TV Goes On

Hello everyone in TV junkieland. No, I haven't been in rehab; just being lazy. In the meantime, I have been watching the shows.

CBS tried a sitcom about guys dressing as women to just have a job. In this day and age, it's not such a strange premise. Too bad they only showed 3 episodes before they canned it. It was actually funny but maybe hit too close to home. One episode showed how a woman could be totally stupid and inept and still make the money by being a huge flirt. Hmmm...sounds familiar to real life.

Ok, well Survivor named this season One World. It started out w/ 2 tribes divided into one tribe of women and one tribe of men living in the same area. Interesting since everyone could just stroll over to the other tribe whenever they wanted to, to beg for stuff, spy, steal or socialize. Having a girly guy on the men's tribe was a sly bit of casting. Unfortunately, he's turned out to be a complete a-hole. A quarter way into the season, they changed the tribes to mixed and had them live in different areas. I guess One World is over. One really dumb move was, the men's tribe won immunity and then gave it up just to get rid of a specific player. Really? You thought you'd stay divided into these tribes? Have they never watched Survivor before? I don't care if you have a blind paraplegic dumbass w/ the personality of Howard Stern on your tribe. You don't purposely give up a tribe member until you have to. Sure enough. When they mixed up the tribes, the men had lower numbers on one of them. Well, at least the women don't have to worry about stealing fire anymore.

The Amazing Race started out by going to South America. Cool, since we're sick and tired of India and Africa but I'm sure they'll get there. It seems one team is hated before the start by most of America since they're from a reality show. The funny part is, they're proving to be smart and athletic but rather argumentative. Some teams looked strong and proved to be unlucky and other teams seemed weak and proved to be savy and persistent. One thing this season has really shown is persistence rules. There have been times when the team thinks they're in last place but by hanging in there until the very end, they make it to the next leg. Those are amazing OMG moments. The editors are doing a very good job of limiting the drama and showing the real "never say die" attitude these racers have. Also, the racers this season are pretty positive and not as big complainers as they have been in past seasons. They've also cut down on the amount of non-elimination legs which is good. The thing we love about these elimination reality shows is, we get new players w/ a new season. So don't drag this one out too long. Phil is just as cute and sexy as ever.

Project Runway All Stars has been great. Next week will be the finale and we'll see who's the star of the allstars. It's down to Micheal Costello, Mondo Guerra and Austin Scarlet. They've proven to be totally deserving of being in the final 3. The Hostess, workroom guru and judges were all changed but respected people of the fashion industry and it's been refreshing. Joanna Coles is the workroom guru and brings up such questions as, "How do you wear a bra under that?" Now that's a legitimate question that you'd never hear from Tim Gunn. This season also took any focus away from the models. They've never mentioned their names or made the designers choose them. Isaac Mizrahi and Georgina Chapman have served as judges and they've become endeared even more to America.

Top Chef Texas had a turbulent and very weirdly physical competition. They took the chefs on the road more, made them cook outside in the heat and the grit and deprived them of so much sleep, the chefs became snarky and emotional. Then they made them do elimination challenges that involved biking around town to find ingredients and places to cook, building their own fires to cook on, chopping ingredients out of ice and cooking in freezing outdoors, cooking on gondolas and dashing for ingredients and finally shooting and skiing for ingredients and then making them cook right after that. Ugh, it really jumped the shark. They also had a last chance kitchen that I think Andy Cohen and his co-horts at Bravo should've paid an arm and leg for because it was only a half an hour of pure cooking but was fun and exciting to watch. You could only watch it on-line. From all the comments about it, it was evident a lot of people watched it. Anyway, to the relief of America and half the world, Paul Qui won. He was brilliant, gracious and talented w/ an amazing palate. I think that does describe a Top Chef to the T.

Face Off had an amazing season w/ amazing talent. The level of talent this season was so good, they made last season look like kids from preschool art class. Yes, the make-up artists were critical of others but the criticisms seemed legitimate and the artists seemed most critical of themselves. I loved when Rayce would say, "It looks like crap and I can't believe I'm letting it go out." and then he'd win. When the artists bragged about being really good painters or model makers, they proved it. The really cool thing was, the people who'd get eliminated each week would make a look that would've totally won last season. So, the self deprecating Rayce won the season but I have to say, it was really close for the final 3. RJ and Ian also made really cool and really good creatures. Plus, they had to make it quality because the people did a huge dance number in them. The funniest part of the season was the whiny models. They complained about itching, inability to see, feeling hot, etc. I was yelling at them through the TV, "Shut up and do your job and just sit there." Just think of actors who have to wear the stuff for years. Lavar Burton pointed out he couldn't see w/ his make-up during the whole time his show aired. Anyway, Congrats to Rayce, he did a great job and is so talented, we're all blown away.

The Celebrity Apprentice is on again and unfortunately for Trump, it's opposite Once Upon A Time. Grimm and Once Upon a Time are 2 fantasy shows that are great escapes. Grimm focuses on a police officer who's from the Brother's Grimm line and his life happens to cross over into weirdly fairy tale like situations. I love that they take the seemingly sweet benign stories like Goldielocks and the 3 Bears and makes it about home invasion. How can you not laugh at that? He has a buddy who's literally a wolf from the stories who can change into human form too, who helps him w/ the cases. Once Upon a Time focuses on a family dynamic of Snow White that crosses into the real world. The show does a good job of differentiating the 2 different worlds or else the audience would be completely confused. We get good people to root for and bad people to boo. It's improbably enough to be cool and fun and real enough to make us forget it's based on kid's stories. I find myself pointing to the screen and saying things like, "Hey! He's Rumpelstiltskin."

On Celebrity Apprentice, Trump divided the teams into men and women. I hate that because the balance of talent and needs for tasks are thrown off. I feel sorry for the women when physical and mechanical stuff is required like building stuff or heavy lifting. Come on, these are women who do business in high heels. Then when there's something really girly like fashion or jewelry selling, the men know absolutely nothing. Penn Gillette is proving to be a savvy businessman as well as the showman we all know and love. Paul Teutal has proved to be more powerful at business than we thought. Trump has a new technique to draw out drama. He asks the project managers who they'd bring to the boardroom if they lose before they even say who's won or lost. Lou Ferrigno becomes the Hulk when his name is mentioned as a boardroom candidate. Aubrey ODay has proven to be the only female w/ any creativity. The women better keep her as long as possible. The problem I see is the lack of real celebrity on the women's side. I'm not sure their rolodexes can compare to the men's side. Wisely, Trump has cut down on the fund-raiser tasks because in past seasons, people literally drained their money wells before the finale.

The Biggest Loser is no longer called The Crying Fatties. The editors have cut the crying out and instead, put in a lot of conniving, complaining and talking behind peoples' backs. Conda has become the villain of the season but we're getting a sense of bigtime show editing because the other fatties are very friendly and supportive of her. One thing we're not seeing is amazing weight loss. We also see less working out. I think I've seen more of the contestants' bedrooms than I've seen in 12 seasons. Unfortunately, the producers and editors have made almost all of the contestants unlikeable which makes the audience not give a crap about who goes home. They're going to have to do a lot of redeeming to make America root for a winner. Otherwise, people are just going to see who wins by reading spoiler posts on the social media sites. I also want to point out that Bob seems ill this season. He's looking greyfaced and haggard on some parts of episodes and he's more grouchy and sour. Whatever he's suffering from, I hope he gets better.

This season of The Challenge is called Battle of the Exes. It involves teams of couples who have hooked up or dated before but are no longer together. It's been very interesting to see the I love you/I hate you waverings of the couples. Surprisingly, there was only one hookup of 2 people from different couples. What was really evident was the advantage that the couples who had dated for a long time over the casual hookup couples during the challenges and domes. They worked better in sync and the men knew how to handle the women when they started to lose heart. There was one really awkward incident when Emily decided to make fun of Paula and Tyler by putting chocolate on her face and pretending to be Tyler. Oh boy! When he threatened to quit because he didn't want to be Emily's partner anymore, I really thought he would and I didn't blame him at all. Someone obviously reminded him of the big prize at the end and he stayed. The final dome is really going to be good. It's Johnny and Camilla against their alliance pals Mark and Robin. It's Mark's very first time in an elimination challenge. That means, he's always been in the final challenge each time he's been on the show all these years. Wow! Also, the guy's 40. I can't wait to see the final show.

Finally, I'd like to ask ABC Family channel why they keep cutting their sitcoms? Ruby and the Rockits was such a cute show and seeing the Cassidy family each week was so much fun. Are they going to bring back Melissa and Joey? Of course the shows don't get high audience numbers, not everyone gets that channel and there's a lot of competition too. I prefer the multicam sitcoms and I like corny comedy. Well, I'll have to settle for Big Bang Theory, The Middle, Last Man Standing, Mike and Molly, How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls and 2 and Half Men. Sigh...

Well, catch you later TV people. Stay Tuned and keep watching.