Two Ladies & Their TVs

We love our shows so much we created a blog for it.

 

Jerry Orbach 1935-2004

Jerry Orbach died.  What terrible, sad news.  Although I often rolled my eyes at the Lennyisms in the Mothership teasers, he was a beloved character and a great actor.  I think my kids will remember him most as the voice of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast.

You take for granted that in this day and age, a lot of people beat cancer (and I even thought he would, although my grandpa passed from it).  I hope he's in painless peace now.

http://entertainment.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=177227

Posted by: athenawj at 10:42 | link | comments (2)
it s all drama

Arrested Development: 206

And this is what sticks out most to me-- Michael and Maeby, then Lindsey and George Michael doing karaoke to this, not knowing how dirty the song really is. Mr. Calm and I cracked up, because his mother absolutely refused to let him sing along with this song when it was first out.

Wow, Gob continues to be a dick-- a funny dick, but a dick nonetheless. "My six thousand dollar suit!" "My 2500 dollar pants!" "Come on!" It didn't surprise me in the least that he always thought everyone laughed with him. Nice banana suit, by the way.  And that sexual harassment talk with the Bluth Co. employees was over the top.  I love how they don't substitute language with corny stuff and just bleep it all out.

Tobias seems to be turning into the Kenny of AR. Wonder how else he's going to get hurt without actually dying (and hasn't he already been run over this season? Lucille high on pot and driving was hilarious, though)?

Oh, yes-- Gob's candy cane suit. Priceless, as well as Egg/Ann's holiday party. Happy holidays, everyone.

Posted by: athenawj at 19:58 | link | comments (2)
the world is a comedy

The Amazing Race: "Quit Following Me!"

Since I don't quite understand the rules yet, and I only watched the last forty-five minutes, I'm only going to comment on a few things:

1) Kendra's comments in Africa about how the 'poor people keep breeding', and how everyone 'escaped' from there are some of the most asinine, self-absorbed, ignorant comments I've ever heard.  What a fucking numbskull.  I saw on the previews that she gets sick after the stunt.  Karma's a bitch, ain't it?  Pretty people keep opening their mouths.

2) First off, I want to say that I do NOT like Victoria.  She's screechy, whiny, and has apparently lost the lint trap in her brain.  However, that doesn't give Jonathan-- who's ten times more screechy, whiny, lint trapless, and LOUD as she is-- the right to shove her so hard-- in front of cameras, in front of witnesses, no less-- that she flies sideways and nearly falls down.  Now, what has t.v. become (don't answer that) that that kind of behavior is allowed now?  There are always rules, and one of them has always been: if you hit someone, you're gone. It's happened on The Real World before, and it almost happened on Survivor (or did it? My memory's fuzzy on that one).  Why is that shove exempt?

Made me sick to watch that.  What an asshole.

Posted by: athenawj at 10:15 | link | comments (1)
reality check

AFI and The Golden Globes

AFI named Deadwood and Arrested Development two of the top ten best series of the year.  Yay!

Also, the Golden Globe nominations were announced today.  For the major awards, Deadwood was nominated for Best Series, and Ian McShane was nominated for Lead Actor.  Glad to see at least the GG got it right, as the Emmys couldn't (even though Brad Dourif-- my  hometown boy-- and Robin Weigert were).  McShane is a powerhouse on Deadwood.

Arrested Development garnered a Best Comedy nom, and Jason Bateman-- who's long overdue for recognition-- is up for Lead Actor in a Comedy.  This is a tough one for me, as Zach Braff from Scrubs is also nominated (and that's a finally! too), and he consistently cracks me up (more than Jason Bateman, actually, because he's more the straight guy on AR).

Too bad no one else got nominated from these two great comedies.  When you have such terrific ensemble acting, it makes you wish that more than the SAGs hand out ensemble acting trophies.

If none of these noms pan out, I'm going to be mightily pissed.

Posted by: athenawj at 17:55 | link | comments
it s all drama, the world is a comedy

Arrested Development - 2.05 "Sad Sack"

Picture of Tobias's balls as evidence that Iraq has WMDs?!  GOB about to hang himself with his pants down?  "Shemale" (pronounced "shi-MALI") tank that Maeby gave Lindsay?  George Sr. in Tracy's maternity clothing?

Enough said!

Posted by: merserene at 11:26 | link | comments (4)
the world is a comedy

Following up...

Little more info on the new ADA on the Mothership: http://nbcumv.com/entertainment/bio_detail.nbc/laworder-15-annie-parisse.html

First off, give me a break.  Someone else who thinks they're smarter than Jack?  Or else it's an ADA who definitely is smarter, and is argumentative.  I'd love to give the show the benefit of the doubt, to think that they could have productive, civilized discussions in which no one's made to look either too liberal or just an out and out dummy, but as this show's quality's gone down in the past few years, I'm not holding my breath.

Secondly, Alexandra?  Out of all the names on the planet, they couldn't have found one that wasn't the name of the last ADA on SVU?

Posted by: athenawj at 03:55 | link | comments (1)
it s all drama

L&O 12/8/04

Lordy, lordy, actually one that I liked.

Instead of 'ripped from the headlines', it's 'ripped from a first-season show that was ripped from the headlines'.  Still, a good one, and good to see the original actors (the ones who first played the Lowensteins) back again.  I'm not going into the real-life case, because I don't remember the details much (although I think the gist of the L&O ep mirrored the real ones), but the first-season episode was very good, very creepy and unsettling.  It was also a rare L&O moment when the characters talked about themselves, and Logan revealed that his mother was abusive to his father.  Mr. Lowenstein was absolutely despicable. Anyway.  Onto tonight:

That first shot of Lowenstein on the ground was way too gory for my tastes; not used to seeing the show go that far.  In the hospital, the actor did a good job of someone on their last legs (no pun intended).

I wondered what the hell was up with it being said that Cragen handled the original case.  Uh... what?  Cragen was Captain back then, just like he is now, and Logan and Greevey really were the ones handling it.  I doubt it would have killed the writers to look up their names when they were already going back thirteen years.  Captains give orders; detectives handle cases.

I was really pleased to see more Van Buren tonight.  She's way too underused (word?).

I'm not going to get into whether rapists can ever be cured, just because I'm tired and need to go to bed, but the recorded session with Lowenstein should have sent up more than red flags.  Was there anything she could have done-- spoken to the parole board, spoken to his P.O.-- to let someone know that Lowenstein was planning to go back to his controlling, abusive ways?  Yes, I do believe she could have called the cops as soon as she knew that he was living with his fiancee (bleh).

I do believe this was one of Jack's better crosses.  He's been rather lackluster lately.  And if I was on the jury, I would have noticed her shifty eyes during parts of it.  I really don't believe that it wasn't premeditated, although I don't buy her shrink's conviction that she always had to succeed, and because of that may have snapped.

The verdict: I was hoping for guilty, but wasn't surprised by the not guilty.  However, by the look on her face, I think she's going to feel guilty for a long, long time.

Serena Death Wish #7: run down by an SUV.  Man, she was especially glassy-eyed in this one.

One last thing about the episode in particular: Fuck all, I am so tired of Southern lawyers being assigned these cracker personalities.  To top it off, they always have to have some story that is a parable for the case at hand.  Give me a friggin' break.  If we all talked like that, I think more shootings would occur just to make people shut up.  I particularly don't like it that Fred Thompson puts up with it; I think it erases the truly great law work that he has done (yes, I know it has nothing to do with acting... mostly), and I'll bet he did it without spouting stupid stories.

Stepping off my soapbox: One thing I thought about while Jack was giving his closing was actually a scene from the movie, The Devil's Advocate.  Keanu Reeves (my surfer boy) was giving the opening in a double-murder trial, and his statement was interesting.  He called his client all sorts of names, that he was a jerk, an adulterer, blah blah.  But he reminded the jury that while his client was indeed all those things, he wasn't a murderer, and being that way didn't make him a murderer.  I think that sometimes juries may need to be reminded that while the deceased may have been some of the biggest assholes on Earth, that doesn't mean they deserve to be murdered.

 

Posted by: athenawj at 22:09 | link | comments (5)
it s all drama

L&O: SVU- 6.10 and Lost "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

Okay, sorry folks, but I wasn't paying too much attention to SVU last night.  With my kids in and out of the room, dealing with school issues, etc., stuff got in the way.  I'll touch on a few things I remember, though:

Mariska Hargitay looked a little silly, shaking so violently while applying pressure to Fin's wound.  Any second there, and I expected her to blow like Wile E. Coyote.

What is it with the cops on this show making it all about themselves when something bad happens to someone else???  Sheesh, we oughta turn it into a drinking game.

Much as I like Fin and his one-liners, and his repartee with Munch (whom he should have been partnered with in this episode- he learned a little more than that friggin' rookie in all his time spent on the Baltimore homicide squad), Ice-T really can't pull off an entire Fin-centric episode.  That sort of makes me sad, sort of makes me scratch my head, because I've seen him in good performances in movies.  Weird.  Maybe in a weekly drama there's just not enough time for him to fine-tune the performance. 

Rookie Cop was cute.  Little short, but cute.

Seems like the writers conveniently forgot that Fin called his son just a few weeks ago.  Nice.  Crack, much?

Cragen's wishy-washiness is starting to get on my nerves.  All they have to do is tell him twice that they're not going to take leave, not take a few days off, not do something they're supposed to/do something they're not, and he relents.  Guess "Captain" doesn't actually mean much in the way of rank.

Did I like it?  Don't really know.  I prefer the Stabler/Benson-centered episodes... when they're not arguing like ninnies.

Lost:

Now, it's Jack's turn to get on my nerves.  Really, the boy has some kind of hero complex.  I know from his backstory exactly why his family was mad at him, and why he feels the way he feels, but he's a bit too tortured and earnest for my taste.  Not quite real. 

I still don't like Kate's condescending tone with folks, but she got over a bit more on my good side tonight with telling Jack to back off Locke, and her admission that she wasn't as good a tracker as he was.  And her crying when they found Charlie.  Speaking of...

God, that was freaky.  I was shocked, but thinking, "Dominic Monaghan's not supposed to leave yet!" Good one, TPTB.  However...

I didn't buy it.  Did anyone buy that Jack could jump start his heart back to life like that?  Now, I'm not a doctor, but I always assumed that the COD for hanging victims was a broken neck, not suffocation.  Shouldn't Jack have at least checked that first?  Whatever; like I said, I don't know.

Good stuff:

Claire's scream.  That was friggin' spooky.  At first I thought it was another monster.  I really would like to see another monster come out of the jungle.  A raptor would be especially cool.  Snap!

Locke and The Kid Whose Name I Forget Right Now-- Asthma Girl's brother.  They had good scenes together, and for once, the kid didn't just seem like he was wandering/complaining aimlessly.  Speaking of repartee, I liked Sawyer and Sayid's scene; especially Sawyer's face when he found out Sayid was back.

I hope next time we do get to find out what's under the steel/grate.  I have a feeling it's a tunnel to Claire, although Locke and Jack were headed in opposite directions.  Who knows how long we'll have to wait to find out who 'they' are.

Posted by: athenawj at 19:47 | link | comments (2)
it s all drama

Arrested Development 12/5/04

Synopsis: The Bluth family finds out George Sr. is dead, has a wake in which Gob will perform a fantastic illusion act (to get on the cover of "Poof" magazine).  In the meantime, they all agree not to tell Buster his dad is dead.

Although much of this episode was funny (as always), the parts that cracked me up the most were the ones in which Charlie Brown's sad music was injected.  Best one: when George Michael walks home after being dumped by Ann/Egg, slumped, head down, past a red dog house with a beagle lying on top.

Buster's 'military uniform' runs a close second, as well as his dancing behind Gob during the intro to the illusion trick.  I'm two, so when he fell down behind the casket after Gob pushed him, I cracked up.

I'm wondering how Buster managed to get out of the Army.

Third: Lindsey's SLUT shirt at her father's wake.

Fourth: All the poof jokes, especially when Gob was thinking back to all the reasons why the gay guy in the office might think he was attracted to him.  That's the kind of thing where you're thinking, "Should I be laughing?", but still, you do.

Fifth: Gob using "The Final Countdown" as his stage music.  Gets me every time.

I swear, people better be watching this show.  Like Scrubs, it never fails to make me laugh, a LOT.  It's too good to be cancelled.  But hey, this is from the network that thinks The Littlest Groom is high drama.

Posted by: athenawj at 05:18 | link | comments (2)
the world is a comedy

The Apprentice "Sweet and Lowdown"

The task: create, make and sell M-Azing Bars.  The team that makes the bigger profit wins.  Losers go to the boardroom.

First off, I have to say, I think 'create' wasn't really the deal, as they (Mars) seemed to tell the contestants how the process worked, and what they were supposed to do.  But, whatever.

There are five contestants left: for team Mosaic, there's Kelly (ex-military man), Kevin (law student), and Ivana (screechy backstabbing beeyotch).  On Apex, there's Jen (lawyer) and Sandy (bridal shoppe owner).  Mosaic has been on a roll, winning the last two tasks, and methinks they're sittin' a little too comfy.  And in the last boardroom, Jen and Sandy screeched their way (at each other) into another week on the show.  However, they put aside that lapse into third-graderdom and return to the level-headed businesswomen they seem to be.  Although what the producers showed us in the M&M factory was more akin to Lucy and Ethel than skilled production, they managed to produce about thirty less bars than Team Mosaic.  And then it was off to the streets.

Team Mosaic chose to dress in matching M&M white t-shirts, shorts (and in Ivana's case, a short skirt), and sneakers.  Jen and Sandy, two good-looking women, decided to be the "M&M Twins", wearing heels, denim skirts, and strappy red shirts.  They also employed the gaily-decorated M-Azing van (something that, for whatever reason, Mosaic eschewed).  Now, I have to say that while I don't particularly care for the women on this show that use sex appeal to hawk their products, Jen and Sandy didn't look like hookers.  Their skirts were of an appropriate length, and their shirts really weren't much different than anything else worn during summer (which is when the show was filmed).  This, along with a personable, charming selling style, allowed them to sell their bars for $5 apiece to more than just slobbering men.  Mosaic went for $2 apiece, and when Kevin couldn't sell any of his, he dropped it to $1.  I wouldn't have bought from any of them, but that's because I'm cheap and don't like really crunchy candy bars.

Now, let's talk about Ivana for a second.  All season long, she has been the master of the backhanded compliment, the sliding compliment, and all-around champion of bitchiness.  The woman should have been fired in episode two, when she abysmally lost as Project Manager, but was saved by a certain arrogance of another team member.  Nearly every confessional interview has shown her putting down other contestants (in particular, Jen), and blaming everyone else but herself for problems.  Yes, she had one good idea in the Levi's task, and it was why they won.  But for the most part, she has been conniving, weaselly, and yes, just plain ugly.  Sometimes a 'bitch' on a show is someone you root for, or at least find funny.  Ivana has just been insufferable.

Back to the task.  She catches wind of Apex's cost of $5 apiece, and catches sight of what they're wearing.  After following them around, all the while sputtering that they look like hookers (and I mean she goes on and on and ON), she decides that the best way to beat them is to fight fire with fire.  And how does she go about doing that?  By dropping trou on Wall Street.  Yes, that's right.  She offers to drop her skirt if men will pay her $20.  Oh, and they also get a candy bar.

It was embarassing, squirmy and disgusting to watch this.  Most men passed her by, even though she trotted alongside most of them, pleading and begging.  She finally got one taker, and took off her skirt, twirling around in boy-cut underwear and a knotted t-shirt (NOT a bikini bottom, as she lied about in the boardroom, and why the hell would you wear a bikini bottom under your skirt if you weren't going swimming?  Don't tell me no one gets their laundry picked up in the suite).  She was so proud, so smug, so disillusioned.  And what were Kelly and Kevin doing during this?  According to the editing, standing there staring with dumbfounded looks on their faces.  Yeah, way to go.

In the boardroom, it was revealed that Apex won by over $1,000 in sales.  They sold every single one of their candy bars and won a trip to Chicago to speak to last season's winner, Bill Rancic.  Apex lost by $500-- guess Ivana's stripping didn't pay off as much as she wanted.  And... it's back to the boardroom!

It wasn't surprising to see that Ivana couldn't carry herself well here, as she's never even won as Project Manager.  She peppered her sentences off with the very disrespectful opener, "Look", until Carolyn (one of Trump's sidekicks/henchmen/Boy Wonders) told her to quit it.  She ran her hands through her hair.  She rolled her eyes.  She exhaled sarcastically.  She was every bit the pro she's shown us to be.  And when Carolyn asked her, "But you weren't really selling candy bars anymore, were you?", she was unable to answer.  Because she knew she'd been called out.  It had become about sex, and not about winning, but beating the competition (there is a logic and a difference in there, believe me). But that wasn't her proudest moment; that came when her true colors were revealed and she began to bitch about Jen, who'd been on the winning team.  In the past few episodes, Ivana's unhealthy obsession with the blonde lawyer has come out.  Maybe a girl like Jen stole Ivana's boyfriend in high school.  Still, to begin bitching about and putting down someone who isn't even in the boardroom, who trounced her in the task, isn't professional and seems whiny and petty.  In the end, Kelly had exemption (as the winning PM from last week), Kevin's lowering of the price didn't matter, and Ivana was a goner.  Trump did not want to hire a 'stripper'.  And the whole viewing audience shouts, "Hallelujah!"

I am not going to write a lengthy recap each week on this show.  But because Ami, the uber-control freak and two-faced snot was voted off Survivor, I was already on a high.  To see Ivana finally booted off a show she didn't belong on in the first place was more than icing on the cake, it was fondant, marzipan, and raspberry-flavored ganache.  I am fucking ecstatic.

What?  You can't strip on camera and then head one of Donald Trump's corporations?  Surely you jest!

 

Posted by: athenawj at 05:50 | link | comments (2)
reality check

Law & Order - 15.09 "Enemy" & "Lost"

Very quickly - blogging because I liked the episode. Liked how they came up with something a bit different, i.e. the "mob" but with an Albanian/Afghani twist. Also liked the bit o' conspiracy theory thrown in there about US government supporting warlords in Afghanistan, though I don't think it's far of a stretch at all that we do things there to further our own policies regardless of price. It's no secret the US has supported people who turn out to be dictators and killers. The whole military mindset on collateral damage, the greater good, death of people justified because it's a war on terrorism, blah blah...not saying it's the way all military people think but it has certainly been used by the more conservative segments of our population. Not unexpected.

Also liked the bit about the Geneva Convention, diplomatic immunity, and public authority argument. Learned some new stuff (though gave me temporary heart attack about one of my exams because I'm so unprepared for that class...). Even if they're not hitting high points with plot, they've been hitting things that I've been studying this semester. Great course supplement; only if we get credit for watching!

Last but not least, Serena actually moved her facial muscle (yes, in the singular) tonight! Maybe .01% better than usual. Think we can send her off to be Hydar's blonde consort as her farewell? ;)

ETA: How could I forget about "Lost"? Claire's story was more interesting than I had expected. Still confused on why the psychic told her what she must do. I'd like some explanation or at least what he saw. Ethan is creepy. Wasn't so shocked in the end as I had semi-spoiled myself by reading episode guides ahead, but I do wanna know why he wants to hurt her and her baby.

Posted by: merserene at 21:30 | link | comments (5)
it s all drama

L&O: SVU- 6.09 and others...

Quick synopsis: A rash of rapes over a single night lead the detectives to a schizophrenic who may hold the key to the rapist's identity.  An old friend of Benson's (Mary Stuart Masterson) plays a cop-turned-detective who helps them out on the case.

**

God, how this episode made me feel frustrated and pissy.  It was all right in the scheme of SVU eps, although there was no sense of urgency that is the hallmark of the best episodes.  MSM (Hendricks) was fine, nothing outstanding but merely acting.  I was a little distracted by her brown hair, as she's a blonde, but whatever.  At least we weren't subjected to the craptastic ending of last week (of which there was NO mention-- what the hell?), but it was nevertheless unsatisfying to me.  With the mood I was in, I would have been better served if Hendricks had walked into the courtroom, taken out an anvil and dropped it on Olivia's head, screaming, "Stop making it all about YOU!"

It's hard to concentrate on the story when you're wondering what the hell's going on with Olivia.  Jealous much?  Green tendrils of envy were oozing out of her pores.  Wow, talk about someone who does not like being wrong; called out on her obvious bias against the mentally ill. However, I was very surprised by her behavior in the hospital room after Amanda Plummer was on her meds.  She reminded me of the assy way the cops are played on ER; irregardless and uncaring of a patient's status.  Normally, Benson and Stabler are the epitome of caring, conscious cops.

She definitely overdosed on the Pissy Pills in this one.  The facial expressions, the comments (one about how she never knew Stabler was so supportive of the psychiatric profession), and especially the rebound line to Stabler.  Completely uncalled for.  And how ridiculous was the comment in the first place?  His wife of twenty years left him, and we're supposed to believe that he's on the rebound already?  Right.  To me, it's following the Destablerization lines; that Stabler can't just simply be right about a theory (which he was).  It was a shitty thing to say, but there will be no repercussions for Olivia, as there never are; she's never called out for her near-total non-supportiveness.

Yes, I'm mad.  I long for the shows when they work together, come up with solutions and clues together, don't piss each other off.

Well, then, some funny moments:

Warner's "Damn shame" comment at the gay guys' apartment.  Hee.  I've thought that about a few gay guys.  Not that I could have ever done anything about it!

"Hello.... I've lost my head."  Alright, that cracked me up.  Yes, everyone can be funny, including the mentally ill.

Nice to see more Fin and Munch and that they actually got to do something.  Cragen didn't order any of his detectives off the case.

Rating: 5/10.

***

Since Scrubs wasn't on last night, I watched the last half of The Amazing Race.  Sweden!  I want to go!  Seemed really interesting... and strenuous.  Damn, I guess you do need to get into shape when you're on the show.  I'll say, though, I think it's a dandy way to see the world on someone else's ticket... provided you stay in the game, that is.

I was confused by the promos for next week: do they continent/country hop between tasks?

 

 

 

Posted by: athenawj at 05:58 | link | comments (7)
it s all drama