Category Archives: ABC
Selfie Meet Pop Culture Cliches
Have you ever watched a show and realized it was bad three minutes into the pilot episode? If not, watch Selfie you’ll be in for quite an experience. Everyone else should avoid this show. What could’ve been a clever commentary on millennials’ being so obsessed with social media that they forget to live in the moment, manages to fail and make you dislike the main character Eliza Dooley (Karen Gillan). You know, the person you’re supposed to be rooting for.
As someone around Eliza’s age, I want to slap her. She was unpopular in school, so she thought having thousands of Facebook friends and Instagram followers would make her feel better. Eliza thinks everyone thought she was “butt” as a child, when it was really just an awkward stage. In her head, she’s now the popular girl. Sure, Eliza’s pretty and successful, but none of her coworkers like her and clients only buy products from her because she knows her way around a miniskirt.
ABC’s Forever: Appealing, But With a Murky Future
Ladies and gentlemen, your hybrid show with an undying protagonist for the 2014 fall season is ABC’s Forever, and it’s anyone’s guess how long it’ll stick around. Taking all bets now.
Detective Jo Martinez (Alana De La Garza) and Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd).
Genre shows are all the rage these days, whereas crime dramas are a dime a dozen. The success of smushing together elements of the traditional and the contemporary depends on how seriously a show takes itself, and while Forever is a bit of a romp through established TV tropes, it also elicits a decided “ehhh” in terms of staying power. Starring The Fantastic Four’s Ioan Gruffudd (sporting the most wonderfully Welsh name, damn, lookit those consonants in places they shouldn’t be), this show has the potential to be a good palette cleanser in an era of sobering television, especially in a post-Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. timeslot. It’s unclear, however, if that title is inadvertently writing a check the show can’t cash.
The Lawrence Welk Show: “One Toke Over the Line”
“One Toke Over the Line” was released in 1970. The title refers to exactly what you think it does. That didn’t stop Lawrence Welk from introducing the song as a “modern spiritual.” He was either hopelessly clueless or knew exactly what he was doing. As a bonus, Richard Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, hated the song because he felt it was subversive.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: Who Won The Mirror Ball Trophy?
After 11 weeks of competition, Dancing with the Stars has crowned this season’s champion. The two-night finale was action packed with memorable performances from previous contestants of season 17, musical guests, fusion dances and even creative freestyles.
In Monday night’s episode, contestants had to deal with three dance rounds: the judges pick, an intense freestyle, and a samba relay to gain extra points on their scores. For round one, the judges chose the dances they felt the contestants can best improve on, which also gave the judges a chance to sit in on the contestants studio practice and help out.
Bill Engvall had to dance the Viennese Waltz again. This time to Billy Joel’s “She Always A Woman To Me, which gave the performance a real romantic elegant feel. Even though his dance wasn’t that much of an improvement, he was still very entertaining to watch. Carrie Ann, Bruno, and Len didn’t expect him to make it as far as he did because he isn’t the same caliber as the other competitors. His first set of scores totaled 24/30 and his samba routine was mediocre compared to the others. Sadly, Bill came in last place, which only gave him an extra two points on his score.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: The Semifinals
It’s hard to believe that Dancing with the Stars is nearing the end of this season. This week, the challenge was to perform two different dances to the same song: one to the instrumental and the other one to the original. Not only are the dances getting more intricate, but the judges decided to bring back Dancing with the Stars’ bad boy, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who is known for his opinionated ways and not always agreeing with the judges. It was interesting to see Maksim’s take on the remaining competition.
Leah Remini’s dances for this week were the paso doble and the tango to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Her first dance was all about taking charge, but she’s still having trouble getting into character mode. Her dance partner expresses most of the emotion. Maks said it best “he’s looking crazy and you’re not.” Overall, it was neat and precise, but this is semifinals, you have to take more risks than Leah did. Her argentine tango was very romantic. However, it was very slow. The acoustic version of the song truly helped set the mood for these two people. The judges still feel that Leah needs to step up her game if she hopes to make it to next week’s finals. Leah’s dance total 65/80.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: Who Leaves Next?
It’s hard to believe that nine weeks ago, Dancing With the Stars kicked off its 17th season and now the show is almost coming to an end. The contestants are really feeling the pressure of week nine because they need to learn and perform two full dances. After Brant’s elimination last week, who is going to be the next to leave the competition this week?
Amber Riley’s first performance was the fast paced quickstep. Even though Amber is still pulling through a knee injury, she is still in it to win it. The choreography was not only technical, but fun to watch. Bruno calls her “dazzling,” but he and the other judges feel Amber has a few more things to work on. Amber got all 8s across the board giving her a total for round one of 24/30.
Leah Remini’s first dance was the tango. Even though the judges praised her on her tango, I wasn’t impressed at all. There weren’t any memorable moments and she just felt very stiff in her footwork. Len liked how Leah brought flavor. Bruno thought the dance “was a badass proper tango.” The judges all agreed and gave Leah 9s across the board for a total of 27/30.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: Who Goes Home Next?
After a surprising no elimination last week on Dancing with the Stars, the competition is turning up a notch. Week seven not only brought the tears and the injuries, but threw in learning two dances as well. Tom Bergeron mentioned that next week guest judge, Cher, will perform and give her feedback to the contestants. If that isn’t scary enough, the countdown is nearing the end to see who will win the coveted mirror ball trophy.
Elizabeth Berkley, who received the first thirty of the season last week, performed the quick step. The dance was very quirky because of the character’s personalities and the dance was dealing with U.F.O.s. Len Goodman said this was a true U.F.O: “Utterly Full On; full of content.” This was a great dance to start the show as he also points out. The judges agreed and gave Elizabeth 9s across the board, totaling a 27 out of 30.
Brant Daugherty’s goofy sense of humor certainly didn’t disappoint in his jive. Even though, he had a few tiny slip ups, such as slipping on his dance partner’s skirt, Brant continued to have a good time with the dance. Carrie Ann felt that “this dance was a bit to challenging for him”. The judges decided to give Brant all 9s for a total of 27 out of 30.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: The Half Way Point
Everyone still can’t get over the Christina Milian shocker from last week. She received the highest score of the night, but still went home. It just proves that anything can happen on Dancing with the Stars. Even though one of the best dancer on the show didn’t make it to the half way point, the remaining dancers are that much closer to winning the mirror ball trophy. So how did they do last night?
Bill Engvall did a tango to Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Putting these two odd elements together seemed to make a nice combination. He lost the smoothness in his footwork. I think he was more fixated on wanting that cheeseburger. Len liked how the routine was sharp and had tanginess to it. Carrie Ann and Len gave Bill 8s whereas Bruno gave him a 7, totaling a 23 out of 30.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: Dancing Through The Years
Last night on Dancing with the Stars, everyone was on top of their game, which made for a very entertaining show. Not only were the dances beautiful to watch, but they had a great story behind it.
Christina Milian chose 2010 to be her most memorable year because of the the highs and lows that came with it. She gave birth to her daughter and also got a divorce the same time. Her dancing the cha cha was very entertaining to watch because her footwork and technique were on point. Carrie Ann and Bruno gave Christina 9s, but Len gave her the first 10 of the season, which gave her a score of 28 out of 30.
Jack Osbourne’s most memorable year was 2012 because he married his wife, had a daughter, and two weeks later was diagnosed with MS. Dedicating his waltz to his wife and daughter was a truly beautiful moment. The interaction between him and his dance partner, Cheryl, was very moving to see. Carrie Ann said it best “you took my breath away.” The judges gave Jack all 9s across the board, totaling a 27 out of 30.
‘Modern Family’ Reflects Modern Values
Year after year, Modern Family continues to bring home the awards. This past year, the show took home an Emmy for outstanding comedy. Since the show is so popular with award show voters and the public, some people may wonder how accurately the show portrays modern suburban life. You might even compare Modern Family to the family oriented Leave It To Beaver. However, we as a society have come a long way from the 1950’s. The suburban lifestyle and TV show’s morals and values have changed over the course of many generations.
Most viewers would have to agree that the writers do a great job with the well written dialogue and an interesting portrayal of the diverse characters. The show brings a new insight to family dynamics. Not only are the characters relatable, but the dysfunction of the Dunphy/Pritchett family makes it feel real. Dysfunction is the new normal. Now we can embrace this show as part of our society because more and more families are becoming blended. Modern Family is a nice change of pace and is very refreshing to watch.
Wait! What's A Dial? 