TV Style: Ann Perkin's Owl-Printed Top on PARKS & RECREATION

I love how Rob Lowe's character, Chris, on Parks & Recreation would always call Ann Perkins (played by Rashida Jones) by her full name, even as he's dated her for a few months.

And I like how Ann Perkins' character has evolved over the seasons, much like Leslie Knope did.

Ann used to be just nice and straight, which meant that she was boring and did nothing much to make her presence significant to the series. But as the show progressed, her flaws and insecurities started showing. Something about Ann Perkins isn't always perfect, it seems. And it made her more interesting to me.

When she hooked up with Tom and decided to move in with him last season, I knew she was crazy. I'm just waiting for Parks & Recreation to show her character having a nervous breakdown. I can imagine Ann Perkins going the way of Rob Gordon in the movie High Fidelity, where she'll reassess previous relationships and where she has gone wrong with these men. Or why she's picking the oddest boyfriends, for that matter.

How much of a hoot would that be, if it happened on the show? And judging by this statement Rashida Jones' said about her character in a recent interview, I think that's where Ann Perkins is headed:

“Ann’s sort of the full-blown version of what she has been for the past couple of seasons. She’s having a little bit of an identity crisis and it incites some big questions that she’s needed to ask herself for a long time about how she approaches relationships.”

Speaking of "hoot"....

Last night's season premiere had Ann wearing this owl-printed top:

I knew I've seen it somewhere before and I searched hours for it last night, until I found it, although it's no longer being sold:

From Anthropologie

Anyway, I am so looking forward to Ann's story arc this year!

You gotta love Ann Perkins! :D

TV Style: Juliette's Pretty Tie-Neck Blouse on GRIMM

I really liked reading The Possessionista's blog when she used to write about TV fashion a lot. Now she only discusses a few shows, many of them from the Reality TV genre, if I'm not mistaken. I still keep tabs of her site because once in a while, she has something fashion-related that I've been wanting to know the answers to. Like her latest post about the blouse Juliette wore in last week's episode on Grimm.

Read blouse's details from The Possessionista

In case you aren't watching the show (and you must...it has great stories!!), here's the blouse she's talking about and the blouse I was fixated on for a few days. I swear I saw something just like it at MOA last weekend (and I should've taken a photo, d'oh!):

Pretty, no? I mentioned on Twitter/Facebook that Juliette is looking more and more like a Disney Princess to me. This tie-neck blouse is almost close to this:

Belle | Beauty & The Beast

I can't remember admiring Juliette's clothes on the show before. This top is the first time I took notice of something she wore that really stood out.

Grimm, by the way, will be moved to Fridays beginning this week and aside from following how awesome Season 2 has been so far, I'm gonna be checking out what Juliette wears from now on, too!

Are you watching Grimm and enjoying it? What do you think is going to happen to Juliette and Nick? When will the "spell" come off?

Elementary, my dear. Should I give a damn?

I have no doubt Elementary is going to be huge hit. That's not going to be a mystery. The show will work because it has the right formula and it's in the right network (CBS), with the right audience.

But I'm still making sense of what I've just seen (pilot). The story's not hard to follow, but that's not my problem.

Before I go on any further, let me just say that this one below:

BBC's Sherlock Holmes (by Steven Moffat) airing for two years now

This has set my bar for Elementary and it may be unfair to compare the two.

And yet, watching E...I couldn't help but do that (compare). The style is so similar. The manner in which both shows present snippets of evidence or proof of what Holmes has deduced? THE SAME. No wonder Steven Moffat was protesting. It did feel like a copy of his show.

As much as I like Jonny Lee Miller (JLM) as an actor and as much as I tell myself to watch this show with less prejudice, his Sherlock Holmes is, sadly, coming off as...a sissy. *sigh*

He's not abrasive as I would've hoped. And that takes away some smarty points for me. He just acts...retarded. :-/ Benedict Cumberbatch's take on Holmes (BBC version) was intimidating. (Or for that matter, so was Robert Downey Jr.'s take in the movie.) I didn't get that with JLM's Sherlock Holmes.

I've been having issues that they cast Watson as a woman ever since I learned that this show was being made. I'm now having bigger issues to learn that Watson, JOAN Watson, is written as Holmes' caretaker, the "nanny" Holmes' rich father hired to...well, take care of him. WTH? Holmes is a rich brat who can't take care of himself and has personality problems? That's so....Gossip Girl. Haha. It didn't help that his father was also mentioned so many times in the pilot. It really makes this Sherlock Holmes appear so...helpless. 

I'm not seeing a chemistry between the two leads. Something's just not gelling well and it may be premature to find that on the very first episode, I know. But Lucy Liu's presence is way stronger than Jonny Lee Miller on screen, when I was expecting it to be the other way around.

I'm sadly underwhelmed by the pilot, when I've been reading about how great this show's potential is, just before watching it.

But to be fair --- it's the pilot and a lot can change from there. I didn't like Person Of Interest when it first aired. But now I can't wait for its second season to begin. Which goes without saying that I haven't entirely written off Elementary with just this episode.

The question I ask now is --- how much time should I invest before I finally see it's real worth? How much should you? Also, would it a) please or b) disappoint you to know that one of the show's creators worked on Ringer before? That's not a good sign for me. But for the love of anything Sherlock Holmes (big fan of the book!) I'm gonna find something good about Elementary when the rest of the episodes air.

Anyway, here's a teaser:



The show will begin airing Sept. 27th.

Mistresses on ABC

Sometime in between TV development, I thought this show got the bump and won't be pushing through. But as it turns out, it's all systems go. Mistresses will begin airing in the summer of 2013, which is still a long way. But I thought you might wanna check out the trailer.

I think this would've been Sex and The City, if all four girls were kept women. Heh.

Not a fan of the writing, based on this short clip. The women in this show look...plastic-ky. Ick.

But the premise is intriguing, I guess, regardless of how many times a mistress' story has been told over and over and over. The local scene, for example, is even going to have one movie showing this week called Mistress with Hilda Koronel. Last year, there was that other woman movie with Anne Curtis. Like vampires, wizards and superheroes, the public's obsession for mistresses will never die. I am hoping, however, that this series gives TV viewers something fresh. But I highly doubt that's happening.

Mistresses is an adaptation of the UK series with the same title. The US version stars Alyssa Milano, Yunjin Kim, Rochelle Aytes and Jes Macallan.

Trailer below:

 

First Thoughts: THE MINDY PROJECT

With what she has already achieved on TV as a writer, I hold such high regard for Mindy Kaling. When she announced she was going to star in her own TV show, The Mindy Project, I did my best to control going on fan girl mode and held no high expectations.

I avoided devouring every news I came across about the show since I wanted to watch the pilot without riding on the hype. With Mindy's calibre, I was sure there's gonna be a lot of that (hype), especially since this show is scheduled to be aired on Fox and that the network's really pushing (read: hardcore marketing and strategizing) to gain an audience for their comedies.

People are gonna be saying The Mindy Project is the "Best Comedy of the new season" very early. Having watched the pilot just now, here's what I think:

It's premature to say it's the "best" but there's a reason why Mindy Kaling is successful. SHE WRITES REALLY WELL!

The one thing that stood out to me while I was watching the pilot was its flow and pacing. It's like Mindy wrote this on a really good day, where she's on roll and everything is just coming together. That's hard to do given her really busy schedule since she's not only writing and starring in this show, she's still doing other stuff for The Office, even as she's running The Mindy Project.

I love the transition from scene to scene. I like how important characters in her life were introduced. The set-up is well-executed and the language and dialogues totally speak of her. Those are her very thoughts coming to life (or to TV, as it were). Having followed Mindy Kaling's blog(s) for many, many years...I can definitely say that this truly is HER show.

The one tiny flaw I can think of? It's a girl's show, and one that will most likely be compared a lot to HBO's Girls.

The Mindy Project is television's version of a rom-com...which is to say that sometimes, it can get so sappy and maybe even unrealistic. It's not my favorite genre, and I'm such a girly girl most the time at that! Not many will find Mindy's antics cute, I assume. The Office fans will see that she sometimes channels her inner Kelly Kapoor.

But as far as entertainment goes --- The Mindy Project is bound to become a winner. So long as Mindy keeps it together and continues to write with precision. I dare say, I liked this pilot's flow even better than New Girl. (These shows are going back to back on Fox's schedule. A nice fit!)

One minute into the show, I was already laughing at something Danny said (which Mindy wrote, of course). Five minutes of watching, and I found myself nodding in agreement to what Gwen was saying, while I was sending thoughts of congratulations to Mindy Kaling via mental telepathy for a good job done. I hope she got it! =)

From the official press release:

THE MINDY PROJECT is a new single-camera comedy from Emmy Award-nominated writer/producer and New York Times best-selling author Mindy Kaling ("The Office") that follows a woman who, despite having a successful career, desperately needs to break bad habits in her personal life. After all, how many doctors make inappropriate toasts at their ex-boyfriend's wedding, nearly drown at the bottom of a stranger's pool and get arrested for disorderly conduct just moments before having to deliver a baby?  

Funny, impatient and politically incorrect, MINDY LAHIRI (Kaling) can quote every romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan that exists. She loves the good ones and the bad ones, because the girl always gets the guy. Mindy is determined to be more punctual, spend less money, lose weight and read more books - all in pursuit of becoming a well-rounded perfect woman...who can meet and date the perfect guy. Mindy is a skilled OB/GYN and shares a practice with a few other doctors, none of whom make life any easier for her. 

Here's a preview:



The show will run on FOX beginning Sept. 25th.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Season 2 with Adam Levine

A few weeks ago, I clicked on the video of the very first teaser to Season 2 of American Horror Story (AHS) and had some regrets after doing it. When a series of teasers followed,  I made sure to stay away from reading or watching anything related to AHS. It's not because I didn't want to get spoiled, or I found the production below par. It's actually because... I was so freaked out and scared by the first teaser.

See, this is what I saw:



Twenty seconds of visual nightmare. Seriously, I felt like I was in a dream and I wanted it to stop but it kept going. Longest 20 seconds of my life! (Hey, I scare easy!!!) And if this is any indication as to how really sick this new season is going to be, then....OMG! OMG! Oh.My.God!

In fairness to...well, me (haha)... I was able to get through the first season fine. Once it was pretty clear what was going on, it bordered on lame towards the end of the show. But what was really scary was the opening/main introduction. I still can't watch that part even now.

Remember this? Chilling!



I'm still going to watch Season 2, though. With my eyes partly covered.
Because he's in the cast:

Adam Levine

It's his first real acting job! And I will NOT cover my eyes if he loses the jacket, jeans and the shirt. :D

Adam Levine on the left, playing a priest? Mercy me!!!

This guy is back, too:

Evan Peters

He stood out during the first season and it makes me eager to watch how crazy he's going to be this time.

Have you been watching any AHS Season 2 teasers online? I think theres about five short teasers now and I don't have to watch it to know that the clips won't tell much about what Season 2 is like. But it's enough to build up fear and anticipation.

The show returns on October 17th.

DEVIOUS MAIDS: Which politician is going to protest this one?

Devious Maids was supposed to air on ABC, a TVnetwork that's quite accessible elsewhere. But after ABC passed on it when the pilot was presented to a test group, a cable channel (Lifetime) bought the show's rights. The first season of the series is set to air sometime in 2013, for 13 episodes.

Many of the cast members are made up of Latinas, given that one of the people behind the show is Eva Langoria. Devious Maids stars some of TV's most successful Latin Americans like Ana Ortiz (from Ugly Betty), Judy Reyes (from Scrubs), Dania Ramirez (from Heroes) and Roselyn Sánchez (from Without A Trace). Soap Opera veteran Susan Lucci is also in the cast.

Devious Maids is an adaptation of a Mexican telenovela and the American series is written by Marc Cherry, creator of Desperate Housewives (DH). The original series was patterned from DH, by the way. Which then means DH is adapting a show that's been inspired by their own show. Confused yet?

DH has a bad history with the Filipino audience. And because of the nature of the story on Devious Maids, I'm not going to be surprised if a protest sparks when this show airs. If and when it reaches Philippine shores.

Of late, I still don't know if there are any Filipina in the cast or if there are any slurs directed at Pinays. But I'm anticipating someone's bound to raise hell somewhere in the bowels of the World Wide Web when this does come up.

But you know what? I've learned, over the years, that slurs shouldn't be taken seriously in a TV show. I see this the same way I see religion and faith in that, regardless of how others convince you that you're going to hell for your beliefs or that you're on the wrong side of the fence, nothing and no one is going to disturb the foundation of what you stand for, just because one statement, which, normally, is used for dramatic impact on a TV show, has been said against it. (Wow, serious thoughts in the early morning. I'm getting a headache!)

Anyway, here's a short preview. And lemme just say --- I love, love, love Ana Ortiz. I'm glad she's on a new show after Ugly Betty!