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Post by hoosier on Aug 8, 2008 18:11:24 GMT -5
But hey! the big summer viewing this week is the Olympics! I'll be watching, but I have not been a big fan of NBC's recent Olympics coverage. There's way too much "filler" (stuff like "human-interest" stories and travelogues), in my opinion. Don't they have enough competitions to show? I also dislike the way they break up their coverage of events, showing part of a competition, then going to another event and not returning to the first one until several hours later. I understand why they do this. They want to keep people watching, and they don't want to lose those viewers who might not be interested in the first event. But it detracts from the continuity and drama of the competition, in my opinion. The "filler" is sometimes fun but I don't want to be hit over the head with it. And I know the big draws are track and field, swimming and gymnastics because that is where all the stars are found but occasionally I would like to see some of the other competition--and not because there is some controversy or other. |
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Post by inuvik on Aug 14, 2008 16:25:28 GMT -5
I'll be watching, but I have not been a big fan of NBC's recent Olympics coverage. There's way too much "filler" (stuff like "human-interest" stories and travelogues), in my opinion. Don't they have enough competitions to show? I also dislike the way they break up their coverage of events, showing part of a competition, then going to another event and not returning to the first one until several hours later. I understand why they do this. They want to keep people watching, and they don't want to lose those viewers who might not be interested in the first event. But it detracts from the continuity and drama of the competition, in my opinion. The "filler" is sometimes fun but I don't want to be hit over the head with it. And I know the big draws are track and field, swimming and gymnastics because that is where all the stars are found but occasionally I would like to see some of the other competition--and not because there is some controversy or other. My colleague's son is in the triathalon. I'm not into the Olympics, but I still think that's pretty cool. We are all rooting for him! I think his event is Monday. |
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Post by Eyphur on Aug 17, 2008 11:42:46 GMT -5
Does anyone watch Army Wives? I saw a couple of episodes a few weeks ago and thought it was a pretty good show. I finally got the DVDs of the first season from he library yesterday and I was absolutely absorbed. I watched 8 straight episodes last night.
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Post by maggiethecat on Sept 3, 2008 13:51:26 GMT -5
Did anyone else watch the premiere of Raising the Bar, the new Steven Bochco legal drama airing on TNT? Probably not, since it was on Monday night opposite Prison Break. ;D Y’all didn’t miss much.  I know mlm has said here in the past that she doesn’t watch Law & Order (the mothership with Sam Waterston) since the courtroom scenes are not believable. Well, I am here to say that compared to Raising the Bar, Law & Order is taken straight from court transcripts. Heh. Compared to the pilot of Blind Justice, with its feature film-quality editing and directing, this was . . . amateur city. Wife Dayna Bochco is once again producing, as are a number of Bochco progeny and one of the kids – couldn’t quite catch the name; the print was extremely tiny – directed the pilot. I’m all for giving your kids a leg up, but at some point talent must enter into the mix. Clunky? Oh, yeah. But so was the script.  The lead of this opus is some guy named Paul Mark Something-or-other, or Mark Paul Something-or-other. Gosselaar? Yeah, that's it. I would say he's the male equivalent of Tori Spelling when it comes to acting. Overacts like mad, very cheesy. Plus we know he’s supposed to be a "maverick" who bucks the system because his hair is long and rock-star stringy, and his suit is not only cheap but rumpled. Obvious, to say the least. Jane Kazmaryk, a terrific actress, is wasted in the ludicrously-written part of the judge (apparently there’s only one judge in the New York City Criminal Court system), who shrieks and wears low-cut red satin blouses and cites everyone left and right for contempt and seems to have a merry disregard for facts. Was I surprised when it turned out she was bonking her clerk? Um, no more than I was surprised when said clerk turned out to be bisexual and was seen trawling a gay bar. And didn’t you just know that the show would end with Long Hair Maverick in the shower with the perky blonde gal who is his supposed Nemesis from across the aisle. I was suddenly whipped back to the pilot of Hill Street Blues, where Daniel J. Travantis’s character was shown in the last scene with the brunette he’d be sniping at all episode, together in a hot tub. (Yeah, it was the 70s). Steven, honey, this device is so old it’s got whiskers on it. I did crack up, however, when the show used a number of extremely familiar establishing shots of New York, in particular the panorama of the city all lit up at night taken from the Jersey shore. Hey, use what you got in the can. And the background music in between shots is pure Blind Justice.But there is absolutely none of the subtlety, sharp writing, or first rate acting that we came to take for granted in Blind Justice.All in all, a huge disappointment. On the up side, Steven Bochco is once again affiliated with an extant airing show and can probably be reached through www.tnt.com . . . just in case we want to start bugging him again about releasing a certain tragically-cancelled show on DVD. You will all laugh when you see the shot of the Raising the Bar cast lined up in a row. Blech.  |
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Post by inuvik on Sept 3, 2008 16:22:03 GMT -5
The lead of this opus is some guy named Paul Mark Something-or-other, or Mark Paul Something-or-other. Gosselaar? Yeah, that's it. I would say he's the male equivalent of Tori Spelling when it comes to acting. Overacts like mad, very cheesy. Plus we know he’s supposed to be a "maverick" who bucks the system because his hair is long and rock-star stringy, and his suit is not only cheap but rumpled. Obvious, to say the least. Oh my goodness, blast from the past! I remember this guy from a show I used to like when I was a kid, Saved by the Bell. It aired on Saturday mornings. I used to love it! It was set in a high school, bunch of teens, and they hung out at a fast food restaurant a lot. Those were the only two settings. I just looked him up on IMDB and wow--big change. He had short blonde hair then, and as a child--I'm emphasising that  --I thought he was gorgeous. Dustin Diamond was also on that show, as a real goofball. That is a really good point! Can't hurt, and I seem to remember just contacting him was a problem before. |
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Post by hoosier on Sept 3, 2008 18:25:28 GMT -5
On the up side, Steven Bochco is once again affiliated with an extant airing show and can probably be reached through www.tnt.com . . . just in case we want to start bugging him again about releasing a certain tragically-cancelled show on DVD. Sounds like another of those forgettable shows peopled with standard issue, cardboard characters that somehow seem to hang on forever. At least we can now give contacting him a shot. |
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Post by mlm828 on Sept 3, 2008 21:43:24 GMT -5
You're right, mags, I didn't watch it. I did, however, see a lot of promos for it, and I thought it was going to be pretty awful. It received a scathing review in my local paper. I'm sorry it lived down to expectations.  By way, the link you posted took me to the web site of a Dutch company. Here is a link to the TNT site for the show. Unfortunately, I don't see any way to contact Steven Bochco through that site. |
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Post by shmeep on Sept 4, 2008 9:08:41 GMT -5
Oh my goodness, blast from the past! I remember this guy from a show I used to like when I was a kid, Saved by the Bell. It aired on Saturday mornings. I used to love it. Yep. Zach from Saved by the Bell. I never watched it because I was about a year older than the target audience--which makes sense because most of the cast is my age or older playing students several years younger than they were. My friend, Leanna Creel, played Tori--shown sitting next to Zach here:  A lot of people online think this is what she looks like now:  But that's not true. This lovely woman from those incessant Progressive Insurance comercials is actually Leanna's sister, Monica. Leanna is an identical triplet:  And really, she looks a lot more like this:  So that's my degree of separation with Mark Paul what's his face. One person. I never met the guy, but I did meet much of the rest of the cast one time during a basketball game for charity. The guy who played Principal Belding was very cool. But back to summer viewing (and sorry about the picture rant)... I recorded Raising the Bar and got about five minutes in when I realized life was too short to be wasting it on such a show. I deleted it and didn't give it another thought. I'm still loving The Closer. Last week was very moving, with Sanchez's brother getting killed. And I always love it when Brenda's parents come to town. |
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Post by hoosier on Sept 5, 2008 18:31:54 GMT -5
I've been watching America's Got Talent. The cheese and smaltz I can do without and why people will expose themselves to such public ridicule is beyond me but there are those who are really talented. Fun way to pass an hour or two.
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Post by maggiethecat on Sept 15, 2008 18:31:53 GMT -5
There was actually something good . . . even wonderful . . . on Lifetime this weekend. Did anyone else try the "Coco Chanel" movie with Shirley MacLaine? I admit, after "The 10th Circle" and all their other cheesy "My husband had an affair with the babysitter" movies, I was leary of anything on Lifetime. But this was produced and made in France, and apparently they just purchased the rights to show it. And after a depressing week of too much work and too many Republicans expecting me to believe their lies, it turned out to be just the escapist treat I wanted.  It was a wonderful wallow. I started watching with no great hopes, not knowing if we wanted to devote three hours to it, and I got hooked. The movie uses the device of starting with Chanel's disastrous first post-War comeback, flashes back to her life story, and then finishes with her second comeback, the one that worked. They must have cast Shirley Maclaine purely for name recognition. She was utterly unconvincing, just plain wrong. Really awful. Although I do give her credit for avoiding any sort of Pepe LePew accent, she came across as a big old crabby (and stout) American matron – sort of what she’s been playing for the past ten years. She is also wa-a-a-a-ay too old to play Chanel in the 1954, when she was no more than oh, say, 65-ish. BUT – thankfully – Shirley had very few scenes, which were basically used to frame a straight biographical movie of Coco's life up to the point at which the love of her life, Boy Capel, was killed and she had to soldier on. That was a DELICIOUS movie-within-a-movie, and you just sort of ignored Shirley and waited to get back to the flashbacks. I’d never seen the actress who plays young Coco – Barbara Bolu-somethingorother, name sounded faintly Russian. She was enchanting, strongly reminiscent of young Natalie Wood. Apart from La Maclaine and Malcolm MacDowell (who played her business manager and just looked old and pained) the cast was unknowns, which was actually lovely – everyone was very good and tres French so you concentrated on the story instead of the actors. Plus they got the clothes right . . . and the hats were superb. I was swooning and gasping and moaning, in paroxysms of lust and envy and greed. This is the best hat movie I’ve seen in years and since the woman started out as a milliner there were oodles of hats. The part where she opened her shop in Deauville and started making clothes in jersey is especially wonderful. Very amusing moment when she confronts designer Paul Poiret, who had a shop down the street and loathed her. “You dress women like shop assistants,” he sniffs. “Better than slaves from a Turkish bath,” she retorts. Heh. I vaguely remember another Chanel movie about 25/30 years ago, in which Marie-France Pisier played Coco and Timothy Dalton played Boy Capel. ( Chanel Solitaire?) This movie was also smart enough (in the flashback section) to do what they did in that movie: end with Boy’s car smash/death. But by jumping from the mid-1920s to the mid-1950s – and assuming you knew nothing about the woman – you were left with the misleading impression that she just stayed in the workroom for the rest of her life, sewing little chains in jacket hems and smoking like a Pittsburgh mill flue. Then again, I suppose if you want your audience to be sympathetic, ‘tis best not to mention that Coco spent WWII shacked up at the Ritz with a Nazi officer, heh. (When she was brought up on charges of collaboration after the war, she said to the judge,"When a woman of my age is lucky enough to find a lover she doesn't ask to see his passport.") Anyway, I liked it so much I watched it again on Sunday night. It's a lovely dreamy love story -- as I said, just ignore the parts with Shirley -- and the setting and costumes are lovely. Highly recommended. |
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--I thought he was gorgeous. Dustin Diamond was also on that show, as a real goofball. 
