Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Stephenie Voted Off On Survivor, Locke vs. "Not" John Locke On Lost - February 23, 2010

I haven't had much time to work on the site this week but wanted to get my thoughts up on last week's Survivor and Lost.

Survivor last week. One reaction, UGH!!!!! I was so disappointed!! Most annoyed that I have been with someone being voted out since I can remember. Stephenie is one of my favorite castaways of all time and seeing her get voted out was especially frustrating. The treatment that she got on the way out didn’t make it any better. Let’s start from the beginning. We had Boston Rob collapsing early on the episode from exhaustion. He was unconscious at one point and was checked on by the medical team. He was given the ok and he was back to his normal self in a few minutes. I loved his line of that this was where trying to be the nice guy had gotten him and now it was back to the old Boston Rob. I have this feeling that I may be cheering for him as the game goes along. The immunity challenge takes place with the tribes having to do some heavy lifting while also solving a puzzle at the same time. JT is the one to call the shots on the Heroes tribe since he had competed in this same challenge previously. However, it didn’t go well overall with too many voices being heard. So, the Heroes lose and James goes off about it. Stephenie talked about how she wanted to call him back out but couldn’t at this point in the game. James and Rupert put a target on Stephenie to be voted out. The others know what is going on and try to put a target on Amanda hoping to get numbers to vote her out. Tribal council takes place and James goes right at Stephenie. It was just downright bully tactics by him. Kudos to Colby and Tom who both stood up for her and went right back at him. He pointed out how Stephenie had to be the reason that they lost and picking on her for how her tribe lost everything in another season with her being the only one. He used her as the common denominator. Ok James. So what is your excuse going to be the next time that you lose? Still Stephenie’s fault? I was really hoping that since James was bringing up her past moments where she fought alone in the game that she would bring up his shining moments of, hey, why don’t you go find an immunity idol to not use? LOL. He really came off as a jerk in this episode. First one of the Heroes that I liked in other seasons that has now went over to the dark side for me. So annoyed. I wanted to throw something when I saw her voted out. LOL.

Last week’s Lost followed John Locke and “not” John Locke. LOL. Really good episode. We saw John’s journey after leaving LAX. Helen was still with him and he ended up being fired from his job. The owner of the company that fired him was Hurley. Hurley gave him a direct number to an agency to get him another job and the person that ended up helping him, Rose. Now, how does Ben Linus end up there in that teacher’s lounge? That completely messed me up. Back to “not” John Locke on the island. I loved that Sawyer recognized immediately that he wasn’t John. So, was that kid on the island supposed to be Aaron? That would go back to the whole thing of how the kid might be important to the story. The kid told “not” John Locke to not kill Sawyer while Richard came out of the jungle to warn Sawyer about how dangerous this guy was. Interesting ending with the revelation of the cave.

Friday, February 12, 2010

American Idol, Lost, NBA, Music, & More - February 12, 2010

Hollywood week on American Idol and there were some incredible auditions this week. This was also the debut week of Ellen DeGeneres as a judge. Nice line to start with when she sits down next to Simon and says “so this is it, I come on and you leave”. I liked Ellen. I thought she did good. She had fun and was honest with what she liked and didn’t like. The first episode of Hollywood was individual performances with them being able to use an instrument if they wanted. Audition of the day was Andrew Garcia. He sang a version of Paula Abdul’s “straight up” which was incredible!!! He completely changed the song and it sounded great. I liked Janell Wheeler as well with her version of American Boy where she put a twist on the song as well with a guitar. Maddy Curtis was a favorite of mine and she went home after choosing the wrong song for her. Didi Benami and Crystal Bowersox close out the show big with strong performances. Episode two of the week brings us to the drama that is always group day. Dreamers. Oh, the drama that went on with that group. They were a group of three, added two, tried to drop the two, and kept all five. Get all that?? What a mess. Only three members of the group go through after a ton of clashing with Mary Powers in the middle of it. Mary did get through. There was drama between two groups with one claiming that the other stole their idea as they were performing the same song. They also rehearsed next to one another as well. Some groups had drama while some were just flat out awesome and full groups were getting sent through. Michael Lynche was a big story of the week with him becoming a dad during Hollywood week and staying on the phone with his wife throughout. Lots of strong performances this week and a fun Hollywood week. I do have some favorites picked out but had several go home this week that I liked. Looking forward to seeing who makes it to the next round.

The new version of We Are The World has premiered and it sounds awesome. Great to see Michael and Janet Jackson in it as a video of him is shown from the original. Lots of big names in the new version overall. I’ll have a link to it later in the Wrap Up.

Smallville did very well last week in the ratings with its Absolute Justice episode which I thought was a great episode. Highest rating of the season for Smallville and the highest rating for The CW on a Friday night in over a year. Fun episode of Smallville tonight which was directed by Allison Mack. It brought back the story of the Warrior Angel comic. At first, I was thinking geez Clark all you had to do was read that issue of Warrior Angel and you could be flying. Well, then we learned of the twist of the curse that it carried. Fun story and just a nice light mood kind of episode. Definitely a big tease going on at the end with a romance heating up with Chloe and Oliver.

Moving on to Lost. SPOILER ALERT!! That is to my friend who called me out this week cause he started reading the Wrap Up and hadn't seen the premiere yet. LOL. Awesome episode of Lost that saw two versions of Kate and two versions of Claire. Kate continued to be on the run after reaching LAX and struck up a bond with Claire when she went into labor while all this was going on. Kate stuck it out with her. We also found out that the couple that was going to adopt Claire's baby was not at the airport. They went to see the supposed to be mother who revealed that the husband had left her and they weren't able to take a baby at the moment. While Claire was in the hospital, she suddenly came up with the name Aaron for the baby. On the island, Kate revealed to Sawyer that the reason that she came back was to reunite Claire and Aaron. We then see Claire holding up a rifle at the end of the episode at Kate. That is on the island of course and that ties to what we learned about the deal with Sayid. The ones in the temple were set to poison him to stop what was about to happen to him. They revealed that he had a sickness saying that it had happened to others including Claire. The worst is yet to come in Sayid. Sawyer took off from the temple deciding to go it alone. Kate did follow him out of there as she didn't plan on sticking around either. Basically, her plan is to run in both realities. LOL. I'm still waiting to see how these two worlds are going to come together.

Moving on to Chuck, we have another love triangle, square, whatever you want to call it. I have really liked the addition of Kristin Kreuk to the cast as a new romantic interest for Chuck. Poor Morgan. He's stuck on the girl and his best friend has hit it off with her. Then, we have Sarah and Shaw who have a flirtation going on as well. Chuck will be on hiatus until March 1 due to the Olympics on NBC.

The relationship between Cate and Ryan is out there after this week's episode of LIfe Unexpected. Cate went to help Lux after getting suspended at school. She took her case file to school to try and plead her case. However, it ended up being in the hands of the popular girl who does not like Lux. Lux had lied about her past to help her make friends easier so then this girl got the truth out. For Lux's revenge, she outed Cate and Ryan's relationship at the radio event. Cate eventually pointed out that what happened to Lux was an accident when she was trying to help. Lux did her big reveal on purpose. Basically, Cate gave her an ultimatum. She was trying and trying her best for Lux but wasn't getting the same in return. Lux ended up getting some advice on it from one of Baze's buddies and one of her teachers obviously. She is sticking it out with Cate. This is a really fun show so far.

I was two weeks behind on The Big Bang Theory until this week but I have to comment over the hilarity of last week's episode. I'm talking about Buzingah. LOL. Leonard chasing Sheldon in the ball pit while Sheldon keeps popping up to reveal himself and say that word was great TV. It lasted forever but was funny the whole time.

The results have been posted for The CW Awards winners. Woo hoo to Allison Mack who won for best lead actress from Smallville with 35 percent of the vote. Best Series went to The Vampire Diaries with 33 percent. Lead Actor was to Ian Somerhalder of The Vampire Diaries with 42 percent. Supporting Actor went to Supernatural's Mish Collins with 51 percent while supporting actress went to Katerina Graham of The Vampire Diaries with 27 percent. Best writer/producer/auteru went to Eric Kripke of Supernatural with 57 percent.

Gloriana is taking part in the Olympics by adding a song to it. "The World Is Ours Tonight" is one of the Team USA soundtrack songs. Good for Gloriana!! I'm so thrilled to see them continue growing in success. You can by the song on iTunes and they have shot a video for it as well which is mixed in with Team USA highlights.
http://soundtrack.att.net/artist_detail.php?artist=gloriana

The Super Bowl on Sunday was the most watched TV broadcast in history which topped the finale of MASH. 106.5 million viewers tuned into the Super Bowl which topped MASH’s 105.9 million. Also, there was ratings news when it came to the commercials as well. The Doritos ad became the most watched of all time with 116.2 million viewers at that time. Lots of buzz around the commercial that involved Jay Leno and David Letterman in the room together. Nobody saw that one coming.

Big sports weekend. The 2010 Winter Olympics started today in Vancouver on NBC with the opening ceremonies. The NBC networks will have coverage all over the place.

The NBA has its All Star showcase beginning tonight in Dallas. The All Star Game is set to make record setting attendance records with over 90,000 people at the new Texas Stadium. Already a bummer for many fans as starters Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson have pulled out of the game due to injury. All right, I have to call out LeBron James for All Star Saturday Night. Remember him saying during last year's dunk contest that he was going to enter this year's? Where are you at LeBron? He isn't on the list and it's disappointing. It would have definitely added more flavor to the contest. Interesting that Dwight Howard isn't entering this year either. I thought he got robbed last year anyway so I wonder if that had anything to do with it. I do find it bizarre that there are so many players that compete in these competitions that I have never heard of. I'm not saying that as insulting obviously. I just don't know the players like I used to but it is always fun. No matter what, you have the very entertaining TNT broadcast team which always liven things up. There are a TON of nights where I won't watch the games but I tune in to see Inside The NBA to hear what Ernie, Charles, Kenny, and Webber have to say about things.

The other sports attention this weekend will be on Daytona, Florida. Nascar has worked in the offseason at changes to help the racing. Will it help? One can only hope cause I think the last three seasons have been boring for the most part. I couldn't even tell you much about the happenings. Danica Patrick. That girl has all sorts of attention on her at Daytona. The ARCA race probably had more eyes on it than it has in many years to see how she would do in her debut. She spins out and still finishes 6th. So, she is entering the Nationwide race tomorrow and I'm really pulling for her to do well.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Dear John - $30.4 million. 2. Avatar - $22.8 million. 3. From Paris With Love - $8.1 million. 4. Edge of Darkness - $6.8 million. 5. Tooth Fairy - $6.6 million. 6. When In Rome - $5.5 million. 7. The Book Of Eli - $4.7 million. 8. Crazy Heart - $3.5 million. 9. Legion - $3.4 million. 10. Sherlock Holmes - $2.5 million.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, February 16. The Dog Whisperer (Season Four), Lincoln Heights (Season One), Small Wonder (Season One).

TV Line Of The Week: From last week’s Big Bang Theory since I did just technically get to watch it this week. Leonard and Penny waking up to the Joker laughing as Leonard’s ringtone.
Penny: “Leonard, you’re giggling in your sleep.”
Leonard: “It’s not me. It’s my new ring tone. The Joker from Batman”
Penny: “It creeps me out.”
Leonard: “Me too but I paid three bucks for it.”

Twitter Update Of The Week: Neil Patrick Harris
@ActuallyNPH: “Ok, major gossip on J.Lo, y'all! We were hanging out on set today, between takes. She turns to me and says, dig this: "Neil, I'm going to tr”

You Tube Video Of The Week: We Are The World 25


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

Survivor Heroes vs. Villains - Premiere Thoughts - February 12, 2010

Survivor Heroes vs. Villains premiered last night. This is going to be a LOT of fun. I love all star editions of shows and this season is a great example. You have your favorites and the ones you like to cheer against. This was a fun premiere and is going to be a tough competition. When you have a reward challenge right off the bat and you have injuries already, that is a sign of things to come. The first challenge had the tribes in a physical battle with having to grab a bag and carry it across the finish line. The others would try to stop you by any means necessary. First ones out there were Stephenie and Cirie taking on Parvati and Danielle. Stephenie ends up separating her shoulder and gets it put back in place by the medical team after that. Colby got beat by Coach which was news to many and damaged his reputation a bit to them. Want to know why Sandra is a villain? Well, she showed it in her challenge. It was her and Courtney against Sugar and Candice. Sandra's strategy was to grab Sugar's top and just hold on. Finally, Sugar just let Sandra have it and took off with the bag. She runs across the finish line topless and then gave Sandra a number two when she won. I knew this next one was going to be a rough one with Boston Rob and Tyson taking on James and Rupert. I would not want to go up against James in any kind of physical challenge, especially that one!! This was a physical one which had James getting the win but Rupert was the second injury as he broke one of his toes. This gives the win overall to the Heroes and they get flint as a reward to start a fire. Rupert struggles to get the fire going and a team effort gets it rolling. He is getting concerned with his struggles early on. On the other tribe, a little romance between Coach and Jerri appears to be starting. In the Heroes camp, not so much. Sugar was following Colby around and he kept trying to get away from her as they tried to sleep. She was bugging several as they tried to sleep which put a target on her. The talk turns to individuals who had alliances with others in previous shows. Targets turn to Tom and Stephenie and to Amanda and Cirie. The immunity challenge saw the Heroes getting off to a big lead but then it evaporated. They struggled with the puzzle which put more of a target on Sugar. The Villains end up winning fairly easily. Who would go home from the Heroes tribe? Well, there was a lot of talking of who to target. Colby pushed for Sugar. Cirie went right for Amanda which I thought was bold as was the talk of getting rid of Stephenie. I get the strategic game play but you need to keep some strong ones around too. Tribal council sees Sugar get voted out overwhelmingly. I was bummed for that cause I loved Sugar on her original season. She is up against some tough people though on that Heroes tribe.

Other thoughts on the Survivor premiere. I really liked this premiere. Russell is a little more humble this time around but trying a lot of his same strategy from last season. He's already working several of the girls including Danielle and Parvati. He does know that he is in for a battle here looking at all of his competition. Definitely more of a humble Russell like I said. When Stephenie went down, I just thought, oh, she can't go down like that. I liked her a lot in previous seasons and I thought one of the more heart pulling moments of previous seasons was when she was the only member left on her tribe and spent the night alone. Cirie is really tough to read sometimes especially after the last season where her and the girls alliance just ripped the guys to shreds. She is already showing signs of that same cutthroat style of game in this season. I've said this already but that first reward challenge really set the tone quickly with how competitive this season is going to be. One thing that had me kind of puzzled during the episode was that some seemed to know info on Russell and his game play from last season. This confused me and made me second guess because I knew this season was likely taped before the previous season aired. Well, Sugar did an interview today where she said that some people knew more about Russell than others based on who their friends were. So, that answers my question on that. The previews for next week show Boston Rob collapsing which looked really scary!!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Lost Premiere Thoughts, Smallville - Absolute Justice, & More - February 5, 2010

The season premiere of Lost was this past Tuesday and I LOVED it. We have so many more questions about what is going on than when we started. I love the two realities that we have going on. One being that the crash never happened and we see the flight land in Los Angeles. The other with them all still on the island but back in present day. If they had went with just one direction, I’d be thinking what if the other situation happened? Now, we get both. I just don’t know how it will come together. The thing I noticed with watching the premiere is that we aren’t going to get a happy ending. Just because someone made it to LAX and went on with their lives doesn’t mean that their life is going to be better. With some, they were doomed either way. Case and point Charlie. Well, sort of. Charlie was looking to kill himself in the bathroom of the plane but Jack ended up saving him. So, he is on a suicide mission it appears including him not exactly thanking Jack for saving his life. On the island, he didn’t make it either. The line from Charlie that I really liked was him telling Jack that he was supposed to die going back to the whole Desmond thing on the island. I loved a lot of the stuff on the plane including Locke and Boone’s discussion. Kate was wrecking havoc trying to get away and did with a pregnant Claire in the cab leaving the airport. Kate had a gun pointed at the cab driver. I also liked the conversation with Jack and Locke at the airport. They definitely gave that tease also of that Sawyer was going to con a very happy go lucky Hurley. How powerful was that scene of them all leaving the plane at LAX? Seeing these, now, strangers all going their separate ways with the powerful music playing in the background.. Amazing scene. Back on the island, Sawyer was ready to kill Jack and could he have had more of an intense face? WOW. With the thinking that the plan of Jack’s didn’t work, Juliet was buried underneath and they realized they were in present day. Juliet was found alive and Sawyer got down to her. Only for her to pass away in his arms. She had something that she was going to tell him after she revealed that she blew up the bomb from down there. He never got it until Miles used his ability of talking to the dead. She wanted to tell him “it worked”. So, what does that mean??!! Then, they get captured by this group at the temple. Sayed is put in the healing water and ends up not making it. Yet, he comes back to life. The group around Locke finds out that it isn’t Locke inside of that body. In fact, he is the smoke monster as well. Wow, there is just all sorts of evil getting ready to be unleashed there. Such a good premiere. Even the recap episode that preceded it was great. I actually rewatched season five last week to make sure I remembered everything before this season started. It was amazing to me of some of the things that I had forgotten about.

The producers of Lost did appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live the night of the premiere. Really funny moment when Jimmy was asking them questions about possibilities of the show’s future. Well, funny for me but I’d be furious if I was the ones in the studio audience. Remember that Kimmel is live. Lost had not aired on the west coast yet. So, they are answering questions and then reveal that not-Locke Locke (LOL) is the smoke monster. You could hear the audience gasp and I just laughed thinking, oh no, they haven’t seen it yet. There was a major spoiler revealed to the fans there in attendance. They did reveal the date of the series finale which will be Sunday, May 23.

Tonight was the big Smallville “Absolute Justice” two hour movie on The CW. Really fun two hours of TV. The story of the Justice Society of America was brought into the Smallville world. Members of the group were beginning to be murdered and Clark and the new group got involved. I really liked the comparison of the two groups and how each influenced the other. They did a really good job of setting up the back story of it with showing what happened to the JSA. How about the return of John Jones? Loved that and he gets his powers back. A sacrifice was given by the JSA to get that to happen. I really liked how the talk turned to making Chloe’s central command station needing to turn more into a comfortable home base and that they need to become a family like the JSA was. How does Tess tie into this all? Well, that is a character that just can’t be read. We know that we have an apocalypse coming and that was the goal to get the JSA back in order along with Clark and the gang. Great two hours of TV and it was worth every bit of the hype.

Audition episodes of American Idol are over. Tuesday took us to Denver for more auditions. Victoria Beckham returned as a guest judge. One thing that is clear about this season is that the sixteen year olds are making noise. There have been so many talented sixteen year olds thus far. Kimberly Kerbow was one that I liked. She was the one that had the five year old daughter who had drawings of all the judges. Great moment when Kimberly sang the line “rogaine” right at Simon. I liked Tori Kelly quite a bit and she was another sixteen year old who sang “gravity”. Nicci Nix was someone that I liked as well. She traveled from Italy for the audition. Small speaking voice but a very different singing voice. I read today about her and this is definitely not her first TV as she has been on a lot of shows. Wednesday’s episode was a best of the rest type episode with us seeing previous audition footage. Not many really jumped out at me in this episode. Next week is Hollywood week so now we’re going to see what everyone is made of. There will be tons of drama and also the debut of Ellen.

What is the show that will get the coveted post Super Bowl time slot? Undercover Boss. I can honestly say that I've never heard of it. Definitely an unusual pick by CBS and I would have liked to have seen The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother get the time slot. It might have made the audience for those shows even biggger. With Survivor premiering this week, why not give it the time slot? Two previous seasons of Survivor premiered after the Super Bowl with Australia and then another All Stars edition. I still remember All Stars premiering after the Super Bowl back in 2004. I just wanted the game to hurry up and end where I could watch Survivor All Stars.

Speaking of the Survivor premiere, Survivor Heroes vs. Villains premieres on Thursday night. Last night was a special that looked back over the last ten years of Survivor including catching up with previous cast members.

The season finale of Heroes is this Monday night on NBC. The show has been so much better this season. Last season was almost tough to watch at times cause it was so confusing and just really wasn't fun. This season has been the best season since season one in my opinion.

Really funny episode of How I Met Your Mother covering Barney’s attempt at the “perfect week”. It being treated like a sporting event was funny. Lily had the jinx in effect. LOL. The show really has been great this year with having a main storyline and then having lots of funny smaller ones going on with the other characters in the episode.

Since when does MTV air Buffy The Vampire Slayer? I'm not complaining obviously but it just seemed bizarre to be flipping through channels during the morning and see Buffy on MTV. I'm glad to see the show airing again on a network.

The series finale for Ugly Betty is set for April 14.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Avatar - $31.2 million. 2. Edge of Darkness - $17.2 million. 3. When In Rome - $12.3 million. 4. Tooth Fairy - $9.9 million. 5. The Book of Eli - $8.9 million. 6. Legion - $7.1 million. 7. The Lovely Bones - $4.7 million. 8. Sherlock Holmes - $4.5 million. 9. Alvin and the Chipmunks - $3.9 million. 10. It's Complicated - $3.8 million.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, February 9. Army Wives (Season Three), Gary Unmarried (Season One), JAG (Final Season), The Patty Duke Show (Season Two), Vega$ (Season One - Volume Two).

TV Line Of The Week: From Lost.
“You should have let that happen, man. I was supposed to die”. Charlie to Jack after Jack saved his life on board the Oceanic 815 in route to LAX.

Twitter Update Of The Week: Candace Cameron-Bure gives her theory on the end of Lost. @candacecbure "#Lost was AMAZING as usual. I love this show. It can't end. It just can't! My theory: just read Revelation & we'll know the ending!"

You Tube Video Of The Week: Previously On Lost. This is really funny.



Have a great 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...