The Primetime Dish

Another quicker recap of the latest episode of “Ugly Betty,” mostly focusing on my thoughts on this episode and less on recapping.

So right before she was going back to Arizona, the baby mama Charlie suddenly had various issues and is now sticking around New York to have her baby. From the previews for next week she goes into labor, so perhaps this isn’t a faked pregnancy. If not, I think she’s somehow faked the DNA test. I’m sure the baby will come out and be Hispanic, Asian or African-American . . . something that will let Henry know he’s definitely not the father. If not, then maybe the baby’s blood type will be off and someone will catch that.

Henry learned that Gio and Betty had remained friends and still saw one other, because Amanda opened her big mouth about how Gio was in love with Betty. Henry confronted Gio and they got into a tiff. I think Henry doesn’t get to play the jealous or the Gio card really because of what is going on with Charlie. He and Betty keep saying they only have four weeks left together as is. It’s time for Henry to accept he’s going to lose Betty whether he likes it or not and he doesn’t get to be jealous or upset about it. He’s the one who knocked up Charlie, so we are led to believe.

Willy continued with her plan to drive Renee nuts and have her committed. Now Renee knows the truth about the Bradford scheme, so obviously that’s a reason to get her out of the way. However before she knew, Willy seemed to want her gone and I still don’t know why. Something more has to be going on that we don’t know about.

Without her pills, Renee started to become jealous and set her sites on Betty, convinced she was in love with Daniel and out to take her from him. Hilariously Daniel started to wonder about Betty and thought she was in love with him too! He even had a naughty dream about her. Oh no, are they going to have Daniel suddenly fall for Betty?

Nina Garcia and Christian Siriano made their cameos in this episode as they met with Daniel and Alexis. Christian didn’t think there was enough drama at Mode for him, until Renee burst in calling his models Daniel’s new whores! Christian loved it. I have to say I thought his appearance was campy and hilarious, just like him. I loved Nina Garcia saying winning “Project Runway” had completely gone to his head.

Christina was still trying to find out what was going on with Renee, having heard Willy refer to her as a murderer. She and Betty broke into Willy’s files and learned that Renee apparently had an affair with a professor at Stoneybrook, become jealous of his assistant and tried to kill her by arson . . . but killed the professor instead! So that it seems is the big secret behind her, candles and Stoneybrook. What I didn’t get was why it seemed like Christina hadn’t heard about the plan with Bradford’s sperm? I guess she didn’t hear about it after all, because that’s a bigger thing to reveal really in my opinion.

The show ended with Betty rushing to warn Daniel about Renee, only to be caught by Renee in Daniel’s apartment with a million candles. It seems she was out to repeat history. Fortunately Betty knocked her out and stopped a fire from starting and Willy had her committed. Renee told Daniel she was sorry, she thought she was getting better. Daniel also asked Betty about her “feelings” for him. She teased him, saying she loved him but wasn’t in love with him. She left to be with Henry, who she had worked things out with after the Gio stuff. Daniel however looked a little sad to me. I think he’s falling for Betty!

I knew with the writers strike that once the major shows ran out of episodes we’d be getting a lot of new reality shows, but I never imagined some of them would be as stupid as the ones they are putting out. The networks must really be desperate. Case in point, NBC’s “My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad.” Have you seen the commercials for this? Basically kids put their dads up against other kids’ dads, the fathers have to compete in some obstacle course against each other to prove they are the better dad.

Wow, I wonder how much brainstorming went into this show? I’ve seen some dumb reality shows, but I think this one might just take the cake for the dumbest ever.

One good thing, maybe the only good thing, I guess I can say for the writers strike coming up, I’ll get a chance to catch up on a lot of shows I’ve fallen behind with! I’ve all but stopped watching “Journeyman” on NBC because “Weeds” plays at the same time. I finally got back into “Weeds” after I felt the first half of the season sucked. It wasn’t that I didn’t like “Journeyman,” it just didn’t seem to be making much progress. Every episode focused on a new story, but the overall story was moving slowwwwwww.

I’m still watching “Bionic Woman” on Wednesdays, but my issue with it lately has been the same with “Journeyman.” They’ve taken it in the direction that every episode is a new case, but the overall story isn’t moving anywhere. We were told Jaime would die in about 5 years and possibly suffer the same fate as her nemesis Sarah, but that hasn’t been hardly mentioned since. Don’t get me started on the fact that the entire Sarah and Andros story has suddenly just vanished!

Finally I really want to watch “Samantha Who,” but haven’t been able to as too much is on at the same time! I’m hoping when the reruns start if they aren’t showing these over again, I’ll be able to catch-up online.

I had posted this on a personal blog, but am copying it over here. Technically I guess it is TV news, and everyone is talking about it. Feel free to add your own 2 cents (but try to keep comments tasteful!)

Like many Americans I am guessing, I only tuned into the VMAs to see Britney Spears open it. If you missed this, um, performance? Well you can watch it over at MTV. What can I say about this mess? First, the media is making her out to be a fat cow, which she’s not. She’s full figured, she’s had two kids, she has a real body. She probably should have made better wardrobe choices, but she’s by no means a fat cow. I know Britney loves to lip sych, but for her come back performance it was one time she SHOULDN’T have! She also stopped singing at times, as if she got confused or scared. As for her dancing, did she forget how? Terrible! She was stiff as a board. It is clear that she was petrified during this whole thing. Unfortunately now she’s being crucified! I don’t know, can she over come this? Will people buy her new album? Sadly I really wanted her to rock it, just to show the world and media who all talked badly about her. What can I say, I like rooting for the underdog.

-Dustin

Boy time ran away from me this week! Let’s see just how much I can remember from what I watched this week.

The final 20 performers were chosen on “So You Think You Can Dance.” I was annoyed that a lot of the ones that were cut were performers they focus so much on in regards to showing them dancing, or telling their heart wrenching stories. For example the various women who had accidents or what not and were told they’d never dance again. Half of the people chosen for the show I don’t think I really even remember from the auditions! Then again with all these shows you normally just remember the bad ones.

Sharron Osborne joined “Americas Got Talent” this year, replacing Brandy as a judge. Also Jerry Springer replaced Regis as the host. I have to say I missed both Brandy and Regis. I do love Sharon, but there is going to be drama between her and Pierce. They had a huge blow up over Pierce being too hard on the acts, especially the kids which he insulted a few times. I felt Sharron was right to say something and get offended. What ultimately ends up bothering me about this show is that it’s somewhat passed of as an amateur talent search, but it’s really not. The guy who did the Cirque De Soleil type act with the swinging scarf (I can’t figure out how to best describe it), well I saw him performing at a club in Vegas! Half of the acts from last year that made it into the finale were all located in Vegas and managed by a group. I know this because I googled one of the acts and found them all on one page. Plus I also saw the feet firing bow and arrow lady in a Vegas show as well.

Finally I also watched “My Life On The DList With Kathy Griffin.” This season Kathy has hired a male assistant/manager to replace her ex, and her own assistant Jessica got her own assistant. Jessica has grown more famous this season, Kathy joked she was more famous than her. Kathy also joked that her parents were more famous than her as well. It was great seeing her parents, love them! Sadly her father recently passed away, I don’t know if it was before they wrapped filming this season or not. The show was funny, but there was a serious tone to it as Kathy broke down in addressing the end of her marriage. Anyways, hopefully it will be a good season. Will Kathy and her new assistant hook up, or will he try and hook up with every famous person who Kathy meets.

Finally some random musings. I still need to finish the season premier of “Footballers Wives.” I’ll probably just have two weeks of comments on it when the 2nd episode airs this week. I did kind of catch the re-run of Lifetime’s “Army Wives.” It wasn’t bad, I just wished I had caught it from the beginning. I’ll have to catch the 2nd episode on rerun, as I really want to try and watch this “John in Cincinnati” show on HBO tonight.

So last night was the first of a 2 part season finale for “Dancing With The Stars.” While I thought everyone was great, the judges came down hard on them all at one point or another. I spent all my votes on Joey, as he’ll need them. I think it will ultimately go to Leila Ali though. They all get one final dance tonight though, so who knows.

Tonight is the sing off on “American Idol.” I know most of you want Blake to win, but I would rather see Jordin take it at this point. Like many of you have said, they will all go far from the exposure of this.

The “Lost” 2 hour season finale is coming up. I will be watching it just see what actually happens. Besides nothing else is on

Some possibly interesting new shows coming up this summer to talk about. A lot of new reality shows, some I don’t get at all. What’s up with this “Pirate Master” show coming up? It’s like “Survivor” meets “Amazing Race” meets “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

In August “Weeds” finally returns on Showtime. I love that show! “Dexter” comes back as well. I never finished that season, I always meant to. I wonder if it’s still on Showtime on Demand? The DVD should be out soon enough.

The cable channel FX has renewed both the Eddie Izzard and Mini Driver dramedy “The Riches” as well as Courtney Cox’s “Dirt.”

I only watched the pilot for “The Riches” and never got into it. However people say good things about it, so I’ll be getting it on DVD when it comes out. I never watched “Dirt” but have a friend who wouldn’t stop talking about it all year. I’ll be renting that one too this summer.

“Nip/Tuck” and “The Shield” are supposed to be back next season as well, but it may be the final season for both shows.

Many of you have written or commented on other shows I should pick up or try. Believe me, I have watched a lot of shows, or tried to In some cases I just don’t have enough time, in other cases something else is on at the same time that I normally watch. There are other shows that I only watch if nothing else is on and feel I just don’t follow closely enough to do a weekly comment on. “Lost” is a show that everyone in America loves, except for me it seems. I watched the first few episodes and just never got into it really.

Now the show is watched in my house and if I’m in the room I’ll somewhat pay attention. However I don’t know enough to keep up with the hard core fans I’m afraid. I realize it’s one of those shows that is fun to discuss and theorize about. This summer if I have time I MAY try and do a DVD marathon and catch up. We’ll see. Otherwise if I keep this blog/site up then I could have a guest blogger cover “Lost” perhaps

With the primetime season winding down in May, we have the whole slew of summer reality shows on the way as well as primetime summer fillers the networks didn’t want to run during the main season but give a chance during the summer. I may be picking up some of these (oh I will be watching “Project Runway”), but I’ll also continue to throw out any info about the primetime shows we all love that aren’t back till fall.

Remember, this blog/site is still a big experiment and a work in progress