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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Bunheads - Latest drama by Sherman-Paladino

Posted: 23 Jan 2013 01:03 AM PST

Bunheads takes its time to dance into our hearts.

MICHELLE Sims (Sutton Foster) is a classically-trained dancer working as a Vegas showgirl to pay the rent in new TV drama Bunheads.

Hubbell Flowers (Alan Ruck), a successful small town businessman, makes it a point to drive up from Paradise, a quaint little town in Southern California, once a month to watch Michelle perform. He always waits for her after the show and present her with gifts. Hubbell sees something in Michelle and implores her to go out on a date with him.

One night, she relents. They go out, she gets a little inebriated, he proposes and promises to look after her and guess what? She agrees! Why not? He's a really nice guy who has promised to look after her and fulfill her every need.

Since they are, after all, already in Vegas, the two get married. The morning after, Michelle isn't quite sure about her decision but she follows Hubbell to Paradise to meet his mother, Fanny (Kelly Bishop) with whom he lives. Fanny used to be a dancer and now runs a ballet school called Paradise Dance Academy. Fanny is less than pleased about her son's decision to elope and the meeting between the two women is awkward. Fanny throws the newlyweds a party to introduce Michelle to the residents of Paradise. At the party, things boil over and Michelle runs off, upset. Fanny follows after her and soon after, Hubbell goes in search of Michelle and ends up in a car accident. A fatal car accident.

All that in one episode. This is Bunheads, the latest drama by Amy Sherman-Paladino the creator of Gilmore Girls, the cult favourite drama that ran from 2000 to 2007.

There are many similarities between the two shows. An eccentric heroine who talks and talks and talks, a small quaint town full of quirky residents, witty dialogue that's replete with pop culture references and a story that is in no hurry to unfold. The show's soundtrack seems vaguely familiar and the town of Paradise is almost a replica of Stars Hollow. Heck, the show even has a handful of the cast from Gilmore Girls (Bishop, Liza Wiel, Sean Gunn, Michael DeLuise)! Could this be take two of Gilmore Girls?

One can hope. Or maybe not.

It was nice that Bunheads has a familiarity about it but I found that instead of being comforted by the similarities to the hugely popular Gilmore Girls (one of my all-time favorite shows), I was irritated by it … at least, initially.

Foster has a lot to live up to as Lauren Graham was truly a star to be reckoned with as the fast-talking, coffee-chugging, single mother Lorelai Gilmore in the Sherman-Paladino cult favourite. Lorelai was funny and smart, extremely likable but also intensely infuriating. She was deeply flawed, especially when it came to her relationships with her parents and the men in her life. But she was relatable and compelling – definitely a deserving heroine.

Michelle may not be a single-mother like Lorelai but she bears many of the same personality traits, making it simply impossible not to compare to her predecessor. And that's a hard gig to handle.

The story that follows Hubbell's tragic death, sees Michelle coming to terms with her new life. She stays on in Paradise temporarily until matters with regards to Hubbell's death is sorted. In the process, she begins to build a life, and relationships, in Paradise.

Here's another fast-talking, independent woman battling her demons. Michelle isn't unlikable but it seems, at least in the first few episodes, as if Sherman-Paladino is trying to resurrect Lorelai instead of creating a brand new character. There were just too many overlaps.

Things improve though as the show progresses. Michelle develops into a more discernible character especially as she begins to form a relationship with four of Fanny's dance students. She assumes the role of "big sister" to the bunheads (slang for young ballerinas who wear their hair in a tight bun) and slowly the series veers away from the Gilmore Girls blueprint. Michelle, thankfully, has found her niche and we see a brand new character. She's their teacher, their friend, their alibi, their confidant. She's still fast-talking and all the pop-culture shout outs are there but she becomes more than a body double for that Gilmore heroine. Yes, I stopped comparing the two somewhere around episode 10 and am now enjoying it quite a bit.

The strength of the show is its slew of imperfect characters: a Sherman-Paladino trademark that works well every time. Plot is secondary in Bunheads as it was in the Gilmore Girls. While the story moved swiftly in the pilot episode, what with Hubbell dying within the hour (yes, I have yet to reconcile with this), subsequent plot movements are slow.

An example: as a professionally-trained dancer herself, it would make sense that Michelle ends up teaching at Fanny's dance academy. We can see this coming a mile away but it takes seven episodes before it finally happens. Yes, the plot plods along but that's ok.

I'd much rather watch a series with strong characters who are well fleshed-out and a slow-moving plot than a show with great promise, concept and story-wise but poorly executed by a cast that fails to shine (Terranova, anyone? Yes, I'm still on that bandwagon).

It may have been gotten off to a slow start but Bunheads has proven itself to be charming in its own right.

Bunheads airs on Star World (Astro ch 711) every Friday at 9.50pm.

Oprah-Armstrong interview gets TV ratings running up the charts

Posted: 23 Jan 2013 02:45 AM PST

Between duelling divas or a shamed sportsman, you get the TV ratings running up the charts.

SO American Idol 12 (on Ntv7, Astro Ch 107, and Star World, Asto Ch 711) has begun ... and it seems like its ratings in the United States has dipped a bit, compared with last year's season opener. It's still early days, though, so it might just pick up once the actual competition – when the finalists have been chosen – kicks off.

However, as popular as AI is, last week's most talked about event had nothing to do with AI judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj's so-called on-screen rivalry. That was dope, but not as dope as the Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong interview, shown on the Discovery Channel (Astro Ch 551) and TLC (Astro Ch 707).

Whether or not the interview was "staged" or rehearsed was really not the point because it still made for good TV viewing. Who wouldn't want to see a disgraced former athlete come clean over his doping accusations? Who wouldn't want to see someone who used to have such a huge influence on people, and who was a big inspiration to millions all over the world, possibly squirm in the hot seat?

Television industry analysts have noted that the interview came at a very good time for Winfrey, whose network (OWN) ratings have suffered in the past few months. That said, though, most people weren't actually interested in what Winfrey had to say ...

Apart from all those diva dramas, there were also a number of good show episodes that took place last week. The run-up episodes to the season five finale of Merlin (Diva Universal, Astro Ch 702) were pretty good, even though the grown up Mordred does not look half as menacing as the child Mordred in earlier seasons. But Merlin/Emrys' magic is finally getting stronger, which would hopefully help this week's Battle of Cammlan become one fantastic television fare.

Meanwhile, early last week the Golden Globe Awards was screened "live" on Monday over Fox Movies Premium (Astro Ch 413). It was a little boring, no thanks to the fact that most of the films nominated have yet to be released in Malaysia. Some of the TV programmes have also never been shown here, so it was a little hard to relate to things.

What we could relate to, however, was the fashion aspect of the awards and with Joan Rivers and her trendy posse – Giulianna Rancic, George Kotsiopolis and Kelly Osbourne – taking pot shots at every ugly dress on the red carpet, we were duly entertained.

Fashion Police (E!, Astro Ch 712) is really funny, especially if you're smart*** enough to figure what Rivers and gang are trying to say whenever they are "bleeped". We understand the need to keep things clean since the show is watched by viewers of all ages, but sometimes, the censorship gets a bit out of hand.

Night owls who have managed to catch a few episodes of The Jonathan Ross Show (ITV Granada, Astro Ch 735) in the past few weeks would have been a bit taken aback by how brazen some of the talk show host's guests were. Ross is a really funny guy, and he has a way of getting his guests to open up and just ... be themselves.

So far, on the show we've seen some really funny scenes. Among them: David Beckham trying to sing and being told to show off his underwear (he didn't, unfortunately), Amanda Seyfried talking about umm ... genitalia and stuffed animals, Simon Cowell relentlessly being teased, Christina Ricci getting spooked by a fern and Kiefer Sutherland revealing how underwear is an optional clothing item for him.

If you're a fan of sitcoms, try and catch 2 Broke Girls (8TV, Astro Ch 708) and Ben And Kate (Star World). The former is about two down and out girls in New York who are trying to make ends meet by working at a cafe, and selling cupcakes on the side. The wonderfully funny Kat Dennings star in 2 Broke Girls, while Jennifer Coolidge is a recurring guest star.

Ben And Kate revolves around siblings Ben, the "useless" one, and his more responsible younger sister Kate, and her five-year-old daughter. Together with a bunch of quirky friends, the siblings go through their daily lives filled with accidental adventures and mishaps.

It might sound like your typical, run-of-the-mill sitcom, but Ben And Kate showed some clever writing in the first few episodes. Hopefully the rest of the episodes in the debut season would be just as good.

Got a TV programme you would like us to check out? Tweet us at @MyStarTwo or e-mail us at entertainment@thestar.com.my with your suggestions.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 22 Januari 2013