How DO I solve this? (Hint: DVR)

Why do the tv gods hate me? Tomorrow night is a veritable bonanza of shows I want to watch. I already knew the Tonys would be on--with Neil Patrick Harris hosting. Awesome! I'm one of the 10 people who regularly watches the Tonys, so I was already psyched. But then I realized that some idiot at BBC America scheduled the finale of Any Dream Will Do, which is a 2-year-old reality show casting for the part of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And of course I'm watching. How can I not? Some of my earliest memories involve listening to that record. My favorite, Daniel Boys, was tragically cut a few weeks ago (why, Andrew Lloyd Webber, why?) and I've been spoiled on who wins for ages, but I can't miss this show! And afterwards, they're starting to air How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, which was done the year before ADWD and cast the role of Maria in The Sound of Music. Awesome! Surely the people at BBC America had to realize the people who watch shows casting roles in West End productions would want to watch the Tonys, correct? It can't be that big an audience that they think it's a smart idea to split it, right?

And then I was going through the "What to Watch" in last week's Entertainment Weekly when I see that the first episode of The Next Food Network Star ALSO airs tomorrow night. Good Lord, people! Thank God for my dual-tuner DVR.

BOBSLED!

I've enjoyed The Amazing Race since its early season. I even went to a few TARCons in New York (I want to say for Seasons 3 and 4, maybe). It's such a great show; you get to see fabulous places, and the placement of the teams is largely in their own hands.

Tonight's leg was one of my favorites ever, based entirely on where they went and what they did. They went to Siberia. How awesome is that? I want to go to Russia and think it would be so cool to get to Siberia; or, at least, get as far east as where the Romanovs were killed. (Because yes, I find that intriguing.) You know what would rock? Going on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Um. Anyway. Cool!

And then, as if going to Sibera wasn't enough, they had BOBSLED! It was very similar to the bobsled I did in Jamaica last December, and seriously, every time they showed it, I got all happy. And then annoyed that most of the teams hadn't heard of Chekhov. It's not like he isn't famous, people. I shudder to think of what the Russian judge there thought of us. I'm sure she's heard of Mark Twain, you know?

So thanks, Amazing Race. You totally made my night.

Plus, I've totally seen a bunch of members of the royal family!

Now that I have a bit of spare time, I'm finally tackling the backlog on my DVR. Which means that I just got around to watching Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work. (It aired originally in November. My DVR backlog is nothing to my Netflix queue--290 and counting!) It reminded me, not surprisingly, of Windsor Castle: A Royal Year, which premiered not long before Monarchy started filming. One thing I realized was that I could never be a royal, because I am far too lazy. These folks are crazy busy. I imagine it's part of a PR campaign for the monarchy...though, have these aired in Britain, too? Because otherwise, there's no point, other than to satiate Americans' curiousity about the monarchy. In one part of Monarchy, it addresses the anti-monarchy sentiment, and one guy talks about how Americans like the queen, but (paraphrasing) when he asks whether we'd want to take her back with us, we're all, "No! But we like her. It's so quaint!" and Britain isn't "quaint," it's a powerful nation and even spending 60 pence a person per year on the monarchy is too much.

OK, I cop to traveling around England and thinking that towns are cute. (Because they are!) But I don't really think that the monarchy is "quaint." The negative reaction of Americans toward bringing home a queen quite possibly has something to do with our country's history and less about being "quaint." And some of the money being spent on the monarchy is going to be spent even if there is no royalty--there will still be state dinners and stuff that need to be paid for. Plus, there is something to be said for having separate heads of state and heads of government.

What I found particularly interesting was how people reacted to meeting the Queen. A typical interaction would have the Queen ask a few question and the person answer. Afterward, they would invariably say that she seemed incredibly interested. There was even a point where she had dinner, and the chef was all, "She loved it! Enjoyed every bite!" There seems to be quite a bit of projection going on, but at the same time, this is a woman who clearly is very good at her job. It's impressive.

And yes, clearly, I'm pro-monarchy. This is possibly my Anglophilia rearing its head. But still. The entire family came across as very likable, and I can't help but wish good things for them.

So meaty!

I watched Talk Soup back in the Greg Kinnear and John Henson days, and enjoy The Soup these days. Due to Joel McHale's recent appearance in DC, the Post had a decent-sized article on the two the other day. I quite enjoy the show; it's a good way to keep up on what's going on in the insane reality television world (and world of children's television; Yo Gabba Gabba now frightens me, and I hope that my niece never discovers it). Seriously, without this show, I'd have no idea who the people from The Hills are. This wouldn't necessarily be bad, mind you, but I would miss out on quite a few pop culture references. And we can't have that.

Round-up

It's not that I'm not partaking of any entertainment lately. I am. Just nothing particularly inspiring (though I did do the dance of joy when Dan won Big Brother last night--and even more so when Keesha won the Juror Prize; woo!). So what have I been up to lately?

• I'm in the middle of three books: Ghost Map, Invisible Cities, and Baseball Between the Numbers. I'm enjoying Ghost Map the most; interesting topic (cholera!), good writing, fascinating people. Plus, history and London. Win win! Invisible Cities is more enjoyable than I thought it would be; in general, I'm not a huge fan of abstract writing. But the descriptions of some of the cities are quite fun. Baseball Between the Numbers is best read in small doses, with some skimming when the numbers get a bit too dense. Some of the revelations are interesting, but I fear that I'm not retaining much.
• I haven't stopped watching tv. Maybe at some point I'll write about the shows I'm watching; Privileged, for example, is cute, but I have a feeling that unless I remember to season pass it on my DVR, I'll totally forget about it.
• Haven't seen any movies lately. The last thing I watched from Netflix was a DVD of extras to a season of Dr. Who. Right now, I have Catch-22 and Mad Hot Ballroom out.
• Signature is doing a production of Les Mis. As you can imagine, I am through the roof. Signature + Les Mis = WIN. I'm so psyched for this. And they're doing backstage tours! Holy crow! Made of awesome! The only thing that might make it better would be if Will Gartshore were in it, but I don't know who he could play--he's a bit too old for the students, I think.
• There are some other productions coming up I'm excited about--Ragtime at the Kennedy Center, Grey Gardens at the Studio, Arcadia at the Folger. It's a good theater season. Altar Boyz is at the Bethesda Theatre, and I'm thinking of checking that out.
• I need to make it to the Newseum and see the FBI exhibit. I have until next June, at least.

Um, fairly clean, I think

I have gotten hooked on How Clean Is Your House? on BBC America. Love it. Every time I feel bad about my apartment getting a bit dusty, I just think of this show, and am totally over it. (I mean, they not infrequently have to use shovels to get to the floor in these homes.) Plus, it's so fun seeing homes in Britain! And fabulous accents! And Kim calling everyone "My love"!

I just can't imagine being one of the people doing the heavy lifting in the background. Talk about completely gross work for very little benefit. Of course, I suppose at least they do get to be on television; after all, there are people out there doing that kind of work who don't get to be on tv.

It would be nice if they had a show where they revisited a bunch of people. Each episode does show how the person is doing a couple weeks or a month later, but I want to know how everyone's coping in 6 months, or a year. Like how What Not to Wear does the occasion episode where they bring back people they've made over, to see how things are holding up. Because some of the people on this show seem to have more issues than just letting the cleaning going for a little while.

Dan FTW! Hopefully

As I believe I've written about before, I generally start watching Big Brother, then give up somewhere in the middle of the season. The people annoy me too much, I find other things to do, etc. But this season...I don't think I've enjoyed a season this much since Season 2, when Dr. Will triumphed. Even though the house broke into alliances, they all pretty much got along for quite some time--much longer than usual. And while some people totally sucked, nobody got anywhere near as bad as some of the previous players (Dick, Boogie). And for a while, the alliances were actually somewhat fluid. Plus, throughout, most of the players have kept in mind that it is, you know, a game. Not everyone, but a lot of them.

Also, Dan. Dan is awesome. He's playing a fascinating game; he took elements of Will's game (looking weak), but adapted it. Other people since Will have had good strategies, but I think Dan's is probably the strongest, as he knows that it is something that has to change throughout the season. You can't stick to one thing. Plus, until very recent events, he's been pretty good at being friendly with everyone in the house, which is crucial.

Will last night screw him over in the long run? Getting Ollie and Michelle that pissed at him won't help him if he makes the final two; on the other hand, now we get to see how completely insane they are. And besides, Dan got $20K for being America's Player for a week. Win win.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

What do you get when you combine Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, and musicals? Awesomeness. Pure hilarity. I'm totally pumped for the next two acts. I'm just trying to figure out how Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris met. I can't help but notice that the other two leads had appeared in previous Whedon shows. (Actually, now that I think about it, they were both in Season 7 of Buffy. Nathan Filian, of course, also did Firefly. It took me a second before I could place Felicia Day as one of the Potentials on Buffy that season.)

Anyway, you definitely should check it out. And do not miss the very end. Hee.

You're the Elle that we want

I am, of course, watching Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, the reality show involving girls competing to replace Laura Bell Bundy. Just like I watched Grease: You're the One That I Want that searched for Danny and Sandy in the latest revival of Grease.

The Legally Blonde show is way better than the Grease one. It's not even a contest, really. The Grease show was based on a British show that cast Maria for The Sound of Music, and was largely reminiscent of American Idol. Each week, the finalists would perform a song, and that's really the sole thing they were judged on. If I recall, the finalists did do some work on acting, and we did see them perform group songs from the show, but the viewers voted, and the main basis was the individual songs. Which weren't from the show. Which weren't necessarily in the style of the songs in the show.

There are any number of problems here, not the least of which is that the viewers chose the winners. The American public doesn't necessarily want the most talented people; they want the most interesting people. In my opinion, it worked out; I really liked Laura and Max. But if I were the producers, the whole process would keep me awake at night. The other main problem is that so little of the process dealt with Grease. We saw them do production numbers, but that's about it. We were told they had instruction in dance and acting, but again, saw very little of it. It was almost entirely the finalists' solos each week that led to eliminations.

Part of the reason, I think, is that the audience already knows Grease. Well, the movie version, anyway, but the stage versions are starting to be based more on the movie than on the original stage production--as evidenced by You're the One That I Want, which wasn't in the original Broadway production. But since the London revival in the mid-90s, there those movie songs are.

Sure, people know Legally Blonde the movie, but the songs in the musical are entirely new. It was a perfect show to use for this kind of reality program, as the viewers know the story and the main characters, so they don't need primers on that, but they don't know the songs. It's a great introduction to get people interested in seeing the play (if they missed it when MTV aired it a few months back).

And the show is done much better. Each week, the contestants work on either singing or acting or dancing. The most recent episode had them working on a dance routine, and that's what they were judged on (in addition to their overall work). And they're doing material from the show itself--again, it gives the audience a bit of the show, but it also gives the judges (a known casting agent, the author of the book of the show, and an actor in the show) a chance to view each girl as Elle and see whether she works in that capacity. You know, like an actual audition would.

Plus, there's the awesomeness of seeing the girls living together, and all the cattiness that involves. The girl eliminated this past week refers to the other finalists as "little girls" and was completely bitter. One of the girls eliminated last week was told by the casting agent that she would make a good swing--which is quite the compliment, as the actress is only around 20--and she totally copped a 'tude, all, "Whatever, I want to be the star." Fabulous!

And if there's one thing I learned, it's that dang, some of those Legally Blonde songs are catchy. I periodically get "Omigod You Guys" in my head. And I only know, "Oh my God, oh my God, you guys. This one's perfect and it's just my size!" Pathetic. Also, it seems like the relationship between Elle and Emmett is a bit fleshed out in the musical, so I'm hoping a future episode has some of their scenes.

This all kind of reminds me of some of my thoughts on The Next Food Network Star, but it's far too late. Maybe another time.

Too bad Anderson missed the Best Reality Show Host category

I am so happy The Mole is back. SO happy. It's kind of hard to believe that it's back at all; I mean, it last aired something like 4 years ago. Sure, it doesn't have Anderson Cooper hosting, but the new guy doesn't seem too bad. (Of course, I don't have the antipathy toward Ahmad Rashad--who hosted the celebrity editions--that a lot of other people seem to have.) I mean, check out this quote from his blog:

One of my all-time favorite comments so far? That Anderson Cooper and I actually resemble each other! No joke. One guy even wrote that we must be, "brothers from another mother." That is CLASSIC! For those of you who might get us mixed up, I’ll help you out with a little hint: if you look very closely, I have a small freckle under my right eye. He doesn’t. So as long as you stay aware of that, you should be good.
Oh, and I’m black.

For the record, I, like many of you, thoroughly enjoyed watching Anderson Cooper lead the way through season’s 1 & 2. He’s smart, funny, talented and I dig his style. Cooper no question was an important thread and a solid part of the show’s appeal. Knowing he held the reigns to this hosting position before I did, made this role even more appealing.

It's just a good show. Part of the appeal is that, unlike the vast majority of reality shows out there, the audience isn't involved in who stays and who goes. Like The Amazing Race, people get booted because of how they're playing the game.

And what a game. Physical challenges, mental challenges, combinations...and then there are the bizarro challenges. Man, what I would give to see the "Tiny Bubbles" game from Season 2. (Why do you let me down, YouTube???)

It does seem that the contestants are a bit more obnoxious than I remember them being in the first two seasons (I'm looking at you, Nicole and Paul, and don't get too comfortable there, Mark). But it may be that I just don't remember; maybe I should snatch the first season DVDs off my Amazon wishlist. (It's only $14!)

Who do I think is the Mole? Got me. I'm quite bad at this. It seems like a lot of people are going with Clay, and I've seen good arguments for Craig. Give me a few weeks and maybe I'll have a firmer notion; right now I'm really just rooting for Paul to get executed.

Hmm. Maybe audience voting isn't such a bad thing.

Guiltiest pleasure

I admit it. I watch Big Brother. It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but I can't help myself. I started watching with Season 2, and honestly I should've stopped, because it's all been downhill since then. (Seriously, you cannot top Dr. Will that season.) For the past few seasons, I've started watching and then stopped partway through the season, unable to put up with the horribleness of the hamsters any longer. This frustration, to put it mildly, peaked last season with Dick, who more than lived up to his name. After reading of what he did on the live feeds and seeing what CBS showed--seeing the insanely favorable edit he got--I couldn't take it anymore.

And yet somehow I'm back. I'm keeping myself sane by not reading about the goings-on shown on the feeds (though, like everyone else, I couldn't help but hearing about the "orgy" the other night), and I don't know it's whether everyone pales in comparison to Dick or what, but I'm finding the current group nowhere near as bad as last year.

It may be other things, too. With everyone playing as teams, the game is going a lot faster. Plus, I get some odd pleasure at seeing it actually raining at the Big Brother house. It apparently rarely rains in LA during the summer, but that's not an issue during the winter. There's less of people wandering around solely in bathing suits (though some of that still happens), and I like watching the hammies shiver outside during competitions.

Yes, I realize it's wrong that the more the hamsters suffer, the more pleasure I get out of the show. But if you look at past America's Choices, I'm far from alone in that view.