I know that I’m a really horrible TV Blogger, I get it and I know it sucks. If I’m not gallivanting here or there, I’m too busy doing X, Y & Z or like this past week… packing and moving. That really puts a huge kink in television viewing which then means I’ve got nothing to blog about.
Trust me, it annoys me more than it annoys y’all. The only thing I can tell you is that Kath (GMMR) and I plan on doing another podcast as soon as possible because we know there’s a ton of stuff to talk about.
What are you all watching? What do you all want to talk about? Should we talk about Jason Stackhouse’s abs (TRUE BLOOD)? Thomas Jane’s monster wang (HUNG)? HARPER’S ISLAND’s newest dead weight? Who’ll become THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR? NURSE JACKIE? WIPEOUT?
Oh no, I’ve got it… THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NJ’s crazy assedness! While I love the HOUSEWIVES franchise and thoroughly enjoyed New Jersey’s cast, that reunion show was the most boring thing ever!
You know how Dina’s Husband Tommy has never been on the show? Well I got to see him today! Randomly I turned on the tube for a couple minutes and saw Dina and Caroline! It wasn’t Housewives though, it was a 2007 rerun of MY BIG FAT FABULOUS WEDDING! The show chronicled Dina and Tommy’s $1,125,000 750 guest wedding and it was banoodles! I loved seeing little Lexie, roots for days Dina and semi-Kate Gosselin bad hair on Caroline. No sign of Teresa, Jacqueline or whorey mcwhoresalot Danielle.
I hope to be back to regular viewing shortly, in the meantime thanks for being cramazing.
Everyone’s sick of end of year lists but how can I not do one on my favorite TV shows of 2007? I always find these lists hard to do because 12 months is a really long time and we watch a LOT of TV. I wish I could prepare enough ahead of time to write up some great “moments” that stand out but let’s be honest… I don’t get paid to do this so that’s not gonna happen.
Regardless, the end of the 2006-2007 season provided lots of thrills and even a few tears. The 2007-2008 season started off so promising but as we all know, many shows just didn’t live up to the hype and the WGA Strike has kind of killed any hope of making this a banner year for television. So what did I choose? Did I pick a previous favorite that ended last May? Did I give a sophmore series about superheroes another nod? Did those Housewives make a showing after being off the list for so many years? Here goes.
Ducky’s Favorite TV of 2007:
30 ROCK I was late jumping on the 30 Rock train but once I gave it a chance late last winter, I instantly fell in love. 30 Rock is the successor to Arrested Development and I actually may love it even more. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin together are impossibly brilliant and the supporting cast only add to the mayhem and madness. Highlights: Season 1’s “I love NY in springtime” moment, Season 2’s return of Will Arnett, “Me Want Food” and “Gay for Jamie“.
CHUCK Chuck Bartowski, how I love you! The funniest thing about Chuck is that GMMR and I had seen the pilot probably 10 times before we hit Comic-Con where Zac Levi and crew got a superheroes reception from the geek gala. I don’t know that the show has lived up to my expectations but I can’t say that I don’t love watching it every week. There’s an inherent sweetness to this action-comedy that makes me squee. Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski are magnificent together and anytime Adam Baldwin gets to be a smartass, I’m on board. So sad that the WGA Strike put an end to our enjoyment of the Nerd Herd! Highlights: The Pilot, Chuck and Lou, Captain Awesome’s many skin shots, and the return of Bryce Larkin.
DAMAGES Week after week this intense drama built to a shockingly graphic climax and it kept me guessing every step of the way. Glenn Close, Rose Byrne and Ted Danson delivered crazy intense performances for 13 weeks, proving that summer is not for the lazy brainless reality shows any longer. It was great interviewing most of the cast this summer, it really made me realize how brilliant the writing of the show really is. Kudos to FX for sticking with Damages and granting us 2 more seasons. Highlights: The endless time shifting and the seemless togetheness of it all, Glenn Close’s reaction to Ray Fiske blowing his brains out, the closing moments on the dock.
DOCTOR WHO/TORCHWOOD The one-two punch of Doctor Who and Torchwood coupled with my going to Comic-Con made 2007 my geekiest year to date. Season 3 of Doctor Who was probably the best of the new series. While I loved and miss Rose, Martha was a great companion. Capt. Jack may have ended up on Who at the end of Season 3 but more importantly he kicked some demon ass all season on his own show, Torchwood. Harkness, Gwen, Ianto, Owen, and Tosh made their show so much more than a spin-off. Torchwood delivered thrills, chills, and tears and I cannot wait for it’s return early in 2008. Highlights:Who’s Donna the Runaway Bride, “Human Nature” and the scary intense weeping angels of “Blink”. Torchwood’s gayness, “Random Shoes” with Eugene, Billis the scariest wrinkled creepy since the Preacher Kane from Poltergeist.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS The Dillon Panthers won State, the audience won another season and all seemed great down there in Texas. Then poor Tyra and Landry had to dump a body in a river leading to the most interesting coupling the show could ever have concocted. Some balked at the stunt plotline but I welcomed it once I saw how unbelievable both Adrianne Palicki and Jessie Plemons would make their roles. The Taylors continued to bring one of the most realistic and beautiful families to television not to mention Connie Britton’s acting her ass off. Highlights: Winning State, Plemons acting, Santiago’s first moment in the game during “The Confession”… breathtaking.
LOST Say what you will about Season 3 of LOST but the addition of Juliet and the jump forward solidified the show as greatness in my book. While it took a bit to flesh out Ben’s backstory, Juliet’s arrival on the island, Mr. Friendly’s allegiance, and the involvement of the Whidmore’s it was all worth the wait. We got some great answers this season, some scary twists and turns, some great revelations, some wonderful death’s, and HELLO, the chaos surrounding who’s coming to the island in Season 4? Matthew Fox continued to bring anxiety and sadness to the role of Jack and it’s a damn shame he wasn’t nominated for something this year. I’m psyched for it’s return on January 31st! Highlights: The story of how Juliet came to the island, the death of Charlie, the flash-forward, and Patch!
MAD MEN Seriously, do I even need to explain why Mad Men is on the list? The acting, the writing, the art direction, the costuming, the genius? Another summer sleeper that rocked my socks! Highlights: Jon Hamm as Don Draper, any scene with Joan, the sadness of the era, Don Draper’s carousel pitch.
PUSHING DAISIES The facts are these: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth and Chi McBride are my favorite finds of 2007. Bryan Fuller created a vivid, magical world I didn’t realize was missing from making my life complete until it slapped me in the face. My favorite pilot of 2007 led to stalking Fuller and Co. at Comic-Con, creating a fansite called ThePieMaker.com, and landed me on the Red Carpet interviewing these great talents. What a summer and fall leading up to the premiere of Pushing Daisies. This show makes me beyond happy and I cannot wait for its return in 2008. Highlights: The pilot, Ellen Greene, the musical numbers, Ned & Chuck, Bryan Fuller and Lee Pace recognizing me on the red carpet with hugs all around. Swoon…
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE I have to include SYTYCD because seriously could there have been a bigger obsession all summer long? Sure I loved Damages and Mad Men but sweet lord did it not compare to my lunacy over Neil Haskell and the rest of the dancers on SYTYCD. Highlights: Neil and Sabra’s boardroom brawl, Cat Deeley’s flawless hosting, Mary Murphy’s continued screaming, Wade Robson’s increased involvement, Debbi Allen and Shankman, backstage on tour.
SUPERNATURAL Love those Winchester’s. In a year that saw Sammy go real dark, the demise of YED, and a soul searching Dean, how can I not love Supernatural? The end of Season 2 was a wild wild ride but the beginning of Season 3 proved that this show is not and will not be stereotyped. Broadening the horizons of the demon world has suited the show nicely. Sure the addition of Ruby and Bela has been problematic for some but I can overlook that because the suspense and the gore has increased! Highlights:Visiting the set last May, blood and more blood, Supernatural:Origins comics, the return of Gordon.
The rest of the best:Battlestar Galactica, Big Bang Theory, Brothers & Sisters, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Project Runway, Psych, The Closer, The Office, Top Chef and the end of Veronica Mars.
Should be on the list but isn’t for one reason or another: Dexter (never finished Season 2 because we got rid of Showtime but I’m dying to see the rest), Bones (just got addicted so I felt it couldn’t be added just yet – though let it be known that I’m obsessed), Dirty Sexy Money (something just isn’t right just yet, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it).
Have a safe and Happy New Year! Looking forward to a wonderful and hopefully television filled 2008.
SUPERNATURAL creator Eric Kripke sat down with TVGuide to talk about next week’s “A Very Supernatural Christmas” as well as how many episodes are left in the can (4 after Christmas) and more about Season 3. Wondering how the WGA Strike tinkers with the storyline for Season 3 and Season 4? Want to know what he thinks about Katie Cassidy’s underage drinking scenario and how it impacts the show? Want ot know what revelations are hiding in Sam and Dean’s upcoming flashbacks? Continue reading.
TV Guide: So what is the Supernatural take on Christmas?
Eric Kripke: I grew up loving Christmas specials; Rudolph, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. I got it into my head that I wanted to do Supernatural’s version of a Christmas special. We wanted to be the first — and I’d imagine only — Christmas special complete with impalements, cannibalism and torture scenes. [Laughs] What I really rub my hands together in glee about is that we are far and away the most violent Christmas special in the history of television. That’s really fun. As we researched legends for the show, we came across this worldwide one about an anti-Claus — if God has the Devil, then Santa Claus has this creature. He stuffs his victims in sacks and takes them off to eat them.
TV Guide: Oh no, a really, really bad Santa!
Kripke:One of the things I’m really proud of in this episode is that the legend is one of our most accurate, not just in discussion of the anti-Claus, but also when you research Christmas you discover that the vast majority of Christmas traditions are actually pagan. So is Easter.
TV Guide: Isn’t that a little gutsy of you to point out on American TV?
Kripke: [Laughs] We just report the news.
TV Guide: Where do the pagans fit into the story?
Kripke: The implication of there being an anti-Claus means that there actually is a Santa Claus and the writers and I couldn’t quite bring ourselves to say that there was such a thing as Santa Claus. So we moved on to the Pagan god, which is called Hold Nickar. Generally thought to be the precedent to Santa Claus.
TV Guide: You have the violent cynical pagan holiday story but then you have moving flashbacks to the young Winchesters, don’t you?
Kripke: Yeah, it felt like such a natural to tie it into the Christmas episode. Those kids — Ridge Canipe plays Dean and Colin Ford, Sam — are-terrific. We love exploring the childhood of the boys and to be able to tell the story of the day that Sam lost his innocence not just that there was no such thing as Santa Claus but that there was such a thing as everything else, was too good an opportunity to pass up.
TV Guide: What kind of revelations are there in the boys past?
Kripke: It explains where Dean got his necklace that he wears in every single episode. It explains the beginning of Sam’s estrangement from his father and his indoctrination into the supernatural world. It’s quite a big moment.
TV Guide: How many episodes do you have left?
Kripke: Christmas will be Episode 8 and we will have four more before we go into repeats. If it ends in December, I think we’ll be able to pick back up in January without missing too many episodes, only one or two. If the strike heads off into January or God forbid, February, then we really need to have a conversation about how scaled back the season is going to be.
TV Guide: Will Sam’s quest to keep Dean alive be ongoing in those four episodes?
Kripke: Yeah. We actually spend a little more time with how Dean himself feels about going to Hell because right now he’s accepting that he’s going to Hell and he’s unwilling to do anything to stop it. That changes 180 percent in Episode 10. Something big happens to him that makes him realize he desperately wants to live and he desperately doesn’t want to go to Hell. We also have a great Groundhog day episode coming up.
TV Guide: Where a day keeps repeating itself?
Kripke: Sam basically wakes up every day and it’s the same day and Dean dies at the end of every single day. It’s actually quite funny. Dean dies maybe 10 different ways on camera, and off camera, maybe he dies 200 different ways. Sam doesn’t go through just three or four Tuesdays, he goes through something like 150 Tuesdays. We have a great witch episode and we have a big mythology episode where we pay off the Agent Hendrickson storyline in a very climactic way.
TV Guide: What’s happening with Ruby and Bella?
Kripke: Ruby is appearing in that episode with Hendrickson; she’s also appearing in the witch episode. We reveal something pretty surprising about her backstory. She’s a demon, and we learn a lot about demons and how they came to be demons. Bella makes an appearance in a dream episode, where Sam and Dean take this medicine man drug where they go dream walking, which is going into other peoples’ dreams. So we spend the majority inside Bobby’s dreams, inside Dean’s dreams,
TV Guide: Your fans seem to hate any woman who comes on the show. Are they coming around?
Kripke: My fans are a protective bunch. I hope we’re winning them over. Last season, they had such issues with the character Jo. And privately, I thought the character as we wrote her wasn’t working out. This season, I love both these girls and both these characters. They’re really interesting and bring something different to the table.
TV Guide: I have to ask you about Katie Cassidy’s (Ruby) arrest-underage drinking, lying to a cop. How has that affected the show?
Kripke: I don’t have anything to say about that. It hasn’t affected the show at all.
TV Guide: Are you planning for Dean’s future to be resolved this season? If the strike allows it, of course.
Kripke: We have this storyline that we’re building towards — whether Dean goes to Hell and what’s really happening to Sam, dovetails together in a really surprising and satisfying way. If we have a full season, Dean’s time will come up and we’ll definitely answer what team Sam is going to be fighting for. If we have a half a season, stay tuned for Season 4. So we’re excited by that story and we hope to tell it this year.
TV Guide: What can we look forward to with post-strike eps?
Kripke: There’s a fun one where we bring back the Hellhounds, the bumbling ghost hunters back from Season 1. The whole show is an episode of their reality show. So we’re shooting an entire show on hand-held video Blair Witch-style. Like when X-Files did their episode of Cops. It’s our loving tribute to Ghosthunters on Sci Fi.
Another week, another Supernatural, another drunken wannabe starlet, and another set Behind The Scenes Videos from my favorite… SUPERNATURAL!
This week we have 2 new videos focusing on the Visual Effects crew and their magic. Having witnessed some of this first hand last spring during the set visit, I have to say these guys are amazing. Enjoy…
The Warner Bros. Marketing Department was kind enough to shoot a few of us TV Bloggers some special behind the scenes videos from The CW’s SUPERNATURAL. There will be 10 videos in total released over the next 5 weeks. I’ll be bringing you two videos a week.
This week is Special FX Week!
Here is an interview with SUPERNATURAL’s FX Make-Up Guru Lance Webb
Entries (RSS)