Big News of the Week: The History Channel Changes Name to History: Um, yeah, alright. Did the rapper born as Sean Combs have something to do with this inexplicable name change?
Coalition Links of the Week: According to one poll, Hugh Laurie and Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel are the Brits with the best American accents on TV. BuzzSugar wants to know who else does a good American accent. (BuzzSugar)
Marcia and Fergus liveblogged Eurovision, the only music contest to feature Olympic ice skaters, knitting brides and pirates. Take that, American Idol. (Pop Vultures)
Who's the most overrated couple on television today? Meredith/Derek or Henry/Betty? You tell us. (RTVW Online)
LOST. SO. AMAZING! (Vance is still gasping for air.) (Tapeworthy)
The highlight of Jace's week? The jaw-dropping and brilliant season ender of Lost. The low point? Watching the pilot for the brutally awful US adaptation of Spaced. (Televisionary)
The same-sex escapades continued on Work Out and our resident lesbians answered viewer questions about Jackie Warner's taskmaster tendencies as well as the shameless hot tub scenes with Renessa and Greg. (TiFaux)
Ashley picked her jaw off the floor long enough to reflect on the Lost finale and the season-ending shocker. (Tube Talk)
Kate picked the top five summer shows she's looking forward to this summer - and Wipeout wasn't one of them, thank you very much. (TV Filter)
Lost: I listed a bunch of questions during my season review (see We Got to Go Back Kate) but one I didn’t think of until after I posted is what is going to be real time in season five? It looks like getting back on the island will be the theme of next season so will they be flashbacking to the island, or Sawyer at el will be present day on the show and the Oceanic 6 will only be seen in flashforwards? Or, of course, both? Well we only have eight months to debate that I guess. Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com.
Promo of the Week: Some say I Love Money, premiering July 13 on VH1, is going to be the greatest reality show ever while some argue that we will look back in ten year and pinpoint the show as the downfall of western civilization. I say way not both. But after watching the promo I got to wonder where my boy Midget Mac is? He better not have gotten voted off early and the camerman just are not panning down to get him in the shots.
Next Week’s Pick: Fear Itself, Thursday at 10:00 on NBC: The show may not seem too interesting except for horror fans, but the first episode stars Landry Clarke and the moderately attractive Mircea Monroe.
There really is no more polarizing show on television on Lost. Whether arguing that it has fallen off since the first season or it is actually better than it ever is, or even arguing about what it all means, it is hard not to have an opinion on the show and argue to your last breath on that opinion. This was the season I decided to stop being frustrated with all the unanswered questions and the absurdity of it all. If I were a Lost character this season I would be Paulo before the whole dieing thing, just a dude in the background while the Jack’s and Locke’s argue over every minute and inane detail of the show.
If there were a season for the show to shake itself off the funk it has been in since the excruciatingly boring first season finale, it was this one thanks to the jaw dropping last scene of season three that introduced up to the concept of a flashforward. So for season four we had a nice mix of flashbacks, flashforwards, and whatever the frak that Desmond-centric episode was.
Naturally the writers dropped the ball with some of the flashforwards, thinking that a big reveal at the end would make up for the otherwise substandard rest of the episode. Yes I am talking to you Kate. But then you had the edge of your seat ones like Sayid and Not-Henry, which I was actually right was not really a flashforward. I have a theory that when he went behind his bookcase after they killed his daughter he wasn’t summoning the smoke monster but instead warped into the future to warn Charles Whitmore that he was going to kill his daughter in retaliation. I was just a couple episodes off.
Then the finale shows us in detail how the Oceanic 6 got off the island, which less face it was pretty anti climatic. The problem with Lost with all the back and forth in time, even the novice viewer can piece the puzzle together by the time the actual reveal happen. What keeps people coming back is the big plot twists and season four had a decent ones even if everyone thought it was Locke in coffin the day after the third season finale. I was actually holding out for my initial guess in Not-Henry until the moment he walked through the door. Even then I thought maybe it was still him and faked his death.
But it was Locke which of course ended up in the coffin which really puts a wrech in my Charles Whitmore is Future-Locke theory. Of course this, and other parts of the finale, begs these questions:
- What did everyone refer to Locke as Jeremy?
- If Locke has to go back with the 6 to get back on the island, does Walt, Desmond, and the Lawnmower Man have to go back too?
- How and why did Locke get off the island?
- How does Locke die?
- What the frak is up with Claire?
- What the frak is up with Jin?
- What the frak is up with Faraday and the people on his raft?
- What the frak is up with Michael? (I assumed Jack's dad saying you can go now meant he could die. And on that note, why is Jack's dad showing up everywhere?)
- Is there a significance to Sawyer, Michael, and Jin all being in the sea (be it dead or alive) much like the end of the first season?
- What did Sawyer whisper to Kate?
- Why did Miles want to stay?
- What does Sun want with Whitmore?
- What was with the weird octagon commercial thing?
- Why were Boone, Libby, and Charlie selected as the three that died in the Oceanic 6 fake story?
- And most importantly, what the frak is with the feud between Not-Henry and Charles Whitmore?
Ever since his infamous couch jumping episode incident, not only has Tom Cruise’s films underperformed but it has also had a negative affect the reason for the jumping, his wife Katie Holmes. Granted you can argue her lack of being able to put people in theater seats well predates her meeting her husband. First Daughter anyone? Not surprisingly her latest outing tanked at the box office debuting at a meager seventh place.
That is not to say Mad Money (not to be confused with the Jim Cramer television show, which actually makes an appearance) is at all unwatchable. Holmes plays third banana to Diane Keaton (Father of the Bride) who is forced to get a job cleaning toilets at the Federal Reserve Bank when her husband gets fired. There she comes up with a plan to get back to living the upper class lifestyle she is used to by recycling the old and worn money about to be shredded for her own personal use.
As the person actually doing the shredding, Queen Latifah (Bringing Down The House) if the first person she recruits with Holmes entering the fold later. Not to pile on Holmes, but she is the weak link in the trio as the flaky, free spirited character seemed to be more fitted for someone younger and with actual comedic timing.
The movie really shines with its supporting cast. First there is Stephan Root as head of the bank playing a more serious Jimmy James. Ted Danson (Getting Even With Dad) gets plenty of laughs as Keaton’s now unemployed husband. Finesse Mitchell, who Saturday Night Live should bring back to play Barak Obama, gets the most laughs as the guard that hits on every woman that goes through the metal detector. And even my big brother Shooter McGavin makes a way too short appearance.
Unfortunately the movie starts off in the third act, one of my least favorite plot devises, with the main players being arrested before flashing back. But how they pull off the caper still is entertaining despite the miscast Holmes. Still they should have gotten caught well sooner than it happened because the movie ends up going about twenty minutes too long where you just think to yourself, go ahead and caught already.
On their last album, 3 Doors Down dueted with Bob Seger which was fitting because their first two albums were chalk full of tunes that will soon become old time rock and roll. The only problem was that last album was bland; sounding what a 3 Doors Down tribute band may come up with. It may not have helped that the album’s title, Seventeen Days, referred to the amount of time the band took to record that album. It is not much more promising that their latest album is self titled.
With the uninspiring title comes an uninspiring batch of songs that, much like the last album, don’t really deviate at all from what you would expect from the band. You imagine the band sitting around saying, “Okay we need a track for the modern rock stations like Loser,” then write It’s Not My Time. “Alright, how about one for traditional rock stations like Duck and Run,” and out comes Train. “Now we need to slow it down for the adult contemporary charts similar to Be Like That,” and they go and record Let Me Be Myself. “Great, nine more filler songs and we are done.” No wonder it doesn’t take them too long to record.
That is not to say these songs are bad and you certainly will not be changing the station when these songs come on your radio format of choose, but it isn’t a group of songs you really want to listen to all together in one sitting. But you have to wonder what possessed the band to write Citizen/Soldier for the National Guard with the cheesy lyrics about people in the Guard to use in a national campaigned when they should have just co-opted the much stronger Duck and Run would be just as fitting and a much better song to boot.
The closest the band comes to breaking their shell is on Your Arms Feel Like Home that could have become an epic if they crossed that preverbal line. While She Don’t Want the World has a haunting drum that is almost as creepy as their first hit Kryptonite but still could have gone further with the song.
A couple weeks ago I started posted in the morning thanks to the new Blogger advanced scheduling and actually stuck to that for a while, but nothing like a three day weekend and perfect weather to keep me from being inside and writing. Another reason is that Amazon MP3 recently created a cool new widget where you can preview songs like a jukebox, if only in thirty second increments. I am going to start including these with my album reviews so you can actually preview the album while reading my review, you may have seen it in my latest review for Jason Mraz (see Our Name Is Our Virtue). I also created one for my list of the Best Songs of 2005, which you can listen to below. Since not all the songs are available to download through Amazon MP3, click the link to see the entire one hundred songs. I hope to have more of these lists up to date soon and back to morning posting tomorrow.
Big News of the Week: An Old Season Ends, a New One Starts: The last two weeks saw the season/series finales of most every show not named Lost. In the past we would have to wait three months until more new television but about five years ago cable started debuting new series in the summer and now there is plenty to choose from. You can look out for the second seasons of The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys on TBS starting Thursday June 12 at 9:00 and 9:30 respectively. This begs the question, does anyone know when Rescue Me starts up again? Also starting up this summer in the critically acclaimed The Closer, which returns Monday July 14 at 9:00, who was nice to enough to send me this goodie basket:
Note to other shows out there, if you want me to mention you, send food, it will be sure to work.
Coalition Links of the Week: Between Girlfriends, Jericho, Aliens in America and many others, there are plenty of newly canceled shows to mourn. Buzz wants to know: Which one bums you out the most? (BuzzSugar)
This week, Eric wondered how much you would pay to watch your favorite TV show. (Daemon's TV)
Mikey's infatuation with the fourth season of Desperate Housewives lasted until the final two minutes, which he worries might force the series back into a creative coma. (Mikey Likes TV)
Marcia picked the five new shows that you absolutely, positively can afford to miss. (Pop Vultures)
Examining what makes her stick with Heroes despite it's let-down of a second season but drop Brothers & Sisters over a disappointing storyline, Jody wonders what kind of fan you are: fickle or faithful? (RTVW Online)
Vance thought Grey's Anatomy's season finale was rock solid! ABC is doing pretty well with the 2 hour finales so far, no? Desperate Housewives was great, can't wait for Lost now!(Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace put on his Pilot Inspektor cap and reviewed the pilot episodes for several new series, including FOX's new J.J. Abrams drama Fringe ("spellbinding television"), ABC's misguided US adaptation of UK series Life on Mars, and HBO's True Blood. (Televisionary)
Lost's flash-forward, Desperate Housewives' leap in time, Battlestar Galactica's skip to New Caprica -- it seems like more and more shows are shaking up their formats. Dan evaluates the new trend. (TiFaux)
Jennifer vented her anger about the shocking Bones finale, and for those of you who missed it, check out her exclusive interview with One Tree Hill’sJames Lafferty. (Tube Talk)
Take a trip down memory lane with theTVaddict.com's tribute to TV shows that are no longer with us. Yes Moonlight & Men in Trees fans, we're talking to you. (the TV Addict)
Raoul talked with perfect 10 Whitney from America's Next Top Model. (TV Filter)
Check out my season reviews of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory here: This Is Gonna Be Legendary, Wait for it… Dary. But I would just like to add about the past week’s episode that, much like the next Yank, I am all for making fun of Canadians as it is last group where it is socially acceptable to do so, but having Robin call Bruce Springsteen the American Bryan Adams just crossed the line. Maybe I am just overreacting, eh.
Next Week’s Pick: Lost at 9:00 on ABC: Of course this is by default as Lost is the only thing on next week. For those that want to see the entire three hour finale in its entirety, the first part is re-airing at 8:00. I can’t say I have high hopes as the first season finale was excruciatingly boring, the second was head scratchingly bad, and the third was shaping up as boring as the first if it wasn’t for the mind blowing reveal of the flashforward. I sure it is safe to assume in the fourth season finale we won’t get enough answers for it to be satisfying.
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anyone? Not surprisingly her latest outing tanked at the box office debuting at a meager seventh place.
) who is forced to get a job cleaning toilets at the Federal Reserve Bank when her husband gets fired. There she comes up with a plan to get back to living the upper class lifestyle she is used to by recycling the old and worn money about to be shredded for her own personal use.
) if the first person she recruits with Holmes entering the fold later. Not to pile on Holmes, but she is the weak link in the trio as the flaky, free spirited character seemed to be more fitted for someone younger and with actual comedic timing.
. Ted Danson (
) gets plenty of laughs as Keaton’s now unemployed husband. Finesse Mitchell, who Saturday Night Live should bring back to play Barak Obama, gets the most laughs as the guard that hits on every woman that goes through the metal detector. And even my big brother 
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