TV review: The Sarah Jane Adventures

For those Doctor Who fans in the United States, last night was the premiere of The Sarah Jane Adventures on the SciFi channel. People who have watched the original series of Doctor Who know Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) as the companion for the Third and Fourth incarnations of The Doctor. After she left The Doctor, Sarah Jane was back to everyday normal life. Can a companion go back to "normal" life? Sarah Jane decided that she would help aliens who have crash landed on Earth instead. The first episode of the series ran for an hour and a half. Supposedly, people say that the show is "kiddified." However, I didn't find that to be true. Yes, the show is not as dark as Doctor Who but then again Sarah Jane isn't a TimeLord nor is she the last of her race. It's not as sexually charged as Torchwood but then again Sarah Jane said she couldn't find a man who was better than The Doctor. There are still aliens and gadgets and fighting. They are all just done in Sarah Jane's way. (I thought the Sonic Lipstick was cute!) I'm looking forward to future episodes and I hope that the show doesn't get written off as "childish" or something.

TV review: Secret Talents of the Stars

I haven't watched a reality TV show in awhile. When I saw the previews for Secret Talents of the Stars, I just knew I had to watch it. The basic premise is that some famous people have some talents that we don't know about. Last night at 10PM was the premiere episode. The first episode featured ice skater Sasha Cohen, country singer Clint Black, actor George Takei and singer Mya. Before I talk about their talents, I really want to question what gets counted as a "talent." It seems that it's just something you can do that you aren't known for. I'm not sure that some of these things count as actual talents but let's continue.

Sasha Cohen starts off the show. Her talent is a contortionist routine. She's very bendy so she gets paired up with professional Chinese contortionists and they do a routine. It's nice but rather boring. Next up is George Takei. He's going to sing some country music. Sadly, he massacres "On The Road Again." Poor George. I wanted him to do good. Clint Black is next with a comedy routine. Every performer gets a mentor to work with. Clint was paired up with Garry Shandling. I was very surprised to see that Clint was actually pretty funny. Granted, he needs to work on his delivery a bit but, c'mon, this is the first time he's performed stand-up in front of a crowd. He did really well considering how difficult that can be. The night ends with Mya's tap dancing talent. She did OK but this wasn't anything particularly amazing.

It is interesting to see stars do something different. However, I'm not sure that being bendy is a talent. The same goes for singing country music badly. (Sorry George, I can't see you singing any country song well.) I think there are 6 more episodes to go and I want to see what other talents get rolled out. I also want to see what will happen in the next round. Will Sasha do the same routine or will she work on getting better? Let's see how long this show can keep my interest.

Top Five Favorite - Television Shows

I watch a lot of weird television shows. Here are my top five favorite, along with what stations they play on in the US: 1. Top Gear (BBC America) 2. Chuck (NBC) 3. Torchwood (BBC America) 4. Doctor Who (Sci-Fi) 5. Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (BBC America)

As you can see, I watch a lot of British TV. I do watch a lot of US shows as well but most of them just aren't as entertaining as I find these.

Knight Rider

I probably should have talked about this earlier. Last week, my husband and I watched the Knight Rider movie on NBC. I thought it was a pretty good show. Yeah, people are going to complain about something but, you know what, the thing is based on a television series that was filled with cheese and impossible stunts. You can't really expect gold to come from anything Knight Rider related. One of our friends complained about KITT's car spoilers appearing when he went into "Action" mode. (I still prefer Super Pursuit Mode!) He said that the dual spoilers weren't necessary. However, KITT was doing around 200 mph. The car would need some sort of downdraft on the rear to keep it from spinning out all the time.

Anyway, I really hope they can spin this off into a television series. I liked that the KITT's new driver is Michael Knight's son. I like Val Kilmer's voice for KITT. I like that they changed KITT from just being bulletproof to having nanotechnology that allows him to fix himself when he's damaged. More please!

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew

My latest reality television obsession is VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. I have loved Dr. Drew ever since Loveline was on MTV. In my eyes, the man can do no wrong. And Celebrity Rehab is another hit for him. For the show, a group of addicted celebrities gather to kick their nasty habits. The lineup consists of Family Matters' Jaimee Foxworth, Seth 'Shifty' Binzer from the group Crazytown, martial arts fighter Ricco Rodriguez, actor Daniel Baldwin, actress Brigitte Nielson, former pro-wrestler Joanie 'Chyna' Laurer, porn actress Mary Carey and Grease star Jim Conaway. Their addictions vary from alcoholism to cocaine to pot. Dr. Drew and his staff definitely have their hands full with this crew.

At first, I thought this show was going to be an absolute train-wreck. On the contrary, the show is not only entertaining, it's also very informative about what goes on in rehab. My father is an alcoholic and he has been in and out of various rehabs over the years. While I knew that they did things like "art therapy" since he always brought home weird pottery things, I didn't know that there are group sessions where the patients talk about things that may have caused them to turn to drugs or alcohol. It's interesting to hear about what these celebrities have gone through. Especially since the general public tends to think these people live glamorous golden lives. Instead, they are living with a lot of emotional baggage due to past emotional abuses.

I think that this show is something that everyone should watch. Not just to see "celebreality" but also to see the reality of rehab.

TV review: Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Now I've finally had the chance to watch third episode of Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I think I might be ready to talk about it. I've never been a big fan of the Terminator movies. As a matter of fact, I only classify the movies by their bad guys: "Arnold is the bad guy," "That shape-shifting one" and "The chick is the baddie." Beyond that, I don't know a lot about them. Keeping that in mind, I have found the television series to be pretty interesting. I'm not worried about continuity. I just want a show with some kickass chicks beating bad guys up. That's not too much to ask for, right? Well, I can say that it definitely delivers for me. Summer Glau makes an absolutely awesome protector-Terminator. (Protectinator?) And thanks to the Firefly franchise, we all know that she can definitely kick some ass when she needs to. I'm not too thrilled with Lena Headey as Sarah though. She seems a lot more fragile than Linda Hamilton was in the movies. (Yes, I will let them play with the timeline of the movies but c'mon, these are supposed to be the same people!) The writers also seem to be playing up the maternal role and making her less willing to do whatever she needs to do to protect John.

Ah, John. Thomas Dekker isn't terrible in the role. Though I think I'd like to see John be a little less emo. Yes, his life sucks but, at some point, you just have to suck it up and accept it. I hope that he'll get to that point in the series.

So, overall, it's not completely terrible. I suppose it might upset you if you are a big fan of the movies but the writers did try to explain their way out of a few things. We're just going to have to wait to see where it goes from here.

America's Most Smartest Model - THE FINALE!

There were some extremely high winds in my area of the US yesterday. They ended up knocking out the power to the building where the server for The Geek Within lives. I apologize that the site was down and I hope the storm has passed so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now onto the good stuff! When we last saw our contestants - Andre and VJ - the boys were informed that they would have to make PowerPoint presentations explaining why they should be America's Most Smartest Model. The preview for this week's episode showed Andre with a little something hidden up his sleeve. But first we start off seeing VJ diligently plugging away on his presentation with the expert he was given. Then we switch over to Andre. The idea he had was brilliant. Since Andre doesn't speak English very well and knew that he couldn't beat VJ in a presentation, he called up ex-contestant Pickle to present for him. It definitely was a stroke of genius.

For their presentations, VJ did very well. I now believe that he would make a very good con artist. He looks good and he knows how to spew complete crap without cracking. Pickle did very well speaking for Andre but then Andre made the mistake of opening his big mouth. He said something along the lines of "gay, black, white or fat....those things you can change." I simply shook my head and wondered why he didn't stick with shutting up. He pretty much ruined Pickle's entire speech in one sentence.

Ben Stein and Mary Alice Stephenson each brought in two guest judges to help them choose. The two smart judges liked VJ but preferred Andre. One of the fashion judges preferred Andre and one preferred VJ. So they brought the boys back out to do a sort of debate, where Andre screwed up again. He can't seem to focus on anything beyond VJ cheating. Ironically, VJ thought Andre was a coward for bringing out Pickle to speak for him.

When it came down to it, Ben and Mary Alice chose VJ as America's Most Smartest Model. I disagree with their decision but it wasn't a surprise to me. It was obvious from the beginning that Mary Alice liked VJ the most and that Ben had very little say in many of the decisions. I do believe that VJ cheated every step of the way. It's not "thinking outside the box" to call up your friend to do research for you since you don't have the ability to do the research yourself. It's not "creative" to copy the exact poses that your competition does just because they make it look good. And I really think the judges made a bad choice.

America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 10

Angela. VJ. Andre. The final three. At the start of tonight's episode, they pack up for an overnight trip to Palm Springs. The three are treated to an evening with Mary Alice. It basically devolved into a night of "My life is so much worse than yours!" Though I'm not sure that Andre participated in that. He seemed to be pretty quiet through most of the dinner while Angela and VJ compared stories of why their daddies left them. For once, I think Andre had the right idea in keeping his mouth shut. After dinner, Mary Alice revealed the first challenge. The finalists would be doing a photoshoot bright and early the next morning. A group of models were brought in to meet the contestants, who had to choose which of the new models would be in their shoot. The group got to know each other and the contestants were ready to pick their models. The next morning, Mary Alice brings in a troupe of stylists and a world-class photographer and just a ton of people, which wakes up Andre and VJ.

Once again, VJ is sleazy and I think Mary Alice shows her favoritism. Individually, she asks each of the models which of the new models they are picking for their photoshoot. VJ, who had originally picked one of the female models, overhears Andre telling Mary Alice that he's going to use the other two women. (I forget the names of the new models. I think VJ's was Heather and Andre had Jane and Lisa but I'm not sure about that.) Angela went with the two male models. When it came down to the official picking, VJ decides to take two female models, basically stealing one of Andre's. I'm not sure why Mary Alice let this happen since she knew beforehand who Andre had picked. Andre went with the flow and headed off to his shoot.

Andre, as always, did amazing in his shoot. He has a very intense look so he can pull off these crazy intense pictures. VJ tried to copy his poses but came off totally wrong. Mary Alice told him that his pictures weren't coming out and to try to be more natural. So VJ hops in the pool with the girls and gets some OK shots but nothing spectacular. Angela's shots all look the same. Same poses, same look on her face, same everything.

At the end, Andre wins the challenge and Angela gets booted from the show. Mary Alice did make a comment about how some of VJ's shots look almost exactly like Andre's. This, of course, makes Andre chuckle. Since Angela was singing through the entire music-themed photoshoot, Mary Alice told her that she would probably make a better singer and that she is not really cut out for photoshoots. She might make a good runway model but not much else. After hugging everyone, Angela leaves saying that she wanted this more than anyone. I'm sorry but just wanting something isn't enough. You have to work really hard and I don't think Angela did.

So now we're down to VJ and Andre. For their final challenge, they each have to make a media-based presentation on why they should be America's Most Smartest Model. Since Andre won the Edge Challenge, he is given a cell phone with picture and web browsing capabilities. Each of the boys get a PowerPoint expert to help them. We get a few inklings of what is to come but then.....To Be Continued. I hate those words!

I'm really hoping Andre wins this. Granted, I actually wanted Australian!Rachel to win but she fell short. I will be ecstatic if VJ loses to Andre. I can't wait for the finale!