Faster, Faster, Don't Stop Now

Fixing My Shows

Accidentally on Purpose

1. Either really make James want to get back together with Billie, or ditch the character. This limbo he’s in makes no sense.

2. NEEDS MORE RYAN. Ryan is way more interesting of a buddy than Davis.

3. Either have Billie and Zack explore the idea of a relationship or don’t. But it’s hard to buy the idea that a smart, together professional woman (even when Jenna Elfman is good at playing the insecurities) would be interested in more than a one night stand with Zack, even with how hot he is and the proximity.

American Idol

1. Unfortunately, go back to 12 guys, 12 girls. Because the main viewership for this show is female and a large portion are stupid and choose looks (and guys they love to drool over) over talent (and women with talent).

2. Bring back the wild card round the way it existed in seasons two and three.

3. Really explore some theme weeks that haven’t been done ten million times and still provide good song choices.

America’s Next Top Model

1. An all male cycle.

2. Fire everyone who’s been there for more than three seasons, including Tyra. They need fresh perspective and fresh ideas for shoots.

3. Place less emphasis on Cover Girl. They do next to nothing for Cover Girl after the show is over. Screw Cover Girl and start using some sponsor that’s far more high fashion. It mixes up the formula and doesn’t allow the girls who are commercial to skate for so long. Plus it puts an emphasis back on things like runway.

The Big Bang Theory

1. More Raj. Lots more Raj. TONS more Raj.

2. That’s all.

Bones

1. More Clark Edison. He’s my favorite of the non regulars and must be used more.

2. A little more consistency on the show. They seem to be missing details in episodes that are back to back, which is just laziness.

3. The cases they investigate are all a little too easy. I want one that’s not Gormaggon level of hard, but takes an extended episode arc to delve into.

Castle

1. Alexis at the station more than just in the evidence room cataloging. Can’t you just see her someday becoming a cop?

2. Ryan and Esposito need more face time. For they are funny.

3. Back off the “Castle and Beckett are totally into one another” bit and let that just grow on its own for awhile. Nathan Fillion is awesomely magnetic. Just let the actors play off one another without pressure and see where it heads.

Chuck

1. Put it back on my TV!

2. Get the schedule worked out so that Anna Wu gets to come back.

3. Tons of Casey back story. For Casey is love.

Criminal Minds

1. Yes, I’m new to this show, but I’m getting caught up very quickly. And my heart wants Morgan and Garcia to declare their love for one another, okay?

2. Fewer serial killer cases, more cases that are serial rapists, etc. I have a hard time believing there are that many true serial killers out there. It’s a little more believable if they spread out the types of unsubs their after a bit more.

CSI

1. Keep in mind that Catherine is the lead CSI, not Ray, so give Catherine more. I love Laurence Fishburne, and he fits perfectly with the team, but the producers seem to be focusing on name recognition and not who all naturally is leading.

2. Keep up the new season dynamic where there’s logical, natural friction and the personalities are present. I’ve missed that.

CSI: Miami

1. Use some actual science? Please?

2. Walter should have a greater role and be on there all the time. For he is awesome.

3. Kill Horatio. You know that makes the most sense.

Flash Forward

1. No more Fiennes. Or reduce the character’s role. I swear, he’s annoying as hell.

2. In fact, just move this show along more quickly. The problem I’ve found is that every character is interesting for about two episodes, then they delve into them more and by episode three of their arc they’re annoying as hell.

House

1. I hate to say it, but fire everyone and cancel the show. I miss Kutner, the stories are contrived, and I can’t figure out why I’m still watching.

How I Met Your Mother

1. I actually recognize that there’s some little thing that needs fixing, but I’m not sure what.

Law and Order: SVU

1. Needs more Ice T. Seriously, he should be the lead. Or at least the lead for now, because they’ve exhausted everyone else emotionally.

2. Also could use a side of Coco. (You know Coco would be an awesome addition. Admit it.)

NCIS: LA

1. Sam and G admit their love for one another. *g* Or have to pose as a couple. I’ll go with posing.

2. All Hetty, all the time.

So You Think You Can Dance

1. Less emphasis on contemporary, more on ballroom. The problem with the show now is that they put tons of pressure on all the dancers that aren’t contemporary. Contemporary has the training that allows for them to more easily adapt to other styles. Therefore, if they’re going to put tons of contemporary dancers in the top 20, they need to have less contemporary and more ballroom/latin to truly challenge the dancers.

2. Bring back a fourth rotating judge. We need a set of fresh eyes each week.

3. Do something to challenge the choreographers, like by choosing the music for them. I’ve not been pleased with some of their music choices, because it affects the dance. Either there’s too much emphasis on current, or they go for indie that isn’t that spectacular. But most importantly, they aren’t going outside the “popularity” box to get songs that challenge them and tell a story. The Flower and the Hummingbird excelled because it could have been anything with that music. We need more of THAT.

Supernatural

1. Female regular who isn’t attracted to Sam or Dean, or they to her. She kicks ass and takes names. She’s a hunter. And most importantly, she drives a badass pick-up and has a not so secret crush on Bobby.

Ugly Betty

1. I’ll be in the minority here, but find a way to make Daniel/Betty work.

2. Lose Betty’s braces already!

Whew. Toyota does in fact have my odometer reading and noted that it was under 36,000 miles, so there is no doubt that I will not be charged for the replaced radio in my car. Yay!

(Yes, I was paranoid. sullivanlane is just as paranoid as me, if it's any consolation!)

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Taking mom to the doctor's in Chapel Hill tomorrow. Tis her eye fun. She has chronic dry eye, so she may end up with her tear ducts being plugged again. Hence me driving.

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TV Show Stuffs

This Week In NASCAR: I'm disappointed they didn't discuss the Harvick/Edwards fight. Biffle insight would have been awesome!

Samantha Who?: I like Matt Camden on this show. Treat him nice! He's cute!

Chuck: I liked Bryce last we saw him. Now, not so much. Also, Anna rules.

How I Met Your Mother: Anybody else not digging Stella?

House: Kutner rules them all. You go Kal Penn!

Law and Order: SVU: This episode practically screamed for BD Wong. But no BD Wong. Where is BD Wong?!?!? (Also, new ADA isn't growing on me like Novak did. And that's considering it was dang hard to replace Stephanie March.)

Bones: WHY WAS THERE SPORTS ON MY TV AND NOT BONES.

America's Next Top Model: I don't know if I can see any of them as successful models, but dang if Sheena wouldn't be one of my closest friends.

Project Runway: The correct woman won. And I LOVE her clothes.

Survivor: After penis-gate, I pay too much attention to jockey shorts and wardrobe malfunctions. Sadly, so does CBS. (Marcus FTW, however. And Ken's last move was genius. Now someone drop kick Ace to China already.)

Ugly Betty: Can we have some lightness and fun again? And lose Eddie Cibrian?

CSI: I cried. It's all Gil's fault. I was mad, however, that it wasn't slightly more Nick-centric, as he and Warrick were closer than a lot of the other guys.

TV Talk

Bones: Good to have it back. Even better - Sweets! Even better than that? Geeking out because they use a SPEED channel header for the motorcycle racing footage. Yeah, FOX has a partnership, so it's a way to pimp out the channel during other shows, but it's also accurate to the sport. *g*

Survivor: I missed this past episode, but I did see the tribal council. Pardon my massive giggling, but that was a really, really pitiful mock-immunity idol and I can't believe that Jason so firmly believed it was real. I almost feel bad for Eliza.

How I Met Your Mother: Good god that was a bad ep. That screamed "We came back from that time off and had to crank a script out quickly. Sadly, this one was in the pipeline as a reject we weren't going to do, because we hadn't fixed it, but because of the time crunch we had to use it." The next ep better make up for it. And that's considering I know about the big thing coming. *pouts*

Samantha Who?: KINK ALERT!!! They've hit one of my story kinks that I love! OMG! He doesn't want to be attracted to her still and is! Angry kissing! The too-good-to-be-true other man! Seriously, it's a romance novel and I love it!

Law & Order: SVU: I vote that this episode never be shown again. It actually bothered me. (The promos bothered me more for the way they pimped out the whole "Mariska deserves an EMMY for this very special episode", but that's a different kind of bothered.) Seriously. Olivia is a product of rape. I was ready to cry by the end. And a side note: when the hell did Ice T cut his hair?????

CSI: Any episode that needs to be screencapped because of the many awesome images that can be turned into icons for latxcvi? An awesome ep. (I am, however, sad to report that Gary Dourdan is leaving the show. Why, Warrick? Why? You're too hot! I loved on on A Different World and I love you here!)

Top Chef: It makes me want to eat. As evidenced by the fact that, in the past week, I have made Kee Mao, mac and cheese, cobbler, Wisconsin cheese soup, and coconut pie.

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American Idol

I was worried about Mariah's critiques (admittedly, I wish she wouldn't try to get folks to go to their falsetto so often - they ain't Mariah), but I really, really liked a lot of what she had to say. It was well thought out, appropriate for each contestant, and she let them take the lead on where they were headed creatively. (And she didn't flat out tell Kristy Lee that she sucked. Dude, you could tell she wanted to. And that Kristy Lee heard something else entirely.)

1. David Archuleta: Oh look, he sang a song from a Disney movie. Or Dreamworks. Hell, it was animated.

2. Carly Smithson: Okay, here's the thing. The women were screwed from the get go. Carly was more screwed than others. They've been dying for Carly to sing something big and bombastic. The thing is, she has vocal limitations. When she tries to go for notes out of her range, it's very strained. So she showed restraint with the song and in effect got dinged for not being Mariah Carey. (I was in the kitchen, so I only listened to the song. It *sounded* great. This is considering there's not a perfect singer in this lot, and only about three of them consistently hit most of their notes: David A., Carly and Syesha. Although David Cook could, as he proves on results night during those group songs.) My mother and I have hit that level of "OMG, it's a conspiracy", which is something we rarely do. LOL I think part of the bitterness is because Carly can sing as well as David A., but she gets dinged for really random things while he's the second coming, even though he keeps. singing. ballads.

3. Syesha Mercado: Sounded good to me. Still was bored to tears, though. (Incidentally, Simon was wrong. It's smarter to sing a Mariah song that people don't know. You avoid the comparison. And Syesha REALLY needed to avoid the comparison.)

4. Brooke White: Oy. That was almost painful. Thank god I was cooking. It wasn't bad per se, it was just awkward and lacked emotional punch.

5. Kristy Lee Cook: Please get off my TV. Thanks.

6. David Cook: I liked some things about this, especially the chorus, but I felt like it was two steps too low. David C. has a beautiful voice. It's reach and resonates well. But by going so low, it felt like he was straining. It just didn't sound as good as the judges believed it did. It was good, but not out of the park, OMG good.

7. Jason Castro: Randy needs to learn a few musical references, because that was not "beachy" in the least. It was Spanish influenced. Couldn't you just hear Julio Iglesias (the original, thanks, not Jr.) doing that? Loved it. Loved it lots. Yeah, there were bum notes, but for once he was doing a romantic song and connecting with the audience. It suited him well and actually took me half the song to figure out what the original was. (Incidentally, the same can be said for David Cook's song.)

( Smallville - Includes Spoilers for Future Eps )

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( Survivor )

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( CSI )

So I sat down and started thinking about what are "my" shows. What shows am I vested in, to what degree do I care, how do I participate fandom-wise in relation to those shows.

And what do I consider to be my "favorite" show.

There's something very telling about my list. Very telling indeed.

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First I have my category of "professional" shows. The shows I watch that I don't participate in a fandom, but I enjoy them, hate to miss them, and avidly pay attention to process because of the relation of these shows to what I'm preparing to do professionally.

CSI
Law & Order: SVU
Boomtown

I watch them because of the criminal justice angle. They have compelling stories, they're entertaining, yet I can see the flaws in logic or procedure quite clearly. It doesn't diminish the fun for me. I just enjoy them for enjoying them.

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Next I have my "reality" shows. The ones in which the whole purpose for watching is to mock, to stare, to criticize...all because these are people a whole hell of a lot more like us. They're people, being themselves, not characters played by actors.

American Idol
Survivor

I discuss these shows online, but with very few people. It's mostly me just posting my thoughts. AI makes me want to post my thoughts, but the subjective nature of performances means it's harder to discuss.

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Then there are my "sci-fi" shows. These are the ones I get more involved with fanishly. I had my X-Files at one time (*sob* X-Files how I miss thee), and I've always been a comic genre junkie (which I lump in with sci-fi). They're escapist, out of the realm of possibility, which makes them so much more fun.

Smallville
Stargate
X-Men Evolution (including it because I avidly watch it for the X-Men angle)

I'm more apt to discuss these, to really get into them. They're the ones I salivate if I miss, I'm more critical of the content and characterization, and yet still gleefully happy to view no matter how crappy.

Escapist fun with a critical edge.

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Yet my favorite show, the one show currently on the air that defies any of those categories, that I adore with a passion and refuse to miss, that I hate to miss on reruns.

Gilmore Girls

It's my favorite show. I've often wondered why I don't actively seek someone to discuss the show with. Why I may make a comment here or there in my LiveJournal about it, but nothing deeper. Why the only times I comment on it to someone else is when they're squealing over it too.

Frankly, it's because it's my happy place. That show, no matter how serious the subject matter, never fails to make me happier by the end of the hour. I love it. I adore it.

I don't want to discuss it because I don't want to tarnish the happy. I think I've tried actively discussing it all of once and realized that if there were flaws with the show, I didn't want them pointed out. To me, for my viewing needs, it's perfect as is. I don't want to analyze every detail. I don't want to scrutinize whether an action was appropriate to a character, or whether something that was done was realistic.

This show is about pure, unadulterated joy for me. The snark and the wit and the dance. The show has a rhythm in and of itself that draws me in and keeps me engrossed, and I don't want to break the rhythm by trying to analyze.