Friday, March 23, 2012

Fashion Star

Saw the first two episodes of Fashion Star, with Elle Macpherson serving as host, and with Jessica Simpson, John Varvatos and Nicole Richie as mentors to the designers. You know it's produced by the same team behind Top Chef because while Elle Macpherson is a natural choice to host, she also still has her Australian accent. I don't think it's fair for this show to be compared to Project Runway because fashion on Project Runway is supposed to be more avant garde, and not necessarily more commercial and accessible to the average Jane in a department store.

In theory, it sounds like a viable concept. It's just that...
  • The music used for the runway segments was too loud, commercial (mostly recognisable Top 40 hits), and a bit distracting from the outfits on display. 
  • The buyers from Saks, Macy's and H&M are (allegedly) not actual buyers. I wonder what their respective budgets are (if any) per episode.
  • Tiny Oscar is annoying, to say the least. Glad he didn't make it. And, I know I've seen the dresses that he's sent down before somewhere else. 
  • I thought that Elle and the contestants would be standing on a lazy Susan so that they don't have to actually turn around when it came time to face the buyers. I guess they don't have the budget after splashing out money on the music...
The show must have been shot earlier in Jessica Simpson's pregnancy as she still looks (Jessica Simpson) svelte. That, and there's no way they could expedite the winning designs to the stores if it was done in real time.

I'm okay with having multiple designers showing their designs simultaneously at this stage of the game - it's only a few pieces each.

As much as sadistic me enjoys seeing "NO OFFER" flash across the buyer's big screens for some of the puzzling designs down the runway, but a bidding war is fun to watch too.

I did check out the winning designs online... they look nice, but the cheapskate in me is not about to spend 3 digits. It's just how it is. And some of the designs are already sold out! Who's buying these and how many  pieces were made available?

All that aside, it won't stop me from watching this journey unfold.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

CBS Show Renewals

Been getting Google Alert emails all day about the long list of shows being renewed by CBS, so here's who made the cut.

Shows not getting cancelled anytime soon: CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS, NCIS:LA, The Mentalist

Like there was ever any doubt.

Comedies I don't watch, but good on them: Mike & Molly, 2 Broke Girls (really?)

Shows I was unnecessarily worried that would not get renewed: The Good Wife, Hawaii Five-0 

New-ish shows I've not seen before entire episodes of before: Blue Bloods, Person of Interest

Non-scripted shows: The Amazing Race (yay!), Undercover Boss, 60 Minutes (Why would anyone not renew this?), 48 Hours Mystery

Shows still on that bubble: CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Unforgettable, A Gifted Man, Rob, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men (huh)

I am a little worried about CSI: Miami and CSI: NY still being on the bubble, but if the worst-case scenario does happen... I hope they come to a good end. Never seen Unforgettable or A Gifted Man, so no comment. The comedies still on the bubble I can go without. 

Monday, March 5, 2012

Elementary with Miller and Liu

Because Americans can't seem to leave a good thing alone, word is that CBS is doing their own contemporary Sherlock series called Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as (Joan) Watson, set in New York City. That's all everyone knows about this, not whether the pilot is already picked up, or anything else.

Some things to point out:

  1. The word "Elementary" was never uttered in original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle canon. 
  2. That said, I hope that deerstalker cap never makes a appearance - it already did in the BBC one.
  3. Gender swapping Watson is a way out of the homoerotic undercurrent between Holmes and (John) Watson.

The only good thing about this is that we might finally get to hear Jonny Lee Miller use his own English accent... will he? I hope he's not playing an American.

I think if they got someone else, this show would be DOA. Some people might give the pilot a shot because of Lucy Liu. But I don't know about its long term chances of survival. But it might fill in tiny void left by the three, 90 minute episodes that is BBC's Sherlock, which appears to take forever to shoot.

That is, if the pilot gets picked up...