Category Archives: Network Television
Should ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Go Back to Sleep?
Warning: Many of the comments in this review are meant to be sarcastic, so put on your sarcasm detector.
Last night’s episode of Sleepy Hollow, titled “Blood Moon,” began with a dream sequence. His wife Katrina warns him of an army of evil that will rise to bring the Four Horsemen back to life. This “army of evil” hunting will certainly give Ichabod and Abbie something to do for the rest of the series. Katrina explains that the first dark spirit will rise with the blood moon and that “she [the dark spirit] is one of us.” Ichabod has no clue what she is talking about and wakes up before she can explain.
Abbie’s captain, Frank Irving, played by Orlando Jones, still doubts the whole Headless Horseman ordeal, even though two officers went on record stating that they saw the horseman. Irving informs that they recanted their statements. He then shows her security footage that proves that Andy Dunn, played by John Cho, did not die by a demon whipping his head off his neck, but running head first into a wall. This basically decapitates him, without the head actually coming off because that seems plausible. With the physical evidence of the videotape, Abbie starts to doubt what is real and what is not.
‘Dancing With The Stars’: Who is the First to Leave?
Amber Riley and Derek Hough
In hopes of staying in the competition, contestants had to dance their butts off this week for their first elimination of the season. This week contestants were dancing the jive, rumba, paso doble, and samba. Even though there was a lot of booty shaking going on, I wasn’t impressed with tonight’s performances. It was to the point that I was constantly changing the channels between the new Chuck Lorre show Mom and the season premiere of “The Voice.” It wasn’t entertaining to watch.
At this early point of the game, it’s important to stand out and make yourself known. The highest score for the first two weeks were Glee’s Amber Riley. She got a 51 out of 60. Everyone also congratulated her dancing partner, Derek Hough, who a received an Emmy on Sunday for best choreography.
The dance that really didn’t interest me at all was Bill Engvall’s jive. He was dancing to Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” and the performance was very rigid. It was AARP Country meets jive. Bill Engvall was a walking a prop, while his dance partner, Emma did all the hard work. With his performance he received 7’s across the board giving him a total score of 21.
Not Everyone Will Love ‘Mom’
Mom is a broad comedy that wouldn’t feel out of place in TV Land’s lineup with Hot in Cleveland and The Exes. While it is not the best show ever, Mom works well and is one of the few shows nowadays that an entire family can watch together.
Mom stars Anna Faris as Christy. At first Christy isn’t the most likeable character, even though she is genuine. As the pilot progresses, we find out that Christy can’t connect with her daughter because she takes after her mother, Bonnie, who was a terrible parent. Both women are members of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is where they run into each other after years of not talking. Christy tries to be a better parent than her mother was, but its hard when her mother is the perfect grandmother for Christy’s daughter, Violet. Despite not getting along with her, Violet take after her mother, Christy. Have you noticed a theme yet?
Christy, Bonnie, and Violet have a tendency to date really stupid men. Baxter is the son of Christy’s youngest son and thinks selling pot is a good way to get money for the child support he is six months behind on. Bonnie will do just about anything that moves. Violet has the most stable relationship with men. She has been with her current boyfriend Luke for around a year. However, Luke’s about as bright as Baxter. The only reason Luke likes bananas is because they come with their own container.
‘Dancing with the Stars’: First Week Jitters
Mondays are my new favorite night when it comes to watching television. No it’s not Monday Night Football for me, but it’s something else that deals with a lot of technique and precision. Season 17 of the Dancing with the Stars started last night on ABC. It was larger than life. Opening the show, the professional dancers came out in style. Having a limo, red carpet, and paparazzi snapping away photos, the choreography was brilliant in how it introduced the new cast the new cast members. The judges and the hosts even got in on the action and danced in the opening act.
Brant Dougherty and Peta Murgatroyd
Pretty Little Liars star Brant Dougherty was the first celebrity to take the dance floor. His partner is Peta Murgatroyd. Their first dance was the cha cha. He said he decided to do the show because he knows how much his mom loves the show. They dance to “Blurred Lines” and a lot of booty shaking was going on. The judges all agreed that he is very easy on the eyes and the chemistry between them two will be very entertaining to watch. Bruno, one of the judges, noticed that Brant lost his timing. It’s the first week and you can only move up from here.
Carrie Ann gave Brant a 7. Len gave the first 8 of the season. Brant received a 7 from Bruno for a 22 out of 30. Now the first week jitters are all over. He must feel very happy and relieved to have gone first because not only are you the first to get it done and out of the way, but now you setting the bar high and raising the standards of the new competition.
(Mostly) Spoiler Free Review of ‘Sleepy Hollow’
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story written by Washington Irving. It has been around for over 200 years and it inspired many adaptations, including the 1999 Tim Burton film. There’s a pretty good chance that you’ve at least heard of it or know the story. Except the people in Sleepy Hollow, the new show that premiered last night on Fox, have no idea of the legendary tale that is coming to life. Now, I didn’t have high expectations for this show because it sounded far-fetched. Like the classic story, Ichabod Crane fights the Headless Horseman. Except, this show takes place in the 21st century and Crane and the Headless Horseman are from 1781. That must have been one hell of a pitch to get this show greenlit.
Now, the show was not as bad as I had expected. It answered a lot of questions in the first episode, such as why Ichabod is British despite fighting the Red Coats in the opening scene and how The Headless Horseman and him aren’t dead. Although, it didn’t answer how Ichabod woke up shirtless and then came across a shirt after he was arrested for, presumably, running in the middle of the street. The latter one could be explained in a future episode, though.
Conan Celebrates 20 Years In Late Night, We Look Back at ‘Late Night’
It’s hard to believe that Conan O’Brien has had a late night talk show for 20 years. Granted, he’s had three of them: Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, and Conan, but that’s still no easy feat. He could have gone the way of Pat Sajak and Chevy Chase a long time ago. Actually, that was expected of him. Very few critics foresaw Conan having a long career and many, as demonstrated in this review from Entertainment Weekly, were unnecessarily harsh. It didn’t help that they were fueled by NBC’s decision to renew Conan’s Late Night contract on a weekly basis.
In hindsight, it is hard to watch Conan’s first night as host of Late Night, especially knowing the terrible treatment he received. Even hardcore Conan fans have to admit, on his first night, he was very green. To be fair, Conan did acknowledge it in a funny way and immediately addressed the fact that everyone kept hounding him with some variation of “better be as good as Letterman.” Conan had potential and viewers were willing to give him a chance, even though his bosses only kept renewing his contract because they had nothing else to throw on the air.
NBC’s ‘Ironside’ Early Preview
NBC’s latest foray into the crime-drama genre comes in the form of Ironside, a remake of a 1960s detective show. It follows Robert Ironside (Blair Underwood), a tough detective from New York City, who is confined to a wheelchair after an on the job shooting. Along with his team of hand picked detectives, he solves the toughest crimes in the city without letting his disability get in the way. Although television is no doubt over saturated with crime dramas and procedurals, ‘Ironside’ manages to infuse a bit of heart and intrigue into the all too familiar formula.
‘Welcome to the Family’ is a Welcome Addition to the NBC Family
Now that summer has finally gone, fall is finally coming into high gear. What’s great about fall is the leaves start changing, the weather gets cooler, everyone becomes obsessed with pumpkin flavor and the new shows premiering this season. Airing October 3rd, NBC has a new comedy entitled Welcome to the Family, which can currently be watched on Hulu. This show is about how two families come together brought on by an unplanned pregnancy. Not only do these families collide, but there cultures do as well. Having a Caucasian family and a Latino family come together as one will certainly bring on the fireworks.
The Yoder family and the Hernandez family are at their children’s graduation. Dan, who is played by Glee’s Mike O’Malley, notices through his camera lens his daughter, Molly is texting at graduation. He points out to his wife, Caroline, that their daughter is texting in the middle of graduation. It’s sad to say how typical it is now; students are so use to relying on their phone that they can’t let them go. They need to be tweeting, updating their Facebook statuses or else they feel lost in the world. Not only wouldn’t they know what’s going on with everyone else, but it also kills time for them. Who wants to sit through the boring speeches when you’re just waiting for your diploma?
Molly’s boyfriend, Junior, is the valedictorian of his school and is Stanford bound. He begins to give a speech to his fellow classmates. As he continues to read the speech off his iPad, he notices a message from his girlfriend saying “I’m pregnant.” Everyone becomes confused as a long awkward silence lingers on in the gymnasium floor. So to break the awkward tension, Junior’s dad, Chuey Herndandez, is the first to stand and applaud his son for having a “short and sweet” speech.
Coming home from graduation, Molly just throws her graduation gown on the stairs and throws her diploma in the living room as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. She was happy to have skated by throughout her high school years. Her dad, Dan, says “Be careful with that, that’s our proof.” Molly doesn’t want to celebrate with her parents, so she decides to “bounce” and opts to spend time with her boyfriend. She asks her dad if he can return her cap and gown as if she doesn’t want to own up to her responsibility.
Molly’s parents are so happy that she graduated that they decided to make her room into a home gym. “She’s Arizona State’s problem now,” Dan says in glee. Clearly, he doesn’t know what’s about to come next.
‘The Million Second Quiz’: All Hype, No Substance
NBC is attempting to make game shows an event again, which isn’t going to happen with The Million Second Quiz. That’s because the show is boring. While Ryan Seacrest is likeable, he talks too much. To make matters worse, most of this chatter is about contestants that viewers only watching the hour in primetime will never get to see play the game or about how line jumpers became contestants. Clearly, NBC didn’t think through the fact that no one will be sitting at home watching the live stream for the remaining 23 hours a day.
When Ryan isn’t talking, the show is the lovechild of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Twenty One with NBC’s version of the Prize Patrol surprising line jumpers, who are contestants that have been playing from the comfort of their own home and now will be flown to New York City to play the game for money, thrown in for good measure. Like daytime Millionaire, every questions has four possible answers. The elements taken from Twenty One are the fact that two contestants answer the questions at the same time and the “doubler,” which is explained in the rules below.
The ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Prank War
This week, America’s Next Top Model was jam-packed with tears and pranks. Marvin, the mastermind of the prank wars, plotted with Don and Jeremy. They want to throw the girls off their game, so they tape the girl’s shoes and underwear onto the walls. Kanani says “It’s a boy on girl war,” and Renee agrees by wanting to get back at the guys and show them whose boss.
Kelly Cutrone, PR maven and one of the judges on America’s Next Top Model, tells the models that they will be creating a shoot for Emerson clothing. The trend is using living photography by following the rules of “random acts of modeling.” Random acts of modeling is a term used for taking pictures of everyday tasks, but posing to make the photo look editorial. The three captains for this challenge were Corey, Kanani, and Don, since they had the top 3 photos from last week. This challenge certainly brought a lot of confusion when it came to working in groups. As Chris points out “there’s a lot of chiefs and not enough Indians.” Even though Kanani is not a real fan of Jourdan’s, Kanani felt it was best to have Jourdan on her team, because she is such a strong competitor. Jourdan apologizes to Renee and Kanani for the way she’s been acting. Kanani accepts her apology but is still keeping her eye out on her. Kanani’s team won the competition, which gives these three girls a better chance of remaining in the competition.
Wait! What's A Dial? 