Tag Archives: tv

Bunheads

TV Show Reviews, ,

Do you have the new ABC Spark channel on your cable lineup?

There is a new show on there that I really like. I usually don’t pay too much attention to new shows being advertised, but when a commercial said the show’s executive producer was Amy Sherman-Palladino I knew I had to give it a chance. She created Gilmore Girls. I still miss watching the Gilmore Girls, I loved it!

I’ve watched the first two episodes of Bunheads now, and it reminds me a lot of the Gilmore Girls – probably for some obvious reasons – small town, interesting quirky small town characters, and Kelly Bishop is back (Lorelai’s mother from the Gilmore Girls). The main character is similar to Lorelai – dark hair, talks quick and fast, and is sarcastic.

The premise of the show so far : Main character Michelle is a Vegas show girl. When she is tired of her life and needs a change, she accepts a marriage proposal from her biggest fan and admirer. He is kind and sweet. She doesn’t love him, but he is willing to wait. They marry that night in Vegas and then he brings her home – to the home he shares with his mother (Kelly Bishop) who runs a ballet studio out of the back of the house.

Everything was being set up really nice in the first episode for a good series, we were being introduced to 4 teenage girls who hang out in the ballet studio, and a couple characters from the small town, but I couldn’t figure out how we were going to be able to ditch the husband from the series. He didn’t fit.  He was a really weak character. And how could we watch a show where the main character is already hitched? One of the best parts of Gilmore Girls was rooting for Lorelei to end up with Luke from the diner.

The end of the first episode solved that problem when he is killed in a car crash.

The first episode is free on iTunes. I think the second episode might be on ABC’s website, or you can catch it repeating this week sometime if you get ABC Spark.

Two thumbs up!

Worth watching

Music Reviews, ,

Great movies I’ve seen lately:

Moneyball – I am not a fan of Brad Pitt, but I really liked this movie. And I think Jonah Hill stole the show anyway. This is a great baseball movie, but without being too basebally. Toss together some economics, and computer-analysis with that baseball and you have Moneyball. It is a true story based on Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players. I give it 4/5 stars.

Yogi Bear – I’ve had this one sitting on our PVR for months but hadn’t watched it. I actually assumed it was a cartoon movie, but it isn’t. Yogi and Boo Boo must be computer animated additions. I really enjoyed this movie. Probably the best part was the scenery. I hadn’t realized how much I missed a real forest and a campground – a place where trees are big and tall and thick. This would be a great movie for kids. Especially before a camping trip! I looked it up and it turns out the park where this movie was filmed is Woodhill Forest in West Auckland, New Zealand. Beautiful scenery!

TV shows that are totally not worth watching:

Flipped Off – I was a huge Russel Hantz fan when he was on Survivor each time, but this new “reality” show he stars in with his brother on A&E is just not watchable. They are supposedly flipping houses, and have no experience. Not a piece of it seems real, the entire thing seems hokey, non-original, staged, and sad. I’m really surprised this show made it on A&E.

What I’m watching these days:

It seems that there are so many shows I don’t watch, but there are a few series we record each week with our PVR to watch (and fast-forward through the commercials):

Bering Sea Gold – There isn’t a likable person on this show, but we’re still watching them suck up the floor of the Bering Sea hoping to catch a few little gold nuggets in their sluice box on their barges. Maybe we’re just trying to keep a little gold in our TV life until Gold Rush comes back next season. Gold Rush is way way better than this one

Deadliest Catch – This show might be getting a little old, but it still feels like real reality and we enjoy watching the men risk their lives for our crab leg dinners.

CBS Mondays – I tape 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, and Mike & Molly on Mondays. I don’t know how CBS keeps viewers for these shows though because they only seem to air new episodes once a month. Back in the pre-PVR days this would have spelled instant failure. I hear May is another sweeps month though so maybe we’ll get a couple new shows. I like Ashton Kutcher on Two and a Half Men at the beginning of the season, but I’m just about done. I hate the woman playing his girlfriend, and it’s just so done and tired. 2 Broke Girls is still amusing, but it seems to have worn off a bit. It’s hard to remember storylines on all 4 of these shows when they are so rarely on.

Survivor & Amazing Race – of course I am still watching Survivor and Amazing Race. I am not that thrilled with this round of Survivor, but I always hang in. I think Chelsea is going to win. Amazing Race isn’t bad, but I could really do without Brendan and Rachel from Big Brother. Man do those two ridiculous people deserve each other. I love Mark and Bopper, but the show seems more and more rigged every time these fan favourites finish last on a non-elimination leg.

House of Bryan – We’re enjoying watching the mansion of a cottage Bryan Baeumler is building.

TV shows I’m watching this season

TV Show Reviews,

Here is my fall line up.

  • Amazing Race – I’m voting for Marcus & Amani. Anyone else notice how the host Phil Keoghan says “next clue” weird this year? Like the words are run together and rushed with a pause before them? Maybe its just his accent, but I annoyingly repeat him every time he says it.
  • The Walking Dead – Love this show. Reminds me of my favourite childhood book, Stephen King’s The Stand, except with Zombies. This season is moving quite slowly, but I’m hanging in. Definitely recommend PVR’ing it because the commercials are lengthy. Is there anything better than watching a zombie get their brains bashed in?
  • Hell on Wheels – New show – set in the American west, right after the civil war. The scene is the end of the track as they build the railway towards the Pacific Ocean. The show is full of darkness, mud, history, trains, horses, crime, death, drinking, and dirty clothes. Love it. This show is also on AMC, right after The Walking Dead on Sunday nights. PVR it and skip the torturous commercials.
  • How I Met Your Mother – this season has really been lagging, but the cliffhanger at the end of last night’s show got me!
  • 2 Broke Girls – My favourite new sitcom in years. Love this one! Two broke girls living in the city. One was a spoiled rich girl’s daughter, until he went to jail for running a Ponzi scheme, and the other comes from a poor working family. The two girls team up to work towards their goal of running a cupcake business. Every week they try to make more money to save for their business. The best part is the rich girl’s horse is living on their patio.
  • 2 and a Half Men – I was getting very tired of the repetitive Charlie Sheen storylines. I’m really enjoying the reset of the show with Ashton Kutcher, even if I am not a big fan of Ashton’s. I think the show was headed for a quite death with Charlie Sheen. Now it has new life.
  • Survivor – Will I ever give up on Survivor? Only if Jeff Probst does. I love the show. I love that Jeff Probst tweets throughout the show. But I don’t like Redemption Island. I find the coverage of it really takes away from all the footage of camplife, and the dynamics of the castaways. When you’re gone, please be gone. And that includes you Ozzy. Get off my screen you egomaniac. I have Cochran in our Survivor work pool this year. Go Cochran!!
  • Gold Rush Alaska – The boys are off to a rough start this season, but I’m sticking in to see if they can at least break even this year on their hunt for gold. Ironically, they are chasing their American Dream in the Yukon this time after they lost their lease on their Alaskan glory hole.

Those are my must see’s. Other shows I’ll watch if they are on:
Storage Wars, Ice Road Truckers.. what else am I forgetting… Days of our Lives

Any one else notice the jokes on sitcoms this year took a giant leap into the filth pile? I mean I’m no prude – I listen to Howard Stern every day, and I love the humour, but some of these network sitcoms need an 18+ rating. If these shows were on when I was a kid, Mom would have sent us to bed after the 6pm news!

Anyone watching Gold Rush Alaska?

TV Show Reviews, , ,

We knew from the commercials that we were going to like “Gold Rush Alaska” on Discovery.

Anyone else watching? What did you think of it?

The first episode aired here last night. It is an intriguing concept. A father and son from Oregon are facing hard times with the economic downturn. They decide to sell what is left of their failing business, and with gold at an all-time high, they decide to head for Alaska to strike it rich in gold. The father was involved in mining 30 years ago and was able to find an old mining buddy who offered them a lease on a mining claim. They recruit several other unemployed men from their town who decide to head up to Alaska with them to work. Some of these men are about to lose their homes, and others have already moved in with their parents or in-laws.

They bought a bunch of old dated machinery, retrofitted others, and packed gear, food, and an insane amount of guns and ammunition. Some of the men are bringing their young sons with them. Only one of them has ever mined before. None of them will get paid, unless they collectively bring gold up out of the ground.

Here is the preview for you to get a sense of the show:

It airs on Tuesday nights at 9pm Eastern on the Discovery channel in Canada. I’m sure it replays during the week.

Hoarders

TV Show Reviews,

I’m fascinated by the show ‘Hoarders’.

If you haven’t seen this show, it is an hour long look into the miserable life of a hoarder.

It seems there are 3 types of hoarders.

  • Those that can throw nothing out and life in a house full of garbage.
  • Those that have a shopping addiction and have a house full of things they’ve never used or worn.
  • Those that pick up garbage and bring it home, thinking they can ‘recycle’ it or fix it up,

And sometimes the people featured are all of the above.

These people are very very mentally ill by their hoarding.  They don’t see their clutter, can’t smell it, and don’t acknowledge that their hoarding is a problem.

The show features a therapist and a clean-up crew.  They are called to help when the hoarder is faced with an ultimatum.  So far I’ve seen hoarders who have had their children taken away, a couple hoarders who were facing eviction, one that was facing a divorce, and another who’s house was about to be condemned.

Tonight we just watched a husband and wife who had their children taken away and put in the custody of their grandparents.  The wife was the hoarder.  Every room was stuffed with trash and clutter.  Some of it was waist high or higher.  The entire kitchen was full and every surface covered.  There were barely paths through the trash.  There was dirt, mold, and mice feces everywhere.  The woman was unable to throw away anything.

These therapists have found that they achieve the best results when the hoarder acknowledges their hoarding, and makes the decision to start throwing their stuff out.  If they simply come in and remove all the junk and clean it up for the hoarder, the hoarder will focus on the resentment and the loss of their stuff and will feel victimized.

This woman on tonight’s episode wanted her children back, but could not throw out anything.  She was up in a dump truck that was waiting to be filled with her stuff, her house was full, her yard was full, and her driveway was full, but she jumped into that truck and took out a 7-11 plastic slurpie cup because she didn’t want to part with it.

Because she was faced with a tight deadline and wanted her children back, the therapist and clean-up crew simply removed the garbage and put everything else in a storage facility for the woman to sort through later.  A cleaning crew cleaned the house.

At the end of the show the update on the screen said the authorities were not convinced she had addressed her hoarding and did not return the children.  Six months later the couple filed for divorce, she moved out, and the father regained custody of the son.

This show fascinates me, and drives me to clean :D

I’m sure there is a little hoarding instinct in me.  I’m a pack rat. But over the last few years, after moving a few times, and now having a nice house I want to keep clean, I am getting really good at having pitching sessions.  I don’t want my house overrun with stuff.  I crave cleanliness.

I wonder how these people started hoarding.  Were they born like that?  Did they have a tramatic event?  A period of depression?

How do they think it is okay to live in a garbage dump? Some of the houses are full of feces. One didn’t have a working toilet.  In that one the clean up crew found the flattened carcasses of 2 cats under the trash.

Most of the houses featured on the show are cleaned out with shovels.

Yes. Shovels.

Hoarders is on A&E. You can watch full episodes at http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/

Big Love

TV Show Reviews

My interest was tweaked just enough with the initial advertising that I just had to give ‘Big Love‘ a try.

The first two shows seemed so ridiculous to me – like they were trying to be so extreme and controversial, just to make people watch. In fact, the first two episodes I watched, I turned it off before it was over!

But I tuned in again the next week.

And now I’m hooked. It worked. The show theme is so crazy, yet I haven’t missed another second of the show and look foward to it every week!

Okay, so what is this profound show I’m carrying on about?

Big Love is about a family of polygamists in Utah. The father, Bill Paxton, has three wives, Barb, Nicki, and Margene. Between the 3 wives, Bill has fathered 7 children.

Because polygamy is illegal, they try to keep their family life a secret. They have three houses, side by side, on a typical subdivision street. Only their backyards are attached as one big yard with a pool. When Bill comes home from work, he enters his first wife’s home, and if it isn’t her ‘night’, then he says his hellos and continues on out the back door and into the home of the wife who is scheduled to be with him that night.

The entire thing is crazy, and I can’t imagine what woman in their right mind would ever want to share her husband, let alone a husband dealing with 3 wives!

The storylines are catching and continue on each week as most television dramas do. The character development is fantastic. I am compelled to care for them all (well maybe not the evil Roman, one of Bill’s father-in-laws.

Big Love airs on the Movie Network on Sunday nights at 10pm (after Sopranos).

To read more about the show, you can visit the Big Love offical website:
http://www.hbo.com/biglove/

Mantracker starts tonight on OLN

TV Show Reviews,

Mantracker

The Mantracker show starts tonight on OLN. You may remember my blog post about it – here, refresh your memory. The Mantracker himself, one of the guys who is tracked on the show, and another fan have already left comments on that thread!

From the OLN page, it looks like they are airing two episodes tonight:

Mantracker – Episode One “Jeff and Magnus”
Premieres Wed., April 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT
Jeff Bremner, 47, is an oil prospector from Medicine Hat, Alberta; and Magnus Mulliner, 34, is a fitness and wellness consultant from Calgary. These two may both be from Alberta – but this is where the similarities end. If they are going to outwit Mantracker in Alberta’s ranch country, they will have to find some common ground. The terrain is rough, putting Mantracker and his horses at a serious disadvantage in this chase. Will Mantracker and local guide TJ capture these two tenacious prey despite the terrain? Or will Bremner and Mulliner overcome their differences and outrace Mantracker?

Mantracker – Episode Two “Liisa and Nicolina”
Premieres Wed., April 12 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT
Liisa McMillan, a freelance writer and Nicolina Lanni, a journalism student, are two young women with steely resolve – and they want to make this the toughest challenge Mantracker has ever faced. To make sure of that, they push themselves to their physical and psycholical limits – facing paralyzing phobias – and drag Mantracker through a maze of thick bush and swamp. Mantracker’s horse is in danger and he’s not happy about it. Nobody’s safe in this adrenaline-packed game of hide-and-seek.

Mantracker Websites:
Mantracker.ca – The offical show’s site – includes a video preview clip
The Chase Is On – Mantracker Premieres April 12 on OLN – Information from OLN (Outdoor Life Network)

‘Mantracker’ pits hunter against prey – Coverage from Canoe.ca