Category Archives: Primetime
‘Double Divas’ Look For the Perfect Fit
As a woman, I have mixed feelings about Lifetime’s Double Divas. On one hand, I think it’s great that the women at LiviRae Lingerie, which is in Kennesaw, Georgia, help women of all sizes find the perfect bra and panties. On the other, it’s awkward watching women on television going through the intimate experience of trying on intimate apparel, especially when you realize that the show will appeal to the demographic that makes do with the Victoria Secret catalog because their older brother refuses to buy them Playboy.
Setting all of that aside, Double Divas is definitely worth a look. The show is in the same vein as TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown. Because the show deals with lingerie, it will not be for everyone, but it doesn’t have to be. LiviRae owners Molly Hopkins and Cynthia Richards understand that most women want bras that are functional and pretty. They get that pretty does not equal sexy and that not everyone is comfortable showing off their breasts.
‘Breaking Bad’: ‘Buried’ Deep With No Way Out
You know how some teenagers think they’re invincible? They’ll maybe pass by a car wreck on the side of the road and think, “Hey, that could never happen to me” and continue to race down the highway without caution. But then it does happen and it’s scary. It’s scary and it sets them straight.
That is Walter White. He finally had his epiphany in “Buried” on Sunday night. How many times have we heard him acknowledge that he isn’t perfect?
“I screwed up.”
Those words sounded almost foreign coming from his mouth. There was no lying. There was no blaming anybody else. It was an honest statement, a statement that wasn’t totally self-serving, and from Walt, those are rare. He told Skyler that he’d turn himself in and told her to take the money. If anything, he’ll leave his family with a little bit (or a lot, really) of security regardless of the fate he suffers. It was actually sort of heartwarming. It’s one of his final statements of the episode, though, that kind of set all of that aside. His plea for Skyler to not let all of his hard work go to waste was more like the Walt we’re used to, the Walt who just last week begged Jesse to believe him because Walt needed him to.
James Bond: On TV and American
Everyone knows James Bond as a suave, debonair, British fellow, who likes his martini’s shaken, not stirred. However, that wasn’t always the case when it came to screen adaptations of Ian Fleming’s novels. In 1954, CBS bought the rights to adapt Casino Royale for television. On October 1954 of the same year, this adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel aired live as part of CBS’s Climax!, later renamed Climax Mystery Theater, anthology series. For some reason, CBS decided to make James Bond, played by Barry Nelson, an American, who works for a fictional counterpart to the CIA.
‘The Jeselnik Offensive’ Tries Too Hard To Be Offensive
The Jeselnik Offensive, hosted by Anthony Jeselnik, makes a point of being offensive. Actually, that’s the show’s entire schtick. It gets old fast. You shouldn’t be uncomfortable to laugh at a joke when you are alone, yet Jeselnik loves uncomfortable laughter. Jeselnik’s onstage persona is extremely punchable. It’s a mixture of Daniel Tosh, Craig Kilborn, and British comedian Jimmy Carr, who is one of the few people to pull off shock comedy well.
Most of his jokes are offensive because they are not funny. Asking your audience to turn off Amber Alert on their phones is in bad taste. Following it up with a joke about Usher’s son almost drowning in a pool is horrible. When he finally does get to a joke in poor taste that would be funny coming out of a comedian who would show some remorse, he’s already gone way too far.
‘Cutthroat Kitchen’ Is ‘Chopped’ For Jerks
Cutthroat Kitchen is the food competition genre’s jump the shark moment. Food Network took the basic formula of Chopped and made some minor changes that cheapen the concept.
Chopped has four competitors take unusual ingredients and attempt to make the best dish possible. After each round, one person is eliminated. At the end of the third round, a winner is decided. Skill and creativity win Chopped. There is no sabotage. Cutthroat Kitchen‘s producers took one look at that format and said “forget skills, let’s give the contestants money and have them screw each other over repeatedly,” resulting in a show that targets the coveted aspiring sadist demographic and everyone else finds off-putting. Even if you find the concept intriguing, anyone with a conscience will watch five minutes and give up because they have standards.
‘Breaking Bad’: Tread Lightly Because Heisenberg’s Back
After what had to be the longest bathroom trip in history, Breaking Bad finally returned on Sunday following an 11-month break. Like many viewers expected, Vince Gilligan and company delivered. The season five second-half premiere was tense from start to finish – it was hard to remember to breathe. But who would have expected anything else?
“Blood Money” began with a handful of twenty-somethings skateboarding in an empty pool. It became clear that they were in the backyard of the White residence once one caught air and went just beyond the lip of the pool. Sure enough, we got a view of the front of the house, now fenced in and dilapidated. Future Walt pulls up in his now-familiar Volvo and enters the abandoned home, now featuring the word “Heisenberg” spray-painted in large letters across a wall. Walt retrieves his hidden stash of ricin and leaves the house, only to be seen by his visibly shaken neighbor Carol, who promptly drops her bag of groceries once she realizes who she’s looking at. She’s terrified. Leave it to Walt to think he’d be able to slip into his condemned home unseen. His invincibility complex never ceases to amaze. The amount of time that’s passed from where “Gliding Over All” ended to where this episode began is unclear, but one thing is certain: shit went down, and it was bad.
Watching Alan in ‘What’s Alan Watching?’
What’s Alan Watching?, a pilot produced by Eddie Murphy, originally ran on CBS in 1989. The show, though, never got picked up past the first episode. Sort of hard to believe, as it was the perfect recipe for an 80’s or 90’s television show: the dweeby, in this case younger, sibling has to deal with his jerk older brother (David Packer) and ditzy, self-centered sister played by a pre-The Nanny Fran Drescher, whose lack of “MAAA” shouts was a little jarring for me. For Alan Hoffstetter, the dweeb in What’s Alan Watching?, played by Corin Nemec, the only way to do that is through televsion.
Military Channel’s ‘America: Fact vs. Fiction’ Sets the Record Straight
Continuing, this week’s trend of articles about shows you should be watching on channels you probably don’t watch is America: Fact vs. Fiction on the Military Channel.
America: Fact vs. Fiction is perfect for history buffs and high school history classes with two weeks left until summer vacation. The shows target audience unusual because those who are true history buffs will already know a lot of the facts presented on the show, but those who could learn something from the America: Fact vs. Fiction will never know that this show exists. However, people who love history will enjoy trying to catch mistakes in the information the show claims is true.
CNBC Knows How To Make ‘The Profit’
CNBC is not the first place most people would turn to at all, especially for primetime programming. Other Mad Money with screaming lunatic Jim Cramer and maybe Squawk Box, few people can name a show on CNBC. While most people will ignore The Profit simply because its on a channel more concerned with the Dow Jones Industrial Average than providing mainstream entertainment, they will be missing out a show that is in the same mold as Tabatha’s Salon Takeover and the extremely popular Restaurant Impossible.
Most Ridiculous Sites Dedicated to TV
The Internet is a strange place. Hardcore fans of TV shows are a weird bunch. What happens when you combine the two? These websites.
Law & Order & Food
People love Law & Order, all 200 versions of it. Some are incredibly dedicated and document every background event. Those fans are responsible for this Tumblr page, which is dedicated to documenting every time Munch munches and Detective Briscoe wants a sandwich. Law & Order & Food features pictures from all of Law & Order’s spin-offs. While criminals caught on Law & Order have the right to remain silent, all food that appears has “the right to remain delicious.”
Wait! What's A Dial? 