Friday, September 25, 2009

Smallville, Dollhouse, FlashForward, Heroes, HIMYM, Big Bang Theory, Survivor, & More - September 25, 2009

Smallville premiered tonight and I really enjoyed the setup for this season. The season premiere picked up three weeks after the events of the season eight finale. As talked about at Comic-Con, Clark’s ability to fly was discussed immediately between him and Jor-El. Clark asked why he wasn’t able to fly as Kara does but was told that he has the ability but just hasn’t done away enough with his human side. We also saw Clark with a much different look including a cape (which looked awesome in that rooftop shot by the way) and seeing him leaving his trademark symbol everywhere. Chloe continued to battle with Clark over his human side pleading with him to use the time traveling ring to go back and save Jimmy. She mentioned how she had given up so much of things in her life for him and needed his help in return. Nice line as a comeback when he said how the last time that he tried to change destiny, he lost his father. Hard to argue against that. I do like Chloe’s point though too cause she has given up so much for him. Chloe said that she had been searching for Clark for three weeks and he had been nowhere to be found. Once Lois returned, he was suddenly back on the radar. Speaking of Lois, she returned from the future at the beginning of the episode but brought a not so friendly foe with her. She went to Oliver for help in battling her but Clark showed up to save the day. This was what the woman wanted though was for Clark to show up. She had Clark’s watch that was from one year in the future where she said that she was there to stop him from the bad that he does in the future. The battle has her being killed….until we see her again later in Zod’s army. Yep, Zod has built his army and Tess was there to witness it. Zod was questioned by several people with him on the answers that he wasn’t giving them to their questions. How about the visions we got from Lois at the end of the episode? Very interesting. Enjoyed the premiere.

That gets us to my other anticipated season premiere of tonight, season two of Dollhouse. I should point out that I watched the unaired episode of season one called “Epitaph One” earlier today. WOW is all that can be said. That was an incredible episode!!!!! It was an awesome episode based in the future with a lot of cool twists. I love that they are giving Amy Acker more to do. She is doing an incredible job. I’m talking about in the unaired episode and also in tonight’s season premiere. Plus, Felicia Day is great in it too in her guest starring role. Anyway, if you haven’t seen the unaired episode that would be the season one finale, do yourself a favor and watch it. $1.99 on iTunes. Worth every bit of it. So, what about season two tonight? Fun premiere. I loved the stuff that they did with Dr. Saunders/Whiskey where she is realizing what is going on. I love Amy Acker. She is such a great actress and the scenes with her and Topher were great. Topher is starting to break down over everything that is going on. So, Ballard is now Echo’s handler. That seemed like a no brainer to me to where the story will have to go. Great to see Alexis Denisof get his series debut even though it was short on this episode. Yeah, I know I’m just hitting on a few points but this was a fun episode and I’m so happy that this show is back.

More great news from the Whedonverse this week as Dr. Horrible took home an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program. Big congrats to all the cast and crew!! Well deserved!!

Last night’s Survivor. Well, I figured it would be based around Russell some more. However, Ben stepped up to get the most attention on this episode. Ben has been doing a lot of talking and getting on the nerves of his tribe. The immunity challenge was also very physical and he was thrown out of it for delivering a cheap shot to the leg. Yes, the only person ever in Survivor history to be kicked out of a challenge. He proceeded to use a machete all night long pounding on things while others were trying to sleep. Then, he got into a verbal exchange back in camp with another person. This person drew probably the second most attention on this episode and this was Yasmin. With Galu winning the challenge, Russell as leader was able to send one of his tribe back to the Foa Foa tribe to observe them including going with them to tribal council. Yasmin was sent over there. What did she do? Well, she basically criticized them the second that she got there for what they were doing wrong and confronted Ben for what he did in the challenge. All I was thinking was what are you doing Yasmin? The odds are that the tribes are going to be switched up very soon based on previous seasons and you’ve gotten on the nerves of EVERYBODY on the other tribe. Just did not understand that at all. Russell did make big news in this episode by finding the hidden immunity idol. I need to add that he found it without even having a clue. NO CLUE HAD BEEN GIVEN OUT YET!!! LOL. He just decided to look for it at camp and found it. Wow. That was amazing. He did confide to Jaison that he had the idol. One tribe member was removed from the game. Mike was forced out of the game after the immunity challenge after he had such a rough time of it. His blood pressure was up and down and the medics said that he couldn’t stay out there. He needed to be evaluated more for his safety so he was pulled from the game. Galu won the immunity challenge which meant that Foa Foa was going to lose one more tribe member. Three in just a few days. Betsy was voted out after getting seven votes to only one vote for Ben.

I was very happy to have my CBS comedies back this past Monday night with The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. I thought both were very good. How I Met Your Mother led off the night with the episode revolving around two things, Barney and Robin defining their relationship and then Ted's first day as a professor. Barney and Robin refused to define it but got locked in the bedroom by Lily who wouldn't let them out until they wrote on a piece of paper an acceptable answer on what they were and slide it under the door. Oh, it wasn't just Lily. We had a whip snapping Marshall outside as well. Indiana Jones tie in with the whip and it was funny. How did Ted do? Well, he ended up in the wrong room and taught architecture to economic students for a while. It was funny. We still got the clue that the woman that he ends up with was in that very classroom. No clue on who yet though. On a side note, I thought Barney's comparison of dating women and comparing it to the the three rules of Gremlins was hilarious!!! It is nice dialogue touches like that with this show that make it so successful. The Big Bang Theory had the guys returning from their Alaska adventure. Sheldon's experiment didn't go near as well as he thought after he learned that the guys sabotaged his experiment because he was driving them crazy. His learning of this and the disappointment that followed got in the way of the big moment that we were all waiting on, Penny and Leonard getting together. Upon knocking on her door to say they were back, she immediately kissed him. Every time that they began to kiss, Sheldon would show up. It was all very funny. I was thinking that they should just go and lock the door to Penny's apartment and then roam to another room to stop the noise of his knocking on the door. LOL. We did get the moment at the end with them both agreeing that it was.....weird. Really fun premiere of the season three premiere.

The Big Bang Theory did very well on its first outing this season drawing its highest audience ever. I'm so glad to see people finding the show as I've been pushing it for a LONG time now. My favorite comedy on TV.

On to my 90's retro night of programming. 90210 and Melrose Place. Too good episodes of both. Nothing really spectacular on either but I thought they were solid. Now, a very nice twist on Melrose is coming next week but I'll get to that in a minute. First, to 90210. The episode took place at a party on Teddy's yacht. Annie and Naomi continued their war. Annie went to Liam and they were going to go to Annie and tell the truth. Only thing was that Annie turned it all around saying that they had been together and had been making fun of Naomi the whole time. Yeah, Naomi didn't take that well. The war is still on. Liam then started looking at some blue prints of something when he returned home. Annie was also grounded over the picture incident by her parents. Harry and Debbie are disagreeing over how to handle it and that enters Kelly Taylor. Kelly and Harry talked about it with her saying that she thought that the pictures getting out was enough punishment for Annie. This stirred some trouble between Harry and Debbie. Dixon met a new girl who is much older than him but he hid from her the fact that he was in high school. Silver learned what was going on and played along with it when she met the girl. Silver is still taking Naomi's side on the whole Annie/Naomi war which is just kind of bizarre to me. Please bring back the old Silver. On to Melrose Place. Oh, that Michael Mancini. What is he up to now? He apparently has a folder on his computer about all the tenants at Melrose Place currently and back in the day including names such as Jane, Allison, Amanda, and Jo among others. We saw in a flashback where he helped Sydney fake her death. She later showed back up in his life where she had spent six years in jail for faking her death but pointed out that she never ratted Michael out for helping her. Well, they aren't going anywhere near where I thought they would with Violet . That character is following in the footsteps of her mom very well. She is shown wearing a dress of Sydney's which Sydney was wearing the night that Violet met her and applied to move in. Violet did go into the apartment, still covered in police tape, to get the dress as well. Lauren tried to get a job as an intern for Michael. Her tuition payment problem came up and it appeared that he wouldn't take her seriously. She mentioned some news about seeing his son, David, in Michael's office. This leads to Michael and David playing some mind games back and forth. Lauren did eventually get the job which obviously had to do with the news that she knew on David. Problems between Jonah and Riley. Jonah was upset that Riley had not told anyone of their engagement. Ella did get Jonah a job at producing the new Boomkat music video. Things went well after Jonah took it over but then the original director put his name on the finished product with Ella unable to do anything about it. The tease next week shows a new landlord, a certain Jane Mancini. Oh yes. This is going to be fun.

Heroes. Ok, the season four premiere of Heroes was a step up for me from last season. I like that the show has started to push back toward season one with them back in the real world instead of it all being about who is out to get them. That is coming of course but I like that there is basic stuff going on with Peter working at the hospital and Claire being in college. Just simple things. Claire’s roommate being killed off immediately had me flashing back to season four of Buffy when I thought that annoying roommate would be sticking around longer. The bigger story will be the new college friend of Claire’s. Then, we have Hiro who is “dying” as his freezing time has caught up to him. Now, he is changing the future after he went back to the carnival causing Ando and Hiro’s sister to now be in love. Tracy is back. Sylar is doing some major messing with Parkman and it was HILARIOUS stuff. I loved their scenes together. Parkman was the one that changed Sylar and Nathan so now Parkman is the only one that can see Sylar. Anyway, this was a major step up for me from last season. I’m just hoping that things stay this way.

The new season of The Amazing Race premieres this Sunday night on CBS.

I mentioned last week that I had watched the special 18 minute preview of FlashForward so I was looking forward to seeing the rest of the episode this week on ABC. Solid premiere and I’m interested to see where things go. If you aren’t familiar with it, everyone in the world blacks out for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds. While they are blacked out, everyone gets a vision of their future. From what was seen in the first episode, everyone’s vision apparently is from April 29, 2010. The opening segment was very Lost like with the first episode with blowing things up. When they blew up the semi, I thought there goes the plane just as it exploded during the chaos on the beach. As you can expect, things are crazy after the black out. What we learn later is some of the visions that people saw. Everything from the people involved in the investigation being hunted down for what they had learned, a father seeing his daughter alive that he thought was killed in Afghanistan, a woman having a sonogram done when she isn’t pregnant or doesn’t even have a boyfriend, a wife seeing herself happily with another man, or something as simple as seeing sports headlines in the newspaper. However, not everyone got a vision. One guy is incredibly freaked out cause he didn’t see anything!! So, he’s wondering if he’s even alive in six months. The investigation turns to security cameras where it is shown that there is one person walking around a baseball stadium in Detroit during the blackout. There is clue number one on what is happening. How is this person avoiding it all? Am I the only one that keeps wanting to know what that bad dream was that the little girl had? Especially when she wakes up and says “there are no more good days”!! Anyway, I enjoyed the premiere and will keep checking it out for a bit to see how it goes.

ABC has to be thrilled with the ratings for FlashForward. This became the first regular TV series to beat Survivor in the 18-49 demographic since Friends in 2004.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - $30.3 million. 2. The Informant! - $10.4 million. 3. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself - $9.8 million. 4. Love Happens - $8 million. 5. Jennifer’s Body - $6.8 million. 6. 9 - $5.5 million. 7. Inglourious Ba******* - $3.8 million. 8. All About Steve - $3.3 million. 9. Sorority Row - $2.4 million. 10. The Final Destination - $2.3 million.

Carrie Underwood's new single, Cowboy Casanova, is now available to download over at iTunes. It is doing very well so far. So well that it is the highest climbing song of hers to date.

The fall season has already seen its first cancellation. After just two episodes, The CW has cancelled The Beautiful Life. I can’t say that I’m surprised as it almost felt like the show was doomed before it premiered based on things that I have been reading in the last couple of weeks.

The Live With Regis and Kelly Relly Award winners will be announced next week on the show.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, September 29. C.S.I.: NY (Season Five), How I Met Your Mother (Season Four), Life On Mars (Full Series), The Patty Duke Show (Season One).

TV Line Of The Week: From Heroes. I laughed hard at this line.
“Hi, my name is Sylar. It’s been about six weeks or so since I’ve seen my body and I want it back.” Sylar to Parkman at Parkman’s counseling group meeting.

Twitter Update Of The Week: @Doc__Brown
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

You Tube Video Of The Week: Dr. Horrible takes over The Emmys. Now, you knew that I was going to love this clip of Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and Simon Helberg. Great stuff!!


Wishing all of you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Modern Family Set To Premiere Tomorrow Night, September 23rd on ABC

I've been posting info on new shows that are about to premiere and tomorrow night is the premiere of Modern Family. The show is one of the latest new comedies from ABC. It stars Ed O'Neill of Married With Children fame along with Julie Bowen who you'll know from Boston Legal and also Ed. O'Neill stars as Jay who is in a new marriage around the age of 60 with his new wife, Gloria, being about half his age. Gloria also has an eleven year old son so Jay has to balance his new life with his wife and now a step-son. The show isn't just about them though as there are more families involved as they are one big family. Jay is the patriarch of the family. We also have Phil and Claire who have three kids with one boy and two teenage daughters. Phil and Claire have a very different style in raising their kids as Phil is more concerned with being liked by the kids while Claire is trying to keep them under control. The other family is Mitchell and Cameron who have adopted a Vietnamese baby named Lily. I've heard a lot of good press about this new series so it is definitely worth checking it out. When ABC did their fall presentation back in May and released their press about their new shows, this was the new comedy that got my attention over the others. The style of how it is produced really got my attention with the documentary type feel to it. It just really came off as unique. Modern Family premieres tomorrow night, September 23 at 8pm central time on ABC. If you want to see some clips of the show, here are a couple of videos to check out:




Thursday, September 17, 2009

Survivor Samoa Premiere Thoughts - September 17, 2009

Tonight was the premiere of Survivor Samoa. Well, I might as well go ahead and mention the name that we are going to be hearing a lot of and that is Russell. Well, there are two guys named Russell this season but if you saw it, you know the one that I’m talking about. Russell’s strategy in the game is not a nice one and he is basically there to mess with everyone. What do I mean? Well, he formed an alliance with every female in his tribe immediately basically saying that they were all dumb. Overnight, he poured all the water out of the canteens and burned people's socks in the fire. The tribe woke up the next morning obviously cranky over everything but they never really did question what happened. Well, they thought that someone drank the water. The tribes were split into two right off the bat and then the tribes had to vote for a leader based on first impressions. Galu picked Russell (not the Russell that I have been talking about) while Foa Foa picked Mick. Then, they had to pick on first impressions who they thought would be the best swimmer, smartest, etc. Mick was mostly right on with his picks as Foa Foa would go on to win the first challenge. I’ve already talked about the happenings at Foa Foa with Russell’s antics. The Galu tribe had a much calmer time although Shambo was annoyed with the guys and the younger group as a whole as she was ready to work. The guys did clash on ways to get the camp up and running. The immunity challenge had Galu winning it. So, that gets us back to Russell and his antics at Foa Foa. Marisa started to see that Russell was talking to everyone at camp and questioning him. It should be pointed out that all of the females don’t trust Russell and have a bad feeling about him. Marisa was the one to voice it to the source and he used it against her. She basically told him that she was unsure of him cause of all the talking that he was doing. So, he went around telling everyone that Marisa had said that he makes her uncomfortable and went to get her voted out. Well, it worked. The only other one that got votes was Ashley who had a bit of a target on her claiming that she was the weak link of the tribe. Marisa was voted off on what I believe was a seven to three vote. Marisa was stunned and just looked sad as could be. I felt bad for her cause she appeared to be victim one of Russell. Wow, the promos were serious about him being a villain this season. What else will he do? I was reading in Entertainment Weekly last weekend where Jeff Probst said that a tribe member would be kicked out of a challenge for the first time and the previews for next week sure did make it seem like it would be happening then. Solid first episode tonight.

Flash Forward's First 18 Minutes Up On Hulu - September 17, 2009

Flash Forward. Lots of hype on this show that is about to premiere. I’ve been following the hype of it since the networks released their schedules back in May. ABC is definitely hoping that this will be their next huge hit to replace Lost once it is gone. Well, it does have ties to Lost including two actors from the show. If you are fans of either Charlie or Penny on Lost, you’ll be happy to know that Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger will be appearing on Flash Forward. However, I read in Entertainment Weekly that it will be a bit before we see Dominic on there. I really enjoyed the article that they had in this week’s TV fall preview issue about the show. It got me even more interested in checking out the premiere of it. If you aren’t familiar with it, the basic idea of the show is that everyone blacks out world wide for two minutes and seventeen seconds. In that time period, everyone sees a glimpse of their future. Was what they saw a good thing? Bad thing? Confusing? People see themselves dating other people. Some see their dreams coming true. Some see things that make absolutely no sense. Some see really bad things. Then, everyone is trying to figure out what happened in that 2:17 while everyone was blacked out. It definitely sounds really interesting. The show premieres next Thursday, September 24 at 7pm central time on ABC. I’m very excited about this as ABC has put up the first eighteen minutes of the premiere on Hulu to view. I wish more networks would do sneak peek kind of stuff like this. There are several shows that I have gotten hooked on lately due to sneak previews that I might not have checked out normally, I have checked the Flash Forward sneak peek out and liked what I saw. If you want to see a tease of it, here is the link:

Jay Leno Premiere, 90210/Melrose, Miscellaneous Notes, & More - September 17, 2009

I’m sad to hear of the passing of Patrick Swayze. He put up a big time fight against cancer. My favorite movie of his will always be Dirty Dancing. I remember seeing that movie at the theatre and I still watch it sometimes when I see it on TV. I’ve always loved that movie. Great to see all the tributes to him this week.

It’s finally time for the season premieres of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Both premiere this Monday night, September 21 on CBS. Don’t forget about the time changes for both of them. How I Met Your Mother now leads off on Monday night at 7pm central time. Big Bang Theory is now on at 8:30pm. What happens with Barney and Robin? What happened with the summer trip for the Big Bang Theory guys and what about Penny who was not wanting Leonard to go?

I watched the premiere episode of The Jay Leno Show. I really enjoyed it. Very little different between this show and The Tonight Show. The set is some different but there are parts of it that look very much like the old set. Kevin Eubanks and the "Primetime" band have stayed and are performing on the show. Jay is still doing all of the same segments that have been loved over the years. Headlines were shown on Monday night. The desk is gone and he now just has chairs when interviewing guests. His first guest on Monday night was Jerry Seinfeld. Really fun segment. Jerry mentioned how they did this big farewell for Jay and he joked about how it was done in the 90’s with farewells which meant that you were gone instead of coming back three months later. Great first guest which also included a funny moment with having Oprah on the show via satellite being interviewed by Jerry. Overall, I really enjoyed his first show. I'll definitely be watching more of course.

I saw the trailer for the new Michael Jackson movie. Wow, does that thing look incredible??!! There is a two and a half minute trailer for it which includes behind the scenes footage of Michael preparing for the tour along with performance footage. So many vintage Michael dance moves in this thing that left you just thinking, wow, when watching it. The movie is going to be released in theatres for only two weeks. I am going to have to go and see this thing if it does play locally. I’m curious to see what kind of release it gets cause I wonder if it may be limited. The movie will be released on October 28. If you want to see the trailer or learn more info on the movie, head over to this link: http://thisisit-movie.com/

On to this week’s 90210. Much better than last week’s episode. The episode focused more on everyone this week. It seemed like it anyway with major focus also on Annie. We left off last week with the news that Naomi had grabbed the naked picture of Annie from Mark's phone and was ready to use it to ruin Annie. Annie learned from Mark that Naomi had a copy of it. Naomi is of course mad over thinking that Annie slept with Liam. However, Liam told Naomi that it wasn’t Annie but didn’t tell Naomi that it was her sister. Annie went to Liam to get his help to try and stop what was about to happen. She later confronted Naomi to plead her case once again. Naomi just wanted her to admit what she did and Annie changed her strategy and lied saying that she did sleep with Liam just to stop the picture from going out. Naomi started having second thoughts on Annie, but after talking to her sister, sent the picture out anyway. Annie arrived at school and found out that the picture was out. Her day got worse when she saw Navid’s interview with Teddy about how he had seen a hit and run while finding a body. Other happenings on the show had Silver still trying to reunite with Dixon but he wasn’t having any of it. The girls tried to keep her sidetracked from Dixon. Silver comforted Annie when everything broke loose but defended Naomi saying that there was no way that she would do such a thing as to release the photo. That didn't go over well with Annie since she knew the truth. I mentioned about Navid interviewing Teddy. It was for the West Beverly Blaze and Adrianna got the interview for him. It was an idea for a story which Navid didn’t want to do but was persuaded into it. He basically roasted Teddy in the interview. I really look forward to when the storyline turns with Annie and Naomi when Naomi realizes that Annie didn’t do what she thought.

Moving on to episode two of Melrose Place with a major story twist this week. I said last week that I thought there was more to Violet than just the sweet new girl that moved in. We got a major story twist when it was revealed that Violet is the daughter of Sydney. She had been tracking down Sydney for a while including her having DNA proof but Sydney wanted nothing to do with her saying that she never had a baby. Things are even stranger when we see Violet swimming in the pool looking very Sydney like. We’re getting to see more of Ella’s evil side and how she is going to be a major villain on this show including her continuing to get between and stir things up between Jonah and Riley while also going to whatever extremes possible to keep her job at work. Lauren is still selling herself for money to help with her medical school after Toby hooked her up with a friend of his. What about Auggie? Well, he definitely knows more about Sydney’s last night alive than he has said. We learned that the two of them met at an AA meeting years earlier. Auggie talks of how his girlfriend was killed basically because of an argument at a bar that he started with a guy and she got caught in the middle of it. Sydney helped him with his sobriety with the two having a relationship at one point. We learned that on the night of Sydney’s death that David had passed out when Auggie arrived. There was a struggle between Sydney and Auggie when he saw that she was using cocaine. He ended up getting stabbed by her in the struggle but that was all that we saw in the flashback. Auggie did also help Violet get a job at the restaurant that he was working at. Well, the twist of Violet being Sydney’s daughter was definitely the big capper on this fun second episode.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself - $23.4 million. 2. 9 - $10.7 million. 3. Inglourious Ba****** - $6.1 million. 4. All About Steve - $5.6 million. 5. The Final Destination - $5.5 million. 6. Sorority Row - $5 million. 7. Whiteout - $4.9 million. 8. District 9 - $3.5 million. 9. Gamer - $3.2 million. 10. Julie & Julia - $3.1 million.

Ok, I usually avoid these kind of celebrity topics but grow up Kanye West. That was one of the most classless acts that I’ve ever seen.

Just over one week away from the season premiere of Smallville.

Heroes premieres on Monday night on NBC at 7pm central time with a two hour premiere.

The Vampire Diaries premiered to big numbers last week on The CW. The show opened up with 4.9 million viewers making it the most watched premiere in the network’s history topping last year’s premiere of 90210.

Kevin Skinner was the winner of this season’s America’s Got Talent. Big congrats goes out to him!!

Carrie Underwood recently taped a CMT special in Nashville. The special was for “Invitation Only” which will air on CMT in December. She performed four new songs off of her album for the first time in front of an audience which included fan club members. I love how she takes care of the fan club members all the time and they got a big time deal with being able to attend that. She spoke to CMT Insider about the show and you can check it out at this link: http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1621692/cmt-insider-carrie-underwood-unveils-songs-from-new-album.jhtml

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, September 22. 30 Rock (Season Three), Castle (Season One), Friday The 13th: The Series (Season Three), Ghost Whisperer (Season Four), Law & Order: SVU (Year 10), The Mentalist (Season One), Star Trek (Season Two), Taxi (Season Four), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Season Two), Ugly Betty (Season Three).

You Tube Video Of The Week: Video in print advertising. Very wild!!! Bummer, I didn’t get one!!


Twitter Update Of The Week: Eliza Dushku
@elizadusku “just heard about Swayze. very sad. 'nobody puts Baby in the corner.' Rip”

Have a great and safe weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Big Brother 11 - Finale Recap and Thoughts - September 15, 2009

Tonight was the two hour finale of Big Brother. We had the final three of Jordan, Natalie, and Kevin. Part one of the HOH was won by Kevin. Part two between Natalie and Jordan was won by Jordan. It was revealed that part three would not be played until tonight’s live finale. That meant a lot of days of everyone trying to work deals. Kevin and Natalie. Yeah, this alliance has not been solid for weeks now. Kevin said in the diary room that Jordan winning part two was the perfect scenario for him cause he felt that Natalie was going to turn on him. Natalie started to get worried about Kevin’s loyalty to her. In the diary room, Kevin said that he felt that he couldn’t beat Natalie cause she has too many friends in the jury house. Oh, if he only knew. LOL. He did tell Jordan that he was going to take her to the final two cause he knew that he at least had a shot against her but not against Natalie. Jordan and Natalie talked about Kevin’s promises of final two. We then went to the jury house for Michele’s arrival. Jessie definitely celebrated while Jeff and Russell were disappointed. Michele told of Natalie’s engagement and Pandora’s Box prank. Michele was also told about Natalie’s real age. While watching the events of the week on the DVD, you just continued to see the build up of anger against Natalie continue. Jeff, Lydia, Russell, Michele, and Jessie all discussed the final three with the jury discussion. It was mostly a back and forth between Lydia and Jeff. Lydia was supporting Kevin and fighting for him while Jeff was fighting for Jordan. Interesting discussion. The argument for a winner was definitely between Jordan and Kevin with Natalie getting little support for her game play. That gets us to part three of the HOH competition between Jordan and Kevin. It was the usual deal where you have to guess what the jury members answer will be as they look back on the game. It came down to a 2-2 tie and then they tied on the last question as well. That gets us to a tiebreaker. Julie Chen asks the question on how many votes to evict have been cast total this season including tie breakers? Jordan picks 50 and Kevin picks 80. The answer is 51!!! WOW. Jordan wins part three of the HOH!!!! It was funny to listen to the audience cheering on Jordan during the HOH. Applause every time that she got one right. At this point, I’m freaking out thinking that she has to take Natalie if she wants to win the game. She couldn’t beat Kevin unless Kevin had won HOH and turned on Natalie. Jordan would need a mad Natalie vote against Kevin to win. Jordan voted to evict Kevin from the game leaving a final two of Jordan and Natalie. In his exit interview, he thought that Jordan made the right decision on who to face in the final two. Kevin was very classy in his interview. The jury questioning was done live after Kevin was brought out to the jury. Lydia was not happy to see him of course. At first, I thought the live jury questioning was a great idea. After it was done, I wasn’t so sure. I thought the questions were mostly softball type stuff. Michele did ask Natalie about being an 18 year old and now being engaged. The question was why did she want her to tell the jury about the engagement? Natalie did not say a thing about the age reveal but did say that she had friends in the jury house and wanted them to know of the excitement. Natalie was asked by Lydia who her biggest threat in the game was and Natalie said that it was Lydia due to the alliance with Jessie. Jordan was asked a house consensus question by Jeff about what her best move was in the game besides aligning with Jeff. Jordan said that it was evicting Kevin cause it gave her a better chance to win. Natalie did talk about not backstabbing anyone in the house which got laughs and groans from the audience and some from the jury. When each talked about their strategy, Jordan said that hers was to lay low while Natalie’s was to align with strong players. Natalie said that she stayed loyal to four people in the house and did not backstab them. The live voting took place and then it was reunion time. Braden, Laura, Casey, and Ronnie were brought back to talk to the rest of the cast. The best came from Ronnie where he said that everyone had talked about what a liar that he was but then brought up Natalie’s lies. He talked of the age reveal which stunned two people. Jordan and Kevin. Both of their reactions were hilarious. Ronnie was mad about not being told the truth on that to which Natalie said that she only told Jessie and Chima cause she trusted them 100%. Casey said that the biggest mistake in the game was Jeff believing the lie by Kevin and Natalie. The video was shown of the lie being started. Jeff said that it really didn’t matter cause Michele had already told him that she had heard it from Russell herself. Chima was brought up and Laura said that Chima leaving bothered her because so many people wanted to be in the spot that she was in yet she bailed. We got closure on the Ronnie/Michele situation. You might remember that he called her the worst person that he had ever met as he was on his way out of the house. Michele took the high road when questioned about it and Ronnie said that part of the speech was strategic. He did apologize and she accepted. Both are moving on. Nice closure to that. Next came a fun moment. Jessie was asked about his relationship with Lydia and whether it was platonic? Footage was shown of them under the covers and they were asked again. Julie asked if it was platonic or more toward romance. Jessie said that it was more toward romance while Lydia didn’t comment at all. Russell was asked what he thought of it. He had the line of the night. Well, besides Jordan with the “shut up” when she found out that Natalie was 24. LOL. Russell was shocked saying “I don’t know where I was, probably yelling at someone in the house”. That was a great line. Jeff was asked if he would be taking Jordan with him to Hawaii. He said that it depended on whether she won or not. He was joking of course and it got laughs. He didn’t commit to it but said that she was on the short list to go. What about their relationship? Both agreed that they’d see what happened and would talk about it when they got out of the house. Now, to the voting results. Jordan wins on a 5-2 vote. Votes for Jordan were from America, Jessie, Lydia, Jeff, and Michele. Votes for Natalie to win were from Kevin and Russell. Jordan wins Big Brother 11!!! Wow!! The voting results were also announced on the favorite houseguest. America voted Jeff so he was given $25,000.

Ok, my overall thoughts on tonight. It pretty much played out like I thought as far as how the votes would go. I said that Jordan would have to go against Natalie to win. UNLESS, Kevin won part three of the HOH and took Jordan to the final two. Then, the revenge vote from Natalie may have tossed things up in the air with America breaking the tie. I said that Natalie couldn’t win against either Jordan or Kevin. She had made too many enemies in the jury house. Lots of people in the jury house annoyed with her. I was shocked that she didn’t even get Jessie’s vote. That was a surprise to me and I think it was to her too. That was really the only vote that I was surprised with. Jordan stepped up and won big at the end. She won the last two parts of the HOH competition and set herself up against Natalie for the win. The reunion was fun. I always like when the cast is revealed different things that they didn’t know about. I am thrilled that the show got a two hour finale. The show always feels so rushed every year due to it being one hour. It felt like we got most everything out of the two hour finale this time. Congrats to Jordan on the win!! I really enjoyed this season a lot. Best season since Big Brother 8 in my opinion.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Big Brother 11 Down To The Final Three - September 10, 2009

Down to the final three on Big Brother and for the first time ever, Big Brother will have a final three going into finale night. Last week’s what in the world moment was Natalie winning HOH. LOL. That guaranteed Kevin’s safety, right? Wrong. She immediately talked about putting him up on the block!!! His reaction was hilarious cause wouldn’t you be reacting the same way if your friend in the house was talking about putting you up? Natalie’s plan was to make everyone think that they aren’t together anymore. Michele and Jordan were very cautious as to what was going on. Natalie put Michele and Kevin up for eviction. Natalie got a Pandora’s Box offer in the HOH room. She was told that a loved one was there to see her and that she could see him but it meant that she could not play in the veto competition. She took it and met up with her boyfriend. She was proposed to and is now engaged. She was given an offer of fifteen more minutes together but that she would unleash something on the house. She agreed in a second not caring what the rest of the house got and they got a bunch of people running around the house to annoy them. One of them was an overgrown baby and others dressed as insects, and more. Natalie revealed to the house that she took the Pandora’s Box offer. Actually, she decided to lie saying that Big Brother fooled her and she took the offer but got nothing except losing the ability to play for the veto. She also said something about how the votes in the end would not go for her either. I’m not even sure what she said cause the lie was so bad. LOL. The house didn’t buy it either. Kevin wasn’t happy that Natalie had thrown him out like that leaving him to win the veto on his own. Later, she admitted to her boyfriend showing up and revealed what happened. That left Kevin involved in a very stressed out mode needing to win the veto. The veto competition was won by Kevin which guaranteed Michele’s eviction. Afterwards, Kevin and Natalie started toasting to the win leaving Michele and Jordan to know that they had been played. Michele did try and make some promises to Kevin and try to sway him but to no avail. With Kevin being the veto winner, he was able to cast the deciding vote. He voted out Michele leaving a final three of Kevin, Jordan, and Natalie. The first part of the HOH takes place with the usual endurance challenge. Jordan was the first to fall off of a rolling log which had them getting hit with all sorts of weather season scenarios. Jordan hung right in there. Once Jordan was gone and went inside, Natalie and Kevin started talking deals. It was shown that Natalie had agreed to throw part one of the HOH three days before but she sure didn’t want to when it came down to it. Kevin promised her on everything that she was safe and Natalie finally did drop. Kevin did say in his interview that his word means nothing at this point in the game. I liked that one especially when Natalie has been doing so much lying in this game, even to Kevin. Julie Chen revealed the way that the rest of the game will play out to the houseguests. Part two of the HOH was played tonight. Nobody would be evicted tonight meaning that the final three will still be in the house on finale night. Part three of the HOH will take place on finale night. Then, the last person will be evicted and immediately join the jury in the studio. The voting for the winner of Big Brother will then take place after that. Part two of the HOH took place with Natalie taking on Jordan. You had to remember the HOH winners in order and then roll a ball up with their name on it into the specified hole. That means that you could have it right but if the ball rolls into the wrong hole, it does you no good. Natalie struggled with the physical part of it with her having the ball going into the wrong hole. I should also add that you had two minutes to complete this. Natalie got five right and finished with two seconds to spare. Jordan went up and looked much smoother. Funny that the live audience was cheering on every one she got right toward the end. Jordan got nine right and still had eighteen seconds to spare. That means that Jordan will face Kevin in part three of the HOH competition on finale night. Natalie’s fate is now in the hands of the both of them.

Just thought I’d give my overall thoughts here on the week and what is to come. Wow, Natalie has not done herself any favors at all with her getting caught in so many lies. She has wronged Kevin so many times or threatened to do so that I think he is going to remember that. I think anyone can win against Natalie at this point as the jury house is liking her less and less every week. Kevin definitely is gaining respect in the jury house and has at least been winning big competitions late in the game. I think Kevin against Jordan would be close if they were the final two. Let’s think about it. Kevin would have votes likely from Lydia, Russell, and Jessie. Jordan would have votes from Jeff, Michele, and possibly Natalie if Kevin did turn on her. That would make it a tie vote. America has a vote this time around and is the seventh juror. America will vote for Jordan to win which would give her the win. To me, that is the only close case scenario. I don’t think Natalie has a chance to win the majority of votes unless she gains some respect for that HOH win.

Other thoughts on the Big Brother week. I am not sure why Natalie felt the need to lie so much about the Pandora’s Box deal. Then, she lied so badly about it and it made it worse. When she revealed the truth, no one knew whether to believe her. She lies so much to them that they never know what is true. LOL. I can’t be the only one that gets flashbacks to Alison and the mime from Big Brother 4 when they let someone into the house to annoy the houseguests. That was funny stuff during BB4. We saw the jury house reaction to Jeff’s arrival. There was obvious joy for the jury seeing him walk in but I thought everyone was taking it light heartedly especially in their interviews. Russell is definitely behind Kevin to win this game. Great to see the returning houseguests tonight from past seasons. Boogie, Danielle (BB3 and All Stars), Janelle, and Dick were interviewed in the studio about their thoughts on the season. They had some interesting thoughts for sure. Dick and Boogie agreed that the best move of the game so far was Kevin and Natalie using the lie to get Jeff to get rid of Russell. Janelle said that the worst move of the game was Jeff getting rid of Russell cause it was the worst move for Jeff in the game. Danielle said that Natalie was the best player cause of the lies that she has gotten away with and using Kevin to do her dirty work. Only thing with that is that her lies are catching up to her just like with what happened to Danielle in BB3. Well, not as viciously as it did with Danielle but the jury house is definitely talking about Natalie. Who did they think would win? Janelle, Dick, and Boogie picked Kevin to win with Janelle adding that he needed to take Jordan with him to the final two. Danielle just wanted a woman to win against a man saying that when a woman wins, it is always against another woman. It was really interesting to hear their points of view on the season. Big Brother 11 wraps up on Tuesday night at 8pm central time with a two hour finale. Yes, finally a two hour finale of Big Brother!! Hopefully, that means more reunion time cause it is always rushed. This reunion show is going to be good.

CBS has already picked up Big Brother for next summer. This season has done very well ratings wise and deservedly so. This is the most that I have enjoyed it in a few years especially focusing on casting.

Basketball Hall Of Fame, Amazing Race Cast, Idol, & More - September 10, 2009

The ratings were just kind of “ehh” for the premiere of Melrose Place. 2.3 million viewers tuned into the premiere. 2.6 million tuned in for 90210 the hour before so most of the audience did stick around for Melrose as well. The rating for 90210 was the best that it has done since January. The CW tends to not do high ratings so I’m not really surprised. I am curious to see what the DVR numbers are for Melrose Place. 90210 got a good bump ratings wise due to DVR numbers last season. 90210 did get 4.9 million viewers for its debut last year so Melrose did significantly lower than that number. Like I said though, I liked the Melrose premiere.

Fox has announced that Ellen Degeneres will replace Paula Abdul on American Idol full time. Wow, I didn’t see that coming. I like Ellen and look forward to seeing how she does on the show.

I was in Best Buy last week and they were running a preview of the new movie, Extract. I saw this preview several times while looking around in the store. So, it does work with getting people to watch these things. LOL. The movie stars Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Mila Kunis, and Kristen Wiig. I thought it looked funny based on what I saw in the store. May have to check it out.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. The Final Destination - $15.2 million. 2. Inglourious Ba****** - $14.9 million. 3. All About Steve - $14 million. 4. Gamer - $11.2 million. 5. District 9 - $9.1 million. 6. Julie & Julia - $7 million. 7. Halloween II - $6.8 million. 8. G.I. Joe - $6.7 million. 9. Extract - $5.5 million. 10. The Time Traveler’s Wife - $5.4 million.

The new cast of The Amazing Race has been announced.
Herbert (32 years old) and Nathaniel (28 years old) Harlem Globetrotters.
Marcy (60 years old) and Ronald (59 years old) couple who met online.
Meghan (23 years old) and Cheyne (23 years old) dating couple who have known each other since Elementary school.
Lance (41 years old) and Keri (33 years old) recently engaged couple.
Eric (41 years old) and Lisa (43 years old) married yoga instructors.
Garrett (28 years old) and Jessica (27 years old) dating couple with three breakups in their past.
Dan (21 years old) and Sam (23 years old) brothers.
Zev (26 years old) and Justin (31 years old) friends with Zev battling Asperger’s Syndrome.
Gary (47 years old) and Matt (22 years old) father/son team.
Mika (22 years old) and Canaan (26 years old) dating couple.
The new season premieres on September 27.

The new CD box set release of The Beatles is selling huge. I read an article about that last night saying how it was expected to sell well but it is far over expectations.

The Basketball Hall Of Fame induction will take place tomorrow night on ESPN beginning at 5:30pm central time. Going into the HOF will be Michael Jordan. I’m a long time huge Michael Jordan fan so I will be tuning into this for sure. MJ will always be my favorite player ever. No one will ever top him for me. Many great memories sitting in front of the TV and watching him. I still remember the frustration as a fan watching the Bulls lose to Detroit every year. Then, the glory days happened and it was incredible to watch it. Wow, do I ever miss those glory days now as a Bulls fan!! I remember how life used to revolve around when the Bulls were on TV. LOL. I am going to go over some of my favorite Jordan moments next week but I’m already thinking, how in the world am I going to choose them cause there are so many? Whether he was getting a roar at the old Madhouse on Madison or over at the new United Center, MJ was able to get that Chicago crowd on their feet with ease. Wow, I miss watching him play. Also going into the Hall Of Fame this year will be John Stockton, David Robinson, Jerry Sloan, and Vivian Stringer.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, September 15. The Big Bang Theory (Season Two), Bonanza (Season One – Volumes One & Two), C.S.I. Miami (Season Seven), The Clone Wars (Volume Two), Crash (Season One), The FBI Files (Season Four), Fame (Seasons One & Two), Grey’s Anatomy (Season Five), The IT Crowd (Season Three), It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Season Four), My Name Is Earl (Season Four), Private Practice (Season Two), Sanctuary (Season One), Transformers (Season Two – Volume One).

Twitter Updates Of The Week: Dollhouse.
@foxdollhouse: “Episode 1 has two vital ingredients - Jamie Bamber, and stuff blowing up. It's like Battlestar without Tahmoh. Oh, wait.”
“Episodes 2 and 4 for the win. Also 5 has Summer in it. And 6. Insanity.”


You Tube Video Of The Week: What news anchors do during a break.


Wishing all of you a great and safe weekend. Take care and God bless!!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Melrose Place - Premiere Recap and Thoughts - September 8, 2009

The CW & AT&Ts Melrose Place Premiere Party - ArrivalsTonight was the reboot of Melrose Place on The CW. I was eager to check out the pilot episode and see what happened. Just like last year with 90210, I was a huge fan of the original series. Well, I was always a much bigger fan of 90210 but I loved Melrose Place too. I was happy with the 90210 reboot last year so I was hoping for the same this year with Melrose Place. I’ve got to say that I liked the first episode tonight. Good story set up and I’m curious to see where they go from here. Lots of character development, ties to the original series, and a murder mystery right off the start of the show.

We learned immediately about Sydney’s role in Melrose Place. She is the new Amanda and is the landlord. The episode opens with David in a panic calling the roommates that Sydney is in trouble. David does arrive and talks to Sydney and she is ok. He goes to leave but she makes threats at him to reveal secrets which insults him. A few minutes later in the episode, we see that someone is dead in the pool. Is it Brooke????!!!! Ok, I couldn’t resist the original series reference. No, Sydney is found dead in the pool. The police investigate and she was found in the pool by Violet who is the new tenant. Everyone comments about how bad that they feel for her that she just moved in and has seen this. Violet is very much being played up as the good girl. I guess I’ll go ahead and discuss the characters of the rest of the tenants.

We have Jonah and Riley. They are a dating couple that have been together for five years. He is an aspiring filmmaker. She is concerned about him not having grown up as much as she would like. He proposes to her at the beginning of the episode but she asks for 24 hours to give him an answer. Jonah gets hired as a videographer at a kid’s birthday party. Another one of the tenants, Ella, talks Jonah into giving his movie that he had done to the father of the birthday kid. He is a movie producer. The guy is completely turned off but later he sings a different tune. Jonah accidentally catches him cheating on his wife. He talks to Jonah but Jonah assures him that he will erase it. He can’t give him the copy of it cause it was captured on a video card. Jonah had no intention of using the footage for anything but the guy offers him $100,000 to buy his movie just as a way to help keep the secret. Jonah arrives home to Riley who is excited about getting six messages about the movie buying offer. Jonah said that he had agreed to sell it explaining the situation of how he had caught him in the act. The reason that he wanted to sell it was to show Riley how serious that he was about getting his career going and also how serious he was about Riley. He then said that was also the reason that he decided to not go through with it. He isn't selling. She said yes to the proposal.

That gets us to Lauren. She is an aspiring doctor. She has a patient who is the mom of a guy named Toby. Toby flew into town to see about how his mom was doing. Toby thanks Lauren for all that she did for his mom and offers to take her out for dinner. She originally says no but Riley talks her into it later. Lauren also gets the news of financial trouble which hurts her chances of continuing to her dream of becoming a doctor. Riley also mentions how they had all offered to help her with money with a loan. The date goes well for Lauren until he offers her $5,000 to help her continue her career despite him leaving to go back home with his mom the next morning. She storms out over the offer and she later talks to Violet. Violet talked about how they are good girls and don’t do things like that. At the end of the episode, we see Lauren on her way to his hotel room so we’ll see what happens there.

We didn’t get a lot of background on Ella and Auggie. Ella clearly has a thing for Jonah with her looking very jealous over the proposal news. She kind of has an Amanda type vibe going as far as personality. Auggie is a chef and talks of how Sydney was the reason that he had become that. We later saw that there may be more to him but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Let’s get back to the main story. Ella gets David out of the police station and she made up the lie of an alibi for him on where he was during the night. Her excuse was that he was with her. Also, David blacked out during the happenings with Sydney and has no clue what happened while he was out. He later tells Auggie about it to which Auggie assures him that he knows he didn’t do anything. We get our next original character as Michael shows up. David is Michael’s son. We see plenty of flashbacks of Sydney with different characters including her kicking Ella out as a tenant, blackmailing David, and threatening to reveal her and Michael’s affair to Michael’s wife. How is Sydney alive? That is what I have been wondering!! In the car ride with Michael and David, Michael reveals that he helped fake her death eleven years ago. So, Sydney apparently made many enemies. She made several comments about how the original crew that used to live there was like a family. She wanted her return there to be similar but everyone “abandoned” her. The closing music montage showed Auggie burning a bloody shirt in an alley. Hmm.

Overall thoughts. I liked the first episode. Wow, Sydney sure didn’t last long which was really disappointing to me. I always liked that character and was looking forward to seeing what would happen here. However, her death did provide a big murder mystery right out of the gate. I’m glad that they explained her return although not giving any in depth clues. Maybe we’ll learn that later in some flashbacks. I’m glad that they did at least acknowledge it. I like the characters of Jonah and Riley. Nice to have a couple of likable characters right out of the gate. I just now figured out who the actress is that plays Riley. She was in 90210 last year and was involved in the Mr. Matthews storyline. That was driving me crazy on trying to figure out where I had seen her before. Ella is definitely going to stir some drama so I expect that. What is going on with those Mancini’s? You just never know. LOL. So, what happened to Sydney? Hmm, I wonder if it could have anything to do with Ella since they do seem to have her poised as a major villain on this show and there was that flashback. I clearly think that Violet knows more about Sydney’s death than she is letting on. I loved the close of the episode set to The Killer’s song “The World We Live”. I loved the song with how greatly it tied to the montage. I knew others would want to know the song too so if you’re searching for the song title, there is your answer. Good mixture of music throughout the episode. I’m happy with the premiere. The show jumped in with an interesting storyline to hook viewers. Hopefully, they can follow that and continue to make it interesting. Season one was kind of slow of the original series and felt very different from what the show would end up being. This pilot episode did a good job of introducing characters and personalities while leaving us wanting more on where the story is going. Thumbs up from me. I’ll be continuing to watch.

90210 Season Premiere Recap & Thoughts - September 8, 2009

90210 - PaleyFest09Wow, it was just like my 1990's TV viewing was revisited tonight. I remember the days of having 90210 and Melrose Place to watch on the same night. Well, tonight was completely retro and I loved it.

90210’s second season premiered tonight. This definitely just had a different feel and look to it than last season. I’ll just go over the major storylines of the episode. I’m going to start with Annie cause I think that is the story to focus on this season. I’m still annoyed that the promos have basically not followed that at all. We were left with the cliffhanger last season about Annie running over someone after leaving drunk from a party. Annie is looking rough as this season begins. She has moved with her family to a new home with everyone saying that she needed a new beginning after the party which included her calling the cops on the underage drinking after Naomi went off on her. Annie isn’t up to new beginnings cause she is following the story of the unknown person that she ran over who is in a coma. She later learns that the person passed away and she continues to carry the major guilt of it. She later confides in Dixon about it but he thinks that she is going to reveal that she slept with Liam which was what Naomi was all upset about. That of course isn’t true anyway and Annie and Dixon had a major falling out. Dixon goes to the end of summer party and leaves Annie stranded there with no way home. Annie runs into Naomi and they continue their feud. Annie meets a guy named Mark. They end up drinking and end up in a cabana together. Later, Mark arrives at school and showed off to his friends about what happened with Annie. He had pictures to prove it to which Naomi got a hold of them. It looks like those will be shown to the school next week.

How about Silver and Dixon? Well, you may remember that Silver and Ethan shared their kiss to end last season. Dixon never found out about it and it was kept secret. Silver wasn’t answering Ethan’s text messages. They ended up getting back together. A new guy named Teddy got a hold of the text message which talked of a kiss. He told Dixon and he called things off immediately. Silver was crushed and she talked of how Ethan moving across the country didn’t bother her at all. The thought of Dixon doing that made her not able to breathe and that was the feeling that she was having after the breakup. The result. Silver wants Dixon back. Dixon wants nothing to do with her. Pretty much like last season. LOL.

What about this Teddy guy? He was the new guy that Naomi had her eyes on. We learned that he was an old friend of Adrianna’s from summer camp and they used to date. This draws jealousy from Navid and also from Naomi. Naomi was hoping to have Teddy as another guy to help her get over Liam. Liam does show back up at school but Naomi runs off instead of talking to him. Big reveal toward the end of the episode with us getting to see that license plate of Teddy's. It looks like we have our reveal of who was around and saw Annie’s hit and run.

Overall thoughts. I enjoyed the season premiere overall. I still say that the major focus of the current storylines needs to be around Annie. The mystery of the hit and run is the most compelling thing on the show right now. The Beverly Hills Beach Club opens the season. Ahh, memories. Not sure how crazy that I am with Silver being in a group with Naomi and Adrianna. Well, mostly with Naomi. It just goes against what I liked about the Silver character last season. Adrianna’s change will be a major focus this season with her already seemingly having regret over giving up the baby. Not crazy at all about the new theme song. Ugh. Found it to be really boring. Bring back last season’s theme song quickly. It is interesting to see how Annie and Naomi are pitted against each other especially with Annie being in the right. Because of her being wrongfully accused, her life went out of control after the events of the night. Really interested to continue to see her interaction with her family as she spirals. Again, this story needs to be the focus of the show for a while.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Big Brother 11, Carrie Underwood Single Released, Chuck, Smallville, Miscellaneous Music Notes, & More - September 3, 2009

The Wrap Up returns this week after a one week hiatus. This week, I’ve got a recap of this week’s Big Brother, news on Carrie Underwood, casting on Chuck, counting down to the premieres of 90210 and Melrose Place, and more.

If you’re a Jeff fan like most of America, this was not the night for you on Big Brother. First, I’m going to backtrack to last week since I haven’t commented on it. Jeff won HOH and also veto. He ended up using the veto and put Russell up on the block. Backdoor was in effect and Russell went out loudly. How about Jordan stepping right up to Russell??!! It was a smart move for Jeff to get rid of Russell but it is funny that the lie stirred up by Natalie and Kevin just happened to be true by accident. So, with Russell evicted, it was time for a new HOH. Kevin survived the slippery HOH competition. Now, remember that Jeff had a deal with Kevin and Natalie to stay safe this week. Well, that went out of the window quickly. Kevin nominated Jeff and Michele for eviction with Jeff being the target. Natalie was playing her strategy of making it look like she wanted Michele out to keep the blood of Jeff’s eviction off of her hands. The veto competition was held and I always enjoy the morphing pictures competitions. Michele won the veto by a good margin. That meant that Jordan would likely go up on the block unless there was some miracle. Michele tried to fight to keep Jeff while Jordan offered to sacrifice herself for Jeff to stay. Michele did take herself off of the block and Kevin put up Jordan in her place. So, the couple was against each other on the block with Jeff against Jordan. There was some scrambling done to try and save Jeff but there really wasn’t much of a chance. Jeff and Michele threw a big deal at Natalie to get her vote offering her a guaranteed HOH win. Jeff even made a statement to her at the live eviction mentioning the deal. It didn’t work. Natalie voted Jeff out saying that it was revenge for Jessie’s eviction and also for herself in being nominated that week. Michele voted for Jordan to be evicted. That made it a tie and Kevin broke the tie evicting Jeff. Jeff got the first standing ovation from the fans as he left and it was a LOUD ovation. Then came the HOH shocker. Natalie, Michele, and Jordan ended up in a tie and the tiebreaker was won by Natalie. Natalie wins HOH. What???!!!!! I was stunned!! LOL. I had this reaction of “what in the world just happened???!!” So, that guarantees Natalie a spot in the final four and that Jordan or Michele will go home unless there is some shocking turn of events.

Other thoughts on the Big Brother week. Ok, I am pulling for Michele to win this game. For the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking that she was going to win it all. She has just been quietly working her way through this and winning big competitions. She will have to win the veto this week of course but she has a great shot at it. How about that jury house? Lydia sure didn’t hold a grudge for long. Come to think of it, it sure doesn’t seem like Natalie is either in the Big Brother house. I enjoyed the interaction between Jessie, Lydia, and Russell. Interesting that the guys talked of how they would absolutely give a vote to Jeff for what he had done in the game. How about Natalie’s secret getting revealed in the jury house? Wow, I thought that might blow up in her face. My only thing is that if you’re going to make that lie, don’t tell ANYONE. Keep that to yourself. Now, I haven’t been following the feeds much this year so I don’t know what made her reveal it but I just thought that was a bad idea to reveal it to even anyone. The reaction was hilarious when Russell found out that Natalie was 24 instead of 19. Speaking of Natalie, the dragonfly freakout was hilarious. She got a big laugh out of it too when they showed it tonight. That officially tops Ollie’s reaction to the birds last year. LOL. Both were hilarious. Ok, the Pandora’s Box segment was one of the funniest things that I have seen in Big Brother in years. If you missed it, Kevin was shown a secret door in the HOH. He had to make a decision to gamble on it or not open it. He went for it and there was a box inside. It mentioned that $10,000 would be released but you had to stick your hand inside for it to happen. He puts his hand in and it of course gets locked inside. He looks over on the TV on the side which reveals cash dropping from the sky in the backyard. He can’t move unless someone finds a key in the house to let him go. His reaction was hilarious. He even had to laugh at it. So, Natalie comes looking for him and he tells her about the key. Instead of going for the key, she goes back outside to collect more money. The fact that he saw her do this on the TV instead of helping him was even more funny cause she got caught red handed. Jeff returns and Kevin makes up a lie of that the key has to be gotten so any of them can keep the money. Jeff gets the key and goes right back outside with it collecting more money. LOL. Eventually, Natalie returns to Kevin and he gets her to go get Jeff. Jeff and Natalie return and unlock Kevin but it was hilarious watching how it all went down. The houseguests did VERY well money wise. Well, Kevin didn’t do as well cause he got there late. Jeff got the most collecting over $3,000. That was a hilarious segment. How frustrating would that be to watch everyone collecting money that you released? Then, you can’t get anyone to help you. Fun week of Big Brother. Disappointed that Jeff was eliminated. The finish of this game is all up in the air now. I really think that Natalie will make the final two cause you have to go up against her at this point. I’m going to pick a final two of Natalie and Michele with Michele winning the game.

Really fun late night gift for all of us Carrie Underwood fans last night. The link to Carrie’s new song, Cowboy Casanova was posted. What is funny is that I was listening to her CD on the way home last night and one of my thoughts was when we’d hear the debut of the single off of her new album. Three hours later, there it was. The name of her new album is Play On and will be released on November 3. The album cover was also released late last week and I love it. You can see the album cover and listen to the song at this link from her You Tube channel.


Speaking of Carrie, I watched a marathon of episodes of American Idol Rewind covering season four. They were really well done. I enjoyed hearing the thoughts of the contestants looking back at the moments of season four. It was especially interesting to watch the look back at the shocking elimination of Constantine.

Sticking with American Idol, a lot of names are being given as to who we can expect for guest judges next season. Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry will be guest judges during auditions. Others already announced are Victoria Beckham, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, Mary J. Blige, and Kristin Chenoweth.

I’ve been watching the extras on the new Smallville season eight DVD set. There is an excellent featurette on Allison Mack’s directing debut which follows her on the job while also getting comments from cast and crew. She looked like a professional for sure and she got a ton of credit for the job that she did. It really gives you a great look at what the job is like. I thought Allison did an incredible job and look forward to her getting to direct again soon.

Exciting news from Chuck as far as guest stars go for sure. Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk is set to guest star on the show. Wow, that will be very cool. Looking forward to that. Michael Ausiello has more on the news about Kristin at this link: http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/09/02/exclusive-smallville-heroine-kristin-kreuk-joins-chuck/ There is also news of Brandon Routh of Superman fame getting a guest starring role on the show as well. Ausiello has the scoop on that as well at this link: http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/08/27/chuck-lands-superman-brandon-routh/

Fox has announced what was speculated about at Comic Con. Summer Glau will be set to make a return to the Whedonverse. Summer, who is of course of Firefly fame, will be guest starring on season two of Dollhouse. She will play a character named Bennett who is a Dollhouse employee. It will be revealed that Bennett and Echo have a past together. Reallly happy to see Summer getting a guest shot.

We are just days away from having new episodes of 90210 and Melrose Place again on the same night. Season two of 90210 and the premiere of the new Melrose Place is this Tuesday, September 8 on The CW at 7pm central time. I’ll be checking out the new Melrose Place to see how it is compared to the original. I’m still waiting to see how they explain Sydney’s return. As far as 90210, I’m curious to see where they go for season two. I wasn’t crazy about the promos focusing mostly on Naomi especially after the cliffhanger with Annie last season. Anyway, it is going to be a major retro moment having these two shows to watch again on the same night.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. The Final Destination - $27.4 million. 2. Inglourious Bas***** - $19.3 million. 3. Halloween II - $16.3 million. 4. District 9 - $10.2 million. 5. G.I. Joe - $7.7 million. 6. Julie & Julia - $7 million. 7. The Time Traveler’s Wife - $6.4 million. 8. Shorts - $4.5 million. 9. Taking Woodstock - $3.4 million. 10. G-Force - $2.8 million.

Here is something that I learned this week. Watching the movie Twister and leaving it on when I go to sleep will lead to me having dreams of storm chasing. LOL. It was on one of the movie channels this week when I was going to sleep and then it was on again the next morning when I woke up. I kid you not that I was having dreams of being out storm chasing. LOL.

I’ve been watching a lot of music videos lately on TV. Yeah, you have to be up either really late or up early to see music videos on TV quite a bit of the time. I really like the new Colbie Caillat video to Fallin For You. Fun story to it with her out on a date with a very “over the top” guy. She is becoming one of my favorite singers as I like quite a few of her songs. She just has such a nice relaxing sound to her.

My five favorite new songs in no particular order.
Carrie Underwood – Cowboy Casanova
Mat Kearney – Closer To Love (love this song and video)
Miranda Lambert – Dead Flowers
Colbie Caillat – Fallin For You
The Fray – Never Say Never (LOVE the shot of the woman with her hand up in the air at the end of this video. Really powerful).

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, September 8. Criminal Minds (Season Four), Dog The Bounty Hunter (Best of Season Five), Fringe (Season One), Mr. Belvedere (Season Three), The Office (Season Five), Parks and Recreation (Season One).

Twitter Update Of The Week: Julie Benz
@juliebenz “My cousin named his new baby "Dexter". Hope he named it after someone he knows or cuz its a cool name and not a show about a serial killer!”

You Tube Video Of The Week: Gotta love the piano playing cat.


That is it for this weekend. Wishing you a very happy and safe Labor Day weekend!!! Take care and God bless!!

Big Brother Over The Top - Week One Thoughts

I hope many of you have floated over to Big Brother Over The Top like I have.  Tonight, we will be one week into this game and this new plat...