Lately I realized that I haven’t done any TV updates in a while and intend to remedy that right now. Two shows, especially, compel me to comment.
First off, I remember last Fall urging all of you who weren’t already fans of Fringe to give it a try. I really hope you did because this show just keeps getting better and better. Last week was the finale before the winter break and I personally felt it was the best episode of the season.
A big part of the storyline this season has been about Olivia, the FBI, Fringe Division agent, stuck as a prisoner in a parallel universe while her “double” Faux-livia, has been living her life, doing her job and sleeping with her partner, Peter, here on earth. In this last episode, she has made it back and Faux-livia has gone back to where she belongs. As the show unfolds, Olivia begins to understand how much the other Olivia has taken from her. When she asks Peter what the other Olivia was like, he smiled and said, “She was much quicker with a smile…less intense than you.” Ouch. (If Anna Torv isn’t nominated for an Emmy for her work on this episode, then there’s no justice in the world.) When Peter made that comment, you could just watch as the joy died in her eyes. Back at her apartment, she starts tearing her clothes out of the closet and the sheets off the bed. As she later says to Peter, “She’s taken everything!” Her performance was so powerful and painful that I cried…yes, like a baby! The show returns January 21st with all new stories, in case you’re interested.
Now for the downside. Reality show or not, I’ve always been a fan of “The Apprentice,” the show where sixteen people vie to be the apprentice of Donald Trump. For quite awhile now he has made it The Celebrity Apprentice, with actors and athletes playing for charity. However, with the recession, he made the decision this past season to play with real people who were out of work and end up giving a job to someone who needs it. It took me some time to get back into the “real person” mode because I’m so used to the celebrity diva behavior.
Finally, we came down to the two finalists – Clint, a 40-year-old married father of three boys who is a lawyer, a CPA, and a real estate developer AND Brandy, a thirty year old single lawyer.
I liked Brandy throughout the show. She was soft-spoken and smooth and while able to get along with the women, was not above using her sex appeal with the men.
Clint was so gung-ho at every task he was assigned that he, quite frankly, exhausted me. But throughout the entire show, I never doubted two things – that he was a hard worker and that he was a good, honest man.
Brandy’s final task was to organize a golf tournament at Trump’s Golf Club with Kathy Griffith as the celebrity guest. Due to her complete ignorance of the game, she made at least three glaring errors. Clint’s task was to organize a dinner and musical show after the tournament starring Liza Minnelli. There was an almost-disaster when the program cards showed up with Minnelli’s name misspelled, but he managed to get it corrected before it became a problem. Other than that, his portion came off flawlessly.
In the boardroom with Donald Trump, Brandy’s errors were minimized, while Clint’s use of “y’all” was criticized. (He’s a Texas boy.) I had felt that Clint was a shoe-in to be the Apprentice. But as Ivanka, Don Jr. and Donald Trump chipped away at him, I suddenly got their unspoken message – “You aren’t our kind of people.” So, who would win? A family man who would take a bullet for Mr. Trump or the sexy, feline, breathless single woman? It wasn’t even close.
“Clint, you’re fired! Brandy, you’re hired!”
This was the first time since this show began that I’ve been this disappointed in Donald Trump. He reverted to cliché. Shame on him!
Okay, that’s it for now. For some unknown reason, TV stops showing original episodes of all their shows about this time and damned near drowns us in “very special” Christmas shows. I find it tedious. Do they really think people don’t watch TV over the holidays? For some people, it’s their only chance to catch up. But, hey, I can’t fight the networks.
So what are YOU watching these days?
