September 25, 2009
[Mary H.K. Choi is the founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Missbehave magazine and currently writes for TheAwl. She will be bringing her love of superhero comic books and action movies to bear on this season of Grey's Anatomy, which is neither, admittedly, a superhero comic book nor an action movie.]
In this, the two hour premiere of Grey's Anatomy, season six, we open fully in mid-throttle from last season's abusive cliffhanger where the Road Kill Bus Guy reveals his identity as "007", aka Dr. George O'Malley, aka T.R. McHomo Pants Knight (who we all know is pulling the sickest David Caruso in thinking there's life after NYPD Blue but whatever), and Dr. Izzie Stevens codes from a heart complication right after regaining her memory from neurosurgery to remove a tumor. *Pant* So anyways, things are just as batshit crazy and hella poignant as we left 'em with incredibly high stakes that require us to vigilantly suspend that 4th wall of disbelief as hard as we can and the voiceover is telling us about the Kübler-Ross stages of grief so we know it's going to be a really successful Grey's Anatomy in the sense that we'll get our ugly cry on.
Let's go.
Continue reading Grey's Anatomy: McDreamy Is Topless A Lot. And George Dies....
Posted by Mary HK Choi at 3:54 PM in
Tags: Chandra Wilson | Ellen Pompeo | Eric Dane | Grey's Anatomy | Justin Chambers | Katherine Heigl | Patrick Dempsey | Sandra Oh | T.R. Knight
latest by The Reverand Johnny Ti…
September 23, 2009
[Julie Klausner is a former writer for Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins and author of the forthcoming book, I Don't Care About Your Band. Also she's great, so what better person to recap this season of the rebooted Melrose Place? (No one is better to do so.)]
Who likes Reggaeton? I am kidding, of course. Everybody loves Reggaeton. Which is why this week's episode of Melrose Place begins with a montage to a hot Reggaeton track! Wait. Is Sean Paul Reggaeton? Or is he Dancehall? He is a treasure.
So, this is what we get to see with our eyes while we hear wonderful Reggaeton in our ears. Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is splashing her flipper hands in the pool they found her dead mother in the first episode. Riley boringly gets ready for her teaching job and Jonah is boringly singing in the shower. Muppet Baby Heather Locklear, Ella, walks through Lauren's kitchen, late for a music video shoot, because 1) they still do those and 2) Ella seems to go in and out of all her neighbors' apartments at her will, without knocking. And David--Michael Mancini's son--breaks into his dad's house to steal his key card hospital ID, and gets caught.
Continue reading Melrose Place: Play Him Off, Boomkat...
Posted by Julie Klausner at 1:30 PM in
Tags: Aaron Spelling | Ashlee Simpson | Connor Cruise | Melrose Place
latest by ManDMo
September 16, 2009
[Julie Klausner is a former writer for Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins and author of the forthcoming book, I Don't Care About Your Band, also she's great, so what better person to recap this season of the rebooted Melrose Place? (No one is better to do so.)]
Families, right? I mean, yeesh and also pfft and gahhh. Thank God for ensemble-based TV dramas, whose casts form makeshift families out of shoddy conceits, like "What if the young tenants of an apartment complex smothered with Spanish tile actually talked to their neighbors?" It's only complicated, Denise Richards, when actual relatives start showing up.
On last night's episode of Melrose Place 2000, viewers who hadn't yet put it together that Ashlee Simpson-Wentz's horrible "Ashlee Simpson-Wentz" character and Sydney's "Ghost" character were mother and daughter, got treated to a flashback scene in which Ashlee told Sydney precisely that. And Sydney, who is bats and can not be trusted, even in matters of her own mortality, denied it. She's obviously way off. Ashlee has the same hair color--Feria makes a shade called "CW Russet"--and she even inherited the same style of "arm crossing acting" from her mother.
Continue reading Melrose Place: Meet The Parents...
Posted by Julie Klausner at 1:00 PM in
Tags: Ashlee Simpson | Connor Cruise | Melrose Place
latest by Gene
September 14, 2009
You know, now that it's over, I think I'm actually going to miss this show. It is terrible, yes, and completely coconuts, and the rules change from one episode to the next. But, it kind of grew on me, like how Dustin Hoffman grew on Tom Cruise in Rain Man. "100 toothpicks!" Obviously, I can't wait to get back to my fast-paced life as a Los Angeles Lamborghini dealer, but I will miss that goofy man-child. That being said, I'm sure next year it will be back to the complaining board when season 3 kicks off in a vampire bar on the moon (because vampires can live on the moon now) and Sookie is a congresswoman trying to pass landmark Yeti legislation, or whatever.
Anyway, the finale!
Continue reading True Blood: Season 2 Finale...
Posted by Gabe at 12:45 PM in
Tags: Alan Ball | Anna Paquin | Stephen Moyer | True Blood | Vampires
latest by kscarr
September 9, 2009
[Ed. note: The Videogum team grows once more! Please join me in welcoming Julie Klausner as the newest contributor to the site. She is a former writer for Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins and author of the forthcoming book, I Don't Care About Your Band, also she's great, so what better person to recap this season of the rebooted Melrose Place? (No one is better to do so.)]
Here's what I know about the original Melrose Place. People would threaten each other, and backstab each other, and there was a crapton of shtupping, and sometimes people went blind or crazy when somebody set their apartments on fire. Oh, and most importantly, on Melrose Place, people could die and then they'd come back to life, because Fuck You, I'm Aaron Spelling.
Continue reading Melrose Place: The Ghost in the Pool...
Posted by Julie Klausner at 2:45 PM in
Tags: Aaron Spelling | Ashlee Simpson | Connor Cruise | Melrose Place
latest by robinm
[Ed. note: In the New York Times a couple weeks ago, there was an article about the much-anticipated DVD release of thirtysomething, a "groundbreaking" (not my word) television drama from the late '80s. By most measures, the show was not a huge success (according to that article, its highest ratings were during the first 15 minutes of a premiere), but it was a critical darling, and "thirtysomething" is now a word in the dictionary. But most importantly: when it came out, as far as I was concerned, it was a stupid-boring show for old people. Except that now I am one of those old people. And so, out of some misguided sense of curiosity, over the next few weeks, I will be recapping the first season of thirtysomething here. 2009, you guys. Anything can happen. There is no spoon.]
Continue reading thirtysomething: The Parents Are Coming...
Posted by Gabe at 12:30 PM in
Tags: Edward Zwick | Ken Olin | Marshall Herskovitz | Mel Harris | Melanie Mayron | Patricia Wettig | Peter Horton | Polly Draper | thirtysomething | Timothy Busfield
latest by nakedpainter
August 17, 2009
CLIFFHANGER! At the end of last week's episode, Jason Stackhouse's former friend/rival from the Fellowship of the Sun, Duke? Brady? Troy? storms into the mid-century modern Dallas "hive" and reveals himself to be strapped with explosives and also fine jewelry. He blows himself. Oh no! This week: he blows himself up. OK, let's see now. So, Bill was outside saying goodbye to his ex-girlfriend. He is like "even though you are immortal, you are dead to me," because Bill is a sophomore in high school and also a girl. Then his ex-girlfriend is like "normal run away, normal run away, VAMPIRE RUN AWAY." Just then: BOOM. Jewelry bomb! Bill runs inside and there is blood and gore everywhere, although luckily not a single character that we are already familiar with was hurt. Phew. Jason is OK. Godric is OK. That lady Vampire who was dating Hugo is OK. Eric shielded Sookie, so Sookie is OK. But Eric is not OK. He has jewelry in him now. Jewelry is the curse of the vampire! He asks Sookie to suck the jewelry out of him to save him. Uh? I'm not a doctor, but uh, what? "It's an old Boy Scout trick, you just suck the jewelry right out of the wound." Obviously, Eric is lying. And then Bill is like "Eric, you were lying," and then Eric is like "haha," and then Sookie is like "what?" with her face all covered in blood. I guess it turns out that Eric tricked her into drinking his blood, and now he will forever have an attachment to her? This is a rule? Vampires are always explaining the rules at the last second. Bill is like "don't worry if you get a boner, it's normal," and 10 minutes later Sookie gets a boner.
Continue reading True Blood: Poor Vampires, Boo Hoo, So Sad...
Posted by Gabe at 11:30 AM in
Tags: Alan Ball | Anna Paquin | Stephen Moyer | True Blood | Vampires
latest by Eddie
August 10, 2009
At one point in last night's episode, Marianne uses her blood sugar sex magic to make Tara and Eggs (haha! Eggs!) devour a "hunter's souffle," that was made with Daphne's heart. Yuck, but OK. Then she makes Tara and Eggs start slapping each other in the face as hard as they can, and kicking each other in the balls (Tara may or may not have balls, but the important word here is MAY), and then she makes them fuck each other on the living room floor, all of this as she stands around in the doorway giggling and going "hmm." NOW, perhaps this is just what maenads do: hang out at people's best friend's dead grandmother's houses, cooking human hearts into pies, and making everyone slap-fuck each other. That is the maenad's business. But maenads aren't actually watching this show, human beings are. And something about this scene struck me last night, because we've been along for the Marianne ride for awhile now, and I don't know what kind of monster Alan Ball thinks that I am, but I actually don't like watching two possessed, black-eyed demon bags fighting and fucking each other. It is weird! If it was scary, maybe the point would be to scare me, but it's not scary. So what is it? It's not funny. It's not sexy. I don't know! Huh?!
Anyway, Godric rescues Sookie from the rapist in the church basement and snaps his neck, although not before the rapist manages to say "Godric, it's me!" which I sort of hoped they would explain later, why they were buddies, but they never really did.
And then some other stuff happens!
Continue reading True Blood: A Bull In A Dress With Claws...
Posted by Gabe at 11:30 AM in
Tags: Alan Ball | Anna Paquin | Stephen Moyer | True Blood | Vampires
latest by NJM
