Stupid reality show roundup

I saw a blurb for this in this week's TVGuide and I feel like I have to mention it:
Mission: Man Band is a new VH1 new reality show in which "Chris Kirkpatrick (N*SYNC); Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees); Rich Cronin (LFO) and Bryan Abrams (Color Me Badd) will live together for one month, create new music, a dynamic stage show and perform as a new pop group."

Does this strike anyone else as just SAD? I was always pretty strong anti-boy-band but back in their day they were pretty unavoidable. That said I'm pretty surprised by how many former boy band members have actually made careers for themselves, (albeit on Dancing With the Stars type things, so maybe this reality show thing isn't such a bad idea) but this just seems a bit desperate to me. But of course it'll probably be reality comedy gold...

Also, apparently Laguna Beach is done and over and is beign reincarnated as Newport Harbor: the Real Orange County. I find it really amusing that now that the OC is over they're taking over the real Newport Beach.

And of course, season 3 of the Hills is coming. Don't ask me why I'm totally addicted to this show, although the continuing presence of Spencer is making it somewhat less enjoyable...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8!

Buffy aired its last episode back in May 2003, which is way before I even started this blog, so even though I still reference it relatively often, I've never really blogged much about it. And up until early this year, there wasn't really a reason to. But then the Buffy Season 8 comics started to come out!

The series is split into mini-arcs, and the first 4-issue arc was written by Joss Whedon himself. And I have to say that it's really been a pleasure. I hadn't realized how much I missed the show and its unique blend of humor and action and angst and gore until I picked up that first issue. The TV series ended at the right time, I think, some might say it even went too long, but that didn't mean the story was over. There's still plenty more to tell and a comic book is a really great medium. Each issue is pretty short...I imagine it would amount to maybe half an episode, or maybe even less. But all the characters and dialogue are there, just as I remember them.

There are now a massive amount of Slayers in the world now, all having been activated during the proper TV finale, and Buffy is a de-facto leader of sorts, having rounded up nearly 500 of them and splitting them into squads around the world. Buffy and Dawn are stationed in Scotland, with Xander heading up a sort of Command Central connectd to the rest of the squads, including ones led by Giles and Andrew. Willow is as powerful as ever, and appears in the first arc to battle some old enemies. One thing that's great about comic books is that you don't to negotiate actors to have characters return so really anyone is game. Issue #5 is a standalone, but the season's second arc will feature Faith. And many of the show's old writers as well as writers from the comic book world are slated for their own arcs. Each issue has really gorgeous cover art, and the artwork inside renders the characters quite well too.

I have to admit that I've never been a big comic book reader. I've read a few here and there that I liked but I never got that into any one series. I find the sheer volume of comic books to be a bit overwhelming actually. And without really any friends who are into them I never properly got into it. I've also never read any of the previous Buffy comics. But maybe this is like my gateway drug? I now stop by my local comic book store every month for the new issues, so I could check out some other things too...

And on a related note, Joss Whedon has also recently announced that he'll be doing something similar for Angel, set after its own series finale. I wasn't really as big a fan of Angel, and bizarrely I haven't even watched all the episodes yet although I have the whole series on DVD (I've watched all of the first and last seasons, but I'm missing pretty big chunks in between). Some new Firefly comics may also be on the way, and there have been rumblings of a possible Ripper TV movie featuring Giles. Check out all the scoop from Comic-Con here. I have been a bit disappointed that Joss Whedon hasn't had any new TV shows since Firefly got cancelled so it's good to see that he's really been keeping himself busy with lots of other things.

Go watch Damages

Wow, what is up with all the great summer shows this year? This week I watched the premiere of Damages on FX, and I'm totally hooked. Originally I thought that this was just going to be another legal drama, but it's actually a kind of mystery/thriller that's really exciting.

The big story attached with this series of course, was Glenn Close. I've never watched the Shield so I haven't really been familiar with her recent work (in fact I don't think I've watched her in anything since those Sarah Plain and Tall TV movies from the 90s) but she really is awesome in this role. She plays Patty Hewes, a high powered, somewhat morally ambiguous lawyer trying a class-action suit against a billionaire named Frobisher. She hires a recent law school graduate, Ellen, to be her new protege, but obviously something else is going on there...the beginning of the episode reveals that 6 months later a bloodied and half-dressed Ellen is running through the streets. The show employs a flashback method of storytelling, with scenes from the "present" interspersed between scenes telling the story from the beginning. Normally I'd be a little nervous about this kind of series, because I've gotten burned by similar things in the past (i.e. Reunion and the Nine) but it's more of a mini-series (well, a long mini-series...13 episodes) and it's on cable so I don't think we really have to worry about that.

With this, Mad Men, Kyle XY, Greek, the 4400, and my reality shows, there really isn't a lack of TV to watch this summer at all. I haven't even gotten a chance to catch up on Doctor Who like I've been intending...

So You Think You Can Dance: in which Jennifer is now tired of Wade Robson

I can kind of understand why they wanted to have all the dancers perform the same solo. We're no longer considering them as couples, and this makes it easier to compare them. The only problem is how BORING it was to watch the same piece 10 times in 90 minutes. And man did I really dislike that choreography. Starting with the fact that I can't stand that song (or John Mayer in general), all the acting out of the words was just stupidly cheesy and while I'm not exactly an Iraq war supporter the blatant anti-war message made me a little uncomfortable. After the first couple of dancers I just couldn't watch it anymore. Are they going to be doing this every week? UGH.

Moving onto the newly reshuffled couples...

Lauren and Pasha - I actually thought this was quite enjoyable, which surprised me because last week I wanted Lauren to go home. And my Pasha love still continues.

Sabra and Kameron - I really liked this too, but probably more because of Sabra. Sorry, Kam, but you're still the weakest guy here by far.

Lacey and Danny - I have to admit this was pretty hot, but I feel like I've been watching Lacey be sexy for weeks now and I'd like to see something else.

Jaimie and Dominic - I was kind of annoyed by Nigel's harsh comments because I think this was really a choreography problem. It was supposed to be a waltz but the costumes and everything just said something else. Dominic really does need to stop all his mugging for the camera though.

Sara and Neil - I thought this was really a lot of fun. I love Sara, I think she's up there with Sabra in terms of my favorites overall.

So admittedly I didn't watch all the solos, but based on the partner dances, I'd say that Kameron and Jaimie are going home?

Harry Potter and the End of an Era

As a huge fan of childrens' books, I have to say that it's been really a pleasure to be part of the Harry Potter phenomenon. I can't imagine that the books won't go down in history as a children's classic, and it's just been really exciting to be alive while it all unfolded. I came into the books a bit late--the first three books had already been out before the US buzz really started going and my mom, hearing about it from her friends with younger kids, borrowed them for me to read. I was in high school by then, but I devoured those three in just a couple of days, and not surprisingly, I was completely hooked. And you can guess how the rest goes.

I decided to forgo the midnight parties for the Deathly Hallows because I knew that if I got the book then I wouldn't be able to restrain myself and then I would have had to stay up all night reading it. So I drove over to my local Barnes & Noble at 9AM the next day, waited online for about 15 minutes, got the book, drove home (pretty much trembling with excitement), and proceeded to read the book straight through, and I was done by about mid-afternoon.

And wow. Wow!

Click here to continue reading WITH SPOILERS...SPOILERS BELOW, STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

Unlike a lot of obsessed Harry Potter fans out there, I hadn't done a lot of speculating about this book. I mean, of course I'd thought about who was going to die and whether Snape was really evil or not, etc., but I hadn't analyzed all of J.K. Rowling's quotes and interviews and I really hadn't thought at all about what everyone was actually going to be doing during the book. So in a way, everything was surprising to me. I was surprised by how early and how frequent the Death Eater attacks were. I was surprised by how early the deaths starting happening. I was surprised that Harry, Ron, and Hermione really were alone and their own for a large chunk of the book. And I was surprised by how much Dumbledore there was.

After the last book came out, there was plenty of speculation about whether Dumbledore was really dead or not. I always thought that he was, and I think Rowling confirmed it at one point, so it was really nice to see what a huge part he played, fittingly, in this final book. I loved that she delved more into his life, because like Harry, I think we readers really sort of took Dumbledore for granted. We sort of assumed he'd always been the Dumbledore we knew and that he always would be. I really felt for Harry when he was feeling guilty about always focusing on himself and consequently knew very little about Dumbledore's early life. And I definitely liked that Dumbledore had a darker phase of his youth. It really humanized him and pulled him back from being this kind of perfect Gandalf-like figure.

And the other character whose past we learned more about, of course, was Snape. I'd kind of always knew that he was going turn out to be good also, but I was really unsure of how Rowling was going to explain all of his behaviors and actions, especially those in Half-Blood Prince. But somehow she made it work. The whole Lily thing was really a bit cheesy but it did make sense, and it really helped create a lot of sympathy for Snape. He's really the tragic figure of the series...he spent the better part of twenty years trying to make up for his mistakes knowing that he'd never even be happy as the love of his life was already dead. And he finally ends up sacrificing his own life. As much as I liked the way the series ended for our main trio, Snape really makes things a bit bittersweet. He'd pretty much never had a good life in any respect, but I am glad that he got his redemption in the end.

I don't really know what to say about the Horcruxes and the Hallows. I did like that each of the Horcruxes were destroyed by a different person--especially liked that Neville got to finish off the snake. I thought it was really wonderful that Harry, in a sort of last minute, spur of the moment thing, decided to ask Neville to do that for him. And obviously I did like that the Hallows kept Harry from dying. But part of me feels like it was all introduced a bit too late. We didn't even find out what they were until halfway through the book and even after a second reading, I still don't think I really understand them. Everything did tie together in the end though, I guess. I also have mixed feeling about the King's Cross chapter. Oddly enough, it sort of reminded me of something out of Charmed (I mean, I guess that was about magic and witches too?), somehow it just didn't fit into the Harry Potter world for me.

There's probably a ton of other things I could talk about as well, but I want to get to the two main complaints I have about the book. Don't get me wrong, as a whole I truly loved it and was really satisfied but you know how it goes...after you have some time to think, a few things jump out. Here are mine:

Lupin and Tonks--I was really upset about their deaths. It happened "offscreen" and was barely given any attention at all. I almost feel like it was thrown in there just to up the body count of people we, and Harry, care about. Because I don't see what other purpose it could have had. I mean, I guess that with them just having had a child sort of mirrors Harry's own experience of being orphaned as a baby and it sort of gives Harry the chance to be the godfather to Ted that Sirius wasn't able to be for him. But I think what saddens me the most, outside of the fact that I really loved these two characters, is that Lupin had really just started to be happy after years of pretty miserable times. And now Harry is really left with very few connections to his parents, with Sirius and Lupin and even Snape all dead...I know that Harry's created his own family now but that's still pretty sad too.

And then of course, there's the epilogue. Now, J.K. Rowling has never really been known to be a great writer. Harry Potter is very much about the world and characters and stories she's created and not so much about great prose, and I'm totally ok with that fact. But that said, I thought the writing in the epilogue was just terrible. I think I read somewhere that Rowling wrote the final chapter years ago, so maybe that's it? As the books have progressed and the characters aged, I feel like Rowling's writing has improved and matured as well, but this epilogue kind of just read like bad fan fiction. I did like the idea of the epilogue, with the next generation going off to Hogwarts, full circle blah blah, but I feel like she could have said so much more in these pages. I'll bet that lots of people out there are angry that nothing was said about what happened to Luna or the other Weasleys, etc., but even that I can kind of understand. She couldn't exactly do a rundown of every single character and what happened to them, unless she did an exhaustive LOTR-like epilogue, which really would have been too much for a series like this. But I really did want a little bit more about our core three, at least a little summary of what happened in the intervening years and what their careers ended up being. I mean, did they go back to Hogwarts for their N.E.W.T.s? I can kind of imagine Ron at the Ministry and Hermione I always thought would do something brilliant but sort of "alternative" but I really never knew about Harry. Don't get me wrong, it makes me really happy to know that the two couples got married and had children and are truly all family now, but overall I found the epilogue lacking. I felt the end of the book was actually kind of rushed...there were really only a few pages after Voldemort died so I guess I just wanted a bit more closure than the epilogue offered.

Finally, some little things I wanted to mention:

- James' animagus form was a stag and Lily's Patronus was a doe. Cute! You know, when I read the books I generally don't picture the actors from the movies at all, but the one thing in my head that's permanently messed up from the movies is Harry's parents. They picked actors that would look like Harry's parents if they were alive during the time of the books, not how old they were when they actually died...which was young. They were only 21 years old...younger than I am now.
- Ron and Hermione's first kiss. Perfect timing, perfect context.
- Luna's ceiling painted with pictures of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville. (I realize this would be creepy if it was anyone but Luna.)
- Speaking of Luna, was there some random romance brewing with her and Dean during all the time they were stuck together?
- My favorite quote: "Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?" Oh, Viktor Krum.
- Runner-up: "Not my daughter, you bitch!" You go, Mrs. Weasley!
- "Here lies Dobby, a free elf." Sniff.
- I know the battle was all serious and everything but there were so many funny details: Trelawney throwing crystal balls at people, McGonagall and her army of transfigured desks, Kreacher and the house elves attacking ankles and shins...

Edited to add:
You know, it's funny, I was almost going to post this review without even really talking about Harry himself much at all. And I think that's a testament to how much of a regular guy he is. Despite all the extraordinary things he's done, he's still probably the most the straightforward hero we've seen in a long time. He's not particularly unlikely, like Frodo was, but most of the time he's not even the most intelligent or gifted or funny or charismatic kid in the room either. What he has is a good heart, a strong will, loyal friends, and a good dose of Gryffindor courage. And I think we all like that. He's matured over the years and we leave him battle-weary but in so many ways he's still the normal little boy that we met in the first book. Good job, Harry. We knew you could do it.

Mad Men mini-review

You know, it seems that as of late, American TV hasn't really had a lot of shows set in past time periods. Off the top of my head I can really only think of a few from the past decade or so: Dr. Quinn (1860s), American Dreams (1960s), That 70s Show (1970s, obviously), Freaks and Geeks (1980s)...what else am I missing? I really like historical dramas (as evidenced by my obsession with the BBC) so when I heard that AMC was doing an original series set in the early 60s, I was pretty excited. And now that I've seen the first episode, I'm even more excited. Summer TV generally has a reputation for being kind of "light" and not necessarily high quality, but this show isn't just good for a summer show, it's just plain good.

Set in an advertising agency in New York City, I think the most fascinating aspect of the show is just how different things were back then, which really even wasn't that long ago. This is a time when everyone smoked and drank, even at work; women were working but part of their duties were to be eye candy for the men; extramarital affairs were almost acceptable. Who knows if that fascination is going to wear off, but thankfully the characters and storylines set up in the first episode look like they're enough to keep the story going. The main character is Don Draper, the creative director, and he's joined by other partners and secretaries in the agency. There aren't any really recognizable faces here, but John Slattery is Roger Sterling, a founder of the firm, and Vincent Kartheiser plays Paul, a junior executive, and is really just as young-looking and creepy as he was playing Connor on Angel.

Am eagerly awaiting upcoming episodes!

my top 5 favorite series (books) ever

I shouldn't be surprised given my penchant for children's books, but every book on this list is like Reading Level 5 and below. Haha.

5. Sweet Valley High, created by Francine Pascal -- This series played too big of a role in my childhood reading for me to ignore it. Definitely would not go as far as saying it was quality reading by no means, but c'mon Jessica and Elizabeth were and still are my two favorite twins (Sorry Fred & George, they came first!).
4. Satin Slippers, Elizabeth Barnard - Probably the little girl in me who always wanted to do ballet or dance...
3. The Mediator, Meg Cabot - Basically Buffy with ghosts instead of vampires. What's not to love?
2. Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling - 7 of the most imaginative books to ever exist. The characters, the world created, how could this not be on my list?
1. Emily of New Moon, L.M. Montgomery - Three of my all-time favorite books. Most people tend to love Anne (see below), but I've always preferred Emily. I mean I suppose she was a little more stuck up, and a lot more quiet, but I simply loved her more.

Honorable Mentions:
- Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card - Mostly the first book was just so awesome. The remaining books were perhaps too smart and philosophical for me, though there were still a few bright points -- such as Ender's Shadow.
- Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery - A serious classic. But not on my top 5 just because as a kid there were quite a few books that I just remembered snoring through. Perhaps if I were to reread them now, they WOULD be top 5. But the spunk of Anne, the intensity of Gilbert Blythe's attentions towards her... ::sigh::

deathly hallows!

I haven't read it yet (well because I'm still in the process of rereading the books leading up to it, so I'm fully caught up), but I skimmed the end, even though I know I shouldn't have. But I just couldn't help it!

In any case, all I gotta say is... IT'S GOOD.

And I'm satisfied.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling!

So You Think You Can Dance - And We Have Our Top 10

I'm sort of planning to go see the tour this year so determining the Top 10 was of special interest to me. My ideal situation would have been to get rid of Kameron and Lauren because I thought they were the least interesting but things didn't really work out that way...

I wasn't too surprised by the bottom 3. Lacey's obviously got a huge fanbase and Kam was really just damn lucky to get paired with her. I still have no idea what he's really like as a dancer so I'm glad the partners are getting switched up next week. Dominic and Sabra have been the most consistently entertaining, and I think people love both Pasha and Sara. So that left Anya and Danny, Lauren and Neil, and Jaimie and Hok in the bottom 3.

With those choices...I have to say that Hok was really the only choice. I would have much preferred to see him on the tour because he's really a crowd pleaser, but he's had it rough these past couple of weeks. I know some people would argue that Neil hasn't been that successful either but the truth is that he's been the stronger of his partnership while Hok's been the one struggling. Yeah, it's all pretty sucky.

As for the girls...I wanted Lauren to go home. I mean, it's probably true that since this is ultimately a solo competition that Anya probably wouldn't have made it that far, but I don't see how Lauren's proved that she could either. I don't know. Again, maybe we'll see something different from her with another partner?

I don't know, these elimination schemes are always so frustrating. It's hard to predict how America will react, and then the judges seem to flip back and forth between considering only the "dance for your life" solos and the dancers' history of performances.

Anyway, that's that. We've really had a minimum of partner changes so far so it'll be really interesting to see how everyone does when it all gets mixed. Definitely looking forward to next week.

Edited to add: According to Mary Murphy, Anya and Hok will probably be "alternates" on the tour and will likely make appearances. So there's hope if you really want to see Hok in that crazy hummingbird-flower routine!

Top Chef Does Craft Services

A lot of times, I think what makes this show for me is the guest judges. Someone like Anthony Bourdain (yeah, I know, I really need to stop mentioning him) or Alfred Portale really brings the show to another level. But then sometimes you get these sort of random people, like last week's "mixologist" and this week's Maria Frumkin. I know she must be an excellent chef and obviously they wanted someone who knew Latin food to judge Latin food but I found her to be not so interesting.

The Quickfire was a bit odd this week because they had 90 minutes for it, which is the same amount of time they got for the Elimination challenge. I mean, I can understand why, because pie crust generally points to baking, which needs time. But some of the chefs decided that all this extra time meant that they should make 2 or 3 or even 4 dishes. Very very strange. I have to say that everyone's dishes looked pretty good. Although I have to say, I like making my own pie crust!

The Elimination was definitely tricky. This challenge reminded me of the one from last season where they had to do Vietnamese and Korean food. Doing a specific cuisine can be rough if you don't have the knowledge and experience and that's really where Lia fell down, which is a shame because she was really starting to show her talent last week. With Lia's elimination I have to wonder whether Top Chef will ever have a female winner. There are only a few women left in the competition: Sara M., Sara N., and Casey, and based on their past performance I really doubt any of them are going to make it to the finale unless they really step up their game.

I'm actually really pleasantly surprised and happy to see Howie win his second elimination challenge. He really had a rough start to the competition and he definitely could have been gone weeks ago but it's nice to see that he's really rose to the challenge. Also funny is seeing how buddy-buddy he is with Joey now. It's not often that conflict leads to actual friendship on a reality show like this. Glad to see both of them doing well in fact.

And then there's Hung, the biggest egomaniac this show has ever seen. The other cheftestants seem to be doing a good job at steering clear of him though (literally in this episode as he goes waving knives around the kitchen) so maybe he'll take the hint that his attitude is getting him nowhere.