Hell- I mean Hollywood Week Begins!

Well it has been quite a while since my last post - but the rest of the audition weeks for "American Idol" were terrible.  It is one reason I don't care for the show.  It definitely is not my favorite singing competition on television.  You may ask "What is your favorite?" and my answer would be "The Voice" - there's a lot more singing (and good singing).  Then you may ask "Why don't you write about 'The Voice' instead of writing about 'American Idol' then?" - Great question.  Here's my not-so-great answer:  While I love watching "The Voice" it's an entertaining show for me - not one I'm going to really write about, because frankly I think that writing about would A. Do it no justice because it's too damn good to write about I'd just end up reiterating every word the coaches say, and 2. Would not be as entertaining to read because everyone knows it's more fun to read about the bad stuff - you all thrive off gossip and scandal, don't pretend otherwise.

Anyway, now that we have seen the first week of Hollywood Week on "Idol" I have more to discuss.  Hollywood Week is basically Hell Week.  All of the contestants have to jump through hoops in order to make the cut.  First the contestants must all re-audition on stage in front of the judges and other contestants.  They are brought up in herds of ten and Ryan Seacrest tells the folks watching at home through a voice-over that half of the contestants will be weeded out in this stage.  This isn't all that exciting.  I only have two people to report on as far as singing goes.  First, wedding singer Erika Van Pelt impressed me with her cover of "Glitter in the Air" by Pink.  I love Pink, and of the 5.5 million views her performance of "Glitter in the Air" at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards has on youtube, I probably account for a million of those views.  Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I have watched it a lot.  Once already this morning, in fact.  The second singing performance that I wish to highlight is that of seventeen-year-old ladies man David Leathers, Jr. who decided to pick a very BIG song to sing.  You have to really be talented to try and do Celine Dion.  David belted out a fantastic rendition of "Because You Loved Me".  He'll be one to watch in my opinion as long as he can make it through the groups.  I feel like he is the kind of contestant that will surprise us viewers when it comes to taking on the challenging categories the contestants receive in the later weeks.

In other audition news, however, young Symone Black fell off the stage in the last minute of this week's first episode.  It was a scary moment made even more strenuous by the combined knowledge of not knowing what had happened until the next episode and the choice of the producers not to use any music or ominous tones during the scene.  The silence seemed to make the moment more real.  I even heard Nigel Lythgoe calling out for the medic.  I would know that man's voice anywhere.  Good news is that we find out in the second episode that Symone is fine as she returns from the hospital and moves straight into finding a group for the second challenge of Hollywood Week.

Group Round is my favorite part of Hollywood Week.  I love to hate how stupid people are and I literally count divas.  Do it.  It's fun.  Tally how many men are divas versus women.  My numbers amuse me, but see for yourself.  Once again, as seems to be the case for every Hollywood Week in the history of the show, people got sick.  This isn't hard to predict, people.  There are hundreds of people from all over the country coming together to gather in rooms packed with one another and they all sing in warm germ-breeding environments - of course people are going to get sick.

My favorite group to watch named themselves The Betty's.  Why do I like the Betty's?  Well it definitely is not because of the diva action, that's for sure.  It is because of Gabrielle.  Gabrielle, a member of the five contestants that make up the group, caught the "idol bug" as Ryan calls it.  She was vomiting but that did not stop her from rehearsing with her group.  Above that her group even seemed good with it and very supportive, despite the bag of puke in her lap.  That could not have smelled good.  I guess it was just lucky that none of her fellow group members are reactionary pukers.  Still, Gabrielle has a nice voice (at least from what I heard of them rehearsing).  It's raspy and different.  I like different.

 Apparently the groups have twenty songs on a list to choose from for this round of the competition...but I did not hear twenty songs.  I put the songs I heard into the poll so unfortunately you all have a limited selection this week.  These polls will be better once theme weeks start...and I can't wait!  Until then I'm going to find out how many shoes it will take to cover my stairs.  Enjoy whatever you are doing instead of doing what you're supposed to do!

This.....is an "American Idol" post.

Well it's that time of year again: "American Idol" is back on television.  Returning judges from last season Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, and Randy Jackson - who, of course, has been on the show since the beginning - are back to give their unique opinions on this year's crop of singing hopefuls.  In honor of the eleventh season I have decided to write a semi-weekly blog series to follow the progress of the show.  Something I have always done while watching the show is pick out which songs I would have picked to sing each week, so I'm going to incorporate that into these posts in two ways:

1. I'll tell you what I would have picked and maybe say a little bit about why I would pick it.
2. I will post a poll with songs sung by contestants (maybe I'll even include my song) and you can pick your song from that list.

So the first week of auditions is over with three - yes, three - episodes.  This is the first time I can remember the show being aired on a Sunday.  Then again I didn't watch much of the early stuff for the last few seasons.  It was definitely an interesting turn of events.  The contestants gathered in San Diego, California, Savannah, Georgia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to audition for the three opinionated judges.  First, let us start with the San Diego auditions.  Who in God's name holds auditions on an aircraft carrier?!  The U.S.S. Midway was the location of the San Diego auditions and the crew soon recognized their error in judgment.  Auditions had to be stopped or delayed from the noise pollution from the harbor.  Air planes, boat horns, sea gulls - how could the judges make sound decisions with all of that noise contaminating their atmosphere?  This is one of those moments where the producers have to make a choice between big extravagant settings and reasonable working conditions.  Apparently going bigger was more important than the amount of time and film they were about to waste trying to get a good run-through from each contestant.

The other two venues were more what you would expect from the audition rooms.  Steven Tyler was his regular crazy self, Jennifer Lopez was gorgeous as usual, and Randy Jackson looked ready to reopen the Dawg Pound and invite in some new members.  So what are the highlights from the first three episodes?  Well I'm glad you asked!  Steven Tyler made an inappropriate comment about one of the 15-year-old contestants to her own father, no less.  When asked by former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joe Magrane about how things are in 'Beantown' Steven responded with "Hot, humid, and happenin'.  Just like your daughter."  The entire room went silent.  My mother and I agreed that this would have been a different situation entirely if Steven had just eradicated the word humid from the list.  Humid just gives off a certain shall we say 'sexy' type of connotation which should not be used in reference to a 15-year-old girl.  Censorship still seems to be Steven's weak point on the show, but at least most of the time it is something laughable.

Another moment to remember was something I'm sure many people were talking about the next day at work - Jane Carrey.  Daughter of iconic funnyman Jim Carrey, Jane came to the San Diego auditions to show off her chops for the judges.  There has been speculation of whether or not Jane was given a ticket based on her father but I would like to clear something up right now - She has a decent voice.  She was no worse than other contestants who made it through to the next round.  In fact, I thought the judges were a little too lenient on who they let through to Hollywood (in Savannah especially).  I have to agree with Randy's assessment that Jane has potential, and you can tell her voice has some good qualities to it.  If anything she's just a little raw and there's nothing wrong with that.  This show often shows people coming into their voices during the season.  Jane has as good a shot as any to make it through the next round.

The final audition moment I would like to reflect on is the Dixon audition.  Schyler Dixon came to the Savannah auditions with her brother Colton, both of whom auditioned last year for Season 10.  Colton came close to making it last year, but this year he had decided not to audition.  When Schyler told the judges that he was there but not auditioning they promptly demanded that she go outside and retrieve her brother.  The judges then seemed to focus more on Colton than Schyler.  Was this fair to young Schyler?  I don't think so.  If Colton did not want to audition than I don't think they should have forced him to, but I especially do not think they should have interrupted Schyler's moment do make him audition either.  That was the bigger problem.  They should have focused on Schyler's audition and then asked Colton in to see why he was not auditioning this season.  Schyler sang her own rendition of the song "Breakeven" by The Script and Colton chose my favorite David Cook song "Permanent" on the spot to sing for the judges.  As a majority, the judges seemed to think Colton was still the better singer but I would have to respectfully disagree.  I thought Schyler's voice was unique and interesting and I thought overall her audition went better than Colton's.  In the end both siblings left with a golden ticket so now we'll have to wait until Hollywood to check back in with how they feel about the competition now with what happened in the auditions...and believe me....it will come up.

Well that is all I have to say for now.  Please vote in the poll to the right for your personal pick for an audition song.  I'm curious to see what you all pick.  Don't forget to tune in to Fox tonight for the next episode of "American Idol" and remember - procrastination is just another way of saying 'rebooting my brain'.

10 Questions for 2012

So I decided to do something I don't normally do yesterday morning: read the paper.  The Entertainment section of my local paper had a list of twenty questions they hope will be answered in 2012.  The writer was highly opinionated in his offerings and I was stunned by a few.  Honestly I don’t care if the Kim Kardashian-Kris Humphries 72-day marriage was a scam.  I do not follow Hollywood couples because I associate them with falling into one of these categories: 1. A scam – either for publicity, promotion, or just plain vain.  2.  Love – and if so good for them.  3. Rebound – which could be classified as a scam I suppose, but not in my book, and again this could be for publicity reasons as well.  4. Movie Chemistry – this would be a couple that plays as a couple on a tv show or in a film and become attracted to one another as a result of the roles they have played.  Thus I do not care who marries whom.  Chances are it will be over soon enough.  If not, great, but really not my business.

So I decided to make my own list, but mine will only have ten points because I would like to keep this brief:

1.   Will they really make a “Mass Effect” movie?  We’ve been hearing talk about this for years but still little is known.  First the debates were on whether there would be a female or a male Shepard, a reasonable question with the choice the game gives you (and believe me, it makes a difference).  But now with the new plot line setting the film back when humans first discovered the mass relays there is no worry about the Commander Shepard gender issue.  Still IMDB has no more information past a small blurb about the plot and the name of the screenwriter.

2.     Will this be the year that a show about super humans/super heroes makes it past the first season?  With recent shows in this category falling victim to the first year cuts (like “The Cape” or “No Ordinary Family”) will “Alphas” be the show to break the losing streak?  Tune in this summer on SyFy for the outcome.  (Note: IMDB has a listing for the first episode of Season 2 in July – Good news?  I think so!)

3.     Will the “Avengers” movie be all that it promises to be?  Come on – with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, AND Mark Ruffalo how could it not?

4.     Who will end up as Kelly’s new host in place of Regis Philbin?  I would like to cast my vote for Neil Patrick Harris now please.

5.     Who will be the next President of the United States?  Come on – this is probably the most important thing for the most people that I’m going to put on this list – yet my local paper didn’t think this was a worthy question?  The election should count in Entertainment. 

6.     How many movies will be deemed the “Best Film of the Year” before we actually find one deserving of the honor?  I mean, how many times can they get it wrong?  You know what really bothers me?  When I see ads for the first movie of the year saying it is the best of the year.  If they mean the best so far well then duh!  It’s the only movie of the year so it has to be the best by default – which would also make it the worst by default if you follow that line of logic.  If they mean the best of the whole year to come then those reviewers are either psychic, hopeful, or just plain stupid.  I’m sorry, but rarely does the best movie of the year come out in the first week of the year.  It’s just plain fact.  Don’t believe me?  Go find the release dates for the last 20 Best Picture winners from the Golden Globes.

7.    Who will be the best J. Pierrepont Finch:  Daniel Radcliffe, Darren Criss, or Nick Jonas?  I’m just sorry I won’t be able to answer this one myself – but it is far too expensive and time consuming to go see the same play three times.  I’ll settle for one, and I’m hoping to see Darren – no offense to the other two, but Daniel is leaving soon and I love Darren’s voice (as well as thinking he is a good actor) so it was an easy pick for me.

8.     Who will win the most medals in the 2012 Olympic Games?  GO USA!!

9.      How many movies will we see in theatres based on books?  I can already name a few.  This trend seems to get more popular every year….maybe it is because I’m just more well read every year…but I doubt it.  Do you think this trend is because people love to see their favorite books visually acted out for that extra dimension, or is it because people would rather watch moving pictures than actual read a story?  My hope is that it is the first, but my practicality says it is a little of both.

10.   How many celebrities will be arrested this year?  Okay, I don’t really care about this one, but I figured I should throw in a gossip note for all you people who just love to creep on celebs.

Well there you have it - My top ten questions to be answered this year.  Or, more accurately, the first ten questions I thought up.  Enjoy your pondering!

Cricket: Color Me Confused.

I am American.  Soccer is played with your feet, and football is primarily played with your hands.  Baseball is the national pastime, and the team will never take a food break.  Yet, in all my sporting glory, I found something on ESPN that baffled me – Cricket.

Ladies and Gentleman I have been confused, astounded, baffled, intrigued, and above all else frustrated with the sport since I found it on my ESPN app on my Xbox360 a few nights ago.  I was instantly enthralled when I found nothing else was on other than recaps of games I had either seen, heard the outcomes of, or just didn’t want to see.  Now cricket, that’s not something you see very often here in the states.  In fact, the sport is most popular in England, South Africa, the West Indies, Australia/New Zealand, and India.  In any event, I watched a little of a test game between Pakistan and Bangladesh.  First off, test games have some different rules than a regular match.  This added to the initial confusion.  Secondly, the cameraman would always focus on the ball.  This made figuring the game out even harder seeing as I had no clue what the batsman was doing during this time.  I assumed he was running, but to what end?

So, to educate myself on the sport, I went to the one source I know will never fail me: The internet.  After dodging past the puffery of articles on the sport and league informational websites I found the Wikipedia page for Cricket.  Now normally I do not advise the use of Wikipedia, but as far as sports go I have found it is fairly accurate.  The page is direct and to the point, which is exactly what I was looking for.  Am I going to waste my time explaining the whole process to you in this blog?  No.  Of course not.  I will however mention that after watching part of one game, reading the basic rules of play on Wikipedia, and mulling over the confusion this brought, I have found that I keep searching my Xbox ESPN application for new games.  I am strangely intrigued by this foreign sport.  Wicket, bowling, batsman, innings (plural and singular are innings – weird, right?).  New words to add to my vocabulary.  Alright, so maybe I knew that their pitching was known as bowling, and I knew that the three sticks at either end of the pitch are called a wicket, but that’s beside the point.

However, this does bring up a new question in my mind: Did cricket have some influence on J.K. Rowling’s creation of the game of Quidditch?  Think about it.  The area of play that sees the most action is called the pitch.  The name of the Quidditch field is the pitch.  A wicket is a group of three sticks at either end of the pitch which the bowler aims his throws at and the batsman defends, for the bowling team will get credit for taking a wicket if the wicket is hit.  A Quidditch pitch has three hoops on either end of the pitch which will be defended by the keeper, and chasers try to throw a ball through the hoops to score.  The batsman defends the wicket by hitting the ball away with his bat.  Beaters are armed with bats (that look like a hybrid between baseball and cricket bats) with which they strike bludgers, aiming at the other team to try and throw them off.  The game of cricket is played on an oval shaped field of play.  A Quidditch pitch is in the shape of an oval.  Am I wrong or does there seem to be more than a few similarities between the games?  JKR is English, after all, so it is quite possible that the sport had some influence on her – if even subconsciously – when she was creating the magical pastime of Quidditch.  Maybe I’ll write her a letter and ask her someday.  Still, it’s some food for thought.

Cricket on a Quidditch Pitch.  It's a sports mash-up!

I hope you all enjoyed this very random distraction that ended up being a comparison between fictional literature and reality.  I thoroughly enjoyed discovering both!

Stealth Rules the VG World

In the wake of Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2011 (which aired Saturday, December 10^th at 8pm EST) I wanted to share one of my addictions with all of you.

I am very much a gamer.  Why?  Because it’s hands-on entertainment!  I feel like I’m really a part of the story.  Yes – I get wrapped up in the stories of video games.  There is no problem in that.  Any gamer out there will tell their own story.  They love the graphics, or the action, or the plot, or the characters.  For me it’s a mix of all of these things.  

Now when it comes to shooting or war games like Modern Warfare or other Call of Duty games, I’m more of a sniper kind of girl.  I like to hide out and take head shots from a safe distance.  That’s where I’m lethal.  Games that involve running out into the thick of things sometimes gets me in trouble.  I wasn’t a fan of cover in the beginning (thanks to playing Mass Effect on insanity I learned to love cover) and I was the type of person who just wanted to be in the middle of the action.  I would run right into the middle and try and get a good look at everything while killing people up close and personal, but I would die too quickly to do too much damage.  I just figured you can always respawn.  Well, after a while I learned how to work out a middle ground, but I’m still not a huge fans of shooter games like CoD and MW.  I either have to be far off sniping, or up close and stabbing.  Basically, I’m a fan of stealth moves.

For this reason I love games that let me utilize stealth abilities.  I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum and had a lot of fun with that game when it was first released.  Batman has a lot of stealth abilities that he uses as he hunts down the criminals loose in the asylum.  Thinking out the strategy is half the fun!  I guess you could say I’m a cerebral player.  Soon I’ll get Batman: Arkham City and let you all know how that stands up to the first modern Batman installment.

My November Game of the Month has to be Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.  I’ve been with the AC franchise from the very beginning.  The stealth abilities along with a compelling story make this game series a double threat.  Revelations sees the return of Ezio Auditore de Firenze but he has aged a bit and is now in Constantinople.  Weapons have evolved and probably the best new feature is the hook blade.  It helps Ezio climb faster, make longer jumps, and, best of all, he can now zip-line through the city!  Death from above takes a whole new meaning.  Well, actually it means the same thing, but it looks super cool!!

Showing off Ezio's new zip-line capabilities with the hook blade.

Another new addition to Ezio’s bag of tricks is the bombs.  You can craft multiple kinds of bombs that perform many different actions.  There are three bomb categories or pouches as they are labeled in game: Lethal, Tactical, and Diversion.  Lethal bombs are designed to take down your opponents for good, as the name suggests.  My personal favorite is a poison bomb called the Datura bomb.  Datura is the name of the lethal powder explosive that goes into the bomb and actually kills your targets.  The best part of using this bomb is that it serves two functions: the first being that it kills the guards you are initially targeting, and the second is that it draws any guards nearby out into the open to investigate their fallen comrades.  Tactical bombs are used to gain an advantage over your opponent.  These can be smokescreen bombs that make your opponents blind and send them into coughing fits while you use Ezio’s incredible eagle vision to see his targets through the smog.  Or you could use a Caltrop bomb, which essentially paralyzes your targets which makes taking them down much easier.  The diversion bombs help distract the guards or crowds of people – whether with a loud noise or a bunch of coins – which can give you an opportunity to sneak past while they go to investigate.  You should really try out this new feature and have fun mixing and matching all different elements to create the perfect bomb for any situation.

For me the one thing I was missing from this game was the Italian.  As someone who studied Italian I had fun with AC2 and AC: Brotherhood since the games were set in Italy.  A lot of the people on the street would speak Italian and even when Ezio spoke to someone in a cut scene you would have random pieces of Italian speech thrown into the mix.  This game had very little Italian with Ezio and a woman named Sofia being the only Italians you really interact with in Constantinople.  This, of course, is a personal problem and nothing that would deter me or should deter anyone else from playing/enjoying the game.  I LOVE THIS GAME.  And, without revealing too much, the Desmond story really takes a big turn with a lot of new information into his character personally.

If I had one problem with the game it would be in the new face of Desmond.  I understand graphics are updating on a daily basis, but Desmond literally looks like a completely new person in this game.  His skin is much darker than before, and the structure of his face even looked different.  I don’t know how to explain his new look, but it seems as though he went through some massive reconstructive surgery between Brotherhood and Revelations.  Again, this is not enough to deter me nor should it deter anyone else from playing the game, just an observation. 

The game continues the storyline that was set up in the first three games as far as Desmond is concerned.  His story has progressed normally through the series but this game brings a surprise to the table.  SPOILER ALERT There is no real world Desmond action in this game.  Desmond is stuck inside the animus – inside his mind – because he has fallen into a coma in the real world.  Subject 16, or Clay Kaczmarek, is also inside the animus safe zone, also known as the Black Room.  He helps Desmond as much as he can so the same thing that happened to him won’t happen to Desmond.  You also hear voice-overs of the people in the real world talking around Desmond’s unconscious body.  In fact, one of the biggest lingering questions from Brotherhood to Revelations is answered in one of the first voice-overs: Whether or not Lucy survived.  I won’t spoil that outcome for those of you still reading this.

To wrap things up I would just like to add that this game was a welcome continuation in the Assassin’s Creed line.  I was happy with the playable storyline as well as the multiplayer online portion, a trait started with Brotherhood.  The game was a quick finish but it is nice to be able to go back through and replay portions from wherever you would like.  Your money travels through time with you, which is especially helpful if you forgot to buy the books at the bookstore in Cappadocia and wish to complete the Sage achievement.  Warning: Those books are VERY expensive.  I suggest sending your assassins out on a bunch of missions to earn some money before you waste time going back to that memory.  While in Cappadocia you cannot contact your assassins.  Try and save up 350,000 before you head back (that is Sequence 7: Underworld just for your reference). 

When all said and done I give this game an A because it's that Awesome.  I hope this encourages you to go get a game system and enjoy some hands-on procrastination! 

This game is available on Xbox360, PS3, and PC.

Fairytale Showdown!

Hey Guys! I know this has been a long time coming but I've been doing other things instead of sitting down to right this blog.  Now I know that is unfair, but look, I named the blog "Things I Do Instead of Doing Things" for a reason.  First order of business - The Fairytale Showdown!

And the verdict is in:

NBC's "Grimm" missed the mark while ABC soared ahead with the new series from the writers of Lost, "Once Upon A Time".  "Grimm" had problems right from the beginning.  In television there is such a thing as knowing too much.  The first episode left little mystery in the identity of the killer as early on his face was revealed.  As a viewer you just had to sit back and wait for the main character, Detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli), to catch up.  As far as main characters go he is not the best.  This is no fault of the actor, but more a problem with the script he was given.  Nick has just learned of his status as a Grimm descendant so now he's seeing supernatural beings everywhere.  Problem?  He knows nothing about that world so he has to study up.  All the normal monsters have weird names, like blutbad - which is the name for a werewolf.  Now I did not read very many of the Grimm fairy tales, but I do not remember coming across any weird names like blutbad or hexenbiest, though the second sounds more reasonable.  The odd names just add to the confusion which, when your main character is confused about everything under the son, does not help to keep viewers invested.  Now with the story being laid out in front of you in mot episodes, waiting for Nick to catch up is less like watching a chase and more like watching a mouse make his way through a maze in search of cheese.  The thrill is just lost when the mystery is gone.  The show is missing that "CSI" vibe - the intrigue of finding the killer with the most minimal evidence to work with.  In these stories the evidence is right there in your face and it takes him an hour long program to get the bad guy?  Not really my cup of tea.

Strangely the one thing I like about the show is a particular character: Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell).  He is a reformed blutbad and serves as Nick's link to the world of supernaturals.  Monroe as informant works because otherwise Nick is lost.  However, Monroe does not get enough screen time to warrant watching the show.  He's only around when Nick needs him, and so far it has been in very little doses. 

Now let's talk about the HIT!  "Once Upon A Time" is shaping up to be everything I hoped it would be.  Some mystery over who knows what, some drama, some fairytale stories thrown on their heads, it's a wonderful tale.  The best thing about the fairytale world for this viewer is the way you can recognize a story for what it is - like Cinderella or Snow White - but it's not the traditional story.  Each one has its own twist.  For instance, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) becomes a thief?  Well to live her life out in the forest after the hunter spares her it seems that is one way she knows how to survive.  She takes on a bit of a Robin Hood quality and is not the prim and kempt Snow White from the magical world of Disney.  The show has a good variety of characters that one can get invested in, not to mention a story that keeps moving.  By this I mean that there is the big picture story = Get back to fairytale land; the mini-every-episode stories = which fairytale character will be highlighted in this week's episode; and the real life story = a battle between Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and the Mayor of Storybrooke Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla) over their (Emma's biological and Regina's adopted) son, Henry (Jared S. Gilmore).  There is enough to make everything mysterious and intriguing but not so much that viewers just get lost.

My personal favorite thing about the show, however, happens to be a who and not a what: Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle).  Carlyle plays a fabulous part, transitioning between the upstanding owner of Storybrooke Mr. Gold, and the wonderfully devious and revolting Rumpelstiltskin.  The make-up work on his character alone should win the show an Emmy.  His portrayal of the slimy magically proficient madman is incredible and exactly what you would expect from such a character.  I cannot express in words how interested I am in his character.  More so Rumpelstiltskin than Mr. Gold, however there is one thing that I will never be able to shake with Mr. Gold that keeps him near the top of my favorite real-world characters: Whether or not he knows what is going on.  To me it seems as if he knows more than he lets on.  I feel that he knows about the curse - to some extent, at least - and he's just playing his cards right to figure out how he wants things to play out.  The beginning credits suggest that Regina/The Evil Queen is the only one who knows about the curse, but little things seem to say Mr. Gold knows as well.  And why shouldn't he?  He was the most powerful person in the magical fairytale world.  His magic can't be all gone.  I wait in extreme suspense to see how the rest of this season will pan out - though SPOILER ALERT I will not be happy if they kill off the eye candy that is Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) next week.

Stay tuned for more of what I've been doing instead!!

Monday Night Mayhem

Now I know I promised a follow up on the fairytale stories, but I figured that can wait until Saturday after "Grimm" has aired.  Don't forget, folks: 9pm on NBC, this Friday night!  As if you guys have nothing better to do - that is why man invented DVR.  Mine saves me every Monday night.  Now in exchange for a follow up I figured I could regale you all with the sheer number of shows that are recorded in my house on Monday nights.  Of course this number was more impressive a couple weeks ago - so let's jump into my Delorean and head back a few weeks!

Welcome to the Monday night line-up!  In my house we have three DVR's.  Yes - THREE.  And we need them all.  Scary, I know.  My family is a tv family.  My mom blames my dad, and I blame the wonderful distraction of colorful pixels and stories I seem to always try to predict (and 98% of the time I am right *toot*toot*).  Anyway, the first show to leave the Monday line-up was the wonderful new series "Alphas", a SyFy original series that made me reminisce about a lovely show I used to watch called "Heroes".  The two shows do not have many similarities at all - unless you make wild associations like Red Flag=Sylar, etc. - but the theme of super-powered human beings is one that I love.  The first season introduced a motley crew of Alpha investigators, and I fell in love with each character...especially Gary.  The first season wrapped up at the end of the summer, but they are already signed up for a second season.  This news makes me super happy and I give the new show an A right out of the gates.

Now having lost one Monday night show Fall Season started to amp up!  First we have "The Lying Game", a guilty pleasure for my Monday night line-up.  This ABC Family new series is about twin teenage sisters who swap places and cause a big commotion with scandal and a very attentive DA hovering around them.  Why do I watch this show?  Or more importantly, why do I enjoy it?  Because everyone needs a guilty pleasure.  For one - I love Emma's character.  The way she changes Sutton's world around, I mean, kudos to her.  Sure the possy of people who call themselves Sutton's friends should have noticed if they were true friends, which I'm sure says something about those relationships, but this is not an Emma problem.  The problem is with Sutton - who plays evil twin in the worst way.  She's selfish, greedy, and unappreciative.  I understand wanting to find your birth mother, but being a bitch to the woman who raised you just because she wasn't your real mom?  Come on, Sutton - that's low.  All in all this show lacks the mental suspense to keep me dying for each episode, but holds strong on the drama and character content that makes me still come back every week.  It may be low brow, but I'm not a teenager, so I'm not their target audience and probably not the best person to judge.  I give it a solid C+.

Next we have the first show of the season to bite the dust: "The Playboy Club".  To say I was disappointed about this outcome is an understatement.  Right off the bat the show emerged as an early favorite in the new series race for me, but only three episodes in and the show was shut down.  It was extremely disheartening, especially because I am a big fan of Amber Heard and I was excited to see her on the flat screen.  I had the show running at a solid B, and was intrigued by the hidden gay and lesbian plot but alas we shall never know what that amounted to.  I hate when shows get cut off so early on.  Makes me wonder what could have been.  Le sigh.  Wonder if they will release the remaining three episodes that were definitely filmed according to IMDB?  If you know the answer please fill me in!

Moving on we have the double trouble of two two-hour shows!!  "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Sing-Off" both air from 8-10pm on Mondays.  "Dancing with the Stars" gets special treatment, recorded downstairs on the big tv in the living room.  This is because it is one of dad's shows.  Most seasons, I will be honest, I did not watch.  At least not the whole time.  It's hard when you're in college.  There's no time for tv.  Clearly I'm making up for it now!  Anyway, this season has quite an interesting cast.  I know when I heard the cast revealed there was one person in particular I was excited to see on the list: Hope Solo.  First off talk about a gorgeous and strong woman!  She was incredible in the World Cup, and USA should have won in my opinion (I'm still bitter about some ref calls that were made but c'est la vie).  Still, having her in the spotlight was a really cool kicker at the end of the biggest summer for US Women's soccer in quite a while.  I still route for her every week, and this week especially.  Sometimes the judges make me mad, and I'm kind of glad Maks fought about this.  They judge people individually rather than as a whole.  What I mean is they expect more from certain competitors and judge them harsher when they are not up to par.  I am going to stop this rant before it gets out of hand.  Tuesday nights for me are a big deal - not because of the elimination but because of all the professional performances.  This week is Broadway week!!!  So I cannot wait for the incredibly talented Kristin Chenoweth to perform again!  Now this is a show I could live without, and one we fast-forward through most of, so unfortunately it gets an average approval rating of a C.  Let's be honest - anything lower than this and I probably wouldn't watch it.

Now "The Sing-Off" is my show!  This one I get to watch when I crawl into bed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  I love acapella music.  Spell it how you will it is still incredible and unique.  It is the third season for this show and the biggest yet.  I have my favorites as always but for this one I like to keep those groups to myself.  I will say that this season has been the hardest for me to narrow down my favorites.  If you like music you will love this show.  This is music in its rawest form.  So pure with only the voices of the contestants to carry them through each round.  And the panel of judges can't be beat!  This season Sara Bareilles joined Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman, replacing Nicole Scherzinger.  She has been such a great addition to the team!  Each week she is funny and her critiques are always good without being mean.  She even made light of her newness to the position which made the audience laugh and I'm sure put the vocal groups at ease.  The three judges are all so talented it is easy to leave the decisions of who stays and goes in their hands.  That's right, people.  Unlike all those other reality competitions this one does not rely on audience votes.  The judges alone decide who goes home in every episode...at least for the majority of the season.  Some people might not like this, but I think America can get these things wrong more than they care to admit.  I mean, look at this season of "America's Got Talent"!  Team iLuminate should have won.  That is an act that was fresh, inspiring, and something that could sustain a Vegas act.  Again, my opinion, but after all, this is my blog.  Back to "The Sing-Off", I give the show a solid A-, and it gets the minus only because I find myself fast-forwarding through a lot of fluff (mostly the videos for the groups I don't care for in order to save time).

This entry is already way longer than I had anticipated, but I did warn you that Monday was a big night for me and tv.  I'll just get the 'parent shows' out of the way.  "Castle", a great show from what I've seen, but unfortunately I did not get into it in the beginning.  It started at a bad time for me college wise so I never really got on track with watching it, but I wish I would have.  From what I've seen the characters have enormous depth and the detective and writer side-kick bit is fresh and new.  Plus it made me want to write watching through the first season on DVD.  That is a definite plus.  This is one of my mom's shows, and yes, we buy the books.  I'm not sure if she finished the third because she has been trying to get through The Help since the middle of the summer.  For the reason that I do not watch the show regularly I will not rate it.  The same goes for "Hawaii Five-0" which I will occasionally sit down and watch with the parents for one very good reason: Eye Candy!  Need I say more?  Of course I still call Alex O'Loughlin's character Mick because of a little show he was on a few years back called "Moonlight" but my parents have caught on to Mick = Steve.  Again, I will not rate this one because I do not watch the show on a regular basis. 

Now I'm down to my last three shows; One old, two new.  The old one is "Gossip Girl".  Now I love drama, but recently this one has been a bit much for me.  For two years this show has been one of the ones that I push aside in favor of homework, but this season - now that I'm actually watching on a regular basis - I see that it can be forgetable...hence my lack of watching in the past.  I feel that sometimes the things happening are things I have seen over and over again.  Some lack of originality mixed with super drama (beyond the level of drama I like) and a heaping spoonful of predictability has moved this show from its once high and mighty A rating all the way down to a C+.  Maybe this season it will pick itself back up.

My two new shows start in the 8 o'clock slot on Fox with the new hit "Terra Nova".  Dad and I love our science fiction shows (our summer show this year was "Falling Skies", something we looked forward to watching every week).  The show is new and while it has set up some good storylines, I am not entirely sure what direction it will be taking.  To me this is a plus!  I like not being able to predict things about a show as this is a rare occurrence for me.  Though I will say that some predictability will be appreciated in the future - because if I can't see a story arc I may just toss the show out - right now setting up the characters and the foundation are the main focus, as they should be.  I am happy to give this an early approval rating of a B+ with hopes for improvement as we move along in the premiere season.

The last show on the list - if I haven't forgotten any - is actually the newest star to the line-up.  "Hart of Dixie" is a new show on The CW at 9pm.  This show has a Sweet Home Alabama feel to it, though I have seen promise.  This is the newest show to my line-up because I watched all five of the first episodes today.  I apparently felt the need to fill in some missing time from the loss of a few lingering summer shows.  Rachel Bilson plays a young doctor who comes to Alabama to take up a general practice given to her by the father she never knew was really her father.  Confusing?  Not really if you watch the show.  I like this show because I love small town living and this show is full of that kind of atmosphere.  It has that "Gilmore Girls" Stars Hollow charm with the quirky characters and the "Everwood"-esque doctor vs. doctor mentality.  There's drama and humor, a good mix to make for a nice easy to watch show to fill out the Monday night agenda.  The early rating on this one is also a B+, for very different reasons.

Well, I hope you had a pleasant Monday.  And just in case there was something that you would rather not be doing, well, I think I just gave you a few options of what you could be doing instead.

Summing up the Ratings

"Alphas" = A

"The Lying Game" = C+

"The Playboy Club" [Cancelled] = B

"Dancing with the Stars" = C

"The Sing-Off" = A-

"Gossip Girl" = C+

"Terra Nova" = B+

"Hart of Dixie" = B+