BLOGS
January 2012 Archives
No more Hantz's?!! It's already Survivor's best season ever!
Raylan is okay, everyone! He's a little sore from his gunshot wounds, but that'll probably just make him tougher in the long run. Truth be told, I feared that Justified wasn't ever going to have a villain as compelling as the late, great Mags Bennett, but then the show went ahead and introduced Neal McDonough as mobster Robert Quarles into the mix on last night's season premiere, "The Gunfighter." After watching McDonough play a total psychopath on Desperate Housewives back in the day, it's safe to say that Raylan has his work cut out for him.
How is it even possible that Dance Moms is getting better at this point? Last night's "Return Of The Candy Apples" has solidified not only that Season 2 can live up to the hype of Season 1 -- it might just "turn it into applesauce," if you will. There's also news of a Dance Moms: Miami in the works, but I can't even wrap my head around that right now, what with all of these amazing quotes that sprouted up in this episode.
Sitting through the 45-minute pilot episode of ReModeled (The CW's latest attempt at reality TV) was, in a word, excruciating. I care about the modeling world as much as the next moderate Project Runway or America's Next Top Model fan (so, "kind of"), but as far as the world of modeling agencies are concerned, unless they're helmed by Janice Dickinson, I couldn't find them less interesting. Not only does this series give an inside look at the wild world of those agencies; it also tries to be these current shows, too, and fails miserably in the end.
ABC is looking to make a lot of people happy this Valentine's Day
Looks like there is life after Harry Potter for The Boy (Actor) Who Lived. Young British thesp Daniel Radcliffe demonstrated some strong comic chops during his debut gig as a Saturday Night Live host. Unfortunately, his personal charm wasn't enough to overcome the show's mediocre writing and misconceived sketches. Here were the five least magical skits of the night:
Amidst the Sunday night hubbub generated by the Golden Globes and the Giants/Packers game and Episode 2 of Downton Abbey's second season, it's understandable if you forgot that ABC had scheduled another new episode of Pan Am.
The "Amsterdam" episode of House of Lies was another installment filled with "boys will be boys" behavior and lots of salacious behavior (sex in the middle of a bathroom, use of the c-word to describe a woman and lots of comments on Marty smelling like pussy). That behavior and fast-talking deals seem to be the entire M.O. of this show. However, this episode did have one fantastic breakout subplot (and it didn't even involve the adorable Roscoe), in which Doug excitedly ran into Cat Deeley at the airport.
The big question surrounding the premiere of Fox's Napoleon Dynamite animated series is... why? Why is a cartoon based on Jared Hess's no-budget comedy arriving on TV a full eight years after the live-action version became a surprise box-office hit? Certainly, the last attempt to translate a popular, Sundance-approved indie flick to animation (Kevin Smith's short-lived Clerks cartoon) didn't work out all that well, although that show's failure had as much to do with behind-the-scenes problems between the creators and the network as it did with low ratings. In contrast, Fox seems to have left Hess and his original Dynamite team (including his wife and co-writer, Jerusha Hess, and much of the movie's cast, from star Jon Heder and his sidekick Efren Ramirez to love interest Tina Majorino and popular girl Haylie Duff) pretty much alone to recapture the odd, offbeat sensibility that made the movie such a success.