SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

Whatever happened to that sweet, trailer-park baby momma who took her modeling bucks and turned it into a medical degree?

Yeah, we’re talking about you, Izzie. When “Grey’s Anatomy” started out, Izzie was a good-natured girl unbowed by the blows she’d taken in her short life. We learned how she went from unwed mom to a pin-up girl to a dedicated intern.

We loved Izzie.

Does anyone remember when she couldn’t believe that someone could actually fall in love with goofy old George? Who could forget that line, when she realized how much Callie loved George, and she said, basically, “Oh my god. He’s her McDreamy!”

Seriously. I mean, seriously. How could Izzie then turn around a couple of years later and do the deed with George. George, who married his adoring Callie. What a weasel he’s turned out to be.

KATHERINE HEIGL, T.R. KNIGHT. Yeah, Gizzie. Feel the pain.

There are people out there who think that Gizzie is great. We disagree. Izzie never thought of George as anything more than her stuffed puppy pal until it looked like he might actually be hooked up with a woman who loved him.

And I guess that’s the real story on “Grey’s.” Love stinks.

Tonight, Richard’s wife turned on him because he thought of the care and comfort of his dying niece first above the selfish wishes of his estranged wife.

(And speaking of niece Camille, did anyone notice that she’s now being played by Camille Winbush formerly of “The Bernie Mac Show”? Tessa Thompson (“Veronica Mars”), who wasn’t available for the episode, originated the role.)

CAMILLE WINBUSH, JAMES PICKENS, JR., LORETTA DEVINE

And a man makes his girlfriend lose a dangerous amount of weight before he’ll move in with her.

And Karev’s crushed that Izzie decided to sleep with George after she told him she needed some time to get over Denny. A little time and a heapin’ helpin’ of George.

And finally McDreamy pours out his heart to Meredith, only to have her physically recoil. No wonder he might have some feelings for her sister Lexie, who doesn’t seem to suffer from too-close-itish.

Obviously, we’re back on the “Grey” train and just can’t stop thinking about those complex docs.

Some people think this new series sucks, while others can’t get enough. Where do you stand on it?

I’ve watched three of the episodes with varying degrees of interest. But tomorrow night should show where “Moonlight” is going.

Sunlight’s never healthy for a vamp. Mick (Alex O’Loughlin) is injured in his search for a young woman who is believed to be hiding in the desert. Photo: Joel David Warren/Warner Bros.

Remember Mick. Moonlight good. Sunlight bad.

When the scorching sunlight depletes Mick’s vampiric ability to heal himself, Beth must rush to help him on “Moonlight,” which airs at 9 p.m. on CBS. I’m still on team “Friday Night Lights,” but I might just tape this one.

Click here to get a taste of tonight’s episode when Beth offers to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Mick’s life.

“Heroes” is getting dangerously overpopulated _ and creator Tim Kring says he’s well aware of the problem.

“On a show like this, you have to be able to fold people in and fold people out,” Kring says. “So the audience should fully expect to see characters leave, soon.”

One person not leaving any time soon is new character Ella, played by “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell.

“It’s been so much fun,” Kristen says. “She (doesn’t have) the brightest and shiniest of intentions. She’s so conflicted and comes across as such a vixen. She’s so much fun to play with.”

Kristen says she can’t reveal her secret powers, “but it’s a very cool power.” She has ties to HRG and Claire and to Suresh.

“(She’s) a little messed up in the head, manipulative, out to get what she wants. She doesn’t have many boundaries,” Kristen says. “All first season about good natured people, conflicted about how to deal with them. Elle enjoys her power and the power she gives over other people.”

Tim says they are tying Elle to The Company that HRG was involved in.

“Elle was actually raised within The Company,” Tim says. “It’s a cautionary tale about how (the other heroes) would have been if they lived with The Company their whole life.”

Tim says once again this season will be filled with plenty of answers.

“We actually are not a shot that tries to keep answers away from the audience,” Tim says. “No answer so precious we can’t tell the audience what it is. But something to be said for drawing out interest.”

Questions are answered by Episode 11, which Tim says ends the second “volume.”

“Last season was all one volume, so at the end of the year, we were dragging out a lot of story so expectations were so high, it was hard to meet,” Tim says. “This (season has) multiple volumes. Every question raised (in the first volume_ will be answered, then the next (set of questions) swings us into another volume. People say they want answers, but like the twists and turns.”

Kristen is signed on for 13 episodes, but says it is up to the discretion of the producers as to how many episodes she’ll actually appear in.

“I start in Episode 5, I’m not in episodes 6 or 7, then episodes 8 and 9 expose a lot of Elle,” Kristen says. “At the end of 13, we’ll have a pow wow and see if it makes sense for me to continue.”

Kristen says she’d love to stay on “Heroes.” So what about a “Veronica Mars” movie or animated series?

“If (creator) Rob (Thomas) asks me to mow his lawn, I would do that,” Kristen says.

Actually, we’re hoping he opts to do more “VM” with Kristen.

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Could you be the next Hannah Montana or Gabriella Montez?

Producers of an upcoming Disney Channel live-action comedy series are on a search for comedic actors between the ages of 12-17 to potentially be cast in an upcoming pilot.

The open auditions will take place in San Francisco, Sunday October 21 at 9:00 a.m. at Beau Bonneau Casting, located at 84 First Street, at the cross street of Mission Street.

Girls and boys between the ages of 12-17 are invited to audition. For applications and more information, just click here.

There is no fee to audition, and all applicants must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The first 250 kids will be registered to audition.

During the auditions the actor will be asked to perform three different 15-second original characters that will allow them to demonstrate their sketch comedy ability.

Walnut Creek’s Sheena got another rose tonight, and things look rosy indeed for our local girl.

SHEENA gets a rose from BRAD

In a touching moment with bachelor Brad Womack, he said that she was “straightforward with her emotions tonight, and I like to see that.” He also mentioned how his twin brother, who tried the old switcheroo with the girls in an earlier episode, “opened his eyes” to what Sheena was all about.

Sheena was one of the bachelorettes who wasn’t fooled by the twin.

The herd is getting thinned pretty quickly now. Brad pared down the group from nine to six women tonight.

The final six are JENNI, KRISTY, BETTINA, BRAD WOMACK, HILLARY, SHEENA, DeANNA Photo by Karen Neal/ABC

Next week’s previews look pretty provocative. We see Sheena looking fabulous as she walks down the stairs for her one-on-one date with Brad. As the narrator says it is the most romantic date ever, we see poor Sheena slip on the stairs.

But the big fall next week seems to be Hillary. The previews mention a “dramatic departure.” Hopefully that means our Sheena is safe.

SHEENA may slip next week, but it’s HILLARY who takes the big fall

OK, it’s just a week away from Veronica Mars, er, Kristen Bell, coming on “Heroes.” But first, we must deal with tonight’s episode.

I have to admit I wasn’t blown away by the first, or even the second, episode of “Heroes.” Things didn’t start getting interesting for me until last week. This week, things really started percolating.

Spooky Sylar hooked up with the Troublemint Twins, a coincidence that makes you suspend your disbelief by epic proportions. But just like a bad horror flick, I started screaming at the screen: Shut UP Maya. Yet, she didn’t, and now Sylar’s heading to New York with the double sibs to find Suresh.

But the big news of the night is THE PHOTO. The photo shows the 12 who are related to some of the Heroes, like Hiro’s deceased dad and Peter and Nathan’s parents. We discover tonight that one of the men in the photo is Suresh’s new boss and more importantly, another man in the photo is Parkman’s estranged dad.

Parkman tells Suresh that dad deserted him when he was 12, gave him $125 and a pat on the head before dashing out of Dodge.

Worse news. Parkman’s deadbeat dad is the Nightmare Man who has been haunting Parkman’s charge Molly.

Cripes!

So Parkman gets Molly to confront her worst nightmare and seek out evil dad. What were you thinking, Parkman??? Now we know where daddy dearest is, but at what cost to poor little Molly?

Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh, Adair Tishler as Molly, Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Next week, Kristen Bell, who looked deliciously wicked in the previews. “Heroes” is back on the can’t wait for the next episode list.

Kristen Bell as Elle — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Oh, and the Big Showdown with Nightmare Man is just three weeks away. Here’s the blurb:

Nov. 5 episode:

WHILE SEVERAL HEROES FACE OFF AGAINST THE “NIGHTMARE MAN,” PETER LEARNS JUST HOW DEADLY THE VIRUS CAN BE — When one of his forgotten abilities suddenly manifests, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Caitlin (Katie Carr) get thrown into a crisis situation, and learn first-hand just how deadly the mysterious virus striking people with abilities can be. Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Matt (Greg Grunberg), Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), Niki (Ali Larter) and Bob (guest star Stephen Tobolowsky) band together to fend off the “nightmare man’s” attack. Despite Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) best efforts to keep them apart, West (Nick D’Agosto) learns that the man who kidnapped him as a child is her father (Jack Coleman). Meanwhile, in feudal Japan, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Kensei’s (David Anders) legendary journey takes a dramatic, final turn. Kristen Bell, Noah Gray-Cabey, Dana Davis, James Kyson Lee, Zachary Quinto and Dania Ramirez also star. Alan Blumenfeld, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Shalim Ortiz, Eriko Tamura and Adair Tishler guest star.

What’s more painful that watching Jean-Robert tear off his drawers in a challenge?

Seeing emaciated Courtney walking around the jungle like a skeleton. She didn’t have much meat on her to begin with, but she’s gotten even worse as the show has progressed. But she’s getting our vote for the next one booted out of Fei Long.

Todd Herzog and Courtney Yates, of the Fei Long tribe, during the SURVIVOR: CHINA, Thursday, Oct. 11

Out pick for next out in Zhan Hu is Sherea “I’m saving myself for the challenges” Lloyd. The fourth grade teacher hasn’t exactly been a whiz at the challenges, and unless she picks up the pace, she’s going to get her torch snuffed.

Miss Attitude herself, Sherea Lloyd

Next week, Jaime and Erik admit to a mutual attraction as a romance blossoms. A tribal switch leads to chaos, tears, fears and cracks in former alliances.

Erik and Jaime sneak a moment

And if you missed the CBS video of “Survivor:China” base camp:

Let’s get this straight. “Women’s Murder Club,” an improbable series about a D.A., a cop, a medical examiner and a reporter _ all women working in San Francisco, won’t win any awards for writing or acting.

But it’s not bad for a show to fold laundry by. After all, you don’t want anything too taxing on a Friday night.

Beside, my two favorite shows air on Fridays: The aptly named “Friday Night Lights” and “Numb3rs.” I’ll slip in “Men in Trees”, but “Women’s Murder Club” won’t be making it to the TiVo.

Still, in my review, I just wanted to acknowledge that sometimes you just want a show that doesn’t make your brain ache.

Since my Thursday column is tied to the vodcast, thank goodness columnist Candace Murphy stepped in at the last minute for the latest edition of SueTube.

The plan was to have a woman in law enforcement, or in a non-traditional job like a paramedic come in to talk about work conditions. A nice guy at the Alameda County Sheriff’s department gave me the name of a cop with a black belt in karate. Perfect.

I called and we had a nice conversation until she said, “Well, I’ve got to go. We’re in the middle of an operation at a massage parlor.”

Ah, I can understand why you’d have to go. In fact, a day later I read about the Richmond bust that she was taking part in as we chatted. Now, there’s a woman who can multi-task.

Too bad she was a little to busy to SueTube.

Here’s some buzz for you: the CW just gave “Gossip Girl” a full season order.

The drama about high society teens in a tony New York City prep school became the first new series picked up for a full season of episodes. You can check out my review

Gossip Girl– Pictured: (l-r) Nicole Fiscella, Leighton Meester, Taylor Momsen, Nan Zhang, Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick stars in GOSSIP GIRL on THE CW. Photo Credit: The CW / Andrew Eccles (C) 2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

While the ratings haven’t been stellar, the online buzz, the show’s success on iTunes and DVR use all factored into “Gossip Girl” being deemed renewal worthy by the network.

The two most recent episodes continue to rank among the top 5 iTunes downloaded shows on the site.

For more on Blake Lively, check out my earlier blog item from the July Television Critics Press Tour. Scroll down. It’s the second one.

I have to admit, I was starting to get a little worried about my show after the past two weeks.

And I’m still not really happy with the lousy Irish accents in the Peter storyline, although I am appreciating the buffness that is the new Peter. The only storyline I enjoyed right from the beginning was Hiro in old Japan.

The twins haven’t really done it for me. She kills, he heals. Too many subtitles. I don’t like subtitles as a rule because while you are reading, you miss out on the actors and the nuances in their faces. With these new characters, it gets annoying quite quickly.

But tonight we got Sylar, and that bad to the bone boy has learned that he still has some considerable limits on his power. Thank goodness.

And what a treat to see original “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols as Micah’s caregiver.

Nichelle Nichols as Nana Dawson — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

First Sulu (George Takei) and now Uhura. Trekkies should be in bliss. Can Spock and Kirk be far behind?

It’s all a great tie-in to the new “Star Trek” being film, which stars Zachary Quinto (Sylar) as Spock.

For fans of Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”), she’ll be showing up as Elle on the Oct. 22 ep.

Kristen Bell NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Yep, I’m back on board after tonight’s show.