As previously stated...

After watching an exciting (and odd) season finale of the Guild (spoiler alert: Codex wins!!! woohoo!!!) I found out some sad news. As I have previously stated: I really don't love FOX, and today I found another reason to harbor that dislike. I was reading an article about the midseason line-up and in addition to the depressing cancellation of Dollhouse (but at least they are smart to finish it off...they'd have chaos on their hands if they didn't) and the benching of J.J. Abrams's Fringe (so the two shows they decided to make the new 50 minute shows get axed? how fair is that?! And when will FOX learn not to do sci-fi anymore...it just doesn't work for them like it used to) I learned that due to the filming schedule for Glee it will be taking a 4 month hiatus. It will air it's winter finale December 9 and not return till April 13. When it does return it will be on Tuesday nights rather than Wednesdays. (Learning this really made it make a lot more sense that Joss was directing an episode in March...I was scratching my head about that one.) I don't understand FOX. I loved it in the '90s, but now I believe it to be rather frustrating! At least I'll have Chuck to get me through the times of being Glee-less. (Ahh, NBC, thank you for your wonderful shows!) So, that's my little bit of info. Sad, true, frustrating, and exciting all rolled into one nice, neat, little article!

~Manda

Happy Thanksgiving: TV style!

So, after (and before) the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pie, we need to remember why we really have this holiday: to remember to be grateful for what we've got! This (thank goodness) means we can show our gratitude for television too! So I decided I'd put together a little thanksgiving list of the top ten things I'm grateful for that couldn't be possible without the great invention of Philo T. Farnsworth's (now granted, all of mine are probably going to be from my lifetime, and probably from the last ten-ish years of it...I haven't been alive all that long...I need to learn!!!)

10. Heroes - I was keeping up at the beginning of the season, but then I got really busy with school and other stuff. Now granted, it has gone a little down hill, but my obsessions with loving comics, Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, the really cool characters with really cool powers, among other things keep me watching!

9. J.J. Abrams - even tho I haven't been keeping up on Lost, this man is incredible. His stories are so intense, and his characters so complex. He tends to snowball out of control a lot, but that's fun too! And in addition to his TV-ness, he did a wicked awesome job on Star Trek (wow, that was an AWESOME movie!!!)

I didn't have room for everyone, so I just put these two cuz I found pic with both of them

8. Great actors that make great TV - I didn't really know where to put this, but it is a necessity. Although actors aren't my favorite part of TV, they do make it awfully enjoyable! So I'm grateful for Eliza Dushku, Hugh Laurie, Tahmoh Penikett, Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Kristen Bell, David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Zachary Levi, Adam Brody, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, as well as others mentioned in this post (and I could seriously go on and on...there are some awesome actors!!!)

7. sidereel.com - I actually think this could have a number one spot being that it is the way I watch most of my TV, but it just seems wrong for it to be ahead of all my shows and my favorite TV geniuses!!! But I am very grateful for the wonderful invention of sidereel!

6. House - I became a fan of this great show over the summer and if I'm not watching Glee or the Office (or Battlestar Galactica) I am so watching House! It has managed to stay pretty awesome even tho House has kicked the vicodin habit. Love that show!

5. The Office - I still say that season 2 is my favorite, but there is something about this show that calls me back week after week. I kind of have a feeling this something's name sounds like Kohn Jrasinski or Him Jalpert, but I'm not sure (hahaha, I'm a dork, yes!). Regardless of the reason, I have had many a laugh (and surprisingly a cry) over this show! It is a great show!

4. Battlestar Galactica - this was going to be number six (it just seemed so fitting...hahaha) but I couldn't have it be after the Office and House. I started watching it this semester and have on more than one occasion found myself watching it instead of doing something I actually should be doing (don't tell my mom...hahahaha). It had to have a higher number this Thanksgiving!

3. Glee!!! This show has made this season of television so amazing! I love the music, the actors, the stories, and the fact that they are starting to show a little consistency in all those things. It also makes me not hate FOX quite so much! hahahaha

2. Josh Schwartz - He created the O.C., Gossip Girl and Chuck. I had never even considered watching the O.C. till I had already fallen in love with all things Chuck. I have since then actually seen just about every episode and have come to love his humor and wittiness, and I've now been able to see a lot of it in Chuck (in addition to the O.C./Chuck crossover actors -- I love it when that happens!!!)

1. Joss Whedon - Ok, I don't think this number one spot surprises anyone! He created the best shows and has helped with the whole turning television into an art form. I believe he is on the frontier of the television world with this Dr. Horrible business. He's my hero and I hope to meet him someday. (And this number one spot includes him and all the great things he has created...especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer!!)

Ok, in addition to this little list I want to share two of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes I've seen on television (and actually remember).

Pangs: BtVS season 4. I don't think I could ever forget how many funny moments are in this episode, but one sticks out in my mind always: Spike tied to a chair getting hit over and over by arrows that are flying through Giles's house. Also the touching-ness of the help Angel feels he needs to give and how he tries to hide his presence from Buffy. Awww...so sweet (and the follow-up episode in Angel where she goes to LA, he becomes human, realizes it's a bad idea, and erases the day from everyone's memory but his is very awww-worthy too).

The Homecoming: the O.C. season 1. Now granted, I don't know this as well as Buffy (and that's kind of a "thank goodness" sort of thing) but I've been thinking about the beginning of this episode a lot this Thanksgiving. The nearly incoherent ramblings of the darling Seth Cohen make the show, and they make this episode as well. In the beginning of this episode he begs his mother to not cook the dinner at all and she wants so badly to make the holiday unforgettable for Ryan. He also works on dating Anna and Summer at the same time (which in so many ways make season one so incredibly enjoyable). Oh, Seth Cohen on Thanksgiving, great times!!!

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Lets be grateful for all we get to have, and in addition to all those great blessings, let us not forget to be grateful for our television!!!

~Manda

Awesome Firefly/Serenity pic

Ok, so my friend, Shuey, helped me get this pic off of IMDb because I just LOVE it! I decided that if I love it I need to share it!

YAY!!! It's official!!!

Chuck's season 3 promo poster for Comic-Con

So I just saw a commercial that made my day! So, since I hadn't seen anything posted on the NBC website I just considered all I had heard to be rumors, but after seeing a commercial I now KNOW: Chuck is returning in January!!!!

Oh gosh! I'm so excited! I LOVE this show (and when I said it was second to BtVS, it's a lot of times tied and sometimes just flat out first!)

What I watch...when I'm not at school, work, asleep, singing, doing homework, hanging out, going to church...

So, I have been so busy with school and work and friends that I haven't been able to take time to watch TV. I mean, I haven't even watched Thursday's episode of The Office!!! (Ok, so it's 1:32 right now, and it takes about 20 minutes for an episode...oh goody, I've got plenty of time before I go to work!) This isn't exactly a bad thing tho. It's nearing the end of the semester and I have well over 20 pieces that I need to memorize...gah!!! Music can be hard! But I have seen a little of a few things.

The cast of Battlestar Galactica,

and considering the hair-dos and the fact that Saul Tigh has two eyes, probably not season 4, just a guess.

Starting in August I finally started watching Battlestar Galactica. I know, it's totally a me kind of show and I had never watched it. Well, right now I have about 10 episodes left in the whole series and it kills me to not have enough time to just finish them! I can sometimes finish a whole season in a day or two, and with BSG it's taken me months to watch only four seasons...but that's a healthier way to watch TV I guess...hahahaha But really, it's an amazing show! I honestly can't believe I hadn't seen any of it before now...too bad!

The cast of House

I've also caught up on House this week (I spent a day in bed due to crazy complications from a recent surgery and ran out of homework for a little bit). I love that show! I still need to see last season, which I have heard is amazing.

The cast of The Office

Yeah, that's about all I have. I believe my first post was probably my best...we'll try to fix that soon. Now I'm off to get quarters for laundry, start the packing that is needed for my Thanksgiving break that I'm spending up in Idaho, and then some of The Office and off to work (bleh, but it's ok, I work with frozen custard--yum--and the flavor of the day is Pumpkin Pie which is my all time favorite!!!) So, I might not be posting for a while, and just in case that is true, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!! (cuz I know SO many people who read this! hahahahaha)

~Manda

Last Night's Glee? Best episode yet!!!

Ok, I totally adore Glee! This season it has become my favorite show on the air (I'm hoping that changes come January for Chuck's sake). I'm not a fan because of the storyline or the acting, or the writing, or really anything but the music, and boy do I love the music.

Emma and Rachel in reaction to Schuester's performance (after it I was applauding all starry eyed right with them!)

Now when I say I am not a fan because of those things, it is not to say that I don't enjoy them, I do as a matter of fact. I love the characters, regardless of their inconsistency and lack of true development, I love the stories, no matter how incredibly cheesy they are. I freaking love the show and everything about it! But last night...oh, that love of Glee just grew! (Which is rather amazing because I just found out that Joss is directing an episode and it's his new fave show...so that grew my adoration, but this is even more!)

Schue and Suzy Pepper...am I the only one who was not expecting that flashback to have happened so recently?

So, why was this latest episode my favorite you ask? Well, I'll tell you (surprising, I know..since this whole blog makes a point of me being able to spout off my opinion). Glee has a tendency to be far fetched, overly musical-y, etc. etc., but last night's episode...yeah, it had all that: Suzy Pepper (cheesy name for CRAZY girl), the transitional musical number from stage to bedroom in front of an ultrasound performed by Finn...but in additions to all that Glee trademarked cheesiness it was an amazing episode. It was amazing because of how real it was...it WAS high school. As a singer it might be a little more like high school for me, because I've personally done the whole "sing your true feelings" thing trying to get someone to really understand what I'm unable to say, but it's also just normal high school, with the scary teen pregnancy that makes lives crumble apart, the good, good kids getting kicked out of the house and having nowhere to go, the incredibly understanding, chill mom (who just breaks down, but isn't afraid to love her kid), the creepy student-to-teacher crushes (that really freak people out), the fact that the kids want to help each other and build each other up in hard times (even though the adults believe them to be good for nothing), the threats from teacher's spouses to the creepy stalker students, guys trying to turn their dream guys gay when they get the chance to try, I could go on and on and on...it was high school. It was real, emotional, angst-y, hormonal, intense, funny, sad, scary, intimidating, humble, proud, brave, stupid high school. (And not just dramatic, angst-y and overly adult, i.e. not like high school, like Gossip Girl, Dawson's Creek, The OC, One Tree Hill, 90210, Melrose Place...I think you get my point.) And that's why I found it amazing! It was more realistic and heart wrenching than any episode so far. And, besides the awesome reality of it, Schuester's "Don't Stand so Close to Me"/"Young Girl" mash-up was hot, I also couldn't stop cracking up with the Ballad/duck joke (I think I found that far too hilarious!!!), and Schue's facial expression during "Endless Love" was FANTASTIC!!

Schuester and Rachel singing "Endless Love"...bahahaha...LOVED it!!!

Ok, I think I'll stop before I hyperventilate with excitement (and before I stop making any sense whatsoever), but this week's Glee was great and has renewed my faith in what this show can be.

Can't wait till next week!

~Manda

***Call yourself a "gleek" and don't yet have the music?!?! Hurry and buy it from iTunes (before all the "cool kids" start doing it!)***

Totally awesome stuff I'd check out if I were you

This is Joss Whedon's "letter" for the Terminator people...it is freaking hilarious!

And here is an interview about the legitimacy of it between him and EW.

Yeah, all the stuff I've found interesting is about Joss...I am a balanced person, really, I promise.

~Manda

The Guild

So today the second to last webisode of the season for my favorite web series, The Guild, aired. It's pretty exciting. I don't really have a lot to say about the show that inspired Dr. Horrible (not today anyway), so here's the awesome music video of "Do You Want to Date my Avatar". If you like anything about gamers or gaming and haven't seen this show you pretty much need to! Most of the episodes are on YouTube, they're also on the Guild's website and if they haven't aired there yet, they're on MSN video. K, that's all I have.

~Manda

Almost January, Almost Chuck...ahhh, the good ol' days!

Ahh, Mondays! This day last year was such a great day! Now granted it still is with Castle, House, Heroes, and the occasional guilty pleasure of Gossip Girl. But last year, there was a show that for me out shown them all: Chuck! The show about the geeky Nerd Herder from the Buy More who was a Stanford drop out (or more, he was kicked out) who ends up a spy with a supercomputer in his brain, a handler from the NSA who would protect him or just as easily blow his brains out, and a hot blonde agent/handler/pretend girlfriend from the CIA that he's harboring a killer crush on and receiving constant mixed signals from. This show (that is among my top five favorite TV shows, second only to BtVS) has unfortunately been on the brink of cancellation twice, first time the writers strike in late 2007 didn't help and the second time it was saved mostly by NBC figuring out that online viewers should help out the ratings. Now, due to the cancellation of Trauma, Chuck has a 19 episode order instead of a 13 episode order. This also means that it will more likely than not be starting in January!!! (Imagine that said in a super excited sing-song-y voice.) Yeah, I'm pretty much excited, not gonna lie. So, soon, my Monday nights will be back to normal...pretty freaking sweet!

promo pic of the "Awesome" cast of Chuck

A little intro, a little Glee, a little Dollhouse, and a whole lot of Joss

Dollhouse stars, Tahmoh Penikett (left) and Eliza Dushku (right) with Joss Whedon.

In light of the recent tragedy for all Joss Whedon Fans (FOX officially canceled Dollhouse and are burning off the rest of the episodes back to back on Fridays starting in December) I decided that I would like to post my televisional opinions online for no reason other than to maybe relieve those nearest and dear to me from having to endure hours of mindless television obsessed babble!

First off, if you are reading this and don't know me (pssh, like THAT's ever gonna happen) I need to get a few things straight. I love television! I really, really do. I am a rather huge Joss Whedon fan and love everything he has ever done (with the exception of Roseanne: not my kind of thing, and he had no controlling creativity on it; and the original movie of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: great ideas, obsessed with the show, but the movie was a swing and a miss, in my opinion). My pool of television genres is kind of large. I like dramas, action, dramedies, comedies, sci-fi, fantasy, etc., etc. There are a few things that annoy me to no end: reality shows, and poorly written shows with bad acting, no plot, bad directing, etc. (but who doesn't hate those kind...I know people like reality TV, and that's ok...but only idiots like bad television.)

Ok, after that, the real reason I'm dying to write! As I stated previously I am an incredibly HUGE Joss Whedon fan, and as such, currently numbered among those mourning the loss of yet another great series. I do find it interesting that when his shows were on the air for the long haul (Buffy: seven seasons; Angel: five seasons) they built him up a name and a fan base and they never really graduated from cult to hit. Now, granted Buffy just about died after season five but was then picked up by UPS for an additional two seasons, but it had a five season run before that. Well, to get to my point, when Joss's shows were doing well they never gathered huge fan bases, and when they aren't doing well (Firefly: partial season, Dollhouse: almost two seasons) they retain their Whedonesque fan bases and gain a few more, but the shows still die. Many people (including myself) would point their fingers at FOX for the difference between the long running series and the dead-and-buried-before-it-starts type. And with Dollhouse many point their fingers at FOX, but also at Joss for not having "learned his lesson" and deciding to work with FOX again. But let's remember, fellow Whedonites, what company produced Buffy, the show that got Joss off the ground? Yes, it was the evil people at FOX. No, they didn't air it, that was the WB (oh, remember the good old days, pre-CW? Wasn't that a great time to be alive?) but FOX was our friend for a while.

Dollhouse promo pic

Well, I know, I'm rather long winded, but just imagine the time this is saving my friends and family (and the potential strain on the vocal chords it could cause me), but I wanted to share something I read today. I was bored and trying to find something to do that wasn't boring like homework, house work, piano/voice practice, so of course I turn to the internet (sidereel.com to be specific) I wanted to read a little more on the cancellation of Dollhouse, so I looked it up on sidereel. I found the schedule for the back to back burn out of the final episodes of the season (which can be found here.) While reading on I found what Joss told the Hollywood Reporter about his reaction to the news of the (nearly inevitable) cancellation:

"I don't have a lot to say," Whedon wrote in a post on Whedonesque.com. "I'm extremely proud of the people I've worked with: my star (Eliza Dushku), my staff, my cast, my crew. I feel the show is getting better pretty much every week, and I think you'll agree in the coming months. I'm grateful that we got to put it on, and then come back and put it on again."

Whedon also addressed his plans. "I'm off to pursue internet ventures/binge drinking," he wrote. "Possibly that relaxation thing I've read so much about. By the time the last episode airs, you'll know what my next project is. But for now there's a lot of work still to be done, and disappointment to bear."

So, yes, sad that Dollhouse is dead and nearly buried (sad for the genius and the smokin' hot cast! and they are smokin' hot, not gonna lie), but according to Joss, he already has thoughts on what to do next. I personally can't wait till the final finale of Dollhouse to find out what in store for us Whedonites!

Yet another Dollhouse promo pic (with most of the smokin' hot cast)

Oh, and on a side note, I just found out (like two seconds ago) that Joss is a fan of one of my favorite TV shows on the air and he's going to direct an episode!!! Check THIS out!!! (woohoo!!)

On the really happening front, aren’t you directing an episode of Glee?
I am.

Is Glee your new favorite show?
That would be an exactly correct assessment. With Sarah Connor and Battlestar gone, my wife and I need a new obsession and it landed in my lap. And sang to us!

Are any Dr. Horrible or Buffy songs on the performance roster?
I would have to say a resonant ‘no way.’ The episode isn’t about me. It’s the next episode of Glee. Hopefully my hands will be invisible on the show. You’ll just go, “Why, that is remarkably good. It gives me glee.” That is my hope. I’ll be shooting in March.

The rest of the interview can be found here. They also talk about him and the Terminator franchise, and the sequel to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a great little interview, check it out!

~Manda