Hmmm. I'd never heard of "What Not To Wear" - but looked it up and it does air on the Discovery Channel here in the US. Sounds kind of kitschy and fun - I'll have to see if I can find it .
On a (somewhat) similar theme, "Project Runway" [on Bravo, over here] started this week past. Such a guilty pleasure, that one. In general terms, I have NO interest in "fashion" or models or all that glitz but I can't resist watching that show. Those aspiring designers are such characters - some way over-the-top personalities indeed. And it certainly is a kick watching them be set free in a lawn and garden store (or whatever) with $200 bucks and expect them to buy stuff with which to make some sort of "fashion statement". And to then have the audacity to expect an actual human being to wear said peculiar creation ...

I used to watch What Not To Wear all the time, at least until I had two little ones to chase after.
I always got a kick at how willing the 'subjects' supposedly are to get the fashion makeover--and then turn into whiny stubborn 3 year olds when they actually have to wear something different than what they're used to. If I was getting $1000 for a clothing shopping spree, you wouldn't hear a peep out of me. Except for maybe thankyouthankyouthankyou!

I love Project Runway but we don't get Bravo since we downgraded our cable. And BRavo doesn't show the complete eps online. Hmmm, maybe on Youtube... although I feel a bit guilty right now watching stuff online since the strike is on. I feel like I'm crossing picket lines or something, since that's one of the things they're fighting for.

But not that guilty. I need to see my shows, dang it.

Oh and by the way, ER fans, an article on TVGuide.com says that Goran Visnjic is supposed to be in 4 episodes this fall, and 3 more early next year. So we'll get a bit more Luka. Which is nice since the show's a bit lacking in the eye candy department right now. Except for Mr. Stamos, who's looking pretty nifty since they got rid of the scruffy lack of sleep and shaving time look.

I guess, technically, this would be a 2008 show ... but a new one called "Cashmere Mafia" debuted last night (starring Lucy Liu; I guess it'll be moving to a "permanent" Wednesday slot this week). From my desk *and I watched 'cause I really like Lucy* two words, or 'letters', sum up this one: P and U . Blech, it was the most unpleasant portrayal of women I've seen for a l-o-n-g time. They were loose and (kinda) quirky cute on "Sex and the City". They're complicated and quirky on "Desperate Housewives". They were spunky and quirky (not to mention boasting cool hair) on "Charlie's Angels". Um ... these women on "Cashmere" were frightening and entirely quirk-free. Unless one considers heartless ambition a "quirk" (it was never called that even for the remotely charismatic J.R. Ewing). I'm all about shows/movies/books with a feminist slant and there is great value in good, strong women's roles. But, really, this show went a little (OK, a lot) over the top...

Scared the Dickens out of me .
But maybe it'll get better if they let these ladies develop a bit. They seemed so cold and inhuman (mostly) last night. But that was just my view of it ... I could have missed something?

Good point, Dave. Seems painfully lacking in foresight to even start a new series and expect it to get any legs (it's times like this that repeating anything would seem a better idea that starting something that'll go nowhere for X amount of time). I quit watching two of my favorite new shows ("Moonlight" and "Journeyman") for fear that they'll have scab writers trying to pick up the rather intricate paths of the stories the (now striking) writers had started. I, personally, would rather wait (since it seems there's no choice but to wait until things are settled, in terms of continuity).

By the way, what two shows got axed? Aside from that musical Vegas *whatever it was* getting cancelled, I hadn't heard of any others. Yet. Update, when you get a chance, OK ?

I've been watching "Journeyman" myself, Gats, and I think it might be over for good. NBC decided not to order a new season, from what I've read, so the 13 that have aired are it. If there are any episodes you haven't seen, Gats, I'd watch them while they're still online/around.

With any luck maybe the Sci-Fi channel or USA will pick up Journeyman for new episodes if NBC doesn't. The Law & Order CI new episodes which aired only on USA earlier this season was done with decent writing.

Yep, I just read the Journeyman is no more. I personally thought it was one of the best written, most thought-provoking shows on TV right now. And it was really getting good! I'm disappointed, but we can hope that another network might pick it up.

I hadn't contributed to this thread, nor even read it until now. I don't know why, but now that I have, I have to add that the new show this season that hubby and I have really enjoyed is "Big Bang Theory". We weren't too sure about the first episode, but since it comes on before and after all my other favorite shows on CBS on Monday nights, I have been catching all the other episodes and I think it's hysterical. The four men characters on this show are geniuses and the scientific trivia that they throw out is hilarious. I would imagine that science trivia buffs would love this show.

Oh, major ugh ~ and lucky me (not!) for catching it for the first time today. A new show on Bravo called "The Millionaire Matchmaker" . Not only (but especially) is it an insult to women - one would think they're all golddiggers, and are only worth anything when attached to a man, specifically a rich one - it's also an insult to millionaires! And men (we're only loking for table decoration, record-setting body measurements and vacuumed carpets, it would seem). And that hostess/matchmaker! Eeek! She's really nothing better than a televised pimp! Or pimp-ette? Or something. Honestly .... it's been a while since I've said so (the candidates are so regular for the badge), but I think this is the worst example of television, on a channel that doesn't usually cater to such low-brownesss, that I've seen for a decade. Quite disturbing.

Quote:

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She's really nothing better than a televised pimp! Or pimp-ette? Or something.

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Don't they usually call them madams? Ya know, Heidi Fleiss, et al.

I don't get Bravo anymore; there are a few things I miss like Project Runway--but that doesn't sound like I missed much.

I'm really in love with Eli Stone! It is just the cutest new show. My vote for "The Best" award!

Hey Gats, I think you'd better take the dog out...

OK. It is not uncommon knowledge that I'm a real sucker for "reality" shows (pretty much), especially those about singers and dancing. And cooking. I am finding myself not-so-interested, this year, in ones about naked people chopping down palm trees on remote islands and/or young adults being trapped together (coupled-up or otherwise) in Orwellian neon houses in California. At any rate, I caught that new show "Your Mama Don't Dance" last night. It sounded watchable enough (daughters who actually do know how to dance pairing up with their Dads who don't dance a bit, and probably should keep it that way). Kinda cute-ish/touching, it sounded ... like watching the bride dance with her father at wedding receptions [*sniff, sniff*]. Oh. My. Goodness. The show was horrible. Those dads were (and I'm being kind) about as graceful as drunken camels with too much camping gear loaded onto their humps . And the daughters were just a little too nice about how pitiful these performances were. Seemed to me that one (or more) of 'em should have said: "OK. Enough of this. Love you Dad, and all that, but can I trade you in for that Helio racecar driving dude from that other dancing show?" It was (in my humble opinion) simply painful to watch the show. Set the rhythmic reliability AND reputations of Dads across-the-land back a few generations. But, then, most of us never expected our Dads (now or then) to dance anywhere much. Certainly not on TV!

And the judges/host? The latter is that Ian guy from "90210". Clearly he needs someone to pull him aside and gently tell him that his "wad" has been "shot" since, um, 2002. Ben Vereen (who I really really like, overall) is a judge. And *don't ask me* but he looks twenty years younger than he did thirty years ago . Another judge is, I believe, an ex-husband of J-Lo. The one with no hair. Yikes. The writers are back at work now. Time to leave some of these wild-and-crazy reality shows where they needed to stay. In the "desperate-for-ideas" corner/bowels of somebody's creative cellar...

Just my opinion, though .

I hadn't heard of that show Gats, but to be honest I wouldn't have watched even if I had. I'm on the opposite end of the reality show spectrum, it took years for me to watch Survivor (Expeditie Robinson) or Big Brother (having done both initially while living in Belgium) when I couldn't understand what was being said and was hooked solely by the competitions and I've been watching ever since. There have been some decent reality/elimination shows, but I have never watched American Idol, Dancing w/Stars or Project Runway. I suffered through one season of The Bachelor and Hell's Kitchen, but that was about all I stomach of Gordon Ramsay. The one show I have loved from the very beginning is The Amazing Race. I can't see that show ever getting old as there are too many interesting places in the world to see and "getting there" IS half the fun! Beauty & the Geek is fun too, though for totally different, obvious reasons.

I agree that there is a line for bad taste and I thought it might have been crossed when adopted kids learned who their biological parents were, as if something that important should be turned into a game - Come on!! Judging by your description Dancing w/Daddy sounds pretty bad too. And "Flavor of Love" and whatever that one with Bret Michaels just galls me....

Thank goodness the writers strike is over - It's time to get back to "real" television and get rid of some of these reality shows!

(I should be ashamed of myself for being the one to bring this one into a discussion, but...) I need to say that I find this new "hit" (can you believe it's actually successful ?) show "The Moment of Truth" about the lowest, most embarrassing, most unnecessary and the most completely unredeemable train wreck I've ever seen. Worse, even, than Jerry Springer (because at least, on that, the host made it seem more humorous than pathetic when given the chance)! We ALL have secrets and most of us know how to deal with compartmentalizing those secrets, inside ourselves. To sell those *damaging truths* for a (possible) wad of jackpot money? I shouldn't even watch ~ but it airs just before "American Idol" so the TV's on and I end up hearing it, sad to say. It's a dreadful mess. And (if it's 100% "for real") it's worse than just dreadful. It's a MIGHTY painful alarm as to the kind of society we have come to live in...
*Blech!* to that show indeed.

That show (Moment of Truth) is an abomination. I watched it for five minutes the other day and it made me sick to my stomach. Everyone involved should be ashamed.

I agree Gats, pure drivel. We are witnessing the dumbing-down of humanity with shows like that.

i havent actually watched "moment of truth" but it sure is getting a lot of buzz..

gats, im a sucker for reality shows too,, My new addiction is "america's prom queen" on ABC Family, it is definitely a guilty pleasure but its sooo entertaining