Premier Week: Monday, September 20, 2010

For four months now, we all(me especially) have been waiting for this day to come. The beginning.....of premier week 2010. :)) Monday, September 20th marks the official start of premier week for the networks. Many shows are returning and many shows are brand spanking new. This is your Monday night coverage of most shows that I could fit into my schedule. 


How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, and Two and a Half Men were three of CBS's returning comedy shows...and as usually...they were hilarious. Some more than others. Rules of Engagement and How I Met Your Mother had one thing in common: babies. Lily and Marshall of How I Met Your Mother were wanting to have a baby, but Marshall's overly envolved dad was getting a little too annoying for Lily's liking and Jeff and Audrey of Rules of Engagement were trying to have a baby with that help of a surrogate, until the overly appalling, Russell, sleeps with her. Of the three comedies on Monday, Two and a Half Men is still my ultimate favorite. It is just hilarious. The show seems to have no boundaries what so ever, which makes it more fun. 


Mike & Molly is CBS's new comedy show that they picked up. It was much more enjoyable than veteran shows How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement. The show is set in Chicago where Mike, portrayed by Billy Gardell, and Molly, portrayed by Melissa McCarthy, meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. The two definitely aren't the perfect match, but their sense of humor each of them share keep the chemistry between them burning. And I see Mike & Molly doing much better than Accidentally on Purpose last year and Worst Week the year before that, both of which were cancelled after one season, since Mike & Molly beat How I Met Your Mother and Rules of Engagement in ratings by almost 4 million people. 

The Event. OH MY GOD. The Event, what the efffffff??? This show...I'm just speechless...truly speechless. At first I wasn't sure if I was gonna like it or not...but how can you not like a show about an attempted terrorist attack on the white house ruined by the airplane that was about to crash down getting sucked into a vortex?? So, this dude Sean Walker(played by Jason Ritter) is going on a cruise with his girlfriend. Girlfriend gets sick, stays in room while Sean goes scuba diving with this girl he ends up saving from drowning. Gets back to room, girlfriend gone, other people in room, no record of him or her ever boarding the ship. In the mean time, some people show up at Sean's girlfriend's house, kills someone, kidnaps little girl, and they apparently tell her dad that they have her or something cause he ends up being the one to pilot the airplane that's heading toward the white house. I'd say find this episode online, watch it, then continue to watch it. Cause this show is downright awesome. It airs at 8 on NBC.

Castle kicked off it's third season at 9 on ABC really well. Castle returns to town after being away to write a book, but the team gets upset that he didn't keep his word and call them as soon as he got back in town. It takes figuring out that a chemistry teacher, a vending machine owner,  a sculptor, and a couple that owns a club/tattoo shop were all making counterfeit money until it went bad and the couple killed off the rest for Castle to be welcomed back to the team, after at first being a suspect in the case himself. I love that Castle is not your typical crime show like all the CSIs and Law and Orders. Some of the stuff that happens on it seems as if it was actually taken straight from the mind of a mystery writer. 

And rounding out Monday night was Hawaii Five-0. It is a remake of the 1968 version, which lasted 12 seasons so the new one is going to have to leave an impressive mark if it wants to go that long. This airs at 9 on CBS and it was pretty good. It stars Alex O'Loughlin as Detective Steve McGarrett. Now, this is Alex O'Loughlin's third television show that he has starred on...and the last two, being Moonlight and Three Rivers, only lasted one season each...so Alex had better hope this one does good or some mighty powerful people may start to think he's the one killing the shows. This show reminds me a lot of NCIS in the way it's filmed and how the show goes about. But in ways it's more fresh and alive than what has become of NCIS. I despise the fact that there are no odd characters in the show. NCIS has Abby, Criminal Minds has Penelope, ect. This show has none, they are all rugged men and women who I would never be friends with in real life, and it annoys me. I did, however, get the opinion of someone who was around when the original Hawaii Five-0 was on...my father. He said the show was "really good, [but] you can't judge it against the original because the new one is modernized, the two shows are both good in their own respect." And then he went on to complain about commercials, but I'm not getting into that. So all-in-all, Hawaii Five-0 2010 edition was good, but not great.

This was definitely one of the best Monday night premier nights I have seen. Now, just gotta wait until September 19, 2011, to do this again. :-)

DVD of the Week: Bonneville

Week four of my DVD of the Week post is.....

So, there is this website i found called Listia.com, and it is pretty much like Ebay, except you don't get money for what you auction off...you get credits. You use these credits to bid on things other people are auctioning off. It's pretty much just trading. "Another man's trash is another man's treasure" is what they always say ;-) And this is how I came upon this movie.

This 2006 movie has some incredibly huge stars in it. Jessica Lang as Arvilla, Kathy Bates as Margene, Joan Allen as Carol, Tom Skerritt as Emmett, and Christine Baranski as Francine. 

Arvilla's husband, Joe, has died and Francine(Arvilla's step-daughter) has came to take her father's ashes back from Idaho to be buried with his first wife(Francine's mother). Francine threatens Arvilla by telling her that if she doesn't bring him to her home in California, Francine will sell the house that was left to her in the will. The whole movie Arvilla thought that Joe had made another will somewhere and that he had just misplaced it, but Francine convinces Arvilla that Joe was just forgetful and that the new will was never made. Arvilla doesn't want Joe to be buried with his first wife, since Joe asked her to scatter his ashes. So, Arvilla has no choice, she has to take Joe's ashes to California. She decides to take Joe's Bonneville in honor of Joe. Arvilla's two best friends, Margene and Carol, decide to come along for the ride. However, they decide to take a pit stop at the salt flats Joe loved so much, they get a flat tire, spin out, and the top of Joe's urn comes off and some of his ashes fly out. This causes them to "lose their flight", which was later found out to be Arvilla's plan all along. So, the three take a road trip in Joe's Bonneville, and along the way they spread Joe's ashes. Margene falls in love with truck driver Emmett. Arvilla leaves a little for Francine in the urn, but when they get the urn to her, Francine trips and the urn breaks revealing that Carol had replaced the missing ashes with random junk in hopes that Francine wouldn't find out. Francine freaks out. The three woman go to Mexico to spread the last of Joe's ashes. They then leave on their way back to Arvilla's home, as long as Francine doesn't sell it, this little detail is never resolved. 

I was very unhappy with the ending. The whole time I was expecting Joe's will to be in the Bonneville saying that she got that house and he wanted his ashes spread so Arvilla wouldn't have to go through all this trouble, but I guess that's kind of good since that would be your typical happy ending. And this movie was more about finding yourself after a part of you is lost. And Christine Baranski is an amazing antagonist. I've only seen her as Martha May in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, so I wasn't really used to her mean side. I hated her character from the moment she too Joe's urn out of Arvilla's living room during the visitation/funeral. The story was good, the actors were amazing. Too bad this was a box office disaster back in the day. Go watch it. Now.

OMG!! Spoilers!!! What???

Okay, from now on...I will no longer be warning people of the possible spoilers in my blogs. Cause you know what....all my blogs will have spoilers, it is the best way for me to accurately describe the shows I'm talking about. If you notice a blog is about a certain show you like and aren't very caught up on it, don't read the blog because THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!! This is you last warning, from here on out, you read my blogs at your own risk. Thank you. That is all.

Noobs

I guess a lot of shows didn't do too well last season because there were a TON that were cancelled/concluded. Eastwick, 24, Lost, Ugly Betty, Cold Case, Numb3rs, Ghost Whisperer, Law & Order, Dollhouse, Party Down, Better Off Ted, and The New Adventures of Old Christine were just a dozen of the many, many shows to be cut. So, to fill the empty spots left by these shows, all the networks had to bring on new shows. The CW started airing it's brand new shows and it's most popular shows two weeks before premier week, my guess is to get a head start on the competition.

Nikita is one new show that airs Thursdays at 7 on The CW. It is about a spy/assassin gone rogue. She was trained by a secret organization called Division. Division goes after young people with bad backgrounds to train them for their organization, that has become too uncontrollable for the United States. Nikita was one of their most skillful spies, until Division had her lover killed. After that, Nikita broke away from Division, and ever since it has been her mission to work against Division and tear the organization down piece by piece. Maggie Q stars as Nikita, who has gotten a spy of her own, Alex (portrayed by Lyndsy Fonseca), inside the walls of Division. Nikita was trained by Division operator Michael (portrayed by Shane West), who apparently has emotion feelings for Nikita. This is not the typical show that I usually watch, but it did catch my attention and it has a very well thought out story line. So, well done Nikita.

Hellcats is the other new show that The CW began airing. Yes, by the title it is obvious that this is a cheer leading-themed show. However, I do not find this show to be the typical cheer leading-themed show. The show stars Aly Michalka as Marti Perkins, a pre-law college student attending Lancer College in Memphis Tennessee. And this show is obviously directed toward teenagers by it's unlikable parental figures and it's real-life college situations. The show starts out with Marti's mother(who I hated from the very minute she opened that white-trash mouth of hers)(portrayed by Gail O'Grady) not paying for Marti's college and Marti, in turn, losing her scholarship. Marti gets into a heated argument with Hellcats cheer captain, Savannah Monroe(portrayed by Ashley Tisdale), when Marti refers to the cheer leaders as "groupies" toward football players. However, cheer leading seems to be the only way to get Marti a new scholarship, since she has done gymnastics up until freshman year of high school when her mom came to her meet drunk and threw up on her :) .Marti's ultimate goal: succeed in life and get as far away as possible from the life she has with her partying mother who waits tables at the college pub. Hellcats was actually very enjoyable and fun to watch.

Hopefully in these upcoming weeks, starting this week, there will be some awesome new shows. The one I am most anticipating is No Ordinary Family airing Tuesday, September 28 at 7. I don't know why it's airing a week after premier week, but oh well. That's not going to stop me from watching it. Look for it in my upcoming blogs ;-)

Goodbye Summer shows

**As usual...I must warn of the possible SPOILERS...soo....this is your warning**

There were many new and old summer shows that came on this year to replace the shows that were going on hiatus in May. Well, this week they all came to an end. *sad face*

The two shows I watched this year that I have watched before this summer, and they are two of my favorite summer shows, are Big Brother and America's Got Talent. Both shows I am EXTREMELY disappointed with. I try not to get into reality shows, because I'm NEVER happy with the results.

On the season finale of America's Got Talent it was down to Prince Poppycock, Michael Grimm, Jackie Evancho, and Fighting Gravity. My hopes were that Prince Poppycock was to win, followed by Fighting Gravity, Jackie Evancho, and the HORRIBLE Michael Grimm, who shouldn't have made it to the finale in the first place. The night before the finale, they all had a last performance to try and get America's vote. Everyone did well...except for Prince Poppycock. He totally effed himself on what I believe is his worst performance of the entire season. And I do believe this is the on time a contestant has ever got BUZZED on the last performance night. That's right, Prince Poppycock...got BUZZED, by judge Piers Morgan. His act was much more boring and depressing than it has ever been. Fighting Gravity was just as awesome as they always are, Jackie Evancho is just as uninteresting, and Michael Grimm was just as suckish as all the other episodes. Then on results night, which was also the season finale , they had some of their biggest idols come on and perform with them one last time. Prince Poppycock got to sing with Donna Summer, Michael Gramm sang with Jewel, Fighting Gravity performed while Lionel Richie sang, and Jackie Ovanco sang with Sarah Brightman. If Prince Poppycock would have done a performance the night before, like the one he did with Donna Summer, he would have done MUCH better. But, the results were pretty much opposite my hopes. Prince Poppycock came in LAST, Fighting Gravity came in 3RD(and after that happened, I wanted to shut the tv off), Jackie Evancho came in a surprising 2nd place, and Michael Grimm came in last. This was most definitely the worst results I have ever witnessed on America's Got Talent. I am still deciding if I watch it or not next year..

And the same thing happened on the finale of Big Brother. EXCEPT, for the fact that I hated Enzo and I wanted him to come in third....and he did. :) Well, it was down to Enzo, Hayden, and Lane. Ever since it came down to them three I wanted Enzo to come in last, Hayden to come in 2nd, and Lane to take the win. Well, Hayden won. Lane didn't. But at least with Big Brother they give the runner up $50,000...so, these results weren't as disappointing. And Brittany won America's vote for "Favorite Houseguest" which made me somewhat happy as well.

Now, three shows that weren't on last year that I got into during the summer were normal, non-reality, shows. And they were two really good shows. 

Huge, is simply about huge people. Attending fat camp. It stars Hairspray's Nikki Blonskey. It had some good story lines revolving around people changing due to their wanting to be popular. And girls wanting relationships. It's also has a lot to do with people wanting to find out about who they really are as a person.

Hot In Cleavland stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, and the outstanding Betty White. I would not have even considered watching this if it wasn't for Betty White. This is your typical comedy show. Most of the jokes, however, are all dried up and pointless. There are rarely any laughs. If the show is taped before a live-studio audience, the only reason they audience is laughing is because "LAUGH" is probably appearing above them or something. But, this is TV Land's #1 show of all time, sooo...it's been renewed for a second season to begin much earlier, in January, than last year. There were a few times I did laugh, but when I did...I wasn't really too proud of myself for laughing...

The Gates is about a vampire-werewolf-succubus-witch run community(so far, those are the only four mythical beings in the show) that live with unsuspecting humans inside a gated community. These gates are what keep the community running smoothly, and everyone "safe". There is one main rule for the mythical beings that live in the gates: no hunting inside the gates. Well, sometimes the rule is broken. The myths and legends about all these creatures are somewhat still in tact...except, the myths and legends are somewhat modernized. The succubus still needs to feed off the life-force of others, except there's a witch that has made a pill that creates an artificial life-force for her to feed off of so no one gets hurt. The vampires still get cooked by the sun...except, they use very powerful sunblock so they can wander around freely. The show focuses mainly around one man, Nick Monohan(played by Frank Grillo), who is reassigned from working his cop job in Chicago to working as sheriff in the gates. As the season progressed, the show became more and more exciting, leading up to the two-hour finale with a cliff hanger almost as intense V's cliffhanger this past May. It ends with us finding out one of the cops, who I believed was a vampire the entire series, isn't a vampire, she just doesn't have a heart. All the vampires are after Devon, a witch who practices dark magic. One of the werewolves became so jealous that he watered down Andie's, a succubus, medicine. Andie, not knowing that her medicine is incapable of stopping her ability, kisses her boyfriend Charlie, Nick's son. The kiss sucks out so much of Charlie's life force that his body can't heal its self properly. Charlie's parents are told only Devon can save him. Devon makes a potion/spell that can bring someone back to life right after they die, she kills Charlie, and brings him back. After he wakes up he finds out Andie left the gates so he would be safe from her. The vampires then come in to take Devon away since she created this potion that can kill them all. Charlie walks down stairs, but he is not the same. His dad, Nick, walks over to him to see what's wrong and Charlie does this weird blast thing that knocks Nick to the ground. By this time I'm just freakin out, having no clue what's going on. Then...everyone looks at Devon who says "I told you I could bring him back, I never said he'd be the same." then the end credits roll......WHOA!!!!!!!!!! If ABC doesn't renew this for a second season, someone is going to get hurt...like, seriously....

So, of the five summer shows that I regularly watched this summer, my all time favorite was The Gates. If/when it comes out on DVD, I highly recommend getting it. It stars out a bit slow, as a lot of shows do, but by then end you're on the edge of your seat just waiting for something exciting to happen, which did. Summer 2011 will be here before you know it. And I too will be there, watching. 

Live-Action MaDnEsS

Many cartoons have become so popular that they are green-lit(movie term for give the okay to go) to become live-action movies. Most live-action films based on cartoons come years, sometimes decades, after the cartoon series has already been cancelled. It's a last minute ye-haw for fans to get something out of shows they once loved. Within the last two decades there have been almost two dozen live-action movies based off cartoons.

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Ben 10: Race Against Time

 Ben 10: Alien Swarm

 Dragonball Evolution 

Fat Albert

The Flintstones

The Last Airbender

Space Jam

Looney Toons: Back in Action

 Scooby-Doo

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Scooby-Doo!: The Mystery Begins 

What I am not listing is the comic books that were made into cartoons and, in time, were eventually made into Live-Action movies. Because that is pretty much any superhero movie out there and it would take me forever to find and list all those movies..

As of September 14, 2010, there are three live-action movies based off cartoons currently in the works, and being released within the next six months. 

The fourth live-action Scooby-Doo based movie, Scooby-Doo!: Curse of the Lake Monster, is planned on being released October 16, 2010, directly to your television screen on Cartoon Network. It is a sequel to Scooby-Doo!: The Mystery Begins, but a prequel to the first two live-action Scooby-Doo films

Hanna-Barbera Productions is releasing a live-action film based off the iconic show The Yogi Bear Show, simply entitled Yogi Bear, December 17, 2010, in theaters. 

The one I am most excited about is the  live-action film based off The Fairly Oddparents. It is titled A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, will be released February 2011, and is about Timmy Turner, now 23(and still in 5th grade), getting adult feelings for, a now smokin' hot, Tootie and about to loose his godparents, Cosmo and Wanda. Timmy will be played by Drake Bell, Cosmo by Jason Alexander, Wanda by Cheryl Hines, and Tootie by Daniella Monet. Not much has been released about the film, and very few images/videos have been shown. All that's known so far is that Vicky and Mr. Crocker are in the film and some oil tycoon is trying to steal Cosmo and Wanda while all Timmy's personal struggles are going on.

Also, I'm guessing within the next month or two, The Last Airbender 2 will be greenlit. Supposedly, Paramount said that no matter what, if The Last Airbender broke 280 million dollars in sales, they would green-light the sequel. Well, less than a week ago, The Last Airbender broke the mark. It's just a matter of time(hopefully) that the sequel is green-lit and M. Night(vomit) starts work on the sequel. The DVD of The Last Airbender is being released November 16, 2010, so Paramount may wait until then to make the announcement.

Now, there are quite a few cartoons I would like to see made into live-actions films. If you look at The Last Airbender, the Alvin and the Chipmunks films, the Ben 10 films, the Looney Toons-based films, and the Scooby-Doo films the most noticeable thing(for me) is that all the nonhuman creatures are CGIed into the movies to make them extremely life like. That in mind, the cartoon series I would most like to see made into live-action is POKEMON!!!!! For the tenth anniversary of The Fairly Oddparents, Nickelodeon is releasing the live-action film....well....2013 is the fifteenth anniversary of Pokemon. Make it happen Cartoon Network. :-) A few more mentionable cartoon shows I'd like to see made into live-action films are Danny Phantom, The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, South Park, Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, Invader Zim, and American Dragon: Jake Long. 

DVD of the Week: South Park Season Eleven

Week three of my DVD of the Week Post is.....

**Warning: Possible Spoilers**

Oh, South Park. How you never seem to disappoint when someone needs a quick laugh. I bought this at Wal-mart the day of my trip to Dragon*Con, thinking I'd be able to watch it on the eleven hour ride down there. But my DVD players is a piece of crap, and wouldn't work without the lighter outlet thingy(which was being used for the GPS). I was also planning on making it my week two DVD pick of the week, but had to bump it up to week three since things didn't go according to plans and I just got done watching it.

The one thing I like about South Park is that, even after eleven years(of DVDs I have, currently 14 on TV), the racist, prejudice, cruel, inhumane jokes never get old. Sometimes the jokes are so horrific that I feel bad when I laugh at them...but then I get over it and laugh some more. Rarely do shows last many many seasons and stay as clever as they did from the beginning. Even Spongebob Squarepants hasn't done that.

In the box set is the TV movie, Imaginationland, South Park released during it's eleventh season. It is about Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny trying to save their imaginations from terrorists. The terrorists and up blowing up the gate that separates the evil imaginary characters from the good ones. This unleashes havoc in Imaginationland, and if the havoc isn't controlled it will unleash havoc on man-kind.  In the end...the U.S. government nukes Imagionationland and Butters has to save the day by recreating everything with his imagination.....just fyi....this was probably the hardest paragraph I have ever had to type in my entire life because everytime I typed "imagination" the episode of Spongebob Squarepants with the box would pop in my head and I'd get distracted and well...enough said...

This season of South Park was also an Emmy award-winning season. And in episode nine, entitled "More Crap", South Park makes fun of this fact multiple times by posting a little bulletin saying "Emmy Award-Winning Series" at the most gruesome of times(see picture below).

My favorite episode of the series would most definitely have to be the season finale, entitled "The List". In the episode, the girls of the class list the boys in the class from cutest to ugliest. When Kyle finds out he is at the very bottom of the list, even behind Cartman, he goes into a depression. Stan tries to find out why Kyle is at the bottom of the list with the assistance of Wendy. They uncover a secret that the list was forged to make Clyde the cutest boy, thus he was date able so that the girls could date him and get free shoes from his father's  store. Wendy and Stan go to the school to tell Kyle and stop him from burning the school down, but Bebe(leader of the girls) shows up with a gun to stop them. Bebe and Wendy get in a scuffle over the gun and it goes off. When both of them come too, neither of them are shot. Five seconds later, the screen shifts to Kenny's house...AND THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS, Kenny is, once again, killed. :-)