Hey, TV Addict, are you listening? I’ve got an early contender for next week’s collection of quotes. Because when Bree Van De Kamp Hodge quipped, “Of all the gay men in the world, we have to get the two without taste”, I was on the floor. This show has gotten better and better this season, and Dana Delany — aka “Our new queen, Katherine of Arrogant” — has never been better than she is here. Yes, this season’s mystery has been slow to unfold, but it works because unlike the Applewhite clan, the Mayfair family has been beautifully woven into the existing canvas. It was a nice touch having Gabby’s literal boytoy, John, be the one to help Carlos see the error of his ways. (It’s always nice to see Jesse Metcalfe, who just keeps getting hotter — if no better an actor — with age.) Best of all, with not one but two nice little surprises at the end — one involving Edie, the other Katherine and the new guys on the block — DH continues to prove it knows how to tell the kind of stories its daytime counterparts couldn’t tell if they tried.
I’m a little behind in my viewing, so bear with me. Let’s start with GREY’S ANATOMY, which finally, finally got its mojo back this week. How better to kick off Halloween week (what? You limit your celebrations to a single night?) than with chainsawed limbs, the spilled cremated remains of a loved one and the potentially frightful new duo of Yang and Torres? I’m still wanting to see George and Izzy suffer the consequences of their adulterous affair, and I’m annoyed that even Bailey has jumped on the “you’re not a bad guy, George” bandwagon (’cause, um, yeah, he kinda is). But it was nice to see Callie smile and laugh and do something other than stand around like some kind of target for Mopey Meredith and company to throw abuse at.
I understand exactly how DIRTY SEXY MONEY’s Tripp Darling feels where spoiled twins Juliet and Jeremy are concerned, because it’s exactly the same as how I feel toward this show. It’s got all the advantages — a good time slot, excellent cast — and yet regularly fails to make the most of them. I mean, come on, when Jeremy was standing on the bridge singing “All By Myself”, who didn’t want Juliet to prove him wrong by turning his self-indulgent soliloquy into a dynamic duet? (And am I alone in thinking that Samaire Armstrong is horribly miscast? And that, in fact, Tamara Feldman should be playing Jeremy’s twin rather than his lover?) I’m very much in like with this show, but could so easily be convinced it’s love if it would just try a little bit harder.
The masquerade episode of GOSSIP GIRL was its best offering yet. Maybe it’s just that I’m a sucker for any plot featuring a masked guy kissing the wrong girl.
Friday night, I tried GHOST WHISPERER — a show I’d never seen before — because the promo looked promisingly spooky. Talk about false advertising. Yes, I was glad to see Amy Acker (Fred, to all you BUFFY fans), but how did Camryn Manheim get sucked into this mess? Why does Jay Mohr yell every line? Is this really the same Mohr who was so fantastic in the short-lived series ACTION? And is every episode as ridiculously preposterous as this one, which revealed that an entire town section of Grandview had been built over… despite the fact that the rest of the town was, according to the schematics, exactly where it had always been. Oh, and there was an underground church filled with ghosts who were just kinda hanging out waiting for Jennifer Love Hewitt to come along and tell them what they already knew? Apparently, they’d been hanging out, refusing to go into the light, but sixty seconds of her utterances (or maybe it was that cute black dress) convinced them it was time to go. And not one but two featured ghosts were relatives of JLH’s, not counting her alive-but-always-eyed-with-suspicion half-brother. Yeah, this show is bad. And not even “so bad it’s good” bad, but just plain bad.
I know y’all are probably tired of hearing me sing its praises, but LIFE IS WILD just charms the pants off me… in a G-rated, family friendly, socially-responsible, can’t-we-all-just-get-along, good-will-triumph-over-bad-in-the-end, color-blind kinda way. If you’re looking for something the whole family can watch, give this a try. Please?
Who out there is excited about the upcoming debut of FRANK TV, starring Frank Caliendo. Anyone? Hello? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
