Is Manny back on GH?

Yes, it's another soap post from me. I can't help it that most of the TV I watch happens to be from daytime. Hopefully this won't turn too many people away from my blog, though.

Anyway, the past two days have featured Ric going to the confessional because he actually feels guilty for what he's doing to Lucky. (To catch some people up, Ric planted drugs in Lucky's (a former drug addict) desk and "accidentally" let Liz find them to break up Liz and Lucky so he could go after Liz again.) The thing I noticed is that they're making a big show of panning the camera on the hand of the person closing the confessional window. This hand has a whole lot of tattoos on it, and the one character that I know from GH that had a lot of tattoos was Manny. Granted I wasn't watching religiously when he was on, but I heard things about him and I saw pictures of him.

OK, so I know, Manny is dead. Although that's not much of a barrier in the soap world, so it's possible that Manny is still alive and is pretending to be a priest. It could also be a relative that looks surprisingly like Manny, a la the Alcazar brothers. I'm not sure which it is, but it's got to be something like one of the above two things.

Lending credence to this thought is the fact in one of the more recent issues of Soap Opera Digest the head writer of GH was asked about Manny and he said that he was sad to lose the character, and he wanted to keep the actor on board. That just screams to me that the actor (and perhaps the character) are still around to create havoc in Port Charles. We'll see if I'm right. I think it's a very compelling argument, but it wouldn't surprise me if something was pulled out of left field to negate the facts of the matter. It's happened before on soaps.

Also, since this will probably be my last post before the holidays, I want to wish a happy celebration to everyone that reads this, no matter what you celebrate. Have fun and be safe!

The Holiday

This weekend I went to see The Holiday with my friend in Greensburg. It was, surprisingly, the only movie that was showing this weekend that seemed worth seeing in our opinions. I have to say that it was a very good movie. True, it was a sappy romantic comedy, but who doesn't like those every once in a while?

I was really surprised to see Jack Black in a less offbeat role. He really pulled it off well, and he had great chemistry with Kate Winslet. I would never have pictured those two being paired in any movie, but it was really good casting. I also liked seeing Kate Winslet doing a funny film. The only other movie I recall her being in that wasn't a drama is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I have yet to see.

The plot of the movie, if you haven't seen a trailer for it, is that these two women exchange houses over the holidays because they need a vacation from their life. (I can relate to that.) Mainly they're trying to get away from the men in their lives, and, of course, while they're in a different country they meet the men of their dreams. Hokey, yes, but that's what romantic comedies are. There were some really obvious moments that would happen in the plot. For example, Cameron Diaz's character hadn't been able to cry for many, many years, but at the thought of leaving the man (Jude Law) she met in England, she's finally able to cry. I saw that coming from the beginning of the movie. The only twist I didn't see coming had to do with Jude Law's character, which I won't spoil for anyone that might read this and go see the movie.

The only thing I didn't like about the movie had nothing to do with the movie at all. The theater we went to was having some trouble with its screens. The movie didn't start until 20 minutes after it was supposed to start for some reason. Luckily they skipped the previews before it and got right to the movie. If they hadn't done that, I would not have been a very happy person at all.

Overall, I really liked this movie. Of course, I've been in a sappy mood lately, so that probably helped. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie, especially around this time of year, because with all the rampant commercialism, it's nice to see a movie that is heartwarming.

ABC daytime execs make excellent decision

At work today I hopped onto Soap Opera Central to check on the message boards to see how excited I'd be to watch the episodes I've taped today and there was a news bulletin on the front page about an actress getting a four-year contract. I was shocked to see that Hillary B. Smith will be staying on One Life to Live for the next four years. And I'm very, very happy about this news, especially since last year around this time, the powers that be waited until the last possible minute to give her a one-year extension.

It's been deplorable how the people in charge at ABC daytime have been neglecting the veteran characters on their shows and basically unceremoniously getting rid of them for newer (and cheaper) characters. So, I have to take time to applaud them for giving Hillary a new contract. I also have to applaud the efforts of Hillary's fans, specifically those at the SOC site, for constantly barraging ABC with letters calling for Hillary to stay.

Needless to say, I'm very happy by this news. Nora is a core character on One Life to Live and I'm thrilled that she'll be sticking around for some time to come!

Gilmore Girls: That's what you get, folks, for makin' whoopee

Yes, I know today's episode of Gilmore Girls was a rerun, but since I didn't have this blog when it first ran, I figure I can post something about it now.

First of all, I think this is one of the better episodes this season. The teaser itself was great. Luke going all the way to Christopher's apartment to punch him out was shocking when I first saw it, and I think it's just as good now. Granted, I'm not often a fan of physical violence, but it was nice to see Luke do something about losing Lorelai.

Another great thing about this episode is we get to see Lane and Zach. They haven't been on often enough this season, so seeing them in this rerun was very nice. Unfortunately, when I first saw this episode I had seen a spoiler saying that Lane would be pregnant, so that wasn't an huge surprise to me, although it probably wouldn't have been all that shocking if I hadn't known. It wasn't veiled all that well to begin with. However, how it played out was classic Gilmore Girls. I've always enjoyed Lane and Rory's interactions and in this episode, it wasn't any different. The description of Lane and Zach's honeymoon was so detailed that I could picture it, and I loved how Lane was convinced that her mother was right about sex after her and Zach's ill-fated attempt at sex on the beach.

It was so sweet how Lorelai made the house "Asia" for Rory. The poster of Sandra Oh was a bit over the top, but definitely funny. Plus, who doesn't love Sandra Oh? It's definitely reminiscent of the typical pop-culture references seen in most episodes of the show.

This brings me to another point that I need to make. I've been reading a lot of other commentary about Gilmore Girls lately, especially after the wide-spread news of Amy Sherman-Palladino's leaving the show. Or it was wide-spread for those of us that actually pay attention to this show. Everyone seems to say that Gilmore Girls just isn't the same since Dave Rosenthal took over, and I have to disagree. Don't get me wrong, I loved what AS-P did with the show in the first few seasons, and she always had great pop culture references in every show. However, I think last season the show started to go downhill under her watch, especially after giving Luke a kid he didn't know about. Well, that and the fact that Luke became an even more surly jerk than he usually is. He seemed to take on a completely new personality, which basically destroyed Luke and Lorelai as a couple.

So, I have to give DR credit for working hard to bring the show back from that slump, and I think he's done a very good job at it. He had to work with Lorelai sleeping with Chris at the end of last season, which, if I remember correctly, had most fans in a huge uproar, myself included. I don't think he could have done it any better.

I wonder, though, if there hadn't been such a big commotion about AS-P leaving, if there would be such a big commotion now about Gilmore Girls. I think people are looking too specifically for changes in the show under it's new executive producer. It is my firm belief that if fans didn't know about the behind the scenes changes, we wouldn't have been able to tell any difference from last season to this season.

Now that I've gone on a major tangent, let me end by saying that I really enjoyed this episode, and I look forward to new episodes returning, and hopefully seeing more of Lane and Zach. They can't forget about the minor characters, especially with the major plot point of them being pregnant.

And to the fans that have been thinking that Gilmore Girls isn't the same, relax. Sit back and enjoy the show for what probably will be its last season.

First Post: Brothers & Sisters 12/10 Episode

I've decided to start a new blog featuring commentary on several of the TV shows I watch, as well as movies I see or books I might read. But generally, this will be about TV, because I like TV. For those of you that may want to read about things in my life other than TV, feel free to check out my other blog.

Brothers & Sisters is a show that keeps getting better and better with each passing episode. I really enjoy the family interactions in the Walker clan. The family element really reminds me of my own family, although mine isn't quite that big.

The thing I really love about the show is that it can be funny one second and then heart-wrenching the next. Case in point, the scene at the Christmas tree lot. First we have Nora making a scene to get the tree lot attendant's attention (laugh), and then her granddaughter (whose name I unfortunately am having a mental block on at the moment) has a breakdown wondering if she got diabetes because she wasn't religious enough (heart-wrenching).

Of course that leads to Nora going completely overboard on celebrating Hanukkah so that her granddaughter can experience it. I knew that was going to be a disaster because it's already been clearly established that Nora likes to go overboard with everything, for example, the pool party she held when her granddaughter wouldn't go swimming. I am glad, however, that Saul was able to convince her to tone it down and get Sarah's daughter to participate.

Other things of note. I enjoyed the courtroom scenes with Justin and Kevin. I loved how passionately Kevin was fighting for Justin to get some extended time before going back to the army to get himself clean. It was very classy to have the army general guy step up and encourage Justin to go to rehab and take care of himself before returning to combat. My only problem with this is what they're going to do in six months when Justin will be forced to re-enlist. I'm guessing that that will be part of a cliffhanger, because six months from now (approximately) is conveniently around the time when the season will be wrapping up. That's just my speculation, though.

I like that Kitty is stepping down from Red, White, and Blue. It shows a lot of integrity for her to back away after doing something that is so clearly unethical. I think it will be good for her to work with Rob Lowe's character. I can see that leading to a viable romance.

I'm still not sure what to think about Holly. I feel that Sarah is justified in not liking Holly, although it was a bit underhanded for her to try to buy out Holly at a lower price. I can completely understand Sarah's reasoning, but that doesn't make me like it. Of course, Holly was just as underhanded in getting share of Ojai in exchange for keeping the company out of bankruptcy. I am intrigued to see how this will play out in the future, though. I'm sure board meetings are going to be very tense.

The only thing about this week's episode that I didn't enjoy is that we didn't see much of Tommy. I'd like to see his storyline play out a bit more, but with a cast as large as this one is, I'm not surprised that some characters have more airtime than other in any given episode. As long as this show doesn't start to go all Lost on us and only focus on a few characters, I'll be happy.

With that, I'm going to close out this opening post of my new blog and hope that some readers find their way to this site. I always enjoy talking about TV, so feel free to leave comments for me.