I Could Not Love You Any Better

I'm sure all of you are going through as much Glee withdrawal as I am. However, they have been filming the new season, and spoilers are starting to leak. One such spoiler has to do with a much-anticipated guest spot from the illustrious Neil Patrick Harris (and seriously, he's awesome - click those hyperlinks!), who is playing an old nemesis of my boyfriend, Mr. Schuster. His character is going to sing two duets with Mr. Schu. The first is Aerosmith's Dream On, and the second is an undisclosed Billy Joel song. Given the character description, I have a few thoughts.

First of all, it's likely one of his more popular songs. They don't usually pick obscure tunes for this show, and it's not like Billy Joel is at the forefront of the minds of today's teenagers. (Not that he shouldn't be - those kids would do well to listen to more Billy Joel!) Unfortunately, that eliminates some of my favorite Billy Joel songs, including Summer Highland Falls, Stiletto, and Falling of the Rain.

Next, we can pretty safely eliminate anything with bad words or connotations in it. This takes out such songs as Captain Jack, I've Loved These Days, Sometimes a Fantasy, and Keeping the Faith. (Incidentally, I had never seen the Keeping the Faith video until I found that link. Holy crap is it awesome. If you click no other Billy Joel link here, click that one.)

The next category to eliminate is anything with a name that doesn't match a character on the show. This takes care of Laura, Downeaster Alexa, James, and the story of my last few days with respect to my thesis, Why Judy Why.

Any overtly political or historical songs can also likely be eliminated. This gets rid of Goodnight Saigon, Leningrad, and sadly, my beloved We Didn't Start the Fire.

This brings us to songs that might fit into the plot of the show. Given what they've said about NPH's character - he's an old rival of Mr. Schu's who had false hopes given to him by his prowess in glee club - I could see it being a song in which he expresses his anger, like Angry Young Man. Or perhaps something about how Mr. Schu is more beloved than NPH - Everybody Loves You Now, or the reverse - Mr. Schu singing about how everyone liked NPH better, with Big Shot or An Innocent Man. They might still be rivals - My Life would work here, or Movin' Out. Or maybe they're fighting over a girl, and they've changed Just the Way You Are or She's Always A Woman into a duet. If it's a girl who's too good for either of them, Uptown Girl would also work, or The Longest Time if they want to stick with an upbeat number. And then there's Piano Man. I can't think of a scenario for that one, but it would be awesome nonetheless.

What do you think? Vote in the poll!

Some Will Win, Some Will Lose

Now that I've made my semi-educated guesses regarding the Golden Globe Award film nominations, it's on to my area of more expertise - television. Yay!

Best Television Series - Drama: Disclaimer - I'm about three seasons behind on Dexter and House, and one season behind on True Blood. That being said, I don't think any of them really stood a chance anyway, except maybe True Blood. From what I've heard, while all three were both wonderful in their earlier seasons, and continue to be great, none is as good as it was in their respective first seasons. And none could compare to the remaining two nominees. Although, let me just tell you how weird it is to explain to someone why you like the show Big Love so much. "Yeah, it's great! What's it about, you ask? Um...polygamy." Yeah, it goes over well. But it is tremendous, and this past season (which I just finished watching, courtesy of Netflix) was one of the best. That being said, I think Mad Men is the one to beat in this category. And for good reason - the show wins awards left and right, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The show essentially revamped throughout the season, and rather than jumping the shark, it seems to have come through even stronger. That, and Jon Hamm is dreamy :-)

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Jon Hamm. See above - Mad Men wins awards like it's its job, and this part was made for him. The rest of them (Simon Baker, Michael C. Hall, the fabulous Hugh Laurie, and Bill Paxton) can't compare.

Best Actress in a Drama Series: If ever there was a year for January Jones, I think this is it. That being said, I'll be surprised if she wins against any of the difficult competition: Glenn Close, Julianna Marguiles, Anna Paquin, and Kyra Sedgwick. My limited knowledge of any of the actresses' shows except for Mad Men and True Blood makes it difficult to choose, but based on history, I'm tentatively going with Glenn Close.

Best Television Series - Comedy: I think this is the year that 30 Rock is going down. Not that it should - it's one of the greatest shows on television right now - it just has the misfortune to be getting to be the old, unexpected answer in a category with two bright, shiny new toys in it. I still don't know why the ancient Entourage was nominated over something like How I Met Your Mother, but it's here to be ignored, so let's ignore it. You know how I love The Office, but this season, while great, was nothing compared to its competitors. Which brings us to the real contenders - the aforementioned 30 Rock and new toys Glee and Modern Family. 30 Rock is getting old. Not worse, just old. And the Golden Globes have always been good for recognizing fresh, new shows. Which leaves us Glee and Modern Family. All season long, I've been trying to get people to watch both shows, which is made all the more difficult by the fact that they air at the same time. But now that Glee is on hiatus, it is the time for all of you to listen to me and start watching Modern Family. When have I ever steered you wrong? And once you've done that, you will agree with the following statement: Despite the fact that Glee is an original, beautifully crafted masterpiece, and I love it and am counting the days until it returns in April, I want Modern Family to win. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying that it is equally deserving and would benefit far more from the win. OK, I said it. I'm going to lock my door to protect myself from the hordes of Gleeks coming to kill me. But seriously, go watch an episode and tell me you don't find it delightful.

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical: I want to marry Matthew Morrison and have his babies. And if Glee is to win an acting award this year, I think it will be his. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's Alec Baldwin (over my future husband Morrison, Steve Carell, David Duchovny, and Thomas Jane) again this year. I never thought I'd love Alec Baldwin, but there you go.

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical: Have you guys seen United States of Tara? Because it's pretty darn awesome. And Toni Collette makes it that way. Of the other four nominees (Courteney Cox, Lea Michele, Edie Falco, and Tina Fey), I think she has the best chance. To be fair, I haven't seen Edie Falco's show yet, and I've heard that she's great, so she probably stands a pretty good chance as well. But my money's on Toni Collette.

Supporting Actor and Actress: I hate how the HFPA organizes their supporting actor categories - all actors and actresses in television programs, whether comedy, musical, drama, miniseries, whatever, get grouped together into these two categories. This leads to stupid things, like Chloe Sevigny and Jane Lynch vying for the same award for their performances in Big Love and Glee, respectively. Or Michael Emerson versus Neil Patrick Harris versus John Lithgow in Lost, How I Met Your Mother, and Dexter, for vastly different performances. Between the differences in each performance and the fact that I've seen very few of the nominated miniseries and TV movies, choosing is rather difficult. So I'm picking who I want to win - Jane Lynch and Neil Patrick Harris. And I'd be happy with Chloe Sevigny or Michael Emerson as backup choices.

So there you go - watch tonight! See how well I guessed! And be happy for my coworkers that tomorrow is a federal holiday, and they won't have to listen to me recap the entire show for the better part of the morning!

Hold On To That Feeling

In honor of fall premiere season, and tonight's season premiere of Glee, I give you this - the epitome of awesome. You may recall that I tried to recruit you all to this show last spring; well, now's your chance! Wednesdays at 9 on Fox. You know you want to watch it!

Livin' Just To Find Emotion

As a follow-up to my earlier post, this spring's TV finale season also contained something a little different - Fox chose to air one of their fall pilots after American Idol the other day. If you are reading this, stop right now, go to iTunes, and download the pilot episode of Glee. When have I ever steered you wrong? Go on, I'll wait.

OK, if you still need to be convinced, watch this and tell me it's not one of the greatest things ever. I can't stop watching this video. And if that makes me a dork, then so be it.



See? Awesome! And, you wouldn't think it could get any better, but apparently Kristin Chenoweth and Victor Garber are going to be appearing on it later in the fall. Kathy's already mad at me because I got her hooked on this show; be cool like us and watch it!