Kings | 8pm on NBC

Queen Rose prepares for the arrival of the Gath military; complications arise at the peace treaty signing; Jack goes on an impromptu shopping spree.

Little Women | 10pm on HBO Family

Louisa May Alcott’s classic story of the lives, loves and triumphs of four sisters in Civil War-era New England. From the Louisa May Alcott book. Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis, Kirsten Dunst

Xanadu | 10:30pm on ABC Family

A mythological muse helps an artist and a former big-band clarinetist open a roller disco. Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan, Dimitra Arliss.

The Holiday | 9pm on TBS

Two women, one from America and one from England, swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach

Tonight’s TV Spotlight…Saturday, March 21, 2009

Saturday TV Spotlight picks are the worst. It’s not like there are any worthwhile shows on tonight (yeah, you heard me ‘Celebrity Apprentice’, I said worthwhile). Lately I’ve been trying to spotlight a few Saturday night flicks that share a similar theme a la Apatow & Friends or last week’s Julia Roberts-athon.

Tonight’s theme is simply ‘movies that I personally love that happen to be on TV tonight.’ Lame yes, but so is the TV schedule. And it’s my birthday so I get to indulge a bit. If I want to fill my night with chick flicks, musicals and Neil Patrick Harris then who are you to judge. 🙂

P.S. For those of you waiting for DOLLHOUSE and BSG reviews you’ll have to wait a bit longer. I was out with friends last night and missed both.  I have a friend staying with me and I don’t think she wants to play TV catch up while she’s in town.  It’s killing me that I haven’t seen either yet, but thems the breaks. PLEASE not spoilers!

Here you go…

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle | 8pm on Comedy Central
After smoking marijuana, two roommates scour New Jersey to satisfy their hunger for hamburgers.
John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garcés, Neil Patrick Harris, David Krumholtz. [GMMR: Hilarious movie! But more importantly this movie can be credited with bringing Neil Patrick Harris back in a big way. The creators of HIMYM saw this movie and then cast NPH as Barney. The rest is…wait for it…wait for it…history.]

The Holiday | 9pm on TBS
Two women, one from America and one from England, swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach [GMMR: I have to believe that I have seen this movie more than any other person on Earth. No joke. I couldn’t begin to even count how many times I’ve watched it, or at least parts of it. If I come across it on TV I must watch it.  Can’t turn it off.  And oddly enough it has nothing to do with John Krasinski’s 2-minute cameo. That Kate Winslet chick – keep an eye out for her…she’s going places.]

Little Women | 10pm on HBO Family
Louisa May Alcott’s classic story of the lives, loves and triumphs of four sisters in Civil War-era New England. From the Louisa May Alcott book. Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis, Kirsten Dunst. [GMMR: A great movie based on an even better book.  On of my favorite books growing up. I always wanted to be on the March sisters. Is anyone cooler than Jo March? Never understood why passed over Christian Bale though.]

Xanadu | 10:30pm on ABC Family
A mythological muse helps an artist and a former big-band clarinetist open a roller disco. Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan, Dimitra Arliss. [GMMR: “Whenever you’re away from me…wherever you go, you’re never far away from me. I wanted you to know.” Tonight’s pick is dedicated to my sister, Karen. The only person I know that can truly appreciate Xanadu as much as I do.]

My Best Friend’s Wedding | 11:45pm on TBS
A commitment-shy girl (Julia Roberts) realizes she is in love with her best friend (Dermot Mulroney) and accepts a spot in his bridal party in the hope of stopping his wedding. [GMMR: Rupert Everett leads everyone in a sing along over dinner. Love the shoes. Love the bag. Love everything about this movie.]

…and if you are looking for the same exact movie expect with some nifty gender reversals, I give you…

Made of Honor | 9pm on Starz
A commitment-shy guy realizes he is in love with his best friend and accepts a spot in her bridal party in the hope of stopping her wedding. [GMMR: Despite teaming up Dr. Derek Shepherd & Dr. Owen Hunt on the big screen, this movie is a bad ripoff of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’. I am always amazed that they didn’t try to do anything to change the premise, Bizarre.]

And that’s that.  What will YOU be watching on this Saturday night? Are any of YOUR favorite movies on?

Get Ready to Party Down with PARTY DOWN

Oh no…..

This day got completely away from me. Here it is quitting time and I totes forgot to remind you to check out PARTY DOWN tonight on Starz. Don’t have Starz? Well it’s a free weekend so most likely you do.

I’m a big fan of this show and not only because it was created by VERONICA MARS creator Rob Thomas or because it has so many Veronica Mars cameos that you’ll think you’ve been sent back to Neptune. Or because it’s co-written by the utterly fabulous Paul Rudd. Nope, it’s just a damn funny show.

PARTY DOWN is a one camera comedy centered around wannabe actors who are working for a catering company as they await their big break. Ken Marino plays the head honcho in charge whose life seems to revolved around catering the perfect party. His minions just care about getting paid.

I’ve seen the first few episodes, and while I wasn’t hit over the head with the funny at first, by the end of third episode I was madly in love. And believe me it had nothing to do with the full frontal of Enrico Colantoni. Oh yes, Papa Mars in all his glory. I’m telling you know because I wish someone had prepared me.

Look for more MARS friends to be partying down throughout the season include Ms. Mars herself, Kristen Bell and her one true love – Logan Echolls…um, I mean Jason Dohring. Sadly I don’t think we’ll see the two of them in the same episode, but with Ryan Hansen (who played Dick Casablancas) as a permanent cast member, I’m sure will be thinking fondly back on yesteryear.

And I suppose it’s worth saying that you can completely enjoy the show even if you’ve never seen Veronica Mars. I promise. I’m just getting caught up in nostalgia.

Check out a few clips. Come back tomorrow and tell me what you thought.

Kyle discusses the perks of the job with Henry. Find out what these are when Party Down premieres on Starz, Friday March 20th at 10:30p (E/P).

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30 ROCK: The Bubble

Alas, Dr. Drew is no more. But Jon Hamm got a solidly sneaky send-off this week, as Liz discovers her beautiful boyfriend is actually too beautiful for his own good. And hers. Even a Disney prince and potential Calvin Klein underwear model can’t overcome the handicap that is a lifetime spent inside “the bubble” (which according to Jack enables one to “free drinks, kindness, and outdoor sex”), and so the poor man sucks at nearly everything—including tennis, cooking, sex, and apparently his job. (He was a pediatrician, right? Double nards!) And while she’s tempted—as, let’s face it, who wouldn’t be?—there’s simply no way on earth Liz Lemon is going to let a loser beat her in tennis, or strap her on the back of his motorcycle/scooter for an obviously fatal trip up north. So we say Go forth, Liz Lemon, and find someone as “moderately pleasant looking” as you are. We’ll all be safer and/or happier that way.

Also, the realization (and reality) that Jack Donaghy was once a bubble boy himself? Too good for words, but they should have gone ahead and shown that laminated picture he was carrying in his pocket, because it would’ve saved the rest of us a lot of time and effort. (For some reason, the Google returns on “Alec Baldwin + shirtless” include a lot of pictures of The Hoff. So you’ve been warned.)

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SUPERNATURAL: On the Head of a Pin

How good was this episode?!! There is so much to discuss that I honestly don’t even know where to begin. Talk about receiving revelations; we were handed one after the other tonight. First, I’d like to congratulate Ben Edlund, the writer of the ep, who until now has been known mostly for the more comedic installments of Supernatural. This was the opposite of his usual SPN style, and he killed it. Tonight’s ep felt as epic as many of the season finales or premieres we’ve had and I loved every minute of it (well, maybe not watching Alistair cough up half of his esophagus – that was truly sick; the effects team are a bunch of evil geniuses).

Where to start? How about Sam and his new favourite beverage? I couldn’t believe my eyes – maybe I should have expected it, what with Sam’s newfound strength, but watching him drink from Ruby’s self-inflicted wound shocked me. No wonder he’s been gaining powers so quickly – here I’d thought they’d just been meeting for power training sessions. This cannot be a good thing.

Watching Dean torture Alistair was intense. Christopher Heyerdahl, the actor who plays the Brando-esque demon, was fantastic tonight. In the past I’ve found him to be almost too much, but he was perfect in his role here. It was heartbreaking to watch Dean devolve into the animal he’s been struggling to forget since leaving Hell, but Alistair’s evilness at least helped to temper the shock a bit. How could Dean NOT proceed with the torture when Alistair tells him that he’d been torturing John for a hundred years before Dean arrived in the pit? Not only that, but that John had been given the same choice that he had every day of that century (come down off the rack if he’d turn to torturing others) yet remained firm in his convictions the entire time. Dean meanwhile gave in after thirty years. That was only the beginning of the story however. I’ll come back to this in a minute.

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BONES: The Salt in the Wounds

Why does FOX hate BONES? Am I being too sensitive? Are other shows being pre-empted for American Idol all the time, and I just don’t notice it? Either way, I’m annoyed. What happened to 11 new episodes in a row, hmmm? And do NOT even get me started on the Ausiello spoiling nonsense.

Deep breath in (Booth in the bathtub)

Deep breath out (Booth at the shooting range)

Deep breath in (“That’s a lot of heart, Bones”)

Deep breath out (“Everything happens eventually”)

Ah, okay…that’s a bit better. But before, I was literally typing and just about hyperventilating (typerventilating?) over all of it.

Talk about salt in an open wound (hey, see how I did that?)

The Case:
A high school girls’ volleyball team gets pregnant. How might that happen? Well, it’s up to Booth and Brennan to figure that one out. But it starts that one of the players is found dead. So B+B travel to the high school and interrogate. There were a lot of suspects, including “The KID”, and once again the body was gross but took a backseat to the relationships on the show.

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President Barack Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

In case you weren’t able to stay up late enough to catch President Obama on THE TONIGHT SHOW with Jay Leno, here’s the interview.

It was ok. I was hoping for a little more. Clearly the entire interview was scripted. Obama knew exactly what he wanted to get across on the show and Jay was willing to lead him there.

The show wasn’t without a little controversy. While talking about his lack of bowling skills, Obama said he’d been practicing and had gotten his score up to 129.

“Oh, no, that’s very good,” Leno told Obama.
“It was like the Special Olympics or something,” said Obama.

It was a slip of the tongue but I knew he’d be paying for it today.

Other than that, the show went off without a hitch.

I understand that President Obama wants to be more transparent and wants the opportunity to talk more directly with the American people, but he needs to stop busting into the primetime schedule. Soon enough Leno is going to be on every night at 10pm. How about Obama just hang out with Jay then and leave IDOL, BONES, and other shows alone! Honestly, I know he has important stuff to say, and what he says is more important than Danny Gokey’s rendition of “The Gambler” or something, but we live the nonsense and the stress of the economy all the time.  Every day. How about you let us have our time so we can take a load off when we get home from work.

Tonight’s TV Spotlight…Friday, March 20, 2009

It’s a big day. Huge actually. Tonight is the series finale of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Ugh, I’ve been dreading typing that.  I have no idea what to expect from tonight’s final episode.  My brain is just too small to imagine what Ron Moore has in store for us. I’m equally excited and sad. I was a late comer to BSG, but taking the advice of others and tuning in was one of the best TV-related decisions of my life.

And now for the bad news – I can’t watch it live tonight! Crazy, right?!  Looks like I’m going to have to stay of Twitter, Facebook, not talk to anyone on the phone, ugh…Please don’t spoil me.

IMPORTANT! The BSG series finale will start at 9pm tonight and run until 11:11pm. Make sure you adjust your DVRs accordingly.

In other TV news, if you have Starz then you’ll be able to check out the series premiere of PARTY DOWN, a new comedy from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas.  More on this show later in the day.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | 8pm on Fox
“Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter”
Jesse’s submarine mission in the future takes a fatal turn with unforeseen consequences in the present for John, Sarah and Derek; Cameron has become a liability and Sarah must deal with her; John makes a life-or-death decision.

Friday Night Lights | 9pm on NBC
“The Giving Tree”
Buddy Garrity is forced to tell Lyla about his financial troubles; when J.D. meets a girl at school, his father worries he is losing his focus on football.

Dollhouse | 9pm on Fox
“Man on the Street”
Agent Ballard comes face to face – and fist to fist – with Echo for the first time, taking his investigation to a surprising turn. [GMMR: Tonight is supposed to be the big game changing episode of Dollhouse. I just got caught up on last week’s episode and it was definitely an improvement. I’m actually really stoked to check out this episode.]

Head Case | 10pm on Starz
R&B singer Macy Gray believes that she has a future in, of all places, the White House, while Janeane Garofalo, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott catch Dr. Goode in a state of prenuptial nirvana and a car-wash owner comes clean and delivers a timely gift to Myron.

Party Down | 10:30pm on Starz | Series Premiere
A down-on-his luck actor takes a job with his former employer, a Hollywood catering company called Party Down, where he works side by side with a collection of performing hopefuls. ; The Party Down team works a gathering for Gordon McSpadden.

Battlestar Galactica | 9pm on Sci Fi | Series Finale
“Daybreak Part 2”
Adama and the volunteers take the Galactica to Cavil’s base in a bid to recover Hera in the finale of the fourth season and the series.

What will YOU be watching?

Battlestar Galactica | 9 – 11:11pm on Sci Fi

SET THE DVRs: Start time @9pm and end time at 11:11pm. Adama and the volunteers take the Galactica to Cavil’s base in a bid to recover Hera in the finale of the fourth season and the series.

THE OFFICE: New Boss

(The following contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of THE OFFICE. Stop reading if you haven’t yet watched.)

If you’re skin is crawling with awkwardness then you might have just finished watching tonight’s episode of THE OFFICE. Talk about cringeworthy.  I watched most of the episode with my hands over my eyes. And I loved every minute of it!

Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have been with the show from the beginning and you could really feel that history tonight as they nailed the tone perfectly. Quotable lines, uncomfortable moments, and a (somewhat) shocking twist. Way to keep it classy guys…I hope you’re wearing your tuxes.

Idris Elba is a fantastic addition to the cast as the new corporate VP, Charles Minor. In the past the VP position has been reserved for the incapable and unprofessional such as Jan Levinson and Ryan “Fire Guy” Howard.  Seems corporate stepped up their game because Charles seems to be the real deal. But Michael, and let’s face it Jim, managed to give their new boss a reason to keep a watchful eye on the branch. And it’s not the kind of eye you want on you when the company is looking to create efficiences across the board – especially when you are the Scranton Branch.

You can always trust Michael Scott to make an ass out of himself.  He was childish, petty, inappropriate and off the charts unprofessional. But Jim.  Whoa, talk about a bad day. We’ve seen Jim choke before but every time he opened him mouth it just got worse. The new boss didn’t take too kindly to Jim’s lack of professionalism and it seemed that’s all Jim was offering up today. I’m glad we’ve seen Jim exposed like this in the past because it made his fouls that much more believable.  But I also don’t think he did anything to help himself.  For instance, why not ditch the jacket and bow tie and leave the tux look behind?  Certainly not the first impression you want to make when your career is possibly on the line.Think about your mortgage and upcoming (hopefully) nuptuials, James. Although, let’s be honest here, he did look quite handsome (and classy) in the tux so at least there’s that. I mean it did take him 40 minutes to get ready.

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LOST: Namaste

It’s a lunchtime quickie for LOST.  What can I say about the show while scarfing down my chicken caesar salad in between meetings? (Ah the life of a blogger with a real job).  Well I can say that despite last night’s episode being a bit of a filler, transitional episode I loved it.  I’m so invested in these characters that I enjoy seeing the entirety of their journey.  “Namaste” might not have been a jaw-droppingly great episode but I enjoyed it as much as I have all the other episodes of LOST this season. I’m this show’s bitch.

So let’s run through the events of the island circa 1977.

Last night we learned more about what happened in between the time Ajira Flight 316 started shaking in the air and when we saw Jack, Hurley and Kate scattered about on the island.

As the plane started to go down, Frank and his co-pilot did all they could to pull a Sully but the landing was rough.  While Frank got a little banged up, his poor co-pilot took a tree trunk through the chest.

Heading back to check on his passengers, Frank finds a confused but otherwise ok Sun. Jack, Kate and Hurley are no where to be found.  Ben appears, and in the creepy way that Ben does, declares “they are gone”. Ben, you are a complete freak of nature and I am strangely drawn to you.

Fast forward a little bit (nope, you went to far, go back, nope missed it, fast forward just a little bit – there!) Kate, Jack and Hurley are in a staring contest with Sawyer, or should I say, LeFleur. Hurley breaks the tension with his signature bear hug.  But it’s not the big man that Sawyer wants in his arms right now.  To answer Horace’s questions from a few weeks back, no, it doesn’t seem like three years is long enough to get over someone.

After a few pleasantries, Hugo asks what’s up with the Dharma garb. Sawyer explains that they are living in 1977 and working for Dharma.  Personally I thought the 316ers would have a little bit more reaction.  I mean it’s not like they were around for the flashes and had much time to get used to the idea of time travel.  They took it in stride.  I guess after all they’ve been through nothing much surprises them.

They explain to Sawyer and Jin that they were in a plane crash.  The men panic and Jin takes off to find Radinsky.  If a plane crashed on the island it was imperative that they find it before the hostiles. Especially if Sun is on board.

Sawyer is anxious to find a way to hide Kate, Jack and Hurley.  If they are found by either the hostiles or the Dharma folks it’s going to blow their whole cover. Juliet lets him know that there is a submarine with new recruits coming on to the island. How convenient. Sawyer grabs some 70’s threads and gets ready to integrate his old friends with the Dharma newbies. Sidenote: Are we really supposed to believe that Sawyer owns a sweatshirt that is big enough to be baggy on Hurley? Come on now.

After a few minor missteps during orientation, the threesome are now among the Dharma Initiative Class of 1977. Namaste.

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THE OFFICE Cast at ‘Inside THE OFFICE’

Last night the cast and creative team behind THE OFFICE gathered at the Goldenson Theater in Hollywood for “Inside The Office”, a night honoring THE OFFICE presented by The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Hopefully some GMMR readers were in attendance and can share some tidbits from the night.  I know I wish I could have been there. They couldn’t have waited until I got to L.A. in April?!

A ton of pictures from last night’s event after the jump. Enjoy!
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