Confession.

I've been watching Hot in Cleveland. 

Yes, the show with Betty White and Valerie Bertinelli.... on TV Land. 

Don't ask me why. Is it because I think Betty White and Wendy Malik are funny? Sure. Is it because Valerie Bertinelli has pretty hair? Okay. But I think really, deep down, I was digging for some of that live studio audience, laugh track, hoaky humor from sitcoms of yesteryear. 

Did I find it?

Meh. 

I'm only two episodes in and it hasn't exactly blown me away (and there is a rumor it is going to get 'racy'.... ew). I'm not laughing out loud, but sometimes it makes me smile. 

So what do you think? Keep DVRing the show? Or give up?

Disturbing to the max.

The final scene of True Blood last night makes it really difficult for me to write any sort of review or recap of the episode.... talk about disturbing! The vamp drama ceratinly proves it knows how to shock us, but that was beyond anything I could have imagined.... yikes.

Right now, I'll admit, I'm not loving True Blood. It is all disjointed. There are too many stories. Too many people. But I guess that is how last season was too, and I just have to have faith that eventually the stories will line up and there will be some killer finale. Here's what's going on in Bon Temps (and Jackson and beyond):

Bill is taken prisoner by the king of Mississippi (accompanied by his vamp husband Talbot and the evil make of Bill, Lorena). The king wants Bill to become a sheriff in MS, turning his back on Queen Sophie Anne of Louisiana. 

Speaking of... Sophie Anne and Eric are using Lafayette to sell V and some higher vamps may or may not be on to them. Eric buys Lafayette a car (how nice of him!). 

Eric enlists a really hot werewolf named Alcide to accompany Sookie on her journey to find Bill. Alcide is still in love with his ex, Debbie, who, as wel learned last night, is engaged to a werewolf working for the king of Mississippi. 

Tara is sad Eggs is dead, so she tries to kill herself, beats up some rednecks, hooks up with a vampire. 

Said vamp, Franklin, is there to investigate Bill (why? who knows.). He even goes as far to help Jessica dispose of a dead body to get her to tell him what he knows about her maker. 

Jessica and Hoyt are on the outs. Sam is enlisted (via Sookie) to watch over her. (SPOILER ALERT: Rumor has it a shape shifter is hooking up with a vamp later this season.... will we be seeing Jessam/Sammica? Poor Hoyt). 

Oh, and poor Jason keeps having visions of people with bullet holes in their heads as he deals with Eggs' murder. Now he wants to be a cop. Judging from his Rambo-like moves last season, I think he's got what it takes (brawn over brain of course). 

Sam meets his birth family. His mom is cool, but his dad is a drunk and his bro is jealous that Sam got a good life and he didn't so he turns into a bird and robs him. Rude. 

Where do we go from here? Previews indicate:

• Bill giving up on Sookie
• Sookie hooking up with Eric
• ... sorry, that's all I remember/care about. 

Hard Times is so Easy.

Are you watching MTV's Hard Times of RJ Berger?


Well, I am. (duh.) And guess what? It is mildly entertaining- mindless, perverted, but fun.

Basic premise is there is this kid in high school who is a total nerd, but he happens to be....er, well endowed. Think Hung: The Awkward High School Years (Before Thomas Jane Became a Total Hunk). 

Intrigued? I thought so.

Will this movie win any awards? No. Will you learn anything? No. In fact, there is a chance you may lose brain cells watching the show. But who cares. It is summer. And it's fun.

(And yes, I know I've been blogging about MTV a lot recently. I swear it has nothing little to do with this, it is just that my summertime guilty pleasures are all MTV shows.... everything else is repeats!)

Don Draper. Nuff Said.

Trashy... or Not.

It's no secret I have a love/hate relationship with reality shows... Okay, wait, actually it's probably just a love/love relationship. Whatever. Here is what I can't get enough of right now...

Dad Camp
Pregnant girls deem their boyfriends to be unfit (future) father's and sign them up for daddy boot camp. In all reality, the show should be called 'Parent Camp' because, while the guys do have their fair share of issues, the girls can't be perfect. And isn't it supposed to be a partnership anyway? Let's work together here, people. (VH1)

OCD Project
This show seriously freaks me out. People with OCD going through rehab to try to get better. You know how you watch shows like Rock of Love and say, "These people are crazy!" Well, guess what. These people really are. (VH1)

The Hills
I give up on this show. I come back. I give up. I come back. And in what is arguably the worst season, you would think I wouldn't be 'back', but I am. There isn't anything particularly interesting going on (oh, except Heidi and Spencer are completely insane), but here I am, week after week, still watching. I may have even added it to my DVR...? If nothing else, I get to see pretty clothes, pretty hair, and pretty boys (Brody). I'm sold. (MTV)

The City
I have never watched this show. I always thought Whitney was (cute but) boring on The Hills, so I had no intention of following her to NYC. But then I discovered Olivia. Is this a joke? How does she have a job? I understand the job is probably fake anyway (the whole show is pretty much an extended ad for Elle/People's Rev/Whitney's line), but this girl is ridiculously bad at her job. Watch it just for that. (Oh and again, the pretty clothes). (MTV)

Downtown Girls (NOT)
I watch five minutes of this and stopped. No, thank you. (MTV)

You're Cut Off
Now, this is true, VH1 trashy reality TV... and I love it. The title pretty much explains it all, but it follows a group of rich, spoiled princesses who get cut off by their families. They live in a normal house and have to cook, clean, and gasp! drink boxed wine. Hilarity ensues.

Is it a coincidence that all these are on MTV/VH1.... nope, probably not. But it is convenient. In case you haven't heard, check me out: I want to be MTV's first TJ!

July 25th. I can't wait.

This meat may be rotten by now.

So now the Freshmeat season has come and gone and I never blogged about it like I promised you I would. Sorry. Here is how I feel about some of the drama throughout the season...

On the idea of Freshmeat in general...

I love it. I love The Challenges. I loved Road Rules. Real World? Not so much. Yes, I still watch it. But post- Las Vegas it has turned into just partying. All. The. Time. Freshmeat guarantees that we are bringing in athletes to compete and keep these Challenges alive! Look at the past Freshmeaters who are now Challenge (dare I say) legends- Evan, Kenny, Casey, Diem, Big Easy, Ryan, Ev. 

Team Kenny or Team Wes

Mr. Beautiful all the way. I know he is cocky. I know he can be a jerk. Whatever, I don't care. He's hilarious. He proved this season that he is a strong competitor (I think in the past, he has depended a little too much on the strong players in his alliances a little too much). I may eat my words later, but he can do no wrong in my book.

Speaking of, where can I find that 7 Eleven commercial that they did?!

On the finale...
Of course, I wanted Kenny and Laurel to win. I like Carly. I love Landon. They tried to play a fair game and they are good people. But Kenny and Laurel deserved to win. (And you all know it).

They dominated pretty much every challenge. They were, no doubt about it, the strongest team. The only reason Landon and Carly won was because of that head start. If it hadn't been for that, Kenny and Laurel would have sure won.

Maybe Laurel was rude to call out Carly at the Reunion (okay, not maybe... it was rude), but she was right. If Carly had been with another guy, she probably would have lost. If Landon had been with another girl, he probably still would have won. He is a beast.

On Wes... just in general. 
I have never ever liked Wes. Let's just get that out of the way. However, being this close to Kansas, I have met some people who know him and say he is a really nice guy and it must just be editing. Wrong. No way you can edit a person to look as bad as Wes.

My bet? He is a nice guy in real life, but he plays these Challenges like a brat in order to get more screen time (perhaps to 'get famous' like he criticized Kenny for on the Reunion?).

However, this season, Wes = jerk.
1. You got Darrell (one of my all time favortie players) kicked off because you were bitter. Rude.
2. You tried to go against Kenny. Stupid.
3. You turned on your BFF Danny. Trust me, I'm not a Danny fan either, but that was seriously not cool.
4. You think you are hot shit. You're not.
5. You hooked up with Theresa when clearly there was still something going on with KellyAnne. This isn't about me standing up for girls (I think KellyAnne is crazy), this is about me calling you a hypocrite. Did you not get mad at Johanna just because she hooked up with Kenny on The Island after you guys broke up? Yep, I am pretty sure you did. How is this not the same thing?
6. And then, you talked about how Theresa meant nothing right in front of her. Again, rude.
7. You sucked in the Exile. Seeing the reverse of you screaming at Casey in Freshmeat I, with Mandi yelling at you on that mountain was pathetic on your part.... but satisfying on mine. Thanks for that.

On the final exile- Ryan vs. Jen...
I love Ryan, but am glad Jen and Noor won. Admit it, they were more deserving. They actually won one of the challenges, whereas Ryan just rode on coattails the whole time. Ryan, I love ya though. I hope someday you win a challenge.

On Ev being a bitch. 
Nothing really to say about that. She's a good competitor, but really, she is a bitch. But I hope she keeps doing these shows so I have someone to hate on. Thanks.

I'm sure throughout the season I had a lot more thoughts about the show and probably should have blogged about them, my bad. But ask me anything, really, anything, and I'll tell you.

I love the Challenges.

Flashing Backwards

The Flashforward finale seems like forever ago, but I just had to put something up about it. For a show that had been pretty lukewarm all season, the finale actually got me excited about the next season.... oh wait, there is no next season.

That's it. It's over.

How did it end?

• Janice drops off Simon and Dimitri and heads to the hospital, where she discovers that her baby is 'just fine'. But guess what? It's a boy (not a girl as her flashforward had showed her). 
• Simon and Dimitri head in to some factory place to save the day and basically witness the next blackout happening inside the reactor. (This whole story line had me kind of bored. These are two of my favorites on the show, but since neither of them had a flashforward, I wasn't waiting for anything to happen with them, ya know?)
• Olivia tries to avoid Lloyd, but he tracks her down. Convinced that they need to get all the ducks in line for him to be able to solve the equation... They end up kissing in her bedroom (FYI this Lloyd/Olivia romance is my least favorite part of the show... it was poorly developed, came out of nowhere...). At the time of their flashforwards, Lloyd's son comes in and writes the equation on the mirror. It was him who wrote it that whole time, not Lloyd. Sooo they kissed for nothing?
• Mark discovered that the next blackout was going to happen in just a few minutes, and he tells his FBI boss/buddy to alert the White House... all before jumping out of the building. Towards a helicopter. Just as the building is about to explode. And WHAM. Blackout. 
• And then, the big finish. We see flashes of people's flashforwards (similar to what we saw in the first episode). No doubt that all of these flashes would have been important in season 2. 
• The most important flashforward (part 2)? A blonde girl, a teenager/young adult, standing at a window, when someone says to her, "Charley..." (gasp!). She turns around and says, "They found him." Is that our Charley?! It has to be! Who did they find? Mark? Argghhhh. 

With a finale like that though, they should at least consider a made for TV movie or miniseries or something!

My gripe? The whole season revolved around preventing another blackout. I get that there is no way they could ahve stopped this one in time. But now Lloyd knows the equation to stop it and it doesn't matter. A gazillion more people just died. AND by the time their flashes catch up to them years from now, some people might not even remember. Fail.