First Week

As it turns out, it takes a little longer than I thought to blog about these shows. I am going to try to do better this week and write up at least one show a night. This may require slightly shorter posts, but I think that will work out better overall.

I want to do a quick synopsis of what I did watch last week and missed reviewing.

Kid Nation: Yes, I watched it. And for all the scandal, it was fairly tame...yet a little boring as well. Most of the kids they showed seemed cute enough and not as obnoxious as they could be. I especially liked Sophia and Laurel, they seemed to have good heads on their shoulders. We certainly did not see all 40 kids, and probably will never learn all their names...it is just too many to keep track of. There seems to be a heavy presence of the host, and the kids really don't get much freedom to "create a new nation." It is more like Survivor, the child version. Which means entertaining enough when focusing on good people, boring when not. I'll give it another episode to see how it continues to play out.

Gossip Girl: I don't know if I am getting older or teen soaps are getting worse. I loved The O.C., but even with the same creator, Gossip Girl seems to be trailing it in quality. Most of the characters on this show are one-dimensional, and the plot was fairly predictable. I like Kristin Bell, and she did a good job with the narration, but I don't think it really fit with the show. The voice over was shoe-horned in at the wrong times. I'm willing to give it one more shot. Pilots are often tough to judge because they are setting things up. But, if I don't see more complex stories, I think I will be done.

Survivor: I have seen every season of Survivor, so at this point everything seems to be a reminder of a past challenge or contestant. This year was no exception. The show is done with its "racial segregation" experiment, so this season is just old-school Survivor with two tribes of eight. Other than being stranded with no luggage, there was not any extra hardship going on to make the episode stand out. I was glad "Chicken" went home, just because I couldn't understand a word he said. I also ended up liking Ashley more than I thought I would after her first interview, so was glad she seemed to be less sick by the third day. However, I don't know what she was thinking with those boots. I know she wasn't expecting to be left with no luggage, but shouldn't she have known it was a possibility and dressed more practical? Other early favorites are James the grave digger and Todd the "gay Mormon flight attendent." The only ones who stood out as annoying were that waitress from New York who didn't like other people smiling/talking, the professional poker player who thought Todd was lying about his job, and Leslie, who couldn't sit through the Buddhist welcome ceremony. That is not what bothered me, but the way she kept saying she wasn't religious when she is a Christian radio talk show host and mentioned her relationship with Jesus several times did get to me. However, Leslie, did score points with me for talking to James about how to overcome his shyness. They are one of those pairs that sometimes bond on Survivor where you never expect them to become friends, but they usually end up creating a cool alliance. Think: Elisabeth/Roger from Australia or Earl/Yau Man from Fiji. Overall, it looks like there a good mix of personalities, so it could shape up to a fairly decent season.