Television for the Week of September 16th

This is where I talk about all the tv I watched during the week. Featuring Boardwalk Empire, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Project Runway.

Weekly Recap for 3/20-3/26: The Podcast Edition!

weekly recap 3/20-3/26 by Ashitaka's Angels

In order to change things up a little, Lea and I did the weekly recap together in this super deluxe podcast, in which we cover the series finale of Big Love and the latest episodes of Chuck, Good Wife, Modern Family, American Idol, Community, The Office, and 30 Rock.
Beware, as there is much ranting and run-on sentences. There are also some surprise shoutouts. We hope you enjoy it!

American Idol: Top 12 Girls; 12 Girls Sing One Really Long Song

Not really. But it seemed like it, didn't it?

Ohhh, American Idol…..You're making me harken for the halcyon days of Season 9!! Where are the Crystals, the Didis?  I may just start pre-emptively clinging to America's Version of X-Factor if this keeps up. This shouldn't be happening. 

At its best, American Idol can be a platform for singers with something unique to offer, whether it be in terms of voice, performing style, or personality (hopefully, all three). At its worst, Idol is glorified karaoke that celebrates sameness as well as formulaic pop. Tonight, many of the top 12 girls exhibited more of what’s wrong with the show than what could be right.  A lot of their performances followed the same, predictable arc: summoning their diva voices, sassing it up for the judges, and hitting the glory note at the end. The end result was a show that left me feeling kind of ‘meh’. The judges were also disappointing, with the exception of Randy, who, seemingly out of nowhere, emerged as the voice of reason MULTIPLE TIMES. Not once did he utter a single “for me, for you dawg”! He did use word ‘pitchy,’ but I actually agreed with him when he used it!!! Did somebody take out his gratuitous soundbite chip (or at least turn the dial down from ‘gratuitious’ to ‘necessary’)? ‘Cuz I’m liking it. JLo and Steven frequently rewarded contestants who seemed to be the most generic/cheesy (I’m looking at you, Karen Rodriguez!). However, Randy’s actually been the judge whose comments frequently echoed mine last night.

Having Said That,

Let's Start with the Good One(s):

Thia Meghia: "Out Here On My Own"

I willingly rewatched this girl's performance this morning. I actually wanted to hear her sing again. The others I'll watch mainly for the purposes of recapping, but some of them will be a slog to get through. She made a lot of smart choices last night. Singing a kind of obscure song, starting off a capella, having the lights dimmed with the single spotlight on her, standing in one place and just SINGING really set her apart from the other girls. Also, she CAN sing, which also helps. I'm guessing out of all of them, she didn't get the memo that you're SUPPOSED to be all sassy and strut around the stage, and go out of tune. C'mon, Thia! Get with the program! You're supposed to be like everyone else, remember?! Anyways, I really dig her pure tone and voice control. And, I could see where Randy was coming from when he said her tone reminded him of Michael Jackson. I haven't seen her other performances, but she's kind of the lone frontrunner for me as far as the girls go. 

Lauren Turner: "Seven Day Fool" by Etta James

For some reason, this girl's voice reminds me of Christina Aguilera,'s only she doesn't do a thousand vocal runs in one song. This is a very good thing. If there's one thing the show didn't need last night it was another girl doing vocal runs. I liked her song choice as well as the tone of her voice, which is strong with a bit of soul. She seems to be a bit of a dark horse, since she was kind of in the middle of the show (a.k.a. not in the pimp spot for all to marvel over), but I like that. If she navigates the stage with a bit more confidence next time, and keeps it up with the soulful vocals, she could be a serious contender.

Who I Kind of  Liked:

Pia Toscano: "I'll Stand By You"

If we're going on singing ability alone...Wait. If we're going on the ability to hit the most glorious of glory notes alone, she would win the competition. Her voice at the end was impressive. There's no doubt that she can sing well, and I get why she was in the pimp spot. However, I'm hoping she doesn't keep choosing these typical, karaoke songs that are the breeding ground of glory notes and 'showy' singing. 

Meh:

Naima Adedapo: "Summertime"

I like that her name is fun. Her singing style is kind of jazzy, which I also like. She's also interesting to watch, mainly for her wardrobe choices (Yellow Dress is Yellow!). However, her arrangement of the song was a little cheesy. As Randy put it, she sounded a little "lounge acty." If Simon was still there, he'd probably say she reminded him of a cruise ship singer circa 1976. 

Kendra Chantelle: "Impossible" by Christina Aguilera

While she has great control of her voice, and a nice R&B tone, I couldn't remember what she sang until I rewatched her performance today. She doesn't seem to have as much of a 'story' as the other girls, which could be bad news. She sings better than some of them, but if she makes it to next week, smart song choice in addition to vocal ability will be necessary to make her more memorable. 

Ashthon Jones: "Love Over Me" by Monica

It's not Ash-TON, people, it's Ash-THON. I don't know why that fascinates me so much. 

Anyways, I could basically write the same thing for her as I did for Kendra. Moreover, her song choice came off as a bit limiting vocally. Monica could pull it off, but Ashthon ain't there yet. Although she sang it competently, I'm not sure it was enough to motivate America to pick up the phone for her over the other girls. Her schmoozing with the judges also made me squirm a little bit. 

Lauren Alaina: "Turn On the Radio" by Reba McIntyre

She, like Kendra, has good control of her voice. And it's interesting she went the country route with a Reba song. Uh...that's all I can say. While I'm impressed with her vocal ability, I just don't like her as much as the judges do. 

Did Not Like:

Julie Zorrilla: "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson

Okay, ladies, here's rule #1: Never try to out-Kelly-Clarkson Kelly Clarkson. In fact, it's best to stay away from any hit songs by previous Idols (that goes for you, too, Naima!). That was her first mistake. Second, the arrangement had no arc, making her vocal seem a bit repetitive. It wouldn't have been as repetitive sounding if she had enough vocal oomph to cut through the background music...like Kelly Clarkson. Heck, Kelly Clarkson should've just sang it. Can Idol just pay Kelly Clarkson to stand in the wings, ready to bust it out whenever anybody has the brazenness to sing one of her songs? 

Haley Reinhart: "Fallin' by Alicia Keys

This song gets soooo overdone on this show. Also, some of her mannerisms/faces onstage struck me as kind of cheesy. Speaking of...

Karen Rodriguez: "Hero" by Mariah Carey

CHEEEESSEFEST. The audiences and the judges loved her, but she was more karaoke than anyone last night. The song (overused), the getup (aging), the glory note (predictable), the switching to Spanish (pandering) all seemed a bit too much for me to take. But she's giving the audience what it wants, meaning she's probably going to stick around. Darn.

How many more people are there?

Oh, right.

Rachel Zevita: "Criminal" by Fiona Apple

When I recognized the song, I got my hopes up. But by the end of the song, my hopes were dashed. The arrangement took out the original's punchiness. It all seemed a bit rushed. Also, her vocals were not that great. She gets a point for wearing a cape, though. 

Tatynisa Wilson: "Only Girl" by Rihanna

Maybe it was because of nerves, but girlfriend was OUT of tune. Also, the song itself didn't seem very...singable. Seeing as it's tailor-made for dance clubs, I don't think it was a wise song choice on her part. This girl was setting herself up for a fall because sometimes, even Rihanna doesn't sound good singing that song, and she IS Rihanna. I think it's highly unlikely she'll make it to next week, but if she does, she should focus on singing more than impersonating another pop-star. 

p.s. THIS is partially why I'm wistful for the days of Season 9 in terms of the girls. I mean, just listen to them.

And THIS is the reason why I'm leaning towards liking American X Factor. It's because the British X Factor managed to find someone like her (I'd recommend just skipping to 0:50):

Rambling over. 

What did you think?

Lea's Weekly Recap 1/24 - 1/29

Chuck 4.12 "Chuck Vs. The Gobbler"

CASEEYYYY NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!11
Ok, so actually I'm not that concerned about Casey. I don't really think the dude is going to die. How much permanent damage he has remains to be seen, but they aren't going to kill off my Casey (Really, he probably should be dead. Because seriously, unless you're John Locke, you really shouldn't even survive a fall like that, but I digress). So, the rest of the episode was pretty good. I have to give it up for Timothy Dalton who has been an absolute DELIGHT every time he's been onscreen. Best guest star ever or best guest star ever (and this for a show that consistently has good guest stars). I still can't believe how readily Volkoff let Sarah walk into his organization, and the misunderstanding at the end was kind of lame. BUT the action was good and when Chuck and Sarah kissed in Castle, I swooned. Next week is supposed to be a real doozy, so I can't wait!

American Idol "Auditions #3 Milwaukee" & "Auditions #4 Nashville"
I. HATE. SOB. STORIES.

The Office 7.14 "The Seminar"

Everyone is talking about the Ricky cameo and rightly so! It was absolutely perfect. The look on Michael's face when he realized he had met his soul mate was priceless. I'm really glad they did that, and that they didn't dwell on it either. It was there and gone and so so satisfying. And what? Another good episode? Yay! Maybe this season is getting back on track! I just have to say that I could listen to Michael and Holly speak in weird accents to each other all day. And Andy was of course, magnificent: "I guess when you looked in me, you forgot about my balls. They're on the outside. Don't know how you missed them."


Community 2.13 "Celebrity Pharmacology" 

I was going to do a post about Community season 1 as I just finished watching the DVDs recently, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I've been watching the recent season 2 episodes despite the fact that I missed the first half of the season, but regardless, this show has quickly become one of my favs. It's another one that doesn't make me laugh out loud all the time, but it's so dang enjoyable. The show is meta to a fault, but I actually love it. Some of my favorite episodes, like the paintball ep, were the ones that reminded you constantly, 'hey, you're watching a tv show!' I think the show took a little while to get its footing, but by the end of season 1, all of the character's 'places' in the show got figured out and it truly became great.
As far as this episode goes, I liked it a lot. Despite the fact that Chevy Chase is amazing on the show, Pierce isn't one of my favorite characters, but him riling up a group of middle schoolers into chanting "we want drugs!" was amazing. Not more amazing than Senor Chang however, who cracks my shit up every time he appears. I love him. He needs to be in every scene on this show ever.

The Ricky Gervais Show 2.3 "The Fly"

If you aren't watching this show, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! It's consistently one of the funniest things I watch all week. I cannot believe Karl Pilkington is a real person.

Lea's Weekly Recap 1/16 - 1/22

So we're trying something sort of new here at the good ol' blog. Every Friday or Saturday, Zozizzle and I (and yes, I changed my moniker to just 'Lea' now. Although Mind Grapes is still in my heart) will attempt a weekly recap post, where we talk about all of the television that we watched for the week. Granted, sometimes an episode that we see will be so great and so full of excitement that a short thought-synopsis won't be sufficient, and in that case, those episodes will be getting their own separate posts.  But for all the other tv that we watch (let's face it, we can watch a  lot of tv), these posts are for that.

Chuck 4.11 "Chuck Vs. The Balcony"

 Chuck is back after the hiatus with a pretty strong episode. The episode focused less on a real mission and more on the sub-mission to get Chuck to propose to Sarah. Amusing stuff mostly because of the inclusion of Morgan, who first worked with Chuck, then Sarah, and then with Casey to try and get it done (Gosh, I remember a time when I hated Morgan. No longer. I love Morgan! Love him!). I thought the episode was sweet and funny and my heart grew 3 sizes when Casey told his proposal story to Chuck: "Forget the balcony. All you need is the girl."
And then I got a Lester story line. A LESTER STORY LINE! Mayhaps you know that I'm kind of a big Lester fan, so when he brought his prospective fiancee into his "Saskatchewan Hinjew" cavern, I felt great joy. That was only surpassed by the appearance of JEFFSTER! Never change, Jeffster. Never change.
I will admit to being a tad bit annoyed that the proposal got cut short if only b/c this show has sometimes run the risk of dragging out Chuck/Sarah issues for a little too long. I'm ready for them to finally be engaged, dammit! The storyline resulting in the capture caught me a bit off guard, just because it seems so implausible (but lol what is plausible on this show, really), buuuut the preview for next week looks amazing and so I'm definitely willing to see how it plays out. I'm just glad my Chuck is back!

American Idol 10 "Auditions #1 New York/New Jersey" & "Auditions #2 New Orleans"

 Ah my love/hate relationship with American Idol continues.  So everyone's freaking out because Simon is gone, eh? Meh. I only started watching this show at the very end of Simon's run, when the dude had clearly checked out and was envisioning a world with an American X-Factor where he could control everything, and I never really found his critiques all that helpful. So I'd rather look forward to new judges (and no more Kara! PRAISE JESUS HALLELUJAH!), and so far I'm cautiously optimistic. Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez had a good first outing. Steven is sort of like the new Paula, wacky and out there and making up phrases, but he also was surprisingly compassionate and let people down easy, while still being tough. He also enjoys singing along to everything, which could get annoying, but eh, it's Steven Tyler, you let the man sing. So far he was definitely the bright spot of the episodes, but J.Lo did a pretty good job as well. She may have had trouble saying no, but she actually gave some strong critiques as well as seemed to really care about the contestants and what she was doing. The real test for both Steven and Jennifer will definitely be the live shows. That's where these guys are really going to sink or swim, but as of right now, I'm encouraged.  And Randy Jackson was just Randy Jackson. I've always had a soft spot for Randy, so as long as he keeps wearing cardigans and serving out "yo dawgs", I'm good.
Oh, the actual contestants? All I remember is that there were a shit-ton of teenage girls whose voices all sounded the exact same to me, which doesn't really bode well (are they looking for a female pop-singer?). A  few teenage boys got through, who I really only remember for their sob stories (Wheelchairs! Twins in Harlem! Picked on because of being a ginger!) than anything else. A fat Justin Bieber. And then of course there was Yoshi-Pop! We'll leave it at that.

Modern Family 2.13 "Caught In the Act"

 I thought this was a pretty solid episode, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments for me. My watching of Modern Family has started fairly recently, when I went through the first season in about a month and have been watching season 2 ever since. I find this show extremely enjoyable and one that is always entertaining, even in it's "worst" episodes. I've kind of always seen it as the much less dysfunctional version of Arrested Development. But while that show had me in stitches practically the entire episode, Modern Family doesn't always get guffaws from me, but it's always really pleasant to watch. It makes me smile and it makes me happy, and the 3 different families give you at least one thing to grasp hold of every episode. One of them doesn't carry the whole season, but instead all are given good story lines throughout (my favorite story lines however, are the ones that bring all the families together).
The main plot of this one with the kids walking in on Phil and Claire in bed was pretty good, mostly for the kid's reactions (I love Luke and the actor who plays him. His one-liners are a riot: "I don't know what they were doing, but it looked like Dad was winning.") and for Phil being Phil: "Excuse me for thinking your zesty performance deserved some praise."
The mixup with Gloria's email and her thinking Claire was angry about something other than what she was was a liiiiitle too sitcom cliche for me, but the pay off - with Gloria propositioning them to "taste her cupcakes" and Phil almost passing out - was hysterical.
The Cam/Mitch story line felt a little like an afterthought, but I was dying as Cam tried to think of the correct actress who owned the rug as he was freaking out (also, is Lilly the most well-behaved child ever?).

The Office 7.12 "Ultimatum" 

Another pretty good episode after a hiatus. I think, along with it seems like many of the viewing public, that this season of The Office is the worst of it's 7 year run. I know I'll always love it no matter what and will keep watching until it ends, but some of the story lines this year have seemed a bit stale and repetitive (and in fact, I worry about that a bit with the Michael/Holly story line. Those two need to get together in the end, yet I thought a lot of to-do was made about them this episode, where ultimately nothing really happened. Holly's taking a break now? That's it? Boo!). However, I really enjoyed this episode, because there were quite a few great lines and moments which had me rolling. First, Erin has kind of become a caricature, but I don't care, she is hysterical. I love her helping Michael so readily with his video and his "sad box" and "happy box" (with the gummi bears in the sad and the gummi worms in the happy, obviously). And her hatred of Holly is never not funny. Also: "My goal was to learn a new word every single day. And I must say that it is going immensely."
The resolution story line is one that would be incredibly stupid in real life, but it led to some awesome gags, especially Kevin being forced to eat broccoli as he struggles and then spitting it out everywhere. And of course, Andy roller skating to DMB and then dancing to a strobe light, things that are never not good. Greatest line of the episode however was uttered by the legendary Creed, "F*** YOU! F*** YOU!" in response to Erin doing the perfect cartwheel, which Creed only dreamed a possibility.