"Sometimes, you have to roll a hard six."

The main problem with it being so hot outside the past few weeks is that all I want to do is lay on a raft in my aunt and uncle's pool and read. This is a problem because then I do not get anything else accomplished...like writing this blog :o)

I have, however, managed to keep up with all my summer TV shows.

My returning shows that I have continued to love include White Collar, The Glades and In Plain Sight. They just seem to keep getting better and better. My favorite episode of White Collar so far this season has been "Veiled Threat," where the boys go undercover at a Manhattan Millionaires Bachelor auction, and I look forward to an Eliza Dushku guest appearance later this season. I have also quite enjoyed the continuing development in the relationship between Jim and Callie on The Glades and the pregnancy of U.S.  Marshall Mary Shannon on In Plain Sight. Highly entertaining all around.

The two new shows that I have enjoyed this summer are Necessary Roughness and Suits. I would not say that I love either of them just yet, but they are entertaining enough for me to stick with them through the end of their seasons. To be completely honest, I mostly watch Necessary Roughness because of Marc Blucas, but the storylines are good too :o)

Detective Crowe: You look like you slept under an over-pass

Detective Rizzoli: How are you still single?

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The last two years, I have given you a list of my returning Fall shows and which new shows I am going to check out.  I have decided to do the same for this Summer's shows. There is not as much on in the Summer but it should be enough to keep me occupied.

My Returning Shows:

In Plain Sight

The Glades

White Collar

Covert Affairs

Rookie Blue

Rizzoli & Isles

New Shows:

Franklin & Bash 

Wilfred 

Love Bites 

The first time I saw the commercial for Wilfred, starring Elijah Wood and premiering on FX at the end of June, I thought it looked stupid. However, every time I see it, it makes me want to watch it a little more. I will let you know if it is actually any good. Franklin & Bash stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar aka Zack Morris, I think that is all I need to say about that. And Love Bites is a show that was filmed last year, but NBC could not find a place for it in their line-up, so they are releasing it now. It stars Greg Grunberg, from Heroes and Felicity, and Becki Newton, from Ugly Betty.

I could not find a list of all the premiere dates online to share with you. I thought I had originally seen it on Kristin Dos Santos's page on E! Online, but could not find it today. If I ever figure out where it is, I will make sure to post it for you.

Are there any summer shows that you watch or think I should be watching? Please tell me in the comments section below!

xoxo

c

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"People tell you who they are, but we ignore it, because we want them to be who we want them to be"

I apologize in advance that this is a little long today.  I have not written in a while, so I have a lot to talk about.

My goal of watching all The Classics on my Netflix queue did not go so well. I only got through Midnight Cowboy before I got distracted by other things :o) I will continue watching them, but will mix them in with the other things on my list.

I really did not like Midnight Cowboy. It was weird and I really had no idea what was going on most of the time. The description said it was about a "hayseed hustler named Joe Buck (Jon Voigt), who comes to Manhattan to earn cash as a freelance sex stud and work toward his dream of becoming a kept man. He meets seedy gimp Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and an improbable friendship blossoms." Which, I guess is what is was essentially about. But, it is unclear why Buck leaves Texas in the first place and the flashbacks, of him being with what I presume is his ex-girlfriend, do nothing to help explain. Every review I read about this movie raved about how good it was, but I just did not get it. The relationship between Voigt and Hoffman is interesting, and the performances were good, but I just did not like it.

Before my "Classics" adventure last month, I watched The Losers OnDemand. It starred Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Columbus Short, Idris Elba and Jason Patric and was not very good. It just seemed like endless stunts with not a whole lot else going on. It also kind of felt like an A-Team rip-off. A group of CIA black-ops who are left for dead try to track down the people that tried to kill them. The acting was good and the action scenes were fun, the plot just felt very "been-there-done-that." And, the most annoying part is that they left the end open for a sequel, which, if they make, is a complete waste of money. I was really hoping that, even with the bad reviews, since I liked most of the actors in the movie, I would still enjoy it...even if just a little bit...but I was wrong.  There were some funny lines, but mostly it was just bad.

I did manage to get to the theater to see a few movies this month: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Kids Are All Right and Going the Distance.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World was good, but not fantastic. It was definitely visually different than anything I have ever seen before. It was funny and mostly entertaining, however, it started to drag a little bit towards the end. I also feel like Michael Cera plays the same character in every single movie he makes and I am starting to not think it is so funny anymore.

The Kids Are All Right was also not as amazing as I was hoping, and as the reviews led me to believe that it was. Aside from the fact that it was about a same-sex couple, it was a pretty simple family drama. A couple that has been together for twenty years start to not appreciate each other and one of them starts cheating. There is not really anything new about that concept and I do not like the fact that because it is about a gay couple, people all of a sudden think it is a new and interesting plot. Yes, gay couples have the same issues as non-gay couples, obviously. But if you are going to reuse simple ideas, at least make the movie flow a little better, or add something interesting to make me invested in the characters. I also thought it was going to be more about the relationship between the kids and their sperm-donor-dad, but it was more about the relationship between the adults. Parts of it were definitely funny, I just wish it had been more interesting.

Of course, of the three, the movie that I did not think I was going to like, I actually really enjoyed. Going the Distance had gotten mediocre reviews, so I was not sure that I would go see it, but I had nothing to do one day last week, so I decided to check it out. If you are a fan of Charlie Day on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia then I think you will definitely like this movie. Although his character in this movie, Dan, is not quite as ignorant as Charlie Kelly, he does have the same inappropriate personal boundry issues, which is always hilarious.  I think the only real issue that I have with this movie is that Drew Barrymore is not a very good actress. That is not to say that she has not been in any good movies, I just finally realized that she is very one dimensional. Regardless, I laughed a lot and did not feel like my time or money was wasted.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Almost all of my summer shows have ended and my fall shows are beginning. I have really enjoyed The Glades, and Mad Men just seems to be getting better and better. The first two episodes of The Vampire Diaries have been AWESOME and I am excited for Castle and Lone Star to start tonight. Also, this is supposedly going to be one of the best seasons of How I Met Your Mother yet, according to its creator, so I am interested to see if he is right.

As always, I suggest you follow me on facebook and twitter if you just do not get enough of me through this blog. Also, make sure to check out the pictures I took of White Collar filming in New York a few weeks ago.

Enjoy the last couple official days of summer and let me know what movies/TV shows you are most excited about this fall!


xoxo
c

"Serve, protect and don't screw up."

A lot of networks have started introducing new shows in the summer, which I appreciate, however summer TV can sometimes be tricky. For starters, not everything premieres around the same time.  A few shows started right after the regular season shows were over and some do not start until August. Also, many summer TV shows are just really bad.

I tried really hard to like The Good Guys with Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. I enjoyed that Whitford's character was so totally different from Josh Lyman and Danny Tripp. However, after a few episodes, it just got repetitive, so I have stopped watching. Although, I do still really like his mustache :o) I also tried to watch The Gates and Memphis Beat, but I just could not get into either of them. They were just plain boring. Seeing as I usually enjoy vampire related things, I was hoping The Gates would be good, but it felt very mundane. Almost like Desperate Housewives except with vampires, werewolves and witches.  With Memphis Beat, I do not know what it was, the writing just seemed slightly awkward at times, like they could not decide if it was supposed to be funny or serious.

I am, however, really enjoying Rookie Blue. I like Missy Peregrym (mostly because of Stick It :o) and Life As We Know It and Reaper were canceled prematurely, so I really hope this show sticks around for a while. I like it because it is not trying to put a new spin on the cop-show genre, it is just looking at it from the view of a rookie. I would say it is more like Grey's Anatomy, but with cops...and a lot less sex...so far anyway. 

The Glades premiered last night on A&E and it was excellent. White Collar and Covert Affairs premiere tomorrow night on USA, which I am super excited about. Also, Mad Men starts on AMC in two weeks and the last season finale was the best episode of the series yet, so I cannot wait to see what happens next.

While my TV schedule has been relatively light, I have been trying to cut down my Netflix queue a little.

My watching of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia hit a slight snag as the first disc that I got was scratched. However, I received replacement discs and am now through the second season. (Considering there are only seventeen episodes in the first two seasons combined, this is not a huge accomplishment.) Aside from being overly excited by the opening credits and the occasional mention of places in Philly that I know, my initial reaction was that the show is pretty funny. I would not say that I laugh hysterically at every episode, but it is more of a subtle humor, if that makes any sense. With every episode though, it grows on you more and more.  I have three more season to get through, so I will keep you updated.

In terms of movies, I watched Silkwood, Dreamgirls and 300.

Silkwood starred Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, David Strathairn, Craig T. Nelson and Fred Ward. And even with a mullet, Meryl Streep's performance is excellent. She plays Karen Silkwood, a woman who, while working at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant, becomes exposed to massive amounts of radiation. She starts to investigate what is going on at the plant in regards to worker safety but dies in a mysterious car accident before she finishes. It is based on a true story and is definitely worth seeing.

Dreamgirls, the play, was playing in Philadelphia and even though I had not seen the movie, a friend offered me tickets so I went. The individual performances were good, but I was not very impressed by the overall production.  The movie had gotten nominated for so many Oscars, that I thought maybe it was just the play that I did not like, so I decided to give the movie a try.  It was just as bad as the play.  Jennifer Hudson's performance was impressive and definitely worthy of her Oscar, but the rest of the movie was just not great.  The only thing that I really enjoyed was the brief cameo by Jaleel White at the very beginning :o)
As much as I enjoy hots boys with 8-pack abs, wearing leather speedos, I have to say, 300 was pretty bad. It had basically no plot, as well as a totally unnecessary sex scene and pretty poor dialogue. And sadly, as my one friend pointed out, this really is the only one of Gerard Butler's movies worth seeing. I have no idea why there is so much hype around this movie. I mean, it was visually pretty cool, but the rest of it was just not good. It must be a boy thing.

On a completely seperate note, Emmy nominations came out last week and I am very upset that Timothy Olyphant was not nominate for Justified. Even Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly agrees with me!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a FABulous Fourth of July! If you are missing me too much in between posts, remember that you can always follow me on twitter and facebook!

xoxo
c

As always, here is my regular plea for all of you to donate to these amazing causes:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Habitat for Humanity
United Way
AmeriCares
StillerStrong
The Nature Conservancy
National Wildlife Federation
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