SUNDAY, 23rd

LOST: Whatever I write here will be futile. You’re all probably bawling your eyes out. (9pm/ABC)

MONDAY, 24th

24: Coincidence, clever marketing or fate that 24‘s series finale is actually on the 24th? (8pm/FOX)

TUESDAY, 25th

DANCING WITH THE STARS: Season finale. Ever since Kate Gosselin was booted off and stopped providing the crazy, the show lost a lot of appeal. (9pm/ABC)

WEDNESDAY, 26th

AMERICAN IDOL: Season finale. Having given up on this season early on, I’ll tune in tonight to give my farewells to Mr. Cowell – for now. (8pm/FOX)

THURSDAY, 27th

FLASHFORWARD: Series finale. I guess this isn’t going to be the next Lost… (8pm/ABC)

FRIDAY, 28th

THE SOUP PRESENTS: 20 YEARS OF TAKIN’ SOME E!: Let’s take some E! *cue techno beats and shaky camera* (10pm/E!)

SATURDAY, 29th

SWEET HOME ALABAMA: After a week of intense finales, your weekend needs a bit of Reese Witherspoon. (8pm/Oxygen)

The CW Upfront: TV to Talk About

Television shows have an interesting life cycle. Some can last years on the air and gain a strong following; others are lucky if they survive past the first three episodes.

Up Fronts are where new shows are introduced to the world by network executives, and old shows either make a triumphant return or meet their maker. Held every year in New York City on the third week in May, major networks host an Up Front meeting to reveal their fall primetime pick-ups. Press – including Poptimal! – and advertisers are invited to see clips from new series and meet the actors and crew involved with returning and upcoming shows.

The CW has seen its fair share of shakeups in the last few years. In 2006, UPN and the WB merged , dropping veterans 7th Heaven and Reba and gems like Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars at the end of its inaugural season. And it’s been a bumpy road ever since. (Let’s not forget the Writer’s Strike, and can we have a brief moment of silence for Reaper, Privileged, and Aliens in America, as well?)

Over the years, the CW has morphed into a niche network that’s making smart choices, though diversifying its product will be the first step to broadening its audience and gaining viewership. Truthfully, I don’t think that will ever happen. I’m not sure that we, as viewers, will ever be able to treat the network as we do the other big four, especially not when cable networks and broadcast networks are starting to meld in quality and numbers.

So I was pleased to see the network, that’s been so transient lately, profess a little stability, especially a network that Dawn Ostroff, CW Entertainment President, calls “the cool place to be.” That last statement is debatable, but the Theater in Madison Square Garden was definitely the “hottest” place to be. And Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard), a martial artist, actress and Jackie Chan protege, made that abundantly clear.

“I don’t think any of you understand how good-looking it is backstage,” said the charming beauty. “It’s really intimidating. I had to push the A cups up a little bit.”

But Maggie Q was not looking too shabby to me, and why should she. Only two new scripted shows will be debuting this fall, so Maggie should be basking in a whole lot of limelight. And as the star of the new CW show Nikita, she will get to tote guns and perform her own stunts, look sultry, talk sassy and just be an all-around badass. Based on the Luc Besson French film (also, with an American counterpart) and the USA series La Femme Nikita (aka Nikita), Maggie will portray the spy-assassin turned rogue against the agency that created her. The show also stars ER‘s Shane West.

Nikita certainly stands up against the sexy, fun side of the CW brand, but it doesn’t scream “young and female” like their flagships Gossip Girl or 90210. Yet I’m excited to see what the CW does with something so different than the rest of its lineup, and with a high-octane producer like McG (Terminator: Salvation, Human Target, Mission: Impossible III), it’s sure to be a wild ride.

A snugger fit is the new show Hellcats, starring Aly Michalka (Bandslam, Phil of the Future) as a pre-law student who joins her university cheerleading squad, but only because she’s losing her scholarship. Miraculously, this is the only way she can stay in school. Gail O’Grady stars as her less-than-together mother, and Ashley Tisdale (the High School Musicals) plays the quintessential, snarky team captain.

It’s not the most original of ideas, but it definitely looked fluffy, bright and energetic. I dub it a mix between Bring It On and Step Up 2 when it comes to storyline and characters, but it’s similar Make It or Break It in tone. Hellcats asks us to take the sport of cheerleading seriously while not taking its sudsy characters too seriously, and I’m okay with that.

The show is produced by Tom Welling, who also happens to star on Smallville, another CW show, which will be entering its final season this year. I’m not sad to see it go, but I’m happy to have it around for one more year, a year that’s sure to push all of the characters to the brink of disaster in, what I hope, will be an interesting way. Plus, hitting the 10-season mark is a huge milestone and something they should be proud of. (Okay, so I do love the show but I may be adding a little more sugar than needed because Welling was sweet enough to take a picture with me.)

Also returning this fall is the fairly buzz-worthy Gossip Girl which will remain on Mondays at 9pm. They will be joined by 90210 which will move from Tuesdays to really bring out that East Coast – West Coast rich teen rivalry as Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) and Annalynn McCord (90210) displayed.

One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected, two on-the-bubble shows of which I was sure only one would survive, will be teaming up on Tuesdays. One Wednesdays, America’s Next Top Model will serve as a nice lead-in to Hellcats, catty models on a catwalk to catty cheerleaders in ‘Cats uniforms should play well to the CW demo.

Nikita will replace Supernatural‘s Thursday slot, after the network’s most successful show The Vampire Diaries, to create what Maggie Q labeled a “killer” night. So Supernatural will join Smallville on Fridays so that I can have sexy boys to stare at when I’m sitting at home dateless. (No, really this night of beauty was designed specifically with me in mind. Thanks, Dawn!)

Though the presentation was pretty predictable, there were a few pleasant surprises. Plain Jane, a new summer reality show, displayed some heart. British fashion expert Louise Roe hosts and plays the role of transformer, and the trailer got some good laughs and was aww-inducing by the end. Katy Perry rocked the house with “Hot ‘n Cold” and “California Girls” though she had to scream, “Is it too early in the morning to stand up and have some f—ing fun?” just to get people on their feet. Apparently it was, as executives turned into swaying robots and sat back down before she even got into the second song.

But in all seriousness, the CW will never be able to compete with the other Big Four, which is why I believe Ostroff is making the smart choice is branding the network as “TV for Generation D”. “D” in this instance stands for digital. It’s certainly not a new idea, but by tapping into and harvesting their young market, the CW may be the ones ahead of the game in terms of advertising dollars (what actually keeps our fave shows on the air) when television and internet and DVRs and Netflix, finally and truly, meld into one huge, interchangeable, indistinguishable blob called media. (Phew, that was a mouthful.) Finally, producing a schedule with 10-hours of original programming is a big step for a network like the CW. So I’m happy with their decision to take small chances and not mess with what isn’t quite broken.

FALL SCHEDULE

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 pm: 90210
9:00-10:00 pm: Gossip Girl

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 pm: One Tree Hill
9:00-10:00 pm: Life Unexpected

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 pm: America’s Next Top Model
9:00-10:00 pm: Hellcats (new series)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 pm: The Vampire Diaries
9:00-10:00 pm: Nikita (new series)

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 pm: Smallville
9:00-10:00 pm: Supernatural

Photos courtesy of the CW, Ben Mark Holzberg, and Jack Rowand

Shrek Forever After Review: Funny But More of the Same

The latest and final installment of the Shrek series had this viewer entertained for the most part. I wasn’t exactly dying to see this film but I’d enjoyed the first and second ones so I figured, why not. Give it a chance, maybe it will surprise you. Did it? Well it had some good laughs but ultimately it was about as entertaining as the previous films and made no new animation advances.

Shrek: Forever After picks up where the last movie ended, this time Shrek and Fiona’s honeymoon period ends as the reality of raising children takes over their lives. While Fiona is happy with their domesticated routines, her ogre husband Shrek becomes frustrated with his new life and finds himself wishing for his old one. He misses being feared by the towns’ people, his privacy, and the simple pleasures that he used to get, like having a mud bath in peace. In comes fiendish Rumpelstiltskin who offers him a deal to get his old life back for just a day. The tiny deal maker though has his own agenda and uses Shrek for his own diabolical plans. Shrek finally comes to grips with the lesson of appreciating what you have. But is the lesson learned too late? Well you’ll have to watch to find out.

If you liked the other Shrek films you’ll probably like this one too though I would recommend that most people rent it. The kids and adults in the theater with me laughed at some of the more amusing scenes including the ogre dance seen in the previews as well as the slapstick comedy of Donkey and Puss in Boots. My favorite part though had to be the way the writers took a fairytale entity like witches and a real life group like carnies and basically made them one in the same. There is a great scene where Rumpelstiltskin is partying with the witches and they’re having a huge crazy rave complete with a witch deejay. It’s the little touches like using cauldrons as spotlights that make me appreciate this animated film. I also like that the movie tries to impart a lesson for everyone watching and does it in a comedic way, which isn’t that easily accomplished. The dialogue was funny and the pacing was good. Overall it was decently done.

Shrek: Forever After features the voice talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Eddie Murphy, Julie Andrews, Walt Dohrn, Jon Hamm, Jane Lynch, and randomly enough Today Show host Meredith Vieira!

Lastly it still baffles my mind how Donkey and Dragon managed to make babies. Maybe its one of those questions best left unanswered.

Friday Night Lights Review: In the Skin of a Lion

Friday Night Lights turned in another gem of an episode this week as Coach Taylor fought like mad to build Lions up and give them a fighting chance in a town that‘ll eat a losing football team alive. In stark contrast from the winning Panthers, the townspeople of East Dillon will not just choose to skip a game, but they’ll turn out and actually boo you. Ice cold. Yet, the Coach actually took his Lion lemons and turned them into a slightly tart lemonade by gaining a small victory. The Lions didn’t actually win, but by putting some points on the scoreboard, they fostered some support from their apathetic community and gained a little more faith in themselves.

It all started with Coach’s attempt at fundraising. He forced the team to push one clunker of a car through town in the hopes that the people they pass will open up their hearts and wallets. The coach ended up having to dig into his own pocket, but that’s why we love him. He knows no bounds when it comes to supporting his team. Though burning their 30-year-old jerseys last week was a great team building exercise, Levi, the principal, made it clear that there is no room in the budget for new uniforms. He echoed the sentiments of almost everyone in the town, that this is not Dillon and football is not so important there. He even goes so far to say that Coach didn’t get the job. He wasn’t even supposed to take the job in the first place. Again, ice cold.

Thing go from bad to worse when Coach turns to his old buddy at Under Armor to get some new uniforms, and he has to fork up $3,000 that he and the school don’t have. Kyle Chandler put in some of his best work, displaying his frustrations with an inadequate team. Boosters aren’t so eager to shower a losing team with hundreds of dollars, and for once, Coach has to face that Buddy Garrity may have had a larger role in all of his successes than he liked to give him credit for. Buddy may have caused a lot of harm (remember Voodoo Taylor, the investigation and the forfeited game), but we know that Luke’s “mailbox” isn’t the only help he’s ever had a hand in.

The bad check leads to one of those understated yet emotional “real” marriage fights that Chandler and Connie Britton pull off so well. It always starts over something trite. Tami noticed that a check was missing from the checkbook. It jumps to something bigger because he lies and says it was a $45 payment for dry cleaning. And it snowballs from there. Coach made it right by the end, working out a deal with his old Under Armor friend, but once again, these two need Emmys before the series ends.

And Mama Bear had every right to be ticked off, Tammy had a hard week. The town hasn’t let up on her for shipping Luke off, and then her daughter confessed that she’s not as devout in her faith as Tami thought she once was. FNL has tackled religion in many subtle ways since its inception, and it was nice to see a new viewpoint. As a parent, Tami handled the issue extremely well, and I think the resolution was both perfect and realistic. In the end, Tami didn’t press her daughter to conform and supported her right to her opinion, while Julie promised to continue going to church because it comforts her mother to have all her family there with her.

Across town, Richard Sherman tells Matt to drive him 200 miles to help him pick up some more junk that he can morph into magnificent pieces of art, and then gives Matt a hard time about his pizza delivery job excuse. He also calls Julie a “ball and chain” to her face, saying he married a girl just like her 20 years ago. Ouch. I’m still not wholly enjoying this storyline though it will clearly be a catalyst to help get Matt out of Dillon, something I do support. Richard does impart some sage advice when he tells Matt that artists have to be selfish. “Because you are going to spend your life trying to express some quiet, dark corner deep, deep inside of you. You will put aside love, God, life, in order to follow this craving.” If that’s not foreshadowing, I don’t know what is. Let’s just hope it’s not to Richard-level extremes.

It was nice to see Riggins try his darnedest to stay away from his neighbor Becky, another storyline that hasn’t been remotely fleshed out yet. I’m not sure why he’s struggling. Is it because of her age? Because he’s not that old. Is it because he one-timed her mom? That’d be mature of him. Or is it because of her proximity? Riggins seems to be growing up more in this short period of time than we’ve seen in the past three seasons. But it’s his time with the Lions, more specifically Luke, that has me wondering what will happen next.

Luke struggled with having to move to defense. He made it clear to Riggins and Coach that he sees football as his ticket out of Dodge. (Very Smash-like.) His passion is evident, and Riggins advocated for him to Coach, asking for Eric to show Luke more attention. But Coach is stressed out, and he certainly doesn’t have time to dote on a more seasoned player when he’s got so many weak links to work on. But he does call for Luke to step up as a leader which should tide him over for a while and start a bond between the two. Unfortunately, this does seem to set up tension between Luke and Vince, who Coach also seems to want as a leader too. The two boys aren’t on good ground now, and you can smell racial tensions brewing.

Buddy went through his own crisis when Joe implied that Buddy had a hand in the mailbox incident. Buddy is back to top form, firing back “I think this Luke deal has made everyone go a little crazy. I was a Panther before everybody here so I’ll just pretend you didn’t say that.” Buddy is slimy, no doubt, but he also truly loves his town and football and his friends. Even as a secondary role, he is one of the most developed characters on the show. He proved his heart when he stood up to Joe and his followers, at Joe’s own house at that, near the end of the episode. At first he didn‘t show much courage.

Coach: I don’t know how to talk to boosters. You do. I don’t know how to ask for money. You’re great at asking for money. All I’m doing is asking for your help.
Buddy: I know, and I’d like to, Eric. But I’ve got Joe McCoy and those guys breathing down my neck. I mean they think that I’m the one who told you about that mailbox.
Coach: You are the one who told me about the mailbox.
Buddy: I know, but I’ve got to un-know that right now. I mean they may be having me followed. They probably have my phone tapped. I may be bugged right now. You know, those guys are crazy! 

Classic Buddy, dramatic and absurd at times but so honest. In the end, he realized that he couldn’t stand by and watch what he loved so much about football and teamwork and community slip away. And he sure does know how to make an exit.

“Joe, I tried, but ever since you got here, you’ve been a cancer to me. You’ve been a cancer to my friends, and you’ve been a cancer to this team. And just one more thing I want to say. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”

On a side note, very little time was spent with Landry this week. Coach moved him to kicker, another hole to fill, but this gave him a reason to spend a little time with Jess, who gave him some pointers on kicking. Her dad used to have prospects in college but now thinks the game is pointless. I’m looking forward to seeing more character development for both of the new girls.

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