Glee: Chenoweth Schools the Kids

Glee:

"The Rhodes Not Taken"

This episode was fantastic. I didn't realize how much I like Kristin Chenoweth until she showed up on Glee playing April Rhodes, the most talented singer in the school's history who quit school a few credits before she graduated. Of course I adored Pushing Daisies, and she was fantastic in it (and very much deserved her Emmy award), but there were so many things I adored about Pushing Daisies that I'm not sure I was fully aware of how much I liked Chenoweth.

Chenoweth was great on Glee. She was hilarious, and she pulled off three absolutely show-stopping numbers. I'm thinking she's going to follow up her Emmy for Best Supporting Actress with one for Best Guest Star.

Highlights and observations:

• We're back to "Don't Stop Believing." Ooh, but with Quinn instead of Rachel. This version wasn't working as well, even before Quinn had to take a vomit break.
• Puck: "That Rachel chick makes me what to light myself on fire, but she can sing."
• This waiter is a six-year senior so he can stay in Vocal Adrenaline because he's the only one who can do the triple flip! Ha! I knew there was some funny business going on with that group.
• Sometimes my bangs do that weird flippy thing that Emma's bangs are doing right now, but I don't try it. And I try to stop it from happening.
• Eew, this newspaper kid is gross. Trying to blackmail Rachel into showing him her bra.
• Oh, Finn is crafty! Very good manipulative strategy.
• Emma: "...and two months later, Versace was dead."
• Wow, April's got a nice house! And she's an alcoholic. And she's a squatter.
• Chenoweth's looking good. Her hair looks very nice.
• Will: "We'll get you sobered up and find you some underwear. It's not too late for you."
• Sorry, kids, I'm pretty sure Chenoweth can kick Rachel's butt ;-) (And I love Rachel.)
• The juxtaposition of April and Rachel singing the same song is really cool.
• Lol at the glee kids' stunned reaction to April's performance.
• Will: "You draw a lot of attention to yourself and they're embarrassed enough as it is."
• Lol at April's efforts to win the kids over. Especially showing Mercedes and Tina how to steal groceries by holding them between their thighs.
• Finn: "You know what we should do?"
  Rachel: "Elope?"
• Ha! Kurt's looking rough.
• Kurt (to Emma): "Oh, Bambi, I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy."
• Emma says Kurt "looks like an 11-year-old milkmaid."
• Emma's a buzzkill, let April stay in glee!
• April: "These high school boys are a lot hotter than they used to be."
• Wow, April and Wow are show-stoppers. Their rendition of "Alone" is fantastic. Those lucky bingo players!
• Kurt: "Maybe Quinn is lactose intolerant!"
• Puck: "I bet you thought Burt and Ernie were just roommates."
• Wow, what a look of devastation on Rachel's face.
• Sue! She's been MIA in this episode.
• What is with these costumes?
• Ha at the country line dancing. They're good. But I'm thinking that Chenoweth could probably make pretty much anybody look good.
• Invitationals are very well attended.
• Will: "And, hey, there's always Branson."
• Kurt: "You were right, Mr. Schue. April would massacre Mariah in a diva-off."
• Kind of a lengthy intermission, huh?
• This April-less version of "Somebody To Love" ain't bad either. And Rachel sure picked up the choreography fast.
• Yea for Mercedes! I don't understand why she doesn't get more of the solos.
• Good episode! Lots of singing.

Song list: "Maybe This Time" (April and Rachel), "Alone" (April and Will), "Last Name" (April and New Directions), "Somebody to Love" (New Directions)

(photo: fox.com)

SYTYCD: Dancing in the Big Easy

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #5"

First New Orleans auditions in SYTYCD history.


Day 1:

• Nigel was getting his honorary doctorate. Judges are Mary, Shankers and Lil C.
• Shelby "Skip" Skipper does New Orleans Bounce. His best friend (whose nickname is Big Choo, I believe) is the founder of this dance style. Skip teaches Cat how to do New Orleans Bounce in the lobby, and she did a good job. His audition was quite a rousing performance. Lil C looked like he was just eating it up.
• Mary's looking a little rough today.
• Mary makes an off-color joke about Shanker's doing "the New Orleans Bounce last night."
• Skip gets the "you're not going to choreography...you're going to Vegas!!!!" treatment and he's taking New Orleans Bounce to Vegas.
• Jonathan Litzler did some jazz hands in the hallway. He's a really good contemporary dancer and he's also a great tumbler. Shankers says that was one of the best auditions he's ever seen. Lil C says it was "a perfect blend of weight, energy, space and time," whatever that means. Jonathan is going to Vegas, and I'm glad because he's one of the dancers I've seen so far whose prospects for this competition I'm actually intrigued by.
• Alison N. kind of looked like Annie from 90210 when she was dancing but not when they showed her up close.
• Calvin Turner Jr. gave a beautiful audition.
• I missed the name of the dude in gray spandex shorts who did a barrage of straddle jumps.
• Eric Le Blanc drank six energy drinks today and he's acting like it. He makes "funny" sounds. Oh, great, now I'm having flashbacks to the extremely annoying kid who sat behind me in 10th-grade health class who insisted on talking like Daffy Duck. Ack!
• And, son of a gun, if Eric's not dancing to Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" too! If you drank a Red Bull every time someone on this show danced to Black Eyed Peas, you'd be more hyped up than Eric.
• Consumed by either benevolence or a bit of insanity, Mary and Lil C send Eric through to choreo.
• Justin Kenney is a b-boy who was in a nasty car accident but has mostly recovered (he still can't do some of the moves on his head that he used to do). He's got gorgeous blue eyes but his hair needs some work. He just did Morgan Hamm's Air Flair! (I bet b-boys don't appreciate me calling it "Morgan Hamm's air flair.") Even without the head moves, he's got quite the arsenal, and I like the music he chose--it didn't seem like a typical b-boy song. Lil C explains that Justin started in the Air Flairs and "dropped right into the babies." He's through to choreo.
• Big shocker that Eric isn't going to Vegas, but he is commended for his effort.
• Lil C says the judges are going to take a "huge, huge gamble" on Justin and send him to Vegas, which I think is the right decision! His attempt at the Anya/Pasha salsa wasn't any worse than Chbeeb's tango or some of Cedric's attempts at ballroom, so it's worth a shot to see how he is in other styles.
• I think Cat said 33 dancers in total are through to Vegas, which seems like a huge one-day total.

Day 2:

• Kimalee Piedad competes in Theater Arts' ballroom division, which is kind of like ice dancing with no ice. Her partner is not trying out. They can do some spectacular lifts. I think we might need this girl in the Top 20 so we can see some awesome lifts during the competition. Adam says choreo, Mary and Lil C say Vegas, so she's going to Vegas. (She's SYTYCD's first-ever Theater Arts contestant.)
• Micah Mixon was poor and rebellious as a youth. Now he's turned his life around. I guess he's a pop and locker; I don't know the finer points of style distinctions, but it looked Chbeeb-esque. He's had no formal dance training, so what he can do is rather impressive. Micah gets a yes to choreo from both Mary and Adam and "kind of a yes" from Lil C.
• Lloyd Ballard looks like he's trying really hard to be Travis Wall and not getting anywhere close.
• Also not getting good marks were Tierney and Christo.
• Mary reads off some rules of what not to do, including "hats pulled down over your eyes," "the never-ending reach," "self-worship," and "men's booty shaking." Awesomely, Shankers demonstrates all of the no-nos.
• Jakob Karr is crazy good with the leg extensions and strengh and pirouettes and control and leaps and everything. And, conveniently, he's adorable too. He looks a little like Penn Badgley in the face.
• Diana Drexler's grandfather just passed away the day before the audition. She's a good dancer; I like her a lot. She has really soft landings from her jumps and her aerial cartwheel. Aww, she says she feels like an old lady (she's 29). Diana's a trooper. Aww! Her father said that her grandfather "left just in time to get a front-row seat" for her audition. She's through to choreo.
• I love how Anya has no qualms about wearing green short shorts and black tights.
• Micah is not going to Vegas; he's not used to doing choreo.
• Diana is going to Vegas! Yea! (How horrendous would the judges have felt if they didn't take her?)
• Diana plus 17 unnamed others are going to Vegas.

I'm more optimistic about this season's dancers after this stop in New Orleans, where we met a lot of good dancers.


Next week: final audition stop in Salt Lake City with Nigel, Mary and Mia. Then we start Vegas week. Buck up, folks, Vegas is always an emotional roller coaster.

Greek: Pilgrims' Progress

Greek:
"Down on Your Luck"

I definitely didn't love this episode of Greek as much as last week's episode. First of all, there was not Evan/Casey interaction. Also, there was no Dale. Or Calvin. Or Fisher. On the other hand, there was too much Jordan. I'm also usually not as interested in the episodes that focus heavily on intra-ZBZ battles or ZBZ versus the other sororities battles; I prefer the episodes that focus on the characters and the things that are going on in their personal lives.

The highlights of this episode included a lot of cuteness and funniness from Beaver and some entertaining Evan/Cappie moments.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• Ash: "But sexy fierce or scary fierce? ...I want to look hot, but also threatening, like 'cheat on me again, and I will cut you.'"
• So Casey says that "fall's almost over, finally." Frankly I'm surprised that fall is almost over in the Greek world. This semester seems to be going by a lot quicker than last spring did, but maybe I've just come to expect Greek semesters to take a really long time.
• Maybe Rusty should leave his polymers in the lab.
• Rebecca: "They stayed in for mud masks and watching a television series about old people having old people sex."
  Casey: "They're watching Private Practice?"
• Oh, Rusty, shut up. I like you and I don't care about Jordan's issues; this professor hates you, so he's really not going to care.
• Cappie's busying making fun of Evan for never having to get a job before, but how much laboring has Cappie done?
• Pledge Abby is the piano player girl from High School Musical! I'm not sure HSM would endorse her preoccupation with parties.
• Cappie: "What is it, Spitter? It kind of freaks me out when you walk in and stare at us with that serial killer smirk."
• Cappie: "Beaver, get the book... The dictionary?"
  Beaver: "I don't know what lavalier means!"
• Cappie: "The last known KT to lavalier was in 1986. The brother was so excited that he went home to tell his entire family...in Chernobyl."
• Beaver is so adorable, I can barely stand it.
• Why is Beccs so worked up about the pledges sucking?
• Casey (to Rebecca): "That is a great plan, Frannie."
• This Lana girl kind of gives off a Theresa from The O.C. vibe. Let's hope Cappie doesn't knock her up.
• There are probably worse months than November. Sexy Pilgrims and Indians seems manageable.
• Where is Ben Bennett? I haven't seen him in a while.
• Rusty: "Beaver, would you be my lavalier bearer?"
• Beaver: "What's a lavalier bear, dude?"
  
• Ha ha ha! Beaver swallowed the lavalier! Ha ha ha! Poor Beav.
  
• Ha, Katherine's appointment to feed the homeless ran long.
  
• Cappie said he bar tended at Flannigan's Cocktails and Dreams in Jamaica.
  
• LOL at Cappie's idea of a screwdriver and Evan and Lana's reactions.
  
• Ashleigh: "Maybe boys do define us."
  
• If Jordan loves Italian art and history so much and she's presumably studying art and history, why does she feel "unfulfilled"? Whatever, I'm going to stop questioning it; any plot device to get rid of Jordan for awhile is fine by me.
  
• Cappie: "You know my father always says, 'anything worth having is worth fighting for.' Of course, my father's a pacifist, but that's not the point..."
  
• Professor: "Personally, I think you should break up with her so you'd shut up about it, but then you'd come in here sobbing like a soiled baby..."
  
• I think the ZBZs need to watch some America's Next Top Model and work on their posing. Everyone is still just kind of standing in a bunch.
  
• Lana: "And you didn't have your ass grabbed every five minutes."
  
  Evan: "That's what you think."
  
  
• The turkey with the ZBZ sign is pretty funny.
  
  
• Crap! Jordan didn't get accepted in the study abroad program. Grrr. Maybe someone will drop out a the last minute so she can go.
  
  

Next's week ep looks like it's going to really make up for this episode's lack of Casey/Evan interaction. Yea! I have a feeling that my faithful commenter on my Greek posts and I are going to like this episode.

(photo: abcfamily.com)

SYTYCD: Hot Tamale Train to Georgia

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #4"

I didn't realize that SYTYCD was on Tuesday too this week. Luckily I just happened to flip over right when it started.

Auditions in Atlanta with Nigel, Mary and Lil C. (Has someone already used the "Hot Tamale Train to Georgia" pun? It seems obvious.)

Day 1:

• Billy Bell initially reminded me of Kurt from Glee; there was kind of a passing resemblance. He's a good dancer. Why do the palms of his hands look so pink? The judges pull the "no to choreography...but yes to Vegas!!!" thing on him.
• Amber Jackson looks really strong. Like maybe she could out bench press last season's Brandon. Nigel says her movement is gorgeous, but her performance is (bleep). Mary says that they just want to strangle people like her. They really lay into this poor girl and then send her to choreo.
• Travis Denison was the microphone dude for University of Georgia. He claims that this routine he's doing now was taught to him by Wade Robson, but I don't think Wade would want to claim it. It's definitely very cheerleader-ish. The judges found it thoroughly entertaining but not competitive enough for this competition.
• Nigel kind of hits the nail on the head when he asks if Travis is related to Adam Shankman, because there is certainly a resemblance.
• Jamal Jackson is kind of Brandon-esqe, but taller. Very powerful and with good technique. Through to Vegas.
• I just missed the name of this dude with the black mohawk. He's got superb flexibility and some good pirouettes and leaps. Through to Vegas.
• Anthony and Antwain Hart are twin brothers who tried out in Season 4 and I totally remember these guys. Ack! They're dancing to Black Eyed Peas too! Enough already. They're good hip hop dancers and their performance includes a cute move where they're both sitting and kind of tip over. Nigel says they should go straight through to Vegas, but he's going to make them do choreo because he thinks it's good for them to do choreo when ever possible.
• Amber and Anthony look really good at the Pasha/Anya routine. Antwain didn't do very well though.
• Amber is through, so is Anthony. But Antwain is not. That sucks for him.
• I think they said 13 other nameless dancers are going to Vegas too.

Day 2:

• Matthew "Boogie Links" Pollard is a popper who seems to be here to hit on all the girls. Especially Cat. He is very tall and skinny and has very broad shoulders. I realize that's not particularly relevant, but I'm not so into popping anymore so I'm spacing a little. He's through to choreo, which buys him some more time to hit on girls.
• Jessica Jensen had a rare form of cancer in her hand and had to have it amputated to save her life a year and a half ago. She has a fantastic attitude about the whole situation. As if her performance isn't going to be moving enough, she goes with Imogen Heap's "Chasing Cars." She's good, especially considering that her balance has to be thrown off. Sooner or later, one of these "inspirational" dancers has to get a ticket for Vegas, right? They send her through to choreo.
• Jonathan Bryant, a.k.a. "Extra," is way over the top. I actually like his dancing, but there's an element of control that's missing. He's a little loosey-goosey. This kid gets the 'you have to listen to critiques' speech. And then he gets so worked up that he starts to cry.
• Nigel admits that he'd be "bored stiff" watching them lecture Jonathan on TV and expects this exchanged to get edited out of the episode. Uh, then why are you showing it to us?
• Thomas Hamilton is kind of of a Will/Brandon-style strong contemporary dancer. He says he was born a crack baby. He was raised and adopted by his aunt because his birth mother is a drug addict. He wants a ticket to Vegas so he can get out of his town. He's a good dancer, and he takes the performance aspect very serious. He took a class with Mia and she is his inspiration. Nigel thinks he lost the performance aspect toward the end when he started "praise dancing." He's through to choreo.
• Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but Lil C has really laid off the SAT words tonight.
• After doing the choreo, Matthew and Jessica aren't through to Vegas. Jessica says she's going to go find a salsa club.
• Thomas is going to Vegas, along with seven other dancers from day two.

Just me or have the auditions not been all that exciting this season? There have been some good dancers, but it's been awhile since someone's really, thoroughly wowed me.


Tomorrow: first SYTYCD auditions in New Orleans ever. And it looks like Nigel didn't make the trip (did it coincide with his honorary degree conferral this summer?), so the judges are Mary, Shankers and Lil C. I'm interested to see how that goes.


The audition episodes feel like they're taking even longer than usual this season. Normally we watch them in two-hour blocks, two times a week, so we burn through them fairly quickly. At this rate, it feels like we're not going to make it to Vegas week until sometime in November.

Gossip Girl: Bidding Bores

Gossip Girl:

"The Lost Boy"

Ugh, another lackluster episode of Gossip Girl. Watching this show has become arduous and just coming up with a highlight list is no longer an easy task. The O.C.'s third season was the weakest of its four seasons; Gossip Girl is now in its third season. Coincidence? (It might very well be a coincidence, I just has to come up with a way to squeeze an O.C. mention into this post so that GG doesn't pass it on my "What I Talk About" list on the sidebar on the right side of the screen.) Fair warning: if a surfer named Johnny shows up, I'm jumping ship.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• Ha ha at Blair throwing the sock at Dan. Poor B--that would be a traumatic scene to walk in on.
• Blair: "Don't think you can run me out of my own room with a half-naked Dan Humphrey."
• Vanessa: "Please tell me it was Georgina and not Blair."
  Serena: "Please tell me it was Blair and not Georgina."
• No, Vanessa, you can't swing by his study group and grab coffee because he's studying with a group! Geez! Clingy much?
• Eew, Jenny's hair looks rough. Do Jenny and Eric now just walk around the apartment together, make a few comments, and then walk to another part of the apartment? Neither of them has done anything all season.
• Scott doesn't seem very interested in his other half-siblings.
• Dan: "So you're now dating Carter Baizen? Because Chuck isn't currently available?"
• I think the girl at the registrar's office forgot to finish her sentence. What she said to Vanessa was, "I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to give out student's class schedules," but I think what she meant was, "I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to give out student's class schedules to chicks wearing creepy snake necklaces."
• Doesn't NYU have an online student directory? Couldn't Vanessa just look him up in that to see if he's there? We had one when I was in college and that was a few years ago.
• Blair: "As opposed to me, who is an endless fount of do-overs." (Uh, that's kind of true.)
• Why doesn't Dan hit on one of those random girls who just walked past him? Anyone would be a better choice than Georgie. Is he seriously this dumb? This girl lied to him about who she was just two years ago in a strange ploy to get back at his ex-girlfriend. (Or was she his current girlfriend at the time? I can't keep up.) That kind of behavior tends to signify some craziness that you probably don't want to mess around with too much.
• Oh no, not another secret society... Can we not just get over the secret societies already? There was a secret society at Yale, then Blair tried to get into that society club that wasn't secret but wasn't very interesting either, then Chuck tried to get into another secret society during that horrendous filler plot last year that went nowhere. Sorry, guys, secret societies on this show never end up being interesting.
• If Blair thinks that "guys like Carter don't change" then how does she explain Chuck?
• What season is it in NYC? Bree's dress is really skimpy. Serena's appeared to be sweater material.
• Ugh, I can't even pay attention to any of this Nate/Bree conversation. It's like nap time built in to the episode.
• Wow, didn't think Scott would just come out and tell Vanessa he's Rufus and Lily's son. And then she just told him all about how Rufus and Lily looked for him. I'm impressed; all kinds of information is being exchanged. Perhaps everyone is just looking for the fastest way possible to wrap up this excruciating story line?
• Blair: "Pitty. I already have my bidding paddle."

  Chuck: "Well, I'm sure we can find some other use for it."
• Wow, Vanessa is a blabbermouth.
• Rufus "wants us all to be there" and "us all" includes Vanessa?!
• Chuck: "She stole my shoes?!" (I'm just as flabbergasted at what Blair has come to.)
• That's a nice pink shirt and khakis combo there, Scott.
• Ha ha ha ha, Dan thinks Scott is his stalker! Get over yourself, Humphrey!
• Did Chuck find replacement shoes or is he just walking around in socks?
• Why does Serena want the painting? Is it just an excuse for her to strut up to the front of the room and show off her super-tight Herve Leger dress?
• Serena: "Now, we've had enough of you tonight." (LOL, it would be funny if I hadn't already had enough of pretty much everyone tonight.)
• Does Georgie really want Dan Humphrey this badly? Why?
• Ha ha, go Chuck. Way to get back at Georgie's nasty MBA friend.
• Bye, Scott. I'm not going to miss you.
• Chuck's cashing his Bass Industries shares so he can buy a hotel? This does not seem like the world's best idea, but more power to him. It is a nice looking hotel.
• Now Carter screwed over Bree Buckley's family? Nope, I still don't care.

I regret not watching Greek during this time slot tonight.

(photo: cwtv.com)

Greek: Professors and Pot Brownies

Greek:

"High and Dry"

Great episode! And the episode's title is genius.

Perhaps I liked this episode so much because I'm an Evan-lover when he's being cute and not acting like an ass. There were a lot of awesome Casey/Evan moments. Who knew those two could be so funny (when they're high)? I also liked Ashleigh finally giving in to Fisher's cuteness and forgiving him, Rusty attempting to get a professor to sponsor him and Calvin coming to regret his decision to wrap Grant's present with embossed wrapping paper. (Did everyone else already know that you only use embossed wrapping paper when you're trying to get in somebody's pants? Like Calvin, I was totally unaware of that fact, so I'm glad Rebecca brought that to my attention.)

After seeing episodes like this one, I think that if I ever had to live in the world of a current TV show, Greek would be one of my top choices. (I'd also consider The Big Bang Theory and Chuck.) It just seems like it would be so much fun at Cyprus Rhodes with all of these awesome/hilarious people around.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• Katherine (Panhellenic president): "I'm sorry, we're in a small room. Why do you think I can't hear you?"
• Cappie: "This is my first experience with nerd-on-nerd hazing."
• Ash: "He smells like cupcakes and man."
• Rebecca: "You have to get Ashleigh to forgive me. I've apologized, groveled, told her I liked though silly arm-warmer things she wears. Nothing's worked!"
• Dale: "I don't really need Nana's Crucifixion linens around right now or my Precious Moments baby angels. They're so judgy."
• Rusty: "I'm really trying to make a name for myself in this department."
  Professor: "You mean besides Anchor?"
  Rusty: "You know about that?"
  Professor: "I believe I started it."
• Ashleigh: "I'm pretending you're the lemon!"

  Casey: "Bitter's not pretty, Ash."
• I love this Panhellenic president girl. She's great.
• Rusty: "That's weird. My nana usually sends me money for my birthday!"

  Beaver: "Times are tough."
  Wade: "She must not love you anymore."
• Cappie: "Where do smart people hang out?"
  Wade: "Computer stores!"

  Cappie: "Ethnic restaurants!"

  Beaver: "The moon?"
• Aww, poor Calvin. This is an awkward situation for him to be in.
• Rusty: "I come from a long line of seamen."
• Oh nooo. Casey and Evan ate pot brownies. Not having ever had a pot brownie, I'm wondering if they taste strange. Would you know that there was something wrong with the brownie you were eating? I'm asking because this seems to come up a lot on TV shows. (90210's finale last year, for example.)
• Cappie: "By the time I'm down with Larson, he's going to name a star after you."

  Rusty (singing): "And that star will be called Rusty!"
• Aww, Beaver is so cute wearing glasses and a sweater!
• Rebecca: "No one uses embossed wrapping paper unless they want to get in someone's pants."

  Calvin: "Definitely should have used a gift bag."
• Ash is going to have a hard time getting a new boy if she insists on wearing that weird jump suit outfit.
• Ha at Casey grooving to the karaoke music. Evan and Casey are freaking entertaining while high. Evan's stoned voice in particular is hilarious.
• Casey: "Do you think cats put us on their pillows?"
• Hilary: "You're David Wong?!"

  Cappie: "Yes. Yes, I am. I was adopted by two gay dudes...from China."
• That sneaky Dale.
• Fisher: "They sat under that table in there for 10 minutes pretending to be shoes."
• Casey: "I used to have so much fun with you...before you cheated on me, hit Rusty with a pledge paddle, paid off a Lambda Sig and dated Frannie."
• Ha at Evan's gaggy face when Casey mentioned him dating Frannie.
• Evan: "Ok, that's it, I'm trying pina colada!!"

  Casey: "No, no, no, don't! I did it once."

  Evan: "Was it delicious?!"
• Evan: "We totally got this." (Bursts out laughing.)
• Casey: "We talked about our lives, our childhoods, ...time travel..."
• Evan: "And she may be afraid of trees, but when push comes to shove she doesn't let you drink the shampoo, no matter how good it smells."
• Aww. Ashleigh needs to kiss Fisher. He may be a cheat, but he's sooooo cute!
• If Cappie wants Casey, he's gotta move now, because adorable, shampoo-eating Evan is going to have her in a matter of weeks.

(photo: abcfamily.com)

Premiere Watch '09: FlashForward

FlashForward: "No More Good Days"

I liked this pilot. Sure, it was trying awfully hard to be Lost at times, and some parts worked better than others. For example, I wasn't particularly infatuated with any of the characters. I'm sure we'll get to know more about them and hopefully grow to like them more in future episodes. It would have been difficult for a show to both showcase its characters and establish this kind of high-concept premise all in the pilot episode. (Not that it's impossible--Lost was able to do it, and I think that Life on Mars did a pretty good job of it last year.)

But I did find the high-concept premise to be really interesting. Everyone time-hopping to the future all at once!? How strange and interesting. It actually seems a bit like a Fringe plot, but I like that it's this one strange occurrence that we're going to deal with in this series, where as Fringe has a never-ending parade of weird events.

One good/bad thing about the FlashForward pilot was that it made me feel very, very nervous. Like Lost, I think FF has the potential to be a very interesting show, but it's not exactly low-stress entertainment. I'm interested to see if FF begins to work in some occasional comedic relief (like Lost has done masterfully), because watching it might give me an anxiety attack if it doesn't.

Play-by-play:

• So apparently everyone blacking out at the same time can cause some major problems.
• Penny has no accent!
• Those balloons are awesome!
• The cinematography looks Lost-esque. Be on the look out for Jacob. I would not be at all surprised if he's behind all this.
• OMG, for a second, I thought the guy talking about his Marine daughter was Richard Hatch!
• Demetri: "I cannot dance to 'Islands in the Stream'! I will never live it down."
• I like the rapid-fire jumping around from person to person to this jazzy music.
• The pickup truck flying through the air wasn't a sign that they needed backup?
• Oh no! There go the balloons!
• Charlie dreamt that "there were no more good days." That's not good.
• Where'd the kangaroo come from? Is that like the polar bear on Lost? Six years from now, are we still going to be wondering where the kangaroo came from?
• Oh geez, airplanes!
• "People probably died walking up the stairs."
• Wow, Mark is perceptive for noticing a calendar and putting together that his consciousness jumped to the future. Well, maybe not--everyone else seems to have noticed a calendar too.
• They jumped to April 29, 2010, 10 p.m. So can there be a second season to this show or does it all become a mute point after April 29?
• Go Demetri! Even with all this going on, he still managed to haul the blonde into the station.
• The guy who saw himself in London during the flash looks familiar. (Holy cow, how mortifying is it to admit that I think I recognize this guy--Lee Thompson Young--from The Famous Jett Jackson? Oh wow.)
• That was not a very realistic looking view of London from the window. It kind of looked like a cartoon.
• OMG! Big Ben's on fire! Put it out!!!
• Convenient that people were undergoing brain scans at the time.
• Uh oh. Demetri saw nothing.
• Aww, this poor dude was in the bathroom. That's embarrassing.
• So who thinks Mark knocks this girl up? She did laugh at his "sweetheart" crack.
• They're going to need a really big web site if everyone's posting their visions on it. I bet someone's already started the web site anyway. Twitter probably crashed from all the traffic.
• You don't always dream when you're asleep, do you? So wouldn't it be possible that someone who saw nothing was asleep?
• So because he's alive in April, does that mean that Bryce wasn't going to kill himself anyway? Or him being alive in April proves that the visions were always supposed to happen? (Oh geez, it feels like we're plunging into the debates we've already had for Lost.)
• Aaron's daughter is Kris Furillo from Wildfire!!!!!!!!!!!
• Whoa, this guy's daughter was alive in the flash forward. That's strange.
• If Olivia (Penny) didn't want to talk about what she saw, she probably shouldn't have asked Mark what he saw. That kind of invited a follow up question.
• I know who the guy Olivia was with was! He was on Swingtown.
• And there's the friendship bracelet. Never has a friendship bracelet seemed so ominous.
• This FBI girl has no life. She's been watching hours and hours and hours of surveillance tapes all day long? Can't anyone else help her with this? And how did she spot that guy? Crazy good eyes!
• I'm very unnerved by all of this.

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

Premiere Watch '09: Eastwick

Eastwick:

"Pilot"

It pains me to say that a show with both Paul Gross and Matt Dallas is not that great. Both of those gentlemen would land on my list of my favorite people on TV ever (if I took the time to compile such a list). My love of Matt Dallas has been documented over and over in my reviews of Kyle XY. My love of Paul Gross stems back to pre-blog times when he was on Due South, a show that is still in at least my top 10 shows ever and probably my top 5 or 6.

But Eastwick--at least this pilot episode--was no great gem. My sister hit the nail on the head about this one, saying, "The show is a hot mess but I'd watch Paul Gross in just about anything. :)"

All in all, though, I'm going to continue watching. I think there is some potential here, and the show might hit its stride in subsequent episodes. And even if it doesn't, there are worse things I could be doing for an hour on Wednesday nights than reminding myself of how much I like Paul Gross and how gorgeous Matt Dallas is.

My play-by-play:

• Ugh, it's starting with a voice over. A rather Desperate Housewives-esque voice over. (Ok, it did turn out to be a lady reading a book, which I guess makes it a little better.)
• It's Abby from Days of Our Lives!
• It's Kyle!!!!!!!
• It's Mindy O'Dell from Veronica Mars!!
• Sarah Rue and Lindsay Price! (Ok, I'm not quite as excited about those two, although I do like Lindsay going back to her 90210 days.)
• How many employees from this one newspaper did they send to this random street festival? That seems like a waste of resources. No wonder newspapers are going out of business...
• Uh, this making-a-wish-at-the-fountain thing is both cheesy and taking forever.
• The exposition of this show is painful. Paul Gross cannot show up soon enough.
• Joanna: "Oh, that's just puke."
• Joanna's got some really nice clothes for such a pathetic reporter.
• Fraser!!!!!!!!
• Darryl: "It's not really art though, is it? It's more like folk art or crafts. It's cute, but it's stunted."
• Oh, Kyle. You're so adorable.
• Wow, Kyle's 26-year-old now. That's like 8 years older than he was last spring.
• Wow, Joanna has really long hair. How does she get it all into that bun?
• Why'd that dude just brag about getting the last doughnut? That's not very classy...
• These ladies went from not liking each other to eating dinner together every night? That's a little strange.
• That's kind of a short dress for a mother of six (?) to be wearing.
• What the hell is she doing?! I know we're supposed to think Kat's husband is a loser moron, but he does bring up some good points. I don't blame the dude for being mad that he's taking care of his six kids while his wife is frolicking in the town fountain.
• Who says, "You've got no fire, no spark, no electricity!"? Only someone who has to cue a lighting strike in a contrived TV show.
• Aww, poor Kyle. Roxie doesn't want eat dinner with him? She must be a crazy person.
• If Raymond takes the kids, that leaves Kat free to hang out with her new BFFs every night.
• Joanna: "Cliff, it is not a tight squeeze in here."
• Aww, Kyle. So sweet--fixing cabinets, cooking roasts. And he's gorgeous.
• Did we need to tack on that dream about the new guy at the end of the episode? That was kind of abrupt. We probably had enough to chew on without throwing that into the pilot as well. Especially with the kicker about Darryl having a secret.

In regards to rating premiere episodes, two years ago I instated a rule that one favorite actor could only earn 5 points for a show. But, using those terms, Matt Dallas scored 5 points for Eastwick and Paul Gross scored 5 points. Plus maybe one for Abby from DOOL and 2 for Lindsay Price. So then Eastwick has a 13.0/10?! That's not going to work, so that rule has been officially thrown out.

Premiere Rating: 5.5/10

(Photo: abc.com)

Glee: Put a Ring on It

Glee:
"Preggers"

This was my least favorite episode of Glee so far, yet the episode still contained its share of hilarious moments and entertaining comments.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• LOL at Kurt lip-syncing and dancing to "Single Ladies." BTW, Britt (blond cheerleader with bangs) and Tina are good back up dancers.
• Ha, yeah, all the jocks are wearing unitards these days.
• Kendra: "Dishonesty is food to a marriage; it would die without it."
• Ha ha, Sue has her own segment on the local news. Wow, and she's be written up twice on the sports page of USA Today. That's impressive.
• Sue just called Emma "Alma."
• Ha, Sue said that Will has to go to the salon every week to have his hair permed.
• Ha ha, Mercedes is a Jet in West Side Story.
• Artie: "The more time she storms out of rehearsal, the less impact it has."
• Finn: "But, thanks, I know how important dances are to teen gays."
• Kurt: "My body is like a rum chocolate souffle. If I don't warm it up properly, it doesn't rise."
• To their credit, the football players are actually laughing less at Kurt's dance routine than I am.
• Sue is pro-littering.
• How is Quinn pregnant?
• Sandy: "I'm living in a cocoon of horror."
• Well, that was the strangest blackmail ever.
• Sue: "If I was out to get you, I'd have you pickling in a jar on my shelf by now."
• Sue: "Find your voice. Stomp that yard. All that crap."
• Tina's good, and this is not an easy song to sing. It's really high.
• What does it matter who Will "gives this song" to? They rarely ever perform. So Tina sings a solo in practice, so what?!
• Puck: "I knew it! You're in love with Kurt!"
• Ahhh, Quinn slept with Puck. That explains everything.
• Ok, but Terri's supposed to be like 4 months pregnant and Quinn's only 5 weeks pregnant, so isn't Will going to notice that his wife was pregnant with their baby for like 12 months? (No, actually, he probably won't notice because he doesn't seem to be that swift about these things.)
• The football team gets a large crowd turnout at its games despite being so bad.
• On the bright side, the other team has only scored 6 points, so the defense must have been doing ok.
• A dancing football team is soooooo Remember the Titans. At least those people had the good sense not to dance in the middle of a play though.
• This has to be some kind of penalty. The offensive line isn't allowed to move.
• The football players are pretty darn good "Single Ladies" dancers, however.
• How does the offensive line hold the defenders off long enough for Kurt to do his dance?
• Kurt's mom is dead. Did we know that?
• Kurt's dad: "I've known since you were 3. All you wanted for your birthday was a pair of sensible heels."
• Quinn is horrendous for telling Finn it's his baby.

Episode song list: "Single Ladies" (lip sync), "Taking Chances" (Rachel), "Tonight" (Tina)

Next week: Emmy-winner Kristin Chenoweth!

SYTYCD: Boston Dance Market

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #3"

Boston auditions for Season 6.

Day 1:

• Cat is such a good sport, trying accents and dance moves to please the waiting masses.
• Ugh, I forgot it was a Tyce day.
• How come Cat's wearing a different outfit inside than she was wearing outside?
• Teddy Tedholm has plaid pants and a bow tie. He's whimsical, in case you didn't get it. Dancing to the same song as the Travis-choreographed routine for Jason and Jeanine. He shows flashes of being quite good, but they are mixed in with a lot of silliness. Nigel really likes it though, and I'm a little befuddled. Mary thinks he's "fabulous." Tyce says he's "fantastic, awesome, brilliant, incredible." Straight to Vegas.
• Jean Lloret is a b-boy who can do some insane "power moves" that involved him holding himself in positions that should not be physically possible. Straight to Vegas.
• Kimara Wood has dread locks and, according to Nigel, when he takes off he looks like he's flying.
• Channing Cooke works in an ice cream shop and is waaaaaay over the top, personality-wise. She's a good contemporary dancer, however. Tyce says she's "awesome and amazing and fantastic" but then says she wasn't passionate enough. They send her to the choreography round.
• Ryan Casey is 6'8''. Uh oh, he's another tapper. We definitely don't have room for anymore of those. He's not bad though--at least from what I can tell; I'm no tapping expert. It would be tough for him to dance with a partner. If she is afraid of heights and he lifts her, she's in trouble.
• Russell Ferguson is a krumper, and apparently no krumper has ever made it to Vegas! What a travesty! My favorite part of Russell's performance is his facial expressions. He's got the perfect, precise expression for every move. I really like this guy.
• Nigel says if you combine krump and tap, it's called "krap." Ha ha, oh that Nigel.
• Fabirio "Breeze" is popping and locking, I guess, and doing pretty well until he twisted his ankle and fell over. But he just kept right on going, and it was a very impressive cover up.
• Nigel makes a strange, rude joke about Mary's ancestors being from Salem. As in, she's a witch. It was especially odd because Mary wasn't really being annoying this day.
• Breeze packs it in during choreo because his ankle's not doing so well.
• Ryan is not through to Vegas. Channing is. Russell is too! (A krumper is going to vegas, y'all!) Plus eight unnamed others are going too.

Day 2:

• Karen and Matthew Hauer are married and dance together. And they're dancing to N.E.R.D.'s "She Wants to Move," which I love. They're good. It looked to me like Matthew was especially good, but I think my issues with Karen were all stemming from her pants, which looked strange around her ankles. They both get sent to Vegas, and it's the first time a husband and wife team are through to Vegas.
• Gene's whole shtick is about being "sexy." Fortunately, he seems to be a pretty good ballroom dancer, though it's a little hard to tell since he's dancing with no partner. On the bright side, he put together a better ballroom solo than most Top 20 ballroom contestants have shown in the past. Both Mary and Tyce have problems with his eyebrows, which seems a little nitpicky to me at this point, but whatev. He's through to choreo.
• Paul Magliato is middle-aged (46) and wearing blue spandex pants. I don't feel the need to go into any further detail. He's too old for the competition, yet they let him try out anyway?! Why does SYTYCD let people try out who aren't eligible? I don't understand.
• Something about Nigel's hair looks weird.
• And Tyce has has flipped out. I'm not even going to describe his antics.
• Kevin "K'Bez" Hunte auditioned for Season 3 and didn't make it. He's a hip hop dancer and he's good. I'm getting excited by any decent hip hopper because last season was light on hip hoppers.
• Back to my perpetual question: do the Black Eyed Peas get royalties every time someone on SYTYCD uses one of their songs? The money flow generated from just that would be impressive.
• Ugh, Tyce is being such an ass to Kevin, who has done nothing to bring this on himself.
• Kevin is going to Vegas and so is Gene. As are 21 other unnamed dancers.

Next week: Atlanta with Lil C. I'm excited: I know Lil C had some major moments of annoyingness last season, but I still like him so much better than Tyce.

Greek: Undie Runners

Greek:

"The Half-Naked Gun"

Boy, it is a struggle to keep up with all of these new television episodes! I'm over a week behind on Greek!

Just a list:

• Eew. I love Rusty, I do, but the idea of him having sex never fails to creep me out.
• Ha at Ashleigh just calling Rebecca "you."
• I didn't realize that this gotcha game was still going on.
• Casey: "Last week my father said the world better watch out for me, and I'm thinking why? Because of my ability to name every guy Carrie Bradshaw slept with in season order?"
• Ha ha, Rusty just got Calvin good in the gotcha game. Faking that he didn't know what the guns look like...that sly dog.
• I enjoyed when Beaver, Cappie and Heath didn't believe that Rusty was still in the gotcha game.
• Yea, Evan's back to wearing ties again. That means he's out of his rut. And he's looking cute--is his hair a little different?
• Oh, Rusty, you're such a wimp. Just shoot Jordon and get it over with. Give me the dart gun; I'll gladly do it.
• Evan: "You guys are watching Kate and Leopold? I love this movie!"
  Calvin: "Seriously?"
  Evan: "No."
• Ashleigh (while Fisher is right next to her): "Oh, I totally get it. It is impossible to be around your ex. Why can't they just get the hint and go away?"
• Cappie: "Kill her, then have sex with her! It's the Kappa Tau way! I didn't mean that."
• If Rebecca doing the wet t-shirt contest during spring break was such a scandal, I can see why the sororities wouldn't want their members to do the Undie Run.
• Jordan: "Rebecca, what are you doing here?"

  Rusty: "Yeah, I thought vampires couldn't enter a house without the owner's permission."
• It's kind of hard to remember the most recent Casey/Evan falling out. Was it over him buying off her date or was there more? I may have to check out some of my old posts for a refresher.
• Really nice Matrix simulation by the KTs.
• Ha ha ha! Evan's moonlighting as a waiter in another town.
• Calvin: "I'd blow out my candle, but I can't breathe."
• Rusty is really awful at this game.
• Of course Casey's all gung ho about Undie Run--her skirt (or shorts?) is so short that running around in her underwear is really not that big of a jump.
• Cappie: "Ok, maybe he can't shoot her, but he can outlive her!"
• Cappie: "She went after you, Rus! Don't be Rihanna! Don't be that girl." (Oof, that one was pushing it.)
• Who is Chicken Legs 2, by the way?
• Cappie: "We haven't had a debate this lively since: what's the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel?"
• Three words, three syllables, 12 letters: Where was Dale?

(photo: abcfamily.com)

Premiere Watch '09: The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory:

"The Electric Can Opener Fluctua- tion"

The Big Bang Theory launched its third season with a very solid showing. The show resumed with the geeky foursome's return home from their arctic scientific expedition. The jokes and one-liners flew pretty fast, but the episode also managed to squeeze in some more tender moments: Sheldon's devastation at being betrayed by his friends (and missing Comic-Con) as well as Leonard bringing back a preserved snowflake for Penny.

I was a bit taken aback by how quickly Leonard/Penny happened (I can't remember if he even got "We're back" out before she pounced on him). I do like that they're together (for now anyway, we'll have to see how it goes), but it seemed a bit abrupt. I realize that Leonard's been pining for her for years, but I don't think I realized how much Penny wanted him. She did call the comic book store guy by Leonard's name and secretly admit that she didn't want him to go away for the summer, so there were certainly indications of her feelings, but I was just surprised by how quickly she acted on them. I was also surprised that Leonard wasn't more surprised by the greeting he received. I would think that he'd be in a state of disbelief that Penny actually finally wants him.

I also must add that Howard was killing it in this episode, especially in the beginning. I may have to give the line of the night to Raj though for his Toy Story crack, which was classic.

Oh yeah, and Jim Parsons should have won that Emmy.

Highlights and my observations:

• The facial hair sight-gag was great.
• Sheldon: "No, mother, I could not feel your church group praying for my safety."
• Sheldon: "No, I'm not sassing you in Eskimo talk."
• I'm kind of impressed that Penny even recognized Leonard through all that hair.
• Howard: "Damn it, I should have gone over and told her we were back!"
• For the record, if you ever throw Sheldon a theme party, keep in mind that he doesn't care for luau, toga or under the sea.
• Howard: "...and you were acting like an obnoxious, giant dictator."
  Raj: "I thought we were going to be gentle with him."
  Howard: "That's why I added the 'tator'."
• Sheldon: "As you have a lifetime of poor decisions ahead of you, may I interrupt this one?"
• While Penny talks to Sheldon, Leonard should shave.
• Sheldon: "And I didn't even get to go to Comic-Con."
• Did they really leave before the new Star Trek movie came out? I can't believe those four went on the trip if they knew it would interfere with their viewing of the new Star Trek movie.
• Sheldon: "While I do not currently have a scathing retort, you check your e-mail periodically for a doozy!"
• Howard: "My people already crossed the desert once, we're done."
• Leonard: "I can't believe you bought a red cowboy hat."

  Howard: "Hello! I'm wearing a red turtleneck!"
• Howard: "I want to blend in."

  Raj: "To what? Toy Story?"

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

(photo: cbs.com)

Gossip Girl: We Were Merely Freshmen

Gossip Girl:
"The Freshmen"

Well, I was looking for Gossip Girl to earn some redemption with this episode, but I don't think it did. The whole thing just felt tired. Every plotline tonight felt like we've seen it before or at least something very similar to something we've seen before. Plus, there was soooooooooooooo much Vanessa.

About the only thing this episode really achieved was getting The Verpe Pipe's "The Freshmen" song stuck in my head because of the episode's title. Still debating whether that's a good thing or not; the song's definitely kind of a downer.

Notables and my thoughts:

• Chuck: "The only queens at NYU have tickets to see Liza on Broadway." (I may have gotten that quote a bit wrong.)
• Oh, yeah right do random people recognize Dan Humphrey by name and regard him as a celebrity. Not buying this girl's act for a second. Is she a secret love child of Rufus' too?
• That's an interesting grey and coral pink shirt Scott is wearing. Maybe he is perfect for Vanessa.
• Chuck's hair looks slammin' today. Chuck looks decidedly less evil with this hair.
• Chuck: "For people like us, a college degree is an accessory, like a Malawian baby or a poodle."
• If Serena wants to hide out from her mom and Blair, maybe she should do so in the home of someone who is not her mom's stepson and Blair's boyfriend.
• Chuck's back to the speakeasy thing again. Is he going to call it the Victrola 2?
• I did appreciate the pure fear in Dan's expression when he first saw Georgina.
• Vanessa says, "Maybe we were a little too harsh"?! Why is it your decision how harsh to be, Vanessa? You didn't sleep with her! Oh, wait, I'm sorry, Dan didn't sleep with her, but he may as well have. How about we let the guy who "may as well have" slept with the girl decide if it's too weird to hang out with her now?
• When did Serena become a bumbling idiot? I mean, seriously, she has no brain. Chuck's right, she is a train wreck.
• Ugh, the first days of college are soooooooooo lame. You have sit around and watch Vanessa's documentaries if you want to have friends? Not worth it! Lol.
• Georgina: "Tears! Actual tears! When that gang member picked up his first carrot..."
• Um, no, Dan, "when it comes to fatherly advice," Rufus is no where near "pretty much the best there is." Dan is so misguided it's embarrassing.
• Of course Rufus is more afraid of Serena's mother than Serena is. Serena's used to doing whatever the hell she wants.
• Ugh, I cannot stand the sight of a group of people adoring Dan Humphrey.
• Dan: "No headbands in college." Is that a real rule? I don't think Dan gets to set the fashion rules.
• Does Dan realize he just threw a headband that probably cost $300 down the stairs?
• Whoa, Scott has a hair-string temper.
• Um, sorry, Dan, I think I want to leave with Blair if the other option is to stay and drink cheap beer with you.
• They're getting a lot of play out of Leighton's "Good Girls Go Bad" song. When's Momsen's band going to get some airtime?
• Blair: "There's a reason we never went downtown: it's awful!"
• Blair's dress right now is the best part of this whole episode.
• Wow, Scott knows how to use ratemyprofessors.com (and type up the results as though he wrote them on a typewriter?). I'm so impressed.
• Doesn't Vanessa find it strange how preoccupied Scott is with Dan?
• Aww, Serena's going to make Carter cry.
• Dan's still on the freaking roof?
• If anyone ever says "so we can download about the epicness last night" to me, so help me, I will smack him/her.
• Uh oh, looks like Dan "may as well have" just slept with Georgina again. Get an effing clue, Humphrey, because I am losing patience!

(photo: cwtv.com)

Premiere Watch '09: The Beautiful Life

The Beautiful Life: TBL:

"Pilot"

I really rather liked the pilot of The Beautiful Life. I was expecting to enjoy it, but I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it because it was good or if I'd enjoy it because it was so bad and campy that it was entertaining. Turns out, it was pretty good.

Granted, the whole thing with Chris' disapproving Iowan farmer dad seemed a little tired and all of the modeling agents were skeazy and not particularly interesting, but there were some interesting developments. I was actually pretty shocked by the reveal that Sonja's time away from modeling was due to her having a secret baby. The rehab rumor just seemed likely. Also, I'm interested to find out who Raina's dad is. Mafia boss? Very rich white collar criminal?

And I liked this pilot because, heaven help me, I love that Mischa Barton. I admit that she's not the world's best actress and she's had some troubled times in real life, but I just like her. I'm sure my allegiance to her is in no small part due to her having played one of the main characters (Marissa Cooper) in one of my favorite shows of all time (The O.C.), but I do think there's more to it than that.

Also, I think the people in charge of The Beautiful Life should really stop trying to make "The Beautiful Life: TBL" happen. Either go with The Beautiful Life or TBL, we don't need both. It's redundant.

Highlights and my other thoughts:

• Timely scheduling of this pilot: it depicts NY Fashion Week '09 during NY Fashion Week. (Ignoring the fact that the fashion week actually going on in real life was for Spring '10, while the clothes they were wearing were from Zac Posen's Fall '09 collection (Exhibits A, B, and C). But that's ok, we don't have to think about it that hard.)
• Zac Posen! I read that his NY Fashion Week show started at 9 a.m. this year.
• Shouldn't Zac screen his looks a bit earlier than right before the model walks onto the runway? "Take this necklace and make it into a belt"? What?!
• I don't blame Mischa/Sonja for not making it to the Posen show if it was at 9 a.m.
• Do radio stations really give live updates from fashion shows?
• I'm sorry, but Corbin Bleu doesn't look like a model to me. He's too short, right? How tall are male models supposed to be?
• Aww, Chris is from Iowa. That's so cliche.
• More MGMT? I mean, I love "Time to Pretend" just as much as or more than the next girl, but is Zac Posen seriously using a year-old song to showcase his signature look?
• Do fashion show attendees really jump to their feet, applauding and cheering when some confetti falls from the ceiling? That seems like seriously un-chic behavior.
• Zac's clothes got some nice exposure from this.
• I just love Mischa's somewhat affected/stilted manner of speaking (sometimes it sounds like she's using an accent, sometimes not). It rather fits this role.
• Hope Chris wore presentable undies today.
• Ahh, good, I was hoping that wasn't Chris' pink cell phone.
• Maybe Isaac's been having trouble finding work because he's too short. (Or maybe designers just don't want their clothes associated with this. Personally, I've come to regard it as something of a modern masterpiece.)
• Ohhh, Isaac was a child model who "hasn't quite crossed over yet." That explains it.
• And he's a musician. Here's a thought: if he's not doing well at modeling and he wants to be a musician, why doesn't he just go try to be a musician?
• Cole (Nico Tortorella) is hot. Why does he look familiar? Wait! It's because he played Pizza Guy #1 on Make It Or Break It!!! So I guess this explains why that dude completely disappeared after only a few episodes and had to be replaced by Pizza Guy #2. Geez, I thought he was kind of cute on MIOBI, but he's super hot on TBL. Emily Kmetko's loss!
• Ick. Simon is sleazy.
• Sonja's wearing "the new Versace"! (Which, by the way, was from the Versace Spring '09 collection, so it's a year old and not so new after all.) How'd she get it? She has a "relationship with security" at the photographer's hotel. That's shady.
• Cole just ordered a 7 and 7. How Atwood-ian of him. (Sorry, my only experience with that drink comes from The O.C.)
• Marissa: "Coke is so '80s!" (I only find that quote interesting because I just finished reading Bright Lights, Big City in preparation for the upcoming Josh Schwartz film adaptation.)
• Raina is either a very sympathetic, caring person or oddly infatuated with Sonya.
• Is Raina really 16? Huh, no wonder her brother was supposed to take care of her.
• Sonja's baby-daddy has the initial R. (Unless Raina really is a creepy stalker and sent the flowers.)
• Uh oh, it's only the first episode and Mischa's already going berserk and throwing things. It took her until the Season 2 premiere to get to that point on The O.C. (the pool chair incident), and a lot of crap happened to her on The O.C....
• How old is Chris supposed to be?
• Is Raina's floor really going to be any more comfortable than the bench?

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

(photo: cwtv.com)

Premiere Watch '09: Community

Community:
"Pilot"

I loved, loved, loved Community's pilot episode. It was fantastic and hilarious. It's a sign that a comedy is awesome when I'm trying to write down the funny lines and I end up writing down basically the entire script, and I totally did that for this episode.

I adored Jeff's "Shark Week" motivational speech. That speech was definitely the best persuasive oratory I've seen on TV in a long time that wasn't delivered by Don Draper.

I was already a Joel McHale fan because of The Soup, and he was great in Community (plus the Seacrest joke was a nice shout out to The Soup). I loved Troy, Abed and Duncan as well.

If this show continues to be this funny on a weekly basis, you can definitely count me in! It might even inspire me to consider enrolling in a community college just for kicks. Well, probably not.

Highlights and observations:

• The guy standing up close to the stage listening to the dean looks cute from the back.
• I liked how they used the dean's speech as snappy way to give quick introductions to the characters.
• Dean: "That's what you've heard, however...I wish you luck!!!"
• Abed: "My dad is Palestinian. He's an American citizen. He's not a threat to national security or anything. Most people want to know that after meeting him because he gives off an angry energy. Not angry at America; angry at my mom for leaving him."
• Jeff: "Abed, nice to know you and then meet you in that order."
• Jeff's got an interesting look: Adidas athletic pants, collared dress shirt, sweater and suit jacket.
• They've got a rather nice looking cafeteria.
• Jeff: "Oh, sorry, I was raised on TV and I was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 is a cosmic mentor."
• Abed: "Oh, a text message! Let's give this bad boy a read! I've never gotten one of these before..."
• I loved Abed reading "Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you" to everyone on the room multiple times.
• Abed: "'Say you have to pee; I need to talk to you.'"
  Jeff: "Do you have to pee?"
  Abed: "No!"
  Jeff: "Well, then I'm stumped."
• The professor's text message: "Con-4-s-8-tion on football field now!!!"
• Jeff: "I discovered at a very early age that if I talk long enough, I can make anything right or wrong. So either I'm God or truth is relative. In either case, booyah!"
• Duncan: "Interesting, it's just that the average person has a much harder time saying 'booyah' to moral relativism."
• Duncan: "I'm a professor! You can't talk to me like that way!"
  Jeff: "A 6-year-old girl could talk to you that way!"
  Duncan: "Yes, because that would be adorable!"
  
• Troy: "That means you do my homework, right Seacrest?"
  
• Jeff: "I'm going to go to the bathroom and bring my jacket, wallet and keys with me...in case there's a fire."
  
• Pierce calling Annie "Princess Elizabeth"
  
• Aww, it's Trudy Campbell from Mad Men! Maybe she should stand up and do the Charleston like she did on MM with Pete.
  
• Jeff: "Pierce! Let's discuss this creepiness."
  
• Pierce: "Sexual harassment! That makes no sense. Why would I harass somebody who turns me on?"
  
• Troy: "Keg flip! They're very hard to pull off!"
  
• Lol, Abed's quoting Breakfast Club. And finishing it up with "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."
  
• Jeff: "Bluffs this weak are how your people lost the colonies."
  
• Duncan: "Take this car--it's good for the environment."
  Jeff: "Yeah, so is wiping your butt with a leaf, but it's not how a man gets around!"
  
  
• Jeff: "You know what makes humans different from other animals?"

  Troy: "Feet!"

  Pierce: "No, bears have feet."
  
  
• Jeff: "We're the only species that observes Shark Week. Sharks don't even observe Shark Week. ...It's the same reason I can pick up this pencil, name it Steve and do this and a little bit of you dies. We can connect with anything. We can sympathize with a pencil, we can forgive a shark and we can give Ben Affleck an Academy Award for screenwriting. People can find the good in just about anything but themselves."
  
  
• Jeff: "And don't test her on that because that thing about the jukebox was way too specific to be improvised."
  
  
• Jeff: "You are all better than you think you are, you're just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself."
  
  
• That speech was actually pretty fantastic.
  
  
• Jeff: "I was a lawyer!"

  Group: "Ohhh. That explains everything."
  
  
• Troy (laughing): "Asperger's."
  
  
• Duncan: "Before you say anything, you might want to think about the gift you've been given."
  
  
• Jeff: "An excuse to punch a hippie?"
  
  
• At least Jeff got his car back.
  
  
• Troy: "Wow, you just wrinkled my brain, man."
  
  
• Troy: "You seem pretty smart; you've got a sports coat."
  
  
• Abed: "What's going on? Can you guys hear me? Am I deaf? Can you hear me talking right now?"
  
  
• Abed: "I'm sorry I called you Michael Douglas, and I see your value now."
  
  
• I adore the cover of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" that they played at the very end.
  
  

Premiere Rating: 9.0/10

(Photo: NBC)

Premiere Watch '09: The Office

The Office: "Gossip"

Can you believe that The Office is now in its sixth season?! This show has proven to have some impressive staying-power, especially considering most of the action takes place in the same florescent light-lit office suite. It just goes to show you how much mileage a show can get out of a lot of really well-crafted, entertaining characters.

The Office started off Season 6 with a solidly funny premiere episode--it was not the funniest episode ever, but it definitely packed in a lot of laughs.

Highlights:

• Jim: "So, technically, they are doing Parkour, as long as Point A is delusion and Point B is the hospital."
• Andy: "Back flip, gainer into the trash."
• Oscar, Meredith, and Kelly debating whether the interns are dating during their lunch break.
• Dwight: "Stanley is way past the middle of his life, especially considering his height-to-weight ratio."
• Oh nooooooooooooooooo! Stanley IS having an affair!
• Michael: "Do people often say they're going on sales calls and then go some place else? Because that's not cool."
• According to Michael, Angela's fake, rich, older boyfriend owns a Quiznos on the Turnpike.
• Andy: "Who told you that? ...Did you run into someone from my high school?"
• Oscar: "If you resisted Brad Pitt a little bit, he would still need to get to you?!"
• Oscar: "What exactly is my responsibility here? To comfort insecure, heterosexual men? That cannot fall to me."
• Dwight: "...and one of you will make a great mother."
• Pam: "Why would that come into your brain?"
• Creed: "If I can't scuba, then what has this all been about?!"
• No matter what you may have heard, Oscar is not the voice of the Taco Bell dog.
• Dwight: "You told people that I use store bought manure when I've showed you where I get my manure."
• Lol, they thought that Jim was a J. Crew model. He actually does look like one.
• Michael: "Hey, what up, Cynthia?"

All in all, The Office's season is off to a good start. I liked that the episode allowed most all of the characters to have some good lines and to be their zany selves (Creed talking about scuba was my favorite). I would have liked to see some more of Ryan, however.

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

Glee: Jolly Good Acafellas

Glee: "Acafellas"

Glee offers up another great episode. Highlights and my observations:

• WHAT?!?! WILL'S DAD IS VICTOR GARBER!!!!! OMG. Does this mean that Will is Sydney Bristow's half-brother?
• And Victor's wearing a bow-tie--how adorable.
• Aww, Victor/Will's dad says he has no guts. (That is very unlike Jack Bristow.)
• The Cheerio spies in glee club have set a plan into action to get a ridiculous choreographer to bring about the downfall of glee club.
• Emma: "They say it takes more certainty than talent to become a star. Look at John Stamos."
• The cake Terri got for the shop teacher whose thumbs got cut off has two hands giving the thumps-up guesture. Oy vey.
• Ken: "I live in a YMCA, and I only have one pair of long pants..."
• Sandy writes Desperate Housewives fan fiction. Ahahaha!
• Will: "Apparently I don't know how to dance."
  Henri: "I have no thumbs!"
  
• Will: "Sandy, we voted: when you're in the group, it's creepy."
  
• Terri: "Will! If I don't get some sleep, I could miscarry." (She is horrendous!!)
  
• Finn: "See anyone else in here with a plate of 'I'm sorry' cookies? I don't. Just you."
  
• Mercedes: "Have you ever kissed anybody?"
  Kurt: "Yes, if by someone you mean the tender crook of my elbow."
  
  
• Why do all of Will's performances (first "Gold Digger" now "Poison") involve him rapping? LOL.
  
  
• Acafella's dance moves aren't bad.
  
  
• I can't believe the Acafellas were written up in the newspaper.
  
  
• Sandy: "'Who is Josh Groban?!' Kill yourself!"
  
  
• Kurt: "My dad got it for my sweet 16 when I swore I'd stop wearing form-fitting sweaters that stop at the knee. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
  
  
• First this rival glee club (Vocal Adrenaline) did "Rehab," now it's Duffy's "Mercy." And the dance moves these people do are unreal. I bet half the members of the group don't sing and are just there to do back flips and fancy dance moves. (Obviously in real life their are probably two different sets of performers: the singers we hear and the dancers we see.)
  
  
• I see Lauren from SYTYCD!!!
  
  
• Finn: "I tried to talk some sense into Rachel, but she's gone all chick-batty."
  
  
• Puckerman wants to be in the a cappella group? So he can hit on moms?! Eeeew! I don't doubt that he's tired of dating high school girls, though, since he clearly looks at least 35.
  
  
• Puck: "Dude, my bowels have better moves than you."
  
  
• Rachel: "We need to have a gay-vention. That's a gay intervention."
  
  
• Rachel: "He wore a corset to second period!"
  
  
• Kurt wasn't being "sweet" to Mercedes last week when he was telling her that she looked like a Technicolor zebra.
  
  
• Mercedes' hair looks super cute at the car wash.
  
  
• The Cheerios do make good backup dancers.
  
  
• Mercedes is a fantastic singer.
  
  
• So they guy playing Dakota, the crazy choreographer, played Walter "Duckface" on Full House. Wow.
  
  
• Dakota: "Artie, you're cut. You're not trying hard enough."

  Artie: "At what?"

  Dakota: "At walking."
  
  
• I kinda loved how Finn stood up for Rachel when Dakota said she needed a noise job.
  
  
• Dakota: "What's wrong with me is that you're freakishly tall! I feel like a woodland creature!"
  
  
• Rachel: "Our point is that you're fired. And I'm taller than you."
  
  
• The Acafellas are awfully dressed up for the PTO meeting.
  
  
• Wow, they've got some fancy lighting for this performance. This song ("I'm Going To Sex You Up") is ridiculously inappropriate for the PTO! Ha. All the better to distract the parents from the prison food scandal, I guess.
  
  
• Josh Groban is hitting on Will's mom!
  
  
• Victor's going to law school! Yea!!! (I still wish he'd gotten the chance to sing something though.)
  
  
• Why did the costume department insist on dressing Victor Garber like Tiny Tim thoughout this entire episode?
  
  
• Kurt: "My dad took my baby away after he found my tiara collection in my hope chest."
  
  
• Sue: "I'm revoking your tanning privileges for the rest of the semester."

  Cheerleader (bursts into tears): "No!"
  
  

Episode music list: "This is How We Do It" (Acafellas), "Poison" (Acafellas), "Mercy" (Vocal Adrenaline), "La Camisa Negra," "Bust Your Windows" (Mercedes), "I Wanna Sex You Up" (Acafellas)

SYTYCD: Phoenix Rising

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #2"

SYTYCD Season 6 auditions in Phoenix.

Day 1:

• Brandon ("Shorty") and Demetrio ("Biggie") almost ran into an elk on the drive to Phoenix from Oklahoma!
• Mary just cannot contain herself while Biggie and Shorty are performing. She's just cackling like a...(what kind of animal cackles?). Good for Nigel and Mia for sending them through to choreography! Shorty at least certainly seemed like he should get the chance to give it a try.
• Sasha Mallory auditioned for Season 4 and is back with her family. Her audition number is adorable--she's working with her music and not just showing us every trick she knows, but when she did do the fancy moves, they looked fantastic.
• Katie Muth is wearing plaid and Nigel says she has both performance and technique.
• Ellie Soto is going to Vegas as well.
• Allison Becker was diagnosed with Spinal Meningitis as a child and is deaf as a result. And she's really quite a good dancer and displays more musicality than a lot of the dancers who can hear the music. I liked her jumps and her lines.
• Now Mary's crying about her cousin who died as a young woman. I hope Tyce doesn't find out about that--he'll create a dance about it just to make Mary cry again.
• Here are the good same-sex ballroom dancers Willem and Jacob who recently won a gold medal at the same-sex ballroom championships (I missed the official name). Now the judges all love same-sex ballroom--at least Mary and Mia do. And Nigel does now too. In any event, Willem is super-cute.
• Jonathan Naroba is dancing with two sticks. He's not the world's best dancer, but his audition is pretty much cracking me up. I liked the "I Am a Disco Dancer" music. They should bring him along to do a Bollywood number though, because I think he could handle it.
• It's Pasha!!!!!!!! (And Anya!)
• Brandon isn't through to Vegas (he did a decent job though).
• Allison, Jacob, Willem and 12 others are going to Vegas.

Day 2:

• Jarvis is the most excited person ever. Literally. This kid hyped up. Mia's got an expression like 'it's too early early for this much enthusiasm.' I truly believe that Jarvis could dance like that for hours on end. Mia's right, Jarvis is sunshine. It's nice that he realizes that he's "on another planet." I don't know if I could handle Jarvis displaying this much energy for the course of an entire season, but he looks like a fun guy to hang out with for a half hour or so.
• Brandon Gordon and Nicole Peterson: not really sure how to describe this routine. She was wearing a tutu and striped socks.
• Basically, the theme of the second day was that there were a lot of really strange dancers.
• Kelsey White is not strange, however. She seems to be pretty much the typical blond girl contemporary dancer and looks pretty good but not spectacular. She admits to being abducted by aliens once and Nigel walks out. The judges send her through to choreo.
• Jonathan "Legacy" Perez is a b-boy, and he's pretty darn fantastic. He can whirl himself around on his shoulders/head like you wouldn't believe. He assisted Lauren to choreograph last season. Mia says he's "real stupid" (which is a good thing).
• Oh no! Jarvis collapsed! I guess one person cannot sustain so much excitement for so long.
• Kelsey isn't through to Vegas, but she's close and the judges want her to come back. Five unnamed other dancers are going to Vegas however, and they're excited about it (not as excited as Jarvis would have been, but close).

Next week: Boston. With Tyce (Yea. And by "yea" I mean "boo.")

Premiere Watch '09: Glee

Glee:

"Show-

mance"

Since I blogged about Glee's pilot last spring, I'm going to do my official "premiere watch" review on its second episode, which was fantastic. I'm just glad this show is finally on the air after seeing the incessant promo ads for it all summer during SYTYCD.

Highlights and my thoughts:

• Cheerleader (to Will and Emma): "Get a room!"
• Sue calling the glee club Will's "island of misfit toys."
• They should really not let kids (or teachers) carry cups full of liquid around this school.
• Kurt: "No, it's the song. It's really gay."
• I am having a really hard time believing that "Freak Out" was a "crowd-pleaser" in 1993. That was the age of Nirvana for goodness sake.
• Kurt: "You need to call me before you dress yourself. You look like a Technicolor zebra."
• Rachel is wearing a turtle neck sweater and a cardigan at the same time. I think Kurt needs to turn his saucy fashion-critiquing tongue on her next.
• I love the show choir version of "Gold Digger."
• Will's got some fairly impressive dance moves.
• The matching of the audio of them singing to the video of them "singing" needs some help.
• Rachel: "The girl who was throwing up before me left that."
• The guidance counselor's brochures include "My Mom's Bipolar and She Won't Stop Yelling" and "So You Like Throwing Up."
• Will: "Hold on a second, Sue!"
  Sue: "I resent being told to hold onto anything, William. I will not be treated like a second-class citizen because of my gender."
• Terri just keeps getting better and better. Like, seriously, how has Will been able to stand her for this long?
• OMG! Finn ran over a mail man.
• Ok, the celibacy club's activities are so beyond wrong. Should there not be a teacher advisor/chaperone at this meeting?
• Personally, I don't see how "Push It" is any less embarrassing than "Freak Out." This production is giving me flashbacks to the dance scene at the end of Little Miss Sunshine. And I really don't think that any high-schoolers would react to this in any other way than vicious laughter.
• The best part of the production number was when Kurt smacked Finn's butt and Finn's reaction.
• Sue: "My first thought was that your students should be put into foster care."
• Principal: "You need new outfits. I got several flashes of panty from your group today and I'm not talking about the girls!"
• Ken: "They can't fire me because I'm a minority so I'll always be able to provide for you..."
• Finn: "Well, when I first joined, I thought you were kind of insane. You talk more than you should and, to be honest with you, I looked under the bed to make sure you weren't hanging out under there."
• Finn: "The cups are like the airplane cups."
• I'm a bit surprised that we got to Finn and Rachel kissing so quickly. I thought that would get strung out for much longer. And I realize that Quinn's a nightmare, but if she is Finn's girlfriend, shouldn't he not be kissing other people? Between this and the Will and Emma flirtation, it's like the message of this show is "nice guys cheat too." How uplifting.
• Shouldn't the doctor/ultrasound technician be a little more sympathetic to a woman having a hysterical pregnancy? Maybe call for a psych consult or something?
• Quinn and her back-ups are good. And they've got much more of a flair for choreography than the current glee clubbers.
• Quinn: "There is something going on between Finn and that thing! You saw how it was undressing him with its eyes!"
• How dumb is Will? They wouldn't know if Terri's baby is a boy or a girl yet.
• At least Terri had the decency to give up on the house.
• Was there really a disco revival in 1993?
• I'm not sold on the musical numbers when they're not well-integrated into the show (like when Rachel "practices"--with back-up singers and spotlights--just so she can sing a song that reflects her inner emotions). I'm totally okay with characters singing songs that reflect their situations in life, as long as the singing itself makes a little more sense in the context of the episode (like when Will sang "Gold Digger" during practice). Rachel's "Take a Bow" and Will's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" (in the extended pilot) just felt too heavy-handed for my taste. It is especially pushing it too far to have Rachel belting the song out in the middle of the hallway when no one else can hear her. That's too "conventional musical" for me.

Songs: "Le Freak," "Gold Digger," "Push It," "I Say a Little Prayer," and "Take a Bow"

"Premiere" Rating: 8.0/10

(photo: fox.com/glee)

Premiere Watch '09: Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl:
"Reversals of Fortune"

Tonight I was probably the least excited I've ever been for a new episode of Gossip Girl, which was especially shocking considering this episode was the first new episode of a new season. There were certainly several reasons I felt this way, including the fact that new TV shows are a sign that summer is ending and I don't want that to happen and that I'm a bit drama-ed out from the U.S. Open. The predominate reason, however, was that GG and I didn't part on the best of terms last season (the Season 2 finale didn't impress me much at all and I resorted to quoting Lulu in jest...it wasn't pretty).

Still, when the first vestiges of GG popped up on my television screen (in it's new time slot at 9 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., which annoys me to no end since that's now when Greek and The Big Bang Theory (9:30) air as well), I hoped for the best. I wanted this episode of GG to smack me over the head with its awesomeness and remind me once and for all why I love this show. Unfortunately, what I got was an episode that was iffy at best.

From what I could tell, there wasn't an engaging plotline to be had in this episode. I mean, what we were supposed to like here? Dippy Nate picks up Joanna Garcia's equally dippy character? (She's realized her mistake when her cousin got stood up at the alter? That's it?) Barely-tolerable Vanessa gets picked up by the most boring secret half-brother known to man? Blair has Chuck pick up other girls to keep their relationship "interesting"? (Seriously? Being Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf on a daily basis isn't interesting enough?) Longer-haired Dan does nothing but get chastised by Vanessa while trying--again--to solve Serena's secret problems for her? Rufus "struggles to hold it together" while living Lily's charmed life without her? Eric and Jenny hang out and chat while somehow miraculously ignoring how awful Jenny's hair is? The part that came the closest to being interesting to me was when scummy Carter suddenly turned sweet, asking Serena who her dad was to not want her. But then she left him partially-clothed in the woods. Yeah...okay.

Even when GG's plotlines go astray, the show can usually be counted on for some entertaining dialogue and snappy one liners, but there wasn't even much of that in this episode. Even Gossip Girl sounded bored and subdued. Let's hope that the beginning of college will give this show the shot in the arm that it needs, because I don't know how many more episodes like this I can take.

Observations and "highlights":

• The blonde Chuck picked up looks like Serena, but shorter.
• The Hamptons isn't treating Jenny's hair well.
• Dan: "I just highly doubt she can keep her mouth shut for a whole month."
• From Vanessa to Joanna Garcia: definitely an upgrade for Nate.
• They've met before and they don't recognize each other? They don't know what other people in powerful political families look like? I mean, I know Nate's clueless, but I expected more from Joanna.
• Blair: "Now take your American Girl hair and your poreless skin and get out!"
• I'm on the fence about whether I love or hate Dan's longer hair.
• Eew, Jenny's hair looks even worse down.
• How is Chuck not dying from heat exhaustion in that suit in NYC in late summer?
• Chuck: "Sleeping with the enemy is hot. Why do you think I had the whole Ivanka thing?"
• Nate's hair, however, is definitely looking hot.
• How tall are Blair's shoes? She's taller than Serena.
• Nate and V went traveling in Europe and they just hooked up "one night" in Prague? That does not sound like the Nate that I know.
• Of course V got suckered in by the secret half-brother. She falls for all the liars.
• Jenny: "Everyone's topless on Valentino's yacht, Dad."
• Rufus: "What about the one where Prince Harry's doing shots off her--"
• Carter's looking cuter too.
• I wouldn't say the word "Dior" to Vanessa either when she's wearing that crappy outfit. It's like telling a starving person about the four-star meal you just ate.
• When was the "last time" Serena went off the deep-end? There have been so many times that I can't keep them straight anymore.
• What?! Why is Serena making it Dan's job to keep Carter away from her? Just leave poor Dan alone!
• Dan/Blair is not really an "unlikely alliance"--they band together for some reason or other at least once every couple of months.
• Apparently the correct outfit to wear to a polo match is a maxi dress.
• Nate's grandfather doesn't know who Bree Buckley is either?
• I guess Blair didn't get the maxi dress memo. But Vanessa did.
• Did Serena marry Carter in Europe too? LOL.
• Ha ha, is Serena seriously riding a horse away from the polo match? This is ridiculous.
• Aww, all of a sudden, Carter's kind of sweet: "Who is he not to want you?"
• Ugh, Vanessa, just take your lectures and go far, far away. Somebody lend Vanessa a horse so she can get out of here faster.
• Chuck: "We could never be boring."
• Um, this Vanessa/secret half-brother scene is painful. It's so bad, it's veering into Mischa/pool boy territory.
• Ok, Chuck and Blair are role playing about waiters now? Has it come to this?
• Why did Rufus buy the pics of Serena riding the horse? Borrowing a horse at a polo match is not exactly the most scandalous thing ever.

Premiere Rating: 6.0/10

(photo: cwtv.com)