Sound-Off: I Can't Stand 'This is Us'

I'm sure this will be as popular as a denouncement of Hamilton on Broadway, but I am not a fan of This is Us. It's at best, emotional kryptonite, and at worst, an hour where you have to prepare to be massively depressed and disappointed.  It took me approximately six months to get through the last 4 episodes of the season. I've been on hiatus since Jack's post-Superbowl death episode. I think my main issue revolves around the Peterson children. I'm not a fan of all 3 of the younger kid or teen versions of the kids. Frankly, I kinda hate their adult selves too. I've had little sympathy for twins Kate and Kevin. They are so self-absorbed and co-dependent, it's sick. I've been over Kate's weight issues since episode 1 and Kevin is a borderline narcissist.  I find Randall and Beth's relationship nice, but sometimes his "I have to do everything" attitude tires me out. I know he's trying to save their adopted foster child, Dejia, but it seems to be at the expense of his other two kids. I like the young Rebecca and Jack courtship story. Maybe I can mash up all of those episodes together and watch that for season 3. Once they had kids, the Petersons got hella emotionally taxing. I find I have to be in a really crappy mood to watch the show, and then I'm find with being on the verge of crying for an hour. I'm not the only one. Social media has grown tired too per this Cosmopolitan article.

The Blindspot

     Time Square is full of lights and people. An empty bag is found.  It's a big, black bag, and if you see something,  you should say something. The area is cleared and the bomb squad goes in to  investigate. When they poke a bag, a woman covered in tattoos emerges, stark naked. No, this is not Tilda Swinton's latest art project, it's NBC's The Blindspot.

     The woman, Jane Doe (played by Jaimie Alexander), has no memories at all. Her full body tattoo art includes intricate patterns of numbers, addresses and symbols. Her back reads: Kurt Weller, FBI. Agent Weller (Aussie Sullivan Stapleton)  is a top cop at the New York FBI bureau. He and his team take Jane in under their watch to see if she can jog her memory. Jane appears to be drugged in away to wipe her personality and memories out, but her basic motor skills are still there, and she can kick ass. Weller and his crew take Jane on missions, using her tattoos to prevent terrorism, end bank holdups, and generally save New York from imminent destruction. Do they ever request backup? That would be a no, and an issue I take to heart. Seriously, who died and make Weller, Zepeta, Reid, Jane and Patterson think they can single-handedly save New York City every time? But I digress...

     Jane assists Weller's unit in their daily activities, and it gets real. . Weller's computer genius, Agent Patterson (Ashley Johnson from Growing Pains) analyzes Jane's tattoos for fun, looking for more clues. The art represents hidden puzzles and clues to upcoming crimes and exposure of governmental wrongdoings. At first the team doesn't  have a clue what's going on. They know a group called Sandstorm is behind things, but they're not sure why.  Patterson's boyfriend gets murdered trying to help her out with the puzzles, and she gets in major trouble with Director Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who reminds me of  Viola Davis in HTGAM) because her boyfriend really shouldn't be looking at classified FBI files in the first place. Then Director Mayfair gets framed for murder, and she gets murdered. The body count gets a bit ridiculous, although most of the bad guys are brought in for justice. This becomes  part of the overall theme in the show: where are we drawing the line? Should the FBI go out looking for trouble? Should the CIA kidnap and torture Jane to get their own answers? Should Weller make allowances for Jane and let her run with the team?

     Weller discovers Jane was brought to him because her DNA test shows she is Taylor Shaw. Shaw was a little girl who lived on his street that was supposedly murdered when he was 10 years old. Weller is so relived to see Taylor because his father was put in jail for allegedly murdering  the 5-year old neighbor girl. It was pretty weird to think that Weller cared so much about this little kid, but I'm willing to buy into it because it seems like she was really his younger sister Sarah's (Jordana Spiro) friend. As the season progresses, Jane's memories begin coming back, and she is clearly not Taylor Shaw. Her tooth shows isotopes native to Africa and her memories about about assassin-like training. She is an ex-Marine and she came to Weller for a different reason. Is she part of Sandstorm? Of course she is! One thing is clear, Jane is bad news.

Grinder (noun)

"What does it mean, 'to grind' asks Dean Sanderson's (Rob Lowe) new therapist, played by guest star Maya Ruldoph.

Dean responds, "Doing whatever it takes to find justice, no matter how hard the grind... and the grind is the everyday struggle."

     FOX took a chance this season with a sitcom called The Grinder (not the Grindr) about adult brothers who start (reluctantly) working together in a law practice. Have we seen this type of plot before? Of course…. (Hyperion Bay with Mark Paul Gosselaar >comes to mind). The difference in this show is all in the casting. The brothers are two of my beloved 80’s and 90’s actors. I could not be more excited for Fred Savage’s (Stewart)  return to acting and the return of Lowe to comedy. This is Savage's first foray away from the director's chair since the sitcom, Working (1997-1999).
     

     Let it be known that while I favored his real life brother Ben Savage (Cory from Boy/Girl Meets World for many years, I am back on Team Fred when it comes to choosing which Savage I love. Savage's Stewart runs Sanderson and Yao, a law firm in Boise, Idaho, a firm started by his dad, Dean Sanderson, Sr. (William Devane). Dean Sr. is ticked to have his son home after Dean Jr.'s many successful seasons as TV lawyer, Mitch Grinder.

    Mitch Grinder is his own unique character.  Rob Lowe does what he does best here: he plays an actor playing a lawyer,  and both characters are a bit self-indulgent. It’s basically the best of teen Rob Lowe’s boyish charm (St. Elmo’s Fire, The Outsiders) and adult Rob Lowe’s commitment to #truthandjustice mixed together (The West Wing,The Lyon's Den, Brothers and Sisters). The scenes from the show with a show are pretty dramatic with emotional outbursts, clawing out of a coffin in the ground, romantic trysts on the confrence table, and the last-minute proclamation that "grinds" (pun intended) the case to a swift halt.  In every episode of the show, the Sanderson men, along with Stewart's wife Debbie (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, the waitress from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and teen kids, watch episodes of "The Grinder" and Dean shares his motivation for the episode, with ridiculous things like getting a teenage son in one episode to show his character's emotional depth.


In the episode first mentioned above, Dean's therapist suggests that in order for Dean to move forward in life (or at least move out of his brother's house), he has to let "The Grinder" die. This should be simple because in the new reboot of the show, Grinder: New Orleans, Dean guest stars to give his new TV brother Rake (played by Timothy Olyphant) some advice, and decides his character must die to complete his character arc. This plan took some convincing and entailed a very confusing courtroom scene where Stu showed up as their third long-lost brother and also offered to die on the show, via poison. As for Olyphant, he has done some great work playing a Hollywood version of himself, making Dean look  a little more human and sparking a romantic triangle (at least in Dean's eyes) with Sanderson and Yao's associate, Claire. Other guest stars have included Christina Applegate as a closeted fan pretending she had never seen Dean's show, Jim Rash as a potential client, Jason Alexander as "The Grinder" director.

“We watch The Grinder, we talk about it while we’re watching it, and after we’re watching it, and it feels to me like we should operate more in reality.”  - Stu

“Were you at the bar this whole time, just waiting to interject at the perfect moment?”

      -     Client (Jim Rash) to Dean

Should the "Truth Be Told?"

     I really wanted to like Truth Be Told. I am programmed to like any show that Zack Morris (a.k.a. Mark-Paul Gosselar) stars in, including but not limited to Franklin and Bash, later seasons of NYPD Blue, Hyperion Bay, and Saved By the Bell: The College Years. Yes, there were other TV roles, but these are really the most notable after the original SBTB.

     Unfortunately, I had a bad feeling about this show from the start. First thing, the show was on at 8:30 on a Friday night in its first season. The program was led in by the live showing of Undateable (this is a separate but equally important  tangent to cover because this show is nowhere near the class of a live Will and Grace or 30 Rock). Gosselar plays Mitch, an ethics professor married to a Tracy, a Filipino lawyer (Vanessa Lachey). They live next door (and are only friends with)  an African-American newlywed couple, comedian Russell and pediatrician Angie.  Mitch and Tracy have a 4-6 year old daughter, Sadie that always need to be watched or baby-sat whenever something comes up, like backstage passes to a Jay-Z concert, or admission to the adult film awards. It is also important to note, I am almost certain Sadie was re-cast after the first episode or two for a less likable kid).

     The situation is laid out, so where is the comedy? Stereotypes, race differences and adult content are a big part of the jokes on this show. Taboos such as getting a medical marijuana card or using the same gym pass as another woman of the same race are the bread and butter laughs of this show. Mitch and Russel are mistaken as a gay couple when they are looking at cars and are offered a great deal by the dealer, who is also gay.  The perfect babysitter may be a former porn star, and the new babysitter is free on Friday night because she also works for a Jewish family across the street...
   
     Do you see where I'm going with this? A lot of issues in this show could be funny or story-worthy in real life, but hearing them out loud on TV makes everyone who can relate seem pretty shallow. It's not the same dark comedy of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where not a single character has redeemable moral value. These people want to do the right thing, and it often gets them in trouble. In the Winter finale (which is likely the series finale a sets have been torn down), Mitch is asked to marry friends an Russell holds a grudge over it because he is the comedian of the gang. Angie holds a grudge over Russell making tons of jokes during his wedding vows, and Tracey spends the whole weekend trying to get Mitch to enjoy a childless night in the hotel room. This is unfortunately not the next Seinfeld. I guess the truth is still out there... (It really is, the X-Files is coming back to TV in a few weeks)!

Don't Hate "The Player", Hate the Game

     As I predicted in September, NBC's The Player has been cancelled, which once again means Must-See TV has fallen by the wayside at the peacock network. I didn't follow the show after episode 1, but I think a big part of their downfall was showing on Thursday nights opposite ABC's "Shonda Thursdays," specifically the gut-wrenching, heart pounding triumph, How to Get Away With Murder.  I did see Alex Kane as a sympathetic character, after all, he did just rekindle his relationship with his sobering ex-wife Ginny, only to have her murdered hours later. On top of all that, he was considered as a suspect in the murder, and playing "the game" was his only hope to get himself cleared and kind out what really happened to Ginny.  But the show had a lot of action packed into each scene and some very layered conceits set up, so it was not helped by things like Thursday night football or an earlier lead in of Heroes:Reborn and James Spader's retirement fund, The Blacklist. In a eperate post, I have to explore how this show is still on air because I'm pretty baffled. The show's 9 episodes ended with several twists and many questions, which can be found here.

The Situation is a Little More Nuanced than That, or Settle for CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND

I saw an early teaser of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, one of CW's few non vampire/witch/superhero shows on the CW, before the season started. My mom immediately looked at me and asked why we were watching a musical series that wasn't even about music (re: Glee, Smash).

Still, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and tuned in for the next few episodes and...

PAUSES FOR EMPHATIC DRUMROLL....

     Josh just happens to live here! This is real estate lawyer turned crazy lady Rebecca Bunch's (Rachel Bloom's) favorite justification for moving from New York to West Covina, California because a butter commercial made her take a way too real life re-assessment.This is also the title of the first episode.

     In case you can't tell, I am into this show. The show is certainly quirky, and promises at least three musical numbers per episode thus far, and I'm betting everyone in the cast will sing at some point, including Rebecca's oddball boss, Darryl Whitefeather. 

     The story in a nutshell, plants miserable Rebecca in California after following chill surfer dude Josh Chang, a guy she dated in summer camp, back from New York to California, which is commonly known as a "Flipped Felicity". (I am trademarking this term).  She arrives in West Covnia, breezes into a law firm and gets hired at a moment's notice, since she went to Harvard and loves to remind people it's not such a big deal, and sets to work the 9-5 of getting herself into Josh's life. One of many ways she gets to worm closer to Josh is the three or so accidental dates she goes on with Josh's bartender friend, Greg, who is played by Broadway legend-in-the-making Santino Fontana (he did the voice of the prince in Frozen). After meeting Greg and hearing Josh will be at a party, Rebecca gets ready (singing the "Sexy Getting Ready Song, a true ear-worm) and shows up to the party all over Greg to make Josh jealous. As luck would have it, Josh never shows, and here begins the love triangle. Rebecca befriends many people including her psych major neighbor Heather, pep-talking paralegal Paula, and even meets Josh's yoga teacher girlfriend, Valencia. 

Wait, Josh has a girlfriend?

 Yes, that was a surprise to Rebecca too. In the course of a few short days,  (Episode: Josh's Girlfriend is Really Cool!)  she meets Valencia, befriends Valencia to set her at ease, gets Valencia a deal on a new space for her yoga studio, and makes out with her at a club, which alienates Valencia, Josh and Greg. Rebecca follows up with trying to show Valencia she's not a threat to Josh (Episode: I Hope Josh Comes to My Party!) by throwing a "casual"  house party with her paltry gathering of friends, greatly overcoming her fear of house parties that began the day her dad walked out on her mom at her birthday party. As bad as Rebecca treats Paula, she comes through and helps throw the best house party and gives Rebecca the peace to get over her parent's divorce. 

     In this week's episode (I'm Going on a Date With Josh's Friend!), Greg reluctantly asks Rebecca out to a taco festival (after an elaborate ballroom dance and tap number in black and white) and Rebecca accepts. Rebecca recently chose to become a vegan, as a drastic kickback from dating inappropriate mean and making unhealthy decisions. Things go great until Rebecca sabotages the date, running off with briskets and an unwashed vegan cook, leaving Greg and the viewers disappointed and once again confused- doesn't Rebecca really like Josh? Doesn't she seem like she is really a better fit with Greg? Rebecca apologizes to Greg after he finds the vegan dude leaving her house, but it may be the third strike for the more-than-perfect-if-they-could-get-out-of-their-own-way pair. 

     In a side story, Rebecca helps Josh with a job application for a Hawaiian themed electronics store (wow, super retro) and he looks over-qualified for the job. When Josh is forced to work in his dad's radiology lab instead, Rebecca storms into the Aloha Tech Center and demands that some Harvard book smarts and average smarts like Josh's, should not  preclude someone from selling computer games. 

Dallas, Re-imagined...Blood and Oil Do Not Mix

     I am very interested in ABC's new Sunday night soap, Blood and Oil.  Welcome to Rock Springs, Montana, a land of opportunity for some, and a land of drunken disappointment for others. I am excited to see Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford back on my TV every week.

    The first episode clearly showcased greed and its control on society. This is America baby, we're off  to the modern-day frontier- a town with the very rich, the warring Indian tribes, lots of land for sale, one hotel and bar (The Tackroom), and a clear need for a coin operated laundromat. As Crawford's Billy LeFever and his wife, Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse) will soon learn, their dream of striking it rich as laundromat owners is not a guarantee for success. The couple are shown kindness after their car crashes and washing machines are damaged by the town's bar owner/real estate agent Jules (India de Beaufort, a notable guest star of One Tree Hill as a record executive), and a Nigerian couple (Kess and Ada) that hope to open a restaurant.

     The couple manages to buy a parcel of land from the town's old timer Clifton (Barry Corbin, a beloved basketball coach from One Tree Hill), and end up starting a friendly war with oil magnate Hap Briggs (Don Johnson). Hap comes with a lot of family baggage, including his screw-up son Wick (Scott Michael Foster of GREEK), and in episode two, we meet his business-minded daughter Lacey (Miranda Mae Rayo of Chicago Fire), both grown children from different mothers. Lacey continues to get involved with her father's driver, A.J., (Adan Canto) who has a secret to hide. Amber Valletta (Revenge and actually a real life model) rounds out the Briggs family as Carla, Hap's second wife and a former model turned shrewd businesswoman, who will do anything to protect herself and Hap's name. While Jules is happily seeing Wick, she reveals a past affair with an older man in town, who is Wick's father, Hap.  "EWWWW!"  as Jimmy Fallon says.

     What will happen once we see blood? Will Billy and wick learn to get along? Will Billy and Cody still like each other in a few weeks? Where is all of the untapped the oil located? Will Hap figure out about his son's attempts to rob him and start a fire at his oil rig? Stay tuned to see...

Players Gonna Play

     In my humble opinion, don't bother spending your time watching NBC's The Player, a.k.a. Endgame. It seems that it work better as a movie plot. If you like the action adventure of " 24 " and the glamour of "Las Vegas" with the crime fighting of everything else on NBC/CBS, maybe this show is for you. In my advanced screening, people cheered when Wesley Snipes appeared in the first scene as Mr. Johnson, "the pit boss". He employs a pretty blonde (Cassandra) to be "the dealer" and offers Alex a chance to be "the player" in a life or death game of chance. Phillip Winchester's Alex Kane is offered 24 hours to stop a crime, allowed to only receive help from Cassandra and her online network of phone taps and cameras. Rich people around the world be on whether Kane can stop the crime, or if it will go down. Kane begins the journey because his estranged wife Ginny was a murdered as part of a crime that was part of the game. I give it two months...

Please Don't Page Dr. Ken

Let me first start out by saying, I liked community, and I liked the hangover, but I couldn't make it past the first episode of Dr. Ken. It was pretty dreadful. It's a workplace comedy with too many different personality types, it's a medical show with too many doctor,s it's a family sitcom with too any lessons needed to be learned. The one thing I will treasure for this show and remember for the rest of my life is Ken and his young song in a school talent show acting out the words to Katy Perry's Roar through mime.

TV FALL PREMIERES!

I watched over 5 hours of new TV shows from the Big Networks at the Paley Center for Media and I'll be giving updates and reports as the season rolls on. Here's the lowdown on the shows.

ABC
Quantico (DRAMA) Review t/c.
Blood and Oil (DRAMA) Review t/c.
Dr. Ken (COMEDY) Review here.

NBC:
The Player (DRAMA) Review here. There were 9 episodes and more cancellation info is here.
The Blindspot (DRAMA) Review here.
Truth Be Told (COMEDY) Review here.

CW
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (DRAMA) Review here.
Containment (DRAMA)
Review: A zombie apocalypse situation envelops Atlanta as a virus begins to effect the city. Follow the CDC, police, a pregnant girl, and a school class trapped in a hospital as things get seriously infected. This show was pushed to an April 2016 release and ran 13 episodes.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow (DRAMA)
     Review: This is part of the CW's Arrow and The Flash expansion. I only saw a 7-minute preview but I feel we should just call it Victor Garber's time jumping superhero misfits.

Late to The Party: Or How I Became a Fan of JTV

     I recently received an email from my aunt, who said her book club screening of 50 Shades of

Gray didn't work out, so they watched a new quirky show, Jane the Virgin. It didn't end up on my fall roster, but I caught up on as much of the season as i could and I jumped in. After all, lead actress Gina Rodriguez won the Golden Globe for this show after about 10 episodes, so it must be pretty cool.

     First of all, JTV is party telenovela, part fantasy drama, and part Ugly Betty. The resemblances between this show and  long loved and far-plot flung ABC dramedy are one of the reasons I got sucked into this new show. Rodriguez, much like  Betty's America Ferrara, had a way of showing her character as a true, honest relate-able person, who happened to be artificially inseminated with the child of a gorgeous hotel magnate that will likely never have kids due to a cancer scare. Just an average plot, right?


Here are the basics:
- Jane lives with her illegal immigrant Abuela Alba (who only speaks Spanish with subtitles on the screen) and her young, hip mom, Xiomara. She is a waitress, writer, teacher, and daydreamer.
-  Jane is often found working at the Maribela Hotel, which is always close to bankruptcy.
- Jane never knew her dad until a few weeks ago, and he happens to be a rich, self-obsessed telenovela star, Rogelio De Le Vega. Watch him tweet in real time.
- Jane was engaged to a police detective, Micheal, who wanted nothing to do with having a baby.
- Gorgeous hotel magnate, Rafael, really wants to have this baby, and he is trying desperately to divorce his wife, Petra.
- Petra is crazy. Her mother Magda is also crazy.
Rafael's sister was the doctor that accidentally inseminated Jane, she was supposed to be inseminating Petra, who was keeping it a big secret.
- There's a wild criminal mastermind, Sin Rostro, who is Michael's ex-stepmother.
- Sin Rostro is also known as Rose, a former lover of Michael's sister (after she had a face-change so nobody could recognize her).
- This hotel is a prime spot for murders.

Let's see where we are at the end of the season.

A Note: Debutantes, Declarations & Daddy Issues (Gossip Girl)

Dear Gossip Girl,

How are you? I know you've been here for a while, but we haven't really connected. You've been saying some crazy things plot-wise and I think for a while, you might have lost your way. Glad to see you back on the right path. I know you standard weekly plot all too well:
1. Serena pouts and makes bad decisions
2.Blair plots evil deeds and feels bad about it later
2a. Mention a bunch of fancy designers and A-listers
3. Dorota says snappy things "in thick Russian Accent"
4. cool dresses
5. gossip girl blast
6. moment of family support
7. plan for sabotage
8. big fancy event
9. more cool dresses
10. gossip girl blast
11. Love triangle (or other applicable shape)
12." ..But you told me to meet you here, right?"
13. Dan gets emo
14. Rufus shines as a trophy husband
15. moment of scandal that threatens the balance of life in the upper east side
(usually in conjunction with gossip girl blast)
16. family secrets are revealed
17. some things get resolved while others get worse

But tonight broke the mold. It tapped into something- the old guard Gossip Girl, back in the days of high school, when things made a little more sense to us, the little people. The days when the biggest scandal was Serena making out with Nate while he was dutifully dating Blair (water under the bridge). Although I had a tragic flashback to seeing Tripp and a car crash in the same episode (December, two years ago I believe, or was it just last year?), it had punch. Here's what I loved and loathed:

LOVE:
1. Blair's in love with Chuck, who is also in love with Blair (but he knows Dan and Louis love Blair, so he backs away), but Dan is in love with Blair, and Serena is once again (wow what a selfish bee-yotch) in love with Dan.
2. Blair and Chuck pulling a Diana (as in Princess)
3. Dan picking up pizza and Evian for his houseguest, Blair
4. Cray cray Charlie/Ivy almost getting exposed
5. Nate fighting Grandpa but sucking it up to be the golden grandson (very Kennedy)
6. Dan arranging a secret meeting between Blair and Chuck
7. FINALLY- they make it 100% obvious that Elizabeth Hurley (Diana) is Chuck's mum.
8. Serena and Nate's commitment to take down Gossip Girl with their little website.

HATE:
1. The entire car accident scene. Train wreck. First, why was Nate's car following Blair and Chuck? Why did his driver not know to take him to the airport in Westchester?And furthermore, what creepy deserted forest that they drove for miles and miles through was supposed to be passed off as Central Park?
2. Charlie's such a weakling. One little car accident and she flees?
3. Dan moping.
4. Serena liking Dan when it's convenient for her

PREDICTIONS:
1. Blair's losing that baby.
2. Chuck's gonna live but this whole mama/baby drama's going to mindwarp him
3. Chuck's finally going to meet his mama
4. Serena's still gonna be a beey-otch.
5. Unsure about weddings.........
6. Louis's not going away without a fight

A Note About Blue Bloods: All Class, All Sass

Blue Bloods may be just another cop show, but here's what makes it different. The deep family values and the sassy one-liners really change things for the better. Here's a sample of tonight's winners:

"Where do I put this?"
- Danny's partner Jackie (holds her gun in the air while going undercover as a hooker)
"Baker, how have you come to ruin my day now?"
- Frank to his assistant
"The roast looks good."
- Frank when asked to weigh in about his granddaughter joining the police force
"Maybe I should become goth."
- Bridget's daughter at the museum
"Grandad if you have a job, will you still make us dinner?"
- Danny's kids to their greant grandpa at family dinner night
"Hey. Eyes up!"
- Linda to her husband as he goes off to an undercover sting with his sluttily dressed partner
"You'll do."
- A potential John to undercover cop Jackie
"Don't kid a kidder."
- Frank's head PR guy
"Another night of sleaze and desperation."
- Danny on a stakeout
"Its nice to share a meal with someone who's not talking about the murder rate in Bensonhurst or weighing the merits of a 98 glock vs. a 32 special."
- Bridget to her date

Jamie: "You know Jackie, this undercover stuff scares me too."
Jackie: "But you don't have a bad past like me kid."

A Love/Hate Note: 2 Broke Girls

This show has horrible writing! Woo got that off my chest! Every time I watch it, I beg myself to stop.

Example of 2 Broke Girls bad writing:
Max: I've divided my roommate into three categories: annoying, more annoying, and how did that happen?

Example 2:
Caroline: Max, should you be taking in any more strays (dogs)?
Max: No. So move out tonight.

It's too tongue-in cheek, like it comes out of the mouth of a surly 13-year old, or a writer who loves 60's sitcoms and The Odd Couple. I don't hate this show, but I'm not planning to move in with it anytime soon. It's a bit disappointing to see that Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City creator) and Whitney Cummings (a great stand-up comedian) are behind this show. And Whitney's fledgling self-named sitcom WHITNEY is better, like a poor woman's FRIENDS. The more I watch this show, the more it reinforces my desire not to ever live in Brooklyn. Plus, the hot-ish but morally defunct guys drag down everything. Ugh, why... I'm not watching any longer. Oh wait, its still on. The saving grace is the sassy old man who works at the diner's cash register.

Plus side: Making fun of hipsters! this is the only reason I watch this show. I dislike hipsters

A Note About Bingo: HIMYM Board Added!

I have TV bingo fever! Thanks to the highly successful Hawaii 5-0 Bingo board, I've taken to making my own boards to hammer out the predictable (and loveable events of each episode). Today's post is on How I Met Your Mother. Over the last two weeks of HIMYM watching, I was happy to say the standard 5 x 5 (if you were just thinking I was making a Buffy reference, two points for you!) board was just not enough. Plus, in honor of Robin's new boytoy, Kal Pen, TMA on Hulu shares a list of her greatest boyfriends . So after the episode, I had to make a bigger board, 6 x 6 (not symmetrical, but nice)! I can't wait to play tonight! See categories below:

This is the original 5x5 board: Oct 10, 2011


A complete listing of the spaces (from top to bottom, left to right) appears here, with the revised
6 x 6 board, also from Oct 10th:


B
1. Barney talks about hookers/strippers
2. Ted tells his story out of order
3. The night ends back at MacLarens
4. Barney disgusts a woman
5. Ted talks about architecture...snore
6. Robin has to prove she's not one of the guys

I
1. Wendy the Waitress of Karl the bartender make an appearance
2. SUITS / SUIT UP!
3. Robin talks aboot life in Canada
4. Lily complains about being a teacher
5. Marshall makes up a song about something (slap song, laundry song etc...)
6. Barney wears a duck tie

N
1. Ted tells his kids a story with a lesson attached
2. An awesome guest star appearance
3. SPEND THE NIGHT WITH BARNEY FREE SPACE
4. Barney says AWESOME or LEGENDARY
5. We see the gang in high school, college, a few years ago...
6. Lily and Marshall high-five

G
1. Scene on fake NYC street
2. Lily meddles/ tells a friend's secret
3. Barney conducts an elaborate scheme for personal gain
4. Ted is called by a nickname: schmoesby, theodorea, ted eyelyn.....
5. LAWYERED!
6. Ted talks duchey and smart

O
1. People don't take Robin seriously
2. Someone from the group breaks out into song
3. Ted thinks this girl is "the one"
4. Marshall talks about life in Minnesota
5. Let's talk about Goliath National Bank
6. Bro Moment/ bro code reference

!
1. Ted and Marshall fight
2. Barney gives a fake statistic
3. Ted dates a girl with a major flaw
4. Someone makes an elaborate chart
5. The gang drinks
6. We get a clue about Ted's wife

A Note: NoEvil News August 24 - Sept 7

4. New Dancing With the Stars Cast Revealed!
This grouping is by far the most interesting in a while, Cher's kid, Courtney Cox's ex, Kim, Kourt and Khloe's brother, Lauren Conrad's old bestie.... it might be better rephrased as Dancing with People Adjacent to the Stars.

3. Courtney Thorne Smith joining Two and a Half Men
I have really enjoyed watching her on the early seasons of Ally McBeal, and she was great in According to Jim. It's worth a shot at this point to bring a ray of un-ironic sunshine to the show.

2. The Bachelor Pad: People are Kissing Each other and Spending the Night
It's like watching Jersey Shore where the people go in a hot tub and yell at each other.... Wait , that sounds a lot like Jersey Shore... minus the roses.

1. Regis is Leaving in November
I am truly sad. I love watching Reege. In related news, Dana Carvey does a great Regis impression.

A Note About 5-0 Bingo, Part Deux

Hey EW,

Thanks for finally catching up! This is my second Bingo. Why does your board look different than mine?

Love,
Me



http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/09/20/hawaii-five-0-season-premiere-bingo/

CW Exclusive Premieres Scoop!

I had the delight of attending the Paley Center's exclusive preview of CW's new shows last night (yes, I willingly chose to go to the CW one, I had the options of attending ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS as well, but I love myself a good teen drama). When the emcee asked what we were most excited about this fall, an excited fan yelled, "Ringer, because Buffy is back." True that, my friend. True that!

I saw the highly anticipated (and that anticipation was well-worth it) debut of Ringer, with all of its Sarah Michelle Gellar-ness, two hours before its world premiere! I am so pumped for the next episode of this murder/deception mystery (film noir, as they used to call it in the days of Bogie and Bacall), which focuses on a pair of estranged twins.

The Cliff's Notes:
If you can't catch the re-broadcast on Friday night, Bridget is a down-on her luck recovering drug addict and former dancer. Six years ago, she ruined her relationship with her twin, Sibbohan, and it had something to do with an accident to a toddler boy. Sibbohan flees from Wyoming instead of testifying in a murder trial,m and goes top visit her well-off married sister, who has finally forgiven her. They take a boat trip, Bridget wakes up to find her sister apparently having committed suicide via drowning, and nothing but an engagement ring a purse. Bridget escapes her life by becoming her sister (nobody knows Sibbohan had a twin), and finds herself in more trouble than before. She's now got a cold husband, druggie teen stepdaughter, suspicious best friend, and lover (husband of suspicious best friend). And the doctor called to tell her (sister) she's pregnant. Someone's trying to kill her new persona, the feds are after her old one, and guess what? Sibbohan is alive and well, and living in Paris. There ends episode 1.

The more easy-paced Hart of Dixie marked the return of OC's Rachel Bilson to TV. Typical hotshot is exiled from the city and takes refuge as a doctor in a small town (reminds me vaguely of the setup to USA's Royal Pains). Dr. Zoe Hart (funny, I kept wanting to call her Roxie, damn that Chicago), accepts a GP position in Bluebell, Alabama, after half of a practice is left to her. I enjoyed how many times Bluebell was said during the episode and only wish I'd had a drink handy so we could play a little game to go along with the count. She's out of place and out of soul. her dreams of being a cardiothorasic surgeon are slipping (she got passed over for poor bedside manner, a chip off the old Cristina Yang) and she needs to learn some general skill before being considered for next year;s fellowship. She's got three possible love interests: a pretty southern gent George (lawyer be trade, savior by action, engaged to a girl named Lemon), football star turned mayor Lavon (apparently a former secret lover of Lemon, but her family would disapprove of him because of Jim Crow laws), and a rude but vaguely hot, Dixie-loving caretaker, Wade.

Plus, Zoe finds out she was left the practice because the strange old man who kept courting her was really her dad, and her "real" father has been pulling distance for years because he couldn't deal with his wife's indiscretion. There's some Gilmore Girls-esque potential in the small town if they spend a little less time focusing on the differences between Yankees and the other folk.

The Secret Circle recycles Britt Robertson from last year's Life Unexpected, and throws a whole bunch of Charmed-ish witchery with some Twilight. There's six founding families (if you're getting whiffs of Vampire Diaries, you're not far off, its from the same producers), and each generation's got witches, (I'm guessing all these kids are only children to keep this idea less complicated). The witches form this coven, the circle, and Cassie seems to be the key and the most powerful . Cassie is lured to town to live with her grandma after her mom is killed in a violent magic fire, and it seems like some bad voodoo went down to kill her dad when she was infantile, forcing her mom to run in the first place. Cassie suddenly is told by the other kids she's a witch.
Here I must interject: the magic on this show has been super lame for starters, it was all manipulations of the elements, fire, water etc... But I'm hoping it will get better. The Charmed angle mostly came from feel, the house Casie lives in in very "manor"-esque: Tiffany lamps, dark paneling, fireplaces, cute porch, doting curly haired grandma.

As for the Twilight element- there was some definite running through woods, keeping supernatural elements a secret, the setting of Washington, and some longing stares from the brunette guy that had the whole crowd laughing. Cassie is destined to be with brunette guy, according to his drunk father, just like her mom was destined to be with this guy, before she chose Cassie's dad and apparently threw off fate. And Cassie is befriended by a mean girl, Faye, a selfish *itch, and a nice girl, Diana who is dating brunette guy, which will only lead to trouble. Ah, now here's the plot twist, the parents, who must have sworn off magic after some bad voodoo that killed Cassie's dad and others, they know their kids have discovered their coven. And Diana's dad and Faye's mom are up to no good and plan to use Cassie in their evil voodoo magic plan. Interest in the show- I'll watch episode 2, and begin to make Dawson's Creek connections!

A Note: NoEvil News August 9 - August 23

7. ABC new home to empowered women!
I can't disagree with one speck of this article. ABC's all about the alpha females now.

6. New Baby Lily on Modern Family.
Let's hope she keeps those adorable "what are you doing?" expressions the original twins that played Lily mastered so well.

5. Bridget Jones III!
I love this franchise like nothing else. The plot line seems a bit weak , but I've give anything to see Hugh Grant and Colin Firth wrestle in a fountain again.

4. Ashton Brings DMV to TruTv.
It's like Punked, except at the front of the line, they tell you to come back after lunch. Unfortunately, this show will probably be on opposite my favorite car reality show, Parking Wars.

3. Kim Kardashian Got Married and Spent a Lot of Money
Ah, wedded bliss! Second wedding's the charm. And she only spend $150,000 on the dress, that's nothing compared to the amount she could spend on a future divorce.

2. Earthquake felt "all over east coast."
Apparently I'm the only person the east coast that didn't feel it. Good thing CNN is checking Twitter to survey the damage.

1. Anne Hathaway busts a gangsta rap on Conan.
Saw it live. Loved it. Also enjoyed Anne explaining to Conan about "ba-donk-a-donk."

A Note About SMG on TV

I'm very excited to read about Sarah Michelle Gellar's new TV show pilot getting ordered by CBS! Read more about "Ringer" here.