logblog

Spoilers abound, so stop now if you don’t want to know!

It’s back and with a vengeance!!! After last season’s exciting and suspenseful finale, we got a taste of what our housewives were like 5 years in the future. Brie was a Martha Stewart-like cooking personality, Gabi was looking kind of rough and had two children, Lynette was frustrated with her twins who were now juvenile delinquents, Catherine was happy for her newly-engaged “daughter,” and Susan was mackin’ with someone other than Mike Delfino.

Well, tonight we got to see a little bit of how they got there. The show opened with a bang as usual, depicting a violent car crash that [you think] leaves Susan alive mourning over Mike’s dead body. The rest of the episode dealt with her having a fling with a DOUCHEY looking house painter, with us, the audience, thinking all the while she won’t let herself have a relationship with him because she feels responsible for Mike’s death. Little do we know, Mike actually isn’t dead but the mother and child in the other car DID die. Apparently Susan was angry with Mike for not having the car in good working condition, and he got fed up with her and left her. I’m assuming she won’t let this douchey painter into her heart because she’s still in love with Mike. I’m also guessing we will spend the rest of this season watching them slowly get back together. Again. Hooray! [Note the sarcasm].

Gabi had a fantastic storyline that dealt with her overweight 4 year old (which how old is that child really, by the way) and Gabi’s efforts to encourage her weight loss. I really loved the “game” she played with her, driving forward to force Juanita to chase after her car. It was pretty funny, but also probably bought little Juanita (and possibly the actress portraying her) some time on the couch. In the end, we find out (shocker) that much of her obsession with Juanita’s weight is due to self-image problems Gabi has with her new physique. Awww

Lynette’s twins opened a casino in the pizza place and Tom was no help in reigning in their bad behavior, lifting their punishment and allowing them to go to the homecoming dance after all. He clearly is going through a mid-life crisis, because the twins’ “coolness” makes him not be a parent towards them and also he’s obsessed with this classic car he restored. Lynette retaliated by giving the twins the keys to his precious precious car to drive to the dance, and Tom totally came up to the plate as usual and punished them when they missed their curfew. Typical nice Sciavo storyline.

Brie was readying a cookbook for publication, and much to the dismay of her catering partner Catherine, ONLY Brie’s name was listed as the author of this cookbook filled with both of their recipes. They bickered the entire episode and they left it that way too, which kind of annoyed me because their friendship was a really fun part of the show in the past, and something that I was looking forward to being more the norm after last season’s finale. I guess we’ll see, eh?

The big mystery this season is with the infamous Edie Britt, who’s back in town with a super freaky husband, who apparently was charged with something that he had to go into anger [or something] therapy for. We left the episode knowing that he was supposed to be in contact with his doctor once a month and taking pills for his condition, and with the distinct suspicion that he is out to get somebody on Wisteria Lane, but who? Well my dear friends, we have a whole season left to figure THAT out.

I was overall pretty pleased with the episode. I really think they are taking the housewives to new, interesting and [mostly] unexpected places, which is really what a like this needs for a 5th season. Gabi’s plot was pretty hilarious. Tom may have a lot of wimpy moments, but he always comes through in the end, and that’s really nice to watch. Brie’s story was a little disheartening but I’m sure they’ll come around in the end there, too.

My big gripe is Susan. Are we really going to spend ANOTHER season of her and Mike playing hard to get? Isn’t that what the last 4 seasons were? I mean REALLY Marc Cherry, what are you thinking?

Regardless, the other housewives will I’m sure have lots of excellent plots this season to cover up any deficiency with Susan. I can’t wait for next Sunday!

I love television. I don’t care if it makes me dumb or stupid, because I love television and I watch a LOT of it.

Now that we have that out of the way, you should know that it is Fall and that’s a really exciting time for television shows, DVDs and movies. Why, just since last week I’ve recently acquired two new Blu-Ray titles (Baby Mama and Pushing Daisies). I’ve yet to delve into the latter, but just to briefly comment on the first–I love the movie and all, but why is it there are features listed on the back of the regular DVD that don’t seem to be on the Blu-Ray anywhere?!?! Not that I think the alternate ending to Baby Mama is like beyond exciting or anything, but I at least want to see it, especially considering I paid more than the DVD for the Blu-Ray.

The awesomeness on the DVD front really begins on October 7th. Sleeping Beauty is making its Blu-Ray debut, making it the first of the Disney classic animated films to make the jump. I think it’s a pretty good choice. It may not be the most entertaining of the Disney classics, but it is undeniably the most beautiful piece of art Disney has ever created. It’s truly a masterpiece and I hope the Blu transfer shows this off well. Mostly I’m happy about it because with Sleeping Beauty out of the way, we can get to much more exciting releases like Cinderella and the “modern classics” like Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Sidebar, if you have a Blu-Ray player, I would highly recommend picking up Enchanted in Hi-Def. There’s an interactive Disney trivia game you can play with it, and when they show clips of Beauty and the Beast you’ll be able to see that the title is clearly ready for the jump to Blu. By the way–it comes with a bonus DVD copy of the movie. Just in case you’re too dumb to understand what Blu-Ray is?

The FIRST thing I’ll be popping into my player come 10-7 though is Season 2 of my favorite television series, 30 ROCK. Now listen. I don’t know if you watch this show. I don’t know if you’re a Tina Fey fan. I DO know that you should be both. 30 Rock is simply the funniest new show I’ve seen on television since Will & Grace, bar none. That should mean more, but is it just me or has most television comedy of late been real terrible? This comment should not, however, diminish how hilarious and brilliant 30 Rock is. If you haven’t watched it, I am going to direct you to Hulu.com right now and specifically my favorite episode from season 2, Jack Gets in the Game. I would also direct you to iTunes, where you can download my personal favorite episode of the series, Hardball, from season 1.

Then way into the future, we have Sweeney Todd making its Blu debut to look forward to on October 21st (dangerously close to my birthday, hint hint) and my personal favorite movie of the year, Wall-E on November 18th. There’s also rumors of another Pixar classic making the jump to Blu on 11-18. Can we hear a “The Incredibles” please? Yes yes, I know. It should be Finding Nemo. That was pushed back to 2009, so don’t hold your breath.

So with all of these great DVDs to look forward to, why do I have a television at the top of my blog post? Because we are REALLY close to Fall premieres, that’s why! September 28th sees the return of Desperate Housewives, where we’ll get to figure out why the crap Gabby is so fat among other things abruptly presented to us in the last 5 minutes of last season’s finale. Later that week on October 1st, we’ll see the premiere of what will hopefully be Pushing Daisy’s first full-length season. The show’s beginning last year was both super entertaining and promising, but it did not make the return after the writer’s strike. I’m eager to see what else the show has to offer us. Flash forward one more week to October 9th, and we can see the series premiere of “Kath & Kim” on NBC. Now, as I’ve said, most new comedy shows are terrible, so don’t hold me to this, but I think this show could be really funny. I mean, after all, Molly Shannon (left) is pretty brilliant and the commercials have been pretty good. WAY WAY into the future (October 30th) 30 Rock finally returns. I actually don’t know if I can handle that wait. It’s way too long for my taste. [That’s what she said]

The moral is that I have a lot of waiting and anticipation ahead of me over the next few weeks, and that can only mean one thing: lots of electronic Phase 10 (which incidentally I also HIGHLY recommend).