Two Ladies & Their TVs

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

 

Fear Factor: Psycho House and beyond

Well, it's over: the three-week arc of contestants on Fear Factor's Psycho House edition.  It was all right.   I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the contestants getting hundreds of cockroaches dumped on them.  I can't say I'd be any better, but wow, what screaming meemies.

I couldn't stand the young, dumb couple.  I try to be nice.  I really do (but I'm usually less than successful when it comes to reality shows).  But that girl was just so dumb it got aggravating.  That, coupled with her growing sense of entitlement, made me crow when they lost the next-to-last stunt.

I'm happy the Southern couple won.  Yay for you, 'Bama.

Oh, the best thing were the spiders they had to eat on this ep.  I've never seen things like them.  Iraqi Camel Spiders, with the biggest mandibles of all spiders.  Soldiers tell stories of these spiders crawling into sleeping bags and eating people from the toes up.  Um, bogus, methinks.  Maybe they'd get a good chomp or two, but with mandibles that big, you'd certainly feel it after one or two bites!

***

Next week is the hair-cutting stunt.  I wouldn't do it.  Nope.  My hair is.... my hair.  I suffer from low self-esteem; my hair's one of the few things I feel good about.  Take it away and I'm the mopiest gal on the planet.  It'd take a helluva lot more money than fifty grand for me to let ANYONE shave my head.

Posted by: athenawj at 14:44 | link | comments (8)
reality check

Golden Globes 2006

I missed the first 45 minutes of this; hence, I missed Steve Carell's speech, which by all accounts, was one of the highlights of the show.  Fortunately, NBC now has it up on their home page.  Friggin' hilarious.  For those who missed it, here it is, verbatim:

"Wow, I, uh, I really did not expect this so I didn't write anything. However, my wife did and handed me something. Um, I'd like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for this great honor. I would also like to thank my wife, Nancy, for her constant support and for being so beautiful tonight. That's true. Thanks also to Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant for creating such a wonderful, ground breaking piece of television and to Greg Daniels for his talent, courage, and sheer audacity. This is good, thank you. Uh, also to my wife, for giving me two wonderful children as painful as her labor might have been. Thanks also to an excellent cast, crew, and writing staff all of whom I am indebted to. If were not for you, I would not be here right now. (muttering) I don't know about that. Steve Sower, Michelle Bowen, Matt Labog, Holly Berell...Nancy, my precious wife, who put her career on hold in support of mine and who sometimes wishes that I would let her know when I am going to be home late so she can schedule her life which is no less important than mine. To my parents for not making me go to law school. And finally to the love of my life, my wife Nancy. Thank you very much. This is a very great honor."

OD and I absolutely cackled with delight when, after all of Chris Rock's spiel about what Mary Louise Parker was up against, the only non-Desperate Housewife in the Best Actress in a Comedy category, she won!   Yeah, the show may be good (I guess; I don't watch), but there's definite overkill in the media about the show.

This year, I didn't mind who won most of the time; very weird from previous years, when I usually get pissed.  I'd still love to finally see Johnny Depp win, but I didn't expect him to for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  From everything I've heard, Phillip Seymour Hoffman deserves his award, it was sweet watching Ang Lee's acceptance speech, and OD was totally happy that Hugh Laurie won (and Geena Davis remarked that "Mr. and Mrs. Little won", hee!).  I'm sure my mom was, too-- she has a tiny crush on Dr. House.  Golden Globes for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were LONG overdue.

My biggest thrill was seeing S. Epatha Merkerson win.  Her speech was touching and funny.  To be 53 years old and finally get a lead role, then to win multiple awards for it, must be a thrill beyond thrills (thrills much in that sentence?).

Dennis Quaid's remark while introducing the clip to Brokeback Mountain of how it was a film that rhymed with "chick flick" made my jaw drop.  NOT funny.  Ugh.  How unclassy.

Miscellaneous Notes: John Travolta, Pierce's last name is "Brosnan", not "Bronson"; Nicolette Sheridan continues to look like a drag queen; Harrison Ford's turned into a sad old man.  That's really sad.

Last: I thank God and kiss the ground that Gwyneth Paltrow and her next Baby Fruit didn't win. 

Onto the Oscars...

Posted by: athenawj at 05:22 | link | comments (3)
special occasions

Arrested Development news

Just in case the news hasn't spread, the season (series?) finale of AR will be aired on Friday, Februrary 10, 2006, from 8-10 pm EST/PST. 

TWO full hours of AR back to back!  But really, they could've made some effort to space out the episodes during the normal season.  That'd be asking too much.

Have we heard if other networks have picked up AR?

Posted by: merserene at 10:50 | link | comments (2)

SVU/L&O/Lost

This week, on my TV -

(SPOILERS ahead.  Proceed at your own risk.)

SVU: "Blast"

Interesting approach to let Tamara Tunie, who plays the M.E., Melanie Warner, to be one of the leads.  She's been made a regular this season and appears in the credits; it would seem appropriate to give her character a bit more depth.  She's paired up with Elliot this week while Olivia is practically out of the picture.  We learn that she's served in the Gulf War, knows how to handle a gun, and has a daughter who still needs to be picked up from school.  Aside from that, she is a doctor (not just your regular M.E.s) and very much cares about the people who are living.

Tunie turned in a very nice performance but this is one of those things that work because it happens so rarely - it wouldn't work if the writers repeatedly have her step into the cop role.

Squeamish moment: When Melanie had to jab the Bic pen barrel into the father's collapsed lung to save his life.

L&O: "Family Friend"

Ah yes, the mob again.  After 15 seasons, you'd think criminals would learn that associating with the mob gives you a one way ticket to jail or death?  The twist in this one is that the wife knew about the husband's involvement and had asked the family friend, who is a cop, to take the law upon his hands and kill the perp. 

I swear, for the longest time I thought the cop was a member of the mob because 1. I wasn't paying attention and 2. he looked like he belonged in the mob. 

Smart move moment: The wife asking for full immunity for her testifying against the family friend.

"Doh!" moment: When Jack finds out that it was the wife who was originally responsible for having the perp killed.

Conflicted moment: That the family friend would suddenly testify to "coming clean" about tainting evidence and framing people, just to blackmail the DA's office into letting him go free.  At the end of the episode, we hear from Alexandra that dozens of attorneys have filed new motions to reopen their clients' cases based on the dirty cop's false confession on the stand.  Should Jack have let the cop go in order not to re-prosecute 40+ criminals?  Is it justice for justice's sake at the expense of all else?  Tough question to think about.

Lost: "The 23rd Psalm"

Here we had the backstory of Mr. Eko, my favorite new/Tailie character.  Much mystery has built up around him and they were finally answered. 

We learned that he was a top warlord in Nigeria, who came to his fate not of his own choosing but due long-standing violence in his country: As a child, he sacrificed himself to save his brother and ends up getting involved with the rebels who kill innocent people and kidnap children.  His younger brother had a chance to become a priest and to lead a somewhat normal life.  Eko's last encounter with his brother involved twisting his brother's arm to "ordain" him as a priest so he can fly a plane smuggling heroin in Virgin Mary statutes out of Nigeria.  At the last minute, his brother pleads with him not to go on that plane.  The military shows up, kills his brother, while Eko's partner kicks Eko out of the plane and flies it away, with the brother's body inside.

The plane?  Apparently downed and ended up on the island, with the hundred of Virgin Mary statutes con heroin found by Locke and Boone.  The pilot of the plane?  Dead, after an unsuccessful attempt to parachute out of it.  Eko?  Never went on the plane and life saved.  And as the ending showed us, his soul was saved as well, as he finally answered Charlie's question of whether he was a priest or not by putting on his brother's cross and recited Psalm 23. 

Nice writing: Brotherly parallels between Eko/his brother, Charlie/his brother Liam, and Moses/his brother Aaron.  Biblical references abound.

"WTF?" moment: The black smoke, a.k.a. the Monster, that revealed itself to Eko.  Tons of theories are flying around on what that thing actually is.  The most plausible (to me), especially if the writers have claimed the explanation is "rational" (highlight to read): The monster is either made up of nanobots, or some sort of iron dust that operate in a weird fashion due to the strong magnetic fields of the island.

Tearjerker moments: When Eko cradled his dead brother's body, and when he set the plane on fire as a funeral pyre to his brother while reciting Psalm 23.

One of my favorite episodes and one of the top back stories, right up there with Sawyer's and Locke's. 

Posted by: merserene at 19:19 | link | comments (3)
it s all drama

Arrested Development: S.O.B.s

SOBs, indeed.  FOX, that is, though it stands for "Save Our Bluths."  Leave it to AR for some double entendre! 

It was funny, as usual; clever, too, in the episode's hidden agenda - how 'bout pimping itself to audiences and asking HBO and Showtime to pick up the show? (Though I thought ABC was also interested, but don't recall any references to that.)  Physical comedy-wise, not as funny ha ha as other episodes, but then again, I've just introduced the episode to my dad and had to explain certain things.  To my surprise, he liked it.

Oh wait, I remember now - Andy Richter and his quads (as well as a "stunt double") was on.  So was what's his name with the glasses.  George-Michael remains adorable in his efforts to be near Maeby.  Poor kid, though; finally confessed that he loves Maeby but Michael was totally oblivious!

I like that FOX has been airing old episodes of AR right afterwards, though Kitchen Confidential, which used to come after AR before it was cancelled, was pretty cute.

3 episodes left!

Posted by: merserene at 10:27 | link | comments (5)
the world is a comedy