Tuesday, September 27, 2011

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - The final season

We all know that this is the final season for this terrific show.  I know it is
a little soap-operay but when it began it was such a refreshing change
from what was on TV.  So now it is near the end, with the same cast
of characters and oddly enough the same actors playing those crazy
people.

Last season ended with Gabrielle's abusive stepfather tracking her
down.  No 911 call for this family to rid themselves of this creep,
instead Carlos kills him and the girls are ready and willing to help
him get rid of the body.  So begins this season with a voice-over
about good friends who stay after the party to clean up the mess.
They go out in their fine clothes and bury him in the woods and no
one sees or wonders where they all are - hmmmmm.

A new man in the neighborhood and the women are like dogs
in heat, same old, same old.  Lynette is separated and they
finally tell the children the bad news.  This is sad but only
because it happens so often.  Susan wears her long face
and only changes it to cry, I don't think I will miss her.
Bree is finally happy with a police officer boyfriend and
there is a very funny scene where she and Gabrielle
try to ditch the dead guys car.

It did move pretty fast as I'm sure this season will -
see you next Sunday night ladies.

Monday, September 26, 2011

BREAKING BAD ~ SUNDAY NIGHT ON AMC

Only two episodes left and this show had gone from very slow to warp speed
in a matter of weeks.  There is so much going on, you have to pause it to catch
your breath.  Hank is hell-bent to find Heisenberg and has detected that there
is a laundry facility owned by Gus in town.  He convinces Walt to drive him
there and Walt drives into a truck to deter him.  Walt is getting as reckless
as Skyler.  Walt goes to Jesse's house, is so happy that he is okay and is
abducted by Gus's thugs.  They take him to the desert and Gus appears
to read his future to him - Walt is fired and he will be killing Hank.  If
Walt tries to interfere then Gus will kill the entire White family.  What
to do Walt - Better Call Saul.  He is given the name of someone who
will help the family vanish for 1/2 million dollars.  Walt is excited and
ready to leave only to discover that Skyler has given Ted the money
to pay the IRS. 

Onto the other storyline - Skyler goes to Ted and tells him to write
a check to the IRS.  He tries to get more money out of her.  What
to do Skyler - Better Call Saul.  Saul arranges for two of his thugs
to visit Ted.  They have him write a check, sign the IRS forms and
as he tries to run away, he slips, falls, and hits his head.  We are
never told that he is dead but you get that impression.

Sidebars:  Mike is left in Mexico.  Gus gives Hector the necklace
that they took from the Cartel.  Someone has been cooking in
Walt's lab.  Whoosh - can't wait until next week.  

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - Bravo, all day every day

Yes, I indulged in this reality (?) show today.  This was last week's
episode of the trip to Camille's home in Beaver Creek.  We get
to see how they live with hot tubs, skiing, lots of wine, chefs and
tears galore.  This week was Lisa's turn to meltdown and I felt
uneasy watching it knowing that her husband committed suicide
before this season aired.  Bravo had said that they would edit
the show but there still seemed to be a lot about Russell that
seemed inappropriate at this time.

Lisa is bone-thin and fragile and everyone has the solution
to her problems.  Other than that, everyone got along pretty
well.  Adrienne's team is leaving Sacramento and she and
Paul are going to the final game and the build-up is that fans
will be mad and bad things may happen.  But they are troopers
and go to the airport to their private plane and wait for Kim
to get it together to go along on this fun, fun trip.

Yes, that was about it for an hour of my time.  But I get
to see beautiful homes, clothes and people and forget
about how dire things are in Michigan and sometimes
you just need to do that.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

THE OFFICE ~ THURSDAY NIGHT ON NBC AT 9:00

This is the time slot that "Seinfield" dominated years ago and I
hope this tradition of great comedy continues.  We all know that
Michael Scott has left the building.  Last season ended with
the question of who would replace him.  Andy was chosen
and he is a good fit for the position.  He brags about going
to Cornell but is very unequipped to manage the office.  You
can see him agonize over every little thing (much like Michael
did) and building a whole day around a five minute job.  I
personally know many, many managers like that!!

Dwight is furious and who knows what he will do this season.
He meditates, karates and generally is just plain mad.  Pam
is pregnant again and everyone else is status quo.

Enter James Spader with his serial killer stare and scares
everyone including the audience with what he is thinking.
Great acting (I hope) and adds a new dimension to the
sometimes boring group that sells paper.  He leaves his
planner on the receptionist desk and after awhile the
entire office has seen it, analyzed it, made copies, and
work has ceased as they band together to find out what
the list of names means.  It is a pretty true to life show
and I enjoy it a lot.  It will be fun to watch how the
season developes .......................

Friday, September 23, 2011

PROJECT RUNWAY ~ Thursday on Lifetime at 9:00 p.m.

Even with lots of new episodes and new shows debuting this week
some old stand-bys are still the best.  Project Runway is doing lots
of new things this year and this was no exception.  It was called
"Image is Everything."  Once again, there were teams but it made
very little difference as there were no team leaders and each made
an individual look and the looks didn't have to be cohesive - why
the team?  Then one judge mentioned that it didn't seem to be a
team effort!  Anyway, their challenge was to design a look for
rock band "The Sheepdogs".  The winning look would be featured
in a Garnier ad and worn to a Rolling Stone event which gives
the designer tremendous exposure, they could leave next week
and still be on their way to a career.  The group has made it
to the part that is very, very important to their career and
they need to do their best but they are getting tired by the
challenges.  They had to create looks for one band member
so they heard their ideas and off to mood with $300.00 they
went.

Work, work, work, no meltdowns this time but you can see
the strain of trying to come up with fresh ideas.  Instead of a
traditional runway showing on models, the band did a performance
wearing the clothes.  The drummer was shortchanged because
both of his outfits looked similiar and unfortunately looked
similiar to bowling shirts.  The other looks were good and bad
and you can now name who will be going in the coming weeks
because the differences in tailoring and listening to the client
are coming into play.

Viktor won again and I predict he will be in the top three.
Oliver is gone.  Once again, he presented a not completed
outfit and kept complaining about how big his client was
but it was time for him to go.  Oddly enough, he is a menswear
designer, the only one in the group.  I guess just for small
men.  Too bad!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Two and A Half Men - CBS ~ Monday at 9:00

The new season of Two and A Half Men began last night.  It
has been highly anticipated by fans of this show, of which I am
one, and it was pretty good.  The writers did kill off Charlie
and did explain what happened - Rose was involved but we
all knew that relationship would end badly.  Lots of pretty
women attended to be sure that Charlie was dead and his
mother pitched the sale of the house to everyone.  It was
an indicator of Charlie's life and I will miss that character
a lot. 

Ashton Kutcher tries to drown himself in the ocean and
ends up on Charlie's deck and into the house.  I was a little
disappointed in some of the writing but maybe I just enjoyed
the Charlie character so much that I never noticed before.
Ashton is heartbroken and Alan takes him to a bar.  Ashton
doesn't drink, which I hope they continue.  He is sad and
two women try to make him feel better.  This is pretty
lame writing, I think I saw it on Zack and Cody last
week.

The characters should mesh in the upcoming weeks and
maybe Ashton (Walden) won't have to keep walking
around naked.

Monday, September 19, 2011

BREAKING BAD

Only 3 episodes left this season and one more season of the entire series - need to
savor it all.  This week was more about Jesse as this whole season has been.  He
is flying to Mexico with Mike and Gus and is scared to death (rightly so).  He
is to show the Cartel how to cook meth.  He has a showdown with their cook
and gains Gus's respect by getting his way.  The meth is cooked and is 96.2%
pure - way to go Jesse.  He is told that he will have to stay in Mexico now but
Mike assures him that "either we all go home or no one goes home."  Gus
gives a bottle of liquor to the Cartel boss and he shares it with everyone.
They all are poisoned and begin to die during a party.  Mike gets shot,
Gus in slightly poisoned and Jesse is the Superhero getting them into a
car and driving off into the desert.  Again, way to go Jesse.

Walt, meanwhile, is losing ground with everyone.  His son gets him
out of bed where he is recovering from his fight with Jesse (he even
calls his son Jesse) and tends to him, repairing his glasses and sleeping
on the couch.  He rewards his son by crying and lying and telling a
long story about how he remembers so little about his own father
because he was only 6 years old when his father died.  Shameful
behavior by Walt considering he missed his son's 16th birthday
and the lame car that Skyler picked out for him.

Skyler makes lawyer Saul give money to Ted so he can pay his
back taxes and keep them both out of trouble.  Ted rewards
her generousity by leasing a Mercedes and getting his company
up and running again and figuring out how to "get a better deal
from the government."   Saul told her it was a bad idea and so
she decides to tell Ted that she gave him the money.  More and
more recklessness from the White family.

Pretty intense episode.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

UP ALL NIGHT~ NBC ~Wednesday night at 8:00

Terrific show!! Can't say anything less than that.  Great cast, I was kind of ready
to be disappointed.  Christina Applegate is Amy's Mom and Will Arnett is Amy's
Dad.  Mom works on a talk show with Diva AVA, played beautifully by Maya
Rudolph (the bride in Bridesmaids) and Dad is a former hockey player who
left his law firm to stay home with the baby.  Mom and Dad were partiers who
will admit that a little part of them misses the night life, but love, love, love little
Amy.  It's only half a hour and I would have liked more, which is a good sign
for a sitcom.  The acting isn't over the top or stupid, crisp and sharp writing,
funny, authentic and reminds me somewhat of Modern Family (no bigger
compliment).  I set the series on my DVR and you should too..!!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Parenthood ~ NBC Tuesday at 10:00 p.m.

Finally - a season premier on network TV.  Been ready for awhile.  This
show is in it's third season  and took a little while to take off.  It
has a very talented cast - with Bonnie Bedelia and Craig T. Nelson as
the parents of four adults and we follow all of their lives.  It is ambitous
with so many characters and it is a bit cloying at times - perfect faces,
perfect houses, lots and lots of sensitive dialogue and a lot of music
when things get dull.  I still like it and this season we are dealing with
a baby, empty-nest, new career and that's just the first show!!!

The best acted part of this show was where Haddie goes to a party,
gets drunk and her boyfriend who is a recovering alcoholic comes
to her rescue only to assault another boy at the party.  He is arrested
and you can see all that he has worked for slipping away.  Great
acting and too often real life.

Julie wants to buy a baby, Sarah turns forty (complete with the perfect
party and cake), Adam hope to get a job that he is totally unsuitable
for but is desperate, and Crosby (least likeable of the four kids) is
his usual self-absorbed character.  

More to come................

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Protector - Lifetime Channel ~ Monday Night

This episode was a little different.  It usually has Gloria as the lead character
but she is stuck in a room for a couple of days waiting to testify.  She meets
a former friend who is now divorced and goes on a date.  Otherwise, she
isn't involved in the case.  When each episode begins, it usually contrasts
what the victim is doing and what Gloria is doing, getting you interested
in what happens to each one.  This week was a high stakes poker game
with wealthy players and Gloria playing solitaire.  The game is robbed
and a divorce attorney and bodyguard are killed. 

With Gloria gone, Michelle is teamed up with the Captain to investigate.
The mayor's office sent a higher ranking officer to the investigators to
oversee.  Trouble is, it's Ramon's ex-wife played by Vivica Fox.  Woo
Hoo!! the sparks fly, but not good sparks.

The robber is soon shot and we also have a car bomb.  Lots of suspects
who hated the divorce attorney so lots of characters to interact with.  Turns
out it was a former mob boss who hadn't been seen in 15 years.  The
connection was that he lived across the street from the attorney and
hated the noise from his constant construction.  Kind of a different twist
and gave us a lot of insight into several character's personal life.  Ready
for the next episode, please.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Breaking Bad

Busy ~ Busy episode..!!!

The tension is building with many storylines going on.  The ongoing theme was
summed up by Walt to Jesse "we're both dead men anyway."  Hank needs a
ride to the warehouse he has discovered belonging to Gus.  Walt buys some
time (again, does Hank know about Walt?) and let's Mike know about Hank.
The lab is being moved when a shot rings out from the hills and a man is killed.
Jesse is so scared he can't move and Mike tackles him so he isn't shot.  Soon,
Gus walks out and every bullet misses him and he puts up his hands to surrender.
He talks to the Mexican cartel and agrees to their terms.  He invites Jesse to
dinner at his home and explains that Jesse is to go to Mexico and teach them
how to cook meth.  Jesse is more scared than ever.  Rightly so.  Walt has
bugged Jesse's car and confronts him about being with Gus.  The plan to
rip their loyalty apart has been successful as they physically fight each
other and Jesse orders Walt out of his house and to never come back.

Skyler White is pretty busy herself with the car wash and shrink wrapping
money for her crawl space.  Her former employer and lover, Ted, shows
up at the car wash to let her know that he is being audited and her name is
 on the financial papers.  It was a classic scene as she shows up at the
IRS, boobs hanging out, and works the ignorance is bliss con on the
auditer.  I think I will watch that part again!!

Will Jesse go to Mexico?  Can he cook Walt's recipe?  Will Skyler keep
Ted and herself out of jail?  Next week we may answer some of these
questions.

Friday, September 9, 2011

PROJECT RUNWAY ~ Thursday on Lifetime at 9:00 p.m.

The pressure is on - we are down to 10 competitors.  This week was a favorite - the
create your own fabric challenge.  There were two teams of five and no team leader,
recipe for unlimited drama!!  You could tell after teams were chosen which was the
stronger team but I watched anyway.  They did not disappoint.  The challenge was
for each team to create of 5 piece collection from the fabric they had designed and
to also produce the fashion show (music choices and video creation).  They had
two days but it's a lot to do.  Betsey Johnson stopped by to give advice, she is
always a joy to see, always makes you smile.  Team names were chosen, Team Nuts &
Bolts and Team Chaos.  Everything clicked for Team Chaos from fabric, to video,
to design.  Everything was chaos for Nuts & Bolts and they did act like a bunch
of nuts.  The video was poorly made as well as completely irrelevant to their design,
it took a lot of work to make it so bad.

The finished fashion show was great and poor as we knew it would be.  Oliver did
finally do a wonderful jacket and Michael Kors said was possibly the best he had
ever seen on all of the shows.  I think Oliver has coasted along on his perceived
potential and this time did come through.  Enya was the competition winner and
I think she had more talent than I originally thought, waiting for more unexpected
surprises from her.

Team Nuts & Bolts couldn't even stand together without looking out of place with
each other, they couldn't even fake a team for the judges.  The judges trashed
each and every outfit and eventually Becky was sent home.  Joshua wins the
drama queen award (again) and seemed to look sad for Becky but it's pretty
plain that is what he had wanted from the first time he laid eyes on her.  I'm
hoping Joshua will go soon, he is not nearly as talented as he would like to
think that he is and who isn't sick of his bitch fits???????????

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

RIZZOLI & ISLES ~ TNT ~ Mondays at 10

This was the last episode before the "summer finale" of next week.  A young woman
is murdered on the loading docks in Boston and Rizzoli & Isles work to find her
murderer.  She is stabbed with an ice pick and that is a trademark killing for
Isles' father who is a mob boss.  Her father is shot and shows up at her apartment
for medical treatment.  This has been an ongoing story where Isles was adopted
and found out recently who her father is and still doesn't know who her mother
is.  Another story within the story is Rizzoli's brother Tommy who is staying
with her mother after getting out of prison and there is heavy flirting going
on with he and Isles, as well as a long, involved chess game.

Even with all of this going on, they are still able to solve the case and attend
sensitivity training!!  These are a couple of wonder-women (maybe I need
some sentivity training too).  The young woman who was killed had come
to Boston to find out the truth about an "accident" that her father had six
months before.  She was right that it was a setup by the union rep and
a mob boss owner but died while trying to film the evidence.

I do like this show and will miss it after next week.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Breaking Bad

Another dark, dark episode.  Gus comes in for questioning and has explanations
for everything.  Hank brings it up that there is no record of him living in Chile
but that is passed off by countries not keeping accurate records.  Gus's story
is okay with the other police but Hank still feels that he is guilty of something.

Hank has Walt drive him to Gus's chicken shack and wants
him to put a GPS devices on Gus's car.  Meanwhile, Mike pulls alongside of them in
the car.  Walt sweats bullets as he tries to keep his spinning world under control.  He
is still in remission from the cancer and tells another patient to always maintain control -
a lot of irony in this show.  Walt begins to pressure Jesse to kill Gus, how much more
can that young man take?  You can see he is just waiting to die.

The ending was a long, sub-titled scene of Gus and the Mexican Cartel from
long ago when Gus wanted to get into the drug business.  One man
is killed and Gus is spared because "I know who you are".  When will we know
who he is??????

Friday, September 2, 2011

PROJECT RUNWAY ~ Thursday on Lifetime at 9:00 p.m.

Another week has flown by and another episode of Project Runway has
entertained us for a hour and half.  There were 11 contestants left this
week in this "Back to School" episode.  Everyone went to the Harlem
School of the Arts and were paired with a teenage student that attended
this school.  The challenge was to have a collaborations with the student
and create an avant garde look that is inspired by the work of art created
with the student.  They had two days and $300.00 to complete the
challenge.  The students made a visit to the workroom and observed
how things worked and really seemed to enjoy that, you could see
the youthful enthusiasm in their faces.

Everyone worked hard and it is come to the point in the competition
where you have really good and really bad.  It will only get better
each week from here on out.

Oliver held great promise at the beginning, he was my personal
favorite but the luster has worn off.  He has no time management
skills and tried to glue the top of the dress to the model.  Those
models are troopers as she agreed to whatever it took to complete
the task.  Burt is growing on the others and shared some personal
history with them which seemed to make them appreciate him more.
His look was awful and very, very dated.  I believe he's around to
add some drama but he'll get the heave ho pretty soon.

The guest judge was Kenneth Cole and he had a lot of input into
the decisions that were made and he added a lot to the runway
show.  The students returned for the runway and seemed so
happy with how their designs had inspired others.  They were
proud and should be.

The winner was Anthony Ryan but all three in the top were great.
He had taken fabric and made long strips that resembled brush
strokes down the front and lightened them as they appeared to
drip down the long dress.  Very striking look.  The odd man
out was Josh C. who was very lost in this challenge.  He had
an original idea but changed it when Tim spoke with him and
it all ended up with no direction.  He was just brought back
last week so it was doubly sad for him to lose because he was
so intent on not going home and got sidetracked.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

MODERN FAMILY ~ ABC ~ WEDNESDAYS AT 9:00 pm

How can a network give us a dreadful show like "Shark Tank" and an
incredible, wonderful show like "Modern Family".  I'm ready for some
new episodes of this crisp, fast-paced comedy.  It deserves all of the
awards it has been given.  But until mid-September we will have to
make due with re-runs which are so funny, who cares??

Claire and Phil had a fight, a doozy with a fire extinguisher, ripped
off microwave door and frozen vegetables everywhere.  Phil doesn't
know what he did wrong and spends most of episode trying to
figure it out in true Phil fashion.  His comedy timing is terrific and
he takes the clueless, doofus just far enough to not seem stupid.
Mitchell forgets to mail invitations for Cameron and his party is
destined to be a flop.  Cameron is hilarious with his earpiece
barking out orders to little Luke even though he is standing
right beside him.  Mitchell saves the day and Phil saves himself
and Gloria sends back her karaoke machine when her son
finally tells her how awful she is.  I did have to look up "wedge
salad" and it looks pretty good.  Claire was mad because
Phil tried one after his friend suggested it and she had suggested
it for years.  Those who have been married for awhile or have
children will understand and agree how frustrating it can be.

Mid-September can't come soon enough, until then there is
another episode on right now.