SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

Here’s the thing about TV criticism. You know you should objectively sit down and critique a show based on things like execution, acting, writing, and so on. And if I was doing that for “Moonlight,” I would have to admit that perhaps Alex O’Loughlin – who plays private investigator Mick St. John, a vampire seeking redemption – won’t be winning any Emmys for his performance.

Mick (Alex O’Loughlin), Friday night is our night. Photo: Cliff Lipson/CBS.

Even the premise is so tired it should be taken off the field in a stretcher.

Yet, I just can’t seem to quit the show. There’s something charismatic about Alex, a guy I had lunch with last summer (Check out the blog item Lunch with a Vampire). The Australian charmed me then, and he’s still oozing charisma. Come on. Watch this video

OK, maybe not exactly “Angel,” but not bad.

This past week, “Moonlight” won the People’s Choice award for best new TV drama. Thank you, YouTuber Twilightdew, for posting this with Alex talking all Aussie and stuff:

Last night, I sat huddled on the sofa as Mick tried to save Beth, the mortal he loves, and protect her boyfriend too. He failed on the second part of the exam, leaving the path open for him to pursue the sweet Beth.

Or, it would have if she hadn’t gotten angry with him for not sucking the life into her boyfriend Josh as he lay dying from a gangster’s fatal gunshots.

“Turn him!” she implored. But Mick knows better. He’s trying to become a mortal again with the help of his former wife/vampire Coraline. He knows that living as a vampire is no real life at all.

Oh, Beth.

Oh, me, for being addicted to this show each week. But sometimes, you’ve just got to a fan.

Can an Oakland clown learn something from a by-the-book housewife?

That’s the deal we get on Jan. 16 when two NorCal families mix things up on the ABC series “Wife Swap.” For those who haven’t seen the show, this is how it works. Each week two families with very different lifestyles exchange wives to discover just what it’s like to live another woman’s life.

While we don’t know exactly where the Marshall family lives, the press release says only that they live in Northern California. Tanya Marshall (37), her husband Ben (38) do not raise their four children, Trevaughn (15), Brianna (14), Benjamin (12) and Josiah (10)—they train them. Tanya describes her home as a boot camp and childhood as a time to prepare children to become successful adults. Ben and Tanya both freely admit that fun is not a priority.

The kids address their parents as Sir and Ma’am. They have to do hours of chores around the house and if they don’t do them to Ben’s satisfaction they just have to do them again. Tanya home schools the kids and TV and computer time are strictly limited. The kids are so overprotected that they’re forbidden to go past the stop sign at the end of their street. The Marshalls are very careful with their finances and Tanya takes the kids out in the neighborhood to recycle bottles and cans so they can make extra money.

Then we go to the flip side with Oaklanders Cecilia Harrison-Velasco (30), her husband John (38) and their daughter Maya (7). The whole family is dedicated to Cecilia’s ambition to be a clown to the point that they have plunged themselves into debt to fund Cecilia’s expensive clown lessons at a local clown college. The family lives in a tight, converted garage in order to save money.

For the Harrison-Velascos, doing what makes you happy is far more important than having a clean environment, financial security or a spacious home. John treats Cecilia like a queen and has put his serious acting career on the back burner so he can help live Cecilia’s clown dreams. Maya has no chores, no responsibilities and is encouraged to question adult authority at every turn.

In the first week, Cecilia doesn’t get to clown around much, because she has to enforce the kids’ long list of chores. When the kids show their unhappiness to Cecilia about the limits of their freedom, Cecilia confronts Ben about how ridiculously strict his home rules are.

Meanwhile, Tanya is not happy living in the garage and she reluctantly attends clown school with John and Maya, complete with clown costume and make-up. She notices that John seems to put his goals after Cecilia’s and questions their lack of financial vision.

In the second week of the swap, when the wives change the rules and turn the tables, it’s circus time as Cecilia sends in the clowns and the Marshall kids dress up. She tries to free their self-expression encouraging them to go wild throwing paint around Ben’s office. Trust me. I’d slap the pancake off her face if she tried that in my office.

Cecilia sets a “no boundaries” rule so that the kids no longer do chores or conduct themselves within any guidelines. The kids gather the courage to tell their father how unhappy they are with the restrictions that are put on them, which forces Ben to re-evaluate his methods.

In Oakland, there’s no more clowning around when Tanya makes structure a top priority and moves John and Maya into a larger home. The house might be bigger and better but John and Maya are not allowed to bring any of their clowning gear. Having to abandon everything he loves, John has a total breakdown and heads out of the house in his underwear.

At the end of the swap, the couples are reunited to that hokey tune “Couldn’t live without your love” tune and we get the confrontation between the couples and the what-are-they-doing-now update.

It’s 2008, and time to clear out the emails:

Miss Young:

I disagree with your viewers who say that Dave Clark (of KTVU) sucks! Or whatever silly word was used to
describe Mr. Clark. He is well qualified with a lot of experience! I think most of the Bay Area viewers are borderline racist! They only tolerate Dennis Richmond as a main anchor…there are no others! As for Mark C., I was an intern there 8 years ago when he would sub or work as a morning reporter! He was a jerk! He arrived there from his DC post in ’98 or ’99! He has not been at KTVU for 14 years! That is a lie!

Andre’

Dave Clark

And here’s another email from a reader:

While I am not sure why Mark Curtis has been demoted, it does no matter, what is ironic is that you would demote what seems to be a light hearted individual and continue to inflict pain..forcing us to watch Dennis. So why are more people are choosing the internet, CNN and radio for their news choices? We hear personality and do not have to see pancake make-up!

Another Oakland viewer, back to ABC

Mark Curtis

Of course this comes up when I’m on vacation and trying clear a path to the bed in the guest bedroom for my son John. Guess he’ll just have to hope no earthquake comes so he’ll be safe from falling stacks of DVDs.

Alex posted this question on Thursday:

Hi Susan and is it true that the Fox network is shopping for a new affiliate station in the San Fran Bay area? It was leaked out on the Gary Radnich radio show Wed that KRON4 is in the running to be the NEW FOX network affiliate in the SAn Fran Bay Area in the future, any new news on this?

It’s an interesting question Alex. When the FCC met on Tuesday, it approved a new rule allowing a company to own both a newspaper and either a television or radio station as long as the market has at least eight other independent sources of news. The rule also requires that the television station cannot be one of the top four in the market.

This opened the door for MediaNews chief executive Dean Singleton, who owns the newspaper chain I work for and includes the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times and virtually every other paper in the Bay Area except the SF Chronicle, to achieve his long time goal of owning television stations.

Currently, MediaNews owns only one TV station in Anchorage.

Singleton was looking at several stations to purchase back in 2003 when it looked as if the FCC was going to back off on the ownership rules. When that fell through, he moved on.

Now, it would look as if he’s in a position to make a purchase. In this market, you have ABC, CBS and NBC owning their own stations, with only KTVU-Channel 2 working an affiliation deal with Fox making it a top four station.

So, I was assuming Singleton had his eye on KRON-Channel 4 and he would be looking in that direction to buy. KRON’s the cheaper date between it and KTVU, which has been for sale in the past.

KRON has been very nicely running Fox’s MyNetworkTV programming, which might suggest Fox would be looking to buy KRON. So maybe Fox buys KRON, making KTVU slip from a top four station which would allow Singleton to purchase it.

And, since KTVU is based in Oakland, it would be a nice little jewel in the East Bay-South Bay-North Bay circle of MediaNews power. But I still think that chances are better than Singleton might purchase KRON before Fox.

Again, if I was in a position to know such things, I would also be making enough money to hire someone to clean out that spare bedroom.

OK, I’m a day late. But heck, I’m actually on vacation yet hopelessly tethered to this beast…

Primetime Ratings for Dec. 10-16

1.CSI
2 SURVIVOR: CHINA FINALE
3. WITHOUT A TRACE
4. NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
5. SURVIVOR: CHINA
6. CSI: NY
7. Criminal Minds
8. CSI:Miami
9. OT, THE
10. 60 MINUTES
11 DEAL OR NO DEAL
12.DEAL OR NO DEAL
13. SURVIVOR: CHINA REUNION
14. EXTREME MAKEOVER:HOME ED.
15. NCIS
16. TWO AND A HALF MEN
17. DEAL OR NO DEAL
18. SIMPSONS
19. BIGGEST LOSER
20. HOUSE
21. SHREK THE HALLS
22. GHOST WHISPERER
23. NUMB3RS
24. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
25. BOSTON LEGAL
26. SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER
27. AMER FUNN HOME VIDEOS
28. DATELINE-WED
29. FAMILY GUY
30. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
31. WINNIE-POOH AT XMAS TOO
32. CANE 9PM SPECIAL
33. CANE
34. KING OF THE HILL
35. WANT A DOG FOR CHRISTMAS
36. HOUSE
37. MOONLIGHT
38. DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS
39. DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
40. BIG BANG THEORY, THE
41. KID NATION
42. GREY’S ANATOMY
43. AMERICAN DAD
44. PUSHING DAISIES
45. 20/20-FRI
46. LAW AND ORDER:SVU
47. SAMANTHA WHO?
48. COPS 2
49 AMW: AMERICA FIGHTS BACK
50. WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB
51.BONES
52. KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
53. ACCORDING TO JIM
54. COPS
55. CBS MOVIE SATURDAY- The Notebook
56. SNL XMAS
57. OFFICE
58. 30 ROCK
59. NBC MOVIE OF WEEK – It’s a Wonderful Life
60. AMERICA’S TOP MODEL
61. ACCORDING TO JIM SP-2
62. BROTHERS & SISTERS
63. JOURNEYMAN
64. OCTOBER ROAD
65. K-VILLE
66. PRIVATE PRACTICE
67. UGLY BETTY
68. FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN
69. ABC SAT MOVIE OF THE WEEK Suriviving Christmas
70 PRIVATE PRACTICE-THU
71. DON’T FORGET LYRICS
72. SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE-PRIME
73. NOTES FROM THE UNDERBELLY
74 48 HOURS MYSTERY
75. BACK TO YOU
76. TIL DEATH
77. MEN IN TREES
78. WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB-SAT
79. SMALLVILLE
80. DIRTY SEXY MONEY
81. SNL Special
82. SUPERNATURAL
83. NEXT GREAT AMERICAN BAND
84. VICTORIA’S SECRET FS
85. CROWNED
86. GAME, THE
87. EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS
88. GIRLFRIENDS
89. ALIENS IN AMERICA
90. AMERICA’S TOP MODEL
91. AMERICA’S TOP MODEL
92. CROWNED-ENC
93. CW NOW
94. ALIENS IN AMERICA-SUN

When last we saw our “Desperate Housewives,” Lynnette emerged from her house with Mrs. McCluskey only to discover that Mrs. McCluskey’s home – where husband Tom and her children were staying – had been razed.

“Desperate Housewives” wait to see who survived on the Jan. 6 episode. KATHRYN JOOSTEN, TERI HATCHER, NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN, FELICITY HUFFMAN, MARCIA CROSS (photo: ABC/CRAIG SJODIN)

We suspect that Tom and the kids are just peachy, and that Ida Greenberg may or may not have survived. But we won’t know for sure until Jan. 6, when we see the conclusion. This episode of “Desperate Housewives” will be available on ABC.com the day after airing so you can watch it online.

In “Welcome to Kanagawa,” Lynette faces the possibility that her family and Ida Greenberg may not have survived; Katherine finds out that someone knows the truth about her mysterious past; and the residents of Wisteria Lane begin to rebuild their lives after the deadly tornado.

The good news is that we get some closure. The bad new is that this episode is the last original produced before the WGA strike. Depending on whether the strikers return soon or not, the episode may just have to last us until the spring.

Whoa, not so quick. First, our snappy recap of “Survivor:China” finale.

Amanda won the reward challenge, but of course on Survivor it’s never that easy. She had to choose either one, or two, other people to share pizza, beer and brownies with her. If she chose no one, she would have appeared to be fair with all of her alliance. But she also would have come across as selfish.

She kept the Courtney warning in mind: “An angry Todd is a bad Todd.” Best to keep him satisfied, so she chose the schemer – who wouldn’t have a chance to smack talk her while she was eating without the other three.

And she wisely decided not to choose between Denise or Courtney, because to take one would have tipped her hand.

Denise Martin, Todd Herzog, Courtney Yates and Amanda Kimmel during the Reward Challenge “Great Wall” & Reward of Pizza, Beer, Cola, Brownies during tonight’s finale episode of “Survivor: China” Photo: Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

As Courtney says, “Todd’s a slippery little sucker.” Todd’s been able to weasel his way into more food by getting chosen to go on rewards won by others because no one wants him hanging around camp plotting against him.

He’s played a good game. But now he’s scared about Court, Denise and Amanda going all “girl power” on him. Game on.

After the traditional walk down memory lane, where the torches were lit and firecrackers popped to celebrate the fallen Survivors, it was time to move on to tribal council. It didn’t look good for Todd. Would he once again slip-slide out of getting the boot?

Todd was the first out of the immunity challenge. Each had to stack china on a small platform while holding firm with one hand. Second out was waitress Courtney. Denise desperately tried to strike a deal with Amanda: She would drop out if Amanda promised not to vote her out.

Amanda said no deal. Perhaps Denise knew she was faltering, or maybe her deal-making made her lose concentration. In any case, Denise dropped her dishes and Amanda was guaranteed a top three spot and a chance to plead her case in front of the jury.

It looked like Denise might just pull out a top-three finish as she worked Amanda, and Amanda in turn tried to work Courtney, all against Todd. In the end, we knew Courtney would never turn on snark-buddy Todd. There seemed to be a small chance Amanda would force a tie between Todd and Denise, but it was not to be.

We think Denise shot herself in the foot by saying because she had two children that might influence a jury. And she put Amanda on the spot by saying that Amanda told her she had Denise’s back. But it was Todd’s little oh-she-burned-you look that made Amanda look like a jerk.

In the end, a three to one vote shoved Denise into the jury box and out of the running for a top-three slot.

Denise only gets into the final four, out of the three. She returned home only to lose her job as the lunch lady and now works as a janitor. Mark Burnett decided on the live show to give her $50,000 to help get her life back on track.

Going into the final confrontation with the jury, I felt that Todd played it best, with Courtney coming in a surprising second. I almost thought I might want to vote for her since she was the snotty kid who at least played the most honest game of the three.

But in the end, it was the guy who studied the game, and watched it since he was a 14-year-old in Utah. Todd, you deserved it. You just need to get that snark in check.

Todd wins “Survivor: China”Photo: Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

Do you agree with Jeff Probst that the biggest blunder was James not playing the Immunity Idol? Or was it Denice not going with Erik and Peih-Gee?

And for qodrn, who thought I got laid off and that I spend too much time talking “Survivor”, I’m still working for the paper, just working online instead of in print. And just think, with the end of Survivor tonight you’ll get a reprieve just in time for American Idol.

You would need a search and rescue team to find the link on this site to get my blog delivered to you free through an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, so just click here.

“Jeopardy” host Alex Trebec was released from Cedars-Sinai Hospital today following a minor heart attack. He’s home in Studio City recuperating, but like the trouper he is, issued this statement for his fans:

“I’m truly overwhelmed by the great show of support and compassion expressed in the past few days to me, my family and my coworkers. Even though I know Jeopardy! is a very popular program, I was still surprised at the number of people who took time from their schedules to call or send a note of encouragement. I thank you all so very much. I’m on the mend, and will be spending Christmas at home with my family. I will be back in the studio on January 14 to tape our Teen Tournament, which is always one of my favorite competitions. Meanwhile, I hope you will continue to watch and enjoy the program. The shows were taped before my heart attack, so what you are seeing is original, not rerun material. Happy Holidays to all of you. Alex”

Alex Trebek

Reality show recruiters are coming to the Bay Area, and we’ve got the 4-1-1 right here:

Amazing Race Casting Call

Saturday, December 8

10am to 2pm

Metro PCS

3963 Stevens Creek Blvd.
(between Saratoga and Kiely)

Santa Clara

For more information, and to download an application form go
here.

“America’s Next Top Model”
Saturday, December 15

10am-2pm

San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology

1067 Folsom between 6th and 7th Sts.

San Francisco

Applicants must arrive with a completed application. Application and complete eligibility requirements available at here.

In addition, at this casting call, applicants will also be given the option of having their audition automatically submitted into the “America’s Next Top Model: The Bay Area Search” competition.

The local competition offers a chance to win a makeover, photo session. Full-page spread in the SF Chronicle and an in-person audition with ANTM casting director, Michelle Mock. Check it out here.

When the driver got lost on the way from San Jose to Livermore, the video interview with “Journeyman” Reed Diamond also took a strange turn: We ended up shooting the interview on the NBC float traveling down the holiday parade route in Livermore.

At night. With a journalist (me) who, until recently, limited my videotaping to soccer games and birthday parties. So be kind when you watch this week’s SueTube with Reed.

Anway, Reed says when he and wife Marnie were in Solvang last week, he says women were yelling at him from the stores to give his “brother” a break.

That would be his fictional brother Dan (played by “Rome” star Kevin McKidd), a man who suddenly started traveling in time to right certain wrongs in “Journeyman.” Think of it as a sort of “Quantum Leap,” with Dan as a time-traveling San Francisco reporter trying to cope with it all.

Reed and Kevin McKidd from the Christmas episode airing next week

“It’s like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Would YOU believe someone who told you they were time traveling?” says Reed, who plays Dan’s cop brother Jack. “C’mon. But give him some time. Things change.”

Reed and Marnie did double-parade duty last weekend in Livermore and, the much larger San Jose parade. First up was Livermore’s parade, which lasts about five minutes. Reed loved every minute of it, waving and chatting to the crowd from atop the KNTV-Channel 11 float, complete with a mock Bay Bridge (with toy cars traveling on it), a faux helicopter and even a tiny vineyard.

Certainly the good times took his mind off the writers’ strike which is crippling Hollywood right now.

“It’s a righteous fight. Last time around, the writers didn’t get their fair share from DVD sales. Now it looks like the same thing is going to happen with Web sales,” Reed says. “They lost a lot of money on DVD sales, but this fight is important because in a few years, kids are going to look at those shiny discs and say ‘what is this Daddy?’ The Internet is the next big revenue source for producers, and the people who make those shows deserve to get some of that money.”

Reed and other actors are supporting the writers because their contract comes up in June, and the actors will be fighting for those same Internet dollars.