Minicaps: DH, Amazing Race, Castle, HIMYM, SYTYCD

It’s sad but true that we are still behind on TV, but here’s a quick run through of some of our viewing for this week so far including Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race, Castle, HIMYM, and SYTYCD.

Desperate Housewives

We’re just going to go ahead and call it – RIP Karl. That’s the major death we’re putting our money on. We’re also going with Lynette having a miscarriage from saving Celia. We all together on that? Okay. We’ll check in after the next new episode which will be a misleading fantasy episode showing us some fake futures.

PS: I’ve just awarded Desperate Housewives 50 bonus points for naming this episode “Boom Crunch.”


Amazing Race

Meghan and Cheyne won it all, which wasn’t particularly shocking but was entirely satisfying. Anyone else ready to punch Ericka in the face by the time they were two seconds into the cirque du soleil challenge? And we were so impressed with her when she repelled down the side of that building with little to no complaining! So congrats to Meghan and Cheyne! You got the million dollars plus a whole mess of prizes from coming in first so many times. And you probably won’t break-up the second you get him, so that’s an added bonus!

Castle

Girl’s hair is finally getting less mullety, and that alone is worth a mention. On to the actual episode. Usually when we are able to recognize a guest star on shows like this we are pretty safe to say that they are involved in whatever murder/crime we are investigating (meaning, they did it!) but this week really threw us for a loop. We had:

Rider Strong

 Riley

and Cut Throat

so our minds pretty much overloaded with possibilities. Then it turned out to be some random assistant that we didn’t recognize at all! What a rip! Rider Strong has done this to us before (see his episode of Bones where he was a giant creeper red herring), but we expected more from you Riley and Cut Throat!

HIMYM

So Maggie, the girl who Ted and the rest of man kind  were all trying to get with was very familiar. Of course she’s been on Gossip Girl, Privileged, Reba, Freaks and Geeks and a whole mess of other stuff that I can place her in even though I never really watched. But just now I scroller threw her imdb and had my mind blown by her 37 episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Old school (season 3 and on). Now that I know she was Sam in the Midnight Society I totally get it, Ted.

Barney had some good stuff with his overalls challenge, and Robin was great at foiling him and throwing herself at Maggie’s friend, but the real star of this episode totally had to be past Marshal, with a future Marshal as a close runner up.

Dear Future Me,

First off, you'd better be driving either a kick-ass Camaro or the A-Team van. That's priority numero uno. And by now your rattail should hang down to your frickin' knees. You can still slam-dunk, obviously. And you've legally changed your name to "Vanilla Thunder." Your wife, let me break it down: blonde, six feet tall, has an awesome rack and caters to your every need.

(“Sorry, babe." "That's okay. You just described your mother.")

You're still rocking the stone-washed overalls, because this look is working. Oh, and most importantly, you'd better be saving the world. If you became some lame, corporate sellout? Just throw yourself off a cliff, because you suck. And I? Licky boom-boom down.

SYTYCD

Poor Russel, having his partner taken away due to an injury the day of the performance for the second time! Is he cursed or sabotaging? Hmmmm. Sorry Ashleigh. Me thinks it might be best for you and Ryan to go home together this week. If Kathryn is in the bottom again I then I seriously don’t get America. If she and Jacob don’t make it to the finale there will be hell to pay. My guesses for the bottom 2 guys and girls: Ryan, Russell, Ashleigh and Ellenore (although I would much prefer to see Mollie down there) with Ryan and Ashleigh hitting the road.

PS: Did Samantha Ronson’s remix of Easy Street make you want to stab someone or was that just us?

The bread on our Glee sandwich - SYTYCD and Modern Family

So You Think You Can Dance

We’ve finally got our top 20, y’all! We’ve got a few surprises, a few early favorites, and a few “who the hell are you”s – so basically the usual. I’m not going to go through each person, because there’s 20 of them and that’s a lot of people, but I will point out a few highlights. We are so excited that we have been granted with not one, not two, but THREE TAP DANCERS this season! Our of the tappers we are most excited for Bianca – you finally made it, girl! We were really into Phillip when we first saw him at the LA auditions. We got worried that he’s been cut since we didn’t see him at all during Vegas week. Turns out that he was being a cocky douche to the judges and they saved up all of their footage to show just before they let him into the top 20. Major attitude. Hopefully he’s had that adjusted, because we liked his dancing. The other tapper who don’t remember at all, and the tiny bit of his audition that they showed wasn’t super impressive. Lucky for him the judges were really excited to make this the “Year of the Tap”, so he snuck on in.


We were disappointed to see that Paula got in but had to self-eliminate because she got a movie contract somewhere between Vegas week and when this was filmed. We were big fans of hers from the little we saw. Blurg to scary ballroom wife getting her spot. Was there really no one else more talented that you wanted to pick? What if their next choice was sent home like two people before they get to Paula and they were like “CRAP, is she still in the building? No? Okay fine, Ashleigh it is.” Luckily we still have Ellenore who we are also really pumped about (based on the small amount we’ve seen – hey, it was enough to make us remember her, which is more than we can say for some people).

Our early favorite is Russel, the crumper. He’s pure joy. Love him. Hope he doesn’t let us down!

Also, Mia – that is a hair choice! On a side note, is anyone else a little worried about Mia? What with the whole “things haven’t been going my way” reference she made, and with her not being on the show anymore (even though she’s totally welcome back). Courtney and I are worried she might be sick. Anyone else? We hope not!


Modern Family

Man, this show can’t lose. Not only is it hilarious, but it’s also kicking some ratings ass, so well done completely surprisingly awesome comedy! There isn’t one character that I don’t find hilarious in some way. Keep on rocking and delivering awesome quotes and GIFs!

“You’re really close to ruining gay for me.” Mitchell to Jay, when Jay asks if they would check him out in a gay bar.

“For the record, you’re smokin’ hot. One hundred percent. You’re totally my type. You’re dangerous. You’re gettable. You have a little cashola in your pocket….the whole kit and kaboodle.” – Cameron’s response to Jay

SYTYCD – Double dose!

This week we were treated to 2 episodes of So You Think You Can Dance! First stop Atlanta on Tuesday, and then New Orleans on Wednesday.

Atlanta

Nigel was a big meanie tonight, right? Somehow the lack of performer to judge connection in that montage really broke him down! Anyway, on to the dancers.

Among those able to connect to the judges was Jessica Jensen, who had lost her hand to soft tissue sarcoma about a year ago. She declared that she was going to be fierce, but girl was way too sweet to be fierce. She was talented, to be sure, and inspirational in the way she’s coped with such a tragic lost, and so quickly! Her dancing was good – but not quite great, and there’s no way around the fact that she’d have major problems with partnering, as we saw in the choreography round. And yes, we’ll admit it – we were watching her stump – a lot. It was fascinating. But, she wasn’t quite strong enough in choreography to make it the Vegas this year.

The twins, Anthony and Antwain, made a return appearance (last seen in Vegas season 4). The had a great performance, but were sent to choreography anyway – and Antwain struggled. He was cut, but Anthony gets to move on to the next level.

Thomas Hamilton was a crack baby and has been raised by his aunt since his mom was and is still an addict. He had a great contemporary solo, although nit-picking Nigel told him to be careful with the “praise” dancing towards the end because it disconnects from the audience. He gets to take his heartbreaking back story and fly on off to Vegas.

There was also young Billy Bell, who only started dancing 5 years ago. He has great flexibility and extensions, but the judges managed to find a couple of things to pick on him about, because that’s their job. No worries though, because he get sent straight to Vegas as well.

Not making it to Vegas (thank god!) was Creepy McSexual Harassy, also known as “Boogie Links”. He hit on everything that moved. He even dared to make a move on Cat Deeley! How DARE he? She was having none of that. We were only a little disappointed that he wasn’t completely awful. He made it to choreography, but that was the end of the line.

New Orleans

Next stop New Orleans, where we were missing Nigel since he was off receiving an honorary diploma in the good old UK (remember when he was missing for an episode last season?). Mary Murphy was looking ROUGH, girl! Don’t worry, she was fully recovered for day 2. Joining her in Nigel’s absence were Lil’ C and Adam Shankman. Outside, Cat got her dance on too, which is always fun.

Here’s an abbreviated run though of some of the notable dancers:

Shelby “Skip” Skipper – master of the New Orleans Bounce, which is interesting and fun and apparently good enough to get sent straight through to Vegas. This boy has no idea what he’s in for in, as he is clearly not a viewer of the show. So we’ll see how that goes for him!

Kimalee Piedad – danced “theatre arts – ball room division”, which is apparently a real genre because Mary Murphy seems to have heard of it. She described it as like pairs figure skating, but with out the ice – which is pretty much what it was. Beautiful lifts (which she held for a ridiculously wrong time) great extensions, and it all seemed effortless. To Vegas with you, girl!

Diana Drexler – sweet girl, decent dancer, is mostly headed to Vegas because of the heart wrenching story of her grandfather passing away between when she left for New Orleans and her audition. She poured her grief into her dancing, and it seemed to work out for her. She probably wouldn’t have brought her grandfather up at all, but the producers were all over that shit. Oh, and she’s 29. Prepare to have that mentioned over and over again, ala Melissa last year.

Justin Kenney – b-boy who was in a horrible car accident, which makes it difficult for him to do some the head moves from his repertoire. Luckily he’s got some mad skills and killer flares, plus he’s darling to look at. Off to Vegas.

Edward Spots – he was buried in a montage of good people going to Vegas, but he just lit up the room and I couldn’t go without saying how much we love him already and really hope he makes it. He’s a ball of sunshine with a smile that just won’t quit. Hope we get to see more of him!

Those are all the people I care to devote any time to for this time around. Next time we finally hit Vegas, which sometimes is our favorite part of the whole season. Can’t wait!

SYTYCD - Wicked Pisser Edition

My goal is to make this relatively brief. Let’s see that goes! *Spoiler Alert!* I totally fail.


First up on last night’s list of successfully viewed TV shows is:

So You Think You Can Dance

Hey, look at all of those dancers they’re showcasing! Only a few cringe worthy appearances. We finally got to see some focus on the men, they showed even more of the choreography round, Cat Deeley being adorable and trying to speak with a Boston accent – “park the car in Harvard Yard” and “wicked pisser” have never sounded so classy, and Tyce made us want to punch him in the face several times.

Auditions this week were in Boston. Don’t worry, Pat, Courtney, and I totally auditioned with an excellent piece set to the Manwich song, music provided by Courtney – I don’t know why that didn’t make the cut! Anyway, Cat Deeley says “Hey girl!” Or did we totally make that up? So hard to tell.

Some of the quality dancing highlights included:

•  Kimara Wood - dreadlocked contemporary dancer with can fly and hypnotize you with his hair
•  Channing - who we aren’t sure how we feel yet because most of her dancing was stretching and rolling around on the ground. We do know that she like ice cream, so she’s already more interesting than Kayla
• Jean Lloret - b-boy who started slow and had us worried for a second, until he broke out his power moves which blew everyone’s minds. He got 3 tickets to vegas and not a single criticism
•  Teddy Tedholm - who must be whimsical because he’s wearing funny pants and a bow-tie. He didn’t actually do that much dancing, but we’ll have to wait until Vegas to see if he has what it takes
• Married ballroom couple Karen and Matthew Hauer - meh. They were good, but now seem a little boring in retrospect
•  Kevin ''K'Bez'' Hunte - hip-hopped who Tyce went OFF on for not showing more of what he had worked on between last auditions and now, but they ended up sending him along to Vegas after the choreography round anyways
• Russell Ferguson - a crumper who managed to entertain us without making us think we were going to get murdered (what? Crumping is scary sometimes!)

In the, he’s just so adorable but too gigantic to function department, we saw 6’ 8” Ryan Casey, who put on a decent tap performance. His feet seemed to know what they were doing, but the rest of his body couldn’t quite keep up. Right now he’s a little too ungainly for the show, and would definitely be too tall to partner, but the kid’s only 18 and has a bright future ahead of him. He might be able to work on work on becoming more graceful and coordinated. Shrinking at least 8 inches? Probably not so much.

In this, why oh why on earth are you even showing us this department, we had 46 year old Paul Magliato who was well beyond the competition’s age limit (why did you even let him on the stage, guys?) and wore the tightest, most disgusting pants imaginable. I tried to find a picture of him so that he could haunt your dreams a little further – but the internet has failed me. Don’t worry though, google tells me he has a facebook page and he wants to be your friend.

So You Think You Can Glee

First off we'd like to lodge a formal complaint that DirecTv hates Fox in HD. OR it hates us. This could be equally possible. For some reason this channel is an Epic Fail in HD. It always freezes up, the sound goes wonky, and it ends up skipping huge chunks of episodes. As a result we've had to totally bail on trying to record anything in HD on Fox. This is particularly bothersome since Fox has so many of the shows that we really want in HD (Dollhouse, Fringe, Glee, Bones, are all way prettier in HD). Whatevs.

Anyway, on to our non-HD viewing of Fox from last evening.

So You Think You Can Dance

We had a rocking good b-boy, a reasonably talented deaf girl who made Mary cry, an enjoyable male same-sex couple that made Mia cry, and an overly excited guy whose screams of joy made my ears cry. We got to see a bit more of the choreography round this episode - which filled us with Pasha and Anya love. Once again, we didn't really get to see that many dancers (a casualty of the 1hr format), and they seemed to be overly focusing on the girls.

Most importantly, we're pretty sure Cat Deeley saved Jarvis's life. The aforementioned  overly excited screaming guy got through the choreographer (much to Nigel and Mia's own shock when they agreed to send him there), and promptly had a asthma attack (although at the time he thought it might have been a heart attack). Who came rushing to his side? A medic, maybe a producer or two . . . and CAT DEELEY, BITCHES! That right. She was at his side the whole time, while the other contestants danced around them (the show must go on). She supported him as he hobbled off stage. When was the last time you saw Seacrest do that, hmmmmmmm?

Glee

Glee continues to fill our hearts with joy. There is so much to love about this show. For example, the following progression of events which pretty much made me pee my pants.

Can't even handle it. Best. Cake. Ever.

On a more heartwarming note, Kurt made us cry a little when he came out to Mercedes. *SPOILER ALERT* Word on the street is that we'll be seeing him come out to his father next week. *END SPOILER ALERT* But seriously, Mercedes? Girl needs to work on her gaydar. Like whoa. At least she got a fierce musical number out of it.

Big shout outs to Victor Garber and Debra Monk as Will's parents! Neither of them broke out into song this week, but I think we can be pretty confident that they'll show up again. Victor Garber's bow ties stole the show, and Courtney's heart (which has always belonged to him anyway - so that's cool).

Will slayed me with all of the "This is how we do it"'s he sang straight at the camera. Every time. Win.

And now, some of our favorite quotes from the night:

“The way you use your mental illness to help these kids is really inspiring…and I’m SHOCKED you’re not married!” ~ Sue to Emma

“'Who’s Josh Groban?' Kill yourself!” ~ Sandy

“Josh Groban loves a blousy alcoholic.” ~ Josh Groban trying to seduce Will's drunk mother.

“They say it takes more certainty than talent to become a star. I mean look at John Stamos.” ~ Emma

Speaking of John Stamos, you might recognize Whit Hertford (who played Dakota Stanley in tonight's episode) from his turn as Walter (AKA Duck-lips) on Full House.




On a side note, did anyone else think the saw Lauren from Season 3 of SYTYCD in the front row of Vocal Adrenaline? Apparently she was uncredited in the Pilot (probably in their Rehab number).

This post was brought to you by Victor Garber's Bow Tie

TV is back and all is right with the world.

Well, we didn't make it to Top Chef yet, but all in all we had a pretty successful evening of TV viewing.

So You Think You Can Dance:
Tap-a-tap-a-tap-a! If a tapper doesn't make it into the top 20 this year I (Amy) will eat my fist. We saw some pretty awesome dancing in general, but the whole thing felt very rushed in the 1 hour format. We only saw a quick flash of the choreography rounds, which was a crime because PASHA and ANYA were there! Rushed or not, we're delighted to have you back, SYTYCD. We missed you, Cat!

Glee:

“That was the most offensive thing I’ve seen in 20 years of teaching — and that includes an elementary school production of Hair.” ~ Sue

There is nothing about this show that we don't love. Without being too spoilery for those who haven't watched yet, here are a few quick highlights.

• The chalk scene between Will and Emma just about made our hearts explode.
• We love Terri. Don't get us wrong - we are 100% pro Will and Emma, but Terri is just so ridiculous. "And this is where our daughter or gay son will sleep!" 
• Artie and Tina need to get some more play, because I just had to double check their names on imdb.
•  Jane Lynch is a comedy genius. She should always be on our TV. We'll be shocked if she isn't nominated for an Emmy next year.

ANTM - short people edition:
What-up with the makeovers in the first episode, Tyra! Or should I say "Ty Overs" as the Jays informed us they should now be called. Holy bleached eyebrows, Batman! Nothing all that super dramatic this time around. We're digging the lethargic red-head who used to take a rusty wheel barrow to school instead of a backpack.

That's all for now!