Franklin & Bash "Bro-Bono": AKA Zack & Travis Leave Me With Questions

So I get home last night to a classy dinner of a PB&J sandwich & flop down onto the couch for an all new Franklin & Bash.

At the start of the episode, Jared brings up the (for lack of a better word) competition he & Karp seem to be in for Hanna's affections, & he seems to be surprised at Karp's ability to play guitar. Does anyone else find this a little weird since just last week they won a beautiful/very expensive guitar off of him? I don't know, the whole Karp/Hanna/Jared triangle thing they've been trying to do, is the one thing about the show that's just not working for me.

As per usual there were two cases, one about a couple going through arbitration since the husband had "cheated". Originally Hannah & Karp were the only two on the case (repping the wife) until Jared inadvertently impresses her with his candor during a chance encounter & she requests he join her team.

Meanwhile Peter & Jared take on a DWI case for an old high school buddy, who for some reason not explained til later in the episode, Jared hates. Btdubs, totally had a moment of happy because I'm pretty sure that  "Double D" was being played by Michael Weaver who played Local Officer Smy, in one of my all time fave movies, Super Troopers. Seriously this show is just a gem of random actors from shows/films I love.

Anyway having rushed to the defense of a friend in a golf cart, since he's living with his grandmother in her retirement community, Double D, then gets into a bar brawl & ends up accidentally punching a plain clothed police officer. Unable to charge him on the brawl, without appearing to be singling him out, so he is charged with DWI for driving the golf cart across a public street, which is a total of 30 something feet.

Of course (somewhat controlled) mayhem ensues. Highlights include Pindar falling for a 74 year old hooker, & Jared shotgunning a couple of beers in court & giving a drunken closing argument.

Hanna admits to having had sex with Jared, & apparently it was so good she had "19 orgasms & saw flying unicorns". Once again, I'm not entirely sure I believe it. I mean, am I the only one who doesn't really see any sexual chemistry between those two? Sure, Jared seems to be turned on by Hanna, but for some reason, I just don't buy it being a mutual thing.

Once again, the show was filled with witty dialogue, ("You better be, Jared" "You better be Peter"), and the chemistry between MPG & Breckin Meyers is undeniable. Made even more adorable by Breckin's twitter confession of:

From: @breckinmeyer
Sent: Jun 23, 2011 1:00a

Franklin & Bash Full Disclosure: @MP_Gosselaar had to teach me how to shotgun a beer. Had never done it before. #I'veNeverTrulyLived.

sent via TwitBird

I find this fact a little shocking as come on the boy was in Road Trip! But then again that explains his shaky execution of the task. Hey, I hung out with Fraternity guys in college, I may not shotgun myself, I def know how too.

For the first time, I left for this episode not only eager to see next week's episode, for amusement purposes, but also to get some questions answered. Seriously when do we get to see [insert character name here]'s fiancee? I mean, we hear about him enough, & when we do actually get to meet him is he gonna be James Van Der Beek? Come on, we know he's gonna be on the show at some point...

Also & this may just be me being...well over analytical, but I really want to know what was in that box! During the resolve of the divorce case Infeld is walking around carrying a small box, which all though he never opens, plays around with. He turns it over a few times & even holds it up to his ear & shakes it. So now I'm deeply curious to find out what was in it. Though for all I know it could just be illustrating the fact that Stanton Infield is a bit quirky.

Either way we'll have to wait till next week to find out. And now I leave you with this gem from Reed Diamond, as a thank you to those who watch...

Thank You Dance

Franklin & Bash "Jennifer of Troy": AKA Zack & Travis Examine Beauty

Ok, I know I know I am a week behind, thus the problem with living in a DVR/internet-less home, it forces you to choose between having a life & watching the shows you love. But fear not, as of this Friday this shall be resolved! I can not begin to express my utter joy at getting back the SyFy & WE channels, as well as getting Phineas & Ferb on demand!

But I digress, having had some down time today, ok on my lunch, I decided to sit down at my comp, headphones in left ear, come on I gotta retain some air of work-dom, & watch last weeks episode of Franklin & Bash, entitled "Jennifer of Troy". As we've come to expect, the show involved two case. On a woman (Jennifer) who is claiming to have been fired from her job at a prestigious men's magazine because she was "too pretty". Our boy's not only take the case but bet their "double wide" office against [insert character name here]'s sweet guitar, that they'll win. I have to say I fully enjoy Infield's gleeful reaction to this competitive spirit with in the company.

Well of course you know it's not gonna be that easy, when the boy's meet Jennifer, she's more of an adorable chubby (but movie/tv/mag opinion at least) little cherub of sunshine. They're screwed, or so they think.

Lacking the cruelty, and well the balls to tell this girl she is not the fierce, sexy beauty she thinks she is, the boys accept the case & set out to prove beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The second case? When Pindar crashes "the grid" in the cave, the boys call in the only guy who can fix it, Gene Troy, who informs them he has been wrongfully accused of a crime in China town & therefore is being black balled & has to move, thus making him unable to finish the job. The boys are heartbroken over their friend's misfortune....ok, ok, the clearly have their own selfish interests in keeping him around, but that is not the point. They resolve to get Gene's name cleared. Of course, unaware of how China town works the boys f* it up and in a slight surprise move Infield decides to take on the cause.

What followed of course, was me sitting captivated at my desk, trying to keep my giggling out loud to a minimum. And the immense jealousy I had when Peter kissed Jennifer on the stand. If going to court is all it takes to get to make out with MPG, well then I'm gonna have to find someone to sue FAST!

Ok, sorry, locking the 8 year old me away again. I was once again happy to see Malcolm McDowell being utilized again makes me happy & it's nice to see them try to include Hanna more, and give her some sense of character. Though I'm still not really sure if I actually like her yet. Currently, I find her character kinda boring. She seems only to exist to create competition between Karp & Jared for her affection, & it's seeming a bit forced.

I have to admit I was sorta worried the show wasn't going to be as entertaining once the luster of yeay-MPG-and-Breckin-Meyer-

have-found-employment had dulled, but here we are 3 episodes in & I am eager to watch tonight's new episode.

Platinum Hit: Rap Heros: AKA Will Someone Please Join Me in My Musical Reality Show

So 4 episodes in & I am publicly admitting I am watching Platinum Hit on Bravo (Monday nights at 10pm). It is my newest guilty pleasure. I admit I started watching because I had seen Johnny Marnell play in NYC last year & absolutely fell in love with his music. Seriously if you haven't DLed he's EP yet go do it NOW! It's ok, I'll wait....

...

Welcome back, toats worth the pause right? Anyways, so I started watching to get to hear more Johnny, & after the 1st episode was pretty sure I was only gonna watch till he got the boot. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with that boy's versatility, I mean, Whoa, who knew the boy could rap like that? But as the show has progressed, I find myself more & more invested. Kara DioGuardi annoys me far less than she did on Idol, & Jewel seems to be warming up to the job, she has WAY more personality & her critics seem, at least to me, to be more thoughtful than the first couple of episodes.

I actually wanna see how long Jackie actually lasts, or if she completely cracks. Speaking of lasting, how long are Melissa & Brian gonna get carried through? Cause, at least from what I've seen I'm not too sure how/why they are both still there. Honestly I thought Brian should have been the first to go, though that might just be because I think keeping Nevin around would have been more entertaining, after as he told us, he spoke for the widow, he spoke for the orphan. Seriously people, I can't make shit like that up.

I wanna see what Scotty's got in him, oh & I am dying to see Nick the Douche get eliminated. I mean seriously if the only thing this contest accomplishes is to knock that boy's ego down a few pegs I feel it will have been a success.

Come the show has something for everyone, there's a  sass, a douche, a man who thinks he's the reincarnation of Elvis

So now I actually find myself anticipating & rushing home to catch each week's episode of a show I figured would just be some good fluff to fill the void left in my tv time by the season finale of Castle. There is only one problem...I don't know anyone else who's watching.

When of the best parts of tv shows (especially guilty pleasure tv shows) is having people to discuss them with. Like the early days of Project Runway, coming into work & discussing Vincent's basket hat, those of you who watched know exactly what I am talking about. Or coming in to discuss RHOBH and just how much of a delirious whack job Camile seemed to be.

The bond over people who are crazier than oneself is what fuels the reality tv craze. So come on now peeps let's get on this! I wanna have discussions!

Franklin & Bash "She Came Upstairs to Kill Me": AKA Zack & Travis as Lawyers: I'm Still Amused...

So last night was the second ep of Franklin & Bash, entitled "She Came Upstairs to Kill Me". Seriously the marketing of this show is kinda brilliant as both Mark Paul Gosselaar & Breckin Meyers yet again decided to live tweet during both the East & West Coast broadcasts. Cut to me, sitting on the couch, constantly refreshing my phones twitter feed during commercials to see what sort of ridiculous & nonsensical "facts" the two leads were spouting out.

This week's premise was just the sort of silly, outlandish case that the shows ads have been promising from the very beginning. Isabel (played by the gorgeous Natalie Zea of Justified) was on trial for murdering her billionaire husband...with her va-jay-jay. Yep, that's right, she is accused of over sexing her husband to death. Seriously.

Also in this week's episode were Fred Willard (who to me will always be Ron Albertson from Waiting for Guffman) & Thomas F. Wilson (AKA BIFF!! Of Back to the Future).

And this appears to be just the beginning of famous faces, the ever amusing MPG tweeted that we could look forward to seeing James Van Der Beek, who I feel like is currently trying to relaunch his career, even though he never really went away to begin with. I mean, is it just me or is he like EVERYWHERE lately? Then again I may just still be bitter that he is going to be on ABC's mid season Apartment 23, instead of former *NSYNC member, Lance Bass. Oh Lanceton, how you are missed. Beau Bridges, Jason Alexander (George of Seinfeld, but more importantly Albert Peterson of the 1995 Tv movie version of Bye Bye Birdie), & Tricia Helfer (Burn Notice) will all be making appearances.

Awesome guest stars aside, I think the best part of this episode, was the fact that we got to see Malcolm McDowell's Stanton Infeld serve as first chair on a case. It was great to see them utilize his great comedic acting & have his character actually DO something as opposed to just popping in the episodes to mediate between Franklin & Bash v. Damien Karp (Reed Diamond). The bit where he and Bash try to work out what song is stuck in his head is priceless.

I was glad to see that the second episode of this summer fluff just as fun & irrelevant as the pilot. Also glad to see MPG showing his abs again...sorry, that was the little Zack Morris fan girl in me, who is quite happy that just b/c he's a lawyer doesn't mean that he's confined to suits. Huzzah!

Rewatching Firefly: AKA Joss Whedon's Ability to Scare the Hell Out of Me & Still Make Me Love Him

I have strange taste when it comes to television programing. I'm one of those people who love shows that are weird & keep you guessing as to what's next. I get annoyed by sitcom comedies where you know 3 steps ahead of the characters what's going to happen. I'm not saying they are bad or that there is no place for them, clearly the viewers of shows like Two & a Half Men enjoy that sorta shtick, it's just not my cup of tea.  Which is probably why I love the works of JJ Abrams & of course Joss Whedon. I have been a fan of The Whedonverse since back in the day when Buffy still aired on the WB (btws as far as I am concerned it will always be the WB). Let's face it the man is brilliant at creating characters you care about, keeping you guessing, & scaring the CRAP out of the viewer.

Since summer has come & taken most of my beloved shows into reruns I've begun my Rewatch Project. To kick it all off I've begun with Firefly, because with Castle in reruns I need a little Nathan Fillion in my life. Though I love the show, and am still baffled by the stupidity of FOX for canceling it, it had been so long since I had watched it I'd almost forgotten just how insanely strange & wonderful the show truly is, almost.

As I sat down & watched the (tragically only one season) series I was struck by several realizations. First off the cast is fantastical, it is impossible to talk Firefly without making some mention of the dream cast that was assembled. Seriously Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Sean Maher, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Jewel Straite, Ron Glass, & Adam Baldwin, all amazing in their portrayals. To have a cast that large & still manage to make each character interesting & important to the story is a pretty daunting task, however Firefly makes it appear almost  effortless.

Secondly I always forget just how fucking scary Joss's shows can be. Still there I sat, on my big comfy couch clutching Bear-ick Jetter (my NY Yankees pillow pet) in terror, watching "Ariel" as the blue handed men pulled out their little brain explody devise. I felt my stomach drop as River sing-songingly muttered "Two by two hands of blue". And no, this was not the first time I had seen this episode and I still had to stop after it ended for a breather, that is how terrifying I find those men to be.

Still, to me, the scariest moment in, probably, the entire series (& I'm not include Serenity in this) is in "Objects in Space" where Bounty Hunter, Jubel Early, has Kaylee cornered in the engine room and point blank asks "You ever been raped?" Seriously points to Richard Brooks for his deadpan delivery of the line, makes my skin craw. Between that & the look of sheer terror on Jewel Straite' s face, I was done. I've seen the episode before, & clearly knew that Kaylee & her virtue remain intact at the end, but watching it? I felt the same horror, dread & fear for her as I did the first time.

That's what is so truly special about the worlds that Joss Whedon has created. You get lost in them, & despite the fact that they are often have some element of fantasy/sci-fi to them (Buffy slayed Vamps, Firefly happened mostly on a Spaceship) they feel real. Which is probably why the Whedonverse has such die hard fans.

As I rewatched Firefly it reminded me just how much I loved these characters. How much, as much as it is in no way Utopian existence, & I'll admit it, River kinda wigs me out, I almost  wish I could be a part of that world, if for no other reason then to hang out with the inhabitants of Serenity. That to me is the best judge of just how great a show is.

Franklin & Bash: AKA The Return of Zack & Travis into My Life

Last night marked a milestone for me... Last night became the first night that I purposely tuned in to TNT. Don't get me wrong, I have often been channel surfing & stayed on the cable channel after seeing that they were running some sort of Law & Order marathon or rerunning a show I watch, like Bones, but never before have I looked at the clock & demanded TNT be turned on.

What could cause this oddity to occur? The premiere of TNT's new original series Franklin & Bash, starring Mark Paul Gosselaar & Breckin Meyer, or as I had been calling it Zack Morris & Travis  Birkenstock's return to my life.

Because let's face it there is a whole generation of us out there who grew up on Saved By the Bell & can recite most of Clueless off the top of our heads. We all remember the episode "Jessie's Song", where Jessie becomes addicted to caffeine pills (I feel it is important to note that I knew the title of that ep off the top of my head) and can recite the confrontation scene between Zack & Jessie. ("I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so I'm so scared...").

As for Clueless, seriously that movie WAS the teen movie of our youth. Inspiring a whole new lexicon for a generation, not to mention bringing Paul Rudd to our attention in a whole new way, oh Josh....but I digress...

I was giddy about a Gosselaar/Meyer show from the moment I found out it was in the works. In fact I may or may not have told clients coming in to audition that if they booked it the would HAVE to get me a set visit & introduce me to MPG & Breckin (I was only mostly kidding).

Then came the promos (on weretotallylawyer.com) which only added to my excitement. Whoever was in charge of marketing on this one, major props! Instead of the normal, look at these clips from our show approach the add campaign decided to make mock lawyer adds. Seriously, aside from the info on when & where the show was airing at the end they looked like all those awfully cheesy local lawyer commercials you see all over tv, complete with awful fake hallways/walking graphics.

Combine the promos with all the talk MPG has been doing on his twitter, seriously the boy has been doing some hardcore promoting, I was beyond ready/excited for last night's premiere, even taking over the BIG tv in the living room, as opposed to retreating to the bedroom to watch.

The show did not disappoint. It was, as promised a slightly off the wall quirky comedy with a heart. I admit to the fact at one point laughing so hard I squeaked, much to the amusement of the boy who was watching with me. MPG & Breckin have amazing chemistry.

It was so great to see MPG in a role which showcased his comic ability. Considering my last memory of him was as a Porn Star on Law & Order: SVU, I skipped out on Raising the Bar, I just couldn't take the hair, but hey I watched Hyperion Bay & Commander in Chief, so that has to count for something. His Peter Bash is the perfect combination of smarts & smart ass. Speaking of asses, as shown in last night episode that boy has a toned one. Damn...

Breckin's Jared Franklin is spot on in his quirky sexy charm. I totally forgive him for Garfield. Despite being a little smarmy, you can't help but fall for his adorable antics. Dude, I'd totally sing karaoke in the office with him. Seriously you just wanna put him in your pocket & keep him around all the time to just hang out & be silly with.

I'm interested to see more of the supporting cast. Though another spot on casting move is Malcolm McDowell as Stanton Infeld. The slightly eccentric patriarch of the firm which hires Franklin & Bash on and let's face it the man plays eccentric to a tee.

Is Franklin & Bash ground breaking? Hardly, but all and all a cute & funny show, which I will def gladly be tuning in weekly. Do yourself a favor and make a date to watch Franklin & Bash on Wednesday nights at 9pm on TNT.

Thrills and chills

Ok so I was WAY late in the horror game. I saw one (horrible, almost laughable really now that I look back on it) horror film, aka "Dolly Dearest", in about 3rd grade and was scared for many a years till I was ready to give it another go.

It wasn't till a 6th grade sleepover at my favorite Aunt's house (who worked in a video store at the time) that I ventured back into the horror genre with the movie Scream.

I admit that I am still squeemish when it comes to guts and gore, but a well written horror film makes me giddy. Which is why I am so damn excited to see the fouth edition in the Scream franchise. From the moment I heard that they were casting I admit to an overwhelming sense of giddiness, made even more so by the lack of script availability...which working in the industry getting a script is always a fun perk, but sometimes it just ruines things...especial the suspence/horror films....

So now the big day is almost upon us and I am literally salivating that this new chapter may somehow redeem the franchise. For while Scream 2 and 3 weren't awfull they PAILED in comparision to the greatness of the original. So....let's see if this new one can bring it all back!!!