and have more tolerance or patience for such a bunch of dribble.

Stylista is still attracting enough of my attention to give it one more episode, but this week's episode and all the drama was too much. The only good thing was seeing the bitch fight between the Diva and Rich Spoiled Girl. Anxiety boy had to go (and after that meltdown do you really think that he had a hope in hell of being there for another week?) and Geeky Gay Guy is probably not far behind with his major frack up of the week. Big Girl got her TreSemmé moment but I don't expect to see her around for much longer. Maybe we can luck out and get a double elimination next week as this herd needs some serious culling. If there were not those few minutes of brilliance with Anne Slowey each episode it would already be dropped off the Watch List, the cast is so immature for a prize of this magnitude and I just wish they would grow up and prove themselves.

Finally, I was presently surprised with the 2 hour premiere of Legend of the Seeker. I miss the good old days of Hercules and Xena and this seems to fit in quite nicely with those kinds of shows. There is nothing like some good sword and sorcery stories and I like the hunky Seeker (Richard Cypher) and his friend Kahlan, who is of an ancient order of magical women known as Confessors and the wacky wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. The origin story had some nice special effects, a decent storyline and some fun magic. There has to be something said for the great costumes and it's nice to see a series being filmed in New Zealand again. I will definitely be checking it out for the next while to see where it goes.

Weekend Rant - The Week in Review

Dancing with the Stars broke my heart this week with the sudden departure of Misty May-Treanor due to an injury... Rocco got to stay for another week due to the tragedy, but I can't believe that Maks is already gone, I really hoped it was his year to go to the finale. The dancing was good and at least there are a few other "Stars" that help make the show fun, and I am always hyped to see what kind of wacky antics Cloris will get into (the woman is sheer entertainment), but I am still a little shell shocked over the whole incident and to make matters worse, I had seen Misty & Maks make a guest appearance on The Soup hours before the mishap.

Damn.

If Toni Braxton can stop being such a drama queen about the competition I would put my support behind her, but at this time I am rooting for the big guy, Warren & Kym and of course, my other favorites Lance & Lacey. Me thinks the chef will be disposed of next week unless he gets some rhythm real fast.

Chuck VS the Seduction was the perfect return to the regular feel and flow of the show. Chuck is trained by Seduction expert Super Spy Roan (played brilliantly by John Larroquette) to seduce the ultra sexy bad Spy Sasha Banacek (played by the ultra hot Melinda Clarke who plays those bad girls so well) and in the process we get a very hot kiss between him and Sarah. There was so many things about the episode that I loved that it felt just like last season, but even better.

Some of my favorite parts included:
--The great new top secret HQ under Orange Orange. Yogurt is way sexier than wieners.
-- Roan lived up to his reputation with his martini swilling and his uncanny ability to get our tough as nails General Beckman to let her hair down. Chuck's comment that Roan's liver must look like camouflage had me snickering.
-- The training session, the obvious tension and affection between Sarah and Chuck is getting even more obvious and I loved how Roan goaded them on to kiss ... and wow ! what a kiss that was.
-- The Nerd Herd is going insane and revolting at the Buy More after Lester becomes the new Assistant Manager and is trying to be El Jefe the supreme dictator. Big Mike gives Lester advice from Animal Planet on how to deal with the staff : "Find the wounded gazelle and pounce!" Which of course was totally nerd worthy and it was another of those Priceless Moments on this show. When Lester pulled out the Wheel of Misfortune, which assigns the worst jobs to do around the store and wanted the staff to play it I almost lost it. The whole storyline at work was hilarious and I am happy to see the same chemistry and shenanigans with the gang at work.
-- Roan coaching Chuck during the assignment and pulling out all the stops. I loved his "be a bastard" phase that seemed to catch our sexy bad spy's attention, well at least enough for her to want to do the wild thing with Chuck.
-- The tension between Casey and Roan was great until he was told that Roan had failed him more than once because Casey's old partner was too hot, and that was the reason he had to repeat the seduction course more than once. That soothed our tough guy's ego.
-- Chuck's leap of faith off the building to save the day, and once he lands he says "and the Russian judge gives it a 9.4", which gets even funnier as it has changed Lester's "Under New Assistant Manager" banner in to " New Ass Man" banner which gets Big Mike to stop and pause and then make the comment that he isn't new.
-- Captain Awesome making the mistake of taking advice from Morgan on how to romance Ellie but making up for it in a way more awesome way.

These are just a few of the examples of why I love this show so much.Nice to see that things are back to normal and even better.... except now Bryce is back and that means nothing good for Chuck.

Heroes has me hooked with the current Villains storyline. Good writing, some great acting and action but why do so many shows have to use flash forward or flashback sequences constantly? It seems like we spend less time in the NOW but the stuff that is/will/has happening is interesting, I just get confused with the apparent time paradoxes that are all over the place, but I have a ton of other questions such as:

Where the hell is Monica? At this point I am not convinced that Tracy is the only other sister (triplets?) from the house of Niki or is there even more manufacturing going on? When is Suresh going to turn into the Fly?

Even though I don't like some of the plot development, I thought it was very clever that Matt is following his totem (the Turtle) to find the Speedster... slow and steady wins the race. The revelation that Sylar (Gabriel) is also a Petrelli has me spinning a bit, I am not sure if that is truth or more manipulation by Mother Dearest. Mrs.Petrelli has turned into the coldest and most fascinating character on the show and grabs my attention each time she is on screen.

Pushing Daisies gave me another moment of sheer pleasure this week with Circus Circus, and it was a visually stunning, hilarious and incredible as I expect in an episode of this series. The whole dead Mime thing could only have been topped by the hilarious Clown Car in the water... complete with 15 drowned clowns in it... yup, they had to do one of those sight gags of body after body being brought up from the tiny car( I loved that one clown that had those long,long legs) and you have to have a pretty dark sense of humour to really appreciate some of the nuances of this show. Of course it hits all of the right notes with me. The startling visual difference between the Circus world and then the Nunnery was another gleaming example of the incredible art direction in this series, both are very colourful but you get such a difference sense and feeling and even texture from each of the worlds. Olive and Aunt Lily in the Chapel has got to be some of the funniest stuff about Nuns that I have seen in quite a while, the liquor bottle in the bible and Lily's coordinating eye patch had me in hysterics. Olive has an epiphany about love and keeping memories alive that she shares with Lily, she also reveals that she is still in love with Ned and that Ned loves someone else. It looks like things might be colliding soon in trying to keep these universes apart.
So you think you can Dance ? Canada went through the first week of competition and elimination and I was really impressed with the quality of dance for the first week of competition. Breanne and Kevin got cut (I was surprised that it was Kevin, he did a great job but Dario is an incredible soloist and I think that saved his ass this week). I was surprised that Izaak wasn't shown the door as I felt he was the weakest.

Vincent and Lisa pulled out probably the best performance of the evening with their contemporary number (it was beautiful), but I am disappointed that we don't know much about the choreographers or their background and I hope that will be be explored more. We have such a vibrant dance community in Canada that I hope we get to see all the different genres and hopefully some of the big names like Margie Gillis or Edouard Locke showing up. Arassay and Nico are my choice of the hottest couple at the moment -- those 2 are smoking hot together. The competition is great and I am really enjoying the show.


Survivor Gabon bounced back this week with a tribal shuffle, and I was probably as happy as Charlie that he and Marcus got to stick together. I find their little bromance too cute for words and disappointed that we haven't been seeing enough of these two.

The new status quo has changed the standings of a few of the players, and it looks like Sugar is not that respected and she was not chosen for one of the teams, but instead got to lounge at the Exile Hut that is not really quite Exile Island(she already found the Idol) while the new tribes eliminated one of their players after competition. The competition was completely dominated by the new Kota tribe and in the end it was too late for Jacquie and she was ousted. You can tell that some of the players are starting to play harder but a few of them just seem like dolts and I have the impression that GC and Ken are on their way out.

This season still seems kind of dull and I am hoping the shake up will help things but it probably won't be until after the merge that things get really fun.

CSI came back and alas, it meant the end of Warrick. It was a shame as he was always one of my favorite characters but I also know that actors don't always stay on a series for an indefinite period of time. The story was handled well and the emotions were completely palpable for the entire episode, and although I have the distinct feeling that this may be the event that precipitates the departure of Grissom, it was great to see Sara come back and help out the gang. It's never easy to say good bye to a friend and it's a shame that Warrick is gone. I always felt that could have done more with the character and I always hoped for him and Catherine to hook up.Unfortunately I think it's the beginning of the end for the series, we'll have to see how it works once Grissom has left as well.

CSI Season Premiere

CBS really pulled one over me this time, I was convinced that Sara was to die as I heard about contract negotiations and that no agreement had been met. As the episode ran its course I was very impressed with how it was extremely well written and had great flow, and thought at the least it was a very nice send off to a character that had been around for awhile.

Since it was a very Sara-centric episode, we didn't get to see a lot of the rest of the cast, but it was a great season opener. Of course there was a couple of things that bugged me, the main one being that I couldn't believe that Sara couldn't take out the miniature killer in the car... just wondering how the writer figured that one out. It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few weeks before Sara really does leave unless there is some miracle contract negotion... isn't this a little deja vu from last year?