Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Fashionably Late - Project Runway, House and Everything Else I Haven't Talked About In A While

Project Runway - Eye Candy - Ep. 406, What a Girl Wants - Ep. 407, On Garde! - Ep. 408, Even Designers Get the Blues - Ep. 409, Raw Talent - Ep. 410
House - It's a Wonderful Lie, Ep. 410, Frozen - Ep. 411, Don't Ever Change - Ep. 412
Boston Legal - Season 4
Private Practice - Season 1
Dirty Sexy Money - Season 1

Well, at least the writer's strike let me catch up with the stuff I taped.

I've actually been watching Project Runway and House mostly on time but since PR is delayed here in Canada, I'm always playing slight catch up and never in time to talk about in a timely way. But I wanted to use my above title at some point to seem clever. So here's my fashionably late post about Project Runway. Get it? How clever of me (look, I'm jetlagged. Give me a cheap freebie okay?)

Also fashionably late? Ricky's inevitable Auf'd that everyone has been waiting for. Finally. And yet, just as the crying self-esteem self chatter was getting on my nerves, he actually pulls a win in the Jeans episode, and I actually didn't totally hate his orange bathing suit/wrestling outfit but I did agree, it still made the scary female wrestler look a bit fat and it wasn't an original look.

Still, the fact that Ricky outlasted Kevin (who was so wronged that week he got Auf'd), Victorya (who, as annoyingly passive aggressive as she was and while she wasn't amazing, was still better than Kevin), Kit (who was TOTALLY wronged that week when she worked with Ricky and got Auf'd because she actually had some gumption of design control), and even ELISA (who as crazy as she may have been, had at least more interesting designs than Ricky) shows why the producers still hasn't fixed the crack in their system (Vincent anyone?). Ricky wasn't even that cameraworthy. He was kinda boring. Yes he played on the poor Latino boy doing good but I wish he had the designs to back him up. THEN it would have been a good story.

Anyways, Christian is a total twat but the fierce little bitch is still quite entertaining, if only for his youthful arrogance. I'd be more annoyed but I'm still mesmerized that he could sport that side-mullet (haha... god, Liz, that WAS brilliant) with a straight face (no gay pun intended).

So, while I've kinda avoided the spoilers (since the final Bryant Park Fashion show happened and you can just google it to see the pics but I'll avoid posting them here so that I can avoid looking at them)...

Of the remaining contestants, Chris, Christian and Jillian are probably my faves. I love Rami still but the dude's got some air of attitude when things don't go his way and when he can't drape fabric in his designs. Sweet P is probably my favorite person (though Chris is close in the running) but her designs are hit and miss. Jillian seems the most middle of the road successful, too bad she's kinda boring. Christian is great when he pulls out all the stops, but I'm glad he got bitch slapped by the school girl when he had to make that outfit for the opinionated tween. Karmic payback can be fierce.

In another fashion moment, the McGill sweatshirt makes a comeback on House! Yes, little things are enough to excite us Canadians! (Well, okay, fine, just me) Especially to see the return of my alma mater's sweatshirt on Cutthroat Bitch Amber after we discover she's dating Wilson. Even better? When House realizes Wilson is dating a female version of House!

The whole thing was hilarious and I'm really growing to love Anne Dudek between being Cutthroat Bitch and decking out in 60's housewife's garb on Mad Men. It also got to showcase Robert Sean Leonard (as Wilson) some more, which is always a good thing.

I'm still wondering why Fox was fashionably late (you know I'm going to work that phrase in this post as much as possible now) in showing House's Christmas episode at the end of January but considering NBC shows the 2 remaining episodes of Chuck on one night, Fox is holding back Bones until April, and ABC is holding back Men In Trees even though it has the most episodes left to show, I'm just assuming the programming execs are just complete morons at this point.

As for Mira Sorvino's appearance, all I could think about was, who is that guy she's trapped in the arctic for? He's kinda hot but where is he from? (I finally figured out that he was that guy trying to work into the Newport Group on The OC, Jeff Hephner). Nevermind that we had an Oscar winner on the post-Super Bowl episode (who I actually did think deserved her win for Mighty Aphrodite but then again, I was also happy for Marisa Tomei's win so I seem to champion the underdogs here).

Anyways, I've also been catching up with the 3 star ABC shows, Boston Legal, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money.

I still enjoy Boston Legal, even though they got rid of my favorites Julie Bowen and wet dream Mark Valley and I think they've taken Christian Clemenson's asperger striken Jerry too far but I love the addition of Taraji P. Henson who brings her trademark sass to Whitney Rome. Plus it's nice seeing her not play a stripper, hooker or whore for once (though she does it so excellently in Talk to Me, Hustle and Flow, Four Brothers).

It's funny that they have sort of acknowledged that they don't know what to do with John Larroquette in their usual meta sort of way, but the coup casting hasn't laid on the sidelines as they continue to fit the script pages so that James Spader and William Shatner fill the screen (no pun intended, well, not really). I love when they throw Candice Bergen in the mix as the heavyweights (again, no real pun intended) but the show never seems to know how to mix the Shat and Spader in with the others, particularly the other headliners which always leaves the show a little disjointed.

I do love the guest casting though, particularly Scott Bakula! Quantum Leaping lizards!

Still, as crazy as it all is, I find myself not missing the show when I'm not watching it but totally loving it when I do.

Meanwhile, I'm totally not missing newcomers Private Practice or Dirty Sexy Money either and not loving them when I do watch, though DSM is growing on me. I'm really only sticking with PP at this point because I was waiting for Christopher David Sutcliffe to show up and what happens when I do? I accidentally erase those episodes. Oh well. There are TV favorites guest starring on the show galore (from Keiko Agena also from Gilmore Girls to Christopher Wiehl from Love Monkey) but I have more fun recognizing people than I do the actual show.

I still love Paul Adelstein and wonder if his Gilmore Girl starring wife may pop up one day (he's married in real life to Liza Weil, Paris Geller) to add to all the guest stars from that show. I still think the women need to grow spines, and they need to expand Chris Lowell's Dell further into the mix, but it's coming back for another season so let's hope they fix things for the fall.

Meanwhile, I watch Dirty Sexy Money, I enjoy, then I totally forget what happens by the time I watch the next episode (and considering I'm watching it taped, that doesn't mean a week, sometimes it just means hours in between). It's fun, it's frothy, it's getting soapier but I just don't care about most of the characters still, and the best one, Samaire Armstrong's Juliet, is off in rehab in real life so who knows what might happen to her.

I still love the whole Carmelita (Candis Cayne) and Patrick Darling (William Baldwin) relationship but I'm already lost on Lisa and Peter and Karen and whatever that triangle they seemed to want going, and as funny as the bastard son storyline for Rev. Patrick Darling may be, along with being the secret brother of Peter, I still hate the Brian character, which is played annoyingly by Glenn Fitzgerald in an annoying way and not an annoying but still lovable way that TV requires.

As for Blair Underwood, I prefer him on The New Adventures of Old Christine. He probably does less there but is still more compelling.

I still have hope for DSM and it is also back in the fall for another season, but let's hope Greg Berlanti shapes the show a bit more before spreading himself too thin everywhere on ABC.

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