XOXO... Farewell GG!

Like many of you in Blogland and on Twitter, I too got hooked on the CW show Gossip Girl. However, like a handful of you last year, I didn't get introduced to it until it came to Netflix Streaming.

I started it last summer, got a few episodes into the first season, thought it was okay, but kind of forgot about it and didn't get back into it until later in the summer.

And then I got hooked.

It was sort of my late-night escape from the stress I was dealing with at home and it became a guilty pleasure.

And you know a show is a good if hubby can get drawn into it just by watching an episode here and there when he gets home from work and I've got it on - he too got caught up in the Upper East Side drama and the Chuck and Blair saga, often asking me to catch him up on the episodes I watched while he was at work that night.

But of course, all shows I get hooked on often come to an end too soon. And so was the case with Gossip Girl, as by the time I got caught up to the current season, I learned that it was also the last season. And a shortened one at that!

Boob Tube Babble ended last year, but oh well, let's talk about the finale, shall we?

(And stop reading now if you don't want to read any spoilers!)

Awwww - Chuck and his mini-me!

Chair... Chuck and Blair... they finally got their happy ending! Yay!!! And I loved how in the 5 Years Later epilogue they're still happily married with a mini-Chuck! Too bad they saved the wedding for the end of the final episode though and a good chunk of the final season had them keeping that stupid "we can't be together yet" pact. I mean c'mon - we all knew they were going to end up together, they're perfect for each other (she brings out the good in him and is his center)... why not just let them be together the whole season, still have them accomplish their personal goals all while Blair is planning their wedding and have it go out with a blast the way only Chuck and Blair could? But that would make too much sense...

Speaking of things making sense...

Rufus and... Lisa Loeb? Wtf?

Clearly Lily never learns. I really hoped her and Rufus would reconcile and be together again in the epilogue. Granted, I like how Rufus was in the early seasons before he became a househusband but still... him and Lily had a bond that spanned decades. But no... she had to go and get back together with that slimeball William, yuck! Him and Ivy deserved each other, they were both gross! And Rufus and Lisa Loeb... that's one of those surprising but not really surprising ones, as she had guest starred as his band's opening act in season 1 for that Artists of the 90s gig and he mentioned her again in this season's Thanksgiving episode. Kinda funny though and amusing that the majority of the young folk watching/tweeting/commenting didn't know who she was, lol...

This GIF = giggles

Dan as Gossip Girl??? Say what?! It makes sense, but I really didn't think it was him, considering how he was a regular target. I read a comment posted on a Gossip Girl YouTube video that had a very convincing Nelly Yuki as GG theory - made a lot of sense as she became a journalist, had a crush on Dan in high school (which would explain Serena being targeted a lot) and was in Blair's posse but still a jealous minion. I also thought maybe it was Serena's brother Erik too, as that would kind of make sesne... kind of. Like many, I do wonder if the writers always intended Dan as being GG or if it was just a cop-out as they needed it to be someone well-known in the series with a viable motive...

I would have liked to have seen more of the aftermath of the reveal that GG was Dan the whole time - what happened in the days to follow? Did the UES give him an UES-style lynching or did they just let it roll off their backs like Serena, Chuck and Nate did?

Serena's dress was pretty and so her!

And Serena still ends up with Dan. At least their wedding happened 5 years later as anything in the present time would have just been too soon and not made any sense considering all he had recently put her through when they got back together. Honestly, I would have liked to have seen her end up with someone like that Steven guy she was with for the first half of the final season, being a socialite trophy wife like her mom, or even with Nate - her and Nate would have made a picture-perfect UES couple. And why just a small simple wedding... in what looked like the former Waldorf Penthouse??? I would have expected a Serena VDW wedding to be a bit more elegant and elaborate...

Speaking of Nate... kinda sad that he didn't end up with anyone significant. But his tabloid The Specatator did seem to take off and he became a successful businessman...

Gotta say though, the flashback scene was pretty cute! And glad Dan finally fixed his hair 5 years later... it was getting nasty looking! Oh and Georgina and Chuck's Uncle Jack together 5 years later... LOL! That was quite clever, and awesome!


If you got hooked on Gossip Girl and watched the finale, tell me your thoughts! Not gonna lie, I was a little bummed to come back to Blogland and see a lack of GG finale posts - I want to discuss!!! =D

Miss Me Much?

Hello again!

Long time, no... see?

Anyways, yeah, I've been AWOL on the blog here for the past month or so... been a tad bit busy in RL, taking care of the little guy, plus one of our leads at work had a fulltime job offer literally fall into her lap and being the most experienced regular associate at work, my boss talked me into taking on the position temporarily through the holidays so she has adequate time to find someone for the position and get them trained when it's not quite so crazy. Can't say it's been too bad... having been there officially 2 years now (as of this week!) and management treating me as one of their own for quite some time now (and the fact they love how they never need to micro-manage me), it's been a pretty smooth transition. I closed with the other lead tonight and she told me our store manager was telling her how I'm doing just fine when it comes to closing. Opening is okay aside from certain parts of the paperwork (the parts that require annoying math) that I tend to have a little trouble with, but apparently everyone does at first. My next shift is my first time closing without another member of management working with me. If I wanted the position permenantly, it'd be mine, but honestly... I don't. The main reason I accepted it was because I know I'm the only qualified and most experienced person on our staff that could step up and do it, not to mention last year during the holidays my boss had me working 5 days and 30 hours a week, and I knew odds are it was going to happen once again so I figured I might as well get paid a little more for it this time around. I'd much rather work 3 days a week though and be home with Little Man the rest of the time. Especially since hubby works 2 jobs. I really don't want my child to grow up feeling like he was raised and disciplined by his grandparents because mommy and daddy were always working.

I'm getting a few posts lined up to get ya all caught up and things I wanted to "document" here on the blog, such as Halloween and the recent election among other things.

Some quick blurbs though...

My sister is now 5 months pregnant and just found out this week that they're having a little girl! I so knew it too, simply because I was hoping for a girl and got a boy and they were hoping for a boy and so of course they'd have a girl, lol...

One of our good friends from long, long ago (she was a bridesmaid in our wedding) just announced this week that her and her husband are expecting in May! So excited for them!

I'm hooked on Gossip Girl. I blame Tara (Fabulous But Evil) and the rest of you on Twitter. And of course now that I'm caught up via Netflix, it's in its final season. Cuz that always happens to me - I get hooked on a show and by the time I'm all caught up it's almost over for good. Booo... but I am soooo for Chuck and Blair and their relationship drama. It's soooo bad, but soooo good! And hubby's gotten into it with me too, as he kept coming home at 4am while I was in the middle or just starting an episode and we'd watch a few. He likes Chuck and Blair drama =) Like I told Tara, Chuck and Blair better end up together for good and there better be a Chuck and Blair wedding this season or I'm going to be sooooo upset! Those two are sooo right for each other! Yes, I'm gushing over a fictional TV character. But when it comes to Chuck and Blair, how can you not??? I'm so over Dan though... I liked him and Serena during the 1st season but after that... Dan got kinda annoying. Nate and Serena need to end up together and Dan can just be alone. I also would like to smack Lily upside the head for Rufus... wtf?! Rufus is such a good man... I really would LOVE to see a "When Rufus Met Lily" flashback episode done a la the Valley Girls episode - that'd be AWESOME!

Have any of you noticed an increase in spam comments lately? As you know, I haven't posted in like a month but I get almost daily spam comments on completely random old posts... You all complain about capcha's on blogs (which I hate too, especially now that they include numbers!) so I took em off and yeah... spam comments on a near daily basis!

Stay tuned for more!

A friend posted this on Facebook and I must have missed it when Jill (@thenerdybird) linked her article earlier, but here's one for Game of Thrones fans - kitty (named Arya, btw!) meows the theme song! LOL... like Jill says in her post, it's kinda reminescient of those crazy Jingle Cats (and dogs!) that "sing" Christmas tunes.

Check it out! It had me cracking up!

Fall-Spring TV Wrap-Up!

Sadly, there is no more Boob Tube Babble link-up, but I'm still sharing my TV thoughts this week now that all of my Fall-Spring shows are done for the season.

Once Upon a Time

Holy finale, Batman! Yes, it was predictable for the most part (didn't see the Maleficent part coming until it was right there), but it was epic too! I would like to know what happened to August, as last we saw him, his true form (trying to avoid spoilers here) was killing him - did the curse break before it killed him? The 1st season comes out on DVD days before my birthday - I'll definitely be adding this one to my birthday list!

The Office

This one still works as an ensemble show and I'm sooooo glad that it sounds like James Spader won't be back (or at least not as present) in the next season as I just wasn't a fan of his Robert California character. The Dwight-Angela storyline is back, with Dwight finally getting DNA from her and The Senator's baby to see if he might be the father, as he suspects. I hope those 2 end up together - they're quite good for each other. Also glad that Andy and Erin are back together too - those 2 are a perfect match!

Glee

First I was mad that when I turned my TV to Fox at 7pm American Idol was on and not Glee. Then I was a tad confused as I didn't realize there were 2 episodes last week! The last episode I saw ended with them getting on the bus, heading to Nationals in Chicago. Then this week's episode took place after, and was focused on graduation! Oops! Looks like I need to go back and watch the Nationals episode, even though I already know the outcome... Graduation, it was a bit of a sad episode. I liked some of the songs performed, the dedications were sweet. I was confused about why the principal was announcing everyone's names in no particular order - um, every graduation I've attended (for myself and others) it's ALWAYS been alphabetical by last name. Curious to see who of the seniors are officially staying on as a regular next season, who won't be back and who will just make the occasional guest appearance.


In other news...

Is anyone else kinda excited about the new Dallas premiere on TNT in a few weeks???

It's original run was kinda before my time (I was really young when it ended) but I think my mom watched it and over the years everyone's heard about "Who shot JR?" and then the whole dream cop-out... I'm not sure why, but I definitely wanna check out the "new" Dallas - it has Larry Hagman back as JR (and man did he get old! I grew up watching his younger self in I Dream of Jeannie reruns on Nick at Nite!) as well as Patrick Duffy who I grew up watching play the dad on Step by Step. They're reprising their roles as the Ewing brothers in the original Dallas, only this time their sons seem to be the main cause of the majority of the drama. Various other cast members from the original show will be back, reprising their roles in this continuation, which makes me think it shouldn't be half bad if they're all willing to come back. At least it should be interesting and worth a view!

Do you plan on tuning in?

Happy Sookie Stackhouse Day!

It's here!!!

Keeping with tradition of the past few years, the 1st Tuesday in May marks the release of the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel (aka, the True Blood series for those of you more familiar with the show loosely based on the books).

Sooo excited! Hopefully I'll have my copy of "Deadlocked" - book 12 in the series - later today or at the very least sometime this week!

What's sad though is that it means next year we get the conclusion to the series, as author Charlaine Harris has said repeatedly that there will only be 13 books in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I'm hoping book 12 doesn't disappoint as book 11 was mostly segue/filler.

I got hooked on the series a few years ago, as True Blood (the show) was nearing the end of its 2nd season and everyone seemed to be talking about it. I was curious and watched the 1st season, reading the 1st book along with it. The 1st season of the show was pretty close to the book when it came to the main plotline and all the sub-storylines meshed into the main one pretty well too (the books are all told in 1st person from Sookie's point of view). I read the 2nd book right away and then watched the 2nd season once hubby got caught up on the show. The show exaggerated the secondary plotline, but the main plotline worked alright, despite some changes made. The 3rd season wasn't going to air for at least 9 months so I had plenty of time to get caught up on the books (only 9 were out at the time, plus the compilation of short stories). I breezed through most of them that fall and winter (book 5 was the only one that took me longer than a few days as I was having trouble getting into it) and really enjoyed them - picking one as my favorite is quite difficult as lot of the ones in the middle are just sooooo good and entertaining!

There's twists you didn't see coming, lots of action and mystery as well as some romance (but not nearly as frequent or graphic as what you see weekly on HBO - 1 episode of the show usually has more sex than you read in one book). There's also humor thrown in as well. And let me stress that it is a supernatural series and more than just a vampire series - yes, vampires are frequent in the Sookie Stackhouse universe, but there's also werewolves and shifters, faeries, and lot of other supernatural creatures that show up throughout the series. It's more adult than, say... Twilight (not to mention better written) and Sookie is a much better female role model than Bella for sure! She's strong, independent, thinks for herself and while Anna Paquin plays her a bit whiny/needy on the show, book Sookie is one of my favorite female characters in literature (although I think her reasoning for breaking up with Quinn in the series was dumb... hopefully we're introduced to him at the end of the upcoming season of the show - I liked Sookie and Quinn together!).

Even if you tried to watched the show and didn't like it, give the books a chance - they're easy reads and a lot of fun, with just the right amount of adult romance (your significant other will be thrilled, lol...).

Don't You Turn Your Back or You'll Become a Snack!

"Now we've crossed the line, fallen through time... LIVIN' IN THE LAND OF THE LOST!"

I've been meaning to make this Flashback Friday post for sometime now but knew it was going to take a bit longer to research than I've felt up to doing, but now I have 10 days straight to take easy at home and with family, so why not?

Anyways... trying to fall asleep one night, I came across TBS showing the end of the terribad Will Ferrell Land of the Lost movie that came out not too long ago (too bad it was so bad though - Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel was in it). And it got me wondering about the Land of the Lost show that I grew up watching Saturday mornings on ABC.

And no, no. Not this version:

That's an image from the original 1974 Land of the Lost with the Marshall family - that was 10 years before I was born.

THIS is the version of the show I grew up with:

Yep, that's the intro to the 1991 remake with the Porter family and the attractive jungle girl Christa.

One theory I've read on the purpose of Christa was that she was there for all the dad's who got up on Saturday mornings with their kids to oogle

According to Wiki, "because of the success in syndication of the cult 1974 series Land of the Lost, Sid and Marty Krofft created a remake. The new Land of the Lost saw advanced special effects and a lighter, less survivalist-oriented tone ... The series ran for 26 episodes spread over two seasons, with each season consisting of thirteen episodes. It featured the Porter family—father Tom, son Kevin and daughter Annie—trapped in a parallel universe after their Jeep Cherokee (referred to as a "truck" in the series) fell through a time portal while exploring the back country. They soon meet another human, a beautiful "jungle girl" named Christa who came from 1960s San Francisco. Christa became trapped in the Land of the Lost when she was very young and grew up alone. (An earlier concept would have featured an adult Holly Marshall as the "mystery girl" along with Cha-Ka but due to casting the characters were revisualized as Christa and Stink)."

And here's a few fun facts that kind of ties the 2 series together:
"Some fans speculate that Christa is actually Holly Marshall. That the Marshall family sailed away to find their way out of the Land of the Lost, and that Holly was left behind in the storm that took their raft out into the sea ...

 

Is Christa really a grown-up Holly? Hard to tell...

Scarface, Grumpy... he's an angry
T-Rex, so it's possible!

Some fans speculate that Scarface is actually Grumpy of the original series. In that series they often encouraged Grumpy to leave their cave by pushing a large sharpened log called the "flyswatter" out of the cave entrance and into Grumpy's open mouth. Some believe that one encounter with the "flyswatter" scarred Grumpy's eye. The Potter family, being new to the Land of the Lost, named the T-Rex for his facial feature, rather than his grumpy attitude ...

If this were true, it would make Christa and Scarface the only two characters that existed in both TV series.."

That kinda makes sense actually and is an interesting way to explain it for the older generation that grew up watching the original 1974 and got stuck watching the 1991 version with their kids on Saturday mornings.

Sadly, the show only lasted for 2 seasons with a total of 26 episodes spanning a year and a half (from September 1991 to December 1992), being replayed for awhile before being run in syndication later on Nickelodeon. I always wondered how they were going to get home, back to their normal time period.

To be honest, I wasn't big on this show until after my childhood best friend started watching it and was telling me about it. While I'm sure I've seen all the episodes, I didn't watch it religiously... but boy did that theme song get stuck in my head at times - LIVING IN THE LAND OF THE LOST!

Did you grow up watching Land of the Lost?

Boob Tube Babble 02.24.12

I missed the last few weeks (just been too busy to get the posts up!), but I'm back! And linking up for Boob Tube Babble once again!

Once Upon a Time

Two weeks ago was the Beauty and the Beast episode... not sure how I feel about Rumple being the Beast, but it was an interesting take on it. And you can totally tell Disney owns ABC and has some input on the show, as they specifically used Belle and Gaston in this various of the story. And omg! The end, with Regina asking Mr. Gold who he *really* is... I knew it!! I knew he knew all along! I think with her... she didn't start realizing it until the episode where she took care of the Huntsman. Should be interesting to see what happens though now that they both know they know! Obviously Regina's going to great lengths to prevent the others from realizing, while it seems Mr. Gold/Rumple seems to be helping Emma and the others work things out for themselves...

And this week's episode - Whatever Happened to Fredrick? - it was pretty interesting. And with Kathryn leaving David and moving forward on her own... only to disappear at the Storybrooke city limits... wonder what happened to her, as she was going to Boston however no one from Storybrooke ever leaves! I do hope Mary-Margret gives David another chance though, as we know they're really Snow White and Prince Charming and met to be together. Sucks how the town turned on her though after it was revealed that her and David were having an affair while he was still with Kathryn!


The Walking Dead
Soooo glad this one's back! I do agree with people though, it's becoming more of a drama than a zombie show, what with the lack of zombies lately this season... looks like they redeem it next episode though with Rick and Shane battling some while at odds together! Looks like we might get to see Shane's true colors that Dale's been warning everyone about! I really hope he backstabs Andrea - girl needs a wake-up call! And for those of you that watch the Talking Dead show afterwards, yeah, I totally would of just left the guy on the spike, maybe putting him out of his misery as a courtesy as those zombies were coming and the dude's leg was impaled on a fence! Clearly the guys he was with weren't good as they were just shooting at everyone and then leaving the rest for dead!


Glee
OMG!!! This week's episode! From Krofsky's suicide attempt to the Quinn PSA on texting while driving... talk about squeezing A LOT into one episode! So many messages about anti-bullying, and then seizing the day... I really hope Quinn lives but I have a feeling this might be how they write her character out of the show, since half the cast are seniors this year and will probably just have cameos after this season. So sad! Not a huge fan of the Rachel and Finn getting married plotline... hopefully the news of Quinn postpones it. And Regionals... anyone think it was a bit early for Regionals this season? That's how I knew they would win - they need to have time to do episodes that have them planning for State, etc. It was nice to see Sebastian not being a jerk for once though... I really don't like that guy! And I liked how Blaine went over to the Warblers after the winner was announced - that was nice of him! Can't believe they're making us wait like a month and a half for the next episode though! Oh and I liked how they covered a Halestorm song there in Regionals - I'm liking the next single, which Halestorm released on iTunes right after the episode aired.


New Girl
I missed part of this episode because of Jay, but it was pretty funny! Nick over-analyzing the cactus, Jess dealing with a bully student in her class, and Schmidt and CeCe... oh too funny! I do kind of like them together though... makes Schmidt seem a bit not so creepy!


The Office

I missed last week's episode so I think I'm a tad off as to the Florida plotline and how Todd Packer came to be there competing with Dwight. Not a fan of Kathy trying to have an affair with Jim but it was pretty funny how he got Dwight to intervene on several occasions! And I'm sooo confused about the Darryl plotline with the chick from the warehouse... I thought he was back together with his wife and then suddenly he's all crazy about the chick from the warehouse, trying to have a relationship with her... what happened to his wife??? I think I missed something somewhere...

Boob Tube Babble 02.03.12

Ahhh Jay's 1st birthday is tomorrow!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!

Anyways, here's what I watched this past week:

 

Ink Master (SpikeTV)
Dave Navarro and 2 others host/judge this reality competition to find the best tattoo artist in the bunch. This was our 1st time seeing this one as hubby came across it flipping channels Saturday night. The challenge in this episode was Tribal Tattoos. One dude's line work was terrible when they looked at it up close, another accidentally drew this lion head facing his person's armpit (which I guess is an unspoken tattooing rule of something you don't do...?). Someone else did a tribal that covered this dude's ENTIRE bald head! OMG that must of hurt, not to mention itched like hell while healing (my shoulder itches enough as it is, I couldn't imagine my head itching that bad!). Anyways, some dude that had inexperience with tribal tattoos was dismissed and Dave Navarro needs a hair trim - long is fine, but his has gotten just a tad too long as he can do a feminine hair flip with just looks strange on his hot ass.

I caught the new episode later this week (think it airs Tuesday?) and it was interesting. The challenge was about shading and the 1st part they had to apply black and white body paint to semi-nude models to make them have dimension. The dude that did the head tattoo last week got stuck with a guy this week that also wanted a head tattoo... but then the guy chickened out, after wasting an hour debating it. I really like the red-headed foreign chick, she seems pretty awesome!

 

My Cat from Hell (Animal Planet)

We've caught this one a few times as we recently discovered it late one night a few weeks ago. Being cat owners, we enjoy it as it's interesting to see these owners deal with stuff we might have noticed Tiger doing in the past or see how this Cat Whisperer tames the most psychotic cats. In one of the episodes we caught during the Saturday night mini marathon, this one girl said she gave her cat treats whenever he acted up in order to get him to call down. Um, what? Fail! You're basically rewarding him for bad behavior, no wonder he acts up - he wants treats! And in another episode, Cat Whisperer Jackson Galaxy (that's gotta be his music stage name, right?) basically had to play couples counselor as this couple were basically using their 3 cats against each other (and the guy seemed a bit resentful as his gf made him get rid of his dog previously) - the gf would often tell him it was her or the cat if they couldn't get it to behave. Turns out half the problem was that the cats were picking up on the negative energy of the owners! And then, at the end of the episode, the guy proposes to her - IN FRONT OF THE CAT WHISPERER! Doh!

 

Once Upon a Time (ABC)

Totally saw everything being a setup, from Sidney being set up to off the king from Emma "exposing" Regina in front of the city council. I thought he was most likely still in cahoots with her! I didn't think this was that great an episode... Sidney's background and how he became the Magic Mirror was neat, but the "reality" storyline seemed lacking this week. Next week looks pretty good - Beauty and the Beast, with Rumpelstiltskin as the Beast? Should definitely be interesting!

Glee (FOX)

Almost forgot it was the Michael Jackson episode this week! Santana's "Smooth Criminal" getup was pretty awesome as were the dueling cellos! That Sebastian guy is a creep, poor Blaine... talk about dramatic! I totally would have taken his confession to the cops. Wasn't too fond of how when Kurt told Rachel about his Nyata letter she flipped the moment and made it all about her, ughhhh! Looking forward to next week with Ricky Martin as the Spanish teacher! Although I have to wonder... whatever happened to the Shelby/Beth/Puck/Quinn storyline?? So much drama in that one and then... nothing! Like the totally forgot they had started that mess.

New Girl (FOX)
Kinda sad that Jess and Julia weren't getting along as I love Zooey and Lizzy (although despite her performances on True Blood and New Girl as well as in Hot Tub Time Machine, I still can't think of her as none other than Janis Ian from Mean Girls! Seeing her more grown-up is a bit weird to me!). Plenty of great, hilarious lines in this episode though and of course Schmidt being Schmidt, especially when he found out one of Jess's friends is a lesbian!

The Office (NBC)
Yay! The return of Pam! And no James Spader! When did CeCe get sooo big though?? I guess she is supposed to be almost 2, but still... we haven't seen her on the show in awhile and she's gotten so big! Angela gives birth in this one to the senator's baby, but when some of the staff goes to visit her they learn that the baby isn't premature like they had thought, but rather was conceived a month prior to Angela's wedding to the senator. Upon learning this, Dwight becomes suspicious and convinced that the child is really his!

By the way, I'm *really* missing Community Thursday nights =(

What did you watch this week?

Winter is Coming...

Winter is Coming - April 1st!

Boob Tube Babble 01.27.12

It seems most of my shows came back for a week or 2, post-Christmas hiatus, and now they're gone again for a week! What gives?!

So... since there were no new episodes of Glee, New Girl or The Office this week, Community and Walking Dead are on mid-season hiatus, and Game of Thrones doesn't return til April, the only show I watched this week (aside from PBS and Sprout programming or reruns on TBS of Seinfeld and The Office) was ABC's Once Upon a Time.

This week Mary Margret and David do their best to avoid each other, however their paths keep crossing no matter how much they try. Meanwhile, in fantasy-land flashbacks, we learn more backstory about Mary Margret and David's counterparts Snow White and Prince Charming, eventually seeing how Snow White came to live with the Seven Dwarves. It was quite sad!

Also, thoughts on who the stranger is supposed to be? So we learned that it's a typewriter he's toting around... but I had Jay babbling on with his toys in the room while the conversation with him and Emma was going on so maybe I missed it... is he supposed to be the narrator/author of the storybook? Is that what they implied?

This episode needed more Robert Carlyle too, as Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin... either one. His presence was missed as he only appeared in 1 short scene!

What did you watch this week?

Boob Tube Babble 01.20.12

I've been meaning to join this link-up for awhile but always forget until I'm reading all you guys' posts Friday afternoon/evening and yeah... by then it's too late since I don't normally have time on Friday to get on the computer.

This week I watched:

Napoleon Dynamite

Once Upon a Time

Glee

New Girl

The Office

How I Met Your Mother

Gossip Girl

Napoleon Dynamite
This is a brand new animated series based off the cult classic film from my college days and the original main cast is all back - it's the latest addition to Fox's Animation Domination Sunday night line-up. The pilot was alright, focusing on Kip dating a girl he met online who fell for Napoleon instead after they met, but the 2nd episode they showed... it was soooo much funnier than the pilot! One of their teachers has this robot match up the students in the class - Summer gets stuck with Pedro (much to Pedro's delight!), Napoleon gets matched with an Asian foreign exchange student (much to Deb's dismay) who wields a samurai sword and schools Napoleon in martial arts, and Deb gets paired up with Summer's preppy boyfriend Don. It was pretty funny and the dialogue was hilarious ("Thanks for taking me to Mexico, Pedro!" "...that was my house."). I'll probably try to remember watch - the movie was me and my roommate's favorite in college, I have no idea how we didn't wear out the DVD as we watched it soooo many times we could even quote it while drunk (we did watch it while drunk, many many times, lol...)

Once Upon a Time
This week focused on Hansel and Gretel, but what I LOVED was seeing Nicholas Lea play their dad! I've mentioned it a bit in the past here, but when I was in 5th/6th grade I was a HUGE X-Files fan and renegade/rogue agent Alex Krycek was my FAVORITE character and since those days I've made an effort to watch as much of Nicholas Lea's work as I can (ie: the movies The Raffle and Vertical Limit, shows like Once a Thief and Kyle XY... I have V queued too, just haven't gotten to it yet...). So yeah, when I heard on Twitter he was in this week's episode I couldn't wait to watch it! Gotta say, for being in his mid-40s, he still looks as good as he did 15-20 years ago when I first laid eyes on him!

Glee

I just live tweeted this one last night while catching up on it. Loved the Grease "Summer Lovin'" number at the beginning - that was cute. Becky's crush on Artie was pretty cute too... Sue's 1 liners are still pretty hilarious but WHY is she suddenly being nice and helpful to everyone?? Seems a bit out of character... I'm confused! It was a fun episode, but I miss the drama that's been going on. Oh and Sam needs to get over Mercedes and just move on - I can't really see them together and I like Mercedes with her current beau.

New Girl
Schmidt's birthday party bus... not the funniest episode, but I like they finally brought the Douchebag Jar back! It was hilarious in the 1st episode but has been absent ever since... was nice to see it again!

The Office
Pool Party! They need to get Andy and Erin back together already - those 2 are perfect for each other. Pam needs to come back from maternity leave, it's weird not having her and Jim pulling pranks on Dwight all the time. And I'm still not a fan of James Spader (Robert California) on the show... he just... I don't know. I don't like him.

Since we rejoined Netflix last week, we started catching up on some TV series we hadn't seen before, including How I Met Your Mother. I've caught a few episodes here and there while channel surfing but not enough to really get into the whole storyline of the show. So we started with episode 1 and got through the 1st 5 in one night. The club episode was hilarious! And I LOVED how the 3 geeks from Freaks and Geeks are waiting in line to get in the club while Jason Segal walks right in (he played one of the freaks on the show).

I also started watching Gossip Girl. After hearing a ton of you talk about it on Twitter each week, I was interested in checking it out, but we didn't have Netflix at the time so it had to wait. But now we do! I got through the 1st 4 episodes the other night... definitely drama-filled! I still don't understand how these kids get served alcohol in public places though... like hotel bars and in limos (around these here parts there's a strict no alcohol clause for limos if minors are riding in the back with everyone!)... don't people check IDs or worry about getting their liquor licenses revoked???

So yeah, that's what I watched this week.
What have you watched?

Once... Upon a Time

As some of you may remember, last May I tweeted this:

It's no secret that I often do online surveys for market research purposes to earn credits towards gift cards, etc. This particular one for eRewards required me to view a potential pilot for an upcoming show. The survey length was approximated at about an hour, which I was a bit hesitant at first, but thought I'd check it out - if the show sucked I could just exit out of it.

Anyways, the show ended up being the test pilot for ABC's new fantasy series Once Upon a Time. It premiered at the end of October, but with football season and the return of AMC's The Walking Dead, I didn't get a chance to watch it when it aired on Sundays and just got caught up on the series this past week.

And it's as good as I remember it being!

The synopsis is this - in the town of Storybrooke, Maine all the residents are actually fairytale characters, trapped in our world with no memory of their previous lives in fairytale land due to a dark curious that the Evil Queen placed on them all. In order to provide a possible way of breaking the curse, Snow White and Prince Charming placed their newborn daughter Emma into a magic wardrobe that sent her to our world prior just before the curse hit everyone. It was predicted that on Emma's 28th birthday she would return to them and break the Evil Queen's curse. Flash forward 28 years later, Emma works as a lone bounty hunter in Boston and has built up walls emotionally around her due to her being an orphan since birth and having grown up in "the system." She also gave birth to a baby boy when she was 18, whom she placed for adoption, however, 10 years later, a boy named Henry claiming to be her son shows up on her doorstep on her 28th birthday. With him is a storybook, which he says explains the curse of the residents in his town of Storybrooke and that Emma is the daughter of Snow White and that she must come with him to break the spell. Of course she doesn't believe the kid, but she does need to return him to his adoptive mother, who just so happens to be the mayor of Storybrooke and whom Henry says is really the Evil Queen, so Emma accompanies him to Storybrooke and our adventure begins as things start to happen once Emma arrives.

When I first screened the test pilot back in May, my biggest concern was how in the world where they going to make this into a full-blown series with more than 1 season? The premise seemed like something that could be solved and dealt with in the course of a mini-series, kinda like the fairytale-based The 10th Kingdom mini-series. And I could be wrong, but I remember there being some kind of set time limit that once Emma came to Storybrooke the curse would be broken and everyone would get their memories back within a set time frame - that was part of the whole significance of the town clock ticking once again at the end of the pilot, which made me pose the question as to how this could be continued into a full series as once the time frame was up, then what? They seem to have removed that entire aspect though so that there is no set time limit that everything has to happen by. My other concern was that the transition between the real-world scenes and fairytale flashbacks didn't seem very smooth, but they've fixed that as well as it didn't bother me watching it a 2nd time around.

A great thing about this series, is that it's pretty family friendly. The violence borders on PG/PG13 stylized fantasy violence (ie: mainly sword fights or people fighting with magic), the language isn't bad for network TV and there's very little sexual content seen or implied (that is, nothing you'd have to worry about explaining to your kid).

Main Cast from Left to Right:
Town therapist Archie/Jiminy Cricket, Mayor Regina/Evil Queen, Henry, Emma, Sheriff Graham/The Huntsman, Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin, teacher Mary Margret/Snow White, David/Prince Charming

It's neat as the residents who hear about Henry talk about his storybook and who he believes they really, when things start falling into place, they start to wonder if perhaps what the kid says is true. After 7 episodes, it seems that the mayor IS starting to realize who she really is, and well, Mr. Gold, that man that "owns the town"... the entire time you wonder if he's always known what's really going on, as just like his Rumpelstiltskin counterpart in fairytale land, he continues to pull the strings... but is he a good guy wanting the curse to be broken or is he just toying with everyone to see what they do?

They also include back stories for some of the characters - we learn how Jiminy Cricket came to be Geppetto's guide, what became of Cinderella and her prince after the wedding, how Snow White and Prince Charming came to be, among others. It's also interesting to see how Rumpelstiltskin works his way into everyone's back story, playing some part behind the scenes of their infamous tales.

I loved how Pam from True Blood (Kristin Bauer van Straten) makes an appearance as the Evil Queen's "friend" Maleficent, with the Pam attitude and all, lol... and you can tell Disney owns ABC and has a hand in the show as well - Belle and Gaston fairytale flashbacks are in an upcoming episode and there's talk of an Ariel appearance in the works too.

If you like dramas, mysteries and fantasy stories - be sure to check out Once Upon a Time on ABC - new episodes start airing this Sunday at 8/7c and they're currently all up on Hulu for another week or so.

2011 in Entertainment

In 2011...

I read:

• World War Z (well, technically I finished it, having started it near the end of 2010)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse book #11)
• The Girl Who Played With Fire
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland Into a Ship of Her Own Making (started)
• A Game of Thrones (started)
• A handful of parenting books

I watched (TV):

• A Game of Thrones (season 1)
• Franklin and Bash (season 1)
• True Blood (season 4)
• Entourage (season 8)
• Glee (seasons 2 & 3)
• New Girl
• Up All Night
• Community
• The Office
• The Walking Dead (season 2)
• Once Upon a Time
• Conan

I watched (movies):

• The Green Hornet
• The Mechanic
• I Am Number 4
• Paul
• Fast Five
• Thor
• Bridesmaids
• Bad Teacher
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Winnie the Pooh
• Cowboys and Aliens
• Conan the Barbarian in 3D

Listened to:

• Volbeat
• Shinedown
• Britney Spears
• Lady Gaga
• Adele
• Katy Perry
• LMFAO
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Bush
• Skrillex
• The Pretty Reckless
• Tinie Tempah
• Theory of a Deadman
• The Lonely Island
• Evanescense

Glee: Did they go too far this week?

So apparently I hear there's been quite an uproar about this week's episode of Glee.

This week's episode, I'll admit, was quite sexually charged compared to the majority of the episodes.

(spoiler alert - stop reading now if you haven't seen the episode yet and plan on doing so!)

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This week was the big school musical of West Side Story that's been the focus of the show the past few episodes. While rehearsing a number as Tony and Maria, student director Artie feels Rachel and Blaine are lacking the sexual passion of the song and inquiries about their 1st times (both however are virgins, as are faculty co-directors Guidance Counselor Emma and Coach Beast). So the focus of the episode becomes Rachel deciding whether or not to sleep with her boyfriend Finn; Blaine and Kurt deciding whether or not to make their relationship sexual; and getting the man-ish Coach Beast to finally accept a date from an attractive college recruiter she's liked for years but felt she wasn't pretty enough for.

The Coach Beast storyline was humorous and sweet - when the attractive  recruiter finally asked her one last time (at the suggestion of Artie) she finally broke down and explained how she felt a guy like him could never be interested in a woman like her - he's the type of guy that could have any pretty girl he wanted. He told her he wasn't interested in pretty girls, but rather pretty women like her (despite her man-ish appearance which has caused her a lot of pain in life, she does seem to have a genuinely good heart).

The other storylines are what people are upset about.

Well, at first Rachel decides to sleep with Finn so it would help her with the musical number, which when Finn finds out, upsets him (obviously). Trying to figure out why she wants to do it, she pulls together the other Glee members and asks about their first experiences with sex. Santana, Brittany and Quinn all tell her to wait, which sounds good to her... until Tina tells what a great experience her 1st time was with someone she loves.

With Kurt and Blaine... when Blaine visits his former show choir, the Dalton Warblers, to give them tickets to the musical, his replacement, another gay male named Sebastian, shows an interest in him. They meet up a few times just to talk, including at the coffee shop where they run into Kurt he begins to get jealous. Wanting to live a little and be a bit more adventurous with their relationship (as per a prior conversation they had in Blaine's room), Kurt accepts Sebastian's invite for them to join him at the local gay bar for dancing. Kurt stays sober while Sebastian gets Blaine drunk and in the parking lot Blaine physically tries to get Kurt to have sex with him, despite their prior discussion on waiting. Upset at the fact that Blaine just spent half the night dancing with Sebastian he tells him no and Blaine walks home. Later though, they make-up.

The episode ends with both Rachel and Finn and Kurt and Blaine in bed together (respectively that is, not all 4 together), on the verge of having sex.

People are in an uproar apparently about how the episode seemed to focus on teenage sex and specifically gay sex.

Honestly, they didn't show anything more than they hadn't already. There was no nudity from the shoulders down and all we saw was the prelude to implied sex. Yes, they were teenagers. But hello, this is Glee - when has this show not had implied teenage sex? They've mentioned Puck is basically a manwhore who is known for hooking up with the cougars whose pools he cleans (not to mention in the previous episode he shares a kiss with a teacher). The whole 1st season dealt with Quinn's pregnancy as a result of Puck getting her drunk one night. We've seen Brittney and Artie before and after sex. And how many times have we seen Mr. Shue getting with the ladies before the screen cuts out and it's implied he's slept with them?

And for the whole gay sex uproar... am I the only one that remembers the Brittney/Santana fling last season where they were in bed together, obviously just having finished doing something...? There was a whole episode devoted to Santana deciding she was a closet lesbian and upset that Brittney (who's apparently bi) chose Artie over her.

I'm not going to get into the topic of thoughts on homosexuality, but as far as Glee goes, this week's episode was nothing new.

Yes, like I said, it was sexually charged moreso than the majority of the episodes, but so was the Rocky Horror special last fall (Emma singing "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" to Mr. Shue ring a bell, anyone?) and I'm sure there's been a few other episodes that were quite heavy on the topic of sex.

While I know there are families who watch Glee together for the musical aspect of the show, let's face it, it's a dramedy, not a musical. The drama is what fuels the show and keeps us coming back for more each week - not the tunes. Yes, the singing is a neat aspect to it that many enjoy. But it is not a show for kids.

The majority of the characters on the show have had storylines involving sex. Like I said, one major storyline during the 1st season was all about Puck knocking up Quinn and her making Finn think he was the father til she fessed up. Mr. Shue and Emma have always had major sexual tension that seems to come and go. Plus, post-divorce, 2nd season Mr. Shue seemed to get around quite a bit.

So honestly, I don't get what everyone is in a tizzy about - the topic of sex and teenage sex is nothing new on Glee and in this week's episode, while it was implied, nothing was actually shown that hasn't already been seen on TV.

What are your thoughts? 

 Did they go to far or do you think everyone just has their panties in a bunch over nothing new?

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Sesame Street Live!

Tonight I took Jay to see Sesame Street Live! in our town and he had no idea what was going on. He noticed the Elmo souvenirs on our way in so he knew we were somewhere that had something to do with Elmo. I bought him a program as a keepsake and he had fun looking at all the characters on the cover.

"Uh mommy? What's going on here?"

At the beginning, Bert and Ernie came out to tell us the letter of the day, which was J! (The number of the day was 8). And then the lights went down, the curtains whipped open, and the entire cast was singing and dancing to the Sesame Street theme song.

And OH. MY. GOSH!

The way Jay's face lit up was PRICELESS! It was soooo great and made me melt to see my baby so in awe of something he likes like that!

He started out sitting in my lap but as soon as he realized what was going on he scrambled to his feet and stood on my lap and bounced along to the tunes.

The premise of the show (which was titled Elmo Makes Music) is that Jenny is a new music teacher that has just arrived on Sesame Street. All the Sesame Street characters are eager to take various music lessons from her, however the truck delivering all her instruments hasn't arrived yet! While Jenny is worried about the whereabouts of the truck and why it's so late, the Sesame Street crew decides to surprise her and (after she tells them that anything can make music) come up with various instruments of their own. Mr. Noodle's other brother Mr. Noodle helps Elmo create a drum with a pot and long kitchen spoon. Abby finds a horn, Grover stomps his feet, Cookie Monster shakes a jar full of cookies like a maraca, and others use brooms, buckets and trash lids (a la Stomp or Blue Man Group style). It was fun.

However... it was a bit too long for Jay.

He did pretty well during the first half of the show, either sitting in my lap or standing. We had a good seat - just slightly up behind the floor/ground seats and on the center aisle so he didn't have a blocked view. At one point he was standing next to our seat, holding onto the seat in front of us. Then he wanted to sit. And then... he wanted to crawl and climb on the steps. I wouldn't let him and of course he got fussy about it for a little bit til something distracted him. Fortunately though that was towards the end of the 1st half.

Then there was a 15 minute intermission (why, I don't know - the first half was only maybe 30 minutes at most). At first I had a rough time trying to keep him occupied, but I remembered I brought his Gerber Puffies to snack on so he sat and ate some of those and then played with the program some more.

He was a handful of bipolar during the 2nd half!

One minute he's snuggled up on me like he's going to fall asleep, the next he's fighting me to get down on the ground to climb/crawl on the stairs, and then the next he's laughing his little butt off at something behind us! Rinse and repeat. He got excited again about the finale though and was standing on me and bouncing around like he was at the beginning.

Hubby took this one before we left for
the show - matching Elmo shirts!

He fell asleep on the ride home and napped on hubby while I made our dinner and fed him a later dinner (he had a big, late afternoon lunch though), getting him ready for bed before giving him his bottle. Needless to say, he went to bed a little early - he quite tired from our busy day of snow, shots and Sesame Street!

I'd say he enjoyed himself overall, but like I said, it just got too long for him.

There were lots of parents and kids wearing Elmo shirts like us and we also saw a handful wearing the Cookie Monster version. He also wasn't the youngest so I didn't feel too crazy bringing a 9 month old - I saw several younger babies with parents who brought the whole family with.

I'm sure he'll do better next year though! And maybe even hubby will join us too (hey the dad of the family sitting next to us got and got a beer, lol...) The only sad thing is I'll have to buy him a ticket next year (kids under 1 were free so long as they didn't take up a seat).