SoulHonky

You have to give the producers and writers of Entourage one thing; they shook things up this year. Instead of sticking with the tried and tired formula, they switched it up, giving the side characters their own arcs and making Vince a side character. Unfortunately, it seems like they've gone a little too far with their changes and the show is onto its worst start yet.

So what went wrong?

2. Where's Ari?: A year or so ago, I suggested that the show consider spinning Ari off into his own show. His storylines were becoming more and more unrelated to the Boys from Queens. Now that he is almost completely cut off (since Vince doesn't seem to need help), it's all the more reason to try it. Right now, Ari's completely wasted in pointless mini-arcs. The one major arc he has is the awful Gary Cole storyline. This storyline started off as potentially interesting with Cole looking like he may be a bad influence on Ari but it's since spiraled into the Dom-Zone of annoying story arcs. Meanwhile, the Ari-Lloyd storyline completely disappeared. They can even consistently throw in random sight gags of Lloyd doing menial labor (like in the golf episode). So not only is Ari out of it because Vince isn't doing anything but now he's not even able to really be Ari since we have to see him dealing with Cole's infidelities. It's all pointless, none of it is funny, and it really adds nothing to the show. They should probably dump Cole's character and maybe give Ari a new client, perhaps a young up-and-coming star who could steal some of Vince's thunder (and someone who always listens to Ari's advice so he feels a bit more needed). If not, spin him off into a show about being the king of the Miller Gold Castle. They need to do something because they are wasting Jeremy Piven by having him just sitting in his office, yelling randomly about stories nobody cares about.

3. Girls, Girls, Girlzzzzzz: The ladies of Entourage are only interesting if they are naked or involved in a bigger storyline. (And honestly, the nudity is getting more and more gratuitous. But I'll take it.) Case in point, most of the Turtle/Jamie Lynn stories are tedious however once you get her involved somewhere else, like in Drama's career, she suddenly has a purpose. It's always been like this. Kristen (E's ex in season 1) was annoying but Emily was interesting because she kind of caused friction with E and Ari. Anna Faris affected Vince's situation and Silo. Sloan... honestly, I can't even remember what Sloan did. Something with her dad. Ashley has been probably the worst because her storyline was a lot like Kristen's, she added nothing to the other stories, and she was just kind of annoying, like a teenager. Hopefully, Kate Mara's character (E's new assistant) will add some spice to the storylines and fit in well. 

4. Follow Through: The worst part about the show having so much filler is that you know it's probably never going to pop up again. The gun storyline was lame and pretty much ended this episode. Why waste our time with it; why not go straight to the Security Team storyline? Why bother with Vince taking driving lessons? Vince saying on national TV that he bribed his driving instructor? Vince making a sex tape? Is ANY of this going to come back? Probably not. If these storylines are going to be completely one-and-done, they need to be funny. This season's simply haven't been. The Turtle stories, especially, have been lame sit-com level situations.

5. The Life: One of the draws of the show was that it showed the Hollywood life. Now it's showing the life of a settled down actor (well, somewhat settled down) and there's nothing there. They eat at the same places. They go golfing. Vince doesn't even need to flirt anymore, girls come to him. Even worse, they come to him... and then go to their rooms. In the past, they'd pick him up and head to hang out with Dennis Hopper or some weed guru played by Val Kilmer. The show is slowly becoming a workplace sit-com (and a drab one at that). The direction they're going, Vince will have a baby this time next season.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:19 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

A number of sites are bashing ESPN for their new policty on Twitter but it really is the only logical thing to do. ESPN sent out new guidelines that said their talents' sports related tweets would have to be OK'd by an immediate supervisor and that people needed to remember that they were always representing ESPN so they shouldn't tweet something they wouldn't say on the air. For example, Mark Schlereth's twitter argument with Chad Ochocinco does nothing to help Schlereth's reputation as an expert.

Of course, the person who made the most out of this was Ric Bucher but he's also probably the reason that the rule came down. For months now, Bucher has been self-publishing rumors and opinion without even a nod to ESPN. He was basically giving away info for free and he himself had threatened to stop tweeting because other sites were picking up his tweets and passing them off as their own rumors.

For a quick comparison on how someone working in the business should tweet, look at Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports. First off, his name is YahooSportsNBA or something like that. His profile has a link to Yahoo! sports. Every time he posts a big rumor, he follows it up later with a link to the full story at Yahoo!

Bucher has a nice little Ric Bucher logo and, at a quick glance, not a single mention of ESPN on his page. Going back a month of tweets (almost all sports related), he didn't post a single link to ESPN. I'm sorry but if someone working for ANY website, big or small, was doing this, the same thing would have happened. Hell, even Ashton Kutcher recently went on Conan and whined about Twitter not showing him any love (or money) for everything he's done on the site.

And this is one of the main reasons that I think Twitter is a bit of a fad. People can't really make money off of it, except as something that helps promote their articles. It's basically just a low rent RSS feed. 

If I knew anything about programming, I'd try to put together a Home Page program that would put together selected RSS feeds so it looked a bit like The Huffington Post or The Daily Beast.

But now I'm rambling. The basic point is that ESPN is protecting their investment and making sure that their employees aren't essentially leaking the information that they should be posting on the actual ESPN site.  

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:22 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

I'm not sure this could ever live up to "Band of Brothers" but the companion piece to that mini-series (arguably the greatest mini-series of all-time) isn't airing until next year but here's a trailer.

On a side note, why the lack of any recent American-made WWI movies? I think Flyboys might have been the only one of late and that hardly counts. Granted, it's hard to top: Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, or Paths of Glory (or All Quiet on the Western Front) but you'd think that there was some sort of story to tell.

In other HBO news, they are re-airing the interesting Spanish language series "Epitafios". I'm still stunned that they didn't remake this into an English version or at least turn it into a movie. The story is pretty good although it does wander into telenovela silliness at times. The first episode features one of the more inexplicable faceoffs with a guy staring down to dogs but overall it's still a very good series and worth the watch. I'm not sure they are reairing the eps throughout the week so you might not be able to catch up with the first episode but you should be able to catch up no problem. The second episode is on HBO on this weekend (The reair runs at odd hours. My DVR is set to the HBO2 airing on Saturday nights at 11 pm)

Posted by SoulHonky at 06:58 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

So I finally watched the performance of "Don't Stop Believin'" from Glee and while it's very good, it's not enough to get me to go back and try to watch the show. I tried to watch the show when it first aired but only made it through one commercial break. It was a little too silly and cutesy for my taste.

This performance is great but I'm not as wowed as everyone else seems to be. First off, it's a great song. It's pretty hard to screw it up. Also, even in this video, the main girl annoyed me. I just couldn't stand her character when I watched it and it really stuck with me because I still didn't like her. Finally, the autotune really bugged me. I know that's nitpicky but it took something away from the performance for me.

Anyway, a nice rendition of a great song but not enough to get me to watch Fox's version of High School Musical.

Posted by SoulHonky at 01:59 PM | Permalink |Digg It!

After watching "Parks and Recreation" and "Harper's Island", I have to say that "Southland" and "The Unusuals" look a lot better.

"Parks and Recreation" was just a miss on pretty much every level. I know people like Amy Poehler but she doesn't fit the role. (And honestly, I think time slot rival Christina Applegate is a better comedic actress). Aziz Ansari doesn't do anything with his role and Rashida Jones is just kind of there. Even worse, the documentary style that they took from "The Office" adds nothing. They'd be better off dropping it and going with a standard single camera comedy. A few of the jokes could have been better if they came about naturally rather than having it banged over our heads in an interview bite. I watched parts of "In the Motherhood" and "Samantha Who?" and both of those shows were funnier and more clever. Not that i'll watch them but they were head and shoulders better. At this point, NBC might as well air "Caroline in the City" reruns on Thursday's. (Or just show "30 Rock" and "30 Rock" reruns)

On a side note, I think the funniest thing I saw on my TV this evening was in the channel guide. I was checking what was on the movie channels and Cinemax was showing "Cleavagefield". The show description was something like naked people run from a monster. One google search later and I found a trailer for the film.

As for "Harper's Island", it was just boring. It played like a watered down straight-to-DVD horror film. At times, it was borderline parody; every character did something that made them seem like they might be the killer or the next villain. And by the time someone did die, it was just poorly done. There was no tension. No fright. No reason to continue watching. But who knows, maybe the guys who did Cleavagefield could take the script and turn it into a plumper soft-core porn, "Heffer's Island".

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:04 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

"Southland" premieres tonight (and is already available on Hulu) and The Unusuals started last night. Both are ensemble cop dramas that feature rich kid cops but other than that, they are pretty much the opposite of one another.

"Southland" takes place in LA which doesn't help it any. It's a gritty, documentary style production that seems like "The Shield" if it was written by Paul Haggis. The biggest issue for the pilot is that it follows three stories and there seems to be no real connection. It's like flipping through three different cop shows, one of which (the Shawn Hatosy story) features some almost laughable on-the-nose dialogue. Which is another issue. For a show that looks like a documentary, the dialogue is stilted and borderline preachy.

Still, this show could draw people in because it is subtle, dark, and more realistic than the average cop show. However, I think those qualities usually make up a cult hit which is hardly what NBC needs or could afford. I really can't see this show surviving for a second season, especially if it has to play at 9pm (since Leno owns the 10 o'clock hour). Like "Kings", NBC deserve some credit for trying something relatively new to network TV but they didn't pull it off.

As for "The Unusuals", it needs to figure out what it wants to be. There are moments when it is absurd and over-the-top and then a second later it will be a serious cop drama. They should take a look at St. Elsewhere if they want to keep up the jokes (they even use the St. Elsewhere gag of having the intercom spew jokes) but I think they'd be better off toning it down and using the absurd stuff to show how life as in the NYPD can be surreal at times.

The show was OK and I'm going to give it another shot but the premiere only got so-so ratings and it has a fairly high profile cast so I'm not sure if they can really afford to continue on unless they get more viewers.

In the end, I'd only recommend "Southland" to people who like documentary-style series and who think subtlety alone makes shows intriguing. People who like off-beat shows will probably go for "The Unusuals" but right now, I can't see either show having much crossover appeal. (Instead of Southland, I'll be checking out Harper's Island on CBS)

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:53 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

After watching the verygoodness that was Veronica Mars season 1, I decided to give Rob Thomas's newish show "Cupid" a shot. As you might have heard, the show is a bit of a phenomenon since it's a revamped version of a show that failed eleven years ago. The original version of the show starred Jeremy Piven
 and tanked. Still, ABC execs apparently liked the idea enough to give it a second chance. The outcome? It's OK. I'm a fan of Thomas's writing but there's no real sense of urgency to the show. I might give it another chance but it's basically watching a contrived rom-com from the perspective of the contrivance. It's one of those shows that is perfectly OK, which isn't enough to survive in the TV universe. I don't think they could have really done much of anything better; it's just a premise than doesn't really lend itself to weekly viewing. I think Thomas, like Josh Schwartz, might be better suited for film or more focused one-off seasons.

That being said, I tried looking for old shows that I wish they would give another chance to (I'm sure half of the people out there are thinking of a Manimal joke right now) but the one thing I kept coming back to was a high school show that actually took place in, you know, high school. A new private eye drama could be good too, and I mean one that doesn't have an outsider inexplicably joining the ranks of the police and working like a cop (ala The Mentalist and Castle, although I don't mind Castle that much. It's almost like a Y2K version of Murder, She Wrote).  

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:04 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

It's embarrassing when you have to cancel a show after three episodes, like NBC just did with "The Chopping Block", but that's not even the worst part. What's really sad is that one of the shows that was beating the restaurant reality show was none other than NBC castoff "Scrubs".

While people are making a bigger deal that they should about the Leno move to 10pm (a decade ago, NBC was showing Dateline three nights a week because of crappy programming), NBC's lack of success in developing programs over the last two years has been stunning. Not only have they thrown out one stinker after another but they couldn't even maintain the quality ones like "Life" which has become almost unwatchable now.

To be fair, Ben Silverman took over a sinking ship that featured acclaimed shows that didn't really bring in great ratings but it's almost like NBC isn't even trying. "Howie Do It" is arguably the most successful show that NBC has launched in the last couple years. Hopefully, the Leno experiment can, at the very least, get NBC to restructure their schedule and maybe find a couple of mainstays to build around. I'm not sure if the current regime will be able to pull it off but all it takes is one or two great shows to turn it all around.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:33 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:47 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

Maybe I'm just getting grumpy (or grumpier) in my old age but this year was pretty much a disaster in terms of new TV shows. I couldn't find a single show to really get excited about. Here's the rundown.

90210: I got through the first episode before realizing that this wasn't for me. And I'm someone who likes Gossip Girl. I watched a couple of more episodes and it just didn't click. I guess my main problem was that there was no center. The original 90210 had the new kids in town trying to fit in and the square parents. In this one, there was no fish out of water. Everyone loved the 90210 lifestyle. All of the conflict was contrived and the whole thing seemed phony.

Eleventh Hour: I can barely remember this one but I remember a boring male lead being teamed with an equally boring female lead and they then go hunt down outlandish yet surprisingly boring cases.

Fringe: I actually gave Fringe two shots to reel me in and it failed both times. The problem was that the Fringe science was the most believable part of the show. The actual relationships and actions of the supposed normal people required more suspension of disbelief than the sci-fi elements. When I tapped out for the second time, it was partly because Olivia, the main Fed, had just been kidnapped and experimented on. She escaped but they weren't able to find out who did it. At the same time, her sister and her kid come to visit and ask if they can stay at her place and she says "Yes." Needless to say, the kid gets in the middle of danger in the next episode. It was ridiculous. When most films and shows have the common sense to have people trying to send their loved ones away because of the threat, this show has their hero inviting them to sleep over. I'm sure she's probably be the type of Aunt who send her niece to Crystal Lake for summer camp despite the bad reviews. The show has some VERY cool elements but it's a B-movie TV show and I just couldn't handle the antics of the supposedly normal people.

Knight Rider: One of the funniest shows I've ever watched. If everyone involved could have put their egos aside, they could have made a few tweaks and turned it into an amazing parody and one of the best comedies on TV.

Life On Mars: Just didn't click. I guess the main issue was the premise and the fact that the whole thing could just be a dream. I'm not tuning in every week to a show that might just end with the guy waking up. It seemed to me like a worse version of "Journeyman".

The Mentalist: One thing I can't stand about the recent procedurals is that they are all following House's lead. It's basically watching a bunch of people talking about stuff that 90% of the world doesn't understand and then we should be thrilled when they come up with the solution that we never had a chance of solving. The end of the pilot of The Mentalist hinged on Simon Baker's character seeing a book. He knew what was in the book and because of that, he knew who did it. But there was no way for the audience to know that so the whole thing felt like a cheat. To me, part of the fun of watching a whodunit is figuring out whodunit. If you're keeping evidence from me or the key pieces of evidence are things that I don't know or couldn't ever figure out on my own, then I don't see why I should watch. (At least House has the personal relationships. The Mentalist lacked that IMO).

Privileged: I think the lead actress is adorable and would love to see her in a hit show but I couldn't bring myself to watch this. Gossip Girl was more than enough estrogen for me.

Lie To Me: Like The Mentalist, it was a procedural that didn't really let us into the procedure. Also, it was like House but instead of surgery, Tim Roth just stared at people. I wanted to like it but it was just boring.

Trust Me: There's just nothing appealing about watching moderately unlikable guys struggle with their jobs. It was like The West Wing with worse characters and instead of world shaping events, each episode focused on things like thinking up a new catchphrase.

Important Things with Demetri Martin: I liked this show because I like Martin's stand-up but I couldn't help but be disappointed because all it was was his stand-up. I know people want to crown him the next comedy superstar but he's going to need to bring something more. The sketches in the premiere episode weren't that good. I really wish they'd gone the Seinfeld (or even Larry Sanders) route and tried to spin the comedy into an actual sit-com. A lot of his jokes seem to lend themselves to sit-com treatment. Maybe it could have been the new Herman's Head (but with an actual audience).

The College Humor Show: There's no reason for this show to be on TV. No, really. The best bit from the show was a sketch that had been online since August. The actual show was cliched and just stupid. College Humor can put out some great material (the unaired 1994 pilot of 24 is classic) but they don't have enough for a TV show (and it doesn't help that none of them can act).

The Beast: It was like Fringe but without the interesting sci-fi elements. The pilot was so laughably illogical that I couldn't bother watching it anymore.

Leverage: This show wasn't bad but, again, it wasn't anything more than a B-TV show/guilty pleasure. It was solid enough but it was more like a show that you catch when it on than something you consciously tune in each week to watch.

The United States of Tara: An interesting premise that just wasn't utilized to its fullest. There wasn't enough Tara or real emotion. At the same time, it wasn't all that funny so you were just left with this wet blanket (or I'm sure Ms. Cody would prefer "a wet snuggie") that really gave you no reason to tune in. It was like a bad mix of hour-long drama with half hour sit-com sensibilities. I liked Juno but this was not the right show for Diablo Cody. I kind of wish that this had gone into production a year later and Jenny Lumet had gotten a crack at it.

Crash: It's like Knight Rider but not funny and more annoying. One of the worst shows I've ever had the displeasure of watching. And I didn't even mind the movie.

The Life and Times of Tim: I liked this show but it almost seemed better suited as a web series than a TV show. I'd watch it again if it was on HBO but it was more smile funny than laugh out loud or even chuckle funny.

I think that's all of 'em or at least, all the ones I saw. Did you guys like any of these shows? Did I miss any new programs that were actually worthwhile and that you'd recommend? 

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:39 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

I'm really torn on Joss Whedon's latest, "Dollhouse". While I thought the show had potential, I'm really not sure how much potential is actually has. It's one of those premises that seems great until you start to flesh it out. Then you realize there really isn't all that much there. It seems like it might have made a better movie trilogy (a kind of Bourne offshoot) or a mini-series that then might expand into a show.

The more I think about it, the more I believe I'm just drawn in by the premise. The look of the show wasn't that great and I wasn't a huge fan of the casting. I'm not sure Eliza Dushku really has the range to carry a show like this. I usually like Harry Lennix but he seemed to be in stock ex-cop cliche form in this one. 

One thing that this show really could have used (both for promtion purposes and to help chip away at the backstory) was a pre-premiere web series. Maybe if we watched the FBI agent track down his leads and try to learn more about Dollhouse, it could have drummed up interest and helped the show get its feet under it. (Although it sounds like Fox swept Whedon's legs out from under him and demanded some changes that altered the show)

Right now, it's a B- show that doesn't really have enough going for it to recommend. If you think you wouldn't like it, you won't. I'm hoping it gets better but the reviews seem to make it seem like the future episodes continue to tease with the promise of a fulfilled potential that it never is able to deliver.

So like with most of this season's new shows, my recommendation is to hold off for now. Wait to see if word of mouth starts building and then catch the shows online (or just wait out season 1 and watch it on DVD). There's always a risk that if too many people do that, the show won't get the ratings it needs to stay on the air but personally, I'd rather take that risk than invest hours of my life on another TV show that botches its premise and fails to live up to its promise. I'm going to tune in next week but part of me feels like I'm setting myself up for disappointment.

Posted by SoulHonky at 04:19 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

An online ad for The College Humor Show claims, "It's like the internet... but on TV." And that's the main problem with this program. College Humor is a fun site to go to waste time and watch a few videos but it's not what anyone would call "appointment television". Even with the website, it's not like people are sitting around waiting for the next College Humor sketch to drop. In order for the show to work it has to offer something more.

It doesn't. The storylines that take place between the sketches (and there were only two or three separate sketches during the show) weren't really strong/funny enough. If that's what is supposed to get people to tune in, it's going to have to get better or else people will just wait for the sketches to show up on the internet? In some cases, the sketches already are online. The best bit of the show, the rap song "Awkward", debuted on College Humor's site last August.

College humor has some great stuff on their site (the unaired 1994 pilot of 24 is a classic) but I'm not sure they have enough for a weekly show. Yeah, SNL has survived for years now with only two or three good skits per show but they have the attraction of the celebrity host and musical guest. Mad TV survived but they had some talented performers; the College Humor group are good writers but acting is definitely not their forte. I wouldn't put it past the College Humor crew to make a hilarious show but this isn't it.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:13 PM | Permalink |Digg It!

Fox's new show "Lie to Me" is another spin on the ol' Psych/Mentalist observation highway. Tim Roth's character is an expert at facial tics and body movements and can tell if anyone is lying. He has used this skill to build his own rather impressive looking company and has high profile clientele and the ear of high ranking justice officials. And while he is able tell if anyone is lying, the key, as Kelli Williams's character explains to us, is finding out why they are lying.

The show is somewhat interesting (if the little factoids are indeed true) because it drops all sorts of little clues as to why someone is lying. In a lot of cases, it's a little too obvious but hey, it's network television not a documentary. Still, the idea that someone's nose really does itch when they lie or their hands get colder when they are about to flee is kind of neat.

Continue reading " Review: Lie to Me" »

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:54 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

A&E's new show "The Beast" features some intense acting from Patrick Swayze who basically comes off as Tommy Lee Jones playing Vik Mackey from "The Shield". And, like "The Shield" the show is about a rogue law enforcement agent who works by his own code and may or may not be dirty.

However, that's where the comparisons to the well-crafted "The Shield" end.

"The Beast" is a borderline parody. I almost feel like the original pitch was: Imagine if the FBI was run with the same level of logic or security as a podunk police department in Scranton. Nevermind that Swayze's character actually fires a rocket launcher and blows up a car in the middle of a city like it's no big deal but the FBI's evidence room is your stereotypical chain link fence and one old geezer working the window. The "Holy Grail" of FBI evidence (a drive with every FBI undercover agent's in the world's true identity) sits on the shelf closest to the front of the room for everyone to see. To get something out, you just need a single print out. Not one but two people essentially break in and get what the need during the show. It's like someone familiar with the FBI from the 1950's wrote the script and then a young kid just threw in a few new reference like computers and launch cards to make it seem like a present day script.

And while the drive with undercover agents' true identities is a highly sought after object, the actual characters in this show don't seem all that careful about keeping their own identities under wraps. Undercover Feds apparently work in the same city all the time (the same city in which they live), sometimes with what seems like just a week between jobs. They wander in and out of the FBI building without seeming to care that, you know, they are supposedly in the middle of an undercover sting operation. Swayze actually runs out of the building to his car in broad daylight with the box holding the rocket launcher as if he just picking up a pizza. His young partner (played unconvincingly by model Travis Fimmel) is literally starting to date a girl (using his real identity) minutes after working as an undercover.

But perhaps the best part was the ad for The Beast that appeared during the show. One of the quote was "Patrick Swayze elevates" from the Hollywood Reporter. Now I really don't think it takes even a 12 year old to realize that that is only a sentence fragment and that the rest of the sentence was probably cut off for a reason. The full quote was: "Patrick Swayze's work elevates an otherwise ordinary hour" which isn't exactly the kind of blurb you're going to hang your hat on.

Maybe some people will be able to enjoy the show as "Shield-lite", a brain-dead guilty pleasure. If that's what you're looking for though I'd recommend watching Leverage instead as that mediocre show doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is and has its tongue firmly place in cheek. Better yet, watch "Burn Notice" on USA (or Netflix the first season). That show also requires some leaps of faith but it's tone (more A-Team than The Shield) and the cases (more personal, helping the little guy odd jobs than government assignments) make it easy to suspend your disbelief.

"The Beast" takes itself too seriously to be a guilty please and is too ridiculous to be enjoyed as a gritty thriller. Swayze's presence is going to get me to give it one more chance but I seriously doubt that it will still be on the DVR To Do list at this time next week.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:00 AM | Permalink |Digg It!

I was hoping for a New Year revival for my guilty pleasure Gossip Girl but it seems like it's past the point of no return. In fact, it's getting to the point where people might actually start hurting their careers if they stay on much longer. Chase Crawford really has no point at all anymore. His character just floats around, making random cameos. I'm a fan of Taylor Momsen but she went from young adult trying to prove herself to bratty little child in no time flat. More and more she's getting labeled as the most annoying (if not worst) thing on the show and that's not something you want the fans of your cult show pegging you with.

Leighton Meester needs to stretch a bit. She's amazing at playing the poor little rich girl but she needs to do what all young actresses need to: play a normal person. Blake Lively has done it a bit with Accepted and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (And no, playing the virginal yet slutty pop princess on Entourage isn't going to help Miss Meester either).

I don't even know what to say about Chuck Bass. His character has become a caricature of a caricature. At least, Kelly Rutherford has been looking amazing and my man Matthew Settle (aka Spears from Band of Brothes) is still holding his own. I'm really surprised he hasn't been able to nab a superhero role of any sort.

Anyway, the fall from grace has been Heroes level (which got erased from the season pass) but it's getting close. This week was painful to get through and I wasn't even paying attention to it half of the time. The whole finish to the adoption story was hilarious. We wait weeks for the answer and it's that the kid died. And they don't even give them a photo; just a cut-out of the obituary? Really? They then pour salt on the wound by tossing in the ace in the hole plot twist of the kid not really being dead (you know, so they can bring him in when the storylines get even more depleted).

Oh, and how did Chuck not see the brunch coming? There's a party every week in their circle of friends. At that point, shouldn't he have stopped and thought, "Shit, there hasn't been a reason for our rag tag group to all be in the same place at one time recently. I better make sure there's not a surprise brunch going on anytime soon."

And to make matters worse, word is that last year's ensharktress Georgina is making a comeback.  

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I'd be stunned if this show made it past a third season.

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:18 PM | Permalink |Digg It!

Well, I'm only a decade late to the party but I've watched the first season of "Spaced" (which is only 7 episodes) and have to say I'm a fan. The sit-con which was pitched as a cross between "The Simpsons, X-Files, and Northern Exposure" features Simon Pegg and was directed by Edgar Wright. If you're a fan of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" you should definitely check this show out.

The stories are thin but filled with genre parodies and pop culture references which make the show entertaining. It also takes a couple of episodes to really get going but I recommend checking it out on Nextflix or anywhere else the DVD is available.  The first episode is on YouTube. Embedding has been disable so you'll have to click here to see it.

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:07 AM | Permalink |Digg It!