Here’s the weekly review, better late than never. lol. 😀 I’ve been so busy with my daughter’s fundraiser thing this weekend and just getting organized still. It’s been a great week in TV, from the season premiere of The Amazing Race last Sunday and the fantastic episode of Glee on Wednesday, I loved it all. We also got the season premiere of Private Practice on Thursday which wrapped up last season’s cliff hanger perfectly which was nice. Along with those shows I’m going to discuss the episode of House on Monday. As always if you haven’t watched the shows and don’t want to be spoiled please do not click the link, everyone else jump with me!
I really do enjoy The Amazing Race so I was excited when it was the season premiere last Sunday. The race itself was okay and I’ll touch on it, but holy cow there are some competitors this season who I cannot stand. I know I should be open minded but where do they find these people.
The show opened up with a new twist, an instant elimination. I was in shock. The challenge was to find the license plate from Shinagawa, Tokyo (the first destination of the race), the catch was there are 12 teams and only 11 license plates. I was really hoping that the super aggravating engaged couple Lance & Keri got eliminated but no such luck. It was the yoga instructors, Eric and Lisa who got eliminated. I admit I was not terribly torn up about this either, their mentally and attitude was too universally bogus for me. I quote Eric upon elimination, “To be the first team eliminated now; the shame, the pain is gone for everybody else.” Lisa threw in, “We set them free.” Pardon? Okay, that’s one coo-coo couple down, way to many to go. lol.
We also have the team of girl liars, aka the poker players, Maria and Tiffany. They are telling everyone that they work for an organization for homeless teens in Los Angeles, and they lied because they believe if the other teams know about their real profession and the money they make the teams would be less willing to help them. I don’t get this. I understand their fear if they make too much money they’ll get less help, but the fact that they say they do some fantastic job but really they don’t is kind of crappy. I mean if you’re going to lie about your job pick something not so fabulous, and even then I just don’t see why it’s necessary.
Well the truth came out during the second half of tonight’s premiere when Sam and Dan (the hot brother team) over heard a conversation the ladies had with a man at the airport who recognized them from the professional poker circuit. The other teams were pissed about their lie and their overall attitude, causing them to have targets on their back. So the lesson for today is.. don’t lie. lol. Also if you’re going to lie (which I don’t recommend because the truth has a way of coming out), try to act the role. For example, if you want to appear as compassionate non-profit workers, then don’t act all rude to the other teams when they ask for help. Makes sense doesn’t it?
While in Japan the teams had to compete in a road block called, Sushi Roulette, which was a Japanese game show style competition. The host of the game spins the wheel that has sushi and wasabi bombs on it. The object is to keep playing until you receive a wasabi bomb and they you have to eat the wasabi bomb in 2 minutes. It sounds easy enough, but it was disgusting. I love sushi and I love wasabi, but that much wasabi is too much. Lots of the teams had trouble with it but most got it down in the allotted time.
Cheyne ate his with little trouble, followed by Ron with his. So Marcy & Ron and Meghan & Cheyne were the first teams to leave the studio, but they didn’t leave alone. The next challenge is to lead a group of 20 Japanese tourists from the audience (separated into colored groups indicated by their hats), from the studio to the Pit Stop at Konno Hachimangu Shrine, without losing any.
All the teams followed eventually, but Meghan & Cheyne were the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop, winning a trip for two from Travelocity to Aspen and Vail. I was happy with this result. They are a decent couple and don’t aggravate me so it’s a win-win. 🙂
The last team in was Maria & Tiffany who also lost two of their tourists on the way, the liars lucked out and there wasn’t another elimination for the first Pit Stop of tonight’s double episode. They did however get a two-hour penalty for not having all their tourists and they would have to perform a Speed Bump in the next leg of the race for coming in last. I’d say the weasels got off easy. Sorry, I just don’t like them.
The next leg of the race had the teams flying off to Vietnam, where the teams had to take a bus from Ho Chi Minh City to the village of Cai Be and then head by foot to the Ben Tau Du Lich boat dock.
At the bus station, 5 teams got on the first bus at 3:30 pm leaving the other teams to take the 4:45 pm bus. Matt (the pink haired boy), noticed the other bus leaving the station and realized they were on the second bus. After telling the others they all figured out that if they pooled their money they could get the bus driver to leave now, it worked and they were off.
All their money was wasted anyways, because once all the teams arrived at the boat dock they learnt it wasn’t open until the next morning at 7 am. When the boat dock opened they were given their clue to take boats to the mud pits, and work as a team to collect mud and carry it to an orchard and fertilize a tree. It was hard, really gross work but they got it done.
Meghan and Cheyne got to the next task first, and it was a road block. One team member had to herd a group of 150 ducks using two flags as guides. The ducks had to be herded out of their pen, over a bridge and back, within the allotted 10 minutes. Meghan, Jessica and Ericka all failed the first time. Flight time, Matt and Sam all did it with ease.
The best was a tie Zev (aka the duck whisperer) and Matt, who is a farmer and knows how to herd animals. Both went in there calmly, without rushing and stressing the birds out and finished quickly. Meghan followed his lead and was able to complete the tast the second time around. Tiffany also succeeded.
After the ducks it was the next Pit Stop, and brothers Sam & Dan lost their first place spot when they couldn’t decide which way to go. Gary & Matt, the father-son farmer team got to the Pit Stop first. The other teams followed at a staggered pace, with Brian & Ericka and Garrett & Jessica racing to the finish. Brian & Ericka were just a bit faster and beat out Garrett & Jessica for 10th place, meaning Garrett and Jessica were eliminated. I wish I could say I was okay with this, but I really wished it had been either big mouth Lance and his wife Keri, for their general attitude bothers me or the silver tongued liars Maria & Tiffany who I simply don’t like for their choice of strategy.
That’s it for The Amazing Race’s premiere episode, catch The Amazing Race on CBS, Sundays at 8 pm.
Monday had a few good shows, including How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, but I’m going to focus on an episode of House that was interesting on so many fronts.
We have House who quit because his psychiatrist suggested that he change he life by changing his routines, so he’s starting by quitting. Then we have Foreman wanting to take over the department and Cuddy reluctant to let him, and then of course add a complex patient case on top of that and we have a good episode.
The patient tonight is a software developer who creates video games, but starts having symptoms like his hands feel like they’re on fire. He heads to the ER and asks specifically for House because he’s done his research. Problem, House isn’t there. So in an effort to prove himself within the allotted one case time frame he was given, Foreman gets the gamer case. I like Foreman (Omar Epps), I really, really do, however he’s not House so I have very little faith that he can lead the department.
The patient isn’t going to make it easy either, questioning their every move, using the internet to diagnose himself, and offering a $25,000 reward to any doctor who can diagnose him correctly. First, take the damn computer away from the patient, because the internet can be a dangerous thing. Second, Foreman isn’t House so this case isn’t going well.
Speaking of House, he’s keeping himself cooking and cleaning to keep his mind off the pain. He’s actually turning into a gourmet chef, because he can’t do anything else. I loved the part where Wilson thought House was using again, and broke the toilet so he could collect House’s urine. Wilson forgot how smart House is, House replaced the urine with dog urine. Not because he’s using but because he doesn’t like being spied on, and because it’s fun. lol.
All throughout the episode the other doctors are arguing and quitting. Foreman and Thirteen are arguing over the fact that Foreman is becoming a cranky bossy, ass and the fact that she doesn’t really believe in his choices. In the end, Thirteen went behind Foreman’s back and looked up a response on the internet which was contradicting to Foreman’s opinion. She stops a procedure just as Foreman had come to the same conclusion on his own and ran up to stop the procedure. Foreman decides to fire Thirteen just after Cuddy gives him the department, because of her lack of faith in him and her going behind his back.
So after firing Thirteen and Taub quitting because he only wants to work with House (and who wouldn’t), it’s only Foreman making up the department. That’s not going to work out. lol.
Well, during all this House has been going to his sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr. Nolan. After trying all kinds of hobbies that he eventually gets bored with, House admits to Dr. Nolan that the only thing that really helped with his pain was solving the case online. Dr. Nolan comes to the conclusion that the only thing worse than House going back to work is House not going back to work. I agree, House needs to get back to work so the show will be back to it’s great form again.
New episode of House tonight at 8 pm on Fox so we can see where it goes.
Tuesday brought us a new episode of Hell’s Kitchen, which I already reviewed here
We also got new episodes of NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, 90210, and Melrose Place. Unfortunately I only caught NCIS: Los Angeles, it was okay. I love LL Cool J, and Chris O’Donnell, but the show needs some work on storyline. That’s all I’m saying for Tuesday, let’s move onto Wednesday.
Wednesday is always such a great night for me, seeing as it’s Glee night. Glee is such a fantabulous show, and it always makes me smile. This week’s episode was no exception. There were so many great musical numbers and some really great emotional scenes between Finn and Rachel had me grinning and tearing up. Okay, enough rambling, let me review.
We open with Quinn having morning sickness and the inability to do her solos, and with the Glee club discussing that they need Rachel back if they’re going to win. I have to agree. Rachel has the most talent out of all of them, and her and Finn are amazing together as a singing duet.
Finn is having a hard go of things with becoming a father and all. (Well, not really seeing as it’s Puck’s baby, but Finn still doesn’t know that.) Emma, pulled Finn into her office to talk about him getting a music scholarship, but she admits that Finn might want to get Rachel to come back to Glee. So he heads out on the path to win Rachel back into the club. How will he do it?
Seduce her. Finn is playing on Rachel’s feelings for him to get her to come back to Glee. That dog. I was torn during these moments. I felt bad for Rachel, who is really in love with Finn, because he’s only playing her, and then I felt happy because their scenes together always have magic. This episode didn’t let us down with that tonight.
Rachel and Finn ended up at the bowling alley on a ‘date’ or whatever it was. They seemed to be having a great time together, and then they kissed. Well, Rachael kissed Finn and he definitely kissed back. Then Finn played on Rachel’s emotions by asking her to return to Glee, because he wanted to spend more time with her. She agreed. Silly, silly girl.
It doesn’t last long because Rachel finds out about Quinn being pregnant by Finn she was angry to say the least. She slapped Finn, and I found myself cheering for her. How dare he lie by omission and think it makes it okay just because he’s all sweet and remorseful. Okay so my emotions were torn, and I felt bad for both of them. Finn is just trying to be a responsible father and make something happen for his future but going about it the wrong way. One thing he does admit though is that the kiss was real. That’s something isn’t it, but not enough for Rachel she refuses to come back because her dreams are bigger than Glee and bigger than Finn. *Sigh* I don’t like this story line … Well, okay I do but it’s frustrating when all you want is for these two people to get together.
Also in this episode, we got treated to some wonderful performances by Kristin Chenoweth, who Will brought back to the school to lead the Glee club. Now Kristin is so much older than the other Glee club members, that it was ridiculous. All that aside Kristin can sing like nobody’s business. She had some awesome numbers tonight, including a killer rendition of Last Name (Original by Carrie Underwood) and a duet with Will of Alone (Original by Heart 🙂 ). Kristin Chenoweth really is a fantastic actress and I think they should have her come back a couple more times this season, don’t you?
After the awe inspiring performance of Last Name, April (Kristin Chenoweth) realizes that as much as she loved the standing ovation she was stealing the kids “sunshine”, and sort of gracefully bowed out of Glee club. I applaud this choice and I think it’s great that Will realized this and pushed her out, giving her the chance to bow out.
Cue the wonderful Rachel who came back mostly to help Finn out when he needs her the most, aww, she really does love him. After Quinn said that Rachel can’t do the last number because she doesn’t know the choreography, Finn says that it just means they will all have to help her. Another aww moment, he does care.. or just cares about himself.. lol. I can’t tell.
Rachel and Finn sing together with the Glee club for the finale, which was, Somebody to Love (Original by Queen), and it was unbelievably good. Rachel’s voice gives me shivers, and although Finn doesn’t dance well ( I mean am I the only one who noticed how off beat he is all the time…) his voice is beautiful. I just hope that the story line moves along and we see this wonderful couple together soon!
All in all, it was a gloriously Glee filled episode that made up for the lack of musical numbers in last week’s episode. I’m so in love with this show that I refuse to miss it!
Thursday brought us a great Grey’s Anatomy episode where the gang all deals with the merger in different ways. I’m not going to review the whole episode but just to tell you that the central characters are safe from cuts for now, I am loving the Mark and Lexie relationship and Christina never should have thought about paediatrics, she’s not the child liking type.
Now onto the other medical show for the night, Private Practice and the season premiere. What a premiere it was and it also finally gave us some information on Pete’s past and his relationship with his wife. I really enjoyed this episode and was happy with its progression.
We first see Pete standing with Sam and Naomi at a funeral and I was panicked. Is it Violet or the baby? Nope, we flash back to Pete and Naomi finding Violet unconscious and bleeding all over the place in her living room. We don’t see a baby, just Violet. No sign of the coo-coo patient Katie either.
Naomi and Addison rush Violet into surgery and although Addison is clearly the best at what she does, it’s still going to be touch and go. Pete is beside himself with worry, because he’s finally admitted he loves Violet and they had agreed to make a go at a relationship. Sheldon and Pete are both worried about the baby as well, because we still don’t know who the father is.
Cooper is upset with himself for not checking on Violet when he was at the door, and he’s also worked up because he keeps getting paged by the hospital and he’s not on call. All three men are faced with a choice when Addison comes out to ask if she should do a hysterectomy which could save her life, or try to save her uterus, and risk her dying. Pete and Sheldon both just say save Violet, at all costs, but Cooper disagrees. He’s her best friend, he knows her and insists that Violet would want Addison to save her uterus. I agree with Cooper, it’s a hard choice but Violet would really want her uterus saved. Addison goes with Cooper because Cooper is Violet’s best friend and knows her better than anyone.
During all this drama we are also getting flash backs to how Pete joined the practice after his wife died, and how Sam and Naomi sent him to counselling with Violet. Violet thought he wasn’t ready, but Pete convinced her by admitting why he was really upset. Pete was upset because he actually hated his wife and they fought all the time and he even fought with her the night before she died and was still yelling at her in the morning when he thought she was just ignoring him and she was really dead. I can see how he’d be torn about that.
Violet agrees that Pete should joing the practice after his confession, and tells him that one day he’ll find the right person. Who knew she was talking about herself.
Cooper is still getting paged, and finally goes to the desk to scream at someone, when the nurse tells him there’s a woman who will only see him. I was floored when it was Katie, and she was holding a baby. Violet’s baby. While the nurse quietly calls security, Cooper talks to Katie and keeps her calm. Cooper is still talking to Katie and trying to convince her to let him look at her son, when Pete walks up, I thought for sure that Pete was going to fly off the handle. He doesn’t, he plays along, and helps convince Katie to give the baby to Cooper to be checked out. Security arrives just after she hands Violet’s son over to Cooper and she’s taken away screaming that it’s her baby. I felt sorry for Katie in a way because she’s so convinced it’s her baby, and doesn’t realize she’s completely bonkers.
Unfortunately, it’s not happy ending yet because the baby is not okay and Violet is still in surgery. Addison decides she’s going to operate on the baby, and leaves Naomi to finish up because she’s done most of it already. Naomi manages to pull it off, and Addison helps the baby, and they both survive surgery, but Violet isn’t waking up from surgery right away.
There’s another flashback to the funeral from the beginning of the show, and we see someone take Pete’s hand and it’s Violet 🙂 It was Pete’s wife’s funeral, how fitting a wrap up for that storyline, full circle.
Violet does wake up , and sees all her friends waiting there with her. She immediately asks about her baby and Pete brings her beautiful baby boy over to her and she’s filled with joy. Who wouldn’t be?
That was a decent conclusion to last season’s finale, but I hope they resolve the paternity question soon, because frankly I hope it’s Pete’s and that Sheldon is out of the picture because I don’t like him very much. He’s just aggravating, and reminds me of a garden gnome lol. sorry, he does. 🙂
Catch a new episode of Private Practice on ABC, Thursday at 10 pm.
That’s it for this week, again I’m sorry it’s so late but I hope it was worth the wait. I’ll be back on Tuesday with a review of Hell’s Kitchen and of course I’ll be around all week with the news. Have a great week!
