Ugly Betty – s03ep08 – Tornado Girl

Ooh. Oh, how this episode nearly broke my heart. Ok, one specific element of it nearly broke my heart but still, it was a very tender episode, and reminded me of all the things I love about this show.

Firstly, Betty gets permission to put the final approval on the latest issue entitled eye of the storm, while all the editors go off to their retreat. Of course, needing to discover new ideas, Aussie guy whose name I still can’t remember declares no phones, no blackberries will be allowed throughout the weekend.

And a tornado devastates mid-west US, meaning the new edition is very poorly timed and Betty attempts to get it postponed. But as neither Daniel nor Willy are answering their phones, she has to go up to the retreat to get their attention. Marc, with his new guilty and sad slick hairdo decides to drive up in Cliff’s car, which provides Amanda with the opportunity to join in for the road trip. Of course, Amanda is actually using this opportunity to work out what’s wrong with Marc as he keeps distracting her whenever she brings up the wedding, and then she finds the receipt for wedding rings from Tiffani’s, which causes Marc to crash the car into a tree. Yipes. Marc is obviously flipping out and not dealing well with cheating and then proposing. Betty runs off to get help while Amanda squeals about all the things her heels weren’t made for in a thinly-veiled joke about boots, which I quite liked. Betty ends up hiring a sky-writer to say Daniel, call Betty, and is congratulated on her impressive creative thinking and brilliance in order to save the magazine. But Willy has other ideas….

In the meantime, on the retreat, Willy is trying to stay away from Connor, the Aussie guy and my god I remembered his name, finally, after 3 episodes! They end up hunting together in the forests, as Willy needs to kill something to deal with her feelings. They definitely have great chemistry together. In the meantime, Daniel battles his inner monologue (heh) to think of something good and is nearly hit by a hippie-esque woman falling out of a tree. She happens to be Connor’s fiancé.

Willy decides to let the issue run, using the PR from the disaster to sell issues, which inevitably leads it to being the highest-selling issue of all times. I had a feeling this would happen, because this is exactly how you rack up media attention. Unfortunately, the media discovers Betty had final approval, so they converge on Tornado Girl and rip her to shreds. Meanwhile, Marc realises they need to help each other now they’re on an even level, and tells her where to get info, because he knows what happened. When Betty finds out, she gets uber-pissed off with Daniel for betraying her knowingly like that. Daniel realises this and rather done protect Betty from further abuse, he decides to take the blame, thus negating the whole process and throwing the Meades into further trouble.

However, Connor’s fiancé is impressed with him standing up for Betty and there is also definite attraction there. Something which Willy notices, and organises a late work meeting, causing Connor to cancel anniversary dinner plans and make the fiancé angry. Ooh, Connor, you should learn better than to allow Willy to play.

Marc has confessed to Betty what happened at her party and she tells him to be honest, and hopefully Cliff will understand.

Meanwhile, Hilda’s permit was rejected and she’s defeated. But, Papa Suarez won’t accept his 2 girls being defeated and so Betty drags Hilda to the councillor’s office and they inform him it was rejected. He says there’s nothing he can do, so Betty sadly tells him it’s the best thing which has happened to her sister in a long time, at which point he finds a loophole, saying as long as Hilda sells stuff she can have her salon. And yes, there is an attraction there, and I like him more than Coach Diaz, so please let Hilda be happy for once!

And then, over the ending montage, we see Marc tell Cliff not only that he crashed his car…but he cheated on him. The look on Cliff’s face, the knowledge of what happened s he walks out, oh my god it breaks my heart. Please please please don’t let this be the end of Cliff, I love Cliff, I need my Cliff-and-Marc loving! Oh I’m sad now. I need to go and cry.

Gossip Girl -s02ep10 – Bonfire of the Vanity

Back to the sordid lives of Manhattan’s elite, voiced by a blonde angel. I love this show. This week continues with Jenny’s demise into the underworld of fashion, Dan’s scandalous descent into investigative journalism, Blair’s downfall to a very worthy opponent and Serena’s dalliance with liberalism.

So where do we begin?

Dan decided to give a copy of his story regarding Chuck Bass to the writer, who passed it on to an editor at The New York Times, who now basically want6s to exploit this cheap labour and get Dan to worm his way into the Bass household and discover what dark secrets lurk beneath the surface. Which Dan does, meandering his way into Bart Bass’s life, effectively taking the role of son of the year away from Chuck, who bought ice hockey season tickets for his dad knowing he used to love the game as a child. Ouch. Chuck really gets shafted throughout this show.

Of course, this is Chuck, so he stalks lover boy until he discovers what he’s doing – too late, because Dan’s discovered not only how a building construction went under and then burnt, allowing Bart to collect on the insurance and keep growing his business (sounds so similar to all the 80’s honchos in Australia who then left the country to escape jail), but a person died. This revelation is cut short as Chuck breaks in and exposes Dan.  It’s a strange concept, because Dan wants to be a whimsical writer not an investigate reporter, which is what he’s doing here and he has issues with it because he doesn’t want cause problems for the Bass family. But that is the job of a reporter, to find out what’s happening and expose lies and secrets. You’ll burn people along the way; it’s part of the job.

Anyway, Dan cuts the story loose, unwilling to bring down his former girlfriend’s family, but he does send a copy of his story to Bart, who suddenly sees his son through someone else’s eyes and realises how he’s been treating him. He doesn’t hate him for causing his mother’s death, he just has trouble looking at him because he looks like his mother. Oh Chuck, with your effeminate features. Bart then suggests they go to the game and restart their relationship which makes me break out into happy yays!

Jenny is living with Agnes who is slightly off the rails, which the viewers all saw several episodes ago. Having left the exploitative manners of Mrs Waldorf, Jenny and Agnes are attempting to find a business manager in order to get buyers, except Agnes wants more of the pie than Jenny is willing to give. Fair enough, it’s Jenny’s designs, she put in all the work, but Agnes believes since she organised the fashion show and the photos and is the “Face” of the line, she deserves a 50% share. And naming rights. Etc. Etc. Jenny is having none of it and goes behind Agnes’ back, but she needs parental approval. So our intrepid designer treks to both parents who say no, and then Agnes kicks her out because she finds out about the backstabbing, burns Jenny’s designs and she finds herself on the street, alone but for her sewing machine. And while Dan talks dad into taking Jenny back into the house and letting her win this round, Jenny pops back into the business manager’s office and agrees to go for emancipation in order to get her career kick-started.

She’s 15. She is so going to be exploited, crash and burn. This shall be fun to watch.

Nate will not be appearing in this episode. He’s either nursing a broken Dan-heart, or has already moved onto some fresh booty, considering he’s macking with someone new practically every episode this season. Boy sure knows how to get around.

Blair is meeting her mother’s new boyfriend, who is small, rough, old and funny rather than dashing, sophisticated and debonaire. She immediately resolves to bring him down, repents, but when he gets her mother tickets to the Cyndi Lauper concert on her 18^th birthday, she goes back to bringing him down. She’s also upset about Serena being so wrapped up in her new boyfriend she doesn’t have enough time for her. Blair takes the new man out for lunch and falls for his heart-warming story of fighting in Vietnam and falling in love, coming back to America to break off his marriage and then discovering his Vietnamese girl was killed. She’s torn, but eventually tells her mother at her 18^th how he cheated on his former wife. Ouch. That’s truly harsh. Her mother kicks him out of the party, but then Cyndi Lauper arrives to play for Blair’s 18^th and Blair realises she misjudged the guy and runs after him, leaving Cyndi in the excited hands of Dorota. Hee. Blair realises she was outplayed by the guy, who made sure she felt for him and then used his power to bring in Cyndi Lauper in order to make Blair feel extremely guilty. When’s the last time someone outplayed Blair? She brings him back in, using him as a shield as she goes to explain to her mother exactly how it all went down.

And finally, Serena, who is so bouncy with love and excited to become Aaron’s next muse. Until she realises he ahs other girls on the side and dates around. She’s not happy about, because deep down inside, she’s really a traditionalist who believes in seeing only one person at a time. Well, either that or she’s simply young and naïve and hasn’t learn the New Yorker way yet, which is to date around until you decide to go exclusive, which this relationship would be too early for anyway. I love Blair’s explanation of her, how Serena muses she was always a hippie child of the 60s and Blair counterattacks, saying Serena simply likes peasant skirts, flowing hair and incense, but that doesn’t make a voice of free love.

When Aaron shows up on her door to explain it all to her, she realises this is her chance to prove to everyone how liberal and open-minded she is and decide to become one of his girls and go out on their date in her slip and nothing else. Right. See, this will be fine as long as she also dates around and doesn’t merely become morose because he’s seeing other women.

I want more Gossip Girl – she’s been pushed aside a little. I have a secret suspicion it’s Chuck, actually. That would be brilliant!

90210 – s01ep10 – Games People Play

I fear this will be the last recap of this show from me, as I really can’t see myself taking the time to actually watch it, let alone try and process it anymore. I’ve been analysing my viewing habits lately and realised while 90210 is highly entertaining, I can’t connect with any of these characters. None of these characters truly entice me in a way to keep me interested, and the acting is too over the top in order to actually allow the viewer to see the character properly. They all constantly look like they’re acting and I can’t lose myself in the show. Even the old-skool crew no longer entice me, what with Kelly’s squeaky whiny voice and Brenda’s chipmunk facelift.

So, in order to preserve my sanity and free time, I’m purging myself of GG’s weak younger west coast sibling.

So, let’s celebrate this final recap with a quick rundown of who’s doing who. Dixon and Silver are both happily floating along in their budding relationship, merely prompting other storylines and exposition at this moment, unaware that this is TV La La land, so something big and nasty (and stupid) will inevitably be heading their way shortly. As the only couple I currently approve of, I’m pleased I will never know what terrible event breaks them.

Adriana and Navid have a weird pseudo relationship where she’s being all touchy-feely and he’s kind of pushing her away and it’s slightly weird, because his character keeps changing practically every week. First he’s the gallant friend, then the gallant gentleman who paid for rehab and made out with her but stopped it going too far, and now he doesn’t want intimacy. Unless this is the whole male virgin storyline I don’t really know what’s going on. And why do they make such a huge deal out of virginity on this show, anyway? Ah right. It’s set in America. Of course. Anyway, Adriana pops by his house and he’s embarrassed by her being there and meeting his family but she loves meeting his family and why am I writing this drivel? My god…how does this stuff make dramatic television? So we leave them being all cutesy together and WHATEVER.

Teacher Mr Matthews is on probation and slumming around at home feeling sorry for himself and angry with the world because he got caught with a student who isn’t actually a student. And of course, they got caught by another student who wanted her for himself. How Shakespearean. Kelly can’t believe he’d do that because of course he was so into her and slam! We’re back into the world of Kelly’s make believe, where everything revolves around her and of course everyone is in love with her. Ooh how it must have burned, knowing he’d moved on with someone younger. And prettier. And sassier. Heh. So the girl whose name I’ve forgotten, not that it matters as she’ll probably never resurface here again anyway, gets her pusher and arrests him and it all finally comes to a close, except he’s not ready to go back to teaching just yet, even though it’s out in the open now. And…stupid. Just because she’s an undercover cop doesn’t make it alright. She’s pretending to be a student and in order to keep up that pretense, he would have to be punished somehow. Unless they want to set up a precedent down the track. Would have been way better if she actually was a student, but sadly, the only thing she was proving was how often adults play teenagers on these shows. Although most of this cast actually seem to be teenagers. Maybe that explains why it’s all so….bad?

Annie and Ethan are continuing to hide their relationship from everyone except Silver knows, which means Dixon knows. They’re trying to figure out how to tell Naomi, except she saw them kissing and has now decided to bring them down, LA style. Inevitably, this means her budding stability with Ozzy has been pushed to the sidelines this episode, which sucks, because I liked his character too.

So as this episode revolves around Annie’s 16^th birthday, Naomi decides to invite her old boyfriend to LA in order to cause some chaos. He admits he still loves her and wants to move to LA to be with her, while Ethan sits on the sidelines getting pissed off. Not like Annie tells him she’s with Ethan, either. And then they have their first argument, over whose idea it was not to tell Naomi. And I find myself putting laundry away, re-organising my cupboards, darning my socks…..this whole relationship here is so damn dull. Ethan deserves better. Gah, the best thing about no longer watching this show will be never having to deal with Annie. She irritates me beyond belief.

So it all comes to a head as Naomi makes out with Annie’s ex and she gets pissed off and then they have a little showdown outside and that’s when their half-brother, the adopted son of their mother and father, pops up on the doorstep. Obviously.

Sigh.

Goodbye 90210. It was an interesting ride, but it’s making me nauseous and it’s time for me to step off.

Grey’s Anatomy – s05ep07 – Rise Up

I really liked this episode, if only because one of my favourite characters seemingly returns.

I have no idea what’s happening with MerDer this week as I just no longer have the patience to spend on this very boring, godforsaken pairing. If you want in-depth analysis of their arduous relationship and what every single facial tic means, well, you should know by now you’re on the wrong blog. They’re my 2 least favourite characters.

This week the residents learn they’re up for a solo surgery. The best one will get a solo surgery and they’ll be monitored closely to see who deserves the reward.

No, this week’s episode rotates around Hahn and Izzie. Hahn and Izzie and hearts. Oh I quite like this. The resident with an oh-so-bleeding heart who basically stole a heart to save her dying fiancé. And Hahn, the cold-hearted, ruthless cardiac surgeon…whose heart was stolen.

And now they get to meet over the man, Hahn’s patient, who was meant to get the heart which Izzie stole for Denny. Izzie is assisting Hahn on this case.

Ouch.

The freaky thing? There’s Denny, in the corner of the room, just grinning unabashedly at her. You know, tht would freak me out too, seeing my 2 years dead fiance in a surgical room with me. No wonder Izzie flips the lid. She anages to ply her panic cool without going too psychotic, although everyone does notice she’s acting oddly, they’re not running around like mad trying to work out what’s wrong.

Christina is still sorting out where she stands with Hunt, and being her usual bossy self, trying to prove she’s better than the others, which of course, she is. Hunt is pissed off with how she treats her patients, like a number nd not as a human being. At the very end, he calls her on it, and she in turn tells him why she became a surgeon. And it’s heartbreaking to recall again how she was in the car with ehr father, holding his insides together as he died in front of her. It’;s what led her to surgery, the need to save people because she couldn’t save her father. This is where Hunt realises you honestly can’t judge a book by its cover. And nice to see they remembered this story about her father, because I sure as hell forgot it.

George works on a test patient dummy thing, which bleeds and talks back and it’s all a ruse, because the dummy is rigged to a microphone and the chief sits back all day, causing the dummy to constantly fall to pieces as George desperately tries to save it. Ouch. That’s cruel. Not to mention an absolute waste of the wonderful talent here. Wow. George has really been shunted onto the backburner, hasn’t he?

The interns are up to mischief, practicing stitches and tubes on each other as their residents prove how pathetically idiotic, self-centred and stupid they are and totally neglect to teach them anything. Lexie discovers the unwanted corpses and takes a room of them for the inters to practice on, but Alex overhears and steals the room for himself and the residents. That is, until they get discovered by Bailey, who reminds these are all people who are loved. She’s been affected by her newest patient, who died. Lexie joins the other interns in practicing on each other. This will not end well.

Hahn is seriously pissed off with Izzie who runs off during the procedure and can’t control the patient, something which Hahn specifically chose her. Of course, this is before Hahn realises it ws Izzie who stole her patient’s heart, and she’s pissed off. She goes to the chief demanding an enquiry, retribution, something, anything, and he just says it’s been taken care of. She allows Izzie to continue on the case but solely because she needs Izzie to face up to her mistakes and do the right thing. Even though Izzie’s freaked by Denny’s ghost she faces up to it and saves the day. Hahn is angry and decides to bring in the baord and Callie defends Izzie, talking about how they have each other’s back and it’s over and done with and Izzie was on probation but Hahn won’t hear of it. I guess from her perspective, it was her patient whose heart was stolen, whose been suffering for the past 2 odd years because of a reckless selfish act on izzie’s behalf, and it’s great seeing the other angle of all this.

Inevitably, Hahn walks off, telling Callie she won’t stand for it and Izzie and the hospital need to pay their amends. And that is the last we see of Hahn, as the network executives freaked out about having a lesbian relationship and love Sara Ramirex too much to let go of her so decided to fire Hahn instead.Which sucks, because she’s been awesome, a strong opinionated female which we used to have plenty of on this show, until the writers destroyed them. Case in point: Callie.How dare they? This has caused uproar, because they only gave her about 2 or 3 week’s notice. It’s ridiculous to see such a great actress treated in such a way because of homophobic execs. Ugh. This from the same show who fired the guy who made gay slurs against another actor! Ridiculous, the lot of them.

So Hahn walks out of Callie’s heart and our lives forever, as an old ghost of Izzie’s walks back in. The surgery is over she thinks Denny should go now, she stood up to it, but it’s only Alex there who says he;ll see her at the bar. As we pan back…Denny is still standing beside her. Oh geez. Where the hell are they going with this?

Heroes Update

Due to the underwhelming complexity of this beloved show and to the BBC now showing episodes a mere 2 days after the US, I made the rash decision to stop watching Heroes ahead. I’ve erased season 3 and will no longer be saving episodes, unless the show becomes brilliant again at which point I’ll wait for the whole season. Hence, the most recent review is delayed as I have not seen it yet and do not intend to watch it until this week on terrestrial TV. You know, that big silver box-thing which sits in the corner of the living room? Yeah, that one.

It’s a sad process whenever I stop collecting episodes of a TV show. I’ve always been a hoarder and TV is no exception; I have a collection of over 60 VHS tapes back in Australia, accumulating the last 14 years of my viewing habits. Of course I never have a chance to watch them all, although it is fun to go back and find old episodes of Home & Away with a totally different and forgettable cast. Not to mention the episodes of California Dreams and Sweet Valley High and the millions of music videos littered all over the place.

So anyone who may be puzzled by the lack of recent reviews concerning our intrepid super-injected heroes, fear not. It will be coming up this week.

Supernatural – s04ep08 – Wishville Thinking

I was slightly disappointed with this episode, solely because I don’t like its placement in the season. Overall, the episode itself is pretty good and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s an interesting way to integrate Chinese mythology into the show and show how all wishes do end up turning bad. I guess my main problem with the episode as a whole is the tone. We started the season off with 4 brilliantly dark and eerier myth-arc episodes and then had 2 snarky stand-alones. This was followed by a seasonal myth-arc and then followed by another snark-infested stand-alone? The first third of the season seems a little snark heavy, which makes me wonder if overall they’re aiming for a more light-hearted tone to provide the boys with some truly golden comedic moments (Sam’s scene where he loses his show down the gutter will forever remain in my memory), or if they’ve simply piled the snark into the beginning so we can go for a truly dark good vs evil showdown with no relief. Either road I’m not too happy with.

Anyway, jumping straight in we find the boys at each other’s throats again as Sam tries to get Dean to admit he remembers hell, while Dean’s just pissed off Castiel was too confused by his own recent actions to admit how well he fills out his jeans. Well, it could be true. Have you seen the way those 2 look at each other?

Ok ok, Dean is quite obviously hiding something, considering he’s attempting to down his own weight in alcohol there. Yeah Dean, I’m sure Sam won’t realise anything is out of the ordinary. Sam finds them the case, where a ghost was seen lurking at a women’s health club, so of course Dean immediately rushes off to save the women, obviously not realising the vast majority of women to be found at a women’s health club aren’t the pretty young slim things he enjoys ogling, but a large variety of women, all shapes and sizes.

Then again, this is TV land, therefore all the women are young and pretty. My bad!

They arrive and find nada. NO sulphur, not racks, nothing. Sam’s a little bit weirded out by a couple making out in the restaurant while he talks to the girl, and they see a little boy gets taunted by bullies, which Dean seems to find hilarious. Once a bully, always a bully it seems. Which seems odd, because Dean has always been the defender of defenceless kids. Anyway they seem to think nothing strange is going on until they hear about Big Foot. They track Big Foot down, although he’s apparently robbed a local store, taking booze and porn.

Funnily enough, it’s a young girl who returns the porn and booze with a note saying sorry. Most peculiar indeed. They track her back to her house where they find out her name is Audrey and she tells them her teddy bear is sick. Yes it was…a giant teddy bear. A man-size, walking, talking, melancholic, suicidal emo teddy bear. Who doesn’t understand why he’s on this planet to which Audrey exasperatedly yells, “For tea parties!”

Excuse me while I decide whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity. I think I’ll LMFAO. Because this teddy is just….ok, this bit is hilarious.

So, they find out her parents wished to be in Bali and errr..vanished, and she wished for her teddy bear to be alive to play with. So they traipse down to the Chinese restaurant where the wishing well is and Dean tests it out by wishing for a footlong Italian sub, which miraculously appears and Dean immediately chows down. Sam refuses to make a wish, stating they have no idea what’s going on. When the proprietor of course gets unhappy, they decide to reveal themselves as health and safety inspectors and shut down the restaurant, drain the fountain and figure out what makes it magical. What they find is a coin stuck to the bottom of the well. Which they can’t get out, but Sam gets a copy of it and they traipse off to find out what it is…well Sam traipse off to find out what it is as Dean suddenly gets food poisoning from his sub.

So we get to the heart of the episode – you can’t always get what you want. Wishes turn bad. And I thought we already covered this in season 2 with the Djinn. Although this episode does deal with a slightly different aspect of the whole situation.

So they have to find the first person who put the coin there. In the meantime we see how other people are coping with their wishes gone bad. The ghost in the women’s club? A horny teenager who asked for invisibility. He ends up being run over by Dean – although why ws he lying in the middle of the road, I still can’t udnerstand. Teddy decides to kill himself, cocking the gun in his mouth, lovingly whispering, goddbye cruel world, pulling the trigger….and then erupting into wails of agony because he’s made out of stuffing and guns do no damage! Heh. Oh dear. That is funny. What an emo bear.

The little kid getting bullied is now super-strong and goes to beat up the other bullies, and starts taking it out on everyone around him. The couple getting all cutesy who announces their engagement? Well, he made the first wish, wanting her to notice him…only now she won’t leave his side. They find the guy, and drag him away from the girlfriend to take him back to the restaurant in order to reverse all the wishes but he doesn’t want to, because everything he wanted has come true. Dean decides to go deal with the kid and amusingly get beaten up while Sam takes Wes on to the restaurant..and is then struck by lightning. Wow. Is Sam trying to catch up to his brother’s tally? He’ll have to die a hell of a lot more in roder to come anywhere close to Dean. So the besotted girlfriend wanted him to stop interfering with their love life at which point Wes realises how wrong this is. He pulls out the coin and it all stops and goes back to normal.

And then on the pier Dean admits to Sam he does remember everything from hell. He remembers every last detail and he won’t tell Sam anything. Sam wants to udnerstand what his brother went through, what he faced in order to help him but Dean can’t make him understand. According to Dean, there is no way Sam could ever understand so there is no point in trying to explain it. And I can udnerstand it. It’s hell. It’s meant to be the worst of all our fears, the last place you could possibly end up. It’s something to fear to aspire toe scape one, and while my idea of hell is not the same as yours, it’s definitely nowhere anybody actively seeks to spend time.

I love this analogy with Dean as a returning soldier. I imagine war would be a lot like hell, a certain type of hell. This whole mini-arc has been beautifully scripted and extremely well played out, with Dean as the returning soldier whose seen horrors one can’t imagine, and his younger brother who jsut wants to udnerstand but never can. Because things like hell, like war, like famine, there is no way a person can truly understand unless they’ve seen it for themselves, unless they’ve experienced that. It’s part of what makes it hell.

Unfortunately, this also apparently clsoes off Dean’s little arc of returning from hell and I believe we move into Sam’s arc of dealing with Dean’s death and going all dark side, which….no fair. I want to know what hell was like for Dean, and exactly why Castiel pulled him back out (besides his body and pretty, pretty eyes). I hope those answers will be along shortly, but most importantly, there better be a better bloody reason than to save Sam, because I’ll be pissed if Dean’s sole goal his entire freaking lfie is to save Sam.

After recapping, I forgot how much I enjoyed this episode. I can haz moar Supernatural, nowz, plz?

10 Inch Hero

I finally got to see this film and I must say, I absolutely enjoyed it. It is cliched and predictable but extremely enjoyable viewing and perfect for a lazy sunday afternoon.

It basically follows a bunch of young adults who work in a sandwich shop in Santa Cruz over the course of one summer, all of them dealing with their own internal romantic issues. Piper is the newest arrival, who gave up her baby girl for adoption when 15 and thinks she’s now found her in Santa Cruz. She inadvertently meets the young girl, Julia and her dad Noah and somehow integrates herself into their life. However, when she and Noah start falling for each other they decide to be honest, and Noah reveals why their mother isn’t around. She tried to kill Julia when she was a baby. And she wasn’t adopted, which causes Piper to flip out because she realises the baby she thought ws hers isn’t, and she has no idea what’s happened to her child. While she’s kind of the main protagonist of the whole film, her love story is a rather slow burn and doesn’t seem to ring entirely true. You can see their attraction to each other, but when we get to the end and Noah asks her to fit into their family, it seems like a rather quick and pushy move in order to get that full happy mood.

Priestley, the loveable punk rocker, played by the delicious Jensen Ackles, mainly provides comic relief and an ever-changing mohawk. He likes Tish, the local slut, and wishes she would stop sleeping around with lsoers and notice what a wonderful guy he is, standing right in front of her. Tish uses her looks to get what she wants, and strts sleeping with a guy who’s hot and sexy and all that, but is honestly a selfish jackass with a roommate he apparently has the hots for, as they want to have a threesome.

We have Jen, played by the delightful Clea DuVal (who meets another Heroes alumni in this film, as Julia is played by the same little girl who plays Molly). Jen seems to be the main sandiwhc girl? I don’t know what their positions are. She’s been emailing with  guy for voer a year and seems to really like him, and he decides it’s time to meet. She agrees and goes to the meeting point, but when she sees how good-looking he is, she flips out and runs out, admitting to Piper and Tish he would never like her as she’s the ugly girl, the one nobody notices. My heart aches for her, I know exactly how she feels. She’s a terrific spokesperson for ll those girls whoa ren’t stunning beauties, who aren’t all-together, the girls who muddle their way through life in the background, all the while dreaming someone would notice them and let them bask in the centre of attention. She pushes aside her feelings for fuzzy (the guy she’s been emailing) and assumes he’ll never like her. Priestley immediately gets pissed off with her, pointing out how she’s accusing him of rejecting her based on how she looks, while doing the same thing with him. While he’s angry with Jen, he’s also angry with Tish for not noticing exactly what’s inf ront of her and also for judging people on their looks.

Later that night, Priestly is the only one left behind and notices fuzzy emailing Jen again..so he organises with him to come to the shop, and he enters as a homeless guy. Jen is the only one who notices him, being the gentle person she is, and he reveals himself and the 2 wander off happily. It’s sweet. It’s a very sweet little story which provides a strong backbone for the film about liking people for who they are and not what they look like or their standings in life.

Trucker, the owner, is secretly angsting over the Zo, who runs the mystic store across the road…until he realsies they went to school together and she’s been in love with him all this time. At the end of the film, they get married on the beach, naked and on horseback. Hmmm.

Tish and Priestley also get together, and bond over their freaky first names which they both try to hide, but this is the one main problem I have with this film. After all his haranguing about seeing people for who they truly re and not fussing about people’s looks, which he does notice and he realises what people think of him, but after all that, he changes for Tish. He cuts down the mohawk, gets rid of the makeup and crazy clothe,s pulls together an outfit from Banana Republic and goes to the shop to ask Tish out. And this frustrates me. When they told her her to go out with nice guys, she says nice guys don’t ask her out while looking at Priestley. And yet he changes for her in order for her to be happy with him, rather than her coming out and admitting she likes him for who he is. I wouldn’t have minded this bit, if afterwards she would have turned around and told him she misses the mohawk or something, let him know it wasn;t his looks or attitude which kept her away, it was the fact he never asked. But she doesn’t and he becomes a preppy boy to suit her. And that pisses me off. Throughout the whole film, he’s the role model for individuality and acceptance, and while everyone around him accepts each other for who they are and who they were, Tish apparently doesn’t until he becomes who she wants him to be.

Not cool.

It really riles me up. Besides that, the film is endearingly sweet and funny, with loads of laughs, teary moments and a hell of a lot of humble pie in between. If only they hadn’t done that with Priestley I would be ecstatic with this film. Inevitable, I’m merely smitten.

Ugly Betty – s03ep07 – Crush

Oh Betty. Finally, it’s nice to see a bit of reality slip into this show, as Betty massively crushes on the cute musician, Jesse, who inevitably makes out with Amanda. Because that is reality. Girls like Betty are sweet and kind and try to worm their way into a guy’s heart, and in the meantime, in swoop the Amanda’s of our world and stick their tongues down their throat. Game over.

Story of my freaking life.

So, this episode seems to be all about housemates, living together…something along those lines. Loneliness, perhaps?

Anyway, Betty is cutely trying to get Jesse’s attention, by leaving for work early to coincide with him coming home and basically stalking him in order to accidentally bump into him while taking out the trash. Oh Betty, you should take some lessons from my friend’s stalking agency, they’re really bloody good at what they do. While attempting to ask him out to the Mode party, she inadvertently tells him his band can play, so she and Amanda invent an after-party on their roof where they band will play, since Daniel has already organised for Mariah Carey? What? Show, seriously…a magazine like Mode, having Mariah Carey? Puh-lease….any magazine worth its salt would obviously go for the unsigned indie band, merely so they can boast how they broke them onto the scene. And yes, obviously this is a mere plot device. Meh.

Wilhemina discovers she was played by Daniel with regards to Aussie guy, whose name I sincerely cannot remember and tries to blackmail him…but ends up falling and swooning for him just like everyone else. Of course, Daniel thinks this is in the bag, his friend will support him in all decisions and he finally has Willy over a barrel…except he stupidly tells him he can do what he wants and he starts doing things Daniel doesn’t agree with. So, Daniel has to be told off for being foolish and realise if he wants to take control, he needs to take control, otherwise sit back and enjoy the ride. Wilhemina in the meantime tries to re-negotiate their date…except he has a fiancé. Ouch. She’s actually pretty devastated since she’d obviously fallen for him. Gah – I love Willy. She’s truly one of the most well-rounded characters on this show, who’s obviously chipped off pieces of her humanity in order to get ahead.

CLIFF! Cliff comes by to ask Mark to move in with him, and Mark flips out, keeps finding excuses and just not ready to accept Cliff. I’m not really sure where this is coming from. Si he ashamed of Cliff, or is he just terrified to accept he loves this man? Cliff realises it’s a lost cause and walks off…and at the roof party, Mark is being checked out by another guy…and goes to his apartment. No Mark, don’t do it, not to Cliff! Don’t you dare hurt Cliff! When he comes out, Cliff is there, looking for him, and Mark grabs him and asks him to marry him. Oh, I’m terrified about where this is leading. Please, Mark, don’t screw this up. The show has already gotten rid of Gio this year, not Cliff too!

Through all this, Amanda has moved herself in to Betty’s apartment, having been thrown out from her own since she didn’t pay her rent as she’s struggling financially. Ooh, reminds me of Shopaholic Becky.

Amanda is annoying Betty, but admittedly she does have the right idea, particularly about making their innocuous roof party the hottest ticket in town. And she doesn’t kiss Jesse on purpose, since she obviously has no idea Betty liked him. After all, Betty wasn’t willing to let her know, so how would Amanda have any idea? Initially Betty throws Amanda out in her anger, but succumbs and allows her to stay.

Finally, as Betty goes upstairs to clean up after everyone, she sees Wilhemina sipping a can of beer. Willy gets Betty to join her, obviously recognising a fellow broken unrequited crush, and the two of them sit on the rooftop, sharing that can of beer and just…silently wallowing…and I really, really love this scene of silent companionship.

Amazing Race 13 – leg 7

Seriously, how is it after 12 seasons, this show still manages to suck me in?

First and foremost, the second i saw that bright pink on the floor I knew exactly what it represented – HOLI! Which I have actually participated in and while it’s a hell of a lot of fun, it’s also crazy. And there’s a reason why they went for the girls….and for the divorcees to complain and bitch and moan like that – they had it bloody easy compared to us trust me!

I was terrified for Toni and Dallas; they kept giving them the i’m so proud speeches and i though oh god, they’re gone! Particularly how i totally came out and admitted how much I love them, and Nick and Starr….so to see my two favourite teams finish first and second had me leaping out of bed with excitement! ( i tend to watch this show in bed)

Love Tina’s new look, green suits her. Heh. also good to see them talking again and getting along nd managing to pull it back. She was awesome in the speed bump, very respectful and obviously very aware of being in a foreign nation and what image she’s giving out. He annoyed me, yelling and being a jackass, and I’m happy she called him out on it. But still, they’re my 3rd favourite team. The scary eyebrows remain in a team of their own.

The fratties and divorcees, battling it out for last place…can’t they both go? I hate both these teams. But no, the fratties swoop in ocne again to take second last place, leaving the philimination for the girls. And I’m pelased, because they’re condescending superiority complex really pissed me off. This whole woe is me, i’m divorced but better than everyone else attitude really, really pissed me off. And they’re whole negative attitude to India just totlly had the claws out and on the ready. Thank gof they’re gone. If only we cn get rid of the fratties and maybe leave Terence lost in the desert somehwere, I’d be happy.

You know what? I’d love to actually see Phil do this race.

All in all, top-notch episode which had me squeeing from the sidelines. Can’t beleive we’re already halfway through the season!

Bones – s04ep08 – The skull in the sculpture

Bones is back! After god knows how many episodes, the lovable furry people come back this with extra luggage. Well, only Angela, really, as a former lover ends up a suspect in the new case. A female lover, because Angela of course flirted with lesbianism. Come on, would you really have thought this from any other character?

I’ll be totally honest – I was more pre-occupied with cleaning my room than actually paying any attention to what was happening in this episode. Honestly, this show has started grating on my nerves a little, because there’s just so much sameness. Angela wants to move on because she’s ready for more sex, and has little heart-to-hearts with Sweets, who end sup telling her she’s scared of commitment, something she never realised. She thought she was great with commitment, except for how she totally forgot she was married, and once she was free to marry Hodges she walked away from him, and walked away from her lesbian lover. Hodges is a little upset but we don’t really hear from him again. Anyway, apparently after Angela’s lover, Roxie, is cleared they decide to give it another show. Hmm…wonder if she’ll become a recurring character for a few episodes?

Cam also wants Sweets help, because she needs to fire Daisy, one of the potential lab assistants from the first or second episode. She’s too perky or something. Sweets offers to do it and everyone gathers to watch and sees her take it well…and then he tells them they no longer have to hide their relationship and make out. Well, I’m not surprised, I saw that coming from the first episode she was on. There’s some snappy Bones and Booth dialogue, one sweet one where our conservative FBI guy reveals he had a gay auntie who he loved, so he’s never been against it. Which….ok, even though he is conservative he has never said anything bad about gays, so I’ll let it slide. Still, it doesn’t exactly fit his image.

No Zack again. Makes me sad.

Oh, the episode is a car with a body inside it and they discover it’s actually an art piece, and the artist apparently committed suicide inside his own artwork, except he was actually murdered by his agent? Who was dying and wanted him to die first so she could reap more money off a dead artist’s work than a live one. Nice.