Premiere Watch '08: Valentine

Valentine: Pilot

So The CW out-sourced it's Sunday night programming. Let's see how that went...

• I'm not sure what to make of this show, really.
• It might be easier to care about these two soul mates if they weren't wearing Charlie Chaplin and Madonna costumes. It's kind of hard to take them seriously.
• Danny wears a lot of jewelry. I liked this actor (Kristoffer Polaha)better last year on Miss Guided.
• Huh? So what does the gun that shoots purple light actually do? Make you fall in love? I don't get it.
• I guess these people really are soul mates if they both like watching the same infomercials. And talking to each other about them.
• Ahh, Taylor Townsend, why can't I escape you this week? Phoebe seems like a little much... (which is okay, because we all know that Autumn Reeser knows how to play characters who are a little much.)
• And Professor Landry! He gets around too.
• It doesn't seem like the best idea ever to go out to a bar with your plumbers.
• Phoebe: "The oracle of Delphi is not a peep show."
• The gods and goddesses of love didn't realize that the have-him-hook-up-with-her-when-she's-drunk-and-at-her-bachelorette-party plan would go awry? Duh.
• Yeah, I don't think the author of that story is going to be much help.
• Is that Christine Lakin? She looks different. Nice, but different. Not at all like someone who would be the "nottie" in The Hottie and the Nottie.
• So that's what happens when you receive a shot of unconditional love?!
• Phoebe: "Joanna dies alone and is eaten by her cats. Which is actually good-ish news if you're a cat person."
• Joanna: "Who would do this?"
  Roland: "The worst plumbers ever!"
• Shouldn't the gods and goddesses be a little more subtle in their matchmaking? I mean, these people know they've been messed with. Seems like that might be a liability if you're trying to keep your business a secret.

Um, yeah. So I watched the whole show and still don't really know what to make of it. I didn't find the characters of Grace or Danny to be particularly likable. And shouldn't freaking Hercules have something better to do than be an assistant matchmaker? I did think that Autumn was cute at Phoebe. And it's nice to see Christine Lakin working, although I can't say that I expect this job to last for very long.

Premiere Rating: 3.0/10

The "Greek" Gatsby

Yea for Greek being back! I'm so excited about it that I'm finally blogging again. I really like Greek a lot. Maybe because it always airs in kind of a down time (summer, post-strike), but I've come to think it would hold up even against some stiffer competition.

I must start out by saying that my big complaint about this episode was that there was not enough Dale. Come on, folks, Clark Duke is a revelation! Give him more to do. I loved the opening scene with Calvin (how proud am I that I now finally remember that guy's name?) and Rusty trying to figure out what to do, and Dale mentioning gatherings of his geeky friends:

Dale: "And there are girls! Well, there was one once...at least I'm pretty sure it was a girl..."
Calvin: "Let's keep looking."
Rusty: "The circus is in town."

And then Clark's disco dancing at the 1970s party was adorable. They need to figure out some more ways to bring his character into the fold with the other characters.

As a flapper-enthusiast, I loved the Roaring '20s party. I'm also wildly impressed that these college kids are able to adopt a theme so wholeheartedly. They certainly all didn't just happen to pack flapper dresses when they came back to college after winter break.

A shining moment of the episode was the return of Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Cameron as the dean. It's been quite a week for Ferris Bueller guest stars with the secretary on a great episode of Miss Guided last week and now Cameron on Greek. And, kudos to Greek for coming up with an inside joke to acknowledge his presence--while not being too obvious--with Ashleigh's "...which is why, in many ways, I think that Ferris Bueller is my generation's Gatsby." Nicely done.

Other highlights:

• Last summer I called that the Kappa Tau's wouldn't care that Calvin is gay. The KTs are the picture of tolerance.


• Evan is always awfully dressed up. He's wearing a tie for crying out loud. I do not recall ever seeing frat boys who wore ties. On the upside, Evan has been displaying a surprising amount of integrity through the Calvin situation.


• Rebecca looks totally different with that bobbed wig.


• Ashleigh is quite the singer!


• Casey (to a ridiculous looking Rusty): "You look..... are you having fun?"


• Calvin's ex-boyfriend looks like he dressed for a Charles Dickens-themed party. Perhaps he got the wrong memo.


• Cappie's in over his head with balancing Casey and Rebecca. He'd better watch it though, because he doesn't want to make Rebecca too mad; she's dangerous.


• Beaver reading The Great Gatsby aloud was great. "...minute? Minute...it's probably minute." Ok, that joke doesn't translate well when it's written down, but it was funny when Beaver said it.


• Did Cappie just call Evan "bing"? What does "bing" mean? I've only been out of college for a year and I'm out of the loop on the lingo already?


• I'm excited to see Cappie's retribution on Evan!! The Cappie/Evan fight in the previews they showed last week looked hot! Bring it on. With Ryan Atwood and Logan Echolls gone, the instances of fist fights on shows I watch seem to have gone way down.


• Remember when the show at least pretended to be about Rusty? ;-)

So, after giving some good marks for the second episode of Greek's spring semester, I want to add that I thoroughly enjoyed the past series of Wildfire too. I probably should be more ashamed to admit that I like that show than I am. But darn it, I find the whole Chris/Matt/Junior/wind turbine love rhombus to be captivating. Granted, the production value of the show isn't awesome (there's usually at least one scene in each episode where you have no idea what's happening, such as the scene where the barn was on fire), some of the acting could be better, and it seems like a show about horses should display a better knowledge of horses, but whatever: I like it. I'm excited to see all heck break lose when Junior and Chris tell everyone they're getting married. I just wish the next chunk of eps weren't the end of the series.

And also: they should have just given Kristi Yamaguchi the Dancing with the Stars trophy after the first ep. There is no competition. Don't mess with figure skaters.