BLOGS
June 2009 Archives
So many former reality stars go on to other reality shows, and so many of them aren't deserving. Jessica Simpson might have been remotely interesting a few years back on Newlyweds, but we definitely don't need to see her globetrotting to learn about the beauty regimens of women around the world on her upcoming show The Price of Beauty. But there are some stars that we'd like to see again.
It's another one of those sad days. On the plus side, I can be the one billionth blogger today to say "heaven just got another angel" with zero irony.
In response to some rumors to the contrary, TLC has announced that they have no plans to include Jon Gosselin's alleged girlfriend Deanna Hummel in future episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8, pretty much just to spare us the grossness of it all, which is awfully kind of them. Other shows should be that considerate. Here are a few suggestions for reality stars we wouldn't mind seeing relegated to behind-the-scenes-only action on our favorite shows from now on.
It's finally over, and Lou won... something. But really, who even cares. Lou dominated the entire game and won because he was nice. There was no strategy, no game play involved. He was just nice, goofed off for a few weeks in the woods, directed a video, let all the youngsters call him 'Papa Lou,' lost some weight and earned some unnamed amount of money for charity. Once all the eliminated people got the boot, it was so boring I could barely even stand to watch it anymore. But I get paid to. Not sure why other people stuck around 'til the end.
On Friday night, Fox premieres Virtuality, a two-hour movie (that could be a backdoor pilot, possibly) for a new show from the mind of Ron Moore. Virtuality is another space-set series, but it's quite different from Moore's Battlestar Galactica. It deals with a crew of astronauts heading out into deep space, who escape the monotony of spaceship living via virtual reality, and also, all of their non-virtual doings are being recorded and sent back to earth as a reality show. It's got a lot going on, so Moore decided to take questions from reporters on a recent conference call to help explain how this whole series came about.
Yes, I complained about America's Got Talent the other day, but I decided to give the show a shot, as I reluctantly do each year. Last night's episode was filled with the usual assortment of talented kids, bad impersonators, delusional dancers/singers/pet owners/flame throwers and a few impressive acts. Add in some heartfelt stories, Nick Cannon discussing how he wants to try out different acrobatic things with his wife in the bedroom (repeatedly) and you've got yourself one of the summer's biggest hits. Still not my cup of tea.
Seriously. I was on a conference call with the most recently eliminated Baldwin, and apparently delicious smack-talkin' doesn't necessarily run in the family, because Stephen not only claimed to genuinely like Janice Dickinson and think she's a good person, but he also believes Speidi's Christianity is authentic and not at all being exaggerated for fame whoring purposes. He's like the innocent little Hummel Baldwin. It's precious, really.
It's not even surprising that there is a lot of news about reality shows. Networks are picking up new reality shows and even (gasp!) one scripted drama series, a model is joining the cast of Fringe, and a character may or may not be resurrected.
I watched the entire hour and a half of Superstars last night and I'm still not sure I get this show. The premise seems to be taking pseudo-celebrities and pairing them with a pro-athlete and then forcing them to do different athletic tasks. This seems simple enough, and it is how the old show worked, but I guess I just expected some sort of twist or ... at the very least something new and different. Maybe we could have seen the sports stars try and train the celebrities, but the problem seems to be that the sports stars are new to many of these tasks too. I can't imagine that Terrell Owens encounters a lot of cargo nets in his football training.
At first glance, the idea of MTV adapting Teen Wolf into a dramatic television series looks like a pretty dumb idea. First of all, they've got an audience of 12-year-olds who have never heard of the movie, so there goes your built-in nostalgia support. And then there's the issue that remakes are often terrible and unnecessary, and of all people to do justice to a campy '80s classic, MTV is hardly the paragon of quality and creativity to be tackling such a mission. All true things. But I kinda think it's a good idea, despite all of that.