Jerk/DoubleBitch » One Tree Hill

Burton Joins White Collar

DoubleBitch — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:22:59 +0000

Hilarie Burton has had quite a year already, with becoming JDM’s surprise baby mama and escaping One Tree Hill for the much more successful and interesting show White Collar. I’d say that’s Hilarie – 2, Chad Michael Murray – 0, but who’s counting?

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Miss Burton on White Collar since the casting news was announced. As you may have noticed by the sidebar, I got into One Tree Hill as a guilty pleasure late in the game. There was a point around seasons 4 and 5 that my boyfriend could have quoted you the entire plot just from my addiction and affinity for talking about nothing at length. He’s a good man.

I wouldn’t have said that the MTV VJ turned actress was the best actor on the show but that’s not really a fair comparison. What’s important is that I did like her character and I found the show compelling enough to watch. I was looking forward to seeing her spread her wings in a new format with a little more … shall we say credibility. It’s a progression to adult entertainment and I’m making the switch with her.

All that said, I’m not sure where I sit on her addition to White Collar. It really depends on how the 6 episode stint plays out. As of now, after her first appearance, I don’t understand how her character could become necessary for that much time. At the beginning of the episode, I really didn’t like her but by the end I was actually okay with her being around. It’s a delicate thing, adding a woman to an incredible bromance. Supernatural has tried and mostly failed to do so.

Her character is a lot of things. She’s independent and lonely, she’s an insurance investigator/bounty hunter – think Nate Ford’s old job. She’s ruthless and curious and in your face but also edgy, addicted to coffee and a little sad. They showed her right off the bat as strong then softened her with weakness, also making sure that we noticed she was a woman and susceptible to romantic feelings. I’m a little confused as to whether she’s really complicated or just not very well thought out.

What it comes down to is that I’m not sure the show needs her. I don’t watch White Collar for the great mysteries they solve. Honestly, I couldn’t even recall three if I had to but I could recall some great Peter/Neil moments, some shining qualities about Elizabeth or something quirky pulled off by Mozzie. USA – Characters Welcome is their moto and it really is true in this show. It’s character driven and I hope they manage to keep it that way without too quickly pushing another girl at Neil, or the pair of them for that matter.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

-DoubleBitch

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CW a network? or a gang?

DoubleBitch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:21:43 +0000

I couldn’t believe it when I read that Sam Jones III had been arrested for allegedly being part of a conspiracy to deal over 10,000 pills of oxycodone. I’m really not sure what thats supposed to mean, a conspiracy to deal prescription drugs? Is that like sitting around saying “oooh! know what would be a good idea?” or is it hiding them in your pants?

Sigh Pete, he really got the raw end of the deal. First he got let go on Smallville, only to be brought back for one of the worst episodes of all time. After that, or well sort of before that, the only gig I actually caught was him playing Dr Pratt’s quasi gay nephew on ER. Time and life after the CW has not been so good to Sam Jones the third’s career.

Earlier this year we heard about another CW alumni who plead guilty to taking part in an identity theft scheme. Antwon Tanner, the lovable uncle Skills on One Tree Hill could still see up to a year of jail time depending on the outcome of his November 20th sentencing which sounds pretty easy against the 20 years Jones could see.

My heart cried for Pete when he left angry. I never understood why a judge would own a creamed corn factory in the first place, but he totally got screwed only to be screwed again as super stretch gum boy. For what it’s worth I still only buy the Kryptonite Stride gum. Good Luck Buddy.

-DoubleBitch

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Are The TV Networks Actually Getting It?

DoubleBitch — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:41:40 +0000

I gently borrowed that headline from our dear friend over at The Three S’s. She gave a rundown of the favorite shows that will be returning for a sophomore year and wondered if maybe the networks are catching on. I think I’m going to have to disagree.

This morning I woke up to a tweet about a campaign to save Samantha Who and while I do love Barry Watson we have to draw the line somewhere. Fans have seen that they have power, finally. Fans of shows like Chuck and Jerrico have made big statements to the big wigs and they’ve at least been noted if they were not successful. It’s our one way to get through beyond blogs and forums. The biggest movement of this was probably during the Writers Strike when truckloads of pencils were dropped off at network headquarters in the name of shows we love but much like the fund-raising industry, this will eventually get old.

I’m over people running and walking to raise m0ney for everything they can think of and like wise, eventually if tv fans continue to petition and organize behind just any show the impact will be lost.

Woo! I got a little side tracked there. Are they getting it? No. They’re learning exactly what we’re learning, as we’re learning it. They’re seeing that when they let us have a little bit of power they get really excited, we rally behind them and hand them all kinds of good press for their shows. So why not lean back on programs, tell people you’re going to cancel them to round up some noise. Some great shows were kept going this year, Castle and Chuck to name a few but some good ones were canceled too. Reaper and Eli Stone, SCC, The Unusuals and Kings were never even given a chance. Then you’ve got stuff like One Tree Hill being given another season, 90210 and Melrose Place? ick. Heroes was handed a silver spoon renewal they didn’t deserve.

I’m rambling, but what I’m trying to say is that they’re getting it, but not the it that we’re hoping for. They’re learning to work the new hyper-involved audiences better than they know how to manipulate their line-ups. I expect to see this make some both heartbreaking and insulting moves in the future.

-DoubleBitch aka DebbieDowner

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Does Smallville Have 2 More Years?

DoubleBitch — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:26:33 +0000

The beautiful Allison Mack has been running around spreading the news that of course we’d never hear from the horses mouth, Tom Welling is signed on for TWO MORE seasons of Smallville – rounding out the show at a full ten years/seasons. Mack has said she’s contracted for one more. You’d think she could have kept that one in the bag for another week so we could still hold our breath for her in the finale. It could be a deek but knowing Allison’s truth and love personality she’s probably telling the truth. That doesn’t mean she won’t fake out die though, again.

Either way it make the grand Chloe exodus before the end of the show, something for years I would have told you would crash and burn the whole production but now I’m not so sure. We’ve talked about before how this past season and a bit have wrecked havoc on the Chloe we once knew and loved, maybe it’ll be time to see her go.

I’ve had Clark, Chloe and the gang in my life longer than I’ve kept in touch with a lot of friends. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be ready to move on. When the show comes to a close potentially at the end of season 10 I think we’ll all be ready to part. Honestly, I had accepted the show ending at any time for about 4 years now anyway.

So will it get to 10 seasons when every other loved show on the air is getting canceled? Yep. It sure will. Dawn and the team at the CW are slowly drowning and Smallville along with AMNT are the only floaties they’ve got left. Okay maybe Gossip Girl too. That’s not to say these are the best shows on the network, they’re not but they bring in viewers and hold the stability of the lineup. If a dead old show like One Tree Hill is going to continue without it’s arguably two main characters, Smallville will be back.

People won’t stop tuning in to Smallville, like I said, it’s been a part of our lives for 8 years now. We know and love the characters and every single viewer wants to see if they’ll convince Welling to put on the tights. This past few weeks we’ve really started to see some of the great Lois and Clark chemistry that we all imagine them having in the places the show will never go. Is the show about Smallville anymore? no. Is it about a young Clark Kent? hardly. But it’s still about characters we love on a desperate network. I wonder what this says about a season 6 for Supernatural?

-DoubleBitch

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A Salute to TV Moms!

Jerk — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:59:44 +0000

Here for Mother’s Day is our look at some of TV’s best moms!

Sarah Connor has to qualify even if she is pretty tough on John a lot of the time. Anyone who can raise the future savior of mankind has to be an awesome mom, even if they don’t have time-travelling killer robots and the modern authorities to contend with. Certainly not the most traditional mother on TV, but an extraordinary man needs an extraordinary mom.

Jean Weir is the mother of Sam and Lindsay on Freaks and Geeks, and she’s one of the most realistic mom’s ever shown on television. She provides both of her kids with love and guidance, while coming to terms with how the world’s changing and the fact that her kids are starting to grow up. She also looks exactly like one of our friends’ moms.

Joyce Summers had a hard job, being the mother of our time’s chosen Slayer. At first her attempts to guide Buffy hindered her, until she finally chose to confide in her mom and tell her about her chosen destiny. Coming to grips with the fact that your daughter fights life-and-death battles with all sorts of monsters on a daily basis can’t be easy, but Joyce managed to not just do so, but to also raise two great daughters.

Sandra Bennet gets the shout out for best mother on Heroes. Sure she might have a few quirks like her obsessive love of MrMuggles but when it all comes down to it she’s a good mom despite everything that’s going on. When she’s not drugged and clueless she’s the real back bone of the Bennet family and somehow keeps what’s his name in line all while being there for her mischief finding daughter. Lets face it, she doesn’t have an easy job putting up with HRG and Claire. We’d cuddle the dog too. Things aren’t looking so good for her marriage these days but it doesn’t change the way she supports her kids. Not to mention there’s always an endless supply of waffles around thanks to her.

Martha Kent, oh boy! Now there’s a real, amazing mom. It’s widely credited to her sweet soul, that superman turned out the way he did. She was always supportive and even though she may have had her little flings with the Luthors..kinda and maybe took off to Washington to never be heard or seen again, she’s such a great and lasting character. Each time there’s a scene in the Kent farmhouse I can’t help but think of her. Always there to share in the hardships of human emotion and to offer a table full of food to whatever freak Clark might have dragged into the house that week, Martha Kent is the kind of mom everyone dreams of.

Haley James-Scott makes the list mostly because she’s the only young TV mom I could think of. I think there are good and bad things about Haley James-Scott as a mom. First off, she shows that you can be a young mother and have a career and friends. Haley does it all. Granted, we should remember the kids been kidnapped, ran away and almost drowned in the pool in the past year and a half. The Scott’s much like OTH in general are really lucky to have such a great son but Haley and Nathan always make time to make sure their son knows how loved he is, where he’s come from and who his family and friends are.

Happy Mother’s Day!
-Jerk&DoubleBitch

[note from DB - after I put in the sandra picture wordpress just kept putting it in again instead of letting me change it, I figure its fate. Sandra needs a little extra love today anyway.]

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Dis-Appointment Television

DoubleBitch — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:19:48 +0000

Remember way back, say 4 – 5 months ago? Back in a time of happy, when Daphne was still alive and we were waiting on bated breath for the final episodes of Battlestar! To find out who the final cylon was. When episodes flowed a plenty in a symphony of consecutive airings playing out their melodies on our heart strings!

Yeah, well welcome to 2009. All that’s over. The CW and even NBC were really on the ball during the first half of this season (or volume, what have you) airing their episodes back to back. Building and keeping a great momentum and consistency casual watchers could really sink their teeth into. I praised TNT for nudging these kinds of schedules along. Pressing boundaries of ’season’ and ’sweeps’. TNT forges on with their successes while the rest have decided to flounder around and screw things up. We’ve seen break after break in these shows and I know I was not the only person expecting a whole lot more to be new on TV last night than there was. Even Monday nights have been hit or miss for what will be new.

I understand stretching a season and these occasional one or two week breaks are much better than some years of Smallville where we’d go for a whole month before the story would continue but it’s been proven now, it works in their favor to quit jerking us around. The concept of volumes as opposed to seasons works for me if you’re willing to air them all in one go. I’m tired of having to surf the channels to find something to watch on a night that I set aside specifically for certain shows and if the networks feel they really need to take those breaks then they need to do a better job of publicizing when we should be looking for the next episode.

My arch enemy Tim Kring spoke about the downfall of ‘appointment television’, I agree but I don’t think it’s dead. People make a point to watch when you make something they care about. Quit making them have to keep a day book to follow you and maybe you’ll give people a chance to show you that they’re still there.

-DoubleBitch

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Eat Your Heart Out Tree Hill

DoubleBitch — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:02:28 +0000

I try not to write about One Tree Hill, well almost as much as I try not to watch it. I actually started watching for Danneel Harris and got sort of caught up in the good times that were season 4/5. Either way, we have a few things we need to talk about.

Just as Dan’s about to get his heart transplant, a dog eats it. Yes. This is their idea of irony and a good plot. They’ve been trying to kill Dan Scott for YEARS and it ends up being a dog that gets the last laugh. I enjoyed that Lucas was there to squint and smirk at the dog but as far as a plot point goes this was the weakest development ever.

I liked the little shout out to the sims 3. I’m awaiting it’s release with baited breath. Another thing I’m waiting for is to see what they’ll do with the next season of OTH. It’s been released and backed up by at least Hilary Burton that both Payton and Lucas will be leaving the show. I can’t emphasize enough how I think everyone should be leaving the show aka the show should just be ending but the CW doesn’t seem to be in the place to make any real shakeup changes to their lineup just yet. Losing the OTP (one true pairing – for the fandomly impaired) of the show is going to put a big dent in it.

At base, if you were going to describe the show outside of “it’s a high school drama” you would say that it’s about the Scott brothers and their screwed up lives. Well remove a Scott brother, kill the Scott father and I’m not sure what you have left. Not to mention Lucas is the narrator of the series, that could get a little odd. I do think it’s time for the story to move on. It’s been telling one story extensively by telling the story then writing a book about it then making a movie about the book.. it’s just time to do something else. I was impressed with the 5 year jump but I’m ready to let go. I’ll be really surprised if they manage to impress me with their plans for season 7.

-DoubleBitch

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CW Makes Early Renewals!

DoubleBitch — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:12:36 +0000

YAY! I pretty much heart twitter for helping me be in the know about stuff. Important stuff like CW renewals!

Smallville will be back! Apparently Tom’s a sucker for Dawn and cougar claws. That’s terrible and I’m sure not true. Supernatural will be back for their much anticipated and potentially last season – 5 though if the CDub has any say on the matter they might be around much longer. Smallville was only going to go 4.

America’s Next Top Model has been brought back for two cycles and One Tree Hill will continue to flog the dead horse for another year as well. Oh and 90210 and Gossip Girl but I don’t really care. They’ve also picked up the Melrose Place pilot that stole the two straight male producers from smallville. I’m excited to see what a gay man and a woman come up with for Clark Kent. No sarcasm involved, I’m actually really looking forward to it.

The only show on the bubble for the CW to pick up later that I’m concerned about is Reaper and I think waiting to pick up this show is a wise move considering we have yet to see any of season 2 (Don’t forget it starts back a week from today at 8pm)

[source]

YAY! What great news for THE SUPER AWESOME LEVERAGE AWESOME FUN DAY (OF AWESOME)
-DoubleBitch

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Congratulations! It's a…dead baby

DoubleBitch — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:38:11 +0000

This week’s One Tree Hill held the big reveal – Does Payton have cancer, is she pregnant or does she just need to eat a damn sandwich? I’m guessing they told us in the first act that I missed walking from my office to my living room and finding the channel. Either way, the answer apparently is both B and C. It left me to wonder a few things. Why are half of these characters still on the show? What did this week accomplish outside of the Brooke story? Mostly? Nothing.

And yes, this was the worst promo picture I could find. There’s a good chance it’s fanart but I liked it. Just.. tilt your head, kinda. She’s tired. She’s the only one with a job in the whole town, give the lady a break.

My prediction for the rest of this season is that Payton will lose the baby. If they’re going to pull this off at all while working on their ‘oh look she has a random ex that wants to make a movie with Lucas/get her back’ story without throwing any integrity out the window the baby’s gotta go. Nobody’s been in the hospital recently anyway, well a real hospital. Crazy Nanny’s living rooms don’t count. I’d say they need to bring Karan back but she’s busy guesting on Heroes soon and moving up in the world.

To keep the flavor of the show, despite the five year jump I just don’t think they can do this, not that they’ve ever done a good job of being consistent. Layton are a little too happy right now for this to work out for too long.

On the other hand they purposely gave the two kids an entire story this week to themselves because they’re fully aware that Jackson Brundage is the best actor they’ve got. Maybe they’re catching on to a wave and figure the more kids the better. One Tree Hill 2.0. Fine, whatever. Just somebody screen the nanny this time.

-DoubleBitch

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It Really is a Small World After All

DoubleBitch — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:26:46 +0000

There are lots of gimmicks shows can have to give them an extra boost of awesome like when a hit song has that na-na-na-na part so you don’t actually have to know the words to sing along. One of the most effective gimmicks we’ve been seeing a lot of recently is the addition of something small to a show. Yes adding something of a different size can be all it takes to wow your audience.

I’ve mentioned before that despite the sagging geriatric status of the CW’s One Tree Hill and it’s over the top we’re still in high school even though we’re not in high school antics the little man on campus is consistently showing up his older co-stars. Does anyone have an idea what Nathan actually does? Why does he keep showing up at the school and eating lunch with the kids and its creeping me out. Anyway, back on topic Jamie Scott is a five year old wonder who is single handedly stealing the show. Cape on back, bunny Chester under arm and a few good dance moves and he turns to solid gold. I think the writers actually need to step up their game FOR this kid. He’s out doing them too. Somebody get this kid a movie.

The most popular quote from this season of Heroes other than Sylar’s echo of the audience’s “I hate heroes” has to be Matt Parkman’s “High Five, Turtle!” This turtle, actually a tortoise has three names: It’s actual name Elvis, Grunny’s name for him Shelly and keeping with tradition the show’s creative max output of just plain and slightly inaccurate Turtle. Apparently they even have a stand in plastic turtle but there’s no denying that Turtle and 10-year-old Hiro headbanging was a highlight in an exceptionally dark (pun intended) episode. Not to mention it’s probably some of the best acting we’ve seen from a living thing on this show in some time.

Now sure, those two things could fit into the animals and children clause but I assure you it’s their size. Take Leverage’s Eliot Spencer for example. Christian Kane weighs in at a whopping 5′10″ in heels and still manages to bring the awesome. Note how he’s always in the foreground or background of all the promotional materials for the show. Veronica Mars had Beaver proving that even evil can come in tiny package. Battlestar has Lee Adama who I think stayed with D mostly so he could have someone to hem up his pant legs knowing full well Starbuck would have told him to go frak himself, then laugh. Hard. Another example from Battlestar could be all the human female characters breasts. I didn’t think it was possible for Grey’s to come up with a member of the Grey family that I didn’t hate but Little Grey has finally broken down that barrier, even if she requires Eric Dane to do it.

So do you have your note pads out show creators? Write this down. Bigger doesn’t have to be better. Go with something small, see how it works out. Let us know.

-DoubleBitch

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