Pepi.

Just a quick post about the Apprentice last night because Trump cracked me up. Carolyn too.

It's down to the final two and Sean and Lee had to pick from all the fired candidates to construct their teams to help them. Inexplicably, Lee chose Pepi who had been fired week 2. He could have had a range of candidates that lasted longer and were much stronger but he goes with Pepi.

So after they leave the boardroom having informed Trump of their choices, Carolyn is seen whispering and laughing her head off at the same time, "Who was that guy on the far right?"

Trump consulted some papers and asked "Pepi? Is it Pepi? 'Pepi, you're fired.' Did I say that?!"

Too funny for words.

Kulats?

Tonight on the Apprentice, the producers and editors began their crowning of Sean as the winner and hero of the season.

He started out by talking fondly of Tammy, the girl who was fired last week. Then he kicked bootie on the task, all to bring down Allie and Roxanne, for the sake of Tammy. Then during the reward, he admitted he wanted to have Apprentice babies with Tammy.

But let's back up...

The task was to design new uniforms for Embassy suite employees. They would be judged by the employees. Both teams spoke first with executives and then with actual employees who would be wearing the uniforms. It was obvious from the focus groups that these people didn't want drastic changes and that while the executives wanted the team members to make the decision, they were concerned very much with branding and functionality.

So Allie and Roxanne ignored the employees and designed some high concept fashion. Sean and Lee made minor modifications to what was already worn, updating the look and function (like vents in a chef's coat...fleece handwarmers in the lining of the bellmen's coats), and won in a major landslide.

Sean and Lee got to have dinner with Donald Jr. and Ivanka. This season has been the year of Ivanka and she's an awesome addition to the show. She has great insight into the tasks and is charming and smart but also pointed and direct. She is blunt like her dad but in a much warmer way. She and her brother were very cute in discussing their father.

But then in the boardroom Ivanka ripped the uniforms to shreds. Particularly she pointed out the idiocy of khaki chef's coats - they are white so they can be bleached, nimrods. Though she didn't use the word nimrod.

In the end, Allie and Roxanne were fired because they attacked each other. They were in a lose lose situation, no doubt. Roxanne wouldn't speak up for herself because of their friendship; then when she did, she lost because she was disloyal to her friend.

So two more episodes with the final two. Obviously Sean is the leader as Lee has been too much of a politician thus far.

Ka-chung...ka-chung...

Anyone wanting to discuss 24 can do so right here...I'm behind so I'll chime in later on tape delay if you will.

Two Series Finales

I watched the finales of two shows I haven't really watched all that consistently in a long time: Will & Grace and That 70's Show.

First up : 70's.

Yeah, that show shoulda ended when Topher left. Topher brought the extra something to it that made it more than just a really lame sitcom. So while most of the hour focused on wrapping up the lives of his friends you never really got into, I was just waiting for Eric to show up again. Even the appearance of Kelso didn't really pick up the humor much. And in the end, predictably, Eric returned, he and Donna made up on the hood of the car in the driveway and the 70's ended. Do Eric and Donna last forever? Probably.

Then I switched over to Will & Grace. I knew from all the publicity that they were going to flash the storylines ahead a bit and I knew that they really had to. The problem with this show for me has always been that Will & Grace were never growing. They constantly used their relationship as a crutch to avoid a romantic relationship - at least they had each other, right? So to go from that for 8 years, to suddenly having resolution, they did needed to forward the story a bit.

What I wasn't prepared for was how quickly they did it. One minute it's 2 years later and the next, it's 20 years. Still, they had me until the last commercial break. That's when they came back and we found Jack and Karen and Rosie living together and suddenly Jack and Karen were singing to each other. Huh? That turned into Will and Grace planning the wedding of their children then meeting for a drink at a bar with Jack and Karen, then clinking glasses and turning back the clock to the present.

I guess I'm just a girl who prefers that the Friends went off to the coffee shop at the end...life went on without wrapping it up.
Don't know. Something just didn't feel right about the last ten minutes. Perhaps they could have left it that Will & Grace had a 20 year break and found each other again, without that bar scene. And as lovely as Megan Mullaly sings, I just don't get why they burst into song like that.

Fall Renewals

Looks like the networks have about wrapped up their fall schedules.
Good news for us here at the site. Looks like the shows we love are all coming back.

Including Supernatural (go Larka!).
And Prison Break (go Kiki!).

And Seventh Heaven.
WHAT!?!??!

That's right, in case you missed the so-called finale, BOTH times it aired, CW has decided to bring it back. So you missed nothing. Though next fall we'll have a plethora of Camden twins to watch come into the world and go for ice cream.

The Race, It's Over...

So the Hippies won and I'm happy about that. I think any of the three teams, in the end, were the kind of racers I enjoy watching. They were competitive, didn't whine, didn't give up and had fun.

I loved these last two legs and wish that some of the earlier legs were as challenging. I think if they did that, the whole season woulda been more exciting. Yes, the bottlenecks at airports leveling out the racers is predictable. But the types of tasks and actually hiding the clues so that they weren't easy to find led to more interesting editing.

So it's on again in the fall and I'm looking forward to it. I just hope that when they get back into it again, they do more of the difficult stuff again, and not so much drive to the gas station, ask the attendant for the clue, easy stuff.

On a parallel Earth...

I've been watching a lot the past few days as I rest and rest for the impending birth of my little Yoda.

What have I seen?

Upside of Anger. Blah. I liked Kevin Costner's performance but didn't realize it was a Mike Binder movie until I popped it in and I don't like his style of writing so...I sat through it but it was mainly blech.

The Family Stone. Much better. I meant to see this last Christmas but missed it. Luke Wilson was really good and it was fun to see Claire Danes as a grown up.

Broken Flowers. Even better. Jeffrey Wright just about stole the movie from Bill Murray. Another of Bill Murray's indie roles that I'm so glad he's taken on at this stage in his career. The two of them together is just fun. The movie itself was quirky and probably not for everyone but I liked it.

Finally...SNL with Al Gore. Last night the show opened by explaining that there are parallel Earths out there in the universe and then let us see the Presidential address of one of them: where Al Gore is President and everything that is currently wrong with this country is fixed by his lockbox. Best of all? Al Gore was played by Al Gore and not Darrell Hammond.

The Office

Ok, did anyone watch it last night?!?!

My husband about fell out of bed at the end.

GO JIM!

Of course, for this show to last there is no way that his declaration of love and kissy poo of Pam will do much of anything, except maybe make her postpone the wedding.


Meanwhile, on the British version that's airing on PBS, it was the episode where Tim asked Dawn out thinking she and Lee had broken up. How appropriate.

Haven't You Always Wanted a mon-KEY?

Last night the Race invaded Thailand and the pertinent questions (would they let the hippies really start the next leg without shoes?) were answered. And the answer is they mean it when they say "whatever you are wearing." So the one hippie who ran to the mat in his underwear and a t-shirt indeed had to start the next leg without pants or shoes.

Except the other racers were somewhat kind. One donated flip flops - not the best racing gear but at least he could enter the airport - and another, a woman, gave him pants. So he had women's pants and flip flops to start off the leg. And they went and begged for money and he wound up in jeans. And they came in first for the leg so it was all a moot point.

Meanwhile, the monkeys. Who didn't love the monkeys? One of the road blocks was for a member of the team to build a feast for the monkeys in Thailand. And the monkeys kept destroying the tables before they had a chance to finish. It was quite awesome.

In the end, MoJo stupidly chose another physical task that had Mo whining about it being the "hardest thing I've ever had to do" and they lost and were eliminated.

Leaving us with Frat Boys, whose playing with the monkeys was fun, Ray and Yolanda, who are my faves now, and the hippies to battle it out next week in the finale.

Gilmore Finale

So what did we think?

I'm curious because I have my own opinions but I wanna hear from you.

Some things worth mentioning: Chloe from 24 was one of the troubadours (the one who sang about lost her car).
Rory really did have a bad English accent. Seems odd that in an episode featuring so much music, Lane was absent.

Otherwise, I'll try to just report the facts and let others pipe in with opinions.

The troubadours are in town trying to get a deal like the town's regular dude who went on tour with Neil Young. This drove Taylor crazy.

Logan graduated from Yale and Rory did her best to help him celebrate before he left for England. He asked her to ask him to stay and she refused though she couldn't stand him leaving. Earlier, she had a run in with his dad who made a point of letting her know that this job in Englad was about making Logan act like a grownup. She couldn't argue with that.

Lorelei continued to dodge Luke. She ended up at Friday dinner with her parents who also invited Christopher and (the boss from the Office) a psychologist named Linny. She and Chris didn't hit it off but she ended up giving Lorelei a session in the back of her car in her parents' driveway. She told Lorelei to stop waiting, to go out and get what she wants and that sometimes things aren't meant to be.

So Lorelei went off to Luke's and issued an ultimatum, which Luke of course doesn't respond to. She demands they elope, now or never. She did point out she's been tiptoeing around the past few months before issuing her demand. When he tells her he needs to think, she storms off...to Christopher's bed.

You take the good, you take the bad...

Aw Yeah!
Facts of Life on DVD!

Oh Brian...

What a contrast, watching Barry Watson goof it up on 7th Heaven and then turning around and watching his heart break on What About Brian.

They must bring this show back! I must find out what happens when Dina finds out Dave jumped on the open marriage bandwagon just as she ended it with her fling.

I must find out how Adam reacts to the fight he witnessed between Marjorie and Brian!

I must!


Meanwhile, 7th Heaven ended as corny as it has ever been. Three of the 7 siblings are currently pregnant with twins!?!?!

Let's all tip our 40's...

It's time to say goodbye to 7th Heaven, y'all.
MARY'S BACK!

Yes, the black sheep of the family (whose life went into the toilet once she tp-ed the gym with her basketball team...) shall return for tonight's episode. Best part of all? If they'd let Barry Watson ask "What about Brian?" and do some crossover promotion.

Stick that in your didgeridoo....

Tonight's Race was particularly good. The four teams left suddenly have some spice to them. The Hippies are stirring up trouble by "starting rumors" about Monica and Jeremy (or is it Eric? Still can't tell the Frats apart...). But really, Jeremy (or Eric?) is the one causing the problem by flirting with her. It's the fact that neither she nor Joseph can handle the truth about that that's funny and making them so mad. Then Jeremy (or Eric?) cancelled all these cabs - including their own - so it looked like MoJo had done it so of course the Hippies Yielded them. So MoJo, even though the Yield is completely part of the game, got all mad.

The best parts? Ray and Yolanda WON THE LEG! And some Mercedes' leases.
Then the last three teams got caught in a footrace at the end that the Hippies barely lost. But, it was a non-elim leg so they'll be around to torment MoJo a bit longer.
Tee hee.

Gilmore?

I worked through Gilmore again. I had a few reactions:

Lorelei is being written in a way I don't buy. I haven't always agreed with her but it's not in her character to act that way with Luke. I'd hope that by now she'd grow up and be an adult and that Luke is the one person worth her doint that for. You always had that feeling as she let other relationships die because they weren't Luke.

So I'm ticked about this week and I'm ticked about next.

Oh Brian, What About You?

I've decided I officially like this show and hope it will be picked up. Next week is the season finale...gee, 6 episodes and out?

Last night Brian tried in vain to hole up in his apartment with Roommate Girl. His friends, so obesessed with him always being able to come to their beck and call, fell apart with out him. And of course, in the end, his dream girl accidentally ruined his relationship with Roommate Girl.

Fashion is the Passion

The Apprentice last night had some humor to it. Sorta reminded me more of the first season when we focused a bit more on the candidates and less on the stupid sponsors.

First Trump mocked his own hair.

Then Charmaine, PM for her team, decided to get her hair did instead of selling products at the salon they had taken over.

Then, in my favorite moment, Tarek and Lee started discussing what they were going to wear into the board room in the middle of the task. Talk about giving up. "I think I'm going with the black suit..."

Finally, as Tarek and Charmaine rode off in their cab of defeat together, they were completely silent.