Lazy Hazy Days

I blame my lack of posting on the combo of 90 degree days and crazy torrential rain. Or just plain laziness on my part. It's odd to only have three shows in my viewing rotation (until tomorrow that is, when the highly-anticipated second season of "Burn Notice" premieres).

I've been very pleased with this season of "Army Wives" thus far. I have no idea why, but every other episode causes me to get a bit teary-eyed; although in my defense, killing off Amanda the way they did should make anyone cry. At least a little. Unless you're a robot.

"My Boys" on the other hand, has been a bit underwhelming. The premiere was quite anticlimactic -- were we really supposed to be believe that PJ had a thing for Bobby again?! She moved on (and so did this viewer). Personally, I think those two kids are better off as friends. I'm also not quite sure what to think of the whole Bobby and the hot nanny relationship. Partly because I remember the chick from her guest spot last season on "Chuck" (she was a rival of Sarah's who tried to stir up trouble between the two lovebirds). I think I mentioned it back then as well, does she remind anyone else of an anorexic Cameron from "House?"

I still heart "My Boys," especially anytime the always hilarious Jim Gaffigan (Andy) is in a scene. And Mike's creepily spot-on 'McConaughey' had me rolling. Lastly, what's up with Kenny gettin all the chicks?

"In Plain Sight" has managed to earn a spot on my DVR series recording list. I struggled to make it through the pilot -- I swear that Mary was either taking off or putting on her jacket every five minutes! Thankfully, the show has improved as the season has progressed. It always helps to bring in Dave Foley for a guest spot. A comically-evil Dave Foley. I almost felt bad when he was outsmarted by the marshals in the end. Almost.

I love Mary's partner, Marshall (Marshall the marshal - can you tell I'm easily amused?). If it wasn't for his comedic relief, I probably would've stopped watching after episode two.

What I don't like so much are Mary's mother and sister. They really add nothing to the plot. Can't we just have them go all Thelma & Louise and drive off a cliff together? Would anyone really miss them? It seems to me that Lesley Ann Warren keeps getting typecast. Her floozy, boozy unemployed mom character is pretty much the exact same one she played on "Desperate Housewives." Mary's good-for-nothing sister is equally as annoying. Although I have to say, at least the writers are attempting to humanize her (with the whole taking-care-of-Mary's-kinda-boyfriend bit).

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My Boys Season Two Premiere TONIGHT!

Episode 121: Rome, If You Want To

Countdown to Italy! Only 72 hours left and PJ still hasn’t picked her travel companion. Stephanie’s freaking out (as only Stephanie does).

The guys are helping her review her options: one of the four of them.
•Kenny: has random relatives living in various parts of the Italy.
•Bobby: his family owns a villa in Florence AND he speaks Italian
•Mike: says “everybody over there speaks Italian,” but he’ll be her personal valet. He also promises not be creepy.
•Brendan; says they’re excellent travel companions, citing Costa Rica and six days of beer, surfing, beer, shrimp tacos, and beer.

Andy brings up the point that there are plenty of great sites to visit in their own city that are just as great as traveling abroad (this is obviously the show’s love letter to the city of Chicago). So he plans a field trip/day off for the gang to visit one place they’ve never gone to before.

Next day, PJ awakens from a horrifying dream involving her waking up to half-naked, beer-downing Mike on one side and bouffant-sporting Kenny. Needless to say, she decides she would be much better off going it alone in Italy. Or in reality, playing the third wheel to Steph and her debt counselor/BF Lance.

Then…koinky dink! Old love interests begin popping up left and right:

Option #1: Evan the botanist shows up at Crowley’s. He’s been in Belize and has just returned. He was really digging her and invites her to his parents’ lake house in Michigan (full of mosquitoes and fat people with annoying accents). She tells him she’ll call when she gets back.

Option #2: The Cute Cub. He’s just been traded to the Brewers. SO he can now officially tell her he’s got a huge crush and would love to have dinner (or breakfast..or both!). Again, she promises to call when she gets back.

Option #3: Thorn. Turns out he didn’t get married. He also wants to have dinner with PJ….in Italy! Can you guess what her response was?

The girl still decides to go it alone.

Forgot to mention the events of Andy’s Big Day Off Tour of Chicago. They start with Bobby’s pick - the Art Institute (where only the audience sees that Bobby’s family trust donated an entire exhibit to the museum – man, they really ARE loaded). Next stop, Kenny’s pick: the Sears Tower. He’s afraid of heights, thus he’s never been to the top. He clings to the walls once inside.

Mike: “There’s a full ½ inch of glass between you and splat! on the pavement.”
“That wasn’t very supportive was it?”

Later, Andy shows up as the tour guide on a double-decker bus to show Brendan “something he’s never seen before,” then proceeds to serenade everyone with “Danke Schoen.”

The Plane The Plane!
Steph and Lance are already on board, waiting for PJ. PJ shows up, slightly frantic. She tells them that she took Steph’s advice and called up someone to be her date. He said yes and was supposed to meet her at the airport. The mystery guy still hasn’t shown up. PJ is feeling dejected, having put herself out there only to end up disappointed. But wait! The flight attendant brings some surprising news:

“Penelope Franklin? The gentleman has upgraded your ticket to first class.
You have a glass of champagne waiting for you behind those curtains.”

Stephanie peeps her head to get a view, “Who is it?” Well we’ll find out tonight won’t we?

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My Boys Recap: Episode 120

Episode 120: 110 Percent Solution

Mike thinks getting hit in the head with a baseball is nothing. He who vomited after getting hit in the nuts with a water balloon.

Andy buys a boat. He invites the gang to a boat christening. Problem is, he hasn’t told his wife about it. Oh boy.

He’s feels like a “dull suburban nobody,” so buying the boat was his way to escape.

Andy: “Meredith’s getting the baby, what to I get?”

PJ: “Umm, the baby?”

PJ invites Evan the botanist over for poker night. Bad idea. He doesn’t quite fit in with the guys and their normal game night routine. He looks incredibly awkward shuffling around trying to keep out of the way.

Mike: “So Evan, what do you do?”
Evan: “I’m a botanist.”
Mike: “Really? Huh.”

He attempts to tell a funny story, but gets interrupted by Mike and Kenny, which then turns into one of their stories about doing a ‘bit’ at a restaurant where one of them was fake-choking, while the other was actually choking.

Evan splits after one round and doesn’t call PJ for a few days. She goes to see him and he tells her he’s swamped with work but will call her in a few weeks when things settle down.

The guys tell PJ that he was just finding a nice way to dump her.

The gang ends up at the batting cage, where they proceed to stand and be pelted with baseballs. Mike tells them to up the speed to 85mph. Smart, real smart.

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My Boys recap: Episode 119

Episode 119: “Estates of Hoffman”

This is the Reader’s Digest version of a recap (mostly because I’m just too lazy to write a full one!)

Andy’s growing fond of life in suburbia.

He invites the gang to a housewarming BBQ.

Stephanie calls shotgun for the car ride via text message. She then proceeds to force the others to listen to Italian language CDs during the drive.

We meet PJ and Andy’s parents! Brendan’s the only one who has met them before (back at Parents’ Day in college) and the only words PJ’s mom has spoken to him? “You need a haircut.”

Fun fact: Eileen (PJ and Andy’s mom) is also Earl and Randy Hickey’s mom!

Andy and Meredith’s house is an almost exact replica of his parents’ house, right down to the miscellaneous kitchen drawer containing: pens, scissors and a deck of cards.

At the BBQ: Kenny, Mike and Brendan vie for the attention of a hot single mom. Kenny and Brando sabotage Mike’s chances by convincing hot mom that he’s an alcoholic.

Kenny tells her that Brando’s a wild party animal. Brando calls him out on sleeping with PJ’s aunt. End of game boys! She’s only interested in…Bobby!

Speaking of whom…. it takes Bobby almost the duration of the episode to find the house on his own. Wouldn’t it have been easier (and logical) to, oh I don’t know, CALL ANDY for directions?! You know what they say about men and asking for directions.

There’s also a doppelganger or as Kenny calls him, a ‘Bobbelganger’ hanging around the party. If I can suggest one tiny nugget of advice for Kyle Howard (who plays Bobby), never sport a beard! It is NOT a good look for you buddy. Unless you’re playing a creepy pedophile in a made-for-tv movie.

PJ meets Evan the botanist who’s a city dweller-turned-suburbanite. And not to mention, easy on the eyes. He calls PJ near the end of the episode to ask her out.

The funniest exchange of the episode is between PJ’s mom Eileen and Brendan.

Eileen: “Oh, I see you finally got that haircut.”
Brando: “Yeah I did, what do you think?”
Eileen: “Looked better long.”

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Mini Project: Gearing Up for the 'My Boys' premiere

My Boys returns this Thursday! Can I get a woohoo? So to prepare, I'm re-watching the last four episodes of season one and giving you a quick recap.

Let's start with Episode 118: "Douchebag in the City" (I wonder exactly how many times some variation of the word douchebag was uttered in this ep? It made for some damn funny times!)

Brendan starts hanging out with Hams (Ryan Reynolds) and picks up on his annoying habits: name-dropping, screening calls and oddly abbreviating his words (“Whatev,” “Do me a solid and cover my Cs and Vods”). I'm with Bobby when he says it really 'annoy.'

PJ’s old college pal Lyssa visits from NYC with irritating gal-pals in tow. Poking fun at Sex and the City, these girls are caricatures more than anything. Lyssa is Carrie (complete with tutu and slo-mo car water-splashing like the opening SATC sequence); there’s also a bitchy redhead (Miranda), an uppity rich girl (Charlotte), and Veronica, a terrible Samantha impersonator (clad in leopard print and full of sex-related puns).

Everyone ends up at the newest hotspot in town, Lab Rat, where there are bikini girls walking around in huge gerbil balls. Yeah, gerbil balls. The guys, after having zero luck with the faux-SATC gals, are looking for the quickest exit. Mike calls Brando (who’s in the middle of flirting with Lyssa) so they can bail and what happens? Brando screens his call. Ooh the nerve! This all leads to...the Douchebag Intervention.

The guys all take turns reading letters expressing just how ‘douchey’ they think Brendan is.

My faves

Kenny: “Dear Brendan, Since you got name to that Sexy Chicago list thing, you’ve been kind of douche. When you tried to get me to buy the new Fergie album, it made me feel so lonely. P.S. I don’t understand your girl jeans.”

Mike: “You’re a really big douchebag. If you were a superhero, you’d be Captain Douchebag.”

Luckily, PJ slaps some sense into Brendan by pointing out how ridiculous he looks, especially his big obnoxious belt. Douchebag gone!

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Summer Summer Summertime

The summer of '08 TV season has been adversely affected by, let's all say it together now: the writer's strike. Now we'll have to wait just a bit longer for shows like Entourage and Big Love, which will premiere their new seasons in September (right around the same time as the networks premiere their shows, grrreat).
UPDATE: Big Love won't return until January

There are still a handful of awesome shows to keep us entertained for the next three long months. And things kick-off tonight with the return of Army Wives. When we last left Denise, Roxy, Claudia Joy, and Roland, they were all trapped inside the Hump Bar with annoying Marilyn's crazy-cause-he's-just-been-jilted husband (who arrived just in time to find her leaving with her new man) and the bomb strapped to his chest. And Claudia Joy's daughter Amanda decided to run in just in time for everything to go...white. I'm guessing that the gals (and Roland) should be OK, I doubt they'd really kill off one of the main characters. But of course, someone ends up dead, given that previews have shown them all attending a funeral.

My Boys is FINALLY back this Thursday at 9:30! I've been impatiently waiting to find out which guy PJ chose to take to Italy with her. Our girl had quite the selection of suitors, so which lucky guy got on the plane?

Having recently discovered that I have TBS On-Demand (woo!), over the next few days leading up to the premiere, I'll be recapping the last four episodes of season one. If any of you haven't had the chance to catch this endearingly funny show, now's the time! And there are more than enough options: the Complete First Season DVD is available in stores on Tuesday OR you can watch the eps online at TBS.com.


The other two shows that are definitely worth your time, Burn Notice and Psych, return on July 10th and July 18th respectively.

I have the pilot of In Plain Sight on my DVR, but haven't quite been able to persuade myself to watch it yet. The promos semi-piqued my interest and I'm sure I'll enjoy it as I do USA Network's other series. I'll try and get to it this week and post my review as well.

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Summer TV Wrap-Up

With the finale of “Burn Notice” this past week, we bid a fond farewell to the Summer TV season of ’07. All the cool kids hung out on the cable block.

We had two shortly spaced out seasons with the boys of “Entourage.” Thankfully, we won’t ever have to hear the word ‘Medellin’ again (we hope). Johnny Drama got finally got his own pad. He also got some attention and some action at the same time. Way to go Drama!

So the Cannes trip didn’t quite work out as planned……better luck next season boys!

Read on for our take on the rest of summer's highlights:

“Big Love”
Props to Ginnifer Goodwin for entertaining us with Margene’s antics. Like the youngest sister-wife, we too took a little liking to Ana, Bill’s diner gal. Poor Margene is in desperate need of friends, especially outside the family. Well, judging from the way Bill reacted to seeing Ana at Joey’s engagement party, we very well might be seeing more of the girl in season 3.

“Army Wives”
We were not expecting to get sucked into a drama about a group of Army wives. BUT, it’s from Mark Gordon, one of the exec-producers of “Grey’s Anatomy.” So naturally, all the soapy antics of the wives kept us tuned in well after the first episode. We loved all the gals: sassy Roxie, no-nonsense Pamela, timid but loyal Denise (who finally learned to assert herself), mother-hen Claudia Joy, and level-headed honorary wife, Roland.

The cliffhanger ender was incredibly annoying and it looks like we’ll have to wait until Spring (!) for the resolution.

“My Boys”
This show is all about fun and big laughs. As a lot of reviewers have noted, these characters are easily the most relatable on TV. They don’t have heroic powers, they don’t solve grisly crimes, hell we don’t even see them at work (with the exception of PJ and Bobby). What we do see is the best part of their days: hanging out with each other. I mean, who wants to be reminded of how craptastic their day at work was (for that, you can probably tune in to “The Office”)?

Again, another finale with a cliffhanger. Just who did PJ invite to go to Italy with her? Our money’s on either Bobby or the cute Cubs player.

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You Watch / I Watch - Oh "Brother" edition

Here's the thing: I was able to successfully avoid the time-consuming/patience-draining spectacle known as "Big Brother" for a full seven seasons. Then came season Numero Ocho.

How exactly did I get sucked into the BB craze you ask? I blame it on my co-worker friend, whom I shall refer to henceforth as "RealityQueen." Reality shows are her thing. She's always trying to persuade me to watch something that's not DWTS, AI, or on VH1.

This summer, we made a deal -- I'd give up three nights of my week to follow "Big Brother" while RQ would pick-up TBS's "My Boys." Was it worth it?

I don't quite have an answer for that yet. It was certainly entertaining, to say the least. The only thing I'm sure of is, those people are a bunch of nutjobs! We were introduced to JENuinely ridiculous slogans, bitchfests and people that would cry...every...freaking...episode!

And I allowed myself to get sucked in -- not only watching Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, but also going online and reading updates from the live 24 hr. feeds. What the hell is wrong with me?! I'm also still waiting on RQ to complete her end of the bargain (although to her credit, she has watched a few eps of "Boys" finally and found them to be enjoyable)

SPOILER ALERT! I thought the end of tonight's final HOH competition was fairly anticlimactic. It was inevitable that ED and whiny Daniele would be victorious. I personally think the season will end with a whimper. All the suspense has been taken out of it. Well hopefully there will be a few surprises thrown in. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the houseguests react to Eric's big secret.

Thoughts?

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