Thursday, April 21, 2011

Things and things - 3rd week of April 2011 edition

Things I'm excited about this week:

  • I haven't talked about the new season of America's Best Dance Crew yet, but so far season 6 is shaping up nicely. I'm already totally in the bag for the Footworkingz crew, and who the hell could guess that D-Trix (aka Dominic Sandoval from Season 3/7 of So You Think You Can Dance) would make such a great judge. He gives constructive and intelligent feedback, can really come from a different place than Lil' Mama and JC because he was an ABDC contestant and winner as part of the Season 3 champs Quest Crew, and seems genuinely excited to be there (ahem Omarion) and not at all condescending (Omarion). And D-Trix so far isn't nearly as spazzy and annoying as he can be when he's hammed it up on SYTYCD in the past. If I can't have my Shane Sparks back, I'll settle for Dom. Other improvements this season have been that so far there's been NO Layla Kayleigh. I never understood her role or the need for another semi-host on this show. This sixth season is the "season of the superstar" or some nonsense, and will focus each week on a different artist's music (instead of also including dance styles like in previous seasons?). For the first 2 episodes the artists themselves introduced the song packages and while they were both kind of wacky (seriously, are Lil' Wayne and Ke$ha on drugs ALL the time?), having the musicians there via videotape made a lot more sense than Layla Kayleigh and her annoying British accent.

  • Justified kind of ROCKED MY WORLD this week. My boyfriend Timothy Olyphant was superb as usual as Deputy Raylan Givens, but this week also featured the underappreciated Deputy Tim as a major part of the A plot. After the attempt on Raylan and Winona's lives, Chief Mullen assigns Tim to be Raylan's bodyguard. Of course with halirious results. On any other show, Jacob Pitts would be a star; he infuses Tim with such a laconic, wry dependability. But thems the breaks I guess. When you have the hotness of Olyphant to compete with, you can't help but fade to the background. Last night's ep was totally torn from the pages of my fantasy slash fanfic. See also: Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder. Hubba hubba...

Things that intrigued me this week (for good or bad):
  • James Frey is going back on Oprah?! I was one of the few folks out there that were always in Frey's corner when it came to the debacle over the validity of his memoir A Million Little Pieces and the subsequent dressing down and humiliation that he was subjected to by Oprah back in 2006 (geez, was that really 5 years ago?!). Winfrey's patronizing, holier-than-thou attitude and anger towards Frey was the beginning of my now strong hatred of Oprah. Even after hearing that she later apologized to Frey, I couldn't forgive her for being such a pretentious ass to him. Here's hoping that this final appearance for him on her show will be enlightening and triumphant for Frey. He kind of deserves it. He's had a shitty couple of years.
  • The horrifying news on April 20th of the deaths of journalists Tim Hetherington (pictured above) and Chris Hondros and this article on NPR.org have been on my mind. If you haven't seen the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, that Hetherington co-directed with Sebastian Junger please rent it or stream it today.

Things that made me want to punch something/one:
This kid -
Seriously. Stop singing country songs. Stop being the smarmiest smarm that ever smarmed; you're only 17 for crissakes! Stop holding the microphone like a flute with both hands. JUST STOP everything. And America, stop fawking voting for this douchebag.

This huge asshole -
I do not f*cking understand what is wrong with so many damn people in this country. Why on Earth would you ever listen to anything this fawkwad would have to say about running the United States of America? WTF?! He is so ridiculous and enraging. One can only hope that everything indeed plays out as many pundits are predicting, that this whole Trump 2012 campaign nonsense will blow over soon. When even Karl fawking Rove lambasts you, you have to know something's wrong.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Revamped Law & Order: Los Angeles


Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who watches the latest sprouting from Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise machine - L&O: Los Angeles or "LOLA" as NBC is trying to brand it.
I started watching it because Alfred Molina and my boyfriend Skeet Ulrich were going to be on it, and because I was mourning the loss of original recipe L&O. I stayed for new boyfriend Corey Stoll and his character, Detective TJ Jaruszalski's magnificent moustache, and the LA-centric storylines.
Sure, the new show had it's problems, like the somewhat bloated cast on the DA side of things, Terrence Howard and his scenery chewing, and the sometimes silly "Hollyweird" stuff, but in general I really liked what they'd come up with. And did I mention the hotness of Corey Stoll and his moustache? Sigh.
So then came the news a couple of months ago when the show went on hiatus that when it returned in April 2011, it would have a new streamlined cast and more focused storylines. And then the commercials for last night's return started running on NBC a few weeks ago and they hinted that Skeet Ulrich's character, Detective Rex Winters was going to be killed. What?! I was totally unhappy with this development. So far I haven't found any interview with Skeet to hear what happened from his side, but I saw an E! interview with Terrence Howard where they asked him about the cast shake-up and he basically said that he missed Skeet and the others that weren't there anymore but that he was just happy to still have a job (hinting at his firing from Iron Man 2 I guess?).

Anyway, last night's return episode(s) was 2 hours of pretty riveting television. Skeet was killed off fairly early on in the first ep and the rest of the hour was spent trying to prosecute his killer. It ended with the guy getting away with it - something that I've always LOVED about L&O - they don't make everything a happy ending. Oftentimes cases just kind of fall apart and the bad guys often win. Just like real life. It's strangely satisfying.
The second hour had Alfred Molina's DA Morales so fed up with the politics and corruption of the Prosecutor's and State government offices that he decides to go back to being a cop, and guess what? He pulls strings to be Jaruszalski's new partner.
As far-fetched as this plot twist is, Stoll and Molina actually have great chemistry. So I'm excited about how the Jaruszalski/Morales partnership plays out. But GAWDDAMMIT!!! Corey Stoll shaved off the moustache! Unforgiveable!
The other change that we see in the second hour is that Assistant D.A. Connie Rubirosa from L&O: Original Recipe is now Deputy D.A. and working with Howard's DA character Joe Decker, after having moved out west to be with her sick mother. Junior D.D.A.s Evelyn Price and Lauren Stanton (Regina Hall and Megan Boone) are out. I'm totally onboard for this change. I like Alana De La Garza as an actress way more than Hall and Boone, and now just having 2 people on the DA side to focus on is so much better for the show, even if one of those people is fawking Terrence Howard.

But Corey baby, please grow the 'stache back! Smooches! xoxo

Monday, April 4, 2011

Some thoughts about "Insidious"

So I saw Insidious this past weekend. It came in #3 at the box office its opening weekend and I guess that's okay but I don't know if they'll be able to sustain it.
The movie was okay. It was a little more cliched and much more of a Poltergeist rip-off than I expected, but for a "scary movie" it was enjoyable. I guess I thought it would be scarier; I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to horror films, and I only jumped like twice in the theater.

Some thoughts (good and bad) that went through my head during and after the movie:
  • What was the purpose of Rose Byrne's character being a songwriter? It had NO connection to the story at all. Of all the "work from home" professions they could think of why this one? The one song they showed her writing and singing was really lame.
  • And while we're talking about it, if you're going to have one of your leads be a songwriter, and her character's husband is played by Patrick Wilson, an actor with a BEAUTIFUL voice who has been nominated for TWO Tony awards for his singing? Don't have said character played by Patrick Wilson "act" tone-deaf and feign a horrible singing voice. It's insulting to Patrick and his fans. And my ears.
  • Rose Byrne's character is named "Renai". Ugh. What is the purpose of this whacked out spelling. Renee. Geez.
  • I did find it odd but kind of awesome and fairly realistic that when they showed Byrne and Wilson getting ready for bed, they were dressed and doing things like real adult people. Wearing old t-shirts and boxers as pjs and Patrick putting eye cream on for his wrinkles and concerned about his thinning and graying hair.
  • What is up with Barbara Hershey playing super creepy moms these days? And there was strangely no chemistry between her and Patrick Wilson. They barely acted like they knew each other, much less were supposed to be mother and son. Everytime he said 'Mom' I was shocked that he was talking to Hershey.
  • Could've done without the lame "Geek Squad" paranormal activity ghostbuster dudes, who were supposed to be comedy relief?
  • Who is taking care of Renai and Josh's two other kids if Grandma Barbara is at the house fighting demons?!
  • SPOILER ALERT - I get that they geared the ending for a sequel but damn, did they have to leave so many unanswered questions? Was the black/red faced demon defeated? Was the old lady demon at the end the same one we learned of earlier in the film?
  • Why was the black/red faced demon shown in, what can only be described as his boudoir, prancing around like Buffalo Bill. I mean seriously, why do movies these days make demons act so fey?
  • Why wasn't it scarier?

Okay, I'll admit, this was a scary fucking scene.