The Return of Amy Sherman-Palladino

Amy Sherman-Palladino is ...

I am having a hard time completing that sentence. As the creator of Gilmore Girls, I want to say she is brilliant, fascinating, sharp and amazingly fast. Her work was some of most witty and underrated material on TV this decade, especially for female characters. After a long dry spell, she made me believe in fun television again.

But Sherman-Palladino left Gilmore Girls when the ladies made the jump from the WB to the CW, leaving her first love much worse for the wear. Gilmore Girls only lasted one more season without her at the helm and it was a very trying season at that.

But Sherman-Palladino is back. Sticking with the fairer sex, SP's new show ,The Return of Jezebel James, is about a busy career woman who convinces her estranged sister to serve as her surrogate. The show features trusted actresses Parker Posey (Waiting For Guffman) and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under).

I want this show to be good. I have a great respect for Amy Sherman-Palladino as a writer and televisionary. The last season of Gilmore Girls shouldn't have had to be awful in vain. But I am hesitant. The reviews are pouring in ahead of the show's premiere tonight and they are far from complimentary. And Jezebel James' Friday night time slot certainly won't help it.

But I'm holding out hope. Amy Sherman-Palladino made me believe once, and now I will do the same for her.

The Return of Jezebel James premieres tonight on Fox at 8/7C.

9021 Oh No!

The CW is apparently working with Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars) to put together a 90210 spin-off. 90210 was kind of groundbreaking in its 10-year-run because until that point no one had followed the lives of rich, young people in urban settings. It's been 8 years since the show ended, and since then everyone has jumped in the "Let's dish about angsty well-off teenagers" bandwagon...err Mercedes.

Let's make a short list:
- Rich Girls - Gastineau Girls - Keeping Up With The Kardashians - The OC - My Super Sweet 16 - Gossip Girl - Dawson's Creek - One Tree Hill

Yes, a fair number of those shows are reality but the song remains the same. Will a 90210 spin-off sink or swim in a sea full of imitators? I don't think the show has a fighting chance unless Rob Thomas can make it more compelling than the original without crossing the line between fantasy and batshit nuts. No drunk driving story lines, no battles with ecstasy or meth or whatever the young people are doing these days, no comas. I want character driven drama, and luckily Rob Thomas can pull it off.

And another thing: As of yet none of the original cast is planning on coming back for the spin-off and neither is Darren Star who created the original and the first spin-off Melrose Place. So no one is coming back, its been 8 years and the show may not even take place in California. What exactly makes this a spin-off? Is the main character someone's kid? I think there's a statue of limitations on this type of thing and I'm putting it at 3 years.

Alert the media.

The End Of An Era

I'm pretty big on TV on DVD and I've got a pet name for my DVR (Clem) so it takes a lot for me to miss an episode of a show I care about. I was (probably still am) a pretty ravenous Gilmore Girls fan, but with a hectic schedule, a poor choice to record American Idol and no friends on DVR bandwagon, I missed one episode of the show's final season.

But months after we waived bon voyage to Rory and Lorelai something hit me. The show as I knew it wasn't over. I was missing one piece. I was like that uncoordinated awkward kid who couldn't put together the shrine of the silver monkey on Legends of the Hidden Temple. I couldn't advance to the last room because the head wasn't on straight.

I waited to buy the seventh season on DVD. Then I delayed even further and watched every episode leading up to the missing link. Tonight, I finally completed my Gilmore Girls mission. I laughed a little harder, the sentimental stuff was even squishier than usual and every thing felt new again...because it was. The 44 minutes came to quickly and when the credits ran, it was like losing the show all over again.

But at the same time it was letting it go. Most of my favorite shows are off the air but the memories, quotations, and sidesplitting scenes haunt my memory and my DVD rack. Cleaning out the space where Gilmore Girls used to sit is making room for something new...

whenever and whatever it may be.

OMG ANTM!

Cycle 10 of America's Next Top Model premieres tonight! I usually only watch the show while I'm hungover in its marathon form on VH1 but after missing all of cycle 9, I'd like to get in on the ground floor. It's been too long since I've seen young, bitchy girls back stab each other. Not that all models are mean by nature, but I do think a majority of them are hungry and tired so they're a bit more likely to get a case of the grumpies.

Wondering what some of the Top Models have been up to since they left Tyra's loving embrace? Entertainment Weekly put together a slideshow with some of the fan favorites. (Naima's in a band with her boyfriend. He looks exactly like you think he would.) I'll post the link when I get a hold of it.

And sidenote: For the reality-TV minded ladies out there without DVRs, where will your loyalties lie tonight? Will you watch the Top 12 women sing for their lives on American Idol or will you watch the premiere of ANTM? Between tonight's TV choices, and picking a presidential candidate, it's been a hard year for the fairer sex so far.

Take A Bow Girlfriends

Girlfriends, the long-running CW comedy featuring an all-African American cast, was officially canceled this week after an eight season run. The show is a casualty of the strike, as CW is only finishing production on shows that are coming back next season.

Girlfriends is not a great program by any means, on the LOL-O-Meter I'd say it's a 5. (To calibrate it, Two & A Half Men is a 3, 30 Rock is a 9.) But it's a shame it's not getting the proper send-off that an 8 season long show deserves. It had a giant fan following for a CW sitcom and people will surely be glad to see it go.

And during Black History Month for crying out loud.

Hump Day Updates

So much to talk about. Let's get right to it.

• Kid Nation ended tonight. It was kind of a sad episode. I am ashamed to admit it, but I shed a few tears. Not only when the kids saw their parents for the first time in 40 days, but at the end when I realized the show may not come back for a second season. So upsetting. We'll always have Jared.
  

• Though I am sad to leave Bonanza City, I already have a reality show replacement: Crowned. So awesomely bad. The show is about mother/daughter pairs competing for a pageant title and $100,000. I could've written 1000 words on tonight's pilot episode alone. This episode, each pair had to make up a team name. One team called themselves the Blonde Bombshells, others the Diamond Dolls. But one team decided to go with Silent But Deadly. Supposedly they didn't know that is also a laugh-inducing euphemism. Carson Kressley of Queer Eye fame is one of the judges and he provides some comic relief. It's like watching Cirque De Soleil; I am mesmerized by how awful it is.
  

• TV shows have trailers now. I don't like this trend, but that's a whole 'nother story. The trailer for season 4 of Lost made its way around the blogosphere today. Since I have until February, I might try to catch up on the second half of season 3 and give the show another chance. With the writer's strike going strong, I won't have much else to watch anyway.
  

• Regis Philbin is set to host a re-make of the series Password. Because 25 versions of the show just aren't enough.

• Chris March is back on Project Runway. All is right with the world.
  

I'm Alien to Aliens In America

I am watching Aliens in America for the first time. Usually, I am wrapped up in the never-ending drama of Prison Break on Monday nights. Thanks to baseball, I am killing time on the CW.

This show is a one trick pony, but the pony is kind of funny. The premise in one sentence: A Muslim foreign exchange student comes to live with a traditional family in a small Wisconsin town and befriends their teenage son.

As you can guess, every joke is rooted in the "comedy" of American stereotypes. For instance, when the family's daughter Claire tries out for the cheerlading squad (Nice local touch with the team being the Muskies BTW) she is denied because the captain doesn't want the squad to "...look soft on terror." Like Borat, the humor is focused at stereotypical Americans as opposed to the exchange student, who is usually the moral compass. I get it, but you can't build a long-lasting sitcom off of it.

There are a few redeeming factors to AiA though.

• Amy Pietz, (Caroline in the City) plays the Mom, Franny. Pietz is from Wisconsin and her accent is convincing without being heavy-handed.
  
• Scott Patterson, (Gilmore Girls) is dad, Gary. I wish the writing was as snappy as GG, but it's just nice to see him keeping busy.
  
• Small-screen fresh face Dan Byrd plays Justin, the aforementioned teenage son. Byrd's dialogue is witty and familiar. It seems like he'd be friends with everyone. Plus he's got a charming baby-face, even at 21.
  

I'd love to say I'd watch Aliens in America again, but it will never win in a fight against Prison Break. (They have shanks!) But for those you not addicted to all things Michael Scofield, you should give it a chance.

America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model is BACK! You may think it never went away, as I did, when everytime I flipped on VH1 or MTV there were reruns of the past million plus episodes. But yes, have no fear, TYRA is back on her game. What can I really say about the first few episodes? I did love that they brought on a girl with a serious disability, which they play up as much as possible. classy. And when Chantal (practically identical twin to Trishelle from RW: Vegas...dirty) cried because the view from their house was too pretty not to. Hmmm. Also, when Mila couldn't stop laughing hysterically when seeing her "cancer look". yes, mila, that's hysterical. thankfully...spoiler...she got the boot! I love Jay saying she just couldn't connect with the true emotions. Sure Jay, that's it. But my favorite moment of late comes from the wonderful "hoochie" scene in which Tyra tries to differentiate between sexy and hoochie. yep, that happened. It's gonna be a great season!