Watching The CW

I missed the first part of this evening’s episode and the all important photo shoot because I was stuck on a train and I hadn’t set my DVR. AAARRRGGGHHH - viewer error! However, I figured that all I missed was some recappin’ and bitchin’ (and Heather trying to explain about aspergers).

This week’s challenge for the girls is to start dressing like models and they got a basic tutorial from Miss J (they judges are obviously trying to break them of their ‘mall style habits’.

101 Modeling: Basics for your ‘drobe
- Simple dresses and skirts
- Flesh tone g-strings
- Fitted jeans with simple tees
- Keep your own style

Our brave girls are sent to Old Navy where they have 10 minutes to put together an outfit, and Benny Ninja is there to hinder them by trying to distract them with too many accessories. The store looked wrecked by the time they were finished as if an ANTM hurricane had blown threw!

Elimination time… I wish I had seen the photo shoot because it tried to un-glamorous smoking. Each of the girls was shot smoking in front of a mirror and then her reflection reflected a side affect. Tyra announces that this cycle will be a non-smoking cycle. I am impressed that they are taking a stand but wondering if nicotine withdrawal will make things more interesting in the house? Sad to say but the majority of the photos were good, and there wasn’t that much drama during the critiquing bar Victoria snapping back to Twiggy. Yes, mild mannered Twiggy happened to remark that Victoria looked shy and insecure, and she snapped back about not mistaking her being soft spoken for insecurity. Lucky Nigel stepped in to defuse the situation, but you could tell she had not done herself any favors. At the end it was Mila to go home.

I just long for the Tyra sanctioned make-overs and them removing Bianca’s purple bangs.

CW, America’s Next Top model, ANTM, Tyra

Reaper is the new show on the CW that i have been most looking forward to. A better fit to my taste than say Gossip Girl, and neatly bookends the week with Supernatural (10 days and counting to season 3).

Here is the preview from youtube - ENJOY!

The CW, Reaper, youtube

We are not quite there with CW’s full compliment of new shows but we are close! This week the slackers will inherit the earth in the form of Reaper. I just can’t wait for Ray Wise as the devil, and with Kevin Smith helming the pilot it is going to be so good!

Tuesday Sept 25th
8pm Beauty and the Geek
9pm Reaper (season premiere)

Wednesday Sept 26th
8pm America’s Next Top Model
9pm Gossip Girl

CW, Beauty and the Geek, America’s Next Top Model, ANTM, Gossip Girl, Reaper, Ray Wise, Kevin Smith

I am really not sure about this one, and I may need a few episodes to settle in to it or delete its season pass entirely from my TiVo. In Gossip Girl’s defense I am not the target demo but they don’t really throw enough bones to the people on the other side of thirty like say Veronica Mars (or Buffy) did.

The back bone to Gossip Girl is Gossip Girl; the unknown blogger of the Upper West side who keeps tabs on the movements of the inner cycle of the students at the prep school. With her network of spies she updates her blog and is able to break “news” first, like the return of Serena - who mysteriously left for boarding school a year ago only to return equally mysteriously into New York’s Grand Central. Serena’s return pushes the noses out of place of her best friend, and successor, Blair. I didn’t really take to any of the cool kids in the inner circle. There was a heavy dose of poor little rich kid with Blair’s mother (a designer) dressing her up like a living doll, Nate whose life is all planned out and whose father is forcing him to keep dating Blair because of a business deal, and then there is Senera. Her brother attempts suicide and is hidden away like the first Mrs. Rochester by their mother. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration he is only stashed at the hospital whilst she tells everyone he is staying with an aunt.

I assume that the Humphrey clan are there to keep the behavior and lifestyles of the others in perspective. Rufus (the aging rocker with a gallery in the Boroughs) only sends his children to the prep school so they get the right education. His son Dan doesn’t want to fit in, and is very likable. His confrontation on the bus was classic with his classmates. Unfortunately, Dan’s impressionable sister Jenny does and you just know that will spell trouble in the long term!

The pilot episode set up the power struggle between Serena and Blair, the politics of prep school life and how to negotiate the social quagmire of rescuing your sister from a party. Not a bad start and I’ll be interested to see where it goes from here.

CW, Gossip Girl, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Bagdley, Taylor Mumsem

Because the powers that be had already released the names of the final thirteen model wannabes this episode was like watching a movie where you already know the ending. It did, however, give us a chance to see these ladies in action and interacting with the ones who didn’t make the grade. And straw pole anyone feel like booking a cruise by the end of it?

In the opening credits Tyra has gone all Star Trek and has a mission to find the future America’s Next Top Model. They will, one imagines, boldly go where no supermodel has gone before. Thirty-three wannabes are sent to the Caribbean, and end up on a cruise ship with Miss J. Alexander (I guess this is slightly better than the model boot camp from Cycle 8). There are way too many tall, skinny girls to really be able to tell them apart and I wished I had a print out of the final thirteen and then I could play ANTM bingo! Any how, the first challenge is an ad hoc fashion show with the girls having to strut their stuff in what they are wearing PLUS a life jacket. Miss J makes is the first one to draw tears. The girls are gathered and Tyra welcomes HER CHOICES of potential models, and tries to justify why they are on a cruise ship. Too much screaming.

Next we are treated to series of painful one on ones with Tyra and the Js. Tyra is on top form channeling her inner talk show host, and getting to the bottom of these girls problems. Highlights included a girl in a denim mini skirt with the bottom part of a pair of jeans as leg warmers, one who was slightly more literal than figurative (when Tyra says walk like a butterfly you don’t have to flap your arms like wings she means BE GRACEFUL), a hunchy nerd who has worse posture than me, a Yale student and finally, a waxer who simulates a Brazilian with Miss T.

I cannot wait to get off the boat and into the house with these girls. When Victoria (Miss Yale) gets sick survival of the fittest instinct kicks in and they all get that hungry look in their eyes. The final elimination of the episode was just cruel as we all knew that Lisa had made it but she cried all the way through it.

So that’s it - better than model boot camp but can’t we just start the season off in the house? Jump straight into cat fights and mascara battles?

CW, America’s Next Top Model, ANTM, Tyra, Cycle 9

Make sure you have your popcorn (or carrot sticks and humus) at the ready as tonight is the season premeriers of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 9 and Gossip Girl. To get you in the mood below are the promos - enjoy!

CW, ANTM, America’s Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, Tyra, YouTube

Finally new shows, new shows!

Tuesday Sept 18th
8pm Beauty and the Geek (two hour season premiere)

Wednesday Sept 19th
8pm America’s Next Top Model (Cycle 9)
9pm Gossip Girl

CW, Beauty and the Geek, America’s Next Top Model, ANTM, Gossip Girl

I am counting down the days to fresh programming and next week we have Gossip Girl and cycle 9 of ANTM to look forward to. In the meantime TVGuide’s Ausiello has some juicy spoilers about Smallville. Check out this weeks Entertainment Weekly magazine as there is a gorgeous spread about Reaper.

Gossip Girls, ANTM, TVGuide.com, Ausiello, Entertainment Weekly, Reaper

I got back from a few days in Toronto last night so I am woefully behind in my surfing. Two things to keep you going from E-Online’s watch with Kristin:

- Veronica Mars movie is on hold (like we didn’t see that one coming)
- Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively gets a mention as a Newbie You’ll Love

I am off to consume the latest Entertainment Weekly which is devoted to the season ahead…

CW, E-Online, Watch with Kristin, Gossip Girl, Blake Lively, Veronica Mars movie

Okay it’s not much but it is better than nothing… Ausiello over at TVGuide.com has pictures of the lovely ladies Ruby and Bela (played by Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan respectively) and reinforces the party line that these gals are NOT love interests for the Winchester brothers.

I was asked what “CW” stands for - I am afraid that it is just an initial from each of its parents. The “C” comes from CBS Corporation and “W” Time Warner.

CW, Supernatural, Ausiello, TVGuide.com, Katie Cassidy, Lauren Cohan

I am not quite sure how this one is going to play out - a group of friends working their collective asses off in entry level jobs in NYC. Surely if they are that busy and working for such control freaks how will they have the time to hang out together and complain? At least with Friends their were to a certain extent (high functioning) slackers taking long breaks in Central Perk… is my memory deceiving me was that the name of the cafe? Oh my I just googled it and indeed Central Perk was the fictional coffee shops name - how 90s. Back to Eight Days a Week, not really that excited about this one in fact Farmer Wants a Wife intrigues me more.

[tags]CW, Eight Days A Week, 2007/08 season,