Friday 5/15/15
I watched last night's "Elementary" and enjoyed it as
usual. I hope that last shot of Sherlock was not supposed to
let us know that he had taken heroin! He looked a bit
drugged up.... it was quite a clever and subtle season
finale cliff-hanger.
I still like "The Messengers," and this week's was very
good. That guy who
plays the devil is really creepy!
Handsome but creepy. Maybe the show would have done better
if they'd had a big name as one of the stars. I don't know.
I guess part of the problem is that it seems to be doing so
many themes we've seen in other shows, like "Supernatural,"
"Sleepy Hollow" and "Constantine," among others. Angels,
demons, the devil, the Apocalypse, the Four Horseman... it's
just too familiar now, even though the story and the
characters are different. Maybe they need to find some other
mythology to use for stories next time they develop a
fantasy show.
Even though I don't watch the soaps regularly, it bugs me
when I see them doing things I wouldn't like. Take "Bold &
The Beautiful." Okay, first, kudos to them for having a
transgender character, with good story. Did it have to be
someone who had already had story years ago about her child
being taken away? That makes no sense because they acted
like she had given birth to it. Also, it makes no
sense that all of these people found out about Maya's big
secret before she had a chance to tell her fiancée about it.
I mean, how stupid are they to talk about big secrets in
loud voices where everyone can hear? That's a soap opera
cliché by now, so they should know better. Now, I have
nothing against transgender people, and it's nobody's
business what Maya used to be, how she was born, or her
medical history. Sure, she should have told Rick that she
can't have kids. Other than that, it's none of his business,
either, at least until they get engaged (which they just
did, I gather). You don't owe your boyfriend or
girlfriend anything. Then again, he has gone on and on a lot
about how Caroline lied to him. Maya should have said,
"Okay, well, I haven't lied to you, but that doesn't mean I
don't have my own secrets and personal history and things
that are none of your business." Or if she worried so
much about him finding out about her secret, she should have
asked him before how he feels about transgender people, to
sound him out.
I really hope that on Monday we see that Rick is totally
fine with Maya being transgender and not having told him.
My guess, though, is that he will be very upset, if his past
is any indication. Look how he reacted when he found out his
last wife just kissed another guy. He's very insecure, so
I'm guessing that he will be very upset. Too bad.
There's lots of stuff happening on "General Hospital."
They just killed off
Duke...again! I hate that they turned
him back into a mobster, but I also hate that they killed
him off. Now I read that they're going to get rid of a bunch
of other characters, including Lucy. Also, Anna is going
away for a few months while Finola Hughes directs a movie.
I think they do this every year after the Nurse's Ball,
right? They get rid of a bunch of people. I also hate
what they've done to Elizabeth (having her lie about Jason).
Now she's as bad as Ric, so they might as well put the two
of them back together. The live episodes should be
interesting. Not that we get it live here in Hawaii! I
saw a few minutes of past clips they did with Anna and Duke.
That was great!
I heard that Tony (Thaao Penghlis) will be coming back to
"Days of Our Lives," so that will be great. He's always
good. I guess he's coming back to help out either Chad or
Stefano, now that Kristen is dead (if she really is).
For some reason, my DVR was planning to record some shows
next week that are re-runs, like "The Mentalist," and many
episodes of "The Daily Show" and "The Nightly Show" (both
are on hiatus next week). So I had to go through the DVR
schedule and cancel a bunch of stuff. It was so sad to
cancel so many of my favorites like "The Mentalist,"
"Justified," "Backstrom," "Forever," and others. Boo hoo!
Saturday 5/16/15
We watched last night's "Real Time with Bill Maher" and it
was fun, like
usual. However, he did this silly diatribe
about how Americans put on fake British accents in movies,
but then he mentioned the characters in Star Wars. Trouble
is, all of THOSE examples were British actors, not American
actors, and the Star Wars movies were filmed in England, and
had an international team of actors and crew! So that
wasn't funny and just made him look ignorant.
I didn't watch much TV today, otherwise. I did a lot of work
on the site, though. This
week's Primetime TV News and Schedule is
here and
next week's will be
here.
Check it out because we now put lots of video clips in there
as well. I can't believe it's almost June!
Sunday 5/17/15
Today we watched the "Mad Men" series finale. So sad that
it's ending. The finale was great. I might write an article
about it. We both enjoyed it a lot. They sort of tied up
everything, but not too neatly for reality's sake and left
some things ambiguous. Apparently many assumed from
the ending that Don wrote the Coke ad that they played. That
was a huge assumption on their part. Nothing we saw really hinted
at that. Silly, really. Anyway, I'm just glad they
didn't kill anyone else off, especially Don. I'll really
miss all of the characters. Now I have to wonder if everyone
else also assumed that Sherlock on "Elementary"
is on drugs because that was much more heavily hinted at in
that season finale than what happened in "Mad Men." Then
again, it wasn't the series finale, so that may be why
people were more inclined to read that into the other.
We also watched the "Family Guy" season finale, which was
not very funny
at all. They need to improve that next year
or don't even bother with it any more. Then again, look at
"The Simpsons" -- it hasn't been very funny in years. Even
"American Dad" is still around, albeit on TBS.
I read that Anna shot Carlos on "General Hospital," in retaliation for his
killing Duke. UGH. This is not why we watch soap operas,
first of all. There's still way too many killings and too
much violence on this show. Secondly, that is so out of
character for Anna. It was bad enough that she kept
Faison captive and tortured him. At least there, she was
protecting her family, since he'd busted out of all of the
other prisons. They never said there was any actual torture,
except for the bad conditions. To have her just shoot
someone out of revenge is horrible and not something a
heroine should do. I won't miss Carlos because they never
did much with him, either. I've heard that Shawne is also
leaving. That's another one I won't miss (although, he and
Jordan had great chemistry), and they were never good at
writing for him.
I heard that Finola Hughes is taking some time off to direct
a movie. Good for her. If she's smart, she'll stay far, far
away from GH until they get back to being a better show.
They should learn from "Days of Our Lives." That show
kills people off sometimes, too, but it's not overly violent
and no one has to compromise their integrity to do it.
Marlena pushed Kristen out of a window, but it was in
self-defense. They were fighting, and Kristen was trying to
kill her. Marlena just pushed her to get her to back
off. Marlena is still a heroine and has not had to
become a killer. Good use of old clips with Stefano and
Marlena, too!
Soaps need to follow these simple rules: 1) keep the stories
realistic, 2) stop doing the same old clichés over and over,
3) hardly ever kill anyone off, 4) don't kill off fan
favorites, 5) don't bring anyone back from the dead, 6) keep
the violence to a minimum. If you can't write good
stories without shootings, stabbings, kidnappings, and
explosions, maybe you need to find another line of work.
These are soaps. They should be full of romance and fun,
with drama brought about by relationship issues. It's not
"Game of Thrones!"
This is why people like me have stopped watching the soaps
regularly.
They're cartoonish and boring.
"Young & The Restless" has a few
really stupid stories going on right now... the younger
people in the show are dealing with some mysterious
murderer. Michael has cancer and is pushing away his
supportive wife. Worst of all, Jack has been kidnapped and
is being kept captive by his crazy ex-girlfriend, while
Victor has an exact replica in his place. You know,
this replica thing was outlandish when they did it on "One Life to Live"
in the 80's, but now it's just tired and stupid. Not
only that, but Y&R has never been the kind of soap to do
those kind of crazy stories regularly, so it doesn't work at all. This
is just as stupid as when we found out that Brad had a
secret past hunting Nazis (or whatever that story was; I've
purged it from my brain). Yes, it's good to give Jack more
story, but this is not the way to do it.
Speaking of "Young &
The Restless", we really need a new writer for our
daily updates. We
have some people writing them, off and on, but we need more
that are reliable and can write them at least once a week.
Please
email me if you can help out!
Monday 5/18/15
I
interviewed Gethin Anthony this morning. He was on "Game
of Thrones" before and will now star as Charles Manson on
the new NBC show "Aquarius." It sounds like a great show. He
was so very nice and polite in the conference call
interview. He made sure to thank each of us by name, and he
was just so eloquent. I'm really looking forward to the
show. NBC is supposed to send me some episodes to watch
soon. I hope it's a big hit, but they've canceled so many
shows that I like, over the years. Just in the past few
years: ER, Southland,
Law & Order, Revolution, Dracula,
Crossbones and Constantine. Ah, well. "Aquarius" is only a
short summer show, and they'll bring it back if it's a hit.
It's kind of like a miniseries, I guess. Nowadays it's hard
to tell because they use that word "miniseries" a lot, but
it doesn't mean the same as it used to. it used to mean a
multi-part movie that aired every night for a week or two.
Now it usually means either a 2-part movie or a 8- to 10-
part series that runs once a week. It's so confusing,
especially since there are plenty of series that only have
8-10 episodes per year now (especially on cable). They also
call them "event series" or "limited series" etc.
David Duchovny stars in it, and he'll also be in the new
"X-Files" on FOX,
which is only 6 episodes. I also read that
he's going to have an album out. I had asked Gethin if he'll
be singing in the show, since Charles Manson was trying to
be a rock star, and he said that we would hear him sing, but
it wasn't clear from his answer as to whether he meant we
would hear Gethin singing, or if someone else would be doing
the singing (perhaps old recordings of Manson?). I wonder if
he and Duchovny compared singing notes...
I watched the first episode of "Stitchers" on ABC Family. I
enjoyed it. They don't have the best track record when it
comes to sci-fi shows, though. I like the ones they make, but
they usually cancel them fairly quickly. You can watch it,
too, in this sneak peek!
This week is tough because most of the shows are finished
until the Fall! No "Castle" tonight.
Tuesday 5/19/15
Early this morning, I was in a conference call
interview
with the two stars
of "Stitchers," Emma Ishta & Kyle Harris!
They seemed very nice. Then later, I was in one with Debra
Messing. Her show "Mysteries of Laura" just got picked up
for a second season. She was very professional, but
easy-going and nice.
I've been watching DVD's they sent me to
review, so check
them out. I watched this new Marilyn Monroe movie that's
going to air on Lifetime. Everyone in it does a good job,
but of course Susan Sarandon is the best as her crazy mom.
The new NBC show "Aquarius" is really good. I saw the first
episode today. Wow!!! It starts next Thursday May 28. You
don't want to miss this one.
I've been trying to catch up on everything. There's always
too much to do!
Wednesday 5/20/15
This morning I was supposed to have an early conference call
interview
with Bear Grylls and Executive Producer, Holly
Wofford from NBC'S "THE ISLAND." I don't like reality shows
and don't watch them, but this sounds like it's more
interesting than the usual one. But, anyway, the
call was canceled. Bummer! I wanted to ask him about some of
the interesting celebrities that are going to be on that
show.
Now I've gotten hooked on "Bold &
The Beautiful"! I really
like the way they're handling Maya's story and how it's all
been falling out. Very good soap opera story. Why can't it
always be that good? :)
I spent an hour today listening to a video of Matthew Weiner
talk about "Mad Men." It was really interesting, too.
Apparently it was only the second part of the interview, so
I'll have to watch the first part, too, sometime.
Tonight's "Hot in Cleveland" was really funny! I hope there
are some more funny ones coming up as the show ends...
Wow, both the season finales of "Supernatural" and "The
Flash"
were fabulous! Great world-ending finales. I'm so glad Dean
didn't kill Sam. As
for Flash, I'll miss Harrison Wells. Tom Cavanaugh is
always such a likable guy, whether he's playing a good guy
or a bad guy. When they erased Harrison, though, I wondered,
if he's erased, then why isn't everything he's done erased,
such as the Flash, Barry's mom being killed, his father in
jail, and everything that the particular accelerator did?
That made my brain hurt. I so hate having to
wait until the
Fall to see the rest!
I'm still working on the "Guiding Light" section, updating
it. I had to update the links on all of our actor birthday
lists. I made new Cast and Birthday pages for our "Castle"
and "Being
Human" sections, too.
Thursday 5/21/15
This morning I had two conference call
interviews.
First I spoke with
Bryan Fuller, who runs "Hannibal" on NBC. He seems very nice
and really knowledgeable and smart. I tried watching the
three episodes they sent, but I hated them. I mean, it's not
a "bad" show in the sense that it has really good actors,
and the photography is very beautiful, and the writing is
very intelligent. However, it moves very slowly, and it's a
very violent and gory show as well as pretentious. Fuller
actually said in the interview that he likes
pretentiousness. So, okay....guess that's what they're going
for, then. Not my cup of tea.
Then
we spoke with Kellan Lutz, who's hosting a new reality show
called "Bullseye!". He's most known for the "Twilight"
movies. I guess he's done a lot of action movies and is
really physical and into extreme sports, so he's very
enthusiastic about the show. Apparently after I got off the
line, one of the other people asking questions was flirting
with him in a kind of embarrassing way. LOL!
This is very strange. Wednesday's "Bold &
The Beautiful" ended with Rick
coming up behind Ridge to attack him as he left Rick's room.
Wednesday's episode started with the next day, and only
brief mention that Rick attacked him. That's so odd. I hate
when soaps do that. You would never get away with that crap
on a primetime show. Other than that, I've been enjoying
watching it. Oh, and also they should get rid of the beard
on Rick. I hate that!
Here's a
really interesting interview I've found with Lee Daniels
(co-creator of "Empire") and other TV showrunners. They talk
about race and other issues.
Last
week I noticed that we have tons of TV shows called
"American" such and such: "American Dad," "American Ninja
Warrior," "American Crime, "American Horror Story,"
"American Odyssey," "American
Idol," "The Americans".. and now I read that the people
who do "American Horror Story" are also going to do a new
one on FX about the O.J. trial called "American Crime Story"
(even though there's already a show on ABC called "American
Crime"). That's not confusing or anything!!!???!!! LOL! And
then of course we have tons of cable reality shows like
"American Pickers" as well. Enough already! We know what
country we live in! No need to keep reminding us/pandering
to us.
I'm sorry that this blog is so late, and I hope everyone had
a great Memorial Day weekend!
You can find my older blog posts at
http://www.tvmegs.com
Chronicles
- My personal blog, which is not about TV.
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