The Big Bang Theory's 200th Episode

It’s Sheldon’s birthday! This was an amazing setup for an amazing accomplishment for the show. I can’t believe there’s been 200 episodes of a show about a group of nerdy friends –and it’s still going strong! I really enjoyed this episode, but I was unhappy with the length. This isn’t any fault of the show, though. It’s a sitcom in 2016. That means you get about 2/3 of the show and at least 1/3 of commercials. It’s really a shame that it felt like I watched 2 minutes of the episode and then it was over. Considering the actors get paid millions per episode, I wish that the viewers would be given a bit meatier content.

I loved the amount of guest stars that they were able to bring back for this episode. My favorite was, of course, the return of Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. She was surprisingly very sweet and caring in this episode. It was a nice change. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary considering that Beverly is quite attached to Sheldon. It was so cute to see her drinking out of a Batman cup. When they said that Barry might have a shot with Leonard’s mother, I thought oh no, Bev got drunk again. I thought this because one of the last times she got drunk, she came back to Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment and placed a passionate kiss on Sheldon. It was so awkward when Barry called her a cougar and started really flirting with her. I was surprised that she didn’t have a comeback for him. It was a very funny element for the episode.

Another great element was that Adam West made an appearance. Hearing Sheldon’s story about how he was always told that Batman would come to his party, but never did was so sad. I was really happy when the guys decided to get the real Batman to come to his party, even if all Adam cared about was getting paid for being there. It would’ve been even better if he put on a Batman costume at some time during the party.

I really enjoyed the bonding moment between Penny and Sheldon. I also enjoyed when they all went around and each person at the party said something nice about Sheldon. They’ve all had their frustrations with Sheldon and everyone has been annoyed by him in some way, but they proved that they all love him and are happy to have them in their lives. 

The Good Wife 7x15 "Targets" Review

-SPOILERS BELOW-

This was a very interesting episode and I really enjoyed seeing the return of Elsbeth. She hasn’t been in an episode in a very long time and she was very due for some more screen time. For as serious as this show is, I’m still so surprised that Elsbeth is even a character. Yes, there’s humor on the show, but Elsbeth is just in a world of her own. Her fiery, red hair perfectly matches her over-the-top personality. I really have missed her quirky presence and I’m very glad that she has returned, though I don’t think she’ll be back.

I loved how she made her screen entrance, bent over doing her stretches and looking towards the camera through her legs. She’s so entertaining, I really don’t know how to describe her. I was hoping that Elsbeth and Diane would have a scene alone together, but they didn’t. They did have a brief scene, but it was with a few other people in the room. I really loved the scene in an earlier season when Elsbeth went up and hugged Diane. It was like a clash of very different personalities and I loved it. It’s a bit of a shame that she never became more regular.

I should’ve known when I saw the promo picture of Diane, Elsbeth, Eli, and a random guy with a dog, that this random guy would have some connection to Elsbeth. Turns out that he was Elsbeth’s ex. This was such a weird character introduction, but it was entertaining. My favorite part in the episode was when Elsbeth’s ex and Eli went into the building and were told that there were dogs allowed and Eli protested, “Tom is a service animal. He’s an emotional support Chihuahua.” Eli always has some great lines and this one was nothing short of great.

Mini rant time. Jason walked into David’s office and referred to him as a cowboy. Why, why, why, why, why would you do this writers? As someone who loves Kurt McVeigh, I was super offended to hear someone other than him being referred to as a cowboy. Kurt has been the cowboy since Season 1. On his first date with Diane, she said, “Cowboys. Who knew I loved cowboys?” Kurt is the cowboy. End of story. Jason is getting on my nerves so much. His little smirks at Diane made me mad too. Stop trying to be Kurt, Jason.

I’ve voiced how I feel about Jason before, as well as his relationship with Alicia and that opinion has not changed. I hated their make out scene in her office with the lights off. It was just weird to see Alicia using Jason as a reason to not drink, then guilt-tripping him into making love with her again. I’m not with the writers on this one, I don’t find Jason charming and I have never found myself swooning over him. I wish that Alicia would just stop trying to date since she can’t seem to keep a healthy relationship. 

The Good Wife 7x14 "Monday" Review

-SPOILERS BELOW-

I’ll be honest, I was excited for this episode. Sadly, I wasn’t blown away by it or anything. Seeing the promo this episode and the fact that both Alicia and Lucca were going to join Lockhart, Agos & Lee was an interesting and intriguing setup for the episode. This plot direction has been used so many times before, I don’t know why I continue to get excited by it. Alicia started at the firm, started her own firm, went back to the firm, then went totally solo and worked out of her apartment, and now she’s back. Alicia can never stay in one place for too long.

Not only has she jumped from firm to firm, but she has jumped from man to man. She started off married to Peter, until he went to jail. She remained married to him, but then cheated on him with Will. Then, Will died (ouch, open wound that isn’t completely healed). Then came Finn, Johnny, and now, Jason. The two of them have been flirting for a few episodes now and I wish they’d stop it. Alicia needs to take a break from guys and collect herself, because she is clearly a mess. She still remains “married” to Peter, but I hope they’ll divorce eventually. It makes no sense that they are still together considering the amount of affairs that Alicia has had.

I’m unhappy that now Cary is trying to flirt with Lucca. He too has had his fair share of relationships. In my opinion, the writers should stop creating relationships and then going nowhere with them (case in point, Howard and Jackie). Kurt and Diane are the only couple on the show with a healthy marriage and yet they haven’t gotten any screen time this season. Kurt hasn’t even been mentioned. This is just sad. It has been confirmed by the Kings that Kurt will be coming back sometime this season but we still don’t know when. For as interesting and beautiful this couple is, they have been severely underused. I want to know if this is solely because Gary Cole is busy on Veep or if the writers just don’t want to dedicate screen time to them. It’s a real shame considering how large the fan base is for this couple. It seems all the writers seem to be doing is swooning over Jason (judging by their many tweets on Twitter).

I feel like overall I’m not enjoying the show as much as I used to and that saddens me. I’m hoping that some great storylines come out of the rest of the season. 

Thoughts on the Monster High Reboot

When I first heard the news that Monster High was going to completely rebrand themselves, I was very concerned. I’ve always loved their message of embracing your flaws and doing what you love. For the last few years, they’ve had the slogan “Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster.” With the recent reveals of the redesigns at Toy Fair and Play Fair, it seems that even they have forgotten what their brand means to people.

The core five dolls –Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Cleo, and Lagoona have all received new faces and different fashions. They have claimed that this ‘new face of Monster High’ is due to the fact that the dolls are too scary. I know that the target demographic for these dolls is very young girls, but I’ve seen plenty of young girls who love these dolls and aren’t scared by them at all. It’s unfortunate to see this brand conform. The whole reason these dolls became so popular is because they were different. A lot of people were attracted to them solely because they were perfectly imperfect.

They’re monsters. Monsters shouldn’t be cutesy. I don’t mind that the dolls are dressed in colorful fashions, in fact I love that they are. What I don’t like is that these new dolls are going to both colorful and extremely cutesy. I feel like Mattel has lost their direction and is running out of ideas. They didn’t need to rebrand at all, their sales are actually doing very well. It’s just really upsetting to me to see them do this. I wish they would see what their consumers want first instead of just making these decisions. A petition to recall these changes was created and received a huge amount of signatures, but I don’t think that Mattel is going to change a thing.

I started collecting these dolls back when they first came out. There was a period of time when I lost interest in the dolls, so I kept the two that I had and didn’t get any more. After a while, I started collecting again and I still am. I have so many of these dolls now and I don’t intend to stop collecting. I’ve never looked at them and thought they were scary. I think they are gorgeous and I share this opinion with thousands of other people. If parents think that they’re too scary, they should just give Barbies to their kids. 

Changes on the Doll Market

Mattel recently released a new addition to their Fashionistas line –tall, petite, and curvy dolls.

 The last few months have been very productive and profitable for the corporate giant, who is behind some of the most popular doll lines. Before this new wave of dolls, Mattel had released a new doll to the market, the Made to Move Barbie. This doll is described as being the ultimate posable doll and now has double joints (so she can now do things like finally being able to hold a cellphone to her ear!) This was not the first time Mattel has used double joints in their dolls. The first time was with their new character in another one of their lines, Monster High, by the name of Gooliope Jellington. This doll was very revolutionary in two respects: she is the first 17” Monster High doll to be released and she was the first doll of her kind, from Mattel at least, to have such a wide range of articulation. They simply sized down this design and made a few tweaks to give us the Made to Move dolls.

Having a doll with articulation is a huge must for the doll market in our current time. Are people still attracted to the Fashionistas or Hasbro’s new line of Disney Princesses even though they have stiff limbs? Yes. A doll is not categorized as being good or bad just by whether or not they have articulation, but having it is a huge selling point. Articulation is something the dolls with the new body types lack. I hope they release these new body types with the Made to Move bodies at some point. I think these are gorgeous dolls, but I have personally held off on picking any up for myself because of this lack of articulation.

This is a huge move on Mattel’s part. Not only have they created the different body types, but the Fashionistas will be released in a large array of skin tones, eye colors, and hair textures and colors. These changes have gained a lot of positive response, but have also generated some negative response. Some people feel that Barbie is doll that is known for having unrealistic body proportions and that girls should recognize that. My take on that is, what’s wrong with wanting a doll that looks like you?

Out of these new dolls, I really love the curvy dolls –especially the one with the blue and black hair. I’m quite pleased that Mattel decided to do this. A few years ago, a doll called Lammily was produced and she was supposed to be the “realistic” Barbie. She certainly is thicker and more sturdy, but I wouldn’t exactly call her realistic. I own this doll and I find her body to be awkward. She sits weird, her legs are bowed, and her articulation is not very good. When I compared Lammily to the new curvy dolls, I definitely like Mattel’s approach a lot more. They’ve been emulating women for such a long time now, so I think they have the upper hand when it comes to how to proportion and design these dolls. 

Where's Rey?

I recently read an article by Leonard Pitts and saw a few videos all regarding the same topic –Where’s Rey?

If you haven’t heard about this fiasco, long story short, Hasbro excluded all toys featuring the character of Rey in their lineup of toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The toy manufacturer claimed that including Rey in their toy lineup would spoil plot points. This is a complete load of crap because she is featured in the trailer, masked and unmasked, and is seen within the first fifteen or so minutes of the movie. I think this is ridiculous and I don’t understand why they chose this route.

I was very surprised to hear that this is not the first time that Hasbro has excluded female characters from their toy lines. This happened with Gamora in their Guardians of the Galaxy toy lineup as well as with Black Widow in their Avengers toy lineup. Perhaps they think that these fantasy/action movies are more geared toys males and that the young boys in their target demographic would not want to play with toys depicting female characters. I don’t know. I thought we were past the gender divide, but maybe these heads of corporations think otherwise.

Personally, I think it is extremely important for female representation in toys for little girls, especially in such a popular and well-known property like Star Wars. Rey may be a creation of the Mouse House, but she is no Disney Princess. It’s fine for little girls to aspire to be princesses and want to wear frilly dresses and tiaras, but it’s not often that they have a female role model that breaks this stereotypical mold. Rey is a scavenger, a pilot, and she’s not afraid to get dirty and fight for what’s right. I think she’s a brilliant role model for women everywhere, not just little girls, and the toys should reflect this.

I’m hoping that Rey does not turn into the next Slave Leia. Personally, I don’t see the problem with Leia’s slave outfit. It’s a representation of what she was at the time, a slave. Unfortunately, Leia has been turned into a sex symbol because of this and it’s all people seem to think of when they think of Leia. They forget that she is a strong, wise, witty, and tough adversary for the Rebel Alliance, who is now the leader and general for the Resistance. At the moment, Rey has not been given any provocative outfits and I don’t know why she’d ever need them. Besides, she’s a Disney Darling now, so it’s a long shot that that would ever happen.

A second wave of toys has been released, including Rey, so all of this controversy should be silenced. 

The Good Wife 7x13 "Judged" Review

-SPOILERS BELOW-

I enjoyed this episode a lot too. At the beginning, I thought it was going to be a Diane-centric episode, but it was once again all about Alicia. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because I liked seeing Alicia break further. The throwing of the plates in the past was her phase of being angry. Now, with her breaking down in front of Lucca, I feel that Alicia has really let it all sink in and she just needed to get her feelings out. It almost felt like she had suicidal tendencies. I liked seeing Alicia be so open with Lucca and to see them having a real bonding moment to help further their friendship. Though, that breakdown scene was phenomenal. There was so much raw emotion and it was a very believable performance, one that might score Julianna Margulies another Emmy. I’m overall very surprised that after all of this she so pleasantly forgives Eli. I’m betting this is because of her little kiss with Jason in the elevator. I was hoping this couple wouldn’t happen. Will is rolling in his grave.

Diane was finally back in a court setting! I thought the whole case about the decision to shut down the college newspaper was interesting. I felt like it was a bit rushed since it was quickly agreed upon to shut it down and Diane’s client that she was helping seemed indecisive about going further in trying to win back her right to keep the newspaper. I thought it was also interesting that Diane is so interested in getting Jason to come work for her firm. I don’t know if it’s because she likes the way he works or if she really needs another investigator to replace Kalinda –side note, it seems really weird to me that Archie Panjabi left The Good Wife (rumored to have been on bad terms with Julianna Margulies), but now news has come out that she has been cast on another new law show.

I was very intrigued to see the tease of Cary once again representing Alicia and the possibility that she will return to LAL. I’ve wanted her to go back to LAL for a while now. I really want the friendly relationship that Alicia and Lucca share to be between Alicia and Diane. Judging by the promo pictures I’ve seen, including Alicia sitting across from Diane in her office, I think she will go back or is at least considering going back. I bet she’ll ask for a raise in pay, or demand it, if she does indeed go back. I’d like to see Lucca transfer over as well because I like Lucca and I think she’d fit in well over at the other firm. I hope this also means that we can finally get rid of David and Howard. 

Dragon Games Review

I have always enjoyed the Ever After High movies and Dragon Games is no exception. I will be mentioning some spoilers in this review. As someone who is not in the target demographic for the movies or the corresponding doll line, I really enjoyed this movie. I think Mattel is very smart in partnering with Netflix to release their movies for Ever After High. I really like that they are releasing each movie as a series of a few episodes and then calling that a season.

I feel that there is so much heart behind these movies. I know that they are simply a marketing strategy to sell their doll line, but they are very well thought out and beautifully animated. Something I really enjoy about these movies is that yes, they focus on the main characters for the central plotline, but they also make an effort to include several supporting characters as well.

I knew this was going to be a good movie based on their movies from the past and how beautifully designed the dolls were. I really liked that the main focus was the continuing struggle of Raven in choosing her own destiny. I thought it was great that the main villain was Raven’s mom and that they finally introduced Snow White into the story to provide some further conflict into the battle of good and evil.

The dragons were a great addition into this fairytale world and I thought they were some of most lovable characters, particularly Nevermore. I loved that the dragons were not fully grown from the start, but we got to see the dragons hatch and build a bond with their trainers from birth. To reference the dolls, I felt it was silly that Apple was the one to be given a set with her dragon. It should’ve been Raven and Nevermore because they were really the stars of the show. Apple’s doll design was pretty disappointing to me when I first saw it, but I was even more disappointed when I saw the animated version. Mattel slacked heavily on Apple’s design compared to her animated counterpart, presumably due to the inclusion of her dragon in the set.

The overall plot was interesting and compelling. I enjoyed the rivalry between the Evil Queen and Snow White. I loved the design of the dragons and the armor for the girls. This was overall a very good addition to the story. My favorite part was Maddie’s subtle nod to Monster High. Apple and Raven showed up after the credits of the last Monster High movie and now this, so I think there is a definite crossover in the future.  

Grease Live Review

When Grease Live was announced and the names of the cast members began to trickle in, I was very skeptical. I felt that some of the actors were miscast, namely Aaron Tveit, Vanessa Hudgens, and Carly Rae Jepsen. The original Grease, the movie not the Broadway musical, is a very nostalgic movie for me. It was hard for me to picture some of the actors in their respective roles because you can’t replace the brilliance of the original cast. By the end of the three hour show, only one of the main actors felt like a miss to me –Aaron Tveit. I just don’t think he has the bad boy swagger that Danny requires. I also felt that his romantic chemistry with Julianne Hough and his bromance with Carlos Pena Vega just wasn’t working. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John will always be Danny and Sandy to me.

The casting choice that bothered me the most was Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo. She will forever be Gabriella from High School Musical to me, so it was hard for me to see her playing a baddie. My skepticism was shot down by her performance. I thought she was great and her acting ability just keeps getting better and better.  I was also extremely proud of her after reading that her father had died from cancer just a few hours prior to the start of the show and yet she still went on. That’s what her father would’ve wanted and I know that he would’ve wanted to see her doing what she loves.

I was very surprised with Carly Rae Jepsen’s performance as Frenchy. She was very quickly my favorite! I think Carly has proven that she is a great actress and I think she’ll get future gigs in musicals. It was clear that she wanted to give a faithful homage the iconic role that was brought to life by Didi Conn. Speaking of Didi, SHE MADE A CAMEO! I was so thrilled to see her come back in the role of Vi. That was the perfect way to give her a cameo. The talk between Frenchy (Carly) and Vi (Didi) before Beauty School Dropout was one of my favorite moments of the show. The nostalgia felt so wonderful and I’m so happy that Didi continually strives to keep the integrity of Grease alive.

A few members of the supporting cast made me very happy as well. It was great to see Eve Plumb in this! About a half an hour in, I decided to check the cast list because I couldn’t figure out who was playing Patty. I squealed with joy when I saw that it was Elle McLemore. I originally discovered her when I watched Heathers the Musical. I think she is a wonderful performer and has a huge career ahead of her in the world of theatre.

Not to be nitpicky, but I wasn’t super happy with the choice to have a racially diverse cast. I know that it’s 2016 and that they felt the need to modernize the show a bit, but Grease is a period piece. You wouldn’t see mixed couples back in the 50s. I felt that they were trying to do Hairspray a decade too early with this choice. I do have to give Fox props for the sets. NBC needs to step it up if they want an equally positive response for their next musical. The sets and costumes for this show were fantastic and I think the positive response regarding Grease Live will lead to other live musicals on Fox.