Project Runway does menswear

I'm so glad they decided to do a menswear challenge this season. Despite the fact that nearly no one had experience with it and none of the resulting designs were anything that new or interesting, it just made for a really really entertaining episode. Ever since the makeover challenge from season 2 I've been kind of intrigued by the idea of doing menswear. I don't sew, but I can kind of imagine myself making a skirt or dress (hey, Jenny from Gossip Girl did it) but tailored pants or a collared shirt? Definitely not. But these are actual designers and it was kind of crazy to see how much trouble so many of them had. I mean, Chloe won that makeover challenge and it was her first time doing menswear. I guess it was more of a time management thing, as nearly everyone was trying to do three or more pieces.

But like, I totally can't get over Sweet P's shirt. How the heck did she get the proportions SO WRONG? And Carmen's pants really were, in the words of Michael Kors, insane. I'm not entirely sure how Jack won...his pants and shirt were well made and fit well, but I thought the stripes were kind of too much. I preferred Kit's design...even though it was a little boring too. I think Kit's jumped to the top of my premature favorites list. She's got a bit of that alternative/fashion-forward edge, but she has common sense too.

Some random bits:
-Steven totally reminds me of one of my professors from last semester. It's really weird.
-Line of the episode: "I love Asians. Asian are fierce." Usually these kinds of blanket statements come off as being kind of offensive but this just made me giggle.
-Speaking of which, Tiki Barber's wife seemed kind of out of place. Not that I would have anything interesting to say in that situation either, but I think her job is actually fashion-related?
-I don't know anything about sports either, but it kind of surprised me to learn that Tiki Barber is only 5'9". For some reason I'd been under the impression that football players were generally taller than that.

Dirty Sexy Money makes me eat my words

So of course just as I write that post about not having much to blog about...I now have stuff to blog about! Funny how these things happen...

Anyway, this stuff I'm speaking of? Dirty Sexy Money was awesome this week. I've definitely been enjoying the show so far, because all the characters are really amusing in their own way and it's amazing what kinds of hijinks all these rich people can get themselves into. But this week, somehow it just all came together. I'd been waiting for the reveal of which of the Darling kids is actually Dutch's and not Tripp's, and wow, was that a payoff! I know a lot of people had guessed that it was Brian, and you know, it really is perfect.

This was definitely Brian's episode. He's still a pretty ridiculous human being but I completely felt for him this week. His line about losing two fathers and one son all in one day was kind of heart-wrenching, and I was totally getting misty in the scene where he was saying goodbye to Brian Jr. (That little kid has been doing such an awesome job.) At least he gained a brother? The kind of one-sided Nick and Brian rivalry has always been a highlight of the show, and I imagine it's only going to get better. I also loved that little flashbacks showing Dutch...his absence is strangely a huge presence in the show and it was nice to finally see a little bit of who he was. I thought the flashback of that last time he and Nick talked was really excellent...you could totally see what he was trying to say.

And you know, I even liked Jeremy's little storyline. How funny was the look on Nick's face when he realized that Lisa had been helping out Jeremy on her own accord? It's totally believable that the Darlings have no problem calling on anyone and everyone who can help them out of their little self-imposed jams.

I am getting a little wary of Patrick's storyline though. Can politicians really hide these kinds of things?? I kind of liked Ellen agreeing to sharing Patrick with Carmelita because it was just crazy enough to make sense, but with Ellen shooting him in the leg with a hunting rifle and giving him an ultimatum and Patrick refusing to make that choice...it seems like we're kind of back to square one.

HILARIOUS

I do unashamedly watch and kind of love the Hills, but this is so awesome beyond words. James Franco (and a crazy wig) as Justin Bobby and Mila Kunis as Audrina. (If you haven't watched the show this season then you won't get it though...)

Blogging blues

One interesting consequence of the writers' strike is that there have been nearly no early cancellations and shows that in other years would have been axed by now are getting to play out their entire first runs. Shows that were initially panned by critics and viewers (including myself) have reportedly improved, and like Life, have even been given full season pickups. It kind of makes me a little sad about season past...maybe if shows like The Nine and Kitchen Confidential and Love Monkey had been given a chance to stay on the air a bit longer they could have made it.

Because well, I don't know, this season's shows have left me sort of...uninspired. I never intended this blog to be a place for weekly recaps or reviews...it was born mostly because I felt like I had so much I wanted to talk about and no one in real life to tell it to. But lately? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still watching and enjoying quite a lot of TV, but in terms of shows I want to dissect and discuss and vent about? Not so much. I think the trend this season has been more towards the light and fun, which there's nothing wrong with at all, but nothing has been like...compelling enough to really get me wanting to blog.

I guess you're asking, so what am I watching? Of the returning crop, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, and Brothers & Sisters continue to be fantastic, but somehow they've never been that blogworthy to me. (But maybe I should start?) The Office and Friday Night Lights have been kind of uneven, How I Met Your Mother still has moments of brilliance, but I'm getting seriously tired of waiting to meet the "mother," and Heroes got off to a pretty terrible start. It's gotten better but the fall finale is already next week. Of course there's the always reliable Amazing Race and Project Runway, but they're only just gotten started. Of the new shows, Gossip Girl, Chuck, and Dirty Sexy Money are favorites, but they're not exactly nail biters. Kid Nation is my guilty pleasure, and I'm actually kind of enjoying Samantha Who? and Life is Wild even though they're kind of silly.

And finally...this might be kind of an unpopular opinion, but I'm starting to get a little less sold on Pushing Daisies. It's definitely been this season's critical darling, and normally I'm all about these types of quirky shows, but my enthusiasm has kind of waned since it first premiered. It is really wonderfully different and unique, but sometimes...it's just a little too much, even when that's the point. I think the mystery-of-the-week stuff can be especially hard to swallow. I mean, it's strange, I totally loved all the wacky stuff on Bryan Fuller's other shows, Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, but here, amongst all the perky and sunny and cute...it's sometimes just an overload. I do love Emerson Cod and Digby and Charlotte's aunts (I can't call her Chuck...there are too many else where on TV right now) but the combination of it all doesn't always work for me.

So...am I crazy? Or am I like, growing out of my tendency to get obsessed with TV?

blog may seem abandoned, but we're still watching tv... ;)

... at least until the shows start running out of episodes.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'm kinda glad this writers' strike is going on because it means I have a chance to catch up on all my shows. I'm still a few episodes behind, but here's what I'm still watching...

Every week:
* Heroes
* Chuck
* How I Met Your Mother
* Samantha Who?
* House
* Gossip Girl
* Pushing Daisies
* Private Practice
* Project Runway
* Grey's Anatomy
* October Road

Sometimes:
* Shark
* Dirty Sexy Money
* Las Vegas
* The Unit
* Numb3rs
* Friday Night Lights

Playing catch-up

I know, I know, I've been a bit delinquent with the blogging lately. So here's some random stuff on the shows I've been watching:

Gossip Girl: My favorite new show of this season, hands down. And I'm not afraid to admit it. New York Magazine loves it too, and their weekly recaps are totally hilarious. I'm kind of disappointed in what they did with the Vanessa character though. I might be completely making this up but in the books I thought she was a bit more...dark and sullen and edgy. The TV Vanessa is positively sunny, and she's not different enough from Serena to really be a good alternative for Dan. And the way they've set up Dan and Serena to be the like "it" couple for the series...I'm kind of not sure what she's even doing there besides giving random sage advice to Jenny. Oh well.

Friday Night Lights: I'm so glad Coach Taylor's back in Dillon. I thought the first couple of episodes of the season were just kind of too depressing but they've returned to more of a balance. I'm kind of meh on the whole Landry storyline...both Jesse Plemmons and Glenn Morshower are acting the hell out of their roles but I liked Landry better when he was the comic relief. And I'm sort of meh on him being on the football team...the episode where he saved the game and everyone was chanting his name was a bit much for me. I am glad that Julie has gotten over her heinous rebellious stage and apologized to Matt. But I'm also glad that Matt hasn't given into her. That new cheerleader is so just a random rebound though. Loved Smash inviting Riggins over for dinner, though I kind of wished we got some wisdom from Mama Smash. I don't really know what they're doing with Jason though...he keeps diving into things that he thinks will give his life meaning: first quad rugby, then coaching, but I guess he's still looking for something else. I did kind of like him as a coach though...

Ugly Betty: Soo....as much as I like Henry, all the Betty and Henry angst is getting kind of boring, and I almost want him to just go away so that Betty can get over him. I mean, that whole Wicked episode was kind of just terrible. (I'm actually still waiting to see Wicked on Broadway but I really didn't need to watch all those clips of the show.) Otherwise though, the show is still pretty awesome. I LOVE Marc and Cliff! It's just so cute and sweet and I'm just eating it up. And Victoria Beckham was actually pretty funny in this past week's episode. Oh, and did anyone else flash back to Caleb Nichol when Bradford keeled over at the altar??

The Office: I know that Michael's antics are kind of like the basis for this show, but I have to say that it's almost always the other stuff that I enjoy more. Sometimes the stuff that he and Dwight do is just so preposterous and stupid that I don't find it terribly funny. That said, I really liked the little tag at the end of this past week's episode where Michael and Jim have that really normal conversation. It was really refreshing to see that Michael's not insane all the time, and it was still funny.

Heroes: Finally got somewhere last week. And interestingly, Tim Kring, the show's executive producer has gone on record admitting that the beginning of the season pretty much sucked. Let's hope things get better from here on out. Although with the writers' strike thing there's a possibility of no new episodes after December...

Chuck: This show has really been growing on me these past couple of weeks. I don't know why nobody, including me, can stop comparing it to Reaper, but while Reaper's been suffering from bad pacing and repetitive storylines, Chuck's been getting more enjoyable by the week. Each episode has Chuck and Sarah and Casey going on some mission or whatnot, but the variety so far has been pretty great. Even the B-stories at the Buy More have been entertaining. This past week's episode we got to flash back a bit to when Chuck was at Stanford and how he got kicked out, which I really loved. I remember in the pilot I was having trouble buying Chuck as this socially inept person but now I totally see how he was really a pretty happy average guy at Stanford and it was him getting kicked out that just messed him up. I mean, I know that we've been told this all along but now I finally believe it.

The Amazing Race: It's back! I can't believe how long it took for me to get hooked onto this show...NINE seasons aired before I starting tuning in. This season has some interesting pairs, including those requisite bickering dating couples that you wonder how they ever decided that going on the race would be a good idea, and a pair of Goths who I wonder how long are going to keep up with their makeup. Fun times.

And finally, Project Runway Season 4 premieres this week! Am excited beyond words.

A few odds and ends

• You've likely heard this elsewhere, but Joss Whedon reportedly has a new deal with Fox for a show starring Eliza Dushku, called Dollhouse. Incredible, right? Kristin from E!Online did a short interview with him about more of the details. I'm not sure I really get what it's about yet, but I'm definitely excited.
  
• TV and movie writers are going on strike starting Monday. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about how this going to affect production, but it definitely doesn't sound good.
  
• I got the new My So-Called Life DVD set over the weekend, and it's wonderful! The packaging is really beautiful, with a great booklet with little essays written by Winnie Holzman and some others (including Joss Whedon, who's everywhere lately) and tons and tons of extra features and commentaries. I love that the series obviously had such an impact on everyone involved that they were willing to come back 10 years later to reminisce and make this box set happen. I had rewatched the entire series two years ago but I'm so glad I now have my own copy.
  
• I also got the Veronica Mars season 3 set this weekend, and there are a few good extras, including the Season 4 presentation that I blogged about earlier, and a series of interviews/commentaries with Rob Thomas and Dan Ethridge that are pretty interesting. Rob's always talking about the fan's reactions to things and it's kind of nice to know that a showrunner takes those things into consideration. But it's an interesting contrast to what Winnie Holzman said in the MSCL extras about how part of the magic of the series was they really made the entire series kind of in a bubble with no outside inputs or pressures which gave them the freedom to do things exactly as they wanted...
  
• I watched a couple of random episodes from VM season 3, and I was surprised to see that Sam, the male beauty from Beauty and the Geek, was a guest star in the third episode of the season! He's actually an actor that's been in quite a lot of things. Is it just me or has Beauty and the Geek really not mentioned that at all? I believe they're tagged him as a "party promoter." Hmm.
  

Catching up with the Walkers

With all the hoopla over the new fall shows I've been neglecting to cover some of my returning favorites, so let's check in with Brothers & Sisters:

Nora: She spent the first couple of episodes just worrying and fretting over Justin, which is totally understandable but was starting to get a little one-note. I think I like her best when she has a mix of comedy and drama to work with...she was hilarious during the little girls' trip to Ojai and then this week with the pantry and Kitty possibly being pregnant, but then on the other hand I really loved how she went over to Sarah's to be there for her when Joe came to pick up the kids. Her quiet strength was really visible there. I hope she gets a storyline separate from her kids soon though.

Sarah: You know, part of me kind of wanted Joe and Sarah to work it out. I know they'd be having trouble since pretty much the beginning of the series, but I don't think they ever really hated each other or couldn't get along so it seemed like it was a possibility. And I guess as the audience, we're really only seeing it from Sarah's side, because that's how she felt as well. And now with Joe filing for sole custody of Paige and Cooper? I kind of feel like we never knew Joe at all. Because that was pretty shitty of him to be planning it and collecting references a MONTH before he let her know of his intentions. I get that divorce can be ugly but that really shocked me. And I don't know, letting a mother see her children only every other weekend when there's nothing obviously wrong about her except the fact that she has a career? Not sure how that's stability. I mean, does Joe even have a job?

Kitty: She seems to be the only one on the show right now with a generally happy relationship and storyline, and I'm kind of glad for it. Yeah, there's little frustrations and spats, but it's generally been pretty upbeat, which the show definitely needs to balance out all the melodrama. Kitty getting pregnant is definitely interesting...it must be so bizarre having to deal with all these kinds of things looking at how the public and media is going to react. I kind of have to admit though, I don't see how Robert could possibly win this election if the writers want to keep the show going. I wonder how far he's going to go.

Tommy: Sigh. I think this is the storyline I'm most kind of unhappy with. Is it Balthazar Getty's limitations as an actor, maybe? I know Tommy's supposed to be sort of a strong, silent type (or at least that's what I got from last season when he didn't really have anything interesting to do) but I'm just not buying this Lena thing. There wasn't any buildup at all, it just kind of dropped out of nowhere, and Tommy just doesn't seem guilty enough over it. It's not an unrealistic situation or anything, but I just don't get it. That said, I hope that Tommy and Julia do work things out...

Kevin: I'm really glad that he's doing the long-distance thing with Jason. It's about time he commits to a relationship, and with Eric Winter no longer being tied up with Viva Laughlin, I have a feeling that Jason will be back from Malaysia sooner rather than later. Scotty's been back as well, which is interesting. I really like them as a couple last season, but I'm kind of glad that they're just friends now. I hope they don't go down a different road with that though.

Justin: I wasn't too thrilled with them rehashing the addiction storyline again with Justin, but I'm withholding judgment for now. I hear a big intervention is coming up? Oh, and Dave Annable is definitely just as hot as ever!

Rebecca: So Rebecca's been living with Nora all summer. Does she...have a job? Go to school? I've always been a little confused with her character in general...last season she was always referring to more troubled past and did show some shades of being manipulating but Emily Van Camp is just so likable and earnest. And she hasn't done much this season except help take care of Justin and get her friend Lena a job. The show does a remarkably good job at balancing the numerous members of this family but sometimes Rebecca's presence just kind of confuses me.