With a massive move on the agenda, this was quite a busy week at work. All activities not directly related to the move were put on hold for another time (I finally have a minute to breathe- at the end of the work week). Outside the office, work was definitely on my mind but I still found time to think about the potentially good news that I received regarding an extracurricular activity. And of course, I tuned into some of the new shows (and some not-so-new favorites) that TV networks have been trotting out all week. Most notably of the new crop are Lifetime’s
Drop Dead Diva, TNT’s
Dark Blue, and Bravo’s
Miami Social. First,
Miami Social totally sucks and is in no way DVR-worthy. The show follows a group of friends in their professional and personal lives. Predictably, there’s lots of “heartfelt” discussions about relationships. We’ve seen so many shows like this (think
Housewives of ...), do we really need another? I don’t think so.
Both
Dark Blue and
Drop Dead Diva, on the other hand, delivered all that they promised and more. The former is the latest from Jerry Bruckheimer (
CSI franchise) and centers around a special team of undercover agents who infiltrate criminal enterprises on a regular basis. The storyline is great and so far, it seems like the characters are well-written. I can’t wait to see how they are developed over the course of the series, although I suspect that this particular show will be much darker than any of the
CSI series.
Drop Dead Diva by contrast is light comedy fare featuring a size two, unemployed ditz-type whose soul leaps into the body of a plus-size lawyer when they both die around the same time. One interesting fact: the main character still has her old memories but is now smarter than she’s ever been thanks to her new brain. How could that be? Still, from the first episode and from the preview of the entire series, this comedy promises to be heartwarming and is actually funny. Happy weekend!
Glee's season finale aired last night and I have to say, I loved every minute of it. I loved every performance and was particularly touched by the last two songs from students to teacher and the one from Shuester to his students (I particularly like this version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Israel "IZ" KamakawiwoÊ»ole ever since I first heard it during an episode of Cold Case). Undoubtably, this season has had it's ups (Idina Menzel) and downs and I haven’t always been pleased with the song choices or the cast’s rendition of them (ex. “One” - hated it!) But last night I was not at all disappointed. I’m a child of the 80s so having the New Directions group perform a Journey mash-up was the way to go to hook me. Frankly, pretty much any pop/rock/easy listening songs that came out in the late 70s through the 80s is A-okay with me. But Journey is definitely one of my favorites. I didn’t mind the set performed by Vocal Adrenaline either (I can see how they could have won). And although I didn’t like Jesse’s voice too much the first time that I heard him sing, I ‘m taking a second look after last night. Santana is another one who has been steadily growing on me. To me, Rachel’s voice tends to get whiny at times and Mercedes is the diva with the big voice but characters like Santana, Puck, and Tina continue to draw me in with their rich unique sounds. I really liked that everyone got a chance to showcase their voices in the finale and I look forward to seeing what's in store for next season.
While watching Glee, I happened to look up long enough between commercials to notice that ABC Family is premiering a new show, Huge. Gee, I wonder what this one is all about? And who else but Nikki Blonsky would star in it. I seem to recall a lifetime movie that was based on a similar premise-accepting yourself for who you are beneath the surface and so on -and you know who was the star there as well. But I’m not complaining. I happen to like these type of shows, where you know that everything will be okay in the end, and I actually think that Nikki is a good choice to play the lead. Will it be a good show? I don’t know but I’m hoping.
I haven’t gotten around to watching the complete premiere episode of Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva as yet but what I saw during the first ten minutes is causing me to pause. Seriously! An impromptu song-and-dance number featuring Paula Abdul? Is that how they really want to start the season off? I’ve heard Jane sing in past episodes and why not, old girl has a good voice. But seeing it in this episode, the whole dream sequence in the food court strikes me as just a tad…cheesy. Here’s hoping the rest of the episode is better than the first ten minutes. 
