25 best TV blogs!

I thought this list might prove useful!! Or help lead you to other helpful sources.

Assignment due TUESDAY! (tomorrow Nov. 12th)

Okay, all, here is your assignment for Tuesday/tomorrow (November 12): Answer (in this thread) this question:

what is the single most significant effect television has had on your life? If you don't watch much TV now think back to days when you did. Or consider the ways TV affects you indirectly.

some tips for the news assignment

1. Your maximum word count should not be over 1000 words. So if you're running way over that, remember, the real point of the assignment is to describe and characterize the news coverage, not to describe the events of the story.

2. It is okay to generalize where appropriate. One of the points of this assignment it to try and identify and recognize the specific tactics used by different TV outlets in how they approach different kinds of news (political, tragedy, celebrity, disaster, etc.). So discussing the commonly-held impressions of the outlet ("Fox News is usually very conservative" or "The Daily Show scours archival footage to find ways to point out the TV hypocrisy of pundits") is an acceptable way to introduce your points of analysis.

3. If you find yourself getting bogged down in details, think about the "big picture." What kind of basic features do you notice about your chosen outlets? Is there a certain aspect of predictability to how they cover your chosen story? What is the "brand" they seem to be presenting? Remember: this is about the TV news sources more than it is about the news story.

(Erica Nardella) Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black

Netflix’s latest original series “Orange is the New Black” that was released this past summer. All 13 episodes were available for viewing pleasure in one sitting. For me personally, I am not really a person who sits and watches a show over and over again unless it’s a marathon of a favorite past show. After seeing commercials about it I decided to give it a whirl.

Once I started watching I was hooked. This show is based off a memoir written by Piper Kerman and directed by Jenji Kohan who is known for her previous work on Showtime’s “Weeds”. The premise of the series is about a female Yuppie New Yorker, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), who is serving time at an upstate women’s penitentiary for being an accomplice running drug money with her ex-girlfriend after college. The show starts off with Piper happily engaged to her fiancé Larry Bloom played by Jason Biggs in their perfect Brooklyn apartment. It is not until the day she walks into Litchfield Penitentiary that you start to feel bad for the lead character. She is ignorant to the lifestyle that she is about being a part of for the next 15 months.

As I sat through the first few hour-long episodes you start to learn many of the inmates back stories as well as Piper’s. One of these inmates is actually the person who brought Piper to Litchfield in the first place; Alex Vause (Laura Prepon). Vause is the ex-girlfriend who gave Piper’s name to the police thus having making her sentence a lot more torturous and complicated. You learn as the series unfolds the relationship in which the two women had and you watch it evolve in a confusing way. Chapman is happily engaged and straight but is drawn to Vause even after putting her through the hell that she faces in the first season. I find it to be one of the aspects of the show even though Chapman starts to lose herself as time passes and she falls from the victim to the victimizer.

There is a character Suzanne Warren who is nicknamed “Crazy Eyes” whom falls in love with Chapman and calls her Dandelion. Crazy Eyes is aggressive with her love and just wants Piper to be hers but Chapman politely turns her down and says that she is engaged. Meanwhile outside of the prison Larry is writing a piece to perform on a radio station about his cooping with his beloved fiancé who is incarcerated. He gets his information from visits to Piper and that just what he wrote her complaints and judgments of her fellow inmates. Once the radio show was on air the who prison community listened to the hurtful comments that were being said about them, this lead to “Crazy Eyes” pissing on Dandelions bunk floor out of hatred.

Orange is the New Black is one of the greatest shows I have watched and it only took me just a little over three days. The anticipating of the second season is only growing longer and longer and I cannot wait to see what is in store for Chapman and the rest of Litchfield in 2014.

You Think You Know, but You Have No Idea

The Vampire Diaries Review of "Original Sin"

(In the style of Miranda Wicker)

While The Originals are getting a lot of the fame, our favorite town of Mystic Falls is still seeing a lot of action. Witches returning from the other side, dopplegangers galore, and lots of delightful flashbacks, this episode was packing ‘em in there.

“Original Sin” added layer after layer of story and just when we thought maybe Delena had a chance, our new favorite crazy bitch showed up to let us know that is not the case! Geez will poor Damon ever catch a break in his love life?!

Qetsiyah has returned and she is PISSED. Do people ever return from the other side with a happy agenda? Apparently Silas was the worst even back in ancient times. He pretended Qetsiyah was his true love in order to get her to create the potion to create immortality. In a fun twist, he left her at the altar and took the potion for himself and for his real true love Imarra. Guess who she is the spitting image of? That’s right, we have another doppleganger. (Good thing Nina Dobrev is so gorgeous or I might tire of seeing her as a plethora of different people!)

Well Qetsiyah was not going to take this lying down. She then created the cure and with a maniacal look in her eye she informed Silas that not only did it work, she had already used it on a test subject! Cue a lovely shot of blood spattered sheets and tent walls. Hell hath no fury like a psycho witch scorned.

Stefan was not having a good time this episode. Being his usual sacrificial self, he keeps his humanity on after being rescued from the quarry, even biting a bartender then telling her to run although he is starving after drowning over and over again for 3 months straight. Always doing the right thing that one.  Turns out Qetsiyah needs him to perform a spell that will help her weaken Silas, and of course he agrees.

Katherine seems to still be adjusting to human life and it’s hilarious. Referring to getting carsick and asking Elena to borrow her sweater all with a look of utter disdain is amazing. Still fighting that one, but after the reveal that the cure everyone so desperately wants still runs in her veins, how much longer can she keep fighting?

The episode wraps up as Stefan awakens post-spell and looks at his brother and Elena and asks “Who are you?” Didn’t see that one coming.

We’re left with a slew of new questions, but that’s no surprise. After all, this is The Vampire Diaries.

Will Qetsiyah get her revenge?

Is Stelena making a triumphant return now that Stefan has no recollection of how Elena left him for the hotter brother?

What’s Caroline even up to at school? Is Katherine done for? Will Qetsiyah officially change her name to Tessa? Why did Damon keep his shirt on the entire episode? These are the big questions.

Can’t wait to see what happens next week!

The Vampire Diaries: The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

Review of Season 5 Episode 3: "Original Sin"

In the style of Matt Richenthal.

Instead of the Ripper rejoining the Vampire Diaries cast like we were being told by all sorts of previews and ads, a new kind of danger arose from the dead. Qetsiyah and the “real” backstory to the evil and powerful Silas was the main focus to this week’s episode; everyone’s actions being driven by this dead-come-back-to-life witch.

Played by Janina Gavankar (one of TrueBlood’s favorite supes) Qetsiyah is finally revealed after seasons of hearing about her cruel magic played on Silas and his one true love. Right now it is unclear whether she is frightening or sad, or should be loved or hated, she is simply a woman scorned by love and looking for the ultimate revenge…and being an extremely powerful witch just makes this easier for her.

This episode only told one story, which is something that isn’t done very often in this crazy series but the story that was told kept my jaw on the ground and I had to keep myself from spewing profanities. But where were Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy during all of this? They had no part in this episode and Matt was only there in body…not in spirit.

Many of the questions we've been asking were answered in this episode so join me in going through the story that Qetsiyah shared with Stefan and the rest of the gang within this hour:

First, Silas’ one true love was a woman named Amara (which we already knew) but what we didn’t know was that she was the first Petrova Doppelganger (yes, there were more than just Katherine and Elena, but did you really expect anything less?). Anyway, Silas wanted the two of them to live together forever and he tricked Qetsiyah into believing he was in love with her so she (being powerful witch and all) would create an immortality potion for them.

Second, Silas stole the potion at his and Qetsiyah’s wedding to drink himself and give to Amara…what a dirtbag right? So of course Qetsiyah is going to get jealous and pissed which is why she created The Cure that has been the talk of Elena and company for the entirety of last season. Qetsiyah fed The Cure to Amara and ripped her heart out. So in short, as revenge Qetsiyah killed Silas’ one true love and by taking the immortality potion nature has been thrown out of balance and regained this balance by creating the "shadow selves" or doppelgangers of Silas and Amara (aka Stefan and Elena...or Katherine).

Third, Qetsiyah tried to force Silas to take The Cure as well to live happily ever after with her, but as we know, he refused, so she locked him away in that scary cave thing for 2,000 years and watched (okay she stalked) him from The Other Side. It might be important to know that she also created The Other Side as a barrier for Silas so when he eventually did die he would end in eternity with Qetsiyah instead of eternity with Amara.

Fourth, remember when Bonnie lowered the veil? Yeah, that’s how Qetsiyah escaped, she then hunted for Stefan because by getting into his mind she can create a link and Silas can no longer use his freaky mind powers.

So this explains EVERYTHING, including why Silas is after Katherine; because she drank The Cure, her blood IS The Cure. Finally Silas can't use his mental powers anymore but of course there are complications with the brain linkage thing…STEFAN DOESN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING, yup that’s right he has amnesia. How lame and cliche, just as Elena gets over him, he forgets that they were even together. Who else is betting that this is going to create complications with Delena? I think we’ve had enough of Elena’s back and forth from brother to brother. Oh and speaking of, apparently the doppelgangers of Silas and Amara are destined to fall in love with each other over and over and over again which is bad news for Damon…can this guy ever catch a break?

Although I love Qetsiyah and her own description of herself: “I have trust issues; I’m controlling, paranoid and a little crazy” I want to know what you think about her and the awfully bland name she chose for herself.  For me its Delena 4EVA (I mean come ON “ nothing is going to make me stop building a future with you because you are my life.”?? I'm melting.) 

With "Original Sin" laying out all the answers, and the originals now on their own in New Orleans I'm just itching to find out how this season will play out.

'Parks and Recreation' review: Season 6 off to a pretty good start

Parks and Recreation, now in its 6^th season, has continued to be a sitcom of witty idyllic charm, and hopefully this time around the show will draw a larger audience which is just what it deserves. There have been a number of funny moments from the wacky political staff of Pawnee, Indiana, and to this point it’s safe to say that season 6 is off to a good start, even if it hasn’t exactly been the greatest of seasons (last season probably being the best thus far).

Some familiar routines from past episodes have gotten recycled a few times already, such as the Ron-resisting-something-then-giving-in-with-positive-outcome plotline, and Leslie going to Ron for advice and he shows a soft side. But the new season does have its merits however:

• With the absence of Andy (as well as Ann and Chris), the show has given more uproarious screen time to Donna in its most recent episode, “Gin It Up”, which is arguably the best episode of the season at this point.
• Watching Sam Elliott, a man who could possibly challenge Ron Swanson in a manliness competition, play a guy who is Ron’s equal, except for the fact that he’s a sandal-wearing, Morrisey-loving super vegan. This joke is kind of underwhelming, but it’s still chuckle-worthy.
•  Ron’s journey throughout Europe in the season premiere episode.
• As spoiler-free as I can say it: Ann’s attempt to distract Leslie from some bad news is one of the most hilarious moments (hint: a picture of Joe Biden is involved in one of her antics).
•  And in the most recent episode, the way April originally wants to use question mark stickers will make you laugh till there’s tears in your eyes.

Hopefully this is start of another wonderful season, and I hope just as much that if you’ve read this post and haven’t watched the show yet, let this be a reason to convince you.

(The TV critic I’m channeling is Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly)

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20500344,00.html