TV Show Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: Jonny Lee Miller, Victor Garber, Natasha Henstridge, Loretta Devine, Sam Jaeger, Laura Benanti, James Saito, Matt Letscher, Julie Gonzalo, Jason Winston George
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Disney/ABC

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: January 31, 2008 - Present
Season Air Dates: January 31, 2008 – April 17, 2008
DVD Box Set Release Date: September 2, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon
Episodes: All 13 episodes from Season One.

In the war between the television stations CBS used to be my favorite. With shows like Criminal Minds, Jericho, and Numbers it’s easy to see why. After Jericho was canceled, CBS still had a few shows I liked, but I found my love for television switching more towards ABC. I had been a fan of Lost from the beginning, but with shows like Ugly Betty, Eli Stone, and Grey’s Anatomy I found myself watching ABC all the time.

I have watched Eli Stone since the day that it premiered on ABC. Like just about everyone else that watches television, I had caught many of the previews that aired for the show and considering the cast (Johnny Lee Miller, Victor Garber, and Loretta Devine) I knew that I had to check it out. The thing that originally caught my eye where Eli Stone is concerned was the somewhat original concept that came along with these great actors

Eli (Miller) is a ruthless lawyer that thinks he has everything until one day he wakes up to George Michael singing in his living room. Before he knows it, he discovers that he has a brain aneurysm that is causing him to see things. His aneurysm wants him to be a good person, so it gives him clues (many of which are frighteningly real) to let him know which cases he needs to take and who needs his help. While this wasn’t the type of life that Eli wanted to live, it’s obvious that he learns to adjust with the help of a nosy secretary (Divine), a disgruntled boss that is set to become his father-in-law (Garber), and an acupuncturist (James Saito) that is just trying to survive any way he can.

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TV Show Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle, Kristen Bell
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Warner Bros

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: September 19, 2007 - Present
Season Air Dates: September 19, 2007 – May 19, 2008
DVD Box Set Release Date: August 19, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon: $36.99
Episodes: All episodes from the 1st Season

If you take a healthy dose of Beverly Hills 90210 and mix it up with Sex in the City you will have something akin to the new pop sensation, Gossip Girl. While some have said that Gossip Girl was meant to fill the void of The OC I never watched it so I cannot comment one way or another, though I can certainly see fans of the other shows I mentioned enjoying the plotlines and performances here.

The life of high society can be interesting in any form, but when you focus on the drama of teenagers with too much time on their hands, not enough parental supervision, and the need to break free and get wild before going off to college (if they go at all) you are pretty much guaranteed a hit on your hands. Despite just entering it’s second season, which this first season box set release was set to coincide with, Gossip Girl already has a huge following.

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I had been talking about getting a laptop for quite some time. Having a laptop when you’re a fulltime blogger certainly has its perks. You aren’t confined to one area like you would be with a desktop, and if the system is right you could end up with something as good in a laptop. Currently, the majority of my blogging is done on my main system, which is a Dell XPS. So, when Dell began sporting the new Studio line of laptops, which are comparable in many of the specs to the XPS, with a cheaper price tag, I took notice.

I had a gift card left over that Dell gave me as a promotion when I purchased my XPS (you can read more about that at my personal blog), so when the Studios went on sale I decided to purchase the 1735. The main difference between the 17s and 15s are the screen size. The price was not that different, which convinced me to go for the bigger screen. Unfortunately, things with the Studio did not work out so well. In fact, as it sits here preparing to be sent back to Dell, the nicest thing I can say is that the color was pretty. Of course, even the pretty color comes with a few flaws, including an easily scuffable cover and the ability to attract fingerprints and dust like nobody’s business.

Look/Appearance:
Dell offers you the option of choosing a number of colors or artist designs for the Studio laptops. You can choose from such colors as Black, Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Orange, Purple, Pink and a number of other colors. Depending on the package that you get, the cost for colors for a Studio laptop will either be free or $25. I opted to get the Midnight Blue. The color is more noticeable in the light and though it is blue, I wouldn’t say that it’s midnight blue. The color wasn’t exactly like the one on the website, but it was acceptable.

The keyboard was probably the nicest part of the system. Thanks to the bigger screen the keys on the keyboard offer a roomier feel to them and the inclusion of a number pad makes the keyboard feel more like a standard keyboard, which I prefer to the smaller, laptop style. Above the keyboard are a set of media buttons. These buttons work with a slight touch and control your volume (on, off, high, low, and mute), eject your optical drive, and play or pause movies that you might be watching. I found these buttons to be a little sensitive. All it took was a slight brush of the finger when I was getting acquainted with the system and my volume was going up, down, muting, and coming back on in no time. As these buttons are black, only lighting up when they are touched, they can be hard to see unless you know what you are looking for, too.

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TV Show Info:
Writer: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Various Others
Director: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Eric Stough
Cast: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mona Marshall, April Stewart,
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Comedy Central

Release Info:
Original Air Dates:August 13, 1997 - Current
Season Air Dates: March 7, 2007 – November 14, 2007
DVD Box Set Release Date: August 12, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $29.99, Wal-Mart for $29.86
Episodes:All 14 episodes from Season 11

Thanks to the use of current events and the best (and worst) moments of pop culture, South Park is something that will only get old when the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, want it to get old. Now, well over a decade old, this show about the misadventures of some elementary school kids in a sleepy mountain town is nothing short of classic. Even if you don’t watch the show, you’ve likely heard plenty about it. If you don’t watch, now might be the time to pick up a copy and reacquaint yourself, because things just continue to get better.

The eleventh season had a lot to live up to after the tenth season, which included the extremely popular (and seriously hilarious) “Make Love Not Warcraft.” That being said, I have to say that Trey and Matt always find a way to make things funnier than before because the eleventh season has some seriously funny episodes. In this season, you can see the entire class in South Park Elementary get lice, Hillary Clinton visits South Park and you learn about the importance of elementary school girls and the lists they make. You will also learn more about the Easter Bunny than you ever needed to know and Butters gets a chance to learn what bi-curious means…maybe. You even get a special appearance by Bono, who has it out for Randy when he is replaced as the person who took the biggest crap in the world.

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Movie Info:
Writer: John Hughes
Director: Howard Deutch
Cast: Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, Andrew Dice Clay, Gina Gershon
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Paramount

Release Info:
Theatrical Release:February 28, 1986
DVD Release Date: August 5, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon, Wal-Mart: $9.86

John Hughes is the undisputed king of 80s movies. He revitalized the high school drama and to this day no one has done it in a more memorable fashion than he did. I often find myself missing the days of such great brat pack films as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and St. Elmo’s Fire, so when the I Love the 80s pack came out, the press release that I originally read made me smile. We did not receive all of the I Love the 80s pack DVDs to review. We were sent a small selection of movies including Top Gun, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and obviously, Pretty in Pink.

This would be the third Hughes film that Molly Ringwald had a big part in. These days, Ringwald is playing the mom of a pregnant teenager rather than playing the teen herself. This has a way of making us 80s kids feel a little bit older, but that is beside the point. Pretty in Pink remains one of those movies that will always make me smile. Years later it just sleighs me that Jon Cryer still looks exactly like Duckie.

While this pack is probably a long time coming, considering the amount of great 80s movies out there, this particular DVD probably isn’t going to be necessary to fans that already have the “Everything’s Duckie” Edition. The Duckie Edition, which includes numerous special features, will probably end up being a better deal for the true Pretty in Pink fan. This release, which is a pleasure to watch, does not offer the depth of the former release though, so if you have that one don’t go out of your way to pick this up. If you’re just out to watch the movie though, this should work nicely.

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Movie Info:
Writer: Norman Mailer
Director: Lawrence Schiller
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Christine Lahti, Rosanna Arquette, Eli Wallach, Steven Keats, Jordan Clarke, Richard Venture
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Paramount

Release Info:
Theatrical Release: Aired on television November 28, 1982
DVD Release Date: August 5, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon

Once upon a time, movies on television sported a notable cast and they were well written. These days, the majority of television movies have become a joke, relegated to being compared to direct to DVD productions that do not have the talent or clout to stand up in the theater or as a bigger production. The Executioner’s Song was made in the 80s and offers an award-winning cast, and a true-ish (it’s important to note that this is just the fictionalized account according to Norman Mailer) story that is shocking in a number of ways.

Gary Gilmore was a complex individual. Depending on how liberal you are, you might say he was a victim of the system. I am not that liberal when it comes to crime, instead believing firmly that choice comes into play in nearly all things. The Executioner’s Song is meant to give insight into the last nine months of Gilmore’s life. This includes his time with his girlfriend Nicole Baker Barrett. It is important to mention Nicole because she plays a huge part in The Executioner’s Song.

In fact, Nicole is such a central figure in Gilmore’s final months and in this film that it is hard not to sit and wonder what has happened to her. She’s almost impossible to find, but what I did dig up (according to her) was that this movie is more fictionalized than not and that the representations of her and Gilmore are wrong. Whether that is true or not is hard for anyone to know. I did not know Gilmore personally and to my knowledge Nicole has never chosen to officially tell her side, though I could be wrong about that.

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TV Show Info:
Writer: Wendy Aaron, Lisa A. Bannick, Kate Boutilier, Susan Borowitz
Director: Matthew Diamond, Alan Berqmann, Kent Bateman, Debbie Allen, Peter Baldwin
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Michael Gross, Tina Yothers, Meredith Baxter, Justine Bateman, Brian Bonsall, Marc Price, Scott Valentine
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: CBS/Paramount

Release Info:
Original Air Dates:1982-1989
Season Air Dates: 9/26/85 – 5/8/86
DVD Box Set Release Date: August 5, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon: $29.99, Wal-Mart: $29.86
Episodes: All Season Four Episodes, plus the Family Ties vacation movie that aired prior to the beginning of the season

Season four of Family Ties was a good year. Emmy nods were high, ratings had them in the number two spot, and things were only going to get better for this show. It was one of those shows that everyone you knew was watching. I was just in grade school back then, but I never missed it. As far as family programming that the whole family could enjoy went, you weren’t going to find anything better than this. Sadly, all these years later you might be hard-pressed to find something better on television that both parents and kids can thoroughly enjoy.

This was the year that Michael J. Fox won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe. This was just one of many nods though, with acknowledgement also going to the series as a whole, Justine Bateman (Lead Actress), and outstanding writing. Add in the fact that this was on right after The Cosby Show and there was no logical reason to miss this hour of family entertainment.

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TV Show Info:
Writer: Various
Director: Various
Cast: Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, Jason Priestley, Luke Perry, Gabrielle Carteris, Tiffani Thiessen, Kathleen Robertson
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: CBS/Paramount

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: 10/4/90 – 5/17/2000
Season Air Dates: 7/12/94 – 5/24/95
DVD Box Set Release Date: July 29, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon: $39.99, Wal-Mart: $39.86
Episodes: All season five hour long episodes are included

Once upon a time Beverly Hills 90210 was a weekly part of my life. It used to be my favorite show. Admittedly, I was a teenager back then, but still it was one of those things that I couldn’t miss. These days I cannot recall finding a nighttime soap opera that compared to the drama and closet entertainment that 90210 provided. That being said, I did not watch the series from beginning to end. I was there at the beginning, but left regular viewing about the time that this season started. I would occasionally tune back in to see what the old gang was up to, but the addition of cult storylines and David (Brian Austin Green) becoming a smack-head was just too much for me.

This season is known for the change in cast, especially where the bitches of the show are concerned. Brenda (Shannen Doherty) has headed off to London and has not returned (Doherty was fired). With a free bitch spot to fill, Brenda’s spot was filled with Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen, who at this time had an Amber in there somewhere). Like Doherty, she was meant to be the sexy, troublesome siren. I can’t feign particular attraction to either, though I see why some guys might like them.

Fans of Thiessen will love this season just because she is in it. I am not sure that was enough to do it for me, but there were some good moments here that reminded me of why I watched the show in the first place. Granted, this feels like a weakening shell of what the show used to be, but it still had a few redeeming moments. There were many episodes here that I watched for the first time. It’s certainly not the best of 90210, especially if you prefer Doherty over Thiessen, but you might still find this season to be enjoyable. I know that when I least expected it those old feelings crept back in and I found myself enjoying the show.

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TV Show Info:
Writer: Adam Divello
Director: Jason Sands, Hisham Abed
Cast: Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag, Kelly Cutrone, Whitney Port, Audrina Patridge, Stephanie Pratt, Spencer Pratt
Rating: Unrated
Studio: MTV/Paramount

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: May 31, 2006 - Present
Season Air Dates: August 13, 2007 – May 5, 2008
DVD Box Set Release Date: July 29, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon, Wal-Mart: $24.86
Episodes: 28 episodes

I have nothing against reality shows. Personally, I don’t watch too many, but I realize that for one reason or another, our current culture seems to be obsessed with them. I am guessing that the primary watchers of reality shows are older (possibly senile) adults and teenagers along with the younger 20-somethings. Unfortunately, I buy into the craze as much as the next guy, but there are some reality shows that I won’t watch. Most of them are on MTV or have associated plotlines that make them appear as if they could be on the network.

Shows like The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, or any other dating shows are definitely avoided, and when they are watched by my mother I cringe just by having to hear the sound of them permeating throughout the house from her living room. This is also my reaction to shows like The Hills. I mean seriously, I know that I have 25 or so MTVs and that most of them play music, but is it necessary to keep a time slot open for one of the most asinine, unnecessary shows on television? I would have expected better from MTV (a station that once aired cool stuff like the long defunct Remote Control). Shame on you.

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I have to admit that I am somewhat of a watch fanatic. There is something about jewelry that I find absolutely addictive. Maybe it’s just the fact that I like to spend money. Whatever it is, I own more watches than I need to own. I received my last watch at Christmas as a present from someone. This is the last new watch in my collection because I have been trying to limit myself. However, when Casio contacted me about reviewing the new Baby-G MSG300 watch, I couldn’t resist.

The Baby G was a real treat to receive for a number of reasons. First, every reviewer loves receiving high quality, attractive items to review. Second, we have been planning to add more fashion and electronics reviews, so this made a nice set of opening reviews. You can see a review for one of the new Casio Pathfinders which Dominick reviewed and the Exilim digital camera, also by Casio. I haven’t owned a Casio watch for quite some time, but it’s nice to have a watch that I am compelled to continue wearing without even considering purchasing a new one while doing so.

Look/Appearance:
I had no clue what the Baby G was going to look like until it arrived. I visited the Casio website, but there are a number of models and the particular one I received (you can see the photo to the right) was not on the website when I went to check it out. My waiting paid off when I received a sleek, stylish watch with a pink face that offers spots for date, day, and seconds. The white ring encircling the face includes the Baby-G name and six silver studs to add to the fashion quality.

While I adore the color of the face, it is the unique look of the band that really caught my eye. The white resin composite band shares space with metal, which shows up alternatively for a look that is both different and trendy. This look works well for most any occasion, be it something sporty or something more casual in nature. The thing I like is the actual size and shape of the band. This tends to mimic the larger, male watches, rather than the more traditional female watches that are smaller and thinner. It is still comfortable enough for a female, but offers the look of a sportier watch in comparison to most other female watches.

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