Halfway through premiere week and the shows are rockin'!

So much to comment on! My thoughts so far...

The Hills

I know Lauren has her flaws, but she's awesome in my book. Her facial expressions when Jason first told her that he had a girlfriend and that they were moving in together were hilarious. Then to hear they're engaged!!! Crazy. She's totally right, though. Why would you get engaged when you're A) only 20, B) have only been dating for seven (or 6? or maybe only 4?) months, and C) are just out of rehab. What a bonehead. I loved when Lauren commented that when she's engaged, she would hope that it's not announced at a keg party. As for Heidi and Spencer... *sigh* Who even cares anymore? Shopping for wedding dresses, registering at C&B, and Spencer hasn't even told his parents yet? What a pathetic relationship. It's pretty sad when Jen Bunney is the voice of reason.


Damages

As much as I love all the twists and turns this show offers... I'm getting pretty impatient and just want to know what the heck happens at the end! I wish I had waited until the show was over in the hopes that FX would air an all day marathon. Now that would be enjoyable - if not a waste of an entire day. If that does happen, I'll let you know - it's a really great, suspenseful show.


Dancing with the Stars

I knew Sabrina was gonna rock it. I've seen the Cheetah Girls movies (don't judge) and I've always thought she was the best dancer out of the bunch, and they're all pretty good (the others being two of the members from girl group 3LW, both in attendance, and Raven Symone - as in "That's So Raven!"). Her facials were over the top which would normally bug me, but I felt they fit right in on this show. I'm curious to see how she performs in classic ballroom next week. I'm sure she'll be great.

Drew Lachey is doing an awesome job filling in for Samantha Harris. Can we make him a permanent replacement? Please???? I really enjoy his backstage on-the-fly banter, so much more natural than Samantha who often made me cringe during her interviews. Drew's comments about the male pro dancers over-styled hair serving as helmets made me chuckle.

I was pleased with the guys night. I thought it was going to be a big snooze fest after the amazing performances from the ladies, but there were some surprises. For me personally, Helio jumped from "Who cares?" status at the beginning of the show to "I love this guy!" by the end. He's so smiley and happy and he really cracks me up. He has an awesome partner with current champ Julianne who I feel is consistently delivering an "in it to win it" attitude in every single of one her performances so far this season (as in the pro dancers routines or dancing with Helio).

Floyd has turned out to be the biggest disappointment in my book. All the guys considered him their toughest competition - they don't have anything to worry about. Carrie called it - it's like he attacks the dance too much. Maybe he'll be different with the ballroom. Did anyone else find it weird that the two people most hot and bothered from Albert Reed's hip shaking dance performance were Len and Bruno???

Too bad for Alec Mazo - first to get the boot again! But it was cute that he asked everyone to vote for his professional partner and new bride, Edyta, in the future.


Gossip Girl

This is definitely becoming one of my new favorite shows. I like the characters, the storylines, the clothes, the settings... all fun. And as much as I hate hate hate this Chuck character, I love love love the Dan character. I mean, he might be one of my favorite guys on TV... right up there with Jim Halpert! The comment that Chuck's black eye looks lonely, walking in circles outside Serena's hotel, the apology about the "wave"... such a cutie! Although I wish he hadn't walked out on Serena at the end. The romance can't die there, can it? (Embarrassing confession: I am very tempted to start reading the teen-targeted book series to learn more about what happens!) Blair and Chuck are just like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe's characters from "Cruel Intentions" - evil, but entertaining. And who are these stoopid girls that keep hooking up with Chuck??? I don't find one iota of him attractive. On a side note - this show makes me so excited about my upcoming trip to NYC! Can't wait!!!


Newport Harbour

I love Allie's comment to her dad about not asking for a graduation present... she just wants a full summer trip in Europe. Nice... And c'mon, do we really expect Clay and Chrissy to maintain a long distance relationship while she goes away for school? They're relationship seems so shallow... oh wait, sorry, I forgot these are high school kids. Never mind. Anyway - Chrissy, go for the cute college boys!!!

That's it for now... I'm sure I'll have much to post on Thursday night's must see TV!!!

AHHHH - it's fall season premiere week!!!

I'm in trouble. With less than two weeks before my marathon debut, I know I should be focusing on my training and more importantly, REST!, but how am I supposed to do this when work is piling up and hello!!! so many of my favorite shows are returning???!

I can't verify these are all premiering this week, however, here is what I am planning to add to my DVR. (Once I clear out all of last season's So You Think You Can Dance episodes...) New shows are marked with an * since I'm not sure I want to commit any precious DVR space just yet.

Monday

Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Heroes (NBC)

Tuesday

Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
The Reaper* (The CW)

Wednesday

Pushing Daisies* (ABC)
Private Practice (reluctantly) (ABC)
Dirty Sexy Money* (ABC)
Gossip Girl (The CW)

Thursday

30 Rock (NBC)
The Office (NBC)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

Sunday

Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Brothers & Sisters (ABC)


If you're not as excited as I am, check out the following clips. (BTW - these definitely will debut this week - WOOHOO!):

The Office (NBC, Thursday, 9PM)




Ugly Betty (ABC, Thursday, 8PM)




Grey's Anatomy (ABC, Thursday, 9PM)




What are you planning to check out???

Star Wars casting scoop

I am thoroughly enjoying my lazy Saturday today. (Well, not that lazy - I did run 12 miles this morning. In the rain!) It's like the TV programmers knew I was going to be a bum today... MTV is running a marathon of this past season's So You Think You Can Dance and ABC Family is running a marathon of Ugly Betty! Yippee!

But for now, I'm parked at A&E for this Star Wars documentary called, "Star Wars: Empire of Dreams". It's a pretty cool special documenting the making of the original trilogy. I love this "behind the scenes" kind of scoop.

They just went through some of the casting, where they showed screen tests of various actors. Kurt Russell was almost Hans Solo. William Katt (Great American Superhero, the nice boy with the frizzy blonde hair in the Stephen King film, "Carrie") was almost Luke Skywalker, a character that was once called Luke Skykiller(???). And Cindy Williams (Shirley from Laverne & Shirley) was almost Princess Leia!!!

Well, I'm happy with the choices they made.

From the east coast to the west coast...

Some random thoughts after tonight's episode of Newport Harbour:

• Allie and Samantha are a serious pair of dum-dums... how is it possible that they are graduating?
  
• Chrissy and Clay are kind of a cute couple, I guess
  
• Chase has good taste in pizza (no pun intended)
  
• Taylor's hair is about a foot too long for me

I also caught the premiere of Gossip Girl on the CW. It's been awhile since I've been hooked on a fictional high school drama - couldn't really get into The O.C., One Tree Hill, or the like... BUT I think this one might have just earned a spot on my DVR list. First of all, it features a voice-over by Miss Kristen Bell which is nice since Veronica Mars is gone. Oh wait, that was a high school show, wasn't it? OK, forget what I said earlier. Anyway, I guess the show is based on some book series and it's about a bunch of kids that attend a prep school in NYC. I like all the characters, except for sleazy Chuck (aka potential date rapist), and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new potential romance develops between popular and rich Serena (played by the soccer player girl from "The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants") and the not-so-rich, not well known but still kinda cool Dan.

Seinfeld Poster Challenge

Some fun from tbs.com... There are 38 Seinfeld references in this picture - can you find them all?

Beyonce - Best Dressed of 2007?

I'm so confused. People Magazine named Beyonce as one of the top ten best dressed of 2007.

Um... okay... I'm just confused because these are Beyonce's looks that I remember from this year:


Academy Awards


BET Awards


Golden Globe Awards

Ah, the wonderful Prom Episode!!!

Prom episodes of Laguna Beach - and now Newport Harbour - are the best. But again, I have to go back to my usual curiosity - is this really what teenagers do today, or is this just the MTV world? Specifically - the extravagant methods of securing a prom date. (Although I think the ones in this episode pale in comparison from previous years... hello - gorilla suits!!!) And if it is really like this in the real world, is it because of Laguna Beach? I mean, don't you think the producers forced the first season gang (Trey, Steven, Dieter, etc.) to do something big for their prom date requests? And now it's an expected thing - a new tradition! So where did it start? It's another chicken-or-the-egg dilemma...

Did it seem weird that Chrissy and Taylor got their nails done together? I mean Taylor has this on-off thing with Chase, and Chrissy smooched him - so wouldn't that be awkward?

Let's talk dresses... Sasha and Allie wore the same dress, right? I think I had a Barbie doll with a similar outfit, except I think it was more of a nightgown thing. Speaking of which, Chrissy's dress sort of looked like a Barbie doll dress as well. And Allie and Samantha sure do like their pink, huh? I guess the Pretty in Pink party wasn't enough, since they did pink again with prom.

Sasha seems like a cool chick (compared to the rest of the gang, anyway). I loved when she asked Grant, "Why are you staring at me?" 'Cuz he's drunk and he's hoping you'll make out with him! (Notice him grabbing her leg later that night.) Grant in his fancy prom duds stumbling on the exercise bike was hilarious!

Finally, a couple of random questions:

• Does Allie remind anyone else of Brooke Hogan?
  
• How much is Chrissy's dad gonna punish her (and Clay, probably) after seeing this episode???

Tidbits on My Boys

Finally - the real reason between the animosity between Kenny and Stephanie!!!

And Andy's wife, Meredith, is actually played by Jim Gaffigan's real-life wife! (Jim Gaffigan plays Andy.)

One of the funniest things I watched on TV last week...

I finally caught an episode of HBO's Flight of the Conchords this past weekend. Of course, it happened to be the season finale. Ah well... hopefully, there will be re-runs.

Anyway, this show is hilarious! I didn't know anything about it when I tuned in, but from what I can tell - it's about these two New Zealand guys, living in NYC, that make up a band called Flight of the Conchords. It's very quirky and has an indie-film feel to it. Some of the scenes with their manager totally crack me up.

But the best part for me? When one of the main characters gets all mad after being replaced in the band, he starts to break out in dance. But not just any dance - a Kevin Bacon-worthy Footloose performance!!!

Check it out:

Monday Night TV thoughts

Soooooo much to comment on... but it's really late and I should really go to bed. But before I do, some quick comments on all the super good TV that was on tonight.

As usual, nice twist on The Closer. And I'm so happy that Brenda and Fritz are happy together again. But I am sad that it was the season finale...

My Boys - yay for two episodes, but again, boo that the season is now over. That was a crazy short season - what's up with that? And did they seriously leave us hanging by not telling us who PJ invited to Italy??? I'm guessing it was Thorn... who else would have made her that upset when she thought she was stood up?

The Hills - grrrr... despite the appearances of Jason, Justin, AND Spencer - I am still the most annoyed about Heidi getting that stupid promotion! First of all, I doubt she is qualified and second, she stole it from Elodie!!! I like Elodie. Personally, I find the whole "new events director position - with an office" thing highly suspicious. Seems just something the producers purely invented to create more drama. Heidi and Spencer are both going to H-E-double hockey sticks, if you ask me.

The Pick Up Artist - yay, they finally kicked out Pradeep!!! It's about time. He's annoying AND a horrible wingman.

"It's Britney, Bitch" - um, I beg to differ...

I will freely admit that I was pretty excited to hear that Britney was going to open up the MTV VMA awards. I haven't watched that show in years, but I was definitely going to tune in for the return of Britney. I mean, she had some amazing VMA performances! I'm not even talking about the python or Madonna smooch - I'm old school, so I liked that first school girl routine that was sort of a medley with N Sync. The following year, she did the Oops routine in that flesh colored sparkly outfit that may or may not have inspired my Halloween costume that year.

So if you want my take on her performance, read on...

In short, it was a complete disaster and huge disappointment. I can think of umpteen million things that went wrong and not one single thing that went right. This performance does Britney's career no favors - I honestly believe she would have been better off if she had not performed at all.

From what I remember, here's what did not work for me. I'm sure I will miss a bunch of points, but her performance was such a dud that I can't bear to replay it on my DVR to give a complete analysis.

• First shot was a close-up of Miss Brit. OK, I know she's still growing out her hair but yuck! What was up with the nasty blonde hair? The roots looked horrible! I wonder if she meant to wear a hat and then something went wrong last minute? It just did not look performance ready
  
• Then I noticed the blue eyes, which sort of scared me at first - like she looked possessed! And maybe she was... at least something would explain her performance then
  
• Then we pan down to her outfit... oh boy. Why, why, why? The bra / hot pants combo was such a bad idea... hey, she's had two kids, I don't expect her to have a tight bod, but I don't think she should be flaunting her bare midriff either. I couldn't ignore the belly and the booty... but maybe people are into that.
  
• As usual - the lip sync. She didn't even try to make it look like she was singing!
  
• Then there was the overall performance. It was like she was just running through a dress rehearsal or something - it was so half-assed. The dancing was weak, she looked like an amateur sticking out amongst all the professional dancers (NOT the Britney I once knew!) I don't know - maybe she couldn't shake it that much with those stiletto boots?
  
• And as if that wasn't bad enough, the producers would then pan the audience for reaction shots - Rihanna, P. Diddy, and 50 cent all had expressions of "What the hell?"

Ugh, that's all I have to say about it. It almost makes me sad... that's not the Britney I had once idolized a long long time ago. What happened to her???

I guess MTV was still smart to put her on first, as I ended up tuning in for the rest of the show - at least Chris Brown and Rihanna managed to put on a worthy performance.

Update: Alicia Keys rocked, too

More of The Hills ...

You know, sometimes I think I should re-title this blog as "I Watch Bad TV So You Don't Have To". It's an addiction, I tell you, an addiction!

(AY - good luck surviving!)

I'm really bad at noticing plastic surgery. It's just not very obvious to me, unless someone points it out of course.

For example, during the recent episode of The Hills, Heidi met up with Jen Bunney for brunch. First thing Heidi says: "You look so different!" And Jen did look different, but I couldn't figure out why. I didn't think it was plastic surgery because it's not like she looked prettier or anything. But apparently, that's what it was! (Click here for picture)

I guess it's the thing to do on The Hills. I personally didn't think Heidi really needed a nose job either, but what do I know.

Also, what are your thoughts on the term "homeboy" or "homey"? It seems like the kids on this show use this term a lot (both girls and guys, ex. Lauren's hilarious comment that "homeboy wore combat boots to a barbeque - I know you don't want to call that your boyfriend") Anyway, I'm starting to notice this term a lot more in random blogs, too, so just curious if this is regaining popularity. (After all, Laguna Beach did give us the gift of "Dunzo")

MTV whore :)

I've been watching The Hills and it's been bugging me why that Frankie dude looked so familiar. But today I remembered! He was on that other MTV docu-drama, twentyfourseven. Do you remember this show? It was short lived and followed the lives of seven up and coming Hollywood "hotshots". Frankie was the party promoter one... he was in charge of getting all the ladies to their club openings.

So it looks like Brody and Frankie really are the new couple! And even recently double dated with the Duff sisters! (How small is that town, anyway?)

On a separate topic... what's with all the Nelly Furtado bits on MTV? Does she have an album coming out soon? Or an MTV special? I don't get it.

Things that made me squirm this week...

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina and her enlightening response to the geography question:



And ones that just don't need a video clip...

• Big Brother 8's Eric and Jessica sharing their first kiss
  
• Kissing lessons on VH1's The Pick Up Artist
  
• Jason Wahler "rapping" on MTV's Celebrity Rap Superstar
  
• The episode of A&E's Gene Simmons Family Jewels which documented Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed getting face lifts

Who are our sassy heroines of today?

OK, please be patient with me as this is a pretty random topic... (I know, what else is new?)

So today I caught a little bit of "Superman Returns" on HBO during my very relaxing labor day holiday. I remembered liking it when it first came out in theatres... enjoyed Brandon Routh's portrayal with his pretty blue (OK, fake) eyes. But the casting of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane bugged me because she is sooo unlike Margot Kidder. Now, I don't know all the details behind the making of this new film so maybe there was a reason for casting the little waif-like, baby-face actress. But for me, I loved the chemistry in the original films between Kidder and Christopher Reeve as Superman / Clark Kent. Lois Lane was just such a cool character - a sassy, ballsy, guy's gal, tough chick, etc.

Same goes for Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. I love Star Wars, but I'm not a die hard fan, since the pre-quel trilogy was a huge disappointment for me. Again, they didn't have that humorous playful chemistry that the originals had with Leia and Hans Solo.

And I was thinking about it... are there actresses from today's generation that could capture the "magic" that Margot Kidder and Carrie Fisher gave in their legendary performances? Someone that could portray the whole "sassy, ballsy, guy's gal, tough chick" - someone that could be considered sexy, but not be an obvious sex symbol but funny, too.

I couldn't really think of anyone that was a perfect fit, but here are some that I think could possibly work:

• Jennifer Garner
• Reese Witherspoon
• Anne Hathaway

I don't know... what do you think?