7 posts tagged “dancing with the stars”
OK, for some crazy reason, I've fallen in love with this show! The third season starts tonight on PBS. It's quirky, cheesy and dazzling all at the same time. If you enjoy Dancing With The Stars you really should watch this for great insight and understanding. Plus see Tony Dovolani do his thing in a professional setting, not with a D-list cougar.
Also in my post is a suggestion to discover Phil Roy who is my favorite music discovery of the past several years. Issues + Options is my suggestion for where to start listening.
Dancing With The Stars announced their new cast. Last time Joey Fatone was my pick from the start and he came in second so not bad. This time nobody in particular is tickling my supportive fancy but I find the choice of billionaire blogger Mark Cuban fascinating. I'll probably enjoy Cameron Mathison and Wayne Newton no doubt will be wacky fun. My favorite pro, Tony Dovolani is paired with Jane Seymour so he'll be out early on again since the older women don't seem to fare well on this show.
And, MTV has a "poet laureate." No, not R. Kelly [“Not only is there a man in this cabinet/But the man is a midget! (Midget! Midget! Midget!)” ] but an actual poet:
It is John Ashbery, the prolific 80-year-old poet and frequent award winner known for his dense, postmodern style and playful language. One of the most celebrated living poets, Mr. Ashbery has won MacArthur Foundation and Guggenheim fellowships and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.”
Joey Fatone, Justin's former *NSync boy-bandmate, is hoping that producers of Dancing with the Stars will once again invite him to show off his twinkle toes now that DWTS is all popular and stuff. If Joey is indeed dancing next season, I've got my favorite picked out. Husky and goofy - Joey was always my favorite *NSync-er. C'mon, admit it, you loved him in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
And, as punishment for abandoning and giving away her three Chihuahuas in favor of K-Fed, Britney Spears adds to her litany of PR woes by being voted worst celebrity dog owner. She made a choice I find inexplicable as I would find any Chihuahua (heck, any dog) preferable to Fed-ex but perhaps she did the right thing and those Chi's have better lives not growing up in that dysfunctional, pantie-less household.
Not much to update today as I didn't see much last night. A dear friend called me and we had a great time gabbing but it meant that I missed half of Lost (although enough to say, cage sex? Ewww!). What I'm going to do is try watching it on ABC.com. I've watched shows on my computer via iTunes and at CBS using their Innertube service. Innertube was maddening, clunky, difficult to use and returned repeated error messages. iTunes was a bit of a pain to get set up with because (gasp!) it was the first time I ever used the service. I know! I do not have an iPod. However, once downloaded, the show (a free episode of 30 Days on immigration) played easily and the quality was exceptional. I wouldn't want to regularly replace watching on my hi-def, widescreen plama television ;-P but it's nice to have iTunes as a backup option. If ABC.com doesn't work out, I'll pay for this episode of Lost.
The lack of surprises on Dancing With the Stars continued as, indeed, Joey was voted off the dance floor.
I saw The Nine which improved in that they showed a tiny bit more of the robbery than previous episodes. But, seriously, the post-robbery storylines are just so cliched and boring. In hooking up post robbery, one of the female characters says to the male character just before he kisses her "Are we really doing this?" Another female character when her boyfriend starts to propose, she runs out so she doesn't have to answer. Meh, who cares?. The robbery scenes are so much better with real tension and energy. They should take a tip from 24 and keep the action going.
The recorded stuff and Lost will have to wait for a weekend catchup.
Tonight I'll watch My Name is Earl, The Office, and ER. Ugly Betty and The OC will be recorded unless I somehow squeeze in last night's OC beforehand, in which case I'll watch.
And, why no Grey's Anatomy you ask? Because I simply cannot suspend my disbelief sufficiently to buy the notion that virtually every man who comes within ten feet of boney, squinty-eyed, Ellen Pompeo completely self-absorbed Meredith, falls instantly in love, or at least lust, with her. In general, the whole everybody-in-the-hospital-is-hooking-up-with-any-co-worker-who-breathes thing is, even by soap opera standards, just too much for me.
Tonight brings dueling must see shows. The OC with a Wednesday try out against Lost. I can't stress enough how awesome The OC was last week. Truly a return to what we all loved about Season 1 pre-Oliver. Critics I've read universally agree. And since they are real critics they get episodes in advance and the consensus is that the first 4 episodes rock and last week wasn't a one time fluke.
Lost is the last episode of the "fall season." Rather than chopping up the season with repeats, Lost will disappear until Feburary and finish out the season. In its place will be Day Break with Taye Diggs. Now Taye Diggs is hot enough to get me to watch for him alone but the whole deja vu theme is just so uninteresting to me - Groundhog Day but the wife gets killed over and over...? I'm hard pressed to find that premise compelling as entertainment. So I'll be hoping that The OC does better in its tryout and sticks so I can just watch it without conflict. I'll also watch The Nine tonight but, again, critics agree with me, my patience is wearing thin. The pilot was terrific but it has been downhill ever since. Unless they quickly rework this show and show more bank robbery and less PTSD moping it is going to fail.
Dancing With The Stars carried on predictably last night. I think last week's order will be the final finish: Mario wins, then Emmitt, Joey and Monique. Poor Monique - the judges criticized her last week for getting her heel caught in her long skirt and then this week for showing off her imprecise footwork in her short skirt. But she could have protested that unfortunate dark lipstick which certainly didn't help her chances. And, I can't believe that none of the recaps I've read have mentioned the fact that Cheryl has a ballroom. In her house. I'm still scraping my jaw off the ground over that one.
Law & Order: CI was a bit disappointing. In the continuing L&O tradition of using aging stars for over-the-top roles, Liza Minelli's turn was more of a whimper than a bang. But always fun to see Vincent D'Onofrio work his psychological charms.
It was fun to see Mariska Hargitay back on Law & Order: SVU but, damn, put some dirt makeup on that woman. Her post-pregnancy glow on top of her already insane beauty was a tad riduculous when she was supposed to be an undercover anarchist terrorist. But loved how she couldn't get SVU detectiving out of her blood. And, please tell me that Dani and Elliot kissing in the promos for next week is some kind of bad dream red herring play acting to catch a thief and not a real hook-up. Ewww.
For tonight its 30 Rock which is getting better. Alec Baldwin and Kenneth the Page are laugh out loud funny. I'm still laughing over the "those shoes are definitely bi-curious" line from last week. No Jane Krakowski is a good move and, although I wished Rachael Dratch was in the "Girlie" role when ever Krakowski or Dratch were on screen, perhaps Dratch won't feel as bad now that they are both MIA.
Then Lost, of course. I have my suspicions of who's going to bite the bullet based on promos for upcoming daytime talk show guests. Dang! I generally don't mind spoilers but I like being surprised with Lost. And if I am right, I am not happy.
Finally, watching The Nine and recording Top Chef. I loved the pilot for The Nine but I'm losing patience with the pace of reveal and balance between flashback and present. Seriously, if they keep doling out 10 minutes per week of the 52 hour robbery this show will lose its already dwindling audience before the end of the season let alone before revealling the whole story. Top Chef, so far, is not as fun or engaging as last season. At this rate, it may disapper from the DVR and I'll catch up when they have a marathon at the end of the season.
And, question about Heroes... is Niki a Summer Roberts rage blackout come to life?
For some reason I continue to find hilarious any reminder of the song "Summer Girls" by boy band LFO. The shear absurdity of the lyrics crack me up every time:
Tim Goodman from the SF Chronicle has an excellent rundown of what to watch and what to record. I have a few difference but I overlap with most of his recommendations. One difference comes tonight where Tim recommends Friday Night Lights in its regular time slot but as I mentioned I'm just not feeling that one.New Kids On The Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick
...
I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch
I however can't quit Gilmore Girls. I definitely miss the much better pop culture references of Amy Sherman-Palladino but the Lorelei-Chris reuinion isn't bugging me as much as I thought it would. And, even though I don't dig Logan on GG, I would have enjoyed seeing dueling Logans last week on Veronica Mars. But I suck because I don't watch even though I would probably love it (teen girl heroines are a fav like in my favorite series Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I was especially bummed when I saw that last week's episode was titled "Charlie Don't Surf" in homage to my favorite film, Apocalypse Now.
And let me just warn you that I also suck because the only series I watch on Fox are 24 (my favorite show last season) and American Idol. Yes that means no House, no Bones, no Prison Break, no Simpsons... Bad TV watcher, bad!
So tonight it will be Gilmore Girls on the DVR and watching Dancing With The Stars plus Law & Order: CI and SVU. Nip/Tuck is not bad but I've never been drawn into watching an entire season.
And, last night, not much to report back on. How I Met Your Mother was a good, classic S1 episode showcasing Ted in all his hopeless romantic glory and Barney in all his quippy bad boy glory. Girlfriends was suprisingly good. Not one "heifer" and, unlike most shows where if an actress leaves to do Baileys Irish Cream commercials and everyone just pretends not to notice, Girlfriends is actually dealing with the breakup of the central, longest-standing girlfriend
relationship between Joan and Toni and powerfully so last night.