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REVIEW: 2010-2011 Television Season

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I have always watched a crap-ton of tv, but this year seemed particularly heavy. I had at least two shows per day Monday thru Thursday and I discovered the brilliance of British television. It’s been a busy television season and on the whole, I’m satisfied with the finales we got.

Shows That Premiered This  Season…

After watching the pilot episode, I stuck with only four shows this year: Being Human, Shameless, Happy Endings and The Walking Dead. I always bitch about how much I hate American remakes of British tv shows…and yet two of them made the list. However, unlike Skins, these remakes are actually good. People have been listing Happy Endings on their comedy Emmy wishlists, and while I think that is a wee bit of a stretch, this show surprised me. Any sitcom revolving around a group of friends is immediately likened to, well, Friends. I found the overall premise of Happy Endings to be relatively weak, but the show definitely improved over the course of its short season.

FAVORITE NEW SHOW: Being Human, hands down. The show just gives such a fresh spin on the whole vamp-werewolf dynamic and it totally holds its own against the U.K. counterpart. Although, it’s official, I can’t stand the Josh/George character aka the werewolf in either version.

Discovered shows already on air…

This year, I discovered so many wonderful programs that are already on air. I love this, because then I have oodles of episodes to watch without an annoying hiatus. Thanks to blogs and mostly Tumblr, I had heard only high praises for the British shows, Misfits and Skins. Misfits is by far one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen and I kind of have a crush on Robert Sheehan. I also randomly stumbled upon The Big Bang Theory bloopers on YouTube and even those made me crack up, which gave me the incentive to blindly purchase the dvds. And it’s amazing. I am making it my mission to attend a taping before I leave LA.

While I am still making my way through Parks and Recreation & 30 Rock, I have to say, I love NBC’s Thursday night comedy line-up. I know I am so late to The Office party, it’s not even funny. Within a course of 4 days, I watched every single episode on Hulu. What can I say? It was a boring finals week. And unlike other fans, I don’t think the show has necessarily lost its mojo, I for one, loved season 6. I caught the last few episodes of season 7 on air and while I do agree that it will be a different program, I think the show has potential to be great without Michael Scott / Steve Carell. One of my roomies always sang the praises of Chuck, so I gave that a try, too. It’s a great dramedy and I kind of have a crush on Zachary Levi, too.

FAVORITE NEW SHOW ALREADY ON AIR: This is such a tough decision because I love each and every one of the programs shown above. But it has to be Community. If Glee gets an Emmy nod and Community doesn’t, there’s officially no justice in the world. Even Community‘s “weaker” episodes are better than most shows’ best. And it’s two-parter paintball season finale was damn near flawless. Community‘s comedic style is exactly my cup of tea and I am officially the biggest Jeff & Annie fan ever. I would normally find a relationship between a 20-year-old girl and a guy who is nearly 40 to be disgusting, but they are absolutely adorbs. And to think I only discovered this gem because it was on sale at Target…I have so much love for Target.

Returning shows…

FAVORITE RETURNING SHOW / BEST OVERALL SEASON: This was really not a tough call, as a lot of these shows had lackluster seasons, The Vampire Diaries. Now, I am not one of those crazy TVD fans who stakes out polls on Entertainment Weekly until TVD reigns supreme, but this season was very strong overall. I am such a fan of Tyler & Caroline and I cannot wait to see where the writers take this storyline. We finally saw some progression in the Stefan / Elena / Damon triangle and Jeremy finally got some lovin’ and a relationship I approve of. No sophomore slump here.

ONE TREE HILL: Much like Glee becoming the Kurt Show at times, One Tree Hill morphed into the Brooke & Julian Show. And I love Brooke and Julian, but it was overkill with the babies. If the network would have let Mark Schwahn & crew do the abortion storyline intended for Brooke in season 4, it would have added another dimension to the fact that she is unable to have children. It just seemed too easy to have Brooke get magically pregnant, with twins no less. I love me some Stephen Colletti, but I think the fact that he is now a series regular says enough. We all know that One Tree Hill should have ended after season 6, if not season 4. Although OTH never racked up high numbers, as a long-time fan, it’s horrible to see how its fallen not only in ratings but in quality.

LIGHTS OUT: I won’t divulge too much because it hasn’t aired on NBC yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed the finale. It was the perfect end to a nearly-perfect show. Can we get some Emmy love, pwease?

I generally enjoyed 90210‘s season 3. I think the first half of the season why stronger, but it overall was exponentially better than Gossip Girl. The only thing I really liked about Glee season 2 was the return of Fuinn and we all know how that ended. As for Grey’s, hopefully this season will be its last and it can go out on a high note. It’s already losing its magic, I don’t buy any article that claims Grey’s is having a comeback. Just limit the Calzona, give Alex a substantial love interest, bring back Addison and reunite Mark & Lexie and you’ll be back on track.

So what’s going to be my summer obsession? Well, So You Think You Can Dance, obvi, but I also started watching Six Feet Under today and I’m loving it so far. I am also planning to spend this summer checking out Fringe, Parenthood, Modern Family and The Good Wife.  All I can say is, thank God for Netflix.

FALL SEASON REVIEW: 90210

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JMC119, you nasty whore. Thank you for taking over my life and making me pull two all-nighters in a single week. It’s a pretty big deal when I am willing to forgo my usual television watching routine to work on a project. For me, 7-9 p.m. is a sacred, untouchable time. Nothing and I mean nothing is going to keep me from watching my shows. I should get some major brownie points for my self-control. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call growth. And of course, once my schedule is finally free, it’s time for the winter hiatus. So I’m left with a bunch of lingering questions that won’t get answered for one to two months. Lovely.

I have a lot of catching up to do, so bear with me here…

I’m going to start with 90210. I am not even ashamed to tell people that I am obsessed with this show anymore. This season has been so good and I’m not easy to please. I still can’t stand Ivy, which I come to realize is mostly because of her name, but I am now such a fan of Teddy it’s not even funny. Last season, I hated Teddy with a fiery passion. He was the pawn that was going to ruin the already strained Dixon/Silver dynamic and I was not going to have that. But ever since the character of Ian was introduced, Teddy has become one of my favorites. And now that Teddy and I have finally made peace, I hear that Ian is leaving and a jock named Marco is going to be Teddy’s new boyfriend. Way to go writers, ruin my good mood.

90210’s fall season ended very nicely for me this past Monday. The entire forty and some odd minutes were loaded with cheese wiz and figgy puddings. Liam told Annie he loved her, Teddy finally fully came out to Ian, Naomi chose chicks over dicks and honored her friendship with Ivy instead of going for it with Oscar and Navid and Silver continued the typical 90210 pattern of constant cheating by succumbing to their built-up feelings and engaging in a lip-lock. For me, Oscar is only tolerable when he’s with Naomi. So either pair them up or kick him out. Silver with anyone but Dixon just doesn’t sit right with me and Navid…well, I’m sorry, but Joe Jonas > You. Oh and what about that cliffhanger? Naomi’s too busy turning Oscar down to realize that Mr. Cannon is back and is hiding in her house. I fully admit that that caught me completely off guard. Naomi seems pretty feisty, the girl could probably take Creeper Cannon down.

What am I hoping for second half of season three? Well, limited screen time for Ivy would be a great start.  But I’m sensing this won’t happen, so I’ll start with the more attainable items: I’d like to see Annie and Liam try to make it as a real couple. This, of course, would require Annie dumping Liam’s half-brother, Charlie and having a Charlie-free spring would make me very happy. He’s basically a less attractive version of Dr. Avery on Grey’s with a smoker’s voice.  Writers, please keep Teddy and Ian together at least for a few episodes.  Kyle Riabko aka Ian is way too good to be written off…*cough* make him a regular *cough*.  Now that Adrianna’s been exposed, I hope this means that stick that’s been up her ass for the past month has finally been yanked out. She’s going to have to be on her A-game once she realizes that one of her best friends and her boyfriend have been swapping spit behind her back. And can Dixon actually get a storyline? Now onto my more unrealistic wishes: Send Ivy and her scarily-identical mother out of Beverly Hills and somehow find a way to bring Silver out of her disturbing Navid-daze and put her back with Dixon. These are relatively simple requests and it would make one of your few fans happy.

I will leave you with my five favorite moments so far of 90210’s third season. If you are currently not watching this show, please put aside your judgments and give it a chance. It’s not brilliant by any means, but 90210 is definitely my current guilty pleasure show.

 

RECAP: 90210, How Much Is That Liam In the Window?

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Oh 90210, I have missed you, two weeks is just too long of a wait. I’m probably going to die during the long winter hiatus…no television = angry Kate.

Laurel / Oscar / Ivy / Dixon

The visual we’re slapped with first is Ivy and Oscar post-coitus. Insert Phoebe Buffay scream, “MY EYES! MY EYES!” Has anyone else noticed that seems to during every morning-after scene, the girl gets up and puts on some article of clothing with her back to the camera so just in case someone is slow, they can see that she’s naked. And then she just goes about her daily business bra-less. These scenes are usually met with an awkward encounter with either a parent and/or an ex and the girls are going completely free.

Oscar, you homewrecker, you. Sleeping with your friend to get back at your friend’s mother, who you slept with to get back at her for sleeping with your father and as a result of your father’s infidelity, your mother left your father…sounds like the perfect plan. Now that you have successfully pulled off your master plan, doesn’t this mean you’re leaving? Please say “yes.”

P.S. Grow up Ivy, Oscar’s ugly. And yes your mom is a whore.

Liam / Annie / Charlie

Liam is in desperate need of work. So desperate that he agrees to pose in a window and help customers at a clothing store…oh yeah, and he’s shirtless the entire time. Enter cougar who needs a errand runner and she’s offering him residence in her pool house a la Ryan Atwood in The O.C. Earth to Liam, people are not this nice. People suck. There’s got to be something else going on…surprise! She’s the mother of your “girlfriend” who is bat crazy for you.

Dear Charlie, I’d like you to make your exit from the Hills immediately. Annie may be so caught up in your French skills and your screenwriting abilities that she is blind to the fact that the only purpose of your character is to be a cock-block between her and Liam. I’m not that jaded. Please leave.

The half-bros also sport strange scars on their bodies that are reminiscent of serious fingernail scratches. I’m sensing this isn’t some sort of dual S&M thing, but this is tv land, I could be wrong.

Naomi

I probably should care more about the rape storyline since it’s a pretty serious issue, but I really don’t. I’m not the biggest fan of Naomi, she’s a watered-down version of Annalynne McCord’s character on Nip / Tuck. Ryan admits that he saw Mr. Cannon close the drapes the night Naomi was raped. Naomi and Silver visit Jen and the new baby with a teddy bear as a gift. Sensing that there may be a nanny-cam hidden in the teddy, Jen tears it to shreds with a knife…a part of me died watching the fluff massacre. After the demolition of the teddy, Jen finds out via baby monitor about the rape. Hopefully this storyline will be coming to a close soon, but I have a feeling it may be a season-long affair.

Navid / Adrianna & Silver

Adrianna’s creep of a boss forces her to pose topless for a photoshoot. She insists that she made the decision herself, but in a [completely original] surprise twist, Silver left her camera running at the shoot-site and captured CreepBoss coercing Ade into stripping. Ade finally admits to Navid that she stole songs from her deceased music partner and CreepBoss is threatening to go public. He forgives her, things are all good again, cue the sarcastic applause. Silver needs a legit storyline and she also needs to grow out her hair. I’m not digging the pixie cut.

I am so glad that my guilty pleasure television show keeps getting better. It’s easier to argue with people now that it’s a show worth watching.

RECAP: 90210, The Bachelors

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So…when did 90210 start kicking some serious ass? Monday’s episode was so good; I actually enjoyed it more than Gossip Girl. The episode was reminiscent of the Boy Toy Auction in One Tree Hill, but I can overlook that fact. I repeat, 90210 has started its third season off awesomely. Granted 90210 only racked up 1.79 million viewers this week, but it’s seriously the best show you are probably not watching right now.

This week’s episode, “The Bachelors” was chock full of hot issues currently swamping our society. Intolerance, drug abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, money problems, selling your eggs for cash…so maybe that one’s a stretch. Naomi kind of took the backseat in this episode, which I was all for. Her character isn’t quite my favorite and that meant that we didn’t have to see creepy Mr. Cannon on our screens this week. Although it looks like the girls are planning an attack on Cannon next week to make him confess. This shall be interesting.

I think that 90210 is handling Teddy’s storyline very well. He’s not handling it very well i.e. the homophobic slur, but in light of the recent suicides, it’s nice to see the issue presented with an equal level of acceptance by the rest of the peach pit crew. Ian is such a cutie and I can’t wait for him to have a bigger role in future, assuming that Teddy comes to grips with reality.

Sasha aka Bitch on Wheels is back with news for Dixon: she’s HIV positive. Seeing as Dixon was planning on doing the nasty with Ivy later that night, that’s got to be the ultimate mood killer. I think it’s safe to say that Ivy didn’t end up cashing in her V-card just yet. Shame. Speaking of cashing in, Annie’s getting paid the princely sum of $20,000 for her special homemade eggs in the hopes of helping her family escape economic ruin.

Liam moves in with the Wilsons where he mysteriously develops an extreme thirst and a tendency to walk around shirtless. Not complaining. We also get another surprising revelation that Annie’s new boyfriend is Liam’s half-brother. Liam immediately reverts back to his brooding bad boy self claiming that he isn’t the right guy for Annie. Are you on your period Liam? You were cooking her dinner 2.5 seconds ago…

I hope 90210 can keep up this string of super-quality episodes. The series is constantly on the brink of being cancelled every year despite the fact it keeps getting better and better every year. Seriously, check out the revamp of the old classic. You won’t regret it.

FALL TV WISHLIST: 90210

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90210 – Season 3, September 13 @ 7 – The CW

When I tell people I watch 90210 I usually get quizzical looks in return. Either A) They have only heard of it’s prequel Beverly Hills 90210 and are confused about why it’s still on air or B) They have heard the countless reviews and opinions that the new 90210 overstayed its welcome on television by episode 2.

Ever since Nip / Tuck’s lackluster series finale, 90210 has become my guilty pleasure series.  Is the writing Pulitzer Prize worthy? Absolutely not. Is the acting Emmy worthy? Nowhere near. So why do I put myself through 40-some-odd-minutes of mediocrity? The show is chock full of pretty people with such far fetched drama-filled problems that my own sitcom of a life seems relatively normal.

The first season was admittedly pretty sucky, but it was at least marginally better than the new Melrose Place. But I was actually pleasantly surprised with their sophomore season.  Even with the departure of heartthrob Ethan and the addition of unneeded useless new characters, 90210 definitely improved in its second season. Can they keep the trend going and maybe have a *gasp* decent third season? Here’s what I would like to see happen this year on 90210:

  • After Ethan left and killed my hopes of he and Annie ending up together, I put all my hopes in Dixon and Silver…and of course, they broke up.  Typical. Going into season three, I have fully hitched my support sails to the Liam/Annie ship. I think I am going to get what I want here. The way the show is going, I fully predict that Lannie will happen in some context – we’ve still got the Naomi and Jasper characters that could throw a wrench in the mechanism. I’m only assuming that because it’s been confirmed that Teddy’s coming out of the closet, Teddy and Silver are effectively dunzo. But you never know what could happen in TV Land.

  • The car crash/killing a hobo storyline needs to be wrapped asap. It’s gone on for forever and quite frankly I could give a crap anymore. Annie needs to man up and confess or if (most likely) there is some sudden twist to the event, make it worth our while. I’m not going to buy a “the hobo was already dead and Annie hit a tree branch” excuse. Let loose those creative floodgates, writers.
  • Even though it’s sometimes needed, I hate it when shows continually bring in new characters to “shake things up.” I generally end up hating them all and new people have a tendency to break up the couples that I support. Ivy has served her purpose of coming between Liam and Naomi and making Dixon realize he should be with Silver. Her time is up. After Liam (hopefully) breaks up with Silver, he has no ties to any other character. His time is up. Let them go, please.

RECAPS: Season Finales

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This past week of television season finales was fully loaded with break ups, make ups, hook ups, surprising and not-so-surprising pregnancies…and guns. A multitude of guns. Out of the four season finales I watched this week (One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90210 and Grey’s Anatomy), a stunning total of eight main characters were fatally shot. Of course in Grey’s Anatomy there was a sheer number of the dead or injured by the end, but honestly there were only five we truly cared about. And okay, 90210 did not literally have fire arms on the show, but I think Matt Lanter’s guns are licensed to kill.

I’m going to start with One Tree Hill. On the whole, I found this episode to be extremely lack-luster. Brooke and Julian are engaged, great for Brooke (look at that honker of a ring), but I will always remain a loyal Brucas believer. Haley’s pregnant (nice work, Nate). The amount of screen time devoted to characters I could give a rat’s ass about is truly testing my patience. I don’t care about stubbly Grubbs trying to get into the British lady’s pants again, which I can only imagine would happen if he elected to wear a paper bag over his head. I loved Chase when he had a purpose aka Brooke’s boyfriend in season four, but now he’s a waste of screen time. In short, the following characters need to be given the axe for the final season of One Tree Hill: Grubbs, Miranda the Brit, Chase (unless he gets a more interesting and important story line), Mia, Alex, Alexander, Josh, and most importantly, Quinn and Clay. In the final minutes of the finale, PsychoKatie makes a comeback and shoots both Quinn and Clay. I have to admit, I flipped a lot of serious shit at that moment. Totally did not see that coming. Okay writers, you have a golden opportunity here. By leaving the fate of these two characters hanging in the balance, it would be too easy to kill them both off and make season eight entirely focused on the main characters we actually like. And on the same note, enough with all of the deranged and psychotic characters. I think PsychoDerek, PsychoNannyCarrie, and PsychoKatie have filled the quotient of crazies allowed to roam free in Tree Hill. I may sound like a broken record, but seeing a OTH finale like this just reminds me of how awesome this show used to be. Remember the season two finale with the dealership fire? Now, THAT’S a finale.

On to Gossip Girl…Damn. You. Jenny. Humphrey. Jenny and I definitely to do not get along, she messes with all the relationships I love on the show. Chuck and Blair almost had a happy reunion, but nooooo… Jenny HAD to be “lonely” and do the nasty with the one person she shouldn’t, Eric HAD to find out why Jenny is drowning in tears and running eye liner/mascara, Dan HAD to get all macho and deliver a complimentary knuckle-sandwich to Chuck, and of course this all HAD to happen at the moment when Chuck was presumably going to propose to Blair. FML. Then poor, heartbroken Chuck gets shot for protecting Blair’s engagement ring just a few minutes later. Chuck Bass is the only character that needs to be alive come fall. I don’t think the writers would go there, but still, my smooth-talking man-whore better be healthy as a horse in the fall.

I’m going to gloss over 90210 and  skip Glee/Lost since those weren’t season finales. Teddy and Ivy as regulars next season? Gag me. Silver and Teddy / Dixon and Ivy reuniting? Gag me. Teddy and Ivy need to crawl back into the holes they came out of and let Silver and Dixon realize they belong together. Also, the members of the 90210 gang are supposed to be juniors? Right and Lea Michele is supposed to be playing a character born in 1994.

Okay, Grey’s Anatomy. Holy hell. I have been on the brink of writing this show off my weekly schedule of television watching ever since the introduction of ugly ginger Owen, the merger with Mercy West and the break up of Mark and Lexie. But Thursday’s finale was insane. Meredith and Derek have never been a favorite couple of mine, but watching Meredith’s silent scream when Derek was shot (by the way, nice work Sarah Drew, you got McDreamy shot) and her plea to the gunman to kill her instead was unbelievably heart wrenching. Not to be insensitive, but I could care less whether anyone shot during Grey‘s finale lives or dies. McDreamy is obviously safe, no McDreamy = no program. Alex is getting in the way of my Mark and Lexie and I’ve hated Owen from the beginning. The deaths of Reed and Charles had no impact on me, other than a sudden jump when the gun fired (I hate loud noises). I just wish Gary Clark had taken down Arizona and April while he was at it. God, I sound like such a horrible person. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the finale was amazingly written, amazingly acted, and amazing in general. I was definitely shaken up by the end.

Hopefully the next batch of season finales will be tad bit lighter. I’m guessing Lost isn’t going to give that to me (SERIES FINALE SUNDAY! *sob*) but I’m assuming the regional show choir competition in Glee will not include a GSW, but who knows…I’m not one to question Puck’s bad-ass guns.

screencap from IMDB.