REVENGE

Well hello there REVENGE! After a couple of weeks of falling flat - you've finally arrived. My initial thoughts on those first few painfully boring episodes was that these characters are incredibly unlikable. But now that Mike Kelley is starting to add fabulous complications into the relationships. There's no telling who's good and who's bad, but I can't wait to find out.

Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stowe are a perfect match for each other. I'm excited to tune in again next week.

PILOT WATCH - GOOD CHRISTIAN BELLES

Ok, there aren't many perfect pilots, but this one is very promising. With glimpses of a young DESPARATE HOUSEWIVES, this show is simply about grown up mean girls. It's wonderful, because we *all* live in a world where grown ups are mean, so the best thing I can say about our lead character, Amanda, is that she is incredibly relatable. Not only that, but television is 90% television is casting, and this is one that cast that is 100% perfect!

Sadly, we have to wait until mid-season, but I am counting the minutes until it airs!

PILOT WATCH - CHARLIE'S ANGEL'S

The show opens with a big sweeping shot of Miami, which sets the stage for the series. Charlie gives his Angel's orders to rescue a 16 year old kidnap victim. The girls get the girl before the end of he teaser. Cut to, Gloria, the Spanish Angel is blown up in her car. Then she's replaced by her loose cannon best friend, who has to avenge Gloria's death and take down a rich Miami child trafficker. The girls wrap up the case and party on a yacht to welcome their new addition.

This is one that I was really rooting for, and was hoping for something amazing. But sadly, it just did not deliver. The script begs for something more in every twist and turn of the story. And overall, this stinker is covered with on the nose dialog, and situations. The girls have zero emotion about their "sister" who is murdered in the teaser, and lacks tension.

In an effort to end on a positive note... the casting is great!

AMERICAN IDOL - Bye Bye James

New judges, fresh blood, and the most talented singers in the history of the series. I called Scotty as the winner in his original audition... but weirdly enough, on Thursday night when it was between Scotty and James, I screamed "pick JAMES" at the television. Sadly, I was wrong.

James Durbin's performance on Wednesday night was definitely not his best ever. He's not the greatest singer in the competition, but honestly, neither is Scotty. James does have one thing that is missing in... and that thing is passion. And he is a DAMN good performer. The best that has ever graced the stage of IDOL.

America got it wrong, not because he should have won, but because he should have at least placed above Scotty (the guy I called to win in his first audition). Scotty's crooked smile is adorable. He's fun. He's even talented, but he's not the American Idol.

PILOT WATCH - GIRLS (HBO)

GIRLS opens on a mid-twenties girl being told that she's going to be cut off. A group of girls surviving the recession in New York City. Our hero, Aura has been interning for a whole year at a book agency, and once she gets the courage to ask her boss to be put on the payroll she gets fired. From her internship.

I am not really sure where this show is going. The pilot feels like one awkward scene built on another. Aura, has weird doggy style sex, and shows off her children's literature tattoos. Then realizes that she's late to her friends dinner party, where they talk about doing drugs. One of the girls actually says that "every time she does cocaine, she shits her pants," while they all drink opium.

Everyone can agree that Lena Durham's movie TINY FURNITURE was a lot of fun, but I have to say that this one is more than a miss. It's unfunny, with thin character development where no one is likable, all of the dialog is on the nose and quite frankly it feels like an independent movie gone horribly bad.

So it begins. HBO picked up a show because Judd Apatow was producing it. And we now have a mildly funny pilot for a show that will go to series in the Fall.

I won't be watching, because I simply don't care about the show.