Jennifer's season mega-wrap-up: Favorite new shows

Gossip Girl: Probably hands down my favorite show of the season, new or returning. I am super glad that they came back with new episodes after the strike (instead of waiting for a re-launch next year like a few others) but I do feel like the shortened number of episode compressed things a bit too much. Way too much was happening and storylines were just getting resolved too soon.

In some cases, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing...I'm kind of glad we're done with the Blair-Jenny power struggle. Because I mean, was there any doubt that Blair was going to win? Although because I'm weirdly obsessive I did find myself kind of dissecting the dynamics of that little clique though. At first I thought that Penelope and Hazel were just taking advantage of Blair's shunning to take control of the group and I didn't see why they would ever let Blair back in now that they were "in charge." But then in the SAT episode, it started to seem like they just liked the perks of being friends with Blair. But then they started to see Jenny as kind of a leader and I totally didn't get that. And then finally they turn on Jenny too! It's all so complicated! I was pretty amused that Nelly Yuki is suddenly part of the group and appears to be Kati's replacement but with a lot more lines...

I did enjoy Michelle Trachtenberg as Georgina. She definitely had the scary bitch thing down and while the whole "maybe-murder" thing turned out to be a bit of a letdown I did like that she was kind of the stimulus to the Serena-Dan breakdown. They've always been a little boring. I'm not necessarily saying that I support Serena/Nate or Dan/Vanessa like the cliffhanger was trying to imply, but I'm kind of glad that they left things a bit open. Dan flat out sucks in my book right now though. "Most understanding person in the world" my ass.

I didn't really like the up-down-ness of Blair and Chuck in the finale though. You know, I was really reluctant to like Chuck because I just felt like his behavior in the first couple of episodes was nearing unredeemable but he has totally grown on me. And Blair is awesome. Period. I wonder if they're one of those couples that's best when they're kind of at odds though, like Logan and Veronica? But giving them like, two minutes of happiness before they start flirting with other people was just...strange.

Oh and man this show makes me wish I was back in New York. Not that I ever hung out where these kids did and not that I ever will but I just love that the whole show is filmed there, because you can really tell when they're faking NYC on TV (like on Ugly Betty though there are rumors that they'll be moving over for real next season!).

Samantha Who?: Just a fun little comedy, maybe sometimes a little over the top, but the characters are all really funny. Love Melissa McCarthy (Sookie from Gilmore Girls) and Jennifer Esposito as Sam's kind of angel-and-devil duo (they're hilarious playing off of eachother), love Sam's parents, especially Jean Smart (Martha Logan from 24), love Frank the doorman, and surprisingly, love Todd, Sam's ex-boyfriend, despite my previous dislike of Barry Watson. I guess we've been all wanting Sam to get back together with Todd but all season long I've kind of been wondering why Sam doesn't kick him out of her apartment. It's her apartment! Is he even paying rent?? Or is this just another thing to chalk up to amnesia?

jumping on the bandwagon...

Here are my entertainment favorites from 2007...

1. So You Think You Can Dance -- hands down my favorite reality tv show, EVER.
2. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows -- yay for closure!
3. How I Met Your Mother -- quickly becoming one of my FAVORITE tv shows. My favorite episode of Season 3: "Spoiler Alert"
4. The re-release of My So-Called Life on DVD!
5. Internet broadcasting of TV shows -- special thanks to ABC (Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who), CBS (How I Met Your Mother) and The CW (Gossip Girl). My DVR is already working overtime and I can't record all the shows I want to watch along with all the shows Russ wants to watch, so it helps to be able to catch the shows on the computer. :)

Honorary Mentions: Pushing Daisies (favorite new tv show of the 2007-8 season), Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse (favorite new series), the writer's strike (gives me a chance to catch up on 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

A couple of stragglers: Life is Wild, Samantha Who and the Next Iron Chef

Life is Wild - When I first heard about this show I wondered how it could possibly have the budget to set up filming on location in South Africa with actual animals and how they managed to get all these American actors to ship over there. It seemed a whole huge production for something that didn't even sound that great. But apparently it's based on a popular British TV show called Wild at Heart that pretty much had everything set up so both shows film at the same site, which really is a game preserve. So if it gets cancelled...it'll still suck but hey, at least the British version is doing well.

Anyway, the show's not really too bad. I think it's supposed to be the CW's replacement for 7th Heaven: a nice clean family show, this time with beautiful scenery and wild animals. The writing and acting is kind of terrible, but I mean, it's not really aiming to be groundbreaking or anything. 7th Heaven lasted for 11 freaking seasons without doing anything the least bit interesting and I think they're hoping this show could possibly do the same. Except for the fact that the family is only supposed to be in South Africa for one year, and the two older kids are nearly done with high school. Um...yeah. They'll have to do something about that.

After watching the pilot I thought I would probably just drop it but there's really nothing else to watch in its timeslot (Sundays at 8PM) so I found myself checking it out again this week, and I don't know, it's just kind of mindlessly entertaining. And that lion cub is so cute!

Samantha Who? - Amnesia's a pretty tried and true TV/film plot device but for some reason watching this show made me really wonder about it for the first time. I mean, retrograde amnesia? How weird is that? Having "general knowledge" but no memories or sense of yourself? At first I thought that Sam was being way too casual about it all but then I realized that I mean, obviously I don't know how I'd behave in that situation anyway. It's so WEIRD! Haha, anyway, I thought this was pretty cute and fun. It reminded me a lot of 13 Going on 30, which I love. I was surprised to see Barry Watson here, and even more surprised to kind of like him. I've found it difficult to block out his 7th Heaven days but I think he kind of looks different now. Has he lost weight or something? Christina Applegate is likable, Jean Smart is hilarious as her mom, and Melissa McCarthy (Sookie from Gilmore Girls!) and Jennifer Esposito (from Related...am I the only one who watched that show?) play her "angel and devil" friends. It's fun stuff.

The Next Iron Chef - Alton Brown did some interviews kind of slamming Top Chef saying that the chefs on that show didn't have any skill or talent as compared to this new show that he's hosting. I've always liked Alton Brown, but that was really extremely harsh, considering that a lot of the Top Chef contestants lately own restaurants or work at places like Guy Savoy. And really, Top Chef is a serious show. The drama might be kind of overblown at times, but the Next Iron Chef is...kind of hokey. I mean, if you've watched Iron Chef America, you know what I mean with the Chairman and all the faux dramatics with the "secret ingredient" and all. It's all part of the fun, which I enjoy, but really Alton, no need to be so nasty.

Anyway, I love my cooking reality shows and this is no different. It's a short series, having only started with 8 chefs, and the challenges are really good. This week was a mystery-box-type challenge, but the fun was that they got to choose ingredients for eachother. And they had to cook outdoors on grills, so a double whammy. I can't really say I have a favorite...being an Iron Chef doesn't necessarily mean you need to have personality, and honestly, I think all these people would do just fine. I remember seeing Aaron Sanchez as a challenger on ICA, and he did extremely well. I guess they're just looking for something who'll have a winning record and be interesting to watch?

On a related note, during the show last night I saw a commercial for Amy's new show, the Gourmet Next Door. It has some random weekend daytime slot, but I'll definitely be checking it out. I did vote for her and all...