Oh, before I start this review of Jersey Shore Season 2, let me wish you a Happy Fourth of July! Hopefully you’re gonna go party and see some fireworks tonight.  I wanted to review the second season of Jersey Shore, the ultimate Guido and Guidette reality show that exploded in popularity since it was introduced in MTV’s lineup a few years ago.

I admit, I’m late on the draw in watching the series, but we just like to watch everything unedited, and on DVD or Blu Ray, so we can watch it whenever we want, at our own pace, and we don’t have to deal with censors getting rid of the juiciest and most lascivious parts of the show.

Jersey Shore, my friends, is definitely a show that you want to watch unedited if you can.  First of all, they do bleep a few things out, but they let everything else fly. I’m not sure why they would bleep out certain things, but they let all the f bombs fly, and some other very bad words.

The second season shows the gang in Miami Beach, where they are living in a nice little complex together, and get to hit all the Miami clubs like BED, Clutch and more. They even reportedly got banned from several clubs in Miami who wanted nothing to do with the theatrics and attention the gang commanded, plus the hot tempers on some of them.

But that didn’t stop girls from swarming on Pauly D, Vinnie and Mike “Situation” at some of the clubs. It amazed me that many of these girls actually went home with them, knowing full well what male whores they are and that they were really only into girls that were “DTF” (that’s Down to F@#$).

But hey, that’s girls for ya!  At least the types these guys like to bring home.  Snookie was a little low key this season, while Jenni seemed to kick her girl fight powers into high gear, getting into fights with Angelina and Sammi (Sammi held her own, trust me).

Of course, Sammi and Ron fought a lot, but not as much as last season, and there was a bunch of drama about a note that Snooki and Jenni “anonymously” wrote to her about Ron’s antics when they were actually not together anyways.

This show is still immensely entertaining to watch. The cast is mostly likeable, and Angelina took off again with no one really caring, so what’s new with that.  Overall, season 2 was very good, and we can’t wait for the third season to come out on DVD. Bring it on!

Excuse me on this review, but I’ve had a few cocktails, as I customarily do when I watch Mad Men. Don’t know why, but it seems that show goes so well with a nice martini, or a mixed drink of some sort. Perhaps it’s the silver rimmed cocktail glasses of the late fifties/early sixties that are the central theme of their DVD covers and in several shots of season 4.

No, wait, I’ve always enjoyed cocktails with Mad Men!

Season 4 really out did itself in my opinion. I love that it shows the transitioning from the fifties to the sixties and the changes in thought processes and movements in the general paradigms.  It is doing a great job of showing the slow progression toward women’s lib as well, which I can really appreciate as a woman myself who is still conflicted over women’s lib and men opening doors for me and treating me like a lady (you know, the whole knight in white and women’s lib thing totally conflicts with eachother right?)

I guess that I like the show’s central character, Don Draper, and how he is always searching, always restless, never content. I think that we can all identify with that, at least a part of that, even if our lives are pretty great most of the time.

Even though Don is definitely flaky in his own way, we all identify with that part of him that finds peace in sudden whims and seems to float from woman to woman if only to find that no one woman can satisfy his every thought, his every facet of morality, and his every moment of character and insights.

And yet we feel for him. We feel for him, but we also feel for the many lives which he carelessly interrupts and blindly uses.  He’s almost sociopathic, but he is so multi faceted that we forgive him for being that way, because we think that he still cares about the destruction he’s reigned on other’s lives in search of his own fulfillment and ultimate happiness by his moments of insight and thoughtful flinches when he knows he’s screwed up.

The characters on this show have gotten deeper and deeper as well. I love Peggy, absolutely love her. Love Joan as well. This show has some strong female characters who are torn between their femininity and making it in a man’s world, which the time period in which they portray, it still very much IS.

Season 4 of Mad Men is absolutely wonderful. You can’t stop watching it.

We are about in the middle of, maybe a little past the middle of, Jersey Shore Season II.  This is the season where the gang of guidettes and guidos goes ot Miami Beach in a nice little apartment with modest beds and access to the beaches, babes, and juiceheads of Miami Beach. Lots of Latinos and Cubans, to boot for the guys and girls of the Shore.

The same cast is all back for season II, including Ronnie and Sammi, who had “broken up” over the break when Ronnie was shown footage of Sammi talking to a cop and giving him her number at the totally awkward reunion show.  Sammi actually walked off stage after breaking out in tears at the mere anticipation of what the host might be showing Ron footage of!

Oh, the drama. And season II brings plenty more drama with the infantile gang as they go through the ins and outs of dating multiple people, hanging out and attending a menial job at a gelato shop (please, I think they all earn way more at appearances now, that’s kind of insulting), drinking and having sex.  The only thing that’s missing is drugs. But there’s plenty of alcohol, and plenty of womanizing and man-izing (on Angelina’s part mostly) in this season.

Angelina shows up a lot more in this season, and I gotta hand it to the girl, she’s entertaining. She was mostly a bore in the first season, and actually ended up leaving after a few episodes because she just wasn’t feeling it. She probably came home and realized what a huge mistake it was since the show was such a hit.

At any rate, she’s back in season II, and she’s just as outspoken, although she’s a little shy around the girls still which is surprising.  The girls are a littel more receptive with her this time though, and ultimately she ends up sort of befriending Sammi, who obviously uses her because she’s mad at Nichole (Snookie) and Jenny (JWOWW) for writing a note about Ronnie cheating on her (when they were broken up), and not owning up to it.

WHEW that was  mouthful. Let’s see what else. Oh yeah, Jenny and Sammi get into a fight – literally a physical fight.  Snookie is noticeably more low key this season, as is Mike The Situation (maybe he’s actually growing up), who ends up looking like the level headed one in the house pretty often so far this season.

This season has been very entertaining. Not a letdown at all. The gang still has the charm and the entertainment value that they had the season before. They may need to bring in new blood next season thought (I haven’t seen season 3 yet), so that there is still that element of getting to know you that makes these reality shows more interesting to watch.

We are viewers of the show Celebrity Apprentice.  Notice I said viewers, not “fans”.  I don’t consider myself a fan. In fact, I find the ridiculously long episodes a chore to sit through many times and wish there was something better on!  However, there are some interesting moments in the show that I like to watch between daydreaming and doing stomach crunches (I get really antsy during these).

This season had a lukewarm cast, which I think made it a little less interesting. My favorite competitor was John Rich, of the huge country act Big and Rich.  This guy is ultra likeable, not matter which way you dice it. He was really passionate about raising money for his charity, St. Judes Childrens Hospital, which is based in the south, and which he seemed very familiar with.

Star Jones and Ne Ne Leaks added the needed disruption and friction to the show with their now well known dislike for eachother. I don’t even know when that sailboat turned, but suddenly they didn’t like eachother at some point during the season, even though they started off sort of being pals on the show.

Poor Lisa Rinna seemed like she was just too nice for the cast of domineering women, and she was one of the first people voted off the show, although I was glad because frankly looking at her freakish lips got a little old. I like her personality, but those lips are just troubling to look at!  Otherwise, she’s a beautiful woman.

All the “nice girls” got voted out pretty early, thanks to a few women on the show who were control freaks. Star Jones, Dion Warwick and Ne Ne seemed to dominate the girls and the quiet ones just seemed to be shrinking violets in comparison.  I supposed it’s a dog eat dog world, and if you can’t hang with the bossy, domineering types, you probably aren’t going to make it far.

Meatloaf and Gary Busey had their notorious blow up on the show, with Meatloaf exploding in a temper tantrum/rage on Gary for hiding or stealing his paints (Gary didn’t do anything it turns out), but “Meat” was a pretty talented guy in other respects on the show.

The contestants had quite the list of challenging tasks.  Many of them were based on fundraising, which is one of the reasons the show is not as compelling to me. It’s all about who you know, not what you know or how strong a leader you can be, but rather how many rich people you know at that point.

I’m glad that John Rich won. I think Marlee Matlin was a good competitor, but she just didn’t have the strong organizational skills and passion that John Rich did, so I was glad to see his overall performance history win out.

So we are now on the second season of one of the biggest guilty pleasures we indulge ourselves in when it comes to trashy reality TV. I’m speaking of course of the international phenomenon of Jersey Shore, the hit MTV reality show about a bunch of “guidos and guidettes” who all inhabit a little party house in Jersey Shore.

Of course, the second season shouldn’t really be called Jersey Shore, because it’s actually filmed in another hot young party spot, Miami Beach. This time, the girls are hotter at the clubs, but the interesting part of the show isn’t there quite as much because the gang all knows eachother, and that first-meeting and getting to know you part just isn’t there, which takes away from some of the excitement of the first season.

However, one person who’s definitely come out of his shell and is more interesting, albeit more dastardly to watch, is Ronnie.  I used to think he was a nice, quiet boy who fell in love on the show and seemed to cowtow to all his girlfriend Sammi’s crazy possessive ways.  Well, apparently he’s no prize either, and they sort of deserve eachother.

These two are just plain annoying in the second season with their volatile, on again off again relationship. Sammi is just as bad as he is because she’s an insecure wreck this season, always asking if he got on any chicks and wondering where he is. As a grown woman, I want to shake this girl and say “go out and have your own good time, and stop obsessing over this guy who is obviously taking your for a ride!”

Ronnie’s excessive partying is pretty much the focus of the first 4 shows that we’ve watched, so the rest of the cast really hasn’t done much. Angelina is still trying to make her way into being cool with the girls on the show, and finally manages to at least get them to ask her out with them.

JWOWW is pretty much the same. Man, she is one chick that I’d never want to get mad at me. She will fight you at the drop of a hat. She is definitely not a wishy washy girl, this one.  She’s still rockin’ the split down the middle shirts that pretty much leave nothing to the imagination, God bless her.

Snooki is still the center of the show. She’s definitely the most interesting, and oddly sometimes seems the most sane at times, even though I know she’s the one with the biggest reputation on the show.  You can’t help but like this girl. She just seems like she’d be a blast to have as a friend, even though she obviously screws up a lot.

The guys are all the same. It’s hard to believe that Mike “The Situation” seems to be one of the more level headed ones now. Looks like somebody did a little maturing while the show was on hiatus!  He’s still chasing skirts of course, but there is something a little older, a little wiser about this kid this time around. 

I’ll admit, I’m stuck on the show now. I’m pretty much a lifer. Until the show gets unbearably scripted, which I’m sure it will because I can see inklings of that already, I’ll be a fan!

I just got to see the Comedy Central Talk Soup-style show about web clips and other pop culture stories, Tosh.o.  I had never heard of the comedian who headlines the half hour show before, Daniel Tosh.  Well, now I wish I had known about him a long time ago. Because this guy is off the hook funny.

I saw some of the shows, starting with the very first one in 2008, on Demand over at my husband’s cousin’s house for Easter weekend.  We were drinking some cocktails later at night and surfing, and found that these were on demand, so we started watching them. We ended up watching all five shows that were available for viewing.

Among other things, Tosh.o had the “Leave Britney Alone” guy (who everyone thought was a girl when the video first went viral), a big woman getting up on a small table to sing and biting the dust, a self proclaimed karate master trying out for a movie and totally screwing up his moves, another karate guy saying he could chop a whole line of coconuts, and not smashing one single one of them, and more.

Tosh basically does a twenty second commentary on each one (which is side splittingly funny, and many times oh-so wrong), offers the person in the video a chance for “web redemption), and shows a host of other videos that are the latest sensations to go viral in our increasingly short attention spanned, web focused world.

He is not only quick and witty, but he’s also totally inappropriate, offensive and politically incorrect (that’s an understatement). That’s what I absolutely love about this show. It’s not afraid to examine any subject, and that’s what makes it so ridiculously funny and over the top.

My husband and I really enjoy that type of edgy humor, and little did his cousin know that he turned us on to a new favorite show when he put them on for us late at night. It’s not often that my hubby pretty much almost busts his pants laughing at something, and I know that’s the true mark of comic genius when he does!

Word to the wise though, if you are easily offended and do not like edgy humor, or if you have no clue what any of the latest web videos are, or don’t pay any sort of attention to viral or gossipy types of news items, a lot of the jokes may be lost on you. You will LOVE this show if you keep up with pop culture though!  GOOD REVIEW!!!

Ok, ok, call me a late bloomer when it comes to certain fads. The fad I’m referring to here of course, is the fad of the incredibly popular MTV reality show, Jersey Shore.

The show became pretty much an instant sensation when it launched. It’s sort of like The Real World, only it’s filmed on Jersey Shore in a house that “Guidos” and “Guidettes” inhabit for the summer.

The eight housemates have one thing in common. They are all of American heritage. And they all love to go tanning and work out – oh, and do laundry. One feels like they are back in college when watching the show, even though several of the show’s stars are really way past college age.

I must admit, I thought this show would be total schlock, not even entertaining. But it actually is entertaining, in a sort of cringe way.  The people on the show, although they are all pretty immature and seem to be shallow, are actually likable people, and I think that’s what makes the show work.

Even Snookie is very likable. She may be a drunken mess when she drinks, and she may embarrass herself a lot, but at her heart she’s a good girl who’s just very misguided and has low self esteem.  Which is ironic because she is by far the biggest star that came out of the show.

We are done with the first disc of Jersey Shore season one, and it’s been very fun and light tv to watch. The last one we watched in the infamous one where Snookie got hit in the face by a guy at a bar. What a scumbag!  We were both stunned that a guy would actually hit a woman, no matter what she was saying to him, especially in the presence of a bunch of muscleheads who would flip out on him.

Of course then, we also have our budding romance (of course I have no idea if this romance is actually still on or not) of Ronnie and Sammy Sweetheart.  Sammy Sweetheart has captured that attention of quite a few guys in the house. First she was holding hands with “The Situation” then we came to find out that it was really Ronnie she was sweet on the whole time.

These two are definitely interesting to watch, but they may be a little more fun to watch if they were really single.  Ronnie went into the house saying that his one true rule was not to fall in love at the Jersey Shore house, guess he broke that one, because she’s obviously got him wrapped around her little finger!

And who can forget JWOWW in her ridiculously skimpy split down the middle tops with her big fake boobs hanging out? She’s interestingly not in the first four episodes a whole lot except for her fighting and breaking up with her jealous boyfriend, who has a right to be jealous.

So, I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but my hubby and I have gotten somewhat hooked on a few reality shows on the fantabulously trashy channel of all reality shows, Tru TV.  Although how “true” most reality shows are, I’m not quite sure.

Big Brian the Fortune Seller is one of those shows where you feel like you’re interested in the subject matter, but you’re not quite sure if half of it isn’t staged to make it more exciting than it really is.

The show is about Brian, a guy from Jersey, and his Jersey crew, which is a bit motley but otherwise pretty likable, who are in the profession of selling off people’s estates.  Now, I will say that what makes another similar show to this work really well, Hard Core Pawn, is that the family that runs the pawn shop on that show is very charsmatic and they have an interesting dynamic.

That is what this show lacks. It also seems very contrived a lot of the time.  There are definitely some staged scenes in it, and they are so obvious that they’re almost insulting.  The fast talkers that come in to buy things and the guy Brian himself who does all the bargaining for the estate items he’s selling is probably one of the more interesting parts.

Another interesting things is, if you are in to antiques and what things are worth, and finding “lost treasures” and interesting pieces of history is fascinating to you, then you will like a show like this.  It’s almost like HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk” with a spin on it.

Overall, the show is ok. I wouldn’t say I’d watch  it again for sure, except it is only a half hour, so it’s not a massive waste of time if it sucks.

I’m in love with the AMC hit show Mad Men. I love the whole sensory experience of watching this show. There is something so effective about how the show is filmed, the colors they use, the furniture, the wardrobe, the whole ambiance, that is very authentic to the times it is trying to capture, which are the sixties.

I’m really loving season 4 so far. This season has Don Draper, the anti hero, stumbling through a problem with drinking and depression, womanizing, and coping with being newly single while his wife is already married to someone else.  I think that all of the actors have really found their niche with their characters as well.

The ex Mrs. Draper, played by January Jones, is still cool and calm, almost sociopathic in her demeanor, and we know that a depressed and unhappy woman lurks beneath the surface. We see her turbulent relationship with her daughter Sally take a turn for the worse as we just want to give the little girl the hugs and love she isn’t getting from her cold mother.

Betty has remarried, and very quickly, another man named Henry, who is a really nice guy that is starting to see his new wife may be a tad bit on the frigid side when it comes to certain emotions. 

Don is bedding every woman he can, taking his womanizing ways to a new low when he has a last minute quickie with his new secretary in a drunken stupor, making it a very uncomfortable situation for the impressionable young woman at work.

We also see him go back to visit Anna, the only woman alive who really knows who Don really is, his humble beginnings, and still loves him for it.  We also find out (SPOILER ALERT) that she has cancer and we get to see how much she really means to the usually cool on the emotions Draper.

This season has really started to show the changing times too. The hippy movement is just beginning. Free love, demonstrations and the newer, more forward thinking is starting to edge out the old school, more rigid school of thought, and Draper’s fledgeling new ad agency is struggling to cope with the quickly changing times and attitudes.

This season is just awesome so far. I thought the show might have had a bad season by now, but it has kept up with solid writing, acting and producing. Let’s hope it makes it a few more seasons!

My husband and I sat down to watch a little bit of the mini series that has been critically panned as well as tossed around by networks after being rejected by the History Channel, yesterday. It was really our replacement for other shows we’d rather be watching with dinner time, so we weren’t expecting much.

And we didn’t get much. While the series in interestingly filmed in a sort of dimmed way, the score of the series is so overly dramatic and soap-y that I can’t take this seriously at all.  The acting itself is ok, and quite frankly I don’t understand why Katie Holmes is being critically skewered for her performance as Jackie Kennedy.

I actually think she channels the first lady quite well. Then again, I’ve only seen about one hour of the show thus far, so I can’t really comment past that. She speaks like she did, and is soft and quiet, much like the first lady was during her husband’s presidency and candidacy, so I don’t see much derivation from the real person there – I think she did fine.

Greg Kinnear is hardly in it for the first hour of the show, with most of it being a flashback to his teen and early twenties. The stage is mostly given to his father, which is played a bit overbearingly by Tom Wilkinson. I think he soaps it up a bit too – but honestly I’m not sure if it’s the melodramatic lines he’s being given by the writers, or his delivery that make them sound so ridiculous.

The show is interesting only because it told me a few things I didn’t know since I’m no history buff like my husband is (he was appalled that I didn’t know some of these things by the way). I never knew that the Kennedys had another son who died in the war, Joe, whom the father desperately wanted to be the president.

I also never knew that Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the family, gained his fortune through bootlegging liquor.  It’s also interesting because you start to see the “Kennedy curse” unfold, beginning with the death of the golden son Joe, the “prodigal son” Jack (John) taking his place in the family’s presidential endeavors.

The mini series so far is not that impressive. I guess that it was dumped by the History Channel and taken by Reelz ultimately because they deemed it not historically accurate enough.  I think it also may have had something to do with the soap opera like presentation. They should have taken it a bit more seriously.  I’ll watch the rest, but so far it is mediocre.