Live blogging Lost the finale

Dear Emmy people. Ben's eyes alone deserve one because I've never seen someone so expressive before. EVER. Photo by ABC.com

Dear reader(s). Thanks for sticking with me. I've been a bad TV blogger because of job commitments getting in the way, but I promise I'll do better in the future. Meanwhile, this TV season officially ends with the "Lost" finale tomorrow night and what a season it was!

The writers' strike took a LOT of wind out of a lot of shows. In my gone too soon list: "Journeyman" and "Women's Murder Club" and, um, "Bionic Woman." (Jump, don't roll your eyes)

In the delightful discoveries department: "Chuck" and "Torchwood".

I've also developed a couple of guilty pleasures but the main one is "Flip that House" (I guess it's a homeowner's thing....

The hurry back award goes to "Ugly Betty" who had a stellar sophomore season. I heart Justin in a non icky sort of way.

The most improved show: It's a tie between "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" who both raised their games this year. The five year jump for DH was brilliant and the flash forwards off the island is working for "Lost".

And speaking of "Lost" I'll be live blogging so wish me luck!

"Idol" worship

It was David vs David on tonight's "American Idol." Thankfully, the RIGHT David, that would be David Cook on the right won. To his left is David Archuleta. Photo by Reuters

So after weeks of bad auditions and bad singing, it came down to the battle of the Davids. Tonight's overstuffed show dragged on way too long. It was full of washed up singers (apologies to any fans of the following people). ZZ Top, Donna Summer, Graham Nash, Seal and Bryan Adams all trotted on stage to sing with the fallen "Idol" contestants. And if you didn't get your celeb fix on stage then you could look in the audience and see old "Idols" such as Fantasia and Ruben in the audience along with Teri Hatcher, Janice Dickinson and a few others.

As my friend Karla says, "It's like 15 minutes worth of show stretched out to two hours." I wanted to bypass but my partner squealed like a girl and demanded we watch.

That being said, it was less than enjoyable and all the product placement was unbearable. Mike Myers came on to sell his new movie, "The Love Guru" which looks positively awful.

That being said, thanks America for getting it right and choosing the RIGHT David to win.

Oh "Oprah"

Folks went NUTS when Oprah unveiled her favorite things of the summer. Photo by Oprah.com

Watch this first. All done?

Can you believe this? Folks lose their minds if they get free stuff. I was floored by the reaction and I've seen this show and this topic a bunch of times but this audience takes the cake.

When the show was over: They got a new grille, some bathing suits, a pair of flip flops, makeup, a book, a gift card to the Mariott, a GPS device and a CD. That's pretty much it. No cars, no FANCY trips just those things listed.

While I applaud Oprah for sharing with her audience this was crazy the way these people acted.

And America's Next Top Model is

Go Whitney! Us big girls everywhere appreciate you! Photo by CWTV.com

I wanted Anya to win. But I'm OK with Whitney winning.

She worked hard for it and it's nice that Tyra recognizes that women and models to come in all shape and sizes but I think there have been BETTER plus sized women on this show.

That being said, this season was kinda ho-hum for me. All sparkle but very little flash and substantance.

Maybe next season, the ANTM magic will be back.

OH MY GAWD

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the dumbest. SURVIVOR. EVER!!!. Photo by CBS.com

I know I haven't blogged in a few days but I HAD to blog about this one. This will go down as the best season of "Survivor" in a Loooong time.

Tonight, poor Erik won individual immunity and then GAVE the necklace to another Survivor. It's never been done and now we see why. The women had planned on getting him out and darned if they didn't work it Erik was so dumb I was screaming. And yet at the end, he still remained a good sport. BUT he's still stupid.

My TV loves me....

Renee (played by Gabrielle Union) is adding is adding even more sass to "Ugly Betty."

I can't do it. I've tried to stay away but with all of this TV goodness, I can't stop blogging. Spread the word: TheRemote is back!

Let's recap the week in review:
Monday:
Yes. I admit "Gossip Girl" is still a guilty pleasure. All the drinking, booze, catfighting, high-fashion and snippness (the folks on my job have NOTHING on this crew) makes for an enjoyable evening of viewing. When last we left, Blair was unseated in the popular crowd when it was discovered that she lost her virginity to evil Chuck Bass in the back of a moving limo. And then slept with her boyfriend, Nate) (so not a misprint here) a day later and claimed he was her first.

Young Jenny looked on this as her chance to enter the elite society (even though she is p-o-o-r).

When we pick up, Blair is still an outcast and Serena (who was an outcast all due to Blair's conniving) is her only friend. Blair is tormented by the other girls and then decides to take revenge on Jenny and regain her place on the throne.

Jenny is scrambling to keep up with the lifestyles of the rich and famous and is pawning everything in site just to have money. She even resorts to stealing a Valentino dress . When it's discovered by the other girls (at Jenny's birthday party no less) Jenny is out.

Jenny, however, isn't ready to give up so she brings Nate to where the girls went to hang out with Blair and she regains her post. Blair once again, is auf'd.

Tuesday
"American Idol" is my crack. I can't get enough. Everytime I go to rehab for it, I keep hearing no, no, no.

This week was showtunes! by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was a disaster. And a shocker because poor Carly was given the boot. She clearly was better than Brooke and Jason but I suspect the Grandma vote saved Brooke and the young girls saved Jason. This week: Neil Diamond! Oh joy!


"Law & Order: SVU"
Out of all the shows on TV this one is in my Top 10. I don't think I've ever missed an episode of this show because it just keeps getting better and better. This episode: The lover of a gay football player is found murdered.

Benson and Stabler have a rough go with this case because of secrets. Benson accidentally outs the football player and it causes them to be investigated by internal affairs. We then learn that she's had a secret boyfriend for MONTHS and Stabler, while cordial seems a little peeved that she didn't tell him.

The secret of this show: the chemistry between the two leads. Sometimes, they're like brother and sister, sometimes they seem to have a sexual chemisty. One of the most intense scenes ever had Lou Diamond Phillips in it a few seasons ago and you have to track down that episode.

Thursday:
"Survivor" is having one of its best seasons ever. This season, the fans vs. favorites have more twists and turns than a maze. This week, another blindside. The victim: Poor clueless Jason. After surviving a vote off last week, Jason had the opportunity to save himself once he found an immunity idol at Exile Island but instead he let Natalie bamboozle him into not playing it.

If you listen carefully, you can hear America's screams of "idiot" as he got voted off.

"Ugly Betty" came back and it was terrific. This episode celebrated Betty's 24th birthday which turned out to be the worst birthday EVER!

Soo, soo bad. Henry's babymama came back into town and foiled Betty's plan to spend with Henry.

Daniel was trying to find out Renee's secrets and Willy and Marc were busy trying to keep their secret a secret. At Casa de Suarez, Papa Suarez was feeling neglected since Betty wanted to spend time with Henry.

The break is over...

Ben is the bomb. ABC.com

I'm watching "Lost." There are no words. No words. Alex dead. Smoke monster. Jack. Ben. Sawyer. Penny. Vengence

World hopping. Indiana Ben. Wow.

Episode grade: A+++++++++++++++++

Taking a short break

Hi there,
I'm on the homestretch of job No. 2 so I'll be back on May 24th with new insights on TV and more.

Thanks for your understanding.

LORD! What has happened to "ANTM'????

After the stunning elimination of Claire two weeks ago, I was going to stop blogging about this show. Tonight, my dear Stacy Ann got the boot second from left. Lauren, let, Whitney, third from left, Anya,DomMANique and Katarzyna are all headed to Rome next episode and so's Fatima who MISSED the photo shoot. Photo by CWTV.com


This show has jumped the shark this season. What the heck is going on? Two weeks ago, Tyrant and her crew let one of their strongest models, Claire, go. If you remember, I picked Claire to win the whole thing so I guess I know nothing about modeling.

This week, Stacy Ann was kicked out. Fatima, who missed the photo shoot because of refugee issues, got to stay.

How unfair was this? In the real world, if a model missed a shoot, she'd be fired. I guess that doesn't matter in Tyrant world.

Episode grade: A big fat WTF???!

Are you watching "The Paper"?

Meet the cast of "The Paper." They are young'uns who are waaaay to excited the newspaper biz. Poor fools. Photo by MTV.com.

A few weeks ago I happened to be watching MTV and saw the commericial for this show. At first, I thought it was more MTV drivel but it actually was a really good show.

We meet Amanda who's vying to become Editor-in-Chief of her high school newspaper. She's served as copy editor (YAY!!!) and now she's aiming for the big time.

We also meet some other people but because they are soooo busy spouting hate for Amanda that I blocked them out. I know there's the couple who are soooo much in love they don't care about anything else. There's the Sports Editor who seems OK but is surrounding himself with losers. And then there's the shrill queen who's the business editor. He's like he needs more Xanax than Rite Aid could possibly provide. He's going to melt down before the end of the series.

Luckily, Amanda gets the coveted title and immediately the others start to plot against her. It's sooo high school!

The Paper airs Monday nights at 10:30 p.m. on MTV

Episode grade A+

The girls are back!

Oh Susan, Bree, Gaby and Lynette, I've missed you. Thankfully, you were worth the wait!. Photo by ABC.com

After what seemed like the longest writers' strike ever, new shows came back. The TV season isn't a total loss but you could tell that things are rushed and different.

"Desperate Housewives" came back on Sunday and it was in prime form. Kudos to Dana Delany for giving another stellar performance. (If there's any justice, she'll get an Emmy come fall).

This episode picked up the Mystery of Katherine's past and we learned that Katherine slept with Susan's underaged cousin back in the day. He's back on the scene because Susan apparently is too dingy to figure out TurboTax. She spends most of the episode deflecting Tim's attention to underaged girls only to find out that he slept with Katherine and we learned that he saw Katherine hit a man.

Lynette and Bree struggled over church. Lynette had questions about how she survived cancer and a tornado and wanted to get closer to God. Bree was embarrassed when Lynette kept interrupting the service to ask questions. When Lynette finally confided to Bree her motivation, it provided the "awwww" moment of the episode.

Gaby was so in love with Carlos that she believed him that when he said that he would only be blind for a few months. After Edie did some snooping, Gaby learned the truth.

The girls are back in town (at least for another five episodes.)

Episode grade: A+

Oprah totally faked us out...

Brandi is my pick to win "The Big Give." Photo by ABC.com

I've been casually following "The Big Give" and tonight they faked us out by not sending anyone home. BOO!

The horrors of puppy mills

I'll never look at a pet store the same way again after finally watching Friday's "Oprah". Photo from Oprah.com

Animal lovers, you need to skip this blog. Seriously. Just move on to the next entry.

I'm not an animal lover. I respect animals and their place in the world but I've never really owned a pet except for a stray cat that my family called Ralph. We would feed Ralph and would make sure that Ralph was OK but we never took him to a vet or let him in the house.

Friday, Oprah aired a show about puppy mills. I had never heard of a puppy mill before and had no idea that dogs and other animals were treated so poorly. They showed the inhumane conditions these animals lived in and it just broke my heart.

I always thought that the dogs from the pet store were strays or came from breeders but I didn't know about the horrors of puppy mills.

Oprah was a mess throughout the whole show. Her beloved dog Sophie just died and they aired a tribute to Sophie. As I watch, I knew a lot of folks in America were rolling their eyes at this, but you could see the love she had for that dog and it was sad to watch the tears stream down her face. If you even lost anyone or any animal you loved, you could feel her pain.

Lisa Ling who seems to be working solely for Oprah now, did an undercover investigation on the PMs and it was terrible what we saw. The saddest thing was one dog had been chained for so long, that the chain had embedded itself to its neck and hair was growing through it!

Another sad thing was watching dogs and cats being put down at the Fort Worth Texas Humane Society. They kept a list of why animals were put to sleep and it included things such as feral behavior and anti-social behavior. The guy who was explaining why was clearly sad about this but realized it needed to be done because they don't have the room.

Oprah begged folks to have their animals spayed and neutering. I'm surprised that she didn't have Bob Barker on because he's been saying that for years.

While sad, I know that this ranks up there as one of "O"s best shows.

Am I still cool?

My friend Jump the Snark, Ani, David B, Rose W and a few others have been on my case again.

These folks are in my circle of coolness along with Leslie, Liz, Karla and Pat.

Practically ALL of them have been on my butt to jump on the "Battlestar" train. I don't know why, but I guess I'm NOT a true die hard Sci-fi person or something.

I mean I haven't even seen "Star Wars" and fell into "Star Trek" sheerly by accident. As I'm writing this, I'm wearing this cool T-shirt that my friends Rose and Jeff bought me when they went up to Long Beach to check out an exhibit.
So for those of you who missed BSG on Friday, here's a little gift for you above!

Is this show STILL on???

Another bunch of hamsters are put through the MTV gawkfest. Photo by MTV.com

First watch this. You back? OK.

Was that a trainwreck or WHAT? I remember when this show started in the summer of 1992 (yes, 16 years ago) and it was so interesting. I was around the age of the people living in the house and it was fascinating to see how they tried to make their way through NYC in the early '90s. I loved smart Kevin, wide-eyed innocent Julie, around-the-way girl Heather, boy-toy Eric, way-too mature Becky and gay Norman and grunge rocker Andre.

The second season wasn't so bad when they had the L.A cast and the San Francisco season hands down was the best season ever. But the show jumped the shark when it went to London and hasn't been the same since. I've checked in over the years but I found that I've gotten older and these kids have gotten, in a word or two : annoying as crap!

Now we have the new season: Hollywood! I can only imagine what kind of dramas these kids will be going through. Let's pray people don't start doing porn or Internet shows to earn extra cash!

We know at the heart this show isn't a documentary but more of a soap opera designed to draw ratings, but could it at least be thought provoking as well?

The show I always meant to watch

About six years ago, there was this great show on Fox that I meant to watch but never got around to. It's on my Wish List on Amazon but I really don't expect anyone to buy it for me. And now, they won't have to. My new favorite Web site is showing it for free.

After watching the pilot episode, I'm going to give it a shot during my "free" time on weekends.

And speaking of giving shows a shot: For those of you who never watched "Buffy" here's a clip just for you to show WHY this show was one of the best shows on TV. After watching this, ask yourself this question: How many times have YOU felt invisible.

Work Out is back!

I was tooling around the Internet and saw that my favorite trainer and her friends are back!

Last season, I was addicted to this show about this lesbian trainer and her crazy staff. At first, I thought they'd provide really good workout tips but then I realized that these folks are full on drama queens! Even the straight people brought their own sets of drama. If you click on the video above, you can sample the new season and judge for yourself if it's worth watching.

Two un-expected boots!

Chikezie, I knew you were going to go but just not this soon.(Top) Aimee, I thought you really had a chance but once I saw the "I'm going home edit" I knew you were a goner. Photos by CWTV and American Idol.com

I have to admit something: I stopped watching the results show of "American Idol." As my friend Karla says, it's like 5 minutes of show stretched out over an hour. The whole "let's all sing as a group" is so dumb. It also is a preview for America as to what the concert is like.

If I'm not watching it for free, I sure as heck ain't gonna pay for it.

That being said, I couldn't wait to see who got booted so I just hit the Net and viola! Instant answer. I wish I could say I was surprised but I'm not.

But I WAS surprised about who got booted off "Top Model!" Aimee was in my top three but I guess she just didn't bring it enough.

My friend Dana and I joke about the editing of this show. You can pretty much tell pretty quickly who might be in trouble based on the amount of face time they get in the diary section of the show. I call it the "I'm going home" edit. And Aimee, Lauren, Dominque and Claire were all in danger. If you noticed, Stacy-Ann and Fatima were barely in the episode so I knew they were safe. I guess they give the models, their last hurrah!

I was so sad to see Claire in the bottom two. Let's hope she can keep her butt away from there in the future!

Some words about "Lost"

Michael's back story (left) was good but it wasn't the best so far this season. That belongs to Desmond (Center.) Photo by ABC.com

You'll notice that I haven't been blogging about "Lost" for a few weeks. That's because the show is so freaking good that I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it is.

Last night's was the last episode until the end of April and BOY do we need a break to process all that's going on here.

Penny's dad wants the island to himself. Ben trying to protect the island. New outsiders who have murky motives. Kate's neverending supply of lingerie. The Oceanic Six. And so, so much more. The return of Michael and WAAAALLLT!!!!

So, here's a list of questions I have. Feel free to add your own:
1) Under what circumstance did Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sayeid, Sun and Aaron find themselves together and getting off the island?
2) Is Claire and Jin dead?
3) Why does Jack and Hurley want to go back?
4) "The island won't let you die???"
5) How did Kate get a hold of Aaron?
6) How can some folks come and go and others are trapped?
7) Where are Locke, Sawyer, Rose and Bernard (yes, I do care about them)
8) Is there really a good answer for all of this or is the being made up as we go along?

Today's theme: Let's quit

Both Marvita and Kathy gave on their reality shows. Marvita is out of the running to be "Americas Next Top Model," and Kathy went nuts on "Survivor." Photos from CWTV and CBS.com

On "ANTM" drama was the house guest that didn't want to leave as Fatima, Whitney and Dominique all got into it about racism and who's more PC.

This week the girls had to learn different poses. For some reason, fashion seems to think this is posing. I on the other hand, do not.

It all came down to close up photos with the girls having ink on their faces. The bottom two: Whitney and Marvita and you knew it was Marvita who was out. The judges felt that she had given up.

Over on "Survivor" on its special night and time, Ozzy showed that he was king and Erik was his loyal subject. Meanwhile, he was ticking off the female members of the tribe.

For some reason, this seemed to be puzzle night because both the reward and immunity challenges ended up with who can solve the puzzle the fastest.

Over on Kathy's tribe, it wound up that SHE! HAD! HAD! ENOUGH! and it was time for her to leave. I mean she went batsh*t crazy y'all. It was bad.

Ozzy's tribe went to Tribal Council again and of course it was Tracy who was on her way out.