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Critic Tom Maurstad and contributor Darla Atlas offer views, news and nuggets on all things television. March 2010
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Talking TV: Ends and beginnings What we're watching: Thursday night, "The Office" Project Runway: Hardware or "hard to wear" Project Runway: Making it work Project Runway: Construction workers Recent Comments
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March 5, 2010
This week's Talking TV has a theme! (Gasp!) In "Ends and Beginnings," Tom and I discuss various ends (the Nip/Tuck finale, the Burn Notice finale, etc.) and beginnings (the Parenthood premiere, Monday's Gossip Girl premiere). Join us on moviesblog.dallasnews.com on Sunday night for our live commentary during the Oscars telecast. Listen to this week's Talking TV here or download it on iTunes. ![]() ![]() The entry "Talking TV: Ends and beginnings" has no entry tags.
Oh baby. I'm a die-hard "Office" fan, but I didn't really care for the much-hyped "baby" episode, "The Delivery." The first half focused on Pam being in labor, but not wanting to go to the hospital yet because the HMO only covers so much time in the hospital. Jim was practically doubled over with worry, but Michael decided to band the office together in an effort to distract Pam from her labor pains. Once the baby, a girl names Cecilia Marie Halpert, arrives, the episode divded itself between the Halperts getting to know their daughter and the action back at Dunder Mifflin, where a proud Michael tries to start new families within the office by playing matchmaker. ![]() ![]() The entry "What we're watching: Thursday night, "The Office"" has no entry tags.
Texas' Colby Donaldson survives to play another week on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, but it was a very close scrape Thursday night for one of the "good guys" of the Heroes team.' Read on for who was evicted: ![]() ![]() The entry "Survivor: Close one for Colby" is tagged: Cirie Fields , Coach Ben Wade , Russell Hantz , Survivor; Colby Donaldson March 4, 2010
The guest judges this week are Isabel Toledo, designer to the First Lady, and Stephen Webster, jewelry designer. On the runway, Mila's black and white plastic dress is pretty cool, but Jesse's metal puff ball is crazy. Jonathan's copper number is forgettable. Anthony actually made a feminine, lavender cocktail dress. Ben's copper outfit is overshadowed by the appearance of Emilio's "garment." Maya's dress looks like it belongs to Lady Gaga. During judging, Ben, Jonathan, Amy and Seth Aaron move on to the next round. Mila's paint tray dress gets rave reviews, but Emilio is taken down a peg for not having any discernible pattern. (They actually give him more credit than he deserves and think he was trying to be creative and not make a dress, when really, he just ran out of material.) Anthony (unjustly) gets insulted because he made something pretty and soft when he should have embraced the "hardness" of the hardware. Maya's dress recieves compliments, but Jesse's is compared to a dirty vacuum bag, a Hershey's kiss, a ballerina and the Tin Man. (Called it!) But Jay outshines everyone with his "luxury" trash bag outfit - he scores unanimous praise. Maya is in and Jay is the winner of the challenge. Mila and Anthony are in, too. It comes down to Jesse and Emilio... predictably, Jesse is out. Emilio committed a grave error, but at least it was a statement. Jesse's never been a shining star and so he didn't have anything to rest on. Oh well... Auf wiedersehen, Jesse! Next time: "Anyone could go at any time." "Is anyone else as worried as I am?" "It looks like a cat in a baby sling." All this and more on the next Project Runway! ![]() ![]() The entry "Project Runway: Hardware or "hard to wear"" has no entry tags.
Mila gets a good critique from Tim, but Jesse's is more mixed. (The words "elementary school" and "project" are thrown around.) Tim's perturbed by the guys' overuse of copper. Emilio's "intergalactic macrame flapper" gives Tim some concern, as does Anthony's warped skirt. But on the other end of the spectrum, Tim says Jay's garbage bag pants are "spectacular" and Maya's keys necklace is "stunning." Emilio is still in crisis - his garment looks atrocious. It is literally a bikini made of washers and hot pink string. Elsewhere, Jesse stops sewing and starts using electrical tape on his Tin Man-ballerina-looking dress. Amy's sandpaper outfit looks awesome, though. ![]() ![]() The entry "Project Runway: Making it work" has no entry tags.
The contestants rejoice over being in the top ten. Tim Gunn and Michael Kors tell the designers that they'll be designing a garment and an accessory... out of items purchased at a hardware store. Amy's excited. Emilio's not. Per usual, everyone kinda cheats and tries to buy things in yards - like sheet metal or screens. Emilio goes over budget and ends up with some cord and washers. Whoops. Anthony focuses on innovation and tries to make something soft out of hardware. Seth Aaron hammers away at sheet metal. Amy and Jonathan flirt (?) and laugh as they work. Jay thinks everyone is going the "easy" route by making dresses. It seems everyone's having trouble with their materials - but no one makes it seem as charming as Anthony, who says he's being controlled by the materials. ![]() ![]() The entry "Project Runway: Construction workers" has no entry tags.
...are Jermaine Sellers, Michelle Delamor and Haeley Vaughn. As Ryan had Haeley and Lacey Brown to walk to center stage to hear their fate, Simon was asked if one of them deserved another chance. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Also leaving us..." has no entry tags.
The first person leaving us tonight is John Park. No big surprise there, right? He hasn't made much of an impact yet, and it's probably high time to be doing so. ![]() ![]() The entry "American Idol: Another four outta here" has no entry tags. March 3, 2010
It seems clear now that there are three standout women in this year's contest -- and they're all very quirky. Or "strange," as Simon put it about Siobhan Magnus, the glassblowing apprentice. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: The girls to watch" has no entry tags.
So after a super-strong start by Crystal, things have been flying downhill. I thought Amarillo's Lacey Brown did a great job with "Kiss Me" (and aren't her eyes the prettiest you've ever seen), but the judges just pooh-poohed it. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Halfway point" has no entry tags.
The perky teen went with perky teen Miley Cyrus' hit, "The Climb." It was, as Randy put it, excrutiating. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Haeley Vaughn" has no entry tags.
It appears that after Week One, in which the judges took turns in their speaking order, Simon is now going to be the last person to talk at all times. Good. All is right with the world, I say. (But you have to wonder if that ruffled a few other folks' feathers, because they were mixing things up for a reason, I'm assuming.) ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Judges' lineup" has no entry tags.
Luckily, Crystal Bowersox has bounced back from her illness enough to perform tonight. What illness was that, exactly? Nobody's saying. Crystal just said she's a "tough cookie," while Ellen noted, "I was so scared for you." (Yikes! That just makes us want to be in on the secret even more, but OK, fine.) ![]() ![]() The entry "American Idol: Girls" has no entry tags.
![]() ![]() The entry ""Lost" haiku: S6, Ep. 6" has no entry tags.
Yeah, kind of a bummer, but the thing with Southland is that it's awesome. Those of us that have been watching since the very beginning are invested. And if Jay Leno can return to The Tonight Show and beat David Letterman just like that, than doggone it, we're going to make sure everyone knows about the greatness that TNT's bringing us. The episode starts with the cool, HBO-like intro stills, then we see Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) getting jumped after he and his partner, John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), come on the scene of a small riot. We then backtrack and see an elderly man pruning rose bushes in his front yard before a shadowy figure approaches. Then, Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King) is on the phone with her partner, Russell, who we last saw shot and bloody in the season finale. He's in the hospital with a nasty scar on his stomach, but otherwise he seems good - and almost like he's flirting with Lydia? ![]() ![]() The entry "What we're watching: 'Southland' finally goes to 'Phase Three'" is tagged: Ben McKenzie , cable tv , cops , Regina King , Southland March 2, 2010
Haiku reminder: Check back here on Wednesday morning for Samantha Urban's much shorter -- and more poetic -- recap. Finally, the Sayid episode (OK, I admit it, while everyone else was oohing and ahhing over Jack and Sawyer, Sayid was always my Lost crush). Sayid (Naveen Andrews) spent the entire episode, both on the island and in Sideways World, wrestling with his evil past (Iraqi Republican Guard, torture, etc.) and the hope for a violence-free future. On the island, he confronts Dogen (Hiroyuki Sanada), who nearly kills Sayid until he's stopped by the sight of a ... rolling baseball. Dogen, lovingly caressing his baseball, tells Sayid to leave the temple and never return. And yes! A baseball has 108 stitches -- I learned that from Bull Durham -- and so does a Buddhist or Hindu rosary (not a Catholic rosary, as also stated in Bull Durham -- it's not the one-stop resource for info, apparently, that I'd always thought it was.) But anyway, there's that pesky 108 again. We learn later that Dogen's 12-year-old son was killed on the way home from a baseball game, when Dogen was driving drunk. PHOTO by Mario Perez/ABC: Naveen Andrews as Sayid on Lost ![]() ![]() The entry "'Lost' recap: Sayid chooses, and it's a bad choice" is tagged: Andrea Gabriel , Bull Durham , Emilie de Ravin , Evangeline Lilly , Hiroyuki Sanada , Kevin Durand , Lost on ABC , Naveen Andrews , Terry O'Quinn
Andrew Garcia, Aaron Kelly and Jermaine Sellers all sort of fell into the same trap. It's called Boring. (No offense, because I love Andrew in particular. Not tonight, though.) ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: The rest" has no entry tags.
The Duncanville resident jokingly called last week's horrendous performance (and subsequent lashing by Simon) "a great confidence booster." This week, he went back to his original style with "Come On Get Higher." Was it stupendous? No. But it was 100 times better than last go-round. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Tim Urban" has no entry tags.
In another attempt to make a popular song his own, Todrick chose Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It." But unlike last week, he kept the basic melody, which was nice. I personally enjoyed the whole thing. (Except for the backup singers, who were distracting.) ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Todrick Hall" has no entry tags.
The North Richland Hills teen is in a very good position at this point in the show. Not only is he a great singer, he's somoene the judges want to take under their wings. Simon even said he wished he could pick out Alex's songs for him. Wow. ![]() ![]() The entry "Idol: Alex Lambert" has no entry tags. |
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