Okay I've totally gone musical theatre mad again and have been playing my old musical discs (like Company, The Who's Tommy, Ragtime, Hairspray, High School Musical, and Rent) again, but here's also some clips of Jersey Boys, A Chorus Line, and Spring Awakening in which they have a download for the iPod for the song "Bitch of Living". OMG I can't wait to see this next month!
Woohoo! Men In Trees got a full season pick up AND moved to the plum post-Grey's Anatomy spot on Thursdays at 10pm starting Nov. 30th and now against cast member Abraham Benrubi's old show (and hot again) ER.
Poor Six Degrees has been shuffled off until the new year (if at all).
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip got a full season pick up so I guess rich viewers are more important that lots of poor viewers.
What else? Due to some family obligations, I missed last nights Fall Finale for Lost and now I'm so behind on everything else (Boston Legal, Heroes, ER, Supernatural, The OC...) that I'll have to play major catch-up over the next two weekends.
Meanwhile, I'm getting mighty annoyed at CTV here in Canada for wreaking havoc on their schedule constantly putting on, then pulling off 30 Rock, The Nine, moving Dancing with the Stars, but
Shameless Plug of the week:
Degrassi: The Next Generation Season 6 finally starts on Tuesday November 28th at 8pm for a full hour slot (sadly against my new favorite show Friday Night Lights, which also bears the school team The Panthers... hmm...).
Veronica turns in an A paper but then is accused of plagiarizing after being courted by criminology Prof. Landry (Patrick Fabian who I still remember from Saved By the Bell: The College Years as Prof. Lasky). Veronica is on her case to save her butt, while Wallace owns up to his cheating but decides to stick with the big old Zero and continue with his dream, Mechanical Engineering, at a loss to his basketball playing days.
Veronica and Dean O'Dell have some strange relationship where he seems to trust everything she says, and kicks Claire out of Hearst College accusing her of fabricating the rape. TA Tim Foyle (with the worst wig EVER) also notes the lack of DNA evidence on the rapes, as Veronica eventually tracks down her culprit to a possible disgruntled TA who leads Veronica to a philandering Dr. Landry (with Dean O'Dell's wife no less).
Pizz invites Veronica to bowling as a group, only thing is, the only group to show up is Veronica's Logan and Parker, but Parker ends up having fun and ends up with a crush on Pizz, who has no interest in her. Parker recognizes Mercer Hayes' cologne from the rape, and off goes Veronica snooping at his dorm room where she finds a razor and reports it to Sherriff Lamb. Lamb found the cashbox from last week's Casino night burglary where GHB was found along with the money and Mercer Hayes is arrested, but Logan knows he didn't do it because they were together on the night of one of the rapes.
Oh yeah, and Harmony is back and wants some Keith Mars lovin', who rejects her until a sudden car crash prompts him to go all November Sweeps on us and out of character and madly rushes back to Harmony at the Neptune Grande for a lustful night. Not sure I bought any of that, but it was still nice to see Laura San Giacomo (I've loved her ever since "Cinderfucken-rella") back with her old-costar Enrico Collantoni after I thought it was just a one episode stint.
Meanwhile, Mac must still be in Big Love country.
Go, Bulldogs!
It's parents day weekend at Yale and Christopher wants to act as Rory's Father again dragging Lorelai to the embarrass-your-kid event, where they encounter Emily (I'm still shocked to find out Kelly Bishop played Sheila in the original cast of A Chorus Line on Broadway) and Richard already at the precedings.
Christopher tries to make up for all the lost years of fatherhood by inviting Rory's newspaper staff to an expensive lunch with a finale of Cognac and Crème Brûlée but before they reach deserts, a newsworthy incident sends the drunk staff back to work at Rory's command.
Meanwhile, Luke takes up swimming lessons for April's sake and we definitely find out that Scott Patterson is balding but still looks like a truck and hasn't lost much of his former Baseball playing days. Luke inadvertently goes on a date with the coach instructor which begins and continues disasterously at a vegan restaurant. Kirk is given advice to hang on to Lulu for dear life by the No-One-Cares-What-You-Do Luke after Kirk contemplates dumping her for stiffling him.
Christopher and Lorelai continue to play couple as we lead into their big Paris trip (ahem...) while Sookie uses the vegetables of a Jackson rival only to disapointedly have made her best Ratatouille ever. Michel wants to be called Captain and Lane bonds with April.
Cute episode, seems to be moving along to the big Paris surprise (it IS November Sweeps you know) and while the stacato verbal diaharea was not as clunky as past episodes this year, I still feel it's trying a little too hard with getting it "clever".
One of Saracen's friends gets beat up by hothead football defencemen Bobby Reyes after derogatory words were thrown by Voodoo at the diner shop, but as high school status quo dictates, the footballer gets off scott free while the blame is laid on the innocent bystandered who happened to be in the way (though after muttering the truthful statement that it's only football in the end).
Tim takes Jason Street on a road trip escaping from the rehabiliation centre for a day, and Lyla succombs and joins them as they re-evaluate their initial goals to include the frustrations of Jason's new injured reality.
Coach and Buddy Garrity are cleared of any wrong doing with the Voodoo recruiting incident, basically because the evaluator is a friend of Buddy's. Coach however continues to keep Voodoo from his QB position leaving Saracen at the helm.
Saracen and best friend Landry aren't speaking because of the beating incident, as Saracen slowly starts changing into a full fledged football jock/asshole. Saracen finally grows some cajones and admits to Coach (whose wife Tami never believed Reyes' side of the story to begin with) that the incident was in fact Bobby Reyes' fault, and Coach Taylor follows through as a true leader, kicking Bobby off the team.
In the end, Jason Street is brought back to the rehabilitation centre only to catch a glimpse of Lyla and Tim hugging awfully close in a brilliantly simple shot where they camera pans through the window, back to Jason's reflection on the window and back through it to below where the secret is revealed to Jason.
Um, can this show get any better? I thought it was already great but this episode just topped it all. I don't cry usually (except for the Everwood finale) but my eyes watered a bit when Saracen confessed to Coach Taylor about what he knew of the El Accidente. The entire episode was dramatic yet the realism made all the more impact.
How I Met Your Mother - Aldrin Justice
How I Met Your Mother - Crazy Eyes
The Office - Initiation
The Office - Diwali
First of all on HIMYM - Crazy Eyes (although I think I preferred the original episode title Swarley), the diss on Friends a la the Coffee house with our new friends agreeing that a bar is just more fun was totally hilarious, especially since the place looked awfully similar to Central Perk.
Then there was the mini Whedon reunion when Morena Baccarin (Firefly) guest starred as Chloe, the coffee barista that Marshall finally goes on his first date with, who the boys convince has Crazy Eyes. Meanwhile Lily who really goes crazy when she learns the news chases after Chloe and Marshall with some brief advice from Scott/Brian played by Tom Lenk (ANDREW! on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I think seeing both those two in addition to regular Alyson Hannigan already made my day and this episode, which was already going from the news that Neil Patrick Harris came out, which somehow makes his womanizing Barney even funnier.
Previously on HIMYM - Aldrin Justice, Bryan Cranston and Jane Seymour guest as crazy adults in our new friends world. Bryan as Ted's crazy architect boss whose big design looked like... well... a big penis in the sky. Jane Seymour plays a crazy hard professor which Barney seeks as his mission to tame the wild cougar, but instead falls prey to her and her expertise. All hilarious stuff and now I see a side of Jane Seymour I never thought the medicine lady would ever have again since her Bond girl days (and does the new Bond movie looked totally excellent or what? Reviews are in from the Brits and its good news!).
Over at The Office, Dwight takes Ryan for a ride in Initiation while Kelly invites the team to a celebration for Diwali where Michael again deems himself worldly enough to teach the rest about the Indian culture (like showing fine leaders like Apu from The Simpsons !?!). Michael proposes to new girlfriend Carol, almost tries to kiss Pam in the most awkward of moments, and Angela is totally appalled by the entire affair, including when Dwight walks in barefoot.
Over at the Stanford office, the group drinks up at work, but Karen is too clever and dumps the alcohol at every shot, leaving Jim and Andy completely wasted. Ah, let the sly flirtations between Jim and Karen continue, even though poor Pam is trying to contact Jim from the Diwali party, where Roy has also shown up (and looking better than ever, don't you think?).
On a side note, I passed by Two and a Half Men and realised that the skinny girl was none other than Less Than Perfect and Popular's Sara Rue. WHAT HAPPENED? She was practically unrecognizable and I'm not sure I liked it. I think I liked slightly heftier Sara Rue (not that she was fat in real world terms by far anyways).
Avenue Q – John Golden Theater, New York
A Chorus Line - Schoenfeld Theater, New York
Evil Dead The Musical – New World Stages, New York
I was able to hop around Broadway Saturday while I was in New York (uh. The real reason was to cheer on friends doing yesterday’s NY Marathon) and caught 3 shows in 1 day. Yes. I said 3 shows in ONE day. So to all of you out there? Yes, it can be done! And done for less than $100. (I’m not even lying there).
First up. Finally saw Avenue Q. I didn’t think I would have to explain myself at this point but apparently I did since 2 people in my group hadn’t even heard of it when I bought tickets for the group a few weeks back. I guess that’s what you get when you live in culturally-deprived Vancouver. I mean, they can eat soy and granola all they want and hike till the moose come home but apparently their knowledge of the world doesn’t exist beyond the Pacific Coast line or the Rocky Mountains (Yes, I like to make fun of Vancouver basically because I’m really jealous that none of them actually work for a living yet live in such a beautifully expensive place).
So, in case there’s a few other cultural-tards out there, Avenue Q is a musical about the puppets and people that were too poor to live on Sesame Street (or Avenue A), that end up living on Avenue Q. It’s about life, love and the pursuit of finding our Purpose in life. All done with humans holding puppets that look and sound just like Sesame Street until you listen to the adult words coming out of their puppet mouths and you realise… this isn’t Sesame Street anymore! This is Sesame Street grown up and paying Rent. There’s puppet swearing, full puppet nudity and even some puppet sex, yet the show is hilarious and heart-warming and completely lovable. It was the surprise winner at the 2004 Tony Awards for Best Musical, going on a campaign to “Vote with your Heart”, and alas, finally the small but smart little musical finally beat out the giants.
I have actually never seen Avenue Q despite it starting in 2003, but at this point, I’ve listened to the Cast Recording enough times that I can practically perform the entire show with my sock collection. With songs like “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”, “Schadenfreude”, “If You Were Gay” “You Can Be As Loud As You Want (When You’re Making Love” and “Internet is for Porn”, how can you not love this show? It’s hilarious, witty, but actually has some thought provoking themes beneath all the dirty puppet one-liners.
So seeing the show was more just a completion of the journey of Avenue Q for me since I knew I was going to love the show and it didn’t and is just simply one of my faves of all time.
Next up, seeing A Chorus Line again. Yes, I just saw it a few months ago in San Francisco, but that’s how much I loved this show. The dancing is hot, the dancers are hot, and the show pulls quite the emotional impact (one that my friend didn’t realise was going to exist beyond the razzle dazzle dancing). Sadly, one of my fave dancers, Tony Yazbeck was absent, but this time Paul McGill was here (last time he was away and we got the understudy). Natalie Cortez again wowed me as Diana, but really, everyone was just exceptional and I think I found my new obsession to rival my Rent obsession from a decade ago (man, has it really been a decade already?).
We got Standing Room tickets (sold on day-of only when the show is sold out) but as I’ve told everyone, it’s not as bad as it sounds and considering it’s less than ¼ of the price of the seats directly in front of you, it’s a great deal, especially since the Schoenfeld theatre is not very big in the first place.
Shameless Plug Alert:
Finally, we hopped over 7 blocks to the New World Stages Theatre (very modern, very slick, very cinema multiplex since there were 5 stages including Naked Boys Singing and Altar Boyz playing in the same complex. Weird mix with Evil Dead The Musical huh?) where my high school friend’s show Evil Dead The Musical just opened Off-Broadway (and a block away from Wicked which I didn't like by the way and totally deserved to be beat out by Avenue Q as Best Musical that year).
Again, I had seen this show before, back in its first incarnation at Toronto’s Tranzac Club when it was just a Fringe thing with practically no-budget. Little has changed now that it’s move all the way to New York on a real stage, but that’s a good thing.
The entire show honours and spoofs the Evil Dead movies by Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1 & 2) but you really don’t need to know anything about the movies to enjoy them (though you’ll get more of the in jokes if you do) since the story is really about 5 horny teenagers going to a secluded Cabin in the Woods, and in horror movies, we all know what THAT means!
So yes, the blood spews by the geysers full (they aren’t kidding when they say the first few rows are the “Splatter Zone” (which I HIGHLY recommend and can be bought ahead of time, and don’t worry, they give out free ponchos to protect yourselves if you want to (which I would especially if you are sitting in the first row on the left side but basically everyone will get soaked in blood)) and the puns and bad jokes keep coming out, but it all makes for a ridiculously silly bloody good time.
So kudos to my high school friend Christopher Bond for co-directing this (with Tony Award winner Hinton Battle, who played the singing devil in the amazing musical episode “Once More with Feeling” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and co-writing it with his Queen’s buddies. At least something good has come out of Queens University finally (Queens is the major rival to my alma mater McGill University)! :P
So yes, an interesting mix, from Adult Puppets to Sexy Dancers to Singing Corpses, it made for a wildly varied viewing concoction but all memorably excellent.
Next up in about a month, the revival of Company by John Doyle and Duncan Shiek's Spring Awakening!
Was that Embeth Davidtz as McDreamy’s sister? (Is Alessandro Nivola far behind? (both were in two favorites, Junebug and Mansfield Park).
Bailey questions her abilities after the Denny debacle, while Christina continues to cover for Burke in the surgery room. This causes Christina to block out Bailey from assisting Burke except Bailey thinks Burke did it, but in the end, Bailey catches Christina changing the board. OHHHH Christina is dead MEAT next week.
McDreamy’s sister shows up to check up on Derek and report back to the family back home. She still has a good relationship with Addison and Mark, and wonders who this interloper slut is that broke up the marriage.
Meridith is meanwhile left in charge of Izzie on her first day back. Izzie is basically forbidden to do anything, including speak to patients, ordered by Bailey. Izzie however sees a patients’ inconsistencies in her story and speaks out, saving the day in the end and getting kudos from Webber.
George keeps chasing after Callie to no avail. Callie disses Mark for being dirty dirty but no more. Mer and George reconnect to become each others BFF to replace Izzie and Christina. Mark and Mer have a moment as he moves on, and Alex is booted by Mark for being interested in Addison's double uterus' case.
Now, this is the first ep since the full fallout (and confirmation of the big McFight and McOuting) but luckily Grey’s Anatomy just pulls you back in and you (mostly) forget about it all (they are, after all, ACTORS). Still, just kinda makes George all the more loveable.
The Lyin', the Watch and the Wardrobe
Trust, Lust and Must
In the past two episodes, we get Christopher Gorham (as a nerdy accountant with Betty above), Judith Light (as Daniel's mother and drunk woman scorned), Debbie Mazar (as a fellow Queens resident who happens to be a lawyer with Hilda below), and exec-producer Salma Hayek (as an editor-in-chief for a new magazine about modern women). As if we couldn't love this show more, they get perfect guest casting (though I guess Salma Hayek is a given, and I think I preferred her more as an actress on the telenovelas show in the background).
Last week we had Betty dressed in a butterfly costume chasing around Manhattan trying to find Daniel's missing watch from all his one-night stands. Amanda had it all along, and yearns for Daniel's monogamy, which we all know is pretty laughable, but Becky Newton's heartfelt performance beyond her hilarious bitchy meaness (especially as her shell continued to unravel last night) gives some great depth to what could have been a one-note character.
Nico keeps calling Wilhelmina who keeps dodging the calls, until Nico finally shows up to reveal herself as Wilhelmina's daughter, who is angry at Wilhelmina for avoiding being a mother and showing any signs of warmth. Wilhelmina reasons that (her dad) The Senator taught her to build a shell in this tough world, and so must she to Nico, but it get's Wilhelmina thinking about it all as she sends Nico back to a boarding school (this one in Paris).
Daniel Meade, oblivious to Amanda's yearnings, goes after Salma Hayek's smarter-than-her-bossoms-look Editor-in-Chief, only to be outwitted far beyond his little boy's mind could handle. Trapped in an elevator, Daniel tries to withold looking up Salma's dress as she tries to escape through the roof, and the hilarity in Eric Mabius' face of the contemplation was Golden Globe worthy (I'd say Emmy's but they are dead to me after this year's travesty).I can't even remember all the great lines but I had a back to back burst out laugh-out-loud moments when Hilda notes that Mode magazine's office looks like a gay version of Star Trek and when Marc tells an acting-out Nico “Did you really think at imitating that very special episode of Punky Brewster was going to get your mother’s attention?".
Betty and Hilda find out that dad Ignacio is illegally in the United States and did not apply for green cards or anything because he and their mother were escaping her past, since Ignacio killed her first husband (GASP!)
How much do I love this show right now? Even news of a manslaughter from a beloved character this early in the game works (sorry Glowy Box, I beg to differ). I also have to put my two cents in between Christopher Gorham (who I adore since Popular) and Kevin Sussman as Walter. I SOOOOO WANT Chris Gorham on a TV show and Ugly Betty would be perfect, though the fears that he's a show killer is a little distressing (Jake 2.0, Out of Practice). His nerdy accountant and flirtations with Betty are wickedly cute and I want to see more of where this is going. Which is not to say I don't want Walter around either. I think Kevin Sussman has created a wonderfully dweeby character and while I don't want him to win back Betty (he DID cheat on our girl with the slutty neighbour who thankfully will be back in future eps), I like him enough that I think he could fit in somehow onto the show, if only to accentuate Mode's coolness with his foibles. Either way, bring on more Betty!
Welcome back to The OC, Bitch! Tonight at 7pm on CTV and 9pm on FOX (yes, against Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural, CSI, and soon to be joined by Scrubs. I think I need to buy a wall of TV's).
Okay, so since Oliver, there has always been things of suckiness to the show (the gardener, the lesbo, Sandy and Kirsten's rocky marriage, Mischa Barton).
However since they got rid of all the above listed problems, with a solid marriage between our favorite parental couple, the gardener and lesbo plots long gone, and Oliver never to be seen this side of a horror B-movie, I'm going to give The OC yet another chance, if only for Seth and Summer. Julie Cooper Nichols Cooper (have I forgotten anyone?) doesn't hurt either or the Melinda Clarke who plays her.
Of course this year there is a further enticement in the form of Chris Pratt who played Bright on my ever loved Everwood, is now signed on for The OC for 9 episodes now (it was extended from 6) as Ché, a hippie dude at Brown who gets Summer all granola'd.
Plus with Marissa's death, Ryan Atwood (Ben Mackenzie) goes all fight club on us.
You can also see the show on Broadband at CTV.ca
