Monday, March 10, 2014

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #114


  • March 2

The Oscars are tonight. I always DVR them and then watch when I get a chance. I had to stay off Twitter and Facebook all night to avoid spoilers. Not that I care all that much because I haven't see any of the nominated movies!

  • March 3

I got to interview George Lopez this morning with other interviewers. We were told to only talk about his new FX show and his career. He did mention in passing the trouble he got into last week. I was hoping he would address the issue and make a joke about it, but I guess not. He seems to have some issues, that's for sure. I read up about him. He's always fighting with someone and he's divorced. I don't know what's gone on in his life, but it's sad that his mom died when he was young and his dad ran off when he was born. I can sorta relate. We're actually the same age so that's interesting. He seemed ok on the interview...not the nicest guy but not a jerk, either. Just somewhere in-between. You read our interviews on our Primetime Articles Page.

I watched the movie "42". I saw a lot of TV actors in it! Nicole Beharie from "Sleepy Hollow"; Christopher Meloni from "Law & Order: SVU" (he was awesome!); Lucas Black from "American Gothic"; Alan Tudyk from "Dollhouse", "Firefly" and so many other shows; Hamish Linklater from "The Crazy Ones"; T.R. Knight and James Pickens Jr. from "Grey's Anatomy"; John C. McGinley from "Burn Notice" and "Scrubs"; Max Gail from "Barney Miller"; Brad Beyer from "Jericho" and many other shows; Brett Cullen from tons of shows like "Person of Interest" and "Devious Maids", going all the way back to when I first noticed him on "Falcon Crest"; Peter Mackenzie from tons of shows (I know him best from "Herman's Head"). There were just so many!

  • March 4

I've just been trying to watch as much as possible on the DVR to make room for more stuff. It gets tough when it's too full.

I'm glad the shows are all back from winter break, though. I really miss some of them!

  • March 5

I've been watching a lot of soaps the last few days... they always bug me. Bold & Beautiful is just annoying because it's just the same stories repeated over and over. I'm at the end of January on most of the soaps still. I'm looking forward to seeing Colin's return on Young & The Restless and seeing Thaao Penghlis on General Hospital. I'm not looking forward to the lame storyline they're using to get Robin out of town, though. I'm sure it will be something really ridiculous and stupid.

I watched the 2 latest episodes of NCIS. It was great to see Robert Wagner back! I always love him. I was half hoping that they would show his new fiancee and it would be Stephanie Powers.  Too much to ask for, I guess! Or even his real life wife, Jill St. John, would be awesome. I do have to admit that I noticed that Michael Weatherly is getting a little pudgy, at least in the face. He used to be so handsome. He still is but...I don't know, maybe he was just having an off-week or was sick. It's funny because the other actor, who used to be pudgy (Sean Murray), is now skinny. It's like they switched places!

  • March 6

Today I was watching General Hospital from late January when the little kids Emma, Cameron and Spencer hear Carly cry out for help and get all scared, and then Heather covers it up. That seemed silly to me. The kids were scared when they heard Carly crying out for help. They're supposed to be about 8 so that might concern them but not SCARE them. They should have gone for help at their ages.  There's just a whole lot of silliness to soaps. I know I'm always harping on shows being more realistic. They should be. Their first priority should be telling a great story in as realistic a fashion as possible. The story shouldn't be so realistic that it's boring or gross. I don't need to see characters going to the bathroom, but if they occasionally mention someone's hair cut or watch TV like a real life person, that would be great.  The story should be the most important thing, and then secondarily, the characters. The characters and story both need to be consistent and grounded in reality. It shouldn't make me shake my head in bewilderment or curse at the TV or wonder why I watch the show when it's so stupid. Soap operas should have lots of romance and thrills, not stories dumbed down to a third grade level. I read that Kimberly McCullough (Robin) said that she thought General Hospital was the best written it's ever been. Not even close.  In some ways, it's the worst. It was best in the 80's (at least when I was watching it), although back then there were other problems because soaps were slower moving back then and had certain social or censorship constraints on them.  I know that a lot of people hated long-time writer Bob Guza, but he created some really good characters and stories. The current guys are just mediocre with everything. It's like they're writing for not-too-bright teens.

And another thing...One of the things I've long noticed is that people on TV almost never touch, even young people that are in love. That's not realistic. People touch each other all the time, especially when they're young and in love.  Soaps are supposed to be romantic, so the young lovers like Michael and Kiki should be touching and kissing a lot. Even older ones like Sam and Silas should be doing that. Not at work, but everywhere else, especially in private.  And then I noticed this week (on the January shows I've watching) that Ava and Julian were having this conversation where he was half naked. I guess he had just been working out because he was only wearing these little shorts and nothing else. Who doesn't put on a shirt, especially when their sister is around? Okay, fine, fans wants to see him shirtless, I get that. But Ava shouldn't then go and stand very close to him and then lean on his bare shoulder. That's too creepy.  Not only are they siblings, they didn't grow up together. So now they're having siblings touch each other more than the couples in love, which makes it even more gross and creepy. And then lastly, the gay guys were kissing. Which is fine, I have no problem with it, but if you have them kissing, and no one else, then it's kind of like GH is just saying, "See, we have gay people kissing, too, just like other shows!"  so it's very contrived and manipulative.

I'm not saying everyone should be touching all the time or having sex constantly. Anyone who is under 30 and in love, certainly. Couples who haven't been together longer than a few years. Family members who grew up together should hug kiss in a friendly way, not hang out with each other undressed and touching bodies.  Even when couples are fighting, if they still have passion, they still touch each other. But think about what a great dramatic effect it is if the couple is having a fight then suddenly they're NOT touching? Or if they've been married a long time and don't touch much. It shows how their relationship is going. That's normal.  I wonder if soaps are worried that maybe the hair or make-up will get messed up? That's not a good reason. Story and characters should come first.  Physical contact is part of character and story, and aids in development of each.

  • March 7

I'm looking forward to seeing my favorite Sunday shows this weekend, The Mentalist and Once Upon a Time! It was great seeing last night's "Big Bang Theory". Always so funny!

Last night I caught up on watching "Supernatural", so that was great fun. I love that show. It was sure nice to see Castiel back, and the episode with the Facers was great. And then the other episode with Kevin was awesome. Too bad he's dead now, but I hope we still see his ghost occasionally.

I still haven't watched the Oscars...I'll have to try to catch that this weekend.

I was supposed to have a conference call interview this morning with the "Bones" guys Hart Hanson and Steven Nathan, but I screwed up the time. Such an idiot! I watched next Monday's episode, which is really good. Freddie Prinze Junior returns!! Good story, too.

  • March 8

I mostly watched soaps today... I'm finally on the Y&R episodes where Billy figure out that Adam killed Delia! Woo hoo!

I did a lot of work today to get our news pages ready. This week's schedule and news is here so check it out.

After we had a fun night out, we watched the last three episodes of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" that we were behind on. Well, we don't watch the whole show, just his monologue and "New Rules" because they're funny.

Have a great week! Lots of good new shows on. Who's watching "Resurrection", "Believe", "Crisis" and "Cosmos"? (Is it me or do most of these shows' titles sound the same?)