Wednesday Night Run-down - Thursday Night Preview.

I haven't got through much from last night. In some ways this new blog and the new DTVR are my worst nightmares... how to keep up? I'm going to be perpetually behind, that's for sure... I have about one hour I can devote to TV a night and that doesn't cut it when you record four hours worth of stuff. The good news is that I will definitely be dropping some shows sooner than later...

From last night:

Dirty Sexy Money - Intriguing. But it didn't "get me" like Chuck did. The characters were interesting and they left you with a few twists so I will be tuning in at least once more. (Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause are definetly worth another watch.) However, this one is "on the bubble" for me.

Bionic Woman - I didn't get through it all. But what I can say is that this isn't the Bionic Woman from my childhood, that's for sure.... It's dark dark dark. I will post more thoughts once I finish the entire episode.

Seriously, that's all I watched last night. Didn't even try to peak at Private Practice (seriously, that has to be the WORST name for a TV show). Or America's Next Top Model. Hopefully, I'll have some time to watch them on the weekend. Having said that.... I'm also taping 5,240 hours worth of TV tonight...

Here's what's on the agenda for tonight:

1. The Office. The show that I'm probably MOST excited about premiering (well, maybe the most after Friday Night Lights...).

2. Grey's Anatomy. K. I'm not thrilled about this one in the least. I know I'm pissing you all off by saying that, but Grey's is not my favourite show. I already wasn't loving it before the horrendous season finale last May. And I think the reason this show doesn't "do it" for me is that I am used to watching such quality shows like Weeds, Damages, Entourage and Dexter (and Friday Night Lights, of course...). Compared to those shows, Grey's is "ordinary". But for you, I will watch it. And, hey, since my expectations are so low, maybe I will actually enjoy it... I will definitely let you know.

3. Ugly Betty. Just thinking about this show makes me smile. Sigh....

Shows I won't be watching tonight:

1. Survivor. I haven't watched this one in years. But I will be DTVRing it for the kids. Ry still really likes Survivor.

2. CSI. I catch enough CSI episodes in re-runs at 3:30 am during my many bouts of insomnia.

3. My Name is Earl. That show is so "two years ago" for me.

Chuck and Reaper - Episodes 1.

I finished watching Chuck last night and people, I think we have a winner! OMG - so good. And so funny. Kinda Alias meets The Office. The characters (especially Chuck) are great. You gotta check this one out.

We also watched Reaper. And it's another really fun one. The premise is cool and the best friend guy is fantastic. (And, as an added bonus, the love interest girl - Andy - has the whitest teeth I've ever seen. Reminiscent of that episode of Friends when Ross whitened his teeth.)

Chuck and Reaper will be staying on my DTVR. Can't wait til next week.

And don't forget that Bionic Woman and Private Practice premiere tonight. I will check them both out - but I can't imagine I will enjoy Private Practice (despite LOVING Amy Brenneman). The preview into that show during Grey's last season was LAME-O and I have heard it hasn't improved much. But for you, my people, I will watch it.

Oh! And Dirty Sexy Money. Supposed to be one of the best of the new season.

Monday night run-down & Reaper for tonight.

So Heroes last night... Can't say I loved it. Not that a lot wasn't going on, but maybe that was the problem??? Too much? Anyway, my quick thoughts:

1. I still love Hiro but his whole story fell flat for me. I was happy to see David Anders (Sark from Alias!) but.... yawn....

2. I am intrigued by the new "hero" Maya.

3. HRG (Noah!) continues to be a great character.

4. Interesting that Claire's new friend is a hero. (But not surprising.)

5. Loving the scenes between Parkman and Molly. Wonder why he got divorced???

The only other program I watched last night was the new Chuck. And even then, I've only seen half of it because I was too tired. I have to say that it is an odd odd show, so far. Not sure I "get it." But I really need to watch the whole thing before I form any more opinions.

Finally, tonight the new show Reaper premieres. From TV Guide:

Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) has a pretty lousy 21st birthday: He discovers his parents have sold his soul to the Devil, who enlists him to be his personal bounty hunter. Thanks to some slick writing and brilliant casting, including a mischievous Ray Wise as the Devil and a high-energy Tyler Labine as best bud Bert “Sock” Wysocki, this is one impressively funny TV show. Kevin Smith directed this premiere episode, and also serves as an executive producer.

Monday Night TV.

New show alert for tonight - check out Chuck:

It's the revenge of the nerd in this new series, which expertly amalgamates on-target comedy, action and espionage. The (mis)adventures of computer geek Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) begin tonight when subliminal government secrets are downloaded into his brain. Unwillingly becoming a vital secret agent, Chuck is drawn into shadowy global spy jinks, and he soon attracts the attention of a curvy CIA superspy (Yvonne Strahovski) and a rough-hewn NSA agent (Adam Baldwin). Watching this zero turn hero is a blast, and the show is so flashy, well spun and fast-paced that it puts many a big-star multiplex movie to shame. (Taken from TV Guide.com)

Also, returning tonight: Heroes and How I Met Your Mother. My DTVR will be running over-time. (Yay for DTVR!).

'Corner Gas' getting positive reviews in U.S.

Leader-Post staff

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

CREDIT: Courtesy of CTV

Brent Butt celebrates the critical acclaim from American critics for the U.S. launch of 'Corner Gas' in front of the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
Having conquered Canada, it appears Corner Gas is on the verge of doing the same to the United States.

The CTV sitcom, which has been Canada's No. 1 comedy series for the past four seasons, debuted Monday night on Superstation WGN and early reviews for the show were good. Corner Gas is airing weeknights following Scrubs on WGN, which reaches 70 million homes in the U.S. from its base in Chicago.

Gannett News Service, which is the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. with 85 dailies, including USA Today and the Detroit Free Press, in its stable, labelled Corner Gas, "One of the new season's best shows ... the humour is slow, sly and quite wonderful." McLatchy News Service, which publishes 31 daily newspapers, including the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, said, "The funniest show coming to television this fall season is not The Big Bang Theory or Chuck or Reaper ... No, the knockdown winner is an obscure little show from Canada called Corner Gas."

Star and series creator Brent Butt will be in Chicago on Sunday to throw out the first pitch before the Chicago Cubs-Pittsburgh Pirates game at Wrigley Field.
Season 5 of the series will open Monday on CTV with a new time slot of 9:30 p.m. following Dancing With The Stars. Produced by Prairie Pants Productions and 335 Productions, Corner Gas is filmed at Regina's Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios and on location in Rouleau.

Corner Gas finished its 19-episode Season 4 with an average audience of 1.52 million viewers and has delivered an audience of at least one million for each of its 69 episodes. The series was nominated for six Gemini Awards for Season 4, including Best Comedy Program or Series. The Gemini Awards will be held Oct. 28 in Regina.

© Leader-Post 2007

Wow. (BB8)

Don't read if you haven't watched the BB8 finale yet.
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Dick won. I'm surprised. Not so surprised that America voted for Dick to win, but that four of the other jury members did. I would have thought he had burnt too many bridges. But whatever, either of them totally deserved to win. And now Dani is free to get her roots done. Yahoo. I wonder if she'll have them done before she does the Early Show tomorrow morning.

Other observations:

1. Jameka was smokin' at the live show. I loved her dress.

2. Amber looked ridiculous. What kind of dress was THAT? She looked like she was trying to dress like a little girl. Ridiculous I tell you.

3. The America's Player reveal was great. The shock of the jury members and the final two was so much fun to watch. And Eric really does like Jessica.

4. Wendy's has the WORST commercials EVER.

Emmy fashion run-down.

If you know me at all, you know that I only watch the Emmy's for the fashion. [I am fundamentally against the Emmy's because they continue to overlook the most brilliant actors and shows on TV (yes, I'm talking about YOU Friday Night Lights, Kyle Chander and Connie Britton).]

I am happy to report that fashion has stepped it up at the awards this year. Last year was pretty blah... But this year I am LOVING the colour. Jewel tones, beautiful!

Well, no colour here - but stunning... Christina Aguilera shows off her baby bump.
Ali Larter (of Heroes fame) is gorgeous in this red grecian-inspired gown.
Not the most flattering dress for Miss Hayden (Panettiere). It looked better on the red carpet than it does in this photo.

I think Eva Longoria borrowed this dress from Beyonce. Heh. Actually, I think she looked very beautiful. And only a size zero can pull off all those sequins.

Rebecca Gayhart. No. No. No. A thousand times no.

Beautiful. I love the colour. I love the style. I love the girl (Kristen Bell, soon to be of Heroes). (Having said that, is this the same gown as Ali Larter's, just in a different colour? Hmmmm.)

OK. People are loving Katherine Heigl dress. For me, I've never been a fan of the mermaid dresses. But she definitely pulls it off.

Kate Walsh. LOVE the colour. LOVE the neck-line. LOVE the bod. Hate the hair.

This picture does not do Julia Louis-Dreyfus' dress justice. The colour is to die for. And it fit her just perfectly. Love.

This is probably the best Ellen Pompeo has looked. Not sure how I feel about the hair, though.

Oh, my... Jamie Pressly. Not the most flattering dress, that's for sure. And you can't see the hair properly in this shot, but it was hideous. It was tucked into a horizontal roll. Looked like she used a hair-dini.
Another fashion disaster. Vanessa Williams wore a Swiffer dress. Uggghhh.

And just to finish off the fashion critique on a high-note, here is America Ferrara. Classy.

As for the actual awards themselves... well:

1. Jeremy Piven won again (yay!).

2. Not sure I enjoyed the new "round" format.

3. Ryan Seacrest was just "eh" but I loved when he referenced Paula and weed at the same time and then the camera panned to her and she TOTALLY wasn't paying attention.

4. Not classy when the opening bit mentioned Isaiah Washington and then showed TR Knight in the audience. Awkward.

5. The standing O for Al Gore. Sweet.

6. Loved when Katherine Heigl corrected the announcer on the pronounciation of her name. Loved that she told the world even her mom didn't think she stood a chance in hell in winning. Oh, and she totally said "shit" when she won. Heh.

7. Sally Field proclaiming that if the mothers ruled the world there would be no god-dammed war. Brilliant.

8. It was funny when Ricky Gervais wasn't in attendance to accept his award so Stewart and Colbert gave it to Steve Carell.

The end.

No one can beat the Donatos.

Who would have thought? I mean, way back when the show started, who would have thought that a father/daughter team could make it to the final two. How the hell did that happen? Oh, yeah... people are stupid. That's how that happened.

I'm actually pretty thrilled that Dick and Daniele made it to the end (even though her roots scare me). Once I came to terms that they are the smartest players maybe in the whole history of the show (save Dr. Will), I wanted them to defeat Zach.

Poor poor Zach. Well, he did make it way further than he deserved to.

It was very nice to hear all the daughterly things Daniele said to Dick. I really didn't think it was cool that Big Brother put an estranged father/daughter duo in the house, but it's cool to see them reconcile. For now anyway... who knows what will happen once they leave the house.

Dani will win. Because she was the best player.

EDIT: Kim just informed me that the last show is not until Tuesday. Brutal.

The end is near. BB8

Well, Dani pulled another POV out of her butt. Good for her. Yes, her voice is annoying, but damn that girl is smart. She deserves to win it all.

Zach handled Dick's attacks very well. I was impressed. And, as you know, NOT a Zach fan.

Dani's roots even seemed worse! Poor girl is trying to cover them up with giant headbands.... Only a few more days until she can have them touched up.

I was somewhat sad to see Jameka go. Although I'm not a fan (as Avery would say - "She's not the brightest bob.") she sure is nice. And she looked very pretty last night.

OMG - I will be so glad when this show is over, because it means I won't have to see Dick in his baggy white wife-beater any longer. I hope he watches the show tapes when he's out and realizes that this is NOT a good look for him.

Oh, and FINALLY sequester house footage! Did the producers read my blog complaining that we hadn't seen the sequester house yet???

Best show you aren't watching.

Friday Night Lights. OMG. I can't believe I didn't watch this season in real time. Instead, I somewhat gave the first episode a chance, but I was distracted and didn't give it my full attention. As a result, I didn't tune in for the second episode and so on... However, soon enough I started hearing great things about the show, mostly from clowngirl and Karen in FLA. Then I regretted my decision to not devote myself to this show. But it was too late... I couldn't just jump into the season after having missed so many episodes.


Sometime later I heard that NBC had all the episodes streamed on the website. I was pumped. I could finally catch up. But alas, only American IP addresses can access the episodes. Burn!


Then I attempted to download the episodes, yet that proved to be just as impossible as watching the streamed videos.


Next I tried my hand at torrenting... NOT EASY. Not for dummies. Gah.

However, my computer savvy husband came to the rescue and started torrenting the episodes for us. Hallelujah! Finally. And it wasn't long before we were hooked (probably by episode 4 or 5).


We are now waiting somewhat impatiently for episode 13 to download. OMG, it is taking FOREVER. Even with all Scott's computer tweaking.


Let me tell you what you all should do. Go and buy the entire first season on DVD. (Or, if you are American, just watch it on nbc.com.) You can buy it here for only $29.99. (Don't be as stupid as me and try and download/torrent these episodes.) Seriously, how much would you spend if you went to the movies? More than $29.99, I bet. And you only get 2 hours of viewing pleasure at the movies - but with this first season of Friday Night Lights you get 24 hours!


And why should you take on Friday Night Lights?


1. Awesome awesome acting. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have to be among the best actors on TV right now. Seriously. (Kyle Chandler used to be on that really bad TV show way back when - something about getting newspapers that told the future - haaaaaated that show. But he's fantastic in this show. Oh, and he also played the bomb squad guy on Grey's Anatomy.)


2. It's not about football. Well, not much. It's more about the people and their complex relationships. The characters' stories are so addicting - you won't be able to wait until the next episode.


3. But there is some football. To help suck in your husband to watch with you. (Also, I enjoy sporting-themed movies - Remember the Titans, is one of my all-time favourites.)


4. Matt Sarasen and Landry. How much do I love these characters? They have heart. And Landry is as funny as hell.


So are you with me? Will you start watching? If so, catch up quick - the second season premiers on Friday, October 5. (Don't worry, I'll remind you.)

It's too late Zach. (BB8)

Yeah, Zach you may have won HOH (again) and you put Daniele and Dick up, but that's really not going to matter. Because with Daniele's track record on winning POVs you know she's going to take herself off (or maybe Dick will win and take her off...) and then Jameka is going to be leaving. And that's fine. Because idiots shouldn't win BB.

On another note, Daniele really needs to get her roots done. It's that time in the game where the women left have the unfortunate dark roots. Erika had them last year (and in the other year she was on) and now Daniele has them. You'd think they'd bring some Nice'n Easy into the house with them...

BB8 - Zach is an idiot.

Zach totally had control of this game by winning Power of Veto on this double eviction night. By taking either Jameka or Eric off the block, he would have forced Dick to put up Daniele and then Zach and whomever could have voted Daniele out - breaking up one of the strongest duos on this show ever.

Love them or hate them, Dick and Daniele TOTALLY deserve to win this game. I'll never understand how all their fellow houseguests allowed them to get this far. Stupid stupid stupid. People: they are father and daughter... you DO NOT leave them in the house together!

One more thing: How come BB hasn't been showing any footage of the sequester house this year? (Or have I missed it?) Every other year they've made a big production and showing the guests' reaction to the newly evicted person's arrival. But I haven't seen a thing... I am very curious how they are getting along in there... (i.e. Jenn and everyone else!).

Welcome!

This is teev-o-licious, my blog to discuss my favourite TV shows. I'm looking forward to a fantastic new season of TV. This site gives you a comprehensive run-down of new shows, returning shows and premiere dates. Oh, my DTVR is going to be working over-time this fall!

Some of the new shows I will be checking out include:

Aliens in America (Don't let the title fool you, it's nothing supernatural.)

Bionic Woman (Yes, for nostalgic reasons, I have to give this one a shot.)

Pushing Daisies (The premise is sooooo interesting, I just can't wait to see how it plays out.)

And some of the returning shows I can't wait for include:

Heroes (I am anticipating a second season that is just as good as the first.)

Lost (Unfortunately we'll have to wait until January for this one to return.)

The Office (Definitely the funniest show on TV. I can't get enough of it!)

Friday Night Lights (I am slowly getting through the first season of this terrific show.... not because I don't want to rip through it, but because torrenting SUCKS for this show. We just can't download the episodes fast enough.)

Dexter (OMG, the first season was AMAZING. I cannot wait to see what happens next.)

(I am aware that I am omitting popular shows like Grey's Anatomy and CSI. But truth be told, even though I will watch these shows, I don't find them nearly as amazing as my returning favourites.)

I think this teev-o-licious venture is going to be a lot of fun. Bring on the premieres!