TVSquad

(S06E18) Passive-aggressive much, Gilmores? Jeez alou, each and every one of you have utterly perfected the pouting, the brattiness, the oblique references that no one seems to get, and the way you try to say something to someone with your mopey looks. And all you've managed to do is drive each and every one of the people you love batty.

It's time to stop. Just stop.

In last night's episode, Lana becomes addicted to flatlining so she can spend some quality time with her dead parents. Eh, at this point in the series, I find Lana-centric episodes only slightly more exciting than Chloe-driven plots. Plus, I was slightly disappointing with the lack of time that Lana was actually spending in the hereafter. From the previews, I thought she was going to be spending some quality time with her parents, not just 10 second teasers. I guess Lana felt the same way and that's how she became addicted to the kryptonite-serum that was inducing the flatline.

But still, for the sake of television...

How weird would it be to work on the set of One Tree Hill? Star Chad Michael Murray, his ex-wife Sophia Bush, and his new fiance, 18-year-old Kenzie Dalton, all work together. Murray and Bush play lead roles on the WB nighttime soap, while Dalton plays a cheerleading extra. Murray and Bush married in April of 2005, announced their split in September, and had their marriage annulled in February. But, their characters still make out with each other on One Tree Hill. But, Dalton and Murray have reportedly been dating since December.

At the age of 24, this will be the second marriage for Murray and the first for 18-year old Dalton. We think.

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about! Funny dialogue, a new twist with Richard and Emily, and good old fashioned Gilmore banter at its finest. Where has this been most of the season?

This was about as funny and fast-paced an episode as I've seen this year, although there were a few mopey moments. We have to keep suffering through Lorelai's steadfast refusal to get involved with April and Luke, to the point that she yells at Rory for going to visit Ana Nardini's store (and getting her a kitschy Pan Am bag) and tells Luke that "everything's fine" when Ana sends Luke a bag for his trip to Philly with April. Just tell him you want to get involved already! We all know where this is going, right? Mopey Lorelai plus Christopher = Bye, Bye Luke...

Also the opening segment, which takes place immediately after the last episode ended (Rory runs to Paris after breaking up with Logan over his "cheating") seems to have been tacked on. Still, it did set up the story properly.

OK, on to the good stuff...

The cast and crew of the WB's Charmed, which is finishing up its eighth and final season, are pissed at the network that housed them for so long. According to Holly Marie Combs (Piper), who became producer on the show halfway through the series, the network has treated them like the ugly stepchild pretty much from day one.

Another member of the cast, Rose McGowan (who joined as Charmed sister Paige when Shannen Doherty departed after the fourth season), added that the cancellation of the show as their network and the UPN merged was the icing on the cake to the way to they were treated. McGowan said that even if her contract was renewed for a ninth season (her and Combs' contracts ended this season) she would not return due to the poor way she and her castmates were handled.

The full interview can be found on SciFi Wire. By the way, with the completion of this season, Charmed makes history as the longest running television show with female leads; it beats out the classic Laverne & Shirley by a half season and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by one full season.

It's been so long since we've had a new fresh episode of Smallville, that I was absolutely giddy last night at its return. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good episode, even with it's faulty plot points. Clark finds himself hypnotized by Simone, a blonde kinky-haired seductress who looks a lot better when she flat-irons her hair. She hypnotizes him by using a special blue stone that she wears around her neck. I had a little trouble believing that Clark, with his super powers, wouldn't be super immune to such a stone.

It's the last week of March, and there are still a few more new shows for the networks to roll out. Most notably, is Thief, on F/X and starring Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Street). Also, NBC is premiering a new sitcom that, if promos are any indication, will sink just as fast as Four Kings. And, WB is premiering a heavily censored version of The Bedford Diaries.

• Teachers, Tuesdays @ 9:30 pm on NBC (premieres March 28)
• A comedy about a rule-breaking teacher at a New Jersey middle school.

The WB has cut some scenes from the upcoming pilot episode of The Bedford Diaries, but the full version of the episode will be available on their web site starting at 3pm Eastern today. For all you perverts fans, the scenes uncut involve a girl unbuttoning her jeans and another scene with two girls kissing in a bar.

The show will air next Wednesday, March 28.

[via TV Tattle]

Boy, a lot of pregnancy news today.  First,  Anna reported that ABC World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas is expecting a boy. Now we learn that Jennie Garth, former star of Beverly Hills 90210 and current star of What I Like About You is expecting her third child with husband Peter Facinelli. And, my wife is expecting twins any day now!

OK, I threw that last one in because she's 36-weeks pregnant and she wants the babies out NOW.

Garth and Facinelli already have two daughters, Lola, three and Luca, who is eight.  The couple met on the set of the TV movie An Unfinished Affair back in 1996 and married in 2001. Hey, wait a minute here. Their oldest daughter is eight, and they were married in 2001? Something is fishy here.  Oh, I know! They must have used their time machine to conceive Luca in the past. Yea, that's it!

Anyhoo, Garth and Facinelli feel very blessed to be having a third child and can't wait to be introduced to the newest member of her family. Meanwhile, we can't wait to see if What I Like About You comes to the new CW network. Really, we can't wait; we have other things to do.

 

The CW is reportedly thinking about giving 7th Heaven an eleventh season, even though The WB announced its cancellation back in November. According to the Los Angeles Times industry blog, called Channel Island, talks are underway to keep the family-friendly soap on the air for at least one more season.

The big question is why The CW would want to do this? When it canceled 7th Heaven, The WB said it's because the show will lose $16 million this year. I doubt these actors would agree to bump down their salaries for one last go.

I started noticing not too long ago that my hands would cramp up while I was typing my Gilmore Girls reviews. There's so much happening in each episode, that the recaps were starting to get very, very long. So, let's see what happens if I just review an episode for once; I mean, most of the people who're reading this have already seen the episode, right? Why recap it? Anyway, I'm going to give this shorter format a whirl; let me know if you want the recaps back. If you do, I'll just have to make an appointment at my local hand rehab clinic first.

OK, not much happened in this episode: Rory finds out that Logan slept with his sister's entire wedding party while they were "on a break" (never thought I'd quote Ross Gellar in a GG review), Lorelai has daughter issues, namely wanting to know Luke's and wanting Christopher to discipline his, Paris hits bottom and comes back out, Lane and Zach get engaged, and Kirk is on a juice diet.

Let me tell you what television does not need any more of: rich kids living like the rest of us. Yes, we're a society that is obsessed with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. But, I am sick of seeing rich kids try to do everyday things like go grocery shopping or mow a lawn. While some people may revel in the fact that they know how to mow a lawn while Susie Trust Fund struggles with it, I do not. I find these shows to be downright rude. While Paris and Nicole proved they had no life skills in The Simple Life, they also belittle the lives that most Americans lead.

Why am I bitching about this? Because The WB has come out with yet another reality show that puts rich kids in everyday life situations, called Survival of the Richest. I saw a long promos for this program (hosted by Hal Sparks- what is that all about?) where the rich kids say negative, ignorant things about "poor" (aka middle class) people. This reality show matches the rich kids against the working class kids in tasks like yachting and cleaning. I'm sure it's rigged so the working class kids win because we all like to see those rich kids go down, but I'd like it all to come to an end. Let's just go back to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and see how these people live, but keep them away from our lifestyles.

While still not up to the "Pre-Reckoning" era (I'm very very worried that this is how I'm going to start describing this season), last night's episode wasn't bad. Smallville has had a lot of fun pulling different pieces and characters from not only Superman's mythos, but from all over the DC universe over the years. Some episodes are just total fan service, and some are used to further the ongoing stories; last night's was a little bit of both. One of my biggest hopes for Smallville, is that they get to put an "end" on it. I want that final episode, and I want the team behind the show to know that they're making the final episode; not have it sprung upon them after it's already been done. I think they could do a lot of fun things there, having flash-forwards to his time with the JLA, pull in all the other characters they've shown - done right, it could make for a great finale. Enough with my visions of the future though, let's get back to the here and now. On with the show!

Juuuuust when you think everything's going well in the world of Gilmore, things always get thrown in the mix that sends the ship a bit off course. Not completely turned around, mind you, just a little off. But you know what happens when a ship just veers even slightly from its designated course; eventually it runs up against a sandbar no one ever saw coming.

That's what I thought of when I saw this episode, which mainly takes place at the Huntzberger residence on Martha's Vineyard. Unlike some of the recent past episodes, there isn't multiple plots swirling around all over the place. For once, we're just concentrating on Lorelai and Luke, Rory and Logan, and very little else. Heck, the teaser at the beginning of the episode was more complicated than the episode itself, setting things up by summarizing everything that's happened in the last year in two quick minutes.

As much as I like Gilmore Girls, I was never happy with the Rory/Lorelai feud that dominated the first half of this season. Why? Because the interplay between Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, the cornerstone of the show for its first five seasons, was forcibly removed. Not that I didn't support the storyline; Rory had to come of age at some point and had to separate herself from her mother/best friend to become a healthy adult. But to stretch that out for half a season turned the show into a big drag.

Many fans and TV critics felt the same way I did. Now we know we weren't alone. According to this article by David Bauder of the AP, Graham wasn't happy with the storyline either, mainly because she missed working with Bledel every day, but also because she felt it was out of character for Lorelai to freeze out her daughter/best friend for so long.