Thursday, June 22, 2006

Best of TV - Fall 2005 and Winter 2006 Season

I know. I'm a little late. Here it is:

Best of TV – The 2005-2006 TV Season

Remember, this is based on the old-school Fall – May Sweeps season so Entourage, Rescue Me and Weeds does not qualify. Nor does Sopranos or Big Love cause I just don’t get them here on my basic cable. (Feel free to make donations to get me Tivo and all the cable channels in the world).

I will say this. Particularly my top 4 shows, are pretty much interchangeable in the order. Since every week as soon as I watch Everwood on Mondays, it’s the BEST show, Veronica Mars on Tuesdays, it’s the BEST show, Lost on Wednesdays, it’s the BEST show, and The Office on Thursdays, it’s the BEST show. Alas, after much thought and debate (you wonder what I do all day at my jobs huh?), here is the final order and I’m sticking to it!


1. Everwood – Alas, it was the most human and humane drama of them all, simple, realistic and yet completely thrilling and emotionally draining and will be much missed. Four years and at this point, the Browns, the Abbotts, Hannah, Nina, hell, even Jake, became part my world, as we watched them live, make mistakes, yet still strive to become good people, albeit with a wicked sense of sarcasm.


2. The Office – The fact that I actually care about Creed, Toby, Phyllis, Kelly, Kevin, Stanley, Jan, Angela, Oscar on top of loving Dwight, Michael, Ryan, Pam and Jim makes you realize how deep into the lives of the employees of Dundler Mifflin this series has gotten over the past season. And all funny to watch!


3. Lost – Can you believe Season 2 only started out with the hatch? Pre Anna, Pre Desmond, Pre Mr. Eko, Pre Button pushing, Pre Henry Gale, Pre Dharma Initiative. Pre giant toes, Pre Libby, Pre Arctic foreigners, Pre gigantic . And you thought this show was SLOW? I beg to differ, as it slowly investigates each of these castaway survivors and their place in whatever world they are in. Does fate, logic, destiny or our own doing create the world we live in?


4. Veronica Mars – A bus crash, gang wars, a pedophile, 2 rapists, a bomber, con artists and of course, the aptly named rival detective Vinnie Van Lowe, and our favorite, Sherrif Lamb. Seriously, how much funnier and heartwarming can this show get? I’m being totally serious too! Kristen Bell leads off the show with charm and sass to spare, and is surrounded with the fantastic, though questionable characters around the town of Neptune, which makes this show not just a great detective show, but a great comedy, drama, mystery, action and romance as well. To those who haven’t seen the finale, and wanted to know who made the bus crash? They answer it in season 1 already, you just didn’t know it. Brilliant and Fun!


5. Grey’s Anatomy – We laugh, we cry, we want to throw things at Meredith. Finally a smart soap with imperfect characters that still resonate with us, in all its’ realities. A top notch cast that balances the dramatic pathos and the comedic high jinxes set within Seattle Grace Hospital headed by writer Shonda Rhimes.

6. Arrested Development – A perfect cast for hilarious absurdity. The fact that they went all out nuts, from Busters hook hand, George Michael and cousin Maeby (Oh I GET IT NOW… MAEBY maybe is not…)’s back and forth crushes, Tobias and Lindsay’s “marriage”… to the brilliant guest appearance from Charlize Theron. However, nothing topped the perfect series finale and Ann-yungs return.


7. Scrubs – Another perfect cast for more hilarious absurdity, this time with a dose of heart and moroseness. Zach Braff, Judy Reyes, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke make the best buddy/couple foursome with a bit of John C. Dr. Cox McGinley thrown in. Don’t forget The Todd, Dr. Kelso, Sam, Laverne, Jordan or The Janitor who round out Sacred Heart with sacred hearts. (You know I had to).


8. Gilmore Girls – I give it that this was an incredibly frustrating year, where as another internet post put it, Lorelai and Luke were possessed by aliens. At least that’s what must have been it to explain the inconsistencies in their characters actions. Still, leave it to Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson that even when we wanted to give them a nice smack in the head, we still wanted to hug them right after. The charms, the dialogue, the wonderful world of Stars Hollow had made us deeply care for these characters, to the point where when we saw them do wrong, it made us viewers mad in the real world. Lorelai and Rory’s fight for the first half of the season was true, wicked, and heartfelt, we just wish now they could find men who would treat them perfectly, and not realistically, the way Luke and Logan have actually been written. Still, throw in Sebastian Back singing Hollaback Girl and we still find ourselves adoring this show.


9. How I Met Your Mother – Neil Patrick Harris is BACK folks and at the top of his game as Barney, the soul sucking womanizing wanna-be who “suits up” for a “legen-...wait for it...and I hope you're not lactose-intolerant 'cause the second half of that word is...dairy” time. Add in perfect couple (so we think) Marshall and Lily and a charming lead in Josh Radnor, we get the next young people’s traditional (thought to be dead) sitcom that makes us laugh out loud and makes us care.


10. The Loop – Bret Harrison, Philip Baker Hall and Mimi Rogers in the corporate setting duking it out. Add a hilarious bitter Chinese secretary and you’ve got the perfect workplace comedy. Lose the home stuff, with lazy brother, kooky blonde roommate and the unrequited love, (granted, some of those scenes are still hilarious) and we have The Loop. Another crazy comedy from Fox that I thought would never last, but will be joining the American Idol lineup next year so please people. Give this a try.

11. The New Adventures of Old Christine
12. My Name is Earl
13. Everybody Hates Chris
14. Bones
15. Boston Legal
16. Love Monkey
17. Kitchen Confidential
18. The Amazing Race
19. Supernatural
20. Survivor: Exile Island
21. House
22. American Idol
23. ER
24. Without a Trace
25. Sons & Daughters

25.5 Desperate Housewives - Overall the story arcs have sucked but there are still some of the funniest lines and moments on.

25.7 Alias - Totally ridiculous 5 x over but that was always its curse yet its' asset.

Other Guilty Pleasures

Dancing with the Stars, Freddie, The OC, Out of Practice, the last 5 minutes of Extrememe Makeover: Home Edition.


More After the Jump...

Shameless Plug - Whistler on CTV and The N

Not a show I'm personally connected to, but it's someone else I knows show. Granted, watch mainly for the Quinn character (far right on above pic) who is the best part of the show (and hopefully, they will follow him a LOT more)... well... because there are some annoying characters and while there is a LOT of potential, right now, er, it's a little slow. Basically, its The OC meets Desperate Housewives meets Everwood meets any WB show, yet not really as good as any of them. Yet. They seem to concentrate far too much on the boring adults (and not in the good way like Sandy and Kirsten Cohen or Julie Cooper Nichols Cooper Roberts) especially when they actually HAVE a good young actor to concentrate on.

Anyways, check it out: Whistler on CTV this Sunday, June 25th at 10pm or on The N on Friday May 30th (I believe at 9pm).


More After the Jump...

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

hey non-Emmy Voters - Vote for Big Brother 7!

YEAH! Let the trashiness begin! Oh my god I'm so sadly excited. Voting starts tonight at midnight until next Wednesday, but here is the early list of who the 20 are (12 will enter the house).

So vote for KAYSAR and JANELLE!!!


and NAKOMIS! WILL! DANIELLE! HOWIE! JAMES!

do NOT vote for Jase, Michael, Mike, Yvette (well, maybe Yvette cause I wanna see another Janelle+Kaysar+Howie smackdown).

Let the summer begin!


More After the Jump...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

hey Emmy Voters - vote for THESE!

Aw crap, I screwed up and forgot that the Emmy's were due today. Granted, not like I know anybody who votes for the Emmy's (as oppose to knowing people who can vote for the Oscars... yes, that was my name dropping right there) reads this. Or anybody period. Anyways, Here's is my Emmy wish List:

Who I would nominate for the Emmy’s?

As you may notice, I didn’t stick to the 5 per category rule because every person listed deserves a nomination, but I did highlight my top 5 picks if I had to with a *. If i had a few extra selections, the ** would be my choices. People are also sometimes in the "wrong" category but that's where I think they SHOULD fit in, even though they are listed elsewhere.

Best Comedy
Entourage *
Scrubs *
Arrested Development *
The Office *
Gilmore Girls *
Weeds **
My Name is Earl **
Everybody Hates Chris
How I Met Your Mother
The New Adventures of Old Christine

Best Actor Comedy
Kevin Connolly, Entourage *
Jason Bateman, Arrested Development *
Jason Lee, My Name is Earl *
Steve Carell, The Office *
John Krasinski, The Office **
John C. McGinley, Scrubs *
Zach Braff, Scrubs
Tyler James Williams, Everybody Hates Chris
Bret Harrison, The Loop
Tom Cavanaugh, Love Monkey

Best Actress Comedy

Lauren Graham, Gilmore Girls *
Julia Louis Dreyfuss, The New Adventures of Old Christine **
Tichina Arnold, Everybody Hates Chris *
Jenna Fisher, The Office **
Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives *
Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives *
Gillian Vigman, Sons & Daughters
Mary Louise Parker, Weeds *

Best Supporting Actor Comedy
Jeremy Piven, Entourage *
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met your Mother *
Rainn Wilson, The Office *
Will Arnet, Arrested Development *
Jeffrey Tambor, Arrested Development
Michael Sera, Arrested Development *
Angus T. Jones, Two and a Half Men
Ty Burrell, Out of Practice
Terry Crews, Everybody Hates Chris
Tony Hale, Arrested Development **
Greg Pitts, Sons & Daughters
Philip Baker Hall, The Loop
Shawn Pyfrom, Desperate Housewives **
Hamish Linklater, The New Adventures of Old Christine

Best Supporting Actress Comedy
Jamie Prestly, My Name is Earl *
Judy Reyes, Scrubs *
Jessica Walters, Arrested Development *
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Melanie Lynskey, Two and a Half Men
Kelly Bishop, Gilmore Girls *
Liza Weil, Gilmore Girls *
Portia de Rossi, Arrested Development
Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development
Elisabeth Perkins, Weeds **
Harriet Samson Smith, Desperate Housewives
Nicolette Sheridan, Desperate Housewives **

Comedy Guest Actress
Charlize Theron, Arrested Development
Kate Winslet, Extras
Katrhyn Joosten, Desperate Housewives
Juliette Lewis, My Name is Earl
Amy Adams, The Office

Comedy Guest Actor
Malcolm McDowell, Entourage
Alec Baldwin, Will & Grace
Giovanni Ribisi, My Name is Earl
Bobby Canavale, Will & Grace
Tom Cavanaugh, Scrubs

Best Drama
Lost
Grey’s Anatomy
Everwood
Without a Trace
Boston Legal

Best Actor Drama
Gregory Smith, Everwood *
Treat Williams, Everwood **
Naveen Andrews, Lost *
Terry O’Quinn, Lost *
Matthew Fox, Lost *
Hugh Laurie, House *
Anthony LaPaglia, Without a Trace
Bradley Whitford, The West Wing
Victor Garber, Alias
Patrick Dempsey, Grey’s Anatomy
Adrian Brody, The OC **
William Shatner, Boston Legal
James Spader, Boston Legal

Best Actress Drama
Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars *
Emily Van Camp, Everwood *
Maura Tierney, ER *
Marg Helgenberger, CSI **
Jennifer Garner, Alias **
Rachel Bilson, The OC *
Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy *
Emily Deschanel, Bones
Geena Davis, Commander in Chief

Best Supporting Actor Drama
Chris Pratt, Everwood *
Tom Amandes, Everwood *
Daniel Dae Kim, Lost *
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Lost
T.R. Knight, Grey’s Anatomy *
Jason Dohring, Veronica Mars *
Enrico Colantoni, Veronica Mars **
Kyle Gallner, Veronica Mars
Scott Grimes, ER
Richard Schiff, The West Wing
Isaiah Washington, Grey’s Anatomy
Justin Chambers, Grey’s Anatomy
Robert Knepper, Prison Break **
Donald Sutherland, Commander in Chief
Anthony Azzizi, Commander in Chief

Best Supporting Actress Drama
Yoon-Jin Kim, Lost *
Sandra Oh, Grey’s Anatomy *
KateWalsh, Grey’s Anatomy *
Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy *
Mary Lynn Rajskub, 24 **
Jean Smart, 24 **
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Without a Trace
Parminder Nagra, ER *
Janel Maloney, The West Wing
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Ever Carradine, Commander in Chief

Guest Actor Drama
Michael J. Fox, Boston Legal
Michael Emerson, Lost
Currie Graham, House
Ron Livingston, House
James Woods, ER

Guest Actress Drama

Monica Keena, Grey’s Anatomy
Lena Olin, Alias
Shoreh Aghdashloo, ER
Parker Posey, Boston Legal
L. Scott Caldwell, Lost
Cynthia Nixon, House

Best Reality
Project Runway
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Survivor
Dancing with the Stars


More After the Jump...

Monday, June 19, 2006

My version of the Gossip Column

Basically, most of you don't know who these people are but somehow this excites me more than Brangelina...
but Josh Kelley (my fav song of last year "Almost Honest") and Kathrine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy) are engaged? How cute since honestly speaking, they seem like they are from two different celebrity worlds (but this works as opposed to Tomkat).


More After the Jump...

Amy Awards and my Best of TV list update

Amy Awards are back, and it's time for the nominations, although after a morning of chatter, there are definite front runners already. Or in the case of the "Let's Lemon Law This (aka The Worst Show)", only 7th Heaven seems to be only major winner (or shall I say loser) of this category.

I'm also glad to see that I wasn't the only one to show my wrath and love and devotion to Everwood.

Meanwhile, that will give you a hint to what will appear as number one on my Best of TV list which I'll probably publish Thursday for you to peruse over at the lengthiest moment since I'll basically be gone for 2 weeks after this weekend. I'll also have my pleas to the Emmy's.


More After the Jump...

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Treasure Hunters - Or proof that Phil Keoghan's job is harder than you think + the MMVA's

To The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan naysayers, just watch a few minutes of Treasure Hunters (aka: The Amazing Race: Da Vinci Code edition/Ripoff) and listen to the robot/host speak. like. this. with. a. pause. after. every. word. in. a. monotone. voice. and you'll appreciate Phil more than ever. Watch the entire show and you'll appreciate The Amazing Race more than ever.

In theory, Treasure Hunters should work even better than TAR, since it balances a bit of sleuthing along with the racing, a complaint I have with TAR in their diminishing puzzle solving challenges. However, whether its the A&E style camera work, the robot narrator, or the charicature casting, Treasure Hunters is BORING and a little corny and not in the trashy way Big Brother is (ALL STARS! STARTS WEDNESDAY!!!).

Over on the MMVA's (Much Music Video Awards), CITY AND COLOUR is ONLY Dallas Green? (Whats with these one people bands like The Streets and stuff?). and DALLAS Green is from Alexisonfire? How come I didn't know any of this? Funny how his little solo side project City and Colour has completely taken off, probably from his guest appearance on the Neverending White Lights' song "The Grace", and will probably be bigger than his originating band Alexisonfire.

I'd make fun of apparently new Torontonian Tori Spelling but I kinda sort of love her. I give my love to the needy, don't you know that people? I'm a philantropist.


More After the Jump...

Friday, June 16, 2006

Gasp! The Lord of the Rings:The Musical possibly closing soon!

GASP... although... really... should any of us have been suprised? While I wish SOMETHING huge would happen on the Toronto Stages (PLEASE bring BILLY ELLIOT THE MUSICAL!), wish something with more than just huge money, alas, The Lord of the Rings: The Musical will not be it, as inside word is it'll close within the first few weeks of July now. Oh well, not a horrible musical but definitely needed a LOT more work and editing and wasn't really ready for audiences yet. Plus after years of the Lord of the Rings movies, did we really need more? Much like Ring of Fire closing on Broadway, why would they produce another Johnny Cash show at the same time? What happened to diversity?

Anyways, as a footnote, sometimes Toronto does seem to take a while to latch onto stuff, waiting it to be big in the States first (see The Drowsy Chaperone or Kiss of the Spiderwoman) (only Ragtime seemed to do better in Toronto than it did on Broadway).

Oh well, again, I thought Wicked was way worse than LOTR The Musical but will be back AGAIN to Toronto and plays to sold out audiences in NY. I give up sometimes.


More After the Jump...

Madison was supposed to be back on Everwood?

MADISON was supposed to be back on Everwood and was in the alternative ending? Now I REALLY REALLY Hate The CW...


More After the Jump...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

So You Think You Can Dance

AW CRAP... I got sucked in again.

This year seems to have even better and more entertaining dancers... GODAMNIT...


More After the Jump...

What has Laguna Beach Wrought?

Did anybody see How to Get the Guy or The Tuesday Night Book Club? Nice camera work, first brought by Laguna Beach, with it's shiny glossy camerawork but capturing "documentary" style the "realities" of Laguna. Admitedly, Laguna had a bit of trashy addictiveness to it, but after a while, COME ON.
Now? How to... and Tuesday Night...? Please. As host of How to... we have Theresa "I was fired from While You Were Out because even hosting yet another reno show I can be grating and thankfully was replaced by the much more enjoyable Evan Farmer" Strasser, meanwhile, even the commercials alone for Tuesday makes me want to be un-manly and slap all those women.

I know it's summer filler but what happened to the Summer TV Season? Entourage, Rescue Me and Big Brother (I know. Trash. but fun trash... hehe) cannot just be it? Can it?

In the meantime, I'm a little late on my Best of the Past TV Season list and my Emmy hopes as I'm STILL catching up with May Sweeps. Soon...soon...


More After the Jump...

iPod on-the-go Music List

Alright people. I give up. I surrender to Nelly Furtado's Promiscuous and Shakira's Hips Don't Lie. I don't want to like them but the bazillion times it's played on every media format in every nook and crany of the city has forced me to find myself humming the tunes all day long.

In the meantime, also LOVING Rascal Flatts new version of "Life is a Highway" from the Soundtrack of Pixar's Cars.

So here is my list at this moment:

Rascall Flatts - Life is a Highway (makes you totally forget about Tom Cochrane. Which is a good thing).
The Fray - How to Save a Life Album (such a GOOD Album)
Keane - Under the Iron Sea Album (didn't love it at first but now I LOVE it. Darker than Hopes and Fears. Comes out next week)
X-tina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
Zac Efron & Vanessa Anne-Hudgens - What I've Been Looking For (Reprise) (from the High School Musical soundtrack)
John Mayer - Route 66 (at least the first 2 minutes of it, then he gets all self-indulgent with his guitar again. From the Pixar's Cars soundtrack).
Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice
All-American Rejects - Move Along
Rob Mills - Up All Night Album (Took me a while but now I can't get it off. Even though it's really just like some BBMak mashup with Nick Carter album but better than Nick with a little Switchfoot thrown in. Also a few weeks late to enter my best of Idol charts as he was Australia's Idol apparently)
Embrace - Ashes
Embrace - A Glorious Day
Orson - No Tomorrow
Mobile - Out of my Head
Brad Paisley - Find Yourself (also from Pixar's Cars soundtrack. Okay. the whole thing is not bad!)


More After the Jump...

Monday, June 12, 2006

Best Musicals and The Tony Awards

Not necessarily the same thing.

Still, predictable Tony awards last night for the Play categories but some surprises in the Musicals. Happy for LaChanze who was so good in Company a few years back on Broadway and always deserved to win at some point, just thought Patti LuPone had it in the bag for being in Sweeney Todd AND playing the Tuba for it. Christian Hoff from Jersey Boys looked TRULY ASTOUNDED by his surprise win.


Basically, people voted with their hearts again this year, since fun and bouncy The Pajama Game won over the critically acclaimed Sweeney Todd, sort of the War and Peace of musicals, important to see, and much appreciated, but do people love it? This of course sets up Company that will be revived this fall, in the same actors/orchestra manner that Sweeney Todd is, will win next year (apparently the device works even better for that show, and that show is about love and relationships so much more loved).

So, Don McKellar and Bob Martin won best Book for Drowsy! Too bad it lost to Jersey Boys in the Best Musical category, though I can't exactly fault it, cause while it's a Jukebox musical, apparently its actually quite good, and Drowsy, while amusing, is not the perfect musical either.

So while I'm at it. What ARE the Best Musicals to see? Here are my all-time picks, because as you know. I love making Lists... (these however are only based on musicals I have seen live on stage so it leaves out some classics that I havent seen yet or Avenue Q which I still haven't actually seen yet, but based on the soundtrack, sounds fantastic. Also leaves out Opera's like Baz Lurhman's Pucini's La Boheme and "events" like Da La Gaurda, or dance shows like Matthew Bourne's The Car Man).

1. Rent (still playing on Broadway and around the world)
2. Ragtime
3. Company (back on Broadway in the fall)
4. Into the Woods
5. The Who's Tommy
6. Cabaret
7. Chicago (still playing on Broadway)
8. Billy Elliot (still playing in London's West End)
9. Urinetown
10. Les Miserable (must be playing somewhere in the world right? Re-opening on Broadway soon)
11. Mamma Mia (still playing on Broadway)
12. Crazy for You
13. The Lion King (still playing on Broadway)
14. Oh What a Lovely War!
15. The Full Monty
16. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
17. Top Gun The Musical
18. Hairspray (still playing on Broadway)
19. Show Boat
20. The Drowsy Chaperone (still playing on Broadway)
21. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
22. My Fair Lady
23. Miss Saigon
24. Guys and Dolls (still playing in London’s West End)
25. Boygroove
26. Jolson
27. Little Shop of Horrors
28. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
29. The Lord of the Rings (still playing in Toronto)

Shows that were okay

The King and I
Once upon a Matress
Kat and the Kings
Beauty and the Beast


Most Disappointing

Wicked
Smokey Joes Café
Fosse
The Producers
Starlight Express
(quite possibly the worst musical EVER)


More After the Jump...

Movie Review - Cars

r
Worst Pixar film, but thats still far better than most Dreamworks/Sony/other animated films or other non-animated films period! (Think more in terms of A Bugs Life or Monsters, Inc. rather than Finding Nemo or The Incredibles). Which surprised me cause the trailers were starting to look pretty bad, but in the end, Pixar creates an amazing world with lovable characters that ultimately win your heart (despite being the most cliched of the Pixar movies). For Entourage fans, look out for a hilarious Jeremy Piven voice cameo, and make sure you stay right until the very end of the movie. And look carefully throughout the movie because that is where all the jokes are. Not the funniest of movies script wise, but so many visual gags that I found most of the audience laughing at different bits depending on what you caught and notice. LOTS of inside jokes.

7/10

Update: I've changed my grade to 9/10 or A- upon second viewing.


More After the Jump...

Friday, June 09, 2006

The Tony Awards! If anybody still cares

The Tony Awards are on this Sunday for the 2 other people that usually care to watch! I would do a listing of my predictions but they are almost the same as the Entertainment Weekly one, or the NY Times, and none of you would know what I'm talking about anyways.


The History Boys will win Best Play, deservedly so. That's why I bought tickets and actually saw that one. I knew. ha.
Now will audience fav Jersey Boys or theatre audience fav The Drowsy Chaperone take Best Musical? Just for the Canadian connection, my hearts for Drowsy.

Sweeney Todd will definitely take the Best Revival Musical.


More After the Jump...

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Movie Review - A Prarie Home Companion

Great cast with great performances but while probably in tune with the whole notion and atmos of the radio show (I've never heard the NPR show before or even heard of Garrison Keillor before), seemed a little inconsequetial as a movie. Basically like a tasty canapé when you want a full meal.

Worth it though just to watch Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep as singing sisters, and Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly sing "Bad Jokes", but Lyndsay Lohan's big breakthrough role with an A cast was a bit exagerated. While not horrible, and there are traces of a pretty good actress in there (which she did prove with Freaky Friday and Mean Girls), she doesn't totally ruin her scenes with Meryl Streep, but it still wasn't the role that I would think gets her "noticed" as a true actress. Not yet at least.

Who IS a star (other than Meryl, Lily, John, Woody, Kevin Kline) is Virginia Madsen who, for me at least, came from nowhere two years ago with Sideways (I don't remember her in the 80's) and takes her luminous presence to fill the role of "Dangerous Woman"/Angel perfectly. Can't wait to see her in this fall's Smith.

6/10


More After the Jump...

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

What is this? A Parade? Another Office Visitor

This time its the tall young lanky nerdy guy from Criminal Minds just passed through our office for a visit. Apparently we do have fans in Hollywood...


More After the Jump...

Office Visitors


How funny! Jonathan Togo (above) and Brendan Fehr of CSI: Miami are touring our offices and sets because they are a big fan of the show that I work on... (it's a show I've plugged before to people that don't know me). Though Jonathan is a lot shorter than I thought (though, aren't they always? except Clive Owen) but very nice.


More After the Jump...

Everwood - Foreverwood, Series Finale


That. Is. How. A. Finale. is. Done.

It never lost touch with its own core and yet gave us every manipulative, traditional happy endings we secretly wanted for the folks in Everwood, and yet, it totally worked, because it stayed true to itself.

And what a wheeper it was... I actually missed a huge plot point in the end because by the last 30 min, I couldn't see through the tears.

Everwood never was afraid to tackle issues realistically, with non-happy deal-with-it-now stories threads. It killed characters before it became trendy ( I mean, even Brenda Strong died in the Everwood pilot, before she died more famously in the Desperate Housewives pilot not to mention what happened in Season 2). They never were afraid to make their main characters get mean or annoying (remember Amy with druggie Tommy? Ephram in Season 3?), or let their characters do stupid things (remember Amy with druggie Tommy? the "Madison" story, Harold Abbott lying on the adoption application form, Andy Brown falling for Anne Heche's married woman, Bright's womanizing etc.) and yet through it all, it had far more of a moral core than another show that was recently cancelled on The WB only to be revived from the dead to The CW.

So long Everwood! It was a pleasure to visit!


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Monday, June 05, 2006

CTV Fall Sched 2006

Did CTV have any more room for shows? They still managed to pick up Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, Justice, 30 Rock, The Nine, 20 Good Years, The Class, and Smith. To the point where they are actually throwing some potentially great shows (30 Rock) on Saturdead nights, and continuing to place some new shows Sunday afternoon.

And the Must See TV (CTV?) Conundrum? Solved since CTV has all the American 9pm slot shows (worth mentioning) and will put The OC, Grey's Anatomy and CSI back to back starting at 7pm (with ER staying put in the 10pm slot).

I think they should have picked up Six Degrees and Brothers and Sisters but again, where would they have put it?

Well, so this won't be the year Global pulls ahead again...


More After the Jump...

Friday, June 02, 2006

Entourage - The Boys are BACK!


Well, again, I don't get HBO so I'll have to get it ... ahem... another way, but Entourage is back for Season 3 and let's hope we get to see Ari "Hug it out, bitch!" as he deals with being ousted from his agency.

While Entourage won't appear on my Best of TV from this past season list (only because it doesn't actually fit into the correct time of the last season), it was on my Best of TV list of 2005, so hopefully this show will gain even more ground this coming season while people catch up with this show.

I wonder if the "Aquaman" in Entourage would have been any better than the Aquaman pilot that was commisioned for The WB/The CW that ultimately, did not get picked up (for apparently good reason).


More After the Jump...

The Gratuitous Entry

Wow! The much-mocked Canadian TV drama "Falcon Beach" premieres on ABCFamily this weekend (though the drama is now set in New England rather than Manitoba, probably since even Canadians don't even care where that is) and the New York Times review liked it better than "Beyond the Break", the other scantily clad show premiering on The N tonight. Though we are talking marginally speaking of course. Now that means Beyond the Break has got to be horrific since Falcon Beach stinks. Still, here are the gratuitous promo shots of each show.

How awesome that there exists someone in the world that still employs David Chokachi (centre)?

Even the promo shots for Falcon Beach look faked in. Love the Zoolander look for the dweeb on the right. And hey, its Degrassi shooter guy (second from left)!


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Thursday, June 01, 2006

iPod On-the-Go List

Been a while, basically same stuff as last time. Tried out the new The Streets album but don't love it as much as Original Pirate Material.

loving new Dixie Chicks.

and... NEW XTINA!!!


More After the Jump...

aBEEc - The Scripps National Spelling Bee on ABC

Oh yeah! It's that time of year again! Only instead of ESPN, the finals are going onto big brother ABC at 8pm tonight!

Trust me people, it's a lot more fun and tense and stressful and exciting than you would imagine!

Though, wonder what ABC might do to change it. Hope they just keep it plain and simple the way they do it live on ESPN.


More After the Jump...