Shows That Grew On Us Months/Years After We Shunned Them

Sometimes you watch a show and you just don’t get it. It’s not for you. But then, months later, you are obsessed with it. We all know the shows that have jumped the shark (the ones most of us have stopped watching). We have listed them, voted on them, and ranted about them. But it’s time for a list of the ones to give more time to, even if they suck at first. This is a list of shows that we have started watching and then shunned, only to try them again and love them.

Arrested Development and The Office - We had trouble getting into these at first simply because we needed time to get used to the humor. One of our friends, let’s call her Cassi, had trouble getting into Arrested Development, scoffing at a girl who called it, “The funniest show ever.” Cassi muttered, “It’s so not.” However, a few episodes after the pilot, we noticed that Cassi had caught onto the amazingness, and by the third season, she was gasping for breath laughing.

Sex and the City - WOW that first season was slow. The girls were unlikeable and slutty, Carrie kept talking to the camera (and interviewing people), Carrie’s hair was horrible, her column was lame, the sex questions and issues were common, and the guys were not hot yet. We’re glad we stuck with it though, because it ended up having lots of heart and humor.

24 - Ern LOVES 24 (even though she doesn’t believe in using torture). She used to marathon it for full days, no kidding. So it might surprise you that the first time she tried to watch it, it was a complete fail. Ern rented the first two DVDs from season one and promptly returned them, thinking, “Good riddance.” There were no characters worth caring about yet, Jack Bauer’s daughter was an idiot who deserved to get kidnapped, his wife was annoying, Jack Bauer looked like a muskrat, and the big crime mystery moved at a glacial pace. However, Ern’s friend, Rachel, lent her season one in a box, and Ern will watch anything a friend lends her in a box. About halfway through the first season, when Jack Bauer rescues his daughter, things picked up. And then things never let up. After that, 24 was never boring. Controversial, but never boring. Leeard caught random episodes of this show and didn't like it. Silly Leeard. You have to watch this one from the beginning of a season or you won't know what's going on.

Rome - This show covers 20 years of Roman history, and the characters never age a day. But our real beef is that half of the first season was SO BORING. It was like this show just existed to show people in cool costumes take them off and then have sex. Then we got into it and enjoyed it. Before you pick this one up, it helps to know some Roman history and be into the Roman politics.

Boston Legal - This show is a funny classic now, but when we started the first season, we were extremely turned off by the liberal PSAs every week. Even if we happened to agree, this show was so preachy, it made us literally gag one time. There were monologues by the judges at the end of the episodes. Top that off with nearly every young woman in the law firm looking like models and every one of them thinking humpty-dumpty-looking Alan Shore was a great catch, and we were changing the channel on this one at first.

Dexter - This started off gross, exploitative, confusing, and creepy. We put it on a level with gory crap like those moronic Saw movies. But then Dexter’s inhumanity was contrasted with real humanity. We got to know his history. Deb stopped working vice and got to put some clothes on. And by the end of the first season, we were happy someone had convinced us to give it a second try.

Breaking Bad - The pilot tried our patience. Then it got awesome.

Community - While Leeard loved the pilot of this show, Ern was not impressed. It took Ern half a season to think this was funny. The Halloween episode of the first season is what did it.

Cougar Town - In the beginning, the show was about cougars, it wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t cute. We think just about everyone gave up on this one in the beginning, but word of mouth has brought a few back. Now, it’s a Scrubs-like, zany show about a group of friends. Jules is a much better character than Monica Gellar. We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: If you like fun, light humor, try this show, because it’s good now.

Dollhouse - It’s tough to have a show with few good guys and a main character with no identity of her own. It’s tough to watch a show drag and feel like it doesn’t know where it is going or how fast it needs to spill answers (LOST, anyone?). But it would be tougher for you to miss out on a sci-fi show this unique.

Fringe - Just start on the second season, seriously. 2/3rds of the first season is horribly slow. But now it’s good.

The Vampire Diaries - The pilot was the only lame episode of this fantastic series. Ern shunned it for nearly a full year, because a) she HATES Twilight (shitelight), b) thinks vampires should never go to high school, c) rarely likes teen shows, and d) the title “The Vampire Diaries” just makes it sound hella lame, right? Leeard kept sending Ern links to watch it, offended that Ern did not trust her taste. For the sake of the friendship, Ern watched the links. And now, we can both love it together.

Then there are shows that we have shunned, but keep thinking we should go back to. Currently they are Mad Men and Nikita. People rave over Mad Men, but we didn’t see it. Is it time for a return visit to the ‘60s? And now that Nikita’s advertising campaign has died down, it might be less annoying, and we might get into the story better if we can see many episodes at a time.

In fact, that’s a good trick. Get a full season on DVD, and if it doesn’t hook you after a few hours, it might not be for you. It’s harder to get into a difficult show week-to-week.

What are some shows that you hated at first that grew on you?

Our Favorite Plots and Plots Twists On Some of Our Favorite Shows-- inspired by hatts' comment

SPOILER ALERT- We are about to give a lot of really good plot points away, so blur your eyes and move on if you haven’t seen most of these shows. We made a post complaining about bad plots on good shows, so it's only fair that we do a positive post to counteract it.

24, The end of first season - If you haven’t seen it, we aren’t even going to risk blowing it for you. Stephen King’s entertainment column blew it for Ern, and it took her a long time to forgive him for that. It helped that he’s awesome. Anyway, the one-two punch of the plot twists at the end of this show’s first season made everyone sit up and notice that this was a show that wasn’t afraid to do anything to its characters to shock and tell a good story. Honorable mention: Season five. Yes, the whole season.

LOST, the first flash forward - They have to go BACK? What?!?! They got off? No freakin way. One of us is still freaked out about this. The other blogger was spoiled. GER. Honorable mention: Ben talks Locke down from killing himself and then, once Locke says the wrong thing, strangles him. We were all touched that Ben talked his old enemy out of giving into despair when, suddenly, Ben murders him. Tell us you weren’t holding your breath during that entire, amazing scene. LOST had plenty of amazing twists (Locke’s in a wheelchair, the others aren’t savages, etc), but this one scarred us for life.

Arrested Development, Buster gets his hand bitten off by a seal - This one paid off in humorous spades. It was foreshadowed for at least half a season, and we will always chuckle when we think of Buster screaming, “I’M A MONSTER!!!!” It was one of the weirdest, best plots in Arrested Development history. Honorable mention: The Maebe/George Michael love, especially at the end of season two where they kissed and the floor caved in under them.

Sex and the City, The Big/Carrie affair - We were amazed at how this show handled adultery without making us hate Carrie for having the affair. It helped that she was super remorseful about it through the entire arc. The affair was exciting, we were heartbroken for Aiden (bonus points for bringing him back), and it ended without any Taylor Swift-esque romanticism or unrealistic TV fantasy. Honorable mention for this show: The entire Steve/Miranda arc. Also, Smith taking Samantha back after she slept with Richard and her final appreciation of Smith’s big-heartedness and maturity. The way the show had the four characters grow up and embrace parts of themselves that they had previously rejected was excellent.

Scrubs, The Dr. Cox/JD relationship - Turk and JD were hilarious, but Dr. Cox and J.D. were funny AND poignant. You know you were rooting for JD to finally get that hug. Dr. Cox’s love of JD and reluctance to get close him kept us crawling back to Scrubs for more of their great dynamic.

In Treatment, Paul does not sleep with Laura - So many people loved the Laura storyline, because she was hot and in love with her therapist. We found his struggle to resist her to be tiring, and the only thing we like about this plot arc is that he did not sleep with her in the end. We are also glad that the therapist in love with the patient thing is over and done for this show. Now we can get to interesting patients like Sophie, Walter, April, and Oliver, which are this blogger’s personal favorite patients. Once a patient on this show gets under your skin, their episodes become an addiction. You can just watch these four and get a nice experience with this show. Speaking of this show, it’s back on now, and we are watching. It’s fantastic because it keeps you glued to the screen just through two (usually) good actors talking to each other for 22 minutes.

Friends, Monica and Chandler hook up at Ross’ failed wedding and start a relationship - Did you scream back in the ‘90s when Chandler and Monica popped up in the same bed the morning of Ross’ wedding? We did. That relationship kept life in the show long after it started being more soapy than funny. “The One Where Everybody Finds Out (about the relationship),” was one of the funniest Friends episodes.

Gilmore Girls, Rory doesn’t marry Logan at the end - If she wasn’t going to be with Jess at the end (we know, we know, most of you disagree with us in our Jess love), we were glad that the show left her life open-ended and didn’t have her be “the little woman” to a rich, hot guy. The way Rory’s life journey was just beginning was a nice thing on which to end the series. Lorelai, on the other hand, had closed many chapters of her life, ended up with the right guy (at the very, very end), and was in a stable career that she loved, which is how we wanted to leave our flighty, high-spirited heroine. Honorable mention: Anything with Kurt.

Alias, Sydney and Co. bring down SD-6 in the middle of season two - Way to not drag out a plot, show. We love when that happens. When the SD-6 thing was dragging, the show knew how to shake things up by freeing the characters from their double-agent statuses and moving on to other fish. Honorable mention: The pilot of this show is one of our favorites.

Dexter, The Trinity arc - DUH

Gossip Girl, season two Chuck and Blair - Chuck and Blair falling for and eventually committing to each other was the high point of this show for us, by far.

Glee, Sue trying to take Will down - Let’s face it: plots are not Glee’s strong suit, especially this season. We like the songs, the messages of inclusiveness, the tone, the individual characters, and the jokes. But one thing the plotters got right is having the enemy of the arts NOT be just some parent who doesn’t understand/wants his son to play sports. That is tired, and it was already done on High School Musical. Having the bad guy consciously, evilly attempt to sabotage the rival group was pure genius. Honorable mentions - Puckleberry. Bring that back, show. Also, Tina's goth look. Maybe this doesn't qualify as a plot or a twist, but we like it. Just sayin.

The Vampire Diaries, Everything on the show - This show is just one good plot point and plot twist after another. We can’t even count the times we’ve gasped while watching this show. At least once per episode. An episode that stands out for Ern is the one where Stefan tried to stop drinking any blood, hoping that he would die. Lots of young people struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts, and this show lightly touched on this subject in this episode in a powerful, touching way. Stefan’s final decision to fight and keep trying sent out messages to teens that this was the strongest decision he could have made for himself and his loved ones. Message episodes can get heavy-handed and usually makes our eyes roll, but this one toed the line between profound and preachy perfectly. This is the episode in which the show garnered Ern’s respect. Leeard loved the season one finale and the season two premiere, as well as the most recent episode. Actually, Leeard is obsessed with every episode of this show, haha.

The Office, Jim and Pam’s budding romance - Obviously the best plot on this show was the early Jim/Pam dynamic. Roy treated Pam like crud, and Jim treated her with respect and affection, providing a contrast that was meaningful, funny, and edifying of nice guys everywhere. Honorable mention - Dwight and Angela, Holly and Michael.

The United States of Tara, The appearance of the feral alter, Gimmee - Gimmee is horrific and hilarious at the same time. It really shows how out-of-control and serious Tara’s mental illness is. When we first saw it, we muttered, “What the hell?” It’s a shadow of what must be a hideous and frightening past. We are still watching this show because we wonder what sort of events could have created something as weird as Gimmee?

South Park, The Kyle/Cartman relationship - The greatest part of this show, for us, is seeing these two war against each other season after season. These two are foils, and their hatred for each other combined with some sort of obligatory friendship always entertains. For Leeard, the best single episode plot twist HAS to be when Cartman fed Scott Tenorman his parents. Looking back, it's pretty predictable, but MAN was it shocking the first time.

Grey’s Anatomy, the Addison/Derek/Meredith triangle - No triangle on this show will ever rival this one. It gave the show a core issue that everyone was invested in. It was good because we loved both women. Addison was cool! Her relationship was doomed, but we were sad to see her hurt. And yet… Honorable mention - The first half of the Hunt/Cristina relationship. Watching them fall in love in season five was riveting. We had the choking, the way they didn’t fall immediately into bed together, and the way it softened Cristina and showed us another side of her. Sandra Oh rocked this plotline, and we think it overshadowed the disaster that was the Dead Denny season five plotline (no mean feat).

There are so many more. Give us yours?

Plots We Hate

TV Plots we want to omit

Beef: Sometimes, you are watching a TV show, and it’s going well, when all of the sudden if completely jumps the shark with one stupid, outlandish, or just plain boring plotline. It has happened to the best shows. Here are a few plotlines that make us want smack the writers.

Friday Night Lights, the season two murder - Friday Night Light’s is a certain kind of show. It involves small town and family politics, high school issues, marriage, and sports. It should not involve murder. That was stupid.

Grey’s Anatomy, George cheats on his hot wife with Izzie, “Gizzie” officially happens, and then they just fizzle - Did ANYONE like this plotline? This was worse than Dead Denny (and we hated that too), because that at least had a good explanation later on, unlike this. It just made no sense. It ruined both characters involved, and it was one of the things that made the George actor want to leave the show. He signed onto Grey’s hoping to play the nice guy, but the writers did things with the character that came out of left-field, namely, this. The actor didn’t understand or believe in the character anymore after this, and neither did we. (Note: We will actually defend the ferryboat accident episodes where Meredith died, if anyone asks us to. Sure, they had a dumb, supernatural element to them on a non-supernatural show, but we enjoyed many parts of those episodes.)

24, Kim goes on some random adventures in season two and wastes everyone’s lives - Even though one of us loves this show, it’s hard to pick just one stupid moment from it. There have been countless lists and articles written about its unrealistic plots and pointless deaths. But we have to go with the season 2 Kim Bauer tangents. Kim Bauer is an idiot. No one liked Kim Bauer. So naturally, the writers spent a third of season two on her getting into trouble. Her kidnapping a kid, fighting off an abusive employee, getting a guy shot, getting caught in a trap for a wild animal, getting taken underground by a paranoid creeper, and escaping police custody all coincidently happen on Jack’s Bauer’s busiest day. First of all, yeah right. Second of all, stop wasting our time, show.

Flashforward, Everything after the pilot - In light of this week’s poll, we just have to mention what a dull, pointless waste of time this show was. Way to waste a good premise.

Alias, Vaughn gets shot like a million times by a machine gun, leaves the show, but then is suddenly alive again - One of us loved when Vaughn died, because she was never a fan of him. The other loved Vaughn, but was annoyed at how he was treated in the final season. First of all, it was completely unbelievable that he survived. The end of Alias was a tacked-on, nonsensical fail too. We waded through four years of mythology (and lame Dixon) for THAT? Sydney’s mom was the Big Bad? But we kind of liked her. UGHH. Ok, we have to mention two other things we hated in that show. 1) Sydney’s half-sister. Useless. 2) The genetic goo that changed people into other people. We couldn’t even try to believe that was possible. Jack Bristow was the best thing about that show. Sydney was ok too.

Arrested Development, the whole weird British/Rita thing - We cringed at Charlize Theron’s mentally retarded character, Rita, through most of her stint on this show. For the most part, we enjoyed AD’s frenetic, silly third season. Because the show knew it was getting cancelled, it could be as crazy as it wanted. But we didn’t laugh during the Rita thing until the last episode where Michael almost married her. That was pretty funny, but it didn’t make up for the fact that the show made us think it had become something other than the show we loved by spending so much time on the weird British Rita stuff.

Bones, Zach is Gormagon’s assistant - We miss Zach. That made no sense. We will always miss Zach. The only things on Bones that we hated more than this plotline are Hannah and that one (nearly unwatchable) dream-sequence finale.

True Blood, nearly the entire third season- What WAS that? Ugh. Get it together next season, please.

The Vampire Diaries - Nothing. The show is flawless.

Sex and the City, Carrie dates Berger - Did anyone like that guy? The only redeeming thing about that was the post-it breakup episode. Second place: Samantha’s foray into lesbianism. It was offensive to lesbians to watch Samantha try this, Samantha is straight, her girlfriend was creepy, and it just wasn’t funny.

Dexter, Lila and what happened to Doakes - Doakes was a pain, but we respected him. What happened to him was completely unfair and just plain sad. Also, Lila was too crazy for us, and we can’t believe Dexter spent so much time with her.

LOST, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer spend way too much time captured by The Others - Way to slow this show down. We get that they had to, because the writers didn’t know how long they had to stretch out the show, and they needed an end date. Also, it helped the show save money, since they were over budget. But the slow start to season three lost the show a lot of viewers.

Friends, any major love plotline with Joey, especially the Rachel hookup - Joey was never going to have a serious relationship. All the girls he dates were so temporary and none fit. It was cute when he was helping Rachel with baby Emma, but it was oddly weird when he started liking Rachel. We think it’s because Joey was such an emotional and mental infant. He is sweet, but he should never have a relationship. It’s just awkward to make us watch him try.

Glee, Will’s love life - What a disaster. Why isn’t he with Emma now? We feel like the show changes the reason every time it’s brought up. This is an example of a show annoying us by purposefully dragging something out. His wife faked a pregnancy too, and no one liked that. Dishonorable mention: Jesse St. James dumping Rachel so abruptly and hatefully. He had no reason to hate her that much. It was out of nowhere, and we never got closure on that surprisingly engaging relationship.

Gilmore Girls, Luke’s daughter - This girl broke up Luke and Lorelai and was the source of the most useless Gilmore Girls plots. Lorelai got with Christopher (WRONG) and Luke bummed around in a custody battle, and the whole thing just wasted our lives in the last two seasons. If April had never shown up, the show would have been much stronger for it.

Joan of Arcadia, Adam cheats on Joan with Bonnie - Adam spent the entire first season pining after Joan, and when they finally get together, he cheats on her? Because Joan wouldn't have sex with him? Stupid and (though probably realistic) not what we had come to expect from the otherwise amazing Adam Rove.

Any plots you hate? Tell it to the comments.

15 Couples We Say Belong Together

So the usually good site, Entertainment Weekly, made a list of “Couples that are meant to be,” and we didn’t like it. For example, they had Hannah and Booth as their example of a meant-to-be couple. We know they were just trying to shake us up, but this suggestion is so wrong.

Here is the offending list (with our commentary):
9 TV Couples We Say Belong Together (What kind of a number is NINE? That’s not very round, is it?)
1. Don and Faye, Mad Men - Fine. That’s fine. Mostly because we don’t care about Mad Men.
2. Seeley Booth and Hannah Burley, Bones - This is just. No. Just no.
3. Michael Scott and Holly Flax, The Office - Fair enough, but kind of a “duh” thing.
4. Liz Lemon and Wesley Snipes, 30 Rock - Carol is better.
5. Jeff Winger and Britta Perry, Community - We don’t think ANYONE on that show belongs with another person in the study group. That’s what makes it such a great study group. Sure, they hook up and tease us with the possibilities. But at the end of the day, this group is “friends first,” and that’s how we like it. The show just can’t pull off a cute romance. It will always come across as sleazy. The show is funny, not romantic.
6. Stefan and Elena, The Vampire Diaries - They can’t stay faithful to each other through the whole show, or we will never get to see the hook up just about every fan wants.
7. Tina and Artie, Glee - Tina can do better, they weren’t that satisfying together, and a big Who Cares?
8. Serena and Dan, Gossip Girl - Sure, but they are stepsiblings and not the couple we watch the show to see.
9. Mark and Lexie, Grey’s Anatomy - Believe it or not, a lot of people think this is creepy and that they don’t actually work together. Mark needs an older, confident woman, like Addison, and Lexie needs a sweeter, younger guy.

Ok, maybe that list wasn’t as bad as we thought at first glance, but we still thought they left out some good couples. So we’ve made our own list. We’ve also included couples on shows that are over.

15 TV Couples
1. Jack Bauer and Audrey Raines, 24 - The ending of 24’s worst season (six) had to be one of the most depressing things we’ve ever seen. Audrey went all the way to China to save Jack Bauer, only to end up a zombie/vegetable. Jack Bauer has never had the best women for his lifestyle. Let’s face it, Terri was not a strong woman, Kate was a little blonde stick who at least tried, and his season 3 Senorita died too soon. She was cool though. Renee was also good, but she’s dead too. Some of you will cry for Chloe, but even though the actress played her as if she loved Jack Bauer, we think it’s better for Chloe to stay with her husband. This leaves Audrey, who was lame in season four but really stepped it up later. They deserve their happy ending, because they really loved each other. Hopefully they see that in the movie and at least give us some resolution on her character.

2. Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock - We KNOW it would be cliché. We KNOW Tina Fey has said that the series won’t end with Jack and Liz “doing it.” But can’t they just get together without sex? Have the sex happen in the future, off screen? Can they at least do it once, regret it, gag, shudder, and move on? Come on Tina Fey, it would be fun. And hilarious.

3. Booth and Bones, Bones - DUH. Who cares if Hannah is “perfect”? These two characters carried this show for all these years. Their characters are well-defined and irreplaceable. We’ve watched them flirt, support each other, fight, work together, avoid each other, and grow together. If they don’t end up together before the end of the series, we may lose faith in TV altogether. It has been way too long as it is.

4. Mal and Inara, Firefly - We are ok that we didn’t see this couple hook up. Once they did, we don’t know what the show would have done with the characters, plus, THAT might have been too cliché. It just wasn’t their time yet, even by the end of the movie. But we know that they ended up together. Inara stayed in the ship, and the writers left it with a smile and a glimmer of hope.

5. Rory and Jess, Gilmore Girls - Jess was perfect for Rory. He just had issues, ran out on her, and needed to grow up. Later in the series, we saw signs of Jess getting his life together by writing a book and getting into small business. We like to think that, ten years later, Rory and Jess find each other again, marry, and have many babies.

6. Puck and Rachel, Glee - Don’t get us wrong, Finn and Rachel are cute, but the Puckelberry romance was way too brief. We don’t want Puck with Quinn after seeing her chemistry with Sam. Wowser. And we don’t want Puck alone. Rachel needs a bad boy, and she’s the only girl on the show who could both handle and potentially soften Puck. Dear Rachel, Finn is going to end up mowing lawns for the rest of his life, and he’s not smart enough for you. Go for a fellow hot Jew.

7. Chuck and Blair, Gossip Girl - Another “duh.” These two are the heart of the show. Period. They will end up together.

8. Robin and Barney, How I Met Your Mother - There comes a time in almost every man’s life when they realize that one-night stands with women they will never see again leave them lonely and disconnected. What a guy really needs is a girl who won’t bore him because she’s just plain fun to be around. Robin is cool, pretty, smart, and someone Barney actually cares about. It’s not their time yet, but we hope that Barney sees how much fun it would be to hang out with Robin forever.

9. Alicia and Someone Else, The Good Wife -Neither her husband nor Will are good enough or hot enough for her. Alicia is gorgeous and classy. They need to bring on a guy who fits. Although, it would be extremely interesting to pair her with Eli Gold, at least for a time. It would be unpredictable, no? And it would bring the drama.

10. Dwight and Angela, The Office - These two were able to keep a secret, stable relationship for years. No one else is going to tolerate either of these two forever. Besides, Dwight needs five German boys to turn into mini, weird Dwights. We are sure he has screened Angela’s health records by now.

11. Richard and Kahlan, Legend of the Seeker - Apparently, after the series finale, they can now be together. This is good, because whether it’s the books or the TV series, these two won’t settle for anyone else. These are the only two on the list who aren't currently together. A requirement to get on this list is to not be a couple that is currently together. This is our exception, because, hey, it's our list.

12.Smith and Samantha, Sex and the City - The series finale ended everything perfectly, leaving us sure that each of the girls was with “The One.” Then the movie had to go and royn it. Also, for the record, Steve would never do that to Miranda!!! Ugh.

13. Matt and Caroline, The Vampire Diaries - After Caroline sacrificed her relationship with Matt to protect him, we knew it was true love. We never thought she was worthy of Matt, but we rooted for the relationship anyway. Now that’s she’s awesome, we are even more into this couple.

14. Sookie and Eric, True Blood - Sookie isn’t the quiet Southern belle Bill obviously needs. She’s the sex-loving, optimistic, non-human, spitfire Eric clearly needs.

15. Andy and Nancy, Weeds - We don’t want this one to happen until the end, but it clearly needs to happen. Andy stuck with this crazy family through all their crime and killing, so he deserves to get the girl. Plus, he’s a fun guy. Who doesn’t want to be with the fun guy?

We know there are some we missed, because no list is perfect. So let us know if we did!

Weighing In On Two Controversies: The Glee Photo Shoot and Violence v. Sex, What's Worse?

The Issue at Hand

So, as you all probably know by now, Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, and Cory Monteith (all of Glee fame) did a photo shoot for GQ magazine where Lea posed like a super slut in her underwear and Dianna showed her midriff, while Cory Monteith got to be covered up, because he is a guy. We don’t recommend it, because you can understand what is going on without seeing these, but you can see the offending photos (and a great observation about how DESPERATE the photo shoot comes across) here: http://www.dlisted.com/node/39304

Seriously, Lea Michele looks like she is about to burst into flames from the effort to look as much like a porn star as possible. Way to try too hard. Tasteless. Do the readers of GQ even watch Glee? Does Glee really need the publicity? (No.) The Parents Television Council/Committee/whatever (some conservative TV watchdog group) condemned the shoot, saying that because it was shot in a high school and featured the whole schoolgirl fetish thing that it bordered on pedophilia. We think that since no one pays attention to the PTC, they had to say the most extreme thing they could to get attention. These girls in no way look like children, even if one of them IS sucking on a lollypop in a photo.

The Lame, “But It’s Not a Family Show” argument

But the PTC has a point. Defending the Glee stars, people have been saying, “It’s not a family show.” Our response to THAT is, “So?” Kids in high school and middle school watch it, and that’s a fact. That’s like saying Gossip Girl and 90210 aren’t aimed at children under 18. Also, when we say, “It’s not our jobs to police TV and society, it’s the parents’ jobs,” we are pretty much saying, “If kids have bad parents or no parents, that’s not our problem. We want to see all the sexy stuff we want without judgment.” It’s for this reason that this argument doesn’t hold much water for us. We all have to live in this society, and the public needs to draw ethical lines over what we tolerate and what we can do without. Anything involved with Glee sends messages to young men and women about what is right, what is normal, and what success looks like. Forget kids. Even if you celebrate freedom to the max, is it really beneficial for the grown men reading GQ to see photos like this? Do freedom and the almighty dollar outweigh our interest in having a society where women are not props like this? Even regular adults groaned at this shoot, and we think we know why. It’s because the shoot is contrary to what the show stands for and why we love it.

What’s worse, sex or violence on TV?

These bloggers don’t really mind sex, nudity, violence, and language in our TV shows. All you have to do to notice that is to look at the variety of shows we watch. But you might be asking, “Hey, we’ve read scolding and hints of conservatism on this blog. What gives?" What we DO care about are the messages the show carries. For example, we loved Sex and the City, because although there was plenty of carefree sex, in the end really connecting to another person, commitment, friendship, forgiveness, and actual intimacy won out. We think parents and discriminating viewers should worry just as much about the messages in the media as the content. And hey, people are dehumanized when they are NEVER the object of lust as well as when they are ONLY objects of lust. You have to find a balance. This is why we slam violence so much more than sex. No one is humanized by violence. For us, a good, true message can overcome bad content. See: Any episode of South Park.

Betraying the heart of Glee

Glee has been described as a positive, wholesome show. This has nothing to do with its content. It features sex, drugs, and light cursing, and is not squeaky clean at all. Glee’s wholesomeness does not come from its content, it comes from its message. The show is about diversity, underdogs, and being confident in who you are. This is what the photo shoot violates. Glee whipped out its whitest, skinniest stars, took off their clothes, and slapped them in a men’s magazine. This exploitative, weird photoshoot celebrated the status quo and young women looking stupid. Also, notice how they turned Lea’s face in most shoots to hide her unique facial features, particularly the nose.

Thoughts on the actors involved

On her blog, Dianna Agron wrote a response to the outcry over the photo shoot, and it was articulate, humble, wise, and pretty awesome. We like her a lot better now. You can read it and follow Agron’s blog here: http://felldowntherabbithole.tumblr.com/ Dianna admitted that the shoot wasn’t her favorite idea, but she didn’t walk away. As for Lea Michele, there is no doubt that she is an ambitious girl willing to do anything to succeed in showbiz. In this, she is like her Glee character, Rachel. Lea showed her breasts on stage night after night in the musical Spring Awakening, and she has the raciest poses and outfits in the photo shoot. Also, she has jumped right in line with Hollywood’s hellacious body standards by losing a lot of weight between seasons 1 and 2. This disappoints us, because she is one of the most gorgeous and talented people on TV today. After Glee, she will probably always be successful, and she has a steady job. We don’t know why she thinks she needs to do stuff like this. It saddens us that her beautiful voice isn’t enough. And Cory, you could have said something or done something too. Call us prudes, but we don’t think this shoot adds anything good to the world or to TV. It’s sexist, desperate, and dumb.

It’s a world playing to the lowest common denominator. Be careful what you see.

Lone Star- One in Every Family review

This second episode of Lone Star was not as good as the pilot, but it was still good. We understand that the main character is cute, but one of us is not personally attracted to him. We care about his character though, which is saying something since he is a con man. This episode started out slow, but it picked up as it went on. By the end, it was intriguing.

We love his new wife’s sister, who acted a little like Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones when we first meet her. We like that she might end up learning our main character’s secrets. This show has more daddy issues than an episode of LOST, but we like it here.

We can’t help but wonder if this series would make a better movie than show. Perhaps the makers will consider it, if the show gets cancelled?

Episode grade- B-

Catch up on this show here (there have only been two episodes, and it's a pretty good new show): http://www.hulu.com/lone-star

The Event pilot review

The Event was an engaging, frantic, and eventful set-up for a bigger story, but not much more. There wasn’t a lot of time to get to know the characters or delve deep into anything, but that’s fine...for now. This is just the sort of show this blogger likes, where it looks like the writers are going to hide the ball for a while. If you don’t, then be heartened. The show’s writers have planned a big clue or reveal in each episode, and they want to have smaller story arcs every five or six episodes. They have also promised us more character development.

The pilot changed time and locations often, showing us different characters at different times and giving away different clues. We will attempt to put it in some sort of order for this review.

In Alaska, about 13 months ago, there was a detention camp holding 97 prisoners, including the prisoner who seemed to be in charge of them, Sophia. There, someone told Sophia that someone named “William” had been recaptured, that he had been in Los Angeles, and we learned that he had been gone for some time. The president hinted that the prisoners “may not be Americans,” so we think they are probably extra terrestrials.

Nearly thirteen months later, the main character, Sean Walker, took his girlfriend, Leila, on a cruise after asking her father’s permission to marry her. The father (Scott Patterson from Gilmore Girls) interrupted Sean’s nervous speech with a laid-back, “Sean, relax. You have my permission.” On the vacation, Sean and Leila met an annoying young couple when Sean saved the female part of that couple from drowning. The couple got Leila to drink too much, so Leila stayed in the next day. When Sean got back to their room, Leila was gone and a new couple was staying in the room. There was no record of Leila or Sean ever getting on the boat. Sean started freaking out and getting angry. With things like “Boiling Points,” “Punk’d,” and my family in this world, this blogger’s first assumption would have been that this was a prank. But Sean recognized right away that this was serious—Leila was gone.

Blair Underwood (the doctor who dated Miranda on Sex and the City) plays the president. He’s coming across as a David Palmer sort, not an evil president. He talked about how he wanted to set the prisoners free. Sean turned into a nervous guy hijacking an airplane. Apparently, his future father-in-law was flying the plane into the house the President was having a party in, because “they had offered him” something (probably Leila). Sean begged Leila’s dad not to go through with the deed. We felt sympathy for the teary father who was once so easygoing. At the last second, the plane disappeared. Sophia, who was at the party, told the President, “They saved us….I haven’t told you everything.” Our minds weren't blown yet, and we aren't ready to compare this to LOST. But we were entertained, and we want to tune in next week.

Episode grade- B

Watch the pilot here for free on NBC: http://www.nbc.com/the-event/video/i-havent-told-you-everything/1250176/

TV's Most Dateable Guys Part 1

A list for the ladies....
· Seeley Booth, Bones – He … We just … Yes. This man is everything.

· Smith Jerrod, Sex and the City—How great was this guy with Samantha? She cheats, he understands and takes her back. He sends her flowers, holds her hand, is super hot, doesn’t drink, and sticks by her through cancer (and shaves his head, making him look even hotter). Then she gave him up so she could spend more time focusing on herself. Ummm, we will focus on you forever Smith.

· Neal Caffrey, White Collar – There is nothing about Neal Caffrey that isn’t perfect. He’s charming, works with the FBI, knows his art, and is ridiculously attractive. As long as you can accept that pesky tracking anklet, he’s 100% dateable.

· Desmond Hume, LOST—Sawyer can be unstable, and unless you’re Juliet, he’s not gonna commit. Jack was hot, but he cried too much. Daniel looks like a hobbit (and science drove him crazy). Jin was controlling. Charlie was annoying. Who does that leave on LOST? Desmond, who looked awful nice in season 5 when he went to Oxford looking for Daniel in his scarf.

· Shawn Spencer, Psych – Can drop the most obscure, amazing reference whenever appropriate. Even if he weren’t cute, which he is, that would be enough.

· Jim Halpert, The Office—This is the "duh" choice of this list. We are pretty sure every female Office fan ever has said, "I would date Jim Halpert."If he weren’t so great with Pam, we'd want him with one of us. He’s funny, laid back, and loyal.

· Lane Elenburg, Big Brother – He’s amazing. Easily the most attractive and amusing (male) houseguest this season, and he genuinely seems like a good person. And hey, he might be $500,000 richer in a few days…

· Jon Stewart, The Daily Show—Witty, self-deprecating, and spewing more truthful takes on what’s going on than most news stations. And we don't discriminate against older hotties. This guy is married, but if he was not, we would date him. One of the bloggers' moms has said multiple times that this is the sort of man the blogger should end up with. We could argue with him all day… (the writers are a tad more conservative than Mr. Stewart.)

· Chuck Bartowski, Chuck – Super adorkable and very reminiscent of The O.C.’s Seth Cohen … If Seth had been a spy.

· Albie Manzo, The Real Housewives of New Jersey – We would honestly marry this man. Caroline Manzo, if you’re reading this, one of the bloggers is a well-educated, (part) Italian who would be an awesome daughter-in-law. Just thought we'd put it out there.

· Finn Hudson, Glee – Not the smartest guy on this list, but very sweet and generally means well. Definitely dateable.

· Damon Young, Make it or Break it – A cute, passionate rock star who supports his girlfriend? Yes please.