Saturday, June 28, 2014

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #129

I didn't watch too much TV this week... I guess in summer, I fall behind because there are so many other things to do besides watch TV, and there are fewer regular programs that I watch.  My DVR is filling up, though. I need to start watching more, especially the soaps.


Speaking of the soaps, I was thrilled to see that James Read is now on "Days of Our Lives". He starred in one of my favorite miniseries, "North and South", back in the 80's with Patrick Swayze. He was also in "Remington Steele", and then most recently was the dad on "Charmed".  Love him! He's still very handsome.

I was already regularly watching Longmire, Beauty & The Beast, Major Crimes, Hot in Cleveland, Perception, Rizzoli & Isles and Murder in the First. Now I'm also watching Dominion, Defiance and Teen Wolf. Plus the soaps, of course.

I've got a bunch of interview transcripts to put up still (hopefully tomorrow) and then I have one more I need to transcribe. On Monday, I have two more interviews. One is with Diane Kruger, who stars as Sonya in "The Bridge". She's so great. Then I have a one-on-one interview with Cynthia Stevenson, who's starring in the Lifetime movie "Killing Daddy", along with Elizabeth Gillies and Billy R. Moses. I've enjoyed Cynthia's work for many years, especially in "Dead Like Me" and "Men in Trees", but also earlier in "Hope & Gloria" and "Oh Baby".

We really need someone to write Y&R updates for our site 2 or 3 days per week so please email me at suzanne@tvmegasite.net if you can help out! You must be a regular Young & The Restless watcher and be able to write passably well with detail and be understandable, and be able to proofread it before you send it to us.  And no stealing from other sites!

We have a volunteer on our site named Thane who is become famous as we speak. Thane has done quite a bit of coding for our site and helped me out on many occasions. He has started doing a stand-up act, and I think he'll be really successful (he's already headed that way).  His "gimmick" is that he's in a wheelchair and can't speak, so he uses an automated voice. He's also gay, from New Zealand and very outrageous. Honestly, he's hilarious. He's also got a very funny blog. Here's a video of his act if you want to check him out.  Be warned, it has some 4 letter words.

I can't believe it's almost July already. Where does the time go? Before you know it, it'll be the new Fall TV season again!





I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed lately... I've just been so busy and there's always too much to do!  We have a lot of volunteer jobs available if you want to help out!

Have a great week and watch lots of TV....


Monday, June 23, 2014

The TV MegaSite's Blog Post #128

As soon as I got home from my trip last Saturday, I started catching up on shows on my DVR. I watched "Longmire" first because it's one of my favorites. Another one aired tonight, so I got to see two this week. Yay! Same with "Beauty and the Beast", I got to see two very quickly together.  I enjoy the show, but I don't like them making Gabe a bad guy again.

I now have another new stack of DVD's to watch and review! It never ends...

This week's Primetime News and Schedule Page is at http://tvmegasite.net/prime/news/news062214.shtml

I wish I had time to watch all of the shows I like. I watched the first episode of "Game of Thrones" today on Vimeo.  I know it's one that everyone watches and loves, but I've never seen it before. Looks like a good show, but a little hard to watch.

This week's "Hot in Cleveland" where they go to New York was hilarious!!! Great seeing Mark Valley and Kirstie Alley as guest-stars!

We also caught up on two weeks' worth of "Real Time with Bill Maher". It's always funny, but I thought the June 6th episode was particularly hilarious, especially "New Rules" where he talks about gun nuts.

What shows are you watching this summer? Let me know.... if you're on Facebook, come to our Talkin' TV Forum. We have lots of great TV fans there!

I feel like there are so many shows I miss, that I never watch or have time to even check out. I hear about so many good ones that I've never seen, like the aforementioned "Game of Thrones" as well as "The Wire", "Homeland", "Girls", "Awkward", "Orange is the New Black" and so many more.

Have to go watch some more shows to review now.... I'm enjoying the new show "Murder in the First", especially the great cast. It's a good murder mystery and police story, too. Of course, it's by Steve Bochco! Now I'm catching up on "Perception" and then "Rizzoli & Isles". TNT sent me a bunch of shows to watch. Yay!

This morning I got to speak with British actor Richard Coyle, who stars in "Crossbones" with John Malkovich, on the phone. He seemed like a really nice, ordinary guy, and he was very nice and friendly to everyone. I just watched the second episode last night, and it was pretty good fun. I look forward to seeing more of the show.

Friday I get to speak with Jason Gann, writer and star of "Wilfred" on FX.  Then next Monday, Rex Lee from the new ABC Family show "Young & Hungry" (you may know him from "Entourage" or "Suburgatory").  Then on Tuesday, I get to speak to Julie Benz, star of "Defiance" on Syfy. This will be the third or fourth time I've gotten to speak with her, but it's always thrilling. I've always enjoyed her work, going all the way back to "Hi Honey I'm Home" in the 90's, but also and especially in the shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" as Darla.  So busy!!!

It's amazing how, in such a short time, TV has changed. A decade ago you couldn't watch TV on your phone. There were no iPads or Kindles. Most people didn't have broadband or wireless.  I have a Kindle that I got as a gift, and it's ok, but I think I'd rather get an iPad. They're just SO expensive, though. They're great for watching movies and TV shows, though. I don't know why Kindle screens are still so small. Most people still watch TV on their TV's, but quite a few watch on these other devices as well.

The PR people for the various TV networks send me some DVD's of the shows to watch ahead of time. They often package it in very cool, elaborate holders, with glossy booklets. Sometimes they send some fun stuff along with the DVD's. Syfy is really the best for that kind of thing.  Over the years, I've been amazed at some of the things they come up with. Years ago they sent out chocolate bars for "Being Human" (that's my favorite). Another time they sent out these cool gloves, that allowed you to also text while you had gloves on, when it was cold. Those were great gloves, too, very warm.  Someone, don't remember who, also sent out cake pops one time.  This year, USA Network sent some cookies from a bakery in the Hamptons, to promote "Royal Pains".  Unfortunately, I'm allergic to cake and cookies, but my husband enjoyed them.  I guess Syfy and USA, both being part of NBC and Universal Studios, has a lot of money to spend on these things.  Same with FX, which has very elaborate packaging for their screeners. They're part of 20th Century FOX.  They don't usually send out "fun stuff", but their screeners usually come in really cool packaging with glossy booklets and nice covers.  The other cable nets, like TNT and Lifetime, don't have nearly as much money, so they usually just send the DVD.  I'm very happy to receive whatever they want to send! I love getting the shows ahead of time to review.

I do remember some great "Swag" from past years, though. One year SONY sent me a whole bunch of stuff, a whole box of goodies from their soaps, from their old soap opera site soapcity.com.  USA sent me a box of cool stuff one time, near the holidays - lots of Burn Notice DVD's and other stuff. They also sent me a full set of "Psych" and "Monk" DVD's. I love getting free stuff, especially when it's cool or useful. I get many DVD's from Lionsgate and CBS, and some from Warner Brothers, BBC and Universal. The latter three used to send me lots and lots of DVD's, but they don't send as many now, which is too bad. I mostly only review the DVD's sent to me, or else I would review a lot more.

I have a lot of TV-related dreams. This week I had a weird dream involving two soap opera characters, some friends of mine, realitys hows, and werewolves. So weird! I also had a great dream involving "Longmire"'s Walt.  I love those type of romantic dreams.  Having a good, vivid dream is like having your own personal Holodeck.

This past week, I've been really busy, and trying to catch up on email and other stuff, as well as watch DVD's. Hopefully next week will be better in that regard!

We need a new Y&R Update writer for our site, so please email me if you can help out. Don't email me if you plan to just steal the recaps from some other site, though, like someone last week did! Yikes!

Check out our What's New page to see all of the new stuff we put up every day...

Have a great week...