Night 2: Night of Regrets and Tears....

Greetings InZayniacs!  (Nope, that one's terrible.  Still looking...)  So tonight we've got a few different shows most of which involved tears, some from the characters, a couple from me, and a definite mixed bag of quality.

Parenthood: A solid start to the season with a lot of emotions and solid setups for several plotlines this year.
The X-Factor: Ugh...that is all.

The X-Factor premiered tonight and it was a taxing ordeal.  You'll notice that this post is going up before the episode is over.  There is a reason.  There was enough content in the first hour to make it very clear what this show was going to be like.  To start off we have about a 10 minute introduction to the judges.  Yes, I know who Britney Spears is.  Thank you for telling me in a 5 minute junket.  After this intro, we get the beginning of an hour long storyline about a young blonde girl from Nowhere, TX who essentially stepped out of the Plastics from Mean Girls in the South.  A 21 year old black woman with a 3 year old daughter was introduced.  She was a very sweet girl.  Then, we're introduced to the aforementioned Plastic.  She initially talks civilly about the black woman and her daughter.  Then her sister begins to tear her down behind her back, talking about runs in her pantyhose and other inane crap.  Then she goes to ask if she can share the mirror with her.  She introduces herself and everything appears to be going fine until the 3 year old touches the plastic and gets earth-shattering amounts (read: 2 spots less than an inch in diameter that the cameraman has to go get a microscope to see) of gunk on her pant suit, yes I said pant suit.  The young mom then proceeds to the stage and gives a shaky, but not unpleasant rendition of I'm Going Down.  Then I assumed the Plastic would go next but no, we have to keep the "suspension" going and the show then goes on for another 40 minutes before the Plastic performs.  In the meantime, we're treated to her and her sister's vitriolic comments on the many people to flow on and off the stage.  Finally, at the end of first hour, she makes it on stage and she is predictably awful.  Way to go X-Factor!  I've learned my after school special lessons on bullying and the karma that will inevitably bite me in the ass. 

The only remotely entertaining portion of the first hour was Britney systematically tearing apart the dreams of several singers while Simon looked on in amusement.  This montage was then sent to commercial with the punctuation of I'm assuming the end of a Britney Spears song saying, "It's Britney, bitch!"

As I've been writing, the second hour has been playing.  In that time, the auditions have moved from Austin to San Francisco so I've been treated to a montage of big-breasted prostitutes, drag queens, and other bohemian people.  One such drag queen came out in a white bikini bottom, a white corset, and a wedding veil.  Of course, she sings a Lady Gaga song poorly and somehow gets through to the next round so we'll be treated to another performance from her.  I'm so excited because that would pretty much be worth the hours of my life to trudge through the other rejects just to get to this one soon to be superstar.

I hope this write-up made you smile or laugh at least a couple times.  Then you would have gotten more out of it than I got from watching the actual show.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Parenthood maintained their high level of quality and authenticity.  We've picked up at the end of the summer and Haddie is about to leave for Cornell and the family is getting together for a family portrait. One of the things I was dreading the whole hour was Haddie leaving because I knew this show and I knew that the scene would get to me.  The show definitely tried its best to make me not miss her.  She was shrill and bratty and everything I've always disliked about her character.  The one solid scene during the main part of the episode was between her and Max when she gave him her going away present.  I can't imagine what it would be like to have a sibling with a condition like Asperger's and it was a little heartbreaking to see Haddie want more of a connection to her brother and having to be satisfied with what he's able to give.

However, despite her being at the height of annoying, the dreaded scene came at the end when Adam and Kristina were dropping her off at the airport.  The scene was oddly restrained.  Haddie wasn't emotional and Adam and Kristina were trying to hold it together.  I was extremely underwhelmed.  Then, she stopped in the security line and I knew I was in trouble.  The look on her face was what I was dreading and then Kristina immediately broke down and it was all over.  I wasn't sobbing but I'm not ashamed to admit, I had some watery eyes working.  One of my readers said there was pretty much uncontrollable sobbing happening on their end and I can totally see it.  Honestly, I almost got going again just replaying the scene in my head as I was writing.  It's what makes this show great.  These people are real and you can identify with them and the situations they're in have drama in them but it's not overplayed and it's so easy to get sucked in and feel the emotions the characters are.  It's a travesty that this show has not been nominated for Emmys. 

Now for an X-Factor update to break the sadness.  A man who recorded one duet with Britney 10 years ago who was an emotional time bomb got shot down by all the judges.  He then proceeded back stage where he broke down crying about how he'd let Britney down and hurt her and how he was sorry.  Dude, she is going to forget you in half an hour.  It's really okay.  Pull yourself together.

On that note, we will conclude this blog post.  I hope you've enjoyed it.  Up later tonight, I'll be watching Guys with Kids which I suspect will be an unmitigated disaster ripe for eviscerating on my blog post tomorrow.  Also, I'll be watching the Pilot of The New Normal which could possibly give me context on why the second episode was so terrible.  We shall see.

Up tomorrow night, we've got the second night of The X-Factor and I really can't promise anything on the likelihood of me actually watching it.  I may do it just to get some good material for the blog.  We'll just have to see.  Wipeout is nearing the end of its summer run and I've been thoroughly underwhelmed by the quality of the obstacles despite Vanessa Lachey's shockingly solid hosting skills as a followup to the radiant Jill Wagner.  The main premiere tomorrow night is the beginning of Glee's 4th season on its new night.  The previews have been oddly promising.  I'll go a little into my roller coaster ride of liking/disliking Glee tomorrow night as well as what I finally figured out about it.

Good night all and Happy TV Watching!

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