After what seems like forever, I finally got to watch the ending for Tin Man. While the miniseries started out slow, I enjoyed the ending. There were a lot more references to the musical Wizard of Oz movie in this part. I think the biggest downside for the series was SciFi's marketing of it. In all of the commercials I've seen for the past few months, they've been calling it a "re-imagining" of The Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile, it's closer to a sequel than anything. Not a direct sequel but a sequel that takes place a long time after the original story ended. So I imagine that a lot of people were disappointed and there's probably a lot of people that didn't stick around to watch the third part, where they make a direct reference to the Dorothy of the first book. I think I would have preferred to see this as an actual series though. Perhaps with a one-hour timeslot. It would have been nice to have a bit more information on the Queen (I don't think she ever gets a name) and Raw and even Glitch. We learn a lot about Glitch but we only see a little bit of who he was before his brain was stolen. It would also be nice to see where things will go now. What will happen to the three friends? We get a pretty decent ending for DG, Az and their parents but we get nothing on the others. I doubt that we will see any sort of sequel to this so we'll just have to imagine what happens to them.
Tin Man - Part 2
I got to sit down and watch the second part of SciFi's Tin Man last night. I have to say that I liked the second part much better than the first. Obviously, the first third of the series was intended to introduce everyone to the characters and their surroundings. That alone tends to make a very boring story, especially when these are based on characters that we already know. In this part of the trilogy, we find out why Azkadallia is evil and DG's role in the O.Z. We also find out why Glitch's brain was stolen plus there's a bit of insight into Raw's character. After wondering how they were going to work him into the series, we finally get to meet Toto, though he's quite a bit different from the barking dog we're familiar with.
I don't want to give any spoilers away for those who, like me, weren't able to watch the show on it's original air date. I am definitely looking forward to the last part of the series. I think I may even be a bit sad when it ends.
America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 9
The more I watch this show, the more I realize that it's not about being a SMART model. It's about being a sneaky, manipulative model. It annoys me. I liked the show better when it stuck to its premise. Last week we saw Pickle getting the big heave-ho. This put the model headcount at 5. For the Edge Challenge, the models are once again asked to break into pairs. But wait, it's an uneven number! So one model has to volunteer to get screwed and be alone. Brett steps up to that challenge. Rachel pairs off with Andre and VJ goes with Angela. Then it is revealed that the teams will need to build a go-kart. But wait, not all of the teams get to participate! Only the two fastest go-kart building teams, with correctly built karts, get to race. Angela, who claims to have spent her childhood fixing cars with her dad, and VJ finish their kart first. After having to make a few adjustments, Rachel and Andre finish second. Poor screwed over Brett gets nothing.
To win the Edge Challenge, the two racing teams must compete. Angela and VJ get the pole position since they won the first half of the challenge. But can they beat Rachel and Andre in racing? While Angela claims that she can build a car, she knows nothing about driving one. She takes the corners wide leaving the perfect opportunity for Rachel to grab the lead. As Angela tries to catch up to Rachel, she spins out. Of course, this annoys VJ. Then the boys jump into the karts for their laps. Andre sweeps the floor with VJ. The victory and the Edge goes to Rachel and Andre.
When the models get back to the house, they find a note for them. They are to decide who they think should be eliminated. If the person they pick does not win the Callback Challenge, they are automatically eliminated. Since the Alliance is still in place, VJ's name goes into the envelope.
The Callback Challenge this week is to be a spokesperson for a Jaguar. Rachel and Andre get the specs on the car so they'll know what they are talking about. Sneaky, manipulative VJ calls his friend to gather all the info he can on the car. Despite being filmed doing this, there is nothing from the producers or judges about this. I guess the "edge" is only an edge as long as your competitors decide to play by the rules of the game. Cheating is A-OK here! It's even encouraged!
Arriving at the Jaguar headquarters, the models are given some basic information on the car they will be talking about. Then the models are sent out one by one to give a presentation with what they have learned. However, most of the models have a problem with the rotating stage. VJ, in a surprisingly non-cheating move, simply steps off the rotating part. Angela moves so that she is always at the front of the stage. Rachel, Brett and Andre all blew their speeches. Brett actually dropped the f-bomb in front of the audience. When it came down to announcing the winner, Mary Alice declares that it's a tie and BOTH VJ and Angela win the Callback Challenge.
Wait, what? Let me say this again: BOTH VJ and Angela WON the Callback Challenge. We're down to the last five models on the show and they are going to take two of the models out of the elimination? That's a little ridiculous. On top of that, Mary Alice sends a bottle of champagne to VJ and Angela. No, that's not showing favor there at all. At this point, I would really like Mary Alice to be thrown off the show.
At the elimination, Andre, Rachel and Brett are on the line. Mary Alice was SURPRISED that VJ's name was in the envelope but since he can't be eliminated, that doesn't really matter. I'm not really sure why she was surprised. I'm thinking that she's not really paying any attention to the actual competition. She's just picking who she happens to like the best. In the end, Rachel is the first one thrown out. Yes, I said FIRST one thrown out. In a somewhat surprising move, Mary Alice tosses Brett out too. The only reason it's not completely surprising is because I now hate Mary Alice and think that she taught VJ how to be a sneaky bastard.
Next week is the finale episode. We're left with Andre, VJ and Angela. I have this sickening feeling that VJ will win. I would like Andre to win just because VJ is a slimeball and Angela is annoying. However, I don't think Mary Alice will let that happen. She might let Angela win but I think it'll be her personal favorite, VJ, that will take the crown. It's too bad he's such a douche.
Tin Man - Part 1
Last night was the first part of SciFi's new three-part miniseries, Tin Man. The story is loosely based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series. Zooey Deschanel plays DG, a young woman who is transported from her small, rural farmhouse home to the Outer Zone, more commonly known as The O.Z. As she searches for her parents, who were also pulled into this new world, she befriends some strange characters. First, we meet Glitch (Alan Cumming), a man with half of a brain. The other half was stolen by the evil sorceress Azkadallia (Kathleen Robertson) because he knew too much about something but he can't remember what. Next the pair meets Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), a former police officer or tin man. Azkadallia's soldiers tortured him and his family before locking him in a suit of armor to watch a recording of the horrors repeatedly. Finally, the trio comes upon Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a psychic empath with healing powers. DG rescues him from being eaten by another creature.
I won't post spoilers here for those of you that haven't seen the series yet. Assuming that most people are familiar with The Wizard of Oz, I will let you know that DG and her friends make the trek down the brick road to meet the Wizard. There are definitely some variations from the Judy Garland version that we all know and love but that doesn't make the miniseries bad. I found the first part to be highly enjoyable. While it isn't an exact retelling of the story, I liked trying to figure out who was representing whom. The second part starts tonight, though we are recording it so we can watch the season finale of Heroes. If you missed the first part, SciFi is rerunning it tonight at 7PM Eastern, just before the second part starts at 9PM.
America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 8
With last week's booting of Daniel, we are now left with Australian!Rachel, Pickle, Brett, Andre, VJ and Angela. This is where the competition should get pretty interesting since these people are all fairly intelligent as well as very pretty. And, well, VJ knows how to cheat a lot, which, according to Mary Alice, isn't cheating but good strategy. Oh, I'll talk about this in a bit. For the Edge Challenge this week, the models are once again put into teams of two. Our Fearsome Foursome Alliance paired up into teams of Pickle/Brett and Andre/Rachel. That left VJ with Angela. One person in the pair would have to answer as many trivia questions correctly in 60 seconds as they possibly can. The results will determine how fast the other person has to run on a treadmill. Pickle completely blanked on so many questions that Brett ended up having to run 9 miles an hour. If you couldn't tell, Brett couldn't take that and dropped out early in the competition. Angela and Rachel tied with 13 correct answers so VJ and Andre started out with 6 miles an hour. The boys stayed neck and neck even when Ben and Mary Alice raised the speed on the treadmills.
This is where VJ's cheating sets in and I have no clue why the judges let him get away with this. While Andre was running like a champ, VJ started holding onto the bars to put most of his weight on his arms. Considering this challenge was about endurance, in my opinion, this was completely and totally cheating. Andre tried to bring this to the attention of the judges but Ben Stein was too busy playing with his cell phone to take any notice. If VJ does win at the end of the series, it will be a direct result of things like this. Of course, it was VJ and Angela that won the Edge Challenge. Andre decided to try to save his strength for the Callback Challenge.
The Callback Challenge was a quick-change runway show. VJ and Angela would get to change in the dressing room closest to the runway and they had to choose one other model to join them. They picked Rachel. The rest of the boys would be farther from the runway so they would have to race back and forth to change into their different outfits. Each team had 15 minutes total with three different outfits. To make it a little more difficult, Andre, Pickle and Brett also had to run through an obstacle course for each change.
I think this is where we got to see Angela and VJ's true natures. They could see that Rachel was having some trouble with some of her outfits - her shoes were too big on the first outfit and her earrings fell out on the last - yet no one bothered to attempt to help her. Both of them were out for themselves and no one else. Meanwhile, Andre, Pickle and Brett decided to make this a team effort to make their runway show the best. They helped each other with difficult parts of their outfits and made sure that everyone made it through the obstacle course. So while Mary Alice didn't like the way these three walked down the runway, I felt that they made the better show since there were no gaps between models. There were gaps between models in the Angela/Rachel/VJ show. I'm really starting to think that Mary Alice isn't as much of an expert on this stuff as she thinks she is. However, after everyone was finished, it was Angela that won the Callback Challenge and I do agree with that result. Angela really did have the best showing of everyone there.
So this takes us to the Elimination. Angela was safe from elimination and Mary Alice decreed that Rachel was not in the bottom three either. The bottom three this week were Andre, Pickle and Brett. At this point, I was completely prepared for Brett to be kicked off. Out of these three, I really felt that he was the weakest model. To my surprise, it was Pickle that got the boot! I was just stunned. Pickle has pretty much been the sweetheart of the show. He's been in the top of almost every competition, he has the looks, he has the smarts and he's a nice guy. I really am sorry to see him go.
Oh, and at the Elimination? Mary Alice and Ben decided to totally throw the models under the bus and told VJ about the alliance between Pickle, Brett, Andre and Rachel. Now, we can see that the alliance failed this week. Why bother to tell VJ about it? There was nothing to accomplish there besides getting the models to argue with each other. I was very disappointed with Mary Alice this week. Maybe she should be thrown off the show. I'm sure that Heidi Klum or Tyra Banks could do a lot better. Hopefully Mary Alice will get her head out of her butt and pay attention to what is going on in front of her.
America's Most Smartest Model - episode 7
Now that we are finally down to the really smart and really pretty models of the bunch, things are starting to get a little more interesting. This week the models were told that they would have a night off to celebrate Daniel's birthday. However, this turns out to the the Edge Challenge. The models needed to network with some important people that Mary Alice put in the club. A majority of the models didn't do so well. In the end, it was VJ that won the hearts of the networking judges. This means that he gets control of the Callback Challenge. Mary Alice tells the models that it's difficult to work with animals and children. So, of course, their Callback Challenge will involve animals. VJ gets to dole out how many minutes each model gets in front of the camera. As the winner, he gets a half hour. He gives Angela 10 minutes, Australian!Rachel 8 minutes, Pickle 6 minutes, Brett 4 minutes, Andre 2 minutes and Daniel one minute. Since Daniel's whining has been getting on everyone's nerves, it is now obvious that they are out to get him sent home.
Next the models get to choose their animals. VJ takes the horse, Angela takes the pygmy goat, Australian!Rachel takes the donkey, Pickle takes the chicken, Brett takes the pig, Andre takes the llama and Daniel is left with the ostrich. From here, things get difficult. The models aren't very good with the animals and the pictures prove it. In my opinion, none of the pictures were particularly good but Mary Alice liked Andre's picture with the llama. He is safe from elimination.
At the elimination that night, the three models called up are Angela, Australian!Rachel and Daniel. Angela is told to stop being a know-it-all and Rachel is told to step it up a bit. Daniel gets the boot. I completely agree with this decision as Daniel has been extremely moody the past few episodes. After the Edge Challenge last night, he was overturning tables and throwing things. It was definitely his time to go.
I'm really excited to see where the next few episodes go. There is now an alliance between Andre, Brett, Pickle and Rachel. Their goal is to get VJ kicked off but VJ seems to be Mary Alice's favorite. Let the drama unfold!
America's Most Smartest Model - episode 6
There weren't a lot of surprises this week. I was completely shocked at the end of the episode but we'll talk about that in a bit. The Edge Challenge was deceptively difficult. Our eight models had to split into four teams of two. Extremely intelligent Daniel made a huge mistake by taking on extremely stupid American!Rachel, Pickle paired up with Brett, Angela agreed to work with dominant Andre and Australian!Rachael went with VJ. The teams had to draw six shapes using specific angles and lengths and whatnot. Not very difficult, right? Neither American!Rachel nor Andre were able to create any shapes. (Andre blamed the metric system for his problems. Rachel is just dumb.) VJ came very close to winning but when guest judge Santos (from the second season of Project Runway) told him that one of his measurements was incorrect, Pickle snuck in and nabbed the win.
For the Call-Back Challenge, the models had to design some clothes. The winning team, Pickle and Brett, got to dole out shapes to the other teams while they were able to use the entire six-shape arsenal. They gave Australian!Rachael and VJ a circle, Andre and Angela got a triangle and a rectangle while they took pity on Daniel and American!Rachel by giving them the rhombus, pentagon and trapezoid. Overall, I didn't think any of the designs were absolutely terrible. None of these people are fashion designers. Pickle and Brett took the win for this challenge with a boxer-themed sporty trunks/skirt with a hooded robe.
This is where the surprises started. Immediately after the winners of the Call-Back Challenge were announced, Mary Alice calls American!Rachel up to the runway. After a bit of scolding, Mary Alice throws the dumb blonde out of the house. She didn't even make it to the very end of the episode where they are supposed to get rid of people! So Mary Alice dismisses everyone with the promise to see them later.
Would Mary Alice toss another model out of the house? If she does, who would be the next to go? At the elimination, she calls up Australian!Rachael, VJ and Daniel. Daniel gets a scolding for being a nice guy and picking the dumbest person in the house to pair up with. However, he refuses to put his integrity on the line and Mary Alice sends him back to the fold. VJ was called up for....I'm not really sure why he was called up. Mary Alice basically praised him for playing the game well and asked him if he really wanted to win. It's obviously a bad thing to come in second place in Mary Alice's book. Finally, she gets to Australian!Rachael. She gets Mary Alice's wrath for not having her heart in the game or something? Mary Alice doesn't think Rachael "wants it enough." If this is the case, why isn't Angela up there? Angela seems to have the personality of a brick wall despite having some book smarts. Anyway, no one else gets kicked off and they all go back to worrying about the next challenge.
America's Most Smartest Model - episode 5
Now we're starting to get down to the models who are actually pretty intelligent. Those that aren't are standing out like a sore thumb. I really can't wait until all we are left with are the smart models. I'm sure the challenges will get more difficult and I want to see how they measure up. The Edge Challenge this week was dissecting fetal pigs. I know a lot of people did this in high school. (Though I only did frogs, we never did the pigs.) The models were left with one anatomy book to study, which VJ ran off with. Everyone else was left with their encyclopedias and a bit of tutoring from animal-sciences-major Angela. Amazingly, a lot of the models did really well on this. Yes, there was a lot of complaining about having to do it in the first place but once they got working, they were really able to identify most of the organs. I was definitely surprised.
Of course, there had to be some drama about it, right? Both Lisa and the high school teacher, Mr. Morrison, thought that she had a female pig as neither of them could find any testicles. After the challenge was over and Lisa was given an A, Angela decided to take a quick look at the pig to see if it really was female. Well, Angela found testicles and she was quite prepared to leave it at that. Andre, who got a C on his dissection, had a problem with the mistake and called the teacher back in to point out the mistake. Due to the discovery, Lisa's grade was lowered to a C. I'm not really sure why the teacher didn't look for the ovaries to double-check that it was a female pig but since it was his mistake, I don't think her grade should have been lowered.
Next up was a commercial challenge. The models had to pimp a body wash product while taking a very cold shower. Daniel won the Edge Challenge so he got to shower with warm water and he got the script beforehand. Everyone else only had 20 minutes to learn the script before jumping in. Andre took the initiative and practiced talking in a cold shower. It didn't appear that anyone else was trying to make the commercial shoot a little bit easier on themselves.
When the models got to the set, they were told that they had to pick a competitor to choose their best video from the shoot. As everyone was waiting for the shoot to start, Daniel was practicing his lines with Lisa. VJ was standing nearby listening in an attempt to learn the lines before he got the script. Yay! More controversy! All of the models felt that VJ was cheating. When they brought it up to Mary Alice after the shoot, she commended VJ for "paying attention to his surroundings." As such, he won the challenge and the immunity.
Lisa and American!Rachel were up on the block this time around. Lisa flubbed the dissection whereas Rachel completely screwed up her commercial. For the first time ever, the two models were given a "Smart Off," which was basically a pop quiz. Ben asked them some questions and whoever answered the most correctly got to stay. In another surprising twist, it was Rachel that answered the most questions correctly. Maybe she isn't as stupid as she pretends to be. (Though I'm not holding my breath on that one.) Sadly, it was Lisa that had to leave last night. I will miss her.
Next week? Geometry!
Chuck
For some reason, I just can't get myself into an actual television watching schedule. Instead, I've been watching shows online. Luckily, Chuck is one of the shows that NBC streams on their website. Let's get the general synopsis out of the way: Chuck is a computer geek who works in the Nerd Herd at Buy Mart. (Yes, this is a parody of Best Buy and their Geek Squad. The Nerd Herd even has a company car that looks quite similar to the Geek Squad's cars.) One day Chuck get an email from an old college "friend," Bryce. Bryce, who was responsible for getting Chuck kicked out of college, is a CIA agent and the email contained a database of top secret government information. All of the government's secrets have now been downloaded into Chuck's brain. It is up to CIA agent Sarah Walker and NSA agent John Casey to protect Chuck (or at least his brain) while stopping the bad guys that roll through town.
When I saw the first commercials for the show, I knew it could go either way. It could be awesomely amazing or absolutely terrible. Now that I have sat through three episodes of the series, I am classifying it as "awesomely amazing." The show doesn't take itself too seriously, which is usually the downfall of spy series. Chuck spends his time trying to work his way up the management ladder at Buy Mart while being bounced back and forth between Sarah, who took an undercover job in the weiner hut across the street from Buy Mart, and Casey, who took an undercover job IN the Buy Mart. Poor Chuck doesn't know if he can really trust either of them yet he has to trust both of them to protect him.
I still have quite a few episodes to work through in order to catch up to the latest episode. I really hope that the writers are able to keep the humor in the show and don't turn this into some melodramatic spy series.
America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 4
This was our first episode without Mandy Lynn. Her amazing stupidity has been replaced by the cattiness that is typical of models. Andre seems to have toned himself down this week so overall, this episode wasn't nearly as entertaining as the previous ones. Bill Nye the Science Guy made a guest appearance for the intelligence part of the competition. The models divided up into pairs to make presentations on sciency things. American!Rachel is pretty much the idiot of the bunch now but she doesn't say nearly as many funny things as Mandy Lynn did. The science presentations were a big bust overall.
For the model part, the pairs had to give a pasty white geek a fake tan then take a picture with him/her. This is really where the cattiness came up. VJ was accused of trying to sabotage Jesse by being the focus of the picture. At the judging, Andre stood up for Jesse, which is completely out of character for Andre!
As expected, Jesse got the boot this week. Mary Alice has been harping on him being a fatty since the beginning of the show so it really was just a matter of time for him. I feel bad for him because he's smarter than some of the girls that are still on the show. If Mary Alice was going to harp on his weight the whole time, then he shouldn't have been on the show in the first place. It's physically impossible to "lose 5 pounds" overnight without some sort of surgery or pills.
I was very bored by this episode. I really hope that it gets good again.