Oh, what's occuring?

A rundown of my TV and pop-culture consuming as of late.

!. The title of this post is a reference to the really great British romantic comedy sitcom, Gavin and Stacey, now airing on BBC America. I feel kind of bad that I haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now, but it's not my blogs have some great influence over the TV viewers of the world anyway. I really do love this show though! It's the story of a young couple (yes, named Gavin and Stacey) as they meet, fall in love, get engaged and get married. The best part of the show is really the supporting players, though, including Nessa, Stacey's best friend, whose catchphrase is "what's occurring?" There's also Smithy, Gavin's best friend, Gavin's parents, and Stacey's mom and uncle, all of whom are hilarious in their own way. There have been two seasons and the second is airing right now. Not sure if there'll be a third, though I believe a Christmas special will be airing in the UK soon!

2. The word is that ABC has canceled Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money. It's not entirely surprising...Pushing Daisies was a little too quirky for me so it was definitely too much for network TV, and Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money never really caught steam. I am glad that the writers' strike enabled all of them to get another half-season, but I'm definitely disappointed that they probably won't get to wrap up much storyline. It's pretty terrible that three generally critically acclaimed shows like these get axed while things like Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, and 90210 are going to keep going...

3. Speaking of 90210, I'm still watching it despite how really terrible it is. The writing is just so...BAD. The storylines have all been predictable, dialogue is horrendous, and the acting isn't much better. Annie is not interesting or likable enough to be the lead, and the original flavor characters like Kelly and Brenda aren't being given anything good to do either. And yet I keep watching...

4. There is a good show on the CW on Tuesday nights though: Privileged. I'm not sure how it's doing in the ratings, but I think additional scripts were ordered so hopefully it'll stick around for a little while. The show centers around Megan, a recent Yale graduate who returns home to South Florida to become the live-in tutor to twins Rose and Sage, who are the granddaughters of Laurel, a wealthy cosmetic mogul. Megan is played wonderfully by Joanna Garcia...she's smart and optimistic and a little dorky, but she's not perfect. She has strained relationships with her father and sister, and is sometimes too wrapped up in her own life to realize what's going on with her friends. I do love the twins too -- Rose is played by Lucy Hale, who I found annoying in Bionic Woman and the second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but I find really sweet here, and Sage, who's the taller, bitchier twin has really been growing on me. Michael Cassidy finally gets to play the good guy as Megan's best friend from childhood, Charlie, and there's Marco, the house chef, who's hilarious as the gay BFF type.

5. I've fallen behind with Terminator, Heroes, and Fringe, for different reasons. I do like Terminator, but it's sometimes just a little too like angsty and serious and I'm not that interested in whatever Ellison and Catherine Weaver are doing. Heroes just sucks and I doubt I'll ever get back into it, but I haven't quite cut the cord yet. And Fringe...the gore every week has turned me off a bit and the "Pattern" thing worries me because it seems to have the potential to spiral off into some Rambaldi type thing. (Yes, I will always begrudge J.J. Abrams for screwing up Alias.)

6. My favorite shows this season so far: Gossip Girl, Top Chef, 30 Rock, and the Amazing Race.

7. Shows I'm looking forward to in 2009: Battlestar Galactica (final season), Scrubs, Kyle XY, and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (though it's been doomed to a Friday night timeslot). Oh, and 24, too, I guess, though I didn't finish watching the last season and I'm a little miffed over the idea of Tony returning from the dead to be a bad guy. Can't they leave well enough alone?

8. I feel like I should comment on all the hoopla surrounding the Twilight movie. I originally wanted to see it but after reading some reviews and some audience reactions I think I'm going to pass and wait to see it on DVD. It's weird, I totally admit to have been sucked in by the books, but I really have a lot of problems with the series and I find it kind of bizarre that so many people are so ga-ga over it. (See my original reviews of Twilight/New Moon and Breaking Dawn. Also this article on Salon says a lot of what I was trying to.) But I'm sure it's going to make a killing at the box office anyway.

I heart Eli Stone!

I know it's been quite awhile since I last blogged. Life's been busy and I've barely had enough time to watch my shows, never mind write about them. But I had to write about Eli Stone because I've just been really, really loving it. Yesterday's season finale almost felt like a series finale but I'm optimistic that the show will see a second season. ABC has treated it really well, giving it a post-Lost timeslot and airing all 13 episodes and it seems like they have some confidence in it.

My first review of the show was generally positive, but things have really only gotten better since then. The show does a really great job at balancing the quirky humor and George Michael and the general wackiness of Eli's visions with the seriousness of his aneurysm and how it's changed him. I like that the show deals with faith without making it about any particular religion, and each episode is really like, life-affirming without being overly obvious or schmaltzy about it. I even enjoy the legal drama part of the show...yes, the cases are kind of crazy and unconventional but they stem from Eli's visions and tie into his personal journey so I'm more willing to go along with them than if they were on, say, Boston Legal...

And all the supporting players really bring the show to another level. I love Victor Garber in anything, of course, but Jordan's surprised me with how he too has been affected by Eli's change. (And the scenes with him singing are AWESOME!) I think Maggie is super cute and I totally squealed when we saw that vision of Eli and Maggie with a baby (yeah, the shipper in me always manages to crawl out). Even Taylor's grown on me...I still don't really get how she and Eli ever made a great couple but I buy that she really cares about him, and the story with her and Matt Dowd was pretty entertaining. And I love how they've developed the relationship Eli has with his brother, Nathan too. I thought the episode where Eli was seeing Nathan's memories through his eyes was really well done.

The season finale was just so wonderful though. It was kind of trippy, because at first you think the episode is switching between scenes of Eli before his surgery to have his aneurysm removed and then after but by the end you realize that all the scenes of "before" are actually all in Eli's head while he's in the coma. Eli's imaginary case involves a man with cancer who decides he doesn't want to go through chemo for the third time because he believed that God told him not to, which was just a perfect tie-in to Eli's situation. And it turns out that that man was already in a coma in the room next to Eli's. How crazy is that??

If there is a second season I wonder where things are going to go. It seems that Jordan was actually intending to make Eli a partner for a pro-bono division so that would work nicely but since the surgery was successful in removing his aneurysm I'm not sure what they're going to do about the visions. I hope we get a chance to find out!

Catching up with the midseason shows

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles: Confession: I've never watched any of the Terminator movies. I know, I know, I've been meaning to watch at least the first two for years now but they've just been buried deep down on my Netflix queue of 150+ (getting trumped by things like Avonlea and various BBC productions) and I just haven't gotten around to them. That didn't stop me from watching this show though...and with a little help from wikipedia, I think I sort of know what's going on? And so far, I've been enjoying it, though maybe not blown away. Lena Headey is much more convincing at the ass-kicking than say, Michelle Ryan of Bionic Woman, and I always love Summer Glau. Thomas Dekker as John is kind of the weak link for me, although it seems like they've been trying to show more that he's going to grow up to be a hero. I'm not that interested in the FBI part of the show, and the time travel part kind of confused me, but overall it's been a pretty entertaining show.

Eli Stone: I'm not that much of a legal drama fan (although I was really into The Practice for a few seasons during its earlier seasons) but two things attracted to me to this one: Greg Berlanti and Jonny Lee Miller. Thanks to Everwood, Brothers & Sisters, and Dirty Sexy Money I am officially a huge Greg Berlanti fan. And I kind of have a thing for Jonny Lee Miller. Anyway, the gimmick with this show is that Eli, the main character, learns that he has an inoperable brain aneurysm that's causing him to have hallucinations that seem to be pointing him towards taking on cases to help everyday people rather than the big corporations that his firm usually defends. The visions are really kooky...the first episode featured George Michael, of all people, and it seems that he'll be making more appearances. It's all pretty amusing, and it's made even better with Victor Garber, another favorite of mine, who plays Eli's boss, and a funny acupuncturist who thinks Eli is a prophet. I'm not too sure about Eli's fiance, Taylor, though, and whether we're supposed to like her or not...she's been kind of blah so far. Also in the cast is Julie Gonzalo (Parker from Veronica Mars but with brown hair now), who might end up being competition for Taylor? But overall the show is definitely being carried by Jonny Lee Miller, who I think I now love even more. He's awesome!

Lipstick Jungle: A comparison to Cashmere Mafia is inevitable because the two shows are just stupidly similar. People seem to be divided on which they like better although most think both are generally pretty bad. Maybe because I've already seen a few episodes of Cashmere Mafia now but I think I liked that one better. Part of my problem with Lipstick Jungle is that I've never been a big fan of Brooke Shields, and I completely cannot buy her as the head of a big movie studio. I guess her character, Wendy, is supposed to be "nicer" than your stereotypical businesswoman, but she seemed so frazzled in the pilot that I didn't get any sense of power at all. And I mean, do head of movie companies really work in New York? Plus, the deal she was trying to work with Leonardo DiCaprio and a Galileo movie? Just random. I also have a problem with the Lindsay Price character. Victory is kind of a terrible name and she seems like she's at least 10 years younger than the other two so I don't get why they're all friends. And her little storyline with the Andrew McCarthy character is really terrible. I've never been a big fan of Andrew McCarthy, even back in the Pretty in Pink days, and his super billionaire here is just annoying. Their stupid banter with Victory not wanting to be rescued by his money, and him saying that he's losing $20,000 by talking to her in person...blech. I thought the only bright spot here was Kim Raver, but she really deserves to be on a better show...