TV Round-up for the week

Best thing I saw all week - What Would Brian Boitano Make?

"what would Brian Boitano do if he were here right now? He'd make a plan and follow through, that's what Brian Boitano'd do!" (I wonder if you have to pay royalties to use a song as your show's theme, if said song was actually written about you?)

Who knew Brian Boitano could cook, and was so funny with such a self-depricating sense of humor, and liked "riding his bike on rainbows". His new little cooking show is a great way to spend 30 minutes. It's a little bit "Good Eats", a little "Barefoot Contessa" with a little Rachel Ray thrown into the mix. Filmed out of his gorgeous house in San Francisco it looks like the show will focus on food to prepare for entertaining. The first episode dealt with Brian trying to find a date for his straight bachelor friend Tony. This show is fun!

Show that hasn't made a wrong move yet this season? True Blood

While a lot of this season's plots have come from several of the Charlaine Harris books that the show is based on, the writers/producers have embellished and changed things around enough that I truly don't know how this season is going to end. No clue. At all. Only 2 more episodes to go!

Show that ended with a mind f*ck - Nurse Jackie

This week's first season finale was a doozy. Did Jackie try to kill herself at the end? Did she OD? What will happen to her adorable family? Or Coop? Or Zoe? Don't tell me I have to wait 8 months to find out!!

Worse thing my wallet saw this week - Big Brother 11's Thursday show

Russell was stupidly kicked off thus ending my chance at winning $150 in my office pool. Damn Jeff! I now want Kevin or Michele to win.

Obsession renewed this week - Project Runway

So far the move to Lifetime and LA hasn't seemed to hurt the show one bit. Add the new Models of the Runway, the entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the PR clothes hanger girls and Thursday nights are becoming my new favorite thing.

Catching up

Just some of the good stuff I've been enjoying this past week -

My favorite "new" tv show: Drop Dead Diva

Two episodes in and I'm in love with this new comedy on Lifetime. I've never liked any scripted show on this channel so I wasn't sure what to expect from Diva even though it has Margaret Cho and she can pretty much do no wrong for me. But what a gem! It's smart and funny and not cheesy and charming. And the leads are great!
Brooke Elliot is a revelation. She makes the Jane/Deb character so appealing. And Ben Feldman as Fred the angel - where has this kid been all my life? SO cute. So talented. And of course Margaret Cho rocks. So far she hasn't been featured enough in the show to please me but I'm hoping that changes as the season progresses. The show's getting a lot of buzz now, and there are quite a few notable guest stars coming up, so I hope it gets picked up for more seasons. If Lifetime can keep putting out dreck like "Army Wives" I'm sure they can find a place for this entertaining show.

Actor having "a moment" for me right now: Peter Facinelli

I've always had a soft spot for The Fatch. But lately I just can't get enough of him. His work as Coop on "Nurse Jackie" is so fantastic; in a crowd of great perfomances on that show. I'm also loving Facinelli's Twitter feed (@peterfacinelli). His tweets are so funny and "regular" and he responds to his followers like they're his best buds that he's known for years. You feel like he's your friend and you go over to his house and hang out with Jenny and the kids having coffee. So great.

TV show that's having a great 2nd season - True Blood

The sophomore slump so often hits shows that get a lot of hype and attention in their first season. And I was really worried that True Blood was going to suffer from this, especially when I thought that they had gotten rid of Lafayette (and the awesome Nelsan Ellis). But no worries. This show is having a great season so far; really using the talents of the actors and characters that were sort of secondary last year. This is especially true for Aleksander Skarsgard who plays the vampire sherrif Eric. Can't say enough good things about him.

Movie that put me in the BEST MOOD!: Julie & Julia

I had the pleasure of getting to see an advance screening of this marvelous film last night. I got to the theatre in a horrid mood after a bad day at work and left with a huge smile on my face, feeling lighter and happier than I have in weeks. Julia Child holds a special place in my heart because of her connection with me and my mother; I also read two of the memoirs that this film is based on, so I knew a lot of background going into it. But whether you've ever heard of Julia Child or care a lick about cooking, you will love this movie. A love of cooking and Julia helps of course, but I know that some people are going to dismiss this movie as a "chick film". It's so much more than that. The entire cast is superb; Amy Adams is button-cute and makes Julie much more personable than I feel the book did. Meryl Streep is MERYL STREEP; that is to say so perfect as Child that you can't imagine anyone else in the role. Supporting players Stanley Tucci as Paul Child, Chris Messina as Julie's husband, and Jane Lynch, in a scene-stealing cameo as Julia's sister Dorothy, are all awesome.

Summer 2009 TV Preview - June

It used to be, back in the day, that the summer months for television were a big VOID - filled with endless repeats of network shows, horrible made-for-tv movies, theatrical releases watered down and dubbed for tv, and horrible reality shows. And while all of these things still exist on summer-time tv, lately the summer months have also been a chance for cable networks and even "the big 4" networks to try out new shows; often quirky, interesting things that they won't give a shot to any other time of the year.

2009 is shaping up to be a great summer for lots of new and returning shows. I am only listing the ones that I'm excited about, or at least going to give a trial run (it's still a long list - I am a television junkie afterall).
I am already thoroughly entranced with the trashy goodness that is The Real Housewives of NJ. And as soon as the audition eps are over, I'll become obsessed once again with the latest season of SYTYCD. But here's what I'm looking forward to this month.

New stuff:
Royal Pains (USA) Premieres June 4
Cutey-patooty Mark Feuerstein is a NYC doctor who is exiled to the Hamptons where his brother lives or something? And he becomes an on-call doctor that does house calls for wealthy weirdos? I don't know. It sounds stupid but I love little Feuerstein so I'll give it at least a couple of eps.

The Listener (NBC) Premieres June 4
Paramedic Toby Logan (HOT Craig Olejnik) is secretly a telepath, which I guess comes in super handy when he's on the job. It sounds like "Ghost Whisperer" meets "Third Watch". Again, the hotness of the lead is doing a lot for me here.

Nurse Jackie (Showtime) Premieres June 8
Edie Falco from "Sopranos" fame returns to TV in this Showtime series that looks really dark and edgy but I think is a comedy? She's a nurse who's addicted to painkillers, hates her coworkers, and isn't above making morally ambiguous decisions if she thinks it will help her patients. Plus it has “The Fatch” (aka my boyfriend Peter Facinelli) who I would watch read the phone book.

Top Chef Masters (Bravo) Premieres June 10
Some of the mentors that have appeared/judged on Top Chef and other famous executive chefs are competing for charity. I'll watch it because it's Bravo and they serve the best crack, and because any time I can get more Tom Colicchio I'll take it.

Hammertime (A&E) Premieres June 14
Yet another reality show about a former star trying to make a comeback and their weirdo family. In this case it's MC Hammer. I'll probably only get through one show, but I like the title.

NYC Prep (Bravo) Premieres June 16
It's like Gossip Girl, but a reality show. Or like Laguna Beach but "real"? This series follows the lives of spoiled teens who live the high life in Manhattan. Again it's Bravo, and except for that matchmaker show and the one with the lesbian personal trainer, I've never NOT watched one of their reality shows.

Hawthorne (TNT) Premieres June 16
I'm going on record as saying that I hate Jada Pinkett Smith. She heads up this medical drama that I'd normally pass up. But Michael Vartan (sigh...so beautiful) is in it and I flove him. I'll probably just "bleep-bloop" through these eps to all of the scenes with Vartan hoping he takes his clothes off. It is cable after all...

The Philanthropist (NBC) Premieres June 24
I haven't heard anything about this scripted drama about a billionaire (played by James Purefoy) who loves to spend his money and do reckless things in order to help out the world. It also stars Jesse L. Martin (LOVE!) and Neve Campbell (HATE!!!!!!). This is really going to depend on the amount of room on the DVR and how much my hate for Neve Campbell affects my ability to sit through an ep.

Hung (HBO) Premieres June 28
Thomas Jane (Yes.) stars as a down on his luck, recently divorced high-school teacher who turns to making porn films to make ends meet. (Yes!) There better be some nudity HBO! (yes.)

More to Love (Fox) Premieres June 28
Us fatties need love too. I can't decide if I'm super insulted by this reality dating show focusing on overweight people looking for love, or if I'm intrigued. It's done Bachelor-style where one "Kevin James-esque" (Fox's description not mine) (read: fat) guy is looking through a bevy of curvy (read: fat) beauties in order to find his dream girl. Again I'm going to watch the first ep to quench my curiosity and then probably be so disgusted that I'll quickly delete it off Tivo.

Returning Shows:
True Blood (HBO) June 14

The first season ended with a scene straight out of the second book and I’m a little concerned.

Because all I know is that, Lafayette BETTER NOT BE DEAD. Or if he is, they better work in something funky like he’s a vamp, or zombie, or talking ghost or something because I will seriously be PISSED OFF if I don’t get my Laf fix from brilliant Nelsan Ellis. I’ve read most of the books that this great series is based on so I know that HBO has already taken liberties and changed some elements of various characters and the show hasn’t suffered because of it. So they better have done some script finagling to make my favorite character still a part of this show. It's not looking promising based on the info from imdb.com though. Gawddam it!

Coming around on "Twilight" the movie

I have been hesitant to talk or get excited about the upcoming Twilight movie. Although I was aware of the fanatical popularity of the Stephenie Meyer YA vampire book series before this year, I only started reading the “Twilight” books after first reading Meyer’s first entrée into “adult” fiction, 2008’s “Host”. I enjoyed this book enough to check out what all the fuss was about regarding Meyer’s vampire books. I’ve only gotten through the first two (Twilight and New Moon).
I admit that if I was 13, I would LOVE these books. If Meyer had been writing these in the early 80s I would gladly have abandoned the trite Rice novels and gotten swept up with the Cullen family of vampires and the love story between Edward and Bella. I can totally see what all of the tweens have been freaking out about.
That said, the books and the story are just... alright. I haven’t been super impressed by the first two that I’ve read and I’ve heard that the third and fourth books are the more disappointing of the series so I’m not really looking forward to finishing them.

Anyway, the upcoming film has been hyped and promoted to within an inch of its life. And I’ve been avoiding all of the media crap as much as possible. A couple of weeks ago I overheard a conversation between two teens in a Magnolia Starbucks dissecting every aspect of the upcoming film from the choice of actors (thumbs up for Robert Pattinson and his wacky-ass hair as Edward, concern about “nobody” Kristen Stewart (who?) as Bella), to the concern that not enough of the book will be included in the movie blah blah blah.
Besides Pattinson and Stewart the only actors in the cast that I had heard about was that Billy Burke was playing Bella’s dad the sheriff (I immediately got depressed that one of my long-time crushes was playing the main character’s dad – I’m OLD!) and that the insufferable Elizabeth Reaser, who I have an irrational hatred of, was playing the Cullen family matriarch. So I knew that I was probably going to see the movie eventually but I wasn’t really that keen on seeing it in the theater.
That all changed this morning when I found out that Peter f*cking Facinelli is playing Carlisle Cullen, the vampire patriarch. “The Fatch”! Woohoo! I love Peter Facinelli so much and am so happy that perhaps this movie will mark a resurgence (surge?)in his stalled career. But I love that he doesn’t seem to care about said career dips. And I love his marriage to Jennie Garth; he’s a Brad Pitt-level DILF.
I don't even care that his hair seems to have been dyed a hideous lemon yellow for the role. I'm just super-psyched about seeing Facinelli on the big screen. Yay!