Gossip Girl Rewatch: Once upon a time when this show was truly great… (My thoughts on episode 1x01 “Pilot”)

Let me start out this post by explaining why I decided to review an episode of Gossip Girl even though the show’s been off the air since December of 2012. For starters, as random as this will probably sound, reading Fifty Shades of Grey has really gotten me thinking about Gossip Girl again, and not necessarily entirely in a good way. As I’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey, I keep finding myself thinking about how sick and toxic Chuck and Blair’s relationship ended up becoming as the series progressed. Despite the fact that Chuck and Blair’s relationship became increasingly toxic as the series continued, both the writers for the show and what I always felt was a huge chunk of the show’s audience seem to view Chuck and Blair’s relationship as a fairytale romance, much like so many women out there seem to view Christian Grey as a romantic hero despite the fact that he treats Ana like shit throughout the course of the entire Fifty Shades trilogy.

For the record, I was originally a huge fan of Chuck and Blair’s relationship, but I stopped being a Chair shipper once Chuck tried to pimp Blair out to his Uncle Jack in an attempt to keep his hotel in season three. That being said, I haven’t just been thinking about Gossip Girl in a negative way though. I’ve found myself genuinely missing the show lately, so I’ve decided to revisit the show and watch some episodes again, blogging about them in the process.

Deciding to revisit Gossip Girl again feels very nostalgic for me personally since watching the season four episode “Empire of the Son” back when it first aired is what prompted me to decide to start blogging about Gossip Girl and TV shows in general. I’m just going to go right ahead and say that I’m going to start out by blogging about my Gossip Girl “Rewatch” simply on a trial basis since it’s a show that’s been off the air since 2012, I have no idea what the level of interest in reviews of episodes of Gossip Girl will be. Sure, Gossip Girl was perhaps the most popular show that I blogged about back when it was on the air, but that might have changed since the show has been off the air for several years now. I’d also like to clarify that if my Gossip Girl “Rewatch” reviews end up becoming an ongoing thing, I’m not going to watch and review all of the episodes in order. There are simply some episodes that I’m more interested in watching in the immediate future than others. I don’t really want to watch all of the episodes leading up to the episodes that I’m most excited to watch again. However, I thought that watching and reviewing the first episode of Gossip Girl would be a good place to start my “Rewatch”; that being said, here are my thoughts on the first episode.

Personally, I’ve always felt that this episode was a great start to the series. I know that some shows like to start off with their first episode diving right into the action as if the viewers are already familiar with the characters and the plot of the show. However, in most cases I prefer it when TV shows begin with some kind of event or several events to start things off, and I think that Serena returning to the Upper East Side under somewhat mysterious circumstances was a great way for the show to begin. I’ve also always thought that the first episode of Gossip Girl did everything the first episode of a TV should do. It did a good job of introducing all of the characters; the premise of the show, establishing various conflicts between the characters and it was simply a great episode.

Bared to You: Is it just me, or is everybody in this book fifty different kinds of screwed up? (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Crossfire book series by Sylvia Day)

Let me start out by saying that the main reason why I decided to read and review Bared to You is because I’ve encountered a lot of people who’ve compared the Crossfire book series to the Fifty Shades trilogy. In most cases, I’ve seen people say that the Crossfire series is significantly better than the Fifty Shades trilogy, which has mostly been attributed to Sylvia Day being a much more experienced writer compared to E.L. James. Although, I’ve also seen people say that they like the Fifty Shades trilogy more than they liked Bared to You. After reading Bared to You, I’m absolutely baffled by the fact that anybody would think that the Fifty Shades trilogy is better than the Crossfire series since it’s pretty clear to me that Sylvia Day’s writing ability is definitely completely superior to E.L. James’ writing.

That being said, I realize that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and when I think about how there are some people who like the Fifty Shades trilogy more than the Crossfire series, I’m reminded of the fact that I like 90210 a lot more than Gossip Girl. While I do like both 90210 and Gossip Girl, I’m also not blinded by the fact that in terms of the quality of the writing for the two shows, the writing for Gossip Girl is definitely superior to the quality of the writing for 90210. At the risk of seeming like I’m going to far off topic, one of the main reasons why I like 90210 more is because anybody with even just a small shred of maturity can see that the relationship between Chuck and Blair, who are arguably the main romantic pairing on the show, is incredibly toxic and abusive. The sad thing about that is the way the producers always talked about Chuck and Blair’s relationship, it’s as if they view that relationship as some epic fairytale romance when it really did end up being a very toxic and abusive relationship. I feel I should mention that I was originally a major Chuck and Blair shipper, it was only when their relationship became truly abusive at some point during season three that I stopped being a fan of that relationship.

While 90210 didn’t have much of a clearly defined endgame couple, the closest 90210 had to an endgame couple was Liam and Annie. Liam and Annie’s relationship wasn’t necessarily handled all that well when it came to them frequently getting together only to almost immediately breakup with little to no buildup or development to them either getting together or breaking up. What I think made Liam and Annie’s relationship better is that at least it wasn’t sick and abusive with them constantly treating each other like crap or either of them trying to sabotage the other’s happiness when they weren’t together like Chuck and Blair constantly did. They definitely handled things between them with a lot more maturity, which is one of the reasons why I liked them as a couple as much as I did, but I digress.

Revenge: Nestor Serrano Cast in a Recurring Guest-Star Role for Season 4

According to TVLine's Andy Swift, Nestor Serrano has been cast in a recurring guest-star role for the upcoming fourth season of Revenge. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives some details on Serrano's role:

Nestor Serrano (Graceland) has been tapped to recur as Edward Alvarez, a “commanding and perceptive police chief” who’s (surprisingly) in Victoria’s corner, TVLine has learned exclusively.

“We’re just starting to explore his character right now,” executive producer Sunil Nayar tells us. “He’s a friend of Victoria’s on the force who really has her back at a time when she needs someone to have her back. We’re not sure exactly where we’re headed with the character, but we like the idea of her having an ally in a position of an authority.”

Link to the full article:‘Revenge’ Season 4 Spoilers — Nestor Serrano Cast As Victoria’s Friend | TVLine



My thoughts: I really liked Nestor Serrano when he guest-starred on 90210, so I'm definitely kind of excited that he'll be guest-starring on Revenge. His character sounds really interesting to me, especially since it sounds like he'll primarily be interacting with Victoria. Personally, I won't be very surprised if his character ultimately ends up having some kind of secret agenda where he's secretly scheming against Victoria, while he pretends to be Victoria's friend.

Personally, I find the fact that Sunil Nayar and the other writers for Revenge still aren't completely sure where things are going to go with Serrano's character a little concerning. I understand that there are a lot of factors that go into writing for a TV show that can ultimately influence storylines, such as an actor's availability, or the writers sometimes think that the writing takes on a life of its own, causing the story to go in a direction that was different from what the writers had originally planned. However, whenever I've read an article or an interview that Sunil Nayar has done about the show, I feel like Nayar is almost always not completely sure about where the show is going, and that hasn't always filled me with a lot of confidence when it comes to his work as showrunner and executive producer for Revenge. I'll try my best to keep an open mind and have faith that things will turn out well when it comes to the writing for Nestor Serrano's character and his portrayal of the character though.

That being said, I'm very excited for season 4 to start. While I don't think the show is as good as it was back in season one, nor do I think it will ever be that good ever again, I loved the season 3 episodes that I've seen at this point in time. The season 3 episodes that I've watched definitely left me thinking that season 3 was a significant improvement over season 2. Based on all of the other spoilers and casting news that's been announced so far, it sounds like season 4 could potentially be a great season, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Dallas: Didn’t anyone ever tell you that denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, John Ross? (My thoughts on episode 3x06 “Like Father, Like Son)

Right off the bat, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. The biggest highlight of this episode for me personally would be all of the scenes featuring John Ross, who spent the episode desperately trying to keep the Arctic lease deal alive by scheming with various people throughout the course of the episode. His primary strategy was to suggest to Christopher, Bobby, Pamela and Sue Ellen that they take Ewing Global public. He originally got the idea from an old friend of his, Hunter McKay, and Nicolas, who both told him that they became rich by originally buying controlling interest in a company, so John Ross set out to do the same thing. He thought that he had managed to get enough support from Nicolas, Pamela and Sue Ellen, but when the time came to vote Sue Ellen voted against taking the company public, so his plan ultimately failed.

If that wasn’t enough trouble for John Ross to deal with, Sue Ellen continued to tell John Ross that he was acting just like J.R. by cheating on Pamela with Emma and his secretary Candice, but he made it clear to her that there was nothing going with Candice. Candice did try to make a move on John Ross at one point in the episode though, but he rejected her advances. Throughout the episode he repeatedly told Sue Ellen that he’s not J.R., but personally his attempts to convince her that he’s not just like J.R. were about as convincing as Jim Parsons’ attempt to convince everybody that he’s not Sheldon when he was hosting Saturday Night Live, which weren’t even the tiniest bit convincing. After all, in his opening monologue he talked a lot about how he’s nothing like his character on The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper. He even sang a song about how he’s not Sheldon, where the lyrics consisted primarily of him singing “I’m not that guy” over and over, only to act just like Sheldon in pretty much every sketch that he appeared in throughout the episode. I’m now convinced that Jim Parsons is pretty much just being himself when he’s playing Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, which in my mind shows that despite all of the awards that he’s either won or been nominated for, he has a very limited range in terms of his acting ability. That really makes me wonder what will happen with Jim Parsons’ acting career once The Big Bang Theory eventually ends, but I digress.

Speaking of bad acting and characters that annoy the hell out of me, while I’m willing to admit that for the past several episodes Christopher hadn’t been annoying me nearly as much as he did last season, he unfortunately found a whole new way to annoy the hell out of me that didn’t even involve him talking or threatening to have someone sent to jail in this episode. Towards the beginning of the episode, Bobby told John Ross that he was giving his shares in Ewing Global to Christopher, because now that he’s serving as the interim Texas railroad commissioner regulations dictate that he can’t own any shares in a company. What made Christopher so annoying in that scene is the way that he stood in the background with an incredibly obnoxious smirk on his face the entire time Bobby was telling John Ross this.

Dallas (TNT Series): Good news, Everybody! The Ewings are back, and they are more scandalous than ever before (My thoughts on episode 3x01 “The Return”)

Right off the bat, I’d like to say that I found the season three premiere somewhat challenging to review. That’s not because I thought the season premiere was bad, it’s actually a very good episode in my opinion. What makes this episode particularly challenging for me to review is the fact that I feel like this episode was primarily providing exposition for season three instead of simply diving right into the action and having the show hit the ground running like the writers did with the season two premiere.

I don’t view that as a bad thing at all though. My main complaint with the season two premiere was actually that even for a show that typically moves at a pretty fast pace, the season two premiere seemed to move too quickly for its own good, especially when it comes to how they handled the reveal of Ann’s secret and how it effected Sue Ellen’s life as well. Because the writers seemed to be moving really fast with the events that took place in the season two premiere, as a viewer I felt like I wasn’t being given a chance to take everything in and process what was happening from an emotional standpoint, which was a little frustrating at times and was one of the contributing factors in terms of why I found the reveal of Ann’s secret so underwhelming and disappointing. There was also the fact that Ann’s secret was simply just rather lame. However, Brenda Strong’s acting in that episode as well as season two as a whole definitely helped make up for the lameness regarding the details of Ann’s past that were revealed last season, but I digress.

In terms of my thoughts on the season three premiere itself, I found it refreshing that the writers really used the entire season premiere to move forward from the events of the season two finale and set things up for season three. One of the things that I was really glad to see was the fact that the writers specifically established how much time had passed since the events of the season finale unlike the season two premiere where they played fast and loose with how they handled the passage of time. For example, Ewing Energies was completely up and running and yet Pamela was no longer visibly pregnant. However, I just wrote off the whole thing with Pamela not looking pregnant for roughly the first third of the season as something the writers did since John Ross and Pamela had several romantic scenes during that portion of the season. However, while they did a mini time jump in this episode, they did start out the episode by picking up right where they left off with John Ross and Emma meeting with each other at a hotel so that Emma could give John Ross some files that belonged to Harris, followed by them having sex. After the theme song, the show jumped ahead twelve hours.

Beauty and the Beast: Casting related scoop on episode 2x07 and 2x08 from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on Beauty and the Beast from this week's (Posted on 10/15/13) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Russian Beauty and the Beast fan here, in need of a scoop: —Natalee
Ausiello: Da, I have! TVLine has confirmed that 90210 alum Riley Smith will appear in Episodes 7 and 8 as “The Bombmaker,” a sophisticated, hired assassin with a specialty in explosives — and a particular vengeance against beasts such as Vincent.

Link to the full article:‘Nashville’ Spoilers in Ask Ausiello: Who’s Dying in Season 2? - TVLine

Dallas: Season 3 brings AnnaLynne McCord to Southfork-Zap2it

According to Zap2it's Rick Porter, AnnaLynne McCord has been cast in a recurring guest-star role in Dallas' upcoming third season. Here's an excerpt from the article, which gives some details on McCord's role:

McCord has landed a recurring part on Season 3 of the TNT series as Heather, a single mother and ranch hand at Southfork. She's more than capable of handling her job, but when her "troubled" ex-husband comes back into the picture, she turns to Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) for help.

"Dallas" being "Dallas" and Christopher being Christopher, he also becomes romantically involved with Heather.

Link to the full article:‘Dallas’ Season 3 brings AnnaLynne McCord to Southfork - Zap2it



My thoughts: I've been a huge fan of AnnaLynne McCord's ever since she was on 90210, and I've always thought that she was one of the most enjoyable things about the show, so I'm thrilled that she has gotten a new acting job so soon after 90210's run has ended. Although, I have to admit that I often felt like her character, Naomi Clark, came across as a second rate version of Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. I don't think that's her fault though. She always did a great job on 90210, even when the writing for her character was rather lackluster.

I think guest-starring on Dallas will be the perfect opportunity for AnnaLynne to break away from playing characters that come across as spoiled rich girls and hopefully it will show people what she's really capable of as an actress. Based on the description of the character that she'll be playing on Dallas, her character sounds really interesting, and it sounds like her character will be a radical departure from playing Naomi on 90210. The only thing about this news that I'm not excited about is the fact that she'll be playing a love interest for Christopher, who is definitely the most unlikeable and annoying character on the show. Plus, I've always felt sorry for any actor or actress that has to work with Jesse Metcalfe, because he's a terrible actor and his acting seems to have only gotten worse over time, while AnnaLynne really grew an actress throughout the course of 90210's run.  Regardless of that, I still think that guest-starring on Dallas is an amazing opportunity for her. That being said, I was already beyond excited for season 3 of Dallas, but this news has made me get even more excited for season 3 to start.

Drop Dead Diva: Casting related scoop on episode 5x07 from TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich

Here's some scoop on Drop Dead Diva from TVLine's Matt Webb Mitovich's weekly column Matt's Inside Line for the week of 6/27/13.

Any Drop Dead Diva scoop? –Lori
Just this casting vittle: Dallas Cowboys cheerleader-turned-actress Abigail Klein (CSI, 90210) will guest star in Episode 7 as a beauty pageant contestant who sues the pageant’s owner. 

Link to the full article:‘Revenge’ ‘Under the Dome’ ‘Teen Wolf’ ‘Person of Interest’ Spoilers - TVLine

90210: Grab some tissues, everybody, because it’s time to say goodbye to TV’s most famous zip code (My thoughts on the series finale: Episode 5x22 “We All Fall Down”)

After taking a couple weeks to reflect on the series finale, I have to say that it definitely turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to be. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but then again the producers weren’t exactly given much warning by the network that 90210 wasn’t going to be renewed for a sixth and final season. Plus, it sounds like most of what ended up being the series finale had already been filmed by the time they found out that the show was canceled, so the producers did the best they could given the circumstances. If I haven’t already made it clear in my previous reviews for 90210, I’ve always been somewhat willing to cut the show some slack given the number of times the show changed showrunners over the years, which is something that started way back when the show was merely in the development stage.

That being said, I definitely think the writers should have seen the writing on the wall and planned this episode as an episode that could serve as a season finale if the show were to have been renewed for a sixth season, but at the same time give the viewers enough closure if the show were to be canceled, which is what ended up being the case. For the most part, I’m okay with how things ended for most of the characters. The thing that I’m happiest about is the fact that the series ended with Liam and Annie not only getting back together, but also getting engaged. Personally, I would have liked the series to have ended with them getting married, but having them get engaged at the end of the series is definitely the next best thing. The other thing that I’m very happy about is the fact that the series ended with Adrianna and Navid getting back together, which if I’m being honest isn’t something that I viewed as being one of my biggest hopes for the end of the series until a few episodes ago when Adrianna and Navid once again hooked up.

As for the things that disappointed me about the finale, one the things that I found a little disappointing is the fact Adrianna and Navid spent most of the episode buried under a pile of rubble from the explosion in the previous episode waiting to be rescued. However, the episode began with Adrianna being the only who was trapped under all the debris, but once Navid realized that she was still in the room where the roof essentially collapsed on her and that it would be a while before the rescue workers would be able to see if she was okay, he went to find her on his own.

Navid found Adrianna, and in typical 90210 fashion, she was okay with the exception of her leg suffering from a minor injury. Although, they both ended up becoming trapped in some of the debris after the debris shifted, which led to them talking about their relationship. Adrianna initially told Navid that she views him as being the guy that she’s meant to spend the rest of her life with, and that she wanted to take things slow this time around, which Navid agreed was a good idea. However, after they found out that there was a gas leak, she said that she didn’t want to take things slow if they survived their current predicament. Navid once again instantly agreed with Adrianna saying that they would get a place right away and not waste any more time. Good, god! Is the word “slow” even in the writers’ vocabulary? Are they at all familiar with the concept of taking things slowly? They’ve always done everything way too quickly on this show, especially when it comes to the pacing of relationships and storylines in general, and that’s definitely always been one of the show’s biggest flaws. Perhaps nobody ever told the writers about the expression “Slow and steady wins the race”.

New Girl: It’s Cece’s wedding day, but will she get married? (My thoughts on episode 2x25 “Elaine’s Big Day”)

It’s hard to believe that this was the season finale, mainly because I feel like the season really flew by, but I say that in a good way. Now that season two has ended, I can definitely say that I love season two even more than I loved season one, which is something that I’ve been thinking for quite a while now. This episode was the perfect way to end what I think was an absolutely amazing season.

If the previous episode didn’t make me absolutely hate Jess’ dad, Bob, this episode definitely did. Thankfully, he was barely in it. At the beginning of the episode Jess, Nick, Schmidt and Winston were getting ready to go to Cece’s wedding, and Jess wanted her dad to take a picture of them. Bob very quickly tried to kick Nick out of the picture by telling him to move further and further out of the camera frame until he left the apartment. This quickly led to Jess, Nick, Schmidt and Winston fighting with each other before everybody but Jess stormed off. Once everybody else had left, Bob took a picture of Jess, and I have to say that I love the way Zooey Deschanel posed and smiled for the picture. I thought it was cute, and it definitely made me chuckle.

That being said, even if Bob doesn’t really like Nick all that much, I don’t think that gives him the right to be as rude to Nick as he was in both that scene and the previous episode. After all, he’s not just staying in Jess’ apartment, Nick, Schmidt and Winston live there too, so I think he should at least act polite towards each of them since he’s a guest in their home. Besides, it wasn’t just this episode that he acted rude to the guys. I also thought he was being pretty rude to Winston in the previous episode, calling him “Wilson” and making him feel guilty about eating the birthday cake that he had bought for himself. If I were Nick, Winston or Schmidt, I would definitely have told Bob to take a hike if he was going to act as rude as he was being.

This episode once again reinforced my belief that both the writers and Lamorne Morris have really found their grove the character Winston after having him come across as being rather forgettable in season one. If you ask me, this episode was probably Lamorne’s best performance yet on the show. After Schmidt accidentally walked in on Cece getting ready for the wedding when he was trying to find the men’s restroom, he came to the conclusion that Cece wanted to get out of her wedding to Shivrang. He was repeatedly insisting the Cece had told him this with her eyes. This prompted him to team up with Winston to play a series of pranks designed to sabotage Cece’s wedding. Naturally, since it has already been well established that Winston is terrible at playing pranks, this led to a series of disasters.

90210: Silver related behind the scenes scoop on the series finale from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on 90210 from this week's (Posted on 5/15/13) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: 90210 pretty much wrapped up everyone’s storyline with the exception of Silver’s. It was kind of cruel just to leave things hanging on that cancer diagnosis. Was there supposed to be more to the story? —Tammy
Ausiello: Yes, but the 11th hour cancellation precluded the show’s brass from telling it. “It was a bit of a struggle not knowing where the series was headed,” admits co-showrunner Patti Carr. “We thought we would have more time to tell the end of it. It’s our apology to the fans if some of the storylines feel like they weren’t where you thought [they'd] end up — and I think Silver’s is one of them.”

Link to the full article:‘Law & Order: SVU’ Finale Death Spoilers in Ask Ausiello: Will Olivia Die? - TVLine

90210: Episode 5x22 "We All Fall Down" Promo (HD) (Series Finale)

Here's a promo for next week's series finale, episode 5x22 "We All Fall Down". It looks like this is going to be a very emotional episode. I'm feeling really sad about 90210 ending. :(

90210: Are the writers even trying to have things make sense on this show any more? (My thoughts on episode 5x19 “The Empire State Strikes Back”)

Let me start off by saying that I apologize for taking so long to get this review written and posted. I had to work quite a bit this week, and I also had a lot of other projects that I was working on throughout the week. I’m going to try my absolute best to get my reviews for the remaining episodes of the series written and posted before the episode following it airs; that being said, here are my thoughts on this episode.

After thoroughly enjoying the previous episode, I have to say that I found this episode rather dull, and I frequently found my attention wandering as I was watching it. To be fair though, this episode wasn’t even close to being as boring as the first nine episodes of Gossip Girl’s final season were, and I still stand by my opinion that 90210’s final season is better than Gossip Girl’s final season was. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everything about this episode was boring, because it definitely had some good things about it, and admittedly this episode has grown on me after having watched it several more times.

For starters, I would say that I found Annie’s storyline to be the most interesting storyline in this episode. The episode picked up right where the previous episode ended, which would be Patrick showing up at Annie and Liam’s house in order to confront her about her book. Patrick was furious with Annie for writing a book that was inspired by their relationship, and he was worried that people, namely his wife, would figure out that he was the inspiration for the character Patterson. Apparently, his wife’s book club was reading Undressed, and he told Annie that his wife would divorce him and take a lot of his money if she found out about his relationship with Annie. Before Patrick left Annie and Liam’s place, he threatened to hurt her family if she went on Entertainment Tonight for an interview with Nancy O’Dell in order to publically reveal that she is Author X, but Annie simply shrugged off his threats.

I have to say that I thought Patrick’s reaction to this whole situation was beyond dumb. After all, Annie didn’t use his real name in the book, and his wife never even met Annie, so how would she know that most of the book was inspired by Annie’s life? He never even told Annie that he was married. Besides, it’s not like he’s the only person on earth named Patrick. I just don’t understand how the writers expect viewers to believe that his wife would automatically realize that Patrick was the inspiration for the character Paterson in Undressed. Although, this is 90210 where 98% of the writing for the show is absolutely ridiculous and contrived, so I suppose she could figure things out by reading Annie’s book.

Annie finally came clean to Dixon about the fact that she is Author X and that she paid for his rehab by briefly working as an escort. Dixon was initially furious with Annie, but he forgave her for working as an escort to pay for his rehab treatment and not telling him about it by the end of the episode. Annie also ended up going on Entertainment Tonight for an interview with Nancy O’Dell and revealed that she was Author X like she said was going to.

90210: Scoop on the possibility of former cast members returning and more on the series finale from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on 90210 from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat for Tuesday 4/30/13.

Ann: Can we expect any familiar faces to return in the 90210 series finale?
Sadly, longtime fans won't be seeing characters such as Ethan, Ryan, the Wilson parentals return for the swan song. Consolation prize: At least two fan-favorite couples will end up together!

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Scoop on The Following, New Girl, Homeland, Beauty and the Beast and More! | E! Online

90210: Episode 5x21 "Scandal Royale" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 5x21 "Scandal Royale". It looks like this is going to be a really fun episode. :)

All My Children: The citizens of Pine Valley are finally be back! (My thoughts on the online premiere)

I’m not going to deny that I was very skeptical about the idea of All My Children becoming an online soap opera when the news of Prospect Park wanting to take the show, as well as One Life to Live, online for a variety of reasons. For starters, the news that they might be able save All My Children and One Life to Live from cancellation just seemed too good to be true, so sadly I wasn’t all that surprised when Prospect Park announced that they wouldn’t be able to go through with their plans to do that. When Prospect Park announced their second attempt at reviving All My Children and One Life To Live, I chose to remain skeptical just in case things once again didn’t work out.

Even when it was announced that things were indeed going to work after all with taking All My Children online, I continued to feel rather skeptical about the whole thing, only this time my skepticism was more about whether or not the quality of the writing and over all production values for the online relaunch would be good since the quality of online web series has often been hit, miss, or a mix of good and bad in my experience. Given the fact that this relaunch features quite a few recasts for the characters from the younger generation who have been SORASed, as well as some completely new faces, I was also skeptical about of all these cast changes. That being said, I’m very pleased to say that this is the best online production that I’ve ever seen for a show.

With the exception of Eric Nelsen who plays the now teenage AJ Chandler, I was immediately impressed with all of the new cast members. Although, to be fair to Eric and his portrayal of AJ, he did start to grow on me as the episode progressed. He especially started grow on me once I got to his scenes with Denyse Tontz, who now plays Miranda, who’s also a teenager now. As I was watching their scenes together, I got a very strong feeling that AJ and Miranda will become a couple at some point, and I’d like to see that happen since Eric Nelsen and Denyse Tontz definitely have great chemistry together. It doesn’t look like they will be getting together any time soon though since Miranda was obsessing over another guy right in front of AJ. I have to say that I loved AJ’s reaction to Miranda fixating over the guy she apparently has a crush on despite the fact that it sounds like that the guy has pretty much only said hi to her at this point in time.

Given the fact that I’ve watched a lot of teen dramas over the years, such as 90210 and Gossip Girl, I’ve never been one to get too bent out of shape over the age of actors playing teenagers or the age gap between the actors playing teenagers and the age of the actors playing their parents. That being said, I found myself thinking that Eric Nelsen is too old to play a teenager as I was watched this episode. As soon as Eric first appeared, I was instantly reminded of David Hornsby, who’s a writer for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and also plays the role of Rickety Cricket on the show as well. Personally, I think that Eric Nelsen looks an awful lot like David Hornsby, but I digress. Although, for the record, I don’t know how old he is in real life, and I found myself not fixating on wondering how old Eric is in real life as the episode progressed. That being said, based on the preview for the next episode Eden Regal looks too young to be playing the mother of a teenager, if you ask me. Instead it looked like Bianca and Miranda were two sisters talking. I’ll try to reserve judgment about Eden playing the mother of a teenager until I actually see some scenes between Bianca and Miranda though.

90210: Scoop on the possibility of Josh Zuckerman (Max) returning for the series finale from TVLine's Michael Ausiello

Here's some scoop on 90210 from this week's (Posted on 4/23/13) Ask Ausiello column.

Question: Any scoop on Max (Josh Zuckerman) returning for the series finale of 90210? Please say he’ll be back! —Jessica
Ausiello: I would if I could but I can’t. Because he won’t.

Link to the full article:‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Finale: Meredith’s Baby and More Spoilers in Ask Ausiello - TVLine

90210: Wow! It really sucks to be…well…pretty much everybody on this show right now (My thoughts on episode 5x18 "A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Call Girl")

It’s been a while since I’ve written any reviews for 90210, and that’s partly because I found the past several episodes rather boring, but it’s mainly because I’ve been getting a ton of traffic for my posts related to the show New Girl, so I decided to focus on that show for a while. Plus, I’ve been working on a couple more long-term and elaborate posts for other shows as well as some writing not related to my blog. Anyway, given the fact that there are only a few episodes left of the series, I’ve decided to get back to writing reviews for the show every week; that being said, here are my thoughts on this episode.

I have to say that my thoughts on this episode as well as the past several episodes have been very mixed. They’ve also caused me to once again think a lot about why I like 90210 more than Gossip Girl, but at the same time I’ve also been thinking about some things that I think both the writers and the cast of Gossip Girl did a better job of compared to the cast and crew of 90210.

One thing that I’ve almost never been able to stop doing whenever I’m watching 90210 would be that I’ve constantly found myself comparing the character Naomi to Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl, and this would definitely be example of something that I liked more about Gossip Girl. Both Naomi and Blair are similar to each other in terms of the type of the character that they are: the “bitch” of the show, who’s rich, ambitious and is constantly seeking to elevate their social status. Don’t get me wrong, I like Naomi and I think that AnnaLynne McCord is one of the stronger actresses from the cast of 90210. However, I definitely like Blair more than Naomi, and I like Leighton Meester more than AnnaLynne when it comes to their acting.

When it comes to why I like Blair more, most of it has to do with the writing. To me, Blair has much more depth as a character than Naomi does. To me, a kiddy pool has more depth than Naomi does as a character, and I think the same can be said of the storylines that Blair had throughout Gossip Girl’s run compared to Naomi’s, which often lacked depth and just came across as a lackluster variation of quite a few of Blair’s storylines. For example, the rivalries that Naomi has had throughout 90210’s run have often felt very reminiscent of not only Blair’s storylines, but sometimes Serena’s as well, but where the storylines that revolved around Naomi dealing with a rival usually suffer is the motivation behind the rivalry, which have often been rather shallow and petty, making it hard for me to care that someone was causing problems for Naomi.

The writers for Gossip Girl on the other hand often gave enough depth and proper motivation and reasons for the viewers to get invested in storylines like that. For example, there were times where Naomi’s rivalry with Holly in season four reminded me a lot of Juliet’s vendetta against Serena throughout the first half of Gossip Girl’s fourth season, which I couldn’t help but get emotionally involved in as I was watching that storyline. Sure, I pretty much spent the whole storyline cheering Juliet on as she did everything in her power to ruin Serena’s life, mainly because I hate the character Serena, but at least the writers made me feel something. When it came to Naomi’s feud with Holly, I couldn’t have cared less about it and thought that their whole rivalry was beyond lame. 

90210: Episode 5x20 "You Can't Win 'Em All" Promo (HD)

Here's a promo for next week's episode, episode 5x20 "You Can't Win 'Em All". It looks like this is going to be another great episode. :)

90210: Scoop on Olly Murs' appearance on the show and scoop on the series finale from E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos

Here's some scoop on 90210 from Kristin Dos Santos' Spoiler Chat for Wednesday 4/17/13.

Deidra: Any 90210 scoop you'd care to share?
How about an exclusive first look at Olly Murs performing on the CW soap?  The pop star comes to America's most famous zip code when Liam and Navid ask him to do a special performance for the teen pro surfer they are trying to get as their first sponsored athlete. As for the series finale, we're happy to report there are no deaths. Phew!

Link to the full article:Spoiler Chat: Scoop on Vampire Diaries, True Blood, 90210, Teen Wolf, Parks and Rec and More! | E! Online