Quick Take: The Real Housewives of Orange County, "Let's Bow Our Heads and Pray" Looks like the girls are up to quite a lot this week, some of which involves getting their prayer on…
Recap: The Real Housewives of Orange County, "Let's Bow Our Heads and Pray" From our friends at Bravo:
The ladies are finishing their lunch in San Francisco. What started out as a fight between Alexis Bellino and Vicki Gunvalson ends up with everyone taking the opportunity to tell Vicki just what they think of her. Back in Orange County, Lynne’s daughter, Raquel, tells her friends about the family’s eviction. Tamra Barney and Vicki try to figure out where their friendship stands. Alexis and her husband, Jim, invite their pastor and his wife to breakfast. They talk about the role of modern day Christians and how Alexis feels judged for her beauty and looks. Gretchen and her boyfriend, Slade Smiley, are off to Palm Springs for a weekend getaway with her parents. It’s Tamra’s 42nd birthday and her husband, Simon, takes her out for a romantic dinner.
Video: The Real Housewives of Orange County, "Let's Bow Our Heads and Pray" In this bonus clip, we see Alexis and Jim Bellino invites their pastor over for breakfast and discuss their God-given gifts.
From Around the Web: The Real Housewives of Orange County, "Let's Bow Our Heads and Pray" Check out bios on all the real housewives, past seasons included, over on the Wikipedia:
Alexis Bellino (Season 5 to present) In July, 2009, Bravo TV announced that a new "housewife", Alexis Bellino, had been signed for the upcoming fifth season[51]. Bellino is a 32-year-old (in 2009) stay-at-home mother of three young children. She is in her second marriage, to 47-year-old Jim, a house-flipper/pawnbroker. Bellino was raised in Hannibal Missouri, but she now resides in Newport Beach. In the press release announcing her casting, Bravo described Bellino as someone who "likes to work out to keep herself looking and feeling her best" and as a "“spicy blonde who unabashedly lives life on her terms." Alexis Bellino will appear as a guest on Season 2 of Top Chef Masters [52]
Quick Take: Human Target, "Lockdown" I haven't been watching Human Target, but the vibe from top bloggers such as Alan Sepinwall and TV Squad are starting to make me change my mind.
Recap: Human Target, "Lockdown" Chance must break in, then break out of a maximum-security high-rise headquarters of a defense-contracted weapons manufacturer when he is hired to rescue a genius engineer who is held prisoner by his murderous employers.
Video: Human Target, "Lockdown" Whole ep is available on Hulu right now, check it…
From Around the Web: Human Target, "Lockdown"
Sepinwall gives his thumbs up: Another fun "Human Target" last night, with Chance working his way through a secured office building, Winston and Guerrero pulling an Aunt Linda and a bunch of recognizable guest stars playing largely to type (Kevin Weisman as a lovable dork, Autumn Reeser as a lovable and cute dork, Mitch Pileggi as a tough guy administrator, etc.), and a few more hints about Chance's backstory.
TV Squad: This week's mission had a great 'Leverage'/'Burn Notice' vibe to it, with Chance and crew undermining a corrupt corporation to help out the "little guy."
TV Fanatic: Who is Christopher Chance’s old boss was and why he is trying to find him. We are sure his intentions with Chance are corrupt, and look forward to seeing how this plot unfolds.
Quick Take: The Real World, D.C., "Bitch Begins With BI" "Everyone looks at me like I'm the bitch, or something." - Erika
Review: The Real World, D.C., "Bitch Begins With BI" We open with ants swarming around The Real World, D.C. house-meets-pop culture bizarro mansion.
"How'd they get in?"
"It's because of your damned pizza!"
Ah, to be a carefree lad or lass in front of basic television nation. This is The Real World, 2010-stylie. But really, the swarm abrewing is between young lasses Erika and Ashley.
Erika reveals to the girls of the house that she was so depressed in college after breaking up with her boyfriend that she seriously considered crashing her car. Fortunately she turned to her parents and got help. Unfortunately, Ashley managed to step over her story to talk about her own self-invovled issues. Multiple times. And then gets annoyed with her about taking too long to get ready to go to the show.
Eventually, Erika and Ashley's static devolves into passive aggressive sniping over going (versus not going) to "duck tours." PMS, flying off the handle, and Debbie Downer accusations ensue.
Key quote: "Everyone looks at me like I'm the bitch, or something," says Erika.
Later, the kids play laser tag! And "it's gonna be kick butt." (Laser tag still exists?). The kids divide into teams called The Terrible Terradactyls and the Quadrule Penetration 400. Seriously. Erika v. Ashley continues pre-game whilst they refuse to "save it for the game, ladies!"
Erika and Ashley finally, kind of sort of, make up, followed by smash cut to they're fighting again, and a huge argument breaks out that ends up being about whether or not Erika should "go the fuck home." Going the fuck home seems to be a regular plot point to The Real World... some kids just can't seem to keep it real, it seems.
And then they finally kind of sort of make up again. "I'd like to give you a hug if possible," Erika says.
Meanwhile, Mike goes on a first-date with Eric. You know, it does say something about how far we've come pop culturally (and perhaps just culturally) that a guy dating a guy for reals on a national TV show doesn't cause stop-the-presses panic and confusion and strikes and anarchy and press conferences with dyspeptic old pasty white guys in expensive suits with little flags on their lapels.
"When was the last time you hooked up with a girl?" Eric questions Mike. Mike pauses... "The quote of the year!" Eric exclaims. This does jive with Adam Carolla's (i.e. The Knowledge Master on Everything) contention that guys who say they are bi should, in fact, just come clean and come out and say they're gay. "Theat's fine, because I think you're gay anyway." Eric to Mike, after Mike flirts with girls up at the D.C. club.
Mike and Eric's relationship does illuiminate a moment where The Real World can actually get real, where issues of youth and identity and sexuality get brought to the fore. No doubt ftat antics and hot tub hookups and drunken brawls where the production staff get brought in (imploding?) the fourth wall, but this was somewhat compelling stuff by reality TV standards.
In lighter news, the kids continue to argue over garbage and cleaning. Flies show up in the house. These are some dirty kids. It must be noted that Andrew's performance art-like antics can be annoying. Or awesome, depending. The cleaning the microwave super loudly to make a point bit rose to the level of awesomeness. We salute thee.
Video: The Real World, D.C., "Bitch Begins With BI" Here's the bitchy eipisode in full... enjoy:
Quick Take: Lost, "LA X" Part I This is Lost, baby, and the final season is going to be one hell of a deliciously mind bendingly bumpy fun/death ride.
Review: Lost, "LA X" Part I So, I haven't thought much about Lost since the end of the last season, oh so long ago it seems. And I didn't bother watching the hourlong recap episode that preceeded the fifth and final season premiere because... who wants to deal with that, right?
Therefore, watching the "previously on Lost" opening segment caused my brain to nearly melt as I tried to piece together all of the strands. From the jump, I was like:
* That weird / creepy dude Jakob is some kind of Satan / God figure (or something completely not like a Satan / God figure) * Locke and Ben are caught up in some kind of a power struggle as the mortal (or not, in Locke's case?) connection to the island (or not) * And oh yeah, the plot to blow up the island (or stop the island from blowing up?) so that maybe everything we've seen exists in alternate reality that would get wiped away (or not)! * Sayid got shot * Juliet falls in the well (okay, that actually seems to have happened) * And we go to white.
Welcome to Lost.
"LA X" Part I, the season premiere, opens with Jack on a plane. Jack looks good -- not dishevelled, alcoholic, tortured Jack, and not quite Doctor Hero from the early seasons -- but good. Was the whole damned show a dream?
The plane starts shaking. (Note to self: never EVER watch Lost within 21 days of getting into a aircraft.)
The shaking stops. And the kindly African American lady from the island tells Jack, "it's okay, you can let go now." (Let go of what... his hold on this mortal plane? Get it?)
That's when you know this is Lost, baby, and the final season is going to be one hell of a deliciously mind bendingly bumpy fun/death ride.
Jack soon asks Desmond, "Do I know you from somewhere?" Then we pan to a diving show beneath the deep blue sea to the statue of the foot, now deep below the ocean.
And we're off to the races.
Well, we revisit the bomb exploding and the cut to white, and then we see Kate in a tree. Not K-I-S-S-I-N-G though (unfortunately). She finds a similarly dazed Miles, and we learn that "we're back." So, back to more time travel it would seem. And Jack and Sawyer going at it. Some things never seem to change.
As events unfold, we get the picture early on that we're seeing what appears to be alternate realities playing out on parallel tracks, "flash sideways" to the flashbacks and flash forwards of previous seasons.
Mystery lingers around both of course, but the idea seems to be that the characters we've come to know and love are trying to set things "right," which could have the implication of leaving us with the "orignial" timeline. But would the characters seem to have some vague remembrance of each other in that case? Just another question in the Lost question quilt.
There's so much else going on in these first two installments that I'll simply attempt to break out some of the more noteworthy or interesting happenstances:
* You gotta love Hurley. "I'm the luckiest dude alive." If being lucky means hanging out with Jakob... count me out. * Boone returns! Albeit in flash sideways retro form, but still. Boone! * One of the coolest developments in these latter seasons is seeing Ben unruffled and out of his element. * Locke wants Ben to go get Richard so that they can have a chat. Okay, no biggie. Except Locke is actually out on the beach. And not all that alive. Surprise! * You gotta love Hurley Part II. On learning that Jakob had died an hour ago. "Aw, that sucks dude." * And Charlie's back too! Sure, he's kind of half dead from ODing on heroin. But still, Charlie! * Question: How does an atom bomb *sort of* go off and *sort of* injure people while hurtling them through time (somehow)? I realize I may not get full satisfaction here. * Hello smoke monster, my old friend. Pretty cool how you tricked that one dude into stepping outside of his bizarre "circle defense" before devouring him. And... * Locke now = Jakob's "companion" = smoke monster? Trippy... * Oh come on, what does Juliette have to tell Sawyer that is so danged important? * Locke to Jack: "You did this." Uh oh. * Pretty cool to see everyone getting off the Oceanic flight at LAX "as though."
Video: Lost, "LA X" Part I Here's the episode from Hulu, available in its entirety for the time being (as is the entire Lost run up until present, so dig in now Losties!):
From Around the Web: Lost, "LA X" Part I There's so so much to speculate on during this final season (and likely long after the end). Here's but a sampling from "LA X" Part I:
* What's Alan Watching?: Whatever he/it is, Terry O'Quinn is clearly relishing the chance to play this new, mysterious, dangerous character, and Non-Locke's powers and knowledge of people like Ben and Richard (whom he last saw when Richard was "in chains") creates an unsettling dynamic among these characters who are so used to being in charge.
* TV Squad: Of course, the question at this point is which side of the story is real?
* ScreenCrave: After all the waiting only two of my many questions were answered and they were regarding Locke’s true identity and Juliet’s fate.
And word across the webs is that there will be lots going on right off the back. We're probably starting out in 1963, and the theme of the season is change...
I'll admit it. I hated on Hell's Kitchen when it first came on the air. But Gordan Ramsey's antics kind of grew on me over time. I like sitting back and watching the fireworks, realizing the entire ordeal is a heavily edited, highly contrived and manipulated reality-circus fest.
But it's fun. The people on the show express real dismay and real joy as they're put through the gauntlet.
So while we can all feel good (and I do) about feeling good about digging Top Chef, we can still feel good about the fact that Hell's Kitchen is still fun as... well, hell.
This season looks to be no different. The expected "cliffhanger" is rather cliff-y after Week 1, with some military-ish moron left willing to take Gordan "outside" to box, for seemingly no reason.
"First choice, and why?"
Dude, have you ever watched the show? If the first choice ain't you, that means you're safe as long as you keep your finger off the Meltdown switch.
At elimination, Joseph flames out, refusing to answer Chef Ramsay's simple question of "first nominee," then goes on a rant, drawing the ire of Chef Ramsay, who confronts Joseph, who completely loses it, claiming he's "nobody's bitch." He then tears off his chef's jacket, approaching Chef Ramsay and asking him to take it outside. The episode then ends in a dramatic face-off.
Ah, that's right. Nobody's bitch. He may be that, but he is now everyone's buffoon. Way to go, laddy buck.
And even if this dude is straight out of the military, I'd tread lightly in pushing Ramsey into a fistfight on national television. The dude looks like he can take a punch and would come at you with British Bulldog fury.
Okay, I'll admit it. I'm looking forward to the next episode.
