I Should've Had a V-8!

Chip, I’ve had a V-8 moment! I was just contemplating whether Glee’s upcoming season finale, which will give us the glee club geeks performing Journey’s "Faithfully," could ever best the Sopranos’ final fade-to-black to “Don’t Stop Believin’.”  Could "Faithfully" out of the mouth of babes even surpass Glee’s own series premiere version of “Don’t Stop Believin’”?  The thought of all those voices trying to improve on the perfection that was Steve Perry back in the 80s, well, it boggles the mind. This different voices thing led me, natch, to that mysterious “one minute” phone call in Breaking Bad, and thereby my V-8 moment. (Don’t question how my mind works, just go with it.) We’ve previously speculated wildly on the identity of Hank’s guardian angel. I’ve decided this person must be someone Hank knows.  Otherwise, why would he disguise his voice? This rules out several likely suspects -- Gus, Mike, and probably Saul.  Thus, we are left with the likely suspects being Gomez, the sheriff, or some other law enforcement insider.  Am I missing anyone?  Who other than Mike, Saul, or Walt could be taking Pollo’s pesos and/or have an eye out for Hank’s back?  And is Walt a definite no? What did he know and when did he know it?  Time to cue up "On Demand" and do some research in the archives.....

Forever yours, peacefully......
Holly

EW or EWWW?

I mentioned part of my nightly routine is to fall asleep reading Entertainment Weekly. The March 12, 2010 issue had a list of the “10 Best TV shows Right Now!” Holly, I thought you would like to know that our opinions dovetail nicely in some places with this national publication. Not so much in others. The list goes as follows:

1. The Good Wife – I have not followed this, but I saw a portion of it last week. I have to admit, I was immediately caught up in the drama. I just don’t know if it can truly be called the best.

2. Breaking Bad – This should come as no surprise. We have been saying the same thing for a while. As we anticipate the premiere of the third season, get ready to get your blogface on.

3. LOST – I mentioned this show in my defense of network TV last month. I stand by that opinion as I am completely engrossed with the final season as it is airing now.

4. Friday Night Lights – I have read about how good this show is for years. I love football, but I have just not gotten into it.

5. Fringe – Another show on my list of redeeming features of the networks.

6. Modern Family – I have watched this a couple of times and it is very funny. It just has not made my appointment TV list.

7. Glee – Here is one for you, Holly. You have gushed over this show that I have yet to watch.

8. Southland – I have not watched this, either. It was originally on NBC, but they cancelled it and the cable channel TNT picked it up. It must be pretty good, then.

9. Damages – I have not followed this Glenn Close FX series, but I read it is good.

10. Caprica – Here is our love/hate darling in the top ten.

I am partial to a few other shows that did not make the cut. There are some I like that I am under no illusions are great shows (Sorry, Burn Notice). Yet, there are some that I believe rise above some of this list.

Glaringly absent is the Emmy and Golden Globe winning Mad Men. Is it because it is not on the air right now? I would also include FX’s series Rescue Me, TNT's Men of a Certain Age and HBO's True Blood. These are active series, but not currently airing new episodes. Is that the criteria?

Holly, what do you think? Would you boot some of these and replace them with others? Did you notice a mere 4 out of 10 are cable shows. My list would be more like 6 out of 10.

Here is how my list would look.

1. Mad Men - AMC

2. Breaking Bad - AMC

3. LOST - ABC

4. Fringe - FOX

5. True Blood - HBO

6. Rescue Me - FX

7. Men of a Certain Age - TNT

8. Glee - FOX

9. Better Off Ted - ABC

10. Caprica - SYFY

Mr. Schuster, Is That You?

******SPOILER ALERT******

Chip, I promise I have Caprica comments coming.  I'm just having a little trouble concentrating after reading that none other than the Queen of All Media himself, Mr. Perez Hilton, is reporting we are going to see a manwhore side to seemingly harmless Mr. Shoe when Glee returns next month.  Will Schuster, we hardly know you.  But suddenly, you're ever so much more interesting.

Peace, Holly

What I'm Watching This Weekend

I don’t know about you, Chip, but these four-day weeks really wear me out.  Cramming five days worth of the peace and love that is my workplace into a mere four can really take it out of a girl. So more than usual, I’m looking forward to turning on the gas logs, nuking myself some Orville, and catching up on my DVR and DVD kitty.  Want to know what I’ll be watching?  Be warned, it’s not pretty:

Caprica
Despite my better judgment, I’m giving the new episode of this Syfy franchise one more last chance. Chip, I think you and I were both throwing up in our mouths a little over the last episode’s dead-kid-trapped-in-a-robot parental sex scene.  One more cheap trick like that and I’m going to be rooting for the Cylons to destroy humanity.

Footballers’ Wives
I love the British tabloids.  I mean loooove them. The photos! The judgmental finger-wagging! The loose journalistic standards! In the wake of the ongoing trials-by-press of Chelsea football (that's soccer to us Yanks) stars John Terry and Ashley Cole (and perhaps in honor of Ashley’s wife Cheryl’s landing on California soil this week to wash that man right outta her hair, La La Land style), I’m giving a test run to Footballers’ Wives, a now-cancelled Brit program (programme?) that had a four-year run on ITV. I have high hopes for the entertainment value of these WAGs and their troubles, real and imagined.

Glee
Still working my way through some of the episodes I missed of the hilarious first half-season of my favorite band of geeks. If ever there were a show begging for a walk-on from Sarah Palin, this is it. I just want to be up on the plotlines when that craziness goes down.

Tiger Woods Press Conference
What a hot mess this is.  It’s like media roadkill.  Gross, yet I can’t help but look.

What’s on your digital agenda, Chip?

Peace, Holly

Glee - Revenge of the Nerds

 

Back in the day, I loved the show Square Pegs, which brilliantly highlighted the anxiety of two high school girls trying to fit in.  To my delight, I’ve recently found a 21^st Century replacement, Glee (FOX).  This show interweaves serious high school issues (teen pregnancy, discrimination) with comical coming-of-age dilemmas (dating, self-image), and throws musical theater and the attendant ensemble cast into the mix.  I know what you’re thinking.  Stay with me here.

Glee follows the lives of the misfits who make up a show choir/glee club in an Ohio high school and the obligatory comical adults around them.  The kids are led by coach William Schuster (“Mr. Shoe”), who is also the school’s Spanish teacher and is prone to spending too much of his teacher’s salary on hair products.   While the club works toward getting to the show choir sectionals competition, it battles its own internal demons – there’s the pregnant girl with both the real father and the guy who thinks he’s the father in the club, the gay male soprano who wants to sing “I Honestly Love You” to one of the straight male football players in the club, the girl with two daddies who doesn’t want to share the spotlight with the other kids, and the lovable and pitiable wheelchair-bound kid who can’t get to sectionals without a special bus with a wheelchair lift that the school won’t pay for.  Externally, the club has to contend with their #1 Hater, cheerleading (“Cheerios”) coach Sue Sylvester, a win-at-all-costs type of ambiguous sexuality who wants nothing more than to see the glee club disbanded in order to have their funding, however meager, redirected to the Cheerios budget. 

The story lines in Glee are enough to make the writers of Days of Our Lives blush – in one of the more outrageous plots, Mr. Shoe’s wife pretends to be pregnant, going so far as to wear a belly pad to deceive him, because she’s become neurotic that Shoe will leave her.  No baby at the end of nine months?  No problem!  She’s made a secret deal with pregnant Cheerio/glee club member Quinn to take her baby off her hands. Nope, this won’t be a trainwreck at all.

Despite the high level of camp, I forgive the writers of Glee everything.  Somehow, it works.  This show is laugh-out-loud, singalong fun.  The best moments of every episode I’ve viewed have been the club’s performances of pop music and show tunes we all know and love.  The wheelchair dancing to “Proud Mary,” the first episode’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” the rival choir’s hairography to “Bootylicious.” I loved them all.

Glee returns to FOX’s lineup April 13.  In the meantime, I’ll be downloading the soundtrack from iTunes and humming along.