Sunday, August 29, 2010

Amazing Race Asia Season 4 teams finally revealed

The Amazing Race Asia logoImage via WikipediaI was up until 2 something in the morning the other day trying to watch the The Amazing Race Asia: Racers Revealed special on the AXN site (which only requires you to complete a survey before you can continue on).

It's basically an hour long special of host Allan Wu walking through (I think) KL's Chinatown introducing the new batch of 10 teams from all over Asia, as well as some commentary from the show's casting director and producer.

Here's the breakdown of teams by country:
  • 2 teams from India
  • 2 Malaysian teams
  • 2 teams from the Philippines
  • 2 Indonesian teams, one being a father-daughter team, a TARA first
  • One team from Hong Kong
  • One team from Singapore
For once there are no famous (not even by proxy) Malaysian celebrities this season. But I'm hoping that the teams (two guys and a married couple) can cope and are not out in the first leg or something, cos that would be embarassing. There haven't been any Malaysian team out in the first leg yet so far, so here's hoping that would stand.


After all this time, there is also an intergenerational element in the race with its first father-daughter team. If there were a grandparent-grandchild team from where ever, I would root for them big time. Make it happen, TARA team - there are so many mactors one can watch on TV who want their 15 minutes.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

White Collar, a great collar

Anyway, the gist of the show as per the official site...
 
“White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay).
 When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He’ll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can’t be found on the right side of the law.”
  • Like most shows nowadays, White Collar also has long-ish cold opens (what's with that?). Sometimes not, but rarely.
  • I suppose what this show has in common with other shows on TV is the show's protagonist as a "consultant" to some branch of law enforcement, case in point - Psych, The Mentalist, Monk, Bones... you get the drift.
  • The opening credits only finalised in the second season, so you see them working through in the first season. 
  • Never seen Matt Bomer elsewhere before White Collar, but anyhow - very easy on the eyes.
  • Tim DeKay's the guy you see on other TV shows who always plays the father/husband/whoever for years - I think this is the first time I've seen him as a main cast member of any show.
I'm enjoying the second season so far - even though Tiffani Thiessen has been phoning it in (literally) with the green screen scenes.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Finale shockers

I saw the finales of a couple of the "reality" competition shows this week - Work of Art: The Next Great Artist and Last Comic Standing. Not before I read recaps and spoilers about them both, because I don't really care whether I know or not in advance. 

Work of Art

I never thought Abdi would win, not in a million years. I was thinking maybe it might be Miles because he really knows how to play the game, but really?! Maybe Miles dropped the ball in the final show and Abdi's was more "artsy" than the former. But I can't be the only one who thought Miles had it in the bag.

Did anyone miss executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker, with her hands to her face in awe at all three gallery shows? It's that the best footage they could use of her?

Okay, next show - Last Comic Standing

Just when you thought this kind of finales run too long for a final decision which only takes MINUTES to broadcast... oy. 

It was like they got everyone and their grandma to do their bite sets on stage - reigning LCS winner Iliza Schlesinger (whom I've nothing against), the three judges, Marriage Ref host Tom Pappa, Kathy Griffin... they even got host Craig Robinson's band to perform a couple of times. I didn't understand why the judges also did their bits - I mean, you don't see Randy Jackson and Paula perform in the Idol finale... oh wait, they did :P

What I also didn't expect was to hear that Felipe Esparza to win. Well okay, I didn't expect him to last this far, let alone WIN. I was also a little disappointed when Myq Kaplan came in fifth, which has gotta suck, but he did do a 10 second cameo appearance on Louie.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Is My Life on the D-List over?

I saw in the YouTube comments recently that season 6 of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List was its last season.

I've not found news confirming it, and I've not heard of anything to the contrary.

If it indeed was over, I'm sad that it is. It hasn't been a "reality" show per se, with all the celeb appearances in every episode, but it's fun to watch her talk shit about Hollywood and also annoying her mother Maggie in the process.

So, is it true?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Last Comic Standing

Been watching this latest season of Last Comic Standing and they've definitely changed up the show - new host, judges, etc.

I personally didn't know who Craig Robinson was prior to this show, so I got nothing. But I also didn't know Bill Bellamy when he hosted LCS, so... whatever.

I should be glad that they're showing proper performance shows and not show the "house" part - the comics live in the same house doing inane comedy related challenges as in past seasons. But it feels empty - I don't find myself rooting for anyone in particular. Perhaps it's just me, but if you have to describe both Myq Kaplan and Tommy Johnagin, it would be pretty close - white guys with dark hair, glasses, average height...

It's sad that there are no more female finalists (which means Iliza Shlesinger would be the only hot winner from the show so far).
Now all three judges sound like Paula Abdul as the competition comes to a close. WTF.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Project Runway Season 8 premiere

Finally saw the latest season of Project Runway.

You figured something hinky was happening when there wasn't the usual opening credit with the contestants, only to find out later in the show that it was just the final phase of the audition process. Gee, I'd be pissed if I was a contestant.

You know the 17 contestants in the premiere episode wouldn't be 17 for long with the crazy 5 hour challenge which involves incorporating someone else's clothing item and one (or more) of them are going home. It's really not much of a shakeup.

One other change this season is that episodes will be 90 minutes long, which I guess works fine in the beginning, but towards the finale? I don't know. You'd see more stuff granted, but how much is too much?

I figured that the Ivy chick would be in deep shit in the premiere when she had the brag on in her talking head early in the episode. And boy, was she in the shitter - for making pants out of pants. Right.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Covert Affairs

Covert Affairs
Checked out the new USA show Covert Affairs after watching Christopher Gorham on The Late Late Show plugging it last week.

It's lazy for everyone to compare it to Alias, so I won't because I never bothered with Alias, let alone watch it.

But based on the uber long pilot, Piper Perabo (someone I feel meh about in general) plays newbie CIA agent Annie Walker
(who barely finished her training) thrown into the field because, unbeknownst to her, her bosses are using her to lure out an ex-boyfriend. Gee, seems simple enough.

Gorham as the blind tech ops guy Auggie Anderson is a little wasted here, but that's because I'm not the only one that thinks he's hot (even if he is married with three kids in real life, sigh). But hey, loving the floppy hair and the cool laser cane his character uses to get around :P

Besides him, there are plenty of familiar TV faces like Peter Gallagher (billed as "Special Guest Star" here) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (formerly of Heroes), so it's not too bad. Anne Dudek (or the Cut-Throat Bitch on House) as the sister - not bad a casting since they could actually pass off as sisters - who's guest house Annie lives in. 


I'm just glad that it's not another FBI show, but it doesn't mean that I'm hating on White Collar, which precedes it on the same network.

Much as I like what I'm watching so far, I just hope that it doesn't get cancelled.