Seriously, People? Just call her Reba

Got the new issue of People magazine in today's mail. Scanned through it quickly (is there ever anything worth reading anymore?) until I got to the last page. It featured "Chatter" with Reba McIntyre.



Reba McIntyre? Seriously? Who's that?

I know Reba McEntire has been in the public eye for at least three decades, spanning music, acting (including her own tv series), and even on Broadway. So how can a magazine as well known as People make that big of a fiasco out of her last name? And it's not just a one-letter typo, but two. Maybe it's time for Reba to just stick with the one-name thing.

Just call her Reba.

That's all you need to know anyway.

Finally Friday This N That

Yay, it’s finally Friday.

Let me be more specific. It’s finally THIS Friday.

I really hate those 12-day work weeks. So, THIS Friday actually means two days of “non-work” (I won’t go as far as saying “rest & relaxation) coming up. And considering that Mother Nature’s been very… agreeable this winter & spring (wonders never cease, I know) It seems that I will actually have to get out & mow lawn – even before April gets here. Wow.

On the TV front, the basketball tournaments have killed any flow for regular shows. They’re new one week, repeats the next. It sucks – especially since it’s getting down to season finale time.

Speaking of finales, this week had part 1 of the 2-part ending for season 2 of Body of Proof. It kind of sucked that there was a lot of acting in hazmat suits. The promo for next week’s finale seems pretty good, as we continue the story following Kate’s collapse at the podium. As much as I like Dana Delany, it seems that Jeri Ryan’s Kate has become the star of the show for me. Her character reminds me a lot of Catherine Willows.

Speaking of both Catherine Willows and Dana Delany, I’ve been re-watching China Beach episodes this week. Each time I watch, I seem to adore Marg as K.C. even more (if that’s possible). Now, if only we could get Marg to guest on some current show. I’m really going into Marg withdrawl.

Marg’s former CSI co-star, Liz Vassey, tweeted yesterday that she’ll be back on Necessary Roughness again soon as Gabrielle. I’ve only watched a few episodes of that show, including her two previous appearances. I loved her character.

Another CSI alum, Louise Lombard (Sofia) tweeted that today was her final day filming the FOX pilot titled, Rogue, with Julian McMahon. Hopefully the pilot gets picked up. It'll be great to see her on tv again. I wish she'd have come back on CSI, at least for the season finale since it seems that dipshit McKeen (the guy who killed Warrick) will be back.

Laura Innes returned as Captain Tricia Harper on Awake last night. It seems she had a little bit more screen time last night than in her initial appearance. I hope she comes back soon. I love seeing her as the HBIC. Her character very much reminds me of Bonnie Bedelia’s Captain Kate McCafferty on The Division.

On the subject of guest appearances – Stargate alums Christopher Judge & Jay Acovone were both on last night’s episode of The Mentalist as a chief of security at a casino & casino boss. Hearing Chris’ deep voice on tv again was great, but it was even more pleasing to see him in a nice, crisp suit. Oh, and his shiny head again as well.


Speaking of shiny…
The promo poster for the revamped version of Dallas seems a bit squeaky clean.

Are they really going to get us interested in a revamping of the old show by reminding us of the infamous “it’s all just a dream” fiasco of a storyline from the original? Seriously? At least they put Larry Hagman & Patrick Duffy in the back. And it’s nice to have Larry with his hat on as well. Just one big question – how much photoshopping was actually done for that poster?

I got the new issue of Entertainment Weekly in today’s mailbox, and was pleased to see that much of the cast of Downton Abbey has a number of other projects coming out soon as well.

This N That rambles

Wow. Where have I been? It seems forever since the last BS session.

I guess time flies when you’re bombarded with March Madness, a bad case of spring fever, and nothing to watch on tv.

Plus, we lost an hour last weekend as well with Daylight Saving Time.

So, let’s play catch-up. Or how about we just play catch?

Yes, baseball spring training is underway. I can only hope my MN Twins can improve upon their 99-loss season from last year. Then again, with 99 losses, there really is only one way to go, right? I hope.

Was anyone paying attention to the hubbub last week about the solar flares? All I could think of is that it would be cool to have a working stargate so I could go through the wormhole during the solar flare and go back in time 30 years. (Stargate SG1’s “1969” episode is one of my favorites) Yes, watching Stargate has turned me into a geek, I guess.

On the tv front –
I just fast-forwarded through last week’s episode of “Awake” and watched the Laura Innes parts. Some of her appearance reminded me of Bonnie Bedelia’s Kate McCafferty on “The Division”. I hope she has more screen time as the series continues.

Louise Lombard just tweeted last night that she’s got a role in an upcoming pilot for FOX and her character will be a spy. I can only cross my fingers & toes that it gets picked up. It would be great to see her back on tv regularly again.

Some NCIS news from last week –
I heard that Karina Lombard will be making an upcoming appearance on the show. She was so good on the L Word. I think the last time I saw her was on CSI’s “A la cart” from season 8.

Also coming up on NCIS, Paula Newsome returns as Jackie Vance on the March 27th episode. I’m not usually a fan of Director Vance but them having Paula play his wife actually makes me like the character more.

Thinking of Paula reminds me yet again how much I miss Women’s Murder Club, which in turn reminds me of how similar Rizzoli & Isles is to that show.

I mean, seriously, did James Patterson & Tess Gerritsen take the same story but just make different character names? Or maybe instead of Tess, I should say Janet Tamaro, since the R&I books are much different than the tv show. Let’s take a look at the similarities in the two shows:

- Lindsay Boxer/Jane Rizzoli – yes, they’re both played by Angie Harmon, but the characters themselves are almost identical as well.

- Both Lindsay & Jane ended up acquiring a dog in the pilot episode.

- Both rely on their best friends to solve cases (Jane/Maura and Lindsay/Claire/Jill/Cindy)

- both Lindsay & Jane had personal issues with their new lieutenants - Lindsay with her ex, Tom, and Jane with her childhood friend/nemesis Joey Grant.

- both series included Jane/Lindsay haunted by a serial killer.

- let’s match up the other characters as well:
*Korsak vs Jacoby – both grizzled, three times divorced, and both were passed over for the Lieutenant’s position early in the series. (Korsak wins this match-up just because it’s Bruce McGill)

*Maura vs Claire – both M.E.’s, patient, science-oriented. (This one’s a toss-up.)

*Frost vs Jill/Cindy – Frost & Cindy are computer oriented, good at digging up ‘dirt’. Frost also does a lot of the legal stuff (warrants, etc), which is handled by Jill on WMC. (the girls win this one)

*Tom/Heather/Marty vs the Rizzolis – on WMC, Lindsay has the family baggage of her ex & his new wife, plus her estranged father –whose life was left hanging in the balance at the end of the show. On R&I, Jane has the baggage of her entire crazy family, plus the intrigue of a mobster biodad for Maura, as well as the rich woman/poor woman issue. (No contest – the Rizzoli/Isles/Doyle drama wins. Hands down)

While I think I like the WMC team of Lindsay/Claire/Jill/Cindy better (even though the Jane/Maura interaction is cute), I do enjoy the Rizzoli family more than the Lindsay/ex-husband stuff – although I must say that one of my all-time favorite episodes is the one on WMC where we get the backstory of Lindsay’s miscarriage (“Maybe Baby”). And I actually did like the way they started to evolve the Lindsay/Heather relationship – going from frosty to amiable. I can’t help but chuckle every time I rewatch the R&I ep “Living Proof” - where Ever Carradine is a baddie – and think about Lindsay/Heather.

The detriment for WMC is that it only had 13 episodes (14 if you include the unaired pilot – which was extremely different from the series) to bring us that character evolvement, where R&I has had two seasons & counting.

And finally, did you notice that the episode titles for both shows are usually made up of clichés?

On your calendar:
Coming up this Friday – Fairly Legal & In Plain Sight both return on USA Network – and they’re even back-to-back, which is nice.

It’s sad to remember that this is the final season for IPS. I’ve enjoyed four seasons of Mary & Marshall snark. I’m going to miss that. This season should be fun with the baby & all.

Also premiering this week is the new Ashley Judd show, Missing.

I’m not sure why, but whenever I see a premise for a kidnapping series, my thoughts go back to the pilot Marg did back in the mid-90s called “Keys”, with Gary Dourdan, Brett Cullen, and Ralph Waite. I really wish that had been picked up so the story of her search for her son could have continued. For anyone who’s seen that pilot… wasn’t that true foreshadowing of what was to come for Marg on CSI? Her character, Kick, did a lot of CSI-type sleuthing in “Keys”.

Speaking of CSI – did anyone ever picture David Hodges’ mother as being Jaclyn Smith?

Mid-Week This n That

The end of February is nearing. Is there any way we can just skip ahead to the end of March now and avoid March Madness? It definitely gets to be ‘madness’ at work for at least the first couple weeks of March. Talk about sports overload.

Last weekend, I finished watching the first two seasons of Downton Abbey. Strangely enough, I spent 9 hours sitting on my bed watching it…with my MOTHER. I swear that had to be the weirdest day of my life. Anyway, by the end of season 2, I think I finally had learned all of the characters’ names. I mean, seriously, that show has so darn many characters – and it keeps going so fast - that it’s hard to remember who’s who. I just want to give Anna a real big hug. I don't know how they're going to get Bates out of his predicament. And I was clapping for Matthew & Mary at the end.

Last night brought another lovely episode of NCIS, and last night’s appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis just strengthened my belief that this show ALWAYS gets the best guest stars. Unlike some shows, that shall remain nameless (CSI), this show has always found a way to use those characters to their fullest, and usually doesn’t waste the performances of great guest actors. It’s good to see that JLC’s character, Dr Ryan, wasn’t the baddie and she will be back later (as confirmed by Pauley P). The only recurring character that semi-annoys me is Kate’s sister, as they had her on again last night.

I also caught most of last night’s Body of Proof. I had to chuckle at the very cliché “body found in the wall” scenario. That must be a prerequisite for each & every crime show that there has to be a “corpse in the wall” episode. As always, I enjoyed the lovely (but short) Kate/Megan moments. I loved Megan’s reaction when Kate said she was demoted – a “let me go give them a piece of my mind” declaration. I also have to mention the great song they played at the end of the episode – Diane Birch’s “rewind”. One thing this show is really good at is having some great music.

I also watched NCIS:LA last night, as I heard it was going to be centered on Kensi. The only bad part is that she was a suspect and really didn’t get to do much other than look concerned. Hopefully the continuation next week will have her kicking some butt, as long as they don’t have her stuck in a hospital bed now that she took a bullet to end the ep. WHY do they do that to me? UGH.


Looking ahead to the rest of this week:

Jeff Kober is on tonight’s episode of CSI. Too bad they couldn’t get him on before Marg left. They never worked together the first time he was on the show, either. I might just get the urge to go back & rewatch China Beach episodes, and maybe even the not-so-great “Gold Coast”. Oh, that reminds me – I still haven’t watched his appearance in New Girl last week. I caught the promo for tonight’s CSI episode last night. At least Jorja’s in it, so there’ll be at least some reason to watch. I’m still not sure about Elisabeth Shue’s character – especially if they continue with the too-sugary, flirty, annoying, cliché banter with Finn & Dieberkorn. Otherwise, I liked her presence & strength of character. I enjoyed her scenes with Greg.

Speaking of CSI – Louise Lombard will be on tomorrow’s episode of The Mentalist. It’ll be great to see her again. I wonder if she’ll have her regular accent. And a toothpick would be nice too. I can’t remember if she has the dark hair or the blonde hair for this one. The always-evil, but ever-wonderful Malcolm McDowell is in this one as well.

Also tomorrow night on Fox, Peta Wilson will be on The Finder. I’ve never seen the show. I hope she has a decent part. It’ll probably give me the urge to go back & watch all five seasons of La Femme Nikita again. I really miss that Nikita. I’ve pretty much stopped watching the new incarnation of Nikita – even though Melinda Clarke’s Amanda is in charge. The whole show just turned into something totally different than what it started as. Sometimes that can be a good thing (like Sanctuary, for instance), but for this show, it just made me lost interest.


If you’re keeping track of upcoming dvd releases, here are a few:
April 17th: Eight is Enough S1
May 15th: Hell on Wheels S1
May 22nd: Rizzoli & Isles S2

I was looking through TV Guide’s listings of upcoming pilots for the Fall 2012 tv season. I noticed Aubrey Dollar was set to co-star in an untitled Hilary Winston project for NBC. It would be great if she can get on a regular show again. She was great in her recent appearance on Blue Bloods, even though I thought the episode itself was just so-so.

Another familiar name that popped up as I was browsing through the lists was Sanctuary’s Agam Darshi. She’s to be in a pilot (“County”) about an LA hospital.

Speaking of Sanctuary – are they EVER going to let us know about season 5? If it’s a “yes”, I’ll be jumping for joy. If it’s a “no”, then I’ll be sulky & moody, but for goodness sake, just LET US KNOW THE DECISION SOON.

Thursday This N That

It’s time for another round of This n That – ramblings from a quirky, pessimistic, unstable mind.

That reminds me – I saw an article that said disrupted sleep can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Oy. I’m so doomed if that’s the case.

Anyway, let’s get to what’s become a weekly tv roundup.

- Last Friday, I watched my first episode of Blue Bloods, since Aubrey Dollar was on. She didn’t have a real big part, but it was nice to see her on screen again. It makes me miss Women’s Murder Club all the more. As for the episode itself, I found it kind of a standard, boring cop show. Speaking of Blue Bloods, I just got next week’s issue of TV Guide in today’s mail, and it had a little feature on Donnie Wahlberg.

As much as I’m glad to see Donnie having success with Blue Bloods, I really wish he’d return to Rizzoli & Isles as Jane’s boss/love interest Joey Grant. Then they could get rid of Dickhead Dean. And that would reunite him with Aubrey Dollar’s WMC co-star, Angie Harmon. See, it’s all about that one degree of separation.

- It’s strange to say, but after last week’s wonderful 200th episode of NCIS, I was kind of disappointed with this week’s show. Maybe it has to do with the obvious eye-rolling ‘superheroes’, or maybe it has to do with Tony’s ex-fiancee acting more like she should have been Gibbs’ ex instead. Either way, I was kind of disappointed. That doesn’t happen very often with this show. TV Guide had a little bit with Pauley Perrette doing the voice of Lois Lane.


- Tuesday also brought us a new episode of Body of Proof. This one was fun because it had Robert Picardo as a main guest star. It was great to see Bob & Dana back together again. All that was missing was KC from KC. (you know who I mean) Yes, it was also a Star Trek reunion with Jeri Ryan & Bob P, but I was never a Trekkie, so that didn’t mean anything to me. Now we just need Bob P on Sanctuary (are they EVER going to give us news of a renewal?) and Rizzoli & Isles and then the Picardo quadrangle reunion would be complete. (Dana = China Beach & BoP; Jeri = Star Trek & BoP; Amanda Tapping = SG1/Atlantis & Sanctuary; Angie Harmon = WMC & R&I)

- Speaking of KC from KC, last night’s CSI brought the introduction of Elisabeth Shue as blood expert Julie Finlay, and the first episode without sight nor mention of Catherine Willows. That was quite depressing. While I do like the spunk & energy of the new character, I really hope they don’t continue the flirty backstory with her and DB – or do we make that Dieberkorn now? I much rather prefer Moonbeam Russell.







There was also some nice Sara moments on last night’s show, including some lovely Sara/Greg screen time. I always love seeing those two together. And I can't forget to mention the appearance of Mary Page Keller. My mom used to watch Another World back in the day, and I remember her from that.









As for the episode itself, too much of my least-favorite character made it just a so-so episode. It was really nice to see Lou Vartann getting some decent screen time, however, that also made me miss Jim Brass even more. Where’s the happy medium? Or just bring me back Sofia and I won’t be complaining about any of that.

- I missed SVU last night. From the previews, it was to be a good Kelli Giddish episode. I really need to get caught up with that episode this weekend. TV Guide had a mini interview with HCJ about his guest appearances on the show.


- There were also a few previews & posters for some new shows, including Awake (the preview I saw a while ago has me only so-so on this show) and GCB. As much as I love Annie Potts, I’m hesitant with this show.


- speaking of promos/previews, this ad for House Hunters had me chuckling. By looking at this promo, you’d never know the show wasn’t a full-blown comedy


- I got the new issue of Ladies Home Journal today and was pleased to see a photoshoot with Beth Behrs from 2 Broke Girls




- on a final note, I see that Morena Baccarin is to be on The Mentalist again tonight. At least that means there’s something to watch