Why am I going to rant about this terrible, terrible show? Because it’s been eating time out of my life. Luckily, I’ve been able to soften the blows by doing crosswords or Sudoku or doing stuff on my computer while the Doc has it running on the DVR. Why is the Doc watching it? Because she’s a follower of almost everything Kate Gosselin. I’m not a fan, but that’s not what the rant is about. It’s about the system DWTS uses. That’s right! The system!
This show is an abomination because it has the visage of a competition, but in reality, it’s just a popularity contest. They have judges that hand give out “best out of ten” scores which are worth about as much as the points that Clive Anderson and Drew Carey used to dish out on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (very funny show, by the way). That’s right, the scores mean nothing! What does it matter if the worst scoring people will always return when there’s always a possibility that even the best scoring duo can still get eliminated due a celebrity’s larger initial fan base?
I’m not dropping on American Idol, which is also a popularity contest, but they at least don’t do things to mask that fact. The judges don’t hand out scores, only critiques. The judges on American Idol also have one “save” on the show where they can nullify the elimination if they believe the best person what voted off due to a dip in votes from the audience, like they did a week ago. Plus, one of biggest gripes, is that the more popular celebrities are already coming in with voters just because they are more famous than some of the other contestants. The American Idol contestants are all coming in on even, unknown status and are, hopefully, gaining votes because of their talent and merit with the occasional “vote for the worst just so they suck again next week” votes.
But back to DWTS. The show, itself, is fine. Celebrities dance with professional dancers. Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke do a mediocre, yet serviceable job of hosting the show. The judges are characters in themselves with the supportive Paula Abdul-type, the scowling Simon Cowell-type, and a clown who knows his stuff. Like all reality shows, there’s those melodramas they play out before each dance is performed. Kate Gosselin is bitching. Pamela Anderson is being slutty. Chad Johnson (I refuse to call him Ochocinco) is trying to woo his dance partner. Blah, blah, blah. The dancing has highs and lows, like any other competition of these types. Kate and Buzz Aldrin were painful to watch. The singer from Pussycat Dolls and the ice skater are, not surprisingly, good. One thing I learned from this show was that Erin Andrews has some wicked long legs. Seriously, I can probably walk underneath them without having to crouch.
And now back to my pain point—the system. They are completely missing the marks here when it comes to the whole elimination portion of the show. Every week’s completion should be scored and I say that the highest scoring celebrity win’s immunity from elimination. That would at least make the scoring portion of the show feel less like a waste of time. Why give out points if they aren’t going to be used for anything? I can see the reason they don’t give out immunities is so that more people will feel inclined to text or call in their votes and thus give them more revenue, but if the number one goal is to milk the text/call money, then why not give yourself more advertising time as well, by saving 10-15 minutes for more advertising space by removing those useless “let’s see your scores” moments. Maybe they can do a reversal on the scoring I mentioned and do something like, the bottom three in scores are the only ones at risk of being eliminated? That would make the results show a lot shorter and maybe fill in a 30 minute episode. That’ll give ABC another 30 minute time slot on Tuesday that they can use to put on another sitcom or a smaller budget game show. I watched one of the results shows and was bored to tears for the entire hour. They have all of the dancers standing in front of the camera and slowly shave away the safe dancers until the last two worst vote getters are left standing. They were able to fluff this into an entire hour by throwing filler like musical guest singers, like Reba McIntyre, or have a guest dance troupe or even make a celebrity do the exact same dance they did the night before because it was “just that good”. Fluff, fluff, dumb fluff.
The Doc would probably like me to end with a complaint about the incredibly revealing outfits some of the female dancers are wearing during their routines. That’s right. Pamela Anderson is not the only one out there that seems like they had a couple turns on the stripper pole. One behind the scenes practice they showed had one of the professional dancers wearing elastic short-shorts and had a battery for her microphone clipped to the back. That battery looked like it was a gram away from being heavy enough to show us her trunk, if you know what I mean. During the performances, the outfits have more cloth, but only the sense that the difference is like between a bikini model and a bikini model wearing a cape. In the end, when they start moving around, it doesn’t make much difference. Sometimes, the only thing that seems to be keeping those dresses on their bodies is modesty or threats from TV censors since I’m pretty sure that anyone willing to be on that show lacks some degree of modesty.
Oh yeah, and one last thing, to whomever is sending those death threats to Erin Andrews, “Really?”
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
GO BULLS!!!!
Congrats to the Chicago Bulls for making the 2010 playoffs (8th Seed) after beating the Charlotte Bobcats and ending the season with a 41-41 record (same as last year).
Here's to hoping the series against the Cleveland Cavaliers is just as memorable as last years series against the Boston Celtics!
http://www.bulls.com/
http://www.blogabull.com/
Here's to hoping the series against the Cleveland Cavaliers is just as memorable as last years series against the Boston Celtics!
http://www.bulls.com/
http://www.blogabull.com/
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sci-Fi Hottie Spotlight: Lexa Doig
What’s this you say? This is where I shine a well-deserved light on some sci-fi hotties that seem to struggle to get into that superstar status that other actresses or characters seem to be given.
As my first SFHS honoree, Lexa Doig’s career has always seemed stunted to me. How can a major hottie like her not be as famous as the likes of Catherine Zeta Jones or Mila Kunis?
What’s her sci-fi track record?
She is a sci-fi hottie veteran! Lexa Doig actually played the Cowgirl (yes, that’s what her character was called) in the William Shatner 1980’s sci-fi made-for-television movies TekWar, which had a sequel and a short-lived television series where Lexa reprised her role as the Cowgirl. Her next noteworthy role was as Rowan, the main character that had to go against an upgraded Jason Voorhees in Jason X. I’m not proud to say it, but I saw that movie by choice. But the main role that initially made me stand up and pay attention to her was as the Andromeda Ascendant in Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, which also starred Kevin Sorbo. The cool part about her role on the show was that she basically had to portray 3 different types of Andromeda (the main computer, the holographic assistant, and the android made to look like Andromeda for off-ship missions). At first the all seemed pretty much the same, but later on, they began to look different from one another as well as act a little differently while maintaining the same hotness. The sad part about this was that Andromeda never reached the mega-fame of die-hard fandom like Gene Roddenberry’s other creation, Star Trek, and the show only lasted 6 years. You know it’s a bad sign when the only time to catch new episodes of the show was on WGN in the afternoon, but I loved the show and recommend it to anyone that wants a good sci-fi series. After Andromeda, Lexa Doig has had recurring characters on other sci-fi shows like Stargate SG-1, the 4400, and Eureka. She can currently be seen on the struggling ABC network remake of V, which I don’t see a bright future for it.
"I'm a really big geek. I do dorky things, I snort when I laugh, I'm clumsy, I'm a sucker for RPG games on my computer, I watch cartoons ("Pinky and the Brain" (1995) and "South Park" (1997) are my faves . . . and I have a really bad potty mouth."
What’s her sci-fi track record?
She is a sci-fi hottie veteran! Lexa Doig actually played the Cowgirl (yes, that’s what her character was called) in the William Shatner 1980’s sci-fi made-for-television movies TekWar, which had a sequel and a short-lived television series where Lexa reprised her role as the Cowgirl. Her next noteworthy role was as Rowan, the main character that had to go against an upgraded Jason Voorhees in Jason X. I’m not proud to say it, but I saw that movie by choice. But the main role that initially made me stand up and pay attention to her was as the Andromeda Ascendant in Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, which also starred Kevin Sorbo. The cool part about her role on the show was that she basically had to portray 3 different types of Andromeda (the main computer, the holographic assistant, and the android made to look like Andromeda for off-ship missions). At first the all seemed pretty much the same, but later on, they began to look different from one another as well as act a little differently while maintaining the same hotness. The sad part about this was that Andromeda never reached the mega-fame of die-hard fandom like Gene Roddenberry’s other creation, Star Trek, and the show only lasted 6 years. You know it’s a bad sign when the only time to catch new episodes of the show was on WGN in the afternoon, but I loved the show and recommend it to anyone that wants a good sci-fi series. After Andromeda, Lexa Doig has had recurring characters on other sci-fi shows like Stargate SG-1, the 4400, and Eureka. She can currently be seen on the struggling ABC network remake of V, which I don’t see a bright future for it.
If you don’t see why I’m giving her the hottie spotlight or you think she’s just a great looking babe that just happens to be in a lot of sci-fi movies like how some other hotties are in a whole lot of horror movies just to kick start there careers, here’s a quote from her I was able to snag from IMDB.
"I'm a really big geek. I do dorky things, I snort when I laugh, I'm clumsy, I'm a sucker for RPG games on my computer, I watch cartoons ("Pinky and the Brain" (1995) and "South Park" (1997) are my faves . . . and I have a really bad potty mouth." HOTTIE! What guy wouldn’t love to have a self-proclaimed geek that loves to play RPG games on the computer and watch cartoons that looks like her?
Lexa Doig, we salute you!
If I Did Dat… X-Men: The First Class Casting
Ok, I’ve just been around the blogosphere and heard the news that Bryan Singer may not be available to direct the X-Men: The First Class movie because of his obligations in directing a movie called Jack The Giant Killer. Either Jack is going to win him an Oscar or the X-Men movie is not worth it to Mr. Singer. I’m assuming the First Class movie is going to be like the Ultimate series for Marvel (a re-telling of origin stories if they took place today and not in the 1950s or 1970s). This means that the X-Men were only 5 deep in team members and not a cast of hundreds in an entire academy. That could open up the movie to a strong ensemble treatment instead of them focusing their attention on Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and casting everyone else as a supporting role. Wolverine wasn’t in the First Class, so unless they want to piss up geekdom by destroying canon, they’ll keep him out of it. If anything, this movie would either focus on the five young mutants being trained by Professor X or on the frenemy relationship between Professor X and Magneto.
So that leaves the original five of Cylcops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel with Professor X. I, for one, believe that limiting the number of heroes can greatly help in these ensemble things. Look at the recent Star Trek movie. They were able to successfully take care of a sizeable cast while giving the right focus to the right characters at the right time. It should be possible with the First Class. Sure, Star Trek focused a lot on Kirk, but all of the others got to have their moments in the spotlight. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is going to be with the cast of villains since they are just as numerous in size but don’t get as much face-time, and shouldn’t since the move is called X-Men: First Class and not The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: First Class… man, that’s a horrible name for a group.
All of this has made me think who would I cast for this upcoming X-Men movie? They’d all have to be younger (or be able to portray younger) people than in the original movies.
Scott Summers/Cylcops: Matthew Bomer
I’ve only seen one episode of White Collar, but that was more than enough to convince me that Bomer has the chops to play the solemn field leader of this band of mutants. In the early days, Cyclops was the model student who was almost militaristic in the way he handled himself. In other words, he was boring. Sometimes, the only things that could make you feel for the guy was his crush on Jean Grey and the fact that he can’t control his wicked awesome powers of being able to shoot lasers from his eyes (I know they aren’t technically lasers, but saying Optic Blasts didn’t feel right in that sentence). I believe Matthew Bomer can seduce the audience with Cyclops even though the character a virtually dry, no-nonsense type of guy.
Jean Grey: Rachel Nichols
Yeah, I have a thing for Rachel Nichols, which makes sense for me to cast her as Jean Grey, since she’ll also have to convince audiences into why she’s the target of both Cyclops and Wolverine’s affections for so many years. I know she’s not a natural redhead, but she was able to Scarlett in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and she was redheaded, green skinned alien in the Star Trek movie and I didn’t mind one bit that she wasn’t a natural. Of course, it helped that she was in her skivvies for portions of each movie.
Hank McCoy/Beast: Karl Urban
Yeah, thanks to Star Trek, I now have a thing for Karl Urban. I loved his Bones in Star Trek, which convinced me that he would be the perfect man to play the intellectual Beast. Kelsey Grammar was my first choice to play Beast when the original movies came out, but it was a shame that he was only brought in for that god-awful Last Stand movie. Karl Urban is young enough to be in this group of young mutants and whether they decide to go with is pre-blue fur phase or his current half-man/half-animal look won’t matter because he can do it.
Bobby Drake/Iceman: Chris Pine
That’s right. I just hit a Star Trek tri-fecta. Chris Pine was Captain Kirk in the Star Trek movie and even though this would be a step down for him since it’s not the leading role, he can’t deny that he would be perfect for the role of the quick-witted, short-tempered, bad boy of the group. You guessed it. He was Wolverine before Wolverine was Wolverine. Maybe if we sold it to him like that, he’d jump at the chance to play the role.
Warren Worthington III/Angel: Justin Hartley
Some of you may not recognize this actor, but he plays Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on the Smallville television show. So he’s pretty much shown me that he can play the rich kid, which Angel was. Come on, even his name sounds loaded: Warren Worthington III.
Professor Charles Xavier: Patrick Stewart
I’ll admit it. This is a total cop out. I scoured the web and couldn’t find anyone better. Yeah, he’s old and *SPOILER ALERT* when they young-ified him for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he looked creepy. But you can’t find anyone else to play Professor X. Even when I was watching the Star Trek: TNG episodes as they were coming out, I knew he’d be perfect for Prof X. I tried though. I really tried. I almost went with Timothy Olyphant because he was my Lex Luthor choice, but he was too young. I looked around at all of the British actors I could think of, but a lot of them were too dour or frumpy or were a former Doctor Who (and I’ve dipped my pen into that bucket enough, Peter Davison would be a good alternative). Nope, has to be Patrick Stewart. I worry about the age/make-up thing later.
Magneto: Liam Neeson
This was a little easier. Mainly because, even though I liked Ian McKlellen, I thought he looked too old and fragile. He’s more mastermind than evil villain to me. Nope, for this one I wanted either Liam Neeson or Chrisopher Lee. I’m diving into the Jedi\Sith pool for this one. Even though Christopher Lee did a fine job as Count Duku in Attack of the Clones, I can see Liam Neeson be more of the evil villain that can single-handedly take the X-men to their limits. Yes, he’s a little younger than Patrick Stewart, but I couldn’t pass on the idea of the man from Schindler’s List portray an evil mutant born out of the Holocaust.
Toad: Jason Flemyng
Who’s Jason Flemyng? I remember this guy from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
with Sean Connery. He played Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Of course, I’m choosing him because of his portrayal of Dr. Jekyll, in case any of you were wondering.
Blob: Dan Castenella
Ok, this one is kind of a joke entry, but it makes you pause. Blob, in my mind, is going to be almost completely CG. So all I really need is a voice and who better than the voice of Homer Simpson? No knock to Kevin Durand, who played Blob in the Wolverine movie, but my image of Blob is someone that could tower over the X-men, both vertically and horizontally.
Scarlet Witch: Emmanuelle Vaugier
I’m going virtual unknown here and with this choice, I’m surprised at how a hottie like her is still unknown. She played Detective Angell on CSI: NY for a year and she was in Two and a Half Men, Smallville, and Human Target for a while as well. Look her up on IMDB. Hottie. Now imagine her in skin-tight red leather. HOTTIE! She may be unknown, but this role will make her a star. Scarlet Witch is Magneto’s daughter. Before she became a hero on the Avengers, she was a card carrying member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (really dumb name). As the token female on the baddie group, she could hold her own with her hexes.
Quicksilver: Eric Johnson
Fatigue has set in and I’ve phoned this one in. I decided on Eric Johnson to play the white-haired speedster because I liked him as Whitney Ford in the first season of Smallville and I think his Flash Gordon television show was a good idea, just poorly executed and sorely missing the soundtrack by Queen. Man, I’ve got to start doing smaller casts.
So that leaves the original five of Cylcops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel with Professor X. I, for one, believe that limiting the number of heroes can greatly help in these ensemble things. Look at the recent Star Trek movie. They were able to successfully take care of a sizeable cast while giving the right focus to the right characters at the right time. It should be possible with the First Class. Sure, Star Trek focused a lot on Kirk, but all of the others got to have their moments in the spotlight. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is going to be with the cast of villains since they are just as numerous in size but don’t get as much face-time, and shouldn’t since the move is called X-Men: First Class and not The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: First Class… man, that’s a horrible name for a group.
All of this has made me think who would I cast for this upcoming X-Men movie? They’d all have to be younger (or be able to portray younger) people than in the original movies.
Scott Summers/Cylcops: Matthew Bomer
I’ve only seen one episode of White Collar, but that was more than enough to convince me that Bomer has the chops to play the solemn field leader of this band of mutants. In the early days, Cyclops was the model student who was almost militaristic in the way he handled himself. In other words, he was boring. Sometimes, the only things that could make you feel for the guy was his crush on Jean Grey and the fact that he can’t control his wicked awesome powers of being able to shoot lasers from his eyes (I know they aren’t technically lasers, but saying Optic Blasts didn’t feel right in that sentence). I believe Matthew Bomer can seduce the audience with Cyclops even though the character a virtually dry, no-nonsense type of guy.
Jean Grey: Rachel Nichols
Yeah, I have a thing for Rachel Nichols, which makes sense for me to cast her as Jean Grey, since she’ll also have to convince audiences into why she’s the target of both Cyclops and Wolverine’s affections for so many years. I know she’s not a natural redhead, but she was able to Scarlett in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and she was redheaded, green skinned alien in the Star Trek movie and I didn’t mind one bit that she wasn’t a natural. Of course, it helped that she was in her skivvies for portions of each movie.
Hank McCoy/Beast: Karl Urban
Yeah, thanks to Star Trek, I now have a thing for Karl Urban. I loved his Bones in Star Trek, which convinced me that he would be the perfect man to play the intellectual Beast. Kelsey Grammar was my first choice to play Beast when the original movies came out, but it was a shame that he was only brought in for that god-awful Last Stand movie. Karl Urban is young enough to be in this group of young mutants and whether they decide to go with is pre-blue fur phase or his current half-man/half-animal look won’t matter because he can do it.
Bobby Drake/Iceman: Chris Pine
That’s right. I just hit a Star Trek tri-fecta. Chris Pine was Captain Kirk in the Star Trek movie and even though this would be a step down for him since it’s not the leading role, he can’t deny that he would be perfect for the role of the quick-witted, short-tempered, bad boy of the group. You guessed it. He was Wolverine before Wolverine was Wolverine. Maybe if we sold it to him like that, he’d jump at the chance to play the role.
Warren Worthington III/Angel: Justin Hartley
Some of you may not recognize this actor, but he plays Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on the Smallville television show. So he’s pretty much shown me that he can play the rich kid, which Angel was. Come on, even his name sounds loaded: Warren Worthington III.
Professor Charles Xavier: Patrick Stewart
I’ll admit it. This is a total cop out. I scoured the web and couldn’t find anyone better. Yeah, he’s old and *SPOILER ALERT* when they young-ified him for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he looked creepy. But you can’t find anyone else to play Professor X. Even when I was watching the Star Trek: TNG episodes as they were coming out, I knew he’d be perfect for Prof X. I tried though. I really tried. I almost went with Timothy Olyphant because he was my Lex Luthor choice, but he was too young. I looked around at all of the British actors I could think of, but a lot of them were too dour or frumpy or were a former Doctor Who (and I’ve dipped my pen into that bucket enough, Peter Davison would be a good alternative). Nope, has to be Patrick Stewart. I worry about the age/make-up thing later.
Magneto: Liam Neeson
This was a little easier. Mainly because, even though I liked Ian McKlellen, I thought he looked too old and fragile. He’s more mastermind than evil villain to me. Nope, for this one I wanted either Liam Neeson or Chrisopher Lee. I’m diving into the Jedi\Sith pool for this one. Even though Christopher Lee did a fine job as Count Duku in Attack of the Clones, I can see Liam Neeson be more of the evil villain that can single-handedly take the X-men to their limits. Yes, he’s a little younger than Patrick Stewart, but I couldn’t pass on the idea of the man from Schindler’s List portray an evil mutant born out of the Holocaust.
Toad: Jason Flemyng
Who’s Jason Flemyng? I remember this guy from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
with Sean Connery. He played Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Of course, I’m choosing him because of his portrayal of Dr. Jekyll, in case any of you were wondering.Blob: Dan Castenella
Ok, this one is kind of a joke entry, but it makes you pause. Blob, in my mind, is going to be almost completely CG. So all I really need is a voice and who better than the voice of Homer Simpson? No knock to Kevin Durand, who played Blob in the Wolverine movie, but my image of Blob is someone that could tower over the X-men, both vertically and horizontally.
Scarlet Witch: Emmanuelle Vaugier
I’m going virtual unknown here and with this choice, I’m surprised at how a hottie like her is still unknown. She played Detective Angell on CSI: NY for a year and she was in Two and a Half Men, Smallville, and Human Target for a while as well. Look her up on IMDB. Hottie. Now imagine her in skin-tight red leather. HOTTIE! She may be unknown, but this role will make her a star. Scarlet Witch is Magneto’s daughter. Before she became a hero on the Avengers, she was a card carrying member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (really dumb name). As the token female on the baddie group, she could hold her own with her hexes.
Quicksilver: Eric Johnson
Fatigue has set in and I’ve phoned this one in. I decided on Eric Johnson to play the white-haired speedster because I liked him as Whitney Ford in the first season of Smallville and I think his Flash Gordon television show was a good idea, just poorly executed and sorely missing the soundtrack by Queen. Man, I’ve got to start doing smaller casts.
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