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Pop Culture Roundup, January 21

The Biz
TV News
Supernatural
Random Stuff

The Biz

Thinking Outside the Box: Web TVs Skirt Cable Giants
I can’t wait until we choose exactly what we want to watch, when we want to watch it without having to subscribe to a bunch of worthless channels. I mean, really, The Military Channel? No thank you, but to get E! and Style, I have to get that one, too.

Why the Broadcast Networks Can’t Take the Summer Off
Seems the big 4 are tired of being left in the dust by the cable nets every summer. This year (again), they are promising to do better. Find out how and why they can’t afford to fail at broadcasting watchable summer programming this time.

Studios Even More Afraid of Unsolicited Scripts
Combine a litigious society with a bunch of execs whose business model is shifting under their feet. What do you get? Overwhelming fear. According to this article, the slush pile may be at an end in TV and movies.

Can’t Hollywood Swing for the Fences?
An interesting look at the lack of black voices in filmmaking.

TV News

Viewers Abandon Heroes in Drove: Can It Be Saved?
The real question is, “should it be saved?”

Rob Estes Leaving: Harry Wilson Will Be Written Out
90210 is losing another of the grown-ups. Rob Estes apparently didn’t get what he wanted from the CW brass in his contract negotiations and is leaving the show. Will Annie become even more annoying now that she will be a product of a broken home? And will granny still let them live in her crazy mansion?

Tom Shales on the Villains in the Leno-O’Brien Fiasco at NBC
This morning, it was announced that NBC is paying Conan $32.5 million and giving his staff severance of nearly $7 million to get him off the Tonight Show. In this piece from earlier this week, Shales rips the NBC executives to shreds in this opinion piece. Great reading!

Supernatural

Supernatural: The Devil Went Down to Carthage
Here’s a link to the Zap2it recap of the last new episode. For me, it’s all about refreshing my memory about what happened way back in November so that I’m not too lost tonight.

5.10 Abandon All Hope
The Supernatural Wiki has all sorts of resources to help you get caught up and ready for tonight.

Preview of 05.11 “Sam Interrupted”
Our friends at Buddy TV help us get caught up and give a few sneak previews of what is going on tonight.

Supernatural Countdown No. 14: The Family Business
A funny look at the top 10 “happy” events on Supernatural. It’s not all gloom and doom for our Winchester boys.

Looking for spoilers? Here’s what I know.

Random Stuff

Golden Globes Stunner Sophie Loren’s Tips for Ageless Beauty
Sophie Loren is proof positive that women can age gracefully, if they accept it instead of fighting it. That doesn’t mean you should just shlump through your life because you’re gonna get old anyway. But, you can take care of your body and your skin, take pride in yourself, and dress appropriately rather than going under the knife.

Let me know what you think of the new link format. Thanks!

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The Return of Happy TV

I like dark shows. Porbably more than the average person.

I loved the seedy underbelly of the small Pacific northwest town Twin Peaks.

I couldn’t get enough of the depressing and violent near-future depicted in Strange Days.

But even I have to throw up my hands sometimes and say, “Please show me some color, some light, some happiness.”

Pushing Daisies (RIP) gave me some of that. I ended each episode feeling happier than when I started.

I’ve got a few current shows I go to for the happy. Gossip Girl and 90210 amuse me with their ridiculousness. And Castle thrills me with the rapport between Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic as they solve sometimes grisly murders.

My number one go-to happy show, though, is Glee. It’s exuberance is infectious. I don’t always like the songs they sing. In fact, I rarely like musical performances in my TV shows and movies. I don’t always like the characters or the choices they make. But it is all put together in a package that can’t help but make me smile.

What about you? Are you in love with Glee, or do you dismiss it as an over-hyped, over-sold disappointment? Do you prefer your TV to show stark, gritty reality; dark depravity; lighthearted, feel-good fare; or some combination of all of these elements?

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90210 and Melrose Place: In a word, meh

So, I watched 90210 and Melrose Place last night, and I was underwhelmed.

I don’t expect a lot from 90210, so it was fun but not as fun as some of last season’s episodes. The Annie story seemed disjointed and bizarre, and very little else caught my attention.

Melrose Place was also somewhat disjointed. Beginning a series with so many flashbacks seems like a mistake to me. The episode jumped around so much that I didn’t care enough to pay any attention. I quit watching before it even ended.

How about you? Did you watch? Did you enjoy either show?

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The new fall TV season is a time of hope and excitement. We’ve seen the ads and the previews of the new shows and the season premieres of our returning favorites, and we expect them all to be good. We haven’t yet been disappointed by any that fail to live up to their hype.

This week, the CW will let us know what or who drunk Annie hit on 90210, how Sidney can be back on the new Melrose Place (didn’t she die? will she have pulled the same fake death trick as her older sister Kimberly?), if the TV world can handle yet another vampire adaptation, and, yes, what the eff Sam and Dean will do to stop Lucifer.

And Fox will show us whether the second episode of Glee can bring the joy that the pilot brought us back in May.

The rest of the premieres are spread over the course of the month. The non-CW shows I’m looking forward to are How I Met Your Mother, Community, and Flash Forward. And, God help me, the previews for Cougar Town have made it look engaging and funny. Even with that awful, sexist title.

Zap2it has a nice calendar listing all of the season premieres, in case you don’t know when your faves are coming on. Which shows do you think will make the grade? Which won’t? Can we start a pool for which show will be cancelled first?

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Silver, It's Not All about You

I watched 90210 last night, and every time Silver was on the screen, I was yelling something to the effect of, “OMG, Silver. Sometimes it’s not all about you.”

It’s not that I expect a reasoned and rational portrayal of someone suffering from mental illness, but that seems to be the hallmark of the 90210 take on bipolar disorder.

Yet somehow I keep watching. Maybe next season, Chuck will be on at 9pm on Tuesdays, and I won’t have to watch 90210. Yeah, I could turn the TV off, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

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90210

I’m still all about teen dramas, apparently, because I really enjoyed the new 90210. I did not watch the original, though I did watch Melrose Place for a year or two. So, I had no baggage and no expectations going into the new one.

I found most of the blatant shout-outs to the old show a little boring, but I do believe they were essential to thank the original fans who tuned in. I enjoyed Kelly’s character, and I hope they use her quite a bit. Bored to tears by Shannen Doherty, but I haven’t liked her since Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Our House, so I’m not surprised that I wasn’t interested in her homecoming.

P.S. Thanks, CW, for replaying the ep on tv. I really prefer to watch my tv on the tv for now–give me high-def computer video, though, and that might change…

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Thoughts on the new fall season so far

Perhaps my sights were set very low, but I have been loving my little teen soaps so far this season.

Two episodes in, Greek has been fun to watch, full of pop culture references, and even full of life lessons–sometimes you just need a new R.A. to remind you why you love Silly Putty, or something like that.

I enjoyed all the Chuck and Blair fun on Gossip Girl Monday night. But, what was up with the “British” dude? I found it interesting that Blair didn’t seem too hurt that he thought she was a lowly American when she obviously thinks she is our version of royalty. I guess she was too busy dealing with her hypersalivation to realize he had really challenged her personal sense of entitlement. His bad accent, after making me wonder why Chuck didn’t coach him, made me wonder if all British accents on American TV sound bad on purpose. People who aren’t British sound fake. People who are actually British sound fake even though they are actually British. Is there a special American-television British accent that actors strive for, even when they know better? Do they sound as fake when doing interviews in their native dialect?

I even thought Hilarie Burton killed it as the girl who finally got the man of her dreams. I always wish she had set her sights a little higher, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

I forgot to watch 90210, so I’m waiting until I can catch it online to have a judgment there. I will confess that although I was a casual viewer of Melrose Place, I’ve seen probably only three full episodes of 90210. The only time I watched regularly was when they played episodes in syndication on Sundays afternoons. I would catch about 15 minutes while I was waking up after a long weekend of partying in college. So I have no expectations. And I don’t think I’ll be regular viewer. I plan to watch How I Met Your Mother and Samantha Who? on Tuesdays from 8-9. This plan may change if 90210 ends up being a lot of fun to watch, but I’ve been struggling over the glut of programming on Mondays and Thursdays. We have two DVRs, but not in the main room I watch tv in. The plan is to watch Chuck and Heroes live on Mondays on the hi-def, DVR-less TV while recording How I Met Your Mother and Samantha Who? on (gasp) the VCR. Then, I’ll bring the tape out to watch on Tuesdays at 8, since nothing has become my go-to replacement for Gilmore Girls in that timeslot. (Even when Gilmore Girls was bad, it was still pretty good.) Hubby will record Sarah Conner Chronicles on his hi-def DVR for us to watch later, maybe over the weekend. I’ll also be recording Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill for later viewing on the non-hi-def DVR in my bedroom. Thank god for multiple TVs!

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