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Tom's TV: August 2005

Tom's TV
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - 5:30am
Rock Star: INXSWell, I was so exhausted last night that I went to bed at about 9:30, which means I haven't watched this week's "Rock Star: INXS" performances yet. And I won't be able to watch them AND post a recap with predictions before tonight's results show airs. I could just not make any predictions this week, but where's the fun in that. Instead, I'll make all of this week's predictions without any knowledge of what transpired last night. BLIND Predictions... Encore: Marty Bottom Three: Suzie Ty Jordis Eliminated: Ty The "Rock Star" Graveyard... Dana Wil Neal Heather Daphna Tara Brandon Jessica Deanna
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Monday, August 29, 2005 - 8:30pm

I have to admit that I endured the first season of HBO's "Entourage" rather grudgingly, particularly because I didn't like any of the characters. Movie star Vincent Chase was spoiled, super-agent Ari Gold was a prick, and everyone else was a freeloader. When the second season premiered, I didn't even bother scheduling my TiVo to record it until about 90 minutes before airtime. And even then I swore that if the first episode was no better than the previous season, I was giving up the show for good. Thank God the season premiere was good, because if it hadn't been, I would have missed out on a second season that has become something of a masterpiece. Sure, Vincent is still spoiled, and Ari is definitely still a prick. Hell, everybody else is still freeloading like there's no tomorrow. But with several characters facing major crises this year, both professionally and personally, the show has delved much deeper into the twisted world of Hollywood "relationships." Oddly enough, that cold, superficial first season is a big reason why the show's second year has been so exceptional. If viewers hadn't had a whole season to witness how shallow Hollywood and its inhabitants are, we probably never would have appreciated (or even noticed) the brief glimpses of humanity that have appeared from time to time this year. In addition, the writers have wisely shifted much of the show's focus from wide-eyed Tinsletown newcomer Eric (Kevin Connolly) to cynical insiders Ari (Jeremy Piven) and Vincent (Adrian Grenier). "Entourage" wins the Comeback Show of the Year award, and it's easily the best 30 minute show currently on television. The second season finale of "Entourage" airs this Sunday night on HBO.

Comedy, Entourage, HBO, TV
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - 11:45pm
Rock Star: INXSAfter seeing her ample chest upstaged by one of the contestants last week, "Rock Star: INXS" host Brooke Burke reclaimed the title of "Skankiest Looking Person on the Show" by wearing a tiny little dress that emphasized just how gigantic and just how fake her boobs really are. That was probably a smart move given that she has no discernible talent, but the steadily decreasing amount of clothing worn by the people on this show (both male and female) is starting to grow a bit tiresome. At least the members of INXS seem to be keeping their clothes on. In the recap of Sunday's VH1 broadcast, Dave Navarro asked each of the remaining contestants to write an original song to perform in this week's competition. After having time to compose a bit, it was revealed that only two people would actually be allowed to perform their original number, while everyone else would have to sing yet another cover tune. Worse yet, the contestants had to decide among themselves which two would be able to showcase their compositions. In the end, they left things to chance by drawing two names out of a hat. Last night's performances were arguably the worst batch so far. Of the seven competitors, only the first three to walk onto the stage gave strong performances. The remaining four blew it in one way or another. Or in the case of the last performer, in every way possible. People of Australia, why do you hate Suzie McNeil? She absolutely blows me away every week with her soulful voice, and last night was no exception. She managed to take the overplayed, overrated Rolling Stones’ tune "Start Me Up" and make me like it for the first time since about 1985. I realize she's not going to win this competition, but this woman has no business being in the bottom three. Not yet, anyway. You have to hand it to J.D. Fortune. He has one of the weakest voices of the competition, but he always manages to turn in a great-ish performance. Last night he sang Foreigner's "Cold as Ice," and turned a tired arena rock staple into a high energy, crowd-pleasing anthem that had every single member of the audience pumping their fists in the air. I still don't think this guy has any business fronting INXS, but he's the only contestant who looks and acts like a rock star every time he hits the stage. Deanna Johnston was the first of two contestants to unveil an original song last night. The tune was called "My Truth," and unlike every other performance Deanna's given on the show so far, this one was actually very good. Problem is, the competitor pool is dwindling and the song actually played too much to her voice's strengths. Brandon Calhoon retreated to too-safe material a couple of weeks ago, nailed it, and found himself eliminated anyway. I fear that a similar fate may await Deanna. After essentially stealing all of the credit for Deanna's performance (at one point he even said "Deanna is singing my song"), oh-so-smug Ty Taylor took to the stage and did a four minute long impersonation of Tina Turner. The crowd and the band ate it up, and he hit all the difficult notes, but his rendition of "Proud Mary" sounded like something out of a revue show on a cruise ship. Absolutely dreadful. The members of INXS were glowing in their critiques, but I simply refuse to believe that they really found this schlock to be appropriate audition material for their band. The fact that he suckered all three remaining female contestants into singing backup for him made the performance that much more offensive. MiG Ayesa was the other performer to unveil an original song last night. His was titled "Do or Die" and, stylistically speaking, it was all over the map. At times it sounded purely original, but at others it seemed to channel has-been bands like Journey and Creed (which is not a good thing in the year 2005). In the end, these disparate components made the song come off a bit too generic and disposable. Vocally, this was MiG's weakest performance in quite a while. For a guy who is usually so confident, he sounded surprisingly tentative last night. After two rock-solid performances in a row, Marty Casey reverted back to his Eddie Vedder/Scott Weiland copycat persona for a rendition of Live's "I Alone." Marty was so busy playing the role of tense alterna-rocker that he forgot to bother hitting any notes. As with Ty, I find Marty's performance choices a bit perplexing. Under different circumstances a performance like this might warrant praise, but it's completely inappropriate for a tryout with INXS. And finally Jordis Unga. Some people have complained that by not airing the preliminary rounds of this competition, INXS and CBS deprived viewers of the opportunity to see some entertainingly bad performances. Well, Jordis gave those people exactly what they wanted last night with a monumentally bad rendition of Aerosmith's "Dream On." From start to finish, her vocals appeared to be utterly out of her own control. Off key throughout, the performance entered the realm of the legendary when she attempted -- and spectacularly failed -- to hit a particularly high note at the song's end. Oh. My. God. Predictions... The early look at the bottom three at the end of last night's broadcast showed Deanna, Ty, and Jordis to be in jeopardy. This is a bit unfair for Deanna given that she was one of the few to give a good performance this week. If the world were just, Marty would take her place on the chopping block tonight. But given all the performances we've seen over the last couple of months, Deanna is arguably the weakest competitor left. For that reason, I have to believe she's going to be saying goodbye tonight. But given how bad Ty and Jordis performed, they are certainly at risk as well. As for the weekly encore honor, I have to go with Suzie, partially because I'm biased and partially because she wins by default. J.D. was good but not exactly encore material, and Deanna's imminent elimination pretty much rules her out. That leaves Suzie. The only potential glitch in this reasoning is the addition of viewer voting into this week's encore selection. Suzie has never been particularly popular with voters, so that leaves a small opening for J.D. to slip in. Encore: Suzie Bottom Three: Deanna Ty Jordis Eliminated: Deanna   The "Rock Star" Graveyard... Dana Wil Neal Heather Daphna Tara Brandon Jessica
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 10:52pm
Rock Star: INXSLast night's episode of "Rock Star: INXS" began with a recap of the silly and (ultimately irrelevant) fireworks generated during a songwriting workshop that aired on Sunday night's VH1 broadcast. I refuse to dignify those event by recounting them here. Yawn. This week's performances were all acoustic, and the band ditched the usual song selection process. Instead, the members of INXS personally chose the song to be performed by each competitor. The night opened in underwhelming fashion with a sappy rendition of Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" by Jordis Unga. I know I raved about her a couple of weeks ago, but I'm waaaaaay over her now. Each week it's the same exact thing: she takes some classic piece of rock music, slows it down, and sings oh-so-earnestly straight into the camera lens with big puppy dog eyes. This woman could turn an Iron Maiden song into an over-dramatized afterschool special. (Naturally, Dave Navarro and the band loved it.) Jessica Robinson gave her best performance of the competition so far with Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," but considering her past efforts, the bar wasn't really set that high. She added nothing original to the song, opting to simply mimic Imbruglia's recorded version, which made it all the more obvious how inferior Jessica's voice is by comparison. If history has taught us anything, it's that Jessica will be in the bottom three. I'm no fan of Ty Taylor, so I really wanted to find something negative to say about his soulful interpretation of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May." But I just couldn't. It was a complete re-imagining of the song's arrangement but remained entirely true to the original. In short, it was everything a cover version should be. And, for once, Ty's every hand gesture and facial expression didn't come off as completely scripted. For me, this pairing was destiny. My favorite performer of the competition, Suzie McNeil, singing one of my all-time favorite songs, Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" (I'm actually partial to The Animals’ 1965 cover version), and it was a gorgeous combination. Everyone else in the competition works so hard to look cool, but Suzie consistently makes it look effortless. Marty Casey was given what at first sounded like an impossible task: perform the Britney Spears tune "Hit Me Baby (One More Time)" on international television and not look like an idiot in the process. In practice, however, the job was an extremely easy one. After all, no matter what he did with the song, it was bound to be a vast improvement over the Spears' original. And it was. Mission accomplished. Perhaps sensing that her time in the spotlight is rapidly coming to a close, Deanna Johnston put her breasts on display last night to draw attention away from her voice. The ploy seemed to work on the members of INXS, since they unanimously praised her off-key rendition of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me." However, I doubt voters were similarly fooled. Expect her to land in the bottom three, and given Jessica's uncanny knack for resilience on Wednesday nights, Deanna just might be saying goodbye tonight. Melody has never been J.D. Fortune's strong suit. Perhaps sensing this weakness, the band tested him with The Rolling Stones’ ballad "As Tears Go By." His voice wasn't up to the challenge, and the performance fell flat. Despite being the only viable contestant in the competition's early stages, J.D.'s talents haven't proven to be as diverse as originally thought. Unless he pulls it together soon, he's probably only got 2 or 3 weeks left before he finds himself eliminated. The night ended with MiG Ayesa answering INXS's call to mix things up a bit. Assigned the Peter Frampton tune "Baby, I Love Your Way," he accompanied himself on the piano to great, if somewhat syrupy, effect. It wasn't the night's best performance, but MiG will still probably earn the week's encore because he was the only one of the night's performers who tried something new and succeeded. Predictions... For the second week in a row, host Brooke Burke gave viewers an early look at the voting results. As the show aired on the west coast, the bottom three consisted of Jessica, Deanna, and (inexplicably) Ty. Since Ty has no business being ranked so low (at least not this week), I suspect he'll pick up votes as polling moves across the Pacific Ocean overnight. Look for J.D. to take his place at the top of the bottom of the heap. And after two straight weeks of incorrectly predicting elimination for Jessica Robinson, I'm switching things up a bit by choosing Deanna "Hey Look At My Boobs" Johnston to get the ax. Which means Jessica will probably be eliminated. Encore: MiG Bottom Three: Jessica Deanna J.D. Eliminated: Deanna   Bonus Prediction... No matter who gets eliminated, Suzie will cry.   The "Rock Star" Graveyard... Dana Wil Neal Heather Daphna Tara Brandon
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Tuesday, August 9, 2005 - 9:45pm
Rock Star: INXSAs a whole, this week's performances on "Rock Star: INXS" were the best of the competition thus far. This is hardly surprising considering that a lot of the deadwood has been weeded out in previous weeks. But this time around, even the bad performances weren't quite as grating as usual. The constant object of my affection, Suzie McNeil, kicked off the night with a heavy rearrangement of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." After another subtle yet spectacular performance, it's truly hard to believe this talented woman was nearly eliminated twice in the early rounds. This would've been the best performance on most nights, but two later performers managed to overshadow her, which will probably cost her the weekly encore honor. MiG Ayesa provided yet another high energy performance, but his version of Free's "All Right Now," while flawless, was pretty much identical to his other recent performances. He needs to be a bit more unpredictable down the road if he wants to retain his front-runner status. With most of the other weak links already eliminated, Jessica Robinson was clearly in over her head this week. Covering Nirvana's "Come As You Are," she adopted a strange southern growl that clashed horribly with the song. This was easily the worst performance of the night, but the real reason she's probably going home this week is her constant arguing with Dave Navarro and the band during her post-song critiques. Brandon Calhoon handled The Rolling Stones’ "All Over Now" just fine, but his return to blues and classic rock after some rocky attempts at more diverse material looks a lot like a desperate man in full retreat. Tim Farriss and company already know that this guy is just not right for their band, INXS, and if this turns out to be a double-elimination week, he's probably gone. J.D. Fortune provided yet another of his patented non-sequitur arrangements, this time producing a truly gaudy makeover of Seal's "Crazy." The loud guitars, strange vocal affectations, and over-sexed stage antics just proved that he's never actually bothered to listen to the lyrics of the song. Yet, it still worked in that strange "not-good-but-interesting" way that J.D. has perfected. Jordis Unga took a huge step backwards tonight with her rendition of Derek and the Dominos’ "Layla." The band praised her for taking risks, but she seems to me to be turning in virtually the same low key performance week after week. This particular performance was different in one big way: it was really bad. After stumbling over an early lyric, she quietly fell apart throughout the rest of the song. Her pitch was all over the map and, at one point, she nearly dropped her microphone. In addition, the smile glued on her face for the duration of the song indicated that she, like J.D., had made no effort to understand what her song's lyrics meant. No one singing "Layla" should be smiling. For me, this was the first time that Marty Casey has ever deserved the praise regularly heaped upon him by the members of INXS. And boy did he earn it this time. Opting at the last minute to ditch the house band in favor of a solo acoustic performance, Marty turned in a mind-blowing version of The Killers’ "Mr. Brightside." Easily the best performance of the night, and it surpasses Jordis's "The Man Who Sold the World" as the highlight of the competition so far. Deanna Johnston made her weekly case for elimination by over-singing The Doobie Brothers’ "Long Train Runnin'." The members of INXS, however, seem far too busy drooling over her appearance to bother listening to her voice. A likely candidate for this week's bottom three, but drummer Jon Farriss's hormones alone will probably guarantee her another week in the competition. The night ended with a stellar performance of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" by Ty Taylor. His stage mannerisms are still a bit overdramatic for my tastes, but his voice was spectacular. Since Marty already received an encore two weeks ago, the band will probably give Ty that honor this week. Predictions... Encore: Ty Bottom Three: Jessica Brandon Deanna Eliminated: Jessica   Previously eliminated contestants... Dana Wil Neal Heather Daphna Tara
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