all five horizons

So I think now most of the networks in America have announced their new fall line-up. You can see the full list over here. I have shown below the shows I actually watch/care about:

ABC

RENEWED

Pushing Daisies – superb! I love Anna Friel in this and her chemistry with Lee Pace is just lovely.
Desperate Housewives – cool!
Dirty Sexy Money – ACES!

Lost – of course.
Ugly Betty – still not seen the new season. Where has it gone, E4?
Scrubs (ooh moved from NBC) – Season 7 starts on Thursday! EEK!

CANCELED

Men in trees - was to be expected and frankly, I am not too disappointed. I am looking forward to watching the last of the last season when it finally shows over here but I think it had run its course.

October Road - again, not surprised but I am very disappointed. This show had loads more potential. Plus, I loved seeing Bryan Greenberg regularly.  According to IMDB and his blog, he is not going to be stuck for things to do though, which is cool.

CBS

RENEWED

NCIS – I am going to start watching the new series although, cute as Michael Weatherly is, his character, Tony, really got on my nerves. So did his girlfriend.

CANCELED

Moonlight - oh man. I liked this show. I am actually quite surprised – I thought the fans’ blood donation drive might have had an impact!

NBC

RENEWED

Chuck - Love this so, yay!
Heroes – still have to watch this from mid-season 1 onwards but glad it’s renewing. I just know I will love it when I finally get round to watching it.

The Office – do I need to say it? Oh ok. YAY!
ER – hanging on for the farewell season. I will be glad when it’s over because I have to watch it and sometimes it gets too much on a Thursday night!  

NEW

The Office [spinoff] – oooh, can’t wait to hear more news on this.
Kath & Kim – do not see how this will translate to the US. I know I said that for The Office, but it is even more specific, this time to Australian humour and context. I am prepared to see how it goes though…

FOX

RENEWED

Simpsons – of course
Family Guy - how superb that this show was cancelled, revived thanks to awesome DVD sales and now is being renewed again!
American Idol – of course
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Bones – superb!!!

CW

RENEWED

Gossip Girl – Love it. Glad it’s coming back.

One Tree Hill – am eager to see the current season (yet to be shown here) – this is the ultimate in guilty pleasure TV – so stupid but fantastic at the same time.
Smallville – how is this show still going? It has gone so weird. I love me some Tom Welling and all, but come on… Maybe I ought to give it another try. I am not even sure it E4 are still airing it. All I see are ITV2 repeats from ages ago.

I am assuming the 24 is coming back since they have started making the new season that got ditched due to writers’ strike/Keifer’s ‘holiday’.  In any case, there is a buttload of TV to watch. 

I had heard good things about this film before I saw it. Wil Wheaton wrote a favourable comment about it and I had heard good things also from friends who had seen it. I was NOT disappointed. It was absolutely superb. It was very funny. Very funny indeed. The script was dynamite. I was so happy to see that Robert Downey Jr. was just brilliant.

The effects were solid and the machine-on-machine fighting blew Transformers out of the water.

Jeff Bridges was excellent and almost unrecognisable (until he starts to talk with that distinctive voice of his) as the benevolent/malevolent Obadiah (what a cool name!).

I loved the sassy Pepper Potts, played very well by the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow. She deserves an award just for the scene near the end where she has to run in extremely high heels! I am loving her red hair too! All this girlie talk trivialises her input in the film and I don’t mean to. She brings a sensitivity, strength and she had great chemistry with RDJ - so much so that ricardo actually commented that he was disappointed they didn’t kiss! Aw he is a Tony/Pepper ’shipper!

Terrence Howard was superb as the good friend and all-round good guy Jim Rhodes.

I am glad for IMDB.com for times when I forget to look for an actor’s name in the credits. The voice of the computer Jarvis was frustratingly familar and British and I now know is Paul Bettany. I was told to wait though the (very long) credits for a sneaky extra scene at the end and it was definitely worth it (although the scene is not very long so if you do wait, which you should, be prepared!).

I also now want to buy Back in Black by ACDC and Ironman by Black Sabbath!

Well I have to say, I am surprised not that unhappy that Syesha made it to the top three. I have nothing against David Archuleta but I find him a bit blah (although he has done well for a 17 year old kid). I am expecting it to be a David vs David final. I was a little sad to see Jason go because he was different and cute and quirky but ultimately he just wasn’t good enough so I think it was right that he went. David Cook is still my favourite although he has not performed at his best for a couple of weeks.

Bring on the top 3.

Now that I have had time to digest (I guess!) last night’s episode of Lost (Season 4 Episode 10 Something Nice Back Home), I have some thoughts to share. These will not be particularly insightful but there you go.

• Sawyer did not get off the island - seemingly by choice
• Jack and Kate totally hook up, get engaged and then it all starts to unravel due to either Jack’s paranoia or more likely, although less plausibly, some manevolent island-related force which is also making them see dead people. Or they are, as Hurley believes, dead themselves (I don’t buy it though).
• Juliet realises she is onto a lost cause with Jack.
• When Sawyer gets back to the beach, he is going to be shouting ‘I told you so’ to Kate
• Kate still feels something for Sawyer by the time she leaves the island - i.e. her promise which is not explained but I suspect has something to do with Sawyer’s daughter, Clementine.
• The first flash-forward we saw at the end of last season seems to occur after the scenes with Jack and Kate all loved up and smoochy and sexy and stuff. We are seeing the beginning of Jack’s downward spiral that leads to him listneing to Nirvana on the way to someone’s funeral.
• Claire is maybe gone forever? Is this why Aaron left the island without her?
• Does Future Jack know about his relationship to Claire? His outburst “You are not even related to him” (or similar) seems to suggest he does (with an unsopoken “but I am”).
• Why did Charlie tell Hurley to tell Jack that he not raise Aaron?

This was a superb episode with some answers but a lot more questions. The Jate opening was very squee-worthy (I am sure a whole bunch of ’shippers went into shock on see this). It feels like we are getting close to some answers but as we know there are still a couple more seasons I think we are going to have to be very patient to find out everything. Oh and, bonus points for figuring out the significance of this blog post title!

Jack. Kate. Shower. Kissing. Future Sex. Mind. Blown!!! I am still watching this episode (Something Nice Back Home) so I have no idea of context but OMFG! Oh and beach-side appendectomy? Yuck.#

I know this is old news for those of you from across the pond, but the latest Abby/Luka developments in ER are making me sad.  I have resisted the temptation to see how this plays out but since I know Goran Visnjic is leaving/has left, I am thinking, not so good.  Man, I will miss Kovac.

Well, I know that it is not really the same thing at all as Jake 2.0 (there are no nano-robots in Chuck, well, not yet anyway) but essentially in both series you have a geeky guy (who is clearly not a geek in real life as he is pretty buff under those ‘nerdy’ t-shirts) thrust into a life of espionage-type adventures and then hilarity ensues.  But despite my reservations, I have to say I am really enjoying this new show. 

The eponymous Chuck Bartowski (played wonderfully by Zachary Levi) is the perfect balance of cute/sensitve and witty/funny/nerd. 

His best friend, Morgan, is spikey, funny and a complete geek which I love (being a geek myself) and just a tad little too clingy to his bessie mate.  His sister, played by Sarah Lancaster (Margorie!) is pretty, as nosey as a sister should be and has an hilariously ’perfect’ boyfriend nicknamed Captain Awesome.

Adam Baldwin (Buffy and Angel alum no less!) is a complete sweetheart as the NSA agent even though he is meant to be a bit of a surly badass.

And the lead girl, Sarah, played by Yvonne Strahovski, is refreshingly oridinary-looking and real (although I admit she scrubs up quite well).

We have only watched the first four episodes (it has just started being shown on Virgin 1) but I look forward to seeing it each week which is usually a good sign.  I am glad it has been renewed in the US as there is nothing worse that getting invested a show only to find out it has just been cancelled (I am looking at you, ABC - October Road was a good show!).

It just goes to show how powerful a good voice can be when David Cook is almost appealing. 

He isn’t anything to look at - he has very unfortunate hair, piggy eyes and a strange mouth but man, when he sings, I go funny inside.  I hope he wins.  I hope even more he makes a record so I can hear him sing songs he actually suits singing.  Neil Diamond night was even worse than Lloyd Webber night for me.  I am not sorry that Brooke has gone (I know she was Jester’s favourite but she was starting to get on my nerves a wee bit). 

I like all the people left and in this order:  David C, Jason, David A and Syesha (who’d have thought she would make top 4 above Carly and Hot Michael?).

You know you are getting on when you start to fancy the dads more than the young male star! Is it me or is Dan from Gossip Girl’s dad, Rufus, much hotter than his cute but small-headed son?