flipped & twisted: TV

Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

Monday, November 05, 2007

Hating heroes. For now.

It has been six or seven episodes and I’m still as confused as ever.

It’s taking them this long to somehow explain things and tie some of the loose ends before everything goes awry. Where do I even start? How about Hiro being stuck in the past, Peter Petrelli fast-forwarding to the future and just plain chaos in the present?

I have so many questions my brain’s beginning to ache a little.

Among them: how did Kensei manage to self-heal (like Claire)? I thought that there was no duplication of power (maybe it was just me). So West knows how to fly like Nathan. Mica’s cousin is a copycat, like Peter who can “absorb” powers. What is Mama Petrelli’s power?

The exposition is taking so long things are becoming too complicated. What about the twins? One kills and the other one saves? How did Sylar end up somewhere in Mexico, conveniently along the path of the twins? Who is Kristin bell’s daddy? Is she a baddie? After appearing for five minutes a couple of episodes ago, I haven’t seen her again.

I’m also hating the fact that they took the amnesia route with Peter. Why? As I read somewhere, amnesia is the lazy writer’s shortcut to things. “So how do we explain what happened?” Lazy writer: “I know, I know. Let’s give the character amnesia.” Hate.

The latest episode just aired. Biggest WTF moment: Kensei became Adam? Huwaaaaaaaat?

Monday, October 29, 2007

quickies

quick updates.

just got back from a four-day trip to the nation's capital, washington, dc. it was alright, although the first two days, i just stayed in my hotel room after all the conference sessions because of the rain.

i have tons of stuff to write, so hopefully, i can summon the energy later (tomorrow) to write. took the bus from the port authority to dc's union station. it was the express trip so it took a little over than four hours from dc to ny.

i have lots to blog about, too, including my new tv faves: dirty sexy money and pushing daisies. great shows. i missed some of my faves this week so i need to catch up.

and also high on my addiction list? pinoy big brother celebrity edition. hahaha. i don't have tfc (yet) here in ny because the cable company doesn't offer it but i really need to thank god for youtube. hehehe. and the good souls who continue to upload and upload despite abs-cbn relentlessly running after their asses, suspending accounts left and right.

i'm happy that jen and that other girl left. she's so noisy and palengkera. i don't like her. period. my faves? gabby (sp?) the race car driver; riza, will, victor and sige na nga, si ethel booba. that woman is funny.

case in point: she was pretending to be a fortune-teller, she took jon's hand and read his palm. she said, "i see it. there's a girl. her name started with letter m" as the housemates laughed. sensing an error, she said, "starting ba?". then someone said, "starts" and she just took it all in stride.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

guilty pleasure/s

i have a confession to make. hahaha. (and i am so making it a big deal)

for the past three weeks, this was what greeted me everytime i passed by times square.

that's one of probably ten billboards in mid-town Manhattan alone promoting gossip girl just before fall season started three weeks ago. out of curiosity, i recorded the show (TiVo is a God-send) and it stayed there for about a week. i was tinkering with the remote one time and i came across the recording. i played it while doing my laundry and what do you know, it got me hooked.

it's a show about high school kids - and i really thought that The OC (at least the first 2 seasons) was my last juvenile favorite, apparently i was so wrong - and the setting is New York. Yay.

Speaking of NY, there's also a new show which i am watching because i am such a big fan of Peter Krause (back when he was still doing Sports Night, then of course, who could forget, his great portrayal of Nate in Six Feet Under, and now this) and it's called Dirty Sexy Money and its location is also the city.

my take on the current season, in a nutshell...

Heroes. What can I say? I'm still a big fan. I don't know if I a liking Hiro stuck in the 1600s but I was so glad to see David Anders (Sark!) on the show. He was a great badass on Alias and he's providing comedic support to Hiro. Hahaha. What a statement.
Milo is also back, with an amnesia. I was hoping they wouldn't go this route, but after last season's explosion, he probably disintegrated and it took a while before he regenerated his body, like what happened to Claire when she cut one of her toes. Ouch. I am looking forward to seeing Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) soon.

Ugly Betty is back, and I am loving it. There's a lot of goings on, and like the season finale, it had a lot of stuff to cover - the prison escape, the accident, the death of Justin's father, a lot more - that weren't thoroughly covered in the premiere. It's also showing that Betty's not too straight-up and her character is a bit flawed, which is good. She's not just a caricature.

Grey's Anatomy. I still white Meredith's whining but I think I hate her sister's (half-) character more. I didn't really like Izzie and George hooking up last season but I have no choice, I am just a viewer. Kawawa naman si Callie. McDreamy's getting old and I'm happy that he's regaining his friendship with McSteamy after what had happened. Burke's gone (bye!) and Dr. Yang's not showing any emotion after the non-wedding last season.

Desperate Housewives. Despite the brouhaha, I think i'm still going to watch this show. ABC has issued an apology but Fil-Ams apparently want more. I'm doing yet another story on that as I covered the rally some Fil-Am groups staged at the ABC office on Columbus Ave. (Upper West Side) last Friday. One of NYC's city council members joined the rally and delivered a really strong message. Anyhow, I am not liking the Bree I-am-pregnant charade.

What else do I watch? Top Chef. sometimes CSI. Prison Break (I'm getting tired, though).

Friday, October 05, 2007

moving on

abc has apologized. fil-ams don't think a one-paragraph apology is enough. the online petition has reached more than 85,000 signatories.

it's time to move on. we asked for an apology, they gave it. they included more, such as editing the offending part and not including it in any other platform (i.e. dvd) where it would appear (including re-runs). it is time to move on.

but apparently, some people think some more things must be done. tonight i am covering the picket outside the ABC office in manhattan. let's see what happens.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

the heat is on...

wasting no time, the consul general of the philippine consulate in los angeles has issued a statement about the issue. kudos, congen aragon.

then this afternoon, ambassador willy gaa sent his statement. i think abc has issued a statement, according to our reporter who's on top of the whole issue.

i think it said,

“Desperate Housewives” publicist Chandler Hayes issued this statement on behalf of ABC.

"The producers of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines. As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs."

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

signatory # 4540

someone forwarded this e-mail to me and i am reprinting it in full. thank you kevin nadal for jumpstarting this. this is regarding the desperate housewives episode last sunday, yes, the one with the unnecessary dialogue between teri hatcher's character and her gynecologist. i got it this morning and when i signed, i was signatory 4540. it's now at 6,000 as i write this.

shame on you marc cherry for greenlighting this script. shame on you abc for this insensitive episode.

Dear Kababayan and Allies:

I heard through the grapevine about a remark made on an episode of
"Desperate Housewives" last night. The scene entailed Teri Hatcher's
character (Susan) at a hospital, being told by her gynecologist that she
might be hitting menopause. Susan replied, "Can I just check those diplomas
because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in
the Philippines." If you go to abc.com, you watch the full episode and
witness the scene at about 18:50 minutes into the episode.

This type of derogatory remark is not only unnecessary and hurtful, but is
also unfounded, considering the presence of Filipinos and Filipino
Americans in the health care industry. Filipinos are the second largest
immigrant population in the United States, with many entering the U.S. and
passing their U.S. licensing boards as doctors, nurses, and medical
technicians. In fact, the Philippines produces more U.S. nurses than any
other country in the world. So, to belittle the education, experience, or
value of Filipino Americans in health care is disrespectful and plain and
simply ignorant.

As Filipino Americans, we need to band together to ensure that this type
of hateful message is not allowed to continue on our television and radio
airwaves. Given the recent amounts of media attention that has been given
to Michael Richards (against African Americans), Isaiah Washington (against
gays), and Rosie O'Donnell (against Asian/ Chinese Americans), it is
ridiculous that this type of hateful speech made it through various
screenwriters, the show's producers, the show's actors, and ABC itself.
Yet, this isn't the first time that negative remarks have been made about
the Philippines or Filipinos in the past. In recent years, we've heard one
too many "dogeater" comments by "comedian" Joan Rivers on the red carpet or
in her standup act, and I believe that it is about time that we stand up
for ourselves, so that this type of hateful speech never happens again.

Please join me in expressing your concern, disappointment, and/or disgust
to the producers of ABC.com. You can sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/
or you can reach them directly at
abc7@abc.com .

And please feel free to forward this widely to other Filipinos/ Filipino
Americans/ Asian Americans/ and other allies.

Sincerely,

Kevin Nadal,
Filipino Performance Artist/ Activist
knadal@gmail.com

Sunday, September 30, 2007

an attack on medical schools in the philippines?

i was happily watching the season premiere of desperate housewives a few minutes ago when teri hatcher's character susan mayer asked her substitute ob-gyne about his credentials jand diplomas to make sure that he's "not just from a medical school in the philippines".

funny? i didn't think not.

over-reacting? not a bit.

darn. that killed my excitement in watching the shows that are premiering today. yes, including brothers and sisters. but i'm going to watch anyway.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

morit?

for some reason, they call the 15-seconder TVC 'morit'. in my dialect, it could mean crazy. here's the commercial i was talking about in the previous entry. kudos to bbdo guerrero. hope you guys win awards at the ad congress this november.

and here's a 30-seconder, called "faith healer" and a part of the campaign. not as much impact.

Type rest of the post here

Monday, March 12, 2007

phillipeans*

that's how rob & amber, my all-time favorite team ever, spelled my dear philippines during today's edition of the amazing race. that actually cost them the entire race. for the past 3 weeks, they finished the legs first. on this fourth leg, they bumbled. and they bumbled some more.

they had to list, using a map, the countries where ferdinand magellan went before, starting with seville, spain. wrong spelling wrong, and the person who checks the sequence won't tell the contestants if they had their spelling wrong or the sequence. rob & amber and dustin and kandice (yay! my other favorite time. hahaha) wasted their time here, and the sad thing is, they didn't even find out what was wrong with what they were doing.

so it was a foot race between charla & mirna and rob & amber, with the latter getting the boot! hahahha. yay! how the mighty have fallen.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

guilty!

...of not updating this blog as regularly as possible. yeah, it's a shame and i offer no excuses (busy? very busy?).

thing is i'm back in LA and i'm going though a very bad jetlag. the first four days were terrible. i wake up at 3:00 pm, which is 7:00 am manila time, the exact time that i wake up. unless of course i have a 7 am breakfast meeting. (which i had, more than twice!) i needed to shake the jetlag off so last sunday, i summoned myself to sleep early so that i could wake up early so that i could go to work early.

so what have i been doing since i got back?

one word. marathon. heroes. prison break. 24. american idol. grey's anatomy. a little ugly betty. no desperate housewives yet. no brothers and sisters yet. damnn. and thank god i read the papers in manila every early morning. i read about the amazing race: all-stars premiere. so that one, i watched live (east coast time no less!) and i'm quite bummed to see rob and amber there, and dustin and candace (?) - the team i hated the most last season, team guido - i hated them too, before, all in this show. the only team/s i like or sorta like are david & mary (yay!) and mirna and charla (yay! yay!) and joyce and uechenna (yey!). oh well, we'll see who's gonna win. i'm gonna be happy, as long as it's not rob & amber or dustin and the other girl.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

T Minus 16 Hours

okay, this post should be titled 'Hooked on Heroes' because, well, i.am.so.hooked.on.heroes.

i spent the past five hours watching the last 5 episodes of this amazing show. this is the thing - i was able to watch the first 2 episodes, then i went to manila last november and the episodes piled up, until i began watching one episode at a time last week whenever i had the time.

in 16 hours, i am flying back to manila and i didn't want to be that behind when it comes to this show now. so instead of packing, i decided to catch up, really catch up and finish the last 5 episodes so far. there's a new episode again monday, but i'll worry about that soon. i didn't watch it last monday because i was a bit more loyal to 24 and they are on the same time slot.

anyhow, i'm just so engrossed and it has brought me back to some intellectual, not-so-intellectual and trivial discussions i have had with friends from the past about having superpowers. we all had that when we were kids. i sure did, especially during the days when i used to watch the wonder twins do their thing (wonder twins power...activate!). oh well.

it's past 4 in the morning and i haven't packed a thing. this is gonna be exciting...

Saturday, January 20, 2007

two cents on grey's anatomy issue

i came across my favorite john mayer's blog and read that he wrote about the issue that cast members of grey's anatomy are in, namely the isaiah washington versus t.r. knight fight. (thanks alex and steph for the link, and the pic)

now, isn't this perfect?

anyhow, john says,

ABC may fire Mr. Washington, and it seems as if the pressure to do so is mounting by the day. They may also choose to placate all parties involved with some well-constructed press releases and the soothing touch of time, but in my mind, neither outcome succeeds in making any strides in promoting the tenets of tolerance and understanding.

I would like to offer my suggestion for a solution; produce an episode of Grey's Anatomy in which Mr. Washington's character, Dr. Burke comes out to his friends and colleagues as a gay man!!! What better way for an actor to get to the roots of his discrimination than by portraying the very the subject of his own ire for the remainder of his contract? That'll learn ya!

this is where my 2 cents come in. the issue was almost forgotten (operative word is almost) until grey's anatomy won the best drama show trophy at the golden globes and during one of the interviews (access hollywood), isaiah washington denied ever calling t.r. knight a faggot.

i saw t.r.'s interview with ellen degeneres and he said that isaiah indeed, called him a fag. okay, it's he said versus he said. but this is the thing: why was isaiah so defensive to the point that he almost destroyed the happy mood of the entire cast when he issued the denial?

anyhow. i think he has issued an apology (again). let's just hope that the issues surrounding the cast do not affect the way the writers treat the future storylines. we'll see.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

bummed

that was my feeling when i realized monday morning that the much-awaited premiere of 24 season 6 was sunday night and i missed it.

you see, i've been a very religious viewer of 24 since it premiered 5 years ago and i haven't missed an episode. for a long time, 24 and alias were two of my favorite show. anyhow, it really bummed me (and i had that "unloyal" feeling) that i failed to watch the premiere last sunday. and to think that i wasn't busy at all since i just stayed at home sunday after the gruelling whole day planning conference saturday!

imagine, i was able to watch "you're the one that i want" or something. it's a reality show in search of the new john travolta and olivia newton-john for the broadway musical "grease" that's opening in broadway this fall. this is hardly original (looking for the lead in a musical) since when i was in london last august, i got hooked on bbc's "how do you solve a problem like maria?" which was a reality show in search of maria, the lead role in west end's "the sound of music," which i was able to watch (not the one in london) but the one in greenbelt last november when i was in manila.

that (the show searching for grease stars) was at 8 pm. then at 9, it was desperate housewives, new episode. then at 10, brothers and sisters, new episodes as well. rob lowe (saw him in sacramento during arnold schwarzenegger's inaugural) i think is going to become a series regular as the junior senator from california. jason lewis, samantha jones' last boyfriend on sex and the city is also guest starring.

back to 24. i'm babbling. thank god for technology and some good people. i taped the part 2 of the premiere, yes another 2 hours, which was set for monday night, because i chose to watch the golden globes. there was no use in me watching the part 2 when i didn't get to see the first 2 hours.

so now, it's almost 2 am on wednesday and i just finished watching the first four hours of 24, which incidentally, are being packaged in a dvd mini-set, and will be sold starting tomorrow. no need to buy for me since i've seen it. and now i'm ready for the next 20 hours.

24 really rocks my world. just give jack bauer the emmy, dammit! episode 4 was very powerful for me, especially in that scene after he (spoilers!) shot curtis, who has been his co-worker at ctu for the longest time. new characters galore. jack's son in will and grace is here, sporting long hair. not that long, but well, not short. peter macnicol's here, too. it's just too bad for him that i will always remember him as that kookie lawyer in ally mcbeal that whether he acts to death as the president's ally here, i just don't buy it. oh well. i last saw him on this show called "numbers".

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

thanks, e-z pass!

that was the team of tyler and james, the former drug addicts turned models, who just won the 10th season of the amazing race, thanks to e-z pass!

it was sheer luck that the cabbie they had from jfk in new york had an e-z pass. the other team, rob & kimberly, had a driver without an e-z pass, and that spelled the difference. (a little explanation: you need to pay toll when driving through some freeways leading into new york (manhattan), especially coming from the airport/s, whether it's jfk or la guardia. some drivers prefer to have the e-z pass, which a scanner scans as the car passes through the toll. for the rest of the world, they pay cash. the time that the second team lost because they paid in cash.)

i wasn't able to watch it last night because i had to attend a party. anyhow, i got 'spoiled' and i accidentally found out the winner while browsing one of my favorite websites earlier.

while i didn't have a clear favorite in the final 3 pairs in contention, i was somehow cheering for the boys because they showed that they were quite prayerful and that they prayed a lot, from being able to secure last-minute tickets from paris to new york to the fateful cab ride from the airport to manhattan. that, compared with the bickering rob & kimberly, who from the charles de gaulle airport in paris kept on yapping that 'this is worth a million dollars' again and again and again just irritated me. then, i began to dislike the alabama girls when they started saying that, too. i already forgave them for ditching the cho brothers and essentially, the six-pack partnership but this was just didn't sit well with me. well, to each his own.

so, congratulations to tyler and james for a great race, and for the amazing race for another great season. i cna't believe that they've reached their tenth season! and i can't believe i'm still a big fan! here's looking forward to the next season! [photo by the associated press]

Monday, December 11, 2006

so near, yet so far

there goes my predicting abilities again, off the window! my chosen philippine idol bet, gian magdangal (right) lost to mau marcelo (center) and erst-while front-runner jan nieto. my heart goes out to the two losers, ooops, non-winners, especially to my bet who looks crushed after the announcement. [photo from the inq7.net website]

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