Friday Night Reviews

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS- FNL is fantastic. I've heard people say they don't watch it because they don't like football. There has been no football in the first two episodes of this season. I think they had about a minute of practice in each episode, although I'm not sure if it was practice or just featured the field as the backdrop. While most TV shows are going to great lengths to pry some sympathy out of my cold, cold heart; FNL gets me misty with honest depictions of real situations. I'm not thrilled with the direction the Landry/ Tyra storyline has taken; but it has been handled so well.

DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION- Boring episode. Degrassi featured a bad Devil Wears Prada knockoff, the lesbians had a big fight, and the slutty Philipina was a racist. To draw attention away from the boring, I'm going to talk about this incarnation of the show's most screwed-over character. You can read all about the original Degrassi's resident loser in my Thursday reviews. In TNG, one character starts on the show immediately having a dead mom and a dad who beats him. He goes on to cheat on his girlfriend and get the other girl pregnant. Then his dad dies, he gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and becomes a coke addict. We hear he'll be back with a guest starring gig on the current season. Can't wait to see what they do with him. You know, I don't think Degrassi has had an HIV-positive character on The Next Generation. Come on, Craig, you can totally step up your game. Start shooting some heroin and get infected from a dirty needle. You can do it, Kongye believes in you.


20/20- Not so much a review as an observation here. I fast forwarded through just about all of this hour because it was about kids and I have an overwhelming fear of children. Something I did tune in for, since it was the first segment, was 20/20's profile of Emily Osment. She's the Ethel to Miley Cyrus' Lucy on Hannah Montana. That means she has to stand almost out of frame the whole time and always be at least 20 pounds heavier than Miley (those of you not familiar with TV history should really look up the second part of that, it's a good story). She also happens to be the sister of Mr. I See Dead People, Haley Joel Osment. She looks like Haley in a wig. Although Haley looks like a girl with an unfortunate bowl cut, so they're about even. Anyway, this profile was about how Emily's parents set boundaries at home and how those boundaries are keeping her from turning into a Lindsay or a Britney. As the reporter is asking these questions and alluding to LiLo's arrests, I kept waiting for him to mention THIS. I mean, they were raised by the same people, no? I know ABC is owned by Disney and this was a puff piece about one of Disney's stars trying to promote her Disney-produced album and TV movie; but come on. At the very least, it's in poor taste to pat these parents on the back for having only one of their kids be a pothead who flips his car while drunk and high before he even goes to college. The show should be called 50/50, because apparently that's a good enough track record to be a poster child for parent of the year in the Disney universe. As 20/20's John Stossel would say: Give me a break!

P.S.: Check out the height/ weight on Haley's booking sheet. He's totally a leprechaun.

P.P.S.: He's totally high in that mug shot even though it was taken a month after he had his accident and claims he got sober.

Thursday Night Reviews

UGLY BETTY & GREY'S ANATOMY- I had to catch up with these shows because I didn't watch them last week. After 4 hours of ABC Thursday night programming in a row, I don't remember much. Maybe I have to care about the characters on these shows, which I don't. Let' just move on.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA- The only complaint I have is that we only got 1 episode of Sunny. This week: Sweet Dee's dating a Retarded Person. That storyline is good. Better: the guys try to start a band. I think we all know how that would end up. Expect clips.

ER-Snooze. I feel like ER is recycling its own medical mysteries and doctor personal life dramas. I will continue to watch this out of loyalty, I just won't be reviewing it anymore unless something exciting happens. Here's some footage of John Stamos "allegedly" drunk/high and definitely bitter and too honest on Australian TV:

LINK

DEGRASSI- Ok, so I have no idea when this season premiere actually aired (I'm guessing last Friday); but I found it on my TiVo with Thursday's shows. I've loved Degrassi since the original Degrassi High. There's something about a show where a group of 10 kids can experience every plight in the teenage pantheon that just appeals to me. On the original show there was a kid who found out he was adopted, almost got raped hitchhiking to see his birth father, both his parents were killed, had random learning disabilities, and eventually drove drunk and killed someone. I think he ended up paralyzed and in prison. Good times. The installment I watched on Thursday was the seventh season premiere. In an effort to cash in as much as possible, the makers of the show decided to divide the kids' senior year into 2 seasons, so we're starting with the first day of their winter semester. I guess they're running low on teen cautionary tales because we get another date rape storyline here. This one being different from the one a few years back because this girl was rufied and the last one was just held down and raped. We don't find out who did the raping in this episode; but I have a theory: