Secret Boyfriend(s) of the Week

This is Mitchell and George.

Mitchell is a vampire. George is a werewolf.

Do you prefer tall, dark, and handsome? Maybe with a side of danger? Mitchell's got you covered.

Likes include: trying to blend in with humanity, but occasionally helping vampires take over the world. But only occasionally.

Or do you perhaps prefer an adorkable cuddly guy with little spectacles who once a month gets a bit wild in the sack?

Likes include: working in the local hospital, stuttering when upset, and occasionally turning into a violent, mindless animal. But only occasionally.

If you'd like to learn more about Mitchell or George, visit them at Being Human on BBC America or DVD. You'll also get to know their friend, Annie. She's a ghost. And enjoys making tea. Lots and lots of tea.

As for me, I can't really make up my mind between Mitchell or George. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. Good thing I can have them both every Saturday night.

Happy Halloween!

After perusing many Halloween-themes clips to find one that I thought was worth sharing with y'all, I decided on (drumroll please)...........

Drunk Ewoks take over a segment on The Today Show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Best quote:

Ann "Darth Vader" Curry: "Try to make sure your kids don't have too much candy."
Al "Han Solo" Roker: "Try to make sure your kids aren't drinkin."

International Woes

Here at TV Sluts, we are always on the lookout for a roving reporter. First we had Cheryl, reporting on the Glee tour from Dallas, and now we have someone giving our blog a little international flavor. Specifically, letting us know what a giant pain in the ass it is trying to watch American television in another country. Here's an update from Pete, currently living in Switzerland (mmm...chocolate), who took some time to update us all on the trial and tribulations of a fanboy who lives abroad. PS: It's also Pete's birthday today, so a big Happy Birthday goes out to him from across the Atlantic!

Hi everybody, my name is Pete, a college friend of some of you all. Right now I am stationed in Europe taking data for my dissertation. For those curious, the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen Switzerland has the best Pion beam in the world. Since I study pion decay, here I am. For the uber curious I am studying radiative decay modes using the stopped beam approach with a 3pi-steradian pure CsI calorimeter. (Editor's note-you lost me at Pion. Also, "pion." tee hee hee!).

While data taking is way more fun that it sounds like (in actuality it's not) I can't spend all of my time in the experimental hall. When I get home I want to unwind and relax. But there is a problem. My place here does not have a tv! So what am I to do? Watching no tv is simply not an option. Hulu? Not a chance, when you try to load a video a nice mesage appears:

Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States

Hulu is committed to making its content available worldwide. To do so, we must work through a number of legal and business issues, including obtaining international streaming rights. Know that we are working to make this happen and will continue to do so. Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.

If you'd like, please leave us your email address and the region in which you live, and we will email you when our videos are available in your area.

Having been thwarted by the mothership I had to resort to drastic measures. Back home I have a friend who built a tivo (it's a mythbox for teh nerds out there). He puts the files of my favorite shows up and I can just rsync them to my net book.

Now that I can watch any TV I'm set to go, but wait. With whom am I going to discuss/make fun of the episodes? I don't know if you have ever watched an episode of Dollhouse or Top Chef by yourself, but if so then you know what I'm talking about. For those that have not, try it just once. You will soon realize that the pain caused by these shows is too great to keep in. Television is ridiculous sometimes and you just need a friend to say WTF.

My solution to the problem is gchat. I open a chat to a friend in the states who has already seen the episode and fire away. I am not a psychologist so I don't know why it is such a relief to know that someone else can't stand how stupid a certain character is, but it is.

I guess I really didn't realize it before, but my international isolation has shown me that television watching is a social activity and I need my friends who watch the same shows. I'm not a "loser" for staying home on a friday night to watch tv. I'm a friend who can't wait to watch tv on a friday night because OMG!!!!!11! WE GET TO FIND OUT WHO THE FINAL CYLON IS!

A few thoughts on Heroes

In watching the last two episodes of Heroes, something occurred to me. One of the major problems with the show is that it was constantly "rebooting," starting from scratch instead of building on what it had already done. This necessarily involves forgetting a lot of its own back story, which is endlessly annoying to die-hard fans. For example, at the end of last season, why didn't they try to use Claire's regenerative blood to save Nathan? Okay, I totally stole that from TWOP, but still.

These past episodes have seen both Sylar and Hiro flashing back to the past, which at least acknowledges that something happened before this season. Also, Claire mentioned her regenerative blood as a possible cure for Hiro (How did HRG know that wouldn't work? Maybe they did experiments when Claire was a baby!). Sure, this self-referencing was heavy-handed at somewhat awkward. But it was a small step forward towards a better, more coherent Heroes.

Plus, I heart Deanne Bray.

... which was immediately followed by two steps back. At the end of the episode, Peter finds a Hiro's new bucket list, which just says "Save Charlie." First of all, why would Hiro write a note to himself in English? I guess it was done so Peter could read it ... but why does he need to know? The audience knows where he's going - and in the very next scene we're shown that he has indeed traveled back three years. It's not like Peter can follow him, since he has that healer kid's power now. But what's this thing where Peter can only have one power at a time? Was that explained and I just missed it?

AND there's no more Mohinder - What. The. F*ck?!?

Never saw that one coming.

Updated: I just discovered that the episode talked about below (which was my favorite of the series so far) was directed by none other than Jonathan Frakes. And if you don't know who he is, then SHAME. For he was Commander Riker on STNG. I am very impressed since the direction of this episode, especially the sequence where Topher et al. had to dispose of Nolan was beautifully done.

Wow, I never thought I would say this. But...I kind of liked Topher in Dollhouse this week.

Up until this point, I've really hated Topher. And I haven't been exactly quiet about it. He just came off as a cheap imitation of Andrew from Buffy, but without any of the underlying sweetness (as much underlying sweetness as someone who brutally murdered his best friend could have). Topher was always just too much of a smartass and instead of coming off as funny, to me he always came off as asshatty.

While at Comic Con we saw a screening of the unseen Dollhouse episode, Epitaph One. In this episode (set in the future) we saw Topher had been driven insane by as of yet, unknown events. I think in this past week's episode, we might have seen the beginning of the cracks in his psyche. And it made him more interesting, and more importantly, more quiet.

I used to think that Topher's annoyingness might be the fault of the actor, Franz Kranz, but after seeing Belonging, I realized that I really underestimated him. The way he portrayed Topher through the entire last act was really surprising. I mean he had to show Topher dissecting and dissolving a dead body in sulpheric acid. That's not easy to sell, but darn if he didn't do it.

Throughout the series Topher has been portrayed as incredibly amoral with a touch of sadness, but now for the first time he struggled with a real ethical dilemma and made a choice with disastrous consequences (see above dissecting and dissolving dead body). Who's to say if he had made the other choice things would have turned out better, but in any event, I'm loving how this season is showing Topher's infallibility and ego slowly wither away.

I'm not completely willing to admit that I was wrong about Topher, I stand by my hatred of his first season self, but I'm definitely liking what I'm seeing so far in Season 2. In fact, observing the evolution of his character will probably be one of the things I miss most when the show is inevitably cancelled. I think it just goes to show that Dollhouse is a far superior program when it takes the focus off the black hole of fun that is Echo.

Topher, you're so much more adorable when confronted with an ethical and moral dilemma! Also, after I found out that you have a tattoo on your ankle that reads, "NC1701." Awesome.

It's not a gimmick... it's three

Last week I caught an episode of Modern Family. For those who are not familiar, this show centers around an extended family consisting of (a) the "traditional" TV nuclear family (with a neurotic mother and a clueless father), (b) a gay couple and their adopted baby, and (c) a May-December marriage. Originally I avoided the show due to this gimmicky premise. But hey, sometimes a show can be greater than it's promotional materials. I decided to give it a chance.

One of the show's major strengths is the cast, which includes a grizzled Ed O'Neill as the patriarch of this little clan and Julie Bowen, who I always remember as perennial love interest Carol from Ed. Rico Rodriguez, one of the child actors, really shines as a future comic genius. The episode I saw, "The Incident" featured a hilarious cameo from Shelley Long as the crazy mother/ex-wife. But this is not enough to save the show. Most of the jokes were worth a chuckle, but they were completely predictable. For all that it purports to do something new, Modern Family comes off as just another rehashing of the same sitcom cliches.


That's not to say that the show doesn't have it's good points. It's really well put-together, with a plot that neither speeds nor drags - there are no throwaway lines. You get a good sense of each character in each scene, and quotable lines do crop up here and there. The close camera angles make you feel like you're just another member of the family, sitting on the couch and watching the drama unfold. And who knows? Maybe once the show establishes itself, it will stray more from the sitcom formula.

Fangirl explosion

Holy crap, you guys!


Joss Whedon to direct an episode of Glee.



Woah. I guess dreams really can come true.

No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

My bookclub read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency last month, and since I enjoyed the book so much I decided to check out the HBO/BBC series based on it.

Set it Botswana, the show (and book) are about Precious Ramotswe, a woman who opens a detective agency in her hometown. Seeing how she is a lady, she decides to name her agency the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. She faces a lot of laughter and strange looks at first, as detectives aren't common in Botswana and female detectives even less so, but she manages to win most people over with her best quality: competence.

So many shows (especially crime procedurals) have characters that rely on technology or some quirky knowledge to investigate and solve mysteries. It's so refreshing to see a woman who can get the job done just by keeping her eyes open and using common sense. Precious isn't flashy, she's a large African woman who is smart, spunky, and wise. It may be lame to say that she just exudes an aura of competence, but it's really the best way I can describe her. If she takes your case, you can bet she'll solve it. She's a real person, not perfect, but just...wonderful.

The show is filmed in Botswana, with all the accompanying beautiful scenery. And as someone who doesn't know anything about life in modern Africa, it's fascinating to see how similar and different the problems faced by everyday people are. Women still suspect their husbands of cheating, fathers are still concerned that their teenage daughters are seeing boys, and children still get kidnapped by witch doctors who include their finger bones in hex bags. Ok, so maybe that one might be a unique problem, but that's part of what makes the show so interesting.

Precious is surrounded by fun and caring people, inlcuding her Secretary (who scored a 97% at Botswana Secretarial school), the gay hairdresser next door, and a local car mechanic who has had his eye on her for a while. Each one feels like a real person, fleshed out with their own problems. But they all care about Precious and help her with cases in their own way.

The first season is available on DVD, and while I'm not sure if a second season is in the works, it's a charming, beautiful show about a woman who is determined to make her own way.

Botswana, represent!

Maggie Cats on the News

Here is my take on the latest television news.

--Mia Michaels is leaving So You Think You Can Dance.

Eh. She's a great choreographer, but the way everyone on the show, including the dancers, creams themselves over her is getting annoying.

--The FOX reality channel is shutting down.

FOX has a reality channel?

--Grey's Anatomy is adding a bunch of new characters when Seattle Grace merges with Mercy West.

Whatever. I don't watch it, but recently discovered that my mother does. Which I am convinced is the first sign of the Apocalypse. I was talking to her on the phone the other day and she literally said, "I can't talk anymore, Grey's Anatomy is coming on."

--Heroes is killing off a major character.

THANK GOD.

Cougar Town: Deeply Shallow

Last night I caught an episode of ABC's new comedy, Cougar Town. As you might guess, the protagonist is a "cougar," a woman over forty who dates younger men. Aka, the cliché du jour. I swear to god, if I see another magazine article, blog post, or Facebook group about cougars, I am going to punch Ashton Kutcher in the face.

But I was going to do that anyway.
No worries, Demi. We're cool.

Needless to say, I didn't approach Cougar Town with the most open of minds. Within the first few minutes of watching the vapid protagonist, Jules (played well by Courteney Cox, but still irritating as shit), I was about ready to give up. Here are the three reasons I stuck around:

1. Christa Miller. I liked her as Kate on The Drew Carey Show, I loved her as Jordan on Scrubs. She plays Jules' age-appropriate friend.
2. Busy Philipps, who plays the Jules' friend/employee, will always be bad-girl Kim Kelly (from Freaks and Geeks) to me.

3. My sweetie lumpkin cakes, Dan Byrd. I can mute the television and pretend I'm watching Aliens in America. Except, as Jules' son Travis, he dresses better. And there's no Adhir Kalyan. *pout*

Let me be clear - I am in no way, shape or form recommending Cougar Town. It's a fluffy bit of nothing, flitting briefly along the surface of how our youth-obsessed culture punishes women as they grow older. There's just not much there there, you know? But Cox's star power, coupled with a supporting cast comprised of some of the most talented and energetic actors in the biz, will likely keep Cougar Town afloat for at least a season.

MSCR: Naruto Shippuden

I have previously blogged about the awesomeness/ incomprehensibility of anime. There's always at least one crucial element that completely defies all logic. A young boy finds an old board game, only to be possessed by the spirit of an Edo-era grand master. The classic super-human alien baby (a la Superman and isn't that weird enough already?) also has a monkey tail. Girl meets boy... by falling down a well into an alternate dimension. Oh, and the boy's a half-demon samurai.

Those are all actual shows. For serious.

In the anime series Naruto, however, there isn't one odd central element. There are, like, five.
1. The setting is feudal Japan, only there's electricity and running water and other technological advances. No explanation is ever given for this.
2. The characters are adolescent ninjas, who can channel the body's energy (chakra) into superhuman abilities. This is sometimes determined by heredity, sometimes achieved by just working really really hard.
3. The title character, Uzumaki Naruto, is an orphan who has been used by his village leaders to contain the spirit of a powerful nine-tailed demon fox. Sometimes he has conversations with it.
4. There are many other people who have been used as vessels for various other demons. One of them is a sociopath from a neighboring village who becomes a good guy when Naruto kicks his ass.
5. Naruto has a best frenemy named Sasuke, who is the constant focus of all his considerable energy. Sasuke runs off, leaving Naruto to pine for three years.

Sasuke on left, Naruto on right.
It's moments like these when I'm not entirely sure this show isn't shonen-ai.

That's just the first 220 episodes. After that, in the sequel Naruto Shippuden, shit starts to get really weird. And the funny thing is - it's a fighting show. Most of the episodes are spent entirely on battle scenes. The sheer amount of WTFery they cram into the remaining minutes is truly remarkable.

What makes this show good is that it plays by its own rules. People are constantly unveiling ninja skillz that should be impossible (even in this impossible world), but on further explanation actually aren't. There's a lot of exposition of 'this is how I just kicked your ass,' which drags the action down, sometimes to an interminable snail's-pace. Somehow, though, the intricate world is compelling enough to keep my attention. Also, the vague hope that one day Naruto and Sasuke might make out (again).

Accidental smooch!

Naruto was originally available via Bit Torrent for the dedicated few. I think it got picked up by Cartoon Network at some point, but it was the inferior, dubbed version (when it comes to anime, sub-titled versions are almost always better). Naruto Shippuden (sub-titled!) is licensed by Hulu, and an episode goes up every Thursday, on a seven-day delay from when episodes air in Japan.

Oh, Beefaroni. I think I'll miss you most of all.

The central plot line of last night's Big Bang Theory was that Koothrappali had lost his job and was about to be deported. As such, it was chock-a-block with jokes on our shared 'motherland,' India. "I'll have to put up with the sarcastic remarks from my cousin Sanjay," he opined. "Or as you may know him, Dave from AT&T technical support." Up for comedic grabs was also the Hindu lifestyle that so many Indian Americans give up, specifically in regards to beef (see the title of this post).

For me, when I gave up beef in the 10th grade, it was Arby's ...
until I realized I was just addicted to the special sauce.

In my freshman year in college, I was deeply offended when a character on Will and Grace remarked of a threesome she had actually backed out of, "There were arms and legs everywhere - Hindus were worshipping us!" This off-handed slight caused me (and possibly other Hindus, though one can't be sure) to abandon the show until it went into syndication. A few years earlier there was a huge uproar when Xena: Warrior Princess and her 'sidekick' (*cough*lesbian lover*cough*) Gabrielle met the Hindu god Vishnu. In blue-face. The principals had to appear in a PSA to beg forgiveness alongside a prominent figure in the Hindu community (for what that was worth - we're not like Catholics, we don't have much of a hierarchy). So how did I react to last night's fresh blandishments of Indian society and Hindu culture?

I closed my eyes and chanted "Ommmm..." NOT.

I laughed my ass off. And you know why? The jokes on BBT were being made by and Indian. There's a huge difference between saying, "aren't we funny?" and saying "aren't they funny?" For all that comedy = tragedy + distance, jokes that are inherently distancing are just not fun for me. When white characters make a joke/utilize a stereotype about India/Hindus, it makes me feel like I'm the only one of my kind in the world. When Koothrappali jokes about how dirty the Ganges is, or erroneously states that Hindus believe cows are gods, I feel closer to him as a character. I can't claim to speak for every Indian (American or not, Hindu or not) but I thoroughly enjoyed what felt like, to me, good-natured ribbing from one of my favorite shows.

Stay classy, Big Bang Theory.

Son of a Witch

I did not have high expectations for Eastwick. I enjoyed the movie back in the day, but never read the book and thought the show looked like it was trying to be too cutesy. Three gorgeous women! Who are witches! And meet a mysterious stranger who may or may not be the devil! And there are hijinks!

And while all those things are true, the show has a dark streak I wasn't expecting. I won't go into to much detail since I don't want to spoil it, but suffice it to say I was surprised by some of the plot points, especially those involving horrible death. Which, I don't know about you, is always welcome in my television shows.

I was also surprised by the clever writing. The show has some very funny bits (usually coming from Rebecca Romijn's character), but all the characters are likable and get in some quips. Also, Paul Gross as the mysterious Darryl Van Horne is clearly having a ball. While not as seemingly evil and crazy as Jack Nicholson (but who is, really?), he has that devilish charm thing down pat. And I've basically been in love with him ever since he played Constable Benton Fraser, a Canadian Mountie, in the dearly departed show Due South, circa 1997.

So to sum up, I really like the show, find none of the characters annoying, and am pleasantly surprised by the dark streak running through the show's core. I was sure the basic plot premise would be difficult to maintain, but they seem to be setting up some interesting mythology and arcs to carry onward. Y'all should watch it; all three current episodes are available on ABC's website.

Oh, did I mention the eye candy?

Rowr.

As long as the braces come off this year, I'm happy.

While Ugly Betty had a stellar first season, the shows seems to have lost a bit of its sparkle as it's gone on. The perfect balance of comedy/drama/soap opera that the show started with seems to have petered off. All the characters are still wonderful, and the show is still bright and sparkly, but it just seems to have floundered a bit.

One of fans' biggest complaints is why Betty hasn't gotten the memo to spruce herself up a bit. While you can definitely see how her wardrobe has gone through some improvements since the first season (no more ponchos thank GOD), her hair, eyebrows, and braces haven't really changed. And her relationship with prints could use some TLC. I know the show is called "Ugly Betty," but she works at a fashion magazine for goodness sake.

But, wait! There is hope on the horizon! Season 4 is starting next Friday and in anticipation ABC has released some promo photos of the cast. And check out this one:


The hair! It's pretty! And the eyebrows looks more...separated. And the outfit is classy, professional, and appropriate. Could it be? Has Betty finally stepped up her look? I see the braces are still there, but I've heard rumors that they are coming off this year. Which frankly, is still way over due. I mean she's been wearing them for over four years, come on now. Even I only had to wear them for three, and my jaw was crooked.

If you want to check out the other cast photos you can find them here at Just Jared. And remember that the new season of Ugly Betty starts this coming Friday at 8pm on ABC.

I Know It When I See It

I finally got around to watching the first few episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (courtesy of Netflix), previously blogged-about here. And ... yeah. Have you ever seen soft-core pornography? Neither have I, but I know it when I see it. Or rather, when I see Billie Piper's boobs. Props to Billie, though, for letting it all hang out. In a show about a prostitute, it would be kind of strange if there wasn't any nudity. And she didn't, as I previously feared, completely obliterate her curves with an all-celery diet. The protagonist, Hannah, is more Bettie Page than Kate Moss.


Don't get me wrong - there's lots more to the show than the sex. It portrays a woman who chose to become a prostitute because she (a) loves sex, (b) loves money, and (c) is inherently lazy (her words, not mine). But neither is she a "happy hooker" - Hannah struggles with the consequences of her career choice, and does her best to keep it separate from her personal life. Of course she can't keep them completely apart, which seems to be the central conceit of the current story arc. In the last episode I've seen, she essentially "comes out" to her best friend, Ben. Now I have to wait for the next disc to see the fall-out. Which means watching more pr0n. *sigh* The sacrifices I make...

Secret Boyfriend of the Week: Adorable Gay Edition!

He can dance, sing, kick the shit out of a football, and is pretty much all around adorable. This week's Secret Boyfriend is none other than the multi-talented Kurt from Glee.

Hello, ladies.

More than any other character on Glee, Kurt has really hit a chord (get it?) with members of the audience. After all, the first time we saw him he was getting thrown in a dumpster...who wouldn't sympathize with that? And he also looked fabulous, making sure to spare his couture. Sensitive and smart.

But the big connection for me and Kurt came from the episode Preggers, when he 1) performed Beyonce's Single Ladies dance, 2) taught the entire football team how to dance, 3) won the big game (and looked stylish doing it), and 4) came out out to his Dad.

The scene where Kurt tells his Dad he was gay could have gone so wrong, could have been handled so poorly, but Glee managed to balance realism with a happy result. And Chris Colfer was simply beautiful in it. He expressed fear, vulnerability, hope, and longing for acceptance from his father. Until that scene, we didn't know that Kurt's mother was gone, that it had just been him and his Dad. But it just made so much sense. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried and yelled at the screen (something like, "just tell him!" as Kurt paused to get out the words).

But come on, enough of this heavy stuff. The reason we here at TV Sluts love Kurt is because of his overall fabulousness. Not everyone could rock a black unitard in one scene and wear a football uniform in the next, but Kurt pulls it off with aplomb. He's all adorable, but remains enough of an outcast that we'll always root for him. But more importantly, he knows who he is and doesn't care if you like it or not. He is always true to himself, and how many nice people can really say that?

But I'll let him speak for himself. Hit it, girls.

Tempy and Seely, sitting in a tree...

... T-E-A-S-I-N-G.

Last night, I got home around 8:30 with the intention of finally watching the season five premiere of Bones (bless you, Hulu) and turning in early. Three hours later, I'm powering through the latest episode (damn you, Hulu!) in a fit of Brennan/Booth shipper glee. Booth has been hit with a giant-sized clue hammer, in the shape of the kick ass, Love-Letter-to-All-Fangirls season four finale/coma dream. Hearts and flowers, he sweeps her off her feet and they live happily ever after, right? Ha, of course not.

Before our boy can confess his feeling, Cam and Sweets introduce a seed of doubt - Brennan seems all tough and robotic, but underneath is a scared little girl. No one actually said, "if you fuck this up, we will fuck you up." But I thought it was rather implied.

So he does the logical thing. He tells her he loves her - and then takes it back. Anybody else flashing back to The Nanny? The actual line is, "I love you ... (awkward pause) ... in a professional, atta-girl kind of way." *shoulder punch* I laughed my ass off. The beauty is that Brennan fails at emotions, so even though he's giving her the Soulful Puppy Eyes (SPE) the whole time, she doesn't get it. The next two episodes include further SPE moments and further obliviousness from good ol' Tempy.

I imagine that hardcore fans of the show might be tired of the writers teasing them like this. They're probably screaming 'JUST GET IT ON, ALREADY!' and trying to reach into their TVs to force Booth and Brennan's faces together. Or maybe last season's finale was enough of a pay-off that it will keep the rabid fangirls at bay ... for now.

Personally, I've joined the party late enough that I still find these shenanigans amusing. Plus, there's definitely a feeling that something big has changed (at least, for Booth). I don't get the impression that they're going Mulder-and-Scully us forever. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of the Soulful Puppy Eyes.

Awwww...

Cheryl, our amazing field reporter

Okay, this is why I suck: ages ago, our friend Cheryl went to the Gleek Tour location in her area, and agreed to write a blog post about it. She waded through the sea of teenage goths at Hot Topic, only to have her brilliant article drop through the cracks of my email inbox. But now I've found it and am able to present, in all it's glory, Cheryl's awesome article about the Gleek Tour:

Y’all remember back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s when the Disney Channel was subscription only? I used to beg and beg my parents to sign up for it, but, they never would. So I did something I’m not very proud of – I befriended a girl for her cable package.

Every day after school, we would go over to her house, her mom would make snacks and we would watch The New Mickey Mouse Club. We never missed it. So, when it was announced on the show that they were going to be coming to our local mall (our mall!), we were so there. I still have my poster with Ricky Luna’s autograph. Britney, Christina, Timberlake, Fergie and Ryan Gosling must’ve known even then that they were too big to sign autographs in a suburban Texas Sears.

Which brings me to Wednesday and the Hot Topic Gleek Tour. Even though this time I was able to drive myself there, and I was surrounded by kids that were in diapers when Jamie and I freaked out over the Mickey Mouse Club, the only real difference I saw in this mall tour was how much savvier TPTB have gotten in the last two decades. They’ve realize there’s a business in this. Eight-year-old me only had to show up and hope that she was there early enough to get a spot in line. Considerably older me had to buy a $25 t-shirt to get a wristband that got me in to the meet and greet. It guaranteed me a spot, though, so whatever. And this way also had everyone in line, some 200 people in Dallas, in and out in about an hour as opposed to the four or five the old way took.

Credit for pictures goes to Crystal Xia,
who agreed to be Cheryl's photographer.

Of course, that meant basically it was just an autograph assembly line, though. We were only allowed in three or four at a time and as soon as you were done getting your stuff signed you were very politely but firmly shoved out the door by a man with a headset. But, being that this was at Hot Topic, Headset Guy was a forty-something dude with an earring so his intimidation factor took a pretty big hit.

So, I wasn’t able to hang around (which would have been weird anyway) but I was able to talk with the cast a little bit while I was getting my stuff signed. The one thing that’s been bugging me since the pilot aired in May is the name of the school, McKinley High. My favorite TV show of all time, Freaks and Geeks, used the same name for their high school and, given the very similar tones of the two shows, I had a feeling it wasn’t a coincidence. I asked if I was right and Cory Monteith, who plays Finn Hudson, confirmed that it was an homage. If I wasn’t a fan before, that would’ve done it. Freaks and Geeks reference=good TV in my book.

Overall, they were just incredibly sweet. They really couldn’t have been more gracious. Even after all the press the show has been getting this summer and the hordes of fans they’ve seen this past week and a half alone, they still seemed to be genuinely pleased and surprised that people like what they’re doing.

After the meet and greet, there was a scheduled Q&A in the mall court that was open to the public. I had gotten a pretty good spot in line for the signing, so I was able to get through and out quickly and subsequently got a pretty good spot for the Q&A as well. They were setting up the mics as I got there so I was sure to get a spot with a clear line of sight to the tallest mic, which I assumed was for Cory Monteith. I think I speak for all tall girls when I say thank you Hollywood for all the tall, cute guys you’ve been putting on our TVs lately. Keep it up.

Earlier, while I was standing in line for the signing, a totally edgy and not at all conformist Hot Topic employee came around and asked if we had any questions about the show. Now, like I said earlier, I really like the show, but I have the same problem with it as Monkey Sri and Maggie and tons of other people do, namely that the only minority characters in a show about outcasts seem to be one dimensional stereotypes. For now, I’m willing to give Ryan Murphy the benefit of the doubt based on what a phenomenal job he’s done on nip/tuck and Popular, but it’s still something I’m curious about. So, I grabbed a slip of paper and asked Monkey Sri’s Comic Con question again. And again the censors got to it and it didn’t get asked. This is a PR tour after all. They’re looking for softball questions, and boy did they get them.

All the usual suspects were there:
Are you anything like your characters?
Did you sing at all before you got the part?
Who’s the practical joker of the cast?
Who’s the best dancer?

Blah, blah,blah, we’ve all heard it before. Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt Hummel, was able to keep it interesting though. His answers were either brilliantly crafted or painfully honest but either way they were so funny. When they were asked who they hung out with in high school, he said the lunch ladies, and his hero in show business is Mickey Mouse because he made it okay to be a guy with a high-pitched voice. Between that and him being so nice at the signing about my kindergarten-level artwork, Kurt is my favorite now.

Oh and, last thing, seriously guys, you gotta check out the routine they did to “Push It.” While we didn’t get a screening in Dallas, they did show that clip. It hasn’t been officially released so I won’t provide a link here, but it’s all over YouTube and absolutely worth a look. I had a lot of fun, I’d tell you guys to check it out in your area, but it’s almost over now. If you happen to live in LA, though, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Thanks for sharing, Cheryl!

Sexually Frustrated by NCIS

If you aren't an NCIS fan, I wouldn't suggest you jumping on the bandwagon now. If you can watch it from the beginning I suggest it.

It is one of the more underrated shows on TV. When I tell people how much I like it, I get mocked. But the show is great. There are interesting plots, fun cases and GREAT characters. I think the characters on NCIS are some of the most well rounded characters on television.

In fact, Abby Sciuto (portrayed by Pauley Perrette) is one of my favorite characters on television. She is a lab Genius in black gothic make up and pony tails...I think I just had a great idea for Halloween.

If you do watch, Wow, the first two episodes have been great. Ziva turns out to be dead. Tony, filled with the desire to avenge Ziva's death goes after the evil terrorists. He gets tortured, but then tada Ziva is alive. They save her and there is big fan fare.


So we have a series of these great Tony & Ziva moments. Which continue until last night's episode, where Ziva rejoins the team. We know they looooove each other. He rescued her in Africa from terrorists! And we keep getting these almost kisses.....

The season has been great so far...BUT GET IT ON ALREADY.....!

A kinder, gentler ... House?!?

The problem with watching House, M.D. on Hulu is that damned 8-day delay. Everything I have to say about the season premiere is already outdated, since the second episode aired last night. I am this close - *pinches an appropriately minuscule amount of air* - to giving up on Heroes in favor of catching my favorite snarky diagnostician in primetime.

Anyhoodle, as we all recall, last season ended with Wilson dropping House off at a mental institution. We return to find him detoxing, and it's a pretty gruesome sight. But he makes it through, with his typical irascible personality intact. More House-ness ensues - he tries to outsmart his doctors and manipulate the other patients in order to get what he wants, a letter from his shrink stating that he's fit to practice medicine. Pretty much par for the course.

And then he nearly gets this guy killed.

If you're a fan of the show, you know that House is all about two things - finding the truth and saving lives. He goes against both of these principles when he indulges a fellow patient's Superman delusion, with disastrous effect. His psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan (played by the wonderfully gritty Andre Braugher), accuses him of no longer caring about anything. For House it was a distinct 'aha' moment. He turns his life around - he starts taking his medication, connecting with other human beings and having fun. There's even a tooth-achingly sweet moment where he helps his roommate, a man named Alvie with bipolar affective disorder, finish his rap during the psych ward's talent show.

Yes, that's Booger from Revenge of the Nerds in the background.
And no, I will not let Curtis Armstrong move on with his life.

Sure, as a counselor I think it's great that House got the help he so desperately needed. As a TV Slut, however, I'm like WTF, mates? I realize that House's life can't just be a never-ending series of increasingly soul-destroying tragedies. But after the darkness of last season, I'm scratching my head as to what a new, possibly fluffier season will hold. Can a tortured hero still be heroic if he stops being tortured? Only time will tell ...

Holding out for a Heroes...that doesn't suck.

It doesn't take a genius to see that most people have given up on Heroes. This season it's been averaging about 6 million viewers, down from 16 million in it's first season. Yikes. That's...substantial.

Every year it's the same old story and the same old questions. Can Heroes recapture the promise of it's first season? Can it halt the hemorrhage of viewers? Will people at least agree that the show doesn't suck anymore?

And every year I hope that this will the season, that this time the show will be more interesting than boring, deep rather than shallow, and actually say something meaningful.

So far, I'm not impressed.

To be honest, I'm not even sure why I'm sticking around. So many other people have given up on Heroes, I don't know why I continue to subject myself to the heartache of watching a once promising show flop around in never-ending death throes.

Because here's the thing. Here's the dirty secret nobody is saying out loud. Heroes was never great. It was barely even good. From the beginning it had pretty production values, pretty people, and occasionally surprising cliff hangers (remember Claire waking up on the autopsy slab?), but it was never great. The best that could be said of it was that it was promising. Sure we thought Hiro was adorable, but there have always been too many characters wandering around unconnected to one another, too many dropped storylines, and frankly, too much time travel and other ridiculous plot devices.

I think the core problem is that the show's writers and producers have been much too impressed with their own cleverness. They act like their show has Jesus magic or something, that it has the power to change lives and heal the sick. When all it really is are a series of confusing plots recycled from better sci-fi comics and movies. Sure it has good looking people and a handful of talented actors, but...for all that happens, nothing seems to happen. The producers are so in love with their actors that they can't bring themselves to actually kill any of the characters off. I mean, for god's sake, how many times does Nathan need to die? And yet, HE'S STILL ON THE SHOW. And as much as I love Zachary Quinto, it's time for Sylar to go away. These characters are just not interesting anymore.

But despite all this...I'm still watching. Maybe it's because I hate quitting. Or that I can't shake my love for Zach Quinto's eyebrows. But it all just makes me really sad at this point, to see so much wasted potential. While the carnival aspect of the current season is kind of cool, I just can't bring myself to care anymore. Watching Heroes makes me feel like I'm just going through the motions.

If You Need a Vamp Fix, This Isn't It!

This year I committed to trying new things, experiencing new shows, and in some cases this has been beneficial. For instance, community, which MaggieCats blogged about last week was a GREAT success. And then there has been the awful. This installment of the awful is devoted to CW's Vampire Diaries. I am aware of the great risk I was taking by giving this show a chance.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of being bored by this show, it is based on the Vampire Diaries books by L.J. Smith. These books have been doing pretty well amidst the fame of the Twilight Series and the Sookie Stackhouse series. I have not read the books. I thought Sookie and Bella were enough for me. The show is centralized around Elena, played by Degrassi Alum, Nina Dobrey and her love interest (and coincidental vampire) Stefan.

Ok lets be flat out about this. Stefan, or Paul Wesley, makes me long for the awful and horrid acting of Robert Pattinson. The TV execs are even trying to knock off the token Edward Hair. Its just sad.

The plot is ok, there are ups and downs (mainly down). Overall, I give the plot a C-. So far we have a witch, vampires, drug dealers and football players. So the cast is meh. The acting I give a D- (primarily because Paul Wesley is the worst Vampire actor since Jim Carrey in Once Bitten).

The one small bit of hope is Ian Somerhalder. Ian plays Damon our token Bad Boy Vamp. But overall Ian is sexy and can actually act, which is a breath of fresh air for this show.

If you missing True Blood or Twilight, don't expect Vampire Diaries to fill this void!

Community

Why should you watch Community on NBC?

1. Joel McHale

2. John Oliver

3. Chevy Chase

4. Hilarious Indian (maybe?) guy who is a pop culture lover and provides numerous references to movies like The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, and Adventures in Babysitting. And might have aspergers syndrome.

I really enjoyed the show; it's funny, charming, and fluffy. It's not great art, think of it as the marshmallow cream of comedies. Tastes great, less filling. But it's not mindless or dumb, I have a feeling the show has things to say, it's just going to need some time to get there.

The main character, Jeff, is a lawyer who is in danger of disbarment unless he can get a legit law degree. He enrolls in community college (where his old friend--played by John Oliver--is a professor) and forms a fake spanish study group to try to hook up with a cute girl. When word gets out of the study group, a bunch of motley fellow students assemble. After some well-done exposition about each of the characters, they fight, make up, and then BOOM. A community is formed.

I would rank the show as between funny and hilarious, it's kind of Diet Arrested Development. More grounded in reality, but with it's share of ridiculous.

Watch it. You'll like it. Thursdays at 9:30 on NBC.

Hurray for Kristin!

She did it! In the biggest surprise win at the Emmys of the night (at least for me), Kristin Chenowith took the prize for Supporting Actress in a Comedy!

Even though Pushing Daisies isn't on the air anymore, I'm so thrilled that the Emmys recognized the show and how amazing funny and wonderful Kristin Chenowith was on it. I read this morning that she had to get treatment for a migraine (ouch!) after talking to the press, but I'm so pleased she had her moment to shine!

You go, girl!

Also, major props to the Academy for giving the Supporting Actor Emmy for a Drama to Michael Emerson from Lost. It was a well-earned honor. And if they hadn't given it to them, I would have reached through my computer screen and choked the life out of Neil Patrick Harris, who was acting as their agent by being the host.

Oh, and I thought he did a great job, by the way. The Dr. Horrible interlude was adorable and the opening song was actually funny and classy. A hard to achieve combination.

Finally.

You know, I was really optimistic when this season of Project Runway started. The show didn't seem to suffer much from the move to LA, the judges were the same, the initial challenge was fun, and of course Tim was as awesome as ever.

But in recent weeks, something has changed. Nina Garcia and Michael Kors have been conspicuously absent (I think this makes three weeks in a row) and the challenges have only been ho-hum. Basically, they've amounted to "make a pretty dress with a $100 budget" and people, that's lame. We watch Project Runway to see creativity and talent at work...and to hear bitchy comments from Nina and Michael. Ok, and also to see how progressively orange Michael Kors can make himself, but still.

This week, FINALLY, we had a decent challenge. The designers were instructed to create a garment entirely from newspaper (they were allowed a muslin base). And surprisingly, almost everyone came up with something attractive and innovative. While our main judges were still missing (sadness), the show seemed to have recaptured some of its original spark.

And there was drama too, of course. Johnny, after making some kind of red monstrosity and being told how ugly it was by Tim, decided to switch course and make a new dress that looked slapped together. When called on it by the judges, he crafted this elaborate story about how the original dress had been ruined by the iron or the steamer or some such bullshit. One of the other designers totally called his ass on it, and Tim even made a comment to the other designers that he couldn't believe the "utterly preposterous spewing of fiction" that took place from Johnny. And I could tell he was pissed when he told Johnny to clean out his work area, all while fussing with the cuffs of his suit jacket. There was no hug for Johnny.

In case you were wondering, here's the winning design:


So keep it up, Project Runway. And for God's sake, bring back Michael and Nina! I'm going into withdrawal.

New Season, Same Old Crap.

Ah, Gossip Girl. The show that is like hostess snacks. Addictive. Yummy. But in the end, not filling and can have a weird after-taste. And while it's clear there's a lot of money parading across your television screen (what with the designer clothes, fabulous jewels, limos, and penthouses), the show this year feels kind of cheap. Mostly because of everyone's ratty hair.

The new season started this past week, and although three months have passed, the characters (for the most part) seem stuck in the same old ruts. Vanessa is a judgmental selfish ho with bonus terrible wig/weave, Jenny is annoying with consistently inappropriate clothing, Nate proves that his instincts/judgment are wrong with every single choice he makes, Serena is doing bizarre and crazy things but totally has an explanation, like for real you guys, and Dan is just....Dan. Whiny. Obnoxious. You get the drill.

In fact, the only characters who seem to have grown at all are Chuck and Blair who are flailing their way through a somewhat mature relationship. They're playing little games with each other, but hey, they're grown-ups now. More power to them. And as soon as Blair seemed uncomfortable, Chuck backed off. He told her he just wanted to make her happy, and darn if I don't believe it. It's nice that my two favorite characters on the show are happy, healthy, and hopefully a little wiser.

We'll see if it holds.

I burned through the first two seasons of this show, but frankly I'm starting to get a little bored. The constant plot recycling and characters hooking up with one another is starting to get old. They need to inject some new blood into the show, and so far Scott (the secret sibling of Dan and Serena, gasp!) is not doing it. Hopefully, having the characters begin school next week and meet new people will make things more interesting.

If not, I'm not sure how long I'll stick around.

The one reason to watch MTV award shows

We've gone on and on about the increasing irrelevance of award shows. And I can't think of any more ridiculous than the MTV Video Music Awards. First of all, everyone knows that MTV doesn't play music videos anymore. So their hosting an award show to recognize excellence in that field is kind of ironic.

But you can always count on MTV to have something buzz-worthy, usually unintentionally. Remember when that dude climbed to the top of the set and they had to shut the show down to get him down? Or when that weird guy ran out and danced jerkily while Bob Dylan was performing? And I'm pretty sure someone from Nirvana whacked themselves on the head one year after throwing his guitar in the air.

But this year takes the cake. Moments after Taylor Swift wins her award for Best Female Video, Kanye West jumps on the stage, rips the microphone out of the poor girl's hand, and proceeds to give props to Beyonce for her Single Ladies video. Taylor looks horrified, perplexed, and sad. She had just finished saying how she had always dreamed this would happen but can't believe it actually did....and then some douche interrupts her acceptance speech. Beyonce has the grace to look shocked and confused with nervous laughter.

MTV Shows

I mean, look her face!


Kanye, seriously, get a grip. A friend told me that your mother died recently and that you must still be grieving...but if you aren't capable of behaving yourself in public because of something like that, DON'T GO OUT. He apologized on his blog, but still. Ugh. get over yourself, keep your ass in your chair, and keep your mouth shut.

And now, bonus Beyonce performance, because it was seriously awesome.

Beyoncé - New Music - More Music Videos

The Boys are Back!

Spoilers for the season premiere of Supernatural below, so proceed at your own risk!

When we last left our intrepid demon-fighters, they had just broken the last of the seals keeping Lucifer trapped in hell, and he was breaking out. And we pick up right where we left off, except instead of dying in a supremely painful way as expected, the Winchester boys get white-lighted to an airplane directly above where they were standing and out of harms way.

Who in the what? My first thought was that it was Castiel, but whoops. He's dead. So Sam and Dean getting saved didn't seem to make much sense. And it's probably not going to help cure Dean's fear of flying, since the plane had to do some tight mauevering to avoid Lucifer's giant pillar of "I've breaking out of hell!" light.

BUT THEN. We find out that the big guy, G-O-D himself, decided to intervene and save the boys and reassemble the blown-apart bits of Castiel to take on Zachariah and his Matrix-y looking minion angels. I gotta say, the fight scene was kind of bad-ass.

So what did I think of the premiere? I liked it. There were constant surprises, most involving Bobby (he's possessed! He's stabbing himself to save Dean and probably going to die! He's unlikely to walk again but alive!). I think I yelled "nooooo!" a lot during most of the bad stuff involving Bobby, because as I am sure you all know, I absolutely adore him. I bet the neighbors thought I was watching some kind of crazy sport on tv by how vocal I was.

And I'm loving the new Dexter-like title card. Gruesome!

But there were also some really hilariously cringe-worthy parts, mostly involving Becky, the zealous Supernatural novel fangirl. She's the webmistress of MoreThanBrothers.net, a Supernatural slash website. Kripke is pretty much willing to make fun of anybody, including his own fans. But I think the Supernatural slashers have it coming, because while I have nothing against slash in general, they're BROTHERS people! It's squicky to ship them!

Anyhoodle, Becky was a riot, especially when she couldn't stop touching Sam ("you're so firm!") and when she saw Dean ("You're....not what I was expecting). Love her!

Yeah, I probably would grab Sam Winchester's boob too if actually confronted with him. It's a normal response.

Some things that didn't seem to work so well are the characters constant use of folksy language and insults. Look, I get that they are from the midwest, but lay off the slang, Kripke. It's getting old. Also, the whole "emotional confrontation between Sam and Dean at the end of the episode" has worn out its welcome. It was really sad hearing that Dean doesn't trust Sam anymore, not that I blame him after all the crap that went down last season, but this is ground that got covered many many times last year. And it doesn't really jive with Dean telling Sam earlier that they need to just move on and work to clean up the mess they made.

Other than a few isolated missteps, the premiere was full of action, surprises, laughs, tears, and all the good stuff that Supernatural can deliver. It did a great job of setting up this year's arc, especially as Lucifer has found his human vessel and we now know Dean is intended as a vessel for archangel Michael, but I'm not sure how stand-along episodes are going to factor in. When you raise the stakes so high and have such imminent danger, it makes it a little more difficult to have a side-romp or feature the boys hunting down some random ghost.

Still, as always, I'm happily along for the ride. As long as the show has more of the action and less of the angst. Is it too much to ask to just see some hot guys kick some demon ass and blow ocassional shit up?

Now listen show. You know the deal. You are not allowed to kill Bobby. I'm cool with his being in a wheelchair if that happens, because he is so badass he could still kick butt, but you MUST NOT KILL HIM. Capish?

Cake Boss

Until last night, my only experience with cake-baking on television was with The Food Network's Ace of Cakes. Set in Baltimore only an hour from me, I viewed Charm City Cakes as the end all be all of cake making.

Until last night.

Getting a DVR a few years ago drastically changed the way I watch television. Since I usually have so many things stored on the hard drive, I never just flip through channels to see what's on. This has the unfortunate side-effect of meaning I miss out on a lot of the random shows that clog the cable airways. But since we haven't gotten to Fall premieres yet, and my DVR is pretty much empty of summer fare, I found myself in the unique position of flipping around the channels last night, looking for something to watch. And I found Cake Boss on TLC.

It's similar to Ace of Cakes, in that we basically get to see the bakery (Carlo's Baker in New Jersey) creating several special order items in an episode, with narration from the bakery's manager, Buddy Valastro. He's a fourth generation baker whose parents purchased the bakery in 1964. Since then, it's been the family business. And how.

So while Duff from Ace of Cakes is the poster boy for chill, surrounding himself with friends with a very rock vibe, Buddy is surrounded by his loud, large, and did I mention loud, Italian family. These people yell at each other all day long.

Buddy's four older sisters run the front counter of the bakery, but find time to pop into the back and yell at Buddy about various things: how the bread looks burnt, how that cake is unacceptable, why did you do this that way...it's crazy. And Buddy has no problem yelling at workers (almost all family members) to hurry up, and even will shove them out of the way, grabbing pastry bags from their hands to show them how it's done, etc.

While this sounds intolerable in print, it's actually really entertaining and hilarious. I don't come from a large family and we're not really down with the yelling so seeing a group of people express themselves by hollering in each other's faces is interesting to me from an anthropological view. And I find Italian people funny...as long as they aren't yelling at me. If they want to yell at each other, I say go for it. They never reach Gordon Ramsey levels of vitriol, it's clear there's no malice behind the raised voices, it's simply how they communicate with one another.

It's also clear that while the Valastro family is, shall we say, passionate, they are passionate about baked goods. Things go wrong in this bakery, and Buddy will flip out. He'll wring his hands, have a mild panic attack, and while most things work out, it's nice to see someone who is so emotional about cake. He definitely has his hands full, and it's clear he's the Cake Boss not just because he's in charge of cakes, but also in charge of an entire clan. A loud clan of emotional Italians. Good luck, dude.

There may actually exist someone who cares more about cake than me.

Television Is Back!

September is my personal Xmas. Sure getting gifts is nice, but I very much enjoy sitting back an opening a brand new season of my favorite shows. And like Xmas, you are going to get gifts you don't want, gifts you don't understand, and gifts that you will cherish forever.

This summer was incredibly disappointing for me. Law & Order CI was a bust with Jeff Goldblum, Burn Notice and In Plain Sight didn't hold their own. Top Chef masters was HORRID. And even TrueBlood bit...(hahah get the pun, the shows about Vamps). The only thing that made the summer tolerable was an endless supply of Big Brother.

BUT! It is back. The fall season is joining us soon and I am ready for it. I have decided, like maggiecats to give you a taste of what I will be watching this fall:

Monday:
8pm - House (Fox), Heroes(NBC) and HIMYM(CBS) (I have no idea how I will watch 3 shows at once, even Tivo can't do that, but how else to cope with changing schedules...)
9:30 - Big Bang Theory(CBS)

Tuesday:
8pm - NCIS (CBS)
9pm - NCIS - LA (CBS) They previewed this one last year. LLCOOL J and Chris O Donnell....we will see how long i watch

Wed:
9pm - Glee (Fox) EXCITED! and L&O SVU (NBC)
10 pm - Eastwick (ABC) have to try some new ones

Thurs:
8pm - Vampire Diaries (CW) Gotta support the degrassi alum(at least for the pilot)
9pm - The Office (NBC)
930pm - The Community (NBC) Gotta support John Oliver!

Fri:
8pm - L&O (NBC)
9pm - Dollhouse (FOX) & Ugly Betty (ABC)
10pm - Numbers (CBS)

Sun (My Husbands Day of TV)
8pm - Simpsons (Fox)
8:30pm - The Cleveland Show (Fox) Until it gets canceled of course (I bet 2 weeks)
9pm - Family Guy (Fox) & Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
10pm - Brothers & Sisters (me not andrew) (ABC) & Entourage (HBO)

Fall Schedule

Ah, the end of summer. When a girl's mind turns to thoughts of Fall television. And trying to figure out what the heck I am going to watch. Luckily, TV Guide has my back and has helpfully posted a guide to all the Fall television shows in handy dandy grid form.

Go here tv-philes.

Note: this only includes network television. I still need to check out the cable schedule so I know I'm not missing anything cool on some cable channel.

So what is my Fall schedule looking like?

Monday

8:00-Heroes and House (thanks, DVR!)

9:00-Gossip Girl

10:00-Castle

Tuesday

8:00-So You Think You Can Dance, V

Wednesday

8:00-So You Think You Can Dance, America's Next Top Model

9:00-Glee, Law and Order: SVU

10:00-Eastwick (at least for a few weeks)

Thursday

8:00-Vampire Diaries (again, I'll at least give it a try)

9:00-Supernatural, Fringe, and The Office (back-up VCR, FTW!)

Friday

9:00-Ugly Betty, Dollhouse

Saturday

HAHA! You're funny. Like the networks would ever show anything good on Saturday night. But I think Robin Hood is airing this night over on BBC America...

Sunday

Nada. Network television FAIL.