Everybody Loves Saturday Night

the best line of TV last week

"You frenched me, Suarez. You frenched me good." -- Gio, on Ugly Betty

Last week's Halloween round-up

Dear Carolyn,

I'm sorry to have to cut this short, but my time is limited and none of these shows remain on my DVR (well, except for Pushing Daisies).

Reaper: I liked how the show switched it up a bit, and opened with a soul capture. Was amused by the Buffy-esque take on Halloween (everyone gets the night off), and the Devil's bemoaning of the commercialization of evil...except it felt a little old, that joke. I don't know. This show isn't living up to its potential.

Pushing Daisies: While this show is exceeding its potential. There is so much I loved about this episode that I cannot explain, so let me sum up: Olive as a former jockey = brilliant. Barbara Barrie as a guest star: fantastic. Ned and Chuck haunting their childhood homes = sigh. Ned finding out about the pies = longer sigh. Ned's past Halloween experiences = heartbreaking. The aunts = heartbreaking and hilarious ("I'll get the gun/I'll get the candy bowl"). Chi McBride = my new comedic hero. Examples: "Don't be acting like that's a word everybody knows" and "Think of it as escrow between my thighs"--that last making me do my first-ever spit take. The lines themselves are funny, but Chi McBride has unbelievable timing and delivery. I've always liked him, but who knew?

Dirty Sexy Money: I know what it is about this show. It takes campy situations (Paddy's entanglement with a post-op MTF transsexual, Rev. Brian's illegitimate son, Darlings who may not be Darlings) and makes them somehow not campy. The best moment was at the end when Brian shows his son his pancake-syrup distribution trick.

Ugly Betty: While this show amps up the camp and makes you beg for more. While the episode was one long advertisement for Wicked, I can't complain, because a) it's a worthy show to plug; b) continuity from last season; and c) it fits thematically with the show. Loved: Justin busting his mom, Christina and Betty's overly drawn out alcohol/donuts metaphor, Hilda telling Betty to go for it with Henry, Marc maybe not being so shallow (though I do sense a makeover in the works for Cliff), and Elphaba singing "I'm not that girl" while the camera cuts to Marlo Thomas. Subtle, brilliant, I love this show.

Smooches!

Ugly Betty: Season 2 premiere

I am ridiculously happy that this show is back. I have missed its soapy over-the-top drama and plot twists.

Loved the opening dream sequence. I had forgotten the prison break part of last season and I loved that they wind up hiding out in the Hamptons, where Yoga interacts with all the hoity-toities who think she's either the maid or Gail King. Loved that Daniel knew to find Betty at the french fry place.

Amanda's fat suit was a little off, I thought, but I liked the scene with her (adoptive) parents. 

Hopefully Justin, the little Fashion Elf, will have more screen time, even though at ten or eleven years old his position as intern breaks child labor laws. Don't care. Want more Justin. Specifically, want more interaction between Justin and Marc, because their initial dialog in season 1 was one of the highlights for me.

So everyone survives...everyone except Santos. Which in the back of my mind, I knew. All the scenes with Hilda and Santos were too perfect to be true, but that didn't make the reveal any less heartbreaking.

Thursday Night's all right for fighting (over the remote)

Smallville - It's not a Smallville episode if Lex Luthor doesn't get shot.  Good thing they made up that part about his excellent immune/healing system long ago.  Clark got Super Breath!  And cute sniffles.  I'm not sure if the minds behind the show have a plan for Lois or Lana and Lex (they can't have Lex or Lois discover Clark's super-powers), but at least we're getting some Green Arrow.  It's strange that we're being toyed with that he may not be a good guy when he clearly has to be.

Survivor - This has been a pretty bizarre season so far with the racial segregation and the surprising evictions.  Although it's still very early in the season, more than once large guy has been sent home.  We'll see how that strategy works.  How did Adam's vote get switched to J.P.?  More strategy talk, less depressing booby babies!

Ugly Betty - Still cute.  I am going to get tired of it if every episode revolves around Betty almost quitting/getting fired, but I did giggle at the "You do the math!" lines.

Thursday Night Madness

So at the same time slot, we've got Survivor, Smallville, Ugly Betty, and The Office.  I choose to sacrifice the latter completely, because although I think it's the best comedy on tv, I'm just not that into comedies (Arrested Development and Seinfeld are the only ones I regularly watched). 

How to deal with the time conflict?  This week, I watched Survivor, taped Smallville, and then watched Ugly on abc's website (but my back-up plan was to watch it on Friday on abcFamily).  Here are some quick thoughts:

Survivor -   The merging of the tribes was unnecessary.  Did anyone see a point in all of it? The recycled challenge was boring (how can anyone top Tom and Stephenie?).  Less time spent there would've meant more time seeing what's going on strategically. I don't think Flicka and Cao Boi made the best move voting to keep Becky. 

Smallville - After watching all 5 seasons on dvd, it was weird to see an episode the first night it aired.  Seeing the Phantom Zone was cool, and I liked how they set up Clark to be alone this season (no Jonathan Kent, no Jor-El, Chloe off with Jimmy, Lana with Lex, his mom perhaps with Lionel).  I was happy to see Lionel at the end of the episode, close to reverting to his scheming genius of earlier seasons.  I hope this season will be good and not a meandering Lana-fest.

Ugly Betty -  It was weird that they recycled at least one song from The Devil Wears Prada.  Some of the acting and characters were really over-the-top, but I understand that's probably part of its telenovela history and America Ferrara is adorable and will keep me watching for a while.

Anyone ready to season pass or write these off?