TV

I doubt many of us were surprised by Lacey Brown's elimination (and the fact that the judges opted to keep their Get Out Of Jail Free card). She seems so sweet, though. Very likable. Unfortunately, she just never made much of an impact on the show.
Meanwhile, Tim Urban lives to sing another day. Next week is probably make-or-break for him; if he has another disappointing round, it will likely be his last. But one never knows what will happen on Idol, does one? Let's keep the faith, shall we?

What in the world. While I find the "spelling" of her name annoying, I kept an open mind about this performance. For a second or two, anyway, until it was revealed to be a complete wreck. The giant TV people, the possible lip synching (we can't do that on a national singing competition, kids!), the headgear, the wobbling around as if possibly drunk -- oh, and the song itself. Ugh. (No offense.)

I enjoyed the opening montage, which looked like the show had time-traveled back to a 1950s television set that was on the fritz. (Someone needed to adjust the antenna.)
Also interesting: Simon and Ryan's ongoing "drama" (which I believe is fake, but who knows). When Ryan asked what was wrong, Simon said, "Your aggressive behavior last night."
Simon then posed an intriguing question to our host: "Do you want my job? Because it felt like an audition."
Ryan said no, but could we picture him at the table, sipping from his Coke cup? Not really.

OK, so I said a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't going to blog-recap 24 anymore this season. I was bored, bored, bored. But then --- my goodness! -- things really ramped up last week and this week (if you haven't watched, consider this your spoiler alert). I like to think the producers are avid readers of this blog, and paid attention ... heh, heh.

Last week, we found out that Tarin, President Hassan's ex-head of security and his daughter Kayla's forbidden lover, was in fact in cahoots with the nuclear-weapon-wielding bad guys. No surprise there.

This week, Dana and Cole's problems continued with the arrival of (dead) Kevin's parole officer, homing in on Dana at CTU and obviously suspecting that she had a part in the burglary at the police warehouse. Tarin kidnaps Kayla and takes her to the even badder bad guys, who put a plastic bag over her head and send the live images to her horrified mum and dad. Then Tarin seemingly turns all lovey-dovey again, helping Kayla escape before being shot himself. Before dying (sort of), he tells her to get to CTU, that it's the only place she'll be safe.

So she does. And the car blows up. And CTU blows up. Who's alive (Jack and Cole, for sure -- they were safely elsewhere)? Who's dead? What fabulous new darkly-lighted secret-security-agency headquarters will take CTU's place for the rest of the season? 24, you're back where we love you -- doing things no other show would dare. Yippeeeee! Can't wait for next week.

PHOTO by Michael Becker/Fox Broadcasting Co.: Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer on 24

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know about Tuesday's episode of Lost, get outta here!

Sawyer episode! Yay! (Yes, I've confessed my love for Sayid, but now that he's gone Totally Dark -- what about that thing last night with him watching idly as Claire almost murdered Kate?!? -- I'm leaning more in the Sawyer direction). Also, next week's episode: Richard! Double-yay!

In Tuesday's show, we found out that Sideways Sawyer is actually Sideways Det. James Ford. Yep, Sawyer's a cop (but a moody, conflicted cop, natch) with Miles as his partner on the LA police force. Miles sets his buddy up with a friend "who works with my dad at the museum" -- who turns out to be ... no, not Juliet, as we might have expected ... but Charlotte.

Meanwhile, on the island, Sawyer inquires of Locke how he rescued the temple-dwellers from "that smoke thing." Locke, looking sheepish: "I didn't rescue them. I'm the smoke thing." He sends Sawyer on a mission to Hydra Island, where he finds Charles Widmore and his underlings. Widmore got the best line of the episode, which might as well have been said directly to the viewers: "It's sad, really, how little you actually know."

PHOTO by Bob D'Amico/ABC: Josh Holloway as Sawyer on Lost.

I found myself disagreeing quite a bit with the judges last night. A few examples:
- Comparing Siobhan to Adam Lambert. Really? I know she tends to go for that one crazy note (which was questionable in clarity last night), but overall, I don't think her vocal strength or her state presence are anywhere near Mr. Lambert's. This could be a ploy by the judges to retain skeptical viewers: "Ooh, look! We have another wildly flamboyant contestant!" No, we don't.
- Lee DeWyze. I loved his version of "Beast of Burden" so much that I shall buy it on iTunes today. I thought he took an old song and made it incredibly current, but the judges wished for more. We clearly weren't hearing the same thing.
- Paige Miles. Who else thinks she should go home simply for changing the "Honky Tonk Woman" lyrics in such a contrived fashion? Her version: "I'm a hooonky tonk woman! Gimme, gimme, gimme a honky tonk man." The real version: "It's the hooonky tonk women! Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues." No! You cannot change "blues" to "man." I was irrationally perturbed by this.

James deals with Widmore.
Sideways: Officer LaFleur!
Ford and Kate sub out.

Fans gather at a Potbelly restaurant in Arlington to watch and cheer on Tim Urban on "American Idol." Urban regularly performed at two Arlington Potbelly restaurants before becoming an American Idol hopeful. (DMN Video/editing: Michael Ainsworth)

Watch the video.

The last two episodes have been all over the place emotionally, but the main themes seem to center around expectations and consequences. And the moral of the latest episode would definitely be "lock your doors."

We keep being shown how Ben Sherman's still very affected by his deserting dad's actions growing up, with Ben overly concerned about a boy he sees mowing the grass with lingerie on over his underwear. Should he have stopped and questioned the scene at all? Well, it brought Ben and his partner, John Cooper, closer in the end - another continuing theme, seeing as Lydia and Rene are also connecting on a deeper level.

With more than half of the performances complete, it's been a pretty entertaining night. Sadly, though, no one has caused me to erupt in spontaneous cheers and applause from my living room.
That includes Tim Urban. He opted to put a reggae/quirky spin on "Under My Thumb," which was a risk that didn't pay off so well.
While the judges all panned the performance, Kara and Simon both applauded him for at least doing something different with the song. ("Having said that," Simon added, "it didn't work.")
Is he in danger of getting the boot tomorrow? Very much so. His only hope is if someone else falls off the stage or forgets the song or says the Stones stink. Something along those lines.

"Welcome to the main event," Ryan said at the top of tonight's show, which is when things get serious. (Or more serious than before. I suppose it's serious from the minute one gets that ticket to Hollywood.)
Tonight's theme: Rolling Stones songs. Michael Lynche started the show with a commendable take on "Miss You," although I wasn't blown away. Neither was Simon, who said he "thought the performance at times -- particularly your dancing -- was kind of corny."
Next up was Didi Benami, who showed us her darker side with "Playing With Fire." I liked it fine. Again, not blown away.
Fort Worth's Casey James then performed a bluesy version of "It's All Over Now." The crowd went wild and the judges were in his corner -- although Simon pointed out that he could have used the stage more. (Very true. I was also itching for him to move around a little more, but I've been able to forgive him for this.)
The best quote of the night came from Ellen as she critiqued cutie-pie Casey. "For most women, their hearts start racing just looking at you. But for people like me [pause for laughter from the crowd] -- blondes -- I thought it was fantastic, Casey."

This week's Gossip Girl dealt with mama dramas - luckily, none of the baby variety.

Chuck got confirmation that the woman he confronted last week is indeed his mom. He tests her by paying her off - and she fails - but she returns later because she wants to get to know her son rather than cash a hefty check.

But elsewhere, Chuck's mother may have done more harm than good. She told Serena that she hadn't been in Chuck's life until now because she simply didn't want to be. That wasn't the best news for Serena to hear, especially when she's been seeking out her long-lost father for almost two seasons now.

Maybe allowing Morgan into the inner circle was the best thing to ever happen on Chuck. Rarely do we get two great episodes in a row, much less two great episodes that reveal interesting character back-stories and plot information.

Monday's episode, Chuck vs. the Tic Tac, involved the team going to check the security at a C.I.A. base. While there, Chuck sees Casey steal something and later, thinking it's part of a loyalty test, outs Casey to Sarah and the General.

What a coincidence: Both North Texans still in the running are linked to the word "shirtless" all over the World Wide Web. More on this in a minute.
Taking a break from rehearsals this afternoon, Tim says he's going to "have a lot of fun" with the Rolling Stones theme tomorrow. "I'm not going to worry too much about the judges and sing a song, have a lot of fun with it. Just have a blast."
So how did this American Idol roller coaster get started for him?
"I tried out because my friends really, really wanted me to try out," he says. "I never did, but I told them if the show came back to Dallas, I'd try out. I didn't think they'd come back to Dallas anytime soon, actually. But when they did, I felt like I had to try out.
"It was half that my friends wanted me to, and half that I kinda secretly wanted to."
The experience hasn't been without its share of humilation for Tim; after he sang live for the first time, Simon skewered the poor guy as the nation watched.
"That first week was rough," Tim says now. "Very brutal. But I've always been a fan of Simon. He's mean, kinda, but he's right. He doesn't randomly make stuff up to tell you. When he was pretty brutal and I made it through, I didn't want to give him a reason to say that again. I figured I'd better step things up. So it was definitely a confidence booster knowing that I had."
None of this is quite sinking in yet, he says: "It's kind of funny -- I'll stop and go, 'Wait, I think I'm on American Idol, and I think I'm in the top 12. When did this happen?' We're kind of in an isolated bubble."
OK, so about that picture.
"Ah, yes, the famous picture," Tim says with a laugh. "Last summer I was in a competition for acting, modeling and singing, and obviously I'd entered; I was definitely into doing some modeling.
"It's just me walking down a runway, and that picture is all over everywhere. Oh, man, I've been asked about that so many times."
Once he made it onto the show, Tim decided to keep the photo on his Facebook page "because I figured eventually it would get out, and I didn't want people to think I was going to try to hide it."
Which begs the question: Why would one hide it?
"I don't know that it's hurt yet," Tim admits with a laugh, "so I guess I can't complain."

This afternoon, the nice folks at Idol offered up a few minutes of phone time with Casey James and Tim Urban. I happily took them up on this.
First, breaking news: Casey is sick. With the flu, not just the sniffles. While he's a bit worried about that, he seems to have a peaceful attitude about life in general right now.
"I'm really trying to stay - and I know this is a stupid word - but I want to stay grounded," he says. "It's so easy to get wrapped up in all of this, being on TV and stuff, but really my prerogative is music. So I'm just trying to keep that the focus and continue to do what I've been doing since the very first time I auditioned. Just go and be me and hope that it works."
Speaking of that first audition: Casey says he'd never planned to try out for Idol. Since he doesn't own a TV, he'd never really watched it. "But hearing about it or whatnot, or walking in while it's on the TV, I just got the impression that it wasn't a place where I would be easily accepted. I'm not a real big fancy singer; I'm just a working musician."
After playing a gig one Saturday night - and not getting much sleep the night before - his mom showed up at his house with her new truck.
"She said, 'I'll let you take the truck if you go audition,'" he recalls. (His own vehicle "definitely wouldn't have made the trip. In fact, shortly after that it broke down, so right now I'm truckless.")

In the seventh installment of Talking TV, Tom and I discuss celebrity voiceovers in recent commercials, what makes a TV show worth watching (or skipping) and the new HBO miniseries, The Pacific.

Come for the camaraderie. Stay for our impressions of Antonio Banderas as a bee who loves nasal spray.

Listen to Talking TV right here or download the podcast on iTunes.

One of the highlights of each Office season is the Halloween episode where we see each character in their costume. So imagine my delight when Thursday's episode was a St. Patrick's Day themed episode in which everyone was sporting green!

Meredith had a green dress with white flowers in her hair and treated the day like her own Irish Christmas. Kevin had a horrible, horrible green blazer and newsboy cap. Dwight and Jim didn't participate, but it was Angela who was actively protesting the holiday that has come to be associated with drunken revelry.

Who will stop the bad boys and girls of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains?

The hapless Heroes couldn't win the chocolate reward challenge, had a scary moment with James Clement's knee injury and faltered again in the immunity challenge.

Read on for more and the evictee details.

This week's guest judge is Roland Mouret, French designer. Time for the big show!

Both Ben and Mila did an interesting job of making their garments fluid without being floaty. Overall, everyone's outfit is kind of a mess. There are a lot of people who could be eliminated.

Anthony, Emilio and Jay make it on to the next round. Mila's outfit is unanimously disliked by the judges. They say it's boring and completely unlike her usual aesthetic. (Nina wonders if she's a one-trick pony.) However, the judges are impressed with Seth Aaron's consistency, even if he doesn't exactly adhere to the challenge restrictions. Maya's dress is well-liked, if not entirely original.

The judges have nothing but quips for Amy's hairy mess: "It looks like a cat in a baby sling." "She looks like she's a bar maid serving her hair." "It's like she's growing hair out of her chest." They have Amy remove the fake hair from the outfit, which improves it a bit.

Ben's first attempt at a suit looks like, well, a first attempt at a suit and the judges bust him on it. Jonathan, however, is rewarded for making his own textile and for taking his model's skin tone into consideration.

Seth Aaron is in and Jonathan is the winner of the challenge, which is great after he had lamented about always being in the middle earlier in the episode. His reponse? "I wooooonnnnn!"

Maya and Mila are in. Amy is in, which means Ben is out. I'm extremely surprised they gave Amy yet another chance after her crazy pants from the Mommy and Me challenge a few weeks ago. Ah well, auf Wiedersehen Ben!

Next week: Teams of two! A complete disaster! "The most horrifying experience of my life." "That's what makes her look like an umbrella." All this and more next time on Project Runway!

The contestants meet with a guy from Garnier before the fittings in order to fill the show's product placement quota.

Tim says Jonathan's laughter garment seems exquisite while Amy's bowl inspired outfit seems to concern him a little more. Tim has plenty of confidence in the Bangs Sisters, Maya and Mila. (However, I'm already weirded out by at least two contestants I see using leather. Did we not learn from Stella a few seasons ago?) Mila and Jonathan notice that several designers have taken liberties with the challenge itself - such as Anthony, whose black and grey dress is supposed to represent the ashes aspect of fire.

The next day, Jay violates every reality show standard of decency and actually helps Ben once Jay's finished with his own garment. That never happens, am I right? Everyone's always like, "I didn't come here to make friends. I came here to win!" They're usually foaming at the mouth. I'm so happy that Jay was actually a cool guy to his fellow designer.