Happily Divorced

I watched Fran Drescher’s new sitcom, Happily Divorced, right now. It’s alright. It’s based off of Fran’s real life. Fran’s husband of 18 years came out to her, but they can’t afford to move out so they still live together. Now we have to watch all of their wacky hijinks and shenanigans as Fran is now back into the dating pool and Peter is gay.

I think that based off of the pilot so far, the show feels like one big gay joke. Peter, the ex husband, goes to sing along nights for Sound of Music at bars, grooms himself (Okay, so this isn’t exactly a gay stereotype because I tweeze my eyebrows but I’m straight; but Peter obsesses over his appearance, waxes his chest, has blue contacts [just for his appearance], and dyed his hair blond apparently, so I guess this falls under the feminine stereotype), and he’s into ‘feminine’ things like landscaping the house, watching Glee or Gray’s Anatomy, and so on.

This really surprised me because Fran Drescher seems like a nice, non-homophobic person. She even posed for the N0h8 campaign. And she didn’t make gay jokes on The Nanny, which featured 2 episodes with gay people and a reoccurring joke that Max was gay because he works in Broadway. Then again, I don’t think she’s the writer, so I don’t completely hate her for it, and I guess anybody would be surprised/bitter if their spouse came out after 18 years of marriage. Peter, Fran’s husband in real life, also is working on this show, so as long as he’s okay with it, I guess it’s fine.

It has a good supporting cast. Rita Moreno is playing Fran’s Mom, and the Mom from Everybody Hates Chris is Fran’s best friend. There’s also Ernie from George Lopez who I’m meh about. I didn’t recognize anyone else, though.

I think the show would’ve been better if it was slowed down. Peter comes out to Fran and then there’s a time lapse thing where the show goes 6 months into the future. I thought it was weird. They could’ve have the first episode with Peter coming out or Fran dealing with Peter coming out. Also, when Peter came out, Fran looked completely bored. Her face was literally a type of face. I know she couldn’t be surprised because it’s based off of her real life, she has control over it, and they probably rehearsed it several times, so she had no reaction to it, but still. She’s on a show and she’s expected to act. Then the episode continued with Fran meeting a new guy (Asking if he’s gay, first), then their first date, the morning after, Fran’s parents coming again, and Fran’s second date. I don’t know how to describe it. It just felt really rushed. I really really hope that this was supposed to be a made for TV movie first and it was 90 minutes but they had to chop it down because TV Land liked it so much that they wanted to turn it into a show.

I’d give the show a 76 out of 100, which is surprising because I really love Fran Drescher. I hope the show gets better as it moves along. I remember Melissa and Joey had a bad first episode, but they’re coming back tonight and I’m actually looking forward to it. And Raven’s new show is on tonight as well. And there’s a third episode of Happily Divorced airing tonight, so that’s 3 shows in one night. Then once Degrassi comes back, that’s four shows in one night. Is it sad that my definition of making plans is watching TV? Yes? I thought so.  

 

 

Finally

ABCFamily announced that they’re going to have new episodes of Melissa & Joey starting June 29, 2011. It’s really late, but this way there will be little to no competition for other Tuesday night shows (American Idol, Glee, etc.). Besides, other comedies have been screwed over unfairly by ABCFamily over the same Tuesday Night Death slot. 10 Things I Hate About You had to compete against Glee, and a bunch of other shows I forgot since I read about it being cancelled. I was surprised that they kept around a sitcom with 2 aged sitcom stars rather than a fun teen dramedy with 2 teens and an attractive cast.

They also have several new shows on the way. The Great State of Georgia features Raven Symone who moves to NYC to follow her acting dream. It’s gonna be on the same night as Melissa and Joey, too. I’m only interested in this show, to be honest. There are 3 others planned, with 2 of them being dramas and the other one not specified as a drama but it’s about a twin who wants to find out who murdered her sister, according to Wiki, so I don’t see how that’s not a drama.

But yeah… I have a feeling Raven and Mel & Joe are gonna be screwed over because the network treats comedies horribly.

I Never Thought I Would Say This…

But I think I became a soap opera addict. xD Okay, well, teen soap opera. Degrassi. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s basically a Canadian high school/town and the lives of It’s students. It used to be ‘good’, like with real issues and plots and stuff, but after American parents got all angry, so they had to turn it down a little. Now it’s just another teen soap opera. Well, they still have ‘issues’, but it’s not as scandalous anymore, if that makes sense.

But yeah. It all started out when I didn’t have anything to watch on Nick @ Nite or TVLand, and I remembered that we have TeeNick now, so I checked what was on, and it was Degrassi. I never thought I would like it and I thought it would be fun to make fun of them, but… yeah, that didn’t work out. I watched like 4 episodes last night, and 6 today. I’m such a soap opera junkie.

I guess I also like that it’s on TeeNick. I like how now it’s not just random reruns of Nick’s library from the 90’s, but they have a ‘theme’, if that makes sense. They know it’s for teens, not preteens who think they’re cool, or people in their 20’s who still live at home and sit in their pajamas all day. Seriously. The old The N used to have a lot of texting commercials, and promotions for Nickelodeon shows on. And those online college commercials. There was this one girl in the commercials who claimed people who went to online colleges only went to online college so they could be in their pajamas all day. :/

And that was just the COMMERCIALS. The actual shows on were either iCarly, True Jackson VP, and whatever else you could normally watch on Nickelodeon. I don’t know about other people, but The N was a premium channel for me, so I got annoyed when I saw Miranda Cosgrove on yet another channel. Or even worse, shows from the 90s which I’ve NEVER seen anyone complain about missing, like all of those game shows. At least All That and stuff were well known. But most of these short lived game shows were just irritating. Now, they have Ned’s Declassified (Which is like one of my favorite shows of all time), Drake & Josh (Which is still somehow relevant after like 3 or 4 years of cancellation), Zoey 101, What I like about you (I have a feeling Dan Schneider forced them to do it), That 70’s show (Which I never grew to like, but whatever), Degrassi, and some other show called Gigantic.

I guess I also like it compared to it’s competition, ABC Family. ABC Family also has syndication (except it’s older and ABC-owned, with exceptions like That 70’s show) and teen ‘dramas’, like Secret Life of an American Teenager (Or that pregnant show, if you’ve seen ads), Pretty Little Liars (Or the one with the real-live bratz dolls lying down on the ground) and so on. There aren’t texting commercials, either! But… the commercials are aimed at women. I’m not sexist, but it’s awkward to watch commercials about air fresheners, breakfast foods, microwavable stuff, and dog food. Oh, and… female hygiene stuff. At least TeeNick has ProActive and stuff.

TeeNick is also nice because it’s a nice escape from overexposed tween stars. It’s nice to not see a Miranda Cosgrove anything in between iCarly episodes, or not seeing Big Time Rush or Victorious on every second of the day. Degrassi has like 20 characters credited in their theme song, and each episode only revolves around a few of the kids, so it’s not like they try fitting in everyone everyday, and I don’t get bored from watching the same characters over and over again. Then again, I watched a marathon, so I’d just wait an hour or so to see ‘my’ characters. If I’d be watching once a week, I’d hate to wait a month to see plots I care about. But I heard they’re trying out an episode a night, so… yeah. But if the main audience is high schoolers, I could see how someone could lose track of the show easily.

So, would I recommend Degrassi? If you can handle sappy drama, fake romances and issues, and unrealistically attractive people, then yes. But do to all the kissing and ‘I think I’m ready for my first time’ plots, I have to change the channel or mute when my parents come in the room, so don’t expect wholesome stuff. It’s extremely easily to get hooked to, too.

And here’s a character from Degrassi that looks like they have Custom content hair.

(Source)

 

(Source)

I guess that’s how NewSea wanted it to look.

I finished half of my homework, so now I have to type up my cell project and actually do it. The weather isn’t that bad over here, today.

The Future of Kids’ TV

If you visit DanWARP, Dan Schneider’s blog, you’ll see fans going rabid over last night’s episode. And Dan did what a responsible adult would do… delete comments and insist that nothing is going wrong. Mr.Schneider, you sir, are a jerk. So it looks like a lot of people won’t watch iCarly, and later on, Victorious, anymore.

On Disney, Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place are ending, Jonas LA got cancelled ended, and Sonny with a Chance… well, Demi’s in rehab. Oh, and Suite Life has a movie coming out, as well as cancellation rumors… so =|. So the future of kid’s television, or rather Disney and Nickelodeon, looks odd.

• Big Time Rush. They look like a better alternative to the Jonas brothers. I’m not saying they’re musical geniuses, but they have fun, catchy songs you’d expect from Nickelodeon. Not fake melodrama like Disney has with Jonas. They don’t really take themselves seriously, which I like. And it’s made by the Ned’s Declassified people, so that’s also nice. I mean, I don’t really go out of my way to watch it, but it’s better than I thought it would be, and I just keep it on if nothing else is on TV. But… it’s on season 2 already, and it’s not made by Schneider’s Bakery, so Nickelodeon will probably cut it sooner than other SB shows (SB? Spongebob? Yeah, something tells me that’s not just a coincidence). It’s also making everything that moves on Nickelodeon pump out CDs, singles, videos and concerts, but it hasn’t bothered me that much… yet.
• Good Luck Charlie. I like it because it’s more TGIF than Disney Channel, but that probably means the Mouse House will axe them quick. They have a movie coming out (Made for TV, but hey, SB has like 6 iCarly ‘movies’!), so that should be okay. I hope Mia, AKA Charlie, grows up normally. Oh, and they already are working on season 2… but the episodes are going out really slow.
• Shake it Up! looks like it’s here to stay for a while. I think it’s too annoying to watch so far, but I know by next year I’ll watch it, so I’ll just wait for more episodes or something. I hope their acting improves.
• Victorious: Do they really only have 5 episodes? Seriously, I’ve seen like only 5 episodes of it because those are the ONLY ones Nickelodeon shows. It feels like Dan knows his show is going to be successful, so he’s slacking on the quality. And it’s working. Victoria Justice is everywhere, and the script isn’t that good.
• Disney has like… two new shows planned. ANT Farm, which is about a girl who goes to a performing arts school, more or less. People complain that China McClain, the main actress on ANT Farm, is African American, and that the show is called ANT Farm, now ‘[name] high’. The other one, Madison High, is basically Glee with Disney music. And younger kids. I smell failure.

On the other hand… I heard ABCFamily is having a Raven show? That sounds nice.

Mel and Joe is Gonna Go

Okay, so it hasn’t been confirmed yet… but ABCFamily’s Melissa & Joey is probably gonna be cancelled in a few weeks. Here are my signs:

1. Elizabeth Ho, AKA Rhonda, hasn’t been on the show for a few weeks. First, it sounded like ‘Oh, don’t worry, she’ll be back next week’, but she hasn’t been on for two episodes. And then Elizabeth Ho said she won’t appear until season 2- if they’re even getting picked up. This caused many of her followers to Tweet that they stopped watching the show as a result, so she had to convince them to watch. So, now the show lost some viewers.
2. The viewers for the DWTS episode was less than 1 million. Yikes. The peak was the second episode. With like 2 million viewers. So Yeah.
3. ABCFamily apparently is creating 3 new ‘dramas’. This means M&J is out of place, and they’re probably using M&J’s budget to support these shows.

Meh, I knew it wouldn’t last. None of ABCFamily’s sitcoms last that long, and ABCFamily always screws around with them(Like putting M&J up against Glee: Smart move! Not!). Also, reruns are always available on ABCFamily, and the website, so people think ‘Oh, I missed Mel and Joe? No biggie. I’ll go online and watch it.’, so people have less reasons to watch it the first time around.

Melissa, honey, you have a family to support. So go back to Sabrina syndication, and made for TV movies. Anything. Just know you have other options.

Mid Week Update

Here’s a mixture of my thoughts and random tidbits from Saturday:

• I saw the iSam’s Mom special for iCarly. It was good, but the side plot seemed like it could’ve been it’s own episode. They needed more Jane Lynch in it. I hope Nickelodeon keeps her around. Oh, and I caught up with the iGot a Hot Room special. I thought it was funny, but the spoilers in trailers sucked. And I wonder if they’re gonna keep the high budget room.
• Yesterday was good and bad. My AP US I teacher acted like… something I can’t say publicly on the Internet. My backpack broke. I probably gave off a bad impression to my English teacher for not saying hi to him in the halls. And I almost missed my bus. And then that Sara vs Jarsie stuff. But….. I realized I have a lot of stuff to be thankful for: My Dad fixed my backpack and I still have my family and a lot of stuff to be thankful for. So in the end, I realized that just because my school day was bad, it didn’t mean my life was bad. Especially after reading this post on Kami's blog, and thinking about all the other people in the world who are less fortunate. I’m starting to sound like my Grandmother. o.O
• Today went good. I guess it’s after overanalyzing yesterday. :P I took my school picture today, but I’m not sure if I bended too much(Look this way, put your legs here, no not there, on the marks, thaaaattt’s it, now smiiile!) or smiled too fake, or if my eyes looked creepy or anything. No, I don’t look that horrible(I hope *knocks on wood*), but sometimes when I take a picture(Or at least for school related stuff), I get nervous and… you’ve seen any picture day episode of any kidcom, haven’t you? I had no homework today, which was good. I just feel a little ripped off. I mean, yeah, I started some long term homework, and I did some recycling in my basement, and I ate out with my family, but I wanted to do more than just reading a blog or two and catching up with my FarmVille. Eh, I should be grateful for having a nice day and leave it at that. Oh, and I got an A on an AP assignment. But I get back another test from the first day of school tomorrow…. yikes. *Reads last bullet to feel happy*
• Oh yeah, more TV stuff. The VMAs… MTV, why the hell did you move your show to 9? I’m sure a lot of people don’t give a fudge about what some wannabe D lister is wearing. And if it’s because Chelsea Handler is vulgar, well, that’s your problem. It was a school night, and I had to sleep, so I just watched up to Taylor singing. She’s awesome. Oh, and Lady GaGa? I think it’s MTV’s fault for nominating her so many times. I felt bad for everyone else who didn’t win stuff. They should’ve stop at like 5 nominations.
• Disney time. I missed the first half of Hannah Montana because I thought the VMAs started at 8 because MTV showed their pre show instead. So, basically, the horse didn’t die and Miley lied to Lily, broke her leg and almost killed her pet horse because she didn’t admit about climbing the gym rope. Or something like that. Way to go, Miley. On the other hand, I think that the Good Luck Charlie was funny. That was the first time I liked G Hannelius or whatever her name is. I thought Teddy’s dancing was adorable! And the show is still good, to me.
• Melissa and Joey? Eh. I was catching up on the blogosphere, so I felt lost throughout the episode. Eh, ABCFamily will air it a bunch of more times anyway, so I’m not missing out on anything, right?

Melissa Joan Hart-less

Normally, I would recap Tuesday’s episode, but SS did that, so I don’t want to post the same thing twice. :P But, I did go on Television Without Pity for Melissa and Joey, and I found out… that MJH(Yeah, there’s no way I’m typing Melissa Joan Hart everytime I wanna mention her :P)…

 

• Has said homophobic stuff on her MySpace page. Although the links were taken down, apparently, she seemed pretty pissed that her husband got screwed over by Chris Daughtry, and his music that he wrote for her. She called the new, rewritten version of her husband’s song ‘gay’, and ‘a fairly love song’.
• She said some really mean stuff about Farrah Fawcett dying.

Now, MJH, I understand you’re a bitter former child star, and that you’re upset that your stuck with crappy ABC Family roles, but being a snobby homophobe who speaks too fast and overacts won’t help your reputation.

My comments are: For the first issue, there’s a difference between a middle school student calling something gay, and a 30-something mother of two calling something gay. I’m straight, so I’m just saying that not only gay people get offended by those kinds of actions. And what would she think of some of the more, uh, lighter, un-Daughtry like pop music that Idol produces? Besides, she could’ve dealt with bad companies the mature way: Suing them. :P

And for the Farrah Fawcett comment? Melissa, look, you’re a former child star. Your weight will be going up and down like a Ferris Wheel. You could’ve just gain 60 pounds on purpose and look fat, then suddenly ‘miraculously’ lose wait, and get like 20 magazine covers, an exercise video, and a show. And even if you did think that, it’s just tasteless to talk about someone, let alone Farrah Fawcett, like that. She’s been performing before you were born, and she’s been through a lot. She deserves to get magazine covers when she’s ill. I feel bad that her life ended tragically like that, and that Michael Jackson overshadowed her death, but if her personal life was hell, the least she deserves is one magazine cover. Besides, one magazine cover. MJH, that’s not gonna spark your comeback. And people would just think ‘Hey, isn’t that Sabrina?’, then walk past it. It wouldn’t start anything else.

Will I still watch M&J? Yes, probably. Will I be as lenient when criticizing it? No.

Predictable, but Better

Right now, I’m watching the 2nd episode of Melissa & Joey. It’s good-ish. It’s too predictable, but the second episode is making me laugh. The jokes are mostly conversations with double meanings(‘I’m getting my inches back!” When referring to a 52 inch television lost in a divorce, “Those are mine! I paid for that and those!” , about trading a chair with said ex-wife, and those meaning her… yeah.). The characters gained more dept, sort of, and although things were clichéd, it made me laugh.

And I know this is really random and unnecessary, but why does the boy have the thickest New York  Noo Yawk accent? I’m not even sure if it could be classified as that, but he seems to be the only character with the accent.

But they couldn’t avoid the symbolism thing again. “Yeah, I think I like it. At first, I hated it being here, but now I’m use to it.” Mel said it about the TV, although it could pass off for her thoughts on Joey. Get it? People think she’s talking about the TV, but she’s really talking about her nanny manny! Clever!

And I noticed something:

Don’t those backgrounds look similar? It’s not like ABCFamily has a specific color or anything, so they could’ve just pick a different gradient in Photoshop.

A New Kind of… Actually, No

So, last night I went to the mall. Sorry, Melissa Joan Hart! I didn’t watch your show! And ABCFamily decided to retaliate by have Melissa and Joey ads everywhere at the mall. Yikes. So, being the kind person I am, I decided to try watching M&J(Yes, I’m going to abbreviate it as that now.) online, on the ABCFamily website. And I watched the first episode. It was okay. It’s seriously… average. I’d give it a C. I remember watching some episodes of Who’s the Boss when I was 8 or 9 on Nick@Nite, and this feels like a revamp. Seriously. It has references to political scandals! Failing schools! And the economy! And they think they were being clever when at the end of the pilot, Joey tells Boy(I don’t know his name.) ‘Mom’s home’ and it’s some kind of symbolism for them living together with romantic tension. Reeeealllly clever, writers. I did laugh at the part when Lennox(I think?), the daughter, passed out letters about a rhyme for the principal, Ms.Lunt.

I haven’t watched the second episode yet, but that’s more out of laziness. So, do I recommend the show? Eh, it’s alright. Hopefully it gets better.

 

 

And what’s with schools who mail things out late? Schedules, progress reports, report cards, and so on. Yet they ask for the most trivial paperwork within a day or two of it being given, even if it includes 20 pages of forms. Schedules are especially ridiculous, considering most schools start course selecting near February, and I don’t think guidance counselors need 6 months to make schedules. Especially if they push students away after, saying that they are ‘extremely busy’. I’m just happy my guidance counselor helped fix my course selection sheet’s mistakes and typos.

To Watch or Not to Watch

With this fall coming up, I’m gonna try to watch a few new shows, like ones that are actually being made, and not being screwed by ABCFamily or Nick@Nite. But I don’t exactly know what to watch. Any recommendations? I love watching Friends, The Nanny, Boy Meets World, and George Lopez and Family Matters are okay too. And as for kids shows, anything that isn’t Victorious or JONAS L.A. is okay for me. So, here are some stuff that look appealing to me this season.

• Melissa and Joey: Well, not because I want to watch it, but I know ABCFamily is going to be showing advertisements for it everywhere, so I might as well see what the fuss is about. And I read a post from Melissa Joan Hart’s blog saying that she doesn’t care if the critics like it, but if the fans like it, and all the hard work, dedication, and love they put into it. So, I might as well try supporting her. I mean, those Sabrina syndication rights aren’t gonna last forever, and she has a family to support. Granted, she’s probably doing well off and is nowhere near financial trouble, but still. Besides, it can’t be that bad, right? She compared it to ‘Two and a Half Men’ and that’s been on for like, 8 years now? Maybe it’ll be good.
• Cougar Town: AKA the Courtney Cox show about her being 40. I heard they changed the show so it’s not just her dating people who can be her kids, and it’s good. The problem is… I didn’t watch last season so I don’t know if I’m missing out on anything. Not to mention, it has 1/6th of Friends, so that’s a good sign. :D
• Mr.Sunshine: A show about Matthew Perry going through a midlife crisis. It has 1/6th of Friends, and Wikipedia says it’s a mid-season replacement…. so :|
• 30 Rock: Tina Fey makes me laugh on SNL and when I read about the show, it sounds funny. The only problem? I think I’m too late into the series. :( Eh, whatever.
• Modern Family sounds good, but it looks like there’s too much characters for me to get into, especially if I’m going to be, oh, I don’t know, in school.
• Glee: I watched the Lady GaGa episode and the funk one, and… this one is worse with the characters and the trivia tidbits and all of their names sound similar, to me(Quinn/Finn, for example.). So, this one, probably no.

What are your favorite shows to watch? What do you recommend?

Another Reason to Hate Disney

I’ll start this post off with restating that yes, I’m a 15 year old boy who (still) watches Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. And it’s not as mind numbing as everyone says it is, or at least some of the shows are watchable. So anyway, I haven’t seen any new episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place in a while and I read that the last few episodes of this season will be big (According to TVTropes, anyway), so I was concerned that either A) Disney realized it has more than tweens watching it so they’re screwing it to end it or B) Disney aired only a few promos for the new episodes, and it got blocked out by Phineas and Ferb or Suite Life on Deck stuff.

But guess what I found out on Wikipedia? The fourth season and second movie will be the last parts of the series, and then they’re just gonna cancel production on it.  Yes, I understand that 4 seasons and 2 movies is a lot for a kids show, but still. It’s going to end around 2011 or 2012, whereas other shows on Disney got like 6 years of production or marketing, and tons of merchandise and music, concerts, and dolls(Hannah Montana) or they were on Disney for 3 seasons, then they got a ‘spinoff’(I use that term very loosely), and are still surviving another 3 seasons(The Suite Life series. But seriously, it’s basically 6 seasons of the same show.) So why can’t Wizards survive? If the trio(Well, David Henrie and Selena Gomez, anyway) are getting too old, can’t they just add some adult humor, retool it a little, and send it to ABC Family? I mean, seriously! They already had an episode where Alex(Selena Gomez) kills someone (Well, freezes, then unintentionally breaks into pieces and shrug off). Can’t they just make it like Sabrina the Teenage Witch more?

So, in another Disney news… that Den Brother movie aired. Just from watching those commercials, I knew what the entire movie would be. Main kid(Hutch Dano or something?) is annoying, gets in trouble for ego, takes care of annoying sister and friends(G… something. Couldn’t they shorten her last name, too?), ‘hilarious’ montage takes place where Hutch dresses up as their (female) adult chaperone, antics which only embarrass and kill any chance of Hutch’s career outside of Disney occur, then Hutch goes out on a date with random Girl. RG then goes like ‘What? You’re a jerk! I hate you! You suck!’ or something among those lines, and then this is when Hutch decides to change his act with the help of some annoying background music, which totally isn’t symbolic of anything. Then there’s something involving hockey, like a game against the rival team, and while Hutch takes annoying sister and friends there as a ‘field trip’, one of the team members on the hockey team get injured (Bonus points if it’s the former best friend) and Hutch has to sub for him or something (It’s Disney, and I don’t get involved in sports, so I’m not sure if that’s allowed), but there’s some regulation about… I don’t know, but they don’t let him play. So then, brilliantly, annoying sister plays! And there’s some random moment like potential love interest for Random Girl on the rival team crosses the line and almost knocks the sister out, and then there’s a slow motion/suspense moment where, guess what? The little sister wins the game. And then the Random Girl falls in love with Hutch and the movie ends with a song, which is probably performed by Hutch or the sister. Bonus points if it’s a duet.

Yeah, I need to watch less Disney.