TV Musings

Concerning the Return of 'Idol' and 'The Voice'

2012-02-20T11:36:00.001-08:00

By now those of you who watch reality singing competition shows (moi aussi!) are probably revelling in the excitement of not just one, but two pretty good ones on your TV these days. Don't know about you guys, but I found X-Factor painful. It took all of the most obnoxious qualities of shows in this genre, used them, and then threw its own over-the-top ridiculatta in the mix. There were so many ill-used tropes that I can't even list them all here. Feel free to rag on it as much as you wish in the comment section with my full support.

I use X-Factor as my example of how not to do a reality singing show because it excellently highlights all the things American Idol and The Voice are doing right. I admit that I was not on the Voice's hype train last season. I watched it out of crush devotion to Blake Shelton and to see the multitudinous ways Xtina tried to make us believe she's just a real gal (she's never let me down). In general, though, most of its debut season, like a scrubbier version of X-Factor seemed too forced to me -- namely the disingenuous jump-cut editing of the blind auditions to the rapid-fire elimination of contestants to TRL's Carson Daly -- and I wasn't very emotionally attached.

This season, though, they've worked out the kinks, and the result is a much smoother, more enjoyable ride.** Where on Idol I want to see and hear less from the judges, the opposite is true on The Voice. Judge chemistry has reached new levels this time around, and now that they've all got a season under their belts, it's fun to see the various ways the judges are playing the game. Nothing exemplifies the fun, light feel of the season so far for me like Cee-Lo Green, who, as a friend so wisely pointed out to me one time, somehow looks a little like Verne Troyer, stroking his Dr Evil kitty while doing confessionals. LOVE.

I can't say that Idol has really done anything to reinvent the wheel this season, but last week's group round and Vegas performances made me really excited about what's to come this season. I recently read an interesting article by Mark Harris in Entertainment Weekly, arguing basically that The Voice is more in touch with viewers in the way that initially made Idol a huge success, and that Idol has lost its touch. While this was an easy thing to say after the terrible first two Hollywood Week episodes of this season's Idol (you remember: a girl fell off the stage and we had to see it about 17 times in an hour, and then we got nary a note of singing after group night drama), last week's Vegas episode packed in about 50 above average to excellent singers singing clever arrangements of songs from the 1950s. It also gave us plenty of heroes (Erika van Pelt; Lauren Gray; Philip Phillips), villains (Randy; "Cowboy" Richie), and aggressive hipsters (looking at you, Reed Grimm) to give us people to root for and against. The Voice is certainly more bent on welcoming a truly diverse range of singers, and is more tolerant and open about different lifestyles, something Idol should learn from, but generally speaking, Idol can be darn good TV when it wants to be.

Also, and this may just be my own projections, it seems like Idol has fewer precocious teenagers left than it did at this point last year. Yay!

Now, because I like to make lists, here are the contestants from both shows I'm most looking forward to this season. It's too early to go negative, so I'll wait until Idol whittles it down to 24 for that. At this point in the season, it's a little hard to remember all the people I like on The Voice, so these are just a few standouts. More to come.

The Voice:

Tony Lucca (Team Adam): I totally remembered him from MMC and, oh yes, Malibu Shores!

Sarah Golden (Team Cee Lo): The "ugly girl" edit she got was super weird. I think she's got a great set of pipes and an artist vibe. Plus, she sang my fav Gaga jam, "You and I".

The Line (Team Christina): For some reason, this is one of the auditions I remember the most because they remind me of the awesome country duos that came out of the depressingly short-lived CMT series Can You Duet (from which came Joey and Rory, Steel Magnolia, and the Stellas). I hope we get a lot more of their harmonies.

American Idol:

Baylie Brown: Loved her audition in Galveston, but am a little worried about why they're keeping her under wraps during the crazy pre-semis. I hope it's because they expect to drop a "where'd she come from" bomb in the semi-finals.

Hallie Day: After going full-on "Backstory Idol" with her during the auditions, they haven't showed her singing much in Hollywood. I'm sort of hoping she'll make it to the top 24 and wow us all in the first round.

Lauren Gray: Yeah, so they gave her the Carrie Underwood edit when she auditioned. That's not her fault! Her controlled, raspy instrument is so up my alley. She handled herself hilariously with "Vocal Coach from Hell" Peggy Blu to then give this performance. Mmm, girl.

Heejun Han: Controversial. I like his voice (even though he needs some work), and I like his personality. It's not often we get that much sarcasm past the cheesy humor-prone Idol editors. I hope he sticks around for a little while.

Jenn Hirsch: This performance was sick. "Georgia on My Mind" is quickly becoming the new "Fallen" of the Hollywood and semi-final rounds, but what Jenn did with it was undeniably amazing. She came out of nowhere, but has emerged as one of the best voices on the show.

Skylar Laine: It was the attitude and stage presence she brought to this solo performance that made me sit up and listen. There's a maturity about her that I think Lauren Alaina could have really learned from last season. In Vegas she was in the group that sang one of my all-time favorite songs, "Dedicated to the One I Love", and as much as I tried to resist, I found myself completely sucked into that performance. She's on my watch list.

Aaron Marcellus: I thought he was the best thing about this Vegas performance of "Sealed With a Kiss". Idol needs his voice.

Erika van Pelt: She has been amazing from her audition when she sang another one of my all-time favs, Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow". Artist alert.

Philip Phillips: You guys, I'm in love. Along with 15 million other women. Yeah, his performance antics are a little spazzy, but he gets so into the music that it's hard to fault him for it. There's something really wonderful about his little-boy-at-Christmas love for playing music, as well as his ability to turn me into a puddle with a :15 second solo in this performance. I'll be really disappointed if we lose him early.

Jessica Sanchez: When she opened her mouth in this version of "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", I almost did a spit-take. Like, what the WHAT?! She and Deandre Brackensick are CHILDREN, but they and Candice Glover sang the ever lovin' funk out of that thing with attitude. I would download that performance.

**That's so something I would say about a new pair of running shoes. I'm running in the K-Swiss Blade Max Stable these days, by the way, guys, and they are a much smoother, more enjoyable ride.

'The Secret Circle''s Awesomeness

2012-02-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I caught up on the last three episodes of The Secret Circle, which I had been intentionally saving up for a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I'm pleased to report that the scars of my early addiction have been reopened. I don't have anything insightful to say about this show, but I wanted to reaffirm how much I'm enjoying it. Like The Vampire Diaries, it offers the perfect blend of YA drama (the school dance! the mysterious loner dude! BFF love/hate!) and high-stakes supernatural thrills. The "Valentine's Day" episode (excellently recapped and reviewed here. "Cassie is no Pokemon, Jake.") was simultaneously verrry creepy and believably adorable.

To pile onto the awesomeness this show is spewing out, Joe Lando, who played Sully on one of my first favorite shows ever, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (pause for nostalgic sigh), will be playing John Blackwell (at least we think that's who he is) in upcoming episodes! I KNEW I recognized that voice in the ad! Yesss.

Loving my teen shows right now.

Track and Field on TV

2012-02-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

Flotrack.org recently posted an interesting op-ed (essentially) on how track and field is presented on TV, and some ways it could be improved (to put it nicely). I don't normally comment on sports on this blog because they tend to fall just slightly outside my made-up parameters for my posts. I can also get a little competitive with teams I follow, and so sometimes it's best to just let things go. I found this particular commentary from Flotrack really interesting from a TV programming perspective, however, and I wanted to add my two cents.

Let me preface this by saying I'm a big running geek. I ran cross country and track in college, and these days I try to follow what the pros are doing as much as I can. Let's be honest, though: to seek out info on professional runners, you have to want it. The interwebs have made it exponentially easier to follow the sport, and sites like Flotrack.org and the pot-stirring LetsRun.com have given track fans the opportunity to come out of the woodwork much more than when I was in high school. But it's not exactly the NFL.

US TV coverage of track meets and high-profile marathons has increased in the last decade, and it seems to me that track fans are actively trying to raise the profile of track events and American track and field athletes. It's fantastic to see athletes like Alyson Felix and Lolo Jones appear in national TV ads and on the covers of non-running magazines; Kara Goucher has also been a great national spokeswoman for distance runners (pro and amateur alike) who are also mothers. They're still not exactly household names, but at least some track and field athletes (who not coincidentally happen to be really pretty) are getting some advertising love for the sport. NBC's network Universal Sports has also given track fans the opportunity to watch international meets on TV, usually only 3 or 4 days after the meet actually happens. Because coverage of running events has previously been so sad, we tend to take whatever we can get!

The Flotrack article I cited above, however, makes some really valid points about the health of TV track coverage as we currently know it. It's an Olympic year, which is traditionally the one year in four that regular folks (e.g., not track geeks) actually pay attention to outdoor track, so the way broadcasters choose to show track meets proves especially important this year. When, as Ryan from Flotrack argues, announcers slag off the athletes in these meets, constantly harping on what they view as technical flaws, the announcers inadvertently create a kind of sport narrative that only gives credit to the best of the best athletes, while tearing down the ones not setting world best times and marks. I've noticed this on track broadcasts, as well, and have found it to be a bit disrespectful to these professional athletes who are at the top of their game. I guess one could argue that it's the same with football, basketball, and baseball commentators, but even if an NFL or college quarterback is having a rough game, you'll rarely hear the commentators rag on his lack of skill. It seems like a weird, critical double standard that we let slide because we don't have much track to watch.

This kind of approach at the very least does nothing to draw people into the sport. Sure, people who are watching a track meet on ESPN2 are probably into it already, but, like I said, in an Olympic year the track narrative broadcasters construct should be at least a more positive than a negative one to help people get excited about the sport. These athletes all deserve more respect for what they're able to do, even when they have inevitably rough seasons along the way. If average viewers rely on the announcers to tell them what they should be looking for, the announcers should be taking that responsibility seriously.

The Flotrack post also suggests that track broadcasts should follow through with their coverage of certain athletes they profile. I found this annoying during the World Champs this year, when they would build up certain athletes, giving us stories about them and interviews with them, only to forget to tell us that athlete failed to medal in the final. When you force me to emotionally invest, I want to share in both the triumph and the tragedy! I love athlete profiles because they humanize what can be a really technical (some small-minded folks might say "boring") sport. The human emotion at the core of competition, that primal urge to push through pain to win, is what makes this sport special. Humanizing the competitors is an excellent way to help viewers care.

As Ryan from Flotrack seems to argue, this sport can be extremely entertaining even if it's not built for entertainment first, and you don't have to be a runner (or sprinter or jumper or thrower or vaulter...) yourself to get it. I do hope that the Olympics this year opens up viewership of future track/running events, even though I know it probably won't. In the meantime, I agree that TV coverage could be a lot better.

NBC's 'Smash' Deserves to be Watched!

2012-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of really stupid headline puns on the title of NBC's newest musical drama Smash that I won't make here. Instead, however, allow me some space to rave about a really fantastic pilot that kept me as engaged and excited as I was when I first watched the pilots to some of my favorite shows, such as Southland and The West Wing. Yeah, I'm comparing it to those pilots. This one was that good.

I've already spent a lot of e-ink blogging about what I see as characteristics of a good pilot, and why so often a series can't live up to a great pilot. Yes, I'm fully aware that Smash could be another Studio 60: a fantastic meta-theatrical pilot that maintains momentum for a little while before losing its mind and alienating its audience. But, y'all, this pilot was really great. It's smart and well-written without being pretentious; it's well-cast with dynamite performances; and it has that whole American dream/underdog thing at its core. I already wanted to like it, but I liked it so much more than I thought I would. For what it's worth, Smash gets a pass from me for a while.

For a smart, incisive review of the show, check out Maureen Ryan's rave review here. She rarely steers me wrong.

For my two cents, here's a list of things I LOVED about this pilot [SPOILER ICEBERG, DEAD AHEAD]:

- Katharine McPhee's opening audition scene, which her character Karen imagines herself singing on a big stage in lights. It's magical! It's her moment! THEN a cell phone rings, and the stage on which she imagines herself becomes a bleak audition room. The bubble bursts. Audition over. I love the tongue-in-cheek riffing on McPhee's Idol experience, and her most iconic performance on my admittedly favorite reality show. Classic!

- Characters I already root for.

- Snappy pacing: a show set in NYC needs to move quickly.

- Debra Messing back on my TV!

- Behind the Scenes musical theatre-ness! I love BTS-type shows, anyway, which is why Aaron Sorkin's shows have always struck a chord with me. This one is right up there with them for me.

- The fact that the centrepiece of this show, a Marilyn Monroe musical, requires us to think about Marilyn sympathetically. Much like the musical within the show, there's a sense that there's something special about this concept. Frankly, it made me want to watch All About Eve, How to Marry a Millionaire, and My Week with Marilyn again just to be on the same page as the characters.

- The whole "it's okay to dream big" theme that Glee has started to make us resent.

- The fact that I like both Megan Hilty's character Ivy and McPhee's Karen, even if they are being set up as rivals. I like the fact that one of them not getting the part is going to be disappointing for me as a viewer, but that I'll be happy for the other one. It's gotta be Karen at the end of the day, though, right?

- The baseball number! So. Fun. Did it remind anyone else of this?

- The Chicago-like flashes of the future show. It’s a show not yet realized, but gradually coming to life. The point is that imagination is creating something, and we’re allowed in on the process.

- Katharine McPhee's vulnerability. Turns out she's a pretty darn good actress (I thought she was kind of hilarious in this movie. Just sayin'.)

- As Maureen Ryan points out, Jack Davenport has finally found a great US TV role. He's positively perfect as the cocky, sort of sleezy director here.

- That Karen isn't Norma Jean, but she's not quite Marilyn yet either. I can't wait to watch her grow into the role!

- The original songs are fantastic. No really. I'd download that junk.

As you can see, I think this pilot was superb, and I think you should watch it. It'll suck you in. NBC has been producing some great TV that nobody's been watching, and it's time to reverse that trend! On the arbitrary grading scale that we all seem to like, I give it an overachieving A.

Breaking Down the Guilty Pleasureness of 'Pretty Little Liars' and 'The Lying Game'

2012-02-01T00:09:00.001-08:00

So I've been on a bit of a Young Adult fiction kick lately since reading The Hunger Games about six weeks ago, and I've noticed that since this latest fixation began, I've gotten more and more into both Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game. I'm not sure if my surging interest in those shows is correlative to my current YA obsession, or if I'm just appreciating them anew after four long months without them. Maybe a little of both?

Now, the former should come as no surprise to loyal readers. I listed the revelation of "A" as one of the things I was most looking forward to midseason this year. Since the first ten episodes, PLL has managed to keep me interested in these characters in spite of multiple POV violations and the annoyance of not really bringing us closer to solving the mystery. Take note, The Killing. Against all odds, I like these characters and care about their well-being (the same goes for Make It or Break It, which is why the banishment of Emily Kmetko to the dregs of teen pregnancy is still 100% not cool. I digress).

Like in last week's episode, as bad as I felt for poor Toby (who gets the Candice Accola Award for Best Character Turnaround in season 2), I felt even worse for Spenser, who had to hurt him to save him. So sad, you guys. The same goes for Hannah with her Dad's wedding earlier this season, Emily with the swim team 'roids debacle, and even clueless Aria, who doesn't realize that dating a teacher is just a sad Freudian response to her father's infidelity with a student. Even if said teacher looks like this (nevermind, I can't really blame her. Look at him!).

Pretty Little Liars is somehow a very solid teen mystery drama, and like with The Vampire Diaries, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like-bordering-on-love it.

My enjoyment of The Lying Game, however, has surprised even me. Has TLG actually gotten better, or have I lowered my YA TV standards to where it was this summer? I really don't know. Let's take a look, shall we?

My main problem with the show over its ten-episode summer run was that I didn't really care about the "mystery" about Emma and Sutton's birth mother, and because they wanted to keep Sutton as a main character (look, viewers: twins!), they kept forcing it down our throats. Add to that the fact that the adult characters had way too much to do with the teen characters, but not in an interesting way (Ted and Kristen Mercer are no Sandy and Kirsten Cohen), and you've got yourself into a bit of a mess. Plus, it was just obnoxious that the only person to figure out "Sutton"'s secret was Ethan. You can't see, but I'm rolling my eyes right now. You know you've got problems when you're less interesting than the now defunct Nine Lives of Chloe King (which, admittedly got better in its season/series finale. Poor Brian).

Fast forward to the "fall finale" (a term and a practice that I've grown to loathe, but that's another post for another day): Sutton returned to Phoenix and things suddenly got interesting. In spite of the show's early problems, I've always thought Alexandra Chando has done an admirable job with the two characters, keeping enough of a distinction between them in disposition that it's always pretty clear what's going on with each of them. Having both twins in Phoenix, and not knowing what loose cannon mean girl Sutton might do next to Little Orphan Emma suddenly raised the stakes. Over the last three or four weeks, it seems to have held on to that momentum, first by keeping everyone guessing about Sutton's whereabouts, what she might do next, and just how evil she might actually be; and second by clumsily adding an "A"-like mystery villain to blackmail Sutton and Emma. Perhaps not the most original way to go about things, but for whatever reason I'm loyally tuning in every week now instead of letting the episodes collect on my TiVo until I have to watch them before they disappear. Point: show.

I should probably also mention that I think the episode a few weeks ago where Laurel was invited onstage to sing with her fav band initially made my cynic-dar go wild, but it was, dare I say, kind of charming? Allie Gonino, who plays Laurel, is as it turns out a pretty decent musician in real life, and it was a nice break for her real-life Americana band The Good Mad to get to play one of their songs on her show. Giving an unknown band a break is the best kind of synergy in my opinion.

So what's the verdict? I guess TLG is getting better after all. ABC Family shows tend to do that from time to time (even PLL wasn't amazing in the beginning). I am, dare I say, invested in what happens to Ethan and Emma's adorable little relationship after he ran off with Sutton at the end of the last episode. Wow. Well done, TLG: I didn't think you could get me there.

'Glee': 'Yes/No' Love/Hate

2012-01-23T07:50:00.001-08:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Glee, as in I love watching it, but I hate to admit to it because the show's so insipid. It's one of those shows, like Grey's Anatomy, that takes itself a little too seriously in spite of the fact that it's not a very smart or very quality. It's got some talented performers and some really fun little tangents, but for the most part it kind of sucks.

But I still freaking love watching it in spite of all reason.** I mean, they sing and dance! Jazz hands!

Like with any show, some of its episodes are better than others. I finally caught up with last week's episode "Yes/No" over the weekend, wherein [SPOILER ALERT, as if you care at this point] Shu proposed to Emma. Whatevs. This show isn't really about plot anyway. There was something kind of magical about this episode, though. I can't place my finger on it, but there was a lot of awesome to go around. Here's a chronological list of the things in the episode that I loved and the things I hated.*** Just for funsies.

Oh, one thing you should know about me is that I tend to skew all my conclusions about Glee in a positive direction toward Rachel, Blaine, Santana, Mike Chang, and Brittany because I like them the best.

LOVED:
1. 'Summer Nights' totally worked for me. Santana is TOTALLY the Rizzo of that group. We were all waiting for Sam to go for that note at the end, and I appreciated the attempt. The Grease theme this episode started with and then totally abandoned was fun, even if Sam and Mercedes have no chemistry. At all.

2. This episode was directed by former teen idol/Meg's husband in Little Women Eric Stoltz.

3. 'Wedding Bell Blues'!!!! You KNOW I love love love that song. And I've always liked Emma's muppet-ness anyway. It reminded me of that great number in Hairspray with the toilet paper veil.

4. The synchronized swim coach. She's got a chip on her shoulder about the stereotype about African Americans and swimming, and she's not afraid to use it.

5. Lea's tears in 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face', which was a 100% beautiful number by all involved. Chills.

6. Emma's weird ginger-supremacist parents. Is that even a thing? They make me laugh.

7. MS. LEA. MICHELE. I thought I hated that David Guetta song. It turns out all it needed was Rachel Berry to make it a goosebumps ballad. Wowsers. Wow. Sers. Rewind.

8. Synchro proposal! I want one!

9. Thinking about the logistics of Artie going head first into the pool, wheelchair and all. That's a mind puzzle.

10. Finn's adorable little proposal (but see #5 below).

HATED:

1. Anything involving Coach Beiste's love life. *Shudders*

2. 'Moves Like Jagger/Jumpin' Jack Flash'. Gross. Two songs I do not like in one evil little package. So bad.

3. Just let Finn join the Army! Holy crap, people.

4. Will Shuster being lame. Don't make Emma cry, Will. Ugh, he sucks so bad. (He redeemed himself a little with the synchro proposal later in the ep.)

5. Rachel CANNOT marry Finn. Good bye, NYADA ; hello, Ohio School of Dramatic Arts? Boo. No.

For a real recap and commentary of this show, you should read Because We Watch Too Much TV. For some reason, I felt compelled to write about it this week! Here's to hoping we get more Blaine next week, and a "no" from Rachel!

**This paradox is what I like to call One Tree Hill Syndrome.

***My younger sister will recognize this very list as the body of a Glee fun rant email she received last night.

ABC Puts 'Cougar Town' Back on the Docket!

2012-01-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

And all Cul-de-Sac Crew swimfans rejoiced! After Work It's inevitable early cancellation, ABC has returned to its senses and announced a premiere date for Cougar Town's long-anticipated third season: February 14th. Woo!

The only bummer, as EW's James Hibberd suggests here, is that Bill Lawrence's awesome show now has to follow Tim Allen's dumb show (yeah, I said it) on Tuesday nights, instead of its former lead-in, Wednesday's wildly popular Modern Family. It would be surprising to me if CT and Last Man Standing share much of the same audience.

Oh well. I welcome Cougar Town back to my TiVo's loving arms no matter what show it follows. No complaints, ABC: you've done good!

Midseason TV To Look Forward To

2012-01-01T17:11:00.001-08:00

This week, my sister and I came to the conclusion that 2011 was a horrible movie year. I mean, really bad. Good luck to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as they attempt to find ten Best Picture-worthy nominees this year. Think about it: can you think of ten films that deserve special recognition alongside classics like (for instance) On the Waterfront, Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire, and Schindler's List? That's what I thought.

TV, on the other hand, had a banner year. In spite of the fact that both Big Love and Friday Night Lights ended their excellent runs this year, both delivered stellar final seasons: in BL's case, erasing the tepid memories of a super-weird fourth season; and in FNL's case, giving fans the perfect, sweet, nostalgic farewell that they hoped for. At midseason, ABC cautiously introduced the hilarious Happy Endings and NBC rolled out a shortened, but pitch-perfect season of Parks and Recreation. The summer brought a new slew of charming cable dramedies for us to enjoy, such as USA's Suits and Necessary Roughness (for which Callie Thorne just scored an excellent WTF? Golden Globe nomination). But best of all, the fall season introduced us to Homeland, Once Upon a Time, Suburgatory, and (yes I'm including it) The Secret Circle, while still promising an imminent end to Desperate Housewives! Yessirrie, things are alright in TV land these days.

You know what the best part is, though? The start of 2012 promises even more fun! Here's what I'm looking forward to as the new year kicks off.

The return of 30 Rock and Cougar Town! The former is happening this month, while the latter is still TBA, but with at least a few episodes in the can already, I don't fear an untimely end to Cougar Town just yet. While I don't relish the idea of trading Happy Endings (e.g., instead of Modern Family, of which I've grown to be a little bit of a hype-hater) for Cougar Town's survival in mid-March, I can't wait to welcome the Cul-de-Sac Crew back to my TV. 30 Rock replaces Whitney on NBC's Thursday night comedy block. Win-win.

Southland's fourth season! With Homeland going on hiatus, TNT's brilliant Southland should fill the serious-minded drama void nicely. Odds are pretty good that Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, and Regina King will each find new ways to be freakishly good at their jobs.

NBC's Smash. NBC has been holding this one out on us, hopefully because they think they've got a hit on their hands. It's a terrible shame that Prime Suspect wasn't a hit, because NBC's scrambling desperately for a scripted TV hit (they've got The Voice and the NFL, after all), and if Smash doesn't live up to expectations, we might lose what looks like another quality drama. I'm really interested to see what happens, though. The show itself looks like the kind of meta-showbiz thing I love to watch (don't even get me started on Studio 60), and it features one of my favorite shunned [American] Idols, Katherine "McPheever" McPhee in her first major starring role (I love to see the Idols succeed!), along with Debra Messing and Angelica Houston. Come on, y'all, this show looks cool.

Speaking of former Idols (segue alert), American Idol returns at the end of January! Has America's fascination with singing reality shows finally peaked? If the whole Voice-X-Factor-Sing-Off overload has finally set in, will viewers continue to tune into Idol? Frankly, I hope Idol still emerges as the favorite. I like The Sing-Off, but The Voice and The X-Factor were both unsettling for me in their first seasons. While watching the latter for a while this season, I found myself craving the simple joys of the Idol way: a capella auditions for the "judges", the shy contestants who take a little while to get used to performing for a crowd (I'm looking at you, Carrie Underwood), the out-of-nowhere semifinal surprise (Allison Iraheta's "Alone"; David Cook's "Happy Together"; even Alexis Grace's "I Never Loved a Man [the Way that I Loved You]). Neither The X-Factor nor The Voice (which is only watchable because of Blake Shelton) allows any room for this kind of reality show magic. Come on, Idol: you've got this.

Pretty Little Liars is returning, and they've promised to tell us who "A" is before the March 19 finale! [This news does not require an explanation because it is objectively awesome.]

Chuck's series finale. It'll be sad to see Chuck go, but it seems like the right time. The show has been in perpetual cancellation limbo since its 2007 debut, so it's nice to see it go out on its own terms, with a full season to tie up loose ends. With [SPOILER ALERT!] Chuck and Sarah finally getting married at the end of last season, it's the perfect season to give Casey a chance at romance. I predict a saccharin, but not sickening happily ever after for everyone in the gang. Awww, I love Chuck.

FOX's new JJ Abrams show, Alcatraz. DON'T read the description of this show before you watch the trailer. You'll think it's ridiculous. As any JJ Abrams fan knows, though, the man who invented Felicity (that's right: I chose Felicity to illustrate why he's awesome) can make almost anything (last year's Undercovers was...off) awesome, and this show looks like no exception. It falls right into the Abrams sweet spot -- e.g., realist, sci-fi fantasy that doubles as a character drama -- and it's got Sam Neill acting spooky. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

The inevitable early cancellation of ABC's offensive-looking drag comedy Work It. Any show that manages to simultaneously piss off LGBT advocacy groups, "family" media watchdogs, and critics who think it's "duuuuummmmb" doesn't deserve a healthy TV run.

NBC's Awake. Even though its premiere date is still TBA, this trippy Jason Isaacs thriller actually has the makings of a niche hit for NBC. I wrote briefly about the cool trailer here, and after watching it again, I stand by my initial fangirl excitement. Let's see it, NBC!

I hope 2012 turns out to be an awesome TV year!

TV by Politics

2011-12-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

I came across this post from Entertainment Weekly today about the TV preferences of Liberal Democrats and Conservative Republicans (categorically), and it made me chuckle. Not that it's any of your business, but I would consider myself a moderate Republican, right-leaning on fiscal and defense policies, and left-leaning on education and many social issues.

Apparently, though, I watch TV like a liberal Democrat. According to the survey cited by EW.com, left-wing Democrats tend to like "'sarcastic' media-savvy comedies and morally murky antiheroes", while these shows tend to turn off right-wing Republicans, who generally favor "serious work-centered shows" and reality shows instead. EW doesn't provide a link to the Experian-Simmons survey in the post, but I would also be curious to know the ages, income, and education levels of the participants. The categories are pretty black and white, but it's still interesting nonetheless to see where one's preferences tend toward.

Among the shows used as examples of Democrat-friendly fare are 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation (two of my favs!), The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Treme, The Office, and even Parenthood; while the examples of Republican-friendly shows ranged from The Deadliest Catch (one of my parents' personal favorites) to Dancing with the Stars to crime procedurals like NCIS and Castle.

My preferences land mostly with the Dems on this one. Give me something I can bite into: a sarcastic comedy sans laugh track, or a drama with lots of gray areas. A good anti-hero has more to teach me about the life, humanity, and the Divine than a boring archetype, anyway. That's what art should do, right? I would like to note, though, that like my Republican counterparts, I have a very strong dislike of Treme, Weeds, and The Big C, which can only be explained as an aversion to premium cable shows that make me feel icky.

Out of curiosity, reader, where do you land on the not-so broad spectrum painted out for us here?

When Bad Writing Happens to Good Shows

2011-12-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the departure of Aaron Sorkin at the end of season four of The West Wing, midway through the Zoey Bartlett kidnapping. Although we're both diehard WW fans (he's in love with Ainsley Hayes; I heart Josh "Lemon" Lyman), we both agreed that it wasn't the show at it's best. For a show that made political action narrative action, the kidnapping plot seemed out of place: a soapy, emotionally manipulative way for the show to scoop up ratings as the show was starting to lose viewers (Rob Lowe left that season, and it dropped 5 million viewers as a result! Dear Rob Lowe, don't ever leave Parks and Recreation. Thanks).

Not that it wasn't fun to watch. It totally was! It was just...wrong for that show.

So that got me thinking about other great shows that suffered the occasional writing misstep. I'm not talking about shows that are already pretty bad, like One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy. Bad writing happening to good shows is a special kind of bad writing because it's only bad due to the fact that it's weirdly affecting a good show. Here are some classics:

5. "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" on Millennium, season 2. It pains me a little to include this because Millennium was such a great show, and I would venture to guess that many of you have never seen it. Let me just remind you that this post is about bad writing happening to good shows, so you really should watch it if you haven't seen Chris Carter's Millennium. It's freaking cool. That said, its second season had some bumps. I have absolutely no problem with genre shows oscillating between episodic and serial episodes to try to build an audience of geeks. In fact, I welcome it. But I really hated those Jose Chung episodes that Darin Morgan and Chris Carter felt like we needed to see on this and their other big show The X-Files. On Millennium, it halted the movement of the season by altering the ambiance in a distracting and self-indulgent way. It wasn't quite as dramatically jarring on The X-Files, where the Jose Chung episode took place during the unsteady first season of the show, but it wasn't exactly a shining moment either. If you watch Millennium, as per my sage advice, you won't miss anything if you skip over this particular episode.

4. Scrubs: The New Class, seasons 8 and 9. This was a simple case of a great show refusing to go out on a high note, and it was not entirely the fault of the showrunners. Scrubs found itself perpetually in danger of cancellation, and at the end of its seventh season, NBC finally pulled the plug. Both creator Bill Lawrence and star Zach Braff said that the seventh would be its last season. Then, through a series of weird happenings and threatened litigation, ABC ended up picking it up for an eighth season of 18 episodes, in which most of the leads would return at least on a temporary basis. The seventh season finale was pitch perfect as a finale, with JD imagining a happy ever after with Eliot, as he left the hospital. Bringing back these characters for another two seasons, along with new characters that were funny enough, but not the cast we had grown to love, felt like an unwelcome, two-year epilogue. As far as I'm concerned, Scrubs ended on NBC.

3. Lorelai and Christopher hook up and get married on Gilmore Girls, seasons 6 (finale) and 7. Okay, I get why Luke and Lorelai had to break up in season 6. They had legitimate communication problems that centered on Luke being a curmudgeon. What I didn't care for, however, was Lorelai immediately jumping into bed with Christopher the same night she and Luke broke up. Lorelai didn't always make great decisions, but it was a stretch to believe that she'd do something that self-destructive at the expense of slow-moving Luke potentially instigating a reconciliation. I just don't buy it, and I think this was the moment that the usually delightful Girls went a little off the rails. At the time it felt like a big middle finger from departing creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, and it still feels that way.

2. The Mexico foray on Big Love, season four. I'm still not sure how we got to that point on Big Love. From the first season, the elements of the show that frequently proved the most compelling centered on Bill and the wives, their relationships with one another and with the family. Whenever the show drifted too far outside of this nucleus, particularly with Bill's random business ventures and all the compound drama, it lost some of its initial zing. I think this is what happened during season four: it just seemed like Bill was juggling too many balls in the air, and while this was a recurring theme throughout the show (e.g., overworked, stressed out, power-hungry Bill), for the whole of this season, I felt like I was being overworked as a viewer. We should have known something was going to be off this season, when the premiere gave us a literally frozen Roman Grant being transported to the Henricksen's new casino. WTH?? The heights of this season's weirdness, though, came when Bill drove to Mexico to rescue his kidnapped eldest son, crazycakes mother, and SOB of a father, culminating in a bizarre standoff with one of the ruling FLDS clans, in which Lois cuts off a dude's hand. Season five was thankfully better.

1. The Landry-Tyra murder plot on Friday Night Lights, season 2. Ah, season two, the season otherwise known as the season that FNL fans warn their FNL-virgin friends about before they start watching. For the most part, the season was just...off, and the murder plot was a microcosm of where it went wrong. FNL was at the height of its creative powers when characters were allowed to develop through everyday situations. The forced intensity of a murder was too sensational, too unreal to happen to our characters in Dillon. It remains the quintessential example of bad writing happening to a good, nay, great show.

Honorable Mention: Mr. Eko on LOST; the "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" episode of The X-Files (see above); the will they or won't they ridiculata with Joey and Rachel on Friends.

Shows I'm Most Thankful For

2011-11-21T16:20:00.001-08:00

AOL TV did a list of shows they're most thankful for this year (spoiler: their choices are awesome), and it got me thinking about my favorite shows still on air. I've spilled much ink (figuratively speaking -- it's a blog, right) on my sadness about the departure of three of my three favorite shows in the last year and a half (in death march order: LOST, Big Love, and Friday Night Lights).

Even though two out of three of those weren't surprises, it still stings to lose a favorite. One of the things I love about a good show is the way you're allowed to get invested in characters for several years, as opposed to just a couple of hours in a movie. Friday Night Lights, in particular, told lots of stories, but held true to whom these people were throughout. I feel privy to a large chunk of Coach and Tami's story, not just an event in their "lives".

Anyway, with the departure of those favorites, I've begun to revel in the new stories to be told, compiling a new list of favorites. So here's a list of the shows I'm most thankful for this year.

1. Parks and Recreation. I chose this one over the dramatic and consequential Homeland because I've just fallen head over heels for Leslie and the gang over the last two and a half seasons. The show's innate optimism makes the characters easy to care about, which is, believe it or not, not always easy to do on a comedy show, where it's easy for characters to turn into cartoon characters. Usually I'm a fan of serialized drama shows and episodic sitcoms, but Parks and Rec works in both cases. The six-episode build up to the Harvest Festival at the beginning of last season was note-for-note perfect, combining the best elements of stand alone and continuing storylines. I can't imagine liking a comedy show much more than I like this sweet little show.

2. Homeland. Man, oh man. This show knows what it's doing! When a show commands, no, demands your undivided attention throughout, you're either stuck with a complicated plot-driven show, where anything you missed while you were surfing the internet, cooking dinner, or writing a paper (my life) could turn into a confusing hour for you, or you're blessed with a show that has actors who know how to make you question them, and think about what they might possibly be thinking. This is what I love about this show: the layers. So. Many. Layers. The episode "The Weekend" is the first A+ episode of any show this season because of the web it wove in all three storylines. TV doesn't get much better than that episode, folks.

3. Southland. Southland's long hiatuses kill me, yo! Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful that when NBC gave this show the old premature farewell, TNT rode in on a white horse to rescue it from cancellation obscurity. But, man, these six-episode seasons are not enough. In all fairness, I'm being a little dramatic: season three had ten episodes. My point, however, is that shows like this get relegated to shortened seasons on cable, while shows like Law and Order: SVU make 24 episodes a year of the same, predictable formula. It's sad. Southland stands on its own feet, though, even without many episodes in which to do so. "Code 4" from last season was another perfect episode of TV. [SPOILER!] Nate's death was one of the most disturbing TV deaths in a long time, in part because it was based on a real incident, but also because of the way it was so beautifully written. Southland is consistently shockingly good, and I would take it to the mat for this show being one of the most quality dramas on TV.

4. Happy Endings. This was another comedy that came out of left field, but has delivered hilarious stuff every week. There's no question about the talent-level of the cast. The most surprising thing about it, though, is how funny it was from the beginning because of how well the cast managed to build a believable chemistry. Ensemble comedies rise and fall on the chemistry of the cast, since comedy relies so much on timing, and this cast figured out pretty early how to work well off of each other. The result is that it's only a few episodes into its second season (coming off of a short first season), and it's already sharp. I'm glad ABC has stuck by it this season (where the H is Cougar Town, ABC??), and I really hope it's able to build and maintain an audience.

5. Fringe. There's some stank talk of season four being Fringe's final season, but I don't wanna talk about it. As it now stands, Fringe has solidified itself as one of the most compelling serial dramas on TV, combining excellent characterization with an X-Files-worthy mythology and philosophical depth (don't believe me on the last point? I dare you to read NT Wright's Surprised By Hope without thinking of Fringe. Chills). To add to all the goodness, it's such a treat to watch Anna Torv and John Noble act every week. It's truly a Lauren Graham on Gilmore Girls-sized tragedy that Torv hasn't been recognized for her work on this show because of its genre. Oh well, though, while I do find it discouraging that this show hasn't managed to build the mammoth-sized audience that The X-Files once had, I have to admit that if it was too populous, I probably wouldn't root for it as hard. For now, I'm thankful to be one of the devoted few that adores it.

6. Parenthood. I thought for a while that Parenthood was going to be FNL's successor in my affections. It hasn't turned out that way, mostly because sometimes the plots seem a little contrived sometimes, but I've got to give it up for this show nonetheless. Like with Fringe, I also find it slightly depressing that a show this good could have a difficult time finding an audience. All of these actors are so good at what they do that I'm not really bothered by its emotionally-driven storylines. It's managed to not let itself become a soap because the acting is so good, and because everyone has such excellent chemistry.

7. Cougar Town. The cul-de-sac crew has gotten lots of critical love, but, again, not a lot of viewer love (I'm sensing a theme on my list, here), which is a real shame because along with Parks and Rec and Happy Endings, Cougar Town is one of those shows that makes me laugh out loud every single week. What started as a tongue-in-cheek Courtney Cox vehicle quickly became a great ensemble comedy that works like a lady version of Scrubs, and as far as I can tell it's only detractor is a silly title that no one who watches the show cares about anymore. It's terrible that ABC hasn't announced a return date for the comedy, but I'm sure that when it finally does return for its third season, it will be just as delightful as ever.

8. Once Upon a Time. I'm still settling into this show and where it's going, but I've been loving the ride so far. A friend of mine pointed out that the show would probably be more compelling if the "mythology" wasn't so well-versed in the Disney versions of the fairy tales, but I understand the impulse to make it more accessible to a large audience at such an early stage in its "life". It would be really cool to see it go darker by doffing its Disney chains and diving into the real fairy tales, but given the fact that it's an ABC show, I'm not holding my breath. For now, I'm delighting in a fun, creative show with fantastic potential, come what may.

9. The Vampire Diaries. You guys, I LOVE The Vampire Diaries. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it still manages to keep the stakes high every single week. Vicki's shocking death in season one was enough to keep me on my toes for that season, and it's been really fun to admit that the tension hasn't really died for me. Never a dull moment in Mystic Falls!

10. American Idol. If I'm being honest with myself, Idol is so much more than my tenth favorite show. It's definitely my favorite reality show on TV, and on top of that, the show I look forward to the most in the month leading up to its premiere. I love going along with its shenanigans, but still playing "spot the producer conspiracy" every season. It will be hard, nay, impossible for Idol to ever live up to season 7 again (the Davids + Carly Smithson + Brooke White [whose 'High Hopes and Heartbreaks' record is a gem! A real grower!] + Michael Johns + Jason Castro + the best theme nights Idol has ever managed to pull off + the introduction of contestants playing instruments on the main stage = DREAM SEASON), but as long as it producers at least one or two deserving underdogs per season (I'm lookin' at you, Haley Reinhart), I will continue to enjoy and obsess over it. Whoop!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

'Prime Suspect' Not Canceled Yet

2011-11-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

According to AOL, NBC is shutting down production on their great freshman drama Prime Suspect. This doesn't necessarily mean it's canceled, but the writing's pretty much on the wall. It kind of looks like NBC is waiting to see if any of their midseason replacement shows (especially Smash and Awake -- which both look awesome) will stick before they officially pull the plug, but they're not giving a lot of reason to be optimistic about Prime Suspect's chances.

This news makes me cross.

Gabrielle Giffords ABC Special

2011-11-15T02:53:00.000-08:00

Did you guys watch the Diane Sawyer special about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on ABC last night? Often "news" magazine specials on the major networks emphasize the sick and tawdry details of stories that have made the news for whatever reason. While these specials always tend to at least end on a positive note (the "hero" finding hope in his/her new lease on life, etc.), many times there's a troubling human tendency to make sure that we the viewers are aware of just how perverse the "bad guy" in the scenario might be -- a pyscho-pop probe into the mind of the people who commit the evil acts. I've got no interest in sensationalist gossip.

It's with this in mind that I found the special on Giffords delightfully optimistic. The killer's asinine smiling mugshot was flashed onscreen briefly in the expository bits, but the focus here was on Giffords and her arduous journey to recovery. The shooting last January was stunning in the worst way, and we're not going to forget it anytime soon. It would have been unnecessary to dwell on the tragedy. The special was thankfully about Giffords, a remarkable person, and the miracle of her life. I loved seeing the speech therapists working with Giffords, the way music helped her relearn how to walk, and the positive outlooks of Mark Kelly and Giffords' mother. Simply put, I love seeing amazing people overcoming difficult circumstances, and Giffords inspires me.

Without getting too sentimental here, one can't help but feel that the shooter sought to symbolically destroy democracy in action, as a congresswoman was nearly assassinated while meeting publicly with her constituents. Seeing that same politician fight against her stacked odds helps to restore faith in what her office stands for. It lets us see that sometimes we do elect outstanding people to public office, and that no matter how divisive the American political stage may seem, there are still strong, righteous individuals working for what they see as a "greater good". Congresswoman Giffords is inspiring.

Did you watch the special on Giffords? If so, what did you think of the way they told the story?

'Pan Am' Update: It's Gotten Better!

2011-11-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

I recently gave the first handful of episodes from ABC's new series Pan Am a pessimistic "C", and while I stand by that initial assessment of the show, I'm excited to report that the show has been showing great strides lately. My problem with it early on was that it didn't seem to know where it wanted to go or what its characters were supposed to be doing. It seemed a little stuck in telling us about various scrapes the Pan Am "stewardesses" manage to get themselves into while in foreign countries, while it should have been focusing on who these women are. It's starting to do that more now, and the last two episodes have been much more fun to watch as a result!

I make no secret of the fact that my decade-old crush on ER's Dr Kovac (aka Goran Visnjic) hardly leaves me unbiased when he's onscreen, but don't you think his turn as Yugoslavian diplomat (Eek! A Communist!) Niko Lonza made Kelli Garner's Kate and her heretofore overwrought CIA job so much more interesting? While I still think the interlinear storytelling on this show is too heavy-handed, it did help display her excellent emotional range in the last episode, "Truth or Dare". I loved the final scene, which had a heart-broken Kate putting on a happy face for the arriving passengers. We've all been there, girl!

I would be remiss to talk about the things Pan Am is getting right without mentioning Gaius Charles' (FNL's Smash Williams back on my TV!) guest stint on last week's episode. 1960s civil rights stuff was bound to come into play sooner or later, especially with a protagonist matched only by Brittany Snow from American Dreams in blonde-haired-blue-eyed-ness. The problem with doing a light show like this set in the 60s is that the big issues like civil rights and gender descrimination always come off a little like your high school social studies class suggested, good versus evil, ignorant versus enlightened, with little gray area. You're supposed to get enraged by the idiot racist, sexist, heavily-accented good ole boy. I've got no problem with shows condemning racism and sexism, but it gets annoyingly heavy-handed sometimes. What I liked about Pan Am's treatment of 1960s racism is that even though it did all of those things I just mentioned, it didn't dwell on it. Charles' character was at least a real character, rather than a prototype, and Laura (Margot Robbie) was able to have a character growth episode. I'm okay with that compromise.

All things considered, I'm actually starting to enjoy this show, so I'm upgrading it to a: B-

TV Links of Interest

2011-11-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Rather than writing something longer and somewhat specific, here's a post that reflects my life right now: a little random, a little judgmental, and riding on the shoulders of others.

Mo Ryan insists that the as yet only cringeworthy CBS hit 2 Broke Girls is fixable. Step one: get rid of the racism.

"Caress"! Ha! Katie Holmes' appearance on this week's HIMYM as the Slutty Pumpkin was a pleasant surprise. Remember when we liked her as Joey Potter?

Pan Am sat better with me this week. I like what's going on with Goran Visnjic's character and what's-her-face, the covert operative. I still don't care about 75% of the show, but a love affair between a Commie and a secret agent from the Company, c. 1960s, is aces. Yes, show: more of that.

American Horror Story got renewed for a second season. It's been delivering killer (heh) rating for FX, so no surprise there. Here's a humorous take on its ridiculata so far.

Name confusion or not, this guy's pretty much the best thing about Dexter this season!

I liked Grimm, didn't love it, but I think it's got potential. Here's a good pilot review.

Sarah and Mr Cyr might be my favorite couple on TV right now (especially since Coach and Tami are no more). This interview with Lauren Graham and Jason Ritter rocks my face off. Is there a campaign for Parenthood to retain Ritter as a full-time cast member? That needs to happen.

Checking Up on the New Season

2011-10-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the season, I posted about which new shows I was planning to tune into this season, so now that just about everything has had a few weeks to settle in, without further ado I give you my mid-season (read: pre-sweeps) report card of the newbies. (I apologize in advance for all of the passive voice you're about to read. I'm tired.)

Sunday:

Once Upon a Time: It's hardly fair to judge a show based on its pilot episode (I learned my lesson with the excellent pilots, but disappointing subsequent episodes of Life Unexpected and V), but for what it's worth, I LOVED this pilot. It had all the things I wanted and more: a compelling underlying mythology, creepy/cool visual effects (seriously, this show was made for the full HD treatment), and characters I already care about (not sure how much I care about Jennifer Morrison's Emma yet, but I'm optimistic). Most importantly, though, it is philosophical and beautiful. It's about faith, hope, and love defeating the curse of death. I'm sold! When this show fails to live up to expectations, I'll eat my words, but for now, the pilot gets an: A.

Pan Am: Last week's episode reached new heights of boring for me, even with the exciting edition of my former ER crush Goran Visnjic. I want to like this show. I really do! Thomas Schlamme's involvement is probably the only reason I'm still watching, but it has yet to suck me in. My biggest complaint is that the show doesn't seem to know what it wants to do yet. Is it about 1950s gender politics? Is it a Cold War espionage ride? Is it a dramedy about the silly things flight attendents can get into in Europe? Ugh, all I know is that if it doesn't figure it out soon, I'm out. This one gets a: C.

Homeland: YES!!! That is all. Read my post about the pilot if you want a fuller view of why I've taken to this show. I'm happy to report that four episodes in, it's still compelling. A!

MONDAY:

Hart of Dixie: I like to pride myself on having patience with bad shows, but the first two episodes of this crapfest were painful. I loved Rachel Bilson on The OC and Scott Porter on FNL (obviously!), but life's too short, man. If the show gets legitimately better, reader, let me know 'cause I'm out. For now, that recycled fish-out-of-water, 1990s rom-com ridiculata is beyond my level of tolerance. Dixie gets a: D.

Two Broke Girls: I picked up this show at the urging of friendly recommendations, its early ratings success, and Kat Dennings' awesomeness on The Late Late Show, but after four episodes, it's on probation. My disconnect from the show can be pinned down to Vulture's criticism that it comes across a little too mean-spirited sometimes. Why can't Max just be a little nicer to her roommate? And do I need to even mention the near-Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's-levels of racism? Gross. As single-camera sitcoms have cornered the market on creativity these days, it's going to take a lot more than this to bring me back around to the multi-camera sitcom. It's still a wait and see show, so I'll give it a: C-.

TUESDAY:

Ringer: I HATED the pilot for this show, but have to admit that it's gotten exponentially better since the first 2-3 episodes. Seriously, if you gave up on it early, you should start watching again because it's become a really fun, soapy hidden identity drama, with a main character that's much more interesting than she was initially. I think it just needed a few weeks to find its footing, and to let its characters figure out who they are. Its stock is rising, so I'm giving it a solid: B.

New Girl: Am I the only who watches this show nervously, thinking it's not going to be funny? Thankfully it has been funny, and Zooey Deschanel's charm has not proven to be overstated. But that nagging feeling that the best jokes have already happened still irks me when I watch it. Of all the shows that FOX could have benched for the World Series, I can't help but feel this show in particular may be the most at risk to lose a little of its early momentum. Hopefully not. I'm still unsure about it, even though it's been pretty good thus far. The first three episodes get an above average: B+.

WEDNESDAY:

The X-Factor: Oy. So this one's a train wreck, yes? My sister argues that it takes all of the most annoying qualities from Idol, The Voice, and America's Got Talent (e.g., auditions in front of a packed studio; intrusive swelling soundtrack; over-wrought emotional manipulation for contestant packages; a lot of talk about one pursuing one's "dream"; hyperbolic critiques by "experts"; and on and on...), and combines them for maximum suckage. I couldn't agree more. I'm holding out hope that the finals will be less awful, but to this point, I'm not very invested. Although L.A. Reid is actually a brill addition to the long list of celebrities who can call themselves a "reality show judge", one can't help but feel his particular talents are wasted here. I'm still watching despite my better judgment, so this show gets a pessimistic: C+.

Up All Night: Yeah, this show could be better. Maya Rudolph is legitimately hilarious in the right context, but her character is too zany to be on the same show with the semi-realist (you know, for comedy shows) relationship between Christina Applegate's and Will Arnett's characters. The impulse to make Rudolph's character more prominent, particularly after the success of Bridesmaids, is a good impulse, but something's not quite gelling between the two worlds this show has created. In spite of its structural messiness, though, I've been enjoying this show from week to week, and unlike New Girl, I don't feel an anxiety about its ability to maintain its funny. I'm also glad NBC has found a mini-hit. Up All Night gets a solid, comedic: B+.

Suburgatory: Ah, see? Now here's a comedy that knows which way is up. This has fit right into ABC's excellent Wednesday night schedule, delivering a silly, but not quite over the top suburban parody (I mean that in the best way). And do I even need to mention Alan Tudyk? This show deserves at least an Asian F: A-.

Revenge: Revenge is the new Desperate Housewives: an over the top nighttime soap on ABC that's full of scheming, fashion, and WASPs. Thus far, in spite of the procedural quality of the first 3-4 episodes, it's turned into one of my favorite new shows of the season. I very much like watching shows where I feel like the protagonist is in control, which is the reason only the first season of Prison Break was epic. In this case, Emily Thorne seems to be in control. It's fun watching puppetmasters. For style, ambiance, and some old fashioned suds, Revenge gets an: A-.

American Horror Story: My problem with AHS is the way it's trivializing horror. Horror for horror's sake isn't as scary, entertaining, or, dare I say it, meaningful as horror with a purpose. Here's what I mean: AHS seems pleased with itself every time it pays homage to another 1970s horror trope, but unlike many of the really great horror films and TV shows it's looking up to, like The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, or even Twin Peaks, in AHS, there is no inherent purpose behind its violent and psychologically twisted world. It's just trying to scare you with cheap thrills and characters that aren't recognizable as people. I'm not sure where this show is going, but my problem is that I don't think it does, either. I also made the mistake of reading Mo Ryan's scathing review after I watched the pilot, and now I can't get it out of my head when I watch. AHS gets points for trying, but in spite of my attraction to the genre, I feel it may not be my cup of tea, so it gets a: B-.

THURSDAY:

Charlie's Angels: Real bad. Which is why it has been cancelled. Fail: F.

The Secret Circle: I know I'm going to get even more crap from my friends and family for watching this show than I do about The Vampire Diaries (well, maybe), but I'm powerless against it. It has all the things that make a teen show great: relatable female lead, love triangle, high school shenanigans, absent/clueless parents, and, my new favorite teen show quality (thanks to the last ten years), an unrealistic, yet high stakes supernatural element. YES! I wasn't optimistic going into the season, but I should learn to trust Kevin Williamson more, because like the recent (AWESOME) Scream 4 for which he was responsible, the dude knows what his audience wants. Yeah, I love this show. Well done, Britt Robertson! You get an: A.

Prime Suspect: Thursday has turned out to bring out the very best and very worst in new shows. Fortunately, Prime Suspect falls into the former category. The pilot was good, but a little silly in places. Would a contemporary police department ever tolerate that much sexism? I think not. Subsequent episodes have toned down the silly misogyny, though, and have allowed Maria Bello to just be awesome -- controversal fedora and all. As crime procedurals go, it's not doing anything revolutionary. It has, however, found a way to play to its strengths. I hope NBC is able to stick with it because I'm giving it a solid: A-.

That covers all the new ones I'm watching this season. Grimm looks kind of fun, but I haven't had time to watch the pilot yet, and I've been all but chided by my parents for not watching Person of Interest. I would definitely watch that one if I wasn't facing the biggest traffic jam of the week on Thursdays at 9/8c, I swear! Maybe I'll catch up with it over Christmas or something. Happy TV watching, everyone! Let me know what you dis/agree with in the comments section below!

And the Best Pilot of the Season is...

2011-10-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Showtime's Homeland! After reading this post, this post, and this post about the show before it aired, it was wonderful to find that it exceeded expectations, and that people watched it.

The marvelous thing about the pilot is that along with believably presenting a world of the highest stakes (like 24 did in its less nutso seasons), we find ourselves treated to multiple character studies by some really amazing actors. Damian Lewis is better than I've ever seen him in this character, to the point that I can't really imagine another actor playing this role. I'll write more on him in a few episodes. In the best way possible, I can't quite get my head wrapped around him. I also think Morena Baccarin shows here that same dynamism we were treated to in V for two seasons.

Claire Danes is revelatory. She has that same watchable intuitiveness here that she's always had, and she draws you in by passionately leading you to believe that every word she's speaking is true, even though empirical evidence may tell you otherwise. Not to beat the dead horse that everyone's beating, but this quality is what makes My So-Called Life so perpetually terrific: you care about Angela Chase, and Danes pulls you into Angela's emotional world, but you recognize that Angela is an unreliable narrator, a teenage girl figuring it out as she goes.** In Homeland, Danes and the writers bring this to Carrie Matheson, who is damaged, unstable, even paranoid. I love the shades of gray here. I love the jarring wrongness of Carrie trying to seduce Saul in a moment of desperation. I love that Carrie is a little awkward with people, and that she takes anti-psychotics. Most of all, though, I love that she actually could be wrong about this whole thing. Yessss.

I'm beyond impressed with this show's first hour, and I look forward to seeing if it can build on its excellent pilot. I do find myself a bit concerned about long-term potential, and whether the central mystery is enough to sustain it through the whole season, but the strength of the pilot makes me prone to trusting its makers from steering it into another The Killing-level disaster. Watch it if you haven't!

**As a special treat, check out this Vulture article comparing Danes's new character with Angela Chase. 15 shades of awesome. Boom.

Fall TV Schedule Addenda

2011-09-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

The new TV season is alive and kicking, and along with the always enjoyable return of old favorites (Parks and Rec, I missed you most of all), the new crop seems to be holding its own nicely. Up All Night, Prime Suspect, and, surprisingly, The Secret Circle are a few of my early favs. I'm not exactly hemorrhaging spare time to watch hours and hours of TV each week, but I've decided to add a few shows to my weekly rota. It's a nice position to be in.

Dexter (Showtime, Sundays @ 9/8c): This summer, when my Slingbox was broken, I started watching Dexter at the urging of TV-watching friends I respect, and, well, I got a little obsessed. Those of you who like it, you know what I'm talking about. Wow, season 4, right?! Granted, I'm invested now. I've gotta keep watching.

Homeland (Showtime, Sundays @ 10/9c): I posted about this one last year, as I relished Claire Danes' return to serialized TV drama after a ridiculously long absence. It looks perhaps irritatingly political, but I'm interested to see if it's also a character drama. Definitely worth watching the first season, at least.

2 Broke Girls (CBS, Mondays @ 8:30/7:30c): I'm going to be honest with you. Multi-camera sitcoms really bug me these days. The one-two-punchline style feels tired, and aren't we as viewers collectively past the point of needing a laugh track to tell us what's funny? Ugh. With that in mind, Kat Dennings went on Craig Ferguson's show last week and won me over to her new multi-camera CBS sitcom. I should have known that the charismatic heroine from my favorite hipster rom-com (Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Obviously) wouldn't be on a stinker, but I've just grown so suspicious of CBS sitcoms of late. I didn't watch the pilot, but Ern and Leeard liked it, so I'll give it a whirl.

Why 'Boardwalk Empire' Lost Me Last Season

2011-09-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here's another post from Maureen Ryan reading my mind about a show. This time, she describes the inherent connection problem that I've had Boardwalk Empire, that is, in spite of seriously gorgeous, near-perfect aesthetics and an undoubtedly cool concept, none of the characters are really worth following. It's pretty, but empty. As Ryan more eloquently puts it:

"It brings me no joy to bail out on 'Boardwalk Empire.' I thought the start of its first season was stylish and promising, but for me to stay interested in a group of people, I need to feel that the show itself is deeply intrigued by them. The problem is, long stretches of 'Boardwalk Empire' feel like a PowerPoint presentation come to life. The information is there, the aesthetic approach is "correct," but too frequently, I remained unmoved and uninvolved."

Yes, yes, and yes.

Those of you who watch it, what do you like about it? Are there certain characters you find appealing?

What 'How I Met Your Mother' is Getting Wrong

2011-09-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

If your relationship with How I Met Your Mother is like mine, that is, you affectionately hang on to the show because you still have nostalgia for the glory years, even though it's pissing you off with its stupid gimmick, then you need to read Mo Ryan's recent post about why the "who is the mother?" mystery is everything that's wrong with the show in its current manifestation. Ryan's criticisms are excellent and insightful, and if you aren't a fan, but you love TV as I do, you should read her stuff regularly. In this article, she unpacks the problems with the show's mystery bride concept, and why adding yet another mystery bride to the show is a horrible, horrible idea.

Don't get me wrong: I still find the show really fun, and it's not going anywhere from my season pass list, but it could be so much better because it has been so much better. Come on, HIMYM: without the gimmick, you're so great!

My 2011 Emmy Predictions

2011-09-18T07:13:00.001-07:00

Several months ago, I posted my dream Emmy nomination list knowing full-well that many of my favorite shows were going to be royally snubbed because of their genres (Fringe), networks (Southland), titles (Cougar Town), or penultimate seasons (Big Love). It's okay. I've dealt with it.

When the nominations came out, there was the usual list of overrated critical darlings (Modern Family, Mad Men), fan favorites (Glee, Jim Parsons), and WTH? nominees (Pillars of the Earth = So. Bad.), but there was also a huge mix of pleasant surprises. Although I don't see it winning, how fantastic was it to finally see Friday Night Lights get a Best Drama nomination (a nomination that I like to think honors the show, rather than just the final season -- I'll go to the mat for season 3's ultimate superiority)?! Or what about Cat Deeley's well-deserved (and long overdue) nomination for Best Reality Show Host? YES!

Because the awards are later tonight, I thought I'd post a predictions list just for kicks and giggles. For each major category, I've posted who I think will win (WW), who I think should win (SW), and who I would write on the ballot in a perfect world (WO). I wasn't exactly 100% with my Golden Globe pics, so we'll just have to see how this goes down tonight. Here's a list of nominees for you to reference.

Outstanding Comedy Series
WW: Modern Family
SW: Parks and Recreation
WO: Cougar Town

Modern Family is a fun show, with a great ensemble and plenty of laughs to go around, but it's not as well-rounded as Parks and Recreation, which fires on every cylinder 99% of the time. Every single character on P & R, from Amy Poehler's overachieving B-student-that-could Lesley Knope to Retta's zingy Donna, is nuanced to perfection, and the timing this season was absolutely perfect. I don't know, man. Can you think of another episode of a comedy show more perfect than "Harvest Festival" this season?

Outstanding Drama Series
WW: Mad Men
SW:Friday Night Lights
WO: Fringe

FNL deserves the prize for both its excellent farewell season and its largely unrecognized body of work. Mad Men still bums me out. The other acceptable win in this category is Dexter, which I recently became a fan of, and which is awesome.

Outstanding Miniseries Or Movie
WW: Downton Abbey
SW: Downton Abbey
WO: Eh.

I'm not hugely invested in this category this year. I haven't actually seen Downton Abbey, but my buddy Lizzy tells me its awesome, so I'm taking her word for it that it's better than Pillars of the Earth, which was actually one of the worst TV movies I've ever seen, The Kennedys, which had bright spots (Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper), but would have been libelous if it wasn't so silly, Cinema Verite, which was alright but uneven, and Mildred Pierce, which lost me pretty early on, in spite of a killer performance from Kate Winslet (as ever).

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
WW: Steve Carell
SW: Steve Carell
WO: None. They got this one right.

It's nice to see Louis C.K. get a nomination this year for Louis, which I like a lot. But this year should belong to Steve Carell, who was a bright spot on the last flailing season of The Office.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series
WW: John Hamm
SW: Kyle Chandler
WO: Bill Paxton

Paxton should have gotten a nomination this year for his scary-good ability to play a flawed, often unlikable anti-hero on the final season of Big Love, but alas. Kyle Chandler deserves this award for his utterly perfect performance.

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
WW: Laura Linney
SW: Amy Poehler
WO: Courtney Cox

This category makes me mad. For one, how does Courtney Cox not have an Emmy nomination yet? There's no reason she shouldn't have gotten one this year for Cougar Town. I'm also going to be very annoyed if Laura Linney or Edie Falco walk away with this. Showtime and HBO's loose definition of "comedy series" drives me a little insane. Both of those actresses are fantastic on their respective shows, but it's a little debatable if either show is truly a comedy show. Can we please just change the category name to "Outstanding Half-Hour Show", because a half-hour show does not necessarily a comedy make. It should be no surprise that I'm rooting for Amy Poehler here. She was pitch freaking perfect in the episode "Flu Season".

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series
WW: Elisabeth Moss
SW: Connie Britton
WO: Anna Torv

Anna Torv was a long-shot for a nomination because she's on a sci-fi show (don't even get me started), but I think I convinced myself that she couldn't possibly be ignored again after her season of playing, like, a million characters really well. Sigh. In any case, I think Connie Britton's got the best shot at winning something for FNL, but everyone seems to think Elisabeth Moss will likely win instead. It's a crying shame for Britton because she really deserves an Emmy for this season. I especially love the way she played the rift between Coach and Tami in the last few episodes of the season.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
WW: Chris Colfer
SW: Ed O'Neil, I guess
WO: Nick Offerman

Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness. I think the Modern Family guys are going to split the vote, deferring to Colfer (who, again, probably shouldn't be in a "comedy" category. Mrrr.), but I'm not very invested in this category as it stands. A lot of missed opportunities here.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
WW: John Slattery
SW: Josh Charles
WO: John Noble

Josh Charles strikes me as an understated actor. He didn't really stand out on Sports Night, but he was always a solid backbone to the show. I feel the same way about his performance on The Good Wife: he doesn't get a lot of "big" scenes on The Good Wife, but he's absolutely solid.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
WW: Sofia Vergara
SW: Sofia Vergara
WO: Busy Phillips

I just want to say that I totally called Kristen Wiig's well-deserved nomination in this category. Given Cougar Town's ridiculous Emmy shutout this year, Busy Phillips' snub is unsurprising, but still annoying. I adore Sofia Vergara's performance on Modern Family, and it would be great to see her or 30 Rock's underrated Jane Krakowski take home the statue.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
WW: Margo Martindale
SW: Margo Martindale
WO: KaDee Strickland

Justified fans, I apologize. Your show just doesn't do it for me. Margo Martindale, however, is always superb (remember how I told you I just became a Dexter fan? Her character broke my heart in season 3). KaDee Strickland was also a long-shot for a nomination for Private Practice, a soapy, uneven formula show, but she really rose to the occasion this season in Charlotte's rape plot. Like, wow.

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
WW: Amazing Race
SW: So You Think You Can Dance
WO: I'm okay with this list.

Amazing Race always wins. Blah, blah, blah. American Idol reinvented itself this year following Simon Cowell's departure -- pretty successfully I might add -- but it doesn't have the heart that So You Think You Can Dance does. I'd love to see SYTYCD pull out a lovable underdog prize this year. Project Runway should be punished for letting Wretchin' Gretchen win last season.

Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program
WW: Cat Deeley
SW: Cat Deeley
WO: I'm only invested in one nominee!

I think Cat Deeley's got a shot at this, and I'd really love to see her win. The thing that separates her from other hosts is the way she advocates for all of the contestants, while keeping the show, with its long-winded judges and crazy dancer shenanigans, running smoothly. She's graceful, professional, and personable. There was an episode last year where the sound stopped working in her mic, a contestant got injured, and the music cues seemed to be out of sync, but she powered through and made it look easy. Cat Deeley.

Nostalgia Alert: 'Happy Endings' Gets More Awesome

2011-09-17T12:52:00.001-07:00

EW.com is reporting that Fred Savage is set to direct and guest star (as himself!) in the second episode of ABC's Happy Endings this season, with the episode involving The Princess Bride. I know I'm not alone in feeling compelled to let out a loud and girly sqeeeeeal.

The Happy Fate of 'Make It or Break It'

2011-09-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday I was lamenting the fact that ABC Family had yet to make a decision about the fate of my favorite teen sports soap opera Make It or Break It, and, as if I were at a restaurant where my food only comes to the table when I get up to go to the bathroom, ABC Family (bless their hearts) announced that MIOBI will indeed be returning for a third season! Hurray! (In my mind's eye, I'm doing a triple front handspring off the balance beam and sticking the landing to celebrate.)

The only "but" in this outstanding turn of events is that Emily Kmetko (played by Chelsea Hobbs) may not be returning, as evidenced by ABC Family's failure to include her in its press release and cast photo. I was very upset with her sudden and unceremonious departure last season. It felt unkind to fans who had invested in the idea of this talented athlete breaking the cycle of her mother's mistakes to then let this character become another statistic. Hobbs' real-life pregnancy seems to have been the catalyst for the show taking that turn, but at the end of the day I found it surprising that they didn't simply shoot around it, as the trend seems to be these days. Yesterday, Hobbs tweeted the following: "For everyone asking if Emily will be back; it's in the producers hands, right now I'm focusing on other work but never say never :)", and later, "As of now though, there are no plans. Ps. I love you all!!! Xo". Bad news for Emily fans.

As the show moves forward, though, building up to the Olympics next year, I for one am pumped to see more shenanigans at the Rock, even sans Emily. Good move, ABC Family!

ABC Family Cancels 'The Nine Lives of Chloe King'

2011-09-15T22:42:00.001-07:00

It seems that we will now never know who died for reals in the finale of The Nine Lives of Chloe King. In news that is the opposite of shocking, ABC family has canceled the low-rated series after only one season.

I will be the first to admit that the series was all kinds of bad, but I still found myself slightly addicted to the silliness. Or maybe it was Grey Damon's smoldering cuteness. It's a shame to see it go because it seemed like a show that was just beginning to find its footing. Oh, well. Chloe's low-rated-ness proves once again that it's difficult to bank on shows with non-vampiric supernatural elements (good luck with that, Secret Circle!), although not for lack of trying.

Now if ABC Family would just make a decision one way or another about Make It or Break It...

'Revenge': Kindle Pilot Script Review

2011-09-07T03:49:00.000-07:00

Confession time: I'm a bibliophile, but I own a Kindle. And it's awesome. I could go on about why it's awesome, but that's not the point here. Let's just say that for an indecisive over-packer like myself, a whole new world has opened up for me when I go places where I'm not sure which book I might want at a given moment. Awesome. Moving on.

As a promotion for their new show 'Revenge' (debuting Wed., Sept. 21), ABC has offered the script for the pilot for free on Amazon Kindle. I find this advertising tool intriguing. It says at least two things: (1) The marketing folks at ABC are trying to do something new and different from their competitors; and (2) They sure do think highly of the writing for their new show.

Well, I really like reading screenplays, teleplays, plays, what have you, so I downloaded the freebie and read through it before bed last night. It's soapy, a bit dated, and trying to do too much too early with the main character. The opening voice over is also pretty freshman comp (it opens with our protagonist Emily Thorne giving us the dictionary definition of "revenge". Oy). But it was mostly a fun, inoffensive read, and the writer (creator Mike Kelley, who also had writing credits on The O.C. and One Tree Hill, to give you an idea of the style) does a nice job creating the kind of ambiance that could make the show stand out (a network show hasn't been this "beachy" since Dawson's Creek).

The series is very loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, so if you've read the novel you can understand how updating it and putting it in the Hamptons could become a soap opera -- not that that's a bad thing. It opens with a Labor Day engagement party for our revenger herself and Daniel Grayson, the Ivy League boy next door, at his family's home. But Daniel is no where to be found...until he shows up dead on the beach. (Dun-dun-dun!) The rest of the story is told in flashback, beginning with Emily's move next door to the Graysons at the beginning of the summer. The rest of the pilot chips away at Emily's revenge plot (motives, modus operandi, targets, etc.), and in keeping with every great evening soap where rich people are involved, there are plenty of fancy parties, backstabbing, and class envy, so buckle up.

The bottom line is that the script piqued my interest enough that I will be tuning in on September 21 to see how well it's executed. (ABC, by the way, offers a viewing of the pilot for free on their website, but I'm going to wait for the premiere because I like the buildup to new shows.) In other words, well done, ABC marketing.

Fall TV Extravaganza!

2011-09-05T02:49:00.001-07:00

Hello, readers! I must apologize for my appalling failure to check in much this summer. It turned out to be a weird summer for me, TV-wise, with a whole host of technology breakdowns, TiVo rebellions, real-life busyness, and disappointing summer programming, that I didn't feel especially compelled to blog much. I've got a summer wrap party post coming your way soon, along with a fan guide to the complete series of Friday Night Lights (which I watched amid the darkness this summer), so keep your eyes peeled for that (gross expression. Sorry. I won't use that again).

But right now, I'm looking ahead to the dawn of a new Fall TV season, and its many exciting questions. Will old favorites offer new surprises, or continue down the same path of destruction (See: All Shonda Rhimes shows)? How will new castmembers gel with old castmembers (See: Charlene Yi on House; Kelli Giddish and Danny Pino on Law and Order: SVU)? What will win and what will lose in a promising crop of new shows (See: below)? Will departing favorites provide enough finale closure to satiate us (I'm looking at you, Chuck)?

In anticipation of this scintillating (and rapidly approaching -- The CW's new season premieres next week!) autumnal fare, I give you a night-by-night breakdown of what I'm thinking of watching this season (premiere dates are in parentheses). Bare in mind that my TiVo can only get two shows at once, so some shows will lose out this season by default. Plus, grad school's in its 7th year of kicking my butt (I'm in 24th grade. Gross), and I'm cutting out the nonsense, so if I hate a show this year, I'm cutting it out earlier than usual. If you think I'm missing something, sound off below in the comments section, and, by all means, I'll take a look at it. I live to keep you happy, reader. Onward:

SUNDAY:
Returning favs: TLC's Sister Wives (9/25 @ 9/8c); CBS's The Good Wife (*new night* 9/25 @ 9/8c)

Newbies: ABC's Once Upon a Time (10/23 @ 8/7c) and Pan Am (9/25 @ 10/9c)

Shows I've dropped: ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives (DH lost me about four years ago, but this past season put the nail in the coffin. Now I'm free!)

I'm most excited about: Sister Wives and Once Upon a Time. The former has managed to do what it set out to do, that is, it has made an unconventional family with a stigmatized lifestyle sympathetic. I'm invested in the Brown family now. Once Upon a Time, frankly, looks really cool! I was a closet fan of ABC's short-lived Happy Town in 2010, and this series is giving me the same kind of vibes, but (*hopefully*) in a more commercially viable kind of way. In the same way that 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip only had one survivor in 2007, there's a good chance the TV-viewing public will only have room in its life for one fable-based TV series, and NBC's Grimm also looks pretty cool. We'll just have to wait and see. In any case, I'd really love to see OUaT live up to the hype.

Actor alert: Once Upon a Time features House's Jennifer Morrison in a well-deserved starring role and Big Love's Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White; Pan Am's got Christina Ricci; The Good Wife snatched up House's departing Lisa Edelstein for a multi-episode arc.

Of note: I wasn't sure about Pan Am at first. It kind of looks like a gender-reversed, pop version of Mad Men, but I like to believe in the creative power of Aaron Sorkin's frequent producing partner Thomas Schlamme. We'll see.

MONDAY:

Returning favs: CBS's How I Met Your Mother (9/19 @ 8/7c); FOX's House (10/3 @ 8/7c)

Newbies: The CW's Hart of Dixie

Shows I've dropped: The CW's Gossip Girl (it's served its purpose.)

I'm most excited about: HIMYM, I guess.

Actor alert: As mentioned above, House tapped Charlene Yi as a new regular doc; Kal Penn's guest starring on How I Met Your Mother; The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson returns to TV with Hart of Dixie, and is joined by Jason Street himself, FNL's Scott Porter.

Of note: Have you seen the trailer for Hart of Dixie? It looks real bad. Not just CW bad, but failed 90s rom-com bad. The pilot looks all kinds of predictable, the title is stupid, and the premise appears to be two parts Sweet Home Alabama, two parts Doc Hollywood, with a large serving of cliches thrown in about the generic "South" for good measure. Yikes. However, Bilson was fantastic on The O.C. (even during its weird third season), and because of that, I'm curious to see if this show gets better.

TUESDAY:

Returning favs: FOX's Glee (9/20 @ 8/7c); NBC's Parenthood (9/13 @ 10/9c)

Newbies: The CW's Ringer (9/13 @ 9/8c); FOX's New Girl (9/20 @ 9/8c)

Shows I've dropped: None

I'm most excited about: Parenthood. The really fantastic finale came too soon last spring, so NBC's making up for it by giving Jason Katims' family drama a week's head start this September (yayness!). As the dangling threads pick up a few months later in the premiere, I'm dying to see where the characters (and actors!) go next.

Actor alert: Jason Ritter returns to Parenthood this season to (presumably) romance Lauren Graham's Sarah some more (glad The Event was canceled for this very reason. [Sidenote: did anyone else think it was fun that two Lauren Graham TV character love interests both ended up on The Event?]) ; Ringer marks Sarah Michelle Gellar's much anticipated return to TV; Zooey Deschanel gives TV a shot with New Girl (She & Him's awesome, btw! Maybe they'll get her to sing on the show!).

Of note: After two viewings of the teaser trailer for Ringer, I'm not totally sure what's going on there, but maybe that's a good thing because it looks like it may be trying to do too much. I guess Gellar's character is on the lam or something, so she steals her twin sister's identity? I don't know. Worth a viewing, I s'pose. Also, FOX has been promoting New Girl like gangbusters lately, and the more I watched previews of it, the less excited I felt about it and Deschanel's pretty-quirky schtick. Good comedy series usually take about a half-season to marinate before they start getting funny, but there has to be something worth watching in the beginning. This one goes in the "we'll see, won't we?" category for now.

WEDNESDAY:***

Returning favs: ABC's The Middle (9/21 @ 8/7c), Modern Family (9/21 @ 9/8c), Happy Endings (9/28 @ 9:30/8:30c); NBC's Law & Order: SVU (9/21 @ 10/9c)

Newbies: FOX's The X-Factor (*90 minute performance show* 9/21 @ 8/8c); NBC's Up All Night (9/14 @ 8/7c); ABC's Suburgatory (9/28 @ 8:30/7:30c), Revenge (9/21 @ 10/9c); FX's American Horror Story (10/5 @ 10/9c)

Shows I've dropped: America's Next Top Model (but just for this season -- time conflict); *Possibly* The Middle, but not because of anything its done wrong. It's facing stiff competition from newbies The X-Factor and Up All Night, and I don't feel strongly compelled to tune in from week to week unfortunately; Law & Order: SVU has been demoted to a "watch the first five minutes of each episode and delete if necessary" status.

I'm most excited about: Toss up between Happy Endings and American Horror Story. I can't remember the last time I liked a comedy show so much off the bat (even Cougar Town and Parks and Recreation took 6-8 episodes to find their footings), so I'm anxious to see if Happy Endings can continue what it started (and if it can find an audience!). American Horror Story just looks freaking cool. Also, see actor alert for 90% of the reason why this one is a 10 on my anticipation index scale. The only thing that could ruin it? The weird-a** sensibility that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk brought to Nip-Tuck.

Actor alert: Connie Britton (eee!!!) and Dylan McDermott (I was a BIG fan of The Practice back in the day) are joined by Jessica (Oscar winner!) Lange, Francis Conroy (who always creeps me out), and Life Unexpected's Alex Breckenridge on American Horror Story; Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, and Nick Cannon (you read that right) look hilarious in Up All Night (Arnett is always so much better in ensembles than strait up leading roles, but I'm counting on Applegate [who, btw, was one of the best ever guest judges on So You Think You Can Dance this season] to temper his OTT impulse); Jeremy Sisto and Alan Tudyk rock the suburbs in Suburgatory; Revenge brings Emily van Camp back from Walker hell and Madeline Stowe back from oblivion.

Of note: ABC Wednesdays are where it's at! It would be refreshing if Revenge, with its Count of Monte Cristo premise, indeed turns into the fresh new nighttime soap ABC hopes it could be, filling that 10/9c time slot they've been trying desperately to fill for two years (usually with Shonda Rhimes shows). Also, I think ratings star Modern Family is a little overrated and potentially the weakest link of a very funny block of TV on ABC Wednesdays, so I'm a little annoyed that Cougar Town has been relegated to midseason when it could potentially be a perfect show companion with Happy Endings, but we can't always get what we want! I should also mention The X-Factor, which is going to be huge for FOX in the Fall. Obviously, I'm a massive American Idol fan, so I'll be tuning in to see the reunion of Simon and Paula. I'll probably post more about it later on, but for now I just hope it's better than The Voice.

***I'm stressed out just thinking about TiVo overload on Wednesdays and Thursdays this season. Networks have six nights (Saturday doesn't count) to fit stuff in. Why the Wednesday-Thursday overload? Cruel and unusual!

THURSDAY:

Returning favs: The CW's The Vampire Diaries (9/15 @ 8/7c); NBC's Parks and Recreation (9/22 @ 8:30/7:30c), The Office (9/22 @ 9/8c); ABC's Grey's Anatomy (9/22 @ 9/8c), Private Practice (9/29 @ 10/9c)

Newbies: FOX's The X-Factor (9/22 @ 8/7c); ABC's Charlie's Angels (9/22 @ 8/7c); The CW's The Secret Circle (9/15 @ 9/8c); NBC's Prime Suspect (9/22 @ 10/9)

Shows I've dropped: None, although I did watch Nikita for a little while.

I'm most excited about: Parks and Recreation!!! It'll be tough to follow season three's total symphony of perfect comedy, but it's ridiculous how much I miss these characters. It's all I can do to not break into a rousing chorus of "5,000 Candles in the Wind" right now, er, most days.

Actor alert: Patricia Clarkson and 30 Rock's Paula Pell guest as Tammy One and Tammy Zero, respectively, on Parks and Rec, which may be the most perfect stunt casting we've seen since Megan Mullally first guested as Tammy Two; The Vampire Diaries welcomes David Gallagher, a.k.a. Simon Camden (right?!), as a guest star this season; The Charlie's Angels reboot stars FNL's Minka Kelly (as a tomboy Angel? Huh?) and Grey's Anatomy's Rachael Taylor (remember the gyno who broke Alex's heart?); Britt Robertson, Lux from Life Unexpected, takes the lead in The Secret Circle, joining Natasha Henstridge and Thomas Dekker (no, not the early modern dramatist Thomas Dekker!), who you've seen in lots of stuff; Maria Bello returns to TV in the US version of Prime Suspect, along with Aidan Quinn and Fringe's Kirk Acedevo.

Of note: A few things to talk about here. (1) I will admit that Charlie's Angels looks like a female version of all the things that annoyed me about the Hawaii 5-0 reboot, but I can't help it. I love seeing girls kicking butt in all kinds of situations. Love it. (2) I'm not really a fan of witch shows, but I want to see how Britt Robertson fairs on a new show, so I'm at least watching The Secret Circle's pilot. Not sure if this show can do anything different than 1996's The Craft (Neve Campbell's golden age), though. (3) Prime Suspect doesn't look amazing yet. Obviously, the UK version is a vehicle for Helen Mirren, and those are some big shoes to fill. I'm curious to see how it's received, and, hey, Peter Berg's involved! (4) Parks and Rec is my number one Thursday night show, but I'm also really excited for Grey's Anatomy to return (I see your judgment eyes, reader). The season finale left us on a huge cliffhanger with both Mer-Der and Christina-Owen. I'm surprisingly anxious to see how they resolve it.

FRIDAY:

Returning favs: NBC's Chuck (*new, better night*; **final season** 9/23 @ 8/7c); FOX's Fringe (9/23 @ 9/8c); CBS's Blue Bloods (9/23 @ 10/9c)

Newbies: NBC's Grimm (10/21 @ 9/8c)

Shows I've dropped: None!

I'm most excited about: Fringe. The last season and a half have been all kinds of amazing, building to a gigantic finale last May. What happens now?!

Actor alert: Seth Gabel has been promoted to a full-time regular on Fringe, giving Fringe fans everywhere more reason to swoon [sidenote: did you know that he's married to Bryce Dallas Howard? I just made you like him more, didn't I?]; The Matrix's Carrie-Anne Moss will be playing a love interest for Casey on Chuck.

Of note: It'll be sad to see Chuck bow out this year, but I'm glad the show was given enough notice of its ending for producers to craft a farewell season. It should be fun to see Chuck and Sarah fighting crime in a new venue with lots of money! I also predict a series finale with a positive pregnancy test for Sarah, and a happily ever after flash forward for everyone. On the newbie front, Grimm looks pretty cool. On my new show anticipation index, it's not quite at Once Upon a Time levels, but it looks like it's got a clever, mythologically-laden concept, with lots of potential.

SATURDAY:

College Football Saturday! Go Pokes!

Lucas Scott, Redux!

2011-08-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

According to TV Line, Chad Michael Murray is returning to One Tree Hill during the final season! Reader, this news makes me disturbingly jovial, in spite of the fact that Peyton Sawyer was the best thing about whiny (but not quite to Dawson-levels, in all fairness) prettyboy Lucas Scott, and Hilary Burton is not returning. Given Lucas and Peyton's unceremonious drive into the sunset at the end of the sixth season, though, I think I'm excited about, perhaps, a little closure with those crazy kids -- even sans Peyton.

Aww, One Tree Hill, you are so my favorite pair of university sweatpants!

A Reason to be Excited about 'House'

2011-08-03T11:08:00.001-07:00

Rather than having a love-hate relationship with House, I have what we might call a like-apathy relationship with it, meaning that I mostly stay caught up with it, but it's not usually a show I watch without other distractions (like Southland or the now deceased Friday Night Lights [may it rest in peace. Please let it rest in peace, Peter Berg!]). Its good episodes, though, are really good, and it gets very talented actors creating interesting characters more often than not. Amber Tamblyn's stint as Martha Masters this last season was one of my favorite multi-episode, non-regular character runs since Sela Ward's Stacey Warner back in season two. I also really liked Kal Penn's Kutner, and his seemingly-out-of-nowhere-but-not-when-you-really-think-about-it exit from the show.

Now it looks like the casting directors are attempting to earn more cool points as the show moves into its probable final season sans Lisa Edelstein: Charlene Yi, in all her fantastic hipster awkwardness, will soon be joining the cast! While I'm not totally sure Yi's awesomeness will fit into the House formula (not everyone gets her humor, I think [for a laugh, hunt down clips of her on Jay Leno's show sometime]), I'm excited to watch the attempt.

I'll Miss You, 'Friday Night Lights'

2011-07-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

After watching the series finale of my favorite show on TV Friday Night Lights (in a blubbery, teary mess, I may add), I feel satisfied with the way things ended. The series finale that I've been dreading for over a year managed to bring the kind of dramatic closure that seemed nearly impossible to me. [SPOILERS!!] There's a strong sense that several of these characters are going to have a rough road ahead (Vince's relationship with his father is still fractured; Matt and Julie are too young to get married; Luke joined up during wartime; as far as we know, Tim still doesn't have many marketable skills), but we also believe that because these lives were touched by Eric and Tami, these people were given the tools they need to persevere. It was a hopeful ending to a show that never got cynical. Perfect.

The wonderful thing about this show from season one was its ability to depict real relationships and real marriages, while following a satisfying dramatic arch. Eric is the best kind of dramatic hero: an honorable, good man; a "molder of men" and mentor; an imperfect human being, willing to admit his faults to do what's right; an old-fashioned leader in the tradition of Will Kane, Andy Taylor, and Charles Ingalls (yeah, I went there). There aren't many heroes like this on TV, and there aren't many actors that can pull it off with the gravitas of Kyle Chandler.

I'm going to miss this show like mad. I can't complain about its brilliant five-year run, though. Its only real misstep in five seasons was the much panned Landry-Tyra "murder subplot", but every show's allowed to lose itself for a minute as long as it finds its center again. I can't praise this show enough, but Ken Tucker reads it much more eloquently:

"Right from the start, we had two plots that formed the bivalve heart of Friday Night Lights: marriage (family) and football (friendship, spirit). Many of us have said that the reason FNL was never a ratings hit was because it was too real, not escapist enough, for a viewer who just wanted to sit back and be amused. But I think the real reason was because the two elements that made this a great, unique series had not been yoked together in this way before on TV. Purist sports fans found the depictions of the games too brief and technically not very believable. Family-TV seekers were put off by the moral complexity of the show. And, overriding all of this: FNL never had the aura of being cool or gritty or groundbreaking; it didn’t court a cult following like Lost or Buffy did; it didn’t often try to test the limits of TV standards and storytelling the way The Shield or name-your-favorite-HBO-show did. Season after season, it fell between the genre cracks, admired only by those of us who loved – loved – its lack of irony and sarcasm and hip knowingness."

A great show. Nominations are now being considered for my favorite TV drama currently running.

My Dream Emmy Nomination Wish List

2011-06-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

We're still a couple of weeks away from the announcement of this year's Primetime Emmy Nominations on 14 July, but lots of TV sites I follow have been posting their nomination wish lists, so I got excited. Here is my dream list of nominations in a few of the categories, with some categories including only a few, or in one case, a single nominee, and a couple categories with way too many nominees (I couldn't choose!). I have no idea what categories people actually submitted themselves for this year (except for Rob Lowe, who famously [and a little pretentiously?] went for a Best Actor nomination this year), so I've put them in the categories I'd like to see them in, again, in a dream world. What do you think? Anyone you're cheering for this year?

BEST DRAMA SERIES:
Big Love
Friday Night Lights
Fringe
Parenthood
Southland

BEST COMEDY SERIES:
30 Rock
Chuck
Cougar Town
Happy Endings
Parks and Recreation

BEST WRITING, DRAMA:
Big Love: "Exorcism"
Friday Night Lights: "Kingdom"
Fringe: "Olivia"
Fringe: "The Plateau"
Private Practice: "Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?"
Southland: "Code 4"
The Good Wife: "Breaking Up"

BEST WRITING, COMEDY:
30 Rock: "TGS Hates Women"
Chuck: "Chuck Versus the Cliffhanger"
Glee: "Britney/Brittany"
Parks and Recreation: "Harvest Festival"
Parks and Recreation: "The Flu"

BEST LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA:
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Mirielle Enos, The Killing
Lauren Graham, Parenthood
Regina King, Southland
Julianna Marguilies, The Good Wife
Anna Torv, Fringe
Jeanne Tripplehorn, Big Love

BEST LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA:
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Michael Cudlitz, Southland
Shawn Hatosy, Southland
Joel Kinnaman, The Killing
Peter Krause, Parenthood
Bill Paxton, Big Love
Tom Selleck, Blue Bloods

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA:
Lisa Edelstein, House
Chloe Sevigny, Big Love
KaDee Strickland, Private Practice
Mae Whitman, Parenthood
Grace Zabriskie, Big Love

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA:
Kevin Alejandro, Southland
Michael B. Jordan, Friday Night Lights
John Noble, Fringe
Dax Shepherd, Parenthood
Donnie Wahlberg, Blue Bloods

BEST LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY:
Courtney Cox, Cougar Town
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Patricia Heaton, The Middle
Lea Michele, Glee
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

BEST LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY:
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY:
Rashida Jones, Parks and Recreation
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
Heather Morris, Glee
Busy Phillips, Cougar Town
Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY:
Ian Gomez, Cougar Town
Ed Helms, The Office
Nick Offerman, Parks and Recreation
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Chris Pratt, Parks and Recreation

BEST ACTRESS IN A GUEST STARRING ROLE, DRAMA:
Mamie Gummer, The Good Wife
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Law & Order: SVU
Martha Plimpton, The Good Wife
Leelee Sobieski, The Good Wife
Evan Rachel Wood, True Blood

BEST ACTOR IN A GUEST STARRING ROLE, DRAMA:
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife
Seth Gabel, Fringe
Chris Noth, The Good Wife

BEST ACTRESS IN A GUEST STARRING ROLE, DRAMA:
Jennifer Aniston, Cougar Town
Elizabeth Banks, 30 Rock
Mo ("Joan Calamezzo runs this town") Collins, Parks and Recreation
Ruby Jerins, Nurse Jackie
Gwyneth Paltrow, Glee

BEST ACTOR IN A GUEST STARRING ROLE, COMEDY:
Darren Criss, Glee
Matt Damon, 30 Rock
John Hamm, 30 Rock
Mike O’Malley, Glee

BEST COMPETITION REALITY SHOW:
American Idol
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance

BEST REALITY SHOW HOST:
Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance**

**Not a category I’ve ever been too invested in, except when it excludes the wonderful Cat Deeley without cause every year.

'The Killing''s Terrible Season Finale

2011-06-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Maybe "terrible" is a little harsh, but it wasn't good. Have you been watching The Killing this season? [SPOILER WARNING!!] The first few episodes of its debut season were all kinds of fantastic: an atmospheric, anti-procedural slow-burn, with that amazing actress from Big Love (Mireille Enos -- I'm still haunted by visions of Kathy Marquart's fatal braid-in-car-door encounter) brooding up the screen.

Then the show got a little annoying. I'm actually okay with the idea of not knowing who killed Rosie Larson until the finale. In some ways, it's an interesting experiment in measuring expectations. But we didn't actually find out who killed Rosie in the finale! Fail! And, for that matter, did there have to be so many red herrings? I think the idea was that in a police investigation, there would be lots of false leads, persons of interest who turned out to be innocent, and "clues" that would turn out to not be connected to the crime. From a deconstructive standpoint, I like that the show attempted to depart from the Law & Order cop show formula that gets so tired, but from a narrative standpoint, the story turned out to be just a jumbled bag of annoyances ranging from the slightly irritating (Mr Ahmed was merely helping a teenage girl escape an arranged marriage? Huh?) to the straight-up WTH?? (we learn about "Beau Soleil" ELEVEN EPISODES INTO A THIRTEEN EPISODE SEASON?! Girl, please!).

It shouldn't have been a shock that the finale was so lame, then, but the early promise of the show made me want to hope that the show knew where it was going. After the finale, I'm feeling a little misled. (E.g.: Richmond killed Rosie -- no wait, maybe he didn't -- wait, did he? -- now I don't care!) Even if Richmond was the killer, why did Linden tell him they were onto him? And for that matter, why did Richmond have his computer open (with audible alerts!) to the email account with his killer misnomer? Andy Greenwald at Vulture expresses my finale frustration the best (and most dramatically): "But the finale was just the last in a long, frustrating, and soggy line of cheap fake-outs, preposterous 180s, and colossal storytelling disappointments. By last night’s episode, we were Rosie Larsen: huddled, miserable in the dark woods waiting for the killer to reveal himself. And, unlike Rosie, we were denied even that."

The list of plot holes and poor storytelling devices has been discussed better and at length elsewhere, so I won't go on. The thing that I found the most annoying about the finale was that the show has a lot of great things going on for it (you know, atmosphere, rain, creepiness, Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman), but it squandered its potential with gimmicky, red herring crap that belongs on lesser shows on lesser networks. The finale did nothing to bring together all the missing and broken pieces of the story that we were led, as viewers, to believe were important. And, frankly, at the end of the day, a show that centers on solving a murder needs to solve the murder.

'Nurse Jackie': Episode 10, "F*** the Lemers"

2011-06-14T06:39:00.001-07:00

I've recently been catching up on episodes of Nurse Jackie that have been sitting dormant for a long time on my TiVo. The show is usually a little bleak for my taste, and I don't feel much compulsion to keep up with it from week to week. (I like high drama, melancholic, and sad, but bleak bums me out. That's why I stopped watching The Big C and The United States of Tara. I digress.) That said, the acting is good and the characters are at least interesting. Jackie (Edie Falco) is the classic anti-hero: you genuinely want her to lose her job, but you still feel invested in her well-being.

In last week's episode, "F*** the Lemers", they dove a little more deeply into Jackie's daughter Grace's (Ruby Jerins, kid actor extraordinaire [sidebar: she was one of the Laeddis kids in Shutter Island! Creepy.]) psychological issues, specifically the nature of the anxiety she experiences. One of the most heartbreaking moments of the season (maybe the series) is the scene in this episode where Grace explains to her parents why she thinks she needs medication, and then later when she tries to tell Jackie how she feels medication helping her:

GRACE: "It’s like I’m on the edge of having ten ideas, all at once, only maybe I don’t have to have them. Like I could say “freeze” and walk right up to them and see if I want to let them in or not. I don’t think they’re ever going to go away, but if I don’t want to think them, I don’t have to.

JACKIE: "No, you don’t.

GRACE: "My heart is moving a little slower. I can tell. But it’s okay, it’s just for now."

This piece of dialogue is so beautifully scripted that only Jerins' absolutely note-perfect delivery does it justice. In fact, after this episode, it's amazing Jerins' name hasn't come up on Emmy wish-lists for guest star performances.

This whole storyline has, from the beginning, been one of the most compelling of the series. Grace's psychological imbalance wasn't caused by her parents' marital issues or her mother's addiction, but it was probably escalated by those things. It's not often we get to see on TV the drawn-out causal effects of parental misbehavior on their children. I like how this has played out, thus far.

Summertime!

2011-06-13T06:02:00.001-07:00

We're now standing on the cusp of the summer TV season, and, unlike the bleak rerun crap we were stuck with when I was in high school, summer TV isn't nearly so dismal anymore! Media like TV on DVD, iTunes, and internet viewing have made reruns too accessible for viewers so that networks have been smarter to avoid boring us with stuff we've already seen. Ergo, they've been busting out, if not the big guns, certainly the li'ler, more playful guns between June and August. Don't get me wrong: I'd much rather have A-game shows like Fringe and Parks and Recreation than solid B shows like Rookie Blue, but after years of TV coming to a sudden halt after nine months of fairly regular new programing, it's nice to see some variety during the months when not all of us get to go on vacations to strange and exotic and apparently TV-less places!

So, for you, friends, I have compiled an alphabetical list of shows I plan to watch this summer, not including ones that are still going because they awkwardly began their late-season runs in March/April (like The Killing and Friday Night Lights, both of which are levels of awesome that are too high for summer TV, proper). Feel free to peruse at will. What are you watching this summer? Does anyone have any idea when Project Runway is coming back?

Covert Affairs (USA, currently airing): Less angsty Alias-knockoff? Perhaps, but I can't help it: I think this show's a blast! I always enjoy seeing capable people tackle tough situations with superhero-like abilities (which is why the Bourne movies are so much fun), while still maintaining a humanity we can all relate to (and that is the formula for a good action TV show, my friends). In short, Annie Walker (played by Golden Globe nominee Piper Perabo, who is no longer the poor woman's Amanda Peet) is a fun lead to follow on this occasionally formulaic, but never boring spy show.

In Plain Sight (USA, currently airing): I don't know why I like this show so much. It's a fairly run of the mill procedural, with a case of the week type of formula. Yet, there's something kind of hypnotizing about Mary McCormack's performance, as well as her chemistry with co-star Fred Weller. [SPOILER ALERT!] This season, it will be most interesting to see how McCormack's Mary Shannon tackles maternity, and whether it causes her to lighten up a little bit.

Love in the Wild (NBC, 29 June): Granted, this looks a little stupid, and there's about a 60% chance I'll watch one episode, turn it off, and never look back, but as dating shows go, it looks kind of fun. Couples testing their relationships (or going on first dates? I don't know: the ads are vague) through jungle adventures in Costa Rica? Well, why not?

Necessary Roughness (USA, 29 June): Apparently, this is based on a true story, and not, apparently, on the Scott Bakula classic film of the same name from 1991. How fun is that?! I love the idea of pursuing a "sports drama" through psychiatry, because as any athlete will tell you, the mind is sometimes harder to tame than the body.

Platinum Hit (Bravo, currently airing): I posted a little pre-show expectations summary about this show a couple of weeks ago, and I'm happy to report that this show is working for me thus far. It demystifies the songwriting process, which in itself is an interesting thing to see, while maintaining that the writers all need to bring pieces of themselves to the songs they write. Fascinating! The songs they've come up with haven't been half-bad, either. Plus, Kara DioGuardi has been nothing but insightful, previews for upcoming episodes hint at a showmance, and at least two of the contestants seem to be bona fide douchebags (I'll let you figure out whom). I love a show where creativity reigns supreme!

Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family, 14 June): While I'm sad to lose Make It or Break It for a few months, I welcome the return of PLL, a show with such an addictive quality to it that I've forgotten I'm supposed to be embarrassed to like it. Like with The Vampire Diaries, I constantly find myself questioning the long-term viability of the mystery plot-line it pursues, but also like TVD, the show has yet to let me down. I'm looking forward to seeing what it can dish out in season 2!

Rizzoli and Isles (TNT, 11 July): The moment this show won me over last season was when Rizzoli and Isles were running a Boston Marathon-type marathon in Boston, but they had to stop to solve a crime. While I would never stop running a marathon to solve a crime, I like that they were running it in the first place.

Rookie Blue (ABC, 23 June): I hated this show at first, but it grew on me in a major way last season to the point that I was more than a little annoyed to have to wait 10 months for new episodes when the season ended. It's a little like a police version of Grey's Anatomy set in Toronto. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, and if you ever appreciated Gregory Smith on Everwood or Missy Peregrym on life as we know it, you should tune into this one.

So You Think You Can Dance (FOX, currently airing): While I enjoy the madness of American Idol and the creative punch of Project Runway, SYTYCD is in my opinion the best competition reality show on TV. Unlike Idol, the contestants chosen are always extremely talented. The show recognizes that the kind of skill involved in dancing is something that must be attained through a combination of years of hard work, good body type, natural ability, and artistic sensibility, and it's always nice to see contestants critiqued with these things in mind. On top of all that, back-stories only really matter when the contestant has the dancing chops to accompany their sob story. I love the routines, the gaggle of talented choreographers, the personalities of the dancers, and the apparently encouraging atmosphere among the dancers themselves. I. Love. This. Show.

Suits (USA, 23 June): USA is where it's at this summer, y'all! I like the idea of an ambitious scrapper with a Will Hunting brain and no law degree working for a high powered law firm. Could be fun, right?

NBC's 'Smash'

2011-06-12T04:41:00.000-07:00

Have you guys seen the preview for NBC's new fall series Smash? Check it out:

My initial reaction to that five minutes of fun is that it might make a better movie than TV series, even though it looks like they've packed the pilot with plenty of long-term potential. I always get a little nervous watching pilots with expiration date concepts (see: Prison Break). Granted, I'm pretty sure a Broadway musical takes a lot longer to produce from the ground up than any of us can fully understand, but I'm just wondering how long in TV time they'll take to get the show on its feet. Debra Messing's character tells us lowly non-theatre folk "it takes years to develop a musical". Still, it can often get quite annoying to watch a show build towards a singular goal that you know they're not going to reach until the show is finally canceled (just tell us who the Mother is on How I Met Your Mother, already! My patience has worn rather thin). Smash looks like a really interesting concept, though, and it could perhaps find an audience with the same kind of people who liked Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, that is, people who get a kick out of metatelevision/theatre for grownups. (For the record, I'm definitely one of those people.) Conceptual worries aside, I like the stark contrasts with Glee (no disrespect to Glee, y'all!) and the slightly more cynical, yet American dream-like tone that I gleaned from that preview. Yeah, it looks a little predictable, but it's a story I'm happy to hear again from these people. In a word, it's interesting.

I also like the cast. Katharine McPhee (who lost to Taylor freaking Hicks) appears to make a believable lead, and, in spite of her pretentious or possibly ironic "And Introducing" credit at the end of the trailer, it's not her first time to the acting rodeo. Anyone see The House Bunny? (If not, you need to Netflix that junk. It's comic gold!) Obviously, her voice is fantastic, too.** I also appreciated the tongue-in-cheek tag to one of McPhee's trademark Idol performances (that breath control!) at the beginning of the preview. Need I even mention Debra Messing, Angelica Houston (for crying out loud!), and Jack Davenport (who stood out in last year's now debunk Flash Forward)?

Any thoughts on the trailer?

**Ever heard her duet with Zachary Levi (from Chuck!) on the Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves-penned song "Terrified"? Listen to it and wait to be sucked into a harmonious sound cave of adorable.

Haley Reprise!

2011-06-02T15:54:00.001-07:00

Check out Haley Reinhart making Live with Regis and Kelly momentarily awesome:

RIGHT?!

A Case for Kara DioGuardi and 'Platinum Hit'

2011-05-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I really enjoy reading celebrity memoirs sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I read lots of other, less trashy things, too, but contemporary memoirs are so far outside of my research interests that they make useful brain relaxation tools. I also find it fascinating to read how certain celebrities see and present themselves autobiographically.**

So as an (some might say) obsessive American Idol fan, I couldn't resist having a look at Kara DioGuardi's new memoir A Helluva High Note: Surviving Life, Love and American Idol. After reading it, I have to admit that I felt a little bad for her about Idol. She was (and still is) a mega-successful songwriter, with vocal chops of her own, but with virtually no experience on TV when she was thrust into the Idol limelight, albeit voluntarily. She describes how difficult the first season was for her, and how she was given very little advice from producers or anyone on the show about how to do the job she had been enlisted to do. To add to that, things were uncomfortable for her with Simon, and as that first season (season 8) went on, she found herself continually ill at ease with him. On top of all that, she knew the second she heard it that the much panned winner's song that year, "No Boundaries", which she penned with another songwriter Cathy Dennis, was a disaster, and after the finale she went to her trailer and cried.

It's not honest of me to say that I didn't criticize her a lot during her first (and about half of her second) season, but after reading her side of it, it's easy to see why she had so much trouble jumping in there with smart, useful critiques for contestants, and I felt genuinely bad for agreeing so virulently with some of her most vocal critics. That said, during the second half of season 9, she was the only judge on the panel doing the job well. Simon had a raging case of senioritis, and Ellen and Randy didn't give the contestants much to work with, either. I thought Kara really stepped up, becoming the lone voice of reason. She won me over, and I was really sad to see her leave with the judging shakeup last summer.

All that is to say that I think her new competition reality show on Bravo, Platinum Hit, which debuts tonight at 10/9c, could be really great. As I understand it, she and Jewel will widdle down a field of twelve singer-songwriters, using a series of songwriting challenges to determine who is most deserving of a $100,000 and a publishing/recording deal. Songwriting is Kara's game, and she's had a very successful run of it***. The kinds of critiques she is capable of offering could be pointed and interesting. As could be those from Jewel, who has proven her worth as a singer, musician, songwriter, and even a TV judge (remember her run on Nashville Star?).

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to this one! Let me know what you think if you tune it.

**For your own delight and delectation, the best ones I've read in the last year are hands down Alison Arngrim's Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated, a hilarious and heartbreaking account of how playing Nellie Oleson helped Arngrim grow into a confident advocate for abuse victims, which she herself had been as a child; and Tina Fey's Bossypants, a witty, non-linear collection of essays about her life, and the laugh-out-loud funniest book I've ever read.

***Among the notable songs she's written or co-written are the following: Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man"; Carrie Underwood's "Undo It", "Mama's Song"; Colbie Caillat's "I Never Told You"; Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad"; Kelly Clarkson's "I Do Not Hook Up", "Walk Away"; Pink's "Sober"; Hilary Duff's "Come Clean"; Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces of Me" (say what you will about Ashlee Simpson, but that song is fun!), "Shadow", "La La"; Enrique Iglesias' "Escape"; Katharine McPhee's "Terrified" (a personal fav).

Cat's End of Season TV Awards

2011-05-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

I know this looks like I'm totally copying my favorite TV blog with this post, but I've actually been painstakingly compiling it for months because that's the kind of thing I think is fun to do. For the record, the very talented and TV saavy Ern and Leeard at Because We Watch Too Much TV have put together a far superior list of End of Season Awards, so check them out. In the meantime, here's my list. You'll notice that the list starts out conventionally enough, but becomes a free-for-all of shout outs to shows and actors and plots I've liked this season. But, hey, that's cool: I'm the only one reading my blog anyway!

Best Actor (comedy, female): Amy Poehler on Parks and Recreation
Best Actor (drama, female): [tie] Connie Britton on Friday Night Lights and Anna Torv on Fringe
Best Actor (comedy, male): Nick Offerman on Parks and Recreation
Best Actor (drama, male): Bill Paxton on Big Love

Best New Character, Proper: Blaine (Darren Criss) on Glee
Best New Character, Departed: Amber Tamblyn on House. It’s nice to see a character with uncompromised integrity not get completely snowed over by House. I miss Cameron.
Best Character that should be Annoying but is Actually Awesome: Rob Lowe does it again. His hyper-healthy perfectionist Chris on Parks and Recreation should be horrible, especially since he’s the thing keeping Leslie and Ben from being a real couple, but he’s is actually kind of sweet. It was also fun to see a new side of Anne this season post-breakup.
Worst New “Character”: Steven Tyler’s inanity on the American Idol judging panel. Dude, give them something!
Best/Most Manipulative Character Turnaround: April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy. There’s some serious puppet-master shenanigans going on over there if that annoying girl who almost killed McDreamy is now more likable than about 50% of the main cast.
Best Character Transformation: Caroline on The Vampire Diaries. Used to be the “most killable character”, but it turns out that death was actually exactly what was needed.
Best Cartoon Character (in a good way): Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon on 30 Rock.
Character I think I’m Most Like: A combination of Payson Keeler on Make It or Break It and Liz Lemon (Although, I’m pretty sure about 60% of my friends also think they’re Liz Lemon. Well played, Ms Fey.)
Best Lovable Villain: Lauren Tanner (Cassie Scerbo) on Make It or Break It. No one oscillates between pure fruits of the Devil evil and sad, broken teenager in pain better.

Best kiss: April finally kisses Andy on Parks and Recreation, and not just because I want to make out with Chris Pratt, but because it was nice to see April put Andy out of his misery with a kiss every bit as surprising (to Andy) as Anne’s surprise smooch in the season 2 premiere.
Best New Couple: [tie] Leslie and Ben on Parks and Recreation and Olivia and Peter on Fringe
Best Couple on Any Shonda Rhimes Show: Calzona on Grey’s Anatomy
Cutest Surprise Couple: Sam and Mercedes on Glee
Most Awkward New Couple: Lexie and Avery on Grey’s Anatomy. It’s mostly his fault, too.
Most Awkward Couple, Proper: Bailey and that nurse on Grey’s Anatomy. Does anyone believe that would happen?
Best Wedding: (tie) Chuck and Sarah on Chuck, although I totally thought it was a fake-out until the credits rolled; and April and Andy on Parks and Recreation, which I totally did not see coming, but found it delightful nonetheless

Best Surprise Pregnancy: [tie] Christina on Parenthood (Btw, I totally called it at the beginning of the season) and Fauxlivia on Fringe
[TIE] Most Shocking (and unwelcome) Nighttime Soap Twist, AND Worst Surprise Pregnancy: Emily Kmetko’s pregnancy on Make It or Break It! NOOOOOO!!!

Best show: Friday Night Lights, for the fifth year running. Sadness.
Guiltiest Pleasure: Grey’s Anatomy. The shooting that wrapped up last season gave the oft-annoying show its mojo back, and propelled it back into the realm of interesting storylines and characters. As it turns out, Meredith actually is a good character.
Best Old-School Procedural: Blue Bloods
Show I Wish I Hadn’t Stopped Watching Five Years Ago: Smallville. The ads for the finale make it look epic.
Most Welcome Summer Programming: (Tie) In Plain Sight and So You Think You Can Dance
[Honorable Mention: Covert Affairs]
Show That’s Trying Too Hard: The Voice. It just feels awkward to me.
Easiest Shows to Drop from My Season Pass List: Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl. I’m done.
Best One Tree Hill Episode in Two Seasons (deserves its own category because anyone who watches the show knows it operates on another level of “realism” than other shows): The storm episode!!
Most Addictive New Reality Show: Sister Wives
Most Consistently Enjoyable Escapism: Glee. I don't need believable plots, characters, or schemes; I just want the Glee kids to entertain. Check.
Show that Makes Us Angry at Power-voting Teenage Girls and Moms: American Idol. Duh.
Show that Makes Me Gleefully Okay with Not Understanding Anything That’s Going On: The Good Wife.
Show I Keep Putting Off, But Still Really Want to Watch: [tie] Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy
Soon to be Best Family Show in a Post-FNL Era (Sniff): Parenthood
Best Show to Go Down Early: Lone Star
Best Canceled Show that Never Lived Up to Its Pilot: Life Unexpected (wah-wah-wah)
Funniest Friends-Wannabe in Five Years: Happy Endings
Best Ensemble Comedy to Grow Out of a Vehicle for One Person: Cougar Town
Canceled Show that Began with a Bang and Ended with a Whimper: Brothers and Sisters. Meh. Rob Lowe is now two for two in affecting good shows for the worst with his departure. (If Parks and Recreation wasn’t already awesome before it acquired him as a cast member, this statistic would be horrifying.)
Most Enjoyable Mystery Show: Pretty Little Liars. At this point, I honestly don’t care if we ever find out who “A” is because the show is so darn fun to watch.
Once-Great Show That’s Starting to Overstay Its Welcome: The Office
Show that I Believe to Be the Worst Scripted Drama on Television: The Secret Life of the American Teenager. If you watch it, you’ll be sorry.

Most Crush-Worthy Male (age-appropriate): [tie] Chris Pratt on Parks and Recreation and Zachary Levi on Chuck
Cougar Crush-Worthy Male: Steve McQueen, Jr. on The Vampire Diaries. You go, Bonnie!
Most Crush-Worthy Female: Anna Torv on Fringe. I can't be the only straight girl with a huge crush on her. [UPDATE: Turns out, I'm not!]
Most Hypnotizing Gaze: Ian Somerhalder on The Vampire Diaries

Best Castmember on a C or C+ (Maybe) Show: Ashley Tisdale on Hellcats
Best Recurring Guest Star: [tie] Mamie Gummer and Martha Plimpton on The Good Wife
Best Breakout Reality Star: Blake Shelton on The Voice. Post-haircut, Miranda-era Blake is great, right?!
Best Under the Radar Triple Threat: Heather Morris (Brittany S. Pierce) from Glee. The "Britney/Brittany" episode was all kinds of epic.
Best Under-the-Radar Acting: Nina Dobrev on The Vampire Diaries. Not just a pretty face, that one. Anyone can play the nice girl and anyone can play the villain, but what about at the same time?
Best Reason for an Actor to say, “Take That, SNL”: Casey Wilson is "am-aw-zing" on Happy Endings.
Best Reality Show Contestant: Haley Reinhart FTW!
Most Affecting Trauma Victim: KaDee Strickland’s Charlotte King on Private Practice. Seriously great performance, y'all.
Acting Award for Best Example of Someone Who Played an Irritating Character on One Show, but a Fantastic One on Another: Lauren Cohan's Rose on The Vampire Diaries was so obnoxious, but Cohan was hypnotizing as Vivien Volkoff on Chuck.
Busiest Actor/Musician: Donnie Wahlberg, who has a leading role on Blue Bloods and moonlights with the reunited New Kids on the Block/NKOTBSB. You might say he’s hangin’ tough. Heh.

Most Jaw-Dropping Moment on a Quality Program: Nate’s death on Southland. Did NOT see that coming.
Best Example of America Only Collectively Hating Certain Women, but Still Not Totally Liking Them: Lauren and Haley make the top 3 on Idol, clinching a female presence in the finale. But then they lost to another “cute boy”.
Most Surprisingly Gut-Wrenching Finale: Sister Wives. It made me feel angry at the government.
Best Inspirational Sports Moment: Payson’s Kerri Strug vault on Make It or Break It. You go, Payson! You land that vault on one leg to help the team!
Best Eating Disorder Storyline on Any Show in Recent Memory: Kayle Cruz’s Female Athlete Triad troubles on Make It or Break It. Awareness five!
Show that Cornered Itself with a Really Specific Gimmick without Thinking It would Run for 7 Seasons: How I Met Your Mother. We’re going to need a little revisionism to make those kids teenagers if Ted doesn’t meet the mother, like, tomorrow.

Best Original Song: “5,000 Candles in the Wind” on Parks and Recreation. MouseRat is kicking Glee's butt right now.
Best Haircut: Quinn's on the Glee finale
Best Invented Word from a TV Show: "Manamonster" (Manager + Mom + Monster. Heh.) from Make It or Break It.
Best Sports Network: Universal Sports. SUCH a better sports network for track geeks!
Worst Night to have a TiVo that Only Records Two Programs at a Time: Thursday. WTH, networks?!

'American Idol' Season 10, Top Five Performances

2011-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, kids, this season of Idol sure has been a crazy ride. Just a few months ago, we were like hopeful amnesiacs, awaiting a new dawn in our favourite singing competition. There were so many things to be excited about: Steven Tyler had opinions! J-Lo gracefully stepped down from her pedestal of super-stardom (in 8-inch heels, nonetheless) to offer caring, but pointed criticisms to our green little Idolestants! We witnessed amazing auditions and Hollywood week performances from the likes of Casey Abrams, Paul McDonald and Kendra Chantelle, John Wayne Shultz (yes, I'm still bitter about that one), Molly DeWolf Swenson (remember the White House intern who Randy punched in the face?), and even the undeniably naturally talented Lauren Alaina (even if she was pimped from the get-go)! We had a really promising and talented top 24! They told us original songs might happen! Even the wild card round was a thing of beauty for once!

Not to say that the show went downhill from there, but the show kind of went downhill from there. The judging situation has been addressed ad nauseum; we lost a lot of great talent in Hollywood week with nary a word of goodbye, or in the abrupt, one-week semifinal round (I'm thinking of you, Tim Halperin, and I love your single "The Last Song" [which is available as a free and legal download on Noisetrade.com]); we ended up with waaay too many teenagers in the finals; we never saw those promised original songs post-airplane hanger; and, in spite of this performance, we lost Kendra Chantelle in that Wild Card round. Additionally, the stankness and schticky performances of certain contestants (named James and Scotty) during Hollywood week never came back to bite them, which was a strange and unwelcome turnaround from previous seasons. To be fair, though, we got awesomesauce folks like Naima, Paul, Casey, early Stefano (he fizzled a bit), and future breakout star Haley in the mix, but it was an uneven group, certainly more talented than last year's group, but uneven nonetheless.

So, to end my American Idol, season 10 moaning on a positive note, I give you my top 5 favourite performances of the season (from the semi-finals onward -- great auditions and Hollywood weeks performances are categories for another day when I'm bored):

1. (WITH A BULLET!) Haley Reinhart, "The House of Rising Sun", Top 5 Week: For the record, an early draft of this list was four Haley solo songs (this one and "I (Who Have Nothing)", "Bennie and the Jets", "You and I", with "What is and What Should Never Be" and "Beautiful" as honourable mentions) and the Naima song below, but I decided to spread the love a little bit, since this show is (or, rather, should be) all about musical journeys. When she performed this song, there was no doubt that Haley was the best on the show and perhaps of the season, even though she didn't start out that way. "The House of Rising Sun" represented the height of her evolution as an artist on this show, and probably now stands as one of the ten best Idol performances ever. Oh my gosh, how great was that strung out, angry a capella intro, and that vocal restraint in the build?! The anger that she was feeling post-judges comments for her earlier (AMAZING) performance of "You and I" worked to fuel her performance. All in all, it was sheer Idol brilliance. Ugh, get it, girl!

2. Naima Adedapo, "For All We Know", Wild Card Performance: It's true that Kendra Chantelle's "Georgia on My Mind" and Stefano Langone's "I Need You Now" were the more obvious standouts of that particular round, but I've got to make a case for Naima's lovely, restrained vocal on "For All We Know", a song recorded by one of Elliott Yamin's favorite influences Donnie Hathaway. Singing with all the emotion James felt during his "Without You" performance, but couldn't restrain in his vocals, Naima managed to make every note an expression of what she was feeling in that moment, and she didn't embellish it in the same way a lot of people tend to do for "sing for your life" performances.

3. Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams, "Moanin'", Top 8 Results Night: This number made me sit up and listen to Haley. I reluctantly loved her "Bennie and the Jets" performance two weeks before, and while her "Piece of My Heart" cover was pretty good, "Call Me" was a disaster. I wasn't on the Haley train until this duet, wherein she and Casey showed their ridiculous amounts of musical chemistry. Like everyone else, I don't think I realized that Haley could sound so lovely and jazzy. The harmonies, the scatting, the performance itself -- it all just worked. It was a turning point for the season.

4. Casey Abrams, "Nature Boy", Top 8: I loved that Casey went against Jimmy's advice that week to pull off a restrained and thoroughly enjoyable jazz combo number. I don't think Casey was ever one of the best vocalists on the show this season, but when he chose to be, he was a good musician. Everything from the song choice, to the instrumental bit in the middle, to the jazzy vocal itself worked. It was so nice to see something this off the beaten path on the Idol stage.

5. Paul McDonald, "Maggie Mae", Semi-finals: This is where a lot of us fell for Paul. His lilting, whispery vocals combined with his kind of silly, kind of drunken performance antics to create a truly enjoyable breakout performance. This fantastic/wacky performance proves that confidence is the most attractive quality in a person. Love Paul's vocals; love Paul's charisma.

'American Idol' Finale Post-Mortem

2011-05-29T08:14:00.001-07:00

I complain, I moan, and I cry conspiracy all season, but I am always a fan of Idol finales. Those folks know how to put on a good show, and they get amazing talent in there. Even last season’s uneven finale (seriously, Lee performing a “duet” with the band Chicago because he auditioned in Chicago? Seriously?) still had some great moments (Alanis Morisette and Crystal Bowersox FTW!). This year’s show was fantastic, in spite of an uninspiring final two. Here are a few notes about the Idol finale in no particular order:

Carrie Underwood is a class act, yo. We’ve seen what Carrie can do on that finale stage, and frankly every time she (or Kelly Clarkson) appears on the show, she legitimises it more than just a little bit. So I think it’s pretty admirable how much she dialed it back for Lauren’s sake in their performance of "Before He Cheats" (Carrie's first real breakout song). Even the last several bars, when Carrie is prone to inhabiting pure awesomeness in her vocals and performances, she let Lauren have some great riffs and glory notes. Classy. Same for Tim McGraw. I enjoyed both of those duets, which, you will recall, can sometimes lean toward the awkward (remember this little gem? It's like they were singing two different songs. I still feel uncomfortable).

HALEY AND TONY BENNETT, RIGHT?! Seeing Haley’s level of confidence during that performance (and in her other performances that night, for that matter) was wonderful. If anyone had a true “Idol journey” this season, it was Haley. In her first few performances this season, I was really put off by her performance mannerisms and an unlikability (not a real word) that I can only classify as stankness (also not a real word). But when she performed “Bennie and the Jets”, something clicked for her. She had a hilariously awkward “scootch” off the piano halfway through the performance (about :44 in) and a manic arm-swing going on throughout, but it just worked for her. As she came into her own this season, it was fun to see her gradually gain confidence in her performance style and her vocals. Do I even need to mention her victory march during her last three weeks on the show? That’s the stuff of Idol legends. Haley Reinhart, I salute you.

That was definitely Handsome Mark of SYTYCD fame dry-humping Lady Gaga atop the Aggro Crag, yes?

I thought just about every time Casey performed or commented, he was hilarious. OTT yes, but hilarious and fun. Honorable mention to Pia for skit-chastising James and Casey in their little bit about being the “most shocking”. That was cute.

[SIDENOTE: Where was Pia’s duet in the finale? Shocking omission.]

I loved the Beyonce medley for the female contestants (who were strangely sans Lauren). I think that was the best Karen and Thia ever sounded, and when Haley and Ashthon sang on “If I Were a Boy”, I suddenly felt a little sad that Ashthon never got the chance to show us that side of her during the finals. They all sounded amazing.

Beyonce can saaang…even though I’m not mad about her new single.

On that note, the Lady Gaga performance was pure Gaga and pure fun, but way too risqué for the Idol stage. If I had kids, I would change the channel when Gaga performs. So that’s why I was a little shocked to hear Beyonce sing the lyric, “Make love to me”, over and over again, mere minutes after Gaga's simulated sex scene on a large, fake cliff. Those two performances definitely took a usually pretty TV-PG kind of family hour, and turned it into at least a TV-14 kind of hour, in spite of the fact that the finalists were probably the most G-rated finalists we’ve ever had. Wow. Careful there Idol: never underestimate the “family show” audience’s predisposition to boycotting. #producermiscalculation

Oh, how bad was that U2-Spiderman fiasco? Wow.

Obviously, I’m not a Scotty fan, but I liked his show of emotion at the end. I don’t buy his calculated image, generally, so it was nice to see an honest overflow of tears and gratitude coming from the kid when he won. I also liked that his hair was all mussed. When he matures a little bit as a musician (read: stops imitating other country singers and understands that singing is actually a craft) and releases a fun, pop country hit, I’ll probably download it. I hated David Archuletta during his season (even though I recognized that he could sing really, really well) because I saw him as a tool of producer manipulation and an indirect source of Simon Cowell’s vitriol toward Carly Smithson and sometimes David Cook, but when he released “Crush”, I had to admit that I liked the kid and his undeniably catchy song. I hope the same could be true with Scotty.

Sooo, it may be unnecessarily creepy to speculate about the “relationship status” of a couple of teenagers, but the question has been begged: Lauren + Scotty = showmance?

Rewarding Parks and Recreation Fans

2011-05-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

You all know I'm pretty obsessed with Parks and Recreation these days, yes? After watching the finale more than once (we'll leave it at that) this weekend, I found myself singing along to Andy's totally awesome Li'l Sebastian ("that magnificent beast") tribute song "5,000 Candles in the Wind" ("Bye, bye, Li'l Sebastian/You're 5,000 candles in the wind". Hehe). A quick Google search later for MouseRat led me here, where free downloads of all of MouseRat's "hits" are available for free. How fun is that?! Man, it's going to be a long, dark summer without new episodes of P&R.

NBC's Awake

2011-05-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Check out this trailer for a new drama (starring Jason Isaacs, Laura Allen, BD Wong, and Cherry Jones. What a cast!) called Awake that NBC is planning to debut midseason next year.

Looks totally awesomesauce, right?!

ABC's Fall Programming

2011-05-17T13:14:00.001-07:00

Here's an interesting analysis of ABC's decision to order a somewhat staggering thirteen new series for next season. The strategy seems to be to throw a bunch of shows on TV and hope something is a hit. As the article mentions, ABC is in need of a hit with long-term viability, especially as Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are getting to the twilight years of a series run.**

All in all I think ABC made some admirable decisions on the renewal/cancellation side of things. It stood by the fantastic Cougar Town (even though it's not coming back until mid-season) and Happy Endings, a comedy still in its infancy but nonetheless showing great potential; while canceling the not-there-yet-nor-probably-ever-will-be Better With You and only semi-enjoyable Off the Map. In fact, it gave V an extra, undeserved season, when it probably should have been canceled with Flash Forward last year.

My point is that ABC seems to be sticking with decent scripted programming for the most part, and many of its new orders are, in fact, scripted -- as in, not reality -- shows. Respect. FOX, meanwhile, let the axe fly on [gulp] seven out of twelve of its live-action scripted shows, making me feel really glad that Fringe has such a vocal fan base! Anyway, read the article and tell me what you think. I for one am pretty excited at the thought of a bunch of new scripted shows that aren't exclusively cop and medical dramas.

**For the record, I think Grey's is actually pretty good TV these days. The shooting in last season's finale revitalized what had become stale hospital soapery, and it's been a pleasure to watch since. I actually felt anxiety post-episode for Meredith after Karev's douchy reveal of her naughty behavior to Owen last week. Post-episode anxiety is almost always a desirable emotion for me, btw. Housewives, however, has become a sad, flailing mess, and it needs to join Brothers and Sisters in the dark recesses of canceled shows that used to be interesting.

Idol's Judging Problem, and the Rise of Haley Reinhart

2011-05-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

We have an issue that needs to be addressed: the judging situation, and we're at the point now when it is a "situation". At the beginning of the season, it looked like Steven was going to offer pointed, interesting criticism, while the shockingly beautiful J-Lo would give a “We love you” comment couched in some kind of helpful tip for improvement. It seemed like Randy was trying to make himself into the new Simon...unsuccessfully.

Now two weeks from the finale, it turns out only the thing about Randy is true, except he’s not “the new Simon”. That would imply that he’s giving honest, meaningful critiques that tend toward the mean side until a contestant really does something to impress. Rather, he’s become a little bit of a d-bag on that panel. Case in point, his little shouting match with Haley last week, followed shortly thereafter by declaring a three-way tie for the best between three of the four contestants not named Haley.

Classy, yes?

Now lest you think I loved Haley's performance of "Earth Song", think again. The song choice was indeed not fantastic, as it's the kind of song that requires more than 90 seconds to build. But I can't fault the performance in the same way Randy did. It was pitch-perfect throughout, something that cannot be said for James' and Scotty's performances, which were all given A+++ marks from our "beloved" panel of "judges". Last week was the first time in weeks Steven's "you're beautiful and wonderful and I have no real opinion" comments sounded like a needed defense of a performance that didn't deserve the level of criticism it received.

It’s SHOCKING to me that James could come out and give a surprisingly low-energy, off-pitch version of the most covered song in the history of karaoke, and Randy and J-Lo could claim that he “set the bar”, while Haley delivers a vocally solid performance and gets specific criticism about not reaching her high notes. W. T. H?! Some message board comments I’ve seen about this week’s episodes have mentioned Haley’s “stank” attitude about the judges’ comments (I myself thought her attitude tended toward the stank at the beginning of the season. I’ve since changed my mind), but the kinds of comments she got for that performance of “Earth Song” and for last week’s truly excellent “You and I” were egregious, especially in comparison with the "criticisms" given to her fellow “chosen one” contestants. Even Jacob Lusk's truly painful "No Air" performance last week was given the "you're amazing!" gloss by the judges. I love a good Idol conspiracy as much as the next girl, but even if you don’t, you’ve got to admit that, man, Haley’s really been getting the short end of the producers’ stick.

The bright side, however, is after getting hit in the face a few times for her first performance of the night the last two weeks in a row, she came out for those second performances and KILLED THEM. Seriously, "The House of Rising Sun" and "I (Who Have Nothing)" are the stuff of Idol legends, partly fueled by the ridiculousness of the judges choosing Haley as the only one to criticize each week, but mostly as a result of an emotional and theatrical depth that has been missing from the stage for most of this season. Those two performances were pure magic. Haley is certainly benefiting from the judges/producers backlash vote right now, but she's actually delivering the best performances of the season. Go. Figure.

Which brings me to her competitors, Lauren and Scotty. I genuinely like Lauren. Her voice sounds great on my ipod, she's got an adorable personality, and, in spite of the out-of-nowhere "Lauren's lacking confidence" narrative the producers tried to thrust upon her this season, she's a pretty confident performer ("Flat on the Floor" last week was fantastic!). I think it's a shame, though, that they let her on the show this season, and not two seasons from now, because all of her performances could benefit from some emotional maturity. She's so talented, but she usually comes across as overly concerned with pleasing people (Jimmy, the judges, Lady Gaga, America...). This week's performance of "Anyway" was, I think, a glimpse of what she can do when she connects to a song. She really nailed it. It seems to me like that connection issue is the one thing missing from her "package", but if we're talking about a Scotty-Lauren finale (which it seems like we are, kids), I'd be more than happy for Lauren to inherit the crown that has also graced the head of Dame Kelly, Carrie, David Cook, and Kris Allen (to name my favs).

Scotty, however, drives me insane, and not in a teenage girl kind of way. I need to clarify something here: I am a Christian, a proud American, and a massive country fan (I didn't need Scotty to tell me who Josh Turner is. I saw Josh Turner in concert before Scotty was out of elementary school! I digress), but Scotty singing “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” was the worst kind of manipulation. Whether he really is inspired by that song or whether he was just singing it because he knew it would get a lot of votes and make him immune to criticism (as if the judges have EVER really criticized him anyway), I call foul. That was icky. Not since Kristy Lee Cook’s “God Bless the USA” has a performance bummed me out on an emotional manipulation level like that. The thing that troubles me the most is it seems to be working in his case. Grrr. Voter fail.

I want to make it clear that my beef with Scotty is not the quality and texture of his voice. When he sings smoothly, avoiding the repetitive dips and "flourishes" that he feels compelled (and at this point, it is out of sheer compulsion, not thoughtful attention to vocal detail) to add to every phrase, he can sound lovely. Most of his "You've Got a Friend" performance was fantastic, but you could even see him fighting the urge to slip into old habits as throughout the performance. My main problem with Scotty is that I still find him inauthentic, as if he's imitating the adult country stars he admires. Forget what he says in his interview packages: he's a good boy trying to make people think he's a bad boy in performance. "You've Got a Friend" was the closest thing we've seen to vocal purity from him since his pre-semifinal performance of "Long Black Train". Smooth, flourish-free vocals are what could actually turn him into a beautiful singer.

Like Lauren, he probably could have used a few years to mature before coming on this show, but here we are. I'm pretty sure he's going to win this season, but that doesn't mean I can't moan about it a little bit. I'm team Haley all the way, and if Haley gets eliminated after her sure-to-be shoddy hometown visit edit next week, I'm cheering for Lauren to the bitter end. Please, America, break the "cute boy" Idol winner streak!

Renewal/Cancelation Abounding

2011-05-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

The time of year when we find out the fate of our favorite shows is upon us, and, actually, the carnage hasn't been too bad. Here's some news on some "bubble" shows I've been moderately to extremely invested in over the years:

Parenthood: Thankfully will be returning in the same night and time!

Brothers and Sisters: Canceled, and I'm not too upset about it. The show took a hard turn for the worst when Rob Lowe and Emily VanCamp left, and frankly I've found the Walkers' antics on the annoying side of late.

Chuck: The show with nine lives will be returning for 13 episodes in a fifth and final (sadness) season.

V: Sad trombone. I'll miss having a weekly dosage of Elizabeth Mitchel's awesomeness the most.

Happy Endings: Renewed! Yayness! If you haven't been watching this show, you're missing out. Even the pilot was funny! Don't be deterred by all the Friends comparisons, either. This show has its own spirit.

Mr. Sunshine: Canceled, and it's a darn shame, since the show was getting better with each installment, and Lizzy Caplan and Matthew Perry had some really fun chemistry in the finale. Ironic that Matthew Perry's show was canceled instead of a show that has some obvious Friends parallels (6 friends, hanging out).

Off the Map: Canceled. Meh. Mamie Gummer deserves better.

Chase: Canceled, and I'm about 87% sure that I'm one of seven people not affiliated with the show in any way that's still watching NBC's Saturday night burn off of the remaining episodes, but I'm enjoying myself. Fun show that got much better as it went. It also had two really dreamy main characters (Cole Hauser and Jesse Metcalfe)! Loss.

Fringe: Renewed. YESSSSS.

Better With You: Canceled. So many likable actors couldn't make the multi-camera sitcom funny again. Plus the writing was bad. All of those actors deserve way better.

Several other shows that I love were renewed weeks ago, like the ever perfect Parks and Recreation, the unceasingly hilarious 30 Rock, and the brilliant Southland. I haven't heard much about new summer or autumn shows, but I'll keep you posted when I get really excited about something!

Rider Strong is Hilarious

2011-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

After reading this amusing Vanity Fair interview with the enjoyably self-aware former child actor (and former pre-teen crush object of every girl my age) Rider Strong, I feel less embarrassed for having gotten really into Boy Meets World in college, although in my case, no drugs were needed.

I'm glad he agrees that Corey and Topanga got married way too young.

American Idol: The "Select" Five

2011-05-02T02:45:00.000-07:00

What did everyone think about Carole King week on Idol? I thought it was kind of amazing, actually, and it has the distinct privilege of being the only week so far in this competition where I wasn't horrified by the annoyance levels of James and Scotty. In fact, and I'm saying this cautiously for fear of my own backlash against myself, I even enjoyed both of their performances. What was the difference this week, you say? Babyface and a songbook theme week that allowed some creativity in the Idolestants. As per usual, though, I have my quibbles, and the basic order of how I would rank the contestants hasn't really changed, but I'm just saying that I thought Scotty and James both doffed some of their most grating habits this week to deliver somewhat heartfelt renditions of songs from one of the greatest songbooks in pop music. It wasn't quite a season 7 Dolly Parton or Mariah Carey night, but it was pretty good, nonetheless.

In this post, let me first start with the negative:

5. Jacob Lusk: Wow. How is this guy still in the competition? I mean, I'm not saying Casey wasn't floundering for a few weeks (the growl was being used without regard for how often and how poorly it was being used, and, let's be honest here, the J-Lo kiss was uncomfortable for everyone. But I digress), but Casey always had the potential to bust out an awesome "Nature Boy" or "Moanin'" or "Georgia on My Mind". Jacob's seeming lack of ability to restrain his own vocals has been my major bone to pick with him this season (Randy's RIDICULOUS advice for Jacob to let loose is a perfect example of the judging problem this season, btw). I remain committed to my early season assessment that he's got some raw, unharnessed talent that he just has no idea what to do with. Unsurprisingly, he's got the coveted Vote for the Worst spot this week, and it would be incredibly disappointing if he were to somehow stick around another week.

4. James Durbin: My biggest problem with James is the type of music he seems interested in thrusting upon us. Heavy metal hasn't been mainstream since 1992, living almost exclusively in the bedrooms of adolescent boys and guitar geeks, and I'd be quite happy for it to stay that way. James' "Heavy Metal" performance several weeks ago was actually my nightmare. That said, though, his softer, subtler performance of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" was pretty great. How I wished he would've "In a Dream"-ed that junk all the way through (that is, continued with the a capella) because that part was lovely! (Sidenote: do you realize that no Idolestant since Bo Bice in season 4 has taken the full-on a capella risk with a song?) This was the first week I think James made himself accessible to me as a viewer. My only issue with his choice this week is that he chose a song that is lyrically meant to be sung by a woman, and although I'm generally a fan of Idols crossing gender bounds with their song choices (see, for instance, Lady Bowersox and Master Johns), adding testosterone to this song wasn't entirely believable to me. I'm not complaining, though. I actually liked this one from James!

3. Scotty McCreery: The other shocker of the night was that Scotty wiped away about seven layers of cheese, and churned out a really nice performance of "You've Got a Friend" (no disrespect, but Brooke White still owns this one on the Idol stage, though). Scotty's worst traits are performance style traits (side mic, full body tilt, mischievous eyebrows) and dipping into low notes as a replacement for completing phrases. This week, he didn't do side mic and he seemed to be fighting the urge to slip back into those other performance habits (which he did a few times, but a few slips is SO much better than the full-fledged Velveeta treatment he gave Elvis Presley a few weeks ago and LeAnn Rhimes last week). I love love love that Babyface advised him to start the song smoother, as opposed to the full twang treatment. It was lovely! It gave us a chance to see that perhaps Scotty has actually grown as a vocalist this season, which we would never know based on the last several weeks. My advice for Scotty moving forward from here would be to: 1) Avoid "hip-hop hand" when he hits the build; 2) Resist the urge to gaze deeply into the camera lens with Constantine Maroules eyes (hurl); and 3) Smooth out the twang a little bit because doing so forces him to sing complete phrases, and his voice isn't bad.

2. Lauren Alaina: I've started to really like Lauren based on the quality of her downloads. I still think she's on the immature side of performances, and she has yet to make me believe that she really understands what she's singing, but based on pure vocal aesthetics, she's the real deal. The performance stuff is forgivable because she's so young, and it seems pretty clear that she's desperately trying to please the judges/producers because she's young and (probably) used to having adults in her life guiding her choices. I wish they hadn't lowered the audition age this year because Lauren (and Thia, for that matter) could have used another year or two or three to mature before coming on this show. However, I can't hear any of that on my iPod. In my headphones, she sounds like a commanding vocalist with a good sense of confidence and emotion. All three duets she's done with Scotty this season have been ridiculous showcases of the quality her voice over his. Her performance of "Where You Lead" (which will never not be associated with Gilmore Girls for me) was good, and would have been great without random prop boy. Even though her Idol run has been a little all over the place, I think she's got a bright future ahead of her. Shoot, I'd buy her record.

1. Haley Reinhart: Little Miss Haley has garnered quite a following. Adam Lambert recently said in an interview that she's his favorite because of the kinds of things she's doing vocally. He also agreed with the blogosphere that Haley's not getting the praise from the judges she deserves. She's managed to emerge as this season's lovable underdog, and America loves an underdog. Part of her appeal is that the producers seem to be trying really hard to get her eliminated, which only makes a certain voting set want her to stay even more. The packages she's getting are often skewed toward the "Haley doesn't know what she's doing" side of things, when I'm about 90% sure the same could be said of 3 or 4 of the others, as well. Jimmy Iovine's comments about her during her results show package last week, for instance, were unnecessarily vicious ("As an artist, Haley’s problem is she doesn’t really know who she is yet. My prediction is, the audience is getting wind of that. And if she goes home tonight, it’ll be because of that." Whoa). I liked her performance of "Beautiful" (one of my favorite Carole King songs!) this week, and I think she weathered the technical difficulties like a pro. In short, she's good, and she's choosing the right songs. I hope she's able to ride this thing a little bit longer! Go Haley!

That's my two cents. Thoughts?

Make It or Break It: "Hungary Heart"

2011-04-26T03:57:00.000-07:00

[Make It or Break It SPOILERS ABOUND!!]

Whoa! So, I guess we figured out how they're writing Chelsea Hobbs' pregnancy into the show. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in this interesting turn of events, though. I mean, yeah, unprotected sex often has the very real consequence of, well, babies, but it seems a little unnecessary to go there with this character. There's something very icky and cliche about the teenage daughter of a "lower class" single mother who works in a strip joint getting pregnant. It seemed to me like, from the beginning of the show, we've been led to believe that Emily was the exception to the statistics, and that she was going to be the talented underdog with the heart of gold who worked hard to become the best in her sport. It's disappointing to see that aspect of her characterization get abandoned in a sweeping, no-turning-back turn of soap opera-ness.

The thing I've generally admired about the show is the way it has treated the dedication of this group of female athletes to their sport, even in spite of their catty infighting and general primetime teen drama silliness. It bothers me a little bit that one of the athletes might not be able to be an elite athlete anymore. Perhaps I underestimate the imaginative power of this show's team of writers. After all, Payson's spinal injury last season was supposed to be "permanent". While she wasn't able to participate, the character went through a kind of existential crises as she dealt with the reality of a serious injury, and now she's back and as strong as ever. Kayle also seems to be in a place where she really should abandon the sport for her own health and well-being, but I feel pretty confident that she'll be back.

Not sure where the show's going to go with Emily's character now that she's pregnant, but I'm not going anywhere as a viewer, which may be the point!

Parenthood's Season 2 Finale

2011-04-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't post on last week's season finale of Parenthood, partly because I didn't know where to start. I'm sad that the show is leaving us for five long months, with no final word yet on renewal (sooo glad they didn't leave it on a cliffhanger...just in case), but I thought the finale was all kinds of fantastic, with the singular exception of the Jasmine/Crosby storyline. (Are we supposed to think they're getting back together? That needs to not happen.) After all the network teasers leading up to the finale, I'm really glad that the pregnancy test was Christina's and not Haddie's because we don't need another teen pregnancy storyline on network TV. (I actually called that little twist at the beginning of the season, but since I didn't write it down, I don't expect you to believe me.) My favorite central relationship on the show, though, is Sarah and Amber's fraught mother-daughter dynamic, and this episode gave it to us in droves. I love that they can go so quickly from "I'm sorry! I love you! You're great!" to "I hate you! You don't understand me! Why won't you listen to me?!", and so frequently. It seems authentic that these two personalities, which are alike in so many ways, would oscillate between harmony and discord. All things considered, I loved this show this season, and I really really hope it gets renewed, because with Friday Night Lights exiting this year, there aren't any more quality family dramas on TV. (Seriously, name one.)

Check out Margaret Lyons' New York Magazine article on the show for a much better analysis of the show's biggest strengths than I could give you. In case you've never read her articles before, enjoy this sentence as a sampler: "[Mae] Whitman in particular gets that adolescent frustration-cry exactly right, joining Claire Danes in the Teenage Weeping Hall of Fame." Yessss.

Best Examples of Idolestants Making the Most of Unlikely Theme Weeks: Why Creativity Should Reign Supreme

2011-04-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

I have to apologize. When I started this post (yesterday, as a break from real work), I meant for it to be a top 5 kind of situation, but I got overly excited while looking up performances on YouTube, so it became a longer retrospective on the previous nine seasons of American Idol, and the potentially wonky theme nights that instead turned into what my sister calls Idol "magic". My point is that I think it's lame when Idolestants do the same thing each week instead of letting the theme week exhibit their creative strengths. Quick note: where available, I've found YouTube clips of said performances and attached them to the song titles, so you can see for yourself what I'm talking about. Without further ado, then, here are some talented Idolestants who made weird theme weeks work for them (and for us!):

Kelly Clarkson, “Stuff Like That There” (Big Band Night, Season 1): Big Band nights and Great American Songbook nights have been disasters for some Idolestants. It forces them to work in a genre that is (and I like this kind of music) dated and (usually) tied to a certain kind of voice. So what did Kelly do? She played to the strengths of the genre. Donned in an adorable 1940s-style polka dotted dress, she showed how confident a performer she could be, hitting all of her notes and maneuvering perfectly around the tongue-twisting lyrics. There's a reason she's the most successful winner ever, y'all! I know this is kind of sad, but every time I see Kelly in concert, I secretly hope she’ll sing this one (like she did at this Baltimore, MD concert in 2008. Dirty Baltimore. That's pretty much the greatest concert clip ever, yes?). I'm calling it: best wonky theme night performance ever.

John Stevens, “King of the Road” (Country Night, Season 3): This kid took some serious, Sanjaya-level missteps during his hijacked run on the big stage against the likes of Fantasia, but even when he briefly forgot the lyrics (Hilarious. About 1:20 into the clip), he made the Roger Miller classic work for his (too) distinct voice. He was never going to win the show, but I include him on this list to show why lesser Idolestants can't blame the theme night for their performances.

Carrie Underwood, “Alone” (Billboard Number Ones Night, Season 4): Okay, so maybe “Billboard Number Ones” isn’t the most unlikely theme, but what made this performance special was that no one in their right mind expected countrified Carrie Underwood to sing (and I mean, saaaang) a song made famous by Heart when the contestants had the entire history of Billboard number one hits at their fingertips. From the beginning of her season, Carrie had a good sense of where she wanted to go with her music, but she still took risks, which made her more than just another gorgeous set of pipes and camera-ready face. This performance was the moment she left her nerves backstage and started to win the show.

Chris Daughtry, “I Walk the Line” (the 1950s, Season 5): I've got to admit that Chris was never my favorite contestant, but I liked what he did with his songs. "I Walk the Line" was an unlikely choice for him, but he didn't change the song in a weird enough way to make it unrecognizable from the original (like Adam Lambert did to "Ring of Fire" in season 8. Most awkward mentoring session since Gwen Stefani and Sanjaya, btw) and it seemed like he was paying attention to the lyrics. I usually give Blake Lewis and David Cook credit for turning the show into "Survival of the Best Song Arranger", but Chris got the ball rolling with performances like this.

Elliott Yamin, “If I Can Dream” (Elvis Presley songs, Season 5): Elliott made this song seem really contemporary, and even five years later, it’s really nice to listen to. Elliott was a classic R&B-type of Idolestant. His musical hero was Donny Hathaway, and he really hit his stride with songs like Hathaway's "A Song for You" (great performance, right??), so for him to make an Elvis song work so well was a treat.

Jordin Sparks, “I (Who Have Nothing)” (British Invasion Night, Season 6): The thing about this performance is that no one saw it coming! Jordin Sparks had been singing consistently well, but the story of the season thus far had (rightfully so) been Melinda Doolittle’s out-of-nowhere-ness, and the juxtaposition of her mammoth voice and her humility. While many of Jordin’s fellow Idolestants sang more obvious British Invasion tunes by the Zombies, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks on British Invasion night, though, Jordin chose a Shirley Bassey song that would seemingly require her to age about 15 years to nail. As it turns out, though, no one except Simon was really bothered by the seventeen year-old’s lovely (and mature) performance of the song. It was the breakthrough performance for Jordin that all other teenage Idolestants have struggled to live up to since.

Blake Lewis, “You Give Love a Bad Name” (Bon Jovi Night, Season 6): As I scanned through all the theme nights for season 6, I was reminded that there wasn’t even one week that stood out as a particularly well-suited theme for Blake. It would be interesting, indeed, if Idol ever decided to do an electronic or hip-hop night, but thus far Blake’s musical style has been marginalized at best. He is perhaps, therefore, the best example of the point I’m trying to make with this post: that it doesn’t matter which theme night the contestants are stuck with because a truly talented artist will make it work. Case in point: Blake’s awesome and highly original version of “You Give Love a Bad Name” that I’ve re-watched on YouTube many times over the years. Who would think to do that with a “classic” karaoke tune from 1986? But it worked so well! I think the reason Blake’s career didn’t explode (in a good way) post-Idol is because he’s so much more fun to watch rather than listen to, even though the exciting audio component that accompanies the visuals is pure vocal talent. If you didn’t think his voice was up to par during the season with such powerhouse voices as Jordin Sparks, Melinda Doolittle, LaKisha Jones, and even the underrated Gina Glocksen, you have to admit that Blake brought something exhilarating to the stage each week, and I think this performance was the best example.

Jason Castro, “Daydream” (the 1960s, Season 7): This was the perfect song choice for Jason Castro, who in this early semifinal round we didn’t even know yet. It suited his “chill” persona and his perfectly imperfect voice, and best of all, no other Idolestants that I can remember had ever covered a Lovin’ Spoonful tune (a band that my generation really should know better, in my opinion). Win.

David Cook, “Billie Jean” (Songs From the Year You Were Born, Season 7): Worst recurring theme night. Of. All. Time. But this is the best anyone's ever done with it, and it's pretty darn good.

David Cook, “Always Be My Baby” (Mariah Carey Night, Season 7): This could have been a single for him. David Cook and Blake Lewis (and arguably Crystal Bowersox) are probably Idol’s best examples of artists that were talented enough to make anything work. It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that David was able to take one of the catchiest pop songs ever written (yeah, I said it) and turn it into a heartfelt goodbye song, while retaining its original melody. Seriously, Mariah Carey night ended up being one of the best theme weeks ever because of the way David raised everybody else’s game. Who would’ve put those two artists together on paper?

Carly Smithson, “Here You Come Again” (Dolly Parton Night, Season 7): You didn’t think I would get through this list without mentioning one of my top 3 favorite female Idolestants of all time, did you? (You read that right, “Top 3”. Hint: the other two have already been mentioned and are the most obvious). Here’s a sad factoid about Idol: female contestants never get credit for song arrangements. Never. Crystal Bowersox got about halfway through the competition before they gave her any credit for her fantastic, personalized arrangements. Song arrangement credit in season 7 always went to the inimitable David Cook, but I would argue that Carly’s beautiful, heartbreaking “Here You Come Again” was one of the best performances of the best Idol season ever. All you have to do is listen to an original version of the song to realize what Carly did with it. She changed the tempo and stripped away any of the musical excess that would take away from those sad, beautiful lyrics. Poor Carly never got the respect she deserved, and it turned out that Dolly Parton night, of all nights, was one of her best. (Note: Dolly Parton is AMAZING.)

Anoop Desai, “Always on My Mind” (Grand Ole Opry Night, Season 8): I like that Anoop Desai’s best performance came on Grand Ole Opry Night. It further proves my point about unlikely musical pairings. The song was written by Willie Nelson and was made most famous by Elvis, but Anoop’s performance worked because he didn’t try to do a weird copycat of either of those artists. He let the lyrics direct the performance, which is the key to besting an unlikely theme night.

Allison Iraheta, “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone” (Motown Night, Season 8): Motown is usually a great performance night for Idolestants because so many of them fit into the wannabe R&B category vocally, but a less talented rocker could have royally struggled with Motown. Allison, on the other hand, rightfully goes in the Jordin Sparks Hall of Fame for Teen Idolestants with this performance...and with such a weird song, too. It gave her the opportunity to flex her vocal muscles with crazy-awesome phrasing and those perfectly raspy high notes, not to mention the emergence of some stage confidence we hadn’t yet seen from her. LOVED IT!

Kris Allen, “She Works Hard for the Money” (Disco Night, Season 8): I used to wholeheartedly believe that all disco-themed Idol nights were doomed to be disasters of “Jive Talkin’” proportions, but leave it to Kris Allen to re-write the Idol theme night rulebook. If you didn’t know that song and you didn’t know what the theme was, you might have assumed it was a contemporary song by what Kris brought to it. I think Kris’s win over the embarrassingly talented Adam Lambert that season was a big surprise to most people. When you look over his performances that season, though, it turns out that he earned every bit of that title.

Crystal Bowersox, “No One Needs to Know” (Shania Twain Night, Season 9): Controversal. This performance got mixed reviews from judges and critics, but it’s still in rotation on my iPod. I was a sold out Mamasox fan all season, so I would defend even her worst performances (let’s be fair, Crystals “worst” performances weren’t anywhere close to some other contestants’ “best” performances that season. That was an unfortunate season, really), but “No One Needs to Know” was cute and light, but not overly so, and full of that fun tongue-in-cheekness with which Shania infuses all of her upbeat songs. In short, I think Crystal “got” the artist-sponsored theme that week better than anyone else.

Crystal Bowersox, “Summer Wind” (Frank Sinatra Night, Season 9): Another controversial Mamasox performance. The main criticism for her performance that week was that she stripped it down too much, and for a song that is so familiar to people as a big band, Rat Pack hit, it didn’t work to do that to the song. Fair enough, I guess, but what we have here is a lyrics versus song feeling debate, and it seems to me like Crystal is a lyrics girl. The opening verses to the song are kind of sad and reminiscent, and as the song builds, you get a sense of the scars and repressed passion that were left by the other person. In short, I think what Crystal did with the song fit the lyrics. Underrated performance, but kind of brill in retrospect.

There you have it. Anyone have any performances they'd like to add to the list?

Pia on 'Dancing With the Stars'

2011-04-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

Dang. I guess I'll have to break my Dancing With The Stars embargo just this once.

http://www.tvline.com/2011/04/pia-toscano-american-idol-dancing-with-the-stars-ken-warwick-mark-ballas/

Idol: Down to 7

2011-04-15T21:01:00.001-07:00

Idol is weird for me right now. The last two eliminations have touched to the quick, I'm a little pissed off that only two ladies remain, and three contestants that I think are just horrible still remain in this competition. Three! (In case you're wondering, it's the remaining men not named Casey or Stefano.) I loved Paul, but I'm okay admitting that he was never a viable contender for the crown this year. As much as it pains me to admit it, I think we might be looking at some combination of Scotty-James-Lauren in the finale. Therefore, I'm going to root for the Idolestants in the following order until they are eliminated:

1. Haley Reinhart: Crazy, right?! Just four weeks ago, I ranked her at the very bottom of my favorites list, and proclaimed her growl annoying and her attitude stank. It just goes to show what a couple of undeniably good performances can do.** I couldn't get her fantastic "Bennie and the Jets" performance out of my head, and she followed it up with a kind of brill Janis Joplin homage during Rock & Roll Hall of Fame week. Then this week, as I was starting to slip back into pre-"Bennie" Haley sentiments, she whips out my new favorite finals vocal of the season in her duet with Casey on "Moanin'". Seriously, I've watched that junk like seven times today! I've come to embrace her comical awkwardness and lack of bodily self-awareness as endearing traits, and the attitude that I once believed to be stank I now think is actually just silliness. I'm okay admitting I was wrong. I like Haley now.

2. Casey Abrams: I LOVED his "Nature Boy" performance on Wednesday. It was classic, musical, bassified (my word, but you may use it), and refreshing. It infused Wednesday's show with a different kind of vibe, stripping away its occasionally drab karaoke feel for a couple minutes. It's exactly the kind of performance I was hoping Casey would give us all season, in fact, hearkening back to his Hollywood Week performances. It's also a testament to the arrangement that it felt so complete and contained in only two minutes. I think Casey's big flaw is that his vocals aren't always spot on, or even particularly beautiful. Haley out-sung him note for note in their gorgeous duet on Thursday, even though he sounded fantastic on the harmonies. The raw talent with Casey is there, though, and when he has weeks like this, I'm sold.

3. Lauren Alaina: I'm really almost a bona fide Lauren fan. "Candle in the Wind" during Elton John week was the closest we've seen to heartfelt emotion from her, but it wasn't totally there yet. Her choice (or a producer's choice?) of "The Climb" this week was a perfect move, and I think she nailed the song. While it may not be a Herculean feat to sing it better than Miley Cyrus, it really did sound like the kind of song that could have been written for her. It was age-appropriate, with the right amount of emotional build for the teen. There were a couple of foul notes in there, but I think this performance was the first glimpse of Lauren as a real star. I also have to give her credit for tackling "American Honey" on Thursday's results show with such flair. She destroyed Scotty vocally in that song (who, to be fair, was shooting for some pretty tough harmonies), sounding like a real country star. Lauren Alaina in the season finale would not be a bad thing.

4. Stefano Langone: "90s cute" Stefano was, as you probably know, an early favorite of mine. He has a lovely range, a charming personality, and he absolutely nailed his wild card performance way back in the semifinals. I really wish he'd get off the ballad train, though. For crying out loud, he sang Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" this week (further confirming my theory that Stefano was born two decades too late to achieve his true purpose as a member of a 90s-era boy band, vis-a-vis New Kids on the Block). I was very surprised that Paul got eliminated instead of him this week, even though Stefano sang the song beautifully. I'll be interested to hear him do a more contemporary song next week when "Songs from the 21st Century" debuts as a potentially awesome or disastrous Idol theme night.

I can't root for the other three. Just can't do it. But if I had to choose, I think Scotty may be the lesser of the evils. James' "Heavy Metal" was just awful, like the sound of paint being stripped off a metal pipe, and Jacob's puke-inducing comment last week about America being "afraid to look itself in the mirror" was all I needed to permanently turn on him. All I need from Scotty is a post-Idol single worthy of a download. His Idol persona makes me crazy, but in five years, I could see myself liking his music.

**Side note: the same thing happened to me during season 7, when it became clear that my real favorite Carly Smithson was never going to win. David Cook had been on my annoyance list until his completely genius reinvention of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby"*** (the download of which is still on my iTunes 50 most played songs). From that point on, resistance was futile. I'd now follow Cookie anywhere!

***One of the greatest pop songs ever written. I'm in earnest.

'The Kennedys' Miniseries

2011-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm four parts into the controversial miniseries called The Kennedys, and feelings are mixed. On the one hand, I can see why Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker panned the eight-part biopic, essentially calling it disjointed, "uncontrolled melodrama", and "mean-spirited" to boot. It's true: the structure seems a little all over the place, with flashbacks (the real f-word of dramatic storytelling...unless we're talking about LOST) running amok, and breaking up the flow from time to time. In short, it's certainly not comparable to HBO's fantastic John Adams miniseries, to name another recent presidential miniseries.

On the other hand, though, I'm not entirely sure why the miniseries has generated so much heat. The History Channel famously passed on it back in January, leaving the nearly completed project scrambling to find a network home. It ended up at the last minute on Reelz, a cable network apparently located somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of the 450 channels on your channel lineup you don't ever watch. The History Channel's original statement about dropping the program passive aggressively read, "While the film is produced and acted with the highest quality, after viewing the final product in its totality, we have concluded this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand." Not a promising start.

The series has thus far (I haven't watched the second half) depicted the family pretty melodramatically, as you would expect from a TV movie, with, I'm sure, many liberties propping up the story where necessary, but it's far from offensive, which seemed to be the rallying cry of its early detractors. If anything, Greg Kinnear's JFK is a sympathetic but flawed great man, almost an anti-hero, in spite of whom he is. It would be ridiculous in a jaded, post-Nixon presidential era to try to tell the story of the personal life of JFK without referencing his infidelity. Yet somehow, he still comes off well. There's sympathetic humanity in Kinnear's performance that's worth the price of admission.

The "melodrama" label is not off here, but in spite of an occasionally maudlin approach to the family, it's sucked me in. All of the performances are good, particularly Barry Pepper as Bobby, who is the real star of the show. (Sidebar: when placed next to his performance in last year's When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, Pepper proves how gifted he is as an actor. I'm putting him on my list of Movie Actors Who Need to Star on TV Shows.) Even Katie Holmes' depiction of Jackie shouldn't be tossed aside. She's been criticized for a stiff performance of the former first lady, but, as Tucker points out in his review, her performance aims more at Jackie's "quiet reserve" than charisma.

After having seen half of it, I'm surprised at the level of controversy it garnered. It's not the historical train-wreck it was supposed to be. When you watch these things, you have to take the "historical accuracy" with a grain of salt anyway. The tendency to narrativise history shouldn't conceptually stand up to serious, critical historical investigation, anyway. How much of your life fits into a tidy narrative? I'm sure some of it is "true" and some of it isn't, but on its own feet, the series is at least worth viewing.

Pia Toscano Post-Mortem

2011-04-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Check out this video interview between last week's Idol evictee Pia Toscano and TVLine.com's Michael Slezak.

I don't really know how to describe it, but this interview makes me retrospectively appreciate Pia's run on Idol so much more than I did when she was still competing. She strikes me as classy and down-to-earth, with a good sense of her own vocal capabilities. If the producers had given us any sense of this woman while she was still on the show, things might have gone differently for her. She probably should have won this season. Yipes!

Idol: The Woman Problem

2011-04-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

After last week’s shocking (read: not shocking) display of anti-feminism, my sister made the suggestion that we start championing Idol contestants we hate so that perhaps the ones we like will stick around. Obviously this is a reasonable suggestion, since Pia’s performance of “River Deep, Mountain High” was my favorite of hers from the competition. So in order to help out my actual favorites, I now declare James, Scotty, and Jacob to be my favorites. So don’t get voted off, James, Scotty, or Jacob. No, really, guys, please oh please don’t make the show better by getting voted off.

After Wednesday's performance show, I was all ready to confidently declare Pia as the best of the week, and write an optimistic paragraph about her Idol chances. But we all know what happened on Thursday. The Voice actually gave us something up-tempo. And it was good. So to repay her for breaking out of her comfort zone and working it on a Tina Turner song, America decided to make Pia the fifth female (the fifth female without blond hair and blue eyes, I may add) in a row to get the boot. I don’t have to tell you what a fail this is. Yeah, the judges should shoulder some blame for giving everyone gold stars, no matter how they do, but don’t think you’re getting off that easy, collective American voting public. We’re all to blame for this unsettling display of lady-hating.

I do think there’s hope, though, and here’s why: last season’s So You Think You Can Dance. Yeah, we’re talking about two totally different shows, with Idol favoring personality and hit-making ability more than raw talent (usually), and SYTYCD placing insane athleticism and hard work at its center, but I think in both shows, we’re relying on a power-voting public that tends to enjoy cute boys more than strong, talented women. Last season, after a couple of shocking and a couple of not-so shocking eliminations, we ended up with two women and six men. It got even more bleak when one of the aforementioned women then had to leave the show because of injury, leaving Lauren Froderman as the lone female for the final four weeks of competition (if you didn't watch this season, the real entertainment was watching the choreographers try to figure out ways to have two guys dance together without offending the red states and Nigel Lithgow). It looked like a cute boy's season to lose. But in spite of the apparently anti-female odds, Lauren won the thing, snatching the title from presumed champion (and cute boy) Kent Boyd. It was a very interesting turn of events.

So how does this relate to Idol where it now stands? If Lauren Alaina has a breakout week, she could be Idol's Lauren Froderman. She's got the talent and the personality, she just needs to feel a song. "Candle in the Wind" was a step in the right direction, even if last week's "Natural Woman" was possibly the worst song choice for a young girl to sing on this show. She's probably got a couple more weeks of grace period from the voters, at which point we call this season a wash for women. I'd (amazingly!) love to see Haley beat the odds and become the first person to sit in the bottom three for three straight weeks and go on to win the thing, but I don't think it's going to happen. Feminists, don't abandon hope! (Unless another woman gets voted off this week, in which case, start preparing for X-Factor now.)

This week is soundtrack night, which has had it's spectrum of performances (including it's various Broadway manifestations) ranging from the best performance on Idol of all time (Fantasia's "Summertime" FTW) to legendary (Carly Smithson's "Superstar" and Kris Allen's "Falling Slowly") to kinda bad (Jason Castro's "Memory") to cringeworthy (Danny Gokey's "Endless Love") to full-on uncomfortable (Jon Peter Lewis "Jailhouse Rock". You're welcome). (That was fun.) In short, it's my favorite Idol theme week.

If an Idolestant ever sings one of the following songs, s/he will automatically gain Crystal Bowersox cred with me: "Long Ride Home" by Patty Griffin (Elizabethtown), "My Man" from Funny Girl, "Till There was You" from The Music Man, and "Man of Constant Sorrow" from O Brother, Where Art Thou (Scotty McCreery does not get a free pass, though, even if he sings this song).

If an Idolestant sings one of these songs, I will cringe, deduct 50 cool points, and envision a giant Vaudeville-style cane pulling them offstage mid-performance: "I Have Nothing" or "I Will Always Love You from The Bodyguard (everyone knows the Dolly Parton version is the superior version of the latter, anyway), "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by Phil Collins (Against All Odds), "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith (Armageddon) (I'm looking at you, Lauren Alaina), "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (Titanic) (that didn't need to be said, right?), "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" by Bryan Adams (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). HURL.

Should be an interesting week.

One other thing to mention: I'm a Haley fan now. She makes awkward cool. Chew on that.

AI Revisits Elton John

2011-04-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

This week's American Idol could've been a train wreck. Not only has Elton John recently publicly said that he dislikes singing shows like American Idol and X-Factor, but the first time Idol did an Elton John-themed week (way back in season 3!), two of the top 10 worst Idol performances of all time were spawned by poor, unsuspecting teenagers: John Stevens' "Crocodile Rock" went down as one of the worst song choices ever for a crooner, and Camille Velasco (God bless her) just loved "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" too much to realize what she was doing to it.

Fortunately this week, our group of shockingly talented and stage-ready Idolestants avoided those potential disasters, delivering another pretty darn solid performance show. Good for them! Despite what it may seem from previous posts of mine, I really do want them all to do well, but I want them to do well because they're legitimately talented, not because they're "cute" or whatever. This week, I have to say, the only performances I really didn't like were James' over the top "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting" ridiculata and (unfortunately) Naima's reggae-fied "I'm Still Standing". I also didn't care for Scotty's "Country Comfort", but I'll get to that in a minute. Everyone on that stage is dripping with talent, and it's really exciting this season to see what happens when there's so much jostling for position as "the favorite".

I am, of course, really sad to see Naima go, especially after proclaiming her as my favorite last week. I think she brought a level of creativity and experimentation to her songs that most of the other contestants are afraid to touch. I looked forward to seeing what she would do each week, for better or worse. I also thought this week was Thia's strongest week, but it wasn't the kind of performance that would win her any fans. I'm not ashamed to admit that I downloaded her lovely rendition of "Daniel". Two more ladies gone. Cue sad trombone.

One more thing, what did you think of the extra performances from our Idolestants during the results show, because I was loving that junk?! Lauren and Scotty's duet of "I Told You So" worked really well, and made me remember Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis' excellent debut of that fantastic duet from a results show in season 8 (remember the episode when Adam Lambert made us all feel weird -- especially Randy Travis -- with his strangely sexual performance of "Ring of Fire"? That was that week!). I also loved seeing Pia sing something upbeat and current (seriously, she should go the Katy Perry route again this season. "Thinking of You" would be right up her alley, I think), and of course I loved that fun man band, which I hope we haven't seen the last of.

Here are my favs as they currently stand:
1. Casey Abrams: YES! I loved seeing a humbled (and trimmed) Casey sitting on a stool, thinking about his lyrics, and singing, not growling. It wasn't the most technically proficient vocal of the night, but it felt authentic, which is what I loved about him in the first place.

2. Paul McDonald: I loved his performance of "Rocket Man"! I enjoyed seeing him perform with his guitar and a less overpowering arrangement from the band, but the thing that strikes me most about a good Paul McDonald performance is that he makes me hear the lyrics differently. I've never paid attention to the verses of that song before, but they're fantastic, right?! Great choice for Paul this week.

3. Stefano Langone: I'm choosing to ignore the last two weeks of performances for Stefano because his Wild Card performance was so remarkable. In other words, we know what he's capable of, in terms of connecting to a song. Randy's advice for his to "open his eyes more" and "connect to the audience" is exactly what I hope he doesn't do. It may be more fun for them in the room when contestants make eye contact with the audience, but as a TV viewer, I'm much more impressed with a performer that is clearly so connected to his song that he can't see anyone in the room, and that seemed to be the case with his "I Need You Now" during the semi-finals. More of that, Stefano!

4. Lauren Alaina: Lauren and Pia keep jostling for position on my list, but neither of them has given a performance that makes me really excited -- except for, strangely enough, their performances on results night. This week, Lauren chose a song that shouldn't be sung on Idol (I cringed at the choice) and almost made it work. She's still not totally connected to her material, but I think she's getting better at it. Again, I can't fault her for delivering a near-perfect vocal, but it's that maturity element that seems lacking in her performances. That said, her overall performance during her duet with Scotty was seriously fantastic!

5. Pia Toscano: Man, I want to like her, but she doesn't strike me as particularly creative with her songs. Each week, she's sung straight cover after straight, boring, balladic cover, even though she's obviously a RIDICULOUSLY good singer. Come on, Pia: give me something I would actually want to download (like your performance of "Teenage Dream")!

6. Hailey Reinhart: Okay, even a Haley naysayer has got to admit that she blew it out of the water this week! Her cover of "Benny and the Jets" just worked for her, and, as my favorite Idol vlog "Idoloonies" has pointed out, she's kind of got a sense of humor about herself. This was a really fun performance, and I [gulp] liked it a lot.

7. Scotty McCreery: Just as I was complaining about his cheesy performance antics (e.g., turn head to the side and smirk) on his uninspired cover of "Country Comfort" and his lack of growth on Idol in general, he whips out that amazing duet with Lauren. I don't know if I was just surprised to be seeing a bonus performance of one of my favorite country duets on the results show or if I saw legitimate musical chemistry between Scotty and Lauren, but this was the most genuine, cheese-less, and well-sung performance of his Idol journey. One of my problems with Scotty this season is his apparent lack of growth. They praise him to the high Heavens every week, so he doesn't push himself. The results-show duet with Lauren pushed him to a new place with his performance, and that is something to get excited about.

8. Jacob Lusk: I think this was his best performance of the season. Last week's Motown performance was good, too. I just don't see him as a contemporary artist, whose album could be viable in today's pop market. He gave a good, thankfully restrained, performance this week, and actually seems to be growing as a vocalist. I love seeing that!

9. James Durbin: As I stated last week, I get why people like him, but I just don't care for his whole adolescent boy performance. I've begrudgingly had to admit in the past that some of his performances have been kind of decent ("I'll Be There for You" and "Maybe I'm Amazed", in particular), but "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" was all kinds of shrill and over the top. I really could not wait for that performance to end.

Thoughts? Comments?

American Idol: 11 Still in the Mix

2011-03-28T08:27:00.001-07:00

What a weirdly decent week of Idol Motown performances! Am I crazy, or was there not a single train wreck in the bunch? My Idol-watching buddy and I had a strange moment of realization this week when we realized that we actually don't dislike anyone this season because of their inability to sing; instead, in true reality show viewing fashion, we dislike some contestants because of jarring personality traits (see below). I don't know how I feel about that.

Well, last week sure was entertaining, with the early exercise of the judges' save and all, but like with the previous week, I didn't feel compelled to download the studio versions of these songs. As the weeks get more and more competitive (seriously, who is THE frontrunner this season?), it will prove even more important for contestants to do something interesting with their songs in order to set them apart from the pack (see: Naima). My biggest problem with this season is the producer involvement, and the ways they're shaping the contestants into ready-made products. I do understand the irony of saying that in a post about American Idol, but what I mean is that part of what makes this show fun is seeing raw talent evolve over the course of the season. The best contestants have used the experience as an opportunity to try things out creatively for themselves, to varying degrees of success. The heavy music-producer involvement is, as I see it, stifling some of that creativity instead of actually creating the product they want. Even if that is the endgame of this competition, it seems like this new format might be the thing that prevents contestants from having late-in-the-game "wow" moments, like Bo Bice's "In a Dream", Jordin Sparks' "I (Who Have Nothing)", and Kris Allen's "Heartless", among others. The format certainly isn't helping the "growth" of Lauren Alaina or Scotty McCreery. Well, there's still a ways to go.

Without further ado, then, here's my list of favorites as they now stand:

1. Naima Adedapo: That's right, I said it! I didn't much care for her semi-finals round performance of "Summertime" or "What's Love Got To Do With It" two weeks ago, but every other performance from her has stopped me in my tracks. Of all the contestants, she's the one that seems to be trying to do something interesting with her performances, and even when all the pieces don't come together exactly right ("Umbrella" was a little pitchy, dawg), I still find myself excited about what she's attempting to do. I also respected her understanding of the history of "Dancing in the Street" (a song co-written by Marvin Gaye!) and its connection with the Civil Rights Movement. I'm possibly the only person who feels this way, but her restrained wild card performance of "For All We Know" is my favorite performance of the season.

2. Stefano Langone: His Motown week performance of "Hello" was missing a real connection to the song itself (as J-Lo aptly pointed out), but I simply love what he can do with his voice! And what's more, I think he's contemporary and radio ready (can't you hear him singing on hip hop singles?), which is more than we can say for some other contestants (*cough*JacobLusk*cough*). Oh, and btw, Gordan Ramsey clearly sucks! I'm sure Stefano's mother's cooking was divine.

3. Casey Abrams: All it would take to put Casey back at the top of my list again would be a non-growly, musically creative performance to show off his lovely pipes. That's all I want. He missed an opportunity to do this with "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

4. Paul McDonald: This week reminded me of why I liked him in the first place: a tendency toward gentle guitar strumming with a whispery lilt on the vocals. Now if we could only get bandzilla to let the guy alone onstage with his guitar, I think we'd see his true potential.

5. Pia Toscano: I want to like Pia. She's got a lovely voice, a seemingly humble demeanor, and she's proven unafraid to wear sweatpants and glasses on camera, but every week, she bores me into oblivion with her pageanty, adult contemporary ballads. I can't ignore her talent, but I don't really want to buy her records. You know?

6. Thia Megia: I wanted to like her so much, that I may have crossed over into actually liking her. This week's performance of "Heat Wave" was her strongest big stage performance yet, even though she didn't really do anything special with it. Maybe I like the potential of her jazzy voice? That must be it.

7. Lauren Alaina: I'm starting to lose patience with Lauren. My disappointment with her can be summed up with her clip package confession that her producer chose her song for her this week. She has a seriously amazing voice and what sounds like near-perfect pitch to me, but this week again left me with the sense that she has no idea what she's doing up there. She's playing the American Idol karaoke game, robotically hitting all her notes and smiling pretty for the cameras, yet lacking any real connection to what she's doing. It's not her fault: she's only 16, after all. Unless A LOT of personal and musical growth can happen between now and the end of May, though, I call foul on all those early Dame Kelly comparisons.

8. James Durbin: Him being a "huge professional wrestling fan" pretty much clarified to me why I find him irritating. It's the adolescent tendencies in this 22 year-old father that I find jarring -- the way he persists in wearing "tails", the way he screams in every song just because he can, the Judas Priest song in the semifinals: he's the Judd Apatow movie of this season's American Idol. There's definitely a market for his particular musical stylings, but it's not my demographic.

9. Haley Reinhart: My Idol-watching buddy astutely pointed out this week that the only way she seems to be able to find her notes is in growling her way to them. For the most part, I find her vocals relatively inoffensive. It's the weirdly sexualized performances (accented by the growling) that bum me out.

10. Scotty McCreery: Yep, still not a fan.

11. Jacob Lusk: Over-the-top has made a new friend in Jacob Lusk. This week's less insane vocal was probably his best to date, but I'm still not convinced he has any idea what he's trying to do with his voice.

That's my two cents. Next week's Idol theme: Elton John songs (a season 3 theme that gave us this piece of horror and this curious caterwaul).

Make It or Break It Returns!

2011-03-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

Okay you guys, no TV secrets here: I'm a HUGE Make It or Break It fan. Guilty pleasure? For sure! It's on ABC Family, after all (airing right after the truly abysmal Secret Life of the American Teen, which only makes MIoBI look like a Sorkin show by comparison), but I can't think of another show in recent memory that has treated female athletes with such respect. Can you? Maybe Pretty Little Liars, but the swimming team thing is only a subplot for Shay Mitchell's character. Sure, MIoBI plays up the soapy side of things with our protagonists (they kind of have to, don't they?), the characters do fall into generic categories (the Girl from the Other Side of the Tracks, the Unprovoked B*tch, the Down on Her Luck Champion with a Heart of Gold), and the girls have their share of catty infighting about boys. At the end of the day, though, it's about elite athletes trying to succeed at their very competitive (and dangerous) sport. Respect. Name another show where a legitimately hardcore but sympathetic female athlete has a 13-episode arch dealing with her depression about not being able to compete in her sport because of injury, or a show that takes the tired TV formula for anorexia subplots and makes it instead about a gymnast's attempt to achieve athletic success (Female Athlete Triad, anyone?). Anyone who's been around competitive female athletes (in college or elite athletics, etc.) knows people who've been there. Yeah, that's right: MIoBI is addressing the real experiences of women/girls in sports at a time when TV coverage of female athletes is actually dwindling. RESPECT.

Enough defending it, though. I really just wanted to advertise its return to ABC Family on Mondays at 9/8c, which starts tonight. If we had to lose the increasingly awesome Pretty Little Liars to hiatus, at least we get an entertaining replacement to keep us busy for a few months. Have you seen the promo for the new season? Who's going to die? It can't be one of the main four girls, can it? How is Emily Kmetko's dream "literally killing her"? And while we're on the subject, how is the show going to handle Chelsea Hobbs' recent pregnancy in the long term? An injury for Emily by the end of the season perhaps?

It's no Southland, but Make It or Break It sure is fun!

Fringe: "Bloodline"

2011-03-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

I almost entitled this post "I Heart Fringe! That is all." Did you watch this week's episode where [SPOILERS!!!! DON'T BLAME ME IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!] Fauxlivia gave birth on the Other Side to her and Peter's son? Did you love it as much as I did? No sooner do the producers over at Fringe give us the news of Fauxlivia's pregnancy (in the episode "Immortality", which made her much more sympathetic than when she had been merely the usurper of our Olivia's life) and a few short weeks to process the information that Peter's ties to his adopted universe might not be as stable as we thought, do they speed up Fauxlivia's pregnancy and bring Baby Harbinger of Doom into the already fraught alternate universe. The plot continues to thicken. (Here's a fantastic recap of the episode, btw.) How are there only four episodes left this season, and how, for the love of TiVo, are we going to wait all summer for more?!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this show has really come into its own this year. All of the actors, not only the superb (and overworked!) Anna Torv, have stepped up their games, making their characters more complex in response to the enhanced dramatic layering of the show itself. I'm reluctant to compare any shows to LOST because I think LOST was on a different level than other shows from its beginning, but I would happily call Fringe in its current manifestation a close cousin of LOST and even The X-Files.

How about a slow hand-clap for the symphonic season 3 of Fringe, and for FOX for ordering a complete season 4?

More Good News for "Fringe"!

2011-03-25T01:37:00.000-07:00

In another move proving that, in spite of the recent/forthcoming endings of Big Love, LOST, and Friday Night Lights, TV is not doomed, FOX has renewed its cult hit Fringe for another season! Not only has it been given the green light, but FOX has ordered a full, 22-episode season for next year.

I haven't posted much about specific episodes of Fringe this season, but it's having a banner year, anchored in large part by Anna Torv's acting gymnastics (JJ Abrams discovered another great female lead with her!) and the lurking tragedy of the other universe. One of the best things about it is the way it's managed to move seamlessly between the two worlds, piling on top of the freak-of-the-week episodes a philosophical depth that wasn't quite developed in the show's first season and a half. It's gotten better and better. Well done, FOX!

By my count the only awesome shows still in jeopardy are NBC's Chuck and Parenthood. Fingers crossed.

TNT Renews "Southland"!

2011-03-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

In a decision that makes the end of Big Love more bearable, TNT has, like the superhero network it has become, renewed its brilliant cop drama Southland for a fourth season!

Southland seems like the kind of show that would normally have a pretty short, but amazing run, so it's a wonderful surprise that TNT has stuck by it. I really can't laud this show more, and I think there are very few dramas on TV right now as compelling as Southland. Win!

The End of "Big Love"

2011-03-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

This is a short note to commemorate the ending of one of my favorite shows on TV, Big Love, which airs its series finale tonight on HBO. On one hand I'm glad that the showrunners decided to leave the show on its own terms, during what seems to be one of its best seasons (seriously, if you haven't watched last week's episode "Exorcism", you only have yourself to blame), but I'm of course disappointed not to see a continuation of the Henricksens' fascinating story, which to me feels by no means finished (in the TV sense, that is).

I’m also really disappointed that this brilliant show is ending with no Emmys and only one major acting award (Chloe Sevigny rightfully upset Jane Lynch at the Golden Globes in 2010), but maybe it’s a testament to the complexity of the drama that it didn’t appeal to everyone. For me, the most fascinating thing about this show is the way it managed to take an “icky” topic like polygamy and turn it into a catalyst for the kind of anti-hero family drama that makes BL so gripping. The show was never about polygamy. In the broader sense it's about the First Amendment, but perhaps more compellingly, it focused the relationships at the center of the drama and on the wonderfully multifaceted characters at the heart of the show. Last week's episode "Exorcism" demonstrated this as well as any episode we've seen, in that in the midst of the Henricksen's social and political isolation, the show focused on the personal struggles of each main character. I don't know about you, but the more I learn about these characters, the more I feel like there's more to learn.

I'll probably post something about the finale later this week, when I get past my BL-is-ending-oh-no! depression. It feels like a TV conspiracy that we're losing Friday Night Lights, LOST, and Big Love in the span of a year. If Fringe or Southland gets canceled, I'm gonna freaking lose it, y'all!

Parks and Recreation: Redifining the Workplace Mockumentary as We Know It

2011-03-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

Reader, are you watching Parks and Recreation? Short answer: you should be. Long answer: if you're not, you're missing out on a show that has taken the once-funny Office-style mockumentary and "de-cynicalized" it (no, that's not a real word. Don't use it in essays) to maximum comedic effect.

I just came across this excellent review of the show's current (third) season. Like the reviewer, I didn't really like the pilot of this show very much. It seemed like Amy Poehler (who I love) was playing an unfunny female incarnate of Michael Scott on his more awkward days, only in a different setting. The first season improved upon the pilot, with a couple of really funny moments, but was generally uneven. The second season, however, was a whole other story. From the premiere, it seemed like the writers had a better sense of the ensemble potential, anchored of course by Poehler, as well as a strong sense of how the show works differently from The Office. Where The Office uses (used?) Jim as the cynically comic straight man to Michael Scott's optimistic insanity, Parks and Rec eliminates the need for such cynicism by making Leslie Knope an eternal optimist, but not as cluelessly out of touch as Michael. The result, as the above review says is that "it creates comedy, which is not to be confused with satire, out of workplace optimism".

I could gush for pages about my new favorite TV comedy, but the review says it much better than I could. Let's just say that that Parks and Rec has hit its stride in a major way. I hope you're watching it!

American Idol: Top 13 Week

2011-03-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

After a good, if not amazing, top 24 week, and a fantastic Wild Card round, we got to see the Idols take on their first post-semifinal theme week. "Songs by Your Idol" seems like a promising theme, yes? Why, then, was it so tepid? In a post-David Cook Idol, it's no longer acceptable to just sing the song. Now, contestants must do something creative with the song, and by my count, only three contestants (Naima, Stefano, and Thia)--with varying degrees of success--did that. Hey, I don't make the rules, kids.

Without further ado, then, here's my current favorite rankings:

1. Casey Abrams (last week: 1): My favorite wookiee holds steady in the number one spot this week, after a solid, if not especially creative, rendition of Joe Cocker's [rendition of Lennon/McCartney's] theme to The Wonder Years (silly, I know that's not the song's original purpose, but can you hear it without thinking of Kevin Arnold pining for Winnie Cooper? I think not). I like Casey's stage presence. He's interesting, and, in spite of an occasional bum note, a pretty solid performer. It wasn't my favorite performance of the night, but Casey's still my favorite.

2. Naima Adedapo (last week: 3): This was my favorite performance of the night, and the only one I actually downloaded. Yeah, I agree with J-Lo's critique that Naima needs to work of her vocal control when she's performing. There were definitely some shaky, if not necessarily out of tune, notes in her performance of "Umbrella" (which is totally one of the most fun pop songs of the last decade), but she did something interesting with it. She danced! She reggae-d it up! In an amazing turn of events, her performance actually made me not care about her pitch (there, I said it). She seems like she really wants it, and while that can often manifest itself in an unseemly level of desperation in contestants (Gina Glocksen was robbed!), Naima seems ready to work. Combined with her absolutely loverly wild card performance last week, Naima is rapidly rising to a Carly Smithson level for me, and I LOVED Carly Smithson.

3. Paul McDonald (last week: 2): Okay, Paul's ranking this week has nothing to do with his borderline terrible performance of Ryan Adams' "Come Pick Me Up". While I've got nothing against Paul's obviously excellent taste in music (Ryan Adams [aka, Mr Mandy Moore] is awesome, and you should listen to him), his vocal was all over the place in a terrible arrangement of a good song. Paul remains in my top 3 solely out of my refusal to forget about "Maggie Mae" (both times) and "Blackbird". I still love Paul's whispery tone and slightly manic performance mannerisms. This week, he's gonna have to bring it, though!

4. Stefano Langone (last week: 4): Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a huge Stevie Wonder fan (shock! horror! Let's move on), but I totally get why Stefano would sing a Stevie Wonder song, and I applaud his effort. The heavily-synthesized arrangement actually worked for me, and it seemed like Stefano kept up with it well. Additionally, I really enjoy when he goes for the high notes. It's like a scrappy, more energetic version of Jovany Barretto's lovely higher register. He's enjoyable.

5. Thia Megia (last week: 6): That's right, kids: I'm keeping the faith with Thia. Sure, it wasn't a great version of "Charlie Chapman's" (hehe) "Smile", but I love it when she sings that stripped down stuff. Chica's done some strange song choices ("Smile" is an Idol kiss of death song. Is the curse broken?), and Michael Jackson was creepy, but I'm still getting an artist vibe from her. The tone of her voice is also lovely. I'm just hoping that we'll get a chance to see a vulnerable moment from her before she gets voted off.

6. Lauren Alaina (last week: 5): Okay, I still like Lauren's voice, but something she said last week was really obnoxious. When she was talking about her surprisingly low-energy "Any Man of Mine" (a brilliant counrty song that I'm convinced should NEVER be covered on the Idol stage again. Seriously, no one ever gets its attitude! How is that possible?), she said something like, "I was trying to do it better [than everyone that had ever done it on Idol]." Honey-child, let's cool it with the comparisons at this early stage in your Idol history. I still like her voice, but I'm getting a little restless to see something else from her.

7. Pia Toscano (last week: 7): What did she sing again? Oh yeah, Celine. Meh. Pia's got a lovely voice, but she's sooo adult contemporary.

8. Karen Rodriguez (last week: 8): Speaking of adult contemporary, poor Karen had a rough week, eh? It was surprising how out of tune she was throughout the song, but the bigger bummer is that she chose Selena's "I Could Fall in Love" over the way more fun "Dreaming of You".

9. James Durbin (last week: 13): Don't see his improved ranking as proof that I like this guy. I still find him irritating and uncreative, but less so than some others, I guess. His "Maybe I'm Amazed" was a vast improvement over that horrible Judas Priest song he did the previous week, and he didn't maim the song in any way that I found offensive. I just hope he can find it in his heart to quit screaming at us.

10. Jacob Lusk (last week: 9): Ugh, that friggin' Space Jam song refuses to die! Perhaps for "Songs by Your Idol" night, Jacob could've chosen a song by a dude who's not a kiddie pornographer. HURL. Context aside, the vocals were pretty much horrible, and adding the Gospel choir halfway through the 90 second version of the song only made Jacob think he had to sing louder and more erratically. Yeah, that was not good.

11. Scotty McCreery (last week: 12): OF COURSE he sang Garth Brooks, and OF COURSE he was overpraised for it. Let me break it down for you. The kid has three moves: tilt head to the right, raise up an Elvis-style lip, and gaze deeply into the camera. When he sings, he dips into that deep voice of his for a second to find the note, and then quickly decrescendos out so he can repeat it for the next phrase. It's a formulaic copycat of deep-voiced male country singers that have considerably more grit. Despite what the judges say, the kid's not pitch-perfect either. I just don't think they can hear him hitting some of his low notes slightly sharp because of the mix in the room. There's a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it there. I feel a little mean. To leave it on a positive note, the kid's obviously got something that audiences find appealing, and it would be nice to see Idol produce another viable male country singer. Also, you can't really fault a guy for choosing Garth Brooks as his country Idol!

12. Halie Reinhart (last week: 11): Oddly enough, I thought her vocals were much stronger than her semi-finals performance. She actually got the yodel just about right on LeAnn Rhimes' "Blue". My problem with Haley is the way she tries to "sexualize" her performances (Ew. I'm wincing just writing that) and the stank attitude she seems to have when she's being critiqued. She's really not a bad singer, but I find her a bit grating nonetheless.

There you have it. Agree? Disagree? Am I being too hard on Scotty and Haley? Comment below!

American Idol's Top 13

2011-03-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

As promised in my most recent post, you can expect to read a lot about American Idol in future weeks. It's how I process the results of the often maddening, but often fantastic TV talent show. Here we go.

I have to admit that I was skeptical of the one-week, all or nothing semifinal round this year, but that I found it to be surprisingly thorough, and all the ones I thought were terrible (with only three maddening exceptions) got cut. Jordan Dorsey and Clint jun Gamboa saw the effects of their Hollywood Week d-baggery come to term, and the frightening visual components to Brett Lowenstern's and Rachel Zevita's performances properly put people off. While I put Rachel in my "good" category last week, I'm happy to admit that she seemed a little "too Broadway" (to borrow an original from the Simon Cowell lexicon) for Idol's big stage. As a collective viewing public, we weren't ready for her.

I also should admit that although I spent most of the performance episodes vehemently disagreeing with S-Ty's and J-Lo's vanilla critiques, they selected a worthy group of sing-for-your-lifers (with the exception of their undoubtedly producer-infused exclusion of Lauren Turner, whose sarcastic magic will live on in the short-term memories of Idol fans for...at least one season), and then made an awful lot of sense with their selections (controversial, yes, because based on talent alone Kendra Chantelle should have gotten in over Ashthon Jones, but from a demographics standpoint, they made a smart move). One of my favorite Idol moments of the season was when J-Lo knowingly told poor, adult contemporary Jovany Barretto: "You did all you could do." In comparison with last season, which was basically an act of endurance until Crystal Bowersox performed, I'm [dare I say] excited [GULP!] about this season.

Here's what I think of the top 13 in order from my favorite to my least favorite:

1. Casey Abrams. He's a BASS PLAYER! (I'm a bass player, btw, and we get no respect.) I thoroughly enjoyed my multiple viewings of his angry-but-working-it rendition of "I Put a Spell on You", a song that I've always found a little meh. I like that he growled [mostly] in tune, and that he's clearly got some musical ambitions for his Idol run. Still a fan!

2. Paul McDonald. My sister totally called this one. After the Nashville auditions, she told me to watch out for the "Maggie Mae" guy, and even though he was given about 8 seconds during that episode, he's emerged as a standout in the last couple of weeks. I LOVED his whispery, slightly drunken encore of "Maggie Mae". My only sadness is that we'll never get to see him and Kendra Chantelle duet on the Idol big stage, like in this video. (Amazing, right?)

3. Naima Adedapo. She reminds me of a late-nineties version of Lauryn Hill. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her [shall we say] eclectic wardrobe choices, I enjoy watching her perform. It was risky for her to sing "Summertime", as Fantasia OWNS "Summertime", but she didn't do anything with it to disrespect Lady Fantasia's history with that song. Her sing-for-your-life song, though, Donnie Hathaway's "For All We Know", was magical. She didn't over-sing it, and she was feeling it. It was an unexpectedly beautiful moment. There's only a few people in this competition that I think are actually artists, and she's one of them.

4. Stefano Langone. Speaking of unexpected Idol moments, how about his lovely and emotional "I Need You Now" during the wild card round? That Bruno Mars cover during the performance round was forgettable and too self-conscious, but I really liked what he brought to his sing-for-your-life performance. I like my favorite contestants to be capable of having these kinds of emotional, slightly over the top, but still heartbreaking performances. Don't know about you, but I find Stefano really likable.

5. Lauren Alaina. Any ill-will I harbor towards Lauren is a direct result of the producers forcing her on us as "the next big thing". That said, it's hard not to like her when she's on stage or doing cartwheels in her clip package. She's a little bit of a spitfire, perhaps too precocious, but a darn good singer at the end of the day, and really quite charming. Her Reba McIntire cover was fine, if not particularly memorable, but she sauntered onto that stage with more confidence than most contestants at this point, and brought a presence that most underage contestants never have during their Idol runs (Jordin Sparks and Allison Iraheta are, of course, the exceptions). If she chooses songs wisely and stops sucking up to Steven Tyler, she'll make the top three.

6. Thia Megia. I liked her unusual showtunes selection for the performance show, and admire the fact that she went the minimalist route with it, since bandzilla and the backup singers can really make contestants with smaller voices disappear on that stage. I also think she's got nice pitch and an artist streak that we haven't fully seen yet (which is why her Bill Cosby sweaters are actually awesome). My sister is an astute reality TV critic, and she loves her, so I'm giving Thia the benefit of the doubt.

7. Pia Toscano. Yeah, she's alright. Judging by the people on the interwebs, though, I may be the only person not awed by her performance of "I'll Stand By You". It's a great song, but she sang a fairly uninteresting cover, which only made me want to listen to Chrissie Hynde singing it instead. After reading all about it online, I watched her performance again to see if I remembered it wrong, but no. Pia can sing well enough, but is she an artist?

8. Karen Rodriguez. Unlike a lot of skeptics out there, I think she's really quite good, and I like that she sings in Spanish on the big stage. "Hero" is a super-predictable, overdone Idol song, but she sang it fine. There's more in the tank with her, and I hope she's able to convey it to us before she gets voted off.

9. Jacob Lusk. This guy falls so far outside of my Idol boxes, that I forgot about him when I was thinking about this post. The jury's still out about him for me. I like that he managed to restrain himself enough to deliver a pretty good performance on Tuesday's show, but I just don't see him as a contemporary artist. He could be a great Gospel singer, but not a top 10 contemporary pop singer, even with a great song. That said, though, I still think he's bursting with raw talent, and I look forward to seeing what he does with theme weeks.

10. Ashthon Jones. She's got some pipes and she's pretty enough for Tyra to give her the makeover of death on ANTM (e.g. infuriating bangs or bleached eyebrows), for sure, but that random Monica song she sang on Thursday's show had no discernible melody. And observing her behavior during the results show made me think she's got a stank attitude. Stank.

11. Haley Reinhart. Her Alicia Keys train wreck last week did nothing to convince me that she can sing, and coupled with her frighteningly "sexualized" performance style, I think we may have found season 10's resident Sanjaya (re: a polarizing and apparently vocally limited contestant who gets to the finals and bugs us until his/her inevitable ouster two to six weeks later).

12. Scotty McCreary. I hate to pick on a 17 year-old kid just because he's on my TV, but I really blame the judges and producers for allowing him to get here. I find him inauthentic, and I don't buy his "country boy" schtick, in spite of the kinds of songs he has been singing. Just because one can smirk and tilt one's body like a country star, does not mean one is a country star. Like most 17 year-olds, I don't think he has an understanding of who he is, and I definitely don't think he's an artist yet. Like with that pale little crying girl that J-Lo told to come back in 2-3 years, I think they should have let this guy grow up a little bit first. He can't be an artist if all he knows how to do is imitate Josh Turner.

13. James Durbin. To borrow a term from my seventh grade self, this guy's a total poser. Like with Scotty, he seems to be a guy that one day happened upon a crazy thing he can do with his voice, and decided to injudiciously make that thing his trademark. "Screamer 2.0", as he will heretofore be known, is a poor man's Adam Lambert, minus the vocal training, theatrical performance savvy, charisma, and self-knowledge. I am NOT pleased.

There you have it. What do you dis/agree with? Comment below!

The Revolt of the TiVo, March 2011 edition

2011-03-07T04:54:00.000-08:00

Loyal blog readers, I have to be honest with you: it's been a tough TV quarter for me. I've gotten so snowballed with real work and trying to run a Boston marathon qualifier that my TV watching has fallen painfully by the wayside. As a result of these upsetting personal developments, my TiVo's "Now Playing" list filled to capacity a staggering 3 times in the last month, and deleted some backlogged episodes that I hadn't quite gotten to yet. I've downloaded the ones that were lost in TiVo's act of rebellion, but I haven't watched them yet, and probably won't for a little while. There are some shows that I like to watch in blocks of two or three episodes, but the backlog has meant that some shows are sitting there with four or five unwatched installments.

I tell you this, reader, because I want you to understand why you're about to see lots of blog posts about American Idol, but not so many about startlingly brilliant shows like Fringe.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "How can you sit there and call yourself a TV addict when your TiVo is in rebellion?", and you have every right to think that. But in my defense, "must watch TV" has been greatly limited this year. With the absence of LOST, this usually special winter TV time has felt a little shallow. There are a great crop of worthy shows on right now, but the loss of the one-two LOST + American Idol punch has made this time of year less urgent for me.

Currently, the shows I stay caught up on out of what feels like a compulsive need to watch them are American Idol, Parenthood, Southland, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Grey's Anatomy (don't think I can't see your judgment eyes. Put those away!), and Chuck. There are plenty of others I'll put on in the background while making dinner or something (House, One Tree Hill, Modern Family, Blue Bloods, V), and plenty of others that I think are straight up excellent and worth dedicating a distraction-less hour to (Fringe, Big Love, The Vampire Diaries, Cougar Town), but these are the shows that feel "must see" to me. Interestingly, I wouldn't call them all my "favorite" shows. That honor is reserved for excellent scripted TV like Friday Night Lights and my current obsession Parks and Recreation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can expect to read about the "must see" shows here a lot more in future weeks. I hope you can sympathize. I'm also interested to know, reader, what are your "must see" shows? It's okay to be honest. I admitted to watching Grey's Anatomy whenever it's on my TiVo. Post comments below!

American Idol, Season 10 REALLY Begins!

2011-02-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

So, it is finally upon us: American Idol's season 10 top 24 have been selected, and I have to tell you, reader, I'm pretty happy with this group and with the season so far. Yeah, producer "pimping" of contestants they want us to love (ah-hem, Lauren Alaina, anyone?) has been far from subtle this season, and the decidedly meaner version of Randy we've been seeing makes him somehow even more unlikeable, but the changes have breathed new life into the show, and with the puzzling exclusions of John Wayne Shulz (a.k.a. my future husband) and White House intern/Harvard grad Molly something, this is a mixed bag top 24 that seems full of potential. Honestly, there are only a few of them I don't really like! Idol has turned over a new leaf, and I like where it's moving.

But before I get to the contestants and my initial impressions of them, I need to talk about the judges for a sec (what, with this being my first post about Idol this season, and all). As I mentioned above, Randy has somehow managed to make himself seem even less insightful than before, and now he's meaner, but not in a good way. Was anyone else appalled when music superstar executive Jimmy Iovine told Jacob Lusk to tone down his crazy during the Beatles song, but then after the performance, Randy stomped on all that good advice by telling Jacob to let loose again? FAIL.

On the plus side, though, my disappointment with Randy pales in comparison with my excitement about Steven and J-Lo (does anyone else think it's funny when people on the show call her "Jennifer"? Her name is J-Lo, people!). Granted, Steven's creepy flirting during the auditions was NOT OKAY IN ANY WAY, but the dude's got a lot of music know-how, and he's given surprisingly even-handed critiques this season (at least, what we've seen of them in edit, anyway). J-Lo has drawn on her admittedly extensive talents as a performer (note: I did not say "singer") to similarly offer (often) good critiques, and what's more is that unlike Ellen, she's not afraid to tell a contestant something's not working, and unlike Paula, she doesn't seem nuts. Hey, she's won over my Mom, too. Obviously, EVERYTHING changes and becomes much more of a pressure cooker when the contestants start singing for votes, but these early days are showing some promise.

Now, the contestants. These assessments are based on the sometimes very limited packages we've seen on them, so I reserve the right to change my mind at any point during the actual performance shows. As it stands, though, let's call this Idol pre-season rankings, shall we?

First, The Awesome:
Casey Abrams. Do I need to spell it out? He played an upright bass. On the Idol stage. While singing lead. On a Peggy Lee song. I'm chomping at the bit to hear more of this guy.

Paul McDonald. I vaguely remembered this guy's audition, but I loved his lovely, whispery voice on "Blackbird" with Kendra Chantelle. He also rocks that beard.

Tim Halperin. He had a flirty audition with J-Lo, and then went a little under the radar during Hollywood week (which basically means that he wasn't crazy enough to warrant Crazypants Ashley-level screentime. Thankfully). His duet with Julie Zorrilla on "Something" was chock-full of well-channeled vocals and chemistry.

The Good:
Julie Zorrilla. My Idol-watching buddy and I call her Rachel Berry. See my above comments about her lovely duet with Tim. I think I probably agree with J-Lo about her needing to "feel" her songs a bit more, but, to be fair, the auditions and Hollywood week are weird. There's plenty of time for her to "connect with the audience".

Naima Adedapo. I really like her voice. She seems capable of heading into a soulful, Lauryn Hill kind of place, and I'd love for her to do well. That said, I hope she's smart with her song choices. Sometimes people who seem to understand what kinds of "artists" they are fail to give the fickel Idol voters what they want.

Lauren Alaina. This teenager has a fantastic set of pipes and a funny personality. The thing that is annoying about her is not her fault at all, either. If the producers would quit telling us every five seconds that she's our next American Idol, she would almost certainly be one of my favorites.

Kendra Chantelle. Stage name? Yes? I don't know if her voice sounded so nice because it was matched with Paul's during that fantastic cover of "Blackbird" (thank goodness Simon didn't witness it, though! He always seemed to have a strange aversion to songs about birds). I really like what I've heard of her voice so far. Hopefully, there's more of that to come.

Rachel Zevita. She's slightly nuts, right? I have to admit that I, like J-Lo, remembered her crazypants season 6 audition, too. Turns out that Rachel, a classically trained opera singer, has matured a bit since then, and I, for one, have been pleasantly surprised with what I've heard. I hope she's not this season's Sioban Magnus (i.e., weirdo who peaks too soon), though.

Jovany Barreto. LOVE his upper register! I don't envision this guy going very far in Idol, and I think his shirtless audition antics may have already put some viewers off, but his voice is lovely, and I look forward to seeing if he can translate his talent into votes.

Stefano Langone. I'd put this guy at the top of my "Good" category. "Scar guy", as he's mnemonically known in my head, has a nice voice, good stage presence, and a seemingly great personality to match. I'm rooting for him to ride the semi-finals to the top 12.

The Okay:
Robbie Rosin. The only thing keeping this sweet, Aladdin look-alike from the Good or even Awesome categories is the way he adds so much cheese to his vocal styling. I don't know how to explain it, but I know it when I hear it, and to me it sounds like the guy is singing straight out of pop radio c. 1989. I do like that he sang "Gravity" by Sara Barielles during Hollywood Week. Points. He also needs to tame his mullet.

Karen Rodriguez. I like her, and I think she can sing well. I even liked that she sang a song in Spanish, because it's a totally different style than what we're used to hearing on Idol, but I'm going to need her to stop sucking up to J-Lo ASAP. Thanks.

Jacob Lusk. He's got oodles of raw talent, yes, but I'm not convinced that he knows what to do with it. His infamous Hollywood week solo was full of passion and intensity, but it was all over the place (anyone else want to punch Randy in the face for calling it the best Idol performance "EVER"?). With a little training, he could be pretty great, but he's really not there yet.

The Annoying:
Clint Jun Gamboa. Yeah, his personality makes him annoying. I wasn't really a huge Jaycee fan, but Clint was COLD to that poor, lovable kid. Not cool. I'm also not a huge fan of singers failing to sing the melody so they can show off. Ick.

Jordan Dorsey. What a douche. Dot com. I liked his lovely, raspy New Orleans audition ("Over the Rainbow", in case you forgot), but like Clint, he lost any hope at being likable during Hollywood week, when he managed to ruin two groups with his bombastic arrogance. Like it or not, this show is about likability as much as it's about actual talent (just ask Katharine McPhee), and Jordan Dorsey is not likable.

Haley Reinhart. This one is likable enough, I guess, but her voice is annoying. Nothing I can do about that.

Brett Loewenstern. Controversial. I think he's going to do well on this show, and his voice is fine, but his high-pitched talking voice freaks me out, and, call me old-fashioned, but with a haircut, I would almost certainly like him better. I also did not care for his "we're all champions" thing at the end of the eliminations. It shows a lack of self-awareness that puzzles me. How hot are his parents, though?!

Tatynisa Wilson. She's the one that sang that hilarious version of "I Hope You Dance" during Hollywood week, with altered lyrics such as this little gem: "I hope you never lose the wonder of your senses/You get your fuel to eat but always keep that hunger." I'm pretty sure her voice is better than that segment lets on, but what I heard didn't sound nice.

James Durbin. Ugh. Aside from a puzzling sense of personal style (what's with the tails?) and a snarky personality during group night, he's genuinely not appealing as a vocalist. He's the one constantly comparing himself to Adam Lambert, but he is NO Adam Lambert. He lacks any semblance of vocal control, and his "scream" is employed frequently and injudiciously. I am not pleased.

Scotty McCreary. He does realize that he will not be able to sing every song in the Josh Turner catalog on this show, right? In my opinion, the judges were somehow charmed by a kid who's not ready yet. I don't know about you, but I'm slightly creeped out by that voice coming from a babyfaced teenager. Give him, like, five years and let him come back as a man. His kind of voice is too mature for his current self. To be fair, I'm (unfairly) blaming this kid for pushing John Wayne Shulz out of the top 24, but my other points still stand. I think he's going to be this season's John Stevens: a one-trick pony unready for the challenge.

The Jury's Still Out:
Ashton Jones. I'm leaning towards "Good" for this gal, but I haven't heard enough to tell for sure. Two things that could work for her: she's gorgeous, and she's part of the group that chose the most fun group number during Hollywood week ("Hit 'Em Up Style").

Thia Megia. Could either be a surprise contender, or this season's Katie Stevens/Lisa Tucker/Jasmine Trias. "Vocal coach from Hell" Peggi clearly doesn't think it's the former. I hope she proves her wrong.

Lauren Turner. She seems to have a lovely voice, but I have absolutely no recollection of her before she made it into the top 24.

Pia Toscano. Again, I have very little recollection of this girl, but I like how she presented herself to the judges when they gave her the spot. I think she was in one of the group numbers I liked, too.

So there you have it: my exhaustive list of semi-finalists, with a few predictions thrown in for good measure. Usually by this point in the competition, I've found a girl to really root for, but surprisingly, it's all about the guys for me this year. As much as I'd love to see the cute-boy Idol winner streak be broken this year with another viable female artist (I miss Jordin Sparks!), at the moment, the guys have been the most impressive. We shall see, though. A lot can happen in the next few months, and I'm happy to eat my words about these contestants at any time. It's shaping up to be a great season!

Southland's "Code 4" and TV as Art

2011-02-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

I know I wave the flags of certain shows more than others. Dramas like Friday Night Lights, Big Love, and Southland have been rocking my world for at least a couple of years now, and I am unashamed of buying wholly and happily into the dramatic illusions created by these shows. Where one (slightly too cynical) person may see in a show a contrived storyline, some kind of emotional manipulation, and obvious "character types", I like being able to see beauty in a redemptive narrative, the extremes and lulls of representing changing human emotions, and characters that make decisions I believe human beings would actually make.

In short, scripted TV shows are capable of conveying the shades of black, white, and gray found in life, and like with any good piece of narrative art, I get excited about consuming it.

It is with this in mind that I have to once again sing the praises of the best cop show on TV right now (and maybe ever), TNT's Southland. A few weeks ago, an episode called "Code 4" premiered, and, seemingly out of nowhere, shocked and unnerved me in a way that few TV shows ever have. I remember a couple of ER episodes having a similar effect on me, as well as an episode of Millennium called "A Room with No View", LOST's series finale, and The X-Files' infamous "Home" episode. I'm sure there have been others, but I'd rank this episode right up there with some of the best TV I've seen. If you're a fan of the show, you know what I'm talking about, and if you're not, this episode is worth a download or online viewing. Seriously, I dare you to not be affected by the last five minutes.

[CAUTION: SPOILERS!!]
I don't want to write a recap here because I think that would do a disservice to an extremely well-constructed teleplay, but I want to point out a couple of things that struck me. The A-story, that of Nate (Kevin Alejandro) and Sammy (Shawn Hatosy) trying to track down the killer of a man gunned down in front of his kids, was a perfect lead-in to Nate's final scene. In last week's episode ("Cop or Not"), Sammy sentimentalized Nate's ability to see gang members simply as kids who were capable of reasoning with him if they were shown respect. Throughout the episode, we saw Nate living by this creed, but from a story-telling standpoint, the best part was that Nate seeking justice for a seemingly innocent victim and showing respect to the men who had killed him did not seem like a sentimental send-off for the character. On the contrary, it seemed like just another day. The tragedy here was that the character didn't die being heroic or extreme: he died suddenly and unexpectedly (for the characters and the audience) doing what he always did.

The B-story, an unrelated run of the mill procedural, in which Lydia (Regina King) was tracking down the killer of a drug dealer, was also executed with excellent precision and clever story-telling. Interestingly, the writers managed to make a PlayStation an effective dramatic tool first by using it to help construct the characters of a couple of detectives we don't know very well, next by using it to ostensibly create a comically fractured relationship between an uncle and his nephew, and finally as the motive for the uncle's murder. Clever, right?

The story of the episode was Nate's murder and the harrowing way Sammy fought for him, and that's what stuck with me, but I thought it was worth noting that even the B-story was told with intelligence and careful attention to detail. This season of Southland hasn't missed a beat. "Code 4" is an example of TV as art, displaying rhetorical modes of persuasion with remarkable balance. If you haven't been watching this show, you really should.

Good News for Fringe

2011-01-23T05:13:00.001-08:00

According to EW, Fringe's move from Thursday night's laden primetime block to free and clear Friday night last week actually may have helped the show's chances of being renewed for another season!

I've been meaning to blog about Fringe's ridiculously good third season for a couple of months now, but for the sake of brevity let me just say that I think this season has been every bit as good as The X-Files during its golden years (seasons 3-5, in my opinion) and even the third season of LOST to an extent. Since its initial debut, the show has gone from mainly freak-of-the-week episodes, with an occasionally resurfacing and somewhat interesting mythology, to a show with a very compelling mythology that actually informs its more episodic installments. It's now a show that fuses existential depth with believable character development and entertaining popcorn fare. (For the record, my mathematical formula for a great sci-fi show is as follows: [Compelling Mythology + Character Development] x Philosophical Depth.) I may at some point in the near future take a moment to write about a hidden gem episode called "The Plateau" that has stuck with me since I saw it, but for now I'm comfortable simply praising Fringe as one of the very best shows on TV.

Well, when FOX decided to move Fringe from Thursday night (otherwise known as the night TV execs attempt to break our DVRs with program overload) to the darkest night of the week, Friday, lots of fans were outraged. "Could this mean anything other than that FOX is looking for an excuse to cancel our beloved JJ Abrams show," they asked. From my perspective, though, the move to Friday was a brilliant move for FOX. If you will remember, Friday was the coveted night of the aforementioned X-Files during the 90s, which maintained its dedicated cult following to the bitter end. A show like The X-Files probably wouldn't have succeeded as long as it did had it aired opposite Seinfeld on Thursdays, which is the 90s ratings equivalent to Grey's Anatomy, a show that has been Fringe's "competition" for the last two years. Fail.

The other reason this is a brilliant move is because Fridays are a dark hole for primetime because there's simply never anything worth watching on that night. I was upset to see CBS move its surprisingly adept procedural Blue Bloods from a competition-free Friday night to another heavy programming night Wednesday, but alas. Fringe has the benefit of being, like Chuck, a cult show with a younger, DVR-happy fan-base. For people watching Fringe on DVRs, like me, Friday night is a gift!

In conclusion, watch Fringe! It's a nice, conflict-free addition to your DVR's Now Playing list.

68th Annual Golden Globes

2011-01-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

The Golden Globes are this Sunday, so I thought it would be worth posting my predictions and hopes about the TV categories so that I could be more invested in the awards. In fact, I can't remember feeling less invested in the TV awards side of things than I am this year. I mean, it's ludicrous that shows like Friday Night Lights and LOST, with its superb final season, have been overlooked AGAIN. In my dream world, those shows plus Fringe, Southland, Parenthood, Cougar Town, and Parks and Recreation would be recognized for their quality programming this year. But, alas.

Below is a list of nominees I think will win (WW), nominees that should win (SW), and nominees that I would write on the ballad (WO) if I were a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press. (Btw, here's a link to the complete list of nominees.) This is a long post, but, hey, it's my blog!

Best Series, Drama:
WW: Boardwalk Empire
SW: Boardwalk Empire
WO: Friday Night Lights

Boardwalk has a lot of things going for it-- excellent acting, an intelligent approach to a fascinating period of American history, the whole anti-hero thing-- but it usually leaves me wanting something by the end of its episodes. There's only so much generally depravity I can take in a show. It's probably the best in its category, though. I just don't want Mad Men to win. As per usual FNL lives up to its underdog status as the best show nobody's watching (including the HFPA), and, I think, the best show on TV. Season four's episode "The Son" is a perfect hour of TV.

Best Series, Comedy:
WW: Modern Family
SW: 30 Rock
WO: Parks and Recreation

Family is good, but I don't think it's as good as everyone thinks it is, kind of like The Good Wife. Say what you will about 30 Rock being past its prime, but that show is as funny as ever. Comedy is more subjective than drama, but for my money, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation are the funniest shows on TV. Glee, by the way, is fun and innovative, but Best Comedy? Really?

Best Mini-series or TV Movie:
WW: Temple Grandin
SW: Temple Grandin
WO: n/a

Temple Grandin is fantastic! There's a chance it could lose to The Pacific, which is totally acceptable. My only quibble with this category: dude, Pillars of the Earth was objectively terrible. No really, it was painfully bad.

Best Actor in a Mini-series or TV Movie:
n/a
WO: Jon Seda, The Pacific

Honestly, my only stake in this category is that Pillars of the Earth doesn't win any awards. Also, both Seda and James Badge Dale should have gotten some recognition for their work in The Pacific.

Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie:
WW: Clare Danes, Temple Grandin
SW: Clare Danes, Temple Grandin
WO: n/a

Clare Danes inhabited the character without a hint of caricature. She deserves to win this one.

Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy:
WW: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
SW: Steve Carell, The Office
WO: n/a

I'm cool with whomever wins this category. Although The Office has gone down in quality over the last couple of seasons, Carell's Michael Scott has grown into a surprisingly well-rounded character. No disrespect to Parsons, but I've never been able to get into TBBT.

Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy:
WW: Laura Linney, The Big C
SW: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
WO: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation AND Courtney Cox, Cougar Town

My beef with this category is that the three actresses nominated for Showtime series in this category deliver performances that should be in the drama category. Yeah, they each have their moments of whimsy, but the only reason a show like The Big C is considered a comedy is because it only runs 30 minute episodes. Giving excessive nominations to these shows in this category is another way for critics to disrespect comedic performers. This category is a missed opportunity.

Best Actor in a Drama:
WW: Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
SW: Hugh Laurie, House
WO: Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights

Yeah, Kyle Chandler was robbed again. He should have at least been nominated, along with Matthew Fox for the final season, heck the final episode of LOST. I would have liked to see Bill Paxton nominated for Big Love in this category, too, in spite of a weird season of the show. He's taken the layered, predestined anti-hero to a new level on that show. The reason I would choose Laurie over Buscemi is because I think what Laurie's done as an actor for seven seasons on House is finally worth some recognition. Buscemi's great, but, like I said earlier, Boardwalk bums me out. And I know, I know, I need to start watching Breaking Bad.

Best Actress in a Drama:
WW: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
SW: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
WO: Regina King, Southland

There's no reason that Sedgwick should be once again nominated for a fairly mediocre procedural like The Closer, but King should be overlooked for her work on the excellent Southland. Connie Britton of FNL also joins her costars in the "robbed" category, along with Anna Torv of Fringe. The best surprise in this category is Piper Perabo of the ridiculously fun show Covert Affairs. Good for her! Margulies is my pick because her subtle and understated performance takes a would-be middling law show and turns it into a pretty darn good character drama.

Best Supporting Actor:
WW: Chris Colfer, Glee
SW: David Strathairn, Temple Grandin
WO: Zach Gifford, Friday Night Lights

Yet another category with a ridiculous slew of missed opportunities. I know last year was Neil Patrick Harris year, but he's still the best thing about How I Met Your Mother; Dax Shepherd (yes, that Dax Shepherd) should have gotten a nomination for Parenthood; John Noble has continued to be criminally good on Fringe; and Nick Offerman's mustache on Parks and Recreation deserves some recognition. But Gifford's performance in the episode "The Son" should have been enough not just for the nomination, but for the win. Colfer will probably win this, which is fine, but I would argue that the amount of story he's received this season on Glee qualifies him more for lead actor than supporting actor. Strathairn, as per usual, was excellent in Temple Grandin.

Best Supporting Actress:
WW: Kelly McDonald, Boardwalk Empire
SW: Jane Lynch, Glee
WO: Chloe Sevigny, Big Love

I'd be really happy with a win for Lynch in this category. What she does with that character is astounding. No one on TV has the comic delivery and timing that she does. Her SNL monologue was a prime example. I think McDonald might win, though, especially if Boardwalk has a big night. Hey, she is pretty good on that show. Sevigny would be my pick again for Big Love, though, in spite of BL's shark-jumping season. She once again dove deeper into the most complex and interesting character on a show full of complex and interesting characters.

So there you have it, folks. That's my two cents/pence about a weird year of nominations. For the record, my personal favorite picks for the film categories are: The Social Network, The Kids are All Right, Colin Firth for The King's Speech, Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Paul Giamatti for Barney's Version, Annette Bening for The Kids are All Right, Christian Bale for The Fighter, Melissa Leo for The Fighter, Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan, and Aaron Sorkin FTW.

Thoughts? Things you dis/agree with? Post them below!

Southland Returns!

2011-01-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

The best cop show on TV returns from its long hiatus tonight. TNT's eleventh hour save of Southland a year ago from the recesses of NBC cancellation oblivion proved to be one of the best TV moves of the year, and in spite of its short second season (only 6 episodes!), the show managed to improve on its excellent first year. I know the idea of "another cop show" turns a lot of people off, but I would argue that this is a procedural that makes you forget it's a procedural. The character drama is first rate, as good as or better than anything on cable right now, and it doesn't try to over-sentimentalize the "gritty reality of the job", if you know what I mean. I also think Regina King is doing the best work of her career on this show.

In short, I know I talk about a lot of silly shows on here, but I would never seriously recommend One Tree Hill or Pretty Little Liars to anyone. I recommend Southland, though.

The Creative Wet Blanket that is the Holiday Episode

2010-12-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one that thinks holiday episodes of TV shows are TERRIBLE? I hate them. They are often insidious and mind-numbing. Case in point: did anyone see the recent Brothers and Sisters Christmas episode? The whole of the plot was that the Walkers decided to change their Christmas traditions for a while before reverting back to what they had always done. Oh, and there was a stupid dream sequence where Nora experienced a Christmas Carol-type vision of the family without her. Awful. It was one of those things that actors always say they had fun filming, but prove to have the opposite effect for the viewing public. (Anyone remember the black and white episode of Felicity? Barf.) Thanksgiving and Halloween episodes often fall into the same categories of terrible TV, as well. Only a few shows over the years (see below) have truly bucked the trend of consistently making eye-rolling holiday fare.

The qualities that make a holiday episode particularly tedious are usually a mix-n-match combination of the following terrible qualities:
- The episode halts serial action of serial dramas.
- The episode tries too hard to "inspire us" with lame cliches, which typically equate to thematic "Christmas miracles!".
- The episode revolves around family Christmas traditions and the exposition explaining them.
- The episode features stunt casting.
- The episode features songs by cast members who don't normally sing.
- The episode "pays homage" to classic Christmas stories, either through basically reproducing the plot of said Christmas story, or through attempting to "ironically" wink at the audience.

The Christmas episode of Glee recently tried to do make good on the last point I mentioned with recreating How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but to me it seemed like the writers trying too hard to be "clever". I will be skipping that episode in future viewings of Glee DVDs, thank you. It was, as my dear friend Lizzy would say, too self-conscious. (Check out this review of the episode by my favorite TV bloggers.)

Bearing these guidelines in mind, I was trying to think of my five worst holiday episodes of all time, but I was having a hard time. I mean, pick almost any long-running show and you'll find at least one misguided attempt at holiday inspiration. Don't even get me started on Halloween episodes (I'm looking at you, LHOTP episode "Halloween Dream". Just no). Therefore, lest the ten of you (my loverly blog readers) find this particular post too grinchy, here are a few examples of good holiday episodes, along with a short comment about why each distinguishes itself from others. (The rankings of #1 and #2, btw, have to do with my general belief that good drama is better than good comedy, but that's another post for another day.)

1. "Noel", The West Wing, season 2: I mentioned this one in an earlier post about an episode of Private Practice. Simply put, this is one of the finest episodes of an excellent series. Avoiding holiday cliches altogether, the episode uses music, which is increased in frequency at Christmastime, as a trigger for Josh Lyman's PTSD. Josh's psychological breakthrough in the final act is always moving, never cheesy.

2. "The One with the Football", Friends, season 6: Friends always did holiday episodes better than every comedy show ever. They generally steered clear of in your face holiday inspiration, but somehow they also avoided cynicism. Far from interrupting the flow of the series with holiday episodes, I always looked forward to their Thanksgiving and Christmas shenanigans. Honestly, it's hard to pick just one of these episodes, but "The One with the Football" always made me laugh the hardest.

3. "Christmas at Plum Creek", Little House on the Prairie, season 1: Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "One minute you say that too much holiday inspiration is what brings a holiday episode down, but the next minute you're choosing a holiday episode of Little House on the Prairie, arguably one of the most schmaltzy primetime dramas ever produced! What gives?" I hear you on that, but let me remind you that the inspirational/emotional manipulation overtones on Little House carried on throughout the series. The Christmas episodes were no more or less sappy than the rest of the show. In fact, I would argue that Tragedy on the Prairie, as my roommate calls it, was the most tragic and inspirational during two parters, which were never holiday episodes. "Christmas at Plum Creek" is a lovely episode about sacrificial love.

4. "The Strike", Seinfeld, season 9: This episode is fantastic because of how succinctly it makes fun of family holiday traditions. Obviously, Seinfeld was always good at commenting on the absurdity of social trends, but in this case, the show took peoples' self-conscious "disillusionment" with holiday commercialism and created a kind of anti-Christmas holiday with Frank Costanza's "Festivus for the rest of us". Oddly enough, "Festivus" became its own social trend, and according to Wikipedia, Festivus is now unofficially celebrated as a secular holiday.

5. "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" American Dreams, season 3: By this episode, the Pryor family had known about JJ's MIA status in Vietnam for weeks, and the tension was palpable. As they tried to go about their everyday lives, the potential tragedy underneath the surface could have burst at any moment for any one of them. But in the final scene, just after the Roman Catholic Pryors were leaving church, JJ came home. If we're talking here about most shows' failures in trying to thematically recreate "the spirit of Christmas", American Dreams managed to somehow succeed, for underlying the miracle of Christ at Christmas is the tragedy of humanity's need for Christ. When JJ returned to his family, tragedy subsided, and hope reigned supreme.

Honorable mention: "The Best Chrismukkah Ever" (The O.C., season 1); "Christmas Scandal" (Parks and Recreation, season 2)

Have a great Christmas season everyone!

The Triumphant Return of Claire Danes

2010-12-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

In case you hadn't heard in the last few weeks, Showtime announced that Claire Danes is going to be starring in a new series for the network called Homeland, and Mandy Patinkin was just announced as one of her costars. For those of you who haven't watched the short-lived 90s cult hit My So-Called Life, you need to go and do that. Right now. In it, Danes played Angela Chase, a "normal" teenage girl, with all the overly earnest angst and performative apathy that comes with being a teenage girl. Her sensitive, intelligent, (dare I say?) brilliant portrayal of Angela earned her a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination for best actress. My So-Called Life's nineteen episodes comprise one of my two favorite series of all time. So imagine my delight at hearing the news that Danes is returning to a TV series after over fifteen years away! Maybe her Emmy-winning role in HBO's Temple Grandin this year whetted her appetite for the kind of character drama that TV is producing so well these days. In any case, I know I'm not the only one to be positively giddy about watching Danes on a series again. How about a slow hand-clap for the influx of movie stars to TV.

One Tree Hill: "Darkness on the Edge of Town"

2010-12-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

It might seem like I'm a little obsessed with this show, given how infrequently I blog and of those infrequent blog posts, how frequently I blog about this show. Well, I say nay to that, sir. I find its shenanigans refreshing, as it doesn't take itself too seriously these days, and I enjoy mocking it with love. I realized last night that of the long-running shows still on the air that I'm loyal to, I've been loyal to this one the longest. Now in its eighth season (I know, right?!), One Tree Hill has become a comfy, but tattered pair of sweatpants on my season pass list. Translation: I'm not throwing it out.

This week's episode featured a storm, so we knew some crazy s*** was going down in Tree Hill! Some of the series' best episodes have been storm episodes, and this one was up there with the best offenders. Let's start with the return of Psycho Katie (one of the best OTH psychos since Nanny Carrie!). I was trying to explain this to a friend last night, and realized just how manic it sounded, but here goes: Quinn was home alone on the stormy night, left vulnerable to attack by Clay being out of town, so of course Crazy Katie stalked in. We'd just seen her making crazy eyes to the camera in the last episode, so we knew it was coming. Of course the phones were down because of the storm, and a fallen tree was blocking the driveway, so Quinn had no choice but to dogfight that crazy lady all through the house. Point: Crazy Katie. At one point it looked like Crazy Katie was going to leave, which doesn't make any sense, since a tree was down in the driveway, but whatevs, so instead of letting Crazy Katie free to stalk another day, Quinn football tackled her off a balcony, causing them to fall in the pool. Then, Quinn played dead (just go with it), only to sneak back into the house and put the lone bullet she managed to recover (and keep dry) through the madness in the empty revolver and shoot Crazy Katie in the stomach. Point: Quinn. Then, it looked like Quinn went downstairs to clean stuff up, while Katie lay there bleeding. Eventually we saw some paramedics carting Katie to the hospital, so we know she was still alive, but this brings me to my next topic: where are all the first responders in Tree Hill?

Last week, Quinn contemplated murdering Crazy Katie, and it became clear that Quinn had tracked her down in Crazytown, or wherever Tree Hill psychos reside between bouts of terrorizing. My problem with this: shouldn't police be able to find her pretty easily? Both of Crazy Katie's shooting victims somehow survived to identify her. Tree Hill Police Department: FAIL.

Apparently the paramedics and firefighters in Tree Hill are as bad at their jobs as the cops, because the other major plot this week involved Brooke and co trying for the better part of an hour to get Jamie out of his seat belt after a car wreck (where else?) on a bridge. My favorite part was when the car fell off the bridge into the ravine, and Julian was all, "Don't worry, it's hit the bottom. The car's not sinking." Famous last words before the levy broke. I will admit that while I was watching this, I was pretty sure everyone was going to live, but I wasn't sure how they were going to get out of this pickle. Of course eventually everyone lived, and Jamie was reunited with his parents, who only had a boring flat tire through all this. But, seriously, we didn't even see the arrival of the worst first response team in the USA. Point: storm.

This is probably the last season of One Tree Hill, so we can only venture to guess that this will be its final storm episode. In my opinion, it was a fun one!

Also, has anyone else noticed that James Lafferty (Nathan) is looking more like Superman everyday? Not complaining, just observing.

NKOTBSB

2010-11-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, confession time: given my propensity toward the teen drama genre of the late 90s/early 2000s, it should come as little shock that at one time in my life I would have considered myself a sincere fan of the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys (I would have gone to mat for 'N Sync's superiority, though). The two nineties-tastic groups have joined forces for a summer tour that will undoubtedly re-release the suppressed high school hormones of thousands of 26-34 year old women. It should be glorious.

Well, Sunday's American Music Awards featured a fun mash-up of recognizable hits from the two boy bands, performed by nine of the ten original members of both groups (I'm looking at you, Kevin Richardson). I tried, but I couldn't resist posting this. Take a look at it below. So fun.

As a side note, I'd like to express my admiration for Donnie Wahlberg going back to his roots with the New Kids, in spite of a successful TV career. His show Blue Bloods is actually pretty good. Respect to Donnie D.