hellcats + nikita

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I still can’t believe the start of the Fall TV season is upon us. I haven’t even received the all-important Fall TV preview issue from Entertainment Weekly yet! So I checked out The CW’s new offerings and while I didn’t OMG!LOVE! either of them, I’m intrigued enough to watch a few more episodes to see if they’ve worked out the kinks. I have to remember some of my favorite shows like The Vampire Diaries or The OC took a few episodes to really hit their stride. Maybe that will happen here? Possible spoilers…



Hellcats
I wanted to like this show SO MUCH. Because it’s about cheerleading! And I love Ashley Tisdale. She didn’t disappoint here.

But it’s totally One Tree Hill all over again. Not that I don’t love OTH. Because I do. I just wish Hellcats wasn’t another teen drama hiding behind the “sports” theme. Remember when OTH was about brothers and basketball? Yeah, that didn’t last long. I can see that happening here too. (Not to mention that Hellcats reminded me of OTH right off the bat because the actors playing Lewis and Dan had minor roles on that show).

All that said, I did like the way the lead characters’ relationship was introduced. While Marti (played by Aly Michalka) and Savannah (Ashley Tisdale) started off with a misunderstanding, they actually ended up as friends by the end of the episode. Unheard of! The writers very easily could have let them fall into the typical cliche of girls who hate each other because they don’t understand where the other is coming from.

I have a soft spot for anything related to dance and cheerleading so I’m on board… for now.

Also, is it just me or is it TOTALLY weird to see Tom Welling’s name in the credits as Executive Producer?! WHAT.



Nikita
I never watched the original show or movie so I have no pre-conceived notions of the characters, storylines, etc. Sadly, I was actually a little bored (the show reminds me a lot of Alias with the revenge storyline) until the twist at the very end. Up until that point, I was wondering why I should care about Alex and the other trainees and how they would fit into Nikita’s overall storyline. The ending is probably about 99.9% why I think I’ll tune in for a few more episodes.

The older cast (Xander Berkeley and Melinda Clarke — who is totally channeling Lady Heather from CSI) was solid but I was disappointed in the younger leads. Maggie Q and Lyndsy Fonseca were a little wooden and Shane West was trying too hard (notice how his voice was deeper than normal as if he was trying to imitate Christian Bale’s famous Batman voice?). Buuuut despite the so-so acting, I really want this show to do well. I think it’s high time for a network show to feature an awesome female Asian lead. It has a lot of stiff competition on Thursday nights, though.

Good start for The CW so far.

the good wife

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Had a great Labor Day weekend. Hope you did as well. 🙂 It was way too short (as usual) but I got to…

Introduce Diesel to Rob’s aunt and uncle’s puppy Marley who he HATED. My dog is a snob!
Hang out with good friends from out of town.
Celebrate a friend’s birthday with seafood and ice cream.
Accompany my best friend as she chose “THE” wedding dress. SQUEE.
Make an unexpected (but totally awesome) trip to IKEA.

Phew.

In the midst of all that, Rob and I also managed to sneak in an entire season 1 marathon of The Good Wife.



Yes, that’s right. We watched ALL TWENTY-THREE episodes. We started Thursday night and finished up on Monday. Now I know what the hype is all about. It’s truly a great show. And I’m sad that season 2 doesn’t start for another few weeks.

My favorite character is Kalinda. I love her cynicism and mysteriousness. Plus, one of my absolute favorite movies is Bend it Like Beckham and I loved Archie Panjabi in that too. I’m also intrigued by both Peter Florrick and Cary Agos. I don’t think I’m supposed to like them as much as I do. I can’t help it! Sure, Peter’s a cheater and Cary can be cruel but they’re also incredibly charming and layered characters. Also love Eli Gold. Mostly because Alan Cumming is freaking amazing.

As far as the storylines, I was most drawn to Peter’s trial and his relationship with Alicia after the scandal. While I like Will (and adore his intimate voice), I’m not sold on him and Alicia… yet.

There’s not much I don’t love about this show. I know I’m notorious for watching mostly teen shows (Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill) or other such fluff but sometimes a 30 year old needs a real thought-provoking, adult show. This fits the bill for me. And you should watch it too!

work in progress

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I’m sitting at home watching COLLEGE FOOTBALL. WHAT. Seriously, HOW is it almost Fall? The summer went by in a flash.

It’s also been 2 months since we moved to our new house and it’s STILL very much a work in progress. We have yet to paint the 3 bathrooms (we got super burned out after painting the main living areas, kitchen, master bedroom, and office so we decided to take a break). Boxes of “stuff” in the garage need to be opened, organized, donated, etc. And we have to figure out what we’re going to do about the windows on the first floor (curtains… I think?).

BUT. We’ve made progress on other things this week so it’s been a good one. Which means… 5 Happy Things!

1. We finally received our dining table. LOVE IT. It’ll be SO nice not to eat on the coffee table anymore. The bad thing is that we only have 2 chairs so far. LOL. We’re waiting for the bench to get shipped.

2. The area rug we ordered 2 months ago is finally off back order and is getting ready to ship. YAY. Our living area has felt incomplete because there’s just random pieces of furniture everywhere. It really needs an area rug to bring it all together. Can’t wait.

3. We ordered gorgeous white plantation shutters for almost all the windows on the second floor and they’re finally going to be installed tomorrow. ECSTATIC.

4. We’ve been procrastinating on getting our yard landscaped because we were lazy, didn’t want to incur the cost, fill in other excuses here. Finally, Rob hired someone today and they’re starting work tomorrow. YAY.

5. 3-day weekend here I come!

You know you’re getting old when furnishing and decorating your house makes you positively giddy. 😀 Pictures… someday.

in my head right now…

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The weeks have been absolutely flying by. Seriously, how is it almost September?! I can’t keep up.

Random stuff I’ve been thinking about…

I changed the theme of my blog! It’s pink now and much more ME than the blue craziness.

Work life has been insane. One of my managers left (*sob*) and we hired a new assistant… so with all these changes, I had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for a few days (my first time in over a year!). I was looking forward to the hustle and bustle and cool weather of the city. Imagine my surprise when I arrived on Monday morning and was greeted by the VERY SAME HEAT that I left behind. WTF. Despite the heat, it was a good trip — I had fun dinners with great friends, caught up with co-workers, window shopped downtown, picked up late night frozen yogurt to cool down, and even managed to get some work done. I feel very lucky to have experienced the city again. But when I landed in Orange County last night, I was ridiculously happy. It definitely doesn’t have the energy of a big city but it’s home. “There’s no place like home” is a cliche for a reason.

I watched an episode of The Good Wife the other day and LOVED it. Now it’s my mission to watch the entire first season before the second premieres. The pilot is free to download on iTunes this week so I think it’s fate.

The Burn Notice summer finale was INSANE. In a good way.

I recently discovered the wonder that is the Google Reader. I follow 100+ blogs (it’s an addiction, what can I say) and I finally have a streamlined way of always being caught up. SO. AWESOME.

Maybe I’m judge-y or whatever but I think it’s kind of weird when I see that someone’s Twitter feed consists primarily of work updates and links to work-related articles. Or maybe I’m jealous that there are people out there that truly feel like their work is an extension of them. Believe me, I would NEVER be caught reading trade publications in my free time. Time away from work is too precious a commodity.

I have iphone rage. I updated my 3G to the new OS a few weeks back and now it sucks balls. It’s slow and is prone to freezing. Damn you Apple. I bet this was your evil plot all along — to make me hate my phone so much that I’ll eventually break down and buy the new iphone 4. Bastards. I’m annoyed but will totally fall for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

Totally late but YAY for Lauren winning So You Think You Can Dance. She was my favorite of the final 3 (awesome personality and versatility) — and I totally loved that she foiled the judges hope of a male contemporary dancer winning. Ok, they never said that but I firmly believe there are behind the scenes manipulations that happen on this show to get the results they want. I guess I’m a TV conspiracy theorist?

That’s all I’ve got. Sorry for all the text. Next time I’ll include pics. 😀

comic-con 2010: days 3 & 4

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Oh man, it pains me that I’ve only been blogging about once a week lately. My poor abandoned blog. Work, house maintenance, and TV take up so much time leaving nothing for the blog. Obviously my time management sucks.

Anyway, apparently I have commitment issues when it comes to topics on my blog. So even though it’s been 3 weeks since Comic-Con, I’m finishing up my recap, damn it! Beware blurry pics.

Saturday, July 24

Today was our INSANE panel day. Rob and I basically went to Ballroom 20 and stayed there from morning until late afternoon. No joke.



The first panel of the day was Chuck. It started at 10am and at 8am the scene already looked like this. CRAZINESS.

I was so excited for this panel (hence the reason for the 2 hour wait in line) and it ended up being a little disappointing. First, the panel started late (I later found out it was due to technical difficulties) so by the time they showed the opening highlight reel and hilarious Jeffster music video (singing Lady Gaga!), the cast was only able to come on stage to answer questions for a short time. 🙁



They did reveal a few tidbits for next season —

— Linda Hamilton has been cast as Chuck & Ellie’s mom.
— The Buy More has been taken over by the CIA and Olivia Munn and the Old Spice guy (Isaiah Mustafa) will guest star as CIA directors (or agents? I can’t remember).

The moderators also pointed out that besides Chuck & Sarah, there was another break-out couple last season — Casey (Adam Baldwin) & Morgan (Joshua Gomez). When asked what they like about working with each other, Joshua said he liked Adam’s soft hands (what?!) and Adam joked back that when the crew is setting up scenes for the two of them, they have to get an apple box for Joshua to stand on since he’s so much shorter. BWAHAHAHA. Poor Joshua looked so embarrassed.

After Chuck was a series of panels for animated shows I don’t watch — Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Futurama, The Simpsons (Rob does, though). I didn’t know what the heck they were talking about but I have to admit that they were HILARIOUS. Especially Seth MacFarlane and the entire cast and crew of Family Guy. During the audience Q&A, a fan went up to the mic and was so nervous, he was stammering and couldn’t get his question out. Seth MacFarlane laughed and said he thought the fan was going to pull one of these and he pretends to whip out a gun and start shooting. OMG. So inappropriate. But I laughed anyway. I couldn’t help it!


Family Guy

The Cleveland Show

Futurama

The Simpsons



Next up was the V panel, which was a complete and utter snoozefest. Rob left mid-way through because he was so bored (he went to the Eureka and Warehouse 13 panels). And he’s the one that watches this show! I only watch it because he does. All I remember is that the actor who plays Tyler is just as weird and awkward as his character. Really. Oh, and Elizabeth Mitchell is an incredibly humble and gorgeous actress.

FINALLY. FINALLY. It was time for Fringe. OK. SO. I didn’t watch any of season 2. I was pretty much there to see my celebrity crush Joshua Jackson.



SQUEEEEEE.

The cast and creators talked a lot about duality and duplicity with regards to the show’s alternate universe and how choices play a role in the differences between the two worlds. Anna Torv described it best when she said that both Olivias have similar goals but our Olivia wants to be the best while alt-Olivia just wants to win.

Everything else they discussed pretty much went over my head but really intrigued me. Maybe I need to do a season 2 marathon?

But for me anyway, Josh Jackson was the highlight. He infused humor into the panel. For instance…

— At the very beginning, the moderator asked him “Is Peter about to embark on the most exhilarating threesome he’s ever had?” WTF. IDEK. Anyway, JJ answered by asking in return “Is there such a thing as a non-exhilarating threesome?”
— During the audience Q&A, the panel decided to ask the fans questions in return. One of the questions was why Gene (the cow) had polka dots. When the fan didn’t know, JJ grabbed his water, took a huge sip, and made gurgling noises. The fan correctly guessed a bong hit. BEST moment of the panel by far.
— The last question asked by the panel was about the pot strains that Walter crossed. It’s completely quiet for awhile when someone in the audience yells out the exact ingredients. The creators are surprised, tell him that he wins a t-shirt while JJ says “And a five-to-fifteen year jail sentence!”

OHGAWD. IPUFFYHEARTYOU JOSHUAJACKSON.

Aaaannnnd the last panel for the day was The Vampire Diaries. I was REALLY surprised at how much the ballroom emptied out after Fringe. It went from full capacity to half. Those people don’t know what they’re missing.
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happy anniversary

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Today Rob and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary.

I say it ALL THE TIME but seriously, time is flying by now that I’m 30+. Waaaahhhhh.

Anyway, here’s to my one and only, my best friend…



I look forward to many more years of wedded bliss. 🙂

comic-con 2010: day 2

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Friday, July 23

We only went to 1 panel in the morning (for CBS’s “reboot” of Hawaii 5-0) and spent the rest of the day in the exhibition hall. Expect lots of pics in this entry!

So Hawaii 5-0. I only wanted to attend this panel because I love Daniel Dae Kim. Does this make me a bad person?



Grace Park was the only other cast member there along with a few producers and writers and OMG, it was SO BORING for the first half hour. I almost fell asleep. Everyone on the panel was so serious. BLAH. Then Grace Park started responding to a question by rambling on and on — when all of a sudden she stopped, laughed, and said, “I don’t remember the question.” She apologized and explained that they had all taken the red eye from Hawaii and were really tired. This seemed to put everyone at ease and the panel got 100% better. Some memorable moments…

— Daniel Dae Kim said he’s “happy to be on a show that has a theme song.”
— At first the producers decided to do a rock version of the theme song but after hearing the finished product, they realized it was terrible. They scrapped it, found the original musicians, and re-recorded the song. We were treated to footage of that recording session, which was pretty cool. I may not remember the original show at all (it was before my time) but the theme is iconic.
— Grace Park was asked about her transition from Battlestar Galactica to other shows. She said, “When Boomer died…” to which Daniel Dae Kim promptly frowned and shook his head. Producer Peter Lenkov had to remind her that Daniel just started watching BSG. OOPS.
— The first audience question was a DIRTY DIRTY MAN who asked Grace if she was going to appear in more bikinis on the show. WAY TO STAY CLASSY THERE GUY. She played it off well by saying it wasn’t up to her and that she hoped the guys would be in bikinis too.
— A 12-year old boy asked Daniel Dae Kim a question (can’t remember what it was now) and started off by saying “I’ve been watching Lost for half my life…” Ahhhh, so cute.
— Another Lost fan asked Daniel Dae Kim about a rumor she read online regarding Matthew Fox and John Terry being the only actors to know the ending of the show. He confirmed it was true. He said that when they received their scripts, a few acts were missing, and they later learned they were the scenes explaining the flash-sideways. On the day they shot the final scene, Lindelof & Cuse revealed the ending. It happened to be the last day the entire cast was all together so that gave the acting extra weight.

Still not sure if I’m going to watch this show next season… maybe I’ll check out the pilot.



And now the exhibition hall. It gets INSANE. But lots of stuff to see!



Like these life size Lego figures of Buzz and Woody.



New Harry Potter Lego set.



AWESOME Lego Star Wars cube dudes. I REALLY REALLY wanted this set. But they’re limited edition and you have to enter a raffle just to be eligible to purchase them. I didn’t bother. I still want them, though. ARGH.



The Lucasfilm/Star Wars booth.



We saw Aaron Douglas (Chief from BSG) signing autographs.



THE BEST COSTUME OF THE WEEKEND. Zangief from Street Fighter. Hehe.



The Ugly Doll posed for me! I think it’s actually kind of cute.

We decided to venture outside around noon for lunch (food options in the convention center are virtually nonexistent). SyFy took over one of the restaurants in the Hard Rock Hotel and converted it to Cafe Diem, which is a cafe in their show Eureka. We decided to try it and while the food was your average diner food, the branding was awesome.



There was a white picket fence outside, SyFy signage covering the walls, the seatbacks read “Cafe Diem,” and all the menu items were named after various shows.



There was even a photobooth in the back where you could take a picture, get a copy right away, and later download it on their website for free. SO COOL.



On the way back to the convention center, we spotted the SyFy street team giving out these HUGE ASS bags. One side says GIANT BACKPACK and the other says MEGA TOTE. Hehe.

Back inside the exhibition hall, we saw…
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comic-con 2010: day 1

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Before I start my Comic-Con recap, I HAVE to post Joshua Jackson’s Funny or Die/Pacey-Con video. WHY DIDN’T I KNOW ABOUT THIS?!? Love him.


Anyway. Comic-Con recap. Click pics for bigger. Some of them are blurry and/or shaky. I am an amateur.

Thursday, July 22



Comic-Con has invaded downtown San Diego!



You can totally tell when you’re nearing the convention center.



FACT. Lines are everywhere. Luckily, we skipped this one because we picked up our badges the previous day.

We spent about an hour in the exhibit hall that morning but promptly at 11am, we headed upstairs to Ballroom 20 (the biggest room used for TV shows – seats about 4000) to get in line for the USA panels — the first being Burn Notice at 1pm.



Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous to get in line 2 hours ahead of time but SERIOUSLY, if it’s something you want to do/see, it’s necessary. And actually still doesn’t guarantee entrance depending on how popular it is.



We got into Ballroom 20!



OH MAN. Burn Notice was the BEST panel that we attended. Absolutely hilarious. Chris Vance moderated (he also played the evil Gilroy in the last season) and Bruce Campbell (Sam), Tim Matheson (Larry), and series creator Matt Nix were panelists. Some highlights:

— Matt Nix on the writers’ inspiration – “There comes a point where you start reading warning labels as instructions.”
— The bomb squad asked them to cut a voiceover because it wasn’t a good idea to tell the general public how they detect bombs.
— Bruce Campbell talked about how he used to projectile sweat when they filmed car scenes because there was no AC. But of course, the one time that Jeffrey Donovan starts to sweat even a little bit, they install AC.
— Bruce Campbell accidentally revealed that Fiona gets kidnapped in an upcoming episode and said “Never kidnap Fiona. She’s such a little sh*t.”
— During the audience Q&A, a fan asked about Fiona’s terrible Irish accent in the pilot and why it was dropped. Matt Nix simply said it was a narrative choice — it made it hard for the characters to put on different personas if they already had an accent. (I think Gabrielle Anwar’s accent was terrible and he was just too nice to say so).
— Another fan asked how the show ended up being set in Miami. Matt Nix revealed that it was originally set in Newark (I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or sarcastic) and that the network basically told him they wanted a sunny locale and they chose Miami. After being pissed for awhile, he realized they were right.
— Throughout the panel, Bruce Campbell stood up and gave money to people when they paid him flattering compliments.
— Towards the end of the hour, USA network executive Jeff Wachtel interrupted the panel to announce that they greenlit a Sam prequel. !!! It will follow Sam on his last military mission and show how he ended up in Miami. WOOHOO. Bruce Campbell promptly handed Wachtel some money. When asked how he felt about the prequel, he said “USA finally got their sh*t together.” HEISSOAWESOME.



White Collar was up next. The entire cast was there. First thing I noticed is that Matt Bomer is even MORE handsome in person than he appears on TV. How is that even possible?!? The panel started off with an awesome Con exclusive video where the gang discusses their costumes for Comic-Con (for the record, Neal would go as Freddie, Peter would be Darth Vader, Diana as Chewbacca, and Jones as Blade – AWESOME!). Sadly, the rest of the panel was pretty underwhelming. Mostly because Willie Garson moderated and while he was funny, I felt like he didn’t really do a good job with asking the cast questions that got them talking. The best moments were:

— Sharif Atkins doing a cartwheel on stage as he’s introduced
— Creator Jeff Eastin complimenting Matt Bomer for infusing the charm into the character of Neal Caffrey — to which Matt put his head down and looked super embarrassed. WHATACUTIE.
— Marsha Thomason mentioned that she wanted to see Tim DeKay dressed in drag as Beyonce (I can’t remember why she said that) and Tim promptly did the “Single Ladies” hand movements.
— At the end, Matt & Tim sang a censored version of the “Folgers in your cup” song. I think they sing this on set when they’re tired, need to diffuse tension, etc. I took a crappy video…



Our last panel of the day was Psych. Just like White Collar, they started off with a fun video of James Roday and Dule Hill on set. Nestor Carbonell (he’s guest starring later this season) walks by looking for Jack. Dule asks “Why? Are you… lost?” and they proceed to laugh hysterically. OH GAWD. So funny.



After the video, James and Dule walked on stage singing “Shout” with Tears for Fears’s Curt Smith. AWESOME. The awesomeness didn’t stop there though:

— When asked what they dislike about each other, Dule said James’s hair and James said he admires Dule’s ability to stay tan without any products.
— James and Dule were asked to give the first few sentences of their characters best man speeches. James said “he can’t marry you because he’s already married to me” but Dule took the cake by saying “I guess today is the day we all realize what a cold day in hell feels like. In the words of the great Arsenio Hall, there’s a god somewhere!” BWAH.
— There was confirmation that Maggie Lawson and James are in a relationship. AWWW.
— Dule and choreographer Jason Samuels Smith showed off their tap dancing skills at the end.

… And that was pretty much our first day. I actually had a ticket to the Entertainment Weekly/CBS party that night but didn’t want to go by myself (I won it via Twitter and wasn’t able to get another one for Rob) so I skipped it. Maybe next year! I don’t feel so bad for missing the celebrities at the party because we ran into Tim DeKay on the way back to our hotel. YAY.



GREAT DAY.

back from the con

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Back from Comic-Con.

UNBELIEVABLY TIRED.

Sure, the exhibition hall got crowded, the lines for panels were too long, cell/internet service SUCKED balls (which makes no sense, right? you’d think this would be a priority) — but like any other experience, it’s what you make of it. And I had a GREAT time. Even though I definitely feel every bit the 30 year old that I am.

I managed to attend the panels for some of my favorite shows (Burn Notice, White Collar, Psych, The Vampire Diaries – among others), I geeked out over being in the same room as my actor crushes (Joshua Jackson!!! Jensen Ackles!!!), and I did some completely unnecessary shopping (bought t-shirts and toys — which I certainly don’t NEED). But as full as the days were, there was NO CHANCE to see everything. I spent so much time checking out the TV panels that I missed all the big movie announcements (Joss Whedon directing The Avengers, appearances by Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Felton, etc) as well as other awesome moments taking place in or around the convention floor — particularly these two…



Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay from White Collar at the Ubisoft booth playing Just Dance 2. THIS IS AWESOME. Doesn’t Matt Bomer look like he knows all the moves by heart?!



Joshua Jackson held Pacey Con 2010 outside the convention center. He was giving out Dawson’s Creek fanfiction that he had written while the theme song played on a portable radio. He’s even wearing a very Pacey-like bowling shirt. OMGILOVEHIMSOMUCH. I totally wish I got the chance to see this in person.

So yeah. Lots of crazy stuff! Hopefully I’ll get to my Con recaps in the next few days… 🙂

this week’s happy things

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This weekend we finally finished moving out of our apartment. YAY! It’s so nice not to be shuttling back and forth. Too bad tons of our stuff is still in boxes, we have butcher paper covering some of our windows (LOL), and we don’t have a dining table yet (we’ve been eating standing up on our kitchen island or on moving boxes in front of the TV — CLASSY!). Rob also strained his achilles last week (probably from moving — we’re not entirely sure) so painting and planning the landscaping for our yard is behind schedule. Seriously, it’s only been 2 weeks and already home ownership is tiring.

Haven’t done a 5 Happy Things in awhile so it’s about time…

1. Getting asked to be a Matron of Honor in my best friend’s wedding.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of what is sure to be an amazing wedding!

2. Going to Comic-Con next week.
Rob and I have FOUR DAY passes. AWESOME. Programming was just released so I’m currently scouring through everything to figure out what I want to try and see (hopefully White Collar and The Vampire Diaries). After the craziness of moving, I’m really looking forward to some time away.

3. The Kindle price drop.
I’ve been wavering back and forth (and back and forth) about getting a Kindle. I never thought I’d want one — I love the feel of books. But lately I’ve been reading much more and now with the price drop, it is VERY tempting. Maybe I’ll treat myself for my birthday. Or get one of the refurbished ones. Only $110!

4. The release of the new Harry Potters and the Deathly Hallows trailer.


CHILLS. Seriously.

5. Craig’s list.
Last week I posted our old coffee table in the free section and after just a few hours, I received 80+ email inquiries. Gotta love it.

BONUS!
6. White Collar and Psych premiere this week!
Summer TV is awesome.

I swear I will finish the TV meme. Someday. 😀