P-P-P-Push it.

Still my favorite number from Glee thus far. Word's out that the boys v girls battle on tonight's episode (Vitamin D) kicked someone's ass, but I'm actually going to try to hold out for the whole show rather than just watching the clip on youtube.

WTF find of the day

O-M-bloody-G. You're saying that the kiddies from Degrassi hooked up with the kiddies from Spring Awakening? This must be a couple years old, before Aubrey Graham busted out as Drake and before anyone outside of Broadway geekdom had heard of Lea Michele. But this is pretty spectacular fangirl stuff. Two breakout stars of 2009 sharing the stage. Love.

Sap

(This is an old unpublished post I found that I'd written in the aftermath of Eurovision. I was checking out past winners and entries and soon found myself wading in a sludge of overproduced sap. Viva la fromage!)

As a rule, I hate music videos that feature sick or dying people in the hospital, retching from the after-effects of chemo, looking emaciated and bleary eyed - but strangely hot - and being wheeled around in a wheelchair. It's especially vomitous if it involves little kids or attractive twentysomething significant others. It's so cheap and generic - and it's used in every other damn Chinese mv. Every 'singer' has used this trick at least one time (Eason's 七百年後 and Guang Liang's 童話 immediately come to mind), and that's being generous. Anyway, while I was checking out bad Eurovision entries last night, I came across this video by Dima Bilan who won the 2008 contest for Russia. Sappy lyrics - check, sappy music - check, sappy dying kid in the video - check. There was even a sappy long haired lothario violinist. BUT, being Russia, this video had.........sappy ice skating!!! Sappy fucking fail.

"Each morning I get up and die a little..."

This week's episode of Glee was not its strongest but still managed to deliver the goods, proving yet again that, we shouldn't stop believing (groan). The Rhodes Not Taken finds our pretty characters at a crossroads - a couple folks are knocked up, a couple folks are hiding some secrets, and Rachel just wants to be a bitch supastar. Enter April Rhodes, in the form of Kristin Chenoweth, an overtanned, overboozed glee club has been. With Rachel's departure, Will needs a new diva and seeks out his former classmate, who was just a few credits shy of graduation, to fill the gap. It's a bit of redemption for both of them; she gets another shot at high school glory, if that's what you want to call it, and he gets to share the limelight with an old crush plus extra credit for reviving the glee club.

The effort, unfortunately, falls flat for us viewers. Let's call this episode what it really is - a vehicle for Kristin Chenoweth to be amazing, which she is. I'd never properly seen her act or sing but she more than lives up to her reputation here. At least she finally got her Emmy (for Pushing Daisies) but really, folks, give the woman a Tony or two, or ten; she has talent spilling out of her ears. The problem is, rather than enhancing the show and bringing out the other characters and performances, as a good cameo should, her appearance felt like a forced detour from the actual show. It's as if the creative team was so excited she'd come on board that they contrived of ways to make her appear as often as possible at the expense of most other characters. This works at times; Rachel's lust for fame without any real understanding of what it means parallels April's own mishandling of her considerable talent, and Will's constant fluttering between what he wants and what his students need gets another look over. But hardly a peep from Sue Sylvester?!

Will is also starting to grate on me. He's kind, generous, and does the best white boy version of Gold Digger you can find, but sometimes I question his ability as a teacher and mentor. Did he really think that importing a boozy thirtysomething would benefit the kids? I can't decide if this is a significant character flaw or significantly flawed writing. A bit of both perhaps as he's no stranger to clinging on to his past (see the second and third episodes). Like those of us (ahem) who peaked in our teen years, it's hard for him to let go or acknowledge that the world moves on even if you stand still.

In any case, this week's musical gem - Queen's Somebody to Love. The kiddies killed it. My only gripe is that the truncated version broadcast on the show omitted Kevin McHale's parts. He may have been in a boy band, he may have flat ironed his hair at one point, but the boy's got lungs. Check out the full album version, twice as long and twice the goodies. (FYI, the image here is reversed.)

He likes older women.

Our boy Jimmy makes #3 on MTV's Hottest MCs list. Sweetness and light.

MTV Shows

More, please.

I just watched episode 2 of ABC's FlashForward and it was a-mazing! This is why I haven't followed network tv in a long time. Shows that offers surprises and cliffhangers at every turn require uncommon amounts of patience and emotional self-control, none of which I have. So rather than sitting pretty in a Snuggie and with a bucket of ice cream for a Saturday night marathon, I have to wait an entire week until my next 45 minute fix. (Luckily I have numerous distractions in Merlin, Glee, maybe Three Mile, and all the other old shows I'm just catching up on.)

Things really start churning in this second episode. The pilot was mostly a prolonged edition of all the previews they've been showing this summer. There's nothing terribly revealing about the plot, the characters, or their visions that we didn't already know from the publicity campaign. The only real surprise came at the end when it was discovered that a man was awake, wandering around Detroit's baseball stadium during the blackout. Spooky. Episode 2 jumped on the first real lead and involved the search for someone named 'D. Gibbons'. Olivia, Mark Benford's (Joseph Fiennes) wife, gets her first meeting with the mysterious man she saw in her vision. He happens to be the father of a patient - who, it turns out, Olivia's daughter Charlie saw in her vision. A crazy cupcake lady is introduced as well, and I mention this mostly because I want to eat her cupcakes, though she is sure to reappear later on.

One of the major sources of tension thus far seems to be between Mark and Olivia as they navigate infidelity of all sorts. There is the obvious conflict regarding the other man, but there is also cheating of the non-sexual variety. Mark has yet to tell his wife that part of his vision involved a relapse into alcoholism, and he makes an effort to keep even minor details from her (such as the bracelet). All signs point to a volatile descent into chaos, at least in their personal lives.

The biggest pseudo-surprise, however, comes at Demetri Noh's (John Cho) expense. In the immediate aftermath of the blackout, he hypothesized that his lack of a vision meant that he'd be dead in 6 months. Well, tonight we learned from some raspy voiced woman with some prime real estate in Hong Kong that he will be...murdered!! O-M-to-the-G. This is brutal, and I am officially hooked.

Good bye, Merry Men.

Dated news but Robin Hood got the big heave ho, so no season 4. I would have liked to have seen Clive Standen who played Archer as the new Robin, but there didn't seem to be much potential for the story to move forward. After all, Marian, the Sheriff, and our beloved Guy all bit the dust, and I don't see how another season could have survived the dearth of charisma. You know it couldn't exactly rely on writing talent. Anyway, it was an enjoyable run while it lasted. We'll just wait and see what BBC pumps out next, and if Merlin survives past round 2....Speaking of which, Adrian Lester appeared in last week's episode. He played an assassin sent to off Arthur for the murder of a neighboring prince. There was a bit of jousting, a bit of love. Not a particularly memorable episode and I don't think this was a fantastic showcase of Mr Lester's considerable talent. Guinevere does give Arthur a verbal talking down though and maybe this relationship might bring more depth to Arthur's character. One of my complaints from last season is that our once and future king was little more than a chain mail wearing jock. If Bradley James can actually act, then the remainder of the season should be more interesting.

I'm a believer.

I was skeptical when I heard that Leon Jackson had won Britain's X Factor some years back. He looked elfin and didn't stun with the winning song, When You Believe, previously covered by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Then everyone started talking shit about him, his new record dropped, and I found myself loving one of the singles. Alas, the jury seems to have decided that Leon's a dud. Poor record sales and a solid slagging from Simon Cowell cemented his status as reality show has been, worse mind you than the typical has been. Too bad because he is suddenly hot.


The single that converted me into a believer - Don't Call This Love. (I couldn't embed the MV, but here is a link. Um, Leon, Leon, Leon. Keep wearing those suits and walking through rain soaked cobblestone streets.)

A Little Bit

This is on repeat as my life spins out of control. Drake's remix of Lykke Li's Little Bit. Hot.



This video is what happens when some of my favorite people converge...Drake, Tony Leung, Wong Kar Wai...

High School High

My new and embarrassing obsession - Degrassi: The New Generation. I don't usually watch teen shows I didn't watch teen shows when I was actually a teenager so I don't know what to compare it to. Freaks and Geeks, My So Called Life, Dawson's Creek, The OC?? Essentially it is a spin-off of a popular Canadian youth series that never ends. (Full disclosure, I'm not a teenager nor do I own one, and in fact, my 10 year reunion is fast approaching, which probably accounts for my recent bouts of nostalgia.) Sneer as we might at kids and their petty problems, getting laughed at, finding friends, and surviving chemistry is a big deal when you're 16. Maybe one of the reasons we have so many adult wackos is because we don't take anyone seriously in their youth. I appreciate that this show maintains a conflicted if hermetic adolescent world that is neither overly saccharine nor alienating (see Skins, which I'm also watching now). It also enjoys surprising longevity for a show of this sort which gives the characters a chance to actually grow into themselves. A lot changes in those 4 years, and it's nice to see teen characters undergo similar transformations.

On a somewhat related note, I discovered the Dear Sister phenomenon thanks to a Degrassi parody of the episode where Jimmy gets shot. The whole bit is hilarious, so inspired by that and Huffington Post's useless poll of the day, here are my top SNL digital shorts (no links because I don't have access to Hulu).

1. Dick in a Box
2. Iran So Far
3. Motherlover
   
4. Dear Sister
5. Natalie Raps

Merlin returned for a second season with a small splash, according to the viewer ratings. I thought the first episode was fair. Silly BBC family fare with high production values have become my comfort food, so I did enjoy it, but my criticisms from last season remain. Bradley James struts like a 21st century jock in chain mail, Katie McGrath needs to move her face, and the stories generally could benefit from more emotional depth. I think it's missing what Richard Armitage brought to Robin Hood - a villain with an occasional conscience. Merlin lacks strong actors and characters with any nuance. Anthony Head and Richard Wilson are of course up to par in acting ability, but there's nothing satisfying about their characters. Uther (Head) will always be a model noble, erring on the side of righteousness more often than not - except in matters of sorcery. So too does Gaius (Wilson) rarely venture from his affable, wise old man role. Nevertheless, I hope a couple plot strands will inject some intrigue. Gwen (Angel Coulby) and Arthur (James) get things warmed up, Morgana (McGrath) explores her own powers, and boy Mordred makes another appearance.

Other tv news...looking forward to the return of SNL, rather Ryan Reynolds' guest turn...Colbert and Stewart are finally back from their 3 week hiatus...zero opinion on Emmys because if I watch American shows, I'm always several seasons behind at best...just started season 2 of West Wing. I do intend on keeping up with a couple shows this fall, however. Glee already occupies my Wednesday nights, and in the next couple of weeks we'll see Flashforward with Joseph Fiennes and John Cho (romancing Gabrielle Union - guaranteed to be the hottest couple on network tv) and Three Rivers with Daniel Henney. Of the two, I'm actually looking to the former for the content. The latter is mostly for extra eye candy.