Warm Glowing Warming Glow

Will Holland Alert

I'm probably not going to do a full response to Monday's season premiere of Gossip Girl -- I have overly ambitious plans for 90210 and one or two things to say about Project Runway and The Hills before I can get to that. Short story: decent episode, where the f!@# was Kelly Rutherford, can't stand the Blair/Thin White Duke subplot, everyone's skin looked weird.

Enough about that. Here's the exciting news: Zap2it is reporting that Willa Holland will be appearing in at least three episodes of Gossip Girl, in a Little-J-centric storyline. I'm speechless. Willa Holland was a delight on The O.C.; I'm sure she's going to rock whatever it is she's doing on Gossip Girl.

Little Hailey Nichol, All Grownsed Up

Amanda Righetti (Kirsten's sister Hailey on The O.C., a bunch of other shows I never watched) has joined the cast of K-Ville, Fox's New Orleans cop show, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser. I'm looking forward to this pilot; I've heard good things, particularly about Anderson. Righetti was really good on The O.C. -- and got better all the time. I couldn't bring myself to watch either the Hawaii show she was on, with either Brooke Burke or Brooke Burns, or the one about the high school reunion, with Chyler Leigh and the drug addict-y youngest brother from Brothers & Sisters.

Charisma Carpenter (Kendall Casablancas on Veronica Mars, Cordelia Chase on something called Buffy the Vampire-Slayer) will be appearing on the season finale of ABC Family's Greek. I've been watching Greek and meaning to post about it. Short version: it's oddly winning. No, it's not anything like my college experience, but it's not quite science fiction, either, and the cast is appealing.

The Zach and Oliver Show

Did you happen to see the premiere of the CW's new summer series/dump, Hidden Palms?  I did.  It was interesting.  I'm pretty sure I didn't care for it.  It was nice to see Taylor Handley (Oliver, Marissa's first stalker) and Michael Cassidy (Zach, Summer's season 2 boyfriend) working again.  Otherwise, not so great.  Further thoughts:

Does Gail O'Grady always talk like that?  IMDB tells me she's from Detroit.  Am I picking on a regionalism?  Is it offensive that I'm even asking that?  OK, I hope I haven't insulted anyone, but I don't know what to do with her accent. 

My brother and I were trying to figure out what was going on with poor Taylor.  He looked really bloated throughout -- maybe because his character is newly out of rehab?  Is it makeup?  Is it just the way he's parting his hair?  He looked OK with his shirt off -- it's really just his face, as far as I can tell. 

Some girl blows up her garage and I think it turns out it's some sort of demented science experiment -- I was hoping it was a meth lab mishap, which would have made the show a lot more interesting. 

To the extent that this show has picked up any buzz, it seems to be about Kevin Williamson and whether or not he's lost touch with youth culture since Scream (1996) and Dawson's Creek (1998).  Unfortunately, the music cues seem to suggest he has.  I think it's a very bad indicator when Coldplay pops up on the soundtrack - six minutes in!  Amy Winehouse is slightly more hip, but the choice of "Rehab" to re-introduce Handley , post re-hab, was  regrettable.  "The Blower's Daughter" for the big cry montage at the end, also not exactly a youth choice. 

I thought that when Williamson was shopping this show around last summer, Handley's character was supposed to be gay, right?  That is no longer the case.  Interesting. 

Michael Cassidy's, on the other hand . . . at a certain point, in television shorthand, is there no difference between wealthy and flaming?   Cassidy is really good here -- much more dynamic than he was on The O.C.

Nicole Bilderback (Wh-wh-wh-whitney from Bring It On) is . . . also present as a trophy wife. 

NBC: Friday Night Lights, Literally

I can't believe it's already upfronts week.  (Is that right?)  Here's a link to NBC's press release, announcing its fall schedule.  I didn't have that much invested in NBC this year, so I don't care that much, but it looks like all good news: Friday Night Lights is back (albeit in a crap timeslot), 30 Rock is back, plus a huge order for The Office.

P.S. Holy crap!  Josh Schwartz is one of the producers of Chuck, which sounds like Jake 3.0.  I think the WC is likely to pick up his other show, Gossip Girl, but this is the first I knew he had something for NBC, too. 

It's Time to Let Go

And now it's dead.  Maybe it was my general bad mood and compromised health, but last night's O.C. finale didn't move me as much as last week's ("The Night Moves") did.  No, I think that, even at full strength, I need a higher earned sentiment to contrivance ratio. 

Basically, the first 45 minutes were, although intermittently pretty funny, more water to tread.  The Ryan-Taylor split was never explained and ultimately led nowhere.  The Julie-Bullit-Frank story was slightly better because it led to a true pay-off.  The whole Berkeley house thing made me feel awful for that very understanding couple.  Does amniotic fluid stain?  "This is not the bathroom" was a nice line.  The Summer-Seth thing really seemed to come out of nowhere. 

I liked the very end, though.  I liked Ryan saying goodbye to Seth and to the house.  I liked the flashbacks.  I liked the flashforwards. 

Overall, though, maybe last week's episode was a better series finale? 

"This is Fox, not Fox Searchlight"

I probably should have tried to do a week-long send-off to The O.C., but I'm literally, physically ill with grief.  Anyway, Alan Sepinwall interviews Josh Schwartz here.   I'm not sure I buy network tinkering as the sole cause of the show's creative slump in the second and third seasons, but I'm sure it had an effect.  -- Peter

"I've been controlling animals since I was six."

Another week of Sweeps stunts:

24.  Wow.  James Cromwell is a bastard.  "Don't make me murder my grandson."  That's the most passive-aggressive threat ever.  Kind of a thrilling chase at the end, with Milo and DoomedSisterInLaw. 

Heroes.  Eh.  Felt like reading water until next week, when, according to the NBC promotions monkeys, "Someone's going to fly, someone's going to die."  I'm trying to think if we learned anything new or saw anything cool.  Oh, Sylar can now melt pots and pans.  That was cool.  Jessica as member of the Linderman equivalent of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad was kind of fun, although it got less fun when Parkman survived being thrown out a window. 

Gilmore Girls.  Chris and Lorelai . . . I wasn't really paying attention during their final break-up scene, because I was listing all the lost opportunities in my head: I think it was a serious mis-step to give Emily that speech about how Lorelai has to learn to compromise if she wanted to save her marriage and then never pay that off.  Rory and Logan . . . I was hoping they were going to play Rory's crush on the T.A. a little differently.  I'm still waiting for Logan to be revealed as the philanderer we all kind of know he is.  Maybe the Rosenthal regime likes Logan?  I still find him smarmy.

Veronica Mars. Well, hell.  A week in which Veronica doesn't do anything completely atrocious.  That alone was an improvement.  Plus, we had some serious progress in the Dean Begley, Jr. mystery.  Plus, an interesting A-plot, although I'm going to be sad next week when we learn that pretty, pretty Josh murdered his father.  Not enough Wallace, either: couldn't we have excised a few scenes of Logan getting life lessons from Little Girl God?

Lost.  Slept through, which is too bad, because it sounds like it was a good one?  Stuff happened?  Should I give it another chance?

Ugly Betty.  Another good episode: some funny stuff from Michael Urie, Mark Indelicato and Becki Newton, continuing excellent handling of the Alex/Alexis subplot, good mix of subplots overall.  I wonder if the network is giving the producers notes about how often Eric Mabius has to be shirtless.  Otherwise, I don't understand his story last night.  Oh, right -- stuntcasting!  Lucy Liu is still kind of lost on me.  On the other hand, Jerry O'Connell was pretty good as the homophobic jackass. 

The O.C.  I totally fell for every minute of that.  I mean, not so much Taylor being helpless and stupid, and not so much Kirsten and Sandy's sense of entitlement, but Julie and Kaitlin bonding in the midst of adversity?  Yes.  Ryan appearing to be about to bleed out for the entire freaking hour?  Oh God.  You know, it's the penultimate episode, so I really kind of half thought that they could kill Ryan off.  Really effective, and the meta-stuff was kind of fun, and the trip down memory lane.  Seth trading the Range Rover for the shopping cart was a nice touch and good foreshadowing of decimation of the Cohen mansion. 

The Office.  This was maybe the best episode of the year?  Jim as a vampire?  Steve Carell channeling Ricky Gervais as a motivational speaker?  Creed?  I think any episode that has Creed in it, at all, is automatically really funny.  -- Peter

I Can See the Montage . . .

Stereogum somehow found out what the final song on The O.C. will be.  I'm listening to it right now, getting choked up and embarrassed.  Seth!  Summer!  Ryan!  Peter Gallagher!  We'll never be together again. 

This Guy Likes Clown Porn

We're already a full week into Sweeps.  Consequently, we're getting "events" (disasters, gun fights, hostage situations, etc.) in lieu of episodes, for our dramatic television shows.  I'm just about caught up, and have some things to say.

Prison Break.  I picked the wrong week to skip, apparently.  Michael and Sara back together?  Sara beating up on Kellermann?  I would have liked to have seen both of those things. 

Heroes.  Dear Jeff Zucker, congratulations on your promotion.  Now, please fire the people who put together the promotional clips for this show, because they suck.  I hate that, week after week, we get the entire episode sketched out for us, during the first minute.  This week alone, those jackasses ruined two potentially suspenseful plot points: the confrontation between Sylar and Horn-Rimmed Glasses and the revelation of Claire's paternity.

24.  After a few boring weeks, I feel like we're back on track.  Yeah, the revelation of who's really behind Graem was heavily, heavily telegraphed, and I also don't really care about where that story's going.  On the other hand, McCarthy nabbing Morris is promising. 

Gilmore Girls.  A pretty dour episode, but not bad.  I actually mis-read the Emily ghoul/loving wife flip-flop they pulled and felt a little ripped off by it.  Kelly Bishop really rocked the whole episode, though.  Chris has completely devolved in -- what?  -- two episodes?  That reads as a little fast for my tastes, although I'm also completely ready for the Luke-Lorelai reconciliation, which says something : at the end of last season, I was ready to give up on Luke.  Meanwhile, when are we going to get the rug pulled out from under us with Logan?  I still don't trust him, but time is running out. 

Veronica Mars.  Two episodes in a row in which Veronica does something really, really bad: last week, it was blackmailing that judge, this week it was ordering Madison's car stolen.  I want Wallace to come back -- from wherever he is -- and kick her ass. 

Lost.  Less boring than I was expecting.  I liked the Juliet flashbacks.  Did anyone else notice that she was married to Edmund Burke?  First we had Locke, then Rousseau . . . How long until we meet Desmond's friend Frank Voltaire?

Ugly Betty.  Holy crap.  Best episode yet.  I can't believe how deftly they're handling the Alex/Alexis plot twist.  It's not just how cleverly and sensitively they're doing the gender reassignment subplot, it's how perfectly they're pacing the show right now.  It's rare to see a show where a fast pace and sensationalist storylines are balanced with character stuff, at all, let alone this well.  Michael Urie gets better and better, too. 

The O.C.  This is an example of bad pacing.  Just give us the damned earthquake already.  Oh, but the Kaitlin stuff was really good -- funny, not too tedious (unlike the Taylor-Ryan stuff), and well-acted.  -- Peter

Ballad of the Urban Cougar

Dear Jenny,

Last night's O.C. was the best in years.  I loved the whole thing.

Yeah, the Summer-in-therapy scene at the beginning was a little too gimicky.  Also, I think they botched the "2. Anger (again)" joke.  All they had to do was show the "2. Anger" card and we would have gotten it.  Using the "rage issues" line again is pandering and it's lazy and most importantly, it's self-congratulatory.  Otherwise, the scene was funny, because Rachel Bilson committed to it fully.  Also, as a plot device, it's not horrible.  I like that the writers are having it both ways: Summer's campus activism is smothered grief and it's legitimate.

Speaking of smothered, I enjoyed Sandy's courtship of Spitzy.  I'm optimistic that we're finally going to get a good storyline for Peter Gallagher.

It was a good week for Taylor.  I have no idea why she's living with Julie and Kaitlin (or, for that matter, why Neil let them keep the house), but I thought the breakfast interactions among the three of them were brilliant.  The Ryan subplot was funny and well-executed.  The torte scene was heartbreaking.  This is what we like about Autumn Reeser: yeah, she's funny, but she can also play Taylor's vulnerability.  There was a second where you saw how relieved Taylor was that Ryan wanted the torte that really got to me. 

Not a bad week for Julie and Kaitlin, either.  Like so many things, the urban cougar subplot only worked because of Melinda Clarke's commitment.  Without that, this would not have added up to much and actually would have been fairly depressing, in part because Taryn is such a depressing character.  Good non-verbal work from Willa Holland, too, particularly in the one Taylor-Kaitlin-Julie scene.  I don't understand how Holland can be so good?  No one seems to be talking about it, either: are we the only ones seeing this? 

What's going to happen to Kirsten?  I feel like she hasn't left the house since the first season. 

What did you think?  Did you even watch or were you distracted by the "super-size" episode of The Office?  ("Take a picture, it'll last longer.")

Love,

-- Pete