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I got a puppy! His name is Dexter! I got a puppy!

I am trying to break your blog

Some pics from the recent travels...

Most romantic corncobs in the world, yes?

Searching for the Dark Knight.

Welcome to Nebraska! Hotels feature
reasonable rates and charming window treatments.



Love.

Top Squander

So the pundits on the internets have already pretty well established why Top Design was a boring, poorly judged, joke of a show. I agree with all of these assessments, but in the name of thorough research, I watched anyway.

What I've not read much about, though, is the criticism that this show was a colossal waste of money. Constantly designing, constructing, and furnishing unlivable show spaces, Top Design really is conspicuous consumption on a grand, televised scale.

Consider this: the show began with twelve contestants, with one eliminated each week. For their design challenges, the contestants designed and executed various rooms, with budgets ranging anywhere between $1,000 to $30,000 dollars. Usually the budgets were in the 5-digit range. With a few small exceptions, each design was executed at the Pacific Design Center and was never meant to be constructed for or actually given to the "clients" the designers worked with. Now, I'm no mathematician, but that's a lot of wasted dough. I imagine some of the furniture and bedding could be donated or resold, but somehow I doubt that those $10,000 dining room tables and $800 vases made it much past the offices and bathrooms of Kelly Wearstler and Todd Oldham.

The final challenge was something else entirely. With individual budgets of $162,500, finalists Matt and Carisa each had to design and execute loft spaces (in the actual lofts, not the PDC) for the ultimate client: themselves. Who says interior design is self indulgent? Did I mention that neither Matt nor Carisa live in L.A. where the lofts are located? Did I mention that getting to keep the loft was NOT one of the prizes for winning? Did I mention that at $100,000, the prize for winning the whole show is actually less than the final challenge budget? Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, my friends.

It would be one thing if the show acknowledged the gross spending of the design challenges. It would be one thing if the show made at least a vague attempt to explain where the furniture and assorted chochkies were going after each challenge. It would be one thing if part of the prize was getting to live in an expensive loft that had undergone $162,500 in renovations and decoration. But Top Design don't care, mmm-K?

I guess I'm not offended by the gross expenditures nearly as much as by the producers total lack of concern over how such wasteful spending would be received by their audience. It seems to me that a Habitat for Humanity Challenge or some type of "design for the needy"-type gesture was in order so that the producers could acknowledge the gross wastefulness of their project. Please ease my conscience for watching this drivel.

The Ax-Man Cometh

Well, it's that time of year again. While most normal people wait in cheerful expectation of spring or hunkered down doing midterms, for the last few years I've spent March occupied with one very serious concern: Nielson ratings. Somehow my shows always end up on the bubble, and this year is no exception. In fact, the same show is on the bubble. Again.

Veronica Mars has ended each of its three seasons uncertain of its future. I presumed that the show's last success, the transition to the new CW network from the WB (after the network's merger with UPN) meant that the show had finally proved itself to TPTB. But no, the show was tweaked in its third season to appeal to a younger, Gilmore-y audience, and the romantic plots became central to the show's marketing. But whatever. It was still on.

But, yet again, here we are.

Rumors of Veronica Mars' cancellation have littered the message boards and fansites, and there seems good reason to be nervous. Kristin Veitch of EOnline! claims that while nothing will officially be announced until the upfronts in May, there are three possible outcomes: renewal, cancellation, or reformatting. In terms of the show continuing to air, the reformatting option seems to be the most viable. In this scenario, the show would keep (for now) only Kristin Bell, fast-forward four years, and follow Veronica as a full-fledged FBI agent. This is not my first pick, but whatever. I don't get a say. Or do I...

Every year, EOnline! (I love the exclamation point too much to omit) facilitates a "Save One Show" Campaign, in which readers vote for a show that is in danger of cancellation, and the E! website and cable channel funnel their energies into saving the show that receives the most votes from users. The SOS campaign successfully saved One Tree Hill last year (a gross misappropriation of power, if you ask me), so there really is power behind the winner. Of course OTH is back on the bubble this year, so hurrumph. But for now, here's what you should do:

You should vote for Veronica Mars. I said VOTE damnit!

Is Anyone Watching The Black Donnelly's? Yeah, Me Neither.

OK, so that's a lie. I can't live like this anymore. I feel like I can be honest with you, and the truth is this: I have watched The Black Donnellys. Twice.

And it's terrible.

The Donnelly boys may be Irish, but as The Departed taught us this year, a wiseguy is a wiseguy, right Marty? And it's a good thing too, because it seems like creator Paul Haggis has quite literally left (in) the gun and taken (out) the cannoli. The show might be full of shamrocks and drinking, but it's clear Haggis spent one bleary-eyed weekend watching The Godfather movies with a clipboard and checklist.

But before I claim there are no differences beyond chianti and Guinness, let me admit that there are four Donnelly boys, in contrast to the three Corleone brothers. First there's Tommy, the reluctant criminal but fierce family defender (Michael Corleone). Then there's Jimmy, the hothead getting everyone else in trouble (Sonny). There's the sweet and somewhat dim brother, Kevin (Fredo). And lastly there's the sweet and somewhat dim youngest brother, Sean (Fredo). The only difference I've managed to find in the two Fredos is that Sean gets the snot beat out of him in the first episode, and thereafter remains a bloody pulp confined to a hospital bed, acting more as a cause or a plot device than a character.

But the show doesn't suck because it's unoriginal. Plenty of good television is unoriginal. No, the real problem here is something I'll call the "Grey's Anatomy Method". What Grey's does, better (or worse) than anyone, is tug--no, make that yank--at those heartstrings. But the problem is that the emotions the show asks its viewers to experience aren't earned; they're cheated with the latest song by The Fray or cutely-designed watercooler phrases like "McDreamy" and "she's my person." The emotion is laying right on the surface, out where everyone has easy access to the very deep feelings those wacky docs of Seattle Grace are constantly feeling. It's like storytelling in all italics.


Thus is the case with The Black Donnellys. The atmosphere is just painted on the walls, with the characters awash in the green light of the neon shamrock hanging in the bar window and in the scenes that miraculously are all shot on wet pavement in the dark. Tommy Donnelly is our sympathetic protagonist, not because we relate to his dilemma or understand his character, but because he has sweet doe eyes and a chiseled, handsome face. In the world of shorthand storytelling, only the ugly people are bad. But unlike Grey's, melodrama has no place in the world of the Donnelly boys.

Grey's Anatomy knows it's a primetime soap opera, and is completely unapologetic. That's its shtick. It's a show that does ferry crashes during sweeps and has subplots about passing syphilis. But The Black Donnellys, with its Paul Haggis pedigree, aspires to something else. The show quotes Yeats and attempts to engage questions of moral grayness. But the quotes are always puzzlingly detached from the plots and the closest interrogation of loyalty versus culpability is typed in all caps right on the black and white poster: FAMILY ABOVE ALL. It's a show trying to tell ambitious stories with a frustrated language, and the result is, well, frustrating.

Silence of the Lamb (That's a spoiler if ever there was one)

Blue Steel

Rest in peace, Don Lamb, it was a bummer way to go. I mean seriously, clubbed to death by Richard Grieco? You can't make that shit up. You'll be missed for your chiseled abs and piercingly blank stare. For your crime fighting skills? Not so much.

"These pants are tearaway."

But seriously, I've been wanting Keith to be reinstated as Sheriff since the show began, but what a bittersweet reason to put the uniform back on. And telling Mindy O'Dell to call you "Sheriff Mars" like 800 times? Kinda tacky. I mean, fine, you thought she was a black widow spider and wanted her to respect your authoritah, but geez, do you need to act like you're loving the soft feel of the brown polyester quite so much? And what's with "reflexively"? She's supposed to respond "reflexively" to your meanie remark that all the men in her life are either dead or headed to electric chair? I love ya Keith, but lay off the power trip.

Crocket & Tubbs

As for LuckyTim and Veronica's team sleuthing, that boy fooled you good sister! He's all "I'm bad at field work" and you're all "yeah, I noticed" and all the time he's playing you! When you catch him breaking into your office and tell him smugly that he's "trying to come up with a lie, failing, and reluctantly telling the truth"--you're dead wrong. He does come up with a lie, and you buy it. Hook. Line. Sinker. It's a good thing that, in the end, you were not left handed. You bested him in the end with your unfailing sleuthiness. It was Professor Plum in the Conservatory with the revolver!

"Hey, can I ask you an awkward question that
can only be answered in the affirmative?"

And finally, no Logan, backing Veronica into a corner by asking her permission to date Parker is not informed consent. She can't say no without sounding like a bitch, so her permission means nothing. And minus points for only asking after Parker cut you off. Geez, for somebody who's been laying around lovelorn for weeks, you really don't get girls at all.

The Heroes I Have Lost

So, it seems like I've kind of fallen down on the job of talking about Heroes and Lost. Both have been good-ish, but to be honest, I'm not feeling them lately. It's not them, it's me. I swear. But more than not enjoying them ('cause I kinda am), it's that I just don't want to write about them. And I think I've figured out why: secrets.

It's just hard to have something to say about a show that's entire premise is built upon keeping secrets and revealing itself slowly. I enjoy Heroes--I look forward to it and am excited to learn more of the mystery each week. The same used to be true for Lost, but it's been losing me this season. But I don't want to get too deep into my analysis of them, because I feel like the knowledge I have to ground myself in is so limited. I might find out next week that the cheerleader is an alien or that the island is made of marzipan, and that makes me hesitant to make strong pronouncements this week.

So, like I said, it's me, not them. I don't blame them for being unpredictable or surprising. It's just that I want to enjoy these shows and not analyze them. Huh. Maybe I'll check out Ugly Betty instead.

I Know What You Did This Season (and it sucked)

In an episode earlier this season, Jordan told Danny that she approached her new job at NBS as if she only had a year to live: the risks and rewards would be mitigated, and she could focus on doing the best possible job programming the network. This may be, in fact, how Aaron Sorkin chose to approach Studio 60. Man, was that a bad idea.

Now, I wouldn't say Studio 60 has jumped the shark, exactly. That would imply that there was a drastic break when the show began to run downhill, as opposed to the reality of Studio 60's trajectory: a slow, steady trickle through the cracks at the bottom of the barrel. (Like how I used every cliche in my arsenal there? Seem familiar, Studio 60 fans?)

Alas! Alack! I don't need to repeat the soul-crushing disappointment that I mentioned in the previous post, but let us say only that last night's episode widened those cracks considerably. Only a week after I gave up on this show, it seems the show gave up on itself. One need only read the Television Without Pity recaplet to get the sense that Sorkin and company know the jig is up:

So...romantic comedy? Psychological ghost story? Lost episode of I Love The '90s? Exactly what kind of show is this going to be when it gets cancelled in two weeks?

I swear I'm dying on the inside.

Sorkin has seduced you. And by you, I mean me.

Alas, Studio 60 is really starting to blow. How do I feel? Saddened, yes. Disappointed, certainly. But more significantly, I feel betrayed.

Me and Aaron, we got history. In 1992, A Few Good Men first taught me how to love. I loved Danny and his daddy issues. I loved Jo for her uptight hair and fast-talkin' rants. I loved "Unit Corps God Country" and "You can't handle the truth!" I loved.

In 1995 I learned from The American President that even the ruler of the free world needs love. Malice was filmed in Northampton for Heaven's sake. Me and Aaron? There are so many similarities between us, we're basically the same person. And what about the love lessons of Sorkin television? I can't even talk about Sports Night and The West Wing. Gone too soon. Their absence from my life is just too painful.

This is all by way of saying how important (and assured) it was that Studio 60 be awesome. It was a given. In the bag. Done and done. But here's the thing—Studio 60 is not awesome.

It's not funny. It's not engaging. When there is a to-be-continued ending, as there was last night, I'm not that upset that the story arc remains unresolved. When characters get caught in hilariously sticky situations, I don't laugh and I sure as hell don't worry. Sorkin loves the high moral ground, and I love following him there, but I just can't this time. The moral nobility of producing a live sketch comedy show is not translating. And the premise isn't the problem. I hate sports but I loved Sports Night and felt the magic. There's just no magic at Studio 60.

I've lost my equilibrium. How can a Sorkin show with Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, and my dreamlover Bradley Whitford fail? How is this possible?

The problem is the writing. It's the writing. Last night's episode was boring. Two fueding characters (and possible lovers) locked on a roof? Cliché. Breaking a date and getting caught with another woman? Been done. Even the vaguely funny woman-who-swallowed-the-fly-esque storyline involving a coyote sent to catch a ferret that was sent to catch an escaped viper in the studio...too tedious to even explain. Much like the breath I run out of explaining, the bits seem tedious and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d, not madcap or winning. The stories just aren't vital and the project just isn't urgent. I hate myself.

I feel like such turncoat. I'm going to go self-flagellate now.

Monkeys, Sluts, and Canadians, Oh My!

OK, yes, I’ve been a tad negligent. I haven’t posted in a while, and I haven’t kept up with the new episodes of Heroes and Studio 60 that came back after the winter hiatus. They were fine. I’m skipping them. On to Veronica.


Episode 3-11 Show Me the Monkey
Recap
First of all, Mac is back!! The show has been in a bit of a fight with HBO over Tina Majorino’s schedule since Big Love landed, so her presence on the Hearst campus has been patchy. Apparently her cover is that she’s been busy working for OIT at Hearst, and we meet her this episode in a lab that has been vandalized and in need of a monkey-finding detective. Who ever could Mac recommend?

As Veronica takes the case and begins infiltrating “those Phat People” (People for Humane Animal Treatment, duh)—Keith simultaneously begins looking into the Dean’s murder. Did I mention that we’ve lapsed six weeks since Veronica was almost raped and the dean shot? Yeah, so time flies. Anyhoo, the Dean’s death has been bizarrely ruled a suicide, and the widow needs her life insurance…you know the plot device. Keith realizes that the Dean didn’t drink his 40-year-old-Scotch and Veronica adds that the suicide note left on the Dean’s computer coincidentally matches the note she offered in the Plan a Perfect Murder assignment in Landry’s criminology class. In-ter-est-ing… Further, Landry is cagey and combative when Keith attempts to use his sleuthy mind tricks to elicit a confession (ever set a car on fire--or something--for a woman?). Landry knows Keith--it is Neptune, after all--and walks away in a I-wrote-a-book-too kind of huff. Keith takes the case, and our second mini-arc of the season begins.

Highlight #1: V, Mac, and Parker posing as sorority girls with a certain penchant for Ted Nugent lookalikes. They scam him into wearing a pink "Meat is Murder" sweatshirt. Golden.

Highlight #2: Mac and Veronica hosting Canada for the dorm’s Around the World party. The décor: a picture of a moose, frequent use of the word “aboot,” and Barenaked Ladies blaring. I myself may have included a Molson Ice, but V represented Canadia in a nutshell if you ask me.

The cute and harmless-seeming prez of PHAT comes to Canada and is seriously digging Mac’s cakes, and all is hunky-dory until he tries to kiss her: the trauma of having your high school boyfriend lock you in a hotel room before blowing up a plane and committing suicide appears to have had some minor after effects on Mac’s ability to trust men. Huh.

Mac’s caution may be warranted, however, when we learn that the missing rats (monkey’s friends) are in Dreamweaver’s bedroom. Fear not! It seems like Mac may actually get some after all, as V figures out that one of the researchers got attached to dear #25 and stole the monkey himself. Profound statement of the episode: “Things are harder to kill when they have a name.” So #25 is transformed into Oscar the Monkey and much like in the Neverending Story, we learn that renaming something has the power to change the world. Oscar gets to live and Veronica returns the check and keeps the secret. Monkey lover.

Mac’s smoochin’ on the porch by the end of the ep. But there’s more, not-so-wholesome smooching going on elsewhere in Neptune. Dick has convinced Logan to quit moping and go surfing, where they meet up with Easter Egg Ass Chip and the three of them do some surfer skanks who aren’t too ugly. Logan’s bathing beauty is figuratively (if not literally) wiping her chin as she coos “I can’t believe I just did that with Aaron Echoll’s son.” Man, Logan you can’t win for trying. Even sluts don’t respect you. Meanwhile, in the food court…

V and Piz have an enlightening talk about the futility of college hook-ups, and Piz feels a connection while V drives to the Neptune Grand for a (reconciliatory?) tryst with the sullen OPJ. Does this mean Rob Thomas is really going to let LoVe rule? Somehow, I doubt it.

Parting thoughts
I think this episode was one of the best of the season. The last four or so before the hiatus definitely established an upward trajectory in their quality, and I'm glad to see that's continued in the new mini-arc. I read in an interview with Rob Thomas that he especially liked this one, though the network didn't, and was glad it was the first show back after hiatus. Veronica was much more the V I like to see: funny, quick, and excited about solving mysteries. I don't want her to be Miss America and I certainly don't like perfect heroines, but I have trouble seeing a lot of how she's behaved this season as anything but mean. Thomas refutes this in the interview, but in any case the writing and acting in this episode kept the wit and snark on the sunny side of evil, much to the show's benefit.

I wonder if it might be a tad soon to have a botched reconciliation between V and Logan, but the trailer for next week looks interesting. Apparently Logan's trip into the sexual underworld will have some consequences, and the stakes of that are certainly higher when he's with V. We'll see. I just don't want more insecure girlfriend bullshit.

Having Mac back is an amazing improvement, but I have to say, I hate that this season we have Wallace, Mac, or Lamb but never more than one at a time. The Wallace-Veronica chemistry is sorely missing, but the additions of Piz and Parker are deec.

The big question: who killed Dean O'Dell? The wife and her criminology-knowin', perfect-murder assignin' lover are clear (read: obvious) suspects. We know that Veronica's perfect murder of Lamb was posted on the internet, so anyone could have read it and followed it like the Anarchist Cookbook. That leaves anyone, including LuckyTim, who knows the papers were posted online. The Lilith House girls are also prime suspects, but something tells me that Thomas and Co. are going to leave the feminists alone for a while now that the rape plot is over. At this point I don't even have a guess.

"It looks like cat spit"

The theme of this week’s episode seems to be “Marcel is a douchebag.” While this concept is nothing new for anyone who’s been watching TC this season, it’s entertaining nonetheless.

The episode begins with some apartment banter: Marcel bogarts the skillet to keep his eggs warm, Ilan calls him a virgin, Michael has had some medieval looking dental work done.

Quickfire
Ted Allen of Queer Eye fame is the guest judge, and Padma informs the chefs that the Quickfire winner will no longer receive immunity in the Elimination Challenge. Cliff tells us he could give a fuck. He’s just that good.

The cheftestants draw knives to find out which color they will have to plan a dish around in a “sensory” challenge. We learn that Sam is colorblind. A tragic flaw! I knew I’d find a chink in that exquisite armor…

Betty cooks a green dish that marries the Obvious with the Excessive: a green mess with about 50 kinds of green food in something that could be loosely termed a salad. Marcel thinks brown is somehow a difficult color, and douses his dish in coffee grounds. Elia’s white poached egg looks edible. Cliff’s (also colorblind) eggplant is clearly the only purple dish possible, so whatevs. Sam does a very yellow dish that didn’t seem memorable. Because I forgot already. Ilan does a red tartar, and it kind of looks like congealed blood with red tortilla chips. Michael wins the Quickfire with orange carrot chips that are “bagable” according to Ted, and some salmon.

Elimination Challenge
Padma informs the cheftestants that this will be a conceptual challenge: the Seven Deadly Sins. The chefs will be serving the meal for Debi “Being Electrocuted” Mazar. The chefs draw knives for the sin they will be asked to render, and as the winner of the Quickfire Michael is given the option of switching his sin. He switches his “Lust” for Marcel’s “Envy.” It’s hard to know whether he is more interested in the concept of Envy or screwing Marcel. Now Marcel must cook Lust, which he thinks is a “goldmine” Michael has given away. Let the virgin jokes commence!

Marcel immediately pisses the group off by waffling on whether he would like to serve second or seventh course. He lands on sixth, or first dessert, after pissing off Sam and Betty. Ilan is also doing a dessert, and is pretty cocky, telling us that “it’s going to be a piece of cake beating Marcel.” Piece of cake, get it?! Dessert showdown!

Michael goes high-concept with envy, assuming a blue crab would envy a king crab (‘cause it’s bigger, duh), but is thwarted when the store doesn’t have crab. He transfers his unique theory of envy to fish, logically assuming that a trout would envy a salmon. Problem solved.

Sam loses his shit with Marcel at the supply store, to less dramatic effect than the teaser had anticipated. No bloodshed or broken glass. Weak. Sam is also cooking for “Wrath,” which Marcel finds ironic. It’s amazing how so many people confuse “ironic” with “obvious.” Anyway, Sam tells us he’s Sicilian, and that’s where his access to anger comes from. I guess Marcel’s never seen The Princess Bride.

The dinner prep goes along pretty predictable lines, with Ilan telling Marcel that the cherries in his dessert are libido killers and Chef Tom scratching his head at two desserts for one meal. He's mostly just cute in his little blue chef smock, taking his usual bemused tour of the courses.

Arriving at the dinner site, the group (sans Marcel) bands together, helping with each other’s service. Clearly bucking popular opinion, Marcel declares himself a team player and we see the evidence as he pours wine for Sam's course. Sam’s seviche seems to be popular but is mostly glossed over by the show's editors.

Betty’s Sloth-y slow roasted soups are served in champagne flutes, which appears to be a mistake, given that their grit is sticking to the glass in a really unappetizing way. This bums me out, because I thought Sloth would be one of the more difficult sins, and I thought slow-roasted soups was a pretty clever approach. Tom and Ted don’t care for the texture. Oh well.

Michael’s dental visit looks like a herpe, so he tries to get Sam to present it. The diners demand Michael, and he comes out to explain fish envy. The judges dig it.

Cliff’s Greed is apparently manifested in the amount of seafood present in the dish. The “amount is succulent” according to Cliff. I don’t think this means what you think it means, Cliff.

Elia’s Proud chicken is uncomplicated, Debi says. The diners toast chicken.

Marcel “snaps” at Betty, and everyone who hates Marcel (so everyone) uses this as an excuse to make him apologize before they’ll help him with his service. He then pours chocolate in the mouth of some chick from The Sopranos. Debi says Marcel’s foam "looks like cat spit" (dice que?) and that the Lust-y cherry tart appears to be made by someone who hasn’t had enough sex. Heh.

Ilan serves his Gluttonous chocolate cake with mushy funnel cake, to poor reception. He also sneaks a dig at Marcel by telling the diners that cherries drop the libido. He’s trying to be cute (and he really doesn’t have to try too hard at that), but dogging Marcel’s dish like that just makes him look like an ass. Picking on a virgin is just mean.

Judges' Table
The judges call Elia, Michael, and Sam in as the top three dishes. Michael wins in a vicodin-induced, herpe-faced landslide. The judges all love it, and the other contestants give their likeable-but-not-intimidating competitor his props.

Marcel, Betty, and Ilan are the bottom three. Ilan is immediately called out for dogging Marcel. Padma hates Marcel’s foam. Tom tells Betty that beets and red peppers do not ebony-and-ivory make.

Betty and Ilan volunteer Marcel to go home, saying his gelee had little flavor (read: we hate that virgin foam eater). Marcel wants Ilan out. Back in the kitchen, Ilan gives Marcel some valuable vocational advice ("learn how to cook"), and we see Ilan’s bitchy side, as he manages to sound superior while using the word “paprika.” Now that's a top chef.

All agree that Ilan’s funnel cake is the worst element of the entire meal. Marcel’s cherries are deemed not lustful. Betty’s flavors and textures are off. Any guesses? The judges speak in carefully edited vaguishness, and conveniently decide who should be cut just before the commercial break.

We return, and the predictably-awesome verdict is in. Clearly Ilan and Marcel are making good television, so it’s Betty’s turn to pack her knives and go. Her biggest regret? Not making it past Marcel. I guess Michael knew what he was doing by swiping Envy as the sin most closely associated with cooking.

America's Next Top Sideshow

I've been re-watching the Top Model marathon on VH1 yesterday and today, and I have to say, Tyra's nuts. I've always sensed her instability, but man, watching one episode after the other, her psychosis has been thrown into sharp relief.

I'm particularly bothered by her contradictory opinions and advice. She dogs Danielle (the Cycle 6 winner) repeatedly because of her Southern accent and tooth gap, both features that Danielle is proud of. Tyra keeps saying that the judges don't "trust" her when she opens her mouth. Jigga what? Is this the same Tyra that fights for black, Asian, and plus-size models to make a mark on the industry? So only non-standard appearances are worth fighting for? I bet she's a fan of My Fair Lady.

Tyra has challenges every cycle that ask the models to pose nude, yet she does sting operations on her talk show meant to shame aspiring models who agree to pose naked. So taking your clothes off is only a way to get ahead when it's Ty-Ty asking? Please.

Inexplicably, I still like the show and I still like Tyra. I can't explain it. I guess I'm just as big a hypocrit as the big T.

The New Shows

I'm envisioning this space to be primarily tv recaps and reviews. The sidebar "Must List" is where I've listed the shows that I'm going to be discussing. Choosing them wasn't easy; I feel like I watch TONS of tv, and yet I had trouble picking. There are a couple of reasons for this problem:
1.) Many of my favs just aren't on any more: Sex and the City, The West Wing, Six Feet Under.
2.) A few current muses are on premium channels I can't afford: Weeds, Dexter, Entourage.
3.) Schedule conflicts also cannot be solved until my budget can afford a TiVO, or I convince the writing program that TiVo is an expense they should cover. This makes catching House and a few others difficult.

So, in the end, I will be looking at five shows, at least until other shows come back from hiatus (Project Runway, America's Next Top Model) or I get bored. The rationale:

Heroes - I just picked this one up over the winter break. Everyone seemed to be raving about it, so I took the liberty of downloading several episodes on iTunes to find out for myself. (Only after downloading six episodes did I realize I could watch them streaming on nbc.com. Oops.) The series starts a bit slow, with so many characters to introduce and follow. And I do think that over the entire half season that's aired so far, that's really the weakness of the show: trying to cater to too many stories, stars, and characters. Ensemble casts are fantastic, but Heroes really should take a page from Lost and focus on only one or two characters per episode to take the pressure off the storytelling. I'm also not loving the Nikki/Jessica storyline featuring Ali Larter. I don't know if it's the acting or the character, but it seems much more melodramatic and twirling-mustachioed than the other threads.

Overall, though, a series worth keeping up with and picking up on if you haven't yet. The casting is good; I especially like Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli and Hayden Panettiere as "save the cheerleader save the world" Claire Bennett. Panttiere's overly-built, orange-stained, trying-a-bit-too-hard teen presence is perfect for the all-American girl with a secret that Claire embodies. And Sendhil Ramamurthy may be the most attractive man. Ever. Mondays, 9/8c on NBC.

Lost - The show that launched a thousand sci-fi series. The first season was groundbreaking, engaging, and enthralling. The second season was less so. Now six episodes into Season 3, we're waiting through a long hiatus for the final 16 episodes. In my opinion, the introduction of the "Others" has benefited the series in a way the "Tailies" did not. The Tailies seemed like a mere shark-jump to infuse new characters, while the Others really do provide new stories, perspectives, and possibilities. That said, watching Jack, Sawyer, and Kate remain in captivity for six episodes has been bor-ing. Time to set them free and move the plot along. Pronto. Wednesdays, 10/9c on ABC.

Studio 60 (on the Sunset Strip) - I'm willing to admit that the Cheese Might Stand Alone on this one. I know that some things on this show are not working. I know that many have been pretty disappointed. I know that some of the sketches are not funny. But regardless, I am a fan of Aaron Sorkin come hell or cancellation. I don't need to rehash my eternal love of all things West Wing and Sports Night. But the fast-talking, behind-the-scenes, incessantly-optimistic worldview Sorkin draws in every script is irresistible to me. I can't hate on it.

Along with my love for Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, I've also been pleasantly surprised by some the newcomers to the Sorkin clan, in particular Sarah Paulson as Christian comedienne Harriet Hayes and Steven Webber as nasty network exec Jack Rudolph. In general, Sorkin's sanguine approach to the promise and possiblity of popular culture gives the validation coach potatoes need to sit through yet another hour of television. Mondays, 10/9c on NBC.

Top Chef - Along with Project Runway, Top Chef is really putting Bravo's original programming on the map. I don't even cook or watch cooking shows, but the talent and artistry associated with producing fine cuisine is fascinating. And the bitching. I really like the bitching. I liked the first season, but this second season is even better. Gone is boring-vanilla Billy Joel's wife as host, and in her place is interesting-Indian Salman Rushdie's wife. As for the contestants, Elan is adorable, Betty is hilarious, Marcel is cartoonish, and Michael is, as guest judge Anthony Bourdain put it, Flinstonian. The food is hot, Padma Lakshmi is smokin, and the competition is sizzling. Wow, that was chee-sy. Wednesdays, 10/9c on Bravo.

Veronica Mars - My favorite show. Season 1 broke noir ground, Season 2 paced back over it, and Season 3 is dragging it to college. The move to Hearst College hasn't been easy for Veronica or Veronica Mars, but after the first mini-arc of nine episodes, this season may be finding its stride. The combined forces of the move to the CW, its pairing with the waning Gilmore Girls, and the ever-present ratings crisis have forced writer/creator Rob Thomas to pander a bit to new, younger audiences. This means that references to previous seasons have been minimized, Kristen Bell's wardrobe has been sexed up, and the noir elements have been toned down. Oh, and V's kinda bitchy now.

I think that the Hearst Rapist mini-arc ended well but the treatment of women and sexuality on a college campus was botched. It seems painfully obvious to make the feminists angry, the frat boys sloppy, and the heroine repeatedly roofied. The high-tension, surprising conclusion to the storyline helped out some of the problems, but I'm hoping Rob Thomas and Co. can step up their game a bit and lose the ugly shoes/Women's Studies jokes. Here's hoping! Tuesdays, 9/8c on The CW.

So that's the rundown! I'm looking forward to the shows resuming after the winter break. I hope that the shows that have struggled have used their time wisely, and that Spring will beat Fall in quality and ratings. Let me know your thoughts on these shows and your expectations for the coming episodes!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday, and historically, it hasn't been the most wonderful day of the year for me. I won't go into the many New Year's Eve and football-related obstacles, but suffice it to say that I've learned expectations are never a good thing when talking about birthdays.

This year I'm in Spokane, at my mom's house, watching her vacuum. At least I'm not doing it. In any event, I'm glad that school is still many weeks off, and that I've got some free time on my hands once I get back to Massachusetts for catching up on reading and vegetating. And playing with my new Macbook. Ah, the Macbook.

I have to say, this year the whole "Merry-Christmas-Happy-Birthday" trap really worked in my favor. Parents felt that a computer wasn't too insane a gift when amortizing it over two gifting occasions. So this year I'm reaping the benefits of 25 or so medium-to-shitty birthdays. I'll take it!

So far...

MacJournal has worked great for my current (this) blog, but I’ve created a new portal for the class I’m teaching this coming semester, and configuring MacJournal to publish to that blog has been a series of error messages. Haven’t gotten it to work yet, and I’m not sure why. Also, I encountered an error message when I tried to publish a post to this blog with an image in it. Hmm...

Update: I figured out that MacJournal was having trouble communicating with New Blogger, which I updated to just after my first posting with MacJournal. I’ve updated MacJournal to a beta version that has fixed the New Blogger settings. Blogger is now out of beta, and is now fully integrated with Google. Version 4.1d6 has worked out the bugs by working out the new logon info and recognizing the Google username and password instead of the previous Blogger username and password.

But still, I’m not sure if the functionality of MacJournal is really any better than using the Blogger templates and edit tools. The text of the MacJournal entries is also clearly scrunched when compared to the previous posts done directly on blogger. Perhaps I could fiddle with the formatting, but what’s the point? Seems like an extra, unnecessary step. I never liked composing in Blogger, though, and I couldn’t say why. Perhaps the default Courier font was annoying.

Trying Out MacJournal

In preparation for my forthcoming course on blogging at UMass, I’m trying out MacJournal to see whether it would be worth purchasing. I have, until now, blogged only using blogger, but when I purchased a new Mac this month it came with iWeb, and so I’ve been wondering about blogging apps.

iWeb is a beautiful LOOKING program, but using the templates seemed pretty clunky and formatting often screwed up when trying to substitute my own pictures for the template place holders. Also, the templates are designed to be very personal, having spots for age, major, location, etc. and seemed to really promote the journaling aspect of blogging above other genres and uses. I love Apple’s hardware and software generally speaking, but iWeb didn’t impress me. Also, a MAJOR drawback was that iWeb is pretty much designed to be used exclusively with .mac. It says that using an ftp client users can publish to a folder and then upload to their own hosting site, but the help menus don’t offer any more support than that. It seems pretty useless without a .mac account.

So that brings us to MacJournal. I’ve read some reviews, and generally the software receives good ratings. Some users think that the new version is bloated with unnecessary features and a hefty price tag ($35), but perhaps those users were looking for personal journaling and not blogging software. We’ll see. I’m composing in MacJournal now, and haven’t tried to publish yet. There may be snags in posting to my existing (though oft ignored) blog. May have to start a new one. I’ll post soon on how that goes, but I suppose if anyone’s reading this then the posting process happened eventually. :-)