Expedition: Africa Season Review

Overall I am a little disappointed.

It was epic. The shots of wildlife and the trek were amazing. The cast was dynamic. The whole concept was great. Plus it wasn’t just four people who were all nice, Mark Burnett and his casting team had gotten four people who all were leaders in their own right. They all thought they new what was right. This led for some very interesting discussions and a lot of good fights. I think the thing was it got very repetitive.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good show and I am glad I watched it but I never felt like we went anywhere. The ending was nice with them all coming together, almost a little emotional actually but their whole hike felt very familiar. If they weren’t arguing about water they were arguing about Pasquale. If Kevin wasn’t getting lost he was being extremely naive and slowly them down. If Mireya and Benedict weren’t having their showmance they were making fun of the other two and say how stupid they were. Plus I hated the hypocritical nature of them all. It was like whenever one of them wanted to stop and look at a rock or an animal or if they wanted to talk to a local the others had a problem with it. But boy if someone got mad at them for doing the same thing they would throw a hissy fit. Biggest case in point was Pasquale talking about the rocks. Granted they are rocks but they fascinated him. Sorry Mireya that it isn’t a monkey. I know a lot of people hate Pasquale and he got on my nerves as well but everyone was just as bad as he was, and he even defended himself. He told us why he was this way with his emotional story of having to carry someone down from Mt. Everest.

I don’t mind people disliking each other on shows, the best seasons of Survivor, The Amazing Race, or Big Brother is when they are at each others throats. But I guess since their was no elimination or outcome it just felt annoying like we weren’t getting anywhere. The only people I truly liked were the Masai warriors and the porters, you actually cared for them and if they got hurt.

The highlight of the show has got to be Benedict getting malaria and becoming delirious it was fascinating to watch and Mireya was truly heartbroken. What a great episode that was. The other highlight has got to be the ending where the entire village surrounded them as they continued to walk, almost like they were in an impromptu parade.

If they did an Expedition: South America or an Expedition: Asia I probably would watch but they need to probably make sure they don’t exactly all hate each other…but it is a reality show and I’m not looking for everyone to get along. I just don’t need the same basic cycle every episode.

DVD: Californication Season 1

I picked this up cause I love David Duchovny in X-Files and it was on Showtime (which right now arguably has the best shows). I watched the pilot last summer and before picking up the DVD and just now had time to sit down and watch it. i wish I had done it sooner. Though it isn’t as addictive as Weeds I get the same feeling when I finish an episode…I have to watch the next one. Since each episode is only half an hour it didn’t take long before I finished them.

For those that don’t know, Californication is about Hank Moody, a washed up/sex crazed writer, struggling with writers block. He has had only one successful book which was turned into a crappy romantic comedy. He really has lost those he cared about. Karen, his ex-girlfriend (Natasha McElhone) and who he had a daughter with, is getting married. Basically Hank doesn’t know what to do and is trying to fills his life with sex while still pining over Karen. He is just kind of lost and extremely sarcastic and cynical.

Sounds kind of depressing? But like Weeds it is a dark comedy. Duchovny is great, you can see a lot of his wit from X-Files here. He basically knows how to play a jackass really well. Yet he isn’t to abrasive and you find yourself hoping that things work out for him despite being such a smartass. I don’t know Natasha very well except for her little stint in the Truman show but she is a tremendous actress as well. She knows how to play mixed emotions very well, which is very refreshing. She can be completely devastated by what Hank has just told her but can put on a very convincing brave face to her fiance. It really is an excellent acting skill that not a lot of people can master. However my favorites of course are probably the supporting characters.

Marcy and Runkle just make me smile. It is great to see  your favorite characters on the screen who always bring their A-Game. Marcy grew on me but the last few episodes when her storyline came more to the forefront really made me fall in love with Pamela Adlon. In fact I was surprised to find that I know Pamela Adlon’s voice very well. She is probably one of the top voice artists currently in the business. She is just so funny and Runkle is just so desperate and I want to say conniving (but more in a bumbling conniving way) that makes him also great to watch.

I was a bit worried about Madeline Zima, I find her to be the weakest of the group. Even in the final episode of the first season she was still struggling a bit. Yet she grew a lot from the first episode. Madeleine Martin is also good in her scenes and very convincing with the work she does.

The whole first season could be the show. It has a great beginning and almost all of the stories are concluded in the final few minutes. Even Hank is redeemed in the closing. So I am not really sure where they can go in the next season, but I am pretty excited about picking it up on DVD especially with the third season so close to air. Between this, Weeds, and Nurse Jackie it makes me want to order Showtime.

The DVD was kind of slim on bonus features but most Showtime shows are so that is ok. The best episode have got to be the Pilot, the excellent “Fear and Loathing at the Fundraiser,” and “California Son.” All three really drive the characters and “Fear and Loathing…” packs so much into its half an hour.

I feel like I always say that shows are great, but I really enjoyed this. I didn’t know if I would after just watching the pilot cause I thought it would just be about Hank having sex, which is a part of it, but the show goes a lot more deeper then that.

Breaking Bad Season 2 Premiere “Seven-Thirty-Seven”

Ahh I am so far behind. Backstory. I watched season 1 and I loved it. Then when the DVD came out I was like “I don’t really remember what happened” and then I kind of put it on the back burner and didn’t really push through it like I should. So basically every episode of the second season have been sitting on my tivo since they aired. I’m hoping to actually get through it these next few days and catch up and free up some space on my tivo.

Ok now on to the episode. They definitely had a tone change. This episode felt really different from anything at the end of season one. It was all about suspense. From the beginning to the end. It even feels different from the second episode of the season that has a bit more of the black comedy from the first season. This season took off exactly where the first season ended. Jesse and Walt are freaking out and thinking that they have to get away from helping Tuco. Meanwhile Skylar is becoming more and more curious and inquisitive about Walt’s whereabouts while Walt is becoming more and more detached because of Tuco. The whole episode is a fantastic slow burn until the inevitable end where Tuco kidnaps Walt and Jesse and that is where the episode ends. There is some character development with Skylar’s sister but this episode is all about what Walt is going to do as he continues to run out of options.

Again this episode was all about suspense and keeping the viewer really nervous. They set it up from the start with Skylar slowly walking down the hall to see find Walt to Walt coming home near the end of the episode making sure Skylar is ok. It was just great and I hadn’t felt so nervous for quite some time watching a tv show.

I cannot wait to see where this season takes me especially after coming off of watching the first season again. Bryan Cranston does a tremendous job and totally deserves his Emmy and his recent nod at a second one. I’m also watching repeats of Malcolm in the Middle right now and he is incredibly funny in that. He is an amazing actor. Plus all of the supporting actors are extremely realistic and play their parts really well. I think this show is like a chess game. I might have used that somewhere else but this show really embodies that. People come in and go out and make a move and everyone else has to alter their own moves based on that.

If you haven’t seen the first season pick it up on DVD, it is pretty cheap. You are getting seven amazing episodes and watching a fantastic series.

Big Brother UK 10 – Week 6

If they c0uldn’t take out Lisa they had to take out her number 2 person. I saw a lot of Karly hate online this year which sucked because I was actually fond of her. Of course she hated on Halfwit and was clueless like most of Lisa’s gang are but I loved her accent, I loved her facial reactions, and I thought she was a great character. She fell down last week from my number two spot but went up from number five to number four this week only losing out because I like Halfwit, Siavash, and Dogface just a little bit more. Karly was a great housemate though, excellent in the diary room and took a few weeks to really warm up. Her downfall was of course being associated with Lisa and Kris but what can you do. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago that I think you can like someone even if they dislike someone you like which was the case with her and Halfwit. Also I must be a terrible person but what they did to her was great. The producers must have seen Karly as a front runner to be evicted this week she did get 50.4% of the vote, they knew that Kenneth was going in and could’ve put him in after she was evicted yet they put him in first give them about 16 minutes together and then rip Karly out. Great stuff and great television. That is what reality shows need especially Big Brother, they need to be cruel.

This entire week was great though. I sat down and had a nice big marathon because I was dying to see the new contestants. Great to see Craig and Nikki though who seem like huge fans of the show and were entertaining to have around. Makosi and Craig were great as well and really make me want to watch series 6 now. Federico was kind of an ass and him telling them about Michael Jackson totally defeated the purpose of the show, that is mainly why he went in there. Even though I liked Brian on his season his overexposure in BB programs is tiring and he was getting on my last nerves. Rex was also great. Rex was one of my favorites last year and him just being a huge dick to all of them and making Lisa freak out and Noirin cry was great. I am glad Lisa doesn’t like him but he was a dick and those housemates deserved everything he threw at them. Plus I loved him telling Marcus that he should keep on going after Noirin. Michelle and Dean were meh and there is nothing really to talk about with the three people from series 3 because they got cheated out. Though I have to admit I don’t know what else they could’ve done since that season didn’t have very many memorable tasks at all.

Dogface has become a great housemate and with Kris being gone she even cracked the number one spot for at least a little bit. She was doing some heavy hating on the ex-housemates that turned me off but overall she is becoming a top favorite of mine. I’ve liked her this whole series but Kris was holding her down. She was number two this week jumping up from spot number four.

Charlie grew on me this week and Rodrigo went down. I liked Rodrigo a few weeks ago when he finally became a character and stood up to Noirin but since then he seems like a really actually mean person who I think fakes happiness a lot. His attitude to Halfwit after the “strike” was horrific. Sorry Rodrigo but this show would be so boring if people just sat around all the time. Nikki made some good points, this cast just sits around and talks. If they are playing a lot of games we aren’t seeing them. I just know that if I was in there I would keep coming up with fun stuff to do. Be it pranks, or games, or little skits. Rodrigo just complains when he isn’t happy and he always takes the joke to far.

I was kind of hoping Noirin can go. Her and Marcus are starting to get on my nerves and Noirin now held my second to last spot only beating out Lisa. She has become a horrible person these last two weeks. Being miserable during the vote and then basically being a huge bitch this whole week. Get out of there please.

Now on to the newbies!!! I know most people don’t like intruders but I think this cast desperately needed them moreso then any of the last two seasons. Not that the originals weren’t good enough to survive but the group vs. group mentality needed to be stopped. Group vs. Group only works if people are openly saying shit to each other. The talking behind backs shit is just horrible.  Anyway here goes:

Kenneth – He probably would have been more awesome with Karly around. Seeing those two interact would have been great especially since it is the opposite of Rex and Nicole last year. We got to know the golddigger this year. But he seems like he will be incredibly annoying especially if he talks about his money.

Bea – I bumped her up to number one. A really awesome female housemate this year, which is surprisingly since BB always knows how to find great ones and this year was lacking. I loved Bea’s video and I loved her entrance. I also thought she was just gorgeous. Please don’t let me down Bea.

David – David had a great video and he is middle of the road for me. One of the best things this show does is really find all types of people. I know I should not just characterize being gay as one trait that defines a person because it isn’t at all but I have to applaud the casting department for finding four very unique gay guys this year. Charlie, Halfwit (bi but…), Rodrigo, and David are all extremely unique and different from one another. A hell of a lot better then what the US ever does.

Hira – Hira could be a great housemate but she was getting on my nerves that she didn’t understand the secret task and then ruined it by coming outside and saying she couldn’t say anything. Um…her VT was good and made her look smart but this girl seems very naive and actually not very smart at all.

Tom – He was a lot shorter then I thought. Not very exciting to me. His muscles meh, I don’t see him getting a lot of support unless he is a big character.

Week 7 is next, getting to the halfway point.

Big Brother UK 10 – Week 5

The tides are turning in the Big Brother house. Two good boots in a row and still plenty of entertaining characters left. (Trying to catch up today and tomorrow, I can’t wait to see who the new housemates are. Plus I guess I was wrong in my write up for Week 4, it wasn’t this week that was birthday week it is week 6. I thought this week was a great improvement over last week. With Sree gone it gave plenty of other people a chance to shine. We saw a lot more of Karly, which wasn’t really a good thing, and Marcus went up in my books. I still have a soft spot for Dogface for some reason and Noirin really is becoming quite annoying herself. I’m not quite sure what went down with bunny-gate but Noirin really took advantage of Siavash. I believe that Siavash was telling her the truth, based on Karly and Kris’s response and Noirin basically sold Siavash out. It was a very calculated move and if Siavash isn’t punished for his nominations talk in week 6, then he certainly is going to go up.

So glad Kris went, he played his exit interview very cooly though. He probably didn’t understand why he was evicted or why Halfwit is liked so much. The surprise look on Karly and Lisa’s faces was gold when they announced his name. He was just cocky and full of himself. I really think Kris could do no wrong and the way he was talking in the diary room, he had no idea how rude he had been about Halfwit. So I am glad the smug guy got out. However they weren’t as harsh on him as they could have been. I wanted to give the new eviction format some time to settle in, and I don’t know what I said about it in previous write ups, but it really isn’t getting to the juicy details. The two other guests really take away from Davina and the evicted housemate. Plus I always loved all of the videos they put together for the eviction. That seems to all be gone now besides the usual best bits. Like if this was the seventh series would we have gotten a nice clip package of all of Nikki’s screaming? I doubt it. It is especially glaring as well when one of the hosts don’t even know all of the housemates names. They shouldn’t be on there. I say if we have to have another guest, get rid of the celebrity and just keep a psychologist, that is really the most interesting part.

Even though I have a soft spot for Dogface and Karly their testing my patience a little bit. Dogface not wanting to work with Halfwit for the task was ridiculous. Karly thinking Marcus was going to go because she didn’t like Marcus was ridiculous. So they are on watch for this next week.

Noirin fell down in my books, with her move with Siavash and because of that same argument Siavash moved up to my number two spot. Marcus also went up because he saw what Noirin did but also noticed that Siavash changed the story. He seemed to be the most aware of what was going on. Plus I like that Halfwit stood his ground against Noirin not only that night but the next day (and in a hilarious over the top yelling manner). Halfwit is still my favorite, but that might be because I think a lot of these people are unlikeable. Hopefully the new crop of housemates will really shake things up and give me a good favorite. We need an Aisleyne or a Sara in there.

I’m somewhat aware of the events of the next week, which should make it an amazing week if they are doing all the best tasks from previous with some of the best old housemates. I just don’t want these former housemates to take away from the current batch.

Harper’s Island Season Review

Ok so good concept bad execution. The writers screwed up royally by making John Wakefield alive. It was a cop out to make it seem like anybody could be the killer and nobody was the killer. So when they all had a alibi oh it was fucking John Wakefield.  Now for the regular killer n my opinion is that it always had to be Abby, Jimmy, Henry, or Trish. It just didn’t make any sense for it to be someone else. I did start double guessing and thinking it was Cal and Chloe but…come on.

But by the end I felt it had to be Jimmy or Henry since I writers weren’t clever enough to come up with a cool mind fucking twist with Abby while Trish being so upset kind of ruled her out. Then when they tried to make it seem like it was Jimmy about two episodes to soon well then it obviously was Henry.

I was hoping for a few flashbacks showing Henry do all of the murders, that would have been a bit more interesting and they had time at the end.

Let me get back to the storyline, we are just supposed to believe that the wedding was just a way for Henry to kill everyone? Why not break up with Trish, her whole half of the family had nothing to do with this. Break up with her, kill Uncle Marty and your brother and just bump into Abby and start the fling with your half sister. Um yea? Also wouldn’t some of the locals come back to the island once the crime had been resolved? I think they would, whole fucking island to themselves give me a break. Plus how long was Abby unconscious for if their was an entire criminal investigation that was all tied up before she woke up? Plus Henry became a killer after meeting up with his dad? Oh yea I’m a killer now so I am going to kill my family (actually they never even said if he did) who were nice enough to adopt me and nice enough to bring me to the island every summer.

Plus what about all of the mystery stuff like the newspaper, or JD checking his scalp, or the red markings, the music on the phone, etc etc.

It just wasn’t thought out very well. I only liked Trish, Cal, and Chloe the rest were never developed enough. What they should have done was not bring back John Wakefield and should have killed someone like Henry or Trish right away. Or even Abby. Kill the person we expect will make it to the end. Don’t live in horror movie rules live in tv show rules, or even fuck with them slightly. Heck make Abby the main character and then kill her off in episode five, that would have been a cool story. I also liked the theory that Abby was also insane and  she actually did all the original murders, or that her and Henry were insane and that coming back into the island made them want to kill again like they had 7 years ago. I liked that ideas as well and would’ve been more fun then the ending we got.

I am not disappointed I watched, it became intriguing to see who would be killed week after week but the storyline just stayed to simple and never went to the next level. Which is to bad because again the concept was great. Reality shows are popular right now and this was definitely like a soap opera mixed with a reality show, but that means nothing if you don’t get people who could make it great.

Big Brother 11 Premiere

Oh Big Brother is back. I am pretty well versed on this show. Not as much as Survivor but still know it pretty well. Let me just say I am so happy we had a whole year off. It was overkill with season 8, 9, and 10. Last year the first week and the middle were great but the end it died. It had a boring ending and the cast was unlikeable.

So I needed a break from this show. Now it is back and I was excited. The music, Chenbot, and the sleazy cast who in just a week or two will really start to hate each other. Most of them don’t really know what the show is about or what they are doing.

This year the house is divided into cliques and when someone in your clique wins head of household you are safe. The other twist was that for the first HoH challenge the cliques competed for a returning player. Cowboy (Season 5) for the Offbeats, Jessica (Season 8 ) for the popular, Brian (Season 10) for the brains, and Jessie (Season 10) for the athletes.  Good twist in theory but what awful people to bring back. I liked Brian for his first week, but he was dumb enough to get out the first week. Plus he is looking extremely pathetic by not only coming back to host a challenge last year, he appeared on the early show to promote casting, and now came back for this. I hear he was extremely hotheaded during the taping and he seemed pissed he lost. So sore loser pathetic crap, first boots should never be brought back. Cowboy has now screwed up three times. They of course forgot to mention that he didn’t make it into All Stars and even the producers didn’t pick him and now lost this besides his own original season. I actually really liked Jessica. She was my favorite in season 8 and the person I really wanted to go into the house. It would be great to see how she played without Eric. But no the person who had to go in was probably my most disliked person out of the entire cast last summer. Great, so glad we get a few more weeks of Jessie now who seems to have not learned anything from being on the show. Plus great rules that he is the first HoH he will be out right away.

So what about the new cast? It is hard to really know right now. I try to catch feed clips and updates. I did live feeds a few years ago but never watched them, so no point in buying them. My potential favorite could be Jordan and a few of the brains and offbeats look interesting but nobody has really shined quiet yet. Plus at this point I don’t really know what to think of the show. It usually starts off slow, has an amazing middle, and then fizzles at the end. So around final 10 through final 6 I’ll be the most invested.

Better Off Ted Season 1 Mid Season Premiere “You Are the Boss Of Me”

Better Off Ted continues to be a extremely strong show and I am glad they are showing off the rest of the first season episodes this summer. The show was picked up for the second season which will air this winter. Anyway I don’t know how much more I can praise this show. It is quick, funny, and clever. Andrea Anders is even better in these two episodes then she is in the first seven. Anyway if you have nothing to watch this summer be sure to tape this or turn it on. It is just so good. Portia and Andrea had a ton of chemistry when talking about her dead grandmother. They worked so well just giving and taking, and the timing was excellent. Plus I loved the further development of Phil and Lem are great. Phil is my new favorite character since probably Walter in Fringe.

I think the best thing about this show is whenever they partner people the storyline is always creative and different. It is hard for a show to have different dynamics yet still be the same characters. Plus it is great that you can have such outrageous storylines and the characters stay grounded. Plus Ted’s daughter has not been back which is great since her storylines are always kind of boring.

Plus you need to watch the Veridian Dynamics commercials continue to be excellent. Watch this show this summer.

Big Brother UK 10 – Week 4

There comes a point in a lot of reality shows where the person you want out, no matter how entertaining they are, need to go. I think in a lot of shows that this villain is important. Looking back on Survivor Tocantins I now see it almost crucial that Coach lasted as long as he did. Otherwise the season would have died. I don’t really consider Coach or Sree a villain but just people who were so obnoxious you couldn’t wait for them to leave. I think Sree served his purpose. He survived four weeks which was the perfect amount of exposure and then he left. I wanted him gone by the third day of the show but looking back he was extremely entertaining if extremely awful. He made a lot of really good cringeworthy moments but that being said…THANK THE LORD THAT SREE IS GONE. Oh my gosh. I didn’t doubt for a second he would go once it was announced that he and Halfwit were up for nominations but seeing how much he got booed and trying to hide his disappointed face when leaving was priceless. Plus it was great seeing Karly pissed off and Marcus and Noirin looking so pleased. How could these people like him? I know the argument always is “Well it is edited and we only see an hour out of 24 hours” but I always think that just proves their is more annoying Sreeness on the editing room floor.

Halfwit has survived yet again and I have to say it is hilarious each time. The Karly, Lisa, Kris, Charlie, and Dogface clique have no idea what is happening. They think it is a fluke and he is just up against awful people so I just cannot wait until he is up against Kris or Lisa and one of them goes. It will be absolutely brilliant. That being said I really like Halfwit, right now I like him the best, but that could easily change as the weeks continue. His place at #1 isn’t that strong with me. For a little bit I had Karly up there so Halfwit could easily fall especially with some intruders.

I still like Karly. Besides that she is deep and I mean deep in her clique/Freddie hate I can look past that and like her for the character she is. Her accent, her singing voice, her over the top facial reactions. I still really like her and hope she is around for a good amount of time and slowly her Freddie hate fizzles. Same with Sophie. She is a bit dull and a ditz but there is something charming about her.

I like the Noirin and Marcus connection and I am liking that they seem to be making an outsiders club with Siavash and Freddie. Rodrigo and Charlie have grown on me a little bit as well.

The next two people I want gone are Kris and Lisa. I’m not quite sure which one first it changes from episode to episode. Kris is just horrible and has almost no redeeming qualities…Lisa at least has maybe one or two redeemable things about her. So I guess Kris first at this point.

One thing I did really like this week was Marcus defending himself to Big Brother. I have to say the show has gotten extremely PC since the Shilpa Shetty/Jade Goody fight. Even more so then in the past two years with Big Brother stopping the fights so fast instead of letting them just fizzle out. They want to end the fight and won’t just let it unfold which is extremely frustrating. Marcus didn’t deserve to get a warning but I think the producers showed the whole thing in order for us to agree with Marcus and not with Sree.

This week is Big Brother’s birthday week so…please let us have intruders and some twists. We need them at this point and this was around where it happened last year.

Big Brother UK 10 – Week 3

Between Halfwit and Angel I really wanted Halfwit to stay. I really just want to seem him piss everyone off so much and he can do a much better job at that with Angel. He has to stay this whole season otherwise it will get very stale. It sucked that both of my favorites were up this week and it sucks that Halfwit was up yet again. In fact if Halfwit is up every time this season it will quickly get boring and exhausting. I’m behind so I know there was yet another eviction already, but I want to say it is time for some intruders and some twists. It is just to dull in there. Yes it took me a little bit to get into BB9 and at this point I hadn’t found my love in Rachel. However I knew I liked a lot of people. At this point I really only like Halfwit, Karly, and Angel and with Angel gone I only really like Halfwit and Karly. Dogface is ok but she isn’t that dynamic. Marcus, Rodrigo, Noirin, Charlie, and Siavash are all people I like but I find so many things I dislike about them as well. So they are all in the middle and my opinion of them changes from week to week. The only person who really went up this week was Rodrigo after he shot Noirin down. He really came into his own and I hope he comes back with more of this tenacity that he had when arguing with Noirin.

Noirin is quite a good character and sometimes I really like her and sometimes I highly dislike her. She reminds me of Grace from the seventh series.

I still want Sree to go. He is a horrible housemate, he lies all the time, he hates it when things don’t go his way, he is just miserable. His arguments do not making any sense to me. Not at all. I hope he goes in week four because he is driving me crazy. Lisa has also gone even more downhill, I actually have her below Sree this week. She doesn’t know how to have a smart argument and is really just stupid. It is way too bad though. The first week she was great and I really liked her but she just couldn’t keep stop from fighting and spouting her opinion.

Angel was an awesome housemate and if it wasn’t between her and Halfwit I think she would have stuck around in the house for quite some time especially against almost everyone else…I would’ve hoped at least. We will never know. She was just so different and had a sad loner sort of personality. She was just so weird. So weird. Everything from swimming naked to saying she wanted to paint the house with her blood was fantastic. Plus her over the top hunger strike and telling people they were fat was also great. She just was very different from the usual crop of housemates and was a great find this year. So we lost a great housemate early on. Very disappointing.

Now we need a twist and some intruders. Shake this up.