TV Talk: The Emmy Awards

Last Sunday, it was a big night for a TV fan: the Emmy Awards!! And even if the Emmy nomination process and choices have been highly criticized over the years for not acknowledging the right and deserving shows, let's face it: the Emmys are still really important in the biz!

I, for once, was kind of okay with the winners this year (well, after last year's really odd winners, it's not like it could get any worse...). Of course, there are still plenty of injustices (well duh: it's the Emmys!) but I think the Academy sorta make this 59th Ceremony better that we could have thought it'd be - by picking the right winners out of their really-flawed nomination list. Let's do a quick list of the major winners I'm happy about, or at least not outraged and insanely mad about lol (in order to focus on the positive!! ;-)

Best Drama: The Sopranos. I don't like the show, but it just went off the air after being such a pop culture phenomenon and a critic's darling, so I'm in peace with this and think it was justified for the show's last year to leave with a bang. But I'm also glad the Academy didn't give all the big awards to the show either as a tribute, but that it "spread the wealth"! ;-)

Best Comedy: 30 Rock. Nice and fresh, really didn't except the show to win! It proved that the Academy could surprise us!

Best Actress in a Drama: Sally Field for Brothers & Sisters. I'm really happy about that, I love the show and Sally deserved to win!

Best Actress in a Comedy: America Ferrera for Ugly Betty. America's terrific actress and really deserved this one! And, as the show didn't win Best Comedy, I'm glad she got this one!

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama: Katherine Heigl for Grey's Anatomy. Everybody knows how I must feel about this, so.. Hurray!!! :D And glad that the show at least got one win in the major categories!

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama: Terry O'Quinn for Lost. Same as above. Glad Lost, which wasn't even nominated for Best Drama this year (a total shame given last season's quality!!), got its share!

So, on the whole: a nice "crop" of winners his year!

Music Review: Colbie Caillat - Coco

Colbie Caillat, my new music crush. Discovered completely by chance last week on iTunes, I previewed some of the songs from her debut album, simply called "Coco", and was completely blown away.

The simplicity and the sweatness of the tune and her really nice vocals make the album simply amazing. It's light and comforting with a familiar blend of pop and jazz. It's like a lighter and brighter Nora Jones that could be listened during a breezy afternoon and that sounds like a ideal soundtrack to a few hours in a cozy coffeehouse or a montage on Grey's Anatomy (and I'm sure Colbie will be heard on several shows this coming season because it's so what this type of programs usually feature). It flows easily and sweatly, filled with gently melodies that prove to be quite endearing. Coblie sings about simple, everyday things - love and life - but something about it is different in a way that makes it quite appealing.

I'm sure we will hear a lot more of her really soon. Check her album, you won't be disappointed! A

Here's a little preview so you can have an idea, it's one of the the title songs of her album and the song's called Bubbly:

TV Review: Rescue Me - Season 4

Major deception.

These are the words that I think fit the best what I thought of the fourth season of the once-edgy dramedy Rescue Me. I had discovered this show last summer while I was in the US and thought it was really amazing! It was smart, well written and well acted. I was so into it that I had watched the first three seasons in the course of the summer and couldn't wait to see more at the end. Well, I saw, and it was bad. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, I liked about Rescue Me this season. I thought it had completely lost itself and maybe wanted to take itself too seriously or I don't know... Maybe I was expecting (too?) much based on the high quality the show once had and that I was let down.

I thought everything that happened this season didn't make any sense. A lot of the stories were far-fetched and unrealistic, and worse: boring. I didn't think it was fun to watch anymore, which upset me because I really used to dig this show!

I think they went a little to far wanting to make something different but it just didn't work. and reading blogs and comments over the web, I was glad to see that it was a general feeling this season. So many things made the characters unlikable and boring. Hatable at times even. And it felt forced and inappropriate. And it seems that people are dying only for the sake of dying in this show, their passing serving no purpose. I was hoping it'd get better as the season progressed but it was not really the case. Okay, maybe the last couple of episodes were a little over the season's average, but not by a large margin.

Only bright side: this season had its funny scenes, let's acknowledge that! ;-) And come on, it's Rescue Me, so even as bad as it can ever be, it's always better than a large majority of shows out there (even if this review makes it feel like I've come to hate the show so much, it's not true, it's just that I'm listing only the things I've hated this season lol!)

But still, I really was disappointed with this season and hope that next season will be in the continuity of the third season, not the fourth. C

Movie Review: Hairspray (1988)

So: as I said the other day, I watched the original Hairspray movie, directed by John Waters in 1987 to compare it with the 2007 version. Verdict: mixed feelings. The movie itself was okay, but, personally, I much preferred the new version. There are two main reasons for that:

1) What I loved about the new version was that it was also based on the Broadway stage musical and that the movie itself was a series of musical numbers (featuring all the songs of the Broadway show). I love this genre in films, so I was happy with the "New Millennium" Hairspray. But in the original movie, they don't sing, this is "just" about a dance contest, nothing more. So for me, it lost part of the charm I found in the new movie. I think it was a lot more fun and "magical" with the songs and everything. So that was my first disappointment.

2) Second, I thought that the movie lacked of character development and of their personnal backgrounds, especially at the beginning of the film where we are not given much information about who these characters are, where they come from, what they do, etc. It seems to go a little too fast to the point.

On the bright side, I liked the character of the Mom (hilarious!) - who was already played by a man in the original film - and still thought the whole movie was pretty entertaining. So, to sum up, not a bad movie but, for me, it lacked this "special something" that I thought made the new version really fun to watch. B-

Event: Welcome Charlie!

Our house just welcomed a new permanent resident: a cute little dog named Charlie!! I have to say, I was rather reluctant to have a dog mainly because of the two cats already walking around the house... But the dog that we found at the SPA (SPCA) on Saturday is like the cutest and nicest dog in the world! He's always following us around and wants to be around us constantly ;-) So the cats will just have to deal with it and that is all!! lol :-) Just kidding... But seriously, I think they will (kind of) accept him with time, at least as far as cats and dogs can live peacefully with each other...

Movie Review: Garden State

I've just finished watching a movie I'd been wanting to see for a while: Garden State, written and directed by Scrubs man Zach Braff, who also shares the leading role with Nathalie Portman. If you are familiar with Zach Braff and his work, you'll definitely recognize his "touch" in Garden State.

This (too?) sophisticated romantic comedy is about.... Well I don't really know what this is about. The movie doesn't really have a consistent and major guideline throughout, and I found the whole thing rather confusing and sometimes boring. It's about a romance that eventually becomes a love story between two completely different individuals. Well, at least that's the theme for the second part of the movie... It's long before everything comes together to form some kind of plot. There's also a large portion when the three heroes are on a quest to find a mysterious gift for Braff's character. I thought it this was offered too much screen time and didn't really make the plot progress (but again: what plot, really?). The rest is about death (loosing a parent), old friends, drugs, lavishness, hometown... In short, it's about life. So maybe I shouldn't read too much into it and absolutely want to find the movie a theme, and just take it as it is: a portrayal of a human life, with all its inconsistency and flaws. And let's be honest: Braff's and Portman's performances are top-notch and the soundtrack is one of the best movie soundtrack I've ever heard (it doesn't really surprise me knowing Braff's taste and love for music, as seen on Scrubs).

But still, even if some parts were funny or emotional, some others bored me. And as the credits roll out, I was left with a strange and mixed taste in my mouth, not really knowing how I should feel about what I'd just seen. So, to sum up: Garden State is, for me, neither good nor bad but if the purpose of the movie was to move the audience, it didn't really get to me. C+

Movie Review: Hairspray (2007)

Okay, I usually do not go twice see the same movie in theaters but I have to say that, since I had the opportunity, I went to see the new version of Hairspray twice! :-) This new version is based on the 1988 movie by John Waters and also on the 2002 Broadway stage musical.

The first time around I'd already really enjoyed the movie, its "sparkleness", happiness, "kitschyness", lightness and Broadway-like directing and songs. It felt right, and fresh to me, a really great piece of entertainment and I had left the theater really happy, you know, like, you want to dance and sing like in the movie and you're sad about the fact that real life is not a musical and that you can't sing and dance on the streets! ;-) Bottom line is it was really refreshing and the first thing I did when I got home was to download the soundtrack! And when I went to see Hairspray a second time, I didn't know how I was going to "react" to seeing it a second time only a few days after my first viewing, because even though I had liked it, maybe a second time would have transformed the whole thing for me, you know, like, it'd have been too much of it. Well not at all: the 2 hours went surprisingly fast (faster than the first time) and I enjoyed the movie even more!! I knew what was going to happen and what songs were going to be on, so I kind of anticipated such and such moment or song that I liked particularly and found myself lip-syncing to some of the songs! lol :-) I even would have got up my seat and dance, but I don't think that's a accepted behavior in a movie theater so I retained myself! ;-)

About the movie itself: it's a fresh piece of musical brought to the screen with great performances. I was happy to see John Travolta (wonderful in the role of a woman!!) and Michelle Pfieffer again since I hadn't seen these two in a movie for a while. Other actors were also amazing. I could write so much more about Hairspray but I'm going to cut to the chase: GREAT movie, I LOVED it! :-) I'll definitely buy the DVD when it comes out and in the meantime, I've got the original 1988 John Waters Hairspray on DVD that someone lend me, so I can compare the two. I should watch it in a few days, so stay tuned for my comments! A+

TV Review: Pushing Daisies - Pilot

With all the preair critical praise I had heard about this new fall show - it’s like the biggest and most anticipated series of the new season - my standards and expectations for the pilot episode were very high. And well, truth be told, I was absolutely not let down since the pilot was freakin’ fantastic! The show is narrated by the use of a voiceover (nothing original about that I concede) but not your typical Meredith-like voiceover, but more like a voice reminding a fairy tale. And that’s exactly what the show itself is: a complete fairytale, from top to bottom. From the so-unusual-in-television setting, places and design to the magical gift given to the main character at his birth (he can bring people back from the dead by touching them). And all in all, the entire show looks like the latest Tim Burton movie, with this special touch so reminiscent of the famous director. Actually, Pushing Daisies doesn’t even look like it’s television, it really does look like a fantasticquese movie, and a really good one at that!

Anyway, the story unfolded rather nicely in the pilot episode with this nice impossible romance and love story between Ned and Charlotte. Can two people really love each other and establish a relationship without ever touching one another? I guess that’s the main theme of the show and the question that will eventually be answered (or not) with, as a background, all the crime resolving cases. Can’t wait to see more, I’m already hooked! A+