We've come to an end already?

It's all coming to an end folks. It is mid May so that means that many of our favorite shows are ending for the season. Even some series are ending for good. It's all very bittersweet. While we will be mourning our shows all summer, we do always get a new batch of shows to distract us.

One of my faves, "Vampire Diaries." ended this past Thursday. I was glued to the screen. I was surprised to see that they gave Damon, a vampire, the cure to his werewolf bite, which is deadly to vampires. I really thought that would be a cliffhanger. Instead they threw us a curve and gave him the cure, but took lovable, sweet Stefan away from us. Who knows how they will play out with his relationship with mortal, Elena, and if that will leave her open to Damon, who has been harboring feelings for her since Season One.

Another of my absolute favorites, "Gossip Girl," is ending tonight. I don't know how I feel about what they have set up. Blair is engaged to a prince but clearly still in love with Chuck. While that isn't so bad, you must know that Blair will be held hostage on the roof of a building that Chuck's nemesis is planning to set on fire. Blair included. I know it is supposed to be compelling, but it just seems that it is getting further and further into bad soap opera territory. These plots could have all been found on Dynasty I'm afraid. I'm just not sure what they are trying to do. But I will be glued to the screen tonight to see how they are going to leave us hanging for the rest of the summer.

The finale of "The Office" is also coming up this week. We have had a couple episodes without Michael Scott now and it hasn't been bad. Yes, it is really sad to see Steve Carrell go, but I think this cast can pull it off. In the finale we are going to be seeing a whole cast of characters vying for Michael's old job. Such people as Jim Carey, Ray Romano, Ricky Gervais, and many more will be there to apply. Somehow I think they aren't going to hire an outsider. I think the promotion will come from within. We must wait and see however.

A series that we are all sad to see go is "Smallville." After ten seasons it is finally over. Mild mannered Clark Kent has officially become Superman. In a two hour finale that, at times, confused me a little since I have been slacking in the later seasons, saw Clark's destiny come to fruition. As I was advised by my fiance, this is just one version of his destiny. Apparently in different universes he has different destinies. Even ones where he doesn't become a super hero. Imagine that. Overall I think they ended it well. While at times it did seem to lag, especially through that five minute long feeling clip flashback for Clark, it did move a pretty good clip and ended us with a conclusion we can all be happy with. Well, at least I was happy with it.

Hopefully this summer won't let us down with good offerings to watch. I'm looking forward to the return of "So You Think You Can Dance." Hopefully they return to the old format since I just can't get behind what they did this past couple seasons. Made me not want to watch it. I also hope to see another "Hell's Kitchen" because who can get enough Gordon Ramsey? I know I can't. Let's all cross our fingers folks and hope that we are blessed with good programming this summer and that fall hurries up and gets here so I can see what is going to happen on all of my favorite shows.

Head on over to www.j1studios.com and discuss in the forum what you think of the finales for this season. Also let us know what shows you are looking forward to in the summer.

Until next time kids, this has been Hava!

Has it really taken Tyra 16 seasons to be taken seriously?

America’s Next Top Model
Day/Time: Wednesdays @ 9pm EST
Channel: CW (Check your local listings)

Guess whose favorite crazy ex super model is back. Yep, it’s Tyra Banks and she is back for the sixteenth cycle of America’s Next Top Model. Yes, you heard me correctly. This show has really been on for sixteen seasons. It’s amazing isn’t it? Who would have ever thought that her crazy and kooky self would have been allowed to continue this nonsense for this long? Lucky for me she has. Even luckier for everyone she is still on this kick of “high fashion.” Last season was her first venture into the “high fashion” realm. She is trying to be more serious and actually taken seriously. That is why I’m sure this season will be just as interesting to watch.

Tyra and the CW network have taken all of the guess work out of who will make it into the house and onto the show by posting the short bios and pictures of the models for this cycle. I’m pretty disappointed about it. They use to not post this stuff until maybe the day before but this time they posted it the beginning of February. That is pretty foolish if you ask me. It takes all of the fun out of the first episode wondering who is going to make it onto the show. Apparently that is neither here nor there at this point since the network is set on just letting everyone know everything ahead of time. Looking through the girls’ bios they are all pretty much 23 and under except for one glaring stand out of a girl who is 26. Cue small violins playing as she recounts over and over about how this is her last chance to break into the modeling business. I also noticed that around 95% of the girls are in college or graduated college. That’s a nice step up from some of the other seasons. Is that your way of making this show more “high fashion” Tyra?

There really isn’t much else out there to know about this cycle. The only things that we can glean from the short preview clips is that they are still going with the “high fashion” theme, Miss J Alexander is not allowed to sit on the judges’ panel anymore, Andre Leon Talley is still there trying to make the show legitimate with his connection to Vogue magazine, and the girls will be doing a runway challenge while walking on water in a giant bubble. I hope that John Travolta is the guest judge for that challenge so he can comment on the girls’ ability to control the bubble. He does have the most experience of anyone I know since he was the boy in the bubble.

The only bit of insider info I can give you is that the trip this season is to Morocco. We know that since Jay Manuel, the photo shoot creative director, tweeted about it while he was there and posted a picture of him in the desert. That should be fun. I’m anticipating all of the flashbacks I will be having to the horrendous ”Sex and the City” movie sequel. You think that’s where Tyra got the idea to go there from?

I’m not sure how I feel about this new cycle yet. True I can’t have a completely formed opinion until I see it but I just don’t know about this “high fashion” angle they are working towards now. I’m happy for Tyra and her effort to make this show mean something and her desire to be taken seriously but she’s losing her kooky, fun, and sometimes questionable sanity side of herself that we have all come to know and love. She sometimes irked the devil out of me while all of the unnecessary weirdness but without it the show just doesn’t seem the same. We can only wait and see how this season pans out. I’m going to make an early prediction based off of what I have read about the contestants. I’m going to guess that it is the girl Nicole. I’m only guessing this based on her picture. They haven’t had a blond win a while so they are due. So if it’s not Nicole then it’s one of the other blonds.

Obviously since I haven't seen any of the season yet I can't give out any frames. But I'm sure this season will be worth many a frame to come. I have included a very funny clip of Tyra mocking the stereotypes of contestants that we see on the show. Enjoy!



Until next time kids, this has been Hava!

They're baaaccckkkk

So shows have started to come back and you know I'm excited. Some of my favorite crappy shows are back and I was all over them. This is just an overview of what happened in the season openers and where I think they are going.

First up we have one of my favorites, Gossip Girl. Last we left it Blair and Serena were off to Paris to forget about guys, Chuck was shot in the stomach in Prague where he had gone to forget about Blair, Nate was heartbroken by Serena and sought comfort in Chuck's little black book of whores, Dan and Vanessa seem to be on the outs and Vanessa runs off to do some documentary in Haiti, and good old Georgina had surprised Dan with a big "guess what I'm pregnant and its yours."

As the show goes on you pretty much see what the group has been doing over the summer. By the end of the show you are pretty much caught up on everyone. Serena has pretty much been sleeping her way around Paris. If they were a man then it was a safe bet she had sex with them. Oh yeah, and she got into Columbia University somehow, which is the school Blair will be attending. Blair on the otherhand has just been reading in the park and looking at her favorite Manet paintings and hasn't found a man to help her get over Chuck. But don't fret readers, she does meet one, and he is a Prince from Monocco. A double date ensues and you have the old prince pretending to be the driver routine which gets Serena pushed in a fountain because Blair is jealous that she always gets everything great with no effort. Oh yeah, and she is extra upset that Serena is going to Columbia because she knows she will be upstaged by her for the umpteenth time and just wants something of her own damnit. Chuck is not dead surprisingly. He was rescued from near death by some strange French girl who nurses him back to health in her apartment. Chuck finding the oppurtunity to be someone new decides he's going to be called Henry now and when he was better they went off to Paris for him to relax. We all know what that means.

Back in NYC, Nate has been diligently going through the black book but mysteriously feels no better after his breakup. He runs into a somewhat older woman in a restaurant while out with one of the bimbos and proceeds to pour his heart out to her about what he has been doing all summer and gives a little game. Of course the woman takes the bait. But as we see towards the end of the show that this woman isn't who she is claiming to be and seems to be stalking Nate. For what reason? We have to wait and see. Vanessa comes back to find that Georgina had the baby and has been shacking up with Dan the entire summer. And surprise surprise Dan hasn't told anyone about the new addition. Vanessa is understandably upset but oddly still tries to stand beside her friend/man. She is very skeptical of Georgina, and with reason. It finally comes out to Dan's dad, Rufus, and his wife, Lily, during some party at their place because Georgina crashes. They are skeptical and demand a paternity test. Georgina is ready for that one and shows some paper, which we can only assume is doctored up, saying Dan is the dad. And guess what, everyone believes it. The fools. So the show seems to be promising. They delivered in the first episode and I'm eagerly anticipating more.

Here is a clip of what is happening next episode.


Vampire Diaries is also back! Thank goodness because I have been wondering all summer what has been going on. Last we left it Katherine was back and posing as Elena who is her doppleganger. Caroline and Matt were in a car accident and Caroline was given some of Damon's blood. Since he is a vampire it will bring her back to life with it's healing powers. We also see that Damon has feelings for Elena, which isn't good because she is with his also vampire brother, Stefan. And we have all seen how nasty it can get between those two over a girl.

So when it came back it picked right back up. Katherine was in full b**ch mode and trying stir things up. It finally comes out that she came back to profess her eternal love for Stefan. He turns her down because, unlike Damon, he hasn't been pining away for her all these decades and loves Elena. Damon is heartbroken when he finds this out. Katherine goes off, heartbroken as well, and smothers Caroline in the hospital as a warning that she is gone for good. Damon on the other hand gets drunk and goes to Elena to profess his feelings and in a rage snaps the neck of Elena's brother Jeremy. Thankfully Jeremy is now wearing a ring that has a spell on it to keep him alive so he isn't completely dead.

Caroline, since she still had the vampire blood in her system, is brought back to life. As per the rules and regulations of becomming a vampire she must now feed on blood to completely become one. Well, being locked in a hospital didn't help her fight that urge and she is now a vampire. Saddly Matt has no idea. The rest try to carry on as normal teenagers and plan the carnival for school. They just can't get away from their problems though. Caroline gets out of jail and starts feeding on people. Her friends then find out. Damon is now catching on to something else supernatural in the town in the form of a returned uncle to one of the kids' classmates. Some investigating is done and seems that they are trying to paint him as a werewolf (which if true I will be sorely upset that they feel they have to go the Twilight route) and it being possibly that his nephew could be one too. This season seems to be going in a direction I wasn't expecting. I'm curious to see how this whole Caroline thing will pan out. I'm also praying that we won't see the emergence of werewolfs. If it happens, I hope it happens in the great Seth Green as Oz on Buffy the Vampire Slayer way, and not in the Twilight way.

Here is a clip of the upcoming episode.


Well guys, this is it for now. Next week is premier week so I will be coming back with opinion of new shows this season. Head over to the forum at www.j1studios.com and discuss these shows. Or any returning shows for that matter. Or you could just have at it right here in the comments.

Till next time kids, this has been Hava.

How much more upfront do you want me to be?

So last time I gave you a taste of some of the shows coming up that I feel could be promising. That people should give a chance. Well these next shows are ones that you should run and hide from. These are just a few of the shows that when I saw the descriptions for them I raised my eyebrow. Take a gander at these. Form your own opinion but I’m sure you will find that I am correct as usual.

“Outsourced”- NBC Thursdays 9:30pm
The general premise of this show is a white man goes to work for his company’s call center which is located in India. Basically this looks like it’s trying to be kind of like “the Office” but in India. I think they are trying to bank on the supposedly hilarity of the difference in cultures and languages. But from what I have seen it just seems like they are making stereotypical jokes and they are almost slightly insulting. They have jokes about how the Indian people’s names sound funny and being hard to pronounce. I’m sure they feel the same way about our names. There are jokes concerning their culture, the ones being most obvious at the moment dealing with how women are viewed and should act. In the one clip it shows the American guy trying to push his culture on to them. Now I love an inappropriate racial joke just as much as the next person, but a whole show based off of stereotypes and common misconceptions is just too much for me. As it stands now, I’m uninterested in this show.



“Nikita”- CW Thursdays 9pm
Oh for the love of everything holey they are bringing back the whole “Le Femme Nikita” franchise…again. This started as a French film which was adapted into a horrible American remake which was then adapted into a cable television series in the 90’s. Now it is another television series on the CW of all networks. The premise and plot of this franchise has changed over adaptations. If you want Nikita as someone who was plucked out of prison by some government agency and forced to be an assassin. She has now escaped their grasp is being hunted down. While I have no problem with the plot per se, I’m just over remaking this whole franchise. This will never be as good as the first television series. From the promos I have seen this show is poorly acted. I don’t see how even a guy would want to sit here and watch this even though it has the staples of all male driven programming (i.e. action, fighting, & scantily clad women). If they are marketing this at all for females the best part for them is Shane West. But even he cannot sustain me enough to watch a show. I’m passing on this.



“No Ordinary Family”- ABC Tuesdays 8pm
So what if I told you there was a new show about a family who was going on vacation and they survive a plane crash on the way and then they find out that they have these super powers. Wouldn’t you think the next logical sentence would be, and hilarity ensues? Well you’d be wrong. This show is actually a drama. Yes, a drama. You see, the whole point for this family vacation is so that the family can reconnect since they have grown apart. Once they all figure out that they have these powers the show then tries to follow them and show how they deal with this extraordinary change. While there may be a few funny quips and all that the main point is how they deal with these powers and grow as people and blah blah blah. When I posed the question that I started this with to my mother she first guessed a kid’s show. Then she guessed a comedy. When I told her it was a drama she was baffled. She could not for life of her figure why they would make this premise serious. I, too, cannot understand it. It seems to be well acted. Hell, they have Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz. Amazing actors! I don’t know about this. It just seems like they are trying to mix “Heroes” and any family based drama on television. It’s like the movie “RV” without the comedy, the road trip, and they have super powers. Okay so maybe it isn’t like “RV” but it still seems like they are reaching for something unnecessary. Make it a comedy and call it a day.




So head on over to the forum on j1studios.com and discuss these trailers. Let me know if you think I'm wrong. If you think these shows are the best thing around.

Until next time kids, this has been Hava.

Serena is too proud to be the Marilyn while everyone else wants to be the Jackie

"Gossip Girl"
Channel: CW (check local listings
Day/Time: Mondays at 9pm
Rating: Mature,

Oh Gossip Girl, how I love you. The way you make us all sit here and wonder if Serena is really so dumb as to think that this new congressman would actually give up his career and reputation for her is amazing. How you make me see Chuck as Hamlet, talking to his dead father is inspiring. While his father wasn’t asking that he avenge his death, instead criticizing him to the fullest, makes no never mind to me. And poor misguided Jenny, seemingly becoming a nicer queen but really only doing it to mask her own devious behavior of selling drugs without her raccoon eyes, really makes you ponder life.

The events of the past episode kind of made sense but also left you wondering how in the hell people don’t just throw their hands up in the air in bewilderment throughout the whole episode. Apparently it is the one year anniversary of Chuck’s dad’s death and he isn’t handling it well. He sees him and is talking to him throughout the whole show. It goes a bit far seeing as how they haven’t shown this behavior at all in the past episodes but what the hell. Wasn’t the worst part of the show. Jenny selling drugs to pay for her once undesired queendom wasn’t even the worst part. Dan trying to get over and/or cover up his love for Vanessa with her clearly desperate drama school friend wasn’t the worst part (even though it was pretty horrendous when she pulled out what I imagine to be a Carrie Prejean style sex tape of herself to seduce him).

Clearly the worst part was the whole blackmail ridiculousness that was the situation between Serena, Trip (the married congressman), Maureen (his wife), and the letter from Serena’s biological father to her mother Lily. Yes, I know it sounds convoluted but need I remind you that this is basically a teen soap? So pretty much Serena ran off with Trip for a week, amazingly he had no congressmanly duties, and Maureen finds them to blackmail them. Serena doesn’t believe that Trip would lie to her about meeting with Maureen and gets all indignant when she learns the truth from Nate, Trip’s cousin and of course a past lover of Serena who still loves her. She tries to run off with all her bags into the middle of the biggest “town” in NY, Nassau County, and runs smack into Trip outside the door. They drive off and in the midst of driving her home Trip gets kind of creepy stalker like and not paying attention runs into the guardrail while trying to avoid a wayward pack of three wolves. Where Trip really lets me down is he calls MAUREEN first instead of 911 to help the passed out Serena. In the end we find that he really is like a spineless politician when he goes with Maureen and their thinly veiled Chappaquiddick reference kind of lost all meaning in and amongst the scenes following. I mean, I don’t care what this letter has to say about whatever Lily was doing with Serena’s biological father when she claimed to be with her ailing cancer stricken mother, I don’t think it would be enough to blackmail Serena with. All Lily has to do is come clean to her now husband, Rufus, and Maureen has nothing. And how could Maureen just give up her trump card to Rufus? Makes no sense! Yes I am leaving out some things here, but you get the gist.

I think I loved the end when Chuck finally went to his dad’s grave and finds a mysterious woman leaving the same flowers that were his dead mother’s favorite. Obviously we are supposed to be led to believe that this is his mother. While it’s all tied together with a locket, and that’s cheesy, it still made me want to see the next episode and find out why his mother is really alive and where she’s been this entire time pretending to be dead. Needless to say, I can’t wait for the next episode. And I’m not ashamed one bit people.

I give this episode four frames just because of the promise for the next episode and some of the funny things that happened this episode.


Here is a clip from what is coming up on the next episode that is coming, sadly, in 2010.


Head over to j1studios.com's forum to discuss Gossip Girl or tell me that you hate it and can't believe I watch it. (Doesn't matter cause I'm going to keep watching it.)

Until next time kids, this has been Hava!