2010 TV Roundup part 3 - The Overrated

Like every other great stories out there (Lord of The Rings, the Millenium Trilogy, The Matrix, Spy Kids, etc), there's got to be a 3rd part to conclude and end it all off. So, in this post I will review shows that are overrated....

Cougar Town

It has been hailed as "the return of Courtney Cox to primetime television". Actually that's not entirely true, because she did try to make a comeback after Friends with a short-lived show in 2007 called Dirt. Does anybody remember that? I don't think so, since the show was buried in dirt (sorry, it was just too easy :P) after only 1 1/2 season.

In this show, Courtney plays Jules Cobb, a 40 something recently divorced woman who is trying to get back to the dating scene, which is filled with younger men, thus she is seen as a cougar that preys on young boys. Other supporting characters include her neighbor who is also recently divorced, but he's a man, so it's ok to date younger women (stereotypical.... *rolls eyes*). There's also her sarcastic best friend and her younger assistant who always bickers at every single little thing, and also her son and her ex-husband.

I watched a couple of episodes when it was showing on tv last year, and wasn't really impressed. I gave it another try this year, hoping it gets better, but sadly it doesn't do it for me. Even with Jennifer Aniston guest starring as Jules' shrink. The comedy just doesn't feel natural.... feels very very scripted. So..... NEXT!

Nikita

Maggie Q in skimpy, skin tight dresses kicking bad guys' asses every week? Sounds pretty good, right? Well, the concept is there, but the execution is not so good. The action scenes are not bad, but everything else is just boring. The story is predictable, and the conversations are as dry as a bone. (a little free english lesson there... ;-)

Shane West, in particular, is just terrible. He plays Nikita's ex-boss, who obviously still has feelings for her. The problem is that he only have 1 acting face, and it looks like he needs to poop real bad ALL THE TIME. Melinda Clarke, who plays Amanda, also only have 1 face : bitchy face. That's the face that she has been wearing ever since we first saw her on The O.C. (remember that show? I wonder what the other actors/actresses are doing.... we all know that Micha Barton has gone cuckoo......)

The only character that makes the show worth watching is Alex, played by Lyndsy Fonseca. She was a regular in Desperate Housewives for a while, and was last seen at the movie KickAss (although her performance was completely drowned by Hit Girl :P). She's young, beautiful, and have a decent acting skills. Let's hope this show won't ruin her career.

American Idol

Entering it's 10th season now, AI is still the undisputed champion when it comes to singing competition that sucks money out of advertisers faster than Carrie Underwood's albums topping the country charts.

After a disappointing ratings last year (well, who can blame it when there was no raw talent?), this year they are seriously revamping the show. Simon is out, Kara is out, even Ellen is out. The only original judge now is Randy Jackson, and the two new judges are Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. SERIOUSLY??? Well, I guess if you're trying to appeal more to the Latino market and the older generations, that's the only logical thing to do. Or... it's possible that the producers are just scared that J.Lo might crush them with her US$27million-dollar- insured ass, and Steven Tyler will scream until the glasses all shatters if they don't let them be the new judge.

So..... we'll see what happens next year and hopefully there's more Carrie/Lambert/Daughtry out there, and less Sanjaya/Kris Allen/Lee Dewyze please.........

Phew, I think that's a wrap for this year's TV! If you have any other opinions, put them in the comments! (most probably I'll just ignore it, but hey, it's your choice ;-)

2010 TV Roundup part 2 - The Others

Continuing the previous post, now I shall give my thoughts on the rest of the shows that I watch but not as "religiously".....

Desperate Housewives

Back for their 7th season, the housewives are back, and to be honest, it feels like they're trying a little too hard this season, and seems like the roles are just swapped between the 4 leading ladies.

Vanessa Williams joins the cast as Renée Perry, Lynette's old college friend who is going through a divorce and deciced to stay in Wisteria Lane for a while. I feel this character is introduced to try to fill in Edie Britt's shoes (and house). But it's just not the same without Edie.

Bree is the new Gaby, complete with a hot contractor that she just couldn't resist (played by Brian Austin Green, or more famously known as Mr. Megan Fox..... how the hell did that happen anyway??)

Gaby is now the new Bree, having to deal with the children issues.....

Susan is the new Lynette, with the money issues.....

Lynette is back to the Lynette of season 1, with the arrival of the new baby.

And to top it all off, Paul Young is back, bringing the series to a complete de ja vu experience.....

Well, perhaps it IS the intention of the producers to bring it to a complete circle, considering that this is the last year that all the 4 leading ladies are contracted to the show. We still don't know whether this will be the last season or not.....

Overall it's still an enjoyable show, but it just doesn't make me want to stay up late at night or wake up really early just to watch the latest episode.

No Ordinary Family

A new show with some familiar faces, the story revolves around a family that went on a trip and experienced a plane crash, and got superpowers when they get back home. Sounds familiar? It's kind of a mashup of The Incredibles / Fantastic Four / Heroes / X Men.

The father is played by Michael Chiklis. You might remember him as The Thing from the Fantastic Four movies, except in this show he doesn't have to wear the orange rock suit :P. His power is super strength (e.g : catching a bullet with bare hands, jumping really high and long, lifting a car).

The mother is played by Julie Benz. She's also a familiar face, having appeared in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives etc. Her power is being able to run fast (which also comes with fast metabolism and fast healing rate).

The daughter (Kay Panabaker, last seen on Fame [the movie]) is able to hear other people's thoughts, and the son is suddenly a super genius. He's played by James Bennett. I don't remember seeing him before, but apparently he is the young James T Kirk in the last Star Trek movie.

It's a promising new show (so far it's only 2 episodes). Currently the family is still trying to figure out their newfound powers, so there's still a lot to explore. The special effects are good.... very believeable. And, a good show is not complete without the bad guys, so there's some elements of that, too..... they're not the only ones with powers!

So, let's hope it gets better, and please don't follow the same pattern as Heroes, where it gets good and then very quickly gets boring and unfollowable.

The Amazing Race

If you have a huge amount of money, what would you do with it? Some people may say that they will buy a huge-ass house. Some might spend it on jewellry. Some will say they will donate to charity. But for me..... I would use it to travel around the world!!

I am fortunate enough to be able to see the world since I was quite young. My parents always took me and my brother to overseas countries at least once a year ever since I was in primary school. I love travelling, discovering new cultures, seeing new sights, opening up the mind and soul...... therefore, I've always loved watching The Amazing Race.

In case you don't know, basically it's a race between 11 teams (each consists of 2 people) to travel to various countries and do some challenges to win US$1 million! Wow, that's a lot of money haha. There are several others gameshow on television with the same amount of money (e.g : Survivor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire), but sori sori sori jack (a la keong racun)...... I will NEVER EVER want to be a contestant on Survivor. No offense, but to me, it's a stupid stupid show. And the questions on who wants to be a millionaire are just too hard :P

Anyway, back to the show. Apart from the sights and sounds of different countries, the appeal of the show also comes from the personality of the contestants, of course! Sometimes I feel bad for some of the contestants, because the show only show snippets of the journey, and they purposely edit it to make the contestants look angry at each other, or just plain dumb etc etc. But hey, that's how you make money on TV!

One of the interesting team this year is Michael & Kevin, a.k.a "the asian team" (I know..... how much more stereotypical can you be? *rolls eyes*). Kevin is actually a well known YouTube personality Kevjumba. I have mentioned him in one of my earlier post. So, being Asian myself, of course I'm rooting for them, but chances are slim, especially when Michael (the dad) already said "my leg hurts" during last week's episode.

So, who do you think will win? Will it be the Gleeks? Or the beauty queens? Well, we'll just have to wait and see......

Pretty Little Liars

Have mentioned this show before briefly in an earlier post. Basically it's Desperate Housewives for teens. In the beginning, there were 5 girls who were really close to each other, but each with  their own lies and secrets. One night, suddenly the 'leader' of the pack (Allison) disappeared during a sleepover. After that, the remaining 4 girls drifted apart. One year later, Allison's body was found, which suddenly brought them back together, and they each receive mysterious messages from somebody with the initial "A". This "A" seems to know all of their secrets, and is threatening to expose them...

The show was originally only meant for summer, but since it got rave reviews and ratings, it has been renewed for the 2nd half of the season, and will continue in January 2011.

I guess we'll just have to wait till then to find out what happens to those bitches girls....

Wow that's quite a long post, yeah? Well, it ain't over till I say it's over...... stay tuned for the 3rd part of the post, where I'll be reviewing shows that are totally overrated....

2010 TV Roundup - The Good

So obviously I watch A LOT of TV. And since the fall TV season has officially begun for about 3 weeks, here's my thoughts on the good shows for this year (you may have your own opinion of what's good and what's bad, but in my world, everything I like is good :P)...

Glee

The music! The singing! The dancing!!! OK I have to admit, I'm a total Gleek. Wait, you don't know what Glee is??? Here's a suggestion : STOP WATCHING PORN AND GET A LIFE!! :P

Fresh from their multiple nominations and wins at the Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Emmy Awards, they are back for the 2nd season with bigger, better, and more addictive (is that even possible?) song and dance routine that you can imagine. 

In this season, they are giving more time for the other characters (and some new ones as well); which is a good thing. If you haven't watch the Britney / Brittany episode, all I can say is WOW. Here's a sneak preview of what you missed : (oh boy, that girl can dance!!)

Modern Family

Also making their debut for the 2nd season, it's the winner of Outstanding Comedy Series at the recent Emmy Awards.

The story revolves around 3 dysfunctional families that are somehow related. The connection is formed by Jay, who is the father of Claire and Mitchell.

OK let's start from the top (see poster for reference)

Jay (the sort of homophobic dad) is divorced and recently married a colombian girl half his age, Gloria, who has a son, Manny, from  her previous marriage. Gloria has a very strong accent and a va-va-voom body, and is always proud of her colombian heritage. Manny has the personality of a grown up, trapped in a tiny body.

 Claire (a panicky, once succesfull career woman who gave up everything to be a homemaker --> that's a fancy word for housewive)  is married to Phil (a real estate agent. He's kinda the opposite of Manny, with the personality of a teenager trapped in a grown man's body) , and have 3 children : Haley (the rebellious teenager), Alex (the smart nerdy middle child), and Luke (the dumb one).

 Mitchell (an uptight attorney) is gay and in the first episode, had just adopted a  Vietnamese baby (Lily), together with his partner, Cameron (a very flamboyant ex music teacher who now stays at home to take care of Lily).

The story telling style is sort of like "The Office" style, with no canned laughter. 


Well, I can sort of understand why this is not everybody's cup of tea.... but personally, I LOVE THIS SHOW! My favorite character is, of course, Cameron with all his dramatic personality. At the beginning I didn't really like Gloria (ugh, too much accent!), but now I think she's funny in her own way. 

Big Bang Theory

This show is dedicated to all the nerds / geeks in the world. In a way, I can totally relate to the situation, because..... (drumroll please)...... surprise surprise, I was once a nerd before! (well, it's technically not really a surprise if you're my friend who already knew me from elementary school, but it's still a significant probability and we can probably prove it if we design an experiment with a finite number of elements and test it in a stabile environment so that we can have a conclusive conclusion) Anyway.... see what I mean now?? :P


Back for their 4th season, I've actually only come to know about this show a few months ago due to Jim Parsons (who played Sheldon Cooper in the show) winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the recent Emmy awards. And then the following week, I got to watch a couple of episodes while I was on a plane, and I'm totally hooked. So for the next 3 weeks I was cooped up in my room, catching up on 3 seasons (roughly 60 episodes of pure laughter :P). So to my flatmates, now you know what I was doing in my room.... don't worry, I haven't turn into an antisocial freak..... yet.


Basically the story revolves around 4 scientist (well technically 3 scientist and 1 engineer) and a "normal" blonde girl. Sheldon (a theoretical physicist) and Leonard (an experimental physicist) live together in an apartment, and in the pilot episode, Penny (the blonde waitress with an acting ambition at the cheesecake factory) moved in across the hall and become their neighbor. Howard (a jewish aerospace engineer) and Rajesh (a particle astrophysicist) are Leonard's friends and hangs out with them all the time. 


The comedy is often provided by the geekiness of the guys, contrasted with Penny's social life. Throw in some romance and a whole lot of big mumbo jumbo words, and hey, you got yourself a good sitcom! Btw this series is presented in a more traditional style (with canned laughters and sound effects). 


BAZINGA! (you'll get it if you follow the show :P)

The Mentalist

From comedy, now we move on to a slightly serious show..... I say slightly, because it does have a good dose of comedy in every episode.

The main character of this series is Patrick Jane (played by the very charismatic Simon Barker). He doesn't really have any special abilities; he's just very observant and is good at talking. In the past, he used these skills to con people into believing that he has psychic powers. Until one day, he appeared on national television and claimed that he is helping the police to track down a serial killer named Red John. Apparently Red John saw this and was not very happy. So he killed Jane's wife and daughter.

Since then, Jane has been living with guilt, and so he decided to use his skills to help the police solve murder crimes. He now works as a consultant to the CBI (California Bureau of Investigation), while focusing on capturing the real Red John.

The show is already into it's 3rd season now, and it's still consistently good. The supporting characters (a.k.a the CBI agents) each have their own distict personality, and their interactions always crack me up, especially Cho (played by Tim Kang) with his straight face and dry humour.

I like this show because it's a good mix of comedy, suspense, action, and intelligence. I usually don't really like "serious" police shows like Cold Case, Law & Order, and even CSI.

So, those are the 4 series that I will definitely follow each week. I will write more on other shows on another post.

MTV Video Music Awards 2010

OK so I know that the 2010 MTV VMA is like soooo last week, but I haven’t got the chance to watch the entire thing, and have just downloaded it last night. Plus I’ve always wanted to try something new….. live blogging an award show! So here we go…

00:00

Eminem!!! I must admit I’ve never been a big fan before, but I really really like his new album and songs. He’s singing ‘Not Afraid’ to open the show. Great performance ☺

02:50

RIHANNA! What the f**k is she wearing?? Something that resembles a wedding dress badly done…. Makes her look short. Hate the red hair, too…..

05:00

Lameeee opening skit by the host, Chelsea Handler. I don’t really know much about her…. I think she has her own talk show, but this opening skit is pretty lame.

Trying to imitate Lady Gaga? I think you’re trying too hard, girl….. btw love Lady G’s dress and white hair!! ☺

She mentioned that it’s the first time in 16 years that the VMAs is hosted by a woman. Well, maybe there’s a good reason behind it…… that’s because you suck, Chelsea!

15:20

Lady G wins the first award of the night….. Best Female Video of the Year for “Bad Romance”. Well, d’oh!

Love love loveeee the dress, and the shoes, and even the headpiece. I think they’re all from the late Alexander McQueen. Too bad he’s gone.

17:00

Another lame skit by Chelsea, now involving Ke$ha…. NEXT!

19:00

Cast of Jackass 3D on stage presenting Best Rock Video. Well I only know Paramore and 30 Seconds to Mars. And the winner is…. WTF?? Why is that guy taking off all his clothes on stage? Whatever…… Jackasses! :P

Oh the winner is 30 Seconds to Mars (not that I really care anyway)

23:00

Kim Kardashian introducing Justin Bieber performance…… fast forward, fast forward, skip, skip….. NEXT!

30:00

Usher performance. COOOOLLL!! LOVE the lasers and the lights play! (click link below for video stream)

Usher - DJ Got Us Fallin In Love/ OMG - Medley (Live)

35:00

Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj presenting Best Male Video. My God, that’s a huge ASS, Nicki girl! Winner is Eminem, but he’s not around. I guess his motto is SMP (sudah manggung pulang :P)

39:00

Florence and The Machine performance. Who the hell are they? Or is it just a woman? OK I have to admit it’s a bit strange at first, but it gets better….. oh wow! Love the song and the performance!

44:00

Is that Pharrel? And is that Christina Millian? Well, don’t really care….

47:30

Cast of GLEE!! Great suit/tracksuit fusion, Sue Sylvester! And the Best Pop Video is…… Lady G!!! Bad Romance!!

OK the dress is good but a bit too much. If you need two men to help you walk in that dress, that’s a bit too much. OK at least she admits that the dress is too heavy and she didn’t expect to win. LOL.

51:00

Taylor Swift performs. Clever choice of words. Take THAT, Kanye!! The song is a bit boring, though. And why is she barefooted? Hmm….

59:00

Drake & Mary J Blige performs. Who IS Drake? Don’t really care….. NEXT!

1:07:00

Cast of Jersey Shore on stage in a Jacuzzi. Never seen the show, don’t really care….. NEXT!

1:09:00

Sophia Vergara (Gloria from “Modern Family”) presents Best Hip Hop Video. OK she’s hot, but she sucks at presenting awards. Btw Eminem won again. Yay! ☺

1:12:00

Oooo Selena Gomez! Lovely dress!

B.o.B performs….. first with Bruno Mars (Beautiful Girls), and then with Hayley Williams (Airplanes). Great songs sung by not so good looking people. Sorry guys, but that’s reality :P

1:19:00

Two latino people that I don’t know presenting Best New Artist. And the winner is……. Justin Bieber! NEXT!

1:21:00

Linkin Park performs their new single “The Catalyst”. Wow, love the venue (Griffith Observatory). The sunset really gives a good aura. Great performance, as always.

1:26:00

Cher presenting…. The oldest chick with the biggest hair and the littlest costume…… LOL.

And the winner of Video Of The Year is….. LADY GAGA!!! There’s the now famous meat dress…

1:31:00

Kanye closes the show. Boo hoooo!!!

OK that's all for this year, folks! Quite lame compared to last year. But at least Lady G never fails to wow us. Ciao, little monsters! 

Separated at birth?

Celest Chong, Singaporean actress

Shay Mitchell, Canadian

(currently seen on Pretty Little Liars)

By the way, I must say, I'm now hooked on Pretty Little Liars..... can you keep a secret, bitches? -A- 

American Idol

After 9 seasons, countless songs butchered by amateur contestants, some brilliant moments, somehow I am still sucked into watching American Idol on TV. However, this was the last season of AI with Simon Cowell. It won’t be the same without him next year, and judging by the contestant’s quality this year, I’m not sure if I will still follow it next year….

Taking a trip down memory lane, here is my review of the winners and runner ups of American Idol so far :

Season 1 : Kelly Clarkson vs Justin Guarini

I only started watching Idol from Season 2 onwards, but judging from how they are doing now, there’s absolutely no doubt who’s the winner here.

Season 2 : Ruben Studdard vs Clay Aiken

Back at those days, we were idolizing them like crazy, as if they were two of the greatest singers in the world. Looking back now, I realize how naïve I was back then. Sure, they were good, but they are not great. Where the hell is Ruben now? I still think that Clay is a better singer, but he’s just too broadway for mainstream pop.






Season 3 : Fantasia Barrino vs Diana Degarmo

It was the ladies’ year, and it was the year where Jennifer Hudson was supposed to win. But she was the first victim of people not voting because they think she would be save. So, in the end, Fantasia and Diana Degarmo (wtF??) went into the finals. We even got Jasmine Trias on top 3 (more wtF??).

Both ladies went into Broadway and doing OK there. Fantasia is definitely more unique compared to Diana.

Season 4 : Carrie Underwood vs Bo Bice

Right from the beginning (auditions / Hollywood week), I was hooked and knew who would win the season. No doubt about it. Grammy awards speaks for itself. Bo who? :P

It would be more interesting if Chris Daughtry got into the finals.






Season 5 : Taylor Hicks vs Katharine McPhee

How the hell did that old dude got into the finals, it still baffles me up to this day. Both finalist are just so-so, nothing special…. I remember that I watched this season just to see what Katharine would be wearing each week. Was not really interested in her singing :P

Season 6 : Jordin Sparks vs Blake Lewis

This is a classic case of singing vs entertaining. Jordin was clearly the better singer, but Blake was a very entertaining performer. Close fight, but nothing spectacular.

Season 7 : David Cook vs David Archuleta

The only season where I felt that the finalists are equally good, each with their own strengths. Didn’t really matter who won, because both are doing equally good now.

Season 8 : Kris Allen vs Adam Lambert

Here’s where we found out that most of the people who vote for AI are teenage girls and probably housewives who fantasize about getting it on with handsome boys. How else can you explain Kris Allen winning the season? I guess America is just not ready for Adam Lambert yet. But then again, look at their career now…..

Season 9 : Lee Dewyze vs Crystal Bowersox

The same thing happened again this year with Lee winning the title over Crystal, who is clearly the better singer and entertainer. Well, we’ll just see one year after….

The wait is almost over!!!

Gossip Boy

Gossip Boy here, your one and only source into the scandalous (well, not really) life of....... me!

OK, so obviously I have been watching too much Gossip Girl. I actually finished watching the whole season 1 (18 episodes) in 1 week, thanks to the long Good Friday weekend.... (which turns out not to be a really "good" friday, but that's a whole different story).

I didn't really like it when I first saw 1 episode on the plane last year, but turns out it can be addictive :P

So let's talk gossip. Spotted at YouTube, a new post from KevJumba, whom I follow from time to time.....

After seeing the video (and based on personal experiences), I kinda agree with him to some extent. I'm sorry to say this, but as the song in Avenue Q musical says... "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". When I was young, I didn't really think too much about this. My parents lived in Indonesia their whole lives, and did not interact much with people from other countries. But now, as the world shrinks (thanks to the internet and other advancements in technology), we all have to deal with many people from various countries and cultures. Especially now that I'm working in the regional office (where I have to deal with ang-moh bosses), I personally experience incidents that sometimes makes me wonder "AM I INVISIBLE?". I'm not generalizing by saying that all angmohs are racist, but there are some that are just plain rude and disrespectful, and unfortunately I have to deal with them.

But don't fret.... if there is one thing I learn from watching gossip girl.... I'm the queen bitch king of passive aggressive around here, and I'm not backing down. 

Till next time....
xoxo
Gossip Boy