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.

All Oprah, all the time

Oprah, I love you girl but even you need to rest SOMETIME. Photo from Time.com

I wasn't feeling well today so I took the day off.

Time for a comfy blanket and some daytime TV. Can I just tell you that daytime TV is craptastic. I love trash but some of the stuff they were airing were horrible. I took a minute to watch Tyra and she had Janet Jackson on. But really she had Tyra's ego on and Janet Jackson. EVERY thing was about HER and so I flipped the channel.

Then there were 10,000 court TV shows and so I watched TLC and they had a bunch of cooking shows such as "Take Home Chef." He was making this tuna dish and I realized that I don't like fancy food. Give me meat and potatoes please!

And then I realized that my favorite new show "Flip That House," would be on in an hour so I decided to surf the net and then I came upon this: The Chicago Sun Times Oprah blog.

The top item was the death of Sophie. and can you believe that it actually made me cry?

Do you know Hulu

Ah, "Fame" now with Hulu.com, I can see you anytime I want. Photo by Amazon.com

Besides JumptheSnark, I have a new best friend. It's www.hulu.com.. I freaking love it. The site came online Wednesday but I heard about it a few months ago at a party where we were saying goodbye to some co-workers.

I didn't quite get how it worked but now i do. The site is a joint-venture between Fox and NBCUniversal. It has old shows and TV movies and I guess it was set up to combat YouTube. It's got a fan here.

Now here's the drag: It is advertiser supported. Meaning that you'll have to sit through 30 second commericials but that's OK with me because I understand the need.

It's fun to see their catalog of old shows such as "Mary Tyler Moore," which I watched the pilot and hadn't seen in years. The theme song cracks me up and the thing that sets me over the edge is the woman in the kerchief who watches Mary throw her beret up.

Tonight I watched the pilot of "Fame" and was shocked to see the number of people who were seen in the pilot as extras. Like this lady. And this guy. But THIS was the most shocking.

I can see more hours of my life being wasted in the future, and I'm OK with that.

A tale of two men

Poor Jonathan. You were so close. Poor Chet. You tried. CBS.com

This one of the most interesting "Survivors" so far. It was crazy. First Johnathan had to leave because of his nasty and infected knee. Then the had two of the most complex challenges but in the end, the person who needed to go, left. Chet was tired. Worthless and sad. And LORD I couldn't stand to see him in those droopy drawers anymore!

Johnathan fought like hell to remain in the game. He argued with the doctor but when girlfriend said he could lose his leg, that was pretty much it.

However, I need to "talk" to three people. Cirie, Tracy and Amie. You guys need to band together quickly. I don't think you know it, but you three NOW have the power to control your tribe. Amanda and Ozzy think they are running things but if the three of you get together then you'll have a shot. I hope you realize that.

Hot stuff here

Oh Tyra, you and this show is truly larger than life. Photo by CWTV.com
This is like the BEST. SEASON EVER!

We see Dominique is thrilled and overconfident from being spared from elimination last week while Lauren is a little shocked why she's still there. Fatima is just Fatima. Ick.

This week's early challenge: Taking quick change lessons from Miss Jay. Of course they run and scream and run and scream some more.

Fatima ticks Miss Jay off by not changing competely. The girls then have to do runway walks in front of Miss Jay and the firemen who look pleased as punch. It made me feel sort icky because they were oogling these girls. Don't they like have WORK to do?

Claire does fantastic and so does Whitney. Dominque thinks she's the stuff and Whitney gives the classic line "I know drag queens that walk better than Dominque."

Miss Jay hates Fatima's walk and is fearful of Lauren who looks like she's running away from the mall. Miss Jay helps her and then Amis does HER walk and it's more skipping than walking.

Claire and Aimee get into a who needs to pee and who needs to shower. Finally they gang up on Aimee and Marvita leads the charge of "Let's attack Aimee." But she winds up looking stupid.

Later, it's another Tyra mail (I hate that they all gather and read aloud. It's so second-grade).

Bryan Bradley stops by and the girls have to walk in a Tuleh fashion show. It seems so very runway this week.

And then Miss Jay introduces the girls to Jaslene and Ann Shoket of Seventeen magazine. Jasline actually looks great!

The winner of this challenge will be with Jaslene in a Lot 29 advertorial. Dominique weighs in and I'm betting she's goign to fall on her face.

I then notice that Dominique has a new more golden hair color and it looks better. Miss Jay kicks off the show and then the modeling begins after some Italian chatting. Stacy Ann was first and she looks GREAT! Whitney was good and then her boob pops out. Lauren comes out and she looks bad and scared.

Kat looks great and Fatima looks as if she's ready to catch the bus. Dominque and Marvita are awful. Claire is great and Amis is put in this Jackie O esque coat and it looks bad.

Aimee was great. Kat looks great. Jaslene ask Lauren if she wants to be there and says she's very disappointed. Of course she starts crying in the confessional but she holds it together while with the other.

Kat wins the challenge (Claire was ROBBED!) Kat picks Aimis and Marvita to be in the photo shoot. Why? I don't know.

At the photo shoot the girls look half-way decent. Marvita looks extra girlly. Jaslene shows the girls how it's done and it looks wonderful.

Lauren's self esteem takes a hit and keeps talking about what Jaslene said. She needs to get over it.

Wow, it's ANOTHER Tyra mail? This time the girls are off to a Meat Packing District. Mr Jay shows up in a ugly old coat. And he tells them that they are going to be wearing meat. Whitney tells the audience that she eats steaks so it won't bother her to actually put it on. My question: What happens to the meat when they are done?

Fatima poses and it looks not too bad but not great. Kat brings her A game and then Stacie Ann struggles.
Whitney is OK. Marvita comes out ready to kick some _ meat.

Lauren looks more ticked than model-y. Dominque takes some risqus and then its on the meat and it doesn't look too bad. Aimee feels uncomfortable and it shows. Aimis is grossed out and then looks like a hot mess.

Aimee feels like she might be a target. Dominique is sure she's staying. Lauren is a little nervous because of the runway thing. Amis is still sleepy and is dragging. She looks awful. Like homeless, begging for quarters awful.

After the break, Tyra sings and it's awful. But we knew that already!
And then it's time to see the photos. They stank. It was really bad, bad. Whoever came up with this challenge needs to be fired.

I didn't like a single one. Claire looks awful.When Lauren comes for judging Miss Jay busts her for bad walking. She's this season's Heather.

And so, then Tyrant (yes) unveils the top 8: Anya, Whitney, Kat, (and she gets a directive of putting in a bun), Claire, Dominique, Stacie Ann, Lauren and she gets the directive of work on her runway walk, Marvita, Aimee. And then we have the bottom two: Fatima and Aimis. Amis gets dinged for her craziness and Fatima gets dinged for modeling from the waist down (WTH?).

Amis gets the boot and Fatima cries. Amis looks like "yeah, whatev."

Episode grade: B

It's a different world....

No, this isn't the cast of the CW's latest Pussycat Doll clone. Instead, they are the cast of "High School Confidential." Photo by WE Network


I don't have the WE Network on my Cox Cable. But I wish I did. Why?

Because based on a documentary I managed to get my hands on, they air some pretty good shows. I used to joke around that WE and its cousins "Lifetime" and "Oxygen" only aired those "She was in peril" movies. You know the ones: C-list/washed up actress plays/wife/sister/mistress/slut/ has a stalking/drugs/alcohol/ problem and is being stalked/abused/lives past life and then finds help/redemption/a gun and moves on with her life.

"High School Confidential" changes all that. It's a documentary and sometimes real reality show about these group of girls who attended school in Kansas from 2002 to 2006. It's quite fascinating. I've never been a girl but I had NO idea what some of these girls go through nowadays.

If you can get your hands on it, I suggest you watch. If you work with me (you know who you are) ask me for it.

Why I didn't watch "The Wire"

He's fiiiiine. I should have watched. But I just couldn't - yet. Photo by HBO.com
At work today, my co-workers went on and on about how wonderful last night's episode of "The Wire" was. I was on the phone with a friend back east and "The Wire" came up.

I had heard it was going to be about the newspaper business and although I really wanted to watch, psychologically I wasn't ready.

Every day I see reports of newspapers downsizing and talented journalists leaving the business. For me, it was hitting too close to home. Where I work, we've been under severe stress for weeks now.

Only recently I've begun to feel normal again. I've hidden it well but it's kept me up at night. It's made me worry for my friends. It's made me sick inside. It's made me have scarydarkhorriblemeannastytooeviltotalkabout thoughts.

I turn to TV to get away from my troubles and not remind me of them. And while it's important to watch good drama no matter what, I'm not ready yet.

But don't let this blog fool ya.

I'll be Netflixing it. For real.

He's fierce! Betta believe it

Christian. We love you. You are FIERCE! Photo by People.com

First. Watch this clip.

You back? Good.

Hy-STER-CAL.

Loved this season of "Project Runway" although Christian was entertaining, Jillian should have won. Her clothes were just way better! In fact, I'm a little disappointed with the reality tv of most of the TV shows ("Survivor" excluded) on network TV.

So in an effort to expand my horizons, I've added some new shows to my roster.

Don't be shocked at what you read below.

My new secret addiction: "Flip That House." I stumbled on this show en route to "Torchwood" and haven't watched since.

I am just fascinated by how well people upgrade these houses, but it also saddens me that they sink a ton of money into these houses and they just sit on the markets. Give it a try Saturday nights on TLC

My other new secret addiction:

"Unwrapped". Maybe it's because I'm getting older but for some reason, I'm just extra curious about how stuff works and how things are made these days.

Or I could be just a budding foodie. I dunno, but I plan to check out this show in a few weeks. Look for updates soon.