Category: TV (Page 426 of 595)

Hell’s Kitchen: Rancid Crab Spells H-O-M-E

June 19, 2007 /

Last night’s episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” started with the contestants being awakened by the military at 6 a.m. Aaron, of course, had cramping legs and needed help getting up. And Bonnie, of course, was in the shower at the time the bugles sounded, meaning she had to run through the dorm in a towel. Yeah, tell me that wasn’t planned!

Anyway, for the first time ever in Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsey told the contestants they would be cooking breakfast for the Army and Navy soldiers. This played right into the Red team’s strengths, because Julia is a waffle house cook. So though there were a few glitches on the Red side with uncooked potatoes, for the most part Julia led her team to victory as the Blue team could not get their shit together. So as a punishment, the dudes had to peel potatoes and onions all day while the ladies were helicoptered to a Navy ship to have lunch with Ramsey.

Meanwhile, Aaron passed out in the kitchen while peeling potatoes….and was rushed to the hospital. We’ve all had enough of this guy by now, and later in the show Ramsey phones Aaron in the hospital to tell him that since he’s been diagnosed with a serious illness, he can’t return to the show. They never say what’s wrong with Aaron, so we’re kind of left hanging. Hopefully he’s okay and can get back to work soon at the retirement community. He surely wasn’t going to win this thing anyway.

The guys elected Brad their team leader for the next dinner service, though Rock seemed pissed that it wasn’t him. In all, the guys did a much better job minus Aaron at the dinner service. The ladies, meanwhile, had a few issues. The biggest were Joanna serving, or almost serving, rancid crabmeat. Ramsey was shouting at her that she could have killed someone. Then Jen made a bad mistake of taking spaghetti out of the trash and washing it again because they didn’t have time to boil up more.
Julia was smart enough to stop Jen before they served it.

The bottom line about the dinner service? Not many entrees made it out, and people started leaving.
Soon enough, Ramsey shut down the kitchen and declared the Blue team the winners by a slight margin. So he sent the ladies to their dorm to determine which two would be nominated for elimination. Joanna rightfully nominated herself, and after Melissa, Bonnie and Jen agreed that Julia should be the second nominee because, well, she’s a Waffle House cook and knows nothing about fine dining, Jen winds up stepping up to the plate and making herself the third nominee. First of all, nominating Julia is positively ridiculous. Ramsey likes her and the fact that she stepped up and led her team at breakfast. So what if she’s never made a creme brulee? Melissa, in that annoying New Yawk accent, was up on her high horse saying “It took me ten yee-ahs to get to this point.” I seriously hope she fucks up next week and gets booted.

Okay, so then it was down to Jen, Julia and Joanna. Julia was sent back to safety, and Ramsey picked Joanna and her rancid crab to go home. Really, that was the obvious choice because it was such a crucial mistake. Just like the fish last week, I could smell the rancid crab through the TV.

Now that Aaron is gone, the ratings are being left to Bonnie…..last week they had her in panties and a little t-shirt. Last night, it was a towel, and later in a bikini getting into the hot tub. More skin next week? I guess we’ll see, and I’ll see you good people next Tuesday.

TV

Anyone else still into “The Loop”?

June 18, 2007 /

Remember “The Loop”?

It was a funny little sitcom that premiered on Fox in March 2006, starring Bret Harrison as Sam Sullivan, a young airline executive struggling to find the middle ground between work and play. It wasn’t what you’d call groundbreaking or anything – in fact, plot-wise, each 30-minute episode tended to play out like your average wacky teenage comedy – but the performances by Harrison and his co-stars, Mimi Rogers and the invaluable Philip Baker Hall, caused it to rise way above the average. Less utilized but still funny was Joy Osmanski as Harrison’s assistant, who, when assigned to perform menial tasks (like, say, rifling through a dumpster), never failed to mention how much education she had…and where it had gotten her.

There was a lot to like about “The Loop.” It had a very “Scrubs”-like vibe at times, particularly in the office sequences. In fact, because of this, the producers decided that the show needed to be retooled to focus more on Sam’s work and less on his home life. To be fair, that was mostly wise; watching Sam interact with his superiors – one a gruff taskmaster (Hall), the other a man-eater (Rogers) – was where the fun of the show was. So out the door went Sam’s two sexy female roommates, Lizzy and Piper…but, unfortunately, with the disappearance of Piper, so went the possibility of Sam ever having his longtime unrequited crush on her ever come to anything. And that sucks. Sucking worse, however, was keeping the character of Sully, Sam’s slacker brother; he serves more as a plot device than anything else, invariably doing something stupid that gets Sam in trouble. Better they should have kept the romantic angle with Piper. But at least the process of increasing the amount of time Sam spends at work means that they’ve expanded the role of Darcy somewhat. Dare we suggest a liaison between her and Sam…?

If so, it’s liable to be little more than a one-night stand. Now that the show’s finally back on the air, you can hardly hear the dialogue for the sound of Fox yelling, “Dead show walking!” Not that I’m not glad that it’s back, but, geez, you almost have to wonder if doing a second season of the series resulted in some sort of tax write-off for the network. I mean, look at these facts:

1) After a relatively successful first season, Fox declined to put “The Loop” on the Fall 2006 schedule, instead announcing that they’d be doing a 13-episode second season in the spring.
2) In November 2006, Fox announced that the 13-episode order had been cut to 10.
3) The spring schedule arrived…and “The Loop” wasn’t on it; new reports indicate that the show will be airing in early summer.
4) In February, it was announced that Harrison had signed on as the lead in a pilot for a new drama for The CW entitled “Reaper.” Uh-oh. It’s never a good sign for a show’s future when its star is already planning for his next gig.
5) While still waiting for the Season 2 premiere, Fox announced the Fall 2007 schedule…and – surprise, surprise – “The Loop” wasn’t on it.

So, yeah, “The Loop” is back on the air…but, at the rate Fox is blowing through the new episodes (two every Sunday night), it’ll be gone pretty soon. So enjoy it while it lasts…and if you think about it, drop Fox an E-mail and ask them why they treated it so damned poorly.

External Entertainment, External TV, Reaper, TV, TV Comedies

Trouble in paradise

June 17, 2007 /

The creators of “Entourage” took a big risk this week when they chose to shoot the entire episode in the style of a behind-the-scenes DVD documentary, but for the most part, it went over pretty well. The only real issue that I had was with the inclusion of Drama, Turtle and Ari in the confessionals, because no real documentary would even think about interviewing the older brother, best friend or agent of any particular actor. Nevertheless, the fact that they were able to cram the entire production of “Medellin” into a single half-hour is impressive, especially since the audience has yet to see Vince in action.

A majority of the episode revolved around director Billy Walsh’s expected dictatorship over the production – from the decision to shoot the film himself (after beating up the DP) to rewriting the ending – and though Walsh never disappoints Vince with his nut job brilliance, he certainly looked like he was about to pass out from all the stress. Tension builds when Walsh requests Academy Award nominee Stephen Gaghan (“Traffic”) to rewrite the script, but when Eric finally secures the $275,000 to fly him out to Columbia, Walsh finishes it on his own. A waste of money? Perhaps, but I can’t help but think that the sheer idea of Gaghan messing with Walsh’s baby was motivation enough for the young upstart to begin writing.

Aside from that, there really weren’t any major revelations on the story side of things, but I would like to point out a few things that I especially liked about the episode:

1) Did anyone notice the title of the DIY producer’s book that Eric was reading? It was called “Is That Something You Might Be Interested In,” by Bob Ryan.

2) Was it just me, or did Vince look more like Ron Jeremy than a menacing drug lord?

3) Drama can steal an entire episode with just one line. In this case, his cameo at the end of the film as a Columbian soldier ranks among his top three. (in Spanish) “Let’s go kill this motherfucker!”

As for the movie itself, I wasn’t impressed. It felt a little too much like “Scarface” and every other gangster film I’ve ever seen. Then again, if you were as unlucky as me and caught the title of one of the season’s final episodes, then you know exactly how things are going to turn out. I’d suggest you stay away from the ‘ol IMDB for the next few months, but if you absolutely must, please keep your mouth shut for the sake of everyone else.

Entourage, External TV, TV

“Ice Road Truckers” are a bunch of bad mother…well, YOU know.

June 17, 2007 /

I’m not really a fan of reality TV. Oh, sure, I can get sucked into it easily enough, but if I take so much as a moment to reflect on what I’m watching, I usually start to feel guilty…and it really kicks in when the show I’m watching involves a camera crew setting up camp at someone’s job. Generally, you feel as though the producers are strutting around behind the scenes, saying, “Well, here’s proof that any job can look interesting if the footage is cut and edited right.” Yeah, but how about we focus more on jobs that are legitimately interesting?

“Ice Road Truckers” fits that bit handily, providing a look at a job that only lasts for two months out of the year…but, damn, what a job it is. The series focuses on six men who haul supplies across frozen lakes in Canada, not so terribly far from the Arctic Circle. If you’re putting two and two together, your eyebrows are probably rising right about now. Yes, they’re truckers, and they’re driving across frozen lakes…and if the temperature is low enough to freeze lakes to the point where sixteen-wheelers can drive across them, you can imagine that the weather outside is decidedly frightful. In a situation like that, however, it’s actually a good thing; I mean, would you want to be on the “road” and suddenly find that it’s starting to warm up…?

Ice road trucking is a lucrative business…so lucrative that, as is mentioned at one point in the first episode, a trucker who can move 50 loads over the course of two months is looking at a $70,000 payday. You quickly learn, however, that you earn your money. If your truck breaks down, you’re looking at a major delay because you can’t be outside for more than a few minutes without finding yourself on the verge of frostbite…and God forbid you should wreck your rig, because if you do so in a manner that blocks the road, you’re also looking at getting your ass beat by the other truckers. Time is money for these people, and they don’t have much of a sense of humor about losing either.

Actually, one of them has a sense of humor: Alex Deboborski is the guy you find yourself rooting for. He’s always ready with a witty comment. Of the other five, Hugh Rowland is the so-called “Polar Bear,” and as a guy who’s become a self-made millionaire from his work in the business, he’s the one to beat; it’s a little strange, though, that when his truck breaks down before he can get even get started, you feel bad for him…and you feel even worse when you hear the smart-ass young buck, Rick Yemm, mouthing off about how he’s kicking Hugh’s ass on the road. Really, the only person of the bunch you don’t have less sympathy for than Rick is T.J. Tilcox, who’s on his first-ever ice road trucking stint and can’t seem to have the camera turned on him without whining about how much he hates the cold and ice. Dude, it’s calling ice road trucking; what did you think you were gonna be in for…?

“Ice Road Truckers” starts a little slow, but after the back story of the industry is laid out for the viewer, the show settles into following the personalities of the individual truckers, the competition of who’s gotten the most loads delivered, and the trials and tribulations they’re all facing on the ice roads. Check the show out on The History Channel starting tonight; it’ll make for nice, cold viewing on those hot summer nights.

BONUS: Wanna win some “Ice Road Truckers” swag, plus a $100 gas card? Head over to Bullz-Eye…specifically, to here…to get in the game!

External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TV

Barker says Rosie could ne next “Price” host

June 16, 2007 /

If you’re ready to see “The Price Is Right” finally fail, you may have your chance. According to Bob Barker, CBS is going to “have a meeting” with Rosie O’Donnell to be the new host. He then added, “[W]hether they want a lady host, I don’t know. I’ve never heard that discussed. As far as I know, they’ve only auditioned men.”

So far, everything Rosie’s been related to in TV has either been cancelled or has not gone well for her. Granted, “The Price Is Right” has that cockroach lifespance going for it, but if O’Donnell takes over hosting, you can be sure something will go awry like clockwork. Frankly, I think someone like Eddie Izzard would really make that show, but he’s too busy doing actual work for such a deal.

Gossip, TV

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑