TV Round Up - September season finale edition

Remember that True Blood season 3 finale I was so jazzed about? Well boy, was I disappointed. I've been complaining this whole season about the way the show's writers have chosen to interpret destroy change the character of Calvin Norris, one of the best people in the books, but last night's finale really took the cake. I won't spoil it for those who haven't watched yet, but Alan Ball and Co. really screwed the pooch with the whole "Hot Shot" storyline. Jason as inbred hillbilly messiah? PLEASE spare me.

Other parts of the third season ender that irked me?
The continuation of the destruction of Sam Merlotte. Would he really shoot his brother? C'mon now.
The lame way they've introduced the Faeries, and the cheeseball last scene with Sookie and Claudine (and where the hell is Claude?!).
The fact that Alcide didn't remove any clothing in the episode. Not even his shirt. The hell?
The True Blood finale wasn't a total wash; there were some intriguing parts to it. I was wondering how they were going to introduce the whole witch story arc, which is a major part of the books. And even though they've hinted about it for the past several episodes, the reveal of Jesus as a witch was a surprise to me, and kind of perfect. I'm looking forward to the adventures that he and Lafayette will have next season.
I liked the way they set up Sookie finally finding out about Bill and all of his big lame secrets. And I also liked that they didn't leave Eric in cement all hiatus - and Pam didn't get hurt (hooray!).
Finally I loved that they allowed Hoyt and Jessica to be happy for at least 5 minutes. That creepy old, gross baby doll foreshadows trouble ahead for these too I suspect. As does Mrs. Fortenberry buying that big ol' rifle.
So long True Blood, see you next Spring/Summer. Bring on Dexter!

The Closer -
A very well done season ender. Kyra Sedgwick is truly phenomenal as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. She deserves every Emmy and Golden Globes nomination she gets.
The TNT shows are strange because they have these summer and winter mini-seasons. Sometimes it's hard to build momentum up to a big cliffhanger in such a short time. This summer the main focus was on who would become Chief of Police. Would it be Pope, who wanted it so bad? Or would Brenda succumb to peer pressure and finally admit that she wanted the job? I wasn't sure that they would actually wrap this up in the finale, but they did, and in a great way by giving the job to Chief Delt, played by the awesome Courtney B. Vance. So now we're left wondering what's to become of the major crimes unit. Fans don't have to wait long - the new season starts in December.

TV Round Up - last week of August/early September

I've been embroiled in a bunch of family drama these past several weeks (don't you just love family sometimes?); so I haven't had any time to watch television. My poor Tivo and Tifaux have been working overtime and their little memories are filled to capacity.
But let's talk about some of the things I managed to watch this week. Keep in mind, most of this stuff aired days ago and in this day and age of Twitter and live blogging, none of my comments are really that fascinating. That's not stopping me from sharing them though.

Project Runway from 8/26

The team challenge episode for this season was superb television. Gretchen's spectacularly crazy spiral on the runway, the appalling treatment of Michael C. by the rest of his team, and best of all the AMAZING smackdown of Gretchen from one Tim Gunn were some of the best moments this show has had in some time.

Huge - 1st (and hopefully not last) season finale

You guys? I loved this quirky gem of a show so much. Yes it's a teen drama on the ABC Family channel. And yes, it was about teens at a fat camp for the summer. But boy oh boy it was so much more than that. The stories, dialog, and the characters that were created for this show was some of the best written stuff for tv that I've seen in some time. The tv show is better than the book. And the book is great! Teens talked and acted like real teens. The actors playing the kids at the camp were, guess what Hollywood?, actually overweight, and not some weird slightly bloated thin person or someone thin in make-up and prosthetics. No fat suits! Nikki Blonsky who was in the film version of the musical Hairspray was one of the leads, and she was so great; she has real dramatic talent. And I loved that they didn't really showcase her singing talent in a forced way (like some shows could've/would've done).Sure, her character and another one end up writing some songs together, but it was done in a very organic way, that made sense with the character development. And the singing was not at all canned, produced, or auto-tuned. 

You really cared about every single person and I really can't tell you the last time I experienced television characters, especially teen television characters that were so, well, deep.

The finale was just as superb as the whole season has been. My only complaint is that it really left me hanging. I'm dying to know how everyone fairs by the end of summer camp. Will I have to wait until next year?! I don't know how ABC Family does their seasons. Or if the show was even picked up for a second season; but if that dumb show they have about gymnasts can get a 2nd season, certainly Huge can right? They totally deserve it!

Memphis Beat season finale

Another quirky freshman drama; another cop drama on TNT, but hey if it's working for the network why mess with the formula? This one starred Jason Lee as MPD detective Dwight Hendricks who moonlights as a blues singer who has an affinity for Elvis songs. It also starred the always good Alfre Woodard, Celia Weston, and a surprisingly good DJ Qualls who finally found the right character and balance for his inherent weirdness. Jason Lee sure does have a beautiful singing voice. Who knew? No seriously, did people know this? I know about Lee being a former pro skateboarder, and a Scientologist etc. But I did not know that he could sing; and play guitar and bass. He should consider putting an album out. Maybe he already has and I'm just out of the loop; that would mean I'd have to give up my Jason Lee fan club membership card I guess. The show's writing was a little inconsistent throughout the season, but I can't say that there was any episode that I hated.

Which can't be said about another TNT drama HawthoRNe. This show and I had a very dramatic dvr-breakup last month because I hated Jada Pinkett-Smith's character so much. You know when the power of shirtless Michael Vartan can't save a show for me, there's something wrong.

Big Brother -

Sigh...the people I had picked to win in my office pool all got eliminated, the last being Brendon who really played an excellent game and just barely missed staying in the house (as HOH no less) for another week. Oh well, I really don't want anyone left in the house to win but if I had to choose I guess I'd go with Britney.

2010 Emmys -

I'll quickly just say that I was over the moon about Eric Stonestreet and the Modern Family wins. Can't wait for that show to come back into my life.

And that opening number from Jimmy Fallon et al was effin' brilliant.

True Blood

Season 3 has been better than I could've hoped for. I've said it before, Alan Ball and the rest of the writers are doing an excellent job of incorporating various plots and characters from the books into the television show, while creating totally new and interesting characters. Case in point the two men pictured above, Kevin Alejandro and Joe Manganiello. They play Jesus and Alcide respectively; Alcide is a beloved character from the book and Joe was the top choice from fans of the book who emailed and tweeted Alan Ball with suggestions to have him play Alcide. He's perfect in the role and I can't wait to see what next season brings. Jesus on the other hand is a brand new character created for the show and such a welcome addition. I love Alejandro's chemistry with Nelsan Ellis who plays Jesus's love interest Lafayette.

Speaking of my beloved Lafayette and Nelsan Ellis, how cute is he in this picture from a cast Emmy party with actor Marshall Allman who plays newcomer Tommy Mickens/Merlotte.

Needless to say, I'm super psyched for the True Blood season finale happening in a couple of weeks. And then it's time for all of the new and returning Fall tv shows. It's my favorite time of the year!

Hey, where's my multi-million dollar contract?!

I have hair exactly like Troy Polamalu from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The difference between me and Troy? (besides the fact that I'm an almost 40 year old woman who's not athletic and he's a marginally talented defensive safety for one of the best teams in the NFL )

He just insured his luscious unmanageably frizzy locks for a million dollars after signing an endorsement deal with Head and Shoulders shampoo. Sigh...I wish Troy would focus on tackling fools instead of his hair follicles so that my beloved Steelers could win another Super Bowl ring.

I don't know how much of this I really blame on Troy. It's Lloyd's of London who's insuring his hair, and they're no strangers to insuring famous people's body parts (Tina Turner's legs, J.Lo's butt, Celine's vocal chords) just for publicity.

Shameless famewhores is what they are, but then again here I am talking about them so I guess the joke's on me.

But seriously Troy - can you hook a sister up with some free hair product?

August musings

I totally forgot to watch the premier of Showtime's The Big C with Laura Linney, so I'll have to catch it later this week and give my review then (when it's completely irrelevant).

Although I exclaimed my joy about this on Twitter and Facebook - I am ecstatic that Lauren is the Season 7 champion on So You Think You Can Dance. Although I said I didn't care who won of the three finalists, my little LoFro was always my fave. I'm super excited to see all of these kids on tour when they come here in November.

True Blood is getting so good this season, and so very weird. Except for the character annihilation that they've done to my beloved Calvin Norris, I am still loving the changes that Ball and the other writers are making to the stories from the book for their small screen adaptations. I can't wait to see how this season winds down/up.

Finally, I'll leave you with this picture to ponder and wonder about for the rest of the week:

Just WHAT is going on here? Jane Fonda and Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford out on the town? With Jane's little sad bichon (clearly drugged) in her arm, while a gin and tonic's in her other hand? Are the two of them working on a movie/play/TV thing together? Are they lovers? Omigawd! I have so many questions...

Reality TV Round-Up - Early August 2010 edition

Things that pissed me off this week:

1. Kenny packing his knives and leaving Top Chef DC. There is NO GAWDDAM way that Kenny deserved to leave this competition before Amanda, or f*cking Alex. The judges should be ashamed of themselves.
2. Gretchen winning (AGAIN) in the Project Runway challenge. Yes, her weird jumpsuit definitely deserved top 3, but I seriously need Nina Garcia, Michael Kors, and Heidi Klum to explain to me exactly why Valerie didn't win this challenge with her amazing red dress. It was the biggest WTF? moment in some time for this show.

Things that made me smile this week:

I mean c'mon, how cute are they?!

As of this writing/posting the winner hasn't been determined, but Robert, Lauren, and Kent each did a splendid job in the finale performances and I'll be happy for any of them to win. (but I really want Lauren)

Kent seems like a foregone conclusion, but if we're to believe Nigel, the votes each week have been very close and have switched often. So maybe it is anyone's game.

Things that made me ambivalent this week:

1. After a spectacularly bad showing in the veto competition this past weekend, it's a fact that one of my Big Brother office pool picks will be going home tonight.  And most likely it will be Rachel. Sigh... I really can't stand either her or Brendon, but I did want them to stick around in the house awhile longer (beyond the fact that I win money if they stay), because I hate Matt and the STUPID Brigade. Seriously. Vomit. And I also hate that all of the women are being systematically picked off this season. It's depressing. Here's hoping that Ragan can stir some stuff up as the new saboteur.
2. Real Housewives of D.C. premiered last week and it was both better and worse than I thought it would be. I'm surprised that there's only one black D.C. housewife, but I'm not offended, if that makes sense. I also liked that it was acknowledged that very few of the movers and shakers in the area who claim to be from D.C. actually live in northern VA or in the Maryland suburbs. I'm looking forward to the next couple of episodes at least, although I don't know if I'm it for the long haul.