Rest assured I was on the internet within minutes registering my displeasure!

10 observations about the Degrassi: The Boiling Point finale:


Spoilers, ahoy! Don't say I didn't warn you!

1. Generally, I felt like it was kind of 'meh.' They built up to this episode for like a month and that's what we get? I feel like the writers built up to a point when all that was left was to kill Eli but they couldn't do it because everyone liked him too much. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Eli didn't get the 'Rick' treatment or go the way of 'JT,' but for all of the "we go there" boasting that Degrassi does, it felt like they took it 90 yards, but just couldn't take it to the logical end that they were building up to.

2. Eli is totally the new Craig.

3. Drew hooking up with Bianca clearly violates the 'bros before hoes' rule. Drew already has a girlfriend. Or had, maybe, it depends on how mad Alli is at him. Did he forget how Adam was crushing on her? If he did, they might want to check him for football-related brain trauma because it was two episodes ago and he got in a fight over it. Seriously, dude. What's your damage?

4. PS--What's the deal with everybody being hot for Bianca? She's like a skankier, sluttier version of Mia.

5. The HollyJ strip tease? I feel conflicted. I love the HollyJ/Sav pairing even more than the HollyJ/Declan pairing, so I was cheering for them. On the other hand, I feel like the Shark in the Water was actually the shark that Degrassi was jumping in this episode.

6. On the subject of hooking up: What kind of school do these kids go to that they can just run off to the boiler room or the band room to hook up?

7. Zane and Riley totally deserved to win homecoming kings. Who in their right mind ships Alli and Drew? I like the Zane/Riley pairing, and it's nice that we're not playing 'Trapped in the Closet with Riley' anymore. But I feel like Zane and Riley are like two episodes away from turning into the boring couple that Marco and Dylan turned into.

8. If they wanted to up the awkward to 11, they should've crowned Jenna and KC. Hey...where were Jenna and KC in this episode?

9. I love Clare. She's the new, more sympathetic version of Emma. She's adorable, even if she basically ruined everything for everyone for the rest of the season by setting off that ridiculous Rube Goldberg machine-esque chain of events that ended with Fitz not killing Eli. But she did it for Eli, who is pretty much the Lloyd Dobler to her Diane Court.

10. I miss Declan. When is Declan coming back?

I'm not dead.

I haven't posted recently, mostly because I can't think of things to write about. So, I'm going to cop out and write a "this is what's been catching my eye lately" post.

1. I've watched the first 2 episodes of Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spin off. I only watched the first season of Grey's Anatomy, so I stopped watching right when Addison showed up. I don't have a history of or a context for Addison, so it's interesting seeing the show with fresh eyes. The cast is pretty awesome: Taye Diggs, Tim Daly, Audra McDonald, Amy Brenneman, Chris Lowell, Kate Walsh, and Paul Adelstein. They run a holistic wellness center or something. It's pretty interesting when, in the second episode, you still have no idea what they actually do. Anyway, I dig it.

2. The new Tegan and Sara disc, The Con, is fantastic. I love it more than I could begin to tell you. I kept hearing the radio single, "Back in Your Head," and thinking 'wow, that's nice.' I bought the album because I couldn't shake that song. It turns out that the whole album is this fantastic assortment of songs that work like that--all haunting and mesmerizing.

3.I have the following TV shows TiFauxed but not watched: Dirty, Sexy, Money; Big Shots; Reaper; Pushing Daisies; Life; and Cane. What do you want to bet that one of those shows gets cancelled by the time I can watch it?

Maybe I'll have more to write about sometime soon. Maybe not. Who can tell?

Stuff I used to like: Top Chef

During Seasons 1 and 2 of Top Chef, I was a rabid fan (Team Harold! Team Marcel!). Now? Eh, not so much.

It used to be a novel idea: make people cook stuff in various situations and then eliminate them based on whose food is the worst.

Top Chef introduced the world to Katie Lee Joel and then to Padma Lakshmi. I'm not sure why producers thought Padma would be a better fit for the show than Katie was. They're both different shades of uninteresting and uninspiring.

Chef Tom seemed irritated after the suggestions by the Season One audience that he should be more like Tim Gunn. I watch Project Runway and love Tim Gunn. Chef Tom is no Tim Gunn. And, as if he knows this about himself, he says in the Season Two opener that he isn't there to mentor these kids.

Also? When did Chef Tom start trying to be like Anthony Bourdain? One Bourdain is enough, thank you very much.

Also? Every season these contestants seem confused as to what's going on. I was trying to catch up on Season Three and there was a team challenge episode. I love team challenge episodes because they up the drama factor. Remember 'I'm not your bitch, bitch'? Yeah, that was a team challenge. Anyway, during this challenge all of the contestants seemed confused about the idea of a team challenge. Guys, did you not see any of Season Two? No? Any of Season One, then? This is how it always goes.

One upside to Top Chef this season, though, is more Ted Allen. Ted Allen is awesome. He's all snarky and sweet and he makes me want to have him over for dinner until I remember that I watch Top Chef because I can't cook. He could be all Tim Gunn with these kids, but he's not. Instead we get Anthony Bourdain's 'what's your major malfunction' line. Again. Dude, didn't you say that about Mikey last year when he made that monochromatic plate of sides? That, by the way, was genius. I love corn and potatoes so screw the modern convention that food can't be monochromatic.

Anyway, I used to love Top Chef. And now I don't. I mean, it's okay, but it's nowhere near the glory days of Tiffany snarking at Dave or Cliff holding Marcel down and trying to shave his head.

RIP Ms. Mars...

I came to the Veronica Mars party a little late. Everybody loved that show, but I watched a couple of episodes and didn't care much for it. One day I went to Target and Season One was cheap. Because I am, in fact, the highly suggestible type, I decided to give it a go.

I was very, very wrong about Veronica Mars.

I devoured the first two season in time to start the third--now on the CW.

I loved Veronica Mars (the show) because the dialogue was smart. I loved it because Veronica (the character) was tough and vulnerable and honest and fair. I loved Wallace. I loved Duncan. And, against my better judgement, I loved Logan.

Enrico Colantoni, the guy who played Elliott on Just Shoot Me, played Veronica's dad. That was pretty awesome, too.

For me, though, the best thing about Veronica Mars (the show) was Tina Majorino. She played Mac--the brainy computer grrl who ended up being Veronica's friend and sorta sidekick. She was smart and funny and like-able, and was a more realistic teenager than Veronica.

Part of the reason that Veronica Mars (the show) worked so well is that there was an overarching mystery that kept me watching all season. Every week a little bit more was revealed and, by the end, we knew everything. There were also mini-mysteries each week that kept the plot moving. Mixing the easily-solvable mysteries with the One Big Mystery kept people watching weekly because it gave people instant gratification.

The other reason that Veronica Mars (the show) worked so well is the dialogue. One of my favorite TV shows starring young adults was Boy Meets World. Want to know why? Because it put words in its characters' mouths that teenagers would actually say. Dawson's Creek made its teenagers seem way older than they were. My So-Called Life made them seem more intellectual than real teenagers. And 90210? Well those kids were just unreal. Awesome, but unreal. What was so great about Veronica Mars (the show) is that its teenagers seemed normal, even as they were put in ridiculously unrealistic situations. It worked, though, because even as they were in over their heads, they talked like real teenagers.

I loved Veronica Mars because it was perfect. And, any imbalance of what made if perfect (cast, plot, dialogue) would kill it.

Then, Veronica Mars jumped the shark.

When the kids went to college, the perfect-ness disappeared. Why? Because the balance was thrown off. And, like I said two lines up, any imbalance of what made it perfect would kill it.

The addition of new characters (okay, I liked Piz a little bit), the disappearance of old characters, and a mess of contrived situations so convoluted that even I couldn't suspend my disbelief that much were the demise of Veronica Mars (the person and the show).

Rumor has it that Veronica Mars got the old heave-ho for the CW to make way for such gems as Gossip Girl and a dating show with a cowboy.

I will keep Veronica, Wallace, Mac, Keith, Logan and, okay, Piz in my heart forever. But, sometimes a show has a shelf-life. And, this one was over before it even began.

Time to laugh and shiver and cry...

I'd forgotten how much I love Clone High. It aired in 2002 on MTV and lasted only a season, and I was obsessed with it. For Christmas, The Dude's parents got me the DVD but I hadn't gotten around to watching it yet. Last night I popped it in and watched 2 episodes.

Clone High's premise is disarmingly simple--scientists made clones of famous people and now these clones are in High School. The show revolves around Abe, Joan of Arc, Cleo (Cleopatra's clone), JFK, and Gandhi.

It got some press when it came out because the people of India didn't like their revered leader portrayed as a goofy, socially inept partier. I get that. I do. But man is Gandhi funny.

My favorite Gandhi bit is when he becomes a rapper with the stage name G-Spot. His rap? "What's my name? G-Spot. And what do I rock? The G-Spot."

Good times.

I'd urge you to try to find the DVD. It contains the entire first season, including 5 episodes that didn't air on MTV (the series originally ran in Canada).