Friday, July 18, 2008

honey, it's too hot to do anything but watch tv

I am a sucker for summertime reality television. It’s hot and humid here in the South. I want something light and fresh in the evenings to cool off with. Some of my favorites:

The Mole Mondays, 10pm ET, ABC
The Mole is one of my favorite reality shows and I was so disappointed when ABC went to a couple of celebrity versions and then let the whole thing fizzle a few years back. I was afraid to get my hopes up when these very Mole-ish flashes of a finger print that said, “The Mole is watching” began airing between commercials in the late Spring. Early on I had zeroed in on Victoria being The Mole. She went home about week three. So there went that. Bobby…wow. Bobby was always complaining of running pains in his side or shin splints or that his ovaries hurt. In one episode a female contestant had to push him down the street in a wheelbarrow. It was not part of a challenge. I was sad to see Alex leave this week. I never suspected him to be The Mole. I just liked to look at him. Nicole wants everyone to think she’s The Mole. But it doesn’t seem likely; which may turn out to be genius. If Mark is The Mole I have never seen someone play the role more brilliantly. As fair as likeability, Craig has been my favorite this season. I would love it if he turned out to be The Mole.

The Next Food Network Star Sundays, 1Opm ET, Food Network
I have two words to say when it comes to The Next Food Network Star: Lisa Garza.
In the first episode I was like, “Who is this woman???” And I didn’t necessarily mean it in a good way. She was kind of like Sharon Stone – intriguing, but totally nuts and just kind of a calamity you couldn’t turn away from. But by the end of the second episode I was proclaiming her the victor and wondering if there was any reason to carry on with the remainder of the season when she should just start fliming her own show and release a line of products right now. I would totally buy Lisa Garza spice mixes and tea towels. I think she knows her stuff, she gets me excited about new foods, she has that “It” factor, and she is very stylish. (Okay, so we kind of have similar haircuts…leave me alone.) I would buy Lisa Garza whisks and spatulas! Lisa makes me want to try foods I’ve never eaten or prepared myself. Cassoulet? What is it? I don’t know! White beans and stuff. Perfect, I want to try it! Haricot vert. Thin French green beans? Never heard of ‘em! Where can I get some? I recently tried one of her recipes, I will tell you all about it later, it was fantastic!

By-the-way, I will be designing WWLGW t-shirts. What would Lisa Garza wear?

Design Star Sundays, 9pm ET, HGTV
This one is always fun. I am inspired by the things these people come up with under a time crunch and a relatively limited budget they get to spend wherever they are dropped off at. Season 3 is being filmed in Nashville and it’s always fun to see places you know on national television. Now I’m just hoping that IKEA and Crate and Barrel head honchos are watching Design Star and wondering , “Why are these people shopping at Sears? Why aren’t they at our store? What? We don’t have a store in Nashville! Let’s correct that immediately!” (So, I just want to say that Nashville has more than Sears to shop at. It’s just that that’s where they keep shopping because HGTV seems to have some kind of sponsorship deal working there.) Until last Sunday there was a girl from Louisville named Tracee. I really wanted to like Tracee because she was from Louisville. And I tried. But in the end I could really only give her a half-hearted cheering on. Not that I really aim to delight in other’s misfortunes, but I did experience a sense of glee when Michael and his fabric swatches and paint samples were sent packing. Now two of my favorites are left standing in the final 3: Jennifer Bertrand of Olathe, KS and Michael Locke of Los Angeles. Just as with Food Network Star I try to consider which contestant I could imagine hosting a show that I would tune into watch when picking who to root for. Jennifer’s Little Black Dress model for design in the kitchen remodel? I would watch that show!

Big Brother Tuesdays 9pm ET, Wednesdays 8pm ET, Sundays 8pm ET, CBS
Big Brother is the reality show I would be on if I had my pick of reality shows to be on. I love the interpersonal and strategic game play this show involves. The recent odd springtime, “oh-no-we’ve-had-a-writer’s-strike-what-should-we-do-I-know-let’s-ruin-Big-Brother” season could have taken the whole ship down. But with season 10 we seem to be back to the Big Brother I know and love. I don’t really have any favorites yet. But I loved that a large percentage of the house wised up to the way they were being played by Brian and gave him the boot during the first eviction the way the All-Star cast should have showed Dr. Will the door.

Project Runway Wednesday, 9pm ET, Bravo
We’re only one episode into Season 5. But I am already in love. For the first four seasons I was W.B. (Without Bravo). With some recent cable package upgrades I have been able to see what the fuss is about. I lucked into a Season 4 marathon on Wednesday when I chose to stay home from work to avoid a cluster of migraines after many nights of inadequate sleep. I was able to gain a full appreciation Tim Gunn’s phrases like “make it happen” and “that’s a lot of look” before Season 5 began. (Not to mention the hot tranny mess of Season 4 winner, Christian.) Early favorites: Kelli (dyed and bleached vacuum clean bags as fabric? I mean, come on!), Korto (the only one to really pull off the table cloth cliché), Terri (I loved her crochet work with the mop heads), Daniel (he made me want to make a dress of plastic Solo cups of my own...not that I have a place to where such a thing). And I thought Joe’s skirt was very very cute. Tanorexic Blayne? No. Just, no.

Now kindly pour me another glass of iced tea and pass me the remote control.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a great cassolet recipe I have always wanted to try in my all time favorite cookbook " Someone is in the kitchen with Dinah". think about whipping that up when we have home-gown tomatoes to go with it. Mom

Rebecca said...

i hate that i missed the first show of PR. but i bet i can catch it sometime, or other!

Jennifer Coomer said...

Bravo seems to re-run all their programming about 19 times. So I'm sure you'll be able to catch it before the next episode airs.