So, I read the bio of Rachel McAdams, and it occurred to me that she is 10 years older than Lindsay Lohan. The other two 'Mean Girls' are 9 years younger and 6 years younger than McAdams. I just can't imagine the interaction of the girls on the set with the twentysomething, and the rest of the teenyboppers. Perhaps Lindsay Lohan was still in her sweet stage at that time...

I finally got around to watching The Muppets Wizard of Oz, and I have to say I thought it was one of the best Muppet specials I've seen since Muppets Take Manhattan (which isn't really saying much). It had penguins, Dorothy living in a trailer park (and thus the Wicked Witch getting crushed by a double-wide), and Toto the King Prawn. I thought the jokes were pretty cute and witty enough, and when the songs weren't that catchy (they used new songs), they were at least short. So overall, a quite enjoyable show!

Scrubs has been picked up for syndication (sixth item), but episodes won't start running until September 2006. Apparently, there was low demand (unthinkable!) so that's why it's being pushed out to next year.

the friend weeder outer

Okay, here's the bottom line. You can't be my friend unless you've at least checked out a few of the shows listed below. If you watch and hate these shows, so be it, but you have to give them a chance because they're awesome!

1. The Wire
2. Coupling (Seasons 1-3)
3. Arrested Development (preferably the first season)
4. Scrubs
5. Veronica Mars
6. Freaks and Geeks
7. Wonderfalls
8. The Shield

That's all I can think of now, but I'm sure I'll come up with some late breaking additions. You have all this time during the summer, so you can check out these shows in reruns or on DVD. It's not like you have anything else to watch, or anything better to do, like get out and play in the sun!

I did a Veronica Mars marathon this weekend and finally watched the second half the season. It was awesome, and everyone should definitely at least check it out. Unfortunately, for some unfathomable reason, UPN isn't running the season in its entirety over the summer so you'll have to wait for the DVD, or borrow from your friends (like me!).

In another Wire-related story, tomcat (the boyfriend) watched the whole second season of the Wire in 24 hours. Now I'm trying to persuade him to not watch the third season until this weekend so I can watch it with him. We'll see if his will power holds out. He claims he hasn't watched it yet, but I wouldn't put it past him to watch it on his own and just watch with me again and act "surprised" at different plot turns.

TV Review: Supernatural

Supernatural is a new WB show coming out this fall, in the time-slot following Gilmore Girls on Tuesday nights. Clearly there is some hope that those who liked Dean in GG will follow up with an interest in his latest role.

First off, I was not expecting to actually be shocked by a WB show. I have a fairly clear idea of the kind of things I expect from the WB, and there is never any blood involved. There's actual paranormal violence going on in here, and it's not the kind of stuff you see in Charmed.
The formula for this show is a tried and true one, and it looks like we're going to get to follow "Dean" and his brother Dean around the country as they hunt (their actual word) demons for fun and sport, oh and to avenge a dark past. Each episode is likely to be an isolated case they deal with in some corner of the country, with an overarching plot line tying it together.

Crime shows and supernatural things are all the rave these days, so this fits within that formula. I wish there was more funny, but all the shows I'm watching these days seem to dispense with that, so I can deal. The pilot definitely worked on me, so I'll be following up with this show come the Fall season.

Seriously though, who thought it was a good idea to call Dean's brother Dean?

Expectation: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Actual: more like Lost, but with CSI-like episodes
Bottom line: As long as the main characters don't start annoying me, I'll be watching.

The Simpsons: The Movie?

The details on this are so sketchy that it's hard to say if it's real or not, but one of my favorite sites with info about future flicks is saying that a movie based on The Simpsons is indeed in the works.

Check out the 6/7/2005 entry on http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/upcoming/

What do you do when you realize that someone you like a lot, like your boyfriend, turns out to be a total TV skank? When we were on vacation, I caught him watching the Backstreet Boys Behind the Music. No, really. I had VH1 on before the show started, but I left the room for at least 20 minutes, and when I got back, he was still watching it. Seriously!

And he watches total dreck on TV - Hit Me Baby, One More Time; and other terrible terrible shows. I have to admit that I bought him a TiVo so that I wouldn't have to a) watch his warp-speed and incredibly annoying channel surfing and b) watch the sub-par comedians on Comedy Central. But I guess I should have realized that this aspect wasn't really going away... Sigh.

I still love Summer! And Rachel Bilson is doing a movie, so I can only hope that she will be just as cute in her other roles. And hopefully, it won't turn out as tragically as some of the Dawson's Creek kids' movies, and that it won't go down the insane personal life drama that is Katie Holmes.

A bunch of the networks are going to preview their fall shows on DirecTV. Unfortunately, this means that they are going to show clips from their fall shows, as opposed to my first thought when I saw this, that they would sneak peek entire episodes. This seems kind of lame, but maybe it will give people an idea of what shows to run screaming from, so they can pass on the news to those of us without DirecTV.

And in reference to the Cutting Edge post from a few days ago, I'd like to say that I saw that movie in a sneak preview during middle school, when they gave out free passes to a bunch of the goody two-shoes kids. And you know what? I loved it! I guess goody two shoes middle schoolers were a target demographic...

Okay, this has nothing to do with TV, but now San-X, the same company that does Nyanko stuff, now has a character that is a dog and is furniture. Genius!

And even more dog/furniture madness.

TVTome = TV.com

You have all probably noticed this already, but it appears that our beloved (and plagiarizing) TV Tome has been melded into TV.com, which appears to be much fancier and a lot more responsive, thank goodness.

Supernatural

Coming soon, my review of the pilot for Supernatural, Jared "Dean" Padalecki's new show coming up this Fall.

Can't use up all my content at once. Let's just start with a teaser. In this show, Dean's name is Sam, and his brother's name is Dean. That is the awesome. Oh, and one of the executive producers is McG.

TV Review: The Inside

Yet another show on Fox by Tim Minear & Co (Firefly, Wonderfalls, etc), this one coming in on the already insanely crowded crime-drama market.

The Inside focuses around a specialized FBI task force, and specifically on a new member of the team who happens to be a cute girl with a Dark Past (tm). I was looking for something that was like a combination of CSI and Wonderfalls, but instead I get a pretty dark drama with very little funny, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It stars a girl I've never seen before, and IMDB doesn't help me much. However, you will also find Jayne from Firefly/Serenity, the sister from Wonderfalls, and the guy who played Steve on the ill-fated (for good reason) Coupling US.

Without going into any kind of plot detail, here are my first reactions, summarized:

Good: Interesting cases (so far), dark undertones, no characters are too annoying.

Bad: Not enough funny, everyone tries their hardest not to smile, they beat you over the head with "character" development (maybe they feel the need to establish character roles in the early episodes, the nice guy who empatizes, the whatever-it-takes boss, etc.)

Not what I expected, but decent nonetheless. I will continue watching with the expectation it will stay interesting.
You know, as opposed to just watching cause it's the only thing out now.

On a related note. Wow I posted. Shock.

Sweet, there's a reality show about girls who go to princess boot camp (second item).

I may have scored a connection for getting GSN's Amazing Race reruns, via my roommate's parents. Hopefully it will work out! Unfortunately, it may be supplied via VCR tapes, but I'm suffering from Amazing Race withdrawal so I'll take what I can get.

Also, Dancing with the Stars is definitely entertaining me. Joey McIntyre and John O'Hurley are the most funny, especially in their "preparing for the competition" clips. And the professional dance partners who are hilarious, although perhaps somewhat unintentionally. The musak versions of the modern pop songs are also rad (highlights include Hero, Toxic (for the tango), and You're the One that I Want). You might be entertained too.

And I think I have to upgrade my DVD recommendation of the Wire to Must Rent. My boyfriend went on a fairly unfortunate binge of season 1, and is now plowing through season 2 and 3. However, better proof is that one of his friends found the episodes for all three seasons online, and proceeded to watch all of them (about 36 full hours - none of this 40 minutes per episode B.S.) in the course of one weekend. You too can get caught up in the madness. And it doesn't take as long as reading the Robin Hobb trilogy of trilogies.

Rob Thomas talks about work on the second season of Veronica Mars, and addresses rumors about UPN's network execs meddling in the show.

TV Review: Wildfire

Yes, I watched Wildfire on ABC Family. This is the original series about a girl who goes to prison, learns to love horses, and ends up working on a horse farm with two hot teenage guys. The whole production seems like a knockoff - he main girl looks like a slightly more olive-skinned Anne Hathaway; I think one of the love triangle guys looks like Matt Long (Jack from Jack & Bobby).

Anyhoo, here's the wrap up:

The good: a horse-washing scene (Dawson's Creek flashbacks!), gratuitous shirtless teenage boys, horses, the fact that the girl isn't named Wildfire.

The bad: The close-ups of the actors riding make it look like the actors couldn't ride a merry-go-round.

The obvious: The show is named Wildfire, so the identically named horse probably isn't going to be sold to the glue factory. Sorry if I spoiled you on that one. Now I've ruined it for you.

Expectations: Princess Diaries, but with lower production valuue

Actual: Summerland. Crap, but I'm watching.

Apparently, this show is this year's summer teen heartthrob fest ala the long-ago axed Young Americans.

Update: Other people are suckers too.

My new favorite songs! I heard the Natasha Bedingfield song These Words in a store when I was shopping and it was so catchy! And apparently the other song was in the Ice Princess soundtrack. Note to self: people don't know what's on my iPod so I should probably keep these favorite songs to myself.

Movie Review: National Treasure

I figured I should do a more complete review of National Treasure. First, the movie is rated PG, which is even lower than Star Wars: ROTS, so it was quite chaste. There a comedic sidekick who was obviously described to the casting agent as the poor man's Seth Green, although it doesn't seem like Seth Green should have been *that* expensive... Please note, you cannot ask any continuity/logic questions; it just ruins the movie.

Number of galas that are a cover for a robbery: 1 (after seeing so many episodes of Alias that do this, you would think that embassies/museums would wise up)
Things to study up on so you can yell out plot points before they are revealed in the movie: George Washington, Valley Forge, the Liberty Bell, and the Declaration of Independence
Predicatability: Three crystal balls
Minutes before the first giant explosion: 20
Expectations: Men in Black II
Overly optimistic hope: Armageddon/Titanic
Actual: Face/Off
Overall: You're only going to enjoy this if you like saying during movies "Oh no, they're not going to... oh, they did." Probably also excellent without sound on the plane, since you'll definitely be able to figure it out and may even enjoy it more without dialog. Nicolas Cage only half-heartedly chews scenery; full scenery devouring would have made the film more entertaining.

In a moment of weakness on my vacation, I tuned into TNT's new show, The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick. Now, I kind of like Kyra - I think she's kind of sweet, although I mostly remember her from the movie Heart and Souls (yeah, I'm sorry). But I thought this show was downright annoying. The twist in the plot/mystery was pretty obvious from the beginning and Kyra's character had the most irritating mannerisms (unfortunate Southern accent, funny twitches, and something sort of eating disorder type thing). Start running, and don't look back.

Oh goodness, there might be a sequel to the Cutting Edge. (fifth paragraph)

A short interview with Joss Whedon about upcoming comics for Buffy, Angel and Firefly.

Jerry Bruckheimer is planning a sequel to National Treasure. (last item)

I have to say that I watched it a week ago and was pretty entertained. It's not a good movie, and sadly, not as good as Armageddon in a craptacular way, but it was pretty entertaining. At least all the clues weren't anagrams. Sadly, I think I learned more about American history from this movie than I have since fifth grade. Anyhoo, I don't recommend it, but you might find it entertaining if you jeer through the entire movie like I did.

The SciFi channel will be airing all of the episodes of Joss Whedon's Firefly. So if you haven't seen the series yet, you can watch it for free instead of shlepping to the DVD rental place. And then you can be all ready for the movie this fall!

Heh. Britney will debut her new video on her UPN tv show. So basically, the show is like an off-topic Making the Video with poor production quality.

Also, I heard the real version of the latest Backstreet Boys single and it's still enh. It's no The Answer to Our Life.

Reruns of old Amazing Race season will start on July 11. Damn, and I don't get that channel! I'm going to have to get those episodes from someone!

tvtattle.com has a link to a scientific formula for successful sitcoms.

Luke from Joan of Arcadia (Michael Welch) has a blog. heh.

Freddy & Kendra from Amazing Race 6 have a very cheesy picture from their wedding. Bike into the sunset with a parasol!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is actually getting good reviews. Now I won't have to hide from my roommates when I eventually get it on DVD. Yay!

Rumor has it that Alias may not be back for the fall (second subheading) because of Jennifer Garner's pregnancy. The upside is that if it comes back later, it might get a better timeslot than Thursday.

And a trailer for the pigeon movie.

Yay, a trailer for the Wallace and Gromit movie.

Penguins are funny!

GSN (the game show network) is negotiating to air reruns of the Amazing Race. Unfortunately, I don't think that's part of my cable package...