TV Musings - Last week of March 2011

This week for Lent I've given up Tivo. Well, I've really been forced to give it up because my beloved Reuben (that's my Tivo's name) died on Sunday; total hard drive failure. EEEK! And while I do have another dvr, its hard drive space is very limited because I have a bunch of HD programs taking up a ton of space, which essentially has left me with having two televisions that I have been forced to watch LIVE, in real time, without the ability to rewind or pause. **gasp**

But while I'm on this dvr-hiatus, I haven't totally been forgoing television altogether. Here are some things keeping me interested this week:

• It looks like the fan and critic outrage over the new Wonder Woman suit/costume forced some changes. Gone is the ultra shiny vinyl cheap looking "pants" and slutty high heels. I like it much better, but I'm still skeptical about this revamp of the classic series from the 1970s.

• I'm okay with Richard Blais winning the Top Chef All-Stars finale but boy, I really wish he had competed against Antonia instead of gross Mike Isabella. Anyway, I'm super excited to see the All Star reunion next week when Elia gets ripped a new one for being such a bitch. And the new Top Chef Masters season starts next week too, hosted by my boyfriend Curtis Stone who must have some naughty pictures of Jeff Zucker in his possession. How else to explain Stone's dominance on anything and everything NBC Universal has on television? I can think of 5 shows off the top of my head that he's been involved with, and that's just in the past 6 months.

• The Beverly Hills housewives are back for Season 2! As much as I generally dislike Bravo's Real Housewives franchise(s), I did thoroughly enjoy the Beverly Hills edition, especially Lisa Vanderpump. But seriously Bravo, what happened to all of my awesome "gay" shows like Make Me a Super Model, Shear Genius, and Top Design? Sigh...at least I'll soon be getting new reality shows for Brad Goreski and Chris March.
• Perfect Couples is getting the ax (at least temporarily) and being replaced by a new show from Paul Reiser. Man, I really wanted to like Perfect Couples. I like most of the cast, and I LOVE a lot of the writers, especially Jen Kirkman and Nick Adams, so it was really weird how bad it was. It had its moments, but for the most part it sucked.

Sometimes people are awesome - Hot guys from history edition

As my close friends know, I pretty much hate people. But sometimes they can come up with creative and hilarious things like this website.

God bless 'em, I think I just found my new favorite thing.

Can we all agree?

That this guy is a douche?

Die Scotty McCreery. DIE.

Happy Birthday to me - Over The Hill edition

Today is my 40th birthday. Yikes! And while I want and should be feeling like Charlie and Snoopy above, today I've mostly been thinking about my mom and a conversation she and I had on her 40th birthday back when I was in 7th grade. Back then, the thought of being forty was totally unfathomable to me. I thought for sure by 2011 we'd be flying around in space cars and that I'd have 4 kids and be living in some Blade Runner-esque world. When mom turned 40 she was super excited but also a little frightened. At the time she was contemplating leaving her job and beginning a whole new career, and she was dealing with the fact that her beloved mother was very sick and probably in the last months of her life (which turned out to be correct). Of course, she didn't share any of these big concerns with me; instead she talked with me about how when you're a teenager or young adult you tend to make all these plans that never actually become realized. And that that's okay. That the whole "everything happens for a reason" "God always has a plan" sentiments are actually pretty true. And how things are are how they were meant to be. My mom told me that when she was a freshman in college she imagined herself at 40 as being some famous artist living in Europe with a gaggle of children and some fancy bohemian husband. But that her reality, living in the nation's capitol, mother of an only child who she was raising practically on her own because of her husband's out of town job; was a better reality, and the right reality for her.

So here I am forty years old today. And I don't have a space car. Nor do I have any kids, much less four. I'm not a famous photojournalist working for National Geographic; my dream at 9. I'm not a marine biologist; my dream at 19. I'm not a famous novelist; yet. I work in health care, with Medicare policy. I live by myself with a dog I inherited in a lovely modern home in Seattle, WA. I have wonderful friends. I'm doing ok. This is my reality. It's the right reality for me.

Casting "The Hunger Games" - If I Ruled The World

Steve Granitz/Wire Image

As everyone on Earth pretty much knows, Lionsgate is furiously scrambling trying to finish choosing their cast for the soon to start production of the film adaption of one of the my favorite book series The Hunger Games. This morning it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence (above) has landed the role of Katniss. Although the producers ultimately didn't go with my first choice of Hailee Steinfeld who was the perfect age, coloring, and build for Katniss, I understand why they went with the older Lawrence. Hailee's age would've prevented her from working a full shooting day and would've made the casting of Peeta tougher. Let's face it folks, there aren't any good male actors that could handle Peeta that are under the age of 18; and casting someone older than that to be romantic with Steinfeld would've felt wrong. And Jennifer Lawrence is truly a great actress and supposedly gave an amazing audition for Katniss that impressed everybody. She was certainly gritty enough in Winter's Bone, and I think if they darkened her hair she'll do just fine.

Real or not real? The current front-runner for the role of Peeta is hottie boombalotty Hunter Parrish. I'm fine with this choice, especially since Jennifer's been cast.

I do think that Parrish would be better suited for the role of Finnick Odair (and it would mean we'd get to see more of Hunter's delicious skin), but he's a great actor and has the chops to handle the role of the book's hero.

What about the other hero in the book, hometown hunk Gale? Well there's several guys rumored to be up for it including Adam Gregory from the new (horrendous) 90210 and an unknown (at least to me) Thomas Mcdonell who in my opinion certainly looks like the way Gale is described in the book, except for the eye color. Strangely, I'm not as invested in the casting of Gale as I am in other characters of the book.

For example, I would boycott the films full stop if they didn't cast black or dark-brown skinned actors for the roles of Rue and Thresh. But I keep imagining nightmare scenarios where Willow Smith gets the role of Rue. I mean think about it, she's kind of perfect for the role isn't she? Ugggh, I want shoot myself for even putting that thought out there in the ether.

And then there's the pivotal role of Hamish. A man who is supposed to be in his late 30s/early 40s who's been totally ravaged by drink and depression. Ever since Entertainment Weekly did a poll about who should play him way back in August and mentioned Robert Downey Jr. as a choice, I have been kind of obsessed with this idea. He would do f*cked up drunk so well. But still be able to pull off Hamish's sense of humor, while keeping it dark. I'm sure there's no way that RDJ has been approached for this but he's seriously the only person I can picture now, even when I recently reread the last two books in the series. I guess I just ultimately hope that the producers and director Gary Ross are thinking seriously and smartly about the casting choices for ALL of the roles, not just Katniss and Peeta. Everyone's important.

Dreamy!

My response to the screencap picture above and last night as it aired on television? SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

I have had serious reservations all season regarding Blaine and Kurt's burgeoning relationship. I loved the introduction of the Dalton Academy Warblers and Blaine, and particularly the addition of Darren Criss to the acting ensemble; he's a great little actor along with having an amazing voice and face. I held my breath as they showed Kurt falling in love with Blaine and worried that the only reason they introduced his character was to give Kurt a mate. But then the writers seemed to steer things in a good direction with Kurt and Blaine developing a friendship and not immediately falling into a romantic relationship. I liked last week's episode with Blaine going to Mr. Hummell and the subsequent Hummell Father/Son sex and relationship talk. I even liked the episode a few weeks back where Kurt was hurt when Blaine professed his crush on that weird Gap employee and actually revealed his feelings to Blaine, and how it didn't affect their friendship. I thought that was fairly realistic concerning something that would happen with teens in real life. I was firmly on the side of Blaine and Kurt not being a couple, at least not yet.
But a tv show is a tv show and I knew that eventually this season we would have Kurt and Blaine romantically involved for better or for worse. So last night - IT HAPPENED. Kurt and Blaine kissed.

Early in last night's episode, little Pavarotti, the Dalton Academy canary that Kurt was taking care of died suddenly. Kurt eulogizes the bird with the other Dalton boys by singing the Beatles song "Blackbird" and in that scene you see Blaine having an epiphany and coming to the realization that he loves Kurt. It was a beautiful scene. Darren Criss has such gorgeous, emoting features; when the camera slowly pans across Blaine's loving, enraptured face it was really moving.

Later, Blaine confessed his feelings to Kurt and then the momentous kiss happened. And it was kind of perfect. It wasn't too twee, or too overtly sexy. It wasn't tame, nor was it vulgar. In a word, it was HOT. And sweet. And lovely.

So good job Glee. But my happiness over last night doesn't mean that I'm not still concerned or cynical about where/how you're going to take this relationship. Last night's climatic lip-lock and Blaine's love revelation seemed a little rushed, so I'm once again withholding judgment until I see how it all plays out through the rest of this season. But if it means that I get more Darren Criss on my screen then I'm all for it. He is so damn cute.

.

American Idol - Top 13 Performances

I mentioned already last week that I only care about two of this season's American Idol finalists right?

Make that one.

Photo credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX

Seriously y'all, I kind of am in love with Casey Abrams. I can't explain it.

Mike Starr finally loses battle against drugs

Former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, lately back in the spotlight because of his stint on Celebrity Rehab 3 and Sober House, died yesterday in Utah. An autopsy report hasn't been released yet, but considering he was just arrested for drug possession a few weeks ago, chances are Starr overdosed.
It's so sad. Man, drugs are EVIL.
Although Mike Starr was a mess physically in recent years, I choose to remember him back when he was a hot, young, troubled soul back in the early/mid 90s.

So long dude.

American Idol Season 10 - The Final Baker's Dozen

After last season's horror, I had kind of decided that I was through with American Idol. But then came the new judges (I'm an unabashed fan of both J. Lo and Steven Tyler), and although I didn't watch the audition episodes I heard they were a lot better, actually showing people who could sing etc. And they made other changes too like adding online voting. And then came Hollywood Week which is when I would typically start my AI season viewing, and somehow I just got sucked into the machine again.
Then came the top 24 performances this week. I loved the fact that they were being so brutal and not prolonging the torture by cutting 12 folks right away this week to come up with the finalists. But I was so disappointed in the actual 24 people that I felt totally let down. Seriously there were barely 4 performances total that I liked for the week. Last night the finalists were revealed - 10 chosen by America (aka dumbass tween girls and creepy old men) and two 3 chosen as "wild cards" by the judges. I'm non-plussed by the results. There's only a couple of people to root for and there aren't enough people for me to hate (although you're on notice James Durbin and Scotty McTeery). I am firmly on Team Casey and Team Thia who share no common denominator other than they're awesome. And that Stefano kid is okay; also his mother works in my office so I feel like I kind of have to cheer for him. But I won't be wasting valuable DVR space on this show. I think I'll be catching the performances online the next day and maybe throwing some votes Thia's and Casey's way on americanidol.com

A little more Jane...

I'm really going to miss her...

Another bad-ass big-busted babe that will be missed...

Today is the 4th anniversary of my dear mother's passing, and I am unbelievably depressed. I'm not sure why this year I'm feeling it in my bones more than last year. I should be getting over "it" by now shouldn't I? I guess I've been thinking about mortality a lot more over the past few months so her being gone seems more acute.

Jane Russell passed away last night. My mother LOVED Jane and thought she was one of the most beautiful actresses around. She thought of Jane Russell as the voluptous queen that all busty women should look up to. Of course my favorite thing that Russell ever did was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with of course Marilyn Monroe. As a kid, I never understood why all the men in the film were gaga over Marilyn. She was pretty of course, but how could you care about her when there was Jane?!