No More Running Wilde

Even though it has been getting better, its lame first episodes lost too many viewers. And now, there will be no more episodes ordered.

We will not miss this show, but it might have turned into a really great thing for us to catch up with on DVD if it continued to improve. We hope K Russell gets a new show, and we hope Will Arnett goes back to being part of an ensemble.

Glee - Furt recap/review

This week on The Kurt Show, Burt Hummel proposed to Carole, and a delighted Kurt got set on the wedding plans. He enlisted New Directions to serve as the band (and the bridesmaids and groomsmen). Shortly after the news was announced, Karofsky walked up to Kurt and took the little bride-and-groom figurine Kurt had. After missing weeks of threats, pushing, slushie-ing, and kissing, the sharp eyes of Will landed on this scene and Will thought, “Uh oh. Bullying.” He took Will to Sue’s office to report it, but Sue couldn’t do anything, because there wasn’t proof of actual violence.

Rachel, in one of her best moments, enlisted the guys on the football team to confront Karofsky and protect Kurt. Sadly, Finn didn’t step up and the others failed, with Sam getting pretty pummeled. Then Burt found out about the situation and sat down with Sue, Karofsky, and Karofsky’s dad, who seemed pretty reasonable and mature by the way he was polite to Sue even after she expelled Karofsky. The evidence this time? Karofsky admitted that he had threatened to kill Kurt. The school board let Karofsky come back, so Burt and Carole spent their honeymoon money on paying for Kurt to transfer to Dalton Academy. The glee club, especially Finn and Mercedes, were really sad and threatened to protect him, but Kurt was over the school’s tolerance of bullying. We like seeing this bullying arc come to a head, and Kurt’s transfer promises more Darren Criss sightings, but has anyone else had enough of Kurt? Sue stood up for Kurt, because decent bullies don’t push around gays. They only call names, take down New Directions, and target fatties, of course. Kurt pointed out that Sue was a bully for calling him “Lady.” In one of the best Sue lines of the season, she said, “I’m sorry. I thought that was your name. [To make up for it] I will allow you to pick between three nicknames: Gelfling, Porcelain, or Tickle Me Dough Face.” Kurt picked Porcelain. He would. We would have picked TMDF. It was sad that Kurt had to leave after the glee club, Will, his dad, and even Sue were on his side. Now that he had all that support, that was the best time to stick it out. But there’s more drama this way.

In Sue’s corner, Rod Remington announced that he was engaged to the co-anchor he cheated on Sue with. To celebrate her own life and success, Sue decided to get married too. To herself. She also decided to officiate the ceremony after getting an ordination on the internet. She invited her Nazi-hunting mother (Carol Burnett) and the two sang “Ohio” together, fought, and the mother left. Sue is now married to herself. Our favorite part was when Sue said, “You may now kiss yourself,” and started kissing her own hand. This plot was ridiculous and weird, but Sue is always funny, so it was one of the better plots of the episode for us. It also had Carol Burnett, who was excellent, but underused. If they had only given her at least HALF the screen time they gave Gwyneth Paltrow, that would have been nice. We hope there is an episode mending her relationship with Sue and Sue’s sister, because we think she should come back.

Finn lamented over his lack of leadership abilities and the chicken way he didn’t stand up for Kurt. To make up for it, Finn gave a sappy speech about how he and Kurt are “Furt” now, rather than giving a speech about Burt and Carole. The wedding was long and cheesy. And no one seemed to know who the wedding was about. Much like this show, the wedding was all about Kurt. The parents even gave mostly long speeches about their kids during their vows. We know you are supposed to put the kids first, but it made no sense. Bad timing. Have the speeches to each other "backstage" before the wedding. Songs performed included Bruno Mars’s “Marry You,” which the Glee club skipped down the aisle to, an English version of "Quien sera?" (that they called “Sway”), and “Just the Way You Are,” performed by mostly Finn for Kurt. Finn and Kurt danced together during that song. We can hear the gays screaming, “THAT WAS SOOOO IMPORTANT. WOW. BIG STEP FOR US ON NETWORK TELEVISION” from here, but we just thought it was lame. Some things in this vein are touching and some things in this vein are just stupid.

In other subplots, Sam and Quinn are official boyfriend and girlfriend, even though he gave her a promise ring. If any guy gives one of us a promise ring, we would vomit, even if the guy were as hot and nerdtastic as Sam. Also, apparently when Brittany and Artie fool around, sometimes he just lies there. We love you, Brittany.

This episode didn’t make a lot of sense to us. There were cheesy, unrealistic speeches, ridiculous character reactions, and abrupt happenings. It just didn’t flow for us. And don’t get us wrong, we support equality, standing up to bullies, and letting people be who they are, but the Kurt-centric thing is getting old. We wish it were The Rachel Show again. We think that Glee should have split its gay bullying episodes over the season, rather than giving it to us all at once. And the cheesiness of this episode kind of negated the show's good moments on this subject.

Beating the dead horse also does more harm than good to the gay rights movement. We know anti-gay people, and some of them watch or will watch Glee. A lot of them are young men in high school. If you beat them over the head with the messages and make the show all about being gay, they are not going to listen. They are going to turn off the show. Yes, TV can do a lot to change minds and hearts, but it needs to do it in small doses, like on Grey’s Anatomy. Callie and Arizona had one big gay rights episode with Callie’s dad, and because it was just one time, the words spoken in that episode are stilling running around in our heads today. If you make the show all about gay rights, you will end up preaching to the choir and changing hardly anything. It may give gay teens support, true, but does it have to be every episode? And how much support does it give young gay men to have STEREOTYPICAL Kurt crying in every episode? Blaine is a better role model and example.

The Kurt focus and the guest stars and theme episodes are taking away from the other elements that made Glee popular. Glee hasn’t given Rachel nearly enough solos this season or plots. What, now that she has a boyfriend, her main story and angst are over? Come on. And we didn’t love the songs. Marry You was ok, Ohio was good if you like that kind of music, and Will sounded good singing Sway. While we enjoyed these three songs in the episode, they will not be gracing our iPods.

Episode grade: C-

The Worst Idea Ever

As we've noted before: Grey's Anatomy is the kind of show that likes to do crazy things that shake up the show (ferryboat accidents, shootings, documentaries, bombs, ghosts, Meredith dying, mystery diagnosis episodes, flashbacks, etc.) And it works about half of the time. It's usually at least interesting or entertaining.

But now Grey's Anatomy is going to do what dozens of shows have done before it: a musical episode. That's right, Grey's is about to get a little Glee'd up. Dear God. Dear God, no. Please no. This is not groundbreaking. It's groan-inducing. We don't see how on earth they are going to make this fit with the tone of the show without just being laughable. Unless the writers are brilliant (they aren't, or Denny would have stayed dead) and the tone is perfect (fat chance), this is going to be a mess.

What kind of music will they do? Don't expect rap, Broadway, or Journey. Shonda Rhimes told TVGuide, “Part of the way I figured out that we could do this was to take the songs that our show has made iconic and have them be sung by our cast members, as opposed to singing Broadway songs or singing some songs by a known artist. We’re simply singing songs that Grey’s Anatomy has made famous.” So it's gonna be a bunch of mature indie songs.

The only good thing that could possibly come out of this is that more people will get to hear Sara Ramirez (Callie) sing. She was on Broadway, you know. And she won a Tony. She won't be the only person singing. Watching serious characters sing and be true to their characters is going to be funny and we will be embarrassed for them. The characters we don't think will be able to pull it off? Owen, Cristina, and Alex. Actually, Sandra Oh can make anything work/do anything, so she might be fine.

Still, this is vomit-inducing. And we LIKE Glee and musical episodes. Just not on this show. Is the show out of ideas?

How I Met Your Mother - Blitzgiving recap/review

Jorge Garcia guest starred on How I Met Your Mother this week as 'Blitz,' a college friend of Ted and Marshall's. He's called Blitz because he inherited a curse whereby every time he leaves, something amazing happens. The gang was hanging out at the Bar when Ted wanted to leave to finish his TurTurkeyKey (a turkey stuffed with a smaller turkey). Marshall warned him not to leave because he might catch the Blitz curse. Ted left anyway.
When Ted woke up the next morning, it was clear that there had been a wild party in his apartment, suggesting that he had in fact become the blitz. He found Zoey in his bath tub and The Blitz himself (Garcia) in his kitchen. Ted was furious with his friends for hanging out with Zoey, his mortal enemy.

During the party, there was a dog on skateboard, Marshall sent a picture of his dong to a random number (and the random guy sent a picture of his in return), Lily got 'buttered up' and slid down the hallway, and Robin danced on (and broke) Ted's stove. The gang traveled around to everyone's apartments trying to find a place to cook the turkey. Finally, they we're left with no choice but to accept Zoey's invitation to have Thanksgiving at her apartment.

At Zoey's, Barney caught the blitz and Steve tricked him into leaving the room so that something awesome would happen. When Barney returned, Steve apologized for tricking him. He said, "Sorry, but I was on that island for what seemed like eternity and I'm going to enjoy the other side." We thought that LOST reference was a little heavy-handed. Much better was the LOST reference that had the blitz curse transfer by a little smoke monster going from person-to-person. The best one was when Garcia rattled off The Numbers (4,8,15, 16, 23, 42, and no, we didn’t have to look to remember them).

Ted got in a fight with Zoey and made a comment about her being like the evil step-mother in Cinderella, and she proceeded to throw everyone out. On the way home, Ted deduced that Zoe had been kicked out of her family's Thanksgiving plans by a step-daughter who hated her, and they all rushed back to apologize. At last the TurTurkeyKey was cooked and served (it was disgusting), and Ted and Zoey took one big step toward the love affair that we all know is coming ... They decided to be friends. And don’t worry, Barney lost the blitz in the end, giving it back to Jorge Garcia’s character.

Not up there with the Slapsgiving episode, but still pretty funny. And hey: at least it gave us an episode this week. Gossip Girl skipped out on us last night. Ugh. Also, we want to see Jorge Garcia get work that doesn't totally revolve around his time on LOST though. He seems like a cool guy.

Episode grade: B+

Boardwalk Empire - The Emerald City recap/review

Can we do the Boardwalk Empire recap in less than 300 words? Sure we can. Our point? What little happens on this show is dragged out for more than 50 minutes. At least SOMETHING happens on this show now. The middle of the season was wrought with all set-up and no pay-off. And we are still mad at the show for that.

Women got the right to vote in this episode, but Nucky had trouble getting an influential woman to vote for his guy in the election for mayor (Bader). Van Alden told Margaret off about her relationship with Nucky, and then he went to find Lucy, who slept with him, of course. Then, like most men who have slept with Lucy, he hated himself afterward. Margaret told Nucky that Harrow was scaring her children. Well Margaret, your children suck, because Harrow is awesome. Harrow donned his mask and charmed the children, so Margaret had to admit that she was wrong about the new protector. Margaret also had a problem with Nucky’s gangster ways, and he tried to tell her that his job was “overseeing,” rather than "cheating, making backdoor deals, and rigging elections". To support her man, she gave a great speech supportive of Bader, but then she caught sight of Nucky manipulating people to get power, as usual. After all was said and done this episode, Margaret is starting to believe that Van Alden is right about her and that Nucky is not the right kind of man for a good woman. Mickey Doyle told Nucky all about Rothstein’s operation. Nucky got Chalky to kidnap and beat the D’Alessios and Meye Lansky. Only Lansky survived, because Chalky got revenge for the death of his driver. Jimmy and Angela’s relationship had improved until Tommy told Jimmy that Robert Dittrich was “Mommy’s kissing friend.” Jimmy beat the poor boy in the crowded boardwalk and gave Angela a good look at his violent side. Mary invited Angela and Tommy to Paris to escape Jimmy. Al Capone is still in Chicago, acting a fool and going to a bar mitzvah where he heard some words of wisdom.

Episode grade: B+

Dexter - Teenage Wasteland review

Teenage Wasteland...Who has that song in their head right now? Finally we have a villain this season who kind of scares us! Boyd was weird, but he wasn't a Big Bad. At the end of this episode, it was revealed that Jordan Chase knows that Lumen and Dexter are a) onto him and b) working together. Yikes! The cops know about a connection between Jordan Chase and Dexter (that they are meeting), and now Deb has met Lumen. Dexter had better tread carefully. The noose is getting tightened for the season. The next episode looks epic.

This episode saw the return of Astor and of Dexter’s role as a father figure in her life. We were afraid that Astor was going to shun Dexter again, leaving him feeling like a monster and a failure, but Dexter rocked the relationship this time. We thought it was risky and perhaps unwise for Dexter to beat up the guy hurting Astor’s friend, but we liked it all the same. It was really sad that Astor was already into alcohol, but what can you expect these days? We like Astor more now. She was trying to help her friend, and she did a pretty good job, for a 12-year-old. Calling social services or telling an adult might have been better though, haha.

Quinn told Deb he loved her, and she said, “Really? You’re gonna drop this on me now?” WOW, that is the worst response ever. Ouch. Lots of people don’t like Deb with Quinn and hate him, but we are on Team Quinn for this one. He was RIGHT to suspect Dexter, even if it is an annoyance to our main character. He is also not being a jerk in his relationship. We feel bad for the guy after this episode, and we hope he gets the girl. They are broken up, for now.

LaGuerta just needs to die. Seriously, she is so prideful and cowardly that it would take a lot to redeem this character. She was a pain in the first seasons and then she turned tolerable. We had forgotten the season one hatred we felt for her, but now beyotch LaGuerta is back with a vengeance. The only good thing LaGuerta brings to the table is the opportunities for Deb to righteously ream her in speeches reminiscent of Grey’s Anatomy. There is way more cursing in Deb’s speeches though. Dude, how awesome would a Grey’s/Dexter crossover episode be ...

One thing we don’t like about Dexter: Harry still popping up for chats. They have been reduced, but the ghost Harry ruins the realism of the show. We already have Dexter’s inner monologue on the show, so do really need a figment of his imagination popping up in cars with him and warning him to be careful? In the first season of the show, Harry said things that he had always said to Dexter (mostly warnings). This was fun, but lately Harry says things that would only be meaningful if Harry actually said them (not if Dexter just thought them). Example: Harry telling Dexter that he was proud of him this episode. So, Dex was congratulating himself?

This season is starting its climax, and we hope that Detective Deb finds out about Dexter. That would be a perfect end to this season. Three episodes left ...

Episode Grade: B

Dexter - Why All the Hate for Deb?

She's a good cop. She's a nice person. She's a good sister to Dexter. She's honest and loyal. Why do people hate her?

We have heard multiple times that people "hate the sister." Is it the cursing? It's that a humorous part of her charm? Is it that, as one blogger's sister puts is, "her face is busted"? Is it the tough girl act? The fact that her storylines are repetitive? That she never lets a guy get close? Her stick body? The fact that, in real life, she's married to her on-screen brother?

We would like to go on-record as saying we like Deb. She's one of the only supporting characters who doesn't completely suck. We feel bad for her when she is sad, and we want her to survive and thrive. She is probably our second-favorite character on Dexter.

If you are not a Deb fan, tell us why. We seriously want to know.

Persons Unknown - WTF?

We know we are really late on blogging about this, but Ern just finished watching this show (against Leeard's advice). Leeard maintained that Person’s Unknown was “not worth it,” providing little detail other than that, because Leeard never spoils. (Ern spoils all the time, so watch out for that.) However much Ern trusts the taste of Leeard (which is more than she trusts the taste of most people), Ern will watch just about anything on Instant Netflix (if they have it).

This is why it’s not worth it: It was advertised as a serial, and it turned out to be season one of a series. We expected the season finale to provide closure and answers and it SO DID NOT. Not in a LOST kind of way either. In an “it didn’t end” kind of way. Apparently, the makers were confused and thought they were getting a second season or something. ANGST. It COULD have been an ending, we guess, if they meant it to not have a decisive ending, but that's not satisfying to the viewer.

That said, even though it should have been done in ten episodes and not thirteen, the show was interesting, and we were on board for it. This blogger would watch a second season if they made it, which they probably won’t. The characters were decent, and so was the story and pacing.

If you were thinking of watching this or catching up on it, don’t bother unless they announce that there will be a season two. We think if there is no Persons Unknown season two, the writers should come out with a novel. Just sayin’. It would sell better than most books and give all the viewers closure. We'd read it.

Season grade (if it was intended to be a season): A-
Series grade (if it was intended to be a series): C-

Ern solemnly swears to trust Leeard more. Which means she will return Practical Magic to Netflix, unwatched.

Note: the writers KNEW it would only be the 13 episodes. They created it as a mini-series, not a complete show, which means they also knew the ending would be unsatisfying for viewers. Rude.