LOST Season Finale: The Good, The Bad and The WTF?!

UPDATE: Click here to share your thoughts on tonight’s LOST series finale?

LOST doesn’t return with new episodes until January 2009, but I think last night’s season finale provided enough questions and answers to keep people interested and speculating until then. Something tells me that LOST won’t be falling from our pop culture radar despite it’s long hiatus.

I’m completely overwhelmed as to where to start. The past? The present? The future? It would probably be more interesting if I could tell one from the other. But I can’t. I’m too confused. I wish Juliet would share some of that Dharma Rum because I could sure used some right about now. Oh it’s only 7am? My bad. I’ll wait until at least 8:45am to start drinking.

Before we get into to what exactly went down last night (besides the helicopter), I must say that while I truly enjoyed the two hour experience of last night’s LOST, I think I was a left a little underwhelmed. That being said, I think last year’s season finale set the bar so high that I may have been expecting a bit too much. Where last year’s finale turned the entire show upside down, last night’s episode served to answer some pretty important questions while setting us up for a new storyline when the show returns next year. I guess that’s what a good season finale is supposed to do. But this is LOST so I was expecting the unexpected (oh wait, that’s BIG BROTHER…dang).

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Rest in Peace Harvey Korman

I just heard the news of the passing of legendary comedian, Harvey Korman. Korman was best known for his time as a main player on THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW but was also well remembered for his many roles including that in BLAZING SADDLES.

My family watched a lot of THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW when I was younger and watching Korman and Tim Conway crack up on screen during the show is one of my earliest TV memories. He will be missed.

A Sneak Peek at Tonight’s LOST Season Finale

Just can’t wait until tonight’s 2-hour season finale of LOST? Yeah, me neither. For people like you and me who are all about immediate gratification, here are a bunch of sneak peek videos from tonight’s episodes. Let the speculation run wild. (You know we’ll be wrong anyway).

What to Watch…Thursday, May 29, 2008

Set the TiVo’s people because we’ve got a battle royale going on tonight. Well, that’s probably overstating it a bit. I mean I love SYTYCD (as you might have heard) but really, it’s all about the 2-hour LOST season finale. I’m hearing great things about tonight’s episode and I’ll be posting sneak preview clips in just a few minutes. But for now, check out what’s worth watching tonight.

So You Think You Can Dance | 8pm on Fox
The fourth round of auditions continue tonight. I’m not sure exactly what cities they are hitting tonight but I think Washington, DC is one of them. What a treat. I didn’t realize we had another new episode tonight. Vegas…we’re coming for you.

Lost | 9pm on ABC | 2-hour Season Finale
“There’s No Place Like Home”
As the fourth season comes to a close, the face-off continues between the survivors and the freighter people, and the Oceanic 6 find themselves ever closer to rescue. (If you missed the first part of “There’s No Place Like Home”, ABC is reairing it tonight at 8pm)

Last Comic Standing | 8:30pm on NBC
The search for jokesters continues, as Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nuñez, both from “The Office,” go scouting for comedians in Los Angeles. Also: Neil Flynn and Alfonso Ribeiro recruit funny folks in Houston.

Keep on Dancing…More SYTYCD Auditions

With another audition episode out of the way, we are one step closer to Vegas. Last night the show was in Salt Lake City and Dallas – both strong dance cities. Salt Lake alone sent 42 dancers off the Vegas. Crazy! And based on the quality of dancers we’ve seen thus far I think it’s going to be one hell of a season on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.

Once we get to Vegas we’ll be talking a bit more about some of the dancers. But for now, here’s just a few that stood out for me last night.

Chelsie Hightower – I’m not a big fan of the sob stories. I find them manipulating and unnecessary on a show of this caliber. Am I suppose to have sympathy for a family who lost everything including “several cars”? Come on now. But it’s reality TV and I must endure. If I’m going to have to sit through the melodrama I expect to see some good dancing, and that’s just what I got from Chelsie Hightower. Actually I thought I saw some great dancing. Despite being a bit too orange, Chelsie was gorgeous and really sexy. She has a lot of natural talent and a ton of charisma. Unlike some of the other women who went went further than they should based on their looks alone, I think Chelsie showed real promise. See you in Vegas, Chelsie.

Gev Manoukian – One of my favorite dancers of the night was ice skating B-Boy dancer Gev Manoukian. One of the best things about this show is that people who have auditioned in the past and didn’t make it through take the words and wisdom of the judges and use that to make themselves better, more well rounded dancers. And that’s exactly what Gev did after being rejected two seasons ago. He took dance lessons and learned how to incorporate many styles into his core of breakdancing. His interpretation of the music was fantastic as was his overall movement. I thought Gev was one of the most versatile dancers we’ve seen thus far. Looking forward to seeing what this kid can do in Vegas.

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My Friends are Shy

You’ll have to excuse this random non-TV related post. See some of my friends are hams…big time attention whores (yes, Julie Burke I’m talking to you). Every time there’s a funny picture or video of us doing random stuff they think I should post it to the site. But you all don’t care. I get that. Why would you? But they wanted to get on the site, and hence the reason for this ‘Ode to GMMR’ video.

Sorry for the self-indulgence but if I post this maybe they won’t pester me. And I guess in turn, I’m giving you a way to get on GMMR. I’m shameless like that. If someone is going to make a video showing their love for the site you know I’ll post it. Ha ha

With that….my friends: Rob, Julie, Mark, Ray and that’s Steph doing the drive by on the beach in Nevis (after many, many drinks).

Upfront Memories ’08 – Dancing with the Stars of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE

“When you wish upon a star…”

I’m not a dancer…at all. But give me enough of the Captain and coke, or in this case some booze filled concoction dreamt up by the kind people over at Fox, and I’ll be the first one on the dance floor. And that’s just what happened a few weeks ago at the Fox Upfront party in NYC.

Now let me set the scene. I’m sitting in the back of theater, ground level at the NY City Center listening to Kevin Reilly talk about the upcoming Fall season. But in the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘please stop talking to so I can go to the after party and meet Pacey’. Reilly is wrapping up, and I’m readying my purse when I hear the word “dance”. Wait, this is Fox. Home of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Is perhaps Sabra there? Maybe Benji. Yes they are! And along with them are Lacey, Ivan, Stanislav, Nick, Anya, Lacey, Hok, and Ryan. Hold my hat, my favorite SYTYCDaners are on the stage. I quickly whip out my Flip camera and try to capture their routine while simultaneously trying not to burst a blood vessel in my head caused my unnatural excitement.

Fast forward to the Fox after party. Stars everywhere you look. But my mission (after meeting the aforementioned Pacey aka Joshua Jackson) was to find my dancers. While on my search, I bumped into the gorgeous Cat Deeley whom I got to chat with for a few minutes (and yes she just as fabulous as you imagine her to be.) She mentioned that her “beebies” were going to be stopping by the party. And just minutes later I started spotting them milling about.

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Catch Up with Denis Leary: “Rescue Me”, “Recount” and “The Daily Show”

It seems that yours truly wasn’t the only victim of the Writers Strike (go figure). Sadly the longevity of the picket lines means that RESCUE ME won’t be back on FX this summer. But the show will return in March with a full 22 episode season. (Cue applause). Meanwhile, check out FX on Tuesdays starting June 24th for a series of 10-minute RESCUE ME minisodes. Alittle something to tide us over during the long summer months.

And if it’s a Denis Leary fix you need, check out this clip of him on THE DAILY SHOW for last week. He and Jon Stewart are old buddies and the two of them together are pretty fantastic.

Also, Denis is starring in the movie “Recount” airing on HBO this month. The movie chronicles the days immediately after the 2000 election when this country was in one huge clusterf%#@k after issues in the Florida voting system were revealed. “Recount” is quite compelling and stars some heavy hitters including Leary, Kevin Spacey, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern. Although we now how it ends (Gore isn’t POTUS, is he?…oops Spoiler Alert). The story and dramatization of the actual events is quite suspenseful.

My only problem with “Recount”? Leary’s hideous Boston accent. What’s with the Boston-bred guys that can’t pull off an authentic Boston accent? They try for so long to lose it that when they need it they’re like every other Joe Schmo trying to pull it off. Kind of annoying, but Leary’s so great I got over it quickly.

So check back to GMMR soon for more info on the “Rescue Me” minisodes, and check out your local HBO listings for upcoming airings of “Recount”.

Upfront ’08 Memories – Meeting the Cast of THE OFFICE

As I continue to stroll down memory lane of the Upfronts ’08, there’s no way I can talk about my week without talking about getting to see the cast of my favorite show, THE OFFICE.

Yes, I was lucky enough to meet the cast last year, but it really doesn’t matter. I still get just as excited about seeing the collective group that make me laugh out loud every Thursday (ok and every Tuesday if we are talking TBS reruns). Just being near them I had this stupid smile on my face (as seen in the pictures below).

Now the weird thing about the Upfronts is that the stars are just kind of hanging out. They’re walking around and talking with friends, and such was the case with the cast of THE OFFICE. The first cast member I spotted was Oscar Nunez, who was sitting on a bench chatting it up with Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder from ‘Heroes’). That’s when the excitement kicked in. Dunder Mifflin was in the house. After seeing Oscar, it seemed everywhere I looked there was a DMer. First Mindy Kaling, then B.J. Novak. I spotted Phyllis Smith and Leslie David Baker and then the lovely Kate Flannery. Next thing you know they were all there getting settled on the big white couch.

As the cast was one of the biggest draws at the event, there was a designated area where fans could take pictures. The line started 45 minutes before the cast even arrived.

The cast members in attendance were: Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Phyllis Smith, Rainn Wilson, Paul Lieberstein, Craig Robinson, Jenna Fischer, Brian Baumgartner, Oscar Nunez, Kate Flannery, John Krasinski, Creed Bratton, Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak. Steve Carell was there for the press line but he was busy rehearsing for SNL across the street. Oh and as much as I would like spinoff casting rumors, no Scott Adsit (Pete, 30 Rock) isn’t joining the cast…he just snuck in for this picture.

So here are a few pictures that I snagged that night. It’s always so surreal to be able to talk to your favorite performers up close and personal. And although it’s been said by me and countless others, the cast of THE OFFICE are genuinely nice people. Based on the smiles and laughter, they truly enjoy each other’s company, and the couldn’t have been any nicer to any of the fans who waited around for their chanced to interact with the cast of their favorite show.

Related: Upfront Memories ’08 – Meeting Joshua Jackson 

What to Watch…Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Well hello there. It’s been awhile. I hope all of my crazy American readers enjoyed the holiday weekend. If you’re on the East Coast like me I trust you had some great weather, just perfect for the unofficial kickoff to summer. For those of you not in the old U.S. of A., then sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. It was just too nice of a day to be writing about or even thinking about TV.
So let’s get back into it. What’s on tonight? Not much. Lots and lots of reality shows. As happy as I am that IDOL is done and over with, I realized it was one of the few shows I actually watched on Tuesdays and Wednesday. Guess that leaves plenty of time to try to do some damage on my summer TV catchup. Namely, Project: SUPERNATURAL. (Those Winchester boys are hot and funny…a nice combo.)

Before we get into a few TV suggestions for the night, I need to wish my niece Lila a very happy 4th birthday today. So bummed I can’t be there to celebrate in person. How time flies.

According to Jim | 8pm on ABC | New
“The No Bed Rest for the Wicked”
Jim is anxious for Cheryl’s bed rest to be over so she can help with the household chores again, but he hears conflicting stories about how long her inactivity should last.

According to Jim | 8:30pm on ABC | Season Finale
“The Devil Went Down to Oak Park”
In the seventh-season finale, Jim gets a visit from the Devil (James Lipton), who intends to collect on a promise Jim made years before in order to make Cheryl fall in love with him.

Hell’s Kitchen | 9pm on Fox |New
“7 Chefs Compete”
The seven remaining chefs prepare dishes in a relay race in the opening challenge. The winners earn surfing lessons while the losers must clean the restaurant. At the dinner service, the teams choose their own menus. One group has difficulty.

“Bugs”
First aired: 11/8/2005
Dean and Sam arrive in a town checking up a report of a mysterious death, and stop at a realtor’s open house barbecue. Sam meets the realtor’s son Matt, who is fascinated with bugs. Soon the town is invaded by swarms of deadly bugs, and there may be no way out. [I can’t tell you how much I’m not looking forward to this episode. I have this irrational fear of bugs and I know this episode is going to freak me out. Ugh.]

“Home”
First aired: 11/15/2005
When Sam has nightmares of their old home, the brothers return to Lawrence, Kansas to investigate. They discover that a new family has moved into the Winchester’s home, and the woman is the one that Sam has been dreaming about. The family has been hearing and seeing frightening things, and the brothers think it might be haunted by the thing that killed their mother. They enlist the help of their father’s psychic to rid the house of the angry poltergeist. [The only thing that freaks me out more than bugs is anything having to do with ghosts. It’s the reason I didn’t watch this show in the first place. Blood and guts I can deal with, but ghosts…this is going to be a rough day.]

“Asylum ”
First aired: 11/22/2005
When Sam and Dean investigate a mysterious asylum that has a history with abuse, an evil force inside causes Sam to lose his sanity and turn on his brother.

What will YOU be watching?

WIN! 24 Season 1 Special Edition DVD Set

Whether you are a die hard fan of 24 or you’ve always wanted to get caught up on one of the hottest shows on TV, you should enter to win the brand new 24 Season 1 Special Edition DVD set which just hit stores on May 20th.

This 7-disc DVD set not only includes all the great episodes from 24’s ground breaking first season but it’s packed, and I mean packed, with special features that will blow your mind. (Check out the full list of features after the jump.)

I’ve got three copies to giveaway just for GMMR readers. Entering is easy…

• Share with us a problem you face everyday and how Jack Bauer could help. You know, maybe you’ve run out of milk and Jack is called in on special assignment to milk a cow, pasteurize the milk and bring it to you…all in 24 hours of course.

Three winners will be chosen at random from all qualifying entries. Please make sure to leave your correct email address in the appropriate field when leaving your comment.

Good luck and may Jack Bauer be with you.
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SYTYCD: Robert Muraine Will Blow Your Mind

Last night’s premiere of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE did not disappoint!! We saw some incredibly talented dancers come through in the L.A. auditions (along with a few trainwrecks). And of course there was ‘Sex’. Travis Wall, Hok Konishi, and Dominic Sandoval – three of my favorite past SYTYCDancers were there, and just seeing them brought a smile to my face.

But the real stand out audition of the night came from street performer Robert Muraine. He calls his style of dance pop ‘n lock, but I’ve seen that done before, and done well, and it still was nothing like this. This kid is sick! He’s stupid. And he so gets Mia Michael’s stank face.

Even if you don’t watch the show (and um, why not), I still think you will appreciate this guy’s performance.

Amazing, right?

Dear Grey’s Anatomy…

Thank you.  I’m whole and healthy and I’m going to try to trust you.  I don’t know if I can, but I’m going to try.  I’m not sure if I have a room where our kids can play but after what you’ve showed in these post-strike episodes, there’s definitely room on my TiVo for you.  It’s episodes like that when I feel lucky that I’m a chick, and therefore have no issues with all the crying, and the giddy feelings I had with all the kissing.  You righted some wrongs.  We all went through some therapy. Stick with it next season – it’s not easy but you kept one patient alive.  Don’t screw up again.

Get Ready for SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

This is what we call fair warning people! My favorite summer show (and my favorite reality show) kicks off tonight. I wanted to give you a heads up that we’ll be talking about it a lot over the next few months here at GMMR. So if you haven’t watched SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE in its previous three seasons then go set the DVR now because season 4 kicks off tonight on Fox at 8pm EST. You don’t want to be out of the loop, right?I know, I know…you’re asking yourself, ‘do I really need to watch another reality show’? Yep. ‘But GMMR, I know nothing about dance and I’m not really into it, so would I even like it?’ Yeppers. SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is a fantastic display of talent and you don’t have to interested in dance in general to enjoy the amazing routines put together by some of the top choreographers in the world and danced by some truly talented artists.

For your newbies out there, I thought I’d give you a little 101 on how the show works, and share a few of my favorite routines from year’s past so you can see the talent level we are talking about. These kids don’t kid around…they can dance.

The Auditions and off the Vegas…
The judges will travel the country and look for the most uniquely talented dancers they can find from every genre imaginable – jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, ballet, swing…anything and everything. Expect to see some truly awful auditions among the rare gems. The best of the best will be invited to Las Vegas for the final round of auditions. From there the field will be narrowed down to the best 20 dancers – 10 guys and 10 girls.

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David Cook Wins American Idol (Watch)

It seems that technology is up to its old tricks once again. I’ve received many panicked emails from those who didn’t get to enjoy David Cook’s winning moment because their DVRs cut off just as his name was being announced. What a bummer.

For those of you who missed it, here is the BIG announcement and David’s classy and spectacular last performance.

…and that’s all she wrote. Because SHE is exhausted and needs to go to bed. Thanks to everyone for another incredible AMERICAN IDOL season. It was great to watch it with you for the past 19 weeks.

And the fun continues tomorrow. Check out FOX tomorrow night for the 2 hour season premiere of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. We’ll be talking about it a lot over the summer so get on board now.

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